Getting Started

Note

Before proceeding, install Algan and make sure it is running properly by following the detailed steps in Installation.

Important

If you installed Algan using the recommended Python management tool uv, it’s crucial to either activate the corresponding virtual environment (by following the instructions displayed when running uv venv).

Running Your First Algan Program

The quickest way to start creating animations with Algan is to write a Python script and execute it.

Let’s make a very simple animation. Create a new file named my_first_algan.py, copy the code provided below into it, and then run it from your terminal using uv run python my_first_algan.py.

Example: GettingStartedHelloWorld

from algan import *

my_first_mob = Text('Hello World!', font_size=100)
my_first_mob.spawn()

render_to_file()

from algan import *

my_first_mob = Text('Hello World!', font_size=100)
my_first_mob.spawn()

render_to_file()

If the execution is successful, you should find a new video file named algan_render_output.mp4 in the same directory as your Python script. Open this video file, and you will see your first Algan animation playing: “Hello World!” appearing on screen.

Explanation

Let’s break down this minimal program line-by-line to see what’s going on:

from algan import *

This line imports all of Algan’s functionality, making it available to use in your script. All of your Algan scripts will start with this.

The next line

my_first_mob = Text('Hello World!', font_size=100)

creates a visual object. In Algan, any object that can be displayed and animated on screen is called a Mob (short for Moveable Object). Here, we create a Text object, which is a type of Mob specifically designed to display text. We initialize it with the content “Hello World!” and set its font size to 100 to take up most of the screen. This mob is then assigned the name my_first_mob so we can refer to it later in the script.

my_first_mob.spawn()

This line spawns the mob we previously created. This step is crucial as mobs will not appear on screen, and will not be animatable, until they have been spawned. By default, a mob will play a simple fade-in animation when it is spawned. Without calling spawn(), your Mob will not appear in the final video.

render_to_file()

This final line instructs Algan to process all of the previously created animations and mobs you’ve defined in your script and render them into a video file. By default, the video will be saved in the same directory where you ran your Python script under the name ‘algan_render_output.mp4’.

Rendering Settings

The render_to_file() function is used to render your animations to video. By default, it will render in 480p at 30 frames per second, and output to the same directory as your script, but you can change this behavior by giving parameters to it. Here are some examples:

# Name the output file My_Algan_Video.mp4
render_to_file(file_name='My_Algan_Video')

# Place the output file named My_Algan_Video.mp4 as path 'C://Users/Me/Videos
render_to_file(file_name='MY_Algan_Video', output_path='C://Users/Me/Videos')

# Render video in Ultra-High Definition (4k) 60 frames per second.
render_to_file(file_name='MY_Algan_Video', render_settings=UHD)

# Render video with custom settings, (1000,1000) resolution (width, height) at 100 frames per second.
render_to_file(file_name='MY_Algan_Video', render_settings=RenderSettings((1000,1000), 100))

See render_to_file() for a description of the available parameters, and see RenderSettings for changing render settings. Algan provides the following built in render settings: PREVIEW, LD, MD, HD, PRODUCTION, UHD.