This Blender add-on turns Grease Pencil animations into (Mesh,Curves,Geometry) animations.

how to avoid known errors

error when restarting an old project it can happen that it worked before to transform the grease-pencil strokes but not the button is grayed out - have autokeyframe on and copy the stroke then fill in the name of the new stroke f.e greasepencil.001 as the grease pencil object name this might fix it

error if the grease-pencil object is not created on a keyframe "have auto-keyframe" when createing the grease-pencil object will fix this, otherwise only one stroke will turn into a mesh and not multiple frames

error if the grase-pencil stroke is create infront of existing frames it crashes

error if there is no grease pencil "stroke" but there is a key-frame on the time line it crashes

**10/05/24**

sorry for the lack of update been busy

now fixed so that it works for Blender 4.1 and 4.0

just download the file with 4_1 at the end

--UPDATE--

how helpful errors are displayed if you click on run when the button is grayed out it will infrom you with

what is currently wrong if still gray after you fix the issue click more and see if there are more problems that the error can help with

NEW UPDATE 1.4 10/07/2023

helpful error messages in lower left 

NEW UPDATE 1.3 10/06/2023

FIXED crashing due to starting on non existing frame poll now block for that

OPTIMIZATION now using dissolve angle instead of merge by distance this should help the create mesh by less memory consuming in some cases and the shape should be more accurate

NEW UPDATE 1.2 11/05/2023

FIXED zip install 

NEW UPDATE 1.1 11/01/2023

- ADDED LINE MODE ITS ONLY AVAILABLE FOR BLENDER VER (3.4.0) or NEWER

LIMITATIONS

The limitation is overlapping/crossing lines that need to be cleaned up and fixed by hand. 

f.e think of the number 8 where the lines overlap there might be problems that need to be fixed by had or with the Repair Mode included in the add-on.

also there is no support for turning grease pencil lines to meshes that will be added in an update when blender 3.4 is out and only work on 3.4 and up hopefully.

INSTRUCTIONS

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND BEFORE RUNNING

1. 3D VIEW | DOPE SHEET | OUTLINER NEED TO BE OPEN
2. ALL SETTINGS NEED TO BE SET RIGHT F.E THAT GP_OBJECT_NAME IS THE RIGHT NAME OF THE OBJECT
3. THAT YOU'RE START FRAME IS ON A FRAME WHERE A GREASE PENCIL OBJECT EXIST AND THERE IS A STROKE ON THAT FRAME
4. YOU SET THE START FRAME USING THE DOPE_SHEET IT STARTS FROM THE ACTIVE FRAME
5. REPAIR_MODE HAS TO BE CUSTOM FIXED 5.1 YOU NEED TO SET THE SETTING YOU'RE SELF RIGHT NOW AFTER THE FRAME IS DONE, MEANING KEY FRAMES NEED TO BE SET RENDERING AND DOPE-SHEET IF YOU NEED GEOMETRY YOU NEED TO USE EXTRUDE WITH SOLIDIFY MODIFIER SET THE OFFSET TO 0 SO IT'S THE SAME AS THE WAY THE OTHER WORK.

SETTINGS

MODES

DEFAULT CREATES FLAT GREASE PENCIL STROKES

• GP_OBJ_NAME THE NAME OF GREASE PENCIL OBJECT YOU WANT TO TURN TO A MESH
• REGULAR_LAYER THE NAME OF THE GREASE PENCIL STROKE LAYER YOU WANT TO TURN INTO PLANES
• OUTPUT_COLLETION THE NAME OF THE COLLECTION YOU WANT TO OUTPUT THE STROKE ANIMATION TO
• SUB_LAYER THE LAYER THAT I USED TO ADD HOLES IN THE MESHES SHOULD BE FROM THE SAME GREASE PENCIL OBJECT AS THE REGULAR LAYER
• SUB_OUTPUT_COLLECTION THE COLLECTION WHERE THE SUBTRACTION LAYER OUTPUT TO
• SUB_LAYER_EXTRUTION_AMOUNT INCREASE THIS IF THE SUB_TRACTION_LAYER DOSE NOT CREATE HOLES
• MERGE_DISTANSE ADJUST THE LEVEL OF DETAIL OF THE OUTPUTED MESHES
• COMPLEX_CONVERT THIS IS GOOD TO TURN ON IF YOU HAVE LINES THAT ARE CLOSED F.E A CIRCLE ,THIS CAN BE BUGGY SO ADJUSTING YOU'RE STROKES AND MERGE_DISTANSE CAN HELP WITH BROKEN LINES
• AUTO_DELETE_SUB_LAYER THIS JUST REMOVES THE SUBLAYER DIRECTLY AFTER THE PROGRAM IS DONE

