For those who have a Sony Plastation PS3 and play mp3 music when connected to a TV you will have noticed that the PS3 generates nice synthesized background animated images such as clouds, color effects, flying over the Grand Canyon etc.

I am looking for a software which can generate the same effect, choosing the duration and exporting as a video clip in mov format to use in final cup pro as a sequence to introduct my movie.

Can someone tell me if such software exists (at a reasonable cost) which would permit me to do it?

Gosh Francis, there are lots of software solutions and processes that generate background images.

A lot of commercial annimation companies do background clips that loop endlessly. Try Digital Juice or Artbeats.

Or just do a google search on "screen saver" software - which is available for any computer system. A lot of those generate images like you're describing. You can usually capture the video from them with inexpensive software or even through the built in video or VGA outputs on many laptops.

If you really want specific stuff like custom canyons and landscapes, there are specific software package like Bryce - the artificial terrain generator - but it's more expensive and pretty complex to operate.

Really, there are a lots and lots of options for generating background patterns.

Good luck.

Thanks Bill. You are right, I should have checked through the web.
By the way, I have another query: I am going to travel in Arizona and shoot scenic video clips. I would like to incorporate in my video montage a road map on which I can trace the road or show a small car moving from point A to point B. I dont think Final Cut Pro can let me trace a line growing in size or superimposing an object like a car. What is the best way to proceed?

Francois,

You can do exactly what you are looking for in Motion. It comes with Final Cut Studio.
There are plug ins which let you do it in Final Cut Pro, but I'd just use Motion....easy
to do and Motion is a great program to learn anyways, and not too hard to pick up
the basics of. (Just in case it is unclear, I'm talking about drawing a line on a map,
not generating synthesized images.)

Francois,
You can do exactly what you are looking for in Motion.
Unfortunately I did not find in Motion this kind of animated background I am looking for, based on clouds, flying in a canyon in particular. All the Motion template available are not what I am looking for.