The CircuitPython LED Animation library includes a series of sparkle animations: sparkle and sparklepulse. This section will cover these animations and the available customizations for each of them.

Sparkle

This animation sparkles across all of the pixels in a single color.

First, you import the Sparkle module and a color for it. See Import and Setup for the rest of the necessary imports and pixel object creation.

from adafruit_led_animation.animation.sparkle import Sparkle
from adafruit_led_animation.color import AMBER

1
2

from adafruit_led_animation.animation.sparkle import Sparkle
from adafruit_led_animation.color import AMBER

Next you create the Sparkle animation. Sparkle requires two arguments, and has an optional third.

Required:

• pixel_object: The pixel object, e.g. pixels.
• speed: The refresh rate of the sparkle in seconds, e.g. 0.05.
• color: The color to display, e.g. AMBER. Can also be a color tuple, e.g. (255, 0, 0), or a hex color value, e.g. 0xFF0000.

Optional:

• num_sparkles: The number of sparkles. Defaults to 5% of the length of the pixel_object.

Once created, you display the animation.

sparkle = Sparkle(pixels, speed=0.05, color=AMBER, num_sparkles=10)

while True:
    sparkle.animate()

1
2
3
4

sparkle = Sparkle(pixels, speed=0.05, color=AMBER, num_sparkles=10)

while True:
    sparkle.animate()

SparklePulse

This is a version of sparkle that uses pulse to determine the brightness of each pixel.

First, you import the SparklePulse module and a color for it. See Import and Setup for the rest of the necessary imports and pixel object creation.

from adafruit_led_animation.animation.SparklePulse import SparklePulse
from adafruit_led_animation.color import JADE

1
2

from adafruit_led_animation.animation.SparklePulse import SparklePulse
from adafruit_led_animation.color import JADE

Next you create the SparklePulse animation. SparklePulse requires three arguments, and has an optional three more.

Required:

• pixel_object: The pixel object, e.g. pixels.
• speed: The speed of the pulse in seconds, e.g. 0.05.
• color: The color to display, e.g. JADE. Can also be a color tuple, e.g. (255, 0, 0), or a hex color value, e.g. 0xFF0000.

Optional:

• period: The number of seconds over which to pulse the LEDs. Defaults to 5 if no period is provided.
• max_intensity: The maximum intensity to pulse. Provide a value between 0 and 1.0. Defaults to 1.
• min_intensity: The minimum intensity to pulse. Provide a value between 0 and 1.0. Defaults to 0.

Once created, you display the animation.

sparkle_pulse = SparklePulse(pixels, speed=0.05, period=3, color=JADE)

while True:
    sparkle_pulse.animate()

1
2
3
4

sparkle_pulse = SparklePulse(pixels, speed=0.05, period=3, color=JADE)

while True:
    sparkle_pulse.animate()

Next we'll look at using the pixel mapping helpers to create a grid from a single LED strip.

Full Example Code

This example displays the sparkle animations in sequence.

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Kattni Rembor for Adafruit Industries
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

"""
This example uses AnimationsSequence to display multiple animations in sequence, at a five second
interval.

For NeoPixel FeatherWing. Update pixel_pin and pixel_num to match your wiring if using
a different form of NeoPixels.
"""

import board
import neopixel

from adafruit_led_animation.animation.sparkle import Sparkle
from adafruit_led_animation.animation.sparklepulse import SparklePulse
from adafruit_led_animation.color import AMBER, JADE
from adafruit_led_animation.sequence import AnimationSequence

# Update to match the pin connected to your NeoPixels
pixel_pin = board.D6
# Update to match the number of NeoPixels you have connected
pixel_num = 32

pixels = neopixel.NeoPixel(pixel_pin, pixel_num, brightness=0.5, auto_write=False)

sparkle = Sparkle(pixels, speed=0.05, color=AMBER, num_sparkles=10)
sparkle_pulse = SparklePulse(pixels, speed=0.05, period=3, color=JADE)

animations = AnimationSequence(
    sparkle,
    sparkle_pulse,
    advance_interval=5,
    auto_clear=True,
)

while True:
    animations.animate()

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38

# SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 2021 Kattni Rembor for Adafruit Industries
# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT

"""
This example uses AnimationsSequence to display multiple animations in sequence, at a five second
interval.

For NeoPixel FeatherWing. Update pixel_pin and pixel_num to match your wiring if using
a different form of NeoPixels.
"""

import board
import neopixel

from adafruit_led_animation.animation.sparkle import Sparkle
from adafruit_led_animation.animation.sparklepulse import SparklePulse
from adafruit_led_animation.color import AMBER, JADE
from adafruit_led_animation.sequence import AnimationSequence

# Update to match the pin connected to your NeoPixels
pixel_pin = board.D6
# Update to match the number of NeoPixels you have connected
pixel_num = 32

pixels = neopixel.NeoPixel(pixel_pin, pixel_num, brightness=0.5, auto_write=False)

sparkle = Sparkle(pixels, speed=0.05, color=AMBER, num_sparkles=10)
sparkle_pulse = SparklePulse(pixels, speed=0.05, period=3, color=JADE)

animations = AnimationSequence(
    sparkle,
    sparkle_pulse,
    advance_interval=5,
    auto_clear=True,
)

while True:
    animations.animate()