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+.. _video:
+
+.. index::
+   pair: Encoding; Videos
+
+Encoding Videos
+===============
+
+To create a video, make and xaf file first (the easiest way to do this is to
+use the **record** function in the file menu). Then you need to render the
+animation. XaoS can output sequences of ordinary PNG images, that can later be
+used by a video encoder.
+
+Generating image sequences for video
+------------------------------------
+
+To generate an image sequence, choose **Render Animation** from the **Misc**
+menu. You can also use the following command on the command line:
+
+xaos -render [filename] -size 352x240 -antialiasing -renderframerate 24
+-basename [basename]
+
+**File to render** ([filename]) is the name of the xaf file, **Basename**
+([basename]) is the name used as the base filename for rendered images. This
+should also include the path where you want to save the images. XaoS adds a
+four digit sequence number and .png extension to this name automatically.
+
+You might also want to change the resolution. Make sure that the resolution you
+choose is supported by the video codec you wish to use.
+
+The framerate can also be altered. Make sure you choose a framerate that is
+supported by the video codec you wish to use.
+
+**Antialiasing** (-antialiasing) is used to produce anti-aliased images. It
+takes a much longer time and much more memory to calculate them, but resulting
+images are better for video compression and they result in a much smaller video
+file. (the same is true of **JPEG images**)
+
+On the other hand, the other XaoS rendering option **Always Recalculate**
+(-alwaysrecalc) (which disables XaoS's zooming optimizations) is **not
+recommended**. If that's used, the sequence of animation then contains quite a
+lot of extra information, which increases size of video file, but because of
+the codec's lossy compression it is hard to see any difference, so it's not
+worth it.
+
+Rendered files
+--------------
+
+Once you start it, XaoS will generate thousands of frames. They take quite a
+long time to calculate and save, and consume plenty of disk space. (e.g. to
+render part 1 of the tutorial you need about 60MB and half an hour of time).
+
+All images are named [basename]framenum.png. For example intro0001.png is the
+first frame of the animation intro. If consecutive frames are the same, XaoS
+doesn't save them, so some frames may be missing. If your encoder can't handle
+that, you will need to write a simple script which will fill in the gaps by
+means of mv or symbolic linking.
+
+A list of all filenames is saved into the file [basename].par, where each line
+is the name of one frame. The names repeat here if necessary, so you can use
+this file to supply filenames to the encoder.
+
+Encoding videos
+---------------
+
+Once XaoS has generated the png files for each frame of the animation, you can
+use a third-party video encoder to convert the sequence of images into a video
+file. We currently recommend the following encoders, which support a wide
+variety of video codecs and file formats:
+
+ffmpeg
+
+* `ffmpeg home page`_
+* `ffmpeg instructions`_
+
+.. _`ffmpeg home page`:
+	http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/ 
+
+.. _`ffmpeg Instructions`:
+	 http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/faq.html#SEC12
+
+mencoder (part of mplayer)
+
+* `mplayer homepage`_
+* `mencoder instructions`_
+
+.. _`mplayer homepage`:
+	http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ 
+
+.. _`mencoder instructions`:
+	http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/menc-feat-enc-images.html
+
+These are both command line tools. If you prefer a graphical tool, you may
+prefer `Quicktime Pro`_ from Apple. However, this software costs approximately 
+US $30. Although QuickTime may be easier to use, the two free
+encoders above are just as capable once you learn how to use them.
+
+.. _`Quicktime Pro`:
+	http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/