[Addon] Render Shots - v0.3.1 - (28th July)

Render an image or animation from different camera views.

Manual

Visit the wiki page for the in-depth manual.

Download and Links

Change Log

FIXES (17th July 2012):
I was made aware of some issues regarding the displaying of cameras after the last update. So,
I changed the way it stores the information for each camera using a much simpler method which results in an all-round easier approach to storing and retrieving the settings for each camera.

FIXES (18th July 2012):

  • When adding/enabling the addon as a user preference, only one camera was rendering
  • Rendering was being done in reverse alphabetical order

UPDATE (v0.2 - 19th July 2012):

  • Can now set render resolutions per camera (as requested)
  • Can now set render samples per camera (Cycles)
  • Timeline now resets to previous start, end, and current frames after rendering an animation
  • Fixed some typos in tooltips
  • Output destination property displays red if left blank
  • Camera properties toggle button displays only as an arrow
  • Camera properties box greys out if set not to be included in render
  • *Custom properties now conform to a naming convention (code)

*Cameras in projects already using Render Shots will have their properties reset to default. If these are important projects, please make a note of their values prior to updating to v0.2.

UPDATE (v0.2.1 - 20th July 2012):

  • Renders in alphabetical order, again
  • When using custom resolutions, the last camera in the to-do list was receiving wrong resolutions

UPDATE (v0.3 - 24th July 2012):

  • “Render Shots” - create any shape and the camera will render shots from its vertices
  • Render settings helper - set camera resolutions and see updates in realtime

UPDATE (v0.3.1 - 28th July 2012):

  • Can now use the camera’s frame range instead of vertex count in Shot Shapes mode
  • Button to create output folders for all cameras

Attachments


1 Like

Wowwowowow! This is awesome!

Just the other day I was thinking it would be awesome to have a feature like this…and now we do! Thanks!

ok, I’ll use this one from now 8)

Great!
thank you!

Awesome!
Thanx so much! :slight_smile:

This is a must. Thanks for sharing!

uhm… i don’t see in my addon list…
which blender version?

Hey everyone.

Glad to see you’re liking the idea! :slight_smile:

I’ve been using 2.63a (official release) while writing the addon. It should appear under the “Render” category in the addons list.

It hasn’t been tested with any older versions, or SVN releases. If you’re using a different version of Blender to me, let me know which one and I’ll look into it. However, I personally can only look into versions of Blender for Windows, so if you’re running on Mac or Linux, it might take a little while longer to figure out.

When installing it in OS X 10.7.4 i noticed it got placed in a folder and didn’t turn up.
In finder from top menu “Go to folder” or “Shift+Comand+G” and paste “~/Library/Application Support/Blender/2.63/scripts/addons/”
Now you should see the folder “render_shots” move the “render_shots.py” out of that folder one level and restart blender.
Now you should see it in the addon list ready to be enabled.

Cheers

Edit: But now blender hangs when trying to quit and you’ll have to force quit :frowning:
Removing the “render_shots.py” and Blender quits fine again.

Hi,

Thanks for the assistance there. :slight_smile:

When Blender hangs, is there a camera in the scene? If there’s no camera at all, this will definitely freeze Blender (I’ll be uploading an updated script soon to address this).

How I missed this one, I have no idea! :stuck_out_tongue:

Wiki - (manual & download)

Aaron, if open a default scene with a lamp, cube and camera and have the addon enabled Blender freeze when quit, it doesn’t matter how many cameras i use.
If i have the addon disabled Blender quits fine.
If i enable it use it and then disable it again Blender crash when closing user preference.
I tested the official 2.63a and a later build r48263 and get the same result.

Btw… if i just want two separate renders from two cameras i’m suppose to set the animation like frame 1 to 1 and 2 to 2 for the two cameras right?

Cheers

I know what the problem is with Blender freezing. I figured it out just a few minutes ago. I’m working fast to solve it! :frowning: It will be resolved one way or another! I have a backup plan just incase! :wink:

When rendering still images, the start and end frame numbers are ignored. It will just render and save an image from the current frame in the timeline for every camera in the scene (that is selected to be included during render).
If you want to render an actual animation, set the start and end frames to whatever you wish; whatever looks good and works for you. For example: camera1 could be focused on the character’s face during the the scene, and camera2 could be a side view, etc. Then when you come to edit the video, you can simply cut between these two angles/shots as you see fit. That’s basically what I had in mind for the animation side of things.

If you, and others, feel that defining frames for rendering still images is a good and useful idea, I might just pop it in. :wink:

Hope that answers your question. :slight_smile:

Due to the way I implemented the auto-update functionality, there were problems with Blender freezing when attempting to quit. This functionality has been pulled from release until a viable solution has been found. If you’re using an older version, please be warned of this freezing, and you’re encouraged to download this updated release for now:

Download

Instead of the auto-update, I’m afriad you’ll have to resort to manually refreshing the list when adding a new camera to the scene, or if you change the name of a camera.

Sorry for any inconvenience and frustration! :frowning:

I’ll be working my little behind off to try and re-introduce the auto-update, as I think it was a good idea, just not implemented correctly.

Thanks, and happy shooting! :slight_smile:

Thanks Aaron,

It’s always interesting to follow the develop of an addon :slight_smile:
I tried your latest download and it didn’t work.
This is the error message i got.

Edit: i noticed that “Lamp” is actually the lamp in the scene… if i rename the lamp to “This-Is-The-lamp” it pics that name up.

http://content.screencast.com/users/Johny/folders/Jing/media/069d7975-27ac-4ec0-a5d7-aadd2cbebe99/00000002.png

http://content.screencast.com/users/Johny/folders/Jing/media/1545dd2e-da25-4bbf-9f71-7a95426ebee1/00000003.png

Cheers :slight_smile:

Ha!

Just when I thought it was safe to go back in the cupboard! :stuck_out_tongue:

The error message looks like you haven’t refreshed the list prior to rendering. I’ll run a few tests and see if I can gather what’s happening regarding the lamp issue. This might also be a side-effect of not refreshing the list.

Try refreshing after changes and let me know what comes of that. In the meantime, I’ll throw in some updates to the script that should take care of it. :slight_smile:

EDIT: The same thing just happened to me. I’ll get round it. :wink:

great idea! I searched such a tool for a while…
I haven’t tried yet but I don’t see the rendered file naming in the screenshots (only the folder) is it managed?
thanks for sharing

Hiya,

You can add the name of the image after the folder, example: “C:.…\my folder\shot1” - it will automatically add the file format at the end (.png, etc) as Blender usually does. If you don’t define a name, I’ve set it to use the name of the camera by default.

I have an update coming very shortly, as there were some problems displaying data correctly. So please wait to download the coming version. :slight_smile:

EDIT: For animations, please be aware that if the camera’s name is, for example, “Camera.001”, it will write files named “Camera0010001.png”, etc (the last four digits being the frame count). So, I’d recommend naming all of your cameras. Plus, it’d make good sense to do so anyway. :wink:

Hey guys,

I was made aware of some issues regarding the displaying of cameras after the last update. So, I’ve dug into the code, ripped it apart, and rewrote some of its core.

Basically; I’ve fixed some issues! :stuck_out_tongue:

Download & Manual
Bug tracker

Please let me know if there are any issues or problems, either via the bug tracker or here.

Even though I have ideas for updates and additions, there will be no extra functionality added until this addon is confirmed as stable in its current state, in one way or another.

I hope you find this update an improvement on yeserday’s fiasco! :stuck_out_tongue: