how to mask an object so that it emerges from the floor I'm just trying to get an object to come out of the floor (the floor is real footage and object is just motion tracked in)

Now the floor I want to be invisible so it doesn't show in the final render, but still hide the cube until it passes through.

This is how you do that:

The cube needs this material, you can exchange the diffuse shader by any node tree you want, but the last node must be the mix shader with the holdout and transparent depth as factor.
The plane needs a transparent shader. Everywhere the cube would be visible through the transparent plane, it will be alpha.


Transparent water shader for EEVEE? I followed a simple "how to make water in EEVEE" tutorial on youtube, but I don't know how to make it transparent. My current node setup:

Q: How to get the water transparent?

For EEVEE:

Turn “Transmission” all the way up.
Turn alpha down to about 0.5
Set blend method to either hashed or blend.


How to randomly render credit card number values with Python scripts Modeling a bank card with Blender, but I don't know how to use a Python script to randomly update bank card values。

Here is an Animation Nodes solution:

Which produces:

It works by taking a frame number and using it as a seed to generate 4 random strings of 0-9 characters. Each node has also its own seed, they should differ, so you get 4 different numbers from a single frame number.

Last step is to join the strings together into single one with a space separator in between:

To fool the average viewer the solution above is enough but to be correct more math should be involved which is not hard but would clutter the example. Not every made up credit card number is valid. Each CC company has some rules the numbers should obey and they also differ in length:

Payment card numbers (wiki)

The last digit is also usually a checksum number that can be calculated using Luhn algorithm (Mod 10).

A starting point to get a list of random digits that you can do math on and then convert it to text could look like this:


Gpu rendering problem I have been advised to download cuda and I downloaded nvidia cuda version 6.5,yet the cycle compute showed none. what should I do?  Help me please.
I'm using windows 7  im trying to enable graphics card nvidia geforce 320

Don't waste your time, your card is too old, it is not supported by blender. As stated in the link

Enabling GPU rendering for Cycles?

  Cycles only supports CUDA GPUs with a CUDA compute ability of 2.0 or higher. To use CUDA, check to make sure your GPU is on this list of CUDA capable GPUs and has a ranking of at least 2.0.

Your's doesn't meet that criteria.
You can see the compute capability of CUDA cards here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUDA


How can I use a pivot circle instead of a pivot point As a follow up question to my previous question:
How to obtain the following topology?

Question

I start the with topology that resulted from the previous question:

How can I use a pivot circle instead of a pivot point, so I can obtain the following (of course I did it manually and inaccurate), where the distances, highlighted with red arrows, are equal and blue circle indicates pivot circle:

What I already tried

I tried scaling the inner and outer circle and use keyboard to type the same value, x and 1/x respectively

I think instead of trying to find a way of changing pivot point mechanism (which doesn't necessarily exist) it's better to change way of modeling this object.

Simple alternative is to model this using curves. Create 2 curve circles, one - for the main object, another one - as bevel object for the first one. Set parameters for beveling on the first one and then make proper sharpness of second one to achieve form of desired object.

Both curve circles next to each other. Handle type for the big one is left as default, for the small one (profile curve) is set to Vector (edit it by pressing V in Edit mode)

Options for the big circle object (main one)

By editing profile curve you change main one. Note that if you want length of edges outlined on your screenshot to remain the same make sure to scale profile vertices (selected above) simultaneously or length will become uneven.

Edges of the final mesh have the same length.

See related info here Extrude along path


Python: proportional editing vertex move I'm new to scripting in blender. Is there a way to proportional-edit a vertex through python?

I want translate a vertex along z, with all vertexes between that and local_Z=0 moving accordingly like they would in proportional editing

This is a graphical representation:

look at the doc: http://www.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_2_76_release/bpy.ops.transform.html?highlight=proportional#bpy.ops.transform.transform

By the way you can look in the 'action log' of the info editor (window header). enlarge it, sroll down, select entry it with your select mouse button and use CtrlC to copy the command for your action


Image Editor does not show RGBA output from composite viewer blender 2.91, I have a problem with Composite viewer node - I'm trying to preview contents using Image Editor however despite having all checkbox set Image Editor does not shows full output, particularly excludes alpha channel.
Any idea what's happening?
As you can see in the picture below I have "Use Alpha" set everywhere, Image Editor is in RGBA mode, yet there's alpha output lacking in the image editor. I tried to disconnect/connect nodes in the compositor, to force refresh, but no result

The alpha channel has not been associated with the image.
To associate the alpha channel use an Alpha Convert node and set it to Straight to Premultiplied.


Blender gets very slow to draw a scene having large number of plane? I have a very simple python script to generate planes in the scene. I want to generate 50000 planes in a scene, to compensate for unavailability of POINT primitive, so that i can render a point cloud.
It runs at a good pace till 2000 th plane is added , then starts slowing down, and gets very slow.
My computer's config is - i7 3.4 GHz, 16GB RAM, GeForce 9800 GTX graphic card.

here is the python script-

import bpy
from math import *
import random

for i in range(2000):
    x=random.uniform(0,100)
    y=random.uniform(0,100)
    z=random.uniform(0,100)
    bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_plane_add(location=(x,y,z))
    #bpy.context.active_object.scale=(100,100,100)
    print("\n",i)

Any Help on
why it is slowing down?
How can this be fixed ?
Any alternate approach to render point cloud in blender?
would be much appreciated...

Thanks for your time and attention

Dupli objects
Try using Dupliverts (instances):

Create/import the point cloud as a mesh with only vertices:

Create a single tri by adding a plane (ShiftA> Mesh > Plane) and merging one edge with AltM:

Parent the tri to the point cloud by selecting both objects with the point cloud active (last selected) and pressing CtrlP.

With the point cloud active, enable Verts in Properties > Object > Duplication:

Add a track to constraint to the tri with the camera object as the target so that all the tris face the camera:

This has performed fine for me with point/vertex clouds of over 7000 vertices.
This will work with both BI and Cycles.
Halos
Another method for rendering point clouds is to use a Halo Material:

Create/Import a point cloud as vertex only mesh (no edges or faces):

Create a Halo material:

Note that this only works for BI.


How to assign multi colors on a screw modifier With the screw modifier only the top or 1st material is assign. I want to assign multi colors to a screw modifier. How is it possible. Any suggestion. (I do not want to apply the modifier). Thanks

https://imgur.com/a/pfXqdqN

Materials are assigned at the face/polygon level. The screwed edges in your question have initially no materials. So I think you should extrude/scale down the initial half circle. Assign materials to the wanted parts and use the screw.

Something like that:

Though, geometry will be non manifold and this will be visible.

To correct that, you can use a mask modifier:

Do exactly as previously but do not scale down after extruding, just stay in place. Now with these newly selected vertices create a vertex group.

Color the faces, as before (even if faces are not visible).

Then add a mask modifier after the screw, using the created vertex group:


What does "three tracks with bundles are needed to orient the floor" mean? I have selected few tracks on the floor (three or more) and press the Floor button. As a result I get the following message:

  Three tracks with bundles are needed to orient the floor

What does it mean? What is "with bundles"? What are "bundles"?

UPDATE

Below is an example. Five tracks are selected, all of them are of same color. How can I see that some of them has no "bundles"? I was pressing "Solve Camera..." button before.

In order to create the floor you have to solve the clip first. bundles are basically solve data for the track. Your error is probably caused by unsolved/incorrectly solved tracks.

From the wiki:

  Bundles makes sense after solving the movie clip, and it works in the following way: the solved position of each track gets projected
  back to the movie clip and displayed as a small point. The color of
  the point depends on the distance between the projected coordinate and
  the original coordinate: if they are close enough, the point is green,
  otherwise it'll be red. This helps to find tracks which weren't solved
  nicely and need to be tweaked.


Cloth falls through object during simulation I am fairly new to blender and I am having tons of trouble with a cloth simulation. I have subdivided cloth with the cloth physics modifier at stock settings and an object below it with the collision modifier but the cloth always falls through it. Here is the .blend file... help would be much appreciated, I'm getting so frustrated I kinda want to delete blender right now. Let me know if you need any more info, I am desperate to find a solution.

Pre simulation:
https://imgur.com/NdMRTqZ

Post Simulation:
https://imgur.com/9jsrjjq

Collision object settings:
https://imgur.com/QtMOPFC

Hey i had the exact same problem you just have to remove the collision cube and make a new cube dont ctrl d


Merging erases details on top object Hi I have a problem where I go to merge two objects, one has incredibly small details and as such when I go to merge, the little edges vanish and I'm left with one solid block.

 Pic related is what I want the end result to be, this is before I merge the two.

I'll add here an example:

starting from an array modifier creating similar details

you should apply it: pressing the "apply" button you get something  like this

then if you join with the underlying shape

details are still there


Mirror modifier mirrors on different axis/axes from the selected one(s) I have 2 objects a face and an ear. Mirror modifier works fine for the face. But when I use mirror modifier to duplicate the ear on X axis, it duplicates on Z axis. And when I use mirror modifier on Z axis it mirrors on X axis. How to correct the axis orientation?

If the ear was rotated, you will need to apply the rotation. To do this, in object mode either press
CtrlA then R or click Object > Apply > Rotation.

See: Why is it important to apply transformation to an objects data?


How can I remove object by raycast? I want to remove obstacle between points A and B.

I tried to use bhvtree but I have an error
import bpy
from mathutils.bvhtree import BVHTree

a = bpy.data.objects['a']
b = bpy.data.objects['b']
bvhtree = BVHTree.FromObject(a, b)

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
  File "Text", line 6, in <module>
TypeError: expected 'Depsgraph' type found 'Object' instead

I don't know what is the Depsgraph type!

