python: Split mesh by uv islands This question has a solution, but it doesn't work properly. It looks like a mesh is splitting randomly.

Can you help me to fix the script, or indicate me what I'm doing wrong?

Code by TLousky:

import bpy, bmesh
C = bpy.context

ob = C.object

bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'EDIT')
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh( C.object.data )

faceGroups = []
bm.faces.ensure_lookup_table()

bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode(use_extend=False, use_expand=False, type='FACE')
bpy.context.scene.tool_settings.use_uv_select_sync = True

for face in bm.faces:
    allFaceIndices = [ i for fg in faceGroups for i in fg ]

    if face.index not in allFaceIndices:
        bpy.ops.mesh.select_all( action = 'DESELECT' )

        face.select = True
        bm.select_flush(True)

        bpy.ops.uv.select_linked()

        faceGroups.append( [ f.index for f in bm.faces if f.select ] )

bpy.context.scene.tool_settings.use_uv_select_sync = False

for g in faceGroups:
    bm.faces.ensure_lookup_table()
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='DESELECT')
    for i in g: bm.faces[i].select = True
    bm.select_flush(True)
    bpy.ops.mesh.split()

ob.data.update()
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'OBJECT')

Using bpy.ops.uv.seams_from_islands(...)

Here is a script to run in edit mode.

import bpy
import bmesh
context = bpy.context
obj = context.edit_object
me = obj.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
# old seams
old_seams = [e for e in bm.edges if e.seam]
# unmark
for e in old_seams:
    e.seam = False
# mark seams from uv islands
bpy.ops.uv.seams_from_islands()
seams = [e for e in bm.edges if e.seam]
# split on seams
bmesh.ops.split_edges(bm, edges=seams)
# re instate old seams.. could clear new seams.
for e in old_seams:
    e.seam = True
bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me)

You may want to remove boundary seams

boundary_seams = [e for e in bm.edges if e.seam and e.is_boundary]


Rotate edge loop in oval cylinder object Hi, everyone. I have a problem with an oval cylinder object. How can I rotate the horizontal edges (highlighted in image) without ruining the shape of the object?

Select the loop of faces with Alt+RMB, then press Ctrl+E-->Rotate CW or CWW.


How can I make the knife tool cut in a straight line between two vertices? If I were to make a sphere and cut between a vertex near the sphere's "north" and a vertex near the sphere's "east," the cut becomes curved in a way reminiscent of the Coriolis effect. I just want the knife tool too cut through the edges between them in a straight line. In other words, I want it where knife tool cuts between two vertices always gives the same line cut (the shortest and most direct path possible) regardless of my viewer.

Problem:

I've had people tell me this is a result of having the view in perspective mode, which it clearly is not. Orthographic views also have this problem.

Knife tool works like that - it depends on the viewing angle how it cuts. If you want to join two vertices by the shortest path on surface between them, you can use 'Vertex Connect Path' function. It can be accessed from the vertex menu(Ctrl+v in edit mode) or simply by selecting two vertices and hitting j.


Eyelids with Shape Keys I seem to be having difficulty with the eyelids of my model using Shape Keys. I'm trying to get the top and bottom eyelids to close, but due to the design of the character and their eye sockets, which are slanted, I can't seem to get it right. Any suggestions?

Thanks

If you select the last lid edge loop, activate the Proportional Editing (Connected option), scale on the Z axis, rotate a bit, it looks ok to me,  no? You have to be a bit skilful with the Proportional Editing influence radius.


Convert bones to meshes I want to use the blender built-in skeleton as a character - is there a way to convert the bones to concretes meshes?

I was not able to find an addon for that and as it is very close from another question. Here is an operator to do that (nearly, as the bone shape is not exactly the same).

The code is commented below. To use it, copy the code in a text view and run the script.
Then in the 3D view, select your armature, hit space and type "MeshFromArmature" and validate.
The result is a rigged mesh mimicking the armature shape.
If you want to enhance the bone shape, the code is isolated in one function 'boneGeometry' with the needed parameters.
If the comments in the code are not clear enough, please tell.
2.79 Version
import bpy
import mathutils
from mathutils import Vector
from math import *

def CreateMesh():

    obj = bpy.context.active_object

    if obj == None:
        print( "No selection" )
    elif obj.type != 'ARMATURE':
        print( "Armature expected" )
    else:
        processArmature( bpy.context, obj )

#Create the base object from the armature
def meshFromArmature( arm ):
    name = arm.name + "_mesh"
    meshData = bpy.data.meshes.new( name + "Data" )
    meshObj = bpy.data.objects.new( name, meshData )
    meshObj.matrix_world = arm.matrix_world.copy()
    return meshObj

#Create the bone geometry (vertices and faces)
def boneGeometry( l1, l2, x, z, baseSize, l1Size, l2Size, base ):
    x1 = x * baseSize * l1Size
    z1 = z * baseSize * l1Size

#    x2 = x * baseSize * l2Size
#    z2 = z * baseSize * l2Size

    x2 = Vector( (0, 0, 0) )
    z2 = Vector( (0, 0, 0) )

    verts = [
        l1 - x1 + z1,
        l1 + x1 + z1,
        l1 - x1 - z1,
        l1 + x1 - z1,
        l2 - x2 + z2,
        l2 + x2 + z2,
        l2 - x2 - z2,
        l2 + x2 - z2
        ]

    faces = [
        (base+3, base+1, base+0, base+2),
        (base+6, base+4, base+5, base+7),
        (base+4, base+0, base+1, base+5),
        (base+7, base+3, base+2, base+6),
        (base+5, base+1, base+3, base+7),
        (base+6, base+2, base+0, base+4)
        ]

    return verts, faces

#Process the armature, goes through its bones and creates the mesh
def processArmature(context, arm, genVertexGroups = True):
    print("processing armature {0}".format(arm.name))

    #Creates the mesh object
    meshObj = meshFromArmature( arm )
    context.scene.objects.link( meshObj )

    verts = []
    edges = []
    faces = []
    vertexGroups = {}

    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')

    try:
        #Goes through each bone
        for editBone in [b for b in arm.data.edit_bones if b.use_deform]:
            boneName = editBone.name
            print( boneName )
            poseBone = arm.pose.bones[boneName]

            #Gets edit bone informations
            editBoneHead = editBone.head
            editBoneTail = editBone.tail
            editBoneVector = editBoneTail - editBoneHead
            editBoneSize = editBoneVector.dot( editBoneVector )
            editBoneRoll = editBone.roll
            editBoneX = editBone.x_axis
            editBoneZ = editBone.z_axis
            editBoneHeadRadius = editBone.head_radius
            editBoneTailRadius = editBone.tail_radius

            #Creates the mesh data for the bone
            baseIndex = len(verts)
            baseSize = sqrt( editBoneSize )
            newVerts, newFaces = boneGeometry( editBoneHead, editBoneTail, editBoneX, editBoneZ, baseSize, editBoneHeadRadius, editBoneTailRadius, baseIndex )

            verts.extend( newVerts )
            faces.extend( newFaces )

            #Creates the weights for the vertex groups
            vertexGroups[boneName] = [(x, 1.0) for x in range(baseIndex, len(verts))]

        #Assigns the geometry to the mesh
        meshObj.data.from_pydata(verts, edges, faces)

    except:
        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
    else:
        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')

    #Assigns the vertex groups
    if genVertexGroups:
        for name, vertexGroup in vertexGroups.items():
            groupObject = meshObj.vertex_groups.new(name)
            for (index, weight) in vertexGroup:
                groupObject.add([index], weight, 'REPLACE')

    #Creates the armature modifier
    modifier = meshObj.modifiers.new('ArmatureMod', 'ARMATURE')
    modifier.object = arm
    modifier.use_bone_envelopes = False
    modifier.use_vertex_groups = True

    meshObj.data.update()

    return meshObj

class MeshFromArmatureOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "wm.hello_world"
    bl_label = "MeshFromArmatureOperator"

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

bpy.utils.register_class( MeshFromArmatureOperator )

2.8 Version
import bpy
import mathutils
from mathutils import Vector
from math import *

def CreateMesh():

    obj = bpy.context.active_object

    if obj == None:
        print( "No selection" )
    elif obj.type != 'ARMATURE':
        print( "Armature expected" )
    else:
        processArmature( bpy.context, obj )

#Create the base object from the armature
def meshFromArmature( arm ):
    name = arm.name + "_mesh"
    meshData = bpy.data.meshes.new( name + "Data" )
    meshObj = bpy.data.objects.new( name, meshData )
    meshObj.matrix_world = arm.matrix_world.copy()
    return meshObj

#Create the bone geometry (vertices and faces)
def boneGeometry( l1, l2, x, z, baseSize, l1Size, l2Size, base ):
    x1 = x * baseSize * l1Size
    z1 = z * baseSize * l1Size

#    x2 = x * baseSize * l2Size
#    z2 = z * baseSize * l2Size

    x2 = Vector( (0, 0, 0) )
    z2 = Vector( (0, 0, 0) )

    verts = [
        l1 - x1 + z1,
        l1 + x1 + z1,
        l1 - x1 - z1,
        l1 + x1 - z1,
        l2 - x2 + z2,
        l2 + x2 + z2,
        l2 - x2 - z2,
        l2 + x2 - z2
        ]

    faces = [
        (base+3, base+1, base+0, base+2),
        (base+6, base+4, base+5, base+7),
        (base+4, base+0, base+1, base+5),
        (base+7, base+3, base+2, base+6),
        (base+5, base+1, base+3, base+7),
        (base+6, base+2, base+0, base+4)
        ]

    return verts, faces

#Process the armature, goes through its bones and creates the mesh
def processArmature(context, arm, genVertexGroups = True):
    print("processing armature {0}".format(arm.name))

    #Creates the mesh object
    meshObj = meshFromArmature( arm )
    context.collection.objects.link( meshObj )

    verts = []
    edges = []
    faces = []
    vertexGroups = {}

    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')

    try:
        #Goes through each bone
        for editBone in [b for b in arm.data.edit_bones if b.use_deform]:
            boneName = editBone.name
            print( boneName )
            poseBone = arm.pose.bones[boneName]

