# Animation from grid data/files:

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277>\
**Category:** Visualization\
**Tags:** geospatial, geodesy\
**Created:** [May 15, 2024, 12:24am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277 "2024-05-15T00:24:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 13\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GeodeticR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/geodeticr/32/218661_2.png) [@GeodeticR](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GeodeticR)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2024, 12:24am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277/1 "2024-05-15T00:24:12Z")

</div>

Making an animation with the GMT.jl package is not intuitive to me and I would love some guidance/direction on how to achieve my end goal.

Luckily, though, using the GMT.jl package to plot a static grid is relatively straight forward, as it is only a few lines of code, shown below.

```julia
using DataFrames, DelimitedFiles, Glob, GMT,

epoch1 = readdlm("/home/rob/Documents/julia/Vgrdimg/51915_Vgrdimg.txt");

G = gridit(epoch1[:, [1, 2, 3]],
        mask = 0.3, V = :q);
grdimage(G, shade = true, coast = (ocean = :gray, shore = 0.5), fmt= :png, show, = true);

```

Which produced this image:

 ![grid_gmt](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/d/6/d602a7a5232df332f10778b02ffb66c25c8d31ac.png)

And, it’s fine. Ideally, I would like the resolution of the gridding to be finer, like this plot I made in Python, but, I couldn’t get the masking to work in the eoMaps package.

 ![sigma2_new](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/b/a/baa735bae110600574ac413d33ab50a730a77985.png)

But I digress.

I tried to create a loop that would iterate through all my files, of which I have 1821, and each file is a timestep. So, I wanted to read the first 3-columns of the file, and then feed them into the `movie()` function in GMT, but I know I’m not doing it right, and I can’t figure out exactly what I’m supposed to do to get an animation to work.

Here is what I’ve attempted so far:

```julia
epoch1 = readdlm("/home/rob/Documents/julia/Vgrdimg/51915_Vgrdimg.txt");
file = "/home/rob/Documents/julia/Vgrdimg/"

function main_sc()
    for (i,file) in enumerate(glob("*.txt", file))
        file_hold = readdlm(file)

        G = gridit(file_hold[:, [1, 2, 3]],
        mask = 0.3, V = :q);

        fig = grdimage(G, shade = true, coast = (ocean = :gray, shore = 0.5), fmt= :png);

        #movie(main_sc, name=:count, frames = 100, format = :mp3, frame_rate = 16, clean = true );
        
    end
end
movie(main_sc, name=:count, frames = 100, format = :mp4, frame_rate = 16, clean = true );

```

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dqeeq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@dqeeq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dqeeq)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2024, 12:58am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277/2 "2024-05-15T00:58:23Z")

</div>

What do you get by calling

```julia
movie(main_sc, name=:count, frames = 100, format = :mp4, frame_rate = 16, clean = true );

```

and did you try gif?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joa-quim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/joa-quim/32/227_2.png) [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2024, 12:10pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277/3 "2024-05-15T12:10:06Z")

</div>

Hi, I have not visited movie function for a while. What was the error?

> [@GeodeticR](#):
>
> `epoch1 = readdlm("/home/rob/Documents/julia/Vgrdimg/51915_Vgrdimg.txt");`

Note, you can do this as well

```julia-auto
epoch1 = gmtread("/home/rob/Documents/julia/Vgrdimg/51915_Vgrdimg.txt");

```

> [@GeodeticR](#):
>
> Ideally, I would like the resolution of the gridding to be finer

Then you must provide the `inc=???` option to `gridit` (and probably adjust the value of the `mask` option). As is in your command the grid spacing wasw estimated from the data density.

> [@GeodeticR](#):
>
> ```julia-auto
> function main_sc()
> for (i,file) in enumerate(glob("*.txt", file))
> file_hold = readdlm(file)
> G = gridit(file_hold[:, [1, 2, 3]], mask = 0.3, V = :q);
> 
> ```

This is not good (normally fatal) for movies. When you don’t provide the `region` it estimates it from data limits but there is no guarantie that the estimated limit is equal in all the frames. The solution is a fixed `region=...`.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GeodeticR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/geodeticr/32/218661_2.png) [@GeodeticR](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GeodeticR)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2024, 7:15pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277/4 "2024-05-15T19:15:06Z")

</div>

```julia
epoch1 = gmtread("/home/rob/Documents/julia/Vgrdimg/51915_Vgrdimg.txt");

```

This is good to know! Thank you.

