Normal Map Node - Can't See A Difference In Render I'm very new to Blender and I am trying to add a concrete normal map to a tower, however while it is visible on the material preview, it doesn't show on the object:

In this image you can see the preview material render as well as my nodes.

The render looks like so:

As you can see, the render doesn't look great - there are visible lines that I assume are needing smoothing, but as you can see my concern is that the bump map is not visible.

Why is this, and how can I get this normal map/texture working?

You have the mapping nodes in the wrong place. The image texture should be connected to the normal map node, the mapping node should be connected to the vector input of the image texture.

To keep the two image textures aligned, connect them to the same mapping node.

You should also change the colour space for a normal map to Non-Colour.

Note that the mapping node looks different in 2.81


Is there a delta transform for collection? I made this guy here, he is made of 29 individual objects, I want to draw over it with grease pencil, but I cant rotate him with the rest of the frames. Its nice that I can use the delta transform to change the puppet size to make a variety of siluets without animate them once more but that's useless if I cant move them around.

RIGHT-CLICK your collection in the outliner, Select Objects
Now you can move, rotate, scale, etc. all the objects together.
Or:
If all the objects you want to move together are the only ones visible, hit A to select all and move, rotate, scale, etc.


In Cycles, when I convert from one output type to a different input type, what is REALLY happening? So, I've been following the blender guru's video tutorial for shading of dialectic materials.  He uses something very much like this setup:

(He starts talking about it not long before 28:44.)

However, I see a few things here I don't understand, although it appears to offer the desired behavior.  These questions pertain ONLY to the Bump, Geometry and the mix node they go into; you can basically ignore the rest of the setup.

1.) What is the bump node doing?  He describes it as "reminding" blender that it is dealing with vectors, but that almost makes it sound like there is an "if" statement within blender to check input types, which seems hacky because it might be inconsistent among applications.

2.) What really happens when I mismatch inputs and outputs, (ie, the blue vector going into a green color node.)

And you can consider the whole question for this bit: why does the "Value" node only go into the roughness of the Glossy color?  Why would it not be both?

Thanks a lot in advance!

1) It is to "initialize" the normal being used to the actual mesh normal. It's a little more proper to do this with the "normal" output of the geometry node instead of a bump node, but the result is the same. The bump node takes an input normal, and modifies it based on differences in the height input. Since the height and normal inputs are both disconnected, it just passes the default normal (which is the mesh normal). Since the vector is being modified via the mixRGB node, it doesn't know to initialize the normal with the mesh normal, and instead uses a constant vector.

2) As noted in the comments, see What is the meaning of the color of the node sockets in the node editor?

Re: Diffuse roughness: theoretically yes. Although in some testing I did once, I recall it giving weird results with high roughness, might be a limitation of the model used by the diffuse BSDF node. Which brings me to...

If you are using Blender 2.79 or later, you should be using the Principled BSDF node, not the setup described in that tutorial. That node setup is essentially an imperfect emulation of the Principled BSDF shader anyway. The mixing of normals is actually a hack to try and approximate roughness-dependent fresnel, which the Principled BSDF supports correctly. The Principled BSDF also correctly matches diffuse and glossy roughness, without you having to do anything.


VSE: disable snapping to frames for sound? Is there any way to move a sound strip or slide its content without snapping it to the frames? It makes no sense for a sound strip to behave like that.

The answer seems to be a clear no:

VSE: Can I move an audio track in smaller increments than one frame?

Which animation features don't support sub-frames?

There is a rightclickselect proposal to implement it:

https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/cgbbbc/


How to pass multiple operator properties via UI layout? Basically, I want to have a single operator which can do multiple things, based on some attributes values.

class MyPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    # (...)
    layout = self.layout
    row = layout.row()
    row.operator("my.button", text="Button text")

class MY_BUTTON_OT_Button(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "my.button"
    bl_description = "Button description"
    bl_label = "Button"
    foo = bpy.props.IntProperty()
    bar = bpy.props.BoolProperty()

    if bar:
        # Do something with foo
    else:
        # Do something else :P

I know how to set one attribute, like so:

    row.operator("my.button", text="Button text").foo=5

But what about multiple arguments?
I tried several things that didn't worked, like (e.g.):

With setattr():
row.operator("my.button", text="Button text").setattr(foo=5,bar=True)
With a custom method setVal() in the operator class:
row.operator("my.button", text="Button text").setVal(foo=5,bar=True)

Maybe I must use a single EnumProperty? I hope to avoid this, so my question is:
Is it possible to pass multiple custom arguments to set attributes in an operator class? And if yes, how ?

Thanks for your help.

There may be other ways, but that's the easiest. Instead of using operator()'s return value (an OperatorProperties) right away, capture it in a variable, and assign them there:

props = row.operator("my.button", text="Button text")
props.foo = 5
props.bar = "Bar"
props.baz = True


Is it possible to do OpenCL rendering on Intel processors? Intel processors have supported OpenCL for a long time now; latest versions (Haswell and above) support OpenCL 2.0 or better. Why don't we have a GPU rendering option when using Blender on these processors?

I have tried the latest test build (2.75) too, which claims to add support for OpenCL, but I do not see GPU option in User Preferences. Do I need to download some add-on for it?

As it's still quite experimental and there are quite a few features still missing, it's only enabled for AMD gpus by default.  It's possible to "force" it to work on other opencl devices by setting the environment variable CYCLES_OPENCL_SPLIT_KERNEL_TEST=1
Linux
On Linux, run the following in a terminal:
CYCLES_OPENCL_SPLIT_KERNEL_TEST=1 blender

To make this permanent for all versions of blender which have the split kernel feature, put the following in your shell's initialization file (~/.profile or similar)
CYCLES_OPENCL_SPLIT_KERNEL_TEST=1; export CYCLES OPENCL_SPLIT_KERNEL_TEST

See this question for more detail.
Windows
On windows, create a batch file by putting the following in a text file:
set CYCLES_OPENCL_SPLIT_KERNEL_TEST=1
start blender
exit

Rename the file so it has the .bat extension and put it in the same directory as the blender executable (if you installed blender with the installer, in C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender).
Then press  RMB on the .bat file and create a shortcut which you can put on your desktop or taskbar for ease of running it later.


Invert knife tool cut or other tool to use I am trying to cut out a rough outline of the background image to hopefully make a 3D Model of it as seen in the screenshot below.

Originally I used the knife tool but that tool only cuts OUT the cuts (the outside) and not cuts out the inside. So in a way I want to use the knife tool to trim my cube more and more until I have a model of my background image.

Any help or ideas? Is there a way to cheat and make a rough model from the background image?
How would I achieve my goal with the knife tool?
Is there another tool I should use instead?

I would extrude a single vertex around, building the model up instead of cutting it out.

⎈ Ctrl LMB can be used to extrude and position geometry in one step, or E can be used for a two step extrude and move.

That said you might get a similar result much more easily if you auto-trace the image into a vector SVG with a program such as inkscape, then import the SVG into blender.


Where to really learn the "theory" behind Loop flow, and sculpting Pardon the title, I am aware that topology is generally a lesser concern with sculpting, but I've been wonder if there was a book or lecture - perhaps on youtube or elsewhere - that could explain both why an artist would aim for a particular loop flow and what general method he or she would apply to sculpting?

This site isn't particularly well suited for these broad answers, but here you go anyway :D

topologyguides.com is a great resource for learning about proper topology. For sculpting resources, check out YanSculpts and Zacharias Rienheart on youtube.


Why my splines are moving all together when only one is selected? I'm very new to blender so sorry if I say stupid things.

I am trying to put a series of splines along a circumference (at different distances so I can't use duplication... I suppose)

For easiness I set the origin of the splines at the center of the circumference with CtrlAltShiftC "Origin to 3D Cursor" but when I try to "move" one single spline along the circumference (rotating with RZ) even the other splines are moving with the selected one.

Edit: I've switched off proportional editing but still doesn't work.

I found a solution by myself. The problem was the "Origin to 3D Cursor".

All my splines origin were on the 3D cursor so it seems Blender tought all of them were the same object...is that possible?

Anyway I solved switching to "Origin to Center of Mass" with CtrlShiftAltC. That solved my problem.


Animating facial expressions when using a Normal map The human face is very organic and when using a normal map, things with animation get a little tricky. I’m trying to animate a blink with an eye where this wrinkles appear on the face as the eye closes. Not just the eye, but this wrinkles are needed for other expressions as well. Something like this example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc7ADD4b8_0

Any ideas how this so called "animated normal maps" can be accomplished with Blender, because in the UV's I know to work only with still images?

You can first create multiple normal maps with wrinkles at different locations(for example one map each for the eyes/mouth/etc.) and then you can simply blend them over one another using using an  mix rgb node. Then you can add a driver to the mix factor and let for example the eye bone rotation drive the wrinkle strength.


Blender 2.7 Select vertex path option I am following the "Blender Inside Out" tutorial on blender cloud. Chapter 4 UV Wrapping - Learn the basics about UV Wrapping and how to set seams, shows how to select a vertex path between a start and end vertex. The video says pressing W should bring up a menu, which shows the option to Select vertex path. The tutorial uses blender 2.6, I have installed 2.7. I do not see this option in 2.7. Does anyone know how to access this option on 2.7?

Required path:

Select shortest path result:

It's right there for me in 2.72:

For the squigglyness, try changing the length option in the redo panel (F6):


My imported STL file has WAY too many tri's in it to edit effectively. How can I reduce it and keep the detail? I am using Blender 2.79.

I've imported a very detailed model originally made in Z-Brush and from there exported to an stl file, (I do not have the original Z-brush file to convert).

I imported that stl file into blender and used CTRL-J to join everything. I then tried the "Remesh" modifier to reduce the face count and convert to quads. I set the "Octree Dept" to 12 (highest it would go) but it still has too many faces and I do not see any quads. I can't select all the triangle faces to even edit the pointed ears of this elf creature! Blender shows it at 186,504 faces and the same number of TRI's. 92,986 Vertices.

I have 8 Gigs of DDR4 RAM and a 2-year old AMD Ryzen CPU. I have my Blender preferences set to use my GE Force GTX-780 GPU (set it to use CUDA), so it's not a totally lame PC.

How can I reduce the face count to something manageable (and EDIT-able) while still retaining as much detail as possible?

As Sazerac suggests (not sure why it's not an answer instead of a comment) the Decimate modifier is what you should be investigating first.

I'd start with the Planar setting, because that typically removes the least amount of detail, and you can tweak the angle limit down to keep quite a lot.  That said, it works best with inorganic forms or meshes with inconsistent levels of detail as it looks for places it can make the mesh simpler and planar.

If the form is more organic and smooth with sculpted detail, but overall has the same sort of density all over, then the Collapse setting is probably going to be more useful.  It just collapses a percentage of faces, biased towards ones that make the smallest possible change to the mesh.   If you need extra control over this, you can use a vertex group and weight painting to suggest where it should remove this detail from, and that's probably going to be the best option on any complex sculpted form - you'll need to tell it areas it can simplify heavily and areas you care about using weight painting and vertex groups.

Here's some rubbish I sculpted out of a cylinder to show the sort of difference in faces generated.  I've left flat shading on so you can see the faces better.

16k faces base object:

~3k faces using Decimate set to Collapse:

~3k faces using Decimate set to Planar (angle limit was 5 degrees)

You may wish to Apply the modifier, which will destructively edit the geometry and thus make it much easier to edit.  Once you do that you can't get back to the original mesh, so save a copy elsewhere if it seems likely you'll want it.


Object (head shaver) is bubbling/moving after rendered? Object moving on it’s own when rendered! (EEVEE)

In the cli[ you can see that the head is bubbling/moving. This when the head had no keyframes,no empty, no link to anything. It only has a Bevel and Sub. Modifier.

Does anyone have any idea why this happens? I checked the internet but most there was related to an Empty or keyframe.

I haven’t used the boolean. It was build up with a plane. Used the modifiers and some edge bevel weights. And started out with a mirror but had applied that early in the process
I looked for doubles but there were zero. Also, I had applied the modifiers and rendered again but the same result? Ad when applying the modifiers the memory does up 3G :shushing_face:

I just don’t get it. I had this one before when I had made an octopus. In the end, I rendered every frame single handle that had a defense. But that is a hell of a job.

I just don’t get it?
See clip https://youtu.be/o8xzt7JRPgQ

Oh and the material is just a simple principled shader. Nothing extra

I fiddled with the .blend and inspected rendering results between frames around 30-34 which were shading inconsistently. Turns out it's not about geometry or animations but the culprit is unused / misused Displacement-slot on the Material Output node of the material. Removing the connection (from multiply node and empty image node) to the Displacement slot solved the rendering issue. This slot should behave properly with an actual texture, you have to be feed it very small numbers. But I wouldn't be surprised if this feature was still a little bit unstable with Eevee.


Is there a reason why my object won't render? It looks strange and it has no noise at all, even when I move the camera. This is definitely not how it should look in rendered mode

Blender does render your scene properly, however it appears that Eevee is the currently selected render engine. This is indicated by lack of noise when moving the camera and the missing pause button when the Rendered mode is active.

Eevee was specifically build for (near) real-time rendering. It uses a technique known as rasterization, which is also commonly used by game engines. Cycles, on the other hand, is a path tracer. The noise from the Rendered mode with Cycles comes from the fact that light paths are being traced from the light source into the camera. At first there are only a few samples available per pixel, which causes a grainy look. Only over time, when more samples have been calculated, it converges to the actual final image.

A good comparison of Cycles and Eevee can be found in the CGCookie article Cycles vs. Eevee - 15 Limitations of Real Time Rendering in Blender 2.8.


Keyframing Constraints - Is it possible? So, this is all hypothetical. This isn't really anything I am trying to do at the moment, but what I want to know is how to keyframe constraints. Example: Say I have an item that - at some point in the animation - needs to be picked up by a character. (e.g. the item could be a sandwich.) Is there any way to initialize a 'child-of' constraint type and have it become inactive or dormant at points in the animation? If you had a character with a constrained item object, then it would seem reasonable for him to have a need within your plot to put the item down and not have that item drag along behind him every time he moved his hand like a puppet tied to his finger with an invisible thread.

Thanks!

You can do this by animating the Influence value (hover over it and press I). This tells Blender how much the constraint will affect the object.


Armature go limp like noodle, how? I want to have a character lift some really heavy weights then his strenght goes out and he collapses like a house of cards.

I know how to make the weights fall down in a collision, but how do I make the armature / object suddenly fall down like its made out of noodles? Is there a modifier or state for that so I don't have to animate the complex chaos of a limp fall?

You can turn the skin into a softbody and make a new armature made out of mesh bones and apply rigid body constraints/joints .

But physics simulations cant effect regular armature bones.

But I think its a good idea, you should pitch that idea on rightclickselect


Speed up Trigger/Delay Actions Workflow in Animation Nodes In this Thinking Penguin YouTube tutorial, we are shown the workflow for triggering the actions of a mesh matrix instances. The essential steps of this workflow are:

Animate some mesh object, Orginal.Mesh.Object
Export Orginal.Mesh.Object as .mdd
Duplicate Orginal.Mesh.Object, creating Duplicate.Mesh.Object
Apply Mesh Cache modifier to Duplicate.Mesh.Object, set file path to the .mdd you just exported
Set Mesh Cache modifier Time Mapping from Scene to Custom
Set start/end keyframes for Mesh Cache  Evaluation Frame
Use some kind of AN setup to instance Duplicate.Mesh.Object and control the actions of the instances (basic example pictured below)

Is there any way to automate some or all of these processes via a custom script? It's a very powerful node workflow but setting it up is tedious.

Your animations are already described parametrically so you needn't bake anything. Simply define a function that takes the time as input and outputs the required mesh. Then loop over your instances transformations and evaluate the function you created. A simple example would be as follows:

Which results:


IK constraint following object goes haywire So I have an armature sitting on a bicycle and have created IK constraints on the feet/legs to follow the pedals of the bike (So the pedal is the target)

The issue I'm seeing is that in object mode when I preview the animation of the pedal turning the simulation looks amazing. The second I click away, back into pose or to timeline it gets all jumbled. I'm missing something here. Any ideas?

Here is a link to a screen capture of the issue.
https://youtu.be/0a1_SQGDnW8

Go into the armature in edit mode and bend the knees in the direction they are supposed to bend just a tiny bit.

If the legs are completely straight, the ik constraint might get confused which way to bend the knees.

Or give the IK constraint a pole target.
I made a video on this here:
https://vimeo.com/171279647

If you upload your .blend I can make a .gif on your specific example.
https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/


About Blender Hirise DTM Importer making Mars terrain I saw it on the github website, it can be used for Blender Hirise DTM Importer plugin of Blender 2.8+ version.
I followed the HiRISE DTM Importer for Blender tutorial and downloaded the .IMG file and .JP2 file from the HiRISE website and imported it into Blender 2.9. When I opened the EEVEE and Cycles renderers, the materials could not be displayed normally.
How do you make it? Can you share a tutorial on how to use Blender Hirise DTM Importer to create Mars terrain and add new materials in Blender 2.8 or Blender 2.9?
Download link of Blender Hirise DTM Importer plug-in that can be used in Blender 2.8+
https://github.com/phaseIV/Blender-Hirise-DTM-Importer
HiRISE DTM Importer for Blender
https://hemelmechanica.nl/hirise-docs/index.html

there is a new updated add on for this
see the post here
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=6878&view=findpost&p=248902
it is updated for the NEW api in blender 2.8+


Why can't I make item of clothing in the MakeHuman model? I export a model from MakeHuman to Blender. I have tried to make an item of clothing but when I click in the body

and I change to Edit Mode

Why?

Thanks

Here's a imported MHX character from Makehuman.

It is already rigged, so the mesh of the skin (which is just a surface) is somehow controlled by several handles.

There are a some ways in which a mesh can be rigged. In this case the character was built with an Armature.
We can see in fact that the skin object (see the picture above for reference) has an Armature Modifier pointing to the armature (the top object of the hiererchy).

Every movement of the armature will be followed by a movement of the skin as defined by the armature's properties (bone weights, vertex groups, etc...).

When you switch from Object mode to Edit mode, the modifiers by default are not shown, so the skin doesn't follow the armature's deformation anymore. The mesh can be probably found near the origin in resting position.

You can edit the mesh "in place" by enabling the modifier visibiity for edit mode and adjusting the cage (see enabled options near the cursor)


When I press render, my object changes I am trying to render this scene above [Snap-shot 1]. But when i am trying to render the scene, its showing me the result [Snap-shot 2]. Whats wrong with my blender [2.72]

You probably have keyframes set for your objects. If you have set a keyframe for an object and then you move it without overwriting the keyframe, the animated property gets reset on render.

To fix this issue move the object into the desired position and press I. Select LocRotScale to set the location, the rotation and the scale.

When you render the scene now, there should be no more problems with moving objects.


How to remove the upper tabs from the UI?(i.e Layout, Modeling, Sculpting etc.) I want to streamline the UI of Blender from the source, so I was wondering where I could find the code concerning those tabs because all of them are very overwhelming and I would prefer to either remove/hide them.

Blender Version 2.8

You could always just right-click on those tabs and delete, with the possibility of deleting all of them except one:
It's possible to rename them by double clicking on the text.
Alternatively, you can take lines 45 through 56 of the space_topbar.py file and comment them out:

Just a side note: The space_topbar.py file can be easily found by right clicking any of the top tabs and clicking "Edit Source", which will populate the file inside the script editor (via the file dropdown)


Mirror changes to side of cube across all six sides I want to create a cube with some general extrusions. This should be the same across all sides of the cube. Is there a way to make this mirrored across all six sides? I know that I could delete the rest of the cube, copy my changes, rotate it 90°, move it down and to the side, and repeat for all the sides, then remove doubles, but I'm wondering if there's a way to make this work in real time.

In the below image, all six sides should copy the changes shown here on the one side:

Modifiers:
You could do this with a Mirror modifier and an Array Modifier:

Delete the excess geometry:

Add a Mirror modifier:

Add an Array Modifier.

