Making a map animation

Tue 14 April 2026

Making a mapping movie¶

Introduction¶

As part of working my way through the Udemy course Udemy 30-Day Map Challenge 2025: Director's Cut, there was a small segment on making animated maps.

I ran across a few gotchas in the process, and learned about a new library PyAC.

The essential process is to use matplotlib to produce a number of JPEG images of a map (each image to be a frame in an animation). We then stitch these into an MP4 file. I will go through the process below, and then show some of the pitfall I fells into

Implementation¶

Package imports¶

os used for file access
imageio.v3 used for image management

In [5]:

import os
import imageio.v3 as iio

from IPython.display import IFrame

In [6]:

%load_ext watermark

Images¶

Assume we have alreay created a folder ___frames_neon___ with the images to made into a map.

Note that the images are stored a JPG files: when I initially used PNG files, I came unstuck. The PNG files were 4 planes deep (I assume RGB+alpha), and the movie making software assumed 3 planes (see below).

List the image file names

In [7]:

folder = "frames_neon"

files = sorted([f for f in os.listdir(folder) if f.endswith(".jpg")])
files[0:5]

Out[7]:

['frame_0000.jpg',
 'frame_0001.jpg',
 'frame_0002.jpg',
 'frame_0003.jpg',
 'frame_0004.jpg']

Get a list of images in the correct order

In [8]:

images = [iio.imread(os.path.join(folder, f)) for f in files]

Making MP4¶

We use a plugin pyav. In their own words:

PyAV is a Pythonic binding for the FFmpeg libraries. We aim to provide all of the power and control of the underlying library, but manage the gritty details as much as possible.

We write the movie to a file "neon.mp4". Note the code to make the dimension of the images (height, width) even numbers, and the line of code setting a time_base variable

In [9]:

video_writer = iio.imopen("neon.mp4", "w", plugin="pyav")
video_writer.init_video_stream(codec="libx264", fps=20)

# Refer to
# https://github.com/imageio/imageio/issues/1139
video_writer._video_stream.codec_context.time_base = video_writer._video_stream.time_base

l_x, l_y, _ = images[0].shape
l_x = (l_x//2)*2
l_y = (l_y//2)*2

for image in images:
 video_writer.write_frame(image[0:l_x,0:l_y,])
#end for
video_writer.close()

Display MP4 player snapshot in notebook

In [10]:

IFrame("images/map_movie.png", width=800, height=400)

Out[10]:

Pitfalls¶

Odd image sizes¶

This first example shows the result of not cropping images height and width to get an even number. The diagnostic must be close to taking the record as the most unhelpful message ever

In [11]:

video_writer = iio.imopen("bad.mp4", "w", plugin="pyav")
video_writer.init_video_stream(codec="libx264", fps=20)

# Refer to
# https://github.com/imageio/imageio/issues/1139
video_writer._video_stream.codec_context.time_base = video_writer._video_stream.time_base

l_x, l_y, _ = images[0].shape

for image in images:
 video_writer.write_frame(image[0:l_x,0:l_y,])
#end for
video_writer.close()

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ExternalError                             Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[11], line 11
      8 l_x, l_y, _ = images[0].shape
     10 for image in images:
---> 11  video_writer.write_frame(image[0:l_x,0:l_y,])
     12 #end for
     13 video_writer.close()

File ~\anaconda3\envs\30DayMapChallenge2025\Lib\site-packages\imageio\plugins\pyav.py:977, in PyAVPlugin.write_frame(self, frame, pixel_format)
    974     stream.width = av_frame.width
    975     stream.height = av_frame.height
--> 977 for packet in stream.encode(av_frame):
    978     self._container.mux(packet)

File ~\anaconda3\envs\30DayMapChallenge2025\Lib\site-packages\av\video\stream.py:30, in av.video.stream.VideoStream.encode()
     25         raise AttributeError(
     26             f"'{type(self).__name__}' object has no attribute '{name}'"
     27         )
     28     return getattr(self.codec_context, name)
---> 30 @cython.ccall
     31 def encode(self, frame: VideoFrame | None = None):
     32     """
     33     Encode an :class:`.VideoFrame` and return a list of :class:`.Packet`.
     34 
   (...)     37     .. seealso:: This is mostly a passthrough to :meth:`.CodecContext.encode`.
     38     """
     40     packets = self.codec_context.encode(frame)

