Automatic filenames for image sequences?

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1

Hi, is there a way in Blender to have it automatically set the output filenames to something like "<scenename> - <cameraname> - ####.<ext>"?

I have consulted the documentation but came up short. Right now it forces me to manually create a new folder for every sequence, and the output files are all just .. That’s time-consuming, annoying and prone to errors.

Please advise, thanks.

1 Like
2

Mayeb this https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/advanced/command_line/arguments.html?highlight=output%20filenames ?

3

I proposed something very similar over 2 years ago here:

Coming from Houdini I’m used to using variables to generate filenames.

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4

Rendering in Blender is… uhmm… different, and compared to other 3d applications, Blender is still limited.

Your best best is to install a render manager like Render+ or something alike.
With an option like this you can set up, and render out multiple render passes to various folders, and also have the benefit of standardized filenames, version tags etc.

edit: @SteffenD ninja’d me. and is right. This a basic staple of any 3D application, not just Houdini.
I still miss this functionality after using Maya and Softimage. It seems the BF doesn’t think this is useful for day to day work…

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5

So I’m not doing it wrong or missing something? Good to know. Thanks guys.

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6

While it would certainly be convenient to have it built into the interface it’s also not a complicated script setup.

Edit - I keep forgetting to mention this is based on Blender 3.1 in my posts because I’m old and well you know the rest.

import bpy
import os

tgt_dir = 'c:\\tmp\\test'

if not os.path.isdir(tgt_dir):
    os.mkdir(tgt_dir)

for scn in bpy.data.scenes:
    bpy.context.window.scene = scn
    for frm in range(scn.frame_start,scn.frame_end+1):
        scn.frame_set(frm)
        f_name = f"{scn.name}-{scn.camera.name}-frame_%.4i.{scn.render.image_settings.file_format}"%(frm)
        scn.render.filepath = os.path.join(tgt_dir, f_name)
        bpy.ops.render.render(animation=False, write_still=True, use_viewport=False)

should get you started.

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7

sorry to be blunt, but this is the somewhat standard answer to a lot of these questions…
A maybe, somewhat related python script to the question.

No, not all of us are programmers or comfortable enough in Python to ‘roll our own’.
And no, this is no real solution, as the discussion shows examples in other 3d application that go way and beyond the solution given.
Blender is lacking in certain areas, and despite lots of related topics on rightclick or the dev forum, these omissions in Blender are still not met after more than a decade…

rant off :wink:

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