Warning
This repository is archived and not being developed on as of January 11th, 2026. I stopped working on Manim a couple years ago, and also just lost interest in my chemistry videos project. There's also better ways to represent chemical structures and even 3D molecular diagrams in manim people have developed in the meantime (which I'd link to, but were unfortunately wiped out in the recent deletion of the Manim discord). Hopefully you are able to rediscover those and use them according to your needs.
Thank you for all the support provided on this repository and on YouTube over the past years. It's always surprising to me when I get a notification for someone starring this repo or commenting on my videos lol, but I do sincerely appreciate it.
This is an extension to Manim library (initially created by 3Blue1Brown), for making videos regarding chemistry.
A Hindi version of this README is available here.
A Chinese version of this README is available here.
pip install chanim
- Install the external dependencies for manim as described here according to your OS.
- Clone the contents of this repository.
- Open a terminal in the cloned directory and run
pip install -e ., or if you prefer to use poetry instead,poetry install. This'll installmanimfor you as well if you don't already have it installed. (you'll still need to setup the external dependencies though)
That's about it. You can now do from chanim import <*|object_name> like any regular Python package.
Here's a little example of it working.
from chanim import *
class ChanimScene(Scene):
def construct(self):
## ChemWithName creates a chemical diagram with a name label
chem = ChemWithName("*6((=O)-N(-CH_3)-*5(-N=-N(-CH_3)-=)--(=O)-N(-H_3C)-)", "Caffeine")
self.play(chem.creation_anim())
self.wait()Type this into a python (.py) file. I'll assume you named it chem.py
In your command prompt/terminal write this (assuming you're in your project directory):
manim -p -qm chem.py ChanimSceneThis'll render your Scene and preview it in your default player (in medium quality).
ChanimScene.mp4
Congrats! You've written and played your first animation with chanim (or "chanimation" should I say)
Explore the code and docs (coming soon!) for more on how to use chanim.
Currently chanim only supports drawing compounds and reactions along with a few chemfig commands (Chemfig is a latex package that can draw chemical molecules and is used by chanim internally. The documentation is available here) but more is to come! If you have a suggestion, file an issue with a proper tag.
There may be some faulty code and a lot of this may not be well made/documented. Feel free to file an issue if something doesn't work properly.