How to rig the fingers [![enter image description here][1]][1]

I was trying to make my finger move at once when I move the lower finger bone(the first one out of three) but things are not working as the tutorials so I'm asking what is wrong with my settings?

The picture above are the settings of my two finger bones that has a copy rotation restriction for each. And I made them they're able to rotate in the X axis only. Is there anything wrong with this?

Or is there an another way of making my finger move at once?

Looks like your space is set to world instead of local for your "copy rotation" constraint. I would also recommend changing the bone roll of the fingers bones to bend along the x axis.

Then tweak the amount of influence for the bones with the constraints applied.


cannot get wisps on ghost with point cloud node in blender So I am trying to create a cool ghost pony with a particle system with a wind force and vortex behind it that blows upon the pony. I limited the particles life span to end just past to the pony so that it looks like there are cool wisps coming off of it. As one can see, I am using the point cloud node the way that it should be in order to gain such an effect as I would believe. Here is a screen shot attached.You can also see the current render and the file that I attached. I am trying to animate a cool ghost, but this does not seem to be working as I thought it should. There should be wisps coming off of the mesh and there are not. Can anyone tell me how I can achieve this?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lnz23i4frbtms9c/ghost_test.blend?dl=0

ace]2]2

So I figured it out. All I had to do was turn my pony into the emitter and then select it and add quick effect smoke to the mesh and use the particle system as the smoke flow. Then bake all of the dynamics.


How to transform world space vertex to camera space position in Cycles OSL I used blender as CG generation tool for Computer Vision research. I tried to render depth (z) value of each surface instead of its color. So I make simple shader, like this

shader depth_shader(
    vector Position = vector(1,0,0),
    output closure color Color = emission())
{
    vector lp = transform("world","camera",Position);
    Color= color(lp[2], lp[2], lp[2]) * emission();
}

"Position" is input from Geometry node. But when I tried this, It returns odd results, and some pixel has negative value. How to get camera space position, which only applied by rotation, scale and translation? (Before projection matrix multiplication)

for transforming the position you should use point type because according to the OSL Language Specs :

  Depending on the type of the passed point p, different transformation
  semantics will be used. A point will transform as a position, a vector
  as a direction without regard to positioning

just change the type of the Position variable to point or use the P variable that holds the current position then use the transform function as you did ; even after that the whole objects will be bright white, so i have tried to normalize the Z coordinate  using two variables which act as near and far planes that limits the depth range :

shader depth_shader(
    float minZ = 0,
    float maxZ = 1,
    output closure color Color = emission())
{
    point lP = transform("camera", P);
    float Z = lP[2];
    if( (Z>minZ) && (Z<maxZ))
        Z = (Z-minZ)/(maxZ-minZ);
    else
        Z = 0;
    Color= color(Z, Z, Z) * emission();
}


Fluid simulation does not follow animation I've been working on a project where I try to release some water (shown in blue) inclosed in some object (shown in purple) by opening a gate (pink-ish). The water first fills up the purple container object, then the gate opens by some kind of animation, and finally the water is supposed to flow out. However, under most settings, the water is stuck inside the object and appears to be blocked by some invisible wall (see the screenshot, the water is supposed to fall down). I got the water to move out of the object under a specific set of settings, but those were quite problematic (i.e. not the right gate opening timing, a very low fluid resolution). The relevant properties of the scene objects are:

The purple container object is set to fluid obstacle, volume initialization type shell, slip type is set to free slip (made the whole thing work once) and it has some thickness.
The gate shares the properties of the container object (although changing the volume initialization type to volume made it work once), but it's thickness is made through a modifier. The gate is animated by a simple deform>bend modifier, which uses shape keys somewhere internally I think (at least I saw an error message stating this).
I don't think the domain settings are that interesting, but lowering the resolution sometimes made the whole thing work.

Does anybody have any idea what I should be paying attention to? I'm confident the problem is due to the animation of the gate (which starts in a closed position, and then opens), as removing the animation and making it's initial state open lets the water flow through.

Update: The fluid does seem to follow the animation when using shape keys, which might be helpful to someone (I cannot achieve the animation I like with shape keys I think however, as applying my bend modifier as a shape key results in an unwanted animation).

Update 2: I've included my testing file in this question, it already contains the modifier based opening/bending animation of the gate.

I found a way how you can solve this in a "relative" quickly way.

Add a plane to your scene, subdivide length in 2 then subdivide it 10 times or so. Then Shrink wrap this plane, on your animated object.

Remove the fluidsim obstacle from your animated mesh.

For the Shrink wrapped plane, Add fluidsim (trough add modifiers!!!)
Then you get a non specific fuidsim control below it, it has a small properties icon, click it, set it to Fluid obstacle and animated mesh.

Below i add this working solution, note that I tuned the plane a bit.
Because shrink wrap had to fit in both open and close position.
Therefore i bended it, also I added another plane width fluid collision against leaking at the bottom.

Here is my final solution for this problem... btw it was a nice puzzle !!!

The only thing left todo is give those planes invisible materials, so you wont see them in final render.


Why does one face appears so warped when UV unwraping? Does anyone have any ideas why this face is always so warped in the UV map? Even if I run a seam on every edge, it appears warped on the UV map. The opposite face of the same shape shows fine.

Blender 2.72, 32 bit, Windows 7.

Ngons tend to cause problems for the UV Unwrap algorithm.  Not always but often enough, it seems random which ones will work and which ones won't.

You can deal with that particular case by pressing Shift+7 on the number pad so the view aligns with that selected faces normal then press u to bring up the Unwrap menu and then select Project from View

Now the shape should now perfectly match the face.  You'll still likely have to resize it though.


Why does my animation render in black? My animation keeps rendering in black, how do I fix it?:

Here's the file if you want to edit it. http://www.pasteall.org/blend/38570

You need a lamp in your scene. This can be done with ShiftA and click on lamp


Animate many objects each object has many animations I'm working on an FPS game and I have many weapons to animate. Each weapon has many animations such as idle, walk, shoot, reload ... etc. Some weapons have very similar animations.

I am a beginner in blender so I don't know how to create each animation for each weapon.

Is there a way to make it easier because it's too hard and boring to create animations for each weapon.

I'm asking this question because I believe you have good workflows for this kind of work rather than the hard way that I'm trying to do it.

What you want is a Modular Rig that can support all your weapons, this has trade-offs for example, you will have to make all weapons work the same way, you cannot rig a knife and expect it to work the same way like a rifle, but you can rig a pistol using a rifle rig, that's for a simple rig. But, if your rig is good enough, then it can adapt to some extent anything you throw at it, but that usually will require a average amount of knowledge in constraints and rigging.

That being said, if you are a beginner in blender, this is an advanced project and I am afraid you will not find a easy solution. I can point you to a great rigging tutorial with great techniques, but it's not for beginners, so keep that in mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqiA9E9dHnk

Hope it helps,


Iterate with python on vertices created by subdividing an edge I want to subdivide an edge that is sedected in edit mode and move the newly created vertices after computing position in python.

I can easily create the new vertices with

bpy.ops.mesh.subdivide(number_cuts=self.nbcuts)

How can I retrieve the list of the newly created vertices ?

Use bmesh

To keep tabs on mesh elements recommend using bmesh

Most mesh operators have their bmesh equivalent.

In this case bmesh.ops.subdivide_edges

The bonus of bmesh operators is they return new geometry.

Test method, 1 cut subdivide on all edges.

import bpy
import bmesh

context = bpy.context

ob = context.object
me = ob.data

bm = bmesh.new()
bm.from_mesh(me)

print(me.name)
print("Before subd")

for e in bm.faces[:] + bm.edges[:] + bm.verts[:]:
    print(e)

ret = bmesh.ops.subdivide_edges(bm,
        edges=bm.edges,
        cuts=1,
        use_grid_fill=True)

for k, v in ret.items():
    print(k)
    for e in v:
        print(e)

bm.to_mesh(me)
me.update()

Result of running on default "Plane" mesh

Before (left) 1 face 4 edges 4 verts and after 4 faces, 12 edges and 9 verts.

Plane.001
Before subd
<BMFace(0x7f3c16a24010), index=0, totverts=4>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3010), index=0, verts=(0x7f3c1232f080/2, 0x7f3c1232f010/0)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3060), index=1, verts=(0x7f3c1232f010/0, 0x7f3c1232f048/1)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b30b0), index=2, verts=(0x7f3c1232f048/1, 0x7f3c1232f0b8/3)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3100), index=3, verts=(0x7f3c1232f0b8/3, 0x7f3c1232f080/2)>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f010), index=0>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f048), index=1>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f080), index=2>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f0b8), index=3>
geom_inner
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f0f0), index=4>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f128), index=5>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f160), index=6>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f198), index=7>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f1d0), index=8>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3290), index=8, verts=(0x7f3c1232f1d0/8, 0x7f3c1232f198/7)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b32e0), index=9, verts=(0x7f3c1232f128/5, 0x7f3c1232f1d0/8)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3330), index=10, verts=(0x7f3c1232f1d0/8, 0x7f3c1232f0f0/4)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3380), index=11, verts=(0x7f3c1232f160/6, 0x7f3c1232f1d0/8)>
<BMFace(0x7f3c16a24048), index=1, totverts=4>
<BMFace(0x7f3c16a24080), index=2, totverts=4>
<BMFace(0x7f3c16a240b8), index=3, totverts=4>
geom_split
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f0f0), index=4>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f128), index=5>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f160), index=6>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f198), index=7>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3010), index=0, verts=(0x7f3c1232f0f0/4, 0x7f3c1232f010/0)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3060), index=1, verts=(0x7f3c1232f128/5, 0x7f3c1232f048/1)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b30b0), index=2, verts=(0x7f3c1232f160/6, 0x7f3c1232f0b8/3)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3100), index=3, verts=(0x7f3c1232f198/7, 0x7f3c1232f080/2)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3150), index=4, verts=(0x7f3c1232f080/2, 0x7f3c1232f0f0/4)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b31a0), index=5, verts=(0x7f3c1232f010/0, 0x7f3c1232f128/5)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b31f0), index=6, verts=(0x7f3c1232f048/1, 0x7f3c1232f160/6)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3240), index=7, verts=(0x7f3c1232f0b8/3, 0x7f3c1232f198/7)>
geom
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f0f0), index=4>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f128), index=5>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f160), index=6>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f198), index=7>
<BMVert(0x7f3c1232f1d0), index=8>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3010), index=0, verts=(0x7f3c1232f0f0/4, 0x7f3c1232f010/0)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3060), index=1, verts=(0x7f3c1232f128/5, 0x7f3c1232f048/1)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b30b0), index=2, verts=(0x7f3c1232f160/6, 0x7f3c1232f0b8/3)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3100), index=3, verts=(0x7f3c1232f198/7, 0x7f3c1232f080/2)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3150), index=4, verts=(0x7f3c1232f080/2, 0x7f3c1232f0f0/4)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b31a0), index=5, verts=(0x7f3c1232f010/0, 0x7f3c1232f128/5)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b31f0), index=6, verts=(0x7f3c1232f048/1, 0x7f3c1232f160/6)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3240), index=7, verts=(0x7f3c1232f0b8/3, 0x7f3c1232f198/7)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3290), index=8, verts=(0x7f3c1232f1d0/8, 0x7f3c1232f198/7)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b32e0), index=9, verts=(0x7f3c1232f128/5, 0x7f3c1232f1d0/8)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3330), index=10, verts=(0x7f3c1232f1d0/8, 0x7f3c1232f0f0/4)>
<BMEdge(0x7f3c127b3380), index=11, verts=(0x7f3c1232f160/6, 0x7f3c1232f1d0/8)>
<BMFace(0x7f3c16a24010), index=0, totverts=4>
<BMFace(0x7f3c16a24048), index=1, totverts=4>
<BMFace(0x7f3c16a24080), index=2, totverts=4>
<BMFace(0x7f3c16a240b8), index=3, totverts=4>

