Why does the collada exporter not export texture references? I've been having trouble exporting collada objects from blender, so I stripped everything back and textured a single cube, and exported it.

This is a completely trivial model, one cube, with one material assigned to it, the material has a single 'g.png' texture assigned to it.

The exported collada data looks like this:

  <library_materials>
    <material id="Material-material" name="Material">
      <instance_effect url="#Material-effect"/>
    </material>
  </library_materials>

Where:

  <library_effects>
    <effect id="Material-effect">
      <profile_COMMON>
        <technique sid="common">
          <phong>
            <emission>
              <color sid="emission">0.2879998 0.2879998 0.2879998 1</color>
            </emission>
            <ambient>
              <color sid="ambient">0 0 0 1</color>
            </ambient>
            <diffuse>
              <color sid="diffuse">0.2163267 0.1845119 0.2121569 1</color>
            </diffuse>
            <specular>
              <color sid="specular">0.5 0.5 0.5 1</color>
            </specular>
            <shininess>
              <float sid="shininess">50</float>
            </shininess>
            <index_of_refraction>
              <float sid="index_of_refraction">1</float>
            </index_of_refraction>
          </phong>
        </technique>
        <extra>
          <technique profile="GOOGLEEARTH">
            <double_sided>1</double_sided>
          </technique>
        </extra>
      </profile_COMMON>
      <extra><technique profile="MAX3D"><double_sided>1</double_sided></technique></extra>
    </effect>
  </library_effects>

This seems to be missing the texture data associated with the object.

By comparsion, exporting a wavefront object generates this .mtl file:

# Blender MTL File: 'basic.blend'
# Material Count: 1

newmtl Material
Ns 96.078431
Ka 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000
Kd 0.790000 0.790000 0.790000
Ks 0.500000 0.500000 0.500000
Ni 1.000000
d 1.000000
illum 0
map_Kd g.png   <----- ie. Blender is aware of this texture

So... is the collada exporter for blender just broken, or does it require some kind of special config in order to function correctly?

If the latter, how/what is required to make this work?

(NB for what it's worth, the UV coordinates are exported in the .dae, abit they obviously are completely useless without a texture assigned to them; I've also tried adding two different textures to see if the exporter needs that because it naively assumes 'one texture = don't bother, it's one texture for the whole model'. That didn't work either)

Start with the default cube. Ensure you've created a material or use the default material already created. Assign a texture to it as a diffuse image, say "lava.png". The important point here is to assign your object texture via a material. There is another way to directly texture mesh faces without a material but you still need a default material to get the Collada export to recognise textures, so I suggest going with this approach. If you export as Collada format now, ensure you select "Include material textures" checkbox in the export options. This will produce something along the lines of following XML element in the export file:

<library_images>
    <image id="lava_png" name="lava_png">
        <init_from>lava.png</init_from>
    </image>
</library_images>

But the library effect element will look something like:

<library_effects>
    <effect id="Material-effect">
        <profile_COMMON>
            <technique sid="common">
                <phong>
                    <emission>
                        <color sid="emission">0 0 0 1</color>
                    </emission>
                    <ambient>
                        <color sid="ambient">0 0 0 1</color>
                        </ambient>
                    <diffuse>
                        <color sid="diffuse">0.64 0.64 0.64 1</color>
                    </diffuse>
                    <specular>
                        <color sid="specular">0.5 0.5 0.5 1</color>
                    </specular>
                    <shininess>
                        <float sid="shininess">50</float>
                    </shininess>
                    <index_of_refraction>
                        <float sid="index_of_refraction">1</float>
                    </index_of_refraction>
                </phong>
            </technique>
        <extra>
            <technique profile="GOOGLEEARTH">
                <double_sided>1</double_sided>
            </technique>
        </extra>
        </profile_COMMON>
        <extra>
            <technique profile="MAX3D"><double_sided>1</double_sided>
            </technique>
        </extra>
    </effect>
</library_effects>

Note that the diffuse element defines a colour rather than an image reference. This means there's no 'link' in the Collada file between the lava.png and the diffuse component of the material associated with the mesh.

The missing step relates to the coordinate mapping technique used. Go to the texture panel for the lava.png and find the "Mapping" section. The coordinates entry is likely set to "generated". Change this to UV and export again with "Include material textures" and the diffuse entry will now reference "lava_png-sampler".
Something like:

<library_effects>
    <effect id="Material-effect">
        <profile_COMMON>
            <newparam sid="lava_png-surface">
                <surface type="2D">
                    <init_from>lava_png</init_from>
                </surface>
            </newparam>
            <newparam sid="lava_png-sampler">
                <sampler2D>
                    <source>lava_png-surface</source>
                </sampler2D>
            </newparam>
            <technique sid="common">
                <phong>
                    <emission>
                        <color sid="emission">0 0 0 1</color>
                    </emission>
                    <ambient>
                         <color sid="ambient">0 0 0 1</color>
                    </ambient>
                    <diffuse>
                        <texture texture="lava_png-sampler"/>
                    </diffuse>
                    <specular>
                        <color sid="specular">0.5 0.5 0.5 1</color>
                    </specular>
                    <shininess>
                        <float sid="shininess">50</float>
                    </shininess>
                    <index_of_refraction>
                        <float sid="index_of_refraction">1</float>
                    </index_of_refraction>
                </phong>
            </technique>
            <extra>
                <technique profile="GOOGLEEARTH">
                    <double_sided>1</double_sided>
                </technique>
            </extra>
        </profile_COMMON>
        <extra>
            <technique profile="MAX3D"><double_sided>1</double_sided>
            </technique>
        </extra>
    </effect>
</library_effects>

This should then import, with the texture intact, into whatever you're using, e.g. Assimp or a modelling package/viewer.

Hope this helps.


Blender can't add armature anymore So I recently encountered an error where I cannot add an armature to my mesh, so I reinstalled Blender and the issue still persists, I've tried looking up other answers, there's no vertex weight groups, I've tried to add/remove armature modifier but nothing seems to work.

Anytime I try to parent an armature to a mesh it's met with 'Clear parent'. I've tried clicking clear parent which does nothing, and now when I open other blender files the same thing happens.

I'm out of ideas on what to do, please does anyone know what's happening?

To help troubleshooting, select the mesh and check what's on its parent field.

Then, as thibsert suggested, try to use the menu instead of the shortcut, it looks like you're telling the computer "Alt P" and not "Ctrl P". Did you switch phisically the two buttons on your keyboard? Or wrongly mapped them in your OS?

If the problem persist, try uploading your file.


Blender sets Compute Device (CUDA) but doesn't use it for actual render (on EC2 GPU Instance) I'm trying to set up some automated render servers on EC2 using their GPU instance type (g2.2xlarge). I'm running blender in the background with a python script that renders the image I want and saves it to the right place in the file system. I'm using Cycles, and blender 2.69 on ubuntu server 12.04.3 (for HVM instances).

Background:
Running the script works fine and the image is successfully (and correctly) rendered and stored on the system.

I'd like to use the GPU though for added speed. I've set the GPU in python like so:

bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device_type = 'CUDA'
bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device = 'CUDA_0'

I know this succeeds because if I put dummy data in there (say "GPU" in the first one), it fails at that point and says that it can only be in ("CPU", "CUDA"). Similar thing for the second option.

I also know cuda is successfully installed and running, as I have no problems with nvidia-smi and the deviceQuery cuda sample.

The problem:
When I do run it, and observe the cpu with htop and the gpu with nvidia-smi -l, I see all the CPU cores at 100% but nothing in nvidia-smi. I also see no notable difference in time from running it without setting any GPU settings in python. So I'm fairly convinced that it's accepting the settings and then not running the render on the GPU.

*Note: I'm newish to blender so perhaps there's another set of settings I need to turn on to get the actual render to happen on the GPU? I'm using

bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True)

to render the image, it that helps anyone.

Any help would be much appreciated :) Also if I haven't described something enough, I'm happy to go into more detail on the setup.

Update:

I ran a separate blend file: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1742071/1m/BMW1M-MikePan.blend that I got from http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?239480-2-61-Cycles-render-benchmark

I'm running it with:

import bpy

bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device_type = 'CUDA'
bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device = 'CUDA_0'

bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True)
img_path = "/mnt/render-output/bmw.jpg"
rendered_image = bpy.data.images["Render Result"]
rendered_image.save_render(filepath=img_path)

This does work and successfully renders an image using the GPU (I can see it in nvidia-smi).

So my question is now: What could be wrong in my blend file / script that would make it switch back to cpu rendering? Are there limits on textures/vertices/something that would make it switch back to the CPU with no warning / error messages? Is there a way to run blender such that it'll fail if it can't run it on the GPU?

Update 2017-04-16:

Cycles CUDA settings (Blender 2.78c) appear to have changed in the API from:

bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device_type = 'CUDA'
bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device = 'CUDA_0'

to:

bpy.context.user_preferences.addons['cycles'].preferences.compute_device_type = 'CUDA'
bpy.context.user_preferences.addons['cycles'].preferences.devices[0].use = True

I found one more setting to check that sets Blender to use CPU. I rendered using this script(gpurender.py):

import bpy
bpy.context.scene.cycles.device = 'GPU'
bpy.ops.render.render(True)

Command-line was:

blender -b file.blend -E CYCLES -t 0 -o `pwd`/outpre -P gpurender.py

If you check in python, bpy.context.scene.cycles.device will probably be CPU. I've tested and this uses the GPU on my EC2 instance.


Problem with "Bump map" I don't know why its not working. :(
I'm new in node editor thx for understanding.

Actually the bump node is working, but the effect is not noticeable due to 2 reasons:

1) your texture gives only 3 values: one value for black, one for blue and one for darker blue, with no transition between one value and another, while the bump illusion is created through some gradients (it's the same reason why a beveled object has more appealing edges than its sharp version).

2) you don't have any reflection shader, which adds some details to the illusion of depth.


How can I find all the vertices/faces inside a 3D sphere in script **** The original post wasn't clear enough, so I've edited it ****

Is there a way for finding all the vertices/faces of objects that their coordinates are inside a given 3D sphere via script?

