edzop/bpyautoqueue

bpyautoqueue is a set of tools for automation of blender baking, rendering and scene setup.

bpyautoqueue

Introduction

bpyautoqueue is a set of tools for automation of blender baking, rendering and scene setup.

There are 4 parts to the bpyautoqueue set of tools:

• Render Queue
• Bake Queue
• Camera Helper UI
• Queue Helper UI

bpyautoqueue uses sqlite3 for storage.

Camera Helper UI

The Camera Helper UI is provided to provide a consistant repeatable way to streamline scene setup / camera placement / and automatic camera panning keyframes for animation sequences.

Setup Camera Dolly

Setup camera dolly with track to focus.

Queue Helper UI

The Queue Helper UI is a provided to manipulate the render queue from the command blender user interface as an alternative to the blq and blb command line.

Render Queue

The render queue is managed with the blb command.

The command blq --help will display a summary of options available for the render queue:

====================================
--halfsize --fullsize --quartersize --2ksize - resize all renders to preset size
--clear  - clear DB
-s --searchpath  - add files to DB
-i - frame index
-m mode (anim/pananim/pankey)
-e engine: 'CYCLES' or 'LUXCORE'
--requeueall - requeue all jobs
--times - summary of render times
--requeuefailed - requeue failed jobs
--requeuefile FILENAME - requeue specific file (searches like wildcard)
--removefile FILENAME - remove specific file (searches like wildcard)
--markallfinished - mark all files as finished
-p --print  - print all files
--render render files in queue
--printqueued - print queued files
--printfailed - print failed files
-b --brief  - brief summary of DB

The command blq --brief will display a brief summary of the current render queue:

Opening database: /home/blender/bpyautoqueue/render_db.sqlite3
CYCLES: Queued 16545
CYCLES: Finished 7305

The command blq -p will print the contents of the current reneder queue:

68394 1920x1080 f:244 pan:0 movie:1 Queued		CYCLES	/home/user/new_blend/2021_06_spiral_01_water.blend samples: 0 time: 0.0
68395 1920x1080 f:245 pan:0 movie:1 Queued		CYCLES	/home/user/new_blend/2021_06_spiral_01_water.blend samples: 0 time: 0.0
Finished Count: 7313
Queued Count: 16537
Failed Count: 0
Total count: 23850

The command blq --requeueall will requeue all jobs for rendering.

The command blq --clear will clear all jobs from the render queue

The command blq --times will display a summary of the total time for all frames rendered for each blender file in the render queue:

Opening database: /blender/bpyautoqueue/render_db.sqlite3
================== Times =================
Samples: 512 Resolution: (1920x1080) Time: 06:03:38 File: /home/blender/anim/water/2012_figure_splash.blend
Samples: 512 Resolution: (1920x1080) Time: 03:39:16 File: /home/blender/anim/water/2020_02_16_water.blend
Samples: 512 Resolution: (1920x1080) Time: 03:09:41 File: /home/blender/anim/water/2021_02_honey_grid_orbs.blend
Samples: 512 Resolution: (1920x1080) Time: 06:04:13 File: /home/blender/anim/water/2021_02_honey_twist_concave.blend

There are several options to assign output resolution to files in the render queue:

• --2ksize 2560x1440
• --fullsize 1920x1080
• --halfsize 960x540
• --quartersize 480x270

The command blq --render will render all files in the render queue and store results in the database.

Bake Queue

The bake queue is managed with the blb command.

The typical work sequeunce is:

• Add files to bake queue with blb --search option
• Assign draft settings to each file with blb --setupdraft
• Bake fluid in blender files with blb --bake
• After results are satisfactory upscale to final settings with blb --setupfinal
• Bake fluids again with blb --bake

The draft and final settings have different resolution, timesteps, and subframe assignments.

The command blb --help will display a list of options:

====================================
-p --print		| print all files
-b --brief		| brief summary of DB
--bake		| bake remaining files in queue
--setupdraft		| setup draft settings
--setupfinal		| setup final settings
--clean		| clean particles
--clearresults		| delete all bake results
--results -r		Print bake results
-s --searchpath		| add files to DB
--clearjobs			| clear DB
--markallfinished	| mark all files as finished
--requeueall		| requeue all jobs
--requeuefailed		| requeue failed jobs

The command blb -r will display bake results:

================== Results =================
2021-08-27 14:55 baketime: 03:35:08, frames: 250, resolution: 120, domain: (0.7,0.7,0.4), cache: 63G, filename: 2012_figure_splash.blend 
2021-08-27 17:42 baketime: 02:46:56, frames: 400, resolution: 120, domain: (6.0,2.1,0.1), cache: 112G, filename: 2021_02_honey_twist_concave.blend 
2021-08-27 19:45 baketime: 02:03:34, frames: 400, resolution: 120, domain: (7.0,4.0,4.0), cache: 298M, filename: 2021_02_honey_twist_concave_roller.blend 
2021-08-27 19:46 baketime: 08:23:32, frames: 400, resolution: 120, domain: (8.0,6.0,6.0), cache: 5.6G, filename: 2021_02_honey_grid_orbs.blend 
2021-08-27 19:46 baketime: 08:25:40, frames: 300, resolution: 120, domain: (6.0,6.0,6.0), cache: 35G, filename: 2020_02_16_water.blend 

The command blb --bake will bake all fluid files in the queue. Sometimes a fluid bake operation will not use all threads because of collision physics so multiple instances of the bake command can be run in different consoles.

The command blb --search test/ will search the test directory for any matching blend files and add them to the bake queue.

The command blb -p will print the current bake queue:

Opening database: /blender/bpyautoqueue/bake_db.sqlite3
================== BakeDB =================
#1 status: Queued file: test/test2.blend
#2 status: Queued file: test/test1.blend
Finished Count: 0
Queued Count: 2
Processing Count: 0
Total count: 2

The command blb --setupdraft will iterate through all files currently in the queue and assign draft fluid settings. The fluid settings are defined in the file bake_fluids.py and currently set to subdivision 32 for draft settings. This is useful to configure a series of blend files for preview fluid behavior before baking at higher resolution.

The command blb --setupfinal will iterate through all files currently in the queue and assign draft fluid settings. The fluid settings are defined in the file bake_fluids.py and currently set to subdivision 90 for final settings.

The command blb --clear will clear all records from the bake queue.

Installation

An automated install package is not available at this time. If you copy this repository into your: blender_installation_directory/addons/scripts/bpyautoqueue directory you should see bpyautoqueue in the list of blender addons next time you start blender.

Running the command setup_environment.sh will add symbolic links for the commands blq and blb into /usr/bin so you can manipulate the render queue and the bake queue.