Scene raycast
Having recently answered https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/192827/15543 it appears this is another good contender for scene raycast.
Given two global points in the scene raycast from one in direction of other as far as the distance between them Repeat until there are no more obstacles to hit.
import bpy
from bpy import context

from mathutils import Vector

a = Vector((-5, 0, 0))
b = Vector((5, 0, 0))

scene = context.scene

hit, loc, norm, idx, ob, M = scene.ray_cast(
        context.view_layer,
        a,
        (b - a),
        distance=(b - a).length,
        )
if hit:
    print(f"Hit, removing {ob.name}")
    bpy.data.objects.remove(ob)


How can I create intercalated shapes? I´m practising modeling using this shoe as reference but got stuck on this intercalated shape. How can I do it? Does anyone have any tip? I thought about using the plane mesh (the same way I did the stripes + solifidy modifier) but when I extrude to make it over and under the stripe, the mesh will get weird, no? Thanks in advance for the help!

Start with a plane. Keep it as separate object and add a "solidify" modifier and some subdivision.

Now in side view, in edge selection mode, select the top edge and extrude it along:

Keep the modifiers as long as possible in order to manage the fiewer vertices manually.
Do it for side parts too, and join the parts at the top, and adjust the heights as needed:

Once happy with the shape, apply "solidify" modifier, select the edges and bevel them:

You should obtain something like this:


how to list multiple boxes dimensions in one table? (for wood workers) if I have kitchen cabinet designed in Blender it consist from multiple boxes with correct dimensions.
is there a way to list all parts measurements in one table?

I'm switching from 3Ds Max to Blender so I can design kitchens and make cutlist. So, this is what i have so far and I'm trying to figure out more about Blender and Python so I can have a complete solution for kitchen making.

Try this code, this code export selected objects (kitchen cabinet parts) and store it's name and dimensions into csv file so you can open in excel or send it to cutlist programs like MaxCut.

import bpy
#here you need to write where you want to store the file on your system
file = open("/home/monis/Blender/MyFile_02.csv", 'w')
selectedObjects = bpy.context.selected_objects
file.write('Panel name\t hight\t width\t thickness\n')

for obj in selectedObjects:
    dim = obj.dimensions
    file.write(obj.name+'\t'+'{:.3f}\t{:.3f}\t{:.3f}\n'.format(dim.x*100,dim.y*100,dim.z*100))

file.close()
print(obj)


Child bone moving parent bone? I have created a simple rig of a character that is intended to be modular. The arms of this character are meant to follow the main spine but are also able to be detached. Instead the bones are not only unable to be detached, they also influence the parent bone. I have tried to work around this by using the connected box, copy transform, child of, and copy location, but since the parent bone is animated through IK it does not actually change transformation beyond 0,0,0. Does anyone know why children bone are influencing the parent bone?

Update: the problem seems to be related to the inverse kinematics, When a chain of bones that is not controlled by inverse kinematics is parented to the bone the parent is affected by the movement of the child bone. However, the inverse kinematics of bones that are children but unconnected to the parent bone still influence the movement of the parent bone

Update 2: I have solved the problem, the inverse kinematic bones had the chain length set at 0. This makes Blender think the entire parented spine is part of the bone chain, by setting the chain length in the IK constraints to the amount of bones in the arms I have successfully restricted their IK to the desired areas.

I have solved this problem, You must set the length of the arm in the IK or else it will think the parented bone chain is part of the deformation.


Principled BSDF incorrect roughness scaling? I watched a video from Blender Guru (link with time where he mentions it) where Andrew was forging basically a "fake" principled bsdf to get a material. He showed that the glossy BSDF lost gloss too quickly and he countered it by raising the texture's data to the second power.
My question is, is this still the case with Principled BSDF so we have to counter it, or is it corrected?

The Principled BSDF uses squared roughness internally to better match other software and tools. The glossy BSDF does not, hence why it was necessary to square the roughness with a math node on older PBR node groups.


How to make water not pass through bottom of floating object? I made an ocean using the ocean modifier, and placed into the ocean a floating object - basin, using this lesson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11F1NRpqrzY

How to make water not pass through the bottom of the basin?

You can create an object of a shape similar to your floating object (bowl, boat, whatever) but lower-poly. Then select your ocean object and add a Boolean Modifier. The Operation mode should be set to Difference, and the Object slot should of course be set to your low-poly boolean object. Normals must be facing the correct directions or you'll get unexpected results.

Here is a screen shot of my test doing this with a simple cylinder:

Now there are just a few more things to do.

Prevent this boolean object from being rendered.

You can do this by finding the object in the Outliner and turning off visibility for the render, and for the viewport if you like (although this makes it no longer selectable).

In my screen shot I have set the Maximum Draw Type to Wire, and that's why I can still see and select my boolean object. However this leaves it visible during viewport rendering, so to fix that I simply gave it a material with a Transparent shader (with the color set to white for full transparency).

Parent it to your original floating object, so it moves with it.

Pretty straightforward. Select your boolean object, then select your floating object and press [Ctrl P]. Set Parent to Object.

Fix possible issues with ugly shading on the geometry of your ocean where it touches the boolean object.

With your ocean object selected, navigate to the Mesh Tab. Check the box for "Auto Smooth". Also, in the Tools panel set the object's Shading to Smooth.


Scaling in 2 axis at once Is it possible to scale 2 axis(s) at the same time? Essentially making an object proportionally bigger.

This also applies to tighten a loop cut. In this example, the object looks tightened/constrained in only one direction but when rotated we see that it is not tightened evenly all around.

Thank you

This problem haunted me for weeks but as in the past, I solved it before anyone needed to answer.

The trick is that I was scaling the object by clicking on the colored z-axis on the gizmo and not clicking somewhere further away.

Seems so simple now.


How to get disconnected teeth and beard to move with rigged face? So I'm trying to weight paint but can't seem to get my teeth and beard on the character to move with his head on two different bones, I have tried to move the head then weight paint it so that it gets moved into position as I paint but that doesn't work because it just stops getting closer to the head... so if someone could help using like team viewer or something that would help me a ton.

newest image:

I'll try to recreate the similiar issue as yours for you. As you can see below the jaw mesh doesn't follow the head's movement. It's because the jaw's vertices are not properly assigned to the head bone.

Select the head bone in Pose Mode, then select the mesh. In Edit Mode select all the vertices that belongs to jaw. Go to the Mesh Data header and in the Vertex Groups panel assign (press the Assign button) them with the weight of 1.000 to the head bone.

EDIT: I've weight painted the left side of your model. Unfortunatelly it wasn't symmetrical, so I couldn't mirror the weights to the right side of the rig. You'll have to do it manually.
Here's the .blend:


How to Make Earth in Blender tutorial - How to implement the cloud shader properly? Im following blender gurus How to Make Earth in Blender (Cycles) tutorial, and around the 16 minute mark, when he adds the clouds, mine still end up being opaque. I have followed his exact node setup, but i still dont know where the problem is. I am new to blender, this is my first time making something on this scale

try to switch the input nodes of the "mix shader":
- transparent shader should be the 2nd dot, while the diffuse one should be the 3rd input node (alpha channel is ok to be at 1st connection)


Sheep it renderfarm for 32 bit? I want to install the sheep it render farm client, but I have a 32 bit windows. So, is there a 32 bit client for sheep it? If not, can an emulator be used at least?  want to download the client, render projects and earn rankings. I also cannot use java as I use Chrome , which stopped supporting java.

You can use their .jar file https://www.sheepit-renderfarm.com/media/applet/client-latest.php and use your local java, it will work on 32bits.
The .exe is simply a java virtual machine and this file put together.


Why is my Mindtex-generated normalmap rendering weirdly in Cycles? Sample .blend here.
Sorry, I imagine this is a fairly straightforward / dumb problem. I built a test normal map in MindTex from a greyscale pixel art height map. Testing the resultant map in Blender Cycles gives me some weird rendering issues, where identical (as far as I can tell) point lights at different sides of the column appear to render very different casts of light and shadow on individual faces.

The UV appears to be correct, the normalmap should be fine (it's a very simple map and MindTex has proven to be a useful tool in the past). If I disconnect the map in the material nodes, the problem fixes itself.

...What on earth is going on?

Appreciate any time you can give this. Looking forward to a solution...!

--Rev

Use a normal map node between your image texture node and your normal input. As you already have, the image texture should be set to Non Color Data.

From the manual:

  The Normal Map node generates a perturbed normal from an RGB normal map image. This is usually chained with an Image Texture node in the color input, to specify the normal map image. For tangent space normal maps, the UV coordinates for the image must match, and the image texture should be set to Non-Color mode to give correct results.


Is there an easier way to remove single vertices in mesh than delete and reconnect? When stiching two meshes together sometimes the number of vertices don't match.

I could delete the red vertices and reconnect the remaining with Make Edge F.

Is there a more efficient way to do this, like adding a vertex using Subdivide W?

You can dissolve a vertex with X > Dissolve Vertices or you could also get rid of it by merging it to the next closest one by selecting it, selecting the other choosing a merge option (AltM).


Making a hexagon from four sided face I am trying to model this:

The part that is giving me trouble is the small bolt shaped safety valve on the bottom section.

It's a hexagon so I could model it alone by using a six sided cylinder mesh.
But I have no idea how to implement this with my existing mesh, which is below:

In your case it really doesn't seem to be necessary to model this all joined together into one continuous mesh, but if you really want to try erasing two faces instead of just one, it will make topology a lot easier.

Erase two faces from the side of your conical surface, then use the Bridge Edgeloops operator to join the two resulting 6 edge loops.


Animation in blender How to animate like the animation in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_1Hzl9o5ic) at t = 58 onward. Any suggestion or any guide.

Animation is a very vast subject and requires a lot of practice , patience and know how of blender simulator, giving a full answer here is not possible, however a very loose guidance is given below.

the grains on the ground, rock like structures and DNA spore look a like are straight forward modelling.

to create a moving ground/belly , you need to follow the http://blendtuts.com/tutorials-list/afterearthmap tutorial

for DNA spores to move towards rocks and go back, use boids (Basically allows you to simulate horde/flocks etc and can be moved back and forth between targets).
Basics explained in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJT9zRi56w0


How to position a vertex by inputting numbers and make other vertices move relative to it I have a simple cube with 8 vertices. I would like to move one of the vertices (let's call it the "designated vertex") to a specific position on one of the global axes (by entering a number) and have the other 7 move relative to it without distorting the shape of the cube.

