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:

• Mac instructions
• Windows instructions
• Linux instructions

Exporting images of the screen from code,
…and then compiling these into video

Another method is to write code, in order to save a frame directly from your application itself. You might attach such a function to a keypress. Or you might use a keypress to toggle the state of a boolean, which controls whether or not your application exports an image on every update of the scene.

• Processing: saveFrame()
• openFrameworks: ofSaveScreen (string filename) & ofSaveFrame()
• Cinder: use app::Renderer::copyWindowSurface(Area &area) to copy the screen into a file, then save it manually
• PureData GEM: [pix_snap2tex]

If you export a sequence of images and intend to create an animation from them, make sure their filenames are numbered consecutively. There are several tools that can compile a frame sequence into a digital video file:

• Import and compile a sequence of stills with Adobe Premiere
• Import and compile a sequence of stills with Final Cut Pro X
• Import and compile a sequence of stills with Adobe AfterEffects
• Import and compile a sequence of stills with Windows Movie Maker 
• Import and compile a sequence of stills with iMovie

Screen-Grabbed Video

To record video of your app running, you will need a screen recording application. The

• QuickTime X: Mac (TUTORIAL HERE)
• Camtasia: Win, Mac
• ScreenFlow: Mac
• SnapZ Pro X: Mac
• ScreenFlick: Mac

Afterwards

After you’ve recorded your video, it’s nice to do some editing. Consider adding a narration and some titles in Premiere, AfterEffects, FinalCut, iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, etc.