hello, Jeremy, You can easily change the speed by adding or removing frames. You can e.g. change the step of the Table function that crestes the frames. here is an example of a fast and a slow version"

framesFast = 
  Flatten@Table[
    Manipulate[
     ContourPlot[
      q1/Norm[{x, y} - {p, 0}] + q2/Norm[{x, y} - {1, 0}], {x, -2, 
       2}, {y, -2, 2}, Contours -> 20, PlotRangePadding -> 0, 
      Frame -> False, PlotPoints -> 40, ImageSize -> 230, 
      ColorFunction -> "DarkRainbow"], {{q1, -1}, None}, {{q2, 2}, 
      None}, {{p, p1}, -1, 1, .1}, Deployed -> True, 
     FrameMargins -> 0], {p1, -1, 1, .25}];
Export["~/Documents/Mathematica Notebooks/Demos in \
Preparation/framesFast.gif", framesFast, "ControlAppearance" -> None]

framesSlow = 
  Flatten@Table[
    Manipulate[
     ContourPlot[
      q1/Norm[{x, y} - {p, 0}] + q2/Norm[{x, y} - {1, 0}], {x, -2, 
       2}, {y, -2, 2}, Contours -> 20, PlotRangePadding -> 0, 
      Frame -> False, PlotPoints -> 40, ImageSize -> 230, 
      ColorFunction -> "DarkRainbow"], {{q1, -1}, None}, {{q2, 2}, 
      None}, {{p, p1}, -1, 1, .1}, Deployed -> True, 
     FrameMargins -> 0], {p1, -1, 1, .025}];
Export["~/Documents/Mathematica Notebooks/Demos in \
Preparation/framesSlow.gif", framesSlow, "ControlAppearance" -> None]

Got it! Works perfectly now. Thanks. Sorry for the confusion on my part...

Thanks,Vitaly.

Point 2. is clear to me. As to point1, I did the following:

frames = Flatten@
   ParallelTable[
    Manipulate[
     ContourPlot[
      q1/Norm[{x, y} - {p, 0}] + q2/Norm[{x, y} - {1, 0}], {x, -2, 
       2}, {y, -2, 2}, Contours -> 20, PlotRangePadding -> 0, 
      Frame -> False, PlotPoints -> 40, ImageSize -> 230, 
      ColorFunction -> "DarkRainbow"], {{q1, -1}, None}, {{q2, 2}, 
      None}, {{p, p1}, -1, 1, .1}, Deployed -> True, 
     FrameMargins -> 0], {p1, -1, 1, .1}];
Export["~/Documents/Mathematica Notebooks/Demos in \
Preparation/frames.gif", frames, "ControlAppearance" -> None];

As you can see, adding None in the Slider specs eliminates the q1 and q2 sliders but the p1 slider stays visible notwithstanding the "ControlAppearance"->None setting. I did not see the example you wanted to add and maybe that will solve my problem?

Hello, Vitaly, I use your ManToGif a lot. Thanks... But I have some questions:

1. ControlAppearance->NoneI would like in some cases to hide the controls. You mention: To NOT display controls - use "ControlAppearance"->None. Where and in what function (Export, Manipulate, ?) do I put "ControlAppearance"->None?

2. I noticed that most GIFs published in the community keep repeating infinitely. Mine do not. Do you have to put AnimationRepetitions->Infinity to get this effect or is it some Export setting?

Vitaliy, I love this function, it comes in handy for demonstrating a Manipulate functionality. But I had to modify it a bit to account for the Linux OS, and also I added a line to delete the exported AVI file (which meant I had to make it a Module).

A couple of points: I had to replace OperatingSystem with $OperatingSystem. Then I went ahead and used If instead of Which and === instead of ==, and then I put a default argument for the step because I just personally prefer it to loop forwards then backwards.

ManToGif[man_, name_String, step_Integer: 1] := Module[{moviename},
  moviename = 
   name <> If[$OperatingSystem === "MacOSX", ".mov", ".avi"];
  Export[name <> ".gif", 
   Import[Export[moviename, man], "ImageList"][[1 ;; -1 ;; step]]]; 
  DeleteFile[moviename];
  ]

Dear Vitaliy,

this is indeed very nice and useful. I was trying to implement something where I would have a Manipulate window. A Dynamic or RunScheduledTask would regularly check whether my Manipulate window has changed. If so, it would save a gif frame of the current Manipulate-window and save it into a frame-list. The advantage would be that you can manipulate the sliders directly and whatever you do would be "recorded" by the frame-list. Of course, I could use a program such as GifGrabber to just capture the Manipulate interface. But it is more fun to do it with Mathematica directly.

Cheers,

M.

PS: Did you mean use "AVI" for Mac and "MOV" for Windows?

Hi Yoshihiro Sato,

I have tried that on MMA 10.0.2 and OS X Mavericks and it is running without any problem. A little slow, but it does run.

Vitaliy, that is very useful. I have been using terminal commands such as convert to generate animated gifs. Promoted by your post I tried to find alternative approaches. I started out trying to use the GUIKit package

Needs["GUIKit`"] 

but I failed miserably. I have, however, an alternative approach to yours. I am not saying that it is better in any way. I am just posting it because I think that the approach is different from yours. Also it runs a bit faster on my machine, it avoids exporting mov or avi files and it gives a lot of control over the slider movement. Here it is:

frames = Flatten@
   Table[Manipulate[
     ContourPlot[q1/Norm[{x, y} - p[[1]]] + q2/Norm[{x, y} - p[[2]]], {x, -2, 2}, {y, -2, 2}, Contours -> 20, PlotRangePadding -> 0, 
      Frame -> False, PlotPoints -> 40, ImageSize -> 230, ColorFunction -> "DarkRainbow"], {{q1, n1}, -3, 3}, {{q2, m1}, -3, 3}, {{p, {{-1, 0}, {1, 0}}}, {-1, -1}, {1, 1}, Locator}, Deployed -> True, FrameMargins -> 0], {n1, -3, 3}, {m1, -3, 3}];
Export["~/Desktop/frames.gif", frames];

It lacks the elegance of your approach but it gives a video:

It should be easy to see how to change the positions of the locators etc in a predefined way.

Cheers,

M.