Core concepts
Project
Section titled “Project”A project is the complete workspace for one explanation or closely related series. It contains creative decisions, source files, imported media, and output history.
Description
Section titled “Description”The description states what the project is trying to communicate. It should change less often than scene implementation.
Passport
Section titled “Passport”The passport stores foundational choices such as audience, format, production path, and communication identity. Changing these decisions can invalidate later work, so Matemium resolves them early.
Production path
Section titled “Production path”The selected route through production:
- Visual-first — produce a finished mute film for your own sound.
- Voice synthesis — write narration, regulate timing, generate speech, and assemble the result.
- Custom voice — begin with an approved external performance and build the visuals against verified audio.
Roadmap
Section titled “Roadmap”The roadmap records phases, progress, blockers, and the current production decision. It is project state—not a generic checklist shown identically for every workflow.
A Python class extending CanvasScene. A project can contain more than one scene,
although the desktop normally selects one scene for a render.
scenes.py
Section titled “scenes.py”The primary authoring file. Humans and the agent edit the same visible Python source. Matemium does not use generated JSON as the normal authoring format.
Builder
Section titled “Builder”CanvasBuilder is the recommended declarative authoring API. It collects content,
layout intent, world objects, and timeline operations before compiling them into
the internal scene representation.
Generic data visual
Section titled “Generic data visual”DataPath, DataPlot, and Diagram turn sampled project data into reusable
visual structures. Their named semantic parts can be changed later without
introducing subject-specific engine methods.
Semantic part
Section titled “Semantic part”A stable address inside a compound visual, such as
control_loop::node:sensor, response::series:measured, or
trajectory::path.
State transition and morph
Section titled “State transition and morph”A state transition changes allowlisted visual properties on one or more elements or semantic parts in a synchronized beat. A morph recompiles target content and replaces the existing registered visual while preserving its timeline identity.
A tape is a structured 2D content context. The automatic root tape behaves like an infinite document: content flows vertically, reveals lazily, and remains addressable after appearing.
Projects can use additional tapes for comparisons or parallel explanations,
with automatic world-to-tape, tape-to-tape, and tape-to-world curtain
transitions. scroll_tape() explicitly selects a tape and moves within its
local layout. Only one tape—or the free world—is visible at a time.
World object
Section titled “World object”Anything positioned in Matemium’s free 3D world, such as a registered solid or project-local visual kind. Stable-ID world objects, morphs, and inspection paths can be production composition tools; lower-level camera keyframes and relative world placement remain experimental. Tapes themselves stay camera-facing and cannot be given arbitrary physical transforms.
Render
Section titled “Render”A local compilation of a scene through Matemium’s Manim-based engine. Rendering produces visual evidence that should be inspected rather than assumed correct.
Visual repair
Section titled “Visual repair”The loop of rendering, inspecting, identifying a concrete defect, changing the project, and rendering again.
Output
Section titled “Output”Generated videos, images, full-sheet exports, and related delivery artifacts. Output remains local unless you explicitly publish or move it.
Project archive
Section titled “Project archive”A .matemium.zip copy of a complete project workspace. It preserves editable
source, briefs, tapes, imported media, renders, and output history. Importing an
archive creates a new local project identity instead of replacing the original.