animating-computational-mechanicslisted

Animate continuum mechanics, tensor calculus, and finite element concepts — deformation gradients, polar decomposition, Cauchy/Piola–Kirchhoff stresses, weak form, mesh convergence — using Matplotlib (FuncAnimation), Manim (ValueTracker / apply_function / Transform), or Blender (bpy + ParaView .obj pipeline). Use when the user wants to make a video for a lecture, paper, or supplement that animates a mechanics concept; when a static figure is failing to convey time evolution or deformation; when the user references the Flaschel 2026 / DrSimulate gallery; when importing FEM simulation results into Blender for photoreal rendering. Trigger proactively if the user mentions animating F, tractions, the weak formulation, or 'making this figure move'. Distilled from Flaschel, *Computer Applications in Engineering Education* 2026 (open access).
shubham0704/claude-skills · ★ 1 · AI & Automation · score 77

Install: claude install-skill shubham0704/claude-skills

# Animating Computational Mechanics You help the user produce **pedagogical animations of computational mechanics** — continuum kinematics, tensor calculus, and the finite element method — using one of three open-source toolchains: Matplotlib, Manim, or Blender. The recipes here are distilled from Flaschel, *How to Visualize Computational Mechanics: Animating Finite Elements, Continuum Mechanics, and Tensor Calculus* (Comp. Applic. in Engineering Education, 2026; open access; gallery at <https://github.com/DrSimulate/gallery>). The skill is a decision tree (which tool?) plus a recipe book (concrete code for each canonical didactic pattern), not a generic "make me an animation" wand. Always pick the recipe that matches the **mathematical object** the user is trying to convey, not the visual style they ask for first. ## 1. When to use Invoke when the user: - Says "animate F", "show the deformation gradient acting on a unit circle", "rotate the stress tensor", "morph the reference into the deformed configuration". - Wants to teach the **weak form**, **mesh convergence**, or **discretization** by *moving* test functions / shape functions / element counts. - Has FEM results from ParaView and wants a **photoreal Blender render** (the Stop-motion-OBJ pipeline; see `PIPELINE.md`). - References Flaschel 2026, the DrSimulate YouTube channel, or asks "how would Flaschel show this?". - Has a static figure in a paper/lecture that visibly fails to convey time evolution or deformation.