If working on XKCD style plotting for matplotlib taught me anything, it is
that playing with software in a way that it was not originally designed to
do can lead to some excellent discoveries (bugs) and generate new ideas and
generalisations - not to mention it being a lot of fun!
So, in that vein, I wanted to put together a simple Christmas e-card using
matplotlib. My main aim was to re-purpose some of the familiar matplotlib
functionality to generate a simple festive animation.
I decided to go for a snowy scene, with a snow-capped greeting and sprig of
holly. The snow is simply a scatter plot scaled by flake size and animated
to fall in a pleasing way. The text is making use of the path effects
functionality extended in v1.4 to add randomised "snow" around the text
(the same effect employed by XKCD as it happens). And the holly is a nice
demonstration of the power of Paths and vector rendering in matplotlib.
The source can be found at
https://gist.github.com/pelson/ca795a02a420a1b9bfbc, and it requires
matplotlib >= v1.4.
If you're impatient and don't want to run the code (don't do it), the
animation is available on YouTube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POnAkPpe770.
Finally, to all those taking some time off this festive season, I wish you
a very happy holiday and wish you all the best for the new year.
Phil Elson
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