Processing: How to Code a Grayscale Cipher

Well, I’ve clearly been doing graphics wrong ALL MY LIFE because I never knew Processing was a thing. Now that I’m aware, I’m attempting to rewire my brain for it.

Python: How to Export All the UV Layouts in Blender

This week is not a Python breakdown week. It’s just the code because my brain is still recovering from Scheme tutorials. And I really wanted to make a functional (or semi-functional) batch UV layout exporter. The script below does a blanket Smart UV Project for all selected objects and stashes the resultant UV layouts into a specified folder.

Scheme: How to Assign Variables

Part of what makes scheme such a bloody mess is the variable situation. If you’ve ever found yourself chewing at the curtains wondering why, dear god, why the console won’t stop with the unbound variable errors, chances are something is wrong with the way you wrote one or all of your variables.

That’s why I’m doing a short walk-through of scheme variables. Local ones, anyway.

Scheme: How to Loop GIMP Functions

For my first script of the new year, I started learning an entirely new language for an entirely different program that has resulted in my enduring a genuinely disturbing number of migraines over the last few days.

Tangential Warning: I don’t recommend scheme for beginners. I wouldn’t recommend it for any living creature because scheme is a monumental asshat of a language. It demands that you restructure the way you write math. Who the HELL decided THAT was a good idea? Oh, everyone in the world is accustomed to writing 2+2? Fuck those bastards, we’re going to force them to do +2 2 because programming is SUPPOSED to be confusing. And just to make it extra fun, EVERYTHING needs to go in parentheses. That way, even if the morons manage to get the expressions figured out, they’ll still have to spend HOURS guessing where the missing ) needs to go.

Python: How to Make a Mesh from XYZ Coordinates

_{Updated May 2020}

This was shockingly confusing. I mean it. You’d think there’d be a nice, simple way to plop coordinates into Blender to get a mesh. If there is, I wasn’t able to find it.

However, The Proving Ground has a really nice breakdown on the process because whoever runs that place is a damn saint.

Python: How to Automate Circle Animation

Alright, this is the last of the circle functions. That’s a lie. The sine/cosine thing took me so long to wrap my head around, I’ll be using these functions in every animated scene I make from this point forward.

PYTHON: How to Code Circles with the Math Module

Today is less of a how-to day. It’s more of a blind hate rant day because everyone needs those on occasion.

AHK: How to Write a Web Scraper

I love AirBnB. But every now and then, I don’t want to scroll through multiple pages of listings to find a place to stay. I just want to be able to see a simple spreadsheet. That’s exactly what a web scraper is meant to do.

Python: How to Write a dance() Function in Blender

Last week, I wrote a script to pull objects in Blender into the shape of an H and I. But after running it with a couple different sets of objects, the text seemed a bit bland. After everything finds a place, it just sits there. I’d like it to twirl around a little. So I wrote it into a function—dance().

Python: What are Nested Lists?

I’ve been plowing through Automate the Boring Stuff with Python by Al Sweigart. Since I generally skip over chapters with scary names or giant blocks of text, the bit about nested dictionaries and lists went blazing right over my head. But when I wanted to start shaping objects in Blender into letters (as pictured above), I went right back to it because they’re actually quite useful.