MIDIAnimator

Procedurally animate a MIDI file using Blender.

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Table of Contents

1. About The Project
   • Built With
2. Getting Started
3. Contributing
4. License
5. Contact
6. Acknowledgments

About The Project

MIDI Animator aims to provide a cohesive, open-source solution to animating instruments using a MIDI file.

Check out the technical demo:

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Built With

• Python 3.10
• Blender 3.1

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Getting Started

To get started, check out the Getting Started docs page.

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Building The Docs

1. Clone the repository git clone https://github.com/imacj/MIDIAnimator.git and cd MIDIAnimator/docs.
2. Run pip install -r requirements.txt.
3. Run make html to build the HTML docs.
4. Open index.html or run open build/html/index.html (for Mac users).
5. Before committing, make sure you clean the build folder with make clean.

Note: Instead of reStructuredText markdown files, this project uses MyST markdown files. For some basic information on MyST markdown, visit https://myst-parser.readthedocs.io/en/v0.15.1/sphinx/intro.html and https://jupyterbook.org/en/stable/reference/cheatsheet.html.

The API docs are auto-built with sphinx-autodoc. If you want to make changes to the API documentation, please find the file you want to edit and edit the documentation string.

Please open a PR if you want to make changes to the docs.

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Contributing

Contributions are what make the open source community such an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Any contributions you make are greatly appreciated.

If you have a suggestion that would make this better, please fork the repo and create a pull request. You can also simply open an issue with the tag "enhancement". Don't forget to give the project a star! Thanks again!

1. Fork the Project
2. Create your Feature Branch (git checkout -b feature/AmazingFeature)
3. Commit your Changes (git commit -m 'Add some AmazingFeature')
4. Push to the Branch (git push origin feature/AmazingFeature)
5. Open a Pull Request

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License

Distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPLv3) license.
You may freely change and add to a forked repository as you wish, but you may not publish this software as closed source.
See LICENSE.txt for more information.

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Contact

James Alt - [email protected]

Project Link: https://github.com/imacj/MIDIAnimator

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Acknowledgments

Here are some of the development tools I used to create this project.

• Visual Studio Code
• Blender Development Addon
• Fake Blender Python API Module (for code completion)
• Blender Python API Documentation

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Future of MIDIAnimator

Going forward, I will be rewriting MIDIAnimator to be written in Rust. This is for a couple of reasons

• way, way faster than Python will ever be
• flexibility and modular code (not so tied in with Blender's API)
• use of external application (explanation below)

Implementation

The new implementation is as follows:

• All MIDI processing will be done using Rust instead of right in Blender's Python enviroment.
• Rust will communicate with React.js for a front-end external application, and will be bundled as an external application with Tauri
• The external application will have plugin support for implementing plugins for use with other external applications (Blender, Maya, 3DS Max, Cinema 4D, Unreal Engine 5)
• This plugin API can also implement a synchronous playback system between a DAW, the external application and the 3D application
• Having a broader approach allows for more flexibility and a more modular approach.

New Technologies

• Rust as backend
• React.js for implementing front-end paramters
• Tauri for packaging up Rust/React application in one package
• Python will still be used to link the external application and 3D application using socket over local TCP. Depending on the scripting enviorment for the 3D application, a specific implementation is required to get scene data and convert it into the Rust API.

Going Forward

Will development on the main MIDIAnimator add-on stop?

For now, yes. I haven't worked on the main code for quite some time (I have been too busy to commit time to the project), but I've had this dilemma looming over me this entire time. I wanted a easy to use implementation that would work well for beginners and a fast, flexibility implementation for advanced users. I'm still going to want to work out some of the kinks (like how to do in-line scripting for advanced users?) and generally what the entire roadmap will look like.

For now, the project will be probably broken out into 2 sub-repositories: front/backend using Rust/Tauri, and implementation for plugins. This, could change if I find other viable solutions.

Will my projects transfer over to the new MIDIAnimator?

Probably not. I don't think theres a lot of users using MIDIAnimator, and because of the technical shift in all of the code, it probably will be completely different in how it operates. You will be responsible for poriting code to the new interface, however I am here to assist with technical questions and issues.

I look forward to the future of MIDIAnimator (and a new name... which will be coming!)

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