Ring Graph Animation

This example demonstrates how to use matplotlib.animation in order to animate a ring graph sequentially being revealed.

import igraph as ig
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.animation as animation

Create a ring graph, which we will then animate

g = ig.Graph.Ring(10, directed=True)

Compute a 2D ring layout that looks like an actual ring

layout = g.layout_circle()

Prepare an update function. This “callback” function will be run at every frame and takes as a single argument the frame number. For simplicity, at each frame we compute a subgraph with only a fraction of the vertices and edges. As time passes, the graph becomes more and more complete until the whole ring is closed.

Note

The beginning and end of the animation are a little tricky because only a vertex or edge is added, not both. Don’t worry if you cannot understand all details immediately.

def _update_graph(frame):
    # Remove plot elements from the previous frame
    ax.clear()

    # Fix limits (unless you want a zoom-out effect)
    ax.set_xlim(-1.5, 1.5)
    ax.set_ylim(-1.5, 1.5)

    if frame < 10:
        # Plot subgraph
        gd = g.subgraph(range(frame))
    elif frame == 10:
        # In the second-to-last frame, plot all vertices but skip the last
        # edge, which will only be shown in the last frame
        gd = g.copy()
        gd.delete_edges(9)
    else:
        # Last frame
        gd = g

    ig.plot(gd, target=ax, layout=layout[:frame], vertex_color="yellow")

    # Capture handles for blitting
    if frame == 0:
        nhandles = 0
    elif frame == 1:
        nhandles = 1
    elif frame < 11:
        # vertex, 2 for each edge
        nhandles = 3 * frame
    else:
        # The final edge closing the circle
        nhandles = 3 * (frame - 1) + 2

    handles = ax.get_children()[:nhandles]
    return handles

Run the animation

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
ani = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, _update_graph, 12, interval=500, blit=True)
plt.ion()
plt.show()

Once Loop Reflect

Note

We use igraph’s Graph.subgraph() (see igraph.GraphBase.induced_subgraph()) in order to obtain a section of the ring graph at a time for each frame. While sufficient for an easy example, this approach is not very efficient. Thinking of more efficient approaches, e.g. vertices with zero radius, is a useful exercise to learn the combination of igraph and matplotlib.