Making an Animated Heart GIF in R
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Messing around with animations, I created this toy example to make a growing outline of a heart in R. I have put it up as a gist on GitHub and embedded it below. It uses the animation and the ggplot2 packages–both of which make it incredibly simple to make a good looking graphic.
The formula to draw the hearts can be found thanks to Wolfram MathWorld.
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############################################################ | |
## Title: Make an Animated Heart in R | |
## Author: Jared Knowles | |
## Date: May 5th, 2012 | |
############################################################ | |
# Make heart curve | |
t<-seq(-100,100,length.out=1000) # Order | |
x<-16*sin(t)^3 # Create the Xs from a formula | |
y<-(13*cos(t))-(5*cos(2*t))-(2*cos(3*t))-(cos(4*t)) # Create Ys from a formula | |
# These use non-polar coordinates and can be specified algebraically, which is nice. | |
#For more detail, look here: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HeartCurve.html | |
heart<-data.frame(x=x,y=y,order=t) # make a data frame for ggplot2 plotting | |
library(animation) # We need the excellent animation package | |
library(ggplot2 # And ggplot2 | |
ani.options(outdir=getwd(),imgdir=getwd(),tempdir=getwd()) # Important on Windows 7 | |
# to avoid unwritable tempfile | |
#Maybe can ignore on Mac or Linux | |
#################### | |
# Animation Loop | |
################### | |
saveGIF({ | |
for(i in seq(0,1,by=.05)) # Set number of iterations, i is the scale factor for the heart | |
print(qplot(i*x,i*y,geom='path',data=heart,color=I('red'),order=t,size=I(1.2))+ | |
# Need print statement in saveGIF | |
xlim(c(-16,16))+ylim(c(-17,12))+xlab('')+ylab('')+ # Remove pesky axis text, avoid resizing plot area | |
theme_bw()+opts(axis.text.x=theme_blank(),axis.ticks=theme_blank(),axis.text.y=theme_blank(), | |
# clean the theme | |
title='Growing Heart')) | |
# add a title | |
},movie.name="img/heart.gif",interval=0.1,nmax=30,ani.width=600,ani.height=600,convert='gm convert') | |
# set animation size, and other options | |
# Note you need to have GraphicsMagick or ImageMagick installed. | |
# GraphicsMagick is specified here in the 'convert' | |
# option. You can also use IM, by removing the convert argument | |
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