The only 4 elements to survive unscathed from the operator are the original four corner verts.  They appear not in the return geometry.  All other geom has been altered in some way and is spread across the three options geom_inner, geom_split, geom.  I leave it to you to decipher what each is.

  look nice but how do I extract the initial edge I want to work on?
  everything seems selected when i iterate on bm.edges.

Yes, bm.edges is all edges in the bmesh. Can feed any subset list of edges into operator.

Another example, run in edit mode, make sure you are in edge select mode, have an active edge selected.

If so, Makes 5 cuts in edge, loops thru and prints return geometry as above.

import bpy
import bmesh

context = bpy.context

ob = context.edit_object
me = ob.data

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
# selected edges
selected_edges = [e for e in bm.edges if e.select]
# active edge (from active selection)
active_edge = bm.select_history.active
# make sure active element is edge
assert(isinstance(active_edge, bmesh.types.BMEdge))

ret = bmesh.ops.subdivide_edges(bm,
        edges=[active_edge],
        cuts=5,
        )

for k, v in ret.items():
    print(k)
    for e in v:
        #e.select = True
        print(e)

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me)


How to properly use face smooth shading When I select multiple faces in edit mode and use Ctrl+F > Shade Smooth it smoothes the normals with all surrounding faces, regardless of whether they are smooth shaded or not.

Using a cylinder for an example, if I want to smooth shade only the lateral faces:

It smoothes the normals not only with each other but with the cap as well which creates this hideous result:

I would like it to look like this:

This makes this tool fairly useless since if I wanted everything smooth shaded I would just turn it on for the whole model.

The last example was created using the edge split modifier.  Most of the time edge split works fine, but since it actually rips the edges it doesn't play nicely with other modifiers like bevel or subsurf.

So is there any way to smooth shade faces only with other smooth shaded faces without using the edge split modifier?

You can use the Auto Smooth feature, found under object data properties panel > normals rollout.  Auto smooth produces the same smoothing result as the edge split modifier (i.e. smooths across shallow-angled edges, not whole faces) but without actually ripping the geometry.

From the docs:

  [With auto smooth] Angles on the model that are smaller than the angle specified in the Angle button will be smoothed during rendering...

Auto smooth also splits edges marked sharp as well.


Cannot overlay or combine render layer with video I am tying to combine a video and a blender model using the nodes in blender render mode but only the model or only the video is coming in the render.

Your render doesn't have an alpha channel and is replacing the whole video.
if you are using Cycles , enable Transparent in your render options to have an alpha channel

For blender internal    set Alpha to Transparent

For more info, see Can Blender render pngs with the background transparent?


Why is my water not rendering nor in preview nor in final? I tried a simple water tutorial and followed it step by step, but my water just won't render, not even in the preview. I already checked questions that were similar to mine but nothing worked: I already checked that the water is in fact renderable (the camera icon is activated) and the maximum draw type is set to solid or textured.  Here's the file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7-B85l-ySrhOG16RVExUXJ1cEU/view?usp=sharing
I started blender just yesterday, I'm really new to this, so any kind of help is really appreciated!

"FLUID" object is your actual Fluid Domain and it has 3 material slots assigned to it. First one is pure transparent material and this is why your fluid isn't visible. Remove "TRANS" and empty material and you are good to go.
Also, you have "dOMAIN" object which is doing nothing. Consider deleting it or hiding.


How to allow blender to only use part of your CPU computing power? Is there a way to only allow blender to use part of my computing power?  For example, I don't want blender to use more than 25% of my CPU computing power.  Please make sure that it doesn't shut off when you use too much computing power but instead just keeps on running at 25% computing power.  Too clarify, I don't need this for rendering, I want it be for the 3d-view.

Under render > Performance >Threads,
set it to fixed and you can chose how many Cores Blender can use when rendering in cycles. Not sure for Eevee. This should also work for modeling

Also you can use Cpu affinity which limits how mnay core blender uses as a whole through

Task manager> Details>Blender.exe (Might be different I use .zip) > right click > Set affinity  ,  on windows

or using what is discussed here for Ubuntu Link to Ubuntu forums

Note: For this to work you will have to make sure the amount of threads in performance is the same as the amount of cores as you have set in the affinity, or it will be reset every time you go into rendered view or render.


How to hide the reflection of an object in blender I have a transparent sphere encasing a diffuse inner core with a cut out from one of its sides (shown in the attached photo). Is it possible to keep the outer material semi glossy to show reflections from the environment while hiding the annoying reflections of the inner object? Any solutions would be greatly appreciated!

Are you using Cycles or the Internal Engine to render?

I am familiar with Cycles, so I can only help you on that, assuming you're using it.

You can tell Cycles that you don't want the sphere to appear in any reflections at all, by going into the object properties, in Cycles Settings and unchecking Glossy.


How to change Follow Path Speed I've got a simple object following a bezier circle, and I just want to figure out how to change the speed of the object following the path.  Could somebody show me how?

If you're asking about moving the object the full length of the path at a slower pace, read on...  If you're trying to vary, stop, or even make the object go backwards and forwards, that's a bit more complicated but can be added to explain this.  Just ask.

For the full path length at a slower pace -

Go into the path's properties (at right) and set the "Frames" value to twice what you had before.  Make sure your animation frame range is large enough to accomodate that number of frames.

In the Evaluation slot it's a good idea to delete the maximum frame number you have there already.  (set the timeline cursor to that frame number, hover over the slot and press ALT-i)

Now set the timeline cursor to the same frame number as you entered into the "Frames" slot.

Enter that number into the Evaluation slot and hover over it with the mouse and press i to keyframe it.

You've then doubled the number of frames (time) that your object has to complete the journey.


"Undo" not working in Video Sequence Editor I am trying to use Blender for video editing, but for  some reason the "Undo" function isn't working on the video sequence editor. It works fine on any other mode, though.

Is this by design or is there something I'm missing?

Thanks in advance.

The "Undo" doesn't work unless you have set the "Default mode" to "Object mode" vs. "Edit mode" (vertices) in the 3D view. Of odd reasons this setting also applies to the "Video Sequence Editor".


Axis of an object change direction with camera I'm new to Blender and recently on my first creation. However, I encountered a  problem - the axis of an object flips (changes its direction) as I move the camera around the object. For example, whenever you start a new design, you will only be able to move the cube in six directions - up, down, left, right, back, forward. In my case, the directions of arrows will change. Is there any way to return the setting back to normal so that the axis won't flip?

I am not too sure but I think I know how to fix it. Change the objects  transformation orientation from view to local/global.
First you need to select the object and then there should be an option at the bottom toolbar

Choose global or local, I am not sure which one you want but global is probably what you are asking for. The difference between local and global is that if you rotate the object in local the arrows would also rotate, while in global the arrows would always point in the same direction. Hope this help

Note: I assumed that by camera you meant view as there is a camera object in blender.


Get surface normal image of the scene I have a car scene with some cameras in it. I have written code to render the car image as seen by the camera. What I want to do is get a surface normal map similar to the photos below.

I tried searching for how to get this done, but I couldn't find anything. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

This is an old tread, but I just stumbled by..
A fast way to do this, is to use the Matcap preview in the 3D view, and select the "normal sphere" in the matcap images/balls.
Then simply screengrap!

If this is not good enough, it would be easy to make a material that would do it.


Baking Textures? What can't I do? I really hope someone can answer this because I've looked all over and cannot seem to find the answer/solution that fits my problem; or maybe I just don't understand how "baking" works.

I created a model in blender, unwrapped it, exported it as .fbx into Substance Painter and added my textures there. I then exported those textures to Blender and applied them using the node setup pictured.

My texture is visible in render and fits the object correctly. All textures: image, normal map, reflection map, etc. work correctly and render properly.

My problem? I'm building models to export to Unity for a game and I don't want the game engine rendering everything so I want to save time by baking my textures onto the object. If I just connect a single image texture node to the material output it will render and I get a usable baked texture. But with the node setup pictured it just renders black to the image I'm baking to.(pictured)

My question: Am I trying to hard? What all do I actually need to bake onto an object to be helpful in Unity? Can I bake normals, reflection map, etc. onto a single image texture in the first place? Should they all be baked separately and attached to the object in Unity? Can my above node setup be solved in order to render everything onto a single image texture?

