Manim Notebook

VSCode extension to interactively preview your Manim animations

VSCode Marketplace | GitHub

Warning

This extension is for 3b1b's Manim library and NOT the Manim Community Edition (Manim CE).

Manim.Notebook.mp4

🎈 What is this?

Manim Notebook is a VSCode extension tailored to your needs when writing Python code to animate mathematical concepts with 3Blue1Brown's Manim library. It's NOT a Jupyter Notebook; instead it enriches your existing Python files with interactive Manim cells that let you live-preview parts of the code and instantly see the animations.

Originally, the motivation for this extension was Grant Sanderson's video How I animate 3Blue1Brown where he shows his Manim workflow in Sublime Text. This extension brings a similar workflow to VSCode but even goes further and provides a rich VSCode integration.

💻 Usage

Our VSCode walkthrough will guide you through the first steps and provide a sample file. The walkthrough should open automatically upon installation of the Manim Notebook extension. If not, you can invoke it manually: open the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P) and search for Manim Notebook: Open Walkthrough.

The main concept is that of a Manim Cell, which is just a regular Python comment, but one that starts with ## instead of #.

Tip

For customization options, troubleshooting tips and a lot more, check out the Wiki.

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🚀 Features

• Manim Cells. Split your code into Manim Cells that start with ##. You will be presented with a CodeLens to preview the animation (and you can even reload your changed Python files such that you don't have to restart the preview).
• Preview any code. Simple as that, select any code and preview it. No manual copy-pasting needed.
• With or without Terminal. The extension parses the manimgl terminal output to provide rich VSCode integrations and makes possible an almost terminal-free workflow.
  • Shows the progress of the live Manim preview as VSCode progress bar.
  • Takes a user-defined delay into account, e.g. to wait for custom shell startup scripts (like venv activation).
  • State management: keeps track of the ManimGL state to react accordingly in different situations, e.g. prevent from running multiple statements at the same time.
• Video export. Export your animations to a video file. A small wizard will guide you through the most important settings.
• And more... Find all commands in the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P) by searching for > Manim Notebook. E.g. another command lets you clear() the window. Yet with another one you can start the scene at your cursor.

_{In the long run, we aim to even provide a Debugger for Manim code such that you can step through your animations and run until breakpoints. This would be a huge step forward in the Manim development workflow. For now, the Manim Cells that we provide are a start towards a more interactive experience.}