How Manim Works

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

The History

Manim started with one person: Grant Sanderson. He 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 cut it. Every time he wanted to fix a small mistake, he had to redo hours of work. So he built his own tool using Python.

He called it Manim, short for Mathematical Animation Engine. It worked great for him. Then he shared it with the world.

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? Because code is precise. You can say “move this 2 units to the right” and it moves exactly 2 units. Every time. No guessing.

What Can Manim Explain?

Pretty much anything visual:

• Math concepts: Equations, graphs, geometric proofs, calculus, linear algebra
• Physics: Motion, forces, waves, particles
• Computer science: Algorithms, data structures, neural networks
• Chemistry: Molecules, reactions, bonds
• Stories: Any idea you can draw and move

If you can explain it with shapes, arrows, and text, Manim can animate it.

Plugins and Extensions

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 easily

The community keeps adding more.

The Old Way: Manual Coding

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

It wasn’t easy. Most people gave up before making their first animation.

The AI Era: Better, But Not Perfect

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

Sounds great, right? There’s a catch.

General AI models don’t know Manim well. They make mistakes. They use outdated syntax. They forget how animations chain together. You spend more time fixing errors than creating.

Animo: The Solution

That’s why we built Animo.

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

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

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

No Python experience needed. No debugging. No frustration.

Try It Yourself

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

Manim is powerful. Now it’s also easy.