I know it's a lot and I have looked at "workflow" guides but I do not understand where I'm going wrong here. Any help is appreciated.

Wouldn't it be a simple light problem...

If your lights are not setup wright as you want your scene to be lit, then you have nothing to bake since the texture you already have...I guess what you want is to have the object lighten as it would be if you put some dynamic lighting in Unity...


How create two new a objects(mesh) from single selection I'm need create 2 difirence a object from one selection.
I have some code but blender gives out error.

face_lengths = tuple(map(len, faces))
TypeError: object of type 'MeshPolygon' has no len()

import bpy

act_obj = bpy.context.active_object

sv = list(filter(lambda p: p.select, act_obj.data.vertices))
se = list(filter(lambda p: p.select, act_obj.data.edges))
sf = list(filter(lambda p: p.select, act_obj.data.polygons))

me = bpy.data.meshes.new("mymesh")
me.from_pydata([],[],[])

obj = bpy.data.objects.new("Object", me)
scene = bpy.context.scene
scene.objects.link(obj)

Ideally you could use bmesh.ops.split() but the option to copy to a new mesh is still unsupported.

Using bmesh you can copy the selected verts and faces and create a new mesh out of them, then use that in a new object.

import bpy
import bmesh

act_obj = bpy.context.active_object

if act_obj.mode == 'EDIT':
    bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(act_obj.data)
else:
    bm = bmesh.new()
    bm.from_mesh(act_obj.data)
new_mesh = bmesh.new()

onm = {} # old index to new vert map
for v in [v for v in bm.verts if v.select]:
    nv = new_mesh.verts.new(v.co)
    onm[v.index] = nv

for f in [f for f in bm.faces if f.select]:
    nfverts = [onm[v.index] for v in f.verts]
    new_mesh.faces.new(nfverts)

scene = bpy.context.scene

new_data = bpy.data.meshes.new("mymesh1")
new_mesh.to_mesh(new_data)
obj = bpy.data.objects.new("SplitObj1", new_data)
scene.objects.link(obj)

new_data = bpy.data.meshes.new("mymesh2")
new_mesh.to_mesh(new_data)
obj = bpy.data.objects.new("SplitObj2", new_data)
scene.objects.link(obj)

bm.free()
new_mesh.free()


How can I make objects emit directional light in Cycles? I need to make a plane shine light only in one direction (or a very narrow angle range) like a spotlamp, or a projector but I don't want to use a spotlamp - I need a wide beam of light, that doesn't spread out in all directions. Spotlamp would produce a tiny cone of light, not a wide beam.

As you asked for a wide area :

Use an area lamp framed by an open cube (or another shape).

The lamp material is constrained by a constant falloff so that you have sharp borders on the light projection.

The open cube, is hidden on the rendering and diffuses nothing, due to this setting in its object properties :


Can i add a cube to the top of every selected face of an object using Python? I was hoping i could add cubes to random faces of a terrain, then link their object data and sculpt a tree to easily populate a scene. Would this be possible with Python scripting?

You can use particle systems for that. You can even put multiple models of trees in a collection and then distribute them randomly while picking them randomly from that collection:


Hide FaceSets Visivility Is there a way to hide the colours of the facesets we have created without hiding the geometry that belong to them?
A sort of a.... Shift +F in Zbrush Equivalent. A toggle to hide or show the mesh with the facesets.
Thank you.

Nevermind.
Viewport overlays > sculpt > face sets slider / toggle.
Found it.


How to stop modal mode from unregister function? I'm writing below script which starts modal() function in register() function, however I could not stop modal() function when disable add-on.

is there any way to stop modal mode from unregister() function?

import bpy
from bpy.app.handlers import persistent

def get_invoke_context(area_type, region_type):
    for window in bpy.context.window_manager.windows:
        screen = window.screen
        for area in screen.areas:
            if area.type == area_type:
                break
        else:
            continue
        for region in area.regions:
            if region.type == region_type:
                break
        else:
            continue
        return {'window': window, 'screen': screen, 'area': area, 'region': region}

class ModalTest(bpy.types.Operator):

    bl_idname = "system.modal_test"
    bl_label = "Test"
    bl_description = "Test"

    def __init__(self):
        self.__timer = None

    def __handle_add(self, context):
        if self.__timer is None:
            self.__timer = context.window_manager.event_timer_add(
                0.1, context.window
            )
            context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)

    def __handle_remove(self, context):
        if self.__timer is not None:
            context.window_manager.event_timer_remove(self.__timer)
            self.__timer = None

    def modal(self, context, event):
        return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        self.__handle_add(context)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

@persistent
def start_fn(scene):
    bpy.app.handlers.scene_update_pre.remove(start_fn)
    context = get_invoke_context('VIEW_3D', 'WINDOW')
    bpy.ops.system.modal_test(context, 'INVOKE_DEFAULT')

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)
    bpy.app.handlers.scene_update_pre.append(start_fn)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

I would not recommend starting your modal operator in the register() function.  Typically you want to add a button or something to a UI panel, which the user can use to invoke your operator.

But if you're sure you want to start and stop your operator using register() and unregister(), then you could try something like this:

#insert this after your imports:
still_running = True

#insert this in your modal() method:
global still_running
if still_running == False:
    return {'FINISHED'}

#insert this in your unregister() method:
global still_running
still_running = False


Why is the '3D Objects' folder not in the Blender file browser quick access menu panel? Is there a particular reason why the "3D Objects" folder (part of user files & folders) is missing in the Blender 'File > Open...' file quick access menu list (which contains "Home", "Desktop", "Documents", "Downloads", "Music", "Pictures", "Videos", "Fonts" - BUT NOT "3D Objects" - which is weird because Blender is all about 3D Objects..)?

My personal work around was to add it to my Favorites section by going to
C:\Users\[username]\3D Objects
Then entering the folder, and then in the Favorites section, either clicking on the + button, or right clicking in the Favorites window and choosing Add Bookmark from the menu Ctrl + B.


How to drive a value with linear fcurve on both positive and negative axis? Like for example:

I have a constraint on object A,
B is driving the constraint influence.

If I move B in +X axis 0 to 1, the influence on A is going 1 to 0 on a linear fcurve.
I want to add the same thing on object B's -X axis with linear fcurve
I am not very well versed with scripting but I am trying to get some math right to give it gradual decrease using scripted expressions, but would there be any other way to achieve that?
Thanks
(attached image just for an understanding)

Added blender sample file
Sample Eye Brows created in the file:
Main Controller -> (AnimConstraint) BrowsIn, (Copy Location) MCH.Driver
MCH.Driver -> (AnimConstraint) BrowsAngry,BrowsSad
So when you take the main controller straight on z axis to the right, it triggers brows in. Take the main controller up/down while being on the right, it affects MCH.Driver to go up/down.
So when my MCH.Driver is on Y : 0 and Main Controller goes right, Brows in gets triggered
Now I take MainController to bottom , angry gets triggered and BrowsIn reduces
(because i have set driver on the influence of BrowsIn. When MCH.Driver goes down, it reduces the influence; same way if it can be applied when it goes up, problem would be solved)
Now I take Maincontroller up (topright) its goes BrowsIn + BrowsSad where I only want to trigger BrowsSad and reduce BrowsIn again like the BrowsAngry trigger..
I hope it wasn't confusing ^^

Solved it with abs() function!

abs(var)

and it affected in the same way in both positive and negative values! :)


Difference boolean modifier leaving interfaces behind I'm new to blender. I've made a shape consisting of 4 cuboid meshes which have been joined via face-to-face snapping. I then use them to carve (using the boolean difference modifier) from a larger cuboid. I've tried this with and without joining the 4 cuboid meshes first. However, my resultant carved cuboid sometimes has very thin interfaces between carved segments, as if the pieces weren't fully opposed.

How to I get rid of these faces, or ensure they don't appear after carving? I know I could just overlap the original cuboids but the problem is they're both larger than each other in separate dimensions, so it'd look messy.

You can see the very thin shaded interface in the carved object (the selected object).

There are probably precision problems where the compound cuboid components are not truly flush in a numerical sense.

You could try unioning the original cuboids into a single object rather than just joining them.

Alternatively, it looks like you could create the compound object via simple extrusions rather than as multiple cuboids.  This would give you a more consistent form that you could use for boolean operations.


Open file browser with python I'm writing a python script wich is going to import custom data in custom file. For now, for choosing the file I've to do this:

But it's not very useful because you have to type the path of file by yourself.

I want to create somthing like this :

How to create quick interface like that. With a file browser button and the path of selected file edit box is linked at the path of file wich you have selected with the little 'file' button.

I'm not asking for a full code. (of course if you have a full code I'll accept it :D) But if you have just an explanation of how to do this and how the 'path of file' button work, it will be very helpfull.

Add a StringProperty to your operator, then set its subtype to either FILE_PATH or DIR_PATH. For example, this bit of code in my addon:

class OHA_QuickLink_Props(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    root_folder = StringProperty(
        name="Root Folder",
        description="Only .blend files two levels below this folder will be listed.",
        subtype="DIR_PATH",
        update=update_oha_quicklink_root_folder)

Blender 2.8x:

class OHA_QuickLink_Props(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    root_folder : StringProperty(
        name="Root Folder",
        description="Only .blend files two levels below this folder will be listed.",
        subtype="DIR_PATH",
        update=update_oha_quicklink_root_folder)

yields the following text field when drawn:


Weight Painting Degrade Effect? I want to know if there is a tool to make a degrade effect , i say the start and finish and weight to weight or something like that ..

There is a gradient tool, if that's what your looking for.

Activate it with AltLMB or by pressing Weight Gradient in the 3D view > Tool shelf > Weight Tools:


How to Unwrap A Circle Into A Strip I am wanting to create a UV map that will cause my texture to stretch to my favor.  I want to unwrap a circle so that it's a rectangular strip.
If I can unwrap it into a rectangular strip, I can make a texture by drawing some straight lines.  Then, I think when I apply the texture onto the object, it will result with the lines being stretched and following the curve of the circle mesh.
How can I unwrap the circle this way?

