Creating animations in matplotlib is reasonably straightforward. However, it can be tricky when starting, and there is no consensus for the best way to create them. In this article, I show you a few methods you can use to make amazing animations in matplotlib.

Matplotlib Animation Example

The hardest thing about creating animations in matplotlib is coming up with the idea for them. This article covers the basic ideas for line plots, and I may cover other plots such as scatter and 3D plots in the future. Once you understand these overarching principles, you can animate other plots effortlessly.

There are two classes you can use to create animations: FuncAnimation and ArtistAnimation. I focus on FuncAnimation as this is the more intuitive and more widely used one of the two.

To use FuncAnimation, define a function (often called animate), which matplotlib repeatedly calls to create the next frame/image for your animation.

To create an animation with FuncAnimation in matplotlib, follow these seven steps:

1. Have a clear picture in your mind of what you want the animation to do
2. Import standard modules and FuncAnimation
3. Set up Figure, Axes, and Line objects
4. Initialize data
5. Define your animation function – animate(i)
6. Pass everything to FuncAnimation
7. Display or save your animation

Let’s create a sin wave that matplotlib ‘draws’ for us. Note that this code may look strange to you when you first read it. Creating animations with matplotlib is different from creating static plots.

# Standard imports

import numpy as np

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

from matplotlib.animation import FuncAnimation

Import NumPy and matplotlib using their standard aliases and FuncAnimation from matplotlib.animation.

# Set up empty Figure, Axes and Line objects

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

# Set axes limits so that the whole image is included

ax.set(xlim=(-0.1, 2*np.pi+0.1), ylim=(-1.1, 1.1))

# Draw a blank line

line, = ax.plot([], []) 

Set up the Figure and Axes objects using plt.subplots() and – using ax.set() – set the x- and y-axis limits to the same size as a normal sine curve – from 0 to 2π on the x-axis and from -1 to 1 on the y-axis. Note that I included padding of 0.1 on each axis limit so that you can see the whole line matplotlib draws.

Then, I did something you have probably never done before: I drew a blank line. You need to do this because animate modifies this line, and it can only modify something that already exists. You can also think of it as initializing an empty line object that you will soon fill with data.

Note that you must include a comma after line,! The plot method returns a tuple, and you need to unpack it to create the variable line.

# Define data - one sine wave

x = np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, num=50)

y = np.sin(x)

Next, define the data you want to plot. Here, I am plotting one sine wave, so I used np.linspace() to create the x-axis data and created y by calling np.sin() on x. Thanks to numpy broadcasting, it is easy to apply functions to NumPy arrays!

# Define animate function

def animate(i): line.set_data(x[:i], y[:i]) return line,

Define the animate(i) function. Its argument i is an integer starting from 0 and up to the total number of frames you want in your animation. I used the line.set_data() method to draw the first i elements of the sine curve for both x and y. Note that you return line, with a comma again because you need to return an iterable and adding a comma makes it a tuple.

# Pass to FuncAnimation

anim = FuncAnimation(fig, animate, frames=len(x)+1, interval=30, blit=True)

Create a FuncAnimation object. First, pass the Figure and animate function as positional arguments.

Next, set the number of frames to len(x)+1 so that it includes all the values in x. It works like the range() function, and so even though x has length 50, python only draws frames 0 to 49 and not the 50th member. So, add on one more to draw the entire plot.

The interval is how long in milliseconds matplotlib waits between drawing the next part of the animation. I’ve found that 30 works well as a general go-to. A larger number means matplotlib waits longer between drawing and so the animation is slower.

Finally, set blit=True so that it only redraws parts that have not been drawn before. It doesn’t make much difference for this example, but once you create more complex plots, you should use this; it can take quite a while for matplotlib to create animations (waiting several minutes is common for large ones).

# Save in the current working directory

anim.save('sin.mp4')

I saved the animation as a video called ‘sin.mp4’ to the current working directory.

Open your current working directory, find the saved video, and play it. Congratulations! You’ve just made your first animation in matplotlib!

