Can't install Animation Nodes.

[OmarEmaraDev]

The following guide provides the installation instruction for installing Animation Nodes and the troubleshooting guide to troubleshoot your installation.

How to install Animation Nodes?

1. Disable then uninstall any version of Animation Nodes already installed.
2. Download a build of Animation Nodes from the Animation Nodes website.
3. Go to User Preferences -> Add-ons.
4. Press install and choose the build you downloaded.

Animation Nodes should now be installed and can be enabled. If you encounter any errors or unexpected behavior during the installation process, read the troubleshooting section below.

Troubleshooting

If an installation error occurred, Animation Nodes should show an error message with a description of the issue that occurred. Below, we present a number of issues the could occur and the procedure to fix them.

Can't find Animation Nodes in the add-ons list

The installed Animation Nodes build is corrupted. First delete the animation_nodes folder from the add-ons directories. See Appendix I. Then follow the installation instructions above.

There are multiple versions of Animation Nodes installed

Multiple version of Animation Nodes can't coexist. To fix this, remove all versions of Animation Nodes. You may need to manually remove the animation_nodes folder from the add-ons directories. See Appendix I. Then follow the installation instructions above.

Import Error: DLL load failed

Install vc_redist.x64 from microsoft's support center.

libpython3.x : Can't Open Shared Object File

Animation Nodes needs the python dynamic library in order to work. Install python3.x or/and libpython3.x from your package manager of choice.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu users may install libpython3.x from the deadsnakes PPA using the following commands. (Making sure to replace x with the target version.)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa
sudo apt update -y && sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install libpython3.x

This build does not work at the moment

This could be caused due to a number of issue:

• The build you are using was not built for the platform you are using. Download and install an appropriate build as described above.
• You don't have the vc_redist.x64 library. See the section about "Import Error: DLL load failed" above.
• You don't have the python shared libraries. See the section about "libpython3.x : Can't Open Shared Object File" above.

Animation Nodes depends on Numpy

Animation Nodes needs the numpy python module to operate. Install numpy to your python environment through your package manager or through other means. Official Blender builds have numpy installed by default, so you may also use the latest official Blender build to avoid the issue.

Animation Nodes needs at least Blender 2.80

The latest version of Animation Nodes only works with Blender 2.80. Install a newer Blender build.

Animation Nodes is built for another OS

An Animation Nodes build is built for a certain platform and will only work on this platform. Download an Animation Nodes build that is built for your platform.

There is a python version mismatch

An Animation Nodes build is built for a certain python version and will only work on this python version. The official Animation Nodes builds provided are built against the python version used by the official Blender builds. If your Blender build uses a different version, you will have to use a custom Animation Nodes build or build Animation Nodes yourself. Notice that Animation Nodes exists in the AUR for Arch users.

This is just the source code of Animation Nodes

The installed Animation Nodes build is corrupted. First delete the animation_nodes folder from the add-ons directories. See Appendix I. Then follow the installation instructions above.

Still can't install Animation Nodes

If you still can't install Animation Nodes, add a comment to this issue detailing the issue you are having and we will help you resolve your issue.

Appendix I

It is sometimes necessary to delete Animation Nodes from the file system yourself by deleting the animation_nodes folder in the add-ons directories. There are many directories in which add-ons can be installed, you have to go through all of them and remove the animation_nodes folder. The directories at listed in the Blender documentation.

[OmarEmaraDev]

@3DSinghVFX If you have the time, we need to debug the daily builds and see why they are not working with Ubuntu. Can you provide any information on the issue? Did the daily builds ever work on ubuntu?

[3DSinghVFX]

Sure :) I do not remember the exact date but this problem has been happening for the end of October. Tomorrow, I'll try to install AN from the daily build on the different Blender versions 2.80 to 2.8x and report back about this issue.

[3DSinghVFX]

@OmarEmaraDev

1. When I try to install AN from the daily build then it gave this error during enabling in the addon menu,
   

2. Next, I replaced the test_compile.cpython-37m-x86_64-linux-gnu.so with the file from the compiled build AN on my pc. Then it gave this error,
   

3. If I replaced the compiled files in the algorithms/hashing/ with the files from the compiled build AN on my pc, then it gave this error in the file in another folder,
   

It looks like there is missing python lib (libpython3.7m.so.1.0) in the online AN daily build.

[OmarEmaraDev]

Can you try installing the libpython3.7 package then? Looking at an installation of Ubuntu 19.04, I can see the following files:

What is the default system python in Ubuntu 19.04?

