If you create and new template your are invited to share it with community or at least a showcase on our discord server. I am very excited to see what a real blender artist could do with this software 🤙.
Theres exist 2 folders containing templates on the system.
- Factory templates:
<FACTORY_TEMPLATES_DIR>\<template_name> - User templates:
<USER_TEMPLATES_DIR>\@<artist_name>\<template_name>
You can browse to these <FACTORY_TEMPLATES_DIR> and <USER_TEMPLATES_DIR> directories using the GUI main menu.
To start from scratch click on Create Template button in the Template tab section with SPP GUI. It creates a template folder with a .blend file already contains a pre-configured empty SONIC_SOUND_PICTURE_DATA_STORAGE which is all you need. There is also a little script inside which will render a thumbnail image once you finished your creator process. Goto Blender' s Scripting area and execute the script.
If you like an existing template you can make a clone and edit the new copy. Since v1.0.18 SSP provides a easy way todo that and provides other useful creator functions.
- Select a template you which to clone in the template overview or create a new one from scratch Be sure you provided a
Template Artist namebefore! - Click
Edit/template.blendorEdit/Browsemenu item to continue
- Adjust your
.blendfile. - Render with SPP output type
blenderinstead ofvideo. - Check the result by opening the rendered file and simply play it within blender.
- Return to step 1 until you are finished and happy with the result.
- Configure the settings (
template.json) other users should be able to setup before they use your template to render a video.
A template folder needs 3 files to be valid. Otherwise it will not show up in GUI' s template overview.
template.blend(Blender template file)template.json(Template configuration)template.png(480x270 Template preview for SSP GUI)
The empty SONIC_SOUND_PICTURE_DATA_STORAGE contains already custom properties. There are also custom properties to visualize the frequency bands.
You can create up to 16 bands. All these properties will be automated by SSP software (bands in range from 0 to 1). The simple magic behind all this stuff is to bind a driver to any object you can imagine in blender. Scale.Z or color emission strength. You name it.
These properties will be automated before rendering process but you can play around with theses values while template creation process.
| Name | Range | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| scene_fps | between 24 and 60 | Constant | (internal use) needed to sync computation of effects in sync between beats per minute of a song and the frames per second of a video |
| song_beat_id | 1-4 | Variable | Beat counter in sync with a song |
| song_bpm | 0-n | Constant | The beats per minute of a song |
| song_frequency_band_00 | 0-1 | Variable | The amplitude value of a frequency spectrum range in relation of values between 0 and 1. You can create up to 16 bands ..._band_00 to ..._band_15. SSP software will split up the audio frequency ranges evenly between available bands in your template |
| song_impulse | 0-1 | Variable | Song impulse pulsing in a time range of one bar from 0 to 1 |
| song_length_seconds | 0-n | Variable | Song length in seconds |
| song_progress | 0-1 | Variable | Song Progress |
| song_section_id | 0-n | Variable | Song section detected by SSP software where each section describes a specific within a song represented by a number. For example intro, chorus, verse, outro etc. |
Since v1.0.18 SSP contains a editor inside the GUI to edit these template files which is recommended if you are not a hacker.
But for there others among us it follow the technical schema description.
template.json schema is defined as follows.
| Key | Description |
|---|---|
| version | your template file version |
| minBlenderVersion | minimal required blender version (needed if you use edge brand new blender functions only available in newer versions.) |
| allowCompositionNode | determines if the user is allowed to activate the composition node of the blend file while rendering |
| allowTransparent | determines if the user is allowed to render the video with a transparent background |
| description | a short description of your template |
| url | a social media link either to promote your template or you as an artist |
| license | a license tag. All Available tags are listed here |
| parms | the parameter collection you want to provide |
In your template configuration you can also add custom properties which can be changed by the user while template configuration (see step 3 of workflow) For example colors, texts, images, logos etc. Each of theses custom properties become a parms object within your new template.json. You can create aas much parameters as you want.
A parms schema is defined as follows.
| Key | Description |
|---|---|
| type | (text | file | color) defines the type if input for the user |
| title | defines title of input |
| value | defines default value of the input |
| path | defines the blender path selector to object within the blend file |
Each path can be easy observed with a blender context menu (Copy Full Data Path).
{
"version": "1.0.1",
"minBlenderVersion": "3.4.1",
"allowCompositionNode": false,
"allowTransparent": true,
"description": "For testing and development purposes. All features are implemented based on this template. It contains some prototypes for display elements and all necessary attributes. This template is therefore perfect as a blueprint for new template creations.",
"url": "https://github.com/s-a/sonic-sound-picture",
"license" : "public-domain",
"parms": [
{
"type": "text",
"title": "Songname",
"value": "",
"path": "bpy.data.objects[\"Text.004\"].modifiers[\"GeometryNodes\"][\"Input_2\"]"
},
{
"type": "file",
"title": "Image",
"accept": "image/png, image/gif, image/jpeg",
"path": "bpy.data.images[\"000013.1769220830.png\"].filepath"
},
{
"type": "color",
"title": "Color",
"value": "#ff00ff",
"path": "bpy.data.materials[\"Material.001\"].node_tree.nodes[\"Emission\"].inputs[0].default_value"
}
]
}