> [@joa-quim](#):
>
> Then you must provide the `inc=???` option to `gridit` (and probably adjust the value of the `mask` option). As is in your command the grid spacing wasw estimated from the data density.

I did mess with various increments, but none of them actually made a, as far as I could tell, a difference in visualization. I tried `0.01, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0` for the `inc =` option, and ultimately just left it out since it wasn’t making a difference.

> [@joa-quim](#):
>
> This is not good (normally fatal) for movies. When you don’t provide the `region` it estimates it from data limits but there is no guarantie that the estimated limit is equal in all the frames. The solution is a fixed `region=...`

Yeah, I didn’t think it would work, but I wanted to try something out at least. the GMT.jl documentations provides substantial detail for the input arguments, but, in the way of follow-able examples, it is certainly lacking.

I tried to understand and follow the [example here](https://docs.generic-mapping-tools.org/latest/animations/anim05.html) because I think it’s a fairly close to what I’m trying to achieve.

When I run:

```julia
function main_sc()
    for (i,file) in enumerate(glob("*.txt", file))
        file_hold = readdlm(file)

        G = gridit(file_hold[:, [1, 2, 3]],
        mask = 0.3, V = :q);

        fig = grdimage(G, shade = true, coast = (ocean = :gray, shore = 0.5), fmt= :png);

        #movie(main_sc, name=:count, frames = 100, format = :mp3, frame_rate = 16, clean = true );
        
    end
end
movie(main_sc, name=:count, frames = 100, format = :mp4, frame_rate = 16, clean = true );

```

I get the following error message and stack trace:

```julia
ERROR: type String has no field data
Use `codeunits(str)` instead.
Stacktrace:
 [1] getproperty(x::String, f::Symbol)
   @ Base ./Base.jl:37
 [2] snif_GI_set_CTRLlimits(G_I::String)
   @ GMT ~/.julia/packages/GMT/PVGhC/src/imshow.jl:241
 [3] common_insert_R!(d::Dict{Symbol, Any}, O::Bool, cmd0::String, I_G::Nothing)
   @ GMT ~/.julia/packages/GMT/PVGhC/src/grdimage.jl:137
 [4] grdimage(cmd0::String, arg1::Nothing, arg2::Nothing, arg3::Nothing; first::Bool, kwargs::@Kwargs{…})
   @ GMT ~/.julia/packages/GMT/PVGhC/src/grdimage.jl:55
 [5] grdimage (repeats 2 times)
   @ ~/.julia/packages/GMT/PVGhC/src/grdimage.jl:51 [inlined]
 [6] main_sc()
   @ Main ~/Documents/julia/gridimage.jl:15
 [7] jl_sc_2_shell_sc(name::typeof(main_sc), name2::String)
   @ GMT ~/.julia/packages/GMT/PVGhC/src/movie.jl:164
 [8] movie(main::Function; pre::Nothing, post::Nothing, kwargs::@Kwargs{…})
   @ GMT ~/.julia/packages/GMT/PVGhC/src/movie.jl:110
 [9] top-level scope
   @ ~/Documents/julia/gridimage.jl:20