If you keep an edge loop close to the center you can easily do what you want with an Unwrap > Follow Active Quad (you just need to select the whole ring then shift select a last face at the end to make it active). Then unwrap the center and place it wherever you want on your texture.


How to create intermediate vertices of a humpy surface (interpolation) I took a cube, stretched it, added a number of intermediate edges and adjusted their height to get a humpy top surface.

Now, I want to get a smooth top surface by adding interpolated vertices. The existing edges must not change their position. How do I do this?

FYI: The object will be 3D-printed.

@eromod's hint was the solution.

I created a huge ovoid (an icosphere that I compressed on one axis for an additional hump on the other axis),
aligned it carefully manually,
extended the original top surface in top direction,
applied a boolean modifier with "Intersect" operation,
and did a bit afterwork on the mesh.

Please leave a comment if there's something I forgot to do proper preparation for rounded edges around the top surface.


Are Blender 2.8 Halo Particles meant to render? [EDIT: Or ANY particle, for that matter!] That's it, really.

Are Blender 2.8 Halo mode Particles meant to be seen in render – Cycles, Eevee or otherwise?

I've been running whatever the latest-latest ver. of Blender 2.8 for Win10 64 bit is, over the last few weeks, and have seeN no evidence that the Halo setting is for anything other than setup, but does anybody know For Sure??

I completely understand that this IS software in development and that Things May Change, I'm just interested in whether to bother working around the issue or not.

Q

I don't know about Eevee because I'm still working with Cycles even in 2.8, but in Cycles halo objects don't render.

The workaround I use is to render particles as objects. I either use planes with halo images mapped to them as textures, or I use tiny icospheres with an emission shader and use the compositor to make them glow.


Can't view color with Diffuse BSDF! I was following a tutorial on how to make realistic trees. In one part, the person makes a leaf and uses nodes to make a material. He uses a color ramp and the leaf turns black and white, but the person was able to view it in color when he clicked on  Diffuse BSDF. However, I still see it as black and white! I fear I have done something wrong and if I continue without trying to fix it, I will mess up my mesh later on.

I searched everywhere on Google, but I had no luck.
Here is a screenshot:

With the Image texture Add transparent and Diffuse BSDF with Mix Shader. With the Alpha of image texture connect to Factor of Mix shader as shown in image.

Another simple way just activate Image as plane addon in Blender. Press  Shift+A Mesh -> Image as plane. Navigate to the png image. Thats it Press Shift+Z to render view.


3D print tools: how can "too thin" warning be only on 1 face? Using 2.70a on Windows7. Got a nice Ultimaker 3D printer to play with

Editing my mesh of a cartoon character to print on the Ultimaker. Blenders 3D print toolbox mesh analysis looks really useful. I've watched the BF video course and that's excellent too. (Thanks Dolf!)

I find that the 'Thickness' overlay mysteriously colours isolated faces with red/green/etc to warn me they are too thin to print (e.g. less than 2mm) but many of these faces have lots of depth behind them, so this really doesn't make sense to me.

Stranger, I've seen tubular parts being given just one face with a colour warning, but the directly opposite side of that mesh remains uncoloured. Surely thickness is the distance between opposite faces, so these warning colours must go on opposing pairs of faces, right? How can only one show as a problem?

I've experimented with a simple cube by sliding just the top-front edge backwards (creating a wedge) until colour warnings appear on any faces. I find that the warning first appears only on the bottom face. As the edge advances towards the rear the bottom deepens in colour until the rear face triggers a warning too. Then later the sloped front face gets its own warning colour. For the life of me I can't work out its logic.

Understanding this tool's logic is important because the mesh edits we need to carry out to solve these thinness problems are governed by how it thinks!

Any ideas?

TIA,
Slim

The thickness measurement uses ray-casting to find faces which are close together.

One thing to consider is the thickness is measured along the direction the face is pointing, so in some cases you could have shapes which give different results with wrinkled vs smooth surfaces).

In general, increase the number of samples for a higher quality result.


Mirrored object stays in the same place I try to mirror an object [ correction: Lamp ] along global axis, yet it stays same place no metter what axis I choose.

Anyone has any idea why this might happen?

Edit: Object is slightly offset from global Y axis, so what I expect is to see it on the other side of axis when I mirror it, but it stays in same place.

I wanted to go from this:

To this, in one step:

Thanks

I did what I wanted to achieve by setting Pivot Point to 3D cursor and then mirroring. Still doesn't make sense to me, when I execute a mirror around a global axis I expect to see my object on the other side of that global axis, without playing with pivot point.

EDIT:

Please check this screen shot, 3D manipulator widget has an orientation selector (in this case selected to Global) and Mirror Transform also has an Orientation selector (Local). What are their effect for mirror transform. 3D manipulator has an effect at all?


How do you export bones relative to parent? I'm currently writing an exporter script. So far, I can export meshes just fine, but I've got some problems with exporting the armature.

According to the python api, there are three different types of bones:

editbones: Are used to create/modify the armature/skeleton and are only available in edit mode. See http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_67_1/bpy.types.EditBone.html (which, obviously, aren't needed for exporting animation. I just list them for completeness.)
bones: Define the armature structure. See http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_67_1/bpy.types.Bone.html
posebones: Are used for animation. The posebones are structured like the bones of the armature, but transformed according to the current frame of the active action/pose. See http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_67_1/bpy.types.PoseBone.html

There's also this old (or rather: ancient) guide on how armatures work: http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-240/how-armatures-work , but I can't find a proper mapping between that document and the current api.

I know I can get the restpose of the armature by grabbing the bone.matrix_local, but this matrix is relative to the armature.

So...
How do you grab the bones matrices so that the transform is relative to the parent instead of relative to the armature?

I tried exporting the bones relative to their parent by multiplying the inverse of the parents matrix_local by the bones matrix_local, but that does seem to result in incorrect translation values.

This is how I currently grab the parent-relative matrices:

        #I'm interested in the rest pose here, so I iterate over the bones
        for bone in armature.data.bones:
            #make matrix of this bone relative
            boneMat = mathutils.Matrix.Identity(4)
            if bone.parent == None:
                boneMat = bone.matrix_local
            else:
                boneMat = bone.parent.matrix_local.inverted() * bone.matrix_local

            #decompose
            loc, quat, sca = boneMat.decompose()

By the way: I'm using blender 2.66.1 w/the included python

The code snippet you give seems to be correct if you want the transform from the head of the parent bone to the head of the child bone.

How is the translation incorrect? There are supposed to be two translations between these bones, one from the head of the parent to its tail, and (if the child is not connected to the parent) one from the tail of the parent to the head of the child.

In the 2.40 armatures guide, bone.matrix is bone_mat and bone.matrix_local is arm_mat. This is how they relate in python:

# parent head to tail, and parent tail to child head
bone_translation = Matrix.Translation(Vector((0, bone.parent.length, 0)) + bone.head)
# parent armature space matrix, translation, child bone rotation
bone.matrix_local == bone.parent.matrix_local * bone_translation * bone.matrix.to_4x4()


Emitter object shows up in reflection/transmission I'm stuck with this cycles scenario:

-I have a translucent tube inside a glass room

-The tube is being lit by an emitter object, which has ray visibility turned off for "camera"

-The emitter doesn't show up in the camera, but unfortunately it shows up in the glass material

-I can't turn off "transmission" ray visibility, because then the emitter doesn't light up the tube any more

-I would prefer a solution that doesn't require render layers, since compositing is hard because of partially transparent objects

My question is:
Is it possible to limit the transmission bounces for the emitter object, so that the rays hit the tube, but don't reach the glass?

Here is the render:

Here's the .blend:

I just added a light path node to the emitter material, with the Is Glossy Ray switching between emission and transparency, and got this.

Is this what you had in mind?

Edit: in case you'd ever want to control both Is Glossy Ray and Is Camera Ray from the shader instead of using the Ray Visibility tab in object properties, you can do that with a math node. Connect both Is Glossy Ray and Is Camera Ray to the math node via Add. Maximum also works. You will get zero only if both are zero, meaning you get visibility only if it's neither a camara ray nor a glossy ray, which is what we want.


How to prevent specific bones in an ik rig to bend? So, i created an ik rig for my arm model and it looks good except for the forearm part. As seen in the picture below, the forearm consists out of three bones.

But when i move the hand, the forearm bones bend, which i dont want.(picture below)

how do i prevent them from bending?

As IK is calculated after all modifier stacks, every bone of an IK chain has a properties panel in which you can configure its behaviour.


Hi, I'm having trouble with the mesh on this mug handle I was following Blender Guru's tutorial on making a cup and I ran into this issue with the mesh. I deleted the interior faces and for some reason it still doesn't look good. I'm not sure what else would be wrong?

What you're seeing there are faces with the normals (the vectors orthogonal to the surfaces of the faces) pointing into the mesh as opposed to out of it. Unlike reality, 3D modeling is all smoke and mirrors. In many environments faces are only visible from one side. Blender lets you see backfaces, but they appear darker because they face away from the "light" for viewport shading.

To fix the problem, go into edit mode, select your whole mesh with A, and hit CTRL+N to recalculate normals. With a simple shape like that Blender will be able to figure out which way they need to be pointing.

Otherwise, you can select the affected faces, and W > Flip Normals to manually flip them the other way around.


How do I get the Layers tab to show in the Properties menu? In other posts where people have asked this, the answer was that you needed to switch out of local view into global view for the Layers tab to appear. However, even when I was in Global View, the Layers tab was still not there. Please help me.

The screenshot you added in the comments is from an old version of blender. Since 2.67 the render layers have their own tab in the properties.


Simplifying animation F-Curves in Blender 2.8 I can’t find out how to use the Simplify Curve add-on on animation F-Curves in Blender 2.8.

I’ve activated the add-on, and in the 3D view the parameters are changeable when operated on a curve object. But when I select keyframes and activate Graph Editor ➔ Channel menu ➔ Simplify F-Curves, I can’t find the settings (Error Value) anywhere.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Sounds like unfinished implementation, but there is a workaround for the time being

Don't use the menu to call the operator, call it from the F3 Search Menu while hovering the 3D View, not the F-Curve Editor


How can I make an object follow a path exactly I want to make this sphere follow a path, but everything I try creates a giant distance from the actual path. I guess what I'm asking is how do I get the blue line extending from the path to the sphere to be basically 0 at all times?