Some of the steps you take to create animations are unique and may feel unusual the first time you try them. I know I felt strange the first time I used them. Don’t worry, the more you practice and experiment, the easier it becomes.

Here’s the full code:

# Standard imports

import numpy as np

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

from matplotlib.animation import FuncAnimation # Set up empty Figure, Axes and Line objects

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

# Set axes limits so that the whole image is included

ax.set(xlim=(-0.1, 2*np.pi+0.1), ylim=(-1.1, 1.1))

# Draw a blank line

line, = ax.plot([], []) # Define data - one sine wave

x = np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, num=50)

y = np.sin(x) # Define animate function

def animate(i): line.set_data(x[:i], y[:i]) return line, # Pass to FuncAnimation

anim = FuncAnimation(fig, animate, frames=len(x)+1, interval=30, blit=True) # Save in the current working directory

anim.save('sin.mp4')

Note that if this final step did not work for you, it’s probably because you don’t have the right libraries installed – I’ll show you what to install right now.

Related:

• Matplotlib 3D Plot – Full Tutorial
• Matplotlib Boxplot – A Helpful Illustrated Guide
• Matplotlib Legend
• Matplotlib Imshow
• Matplotlib Subplot and Subplots
• Matplotlib Lineplot
• Matplotlib Scatter Plot
• Matplotlib Histogram

Matplotlib Animation Save

To save your animation in matplotlib, use the .save() method on your FuncAnimation object. You can either save them as mp4 videos or gifs.

Matplotlib Animation Save Mp4

To save animations as mp4 videos, first, install the FFmpeg library. It’s an incredibly powerful command-line tool, and you can download it from their official site, Github, or, if you use anaconda, by running conda install ffmpeg.

Once you have created your animation, run anim.save('name.mp4', writer='ffmpeg'), and python saves your animation as the video ‘name.mp4’ in your current working directory.

Note that the default writer is FFmpeg, and so you don’t have to explicitly state it if you don’t want to.

Matplotlib Animation Save Gif

To save animations as gifs, first, install the ImageMagick library. It is a command-line tool, and you can download it from their official site, GitHub, or if you use anaconda, by running conda install -c conda-forge imagemagick.

Once you have created your animation, run anim.save('name.gif', writer='imagemagick'), and python saves your animation as the gif ‘name.gif’ in your current working directory.

anim.save('sin.gif', writer='imagemagick')

Note that both ImageMagick and FFmpeg are command-line tools and not python libraries. As such, you cannot install them using pip. There are some python wrappers for those tools online, but they are not what you need to install.

Matplotlib Animation Jupyter

If you write your code in Jupyter notebooks (something I highly recommend), and don’t want to save your animations to disk every time, you may be disappointed to hear that your animations do not work out of the box. By default, Jupyter renders plots as static png images that cannot be animated.

To fix this, you have a couple of options to choose from:

1. The %matplotlib notebook magic command, or
2. Changing the plt.rcParams dictionary

If you run %matplotlib notebook in a code cell at the top of your notebook, then all your plots render in interactive windows.

# Run at the top of your notebook

%matplotlib notebook

As I cannot show you interactive Jupyter windows in a blog post, the above video shows you the result of running the sin drawing curve above.

This method is by far the simplest but gives you the least control. For one thing, the buttons at the bottom do nothing. Plus, it keeps running until you click the off button at the top… but when you do, you have no way to turn it on again!

I much prefer using the default %matplotlin inline style for all my plots, but you are free to choose whichever you want.

The other option is to change the plt.rcParams dictionary. This dictionary controls the default behavior for all your matplotlib plots such as figure size, font size, and how your animations should display when you call them.

If you print it to the screen, you can see all the parameters it controls.

The one you are interested in is animation.html, which is none by default. The other options are: 'html5' and 'jshtml'.

Let’s see what happens when you set plt.rcParams to those options. First, let’s look at 'html5'.

plt.rcParams['animation.html'] = 'html5'

anim

Now the animation is rendered as an HTML5 video that plays as a loop. You can start/stop it using the play/pause buttons, but that’s about it. In my experience, this video plays much smoother than the interactive windows produced by %matplotlib notebook.

