Deforming a plane over a topology I'm a newbie in Blender and I'm testing a numerical algorithm. However, I want to extract the topology distribution of some existing objects in the scene. In other words, I want a surface that describes the height distribution of the existing objects at a certain level (Step Function).

Imagine I have two cubes with different dimensions and I want to reflect those ups and downs as a piecewise function but over a plane.

I do not want to use the cloth modifier because, as far as I understand, it takes some time and I need something in real time. See the attached pics.

Destructive workflow (easy but requires joining meshes)

first put another plane, the same size as your probe plane, just below the two objects, to represent the zero level
Join all the "target" meshes (including the "zero" plane, excluding the probe plane) in a single object, by selecting all of them and hitting CtrlJ
Subdivide your probe plane as much as the resolution you require

On your probe plane, add a Shrinkwrap Modifier. Use your target mesh as "target", and the options: "Project", "On surface", Axis: "Z", both "Negative" and "Positive"

In the viewport you will see an overlap between your probe and your target (which is what you wanted! but it looks weird). So I applied the modifier (Apply) and moved the probe a bit up, and used X-Ray for visualisation purposes:

Add: with a Catmull-Clark Subsurface Modifier and a purpose-made shader:

or you could even duplicate the object (without subdivision surface!), and on the duplicate use a black material and a Wireframe modifier to make it look more like a plot:

Non-destructive workflow

You will need:

a zero-level plane, with one "Boolean" modifier of type "Union" for each object in your scene. This way, you will be able to modify the objects separately, while their changes will be reflected real-time on the "zero-level" plane
your target plane, with

Shrinkwrap set as in the workflow above, using the "zero-level" plane as a target
A Displace modifier without texture, acting only along the Z axis
A shader like the one above

This is the result:

And the file (requires Blender 2.8 and may not be compatible with post-Alpha versions):


Scale vertices by vertex When i scale chosen vertices of my mesh, they scaled by their center. I want scale chosen vertices by some of vertex.

You can change the pivot point to do that.

For instance, here set it to the active element (last selected):

You can also set the 3D cursor as pivot point if you want to scale from a specific location.


About "Enabled(Object contributes to the fluid simulation)" I'm sorry, my English is not good.
The following sentences are translated by "Google translate".
Also, I am Blender beginner.

My question is about Fluid-Control.
It seems that Control(gravitational force) is applied in the frame where it is not "Enabled" as marked the image.
The same phenomenon did not occur when the Control was changed to the "Inflow".
Is this my interpretation wrong?
Or maybe my Blender is defective?

In my experience, the Enabled checkbox doesn't seem to give the desired behaviour - in fact, I've just tested this on Blender 2.79.6 and the Enabled checkbox doesn't seem to enable or disable the Control object at all (all it does do is "grey-out" the controls to allow the Control force to be adjusted.

However, instead of keyframing the Enabled checkbox you can enable and disable the effect by simply keyframing the Strength - with zero being effectively 'disabled' and non-zero (higher values for more force) to effectively 'Enable' the control object.

I believe in your example the control object is effectively always enabled.


How disable strange axis view? Don't understand how disable this axis view

You have Origins enabled in the Transform menu.
Just uncheck it and those annoying axis will disappear.

(The gizmo shows for each of your 583 selected objects)


Cloth simulations take too much ram I have a very intense scene involving several cloth simulations and rigid body physics. The rigid body physics have been working fine. I'm able to play through them and bake them. The cloth simulations on the other hand make blender crash saying that my computer is out of application memory. My machine has 32gb of ram, so it should not easily run out of application memory. This doesn't do this with any other blender simulation I have tried. Any ideas on how to either reduce the complexity of the simulations or workarounds for getting things to work?

You might have a scene such as this.

Scene:

(1) A model/mesh of a humanoid with animated walking.
(2) A cloth plane/mesh that is serving as a cape for the humanoid.

Assumptions:

(A) Let's assume that (1) is a high-res polygon mesh.
(B) Let's assume that (2) is a high-res polygon mesh.
(C) Let's assume that (1) is a collision object for (2).

The amount of collisions for (C) is going to be very high, especially since (A) and (B) is true. There are many possible solutions:

Solutions:

(I) Reduce the subdivisions for (1), resulting in low-res humanoid.
(II) Reduce the subdivisions for (2), resulting in low-res cape.
(III) Create a copy of (1) and reduce the subdivisions for only the
copy. Disable the original humanoid mesh as a collision object;
enable the copy of the humanoid (low-res) as a collision object. Now,
the cape will collide/simulate with the low-res humanoid instead of
the high-res humanoid. Finally, make sure to bake/cache/save the
simulation for the cape; now only render the cape & the high-res
humanoid (don't render the low-res humanoid).

You can do (I), (II), or both (I) & (II). However, I think the better solution is (III) where you make a low-res copy to stand in as a collision object.

Feel free to offer any follow-up questions/comments.


Blender Game Engine Animations Float Above Intended Location Whenever I have an object that is the child of the character in the game engine, the object's animations float very high above the intended location.

I will have an animation like reloading, where all that needs to happen is the hand to move back and fourth as to pump the gun like this:

But in game, the animation plays out high above the original location like this:

If anyone has a solution, please answer. I struggle with this for every animation parented to the character.

Animation relations

Animation poses of Location, Rotation and Scale are relative to the Parent. If there is no parent the operations are relative to the scene.

This means when you parent the animated child to an object it will remain where it is. Playing a pose the object will update according the that pose relative to the new parent.

In Blender you can switch to another frame to show the effect e.g. left or right as this updates the object according to the new frame.

Within the BGE you see the effect as soon as you play an action.

Solution

As you do not want that, you should ensure to create the keyframes i while the animated object is already parented.


Object rendered appears then disappears I have an object which I'm trying to render, when I render it appears during the process of rendering but then disappears, not sure why?

ok I found the mistake.
you had the view layer set to coposite, and this means it goes throu the compositor first and then goes to the output,

and when I then look at your compositer you can see that you you selected IndexOB in the Alpha channel, using the viewernode I was able to see that the IndexOB output ist empty (Black) and thus everything was transpatent

This was an easy fix, I selected the object and added an Pass Index in the Object menu, then in the compositor I added the ID Mask node between IndexOB and the output to select this specific Index

and now the render is as you wanted it to be


Blender debugging symbol files Are there anywhere available the newest Blender debugging symbol files for ms-windows (*.pdb)? Blender recently crashed a few times and I wanted to provide developers more information than only info about the crash.

Anyone can do a debug build and make these files available, but typically we don't do this.

However - you assume the person fixing the bug has ms-windows, MSVC - etc, however many devs use Linux and OSX.
Even ignoring this, the crash data alone often isn't enough, developers need to be able to reproduce the bug so they can change the code and prove that the bug is fixed (without the trouble of sending you an updated build and having you test - which would get very tedious/slow).

Normally its possible to provide a blend file and some steps to redo the bug which is better for devs so they can redo on their own platform.


Boolean Modifier making original object disappear I have a cube that I am trying to cut a hole in. The star shaped long piece is two scaled cubes joined together as one object. Originally, this cube had a Nurbs curve modifier as well. What I'm needing is for the cube to have a hole cut in it and then have the cube follow along the curve.

I originally tried curving the cube and was trying to put the hole in after so as not to mess up the dimensions of the hole. When adding the boolean difference modifier, the cube disappears and the piece that is supposed to be the hole remains. Issue is that it does this no matter which way I perform these operations.

I have tried rearranging the order of the modifiers, removing the curve modifier and adding the hole first and vice versa, removing doubles (which as I understand is "merge by distance" in blender 2.9), and I have tried both the cube and the star piece with and without loop cuts in both the horizontal and vertical directions.

The problem is that one of your two objects to be used in a Boolean operation is the combination of two joined objects. You don't want that. You want only one object being Booleaned with only one other object. You can fix this simply by separating the joined objects (go into Edit mode, press p for the Separate menu, and then choose to separate by Loose Parts), then  Boolean those two newly separated objects together in Object Mode with a Boolean Union operation. Doing this will make the two previously unjoined objects truly one object, which they actually weren't before. After doing that, you can attempt your Boolean operation mentioned above, and it is very much more likely to work.


How do I model and animate a twinkling star? I am building a scene with Blender in which I need to depict a multi-colored
twinkling star, rising on a vertical path, and disappearing at clipping plane
just above it.

I have done it in POV-Ray, which uses scene descriptive language. Is there a
utility to export from POV-Ray and import into Blender? Should I write a Python
script, or can it be done in Blender?

Blender allows you to generate a Noise modifier for animations. This could give you a "twinkling" effect if you apply the noise to a material's value such as Emission, Intensity, Transparency, etc.

First, mouse-over the value you want to apply noise to. In this example I'm using Diffuse Intensity.

Then press I to add a keyframe. If it works, you'll see the button turn yellow.

Open the Graph Editor and click on the channel used for controlling the Intensity.

In the Graph Editor, open the Properties panel by either pressing N or selecting View >> Properties. Under Modifiers, click Noise. This will give you a set of controls to manipulate the pseudo-randomization of the Intensity. This works on any value that can be animated, including colors.


Re-do view of a photo via DEM data and Blender I'm trying to re-render
 -

I hopped to generate some jewelery out of the rendered view.
So I found some DEM-data (DEM=digital elevation model) of the region and added a camera and a plane to mirror the mountains there.

Here's the blend file of the scene I created so far

I just can't seem to recreate the view from the photo, or even something close to it. I first tried with just the plane with a displacement modifier on the UV-data and tried to move the camera in to the region,
but this didn't came to fruition.
After some other things I tried I can kind of recreate the view with the one side of the UV-map (of the plane) being scaled to zero - trying to mirror the view from the camera.
(you also see this in the blender file, this is where the shot was approximately made)

I was wondering if someone did something similar to this and might help me.

The most straight forward thing I came up with was that I massively scaled the plane up and tried to physically move the camera in to the region, but this just didn't work. The blender cycles camera just skewed the view too much, the angles and everything seemed off...

edit: To be clear: my problem doesn't lie wit generating the mesh with displacement modifiers, subsurfing, etc. But more with how to then make the camera see more or less the same as in the photo

Start with a plane. Subdivide it like 100 times.
In Top ortho view unwrap it using project from view bounds.

to the plane add a displace modifier that uses your hieght map as texture. Make sure the texture coordinates are set to UV.