Add an Empty rotated -90°, 0°, 90° (assuming the mirror is mirroring along the X axis):

Set the empty as the Object offset in the array modifier:

Result:

Duplifaces:
Another way is with Duplifaces:

Add a cube and a plane.

Parent the plane to the cube (CtrlP):

With the cube selected, enable Duplifaces in the Properties Editor > Object > Duplication:

Edit the plane object:

The duplifaces will be displayed in object mode:

Limitations:

The array modifier method will not rotate the duplicated faces in the same direction: (this is tweak-able by adjusting the rotation of the empty)

Duplifaces do not display in edit mode.


How to bevel a screwed tunnel into a seamless backdrop? I want to merge and bevel the tunnel's spiraled stripes into a seamless backdrop. Thus the backdrop is of made of the similar 5 stripes as the screw, though not screwed anymore.

How can I achieve that?
The smaller trumpet(#1) serves as other depiction of my imagination to merge and bevel the spiral and seamless backdrop.

From your question I'm not sure about final desired shape, but you can try Lattice modifier or Surface Deform modifier
Step 01

First you would need to straight ends of cable - just change your Screw.001 modifier > Screw > 0 m

Step 02 - version Lattice

Now you can add Lattice object under Lattice Properties change Resolution to 3. Position it at the end of cable. Add Lattice Modifier to cable, choose object Lattice. Select Lattice switch to edit mode and scale bottom part.

If you don't mind make cable circular increase Screw.001 > Steps Viewport/Render to 20. Also there is not a necessary to have first Screw modifier Steps 64 ... 24 seems to work as well.

Step 02 - version Surface Deform
if you want the cable from flat segments (as in your example) try it with Surface Deform modifier (but there is probably many other ways)

add Subdivision modifier to get more segments on straight end edge
add Cylinder, in edit mode add two Edge Loops, add Subdivision modifier too
add Surface Deform modifier, select Cylinder as object, than BIND
now if use change Cylinder shape (like scale bottom edge loops it will shape Cable end)

anyway modifiers use in order - Displace, Array, Screw, Screw.001, Latice or Surface Deform, Curve, Solidify, Bevel

Step 03
To let "trumpet" shrink on "backdrop" curved part ... try your luck with Vertex Weight Proximity modifier with backdrop object as Target, it will generate a vertex Group with weight that we can use for ShrinkWrap modifier .


Unable to select vertices after entering anything besides object mode and edit mode Blender 2.9
Hello, I am currently having a strange issue where for a couple of meshes, after entering anything outside of object or edit mode, I can no longer select the individual vertices.
This is before

And this is after, both using Alt+A

This only applies to the head directly itself; the hair and body are not affected at all.

It appears that something was settin the vertices to auto hide. In another comment, I saw to go into one of the other modes, and then hit Alt+H, and that resolved my issue.


Problems with smoke simulation visualisation When I hit Alt+A to animate the smoke simulation, I just get the particle effect without seeing the smoke. As you can see from the screen shot. I am now using 2.67b. Can somebody please tell me why it's happening as every time I wish to see the changes I have made I have to render the scene which takes a long time and is slowing me down.

As you can see from above left (blender 2.67b) when I hit Alt+A no smoke appears in the simulation. The image to the right with smoke is done with blender 2.62,

I figured out that, as soon an particle system is involved in the scene and you need to render the smoke / fire, you have to start an animation from frame one to get the smoke displayed.


rendering cubemaps by code (context error) Need to render animated cubemaps for use in another program. UI allows to save the cubemap of current frame.

Trying to do it in Python. Getting a context error:

import bpy

# remember current frame to switch back after the script is finished
current_frame = bpy.context.scene.frame_current

for i in range(bpy.context.scene.frame_start, bpy.context.scene.frame_end+1):
    # set current frame
    bpy.context.scene.frame_current = i

    # create an image which will store the baked data
    image = bpy.data.images.new(str(i)+'.png', bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_x, bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_y, alpha = 0)
    image.file_format = 'PNG'
    image.filepath = "//"+str(i)+".png"
    #image.save()

    # need to render for some reason to save the cubemap below
    bpy.ops.render.render()

    # save cubemap image
    # needs proper context
    area = bpy.context.area
    old_type = area.type
    area.type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bpy.ops.texture.envmap_save(filepath=str(i)+'.png')
    area.type = old_type

    print ("Frame "+str(i)+" complete")

# switch back to the frame you were on before running this code
bpy.context.scene.frame_current = current_frame

That did the trick for me once the env map image source was set to 'GENERATED'

import bpy

# remember current frame to switch back after the script is finished

context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene
current_frame = scene.frame_current
area = context.area
old_type = area.type
area.type = 'PROPERTIES'
context.space_data.context = 'TEXTURE'

for i in range(scene.frame_start, scene.frame_end+1):
    # set current frame
    scene.frame_set(i)

    # create an image which will store the baked data
    image = bpy.data.images.new(str(i)+'.png', bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_x, bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_y, alpha = 0)
    image.file_format = 'PNG'
    image.filepath = "//"+str(i)+".png"
    #image.save()

    # need to render for some reason to save the cubemap below
    bpy.ops.render.render()

    # save cubemap image
    # needs proper context

    bpy.ops.texture.envmap_save(filepath=str(i)+'.png')

    print ("Frame "+str(i)+" complete")

area.type = old_type
# switch back to the frame you were on before running this code
scene.frame_set(current_frame)


How to assign a random color to objects and make them parent to specific objects using Python? I have two objects lists in the scene:

Lipid_names = ['DGDG','DGTS','MGDG','PE','PI','SQDG','PG']
Lipid_regions = ['Lipid_DGDG','Lipid_DGTS','Lipid_MGDG','Lipid_PE','Lipid_PI','Lipid_SQDG','Lipid_PG']

The objects in the list Lipid_names should be set as child to objects in the list Lipid_regions.

So, DGDG should be set as child of Lipid_DGDG,
    DGTS should be set as child of Lipid_DGTS, and so on.

AND I also want to change the color of these objects:

Now, when I run the code, it does not make parent-relation to all objects but only first one. The code seems okay to me as I am not an expert programmer.

For reference, I uploaded the .blend file with all data inside it.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n52kay7jx1u13hc/Lipid_packing.blend?dl=0

import bpy
import random
from random import uniform
scene = bpy.context.scene

for selected_obj in scene.objects:
    selected_obj.select = False

Lipid_names = ['DGDG','DGTS','MGDG','PE','PI','SQDG','PG']
Lipid_regions = ['Lipid_DGDG','Lipid_DGTS','Lipid_MGDG','Lipid_PE','Lipid_PI','Lipid_SQDG','Lipid_PG']

# All regions over the lipids will be spread
regions = [i for i in scene.objects if i.name.startswith('Lipid_')]

# All lipids
lipids = [i for i in scene.objects if i.name in Lipid_names]
lpds = [print(i.name) for i in scene.objects if i.name in Lipid_names]

for Lipid in lipids:
    val = lambda: random.random()
    # set Location of the object to origin
    Lipid.location[0] = 0
    Lipid.location[1] = 0
    Lipid.location[2] = 0
    # set the rotation of object
    Lipid.rotation_euler[0] = 1.5708
    Lipid.rotation_euler[1] = -1.5708
    Lipid.rotation_euler[2] = 0.7853
    # set material
    Lipid.active_material.diffuse_color = (0, val(), 0)
    Lipid.active_material.use_transparency = False
    Lipid.parent = None

#print (lis[0].name)
for iter in range(len(lipids)):
    print(iter)
    for lipid in lipids:
        index = 0
        if regions[index].name == 'Lipid_' + lipid.name:
            lipid.parent = bpy.data.objects[regions[index].name]
        index += 1

you can change the color with a simple random in r - g -b
and in order to assign each lipid_name as child of lipid_region you should use some loop... check this after run the script:

import bpy
import random

scene = bpy.context.scene

for selected_obj in scene.objects:
    selected_obj.select = False

Lipid_names = ['DGDG','DGTS','MGDG','PE','PI','SQDG','PG']
Lipid_regions = ['Lipid_DGDG','Lipid_DGTS','Lipid_MGDG','Lipid_PE','Lipid_PI','Lipid_SQDG','Lipid_PG']

for object in bpy.context.scene.objects:
    if object.name in Lipid_names:
        #color
        r, g, b = [random.random() for i in range(3)]
        object.active_material.diffuse_color = (r, g, b)

        #parent assign
        lipid_index = Lipid_names.index(object.name)
        parent_name = Lipid_regions[lipid_index]
        object.parent = bpy.data.objects[parent_name]


Copy rotation does not always rotates correctly I have created an ostrich and this is the armature.
The feather bones, 5 left, 5 right and one centre are controlled by an IK bone.
Bone naming is done view from the back of the ostrich, so left and right are correct.
The whole armature is controlled by the MAIN bone.
Every feather bone has a copy rotation constraint for the ‘X’ axis.
The 5 left ones have a copy rotation constraint for the ‘Z’ axis with and influence of: 0.2, 0.4, …, 1.0.
The 5 right ones are like the left one with the ‘Z’ axis inverted.
Picture 1 : The feather bones, 5 left, 5 right and one centre are controlled by an IK bone.
Bone naming is done view from the back of the ostrich, so left and right are correct.
The whole armature is controlled by the MAIN bone.
Every feather bone has a copy rotation constraint for the ‘X’ axis.
The 5 left ones have a copy rotation constraint for the ‘Z’ axis with and influence of: 0.2, 0.4, …, 1.0.
The 5 right ones are like the left one plus the ‘Z’ axis inverted.
Picture 2: the IK ‘Z’ axis is rotated clockwise and the feather bones tilt correctly.
Picture 3 & 4: now we rotate the MAIN bone CCW or CW and the left feather bones are still OK.
But the right ones are not correct anymore.
I have the same issue with the wings. In the case of the wings, it is the right side that does not work.
What did I do wrong?  How can I correct this? I have the same issue in Blender 2.79 and 2.8.
Many thanks for your help.

