Benutzer:SaphireS: blendigo: Introduction

Overview

Blendigo is a script to render your Blender scenes with Indigo Renderer

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Its main developer and maintainer is SmartDen.
In a nutshell it is used to set up all necessary settings (ranging from materials to render settings and more) and then export an .igs file, which Indigo is able to read and render.
Of course there's much more to it, which will be explained later.

Since Indigo is always in development it's possible that some new added Indigo-features are not immediately available in blendigo. However, the developers always try to implement new features as fast as possible.
If you take time to learn the ins and outs of what is available in blendigo and how to use it properly you can produce terrific results. There are many fine renders in the Gallery already that attest to that and the skill of the people who made them. As with all rendering it is the attention to detail and correctness that produces the most satisfying and convincing results. Extra time spent finding the best textures say, or refining the lighting pays off in the image. In the case of Indigo a sound grasp of the technical basis also brings rewards because the nature of an Indigo render is to model the path of light in a physically correct sense.

We hope this wiki page will familiarise you with the features and requirements of Indigo and how to best use Blender to set up your scenes. Along with that content are some hints and insights into what doesnt work and why and (hopefully soon) some .blends showing some typical situations - for example, modelling wine glasses or using portals.

If anything mentioned here is unclear feel free to post questions to the forums. Remember there is a search facility available to help you find previous and similar questions and discussions.

The Blendigo UI

Installation

For Windows users

Blender

A standard install of the latest Blender version is fine for Indigo purposes - currently 2.49 RC
If you are in the habit of trying out SVN builds of the next Blender version please be aware that from time to time the python API has revisions and the existing Blendigo script may not work without some modifications.
Usually it is best to stick with the recommended set of Blender, Indigo and script versions.

Python

Although Blender comes with a subset of Python having a full Python install is required for many Blender scripts. A full install of Python is required to run the Blendigo script. You need to make sure you have the correct version for the script version you have. Python 2.4.4 is used by earlier versions of the Blendigo made for Indigo releases up to v0.8 and Python 2.5.2 for the most recent Indigo v1.0.9(stable) external link to Python homepage

Indigo

Indigo has no special requirements for installation. You may run the installer with default settings. If you're using Windows Vista beware that ... finish here

For Linux Users

Note: Linux builds and 64 bit Windows builds are only available for stable releases. (Prior to v1.0.9 the 64 bit builds of Indigo did not have .exr support.)

ToDO

Blendigo

Place the Blendigo script in Blender's scripts folder. If you installed Blender to the default location go to C:\Program files\Blender\.blender\scripts\

Place the Indigowrapper.conf in the bpydata folder. Again if you installed Blender to the default location go to C:\Program files\Blender\.blender\scripts\bpydata\

You will need to open the wrapper in Notepad and edit the path to the Indigo.exe folder.

Note: You need to use a Blendigo script version matching the Indigo version. For instance Blendigo 1.0.9 is made for Indigo 1.0.9

This is because Indigo and the exporter script are evolving together and not only are new capabilities added but some of the existing ones are changed or even removed.

Additional note: This wiki documents the python script used to export from Blender to Indigo known as ‘Blendigo’. This script was the first available for general use and has been updated and refined by various contributors with each new release of Indigo.

Blendigo is not the only Blender2Indigo script available however. If you search the Blender section of the Indigo forum you will find a few by different coders. Some are slightly different/better than others in some ways but essentially they do the same job.

Much of the information and hints detailed here is applicable to those scripts as well but the UI in each case may be arranged differently. To download the alternative scripts and find explanations of their respective capabilities see the first post of their thread.

Using blendigo

If you placed the blendigo.py in the scripts folder or run the blendigo-installer you can start creating your scene in Blender.
To access the blendigo-script click on Render.(Blender Header, picture 2)
Click on blendigo vx.x.x (.igs) to open blendigo.
One of your windows turns into a script window with blendigo open. (picture 3)

This is the blendigo interface.
At the top of it, there are header-buttons labeled Camera, Environment, Renderer, etc.
With these buttons you have access to the various parts of blendigo.
Each of them is very important and explained seperately:

Camera : All camera-related settings are specified here. See CAMERA

Environment : Here you can tell Indigo which illumination method to use, ranging from physikal sun to using an HDR as environment. See ENVIRONMENT

Renderer : You can find all the technical stuff here, e.g. metropolis settings or various filter settings. See RENDERER

Tonemap : Here you can find the Tonemapping settings. See TONEMAPPING

System : Paths and varios other settings like Save Period can be found here. See SYSTEM

Mesh : Enable Indigo mesh-subdivision here. See MESH

Materials : Set up the materials. See MATERIALS

SaphireS 13:42, 23. Mai 2009 (CEST)