Timelapse Pro for Blender — Smart, Change-Aware Capture

A lightweight, production-ready addon that records your work-in-progress only when something changes (or on a fixed interval). Perfect for modeling, sculpting, shading, tutorials, and portfolio breakdowns.

✨ Key Features

🎥 Two Capture Modes
Choose between Viewport Render for clean, UI-free frames at scene resolution, or Screenshot to capture the full Blender interface — perfect for tutorials and workflow recordings.

🧠 Smart Change Detection
Automatically tracks scene updates (geometry, materials, transforms) and user actions (navigation, edits).
Captures only when meaningful changes occur — no redundant frames.

⏱️ Min Interval Guard
Define a minimum delay between captures (e.g., 5 seconds) to avoid flooding your folder with unnecessary frames during quick edits.

🧩 Safe & Robust
Prevents overlapping renders and automatically restores your original settings after each shot, ensuring stable, worry-free capturing.

💡 Auto Start Prompt
After saving your Blender file, a friendly popup automatically appears, offering to start the timelapse — so you never forget to capture your progress.

🗂️ Clean File Management
Saves neatly numbered outputs (e.g., Shot_001.png) in PNG or JPEG format — either to the default //timelap folder or any custom directory you choose.

⚙️ How It Works

1. Save Your .blend File – The addon prompts you to save first, ensuring correct output path resolution.
2. Open the Panel – Go to 3D View → N-Panel → “Timelapse” to configure settings.
3. Set Capture Options:
   • Enable Capture on Change for activity-based recording, or disable for interval-only mode.
   • Set Min Interval (e.g., 5s).
   • Choose Mode: Viewport (clean) or Screenshot (with UI).
   • Adjust Image Settings: format, quality, filename, padding, and output path.
4. Start Recording – Click Start Timelapse and watch real-time status updates (“Rendering…”, “Changes detected”, etc.).
5. Review & Export – Use Open Folder to access frames, then assemble into a video using Blender’s VSE or FFmpeg.
6. Auto Start on Save – Once configured, the add-on can automatically start recording after each .blend file save, so your progress is always captured without extra clicks.

🔍 Technical Highlights

• Change Detection Engine – Combines depsgraph updates (geometry, transforms, shading) with viewport activity (navigation, edits) to mark “dirty” states.
• Viewport Render – Uses fast OpenGL capture with view_context=False to maintain scene resolution and aspect ratio.
• Screenshot Mode – Captures the active Blender window, respecting OS-level display and UI overlays.
• File Sequencing – Auto-increments filenames with zero-padding for clean, ordered output.
• Reentrancy Guard – Internal flag prevents capture loops during rendering, enhancing reliability.

✅ Best Practices

• Use Viewport Render for polished, presentation-ready timelapses.
• Use Screenshot when demonstrating workflows or UI interactions.
• Set Capture on Change with a Min Interval of 3–10 seconds for optimal balance.
• Organize sessions with custom directories to keep outputs tidy.

📦 Compatibility

• Blender Versions: 3.x–4.x
• Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
• Installation: Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Install → Select ZIP/Python file → Enable

🤝 HUMAN MADE 😊

All assets are personally handcrafted by me, ensuring quality without the use of AI or automation.

✉️ SUPPORT & CONTACT 👋

If you have questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to reach out—I’m always happy to help!

🔄 Update Log:

• 13/10/2025: Initial release