Can't find Spin Menu to create a rotational object I want to create a rotational solid. I've just created a bezier curve, and i saw many tutorials use the "SPIN" function in the left menu.
I tried looking at it but whitout success.
Where can i find it? I have to enable it in the add-ons menu?
I'm in edit mode with TOP ORTHO visual.
(Blender 2.75 RC1)
Thank you so much

The Spin function works on vertex, while the bezier curves are based on control points. You could transform the curve in mesh (Alt C, mesh from curve) and then use the spin function, but you would loose the interactivity of the modelling process; so the best way, with bezier curves, is to use a screw modifier, instead.
Choose the right axis (in my example z axis).


Can't mirror in sculpt mode I saw tutorials on sculpting that showed the use of mirroring your brush on one of the axis. It's supposed to be as easy as selecting an axis and although it worked on a test it isn't working on the mesh I want.

The mesh I want to work on: https://www.dropbox.com/s/iprs2h62j0tf2m3/ghdsjf.png?dl=0

The test object I tried it on with the model I want to work on in the background: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e0ckohh8pun8thl/klhuyt.png?dl=0

I had the same default settings selected when I tried working on both meshes.

Since it worked on the test it probably has something to do with the mesh which I didn't make myself - I downloaded it.

It's really important that I get this to work because I need to add symmetrical details in the face but I don't want to use the mirror modifier because I already have made purposely uneven features in the nose.

Mate, your symmetry axis is set to Z it's the one from top to bottom (blue arrow) and it works on the test mesh, cause it's symmetrical on this axis. To sculpt on your final mesh you need to set Mirror to X axis (red arrow leading from left to right on your image)


How can I control UVs with a rig? So, I am working on a robot that looks like eve from wal-e. So, now I want to control the eyes like a rig but still want them to look like it is coming out from a screen (which is basically black now cause the screen is turned off ). The eyes are nothing more than just two blue dots. So if only there was a way I could manipulate the UVs to face a object or deform like a object maybe? Here is a 360. So my question is how do I animate the eyes while still having them look like an image mapped on the eyes?

This might be helpful. UV Project where an empty can move and control the UV texture. You can either animate the empty directly, or parent it to another bone, or object, or...

p.s. if you press RR with the empty selected you can rotate the texture like an orbit.

Update: In response to extra blink question.

Above the initial shape I added a duplicate which floats just above the surface and repeated the process of adding a UV project - the difference is the second UV had a strip of alpha transparency.

My guess is more layers can be added for extra effect. Here I added some movement to the new UV alpha layer...

...and then added some scaling to origin UV eye texture.


Separate Masks in Node Editor I have two separate masks used in tracking in an animation, how do I control their use in the node editor?

In the compositor use the mask node, then choose the mask from the list.

However you need to specifically make separate mask data blocks before drawing all your masks.

See in the Movie Clip Editor when you do your masking you need to make sure each mask you want separate is on its own data block. That is the set of controls in the Movie Clip Editor header, not the Mask Layers in the proprieties side bar.

In this image I have the Mask Layers underlined, that is not going to help separate the masks, all that is for is making a complex mask where separate shapes are used together to make a whole mask.

It can be kind of hard to remember to make a new mask data block (outlined in red in the image) before drawing all your masks.

Now depending on the effect you are making, there are two main ways to use a mask.

Plug it in to a Fac socket.

Here all I'm doing is changing the color of two of the green squares on the floor (final result). I'm using two different masks plugged directly into the Fac on the Hue Saturation Value nodes.

Any time you see a Fac that is a spot a mask can be used.
(Some nodes like the Color Correction node are labeled Mask instead of Fac.)

The Mix node

This is the more common way to use a mask. Plug the mask into the Fac of a mix node (or Alpha Over node). This is how you are going to set up many effects in the compositor.
The principal is simple, do the modifications to the image, then "mix" it with the original using the mask to control where.


Material not applied properly I was just testing some materials and i made a simple jeans model so i can put the denim material on it, i was using the lily scapper add on, when denim material was put on only a small part of the model had the material and the rest only had like a stretched version of the texture like blue or something.
When i went to uv editing to edit the position of the faces, i select faces but on the uv editor they show up as an edge. If anyone can help i would appreciate it. Thanks

Don't know if this will work, but here's something you can try:
first remove the texture, go into object mode, select the jeans, and apply the scale using ctrl+a.
Then go into edit mode with your jeans, use "a" to select everything, and hit u -> UV unwrap. I think this will generate a different set of faces.
Finally add the texture back on using lily's surface scraper.


Can a single vertex be rotated? In the duplication options for the dupli verts there is a option for Rotation. Witch brings me to my question, is there anyway to rotate a vertex? Vertex's have normals, is there any way to control which way the normal of a single unconnected vertex points?

From the Blender wiki.

If the vertex pertains to one or more faces, its normal is the
interpolated value of all the normals of these faces.
If the vertex does not pertain to any face, its normal is aligned
with the line from the object’s Origin passing through this vertex.

On a unconnected vertex the normal will always point away from the object's origin. On a vertex connected with one or more faces (like stacker said) Vertex normals are interpolated from face normals.


Can I invert only the vertex normals? I wish to create an inverted sphere with inverted lighting (so it appears as a normal sphere). The vertex normals need to point outwards, while the face normals point inwards (for creation of an atmosphere in Unity3D).

I have found a few solutions within Unity3d, however, each require per-frame calculations I very much wish to avoid.

I finally solved the issue. The solution is to split the normals, which I assume means telling Blender to stop the 'connection' between the two types of normals, face and vertex:

Enable 'Custom Normal Tools' in Add-Ons
Create an inverted sphere
Enable 'Auto Smooth' in Object Data
Add the 'Normal Edit' modifier to the inverted sphere
Add an empty object in the center of the sphere
Use Empty object as target in the Normal Edit Modifier with the following settings:

Radial
Mix Mode: Subtract
Mix Factor: 1.000

Source: Custom Split Normals (Blender wiki)


How to un-mirror the armature? I modelled mesh using mirror modifier and and skin modifier. After i applied the mirror modifier,than skin, my armature is also mirrored,
meaning everything I do on the left is mirrored on the right.
Is it possible that I remove this property, so that I can pose the mesh as I want?

Select the Armature, go to edit mode, press T to open the Toolshelf, select the option tab, uncheck X mirror.


Tips for creating an animated music video? I’m trying to create an animated music video. Specifically, I want characters singing and objects moving in sync with the music. Anybody got any helpful tips?
As for me, this is what I’ve found works well:

You can turn on “audio scrubbing” the timeline to play back various parts of the audio file manually. Make sure to turn on “AV-sync” (this is especially useful if you’re using the laggy shaded mode). The downside is that the audio turns out a bit garbled, so I end up just using the regular play button often.
When lip-syncing, it’s sometimes helpful to use the NLA (Nonlinear animation) editor to create animation strips according to various phonemes or even words, move around and mix between them easily by just moving the strips around. Turn on “Auto Blend in/out” to make sure there’s a smooth transition between overlapping strips.
I think I might create a karaoke-style video file as a helpful overlay when animating. I want phonemes to appear as written words on video, so as not to constantly check with the audio to see if the animation syncs up. For the pure music sections, I might also create some sort of visual text feedback to help when animating.

If anybody has any more (or better) tips, please share.

Import your song into a music program such as LMMS, and map out the beat with a drum instrument, using kick for the main beat, crashes for points where the track shifts into a high or low, and snares or a different-sounding drum for various points where you want characters to do certain things without the track shifting into a high or low.

Once you export the mapped audio track (just the drums; delete the main song), import it into Blender making sure that the first frames of the main song and the mapped audio track are aligned perfectly. Mute the song and work on your anim relying on the mapped drum pattern.

While mapping out your song, have a word document open. Write the time and what action takes place. Example:
2:43 (James draws sword) (the two characters are in standoff)
2:47 (James races forward to attack)

You can timestamp as much as you want, on many actions as you want. Just be sure to mark your track with the appropriate snare or crash if there are certain character actions that need to be signified.

If there are lyrics, go into Blender and animate them, replacing the current line of text every time there's a new sentence or stanza. Animating them syllable by syllable helps.

That's it so far! I'm working on my own music video in Blender too and I found all this stuff out the hard way. Perhaps once I finish and release the actual product, I'll release a BTS video sharing everything I learned and discovered.

Good luck on your music video!

EDIT: Obviously, you need to determine the frames per beat in order to sync to the music. Here's what you can do. Determine the BPM of you song here: https://getsongbpm.com/tools/audio

Then calculate the frames per beat of your song here: https://www.vjamm.com/support_av_bpm.php%3Flang=en.html

Adjust the value of your framerate until the frames per beat is at a whole number. Then, type in that framerate value into Blender (make sure to set it at custom), adjusting the base value underneath until the numbers on the framerate are correct.
For my project, I had a framerate of 24.4.


Finger stops moving while the bone keeps going I've been trying to transfer over an XNALara model to SFM by using blender. So far I haven't really had too much of an issue but I'm struggling to figure out how to get the fingers to bend properly on the model. This model in particular has his fingers curled up to begin with so it's a little bit harder for me to really pinpoint what my problem is when most examples start with a straight finger.

I have a feeling my problem is mainly with the IK setup when it comes to the bones. The mesh doesn't seem to want to deform with it either even after weight painting but I think it would work out once I get the bone problem out of the way.

I'm fairly new to blender, really just started last week. Might be evident in the lack of hip bones on the model (Haven't figured that one out just yet)

Anyway the blend file is here: https://www.mediafire.com/?ohg221owj56c7b1

If anyone can give me input I'd be grateful. I've been looking at various tutorials but like I mentioned, it's just kind of difficult since I'm starting on a model that already has posed fingers.

The reason of the fingers issue is, that vertices of fingers are in Wrist (left and right accordingly) Vertex Groups with weight of 1 and in appropriate fingers Vertex Groups.
Remove them from Wrists Vertex Groups and they will start follow fingers accurately.

P.S. Consider removing doubles in the model, there are bunch of those.


Issue with Multiresolution sculpt: parts of the object cannot be sculpted Parts of the object I am sculpting have stopped responding to the brushes.