The issue is that the curve and the object you want to make follow the curve have different origins (that orange dot you see when you select them in object mode) The calculation for the follow path constraint uses that offset to compute how the ball follows the path).  That offset is represented by that blue line you mention.

To make the object be on the path, the origin of the curve and that of the object have to be on the same place:

To make your objects have a common origin do the following:

Select your path and press Shift S and select Snap Cursor to Selected, then select the other object and press Shift S and Snap Selection to Cursor.

Then you can add the follow path constraint and the ball will move to the beginning of the path.

A different way to place the ball at the starting point of the path is to enter edit mode on the curve and select tha point you want the ball to move to and snap the cursor to it and then snap the ball to that place...


image get distorted on uv sphere when rotating texture im facing the issue as in the photo below.
i want to rotate the y axis to animate it.
in HDRs its no issues.if i try to recreate it on a uv sphere i get this ugly distortion.
rotating the whole sphere isnt acceptable because of many reasons.
i want to rotate the texture only.

before rotate on x, y

after rotation

any solution?

so i have found the answer.

use AnimAll add on.

open tools panel by using T then go to Animation tab then check UVs and insert a key frame.

move to another frame then insert another key frame (by using tool menu T)

Move Uvs on any axis then insert another key frame.

go to object mode(will not work in edit mode)

switch to rendered view.

ALt+A

your UVs will animate.

enjoy.


Hole in cylinder Topology I'm attempting to cut a neat hole in a cylinder using minimal topology. I've used an octagon for both the cylinder and the hole. On applying the subdivision surface modifier, the region near the hole curves out a bit intersecting with parts of other objects which isn't supposed to happen with a perfect cylindrical surface. How may I correct it?

When you create a low poly cylinder and then add a subsurf it creates a high poly cylinder but with a smaller diameter because the surface will be inscribed into the low poly cylinder's volume.
You have to push inside a bit the loop of your hole:


Zooming in to a selection of vertices with the period key does not work as expected I am following through the exercises in BlenderBasics_4thEdition2011.pdf and have gotten to the section on texturing.  The book goes through the creation of a Lighthouse and now I am texturing it.  I want to have a closeup view of the roof of the lighthouse after partitioning it as the lesson describes on page 54.

In order to get a close up view I selected the roof and want to center the screen on the vertices of it so I pressed the Numpad . key.  When I do that the view zooms so that the roof is off the screen.

What am I am doing wrong?

I tried Ray's answer and was able to move the origin but pressing the Numpad . key still did not work.  The centering was still on the bottom of the lighthouse, as if the origin was still there.

It looks like you accidentally locked the view to an object or to the 3d cursor.

To unlock the view from object:

Press the N hotkey to open the properties panel on the right of the 3D view.
In the View section remove the object in the Lock to Object setting. If it is active, the Object name to which the view is locked will be listed in that field.
Click the X to the right of the object name to remove it.

To unlock the view from cursor:

Same as above, open the properties panel scroll down to the View section.
Uncheck the option "Lock to Cursor".

After unlocking the view, zooming to selection should work as expected.

In the image bellow you can see the correct settings for zooming to start working as expected.


Particle Settings Link/Transfer I'm just wondering, is there a way to transfer Particle System Settings from one .blend file to another? Something related to how appending and/or linking works.

For example, I have  x.blend which contains carpet particle settings and I want these settings to be transferred to 'y.blend', which currently doesn't contain any at all.

I'd love to hear your ideas.

ParticleSettings data is not readily accessible in append/link browser.

The easiest way I found to reuse it in another file, is to append or link the mesh object using it. Once the object is in the scene, you'll find every ParticleSettings data used by the object available to every other objects in the new file.


Why is a disconnected bone still following its former parent? I've disconnected 2 bones, with Alt P > Disconnect. They are definitely disconnected - they move independently in Edit Mode and under the Properties > Bone tab > Relations no parent is shown for them. But then when I move their former parents in Pose Mode, they follow along as though there was a Keep Offset parenting on them. That shouldn't happen, right? I've tried it several times. There's no constraint on the disconnected bone, no drivers.

you have to really delete the parenting. In edit mode select your bone, in bone's options tab it's parent should appear, click X.

But the real problem was...

In pose mode, adding a constraint that needs a target (IK, track,...) with hotkey Ctrl+Shift+C should be done selecting it (the target) first, then the bone to constraint. If you don't select a target, an empty is added and becomes the target. This won't happen using the constraint menu.


Vertex Normals Not Facing Correct Directions I was in the process of modelling a part, but then noticed that the faces were not being shaded properly (smooth shading with auto-smooth normals). Upon closer inspection, all face normals are in the correct direction but the vertex normals do not seem to be correct. Recalculating normals does not appear to fix the problem. How do I recalculate the vertex normals?
I am unsure of the modelling steps that lead to this shading issue and have not successfully replicated the issue.
I am aware that it would not take very long to remodel the part but am curious about this issue.

Credits to Rahul Chaudhary on https://developer.blender.org/ for the solution.
Turns out the issue is a result of the abnormal scaling I had originally placed on the object to scale a cylinder down to the approximate diameter and height (.078 in XY, 4.888 in Z). Applying the scale immediately fixed the issue.
To clarify, this would be the mesh Blender used to calculate all of the normals, after which it rescaled the mesh to look like the cylinder I had.

Before Applying Scale:

After Applying Scale:


How do I have random color variations for grass? im trying to recreate this grass. i want to have spots with an orange hue, how do I do this?

In the Render settings of the particles you can set Render as to Collection. Put the green grass and orange flowers into the selected Collection. Tick Use Count in Render section and add some count values to specify how much grass and flowers you want.


How can I update a mesh's physics while in the game engine? Note: I saw this question but that isn't what I'm looking for.

I have a basic character who has an armature and several animations. Because of the variety of his animations, a simple cube collision bound doesn't work because he'll either be wiggling outside it, or on some animations, (like crouching or crawling) there will be too much headroom that makes for unrealistic collisions.

I tried working around this by creating a low-poly outline of the character for collisions, not knowing that it didn't update in realtime.

Alas! when I experimented with the output and physics visualization on, I saw that the armature only has control over the "visual" mesh, and not the "practical" mesh.

What is a good workaround so my dude can have collisions only where his body is?

An ideal way, in my opinion, is to have the entire character surrounded by a bounding box which will be used to have basic collisions with map entities (examples: walls, barrels, floor). Also, we can have a separate object, your character model, that will be used to have collisions with specific entities (example: bullets, rays). Your character model will have a simple python script that will ensure that his mesh updates every tick, making accurate collision. Furthermore, since the character model is contained in the bounding box, it will constantly collide (as they should be parented), meaning that your player will instantly launch off! We can fix this by changing both objects' collision group and collision mask. The collision group identifies which group of collisions it is in, and the collision mask identifies which groups it collides with. An object's collision mask and collision group is located in the physics tab.

This way, we won't have the character model get stuck and have jittery movement when playing animations (as the collision area will change shape), and specific collisions will work as you have your character model serve for that purpose.

To update the character's mesh every tick, use the following:

import bge

def update(cont):
    own = cont.owner
    own.reinstancePhysicsMesh()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    update(bge.logic.getCurrentController())


Unable to select more than one object in Edit Mode I have created 6 cubes in Object Mode and I can select each of them individually or by box selecting. However when I tab into Edit Mode I am only able to select the last one selected in Object Mode. The remaining 5 cubes will not select. This behaviour is same when trying to select Vertices, Edges or Faces. When I return to Object Mode and change the selection then go back into Edit Mode the object I had been previously able to select will not do so and it is only the one I last selected in Object Mode that will select.

Been on this for hours now and would love some suggestions of thins to try

Additional: I found that I could select the meshes if I added them when in edit mode from the add tab. However, The final 3 meshes all ended up sharing a point of origin which I had not deliberately done. When I deleted them and then went into the Object Mode I could no longer return to the Edit Mode!! I am now as I hit the Undo keys several times.

Been working with Blender for several days now and was enjoying it. Personally this doesn't now feel like a stable release to me!

Your question is a little unclear, but I think I know what you are looking for.

Edit mode allows you to modify the geometry of a single object. Edit mode is based on the selected object and allows direct modifications of the mesh of the selected object. This means that if no object is selected, you can't go into edit mode. This also means that adding meshes in edit mode adds disconnected edges and faces to the selected object, and does not add an independent object.

Object modes allows translation of different independent objects while almost all of the other modes in viewport allow manipulation of the selected object.

To point out some things; meshes can be separated from an object using "p" (either though selection, material, or loose parts), origins can be reset by right clicking and selecting set origin, and then selecting the option that applies to your situation, and edit mode can be quickly toggled using tab.

If you want to be able to edit the meshes of multiple objects at once, you have to switch out of edit mode for that object, select a new object, and then enter edit mode for the new object. I recommend watching some tutorials on youtube as they can do a great job of explaining how objects and meshes work in blender.


Rigging issues- specifically errors when weight painting this question is not a visual one
I have a character- machine designed, made of multiple meshes. I have manipulated the preset skeleton to the humanoid mesh's shape. however when I put the bones in pose mode and select the mesh part I want to weight, then going into weight paint mode with control+tab, the way it is shown in the tutorial I'm following (introduction to blender rigging- blender guru.com) is that the mesh turns to weight paint and the bones to pose so I can attach the bones to the relevant mesh sections.
this does not happen. I have tried making the mesh one piece, manually switching modes and various key combinations but regardless when the mesh is in weight mode, the armature remains in object mode
please advise

on a side note, i have used this tutorial before with another, simpler mesh and have had no issues so I don't know what has caused this apparently isolated error
UPDATE:through sheer luck I found that it works fine if you put bones into pose, select mesh and go into weights. Nothing else, no changes. The bones change to object mode when this happens but once parented they work fine

I suspect you are trying to assign from Object Mode. Try again from Pose Mode?