It always works correctly.  It does not always work like you'd expect.  The differences are basically down to how Euler angles operate, especially in conjunction with constraints.
So when you copy rotation, here's what it does:

It decomposes your target bone's orientation into XYZ Euler triplets.  These are not necessarily or even likely to be the same XYZ triplets you keyframed for that bone.  That is because Euler angles are aliased: there is more than one set of Euler angles that corresponds to any particular orientation.  But in order to accommodate space-switching, we have to get only a single set of numbers out, so there's some information that's lost.

If you want to see what these anti-aliased (not a good thing in this case) numbers are, you can duplicate the control bone, give it a copy transforms constraint targeting the original, and then apply visual transform (or bake animation.)  You will see that the transforms you get are probably not the ones you expected.

We multiply the components of that triplet by the influence of the constraint, and then rotate the constrained bone with it.  Changing influence does not give you rotation along a plane-- rotation in a single axis.  That is, there's torque.  That's because Euler angle rotation doesn't interpolate in a straight line.

Those two things combined mean that copy rotation, particularly at influence <1.0, particularly for 2-axis copy rotation, doesn't work like people intuit it ought to.  Copy rotation is part of a set (with limit rotation) of the least intuitive constraints, because of how people think about 3D angles working, and the differences between that and how they actually work.
If only the first thing is a problem, you could consider using a driver instead of a constraint.  If you don't need space switching, drivers can let you work on raw, no-lost-data f-curve numbers.
However, what I'd generally say is, try to find a different way to do what you want.  Copying rotation of 3 axes, at influence 1.0, is perfectly safe.  Damped tracking and locked tracking with influence less than 1.0 is safe, and operates in the "swing angle" (smallest rotation) rather than with any torque.  One way that should get you what you want is to copy all rotation fully, and then restore a part of it by damped and locked tracking non-deforming marker bones.  That may be more complicated than what you actually need though.


How do I do GPU rendering with enabled OptiX from the Command Line? I need help running Blender from the command line with GPU rendering. Also, Optix must be enabled.
I read this article:

How do I do GPU rendering from the Command Line?

very much helped, but now I would like to know how to do the same with Optix

Thank you to everyone who helped!
I found a solution to the problem:
-b $filename -noaudio -E 'CYCLES' -s 20 -e 170 -a -F 'PNG' -- --cycles-device OPTIX

Explanation:
-s 20 -e 170

Set the -s start frame to 20 and the -e end frame to 170.
-a

Render the whole animation using all the settings saved in the blend-file.
-- --cycles-device OPTIX

Override the device that is used to render frames.


Imported image darkened after imported to "image" node in compositing Short story, after attempting to import an image into the compositing node "image," it was darkened in a odd way in blender.

Original Image vs Seen in Blender

I had the same issue. Check the box exposure value

As you can see I had -2.610 value and the picture was darkened (like in your screenshots).

Try to set this value to 0. If the value changes back to previous number after a second, check your addons. As for me, I could set it to 0 only after disabling my Photographer addon


Torn Mesh when transparent? My mesh looks torn with little holes when it's transparent but totally fine when opaque. Any idea what could be causing this and how to fix? EDIT: none of the holes are visible in edit mode, only if the object is transparent in object mode. Thanks!

Here I have some images. All are in object mode without any modifiers at all.

Transparency:

No transparency:

Again, no holes are visible at all in edit mode and are only visible when the object is transparent in object mode.

During a render with transparency on, it looks fine too! Only in the 3D viewport with transparency there is noticable tearing/blocky-ness.

This problematic behaviour can't be changed.

But since it is only a viewport problem, it won't affect the render. The backface and the frontfaces are both visible and don't get rendered properly. There are two temporary options.

Don't show transparency in the viewport. Toggle off show transparency under Properties > Object. To preview the effect you'll have to use the render preview ⇧ ShiftZ.

Enable backface culling, that way the backfaces don't get involved in the viewport render. Transparent frontfaces are combined correctly.


How do you lock groups of vertices in an object in relation to each other so that when scaling the object those vertices don't scale? I'm using blender 2.82. I have made a cabinet door in which the side rails are 2 1/4 inches wide. I would like to lock all the vertices in each corner in their current distance from each other so that if I scale this door height or width, the rails stay 2 1/4 inches wide no matter the size of the door. So for example I could scale it from 16"x20 3/4" to 18"x6 1/4" and keep my rails all the same 2 1/4in wide. At this point I have been going into edit mode and selecting the vertices of one side of the door dragging to the desired width and then the vertices on top or bottom and changing the height. It keeps it all in proportion but is tedious and slow. Being able to type the dimensions into the transform tool would be way faster. Any help would be appreciated.

EDIT: To maybe show more clearly what I meant:

All the rails need to stay the same width no matter the door size. To speed up door creation since I have lots of doors to make, I would like to type the dimension into the transform box rather than going into edit mode grabbing one side of the door and moving it to the desired width or height. If I could lock together each group of corner vortexes, then scaling would only lengthen the edges between the corners, but not change the scale of the corners themselves.

Currently, tranforming with the transform dialog box does this:

Changing the height of the door on the left to the door height of the door on the right makes the overall dimension the same, but ruins the rails.

The rendered door:

Not sure if this is the type of solution you're looking for but have you tried selecting the outer edges of the door and assigning them to a vertex group, like so...

and then you can select and deselect that specific region (without affecting the frame in the inside) and scale in edit mode in the 3d view...


Render image and mesurements? Trying to figure out how I can get the mesurment tool in blender 2.8 to render with my image?

Blender 2.8 comes with a plugin pre-installed called MeasureIt. This allows adding Measurement notations as scene data.  You can then render the annotations separately and composite them back in. In order to get your measurements rendered, all you would have to do is:

Click on the Render button in the Render panel which is going to render your measurements as a separate image based on the active camera
Open up a new Compositor window or just switch the workspace to Compositing, add an Image as well as an Alpha Over node
Set the image for Image node to generated image by the MeasureIt add-on
Plug your rendering into the upper socket and the generated image into the background (lower) socket of the Alpha Over node

Note: MeasureIt is a large and complicated tool, some research is required. I'd suggest have a look into the manual: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/addons/3d_view/measureit.html or watch some time consuming youtube tutorials.


Objects are scaling along global axes instead of local (even after setting Transformation Orientation to “Local”) Problem: objects are scaling along global axes instead of local, even though I set Transformation Orientation to “Local”.

The Transformation Orientation option seems to apply only to the graphic manipulator handles but not to keyboard scaling (key S). When using keyboard scaling, the object (such as cube), gets skewed because of this.

How to enable local orientation for keyboard scaling (key S)?

To do local scaling push S and then the axis you want to scale on twice.
So to scale along the local X you push S XX.


2.8 setting up different viewport shading options for different viewport windows? hopefully this makes sense.

But can you set up different viewport shading options for different viewport windows?

ie if I'm using the Quad window viewports (see image) can I have X-Ray shading in all viewports except for the ortho viewport, because in the ortho viewport I just want a wireframe shading (or even hiding the blueprint objects).

Thanks guys, so looks like what I'm after is...

1) Setup 4 viewports (don't use Quad View),

2) Make all of them Ortho viewports except the top right viewport (ie make it Perspective)

3) Then in the perspective viewport  select the blueprint Empty object and in Object Data turn off Display Perspective

Giving me wireframes against the blueprints, but a solid view of the tank in a perspective view without the distraction of the blueprints, ie...

Thanks again.


Prevent auto-stretch IK in Rigify with Blender 2.8 I am looking for the auto-stretch IK feature in Rigify for Blender 2.8 in order to de-activate it (set it to zero).
This feature was under Rig Main Property toolbox in the previous version of Blender (see capture below).

Thanks in advance.

OK so I guess I looked everywere exept were it was :/ Turns out it was under the Item tab.

However, setting IK_Strech to zero didn't fix the problem...

Any input appreciated.


Unable to copy objects between versions I can't copy and paste objects between versions

which is an issue because older blender crashes trying to open newer blender files and newer blender warps models from older blender on scaling

I just ran into what I believe is the same issue.

Check the Temp path in both versions' preferences. You probably changed it for the old version in the past but forgot to do this in the new installation. You must use the same path otherwise the clipboard contents won't get shared across versions.

What's happening is that upon copying an object Blender temporarily stores it in a file called copybuffer.blend, found in the temp directory. When the temp path isn't the same in all versions preferences you'll get independent copybuffer files in those  different directories, and each Blender version will only read the files from their respective temp directories.

Here's how to setup the temp directory path:

2.79 and earlier

Temp in File tab of  File > User Preferences

2.8+

Temporary Files in File Paths tab of  Edit > Preferences


When should I use a material over a texture? I'm starting to make models in blender and I created few object which I want to import to my game in Unity. I have very simple graphics(basicaly one colour for each part of the object) and I don't know if I should use either material or texture. I've searched for the anserw but I haven't found anything against using materials. What should I choose? Please note that performance is aleso important for me.

If your objects will only have solid colors then a material will suffice.  If you want your objects to have some sort of pattern like tiger stripes or a logo then you will want to learn how to use textures.  Large texture files can affect performance, but on today's computers you can have a lot of textures before you will notice performance problems.


How To Do UV Indexing Like This? how to do uv indexing like this procedurally?

i wanna make some shader that can pixelate image but with hexagonal.

Hexagonal Tiling
Updated. See Edit at bottom of this answer..
You can't map the centers of tiled hexagons onto one rectangular grid, but you can map them onto two overlapping rectangular grids, and use a Voronoi-like distance-to-closest-point test to decide which grid a shading point belongs to.
Preparation
Unfortunately, Blender's node implementation of modulo goes into the negative for negative bases, and we would like a plain regular sawtooth, not jumping as input crosses 0. So we can make a group implementing an alternative mod(): x - y * floor(x/y):

which, for convenience, we can use in a group 'Vector Modulus', applying it element-wise to a vector:

Rectangular Grids
We can use the Vector Modulus group to divide a given UV space into rectangular cells, width 1, height sqrt(3). The centers of these rectangular cells are at the centers of successive tessellated  hexagons in a column, and adjacent tessellated  hexagons in a row.
We move (0,0) to the centers of the cells by subtracting (0.5, sqrt(3)/2) from (Cell U, Cell V):

.. and call it 'Grid A'.
We create another grid, 'Grid B', by offsetting Grid A by half its dimensions in both directions, so the corners of A  at the centers of B, and vice-versa.
To Hexagons:
Now, by selecting the shorter of the Grid A UV and the Grid B UV vectors, i.e. the the UV in the space of the closest cell from either grid, the result falls into tessellated hexagons. (Surprising, until you think about it)
We haven't scaled or distorted the original Input UV in this conversion, just renumbered chunks of it. The rate of change in X and Y is the same, so if we subtract the Cell UV from the Input UV, the result will be constant in any cell, and different for each cell, so can be used to index the cells:

The 'Hexagonal Grid' group in the download has the outputs:

Grid ID, a 2D unique ID for each cell
The cell's internal UV, (-.5 to .5)
The  2 distances of the shading point: from the center and the edges of its cell.

