Nicole Writes Her Name with Mathematics

Situation

Nicole, an eighth-grade student in Toronto, had never used the animation engine Manim before and had never written code to create a video.

Most beginners expect programming to produce calculations or simple interactions. This project introduced a different possibility: using code as a creative medium.

Her challenge was simple and personal—animate the writing of her own name.

Turning Point

Instead of drawing letters by hand, Nicole described each stroke mathematically.

Lines, curves, and circles became paths that could be generated and animated through code. As the project evolved, she focused on a small moving dot that traveled from stroke to stroke, gradually revealing each letter.

One detail became especially important: the shape of the letter "e".

Nicole adjusted it repeatedly, not because the code was incorrect, but because it did not yet look right. The project shifted from merely making something work to making something feel right.

Emergence

The finished animation reveals more than a name.

A small dot begins its journey at the edge of the screen, traces each letter, and finally settles above the "i", bringing the entire composition into balance.

Behind that brief moment is a combination of mathematical thinking, programming, visual judgment, and personal expression.

Nicole's first Manim project demonstrates that coding can be more than a technical skill. It can become a language for creating, refining, and communicating ideas—one carefully designed motion at a time.