/manimce-best-practices

Scenes in Manim

A Scene is the canvas where all animations take place. Every Manim animation is defined within a Scene class.

Basic Scene Structure

All animation code resides within the construct() method of a Scene subclass.

from manim import *

class MyScene(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        circle = Circle()
        self.play(Create(circle))
        self.wait(1)

Scene Lifecycle Methods

construct()

The main method where you define your animation. Called automatically when rendering.

setup()

Called before construct(). Use for initialization that should happen before animation logic.

class MyScene(Scene):
    def setup(self):
        self.camera.background_color = BLUE_E

    def construct(self):
        circle = Circle()
        self.play(Create(circle))

Scene Methods

Adding and Removing Objects

# Add without animation (instant)
self.add(mobject)
self.add(mobject1, mobject2, mobject3)

# Remove without animation
self.remove(mobject)

# Clear all mobjects
self.clear()

Playing Animations

# Play a single animation
self.play(Create(circle))

# Play multiple animations simultaneously
self.play(Create(circle), FadeIn(square))

# With run_time
self.play(Create(circle), run_time=2)

Waiting

# Wait for 1 second (default)
self.wait()

# Wait for specific duration
self.wait(2)

Scene Types

Scene (Default)

Standard 2D scene for most animations.

ThreeDScene

For 3D animations with camera orientation control.

class My3DScene(ThreeDScene):
    def construct(self):
        self.set_camera_orientation(phi=75 * DEGREES, theta=-45 * DEGREES)
        axes = ThreeDAxes()
        sphere = Sphere()
        self.add(axes, sphere)

MovingCameraScene

For animations that require camera movement (zoom, pan).

class ZoomScene(MovingCameraScene):
    def construct(self):
        circle = Circle()
        self.add(circle)
        self.play(self.camera.frame.animate.scale(0.5).move_to(circle))

Multiple Scenes in One File

Render specific scene:

manim -pql file.py Scene1

Render all scenes:

manim -pql -a file.py