            #Gets edit bone informations
            editBoneHead = editBone.head
            editBoneTail = editBone.tail
            editBoneVector = editBoneTail - editBoneHead
            editBoneSize = editBoneVector.dot( editBoneVector )
            editBoneRoll = editBone.roll
            editBoneX = editBone.x_axis
            editBoneZ = editBone.z_axis
            editBoneHeadRadius = editBone.head_radius
            editBoneTailRadius = editBone.tail_radius

            #Creates the mesh data for the bone
            baseIndex = len(verts)
            baseSize = sqrt( editBoneSize )
            newVerts, newFaces = boneGeometry( editBoneHead, editBoneTail, editBoneX, editBoneZ, baseSize, editBoneHeadRadius, editBoneTailRadius, baseIndex )

            verts.extend( newVerts )
            faces.extend( newFaces )

            #Creates the weights for the vertex groups
            vertexGroups[boneName] = [(x, 1.0) for x in range(baseIndex, len(verts))]

        #Assigns the geometry to the mesh
        meshObj.data.from_pydata(verts, edges, faces)

    except:
        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
    else:
        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')

    #Assigns the vertex groups
    if genVertexGroups:
        for name, vertexGroup in vertexGroups.items():
            groupObject = meshObj.vertex_groups.new(name=name)
            for (index, weight) in vertexGroup:
                groupObject.add([index], weight, 'REPLACE')

    #Creates the armature modifier
    modifier = meshObj.modifiers.new('ArmatureMod', 'ARMATURE')
    modifier.object = arm
    modifier.use_bone_envelopes = False
    modifier.use_vertex_groups = True

    meshObj.data.update()

    return meshObj

class MeshFromArmatureOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "wm.hello_world"
    bl_label = "MeshFromArmatureOperator"

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

bpy.utils.register_class( MeshFromArmatureOperator )

Link to the blend file


Render new stills and not the created video sequence Im new to the video editing side of blender and here's the thing:
i was stitching image sequences of a rendered animation i created and i want to take a step baCK and change something on the animation but when i try to render a new image sequence again, only blender does is output a blank, empty gray screen,
my guess is that this is the video sequence rendering and not the animation, because i moved the image sequence strips away from the frame range, because i want it out of the way when rendering the edited animation but alas, blank

what am i not getting here? how can i get blender to render the animation again? and not the video sequence?

Sounds as though you have not set your render output back to still images.

If you already have multiple sequences you want to re-stitch, just be sure to re-adjust your start and end frames.


Can I scale an object based on the relative distance to another object? I have a series of empties (let's call them scale_empties) that scale separate portions of a mesh. I would like to use a separate "master_empty" (or other object) to travel over the scale_empties and, as it does, scale the underlying scale_empties based on how close the master_empty is... Sorta like this...

Start position:

As the master_empty travels, it scales the scale_empties:

Anyway... the goal is to allow one or more master objects to travel along a series and scale as they go....  Possible?

Driver Based Approach

Image below shows driver added to x scale of Empty.002.  The driver variable var is of Distance type and returns the distance between itself (Empty.002) and the master empty (Empty.001).

The expression 4 - var if var < 2 else 1 is set up such that if the empties are within 2 bu of each other the scale value is (4 - var) and if outside that range the scale is 1.  Change the numbers to suit.

Use the interface to copy this driver and paste into other scale fields.

When pasting into other empties scale fields, change the target of non master empty to match.


How to merge all the faces I have made a road with the addon. When i go in edit mode all the faces overlapping each other. Is there any way to merge or combine or boolean tool that can merge or combine all the face and make a single face which look clean in object mode.

Ok, here is a crazy idea. As I said above in comments, "your file, frankly it's a bit a mess... around 50% faces have inverted normals, and so many of them are overlapping (not just crossing) in so many weird ways... I guess you didn't build this by hand... whatever was the tool, it did an horrible job.."

But, if you really like this shape you have now, except it's made from a spaghetti mess of dozens of separate "roads", and you wish to have a single connected mesh instead, here is how you could do it.

To do what it came to my mind, you need to export this 2D object as SVG, then use another tool, like Inkscape, to make the union in 2D, then reimport the united SVG in blender, as a single curve object that you could convert again to mesh (ALT-C) and thus have a single, connected mesh. I told you it was crazy...!

Except... blender has no svg export...

Wait, but there's a freestyle svg export addon!

Here is what I did.

I used "blender render" instead of cycles, aiming for better speeds.
I activated the freestyle svg export
I enabled freestyle and the freestyle svg export for the scene
I used an orthographic camera (with sufficiently high orthographic scale) to render the whole "road" puzzle
I set a very high render resolution (3840x 2160) but I'm not sure it's really needed
then I hit F12 and waited the render to finish
after the normal render, freestyle adds a contour to the rendered objects: the freestyle svg export addon converts the freestyle outline to svg...

when the render finished, I found a 0001.svg file in /tmp,

then I opened that svg in Inkscape and, after some cleaning, I used the Inkscape "union" command. Then saved the new svg, and inmported in Blender. Here is the result:

a closer look

in edit mode:

Here is the file:

You could need to repeat and master this until satisfied, but at least you now have a way...


Where are the light settings in Blender 2.8? I'm trying to follow a tutorial but got stuck when I tried to setup the lights. Here's a screenshot from the tutorial:

Where are these settings in 2.8?

In Blender 2.80 the Light settings have been moved into the Object Data Panel.

Select your light source in the Outliner, then select the Object Data tab.

Light settings EEVEE:

Light settings Cycles:


Gradient along object hair particles (like grass)? I've spent way too many hours on this and I don't know how else to make this work. Perhaps a dozen hours went into getting the coordinates right on a group of grass, only for it to break completely when made into a particle (I thought this would not be an issue since it is generated from the "object" as you can see below). As for the original mesh, there is a special location that I have put my grass (under the ground) because I don't want to use a (useless) tilted object (seems to be the only way to get the particles to stay upright or they end up being on the side). Here's what I'm trying to do:

Here's what I get, though:

Any help is greatly appreciated. Btw, I'm trying to do this (with the translucent-like effect):

A couple problems arise from using the Object coordinates. I would use Vertex Colors:

In Weight Paint mode, use the Weight Gradient tool under Weight Tools in the T sidebar to create a weight gradient along your grass blade. Use the weight painting tools to adjust as needed:

Next, enable the Tissue add-on in the Add-ons panel of the user preferences:

Now, in Vertex Paint mode, use the Vertex Color from Vertex Group tool in the Tissue Tools panel of the T sidebar to convert the weight into a vertex group:

Last, use an Attribute node to get the gradient from the vertex color:

Result as a particle:


Blender Render Too Dark I am fairly new to blender, so bare with me, please. :-)

I think I made a total mess trying to solve my problem, that is, as follows:

My blender scene, containting 3 objects, everyone of them out of "glas". I tried to add different light sources, currently I'm up to 7...there was a slight change as each lght was added, but it is still too dark.

Can anyone help me out?

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IBr6q76fXbIgBsZb8Yq-mEUry2l3fd9M

Your scale is very large.

This means that lights need a lot more power in order to light the objects.

For example a 100W light bulb will light a stadium, you need lots of light.

So to fix this, either scale your model to life size, or increase the values to something scary.

Also looking at your backdround color you can increase the environmental lighting by making your background white (I suggest using the RGB input node rather than the brightness contrast node).  You can always increse the luminance of the background color to modify the envronmental lighting level.

This is a simple render with only 2 lamps, a very slight background.  There's an issue with your whiskey glasses, the mesh needs some work, but you get the idea.  Start with no lights, setup your background, then highlight with some lighting for mood.

And this is the same lighting with a white background (same strength = 100 )


Strange behavior when going to Edit Mode I have a blend file. I got it from here. A strange thing happens when you go to Edit Mode on "body" part. Well, the object called "body". Anyway, when you do that the half of the object is clipped, you go back to Object Mode, the clipped part goes back. I figured out that applying the existing subsurf modifier fixes this weird behavior.  And another thing. The origin point is cyan instead of orange.

Any thoughts on why this happens and what's with the origin point color?
Here's the file itself. (if you don't have an acc on blendswap)
Edited:

Thanks to Gonzou, his answer solves the mystery of the disappearing mesh.
The cyan dot mystery still remains. I looked through theme colors and didn't find any entry that controls that cyan dot. The "Active Object" entry only controls the outline color on that object. However, on a newly created object an origin dot color is orange (as it expected) and that "Active Object" entry controls an outline and dot colors.

The half of the 'body' mesh is just hidden. You have to unhide it. Press ALT+H. The cyan point may be the matter of changed settings in 'User Preferences' (CTRL+ALT+U).


Set up shortcut for object interaction mode Does anyone know how to create a shortcut that will make this menu appear?

I'm guessing I need to use wm.context_menu_enum. And I'm hoping I just need the appropriate info to put into the 'Context Attributes' field. Can anyone provide that?

And how would I be able to figure that out for myself, so I can solve future problems?

By default, the TAB hotkey will toggle between object and edit modes.

As of Blender 2.8, CTRL+TAB will display a Pie menu like in Ariso's answer; but without the need of an addon.

You can also set your own shortcuts for object interaction modes.

Go to Edit > User Preferences
Click the Input tab.
Expand 3D view > Object non modal
Click Add New and expand the created shortcut to edit it.

For the identifier, type object.mode_set.
This will bring a new box that will allow you to set a specific mode.

Example of custom setup where hotkeys F1, F2 and F3 are respectively mapped to the object, edit and draw mode.


How to copy data from one armature to another POSE MODE I want to copy one armature as the pose of another armature.

Lets call my left armature A and my right armature B.

In the picture below, my armature A is originated by code, and my armature B is imported from Makehuman. A looks the same in the edit or pose mode. My goal is to transform B armature to look like the A armature in pose mode (i.e, deforming the mesh)

Here is my desired result (I changed my A armature by hand to achieve this effect, but I want to generate it by code).

I found here (How to copy position, size from one armature to another?) a way to copy them trough EDIT mode, but that does provide me what I need, since it would deform the skeleton B in the edit mode, and what I want is to deform it in the Pose mode.

