Let SceneFileWriter access ffmpeg via av instead of via external process (#3501)

* added av as a dependency

* make partial movie files use av instead of piping to external ffmpeg

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* opengl rendering: use av for movie files

* no need to check for ffmpeg executable

* refactor: *_movie_pipe -> *_partial_movie_stream

* improve (oneline) documentation

* pass more options to partial movie file rendering

* move ffmpeg verbosity settings to config; renamed option dict

* replaced call to ffmpeg in combine_files by using av

Co-authored-by: Jérome Eertmans <jeertmans@icloud.com>

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* there was one examples saved as a gif?

* chore(deps): re-order av

* chore(lib): simplify `write_frame` method

Reduces the overall code complexity

* chore(lib): add audio

* fix(lib): same issue for conversion

* fix(lib): webm export

* fix(lib): transparent export

Though the output video is weird

* try(lib): fix gif + TODOs

* chore(deps): lower dep crit

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* feat(lib): add support for GIF

* fix(ci): rewrite tests

* fix

* chore(ci): prevent calling concat on empty list

* add missing dot

* fix(ci): update frame comparison ?

* fix(log): add handler to libav logger

* chore: add TODO

* fix(lib): concat issue

* Revert "fix(ci): update frame comparison ?"

This reverts commit 904cfb4.

* fix(ci): make it pass tests

* chore(lib/docs/ci): remove FFMPEG entirely

This removes any reference to FFMPEG, except in translation files

* added av as a dependency

* make partial movie files use av instead of piping to external ffmpeg

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* opengl rendering: use av for movie files

* no need to check for ffmpeg executable

* refactor: *_movie_pipe -> *_partial_movie_stream

* improve (oneline) documentation

* pass more options to partial movie file rendering

* move ffmpeg verbosity settings to config; renamed option dict

* replaced call to ffmpeg in combine_files by using av

Co-authored-by: Jérome Eertmans <jeertmans@icloud.com>

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* there was one examples saved as a gif?

* chore(deps): re-order av

* chore(lib): simplify `write_frame` method

Reduces the overall code complexity

* chore(lib): add audio

* fix(lib): same issue for conversion

* fix(lib): webm export

* fix(lib): transparent export

Though the output video is weird

* try(lib): fix gif + TODOs

* chore(deps): lower dep crit

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* feat(lib): add support for GIF

* fix(ci): rewrite tests

* fix

* chore(ci): prevent calling concat on empty list

* add missing dot

* fix(ci): update frame comparison ?

* fix(log): add handler to libav logger

* chore: add TODO

* fix(lib): concat issue

* Revert "fix(ci): update frame comparison ?"

This reverts commit 904cfb4.

* fix(ci): make it pass tests

* chore(lib/docs/ci): remove FFMPEG entirely

This removes any reference to FFMPEG, except in translation files

* chore(deps): update lockfile

* chore(lib): rewrite ffprobe

* fix typo

* slightly more aggressive removal of ffmpeg in docs; minor language changes

* fix gif output stream dimensions

* minor style change

* fix encoding of (transparent) mov files

* fixed metadata / comment

* set frame rate for --format=gif in output_stream

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* more video tests for different render settings, also test pix_fmt

* improve default bitrate setting via crf

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* parametrized format/transparency rendering test

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* context managers for (some) av.open

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* Update manim/utils/commands.py

Co-authored-by: Jérome Eertmans <jeertmans@icloud.com>

* fixed segfault

* update test data involving implicit functions (output improved!)

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* explicity set pix_fmt for transparent webms

* special-special case extracting frame from vp9-encoded file with transparency

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* fix transparent gifs, more special casing in parametrized video format test

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* run tests on macos-latest again

* removed old control data

* Revert "run tests on macos-latest again"

This reverts commit f50efa4.

