animatplot.animations.vector_plot

animatplot.animations.vector_plot(X, Y, U, V, t, skip=5, *, t_axis=0, units='', fps=10, pcolor_kw={}, quiver_kw={})[source]

produces an animation of vector fields

This takes 2D vector field, and plots the magnitude as a pcolomesh, and the normalized direction as a quiver plot. It then animates it.

This is a convience function. It wraps around the Pcolormesh and Quiver blocks. It will be more restrictive than using the blocks themselves. If you need more control, or the ability to pass data in as a list, then use the individual blocks.

Parameters:
  • X (2D numpy array) – The x location of the vectors to be animated
  • Y (2D numpy array) – The x location of the vectors to be animated
  • U (3D numpy array) – The x components of the vectors to be animated.
  • V (3D numpy array) – The y components of the vectors to be animated.
  • t (1D numpy array) – The time values
  • skip (int, optional) – The amount of values to skip over when making the quiver plot. Higher skip means fewer arrows. For best results, the skip should divide the length of the data-1. Defaults to 5.
  • t_axis (int, optional) – The axis of the U, V array’s the represent time. Defaults to 0. Note this is different from the defaults that blocks choose. This default is chosen to be consistent with 3D-meshgrids (meshgrid(x, y, t)).
  • fps (int, optional) – The frames per second to display the animation at.
  • units (str, optional) – The units to display on the timeline.
  • pcolor_kw (dict, optional) – A dictionary of parameters to pass to pcolormesh.
  • quiver_kw (dict, optional) – A dictionary of parameters to pass to quiver.
Returns:

  • Animatplot.Animation – The complete animation
  • list of Animatplot.blocks.Block – A list of all the blocks used in the animation. The list contains a Pcolorblock, and a Quiver block in that order.
  • Animatplot.Timeline – The timeline that was generated for the animation.