I would prefer it if I could choose which vertices should move relative to the "designated vertex" instead of the whole object (I don't know how to do either).

Thank you.

It's more comfortable to use Object mode with its snapping tools in order to move object only on one global axis. However editing certain vertex is done in Edit mode.

A way to workaround (see below as to why) is to use Hook modifier. It will allow you move object which vertex is hooked to in Object mode while all other vertices will follow it after you set up the modifier.

Enter Edit mode, press Ctrl+H, in the opening menu choose Hook to New Object (it's more convenient to use created new empty for that).

While still in Edit mode, choose vertices you want to be moved with the "designated" one and click Assign in the Hook modifier settings.

Now the "designated" vertex will be in the same place as empty and follow it, and all other vertices will follow the empty.

However you still need to choose proper axis to move along (G > X > ... etc) or use snapping to cursor which is moving along all axes. Here's why this is a workaround  - you can move 3D cursor anywhere, switch Pivot Point to 3D Cursor, select hook-empty and scale it to 0 along desired axis.

Hooked object will turn into ugly flat rug, but it's easily fixable - just reset scale of the empty with Alt+S.


VSE tracks get shifted Some of my tracks don't show the video they should: I edited one track how I wanted, and some time later I found the whole video sequence had a starting offset that came from nowhere and ruined my editing. Since re-building proxies, deleting caches and restarting Blender didn't help, I fixed it by shifting the strip backwards with S.

Now I the audio is out of sync for no reason. But when I render it, audio and video are in sync again, but the video is shifted again. I really don't know why preview and render differ and why my tracks get shifted. It's incredibly annoying.

Edit

Just to try out, it imported the track as Clip into Blender (normally, I import them as movies directly into VSE) and copied the edits from the track. So I have two tracks with same position and clip showing the same video, but one added as Movie and the other as Clip. Of course, they are not in sync but one has several seconds in advance on the other. Contrarily to my expectations, the new track is not in sync with the audio either. Now I'm heavily confused.

Two steps you haven't mentioned: every time you do anything that moves the frames you have to click "Refresh Sequencer" to be sure it is showing the correct frame. Also, if it loses sync while it is playing, change the Sync Mode from No Sync to AV-sync. It still isn't perfect, but it helps.


Accessing individual particle color For a long time I've been trying to change particle colors depending on where the individual particle is located.

My latest unsuccesfull attempt was using Animation Nodes, but I fear it is not, (yet), possible in Blender?

My intention is to illustrate the transfer of heat to dust suspended in gas as it passes through a complex system.

Any comments on this question?

Kind regards

Ryosei

You can do this within a Cycles shader using the particle info node. One of it's outputs is "location", which is the world space location of the particle than an object is being cloned onto. By splitting this vector with the a Separate XYZ node, you can control a color ramp based on a particular axis:

In this example, I've used the Z-component of Particle Info > Location, modified with with math nodes, and fed it through a color ramp to colorize the spheres based on their height.


When should i use GPU if im rendering on cycles? Here is my setup:

OS: Windows 8.1 x64
CPU: Intel Core i7-4702MQ @2.2 GHz
GPU: Nvidia GTX 750M

Almost 100% of my renders have been done on CPU because every time I try to render on GPU (knowing I'm using auto tile size) I always get a significantly slower render time. I've seen a lot of people recommending GPU for renders as it can take up a chunk of the time required to render. My question is: when is it recommended to use a GPU to render and when is it better to stick to CPU render?

Depends which device has better compute performance. Usually that's GPU in desktops and CPU in non-gaming laptops.

Also you can be baking simulations on CPU and render at the same time using GPU.

Latest 2.79 Blender builds offer rendering on both CPU and GPU at the same time.


Rendered Texture looks messed up I could not figure this one out by myself so far, and would appreciate some assistance from you guys.

After setting up the base color / albedo and the normal map for my object, it looks fine in 3D view, but as soon as I switch into a rendered view or perform a render, the texture looks messed up.

Here is the 3D view:

and here the rendered view:

The .blend file if it helps:
http://www.filedropper.com/coucholdnew1

Thank you in advance guys!

-Aldin

Changing the color space of your normal map texture to "Non-Color" should fix your problem

Normal maps are not color, they are values. Using the non-color space makes blender use the values stored, not the corresponding color.
More about color spaces in Blender.


Vscode debugger ignores breakpoints in imported modules I am not a programmer. I am trying to create an addon using VScode and jacqueslucke.blender-development addon. I configured the system according to directions shown here: https://polynook.com/tutorial/set-up-blender-addon-development-environment-in-windows/
My addon for blender 2.92 works but...
The debugger stops on breakpoints in _init.py but ignores breakpoints in imported modules.
I tried setting "justMyCode": false" in launch.json, changing python to blender and back.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

It was my fault.
The wrong module path in import function "pakage.module" instead of ".package.module" (the dot at the beginning) was the reason.
I didn't know that addon is copied into the blender scripts folder and then debugged.
My disorientation was caused by fact that the addon was fully functional with those mistakes.
I am still learning. Thanks, everyone.


How can I set "Dimensions" on multiple objects? (Alt+Enter doesn't seem to work) I'm new to blender. I'd like to be able to set Dimensions(from the N menu) on all the selected objects. Alt+Enter works for translate and scale, but not the dimensions.

Is there any way to make it work?

You could change multiple objects dimension if you select all of them go to edit mode (Tab) and hit S


Can I import multiple .wrl files into Blender at once? I exported a model from Solidworks into .wrl files - each piece being it's own .wrl. I can import them into Blender just fine, but there's hundreds of .wrl files. It'd be a terrible waste of time importing them one by one.

Is there a way I can do a batch import of .wrl files into Blender?

Script is probably going to be your best bet? This should be safe to tinker with in the scripting screen. Paste, edit dir and run script to check output in the terminal, then uncomment (remove the #) to run and import the files.

import bpy
import os

dir = 'C:\Temp'

for file in os.listdir(os.path.normpath(dir)):
    if file.endswith('.wrl'):
        path = os.path.normpath(os.path.join(dir,file))
        print(path)
        #bpy.ops.import_scene.x3d(filepath=path, axis_forward='Z', axis_up='Y')


How to make characters interact How am I suppose to animate multiple characters in a single scene interacting with one another? I want to have four characters talking to each other and touching each other with cloth simulation already applied to all.

This is no different than any other type of animation, you need to plan the animation make a storyboard and animate the characters using animation tools. That includes changing properties of your character's rig control objects and keying them at different times, may include various simulations as well. This is an extremely wide question. Answering it fully could possibly require a few books of text.

My advice would be to start with planing the animation itself and making a storyboard and possibly an animatic(a video with drawings from the story boards that tests the timing and rythm before you start animating - like this). You will need to make sure your characters are rigged well, or rig them yourself. Rigging is another wide topic that cannot be explained in a few words and you would need to research that on your own. It needs to be done well and cannot be skipped. For the animation itself my advice would be to use as much reference as possible. Film your friends if needed and try to copy timing and movement - do not attempt to come up timing using your imagination - that would be a mistake and you would most certainly fail without reference. Always use reference or base your decisions on observation. As far as tools in Blender go, it would not be logical to expect a description of everything that is needed in an answer here. You need to learn it and that requires a lot of research, time and effort so it is good to be prepared for that. Learning to animate well will take many years, however I believe you can learn the basics in a few hundred hours of hard work. YouTube is a good resource. You can start by watching tutorials on animating in Blender there.


Generating a spline from centers of multiple mesh As you can see in the image below:

I need to find an approximating spline (with least deviation of centers from the spline).

Next I want to get perpendicular normal to the spline passing through each center.

Any help could be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Not sure about the normals part, but you can easily create a bezier curve running through selected object centers with the builtin Btrace addon.

Under User Preferences > Addons activate the BTrace addon.

In the 3D View ToolShelf > Create > Btrace choose Object Connect.

Select the desired objects and press the Run button at the bottom of the panel.

If you desire a smooth curve, you can then enter Edit Mode on the created bezier and change handle type to Smooth by selecting all vertex pressing V > Automatic.

Not sure how you want your normals represented, curves have a builtin Offset property from the Properties Editor > Object Data > Offset which allow you to add an offset to the original curve, but you can't easily access the resulting points coordinates.

You may optionally extrude the curve slightly and convert to mesh, then access face normals.


Car python script stopped working when I edited part of the moldel I recently used a car python script and tweaked it to work, but as soon as I edited the front part of the car, it stopped working. there is a working car in the blend file attached.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8TTcNitjst6dVV1LWllU1drZmM/view?usp=sharing

Nvm I figured out the problem. I checked the other car and realized I didn't connect a logic circuit to the visibility blocks of the wheels.


bind camera to marker via python I'm developing a script that exports and imports timeline markers with binded cameras. Printing marker info and exporting are working fine. The problem is the last step of the import script.

This is the XML I'm trying to import:

<?xml version="1.0"?><root>
<timeline_marker name="F_00" frame="0" camera="Camera.003" frame_time="-0.04"></timeline_marker>
<timeline_marker name="F_335" frame="335" camera="Camera.005" frame_time="13.92"></timeline_marker>
<timeline_marker name="F_616" frame="616" camera="Camera.003" frame_time="25.62"></timeline_marker>
<timeline_marker name="F_1214" frame="1214" camera="Camera.001" frame_time="50.54"></timeline_marker>

The goal is to recreate the markers, the marker's name and binding the marker to the respective camera.

I got everything to work except the binding of the camera. Blender insists of using only the last camera. Here's the code I'm using:

for c in range(len(markers)):
    for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
        if area.type == 'TIMELINE':
           bpy.ops.object.select_pattern(pattern=markers[c].attributes['camera'].value)
           override = bpy.context.copy()
           override['area'] = area
           bpy.context.scene.frame_set(int(markers[c].attributes['frame'].value))
           bpy.ops.marker.add(override)
           bpy.ops.marker.rename(override,name=markers[c].attributes['name'].value)
           bpy.ops.marker.camera_bind(override)
           bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')

Cameras are being selected and deselected, but the binding is done only to the last one, for some reason.