Thanks for clarify

Computing the distance requires a square root. However, both sides of the inequality can be squared so you lose the square root and end up with basically this:
r = radius of sphere
distance = (x - x0)² + (y - y0)² + (z - z0)²

where x, y, z are the coordinates of one vertex IN the sphere
and x0,y0,z0 are the coordinates of the vertex that you are looking for.

distance = radius  -> vertex in the edge of sphere
distance < radius  -> vertex inside sphere
distance > radius  -> vertex outside sphere

please use this code as example

import bpy
import bmesh
import random
from math import sqrt

def create_uv_sphere(name, u, v, d):

    #https://github.com/zeffii/BlenderPythonRecipes/wiki/bmesh_ops_primitives
    # bmesh.ops.create_uvsphere also accepts a matrix keyword argument,
    # which i've dropped from the example.
    bm = bmesh.new()
    bmesh.ops.create_uvsphere(bm, u_segments=u, v_segments=v, diameter=d)

    # create new empty mesh and fill with uvsphere
    mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new(name + "_mesh")
    bm.to_mesh(mesh)
    bm.free()

    # create object and link to scene
    obj = bpy.data.objects.new(name, mesh)
    bpy.context.scene.objects.link(obj)
    return obj

def calc_distance(v1, v2, radius):
    distance = sqrt( (v2.x - v1.x)**2 + (v2.y - v1.y)**2 + (v2.z - v2.z)**2)

    if distance < radius:
        inside =True
    else:
        inside =False

    return inside

#############################3

name = "my_uvsphere"
u=30
v=30
d=1
create_uv_sphere(name, u, v, d)
bpy.data.objects[name].select = True
bpy.context.scene.objects.active = bpy.data.objects[name]
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')

obj = bpy.context.edit_object
me = obj.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)

vs =bm.verts

if hasattr(bm.verts, "ensure_lookup_table"):
    bm.verts.ensure_lookup_table()
v1 =vs[0]

number= 500
counter = 0
a=-d
b=d
while counter <=number:

    v2 = bm.verts.new((random.uniform(a, b),
                       random.uniform(a, b),
                       random.uniform(a, b)))

    inside  =calc_distance(v1.co, v2.co, d/2)
    if inside:
        v2.select = True

    counter+=1

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me, True)


Why the displacement option in the material panel is missing? I have seen this option (in displacement - bump only) in a youtube video but I can't find it under my settings panel:

The Settings panel from your first screenshot is from the Cycles render engine. The second screenshot shows a project where Eevee is the current render engine.

The render engine can be changed in the Render Properties tab.


When rendering animation in Mpeg 4 with H.264 codec, the final product looks like garbage Rendering an animation with the video sequencer and using the H.264 codec with Mpeg 4 makes my animation look ugly. I've tried a few other codecs but they compress the hell out of the image. Am I supposed to pair the Mpeg 4 container with a different codec?
Images:

I added captions to the images, but the top one is what I see in the render preview and the bottom one is what I see when I play the final Mpeg 4 file

Just figured it out guys. Turns out that I'm just stupid and VLC media player doesn't have h.264 codec turned on by default or something.
The video plays fine when imported into lightworks so problem solved, yeah baby


Setting to brush texture follow the path of drawing? iam currently using sculpt brush of a animal fur, but iam not happy with how it works. All the settings make it like the stencil that the texture is in one direction and it doesn't look natural. Is there a setting that tilt the pattern as Iam dragging the mouse so the pattern is created naturally with the movement and it will tilt when the brush change direction.

(P.S. I would like to have the same effect as well for texture painting, if there is the same setting)

This should be the option you want.
Properties panel(N)>Tool>Texture

From manual:

Rake R
Angle follows the direction of the brush stroke. Not available with 3D textures. (Shortcut sculpting only.)

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.81/sculpt_paint/brush/texture.html


Mimic Sculpting Shader/Light setup for Render I'd like to recreate the shading that is going on in the Sculpting view for high-resolution render.
It seems to have a very specific light-setup and way of catching light
the soft specular, very thick black creases it creates and the almost solarized fill light (light blueish bottom-lighting)

Is there a Material out there that does this?

Thanks

If you want to render it in Cycles or Eevee, you can use this setting which allows to render a matcap:

The principle is to project the faces normal into the camera space so that we can hit the matcap texture by centering the projection using the mapping node, as a matcap texture looks like this:

You can choose the shader: here diffuse is used, but so the rendering is affected by other lights and shadows. If you want to avoid that, use the emission shader.

Matcap textures available in Blender can be found in your Blender installation path in '2.80\datafiles\studiolights\matcap'.

You can also use Workbench render engine. But in this case, all objects will have the same rendering:


Camera doesnt capture viewport in Blender 2.8 As per the instruction, if we want the camera to capture the viewport we have to press ctrl+alt+numbpad[0]. This works for native blender geometry. But when i import the object in .obj format to blender, everything seems ok but the camera doesnt capture viewport using the shortcut.

Is this a known issue?

From trying to replicate the described problem, I found this potential pitfall (which has been confusing new users for years). The camera actually does move to the new viewpoint, but only shows grey.
If that is the problem you're having... it's because each Camera has its own Clipping Distance limits.

Once you've moved it far enough out, make sure the Camera's Clip End is increased enough so it encloses the distance back to the origin.


How to completely remove an Animation Node tree from a blender file? I do not want to keep the animation node trees in the blender file, however, even when I remove the fake user from them, save, and restart the file, the animation node trees are still there. They won't go away no matter what I've tried.

Open the node tree in the node editor.
While hovering over the node editor press space bar.
Search for Remove Animation Node Tree.
Execute the operation.

This should remove the tree completely.

I know it is a bit weird that you can't just delete the tree like others, the reason for it is a bit more technical. I don't want to go into details now.

The next version of AN will have a button in the footer/header of the node tree to remove the tree.


Create internal mesh for object How can internal meshes be created for object like shown in the answer for this question - Soft Body - Preserve Volume when deformed

The answer provided a manual process that only works for object that can be extruded, and requires a lot of steps. Are there plugins or other ways to create a mesh like this for softbody simulations?

Creating generic internal geometry is tricky since it needs to connect to the existing vertices and it should ideally be relatively evenly spaced. Here's one way of achieving it with Python scripting :
import bpy

active_object = bpy.context.active_object
#TODO : Check that active_object is actually an object

current_mode = bpy.context.object.mode

#if not in Edit mode, go into Edit mode and select all vertices
#if already in Edit mode, check that some vertices are already selected - these will be used for the 'fill' (otherwise, select all)
if current_mode == "EDIT":
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode(type="VERT")
    selected_verts = [v for v in active_object.data.vertices if v.select]
    if len(selected_verts) == 0:
        bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='SELECT')
elif current_mode == "OBJECT":
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set (mode = "EDIT")
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode(type="VERT")
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='SELECT')

#....need to be able to specify the upper range for the 'fill'
num_levels = 4

for level in range(num_levels,1,-1):
    bpy.ops.mesh.extrude_edges_indiv()
    scale = (level-1)/level
    bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(scale,scale,scale))

    if level == num_levels:
        #First level - store it as we need it to be able to remove faces
        firstlevel_verts = [v for v in active_object.data.vertices if v.select]

    print(scale)

bpy.ops.mesh.extrude_edges_indiv()
bpy.ops.mesh.merge(type='CENTER')

#Find the new geometry :
#Centre vertex should already be selected from above 'merge' operation
for level in range(num_levels,1,-1):
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_more()
#All 'internal' geometry should now be selected

#Create a vertex group containing internal geometry
selected_verts = [v for v in active_object.data.vertices if v.select]
vertexgroup = bpy.context.object.vertex_groups.new()
vertexgroup.name = ("InternalGeometry")
bpy.ops.object.vertex_group_assign()

# TODO: Internal geometry will have faces. Possibly need to add code here to remove faces from internal geometry.

Paste the above text into a new Text Editor text block, select your object and click the 'Run' button in the Text Editor.
The script uses the selected geometry (or the whole object is nothing is selected or you're currently in 'Object' mode) and extrudes it inwards repeatedly until it merges at the centre. The created geometry is automatically added to a new vertex group named 'InternalGeometry' so that you can easily re-select it if required.
So starting from a default cube with a single sub-division to give it more edges :

Run the script and you have internal geometry :

The way the script works is to undertake a number of actions to extrude the geometry into sucessively smaller "shells". This is achieved by triggering the extrude in 'edges' mode then scaling by sucessive factors or 3/4, 2/3, 1/2, and finally merging down to a point. This should create fairly balanced geometry in most cases.
If you need more subdivisions you can set the 'num_levels' to a larger number and the proportions for the scale operations should be automatically calculated to suit.
The script isn't fully robust - so should only be run in 'Object' or 'Edit' mode (you can use 'Edit' mode if you just want to select a sub-set of the geometry for the "fill" - just select the required vertices before running the script). Also, it doesn't currently attempt to remove the 'faces' of the created geometry... this might be preferable in some cases anyway since if you're running a Cloth simulation rather than a Soft Body simulation you need to have faces present for those faces to be simulated as struture of the cloth (edges without faces are treated as sewing edges).
Finally, the new geometry is selected (by selecting the cetral vertex and selecting 'more' the correct number of times for all levels), a new 'InternalGeometry' Vertex Group added and those vertices assigned.
If you desire a more evenly spaced geometry you could potentially run this with a larger number of levels to fill the space with vertices and then run a 'Merge by Distance' to merge the resultant internal geometry into more evenly spaced vertices at that set minimum distance.


Reposition navigation gizmo As a pen user and newbie, I rely greatly on clicking on buttons over key shortcuts. As a left handed user, I would benefit from essentially flipping the UI horizontally, so tools are more reachable. This can be done with most elements, including the toolbar and sidebar (as per this answer). The only thing I couldn't figure out how to move are the navigation tools. Is there a way to move the axis ball and the buttons under it to the left of the viewport?

There may be an way to do it with BPY code that I am unaware of.
On the other hand, you can toggle the viewport 3D gizmo visibility by clicking the arrow icon in the screenshot, then clicking the option Navigate.
There is also the shortcut CTRL + ~ to toggle the gizmo visibility.


Cycles material to Blender Render Material I'm having trouble rendering the materials shown in Cycles render to Blender Render. Is there any way I can convert this?

Try Material Utilities Specials. It comes bundled with Blender. You may need to enable it in User preferences / Addons.

