python - Animated interactive plot using matplotlib

Question

While looking for a way to make animated interactive plot using matplotlib, I encountered this piece of code on Stack overflow documentation:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.animation as animation
from matplotlib.widgets import Slider

TWOPI = 2*np.pi

fig, ax = plt.subplots()

t = np.arange(0.0, TWOPI, 0.001)
initial_amp = .5
s = initial_amp*np.sin(t)
l, = plt.plot(t, s, lw=2)

ax = plt.axis([0,TWOPI,-1,1])

axamp = plt.axes([0.25, .03, 0.50, 0.02])
# Slider
samp = Slider(axamp, 'Amp', 0, 1, valinit=initial_amp)

def update(val):
    # amp is the current value of the slider
    amp = samp.val
    # update curve
    l.set_ydata(amp*np.sin(t))
    # redraw canvas while idle
    fig.canvas.draw_idle()

# call update function on slider value change
samp.on_changed(update)

plt.show()

This code does almost exactly what I'm looking for, but I would wish to animate the plot, i.e. make the slider moves automatically from left to right, for instance progressing of 0.01 every second. Is there any simple way of doing that? Knowing that I also want to keep the manual control on the slider (using click event).

Answer 1

You may adapt the code from this answer to include a slider.

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib.animation import FuncAnimation
import mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1
import matplotlib.widgets

class Player(FuncAnimation):
    def __init__(self, fig, func, frames=None, init_func=None, fargs=None,
                 save_count=None, mini=0, maxi=100, pos=(0.125, 0.92), **kwargs):
        self.i = 0
        self.min=mini
        self.max=maxi
        self.runs = True
        self.forwards = True
        self.fig = fig
        self.func = func
        self.setup(pos)
        FuncAnimation.__init__(self,self.fig, self.update, frames=self.play(), 
                                           init_func=init_func, fargs=fargs,
                                           save_count=save_count, **kwargs )    

    def play(self):
        while self.runs:
            self.i = self.i+self.forwards-(not self.forwards)
            if self.i > self.min and self.i < self.max:
                yield self.i
            else:
                self.stop()
                yield self.i

    def start(self):
        self.runs=True
        self.event_source.start()

    def stop(self, event=None):
        self.runs = False
        self.event_source.stop()

    def forward(self, event=None):
        self.forwards = True
        self.start()
    def backward(self, event=None):
        self.forwards = False
        self.start()
    def oneforward(self, event=None):
        self.forwards = True
        self.onestep()
    def onebackward(self, event=None):
        self.forwards = False
        self.onestep()

    def onestep(self):
        if self.i > self.min and self.i < self.max:
            self.i = self.i+self.forwards-(not self.forwards)
        elif self.i == self.min and self.forwards:
            self.i+=1
        elif self.i == self.max and not self.forwards:
            self.i-=1
        self.func(self.i)
        self.slider.set_val(self.i)
        self.fig.canvas.draw_idle()

    def setup(self, pos):
        playerax = self.fig.add_axes([pos[0],pos[1], 0.64, 0.04])
        divider = mpl_toolkits.axes_grid1.make_axes_locatable(playerax)
        bax = divider.append_axes("right", size="80%", pad=0.05)
        sax = divider.append_axes("right", size="80%", pad=0.05)
        fax = divider.append_axes("right", size="80%", pad=0.05)
        ofax = divider.append_axes("right", size="100%", pad=0.05)
        sliderax = divider.append_axes("right", size="500%", pad=0.07)
        self.button_oneback = matplotlib.widgets.Button(playerax, label='$u29CF$')
        self.button_back = matplotlib.widgets.Button(bax, label='$u25C0$')
        self.button_stop = matplotlib.widgets.Button(sax, label='$u25A0$')
        self.button_forward = matplotlib.widgets.Button(fax, label='$u25B6$')
        self.button_oneforward = matplotlib.widgets.Button(ofax, label='$u29D0$')
        self.button_oneback.on_clicked(self.onebackward)
        self.button_back.on_clicked(self.backward)
        self.button_stop.on_clicked(self.stop)
        self.button_forward.on_clicked(self.forward)
        self.button_oneforward.on_clicked(self.oneforward)
        self.slider = matplotlib.widgets.Slider(sliderax, '', 
                                                self.min, self.max, valinit=self.i)
        self.slider.on_changed(self.set_pos)

    def set_pos(self,i):
        self.i = int(self.slider.val)
        self.func(self.i)

    def update(self,i):
        self.slider.set_val(i)


### using this class is as easy as using FuncAnimation:            

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
x = np.linspace(0,6*np.pi, num=100)
y = np.sin(x)

ax.plot(x,y)
point, = ax.plot([],[], marker="o", color="crimson", ms=15)

def update(i):
    point.set_data(x[i],y[i])

ani = Player(fig, update, maxi=len(y)-1)

plt.show()