File ~\anaconda3\envs\30DayMapChallenge2025\Lib\site-packages\av\video\stream.py:40, in av.video.stream.VideoStream.encode()
     30 @cython.ccall
     31 def encode(self, frame: VideoFrame | None = None):
     32     """
     33     Encode an :class:`.VideoFrame` and return a list of :class:`.Packet`.
     34 
   (...)     37     .. seealso:: This is mostly a passthrough to :meth:`.CodecContext.encode`.
     38     """
---> 40     packets = self.codec_context.encode(frame)
     41     packet: Packet
     42     for packet in packets:

File ~\anaconda3\envs\30DayMapChallenge2025\Lib\site-packages\av\codec\context.py:455, in av.codec.context.CodecContext.encode()
    453 """Encode a list of :class:`.Packet` from the given :class:`.Frame`."""
    454 res = []
--> 455 for frame in self._prepare_and_time_rebase_frames_for_encode(frame):
    456     for packet in self._send_frame_and_recv(frame):
    457         self._setup_encoded_packet(packet)

File ~\anaconda3\envs\30DayMapChallenge2025\Lib\site-packages\av\codec\context.py:439, in av.codec.context.CodecContext._prepare_and_time_rebase_frames_for_encode()
    436 if self.ptr.codec_type not in [lib.AVMEDIA_TYPE_VIDEO, lib.AVMEDIA_TYPE_AUDIO]:
    437     raise NotImplementedError("Encoding is only supported for audio and video.")
--> 439 self.open(strict=False)
    441 frames = self._prepare_frames_for_encode(frame)
    443 # Assert the frames are in our time base.
    444 # TODO: Don't mutate time.

File ~\anaconda3\envs\30DayMapChallenge2025\Lib\site-packages\av\codec\context.py:248, in av.codec.context.CodecContext.open()
    245         self.ptr.time_base.num = 1
    246         self.ptr.time_base.den = lib.AV_TIME_BASE
--> 248 err_check(
    249     lib.avcodec_open2(self.ptr, self.codec.ptr, cython.address(options.ptr)),
    250     f'avcodec_open2("{self.codec.name}", {self.options})',
    251 )
    252 self.is_open = True
    253 self.options = dict(options)

File ~\anaconda3\envs\30DayMapChallenge2025\Lib\site-packages\av\error.py:411, in av.error.err_check()
    408         message = error_buffer or os.strerror(code)
    410     cls = classes.get(code, UndefinedError)
--> 411     raise cls(code, message, filename, log)
    412 finally:
    413     free(error_buffer)

ExternalError: [Errno 542398533] Generic error in an external library: 'avcodec_open2("libx264", {})'

Not setting time_base¶

Setting the time_base (it appears) is a workaround for a bug that was introduced in pyav 15.0, and seems to be still there at pyav 17.0.0.

Again, the diagnostic is also not very helpful

In [12]:

video_writer = iio.imopen("bad.mp4", "w", plugin="pyav")
video_writer.init_video_stream(codec="libx264", fps=20)

# Refer to
# https://github.com/imageio/imageio/issues/1139
# video_writer._video_stream.codec_context.time_base = video_writer._video_stream.time_base

l_x, l_y, _ = images[0].shape
l_x = (l_x//2)*2
l_y = (l_y//2)*2

for image in images:
 video_writer.write_frame(image[0:l_x,0:l_y,])
#end for
video_writer.close()

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
AttributeError                            Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[12], line 13
     10 l_y = (l_y//2)*2
     12 for image in images:
---> 13  video_writer.write_frame(image[0:l_x,0:l_y,])
     14 #end for
     15 video_writer.close()

File ~\anaconda3\envs\30DayMapChallenge2025\Lib\site-packages\imageio\plugins\pyav.py:964, in PyAVPlugin.write_frame(self, frame, pixel_format)
    961     plane_array[...] = frame
    963 stream = self._video_stream
--> 964 av_frame.time_base = stream.codec_context.time_base
    965 av_frame.pts = self.frames_written
    966 self.frames_written += 1