For a smoother surface add a subsurf modifier.

From there just set the camera where you want.


Set Resolution Automatically on Video File Load When I add a video file to the timeline in Blender's VSE, the frame rate will automatically adjust to match that of the video (usually). The resolution will not automatically adjust.

Is there a setting or a Blender add-on that will enable automatic resolution adaptation on video file load?

Currently, I have to check the resolution using Mediainfo and change the setting manually.

I asked for this Auto-Dimensions-changer about same time that the time remapping occurred. IIRC the issue was knowing what the dimensions of the media was before importing it? Anyway the bottom line was that it couldn't be done at import, however there is a retrospective change you can make after setting a clip on the timeline.

Select the strip and go to the Strip menu > Set Render Size. This will alter the current scene's dimensions to match the source clip.


How to distinguish between "Addon is not installed" and "Addon is not enabled"? I want to check if an addon exists and if it is enabled. So i tried:

loaded_default, loaded_state = addon_utils.check(addon_name)

But i found that i can not distinguish between the 2 cases:

Addon is not installed
Addon is not enabled

So in the case where i want to programmatically enable an addon, i can only do:

addon_name="myaddon"
default, state = addon_utils.check(addon_name)
print ("%s: default:%s, state:%s" % (addon_name, default, state) )
if default == False and state is None:
    print("%s is not installed or not enabled by default" % addon_name)

if state != True :
    print("Try to enable module %s On The Fly ..." % addon_name )
    try:
        mod = addon_utils.enable(addon_name, default_set=False, persistent=True)
        if mod:
            state = True
    except:
        print("Could not enable %s on the fly. Ignore" % addon_name )

But this is ugly. Especially when the module does not exist then i get a stack trace in the console, even when i use a try/except block. For the the example above i get this in the console:

myaddon: default:False, state:None
myaddon is not installed or not enabled by default
Try to enable module myaddon On The Fly ...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "D:\blendergit\cmake-build\bin\Release\2.71\scripts\modules\addon_utils.py", line 299, in enable
    mod = __import__(module_name)
ImportError: No module named 'myaddon'

Is it possible to make this more elegant and avoid to see the stack trace when the child addon does not exist ?

If the addon is not 'installed' (i.e. unknown from Blender side), then it won’t be listed in addon_utils.addons_fake_modules. So the solution is:

mod = None
addon_name = "myaddon"
if addon_name not in addon_utils.addons_fake_modules:
    print("%s: Addon not installed." % addon_name)
else:
    default, state = addon_utils.check(addon_name)
    if not state:
        try:
            mod = addon_utils.enable(addon_name, default_set=False, persistent=False)
        except:
            print("%s: Could not enable Addon on the fly." % addon_name )

if mod:
    print("%s: enabled and running." % addon_name)


Create a glowing sphere with script I'm trying to create a glowing object with a script.
This is the code I have so far. It runs but the sphere doesn't light up.
How can I fix this?

import bpy

# turn on bloom
bpy.context.scene.render.engine = 'BLENDER_EEVEE'
bpy.context.scene.eevee.use_bloom = True

# add material
mat_name = 'EmiMat'
bpy.ops.material.new()
bpy.data.materials[-1].name = mat_name
bpy.data.materials[mat_name].node_tree.nodes.clear()
bpy.data.materials[mat_name].node_tree.nodes.new("ShaderNodeEmission")
bpy.data.materials[mat_name].node_tree.nodes["Emission"].inputs["Color"].default_value = (0.151736, 0.0997155, 1, 1)
bpy.data.materials[mat_name].node_tree.nodes["Emission"].inputs["Strength"].default_value = 5.