First make sure the bones you are wanting to work on are visible and selected in Pose Mode. To make things clearer I usually hide what I am not working on. Select the Mesh Object and then the Armature - still in Pose Mode - and press CTRLP and select Armature deform. Select the Mesh Object and go into Weight Paint....

Under the Weight Menu select Assign Automatic from Bones


Scaling cubes with individual origins in python api 2.82
Python api is not executing the resizing with individual origins, like when the same operation is done with the cursor. I change the transform pivot point to individual origins but the script is only scaling the cubes from median centers, so the cubes are moving away. I need them to scale from individual origins so at one poing they merge together. Any idea how to make this work with python api, or if this a bug. It seems like a really basic operation.

The code:

import bpy
bpy.context.scene.tool_settings.transform_pivot_point = 'INDIVIDUAL_ORIGINS'
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(enter_editmode=False, location=(0, 0, 0))
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(enter_editmode=False, location=(3, 0, 0))
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='SELECT')
bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(1.77118, 1.77118, 1.77118))

Avoid ops for easy operations.

IMO many ops are a bridge between the user and the UI. For simple operations it is often simpler to set property values directly.

After the op cube has context. cube = context.object  .

bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add()
cube = context.object

To uniformly scale about the origin

cube.scale *= 1.7718

Alternatively can set size in the operator

bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(size=2 * 1.7718)

which will "apply" the scale.

Finally: To have the two cubes only touching use 1.5


What is the "standard 3-rig setup"? The comment on this ticket states that lagging from cyclic constraints can be solved be using the 'the standard "3-rig" setup'. What is the specific setup this is referring to? Is it still considered standard? The comment states that users shouldn't edit the deform rig. How do users adjust the influence of the FK/IK rigs?

I assume that in this setup users are supposed to use copy rotation constraints to get the deform rig to match the other rigs and then to use drivers to adjust which rig is influencing the deform rig. I can't seem to find any finished examples of IK/FK switching that use 3 rigs (on here, Blendswap, Blenderartists). Did something change in constraints or drivers that makes 3 rigs unnecessary?

I am looking for context to understand some of the advice on rigging that may be out of date.

You are essentially correct.

The standard 3 rig setup is as follows:

IK control chain
FK control chain
Deform chain

With the deform chain constrained to both control chains with copy rotation etc, and a driver setup to control the influence of those constraints so only one control chain influences the deform chain at a time.

In blender this is usually done all within one armature, rather than as separate objects, although it could be done separately if you wanted to.

The easiest example to find is the one that comes bundled with blender itself -  the generated Rigify rig uses this setup for arms and legs (Although it has an extra chain prefixed with ORG between the control chains and the deform chain (bones prefixed with DEF), for other reasons).


How do I select Edges? I apologize in advance for asking such a beginners question, and I assume this will come down to my view/window being wrong.

I used Blender a few years back, and I am familiar with how shapes work and the interface it had years ago. Now back then, if I wanted to select vertices/edges/faces, I would click the appropriate icon next to the Object/Edit dropdown box, but as you can see, it is no longer there.

According to the official documentation, pressing Ctrl+Tab should produce the same effect, but it as well does not seem to change anything. I am able to select and move vertices, as this is the default behaviour but I cannot seem to be able to change to edge or face select.

I am using Blender v2.78c, and it looks quite different from when I downloaded it a few months ago, when those buttons were still where I was used to seeing them.

To edit Edges and Faces you need to be editing a mesh, and you will get the buttons as shown below:

Please note that these buttons will not be available for Curves, Nurbs, Text, Lamps, camera, Metaballs, Armatures, Lattices, Empties or any kind of object not consisiting of vertices, edges or faces.


Way to detect if a valid GPU device is available from Python Blender allows the user to select "GPU Compute" as the rendering device even if the computer has no valid GPU device. It simply Greys out the drop down menu:

To a Python script, it then looks like a GPU compute device is in use:

I need a way to check from my Python script if an actual valid GPU device will be used for rendering or not.
Cycles will silently default to the CPU if the user selects GPU but doesn't have one, but I don't know how to detect this from a script.

A bit of ferreting around yielded this:
import bpy
import _cycles

cycles_preferences = bpy.context.preferences.addons['cycles'].preferences
cuda_devices, opencl_devices = cycles_preferences.get_devices()
for device in cuda_devices:
    if device.use == True:
        print("Device -", device.name, "is", device.use)

Basically, it will iterate through the available devices in the "cuda_devices" (you can iterate "opencl_devices" too) and "device.use" will be true if it is active. So if anything returns True you know a valid rendering device is active.
You can adapt it to suit your application.


How to keep a mesh in the same location relative to its parent mesh? I am currently doing the donut tutorial and I'm trying to model M&M's for the particle lesson. The M&M's are modeled using a cylinder and a text that is converted into a mesh, with the text (the "m") awkwardly placed in the center of the cylinder:

However, when grouped together and used as particles it results in:

How do I make it so that the text mesh is in the same location relative to the cylinder mesh; I don't want to join them because they result in the connecting vertices distorting the text a little. I think I have to use an object constraint but I'm not sure which one is appropriate for this example.

The letters and the "buttons" are two separate object. In order to get them move together, they should be one object. One "m" should be joined with one "button".

First, select every "m" individually, then hit Ctrl+A and select "Rotation and Scale". Repeat this for every "m" and every "button".

Select the "m", then shift-select the "button", then hit Ctrl+J to join them. Repeat this for all six pairs.


Rotate UVs 90 Degrees Shortcut Anyone clever enough to figure out a way to assign a shortcut to rotate UV islands by -/+ 90 degrees (Blender 2.8)?

I found the transform.rotate shortcut, which works great when you type in 90 into the angle field. But then you have to confirm it with a second button after. I was wondering if anyone knows of a trick to auto-confirm or something similar? I was trying to rig the shortcuts as Ctrl + Mouse Wheel up/down. Key presses work a little better because you can use the release event to confirm. Still a little sketchy.

Any advice is appreciated!

I use TexTools addon. It was 2.79 but someone ported it to 2.8 and it works pretty well

as you can see it has a -90 and +90 which you can assign a shortcut key to if required

here is the download

https://github.com/SavMartin/TexTools-Blender/releases/download/TexTools_2.80/textools.zip


Proportionally move stack of objects I'm using Blender 2.8 and I have a stack of sicks that I'm trying to compress evenly. I thought I'd be able to use the proportional edit feature to do this but I feel like I'm doing something wrong:

When I try to move these proportionally they all move together up the Z axis. Am I missing something?

It does work for scaling, but that's not what I'm after. I can position this manually, but I would love to be able to spread these quickly.

At the bottom of the Header > Pivot Point dropdown, there's an 'Origins Only' option. If you check that, and choose the appropriate pivot about which to scale  (try 'Median'), you will be able to spread/bring together your objects without affecting their geometry.

That looks from your picture to be SZ, with no proportional editing.


How do I place my particles correctly? Are you speaking about Particle Settings or Particle Placement?

Before i hit render f12. All the bees stuck to the sphere. But after pressing f12 and render then i cancel it. And back to 3d view all the particles setting are disturb. May i know the reason whats going and why its not stuck same setting.

Any suggestion or Help. Thanks

Bake

Make sure you have NOT turned off render of the particle emitter or particle system

Turn Physics to None. Stop all animation of Bee.

Stop your particle rotation.
Perhaps your particles are rotating inside the sphere.
Increase the particles.
Move the frame cursor.
Save your file.
Close the file and open again.
Blender particles can become out of synchronization.

Set keyframes for you particle settings if necessary.
Bake to cache.
Then render.


Is it possible to twist a circle into a sphere? I'm wondering if something like this is possible to make in Blender:

This animation I found on Dribble looks really amazing. The person who made it says it is done on Cinema 4D.

It looks like a string starting with a circular shape, then it is being twisted into a sphere with equal spacing in between. The sphere is then rotated and finally returning to its original circular shape.

Yes.

There are probably multiple ways of doing this, but one way is to use a circle with a simple deform modifier set to twist, and using an empty as the twist origin:

By animating the rotation of both the circle and the empty, you can make it twist around, and by animating the deform angle, you can control the amount of twisting.

Result: (click for better quality)

Example .blend


Texture unwrap does not appear as expected I am trying to unwrap a cube. I know that it is very obviously. I mark the seam and so but the texture does not appears as mentioned in the image

To show the texture in 3D View in Cycles, Texture Node should be created in the material and viewport switched to Textured Viewport Shading


Bones won't join to mesh I am new to blender.  And have followed some youtube tutorials on creating and joining bones to an object (they make it look so easy!). It is a fishing rod FBX, I just want to add some bones to the rod so I can use dynamic bones in unity.
I have tried selecting the mesh and the bones and Ctrl P - trying:

Armature deform with automatic weights
Just selecting object

Nothing seems to happen, I have tried different things in "new projects" several time.  I sometimes also get an "loop in parents" error.
When I go into pose mode the bones are still separate to the mesh?
See screenshot below of the set up (the rod come in along the z axis, so I just left it there)
Any assistance would be very much appreciated.
Thanks

Thanks Josh,
That worked by  now the scale of the rod has increased by 100 and it has rotated 90 degrees along the y-axis?
Appreciate your help:)

In your file the armature is child of the mesh, while it should be the opposite: select the armature and press Alt P (clear parent).
Then select the mesh FIRST, shift select the armature (mesh has to be highlighted orangy, armature yellow), then press Ctrl P with automatic weights.
In this way, in pose mode the bones will control the mesh.


Black lines through every part after importing GLTF I'm new to blender and need some advice.
I have imported a GLTF file of the render/animation I am trying to make (robot for a competition, want to show off capabilities in animation), and when I import the file, it ends up looking like this. Originally the model is a .step file, but I used the CadExchange program to make it compatible with blender. The lines do not show up in the rendered images or animations, but they make it really hard to work with, especially selecting items to parent to each other, which I need to do a lot of. Any help with this is appreciated, thank you!

