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How I animate 3Blue1Brown [video]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- whyage 2y agoI assume that a considerable percentage of CS students or recent graduates (myself included, back in the day) dream about creating some sort of visualization tool, let alone an awesome one like this.
- wdkrnls 2y agoSometimes knowing how to do something isn't nearly as important as badly wanting to do something
- alickz 2y agoFor some it can be far easier to find knowledge than it is to find motivation
- abenga 2y agoIt's more likely having a specific immediate use case - creating his videos - was more important. Usually creating something for some abstract future use(r) will lead to almost zero motivation, at least for me.
- andoando 2y agoIve been working on for like 4 years now :[
- patcon 2y agoOmg I would love to make an explainer on bridging algorithms[1] with this tool! I've been a huge fan of their use in participatory democracy processes since 2016 (using tools like Pol.is), and have wanted to make a contribution to increasing literacy around the foundational math involved <3 Had I known about Manim back when his Summer of Math Exposition[2] was happening, I def would have dived in! [1]: https://bridging.systems/ https://bridging.systems/ [2]: https://some.3b1b.co/ https://some.3b1b.co/
- ikesau 2y agoI'd watch if you made it. Big fan of pol.is : )
- wyager 2y ago[flagged]
- dang 2y ago"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- thethirdone 2y agoWhat is the actual math involved? From following the link in [1] I found almost no math content.
- sestep 2y agoI had no idea this existed, thanks so much for the link! Reading their paper right now, and I'd love to see your explainer once you make it :) My website is linked from my profile, send me a link on social media if you ever get around to making that explainer!
- killthebuddha 2y agoIt's funny how, after years of hearing his voice and not seeing his face, seeing his face puts me in smack in the middle of the uncanny valley.
- wruza 2y agoHe featured multiple times before with Matt Parker and Brady Haran (NF), strange that you missed it. Although I guess even in this niche channel preferences vary wildly.
- bonoboTP 2y agoWhat's NF? ChatGPT thinks it refers to Numberphile in this comment, but wouldn't that be NP? I've never seen Numberphile abbreviated as NF.
- wruza 2y agoMy bad, ph is not my first language’s foneme.
- taneq 2y agoWe phorgive you.
- OrderlyTiamat 2y agoI'm assuming Numberphile indeed, as that's the most likely for a Brady Haran channel with 3b3b as a guest.
- fragmede 2y agoYes, Numberphile, as confirmed by looking up Brady Haran in Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_Haran https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_Haran
- phlakaton 2y agoHis commencement addresses might really freak you out, then! See e.g. https://youtu.be/z7GVHB2wiyg https://youtu.be/z7GVHB2wiyg
- spankalee 2y agoWow. I really wish this were a JavaScript library so we could play with this in a browser and publish 3D animations to the browser.
- mikeshi42 2y agoI've done some porting between Python and JS based on Tensorflow in the past - and I suspect the poor ergonomics in JS for math/lists would probably ruin the experience a good amount. Perhaps something like Pyodide can bridge the gap and make it easier to bring into the browser as well.
- sebzim4500 2y agoIt would probably be easier to add an 'export to js' option to Manim than to try to create an ergomic js library.
- dleeftink 2y agoCheck out Motion Canvas[0] by Jacob from aarthificial, prolific coder and animator [1]. [0]: https://motioncanvas.io/ https://motioncanvas.io/ [1]: https://www.youtube.com/@aarthificial https://www.youtube.com/@aarthificial
- cloogshicer 2y agoI second this. The Motion Canvas codebase itself is also fascinating. Extremely well written and documented.
- ivanjermakov 2y agoMotion Canvas might be a great fit: https://motioncanvas.io/ https://motioncanvas.io/
- mistercow 2y agoI wonder how the performance would be if you ran it in Pyodide.
- joshdavham 2y agoLink to Manim: https://github.com/3b1b/manim https://github.com/3b1b/manim
- srik 2y agoand the community fork: https://github.com/ManimCommunity/manim https://github.com/ManimCommunity/manim
- 1-6 2y agoI’m amazed at how much production goes into each of his videos. His YouTube play button is well deserved.
- doe_eyes 2y agoIt's also what bums me out about YouTube. There is an insane amount of effort that goes into producing high-quality videos - orders of magnitude more than would go into putting together a well-illustrated blog post. As with blogs, a lot of this effort is wasted unless you get lucky. But with blogs, at least you have multiple good shots at visibility. Maybe you'll make it to the top of HN, maybe on X, maybe somewhere else. Even within a single platform, you usually have multiple tries. If you don't get noticed right away, there's still hope that someone else shares your content down the line. In contrast, on YouTube, an algorithm essentially decides once. If you don't already have a zillion subscribers, it shows your video to a couple of people, more or less at random. If they don't engage, that's the end of the road.
- sbarre 2y agoA YouTube video has a URL though. So just like a blog post, you can share it on all the same sites you mentioned with blog posts. Plus you have the built-in audience of YouTube and the algorithm that can help with discovery.. "Build it and they will come" has never been true, for videos or blogs...
