Merge pull request #465 from flothesof/add-matplotlib-examples

added doc for working with matplotlib

docs/getting_started/getting_started.rst

@@ -15,5 +15,6 @@ These pages explain everything you need to start editing with MoviePy. To go fur
    compositing
    effects
    efficient_moviepy
+   working_with_matplotlib
    audioclips
-   videoclips
+   videoclips

docs/getting_started/working_with_matplotlib.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+
+Working with `matplotlib`
+=========================
+
+Defining custom animations
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+MoviePy allows you to produce custom animations by defining a function that returns a frame at a given time of the animation in the form of a numpy array.
+
+An example of this workflow is below: ::
+
+	from moviepy.editor import VideoClip
+
+	def make_frame(t):
+	    """Returns an image of the frame for time t."""
+	    # ... create the frame with any library here ...
+	    return frame_for_time_t # (Height x Width x 3) Numpy array
+
+	animation = VideoClip(make_frame, duration=3) # 3-second clip
+
+This animation can then be exported by the usual MoviePy means: ::
+
+	# export as a video file
+	animation.write_videofile("my_animation.mp4", fps=24)
+	# export as a GIF
+	animation.write_gif("my_animation.gif", fps=24) # usually slower
+
+Simple `matplotlib` example
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+An example of an animation using `matplotlib` can then be as follows: ::
+
+	import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
+	import numpy as np
+	from moviepy.editor import VideoClip
+	from moviepy.video.io.bindings import mplfig_to_npimage
+
+	x = np.linspace(-2, 2, 200) 
+
+	duration = 2
+
+	fig, ax = plt.subplots()
+	def make_frame(t):
+	    ax.clear()
+	    ax.plot(x, np.sinc(x**2) + np.sin(x + 2*np.pi/duration * t), lw=3)
+	    ax.set_ylim(-1.5, 2.5)
+	    return mplfig_to_npimage(fig)
+	    
+	animation = VideoClip(make_frame, duration=duration)
+	animation.write_gif('matplotlib.gif', fps=20)
+
+
+Working in the Jupyter Notebook
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+If you are working inside a Jupyter Notebook, you can take advantage of the fact that VideoClips can be embedded in the output cells of the notebook with the `ipython_display` method. The above example then becomes: ::
+
+	import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
+	import numpy as np
+	from moviepy.editor import VideoClip
+	from moviepy.video.io.bindings import mplfig_to_npimage
+
+	x = np.linspace(-2, 2, 200) 
+
+	duration = 2
+
+	fig, ax = plt.subplots()
+	def make_frame(t):
+	    ax.clear()
+	    ax.plot(x, np.sinc(x**2) + np.sin(x + 2*np.pi/duration * t), lw=3)
+	    ax.set_ylim(-1.5, 2.5)
+	    return mplfig_to_npimage(fig)
+	    
+	animation = VideoClip(make_frame, duration=duration)
+	animation.ipython_display(fps=20, loop=True, autoplay=True)