plotly / plotly/plotly.py

go.Contour doesn't render correctly in animation frames when multiple traces are present

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bug P2
Dominant language
Python
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Description

I'm encountering an issue with plotly.graph_objects.Figure animations. When using go.Contour inside go.Frame along with additional traces such as go.Scatter, the contour plot no longer renders correctly during animation. However, if I only include the go.Contour trace by itself in each frame, it animates perfectly.
Here's a minimal reproducible example:

import plotly.io as pio
pio.renderers.default = 'browser'
import plotly.graph_objects as go
import numpy as np

z_base = np.array([
    [10, 10.625, 12.5, 15.625, 20],
    [5.625, 6.25, 8.125, 11.25, 15.625],
    [2.5, 3.125, 5., 8.125, 12.5],
    [0.625, 1.25, 3.125, 6.25, 10.625],
    [0, 0.625, 2.5, 5.625, 10]
])

lk_x=[0,0,1,1,0]
lk_y=[0,1,1,0,0]

data_line = go.Scatter(x=lk_x, y=lk_y, mode='lines', fill='toself', fillcolor='rgba(60, 53, 48, 0.5)', line_color='black', showlegend=False)

scales = np.linspace(0.2, 1.0, 10)
frames = []
for i, s in enumerate(scales):
    z_scaled = z_base * s
    frames.append(go.Frame(
        data=[
            go.Contour(
                z=z_scaled,
                colorbar=dict(
                    thickness=25,
                    thicknessmode='pixels',
                    len=0.6,
                    lenmode='fraction',
                    outlinewidth=0
                )
                ,zorder=2
            ),
            go.Scatter(
                x=[0, 1, 2, 3, 4],
                y=[0, 1, 1.5, 2, 3], 
                mode='lines',
                line=dict(color='black', width=2),
                showlegend=False,
                zorder=0
            ),
            data_line
        ],
        name=f"scale_{i}"
    ))


fig = go.Figure(
    data=frames[0].data,
    frames=frames
)

fig.update_layout(
    title="Contour",
    updatemenus=[{
        "buttons": [
            {"label": "play", "method": "animate", "args": [None, {"frame": {"duration": 500}, "fromcurrent": True}]},
            {"label": "pause", "method": "animate", "args": [[None], {"mode": "immediate", "frame": {"duration": 0}}]}
        ],
        "type": "buttons",
        "showactive": True,
        "x": 0.1,
        "y": -0.1
    }],
    sliders=[{
        "steps": [{"args": [[f.name]], "label": f"Step {i+1}", "method": "animate"} for i, f in enumerate(frames)],
        "x": 0.1,
        "len": 0.9
    }],
    width=500,
    height=500
)

fig.show()

only include the go.Contour trace:

Image

with additional traces:

Image

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by running the provided minimal Python example in plotly.py and compare animation with only go.Contour against animation with the additional go.Scatter traces. Trace the animation/rendering path used by Figure and Frame for contour data; done means the contour renders correctly throughout frames when multiple traces are present, without regressing the single-trace case.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
data-visualization
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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