Those are empties (what you get from doing Add > Empty > Plain Axes in the 3D Viewport). They are created for glTF nodes that have no mesh, no camera, aren't a bone, etc.
You can try running this script from the Text Editor to hopefully clean up some of them that aren't necessary. Save beforehand.
import bpy
while True:
    dead = [ob for ob in bpy.data.objects if ob.data is None and not ob.children]
    if not dead: break
    for ob in dead:
        bpy.data.objects.remove(ob, do_unlink=True)


Blender to Unity - What to consider? I'm (fairly) new to blender but want to create assets to be usable in Unity.

Here are my 3 questions:

Which parts should you do in Blender and which in Unity? An example is materials I assume? since they don't translate well/at all into the Unity environment from what I read so far.
Which parts of Blender can I "dismiss" if I only create assets for Unity? Like lighting or camera angles.
Are the known bugs or "big pitfalls" to consider when using Blender for Unity?

I ask these questions to know on what to focus when learning Blender (I will get the dismissable parts eventually but for now my time schedule is tight so I would like to know which functions I can dismiss for now).

You can basically dismiss all, except modeling riging/animation and UV mapping.
You won't transfer to unity nothing except that (no camera, no lights). If for material you are using only diffuse with textures (color, normal) it'll transfer well. Only thing to remember is to import to the project textures first and then import .blend or exported .fbx.


Why importing transparent images as plane looks like an opaque plane? When i imported a tranparent png by images as planes, uts looks like an opaque plane and I cant see the picture. Please check this out and suggest me a solution. I am using 2.83 version. I am a beginner in blender. So kindly help

If you have downloaded a texture make sure you have an opacity map downloaded along with the texture and then you can follow this node setup:(Make sure to delete the default node setup of the image plane)

this is an example for opacity map:
the area marked black will appear transparent
(WILL ONLY WORK IN CYCLES ENGINE)


There is no "non color" in color space There is no "non color" in color space

The 'Linear' option is effectively the same as the non-color option elsewhere, since it doesn’t apply the sRGB conversions.


Forcing Blender to measure ONLY in inches (not feet) I have Blender set to Imperial but I want to work ONLY in inches. So for example, 13 inches to show as 13" and NOT 1.1'  and 72" to show as 72" and NOT 6'

Is that possible?

I believe if you check the separate units check box that should give you what you at least the thing displayed in feet and inches(rather than decimal notation).  But I don't know if it possible to have it only show in inches as noted in your example.


how to create a shiny latex like material in blender cycles I'm experimenting with blender cycles and there are a few things I have problems with/ I am not happy with the results.

One is creating a shiny plastic. I tried it on my own, because I found no help for this specific problem online.

My setting looks like this right now.

the blend setting in layer weight is just guessing on my part

and this is what I'm trying to achieve.

But I have no idea, how to make it better.
Hope you can help.

I would just use the principled shader with zero roughness. The node set up you have should work just fine too. Not sure what you dont like about it.


Problem with imported SVG - cannot convert curves to mesh properly I imported an SVG caption from CorelDRAW and all letters are fine and get converted nicely to mesh, except the first one - "S". When I convert it to mesh it disappears. Also, it's the only spline that didn't get automatically filled. I think that the source file is fine but maybe there's some issue with "S" letter.
What can I do to fill my "S" and convert it to mesh like other letters? Is that spline not closed?
Here's the SVG...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZUxZ9E8AJ6v85qh_iY70hMDUmeW5JvdT/view?usp=sharing
...and BLEND with imported caption:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1krVFd9QTmQGibOeA7eRGVqJhFmjsXP45/view?usp=sharing
Sorry, I don't know how to post attachments here.

There is a hidden extra vertex in your curve object that confuses curve behavior.
The vertex is located on the left from the top right vertex in the S, marked with the green square in the picture. It is actually selected (and should look white) but because it is behind another vertex you can't see it.
Click on the location twice, so you won't see a white selection (but in the bottom right corner it still says: "Vert 1/414") Then press X or Del and choose Dissolve Vertices. This should resolve your issue.


Character wiping fog off a mirror using dynamic paint I've been making a scene where a character wipes fog and water droplets off a mirror to reflect themselves. I made a dynamic paint sequence using the character as the brush, but i cant work out the way to make the material so the paint brush paints a mirror texture on and leaves the fog texture. I can only get it to either paint the fog on or leave a black background.
 How can i make the brush work as a layer on top of the original water droplets texture?

So using a LOG math node at 0.9 with a colour ramp into the factor did the trick. If anyone knows exactly why I'd love to know.


Know object select order in python I create Python script for automatic create particle system use any two selected objects. Object 1 is emitter object and object 2 is particle object.

objectSelectList = bpy.context.selected_objects
print(objectSelectList)

This command give list of objects a user selected but sometime list order is reverse order (user select object A first then object B but list is: object B, object A).

How get correct select order?

Blender doesn't really have a "select order"
The standard method used by blender operators is to use the context object (context.object, context.active_object) and selected object(s) (context.selected_objects in which if there is a context object, it will occupy position 0).
For example Ctrl+P the parent operator makes the context object the parent of all selected objects, except itself. One parent many children.  Similarly for join all like typed selected objects are joined to the context object.
Henceforth for making an operator to select emitter and particle you need to decide which is the  many, ie make the context object a particle and then make all other selected objects an emitter of that particle, or vice versa.


How to change the size of the particles over distance traveled I'm using a verticle blend texture to change the size of the particles the more they go up, to mimic a stylised blocky fire. It works, but the starting size of the particles change over time as well. So it looks like the "fire" is getting bigger and bigger over time. While I want it to be a constant starting size, and getting smaller the more it goes up.

Use the method explained here. In the file you share the problem is probably that your gradient is vertical when it should be horizontal:


Object not visible in render with hair particles enabled(!?) In Viewport everything is okay and visible like it should. Hair and the body. But when I hit render (in Evee and Cycles both) only the hair is visible and not the body.

While searching for the issue I noticed that when I delete the hair particles through the little minus the body is visible again in my render.

How can I fix this that both appear in my final render? It is probably something in my particle settings(?)

Thank You!

Image 1 normal render without deleting Hair Particles

Image 2 deleting Hair Particles with the little minus

Image 3 render without hair particles (body visible again?!)

I found the solution, "Show Emitter" under particle settings was not enabled.


Selected wrong keymap, how do I change it? I had just gotten Blender 2.8 Beta and I clicked the button to continue using the Blender 2.79 shortcuts by mistake. I want to undo that. Load Factory Settings does not work. How do I do it?

Go to Edit >>>> Preferences >>> Keymap

In the center you will see a dropdown menu that says Blender 27x, Change that to Blender.

Hope that helps

Good Luck


Blender 2.77 Bsurfaces add-on works with "d" key in Mac version but not on PC version I've tried out Blender 2.77 on my MacBookPro 13" screen and all works as expected. I moved on to my Asus laptop with 15" screen (with a better video display) and installed 2.77 also with the Bsurface add-on.

When holding down the D key to draw with the mouse, nothing is drawn.

Do you have any suggestions? I'm relative new to Blender. Thanks

I've done further testing and here's the issue:  One of my PC computers doesn't change the curser to a brush icon when holding down the "d" key.  (works fine on another PC - desktop instead of laptop, same manufacture: Asus.)

When I remote into the Mac where Blender functions as expected, drawing is still not working, yet when I remote into the PC from the Mac, the drawing works as the curser changes to a brush.  I've contacted the PC manufacturer but they claim it's a software issue but they have offered to have the PC reimaged, something I already did and I have the same issue.

This undocumented feature is unique because drawing works when I use the GreasePencil draw button, but doesn't work when holding "d", and only on this PC laptop, works fine on 2 PC desktops and Mac laptop, one uses Windows 10 as the laptop that has this issue, the other Windows 7.  I've tried different versions of Blender still same issue.  It would be nice to have a solution or even a workaround because currently this is just an inconvenience in having to take the extra steps to draw lines in Blender.

Anyone else with a suggestion would be appreciated.

I found a work around for the issue with the NX500 Zenbook from Asus not working properly with Blender when using the "d" key to draw with the touch pad.  It works by just using the touch screen.


Make light pass through solid object Using Blender Internal, is there a way to make light pass through a solid object, such as a cube, as if it wasn't there? The cube of course would still be rendered.

disable "traceable" in material options to prevent the object from casting a shadow and let light pass though it.


Lock properties from applying object transformations Is there a way to Lock properties from applying object transformations ?

I am using lattice and accidently applying object transformations is causing unwanted results. Please see the Animated GIF of "problem caused by applying object transformations to lattice"

Cannot be done with lattices.

Also somehow locking the scale to its value and performing scale applying would cause the lattice itself to expand/shrink again (resulting in 2x the original transformation).

Use Mesh Deform instead and keep the scale of that cage at 1. Only this setup will be fool-proof. But Mesh-Deform is not a full supplement for Lattice, depends on what you are doing with it..


Instance a rigged mesh I am trying to create a reusable rigged mesh, specifficly a toggle switch.
What I want to achieve is multiple switches that can be posed and animated separately but that share mesh data so I can go back and make changes.
My current set up is the toggle switch in a separate scene in the same blend file being brought into the scene as a collection instance. The only way to pose this that I have found is to change it in the instanced collection, which changes every instance together.
I have also tried putting the collection in a separate .blend, linking the collection in and adding a proxy to it's armature. Though it created an unnecessary amount of overhead (extra file, having to create the proxy) it did work for the first instance, however when I tried to repeat the process to add a second instance both got stuck in the default pose. I have found multiple older posts saying that the way to fix this is to create a duplicate of the source .blend for each instance, however this does not solve my problem because I still can't make changes to the mesh and have my all my instances updated.
One idea I have had is to somehow be able create a collection instance and have the rig be controlled using custom properties on the instancer, however I am yet to find a way to set that up.
This seems like such an obvious thing to be able to do that I feel sure I am missing some basic facet of reusing meshes.

