MATLAB: How to create animated GIF images in MATLAB

animateanimatedanimationgifgifsimageimagesciimwriteloopcountMATLAB

I would like to know if there is MATLAB functionality to create an animated GIF in MATLAB.

Best Answer

Use the 'imwrite' function to create an animated GIF. An animated GIF contains a series of images all combined into one file. For this example,
1. Draw a series of plots for the function y = x^n for different values of n
2. Capture them as images
3. Write them into a GIF file
h = figure;
axis tight manual % this ensures that getframe() returns a consistent size
filename = 'testAnimated.gif';
for n = 1:0.5:5
    % Draw plot for y = x.^n
    x = 0:0.01:1;
    y = x.^n;
    plot(x,y) 
    drawnow 
      % Capture the plot as an image 
      frame = getframe(h); 
      im = frame2im(frame); 
      [imind,cm] = rgb2ind(im,256); 
      % Write to the GIF File 
      if n == 1 
          imwrite(imind,cm,filename,'gif', 'Loopcount',inf); 
      else 
          imwrite(imind,cm,filename,'gif','WriteMode','append'); 
      end 
  end
For a more detailed description on creating an animated GIF File, see the example “Write Animated GIF” on the 'imwrite' function reference page:
http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/imwrite.html#btv452g-1
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