How to save Matplotlib Animation?

In this article, we will learn How to save Matplotlib Animation. The animated graphs made with the help of matplotlib can be saved as videos in Python. As we can create captivating animations using the matplotlib library. If you want to learn to create animations, here is a link to the article to create animations using the matplotlib. In this article, we will learn how to save animation in matplotlib. To save an animation, we can use Animation.save() or Animation.to_html5_video().

Animation.to_html5_video() returns the animation as an HTML5 video tag. It saves the animation as h264 encoded video, which can be directly displayed in the notebook.

Example 1:

Python3

# importing required libraries
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.animation as animation
from IPython import display

# initializing a figure
fig = plt.figure()

# labeling the x-axis and y-axis
axis = plt.axes(xlim=(0, 4),  ylim=(-1.5, 1.5))

# initializing a line variable
line, = axis.plot([], [], lw=3)

def animate(frame_number):
    x = np.linspace(0, 4, 1000)

    # plots a sine graph
    y = np.sin(2 * np.pi * (x - 0.01 * frame_number))
    line.set_data(x, y)
    line.set_color('green')
    return line,


anim = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, animate, frames=100,
                               interval=20, blit=True)
fig.suptitle('Sine wave plot', fontsize=14)

# converting to an html5 video
video = anim.to_html5_video()

# embedding for the video
html = display.HTML(video)

# draw the animation
display.display(html)
plt.close()

Output:

For using the Animation.save() method to save the animation, we need to provide the writer parameter. Here are few common writers available to write the animation:

PillowWriter: It relies on pillow library. It is preferred when you want to save the animation in gif format.

FFMpegWriter: pipe-based ffmpeg writer.

ImageMagickWriter: pipe-based animated gif.

AVConvWriter: pipe-based avconv writer.

Example 2:

Python3

# importing required libraries
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.animation as animation
from IPython import display

# initializing a figure
fig = plt.figure()

# labeling the x-axis and y-axis
axis = plt.axes(xlim=(0, 1000),  ylim=(0, 1000))

# lists storing x and y values
x, y = [], []

line, = axis.plot(0, 0)


def animate(frame_number):
    x.append(frame_number)
    y.append(frame_number)
    line.set_xdata(x)
    line.set_ydata(y)
    return line,


anim = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, animate, frames=1000,
                               interval=20, blit=True)
fig.suptitle('Straight Line plot', fontsize=14)

# saving to m4 using ffmpeg writer
writervideo = animation.FFMpegWriter(fps=60)
anim.save('increasingStraightLine.mp4', writer=writervideo)
plt.close()

Output: