Introduction

Blendate allows you to take your 3D models directly within Blender and export them to a series of spritesheets using turntable rotations, animated sequences or a combination of both, complete with dithering and styling suitable for the Playdate's 1-bit display.

Core Workflow

The basic process for using Blendate involves these steps:

1. Select a Mesh or Armature object in Blender that you want to export.
2. Open the Blendate panel in the 3D Viewport's sidebar (N-panel).
3. Initialize the object using the button in the Blendate panel if it's the first time using it with this object.
4. Configure the export settings in the Configuration panel (assign a camera, set resolution, choose rotation/animation options, define grid layout, adjust style).
5. (Optional) Use the Preview panel to render a quick test image with current settings.
6. Set the output locations for spritesheets and metadata in the Render panel.
7. Click the Render Spritesheet button in the Render panel.
8. Locate the generated spritesheet image(s) and the metadata.json file in your specified output directory.
9. (Optional) Use the provided blendate.lua script (see Installation) in your Playdate project to load the metadata and images.

For detailed, step-by-step instructions on specific scenarios, please see the Tutorials section.

UI

Once installed and enabled, Blendate adds a tab named "Blendate" to the Sidebar in Blender's 3D Viewport (press N to toggle the sidebar). This tab contains three main panels:

Preview Panel

Provides a way to quickly render and view a single frame based on the current settings.

• Render Preview: Renders a single frame using the active object's settings.

Configuration Panel

Controls settings specific to the currently selected, initialized Mesh or Armature object.

• Initialize Object: (Button, appears only before initialization) Prepares the selected object for use with Blendate.
• Camera (Required): Camera selector. You must assign a camera object here for rendering.
• Resolution: Width and Height fields for the rendered image (not the sprite itself).
• Render Rotations: Enables turntable rendering.
  • Angle Increments: Degrees between each rendered rotation frame.
  • Start Angle / End Angle: Defines the range of rotation.
  • Turntable Type: Rotation axis (Horizontal / Vertical).
• Render Animations: Enables rendering based on Blender Actions.
  • All Animations: Checkbox to render all detected Actions or only selected ones.
  • FPS: Target frames per second for the output animation (may cause frame skipping).
  • Animation List: (Appears if "All Animations" is unchecked) Enable/disable any detected Actions.
  • Refresh Animations: (Button next to list) Re-scans for available Actions.
• Grid Size: Configures the layout of frames within spritesheets.
  • Auto Size: Checkbox to let Blendate estimate optimal grid dimensions based on output size targets.
  • Rows / Columns: (Appear if "Auto Size" is unchecked) Manually set grid dimensions.
• Freestyle: Enables Blender's Freestyle outline rendering.
  • Line Thickness Mode: Pill button toggle (Absolute / Relative).
  • Thickness: (Appears in Absolute mode) Sets line thickness.
• Outline: Enables a simple post-process pixel outline.
  • Outline Color: Toggle (Black / White).
• Dithering: Enables the 1-bit dithering effect.
  • Contrast: Adjusts contrast before dithering is applied.
  • If you have any issues with dithering, or would prefer to use a shader for this task, please check out this document by PresentFox
• Destruction: Contains the Destroy button to remove all Blendate settings from the selected object.

Render Panel

Contains global settings, output configuration, and actions.

• Spritesheet Directory: Folder where final spritesheet images (*-table-w-h.png) will be saved.
• Working Directory: Folder for storing temporary raw frames before processing (can be deleted after render).
• JSON Metadata File: Location and name for the output metadata.json file.
• Append to Existing Metadata: If checked and the JSON file exists, Blendate will update it instead of overwriting it.
• Copy Settings: Buttons to Copy From Active object and Paste To Selected object(s).
• Render Spritesheet: Starts the full rendering and processing workflow based on the active object's settings.