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Jot Exporter for Blender

54
By on Python Scripts

davidJot is a non-photorealistic renderer. You can now export to Jot from Blender.

Ragnar writes:

Jot is a standalone WYSIWYG stylistic renderer that was developed back in 2002. It lets artists define the style of the outline used to render their models by simply drawing it, and it has a great system to get solid non-flickering outlines when the model is animated. I've written an exporter for Blender to get some renewed interest in Jot itself, and hopefully see talented developers willing to bring the technology of Jot into the future.

See ragnarb.com for a download link to both Jot, and the Blender exporter.

The image is of gabrielmda's model of David, rendered with Jot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gT9qU_fJNuw#!

54 Comments

    • sorbus on

      I'd much rather have the option of both tools available to Blender - much the same as having both Blender internal and Cycles. Typical, you wait years for a NPR renderer in Blender and two turn up at the same time!

      The realtime preview looks cool, but resolution is limited to the screen size and only as a raster image. Freestyle does not have these limitations. From the examples it looks as if Freestyle is better than Jot for 'draughtsman' style technical drawings - something of huge value to architects and engineers - where brushwork style NPR is inappropriate.

      Most of the resent updates to Freestyle have been for efficiency and stability. Integrating software as old as Jot into a modern workflow could be a real headache. I hope somebody brings it up to date and multi-platform.

      Reply
  2. Moolah on

    I can't execute the tut. from README.
    It gave an error and the app. is closed.
    "BaseStroke:: set_texture - Not in cache..."
    I'm running on WinXP 32 bit.

    Reply
      • crins on

        Thank you!
        p.s. Jot is installed on the root of my E:\ drive, not C:\.
        And I'm running Windows 7 Home premium 64bit.

        Reply
    • guillaumesauv on

      some response:
      after some try i get a way to make work jot.
      you have to follow the instruction and unblocked on each the.exe inside /bin.
      After that he don't find glut32.dll.
      I copie all bin directory into Q where is jot.exe (the jot.exe for jotq command).
      i'm in seven 64bits.

      hope it's clair not english, no good english..

      Reply
  3. Ragnar on

    Moolah: I guess the README that comes with Jot is not terribly clear, but I've run it on WinXP 32 bit in the past, so it should work. Try the following:
    - extract jot to C:\jot
    - go into C:\jot\batch and right click jot-config.bat and choose edit (it should open in Notepad).
    - Where it says "set JOT_ROOT=etc..." change it to "set JOT_ROOT=C:\jot" and save and close the file.
    - Go to C:\jot and right click jot-cmd and choose Properties. Check that target is "%SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /k C:\jot\batch\jot-config.bat"
    - Double click jot-cmd
    - Run jotq in the command prompt, and Jot should start.

    If this works, you can close Jot, and run "cd manual\tutorials\tutorial-1" and then "jotq cactus-8.jot" to load the sample cactus model included with jot.

    Hope that works. :)

    Reply
    • the animator on

      what about if your running windows 7 64 bit? I followed these directions and tried different things in the target but cannot get anything to work? Please help! Thank you

      Reply
    • Moolah on

      @Ragnar,
      thank you for the explanation
      I've did like you've said but it gives the same error:
      “BaseStroke:: set_texture – Not in cache…” just after I type in the command prompt "jotq.bat"
      Maybe it has some specific requirements? I've didn't found anything special on their site...
      It's a very interesting program, I hope to find a right way to use it!

      P.S. This will be awesome if these features will be implemented right in Blender! :)

      Reply
      • Ragnar on

        I'm doing this step-by-step on my WinXP laptop right now, just to make sure I don't miss any steps. :)
        - Download jot.
        - Extract the jot-1.0.0.zip file (you can double click it, and drag the jot folder within to the root of your C: drive).
        - Open you C:\jot\batch folder in Windows Explorer.
        - Right click jot-config.bat and choose Edit.
        - It should open in Notepad. Change line 7, where it says set JOT_ROOT=C:\rkaln.... to:
        set JOT_ROOT=C:\jot
        - Go up one folder in Windows Explorer and right click jot-cmd, and choose Properties.
        - The Target field should read.
        %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /k C:\jot\batch\jot-config.bat
        - Note use the arrow keys to get to the beginning of the Target line, by default it displays just the end of such a long string.
        - Hit OK to close the properties.
        - Now double click jot-cmd to run it.
        - A command line should open where it says "Welcome to the Jot command line"
        - Enter:
        cd manual\tutorials\tutorial-1
        - Enter:
        dir
        - It should now list 8 cactus jot files. Enter:
        jotq cactus-1.jot

        Now jot should start with the model of a cactus loaded.