A chunk of the object, divided by a harsh line, is no longer capable of being edited in sculpt mode by any means I can find. When looked at from particular angles, the un-sculptable section disappears as well. The dividing line seems to be based on the geometry of the low-res base mesh that was sub-divided by the multiresolution modifier.

I noticed the issue first on the legs of the model, which were not attached, but were part of the same object. I deleted them in the hopes of just creating another object for them later. The issue then appeared on the head after I undid a grab which moved a lot of the face.

Reverting to a recent save sometimes allows the whole face to be edited, but as soon as something is undone, the chunk goes back to being unresponsive.

Changing the sculpt settings (threaded sculpt ect.) had no effect. Changing in and out of object, edit and sculpt mode had no effect.

Thank you for your time.

you should check 2 things:

Is there any "mask" applied (ALT + M to remove any mask applied)
you can sculpt only the selected mesh: if the lower part of the head is another mesh, you need to select it in object mode or join all the meshes so they are 1 single object


Blender filter 2D in scene There are GLSL scene filters in the Blender game engine (2.79 and before), that cause the scene to look a certain way. I.e. laplacian filter, blur effect, and many others. Is there any way I can apply a similar effect to a scene I am rendering in Blender cycles? Thank you!

Use the compositor. Those are all post-render settings that you can apply in the compositor. Here is an example of a simple Gaussian blur (in 2.79 because that's what I have on this computer still. Sorry. ):

You can easily google how to add what ever filter or effect you need by using blender compositor. Using compositor rather than editing the scene to create the same effect can save ages of render time as well. You can do color correction, mist and fog, DOF, vignette, and way more with the compositor.


Why do you need to have quads? Why do you need to have quads? Is it for animation for when you put bones in and move something around like an arm, or is it something else?

If say a plate with no moving parts or a ball would it still need to all be quads? A ball would move around but it wouldn't move around like say an arm or a face. Let me know if you need more clarification. The asset is to be put in a game.

Also does the quad need to be square shaped or does it just need to have 4 verts?

It doesn't need to be quads.

HOWEVER: many deformation-algorythms and generative modifiers (Subdivision Surfaces) will produce cleaner results if you feed them only quads.

Most gameengines wont work with ngons, as they can be troublesome to deform correctly, so you should use either quads, or triangles.

Also, calculations for quads and triangles are very fast compared to higher polygons or ngons.

About the shape of a quad: a quad is a planar convex 4point-poligon. That means it's flat and no corner is dented in.


Script to add a number of Objects, Cameras to a scene but cannot rename data objects? I am adding a few objects to a scene. Super basic stuff.

import bpy
import bmesh

bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_circle_add(radius=6, fill_type='TRIFAN', location=[0,0,0])
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(radius=1, location=[0,0,5])
bpy.ops.object.camera_add(view_align=False, location=[0,10,20], rotation=[0.436,0,3.1415927410125732])

bpy.data.objects[0].name = 'Plane1'
bpy.data.objects[1].name = 'Object1'
bpy.data.objects[2].name = 'Object2'

This works for renaming items: 1 and 2 in the bpy.data.objects array, but not item at 0? i.e. the circle primitive is not renamed ... this happens with whatever is at [0]?

Investigating this I have also tried the following:

if 'Cube' in bpy.data.meshes:
    bpy.data.meshes.data.meshes['Cube'].name = 'Object1'

In this case the 'if' condition doesn't seem to get satisfied at all and none of the objects are renamed.

What am I doing wrong with my approach to the 'Data API' is it Async? ... I think not? But it feels like things are not as procedural as I might be assuming they are? Wishing the Data Api docs were more fleshed out.

After running a primitive_add operator the context object will be the newly created object.

import bpy
from math import pi
context = bpy.context

bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_circle_add(radius=6,
                                  fill_type='TRIFAN',
                                  location=[0, 0, 0])
plane = context.object
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(radius=1,
                                location=[0, 0, 5])
cube = context.object
bpy.ops.object.camera_add(view_align=False,
                          location=[0, 10, 20],
                          rotation=[0.436, 0, pi])
camera = context.object
plane.name = 'Plane1'
cube.name = 'Object1'
camera.name = 'Object2'

If you want to rename the data part of above objects

plane.data.name = "blah" #  rename plane mesh
camera.data.name = "blah"

Using indexes from the collections is IMO not the way to go.  Running

[o.name for o in bpy.data.objects]

in the py console, indicates the objects in this collection are internally sorted by name.  A "better" approach may be

[o.name for o in bpy.context.scene.objects]

but still wouldn't recommend this approach.


Quick way to remove solidify thickness I have made the mesh and added solidify modifier and applied. But later i thought to increase the thickness. So now i want to remove thickness so that i can added the solidify modifier again. I want to know is there any quick remove thicknes. When i select the edge then ctrl+ the selection goes downward not to single face. So i want to know a quick way to decrease thickness. Any suggestion or help.

You will need to manually select the edge loops around the boundary, still using the alt-click to select them in vertex select mode until they are all selected. Then you will need to change to face select mode, and delete the faces. Then you will need to select a face on the surface you want to delete  and press L to select all linked faces  and then delete them, leaving your original surface ready for editing.


Sliding an edge loop in an imported image distorts the image (blender 2.81) Using the loop cut in older versions, we could make a loop cut and slide it in one action before committing. Now one has to set the loop cut, then with edge slide, move the edge.
This doesn't work when one uses an 'import image as plane', since when you move the edge it distorts the image on the plane. The old way allowed one to make the loop cut and move it in one action before setting it- thus no distortion.

Is there another way to do loop cut-slide in 2.81 on images that I haven't seen yet?

In the tool menu for Loop Cut and Slide (after making a loop cut once), check 'Correct UVs' and it should work as you expected.


See t-s and t-v graphs of motion tracking points Is it possible to display the movement of the tracking points of Blender's motion tracking function as a graph (probably in the graph view tab) with time[seconds or current frame] on the x-axis and either distance covered or velocity on the y-axis?

This may help you get on the right track (the idea is to bake the tracked object's motion to an animation curve): Getting raw data from object track
You may need to write some python at some point, depending on the information you want to get out.
Edit to add more info quoted from the linked answer:

You can use a Follow Track constraint to 'project' a single track onto an object.

track your point, you dont need to solve the camera.
make a plane, and position it perpendicular to the camera... how you want to set this up is up to you, but it will effect the numbers you get out at the end.
add the constraint to an object, i just used the default Cube, and refer to the image bellow on how i set it up.
in the viewport image, I have calculated the motion paths, and you can see the path of the track is on the plane.
click the Constraint to Fcurve button, and it will bake the constraint to XYZ values. Edit: Some times this button doesn't work. An alternative is: Search->Bake Action
you can then write some python to convert your animation to CSV format.


Action Editor moves multiple tagged objects? Hello once again Stack Exchange;
Today i'm facing the trouble of animation without the use of the timeline, and onto the usage of Dope Sheets and the Action Editor.

My Question is how do I individually animate single objects in one Action? Each time I try to insert a key frame for one object in the next frame, the other object within the action follows that exact location? I'm probably being a plank, but i'l get my head round it somehow...

Here's some image sources of what I mean:

In Frame 1 of Action:

Hope I hear from you soon Stack Exchange users <3

Why don't you try to use bones? For what purpose should this animation / action be? For Blender Render / Blender Game / exported for other programs? As far as i know, the actions are bound to an armature object. You wwould eed to create bones through your player and animate them.


Solidify adds curved ridge - How to get rid of it I need to solidify the hole's edge into the fish.
I tried complex, simple and some other options in the modifier, yet I can't get a clean falloff from the outside into the hole.

Video GIF 7s: https://imgur.com/a/UsyV1XT

select edge loop

E -> S

select edge loop (faces)

CTRL-E -> extrude along normals

then you get:


How to add empty object not using bpy.ops? How to add an empty object with python using bpy and not using any ops? My code so far is doing this:

bpy.ops.object.empty_add(type='PLAIN_AXES',radius=RADIUS,location=loc)

For normal object like mesh or lamp there is object_data created using normal bpy.data.object.new calls, but for empties it seems that this method does not exist. So is this possible to avoid using the operators? The reason I'm asking is because when I add an empty using bpy.ops it changes the active object, etc. causing the script to be more bloated with unnecessary code lines.

This is possible by placing None as the object data:

#                          Name,   Data
o = bpy.data.objects.new( "empty", None )
bpy.context.scene.objects.link( o )

You can later access its unique empty props like any ol' empty:

o.empty_draw_size = 2
o.empty_draw_type = 'PLAIN_AXES'

For Blender 2.8, the API change a little bit:

o = bpy.data.objects.new( "empty", None )

# due to the new mechanism of "collection"
bpy.context.scene.collection.objects.link( o )

# empty_draw was replaced by empty_display
o.empty_display_size = 2
o.empty_display_type = 'PLAIN_AXES'


BGE: Add object actuator spawning bullet on wrong angle I'm trying to make a turret in blender game engine,

(the small red object is the laser)
As you can probably tell, this is a laser turret(top right), but the lasers (nothing special, just a red cube reshaped) are pointing the wrong direction.
I can't really say much more other than give a screenshot of my logic bricks.

What fires this object is a empty. And it's called to fire it by the turret you see it's self. No need to show the logic bricks for what calls it, unless needed.
I truly apologize for any mistakes. I tried to look this up, and found no results, and it's 1:47 AM and i need to wake up early tomorrow.
A link to download the .blend: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4psdrb2zf8xcs7x/Cube%20assault%20%3B%29.blend?dl=0

The problem is the rotation of the laser. go to the laser, rotate it 90* on the z axis, then Ctrl+A>apply rotation. this should solve the problem.


Make a 3D tube with a Bézier curve, bevel not working I'm following the answer of this question: Make a 3D tube with a Bézier curve?

Now i set the bevel of the curve larger and the curve becomes higher. But there is no tube. It's just flat.

The same thing happens when I used this tutorial: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.4/Tutorials/Modeling/Curves/Making_A_Tube

Here is an image of the problem i face:

It's not a tube.

