Try something like this:
figure(1) %creating animation window
sphere % creating sphere for visualization
alpha('clear') % making sphere clear for visualization
hold on; % make it so that all animations are drawn on same figure
t = linspace(0,1,1200);
z = cos(4*pi*t);
for k=1:1200 %looping through data set
% Get each of the plotted components
children = get(gca, 'children');
% If there is only one, this is the first iteration, so do nothing. Otherwise, remove the line
if length(children)>1
delete(children(1));
end
v = z(k); % z coordinate
vec1 = [0,0,0];
vec2 = [0,0,v];
vec = [vec2;vec1];
figure(1);
h = plot3(vec(:,1),vec(:,2),vec(:,3), 'LineWidth', 2, 'Color', 'r');%updating the line animation data set
% This needs to be here
pause(.001)
end
