Blender: Project-Specific Analysis & SOP

Architecture Summary

Blender is a 3D creation suite supporting modeling, animation, rendering, compositing, and video editing. Its native .blend format is a custom binary format. The CLI uses a JSON scene description that can generate Blender Python (bpy) scripts for actual rendering.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              Blender GUI                 │
│  ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌─────────┐  │
│  │ 3D View  │ │ Timeline │ │ Props   │  │
│  └────┬─────┘ └────┬─────┘ └────┬────┘  │
│       │             │            │        │
│  ┌────┴─────────────┴────────────┴─────┐ │
│  │       bpy (Blender Python API)      │ │
│  │  Full scripting access to all       │ │
│  │  objects, materials, modifiers      │ │
│  └─────────────────┬───────────────────┘ │
│                    │                      │
│  ┌─────────────────┴───────────────────┐ │
│  │     Render Engines                  │ │
│  │  Cycles | EEVEE | Workbench         │ │
│  └─────────────────────────────────────┘ │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘

CLI Strategy: JSON Scene + bpy Script Generation

Since .blend is binary, we maintain scene state in JSON and generate complete bpy Python scripts that Blender can execute:

bash

blender --background --python generated_script.py

Core Domains

Domain	Module	Key Operations
Scene	`scene.py`	Create, open, save, profiles, info
Objects	`objects.py`	Add primitives, transform, duplicate, remove
Materials	`materials.py`	Principled BSDF, color, metallic, roughness
Modifiers	`modifiers.py`	Subdivision, mirror, array, bevel, boolean
Lighting	`lighting.py`	Cameras (perspective/ortho), lights (point/sun/spot/area)
Animation	`animation.py`	Keyframes, frame range, FPS, interpolation
Render	`render.py`	Cycles/EEVEE settings, resolution, samples, output
Session	`session.py`	Undo/redo with deep-copy snapshots

Modifier Registry

8 modifiers with full parameter validation:

subdivision_surface: levels, render_levels
mirror: axis_x/y/z, use_bisect
array: count, offset
bevel: width, segments
solidify: thickness, offset
decimate: ratio, type
boolean: operation (union/intersect/difference), object
smooth: factor, iterations

Render Presets

7 presets covering Cycles, EEVEE, and Workbench:

cycles_default: 128 samples, denoising
cycles_high: 4096 samples, denoising, transparent film
cycles_preview: 32 samples, fast preview
eevee_default: 64 samples
eevee_high: 256 samples, bloom, AO, SSR
eevee_preview: 16 samples
workbench: Flat/studio lighting preview

Rendering Gap: Low Risk

Blender's Python API (bpy) provides complete access to all functionality. The generated scripts create the exact scene described in JSON, then render. No translation gap — bpy is the native API.

Export: bpy Script Generation

The render execute command generates a complete Python script:

Creates all objects with correct mesh types and transforms
Creates and assigns materials with all Principled BSDF properties
Adds and configures modifiers
Sets up cameras and lights
Configures animation keyframes
Sets render engine and settings
Renders to output file

Generated scripts are validated as syntactically correct Python in tests.