Scenes and Sections

A Pymations file can be written two ways. Both play on one timeline in the preview, and both record to video the same way.

A short script

The quickest form: say what to play, one line after another.

from pymations import *

dot = Dot(color=YELLOW)
play(GrowFromCenter(dot))
play(dot.animate.shift(RIGHT * 2))
wait()

play, wait, add, remove and clear work on the file's own timeline. add(shape) puts something on screen at once, with no animation; remove(shape) takes it off; clear() empties the picture.

The Scene form

Longer pieces, Manim tutorials and AI-written scripts use classes. Each class is a scene, and its construct() method says what happens, with self. in front of play, wait and add:

from pymations import *


class Intro(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        title = Text("Squares and circles")
        self.play(Write(title))
        self.wait()
        self.play(FadeOut(title))


class Shapes(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        square = Square(color=BLUE, fill_opacity=0.5)
        self.play(Create(square))
        self.play(Transform(square, Circle(color=ORANGE, fill_opacity=0.5)))
        self.wait()

Every scene in the file plays, in the order it is written, one after the other on one timeline. Each scene starts with an empty picture. There is nothing to pick: press Run and you see them all, and a video records them all.

MovingCameraScene (for camera moves, see The camera), ZoomedScene and ThreeDScene are accepted too.

Sections

Each scene is a section, named after its class. On the timeline, a small tick marks where each section starts, so you can drag straight to it.

In a short script, start a section yourself:

from pymations import *

section("The circle")
play(Create(Circle()))

section("The square")
play(Create(Square().shift(RIGHT * 3)))

Inside a scene, self.next_section("name") does the same.

Transitions

A section can begin with a transition from the picture before it:

from pymations import *

section("The circle")
play(Create(Circle()))
wait()

section("The square", transition="slide_left")
clear()
play(Create(Square()))

transition_time=1 makes it last a second (half a second unless you say). config.transition = "crossfade" at the top of the file gives every section, and so every scene, that transition.

Settings for the whole file

config at the top of the file sets things for the whole animation:

from pymations import *

config.background_color = "#1e1e2e"

play(Write(Text("A different background")))

config(background_color=WHITE) sets several at once.

Related

• Your first animation
• Animations: timing, run_time and groups
• Running Manim scripts