Thanks to The Art of Code, aka  BigWings on ShaderToy, for this method.
Edit:
Since answering, and with newer nodes, Wannes Malfait has pointed out a much snappier way of constructing the offset grids, with just 9 nodes:


How to render an animation in EEVEE with Anti Aliasing off? Yo, I'm somewhat new to blender, but i've been practicing with the EEVEE engine and  making low poly models, but I'd like to render model turntables without anti-aliasing if that makes any sense, here's an example of what i'd like to achieve https://imgur.com/lUgy5UL
I've looked at some tutorials but I couldn't find anything as specific as what I want to achieve, and since im new to this I just assume that type of render has to do with anti-aliasing

Thank you for your time

You can disable sample from nearby pixel to turn off anti-aliasing effect in EEVEE. The detail can be found in here.

Properties Panel: Scene → Film → Filter Size: 0.00 px

Once you disable the anti-aliasing, you can now scale up the final render to emphasis on that jagged part.

Compositing method:

Or using a value to change it for ease:


How can I have Alpha 0 but only shows highlight couldn't find tip on this. Maybe I was using wrong search terms.
I want to create "cartoon glasses". By that, I mean, a plane that is completely transparent, has no refraction effect, but we can see it's glare/highlights only.
When I apply "transparent" the highlights also lose their strength. If I use glass in Cycles, it distorts the pass-through light realistically (I just want it straight though, like transparent/alpha). If I use Evee --- well, Evee's a mess when it comes to glass. But I want the glare to move/live in the scene, not just be an image PNG pasted over it.
I'm still pretty basic in my Blender.

Using Eevee, you can use the "shader to RGB" node from a "glass" node. "shader to RGB" is like a prerendering from with we can get colors.

From it, we can use 2 color ramps: the first to control the light reflexion intensity and color and the other to control the level of transparency.

Color is given directly to the Principled and its alpha value is given by the intensity of the light.
Make sure to set the object transparent (alpha blend) in Eevee material settings.

Alternatively, you can also keep the original environment/light colors with this setting (look nicer, I think, but...):


Tracing a monochrome image into a 3D, extruded object with a script Say I want to automate making extruded-text or a 3d logo from an image.

An answer that uses extruding a monochrome image of the ubuntu logo to an arbitrary number of units with a python script taking only the number of units and the monochrome image as a starting point will receive extra this was awesome re-posts from me.

This could be useful for lots of things.

Blender doesn't have image tracing built-in, and without some tracing algorithm that outlines the shape, you're unlikely to get very nice results.
so suggest...

Open the image in a vector image editor (such as Inkscape)
trace the image (most vector editors have auto-trace)
save the vector as an SVG
import the SVG into Blender
use the curve bevel setting, or convert the curve to a mesh and extrude that.

If you want to automate this, you would have to automate converting the image into a vector outside blender, using something like Potrace, once you have an SVG you can automate loading and extruding it.


RX580 not supported in Blender 2.8 I have a Windows PC with RX580. Just installed 2.8 yesterday. Eeviee seems to be working perfectly, while Cycles can render only on CPU. In the Preferences the CUDA tab says that no supported GPUs are found. What do I do?

You need to select OpenCL instead of CUDA for rendering with AMD cards.


Collection/Object selection to the exclusion of everything else - unable to exit I've been following a tutorial and I've been adding materials to an object I modelled. All was fine until I accidentally used one of the viewport shortcuts but I'd forgotten to turn on "emulate numpad" as I am on a laptop. I seem to have selected or entered a collection of objects to the exclusion of the rest of them. Most things are deselected in the view port and I can't see anything in viewport shading. I can re-enable them but I seem to be unable to select the objects now.

How can I return things back to normal ?

Really sorry if this is basic but I can't figure out how to get things visible again.

Thanks for any help

Here is a link to the file

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qMMrF0E42oIz2Osj-1rXTZ_BQ9uEhaa1

When I load your file,  I see the ground and some stones in solid mode, and they're still there if I switch to Material Preview or Render Mode, though the HDRI file is missing, so I get a magenta "missing texture" in Render view.

If you were hitting Shift-1, etc. on the top row with emulate numpad turned off, that would have toggled visibility of different collections in the outliner.  I'd suggest going through the outliner systematically and clicking all the closed eyelids to open eyes, if you haven't already tried that.  If you made lights or environment invisible, it might be too dark to see in Render mode.

The only other thing I can think of is that you may have hit Shift-H to hide everything but the selected object.  If so, I don't know why it's not showing the same issue for me.  Anyway you can try reloading your file and hitting Alt-H to unhide.


Need to figure out how to lock model meshes to a single axis, regardless of Mode/tab within blender So I'm trying to modify a model mesh for a video game, Team Fortress two, and I'm taking two meshes to combine into one, but whenever I seem to load in a model into this program and want to switch between object mode and edit mode, the meshes themselves go from one axis, to an entirely different axis altogether, forcing me to readjust my viewpoint constantly, (which is not only just disorientating and annoying but for whatever reason, I have to mess around with the viewpoint without scrolling in too much, otherwise it makes panning the viewpoint impossible.

This is bothersome as it is, but recently this one mesh that I'm dealing with within both object mode and edit mode just rotates the head 90 degrees inside of edit mode, and makes it impossible to properly adjust some of the edges when I cannot line these two separate models together.

OBJECT MODE

EDIT MODE

(Additionally, setting the other object here into edit mode, sends the mesh group to align with the x Axis, completely different to the head piece that is just seemingly stuck facing the Z axis.)

Is there any settings I can set at all that locks ALL meshes and vertices to a single axis regardless of what mode I set blender to? I'm having a really difficult time right now, and I'm not ready to merge these two objects just yet. So any info helps, thanks.

i can't see the hole UI but i think that's a pose mode issue, try to select one of this dots, go to pose mode, select all bones A than search, with space, and type 'clear pose' and select something that looks like to : Clear Pose Transforms


What does the icon to the left of the object name in the outliner mean? I have been having a problem with "can not operate boolean operation" to unite 2 objects. One is definitely mesh and other one, I thought it was mesh but it has a different icon next to it. I did roll over it but it did not tell me what it meant. I suspect this needs to be converted to a proper mesh to boolean.

It is the icon in the outliner panel immediately to the left of the stem final copy and stem_final objects. It is a file imported from sketch up, with the file format "dae". I also converted this file in another software "mesh lab" obj file, ply file, neither worked. One file imported from mesh lab in the form of dae worked as mesh, so I am not sure what is going on...

When I try to find out if the object is non-manifold with Ctrl+Shift+Alt+M, all the lines light up in orange…

If you examine the "add objects" menu, visible by using the SHIFT-Akey combination, or the  Spacebar > Akey sequence, you will see that the icon to the left of "stem final copy", and "stem_final" in the excerpt of the image of the outliner panel you link to is used for one of three object types: an empty object, a force field, and a group instance. None of the three is a mesh, and so cannot be part of a boolean operation, as these take two mesh data.

You can create something equivalent to an empty by adding a mesh object, and in edit mode selecting and then deleting all of its vertices, but I don't see in the Blender Manual any information on converting an empty, force field, or group instance to a mesh.


Unable to delete keyframes I have looked all around with no avail. I opened blender today, and now am unable to delete any keyframes. When I hover over it in the timeline with the green line, then "delete keyframe" and confirm, it says "Successfully deleted 0 keyframes from camera." (for camera). How can I fix this? I have tried selecting on dope sheet, but for some reason nothing happens either. Thanks in advance!

To unlock or lock a keyframe, you can do three ways.

1) click on the icon symbol to unlock the keyframes for the entire object

2) hover over the keyframes for the selected object press tab once, if grayed out the keys are locked if not then the keys are not locked.

3) if your mouse cursor is outside the timeline boarders (gray part of the timeline) with this icon greyed then those keyframes are locked.

and including the dope sheet

If somehow you are still stuck, just go into the dope sheet then Shift + Right Click select the key(s) you want to delete

Next tap X while hovering over the dope sheet Select left click the "delete keyframes".


Left-click brings up view port shading I recently joined blender and while I was making a GFX for a friend the left-click button suddenly changed to this.

Sorry if I didn't explain this well.

For some odd reason this has happened to a student of mine several times. When we go to her keymaps we find Context enum menu mapping mapped to left click. She has not did that herself but it comes back even after reinstall etc. I have no idea why but it happens.
Taking the tick off the context enum menu or changing it to something else works (for example the normal E).
Go to
Edit > Preferences > Keymap, search for Context Enum or Left Mouse to find it.

Your keymap might look like this

It should look like this


How can I get particles (confettis) to fall on a sphere, follow its surface without penetrating it and fall off when reaching the "equator"? I've set up the sphere as Collision with Stickiness 10 and Friction 1.0. When falling on the sphere the confettis follow its surface but stay horizontal, which means they penetrate the surface of the sphere when they should stay tangent, and then they continue to follow the surface down to the "South Pole" instead of falling off when they reach the equator of the sphere.

For the rotation, make it Dynamic in the particle settings

For the intersection, create a second sphere and make it a collision object (this will be your hit box) and enable Size Deflect in the particle system, then scale down the second sphere until the particles hit the first sphere near its surface (because the size deflect will make the particles deflect a few centimeters from the surface). Of course delete the collision from the first sphere.

For the stickiness, for confetti you should use 0 stickiness, 0 friction (or at least low values of it) and 1 damping


Can I use UV project modifier for a specific face? I just need the top face to use the UV Project modifier. How can I do it?

