Modify transparency of a text object along the timeline using Python scripting I'm a complete beginner in Blender and Python Scripting so I apologize in advance for the fuzzy requests. I have a class that contains a name, a position (x,y) and a time t, and I would like to be able to show a text displaying this name at a particular (x,y,0) position at time frame t. I would like this text to appear and disappear progressively, so I thought about creating a text object along the whole timeline, set its transparency to zero except during some time interval around t where it would be a triangle function with maximum 1 at t.

After a bit of reading, I understood that usually a handler function is to be defined and then has to be registered in the, say, handlers.render_pre list. But I don't know how to use this procedure to my case since it seems to depend on a time frame parameter t for each different text to show.

My problem probably seems unclear so I attach what I've already written and I'd be happy to give more precisions about what I intend to do.

class pseudo:
def __init__(self, name, vec_position, vec_color):
    self.name = name
    self.vec_position = vec_position
    self.vec_color = vec_color

pl = [pseudo("sardine", [0.3, 0.4], [1.0, 0.0, 0.0]),
      pseudo("tartine", [-0.2, -0.4], [0.0, 0.0, 1.0])]

def print_pseudo(p):
    name = p.name
    x = p.vec_position[0]
    y = p.vec_position[1]
    r = p.vec_color[0]
    g = p.vec_color[1]
    b = p.vec_color[2]
    myFontCurve = bpy.data.curves.new(type = "FONT", name = name + "Curve")
    myFontOb = bpy.data.objects.new(name, myFontCurve)
    myFontOb.data.body = name
    myFontOb.location = (5 * x, 5 * y, 1)
    new_mat = bpy.data.materials.new("NAME")
    new_mat.diffuse_color = (r, g, b)
    myFontOb.data.materials.append(new_mat)
    myFontOb.active_material.use_transparency = True
    myFontOb.active_material.transparency_method = "Z_TRANSPARENCY"
    myFontOb.active_material.alpha = 1.0
    myFontOb.active_material.specular_alpha = 0.0
    bpy.context.scene.objects.link(myFontOb)
    bpy.context.scene.update()

for p in pl:
    print_pseudo(p)


Thanks a lot.
You need to use a material mat applied to each text object, and set its use_transparency property to true :   

mat.use_transparency = True
mat.transparency_method = 'Z_TRANSPARENCY'


Then, around the particular t you want the text to have full opacity, you need to set the aplha property of the material, and insert a keyframe corresponding to the alpha

for i in range(anim_length):
    alpha = (t - i) / anim_length + 1 - t / anim_length
    scene.frame_set(t - i)
    mat.alpha = alpha
    mat.keyframe_insert(data_path='alpha')
    scene.frame_set(t + i)
    mat.alpha = alpha
    mat.keyframe_insert(data_path='alpha')


Hope that helps.