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Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center
Animator
  • See Also
    • Animate
    • ListAnimate
    • Trigger
    • Slider
    • Clock
    • Pause
    • Manipulator
    • ProgressIndicator
  • Related Guides
    • Control Objects
    • Interactive Manipulation
  • Tech Notes
    • Introduction to Dynamic
    • Introduction to Control Objects
    • Advanced Dynamic Functionality
    • See Also
      • Animate
      • ListAnimate
      • Trigger
      • Slider
      • Clock
      • Pause
      • Manipulator
      • ProgressIndicator
    • Related Guides
      • Control Objects
      • Interactive Manipulation
    • Tech Notes
      • Introduction to Dynamic
      • Introduction to Control Objects
      • Advanced Dynamic Functionality

Animator[u]

represents an object that displays with the value of u being continually increased from 0 to 1 with time.

Animator[u,{umin,umax}]

makes u vary from umin to umax.

Animator[u,{umin,umax,du}]

makes u vary in steps du.

Animator[u,{umin,umax},ups]

makes the value of u increase at a rate of ups units per second.

Details and Options
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Animator Content  
Animator Control  
Options  
AnimationDirection  
AnimationRate  
AnimationRepetitions  
Show More Show More
AnimationRunning  
AnimationRunTime  
AnimationTimeIndex  
Appearance  
AppearanceElements  
Background  
BaselinePosition  
DefaultDuration  
DisplayAllSteps  
Enabled  
Exclusions  
ImageSize  
RefreshRate  
Applications  
Properties & Relations  
Possible Issues  
See Also
Tech Notes
Related Guides
History
Cite this Page
BUILT-IN SYMBOL
  • See Also
    • Animate
    • ListAnimate
    • Trigger
    • Slider
    • Clock
    • Pause
    • Manipulator
    • ProgressIndicator
  • Related Guides
    • Control Objects
    • Interactive Manipulation
  • Tech Notes
    • Introduction to Dynamic
    • Introduction to Control Objects
    • Advanced Dynamic Functionality
    • See Also
      • Animate
      • ListAnimate
      • Trigger
      • Slider
      • Clock
      • Pause
      • Manipulator
      • ProgressIndicator
    • Related Guides
      • Control Objects
      • Interactive Manipulation
    • Tech Notes
      • Introduction to Dynamic
      • Introduction to Control Objects
      • Advanced Dynamic Functionality

Animator

Animator[u]

represents an object that displays with the value of u being continually increased from 0 to 1 with time.

Animator[u,{umin,umax}]

makes u vary from umin to umax.

Animator[u,{umin,umax,du}]

makes u vary in steps du.

Animator[u,{umin,umax},ups]

makes the value of u increase at a rate of ups units per second.

Details and Options

  • The default duration is five seconds.
  • Animator[Dynamic[s],…] makes the value of s be continually reset with time.
  • Animator[u,{umin,Infinity}] will run forever, with u increasing by 1 every second.
  • Animator[u,{-Infinity,Infinity}] also allows u to decrease forever if the animation is run in reverse.
  • The following options can be given:
  • AnimationDirection Forwardthe direction of the animation
    AnimationRate Automaticthe rate at which to take variables to vary
    AnimationRepetitions Infinityhow many times to run before stopping
    AnimationRunning Truewhether the animation is running
    AnimationRunTime 0time elapsed since the animation last started running, or 0 if the animation is not running
    AnimationTimeIndex Automatictime index for the animation, where 0 is the beginning and the value of DefaultDuration is the end
    Appearance Automaticthe overall appearance of the animator
    AppearanceElements Automaticelements to include in the displayed animator
    BaselinePosition Automaticwhat to align with a surrounding text baseline
    BaseStyle{}base style specifications for the animator
    DefaultDuration 5.the default duration in seconds
    DisplayAllSteps Falsewhether to force all discrete steps to be displayed
    Enabled Automaticwhether the animator is enabled, or grayed out
    Exclusions {}specific u values to exclude
    ImageMargins0margins around the image of the displayed animator
    ImageSize Automaticthe overall image size of the displayed animator
  • The following elements are included in a default animator: "ProgressSlider", "PlayPauseButton", "FasterSlowerButtons", "DirectionButton". These elements can be specified in any order in a list given as the setting for AppearanceElements.
  • Additional possible elements include: "PlayButton", "ResetPlayButton", "PauseButton", "ResetButton".
  • Appearance -> "Labeled" displays the current value of the animator as an editable label.
  • Animator[] is equivalent to Animator[0].

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (3)

An animator set at 0.8 in the default range 0 to 1:

An animator with its value updated dynamically:

An animator with integer values in the range 0 to 100:

Scope  (5)

Animator Content  (1)

Include different appearance elements:

Animator Control  (4)

Specify an initial value:

Specify a range:

Specify a range with discrete jump:

Specify a range with refresh rate:

Options  (25)

AnimationDirection  (1)

Control the direction of the slider:

AnimationRate  (1)

Control the rate of the slider:

AnimationRepetitions  (1)

Control the number of slider repetitions:

AnimationRunning  (2)

By default Animator starts with a moving slider:

By setting AnimationRunning, the slider remains stationary:

AnimationRunTime  (1)

Track how long an animation has been running:

AnimationTimeIndex  (1)

With default option settings, AnimationTimeIndex runs from 0 to 5:

Appearance  (3)

Different sizes:

Add a label:

Predefined animator appearances:

AppearanceElements  (4)

By default Animator consists of a slider and a set of buttons:

By setting AppearanceElements, specify which controls are displayed:

See all the controls together:

Construct a customized Animator:

Background  (2)

Change the background colors:

Change the background color dynamically:

BaselinePosition  (1)

Align with the surrounding text:

DefaultDuration  (2)

Control the time duration of the slider:

The duration is equivalent to 1/rate:

DisplayAllSteps  (1)

Use DisplayAllSteps to force every intermediate step to be performed:

Enabled  (2)

By default Animator is enabled:

By setting Enabled->False, the animator is disabled but visible in its current state:

Exclusions  (1)

Exclude values from the range:

ImageSize  (1)

Use predefined sizes:

RefreshRate  (1)

Control the refresh rate of the slider:

Applications  (2)

Animate a plotting process:

Animate any process:

Properties & Relations  (1)

Animate and ListAnimate use Animator controls:

Possible Issues  (1)

The Animator control is driven by a real-time clock; pausing affects display only, not state:

See Also

Animate  ListAnimate  Trigger  Slider  Clock  Pause  Manipulator  ProgressIndicator

Tech Notes

    ▪
  • Introduction to Dynamic
  • ▪
  • Introduction to Control Objects
  • ▪
  • Advanced Dynamic Functionality

Related Guides

    ▪
  • Control Objects
  • ▪
  • Interactive Manipulation

History

Introduced in 2007 (6.0) | Updated in 2014 (10.0)

Wolfram Research (2007), Animator, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Animator.html (updated 2014).

Text

Wolfram Research (2007), Animator, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Animator.html (updated 2014).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2007. "Animator." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2014. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Animator.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2007). Animator. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Animator.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_animator, author="Wolfram Research", title="{Animator}", year="2014", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Animator.html}", note=[Accessed: 01-March-2026]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_animator, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={Animator}, year={2014}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Animator.html}, note=[Accessed: 01-March-2026]}

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