VisPy and GSLS

I happened across the need to learn how to code up data-driven visualizations in VisPy. VisPy is  a cutting edge wrapper API for OpenGL, which is a graphics library. I want to program an 2D plot of cells in a calcium imaging experiment and color them in time according to their activity. Later on, I would like to select cells from specific ensembles of co-activating neurons, calculated using the EnsemblePursuit algorithm, so that you can see how these cells co-fire. 

I need to start somewhere and I found this cool example that has some of the elements of what I need https://github.com/vispy/vispy/blob/master/examples/demo/gloo/fireworks.py It’s open source! It’s got firework circles moving in time. 

In this blog post I would like to decipher this code. Here goes! Here’s a jupyter notebook with my deciphering markdown. I’m determined to hack my way through this https://github.com/mariakesa/LearningVisPy/blob/master/FireworksDeciphered.ipynb

So what are my thoughts on this? 

So for my implementation the transparency of the circles should change in time according to how strongly they fire. I don't need the circles to move in time. Let me see if I can come up with a prototype in the next post:-)