Using Motion Canvas on GitHub Actions

sprout ⋄ posted almost 2 years ago ⋄ last updated almost 2 years ago ⋄ 3 min read

Start by creating a new node project at the root of your repo and install some dependencies:

npm init @motion-canvas@latest -- --name motion-canvas-github-actions --path ./motion-canvas-github-actions --language ts
cd animations
npm i
npm i -S @motion-canvas/player
npm run serve

Create your animation:

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import { makeScene2D, Circle } from "@motion-canvas/2d";
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import { createRef, all } from "@motion-canvas/core";
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export default makeScene2D(function* (view) {
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  const myCircle = createRef<Circle>();
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  view.add(
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    <Circle ref={myCircle} x={-300} width={140} height={140} fill="#e13238" />
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  );
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  yield* all(
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    myCircle().position.x(300, 1).to(-300, 1),
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    myCircle().fill("#e6a700", 1).to("#e13238", 1)
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  );
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});

Update your vite config in the animations folder:

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import { defineConfig } from "vite";
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import motionCanvas from "@motion-canvas/vite-plugin";
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export default defineConfig({
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  plugins: [motionCanvas()],
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  build: {
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    rollupOptions: {
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      input: {
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        main: "index.html",
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      },
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      output: {
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        dir: "dist/",
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        entryFileNames: "[name].js",
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      },
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    },
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  },
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});

Add a main script to load the player, and a script to add the base URL for the GitHub Pages subdirectory structure:

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import '@motion-canvas/core';
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import '@motion-canvas/player';
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// Run this function so that the player can be used with relative paths, such as
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// a github pages deployment. Since this is a separate build file, vite doesn't
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// know how to add the base url to the player's src attribute.
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(function prependBase() {
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  // If there's no BASE_URL, then there's nothing to do
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  const base = import.meta.env.BASE_URL;
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  if (!base) {
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    return;
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  }
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  document.querySelectorAll('motion-canvas-player').forEach(player => {
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    let url = player.getAttribute('src');
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    // URL is absolute
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    if (url?.startsWith('/')) {
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      // Copy everything after the '/'
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      url = base + url.slice(1);
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      // Create a new player
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      const newElement = document.createElement('motion-canvas-player');
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      // Set the same attributes
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      newElement.setAttribute('auto', player.getAttribute('auto') ?? 'true');
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      newElement.setAttribute('src', url);
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      // Replace the old player
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      player.replaceWith(newElement);
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    }
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  });
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})();

Add a root-level index.html:

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<!DOCTYPE html>
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<html lang="en">
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<head>
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    <meta charset="UTF-8">
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    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
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    <title>Document</title>
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    <style>
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        motion-canvas-player {
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            width: 100%;
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            height: 100%;
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            display: block;
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        }
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    </style>
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</head>
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<body>
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    <motion-canvas-player src="/project.js"></motion-canvas-player>
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    <script type="module" src="web/player.ts"></script>
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</body>
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</html>

Build the site:

npm run build

Note that you cannot open the generated html file and have it work; you will have to serve it:

npx light-server -s dist -p 8000

You should see the animation working at http://localhost:8000. Now to build it in GitHub actions, add a workflow file:

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name: Deploy
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on:
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  push:
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    branches:
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      - main
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permissions:
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  contents: read
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  pages: write
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  id-token: write
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# Allow one concurrent deployment
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concurrency:
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  group: "pages"
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  cancel-in-progress: true
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jobs:
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  build:
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    name: Deploy
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    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
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    steps:
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      - name: Checkout repo
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        uses: actions/checkout@v3
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      - name: Setup Node
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        uses: actions/setup-node@v3
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      - name: Install dependencies
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        run: npm ci
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      - name: Install animation dependencies
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        run: npm ci
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        working-directory: animations
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      - name: Build project
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        run: npm run build -- --base=/${{ github.event.repository.name }}/
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      - name: Setup Pages
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        uses: actions/configure-pages@v3
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      - name: Upload artifact
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        uses: actions/upload-pages-artifact@v1
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        with:
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          path: "./dist"
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      - name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
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        id: deployment
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        uses: actions/deploy-pages@v1

And be sure to configure GitHub pages to deploy from GitHub Actions.