BlenderMan is a Python script that enables Blender to export to several RenderMan compilant renderers. 3Delight, AQSIS, BMRT, Entropy and PRMan are supported at the moment, but other renderers can also be used directly from the script by supplying their renderer executable.
Here are some of the changes in BlenderMan 0.1 Beta9.0:
introduction of projects as an organizational structure; all settings are now local to a project
ability to select the renderer and the mipmap texture convertor executables
ability to insert a ReadArchive before the WorldBegin statement, after WorldBegin and before each object’s AttributeBegin
several important fixes to the shader editor, mostly related to deletion of shaders
improved conversion of light intensity for spot lights and lamps (point lights)
The complete list of changes can be found in the changes.txt file in the BlenderMan package.
BlenderMan works with Blender 2.28a and Python 2.2 on both Windows and Linux. If there are no major changes to the Python API, Tuhopuu2 should also work without problems.
It certainly is great news to see that renderman is still being supported by Blender users! I’ve been dabblong lately in this area and have been frustrated from not being able to find suitable export scripts for renderman renderers!
I’m still having trouble because I can’t seem to open up the file you have put on that link! I’m using wizip but it just doesn’t want to work for me! Do you have any sugestions? I don’t have access to any other platform but windows at the moment.
As I said in the announcment, the script works on both Linux and Windows. I generaly use Winrar for archives on Windows and I’m sure that tar.gz packages are handled correctly through it, so anybody having problems unpacking BlenderMan with Winzip may try Winrar. In any case, a zip archive will be available for download as soon as possible (probably until the end of the day).
The only thing I can’t get it to do is render in AIR! It is a renderman compliant renderer so I don’t see why it should work. Basically my scene renders but there is no illumination. In my test scene I have 2 spotlights on my subject so I’m stumped.
I’ve just rembered to look at the doc in your zip file so I will read that now - but if you have any pointers that would be great!
Just got Blenderman to work with AIR. Haven’t tried textures yet but at least I know the basics work! My mistake was to not “Get” all the objects in the scenes setup of Blenderman!
Thanks Goran for your work mate! Please let us know when you release newer versions! This is exciting stuff!
The last few hours of my time have been spent using Blenderman with AIR. I have inserted some of my own code for my use with AIR so I can use AIR’s material mapping program. I’m also experimenting with the code to see if I can export the lights to a different file so that AIR’s light editor can work on that side of things.
Goran - if you’re interested in the work I’ve done (trust me - it 'aint much…I’m still VERY new to python) let me know! I hope you don’t mind me dabbling a bit here and there - maybe you could include the functions I’ve written in the next release? Who knows??..
Not only that I don’t mind someone else changing and adding code to BlenderMan, I’m very glad about it (more people involved can only lead to a better script IMO). Feel free to work on BlenderMan as much as you like, but please don’t publish the changed version. Send me the script (my mail address is in BlenderMan’s readme file), I’ll look at the changes and hopefully I’ll include them in the next release (which unfortunately won’t be out soon, since I’m very busy at the moment).
I started working on BlenderMan while Green was still activly developing the script. Then Blender went open-source, the Tuhopuu branch got created and Green decided to work on a native RenderMan support in Blender. As a result he stoped developing BlenderMan. For a long time I had the idea of continuing the deveopment of BlenderMan, but there were big changes in the Python API nearly in every version from 2.23 to 2.27. When 2.28 with the (hopefully) final API got released I decided that now was the right time time to continue working on BlenderMan, starting with the translation to the new API.
You asked why? Well, mostly because of selfish reasons I was using BlenderMan nearly every day, I knew the insides of the script pretty good and I was just dying to be able to use the features of the new Blender versions (NLA, etc.) with BlenderMan. Everytime I started Blender to play with something BlenderMan related I thought: “it would be great if BlenderMan could also do this”. After some time all this resulted in BlenderMan 0.1 Beta 8.0 and Beta 9.0.
As for what is happening with the native RenderMan support, I really don’t know. I’ve noticed that it isn’t included in Tuhopuu2, but I don’t know why.
No, particles and objects instanced through particles are not supported in BlenderMan. AFAIK, it still isn’t possible to get all the particle related info through the Python API (like for ex. the particles’ coordinates). The closest you can get to a particle-like effect with BlenderMan at the moment is exporting a mesh as a Points primitive.
Okay - I may be asking a silly question here but what is Tohupuu and what do you mean by native RenderMan support?
Also - what is the deal with the Python API - why can’t we get everything we want out of it? I hope I’m not being too demanding here! I suppose I’d just like to get some nice atmospheric effects happening in RenderMan renderers…it’s not possible yet is it? Yes you guessed it…I’m only new to RenderMan…
Tuhopuu is the experimental branch of the Blender source tree. Nearly all new features start as experiments in Tuhopuu (the knife tool, etc.)
By native RenderMan support in Blender I mean a built-in RenderMan export and rendering “part” of Blender, written in C (or was it C++) and integrated in Blender’s interface. This way the RenderMan exporter would have access to every little bit of information that Blender operates with. The user would only need to select the RenderMan renderer, press “Render” and would get the same output as with Blender’s renderer, just with better quality (and maybe some advanced features like true subdivisional surfaces or GI). Green was working on this in the original Tuhopuu.
People are working all the time on the Python API and are doing a wonderful job. The new API is still young, so please have a little more patience.
As for atmosferic effects, particles are not the only way to achive this. You could use volume shaders or surface shaders that use ray-marching for volumetric effects.
I got it to work with the two renderers I tried: 3Delight and Aqsis. Both gave me wonderful images, considering it´s my first atempt at RenderMan. Will study it further.
Here comes my doubts.
I´m rendering in Aqsis and 3Delight. BlenderMan 0.9, Blender 2.3.
I assign a shader to an object with the script and then exit the script and quit quit Blender. When I came back to the scene in Blender, do I have to re-create and re-assign shaders?
How do I change some parameters and redo the render but withou re-exporting the mesh RIBS?
I was using BlenderMan nearly every day, I knew the insides of the script pretty good and I was just dying to be able to use the features of the new Blender versions (NLA, etc.) with BlenderMan. Everytime I started Blender to play with something BlenderMan related I thought: “it would be great if BlenderMan could also do this”. After some time all this resulted in BlenderMan 0.1 Beta 8.0 and Beta 9.0.
Good reply. I have a few more wuestions but will ask them when I have a little more time!