Edit:
Blender file: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/40010

the Bevel is working fine just the scale of the curve on X and Y axis is too small (0.05) compared to Z axis scale (1.0)  just fix the scale ( set them all to 1.0 or 0.05) and the bevel effect will be clear


How to export to FBX without baking animations? I'm using Blender to make animations that I can use in a Monogame/XNA project. I'm trying to export only the keyframes I set, so I can make custom interpolations in Monogame. However, the FBX exporter seems to force the baking of the animation by setting a keyframe at every frame.

If I uncheck "Baked animation" in the exporter (in Blender v2.77), it seems not to export any keyframe at all.

I tried to export in COLLADA as well, which does not bake the animation. However, I really need to use the FBX format as I encountered many other problems in COLLADA.

So here is my question, can we export "unbaked"/raw animation in FBX ?

Unfortunately, no; as far as I know, you can't export unbaked raw animation using the FBX exporter.

According to this post, unchecking Baked Animation disables all animation export, meaning the FBX is created without any animation information at all.  I realize it's tantalizing that perhaps disabling baked animation would have somehow exported keyframed "unbaked" animation, but that's unfortunately not the case with this particular exporter.  Unchecking this option works like an off switch with respect to animation.  Check it and you get baked animation, uncheck it and you get no animation.  :(


Python: How to select one 'BoolVectorProperty' value at a time unless 'shift' key is held I am trying to overwrite the bpy.ops.object.move_to_layer operator in Blender so that I can move other objects when the selected objects are moved.

When I try to move the selected objects by pressing the 'm' key and clicking on the new layer in the invoked props popup (from the 'layers' BoolVectorProperty), though, the object still remains in the old layer as well as being added to the new layer because both layers are active, as if I was holding the shift key in the original operator.

The following is my code to overwrite and replicate the bpy.ops.object.move_to_layer operator (I omitted extra code run when the operator is executed for simplicity):

# Blender imports
import bpy
from bpy.types import Operator
from bpy.props import *

class move_to_layer_override(Operator):
    """Move to Layer"""
    bl_idname = "object.move_to_layer"
    bl_label = "Move to Layer"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'INTERNAL', 'UNDO'}

    ################################################
    # Blender Operator methods

    @classmethod
    def poll(self, context):
        return True

    def execute(self, context):
        self.runMove(context)
        return {'FINISHED'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        # sets self.layers to active layers of selected objects
        idxs = [i for i in range(20)]
        for obj in context.selected_objects:
            for i in idxs:
                layer = obj.layers[i]
                if layer:
                    self.layers[i] = True
                    idxs.remove(i)
        # Run confirmation popup for delete action
        return context.window_manager.invoke_props_popup(self, event)

    ###################################################
    # class variables

    # This does not behave like scn.layers.
    # only one layer should be selected at a time unless shift is held
    layers = BoolVectorProperty(
        name="Layers",
        subtype="LAYER",
        description="Object Layers",
        size=20,
        )

    ################################################
    # class methods

    def runMove(self, context):
        scn = context.scene
        for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
            obj.layers = self.layers
            # insert extra code to run when objects are moved here

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)

def unregister():
    addon_updater_ops.unregister()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

It should behave exactly like the original operator – when a new layer is selected in the invoked props popup, the old layer(s) should be deselected unless the shift key is held. Could someone help me figure out how to do this?

Use the event from invoking the operator

Using the method from the related answer here, since we can address the event in the invoke,  can it be passed to the execute method of the popup as a class property.  On very limited testing it appears so..

Added some more class properties to keep tabs of selection.  Also copied the selected objects since if a non layer with non matching scene layer is selected context.selected_objects will vary those when op was invoked.  (Btw obj.layers is gone in 2.8)

The big issue is the popup not redrawing correctly. I thought the operator check(..)
method returning True would work, but not the case on my blender.  Perhaps using the layers collection of the context object. when invoked,  would be one way to solve this.

import bpy
from bpy.types import Operator
from bpy.props import BoolVectorProperty

class OBJECT_OT_move_to_layer2(Operator):
    """Move to Layer 2"""
    # class properties
    bl_idname = "object.move_to_layer2"
    bl_label = "Move to Layer [TESTING]"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    event = None
    objects = []
    prev_sel = []

    # poll is a class method
    @classmethod
    def poll(self, context):
        return True

    def execute(self, context):
        ev = []
        event = self.event
        if event.ctrl:
            ev.append("Ctrl")
        if event.shift:
            ev.append("Shift")
        if event.alt:
            ev.append("Alt")
        if event.oskey:
            ev.append("OS")
        changed = [i for i, (l, s) in
                enumerate(zip(self.layers, self.prev_sel))
                if l != s]

        print("+".join(ev), event.type, event.value, changed)
        # pick only the changed one
        if not (event.ctrl or event.shift) and changed:
            self.layers = [i in changed for i in range(20)]
        self.prev_sel = self.layers[:]

        self.runMove(context)
        return {'FINISHED'}

    def check(self, context):
        return True # thought True updated.. not working

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        self.layers = [any(o.layers[i] for o in context.selected_objects)
                      for i in range(20)]
        self.event = event
        self.objects = [o.name for o in context.selected_objects]
        self.prev_sel = self.layers[:]
        return context.window_manager.invoke_props_popup(self, event)

    # properties

    layers = BoolVectorProperty(
        name="Layers",
        subtype="LAYER",
        description="Object Layers",
        size=20,
        )

    def runMove(self, context):
        for name in self.objects:
            obj = context.scene.objects.get(name)
            obj.layers = self.layers

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(OBJECT_OT_move_to_layer2)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(OBJECT_OT_move_to_layer2_name)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()
    bpy.ops.object.move_to_layer2('INVOKE_DEFAULT')

Test print to console

 LEFTMOUSE PRESS [0]
Ctrl LEFTMOUSE PRESS [11]
Ctrl+Shift LEFTMOUSE PRESS [12]
Shift LEFTMOUSE PRESS [1]

Note if you want to call from a shortcut, and have the hacky event handling,  need to invoke from another operator. Edit made to simple operator to call op above (just like calling it from space menu)

class SimpleOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "object.simple_operator"
    bl_label = "Simple Object Operator"

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        return bpy.ops.object.move_to_layer2('INVOKE_DEFAULT')


Blender only masks the outline of what I'm trying to mask I am still very new to Blender Stack Exchange so if I deviate from the format that is because I don't really know this.
Problem:
When I mask out something (in this case, an arm), it only masks the outline and doesn't fill it in. Here is some images of the problem:

ps: I am still learning the basics of masking so it is a bit bad of a mask...

I hope someone can help me with this and maybe the format of this website a bit.

Ok, so it turns out that the direction of the mask was flipped. Selecting the mask and switching the direction fixed the problem.
For some reason I had this problem again and this didn't work. Maybe there are different ways to solve different problems with the same look or something, I don't know, its weird.


How would I scale an animated scene? I am making a new animation for a company, based on their previous version that I have received. The previous version is at some arbitrary scale, but since I am updating and adding geometry (new product) it would be nice to have the scene to scale. (1 blender unit = 1m) Just resizing everything is not enough, as some objects pop back in place & size due to animation keyframes.

Is there an easy way to scale the whole scene, including camera animation, textures etc. so that I can work on it "to scale"?

Add an Empty and patent all the objects to it. Then scale the empty.


How to set up the IK Controller bone without separating its parented bone in the process? So, I'm following this great tutorial from Sebastian Lague.
And this is exactly what I am doing: In Edit Mode, I select both the Foot.L bone, then its IK Controller bone (behind). Then hit Ctrl P to parent the the former to the latter, choosing "Keep Offset" (as in the image). Then switch to Pose Mode, select the IK Controller and rotate it. That's it!
Clearly I'm missing something somewhere along this process, because when I rotate the IK Controller it detaches the Foot.L bone from the Leg.L bone.
Feel free to try the .blend file.

This is happening because of where you've set the bone to rotate around. In the video, he has the IK bone and the foot bone rotating in the same spot. In your file, the IK bone is rotating around a point off to the side of the foot bone (at the center of the sphere). This means that any bone that is parented to that IK bone will move in an arc around that IK bone.

Think of it this way: when parenting objects/bones you're telling Blender that bone A has to always be at some position relative to bone B. Let's say that this position is 3 inches to the left of bone B along the X axis of bone B. When we rotate bone B, it's local axes rotate with it. So after rotating bone B, it's X axis could be pointing straight up, or forward, off to one side at 56.67809 degrees, you get my point. But bone A will still follow along, and be 3 inches along the X axis, wherever it points.

So if you move your IK bone to have it's base where the base of your foot bone is, everything should be good to go(try setting the cursor at the base of the foot then using Snap to Cursor). Since the sphere will now be on top of the foot, the foot will be hard to see. If you select the IK bone and go to where you selected the custom shape you can choose wireframe to make it see through.


How to Apply An Animation to Different Meshes? Beginner here.

I have just modeled and rigged a character for use in a game. I have the file for the static, unmoving character on my computer.

I outsourced the animations for idle, run, walk, etc. because I suck at animation. I gave the artist the file for my static rigged character and he used this to do the work. I received back several different Blender files, each containing one animation.

My question is, how to I add all these separate animations to my single static rigged character? I intend to import the character, along with his string of animations, into Unity.

Thank You!

I found the answer! :-D

This YouTube Video Clears it All Up:
Creating and Editing Actions for Re-Use in Animations and Games


In clipping border mode, sculpt tool has no effect, help is much appreciated When working in in clipping border mode (Alt + B) I cannot use sculpt tool on certain objects. If I deactivat it again, it works.

Through elimination of other objects on the layer I figured out that an empty (center) object was the problem.

Why does this happen? And if I need the empty object what should I do to prevent?

foot.blend.zip

Turn off X-Ray on the empty.

However, you should report it to the bugtracker.


Texture wont change after duplication I've got following problem:
I have an object in my blendfile which already has a face, differing by material.
When I now press 'P' to seperate and then 'by material' it becomes an independant object, but I can't change the material of it.
Is there a way to do it or do I have to create a new plane ?

A few things to try:

1) Select the new object, and remove the old material, then add a new material. This should disconnect the material of the new object from the old one.

2) Select the old object and go to Object > Apply > Make duplicates real. This will make the duplicates connected to the object (in case somehow the object is a duplicate) a real object.

