How to manually install a missing Python library

When you install StoryLiner, and according to the edition you have, some additional Python libraries may also be installed. That’s why a connection to internet is required at installation time.

  • Previz Edition will install Pillow

  • Storyboard Edition will install Pillow

  • Studio Edition will install Pillow, Fpdf2 and OpenTimelineIO

Sometimes, in spite of a strict following of the installation steps (see Installing StoryLiner in Blender), it is possible that one of these libraries do not want to be added to the Python environment of your Blender instance.

In this case, you have to install in manually. “

first thing would be to know if Pillow is already there or not. To do so, open a browser, go to the directory of your Blender and open the folder named site-packages. It is located here: “<your path>4.2pythonlibsite-packages” In this folder, if you don’t see a rep called PIL and another one called pillow, it means that Pillow is NOT installed

  • Open Blender as usual (no need to launch it in Admin mode).

  • Open a console; it will help you see the installation output messages. On Mac the console is probably already open with the launch of Blender. On PC, do to the main menu bar and pick Window, then Toggle System Console.

  • Select the Scripting workspace and go to the Python Console window.

  • Then type the following code line and execute it by pressing Enter:

    import subprocess

  • Then create a variable with the path of your Python in this instance of Blender. Type the line bellow, with the text <your blender path> replaced by your actual Blender instance folder path and with the . Then press Enter to validate.

    pyth = "<your blender path>\<your blender version>\python\bin\python.exe"

    Eg: pyth = “d:blender4.4pythonbinpython.exe”

  • Then type the suitable line to run the installation:

    • If your missing library is Pillow, type:

      subprocess.run([pyth, "-m", "pip", "install", "pillow", "--ignore-installed"])

    • If your missing library is Fpdf2, type:

      subprocess.run([pyth, "-m", "pip", "install", "fpdf2", "--ignore-installed"])

    • If your missing library is OpenTimelineIO, type:

      subprocess.run([pyth, "-m", "pip", "install", "opentimelineio==0.16.0", "--force-reinstall"])

The command should run for a few seconds. In the log you should see a confirmation that Pillow has been installed and in the file browser you should now see the PIL and pillow folders