Now let’s look at the much more powerful option: 'jshtml' which stands for Javascript HTML.

plt.rcParams['animation.html'] = 'jshtml'

anim

Now your animations are displayed in interactive javascript windows! This option is by far the most powerful one available to you.

Here are what each of the keys do (starting from the far left):

• speed up/slow down: + / –
• jump to end/start: |<< / >>|
• move one frame backwards/forwards: |< / >|
• play it backwards/forwards: < / >
• pause with the pause key

Moreover, you can choose to play it ‘Once’, ‘Loop’ infinitely or play forwards and backward indefinitely using ‘Reflect’.

To have all your animations render as either HTML5 video or in interactive javascript widgets, set plt.rcParams at the top of your code.

Conclusion

Excellent! You now know how to create basic animations in matplotlib. You know how to use FuncAnimaton, how to save them as videos or gifs, and plot animations in Jupyter notebooks.

You’ve seen how to create ‘drawing’ plots, but there are many other things you can do, such as creating moving plots, animating 3D plots, and even scatter graphs. But we’ll leave them for another article.

Where To Go From Here?

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There is a new Humble Bundle of interest to game developers, this one is the Humble Learning Game Coding and Development Bundle.  As with all Humble Bundles, this one is organized into tiers:

1$ Tier

• Godot Game Development For Beginners
• Intro to RPG Development with Phaser
• Intro to Game Development with Unity
• Create Your First 3D Game with Unity
• Unity 2D Projects – Super Plumbers

15$ Tier

• C++ Programming for Beginners
• Learn Python Programming by Making a Game
• Build an RPG Adventure in Phaser
• Build a Micro-Strategy Game
• Intro to Multiplayer Game Development
• Battle Royale – Multiplayer Projects
• Humanoid Animation Tools for Beginners
• Develop a Puzzle Platformer Game

25$ Tier 

• Create a 2D RPG with Godot
• Learn C++ by Making a Text-Based RPG
• The Complete Blender Course
• Real-Time Strategy Project – Unit Movement
• The Complete Procedural Terrain Generation Course
• EasyAR and Marker-Based Apps for Beginners
• RPG – Multiplayer Projects
• Turn-Based Game – Multiplayer Projects
• Player Authenication with Azure PlayFab
• Applied Computer Vision with Unity and Azure
• Tile-Based Math Game Project
• Unity Cinemachine for Films and Games

As with all Humble Bundles, you decide how your money is allocated, between Humble, charity, the publisher and if you so choose (and thanks if you do!) to support GFS using this link.  You can learn more about this bundle in the video below.

[embedded content]

General Sale Godot Phaser Unity Blender

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Intel appears to have made its speediest 10th-generation Ice Lake mobile processors exclusive to Apple’s MacBook lineup.

After two (sort of) sequels, the original Xenoblade Chronicles is heading to Nintendo Switch under the swanky new guise of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, and we’ve had a right ruddy good go at it. It’s not just a shiny new coat of paint though, there’s also a brand new bonus story mission called Future Connected, and we’ve also had a pop at that along with it’s slightly altered and adjusted mechanics.

Make sure to check out the video above to hear all we have to say and see the game in action, and leave a comment below letting us know what you think of this souped-up Switch port.

This latest snapshot brings us some small changes and a few quality of life tweaks.  I was missing my Iron Golems, what about you?

• Patches of blackstone and gravel now generate in all Nether biomes, and patches of soul sand now generate in Soulsand Valleys
• Added “distance by strider” statistic

• Villagers can now spawn iron golems regardless of their profession status or latest working time
• Bastions are now a bit less common
• Lowered the amount that weeping and twisting vines grow when bonemealed
• You now need to use shears to get an item when breaking Nether Sprouts
• Tweaked spawning of mobs to more closely adhere to mob caps
• Biome distribution in the Nether has been tweaked