3) Select the new object, and go to Object > Users > Make single user-Object & Data & Materials & tex.

If one of these three things do not fix the problem, I don't know what can.


Projectiles in the BGE How do I get my projectiles to follow my cursor until they pass it.
I'm looking for an effect like homing missiles, but when they reach the corsors position, I want them to continue on their current trajectory.

My current situation is that they reach my cursor and then fly around it like an angry swarm of bees. They follow it everywhere rather than going past.
Here is my code for my tracker,  don't think its the problem though.
I copied it out of a tutorial, so I wouldn't know if it has issues.

from bge import logic

def main():
    scene = logic.getCurrentScene()
    cont = logic.getCurrentController()

    mouse_over = cont.sensors["Mouse_over"]

    if mouse_over.positive:
        tracker = scene.objects["Tracker"]
        tracker.worldPosition = mouse_over.hitPosition

Also download my file here:

http://www.pasteall.org/blend/32080

You can simply program the projectile to stop tracking once it collides with the tracker. An easy way to do that is to have a collision sensor on the projectile trigger a state actuator on collision, which will transition into a state where the track-to actuator is not included.

.blend: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/32088


change the global variable value from function in bge? I'm trying to make an inventory with 4 cells or more and 2 various items or more.

I want to check if the variable x is set to False. If so, then the cell1() function should be x set to True.
The idea is if x is True then nothing should be collected. In principle, should represent x if the cell is empty or full.
My problem is that x is always "False" after the function has finished???
Why does it work in Python but not in Blender?

x = "False"

def xReplace(value):
    global x
    x = value

def cell1():
    if sens.positive and x == "False": # sens= message sensor
        var()                          # var()= function update text in cell1/ or end object
        xReplace("True")               # "change the value from global variable x"

    elif sens.positive and x == "True":
        var2()                         # var2()= function update/set in cell2

cell1()
print(x)

console prints

True
False

I do not understand why it prints variable x twice, and why is the second line False?
I think Blender makes two variables of the same name.? Because when I write print (x == x) then comes twice True. Why does the Blender in this way?
Or is there another way to do it.

This is, no kidding, straight from my professors mouth.

There are three scopes of Variables; one does not apply to blender.

Local
Form-Level
Global

Local variables would be like game properties, or a material.
They have effect on only those procedures and functions who posses them and objects/procedures designed to be affected by them via collision, near, ray, radar ect.

They can only be changed/accessed via the procedures/functions to which they belong.

Global variables (this is the real answer) can be changed, accessed, and modified by any/all procedures, functions, and objects.

This means Yes. If it is on one, it's on 'em all.


How to make clouds using particles and smoke simulation (Cycles) I've watched this over 20 times and I'm just not getting it.

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

There's not a lot of 'why' to this tute, so I can't adjust for different situations. I think a lot of my probs stem from scale. Settings for one size of model and smoke domain just flat out don't work for another scale of cloud model.

Can anyone recommend a better vid on this method? One that points out what to change and why for different sizes?

Also, bear in mind this is not for a static image: it's for an animated model of a world where the clouds move around a planet, so the general idea is to set up a sphere with a thickness that will sit around the planet sphere, and rotate.

Your question and description is not clear.
So just a notes:

Doesn't matter how big a smoke domain object is, domain is defined by resolution in physics properties. Imagine that as a grid. Resolution means into many voxel pixels will be divide the longest edge of the domain.
Higher resolution = more details for this voxel texture. I hope you already checked Blender Reference Manual.
Second aspect is already explained in your link - play with size of procedural texture used for particles density to create general shape of clouds. And adjust brightness and contrast to tune the particle cloud shape. (I use rather coloramp for that.)

Don't expect precise numbers - nobody knows your planet size or what style of clouds you want to achieve.


How to switch between editors with shortcuts I'm tired of pulling out windows to get the UV editor or pull down a menu in the screen sets.
Is there a shortcut, with one key, to get my 3D view to UV editor/node editor?

I have not found a way to edit shortcuts that way.

Yes.

There are several screenlayout presets which are selectable from the info header:

You can also cycle through them with ⎈ Ctrl← Left arrow and ⎈ Ctrl→ Right arrow.

You can also define your own presets by clicking the + next to the drop down and then arranging the screen how you want it.

In order to keep your presets whenever you start up blender, you'll have to save the startup .blend by pressing ⎈ CtrlU. Note that this will save everything as default, including user preferences, view orientation, objects, materials, etc.

There are also shortcuts to turn the current editor under the mouse into another editor. For example, press:

⇧ ShiftF2 for a Logic editor
⇧ ShiftF3 for a Node editor
⇧ ShiftF4 for a Python console
⇧ ShiftF5 for a 3D view
⇧ ShiftF6 for a Graph editor
⇧ ShiftF7 for a Properties editor
⇧ ShiftF8 for a NLA editor
⇧ ShiftF9 for an Outliner
⇧ ShiftF10 for a UV/image editor
⇧ ShiftF11 for a Text editor
⇧ ShiftF12 for a Dope sheet


Image as Plane and Stroke Object - transparency issue Need help to fix the stroke overlapping on the hand image, which is added as Images as Plane.

You dont need to fix curve appearance, problem lies in imported Image as Plane that is by default set with Alpha Blend type.

Select Image object
go to Material Properties > Settings panel
change Blend Mode > Alpha Clip


Cycles: Rendered Image's lighting doesn't illuminate as much as render view's lighting For some reason I can't figure out, my render view does not match my rendered image when it comes to lighting.  I've tried all sorts of different render configurations, lighting options (pictured below is an emission material on the inside of the jack-o-lantern, but I've tried putting spot lighting inside as well to similar effect), nothing seems to make a difference.

Render view:

Actual rendered image:

How do I get the rendered image to match what I'm looking at in the render view?

Link to .blend file

You have hidden an object in the viewport, but not in the render. First enable the restriction toggle Disable in Renders (camera icon). Then disable rendering for object Curve.011 in the jack o lantern pattern 1.svg collection.


Appending rig with constraints and drivers i appended a rig from one blend file to current working one. the rig is transferred but the constraints are no more there and neither the drivers. How i transfer the constraints and drivers as well?

I'm relative new to Blender rigging. I have successfully appended 2.81 generation custom character rig with many constraints and drivers into 2.93.
I made sure to rename/ make the rig as a collection in 2.8 Blender (which I haven't uninstalled). Like, Mary Rig Collection.
Then I append the (clearly named and easily identified) COLLECTION into 2.93.
Usually there's no drama, just need to disable/ hide custom bones. Drivers will work, constraints are all there.
After double-checking everything, I re-save a new 2.93 Rig Collection blend file of this character.
Good luck.


Merging 2 face loops into 1 - Topology So I'm trying to merge two face loops into one like so:

would it be detrimental to do this using tris? If so is there any way of doing this with quads only? Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Tris may or may not be problematic depending on your model :).

These are some ways to reduce two loops into one.
Including 2-level Subdivision, so you can see the resulting geometry.

Further Reading:
Topologyguides.com


is it possible to unwrap an Icosphere in blender? well first of all , I need a triangulated mesh for an externa aplication, so I decided to use an Icosphere an export it then , however I noticed something ugly with Icosphere ... I would like to know if I could unwrap an Icosphere, here in blender.
I am not satisfied with "cylindrical proyecction"  and even with "smart UV" for triangulated mesh in this case, consider that icosphere is a triangulated mesh. I do not need quads  , trust me , I need an Icosphere and a well unwrap process.
what  tools should I use to get a nice stretching with UV sphere?
 see this picture, is my best efford...but I am not sure ..

can you see it is an option called "generated UV's" in the "add ico sphere panel"... also there is subdivisions levels , size ...  I checked "generate uvs" and that is the result.... but this is not a good uvmapping process... I mean I would like to get NxN size of UV and aligned stretching... is it possible with triangles mesh as it??

You will need to mark some seams. Ctrl + E, Mark Seam (and inversely Clear Seam)

An easy seam is one continuous seam around the sphere, which gives a good UV map when unwrapped.

Another seam type...


How to Remove a Fake User? I have a material I no longer need, but it has a 'fake' user attached. I don't see any way to remove the fake user so the material can be garbage-collected out.

Someone in another answer on here talked about a "Make Local" button which could (apparently) do this disconnect, but I don't see that button anywhere. Where should I be looking?

Or is there another way to do this?

I found the answer:

Assign the material to an object,
Shift-Click the 'X' to remove it, and
Save the file, then
Revert.

Voila. It's gone.


Placing 4 Circles on a sphere I am wondering how I can create a sphere with 4 equally spaced, equally sized circles on a ball, similar to the circles in this image:

I only request to know how the positions of these circles are found, and how to create simple circles on each position of a basic sphere.

Thanks in advance :D

Facected regular solid & boolean op.

Fastest way to find out how to sudbidive the 3D space of the sphere in n parts without relying on complicated solid-angle formulas is to use regular solids.

The idea behind this is to think about the sphere as only an "external shell" that defines a boundary; what we really care is to subdivide the space itself. Regular solids, because the way they are built, already have this property.

The operator can be found in the Extra Objects add-on, which is not enabled by default, but it comes boundled in with the official build.

As you would like to subdivide the sphere in 4 parts, what we are looking for is the Tetrahedron:

By simply scaling the solid, you can adjust the radius of the circles upon the sphere. At the moment there is no geometry on the common edge. In order to make the intersection real, we should also perform some kind of boolean operations.

In this example I added and apply an Intercept boolean modifier, than select the boundary edge loops with Select edge loop (Alt+MouseDx) and finished by running the Separate command.


What is this blur/antialiasing effect in the game engine? What is this (unwanted) blur/antialiasing effect that I have in the game engine?
The effect worsen with the distance from the camera. Also, it seems to increase in a discrete (not continuous) manner. It also affects my bumping maps. I tried to change the AA setting but it didn't work.

This is related to mipmap settings, you can change in user preferences > systems > mipmap

But this only work inside blender.

In game (standalone) you need a script.

from bge import render

render.setMipmapping(0)

related: Python API


Why are the materials of my objects not rendering? I'm having some trouble while trying to render a scene; what happens is, when I render it in Cycles, everything in the picture is orange instead of its material. When I render it in Blender Render nothing shows up at all except for the sky background.

