How to view smooth animations from beamer

Question

In the answer to the question posed here, we can see the output of the two figures moving. This might be a basic question, but how is that person showing that output? I am using overleaf, and if I download the PDF, it never shows the animation moving smoothly; it just shows each tiny change as a separate static slide.

My question is, what is the output file that I would need to download to see that smooth animation, and is there a program I need to open the resulting output file so that I can see the smooth animations?

They converted the set of output slides (30 of them) into a single, animated GIF (using something like ImageMagick) and uploaded it as an image to the site. The original output still remains as a 30-slide beamer presentation. — Werner, Sep 06 '21 at 15:44
@Werner Thanks. Is there not a simpler way though to code it so that the entire animation appears on just one pdf slide and 30 are not created? — graphtheory123, Sep 06 '21 at 16:27
because it would be really inconvenient to have to make those gifs everytime — graphtheory123, Sep 06 '21 at 16:51

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 06 '21 at 20:34

Here is an animate-based version of the answer to the linked question with the animation embedded in a single slide. Open PDF in AR or Okular:

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{animate}
\usepackage{xsavebox}
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
\xsbox{A}{\includegraphics[width=3cm]{example-image-a}}%
\xsbox{B}{\includegraphics[width=3cm]{example-image-b}}%
\xsbox{C}{\includegraphics[width=3cm]{example-image-c}}%
\begin{animateinline}[autoplay,loop,width=\linewidth]{10}
\multiframe{31}{i=0+1}{
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \useasboundingbox
      node[] at (1.5,2) {\phantom{\theA}}
      node[] at (9.5,2) {\phantom{\theC}}
      node[] at (1.5+0.133333330,2.-0.230) {\phantom{\theA}};
    \node[] at (1.5+0.1333333\i,2.-0.2\i) {\theA};
    \node[] at (5.5,2.) {\theB};
    \node[] at (9.5-0.1333333\i,2.-0.2\i) {\theC};
  \end{tikzpicture}
}
\end{animateinline}
\end{frame}
\end{document}

How to view smooth animations from beamer

1 Answers1