Also note that the recently bundled versions of the addon may not have the ability to convert materials. In this case, just download the addon from the link above and enable the downloaded version instead of the bundled version.

Then, with your objects selected, press Shift + Q to call the Materials Specials Menu -> Specials -> to BI Nodes Off.

Note that you may need to manually add textures you may have used in your material definitions in Cycles.


how to increase the size of the pivot in blender 2.8 how to increase the size of the pivot in blender 2.8 , i need to increase the size to large

You must be talking about the gizmo. In that case, Preferences > Viewport > Display > Gizmo Size.


Make triangle faces in stead of square faces I am new here on this 'forum'. I started learning blender about a year ago, and this day I am still  a bit learning. For 3D Modeling for a game I need to use triangle faces in stead of square faces to make sure that the faces are visible in game. What I do is just make a face to delete the normal faces in the model and delete them with the X and then 'only faces', and then select 3 points and press F. But to do this for the whole model that will take a very long time. Is there a easier way to do this?
Kind regards,
Jonne

Select everything in edit mode with A and press CtrlT
Alternatively, if feel that you might still need to make changes while it has square faces, you can add a Triangulate modifier to the model. This will triangulate the faces, but you can still edit it as if it had square faces. This modifier can be applied or removed any time you like.


Straighten all bone chains in an armature I have a hair rig with a lot of bone chains in a single armature. The bone chains are curved in their rest pose, matching the hair curving down around the character's head. I want to straighten out all the bone chains and save it as a new pose. The problem is that rest pose is already seen as 0,0,0 for rotation. How can I straighten these bone chains?

One option to do that would be to use Auto IK, which is located in 3D Viewport > Toolshelf > Options tab (use T to toggle open/close the Toolshelf). When Auto IK is turned on, you can select last bone of the chain and pull it straight to any direction you want.

Alternatively (necessary if your hair chains are directly connected to head), you could use IK Solvers. In Pose Mode, select the last bone of the chain, key Shift + I, select To New Empty, and in the Properties panel > Bone Constraints tab, set the chain length to the right amount of bones. Then, you can use the empty object created earlier to pull the chain straight.


Particles flying around I am following Blender Guru's tutorial and I'm making particles on my icing. Unfortunately, they are flying around my icing instead of just lay on it. What's wrong?

When in doubt. go back in the tutorial. Pay attention to the section where the author sets the particles. For static particles use physic type to none.


I am having trouble with emissions in my materials. How do I remove emissions? I am trying to model a simple room to make my sword model easier to understand (I was getting confused because the reflective material had nothing to reflect), but I cannot figure out how to make my wall material the right colour. I want the walls to be a bright yellow with small bumps on it. I attached a bump map and a normal map to the material. My trouble seems to be with the "emission" value in the "PrincipledBDSM" shader. I cannot get my bright yellow because of it. With the material colour set to yellow and emission set to black, I get a dark yellow. If I change the emission to yellow, I still get a dark yellow. I thought maybe I could change the alpha value of the emission but it seems to ignore the alpha channel. How do I get the object to follow a bump or normal map and let me chose the colour?

here is the file:
https://we.tl/t-46j7Osx6aD

try setting the transmission on 0, and emission black


Creating Sapling Tree in the Python Console I'm trying to create a Sapling Tree object using Python. The Sapling Tree is an object that comes from this add-on:
https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Curve/Sapling_Tree

I'm able to create it using the UI (Add > Curve > Sapling Tree Gen). I can see the command executed by the UI in the Info window. That command is:

bpy.ops.curve.tree_add(do_update=True, bevel=False, prune=False, showLeaves=False, useArm=False, seed=0, handleType='0', levels=2, length=(1, 0.3, 0.6, 0.45), lengthV=(0, 0, 0, 0), taperCrown=0, branches=(0, 50, 30, 10), curveRes=(8, 5, 3, 1), curve=(0, -40, -40, 0), curveV=(20, 50, 75, 0), curveBack=(0, 0, 0, 0), baseSplits=0, segSplits=(0, 0, 0, 0), splitByLen=True, rMode='rotate', splitAngle=(0, 0, 0, 0), splitAngleV=(0, 0, 0, 0), scale=13, scaleV=3, attractUp=(0, 0, 0.5, 0.5), attractOut=(0, 0, 0, 0), shape='7', shapeS='4', customShape=(0.5, 1, 0.3, 0.5), branchDist=1, nrings=0, baseSize=0.4, baseSize_s=0.25, splitHeight=0.2, splitBias=0, ratio=0.015, minRadius=0.0015, closeTip=False, rootFlare=1, autoTaper=True, taper=(1, 1, 1, 1), radiusTweak=(1, 1, 1, 1), ratioPower=1.1, downAngle=(90, 110, 45, 45), downAngleV=(0, 80, 10, 10), useOldDownAngle=False, useParentAngle=True, rotate=(99.5, 137.5, 137.5, 137.5), rotateV=(15, 0, 0, 0), scale0=1, scaleV0=0.1, pruneWidth=0.4, pruneBase=0.3, pruneWidthPeak=0.6, prunePowerHigh=0.5, prunePowerLow=0.001, pruneRatio=1, leaves=25, leafDownAngle=45, leafDownAngleV=10, leafRotate=137.5, leafRotateV=0, leafScale=0.17, leafScaleX=1, leafScaleT=0, leafScaleV=0, leafShape='hex', leafangle=0, horzLeaves=True, leafDist='6', bevelRes=0, resU=4, armAnim=False, previewArm=False, leafAnim=False, frameRate=1, loopFrames=0, wind=1, gust=1, gustF=0.075, af1=1, af2=1, af3=4, makeMesh=False, armLevels=2, boneStep=(1, 1, 1, 1))

But, when I copy and paste that command into the Python Console and run it, I get this error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.78\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py", line 189, in __call__
    ret = op_call(self.idname_py(), None, kw)
RuntimeError: Error: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.78\scripts\addons\add_curve_sapling\__init__.py", line 911, in execute
    addTree(self)
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.78\scripts\addons\add_curve_sapling\utils.py", line 1424, in addTree
    bend = props.bend#
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.78\scripts\modules\bpy_types.py", line 605, in __getattribute__
    return super().__getattribute__(attr)
AttributeError: 'AddTree' object has no attribute 'bend'

location: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.78\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py:189

I am able to copy and paste the UI command for creating a native object (i.e. a bezier curve), and that works just fine. I'm not sure whether this error has to do the Sapling Tree specifically, or applies to all add-on objects.

I understand that using bpy.opscommands are notoriously finicky, but I cannot find any other method to create the Sapling Tree since it isn't a native object.

I am running Blender 2.78 64-bit on Windows 10.

Using 'INVOKE_DEFAULT' Execution Context   to your operator call always creates default

bpy.ops.curve.tree_add('INVOKE_DEFAULT')

"Basically" this emulates the pressing (invoking) of button / menu in UI, and calls the invoke method, that in this case is required. This will create the default tree "quaking aspen"

Note using 'INVOKE' is calling the preset

bpy.ops.sapling.importdata(filename="callistemon.py") is hardcoded into the invoke method, changing other settings with 'INVOKE_DEFAULT' will have no effect.  Will always get this sucker when invoked.

Fixing to call from command line.

Edit: it appears the bend parameter has been not completely edited out of the addon.  . For now to fix, run the addon and right click on any operator property and "view source". This will open __init__.py from the addon in  your text editor. (Or go to addons/add_curve_sapling in filebrowser and open with text editor of choice)

Search for bend around line 713 and remove the quotes """ from above and below the property definition.

EDIT

As of 2.83 still need to make edit above as well as commenting out line 1611 in utils.py

#cu.use_uv_as_generated = True

Save the text file, hit F8 to reload addons.
Or for 2.8 run

bpy.ops.script.reload()

Now it will execute correctly with

bpy.ops.curve.tree_add(some_parameter=some_setting)

Test in 2.83 using command from question crunched into console I get

producing


How do I copy an object without copying the weights? I have a man I am making clothes for.  when I copy his upper body to build a shirt the weight painting for the armature gets copied along with the object but I don't want it to and I can't seem to erase all the weight painting from the copied object.  I was wondering if I could either copy object without weights somehow, or remove all weights from a object somehow.  Either one would work, thanks!

I figured out the answer. I had to remove the armature modifier from the mesh. I found that out here, http://blenderartists.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-235499.html


Why does the simple deform modifier not bend when created or strechted on the Y axis? When I create a simple cube and stretch (or create other cubes as one object) along the x or Z coordinate it and then add lots of loops cuts it seems to bend just fine. However, if I did all of this along the Y coordinate it messes up really bad.
Above I create a simple cube and stretched it along the X coordinate and add lots of loop cuts. I added the modifier and went to bend and it seems to bend fine.

Above I did the same thing however I did this along the Y coordinate and as you can see they both have very different results. I also selected X, Y, and Z-axis on the modifier itself still looks bad. I also tried adding an empty but the results still don't improve it. Is there a fix for this? or do I have to create everything on the X-axis? I am relatively new to Blender. Thanks.

There are two axes to take into account when using the Simple Deform modifier.

The axis of deformation, set in the modifier, around which, in 'Twist' and 'Bend', vertices rotate.
The axis of extent, which determines, according to the fraction of the object's bounding box along it, either side of the origin, how much the vertices are rotated.

The examples below have their 'Bend' deformation axes set to X, Y and Z:

as you can see, the axes of extent are Z,Z, and X.
I wish you could set both axes in the modifier. Personally, I always wind up using an Empty as an axis/origin object, and fiddle with it until it works.


Shading in object mode differ from sculpting mode? Here I have a model which I am sculpting. In Sculpt mode it is smooth, while in the Object mode it is not. There are no modifiers or anything, so what could be the problem ?
Here is the file for a part of the object:

.

Custom split normals data

Your model has a custom split normal data (probably due to a normal edit modifier that has been applied or because the mesh was made with another software...) that keep some face shading in that way.

If you don't need the data, you can clear it to remove the informations, or you can just disable auto smooth to make the split normals data not visible.


Duplicate materials - to create another similar yet modified one I have a material that took some time to create. I want another one like that, except for the base colours (I'm using a toon setup found online and I want e.g. brown for wood and grey for metal).
Please be advised that the question is NOT about copying a mat to another object.
Thanks in advance.