```

I also tried to see if I could decipher, modify, and translate this bash script to Julia syntax, but that is proving to be a job itself. lol

```julia
#!/bin/env -S bash -e

DIR0= $HOME/Documents/julia/Vgrdimg/
region=-R-130/-50/24.5/52
movie_files=movie_files
####### function to get the vaues of sigma max and min number of triangles from movie frame index
dir_names=($DIR0/*)
##~ get the name of the epoch from mnth_names that corresponds to the frame number
get_values() {
    local index=$1
    echo "${mnth_names[index]}"
}

out=strain_map_year ##not sure this is even needed 
gmt begin "$out"
    ###########################~ plot coastlines, strain grid ######################
    gmt coast $region -B --FORMAT_GEO_MAP=dddF -JM15c -EUS.CA,US.OR+p0.5p,#6e04c4 -W0.1p,#b4b5cc -G#ddded9 -S#b4b5cc -Df
    gmt grdimage "$movie_files"/ave_strain_${MOVIE_FRAME}.grd -Cdil_strain.cpt
    ###########################~ plot principal strains #############################
    pstr_ampl=0.08
    ##############& e1 is compressional
    awk -v f="$pstr_ampl" '{if($3<0) print $1, $2, $5, $3*f}' $DIR0/MELD/seaspred/"$movie_files"/principal_strains${MOVIE_FRAME}.gmt | gmt plot -SV0.75c+ea+je+n1/0.2 -W3p,black -Gblack #-SVh0.04c/0.085c/0.075c -W0.1,black -Gblack
    awk -v f="$pstr_ampl" '{if($3<0) print $1, $2, $5-180, $3*f}' $DIR0/MELD/seaspred/"$movie_files"/principal_strains${MOVIE_FRAME}.gmt | gmt plot -SV0.75c+ea+je+n1/0.2 -W3p,black -Gblack
    ###############& e2 is compressional
    awk -v f="$pstr_ampl" '{if($4<0) print $1, $2, $5+90, $4*f}' $DIR0/MELD/seaspred/"$movie_files"/principal_strains${MOVIE_FRAME}.gmt | gmt plot -SV0.75c+ea50+je+n1/0.2 -W3p,black -Gblack
    awk -v f="$pstr_ampl" '{if($4<0) print $1, $2, $5-90, $4*f}' $DIR0/MELD/seaspred/"$movie_files"/principal_strains${MOVIE_FRAME}.gmt | gmt plot -SV0.75c+ea+je+n1/0.2 -W3p,black -Gblack
    ################& e1 is dilatational
    ######* the first 2 lines are there to have a black outline:
    awk -v f="$pstr_ampl" '{if($3>0) print $1, $2, $5, $3*f}' $DIR0/MELD/seaspred/"$movie_files"/principal_strains${MOVIE_FRAME}.gmt | gmt plot -SV0.75c+n1/0.2 -W2p,black -Gblack
    awk -v f="$pstr_ampl" '{if($3>0) print $1, $2, $5-180, $3*f}' $DIR0/MELD/seaspred/"$movie_files"/principal_strains${MOVIE_FRAME}.gmt | gmt plot -SV0.75c+n1/0.2 -W2p,black -Gblack
    ###### *the second 2 lines actually show the sizes of the strain axes in white
    awk -v f="$pstr_ampl" '{if($3>0) print $1, $2, $5, $3*f}' $DIR0/MELD/seaspred/"$movie_files"/principal_strains${MOVIE_FRAME}.gmt | gmt plot -SV0.7c+ea+jb+n1/0.2+p0.4p -W0.5p,white -Gwhite
    awk -v f="$pstr_ampl" '{if($3>0) print $1, $2, $5-180, $3*f}' $DIR0/MELD/seaspred/"$movie_files"/principal_strains${MOVIE_FRAME}.gmt | gmt plot -SV0.7c+ea+jb+n1/0.2+p0.4p -W0.5p,white -Gwhite

    ###################& e2 is dilatational
    ######* the first 2 lines are there to have a black outline:
    awk -v f="$pstr_ampl" '{if($4>0) print $1, $2, $5+90, $4*f}' $DIR0/MELD/seaspred/"$movie_files"/principal_strains${MOVIE_FRAME}.gmt | gmt plot -SV0.75c+n1/0.2 -W2p,black -Gblack
    awk -v f="$pstr_ampl" '{if($4>0) print $1, $2, $5-90, $4*f}' $DIR0/MELD/seaspred/"$movie_files"/principal_strains${MOVIE_FRAME}.gmt | gmt plot -SV0.75c+n1/0.2 -W2p,black -Gblack
    ###### *the second 2 lines actually show the sizes of the strain axes in white    
    awk -v f="$pstr_ampl" '{if($4>0) print $1, $2, $5+90, $4*f}' $DIR0/MELD/seaspred/"$movie_files"/principal_strains${MOVIE_FRAME}.gmt | gmt plot -SV0.7c+ea+jb+n1/0.2+p0.4p -W0.5p,white -Gwhite
