Python array 3D to video

Question

Is there an easy way to turn a 500x500x60 array into a 60 frame video that saves as an avi?

I managed to get a plt.imshow window to animate with the animate environment. but how can I save this properly?

def animate_cube(cube_array, cut=True, mn=0, sd=0, interval=75, cmap='hot'):
    '''
    animates a python cube for quick visualisation. CANNOT BE SAVED.

    INPUT:
        cube_array  : name of 3D numpy array that needs to be animated.
        cut         : trims pixels off of the images edge to remove edge detector effects.
                      Default = True as 0 returns empty array.
        mn          : mean of the cube | Used for contrast
        sd          : std of the cube  | Used for contrast
        interval    : #of ms between each frame.
        cmap        : colormap. Default='hot'

    OUTPUT:
        animated window going through the cube.

    '''

    fig = plt.figure()
    std = np.std(cube_array[0])
    mean = np.mean(cube_array[0])
    if mn==sd and mn==0:
        img = plt.imshow(cube_array[0][cut:-cut, cut:-cut], animated=True, vmax=mean+3*std, vmin=mean-3*std, cmap=cmap)
    else:
        img = plt.imshow(cube_array[0][cut:-cut, cut:-cut], animated=True, vmax=mn+3*sd, vmin=mn-3*sd, cmap=cmap)

    def updatefig(i):
        img.set_array(cube_array[i][cut:-cut, cut:-cut])
        return img,

    ani = animation.FuncAnimation(fig, updatefig, frames=cube_array.shape[0],                                  interval=interval, blit=True)
    plt.colorbar()
    plt.show()

Answer 1

Have you tried to insert something like:

ani.save('cube_movie.avi', writer="ffmpeg", fps=15)

instead of plt.show?