Creating 3D Animations (GIFs) with Python Matplotlib

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.animation as animation
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D # Required for 3D plotting

def make_animation(data_frames, filename="animation.gif"):
    """
    Create and save a 3D data animation as a GIF.

    :param data_frames: List of 3D coordinates (X, Y, Z) for each frame.
                        Example: [[X_frame1, Y_frame1, Z_frame1], [X_frame2, Y_frame2, Z_frame2], ...]
    :param filename: Path to save the GIF file.
    """
    print("Generating frames...")

    fig = plt.figure(figsize=(8, 6)) # Specify figure size
    ax = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')

    # Set axis labels
    ax.set_xlabel('X-axis')
    ax.set_ylabel('Y-axis')
    ax.set_zlabel('Z-axis')

    # Auto-adjust axis range to fit data, or set manually
    # ax.set_xlim(-500, 500) # Example
    # ax.set_ylim(-3, 3)
    # ax.set_zlim(-3, 3)

    ims = [] # List to store Artist objects for each frame

    for i, (X, Y, Z) in enumerate(data_frames):
        # Display progress
        progress = (i + 1) * 100 / len(data_frames)
        print(f"\rProgress: {progress:.1f}%", end="")

        # 3D plot. marker='o' displays points, linestyle='None' hides lines
        im, = ax.plot(X, Y, Z, marker="o", color="red", linestyle='None') # Unpack with comma

        ims.append([im]) # ArtistAnimation expects a list of lists

    print("\nGenerating animation...")

    # Create animation
    # fig: The Figure object for the animation
    # ims: List of Artist objects for each frame
    # interval: Delay between frames (milliseconds)
    # blit: If True, only redraw changed parts for speed (may cause issues with complex 3D plots)
    ani = animation.ArtistAnimation(fig, ims, interval=50, blit=False)

    # Save animation
    # writer: Writer for saving the animation. May require 'ffmpeg' or 'imagemagick'.
    # fps: Frames per second
    ani.save(filename, writer='pillow', fps=20) # 'pillow' can save GIFs without external tools

    print(f"Animation saved to {filename}.")
    plt.show() # Display the animation

def main():
    # Generate sample data
    # 3D trajectory where sin and cos waves change with time t
    t = np.linspace(0, 20 * np.pi, 500) # 500 points from 0 to 20pi

    data_frames = []
    for i in range(len(t)):
        # Example: plot one point per frame
        X_val = t[i] / (20 * np.pi) * 5 # X-axis changes with time
        Y_val = np.sin(t[i])
        Z_val = np.cos(t[i])
        data_frames.append([[X_val], [Y_val], [Z_val]]) # Wrap each value in a list

    make_animation(data_frames, filename="sin_cos_3d_animation.gif")

if __name__ == '__main__':
  main()