How to install the addons
When configuring Blender for 2D video, above, we made it visually ready to start editing projects. It is not practical, however, to try to edit videos the way the program is downloaded, clean. More than just adjusting the interface, we should install specific extensions for that objective, and the first step is to download them using the link below.
This section shows how to install the Blender Velvets addons; the links for each extension documentation can be found in the same download area.
Once downloaded, the addons are inside a zipped folder. Open it as you would do with any regular .zip file and extract its contents to any place of your preference (for example, at your Desktop).
Image 1: Inside Blender, open the Preferences screen using the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+U or via the main menu in “File > User Preferences”.
Image 2: At the “Addons” tab, click on the “Install from File…” button.
Image 3: Find the
blender_velvets-master folder. Select the addon you want to install and click on the “Install from file…” button.
Addon → File name
Velvet Goldmine → velvet_goldmine.py
Velvet Revolver → velvet_revolver.py
Blue Velvet → blue_velvet.py
Specific instructions for the files:
velvet_shortcuts.py →
see below
space_sequencer.py →
see here
Image 4: The addon will be shown isolated on the screen. To enable it, click on the box to the right, as seen on the image. Keep following the specific steps below, according to the installed addon.
Velvet Goldmine
Image 5: The Velvet Goldmine addon requires the additional installation of a new shortcuts map. For that, go to the “Input” tab and click on the “Import Key Configuration…” button.
Velvet Goldmine
Image 6: The shortcuts are inside the same blender_velvet-master folder. Select velvet_shortcuts.py and click on “Import Key Configuration…”
Velvet Goldmine
Image 7: Note that the new shortcuts are now already loaded and functional. To shift back to the standard shortcuts, select “Blender (default)” on the options box (on the image, “Velvet Shortcuts” is shown).
Velvet Revolver
Blue Velvet
Image 8: The Velvet Revolver and Blue Velvet addons require the use of an external program, FFMPEG. Click on the arrow to the left of the addon name to open its Preferences panel, as seen on the image.
Velvet Revolver
Blue Velvet
Image 9: Note that there is a standard path pointing to FFMPEG. If you use Linux and has a recent version of the program installed (on Debian Stable, use the deb-multimedia repository), you can leave it that way. Otherwise, follow the next steps to download it.
Velvet Revolver
Blue Velvet
Image 10: Go to the downloads area of the FFMPEG website and hover the mouse over the icon corresponding to your operational system (Linux, Windows or Mac OS). For Linux, choose Stactic Builds; for Windows, click on the link; for Mac OS, choose OS X 10.5 and above.
Velvet Revolver
Blue Velvet
Image 11: The downloads page for the static FFMPEG versions for Linux. Extract the folder from the zipped file (for example, inside the same folder in which Blender is).
Velvet Revolver
Blue Velvet
Image 12: The downloads page for the static FFMPEG versions for Windows. Extract the folder from the zipped file (for example, inside the same folder in which Blender is).
Velvet Revolver
Blue Velvet
Image 13: The downloads page for the static FFMPEG versions for Mac OS. Extract the folder from the zipped file (for example, inside the same folder in which Blender is).
Velvet Revolver
Blue Velvet
Image 14: Back to Blender, click on the folder icon, on the right corner, to open its navigator.
Velvet Revolver
Blue Velvet
Image 15: Find the FFMPEG folder. You have to find and select the binary or executable file, with the ffmpeg name. Click on the “Accept” button. On the image, we see the example for Windows, but the process is identical for Linux or Mac OS.
Velvet Revolver
Blue Velvet
Image 16: Blender is now pointing correctly to the FFMPEG binary or executable in your computer. Note that the path to FFMPEG has to be absolute (meaning it must contain the whole path to the file, as seen on the image), otherwise the addon will not work.
Velvet Revolver
Blue Velvet
Image 17: If the path to FFMPEG is shown as relative (meaning it starts with “//” and “..”, as seen on the image), it is because you have a saved and open project in Blender. Click on the “Remove” button to remove the addon and restart Blender without opening any project. Redo the installation process.
Velvet Goldmine
Velvet Revolver
Blue Velvet
At the end of everything, click on the “Save User Settings” button (below and to the left on the screen) to make Blender load the addon and the new shortcuts at startup.