My only clue right now is that the select operation is slower than the script and when the first select operation is performed it just catches the last camera. But if that is true, what is the code i should be using to select the camera?

Thanks!

You can do this quite simply without the bpy.ops.  For testing I made a py dict from some of your xml data.

import bpy
context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene
markers = {
            "F_00": {"frame":0, "camera":"Camera.003", "frame_time":0.04},
            "F_335": {"frame":335, "camera":"Camera.005", "frame_time":13.92},
           }
for name, m_data in markers.items():
    # add a marker
    marker = scene.timeline_markers.new(name, frame=m_data["frame"])
    marker.camera = scene.objects.get(m_data["camera"])


Rounded bevel for selected vertices in a plane I am trying to create a rounded bevel for two of the four vertices in this arrow shape:

I selected the left-most vertex, pressed ctrl-shift-b and created the bevel as seen in the picture.  However, the bevel is a straight line whereas I would like it to have a rounded appearance.  Suggestions?

Option 1: Setting with Scroll wheel

If you use the scroll wheel while in bevel mode the bevel uses more edges, giving the corner a more rounded look.

Option 2: Using the advanced tool menu popup:

There is also another way (which doesn't need a scroll wheel) to set more advanced settings for the bevel function (actually works for any tool and add primitive actions).

After you did the tool action (in your case bevel) a small popup is seen in the left corner of the 3d-view screen (in Blender 2.80) which you can click to expand it. There you can modify the action you just did.

PS: In Blender 2.79b this advanced tool menu was located in the tools tab

Option 3: Use the +/- keys

As quoted from the comment from @lemon you can also

  "use + or - from the keypad." - lemon

to increase the segments of the bevel tool.

Happy Blending! :)


Making a model to scale I just can't understand how to make this model a perfect real world scale. I can't figure out how Blender units work.

This is how the model opens when I imported to blender and that is how the scale is set.

I want the model to measure just 9 and 9.7 cm, how can I set the actual measurements to these?

Yeah I have never figured this properly myself :D

Changing cm to mm or m does not rescale your model it just change the way it shows the length 1 cm will be just 10mm or 0,01m it does not scale. You need to use unit scale and move that 1 to 0.100 or 10.00 depending on what you want actual size to be. The bummer is that the newly created objects will be sized to the original scale, so when modeling it can be annoying as new cube will be big as hell or small as dot.

You can always check with the measurement tool.

Or scale the object with S to actually make it bigger or smaller. I use another 3D software to check the measurement after export. I had problems to understand units setup in Blender as well.


How can I use several computers to speed up rendering? Is it possible to set up and use a number of mac minis to speed up rendering, if yes how do I set it up? I am working from a Mac Pro and have 5 additional Mac minis.

You can use Netrender  for that.

It's a bit tricky to set it up and get it working.I managed to get it working at one point, but not lately.

Another option is to open the blend file on each computer and render it with the same settings, BUT with fewer passes and different seeds. You can then manually merge the layers in an image editor.


dark band behind the object I'm a newbie here, so sorry beforehand if this is a very obvious question.

Every time I render a dark band appears behind my object. When I get out of camera mode, I cannot figure out where this dark band is coming from. If I re-position the background planes, I can get to change the dark band geometry. But I have not been able to make it disappear. Using Blender 2.79

Solved. Just for the record, it was a problem of camera clipping. After increasing the camera clipping end, the problem was solved.


How to mirror cut or modification made to basic shape? I am very very new to blender and have seen similar questions but just need an explanation - I have finally succeeded in cutting the edge off a cube using the boolean modifier here -

and I need to know how to make this EXACT same cut on the other side. I have gone over many tutorials and attempted to use the mirror modifier but the best I can come up with is duplicating the object, flipping it and trying to join it to the original. There must be a better way here.

How can I mirror any modifications I make to an object across 1 axis of the object?

Blender wont mirror operations made on a mesh but will mirror the mesh itself, in the state it is when the mirror is applied.

So, most of time, you may anticipate that your shape will be symetrical and define the mirror appropriatly.

By default, mirror is applied along the x-axis (1) and at the center point of your mesh (the yellow dot you can see in object mode marked 2 here).
In this example the mirror position corresponds to the plane defined by X=3, as the mirror is on X and is defined relatively to the object's center at the position (3, -1, 0).

This previous image shows a cube. But in fact, only a half cube is defined in this example :

This half cube is not a plain figure, but some kind of open box as a face is missing (see above) because the final mirrored cube does not need an inner face (at least this is the most common situation but this is not mandatory).

Once the mirror is placed and if you want to use the boolean modifier, some tricky things may happen (boolean modifier is not allways so simple) : or the intersecting object is not itself mirrored or it is :

If it is not, all is fine, and you obtain this kind of result when you apply the boolean modifier :

But if it is the two shape will be intricated, and that's probably not what you want :

So to avoid that, an easier way is to work on a half of the model (not mirrored) and add the mirror modifier once finished with the boolean.

In my opinion (but the following remark may be considered as subjective), using the boolean modifier is not the simpliest way to start using Blender, even if it seems "simple" at first sight (it may also have some other unwanted consequences).
So for a begining, I'd suggest to keep using the mirror modifier (if you need it) but go in edit mode to model your shape manually.


How to "impose" texture while sculpting? I want to sculpt like here, 5:16:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs5nBoIxnOg&t=316 The Rock Essentials
And also question - can I use this method also in texturing, not only in sculpting?

To sculpt with a texture, go into sculpt mode, select the draw brush, and add a texture by clicking the New button as shown below:

Then go into the texture panel, and select an image for your texture with the open button:

Then, to be able to draw the texture in place while controlling the size as in the video, you need to set the stroke mode to Anchored in the brush settings:

Now just ensure your mesh has enough geometry (or use dyntopo with a high level of detail), and you can sculpt a texture onto your mesh.


How do I render out a single mono audio track? I have a single audio strip (its occupying a single channel of the 32 in the VSE)  that is mono (a voice recording done in audacity as a mono track). I imported it into blender. I want to render it out with a single video strip.....every-time I do it goes stereo.

All I see is the ability to "split channels" tracks into mono under mixdown options (just audio render).

Why do I have to split channels and lose data if its a mono track? Is blender just automatically duplicating the mono track 2x and making it a stereo? So I'm fine if I choose split channels as it'll just render the one mono track as I wanted? I don't wanna lose data is all I'm saying. If it was a stereo and I did this, I'd lose half the data technically unless I recombined the 2 mono tracks later right?

If you go to Scene Properies you can change the audio format https://developer.blender.org/F351924.

  Is blender just automatically duplicating the mono track 2x and making it a stereo?

Joerg Mueller answers this: https://developer.blender.org/T54418#492826


Automatic welding in blender I'm a newbie here trying to rig a character that was made with a3d scanner-
the rigging went relatively well but it seems that once I test my character using the rig it breaks in certain places, looks like there are cracks in the model, I saw that different 3d editing apps have automatic tools to find and fix these by welding edges, is there a way to do this the automatically in blender?

thanks !

There's a separate procedure that needs to be done after rigging the model known as 'Weight Painting'.

More info here:
https://youtu.be/vMGTQFOgV_0
https://youtu.be/mhQY2_gVoVg


Why is there no color in my lava material? I followed a tutorial and it looked great there but mine has no color and also has no displacement either. tutorial i followed here: https://youtu.be/B4XDBG4m3d0

You need to enable Displacement Only or Displacement and Bump in the settings for this material.

Also your AO node is currently connected to the Material Output.


Artifacts in render (EEVEE) I rendered this image in Blender 2.81 Alpha.

The helmet has a simple glossy shader with roughness set to 0.265. I'm rendering this in Eevee. The blue is coming from a spotlight in the back. What is causing the lines to appear in the glossy reflection and how can I remove it?

Things I have Tried

Cranking up the sampling numbers
Remeshing
Subdividing
Applying all modifiers I have in modifier stack

I would love to provide more details if you need it.

Increase minimum clip distance on camera. That should solve the problem. Explanation here:
https://devtalk.blender.org/t/why-eevee-with-zoom-up-cause-broken-mesh-for-layered-parts-solved/4098


Triangles to Quads Problem In the First-image, I fill the hole, then by default its looks triangulated

In the second image, now I want to make this into quads. So I have to do Tries to quad via Alt J lets me do this.

In the last image it did not work completely, some tries are still tries. I tried to increase or decrease the angle property. But No solution found.

Circles and Quads are always a strange mix.

You can use Grid Fill to get quads.

Go to CtrlF or Mesh->Faces->Grid Fill on the menu.
Or just press the space bar and type Grid Fill.

Pressing F6 will bring out the different options for the tool (or you can set them on the Grid Fill tab that appears on the Left Side of the screen by pressing T)

Other option to deal with edges on a cylinder is  to select the edge, extrude (E) and scale to bring the edges in, then extrude again and press Esc without moving the mouse. Then just merge the edges at the center AltM into a pole. This oPtion will give you some triangles, but in a manageable topology.

Other way to deal with the issue is selecting the edge and using Fill F. That will create a N-gon.

Then you can use inset (I). To fill the center you can choose then between an N-gon (Using fill again) or triangles with a common pole.


Connecting two planes together successfully My question is how do I connect two vertices together to make two planes one object? I used tiny cad to do the intersections but they didn't really connect

After removing doubles (select all > W > Remove Doubles) and recalculating normals (select all > Ctrl+N) only this part of geometry is displayed as non-manifold:

When inspecting one of those sides it becomes clear that vertices of thin part of mesh aren't connected to thick part:

You should connect those vertices to edge located between thick and thin parts.

Select top and bottom vertices of that edge. Subdivide them with W > Subdivide, in Last Operator panel (F6) choose 2 subdiviosions.

