Turns a free Studio Lookdev scene into a one-click turntable workstation: switch between five framing configurations, control depth of field, and rig any imported model for a turntable — all from one panel.
albin. (2021, November 10). Studio Lookdev [3D model]. CGTrader. https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/architectural/other/studio-lookdev
Free, but not mine — download it from the author. This repository does not contain the scene and never will. See why.
- Open the downloaded
.blend. - Open a Text Editor → Open →
setup_lookdev_scene.py. - Press Run Script ▶
File → Save As → LOOKDEV_STUDIO.blend
Keep your original download untouched. That's it — press N in the viewport and
pick the Lookdev tab.
One more thing, once: enable Edit → Preferences → Save & Load → Auto Run Python Scripts. The tool lives inside your
.blendas a registered text block; without auto-run Blender won't start it when you reopen the file.
Blender 5.2+ recommended. That is where this was built and tested. The scene uses ACES 2.0 colour management and the 5.x compositor, so on an older Blender expect those parts to be skipped.
It rebuilds the scene, installs the Lookdev Switcher into it, opens the tool in the Text Editor, and then deletes itself. It is a one-shot job.
Every step checks before it acts, so running it twice is harmless. It also verifies it's looking at the right scene first and refuses to touch anything else.
It does change your render settings, and you will notice: sampling goes from 128 to 512, and renders come out as multi-layer EXR instead of PNG. That is lookdev quality on purpose. The full list is in the reference.
Nothing from my own project folders travels with it — the output path is set to
//, the folder your .blend sits in.
MACRO SMALL MEDIUM LARGE FRAME
One click activates that collection — with everything inside it — hides the other four, and switches to the matching camera. The active button stays pressed. Icon colours come from the collections' own colour tags, so the panel always matches your outliner.
FRAME also frames: 150 mm, centred on your model, with a safe-action margin — the silhouette fills about 90 % of the frame, never the very edge. It measures at frames 0 and 75 — a car is narrow head-on and wide side-on, and fitting only one would clip the other as the turntable turns.
Select nothing → frames all of MODEL. Select a few meshes → frames just those.
| Control | Effect |
|---|---|
| Depth of Field | On/off for all five cameras |
| F-Stop | Aperture for all five cameras |
| FRAME DOF | Slides the focus point −200 … 200 cm |
Saved with your file.
Import a model — with Auto-collect to MODEL on (the default) it drops into the
MODEL collection by itself — then press the button once.
It measures your model, grounds an empty at its floor centre, groups everything under it, moves it onto the turntable rig and binds it. Your model now spins, centred, around its own axis.
One click points your render output at a tidy per-project folder next to your
.blend:
//Render/<file name>/<file name>_
Both the folder and the image name follow your saved file's name. Open
Explorer.blend, press it, and frames render to
Render/Explorer/Explorer_0001.exr — Blender appends the frame number and the
extension. Save under a new name and press again, and everything moves into a
folder that matches.
Save the file first: the path is relative to the .blend, so there has to be
one. If there isn't, the button says so and changes nothing.
- Manual — walkthrough with screenshots
- Reference — panel details and everything the conversion changes in your scene
The Studio Lookdev scene is free, but it belongs to albin, not to me. Redistributing a modified copy would take liberties with someone else's work.
So this repository ships no scene data at all — no geometry, no textures, no materials. Just a script that extends your copy, containing only names and numbers: which collection to colour, which camera to rename, which value to set.
Please respect the author's terms when you download.
The panel is gone after reopening the file.
Auto Run Python Scripts is off. Enable it in Preferences → Save & Load. Or open
the Text Editor, select lookdev_switcher.py and press Run Script once.
"This does not look like the Studio Lookdev scene." The script checks for what it expects and stopped rather than mangle an unrelated file. Make sure you opened the scene from CGTrader.
"view transform 'ACES 2.0' not available" Your Blender ships a different colour config. Everything else still applies.
"node group 'Film Grain' not found" The script could not find Blender's bundled Film Grain asset. Add it once by hand in the Compositor via Add → Group → Film Grain, then run the script again. Everything else was applied regardless.
My renders are gone / are EXR files.
They are next to your .blend, as multi-layer EXR. Change it in Output
Properties if you want PNG back — nothing in the panel depends on the format.
Scene — albin. (2021, November 10). Studio Lookdev [3D model]. CGTrader. https://www.cgtrader.com/free-3d-models/architectural/other/studio-lookdev
Tool — Prof. Michael Klein, professor@virtualrepublic.org
GPL-3.0-or-later. Blender's Python API is an integral part of Blender, so
add-ons that import bpy count as derivative works and need a GPL-compatible
licence.
This covers the tool only. The Studio Lookdev scene stays under its author's terms.