Where are the outliner toggles in 2.8? The selection toggle arrows in the Outliner disappeared. Is there some preference in the settings that has to be turned on?

These are now hidden by default to provide a cleaner and easier UI for beginners while still presenting enough functionality for most common use cases.

For more complex projects or advanced users Outliner Restriction Toggles can be turned on or off and customized according to personal preference from the Filters pop-over in the Outliner header.
There you can choose which restrictions columns are visible in the outliner by default.

You can still control collection visibility restrictions if the columns are off from the context menu by right-clicking an object and accessing the Visibility submenu.


What is the popup called that appears lower left when you manipulate a mesh? What is the name of this pop out?  It only appears when you start changing the shape of a mesh.

It's called an "Adjust Last Operation Panel". You can also see the name directly in the UI.

Sometimes it's also referred to as the "Operator Panel" in online discussions, however many panels in Blender's UI have operators, which makes this term ambiguous.


Spinning gears, need object to spin about 3.5x faster Pretty new to Blender and have been struggling with even getting this to work, but now it does. A big gear is parent to a smaller gear and, via drivers, I have them both spinning the same direction and at same speed.  Thing is, I want the small one to spin about 3.5x faster than the big one.  Of course, this is just part of my project, but one step at a time.

I followed the YT below as to how I got to this point. Start @ 2:44. I had to slow it down big time and pause it, rewind, etc.  Days later, I'm to the point where I am trying to vary the smaller gear's rotation speed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2P1JR2ko6I

My big gear is 50t and smaller one 14, and I have a chain to connect them. My objective is to have it all in sync. In case it matters, its supposed to be a motorcycle chain and sprockets.

Thanks.

Here is one of my feeble attempts at getting the big gear to drive the little one. Rotate the axis in center...they both turn.

Dang it!  I can't post a link with what I hoped the finished product would be like...but its like Paul's response..just my gears and a motorcycle chain.

Use a Generator Modifier for your driven smaller wheel.

Select the smaller wheel, go to the driver's properties shelf (N) and add the modifier. Increase the value pictured below. Now the wheels are spining with a different speed.


Animation Nodes - How to Instance multiple objects/collection I do have some meshes under a Collection and I would like to put them into an Object Instancer while maintaining the original positions (it's a cartoon tree).

Can't find a way to do this.

Thanks!

You may use the Object Instancer node to instance a group of empties, then you can set their instance_type to COLLECTION and set their instance_collection to whatever collection you want. For instance:


Splitting / matching faces on cone to get the faces to match when wrapped around I have a cone that had a hole in it and I'm trying to get all the faces to match / wrap around correctly / evenly.  I tried joining vertices with "J" but I get a message saying "could not connect vertices"

I'm using Blender 2.90.1
File with issue:

Original File where hole was created from.

The 2 vertical edges are ripped:

If I select a vertex, here is what it gives (so you can't join the 2 opposite vertices):

So you need to delete these 4 faces + one horizontal edge that is under the faces (as pointed out by Batfinger, probably the result of a fill (F):

Then select the top and bottom row of vertices and press CtrlF > Grid Fill:


Spot light is not working in preview render Why is the Spot light no longer working? The problem occurs when I increased the scale of the model then applied the scale. I adjusting the lamp size to 2 meters then set the strength to 5000. On my second attempt I set the Lamp size to 50cm but it made no difference. The render remains dark. If I change the lamp type to Hemi or Sun then it works fine (figure 4).

Weird thing is if I disconnect the world output node as seen in figure 3. but with the use nodes still enabled then I get this result. There is still some light on the hair but the face is completely black.

If the sun is working (the hemi light isn't supported in Cycles – it basically just acts like a sun) the problem is most likely due to light falloff of your light sources. your scene is too large for the size and strength of your lamp.

You can confirm that by adding a light falloff node to the emission of your light as shown below.

quadradic is the default (and real world) falloff
linear is a linear falloff (double the distance, half the strength of the light)
constant is no falloff, this is i.e. used per default by the sun lamp

Adjust the falloff and strength to fit your needs.


Can not close windows in interface I have about 80 windows splits currently open, but I can't figure out why they wont close.
I tried Googling. I read the documentation, but the little corner grabbers don't seem to work.

How to close view panels is well covered elsewhere. However in your particular case I would recommend clearing out the UI layout completely and starting from a clean setup.

To do this, save and re-open your .blend with Load UI disabled. You can disable Load UI persistently, by deselecting the option in ⎈ Ctrl⎇ AltU> User Preferences > File, or temporarily, by deselecting the option available while opening a .blend:

Also note that opening a .blend with Load UI disabled will keep the current layout, so to get back to the default you will have to load your startup .blend (⎈ CtrlN) first. Or if you want the default default, press File > Load factory settings before opening your .blend with Load UI disabled.


how to add a pixelated and unpixelated effect to object i want to create a video of having an object that becomes pixelated and unpixelated.
Like this:

You can do this using Pixelate node in compositor.

As official documentation notes, to create this effect you should put Pixelate node between 2 Scale nodes. And I add value and math node for manipulating this effect easily


Recorded Animation appearing as Recorded, but not moving when animating? Today, I recorded animation and it is showing up in the bottom bar but when I animate it two of the shapes I animated aren't even appearing b/c the animation ends with them off screen. But it starts with them on, so I don't know... Also the shapes that are there on camera won't move... Please Help

Here is the screen when editing

Here is the screen when animating

At the near bottom of your screen set the beginning keyframe to 0. Play the animation and then set it back to 63.

Another way is just set the current keyframe to 0 and hold down right arrow until it's at the keyframe you want it to stop the animation at. This is because of the way rigidbody animations work, it has to play at least once to record the motion it will take, you could say.


Boolean operation with script produces error which requires keyboard interrupt Cylinder 2 and Cylinder 5 are in the active screen.  Manual Boolean Difference works.  Following examples from tutorials and stackexchange, I've patched together the following script, which appears to mimic the manual operation:

import bpy
from bpy.types import Operator
from bpy.props import BoolProperty, StringProperty

#   need to spend more time on bpy: types, props,data,ops, context
xx = 15
while (xx < 16):
    yy = 15
    while (yy < 16):
        #  set the 'cutter' in location
        bpy.data.objects['Cylinder.002'].location=(xx,yy,0)

        #  make sure that the base object is selected
        bpy.data.objects['Cylinder.005'].select = False
        bpy.data.objects['Cylinder.005'].select = True

        #  set the modifier
        bpy.ops.object.modifier_add(type='BOOLEAN')
        bpy.context.object.modifiers['Boolean'].operation = 'DIFFERENCE'
        bpy.context.object.modifiers['Boolean'].object = bpy.data.objects['Cylinder.002']

        #  execute
        bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(apply_as='DATA', modifier='Boolean')
    yy += 3
xx += 3

(not worrying about my inability to properly paste a code block for the moment)

Run Script produces the following screenshot after interrupting execution:

Aside from help with my immediate problem, would you suggest a particular tutorial on scripting?
Thanks.

From TLousky:

  (paraphrased) The variable yy is at the wrong indent level, so it never gets incremented. Thus your inner loop runs until you interrupt it.

Use a print statement within each loop to print out your counters and find out when it's failing.

I suspect that it's failing on the first loop because although bpy.data.objects['Cylinder.005'].select = True selects the object, it neither guarantees that no other objects are also selected, nor does it set the object to active.

Use bpy.context.scene.objects.active = bpy.data.objects["Cube"] to activate the object you want to work on (FYI it might not display correctly in the viewport, even when it's working correctly). Only one object can ever be 'active' at a time, so you can also look in bpy.context.scene.objects.active to find out what (if anything) is already active.

Also use bpy.context.selected_objects check to see if any other objects are selected, to make sure none of them are interfering with your boolean. (I believe there's a method that just deselects everything, so you don't have to write your own loop to set False on every object in the scene).


Shader Editor: graph multiple shader trees simultaneously I am new to Blender, so maybe I'm missing something. I'm an expert 3D user with 30 years of experience. I am having a problem with what appears to be a major limitation of the Shader Editor. Namely, it only displays a single shader tree at a time.
How can I edit the shader tree of more than one object simultaneously? How can I use the Shader Editor to share shading nodes between multiple shader trees?
For basic functionality, I need the Shader Editor to work like industry standard 3D applications. There should be no limitation on the number of material shader nodes, trees, or closures visible in the graph, and no direct relationship between what object is selected in the scene and what is visible in the graph.
I know how to pin the graph so it doesn't follow the scene selection. That's not what I'm asking. In that case I am still limited to a single shader tree.
I searched Google, but could only find results on how to assign multiple materials to the same object. That's also not what I'm asking.
Thank you,
Aaron

You can split your screen into as many Shader Editors as you want (which this post explains well) and pin a different node tree to each one.  You can also make parts of your textures reusable and instance them in other materials by making them a Node Group.  Then a change to the group will be reflected everywhere the group is used.
Say you have a part of a material you want to make reusable:

Select the nodes and press Ctrl + G to make a group.

The inputs and outputs will be made automatically depending on what was already in use.
You can copy and paste this Node Group to other materials, or pressing Shift + A and selecting Group you'll find it at the bottom of the menu.  My example has the default name NodeGroup.

You can see it is instanced because it will display the number of users.

You can also see that the Node Group can be used for different things in different materials.  You can group up as many nodes as you would like, indeed including BSDFs.
A change made inside the Node Group affects all of these objects.

This is where leaving one Shader Editor pinned inside the group may come in handy.  If you want a single user copy, you can make one by clicking on the button that displays the current number of users.


Expression Language for Compositing Purposes? I am really unfamiliar with Compositing in Blender and couldn't find any questions about this in my research.  Does Blender support expression language for compositing purposes?

Ie) G=R>G?(R+G)/2:G

If so, how would I go about doing this?

Thanks!