# add sphere
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_uv_sphere_add(location=(0,0,0))
bpy.ops.object.material_slot_add()
mat = bpy.data.materials.get(mat_name)
ob = bpy.context.active_object
ob.data.materials[0] = mat
```

Thanks, @Jackdaw. That was the problem. Pardon for such a noob question. Today is my first day working with Blender.

Here is the working code:

import bpy

# turn on bloom
bpy.context.scene.render.engine = 'BLENDER_EEVEE'
bpy.context.scene.eevee.use_bloom = True

# add material
mat_name = 'EmiMat'
bpy.ops.material.new()
bpy.data.materials[-1].name = mat_name
bpy.data.materials[mat_name].node_tree.nodes.clear()
bpy.data.materials[mat_name].node_tree.nodes.new("ShaderNodeEmission")
bpy.data.materials[mat_name].node_tree.nodes["Emission"].inputs["Color"].default_value = (0.151736, 0.0997155, 1, 1)
bpy.data.materials[mat_name].node_tree.nodes["Emission"].inputs["Strength"].default_value = 5.
bpy.data.materials[mat_name].node_tree.nodes.new("ShaderNodeOutputMaterial")
links = bpy.data.materials[mat_name].node_tree.links
links.new(
    bpy.data.materials[mat_name].node_tree.nodes["Emission"].outputs[0],
    bpy.data.materials[mat_name].node_tree.nodes["Material Output"].inputs[0])

# add sphere
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_uv_sphere_add(location=(0,0,0))
bpy.ops.object.material_slot_add()
mat = bpy.data.materials.get(mat_name)
ob = bpy.context.active_object
ob.data.materials[0] = mat


Setting a normal map for only part of a material (single Principled shader) I am attempting to use a single Principled shader to get wood on one part of a knife, and metal on the rest.

I cannot figure out how to make the normals only apply to the wood part of the mesh.

Attempting to mix them like I did with the roughness and colour only makes the metal part turn black.
I am already aware of how to make this work with multiple shaders.

The image texture in the fac of the input indicates which parts are metal or wood.

It's probably easier to use separate Principled BSDF nodes for the wood and metal, or have the "clean" region over the metal in the normal map itself. (depends on how you're painting this normal map).

However, if you want to use the setup in your example, it can work. You just need to use the geometry node to set the alternate normal to the default mesh normal instead of 1 (which is what the unconnected white socket does):


How can I get a more realistic looking Tomato? I just modelled this tomato in blender 2.80 :

and was wondering how could I get it to look more life like, after fiddling around with nodes I got this:

I used this node setup:

How can I make it more realistic like this:

I used 500 samples to render the image at 1080X1080.

Actually, the photo you provided is not realistic since it was heavily editied to look more "juicy". You can achive the same result by doing some postprocessing effect over the rendered image.


why particles disappear on converted I have a plane and object. Got some settings to a level and stop and now i want to convert that particles so that i have separate objects. When i click the convert button the particles disappear but i can seen in the out-linear where they have gone.

They don't disappear, they move to the location of the original. You have to remove the Rigid Body you added to the original, then convert the particles. You can later select all the duplicates and add a Rigid Body to them all using the Physics tab in the Tool shelf.


How to make realistic pockets of sand? I want to add sand around the small rocks in this scene but I'm not sure the best way to go about it.

Ideally, I'd love to increase the rocks by millions, but obviously that would increase the poly count like crazy.  Is there a way to add sand/gravel without looking like blobs with noise texture?

Here's a reference I am using:

You can perform this in several ways: you can create a particle system, you can UV paint where you want the sand (with a sand texture image), you can paint influence areas to switch from selected textures or you can make Blender automatically blend two (or more) textures based on your model geometry (height, normals, etc). The following node setup shows an easy way where i use model's height to blend a gravel image with a grass image (higher levels of topography have grass, lower levels have gravel). You can control the blend position by controling the color ramp, and you can control the image scale on the Mapping Node's point scale. I've remembered this solution because in your reference image, the sand is always at lowest height levels. You can switch raster textures with procedural textures.


Interpolated particle hair are spread all over the object I cannot figure out how to use interpolated children with hair particle systems correctly. Simple children behave more or less as expected, appearing near the parents, spread distance being determined by the radius parameter. But when I switch to interpolated, the chldren are distributed randomly all over the mesh, the locations seemingly completely uncorrelated with the ones of the parents. The manual says:

  Children are emitted between the Parent particles on the faces of a mesh. They interpolate between adjacent parents.

Whatever that exactly means, to me it doesn't sound like what happens in my example, below. What I am doing wrong?

This is the way the parents are placed:

So it looks with simple children:

And this way with interpolated ones:

After looking at the code for quite a bit, I can answer my own question. Interpolated doesn't work like this. What it interpolates is not the position where the children are placed. It is used to interpolate the form (length, curving...) of the hairs from the closest neighbors, but the placement is random. Confining that seems only be possible by specifying a vertex group for the density and using Weight Paint on it.


Cannot animate rotation of object along global Z I would like to animate a rotation of the key on a vertical Z axis without changing its current position, like this:

When I press R then Z, the key rotates the way I want it to in the animation. I tried changing the Rotation Order, and applying Scale/Location/Rotation, and it didn't work.

However, when I keyframe the start and end point (R Z 360º), the resulting animation makes the key spin in a different direction.

Here are my Transform settings:

Blend file:

You have an empty (null) object controlling the rotation for your key object.

Animate the rotation for the empty and the object will follow.


No "full global illumination" option in light path settings in Cycles? I saw the "full global illumination" option once, and I clicked the minus sign there. Now I only have this "Integrator Presets".

Did I accidentally delete "full global illumination"? How can I get it back?

There are surprisingly few Google hits on this.

you accidentally deleted the preset. Just hit the plus sign and set it to the below settings and label it full global illumination.


rigid body not rotating after collision I was trying to recreate a bowling alley in Blender 2.90.
The YouTuber "Default Cube" made a series of 3 episodes on YouTube where he showed how he did it so I watched the videos and tried to make it without watching the Videos again. I think the only thing I did not like he did was to use real life sizes and weights.
My problem now is that the pins have no rotation and don't even fall. I read that it's probably because the scale is not set to 1.
I tried to apply the scale with Ctrl + A but get this error

Cannot apply to a multi user: Object "Cylinder.001", Mesh "Cylinder", aborting

I tried to re and dis-enable rigid body physics for all the objects multiple times with no success.
here's a video how it looks like
Files for the pin, the ball, and everything combined

What is preventing you from applying scale is that more than one object in your scene shares the same mesh.  This object was instanced instead of duplicated.

The solution should be to right click on one of the offending meshes in the Outliner and select Make Single User, but this is evidently not yet implemented.
Instead, what may be easiest is to duplicate each object in place with Shift+D, cancel movement with RMB and delete the originals.
When each object has unique mesh data, you'll be able to apply scale to all of them.


How to upgrade custom 2.79 .py addons to 2.80? I have no idea how to upgrade the 2.79 custom shortcuts I´ve done in the past. Currently I have this .py (how can I upgrade it to 2.8?) This is the most essential feature I prominently use when using Blender. Please help.

bl_info = {
'name': 'Move origin to selected',
'author': '',
'version': (0, 0, 1),
'blender': (2, 6, 7),
'location': '3d view > space bar > Origin Move to Selected',
'description': 'in edit mode, sets object origin to the median of selected verts/edges/faces',
'wiki_url': '',
'tracker_url': '',
'category': '3D View'}

import bpy

class MoveOrigin(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "object.origin_to_selected"
    bl_label = "Origin Move To Selected"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        obj = context.active_object
        return obj is not None and obj.mode == 'EDIT'

    def execute(self, context):
        saved_location = bpy.context.scene.cursor_location.copy()
        bpy.ops.view3d.snap_cursor_to_selected()

        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'OBJECT')
        bpy.ops.object.origin_set(type='ORIGIN_CURSOR')
        bpy.context.scene.cursor_location = saved_location

        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'EDIT')
        return {'FINISHED'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(MoveOrigin)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(MoveOrigin)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

The updated add-on for 2.8 could like the following code:

bl_info = {
'name': 'Move origin to selected',
'author': '',
'version': (0, 0, 1),
'blender': (2, 8, 0),
'location': '3D view > F3 > Origin Move to Selected',
'description': 'In edit mode, sets object origin to the median of selected verts/edges/faces',
'wiki_url': '',
'tracker_url': '',
'category': '3D View'
}

import bpy

class OBJECT_OT_origin_to_selected(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "object.origin_to_selected"
    bl_label = "Origin Move To Selected"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        obj = context.view_layer.objects.active
        if context.area.type == 'VIEW_3D' and obj is not None and obj.mode == 'EDIT':
            return True
        else:
            return False

    def execute(self, context):
        saved_location = bpy.context.scene.cursor.location.copy()
        bpy.ops.view3d.snap_cursor_to_selected()

        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'OBJECT')
        bpy.ops.object.origin_set(type='ORIGIN_CURSOR')
        bpy.context.scene.cursor.location = saved_location

        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'EDIT')
        return {'FINISHED'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(OBJECT_OT_origin_to_selected)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(OBJECT_OT_origin_to_selected)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

API changes include:

How the active object is accessed
How to get the cursor location
Mandatory naming convention for operators


Can I assign a toggle shortcut to the Cursor Depth feature in User Preferences? Can I assign a toggle shortcut to the Cursor Depth feature in User Preferences?

Thank you advance.

Easy.

Go to hot-key tab in user-preference. (Ctrl Alt U)

Find 3D-view, then go to 3D-view(Global), scroll down and find the 'Add New' inside this hierarchy.

After you press 'Add New', a new hotkey entry with the name 'none' and the key of 'A' will appear.

Click the arrow to the left of it, in the text box where it says 'none', add this:

'wm.context_toggle'

A new box appears, 'Context Attributes'.  add this:

'user_preferences.view.use_mouse_depth_cursor'

Give it a hotkey that does not conflict with any existing hotkey in 3D-View.

Done.

PS: If you have the Pie Menu Editor Addon, you can also add the property into a Pie Menu, which saves hotkeys.  In that case, you have to use this:

'C.user_preferences.view.use_mouse_depth_cursor'

or

'bpy.context.user_preferences.view.use_mouse_depth_cursor'


How does damping in the generic spring constraint work? I'm new to Blender so I may be overlooking something really obvious, but it seems to me the damping in the generic spring constraint does not work as intended.

I built a simple car (body, four wheels) with the generic spring constraint acting as suspension and entered realistic values for mass and spring stiffness in the various components. For the spring damping, I entered a first guess of 0.8, expecting the car to settle fairly fast after a drop.

Instead, it keeps bouncing and bouncing, and no reasonable value will stop it aside from a value of 1, which stops the bounce instantly - as expected. I did notice that I can enter values like .999999 and that almost works (although the value then shows as 1 in the number field) but that renders the damping incredibly sensitive to the number of solver iterations (and probably steps per second, although I did not test that) and is a completely unreasonable value for a damping coefficient.

Here's a .blend showing the problem: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwpD_rRXj8ceckFtM1NRR2FlVFU

As you can see, even with the spring damping set to .999, the oscillation will not stop.

So, my question is, is there a way to get the expected damping behavior out of the generic spring constraint, or should I report this as a bug? I've tried this in both 2.77a and 2.78RC, and the behaviour is the same in both.

My solution for this problem is to add a second parallel spring.