Orange room in Cycles:

When rendered in Internal Render:

Living room.blend

You will laugh when you see how simple this is.

You have the material for your table leg set as the render layer material override. What that does is override all your materials with that one (and because only the books have a UV map you don't see that texture expect on the books.)

Simply clear the Material Override, switch back to cycles and it will render normally. (All your materials are for cycles, so none of them will work in the internal render.)

EDIT:

Newer versions of blender don't use layers, but "collections" so the override function is in the scene>View Layer section.

Additional info:

Where is the Layers panel in Blender 2.8?

2.8 - Is it possible to assign (override) a material to a whole collection?


is uv wrapping required for animation? I have already unwrapped my character and painted it.
Could I have just painted the polygons if I wasn't using textures?

Nope, you can animate a model at any time regardless if its unwrapped or not.


Possible to re-order Python API ENUM's? I will try to explane.
Lets say,

class BLA_bla_tratata(Menu):

bl_label = "Ololo"

def draw(self, context):
    layout = self.layout
    row = layout.row()
    row.prop(context.space_data, "viewport_shade", expand=True)

This define viewport shade menu... As I understand "viewport_shade" is a  PROPERTY and it is a LIST of some values ( "MATERIAL", "TEXTURED", "SOLID"....)

So what is exactly I need to know - is there any way to reorder this list befor saying

row.prop(context.space_data, "viewport_shade", expand=True)

For example ( "MATERIAL", "TEXTURED", "SOLID"....) -> ("SOLID", "TEXTURED", "MATERIAL", ....)
Or - how can I get access to this data  in blender
Thx!

No, you can't re-order them. If the enums are defined in Python its possible to unregister the property and re-register a new enum, based on the old one but with a different ordering, however that seems like an awful lot of effort.

Basically, its not supported.


Can Blender use a GPU's remotely? (over a network) I work for a mid-size company. All employees are Mac based. A colleague and myself have been tasked with modelling and rendering. We will be using Blender / Cycles. The Macs GPUs are rubbish and I would like to know if there is a method we could use to get Blender to use server-mounted GPUs?

To clarify: my colleague and I will be working on iMacs using blender to model and render. The Macs GPU is not up to the task so efficient rendering is not available using just the iMacs. How do we point Blender to recognise the GPUs on our server over the network to perform this task more efficiently?

Thanks
JK

No, there is currently to have a local Blender instance access a remote GPU to make use of it from Cycles. *

There is a network-rendering component to Cycles however this isn't ready for production use, and nobody is actively developing it.

Alternatives:

Use a render farm (send your files to the server).
Use a remote-desktop login to the faster system (using standard remote desktop access).

... though realistically you may be better off to get a computer that supports swapping out graphics cards.

* Probably this has done under some special conditions, however I'm not aware of this being something you can do right now with off-the-shelf software and hardware. And while rCuda exists its only free for academic use, and Cycles would need to be modified to support it.


cycle renderer with multiple textures on single mesh I have a mesh body, an avatar,  with a  skin texture and a shirt texture on top of the shirt.  Using blender renderer it works perfectly, Using cycles it does not.  the skin texture is fed into one input of a mix shader, the other input gets the shirt texture with one link to the color input and the other to the alpha input.
When I hi-light image texture input with the skin the shirt dissapears completely,  when I hi-light the shirt input the shirt appears and the skin turns black.
Here is a link to the blend file
 http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=50999

The "standard" answer says plug one texture into one input of mix shader, the other texture,the shirt into the other and the alpha of the  shirt into the alpha input on the mix shader.  Does not work :(

I've seen this question posted before and the answers don't work for me.

Following is screen capture showing shaders and render viewport.

I'm using Blender v2.79.6 from 2019-01-14.
Halp :)

You have quite a few problems here, you should probably watch some basic cycles material tutorials. You appear to have misread some stuff about alpha blending, it is not how you would achieve what you are trying to do.

The way to do this would be to assign one material to the shirt (using the shirt texture) and a whole different material to the skin. As they are separate meshes this should be fairly easily.

Another problem I have noticed is that you are plugging colour data (the yellow node connections) into shader data (the green ones). While cycles will try and make sense of this, generally if you are plugging connections between different coloured sockets, then something isn't quite right. In this case you want the put a shader node (Like a diffuse BSDF) in between the texture and the mix shader or output(if you get rid of the mix shader).


How to develop a VSE file format importer for DNG + CR2 image files? This question isn't about the usual workflow (batch convert to a readable format).
Instead I'm looking for a solution to import DNG + CR2 RAW files directly into blender (without decoding/converting the files again).

Reason: Saving Time and Resources.

Why: Because we all have better things to do besides batching conversions :)

Update: @Sambler : How do you compile blender? With make or make full? Somehow mine can't display the dng-raw. I always get a blank/transparent preview with in a thumbnail resolution (256x). Please read further down below the last comments for more details. Many thanks in advance.

First off blender seems to read CR2 files without issue, at least with the few samples I downloaded. It could read more data, that is blender loads one of the samples I have in the natural resolution, while the OpenImageIO file viewer automatically rotates it to match the rotation of the camera. Blender's file browser will filter out CR2 files by default but if you disable the filter and select a CR2 file it will read it. Adding CR2 to the list of available file formats is all that is needed here. Once loaded blender says the CR2 file has a TIFF file_format. This would be a minor change that should be accepted as a bug report, test with a variety of files to make sure first.

For DNG, blender only sees the thumbnail - or the thumbnail is found first and mistakenly read as the image data. (if you have one without a thumbnail try it).

From what I have read, DNG is a variation of TIFF/EP so I see two options, first is to adjust blender's TIFF reading code, the other is to use OpenImageIO to read DNG files. The image viewer built as part of OpenImageIO can read the sample DNG files that I have found, so this may be a viable option for adding support. For reference using OpenImageIO to read PSD files was added here, it is possible that this code added for PSD may only need minor changes to also work with DNG.

I'm not sure this will be considered an acceptable bug report as it is adding support for a new file format. You may want to add DNG image support to the requests page or you could talk to some of the developers at #blendercoders on IRC to see if someone is interested in adding this image support, unless you want to submit a patch for it yourself.

Update:

A quick test with just adding to the file suffix list shows that telling blender to use OpenImageIO to open DNG and CR2 files works. Simply adding the file suffixes to the code used for PSD files allows DNG and CR2 files to be opened. As mentioned at the start this brings in CR2 files rotated based on image metadata the same as opening the images using iv. Images opened this way report their file_format as JPEG so further work to distinguish DNG and CR2 files from PSD and JPEG will be needed but should be minimal.


Why did this materials bake result in mostly black except for one area? These are cycles materials, they have all been given an image texture node set to the same image, it has all been UV unwrapped and laid out so there are no overlapping parts, I tried flipping the normals, and recalculating the normals and flipping again, and again. After that first bake where part worked, the following bakes came out all black. I had dropped the sample number to 10 just to test, so I tried a bit higher, at 40, which is what the preview render setting is and that looks alright. Still all black.

First material was not connected to Material Output.


How to reload linked libraries from script? As far as I know there are two ways to reload a linked library (so the linked objects update to the state they are in the source file) in Blender 2.8:

Close and reopen the file with the linked library.
Reload button inside the Outliner > Blender File > RMB (over the linked linked .blend file) > Reload.

The reload button seems to call an Outliner operation: bpy.ops.outliner.lib_operation(type='RELOAD'). But I think is not a good idea to call bpy.ops.outliner from a script (neither I can find a way to do it). I think must exist some other call over bpy.data to to the same thing (and safer than call a operator), but I cannot find it.

Is there a way to reload the linked library from a script? If the only way is calling the above mentioned "outliner operation", how can I call it from a script?

  I'd like to iterate over all linked libraries and update them.

Thank you.

you can use the data of the blend file
bpy.data.libraries[YOUR BLENDER FILE NAME HERE].reload()


How to find and change material for certain faces? I have a mesh, which renders strangely.

I think the reason is that part of the mesh has a different material, than the neighbouring parts. I want to change this material. In total the mesh has about 12 materials showing up and it is hard to understand which one is which. Also, I don't find any vertex groups to select these particular vertices.

How to find out which material is used by these vertices and change it to the material, that neighbouring vertices use?

Materials are assigned to faces.

Enter edit mode;
change your selection mode to face mode;
select the face of interest and its material should become highlighted in the material list.

To go the other way (figure out which faces are used by a material);
change your selection mode to face mode;
deselect all faces;
choose the material of interest;
use the Select button beneath the material list (which only appears in edit mode) to select those faces.


Curve flattens when converted to 2D I have never had this problem before, and it only applies to this curve in specific.

Do you know what's going on?

In the Edit mode select all and Rotate in X axis.

Out of Edit mode. Click 2D

In the Fill select Both


Texture paint paints random parts of model In order to texture my models, I use "Smart UV project" to generate the UVs, using a margin of 0.5 to 1 to prevent bleeding. That doesn't seem to mitigate the issue however. Whenever I paint on one part of the model, occasionally it will paint other parts as well. This picture seems to describe it:

From original link to picture:

Hi all :)
I made this mech - not wanting to spend the next month of Sundays UV mapping it, I did a faces unwrap in UU3D, which takes a couple of seconds. What this does is to lay each face out separately, similar to what Blacksmith does. No use as a template, but great for 3D painting.
Problem is, the paint bleeds through in all sorts of unrelated places - there are close to two hundred separate meshes in there. I realise that the unrelated faces are probably laid out close together in the map, but this paints perfectly in both Blender and Hexagon. I've checked the map and Carrara has not messed up - the faces are not overlapped and do not touch.
I've even tried mapping it with Blender's "Smart unwrap", which does something similar but with more detail. Again, this paints perfectly in both Blender and Hexagon, but I get the same bleeding with Carrara.
Another thing is that Carrara does not seem to respect shading domains. If I select a shading domain it does restrict painting to that domain, but when I select another next to it and de-select the first, it will paint over the first. Not referring to this model, but others that have been unwrapped conventionally.
Is this just how it is and I must look to another solution, or am I missing something here?
Has there been any improvement in C8.5 (I am using 8.1) ?
Cheers :)
Edit to add : I've taken a look at the 3D paint file and see that the faces it is bleeding to are not laid out close - they are scattered all over the place.