Sorry Tyler,

this is currently not possible. Someone might be able to create an add-on that converts the expression to a node setup. But I don't think this has been done yet. It was on my mind to implement this, but haven't got time to do this yet.


Vertex Paint For Multiple Objects in Blender 2.8 How can I set my favorite color to all of the selected objects?
I can't attach my objects not at all.
The number of objects is high and I can not adjust their color vertex one by one.
Sorry for my bad english.
Thanks

this answer is for vertex color of single object

I converted it to multiple objects:
import bpy
import random
import time
# start in object mode
objects = bpy.context.scene.objects
for obj in objects:

    mesh = obj.data

    if not mesh.vertex_colors:
        mesh.vertex_colors.new()

    color_layer = mesh.vertex_colors["Col"]

    # or you could avoid using the color_layer name
    # color_layer = mesh.vertex_colors.active

    i = 0
    for poly in mesh.polygons:
        for idx in poly.loop_indices:
            color_layer.data[i].color = (0, 1, 0, 1)
            i += 1
    # set to vertex paint mode to see the result
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='VERTEX_PAINT')


Can a driver be used on shrink/fatten on a curve's control point? I am trying to get the surface of a cylinder to shrinkwrap to the surface of another object. That in itself is easy. The idea is have the original surface adjustable through procedural controls.

The object I want to shrink to has to be scale-able at the top, middle and bottom. I have done this with a standard mesh and bones. Created drivers to control the thickness of the bones but not the height. However the mesh does not distort evenly. Even with weight painting the results are uneven.

The best result I get so far is shrinking to a cylinder with a curve modifier on it. To scale the curve you need to use shrink/fatten (alt s), which has excellent results. I want to control that scale with a driver but I can't. I can put hooks on the curve control points and put drivers on the hooks but it does not control the shrink/fatten.

Can I control shrink/fatten, on a curve, with a driver?

Edit: I think an alternative solution will get the result I desire, but I will leave this question posted in case someone comes up with an elegant solution to controlling shrink/fatten.

The alternative solution is to use a very low res mesh, hooks and subdivision. A cylinder with 6 sides, with three subdivisions/loopcuts along it's length. In edit mode select one of the three edge loops, Ctrl H to add a hook. Repeat for the other two edge loops. In object mode add a subdivision surface modifier with a couple of subdivisions. Now drivers can be added to the hooks to easily scale the surface of the cylinder, which will deform smoothly and predictably. No vertex groups or weight painting are necessary.

This gets the desired result, which is a smoothly deformable, curved surface, with drivers control the radius at three points.

Curves have Shape Keys. You can use these to define the shape and add the driver to them.

EDIT:

Actually I misread your questions. You can add a driver to a point's Radius  in the Transform section of the Properties panel to get the same result as shrink/fatten.


Is there a "copy on a support" function in Blender I learned 3D modeling in Hexagon 2.5 and now have switched to Blender. There is a function in Hexagon/Utilities called "copy on a support" and I was wondering if there is something similar in Blender. Here is a link to a video showing it being used, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-YxGE4dB_4.

Ok, what it does is add many copies of an object to another object so you don't have to place all of them by hand. For instance, the bristles on a hair brush. There are many of them on a brush and it would take a long time to place them all.  This function places them there all at once, at the vertex/points.

Or say you had a mesh/circle and you wanted place all of the same kind of small object at each vertex facing the same direction you would use this.

Most excellent. I just clicked on the Dupliverts, Duplifaces links and that's the stuff it looks like, thanks.

Use Dupliverts

From the blender manual:

  Duplication Vertices or DupliVerts is the duplication of a base object at the location of the vertices of a mesh. In other words, when using DupliVerts on a mesh, an instance of the base object is placed on every vertex of the mesh.

Alternatively use DupliFaces:

  Duplication Faces or DupliFaces is the capability to replicate an object on each face of a parent object.


How can I have varying speeds for my Motion gamelogic actuator? I wanted to walk and crouch walk. Walk with a faster speed and crouch walk with a slower speed. The control for the walk is W and crouch walk is C+W, but when I play the game, the crouch walk speed is the same as the walking speed. I don't want to change any of the controls, so is there any solution ?

Here is one away to do it :
Instead of having a low speed for the crouch give it a negative speed this way when it is combined with faster motion it slow it down


Can I find Geometry Nodes in Blender 2.91? I am new to geometry nodes and don't know whether they're in Blender 2.91 or not.
If not, can I add them into 2.91 somehow?

Geometry Nodes are new in Blender 2.92 and implemented in there by default. You cannot load them into Blender 2.91 as an Add-on.


Sculpting brushes behaves weird I was working on this tutorial for quite a while, until I ran into this problem I can't solve, and I abandoned it.
In short, when I use sculpting mode brushes it pixelated and ruined the mesh (image 1), instead of smoothly deofrm like it should be (image 2); ALTHOUGH i did succesfullyl once by myself (image 3).
I tried multiple things (make sure object is large, flipping the normals, subdivied and applying everything, using dyntypo)
I just can't figure it out and will appreciate your help :)
Thanks

You don't have enough resolution on your mesh to go with or you have bad setting of dyntopo that generates less resolution than before.

first things first, apply scale before sculpting by ctrl + A > scale

then we have many methods of sculpting in 2.79 including: sculpting with multires modifier, sculpting with Dyntopo

some of the ways you can use Dyntopo are using relative detail or constant detail.

when on relative detail, having a small number on it and zooming in gives you more detail.

when on constant detail having a larger number gives you more detail. one of the downsides of Dyntopo is that it can be heavy to work with so it's good to just use detail flood fill option and disable Dyntopo. note that Detail flood fill does not work on relative detail option of dyntopo.


BMesh and boolean operation I create a BMesh using some vertices like this:

def create_object(self):
    # Create a mesh and an object and
    # add the object to the scene collection
    mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new("MyMesh")
    obj  = bpy.data.objects.new("MyObject", mesh)

    bpy.context.scene.collection.objects.link(obj)

    bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')

    bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = obj
    obj.select_set(state=True)

    # Create a bmesh and add the vertices
    # added with mouse clicks
    bm = bmesh.new()
    bm.from_mesh(mesh)

    for v in self.vertices:
        bm.verts.new(v)

    bm.verts.new(self.vertices[0])

    bm.faces.new(bm.verts)

    bm.to_mesh(mesh)
    bm.free()

    bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = obj
    obj.select_set(state=True)

    bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='SELECT')

    bpy.ops.mesh.remove_doubles()

    # set origin to geometry
    bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()
    bpy.ops.object.origin_set(type='ORIGIN_GEOMETRY')

This creates a simple object with a face. Then I extrude it in edit mode and do a bool (diff) operation with it, which leads to distortions when I do a bevel operation afterwards.

Here is he created object:

And I do a diff bool after that to a cube and then bevel an edge

Any ideas what is wrong with the BMesh?

Ah got it, the normals were inside after extrude, didnt see it for I was in eevee render and no normals overlay activated:-)


How to constrain resizing in blender? When I am scaling two or more vertices, they scale so quickly that I am not able to control properly how much I want to scale. Any way to control this function?

To minimize the scaling process ( or any transformation ) hold Shift after pressing S or after holding the manipulator handle.

When you are trying to make the object smaller make sure to place your mouse cursor as far as possible to have a space to move it inward ( and vice versa ), this may be problem with manipulator as it is relatively small and don't leave much room for movement inward for this you can try resizing the manipulator from User_Preferences➩Interface➩Manipulator➩Size :


Is the grid visible in an animation? I saw a bunch of question talking about the grid object type. I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about the "web" that can not be selected.

Now that we have that out of the way, here is my question.

I'm trying to make a 2d desktop animation, and it is working out pretty well so far, but I'm worried that the "grid" will be visible in the final product. Do I have to worry about this?

No the grid is a visual guide, part of the viewport and won't show up anywhere else except the OpenGL rendering.

Unless you are planning on doing some simplistic OpenGL based rendering this should never be a problem.

If you do use the Render OpenGL viewport and it does show up, remember to tick the option Render Only in the 3DView Properties Shelf, under the Shading tab.


Compressing textures Apart from ticking the Compress box, what would be the best method of compressing my textures? Without them, my file is about 6Mb, with them, I've got it down to 16Mb. I have three textures I made in Photoshop that are 6.18Mb, 1.46Mb and 4.08Mb. How could I go about compressing them?

If all you need to do is save space to transfer the file, you can try a couple things.

Compress the blend file with textures (zip, xz, etc)
Create a tarball with your textures, and use compression across multiple files. This takes advantage of the fact that textures contain very redundant information.

If you need to save space and still want everything to work normally, your only option is to really use lower-res textures. Although you could probably use a lossy format like jpeg as opposed to png another lossless compression algorithm if you're okay with some quality loss.


Make a PNG into a mesh? so I have a pattern as a PNG. I was wondering if Blender had a way of turning the PNG into a mesh. It's kinda like how if you put a transparent shader on a plane with an image texture you get a 2d picture/sprite thing. I was wondering if I could do something like that but extrude it so it's a 3d mesh. If any of that made sense, how could I do this/is there a way to do this without modelling it all over?

Thanks in advance

There is a possibility I have thought of:

Create a plane. Subdivide it a lot. Then add displacement modifier. Make sure the texture is black and white.

Apply the texture to the displacement modifier, this will raise 1 area of the plane while the other is lowered. Apply the displacement modifier.

Than you can go to side view in edit mode and select the lower faces using box select and delete them.


When Animating, how do we only move the parent of an object without the children moving along its parent? I was wondering if there was a solution for this. As you can see in the picture below, I parented all the objects to the empty object. However, when trying to move the empty object towards the selected sphere the objects move along with it.

So how do we only move the parent to the selected sphere without the objects being moved when trying not clearing its parent?