Does anyone have an idea to help me?

Thank you =)

This should work: go in pose mode (arm. A), edit the pose then select all bones, and use ctrl-c to "copy pose", then select the other armature (arm. B), go in pose mode, select all bones and press ctrl-v (paste pose). Edit mode af arm B remains the same as before.

I tried on simple armatures, but I suspect it needs two armatures with the same bones and structure...

if you need to make arm A like its pose, start from pose mode, and then select all bones and press ctrl-A > apply pose as rest pose: it will stay the same in edit mode...


Using displacement maps (or something else) for adding rotational noise effect to mesh? So I have made a fence using the array and curve modifiers. I can then use the displacement modifier to add some vertical and depth noise to the mesh to make it look more irregular and not perfectly straight.

But is there a way to add "rotational displacement" to my fence as well? So that in some places the fence is tilting to one direction and in some other place it is tilting to other direction? Tilting randomly along its longitudinal axis for example?

Here are two ways in which you can accomplish this:

1) Modify the curve's twist

A bezier curve has the often ignored feature twist that you can set per control point to influence the direction in which the boards are pointing. You can set the twist manually in edit mode by selecting a control point and pressing Ctrl+T, but if you want to create the impression of randomness you will need a lot of control points and manually setting the tilt is going to be tedious.

The following Python script assigns a random tilt to each control point of a bezier curve.

import bpy
import random
from math import pi

curve = bpy.data.objects['Circle']
points = curve.data.splines[0].bezier_points

for point in points:
    point.tilt = random.uniform(-pi/16, pi/16)

Adding the array and curve modifiers to the fence element will allow the fence to distort which is maybe useful for a wire-link fence but may cause ugly deformation of the fence poles.

For a fence consisting of disconnected planks, instead of a regular object array I use a plane array with duplifaces according to this or this answer, so the fence boards don't get distorted. I.e. add a plane, with modifiers array and curve, activate duplication in the plane's Object tab in the properties panel and parent a single fence board to the plane.

I guess it might be possible to try to mix these two approaches, i.e. use regular array for the mesh and duplifaces for the poles. As I don't have a wire-link mesh model available, I couldn't test it on one of those. Tests with a fence like above with horizontal bars were nonsatisfying.

2) Place the boards with Animation Nodes

Using the addon Animation Nodes allows you to place fence boards automatically at the desired location with the right orientation.

Here I use Animation Node's Evaluate Spline node to sample a number ob points along the bezier curve – and for each point get the coordinates as well as the tangent at that point. I project the tangent to the XY plane so that the standard orientation is “up” and not normal on the surface. This part is optional for a flat ground, but looks better if you place the fence on a hill.

I feed the coordinates, and the projected tangents into a loop. For each pair I create a random rotation with the Euler Wiggle node. The amplitudes of the wiggle node affect the amount of randomness for each axis.

There would be room for optimization, e.g. as the wiggle Evolution is linear whereas it might be desirable to match the evolution parameter at the start of the curve to the end of the curve, as it's a closed loop.

I combine the three transformations wiggle, rotation according to the tangent, and translation to the correct coordinate.

Back in the main node tree I place copies of the original board, each board with a transformation from the loop.

I also set a random shape key value for each board to get a random board height – similar to the random particle approach when using Dupligroups.


Why won't the material node displacement work in cycles I have a plane in blender with a image texture node, connected to a RGB to black and white node connected to a multiplier before being connected to the displacement of the Material Output node. There appears to be some shadowing on the plane but it is only this that changes when I change the multiplier, the plane while viewed from the side rendered is still totally flat. Do I need to bake this in some way? Or have I totally misunderstood how displacement textures are supposed to work?

Change the displacement type found in the Properties window under Object Data from (the default) Bump to True.
Note that this is an experimental feature and you must change the feature set from Supported to Experimental in Properties > Render Settings > Render.

True Displacement: Mesh vertices will be displaced before rendering, modifying the actual mesh. This gives the best quality results, if the mesh is finely subdivided. As a result this method is also the most memory intensive.
Bump Mapping: When executing the surface shader, a modified surface normal is used instead of the true normal. This is a quick alternative to true displacement, but only an approximation. Surface silhouettes will not be accurate and there will be no self shadowing of the displacement.


Motion Tracking Tripod with Given Camera Settings I want to track some footage from golf, as shown in the image. I have used FSpy to determine the position and focal length of the camera. Modelling two balls at the correct diameter in this space shows me that the perspective etc is perfectly fine.
The footage has a tripod mounted pan in it, moving up and to the right (towards the hole)
I can track the green etc and create the motion tracking file to my satisfaction, but when I "Solve Camera Motion" and "Set Tracking scene" it creates new geometry and new perspective etc which is different to my FSpy correct camera focal length and position.
I ONLY want to pan the camera I have already created with the tracking data.
How do I achieve this?

For a static camera the default camera solver will not work, you need to solve as tripod.

That will yield tracking points projected to a sphere only, but no real 3D information, but the camera move will be recreated.
Read:
How can I get better results when doing camera motion tracking?


Snap object to the center of another object face Hi I got a Cube and a Cylinder. What is the fastest way (minimal steps) to move the Cylinder, so the center of the bottom face of the Cylinder will snap to the center of top face of the Cube ?

Three Steps

Make origin of Cylinder at it's bottom face.
Place 3D Cursor on the top face of the Cube.
Move Cylinder (Selection) to 3D Cursor.


Where is the Layers panel in Blender 2.8? I am starting working on Blender 2.8, but I can't find the layer panel. Where is it?

Blender 2.8 re-implements the scene layer system, as it had limitations. How it now works is explained here: Layers Manual and here: Blender Dev blog.

The scene layers are gone and their functionality was implemented in Collections (=groups) and View Layers.

Instead of sorting objects onto different scene layers, you can sort them into different Collections.

Add and Move between Collections with M
Link to Collection with Shift+M (so an object can be in multiple Collections)
Hide and Unhide Collections with CtrlH

Instead of using scene layers as masking layers in Render layers, now you can use Collections for masking or to effect only indirect rays (shadows and reflections):

View Layers are what you would call Render layers pre-2.8-Blender. Add them here:

A View Layer will remember your settings of objects and collections for visibility in view and render, selectability, holdout and indirect-only, etc. You find the settings for View Layers in the Properties panel:


How can I make a hexagonal grill? How would I be able to create a grill of sorts found on the front of some computer cases such as this one

Here's a way to do this using modifiers:

Add a circle (⇧ ShiftA> Mesh > Circle) and set the number of Vertices to 6 in the redo panel to make a hexagon:

Take note of the X dimension of the object. With the default radius of 1 it should be 1.732:

Add an Array modifier with a relative offset of .5 and .75 to create a tile-able section with two offset hexagons:

Add an array modifier to tile the object along the X axis.

Note the X dimension of the object now with the modifier. It should be equal to original_x+(original_x/2) (2.598 with the default radius):

Set the relative X offset of the array modifier to original_x / modified_x), or .666...:

Add yet another array modifier to tile the object along the Y axis, with a Y offset of .857, or radius*3 / (original_y+original_y/2).
Increase the Count of the last two array modifiers as desired:

Now you have a wireframe, but it needs thickness. Switch to edit mode (↹ Tab), select all (A) and extrude (E). Cancel the transform part of the extrude (Esc) and scale down (S):

Enable Merge on all the array modifiers.
Add a solidify modifier (and optionally a bevel modifier):

In case you might want something more rounded, you can adjust the angle limit on the bevel modifier and toss a subsurf modifier on the end:


How do I do topmod style loops in Blender? I've had some pretty good luck with edge loops and the loft tools in Blender.
The spin tool is still greek to me.  I'd like source, destination, angle style simplicity comparable to the methods of TopMod.  Maybe someday.
Here's the problem:

So, the simple question is, how to do something comparable in Blender?  What would be the best, perhaps, simplest way to go about it?  Is this kind of thing even possible in Blender?  Worth the trouble?  Or not?
I've got the Angle Tool addon.  It doesn't do this kind of curvature.  (speaking of which, perhaps using curves (which seems like a lot of work for the effort)). The "Tube Tool" addon, does "tubes" and nothing else.  Other than those two, there doesn't seem to be anything else out there, that I'm aware of.
If it helps.  Clarification:

I'm interested in exploring patterns of symmetry.  Something that TopMod lends itself easily to, both in the undoing as well as the doing.  Mirroring alone won't help with this end.
Elaboration below:

Not entirely symmetrical, but, you get the general idea.  Full symmetry would take more time.  This with cubes instead of Quad Spheres.

Also, for this example, I'm using 4x4, could just as easily be triangular, 3x3, or 5 - 4 on each side, one in the middle. 4x4 is just one jumping off point.

Followup:
Here's more of that last example using Blender.  It's still unfinished. And, it would be awhile as the faces don't line up at the end and have to
be modified, sliding verts and edges, etc.

Here's five examples I just did from TopMod.  About 15 - 20 minutes total.
Given your suggestions so far, I'm just inclined to think that, right now, it's just not Blender's strong suit.  It is what TopMod was designed for.
Unless someone can show me different, this, just may not have a practical Blender resolution.
The blend file of the TopMod cubes:
https://pasteall.org/blend/9b87b66ca8bd439681a5f53973763f98

I'm not completely sure about your question but if you want to do what we see on the top right:

Create a flat vertical curve, Create a rectangle, give it an Array modifier:

Twist it with a Simple Deform modifier / Twist mode (Z axis here):

Give it a Curve modifier with the curve as Curve Object:

Bend your curve. Make sure that its normals go in the right direction. Add more array count if necessary:

If you need the tip of the curve to stick to a face, first hook it to an empty, then parent the empty to 3 vertices of the face:


Make a mesh/plane deform on collision (and stay deformed) I want to create a animation like those "spacetime deformation" ones, but I am stuck on creating "spacetime".  (a mesh/plane).

I created a plane, gave it a soft body, collisions, and a passive rigidbody.

A cube with a rigidbody and collisions will land and deform the mesh, but it snaps right back.