I don't know how to fix this issue, any help is appreciated. Thank you.

If your UV Mapping is alright and this is still happening, make sure that the Occlude brush option is checked/enabled.


Camera view not aligning with camera? Blender 2.82 When I try to use either the camera button or Numpad 0 the camera snaps to the object instead of the actual camera?

CtrlNumpad 0 assigns any active object as current camera.

To set your camera the current camera, select it and use CtrlNumpad 0.

Now Numpad 0 will use the camera.


Jagged edges when using Glare in Compositor I have designed this jewel:

I am using Compositing nodes for the final render, to add a glare effect, as such:

But the result is that some of the edges of the golden shape are irregular where the glare is most present:

I have tried to change the settings in the Compositing nodes, which didn't do anything, and I can't seem to find a way to make the edges as sharp as they should be.

Combining cegaton and gandalf3's comments, I removed the useless Alpha Over node:

then switched the setting for the Glare node to "High":

This resolved the pixelation / jagged diagonal lines I was seeing:


Stretching cloth to targets I'm competent enough with modelling objects, but I'm less experienced with cloth and I'm struggling with something. I've googled it, but can't find what I'm looking for, and for all I suspect I might need to use pinning somehow, since this is a static model I can't seem to make it work.

I've created an airship, as the pic below shows.

The net suspends the gondola and spreads the weight over the top of the balloon.
The version of the net I have so far is a plane, with the cloth modifier, and then I ran the simulation. The cloth fell nicely over it, but obviously only draped straight down. I then had to convert to mesh and use proportional editing to make the net look stretched to the gondola points.

What I really want to do is use cloth simulation properly to stretch the net to the anchor points of the gondola. I've tried hooking the edges to rigidbody spheres and letting them fall, I even tried using force fields to blow the material to where I want it, but no joy.

Can someone kindly tell me what I'm missing please?
Many thanks
Ian.

A recent feature somewhere in 2.6x offered up called 'sewing springs'
http://s6.postimg.org/s0xtlxxkx/sew_Spring0.gif

System depends upon edges to act as pull string, here's how.

Setup pinned vertex group to act as final 'pull' position and anchor. Have it be attached to cloth via extruded 'edges only'.

Followed by a group of edges to bridge distance by pulling.

Enable sewing springs and attach group.

Add collision detection, bake, rinse and repeat.


Material not displaying on array objects I have set up my material in the node editor and it showed up fine but when I duplicated it with a array modifier the second object created with the array has no material attached to it. Also applying the modifier has no effect.

Here is my node set-up

Both objects display the same in material view

Why is this?
(Blend File)

In texture the coordinates node, you have it set to object, the scale then refers to the original object and doesn't get passed on to the ones created by the modifiers. Effectively you now have a bigger object and the texture doesn't cover all of it, and also the center of the object is now in a different place.
If you UV unwrap the original plane, then the texture will follow on the object created by modifiers.

To get an accurate image of what your textures look like switch to "rendered" view on the viewport.


Can I play a sound effect when I click a button? Can I hear a sound as feedback when I click a button in the UI or click the mouse?

I think that if I hear sounds in blender when I operate, I can enjoy more work.

There is no facility for this. Of course you can do it, but it would require you to edit Blender's C code and write it yourself.


Texture export to dae setting or procedural issues Hello my fellow Blender Artists and Enthusiasts,

Testing Models and textures for personal use downloaded off the internet in preparation for a more serious project.

However, I just cant seem to make it work.

My my best guess, or hypothesis for this problem (or problems) is that my procedure to attach a UV texture map to my mesh and export as a dae.file is somehow incorrect or somehow missing a step.

I have 2 meshes with 2 separate texture maps.

I have tried to assign each map to each mesh separately as well as make sure they were uv unwrapped and attached.

My models (and also my simple animations) export to other display engines such as Aurasma or Sketchfab fine, except they have no textures or colors.

In Aurasma using the dae.export file format to add to a tar and upload, what I get is I see a purple wire mesh only.

In Sketchfab .blend file export (or in-bedded add on), I see a nice model ( white) however, no UV texture map or color.

I can render the test scenes in Blender as a PNG or Movie file, and the colors etc. come out fine.

I export the models and no.

As far as I can tell, (and I have walked through several tutorials to check for proper procedural sequence) I am missing something (probably obvious) to someone more familiar with the settings.

I will attach screen shots and a link to the blend file if helpful at the bottom to try and make it more clear.

I am currently Using Windows 7 Blender version 2.77a.

I am trying to keep it simple and using only blender render.

Some of the things I have tried so far.

Checked settings for Aurasma upload

https://aurasma.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205627909-3D-Model-Troubleshooting

and also

https://aurasma.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/206382776-3D-Overlay-Specifications-formerly-3D-Guidelines-

I did this (to the best of my knowledge)

Triangulate Faces
Before exporting your model or animation you must triangulate the faces.  To do this, get into Edit Mode (Next to view on bottom – select 3D mode, then select “edit mode” next to mesh. In edit mode, select all faces you need to triangulate, and then press CTR-T.

Export your work as collada (.dae) using the default settings.
Bundle your file with a thumbnail and a sound file....as a TAR

A .tar file should contain:

The exported/scene model using OpenCollada (.dae file)
All textures referenced in the scene file (.png format)
.png thumbnail (256×256 pixels), named thumbnail.png

This didn't work, so then I looked over many tutorials and tried these below.

https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?229354-Textures-are-not-exporting-with-collada

and

http://support.ponoko.com/hc/en-us/articles/220291008-How-to-export-a-STL-design-file-using-Blender-2-6-

and

still making my way through this one....

I also tried editing and looking through my out liner for anomalies following below link and a few other tutorials to see if maybe something wasn't attached right somehow.

http://blender-manual-i18n.readthedocs.io/ja/latest/editors/outliner.html

https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?344926-dae-files-unable-to-import-textures

My scene and export settings look like this

Download original blend file here

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx2FdbWLpg_oY0phaERWMGg5dGM/view?usp=sharing

Any suggestions are welcome.

I don't know if you resolved this in the end.   I am having the same problem with the png texture files.  After trying lots of different things, I looked inside the dae file from the zenka site and noticed that it was not made using blender but with 3D Studio Max - so no wonder the instructions didn't work.

I also found this post http://rowanpeter.com/amidoinitrite/a-simple-cube-blender-2-62-and-aurasma-studio/  His dae file is made using blender but again the png texture files do not seem to be recognised by aurasma (or don't anymore, he has provided video evidence that it worked at some point.)

Sorry this isn't really an answer, but I thought knowing that the zenka file was not made with blender might help you.

If you did find a solution I would be grateful if you could share it with me.  I'll let you know if I have any luck myself!


Duplicating Vertex Groups I have made a plane, and I have added one Vertex Group to it, and weight painted it as I desired. I then want another vertex group, but I want to duplicate the initial one, because I want the second vertex group to share the same weight paint as the first one, and I also want to add additional weight paint to the second vertex group.

Is there a way to duplicate vertex groups on the same object ?

You can duplicate a vertex group from the drop down menu underneath the delete (-) button.


What is causing sharp creases on subdivided model? I am doing this Blenderguru tutorial to work on my modelling skills. In the image below I have marked some areas where I made some modelling mistakes. Now I would like to learn what I have done wrong and how best to repair those mistakes.

Here you can see some details of the top left corner:

Area 1 What made that sharp crease in area 1 ? And how to remove that ?

Area 2 Why this "sharp" shape in area 2 ? And how to remove that ?

Area 3 The glass of the iphone and the metal ring don't abut against each other. There is a "gap" between those two objects. How can I repair that ?

The sharp crease there is caused by a set of duplicate vertices. To fix it you just need to select all the vertices (A) and Remove Doubles (CtrlV, Remove Doubles).
Those sharp edges are occurring because of your edge split modifier. Remove it to get a smoother look. I also recommend adding in another support loop on the right side of the gap in order to get better smoothing, like so.

To solve this you need to add more loops towards the bottom (CtrlR), and move all of the loops at the bottom up a little bit. I recommend putting loops next to the points on the main phone where it transitions from the curves of the corner to the straightaway. After you've added the loops, select them one at a time and move them up along the Z axis so that the limit surface of the subdivision surface modifier just touches the bottom of the phone. You can use the Shift key during the grab to move the points more slowly and position them more precisely. Here's the result I get from doing that:

In addition you should probably set the screen part of the phone to be shaded smooth before you put together the final render. In Edit mode, select everything and then use CtrlF, Shade Smooth to get the smooth shading you probably want to have for the final render.


Calculate surfaces thickness I have two surfaces, representing the inner and outer surface of a skull.
To calculate the thickness, I thought about calculating the length of each inner surface's vertex normal for the vertex until it crosses the outer surface.
I'm trying to use these fantastic functions:
https://docs.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_current/mathutils.geometry.html

You can take a look at the surfaces here:

Any help will be most welcome!
Thanks,
Noam

***** Edit ******

I tried to use ray_cast as @batFINGER suggested. I might do something wrong, but it gives me strange results:

inner_skull = bpy.data.objects['inner_skull']
vert = inner_skull.data.vertices[0]
hit, loc, norm, face = inner_skull.ray_cast(vert.co, vert.normal)

I ran this code after making sure all the normals are pointing outside.
That gave me the same vertice pos as the hit location. So I tried to add the normal to the starting point:

hit, loc, norm, face = inner_skull.ray_cast(vert.co + vert.normal, vert.normal)

That gave me no hit at all. (I check and vert.co + vert.normal doesn't cross the outer skull)

Any suggestions?

***** Edit 2 *****

I ended up using the following code, which is really not optimized, but does work:

def check_vert_intersections(vert, surf_obj):
    for face_ind, face in enumerate(surf_obj.data.polygons):
        face_verts = [surf_obj.data.vertices[vert].co for vert in face.vertices]
        intersection_point = mathutils.geometry.intersect_ray_tri(
            face_verts[0], face_verts[1], face_verts[2], vert.normal, vert.co, True)
        if intersection_point is not None:
            return intersection_point, face_ind
    return None, -1

***** Edit 3 *****

I used @batFINGER solution and it's great! I've just changed the loop to go over the vertices and not the faces, because I needed the thickness to be calculated for each vertice.
You can see a video of the solution here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xik3ucmnc94qaba/skull_points_thickness.mp4?dl=0

Raycasting from inner to outer

Code to shoot a ray from each inner object face centre along the normal, to the outer object.  Object.ray_cast(...) the parameters need to be in the local space of the object we are casting on.

