Installation#

Note

These instructions are for installing the BMusic library only. You may need other software in order to produce music animations.

Overview#

BMusic is a Python library, not an add-on.

The general workflow when using BMusic in a music animation is:

  • Create a script in your Blender scene.

  • import bmusic in the script, and use applicable BMusic features.

  • Run the script in Blender.

Installing BMusic itself won’t do any animation. For each project you create, you need to create your own script(s), use BMusic functions if applicable, and run the script in Blender.

About Blender Python#

../_images/PythonFlowchart.jpg

Blender comes with a Python interpreter that is separate from your system’s Python.

This flowchart shows how various components interact.

  • Blender Python has it’s own modules (which we will modify later). Scripts that you run from Blender use this interpreter and those modules.

  • Blender comes with the bpy module, which is the gateway between Blender and Python.

  • Your script imports applicable modules (usually bpy) and, again, runs on the Blender Python.

Installing#

If you have not already (most likely if you never touched scripting before), choose a new, dedicated folder for the Blender Python libraries we will install.

  • This is separate from the system Python’s libraries.

  • Place it somewhere where you won’t touch for a while; if you modify the path, you also need to change it in Blender’s preferences (see below).

Make the directories. Notice that we make an additional directory modules inside the chosen directory.

mkdir -p /path/to/blender_scripts/modules
../_images/BPrefsFilePath.jpg

In Blender, go to “Preferences” > “File Paths” > “Scripts” and set the path to the directory chosen (in this example, /path/to/blender_scripts). Notice how we omit the subdirectory modules here.

Next, we can install BMusic with pip, but setting the install path to the directory we created earlier.

pip install --target="/path/to/blender_scripts/modules" bmusic

This will install BMusic and all of its dependencies.

Confirmation#

To check that the installation is correct, open a console in Blender and type import bmusic. If nothing happens, the installation is correct.

../_images/ImportBmusic.jpg

Troubleshooting#

There is a known issue with numpy, possibly because Blender Python has numpy already built in. If you run into this error, try installing BMusic and dependencies except numpy.

First, remove all files in the modules directory so you can start over.

rm -rf /path/to/blender_scripts/modules/*

# Install BMusic with no dependencies.
pip install --target="/path/to/blender_scripts/modules" bmusic --no-deps
# Install dependencies manually, except numpy.
pip install --target="/path/to/blender_scripts/modules" mido tqdm