the first spring has stiffness 10.0 and damping 0
the second stiffnes 1.0 and damping 1

Now it acts together similar to a damped spring (I think not exactly physically correct).

A solution for physically damping is to set the damping in the spring to zero and the damping in the ridig body dynamics of the object to a high value. The disadvatage is that this damping is always relative to the world coordiate system.


How can I make a specific part of particles a different color? I am modeling a panda teddy bear. However I do not know how To make the different parts like arms,legs,and circles on the face a different color. I’m a noob and would appreciate the help.

You can use Vertex Pain method. Create the material with the color you want, then where you select object/edit mode find vertex paint. Then just pain over the parts of object you want with that color.  Or you can select faces and add that color to them. This tutorial describes the technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lj643VmTsg&t=448s

Edit: I am allso new so take it with a grain of sand :)


Moving Finger in blender Moves the other part of hand? When I go into pose mode and move the index finger, it moves a part of the hand that isn't even connected to the index finger, I don't understand the issue and would appreciate some help, Thanks.

Link To My Blender File...

The problem has to do with the vertex groups the bones influence.

When you parented your mesh to your armature blender created a vertex group on the child mesh for every bone in the armature.  Looking at the bone names you can see the bone with the problem is named "Bone_L.009".  You'll find the corresponding vertex group here:

Select the "Bone_L.009" vertex group and go into Weight Paint mode.

The problem is pretty obvious: the bone has influence on other parts of the mesh than the intended "finger" (you can see that there is a green area also on the other "finger", thus it is influenced by the same bone).

To correct, in the weight paint brush options set the Weight to 0 and then paint over the problem area of the mesh.

It should look something like this where you're done:

The fingers will now move independently.


How to imitate early CGI style animation? I just finished the doughnut tutorial series and wanted to know what I need to learn next. I was wondering whether anyone has any advice about how to make the shading and water/fire simulations/particles look more like 90s oldschool animation (like this, this or this). It would really help me.
Thanks a bunch!

I think it's rather difficult to determine a specific "settings configuration" that accurately represents 90's CGI, more of a series of tweaks, mainly in the vein of "breaking the modern rules" of shading, I think is what's needed to get the effects you want.
To me, 90's era CGI is defined by several factors. The first, and most obvious being limited geometry (ie fewer subdivisions), however also high on the list are approximated light reflections (so eevee is good), with less than perfect roughness and transparency/translucency (because caustics were very expensive back then), but a focus on metallic looking surfaces, and pronounced specular dots in lieu of accurate reflections. I also seem to remember over-saturated colors, as well as confused color schemes/tone maps to compliment (or insult?) the other objects in the scene.
In the scene I made below, I didn't do anything really special. The most notable thing I did was to use the back-facing output of a geometry node as the Mix Factor between a Transparent BSDF and the rest of the components on the Gem to make it give that "hollowed out" look, like in the image. I also used the Parametric output to control the Mix Factor with an Emission Shader. I don't know if it's "right".... it certainly is "wrong" according to the conventions I learned, but it seems that the idea is to "break the rules" somewhat, in order to "degrade" the look of things, so to speak. I also left a Layer Weight Node next to the roughness input of the Principled BSDF that makes up the gold material. I left it unconnected because I couldn't decide if it looked "better" or "worse" without it. Connecting either the "Facing" or the "Fresnel" output to the roughness both give some interesting results (so long as the metallic is sufficiently high).  Everything else, I mainly achieved just by keeping the roughness above 0 and playing with the specular values. I added a couple of extra lights to the scene, but I did not change any of their settings, and for the sky, I "cheated" the ambient lighting generated by the texture by using the "Is Camera Ray" output of a Light Path Node, to give a grey-orange ambient light instead.

The last step was just trying to make sure I wasn't (noticibly) using any advanced (compared to the 90's) features such as screen space reflections. I did cheat and use some bump information for the water, but that was just to save me the trouble of baking.
I'll include the .blend file so you can play around. I'll also keep working on examples of the other two images you posted, though I'm rather busy so it might take some time. Feel free to experiment in the meantime. I think the idea is to make the scene look "wrong" but in the "right" kind of way, if that makes any sense.
NOTE - I used a face-builder add-on to get the heads for the scene, but I'm not sure if they'll transfer with the file correctly. I'm hoping they do. If not, you'll have to use your own mesh, or Suzanne or something.
File is here -


Join duplicated side back on to side duplicated from I have a bag and a side of the bag that I duplicated - they look like this:

I'm trying to connect the duplicated side back onto the side that I duplicated because the other side of the bag has two faces whereas this side only has the one and .

I've looked around and it seems to be that to connect two objects you have to select a side to delete from each before you can connect them. All I want to do is to add this side back on and connect it to the same vertices it was duplicated from.

Thanks Mr Zak - it worked.

In my particular version of Blender (2.77) I first had to select the side - select the Magnet symbol, select the Cube symbol right beside it to select the "Snap Element" (Volume, Face, Edge, Vertex or Increment) and then position it they way it needed it.


What is the difference between a path and a bezier? What is the difference between a path and a bezier curve? I started to use blender and I was wondering what is the difference between those curves?

There are 2 main category:

Bezier
Nurbs

They differ in calculations.

Each is a preset for its category:

Bezier: It is a normal bezier curve with 2 splines,it is usually what you start with,It uses aligned handle.
Circle: It is a preset of Bezier that form a circle,It uses automatic handle type.
NurbsCurve: Nurbs are different in calculations,you can read the different here.
NurbsCircle: A circle formed by nurbs and is cyclic,made out of 8 control points.
Path: Is a very simple Nurbs,It can be used to create motion paths for objects when doing animations,It is very fast to edit.


how to bake high poly and texture normal map together okay so. my plan is to add a normal map and texture to a low poly mesh. the normal map should be a combination of the high poly model and a texture. they should be baked together. I know you can bake them separately but that's not what I need. I need them together. could you please help? I think I figured it out but the mesh cant connect to itself or everything is messed up. ex) it will work on a plane but not on a cube. please help and thank you for doing so. :)

See How does normal baking work? on how normal maps are created.

You can't bake other textures and the normal into a normal map because the normal map encodes the direction of the normals in the RGB channels of the image representing the map.

From Bump_and_Normal  (Linked to 2.4 because there is more info)

  Normal maps in Blender store a normal as follows:

  Red maps from (0-255) to X (-1.0 - 1.0)
  Green maps from (0-255) to Y (-1.0 - 1.0)
  Blue maps from (0-255) to Z (0.0 - 1.0)

Since can add more than one texture to a model this isn't a restriction.

EDIT: A normal vector is perpendicular to a face its coordinates (x,y,z) are stored as a pixel in an image map.


How to call F6 menu after calling solidify mesh command? When you call bpy.ops.mesh.solidify() Blender will add the mesh but NOT show you the solidify dialog. To adjust it you have to press F6.

I assumed that adding bpy.ops.redo_last() afterwards would do the trick but I think this does not work as expected as no UI appears. And if I press F6 I think a UI opens that appears more to show the dialog for the class I defined and not the solidify command that is part of the class.

Do you have an idea how you have to script this so when executing the script
the solidify command is executed and then the F6 menu for the solidify command will be displayed.

class SolidifyDialog(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "solidify.dialog"
    bl_label = "Solidify Dialog"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    def execute(self, context):
        bpy.ops.mesh.solidify()
        bpy.ops.redo_last()
        return {'FINISHED'}

Since you are wrapping the Solidify operator inside your operator :

create a property (variable ) to hold the thickness and pass it to the solidify operator.
create a draw() function and call it ( the F6 will also call this draw() function )
you can display the menu of your operator to control the solidify operator through the property.

import bpy
from bpy.props import FloatProperty

class SolidifyDialog(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "solidify.dialog"
    bl_label = "Solidify Dialog"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    thickness = FloatProperty(
                name = "thickness",
                default = 0.001,
                min = -10,
                max = 10,
                unit ='LENGTH'
                )
    def execute(self, context):
        bpy.ops.mesh.solidify(thickness = self.thickness)
        return {'FINISHED'}

    def draw(self, context):
         layout = self.layout
         row = layout.row()
         row.prop(self,"thickness")

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        wm = context.window_manager
        return wm.invoke_props_popup(self, event)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(SolidifyDialog)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(SolidifyDialog)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

note : wm.invoke_props_dialog() didn't work as expected , it doesn't update the view while changing the value so i switched to wm.invoke_props_popup()


How to use blender for reinforcement learning? How to control camera movement and save the rendered images that the camera captured? I am trying to follow this paper and reproduce their works. But I get stuck with some problems and I really hope that some of you can give me some ideas.

So, basically what the paper has done is firstly building hallway models as environments with randomized texture and furniture placement, then control the drone(with a camera) to move around the environments to avoid obstacles. So the trained neural network receives current camera image and should output the next target point in the image area.

My questions are listed below, I would like to run the simulation (training and testing) all by python scripts with tensorflow to use the neural network.
  1) I think for this problem I better use Cycles Baking to save the rendered images to the environments. Am I correct?
  2) How to control the camera(installed on the drone) movement considering that the command would be a numerical output of a neural network? Using Blender Game Engine (motion actuator) or normal object move command (acts same as keyboard -G). I need to get the distance from the nearest obstacle and judging if a collision happened to update my Q-value.
  3) How to save the camera images? I know that normally it's ctrl-F3 but how to do that in python code? Actually, what I am trying to do is kind of like using the flying navigation mode and save the images(I don't know how
 to save images in that mode I tried ctrl-F3 but didn't work).

Lastly, are there some tutorials about using reinforcement learning (based on camera images) with blender? Because I've tried finding these on Google many times, but seems there is no good related tutorials.

Thanks for you guys' help. Looking forward to the response!

Welcome to Blender.SE Tianqi Wang, please take the tour to find out how to use this site. Your question may get closed because it contains multiple questions, is partially opinion based, very broad and not quite limited to Blender. In future you can post as many questions as you want, but please limit yourself to a single question per post.
Cycles baking
Yes, for a more naturalistic look of your images, you could bake diffuse lighting onto textures which are mapped to the objects of the scene. This won't work with transparent or reflective material components, but I guess may be optional in your setup. You will probably want to match the surface properties of your realworld environment; for an easier start, you could choose a diffuse realworld environment for testing with little reflections (this will likely be easier to the NN as well). Note, that you have to rebake your lighting/textures if you reconfigure your set as the shadows cast by objects will no longer be correct.
Even though not physically based the renderers Blender Internal (2.79) or EEVEE (2.8) could also be used to create the texture maps, using tricks like environment lighting/ambient occlusion. The images in the paper look as if they were realtime renders with none of the enhancement (ao, light baking), so maybe this step adds unnecessary complexity.

