%generate and plot a cylinder for demo purposes
figure(1)
[X Y Z]=cylinder;
surf(X,Y,Z)
alpha(0.7);

%make a movie of current axes rotating 
g=gca;
f=gcf;
set(g,'xtick',[]);
set(g,'ytick',[]);
set(g,'ztick',[]);
set(g,'box','on');
set(g,'view',[0 35]);
%zooming out is neccesary to keep the axes from changing in size as they
%rotate
zoom(f,1/sqrt(2));

%rotate axes and collect frames for movie
for j=1:180
    M(j)=getframe(f);
    set(g,'view',[2*j 35]);
end

%convert movie to .avi file
movie2avi(M,'movie1.avi','fps',5);