How can I make it so the cube lands, and then leaves the plane deformed, and the cube just sits there?

I googled around and searched this site, nothing comes up.

An image of what I want (after it settles):

The ball depressed the mesh, creating an indentation.

As suggested by timaroberts shapekeys could be a way to achieve this.

Shape keys a are a way to store or save a geometry state of you mesh, allowing to animate by morphing or blending between them freely.

Add a new plane object
Subdivide it as much as you need
Exit edit mode and go to the Properties Window > Object Data > Shape Keys
Add two shapekeys (base and one to make your deformation)
Select the second key
Enter edit mode
Turn on proportional edit with O key (letter "o" not zero)
Grab the central faces or vertex and move them down in Z axis
Use Mouse Wheel Scroll to adjust proportional editing size accordingly
Exit edit mode and you can blend freely between shapes.


How to direct fire effect? I am trying to create a sort of "fighting" type scene where balls of fire are around our hands. I want to get that visual effect where it is also trailing slightly behind the movement of the hands so that it looks like it's swinging through the air.

The problem is, the fire is just sort of globing up around my hand. It's also showing over top of my arm, which realistically, it should pass behind it and out of sight.

How can I secure these two effects to get a more realistic looking fire from my blend?

Thank you in advance!

You can use masking for that, add a mask in the motion tracking editor.


How to remove text written over top of FloatVectorProperty I'm writing a panel that displays a vector that in meant to indicate the direction of a normal.  Using FloatVectorProperty with subtype="DIRECTION" would seem ideal for this, but the result has the property name written over top of the control.  Since the property name is already written above it, is there a way to remove this name from the control display?

import bpy
from bpy.types import Panel

class NormalToolSettings(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):

    normal : bpy.props.FloatVectorProperty(
        name="Normal",
        description="Direction of normal in Fixed mode",
        default = (1, 0, 0),
        subtype="DIRECTION"
    )

class TestPanel(Panel):
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_PT_test_panel"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_label = "Test Panel"
    bl_category = "Test Panel"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout

        scene = context.scene
        settings = scene.my_tool

        col = layout.column()
        col.prop(settings, "normal")

bpy.utils.register_class(NormalToolSettings)
bpy.utils.register_class(TestPanel)

bpy.types.Scene.my_tool = bpy.props.PointerProperty(type=NormalToolSettings)

Set the text of the layout
If text argument is not set in layout functions, it defaults to the name of the property. Set it to "" to "remove".
    col.prop(settings, "normal", text="")

Note: will also take out the prop name written above. Can be replaced with
    col.label(text="Normal")


Whenever i insert a obj file, it's placed somewhere and idk how to get it normal Whenever i import a .obj file into blender, it gets placed as a orange dot. When i press numpad period, i see the object but i can't find the grid anymore?
I tried to move the camera to the orange dot but it didn't visible. I also tried to scale the object, nothing happend...

I would like to get the object on the middle of the screen. (where the cube is at the beginning)

Thank you for your reply!

regards,
Jonas

As far as I know, OBJs are imported relative to their own coordinate systems. So try to set it to (0,0,0) in its own environment before exporting.

Another aproach would be to hit Shift+S > Cursor To Center, and after that Shift+S > Selection To Cursor – after that, your object is centered.


Coffee cup looks foggy after rendering I’m following BlenderGuru’s donut tutorial, and right now I am modeling the coffee cup. The problem is that the cup looks kind of foggy after rendering (see attached screenshot). There’s a weird black-spot pattern that’s present on the side of the cup and in the cup’s shadow. When I turn off “cast shadow” in the lighting settings, the problem goes away. This makes me think it’s a problem with how the light is interacting with the glass material and casting a shadow.
I’ve tried a lot of different ideas I’ve found online, but nothing has worked so far. Yes, the liquid is scaled up so that it overlaps the cup. And yes, denoising is turned on. Increasing the number of render samples doesn't help.
I really appreciate any help!

Yeah, turns out I just needed to increase the number of render samples even more. I was originally rendering at 256 samples, and increasing it to 500 didn't make a noticeable difference (hence why I thought the problem wasn't related). But increasing the number of samples even further to 1000 made a significant improvement, and 2000 virtually solved the issue. Thank you and hope this helps anyone else with this problem.


is it possible to divide shapekey to small ranges? i want to move iris on eye surface ( eye shape is mostly similar to oval not sphere ) and i want to do it
with shapekey

the problem is , when shapekey value changes , it cross other surface of mesh ,
is it possible to split shapekey value to smaller part and define a deform pattern for each parts,
for example from 0 to 0.1 shape deform like x , from 0.1 to 0.3 shape deform like y and... .

i want to export my model to unity , in unity shapekeys works with no problem , but modifiers like shrinkwarp not . or can anyone suggest another way for moving iris on eye that works with no problem in unity engine?

i found the answer
best way is  add iris texture on eyeball (shrikwrap modifier not working in unity)
then  import model in to unity  , in unity add texture to eyeball material ,
for moving the iris must offset the texture from inspector and for eye movements must make animation from windows->animation->animation

making shapekey for iris is not a good idea.


tissue addon how to create pattern on sphere Hi I am trying to add a a cylinder pattern on the faces of the icosphere.(image 1)

Image 1:

thought tissue addon might work but can't get the pattern to sit correctly on sphere (it gets squashed see image 2)

Image 2:

However I have tried individually extruding the faces of the icosphere, then scaling down, subdividing edges... but can't find a way of making each one of those faces circular (so I can extrude then all out to make the cylinder parts jut out).

In reponse to answer..This is happening ..what am I doing wrong?First Image below

I'm the developer of Tissue. In order to create a symmetrical cylinder I suggest to use FAN mode, using instead of the full plane+cylinder component, just a third of it, like a single petal.

Anyway, it will not be perfectly cylindrical.

Alessandro


How do I make a fluid simulation so it retains its shape till it touches ground? I am trying to make one of those animation videos where an apparently heavy object is falling on a fragile object. But rather that heavy or rigid object turns out to break or be fluid.

So I made a hammer's head, and a glass. I turned the hammer [head] to fluid and kept it on a height. So when I bake the fluid, on the first frame only it's shape is distorted and it starts looking that its actually fluid.
I want it to keep its original shape and act as fluid at the same time.

In this image, the glass is kept aside because I wanted to run a try first.

One way to do this:

You will need two hammer head objects.  One of them is simulated as fluid, one of them is not.  I will call these the "hammer fluid" and "hammer static" objects for short.

Your "hammer fluid" object should be located in the position where you want the fluid simulation to start (i.e., the first frame where the hammer head touches an object / the floor).  For convenience let's call this Frame 100.  Using keyframes, the viewport and render visibility of the hammer fluid object should be set to OFF from frames 1-99, then ON starting at frame 100.  Once you have added the object to your fluid sim (as type "Fluid"), you will want to give it an "Initial Velocity" that is appropriate to whatever the hammer head was doing at the moment (e.g. falling straight down, moving side to side, etc.).

Your "hammer static" object should be visible from frames 1-99, then invisible starting at frame 100, again using keyframes.

From the viewer's perspective, the object will seamlessly transition from the static object to the dynamic object on frame 100.

In terms of the fluid domain, obviously it should be given the fluid material. It should also be invisible from frames 1-99, visible starting on frame 100. You would give the simulation an "offset" (Physics tab, Fluid section, under Time) equal to the transition frame times -1.  So in this case the "offset" would be -100.

Quick tip: you won't be able to bake your fluid sim unless you're on a frame where the fluid domain object is visible!


How can I check the chosen preset in Python? How can I check which preset a user has chosen via Python?

For example, I would like to check whether a user is utilizing the default Interaction preset or the Maya preset.

Is this possible in Python? Or can I only check against specific values (such as select_mouse)?

That's not possible in Blender's current preset system implementation.

Plain preset execution operator, script.execute_preset, merely executes the script file corresponding to selected preset and changes the menu title temporarily. It doesn't store nor provide access to preset selection info. I needed this feature once, and had to subclass the operator myself to get it.

Yes, you can only check specific values modified by the preset's script file.


Alpha Over node doesn't work correctly? Here's the first output:

The second:

And after using Alpha Over node:

Blend file:


How to fill the surface of a "wireframe"-sphere in Blender I have half a sphere together with a full sphere as separate objects in a blender file. I load them from a X3D file I generate externally. I get them as something, which seems to be something like a wire-frame to me (maybe different what Blender calls wire-frame-objects). Instead of this wire-frame I want a closed surface – one for the sphere and one for the half sphere.

The problem is that I am a total beginner in Blender. What I have tried so far is the following:

1) select one of the objects (let's say the full sphere, see first image)

2) ⎇ AltC -> select Mesh From Curve/Meta/Surf/Text

3) select Edit Mode

4) A then ⎈ CtrlF

My hope was that Blender only fills the faces orthogonal to the normals of the sphere. Unfortunately it does not work like I hoped. Could someone help me a bit. I am a total beginner to blender and mostly do not know how to access the options, if someone could explain it for an absolute beginner, this would help me a lot.

I attached a blend-file:

You probably have curves. So when converted to mesh, they are disconnected rings or arcs but this is not visible as vertices overlap.

In edit mode:

select all
remove doubled vertices (you find that in the toolshelf on the left using T to make it appear, or press W to bring up the menu to select it from)
then once all is selected hit F

I confirm this hypothesis after a test on your file.

Concerning the half sphere, same principle but you'll have to remove the unwanted face after that:

Switch to face selection mode CtrlTab, then choose 'face'
Select it RMB
Delete it X then 'only face'


How do you recommend I overlay textures on object 'Faces' I have started making this map as you can see below with the help of this team. I have made some textured images to use for the 'room' that I have made with CrazyBump. Now I tried to import the image as a plane. However that stretches the image out and is not what I am looking for. What I would like to do is be able to select individual subdivisions or boxes if you will and be able to say put this image on this box or that box.

How would you all recommend I go about doing this. I am interested in knowing some different approaches so I can look into the different options.

I have a hardwood flooring model I made that I would like to insert in the recessed parts of the image.

