EthansBPYUtils is an incredibly loose collection of refined BPY-based functions and classes that perform; in most cases, frequently used operations. Some files such as materials.py are scraped directly from other add-ons and as such aren't currently usable in any capacity and only exist as an inlet for future ideas. This library will mainly be updated as I develop my other existing add-ons serving as a functionality bridge between them. EthansBPYUtils also comes with some example scripts that I've scraped from around online. You are welcome to use any of the code in this repo however you so wish under GPL licensing.
EthansBPYUtils is not loaded with PIP or anything like that, but you can either add this library as a Git Submodule to your own repo or just manually download the files. If using the Git Submodule method, simply update the pointers to recieve updates from this repo as they are committed.
My IDE (coding software) of choice is Visual Studio Code with the Blender Development extension installed for efficiently testing changed code. I also use fake_bpy_module for proper syntax highlighting. I personally recommend leaving the built-in Blender Text Editor ASAP as it very quickly becomes cumbersome to use, although I will also recognize its helpfulness demoing a handful lines of code from time to time. Some resources I recommend for learning how to code within the API are listed in the Extra Development Tips section.
- If you already know Python but aren't familiar with BPY specifically, I always recommend Dr Sybrens official Blender Studio Scripting for Artists tutorial series on developing add-ons. He offers clear and concise guidance on learning the API all the while being an extremely veteran coder giving useful code design advice along the way. You can also watch this talk for a more advanced but conference-like learning experience.
- Basic Add-on Tutorial Your first blender add-on on the official Blender Docs. Personally speaking, the faster you get into single file add-ons over just text editor scripts the better.
- If you're looking into Building Blender from source code I can't recommend this SVN repo enough for streamlining the process of getting your library files. This is specifically useful if you are working on any branch other than master (I.E. final releases). My experience getting things like CUDA and OPTIX working with builds was better with Ubuntu Linux, but Windows is also fully capable with a bit of extra work.
- I do NOT recommend using tertiary user-made modules such as EasyBPY if you intend on ever making code longer than ~20 lines. It can be a useful tool for non-coders but Python is an incredibly user-readable language and I believe simplifying it further doesn't do it a service in the spirit of learning new; transferrable skills.
As far as utilities not specifically included in this repository, I will update this README to include any resources I find that I'd like share or explore myself in the future:
- blender_addon_updater Tool that adds automatic add-on update functionality for end users
- io_export_blend Tool for exporting selections to a new blend file
- BlenderShare/templates Code Snippets/Add-on Templates (seems a bit outdated)
- 30350n/custom_node_utils Custom tools for shader graph generation
- 30350n/blender_addon_utils Add-on dependency assistance utility
- download-directory Simple web tool for directly downloading specific pages of a GitHub repo
- ChatGPT Genuinely a good alternative resource for development assistance, warning that it will frequently give confidently incorrect responses and unless guided will often reference the pre-2.8 BPY Python API
While not entirely relevant to the purpose of this repository, I realized I have no location online where I share my favorite stuff. These add-ons are geared towards your average game artists toolkit being focused mostly on modeling, unwrapping, file handling, and rendering. I'll attempt to keep this list optimized and minimal as my workflow evolves. I will prioritize using only GitHub links and will substitute the paid only tools with Gumroad/Blender Market links where applicable:
- Screenshot Saver - Made by Me!
- Vertex Colors Plus - Made by Me!
- Bake to Vertex Color
- Copy Attributes Menu - Built-in!
- Node Wrangler - Built-in!
- Edit Linked Library - Built-in!
- Material Utilities - Built-in!
- Pie Menus Plus - Made by Me!
- Pie Menu Editor
- Batch Ops
- Retopoflow
- LoopTools - Built-in!
- BoolTool - Built-in!
- Extra Objects (Mesh & Curve) - Built-in!
- ReBevel
- Rotate Face
- Slide Edge
- Volume Preserving Smoothing
- NGon Loop Select
- EdgeFlow - Not currently maintained
- Hidesato Offset Edges - DD link, not currently maintained
- MACHIN3tools
- MESHMachine
- Hard Ops
- F2 - Built-in!
- DreamUV
- UVToolkit - Not currently maintained, reuploaded by me
- UVPackmaster 3
- Texel Density Checker
- Photographer
- Rotate HDRI - Not currently maintained
- Copy Render Settings - Built-in!
- Better FBX
- GoB
- Import Images as Planes - Built-in!
- Blender Cloud - Built-in!
- Blender ID Auth - Built-in!
- Icon Viewer - Built-in!
- Math Vis (Console) - Built-in!
