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Update faq (#409)
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3b1b authored Feb 29, 2024
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Almost all animations are made using a custom open-source python library named [Manim](https://github.com/3b1b/manim). Code for specific videos can be found in [this repository](https://github.com/3b1b/videos).
Almost all animations are made using a custom open-source Python library named [Manim](https://github.com/3b1b/manim). Code for specific videos can be found in [this repository](https://github.com/3b1b/videos).

I started the project concurrently with starting the channel, intending for it to be more of a scrappy playground of code for my own use cases than an explicitly outward-facing or professionally maintained tool. Since its inception, a [community](https://www.manim.community/) got together and created an [alternate fork](https://github.com/ManimCommunity/manim/) which is aimed at being more stable, better documented, and better tested. Anyone looking to get started with manim should probably begin with the community version.
I started the project concurrently with starting the channel, intending for it to be more of a scrappy playground of code for my own use cases than an explicitly outward-facing or professionally maintained tool. Since its inception, a [community](https://www.manim.community/) got together and created an [alternate fork](https://github.com/ManimCommunity/manim/) which is aimed at being more stable, better documented, and better tested. Anyone looking to get started with Manim should probably begin with the community version.

The original version, used for 3b1b videos, is perhaps best viewed as a testing ground where I try to quickly put new things together while developing new videos.

There many [other](https://www.youtube.com/vcubingx) [excellent](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGYouJhklRHc_EfKwpIrTyw) [channels](https://www.youtube.com/reducible) that have made use of it for their own expository videos.
There are many [other](https://www.youtube.com/vcubingx) [excellent](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGYouJhklRHc_EfKwpIrTyw) [channels](https://www.youtube.com/reducible) that have made use of it for their own expository videos.

If you want to make your own animated math videos, I would encourage you to also take a look at the full landscape of tools available. For simple graphing, you can’t beat Desmos. Geogebra is also incredibly extensive, and if you use a mac I’d recommend looking at Grapher. For plotting, matplotlib is of course extensive, and Mathematica is also a bottomless pit of functionality. The main difference between manim and other math-visualizing tools is that it’s structured to build potentially-long scenes for videos and to hopefully look smoother and prettier than, say, matplotlib.
If you want to make your own animated math videos, I would encourage you to also take a look at the full landscape of tools available. For simple graphing, you can’t beat Desmos. Geogebra is also incredibly extensive, and if you use a Mac I’d recommend looking at Grapher. For plotting, matplotlib is of course extensive, and Mathematica is also a bottomless pit of functionality. The main difference between manim and other math-visualizing tools is that it’s structured to build potentially long scenes for videos and to hopefully look smoother and prettier than, say, matplotlib.

Keep in mind, plenty of professional animation tools like Blender and After Effects can be made programmatic too. Also, be sure to ask yourself if what you’re doing actually benefits from being programmatic. If all you’re looking to do is simple moving/fading animations, using something simple like Keynote or PowerPoint might take you farther than you’d expect.
Keep in mind that plenty of professional animation tools like Blender and After Effects can be made programmatic too. Also, be sure to ask yourself if what you’re doing benefits from being programmatic. If all you’re looking to do is simple moving/fading animations, using something simple like Keynote or PowerPoint might take you farther than you’d expect.

It’s wonderful to see others using manim, especially if it helps them explain math in ways that otherwise would have been hard. But every so often I see folks using it mainly to animate simple movements or to write and manipulate Latex expressions. In those cases, and I fully acknowledge the hypocrisy here, I can’t help but speculate that another tool might have made the job easier. I also get worried when I hear people ask things like “how do I sync up narration into manim”. This is just a tool for spitting out the individual clips to be edited together later, you should certainly use traditional video-editing software for as much as you can!
It’s wonderful to see others using manim, especially if it helps them explain math in ways that otherwise would have been hard. But every so often I see folks using it mainly to animate simple movements or to write and manipulate Latex expressions. In those cases, and I fully acknowledge the hypocrisy here, I can’t help but speculate that another tool might have made the job easier. I also get worried when I hear people ask things like “How do I sync up narration into manim?”. This is just a tool for spitting out the individual clips to be edited together later, you should certainly use traditional video-editing software for as much as you can!

Where programmatic animations works best is when you have a situation where the code directly reflects the math you’re trying to explain, or where iteration, abstraction, and conditionals make a set of illustrations possible which otherwise would have taken much too long to do manually.
Where programmatic animations work best is when you have a situation where the code directly reflects the math you’re trying to explain, or where iteration, abstraction, and conditionals make a set of illustrations possible which otherwise would have taken much too long to do manually.


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In the spirit of consolidation (and sanity), that Reddit thread is the only place I look when considering community suggestions, so you're request is much more likely to be considered if its there, as opposed to email, comments, tweets, etc.
In the spirit of consolidation (and sanity), that Reddit thread is the only place I look when considering community suggestions, so you're request is much more likely to be considered if it's there, as opposed to email, comments, tweets, etc.

<a id="translations" />

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<Center>
<Clickable
link="https://github.com/3b1b/captions"
icon="fab fa-github"
link="https://translate.3blue1brown.com"
text="Contribute or fix subtitles"
design="rounded"
/>
</Center>

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That would be wonderful, thank you!
That would be wonderful, thank you! Subtitles are the easiest form of contribution. By following the link above, you can make edits to the video translations. This will update files in [this repository](https://github.com/3b1b/captions), which are then turned into subtitles and uploaded to YouTube. These translations may also be used for making dubbings down the road.

Subtitles are the easiest form of contribution, I keep track of subtitles in the [github repository](https://github.com/3b1b/captions) linked above. Many of the ones in there used an automatic translation tool, so they could benefit from a native speaker to look it over and ensure it's natural. To make contributions or edits, feel free to submit a pull request to that repository. Once the pull request is merged, the subtitles will be uploaded to the relevant video.

As to dubbing the videos, before jumping in, you should be aware that it takes _significantly_ more time than most people expect. With that as a warning, as long as you have a good microphone, contributions are more than welcome. Simply reach out via the [general contact](/contact) if/when you have the first recording ready to upload.
If you're interested in dubbing videos yourself, before jumping in, you should be aware that it takes _significantly_ more time than most people expect. With that as a warning, as long as you have a good microphone, contributions are more than welcome. Simply reach out via the [general contact](/contact) if/when you have the first recording ready to upload.

If you can record a dubbing into a new language such that the timing syncs up with the existing video, a relatively new feature of YouTube lets us upload that as an alternate audio track on the main video.

Alternatively, there are some official translation channels we can upload dubbed videos to. You can of course credit yourself on screen and in the description as the translator, and we can point to your own website/channel from there once it's been uploaded if you'd like.
Alternatively, there are some official translation channels where we can upload dubbed videos. You can of course credit yourself on screen and in the description as the translator, and we can point to your website/channel from there once it's been uploaded if you'd like.

Since YouTube is not available in China, there is a small team of volunteers that make them available on [Bilibili](https://space.bilibili.com/88461692/#/) with Chinese translations. You can find the means of contacting the team on that page if you want to help out.

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