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Is there any way I can, after rendering an animation/physics simulation, write out said animation to an external file? Needs to be a file format compatible with Linux (I'm new to Linux so unfortunately I don't know what sort of file would work for this). I also need to be able to, ideally, do this within the script controlling the animation/simulation.

Thanks so much!

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  • $\begingroup$ I think you mean saving the animation data or sim data to an external file(s) correct? $\endgroup$ – Todd McIntosh Jul 18 '15 at 1:58
  • $\begingroup$ Your simulation data should be baked, and you can specify the bake save location in the sim settings. As for animation you usually want to save as a PNG image sequence - see Knuckles' answer. If you need to render each frame at varied stages, like a composite image and also a mask, you can use output nodes in the compositor for saving variants. $\endgroup$ – Mentalist Jul 18 '15 at 12:26
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    $\begingroup$ Do you render (create a video with Blender) or do you want to capture the game output (create a video with the BGE) or do you want to record the motions done by an object while running the game (recording actions in the BGE)? $\endgroup$ – Monster Jul 22 '15 at 6:53
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Yes, Go to rendering panel and change the format [ GREEN ] to AVI JPEG or AVI RAW For more high quality without using a sequence of images. Select image files [ GREEN ] Such as PNG or JPEG for image sequences which you can put together manually but are usually more high quality. Click the folder [ YELLOW ] To select where to save the file.

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Does this work in the game engine? /any way to do this without using the gui? Ideally I'd like to append some sort of code that does this to a script that produces some sort of animation so it's automatically written out as soon as the animation is complete. $\endgroup$ – Archana Ram Jul 21 '15 at 17:36
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You can render your file and save its output with blender's default terminal options, or you can process data in the scene with a python script called from the terminal. For a general idea of how to use the terminal flags, see the wiki manual here:

https://www.blender.org/manual/render/workflows/command_line.html

For a full list of terminal flags, run ./blender --help from a terminal. Also see this answer for using a python script from the terminal:

How to enable an addon on startup via script?

What I am understanding is you want to render out image data, not animation data. If you are rendering out into a video file, I would recommend instead to render into an image sequence, which you can then compile into a video. You can easily do this through FFMPEG or the VSE. This is because if blender crashes during render, you don't need to splice together a number of video files; you can simply continue where you left off without worry.

If you want to export animation data for use in another program, you will have to export the animation through one of the exporters, not through rendering. If you're using the BGE, you don't need to export your animation data, as the BGE is integrated and has direct access to your scene. If you're using external software, like Maya or Unity, you will need to use the FBX or Collada exporters, which are included with blender.

If you could clarify what you're asking for, we can be more specific in our answers. As it is, it's somewhat ambiguous what you're asking for.

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