Thanks

EDIT:

I created a new project for a test bed. Added a plane, increased scale by 8 and then subdivided by 15. Next split the screen and made the new side UV/image editor. Next I went back to the original side and right click a box, then pressed B key and dragged over a random group of boxes. Next pressed U >> unwrap and then U >> smartUV project.  On new screen clicked image >> open image >> floor image

Now the whole thing goes pink at this point. Not sure why, even though the UV side of things is okay. Now I scaled the image out and then added the same texture from the material tab to the texture tab.

Now what I am left with is what I am talking about the brownish area around the textured squares I chose

On a side note, what books would be recommended to teach you how to use different function of blender.

First of all, import images as planes creates a new mesh, dimension as the image of your choice, unwrapped and with the texture applied: it's not what you're looking for, you want to apply a texture to your already prepared mesh.

There are many approach to this task:

In your case I would go like this:

Numpad 7 and toggle 5 to get orthographic top view,
select all horizontal faces,  U to unwrap, project from view, rename the UV map as something like "UV Top view".

Then H for hiding already unwrapped faces (Alt H to return to whole mesh)

Numpad 1 to front ortographic view, select vertical and visible faces, create new UV map (plus sign), rename it as "UV front view",  U to unwrap, project from view, and so on .....

Then choose different UV maps for every part of the mesh when texturing.

The concept is to create different UV maps mapping useful portion of your mesh in the most useful way. It's good to have a single UV map only if you want a seamless texture over the whole mesh, but I think you're not going to use the same texture on walls, floors and ceilings!

Then we can think about the floor as example of workflow:

Set a new material for floor, set your images textures (even with bump, spec, ...) select all floor faces, in the UV editor window select all and S - scale the "top view" UV map as desired scale (i'm assuming everything is tileable); in the Image editor you can use S X to scale the UV map along the horizontal axe, and S Y in the vertical one, to achieve the desired overall scale and minimum stretching of the texture.

You will have to specify to all your textures the correct UV map.

It's more difficult to say in words than do it: experiment it with a simple mesh and a couple of textures.


Fire effect looks different when renderd Why when looking at the fire in the view port looks better than when its rendered? And if I want the fire just to be static (not an animation) what do I do?I just render it without baking?

Thanks

First off I would disagree that the fire looks "better" in the viewport (but that is the very nature of using comparative and superlative adjectives to ask questions: at the end they are just opinions... Impossible to answer objectively...)

If the issue is how bright the fire is, there are many ways to control it.

The most obvious way is by increasing the intensity of the emission for the smoke domain.

It is very easy to push the values to the point where the brightest (hottest) part of the fire become white.

The issue becomes that the intensity of the emitter prevents us very quickly to deal with the color saturation in a way that resembles the images of fire that we are used to.

A different approach would be to change the intensity along with the way the values of the scene are mapped to create an image, so....

Welcome to the wonderful world of color management!

In this brave, and mostly unexplored world, you can have a lot more control on the intensity, and most importantly, how those values become the final image.

Given that you are exploring a version of blender that includes the filmic blender, you can find new ways to have intense values without having to loose detail in the bright areas.


Glass refractions in Eevee vs Cycles I'm finally working with Eevee in Blender 2.8 beta and initially I was so blown away at how high powered it was, thinking to myself "is this the end of waiting a whole week to render 1 minute of footage in Cycles?", but of course there is a catch that comes with not using light ray tracing for rendering. When testing a glass refraction material with some chromatic aberration between the two engines I ended up with completely different results:

Cycles

Eevee

As you can see Cycles does the proper glass refraction, but is littered with pixelated fireflies while Eevee looks smooth and pretty but has a completely inaccurate refraction that doesn't even show any of the backside edges.

So that leaves me with two questions:

How to have Eevee render with proper glass refraction / light ray tracing for glass and liquid materials
How to render glass in Cycles so that it ends up smoother and not so pixelated and fuzzy

Ultimately I want the smoothness of the Eevee render with the realistic refraction of Cycles. I appreciate answers for either engine since I will likely be using both depending on the situation.

This is because of Eevee being a Real-Time Render Engine and it has to take shortcuts with materials such as glass.
Cycles on the other hand is a Ray-Tracing Render Engine which will give more accurate results compared to Eevee.


Same rendering gives different noise amount I usually render my single frame projects with the SheepIt-Renderfarm as animation of low-sample frames. But I experience great differences in the noise amount between some of the frames. For example, seed 5 (top) and seed 41 (bottom):

As you can see, one seed is way noisier than the other. There are several seed with less noisier result and the quality is always the same, like if some of my frames had been rendered with twice the samples.

Why are some seed noisier than others? How do I find out those? Is this even seed related?

I also tried the "split frame" function of the farm where each frame is rendered in 4 different tiles. [Imagine a rendering like the seed 41 one, but with seed 5 in the bottom left half of the picture - I'll add it later] There is the same effect, but on a single frame. So: same .blend file, same frame, same seed, different result. Why?

I'm not sure i have an explanation for that.

The faulty frames were rendered by two different users (5 for one user, 1 for the other), on different hardware (4 cpu, 2gpu). Only "windows" was the same but i don't know which version.

The Blender version used by SheepIt is actually the one from Blender Foundation, I just remove the blenderplayer.

Here are the binaries to verify, if that helps https://www.sheepit-renderfarm.com/media/binaries/

I'm also not modifying any seed value. Here is the python script I uss on a CPU render:

import bpy
bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device_type = "NONE";
bpy.context.scene.cycles.device = "CPU";
bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device =  "CPU";
bpy.context.scene.render.tile_x = 32;
bpy.context.scene.render.tile_y = 32


Vertices deforming although ungrouped (weight painting) Although I have specifically removed the problematic vertices from the hand vertex group they still deform with this bone. You can see the deformations in the first image below.

Blend file: http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=47788

Can anyone tell me what is sausing this issue and how to solve it?

Many thanks!

I checked the file: nothing is wrong in the hand bones, but remember that if mesh deforms something else must have weights for it.

In this case is (at least) another bone - maybe you selected it inadvertently while assigning weights to the hand mesh.

See how: you start with this

but moving "UpperLeg.R" bone, you see how hand fingers deform

so while you move the "intended bone" (Hand.R), the distance form "UpperLeg.R" changes and thus the deform influcence, so you get those strange deforms...

hth


How to animate folding a paper plane in blender 2.8 I have made a paper plane by folding a flat mesh plain with a mirror modifier.
I would like to animate the folding from start to finish.
Is there a quick simple way to do this?

You could try assign the model with shape keys. You can assign some bones to the shape keys and with some drivers that could fold up each section, with out going through each side one at a time, and key frame it later.


Simple Masking/Stencil in the VSE How do you do a basic image mask in the Video Sequence editor?

I have two images that I want to mix together using a third image, where the black pixels will mean showing the first image, and the white pixels showing the second. Like so:

(First and second images mixed using the third image, the mask, resulting in the bottom image)

This is trivial in the compositor, but I have several dozen shots to do this for so I'd rather not make a mess of scenes and compositing. How can achieve this same result inside the VSE alone?

You can use a mask strip modifier:

In the above example scene1 contains a cube, scene2 contains a Suzanne, and mask_sequence is a black and white mask.

The mask modifier can use either a mask or another VSE strip to modify the transparency of the modified strip according to the darkness of the mask. If you set the blend type of the modified strip to Alpha over, the strip(s) underneath will show through the transparent parts.


how to flip normal direction in blender I  am following a blender beginner tutorial by blenderguru and he is me how to make a doughnut.so we wanted to make sprinkles and he said we needed to change normal direction to face inwards. in his blender(which is an older version), you can do that by selecting the 'shading/uv's' section in the tool bar. however, the new version doesn't have it there. Can someone tell me where it might have been moved?

anyhelp will be appreciated

Flip Normals

(re the title "How to flip normals")

In edit mode, select the faces you wish to flip normals and

Mesh > Normals > Flip Normals


objects.delete doesn't remove completely I have this part of code in my script:

for i in bpy.data.objects:
    if ((i.type == "CAMERA") or (i.type == "LAMP") or (i.name == "Material_Holder")):
        i.select = False
bpy.ops.object.delete()

when I run this code, all objects except the specified in the if-statment are deleted in the scene. Later in the script I have this part:

for material in bpy.data.materials:
    if (not (material.users)):
        bpy.data.materials.remove(material)

which checks, if material is assigned to anything and if not, it deletes it. This part does esentiallt nothing. My code creates hundreds of objects and dozens of materials for them. Objects are deleted by the first part, materials are not deleted by the second part. I tried printing material.users and it seems to me, that the objects are still somwhere and have their materials assigned. How can I prevent this?
The whole code:
import bpy

matrix_size = 3

(...)

materials = []
matrix_range = range (matrix_size)

changeable_material = bpy.data.materials.get("Material")

material_value = 0

for i in range (matrix_size):
    (...)
    materials.append (changeable_material.copy ())
    materials [-1].node_tree.nodes.get("Value").outputs [0].default_value = material_value
    material_value += 1 / matrix_size
    for j in range (matrix_size):
        matrix [-1].append ((i * j) % matrix_size)
        cubes [-1].append (0)

bpy.ops.object.select_all(action = "SELECT")

for i in bpy.data.objects:
    if ((i.type == "CAMERA") or (i.type == "LAMP") or (i.name == "Material_Holder")):
        i.select = False
bpy.ops.object.delete()

#removes all unused materials
for material in bpy.data.materials:
    if (not (material.users)):
        bpy.data.materials.remove(material)

bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add()
base_object = bpy.context.object
base_object.name = "base cube"
base_object.data.materials.append (changeable_material)

base_object.scale = (0.5, 0.5, 0.5)

bpy.context.scene.objects.active = base_object

arrayOne = base_object.modifiers.new (name = "arrayOne", type = "ARRAY")
arrayOne.count = matrix_size
arrayTwo = base_object.modifiers.new (name = "arrayTwo", type = "ARRAY")
arrayTwo.count = matrix_size
arrayTwo.relative_offset_displace [0] = 0
arrayTwo.relative_offset_displace [1] = 1

bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply (modifier = "arrayOne")
bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply (modifier = "arrayTwo")

base_object.select = True
bpy.ops.mesh.separate (type = "LOOSE")

for i in bpy.data.objects:
    if ("cube" in i.name):
        bpy.ops.object.select_all(action = "DESELECT")
        i.select = True
        bpy.ops.object.origin_set (type = "ORIGIN_CENTER_OF_MASS")
        cubes [int (i.location [0])][int (i.location [1])] = i

for i in range (matrix_size):
    for j in range (matrix_size):
        if cubes [i][j].data.materials:
            cubes [i][j].data.materials[0] = materials [matrix [i][j]]

except I want to run it for much higher values of matrix_size (this makes matrix_size number of materials and matrix_size * matrix_size number of objects)

Selecting the objects and letting bpy.ops.object.delete() remove them may not be a good idea, not least due to the performance of the bpy.ops calls. Maybe you can get the list of the selected objects using bpy.context.selected_objects. Then iterate over the objects and call:

for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    if(obj.type == 'MESH'): #Maybe this is superfluous in this case
        bpy.context.scene.objects.unlink(obj)
        #material.users count is not reduced yet, even if object is gone from the scene
        bpy.data.meshes.remove(obj.data)
        #now material.users count is reduced by one
        #(Just be careful with the above call, since multiple objects can share the same data)
        bpy.data.objects.remove(obj)


Is it possible to have smooth shading on only for rendering? I'm tired of switching back and forth smooth shading for all my objects in the viewport before rendering. Is there a way to have it only turned on for rendering similar to the buttons in modifier for example?