The simplest way to get a clean separation in texturing between the faces is to set up two materials, one for the single face, and one for the rest of the mesh. Then you can set up a UV map for each material and they won't conflict with each other due to the face assignment of the materials.

In my example, I'm actually UV projecting textures for both materials even though you don't need to do that. Just set up the UV projection for the top face in order to achieve the result you want.

STEP ONE

Create 2 UV Maps (you can unwrap the whole mesh into both maps, as we are differentiating between the textures via face material assignment)

STEP TWO

Create 2 Materials Similar to the screenshot

STEP THREE

Apply the materials to the desired faces in Edit mode.

STEP FOUR

Set up the UV Projection modifier like this (you can just do 1 projection even though I've done 2). You'll also need a separate camera for projection (you can use the main camera but it's generally more convenient to use a separate camera)

STEP FIVE

Now you should have a different material and a texture that is UV projection on your mesh surfaces.


How can I snap a duplicated part of a mesh to a hole with the exact size so it forms one whole object again? I am still very much new to Blender, and I've been struggling with this problem for a couple of hours now. It might have been better if i'd just created another project from scratch at this point, but I want to see it through to the end and learn more in the process. Scouring the internet hasn't helped much.

I've been following a tutorial on modeling and composition and made a tea pot. All was fine and dandy until i started working on its handle. After much fiddling I was dissatisfied with the results and decided to delete the handle altogether. This left me with the following situation:

Since it is a round and symmetrical object, my first instinct was to duplicate the corresponding 3x4 side of the pot and just replace the old faces. That's where I got stuck - no matter how i try to snap to the remaining vertices / faces, the duplicated part always becomes deformed since there is nowhere i can snap the middle 2 faces to:

So, is there any kind of way for me to bring this pot back into its original shape, or do I need to start over?

Try to use a Grid Fill option. First select all edges around the hole with Alt+RMB, then press Space and type Grid Fill. If the result isn't as nice as you expected, change it's settings in a Tool Shelf (T).


How do I add rotational motors in BGE Unlike Cycles Render mode, BGE has no Rigid Body Constraints in the physics panel. I can add hinges/etc but no physical motor force to move them. I believe the logic blocks allow you to, however it only allows translational motor servo for location OR simple motion where it rotates buuut teleports instead of passing coordinates in between. (edit, no it doesn't teleport)

The simple way is to use the "angular velocity" field of the simple motion brick. But that doesn't give you any angular-speed ramp-up the way things in the normal world work.

Another way is to use torques, and to set the rotational damping in the physics really really high. This gives you the required ramp up, but also affects how the object responds to impacts.

The normal solution I use is to code it. This can either be done by directly applying torques to the object (ie the KX_GameObject.applyTorque() function), or it can be done by creating a constraint and setting the various parameters. As you are making a game, I highly suggest learning python - it really will make things significantly easier.


Mesh objects take the color of World (Blender 2.81a) In my Blender project, there is a two-dimensional mesh object. It has the color white. In the "solid" view it indeed shows up white. However, when rendering a video or picture ("rendered" view), it takes the color of the "world" (which is blue). So it only becomes visible (in blue) when there are other objects in the background.

How can I make this object show its intended color (white) in "rendered" view (and therefore in any baked picture or video)?

PS: I have tried giving the object other colors than white, and then there is no problem. So only when it is white it takes the color of "world", whatever that color is.

PICTURE: the temple is the object. It hovers in front of the dark blue rectangle. The left picture is in "material" view, the right is in "rendered" view. In de rendered view it has somehow taken the color of the "world" (the lighter blue). So if I change the color of the world to e.g. red, then the temple turns red as well.

In renders, all objects reflect the World color.
White objects are affected most, they reflect it almost perfectly. Like in reality.

Solution 1 - Emission node
Use the Emission node for your object's color.
That way, the object will not receive any shadows or color tint.
It will just be a silhouette emiting white light.
Might work well for 2D animation.

Add > Shader > Emission

Comparing different materials.
Even colored materials get a slight tint.

Solution 2 - Using the compositor

Available here on Blender Stack Exchange by the legendary cegaton himself.

Cegaton's answer offers a different approach using the compositor.
Rendered objects keep grey shading, but the background color can be changed at will.

Try what works best for you :).


How can I use a sequence of images as a texture within a render scene? My scene contains a 'projector screen', and I wish to animate some other items, while changing the image that is shown on the screen. Currently, I'm using a plane with the image(s) used as an image texture. I am then manually rendering each frame individually and changing the image. Obviously this is a huge waste of time, so I was wondering how I could perform this in a more sensible manner?

Thanks!

Yes. Instead of using an image on the plain, use a series of images using the node setup shown. Add > Image, and then select your image series.

You can also texture a plane with a movie file. Movie Clip On Plane

Whichever way you go, frame rates must match...


How to make a hair look normal or not blocky So...hello, i'm new in both blender (started using blender 2 weeks ago) and this forum, and currently i'm trying to edit/posing a 3D model from any game
I've succeeded in a few renders, but now i want to try something new
Currently, i'm trying to add textures and getting the model ready, but there's something that i don't know how to do
As you can see, this is the model that i'm preparing to pose, but the hair seems kinda blocky and not a normal smooth hair. I read in the comment section of that model and the creator told a person it has to do with alpha mapping?  Can any of you please help me? Thanks in advance.
The model: https://www.deviantart.com/crazy31139/art/Final-Fantasy-7-Remake-Cloud-833037551
How it should look:

Below is an image of how I connected the maps for just the hair. I'm sure you figured out by now (It took me a minute) that the suffix letter to the map name refers to what kind of map it is (Ex: M = Metallic, N = Normal, C = Color, and A = Alpha). What threw me for a second is that unlike common setups which have the alpha as a built-in component of the basecolor map, this one uses a separate map, using the color, not the alpha value. See below:

Also - note the blend modes I highlighted on the right side. You can play with them to your liking, just don't pick opaque - that will leave things opaque and "blocky" as you said.
NOTE -  I just noticed, in the image I provided, the metallic map is set to sRGB color space, this should be non-color.
Hope this helps


Is there a way to use 'render region' with numeric input for size & position? I'm trying to overscan a tracked shot basically: I've shot some green screen footage, but the studio was not large enough to get the camera sufficiently far enough away from the talent for the shots we need, so I've got to extend/zoom-out the shot using overscan.

So I'm comping my 4k plate on to a 6k or 8k blank background, then tracking the shot, using Syntheyes with an un-distort/re-distort workflow, and outputting a Blender scene for the CG.
All good so far, but obviously a pain to work in 6k or 8k regardless.

So I need to render a 6k or 8k image in blender, but 1k or 2k of the border around the shot is all totally redundant.
So how can I 'render region' with the region accurately centred, and define the width and height of the region in pixels?
So I'm not wasting time rendering a load of pixels which will be thrown away in the composite anyway.

Cheers
Mark

You can turn on the Python Console Shift+F4 and define the border there.

Use commands:

bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].render.border_min_x
bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].render.border_max_x
bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].render.border_min_y
bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].render.border_max_y

Like so:

You can also turn on the Amaranth Add-on that comes with Blender (Have the 'Community' button ON) in order to see how large the Border render box is:


Change particle system's physics with a keyframe (or other) I'm on the path to becoming a particle system expert, and right now I'm doing a silly logo particle system. It basically forms my username out of particles, but I want the particles to stay in place until a desired time. E.g., I want to add a keyframe to switch the particle physics from no physics to newtonian (or other) physics.

You can animate the "Gravity" and "All" effectors under Field Weights of the particle system. Just keep them at 0 until you need them to affect your particles, then set them to the desired values to get the party going.

If your particles have an initial velocity you need to set keyframes for that as well.


Blurry texture in 3D view I unwrapped the faces and added a texture too them. They appear blurry. I unchecked Mipmaps and Interpolation and changed the filter to box. The 3D view still looks blurry. In my user preferences, Mipmaps is also unchecked.
The render is fine, still sharp. Even though, there are some white outlines on some of the arms and body, might be caused by the blurred 3D texture view.
Could this also be a bug? I recently installed it on Fedora 23.

Here's an updated better pic:

I fixed the white outlines, but the image is still blurry.

The problem is simply the viewport.
If you render the image it comes out right.

The problem has to do with the way Blender scales images to fit textures. It could scale them so a tiny pixel would look like a box, but it uses the more conventional method, which is to scale them so that they blur. (zooming in on the texture in the image viewer scales the first way though.) (Blender scales like Gimp does, which works best for most things. Put the texture in Gimp and scale to see what I mean.)

To really fix this problem, you must simply scale the texture in a program that doesn't blur it, and use the larger texture instead. I would just zoom in on the image in Blender, take a screenshot, then cut out the texture.

You then get this.

You can use that image in Blender Internal or cycles and it won't be blurry.

Keep in mind, with Blender internal, you must switch to material viewport to make the blurring go away, because the solid viewport will not show the texture correctly.

You may have to change the texture, then save and close Blender then re-open to see the change take effect in the viewport.

It should look like this now. (your background will be grey, the white is my theme).

I hope this fixes it.


What causes these black streaks along certain (concave?) edges? I have a model with an open mesh terrain surface and some closed building meshes – when rendering in Cycles I'm seeing black streaks along some mesh edges.
On the building models it seems to be wherever there's a concave edge connecting two faces, on the terrain it's less clear but I think also at concave edges:

What is causing this??
Edit: Here's what the material nodes look like:

And how it appears in a full render:

Also, after duplicating and separating out a section of the terrain mesh for clarity, and correcting the normals:

Blendfile:

You need to recalculate the normals of your mesh.
go in edit mode with TAB
select all with A 1 time, or 2 times, or 3 times (depending on if something is selected and if you're using 2.79 or 2.8)
- If you're using 2.79 or earlier, use Ctrl+N (recalculate outside) or Shift+Ctrl+N (recalculate inside)
- If you're using 2.8, Shift+N (recalculate outside) or Shift+Ctrl+N (recalculate inside)


Blender weight can only painted on face Blender 2.8's weight painting behavior is really different than 2.79 and it's bugging me for few month

One of the biggest problem is I can't paint vertex weight by clicking empty space. For example, If I click that area in picture below, it won't paint vertex weight on the mesh.