    awk -v f="$pstr_ampl" '{if($4>0) print $1, $2, $5-90, $4*f}' $DIR0/MELD/seaspred/"$movie_files"/principal_strains${MOVIE_FRAME}.gmt | gmt plot -SV0.7c+ea+jb+n1/0.2+p0.4p -W0.5p,white -Gwhite #-SVt0.04c/0.085c/0.075c -W0.1,black -Gwhite

########################~ plot the name of epoch, sigma_max, and Nmin ##############
    month_vals=$(get_values ${MOVIE_FRAME})
    gmt text -F+f17p,Helvetica-Bold+jCB << EOF
        -119 45.8 sigma: 25, Nmin: 40
        -122 45.8 $month_vals
EOF
########################~ add stateline, lake outlines on top of frid ##############
    gmt coast -W1 -Df -Na -Lf-130.8/46/10/200+lkm -EUS.CA+p0.5p
###########################~ plot mountain(s) ###################################
    gmt plot mthood.lonlat -St0.5c -Wyellow -Gblack
###########################~ plot med locs of seism ##########################
    gmt plot extra_locations.txt -Sc0.5c -Wblack -G#e00757
###########################~ plot seismic swarms ##################################
    # sed 's/,/\t/g' maupin_swarm.csv | awk '{print $1, $2, $3, $4}' > maupin_swarm_scol.txt #date, lat, lon, depth, mag 
    ## by depth
    # awk '{print $3, $2, $4, $5}' $DIR0/seismo_data/maupin_swarm_scol.txt | gmt plot -Cseismo_depth.cpt -Sci -i0,1,2,3+s0.06 -Wfaint -hi1
    # gmt psscale -Cseismo_depth.cpt -DjBR+o-1.5c/-1.2c+w6c/0.25c+h+o0c/0c -Baf+l"Seismic depth (km)" -I --FONT_LABEL=14p
    ## by date
    ###& Maupin swarm
    awk '{print $5, $4}' $DIR0/seismo_data/maupin_swarm_locations_decyr_IEB.txt | gmt plot -Sc0.25c -hi1 -G#f7bc0a -Wblack
    ###& NLT swarm 
    awk '{print $3, $2, $1}' $DIR0/seismo_data/north_lake_tahoe_2003_swarm_decyr.txt | gmt plot -Sc0.25c -hi1 -G#f7bc0a -Wblack
    ###& Sierra Valley swarm
    awk '{print $5, $4}' $DIR0/seismo_data/sierra_valley_locations_decyr_trugman.txt | gmt plot -Sc0.25c -hi1 -G#f7bc0a -Wblack
    # gmt psscale -DjBR+o-1.5c/-1.2c+w6c/0.25c+h+o0c/0c -Baf+l"EQ year" -I --FONT_LABEL=14p -Cseismo_date.cpt 
    ###& focal mech(s)
    gmt psmeca $DIR0/seismo_data/single_maupin_moment_tensor.gmt -Sa1c -A

###########################~ add scale for strain ###################################
    gmt psscale -Cdil_strain.cpt -DjBL+o4c/-1.2c+w6c/0.25c+h+o0c/0c -Baf+l"Dilatational Strain (10^-9)" -I --FONT_LABEL=14p
gmt end show

#### use these the make movie from command line:

####! use these the make movie from command line:
##& make a single frame to look at (here i have 24 frames, so -T24; -M is the master frame to view to make sure it looks right (as a png), so -M6 makes the 6th frame; -Fnone tells it we're not making a full movie yet); -Z deletes the intermediate directory with the files needed to make the movie; -N is the name of the output frame or output movie; -C sets the dimensions of the canvas; -D is how long you want each frame to display (frame rate))
##~ make 6th frame
# gmt movie make_strain_movie_fullyear.sh -C20x25x200 -T24 -M6,png -Fnone -Nseason_strain -Z

##~ make actual movie: 
##&-P sets the options for a progress indicator (I have a bar on top right with a red triangle that shows where in the movie you are)
# gmt movie make_strain_movie_fullyear.sh -C20x25x200 -T24 -Fmp4 -Nseason_strain -Z -D0.5 -Pf+jTR+o0.5

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GeodeticR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/geodeticr/32/218661_2.png) [@GeodeticR](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GeodeticR)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2024, 7:44pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277/5 "2024-05-15T19:44:07Z")

</div>

> [@dqeeq](#):
>
> and did you try gif?

I saw the option for `gif` but, I wasn’t going to mess around with option arguments until I get the required ones implemented correctly.

Running this:

