# Run Julia/Makie simulations in Blender

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/run-julia-makie-simulations-in-blender/72796>\
**Category:** Visualization\
**Tags:** plotting, makie, biochemistry\
**Created:** [December 8, 2021, 11:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/run-julia-makie-simulations-in-blender/72796 "2021-12-08T23:28:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chimel](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chimel/32/45879_2.png) [@Chimel](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Chimel)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2021, 11:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/run-julia-makie-simulations-in-blender/72796/1 "2021-12-08T23:28:05Z")

</div>

Hello,

Blender user here, new to Julia.

I ran into a Tweet with a cool Protein simuation done with the BioMakie.jl Julia program, and wanted to know if it is possible to export the simulation data to use it in Blender; or convert the Julia code to Python; or a plugin to run Julia code directly in Blender or some other VFX program to add extra whistles and bells. 😀

Just curious if there are any processes and/or integrations beyond the roam of Julia to visualise thinbgs in a more ‘artistic’ manner than the ‘plotting’ style of Makie? The question isn’t specifically for BioMakie.jl but Julia programs in general.

Hope I’m not going against too much against the grain here.

Thanks in advance!

Chi

[https://twitter.com/DanK\_ool/status/1308628179024781313?s=20](https://twitter.com/DanK_ool/status/1308628179024781313?s=20)

 ![image](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/1/c/1c6a2075cb62ec42492e56c202a14c240d19f757.jpeg)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sashmit](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/sashmit/32/18791_2.png) [@sashmit](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sashmit)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 1:59am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/run-julia-makie-simulations-in-blender/72796/2 "2021-12-09T01:59:58Z")

</div>

see;

> [@\[Proof of concept\] Blender.jl](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/proof-of-concept-blender-jl/65591):
>
> This is nowhere near releaseability, but maybe someone could find it interesting. Blender has (as you may know) a rather extensive Python API, and I always wanted to leverage Blender’s capabilities for 3d plotting. At the same time I try to avoid 3d plots at all costs for publication, but now I finally need them, so I can’t put it off anymore smile Already a couple of years ago, I put together [Blender.jl](https://github.com/jagot/Blender.jl) that was able to render the standard cube and load some premade meshes. I have now update…

as well as:

> **[aptmcl - Repositories](https://github.com/aptmcl?tab=repositories)**
>
> aptmcl has 37 repositories available. Follow their code on GitHub.

> **[GitHub - paulmelis/blender-julia-test: Experiment of using Julia to do mesh...](https://github.com/paulmelis/blender-julia-test)**
>
> Experiment of using Julia to do mesh processing in Blender - GitHub - paulmelis/blender-julia-test: Experiment of using Julia to do mesh processing in Blender

for other approaches.

Nothing for blender 3 yet, but should not be too hard.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sdanisch](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/sdanisch/32/1406_2.png) [@sdanisch](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sdanisch)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 12:48pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/run-julia-makie-simulations-in-blender/72796/3 "2021-12-09T12:48:10Z")

</div>

We’re pretty close to release a new Raytracing backend for Makie, if that’s what you’re after with a blender export:  
[https://makie.juliaplots.org/dev/documentation/backends/rprmakie/](https://makie.juliaplots.org/dev/documentation/backends/rprmakie/)

It’s still experimental, but should allow for some pretty fancy renders already!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chimel](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chimel/32/45879_2.png) [@Chimel](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Chimel)\
**Post date:** [December 9, 2021, 2:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/run-julia-makie-simulations-in-blender/72796/4 "2021-12-09T14:28:06Z")

</div>

Oh yeah, looks really cool!

I like the emmiseve colors of the Eath Topgraphy model, lava-ish!

When is the official release?

I see it runs on the GPU or hybrid withe the CPU.

Curious how this works for example with the BioMakie graph program above, when it is build on Qhull that runs on the CPU. Let’s say you have a large model with 100.000 nodes and you would like to animate and visualise that. Probably rendering the images costs the most calculation power and is best done on the GPU, how is that arranged?

Edit: without going into too much details, just trying to get some idea. 😀

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sdanisch](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/sdanisch/32/1406_2.png) [@sdanisch](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sdanisch)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2021, 7:33pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/run-julia-makie-simulations-in-blender/72796/5 "2021-12-10T19:33:21Z")

</div>

> [@Chimel](#):
>
> Curious how this works for example with the BioMakie graph program above, when it is build on Qhull that runs on the CPU. Let’s say you have a large model with 100.000 nodes and you would like to animate and visualise that. Probably rendering the images costs the most calculation power and is best done on the GPU, how is that arranged?

Well, you just use Makie & BioMakie.jl as always and select the RPR backend with the GPU 🤷‍♂️

This would actually make for a cool RPR showcase, I’ll see if I can create an example with @kool7d

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lazarusA](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lazarusa/32/6571_2.png) [@lazarusA](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lazarusA)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/run-julia-makie-simulations-in-blender/72796/6 "2021-12-10T21:06:24Z")

</div>

you could render this one also. Just copy and paste 😃

[https://lazarusa.github.io/BeautifulMakie/surfWireLines/RRGraph3D/](https://lazarusa.github.io/BeautifulMakie/surfWireLines/RRGraph3D/)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Chimel](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/chimel/32/45879_2.png) [@Chimel](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Chimel)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/run-julia-makie-simulations-in-blender/72796/7 "2021-12-20T18:28:14Z")

</div>

Hi Simon,

I made today a blogpost (+code) on the VoroX program for which I was enquiring:

[https://800millionparticles.blogspot.com/2021/12/voro-x.html](https://800millionparticles.blogspot.com/2021/12/voro-x.html)

If ever you’d like to use that one as a ‘showcase’ that would be nice ; )

![Vorox_sml](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/9/7/97f642ff75103204cde1ccb38926a136d73d68d4.gif)

 ![Current_Network](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/original/3X/e/3/e3001cc14d4367558a0f0673cf880a10a7efb520.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![claforte](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/claforte/32/19115_2.png) [@claforte](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/claforte)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 10:57pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/run-julia-makie-simulations-in-blender/72796/8 "2021-12-20T22:57:41Z")

</div>

> [@sdanisch](#):
>
> We’re pretty close to release a new Raytracing backend for Makie, if that’s what you’re after with a blender export:  
> [https://makie.juliaplots.org/dev/documentation/backends\_and\_output/rprmakie](https://makie.juliaplots.org/dev/documentation/backends_and_output/rprmakie)

That link didn’t work for me, but this one does:  
[https://makie.juliaplots.org/dev/documentation/backends/rprmakie/](https://makie.juliaplots.org/dev/documentation/backends/rprmakie/)

Super cool use of Radeon Pro Render! I work with some of the RPR developers so I’ll let them know. 🙂