- doe_eyes 2y agoThere are surprisingly few venues for video content outside YT, at least not on a scale that would matter on YT! For example, if you want to get to the top of HN, non-video content has much better odds. Many tech- or science-centric subreddits discourage or ban videos too. YT is a fairly closed ecosystem that's both insanely resource-intensive to participate in, and that doesn't give creators too many second chances. My specific claim is that it's more of a crapshoot than running a blog. There are so many great science visualizations with 50 views.
- vindex10 2y agoIt was impressive how he spotted a bug in his rendering engine and found a workaround for it in realtime! https://youtu.be/rbu7Zu5X1zI?feature=shared&t=693 https://youtu.be/rbu7Zu5X1zI?feature=shared&t=693
- arjonagelhout 2y agoTo me it appeared more like he was aware of a limitation in the new rendering logic he was working on in the backend, and that he knew a simple (high level) workaround. Still impressive work :)
- _ache_ 2y agoThe workaround that looks like "disable the feature I was working on". x)
- leetrout 2y agoIn larger companies this is how arsonist-firefighter engineers look impressive... fixing a bug they are responsible for while in a highly visible position
- steeeeeve 2y agoarsonist-firefighter engineers Never heard that term. Love it. Definitely has described me on a few occasions.
- skygazer 2y agoI was the young "tech guy" inside the business development department at Earthlink in the mid 90s. The bizdev folks would propose ideas and I would think them through and realize there were technical issues, and when I shared my concerns, they would all be disheartened. But, sometime later, I would figure out a way around the "problem". They were perpetually grateful, but after a number of these iterations, I got the sense that I was mainly solving problems that I had invented. I actually even shared my concern about that with my boss, and he dismissed it – I think they enjoyed the rollercoaster ride.
- qwertox 2y agoLately I often think about 3Blue1Brown, Veritasium and Kahn Academy, how much good they are doing to this world. Imagine having close to an unlimited amount of money at your disposal and a media platform which is capable of reaching close to every person on this planet. To give people a voice in a community, if they dare to or if they feel the need to. The only thing you then lack is a platform for organizing communities instead of sowing the seeds of hatred, to use the tools provided by people like Grant Sanderson, Derek Muller, Grady Hillhouse and others, in order to help communities to improve their communities, towns, cities, and so on. To help them solve their problems, make them understand how problematic corruption, greed and abuse of power is. While I was born in Germany, I lived for around 20 years in Peru, since I was a child. People are poor, but very kind hearted, politicians and the wealthy are corrupt. This is what makes me feel so sad about Elon Musk, specially knowing that he grew up in South Africa.
- poszlem 2y agoI don't understand the Musk comment at the end. Can you please explain what you mean by that and what is the significance of him growing up in South Africa?
- chris12321 2y ago[flagged]
- the_gorilla 2y agoI'm going to find out a way to automatically hide comments referencing "musk". You can't even read about a 3Blue1Brown video without people somehow making it about him. Every thread, every day, it's just people talking about Elon Musk.
- johnnyanmac 2y agowe have a HN API, so it's pretty straightforward once you understand it to make an extension/add-on. The hard part from there is design decisions. Do you just have that comment disappear, or fade like a downvoted comment? if it disappears do you remove the entire thread? is a contextless match adequate? (say, someone was talking about deoderant?)
- rumblefrog 2y agoI had the chance to use Manim during my college undergraduate project, it was very scrappy, but the library was very intuitive to use. And now this makes me wonder if there are other similar libraries like Manim for these more videographic oriented production.
- ganeshkrishnan 2y agoI absolutely love his voice. Its so calm and soothing that I can have his video running on the side while I am doing my chores and can still learn stuff. Content creators like this deserve the recognition
- pishpash 2y agoIt's too nasal for my liking. Somehow detracts from the rigor that's there.
- kzrdude 2y agoVoices like that must have a big impact on success, right? Both on youtube and for podcasts
- namaria 2y agoThis guy is a natural born educator. 'Content creator' doesn't begin to describe his value to society.
- kzrdude 2y ago"Content creator" is like calling a good cook "grub producer". I don't understand why youtubers themselves keep using it. Content is the emptiest word (and we shouldn't use it like that IMO).
- the_gorilla 2y agoIt's pretty accurate. Most videos exist just to be passively consumed, like the person you're responding to who listens to it while doing chores.
- djeastm 2y agoProbably because they see all the data behind the scenes and know how the sausage is made with respect to what brings in $$. Capturing the attention of humans is just a psychological manipulation exercise. We're mice being given dopamine injections on a regular schedule
- aanet 2y ago3B1B is doing god's work. May his tribe increase!! I personally have benefited enormously from so many of his YT videos. I wish this is how Mathematics was taught in high-schools, Engg schools. <3 <3
- pishpash 2y agoEyebrow game is on point in this video.
