blender

Render all frames of an animation in the background, without loading the UI (output is saved to /tmp)

$ blender --background [filename].blend --render-anim

Render an animation using a specific image naming pattern, in a path relative (//) to the .blend file

$ blender --background [filename].blend --render-output //[render/frame_###.png] --render-anim

Render the 10th frame of an animation as a single image, saved to an existing directory (absolute path)

$ blender --background [filename].blend --render-output [/path/to/output_directory] --render-frame [10]

Render the second last frame in an animation as a JPEG image, saved to an existing directory (relative path)

$ blender --background [filename].blend --render-output //[output_directory] --render-frame [JPEG] --render-frame [-2]

Render the animation of a specific scene, starting at frame 10 and ending at frame 500

$ blender --background [filename].blend --scene [scene_name] --frame-start [10] -e [500] --render-anim

Render an animation at a specific resolution, by passing a Python expression

$ blender --background [filename].blend --python-expr '[import bpy; bpy.data.scenes[0].render.resolution_percentage = 25]' --render-anim

Start an interactive Blender session in the terminal with a python console (do import bpy after starting)

$ blender --background --python-console

blender [args ...] [file] [args ...]

blender is a full-featured 3D application. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline - modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, motion tracking, and video editing.

Use Blender to create 3D images and animations, films and commercials, content for games, architectural and industrial visualizations, and scientific visualizations.

https://www.blender.org

Color management: using fallback mode for management Color management: Error could not find role data role. Blender 3.0.0 Usage: blender [args ...] [file] [args ...]

Render Options:

-b or --background

Run in background (often used for UI-less rendering).

-a or --render-anim

Render frames from start to end (inclusive).

-S or --scene <name>

Set the active scene <name> for rendering.

-f or --render-frame <frame>

Render frame <frame> and save it.

* +<frame> start frame relative, -<frame> end frame relative.
* A comma separated list of frames can also be used (no spaces).
* A range of frames can be expressed using '..' separator between the first and last frames (inclusive).

-s or --frame-start <frame>

Set start to frame <frame>, supports +/- for relative frames too.

-e or --frame-end <frame>

Set end to frame <frame>, supports +/- for relative frames too.

-j or --frame-jump <frames>

Set number of frames to step forward after each rendered frame.

-o or --render-output <path>

Set the render path and file name.
Use '//' at the start of the path to render relative to the blend-file.

The '#' characters are replaced by the frame number, and used to define zero padding.

* 'animation_##_test.png' becomes 'animation_01_test.png'
* 'test-######.png' becomes 'test-000001.png'

When the filename does not contain '#', The suffix '####' is added to the filename.

The frame number will be added at the end of the filename, eg:
# blender -b animation.blend -o //render_ -F PNG -x 1 -a

-E or --engine <engine>

Specify the render engine.
Use '-E help' to list available engines.

-t or --threads <threads>

Use amount of <threads> for rendering and other operations
[1-1024], 0 for systems processor count.

Format Options:

-F or --render-format <format>

Set the render format.
Valid options are:

Formats that can be compiled into Blender, not available on all systems:

-x or --use-extension <bool>

Set option to add the file extension to the end of the file.

Animation Playback Options:

-a <options> <file(s)>

Instead of showing Blender's user interface, this runs Blender as an animation player,
to view movies and image sequences rendered in Blender (ignored if '-b' is set).

Playback Arguments:

-p <sx> <sy>
Open with lower left corner at <sx>, <sy>.
-m
Read from disk (Do not buffer).
-f <fps> <fps-base>
Specify FPS to start with.
-j <frame>
Set frame step to <frame>.
-s <frame>
Play from <frame>.
-e <frame>
Play until <frame>.
-c <cache_memory>
Amount of memory in megabytes to allow for caching images during playback.
Zero disables (clamping to a fixed number of frames instead).

Window Options:

-w or --window-border

Force opening with borders.

-W or --window-fullscreen

Force opening in fullscreen mode.

-p or --window-geometry <sx> <sy> <w> <h>

Open with lower left corner at <sx>, <sy> and width and height as <w>, <h>.

-M or --window-maximized

Force opening maximized.

-con or --start-console

Start with the console window open (ignored if '-b' is set), (Windows only).

--no-native-pixels

Do not use native pixel size, for high resolution displays (MacBook 'Retina').

--no-window-focus

Open behind other windows and without taking focus.

Python Options:

-y or --enable-autoexec

Enable automatic Python script execution.

-Y or --disable-autoexec

Disable automatic Python script execution (pydrivers & startup scripts), (compiled as non-standard default).

-P or --python <filename>

Run the given Python script file.

--python-text <name>

Run the given Python script text block.

--python-expr <expression>

Run the given expression as a Python script.

--python-console

Run Blender with an interactive console.

--python-exit-code <code>

Set the exit-code in [0..255] to exit if a Python exception is raised
(only for scripts executed from the command line), zero disables.

--python-use-system-env

Allow Python to use system environment variables such as 'PYTHONPATH' and the user site-packages directory.

--addons <addon(s)>

Comma separated list (no spaces) of add-ons to enable in addition to any default add-ons.

Logging Options:

--log <match>

Enable logging categories, taking a single comma separated argument.
Multiple categories can be matched using a '.*' suffix,
so '--log "wm.*"' logs every kind of window-manager message.
Sub-string can be matched using a '*' prefix and suffix,
so '--log "*undo*"' logs every kind of undo-related message.
Use "^" prefix to ignore, so '--log "*,^wm.operator.*"' logs all except for 'wm.operators.*'
Use "*" to log everything.