Need the parenting to rotate multiple sphere and also move it around to create another formation while animating. Something like the picture below


cannot create a face from a vertex I'm new to blender apologies if this is a silly question, however I am trying to create a octagon face from the middle vertex of a cube, this is done in a video I was watching. I believe its an 'inset from vertex' however I'm unsure... can anyone help.. the picture below shows what I want to do, the selected face seems to be originating from the middle vertex.
Video I was watching is here and the timestamp is 0:22 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7noD3zrk7Y&t=49s

In the video he is using the beveling for vertecies tool . For doing this,select the vertex and press Shift + ctrl + b


Finding objects from spesific vector from another object location with python? I have made 8x8 array that should work as chess table and seperated faces to invidual objects. Then i have chess piece knight as object that i want to select active with mouse click and then find array plates that are possible to move on. So i know, that knight can have max. 16 checker areas with its's "L" movement where it can go on. What i would like to achieve is python script to first get knight's current location, and then find out if there is another object at for example knight location + (1, 2, 0)

EDIT:

For now i have come this far (i started learning python today)

import bge
import GameLogic as g
import mathutils
cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
obj = cont.owner
scn = g.getCurrentScene()
own = cont.owner

pos = obj.worldPosition
move1 = obj.worldPosition + mathutils.Vector((2,4,0))

so with this code i get one possible vector knightpiece can go, but haven't yet find way to check if there is other object at the same vector point

I would not use the 3D world at all. This is just to make it look nice. I suggest follow the MVC (model-view controller) pattern where the model is in Python.

Model

E.g. the board as 2d-array (list of lists) of fields. Each field knows what figure is on it (or if it is empty).

Any operation will be performed on that board (moving figures, removing figures etc.). The chess rules will be applied on that operations.

View

The view is what the user sees. So this is the 3D world. With all the meshes and materials. Whenever the model changes ... the view (3D world) will be updated. You can add eye-candy animations wherever you want. It has no impact on the model as it is not important to the chess game itself.

Important is that the model notifies the view when something changed. So the 3D objects know they need to do something.

Example A: the King moved from A1 to B2 (model change). You notify the view that there was a change.

The King sees: "I'm relocated to B2" -> so he jumps, crouches, flies .... to the location associated with B2.

Example B the King moved from A1 to B2 and tower (at B2) gets removed.

The King sees: "I'm relocated to B2 hitting the tower" -> so he fights .... to the location associated with B2.
The Tower sees: "I'm need to disappear" -> hie fights with the King and disappears with an explosion.

I hope you get the idea. (If not imagine your display is a 8x8 block of ascii characters). The model should still be able to do chess.

Controller

How does the model know what operation to perform? Here you need the controller (not to confuse with the BGE logic brick controller). The controller notifies the model about any input from the view (or somewhere else).

Example A

When the user clicks on the king the controller tells the model the user selected the king. The model calculates what fields are available for moving the king (the model knows the rules!). Then it notifies the view that there is an update (selection changed, clickable fields changed). The view shows a nice representation (e.g highlight the King, let the available fields glow).

When the user clicks on a available field (B2), the controller tells the model that this field was selected. The model moves the King to B2 ... see example A of section view.

Example B

When the user clicks on the king the controller tells the model the user selected the king. The model calculates what fields are available for moving the king (the model knows the rules!). Then it notifies the view that there is an update (selection changed, clickable fields changed). The view shows a nice representation (e.g highlight the King, let the available fields glow). As B2 is occupied by the tower, the tower gets an highlight too.

When the user clicks on the tower/field (B2), the controller tells the model that this field was selected. The model validates if that was a valid move removes the tower and moves the King to B2  ... see example B of section view.

Conclusion:

The MVC pattern, let you isolate the core game logic (chess rules, board data, chess operations) from pure visual aspects and user input.

The model should be independent -> the model should not know about the view or the controller. It should just know there is a view and how to tell that it should update (e.g. communication via messages).

Keep in mind the model could use any view and controller such as text output and calculated turns (from a chess engine/AI) in any combination. There can be even several of them at the same time.

The model defines an interface for communication to the view and from/to the controller.

I do not think that there is a sufficient way to implement a chess model without Python in the BGE.


How to see an object by looking throug another object? I am making a portal and I want to make it so you can only see objects through the Portal, like in Picture 1.Picture 1

As Millad already pointed out, this would be done with the Light Path node.

Material for the portal is just a refraction shader with an index of refraction set to 1 (so it doesnt actually refract the objects behind it).

The "magic" happens in the material you want to see through your portal.
use a mix shader to mix a transparent node (be sure the color of the node is pure white. its often a bit grey per default) and the actual material of your object. I used an emission shader just for an easier demonstration but pretty much everything works here. THere could be some problems with refration materials making objects visible that are not supposed to be visible. If you stumble across this problem, let me know.

for the factor input use the boferementioned light path node > transmission depth.


Planes showing in render preview but not when rendered I'm experiencing an issue when rendering my scene. In render preview the 'ceiling' and 'ceiling lights' are visible, but when I render, those two are missing.

I'm new to Blender and I'm using 2.8. The layers both have "Disable in renders" unchecked and I'm using Cycles.

Here is the link to the file: https://www.dropbox.com/transfer/AAAAALaJJeb2UOxFH6RPAOVJtCCByFAn1MeG4opLutcf1uJsmVycv20

Appreciate any help

The comment above by Robert was right. Your Aisle 6 (hidden in viewport but not in render) is blocking your camera. Disable Aisle 6 from render and it'll render fine.


How to cut a spherical hole in a dome properly I'm trying to figure out how to put this robot head onto its body. I'll attach pictures, the head goes inside a spherical socket on the upper dome part of the body. I have tried using boolean but it messes up the topology and I want to make sure I am doing this correctly. My last attempt involved using a lower vertex count head to line up with the dome but it was taking far too long. Here are all the attached photos, please let me know if you need more information. I did my best to make this digestible. Thank you so much, blender is quite hard to learn without a teacher :)  https://imgur.com/a/aJFR1Iu

You could create 2 UV Spheres, the big with one 16 segments and 8 rings, the small with 12 segments and 6 rings, rotate a bit the small one:

Use the Boolean modifier or the Boolean tool so that the 2 spheres merge, give it a nice topology (use join, dissolve vertices, knife tool):

I seems to work:


Is it possible to update link to a renamed armature? I was curious to know if it's possible to update a link to an armature after you renamed it in the original .blend file. I had to change its name for the sake of organization, but I haven't been able to discover a solution, and all the animation channels that hold my animation keyframes are naturally not connecting and updating. I was not able to find the answer to this specific question online, let alone discover a solution. I know Blender has a few quirks with linking libraries so please advise and thank you.

So the best solution I discovered was to copy the animation data from one object to another. Since the missing armature proxy still held all the frames (and all the bones had the same name), it was a simple process. Just had to select both objects in the correct order for data transfer, then hit object > make links > animation data.


camera view as a texture? Is there any way i can use the camera view as a texture in realtime? i know you could do this in the blender game editor before using python, but now i don't know if there is a way i can use the camera view as a texture (or colour output, basically) without rendering or baking it

kind of like a security guard monititor or a portal effect, i think you could do this kind of effect in the compositor using masks but that wouldn't really help

You can still use python for Scripting. I have not tried it yet but from searching web there are commands to put in script to render the camera's view, save that to file, then set object texture to file, write another script to constantly update the objects texture.

Render camera view to file.
Set texture to file.
Keep rendering and updating texture in background script.


How can I run a python script before anything else? I have a python script that defines all the scenes, and other scripts import it. Since scenes are added after the scripts, I get a load of errors telling me that the scenes are not defined on startup. This is because the scripts are executed, but the scenes are not yet added nor defined. In fact, I get about 4 errors before the scenes are defined. I have a python script that I want to run before anything else. It adds and defines all the scenes. Is there anyway to execute a script before anything else is executed? Thanks.

There is a checkbox in the Python controller which seems to be suitable for your needs. It's tooltip says "Mark controller for execution before all non-marked controllers (good for startup scripts)". See screenshot:

Since you did not mention that you already tried this - you may want to check this option on the controller carrying your scene-defining script.


imported .dae and .fbx, I cannot see this textures on rendered view I purchased a city model a couple years ago. I imported the model as .dae and .fbx to my Blender v2.9. As you can see in the screenshot, there are textures on buildings but I cannot see this textures on rendered view.

There is no problem about volume. I canceled it all. There is no problem about engine. In cycles or in eevee there is no change. Everything is black.

The world node setup is for the world background, not the buildings. Prove a screenshot of the building material setup by changing the pulldown in the Shaders Editor from "World" to "Object."

Right now, I'd say you deleted almost all the nodes for the materials for your city model, and all you've got is the empty material output. The solid view has its own color assignments that are independent of node setups or even the render engine, so that's why that color is maintained in solid view.

Further node materials explanation: A general material node flow goes:

Texture coordinates (defaults to generated or UV if not present). Outputs a vector into...
Texture. Images are the usual, but can also be procedural textures like "noise" or "checker." Outputs color and alpha into...
Shader. Principled BSDF is the all-purpose tune-to-need shader, but Diffuse BSDF is a good choice for a simple surface. Outputs BSDF instructions into...
Material Output.

While piping the color directly into "Material Output" is possible, it only works as of 2.80 where Blender tries to work around one output being piped into a different output type. Check out the colors and labels on the node inputs and outputs. In this case, blender is using the color like it is being fed into an "Emission" shader node (the simplest of all shaders, and Cycle's specialty because it can be used in Cycles to create truly glowing meshes).
The world material is similar to object materials, except you usually don't need coordinates for that, and you want to use "Environment Texture" so it will map properly. The world material makes a lit background as you can see with your trees.
Volume materials fill things with smoky looking stuff. Use it on the world for a universal fog, but be warned that in Cycles it will block out the sun and any world background you might have, because it extends infinitely into space.
"Emission" shader can work in volumes, which is handy for making space rays :-D


Create Ellipsoid without sin and cos This is my first time using Python and I'm totally lost.
Is there a way to create an ellipsoid without using sinus and cosinus and using

x^2/a^2 + y^2/b^2 + z^2/c^2 = 1

instead?