- hbogert 2y agoYeah i feel the same, however sometimes I just think math is only appreciated until you're older for a lot of people and that's when you gravitate towards these kinds of channels.
- skhunted 2y ago[flagged]
- OmarShehata 2y agowhat's the reason it doesn't work??
- sdeframond 2y ago> There’s a reason we teach things the way we do Is it that nobody kwen how to make good videos before? Or do you mean that teaching cannot be improved?
- mavhc 2y agoThe Gutenberg Method of teaching acknowledges the existence of the printing press and suggests one person standing at the front telling everyone what to write down may be outdated https://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~key/PHY1600/PER%20Papers/Effective%20Teaching%20Organic%20Chem%20-%20Lambert.pdf https://www.physics.utoronto.ca/~key/PHY1600/PER%20Papers/Ef...
- KeplerBoy 2y ago
- Rastonbury 2y agoThat latest hologram video is one of the best quality YouTube videos I've ever seen
- jweir 2y agoCould having students create their own videos using A Manim explaining aspects of maths be a good way to teach maths? Or would it be more cumbersome and the tools be a distraction or impediment to understanding?
- owenpalmer 2y agoI think 1-1 oral exams are the most accurate way to assess understanding.
- eviks 2y agoThe latter, too much effort would be spent on non-math stuff. Maybe wouldn't be an impediment, just very inefficient
- johnnyanmac 2y agoOnly if you're students were already expected to know know some programming, and you're fine making some boilerplate. Students already have so much on their plate as is, so trying to learn an API on top of understanding the concepts may be infeasible. But students who do try to do that will definitely have a deeper understanding on average.
- chris12321 2y agoManim is incredibly cool, but my biggest takeaway from the video is how insane it is that Python apparently lets you reference a variable in a function that was defined outside the scope of the function.
- Rygian 2y agoIt's a whole subject in language design: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scope_(computer_science) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scope_(computer_science)
- epistasis 2y agoMaybe I'm misunderstanding you, but isn't that standard for pretty much every C-style language? Define a variable outside a function, parallel to the function, and even though that variable is outside the scope of the function it's still accessible inside the function. Or did you mean something else?
- rzzzt 2y agoPython has nested functions which does allow access to the nest...er function's variables. The rest does conform to expectations, you get to use parameters, locally declared variables and globals.
- antonvs 2y agoI'm not too familiar with Python, but isn't that just lexical scope, the same as most languages that support nested functions? Starting with the lambda calculus and all the languages it influenced, including even JavaScript.
- meowface 2y agoCorrect. It behaves like JavaScript and many other languages. You can't modify such variables in the outer scope from the inner scope unless you explicitly use the "nonlocal" declaration.
- 2y ago
- dkga 2y agoOne of the best math communicators out there!
- rzzzt 2y agoDoes the serif font in manim have any ties to Hershey fonts or the BGI vector fonts packaged with 90s Borland products? I guess any TTF font can also be rendered line-by-line but the animation does remind me of BGI example code running on slow IBM PCs.
- stevenpetryk 2y agoI'm quite certain the typeface is Computer Modern (the primary font being CMU Serif, to be precise). It can be found by Googling it. I also distribute the fonts as an NPM library, since they are OFL. [1] [1]: https://github.com/stevenpetryk/computer-modern https://github.com/stevenpetryk/computer-modern
- rzzzt 2y agoAh, so it has TeX/Metafont origins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Modern https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Modern
- throw_pm23 2y agoThat comment bought back memories, I never noticed how CM looked similar to one of those old Borland stroke fonts.
- Doxin 2y agoAs I understand it Computer Modern is generated from strokes, so it makes sense for it to feel somewhat similar to other stroke fonts.
- fb03 2y agoVery nice library, and nice to see he face behind the channel too. I now understand why it's 3blue1brown (wasn't aware that he has heterochromia in one eye at the ratio of his channel name, cool!)
- swyx 2y agoit's a very groovy mutation.
- mbo 2y agoAnyone know how the Python interactive REPL was working in the bottom-right hand corner? EDIT: Looks like it's completely bespoke workflow: https://github.com/3b1b/videos?tab=readme-ov-file#workflow https://github.com/3b1b/videos?tab=readme-ov-file#workflow
- 3abiton 2y agoHe's probably one of the few good creators that didn't totally sellout on youtube (looking at you Mark Rober).
- nikisweeting 2y agoCheck out https://sinerider.com/ https://sinerider.com/ too! A friend of mine who helps Grant Sanderson sometimes with 3B1B stuff built it, it's an awesome math education game like LineRider but using formulas to build the tracks. I love both 3b1b and SineRider, both have had more impact on my intuitive understanding of function composition than anything else.
- vlad_ungureanu 2y agoThis is amazing, thanks for sharing!
- gacklecackle 2y ago[dead]
- phibz 2y agoI worked with a flash developer at its height and he used to say "it's ALL about the easing"
- s4ejn3e9bv 2y ago[dead]