No visual enhancements here. Looks like a 2000's game.
Camera Movement
Your image feed doesn't have to be realtime since the calculations can be split into discreet steps. I'd advise you not to use Blender's game engine. (If you think a game engine is necessary, I'd suggest Unity. It is free for personal use, has a good connection with Blender and support automatic light baking as well.)
I think, setting the camera's properties directly in code should be fine.
import bpy
import mathutils

camera = bpy.context.scene.camera
# set the camera's rotation mode to quaternion once (or do it through the GUI)
camera.rotation_mode = 'QUATERNION'

# get the camera's position and orientation
camera_location = tuple(camera.location)
camera_orientation = tuple(camera.rotation_quaternion)

# set the camera's position
camera.location = mathutils.Vector((0, 0, 0))
camera.rotation_quaternion = mathutils.Quaternion((0, 0, 0, 0))

If you are using constraints or other dependencies in your scene, you have to call bpy.context.scene.update() after setting new coordinates for your camera.
Save images from the viewport
The functionality of saving images with CtrlF3 is not exposed to the API (in 2.79).
I have documented two workarounds here.
The 2nd method uses an OpenGl render, but you will have to save and read the image to and from disk on each frame.


How do you sculpt a texture into a 3D Model (i.e. stencil overlay) How do you sculpt a texture into a 3D Model? Such as using a stencil in 3dCoat as shown below

Load your texture in Properties panel > Texture.

Switch your 3D view to Sculpt mode.
On the left (tools panel), choose the Draw brush.
Open the N panel on the right of your 3D view and click on the Tool tab. Open your texture so that the brush will use it, choose Mapping > Stencil.

The texture should be displayed on the bottom left corner of your 3D view, it might be very transparent for the moment. In the same panel as before, under Display, increase the Texture Alpha if necessary. Enable Dyntopo if your object is not high poly enough and choose the adequate Detail Size, or give your object a Multiresolution modifier.

Move your texture in the 3D view: RMB to move, Shift RMB to scale, Ctrl RMB to rotate. Paint on your object.


procedural texture randomises its position every frame of animation So i'm making an animation and the texture on the gloves are procedurally generated. after rendering I noticed that the texture looks really dodgy and moves about but not even in the same way as if I were to use the 'window' option from the texture coordinate. I cant seem to figure out why this is happening. would baking the textures fix the issue?

Below is a video demonstrating the issue. the colours has been exaggerated to make the problem more obvious as well as a screenshot of the node setup for the texture itself.

video -- > https://imgur.com/a/B0EPJup

I would prefer avoiding baking as i tried it earlier and it looked horrible compared to using this as is. Unless i did it wrong of course.

Any help much appreciated, thanks.

Your question, directly: would baking the textures fix the issue, is answerable by Yes. I think you need to know why. Any procedural textures have to anchor on to something. They have to know their location and scale. Generated and Object coordinates offer different locations and scales (learn more about those specifics as metaphor_set commented) as inputs. You've chosen one of each on aesthetics alone which is totally fine.

Personally, I'm not in the 'physically correct' camp because I think artistic tools are meant to allow expression and artistic expression isn't always physically correct; but you've proven something by commenting about Window as a coordinate input. You froze the position and scale of the procedural texture to the Window that's viewing the scene along the Z axis. Since you and the Window move together, the geometry is passing through a "cloud" of procedural texture so the movement is easier to mentally track. In a rough way, you've 'baked' the texture to the Window.

Well. The next best thing is to bake the texture to geometry that moves so the gloves or camera or coordinates don't move separate from the view or gloves. (Confusing, I know.)

You've found your happy still-frame that represents the position and scale of "Leather." Stick it! UV unwrap the thing; I see the settings "Leather" provide for Diffuse, Normal and Glossiness information and that would mean Baking/F3 Saving ALL those inputs OR, perhaps take a long, careful time to unwrap the glove along intelligently chosen seams and use UV as the coordinate inputs. This WILL once again alter the scale of your texture.

You might have to sacrifice using different Vector locations and scales (I don't fully understand that without knowing "Leather"). But, you'll get away from a texture that looks really dodgy and is moving about.

Image is identical texture three times changing only the Vector input to alter the scale and behavior.


How do I change my Edge Loop color from yellow to blue? I'm just starting out on Blender and I'm finding the yellow edge loops on the grey object color a bit harsh on the eyes.
How do I change this so when I use the edge loop shortcut CTRL R, the preview edge loop will be whatever color I decide on?

Edit > Preferences >Themes > Usere Interface > Axis and Gizmo Colors > Gizmo Primary


Child of Constraint influence value doesn't recorded as keyframe I'm trying to make a reload Animation but when i set child of influence of magazine at start of animation at 0 and press I to record keyframes , and at ejecting part of animation when i set it to 1 and press I to record keyframes again nothing will happen it will always stay at last value i set it.
Here is the file of the project , i don't know what i'm doing wrong :

It's looks like you set the transform keyframes. To set a keyframe for influence, hover the mouse cursor over the influence value setter and press I.
Another way to do this - press dot icon over the influence value.
If the keyframe is setted, the value slider turns yellow.

Important: make sure, that final medium supports Blender's constraints


How can I add a custom primitive object In lightwave they have a capsule primitive object which I'm finding to use it more often than I thought.

I could export an .obj file or extrude half of a sphere then mirror it, but I thought it would be better to have it on your Shift+A shortcut with the rings and segments choices.
anyways, I thing it's going to need some scripting knowledge to achieve that.

Go to File > User Preferences > Add-ons and search for Add Mesh: Extra Objects and enable it.

Make sure to Save User Settings to keep it that way.

Shift+A > Mesh > Round Cube to add this object from the add-on.

In the Tool Shelf or after pressing F6 select Operator Presets and choose Capsule.
Switch Type to Edges - this will allow to control horizontal edge loops.

Now you can control capsule Radius, Length (by changing Z value), subdivision (Arc and Linear).


How to texture - Repeating patterns of cylindrical meshes Basically, I have made a spaceship model that I tested in a game and the time has come to texture it.

The original ships in that game use universal textures, so every mesh has its UVs set to a piece of each chosen texture. Mine is going to be the same in that regard (i.e. no custom UV-unwraps with painted textures).

So, the problem is this - when we have a cylindrical engine mesh, we want a repeating pattern on the adjacent faces, like this: https://p3d.in/sWsav

How do I unwrap my engines and "mirror" each side of that cylinder to use the same UV-coordinates on the texture map? Because, as you can see, its a repeating pattern.

This is the texture:

Maybe you just have to make an unwrap reset in this case ?


Problem mixing image with shaders I'm trying to mix a material with a color ramp with an image texture and I can't find a way to make it work.

This is my node set up for the material. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Assuming that you don't want to apply the shader to the actual face of the texture, all you need to do is plug the alpha of the image texture into the mix shader socket. This should make the faintly discoloured box disappear, as it will only apply the ColorRamp to anything that isn't the face.

Shader setup:

Result:

If this doesn't work, then check:

The face has an alpha of 1, and everything else has an alpha of 0.
The shaders on the "Mix Shader" node are in the correct order.


Microdisplacement Bug? I am using blender 2.79 and I think I might be experiencing a bug.

I have been using microdisplacements for a few months and I've had solid results, until a few days ago. My set up is normal, I've set blender to experimental, and I'm using 'true', as opposed to bump. My renders recently have had a weird rigid effect where it distinguishes faces, almost as if the mesh has been set to flat.

I have tried uninstalling blender and reinstalling, using different computers, and even following along with tutorials just in case I've possibly forgotten a step, yet the problem still persists and im following the tutorials correctly.

I have seen this a couple of times and it turned out to be one of the following:

the mesh is insufficiently subdivided (or not subdivided at all) before microdisplacement is executed

the mesh is overly subdivided before microdisplacment is executed

the max subdivisions setting is too low for the distance from camera to mesh (properties > render (set to experimental feature set) > geometry > max subdivisions)

the solution that worked for me in all cases was to find the sweet spot between too much and too little subdivision before I applied microdisplacement - in some situations (for reasons of available RAM) I was never able to get the visible mesh resolution to disappear entirely but it became a non-issue when motion blur was applied and/or when the render was viewed full frame (as opposed to very close in a pixel-peeping zoom-in)


Animation with a slow start and quick end Im making an animation and i set the interpolation to linear however what i want to do is make it so that the animation starts slow and then at the end it speeds up. How do i do that

Design an acceleration curve in the Graph editor.

Select the object that needs acceleration.
Open a Graph editor window. There will be lines plotting time against function (location, rotation, scale).
Select a keyframe point and press "v" on your keyboard. You get a dropdown menu that gives you vector behavior choices. (In my example, I selected my last keyframe, hit "v" and selected 'vector', which gives independent control over the incoming and outgoing bezier arms).
Adjust the function curve to give you the acceleration curve you're after.

Constant speed is a straight line.
Acceleration starts flattish on the left, and grows increasingly steeper.
Deceleration starts steep, then gradually flattens out.


What's the best way to do clothing in character modelling? I'm doing a character mesh for animation, simulation, and posing/3d printing, and was trying to figure out the best way to do clothing. Should I model it as part of the character, and worry about making it behave properly in rigging? Or do I model it separately and fit it to the character? It seems like the best way to do it would be to model it on top of the character, and apply a cloth simulator, but I'm not sure if there might be a better way of doing it.

All the ways are valid, but there are advantages/disadvantages to all of them and so it depends which is the best one:

Simulating the cloth on a rigged character:

Blender cloth physics are slow (single-threaded) and do not offer the best settings, so it's best to do the simulations in some other software (Qualoth, Marvelous Designer, etc.) and bring them back into Blender as .mdd files. In Blender there is also a way to transfer a low-resolution simulation to a higher-resolution mesh to save some time: Ways to have one mesh control another?
Such simulation results in accurate wrinkles, accurate cloth fit and deformations. The fabric slides over the character etc. When the animation is fast, there can be artifacts - so the animation has to be sometimes composed with multiple of simulations and some cleanup work. It is time demanding.
The animator has usually poor preview of how the clothing behaves, and he must wait for it ()

Modeling the cloth separately and rigging it:

The cloth can be relatively fast sculpted, and rigged with extra set of bones so the cloth can slide over the character. The animator has full control over the cloth bones (some can be rigged with constrains), which is both advantage and disadvantage, as he has more work with it. The more bones the cloth has, the better deformations can be achieved, but small wrinkles and a look of a simulation is very hard to do even with blend-shapes.

Separately rigged cloth with parts simulated (both upper methods combined).

Probably the best option to leave some artistic control and have the fidelity of simulation. Also most game engines are only simulating parts of clothing.

Rigging the cloth with the character armature:

The worst deformations, as the cloth cannot slide much over the character. There can be some basic wrinkling with corrective shape-keys (and sliding), so the animation doesn't look like a character completely made out of play dough.
This is fastest to setup, but usually usable only on background characters. Also good for fast iterative approach to setup the final animation and then refine the cloth and deformations with shape-keys exactly for that animation and camera angle.


