Intro to Animations in R

How to create animations in R with Plotly.

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Note: We are retiring documentation for R, MATLAB, Julia, and F# in November 2025. Learn more about this change here.

Frames

Now, along with data and layout, frames is added to the keys that figure allows. Your frames key points to a list of figures, each of which will be cycled through upon instantiation of the plot.

Basic Example

library(plotly)

df <- data.frame(
  x = c(1,2,1), 
  y = c(1,2,1), 
  f = c(1,2,3)
)

fig <- df %>%
  plot_ly(
    x = ~x,
    y = ~y,
    frame = ~f,
    type = 'scatter',
    mode = 'markers',
    showlegend = F
  )

fig

Mulitple Trace Animations

library(plotly)
library(gapminder)

df <- gapminder 
fig <- df %>%
  plot_ly(
    x = ~gdpPercap, 
    y = ~lifeExp, 
    size = ~pop, 
    color = ~continent, 
    frame = ~year, 
    text = ~country, 
    hoverinfo = "text",
    type = 'scatter',
    mode = 'markers'
  )
fig <- fig %>% layout(
    xaxis = list(
      type = "log"
    )
  )

fig

Add Animation Options

library(plotly)



fig <- fig %>%
  animation_opts(
    1000, easing = "elastic", redraw = FALSE
  )

fig

Add Button Options

library(plotly)



fig <- fig %>%
  animation_button(
    x = 1, xanchor = "right", y = 0, yanchor = "bottom"
  )

fig

Add Slider Options

library(plotly)


fig <- fig %>%
  animation_slider(
    currentvalue = list(prefix = "YEAR ", font = list(color="red"))
  )

fig

Advanced Example

library(plotly)

df <- gapminder 
fig <- df %>%
  plot_ly(
    x = ~gdpPercap, 
    y = ~lifeExp, 
    size = ~pop, 
    color = ~continent, 
    frame = ~year, 
    text = ~country, 
    hoverinfo = "text",
    type = 'scatter',
    mode = 'markers'
  )
fig <- fig %>% layout(
    xaxis = list(
      type = "log"
    )
  )
fig <- fig %>% animation_opts(
    1000, easing = "elastic", redraw = FALSE
  )
fig <- fig %>% animation_button(
    x = 1, xanchor = "right", y = 0, yanchor = "bottom"
  )
fig <- fig %>% animation_slider(
    currentvalue = list(prefix = "YEAR ", font = list(color="red"))
  )

fig

Reference

To read more on animations see The Plotly Book.

What About Dash?

Dash for R is an open-source framework for building analytical applications, with no Javascript required, and it is tightly integrated with the Plotly graphing library.

Learn about how to install Dash for R at https://dashr.plot.ly/installation.

Everywhere in this page that you see fig, you can display the same figure in a Dash for R application by passing it to the figure argument of the Graph component from the built-in dashCoreComponents package like this:

library(plotly)

fig <- plot_ly() 
# fig <- fig %>% add_trace( ... )
# fig <- fig %>% layout( ... ) 

library(dash)
library(dashCoreComponents)
library(dashHtmlComponents)

app <- Dash$new()
app$layout(
    htmlDiv(
        list(
            dccGraph(figure=fig) 
        )
     )
)

app$run_server(debug=TRUE, dev_tools_hot_reload=FALSE)