ANNOUNCE: Previs QLC+ with blender-artnet release 1.6

This is a place for sharing with the community the results you achieved with QLC+, as a sort of use case collection.
You can share photos, videos, personal hardware/software projects, interesting HOWTO that might help other users to achieve great results.
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bcrotaz
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Feb 07, 2020 7:21 am
Real Name: Bryan Crotaz

I've been working on visualisation over ArtNet using Blender, the free open source 3D renderer. It now has real time rendering with Evee technology in version 2.8 onwards.

The open-source (free) Blender Artnet addon for Blender attaches any number of Artnet universes to Blender and allows lighting animation (point, spot, area lights) controlled in real time from Artnet.

You can even record your animation to keyframes, and then run a photorealistic render to show your stakeholders to get approval for a show. It can handle fog, haze and all the beauty stuff.

There are lots of sites where you can download and share posable people, furniture, vehicles etc, along with photorealistic materials to build your set.

I'd like to suggest that Blender becomes the previsualiser of choice for QLC+, and we work together to share models of common fixtures, truss configurations etc.

https://github.com/BryanCrotaz/blender-artnet
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mcallegari
Posts: 4528
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 9:09 am
Location: Italy
Real Name: Massimo Callegari
Contact:

Is it possible to see a video of this plugin in action?
Also, can you share which video card/computer is needed to run a medium show at a decent FPS?

Announcing a Github repository is not much attractive IMHO.
giacomo
Posts: 535
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 6:17 pm
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Hi Bryan,
as soon possible I'll try your addon, I'm already using Blender in theatre to visualize set and lights, I've already prepared many different kind of fixtures and if they're working I would share them with pleasure.
thanks!
giacomo
Posts: 535
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 6:17 pm
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Hi Bryan,
I've followed your instructions but no "profit", I'm on linux, I've tried both blender 2.83 and 2.90.
I don't see the Art-Net properties.
Do you have any suggestion?
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sbenejam
Posts: 557
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 6:28 pm
Real Name: Santiago Benejam Torres
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giacomo wrote: Wed Aug 19, 2020 6:47 pm Hi Bryan,
I've followed your instructions but no "profit", I'm on linux, I've tried both blender 2.83 and 2.90.
I don't see the Art-Net properties.
Do you have any suggestion?
Me too, I'm on Ubuntu 20.04 and Blender 2.82 and I don't see the Art-Net properties.
giacomo
Posts: 535
Joined: Tue May 26, 2015 6:17 pm
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hola Santiago,
I got it working downloading the zip file, then in blender addon I've installed this zip file.
Important for Blender. you've to use one of the fixture types that you'll have in the "fixture_type_store.py".

Bryan,
you could add some more info about using this addon,
eg. the channel sequence scheme is not very clear and I had to set artnet to Universe 1 (that correspond to artnet 0) and Base DMX Address to 0.
I didn't have the control of all the channels but I'll test it better later.
Regards
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sbenejam
Posts: 557
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2015 6:28 pm
Real Name: Santiago Benejam Torres
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Ciaio Giacomo,
I installed following the instructions published in the git page. I'll try from the zip file.
Install

Clone this repo and remember the folder where you put it

Install Blender 2.8 or higher.
Edit | Preferences menu opens the preferences dialog
Select the Add-ons tab
Press the Install... button
Select the __init__.py file in the folder you cloned into
Press the Install Addon button
Close the preferences dialog
...
Profit!
magicq
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2016 2:22 am
Real Name:

I noticed your plugin, but like the concern I have with the Unreal ArtNet plugin, the biggest issue with these free visualizer is the fixture availability, and performance. I have not tried this Blender addon and I don't know how many fixture def this may have, if it's not pretty comprehensive, it probably won't work. The Unreal one use the newest and best GDTF, but again, only newer fixture have GDTF profile available and if the fixture I need to use is not available, the deal is no good. Same thing could be said about all visualzier, Capture, L8, or Vision. The performance issue is pretty bad with Unreal ArtNet, it's in beta, so that's not unexpected, but until it can run pretty smooth, it can't replace the expensive stuff. But I hope, both this Blender and Unreal option can become mature and be able to take on real work project because the current commercial options (Capture, L8, Vision) are so so so expensive with annual tax, and they are not perfect. And with latest multimedia development, they will be outdated pretty soon. I put my hope on Unreal because it's just got so much going on, real-time virtual production and all that. I like Blender for it's EVEE renderer, but hey, glad to see these things going on. Keep up the good work and hopefully, someday, will use this for real production.
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