Animation from matplotlib not working in spyder

Question

I'm new to both python and stackoverflow, and I'm going over examples at matplotlib. I've searched for the solution to this problem with no luck, although I was able to locate a previously unanswered question in stackoverflow with the same issue.

Basically, I copied the code available from the examples at matplotlib; for instance:

import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.animation as animation
def data_gen(t=0):
    cnt = 0
    while cnt < 1000:
        cnt += 1
        t += 0.1
        yield t, np.sin(2*np.pi*t) * np.exp(-t/10.)
def init():
    ax.set_ylim(-1.1, 1.1)
    ax.set_xlim(0, 10)
    del xdata[:]
    del ydata[:]
    line.set_data(xdata, ydata)
    return line,

fig, ax = plt.subplots()
line, = ax.plot([], [], lw=2)
ax.grid()
xdata, ydata = [], []


def run(data):
    # update the data
    t, y = data
    xdata.append(t)
    ydata.append(y)
    xmin, xmax = ax.get_xlim()

    if t >= xmax:
        ax.set_xlim(xmin, 2*xmax)
        ax.figure.canvas.draw()
    line.set_data(xdata, ydata)

    return line,

ani = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, run, data_gen, blit=False, interval=10,
                          repeat=False, init_func=init)
plt.show()

I've run various animation examples in both Anaconda 2 (python 2.7) & 3 (python 3.5), and both give me a blank plot without animation. However, each animation works perfectly well in Enthought Canopy.

Is there something simple I'm missing when using spyder?

Answer 1

You have to change the backend to run an animation in the IPython console. You can do that by running %matplotlib qt command before the animation.

If You don't want to use this command every time, You can go to: Tools > Preferences > IPython Console > Graphics > Backend and change it from "Inline" to "Automatic".

Update: Feb 2018, this is now in python>Preferences In the window select IPython console in the LH pane of the window. Select the Graphics tab and backend is in there.

For more details please read this.

Answer 2

After changing values, do not forget to restart IDE (Spyder, PyCharm, etc.)