How Manim Works

You’ve seen those smooth math animations on YouTube. Perfect graphs. Equations that come alive. That’s Manim.

The history

Manim started with Grant Sanderson, who runs the YouTube channel 3Blue1Brown. Back in 2015, he needed a way to make math videos that looked good and were easy to update.

Traditional animation software didn’t work well for this. Every time he wanted to fix a small mistake, he had to redo hours of work. So he built his own tool in Python.

He called it Manim (Mathematical Animation Engine). It worked well for him, and then he shared it publicly.

The purpose

Manim has one job: turn code into animation.

You write Python code. Manim reads it and creates a video, frame by frame, 60 times per second. The result is smooth, professional animation.

Why code instead of a GUI? Because code is precise. You can say “move this 2 units to the right” and it moves exactly 2 units. Every time.

What Manim can animate

Pretty much anything visual:

• Math: equations, graphs, geometric proofs, calculus, linear algebra
• Physics: motion, forces, waves, particles
• Computer science: algorithms, data structures, neural networks
• Chemistry: molecules, reactions, bonds
• Any idea you can represent with shapes, arrows, and text

Plugins

Manim has a growing community. People build plugins for extra features:

• ManimGL: a faster version that renders in real time
• Manim Voiceover: add narration synced to your animations
• Manim Physics: simulate real physics like gravity and collisions
• Manim Chemistry: draw molecules and chemical structures

The community keeps adding more.

The old way

For years, using Manim meant writing Python by hand. You had to learn the syntax, memorize the methods, and debug your code when things broke.

Most people gave up before finishing their first animation.

AI changed things (sort of)

Today, AI can write code for you. Describe what you want, and models like GPT-4 or Claude generate the Python.

But there’s a catch. General AI models don’t know Manim that well. They make mistakes, use outdated syntax, and forget how animations chain together. You end up spending more time fixing errors than creating.

Where Animo fits in

That’s why we built Animo.

Animo is an extension that works inside your editor: VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Kiro. It plugs right in.

Our AI is trained specifically for Manim. It knows the latest syntax, understands how scenes work, and writes code that actually runs.

You describe your animation in plain words. Animo writes the code. You hit render. Done.

Try it

Head to Animo and install the extension. Pick your editor and start creating.