```julia
using DataFrames, DelimitedFiles, Glob, GMT

epoch1 = readdlm("/home/rob/Documents/julia/Vgrdimg/51915_Vgrdimg.txt");
file = "/home/rob/Documents/julia/Vgrdimg/"

function main_sc()
    for (i,file) in enumerate(glob("*.txt", file))
        file_hold = readdlm(file)

        G = gridit(file_hold[:, [1, 2, 3]],
        mask = 0.3, V = :q);

        fig = grdimage(G, shade = true, coast = (ocean = :gray, shore = 0.5), fmt = :png);

        #movie(main_sc, name=:count, frames = 100, format = :mp3, frame_rate = 16, clean = true );
        
    end
end
movie(main_sc, name=:count, frames = 100, format = :mp4, frame_rate = 16, clean = true );

```

I get this error message:

```julia
ERROR: type String has no field data
Use `codeunits(str)` instead.
Stacktrace:
 [1] getproperty(x::String, f::Symbol)
   @ Base ./Base.jl:37
 [2] snif_GI_set_CTRLlimits(G_I::String)
   @ GMT ~/.julia/packages/GMT/PVGhC/src/imshow.jl:241
 [3] common_insert_R!(d::Dict{Symbol, Any}, O::Bool, cmd0::String, I_G::Nothing)
   @ GMT ~/.julia/packages/GMT/PVGhC/src/grdimage.jl:137
 [4] grdimage(cmd0::String, arg1::Nothing, arg2::Nothing, arg3::Nothing; first::Bool, kwargs::@Kwargs{…})
   @ GMT ~/.julia/packages/GMT/PVGhC/src/grdimage.jl:55
 [5] grdimage (repeats 2 times)
   @ ~/.julia/packages/GMT/PVGhC/src/grdimage.jl:51 [inlined]
 [6] main_sc()
   @ Main ~/Documents/julia/gridimage.jl:14
 [7] jl_sc_2_shell_sc(name::typeof(main_sc), name2::String)
   @ GMT ~/.julia/packages/GMT/PVGhC/src/movie.jl:164
 [8] movie(main::Function; pre::Nothing, post::Nothing, kwargs::@Kwargs{…})
   @ GMT ~/.julia/packages/GMT/PVGhC/src/movie.jl:110
 [9] top-level scope
   @ ~/Documents/julia/gridimage.jl:1
Some type information was truncated. Use `show(err)` to see complete types.

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joa-quim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/joa-quim/32/227_2.png) [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2024, 8:47pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277/6 "2024-05-15T20:47:09Z")

</div>

> [@GeodeticR](#):
>
> I did mess with various increments, but none of them actually made a, as far as I could tell, a difference in visualization. I tried `0.01, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0` for the `inc =` option, and ultimately just left it out since it wasn’t making a difference.

Strange, it should. Can you make available one of those `51915_Vgrdimg.txt` for me too if something is nor working as it should.

I’ll be looking at the movie issues. Maybe it’s better to continue this in the GMT forum where another user is also asking `movie` related [questions](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/gmt-jl-quantile-weighted-color-bar-movie-function/4896/5).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GeodeticR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/geodeticr/32/218661_2.png) [@GeodeticR](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GeodeticR)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2024, 10:02pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277/7 "2024-05-15T22:02:19Z")

</div>

Sure thing. Oh, guess I can’t attach text files. Let I’ll try to upload the files to my cloud storage and share that link.

[Here’s the link](https://nevada.box.com/s/oxpm1ipeat1bup9oqm6ujl7v8gjl1gsr)

The file values are as follow:

```julia
[lon, lat, value, std_dev, std_dev_alt, num_stations_used, ave_distance(km)]

```

And I’m only plotting the first 3 columns.

> [@joa-quim](#):
>
> I’ll be looking at the movie issues. Maybe it’s better to continue this in the GMT forum where another user is also asking `movie` related [questions](https://forum.generic-mapping-tools.org/t/gmt-jl-quantile-weighted-color-bar-movie-function/4896/5).

I’ll do that, thanks for the suggestion and for your help with my problem!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GeodeticR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/geodeticr/32/218661_2.png) [@GeodeticR](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/GeodeticR)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2024, 10:37pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277/8 "2024-05-15T22:37:17Z")

</div>

`inc =` is working now, and the resolution has greatly improved. I’m not sure what was going on yesterday. Mostly likely I had it somewhere in the operation where It wasn’t getting read.

 ![GMT_roma](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/3/5/3532d97e8800f4bf45136c2e1e341cdbcacbb3bc.png)

```julia
 # value for cpt in epoch1[:, 3]
C = GMT.makecpt(cmap=:roma, 
    range=(minimum(epoch1[:, 3]), maximum(epoch1[:, 3]), 0.075));
#imshow(C, B = :none, horizontal = false) # check increments of colorbar

G = GMT.gridit(epoch1[:, [1, 2, 3]], mask=0.3, inc = 0.1, V=:q);

GMT.grdimage(G, 
    proj=(name = :lambertConic, center = [-100 35], parallels = [33 45]),
    coast = (ocean = :gray, shore = 0.5),
    frame=:agf,
    cmap=C, 
    title = "Vertical Residual Values", 
    colorbar = true,
    fmt = :png, 
    show = true 
    );

```

But this is much better. Now, just to figure out how to animate it…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joa-quim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/joa-quim/32/227_2.png) [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2024, 11:15pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277/9 "2024-05-15T23:15:48Z")

</div>

Good that it worked (one less thing to look at). As I said I’ll try to see the animation part. Some capabilities of the GMT CLI movie are hard do reproduce in GMT.jl because the C lib generates and executes shell scripts for intermediate steps but I think this example should work.