* added sound to codec test; fixed issue with sound track in gif (disabled) and webm (now via opus)

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* manual wav -> ogg transcoding

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* fixed f-string

* refactored codec test, split out gif

* check for non-zero audio samples

* more cleanup

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* remove ffmpeg from readthedocs apt_packages

* round up run_time if positive and shorter than current frame rate

* added more run_time tests

* black

* improve implementation of test

* removed some unused imports

* improve wording of logged warning

Co-authored-by: Jérome Eertmans <jeertmans@icloud.com>

* move run_time checks from Animation.begin to Scene.get_run_time

* [pre-commit.ci] auto fixes from pre-commit.com hooks

for more information, see https://pre-commit.ci

* remove unused import

* flake: PT012

---------

Co-authored-by: pre-commit-ci[bot] <66853113+pre-commit-ci[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Jérome Eertmans <jeertmans@icloud.com>

Author: 3 people

.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/bug_report.md

@@ -70,14 +70,5 @@ PASTE HERE
 <!-- output of `tlmgr list --only-installed` for TeX Live or a screenshot of the Packages page for MikTeX -->
 </details>
 
-<details><summary>FFMPEG</summary>
-
-Output of `ffmpeg -version`:
-
-```
-PASTE HERE
-```
-</details>
-
 ## Additional comments
 <!-- Add further context that you think might be relevant for this issue here. -->

.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/installation_issue.md

@@ -53,14 +53,5 @@ PASTE HERE
 <!-- output of `tlmgr list --only-installed` for TeX Live or a screenshot of the Packages page for MikTeX -->
 </details>
 
-<details><summary>FFMPEG</summary>
-
-Output of `ffmpeg -version`:
-
-```
-PASTE HERE
-```
-</details>
-
 ## Additional comments
 <!-- Add further context that you think might be relevant for this issue here. -->

.github/workflows/ci.yml

@@ -51,12 +51,6 @@ jobs:
         run: |
           echo "date=$(/bin/date -u "+%m%w%Y")" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
 
-      - name: Install and cache ffmpeg (all OS)
-        uses: FedericoCarboni/setup-ffmpeg@v3
-        with:
-          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
-        id: setup-ffmpeg
-
       - name: Install system dependencies (Linux)
         if: runner.os == 'Linux'
         uses: awalsh128/cache-apt-pkgs-action@latest

.github/workflows/release-publish-documentation.yml

@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ jobs:
     - name: Install system dependencies
       run: |
         sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y \
-          pkg-config libcairo-dev libpango1.0-dev ffmpeg wget fonts-roboto
+          pkg-config libcairo-dev libpango1.0-dev wget fonts-roboto
         wget -qO- "https://yihui.org/tinytex/install-bin-unix.sh" | sh
         echo ${HOME}/.TinyTeX/bin/x86_64-linux >> $GITHUB_PATH
 

.readthedocs.yml

@@ -7,7 +7,6 @@ build:
 
   apt_packages:
     - libpango1.0-dev
-    - ffmpeg
     - graphviz
 
 python:

docker/Dockerfile

@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ FROM python:3.11-slim
 
 RUN apt-get update -qq \
     && apt-get install --no-install-recommends -y \
-        ffmpeg \
         build-essential \
         gcc \
         cmake \

docs/source/contributing/development.rst

@@ -51,8 +51,8 @@ For first-time contributors
 #. Install Manim:
 
    - Follow the steps in our :doc:`installation instructions
-     <../installation>` to install **Manim's dependencies**,
-     primarily ``ffmpeg`` and ``LaTeX``.
+     <../installation>` to install **Manim's system dependencies**.
+     We also recommend installing a LaTeX distribution.
 
