The easiest way to document your work is by taking a screenshot or making a video. It’s also the way most people will experience your work, and the vehicle by which your work will most likely live on. Let’s get adept at documenting our work this way.
Screenshot Images
You can take a screenshot of your application with an external tool or from within the app itself. You can then use Photoshop, Gimp, or any number of utilities to crop and adjust the image. All operating systems have a native screenshot function:
- How to take a screenshot in Mac OSX
- How to take a screenshot in Windows
- How to take a screenshot in Linux
Another method is to save a frame directly from your application itself:
- OpenFrameworks: ofSaveScreen (string filename) & ofSaveFrame()
- Processing: saveFrame(), then use the “Movie Maker” program in Processing’s Tools menu to combine these images to a movie.
- Cinder: use app::Renderer::copyWindowSurface(Area &area) to copy the screen into a file, then save it manually
- PureData GEM: [pix_snap2tex]
Screen-Grabbed Video
To record video of your app running, you will need a screen recording application:
- QuickTime X: Mac 10.6+ (Tutorial here)
- Camtasia: Win, Mac
- ScreenFlow: Mac
- SnapZ Pro X: Mac
- ScreenFlick: Mac
(You could also save out a sequence of frames, and compile them into video later.) After you have your video, it might be nice to do some editing … consider Premiere, AfterEffects, FinalCut, iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, etc.