Playblast¶
An alternative to the Scene node for quick, disposable viewport preview renders. Instead of using Cycles or EEVEE, the Playblast node renders through Blender's viewport (bpy.ops.render.opengl) — the same mechanism as Blender's own "Viewport Render Animation". This is much faster than a full render and is meant for checking motion, framing, and timing, not final output.
Local only
Playblasts require a live 3D viewport and run in your current Blender session. They cannot be sent to the render queue — the Render Playblast button always renders immediately, on the spot.
Inputs¶
| Socket | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| View Layer | Collection | The View Layer node to assemble and render |
| Camera | Camera | Override the camera |
| Render Settings | Render Settings | Only used when Shading is set to Rendered |
Camera and Render Settings priority¶
Unlike the Scene node, this node's own Camera and Render Settings inputs take priority over the View Layer node's per-layer overrides — the opposite of the Scene node's priority chain. A playblast is meant to always reflect exactly what's plugged directly into it, regardless of what the View Layer node is separately configured to do for a real render.
Priority order: this node's own input → Output Defaults → View Layer node's per-layer override.
Properties¶
Name¶
Feeds the {scene} token in the output filename — independent of the node's internal Blender name.
Shading¶
- Wireframe
- Solid
- Material Preview
- Rendered — uses the connected Render Settings input (or falls back to Output Defaults / View Layer, same priority chain as Camera above)
Show Overlays toggles viewport overlays (grid, gizmos, etc.) on or off for the playblast.
Overrides¶
A single collapsible section containing five independently-collapsible sub-sections. Each falls back to the tree's Output Defaults node when not overridden, exactly like the Scene node's own overrides:
- Output Path
- Name Tokens — same token system as Scene node (enable/disable tokens,
{frame}toggle and padding,{label}value), without drag-reorder - Output Format — see below
- Frame Range
- Resolution
Output Format — Image vs. Video¶
Output Kind selects between:
- Image Sequence — one file per frame, using the same format settings as Output Defaults/Scene node
- Video — a single continuous video file, with its own Container, Codec, and Quality settings (using Blender's FFmpeg encoder)
When Video is selected, the {frame} token is automatically dropped from the filename (a video is one file, not a sequence), and the container's file extension (.mp4, .mov, .mkv, etc.) is appended automatically.
Cleanup¶
Every playblast assembles a temporary scene the same way a real render job would, using the same collection-visibility, camera, and render-settings logic. That temporary scene is removed immediately after rendering finishes — a playblast never leaves debris in the .blend file.
Known limitation: on-the-fly geometry (fluid sims, etc.)¶
Some addons that generate mesh data at render time from external cache handlers (via UI-driven timeline events) may not regenerate correctly for a scene assembled programmatically outside the normal interactive workflow. If a simulation mesh looks wrong or stuck on the frame the viewport was on when you triggered the playblast, this is very likely a limitation of that addon's Blender-API integration, not something Scene Assembler controls.