Based on a lot of useful references especially (https://gist.github.com/neale/e32b1f16a43bfdc0608f45a504df5a84) here I share my code to plot the animated trajectory of a particle (in this case electron) using a 3D line/scatter chart.

In my last two blog posts I have already shown how to create an animated 2D line/scatter plot and how to plot a 3D chart.
Here we combine the two codes.

If you just want a line chart then use the following:

CODE

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.animation as animation
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D

# References
# https://gist.github.com/neale/e32b1f16a43bfdc0608f45a504df5a84
# https://towardsdatascience.com/animations-with-matplotlib-d96375c5442c
# https://riptutorial.com/matplotlib/example/23558/basic-animation-with-funcanimation

# ANIMATION FUNCTION
def func(num, dataSet, line):
    # NOTE: there is no .set_data() for 3 dim data...
    line.set_data(dataSet[0:2, :num])    
    line.set_3d_properties(dataSet[2, :num])    
    return line


# THE DATA POINTS
t = np.arange(0,20,0.2) # This would be the z-axis ('t' means time here)
x = np.cos(t)-1
y = 1/2*(np.cos(2*t)-1)
dataSet = np.array([x, y, t])
numDataPoints = len(t)

# GET SOME MATPLOTLIB OBJECTS
fig = plt.figure()
ax = Axes3D(fig)

# NOTE: Can't pass empty arrays into 3d version of plot()
line = plt.plot(dataSet[0], dataSet[1], dataSet[2], lw=2, c='g')[0] # For line plot

# AXES PROPERTIES]
# ax.set_xlim3d([limit0, limit1])
ax.set_xlabel('X(t)')
ax.set_ylabel('Y(t)')
ax.set_zlabel('time')
ax.set_title('Trajectory of electron for E vector along [120]')

# Creating the Animation object
line_ani = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, func, frames=numDataPoints, fargs=(dataSet,line), interval=50, blit=False)
#line_ani.save(r'AnimationNew.mp4')


plt.show()

OUTPUT

For a combination of Scatter and Line chart use the following code

CODE

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.animation as animation
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D

# References
# https://gist.github.com/neale/e32b1f16a43bfdc0608f45a504df5a84
# https://towardsdatascience.com/animations-with-matplotlib-d96375c5442c
# https://riptutorial.com/matplotlib/example/23558/basic-animation-with-funcanimation

# ANIMATION FUNCTION
def func(num, dataSet, line, redDots):
    # NOTE: there is no .set_data() for 3 dim data...
    line.set_data(dataSet[0:2, :num])    
    line.set_3d_properties(dataSet[2, :num])    
    redDots.set_data(dataSet[0:2, :num])    
    redDots.set_3d_properties(dataSet[2, :num]) 
    return line


# THE DATA POINTS
t = np.arange(0,20,0.2) # This would be the z-axis ('t' means time here)
x = np.cos(t)-1
y = 1/2*(np.cos(2*t)-1)
dataSet = np.array([x, y, t])
numDataPoints = len(t)

# GET SOME MATPLOTLIB OBJECTS
fig = plt.figure()
ax = Axes3D(fig)
redDots = plt.plot(dataSet[0], dataSet[1], dataSet[2], lw=2, c='r', marker='o')[0] # For scatter plot
# NOTE: Can't pass empty arrays into 3d version of plot()
line = plt.plot(dataSet[0], dataSet[1], dataSet[2], lw=2, c='g')[0] # For line plot

# AXES PROPERTIES]
# ax.set_xlim3d([limit0, limit1])
ax.set_xlabel('X(t)')
ax.set_ylabel('Y(t)')
ax.set_zlabel('time')
ax.set_title('Trajectory of electron for E vector along [120]')

# Creating the Animation object
line_ani = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, func, frames=numDataPoints, fargs=(dataSet,line,redDots), interval=50, blit=False)
# line_ani.save(r'Animation.mp4')


plt.show()

OUTPUT

Manas Sharma

Ph.D. researcher at Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Germany. I’m a physicist specializing in computational material science. I write efficient codes for simulating light-matter interactions at atomic scales. I like to develop Physics, DFT, and Machine Learning related apps and software from time to time. Can code in most of the popular languages. I like to share my knowledge in Physics and applications using this Blog and a YouTube channel.

manas.bragitoff.com/