File ~\anaconda3\envs\30DayMapChallenge2025\Lib\site-packages\av\frame.py:144, in av.frame.Frame.time_base.__set__()
    142 @time_base.setter
    143 def time_base(self, value):
--> 144     to_avrational(value, cython.address(self._time_base))

File ~\anaconda3\envs\30DayMapChallenge2025\Lib\site-packages\av\utils.py:58, in av.utils.to_avrational()
     56 @cython.cfunc
     57 def to_avrational(frac: object, input: cython.pointer[lib.AVRational]) -> cython.void:
---> 58     input.num = frac.numerator
     59     input.den = frac.denominator

AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'numerator'

using PNG images¶

I don't know why matplotlib uses 4 planes for PNG images, and 3 planes for JPG

In [13]:

folder = "frames"

files = sorted([f for f in os.listdir(folder) if f.endswith(".png")])
files[0:5]

Out[13]:

['frame_000.png',
 'frame_001.png',
 'frame_002.png',
 'frame_003.png',
 'frame_004.png']

In [14]:

images = [iio.imread(os.path.join("frames", f)) for f in files]

print(images[0].shape)

(2000, 2000, 4)

In [15]:

video_writer = iio.imopen("bad.mp4", "w", plugin="pyav")
video_writer.init_video_stream(codec="libx264", fps=20)

# Refer to
# https://github.com/imageio/imageio/issues/1139
video_writer._video_stream.codec_context.time_base = video_writer._video_stream.time_base

l_x, l_y, _ = images[0].shape
l_x = (l_x//2)*2
l_y = (l_y//2)*2

for image in images:
 video_writer.write_frame(image[0:l_x,0:l_y,])
#end for
video_writer.close()

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
ValueError                                Traceback (most recent call last)
Cell In[15], line 13
     10 l_y = (l_y//2)*2
     12 for image in images:
---> 13  video_writer.write_frame(image[0:l_x,0:l_y,])
     14 #end for
     15 video_writer.close()

File ~\anaconda3\envs\30DayMapChallenge2025\Lib\site-packages\imageio\plugins\pyav.py:961, in PyAVPlugin.write_frame(self, frame, pixel_format)
    954         plane_strides += (img_dtype.itemsize,)
    956     plane_array = as_strided(
    957         np.frombuffer(plane, dtype=img_dtype),
    958         shape=plane_shape,
    959         strides=plane_strides,
    960     )
--> 961     plane_array[...] = frame
    963 stream = self._video_stream
    964 av_frame.time_base = stream.codec_context.time_base

ValueError: could not broadcast input array from shape (2000,2000,4) into shape (2000,2000,3)

Alternatives¶

An alternative to using imageio.v3 would be to use the OpenCV library (import cv2) , with code that looks like:

# Define the codec and create VideoWriter object
# 'mp4v' is a standard codec for mp4 format
fourcc = cv2.VideoWriter_fourcc(*'mp4v')
out = cv2.VideoWriter(output_file, fourcc, fps, size)

...

# Write each frame to the video
for i, file_path in enumerate(image_files):
    img = cv2.imread(file_path)
    out.write(img)

Reproducability¶

In [16]:

%watermark

Last updated: 2026-04-14T13:39:57.737213+10:00

Python implementation: CPython
Python version       : 3.11.15
IPython version      : 9.10.1

Compiler    : MSC v.1944 64 bit (AMD64)
OS          : Windows
Release     : 10
Machine     : AMD64
Processor   : Intel64 Family 6 Model 170 Stepping 4, GenuineIntel
CPU cores   : 22
Architecture: 64bit

In [17]:

%watermark -h -iv -co

conda environment: 30DayMapChallenge2025

Hostname: INSPIRON16

IPython: 9.10.1
imageio: 2.37.0

In [18]:

import contextlib

import ipynbname

with contextlib.suppress(FileNotFoundError):
    print(f"Notebook file name: {ipynbname.name()}")
# end with

Notebook file name: making_movie

In [ ]: