Manim Community Edition¶

Animating technical concepts is traditionally pretty tedious since it can be difficult to make the animations precise enough to convey them accurately. Manim relies on Python’s simplicity to generate animations programmatically, making it convenient to specify exactly how each one should run. Take a look at the Example Gallery for some inspiration on how to create beautiful images and videos with Manim.

First Steps¶

Are you new to Manim and are looking for where to get started? Then you are in the right place!

Note

Please be aware that there are different, incompatible versions of Manim available. This version, the Community Edition of Manim (ManimCE), is a separate project maintained by the community, but it was forked from 3b1b/manim, the original Manim created and open-sourced by Grant Sanderson, creator of 3Blue1Brown educational math videos. Check our installation FAQ to learn more!

The Installation section has the latest and up-to-date installation instructions for Windows, macOS, and Linux. You can also find information on Manim’s docker images and (online) notebook environments there.
Want to try the library before installing it? Take a look at our interactive online playground at https://try.manim.community in the form of a Jupyter notebook.
In our Tutorials section you will find a collection of resources that will teach you how to use Manim. In particular, the Quickstart tutorial teaches you Manim’s basics, and in Manim’s building blocks the classes used to compose your animations are described in more detail.

Finding Help¶

Are you struggling with installing or using Manim? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there. Here are some good resources to help you out:

Perhaps your problem is one that occurs frequently, then chances are it is addressed in our collection of FAQs.
If you are looking for information on some specific class, look for it in the reference manual and/or use the search feature of the documentation.
Still no luck? Then you are welcome to ask the community for help, together we usually manage to find a solution for your problem! Consult the FAQ page on getting help for instructions.

Navigating the Documentation¶

Here are some short summaries for all of the sections in this documentation:

The Example Gallery is a collection of examples (rendered videos and images together with the code they were generated from) that show a few different, simple things that you can do with Manim.
The Installation section has information on installing Manim.
In Tutorials & Guides you can find learning resources: proper tutorials that guide you through the process of creating a video are in the Tutorial section; guides on specific topics are in the Guides section, and the answers to frequently asked questions can be found in the FAQ section.
The Reference Manual contains a comprehensive list of all of Manim’s (documented) modules, classes, and functions. If you are somewhat familiar with Manim’s module structure, feel free to browse the manual directly. If you are searching for something specific, feel free to use the documentation’s search feature in the sidebar. Many classes and methods come with their own illustrated examples too!
The Plugins page documents how to install, write, and distribute plugins (that is, separate Python packages that extend the feature set of the core library).
Changes between versions are documented in our Changelog.
If you are looking into contributing to the development of Manim, you can find information on how to get involved in our Contributing section.
And finally, the Code of Conduct page has a formal description of the rules you should abide by when interacting within our community.

License Information¶

Manim is an open-source library licensed under the MIT License, which applies to both the original and the community editions of the software. This means you are free to use, modify, and distribute the code in accordance with the MIT License terms. However, there are some additional points to be aware of:

Copyrighted Assets: Specific assets, such as the “Pi creatures” in Grant Sanderson’s (3Blue1Brown) videos, are copyrighted and protected. Please avoid using these characters in any derivative works.
Content Creation and Sharing: Videos and animations created with Manim can be freely shared, and no attribution to Manim is required—although it is much appreciated! You are encouraged to showcase your work online and share it with the Manim community.