Alternatively is there a way (possibly a script) with which I can set all meshes to smooth/flat with one button only?

Thank you!

We can create an operator that will set the shading for all objects. This can be added to the render panel so you have buttons to set smooth and flat shading right above the render button. I have created an addon here to do this, which you can download and install. If you enable the addon and click Save User Settings you can have it enabled every time you run blender.

Keyboard shortcuts can also be setup for quick access, in the addon I setup ⎇ AltF12 to set smooth shading and ⇧ Shift⎇ AltF12 to set flat shading.


How do I close a view Window? I've read and seen all the questions and the directions say that you have to click and drag the tab used to create a new window over the window until an arrow appears and it will remove the view window. BUT I KEEP TRYING AND NOW I HAVE OVER TWENTY WINDOWS OPEN I NEEEEEDDDD HEEELLPPPP! can someone tag a youtube video or make a better description of how in hell im supposed to close these lol.

It's a bit tricky, because to choose the window you want to close you'll have to first drag the cursor towards the neighboring window.

Otherwise you'll just duplicate the window.


Disable Tweak mode / hide screen space transform gizmos? I do not want to work in screen space. But every time I try to transform something in Blender I am confronted with the dreaded screen space gizmo. I just want to work in object space or world space. Never, ever screen space. Never, ever "tweak mode". It's super sloppy and difficult to control. How can I make the transform gizmos always operate in the current coordinate system?
After much grief, I was able to figure out how to make the G/R/S hotkeys invoke tripod transform gizmos for Move / Rotate / Scale -- like in every other 3D program. But I cannot get rid of the white circle that transforms in Tweak mode.
Please tell me how I can get rid of the dreaded Tweak mode.

You can turn off the gizmos completely using the Overlays options at the top of the screen. I personally have them off because they don't serve much purpose once you're committed to the use of hotkeys to do all your transforms.


How to get current marker's name via python? I wanted to check if any camera is binded to the current marker.
For that I thought I would simply compare the marker's name with the active camera's name (bpy.data.scenes["Scene"].camera).
But cant't understand how to get the current marker's name.

Each marker has a camera and a name property. Easy to figure out using the python console:

>>> C.scene.timeline_markers['F_01'].
                                     as_pointer(
                                     bl_rna
                                     camera
                                     ...
                                     name
                                     ...

To get the cameras just iterate through the markers:

>>> for m in C.scene.timeline_markers:
...     print ("Marker name:", m.name)
...     print ("Camera object:", m.camera)
...     print ("Camera name:", m.camera.name)
...
Marker name: F_01
Camera object: <bpy_struct, Object("Camera")>
Camera name: Camera


bones not behaving properly My bones with the inverse kinematics applied just don't rotate/translate properly:

I would like them to stick together at the knee with the knee bending accordingly. Also if I set the higher leg as a parent I have this result:

I also tried to connect them with ctrl+p in edit mode but nothing changed.
I know that if I make the bones from scratch extruding from the tip of the bones I would probably solve the problem but I want to understand this behaviour.

To connect the bones you can reparent the bone in edit mode and make sure that you select connected rather that keep offset. You can also set this in the relations section of the bone's properties, it is a checkbox labelled connected.


What is the simplest way to generate a dodecahedron? I've been thinking of animating some dice and while most are easy to make, I'm having some trouble figuring out a way to generate a regular dodecahedron. I could hand build it but it would be potentially uneven. Would using the base of a 5 sided cylinder and then some variation on spin be the best option or is there a better way?

Go to User Preferences and Navigate to Add Mesh, install the Regular Solids addon and close the preferences window. Now if you hit Shift + A you should see a new menu.

UPDATE

In newer versions of blender (2.75 and up) the Regular Solids addon has been merged with the Extra Objects addon.

To create a dodecahedron go use Shift + A to Add Mesh > Math Function > Regular Solid.

Then on the toolshelf you can select Dodecahedron.


My tree branches have holes at the tips I'm using the Sampling generator and has you can see, for some reason, the little branches have these holes at the tips, why is that? And how can I get rid of them?

Use the Minimum Radius property under Branch Radius category to control the branch tip diameter while crating a new sapling tree.

You can also tick the option Close Tip as mentioned by Akados in the comments.

If you already created one then enter edit mode and select all branch tips and adjust their size with the Bezier Curve Radius property from the Properties Shelf Alt + S. You may want to turn on Proportional Editing

To easily select all tips you may use the Select Grouped operator with Shift + G and try to select by Radius.


Blender - Fisheye ( Panoramic camera not available in freestyle?) I want to render my project with Fisheye camera, but when I click render, I get an error message : Panoramic camera not available in freestyle? What does that mean?

You can not yet render a panoramic shot using the freestyle setting.

You must uncheck freestyle.

You can then try disabling panoramic view. (if you do not need it)

select your camera
switch from panoramic to perspective


Align rotation with the snapping target users interface? Hi this is my first question in this wonderful community.
How to change the color of button when clicked in active ? It's very tough to tell when it's active or not!
THANKS

Its pretty straight forward in blender

Option 1:
Please Go to;

User preference -> Themes -> 3D view -> Object selected

You may change the color to your own choice

Don't forget to save user settings at the bottom

Option 2
Alternatively you may fully change the theme

User preference -> Themes - Under presets there are lots of good ones


How can I link the mesh data of several objects so they all use the same? I have alot (like 50) duplicated meshes. i used SHIFT-D to duplicate the objects ,but then read that ALT-D saves memory. is there a way to link the mesh data (like using ALT-D) after i have used the wrong duplicate? attempting to go back and use ALT-D would take a long time.

The meshes i duplicated are all the same shape and size and only have different rotations.

Select the objects you want to transform and then shift select the object that you want to clone to make it the Active Object.

Press the space bar and type "link data".
(or press Ctrl+L and select "Object Data", or use the menu Objects>Make Links Object Data)

The selected objects will then use the data from the active one.


Blender Object keeps moving back to 0,0,0 I am new to blender, and I have just created a island using ANT landscapes, and I have build two boats for this.

Two boats on island
They are in this place when I am in object mode, but when I render it they appear here:

I check the position of where they end up, and it is both where they were imported and 0,0,0. Although, all the other objects I have imported have not changed position. Does anyone know about how to fix this or have experienced this problem?

I think you've accidentally added a keyframe. You can confirm by moving the boat (with G) and then pressing the right arrow to scroll to a different frame. If the boat snaps back to where it was before you moved it, then it's been keyframed. Applying the location will keep the boat from moving... but it won't solve the problem. If you want to move it again, you'll have to apply the location again, and so on.

If the above reveals a rogue keyframe, open the graph editor and press A to select all, then Delete to delete all the keyframes (assuming you aren't animating anything that you want to keep; otherwise, just delete the keyframes for the boat).

You can delete all the location keyframes for the boat by selecting it and then looking in 3D view > Properties panel (N in the 3D view) > Transform > Location:

If the values are highlighted green, or yellow like in the above screenshot, that means they have a keyframe. (Yellow means there is a keyframe on this frame, green means there is a keyframe on some other frame).

To delete all location keyframes on that object, right click on one of the values and select Clear Keyframes:


How to light a scene with a skybox as background and have a HDRi or sun in the world environment? How can I have a Skybox object that works as background all around my scene but also have a HDRi or Sun to produce ambient light?. In my current setup the Skybox blocks the HDRi or Sun.

If you are using a mesh for the "skybox", all you need to do is make the material visible to camera, but transparent for all other rays. A light path node is used as mix factor in a mix shader node for this.
Then use a normal environment texture in the world.

If you have a real skybox texture then use it on the world as enviroment along with another texture to light the scene, and use a light path node to control the visibility. The camera will see one background, but the scene will be lit by the other.


How to cut a cube in half I've had difficulty trying to cut a cube in half. I tried the knife tool at first, but that didn't work. I also tried using the loop cut too, but it just extrudes. I'd like to be able break it off into two entirely separate objects.

It is fairly simple, but it does utilize the obscure Rip tool (V). Here are the steps:

Tab into Edit Mode.
Key Ctrl + R and move the cursor around until the pink suggested loop cut is dividing the cube in half in the manner that you want it to (X, Y, or Z).
 LMB, then immediately  RMB to add the loop to the actual mesh. Make sure it remains selected; nothing else should be selected.
Key V to rip the vertices (opposite of Alt + M / W > Remove Doubles) and once again immediately  RMB. You should now have two identical copies of the loop cut that you previously added in the same place and one of them selected.
Key Ctrl + L to select the rest of one half of the cube.
Key P to open the Separate menu and select By Selection.
Tab out of Edit Mode. You should now have two identical halves of a cube.