I really need help and would be very thankful if someone could help me.

I found the following code to create a ellipsoid by using sin and cos.
But i need to define the ellipsoids surface by using the formular:
z(x,y) = abs(p/w)*sqrt(w^2 - 4x^2 - 4y^2)
while p is the projection in z-direction and p is the diameter from the ellipsoid.

This ist the code I found:

import bpy
import bmesh
from math import degrees, radians, sin, cos, tan
from mathutils import Vector

class CoordsPoints:
    @property
    def xyz(self):
        theta = self.theta
        phi = self.phi
        x = sin(theta) * sin(phi)
        y = cos(theta) * sin(phi)
        z = cos(phi)
        R = self.R
        return R * Vector((x,y,z))

    def __init__(self, R, theta, phi):
        self.R = R
        self.theta = theta
        self.phi = phi
        #self.xyz = self.point(theta, phi)

    def __repr__(self):
        return "Coords(%.4f, %.4f)" % (degrees(self.theta),
                                               degrees(self.phi))
# define the ellipsoid method.
def ellipsoid(a, b, c):
    def ellipsoid(v):
        x = a * (v.x)
        y = b * (v.y)
        z = c * (v.z)
        return Vector((x, y, z))
    return ellipsoid

# make the ellipsoid bmesh
bm = bmesh.new()

# TODO come up with a nicer way to do this.
rings = [[CoordsPoints(1, radians(theta), radians(phi))
                 for theta in range (0, 360, 2)]
                 for phi in range(0, 180, 2)]

h = ellipsoid(1.0, 1.0, 1.5)

verts_mesh = [bm.verts.new(h(p.xyz)) for p in rings[0]]
verts_mesh.append(verts_mesh[0])
for ring in range(1, len(rings)):

    verts_mesh_face = [bm.verts.new(h(p.xyz)) for p in rings[ring]]
    verts_mesh_face.append(verts_mesh_face[0])

    faces = [
        bm.faces.new((
            verts_mesh[i], verts_mesh_face[i],
            verts_mesh_face[i+1], verts_mesh[i+1]
        ))
        for i in range(len(verts_mesh) - 1)
    ]
    verts_mesh = verts_mesh_face

# create mesh link it to scene
mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new("ellipsoid")
bm.to_mesh(mesh)
obj = bpy.data.objects.new("ellipsoid", mesh)
scene = bpy.context.scene
scene.objects.link(obj)
scene.objects.active = obj
obj.select = True
obj.location = scene.cursor_location


Should I fill the mesh between two objects? I am creating a 3d character, I would like to know if I must close this area for a game?
The boots are different object from the pants, however the pants are like jeans.

I would like to know if I must put the boots inside the pants for good animation in game?

Well, it really depends on what you want it to look like. Realistically and according to couple of games (not blender games), there should be a gap where parts of the upper leg can be seen under the pants when the camera is placed down and field of view is pointing upward towards the pants, otherwise you will end up as if the pants and skin are stuck together.


Why my renders don't render to the bottom? I'm rendering some products and when pressing F12 I'm getting 90% of the image rendered, there is a gap at the botton. It gets outputed when saving image as PNG.

DOWNLOAD SCENE:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-HbS0Q7hUOtK9dkXayaZ4VGkTxzwPWWp/view?usp=sharing

Examples of output (a & b have the problem, cups.png was rendered with other configuration):

This is my active camera, the only one:

Another perspective of the camera:

UPDATE 1:

Incresed Clipping End from 1000 to 2000 with same result.

Moving the camera a little bit to the top yields this result:

You have two overlapping object a plane and the curved backdrop. No two objects can be in the same place or else they cause what is called Z-fighting.
See those zebra-like things on top of the plane and the curved backdrop for the scene?

Get rid of the plane.


How do I connect these vertices? What I have:

What I want (where vertices are connected and merged, I do not believe Ctrl+M is what I want, I don't have the right options):

Alt+M is actually what you are looking for... just select a pair of vertices and hit Alt+M. Make sure you choose the right option. I tend to use Last and keep that in mind when selecting, to make sure my vertices get merged at the right point.

Alternatively, you could enable vertex snaps (bottom right of your 3d view: click the magnet icon and choose vertex from the dropdown list next to it), snap the misplaced vertices to their expected destination vertex, select both the moved vertex and the "destination vertex" and then hit Ctrl+V and choose the Remove Doubles tool.

This will achieve the same thing in a larger amount of steps. Remember to disable snaps by clicking on the magnet icon once you are done using them, they can be quite bothersome if you don't.


How to set rest pose as pose? UPDATE: Here is the .blend file

I would like a step by step guide which shows how I can make it so that the current pose looks EXACTLY like the rest pose.

This is my armature in rest position:

This is how it looks like in pose position:

I want to reset the pose position to look like the rest position.

I tried Pose -> Clear Transform -> All.

But this is the result:

In Outliner change to "Current Scene" in dropdown, r/click on
"metarig" and click "Delete heirarchy". You have two identical rigs
and meshes, although metarig only shows origins suggesting you
deleted in edit mode. Irrespective, it messes with your active rig.
Select your mesh and apply rotation and scale (ctrl-a).
In pose mode select shin.l and delete the Limit Rotation constraint. In the IK panel set the Pole Angle to 0.
In pose mode select shin.r and set the pole angle to 0.
Ditto forearm.l, set pole angle to 90
Ditto forearm.r, set pole angle to -90

edit: formatting


How to model this branched sculpture? How can the following artwork be modeled in blender? Are there any technique to ease out the workflow.

You could definitely use Dynamic Topology (Dyntopo) and get something like that with the Snake Hook brush.

Start with a primitive like a cube or sphere.
Switch to Sculpt Mode.
Press CtrlD to toggle on Dyntopo or enable it in: Tool Shelf > Tools > Dyntopo.

If you decide to use Dynamic Topology then there is no need to use a Multiresolution Modifier. As you sculpt, topology will be created or tessellated dynamically where it is needed.
Begin roughing in your shapes with a high Detail size (Maximum Edge Length) and then gradually work towards a smaller Detail pixel setting (Zooming in and out also affects detail size). The hotkey for the Detail size is ShiftD.
In the Detail Refine Method, choose Subdivide Collapse method when using the Snake Hook Brush. Make sure to lower your Detail so that the extrusion doesn't break apart.

Retopology will need to be performed after using this method. Note: Dyntopo will destroy custom data layers such as UVs or Vertex colors attached to the mesh. Also, anytime that you leave sculpt mode (going into Edit Mode for example) will turn off Dyntopo.

Consider the following workflow:

Dyntopo to create the base model
Retopologize mesh
Multiresolution Modifier Sculpting in incremental levels to add in final detail to the mesh.


Python Animation - Can change camera location but not always pointing correctly This code will randomly place the camera around an object, and point at it, for each frame of an animation. The problem is that sometimes it doesn't seem to be pointing directly at the center.

import bpy
import math
import mathutils
import time

from random import randint

def eraseAllKeyframes(scene,passedOB = None):

    if passedOB != None:

        ad = passedOB.animation_data

        if ad != None:
            print ('ad=',ad)
            passedOB.animation_data_clear()

            #scene.update()

def look_at(obj_camera, point):
    loc_camera = obj_camera.matrix_world.to_translation()
    direction = point - loc_camera
    # point the cameras '-Z' and use its 'Y' as up
    rot_quat = direction.to_track_quat('-Z', 'Y')
    # assume we're using euler rotation
    obj_camera.rotation_euler = rot_quat.to_euler()

scene = bpy.data.scenes["Scene"]

passedOB =  bpy.context.scene.objects.active
eraseAllKeyframes(scene,passedOB = None)

cp = mathutils.Vector((0.0, 0.0, 0.0))
cam = bpy.data.objects['Camera']

scene.frame_start = 1
scene.frame_end = 10

for i in range(10):

  #bpy.context.scene.frame_current=i
  #bpy.ops.anim.keyframe_insert(type='Location')

  x, y, z = randint(4,10), randint(4,10), randint(8,10)
  cam.location = (x, y, z)
  bpy.data.objects['Camera'].keyframe_insert('location', frame=i)

  look_at(cam, cp)
  bpy.data.objects['Camera'].keyframe_insert('rotation_euler', frame=i)

  #bpy.ops.object.paths_calculate()
  #bpy.context.scene.update()

scene.render.filepath = "E:\\testing"
scene.render.image_settings.file_format = "JPEG"
bpy.ops.render.render(animation=True)

So.. I don't know why, but the solution that worked for me was to split the keyframe assignment into two separate loops.

Investigations made it appear as though the 'camera look' function just wasn't being called.. "in time?" I'm not sure. Working code below.

for i in range(10):
  bpy.context.scene.frame_set(i)

  x, y, z = randint(6,15), randint(-6,16), randint(6,35)
  cam.location = (x, y, z)
  cam.keyframe_insert('location')

for i in range(10):
  bpy.context.scene.frame_set(i)

  look_at(cam, cp)
  cam.keyframe_insert('rotation_euler')


Particles in render not matching preview (Blender 2.8) I have implemented two identical particle emitters back to back so that i get a looping animation depicting low-poly smoke. I use a blend texture to resize the particles as they go through their life. I baked all dynamics using the button in the cache section of the simulation and everything loops nicely in the viewport.

The problem is that, although everything shows up correctly in the viewport, the particle system behaves weirdly for the last 60 frames or so of the animation when rendered. The smoke particles spawn more quickly and go through the resizing procedure dictated by the texture super fast, leaving the space empty.

