Manim: A Review of Programmatic Mathematical Animation for Visualization and Education
Abstract
Mathematical visualization has become an essential component of modern mathematics education due to its ability to improve conceptual understanding, cognitive engagement, and dynamic representation of abstract mathematical concepts. Recent advances in educational technology have accelerated the development of interactive and computational visualization systems, leading to the emergence of programmatic animation frameworks such as Manim. This study presents a bibliometric and systematic review of mathematical visualization research using data collected from the OpenAlex scholarly database. The study combines bibliometric analysis, topic modeling using BERTopic, and thematic synthesis to examine the evolution of mathematical visualization systems and identify emerging trends in computational and programmatic educational visualization. The analysis reveals that research themes have evolved from geometry-based visualization and spatial learning toward animation-supported learning, computational thinking, and programmable educational systems. The findings also indicate increasing integration of programming and computational pedagogy within mathematics education. Furthermore, the study proposes a taxonomy of mathematical visualization systems categorized into static, interactive, computational, programmatic, and AI-assisted visualization paradigms. The review positions Manim as an emerging representative of programmatic mathematical animation systems emphasizing reproducibility, automation, scalability, and mathematical precision. The paper concludes by identifying major research gaps and future directions including AI-assisted animation generation, immersive mathematical visualization, and automated educational content creation.
Authors
Mayanka Gupta, Riya Shah, Rohit Raj, Sagar Kumar, Shazia Aslam
Institution
NIET Business School, Greater Noida
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