What is animated brushing?

Typical applications of animated brushing are in exploratory data analysis using matrix plots, where instead of brushing consecutive ranges of a variable (to explore the influence of various sections of its distribution), you can invoke an automatic movement of the brush (Box, Lasso, Slice X, Slice Y, Slice Z, or Cube) and watch the "results."

Specifically, a brushing region is defined in one subgraph in the matrix and is automatically moved across the subgraph (horizontally, vertically, or both). As the brushing region passes over groups of points in the subplot, corresponding points in all other plots are highlighted.

The region can be advanced automatically across groups of points in the Income, and the corresponding points will be highlighted in plots of the other three variables. The speed and direction of the movement can be interactively controlled in the Animation dialog box.

The Animate button is available on the Interactive tab of the Brushing dialog box whenever the Draggable Brush check box is selected and the Box, Lasso, Slice X, Slice Y, Slice Z, or Cube brush is selected.

Draggable brush - a user controlled animation

Note that when the Draggable Brush check box is marked on the Interactive tab of the Brushing dialog, you can select cases via any of the six shape defining brushing tools (i.e., Box, Lasso, Slice X, Slice Y, Slice Z, or Cube), and then drag that shape to any position on the graph, thus animating the selection on your own. Note that the Draggable Brush check box must be selected before you make your selection in order to use the animated brushing facilities described above.