matplotlib.animation.MovieWriter

class matplotlib.animation.MovieWriter(fps=5, codec=None, bitrate=None, extra_args=None, metadata=None)

Base class for writing movies.

This is a base class for MovieWriter subclasses that write a movie frame data to a pipe. You cannot instantiate this class directly. See examples for how to use its subclasses.

Attributes:

frame_formatstr

The format used in writing frame data, defaults to 'rgba'.

figFigure

The figure to capture data from. This must be provided by the subclasses.

Parameters:

fpsint, default: 5

Movie frame rate (per second).

codecstr or None, default: rcParams["animation.codec"] (default: 'h264')

The codec to use.

bitrateint, default: rcParams["animation.bitrate"] (default: -1)

The bitrate of the movie, in kilobits per second. Higher values means higher quality movies, but increase the file size. A value of -1 lets the underlying movie encoder select the bitrate.

extra_argslist of str or None, optional

Extra command-line arguments passed to the underlying movie encoder. These arguments are passed last to the encoder, just before the filename. The default, None, means to use rcParams["animation.[name-of-encoder]_args"] for the builtin writers.

metadatadict[str, str], default: {}

A dictionary of keys and values for metadata to include in the output file. Some keys that may be of use include: title, artist, genre, subject, copyright, srcform, comment.

__init__(fps=5, codec=None, bitrate=None, extra_args=None, metadata=None)

Parameters:

fpsint, default: 5

Movie frame rate (per second).

codecstr or None, default: rcParams["animation.codec"] (default: 'h264')

The codec to use.

bitrateint, default: rcParams["animation.bitrate"] (default: -1)

The bitrate of the movie, in kilobits per second. Higher values means higher quality movies, but increase the file size. A value of -1 lets the underlying movie encoder select the bitrate.

extra_argslist of str or None, optional

Extra command-line arguments passed to the underlying movie encoder. These arguments are passed last to the encoder, just before the filename. The default, None, means to use rcParams["animation.[name-of-encoder]_args"] for the builtin writers.

metadatadict[str, str], default: {}

A dictionary of keys and values for metadata to include in the output file. Some keys that may be of use include: title, artist, genre, subject, copyright, srcform, comment.

Methods

__init__([fps, codec, bitrate, extra_args, ...])	Parameters:
bin_path()	Return the binary path to the commandline tool used by a specific subclass.
finish()	Finish any processing for writing the movie.
grab_frame(**savefig_kwargs)	Grab the image information from the figure and save as a movie frame.
isAvailable()	Return whether a MovieWriter subclass is actually available.
saving(fig, outfile, dpi, *args, **kwargs)	Context manager to facilitate writing the movie file.
setup(fig, outfile[, dpi])	Setup for writing the movie file.

Attributes

frame_size	A tuple (width, height) in pixels of a movie frame.
supported_formats

classmethod bin_path()

Return the binary path to the commandline tool used by a specific subclass. This is a class method so that the tool can be looked for before making a particular MovieWriter subclass available.

finish()

Finish any processing for writing the movie.

grab_frame(**savefig_kwargs)

Grab the image information from the figure and save as a movie frame.

All keyword arguments in savefig_kwargs are passed on to the savefig call that saves the figure. However, several keyword arguments that are supported by savefig may not be passed as they are controlled by the MovieWriter:

• dpi, bbox_inches: These may not be passed because each frame of the

  animation much be exactly the same size in pixels.

• format: This is controlled by the MovieWriter.

classmethod isAvailable()

Return whether a MovieWriter subclass is actually available.

setup(fig, outfile, dpi=None)

Setup for writing the movie file.

Parameters:

figFigure

The figure object that contains the information for frames.

outfilestr

The filename of the resulting movie file.

dpifloat, default: fig.dpi

The DPI (or resolution) for the file. This controls the size in pixels of the resulting movie file.

supported_formats = ['rgba']