Matplotlib 3D Plot Animation

Introduction

This lab will guide you on how to create a simple animation of a rotating 3D plot about all three axes using Matplotlib. We will use a sample dataset to create a basic wireframe, set axis labels, and rotate the axes.

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Import Libraries and Dataset

First, we need to import the necessary libraries and dataset. In this example, we will use the matplotlib and mpl_toolkits.mplot3d libraries to create the 3D plot, and the axes3d.get_test_data() function to generate a sample dataset.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import axes3d

## Generate sample dataset
X, Y, Z = axes3d.get_test_data(0.05)

Create a 3D Plot

Next, we will create a 3D plot using the plt.figure() and fig.add_subplot() functions. We will also use the ax.plot_wireframe() function to plot the dataset as a wireframe.

## Create 3D plot
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(projection='3d')

## Plot wireframe
ax.plot_wireframe(X, Y, Z, rstride=10, cstride=10)

Set Axis Labels

We will now set the axis labels for the 3D plot using the ax.set_xlabel(), ax.set_ylabel(), and ax.set_zlabel() functions.

## Set axis labels
ax.set_xlabel('x')
ax.set_ylabel('y')
ax.set_zlabel('z')

Rotate the Axes and Update the Plot

Finally, we will rotate the axes and update the plot using a for loop that cycles through a full rotation of elevation, then azimuth, roll, and all. We will use the ax.view_init() function to update the axis view and title, and the plt.title(), plt.draw(), and plt.pause() functions to display the animation.

## Rotate the axes and update the plot
for angle in range(0, 360*4 + 1):
    ## Normalize the angle to the range [-180, 180] for display
    angle_norm = (angle + 180) % 360 - 180

    ## Cycle through a full rotation of elevation, then azimuth, roll, and all
    elev = azim = roll = 0
    if angle <= 360:
        elev = angle_norm
    elif angle <= 360*2:
        azim = angle_norm
    elif angle <= 360*3:
        roll = angle_norm
    else:
        elev = azim = roll = angle_norm

    ## Update the axis view and title
    ax.view_init(elev, azim, roll)
    plt.title('Elevation: %d°, Azimuth: %d°, Roll: %d°' % (elev, azim, roll))

    ## Display animation
    plt.draw()
    plt.pause(.001)

Summary

In this lab, we learned how to create a simple animation of a rotating 3D plot about all three axes using Matplotlib. We used a sample dataset to create a basic wireframe, set axis labels, and rotated the axes. We also learned how to use the ax.view_init(), plt.title(), plt.draw(), and plt.pause() functions to update the plot and display the animation.