Select top subdivided vertex, select top original vertex and press Alt+M > At Last to merge them.

Repeat that for 3 other vertices (to do that faster you can use Repeat Last operator. Once you merged first pair of vertices select next pair appropriately and press Shift+R. It will repeat last action).

Optionally: you could edit topology a bit to avoid Ngons on thick part of this mesh. However this shouldn't be important if you aren't going to add Subsurf on the model.


How to find python source code for an operator preset I'm new to python and Blender and sometimes I find strange things. My problem is I'm trying to understand an operator behavior but something's missing.
I'm in this situation:

I select a mesh outside edges then I call a grid fill operator. Then the operator runs and I'm presented with the filled mesh and the parameter window where I can change values.

I'd like to know how that value, precisely "12", is set. From tests I did, it looks like it's something related to the number of selected edges, and changes every time geometry is changed. To correctly use the operator, I need to know how it's set, hence my question: how can I find that operator preset source code?
Mind, I'm not asking about this:

I already know that. I'm asking where is the source code which sets the "12" value. Thank you.

following advice by brockmann, here is the code (from editmesh_tools.c in source/blender/editors/mesh)

const int clamp = em->bm->totvertsel;
int span;
int offset;

if (RNA_property_is_set(op->ptr, prop_span)) {
    span = RNA_property_int_get(op->ptr, prop_span);
    span = min_ii(span, (clamp / 2) - 1);
    calc_span = false;
}
else {
    span = clamp / 4;
    calc_span = true;
}

so it appears span is the number total vertex divided by 4. The value is then modified by another utility which extract two loops from a single one dividing geometry by angle.
Everything is done for you if you call bpy.ops.mesh.fill_grid() from a script.


Trouble importing a directx file into blender I am using blender 2.6 and want to import a x. file using the io_directx_bel - addon. I have placed the script in the addons folder of blender.
However upon trying to import a .x file I get the following error:

I hope you can help me out to resolve the error.

Thanks

Quite simply, the bmesh module is not available in 2.60

The issue of the error is the missing bmesh module.  Link to 2.60 API confirms that it didn't exist back then

https://docs.blender.org/api/2.60/#standalone-modules

it begins to appear circa 2.63

https://docs.blender.org/api/2.63/#standalone-modules

Look to see the version number recommended for the addon.

This one requires at least 2.63

https://github.com/limemidolin/directX_blender/blob/master/io_directx_bel/init.py#L7

And >= 2.66 for

https://github.com/poikilos/io_import_x/blob/master/init.py#L9


Rendered Shadow is not sharp I am texturing leaves on planes and while rendering , it is generating blurry  shadows of the leave object. The same problem occurs with the other objects also.

Any recommended render settings for a sharper shadow?

Your light source is too big. I can't see what you are using, but if you are looking for unrealistic hard shadows (usually caused by artificial lighting), you need to get a smaller light source. If you are using an area lamp, get the size of it down and turn the strength up. You could also use a point lamp instead. A plane using an emission shader? Make it bigger. If you are looking for natural lighting, this is pretty accurate. Some more rendering samples will reveal the true shape of the shadow.


Why my object has coloured shadow Hi. I just started Blender two days ago. And I'm doing tutorials of Blender Guru.

My question is that why my object has coloured shadow?
Can you tell me why and how to make it black shadow?

Thank you.

It is so fun.

Go to Material Properties > Surface > Subsurface and change value to zero.

Subsurface Scattering (SSS) is used for materials like a skin, milk, etc ... where part of light rays go through a surface and scatters in volume.


How to transform a plane into a honeycomb? I would like to make all the convex plane shown by the red  arrow as a honeycomb surface.

I tried to use the add-on Honeycomb after having the addon Extra Objects enabled ( File > User Preferences > Addons, in the Add Mesh category).

In the Add Object menu > Mesh > Extra Objects > MiscObjects > add a Honeycomb. But i don't know how I can stick it on the surface I want to transform.

Or maybe there is another method?

The best result (in my experience anyway) is achieved with the Tissue addon's tesselate function. The mesh isn't perfect and you need to remove doubles, but it's still much nicer and easier to use than a shrinkwrap based workflow.

What you need is a basic mesh tile that will repeat nicely, like this one:

And hopefully a fairly evenly spaced and uniform mesh, comprised of pretty much equally sized quad faces (you can generate such a mesh with the Remesh modifier).

I would suggest separating the piece you want to convert into a hex grid from the rest of the mesh, tesselate, remove doubles, then re-join with the original.

To generate the tesselation:

Select your hex tile.
Then select your target object (the one you want to generate a hex grid from).
Go to the Tissue tab in the tools panel.
Click on the "Tesselate" button.


Subdivision surface modifier, faces not connecting I have added some holes in my model using *Boolean` modifier (it is applied) and I have some problems with the Sub Surface modifier., it seems like the faces are not connecting.
I have made sure there are no overlapping vertices and every face has 4 vertices.
(I am still pretty new to Blender)
Before the Sub Surface modifier.

This is after.

It makes these rounded edges on the faces in the corners.

As moonboots suggested, the Edge Split modifier is the culprit here. It literally turns every edge into 2 edges creating disconnected faces which messes with subsurf.
Edge Split Modifier Doco
You can test this by turning "Sharp Edges" off and reducing the "Edge Angle" value down to 0. You will notice that every face becomes rounded as though every face is disconnected. (Cool effect though!)

For what you are trying to achieve, using Crease is a much better option.
Delete the Edge Split modifier, select the edges you wish the subsurf modifier not to effect and hit Shift-E to add a crease to those edges. It is a bit of an art knowing which edges to apply Crease to but you will learn it as you go. The crease value can also be found in the N-Panel under "Item"


Use graph editor for simulate neons flickering, curves don't match perfectly and negatives values of light absorbe light from the ambient I have an animation where I use the graph editor for animate the flickering effect of neon litghts inside a garage.
I used cylinders with emission shader for the neons tubes and area light for lighting the scene.
I did that because if I use only emission shader with high emission value I get to much noise, so I can use only area lights but if this are inside the glass of the lamps I get less noise but still too much, If I use only area lights positioned outside of the glass I get almost no noise but it looks not realistic because I don't have the detail of neon lights inside the glass. I'm rendering with low samples and branched path tracing, where the all neons are switched on I can get really good results (almost not noise and good details) with really low time rendering.
For the flickering effect I used graph editor with noise modifier on both (emission shader objects and area lights), by adding this I have two main problem:
1- Even if all the modifier settings values are the same, except for the strenght of light areas and the emission shaders value that have different values (for get less noise from the emission shader I setted it to just 10, for lighting well the scene I setted 40W the strenght value of area lights), at some frames I get the area light already switched on and the neon cylinders still switched off.
I played with the offset value of the noise modifier but if I fix one frame I broke another one.

2- Using noise modifier on the curves in some frames it reach negative value and this seems literaly absorbing lights from the ambient (I'm using Cycles), if I compared rendered frames where the light is exactly 0 the scene look dark but still lighted, on frames where it reach negatives values I get a completly dark patch.
I tried to change the blend type from "replace" to "add" and this don't let curves to reach negatives value but I get a completly different effect, they not seems like neons flickering but like soft lamps, in less words the interpoletions seems too softer.

You can add a Limits modifier to clamp the output to any range you want.
The limits modifier can be added from the N panel in the graph editor.


Posing Hair in Animation I was thinking about making a hairball character. The character is simply a sphere with a hair particle system. In addition to it's base hair, it'd have a couple longer tighter hairs to act as arms.

I'd want the "arms" to act as regular hair (i.e. hair dynamics) but have the ability to be posed when it's time to reach out and grab something in its environment.

Does Blender have the tools needed for such an organic rig?

You can use curves as hair guides. Set their maximum influence to create a small "sphere" around their base which influences the hair system, which will allow short hairs, and under the curve's influence only, long hairs.

Than you can use shape keys to animate the curve. I'm not sure if you can use an armature but that may also be an option through some other round about method.

Here is a step by step, sorry there is no screen shots.

select an object and create a particle system. Select "Hair" as
the type. You will see some strands.
create a bezier curve (shift+a -> curve -> bezier curve)
this is the step that may have been unclear sorry. Select the
curve, and go to the Physics tab, and click "Force Field". In the
properties below, under "Type" change from "Force" to "Curve Guide".
There will be 2 circles, a dotted and solid at each point. The solid
sphere is the root of the guide.
Check the "Use Max" checkbox. This will change the root to a dashed
sphere. Set the maximum distance as desired. It will change the size
of that sphere, and any hairs inside of it, will be influenced by
the hair guide.

Now changing the hair system in particle settings will affect the normal parts, and the hair guide fill affect some specific parts.


Experimental sub surface modifier making the mesh look layered, seemingly not due to ngons? I'm new to this 3D animating so I need a bit of help when there's troubleshooting in the air! I have an issue when I apply experimental subsurface modifier, where the mesh seems to be doubled or scaled inside out if that makes sense. I did some troubleshooting myself, and my own thoughts were that it could be flipped normals. Although there were 1 or 2 flipped normals, fixing this didn't solve the actual problem. Then I looked for ngons, which I know is the case for some of the mesh, but for the rest of it I'm not sure what causes the weird effect.

picture #1: Picture of the entire model in rendered view, the black areas are not intended either, some of this could be ngons as I haven't fixed them yet

picture #2: this is a cube inside the full model, it's literally just a cube where I moved the vertices and used the mirror modifier on the y-axis

picture #3: Same as 2nd picture but this is with x-ray on

Right I've forced myself to sit down and fix the ngons now and there are way more than I originally thought. The mesh looking strange on the 2 last pictures actually doesn't appear when I move from rendered edit mode to rendered object mode. I apologize if I have wasted anyone's time!


