Exporting the blend file as a python script

Question

I am looking to automate the steps I took to build the model in the blender GUI as a python script. You can think of it like how it would be if blender had a 'export as .py' which I could take and execute to render the model.

Blender does spit out some python in the window above the file toolbar, but I cant use it to automate the model rendering as it is incomplete and seems to only have the configuration, here is a screenshot:

Answer 1

As hinted at by the comments, this is by no means an exhaustive or a general solution. At the moment there is no real way to save or export the actions you perform in Blender as a script or macro.

So the only way to automate things is to learn and understand the Blender Python API well, and to write a specific script to automate each task. You'll often be able to reuse code from one script in other scripts, and even to write generalized libraries that perform specific tasks, but it won't really allow you to tackle ANY problem or to automate all cases.

So here's a script that automates the creation of a rock like object from a cube, and will show you:

1. How to add primitive objects (in the example: cube, camera)
2. How to add modifiers and to set their properties.
3. How to add materials and set their properties.
4. How to add textures and set their properties.
5. How to set the render output path.
6. How to render to a file.

There's lots of things it does not show, including:

1. How to add and set up lighting.
2. How to change render settings (resolution, etc).
3. A zillion other things like animation, rigging, compositing, creating complex node based materials in cycles, simulations, particles... and more.

For these you'll have to read and learn other specific techniques and APIs.

Here's the code:

import bpy
from math import radians

# Add the base cube shape
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add()

# Create a reference to the active object (which is the cube since we just added it)
cube = bpy.data.objects[ bpy.context.object.name ]

# Add a new subdivision surface modifier and set its view and render subdivision levels to 4
subsurf1 = cube.modifiers.new( "Subsurf", "SUBSURF" )
subsurf1.levels = subsurf1.render_levels = 4

# Add a new displacement modifier, set its texture to a new noise texture, and set the displacement strength to 0.15
disp = cube.modifiers.new( "Disp", "DISPLACE" )
disp.texture = bpy.data.textures.new( "DisplaceNoise", "NOISE" )
disp.strength = 0.15

# Add a 2nd subdivision surface modifier, and set its view and render levels to 2
subsurf2 = cube.modifiers.new( "Subsurf", "SUBSURF" )
subsurf2.levels = subsurf1.render_levels = 2

# Add a camera and set its location and rotation values
bpy.ops.object.camera_add( location = (0, -4, 0 ), rotation = (radians(90),0,0) )
camera = bpy.data.objects[ bpy.context.object.name ]
bpy.context.scene.camera = camera

# Give our rock object a new material
cube.active_material = bpy.data.materials.new("Rock.Mat")
mat = cube.active_material # Create a shorter reference variable to the material

# Set material properties
mat.diffuse_intensity  = 0.45
mat.specular_intensity = 0.1
mat.use_shadeless      = True

# Create a new musgrave texture and apply it to our materials as its active texture
mat.active_texture = bpy.data.textures.new( "Diffuse", "MUSGRAVE" )
mat.texture_slots[0].color = (0,0,0)         # Set base texture color to black
mat.texture_slots[0].texture_coords = 'ORCO' # Set texture coordiantes to object

# Set render filepath and render
bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = "/tmp/rock.png"
bpy.ops.render.render( write_still = True )

The unimpressive result of this script:

Answer 2

From what I can understand, you want Blender to export a .py file that you can run to render your model. This is possible, but not in the way you might think.

Instead of placing all of the data from the .blend file in a .py file, just use the command line arguments for Blender to render in the background.

Requirements:

• Python installed so you can execute the python file (or you can do this from a terminal)
• If using Windows, Blender must be in the system PATH. (You can also run commands with the full path to Blender C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\blender ...)
• A .blend file to render

Now to render externally (Command Line)

blender -b <path to .blend file> -o <file name> -f <frame number>

-b: Renders in the background

-o: Sets the output filename. If it starts with // then it will be relative to the .blend file

-f: Sets the frame to render

So if I had my file test.blend, I could run blender -b test.blend -o //output -f 1 to render the first frame in the background and give it the name output0001.png relative to the .blend file.

There are many other arguments to use for Blender, so to see the whole list, either run blender -h or read the manual for more information.

Using Python

import subprocess
subprocess.call('blender -b test.blend -o //output -f 1')

Save this in a .py file and you can execute it to run Blender in the background to render your file.

This method is nice if you want run the process on a whole directory of .blend files, or something similar.