Save video in Processing with JCodec – Magic & Love Interactive

As a side product of current research, I manage to save a Processing screen in an MP4 video file with the use of the JCodec library. Download the former jcodec-0.1.5.jar into the code folder of your Processing sketch. The simplest way is to use the SequenceEncoder class to add a BufferedImage to the MP4 video. Remember to finish the video file before ending.

The following example captures the live video stream from a webcam and outputs to an external MP4 file in the data folder. Use the mouse click to control the recording.

Here is the source code.

import processing.video.*;
import org.jcodec.api.SequenceEncoder;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.File;
 
Capture cap;
SequenceEncoder enc;
String videoName;
boolean recording;
 
void setup() {
  size(640, 480);
  background(0);
  cap = new Capture(this, width, height);
  videoName = "bear.mp4";
  recording = false;
  frameRate(25);
  smooth();
  noStroke();
  fill(255);
  cap.start();
  try {
    enc = new SequenceEncoder(new File(dataPath(videoName)));
  } 
  catch (IOException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
  }
}
 
void draw() {
  image(cap, 0, 0);
  String fStr = nf(round(frameRate));
  text(fStr, 10, 20);
  if (recording) {
    BufferedImage bi = (BufferedImage) this.getGraphics().getImage();
    try {
      enc.encodeImage(bi);
    } 
    catch (IOException e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}
 
void captureEvent(Capture c) {
  c.read();
}
 
void mousePressed() {
  recording = !recording;
  println("Recording : " + recording);
}
 
void keyPressed() {
  if (keyCode == 32) {
    try {
      enc.finish();
    } 
    catch (IOException e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }
}

The program also uses the undocumented functions, getGraphics() and getImage() to obtain the raw image of the Processing sketch window.