manimgl-best-practices

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Styling & Appearance

• rules/colors.md - Color constants, gradients, RGB, hex, GLSL coloring

• rules/styling.md - Fill, stroke, opacity, backstroke, gloss, shadow

3D & Camera

• rules/3d.md - 3D objects, surfaces, Sphere, Torus, parametric surfaces, lighting

• rules/camera.md - frame.reorient(), Euler angles, fix_in_frame(), camera animations

Interactive Development

• rules/interactive.md - Interactive mode with -se flag, checkpoint_paste()

• rules/frame.md - self.frame, camera control, reorient, and zooming

• rules/embedding.md - self.embed() for IPython debugging, touch() mode

Configuration & CLI

• rules/cli.md - manimgl command, flags (-w, -o, -se, -l, -h), rendering options

• rules/config.md - custom_config.yml, directories, camera settings, quality presets

Working Examples

Complete, tested example files demonstrating common patterns:

• examples/basic_animations.py - Basic shapes, text, and animations

• examples/math_visualization.py - LaTeX equations and mathematical content

• examples/graph_plotting.py - Axes, functions, and graphing

• examples/3d_visualization.py - 3D scenes with camera control and surfaces

• examples/updater_patterns.py - Dynamic animations with updaters

Scene Templates

Copy and modify these templates to start new projects:

• templates/basic_scene.py - Standard 2D scene template

• templates/interactive_scene.py - InteractiveScene with self.embed()

• templates/3d_scene.py - 3D scene with frame.reorient()

• templates/math_scene.py - Mathematical derivations and equations

Quick Reference

Basic Scene Structure

from manimlib import *

class MyScene(InteractiveScene):

    def construct(self):

        # Create mobjects

        circle = Circle()

        # Add to scene (static)

        self.add(circle)

        # Or animate

        self.play(ShowCreation(circle))  # Note: ShowCreation, not Create

        # Wait

        self.wait(1)

Render Command

# Render and preview

manimgl scene.py MyScene

# Interactive mode - drop into shell at line 15

manimgl scene.py MyScene -se 15

# Write to file

manimgl scene.py MyScene -w

# Low quality for testing

manimgl scene.py MyScene -l

Key Differences from ManimCE

Feature

ManimGL (3b1b)

Manim Community

Import

from manimlib import *

from manim import *

CLI

manimgl

manim

Math text

Tex(R"\pi")

MathTex(r"\pi")

Scene

InteractiveScene

Scene

Create anim

ShowCreation

Create

Camera

self.frame

self.camera.frame

Fix in frame

mob.fix_in_frame()

self.add_fixed_in_frame_mobjects(mob)

Package

manimgl (PyPI)

manim (PyPI)

Interactive Development Workflow

ManimGL's killer feature is interactive development:

# Start at line 20 with state preserved

manimgl scene.py MyScene -se 20

In interactive mode:

# Copy code to clipboard, then run:

checkpoint_paste()           # Run with animations

checkpoint_paste(skip=True)  # Run instantly (no animations)

checkpoint_paste(record=True) # Record while running

Camera Control (self.frame)

# Get the camera frame

frame = self.frame

# Reorient in 3D (phi, theta, gamma, center, height)

frame.reorient(45, -30, 0, ORIGIN, 8)

# Animate camera movement

self.play(frame.animate.reorient(60, -45, 0))

# Fix mobjects to stay in screen space during 3D movement

title.fix_in_frame()

LaTeX with Tex class

# Use raw strings with capital R

formula = Tex(R"\int_0^1 x^2 \, dx = \frac{1}{3}")

# Color mapping with t2c

equation = Tex(

    R"E = mc^2",

    t2c={"E": BLUE, "m": GREEN, "c": YELLOW}

)

# Isolate substrings for animation

formula = Tex(R"\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n^2} = \frac{\pi^2}{6}")

formula.set_color_by_tex("n", BLUE)

Common Patterns

#### Embedding for debugging

def construct(self):

    circle = Circle()

    self.play(ShowCreation(circle))

    self.embed()  # Drops into IPython shell here

#### Set floor plane for 3D

self.set_floor_plane("xz")  # Makes xy the viewing plane

#### Backstroke for text readability

text = Text("Label")

text.set_backstroke(BLACK, 5)  # Black outline behind text

Installation

# Install ManimGL

pip install manimgl

# Check installation

manimgl --version

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Version confusion - Ensure you're using manimgl, not manim (community version)

• ShowCreation vs Create - ManimGL uses ShowCreation, not Create

• Tex vs MathTex - ManimGL uses Tex with capital R raw strings

• self.frame vs self.camera.frame - ManimGL uses self.frame directly

• fix_in_frame() - Call on the mobject, not the scene

• Interactive mode - Use -se flag for interactive development

License & Attribution

This skill contains example code adapted from 3Blue1Brown's video repository by Grant Sanderson.

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

• Attribution required - Credit both 3Blue1Brown and the adapter

• NonCommercial - Not for commercial use

• ShareAlike - Derivatives must use the same license

See LICENSE.txt for full details.