Manim

May 29, 2019

 Contents:

1 About 3

2 Installation 5
2.1 Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 Mac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.3 Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3 Getting Started 9
3.1 Learning by Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2 Mathematical Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.3 Animating Mobjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.4 Making a Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

4 Indices and tables 13

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 Manim

These docs are generated from the master branch of the Manim repo. You can contribute by submitting a pull request
there.

Contents: 1
Manim

2 Contents:
 CHAPTER 1

About

Animating technical concepts is traditionally pretty tedious, since it can be difficult to make the animations precise
enough to convey them accurately. Manim uses Python to generate animations programmatically, which makes it
possible to specify exactly how each one should run.
This project is still very much a work in progress, but I hope that the information here will make it easier for newcomers
to get started using Manim.

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4 Chapter 1. About
 CHAPTER 2

Installation

Instructions on installing Manim

2.1 Linux

2.1.1 Ubuntu

Install system libraries:

# apt install sox ffmpeg libcairo2 libcairo2-dev

Install Latex distribution:

# apt install texlive-full

Install manim via pypi:

# pip3 install manimlib

OR Install manim via the git repository with venv:

$ git clone https://github.com/3b1b/manim

$ cd manim
$ python3 -m venv ./
$ source bin/activate
$ pip3 install -r requirement.txt

To use manim in virtual environment you need to activate the environment with the activate binary by doing
source bin/activate, to exit use the deactivate command.

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Note: The git repository is updated first before the one on pypi. The git repository also includes project files used to
produce 3b1b videos. Some of the old projects might not work as due to api changes.

Note: The required latex packages are dictated by manimlib/tex_template.tex which texlive-full
will satisfy. The download size can be quite large. If you wish to install only the packages required to use manim,
substitude texlive-full with:

texlive texlive-latex-extra texlive-fonts-extra

texlive-latex-recommended texlive-science texlive-fonts-extra tipa

2.2 Mac

A stub for mac installation

2.3 Windows

2.3.1 Install System Libraries

Make sure you have Python 3 for Windows installed first:

https://www.python.org/downloads/windows/
Install ffmpeg:
https://ffmpeg.org/download.html#build-windows
Install sox:
http://sox.sourceforge.net/Main/HomePage
Install a latex distribution. On Windows MikTex is commonly used:
https://miktex.org/howto/install-miktex

2.3.2 Path configuration

To invoke commandline without supplying path to the binary the PATH environment needs to be configured. Below
are template examples, please change the path according to your username and specific python version. Assuming all
the softwares are installed with no alteration to the installation paths:

C:\Users\$username\AppData\local\Programs\Python\Python$version\
C:\Users\$username\AppData\local\Programs\Python\Python$version\Scripts\
C:\MikTex\miktex\bin\x64\
C:\ffmpeg\bin\

The path entries should be separated by semicolon.

6 Chapter 2. Installation
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2.3.3 Installing python packages and manim

Make sure you can start pip using pip in your commandline. Then do pip install pyreadline for the
readline package.
Grab the pycairo wheel binary pycairo-1.18.0-cp37-cp37m-win32.whl from https://www.lfd.uci.edu/
~gohlke/pythonlibs/#pycairo and install it via pip C:\absolute\path\to\the\whl\file
clone the manim repository if you have git git clone https://github.com/3b1b/manim or download the
zip file from the repository page with Clone or download button and unzip it.
Open the commandline within the manim directory with Shift + Right click on an empty space in the folder
and select open command window here
Install manim python dependencies with pip install -r requirement.txt

2.3.4 Test the installation

Type in python -m manim -h and if nothing went wrong during the installtion process you should see the help
text.
Use python -m manim example_scene.py SquareToCircle -pl to render the example scene and the
file should play after rendering. The movie file should be in media/videos/example_scenes/480p15

2.3. Windows 7
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8 Chapter 2. Installation
 CHAPTER 3

Getting Started

Todd Zimmerman put together a very nice tutorial on getting started with manim, but is unfortunately outdated. It’s
still useful for understanding how manim is used, but the examples won’t run on the latest version of manim.

