Animate quadratic grid changes (matshow)

Question

I have a NxN grid with some values, which change every time step. I have found a way to plot a single grid configuration of this with matshow function, but I do

Answer 1

matplotlib 1.1 has an animation module (look at the examples).

Using animation.FuncAnimation you can update your plot like so:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt 
import matplotlib.animation as animation

def generate_data():
    a = np.arange(25).reshape(5, 5)
    b = 10 * np.random.rand(5, 5)
    return a - b 

def update(data):
    mat.set_data(data)
    return mat 

def data_gen():
    while True:
        yield generate_data()

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
mat = ax.matshow(generate_data())
plt.colorbar(mat)
ani = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, update, data_gen, interval=500,
                              save_count=50)
plt.show()

You can save the animation using:

ani.save('animation.mp4')

I you save it with

ani.save('animation.mp4', clear_temp=False)

the frames are conserved and you can create an animated gif like the following with

convert *.png animation.gif