The Procedure:

Edit (Optional Steps 6.5, 8, 9, and 10):

  6.5. Use Alt +  RMB to select the loop cut on the remaining half of the cube and key F to create a face.

  8. Select the other cuboid half and Tab into Edit Mode.

  9. Use Alt +  RMB to select the loop cut on the remaining half of the cube and key F to create a face.

  10. Tab out of Edit Mode.

Steps 6.5-10:


Is there a find/replace names I imported a model via FBX and I want to delete all the prefixes added including the materials color names and bone names.

Is there a Find/Replace for names so I can delete all prefixes?
eg: Copy_HairColor => HairColor
eg: Character1_Hip   => Hip

You can try Proxe's addon here https://github.com/trentinfrederick/name-panel
and see if it will work for you. It is supposed to support batch renaming, so maybe that could work.

Edit: I will try to get some working examples in picture form tonight and update here.- craigo

From the author, Trentin Frederick:

  Summary

  This add-on allows for batch naming operations and displays object datablock names in a single panel within the 3D view, don't take my word for it though, check it out

  The whole goal behind this add-on is to consolidate names and naming operations, while granting fast access to a few options here and there, I hope that this add-on saves you a lot of time.

  Overview

  This addon offers a panel that displays object related datablock names below the object and object data name fields, offering quick access within the 3D View to all available datablock names, along with an occasional option or few, like a mini outliner, filter options are located towards the top of the panel and the panel itself is located in the properties shelf of the 3D view and in addition this add-on comes with a series of operators that save a lot of time when renaming datablocks, the operators are as follows;

  Auto Name

  This operator allows for quickly naming objects and those object's modifiers, constraints, object data and for pose bones, bone constraints. It works by assigning names based on type, the names used are defined by the user and can be saved with user settings. (Options saved with the current scene)

  Batch Name

  This operator is the big work horse here, through its various toggle options and input fields you are able to perform find and replace text operations (with regular expression support) to almost all datablock names in the file and control how duplicate names will be numbered. The pop-up is a bit clustered but is fairly straightforward to understand once you use it a time or two, the tool-tips indicate what the option is doing/allowing.

  Note - This operator can be accessed either through the item panel special menu or in the outliner header, it can be called from any window type, just search 'batch'

  Batch Name Copy

  This operator is meant to fulfil the need to transfer names from some object datablocks to others, essentially copying them and pasting to the targets, this is done on a per object basis unless the 'use active object' option is active, which will then transfer the source name from the active object to the selected objects.

  WARNING! - By default all three operators DO NOTHING, you MUST activate the appropriate filters in the operator's pop-up

  If you have any questions, comments, concerns or suggestions; please reply to this thread.

  Please report any bugs either on this thread or github.

  WARNING AGAIN! - By default all three operators DO NOTHING, you MUST activate the appropriate filters in the operator's pop-up."


Black Screen After Rendering My intro finished rendering then it went black (the screen). I it by pressing 'Play' but I only saw a black screen with the music playing. Can anyone help me get it back to the normal intro please.

Your image viewer is set to the composite. If you use nodes in your composite, it's possible you forgot to connect your last node to the output. The composite will just show up black, like you showed. If you didn't want to use the compositor, just uncheck "use nodes" in the node editor.

To access the node editor, just click the farthest left button in the 3d view, then select node editor, and make sure it is set to the composite nodes.

Alternatively, you can just uncheck "compositing", under post processing in the properties pane:


What are all the possible string you can use for bl_context? Based on the lists of inputs for bl_space_type and bl_region_types I'm assuming there is a set of special strings that you can input for bl_context correct? When I look at the doc I see

  TODO: explain the possible combinations
  bl_context/bl_region_type/bl_space_type)

EDIT: The Todo has since been removed and the options are documented.

Op here I found the answer here at the bottom of this Blender3D Noob to Pro, right after I posted this question. I guess I should of done a tiny bit more research haha.

  bl_context    "mesh_edit", "curve_edit", "surface_edit", "text_edit",
  "armature_edit", "mball_edit", "lattice_edit", "posemode",
  "sculpt_mode", "weightpaint", "vertexpaint", "imagepaint",
  "particlemode", "objectmode"


How to gradually reflect the texture and leave the material? I created a printer and covers, and with the help of animation I need to show how gradually the textures are superimposed on the covers (as in printing). I do not know how to do this.

How can you make the cases run into the printer blank and then the textures appear as you print?
File blender - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NA3jwEbCeywVtkg5HVg6ovmJ-JcnWqMV/view?usp=sharing

You can make a mask with black and white (image or a gradient texture) and then use [Object] texture coordinate with an Empty selected to determine the physical location of that texture. You can then animate the location of that mask by either animating the mapping node location, or by animating the location of the empty itself. This also works for scale and rotation.

Use this mask then on a mix shader between two shaders, one with blank and one with the materials for the covers.


How to model an old curved tv screen? I try to model an old tv.
Now I have a hard time to recreate the curved screen.
I tried inverting and extruding the area and then applying a sub surf modifier, but that does not work.

Then I had the idea to distort the plane twice via a simple deform modifier but that is also not the right solution in my opinion:

Also proportional editing is not really working:

How would you solve it?
This is the TV (screen) I’m going for:

ad Plane, Subdivide, Modifier-Cast>Sphere controled by Empty to get base curvature of glass

ad another Plane as TV-glass, Modifier-Cast>Sphere to set oval sides from front view, Modifier-ShrinkWrap to get base curvature of first Plane, Select edge loop and Extrude it in Y axis (to avoid shrinking this extrude create Vertex group of front faces and assign it to modifier)

select extruded faces, duplicate, separate ... and you have a frame, ad solidify modifier ... TV box as ussual :)

Note:
- use Subdivison Modifier as much as you need
- thanks to modifiers you can adjust front and side shape any time to make it more or less sphery :)


Render looks darker than Look Dev mode I have been texture painting in look dev mode. But when i try to render it, everything looks very dark. I have 3 sun lights in my scene, ambient turned on in Eevee settings. What am i missing? I really like the look of my scene in Look Dev mode, how can i achieve the same look when my scene is rendered too?

this is happening because you have different lighting setup in rendered view to the lookdev mode in lookdev mode lighting is done through hdri

if you just download the same hdri or just go to the blender's directory for that hdri then you can have same look


Emission Light Problem By adding an emission light behind the bottles, in front of the back drop I cleared up the issues with the black bottles as mentioned here: Clear "glass" bottle loses clearness in front of colored background

However by doing so it created a new issue when that same corrective light now blocks the image behind it, thus not allowing that image to show through the transparent water bottles.  For clarification the emission light is moved over slightly and shown highlighted in red so you can see that it does reside between the bottles and the backdrop. I need that back drop to show THROUGH the bottles. Ideas? Suggestions? Solutions? Thanks.

Select the emission Plane.  Set Cycles Ray Visibility Camera to False.

You may choose to locate the light or lights anywhere convenient.


Steering not affected by gravity? An AI I've created uses steering, is dynamic, but doesn't get affected by gravity. What would be a solution for this?

In the actuator, if you uncheck lock Z velocity it works for me.
Are you sure you have in unchecked? Can you share file?


How to get the Transform panel to show up again in Video Sequencer? You know anytime you Move, Rotate or Scale something in the 3D Viewport, a box pops up in the lower-left corner that shows how much and by what axis you did the transformation? This is super handy because it lets us precisely overwrite our transformations on objects. This used to pop up in the video sequencer also, but I started a new project using the Video Editor loadout and when I transform something, it doesn't pop up. Hitting "T" doesn't make it show up either. Where did it go? How can I get it back? I need it. This is Blender 2.80 on Windows 10, btw

Press F9 to adjust last operation.

It was never implemented in the VSE to pop up automatically like in the 3D View, but it'll soon be: https://developer.blender.org/D6210


Paint over Render in compositor I am trying to figure out the proper workflow setup to manually paint onto a render within Blender.

I want to:

Render an Image
Run it through a compositor node setup
Be able to manually paint on it afterwards, but non-destructively.

For it to be non-destructive, I need some sort of new layer. I want to be able to paint on top to add more light/shadow, lineart, color correction, etc. My first thought was to make a blank image and alpha-over it over the whole render in the compositor, and then paint on that. However, I don't seem to be able to have it overlay the render visually while painting, so I can't tell what I'm doing (the image editor showing the render is in one window, and the paint mode with my new image is in another, but I need them superimposed.)

I could also make new images or masks and combine them with the render in the compositor, but then I end up limited by mix modes, and still have the problem of super imposing over the render. If I just wanted to darken areas, then I could make a new image and combine it with multiply in a mixRGB node. But if I want to also lighten some areas, change color in others, etc, then I end up needing tons of new images.

Is it possible to make a proper multi-layer painting setup in Blender similar to what you can do in Photoshop or Sai? (I could take it into Photoshop or something, but I want to see if I can keep it all within Blender.)

By creating a new image in the UV/Image editor and using a mixRGB node to mix it with the render layer you can get the same result as a photoshop layer. Each image created and mixed in using the compositor will correspond to one layer in PS. You will find each blend type of the mix node will correspond to a layer mode in PS. The alpha of the image or a separate image can be connected to the fac of the mix node for a layer mask. We can also create and animate a mask. While the render result or viewer node preview doesn't update as you paint, it does update after you complete each stroke.

So while we don't get the simplicity of the way layers are presented and edited in the same location, we can get the same end results, even with some extra flexibility in how they are combined by using blenders compositor node system. The other factor to differentiate PS and blender will be the amount of painting tools available.


Tips For Modelling From Google Maps? So, I'm trying to model this building from Google Maps, however, I have a hard time getting the proportions right..

Attached are the images I used as references.

Does anyone else model from google maps, and maybe have some tips as to getting a good reference image?
Basically what I'm asking is the best way to go about modelling a building as seen from google maps.
I know it's likely possible, but when I go to do it, it doesn't go well.

The hardest part for me is that it's not so easy to get a front-on view.

I have searched google but to no avail.
I also didn't notice any suggested threads with this info.