However, If I paint on the mesh, I can paint vertex weight on the mesh.

Blender Weight Painting wasn't like this in 2.79. I could paint vertex weight without clicking mesh in 2.79. I couldn't find option to disable this in 2.8.

Can anyone can guide me to turn off mesh-only vertex painting in 2.8?

You have to set the falloff type from sphere to projected.


Loading Icons Into Custom Addon So I am trying to load icons into a custom script and am having a series of issues. I initially wanted to try having a separate file that was icons.py that would supply a dictionary of the images however I was able to get it to work without separating it by putting it in the register however when the script is loaded as an add on it doesnt show the menu options.

So when I run it from the script editor it works but now when I have it run as an add on. Is there something I need to do to make it load first so the rest of the script can run?

import bpy
import bmesh
from bpy.props import *
from math import pi, radians
import os
import bpy.utils.previews

#attempting to load custom icons
from .icons import load_icons
from .icons import clear_icons

class customMenu(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_label = "CustomMenu"
    bl_idname = "customMenu"

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

        icons = load_icons()

        if bpy.context.object.mode == "EDIT":
            #print("EDIT MODE!")
            layout.operator("bevelandsharp1.objects", text = "Make SSharp", icon_value=custom_icons["MakeSharpE"].icon_id)
icon_value=custom_icons["Xslap"].icon_id)
            layout.separator()
            layout.menu(eMeshtools.bl_idname, icon_value=custom_icons["Frame"].icon_id  )

        else:
            #print("OBJECT/OTHER MODE!")
            #layout.operator("custom.icon", text = "CustomIcon", )
            layout.separator()
            layout.menu(Meshtools.bl_idname, icon_value=custom_icons["Diagonal"].icon_id)
            layout.separator()
            layout.menu(ImpSettings.bl_idname, icon_value=custom_icons["Frame"].icon_id)
            layout.separator()
            layout.menu(ButtonsVPSub.bl_idname, icon_value=custom_icons["Gui"].icon_id)
            layout.separator()

custom_icons = None

def register():

    global custom_icons
    custom_icons = bpy.utils.previews.new()
    script_path = bpy.context.space_data.text.filepath

    icons_dir = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(script_path), "icons")

    custom_icons.load("custom_icon", os.path.join(icons_dir, "icon.png"), 'IMAGE')
    custom_icons.load("CST", os.path.join(icons_dir, "HIconCST.jpg"), 'IMAGE')
    custom_icons.load("Frame", os.path.join(icons_dir, "HIconFrame.jpg"), 'IMAGE')
    custom_icons.load("Diagonal", os.path.join(icons_dir, "HIcondiagonal.jpg"), 'IMAGE')
....

Recently added a custom icons module to an addon... thought it might be an interesting answer to this q.  Code is basically the text editor custom icon template.

Icons stored in an icons folder inside the addon's folder.

import bpy

from os import path
icon_dir = path.join(path.dirname(__file__), "icons")
preview_collections = {}

def register():
    # Note that preview collections returned by bpy.utils.previews
    # are regular py objects - you can use them to store custom data.
    import bpy.utils.previews
    pcoll = bpy.utils.previews.new()

    # path to the folder where the icon is
    # the path is calculated relative to this py file inside the addon folder
    # load a preview thumbnail of a file and store in the previews collection
    icons = {"midi" : "midi.png",
            }
    for key, f in icons.items():
        pcoll.load(key, path.join(icon_dir, f), 'IMAGE')

    preview_collections["main"] = pcoll

def unregister():
    for pcoll in preview_collections.values():
        bpy.utils.previews.remove(pcoll)
    preview_collections.clear()

Registered: icons.register() is called from my addons register method (in __init__.py ), after imp(ort)ing icons module.

Now in any other file, i can import the preview dictionary, then use in a draw method

    def draw_header(self, context):
        from sound_drivers.icons import preview_collections
        pcoll = preview_collections["main"]
        icon = pcoll["midi"]
        self.layout.label("", icon_value=icon.icon_id)

Note sound_drivers is the name of addon, change to suit.


Extrude from the vertices I tried searching this online, but didn't know what it was called, so had some hard time finding anything related.
Just wondering if anyone know how I can turn a flat surface, where the edge and vertices are linked, and extrude it from all sides from the vertices to give me something like below?
Thanks.

You can create this shape relatively easily using CtrlShiftB to Bevel Vertices with 2 segments:


Can we shorten spines on bezier curves? Is there a way to reduce the size of the spines poking out of bezier curves?

Or is there a way to generate smaller bezier curves with smaller spines?

Those lines that you see are the curve's normals. They can be adjusted, or disabled in the properties panel under Curve Display.


For a Third Person game, how would I go about making the character's arm follow the camera? So I'm making a third person game, and I want to have the right hand follow the camera when aiming. How could I make this happen? Any suggestions are appreciated, thanks.

Edit: Okay, I'll be more specific. I want the whole arm (the hand was a bad choice of words, I guess) to follow the camera in a way similar to that of most third person games that are out there now. (For example, Just Cause 2.) I tried the "Child Of" constraint, and it both made the hand very small and didn't change the movement of the hand whatsoever. There is an animation playing as this happens.

It really depends on how you are controlling your character and camera; there are many different methods (ie. camera actuator, edit object actuator -> mode: track to)

The way I would go about setting up controls like Just Cause 2 (shooting) is to add an empty for the location of the camera behind the character, and another empty (or object) for a reciticle and when holding down an "aiming" button move the camera to the location of the empty and "track to" the reciticle with both the camera and the arm/gun. And make the mouse control the reciticle.


Disable stretch in IK bones I'm using the nice rig from BornCG tutorial, and when I move the hand IK targets, the arms do not stretch, however, the legs do, and I can't figure out how to prevent them from doing that.

I think that this rig is intended to let the user stretch the legs, so during animation process you can choose if to leave the foot close to the leg without stretching or move it away with stretch effect: note that bones do not stretch at all, only mesh does. If you want to constraint the foot to the leg, the foot deforming bone (which in this rig is reversed 180 degrees) should be parented and connected to the leg bone; the IK controller should be positioned at the end of the leg bone, but parented to the main character controller, so that moving the IK controller will move the leg chain, and the leg chain will move the foot, always connected. There are many ways of rigging a foot (which is the most difficult challenge in rigging human body): my favourite is this, which is pretty similar to the Rigify's one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVHKBSknFhA&t=6s


UV mapping technique Blender noob here, I've been having trouble UV mapping/texturing for weeks now.
I've looked at maps from various playstation 1 era games in Blender and they apply a texture/material that covers several triangulated faces. Eg, Final Fantasy 9:

So I cleared that section and tried to recreate it..

But no matter which UV unwrap option I tried, I can't get anything that does the job. Each unwrap seems to create UVs that are all kinds of angles and would require ages to edit manually. Is this just how it is or is there some quick way?

Can someone please tell me what I'm missing? How can I achieve this?

Edit: If I do something like Project, then do scale 0 four times (for each edge) to straighten them square with the image, then I can move and scale the UV transform to where it should be and replicate it. But this still takes time.

I'm not sure but the fact that this is already triangulated might prevent you from getting good results out of some of the UV options.
Aligning the camera and using UV -> Project From View might give you something that takes only a little manual correction.


Blender 2.8 Texture Paint Nodes - supported in Unity? I know node-based mats are not supported in unity.

However, texture painted mats are supported in unity.

Now, 2.8 blurs the lines because it allows node-based mats to be created in texture painting.  Is the result of this maintained if you export to Unity please?

Thanks,

A

In general, node logic is specific to Blender and will not be supported in other software. Material and texture creating in far from standardised across technologies, and thus trying to match and support it is just about impossible. In certain cases, certain exporters may detect similar nodes and try and recreate them in the target format/application (for example in the case of fbx export, 2.8 uses the principled shader for basic material settings), however this is the exception, not the rule.

The solution for exporting generated textures to any other program is to bake them to an image file.


Can I load 8bit bitmaps with Blender? After looking at the documentation about supported file formats on wiki, I tried to use 8 bit BMP files as texture. (I know, old school, but I wanted to avoid conversions)

However, the image appears blank in blender.

Is there anything I need to set (like a property, or parameter while importing) to be able to use an 8bit BMP image as texture?
When I convert these to PNG or 24b BMP there is no problem.
Also when I save something with mspaint as 8b BMP the same problem happens.

Note I used a python script to import these, image.load().

Support for loading 8bit bitmaps was just committed to trunk recently. Grab any build of r59103 or greater and it should work and it will also be available by default in 2.69.


Why am I getting UV distortion on a flat surface? I have marked a seam around the entire border of a surface and when unwrapping I'm seeing odd distortion and scaling issues.

I've recorded my mesh to show the issue.

As you can see, there is distortion in the middle of the face and a scaling error in the bottom right "leg".

I have averaged and packed the UV. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? Thank you.

To get a nearly undistorted UV, the modeling topology should be made by even quads, with every pole made only of 4 edges (5 and 3 where strictly necessary), which is not your case. Anyway, as the surface is flat, you can set the 3D view in a front ortographic perspective, select all the faces of the flat surface and press U "Project from view" and you will get an undistorted UV. Then you can select all the UV islands in the UV editor and average and pack everything.


Combining materials that already has UV coordinates I have 4 models that has separate materials and each models already have UV coordinates.

I want to combine these models to using single material for better performance in games.

Current what I do is just import all models in single Blender file and change to use single material and remap the UV coordinates of each 4 models to take each takes 1/4 of texture space.

This actually works, however there are some lots of precision lost, also it took so much time to make texture each time.

Here's my workflow for this:

Import all models in single Blender file
Remove all materials and create new one and apply to all models
Update UV coordinate of each model to take 1/4 spaces of texture space.
To do that, first I scale down to .5(50%). If texture is 1K size, it should be 512x512.
Move -256px of X and Y. But here's the problem, this is always incorrect position(I don't know why). Mostly I just move the whole uv coordinates to find better position.
Repeat 4~5 until 4 models done.
Save combined model and make new texture from 2d graphics program, such as photoshop.

