# Animations

To create animated gif files of phonon trajectories, simply add the following to your input file:

```
NUMBER_OF_TIMESTEPS            = 300

# Animation parameters:
OUTPUT_PATH_ANIMATION          = True
OUTPUT_TRAJECTORIES_OF_FIRST   = 30
OUTPUT_ANIMATION_FPS           = 24
```

Note that `NUMBER_OF_TIMESTEPS` should not be too large, otherwise the generation of animation may take a very long time, because one frame for each time step will be created. A few hundred time steps is a reasonable value. The file below shows an example of animated phonon trajectories:

{% file src="<https://664157142-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F7rdk0xqy0YirGWqTjhkv%2Fuploads%2FU1uuPCqK2bnw8mcj1Dua%2FCollimation.mp4?alt=media&token=b7bf6b71-a1af-4786-9bb4-771983685021>" %}
Example of animated phonon paths.
{% endfile %}

{% hint style="info" %}
Note that the library used to create animations (imageio) often introduces breaking changes, so the animation functionality may not work as expected.
{% endhint %}