Video Based Scientific Visualization

We describe techniques for producing video imagery for scientific visualization. These techniques involve variations of graphics algorithms, distributed computing, and a versatile, low cost, video movie making system. Although video can be used for single frame displays, its obvious advantage is for animated movies. Video movies are made by single frame animation from the output of modeling processes like time dependent, numerical simulations. Visualization algorithms are used to convert abstract data into a geometric form for graphical display. The system uses a distributed architecture and extensive data compression to permit the use of wide area, as well as local area networks connecting the systems generating the data, the graphics, and doing the video recording.