Blender Screenwriter & Screenplayer

Screenwriter and automatic previz/animatic generation.

Demo of Main Features

Features

Screenwriter

• Write screenplays in Blender Text Editor.
• Get live preview of screenplay formatting.
• Use the simple fountain markup syntax.
• Open as Fountain.
• Save as Fountain.
• Change font(for preview).
• Insert Title Page.
• Insert scene numbers.
• Correct caps.
• Insert [[SHOT: ]] note/comment - will generate a camera in the scene.
• ">my action<" will center action.
• ">" will force transition.
• "@" will force character(may not be supported by all fountain parsers).
• "." will force scene header.
• Export to pdf.
• Export to fdx(Final Draft).
• Export to Html.

Screenplayer

• Script to Screen sequence generation.
• Assign 3d objects to screenplay keywords.
• Extract screenplay data and timings.
• Create a sequence with scene headings, action and dialogue as timed text strips.
• Generate scenes for each screenplay scene.
• Populated scenes with 3d objects assigned to words in the screenplay scene, where the words appear.
• If more cameras are assigned to a scene, scene strips pointing to cameras and a multicam strip will be added to the master edit.
• Generate cameras for each [[SHOT: ]] note/comment in the scenes where they appear.
• Switch to the 3d scene based on the position of the screenplay scene.
• Switch back to the master edit scene.

Mindmap

• Generate and return mindmap if the Mindmap add-on is installed: https://github.com/SpectralVectors/MindMapper

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1322593/234814066-7fe80ded-161d-4cd0-804a-e5300ce6ac67.mp4

How to Install

Use Blender 2.82 Beta or higher.

Download the repository as zip and use the normal Blender installation procedure.

In the Text Editor Sidebar you'll find the Screenwriting buttons. They'll be disabled until you save a text-block with a .fountain extention or open .fountain a file.

To export the Screenplain[PDF] module https://github.com/vilcans/screenplain is needed. It should install automatic, but if installation fails on GNU/Linux, it can be installed with 2 commands in the terminal:

• '/INSTALLED_BLENDER_PATH/2.81/python/bin/python3.7m' -m ensurepip
• '/INSTALLED_BLENDER_PATH/2.81/python/bin/python3.7m' -m pip install screenplain[PDF]

Alternatively this add-on can be used for module installation in Blender: https://github.com/amb/blender_pip/releases

Test Screenplay Files

https://fountain.io/_downloads/Big%20Fish.fountain

https://fountain.io/_downloads/Brick%20&%20Steel.fountain

https://fountain.io/_downloads/The%20Last%20Birthday%20Card.fountain

Fountain Syntax

https://github.com/derickc/Fountainhead#fountain-syntax

For a complete overview of the Fountain syntax, go to http://fountain.io/syntax.

Scene Headings

To indicate a new scene, start a new line and type the location of the scene in all caps. For example:

INT. COFFEE SHOP - DAY

Action

This is where you describe what is happening in the scene. Start a new line and type your action description in plain text. For example:

John walks into the coffee shop and orders a latte.

Dialogue

To indicate dialogue, start a new line and type the character's name in all caps, followed by a period. Then, type the dialogue in plain text. For example:

JOHN
Can I get a latte, please?

Parentheticals

If you need to indicate how a line of dialogue is spoken, you can use a parenthetical. Start a new line and type the character's name in all caps, followed by a period. Then, type the parenthetical in parentheses, followed by the dialogue in plain text. For example:

JOHN
(sarcastic)
Great, just what I needed.

Transitions

To indicate a transition between scenes, start a new line and type the transition in all caps. For example:

CUT TO:

Title Page

The Title Page holds metadata by Key Value pairs that are separated by : Each key can have multiple values by placing them on newlines that are indented 3+ spaces or by a tab

After dropping to enters the Title Page is followed by the sceenplay elements.

Not all of the following Fountain options are implemented in Blender Screenwriter or the export parsers used.

Comments in the screenplay

Styling of sceenplay text

Fountain example:

Title:
    Title 1
    Title 2
Credit: Written by
Author: Author name
Source: Story by...
Draft date: 12/10/2014
Contact:
    Contact Info
    Address Line 1
    Address Line 2

# Act 1

= The introduction of Character

EXT. HOUSE - DAY

Some action text.

CHARACTER
(parenthetical)
Dialogue.

CUT TO:

.Scene Heading

More Blender Screenwriter utility add-ons

Add searchable markers for outlining and navigating the text: https://github.com/tin2tin/TextMarker-blender-addon

Adding markers and writing timed script into the 3D View: https://github.com/philippe-lavoie/blender-fountain-addon

Switch cameras in 3D View from Sequencer: https://github.com/tin2tin/scene_strip_tools

Switch to the scene of the Scene strip: https://github.com/tin2tin/VSESwitchToScene

Link text from TExt strip to text in 3D View: https://github.com/gabrielmontagne/blender-addon-link-text-to-vse-subtitle

Split text to node editor frames: https://github.com/gabrielmontagne/blender-addon-split-frame-from-text

Link text to node editor frames: https://github.com/gabrielmontagne/blender-addon-link-text-to-frame

About

This add-on utilizes a fountain script parser, which converts .fountain files to python object. The Fountain screenplay format is by Nima Yousefi & John August; original code for Objective-C at https://github.com/nyousefi/Fountain. It is ported to Python 3 by Colton J. Provias, improved by Manuel Senfft https://github.com/Tagirijus/fountain. The Screenplain module by Martin Vilcans is used for exports https://github.com/vilcans/screenplain.