pipe ggplot2 result into 1 magick object

Question

Is it possible to pipe the result of ggplot2 directly into magick?

Workflow that already works:

1. I can create several plots with ggplot2 plot1, plot2, plot3 etc. results in plot1.png, plot2.png, plot3.png

2. I can then use magick to read all the pngs and combine all the pictures into a gif.

Is it possible to do this without saving to disk first?

Answer 1

minimal example (thanks hrbrmstr and jeroen!)

library(magick)
library(ggplot2)
library(purrr)
library(dplyr)

mtcars2 <- 
    mtcars %>% 
    mutate(gear = as.factor(gear))

# create canvas
frames <- image_graph(width = 300, height = 600, res = 150)
# make a ggplot  for every gear
walk(1:nlevels(mtcars2$gear), ~{
    xdf <- filter(mtcars2, gear == levels(gear)[.x]) # makes the   split
gg <- 
    ggplot(data = xdf) +
    geom_point(aes(x= mpg, y = wt))
print(gg)
}) # ends the walk command

#done with plotting
dev.off()

# animate
image_animate(frames, 1)