[3DSinghVFX]

@OmarEmaraDev I have installed python3.7 (which that libpython3.7) then daily online build of AN worked without any error.

But I do not understand this problem. Does the daily online build of AN's lib path set to /usr/lib and the AN compiled on my pc with anaconda has lib path to lib-directory of the anaconda?

[OmarEmaraDev]

@3DSinghVFX Is libpython3.7 a dependency of python3.7? Also, is python3.7 readily available from the official Ubuntu repository?

I don't fully understand the issue as well, but maybe the linker added the directory to the rpath of the library.

[3DSinghVFX]

Yes, libpython3.7 comes with python3.7. I do not know, maybe the latest version (18.04 or higher) of Ubuntu comes with python3.7 or python3.8.

[OmarEmaraDev]

Ok. Thanks for helping with this! We will add that to the installation guide until we figure out a way to statically link Animation Nodes.

[3DSinghVFX]

Okay.

[enzyme69]

Trying to update Animation Nodes from master zip, remove the old, bring the new, and after installing the module, cannot see it under addon list. What's wrong with Animation Nodes add-on installation, it seems problematic :(

I have Blender 2.81 and 2.82 alpha in separate folder. Trying to make this latest version running on Blender 2.82 alpha.

[3DSinghVFX]

Hi @enzyme69
From where you download the master zip file? I think you have installed the source code of AN by mistake. You can download the latest AN build zip file from https://animation-nodes.com/ or https://github.com/JacquesLucke/animation_nodes/releases

[limkork]

So i am running 2.81, on windows 10, with AN downloaded from animation-nodes.com and i also have the latest vc_redist, and this is the error message i get when i try to activate AN after i instal the addon.

" bpy.data.window_managers["WinMan"].addon_search = "ani"
bpy.context.space_data.bookmarks_active = 1
Modules Installed (animation_nodes) from 'E:\Design\Resources\Blender Resources\Add+Ons\animation_nodes_v2_1_windows_py37.zip' into 'C:\Users\lasse\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.81\scripts\addons'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "E:\Apps\Blender\2.81\scripts\modules\addon_utils.py", line 351, in enable
mod = import(module_name)
File "C:\Users\lasse\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.81\scripts\addons\animation_nodes_init_.py", line 166, in
auto_load.init()
File "C:\Users\lasse\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.81\scripts\addons\animation_nodes\auto_load.py", line 23, in init
modules = get_all_submodules(Path(file).parent)
File "C:\Users\lasse\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.81\scripts\addons\animation_nodes\auto_load.py", line 51, in get_all_submodules
return list(iter_submodules(directory, directory.name))
File "C:\Users\lasse\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.81\scripts\addons\animation_nodes\auto_load.py", line 55, in iter_submodules
yield importlib.import_module("." + name, package_name)
File "E:\Apps\Blender\2.81\python\lib\importlib_init_.py", line 127, in import_module
return _bootstrap.gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
File "C:\Users\lasse\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.81\scripts\addons\animation_nodes\libs\FastNoiseSIMD_init.py", line 1, in
from . node_base import Noise3DNodeBase
File "C:\Users\lasse\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.81\scripts\addons\animation_nodes\libs\FastNoiseSIMD\node_base.py", line 6, in
from . wrapper import (
ImportError: DLL load failed: module not found.

bpy.context.area.ui_type = 'INFO' "

[OmarEmaraDev]

@limkork Are you sure you have the vc_redist.x64 2019 one?

[limkork]

yes, I just double-checked and downloaded it again, same problem :(

[limkork]

quick update, i got it working, i did two things:

one, i went in to C/appdata/blender/addons and removed the AnimationNodes folder from there, and i also redownloaded vc_redist for the third time, but this time i installed as administrator.

Im not sure which one of those cracked it, but at least it works!

