BlenderSpriteWallpaper

A python script that renders a 3D desktop wallpaper from a small sprite image, using Blender.

Examples

Turn this small sprite image

Into this wallpaper

Additional examples: Output Collection Album

Requirements

• Blender software is installed (the free and open source 3D animation suite)
  • tested with Blender 2.68
• Python language is installed (the programming language)

Setup

Ensure blenderlib.py and sprite_wallpaper.py are in the same directory

Config

Find an Image

Find a small image you wish to render as a desktop wallpaper. Each pixel of the image will be rendered as a 3D cube. Thus, the best images to use are icons or sprites from video games that are low resolution, with distinct edges that aren't anti-aliased or have shadowed edges that blend into the background color.

Configure the Script Parameters

Open the sprite_wallpaper.py file in a text editor, and edit the config object to your liking.

• current_directory - the full path of the directory containing sprite_wallpaper.py
• sprite_file - the path of the image file you wish to render, relative to the current script
• exclude_color - the background color in the image you wish to ignore when rendering the pixels
• resolution_width - the resolution width of your monitor
• resolution_height - the resolution height of your monitor
• resolution_percentage - the quality with which to render (most likely you want 100)
• background_color - the color you wish to serve as the background in the render
• padding_percentage - a percentage of the height of the image you wish to use as padding between the rendered image and the edges of the rendered space
• camera_offset_angle - the angle you wish to rotate the camera, if you would like to offset the plane that the image is rendered on (negative rotates left, positive rotates right)

Render

The resulting rendered wallpaper image file will render to the same directory as your input sprite image, also with the same filename but appeneded with _render, as the default PNG filetype format.

Using the Blender UI

1. Open Blender
2. Open a view to Text Editor
3. In the view menu Text > Open Text Block and select the sprite_wallpaper.py file
4. In the view menu Text > Run Script

Using the Command Line

1. Open the terminal/console
2. At the prompt - where sprite_wallpaper.py is the full path to the script file - enter the following line

blender --background --python sprite_wallpaper.py

Enjoy

Set is as your desktop wallpaper and enjoy!

For even more fun, render a few images and use the collection in an automatic rotating wallpaper application.