I've obtained a solution from another Abaqus group. I paste it here in case someone else find it useful:
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This should be relativley straight forward. Just click the appropriate buttons to do what you want, then look in the *.rpy file. It should have the code that you can modify for your needs. Below is an example
o3 = session.openOdb(name='C:/Scratch/Job-1.odb')
session.viewports['Viewport: 1'].setValues(displayedObject=o3)
session.viewports['Viewport: 1'].odbDisplay.display.setValues(plotState=(
UNDEFORMED, ))
session.viewports['Viewport: 1'].odbDisplay.display.setValues(plotState=(
CONTOURS_ON_DEF, ))
session.viewports['Viewport: 1'].odbDisplay.contourOptions.setValues(
numIntervals=10, outsideLimitsAboveColor='#FF0000',
outsideLimitsBelowColor='#0000FF', maxAutoCompute=OFF, maxValue=80000,
minAutoCompute=OFF, minValue=40000)
session.animationController.animationOptions.setValues(
timeHistoryMode=TIME_BASED, minTimeAutoCompute=True,
maxTimeAutoCompute=True)
session.animationController.setValues(animationType=TIME_HISTORY, viewports=(
'Viewport: 1', ))
session.animationController.play(duration=UNLIMITED)
session.animationController.setValues(animationType=NONE)
session.animationController.setValues(animationType=TIME_HISTORY, viewports=(
'Viewport: 1', ))
session.animationController.play(duration=UNLIMITED)
session.imageAnimationOptions.setValues(vpDecorations=ON, vpBackground=OFF,
compass=OFF, timeScale=1, frameRate=20)
session.writeImageAnimation(fileName='Video', format=AVI, canvasObjects=(
session.viewports['Viewport: 1'], ))
session.animationController.setValues(animationType=NONE)