How to create a 3D scatterplot animation

In this video I explain how to create a 3D scatterplot animation using an Octave (also Matlab) script and Image Magick tool.

The source code is as follows:

# call octave to create all snapshots
octave create_snapshots.m
# reduce size of images, if needed
mogrify -resize 500x375 scatter*.png
# create animated GIF
# if you want to create a swf with the animation

file 2 - create_snapshots.m

clear all;

# define velues for each axis (in this case random values)
axis_X = rand(1, 400);
axis_Y = rand(1, 400);
axis_Z = rand(1, 400);

# create 360 snapshots (1 per degree)
figure(1);
t = 100;
for degree=1:360
# clear graph
clf;

# plot 3d snapshot with small dots "."
plot3(axis_X, axis_Y, axis_Z, ".");

# configure label names and axis intervals [0, 1]
xlabel("X Label");
ylabel("Y Label");
zlabel("Z Label");
axis([0 1 0 1 0 1]);

# rotate the graph according to current degree
view(degree, 30 + 15 * sin(degree/60));

# save the current snapshot file
plotname = ['scatter_t', num2str(t), '.png'];
print(plotname, '-dpng');
t = t + 1;
end;

[rafeef]

nice work thank you lot it work in octave 4 on fedora 24

[oomlette]

Hi. I am so sorry if I asked silly question. I am working on MATLAB 3D scatter plot for my presentation. I would be nice if i can export it as you show in the video. I have a big data (4, 000+) for each X, Y, Z in mat file. Can I use something like load('myfile.mat') in create_snapshots.m to access my data in Octava? and How?

[TheEliasVDS]

Hi, nice idea.
Why don't you put the {"clear graph", "plot 3d snapshot" and "configure label and axis"} sections outside the loop?
Do you see a big performance gain if you do so? And if you use 10 times as much points?

[noxolohlongwa]

hello I'm using matlab for a first time and i want to make a 3D scatter Plot where can i find help cause i'm confused

[reinerwilhelms-tricarico]

Tried this in Ubuntu 18.04 with octave. But gnuplot somehow messes up and crashes, and the X11 croaks and makes the screen freeze. All I can do is hard reboot.

[elecchal]

ok, removed the png3swf line. Now get this error:
./create_animation.sh: line 1: $'\r': command not found
': No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/2638.
' @ image format `scatter*.png