You can use the plus sign on the right of the material name to copy and replace your current material.
As you can see below, the former material is still available.

This plus sign is available for many Blender objects, like textures, particle systems or others...
But you may notice that it does not work properly in the node editor :

So, use it in the properties panel...


Is it possible to hide curve handles behind other objects? I'm working on a scene with a lot of curves and I was wondering if it's possible to hide the curve handles behind other objects in the scene? so just obscuring the curve handles behind other objects. You can see in the GIF how all these handles can be quite annoying and witch handles I want to be obscured by the basic face object.
I hope this is possible, thanks in advance

No, that is not currently possible.

What you could do is separate them into more objects and leave the ones that you are not currently working on in object mode or even hide them. You can also hide splines of the same object or parts of them in edit mode by selecting them and hitting h(alt+h to unhide all or shift+h to hide everything except selection)


Why isn't the shine/gloss showing on the character when I render? I don't know why the character is appearing like it has no textures. I made it so it should have gloss/ shine to it.

The problem is just what I expected,
There are no lights.
You are rendering a closed space with no lights. Of course, it's not gonna be visible in the render.
As you can see in the image below adding just four point lights set to about 400watts power helped so much. There is nothing wrong with your material you just don't have any lights for the material to reflect.
Also, the table cloths and some other things are pink because you didn't pack the image textures in the blend file you shared.


Using vtk module crashes Blender I install vtk with homebrew (brew install vtk --with-python3 --without-python) on my MacOSX system.
Now I go in the Terminal shell, I start python3. Then I write import vtk and it works.

For the record, this is the python version installed with homebrew.

Python 3.5.1 (default, Apr 18 2016, 03:49:24)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 7.0.2 (clang-700.1.81)] on darwin

And this is the one shipped with Blender 2.77a

PYTHON INTERACTIVE CONSOLE 3.5.1 (default, Feb  1 2016, 13:40:14)
[GCC 4.2.1 Compatible Apple LLVM 6.0 (clang-600.0.57)]

So I'm confident this will behave the same in Blender.
I launch it, go in the console and write the following:

import sys
sys.path.append('/usr/local/Cellar/vtk/7.0.0_2/lib/python3.5/site-packages/')
import vtk

And that's a guaranteed crash

This isn't the first library I try to use which crashes at import time even if it works just fine in any other python environment. I doubt there's an easy solution (don't mention recompiling please). At least people reading this will know there's a problem and won't waste too much time on it...

I have had success with this method:

I'm using Blender 2.78 with python 3.5. And I installed latest vtk through homebrew.

import sys
sys.path.append("/usr/local/Cellar/vtk/7.1.1/lib/python3.6/site-packages")
import vtk

No problem, and https://github.com/cwant/VTKBlender module has been updated, so you might want to check that out


Modelling and texturing specific wood flooring I was wondering how you'd go about modelling and texturing the wooden floor that can be seen in the painting below.

Of course the "module" is a square and the four wooden planks around it, but doing that and then applying an array to it would not give the same pattern (there would be twice the number of wooden planks around the squares).

Also when I tried to do it it looked really flat and "same-y", and wanted to know how to texture it so it looks more real and making the veins more "bumpy" and having the creases around the planks. WIP below so you can see what I mean.

Should I texture each plank one by one? How do I make it more varied/bumpy/veiny/dirty/creasy as in the original painting?

Thanks in advance.

The small bumps can be done using a normal map which essentially are images that tell Blender that the surface is not smooth, and to extrude the mesh in and out on the flat planes according to the normal map. There is a pretty good tutorial on how to generate normal maps from texture images here.

To apply the normal map to your object, head over to the shading workspace.

Add a new image texture node and open the normal map image. At the bottom of the image texture, make sure you select "Non-Color" under the Color Space drop-down menu.

Connect the color output into a Normal Map node, and that into the Normal input for the principled BDSF node.

If you want to go even further with realism, consider checking out this tutorial by Blender Guru. It's using an older version of Blender, but the same principles still apply. The only main difference would be in setting up the nodes for the reflection maps and all.


Subdivide Button in Blender 2.8 In Blender 2.8 i have been unable to find the location of the subdivide button in any menu in edit mode and have only been able to get it using the search key. The lack of any keybind is also making it quite difficult. I am using beta 2.80.41

The Subdivide operator can be found:

In the Context menu aka Specials menu (RMBor W in case of using 2.7 keymap)

As part of the Edge menu in Edit Mode

Or via Spacebar by searching for Subdivide


Quick Smoke Domain is Solid Black So I have installed a fresh copy of Blender 2.69. I launch it. Open a new project. Hit the space bar and type Quick Smoke. I select Quick Smoke.

On load of the Quick Smoke the Domain for Smoke is Solid Black and will render only as solid black. I have not modified any other settings.

I tried a new file with Quick Fluid. I get a solid Grey/blue Domain and no render of the fluid. It seems that blender is not working properly.

Please advise.

Mind you I have Not change any settings and am loading Quick Smoke and Quick Fluid from a fresh start new session.

Thanks,

P.S. yes I did search and found 1 familiar topic however the answers provided were not correct for this issue.

A general answer to this is because there are either no lights in your scene or you haven't computed the smoke simulation yet. To add a lamp to your scene, use ShiftA > Lamp and choose one. To simulate the smoke, you can just hit AltA or bake it to disk under Smoke Cache in the Physics panel (you must save the file first).

Also, the default Point lamp is a bit weak and might not illuminate the smoke properly depending on the angle viewed. A Hemi or Sun lamp should be sufficient for most tests.

Without any light

With a hemi lamp


How to display the normal values of a face? I want to know the orientation of a certain face by knowing the z vector(direction vector) of its normal. How do I let Blender display the values of the normal of a face?

You can toggle the on in the Mesh Display panel:


Materials and Textures not Showing Up in GLSL Shading Mode I understand that in the Blender Game Engine, the GLSL shading mode is generally suggested, because it renders real-time shadows, and it renders per pixel instead of per vertex like in the Multitexture shading mode.  I noticed that when I switch to the GLSL shading mode, materials, and textures don't show up in the internal player, and it appears as if all materials have been set to shadeless.  If I use the Standalone Player button, it displays all the materials and textures properly.  I'm curious if there is a setting that I should have checked, or if it is normal for this to happen.  Also, once I package my game, will it appear as if it's running in the Standalone Player, or the internal player?  Thanks so much for your help.

Setting the Viewport Shading to 'Textured' should help with this.  'Material' also works.
It sounds like you may be using 'Solid' mode.


Why my flag won't animate? I am making an easy flag, i did add cloth and collision to it and a windforce blowing on it, pinned the side close to the wind and yet the flag stands flopped but static. why does not it animate?
Thanks in advance

It seems you start the simulation from frame 1000 - It might be so that you need to start from 0 or 1. At least then it started to simulate for me (after adding the cloth modifier and pinning the flag)

You can increase the simulation from 250 to 1250 from the Cloth's cache settings:


Bake Taxtures to one Image I have a mesh which has many UV maps and a lot of textures applied to it. Everything is in one material.

Is it possible to Create a final UV map And bake the textures together in one big image?

It is possible. I have the similar case as yours. I've got a model, which consists of multiple separate parts. Each part has its own single material and own textures.

First join the meshes together with Ctrl+J.

Next create a new UV Map (press the '+' button in the UV Maps panel of the Mesh Data header and add a new image in the UV Editor window.

Unwrap your mesh with U-->Unwrap.

Go to Render header, set the bake mode to Textures and hit the BAKE button. It will create one big color texture map from the all textures you've apllied.

EDIT:
Here's a case, where object has one material and multiple textures applied to each face of the cube (via Unwrap-->Project from View(Bounds)). Every face has its own UV Map slot.

I then marked seams for the cube, unwraped it and created new UV Map for it (called 'all'). Then baked the Textures. And here's the result:

Hope it'll help you.


I can't seem to get Smoothing by Loop Cutting very well I was making a bridge but while smoothing with loop cuts, I just cant add loop cuts (on the blue part). I tried inverting the normal behind the faces(in the second pic) but it didnt solve it. I also tried to delete the faces and do them manually but i still cant add loop cuts and also increases the amount of loopcuts needed.
*Note: Note sure if that's needed, but i have a mirror mod on too.

It's the first project im trying by myself(out of my own imagination), so i dont want to be discouraged...

Nevermind i fixed it by deleting the face and used triangular faces instead. This let me add the loop cuts.


Play only one action at a time When i make an action, push it, then make a new one, the keyframes from the other actions are still playing, and blending with the new one, how could i play only the new one?

Mute the NLA

Can mute the entire NLA stack using toggle, as shown in image, or via scripting by setting the object's animation data use_nla property. When muted will only evaluate the active action. I call this the one in the "slot", that displays keyframes in action editor / dope sheet.

>>> C.object.animation_data.use_nla
True

>>> C.object.animation_data.use_nla = False
>>> C.object.animation_data.use_nla
False

A muted NLA stack is a convenient way to store actions with an association to their target object, mesh, shape etc.

Note also: NLA tracks can be muted individually via the similar mute button on each track.


How to link animation of object A to object B while keeping A's original location? When I link animation data of a cube to a sphere and animate, cube snaps to the sphere's location and take the same path while moving! How to link while keeping cube's original location?

One way to recycle motion without having the objects overlap is to use NLAs.  This is not exactly trivial.  You have to

place the action inside an action strip
put a location keyframe on the second object
change the action strip blending mode from Replace to Add

Another strategy would be to make the second object a child of an Empty or other object.  You can adjust the location of the parent to set the origin of the modified coordinate system.

In the following screenshot you can see the lower left window is the NLA editor illustrating that Cube.001 has one NlaTrack with the shared action, and its primary action is the offset keyframe.  The action strip has its Blending set to Add.

In the upper right outliner window you can see Cube.002 is parented to an Empty.


Using blender from a remote machine I used to stream blender via Steam or TeamViewer, until recently. I tried to use it, and it only showed blank screen. I tried turning hardware encoding on and off, didn't solve anything.

Is there anyone who is pulling this off ? If so, how ? Or anyone knows what might be the problem ?

(Windows 10 on both machines, main righ - Amd ryzen 5 2600, gtx 1070, 16 gb ram)

The problem was, TeamViewer.

