/manimgl-best-practices

ManimGL Scenes

Scene Types

ManimGL provides several scene types:

InteractiveScene (Recommended)

The default for most development. Supports interactive mode with -se flag.

from manimlib import *

class MyScene(InteractiveScene):
    def construct(self):
        circle = Circle()
        self.play(ShowCreation(circle))
        self.wait()

Scene (Base Class)

Basic scene without interactive features:

class BasicScene(Scene):
    def construct(self):
        self.play(Write(Text("Hello")))

ThreeDScene

For 3D animations with proper camera setup:

from manimlib import *

class My3DScene(ThreeDScene):
    def construct(self):
        axes = ThreeDAxes()
        self.add(axes)
        self.camera.frame.reorient(-45*DEGREES, 75*DEGREES)

The construct Method

All scene logic goes in construct():

class MyScene(InteractiveScene):
    def construct(self):
        # 1. Create mobjects
        circle = Circle(color=BLUE)
        square = Square(color=RED)

        # 2. Position them
        circle.shift(LEFT * 2)
        square.shift(RIGHT * 2)

        # 3. Animate
        self.play(ShowCreation(circle), ShowCreation(square))

        # 4. Wait for viewer
        self.wait(2)

Adding vs Playing

# Static add (instant, no animation)
self.add(circle)

# Animated add
self.play(ShowCreation(circle))
self.play(FadeIn(square))

Scene Methods

Interactive Mode

Run with -se flag to enter at a specific line:

manimgl scene.py MyScene -se 15

In the shell:

checkpoint_paste()           # Run clipboard code with animations
checkpoint_paste(skip=True)  # Run instantly
checkpoint_paste(record=True) # Record while running

Class Attributes

Define scene configuration as class attributes:

class MyScene(InteractiveScene):
    camera_class = ThreeDCamera  # Use 3D camera
    random_seed = 42             # For reproducibility

    def construct(self):
        ...