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The Blender Python API: Precision 3D Modeling and Add-on Development
Author:
Chris Conlan
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Apress
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Year:
2017
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Understand Blenders Python API to allow for precision 3D modeling and add-on development. Follow detailed guidance on how to create precise geometries, complex texture mappings, optimized renderings, and much more.

This book is a detailed, user-friendly guide to understanding and using Blenders Python API for programmers and 3D artists. Blender is a popular open source 3D modeling software used in advertising, animation, data visualization, physics simulation, photorealistic rendering, and more. Programmers can produce extremely complex and precise models that would be impossible to replicate by hand, while artists enjoy numerous new community-built add-ons.

The Blender Python API is an unparalleled programmable visualization environment. Using the API is made difficult due to its complex object hierarchy and vast documentation. Understanding the Blender Python API clearly explains the interface. You will become familiar with data structures and low-level concepts in both modeling and rendering with special attention given to optimizing procedurally generated models. In addition, the book:

Discusses modules of the API as analogs to human input modes in Blender
Reviews low-level and data-level manipulation of 3D objects in Blender Python
Details how to deploy and extend projects with external libraries
Provides organized utilities of novel and mature API abstractions for general use in add-on development

What Youll Learn

Generate 3D data visualizations in Blender to better understand multivariate data and mathematical patterns.
Create precision object models in Blender of architectural models, procedurally generated landscapes, atomic models, etc.
Develop and distribute a Blender add-on, with special consideration given to careful development practices
Pick apart Blenders 3D viewport and Python source code to learn about API behaviors
Develop a practical knowledge of 3D modeling and rendering concepts
Have a practical reference to an already powerful and vast API

Who This Book Is For

Python programmers with an interest in data science, game development, procedural generation, and open-source programming as well as programmers of all types with a need to generate precise 3D models. Also for 3D artists with an interest in programming or with programming experience and Blender artists regardless of programming experience.

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Chris Conlan 2017

Chris Conlan The Blender Python API 10.1007/978-1-4842-2802-9_1

1. The Blender Interface

Chris Conlan 1

(1)

Bethesda, Maryland, USA

This chapter discusses and defines components of Blenders interface. It serves as a reference for vocabulary we use to discuss the interface throughout the text. We will focus on components of the interface most often used in Python development, as well as set up custom interfaces for efficient Python scripting.

In an effort to avoid placing large screenshots throughout the book, we strictly define the names of various components in the Blender interface. Component names are introduced here in italics and appear with the first characters capitalized throughout the text.

The Default Blender Interface

When we first open up Blender, we get the familiar default user interface. We have a cube, a camera object, and a lamp object drawn into the scene shown in the 3D Viewport . Figure shows the same interface with various major components labeled. We discuss the function of each of these interfaces.

Figure 1-1.

The default Blender interface

Figure 1-2.

The components of the Default Blender interface

Note

We have applied the white-orange theme to our Blender interface for ease of printing. The default Blender theme is dark gray.

3D Viewport

The 3D Viewport , or simply Viewport , gives us a preview of our work product. When we manipulate data in Blender, the 3D Viewport waits for all processes to finish writing data before updating itself. This is not noticeable in simple operations, like translations and rotations, that seem to happen instantaneously and in real time, but it is still important to acknowledge in add-on development.

The 3D Viewport has different viewing options and interaction options. Viewing options include solid, wireframe, and rendered , while interaction options include Object Mode, Edit Mode, and Sculpt Mode .

Header Menu

The Header menu is a fairly standard header for a graphical user interface. It allows us to switch between interface layouts like Default, Animation, and Scripting , as well as switch between rendering engines like Blender Render, Cycles Render , and Blender Game .

Properties Window

The Properties window allows us to access properties of objects, scenes, textures, animations, and more. Most interfaces in the Properties window will give summaries and basic attributes rather than display all available details. It is very useful for keeping track of existing objects, object names, applied and unapplied transformations, and a few other important attributes. This window is generally always open in a Blender artists layout, so it is a popular location to place add-on functions.

Tool Shelf and Tool Properties

The Tool Shelf is where different classes of operators are grouped by type. If we expand the window, we can see the Tool Shelf has various tabs like Tools, Create, and Relations . Most Blender add-ons will create a new tab in the Tool Shelf to hold its operators and parameters.

The Tool Properties window is a dynamic window that Blender populates with different sets of parameters depending on what tool the user has active. For example, when using the Rotate tool, we can fine-tune the rotation in this window instead of navigating to the exact spot in the Properties window that specifies rotation. Tool Properties are advanced features typically intended to optimize ease-of-use rather than provide distinct functionalities to a tool. Many Blender add-ons ignore them altogether, and only a handful of native Blender tools use them.

Timeline

The Timeline is used in animation. We can ignore this as we will not be animating in this book.

The Scripting Interface

To enter the scripting interface, select the Scripting option in the drop-down menu to the right of the Help button within the Header menu. Throughout the text, we will present instructions like this with bold-faced directives, like: Header Menu Screen Layout Scripting . See Figure .

Figure 1-3.

Selecting the Scripting interface

Figure 1-4.

The Scripting interface

The Scripting layout, or some variant of it, will be where we do most of our work in Blender. We will discuss new components of the Blender interface introduced in Figure .

Figure 1-5.

Components of the Scripting interface

Text Editor

We can edit Python scripts (and any other text files) in the Text Editor . We can click the New and Open buttons to create and open scripts, respectively. Once scripts are loaded, the menu bar at the bottom of the Text Editor will change to allow saving and switching between files.

Blenders Text Editor has some special properties pertaining to imports, system paths, and linked files in Python. We discuss this in detail later in this chapter and in future chapters when developing add-ons.

Command Log

The Command Log shows function calls made by the Blender interface during the session. This window is extremely useful when experimenting with scripts and learning about the API. If, for example, we translate the cube in the 3D Viewport using the red arrow, we get the output shown in Listing in the Command Log.

bpy.ops.transform.translate(value=(3.05332, 0, 0), constraint_axis=(True, False, False),

constraint_orientation='GLOBAL', mirror=False, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1, release_confirm=True)

Listing 1-1.

Command Log Output from Translation Along x-Axis

The output in Listing shows that we called the translate() function from the transform class of the bpy.ops submodule. The parameters are fairly verbose and often redundant in calls made from the interface, but they are straightforward enough that we can decipher what they mean and experiment with the function. We dig into code like this in the next chapter. While the act of deciphering is often the best and fastest way to learn about functions in Blender Python, we can also reference the official documentation for more detail. This is also discussed in the next chapter.

Interactive Console

The Interactive Console is a Python 3 environment similar to vanilla Python console and IPython consoles that often appear at the bottom of IDEs (interactive development environments). The Interactive Console does not share local or module-level data with the Text Editor scripts, but both Interactive Console and Text Editor scripts have access to the same global Blender data stored in bpy and its submodules. So, the console will not be able to read or modify variables local to the the scripts, but modifications to bpy (and the Blender session in general) are shared.

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