I have installed some monitor driver because of it (which also prevented me from changing brightness of my monitor), after realizing this, I changed back, and the Blender worked ever after.

That's it, TeamViewer.


Blender 2.8 EEVEE render out viewport like old openGL render In the older versions of blender 2.8 it used to be possible (I did it once and I saw videos of people doing it) to render out the viewport (I think it was with an OpenGL render option), in rendered mode with EEVEE and it gives an, albeit lower quality than the final EEVEE render product, a function EEVEE-level real-time render of the scene from the viewport.

In the newer versions of blender 2.8 I noticed this option has been removed and I can't seem to find it (or anything about it on the web)! Does anyone HOW to still accomplish this functionality? It's probably just some built in function whose button was removed, but the function probably still exists... does anyone know how to access it with python, or do I need to make my own build of blender? If I need to make my own build to get the function back, does anyone at least know the C++ function to call to get it???


Merging Textures into Diffuse I have the following textures tex_c.tga, tex_n.tga, and tex_r.tga. Correct me if I'm wrong but it's Albedo, Normal, and Roughness which is used by PBR.

I'm trying to add this object to an old game engine that only supports diffuse.

I tried using Albedo as diffuse but it looks too dark, it's just not right.
I also tried using Roughness as diffuse it did look a bit better but still doesn't look right.

Questions:

Is there a way to merge the right textures to create a single diffuse map in blender?
A way to merge at least the Albedo and Roughness together into a diffuse?
What are my options?

(I don't have much experience so a step by step guide is quite appreciated)

Main concept:

To 'merge' these textures you will need PBR shader as stated by @Craig D Jones in comments section, then setup it properly with simple unwrapped Plane, add some lights (or HDRI), empty texture and finally Bake it.

PBR Shader:

There are numerous free and paid PBR node setups, it's up to you which one you will choose. You can even build one for yourself.

I'm gonna use for this answer the one from Jason Clarke - Simple PBR v5

Note:
This is a valid solution until Blender 2.79 will come out. There will be new shader, Principled BSDF which will do the same for you. I've tested it with newset bleeding edge build.

Object and Material:

Object:

First of all we need some object to bake our materials. Taking that most textures are square shaped we need to add a Plane - Shift+A > Mesh > Plane and check Generate UV's in Tools Panel or hit F6 right after Plane is added to the scene.

Material:

Now go to Node Editor, add Appended (How to append material) Simple PBR Node Group. Connect to it Image Textures accordingly to their names. Remember to set Roughness and Normal to Non-color Data. Also add Normal Map node.

As images I've used free PBR texture set from: http://www.3d-wolf.com/wall.html - Wall 2.

Lights:

This is pretty important step. Final texture look highly depends on it. Here is a little comparison between Albedo, Diffuse (both from texture set), Diffuse RGB (color as a background), Diffuse HDRI (HDRI map as lightning) - both from baking:

As you can see only HDRI map gives pretty neat result. You can also add set of lamps; it's really subjective topic so it depends on you.

How to add HDRI

Note: Go to Top Orthographic View (Num5 > Num7) and enable Rendered Preview (Shift+Z) to see changes, they will be nearly the same as final bake.

Empty texture:

Now when everything is good looking we can prepare texture for baking.

Go to Image Editor, click Image > New Image or Alt+N, set size of new texture to be the same or smaller then original textures, name it as you want (Diffuse in this example).

In Node Editor add another Image Texture node and choose newly created texture. Don't connect it anywhere and keep it selected (important!).

Baking:

Now go to Render tab and scroll to Baking, everything should look like this:

Hit Bake.

When it's done go again to Image Editor, you should have there result of baking. To save it - Image > Save as Image.

Blend file:


can i change the size of my thumbnails in the thumbnail browse list? my textures are a bit complex sometimes and the small thumbnails can not show me enough details to make me decide which texture i want to choose .
 is there a way i can increase the size of the thumbnails when i want to replace a texture for an object ?
i looked around everywhere but i can not find an option to do this .
in mac osx i can increase a thumbnail view , that comes very handy most of the time. i would like to be able to do this in Blender.
i don't mean to zoom in on the screen , that will result in a pixelated view.
but a real increase of the thumbnail size while browsing in the thumbnail list.

No, there no option to do this currently.

However there is a patch in the tracker to support this: https://developer.blender.org/T27830(It's not expected you should make your own patched Blender builds, just noting that it may well be supported soon)


F-Curve Modifier editor not showing I'm trying to use an f-curve noise modifier, but it was a bit too harsh for me. I was going to turn it down a bit, but the noise modifier was not showing up in the compositing modifier menu panel. (Sorry if I don't know the actual names of anything.) Barring that, could you at least tell me how to make the noise modifier less extreme?

.blend file: http://www.mediafire.com/file/00okkubgycxi0ip/window.blend/file

It turns out, all I had to do was click a little drop down menu in the compositing window and push TAB


Unable to move in viewport So I encountered a problem when navigating in the 3D view in Blender. Somehow I am not able to move anywhere. I can rotate my view, but I cannot scroll/move horizontal or vertical. In other projects I am able to move normally.

Is it possible you have zoomed in too far? Try selecting an object in your scene and hitting "." on the num pad to recenter the view port on that object. Hope this helps.


Face Appearing that can't be selected I'm encountering an issue in Blender 2.79b where a face has appeared in my mesh that doesn't seem to be a face.  I say this because in edit mode with face selection enabled (see screenshot) the face can't be selected.  Vertices and edges for this face also can't be selected when in the appropriate selection modes.  When you attempt to select the face the selection actually goes right through the mesh and selects a face on the backside of the model.  My problem is that I want to remove whatever this is so I can replace it with a real face; if I try to apply a subsurface modifier to the model right now this pseudo-face merges with the face next to it and messes up the mesh.  Any help understanding what this is and how I remove it is greatly appreciated; thanks!

P.S. - If it helps in resolving the issue, this "face" appeared after clicking "Apply" on a mirror modifier I was working with.  It showed up on the half of the model that was being "mirrored".

Perhaps it's just a face in another object?

Maybe provide your .blend so we can investigate quicker.


Python script to make all adjacent keyframes have constant interpolation I made a Cycles animation with motion blur enabled. Whenever the camera (and scene objects) "cuts/jumps" the render is a big, blurred sweep. How do I write a Python script that changes the interpolation mode of all adjacent keyframes to "constant"?

I have a lot of keyframes on numerous objects, and it would take a long time to manually set all of the cuts/jumps to constant.

I don't think you need to write a script for that... If you want to set them to constant, just select them, press T and select "constant".
However, when you work with motion blur (and multiple shots overall), you should always create multiple cameras and switch between them: to do so, duplicate you active camera and place it in the spot you  want, in the timeline select the frame you want your cut to occur, press M to create a new marker (you can rename the marker if you like), then select the second camera and press CTRL-B, so that from that marker ahead the second camera will be the active one.
This way you can have different settings between the 2 cameras without having to create useless keyframes and you won't have motion blur, because the camera doesn't jump in space to reach the new location (the blur you see is linked to the camera velocity, so even if the interpolation is constant you will always have some blurred frames when the camera jumps)


How to make a way to interact with a 3D model in different ways? (Make it rotate and light up) My goal is to make a program where I can interact with a model based on a Concept Modelling Language - rotate it, to view it from every angle and make certain parts of it light up when I click on it.

If any of you could provide me with a list of what I need to learn in as much detail as possible, I would be immensely grateful!

I already know how to model and texture, but that's about it.

The Blend4Web extension should be able to do a lot of the work for you. In a few steps you can have a live web display of your model allowing you to rotate, pan, zoom. Adding interactivity such as lighting up is possible too, but requires more work.

https://www.blend4web.com/en/demo/


Stop hair from falling through emitter mesh I have a simple sphere with a hair particle system on it. When I add hair dynamics, the hair simply falls through the mesh.

I would like the hair to fall around the mesh and collide with it (both the emitter object and other objects). I have read many other posts about how to get the hair from falling through the mesh, but all of them simply suggest turning on collision on the mesh ... which I have tried to do.

I am new to blender, so I am sure I am missing something obvious.

Enabling collision on the emitter doesn't work on the hair system, yet (2.77).
To achieve collision, you have to do a workaround with a collision mesh:
1. You have to duplicate your model.
2. remove the hair particle system on the duplicated Mesh.
3. Exclude the duplicated mesh from rendering (uncheck rendering in the outliner). 4. Enable collision on the duplicated mesh.

You may need to tweak the settings a bit though.


How can I save memory in cycles when I have a lot of duplicates? I have a scene I'm working on which requires a large amount of duplicates which I was planning to use an array for.

I recently heard if you use Shift+D instead of Alt+D and wondered if there was a way to do the same with arrays as it's going to take forever otherwise!

Instancing
Use instanced geometry (and objects) - instanced duplicates won't consume memory.

Alt+D will link the mesh data and save memory (Shift+D will not). You can have different materials applied to objects with the same mesh (link the material to object not to mesh)
Use Dupliverts/Duplifaces or Group Instances - this links whole objects (groups). This will save the most memory.
Use linked object (groups) from another .blend (Ctrl+Alt+O) multiple times - same memory savings as previous.

Multiple Renderlayers
Divide your scene objects into multiple render layers and combine them into a single image in the compositor. This way you can defer the memory load across multiple rendering sessions.
Texture optimization
For Blender 2.78 and up: Bindless Textures are now supported on GPU, which means only limit is now VRAM and a CUDA limit of 256 textures. Cycles now has support for single-channel textures - therefore no need to pack textures.
For older Blender versions: pack your black & white textures (masks, influences, specular maps, etc.) into channels of color textures (1 color texture with alpha - tga/png - can store 4 BW textures or 1 RGB and a mask). This can save the GPU memory in texture heavy scenes significantly. Old Cycles does not use single-channel for BW.


How can I select only external edges in this mesh? I want select only external edges in this mesh, because i want to extrude them to remove empty areas.

Select one of the candidate edges in edge select mode. Then Select similar -> Amount of Faces Around en edge.


Cutting holes into a flat surface So, I have this square, and I would like to add a lot of little holes to it.  Something like this:

Say, ports from a wire or something.  But, alas, when I try to move the port back into the square object:

The original face of the square remains stoically in place.  How to I put round holes in a flat face?

