CLI flags and configuration

Command Line Interface

To run manim, you need to enter the directory at the same level as manimlib/ and enter the command in the following format into terminal:

manimgl <code>.py <Scene> <flags>
# or
manim-render <code>.py <Scene> <flags>

  • <code>.py : The python file you wrote. Needs to be at the same level as manimlib/, otherwise you need to use an absolute path or a relative path.

  • <Scene> : The scene you want to render here. If it is not written or written incorrectly, it will list all for you to choose. And if there is only one Scene in the file, this class will be rendered directly.

  • <flags> : CLI flags.

Some useful flags

  • -w to write the scene to a file.

  • -o to write the scene to a file and open the result.

  • -s to skip to the end and just show the final frame.

    • -so will save the final frame to an image and show it.

  • -n <number> to skip ahead to the n’th animation of a scene.

  • -f to make the playback window fullscreen.

All supported flags

flag

abbr

function

--help

-h

Show the help message and exit

--version

-v

Display the version of manimgl

--write_file

-w

Render the scene as a movie file

--skip_animations

-s

Skip to the last frame

--low_quality

-l

Render at a low quality (for faster rendering)

--medium_quality

-m

Render at a medium quality

--hd

Render at a 1080p quality

--uhd

Render at a 4k quality

--full_screen

-f

Show window in full screen

--presenter_mode

-p

Scene will stay paused during wait calls until space bar or right arrow is hit, like a slide show

--gif

-i

Save the video as gif

--transparent

-t

Render to a movie file with an alpha channel

--vcodec VCODEC

Set the FFmpeg video codec

--pix_fmt PIX_FMT

Set the FFmpeg pixel format; defaults to yuv420p

--quiet

-q

Suppress rendering progress and file-ready messages

--write_all

-a

Write all the scenes from a file

--open

-o

Automatically open the saved file once its done

--finder

Show the output file in finder

--subdivide

Write an individual movie file for each animation

--file_name FILE_NAME

Name for the movie or image file

--start_at_animation_number START[,END]

-n

Start at one animation index, or stop before a second index such as 3,6

--embed LINE_NUMBER

-e

Enter an interactive IPython session at the given source line

--resolution RESOLUTION

-r

Resolution, passed as “WxH”, e.g. “1920x1080”

--fps FPS

Frame rate, as an integer

--color COLOR

-c

Background color

--leave_progress_bars

Leave progress bars displayed in terminal

--show_animation_progress

Show a progress bar for each animation

--prerun

Calculate the frame count with an initial animation-free run

--video_dir VIDEO_DIR

Directory to write video

--config_file CONFIG_FILE

Path to the custom configuration file

--log-level LOG_LEVEL

Level of messages to Display, can be DEBUG / INFO / WARNING / ERROR / CRITICAL

--clear-cache

Erase the cache used for Tex and Text mobjects

--autoreload

Automatically reload Python modules to pick up code changes across during an interactive embedding

custom_config

In order to perform more configuration (about directories, etc.) and permanently change the default value (you don’t have to add flags to the command every time), you can modify custom_config.yml. The meaning of each option is in page custom_config.

You can also use different custom_config.yml for different directories, such as following the directory structure:

manim/
├── manimlib/
│   ├── animation/
│   ├── ...
│   ├── default_config.yml
│   └── window.py
├── project/
│   ├── code.py
│   └── custom_config.yml
└── custom_config.yml

When you enter the project/ folder and run manimgl code.py <Scene>, it will overwrite manim/default_config.yml with custom_config.yml in the project folder.

Alternatively, you can use --config_file flag in CLI to specify configuration file manually.

manimgl project/code.py --config_file /path/to/custom_config.yml