Introduction

Backdrop creates moving backgrounds for film, TV, video, DVD and presentations.

It is a Windows application, requiring Version 2 of the .Net runtime, and Windows XP, 2003 or Vista.

On launching the application, the main creation window is displayed.

Main view

There are five steps:

1. Select the video format, either by dropdown from the options menu, or by setting the height, width and frame rate individually. For example, selecting Options | TV Standards | PAL will set the height to 576, the width to 720 and the frame rate to 25 frames per second.
2. Select the design from the top left drop down. The design Power lines is shown above.
3. Set the properties down the left hand side, selecting colours, dimensions and rates of change.
4. Click the Randomize button repeatedly until you are happy with the look.
5. Click the Save button.

All images are generated in real time using random number generation, colour, location and size transformations, statistical techniques and trigonometry.

It does not use loops, or any pre-recorded images.

It does not use DirectX or OpenGL.

Only two formats are currently supported, AVI and SV.

AVI can be imported into most applications.

SV is, for now, a proprietary format which will be detailed later. SV is an acronym for simple video, and requires no codec.