CURVES TURNS THE GREASE PENCIL STROKES TO CURVES

• GP_OBJ_NAME THE NAME OF GREASE PENCIL OBJECT YOU WANT TO TURN TO A MESH
• REGULAR_LAYER THE NAME OF THE GREASE PENCIL STROKE LAYER YOU WANT TO TURN INTO PLANES
• OUTPUT_COLLETION THE NAME OF THE COLLECTION YOU WANT TO OUTPUT THE STROKE ANIMATION TO
• CLOSE_CURVES THIS SETS WHETHER THE CURVES SHOULD CLOSE OR NOT

GEOMETRY TURNS GREASE PENCIL STROKES INTO GEOMETRY

• GP_OBJ_NAME THE NAME OF GREASE PENCIL OBJECT YOU WANT TO TURN TO A MESH
• REGULAR_LAYER THE NAME OF THE GREASE PENCIL STROKE LAYER YOU WANT TO TURN INTO PLANES
• OUTPUT_COLLETION THE NAME OF THE COLLECTION YOU WANT TO OUTPUT THE STROKE ANIMATION TO
• COMPLEX_CONVERT THIS IS GOOD TO TURN ON IF YOU HAVE LINES THAT ARE CLOSED F.E A CIRCLE ,THIS CAN BE BUGGY SO ADJUSTING YOU'RE STROKES AND MERGE_DISTANSE CAN HELP WITH BROKEN LINES
• EXTRUTION_LEGTH HOW FAR YOU WANT THE GEOMETRY
• SUB_LAYER THE LAYER THAT I USED TO ADD HOLES IN THE MESHES SHOULD BE FROM THE SAME GREASE PENCIL OBJECT AS THE REGULAR LAYER
• SUB_OUTPUT_COLLECTION THE COLLECTION WHERE THE SUBTRACTION LAYER OUTPUT TO
• SUB_LAYER_EXTRUTION_AMOUNT INCREASE THIS IF THE SUB_TRACTION_LAYER DOSE NOT CREATE HOLES

REPAIR USED TO FIX A FRAME THAT IS BROKEN WITH OUT RUNNING THE ALGORITHM THAT CAN TAKE TIME TO COMPLETE

• GP_OBJ_NAME THE NAME OF GREASE PENCIL OBJECT YOU WANT TO TURN TO A MESH
• COMPLEX_CONVERT THIS IS GOOD TO TURN ON IF YOU HAVE LINES THAT ARE CLOSED F.E A CIRCLE ,THIS CAN BE BUGGY SO ADJUSTING YOU'RE STROKES AND MERGE_DISTANSE CAN HELP WITH BROKEN LINES
• REPAIR_COLLECTION THIS IS WHERE YOU WANT TO OUTPUT THE MAIN FUNCTION

DOWNLOAD AND RUN

1. download the zip and unzip it
2. move the folder called Shady_pencil into the add on directory of you're blender install should be something like C:\programs\Blender Foundation\Blender 3.3\3.3\scripts\addons in windows For Some Reason ZIP INSTALLS don't work, don't know how it will work on other OS with zip install restart blender
3. You might need to go into blender addons in blender search Shady pencil and check it and restart blender
4. there should be a tab in the 3D-viewport called shady pencil, click on it watch the YouTube video if you can't find it Linked int the YouTube url