Frame Change Text

Overview

Frame Change Text is a lightweight automation add-on for animated labels. It watches for font objects whose names begin with fct-, reads a matching Blender text datablock, and updates the displayed text during frame changes.

It is useful for speed labels, timestamps, telemetry overlays, frame counters, simulation values, and other annotation text that should change over time.

Name Format

The general object name format is:

fct-name[column]{format}+suffix

• fct-name is the name of the Blender text datablock to read.
• [column] selects a numeric column index or a header name from the text datablock.
• {format} is optional Python-style numeric formatting, such as {0:.2f}.
• +suffix is optional text appended after the resolved value, such as units.

Example:

fct-ford[2]{0:.2f}+ MPH

Major Features

• Reads comma-separated or tab-separated rows from Blender text datablocks.
• Uses column indexes or header names to choose the value to display.
• Supports sparse frame/value tables and holds the closest applicable row.
• Supports numeric formatting and suffix text.
• Can subtract a reference value using >reference in the object name.
• Provides built-in values for fct-#frame and fct-#time.

Basic Usage

1. Create a Blender text datablock with frame-indexed rows. The first column should be the frame number.
2. Create a text object in the scene.
3. Name the text object using the fct- pattern and the column you want to display.
4. Play or scrub the timeline. The add-on updates matching text objects before each frame change.

Special Values

fct-#frame

Displays the current frame number.

fct-#time

Displays the current animation time based on scene FPS.

Permissions

This extension declares file access to read text data used to update scene text objects. In practice, the code reads Blender text datablocks and does not expose a file browser operator.