ffmpeg_renderer failing in animate

[rressler]

I am trying to use gganimate to render an mp4 with code that worked several months ago but now fails with error.

p2 is a ggplot2 plot where animate(p2, nframes = 120) works fine to produce a gif. However, running the following

animate( plot = p2, renderer = ffmpeg_renderer(format = "mp4"))

produces

Error: Rendering with ffmpeg failed.

Traceback shows
4. stop("Rendering with ffmpeg failed", call. = FALSE)
3. args$renderer(frames_vars$frame_source, args$fps)
2. animate.gganim(plot = p2, renderer = ffmpeg_renderer(format = "mp4"))

1. animate(plot = p2, renderer = ffmpeg_renderer(format = "mp4"))

I am operating on a mac M2 with gganimate version 1.08.

ffmpeg appears to be installed properly as entering the following in a terminal window does work.

ffmpeg -i my_gapminder.gif -movflags faststart -pix_fmt yuv420p -vf "scale=trunc(iw/2)*2:trunc(ih/2)*2" my_gapminder.mp4

Appreciate any suggestions.

[thomasp85]

I cannot reproduce this. The ffmpeg renderer throws this error if the output file does not appear after rendering so maybe there is an issue with write permissions on your disk?

[rressler]

Tom,
Thanks for the review. Without changing anything, it worked today with the output below. I am not sure what may have changed in the use of the temp folder that enabled it to work. One of those Mac mysteries I guess.
Thanks for the assist.
Richard

Show in New Window
Inserting image 120 at 11.90s (100%)...
Encoding to gif... done!
Show in New Window
Input #0, image2, from '/var/folders/_7/4_9z3s852cng3ktlr0pvn99h0000gn/T//RtmpfQuNM8/60704c9dd73a/gganim_plot%4d.png':
Duration: 00:00:04.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
Stream #0:0: Video: png, rgba(pc), 480x480, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 25 tbn
Stream mapping:
Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (png (native) -> h264 (libx264))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] using cpu capabilities: ARMv8 NEON
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] profile High, level 2.2, 4:2:0, 8-bit
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] 264 - core 164 r3095 baee400 - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2022 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x113 me=hex subme=7 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chroma_qp_offset=-2 threads=12 lookahead_threads=2 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=2 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 weightb=1 open_gop=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=10 scenecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=40 rc=crf mbtree=1 crf=23.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00
Output #0, mp4, to '/var/folders/_7/4_9z3s852cng3ktlr0pvn99h0000gn/T//RtmpfQuNM8/file6070e9d4822.mp4':
Metadata:
encoder : Lavf60.3.100
Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p(tv, progressive), 480x480, q=2-31, 10 fps, 10240 tbn
Metadata:
encoder : Lavc60.3.100 libx264
Side data:
cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 0/0/0 buffer size: 0 vbv_delay: N/A
frame= 100 fps=0.0 q=-1.0 Lsize= 127kB time=00:00:09.70 bitrate= 107.2kbits/s speed=70.7x
video:125kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 1.589969%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] frame I:1 Avg QP:15.91 size: 21930
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] frame P:27 Avg QP:19.51 size: 2805
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] frame B:72 Avg QP:28.69 size: 411
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] consecutive B-frames: 1.0% 6.0% 9.0% 84.0%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] mb I I16..4: 36.4% 25.6% 38.0%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] mb P I16..4: 0.2% 0.1% 1.6% P16..4: 2.8% 1.3% 2.2% 0.0% 0.0% skip:91.7%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] mb B I16..4: 0.0% 0.3% 0.1% B16..8: 3.3% 0.4% 0.4% direct: 0.1% skip:95.3% L0:55.8% L1:38.0% BI: 6.2%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] 8x8 transform intra:26.6% inter:13.4%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] coded y,uvDC,uvAC intra: 47.2% 30.2% 28.3% inter: 1.0% 0.4% 0.4%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] i16 v,h,dc,p: 94% 5% 1% 0%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] i8 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 42% 4% 53% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] i4 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 48% 14% 9% 4% 5% 5% 5% 4% 5%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] i8c dc,h,v,p: 83% 5% 7% 4%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] Weighted P-Frames: Y:0.0% UV:0.0%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] ref P L0: 77.5% 10.0% 8.9% 3.7%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] ref B L0: 78.0% 19.2% 2.9%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] ref B L1: 93.6% 6.4%
[libx264 @ 0x120e1b600] kb/s:101.79