Photo Manager (Asset Browser) for Blender

Photo Manager is a powerful Blender add-on that transforms the built-in Asset Browser into an advanced photography, reference, and texture manager.

Whether you are a 3D artist managing vast libraries of reference photos, or a texture artist organizing material assets, this tool provides a seamless workflow to batch import, rename, organize, edit, and export your images directly within Blender—without ever needing to open external image editing software.

🚀 Key Features

• Batch Import: Instantly load entire folders of images (.png, .jpg, .jpeg, .tif, .bmp) and automatically convert them into ready-to-use Material Assets with generated previews.
• Advanced Viewer & Slideshow: Select assets and open them in a dedicated, distraction-free Image Editor window. Features include a rock-solid "Shrink to Fit" auto-zoom, arrow-key navigation (← / →), and an automated slideshow with a customizable timer.
• Smart Template Renaming: Rename hundreds of assets at once using dynamic templates (e.g., <NAME>_ref_<DATE>_#). Features powerful cleanup tools: Find/Replace, character removal, and text-casing conversions (lowercase, UPPERCASE, Title Case, snake_case, camelCase, PascalCase).
• Physical Image Editing: Perform physical, non-destructive (until saved) edits directly to the image files on your disk using Blender's Python API and numpy. Flip horizontally/vertically, rotate CW/CCW, or batch resize images to specific dimensions.
• Batch Organization: Easily apply or clear tags across multiple selected assets simultaneously to keep your library neatly categorized.
• Export & Convert: Export selected assets to a specific folder and seamlessly convert them between formats (Original, PNG, JPEG).

📋 Requirements

• Blender Version: 3.0.0 or higher.
• Dependencies: Python's numpy module (comes pre-bundled with standard Blender installations).

🛠️ Installation

1. Click on Code > Download ZIP to download the repository.
2. Open Blender and navigate to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons.
3. Click the Install... button in the top right corner.
4. Locate and select the downloaded ZIP file, then click Install Add-on.
5. Enable the add-on by checking the box next to System: Photo Manager (Asset Browser).
6. Open the Asset Browser in any Blender workspace and press the N key to reveal the Sidebar. You will find the Photo Manager tab there.

📖 How to Use

The add-on UI is divided into a logical step-by-step workflow:

1. Search and View

• Select one or more image assets.
• Click the Full Screen (View) icon to open the images in a dedicated viewer.
• Use the UI navigation arrows or run a Slideshow (adjust the delay in seconds using the provided slider).

2. Source Folder (Import)

• Pick a target folder from your hard drive.
• Click Import to automatically load all supported image files, wrap them in Material nodes, and mark them as assets with generated thumbnails.

3. Rename Assets

• Template: Use tags to construct new names:
  • <NAME>: The original file name.
  • <DATA>: Current Date (YYYYMMDD).
  • <TIME>: Current Time (HHMM).
  • #: Auto-incrementing numbers (e.g., ### outputs 001, 002).
• Cleanup: Find and replace text, or remove specific characters.
• Format: Change the text case (e.g., converting "my_image" to "MyImage" using PascalCase).
• Click the Rename button to apply changes to both the Material and the underlying Image data-block.

4. Organization

• Type comma-separated tags (e.g., nature, reference, 4k) in the text field.
• Click + (Apply Tags) to add them to all selected assets, or the Trash bin (Clear Tags) to wipe existing tags.

5. Edit Image

• Transform: Flip Horizontally, Flip Vertically, Rotate Clockwise, or Rotate Counter-Clockwise. (Note: This alters the pixel data directly).
• Resize: Click the sync icon to fetch the original image dimensions. Enter new Width/Height values and click Apply Resize to permanently scale the images.

6. Export and Convert

• Select a destination directory.
• Choose your desired format (ORIGINAL, PNG, or JPEG).
• Click Export Assets to save copies of your assets out of Blender.

🧠 Technical Notes

• The add-on features a robust "Nuclear Reset" and lazy cache bypass logic to ensure that large images loaded into the viewer are displayed at the correct aspect ratio without stretching.
• Image transformations utilize numpy arrays for blazing-fast pixel manipulation directly in memory before writing back to disk.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 (GPL-3.0). See the LICENSE file for more details. You are free to use, modify, and distribute this software as long as you keep it open-source.

⚠️ Known Limitations

The following features are currently not supported due to technical constraints or Blender API limitations:

• Advanced Color Correction: No White Balance adjustment.
• Cropping: Manual image cropping is not available.
• Overlays: No support for adding watermarks or image overlays.
• Retouching: No Red Eye Removal or localized healing tools.
• Geometric Correction: No Perspective adjustment or fine Straightening/Tilt (only 90° rotations are supported).
• Selection Persistence: Due to current Blender Asset Browser API design, the selection is automatically cleared after performing operations on files.