you can make videos with matlab, usually i use avifile and addframe (usually in a loop) to make animations of my plots.
matlab will automatically use some kind of compression and this is where you might run into a problem where you aren't able to actually play the .avi on your computer. you might not have the correct codec (encoder/decoder).
These are the options given for the 'compression'
continuing the tradition of writing about stuff that i haven't really implemented in the past...
text properties
important: the default is to interpret strings as TEX instructions, and that is why the underscores in my titles always mess it up by creating subscripts. i need to set the text interpreter to none. then i need to be cool and start having some LaTeX equations in my other plots.
adobe illustrator has its purposes, but let those purposes NOT be to tweak matlab output so that it looks more aesthetically pleasing. matlab output edited by illustrator one time is tolerable, but if you have to do it two, three, four times before you get your final plot, you're likely to poke your eyes out with a blunt object.
don't be a fool!
not that i've mastered these commands yet, but
i love me some square axes:
axis square;
i am also always setting axes bounds:
axis([xmin xmax ymin ymax]);
but there are tons of other axis options i have not checked out fully.
that axis is tight!
aesthetics people, aesthetics...
and another reason that matlab beats the pants off of excel.