Slides 1.6.2 - LTS

Slides is a lightweight Blender add-on for creating and presenting slide-based timelines directly inside Blender.

It is designed for artists, teachers, presenters, animators, and technical users who want to organize a Blender scene as a sequence of slides, each with its own frame range, title, notes, camera, color tag, and playback behavior.

This is the first public release prepared for Blender Extensions.

Basic Features

Slide-Based Timeline Workflow

Create a list of slides and use them as structured timeline sections.

Each slide can store:

• A title
• Start and end frame
• Optional speaker notes
• Optional checkpoint behavior
• Optional transition settings
• Optional assigned camera
• A visual color tag

This makes it easier to organize presentations, tutorials, animation breakdowns, lectures, previs projects, and Blender-based talks.

Slide List

The add-on adds a dedicated slide list where you can:

• Add slides
• Remove slides
• Select slides
• Reorder and manage the presentation structure
• Jump directly to a slide on the timeline

When a slide is selected, Blender moves the timeline cursor to the slide start frame.

In version 1.6.1+, selecting a slide also updates:

• frame_start
• frame_end
• The assigned slide camera, when available

Timeline In / Out Management

Each slide works as a timeline range.

When selecting a slide, the scene range is updated automatically so the current slide becomes the active playback section.

This is useful when working on one section at a time or presenting a specific part of the timeline.

Speaker Notes Overlay

Slides can contain speaker notes.

The notes can be shown as a viewport overlay during presentation.

Available overlay options include:

• Show or hide notes
• Title font size
• Notes font size
• Notes position

Supported note positions:

• Bottom Left
• Top Left
• Bottom Right
• Top Right

Presentation Controls

The add-on includes controls for navigating a slide presentation.

Supported actions include:

• Go to next slide
• Go to previous slide
• Play the current slide
• Loop slide playback
• Pause at checkpoints
• Continue after checkpoints

This allows Blender to be used as a simple live presentation tool.

Color Tags

Slides support Blender-style color tags.

In version 1.6.1+, the slide settings show the Color Tag selector as an icon-only control, keeping the interface cleaner and more compact.

Autoplay When Selected Slide

A new option was added:

Autoplay When Selected Slide

When enabled, selecting a slide from the list can automatically start playback from that slide.

This option is disabled by default, so the default behavior remains safe and predictable.

Clean View Option

The add-on includes a clean-view option for presentation use.

This helps reduce visual distractions when using Blender as a presentation environment.

Blender Extensions Ready

This package was prepared for Blender Extensions with:

• A clean manifest
• Only runtime files included in the extension package
• Only the 3D View tag
• No unnecessary files inside the extension ZIP
• Registration-safe code

The extension package contains only:

__init__.py
blender_manifest.toml

Technical Details

Registration Safety

The add-on was updated to avoid unsafe access during registration.

Blender restricts access to file data during register(). For this reason, the add-on no longer iterates over scene data during registration.

The following kind of code was removed from register():

for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
    ensure_scene_slide_notes(scene)

This avoids errors such as:

'_RestrictData' object has no attribute 'scenes'

The add-on also avoids direct context-dependent operations during registration.

Scene Properties

Slides are stored using a scene-level collection property.

The add-on registers properties such as:

bpy.types.Scene.slides_collection
bpy.types.Scene.slide_index
bpy.types.Scene.slide_show_notes
bpy.types.Scene.slide_notes_position
bpy.types.Scene.slide_list_rows

These properties allow each Blender scene to store its own slide presentation data.

Slide Selection Update

The slide index uses an update callback to respond when the selected slide changes.

When a slide is selected, the add-on updates the timeline and presentation state.

The workflow is based around:

update_slide_index

This update function is responsible for keeping the selected slide, timeline cursor, and scene range aligned.

In the current release, slide selection can update:

scene.frame_current
scene.frame_start
scene.frame_end

and, when available, the active scene camera.

Notes Handling

Slide notes are ensured dynamically when needed instead of being pre-filled during registration.

This keeps the add-on compatible with Blender's registration restrictions.

Notes are initialized or updated during normal user interaction through functions such as:

ensure_slide_has_note
ensure_scene_slide_notes

These are called when the add-on is already running in a valid context, not during restricted registration.

Blender 5.1 Annotation Compatibility

The add-on was updated for newer Blender annotation API behavior.

Direct access to:

context.space_data.annotation_data

can fail in Blender 5.1 because SpaceView3D may no longer expose that attribute.

The add-on now uses a safer compatibility function:

get_annotation_data(context)

This avoids errors such as:

AttributeError: 'SpaceView3D' object has no attribute 'annotation_data'

The function uses safer lookups and fallback behavior instead of assuming that a specific API attribute exists.

Keymap Registration

Automatic keymap registration was removed from register() to avoid context access during add-on registration.

This helps keep the add-on safer for Blender Extensions review and installation.

Manifest

The Blender Extensions manifest uses the extension name:

name = "Slides"

The extension identifier remains:

id = "slides_pro"

The tag list is limited to:

tags = ["3D View"]

Project links were updated to the correct repository:

https://github.com/Cre-Pan/Blender-Slides
https://github.com/Cre-Pan/Blender-Slides/issues

Version Notes

1.6.2

Fixed

• Fixed Blender 5.1 compatibility issue caused by direct access to context.space_data.annotation_data.
• Added a safer annotation compatibility function.
• Updated website and issue tracker links.
• Kept the Blender Extensions package minimal and review-friendly.

1.6.1

Added

• Added Autoplay When Selected Slide option.
• Selecting a slide now updates timeline in/out range.
• Slide camera assignment is updated when selecting a slide, if available.

Changed

• Updated version number to 1.6.1.
• Changed Color Tag control to icon-only display in slide settings.
• Improved slide selection behavior.

1.6.0

Initial Blender Extensions Preparation

• Prepared add-on for Blender Extensions submission.
• Cleaned registration behavior.
• Removed unsafe access to Blender data during registration.
• Limited extension tag list to 3D View.
• Reduced the extension ZIP to only necessary runtime files.

Summary

Slides turns Blender into a simple slide-based presentation and timeline organization tool.

It is useful for:

• Presentations
• Lectures
• Animation breakdowns
• Tutorials
• Shot planning
• Previsualization
• Scene-based explanations
• Blender-based live demos

The add-on focuses on a compact workflow: create slides, assign frame ranges, add notes, navigate the timeline, and present directly inside Blender.