Skip to contents

ggplot2 Layer for Visualizing NFL Player Headshots

Source: R/geom_nfl_headshots.R
geom_nfl_headshots.Rd

This geom is used to plot NFL player headshots instead of points in a ggplot. It requires x, y aesthetics as well as a valid NFL player gsis id.

Usage

geom_nfl_headshots(
  mapping = NULL,
  data = NULL,
  stat = "identity",
  position = "identity",
  ...,
  na.rm = FALSE,
  show.legend = FALSE,
  inherit.aes = TRUE
)

Arguments

mapping

Set of aesthetic mappings created by aes(). If specified and inherit.aes = TRUE (the default), it is combined with the default mapping at the top level of the plot. You must supply mapping if there is no plot mapping.

data

The data to be displayed in this layer. There are three options:

If NULL, the default, the data is inherited from the plot data as specified in the call to ggplot().

A data.frame, or other object, will override the plot data. All objects will be fortified to produce a data frame. See fortify() for which variables will be created.

A function will be called with a single argument, the plot data. The return value must be a data.frame, and will be used as the layer data. A function can be created from a formula (e.g. ~ head(.x, 10)).

stat

The statistical transformation to use on the data for this layer. When using a geom_*() function to construct a layer, the stat argument can be used to override the default coupling between geoms and stats. The stat argument accepts the following:

  • A Stat ggproto subclass, for example StatCount.

  • A string naming the stat. To give the stat as a string, strip the function name of the stat_ prefix. For example, to use stat_count(), give the stat as "count".

  • For more information and other ways to specify the stat, see the layer stat documentation.

position

A position adjustment to use on the data for this layer. This can be used in various ways, including to prevent overplotting and improving the display. The position argument accepts the following:

  • The result of calling a position function, such as position_jitter(). This method allows for passing extra arguments to the position.

  • A string naming the position adjustment. To give the position as a string, strip the function name of the position_ prefix. For example, to use position_jitter(), give the position as "jitter".

  • For more information and other ways to specify the position, see the layer position documentation.

...

Other arguments passed on to ggplot2::layer(). These are often aesthetics, used to set an aesthetic to a fixed value. See the below section "Aesthetics" for a full list of possible arguments.

na.rm

If FALSE, the default, missing values are removed with a warning. If TRUE, missing values are silently removed.

show.legend

logical. Should this layer be included in the legends? NA, the default, includes if any aesthetics are mapped. FALSE never includes, and TRUE always includes. It can also be a named logical vector to finely select the aesthetics to display. To include legend keys for all levels, even when no data exists, use TRUE. If NA, all levels are shown in legend, but unobserved levels are omitted.

inherit.aes

If FALSE, overrides the default aesthetics, rather than combining with them. This is most useful for helper functions that define both data and aesthetics and shouldn't inherit behaviour from the default plot specification, e.g. annotation_borders().

Value

A ggplot2 layer (ggplot2::layer()) that can be added to a plot created with ggplot2::ggplot().

Aesthetics

geom_nfl_headshots() understands the following aesthetics (required aesthetics have no default value):

x

The x-coordinate. Required.

y

The y-coordinate. Required.

player_gsis

The players' NFL gsis id. Required.

alpha = NULL

The alpha channel, i.e. transparency level, as a numerical value between 0 and 1.

colour = NULL

The image will be colorized with this colour. Use the special character "b/w" to set it to black and white. For more information on valid colour names in ggplot2 see https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/articles/ggplot2-specs.html?q=colour#colour-and-fill

angle = 0

The angle of the image as a numerical value between 0° and 360°.

hjust = 0.5

The horizontal adjustment relative to the given x coordinate. Must be a numerical value between 0 and 1.

vjust = 0.5

The vertical adjustment relative to the given y coordinate. Must be a numerical value between 0 and 1.

width = 1.0

The desired width of the image in npc (Normalised Parent Coordinates). The default value is set to 1.0 which is big but it is necessary because all used values are computed relative to the default. A typical size is width = 0.075 (see below examples).

height = 1.0

The desired height of the image in npc (Normalised Parent Coordinates). The default value is set to 1.0 which is big but it is necessary because all used values are computed relative to the default. A typical size is height = 0.1 (see below examples).

Examples

# \donttest{
library(nflplotR)
library(ggplot2)
# Silence an nflreadr message that is irrelevant here
old <- options(nflreadr.cache_warning = FALSE)

df <- data.frame(
  a = rep(1:3, 3),
  b = sort(rep(1:3, 3), decreasing = TRUE),
  player_gsis = c("00-0033873",
                  "00-0026498",
                  "00-0035228",
                  "00-0031237",
                  "00-0036355",
                  "00-0019596",
                  "00-0033077",
                  "00-0012345",
                  "00-0031280"),
  player_name = c("P.Mahomes",
                  "M.Stafford",
                  "K.Murray",
                  "T.Bridgewater",
                  "J.Herbert",
                  "T.Brady",
                  "D.Prescott",
                  "Non.Match",
                  "D.Carr")
)

# set a custom fill colour for one player
df$colour <- ifelse(df$a == 2 & df$b == 2, NA, "b/w")

# scatterplot of the headshots
ggplot(df, aes(x = a, y = b)) +
  geom_nfl_headshots(aes(player_gsis = player_gsis), height = 0.2) +
  geom_label(aes(label = player_name), nudge_y = -0.35, alpha = 0.5) +
  coord_cartesian(xlim = c(0.75, 3.25), ylim = c(0.7, 3.25)) +
  theme_void()
#> ! No headshot available for gsis ID "00-0012345". Will insert placeholder.


# apply alpha as constant
ggplot(df, aes(x = a, y = b)) +
  geom_nfl_headshots(aes(player_gsis = player_gsis), height = 0.2, alpha = 0.5) +
  geom_label(aes(label = player_name), nudge_y = -0.35, alpha = 0.5) +
  coord_cartesian(xlim = c(0.75, 3.25), ylim = c(0.7, 3.25)) +
  theme_void()
#> ! No headshot available for gsis ID "00-0012345". Will insert placeholder.


# apply colour as an aesthetic
ggplot(df, aes(x = a, y = b)) +
  geom_nfl_headshots(aes(player_gsis = player_gsis, colour = colour), height = 0.2) +
  geom_label(aes(label = player_name), nudge_y = -0.35, alpha = 0.5) +
  coord_cartesian(xlim = c(0.75, 3.25), ylim = c(0.7, 3.25)) +
  scale_colour_identity() +
  theme_void()
#> ! No headshot available for gsis ID "00-0012345". Will insert placeholder.


# Restore old options
options(old)
# }