• Fish now have their own mob category and mob cap

• MC-87949 – The shield use statistic is not working
• MC-89956 – Levitation has no effect if gliding with elytra
• MC-116293 – Functioning clock and compass in recipe book
• MC-125613 – Datapack tag “stairs” does not use #wooden_stairs
• MC-145862 – Villagers try to sleep in occupied beds
• MC-152084 – Villagers occasionally stand up out of beds at night, then can never sleep in that bed again
• MC-152170 – When a villager takes the bed of another villager then the bed’s previous owner will not look for a new bed
• MC-157077 – Villagers will not sleep in beds at night
• MC-158542 – Iron Golems don’t stop spawning
• MC-160250 – Naturally generated villagers are not pathfinding towards their POI; POI detection range is too small
• MC-166764 – Villagers spawned on world generation have a lower follow range than villagers spawned by other means
• MC-170612 – Villagers spawned by meeting points have frozen AI and do not move when that chunk is freshly generated
• MC-172107 – Piglins and Hoglins don’t get zombified in the end
• MC-172524 – Letters of name tag render inconsistently when sneaking (within the same name tag)
• MC-172899 – Piglins with blocks (pumpkins) equipped on their heads show z-fighting
• MC-173015 – Crimson roots, Warped roots, and Nether sprouts are not randomly offset
• MC-173115 – Mobs can spawn inside of wither roses
• MC-174568 – Rail updates are 3-4x times laggier since 1.13
• MC-174909 – Endermen don’t teleport when on magma blocks
• MC-175251 – Fish are spawning in with extremely high numbers. Over 200 different entities of cod every five minutes
• MC-177839 – Blackstone and blackstone walls use the blackstone side face on the bottom, while blackstone stairs and slabs use the blackstone top face on the bottom
• MC-178487 – Saddles on untamed horses no longer render
• MC-179989 – Smithing Table and Anvil UI does not have “Inventory” title above player inventory
• MC-180064 – Piglins would rather use an unenchanted crossbow instead of an enchanted crossbow
• MC-180297 – Player name color in list appears too dark
• MC-180407 – Piglin bartering is limited to dropping a single item stack from the loot table
• MC-180410 – Enderman spawn rate seems very low on upgraded worlds
• MC-180575 – Dispensers now always plays “dispenser failed” when dispensing glowstone
• MC-181353 – Warped and Crimson Doors have no hinges
• MC-181418 – Entity names can no longer be colored
• MC-181424 – Fish (and other items from fishing) cannot be caught with a fishing rod
• MC-181461 – Enchantment glint doesn’t render on shields, tridents and elytra
• MC-181479 – Map marker labels do not render properly
• MC-181524 – Redstone does not visually connect when going up soul sand
• MC-181566 – Powered redstone dust only generates particles at the center of the block
• MC-181944 – Font of category/section text in creative mode item selection screen is much thicker than in 1.15.2
• MC-182595 – Parity issue: Blackstone doesn’t generate in ore veins in nether wastes

A brand new video game based on the hit Netflix series, Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, has been revealed for Nintendo Switch and other platforms. Trollhunters Defenders of Arcadia will release later this year.

The new game is being developed by Wayforward (Shantae, River City Girls), and is set to feature an all-star voice cast that includes original talent from the show – Emile Hirsch, Charlie Saxton, Lexi Medrano and David Bradley. Jim Molinets, SVP of Production at Universal Games and Digital Platforms, has shared the following in a press release:

“DreamWorks Trollhunters Defender of Arcadia will take players on an intriguing and authentic new adventure that showcases the series’ key pillars of friendship, loyalty and fantasy. Expanding on the bold and creative story that has delighted fans for years, the game brings to life the vivid world of Arcadia Oaks in fun and surprising ways.”

Here’s a list of key features for you:

KEY FEATURES:
● All-Star Voice Talent – Featuring all-new content recorded for the game from the stars of the Netflix series including:
○ Emile Hirsch as Jim Lake Jr.
○ David Bradley as Merlin
○ Charlie Saxton as Toby
○ Lexi Medrano as Claire

● An original story – Jump into the world of Trollhunters as Jim Lake Jr. and prepare to stop the Time-pocalypse

● Encounter familiar faces – Journey through unique worlds as favorite characters from the hit series

● Become the hero of Arcadia – Level up armor and abilities to become more powerful than ever, and get a helping hand from beloved characters in local co-op mode

The game is scheduled to launch on all current platforms on 25th September. The final instalment of the Tales of Arcadia trilogy, Wizards, is also set to air later this year on Netflix.

