matplotlib save animation in gif error

Question

I want to save matplotlib animation in gif format.

I succeded to save animation to mp4 format, using code

import matplotlib
matplotlib.use(\"Agg\")

         


        

Answer 1

DrV's script didn't work for me on Windows 7, even though convert and ffmpeg both are in the system path.

  File "C:\Python27\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\backends\backend_agg.py", line 513, in print_raw
    renderer._renderer.write_rgba(filename_or_obj)

RuntimeError: Error writing to file

 

C:\Users>ffmpeg
ffmpeg version N-50911-g9efcfbe Copyright (c) 2000-2013 the FFmpeg developers
   ...

 

C:\Users>convert
Version: ImageMagick 6.9.1-1 Q16 x64 2015-03-20 http://www.imagemagick.org
Copyright: Copyright (C) 1999-2015 ImageMagick Studio LLC
   ...

Editing my matplotlibrc to add the full path to the exe fixed it:

###ANIMATION settings
#animation.html : 'none'           # How to display the animation as HTML in
                                   # the IPython notebook. 'html5' uses
                                   # HTML5 video tag.
#animation.writer : ffmpeg         # MovieWriter 'backend' to use
#animation.codec : mpeg4           # Codec to use for writing movie
#animation.bitrate: -1             # Controls size/quality tradeoff for movie.
                                   # -1 implies let utility auto-determine
#animation.frame_format: 'png'     # Controls frame format used by temp files
animation.ffmpeg_path: C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-6.9.1-Q16\ffmpeg.exe   # Path to ffmpeg binary. Without full path
                                   # $PATH is searched
#animation.ffmpeg_args: ''         # Additional arguments to pass to ffmpeg
#animation.avconv_path: 'avconv'   # Path to avconv binary. Without full path
                                   # $PATH is searched
#animation.avconv_args: ''         # Additional arguments to pass to avconv
#animation.mencoder_path: 'mencoder'
                                   # Path to mencoder binary. Without full path
                                   # $PATH is searched
#animation.mencoder_args: ''       # Additional arguments to pass to mencoder
animation.convert_path: C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-6.9.1-Q16\convert.exe # Path to ImageMagick's convert binary.
                                   # On Windows use the full path since convert
                                   # is also the name of a system tool.