I have seen quite a bit of posts on people who have somehow gotten started scripting in Blender, but none of the tutorials I’ve found do anything more than show you how to add a mesh. What about manipulating vertices, and textures, and shading and all that stuff? Where do I learn how to do that? I’m fairly confident in Python, and have been searching for a year and a day (in the figurative sense) for a decent Python/Blender tutorial that does more than show how to add a mesh. Which you can do just by hovering over the mesh you want, and add the code for it. I’m also aware of other things you can find by manipulating them. What I want is a project of some sort so I can see how to put all of it together.
You claim experience but just in case: Blender vs. Python: Breaking the Ice
Try and automate some of your workflow via scripts?
Make or fix an importer / exporter for current Blender?
Bend the UI to your will? Etc.
Whether the learning material encountered is general or specific what’s retained is malleable to your needs. It’s up to learner initiative from there.
Well what I’m looking for is some way of getting started scripting a model into a scene. Like, learning how to model say a pen from a cylinder or something. Just something simple to show me how things are done. Does this make sense?
For me the most valuable discovery at the very start was that you can see executed commands in the Info Panel and the autocomplete function in the Python Console(ctrl+space), next treasure is the Templates menu in the header of the Text Editor. You can also read the code of any add-on you have - that’s a lot of help. That’s about it. I mean, learning Python language it self is very easy and if you face any problems, the internet is full of help for every single problem you might face - it’s amazing how much help a simple Google search can be. If you do not find the answer in the rare 1 out of 10 000 cases, then you can ask here and it will most likely be answered quickly and precisely if you form your question in an understandable way providing your context and using correct terminology. Watching videos about coding never worked for me. I mean I learned the syntax this way, but that’s about it. From my experience it is best to code something for yourself, something useful that makes your work easier and faster instead of relying on video tutorials. LoboTommy’s advice to automate your own workflow is really great. That works.
I’ve been programming with Python for 2 years on my own mostly. It’s hard wrapping my head around what order things go in in Blender. Some things seem straightforward like adding a cube, but others not so much. The present thing I’m looking for is what methods or functions manipulate vertices. I’ve looked but I can’t find it via google. I probably am using wrong terminology for my searching. Thanks for the advice both previous and in advance.
Well, there is this BMesh thing. The way I understand it it might not be always stable or complete. That’s where I would start looking.
It at least gives me a place to start. Thanks. Part of getting anything done in programming is knowing the right terms to use in your search or for the right questions.
Looks like you want to do something related to building geometry. If you’ve already read all the fine manuals (bmesh and so on) you could check the sverchok addon code. It’s related to building geometry and can give you a framework you could create your nodes within.