Book Image

Python Scripting in Blender

By : Paolo Acampora
5 (1)
Book Image

Python Scripting in Blender

5 (1)
By: Paolo Acampora

Overview of this book

Blender, a powerful open source 3D software, can be extended and powered up using the Python programming language. This book teaches you how to automate laborious operations using scripts, and expand the set of available commands, graphic interfaces, tools, and event responses, which will enable you to add custom features to meet your needs and bring your creative ideas to life. The book begins by covering essential Python concepts and showing you how to create a basic add-on. You’ll then gain a solid understanding of the entities that affect the look of Blender’s objects such as modifiers, constraints, and materials. As you advance, you’ll get to grips with the animation system in Blender and learn how to set up its behavior using Python. The examples, tools, patterns, and best practices present throughout the book will familiarize you with the Python API and build your knowledge base, along with enabling you to produce valuable code that empowers the users and is ready for publishing or production. By the end of this book, you’ll be able to successfully design add-ons that integrate seamlessly with the software and its ecosystem.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Part 1: Introduction to Python
7
Part 2: Interactive Tools and Animation
13
Part 3: Delivering Output

The Shader Editor

The shading system supports different styles: realistic, cartoon, or technical drawings, to mention a few. Rather than providing a single interface with defined widgets, the functionalities of a renderer are scattered through interconnecting units called nodes.

Much like a function, a node performs a specific operation on one or more inputs and makes the results available through one or more outputs. Nodes are visual representations of functions, allowing non-programmers to combine logic blocks to get custom results.

Nodes are not unique to shading – they are used for Compositing and for generating meshes in the Geometry Nodes modifier.

By default, a Blender material presents a Material Output node in the Shader Editor area, with a Principled BSDF node as its Surface input. Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Function (BSFD) is a mathematical model of how a surface receives and reflects light rays. It is a form of Physically-Based Rendering (PBR...