MATLAB Figure Visible Off - matlab

Question

I'm trying to save .jpg files from MATLAB, but I don't want to have the figure pop up every time since this really slows down the process. However, setting 'visible' to 'off' doesn't seem to work. What can I do to get the Figure window to not pop up?
nFrames = 2557; % Number of frames. Number of days between 1/1/2008 and 1/31/2014
for k = 183:nFrames % 183 (7/1/2008) to the number of days. Data before this is either missing or from HI
% Map of conterminous US
ax = figure(1);
set(ax, 'visible', 'off', 'units','normalized','outerposition',[0 0 1 1]) % Make window that shows up full sized, which makes saved figure clearer
ax = usamap('conus');
states = shaperead('usastatelo', 'UseGeoCoords', true,...
'Selector',...
{#(name) ~any(strcmp(name,{'Alaska','Hawaii'})), 'Name'});
faceColors = makesymbolspec('Polygon',...
{'INDEX', [1 numel(states)], 'FaceColor', 'none'}); % NOTE - colors are random
geoshow(ax, states, 'DisplayType', 'polygon', ...
'SymbolSpec', faceColors)
framem off; gridm off; mlabel off; plabel off
hold on
% Plot data
scatterm(ax,str2double(Lat_PM25{k}), str2double(Lon_PM25{k}), 40, str2double(data_PM25{k}), 'filled'); % Plot a dot at each Lat and Lon with black outline around each dot (helps show dots that are too low for it to be colored by the color bar
% Draw outline around dot with 'MarkerEdgeColor', [0.5 0.5 0.5] for gray
hold on
% Colorbar
caxis([5 30]);
h = colorbar;
ylabel(h,'ug/m3');
% Title
% date = datenum(2007, 04, 29) + k; % Convert t into serial numbers.
title(['PM2.5 24-hr Block Average Concentration ', datestr(cell2mat(date_PM25(k)), 'mmm dd yyyy')]); % Title changes every day;
% Capture the frame
mov(k) = getframe(gcf);
% Set size of paper
set(gcf,'Units','points')
set(gcf,'PaperUnits','points')
size = get(gcf,'Position');
size = size(3:4);
set(gcf,'PaperSize',size)
set(gcf,'PaperPosition',[0,0,size(1),size(2)])
% Save as jpg (just specify other format as necessary) - Must set 'facecolor' to 'none' or else color of states turn out black
eval(['print -djpeg map_US_' datestr(cell2mat(date_PM25(k)),'yyyy_mm_dd') '_PM25_24hrBlkAvg.jpg']);
clf
end

Answer 1

The problem is with getframe. A detailed answer was given in this thread and in this discussion.
In short you need to avoid getframe and instead do something like the following:
ax = figure(1);
set(ax, 'visible', 'off')
set(ax, 'PaperPositionMode','auto')
aviobj = avifile('file.avi');
....
for k=1:N
%# all the plotting you did before the getframe
img = hardcopy(ax, '-dzbuffer', '-r0');
aviobj = addframe(aviobj, im2frame(img));
end
aviobj = close(aviobj);