Where are the instructions for installing the 2.71 Release Candidate? I've downloaded the Zip file for Windows 64Bit and unpacked it and now have a folder with 226Mb of files that includes a Blender.exe.
I however, couldn't find any installation instructions either in the readme or the created folder structure.
I'm trying to set up 2.71 for production testing.  How do I do that or where do I find instructions on how to do that?
Thanks
John

In that folder you unzipped, just double click on the blender.exe file.  There is no need to "install" blender like you are thinking. Blender runs straight from the unzipped folder.


How create a cube with a rippled surface I'd like to create a cube with one side rippled in the form of a sine wave.
Here's what I've done so far:

I wrote a Python function to create a sine wave curve
I extruded the curve to form a 2d sine wave
I boolean joined the 2d sine wave to a 3d cube

This results in a 2D sine wave on top of a 3d cube - picture attached.
Instead, I'd like to have a solid 3d object with one side being a wave. Ideally, I'd like to have an object with no internal faces, as I am exporting this into another program that does not deal well with internal faces.

You can just extrude your sine surface second time, and then

scale it to 0 in extrude direction S,X(Y or Z), 0

In my gif I also recalculate normals at the end.


Blender Game Engine: Added objects from actuater are invisible. I was adding an object with multiple child objects from a different layer. It was working fine in testing, but then I tested it again after making changes and all the objects appeared invisible. This is the same for any added object whether it has child objects or not. I have been unable to get the added objects visible again. Does anyone know why this is happening?

I figured out the problem, somehow every object wanted to add had "Invisible" turned on. I never did this, and I don't know how it was done either.


how to bring up the menu at the bottom left hello everyone I have a little problem, how do I bring up the menu in the circle? when I select another object the menu becomes non-existent

The Adjust Last Operation panel can be re-opened by pressing F9 or by using the menu Edit > Adjust Last Operation.


Adding edge loops based on selected edges I am trying to create edge loops based on a selection. The best way to explain is through the video I am following for learning topology.

https://youtu.be/CpSAG85Rsk0?t=1461
(It is linked at the relevant time in the video)

This shows how it is done in 3DS MAX, which is what I normally use, but I'm trying to learn blender. How can this be done in blender?

Also how can one create two edge loops, and slide them apart, like the pinch function in 3ds max which is also shown in the video, he places them a bit further apart.

EDIT: Here is a gif of what I want to do. After I subdivide, I want to be able to slide the edges apart from each other (like I am doing) but where they follow the mesh' topology.

You might not like this answer, because I am using face selection instead of Edge Selection, but I do believe that the end result is what you are after, so I'm adding this to your realm of possibilities into achieving your desired end result.

In face select mode, I achieved this by holding Alt and right clicking the bottom edge of the face loop, then for successive loop selections adding the Shift key to add more loops.

Next I used the I key to do a face inset, and then I just moved my mouse in and out until I had the desired result, however, you can enter a numeric value instead for the amount of inset.


How can I close the gap in the mouth? I'm following the blenderella tutorial and I'm at the point where she closes the gap. But I'm copying the tutorial but somehow the mouth gap is still open. How can I close it?

While in edit mode, press  Ctrl  +  Tab  and select Edge. Then press  Alt +RMB to select the edge loop in question. Finally, press  F  to create a new face.

Alternatively, you may be able to select the upper and lower edges, bring them closer together until they're nearly touching and press  W  then remove doubles, and adjust your merge distance in the operator panel until you are satisfied with the results.

You may also want to use proportional editing for this kind of task. Press O to enable it, then use the scroll wheel to adjust the strength during a transform operation.


How can I render a sequence created in the video sequence editor? I loaded 320 PNG files as an image sequence in the Video Sequence Editor and then applied a speed control effect strip to extend the sequence length to 960 frames (it's stop motion intended to be played at 10fps, but my final movie is going to be 30 fps).

Now I'm scratching my head - How can I now use this slowed down movie as input for another step? Ideally, I can just hook it into the composer (but I couldn't find how). Alternatively, I don't mind rendering the sequence to a movie or image sequence, but I couldn't find how to.

In Overview of the Sequence Editor it just says "When you click Render or Anim to generate an image or video..." but where do I click?!?

Thanks.

Change your screen layout to be able to see the properties.
2 choices :
-From the layout menu, choose Default

-From the frame menu, choose properties

From there, choose the render tab and you'll get the render and animation buttons.
You'd better check the hilighted parameters in dimensions before rendering. (resolution, frame range, frame rate)

and also output (path/name, file type (images/video/codec...))


Smoke Sim rendering in Viewport but not in final render (2.8, Cycles) Im trying to render a scene which contains a smoke simulation. It renders in the viewport but not in the final render (both in Cycles):

Things I've checked:

Rendering is enabled in the outliner
Smoke has volumetric material
Gone through render settings (none indicate any function that would prevent the render)

To preview the final render I've set the samples to 16, but that wouldn't cause this, would it?
The trees and grass are invisible in the viewport for performance reasons.

save Project(if you don’t save the project the bake will not work)
select "Smoke Domain"
select "Physics menu"
select "Cache"
click on the Bake


Animation advice please (sliding pipes with handles) Hi this is my first post.  I've been learning Blender 2.8 for about a month with the aim of creating some simple, stylized animations for a medical device.
The device (see picture) consists of two nested barrels, one partially inside the other.  Flexible handles connect them and, when pushed together (red arrows) cause the inner barrel to slide out of the outer barrel (blue arrows).  When the handles are released, the barrels resume their initial position.
I've been exploring ways to animate this motion but with no success so far.  I'm not even sure if I should be using IK, or bendy bones or whatever.
Could someone point me in the right direction please?
Many thanks,
Andrew

Shapekeys

Would consider using shapekeys for the handles.   With two shapekeys fully flexed and fully straight.

For example sake have made the rest of the mesh into shapekeys, however could use hooks or constraints to move cylinders, but what matters here is getting the handle flex.

To open close handle is now only a matter of adjusting flex shape value.

Model a curve in the shape of full flex out.  I've used a simple 2 point bezier here
For example sake add the default cube, adjust the dimensions to
better suit.
To this add an array modifier, set to fit the  curve, and then a
curve modifier using same.  May need to tweak the curve scale, and / or cube scale, slightly to make sure it's a nice fit, ie how the last one fits the curve

We now have the flexed strap.

Apply the array modifier, to make it one mesh instead of an array of
items, and then apply the curve modifier as a shapekey  You will
notice the base shapekey is a flat line made up of how many of our
unit items fit the curve.
In edit mode moved the strap up, then adding a mirror modifier on y (top view in examples)
axis will give two handles.
In edit mode with Basis shape key selected, Add the two cylinders,
and adjust there position to match there attached ends. Change to
bent shapekey and do same.

Very quickly mashed together result from default cube and cylinders only.

Locating the pins.

Before I consine file to the ether, added this re using flexible bands to locate other objects

To locate pins that go thru the start and end element of strap

Select top and bottom face of where the pin goes thru and create and assign a vertex group for each end.

Added a pin object (mirrored in y same as flex). A copy location constraint on the pin to the flex, to the vertex group locates it.  This can be exended for the pistons.


Blender to Unity: Animation is wrong applied getting animations to Unity is usually not a problem at all, but today I tried something new.

I animated this 4-parted horizontal sliding door by creating ONE armature with 4 bones for each part of the door. Then I parented each door-part-object to the correct bone. Everything is working fine.  Once I export this to Unity, I get a couple of clips, which is fine, but none of them contain the animation.

Instead, each clip moves all 4 door-parts at once. enter image description here Does anyone have an idea how to fix this problem? Thank you in advance!

I made a workaround:

Instead of weighting (CTRL + P > Bone) for each door-part-object, I joined them to a single one and applied ( > With Automatic Weights). Than removed the vertices from the vertex groups and asigned them manuelly.
Now the animation worked as expected in Unity


Eyes don't move with Rig So I'm modeling a character but the original model I used didn't have eyes, so I had to import those eyes.

I then joined the eyes with the model. The only problem is, when I pose my character, the eyes don't move with the rest of him. This doesn't make sense as they are joined and I can't individually select the eyes.

I've done something like this before...

What you do is in editing mode, subdivide a bone so that one of its ends is the same as another. The ends that don't have adjacent bones will be used to control the eyes.
Make sure you keep the eye-controlling bones as children to the parent bone, which is linked to what controls the body. You only need the controlling bones to have any weight painted to them.


I can't use the 3d manipulator I can't use the 3d manipulator - whenever I attempt to drag the handles Blender simply repositions the 3D cursor.

In my experience (my laptop has this issue) it's a problem with OpenGL implementation affecting the selection. This causes dragging the manipulator to result in repositioning the 3D cursor instead of manipulating the object.

To resolve this you need to change the Selection option in the System tab of the User Preferences :

In my case, changing from 'Automatic' to 'OpenGL Select' resolves the issue.


How do I get rid of this seam on the bottom of the lip? I've been going mad trying to fix this. I have a seam that wont conform and become more organic with the face. I've tried sculpting it, but it deforms a lot and the seam becomes more noticeable. Any idea on how to fix this? This is the retopologized version of my character. Let me know if there is anything I can do to make this process easier. I'm running blender 2.83.3. Here is a front and interior picture to help (with the seam circled in red).

There are hidden vertices that overlapped during the sculpting phase, resulting in a crevice that was overlooked. Merging the vertices fixed this issue.


How do I limit the movement of an object to two directions? I'm trying to get a 'rigged' mechanical arm to move in 2 certain directions:

Some other objects in my Blend-file are able to go in a certain direction using transform constraints.

But this won't work for the 'thing' I'm trying to achieve now (the blue object should not rotate):

The reason I want it to be locked is because I'm using a rigging menu made out of limited location constraints:

The 'Red line in the middle' doesn't have to be there necessarily. I used it to explain it easier.