As you can see the cursor is at frame 280 in the screenshot and both solid and rendered view show the smoke particles. When I render the image though, the result is this:

I have tried following solutions without success:
- Use Cycles instead of Eevee
- Have the particles emit only in positive frame ranges as opposed to emitting from -300 to 300
- Following this tutorial for baking particles: How baking works on renderstreet
- restarting blender

.blend file with only the particle system:

The viewport has still several update issues. Scrubbing the timeline back and forth and jumping to the first frame ShiftLeft Arrow can help forcing the viewport to update (sometimes).

To make sure the particles are rendering as expected I always enable Disk Cache and Bake all Dynamics (Particle Properties > Cache) before rendering, which works in this case too:

Frame 1-100


Mapping planets with spherical coordinates Setup

I've generated a 'planet' using the ANT landscapes add-on. The exact parameters don't really matter, but suffice to say that it's visually a UV sphere mesh with vertices pushed from the center to varying heights. There is a copy of the object that has had all the 'ocean' faces removed.

Intended goal

Project the globe onto some sort of map (the cartography kind). I'd love to have one of the (more) standard map projections, like a Winkel tripel projection or one of the really cool looking ones, like a Dymaxion or a Waterman butterfly, but I'm really just trying to get it to work.

Current approach

After fooling around with modifiers until my eyes hurt, I finally decided to just bash out the following spaghetti code:

import bpy
from math import *
def map_sphere(bpy_obj):
    vert_cnt = len(bpy_obj.data.vertices)
    coord = [0]*vert_cnt*3
    bpy_obj.data.vertices.foreach_get('co',coord)
    for i in range(vert_cnt):
        x,y,z = coord[3*i:3*i+3]
        p = sqrt(x**2 + y**2 + z**2)
        phi = acos(z/p)
        theta = asin(y/(p*sin(phi)))
        coord[3*i:3*i+3] = [phi,theta,p]
    bpy_obj.data.vertices.foreach_set('co',coord)

Basically, flop the vertices into spherical coordinates and map the spherical coordinates back into the object according to ($\phi$->x, $\theta$->y, $\rho$->z). It's pretty simple, but I'm running into a few key issues:

Huge amount of distortion around the poles
Weird scaling factors in the X and the Y directions
Points on the poles are unmappable. (solved by deleting them.)

Question

Is this the best way of doing this? I feel like it's far too roundabout and there's probably some obvious solution.
If this is the best way of doing this, then how can I reduce the distortion around the poles and/or are there other easily programmable mapping schemes besides equirectangular?

Additional troubleshooting done since posting

I took a simple UV sphere and applied the program to it. The end result was a mesh with two layers literally in the same place. Perhaps I should simply cut my mesh in half and operate on each half separately?

well I would say create your UVs like you want them to look,
then bake the texture using  an equilateral environnement texture plugged in an emit shader with object as coordinate (assuming object pivot point is at the center)


Add driver menu in osx I wanted to create an ik switch in blender, but I'm using a mac. At some point I have to right click on my influence bar under the bone constraints tab to add a driver, but the typical mac simulation of a right click (ctrl+left click) doesn't work.
Does anyone know how I can bring up the influence menu.
Thanks.

In order to bring up the influence menu to add drivers in OS X, press the command key + click. Make sure that your user preference is set to right click and tick on "emulate 3 button mouse".


What is Blender 2.8 alternative to ctrl+shift+alt+c? (Set Origin in 2.8) I don't understand how i can move the orange dot which is my origin to the center of my active object? I could do this before in blender 2.79 with CtrlShiftAltC and it was BEYOND useful. Now my whole workflow has slowed to a glacial place because I cant figure out how to centralize the origin point to my active object NOT to the center of the whole model?

I need the active point to be in the middle of the highlighted object (building on the top left).

Header menu > Object > Set Origin > Origin To Geometry. And if you right click on this function you can add it in your Quick Favorites. I don't know why they removed the shortcut though.


Is there a way to control Blender's GUI remotely? I would like to control Blender on a remote server (Ubuntu, local network) from my Notebook (Windows 7).

Until now I evaluated the following configurations, none of them works satisfactorily.

1 VNC (followed this tutorial)

Result: Applications like Firefox, Libre-Office work but Blender's UI is rendered incomplete and unusable.

2 MobaXTerm

MobaXTerm supports SSH and comes with its own X-Server:
Again firefox and other apps work but Blender crashes:

$ blender
Color management: using fallback mode for management
connect failed: No such file or directory
X Error of failed request:  GLXBadRenderRequest
  Major opcode of failed request:  146 (GLX)
  Minor opcode of failed request:  1 (X_GLXRender)
  Serial number of failed request:  154
  Current serial number in output stream:  179

3 Run Ubuntu under VMWare and Tunnel X through SSH

Blender starts flawless but the connection (100MBit/s) is so slow that it takes 2-3s to open a menu. Instructions on AskUbuntu

Is there an alternative to the methods I tried?

Solution

The MobaXterm settings that worked for me:

The latest version of MobaXterm works great with Blender! I just had to check the "Hardware OpenGL acceleration" in order to make it work (under "Settings" --> "Configuration" --> "X11" tab.

I started a SSH connection with compression enabled in order to lower bandwidth usage and started Blender which now works correctly.

I am running the latest free version of MobaXterm from http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net and my Windows computer has a nVidia Geforce GT640 with the latest nVidia drivers.

I hope this helps!


Blender 2.8 causes all other versions to not run! After installing 2.8 i use it for 5 min then it stops responding and crashes. I try to reopen and the console is blank and it never ends up working. All other versions of blender i have installed also stop working after this.

I've tried uninstalling all other blender versions and reinstalling, Updated all my drivers, restarted my pc, Closed all other programs, waited an hour for it to open. I've tried all of these multiple times with no luck!!! It seems to corrupt all versions of blender somehow!

This is clearly a bug with 2.8 unfortunately :( Any suggestions ?
Should i just wait for the next update? and go back to 2.8beta?

Pc specs: 1080ti ftw3, i7-6700k, 16gb ddr4 ram, 2 1080p monitors, Win10

Running older versions of Blender alongside 2.8

Blender 2.8 removes older Blender version installed in C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation. If you want to run old versions of Blender alongside Blender 2.8 you will need to download their archive version which doesn't require installation.

Download the desired version as .zip,
Extract it
Open the extracted folder
Create a shortcut to the blender.exe

4.1 Right click on blender.exe and select Create Shortcut

4.2 Rename the shortcut to differentiate it from the other Blender versions

4.3 Drag the shortcut to your desktop

How to troubleshoot your Blender 2.8 installation on Windows

The first step is always to check if your system fulfills the minimum requirements to run Blender 2.8 and update your graphics drivers. Since you've already done both, you can continue with the following checks.

When Blender's UI doesn't start and it's frozen at the console, make sure that you haven't accidentally enabled QuickEdit mode by clicking into the command prompt. Simply press enter in the console and see if the execution resumes.

Blender offers batch scripts for debugging on Windows which can be found in the folder where Blender is installed. On Linux and macOS these have to be enabled by starting Blender from the terminal with one of the corresponding debug flags.

blender_factory_startup.cmd allows you start Blender with factory settings, in case your configuration or startup.blend is broken. The batch script uses the --factory-startup flag.

If that command allows you to open Blender properly, make the changes permanent.

File > Defaults > Save Startup File
Edit > Preferences

2.1 Click the icon in the bottom left corner

2.2 Click Save Preferences

If you're experiencing a crash that doesn't happen when starting Blender and you've got an updated graphics driver, then it's likely a bug. In order to help us identify if it's truly a bug and whether this is an issue already reported to the developers, you can run blender_debug_log.cmd. This batch script uses the --debug flag. Once Blender has started, try to perform the same steps that led to a crash. Once you were able to recreate the crash while running Blender from this batch script, upload the created log files (e.g. to Google Drive) and add a link to it in your question so we can take a look at it. Be aware that the blender_system_info.txt file contains detailed system information in case you don't want to share this information publicly.

Depending on the outcome we may advise you to create a bug report on https://developer.blender.org/ where the developers of Blender will try to resolve your problem. If we advise you to create a bug report and you're able to open Blender, go to Help > Report a Bug. In case you can't open Blender use the template and attach your system information file created in the previous step. Make sure to describe your problem in a concise but precise way. Add step by step instructions that allowed you to crash Blender. This is important so that the developers are able to reproduce the conditions that led to the crash. Finally if the crash only occurs with a certain project, you can attach your .blend file. Try to remove everything unnecessary out of the project, so that you have a minimum working example with which you can still reproduce the crash.

The other batch scripts or command line flags should only be used if a developer requests you to run these, because the log files can get quite big.


Setting fix bone length How can I fix the length of each bone to 140mm.

Thank you for you're comment.

I have still the following problem:

When I adjust a bone on the Y-axis with a length of 140mm and I rotate the head to the X-Axis the length is scaled to 105mm. What I'am doing wrong.

In the edit mode in the N panel you have boxes, where you can enter the exact locations for the bone tail and its head. In your case you can align the bone to any axis, then enter desired offset of the tail (or the head). Then you can change the bone rotation (R) without affecting its scale, and not moving its head or tail separately. If you need a bunch of bones with exact length you can set the length for one large bone, then subdivide it with needed numbers of subdivisions, or you can use the duplicate command (Shift+D) for the bone which length is already set. To snap bones to each other, you can select entire bone (not just head or tail), and use snapping to 3D cursor (Shift+S).


Physics simulation accuracy I want to create an animation with a cup falling on a plate.
I encounter this error: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HWPJKGIEsMbaL5WniwBCojy_XnwbjaAa

Here are my rigid body settings, for the cup and plate.

How to fix that?