Texture not shown in UV/Image editor I don't know how to make my texture appear in the UV/Image Editor view so that I can transform my unwrapped mesh in order to fix it. I am rather sure that there is a simple button that I did not press but I couldn't find it so far.


my editing mode (x-ray activated) is not allowing me to see the reference behind. the edges are thick black and faces are white. any suggestion? The mesh in edit mode with x-ray activated is colored white with black thick lines, which means, I cannot see the reference image behind. I was working normally until that happens, I didn't know how to fix it, I searched a lot for something that matches my case, but there aren't any.

If you see your mesh white while x-rays enabled means your shading mode may be in solid. Try to switch in wireframe shading with x-ray enabled.
Edit: If some faces look different in X-rays, you can also try to Recalculate normals (Ctrl+Shift+N).
You can quickly change shading with Z key, while Alt+Z will toggle x-ray


vertex weigths onto a generated mesh I'm generating a mesh from a list of locations and normals, for each vector a create a simple triangle. What I would like to do is to edit the weight of each triangle into a vertex group. I manage to do it in edit mode (painting) but when I get back to object mode, as its being generated procedurally, all weigths reset to 0.

I've checked some answers where they loop throught the weights but I want to stablish them. here is how it looks now:

It would be great also if I could choose between feed those weights from a list or paint the manually.

EDIT

Animation Nodes doesn't have a node that can write vertex weights yet. So we will have to use some python to implement that ourselves. Given an object obj with a vertex group vertGroup and a float list weights containing the weights for each vertex, one can use this expression to set the vertex weights:

[obj.vertex_groups["vertGroup"].add([i], w, 'REPLACE') for i, w, in enumerate(weights)]

It is essential that the input object of the expression node be the output of the node used to set the mesh, this ensures the vertex weights to be set after the mesh is set.

Now, if you want to paint the weights by hand and have it preserved even when you are resetting the mesh each execution, you can do the following:

Disable the Mesh Object Output node temporarily.
Paint the weights.
Cache the output of the Vertex Group Input node (caching is described in the documentation here)
Enabled the Mesh Object Output node and use the cache in the node tree we described above.


Color is bleeding if AA is enabled Internal Render.
There is Z-transparency material assigned to objects, which are very close to each other. Some artefacts occur if AntiAliasing is on.
If I turn off Z-transparency, or move objects a bit further, then AA works fine. But I need all options from this setup.

You could try to use raytraced transparency, instead of Z-transparency:

does it get better?


Start modal operator from a click in panel I want to start a modal operator by clicking a button in a panel in the properties region. It should then stop when I click somewhere in the 3D viewport. I want to execute some code when I start and finish the operator (see the code below).
I tried modifiyng the modal operator template with an execute method to start the modal operator. But the now the context.space_data.type is always "PROPERTIES" because that's where the panel is located, I guess. Is this a bad way of doing what I want?
class MY_OPERATOR_OT_click_on_3dview(bpy.types.Operator):

    bl_idname = "mesh.click_on_3dview"
    bl_label = "Click on 3D"

    def modal(self, context, event):

        if context.space_data.type != 'VIEW_3D':
            return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

        if event.type in {'MIDDLEMOUSE', 'WHEELUPMOUSE', 'WHEELDOWNMOUSE'}:
            # allow navigation
            return {'PASS_THROUGH'}
        elif event.type == 'LEFTMOUSE':
            # DO ALL THE POST-SELECT STUFF
            return {'FINISHED'}
        elif event.type in {'RIGHTMOUSE', 'ESC'}:
            return {'CANCELLED'}

        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def execute(self, context):
        # DO ALL THE SETUP STUFF
        context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def cancel(self, context):
        print("CANCEL???")

Use the screen.
Edited Code from https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/101894/15543
Creates a modal timer operator which is invoked from the script. (Invoke is equiv of pressing button.)
While the modal timer below is running removes right click support from all areas that are not text editors nor 3d views.
Instead of using context.space_data find the space from its coordinates in the screens areas collection.
import bpy

class ModalTimerOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Operator which runs its self from a timer"""
    bl_idname = "wm.modal_timer_operator"
    bl_label = "Modal Timer Operator"

    _timer = None

    def modal(self, context, event):
        if event.type in {'RIGHTMOUSE'}:
            screen = context.screen
            x, y = event.mouse_x, event.mouse_y

            areas = [a for a in screen.areas if a.x < x < a.x + a.width
                    and a.y < y < a.y + a.height]

            if areas and areas[0].type not in {'VIEW_3D', 'TEXT_EDITOR'}:
                print("Right Click Taken Out")
                return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

        if event.type in {'ESC'}:
            self.cancel(context)
            return {'CANCELLED'}

        if event.type == 'TIMER':
            # change theme color, silly!
            pass
        return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

    def execute(self, context):
        wm = context.window_manager
        self._timer = wm.event_timer_add(0.1, window=context.window)
        wm.modal_handler_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def cancel(self, context):
        wm = context.window_manager
        wm.event_timer_remove(self._timer)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(ModalTimerOperator)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(ModalTimerOperator)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()
    # test call
    bpy.ops.wm.modal_timer_operator('INVOKE_DEFAULT')

The above is from modal timer template, will work same as a modal.
def execute(self, context):
    wm = context.window_manager
    #self._timer = wm.event_timer_add(0.1, window=context.window)
    #wm.modal_handler_add(self)
    wm.modal_handler_add(self)
    return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

def cancel(self, context):
    wm = context.window_manager
    #wm.event_timer_remove(self._timer)

Override the context.
To run an operator with different context members, override the context. For example modify above to give the usual suspect override dictionary of area, space_data, and region
As an example, edit for above to clear the console if right clicked. Notice the override has passed the poll test of the bpy.ops.console.clear() operator.
def override(self, context, event):
    screen = context.screen
    x, y = event.mouse_x, event.mouse_y

    areas = [a for a in screen.areas if a.x < x < a.x + a.width
            and a.y < y < a.y + a.height]
    if areas:
        return {
                "area" : areas[0],
                "space_data" : areas[0].spaces.active,
                "region": areas[0].regions[-1],
                }
    return {}

def modal(self, context, event):
    if event.type in {'RIGHTMOUSE'}:
        override = self.override(context,  event)
        if bpy.ops.console.clear.poll(override):
            bpy.ops.console.clear(override)
            return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}


Modify code - translation Can you give me tips, how I can get the blender open source code, change text field to the Russian translation and publish it as an kind of addon

Blender already comes with translations. Open Blender's preferences (Edit > Preferences) and go to the Interface tab. There you can enabled the checkbox for the Translation option and select the desired language. The Automatic option will use your OS language configuration.

You have the option to enable Tooltip to translate the tooltips that appear when you hover over UI items, Interface to translate all labels in the interface and New Data to translate data-blocks such as material and object names.


Simple Question Why Does Pressing P not start the BGE? Pressing P in Game Logic Mode Does Not Work Anymore I Checked and the shortcut is the same still. if I press Space to bring up the search and type in game
it says "Wm: start game in player" upon clicking that it works but
pressing "P" does not do this anymore and it gets kinda frustrating searching it up every time I wanna test the game logic, so How do I get the shortcut to work again. oh, a little more bit of detail changing the shortcut also does not fix my problem ether.

Until Blender 2.49, P key put you right into the game engine.

Blender 2.5 introduced a special concept called Render Engine (Internal, Game, Cycles), and you must choose the right engine to configure it. When you choose the game engine render engine, the properties editor and some other ui menus and panels will update. Pressing P will also now put you in the game engine mode.


Why does the dope sheet use (inconsistent) white for unselected / deselected? Why does the dope sheet window in Blender uses a solid white color to indicate that a keyframe is not selected and a color (depends on your Blender theme which color e.g. orange) to represent that the keyframe is selected?

I'd like to know why the dope sheet uses the opposite to convention to the 3D view (which uses white to show a selected vertex). It seems inconsistent to me. Knowing why this is should help me to remember whether I have a keyframe selected or not. Currently, I have to remind myself which way round it is by pressing 'A' a few times to select all and deselect all.

It is set that way as they are the colours that were chosen.

You can change both selected and deselected colours in the theme settings if you feel other colours work better. We can't set a transparency with the keyframes but if you set it the same as the background colour then only the border is seen to make it appear hollow. The keyframe border below the keyframe colours is the outline of the marker.


Mesh goes dark blue after applying auto smooth, happens when i flip normals Basically i need to flip normals to add solidify modifier(or else it solidifies outside when I need it to solidify inside of the mesh(car fender panel).
But when I do, the mesh of the fender panel changes color to darker blue when I apply or keep autosmooth enabled....
I have gotten this usually bypassed by unenabling autosmooth, doing what I need and reapplying autosmooth when I am done, but this tactic dosent work whit Flip normals....

Will this affect my model when I am done whit it and exported to .dae?

You don't need to Flip Normal Directions, you can just adjust Offset in Solidify modifier tab. This method will allow you too choose which side you want to "extrude" or you can even have it in the middle (0 value).

Also you can check Flip Normals in Solidify modifier options, if you by mistake have flipped normals - this one will help you to make them right.


Cycles Render - Baking texture without light influence would like to ask the community about 1 single simple question. Was trying to find my own answers, but few that I have found, somehow, sent me to same solution that I was trying over and over, perhaps the Blender +2.7 has changed compared to the old answers and videos that I have found .. don't know, that is why i am here.

My question is:
- is it possible to bake texture/s in cycles render without any external light influence and the textures should be acceptable visible? (all are dark for me since I don't use external light).

I would like to know this because I don't wish to have any type of shadows over my texture when I port it to an engine and inside the engine I will give the light to it.
If there is a solution to this but might take to much text to write it down then either pm me or forward me to a good video/text.
If the question is not clear and needs more specification then let me know, I will try to reformulate it.

Thank you in advance.

Ok, looks like after not quitting I have managed to find the solution.
I don't know if it is a work around for my problem or not, but it works, I did managed to add my file in the engine and has no problem, it is exactly as I was hopping to be.

Solution:
You will need to make emission instead of diffuse in the node that you will bake. Here it is a little bit more to talk how exactly I managed to bake it, but I don't wish to make lots of writings here. The solution was the above mentioned. You will need to bake from 1 object to another (by copying the original obj. with SHIFT+D) and for baking solution you will choice COMBINED (leave all the selected ones there).

I hope that I will manage to record all this in a short tutorial and link it here.. I will need to find myself a decent desktop recorder.
Hope that my explanation was clear enough, if not then pm me and I will gladly explain it step by step.

Blender version that I have is 2.77

Simple node settings image:
http://imgur.com/LbvQ20A

Bake image:
http://imgur.com/CtilIUu


merging two objects for sculpting I have two pretty complex objects that I want to merge into a single one so when I can use sculpting tools on it. Here's a picture of what I'm doing:

I want to merge the legs into the body.