[eTaernis]

Can't enable the addon (git 9d39fa7) in Blender 2.83 alpha:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/etaernis/blender-git/build_linux/bin/2.83/scripts/modules/addon_utils.py", line 330, in enable
importlib.reload(mod)
File "/home/etaernis/blender-git/build_linux/bin/2.83/python/lib/python3.8/importlib/init.py", line 169, in reload
_bootstrap._exec(spec, module)
File "", line 604, in _exec
File "", line 783, in exec_module
File "", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed
File "/home/etaernis/.config/blender/2.83/scripts/addons/animation_nodes/init.py", line 166, in
auto_load.init()
File "/home/etaernis/.config/blender/2.83/scripts/addons/animation_nodes/auto_load.py", line 23, in init
modules = get_all_submodules(Path(file).parent)
File "/home/etaernis/.config/blender/2.83/scripts/addons/animation_nodes/auto_load.py", line 51, in get_all_submodules
return list(iter_submodules(directory, directory.name))
File "/home/etaernis/.config/blender/2.83/scripts/addons/animation_nodes/auto_load.py", line 55, in iter_submodules
yield importlib.import_module("." + name, package_name)
File "/home/etaernis/blender-git/build_linux/bin/2.83/python/lib/python3.8/importlib/init.py", line 127, in import_module
return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
File "", line 1014, in _gcd_import
File "", line 991, in _find_and_load
File "", line 975, in _find_and_load_unlocked
File "", line 671, in _load_unlocked
File "", line 783, in exec_module
File "", line 219, in _call_with_frames_removed
File "/home/etaernis/.config/blender/2.83/scripts/addons/animation_nodes/nodes/gpencil/gp_frame_from_strokes.py", line 5, in
from ... data_structures import GPFrame
ImportError: cannot import name 'GPFrame' from 'animation_nodes.data_structures' (/home/etaernis/.config/blender/2.83/scripts/addons/animation_nodes/data_structures/init.py)

[OmarEmaraDev]

@eTaernis I can't replicate the issue. Can you manually remove the animation_nodes folder in /home/etaernis/.config/blender/2.83/scripts/addons/ then reinstall the addon?

[eTaernis]

@OmarEmaraDev That did not work, so I deleted everything, re-cloned the repo and compiled, now it works - thank you! git status did not show any problems, but it seems like there was something wrong with extranodes - sorry, my bad.

[gerroon]

@stillpointx You need to build libpython3.7 yourself unfortunately. I am also not sure why this sudden need occured.

[stillpointx]

@gerroon thanks for the information, that's really unfortunate, oh well it was fun while it lasted (I guess all things must come to an end ahhh 2020 just keeps getting better) not many people will know how to build libpython3.7 (me being one) .

@3DSinghVFX Do you know if Animation Nodes + Extra Nodes has the same issues / requirements to build libpython3.7 to work in Ubuntu 20.04 and Blender 2.91.0?

[3DSinghVFX]

@stillpointx Hi...
If Blender 2.91 is using Python 3.7 (that comes with the build) on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (has Python 3.8), then you need to build Animation Nodes.
So, to build AN,

1. Install the Anaconda (Python 3.8).
2. Create a new environment (say myenv) and activate the myenv.
3. Then install Python 3.7 and Cython using the conda commands.
4. Now, go to the AN source code directory and build AN using the command python3.7 setup.py build --export.
5. Do step 4 to build AN+EN.

[stillpointx]

WOW!!! that is a lot. Something major must have changed (Due to the fact that Animation Nodes works with Ubuntu 20.04 and Blender 2.8x "out-of-the-box" but not with Ubuntu 20.04 and Blender 2.9x).

[Halluc1nations]

I am using Blender 2.9 I have created successfully downloaded and utilized the animation nodes add on to create an animation, however whenever I hit the render button Blender crashes, I have a RTX 2070 and am saving the image sequence to a brand new 8TB external hard drive so I know the hardware is not the issue, furthermore the crash file indicates there is an issue with the add on, and I have no problems rendering when the add on is disabled via preferences. Any help troubleshooting so I can actually render what I have created using the add on?

thanks,
Halluc1nations

[enzyme69]

Stuck in Limbo here, Omar.

Installing on 2.92: Animation Nodes requires minimum 2.93.!! What?

But latest 2.93 all failed to install AN or SV for that matters. Then I can't really use Animation Nodes.

[enzyme69]

As for today I can install into 2.92 RC and Mac. Thanks Omar!
#1666

[deimidis]

Stuck in Limbo here, Omar.

Installing on 2.92: Animation Nodes requires minimum 2.93.!! What?

But latest 2.93 all failed to install AN or SV for that matters. Then I can't really use Animation Nodes.

I had the same problem. Manjaro install Blender 2.92 with Python 3.9. I tried to compile AN it myself and it worked, but ask me for blender 2.93. Is there a place where I can change than number version to add 2.92?

Thanks!