On a side note, you can simplify a little your commands by doing:

```julia
epoch1 = gmtread("51915_Vgrdimg.txt", incols="0,1,2")
BoundingBox: [-124.4, -53.0, 24.8, 49.2, -6.794, 4.959]

31104×3 GMTdataset{Float64, 2}
   Row │ col.1 col.2 col.3
───────┼───────────────────────
     1 │ -82.6 24.8 2.8215
     2 │ -82.4 24.8 2.8215
     3 │ -82.2 24.8 2.8215
     4 │ -82.0 24.8 2.8215

G = gridit(epoch1, mask=0.3, inc = 0.1);

```

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**Author:** ![dqeeq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@dqeeq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dqeeq)\
**Post date:** [May 15, 2024, 11:34pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277/10 "2024-05-15T23:34:46Z")

</div>

Can you call the following each time you load a txt file:

```julia
epoch1 = gmtread("51915_Vgrdimg.txt", incols="0,1,2")
@assert typeof(epoch1) == GMTdataset{Float64, 2}
@show epoch1
@show typeof(epoch1)

```

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**Author:** ![joa-quim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/joa-quim/32/227_2.png) [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 2:23pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277/11 "2024-05-17T14:23:10Z")

</div>

> [@GeodeticR](#):
>
> Now, just to figure out how to animate it…

Hi, I have opened this GMT.jl [issue](https://github.com/GenericMappingTools/GMT.jl/issues/1443) that explains some of the details involved in the `movie` usage and to track future improvements.

But regarding your case, I think that if you rename the input .txt files to `*_Vgrdimg_N.txt`, where `N` = _0:n\_files-1_, the next piece of code should a working base that you can tune. Note, you must adapt the `frames = ???` to your number of files.

```julia-auto
function pre_sc()
	makecpt(cmap=:roma, range=(-6.8, 5.0, 0.1), H=true, name="lixo.cpt");
end
function main2_sc()
	surface("51915_Vgrdimg_" * "MOVIE_FRAME" * ".txt", incols="0,1,2", proj=(name=:lambertConic, center=[-90 35], parallels=[33 45]), region=(-124.4, -53.0, 24.8, 49.2), inc=0.1, mask=0.3, save="lixo.grd");
	grdimage("lixo.grd", shade=true, cmap="lixo.cpt", proj=(name=:lambertConic, center=[-90 35], parallels=[33 45]), frame=:auto, title = "Vertical Residual Values")
	coast!(ocean=:gray, shore=0.5)
end
movie(main2_sc, pre=pre_sc, C="hd", name=:deforms, frames=10, format=:mp4, frame_rate=10, V=true)

```

Put this in a script and `include(it.jl)`

EDIT: Sorry, forgot to say. Before a version \> 1.13.3 comes out, the master version is needed to run the above.

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**Author:** ![mihalybaci](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/mihalybaci/32/13528_2.png) [@mihalybaci](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/mihalybaci)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 3:26pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277/12 "2024-05-17T15:26:31Z")

</div>

If the movie is the last sticking point, then a workaround could be (assuming your’e on linux based on the filepaths) to use `ffmpeg` directly. For a series of images, such as image\_001.png, image\_002.png, …, it is easy to make a movie by doing (assuming no typos)

```julia
ffmpeg -framerate 16 -i 'image_*.png' -o movie.mp4

```

If desired, it might then be possible to pop that into your Julia script and do

```julia
run(`ffmpeg -framerate 16 -i 'image_*.png' -o movie.mp4`)

```

Just an option!

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**Author:** ![joa-quim](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/joa-quim/32/227_2.png) [@joa-quim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/joa-quim)\
**Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 3:53pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/animation-from-grid-data-files/114277/13 "2024-05-17T15:53:52Z")

</div>

Yes, that’s true. And we even mention such option in the GMT CLI [man page](https://docs.generic-mapping-tools.org/dev/movie.html#remaking-movie-with-existing-png-frames).