Some notes. The code below gives expected result for a cube within a cube, or sphere within a sphere, as the face normal is the same direction (with origin at centre of geom) as face.centre - origin.   For your object, might want to have some test where normal isn't in the direction of closest point on outer.  For example on the slope of bumps. (hope that's not too confusing)

import bpy
context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene
show_hit = True # add empty at hit.

def draw_empty_arrow(loc, dir, draw_size=1):
    R = (-dir).to_track_quat('Z', 'X').to_matrix().to_4x4()
    mt = bpy.data.objects.new("mt", None)
    R.translation = loc + dir
    #mt.show_name = True
    mt.matrix_world = R
    mt.empty_draw_type = 'SINGLE_ARROW'
    mt.empty_draw_size = dir.length
    scene.objects.link(mt)

# check thickness by raycasting from inner object out.
# select inner and outer obj, make inner active
inner_obj = context.active_object
outer_obj = context.selected_objects[1]
omwi = outer_obj.matrix_world.inverted()

imw = inner_obj.matrix_world
omw = outer_obj.matrix_world
mat = omwi * imw
hits = [] # vectors from inner to outer
for face in inner_obj.data.polygons:
    print("face", face.index)
    o = mat * face.center
    n = mat * (face.center + face.normal) - o
    hit, loc, norm, index = outer_obj.ray_cast(o, n)
    if hit:
        print("hit outer on face %d" % index)
        hits.append((o, loc))

# test on cube, cylinder ok.
# print((outer_obj.dimensions.x - inner_obj.dimensions.x) / 2)
if hits:
    avge_thickness = sum((omw * hit - omw * o).length for o, hit in hits) / len(hits)
    print(avge_thickness)
    if show_hit:
        for hit, o in hits:
            draw_empty_arrow(omw * o, omw * hit - omw * o, draw_size=1)

Result of running on sphere within a sphere (the outer sphere is wireframe)  Empties drawn from inner face to outer hit.


How ought I lock particles' rotation so that they always face their velocity vector? I have a particle system that manages a bunch of very small spaceships coming from a mothership, and I'm wondering if there's an efficient way to make each of those particles face its own velocity vector.

Each particle is independently affected by a set of force fields I have set up to give them a natural path. They are emitted from a single vertex with a random velocity between zero and one,and I have managed to get them to face their original velocities by enabling Rotation and setting Initial Orientation to Velocity/Hair.

I have tried various combinations of Angular Velocity and Dynamic rotation settings in hopes of achieving the desired effect, but no dice so far. Any ideas?

Top left field attracts, middle field repels, bottom right is wind, and the top right field is magnetic.

Please save my sad, directionless spaceships!

This can be done using the Animation Nodes addon. I've made a node graph that makes particles orient to their velocity. It's kind of a hack, but basically the idea is to create an instance of the ship for every particle in the scene, and then rotate the instance according to the particle's velocity. So essentially, you're replacing Blender's particles with your own. Also, you should make the original particles invisible by going to Particle System tab -> Render and selecting "None".

Here's the node graph:

And here's a proof of concept using this node graph:


How to get an object to follow a path in Version 2.78, does not seem to work like it used to before? Before I would simply create a path, and then add an object and the object would follow the path and would bend with the path if the object was like long enough, but now I can't get the object to follow the path even after adding the follow path constraint. And when I mess with the settings and do get the object to move about a little the object's point of origin moves along the path but the object remains rigid, is this an issue of blender? or have things been changed up?

From what I remember, the follow path constraint has always worked like that. The way to achieve what you are trying to do, is to add a curve modifier with the path as the deform object. Then animate the object along the same axis as the deformation axis of the modifier.


Is Blender good for 3D printing? I saw this 3D printing plugin lately, but I have never printed anything with Blender. Do you have any experiences with this?

https://i.materialise.com/blog/blender-3d-printing-plugin

Cheers,
Lythna

Like many many others I do models for 3d print with blender. When creating models for 3d print you have to be aware of the limitations of the 3d printer and of the material you're going to print. What software you use to create your model is almost entirely a question of preference. One advantage of blender is that it offers a wide range of tools for modeling which you can all use or combine to create the perfect shape for your 3d-printed object. Shapeways has a nice guide for using blender: https://www.shapeways.com/creator/blender which you might find useful.


Volume Scattering in 2.8 Doesn't work? Volume scatter not working in 2.8 build for the Mac? I tried plugging in the volume scatter node to the world output and checked the volumetric box. But nothing happens in Eevee! Please help.

You might have to check "Volumetric" under the render settings on the right.


color management (& grease pencil) : possible to render as it is in the viewport? I got a problem with the filmic color management & Grease Pencil objects - the colors do render poorly (right) - I prefer the viewport (left) look.

If I switch to the "default" color management; its a bit better but all my light setup should be reworked; which I cannot manage now.

Is there a way to render as it looks in the viewport ?

Thanks.

Grease pencil isn't color managed in the viewport, so no, it's a pitty but there isn't a solution for that.
Unless this question about color management will attract more people and devs to really dive into it.
I've tried to push this specific question about grease pencil, but see by yourself how I didn't even had one response:

Perhaps it's not well formulated, and my knowledge is limited related to grease pencil, coding... but still the question remains.

To be a bit more specific related to your question, what you see in your 1st picture is, on the left part, a well color managed mesh and a grease pencil stroke not color managed at all. a mesh color managed with filmic and a GP stoke color managed in default (clamped sRGB)
Resulting in the right, in a render that not correspond to what you see because everything is color managed with Filmic.

In the second image, the solution to set color management to default (what a poor choice to name a clamped sRGB color space), isn't a solution at all, since light will behave incorectly.

You can choose to change all your grease pencil color values by guessing and hope, sorry, pray that one day all part of Blender will be correctly color managed (I don't speek only about GP).

Sorry, even with my little knowledge about color management and spaces, I still make mistakes, it's not that GP isn't color managed, but it's locked to defaut (clamped sRGB)


How to fix bad shading on cylinder with a difference boolean? I've booleaned a simple cylinder with 32 vertices and I am wondering how to fix this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

'Auto Smooth' under the normals section of the Object Data Properties tab should do the trick for you. Oftentimes adjusting the angle of the Auto Smooth will also be necessary.


Why are these rendered surfaces reflecting two different colors? Why are these rendered surfaces reflecting two different colors? I'm using Cycles and an HDRi for illumination. I've applied scale, UV unwrapped and checked that the normals are facing outward. Thanks for any help.

In your node setup for the Chrome material, you need to change the Normal Map node type from Tangent to Object. Then you will get the same response on both objects.


Need some help baking, "No active image found in material" I followed the guide here: How do I bake a texture using Cycles bake

I unwrapped my UV, created a new image, created an Image Texture node and selected my new image with that, and hit bake. I then receive the error in the title. Here is a screenshot of my view:

I'm definitely doing something wrong, hopefully one of you can point out what that is.

For baking in cycles each material slot requires image texture in the node setup, and it looks like even if the material slot is empty. To fix the error, remove the empty material slot from the object.


setting and getting bone transformations I am having some problems with blender bones.

In short this is my issue:

In python I am creating some bones.
I transform them in edit mode using a specific matrix.
Now I need to read back the mentioned matrix. How can I do that?

Check the script to clarify may be:

import bmesh
import bpy
import mathutils

# create skin container
asset_arm_name = '' + '_sk'
bpy.ops.object.armature_add()
narmature = bpy.context.scene.objects.active
narmature.name = asset_arm_name
arm = narmature.data
arm.name = asset_arm_name

# enter edit mode to start creating bones
arm_obj = bpy.data.objects[asset_arm_name]
bpy.context.scene.objects.active = None
bpy.context.scene.objects.active = arm_obj

bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT', toggle=False)
edit_bones = arm_obj.data.edit_bones
arm.edit_bones.remove(arm.edit_bones[0]) #remove default bone

# calc transformations
x = [[2.220446049250313e-16, -1.0, 0.0], [1.0, 2.220446049250313e-16, 0.0], [0.0, 0.0, 1.0], [0.0, 0.0, 0.0]]
tr=mathutils.Matrix([i+[0] for i in x])
tr[3][3]=1.0

bone = edit_bones.new('bone')
bone.head=[0,0,0]
bone.tail=[0,0,10]
bone.transform(tr)

print('=====================')
print(tr)
print(arm_obj.data.bones[0].matrix)
x=arm_obj.data.bones[0].matrix
x.transpose()
print(x)

So, given a bone at 0,0,0 with no previous transformations... if I transformed a bone using a tr_matrix. How can I get the transformation matrix that I just applied using the blender api?
In the previous example this is the tr_matrix applied to the bone:

tr_matrix = <Matrix 4x4 (0.0000, -1.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000)
        (1.0000,  0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000)
        (0.0000,  0.0000, 1.0000, 0.0000)
        (0.0000,  0.0000, 0.0000, 1.0000)>

And this is what I am getting from the bone:

arm_obj.data.bones[0].matrix = <Matrix 3x3 (1.0000, 0.0000,  0.0000)
        (0.0000, 0.0000, -1.0000)
        (0.0000, 1.0000,  0.0000)>

Multiplying by parent transform, transposing or converting to_4x4 doesn't help. I tried through arm_obj.data.bones and arm_obj.pose.bones, using matrix or matrix_local... but I don't manage to get tr_matrix again, and I have been searching for some days already.

May be I am missing something?

Note: In case you are missing the use case, I am evaluating blender to use it in our pipeline. We have a custom mesh format.
Importing is fine, all bones, skin, etc.. all ends in the correct places. But exporting that same data without any changes is giving me different results.
The problem is in the bones. I don't manage to get their world transform. I can set it (using bone.transform(tr_matrix)) but when asking for the transformation I am getting different data.
So, I assume I am doing something wrong, and this example is probably simple enough to find out what. I hope!