If you want to stop the cup when it hits the plate try the "deactivation" under the Dynamics tab (lower-right corner on your first pic).
Otherwise setting are here:

And it also helps if you increase the object's scales.


Removing edge without loosing faces Apologies noob here, I would like to remove the following edge:

But if I select the edge and press x -> dissolve edge the result is:

If instead I delete the edge wuth x -> Edges the mesh loose its face(s):

I would like to remove the edge and keeping the faces (or join them into one if this is not possible). How I do that in Blender?

What you're looking for is called "limited dissolve", but I agree with moonboots, why to dissolve that edge?


Deselect vertices with another mesh I made a non-manifold selection, to select my border, but I don't need the entire selection. To automatize my flow, I wish to deselect the "nonuseful" vertices with another mesh.
The intention is to position every kind of mesh on this "Deselection mesh" and deselect the vertices inside. Is it possible?

Perhaps a simpler solution is possible (or automating the below steps), but here's what I came up with.

base - the mesh you're working on
selector - the mesh you want to use for (de)selecting
copy - the copy of base created in step 1.

Duplicate the base which now becomes the copy, add a Boolean modifier in Intersection mode and choose selector as a target. Apply the modifier.

Hide the selector.

Select all vertices of the copy and assign them to a new vertex group.

Select the copy in Object Mode, then the base (so the base is active), and switch from Object Mode to Weight Paint:

From Weights menu choose Transfer Weights.

Expand the panel that pops up in bottom-left corner:

Set Data Type to Vertex Groups.

Select Only Neighbor Geometry and decrease the Max Distance to the smallest non-zero value (try 0.00001)

Go back to Object Mode, remove the copy. Start editing the base:

You can now select the part shared with the selector:

Or make a selection:

And deselect the part shared with the selector:


Keep bone rotated in-between two other bones? I would like to keep a bone rotated in-between Bone 1 and Bone 2, shown in the screenshot. What types of constraints do I need to add to the bone to accomplish this? What about the parenting?
I have tried numerous combinations and cannot figure out how to accomplish this.

While the method you mentioned works, it can get messy especially if you want more influences on one bone. Here is a method which is simple and easy to read.

An advantage is, that the hierarchy and bone orientation doesn't matter since it uses World Space constraints.

Duplicate the between bone and rename it with suffixes of the other bones.

Add Copy Rotation constraints from both duplicated joints onto the between joint.
Set the influence of the second copy rotation constraint to 0.5. The between bone is now equally influenced by the other two.
Parent the between_end bone to the end bone.Parent the between_start bone to the start bone.The between bone is now influenced by the original bone. But we're still using World Space constraints but don't have to worry about the orientations.

The rig holds various poses. Parenting can be changed freely as long as nothing is parented to the between bone (cyclic dependency).

The rig will break, if the angle of the original bones is more than 180°.

I recommend using World Space constraints with duplicates, because you are free to change the orientation later on. With local space constraints the bones have to be oriented the same, which is not always given.


Why can't I display an EnumProperty in a UIList? Actually, I know how to "insert" or "add" custom properties into a UIList in blender 2.8.

But actually I'm stuck with enum and collection properties.
I don't know why I can't display them in a UIList, but If I test them outside of that, they work.

The process is simple. Create a PropertyGroup with an EnumProperty:
class CUSTOM_objectCollection(PropertyGroup):
    #name = StringProperty() -> Instantiated by default
    obj_type = StringProperty()
    obj_name = StringProperty()
    obj_id = IntProperty()
    obj_radio = StringProperty()
    obj_escala = StringProperty()
    obj_simetria = BoolProperty()
    obj_ejemplo =  EnumProperty(default=None,
        items = [
            ('NONE', 'None', "Flat geometry"),
            ('GEOM', 'Geometry', "Use z value from shape geometry if exists"),
            ('FIELD', 'Field', "Extract z elevation value from an attribute field"),
            ('OBJ', 'Object', "Get z elevation value from an existing ground mesh")
        ])
    obj_esquina = BoolProperty()
    obj_borde = BoolProperty()

And add an item in some operator:
item = scn.custom.add()
item.name = i.name
item.obj_type = i.type
item.obj_id = len(scn.custom)
item.obj_ejemplo = "NONE"
item.obj_simetria = item.obj_simetria
item.obj_escala = str(round(i.scale[0],2))

But it doesn't work with the EnumProperty and I don't get any error.

I must add all de properties into de UIList class
# -------------------------------------------------------------------
#   Drawing
# -------------------------------------------------------------------

class CUSTOM_UL_items(UIList):
    def draw_item(self, context, layout, data, item, icon, active_data, active_propname, index):
        split = layout.split(factor=0.3)
        #split.label(text="Index: %d" % (index))
        custom_icon = "OUTLINER_OB_%s" % item.obj_type

        split.label(text=item.name) #item.name
        split.prop(item, 'obj_name', text="",  icon="MESH_CIRCLE")
        split.prop(item, 'obj_radio',text="Radio: ")
        split.prop(item, 'obj_ejemplo', text='')
        split.label(text="Escala: " + item.obj_escala)
        split.prop(item, 'obj_simetria', text="Simetria", toggle=False, slider=True, icon="CHECKMARK")

        split.prop(item, 'obj_esquina', text="Esquina", icon="CHECKMARK")

        split.prop(item, 'obj_borde', text="Borde", icon="CHECKMARK")

def invoke(self, context, event):
    pass


Hair emitter not following texture in correct places I set up a texture so the hair can grow in the lighter areas denser. The emission number is set to 5000, and texture is the FacialHair.
Right now, it just moves to one side and ignores the white on the top.
I reloaded the texture, and the hair is not going to those parts. Why is it not following the texture?

The node setup is just an Image texture leading into the color for a diffuse shader. A Texture Coordinate with the UV output is attached to the Image Texture.
When I paint white in one spot, it usually appears above and below. It I draw a little farther up, the hair moves up and down a little more. Is this a Mapping problem?

In the comments Mr Zak provided an answer that turned out to be the correct answer:

In the particle system texture settings open the Mapping rollout and chech what option is choosed in the Coordinates dropdown. It is closed on your screenshot so it's not visible what option is used. Nodes won't control that.

To clarify, here's an image of that particular texture slot:


random vertices up-Z/down-Z only..? I try to ask you..

I did tried randomize resulted: right-X/left-X/up-Y/down-Y

but it's not work up-Z/down-Z..

I want to use random up-Z/down-Z..... only

how do I will do? it's missing?

sorry for my poor English..

thank you

Note: I assume you want to randomize the vertex positions of a mesh object.

Displace modifier

One solution, that will work on any mesh is to use the 'Displace' modifier.

Add a 'Displace' modifier to the mesh object you want to add noise to. Set 'Direction' to 'Z' and add a texture (use the big new button).

Open the texture tab, and change the type of the texture to 'Noise' (if you want uniform noise, use clouds with small scale instead).

Play around with the 'Strength' property of the modifier, until you get the needed result (Circled in the first image).

Randomize tool

Alternatively, you can use the 'Randomize' Mesh editing tool if all your normals are on ±Z (e.g. a grid). To do this, make sure that you set the 'normal' option to 1.0 (boxed on the image below).


How to get mirrored tiling in Cycles? I'm trying to make a texture tiling mirrored as you can do in Internal. It seems that it's not so easy in Cycles. I want this:

Note that besides the A1 square you can see the same square mirrored, as well as in the G8 one and any other square in the texture's limit.

Is there any way to achieve this in Cycles?

You can achieve this usign math nodes:
Click for full size

Edit:
I have just seen you can even leave out the modulo operation. I thought it would make the coordinates repeat between 0 and 1 but it just does nothing.

Here is the .blend file for you.

What this node setup does is basically flip the UV coordinates when the image border is reached.

Result (with multiple flips):


Switching from World Space to Local has no effect on rotation tool When I press R (followed by X, Y or Z), I can rotate the selected bone.
No matter which setting (Local, World, Gimbal, etc.) I select in Blender, the rotation method doesn't change for me.
Also, changing the Transform Pivot Point doesn't change the way the rotation tool works for me.
What am I missing?

It seems that it doesn't have an effect if one uses the shortcut R.
However, when one presses the rotation tool, it actually changes and displays it as well:


Why does this geometry say "Nothing selected"? I'm modelling a character that is all one mesh.

When I select the body of the character, I'm able to move it around, but when I select the pants, I can't move them.

I've also noted that the Item menu says "Nothing selected" when the pants are selected. What's wrong here?

I found the issue! Somehow I managed to hide all the vertices without hiding any faces. Unhiding everything with Alt + H fixed the issue for me.


Blender is freezing while editing and playing the animation I use blender for creating animations for The Sims 4. I worked on 2.70 version and it was perfect until one day. I opened the program as usual, but it didn't run at all. Firstly, I redownloaded it several times, but nothing changed. Then, I found an answer on the forum saying that I need to download the opengl32.dll file and put it into the program's folder. So did I and Blender started working. However, it started freezing and this was really annoying me. When I deleted the opengl32.dll file, program stopped running (eventually).

All I know that this is not my computers' power issue, since I have really powerful PC with 32 GB RAM and Nvidia GeFore 1070 8 GB videocard. My OS is Windows 10.

My questions is: What can I do to solve this problem?

UPD: I've tried to update the Blender to the newest one, but nothing have changed.

Okay, I think I found the answer. I deleted the opengl32.dll file from newest version of the Blender and it started working as it used to before these problems. To test this "method" I rebooted my PC, and Blender worked perfectly. I hope this won't change anymore.


How to lower polycount i have created a grenade for game use in blender, and it has 4,449 vertices. Using decimate, i brought it down from 45K vertices. But i don't know if 4,449 vertices is low enough for a game, and if not, how else will i reduce poly count? Any feedback would be appreciated. this is for A FPS game

This answer can only give you the starting points for further research and learning. Google the terms I mention and read up on them, much has been written and there are many tutorials out there if you look for these key words.

