# time inside animation

**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inside-animation/7671
**Category:** ParaView Support
**Created:** [July 22, 2021, 4:30pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inside-animation/7671 "2021-07-22T16:30:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![bloerp](https://discourse.paraview.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/bc79bd/32.png) [@bloerp](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/bloerp)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2021, 4:30pm UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/time-inside-animation/7671/1 "2021-07-22T16:30:54Z")

</div>

I want to do something like this:

```auto
# get the current time
tk = GetTimeKeeper()
t = tk.Time
#t = renderView.ViewTime

#calculate something with it using a complex python function
s = myPythonFunction(t)

# display it
text1 = Text()
text1.Text = 'v: %.4f' % v

...
SaveAnimation(...)

```

What is wrong with this approach. It won’t change values inside the animation. Are text fields only evaluted once? Is there a better way?