Movie-Related Commands

Several commands are especially useful for scripting continuous motion within Chimera. One use of such commands or scripts containing them is to generate movie content.

clip - move clipping planes
freeze - stop all motion
move - translate along the X, Y, or Z axis
movie - start or stop recording image frames; adjust parameters related to making movies
rock - rock back and forth about the X, Y, or Z axis
roll - rotate about the X, Y, or Z axis
scale - scale the view
section - move the clipping planes in parallel
select - activate/deactivate models for motion (to move one model relative to another)
thickness - move the clipping planes in opposite directions
turn - rotate about the X, Y, or Z axis
wait - suspend command processing for a specified number of frames or until motion has stopped
2dlabels - display 2D labels; a 2D label can be faded in or out over a specified number of frames

These can be used directly in the Command Line or combined with other Chimera commands into a file that can be executed in number of ways.

For example, the command file 1gfl.com can be executed by simply opening it in Chimera. The command file fetches 1gfl from the Protein Data Bank (requires internet connectivity or a local installation) and changes the display as the structure rotates. The reason to use multiple commands on the same line (separated by semicolons) is that the display is not redrawn until the last command in a semicolon-separated series has been executed; that is, multiple graphical changes such as changes in representation, color, and display state can be made to appear simultaneously instead of one by one.

UCSF Computer Graphics Laboratory / December 2005