Estimating the dimensions based on images alone is hard if you don't have a notion of the lens used, camera height and distance form the camera to the objects on the picture.
Finding dimensions for X and Y is quite easy in Google maps. There a tool to measure distance.
Click on the screen in your browser and select Measure distance.

That give us a solid starting point and a fairly accurate reference of the scale of things in the real world.

Make a screen capture of the image in your browser and import it to blender using the images as plane add-on (or create an empty as image) and place it flat at 0 on the Z axis.

At the bottom right of the image there is a scale for the map, you can use that to match the scale used in blender. Press S and re-size the plane until the scale is as large as 10ft in the 3Dviewport.

Make sure that the blender project is using the same units as those used in the image. In general it is a good idea to try to work in real world sizes.

Create the basic box shape of the building using the map as a reference (you might also want to have an image with satellite imagery that will reveal more details about the building). Keep that basic shape as simple as possible, you can add detail later.

The hard part of this project is going to be estimating the height of the building.
Start by Extruding the base shape in the Z axis to have something to work with. As a blind guess we can estimate that most buildings measure 10 feet per storey, so let's presume that our two storey building is 20 ft.

Add another image of the building to be used as background in the camera view. This time use street view.
(How to assign different background images for different 3d views?).

The next challenge is trying to match the placement for the camera in blender, so that the basic shape we created in blender matches the image of the building from google street view.
Set the camera to be at the same height as that of the google street view camera: 8.2 ft in the Z axis (this height might be different in other countries)
UPDATE:
The URL for google maps does provide some information that makes setting the camera a less painful process.

In addition to the latitude and longitude you can find:
y Is the field of view. It is not in degrees, it has to do with zoom levels in the browser, but by trial and error I've matched google maps "50y" to 90 degrees in blender.
(To set the camera's field of view change the settings on the lens section from millimeters to field of view so that you can use values in degrees)
h:  heading, in degrees relative from true north (0). In blender that translates to rotation values on the z axis. Note that for blender the numbers would be negative. NorthEast would be 45 in google maps, and -45 in blender.
t: Pitch angles are measured with positive values looking up and negative looking down. 90t would mean that the camera is looking straight, matching a 90 degree rotation on the X axis for blender's camera
Now move the camera in the x and Y axis and try to place it at the point where the the vertices of the object match the picture. Pay especial attention to the known dimensions, in this case the outside walls, at the point where they meet with the ground. Don't worry so much about the height, because we can't know for sure if our estimate is accurate. As long as the building matches in the X and Y dimensions we should be fine.

It will take a bit of trial and error to match the vanishing points of the building with the image by adjusting the position of the camera back and forth, maybe changing the rotation and refining the the lens size (field of view).
Once you have a decent match for the placement, then you can adjust the top vertices of our 3D building to match the correct height in the image. In this example the building is taller than the estimated 20 ft.
.

From there on, you can use more cameras and match them to the scene to refine the geometry and you could even do texture mapping based on the images.

Additional notes:
To navigate in the viewport while viewing through the the camera you can lock the camera to view

This link might be helpful:
How do I align my grid to background footage?, note that by doing that the camera height cannot be locked
If the field of view is clearly wrong or inaccurate you can use a tool like Blam to find out the correct lens for the camera.
If anyone has more information on how tho get the camera data from google street view please feel free to edit this answer.
Seems like the API for google street view  you can generate images with known parameters, as far as field of view and rotation (pitch) that will make the following procedure much easier and with accuracy...


uv pack islands to fit/cover all area I have uv layout like in the image. I just want to force it to occupy the empty area in the right (Right now it's only cover the left area) . How can do this ? but keep the overal rough shape without making all become square. So basically just like to scale it X direction but do it automatically to fit the space.

Thanks

blend file :
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18DxOHq_wxzXHrv7gVvsswGNwl8D-4Lwe?usp=sharing

Choose Top Ortho view, enter in Edit mode, select the whole mesh, press U > Project From View, and click on the Scale to Bounds option on the bottom of the left menu (displayed with T), or choose directly Project From View (Bounds).


How to shift layers 4 layers ahead I have 10 layers all filled up, and i need content from layer 5-10 to be moved to layers 11-16, as i need more layers in-between.

Is there a shortcut or add-on for this or do i need to go through all layers and move the content one by one?

I don't know of any add-on that specifically has a bump up by n layers feature, Blender has a massive eco-system for add-ons. Sometimes it's  easier to write a small script than to go looking for an add-on.

Here a small script that moves all items that appear in layers {5,6,7,8,9} up by 5 layers to {10,11,12,13,14} respectively. (I think you accidentally gave an example that is off by one)

You may want to test how this works in a small dummy .blend file, so you are confident using it in a production scenario.

paste this directly into the TextEditor and press Run.

import bpy

for obj in bpy.data.objects:

    # let's deal with a simple case: is it only on one layer?
    if obj.layers[:].count(True) == 1:
        found_index = obj.layers[:].index(True)
        if (5 <= found_index <= 9):
            new_index = found_index + 5
            obj.layers[:] = [i==new_index for i in range(20)]


Replace textures with colors in OBJ file? How can you use Blender to replace textures with solid colors?

Take this model: https://poly.google.com/view/aAp0r0v9D-t.

The model has defined geometries for eyes, but uses texture to add color.

1) If we instead want to use solid colors for the eyes instead of using textures, how could you accomplish this?

2) What if we want to separate each eye, i.e., let each eye be a different color?

In Object mode, select the object you wish to change colours on and click on the little ball icon at right.
This opens up the object's material channels or 'slots'.

Each face on an object can have one material slot which can be shared by other faces in that same or even other objects. With your cursor in the 3D window and the object selected. (RMB)  you can then access it's material slot(s)

Get into Edit mode (press TAB) and select just one of the faces you wish to de-texture.

In the materials panel at right, open up the "Diffuse" tab  and scroll to the top to see the list of materials this object is using.

The one that belongs to the face you've selected should be highlited.

Go up to the icons at the top again and select what looks like a multicoloured square.  That's the texture panel that is attached to the currently selected material slot.

Open that and scroll up to the top.  You'll see a list of textures.  There can only be one texture attached to each material slot so the one concerned with the selected material should be highlited.

Underneath that list is a one line slot that dispays the same name as the highlited one above.

To it's right there's a big 'X' .   That's what you have to click on to delete this texture slot.  If there's more than one showing, they're stray entries anyway so you can delete any you see there.  It won't affect other material slots that may be using those.

Once that's gone you're back to the basic colour that's showing in the material slot.

You can change this by opening the materials again and opening the 'Diffuse' tab, clicking in the small coloured  window.  A colour wheel will present itself.  Choose the colour by dragging the tiny white dot around.  To exit, press ESC.

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To re-colour faces, select the object, then go to Edit mode, (press TAB) and then press ALT-TAB and selct "Faces".  This which will place you in the "Faces mode. (amazingly)

In the 3D window you will see the faces associated with that object, all with dots in them.  Right clicking on any of these will highlite them.  Hold Shift down to multiselect.

Once selected, press the Plus sign to the right of the uppermost list.  A new (blank) slot will appear up there.  Give it a name by clicking in the slot below with an X at it's immediate right.  It may well have the default name - "Material" already in there.

Once named, click the "Assign" button.  Those surfaces selected will all take on this new material slot.

So - you can have a different materials or colours for each face if you wish, or the same material can be shared by several faces.

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If you have queries about this particular answer just leave a comment here.
They will be emailed to me.

Additional Info -

Have come across a new question relating to your own...  The answer has an animated demo!

The link -

Question on reflections


Selected features not highlighting I can't seem to get selected edges and faces to highlight in edit mode.  Selected vertices show fine, and if I toggle display face centers on, I can see also see selected faces (but only because the center vertex highlights).

Things I've tried so far:
- Overlays are ON
- "Outline Selected" is ON
- Edges, Faces, and Center are all turned on under mesh edit mode

I am able to select edges and faces and manipulate them, I just can't see which ones are selected (in other words, not a problem with selection mode).  This isn't one particular file; I can start up Blender and try to edit the starting cube and no edges/faces highlight.

Blender 2.82a
AMD Radeon HD 7770 GPU

The option is settable in the Viewport Overlays.


Curve modifier not working, Can only deform along z axis I am working with the curve modifier for the face of a character I'm making. I'd like to be able to curve the mouth to make facial expressions. But I can't get the sides of the mouth to come inwards, it just acts like the curve vertex has moved vertically. I can get the lips to move up and down, but not sideways.

this works (moving on z as expected):

this doesn't (moving on z, but should move on x):

Any help appreciated. Thx.

Update:
Lets suppose I wanted to be able to make a face like the one made below. This is what i mean by I want the sides of the mouth to come inwards. By making the sides of the mouth closer to one another, with the curve. (I did not use the curve in this example)

Not really sure what is worng with your curve specifically, but replacing it with a Bezier Curve instead of a NURBS Path seems to solve the issue.

Converting didn't seem to be enough


Blender Cycles Hair Transparency Problem I'm new here, but I made an account just to ask this.

Lately I've been working with an imported XPS model, but I haven't finished putting the textures on in Cycles yet. However, the hair (eyelashes and front hair) that I have textured doesn't seem to have working transparency. The hair strand indicated below seems to be 'transparent', but I don't know where the solid light blue color is coming from in the render; if I mess around with the nodes for that hair it usually ends up either turning the rendered blue part black or turning the entire strand black.

Does anyone have a fix? It would be greatly appreciated.

After scratching my head for a few days I found the problem. There's a whole duplicate hair mesh which isn't visible from the front while editing, but shows up during renders. I went behind the model and loaded the texture onto the duplicate and everything works fine. Even the lashes.


How can i make my Cycles Cloth Shader to look Translucent Hey i Created this Shader which i think really gives good results on cloth but i want to have a bit translucency in it but cant figure out the best way somethign with SSS maybe ? I dont know. You can Improve my Shader or give an even better Shader as Answer if you want.

PS: I figured out best way is with SSS just need to figure out the correct settings

I think with some tweaking, you could get this flag material to look better using a glossy or a velvet shader:

The idea was to recreate the actual threads and have the space in between them be transparent.