For most cases you would be better off cutting it down to maybe 200 vertices or less, assuming you're not right in front of the grenade the whole time.

Generally you will want to take your high-poly version as a reference and build a retopology mesh from it, then transfer the fine details onto the low-resolution model by baking them into a normal map.

The decimate modifier will usually not yield good topology alone, but it is useful for a fast LevelOfDetail generation.


Animating indirect lighting I'm animating a scene with lightning, and I want the lightning to light up the scene for a few frames, then die out. I've already animated the lighting, but when I try to bake indirect lighting, it only bakes one frame. How do I have the light change with the animation?

There's currently no simple/automatic option in Blender to have light probes change/bake over time, so you have to do it via scripting.

Select the Scripting workspace
Create a New script
Copy, paste, and modify the below code: change the Path value to wherever you want to output your animation frames, and change the range of frames you want to output. The sample below will save frame 0-29 (does not include 30).

import bpy

scn = bpy.data.scenes["Scene"]
com = bpy.ops.scene
path = "d:/blender/output/frame_"
i = 0
for i in range (0,30):
    scn.frame_current = i
    com.light_cache_bake()
    scn.render.filepath = path + str(scn.frame_current)
    bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True)

Run the script (click Run Script or the play button, depends on version)

Basically what this is doing is going through each frame, performing the "bake indirect lighting" option (the one you manually click under the Render settings), rendering the frame & saving it as frame_0.png, frame_1.png, etc. So it will take a while and there's no "cancel" option, so I'd suggest testing this with a short range of frames to begin with. It may appear as if Blender has crashed, but if you keep an eye on the Path folder, you should see files start to be saved as they render.

When using this method, I only use it for the frames where the lighting changes. I wouldn't want to output the entire animation like this (ie, baking each frame when nothing changes). So I might render frame 0-100 normally, then if my light probe needs to change on frame 101, output frame 101 to 110 with this method, then render the remainder normally & composite everything in After Effects later.

Full credit to the person who came up with this method, as demonstrated here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAAb6sITkq4

Hope this helps!


Rigid Body Physics: Having multiple rigid body worlds In Blender's manual (v2.78) it says that it is possible to have multiple rigid body worlds: https://www.blender.org/manual/physics/rigid_body/world.html.
I figured that this would enable me to have multiple independent rigid body simulations going on, but that doesn't seem to be the case, as one may only set one active group in Scene>RigidBodyWorld.
Or alternatively, I was hoping that this would enable me to bake one rigid body world group which is ought to simulate at one point in my total animation, and use a different world for a different rigid body simulation which should play at some future time in my total animation. However, this didn't work out either, as there is only one cache: if I change the active rigid body world group, the current bake gets transferred to the objects in the new rigid body world group.
It'd be nice if these independent simulations could have a different "Speed" value as well.

Question:
Is it somehow possible to have multiple independent rigid body simulations?
Or is it somehow possible to bake one rigid body world (apart from bake to key-frame, which finalises the simulation) in one cache (just like there are multiple caches for cloth simulations), and another rigid body world to another cache, and then have them both play if the animation is played (Alt+A)?

My current work-around (not ideal):
Have all simulations live in the same rigid body world, and use key-framing on the "dynamic" box to activate/deactivate the independent simulations. This is not ideal, as I have to re-simulate everything if the bake is freed.

No, the manual does not say that you can have multiple rigid body worlds. What they mean is that you can have multiple groups that can be selected in the "Rigid Body World" panel. The name of the default group is "RigidBodyWorld", which makes things a bit confusing. I explained these concepts in more detail in my answer to this question: Rigid Body World (Groups) Explained

At a given time (and within a given scene) you can have only one rigid body simulation.

A workaround could be to use multiple scenes (each scene can have its own "Rigid Body World" settings), and composite the results together.


Cannot change to GPU Rendering I use Blender with my iMac Late 2012 and I have the graphics card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M. In the internet it says, that this graphics card has CUDA but however I cannot change the 'Compute Device' in my User Preferences.
Anyone an idea?

I found a CUDA driver for Mac's on this site of NVIDIA

This solved the problem.


"In Front" in Cycles I'd like to render a certain object so that it is visible no matter what is between it and the camera, rather like the "In Front" viewport option (formerly "X-ray").

Previously this would be done with Render Layers, but since v2.80 has sort of given those the axe, that is hardly an option.

How would I accomplish this effect in a Cycles render in 2.80 without render layers?

You can still do the same thing in the compositor with View Layers. You need to create collections for the objects you want to render in front / behind, as well as new view layers (all buttons for this are located at the upper right by default). You can then go through each view layer, right click the collections you DONT want to see with it, "View layer > Disable from View Layer". View layers should work the same way as render layers prior.


Cycles GPU rendering is super slow with bigger image size For some reason Cycles GPU rendering speed increases enormously when using bigger image sizes.

I am now doing 6000x3000px image and it takes almost three second to calculate one sample. And it is not the case all the time. When using smaller images (like 1920x1080px) rendering is as fast as expected. Also, sometimes rendering starts quite fast, but then slows down to one sample at second speed.

And I know that the doubling of pixels means four times more calculation. The Increase is now more than ten times. I might be from 5 minutes to 8 hours.

I am using 640x640 tile size but I have experienced with different tile sizes too. Using bigger tile size than that is not possible because blender crashes (which is odd thing too of course).

I use the newest build of Blender 2.8 but I have experienced same issue with 2.7. My first thought has been that it is because of the memory issue, but why image size would have effect on that? Blender is able to download whole scene to GPU memory and memory peak is not more than maximum of 5 gigabytes.

I made a thread about same issue 7 moths ago, but at that time I wasn't up to date about the problem: Cycles GPU rendering turns to really slow with big image sizes.

Someone had the same kind of issue here (https://blenderartists.org/t/cycles-gpu-render-speed-drops-extremely-when-increasing-render-size/638059), but the solution of closing T-panel in the UV/Image Editor sounds really odd and didn´t work in my case.

Does anyone one what might be the case?

Specs: Windows 10, Inter Core i5-7600 @3.5GHz, 16 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

You have enough capacity on your tech specs to accelerate the render.
I wouldn´t trust the speed of 2.8 just yet. Instead let´s focus on blender 2.79. Since you don´t make any mention what is exactly what you´re rendering I´d assume it´s a lot of hair/grass or either transparency with lots of bounces.

Bounces on the WORLD are one of those things that can hog up your memory pretty quick. Reduce the bounces on the world to 12 (first). Also on Render settings: Samples render: 24. Lightpath: Bounces: 4. Transmission: 1 if you´re not using any crystal surface you don´t need this). Uncheck reflective caustics and refractive caustics.

Make your 4k image render size: 3840x2160 pixels.
Performance tab (render): uncheck use Hair BVH and set tiles to HILBERT SPIRAL and set the tile size 32x32 (I know, crazy -right?)

AND THIS IS WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS:

Create a unique material on the scene assign it to a sphere.

Select SCENE TAB on the properties, and use the material as a global override on the scene (we do this so you don´t have to switch on and off every material on your scene). And hit render.

With a simple diffuse material and your tech specs, your 4K render should be ready in about 2 or 3 minutes (maybe less).

If this is your case, you now know that the slugness is coming from a material rather than the scene setup (of course you can up raise your sample settings all of that) but now you know where to debug.

On the contrary, if your render delayed more than 10 minutes (with material override) it means the polycount on your scene is too large and the render is using disc space as temporal storage data when calculating, hence "fill" and "deploy" until next tile is calculated.

If you make these test and still do not get any variant results, please edit your questions and write more details about what exactly are you doing with the materials and the models.


Adaptive rotation axis when navigating I have always been confused with the way to navigate around 3D objects.
I am learning Blender, and I am wondering how to make it understand when the rotation axis should change. Let me explain:

If I click on the X, it centers my object, and moving my mouse from top to bottom rotates along the Y axis. Moving the mouse from left to right rotates along the Z axis.

If I click on the Z though, I can still on rotate along the Y and Z axis, when in fact, I would want to rotate along the X and Y axis

Is there a way to make blender adapt the rotational axes depending on the current view?
Thanks.

Yes, Orientation is everything in 3d and your question has many possible answers due to what your object has had done to it. Like, Cloning, Parenting, Applying scale, transformation, and rotation can affect how an object behaves. this video may help
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABayYXu7OfI


How to list all scenes, objects, sensors, controllers, actuators, etc Can I assign a module to an empty or an object in my scene and when I run it to be able to define all the scenes, all their objects, all their sensors, their controllers and their actuators?

If yes, how? and if not, why?

thanks.

The following code will list all loaded scenes, objects and thier sensors; controllers and actuators :

scenes = bge.logic.getSceneList()
for scene in scenes :
    print("scene : %s"%scene.name)
    for obj in scene.objects :
        print("   object : %s"%obj.name)
        for sensor in obj.sensors :
            print("      sensor : %s"%sensor.name)
        for cont in obj.controllers :
            print("      controller : %s"%cont.name)
        for actu in obj.actuators :
            print("      actuator : %s"%actu.name)


How best use a texture image to a large/long object Firstly from what I have seen Blender can only work with images which are square eg 512X512 or 1024 X 1024 etc. Is that correct?
I am creating objects for MSFS and my first project consists of large/long objects eg 9 metres long. It appears to me that if any texture image (all texture images I have found are taken close up to the object) is used then it either needs to be stretched to each face of the length of the object thus distorting the 'texture' on the object OR applied in (UV editing) so that multiple occurrences of the texture image are applied resulting in noticeable 'seams' between each image (unless the texture image is continuous ie the right side of the texture image matches the left side such as an image of a brick wall.
Is that correct? That there is no other method?
Just checking that my hunch is correct before completing my project.
I hope that I have described what I mean in a meaningful manner.
BTW now that I am feeling less intimidated by the Blender 'beast' I am gobsmacked by it.
Here is an example of what I mean by having multiple texture images with resulting visible seams.