        Hope that helps. :)

        Reply
          • the animator on

            @RNS
            after you edit the jot-config don't forget to save it before you close it. and when you change the target of the jot-cmd just delete whats there and copy and paste %SystemRoot%\system32\cmd.exe /k C:\jot\batch\jot-config.ba
            this new target to make sure your not making any typing errors. Then when you double click the jot-cmd , copy and paste
            cd manual\tutorials\tutorial-1
            then press enter and then type dir and then press enter and then copy and paste
            jotq cactus-1.jot
            and it should open with a cactus model.
            good luck!
            out of curiosity let me know if it works.

  5. gaggedfanboy on

    I can't find in the documentation how to export the render as an image, does anyone know how? Thank you.

    Reply
    • Ragnar on

      It’s possible to output as image files, but there are a couple of limitations. Firstly, you need to export the models as animation from Blender. If it’s a still, choose animation, and just export from frame 1 to 1. Secondly, the output will be same size as your Jot viewport, and it doesn’t work to make it larger than you computer screen.

      To actually export images, while in Jot’s viewport you need to hit ‘X’ (capital X), to engage animation mode, hit ‘-’ to engage time sync, hit ‘*’ to set it to render to file, and finally hit ‘/’ to play back the animation. You should now find some .png files alongside your Jot file. It’s not exactly user friendly. :)

      You can find some more info about it in the animation tutorial that comes with Jot.

      Reply
  6. Arnaud Couturier on

    Ok, just finished the cactus tutorial, and it was really easy to use. The edge feature is just top notch.

    However, the filling capabilities are rather limited.

    Is there no way to setup gradients for the toon shader, like in Blender ?

    Reply
    • Ragnar on

      If you do the following in Jot:
      - Add a normal material/base coat.
      - Set Alpha to 0.
      - Uncechk "Transparency to Background"
      - Render out (press X,-,*,/)

      Then the fill is transparent, and you get only the outlines with an alpha channel. You can then use Cycles or Blenders Internal render to do the fill, and composite it together with the outline.

      Reply
      • Arnaud Couturier on

        That could do the trick, I'll try that.
        Thanks Ragnar !

        Do you do any Blender development ?
        It would require some work, but integrating Jot's outlines feature in Blender Internal would add serious NPR capabilities to Blender.

        Reply
        • Ragnar on

          No, I don't do any Blender development besides a couple of Python addons, and I didn't write Jot itself....just the exporter for Blender. I don't really know much C/C++, so integrating Jot's outline feature into Blender would currently be way beyond me, but I agree that it would be a very cool feature to see.

          Reply
  9. TOP chardfwannabeartist on

    Brilliant idea of a software, and hopefully it will blend more nicely with blender once I have tried it out. First I have to make it work with Ubuntu linux. Hopefully with increasing interest from people like me, Jot will start to progress and upgrade again. First job would be to make it compatable to Linux

    Reply
  10. Karlis Stigis on

    WHAT? Why is this brought up only now??? It's 10 years old !!! Can't believe it..
    Is this open source?
    Maybe Freestyle has been updatet now, but last time I checked flickering in animation was still awfull.. and results were not even near what you can see in this demonstration!

    Reply
  14. Brian Lockett on

    I always was a Princeton man...

    This looks great. Funny enough, I think I saw that video from SIGGRAPH years ago, because it was very familiar, like I had seen it before but forgotten about it over the years. Downloaded and now I'll put this to fine use.

    Anyways, I hope this doesn't damper any Freestyle plans--you simply can't have too many rendering options. :)

    Reply
    • Ragnar on

      I agree, it's good to be able to choose between different renderers, as all have their different advantages and disavantages.

      The biggest problem with Jot at the moment is that there is nobody maintaining it, so no bugs get fixed, and there is no native version for Linux and OSX yet.

      Reply
      • Arnaud Couturier on

        Personally I wouldn't like a Jot renderer per se, it's too weak (eg in comparison to Blender Internal).

