An animated sequence can be viewed by choosing Create Movie from the File menu, which displays a view of the geology or geophysics controlled by the current settings. The following visualisations are currently available as animations:

Each frame of the movie is saved to file as a .BMP format file. Multiple increments per deformation event are calculated by reducing the controlling parameters systematically, for example, dividing up a 30 degree rotation into 3 steps is achieved by calculating the deformation after 10 , 20 and 30 degree rotations, and playing them back in rapid succession. The more frames per event the smoother the animation will appear.

Step 1: You must first have a history of events available for a movie to be created. Generate the sequence of events required to be animated.

Step 2: Select the File > Movie > Create option. Open a file with an appropriate name. The filename .nmv will be appended.

Step 3: Noddy will create a series of BMP files based on the Number of Frames per Event value set in the Edit > Movie Option. The greater the number of frames stored, the smoother the movie, however, the more BMP files there are to be created/loaded and saved. Disk storage should be taken into consideration when creating movie animations.

Step 1: To load a movie (.nmv) file, you must initially have a history available. If the File > Movie option is not enabled, simply drag and drop a Base Stratigraphy icon into the History window. The File > Movie option should then be available. Select an appropriate movie file.

Step 2: The amount of time taken for a movie to load will depend on the number of animation elements and BMP files to be re-played. Wait until the movie has accessed all files, and then the first scene of the animation should be displayed.

Step 3: The movie can be played with the following controls:

• Clicking in the window with the left mouse button moves the animation forward one frame
• Clicking in the window with the right mouse button moves the animation back one frame.