3Blue1Brown Style Math Animations

Create pedagogically-focused mathematical animations in the 3Blue1Brown style

A tribute to Grant Sanderson and the 3Blue1Brown channel

A Note of Gratitude

This skill is an unofficial tribute to 3Blue1Brown, the extraordinary YouTube channel created by Grant Sanderson.

3Blue1Brown has fundamentally changed how millions of people understand mathematics. The channel's unique approach—building visual intuition before introducing formulas, asking "why" before "what"—has made complex topics like linear algebra, calculus, and neural networks accessible to learners worldwide.

"The goal is not to animate math, but to build understanding. Animation is just the medium."

This skill attempts to capture and codify the pedagogical philosophy behind 3Blue1Brown videos, making it easier for anyone to create educational math content with the same clarity and elegance.

This is not affiliated with or endorsed by 3Blue1Brown. It's simply a fan's attempt to learn from and share the teaching principles that have helped so many.

What This Skill Does

Helps Claude Code create mathematical animations that prioritize understanding over aesthetics:

Philosophy	Implementation
Intuition before formalism	Build visual understanding before showing formulas
Why before what	Motivate concepts before defining them
Concrete before abstract	Start with examples, then generalize
Show, don't tell	Let the visual do the explaining

Topics Covered

Linear Algebra — Matrix transformations, eigenvalues, vector spaces
Deep Learning — Neural networks, backpropagation, attention mechanisms
Statistics — Probability distributions, Bayesian inference
Number Theory — GCD, LCM, prime numbers
Algorithms — Dijkstra, sorting, graph algorithms
3D Visualization — Surfaces, loss landscapes

Installation

# Install Manim (required)
pip install manim

# Add this skill to Claude Code
npx skills add subinium/3b1b-style-animation-skill

Usage

Once installed, Claude Code will follow these guidelines when you ask:

"Explain eigenvalues with a 3-minute animation"
"Create a visualization of how backpropagation works"
"Show why matrix multiplication isn't commutative"
"Animate the Dijkstra algorithm step by step"

Quick Example

from manim import *

class WhyPythagorean(Scene):
    """Start with WHY, not WHAT."""

    def construct(self):
        self.camera.background_color = "#1c1c1c"

        # Hook: Pose the question
        question = Text("Why does a² + b² = c²?", font_size=36)
        self.play(Write(question))
        self.wait()

        # The rest builds visual intuition...

Structure

3b1b-style-animation-skill/
├── package.json
├── README.md
└── skills/
    └── 3b1b-style-animation/
        ├── SKILL.md          # Main skill definition
        └── rules/            # 40+ detailed guideline files

The 3Blue1Brown Visual Style

Element	Value
Background	`#1c1c1c` (dark gray)
Primary accent	`#3b82f6` (blue)
Secondary accent	`#fbbf24` (yellow/gold)
Positive values	Blue tones
Negative values	Red tones
Neutral/zero	Gray

Contributing

Contributions that improve the pedagogical quality are welcome. Please ensure any additions follow the "understanding first" philosophy.

Resources

License

MIT License — Use freely, teach generously.

Thank you, Grant, for showing us that math can be beautiful.

subinium/3b1b-style-animation-skill

README