Nanotechnology - Gears Animation

(Examples provided by the NAS Web site: www.nas.nasa.gov)

Name	Description	Mpeg (Mb)
Multiple Teeth Gears
21 slip 1	on-line, slip
22, part 1	off-line, part 1
Gear and Shaft
Shaft 1	powered gear drives shaft
Shaft 2	powered shaft drives gear
Small and Large Gears
Large-Small 1	powered large gear, medium rate
Large-Small 2	powered large gear, high rate

MPEG animations of the MD simulations were created with the Advanced Visualization System (AVS) from AVS, Inc. To animate a simulation, the XYZ files were split into separate files for each atomic type, in order to be rendered in different colors and radii. For animation purposes, the atoms were generally divided into three types: all carbons (white), the hydrogens on one gear (blue), and the hydrogens on the other gear (green). AVS "field files" (AVS-specific files containing information on how to interpret the XYZ datasets) were created for each time step. These were sequentially input to a custom AVS network (i.e. application) which, for each atomic type, rendered spheres at the given locations with appropriate radii and the chosen colors for the atomic types. As each time step was rendered, it was saved as an X bitmap image. The resultant images were then converted to RGB images, and then to an MPEG animation using readily-available UNIX utilities.