Blender_Python_Scripts

Sorting algorithms animated in Blender

Bars swapping, highlighting and translating, so that each algorithm's access pattern becomes something you watch rather than something you read.

Bubble sort

The pair being compared flashes red, so the O(n²) sweep is visible as the marker walking the row again and again, one place shorter each pass. 20 bars, 306 events.

Merge sort

Halves move apart in 3D and slide back in order, so recursion depth reads as physical distance: the further a bar has travelled, the deeper the call that owns it. 16 bars, 206 events.

Both were rendered headless at 1080p24 in four and two minutes. The full resolution files are attached to the latest release.

Running and rendering them

cd sorting_algorithms
blender --background --python render_trace.py -- --algorithm bubble_sort --render --output out/bubble_sort.mp4 --seed 7

The flags, the Blender 5.2 details and the reason a discrete GPU needs a PRIME prefix are in sorting_algorithms/README.md.

sorting_algorithms/bubble_sort.py	Bubble sort, emitting a trace of what it did. Runs without Blender
sorting_algorithms/merge_sort.py	Same, for the recursive merge
sorting_algorithms/render_trace.py	Replays a trace as Blender keyframes. The entry point for a render

The rest of the files, and why the trace carries no coordinates, are in that folder's own README.