        Instead I'd like its main features (custom edges, view-dependent lod, and "hash shading") integrated in Blender Internal, to have the best of both worlds.

        Reply
  15. JamScoBal on

    Jot isn't recognizing any of it's files when I do the command -jotq [filename].jot
    I don't think that I am doing anything wrong. I am on Linux Mint 14 in Virtualbox. Help!?!

    Reply
    • Ragnar on

      Try running just "jotq". Is it starting up, with just an empty viewport? If so, make sure you've moved (cd) to the dir where your jot files are, and run "dir" to check.

      Are you running Windows in Virtualbox on Linux Mint, or running Linux Mint in a Virtual Box? Either way, to run Jot on a virtual machine, you will need working OpenGL, and preferably hardware accelleration.

      It's easiest to get Jot to run on Windows (see instructions posted by me above for WinXP), but possible to get it running on Linux through Wine (see http://ragnarb.com/toolbox/jot-exporter-for-blender ).

      Reply
  16. the animator on

    can someone please tell me how I can get this program running. I have windows 7 64 bit. please help,,,I need very clear step by step instruction cause i'm stupid.

    Reply
  19. pflugshaupt on

    Thanks heaps for bringing Jot up. I got it to work without a lot of problems on windows 7. I am getting an Error about a missing world matrix from your exporter script. Luckily the jot file still gets written and can be loaded in Jot.

    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.66\scripts\addons\io_export_jot\__init__.py", line 89, in execute
    builder = export_jot.BuildJot(context, self.filepath, self.anim, self.start, self.end)
    File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.66\scripts\addons\io_export_jot\export_jot.py", line 32, in __init__
    self.camera(self.file)
    File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.66\scripts\addons\io_export_jot\export_jot.py", line 189, in camera
    from_point = cam.matrix_world.col[3]
    AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'matrix_world'

    And trying out Jot I realized the third tutorial as well as the manual section about hatching have never been completed. I was able to create a hatching group that would move nicely with the model - however I did not find out how to apply a hatching style to the whole model as they do in the videos. I guess it's some keystroke? Do you know how to do that?

    Reply
    • Ragnar on

      Thanks for reporting this error. It most likely happens because you have no camera in your scene. Add a camera, and see if the error goes away. I'll add it to my list of bugs to fix.

      As for the hatching, no unfortunately I don't know how to do that. I actually haven't used Jot that much yet, as I've spent most of my time with it learning how the file format works and getting the exporter up and running. Maybe now I'll actually have the time to learn how to use Jot. :)

      Reply
      • pflugshaupt on

        Ok, thanks for the tip. I indeed had removed the camera before exporting. If I find the time I'll dig through the source code to find out the keystrokes for the hatching mode and I'll post them here.

        Reply
        • pflugshaupt on

          I think I found it in the file trunk/wnpr/hatching_pen.C.

          ESC -> Undo
          ~ -> Clear UV ... whatever that means

          The hatching mode also seems to detect a number of tablet gestures.. tap, slash, line, scribble, lasso and stroke..! However from the looks of that file I'm not convinced the hatching stuff has been fully completed. The manual surely hasn't as it says ToDo whenever hatching is mentionned.

          Reply
  22. Triskelion on

    I've just done the cactus tutorial too, impressive. It would be really wonderful if it were integrated into blender.

    I guess that having to use a command line is why there hasn't been the interest this tool deserves. Sadly a command line will scare off about 95% of non technical users.
    what a shame!

    Reply
  24. J-mation on

    Jot is awesome and the fastest toon edge renderer I've ever used. However it would be great if you could update the export script to output all polygons that share the same material to separate objects. This would give a more effective outlines between the materials and object elements. Also if possible retain the base colour for each material and apply it to each object.

    Jot at the moment it is best used as an outline pass only but still requires objects to be broken up into separate elements to get effective outlines. I really hope someone develops this further.

    Reply
  27. jack.herbert on

    Whoa! Just having a look at that heptoroid and it looks beyond awesome!!
    It's running smooth on Debian through wine. I just wrote a one line script and added it to nautilus-actions to have a nice "Open with Jot" option.


    #! /bin/bash
    wine cmd.exe /c "c:\jot\batch\jot-config.bat && jotq $1"

    Reply

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