creating an animated video by rotating a surface plot

I'm struggling to get a consistent animation that has fixed axis when rotating my surface plot. Two of the problems i have faced are:

1) the data size of my surfplot changes as the rotation angle changes. 2) the color of the surface plot is not retained when i store the data in a structure. 3) So far I have compiled this:

number_of_frames = 360;
n=1;
for i = 1:10:number_of_frames

    hSurface = surf(velocityimg);

    grid off
    rotate(hSurface,[0 0 1],i);

    newdata(n).x = hSurface.XData;
    newdata(n).y = hSurface.YData;
    newdata(n).z = hSurface.ZData;

   surf(newdata(n).x,newdata(n).y,newdata(n).z);

   grid off
   hAxes = gca;
   hAxes.XRuler.Axle.LineStyle = 'none';  
   axis off
   axis vis3d
   colormap(jet)
   g(n) = getframe(gcf);
   g(n) = frame2im(g(n));
   n=n+1;
end 
%%make video
v = VideoWriter('rotating.avi');
v.FrameRate = 10;
v.Quality = 65;
open(v);
for i =1:length(g)
    frame = g(i).cdata; 
    writeVideo(v,frame);
end 
close(v);
winopen('rotating.avi');

[Sky Nelson-Isaacs]

I have the same issue. How do I keep the axes consistent as I rotate the frame and take snapshots?

Answer 1

[Jaswanth]

Hi,

To create an animated video by rotating a surface plot in MATLAB while ensuring the axis remains consistent and the color is retained throughout the animation, you can keep the axis limits stable using “axis tight” command, and “axis vis3d” ensures the aspect ratio remains fixed during the 3D rotation.

As you rotate the surface plot, adjust the view angle incrementally, capturing each frame with “getframe”. These frames are then compiled into a video using “writeVideo”.

Please refer to the following example code with assumed data:

% Create sample data for the surface plot
[X, Y] = meshgrid(-5:0.5:5, -5:0.5:5);
Z = sin(sqrt(X.^2 + Y.^2));

% Set up the figure and surface plot
figure;
hSurface = surf(X, Y, Z);
shading interp; % Enable smooth color transitions
colormap jet; % Ensure a consistent color scheme
axis tight; % Keep axis limits stable
axis vis3d; % Fix the aspect ratio for 3D rotation

% Set up the video writer
v = VideoWriter('rotating_surface_plot.avi');
open(v);

% Specify the number of frames for the animation
numFrames = 360;

% Rotate the surface plot and capture frames
for k = 1:numFrames
    % Change the view angle
    view([k, 30]);
    
    % Capture the current frame
    frame = getframe(gcf);
    writeVideo(v, frame);
end

% Complete the video writing process
close(v);

% Close the figure display
close(gcf);

Kindly refer to the following MathWorks documentation to know more about the functions discussed above:

• axis tight: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/axis.html?searchHighlight=axis%20tight&s_tid=srchtitle_support_results_1_axis%20tight#bul_eox-1
• axis vis3d: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/axis.html?searchHighlight=axis%20vis3d&s_tid=srchtitle_support_results_1_axis%20vis3d
• getframe: https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/getframe.html

I hope the solution provided above is helpful.