Is there a shorten way to do this, or is there a better way to do this? It will be really appreciate it give me some advice.

I know there is an addon for that: TextureAtlas.


Pipe joint addon: changing individual cylinder's geometry (radius, length) I am new to blender and I'm basically trying to produce a network of bifurcating pipes with different geometry profiles using Y-pipe joints.

When I change the geometry it only seems to be capable of changing the whole Y-joint. I need to define/modify the cylinders' geometry (radius and length) for each individual cylinders. Is there a good way of doing this? Also, is there a clever way of joining each Y-pipe joints to create the pipe network? My approach so far was to manually make each pipes to match and then remove doubles, but sometimes it's hard to put them all together and the edges/circles overlap.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

p.s. I'm using blender 2.75 on mac

The geometry of the objects added from the pipe joint addon is the same as any of the other items, whether from the primitives menus, or added by a user, and can be manipulated the same way. Portions of meshes which align neatly with one of the primary axes, in the case of the pipe joint "y", the base which aligns with the z axis are fairly easy. Make a couple of loop cuts, slide them up the cylinder to where you want them, scale them to zero in the appropriate direction (in the case of the base cylinder, this would be "z"), then lock the z axis and scale them to size on the x and y axes.

When the case of the arms of the y-joint, it is a bit more difficult for me, as I've not figured out a good way to move items along an axis which was not parallel to one of the principal axes. With to my current skillset, my procedure is illustrated by this image:

where I use "helper geometry" to get the alignment correct. Sharp eyes may note that in the illustration in step 10 I've not yet removed the helper geometry, but it's trivial to do, selecting the helper geometry edge in edge select mode, and removing the edge only.

Another option, is, of course, to rotate the whole mesh at the beginning so that the axis you want to change is aligned with the x, y, or z axis, and use the simpler procedure outlined above.

Finally a workflow comment: if you are using a lot of modified pipe joints, I'd keep the modifications in a separate blend file, as separate objects, and import them to your working file by appending them. Once you've got one modified y joint with an enlarged arm on one side, it's trivial to create a new instance of that joint, and change the size of the arm for a different location in your mesh.


Is it possible to toggle child viewport visibility from the parent in the outliner? Is it possible to toggle child viewport visibility from the parent object in the outliner? (Can viewport visibility be applied hierarchically?)

Hold Ctrl (makes the command recursive) when toggling the visibility of the parent and it will also apply to all the children in the hierarchy. The same goes for all the other toggle operations.

Additionally, you can drag over multiple icons and toggle these.


Blender Text Not Rendering Over Background Colors I am hoping someone can help with me this. I have text objects in my blender file which are positioned in front of other grease pencil objects (along the y axis). When I try to render the animation, the text does not show up. I noticed it is being blocked by the colors I have filled in the grease pencil objects. It's a 2D animation.
Not sure if I have some incorrect settings on the text objects.
I have uploaded my blender file here if anyone can help:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/d8n0nrmj7d8b7wg/Scene+1+-+Text+Issue.blend/file
I have also pasted a screenshot of what it should like and a screenshot of what actually shows up after rendering.

Thank you

i just downloaded your blend file, rendered and got:

so either you changed something in between or a miracle happened or is it not ok?


Can't see camera composition guides using default dark theme in 2.83 I tried looking for the theme setting to change the color of the camera composition guides for the dark theme.  Couldn't find it in the settings panel...

I found it, though not it wasn't apparent at first.  Its in Edit> Preferences> Themes> 3D Viewport> View Overlay


How does "Open on mouse over" works? What will be happens when "Open on mouse over" in preferences is active? How does it work can you give me an example please, Thanx

'Open on mouse over' is for menus.

This option allow to open a menu, just because the mouse cursor is over it.

If the option is not checked, you need to click on menus to open them.

Most of things are documented in Blender. If you keep the mouse cursor above the option, you'll have some explanation

:


Need help separating two meshes that I accidentally put together I'm new to blender and following the 2019 donut tutorial by BlenderGuru on youtube and i'm on part 4 modelling where you put icing on your donut. I accidentally duplicated two icing tops and didn't realize it until I almost finished modelling the icing.
They're stacked together and the one I haven't modeled is sticking out and I can't delete it or move it away. I may have accidentally merged them together somehow?]2

Select the mesh and go into edit mode.
Deselect vertices.
Hover over the mesh you would like to select and press L. This will select only the verteces of the original object.
Press P and choose selected. This will separate the selected verteces.


UV Texture not rendering I know this is such a simple issue, but I've tried the solutions stated in related posts to no avail. The texture is attached to a material and it's unwrapped (I think) but it's still not showing up in the render (just black).

I've attached a screenshot and the blend file.

Thank you very much!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw_3PfctyK8jYldFLU5SY1dYWkk/view?usp=sharing

The template had no light! All I had to do was make the mesh "emission" and it worked!

Thank you for the help!


Displace Modifier on an object i have to apply a dotted displacement map to a object that i created.
I tried to apply it but it breaks my mesh. I setted Texture Coordinates to UV but it doesn't work as intended. I managed to make it work with Node Texture, but the assignment is to do it with Displace Modifier.
Thank you

First you want to unwrap your pot, which you said you already have.
Next you want to make sure that you either have sufficient subdivisions or add a subd modifier at the top of the stack so the displacement modifier has enough geo to actually displace.

Add the displace modifier, go to the Texture Properties tab and select Image or Movie as the Type and load the image you posted.

Back on the modifier tab, set the Texture Coordinates to UV, the UV Map to the map you made above and adjust the strength as you see fit.


How To Divide A Mesh Into Circular Pattern with Perfect Squares How can I divide my mesh circle  like the picture? I can use inset to do it with lines going from boundary to the centre but how the add the circular divisions?

Just to illustrate @Alex's comment. You can simply subdivide the inner edges.

Select the inner edges
Go Edge > Subdivide
Adjust to your liking


Blender video output settings change after render Using Blender 2.82 (not a) on Windows 10. When I export an animation using Cycles to an Ffmpeg/MPEG-4/H.264 video file, immediately upon completing the render, Blender resets the Output settings to PNG w/RGB (not even RGBA). Is there a way to keep my video output settings, so I don't have to constantly change them back to video from PNG before every push of Ctl-F12? Or is this a bug? Here are screenshots of my output settings before/after a render, with no action between.

Yes, if you most the time use to write out a certain format instead of the "currently" set default format.

Solution would be to make your setup default.

I'd suggest to go from a new file aka press Ctrl+N and make a new General scene.
Go in the Output Properties and set it up how you want it to be default.
Go in the File Menu->Defaults->Save Startup File

From now on, til you chose to "Load Factory Settings" you will have the new settings as default. This can be used for pretty much all settings, that's why it's best to go from a new clean scene, as to not accidentally set unwanted things as default.


Is there any way to make hair particles follow the z axis? I'm populating a hillside with grass and would like the grass to grow straight up from their origins and not along the hill's normals.

I don't think that perfectly vertical grow would seem "natural", but if you need that, you can set Z axis velocity, using advanced settings:

Otherwise, you could also use "particle edit" mode to "comb" your grass as you wish:

then you comb "hair"

to get this, for example:

If you manually edit particles, your particle system gets some what locked, after. You can always revert those edit, use the "free edit" button on the particle settings, then.

Finally, and otherwise, you could use "a curve guide": https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/physics/force_fields/types/curve_guide.html

That needs another bezier object with force field "curve guide" set, and then activate a force field effect of the same type on your hair object. Like this:

Remember, you could also use more than one particle systems, so to get some variation, and each can be using different methods and settings...


Set collection as Indirect Only (ie. = Shadowcatcher) through python? Wondering how I could switch a collection to "Indirect Only" in Blender 2.8 with Python.

So far I have found this:

bpy.ops.outliner.collection_indirect_only_set()

And this:

bpy.context.scene.indirect_only = True

As you can see none of these will work. As far as I understand it I need some kind of bpy.data function that would effectively allow me to choose which collection (using it's name, or "keys()") to set as Indirect Only.

You can enable Indirect Only for the currently active collection (as indicated in the outliner) by using:

bpy.context.view_layer.active_layer_collection.indirect_only = True


What are Blender nightly builds? Lately I've been hearing this term a lot, but I don't really know what does it means.

Blender is under continuous development, with new features and bug fixes being added to the code as soon as they meet the criteria for ready. The codebase is the built nightly and the builds are available at https://builder.blender.org/download/.

This allows users to preview and test what will be in the next release, but should be used with care, as these builds are not fully tested and so may contain significant bugs.


how to apply texure painting I know I'm very novice and this may sound stupid but I went to paint on a model and the paint went all over the place instead of staying in the intended target zone , does the paint have to be applied just to the uv maps  to control
where it goes on the model? I was trying to apply it directly to the 3D model
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1x0dU_Zq0e7DUl4-bw_QxF-rxygQr5OyL

Each model has to have UVs that correspond to the location of pixels in the texture image to be mapped to it. If the UV map referenced in the texture image mapping is incorrect, then you will see paint strokes apply in odd places. Also happens when multiple faces in the UV editor are overlapping instead of being placed evenly and not on top of each other.


I have doubles, and remove doubles won't delete them I'm having lot of trouble modeling a room, the general problem is that lines overlap. I tried removing doubles but nothing (all the mesh was selected). There must be something i'm not doing right but i don't know what

Here you can see the lines overlaping

Looks like you don't have duplicate vertexes. Looks like you have an edge on the inner vertexes and another edge from the farthest vertexes. The edges overlap where you circled.
You can try to delete the edges and create them correctly, then recreate the needed faces.


Maya smoothing in Blender 2.8 When you press the "3" key on maya with an object selected it will smooth the object pretty much "merging" all the faces to look like one, even curving the edges. Is there an option like this in Blender I've tried Smooth Shading and Vertex smoothing and subdivisions modifiers. but nothing really gets that "single face" look. Any help would be appreciated.

Smooth Mesh Preview in Maya is the same as surface subdivision as far as I know. Subdivision modifier in Blender should give you very similar results. You can use Ctrl + 0/1/2/3/4/5 shortcuts to create a new Subdivision modifier and/or set the number of subdivisions of it.