Thank you in advance.

There are several ways to go about this, most common and easiest is to use a boolean modifier. Select the plane and add a Boolean modifier to it, In hte Object field, select the object you want to stamp holes with (ie some cylinders joined together) and change the Operation to Difference. Next apply the modifer, delete or hide the cyclinders then Tab into Edit mode and box select the botton half of the mesh that protruded down and delete these.

If your mesh has thickness, you can just delete or hide the cylinders after applying the boolean modifier.

You can also further read up on some more techniques here http://www.blendernation.com/2013/07/14/8-methods-of-cutting-holes/.


Can't select individual hair particle in particle edit mode I am learning blender since last 3 months. I am facing problem in selecting individual hair particles in particle edit mode. However I can select all hair particles by pressing a.

If you can give a minute, please watch MyProblem in one minute YouTube video.

I have been working on a model since last 20 days, and I am struck at this problem. Any help appreciated. Thank you.

As far as I know, you cannot select single hairs. Instead you use the brushes on the toolshelve (left) to refine your particle hair. The reason is that your particle hair is no actual geometry, but a field that generates geometry on the fly.

(edit:)
HOWEVER you can select the handles (called keys) of a strand.

On the bottom of the 3d-Viewport there is the header. In editmode you'd find edge-selection mode and face-selection-mode on it. In the very same place you'll see three types of strands: blank, riddled with points, and points on the tips. select the secon option and you're on. you can then select the points (called KEYS) by "rmb" and linked strands by "L", just the way you do with vertices on meshs. Be aware that these keys are handles and not vertices. You can remove keys or strands.


I'm Trying to inset circles on the corner of the mouth but I can't quite figure it out I bought this model for 3d printing and I've been doing some customization to make it look like different characters in the anime.

Current State of Model:

Circles I'm talking about:

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

I figured it out, I just need to create a cylinder of the right size and position it properly. Then apply a boolean modifier to the mask object with the cylinder as the picked object.


Should I use Reflection Cubemaps in Eevee (to achieve realistic lighting)? Should I use Reflection Cubemaps in Eevee? I've seen a lot of tutorials about achieving realistic lighting in Eevee using Reflection Cubemaps and Irradiance Volumes. However, in the Blender manual it says: "Screen Space Reflections are much more precise than reflection cubemaps. If enabled, they have priority and cubemaps are used as a fall back if a ray misses." So, from my understanding, enabling Screen Space Reflections in the render settings gives more realistic reflections, and therefore Reflection Cubemaps are not necessary? Correct? Or is it best to use both?

To answer my own question: use both! Eevee will mainly use Screen Space Reflections, but will also use Reflection Cubemaps as a secondary source (backup) for reflections where Screen Space Reflections fails. Using both gives the most accurate results.


Where is Sapling Tree in 2.79? I work on 2.79 full release version. I have the sapling tree add-on activated.
All tutorials i can find show the addon under Add>Curve>add tree.
Its not there :(


How to write drivers to be copied and pasted between objects' modifiers? I have assigned a script-expression driver to a field in a modifier.
The expression is a function of properties of the object to which the modifier is assigned, extracted as Single Property variables.

I can CtrlL link the modifier to a new object. I can copy the driver from the old object's modifier, and paste it into the new object's modifier.

But, of course, the driving properties still refer to the old object, and so I have to go in and manually point the variables in the driver to the new object.

How should I use 'self', or suchlike, either in an expression, or in a driver-namespace function, so I can copy the driver between modifiers on separate objects, always referring to the object the modifier is assigned to?

EDIT:

I've just worked out that self in an expression driving a modifier field, refers to the modifier, not the object the modifier is assigned to.

AND YET, if I create single-property variables to be used in the expression in the UI, the root is the object. For example, to reach the value of a field in the driven modifier that way, I use modifiers["name"].modifier_property.

This makes no sense to me at all...

The id_data property of any object returns an ID object

Simple example adding a driver to the count of an array modifier  The modifier is on the default cube.

The driver script, prints out self,  self.id_data the path from self.id_data to self and returns 2.

import bpy

def test(self):
    print(self)
    print(self.id_data)
    print(self.path_from_id())
    return 2

bpy.app.driver_namespace["test"] = test

Here is the output to console

<bpy_struct, ArrayModifier("Array")>
<bpy_struct, Object("Cube")>
modifiers["Array"]

Hence other properties of the modifier can be accessed using self.other_modifier_property and properties of the object it is on via self.id_data.some_object_property

The driver UI deals in ID objects, as does the datapath used by fcurves etc.  You select the (ID) bpy.types.Object instance the modifier is on, and add the datapath from ID object to modifier. In this case self = self.id_data.modifiers["Array"]


Setting the correct Python data_path for vertex motion? I am currently using Blender 2.80, and am attempting to follow along with the tutorial at this link on animating mesh objects (https://medium.com/@behreajj/creative-coding-in-blender-a-primer-53e79ff71e)

Specifically, I am referring to the section where the author morphs the shape of Suzanne.

I am attempting to do the same for the grid object, and while the graph editor clearly shows the vertices are moving to where I want, the animation shows that the mesh does not change whatsoever.

I am puzzled as to how the tutorial works for Suzanne, but this does not. I see that there is an alternate method using shape keys, but the code below should still work right?

import bpy
import numpy as np

pi = np.pi

#Clear out the objects on the screen
scene = bpy.context.scene
for obj in bpy.data.objects:
    bpy.data.objects.remove(obj, do_unlink=True)

#Make a grid object to animate
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_grid_add(x_subdivisions=20, y_subdivisions=20,size=10)
obj = bpy.context.active_object
mesh = obj.data

frames = np.arange(0,250,20)
T =15*6
for fram_num in frames:
    scene.frame_set(fram_num)
    t = fram_num * 2*pi/T
    #Move all vertices and add keyframes to each one
    for i,v in enumerate(mesh.vertices):
        x,y,_ = v.co
        z = np.sin(x+y-t)
        v.co = (x,y,z)
        v.keyframe_insert(data_path="co", index=-1)

Edit: Curiously this code works in Blender 2.79, but not in 2.80! Is this a bug, or intended?

Handler workaround.

Personally would  lean towards using shape-keys for this.

Not sure why the animated mesh doesn't update, hopefully someone will answer with a required setting, or it is an oversight in deps graph and may change up in future.

As a work-around, calling mesh.update() on a frame change via a handler gives the desired result

import bpy

def animate_meshes(scene):
    meshes = set(o.data for o in scene.objects if o.type == 'MESH')
    for m in meshes:
        m.update()

bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.append(animate_meshes)

clear all frame_change post handlers with

bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.clear()


Black lines/shadow in Cycles f12 render but not in viewport render? Please see the image below.

I get black lines when I render using F12 but not in viewport.
Is there a way to get the rendered image to be exactly the same as in the view port?

Thank you

If the number of subdivisions for view and render is not the same you'll get different results when using the subsurf modifier.

Make those values the same.

Additionally, you might need to enable smooth shading.


Textures split up when using "Data Transfer" modifier I have transferred a texture across objects using the "Data Transfer" modifier. But when the texture is on the new object, the textures are split apart strangely (along the seams). How can I fix this?
Because I'm planning to sell this object, I've uploaded a photoscan file with the same problem (it always seems to happen.)

Delete Data Transfer modifier.
Create a UV map.
Create a new image in the image editor.

In the low poly object's material nodes, click the blue thing to make it a separate material from the original object's.
Unlink the image from the Principled BSDF and select the new image.

In the original material, plug the texture into the Material Output.

Select the original object then the low poly object so that it is active.
Make sure the disconnected image node is selected in the node editor.

In Properties Editor → Render Properties, set up the Bake section something like this.(This section is only available for CPU rendering.)

The Extrusion setting is the one to fiddle with.
After setting the render samples to a low number (1 worked for me), click Bake.

This should leave you with a nice new image texture that will work with the UV map that you created.


How do i align connected faces to axis? I have several circles, extruded from one another, so they form multiple, (parallelly dissected) cylinders, with the top and bottom of all the cylinders parallel, but not on the same axis. I want those circles to stay the size they are, but all parallel, and the center of the circles to be on the same axis, i don't really care which axis or where, but the size of the circles must remain the same.

Images show what im struggling with, without distractions of the rest of the model.

I will post 2 ways to do that.

First way :

Select inner circles which you are going to straighten, hit X and select Edgeloops.
Use loopcut tool Ctrl+R and increase loopcuts to 2. These new loopcuts are your recreated circles, straightened along the line between outer circles

(Note that the angles of original circles if they were rotated aren't saved).

Second way:

(this way is a little tricky) If you do want to preserve original inner circles and not recreating them, then:

Select outer circles, hit Ctrl+E and select Bridge Edge Loops.

Use loopcut tool Ctrl+R and make 1 loopcut on the created bridge between the outer circles. Place it roughly at the place you'd like one of the inner circles should be.
Hit Shift+S and select Cursor To Selection. After that, while this created loopcut is still selected, hit X and select Edgeloop.

Select adjacent inner circle you are straightening, hit Shift+S and select Selection To Cursor (Offset). One of your inner circles is straightened now.
Repeat that for another inner circle.

Select outer circles, hit X and select Faces. This will delete additional geometry created by Bridge Edge Loops.


Using PyOpenGL in Blender's Python API I'm wondering if there was any way for me to use PyOpenGL in Blender's Python API? I would rather not use BGL, because I would like to render a lot of 3D objects and immediate mode is rather limiting...

It might help if I'm describing the project I'm working on. I would like to write an add-on that would allow you to work with Blender seamlessly from the Vive. I'm using OpenVR to control with the Vive and OpenGL to render to the Vive. So far, displaying things went pretty well. However, the issue is the usage of PyOpenGL in Blender. It involves the creation of a window for OpenGL to work with (GLUT), resulting in the Blender interface freezing. As a result, I can't modify the model or anything while the addon is running. In addition, if I close the window, Blender also closes, which is inconvenient.

I can see two approaches:

Upgrade blender's python API to support interactive PyOpenGL auxiliary windows
Upgrade blender with built-in Vive support

I suspect #2 will be cleaner.  #1 would allow people with less understanding of blender's guts to do some nifty stuff, but it would probably require a core blender coder the same level of expertise and time to accomplish as #2.