Since you're using an array of planks, you have another option.

Scale your UV map so it's only using a part of the texture (no worries, the rest won't be wasted)
Use the UV Offset in the Array modifier to avoid repeating between planks
Done.

Now you're using the whole texture and also avoid repeating.


Best way to find the 2 closest vertices from a list of vertices? Assuming there is an object, then a list of vertices that could be.

obj = bpy.context.object
for v in obj.data.vertices:
    #?print(closest vertex/vertices)###noob example

for example , how to find the closest vertices of v[0]?

is there any bmesh operator? or something really fast?

Naively, this creates a look-up list of closest vertex indices.

import mathutils
import bpy

ob = bpy.context.object

# create a kd-tree from a mesh
me = ob.data
size = len(me.vertices)
kd = mathutils.kdtree.KDTree(size)
for i, v in enumerate(me.vertices):
    kd.insert(v.co, i)
kd.balance()

# create ordered list of closest vertex indices
closest_vIdx = []
for v in me.vertices:
    co_find = v.co
    closest_2 = kd.find_n(co_find,2)
    closest_vIdx.append(closest_2[1][1])

#Insert the index of the queried vertex here:
vIdx = 5707

print (f"vertex:{vIdx} closest vertex:{closest_vIdx[vIdx]}")

Bear in mind with this one:

The distances are in 3-space, not necessarily down edges.
Only the 'first' of any set of equidistant vertices is chosen

You wouldn't want to build the KDTree (or the closest list) more often than necessary - the best way of finding the closest vertex may depend on exactly if/when you want to modify the mesh, and would therefore have to rebuild the tree.


How can I duplicate a mesh along a curve? I want to outline a curve in the form of text with a mesh (UV-sphere, cube etc.). How can I do that while saving mesh geometry without using the Curve modifier?

Based on what you explained in the comments above, I think what you want are Dupliframes. My answer is based on the example in the wiki.

In short, you add a curve to the scene and in the Curve menu under Path Animation, you enable Follow. (You should also set the frames to a more reasonable number as needed such as 10 or so)

Then add the object and in the Object tab in the Properties Editor under Duplication enable Frames and disable Speed.

Then parent the object to the curve or path, first select the object then the curve (so that the curve is the active object) and use Ctrl + P and Set Parent to Object. After, you can select the object and use Alt + O to reset its origin.

Finally, you can now change the orientation of the object by either rotating it (either in Edit mode or Object mode). The arrangement of objects can, of course, be further enhanced by editing the curve. (Shaping it into text etc)

Additionally from the same manual page linked above:

  There are many alternatives to Dupliframes. Which tool to use depends
  on context.

  To use a small curve as a profile and a larger curve as a
  path, simply use the former as a Bevel Object to the latter.
  To arrange objects along a curve, combining an Array Modifier and a Curve
  Modifier is often useful.
  Dupliverts can be used to arrange objects, for example, along a circle or across a subdivided plane.

Additionally, its worth noting that the additional objects are instances and not real objects, this will reduce the load of your scene and also allow you to be more flexible when adding more objects. Alternatively, you can Make Duplicates Real with Ctrl + Shift + A. All objects will now be real objects, but still linked copies. To change this, go to Object → Make Single User → Object & Data and choose All.


Breaking object into parts I have a model of piano that I would like to 3D print.
The model comes as one part like in a picture below:

I would like to print it in different parts like this:

Is there a way in Blender (plugin maybe) to create sort of joints (in a parts marked as red) so I can easily attach them after printing or this is something that needs to be done manually?

What format is the model in? What about quads or mesh?
Quick answer is you could boolean a big box to cut the pieces off.


how can I make an emission shader shine through a transparent material? I am trying to use the emission shader to make a light, but I realized that it seems to be only shining through to a limited extent:

These are the nodes for the light:

These are the nodes for the glass:

How can I make it so that it illuminates objects on the other side of the glass?

Make sure you have caustics enabled by unchecking No Caustics in Render settings > Light Paths:

With caustics:

Without caustics:


how to change a hot key in a add-on recently updated blender to "2.82a"

and figured out that the pie menu add-on changed the mode changing key to Ctrl+tab"

how can i change that key back to only "tab" not "Ctrl+tab"

please find this setting in edit > preferences > keymap


Exporting entire world from blender to unreal without exporting same asset multiple times Imagine i have a "world" with a proceduraly generated terrain and a proceduraly generated forest (blender script), using only one tree model but placing it a 100 times with random placement, scale, and rotation.
Now want to export this to unreal, preferably as a single file with both terrain and trees. However i don't want unreal to load each tree as a single/individual mesh, but rather one tree mesh, and that the file contains placement coordinates, scale, and rotation. Is this possible? Is there any 3d format that both both Blender and Unreal supports that could do this?
A single fbx bulk export creates one file and is easy to import but it creates one mesh for each tree (all 100) in unreal? or am i missing some setting?
I understand this question overlaps with Unreal knowledge.
I'm preferably looking for a solution that is as universal as possible, that works with other game engines / simulators as well. Otherwise just exporting coord, rotation, and scale for each tree and then importing using a handcrafted unreal script is the solution we are looking at.

I don't have much experience with this, so I am going to give you an answer that is a basic starting point.  If you haven't already you should download an add on from Epic Games called "Pipeline: Send to Unreal".  In this add on there are some options about "exporting collections" and "combining child meshes", as well as various FBX related controls.   Further research into these settings should help to answer your question more.
https://epicgames.github.io/BlenderTools/send2ue/quickstart.html


Export 3D model along with UV map: how to convert UV image into a material before exporting it? I am planning to export a 3D model for a Unity project. I did save the 3D model along with the unwrapped skin onto the UV editor and edited the UV map with color and preview it in texture view. When I exported it straightly and preview it via Unity project and the 3D model is white or blank. I even tried exporting 3D model again and the UV map (in .PNG file) separately. While in Unity, I slathered the UV map image file (texture) on the material and still nothing happens.

I was thinking...if exporting as is wouldn't help to create a 3D model along with a mapped texture, what should I do in order to make a UV mapped texture as part of the material? What should I do and how to transform a UV Map texture and turned it into a material before exporting it?

Credits to denis for resolving issues in exporting 3D model with UV map. At first, when I tried exporting the 3D model and preview it to Unity via import the 3D model leaves it completely white at all. I put the UV map I've made in Blender and exported as .PNG file; attached onto the material in Unity and leaves a mess. Now, I took his advice and added the texture file in the textures tab under materials of the 3D model and saved. I checked at the material viewport and the UV texture appeared as part of the material.

Now, when I tried exporting the 3D model and import it onto the Unity project, the 3D model is still blank. A few seconds later after researching about this issue, I found this answer (marked in green) from the Unity Q&A section. All I have to do is to import the UV texture map (in .PNG file, exported from Blender) and attached the texture onto the material and...bam! The 3D model finally shown with the textures on it and displayed it correctly. It displayed it correctly because the 3D file is now contained with an info on UV map to display the textures accordingly.

I assumed the reason why it worked is because once you add the texture in the textures tab via Blender before saving and exporting it, it generates a UV map code and it is included in the 3D model file itself.

Here's the sample pic below. In the middle, my 3D model exported in .DAE format. Mirrored but leaves only half. No texture attached onto the material, completely blank or white. At the far left is my 3D model exported in .FBX, mirrored, 100%. This is where I took the first two attempts in exporting 3D model with a UV map displayed. It leaves black since I simply attached the UV map onto the material directly via Unity. On the right, my exported 3D model also in .FBX format. This time, the UV map displayed correctly using with Denis' simple proposed solution on UV map display and solution on about exporting with textures. The reason why there's an error on rendering the textures from that 3D model (color black) is because I forgot to add the UV mapped texture at the texture tab in Blender. I was new here on studying texture display in Blender but I'm learning it quicker. Making a 3D model has a learning curve but it is easy once I got a grasp on observing how it works.

UPDATE:
Recap on how to export UV texture mapped 3D model:

Make a UV map via UV map editor and select specific mesh part.
Next, once you're satisfied, save the UV by (Image > Save a Copy) and edit for colors and details in Photoshop.
Save the new UV image map in .PNG format, attach the new image file (Image > Open Image or Alt + O) at the UV editor, and refresh it.
Next, at the materials under a 3D object, attach the image file at the textures tab. At the mapping under textures tab, check the Coordinates if it set to UV. Check the material if a texture appears. Preview the UV mapped texture by setting the viewport to material.
Save the 3D model and export it in .FBX.
At Unity, add the 3D model file and the texture file. The materials folder will automatically generated.
At the materials folder, attach the texture to the material. Add the 3D model to the scene by click and drag it. Preview it and all done!


Copy model + armature to other file? I have a problem. I've made a model (a gatling gun), and now I need to add another model (a cowboy) to the scene, but the second model is rigged and has animations, and I can't copy both the mesh and armature! Whenever I try, only the mesh copies, and I can't see any bones at all.

I've looked around, and I can't seem to find any solution to this that actually works. I can work around it by copying the gun into the cowboys scene since the gun isn't rigged, but the thing is that I'll be making a rigged horse model soon, and then I'll need to have the cowboy and horse in the same scene. So I need a proper solution to this problem anyway.

Hope you guys can help me. Thanks a lot!

Your problem probably stems from trying to copy the armature in pose mode. Switch it to object mode and select both - armature and mesh. Copy it and paste to another file.
Second way is to append the cowboy from its file to the file on which you working by going to File>Append (or SHIFT+F1)finding the file, opening it, then folder Objects and choosing cowboy object. It will bring the cowboy object along with it's parent (in this example armature).