If i understand correctly, what you want to do in the picture with the U-shaped path can be achieved with a "Clamp to" constraint. (If you are familiar with drivers, then first see the EDIT below!!!) For this you clamp your Object that has to follow a curve-Object. The follower Object should then only be translatable along that set Path. Of course you could then have some other constraint move that path around if you want ;)

The result should look something like this:

And here an example for using additional constraints on the curve, where the curve copies the z-location of the blue cube:

To do make the red cube go along the full path when the blue cube is moved you can use drivers. By the clamp to constraint the red object moves along the entire path only by manual transform alon the x-axis. So you could add a driver (rightclick-> add driver) to the the x-Location of the red cube and make the "input variable" the z-location of the blue cube. Then the result looks like this:

EDIT:  If you want to move that curve around in all directions, then the "follow path" constraint is much more stable. Just make a driver on the Offset, make the input variable whatever you want and you're done!

Happy Blending!


Tracker dropdown is missing in the Tracking settings (in Movie clip editor) In the tracker settings panel, I can choose options like pattern size and search size, but below the search size, I see: "Tracker:", with no option to choose from. Under that line, I see "Motion model:" with some options to choose.

I'm hoping to get better tracking using "hybrid", but I just can set that option. Any suggestion what happened to it?

Note: using blender 2.68a (2.68.0 r58537) on Win7.

This option was removed in 2.64:

  First, the old option called Tracker was eliminated. The old Hybrid tracker
  was doing exactly the same as the SAD tracker, with the exception that
  it could do more accurate subpixel precision tracking by following the
  brute-force search with a subpixel refinement. The SAD tracker was
  also limited in that it only worked on 8-bit images and is unsuitable
  for 32-bit float images like those used in Mango.

  Secondly, the KLT tracker with its pyramid tracking helped tracking
  blurry footage, but could be quite useless when the background texture
  was moving in the opposite direction of the feature point. In such
  cases the Hybrid tracker was much better than KLT, and for this reason
  the KLT tracker was made obsolete.

In other words, the SAD and KLT options were replaced with a improved hybrid tracker with new options.

From the wiki:

  The new tracker is a unified algorithm with more options, and
  specifically some options to make it work exactly the same as the old
  non-planar Hybrid tracker. The options are:

  Motion Model defines which possible motions tracking feature has. Currently supported models are: Location only, Location+Rotation,
  Location+Scale, Location+Rotation+Scale, Affine and Perspective. This
  option should be set depending on which motion a particular feature
  has and it'll make tracking most accurate for such a motion.
  Perspective is usually used to track a planar feature, but often
  Affine is a good enough approximation and may have more stable tracks.
  Prepass enables a two pass tracking, where the first pass is a brute force tracking of location only, and the second pass will use
  tracking of the full motion model refining the first pass. To get
  behavior that is almost identical to the Hybrid tracker in previous
  Blender versions, enable Prepass and set the motion model to Location
  only.
  Normalize means patterns will be normalized by their average intensity while tracking, to make them invariant to illumination
  changes. An example where this is useful is a scene where a marker
  moves in the shadow of an actress. Previously it would not be possible
  to track such a situation, scale adaption would shrink the area to
  compensate for the change in illumination, losing the track. With
  "Normalize" turned on, the patch is correctly tracked and scale is
  maintained.
  Correlation is now a single value for all tracking settings and defines the minimal correlation between a matched pattern and a
  reference to be considered a successful tracking. If the tracker is
  giving up too easily, decrease this value, or if the tracker is
  slipping too much when it should give up sooner, increase this value.

Note that it is possible to simulate the old Hybrid tracker with the current method:

  To get behavior that is almost identical to the Hybrid tracker in
  previous Blender versions, enable Prepass and set the motion model to
  Location only.

E.g:


Match the size of multiple background images In this tutorial in the first couple of minutes it is explained how to set the dimensions of a cube and match the background images to this mesh. I have tried to get it right but till now I did not succeed. This is what the creator of the tutorial says in the comments:

  I'm keeping only one mesh and just changing the x and y values of my
  background images you can see me add at 3:00. We want all the
  background images to match that one mesh.

Here are my images:

I think front and back images match to the mesh. But for the right, left and top view I only get one dimension matching. I don't see how you can match both dimensions matching without changing the mesh

Your background images are scaled to different sizes. Scale them consitently to 27.6cm.

Then just place them just changing the x and y values of the backround images.


Why is object.origin_set(type='ORIGIN_CURSOR') not working? def execute(self, context):
    stl_path = bpy.path.abspath(bpy.context.scene.stl_path)
    bpy.ops.import_mesh.stl(filepath=stl_path)
    try:
        ob_new = bpy.context.selected_objects[0]
        for f in ob_new.data.polygons:
            f.use_smooth = True
        for b in ob_new.data.polygons:
            bpy.context.space_data.show_textured_solid = True
            bpy.context.object.show_transparent = True
            bpy.context.scene.render.engine = 'CYCLES'
            bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()
            bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='TOGGLE')
            bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode(use_extend=False, use_expand=False, type='FACE')
            bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='TOGGLE')
            bpy.ops.mesh.tris_convert_to_quads()
            bpy.ops.view3d.snap_cursor_to_selected()
            bpy.ops.object.origin_set(type = 'ORIGIN_CURSOR')

Everything is working well, until I use origin_set. Maybe I should go to object mode, after converting mesh to quads.
But when I'm adding bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle() after tris_convert_to_quads Blender is freezing. Without this last command, everything is working, also snapping cursor to selected.

Ok, I changed script.

def execute(self, context):
    stl_path = bpy.path.abspath(bpy.context.scene.stl_path)
    bpy.ops.import_mesh.stl(filepath=stl_path)
    try:
        ob_new = bpy.context.selected_objects[0]
        for f in ob_new.data.polygons:
            f.use_smooth = True
            bpy.context.object.show_transparent = True
            bpy.context.scene.render.engine = 'CYCLES'
            bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()
            bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='TOGGLE')
            bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode(use_extend=False, use_expand=False, type='FACE')
            bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='TOGGLE')
            bpy.ops.mesh.tris_convert_to_quads()
            bpy.ops.mesh.faces_shade_smooth()
            bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
            bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='TOGGLE')

to this line everything is ok, and script is ends in object mode.
but If I add this line
                bpy.ops.object.origin_set(type='ORIGIN_CENTER_OF_MASS')

I have msg in console, that I must be in object mode.
If i add this command
                bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
Blender is switching off.

You are right. To set object origin, you must be in object mode. You can also try using bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT') to change to object mode.


Adding an image to a mirrored object When I'm trying to add an image to my mirrored object I can only do it on the non mirrored side, is it possible to add the image to the whole thing?

You could use a UV Project Modifier, to project a texture on to your mirrored model.

If you are using the UV map (without the Project Modifier) then no there is no way. You will have to apply the mirror modifier.
With a mirror modifier on a model, there is only half the mesh, and thus half the UVs to texture with. So anything that is one the first half, will be mirrored to the other half, including materials and textures.


simulate interaction of fluids with different viscosity Like everybody else in this site I've been new to blender for quite some time...

I'm trying to do an animation to simulate a mix of paint blobs with different colors, like Ebru Painting or Suminagashi marbling, based on mixing colored liquids with different levels of viscosity.

The idea is to have a drop of colored paint displace the surface, so that the colors don't really mix but create variable abstract fluid and organic shapes.

As an example please take 30 seconds to see this video by garip ay from minute 3:00 up to 3:30:

https://youtu.be/4dKy7HNU4vk?t=187

(image from the mentioned video)

I understand how to make more than one fluid domain to create different colors but I can't think of a way to simulate the interaction between them.

Maybe there's a way to do this with dynamic paint... I just haven't used that tool very much.

Since this is a flat image it could also be done with some clever texturing... maybe?

How could I do something like this in blender?

Disclaimer : I'm afraid I've not done much beyond scripting meshes at this point. I did once play with particle emitters and some constraint stuff hence this suggestion but this is a bit of a hack and may cost you more time then save you any.

Based off of the video you could try the following :

Setup a plane or may be even a cube with the top face removed. Using a particle emitter you could fill this cube at various locations to 'add ink' as it were. The tricky thing is then to make the particles emitted in a single addition cling to one another but repulsive to any prior and/or successive addition. That is for a single emission you want those particles to group in some way, perhaps there is some sort of elastic constraint you could apply. Then for separate emissions you basically want each addition to repel one another slightly.

You may have to make all emissions adhere to the bin/plate though, this is most easily by just doing things in the vertical direction.


Reflective floor and glossy material I am working on a dice. That dice is placed on a white reflective floor. The reflective floor has a big impact on the look of the dice:

After removing the reflective floor I got this:

Question:

Is it possible to add the reflective floor again and preserve the plastic look of the dice (so no floor reflections on the dice) ?? I work with cycles.

After reading the answer of Faceb I unchecked Glossy in Ray visibility. The result is in the image below. Now I have a dice with a nice plastic look and a floor reflecting the dice but not changing the look of the dice. But now I have this black line "surrounding" the dice. Now ... how to get rid of that ?

You could try the following:

Select the floor
Go to the Properties panel
From the tabs, go to Object (looks like a cube)
In Ray Visibility, click on Glossy check


Displace modifier with black and white texture has sloping edges I'm trying to displace a plane with a black and white texture for a Doom level map. What I am looking to get is a 90 degrees displacement all around, but the problem is the corners come out distorted even though the texture shows only straight angles. I checked the texture in GIMP and it shows zero grey pixels so that can't be it. I also increased the subdivision to 6 but it doesnt solve the problem either. Any advice on how to get the displacement to be only at 90 degrees?
Texture:

Blender:

Some of the texture settings I am using:

Another close up picture of the issue:

The less plane subdivisions the wider the distortion gets:

Edit:
I tried it in Unity terrain and it seems I am getting the same issue:
As @Lukasz-40sth said, I did the contour manually and extruded the edges and it works although it is time consuming. I wonder if a script could detect the texture edges and create the 'physical' edges.

Displacement needs many subdivisions to work. Still, the results are not gonna be perfect as the map may not overlap with subdiv "grid". Use this map as a reference image instead and extrude the walls.


How to model a folded magazine? The primary part I'm confused about:

The thickness of the magazine with slightly bent pages underneath other pages?

