Show HN: Manim (3Blue1Brown's animation engine) in the browser via WebGPU

Some open source resources to add to awesome-manim:

3blue1brown's Manim Python code for teaching transformers: 3b1b/videos videos/_2024/transformers: https://github.com/3b1b/videos/tree/e317d6c5eaa8370a2deb4d14...

Notes re: "Manim: Animation engine for explanatory math videos" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44995308 ; ManimML, manim-web (Typescript), manim-web react ManimScene and/or reactive-manim

"Show HN: I ported Manim to TypeScript (run 3b1B math animations in the browser)" re: manim-web: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47155375

philip-murray/reactive-manim: A component library for ManimCE, supporting component composition and automatic animation. Supports declarative syntax for writing components inspired by React.js. https://github.com/philip-murray/reactive-manim

For stateful sims with a reset button like for example the PHET.colorado.edu exercises; https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49053601

> R3F ReactThreeFiber and Drei (ThreeJS) and NextJS with OpenNext

ManimGL: https://github.com/MathItYT/manimgl

Manim + WebGL (PyO3, Rust, wgpu, WASM) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49091703 :

MathItYT/mathlikeanim-rs: A Rust library to create interactive mathematical animations https://github.com/MathItYT/mathlikeanim-rs

Looks interesting, but to be honest I'm put off by the idea that you had AI rewrite someone's library and now you're using their name and brand to promote your $20-$100 per month tool based on their work.

Calling it Manim in the browser and using 3Blue1Brown's name is really misleading when you discover that it's none of those things and you're trying to charge for it.

This is a very bad misappropriation of someone else's work and fame for your personal gain.

I can only hope that this inspires some people to vibecode and equivalent service but make it open source and free to all.

I built the core of the animation engine, and I think our wording may have created the wrong impression about how it was developed.

For the use case we have, we needed a fast animation engine. The engine didn’t begin as a port or rewrite of Manim. We originally built it under a different name as a standalone Rust/WebGPU 3D animation engine for real-time AI tutoring. I spent roughly two months building the renderer and animation system from scratch.

Our original engine had a different interface, different defaults and produced different visual results. Only after the engine was already working did we decide to make part of its Python interface compatible with ManimCE. We did that because many users already know the Manim API, and coding models are already familiar with its classes and common animation patterns. We spent substantial time matching ManimCE’s visual behavior as closely as possible. We believe this compatibility layer makes adoption easier; yet the underlying renderer, scene system, and implementation are our own.

So describing this as vibe coding Manim in Rust and then closing the source is inaccurate. The browser editor, rendering, and video downloads are free. You are free to write code, render and download videos as much as you want. The paid features are the AI-powered functionality, which are priced to cover their cost to us.

We respect that some people would prefer it to be open-source, but choosing not to open-source an independently developed engine is different from taking an open-source project and repackaging it as proprietary software.

We are fully compatible with Manim CE. Our goal is 1:1 API compatibility, so people can continue using the API they already know.

We never intended to use 3Blue1Brown's name in a negative or misleading way. We simply wanted to communicate that we have made the Manim API created by 3Blue1Brown accessible in the browser with WebGPU, without requiring any installation.

> So describing this as vibe coding Manim in Rust and then closing the source is inaccurate.

Your team submitted this with the title “Manim (3Blue1Brown's animation engine) in the browser via WebGPU”

If anyone is being misleading, it’s your team.