ManimVTK

Scientific Visualization meets Mathematical Animation

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ManimVTK is a fork of Manim Community that integrates VTK (Visualization Toolkit) for scientific visualization and export capabilities. It keeps Manim's elegant syntax and animation system while adding the ability to:

• Export VTK assets for visualization in ParaView, PyVista, and vtk.js
• Render with VTK for high-quality shaded surfaces
• Create time series animations for CFD and scientific data
• Generate interactive 3D datasets alongside traditional video output

🎯 What's New

Users can now render scenes with VTK and export scientific visualization data:

# Export both an MP4 video AND VTK scene files
manimvtk -pqh MyScene --renderer vtk --vtk-export

# Export time series for ParaView animation scrubbing
manimvtk MyScene --renderer vtk --vtk-time-series

🚀 Quick Start

Installation

Prerequisites (Linux only)

ManimVTK depends on ManimPango, which requires system dependencies on Linux since pre-built wheels are not available. Install them first:

Debian/Ubuntu (including Google Colab):

sudo apt install libpango1.0-dev pkg-config python3-dev

Fedora:

sudo dnf install pango-devel pkg-config python3-devel

Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S pango pkgconf

Install ManimVTK

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/mathifylabs/manimVTK.git
cd manimVTK

# Install with VTK support
pip install -e ".[vtk]"

# Or install with full scientific stack (includes PyVista)
pip install -e ".[scientific]"

Or install from PyPI:

pip install manimvtk[vtk]

Basic Usage

from manimvtk import *

class CFDVisualization(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        # Create a surface (e.g., representing pressure field)
        surface = Surface(
            lambda u, v: np.array([u, v, np.sin(u) * np.cos(v)]),
            u_range=[-2, 2],
            v_range=[-2, 2],
            resolution=(50, 50),
        )
        surface.set_color(BLUE)

        self.play(Create(surface))
        self.wait()

Render with VTK export:

manimvtk -pqh example.py CFDVisualization --renderer vtk --vtk-export

This produces:

• media/videos/example/1080p60/CFDVisualization.mp4 - Standard video output
• media/vtk/CFDVisualization/CFDVisualization_final.vtm - VTK MultiBlock file

📦 VTK Export Options

Static Export (--vtk-export)

Exports the final scene state to VTK format:

• Single mobject: .vtp (PolyData)
• Multiple mobjects: .vtm (MultiBlock)

Time Series Export (--vtk-time-series)

Exports frame-by-frame VTK files with a .pvd collection file:

media/vtk/MyScene/
├── MyScene.pvd              # ParaView Data collection file
├── MyScene_00000.vtp        # Frame 0
├── MyScene_00001.vtp        # Frame 1
├── ...
└── MyScene_viewer.html      # Basic HTML viewer template

Load the .pvd file in ParaView to scrub through animations using its native time slider.

🔧 CLI Options

Option	Description
--renderer vtk	Use VTK renderer
--vtk-export	Export final scene to VTK format
--vtk-time-series	Export all frames as VTK time series

💡 Use Cases

CFD Visualization

from manimvtk import *
from manimvtk.vtk import add_scalar_field, add_vector_field

class PressureField(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        # Create surface mesh
        surface = Surface(
            lambda u, v: np.array([u, v, 0]),
            u_range=[-2, 2],
            v_range=[-2, 2],
        )

        # Color by pressure (handled in VTK export)
        self.add(surface)
        self.wait()

Interactive Web Viewing

The exported .vtkjs files can be embedded in web applications using vtk.js, perfect for:

• Educational platforms
• Research presentations
• Interactive documentation

🏗 Architecture

ManimVTK adds a new renderer layer:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    Manim Core                           │
│  (Scene, Mobject, VMobject, Animation, play, etc.)     │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                           │
                           ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│               Renderer Abstraction                       │
│  ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────────────┐   │
│  │CairoRenderer│ │OpenGLRenderer│ │ VTKRenderer ✨  │   │
│  └─────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                           │
                           ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│            VTK Export / Viewer Layer                    │
│  • vtk_exporter.py - File export (.vtp, .vtm, .pvd)   │
│  • vtk_mobject_adapter.py - Manim → VTK conversion    │
│  • HTML/vtk.js viewer template                         │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

📊 Supported Mobjects

Mobject Type	VTK Export	Notes
VMobject (2D shapes)	✅	Converted to PolyData with colors
Surface	✅	Full mesh with UV coordinates
Sphere, Cube, etc.	✅	3D primitives
ParametricSurface	✅	Parametric surfaces
VGroup	✅	Exported as MultiBlock

🔬 Scientific Features

Scalar Fields

Attach scalar data (pressure, temperature) to VTK exports:

from manimvtk.vtk import add_scalar_field

# After creating polydata
add_scalar_field(polydata, "pressure", pressure_values)

Vector Fields

Attach velocity/force fields for glyphs and streamlines:

from manimvtk.vtk import add_vector_field

# Attach velocity (U, V, W components)
add_vector_field(polydata, "velocity", velocity_vectors)

🧪 Testing

Running the Test Suite

The project includes a comprehensive test suite for VTK functionality with 61 tests covering:

• VTK Mobject Adapter: Conversion of Manim mobjects to VTK PolyData
• VTK Exporter: File export (.vtp, .vtm, .pvd, .vtkjs)
• VTK Renderer: Renderer initialization and scene handling

To run the tests:

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -e ".[vtk]"
pip install pytest pytest-cov pytest-xdist

# Run VTK tests (headless environments require xvfb)
xvfb-run -a pytest tests/test_vtk/ -v

# Run with display available
pytest tests/test_vtk/ -v

VTK Example Scenes

Try the example scenes in example_scenes/vtk_examples.py to verify VTK functionality:

# Basic 2D example with VTK export
manimvtk -pql example_scenes/vtk_examples.py Circle2DExample --vtk-export

# 3D surface example
manimvtk -pql example_scenes/vtk_examples.py ParametricSurfaceExample --vtk-export

# Time series export for ParaView
manimvtk -pql example_scenes/vtk_examples.py AnimatedCircle --vtk-time-series

# List all available example scenes
python -c "from example_scenes.vtk_examples import EXAMPLE_SCENES; print([s.__name__ for s in EXAMPLE_SCENES])"

Available example categories:

• Basic 2D: Circle2DExample, Square2DExample, MultipleShapes2D, PolygonExample
• Basic 3D: Sphere3DExample, Cube3DExample, ParametricSurfaceExample, TorusSurface
• Animated: AnimatedCircle, SquareToCircleVTK, Rotating3DObject, GrowingSurface
• Scientific: WaveSurface, PressureFieldVisualization, VelocityFieldArrows
• Edge Cases: EmptyScene, ManyShapes, TinyMobject, LargeMobject

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! This fork is particularly interested in:

• Additional mobject → VTK conversions
• vtk.js web viewer improvements
• CFD-specific visualization features
• Performance optimizations

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

📄 License

The software is double-licensed under the MIT license:

• Copyright by 3blue1brown LLC (see LICENSE)
• Copyright by Manim Community Developers (see LICENSE.community)
• Copyright by Mathify Labs for VTK extensions

🙏 Acknowledgments

• Manim Community - The original animation engine
• 3Blue1Brown - Creator of the original Manim
• VTK - The Visualization Toolkit
• ParaView - Scientific visualization application

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Describe your simulation → get both a video and an interactive 3D dataset.