[How to use matplotlib] 2D Animation in XY plane using Scatter

I will explain the basic usage of Scatter 2D Animation in XY plane

[kikijewell]

Here's the code. It didn't work in Jupyter (stuck on frame 0), but for grins, I just pasted it into the command line and it works just fine. Note, I'm using Python3, but there's only one line change, and it's commented out for Python2 folks:


#!/usr/bin/env/python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.animation as animation
import numpy as np

def _update_plot(i, fig, scat):
scat.set_offsets(([0, i], [50, i], [100, i]))
#print('Frames: %d', %i) # For < Python3
print('Frames: {}'.format(i)) # For Python3

return scat

fig = plt.figure()

x = [0, 50, 100]
y = [0, 0, 0]

ax = fig.add_subplot(111)
ax.grid(True, linestyle = '-', color = '0.75')
ax.set_xlim([-50, 200])
ax.set_ylim([-50, 200])

scat = plt.scatter(x, y, c = x)
scat.set_alpha(0.8)

anim = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, _update_plot, fargs = (fig, scat),
frames = 100, interval = 100)

plt.show()

[kikijewell]

Btw, this is a super fast, awesome tutorial to get up and running! Thank you!

[jamintg]

in the _update function, what does "return scat" do? Is it necessary?

[cherubinth]

This is more convoluted then Java's swing etc. Why must everything in python be overcomplicated magic bs?