There is also the problem of user input.  When you have the Vive on your head you have access to a pair of upgraded mice, but you do not have the keyboard.  There are solutions, but the paradigm does not exactly mesh with the existing UI.


Volume Absorption makes my water completely black? I'm working on Grant Abbitt's low-poly sea shack tutorial. I have my water, and I wanted to try and add some volume absorption to it to see what it would look like. However, whenever I try to add the volume absorption node, my water turns completely black, and doesn't change at all regardless of what settings I change.
Can anyone help me out?

No Volume Absorption:

Volume Absorption:

Usually the default value of 1.0 on volume nodes is way too high.
Use a much lower value for the density. This is the volume absorption set at 0.001


How to stop mesh getting into another mesh I want to make a simple animation of a cube rotating and going to another place. But when it rotates the cube sinks into the mesh under the cube. How to stop it from happening.

Blender will not automatically handle these. One solution is to setup Softbody simulation. Another solution, simplest I think is to use Shape keys.


Freestyle rendering out of sync with pose 2.8 I am running into this issue where the Freestyle outline that is rendered is not in sync with the pose of the character being rendered.

Things that I've tried:

Applying the Armature's transforms to be zeroed on the mesh
Applying the Mesh's transforms to be zeroed on the origin as well
Freestyle's settings are default and haven't really been touched
Re-Applying the rest pose
disabled the pose library

It appears the pose is getting multiplied, but I have no idea why, and why it is different than what is rendered solid.

What else should I check?  Is this a bug?

It turns out that I was using a slightly older (by about a month) version of 2.8.  Updating to the latest version fixed my issue.


How to bend blocky arm into torso? How do I bend this arm (block) so it curves into the torso?

I'm using Cycles and I'm not that good with NURBS curves and all that. Is there an easier way?

Assuming that you want to keep the low level minecraft style you could add an edge loop to the body and extrude the arms. You will need to adjust the weight painting like here:

For smoother animation see also (note my answer on adding a few more loop-cuts in the shoulder region):

What is the ideal topology for a shoulder joint?


Exporting animations to unity 3d I'm new to blender's animation thing, and I made an animation for my ship, it simply goes up and down slowly. However, whenever I export it to unity and start to use it, my ship teleports itself to a different position and starts animating from there. I want this animation to stand wherever it is and just do the up and down, how can I do that?

Thanks in advance.

ship teleports itself to a different position

That points to an issue with location. If you have keyframes on the location in blender then unity will be applying that part of the animation when you play it. eg you place the ship in unity at x=20 but in blender you have a keyframe that says x=0 then unity will move it to x=0

As you want the ship to move up and down then you may want keyframes on the z-axis but remove the x and y location keyframes.


A mesh "jumps" forward after parenting to an armature When I parent mesh to an armature (automatic weights), the mesh "jumps" forward a bit. If I select armature and switch to edit mode it "jumps" backward a bit.

Why is it happening and how can I fix it?
I already applied location, rotation, and scale to the mesh and armature, but it didn't help.

Thank you in advance!

Here is an example of an armature, edited in pose mode and, after this edit, made parent to the mesh (a cube):

This involves a 'shift' between pose and edit mode.

You could say 'there is no stable position for the mesh'.

To correct that, two possibilities: move the pose back to the edit position, or move the edit position to the pose.

Move the pose back to the edit position

To do that, simply use the pose menu, go to 'clear transform' and select 'all'. Doing this the pose will come back to the edit position:

Move the edit position to the pose

This time, we use the pose menu, go to pose then 'apply' (or CtrlA) and choose 'pose as rest pose'. Doing that, the edit position will be the pose position.

In both approach, the result is bones positions are the same in edit mode and pose mode (which is the best practice to define a 'stable' or 'reference' rest pose).

Depending on your need, you may have to parent mesh to armature again after that.

Additional indications: to avoid all that, adjust the bones in edit mode, not in pose mode. Also, if you scale the armature to the mesh, don't forget to apply this scale (CtrlA) before parenting to the mesh.


How to unwrap this correctly? How can i unwrap this correctly rounded?

The straw in the thatch texture is lying vertical from top to bottom, so we need to try and straighten out the Uv's so that they are aligned (more or less) to this texture.

In the following example the roof has a Mirror modifier acting along both X and Y axis. Also, to avoid unnecessary horizontal seams, the roof is being unwrapped as a single UV island. The roof has already been assigned the thatch texture.
Start by selecting everything and Unwrapping:

In the UV Editor we need to align the edges to the X or Y axis. This is done by selecting a single edge loop, opening the UV Contextual menu with the right mouse button and choosing the appropriate axis to align to:

Once the Uv's are straightened, in the 3D editor check for obvious problems in how the texture is now mapped onto the model:

These problem areas can be alleviated by adding seams and unwrapping a second time. Before Unwrapping remember to Pin the vertices we don't want to be moved. (Pinned vertices are marked in red in the UV editor):

The final part is to scale up the UV island and move the 2D vertices about by hand until you are happy with the mapping. Keep in mind that when UV unwrapping curved surfaces its always a compromise between stretched/squished textures and having lots of seams:


Random values changing each frame I want to make some lights changing colors randomly each frame. They need to be either red, green, blue, or orange. That for about 1000 objects that need to be changing differently.
I think it would be some combination with ColorRamp node and a randomly changing factor each frame between 0 and 1.
Is this possible? If yes, how?
I am using cycles.

Setup a material similar to the following :

The 'Animate' Value should be keyframed to start at 0 and increase to change the colours - the faster this changes, the faster they will animate. The Color Ramp can be adjusted to change the sequence of colors or you could use a different interpolation if you want gradual changes rather than 'Constant'. The Power node uses the 'Random' value to add some variation to the flashing - so that some of the objects change at a different rate. Set the Power to 0 and they should all change at the same rate - or experiment with other Maths nodes to get the desired spread (eg, an 'Add 1.0' node in place of Power would allow you to set the rate to range from 1.0 to 2.0 so you'd never get really slow changing ones).

Results as shown :

Blend file attached


Flickering particles when rendering animation As I am fairly new to Blender, I made a donut (surprisingly). It has sprinkles as particles. Today I tried to make an animation of it with a moving camera, but there are three frames (3, 14 and another one) where the particles change position see here. Even when I render those frames individually, it still happens.

Since I have no idea what the problem could be here, I don't know if I need to list any settings. If that is helpful, please let me know. Any help is appreciated!

The problem is with the 'Post processing' settings under render panel.You need to uncheck the sequencer.

Because when the sequencer is checked, it takes into account any videos or image strips already present in the video editor. In your case, you do have a video - most likely a previously rendered video.In such a case, whenever you hit render, instead of rendering the frame again, it simply picks the frame in that video and shows you as render.

You can verify if you have any videos by going into Video Sequence Editor as shown.

Instead of unchecking the sequencer in render settings. You can also delete this video strip to render properly.You can do this by right clicking on it and pressing delete button. You will get an option to 'erase strips'. Click it.

One small suggestion. When you are uploading a blend file here or sharing with someone else please click on 'Pack all into .blend' (as shown below) and save the file before sharing.

This way the textures and files you are using will also be shared in the blend file. In the file you shared, the video and brick textures were not included. This led to delay in figuring out, what the actual problem is. Hope this helps, if not share the blend file again, this time with external data packed.


How to make low poly water? I'm creating a game in Unity3D and I'm using blender as my main modeling software, The problem here is that I don't know how to make a low poly water cube, I've seen that a lot of people makes this using a plane, but I need to make a cube, and I can´t find how to make this in blender render or in Unity without A package from Asset Store.
It should look like this:

Rendered in LuxCoreRender just for fancy look.

I'm not sure which cube you are referring to, so I'll first send you to some fluid sim 101 and then I'll show you what have I used for this scene.

Blender Docs
Blender fluid simulation tutorial in one minute

Now you know how to make simple Fluid sim and here is how I've achieved this low poly look:

Domain:

I've used resolution - 24. You can tweak it as needed. Lower value = lower poly count.

Inflow Object (Cube):

Here I've changed only Inlfow Velocity to -5m/s on Z axis. To speed up fluid.

Cycles:

If you want to render it with Cycles you can use this material for Domain object. But if you are gonna to use it with Unity this is optional.


Editing the ends of an extruded section First visit to the forums so hope I am in the right place to ask this question.

I have created a few projects as I get more familiar with some of what Blender has to offer.

I am seeking the best way to tidy up the ends of extruded lines when they intersect.
I have added an image to help show what I mean.
Basically to have the ends terminate within the enclosing  boundary rather than poking through as they are.
The extruded shapes are bezier curves if that helps?

You can create a weight paint at the ends, and assing that vertex group to a skinwrap modifier.


How to cut into an object that has a sub surface modifer with out changing the overall shape I am trying to model Hornet from Hollow Knight, and I am not sure how to make the eyes.
How would you suggest I make holes in the object for the eyes without affecting the shape of the rest of the object.

Select these vertices and delete them, it will make 2 holes:

Select the border edge loop:

Extrude and scale down, press AltShiftS to round the selection, then give it the shape of the eyes:


Bevel Weight on edges What is significance of Bevel Weight? In what circumstances it should be used and how it changes model geometry?

In the documentation we read:

  This edge property, a value between $0.0$ to $1.0$, is used by the Bevel Modifier to control the bevel intensity of the edges. This operator enters an interactive mode (a bit like transform tools), where by moving the mouse (or typing a value with the keyboard) you can set the bevel weight of selected edges. If two or more edges are selected, this operator alters the average weight of the edges.

See also bevel tutorial.


Creating a rain effect I am trying to create two types of rain the first type being rain falling to the ground as im sure you have all seen before. The second type i am trying to create is raindrops that you will find left over on items after rainfall.