[OmarEmaraDev]

@deimidis https://github.com/JacquesLucke/animation_nodes/blob/master/animation_nodes/__init__.py#L94

[deimidis]

Thanks @OmarEmaraDev Compilation worked and now it didn't complain about the version, but I have this error:

AttributeError: module 'bpy.props' has no attribute '_PropertyDeferred'

I imagine that's because that property is new to the API on 2.93. Is there any way in which I can compile a version for 2.92 with Python 3.9?

Thanks!

[OmarEmaraDev]

@deimidis You can revert 4b0f5f8.

[deimidis]

It passed that problem, but there were other one:

ValueError: bpy_struct "an_FontSocket"registration error: display could not register

Don't worry, I will wait until versions get aligned.

Thanks!

Update: I done it. Just download 2.2 from the tag, and compiled it again with python 3.9. I still cannot tested too much, just see the panel and the menu. Thanks for all your help and your work

[luckychris]

Can anybody send me a link or explain me, how i can compile AN myself on a mac?

[OmarEmaraDev]

@luckychris Just install Cython, then execute python setup.py build --export --noversioncheck. This will create a zip file that you can install.

[byjosue]

Can anybody please help me ?
I've already tried building it myself, tried the build in the animation nodes page and nothing, still getting the same error message

[OmarEmaraDev]

@byjosue Is this with latest Blender daily build?

[byjosue]

Yes, I was using the latest, after that I tried uninstalling and installing animation nodes and tried various builds of animation nodes, one of them worked. Thanks for the help anyway

[luckychris]

@luckychris Just install Cython, then execute python setup.py build --export --noversioncheck. This will create a zip file that you can install.

thanks omar, that was very helpful. I did this now myself and it worked but was a lot of work for someone, who never made this. Just a proposal: Why don't you provide compiled versions of animation nodes for different python versions? I think for you it is just one setup more for automated build, isn't it? I think not every artist/user of blender is capable in doing this and maybe not willing to do it. And if you would have provided it i bet you would even have more users of your amazing animation nodes which is really fantastic - but in my case - hard to install at all.

[luckychris]

@luckychris Just install Cython, then execute python setup.py build --export --noversioncheck. This will create a zip file that you can install.

thanks omar, that was very helpful. I did this now myself and it worked but was a lot of work for someone, who never made this. Just a proposal: Why don't you provide compiled versions of animation nodes for different python versions? I think for you it is just one setup more for automated build, isn't it? I think not every artist/user of blender is capable in doing this and maybe not willing to do it. And if you would have provided it i bet you would even have more users of your amazing animation nodes which is really fantastic - but in my case - hard to install at all.

and believe it or not ...your "just install cython and..." took me 3 hours to do so and i had some errors messages in between which let my hair turn even more gray....

[OmarEmaraDev]

@luckychris We have versions for 3.7, 3.8, and 3.9. I don't think anyone uses older versions, so I think those are enough.

[scottdmilner]

After runningpython setup.py build --export --noversioncheck, I get this error:

  File "setup.py", line 40
    addonName, *addonVersion[:2], currentOS, *sys.version_info[:2])
                                             ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Cython and gcc are installed. Same thing happens if I use sudo. Thanks for the help!

[OmarEmaraDev]

@scottdmilner hmmm, I am not sure to be honest. Seems like a correct syntax as far as I can tell. Which python version is this?

[scottdmilner]

@OmarEmaraDev That's the issue, haha. Using Python 3 on MacOS is a bit of a weird setup right now, so I went through and aliased everything to my Python 3 installation and it worked fine.

[OmarEmaraDev]

@scottdmilner Maybe python is actually a symlink to python2 or something. Anyways, good to see it worked.

[CC-4477]

Yes, I was using the latest, after that I tried uninstalling and installing animation nodes and tried various builds of animation nodes, one of them worked. Thanks for the help anyway

do you happen to know which build it was? I'm getting the same issue.

[GoldenAdrien]

so for whatever reason, my animation nodes got corrupted somehow, and now when I try and re install it after removing the old version, it doesn't let me and gives me this error

:

[GoldenAdrien]

so I re installed blender, and got the latest build of animation nodes + extra nodes, but now it says that it isn't made for my operating system, even though it is a Mac build and I am using a MacBook Air M1 2020 and running macOS Big Sur:

[OmarEmaraDev]

@GoldenAdrien That's probably because that build is for x86 Mac. You need an Arm build for the M1 Mac. There is an official arm build here: https://animation-nodes.com/#download

[GoldenAdrien]

What is weird is that it was working until it randomly corrupted yesterday