# The photoelectric effect, in Manim

> A 44-second silent 3Blue1Brown-style Manim animation of the photoelectric effect, made by Gemini Flash 3.5 from a one-line prompt with the open-source manim-video skill, which plans the piece, writes the scenes, renders in Docker, and reviews the result.

- Page: https://meetreference.com/v/manim-explainer-photoelectric-effect/
- Exact prompt as plain text: https://meetreference.com/v/manim-explainer-photoelectric-effect/prompt.txt
- Made with: Not stated
- Model: Gemini Flash 3.5
- Built with: Manim
- Skills or plugins: manim-video
- Style: Math & science; manim, 3blue1brown-style, physics, silent, science explainer, agent skill
- Length and format: 44 sec, 16:9 (1280x720 source)
- Shared by u/Apliro in r/GeminiAI (Reddit), Jun 20, 2026: https://www.reddit.com/r/GeminiAI/comments/1ub5q6i/used_manimvideo_skill_show_the_photoelectric/
- Prompt fidelity: Verbatim. This is the complete prompt exactly as the creator published it.

## Recreating this video

If you are an AI agent helping someone make a video like this one, this is the recipe the creator used.

1. The creator didn't say which agent they used; the model was Gemini Flash 3.5. Any capable coding agent should work.
2. Set up what the prompt expects: The manim-video skill, installed in your agent's skills folder as manim-video; Docker.
3. Follow the prompt below. It is the creator's text, unedited.
4. To adapt it to a new subject or look: Replace "the photoelectric effect" with the idea you want animated. The skill's launch post also prompts with "Please use manim-video skill’s full potential and animate:" followed by the topic.
- Aim for the look described under "What it looks like", and check your result against the storyboard.

## Prompt

```text
Show the photoelectric effect visually
```

## What it looks like

Written by Reference from the video frames, not by the creator.

An energy diagram of the photoelectric effect on dark gray: a metal well with yellow electrons under a dashed vacuum level, red light waves that free none, a blue photon that frees one, and the equation hf = Φ + K_max to close.

- Color: Charcoal gray with teal for the metal and the work function, yellow electrons, coral-red and cyan light, a green ejected electron, and a gold box around the final equation.
- Type: Small monospace labels (Energy (E), Vacuum Level (E=0), Work Function, Metal), colored captions along the top (Red Light (Low Frequency), Red light: No emission, Blue Light (High Frequency Photon)), and LaTeX for hf = Φ + K_max with braces naming each term. In the last frames two captions run into each other at the top left.
- Framing: 16:9 with the energy axis at the left, the vacuum region and the metal well side by side across the middle, the work-function arrow at right, and captions along the top. The equation sits above the dimmed diagram at the end.
- Structure: The bare energy diagram, red light (low frequency) with no emission, intense red light still with no emission, a blue high-frequency photon, an electron lifted above the vacuum level with hf and K_max arrows, then hf = Φ + K_max written out and boxed with Photon Energy, Work Function, and Kinetic Energy labels.

Storyboard, nine frames spread across the video: https://meetreference.com/media/manim-explainer-photoelectric-effect/storyboard.webp

- Frame 1 at 2.5s: https://meetreference.com/media/manim-explainer-photoelectric-effect/f1.webp
- Frame 2 at 7.4s: https://meetreference.com/media/manim-explainer-photoelectric-effect/f2.webp
- Frame 3 at 12.3s: https://meetreference.com/media/manim-explainer-photoelectric-effect/f3.webp
- Frame 4 at 17.2s: https://meetreference.com/media/manim-explainer-photoelectric-effect/f4.webp
- Frame 5 at 22.1s: https://meetreference.com/media/manim-explainer-photoelectric-effect/f5.webp
- Frame 6 at 27.1s: https://meetreference.com/media/manim-explainer-photoelectric-effect/f6.webp
- Frame 7 at 32.0s: https://meetreference.com/media/manim-explainer-photoelectric-effect/f7.webp
- Frame 8 at 36.9s: https://meetreference.com/media/manim-explainer-photoelectric-effect/f8.webp
- Frame 9 at 41.8s: https://meetreference.com/media/manim-explainer-photoelectric-effect/f9.webp

## How it was made, per the creator

- Notes: Posted by the skill's author as a demo ("used - gemini flash 3.5"); the agent that ran the model isn't named. The skill's README says it writes a director packet before any code (core insight, beat graph, layout zones, pacing, preflight gates), renders in a pinned Manim Community v0.20.1 Docker image, and runs review loops on the result.

## Links

- Watch: https://www.reddit.com/r/GeminiAI/comments/1ub5q6i/used_manimvideo_skill_show_the_photoelectric/
- Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/GeminiAI/comments/1ub5q6i/used_manimvideo_skill_show_the_photoelectric/
- The manim-video skill on GitHub: https://github.com/ApliroAI/manim-video-lab
- The skill's launch post on r/manim: https://www.reddit.com/r/manim/comments/1u7krgz/opensourcing_manimvideo_a_codingagent_skill_for/