If video tutorials are your thing, Andrew Price has made one on both types of rain.
Here is one for the big drops on a window:
https://youtu.be/sO8kw0a2ZeI
Here is one for the splashes onto wet ground:
http://youtu.be/XEZYcyi7JC0
(This is slightly outdated as it is for the internal renderer, but I think that the dynamic paint itself is applicable to cycles too.)
Edit:
Due to popular demand I will try to summarize the tutorials here. I skip the part about raindrops with trails, as your reference doesn't show any. I will also skip the compositing and lighting part of the tutorials.
Close-up raindrops
Modelling and materials
Start with a UV Sphere. Rotate it by 90° and in edit mode select one of the poles. Hit o to go to proportional editing and move the pole into the sphere to mimic surface tension. Go to the materials panel and add a Glass bsfd. Set the refraction index to 1.33.
Use this object as a template create about a dozen raindrops by pushing single vertices in from the sides. Using a reference image here helps. The point here is that raindrops aren't all somewhat rounded blobs. Instead, they can be of a variety of exotics shapes.
Raindrops courtesy of Wikimedia
When you have your raindrops done, add them to a group.
Particles
Select the object you want the raindrops to show on. Go into the particles panel and add a new particle system with hair as the type. In rendering select group and pick the one you just created. If the particles point the wrong way around, select normal and rotate the particle meshes.
Play around with the particle count, size, random size and random rotation until you are happy with the result.
Falling rain effect
(I tried to adapt this to Cycles.)
Particles
Start by setting up your particle system as you wish. To make it work with dynamic paint ensure that the display amount is set to 100%.
To make the particles show up, set them to appear as objects and make them spheres. Assign an emission material to them. To make them show up as trails, add motion blur.
Now select the object you want the rain to fall onto. In physics set it up as a collision object. There turn both particle dampening and particle friction up to one.
Select the particle emitter again and determine the frame the particles hit the ground by scrolling through the animation. Set the particle lifetime to [start of the animation] - [frame of contact] + 1 so that they die one frame after they make contact.
Caveat: make sure that the emitter and the ground are on the same layer.
With the particle object still selected go to particles > cache and set the cache step to 1. If the options are greyed out, save your file first. In particles > physics set subframes to 2.
In cache click bake all dynamics. This should take some time.
Dynamic paint
We are going to use the rain as a brush and the ground as a canvas. For this you must UV-unwrap the ground.
Wet areas
With the particle emitter selected go to physics > dynamic paint > brush and click add brush. Set the color to black and disable absolute alpha. Under dynamic paint source set the type to particle system and pick the particle system you have created. Set the solid radius to about 0.15. This value depends highly on your scene. This controls the size of the area wettened by a drop.
With the ground selected go to physics > dynamic paint > canvas and click add canvas. Set format to image sequence and set the resolution to 1024. Adjust the frame range to match the actual contacts. To make the simulation more stable, set the subframes to 5. Under dynamic paint output select your UV -map and pick the destination folder for the baked files. Under dynamic paint effects check use spread.
Finally, under dynamic paint output click bake image sequence.
Ripple effect
Next, add a new canvas under dynamic paint. Set the format and resolution as before. Set the surface type to be waves. Set spring to zero and the dampening to 0.6.
Check the UV-map as before and select a new output folder. Finally, change the file format to Open EXR and hit bake image sequence.
Splashes
Finally, select the first canvas we created and change its type from paintmaps to wetmaps. Under dynamic paint advanced, set wetmap drying to 8. Under dynamic paint initial color set the color to black.
With the particle emitter selected, set the solid radius to 0.010 and disable the smooth radius completely. Also set the paint to be white.
Once again check the UV-map as before and select a new output folder. Finally, hit bake image sequence.
Materials
Crack open the node editor for the ground. Add two material mixes and hook them up to reach other and the material output. Hook your old material up to the first one.
Add an image texture with the first image of the first maps you baked. Set the type to image sequence. Set the offset to the frame of contact of the particles. Where it says color set it to be non-color data. Hook this up to the value input of the first mix.
Add a glossy node and hook it up to the first mix. You may want to add some method of control between the image and the mix. math, color ramp and RGB curves are all possible candidates.
As some materials are darker when wet, you can play around with the color of the glossy. Keep in mind that the setup is not yet finished though.
Add the second image series we baked like the previous one. Run it through a heightmap and plug the resulting normal data into the glossy and the material you already have.
Finally, add the last image series and plug it into the second mix node along with an emission so that the emission is in the upper green slot and the rest of the material in the lower.
I apologize if this is unclear. It is difficult to compress almost two hours of video into a free words while typing with a touchscreen.
Anyway, I hope this helps.


How to check if Blender is installed on computer I am writing a WinForms .NET program and I want to check whether Blender software has been installed in the local computer.

How to check if Blender is installed on a computer (32 bit & 64 bit)?

At the moment, I only can think of checking if Blender folder exists in the Program Files (for 32 bit) / Program Files x86 (for 64 bit).

However, I would prefer other methods of checking if Blender is installed instead of checking the Blender installation folder in Program Files.

Thank you

You are talking about windows machine, I suppose.

The answer is here: Detecting installed programs via registry

The only thing specific to Blender is what to look for in registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Console\paths_to_blender_executables - you will find here entries for ALL Blenders (versions installed or only executed from .zip archives). There is no assurance that Blender is still on the system though, just that it was in some point in time
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts.blend - here is the Blender reference to .blend file. Also can be misleading if Blender was not uninstalled properly.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\BlenderFoundation\ or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Blender Foundation\ - both are what you are looking for


How can I find the camera viewplane size? I am doing plans for projects I build on our lot.  I need to submit these plans to the county and be able to use them for my contractor, too.  I'll be using a plug-in to give me the needed measurements and I've figured out how to add notes and so on.  The one other thing I'm working on is an info sheet to specify my information (as the designer and owner), address, and so on.  So an info sheet will look like a bit like this:

The white is actually alpha, although it doesn't look like it.  I've specified, in the program I use to create these sheets that the resolution is 300 DPI and the measurements are 13" x 7.5".  The camera is set for 1300 x 750 resolution.  The idea is I can prep one of these sheets, add all the other notes I need on it, save it, then import it as a plane.  It works, except for one problem.

Notice the info sheet is the same proportion as the camera, but not the same size.
It would be a big help if I could just put the info sheet flat against the camera view port, and parent them, so the image moved with the camera, that'd be great.  The problem is I can resize the image-as-a-plane to what looks like the right size, but can't be sure I get it just right until after printing it.  I had hoped the camera would have vertices I could snap the image to, but I can't do that.  And I can't get the actual size of the camera view port or position it so I can use the 3D cursor or any set of coordinates to position and size the image so it matches the camera view port.
Is there a way to either get the actual size of the camera view port, snap a plane to the view port, or size an image to the size of the view port?
I'm also open to other ideas.  The issue is this is something I'll have to do half a dozen to a dozen times on each project, so I don't want to have to make large amounts of changes to each info sheet to make it fit properly.

Using the compositor to do this is probably a better alternative. Something like this would do the trick:


Why is the texture not appearing on the model I want to see what distortion I have on these UV's, I applied the default grid pattern in the UVs but it is not appearing on the model. Does anyone know why?

Imho you could benefit doing some more research (ie: https://www.blender.org/manual/) before posting that nothing works...

solid mode:

textured mode:


Issue or Bug. The shading of an object changes when deselected in "Smooth" mode. (Why Radeon Users May Want to Avoid Ubuntu 16.04) Issue or Bug. The shading of an object changes (to Flat) when deselected in "Smooth" mode.

These changes only appear to the unselected objects in the scene in object mode.

It's like the object turns back to flat when deselected. Things also look/appear to be a sort of triangulated.

Has anybody encountered this same issue?

Is it a bug or a new feature I've overlooked?

(I'm using an old AMD/ATI Readon with Ubuntu 16.04)

UPDATE:

Seems they have stopped working on new drivers for AMD Ubuntu 16.04, Link: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/ubuntu-drops-amd-catalyst-fglrx-driver-16-04

DON'T TRY TO INSTALL DRIVERS FROM OTHER UBUNTU DISTRO'S, YOU CAN GET SYSTEM FAILURES

UPDATE 31-05-2016

JUST SOMETHING WEIRD...

I have no idea why, but recently stumbled on this weird thing.

(PS: all objects have been set to smooth)

Also I have installed Ubuntu 14.04 alongside my 16.04 distro, so I can continue without this bug.

If Blender 3D is running fine on your Linux distro and your considering about upgrading to the latest Linux distro (in my situation to Ubuntu 16.04).

First check if they have released new drivers or if there even are drivers that support your upgrade.

Especially for AMD/ATI/Readon Graphic cards, you may want to stick to your current OS version.

They have stopped working on new drivers for AMD Ubuntu 16.04,

Link: http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/ubuntu-drops-amd-catalyst-fglrx-driver-16-04

Also useful

Link: https://askubuntu.com/questions/744050/im-using-ubuntu-16-04-and-theres-no-fglrx

Link: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseNotes#fglrx

UPDATE 31-05-2016

Some interesting new developments: AMD's gaming-optimized AMDGPU-PRO driver for Linux is in beta.

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3075837/linux/amds-gaming-optimized-amdgpu-pro-driver-for-linux-is-in-beta.html

Still in Beta and won't support GPUs older/lower than the Radeon HD 7000 series.

Ubuntu still recommends sticking with Ubuntu 14.04.


Why do I get 'addon not found' errors when starting blender from the command line? I installed blender with the source code and when I start from the command line it shows:

addon not found: 'io_scene_3ds'
addon not found: 'io_scene_fbx'
addon not found: 'io_anim_bvh'
addon not found: 'io_mesh_ply'
addon not found: 'io_scene_obj'
addon not found: 'io_scene_x3d'
addon not found: 'io_mesh_stl'
addon not found: 'io_mesh_uv_layout'
addon not found: 'io_curve_svg'
addon not found: 'object_boolean_tools'
addon not found: 'space_view3d_pie_menus'
addon not found: 'render_auto_tile_size'

How can I fix it?

Looks like you're missing some of the addons, which Blender expects to find but can't. Some of them are available as their own source package, and generally are located in the [version]/scripts/addons directory. Compiling from source may have skipped some of those, as they are technically their own subprogram.

They aren't essential for Blender to run, but provide useful services; without UV Layout, as an example, you won't be able to export a UV-unwrap as a 2D graphic. It's been a while since I compiled the program myself, but it's possible that it simply failed during the portion meant to build these—like a missing dependency, as an example—and it just kept going with what it could build. You can find and build many of them independently and simply drop them in that folder.

If you still have the stdout from the build, you may find a hint as to what's missing in there. I hope this helps you.