FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified - when saving a mp4 plot, WinPython, Anaconda

Question

I have the code below, when I run it, the next error appears "FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified".

I have added the the logfile snippet. The wierd thing is, this code was working perfect yesterday, with Anaconda. However, when trying to run it on a different computer (e.g. one with WinPython) the error popped up. (ofcourse, i have adjusted the path accordingly for the new machine). The worst part is that now it's refusing to work even on the 'original' machine, where the code was developed and was working just fine (without changing anything , only restarted the PC).

Maybe somebody has the same problem and find out a solution. Thanks for help!!

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import Axes3D
import numpy as np
from scipy import array
from matplotlib import animation
import os



jet = plt.get_cmap('jet')
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.gca(projection='3d')

X = np.linspace(70,40,4)
Y = np.linspace(5,2,4)
X,Y=  np.meshgrid(X, Y)

Z = array ([
    [1223.539555, 1428.075086,1714.479425, 2144.053223],
    [1567.26647,1829.056119,2990.416079,2745.320067],
    [2135.163957,2491.534201, 2990.416079,3738.761638],
    [3257.280827, 3800.655101, 4561.372117, 5702.458776],
    ])

surf = ax.plot_surface(X, Y, Z, rstride = 1, cstride = 1, cmap =jet,linewidth = 0,alpha= 1)
ax.set_zlim3d(0, Z.max())

fig.colorbar(surf, shrink=0.8, aspect=5)
ax.set_xlabel('Axial Length [mm]')
ax.set_ylabel('nbTurns')
ax.set_zlabel('RPM')

def rotate(angle):
    ax.view_init(azim=angle)

fig.set_size_inches(20, 20)
dpi = 150#asta
rot_animation = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, rotate, frames=np.arange(0,362,2),interval=100)
mywriter= animation.FFMpegWriter(fps=80)

folder = 'D:/IuliaVascan/Grafice/'
file = 'unt1.mp4'

path = os.path.join(folder, file)
rot_animation.save(path, writer=mywriter,dpi=dpi)

plt.show()

The full traceback is:

Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "<ipython-input-13-dfe90b3fa52e>", line 1, in <module>
    runfile('C:/Users/username/untitled6.py', wdir='C:/Users/username')

  File "C:\Users\username\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\utils\site\sitecustomize.py", line 866, in runfile
    execfile(filename, namespace)

  File "C:\Users\username\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\spyder\utils\site\sitecustomize.py", line 102, in execfile
    exec(compile(f.read(), filename, 'exec'), namespace)

  File "C:/Users/username/untitled6.py", line 60, in <module>
    rot_animation.save(path, writer=mywriter,dpi=dpi)#asta

  File "C:\Users\username\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\animation.py", line 829, in save
    with writer.saving(self._fig, filename, dpi):

  File "C:\Users\username\Anaconda3\lib\contextlib.py", line 59, in __enter__
    return next(self.gen)

  File "C:\Users\username\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\animation.py", line 200, in saving
    self.setup(*args)

  File "C:\Users\username\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\animation.py", line 190, in setup
    self._run()

  File "C:\Users\username\Anaconda3\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\animation.py", line 218, in _run
    creationflags=subprocess_creation_flags)

  File "C:\Users\username\Anaconda3\lib\subprocess.py", line 947, in __init__
    restore_signals, start_new_session)

  File "C:\Users\username\Anaconda3\lib\subprocess.py", line 1224, in _execute_child
    startupinfo)

FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified

Answer 1

If anyone is experiencing this same error, I fixed it by installing ffmpeg in my environment. I don't know this isn't automatically install as a dependency when installing matplotlib, but oh well. Hope this helps.