    - We recommend using `Poetry <https://python-poetry.org>`__ to manage your
      developer installation of Manim. Poetry is a tool for dependency

docs/source/guides/deep_dive.rst

@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ The scene then asks its renderer to initialize the scene by calling
 
 Inspecting both the default Cairo renderer and the OpenGL renderer shows that the ``init_scene``
 method effectively makes the renderer instantiate a :class:`.SceneFileWriter` object, which
-basically is Manim's interface to ``ffmpeg`` and actually writes the movie file. The Cairo
+basically is Manim's interface to ``libav`` (FFMPEG) and actually writes the movie file. The Cairo
 renderer (see the implementation `here <https://github.com/ManimCommunity/manim/blob/main/manim/renderer/cairo_renderer.py>`__) does not require any further initialization. The OpenGL renderer
 does some additional setup to enable the realtime rendering preview window, which we do not go
 into detail further here.
@@ -310,8 +310,8 @@ the order they are called, these customizable methods are:
 After these three methods are run, the animations have been fully rendered,
 and Manim calls :meth:`.CairoRenderer.scene_finished` to gracefully
 complete the rendering process. This checks whether any animations have been
-played -- and if so, it tells the :class:`.SceneFileWriter` to close the pipe
-to ``ffmpeg``. If not, Manim assumes that a static image should be output
+played -- and if so, it tells the :class:`.SceneFileWriter` to close the output
+file. If not, Manim assumes that a static image should be output
 which it then renders using the same strategy by calling the render loop
 (see below) once.
 
@@ -762,10 +762,10 @@ to learn more, the :func:`.get_hash_from_play_call` function in the
 mechanism.
 
 In the event that the animation has to be rendered, the renderer asks
-its :class:`.SceneFileWriter` to start a writing process. The process
-is started by a call to ``ffmpeg`` and opens a pipe to which rendered
-raw frames can be written. As long as the pipe is open, the process
-can be accessed via the ``writing_process`` attribute of the file writer.
+its :class:`.SceneFileWriter` to open an output container. The process
+is started by a call to ``libav`` and opens a container to which rendered
+raw frames can be written. As long as the output is open, the container
+can be accessed via the ``output_container`` attribute of the file writer.
 With the writing process in place, the renderer then asks the scene
 to "begin" the animations.
 
@@ -815,7 +815,7 @@ time is extracted (3 seconds long) and stored in
 skip (it should not), then whether the animation is already
 cached (it is not). The corresponding animation hash value is
 determined and passed to the file writer, which then also calls
-``ffmpeg`` to start the writing process which waits for rendered
+``libav`` to start the writing process which waits for rendered
 frames from the library.
 
 The scene then ``begin``\ s the animation: for the
@@ -1001,7 +1001,7 @@ and :meth:`.Animation.clean_up_from_scene` methods are called.
 In the end, the time progression is closed (which completes the displayed progress bar)
 in the terminal. With the closing of the time progression, the
 :meth:`.Scene.play_internal` call is completed, and we return to the renderer,
-which now orders the :class:`.SceneFileWriter` to close the movie pipe that has
+which now orders the :class:`.SceneFileWriter` to close the output container that has
 been opened for this animation: a partial movie file is written.
 
 This pretty much concludes the walkthrough of a :class:`.Scene.play` call,

docs/source/installation.rst

@@ -34,8 +34,7 @@ Installing Manim via Conda and related environment managers
 Conda is a package manager for Python that allows creating environments
 where all your dependencies are stored. Like this, you don't clutter up your PC with
 unwanted libraries and you can just delete the environment when you don't need it anymore.
-It is a good way to install manim since all dependencies like
-``ffmpeg``, ``pycairo``, etc. come with it.
+It is a good way to install manim since all dependencies like ``pycairo``, etc. come with it.
 Also, the installation steps are the same, no matter if you are
 on Windows, Linux, Intel Macs or on Apple Silicon.
 
@@ -69,7 +68,7 @@ in order for Manim to work properly, some additional system
 dependencies need to be installed first. The following pages have
 operating system specific instructions for you to follow.
 
-Manim requires Python version ``3.8`` or above to run.
+Manim requires Python version ``3.9`` or above to run.
 
 .. hint::
 

docs/source/installation/jupyter.rst

@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ then execute it.
 .. code-block::
 
    !sudo apt update
-   !sudo apt install libcairo2-dev ffmpeg \
+   !sudo apt install libcairo2-dev \
        texlive texlive-latex-extra texlive-fonts-extra \
        texlive-latex-recommended texlive-science \
        tipa libpango1.0-dev