Animating a plot with pgfplots

Question

I'm creating a beamer presentation and I want to animate a plot with pgfplots. This is a MWE of the graphics:

\documentclass{beamer}

\usepackage{tikz,pgfplots}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
\begin{figure}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[%
width=2in,
height=2in,
scale only axis,
minor tick num=10,
xmin=1,
xmax=10,
ymin=1,
ymax=10,
axis x line*=bottom,
axis y line*=left,
]
\plot[mark=*, mark options={fill=black}] 
 coordinates{
(1,  1)
(2, 2)
(3, 3)
(4, 4)
(5, 5)
(6, 6)
(7, 7)
(8, 8)
(9, 9)
(10, 10)
};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{figure}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

I want to see the points appearing consecutive as animation. I don't know how to do this, any one can help me? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Run pdflatex on this first file named anim.tex :

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{tikz,pgfplots,multido}
\usepackage[active,tightpage]{preview}
\PreviewEnvironment{tikzpicture}

\begin{document}

\multido{\i=0+1}{10}{%
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
width=2in,
height=2in,
scale only axis,
minor tick num=10,
xmin=1,
xmax=10,
ymin=1,
ymax=10,
axis x line*=bottom,
axis y line*=left,
]
\plot[mark=*, mark options={fill=black},
    x filter/.code={\pgfmathparse{#1<=\i ? #1 : "nan"}}]
 coordinates{
(1, 1)
(2, 2)
(3, 3)
(4, 4)
(5, 5)
(6, 6)
(7, 7)
(8, 8)
(9, 9)
(10, 10)
};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
}

\end{document}

Then on this one called as you want, but in the same directory as the first one :

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{animate}
\begin{document}

\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{Animation}
    \begin{center}
        \animategraphics[palindrome]{12}{anim}{}{}
    \end{center}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

Answer 2

There is no need for two separate source files.

The parameterized (i=0...9) tikzpicture can be placed into a \multiframe code block within the animateinline environment.

Note, that for some reason the [fragile] option must be used with beamer's frame environment.

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{animate}
\usepackage{tikz,pgfplots}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}[fragile]
\begin{animateinline}[palindrome,controls]{12}
\multiframe{10}{i=0+1}{%
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \begin{axis}[
      width=2in,
      height=2in,
      scale only axis,
      minor tick num=10,
      xmin=1,
      xmax=10,
      ymin=1,
      ymax=10,
      axis x line*=bottom,
      axis y line*=left,
    ]
      \plot[
        mark=*, mark options={fill=black},
        x filter/.code={\pgfmathparse{#1<=\i ? #1 : "nan"}}
      ] coordinates {
        (1, 1)
        (2, 2)
        (3, 3)
        (4, 4)
        (5, 5)
        (6, 6)
        (7, 7)
        (8, 8)
        (9, 9)
        (10, 10)
      };
    \end{axis}
  \end{tikzpicture}
}
\end{animateinline}
\end{frame}

\end{document}