Claude Blender Skills

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name: blender-film
description: Make a short, realistic cinematic shot in Blender with Claude, start to finish - storyboard, city layout, a physics-driven flight path, a chase camera, a hero that moves like the real thing, a realism pass, night lighting that actually reads as night, handheld camera shake, sound designed from the 3D motion, an overnight render with automatic checks, and a "white clay build-up" reveal that proves it's real 3D. Use when someone wants a cinematic Blender shot / short film / drone or superhero flythrough made with Claude, asks to "do the whole workflow from the video", or wants any single step of it (physics path, night lighting, sound from motion, clay build-up).
---

# Blender film with Claude

The workflow behind a 10-second night FPV drone shot through a city: one storyboard, a real physics path, one pivot (the first hero
didn't work), night lighting, sound from the motion, a 3.5-hour render, and a clay build-up reveal. Every step below is a script in
`scripts/` that was actually run for that shot; names in them (`Drone Empty`, `Street Asphalt`, `Building_1`...) come from that
scene - rename them for yours.

## 0. Setup

- Blender 4.4+ (made on 5.2), a GPU for Cycles, Python 3 + `ffmpeg` on PATH (+ `numpy`, `scipy` for the sound step).
- **Live bridge** (Claude drives the open Blender, you watch): in Blender's Text Editor run `tools/bridge.py` (listens on
  127.0.0.1:9876). Then from a terminal: `python tools/send.py scripts/06_night.py` or `python tools/send.py -c "print(bpy.data.filepath)"`.
- Set `FILM_ROOT` to your project folder (default `~/blender-film`): `scene/`, `render/`, `audio/`, `research/` live there.
  `tools/lib.py` is loaded by every script (helpers: `coll()`, `save()`, `snap()`...).
- **Work on copies.** Before replaying or re-running any script that edits materials, copy the .blend - several passes are not
  idempotent if a run crashes halfway (re-running orphaned node links once).

## 1. Storyboard first

Ask Claude for a 10-second storyboard *before touching Blender*: shot list with timings, camera per shot, where the hero is, what
the viewer feels. Turn it into one image sheet (any image model) and keep it open - every later decision gets checked against it.

## 2. City

Use a city asset pack you own (buildings, roads, props) or free CC0 assets (Poly Haven). Have Claude lay out one avenue + one
intersection along +X from a top-view map (keep the hero's path clear of props), then dress it: cars (parked / moving / stopped),
lamps, trees, hydrants. Bake every external asset into the .blend.

## 3. Motion from physics, not hand-keyed curves

`scripts/01_swing_sim.py` simulates the move (gravity, air drag, a rope that can't stretch, web anchors from the storyboard) and
searches the anchor timings until the path threads the street. `02_path_empty.py` turns it into a path curve + an empty on
Follow Path with the offset keyed per frame (real speed, not linear). The hero is parented to the empty, the camera follows its
own path (`03_camera.py`, + `03b_camera_noise.py` for subtle shake).

## 4. The hero - and when to pivot

The first hero was a rigged Spider-Man animated with Mixamo clips. It failed: mocap is recorded on the ground, so in the air it
hung like a puppet, poses were stiff, and he was tiny in frame. **If the character with limbs looks wrong, swap the hero - keep the
city, camera and path.** Ask Claude for options (we got: hawk, supercar, fix by hand, FPV drone).

The FPV drone works because nothing can look stiff. `04_drone_attitude.py` flies it like a real quad:
- **attitude from physics**: thrust axis = acceleration + gravity, nose along velocity -> it tilts into speed-ups, banks hard in fast
  turns, flares nose-up when braking;
- **throttle cut where the path is ballistic** -> freestyle tricks layered on top: power flip, barrel roll, back flip;