Creating some gif with tikz: Any idea to get better result?

Question

I have used this tikz to generate some GIF. Here are the code and the result. Any idea to make it better

\documentclass[tikz,border={2pt 2pt 2pt 2pt}]{standalone}
 \usepackage{tikz}
 \begin{document}
 \foreach \angle in {0,10,...,360}
{
 \begin{tikzpicture}
 \draw (0,0) circle (1);
 \node at ({cos(\angle)},{sin(\angle)}) {\textcolor{blue}{$\bullet$}};
 \end{tikzpicture}
   }
\end{document}

@JosephWright I don't understand, what are you talking about? — AndréC, Aug 14 '19 at 15:18
@AndréC Joseph's comment means that your comment looks suitable to become a proper answer to this question. :) — Paulo Cereda, Aug 14 '19 at 15:23
@PauloCereda Indeed, but one answer has already been accepted and my last answer to an accepted question had no vote, yet my solution is completely original and innovative. — AndréC, Aug 14 '19 at 15:26

David Purton · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-15T04:36:18.570

14

Update: You could put a larger bounding box around the whole diagram (I think @AndréC's option from the comments is conceptually better than the path I originally had even if the effect is the same), make the loop only go to 350° so you don't get the pause at the end, and change from a bullet in a node to directly drawing a circle. @BlackMild's suggestion to use (\angle:1) instead of the trig functions is also good.

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\begin{document}
\foreach \angle in {0,10,...,350}
{
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw (0,0) circle (1);
    \fill[blue] (\angle:1) circle (0.07);
    \useasboundingbox (-1.1,-1.1) rectangle (1.1,1.1);
  \end{tikzpicture}%
}
\end{document}

The animated GIF was created using ImageMagick. It's animation documentation can be found here.

I use a simple shell script for the conversation:

#!/bin/bash

BASE=`basename $1 .pdf`
PDF="$BASE.pdf"
GIF="$BASE.gif"
RESOLUTION=300

CONVERT=/usr/bin/convert
CONVERTOPTS="-density $RESOLUTION -delay 8 -loop 0 -background white -alpha remove"

echo "Converting to TSX GIF..."
$CONVERT $CONVERTOPTS $PDF $GIF > /dev/null

edited Aug 15 '19 at 04:36

answered Aug 14 '19 at 15:01

David Purton

25,884

How the series of pdf images is converted to gif animation? – Zarko Aug 14 '19 at 15:48
@zarko convert -density 300 -delay 4 -loop 0 -alpha remove multipage.pdf animated.gif for 100/4=25 FPS – AlexG Aug 14 '19 at 16:11
@Zarko, I added to my answer. – David Purton Aug 14 '19 at 16:14
@DavidPurton, thank you. so far I never use ImageMagic – Zarko Aug 14 '19 at 17:25
@AlexG, where to use your code? In command prompt (WinEdt)? – Zarko Aug 14 '19 at 17:29
@DavidPurton I see your gif seems "lurched" ... – Aug 14 '19 at 17:38
@zarko yes, commandline. See: ImageMagick.org – AlexG Aug 14 '19 at 18:19
@user173875, I didn't take into account the large default padding on the node, so the rectangular path making the bounding box was a bit small. Thanks! – David Purton Aug 15 '19 at 03:10
1

@DavidPurton A better use: \node at (\angle:1) {\textcolor{blue}{$\bullet$}}; – Black Mild Aug 15 '19 at 04:20
1

@BlackMild, Perhaps it would be better to get rid of the node and text all together and just draw a blue circle. I mainly took the question as how can I improve the animation. – David Purton Aug 15 '19 at 04:27
@DavidPurton yes! it should be this \documentclass[tikz]{standalone} \begin{document} \foreach \i in {0,10,...,350} { \begin{tikzpicture} \path (0,0) circle(1.4); \draw (0,0) circle (1); \fill[blue] (\i:1) circle(.1); \end{tikzpicture} } \end{document} – Black Mild Aug 15 '19 at 04:58
1

@BlackMild, that's basically what I put in my most recent update. Thanks for your suggestions! – David Purton Aug 15 '19 at 05:17

Creating some gif with tikz: Any idea to get better result?

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