There’s no denying the incredible impact Japanese developers have made on the shoot ’em up genre, from the foundation laid down by Space Invaders right up to more recent examples, such as the superb Rolling Gunner. The influence of Japanese design can be felt keenly in the western-developed Jet Lancer, although its 360-degree levels mean that it also owes a debt to titles like Devolver Digital’s WW2 aerial combat title Luftrausers.

You control an experimental fighter jet which looks a lot like the craft from Hudson’s seminal Soldier Blade, striking from your mobile carrier which serves as a hub from which you can obtain mission briefings, upgrade elements of your jet and determine your unique loadout for each sortie. When not in combat you can freely explore the 3D game world, moving your aircraft carrier around between locations (assuming you have the part required to get there, of course).

Missions range from simple destruction to defending friendly targets or stealing data from transmission towers. Every now and then you’ll face off against a boss enemy, and these titanic battles prove to be Jet Lancer’s undisputed highlight; not only are these massive foes impressive from a visual perspective, but they also require unique tactics and deft movement to defeat.

Thankfully, Jet Lancer controls brilliantly. Your thrust and afterburners are mapped to the shoulder triggers, and you can unleash special charge attacks with the smaller shoulder buttons. Standard shots and a handy dodge manoeuvre are mapped to the face buttons, which means you can perform multiple commands simultaneously without getting your fingers in a muddle. The setup does take a while to become accustomed to, but thankfully the developers have included accessibility features, such as the ability to have your main guns fire automatically so you don’t have to worry about them (although, it’s worth noting you are rated on your accuracy, so to get the best score you’ll want to switch to manual control).

In fact, Jet Lancer goes above and beyond when it comes to these accessibility features, offering the opportunity to disable elements like screen shake and even allowing you to make the ship totally invincible. Some might decry this as cheapening the experience, but in reality, it means that anyone can get the most enjoyment out of the game – after all, you don’t have to use the feature if you don’t need to.

Jet Lancer’s pixel-heavy presentation avoids being too samey and the music is uniformly excellent; the only downside is that the visuals are quite plain in places which might put some players off. This is a common issue with these 2D aerial combat titles, as there’s the need to keep craft small and background detail sparse so the player can see what’s happening during heated moments.

While Jet Lancer does become slightly repetitive in places, the tight controls, enjoyable action and massive, massive explosions all combine to create a shooter which is well worth a look – especially if you’re a fan of this particular genre.

The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutra’s community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.

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[Like slogging through the mud in a busted-up truck? Snowrunner’s your game!]

And here’s another installment of Video Game Deep Cuts on Substack, in our 932nd week of self-isolation. That’s about right, huh? At least our digital video games & interesting articles/videos still seem to arriving promptly. Bon appetit!

– Simon, curator

The Current: New Games To Consider

• Levelhead (Xbox Game Pass, PC, Switch, iOS, Android) is a ‘leaving Early Access’ super-fun ‘platformer maker’ game from the Crashlands devs.

• Wintermoor Tactics Club (PC, Switch) is a strategy RPG & visual novel combo about high school D&D shenanigans. (Trailer.)

• Old World (PC Early Access @ Epic Games Store) is Soren Johnson (Civ IV/Offworld Trading Company)’s latest intriguing 4x strategy game.

• Snowrunner (PC, PS4, Xbox) is the latest in the Spintires series, involving lots of slow, low-gear heavy vehicle maneuvering in rough terrain. It’s weird/good!

• Someday You’ll Return (PC, pictured) is an atmospheric first-person psychological horror game which has great visuals, but mixed reviews to date.

The Culture: Game Culture & Deep Dives

The Past: Game History

The Other Goodness

Hope you liked this particular set of links – and see you next week!
Simon.