3.1 Learning by Example

You create videos in manim by writing Scene instances. example_scenes.py contains a few simple ones that
we can use to learn about manim. For instance, take SquareToCircle.
1 class SquareToCircle(Scene):
2 def construct(self):
3 circle = Circle()
4 square = Square()
5 square.flip(RIGHT)
6 square.rotate(-3 * TAU / 8)
7 circle.set_fill(PINK, opacity=0.5)
8

9 self.play(ShowCreation(square))
10 self.play(Transform(square, circle))
11 self.play(FadeOut(square))

construct() specifies what is displayed on the screen when the Scene is rendered to video. You can render a
Scene by running extract_scene.py. Run python extract_scene.py -h to see how it’s used.
> python extract_scene.py -h
usage: extract_scene.py [-h] [-p] [-w] [-s] [-l] [-m] [-g] [-f] [-t] [-q] [-a]
[-o OUTPUT_NAME] [-n START_AT_ANIMATION_NUMBER]
[-r RESOLUTION] [-c COLOR] [-d OUTPUT_DIRECTORY]
file [scene_name]

positional arguments:
file path to file holding the python code for the scene
scene_name Name of the Scene class you want to see
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optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-p, --preview
-w, --write_to_movie
-s, --show_last_frame
-l, --low_quality
-m, --medium_quality
-g, --save_pngs
-f, --show_file_in_finder
-t, --transparent
-q, --quiet
-a, --write_all
-o OUTPUT_NAME, --output_name OUTPUT_NAME
-n START_AT_ANIMATION_NUMBER, --start_at_animation_number START_AT_ANIMATION_NUMBER
-r RESOLUTION, --resolution RESOLUTION
-c COLOR, --color COLOR
-d OUTPUT_DIRECTORY, --output_directory OUTPUT_DIRECTORY

The most common flags are -p, to automatically play the generated video, -l, to render in lower quality in favor
of speed, and -s, to show the last frame of the Scene for faster development. Run python extract_scene.
py example_scenes.py SquareToCircle -pl to produce a file called SquareToCircle.mp4 in the media
directory that you have configured, and automatically play it.
Let’s step through each line of the Scene. Lines 3 and 4 instantiate a Circle and Square, respectively. Both of
these subclass Mobject, the base class for objects in manim. Note that instantiating a Mobject does not add it to
the Scene, so you wouldn’t see anything if you were to render the Scene at this point.

3 circle = Circle()
4 square = Square()

Lines 5, 6, and 7 apply various modifications to the mobjects before animating them. The call to flip() on line 5 flips
the Square across the RIGHT vector. This is equivalent to a refection across the x-axis. Then the call to rotate()
on line 6 rotates the Square 3/8ths of a full rotation counterclockwise. Finally, the call to set_fill() on line 7
sets the fill color for the Circle to pink, and its opacity to 0.5.

5 square.flip(RIGHT)
6 square.rotate(-3 * TAU / 8)
7 circle.set_fill(PINK, opacity=0.5)

Line 9 is the first to generate video. ShowCreation, Transform, and FadeOut are Animation instances.
Each Animation takes one or more Mobject instances as arguments, which it animates when passed to play().
This is how video is typically created in manim. Mobject instances are automatically added to the Scene when
they are animated. You can add a Mobject to the Scene manually by passing it as an argument to add().

9 self.play(ShowCreation(square))
10 self.play(Transform(square, circle))
11 self.play(FadeOut(square))

ShowCreation draws a Mobject to the screen, Transform morphs one Mobject into another, and FadeOut
fades a Mobject out of the Scene. Note that only the first argument to Transform is modified, and the second is
not added to the Scene. After line 10 is executed square is a Square instance with the shape of a Circle.

10 Chapter 3. Getting Started

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3.2 Mathematical Objects

Everything that appears on screen in a manim video is a Mobject, or Mathematical Object. A Mobject’s appear-
ance is determined by 3 factors:
• m.points, an Nx3 numpy.array specifying how to draw m
• m’s style attributes, such as m.color, m.stroke_width, and m.fill_opacity
• m.submobjects, a list of Mobject instances that are considered part of m

3.3 Animating Mobjects

Learn about animations.

3.4 Making a Scene

Talk about Scenes and organization, bring it all together.

3.2. Mathematical Objects 11

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12 Chapter 3. Getting Started

 CHAPTER 4

Indices and tables

• genindex
• modindex
• search

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