You select both objects and press Ctrl+J, to make them one object. But if you sculpt, you'll easily get the separate parts appear to be dividing up where they're not joined by their vertices. The best thing to do would be reduce the number of edge flows (temporarily) so you can cut an edge around the body where they meet the legs, delete the faces that are inside the legs, press Ctrl+J to join them, then merge vertices so you have one continuous surface.  Hopefully you have an UN-applied smoothing modifier on which you can delete to simplify the geometry.


Cropping background image when rendering region I have this scene with a hand and a knife and I want to get an animation of blood sorta dripping (spraying) from it, but because of SSS I use in palm material it takes forever to render (over 4 minutes!), so I decided to render this image and use it as a background to free calculating space.

I managed to shorten the time of frame render to 25 secs by using the pre-rendered image of a hand and knife as background image and translucent render of current frame mixed by the alpha mixer.

It looked great and it worked just fine. But then I thought I can render only the region where the animation of blood flushing will be (marked it with red rectangle), so I turned on Render Region

Cycles cropped the background image in final render, though in the compositing viewer I see it how I thought it would look: whole and not cropped like this!

Could you kindly explain me what the heck am I doing wrong, is it a bug?

I had the same problem.
I decided to render only one layer and only "render region" without checking "crop the render region" (output menu -> dimensions) to png so the output is transparent.

After rendering separate frames of animation I put it together with alpha over node in the compositor. I wonder if there is a better way.


Registering classes in Blender 2.8 Can you please tell me how to remake it for Blender 2.8x version?

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)
    bpy.types.INFO_MT_file_export.append(menu_func_export)
def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__)
    bpy.types.INFO_MT_file_export.remove(menu_func_export)
if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

There is two things to consider. First, API changes have been made, and one of the decisions was to remove the register_module() and unregister_module() convenience functions. The code below is an excerpt from the more detailed Release Notes of Blender 2.80 (https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Release_Notes/2.80/Python_API/Addons#Registration):

classes = (
    FooClass,
    BarClass,
    BazClass,
)

def register():
    from bpy.utils import register_class
    for cls in classes:
        register_class(cls)

def unregister():
    from bpy.utils import unregister_class
    for cls in reversed(classes):
        unregister_class(cls)

Second, the INFO_MT_file_export has been moved to TOPBAR_MT_file_export. So your code should be this in the end:

__classes__ = (
    list_of_classes_you_have
)

def register():
    for c in __classes__:
        bpy.utils.register_class(c)
    bpy.types.TOPBAR_MT_file_export.append(menu_func_export)
def unregister():
    for c in reversed(__classes__):
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(c)
    bpy.types.TOPBAR_MT_file_export.remove(menu_func_export)
if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


How to model ghamberson I'm interested in the stitching and the cylindrical appearence. Not the garment itself. You see this sort of thing in blimps and the michelin man as-well.

I'm not sure it's the best method because it has some flaws but anyway:

Model all the big stripes on your mesh in Edit mode.
Give your object a Multires modifier, subdivide 5 times.
Switch to Sculpt mode and sculpt all the folds (Crease brush seems to work fine for this job).
Don't apply the Multires modifier, bake the normals using the method explained here by Pixxo, so that you can keep a rather low-poly object.


I would like to apply an emission shader to specific parts of a texture I would like to add the emission shader to the green parts of this texture. How would I do that?
Edit: How do I make a mask from this texture

First of all you'll need a map that will define the areas where light is being emitted from, like this:
Then to mask it over the diffuse map you'll need to create a simple node setup where you use the new texture to control the way two shaders mix, the white areas will use one shader, the dark ones the other one:

(You don't have to use a diffuse node, I just used it for the example) Your final result should be something like this:
Obviously yours will be on the actual model. Hope this helps.


How can I use clone brush in the UV/Image editor? I am using a clone brush on a model using CTRL+Left Mouse Button to define origin of the clone brush. Why it doesn't work when I'm doing the same in UV/Image Editor?

I'll show you the method, which does not work exactly like the one you mentioned (Ctrl+Left Mouse Click) but may be useful for you.

In Uv/Image Editor change the Mode to Paint.

Place the cursor in the Uv/Image Editor window and press T. It will display the Tools panel on the left. Choose the clone brush and an image, which will be the source for cloning.

Place the image wherever you want holding the Right Mouse Click. Paint by pressing the Left Mouse Click.


Transformation Constraint - Can't map location to rotation I am unable to use an object Transformation constraint to map a location to a rotation. The manual says I should be able to do it, but it is not working.
Here is a simple example. The Cube has a constraint to transform the Empty object's location to a rotation:

The constraint on Cube:

Note that the first image shows the Empty y location is between 3 and 4, so the rotation of Cube should be something other than 0. Moving the Empty doesn't do anything to Cube.
What am I missing, please?
Update: I'm using version 2.92.0

As the cube's Z rotation is supposed to be influenced by the  empty's Y location, you need to set the Z Source Axis to Y:


How to shrink an image with the Video Sequence Editor I know how to add the effect strip and transform to resize a given image. This works when I have a low res image that I want to enlarge. But when the image is too high of a resolution and I scale it down, the image is windowboxed. It's as though the render frame is being transformed and not the source image file.

Is there a way around this besides modifying the image file in an external program e.g. GIMP?

Edit

To clarify - here is the image that's imported to show the missing pixels.

When import image into VSE, it is true that the original aspect will be changed to match the scene resolution. To fix this, you can simply add another Transform strip to first Transform (NOT the picture strip itself).

So, basically one for Uniform scale, and another one for aspect ratio correction.

P.S.: When setting the second Transform scale, be sure to set the longest side to 1.000, which is X in this case.


Driver for half-speed rotation of gear completes two half rotations I am trying to animate this set of planetary gears. The sun gear (blue) is driven by a crankshaft which drives other parts of the animation not shown here.
I have drivers set up for the planetary gears (twice the speed of the sun gear), and the ring gear (half the speed of the sun gear). My animation takes the sun gear through two whole rotations.
The problem is that instead of completing one whole rotation, the ring gear completes two half-rotations:

What I want is for the sun gear to rotate from 0 to 720, and the ring gear to rotate from 0 to 360.
Instead, my sun gear is rotating from 0 to 360 twice (which looks fine), while the ring gear is rotating from 0 to 180 twice (which does not).
Does this problem have to do with me using Quaternian rotation for the crankshaft? How could I go about fixing this? (Additional testing suggests not. The problem continues using XYZ Euler rotation)

So when you use a driver from a transform, there's two different ways to do it.  One is to drive from a transform channel, which is what you're doing currently.  The other way to do it is to drive directly from a single property (in this case, a rotation channel.)
The difference between these two things is that a single property is basically your fcurve value-- more or less, the raw number that's being animated-- while a transform channel has constraints run on it, and is "cleaned up".  By cleaned up, one of the things that I mean is that any rotation is remapped to the -180, 180 range.  So 380 degrees of rotation turns into 20 degrees of rotation, which is the same ransform, right?  Well, it is, unless you're doing math on it, which you are.
In order to get what we want from gears, we can't use the transform channel.  We have to use the raw, "single property" value.  Unfortunately, that means that a few other things in your rig have to be changed.  Yes, one of those things is the rotation mode of the bone that is ultimately driving this.  (But you don't want a quaternion for this anyways-- Blender's quaternion implementation makes it impossible to get flat rotational velocity from quaternion rotation, and that's usually something people want out of the gears.)
Let's start by fixing up the bone.  Clear rotation, delete all keyframes.  Change rotation mode to ZYX Euler (because we're only ever going to rotate this in the Z axis, we want the Z rotation to come first.)  Keyframe its rotation at 0 degrees on frame 1, then advance to some future frame, give it a Z rotation of 360 degrees, and keyframe that new rotation.  Or, 720, or 1440, for good numbers to test the replacement driver.
Now let's fix up that driver.  Because we're going to be using raw values rather than world space transforms, we can't drive from a child of the bone.  That child never has any raw numbers other than zero for its rotation.  We need to drive from the bone directly.  So delete your driver on gear_ring.  Then select your bone in pose mode and right click in its Z rotation field (in properties, or in the sidebar) and select "Copy as new driver."  Then select your gear_ring object and right click in its Y rotation field and "Paste as new driver."
Test it out real quick.  Not quite right.  Select the driver ("Y Euler Rotation") on the left margin of the driver editor.  Then open a driver editor sidebar and switch to its "Drivers" tab.  Change the type of driver to a Scripted Expression, then change the expression to rotation_euler/2 .  Now, instead of being equal to your keyframed rotation, it's only half of your keyframed rotation.
Repeat with the inner gears.  They get the same kinds of drivers, but their expression should be rotation_euler * 2 instead.


Blender 2.9. Flip Region missing? UPDATE:  The "screen: flip region" command from the Menu Search is either accidentally or intentionally missing from both stable, beta, and experimental versions of Blender 2.90.  Downgrading to Blender 2.8x has solved this problem for question A, however even though the Flip Region command can be executed on the panel in question B, it doesn't actually do anything. :(
A.  I am trying to move the Toolbar to the right hand side of the screen.  Is this still possible in Blender 2.9?
In scrolling through the forums, it appears that pre-2.8 there was a "flip side" feature on the toolbar that could be accessed by the search bar with F3. However the feature doesn't appear to exist post 2.8, likely due the appearance on forums that many people were doing this unintentionally and coming here for help reversing it.  Maybe I need to look in a new place?  Any information is appreciated.
B.  Similarly I would like to move this. (I'm not sure what its called so for this post I'm calling it Tool Properties).  Is there a way to move or scale up the Tool Properties or view them in the larger Editor Properties panel as highlighted?
Additionally if someone knows the proper name of the panel please let me know.

I apologize if these questions have been answered already.  I attempted to find solutions myself but have come up empty.
Thanks,
Ryan

To use this with Blender 2.90 or later, it seems that you have to manually add the keymap of the following command.
Settings> Keymap> Screen>
screen.region_flip

As for the name of B's menu, it looks like "Redo Last".
The operator name that calls this menu in a popup is "Redo Last".
screen.redo_last
Apparently it was intentionally deleted.
↓ It's not the task of this problem itself, but it says so.
⚓ T71810 UI: Flipping a Sidebar with more tabs isn't aligned correct


Animate string property I would like to "animate" a string custom property (a date), to have the explicit date ("10-05-2005" for example) attached to an object, over the time. Blender says me that my custom string property cannot be animated even if I declare it ANIMATABLE when declaring it like that:

bpy.types.Object.Date = bpy.props.StringProperty(name="Date" options={'ANIMATABLE'})

Any idea to make it work?

Thanks for the help,

Salvatore

It's possible, but you're going to have to "animate" with Python. There's no way to animate property values using the Dope Sheet or Graph Editor. Assuming you have the default cube and you've given it a custom string property called MyString (through the interface... this would also work for custom properties defined with Python; it's just easier to see what's happening this way), you could write a handler that's triggered by the frame_change_pre event. It would look like so:

import bpy

def animate_string(scene):
    ob = bpy.data.objects['Cube']

    if scene.frame_current < 25:
        ob['MyString'] = "First bit text"
    elif 25 <= scene.frame_current < 46:
        ob['MyString'] = "Next text part"
    elif 46 <= scene.frame_current < 100:
        ob['MyString'] = "Another bit of text"
    else:
        ob['MyString'] = "Text after frame 99"

bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_pre.append(animate_string)

