I’m trying to smoothen transitions in my race bar chart using gganimate but still it looks a bit jerky to me. I’ve tried spline interpolation from this question: Animated sorted bar chart with bars overtaking each other but I’m not able to achieve the same result. I can’t update here the video since the file is too large.

Here is a sample of my initial data frame:

tt<- structure(list(Season = c("2023/2024", "2023/2024", "2023/2024", 
"2023/2024", "2023/2024", "2023/2024", "2023/2024", "2023/2024", 
"2023/2024", "2023/2024", "2023/2024", "2023/2024"), FULLDATE = structure(c(19560, 
19561, 19564, 19566, 19567, 19568, 19573, 19574, 19575, 19580, 
19581, 19582), class = "Date"), `Super League` = c(7, 12, 15, 
15, 22, 36, 36, 48, 58, 58, 67, 79), `Jupiler Pro League` = c(NA, 
NA, NA, 2, 12, 21, 22, 22, 22, 22, 22, 22), Liga = c(NA, NA, 
NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 5, 11, 16), LigaNOS = c(NA, NA, NA, 
NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 3, 16, 26), `Ligue 1` = c(NA, NA, NA, 
NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 2, 5, 32), `Premier League` = c(NA, NA, 
NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, 3, 21, 27)), row.names = c(NA, -12L
), class = c("tbl_df", "tbl", "data.frame"))

And here is my code:

  df2<-tt %>% 
    gather(key=League,
           value= goals, -FULLDATE, -Season)
    
  df2<- df2 %>% 
    group_by(Season,FULLDATE) %>% 
    arrange(FULLDATE, -goals) %>%
    mutate(rank=1:n()) %>% 
    filter(rank<=8) %>%
    ungroup()
  
  df2<-df2 %>% 
    group_by(League) %>% 
    complete(FULLDATE=full_seq(FULLDATE,1)) %>%
    mutate(goals = approx(x=FULLDATE,y=goals, xout = FULLDATE,method="linear")$y) %>% 
    mutate(rank=approx(x=FULLDATE,y=rank,xout=FULLDATE)$y) %>% 
    ungroup() %>% 
  arrange(League,FULLDATE)
  df2$goals[is.na(df2$goals)]<-0
  df2$rank[is.na(df2$rank)]<-0

df2$image_file<- paste0("~/lglogos/",df2$League,".png")

colpal<-c('Ligue 1'="#E5174F",'Premier League' ="#99CBE7", 'Liga' = "#122623", 'Bundesliga' = "#00bbf9ff", 'Serie A' ="#3469A6",
          "LigaNOS" = "#5EB1BF","Jupiler Pro League" ="#F6AE2D","Super League" = "#B3001B")
colpal.order<-c('Ligue 1','Premier League', 'Liga', 'Bundesliga', 'Serie A',"LigaNOS","Jupiler Pro League",
                "Super League")

gfb<-ggplot(df2, aes(rank,group=League,fill=factor(League,levels = colpal.order),
                     color = as.factor(League)))+
  geom_tile(aes(y=goals/2,x=rank,height=goals,width = 0.5),alpha = 0.8, color = NA) +
    ggtext::geom_richtext(
    aes(
      y = 0,
      x = rank,
      label = sprintf("<img src='%s' width='70'/>", image_file)),
    hjust = 1,
    inherit.aes = FALSE,
    fill = NA,
    color = NA,
    label.padding = grid::unit(30, "pt"))+
  scale_fill_manual(values = colpal)+
  scale_color_manual(values = colpal) +
  coord_flip(clip="off",expand=FALSE) +
  scale_y_continuous(labels = scales::comma) +
  scale_x_reverse()+
  geom_text(aes(y=goals, label= ifelse(goals > 0, sprintf("%1.0f", goals), "")),
            color="white",fontface = "bold", size = 20,family="Archivo Black",vjust = 0.5, hjust = 1)+
  guides(color = guide_none())+
  theme_minimal()+
  theme( panel.grid = element_blank(),
         panel.grid.major.x = element_line( linewidth = .5, color="#122623"),
         panel.background = element_rect(colour = NA,fill="transparent"),
         legend.position = "none", 
         axis.ticks.y = element_blank(),
         axis.title.y = element_blank(),
         axis.text.y = element_blank(),
         axis.ticks.x = element_blank(), 
         axis.title.x = element_blank(), 
         axis.text.x = element_text(size=20,face = 'bold'),
         plot.margin = margin(8, 6, 8, 6, "cm"),
         plot.background = element_rect(fill = "#ffffff", color = NA), 
         plot.title = element_text(size = 28, hjust = 0.5, face = 'bold', color = "#21FA90", vjust = 5,family="Archivo Black"), 
         plot.subtitle = element_text(size = 17.5, hjust = 0.5, face = "italic", color = "grey", vjust = 5,family="Archivo Black"),
         plot.caption = element_text(size = 12.5, color = "grey", vjust = 0,family="Archivo Black"),
  ) 
  
  anim <- gfb +
    transition_states(FULLDATE, transition_length = 1,state_length = 1) + 
    view_follow(
      fixed_y = c(0, NA),
      fixed_x = TRUE,
    )+
    enter_grow() +
    exit_shrink() +
        ease_aes('linear') +
    labs( title = "Goal scored this season", 
          subtitle = 'Month: {closest_state}', 
          caption = 'Source: Hedgeflare calculation') 
anim
b<-  animate(anim, fps = 60, duration =95, width = 1080, height = 1920, renderer = av_renderer())
  anim_save("v1.mp4",b)

Thank you for your help.