Save matplotlib as mp4 in python

Question

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt 
import numpy as np 
import matplotlib.animation as animation 
  
fig = plt.figure() 
axis = plt.axes(xlim=(0, 4),  ylim=(-1.5, 1.5)) 
line, = axis.plot([], [], lw=3) 
def animate(frame_number): 
    x = np.linspace(0, 4, 1000) 
    y = np.sin(2 * np.pi * (x - 0.01 * frame_number)) 
    line.set_data(x, y) 
    line.set_color('green') 
    return line, 

anim = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, animate, frames=100,  
                               interval=20, blit=True) 
fig.suptitle('Sine wave plot', fontsize=14) 
anim.save("animation.gif", dpi=300, writer=animation.PillowWriter(fps=25)) # works fine

anim.save("animation.mp4", writer = animation.FFMpegWriter(fps=25))# doesn't work

I can save the above plot as .gif without any problems.

But when I'm trying to save it as .mp4 I get the following error:

\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python312\Lib\site-packages\matplotlib\animation.py:240, in AbstractMovieWriter.saving(self, fig, outfile, dpi, *args, **kwargs)
...
   1553     self._close_pipe_fds(p2cread, p2cwrite,
   1554                          c2pread, c2pwrite,
   1555                          errread, errwrite)

FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified

sigmud · Accepted Answer · 2024-04-24 14:05:52Z

0

as explained in the specific page this function sends the frames to ffmpeg so you need to have ffmpeg properly installed on your system See this other question for further info

answered Apr 24, 2024 at 14:05

sigmud

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Gооd_Mаn · Accepted Answer · 2024-04-24 14:48:10Z

0

Current work around is to save a lot of images and animate it using "moviepy".

from matplotlib import pyplot as plt 
import numpy as np 
import glob
import moviepy.video.io.ImageSequenceClip

image_folder = r"C:\Users\user\Desktop\save_images"

for frame_number in range(100):
    x = np.linspace(0, 4, 1000) 
    y = np.sin(2 * np.pi * (x - 0.01 * frame_number)) 
    x = np.linspace(0, 4, 1000) 
    plt.plot(x,y)
    plt.savefig(fr"{image_folder}\{frame_number}.png")
    plt.close()

image_files = glob.glob(fr'{image_folder}/*.png')

fps = 1
clip = moviepy.video.io.ImageSequenceClip.ImageSequenceClip(image_files, fps=fps)
clip.write_videofile(fr'{image_folder}\my_new_video.mp4')

answered Apr 24, 2024 at 14:48

Gооd_Mаn

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