Edit bone transforms are defined with head, tail and roll

Edit bones store the data in head, tail and roll. Applying the transform matrix as above to the edit bone sets the roll to 90 degrees. It does not translate the head or tail. Your choice of bone head and tail align to the z axis and the transform matrix is rotating around the z axis 90 degrees.

Note: To get the adjusted value of bone matrix need to toggle back into object mode

bone.transform(tr)
bpy.ops.object.mode_set() # back to object mode
print('=====================')

Running the code above without the transform M1 and with M2 and getting the bone matrix after toggling back into object mode. ,  calculate the transform from M1 to M2

>>> M1 = Matrix([[1, 0, 0], [0, 0, -1], [0, 1, 0]])
>>> M2 = Matrix([[0, 0, 1], [1, 0, 0], [0, 1, 0]])
>>> T = M2 * M1.inverted()
>>> T
Matrix(((0.0, -1.0, 0.0),
        (1.0, 0.0, 0.0),
        (0.0, 0.0, 1.0)))

>>> T.to_euler()
Euler((0.0, -0.0, 1.5707963705062866), 'XYZ')

Remember that part of this matrix is the arbitrary choice of z axis for bone direction. In bone space the y axis is along the direction of the bone.  Notice how both bone matrices above will transform Y axis to Z.

>>> y = Vector((0, 1, 0))
>>> M1 * y
Vector((0.0, 0.0, 1.0))

>>> M2 * y
Vector((0.0, 0.0, 1.0))

To sum up, to calculate what transform has been applied to get from A to B, need A. A is not simply a "zero" in this case since you have defined head and tail before the transform.

If you make the bone tail above scalar * Vector((0, 1, 0)) ie Y axis direction, the bone matrix will be identity

Edit re comment

You don't get the "wrong" rotation you get an equivalent rotation. If you use the resulting bone matrix from above as your transform matrix, you will get same result for both. (the left hand rule.. or right can't remember) This goes back to my first comment under question.

Eg you can rotate default cone to make it point from up to forward in a number of ways. -90 around x axis or 90 around y 90 around z, different transforms same result. In object mode we can see the transform. In edit mode, just like with the edit bone, only the result is saved, what transforms were used to create that result, even given the starting point this is unknown.

Blender creates the bone matrix based on head and tail and roll. Trying to match back  the transform used from the result isn't 1:1

Let's investigate the two matrices from latest example

>>> tr
Matrix(((0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 10.0),
        (1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 21.0),
        (0.0, 0.0, -1.0, 0.0),
        (-0.0, 0.0, -0.0, 1.0)))

>>> tr2
Matrix(((0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 10.0),
        (-1.0, 0.0, 0.0, 21.0),
        (0.0, 0.0, 1.0, 0.0),
        (-0.0, 0.0, -0.0, 1.0)))

>>> q = tr.to_quaternion()
>>> q2 = tr2.to_quaternion()
>>> q.rotation_difference(q2).to_euler()
Euler((-0.0, -3.1415927410125732, -0.0), 'XYZ')

Note the difference in rotation between the two is a full revolution in one axis,

Using the resultant bone matrix instead as transform matrix.

===============
<Matrix 4x4 ( 0.0000, 1.0000,  0.0000, 10.0000)
            (-1.0000, 0.0000,  0.0000, 21.0000)
            ( 0.0000, 0.0000,  1.0000,  0.0000)
            (-0.0000, 0.0000, -0.0000,  1.0000)>
<Matrix 4x4 ( 0.0000, 1.0000, 0.0000, 10.0000)
            (-1.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000, 21.0000)
            ( 0.0000, 0.0000, 1.0000,  0.0000)
            ( 0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000,  1.0000)>

How do you export bones relative to parent?

Exporting trouble. Bone tail and head positions change quaternion rotation


how to texture a head model using exsiting images? Im pretty new with blender, and desperate with failing again and again with what Im trying to do. I hope this question is not a duplicate and can use others as well:

I've created a model using a scanner and imported it into blender.
I have side and front photos of the man scanned.
My goal is to texture the head using the photos, creating a high detailed photo-realistic texture that can be UV-unmapped and printed as one or two unwrapped photo islands.

I've watched a few tutorials using a range of tools like bprojection, project painting, cloning etc., but for some reason I couldn't follow them and succeed- every time the process went wrong followed by horrific results esthetically. I've read that bprojection is replaced by a tool called stencil brush but I couldn't find it.
The web offers so many tools that doesn't work for me!

To make a long story short, what is the best way to create a photo realistic texture for the head?
thank you!

Try this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoiYMx2xXGA

A few suggestions (since you are new): While in object mode on the Tools Shelf (open with T key) select  Smooth under Shading. I'm assuming you don't want flat shading for a head :).

For hair I recommend Particle System based solution, if the model isn't being created for a game.

If you use your picture for hair it will probably look like these old 3d models in Playstation 2 , remember the flatness?

But there are some techniques for hair that are pretty good although made with pictures.

For any questions, don't hesitate to ask.


Whenever I use the particle system to emit from volume, it just ends up emitting from the faces. Is this a bug? I've just started using Blender particle system and rigid body stuff. I've tried to emit particles from the volume of the mesh but they just sit on the surface of the mesh no matter what I try to do.

I want all the particles to be inside the mesh from the beginning and not on the surface. Is this possible?

I was following this tutorial - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gM8yEMFMjg

The particle system with random distribution

Here is the system with jittered distribution

Emit from Verts and faces yield similar results with some particles escaping the mesh in the first frame itself.

Here is the blend file if I wasn't able to explain it properly: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eRWzE-IprJ0dP3l_zxkEso5sTgC0Vbq7/view?usp=sharing

Any help would be appreciated!

The end frame for your simulation is the same as your start frame. That means that your particle simulation will run for one frame (in which it will emit the particles), and then stop playing.

Simply change it from 1 to the desired number of frames you want your simulation to run for (if you don't know what this is, then just set this to the number of total frames your project is set to render, which I can see is 250).

Simply put, set the Frame End to 250 in the Particle System Properties tab.


Why can't I export my rigs? I made a series of characters for a game I am working on in Unreal, but when I export them, they don't seem to have their rig anymore. I imported the finished models to find they don't have rigs on them despite how they were exported. Is this a normal thing that happens in Blender, where I can't load in or export rigs? Or is my issue with Unreal, which isn't reading any rigs off the models?

Also, I am not sure if this has anything to do with this issue, but I exported my models in .obj format.

From the wikipedia wavefront obj page -

  The OBJ file format is a simple data-format that represents 3D geometry alone — namely, the position of each vertex, the UV position of each texture coordinate vertex, vertex normals, and the faces that make each polygon defined as a list of vertices, and texture vertices

If you look in the unreal docs under Managing content they only mention fbx as a format for importing static or skeletal meshes. Blender includes an fbx import/export addon, if you don't see the fbx export option then you will need to enable the addon.

There is also an addon available that eases the blender -> UE process, available on github.


Move a soft body/cloth after baking Is it possible to move / scale / rotate, and possibly keyframe, an object after baking point cache (soft body or clothes simulation data) to its mesh?

I feel like this must be a duplicate question, but I can't find previous questions on the topic. This one deals with rigid bodies, where the solution is just to parent the object to an empty and move the latter around. It doesn't seem to work for clothes and soft bodies though.

In order to move/rotate/scale the result of a baked soft body or cloth simulation you can export the data to a suitable format and either Import it (into a set of shape keys) or use the exported point data to drive a Mesh Cache modifier. This can be achieved via the MDD Importer/Exporter which is available as an addon (User Preferences/Add-ons).

Shape Keys

For the 'shape key' method, simply select your bakes soft body/cloth mesh and select File/Export/Lightwave Point Cache(.mdd) from the menu. This allows you to create an MDD file containing the data from each of the vertices in your mesh.

Now select File/Import/Lightwave Point Cache(.mdd) to re-import the point data and the add-on will automatically generate animated keyframes to animate your object between frames. At this point you can remove the Soft Body physics as the animation will be purely keyed.

You can now move/rotate/scale your mesh and the animation will still be applied.

See https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/106400/29586 for a further example of this.

Mesh Cache Modifier

Another option is to access the exported MDD data via a Mesh Cache Modifier. The modifier reads the exported MDD data and applies it directly to the mesh. This has the advantage of avoiding the complexity of keyframed shape keys and allows the animation to be more easily 'tuned'.

This can produce the following result :

Here the centre cloth falling on the cube is the original simulation. The point cache has been exported to an MDD file and the mesh duplicated (without the simulation) and Mesh Cache modifiers used to re-apply the simulation on each of the copies - at different start frames and orientations.

A further example of this can be found here https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/10661/29586


How to avoid obstruction of supposedly parallel sun light? I am trying to make a Solar System scene. An obvious lighting for this scene is the "Sun" light, but it is obstructed by a big object even when the position of the light is outside that big object, as illustrated with the following images:

This is how it should look

This are the position of two sun lights, both outside the big object.

First, I don't get why this happens since the lights are located and pointing outside the big object.  Second, I'll appreciate any suggestion to solve this problem. Blender 2.8.7.
Thank you in advance for any help.

A 'Sun' lamp is so called because it simulates the light of the sun as perceived on Earth.
Its rays are parallel, from infinity. It has no position, and so no falloff with distance. (Good for you, in that respect.) The position of the lamp's gizmo has no bearing on its effect; only its direction makes any difference. All objects will cast shadows on other objects 'behind' them in that direction.
A quick solution to your problem, either in Cycles or EEVEE, would be to use one Sun lamp, anywhere you like, (inside the Sun object if that seems logical) pointing parallel to the Sun > Planet direction, and with 'Cast Shadow' or 'Shadow' switched off in the lamp's Properties panel > Data tab.
This would also mean planets do not cast shadows on one another.
If you want more particular effects, the answer will vary, depending on your renderer. For example, if you're in Cycles, you may want to prevent planets bouncing light on to one another, using a Light Path node. Or if you wanted the planets to go round the sun, you could use a shadowless point-lamp at the sun's position, with its falloff adjusted if necessary.