--log-level <level>

Set the logging verbosity level (higher for more details) defaults to 1,
use -1 to log all levels.

--log-show-basename

Only show file name in output (not the leading path).

--log-show-backtrace

Show a back trace for each log message (debug builds only).

--log-show-timestamp

Show a timestamp for each log message in seconds since start.

--log-file <filename>

Set a file to output the log to.

Debug Options:

-d or --debug

Turn debugging on.

* Enables memory error detection
* Disables mouse grab (to interact with a debugger in some cases)
* Keeps Python's 'sys.stdin' rather than setting it to None

--debug-value <value>

Set debug value of <value> on startup.

--debug-events

Enable debug messages for the event system.

--debug-ffmpeg

Enable debug messages from FFmpeg library.

--debug-handlers

Enable debug messages for event handling.

--debug-libmv

Enable debug messages from libmv library.

--debug-cycles

Enable debug messages from Cycles.

--debug-memory

Enable fully guarded memory allocation and debugging.

--debug-jobs

Enable time profiling for background jobs.

--debug-python

Enable debug messages for Python.

--debug-depsgraph

Enable all debug messages from dependency graph.

--debug-depsgraph-eval

Enable debug messages from dependency graph related on evaluation.

--debug-depsgraph-build

Enable debug messages from dependency graph related on graph construction.

--debug-depsgraph-tag

Enable debug messages from dependency graph related on tagging.

--debug-depsgraph-no-threads

Switch dependency graph to a single threaded evaluation.

--debug-depsgraph-time

Enable debug messages from dependency graph related on timing.

--debug-depsgraph-pretty

Enable colors for dependency graph debug messages.

--debug-depsgraph-uuid

Verify validness of session-wide identifiers assigned to ID datablocks.

--debug-ghost

Enable debug messages for event handling.

--debug-gpu

Enable GPU debug context and information for OpenGL 4.3+.

--debug-gpu-force-workarounds

Enable workarounds for typical GPU issues and disable all GPU extensions.

--debug-wm

Enable debug messages for the window manager, shows all operators in search, shows keymap errors.

--debug-xr

Enable debug messages for virtual reality contexts.
Enables the OpenXR API validation layer, (OpenXR) debug messages and general information prints.

--debug-xr-time

Enable debug messages for virtual reality frame rendering times.

--debug-all

Enable all debug messages.

--debug-io

Enable debug messages for I/O (Collada, ...).

--debug-fpe

Enable floating-point exceptions.

--debug-exit-on-error

Immediately exit when internal errors are detected.

--disable-crash-handler

Disable the crash handler.

--disable-abort-handler

Disable the abort handler.

--verbose <verbose>

Set the logging verbosity level for debug messages that support it.

Misc Options:

--open-last

Open the most recently opened blend file, instead of the default startup file.

--app-template <template>

Set the application template (matching the directory name), use 'default' for none.

--factory-startup

Skip reading the BLENDER_STARTUP_FILE in the users home directory.

--enable-event-simulate

Enable event simulation testing feature 'bpy.types.Window.event_simulate'.

--env-system-datafiles

Set the BLENDER_SYSTEM_DATAFILES environment variable.

--env-system-scripts

Set the BLENDER_SYSTEM_SCRIPTS environment variable.

--env-system-python

Set the BLENDER_SYSTEM_PYTHON environment variable.

-noaudio

Force sound system to None.

-setaudio

Force sound system to a specific device.

-h or --help

Print this help text and exit.

/?

Print this help text and exit (Windows only).

-R

Register blend-file extension, then exit (Windows only).

-r

Silently register blend-file extension, then exit (Windows only).

-v or --version

Print Blender version and exit.

--

End option processing, following arguments passed unchanged. Access via Python's 'sys.argv'.

Other Options:

--debug-freestyle

Enable debug messages for Freestyle.

Argument Parsing:

Arguments must be separated by white space, eg:

# blender -ba test.blend ...will exit since '-ba' is an unknown argument.

Argument Order:

Arguments are executed in the order they are given. eg:

# blender --background test.blend --render-frame 1 --render-output '/tmp' ...will not render to '/tmp' because '--render-frame 1' renders before the output path is set. # blender --background --render-output /tmp test.blend --render-frame 1 ...will not render to '/tmp' because loading the blend-file overwrites the render output that was set. # blender --background test.blend --render-output /tmp --render-frame 1 ...works as expected.

$BLENDER_USER_CONFIG Directory for user configuration files. $BLENDER_USER_SCRIPTS Directory for user scripts. $BLENDER_SYSTEM_SCRIPTS Directory for system wide scripts. $BLENDER_USER_DATAFILES Directory for user data files (icons, translations, ..). $BLENDER_SYSTEM_DATAFILES Directory for system wide data files. $BLENDER_SYSTEM_PYTHON Directory for system Python libraries. $OCIO Path to override the OpenColorIO config file. $TMP or $TMPDIR Store temporary files here.

This manpage was written for a Debian GNU/Linux system by Daniel Mester <mester@uni-bremen.de> and updated by Cyril Brulebois <cyril.brulebois@enst-bretagne.fr> and Dan Eicher <dan@trollwerks.org>.

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