Now... if you want to be clever and still animate using the Dope Sheet, Graph Editor, or even the Timeline, you could probably extend this with some clever code that populates your string property with the string stored in a marker (e.g. find the closest marker less than the current frame and use the String stored there). If you only have one object in your scene that needs to be animated this way, it should work great.

A caveat... In my testing (r60747), you could only watch the custom property change values if you scrub through one frame at a time (Left Arrow and Right Arrow). Playing back animation with Alt+A works (you can check with a print statement), but the value doesn't update in the interface. In fact, when I put my mouse cursor in the Properties Editor while playing back with Alt+A, it crashes Blender (bug report submitted).


Python RNA getting the names of Vector axes. (eg "g" is color[1]) I've been playing around with DriverTarget data_path in a script. The data path, from the target.id object for the x location could be either "location.x" or "location[0]"

Is there a way of determining the name of the axes in different vector classes, like Vector ("xyz"), Quaternion("wxyz"), Color("rgb") ... or "hsv" and so on.

Currently I'm just hardcoding a lookup table.

Guess you've tried this already, so forgive me if it doesn't suit your needs. It's also using hardcoding via a dictionary, the test runs based on the type of the property and the axis to test on:

import bpy
from mathutils import Vector, Color, Euler, Quaternion

classMap = {
    Vector:'xyz',
    Color:'rgb',
    Euler:'xyz',
    Quaternion:'wxyz'
}

def returnIndex(_driverProp, _axis):
    dictVal = classMap[type(_driverProp)]
    return(dictVal.index(_axis))

print (returnIndex(bpy.context.object.rotation_quaternion, 'y'))


how to cleanly add transparent image planes, or overlay material, ontop of another mesh in 2.9 To add extra decal to my meshes that will only show up when I need them to, how do I add planes with an image to another mesh. Simple snap to face doesn't curve it and sticks out and shrink wrap deforms it way too much, also keeps trying to stretch it and attack to things not close to it. I know I can do a shape key like thing, tho I might have to, but then ill have tones of messy shape keys. So does anyone know of a way to smoothly, without deform, an image plane over a non-flat mesh, i.e. parts of a human or clothing. Also, this is for a toon/anime style animation, if that helps.
I'm using blender 2.9 and the eevee render engine.
sorry i should have given an example of what im going for. this is just one of the effects im hoping for.

I also think that the better way to achieve your goal is the use of UV, materials, decals over the same mesh,  but if you really want to use a different mesh you can duplicate the object, add a solidify modifier with an appropriate factor, apply it and  delete the unuseful faces.


Update objects in a Scene without re-creating it I am making a template file setup that contains various render settings, render layers, etc. Objects will be linked into this file to create shots for a project. Part of the setup is that the file contains two Scenes with different settings. The second Scene links all the objects of the first, but has different render engine, render settings, etc.

When you create a linked scene, it links all the existing objects in the first scene. However, if the linked scene already exists, it does not get any new objects you add to the first scene. This means that to get my objects linked, i need to do it manually, or I need to re-create the linked scene, which will mean manually re-doing all its different settings.

I'm looking for a way to update/link all the objects from the first Scene into the Second Scene so that I don't have to manually do either part. Does this sort of thing exist anywhere? What would a script need to do to do it?

Linking scenes will not update automatically. You need to use Background scenes.

In a background scene all the changes are directly available. But be aware that some parts of blender will not work as expected. Like physics between background and foreground objects. But if it is just render engine and settings it can be a solution.


How can I enable mp4/h264 as an output option in Fedora Linux? I know it is possible to output a render as a video in mp4/h264 (as well as mkv, etc) however, it does not appear as an option for me.

This is blender 2.64.2, on linux (FC17), ffmpeg version 0.10.7:

$ ffmpeg -codecs|grep 264
D V D  h264            H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
D V D  h264_vdpau      H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10 (VDPAU acceleration)
 EV    libx264         libx264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
 EV    libx264rgb      libx264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10 RGB

$ ffmpeg -formats|grep mp4
 D  mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 QuickTime/MPEG-4/Motion JPEG 2000 format
  E mp4             MP4 format

The file /usr/share/blender/2.64/scripts/startup/bl_ui/properties_render.py has the following lines (snipped for brevity):

class RENDER_PT_encoding(RenderButtonsPanel, Panel):

    return rd.image_settings.file_format in {'FFMPEG', 'XVID', 'H264', 'THEORA'}

    layout.menu("RENDER_MT_ffmpeg_presets", text="Presets")

    if ffmpeg.format in {'AVI', 'QUICKTIME', 'MKV', 'OGG'}:
    elif rd.ffmpeg.format == 'H264':

which leads me to believe that it should give me at least those options. How do I enable them? I've looked all over the place and cannot find the solution online.

edit:

This is the official fedora build, blender-2.64a-3.fc17.i686.rpm   installed from the fedora updates repo.

For those of you landing here from google, it seems that the fedora packaged blender does not have ffmpeg support compiled in. As a workaround, you can always do as @UncleSnail suggested and use the buildbot precompile and run it on its own. If you know of an rpm offering of blender that has ffmpeg support, please feel free to edit this answer, or post as a comment and I will edit it.

EDIT:

I went at this a bit and created a simple RPM .spec file for those interested in packaging the 2.76 precompiled blender tarballs from blender builder.

Modify as needed. Standard disclaimers, ie, use at your own risk.

And please let me know if you find this useful.

# INSTRUCTIONS:
# extract your tarball, then:
# ln -s /path/to/blender-2.76-1e58af0-linux-glibc211-i686 ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/
#  (or just extract to ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/)
# rpmbuild -bb /path/to/blender.spec

# RESULTS:
# -the rpm installs your new blender installation in /opt/blender_2.76/
# -and drops a symlink pointing to the blender executable in /usr/bin/blender_2.76
#   so you can just run $ blender_2.76
# -this installs a package called "blender_full", I'm not sure how to get it to install
#   without conflict if there's another blender installed

Name:          blender_full
# make sure there are no spaces in the version, as this will be used to create the path
Version:       2.76
Release:       buildbot
Summary:       A fully functional 3D modeling/rendering/animation package
License:       GPLv2+
Group:         Graphics/3D
Distribution:  Fedora Project
URL:           http://www.blender.org/

%define _blender_tarball    blender-2.76-a529ad9-linux-glibc211-i686.tar.bz2
Source0:       https://builder.blender.org/download/%{_blender_tarball}
# Source0:  http://download.blender.org/source/%{name}-%{version}.tar.gz

Vendor:        Blender
Packager:      Blender builder
BuildArch:     i686

# otherwise, it will decide it is providing libGL.so.1  libGLU.so.1, which it technically isn't:
AutoReqProv: no

#Provides:      blender_%{version}
Requires:      libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.11)

# otherwise, it will try to strip our binaries:
%global __os_install_post %{nil}

%define _blender_install_dir    opt
%define _blender_install_path   /%{_blender_install_dir}/blender_%{version}

%description
Blender is the in-house software of a high quality animation studio.
It has proven to be an extremely fast and versatile design instrument.
The software has a personal touch, offering a unique approach to the
world of three dimensions. Blender can be used to create TV
commercials, to make technical visualizations or business graphics, to
do some morphing, or to design user interfaces. Developers can easily
build and manage complex environments. The renderer is versatile and
extremely fast. All basic animation principles (curves and keys) are
implemented.

This is the self-contained buildbot release. This means it only
(basically) depends on GLIBC 2.11, and that it will install in /opt
by default.

%files

%changelog
* Wed Feb 20 2016 insaner (insaner.com)
- first version of simple spec file

%install

rm -rf  %{_blender_install_dir}
mkdir -p  %{buildroot}%{_blender_install_path}
mkdir -p  %{buildroot}%{_bindir}
ln -s %{_blender_install_path}/blender %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/blender_%{version}
cp -a */* %{buildroot}%{_blender_install_path}

%files
/*


How can I control the speed of a fluid simulation? for a school project i need to fill a room full with water. But at the moment i stuck with the project. I have 3 objects.

plane = obstacle
plane.002 = domain
sphere = inflow

It should start at frame 100 and the room should be full with water at frame 240.

How can i time the simulation? Which value is for the control of the speed?

Form tutorials i didn't unterstand the things i need to know...

Here is the .blend file: https://goo.gl/0HQbWN

If anybody so kind to look at my file and fix it, would it a big help.

Thanks in advance & greetings from germany

Well, there is no way to do exactly what you want, but these are the basics.

First of all, ignore the comments about start values and such for the domain. The only thing that matters is inflow velocity. To begin the inflow at frame 100, go to frame 99, and in the inflow settings uncheck "enabled" and key frame it. Then go to frame 100 and check "enabled" and key frame it. Now the inflow will start at frame 100.

Then you have to play around with the settings for inflow velocity until you get what you want.

As for the basic domain settings, if you want 10 seconds of animation, the start value should be 0 and the end value should be 10. Speed should be 1.


how to use random.choice with transform.resize? I would like to resize the columns in z-direction randomly between 0.0, 0.33 or 0.66.

This way it doesn't work (tried the same with rotation, that does worked).

Anybody knows how it will work?
Thanks a lot!

import bpy

def Column(pos_X, pos_Y, pos_Z, dim_X, dim_Y, dim_Z):
    bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(location=(pos_X , pos_Y, pos_Z + dim_Z/2))   #remettre le cube sur la base
    bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(0.5, 0.5, 0.5))
    bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(dim_X, dim_Y, dim_Z))

def Columns():
    for i in range(0,4):
        for j in range(0,4):
            Column((i*0.33)-((4/2)*2)+3.5,(j*0.33)-((4/2)*2)+3.5,0,0.01,0.01,1)
            bpy.context.object.name = "COLUMNS"
            bpy.data.objects["COLUMNS"].select = True
            bpy.context.object.name = "COLUMNS.001"
            bpy.data.objects["COLUMNS.001"].select = True
            bpy.ops.object.join()
            bpy.context.object.name = "COLUMNS"
            bpy.data.objects["COLUMNS"].select = True
            bpy.context.object.name = "COLUMNS.001"
            bpy.data.objects["COLUMNS.001"].select = True
            bpy.ops.object.join()

Columns()

bpy.ops.object.origin_set(type='ORIGIN_CURSOR', center='MEDIAN')
scale = random.choice[(0,0.33,0.66)]
bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(1, 1, 1*scale))

You need to make two small changes to make your script run - add import random and the call to random.choice you have the function brackets and array brackets back to front.

import bpy
import random
...
...
...
scale = random.choice([0,0.33,0.66])
bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(1, 1, 1*scale))

Also I think the end result may not be what you are after, I expect you want to move the random size into the column creation to make each column a different size.


Flat Procedural transition Is there any way to create flat transition using shaders(nodes) just like in second picture? Is it even possible with shaders? I tried constant ColorRamp but it goes half way through, not full face or triangle

General Answer: You can use a Mapping Node with a constant ColorRamp to do some shading via global height or via other texture coordinate inputs

(I think that the problem comes from bent polygons, because you moved single vertices from the subdivided plane. Therefore maybe a triangulate modifier could also help.)
turned out it wasnt that, but the height-displacement is done via shader-displacent from a noise map witch also was wrongfully pluged in as color

Specific Answer for uploaded file:
there you used a standard noise map for colorisation, I replaced it with the setup from this answer:

because of the huge scale of your mesh you have to scale up the object coordinate input in the mapping node, then it works


Animating Glare angle offset Is it possible to animate the "Angle offset" property of the Glare node? I am making a photon torpedo that has a glare applied to it, which should rotate when the torpedo is on the way.

Most of Blenders properties can be animated. Just hover over the Angle Offset field with your mouse and press I to insert a keyframe. A keyframe will be inserted on the current frame. Move to another frame, change the value and insert another keyframe by pressing I again.

The created key will show up in the dopesheet and graph editor, where you can edit/remove them.