I have found that when I create a collection instance of a collection containing a single mesh linked to an armature and make instances real it creates a duplicate armature and a new object linked to the original mesh, allowing the mesh to be animated separatly from other copies while being updated together.
To clarify:
Add your armature and rig to a collection
Create a Collection Instance of that collection (Shift+a > Collection Instance)
Make the instances real (Ctrl+a > Make Instances Real)


Why does a rigid body with Convex Hull collision bounds not move in BGE? I have an object whose physic is Rigid Body, and I set its collision bounds to Convex Hull (else it would collide with its own children) but now it doesn't move when I play, and doesn't even fall on the ground.
Movement is force applied to the object when I press the correct key (W, A, S, D or Space for jumping)
Rotation works fine though, I don't understand why this is happening.

An automatic turret that shoots "on sight" in the same scene is having the same problem

Edit:

Here is the .blend file.

Enable Physics at your material.

Hints (outside of the question):

You named your objects and bricks - I like that. It was really helpful when looking at the scene.
The meshes have way too much faces for a game. They do not need that many for that little detail. I strongly suggest to remove the subsurf modifier(s). You can use smooth shading instead.
The floor creates projectiles. This was really distracting when analyzing your file. I would not expect a floor to behave this way. A separate object (e.g. called RandomProjectileSpawner) could do that job. You can add/remove it without loosing the scene's floor. You could even have more than one.
The dimensions of the projectile's physics shapes are way too large. They collide with the physics mesh of object Ship right after creation. I suggest to enable collision bounds at the physics tab on the projectiles. A box shape should be good enough.
Be aware the physics engine has problems with small travelling objects. It might happen that they do not collide with another face and suddenly are inside of an object, or that a collision does not get registered.

I hope it helps


How to round this edge? Model is intended as a game asset Hello blender gurus

I'm modelling this as an asset for UE. That's almost first "serious" model I'm making.. the problem I'm facing at the moment: can't understand how to
round the highlighted edges. Bevel doesn't help much.

An a Subsidiary question: is this topology very bad? It's full of ngons which I don't know how to get rid of now and should I start it all over again? (Hope not)

Thank a lot

For a game asset unfortunately yes, it sounds like you have a bad topology, it's very NGon heavy, and should ideally be mostly quad based.

You don't necessarily have to start over from scratch, although cleaning up bad topology from a model is often more work than just doing it well from the start.

I'd go with a topology roughly like this, which should bevel well without unexpected results


Hiding part of the object im trying to hide part of my object(B) on render. Hidden part is defined by other object(A) that covers it on camera view(z axis). Is there any good solution for that? Thanks!

Give object A an Holdout material.

That will only work if "Transparent" is enabled in Render Properties/Film, so in case you want a solid background, you'll need to add it in compositing.


Export to Unreal Engine without combining all the elements in one object In Blender I have a cupboard with the doors. When I export it to the Unreal Engine (*.fbx file), I want to be able open/close this doors in my game. But in Unreal I have only 1 object and in Blender - 5.

What is wrong?

In Blender I put a moving part of the object at the center of origin and export the object separately. It works for me. Zero coordinate in Blender will be pivot point in Unreal


How to scale a Texture in an Atlas without seeing neighbouring Textures How can i control the image. I want to make the peanut in the bottle to be small. Increase or decrease in the uv layout the side texture mixing up. Anyway to make it small.

Remap the coordinates.
We benefit from the fact we know it is a Texture Atlas, with regular row and column sizes. Take the UV coordinates, check the local X and Y coordinates and remap it to the current Texture by adding it to the Start X and Y of the target Texture.

Result (With a scale of 6)

Unfortunately the individual textures are not seamless as it seems, so you will see Seams every time the UV snap back to the start coordinates.
Small helping addition if you are using V 2.92+. Create two custom properties in the object properties.

Instead of the Current Column and Row nodes, use Attribute nodes, set the type to Object, and type in the name of your attributes.

Now you can directly edit the Texture in the 3D Viewport :

Also, if you want to have a random Texture with each pot when you duplicate it :
Use the Random output from the Object Info node to randomize Atlas Position.

Result :


Can only add a single bone in object mode For some reason I can only add a single bone in object mode. I want to add a human meta-rig but it wont even let me select it in the menu.

This is expected behaviour. You can also just add one cube at a time. It is one object.

Depending of what you want to do, you could parent the first armature to the second armature.

There are several parenting methods available in the object menu. You could parent the whole armature as one object. Or to the bone of the second armature.

To be able to do parenting, first select the first armature (this will be the child), then hold down shift and select the second armature ( this will be the parent). That way both objects are selected. Then choose your parent method.


Cutting a hole in an angled surface Ok, so lets say I have a mesh like the one on the left, and I want to make a hole in it like the one on the right, as illustrated here:

but, using the methods I can think of, you end up with  inner vertices that are out of alignment with the outer edge, thus producing a non-flat surface as you can kind of see here:

also, as I just eyeballed it, the shape and curves of the hole are not totally symmetrical at each corner, so, what is the best way to cut a hole like this, with symmetrical measurements, in a surface that is at an angle, and keeping everything in perfect alignment with the surface itself without creating any n-gons and having clean topology?

Maybe you should use boolean modyfier.

Create an object that has the shape of the hole you want to create.

Add boolean modyfier to the object you want to cut a hole into.

Make sure that the operation type was set to difference. Choose object that you want to use as holecutter.

Slide the holecutter into the place where you want hole to be.

Apply the modyfier and remove the holecutter.

Hope you understood my bad english, but if this post helped then let me know by votng this answer up. Cheers! :)


Is it possible to render outlines in BI/Cycles using this technique for the BGE? I want to achieve this outline effect outside of the game engine for animations, without using freestyle. Is it possible to make this effect work in Cycles or BI?

Yes, this is quite easy to do in cycles:

Duplicate and scale the object as shown in the video you linked.

Add a node setup using the Backfacing output of the Geometry node to mix a black diffuse shader with a transparent shader. This will go on the scaled duplicate (outline) object to provide the backface culling effect.

Disable the Ray visibility on the outline object for everything except Camera and Glossy, Transmission if you want to see the outline in reflections and refractions. This will allow light through the outline object, illuminating the main object inside.

To see the effect in the viewport:
Enable Backface Culling in 3D view > Properties panel (N) > Shading, and set the viewport color of the outline material to black:

Outlines without extra objects
Also, if you find having an extra object for the outlines rather awkward, you can generate the outline mesh procedurally using a Solidify modifier:

Add the outline material in another material slot:

Add a solidify modifier to the object you want to outline, enable Flip Normals and set the Material Index Offset to the slot where your outline material is (where the first slot is slot 0, the second is slot 1, etc.). So in this case, 1.

Now the outline will even update in real time while you are modeling:


How to scale down an extrusion/hole in mesh? So I created some mesh stuff for Second Life.

The biggest plate fits around the barbell fine, but I have an issue with the smaller ones where the size of the hole is too small because the circumference of the plate also becomes smaller.

I tried to scale the inner ring outward on the X and Y axis (Shift+Z).

If I scaled it inward I could see the effect I wanted, except I wanted the hole to become bigger, however the second image shows how that turned out.

Since you have 'Limit Selection to Visible' enabled, you might not have all the relevant verts selected.

The selected part seems to be unconnected to the rest of the mesh.
It also looks like you have another object inside the disc which probably doesn't belong in there.

Ideally your mesh should have only one closed surface and, without sacrificing shape, as little faces as possible if it's for 2nd life.


Is there a way to compute vertex density? I've got a mesh and am trying to figure out if there is a way to get a map of its vertex density. Ideally it would be something that I could put into a color ramp node and visualize. The goal is to get something to help understand vertex distribution in complex meshes. Areas with high vertex density would be bright, and low vertex density would be dark:

Assuming Cycles, the simplest method is to use the Point Density node.

The Point Density texture calculates the distances from a set of points and can be set to either take those points from a Particle system or from mesh vertices. By using Object Vertices and setting the Object to itself, it will provide the density of the vertices of its own mesh. In the above example, the Vector Transform node is used to translate Object coordinates into World coordinates to drive the Point Density. This ensures that the Point Density is in the same location as the mesh.

Adjust the Radius to affect the influence of each vertex (higher values increase the distance at which each vertex will have an effect - effectively smoothing it out further), increase the Resolution if the results are 'blocky' (higher values will be slower to compute) and adjust the Multiply node to scale the result (here I divide by 1000 to bring it within the range 0.0 to 1.0 for the Emission node).

EDIT : Here's an example using the example from the original question. I've adjusted the settings to produce reasonable results without the circular artifacts mentioned by @LukeD. The artifacts are due to the Point Density also providing values between the vertices (rather than LukeD's approach that generates distinct vertex colors). The artifacts can be minimised by adjusting the Point Density properties - Radius, Interpolation, Resolution as shown :


How do we produce LESS smoke? LOVE smoke sims. But sometimes, it's too darn much smoke - here's a train scaled to travel 60 MPH. I'm just fussing around with a BIG domain and 120 resolution divisions LOOKS like a small enough voxel (?) for that smokestack which is holding a vertex group - the top rim. That size though! It's gushing giant clouds instead of smokestack sized pillows as implied by the sample voxel or smoke pixel.

Issue

Domain is too long. If you set Divisions to 120 means longest side of domain is divided by this value. For domain of this lenght it means "big" voxel cell.

You can try by your self, go to edit mode, with Ctrl+R close to center of long edge (when yellow loop appear) type 120, so domain become divided by this number. From there you can see that emitter is inside one voxel and rising smoke expand into two others.

Solution

You would have to increase divisions, but for this type of domain totally unreasonable. Depend on animation type you can try something else.

Make domain shorter and enable Dissolve, so smoke disappear in specified amount of frames. From your file I see you already use it, so parent domain to your train and enable also Adaptive domain.

Or try particles instead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL0G5oOjdtk
For stady camera, like viewing incoming train with long smoke trail, you can try to use more domains https://vimeo.com/246353861

Once I tried shape keys for incoming car. Long domain with same divisions for far shot, but when car become closer I animated domain lenght into shorter. So for close up view domain became with enough division in camera view. I even didnt expect it can work, so there was offcourse issue, in a moment of resize domain smoke like exploded :) https://vimeo.com/177600070