3D animation programatically rendered in Blender - rendering

Question

I have a project in which I would like to programatically create and render a 3d animation based upon input. I originally asked here on stackoverflow if Blender was right for the job, and the response was yes, but upon looking at the API, it says this:
Python was embedded in Blender, so to access BPython modules you need to run scripts from the program itself: you can't import the Blender module into an external Python interpreter.
I want to be able to create and render this scene without having to ever open another program like Blender. Is this possible, and is Blender still the right choice?
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

At work me and colleague worked on a project that rendered 3d scenes altered externally. We used Python to modify/create scenes, and did the rending on server through the command line interface (no GUI).
You can pass a python script as an argument to Blender in the command line options to
generate your scene objects and do the rendering.
I don't see how you can render in Blender without using Blender.
You can use Blender if you want, obviously this is not your only option.
If you need to
create and render a 3d animation based upon input.
You can go as simple or as you complex as you'd like.
You can use OpenGL in your language of choice (C++, Java, Python, etc.)
and display the animation (with or without fancy renderings).
It's up to what 'render' means to your context.
If you need some nice shading(light, soft shadows, reflections, etc. - ray tracers basically), you can still show an interactive preview to your users and generate the scene
for a 3rd party renderer(like Yafaray, Sunflow, LuxRender, etc. - I've put together a short list of free renders), and show the progress to the users after they've chosen the external render option.
On a similar note, have a look at joons.
HTH
Cart by Suomi - Yafaray Gallery image
Julia quaternion fractal - Sunflow Gallery image
Klein Bottle - LuxRender Gallery image