Do I model each page individually?

I would like the edges of the underlying pages to show also.

What is best practice? (going for photo realism, its ok if its high poly)

I would model the profile of the open magazine -

then extrude it to the height of the magazine and add a solidify modifier.

One end can be scaled out to get the variation at the top. Apply the solidify and add a crease to the outer edges, then use an edge split and subsurf modifier to finish it off. Some parts can then be expanded where the pages are separated.

I would then add the "space" between the pages and the page variations to the texture.


Problems with the Pitchi Poy Rig Primary

I am having difficulty parenting an armature to a mesh.

Secondary

I wonder if someone could please help me. I am trying to skin a model with the pitchi poy rig. I first made a simple rig to test the model and it parents and deforms just fine with this test rig. No problem. So, I added the pitchi poy rig, lined up all the bones and then generated the rig. The controller works fine with the green deformation bones. See the picture above, everything deforms fine! However, when I try to parent the rig to the model, nothing happens. I have tried parenting the model with the rig, as shown in both Mark Edwards and the Pitchi Poy videos to no effect. They use a simple armature deform and then, with the bones selected, use weight paint to assign automatic weights from the bones.

I've tried parenting the model to the rig using automatic weights. Nothing. I know how to parent a rig, selecting the model first and then the rig etc etc. It worked OK with this mesh and my test rig, but I cannot see why I cannot get the pitchi poy rig to parent with my model while at the same time, the pitchi poy controllers work just fine with the green deformation bones. I must be missing something real stupid, but I cannot see what, so if anybody knows what I am doing wrong, I would be so grateful if they could let me know before I go completely mad! I really have tried and tried before posting here! By the way, I have also looked on Google etc for an answer, but so far I have failed to find a solution! Thanks!

Make sure that when you create the parent child relationship the bones are within the mesh and the bones are selected last.

Make sure that all bones have their deform check box ... checked active.

In the modifiers pane inspect the armature modifier.  The enable eye icon should be active.  It can be turned off and on.  If is turned off it will have no effect.

You can also delete the armature modifier and parent it again.  Make sure to view the armature and the mesh from 3 angles top, front and side to make sure the alignment is correct.  If you have not done much weight painting do not hesitate to delete the armature modifier and parent again.


How to make a round corner inside? I'm new to blender, and I wanted that the face is smooth and round like the blue line.

Add an edge in the center of where the curve should be with Ctrl + R

Transform this new edge toward the inside of the object (using normal transform orientation is useful here)

Bevel with Ctrl+B with clamp overlap (press C while using bevel) enabled.

See below:


'Nabla' setting for cloud texture What does the 'Nabla' setting for a cloud texture do?

Nothing seems to be changing when i change the value. I'm tweaking a texture and i'm just curious how i can tweak it even better.

The tooltip says: Size of derivative offset used for calculating normal.

In order to calculate a normal, you can decide to take three samples in texture space. Typically that's the current sample location, and two other positions in texture U and V directions. This "nabla" value defines how far away these positions are. You will see how it works best on a high frequency procedural texture.

Typically tiny nabla values give minimal normal changes. Optimal is half the texture frequency (which you have to figure out by guessing unfortunately :).


How to merge two objects at identical face? I have two objects which have each an identical (mirrored) face. Now I'd like to orient the two objects such that those two face match. If I just use the merge tool, the remaining parts of the objects stay exactly where they are, but I don't want the objects themselves to change, I basically just want to "glue" the two objects together at a certain face. Is there an easy way to do so?

In the following I provided an example file with two objects that have one common mirrored face as shown in the screenshot below.

I am not aware of a specific function that would align and merge at the same time so doing it manually is the best option that I know of.

First, to align the two objects select them both and in the properties panel (N) you will see rotation values, right click on them and click "Copy All To Selected" you should get something like this:

Then, under the viewport you should see a magnet button, enable the magnet and then set the snapping to vertex:

Select your "Plane" object and then press G after moving it in the general direction of the other object (its best to view it from the angle of the other face) the object will align to the vertex on the other shape:

After that switch into edit mode and keep the whole "Plane" object selected, then align one corner to the other and it will be perfectly aligned:

Finally, exit edit mode, select both objects and hit Ctrl+J, now go back into edit mode and you can edit both objects, simply merge the vertices together (This will be difficult but not impossible just click around the vertices and it will select both sides) and delete the inner face to clean up and you're done! :) Final result:

I would just like to say that although this method works it is completely unnecessary as these objects should've been created together in the first place, from what I saw there was no need for these to be separate objects, in future create objects in edit mode or extrude instead of creating new separate objects it will save you from going to all this effort and will be much faster too. Happy Blending :)


How to evenly distribute tiles on Cone I'm trying to use a displacement map of shingles to apply evenly sized shingles on a cone shape (roof for a witch hut). No matter what I do I can't get the shingles to stay a consistent size over the height of the cone.
The cylinder shows the approximate size of the shingles that I am looking for, the cone is the shape I'm going for.
The final cone is my attempt at manually changing the UV map, but even if I get the scale correct, the texture "spirals" around the cone shape.

Theory
I don't think you have a chance to get there with this single texture and your mesh topology.
The only reasonable solution that came to my mind is to use some radial texture, like one based on fibonacci pattern.

Unwrapped from top view.
Pattern
To create such texture use this Brecht's script
(copy&paste into blender's Script Editor and Run Alt+P)
import bpy
import bmesh
import math

n = 100 # number of points
c = 0.1 # scale factor

mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new(name="Spiral")
bm = bmesh.new()

for i in range(0, n):
    theta = i * math.radians(137.5)
    r = c * math.sqrt(i)
    bm.verts.new((math.cos(theta) * r, math.sin(theta) * r, 0.0))

bm.to_mesh(mesh)
mesh.update()

from bpy_extras import object_utils
object_utils.object_data_add(bpy.context, mesh)

It creates vertices pattern. At row 5 of the script you can change number of vertices.

Model
Add Plane and model one Shingle, Object has to be oriented in positive Y direction so bottom part is on top. Rotate it on X axis a bit upward with shingles end so when they will repeated will be on top of other. For this quick Shingle I added Solidify and Bevel modifier.

Select Shingle and than pattern object and parent Ctrl+P them. Go to pattern's Object Properties > Instances > Vertices. Enable Align to Vertex Normal to get desired rotation.

Texture
To be able bake Normal map of this model you have to search for Make Instances Real, Join Ctrl+J them. Add another Plane above, add a new material and add Image node, click new, and keep this node selected (active). Go to Render Properties, choose Cycles engine, at bottom go to Bake > Bake Type > Normal > enable Selected to Active. Select joined Shingles than Plane and press BAKE. Save image as OpenEXR type of file.

Note: to create Bump Map - position camera above object and under Render Passes enable Depth pass or Mist pass. After rendering go to Compositor and tweak output of one of this pass. Or you can create a simple B&W material with Blend texture on Z axis for the same result. You can find a lot of answers here I guess.
Edit:
I just noticed ... baked Ambient Oclussion worked much better in this case. Result is similar to Depth. And you could already notice, unwrap from top view applies texture stretched vertically, so its good to compensate this by creating shingle a bit wider horizontal, so after texture is applied it looks in proportions.

Render doesn't use Displacement modifier, but Adaptive Subdivision (aka Microdisplacement) that needs a just a few faces for cone and beautiful details :)


Blender - 3D view does not refresh with my python script I have an Arduino connected in serial with my Mac, it works, I get my datas in blender but the visualisation of the 3D view does not work.

import bge
import serial
import io
import mathutils
import math

def main():

#get info about the Brick
cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
own = cont.owner

#Get sensor info, so we can run this script in loop
mainloop = cont.sensors["MainLoop"]

#initialization, run this only in the first loop
if not 'init' in own:
    own['init'] = 1 #create own['init'], so we know that we have done initialization and we do not run it again

    #initialize serial port
    own['serial_port'] = serial.Serial()
    own['serial_port'].baudrate = 9600
    own['serial_port'].port = '/dev/cu.usbmodem1431' #adjust to your port
    own['serial_port'].timeout=0.1 #you may want to play with this value, lower is, higher value e.g. 1 will slow down everything

    #needed for readline command (if you decide to use it)
    own['serial_io'] = io.TextIOWrapper(io.BufferedRWPair(own['serial_port'], own['serial_port']))

    #open the serial port
    own['serial_port'].close() #sometimes the port is stucked if not closed properly, force it to close
    own['serial_port'].open()
    print("Serial port Open = ",own['serial_port'].is_open)

    #start the loop
    mainloop.usePosPulseMode = True

#Main loop
answer = ""
quit = 0;
while quit<2:  #wait in this while until we have at least one full valid data
    if own['serial_port'].in_waiting > 0:
        byte_in = own['serial_io'].read(own['serial_port'].in_waiting)
        answer = answer + byte_in

        if answer.count('q')>1:
            q=q+1
            print ("QUIT DETECTED")
            answer.replace('q','')

        if answer.count('#')>1:
            answers = answer.split('#') # break the answer into pieces
            datas = answers[0].split(';')

            if len(datas)>2:

                ownOrient = own.worldOrientation.to_euler()
                ownPosition = own.worldPosition
                ownOrient[0] = math.radians(float(datas[0])) # I used -1 as the brick was rotating then
                ownPosition[1] = float(datas[1])*0.1 # I used -1 as the brick was rotating then
                ownOrient[2] = math.radians(float(datas[2])) # I used -1 as the brick was rotating then
                ownMatrix = ownOrient.to_matrix() #build our new matrix so it can be applied to the object#
                own.worldOrientation = ownMatrix #set the new orientation

                own.worldPosition = ownPosition #set the new orientation
                //HERE IT SHOULD REDRAW THE 3D VIEW BUT NOTHING HAPPENS

main()

If someone knows why nothing happens when running the program, I would appreciate the help.

I should obtain something like this:

Ok I found the answer,
The while loop is not the way to do it because it freeze the render until it get out of it.
I have to code a class without this while loop