Klas Modin PRO
Mathematician at Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg
Blender 3D + Python
(MMG640 / MVE080)
Overview
- What is Blender 3D?
- Some history
- First video tutorial
- Scripting in Python
What is Blender?
- Professional open-source software for 3D graphics
- Used for animated films, visual effects, art, 3D models
- Recent activities: Blender for scientific visualization
(new book by Brian Kent)
Pros:
Extremely versatile, "anything is possible"
Everything is scriptable (using Python)
Free (amazing!)
Cons:
Hard to learn
Hard to learn
History of Blender
-
Initially developed as an in-house application by the Dutch animation studio NeoGeo and Not a Number Technologies (NaN) during the late 90's
-
NaN bankrupt 2002 (Blender v 2.25)
-
Released under the GNU GPL for a one time payment
of 100,000 Euros
-
Blender is now managed by the Blender Foundation
-
Version 2.8 released this year (major upgrade)
How can one learn?
Tutorials + practice, practice, practice!
Some sources
First tutorial
Cheat Sheet
Available from the home page in Canvas
Python interface
- Everything in Blender can be scripted with Python
- Python communicates with Blender through the bpy module
- Blender contains its own Python version (it does not rely on previously installed versions of Python)
Hint: running Python scripts
bpy.data.texts.keys()To access active script files:
To run script file in Python console:
exec(bpy.data.texts['Text'].as_string())
(where 'Text' is the name of the script)
MMG640: Blender 3D and Python
By Klas Modin
Private
MMG640: Blender 3D and Python
A brief intro to Blender.
