How to export 3d object as a .tri file? blender 2.77 I am trying to use raydium game engine but i cannot find a way to export my 3d images as .tri files can anyone help me?

There doesn't appear to be an english version of this page - translate.google provides the following -

Export of creations made with Blender to Raydium is possible using the Python script triEXP * comes with sources Raydium.
Use:
Load this script into Blender (BlenderChargerScript), "triangulate" the object in Blender (CTRL + T, in edit mode, after you select all the point with the key), and run the script (ALT + P in the window contains the Python script). This operation performed, a file dialog appears where you can choose the export and the name of the file directory.
You will have a little more information in the console from which you started Blender, especially in case of errors.
!! Warning !! verify that you are in object mode before running the script.
Note: This script does not export the path to the textures, and therefore considers that the textures are always in the same directory as the exported .tri.
See also, for other import / export solutions ImportExportTri

If you look in the source download you will find a blender folder that has several scripts, the startup/tri_import_export_264.py can be loaded in blender's text editor and run to add the .tri import/export options. A simple test shows it to work, if it fails with your models than ask for help improving it with info and examples of what fails.


"Intrude" faces instead of extruding I want to create a stairs-like extrusion with a face - But kind of inverted, like intruded.

The result should be something like this.

However I don't want to extrude the left face to the top, but instead to intrude the right face to the bottom. But when I do this, the following happens:

I suppose this is exactly the right thing and handled perfectly well by Blender, it's just not what I want. The outer faces still exist, while the top face is just moved to the inside.

I hope you understand what I mean, if not, please leave a comment.

Like in cegatron's answer, you should use Loopcut (CtrlR)

Once you have made a new edge loop, delete the faces with X or Delete> Faces, then fill the holes with F:


How to make a VSE scene strip render with the openGL render? Is it possible to have a scene strip in the VSE render using the OpenGL renderer?

I know you can make it render using viewport shading/OpenGL in the preview, but can you do this for the final render, without first rendering to an image sequence and loading that back into the VSE?

I have a couple scene strips, one is a a cycles scene, and the other is some text objects and stuff to be overlayed on the cycles render. I would like to render the text with OpenGL as it's just flat shading, and cycles is overkill.

In Blender 2.76 or later you can render a Scene Strip in the VSE using OpenGL by hitting one of the two Buttons next to "Use Backdrop". The left one will render a single frame, the right one the entire animation.

In case you want to have transparency for the VSE OpenGL render, it seems you have to set the alpha mode of the OpenGL render options to transparent before adding the scene to the VSE when using 2.79 (Render -> OpenGL Render Options -> Alpha Mode -> Transparent).


Precisely sizing an object? I'm trying to port some models for a mapping software (Hammer), and 1 meter in Blender is equal to 1 unit in Hammer (Otherwise it's extremely hard to adjust door frames, etc.). Is there a way to resize objects in a precise way so it's approximately x meters on each side and somehow seeing their current size? Thanks in advance!

I also used hammer and blender. And had the same problems first. when you click n to oben the sidebar there is a tab where you can change the size.


Making a tool out of commands I'm softimage user. In softimage you can take some commands that you would frequently use and turn them to a custom tool. I'm wonder if I can do the same thing in blender

Yes, there are some ways to make custom macro buttons or a panel of operators that you define yourself. In the Scripting editor, there is an option to look at the python script templates that ship with blender - there is one that is called Simple Operator. If you have already seen some of the videos on Youtube or elsewhere about scripting in python in blender, then you might be familiar enough to follow a tutorial and copy the commands you want to reproduce into the Simple Operator script template and rename it to a specific name of your own.
example for simple panel with operator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEkrQGFqM10
More info on the ways to take advantage of the python in the interface
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFoh3S8MLBI


Adding text with default font is outline without face In all the tutorials I've seen when adding text the default text has a shaded/solid face. My default is just an outline/'faceless'.
I'm using 2.80 beta
Thanks

Edit 1:
Right,the question is why. Thanks for the suggestion and feedback.

Edit 2:
Israel -The question is why. I haven't changed any defaults. If you can answer your second question; '../ turn it to solid face?' then that would be a helpful workaround.

Edit 3:
This can be closed.
I had this problem using Ubuntu (compiled from source)
When I installed and tried Blender in Windows it worked correctly.
I re-compiled (very easy just make update and make) and moved the userpref.blend. It works. I restored the userpref.blend and it still works. Thanks for the help

How to turn Text to solid Face

Look for the "Fill" option under the Text Property Tab. Check if it is set to "Both" or "none"


Snapping one mesh to another while rotating I'm using Blender 2.91.

I've snapped the Mesh A onto Mesh B at point 1. I've made the pivot point of Mesh A to be at 1.
I'd like to be able to rotate Mesh A on the X axis and have it snap to Mesh C at 2. I can get it super close by hitting (R)otate, then X, then holding the shift key while mousing, but I would rather it snap precisely onto its target.
Am I missing any setting for this? The "magnet" feature doesn't seem to work.
After I've gotten it super close, I know I could do an Edit Mode vertex snap (the two vertices of the right side bottom end) to Mesh C at 2, then do another (left side bottom end of Mesh A) to snap to Mesh D. But, this will change the width of the Mesh A. Super close, but not precise.
Someone on my last question (that was also about working with precise, angled objects) mentioned Blender not being a purpose-built CAD software. I can understand that, but it seems like this feature would be one that would come up whenever working with precise dimension objects at non-XYZ angles. I'm not terribly upset about the feature not existing, I just want to try to make sure I'm not missing something.

If you want, you can set a structure up to do this, although I think most people would consider it a workaround:
Create an empty at 1 ("e1") and an empty at 2 ("e2").  Give e1 a damped track constraint targeting e2.  Parent A to e1 with keep transform.  Turn on snapping and transform e2 (either rotating about a pivot point or just translating.)  As desired, unparent A with keep transform.


Cycle though multiple MixRGBs with one value A group of multiple ColorRamps mixed as follow:

I want to achieve the following:

By change the value to 1 i switch to the second colorRamp
value of 2 switch to the third colorRamp
value of 0 is the first colorRamp

Note: i know that i could just link the first and second MixRGB to the input and control them individually, but i would like to control both of them with one controller if possible.

Check 'Clamp' on the first one and add a 'Map Range' node between the value and the 'Fac' of the second one. Check clamp on it and set its parameters: 'From Min' to 1, 'From Max' to 2,  'To Min' to 0, 'To Max' to 1.


PBR dielectric material in luxrender? I have found many tutorials on PBR dielectric materials in cycles, but how do I do this in luxrender? In the past I would use a glossy material, but it handles roughness diffrently.

I believe the Glossy material type in luxrender does what you want out of the box.

Unlike the glossy shader in cycles, the luxrender glossy material includes a "matte" component (diffuse in cycles-speak), making it loosely analogous to the following cycles setup:

Luxrender glossy node for reference:

Render comparison

Cycles

Luxrender

I'm not really sure why the cycles render is dimmer than the luxrender example in this case. The difference appears to be in the diffuse part of things. If someone knows what's going on here, I'd definitely like to hear about it


CSV File Not Supported Error Here is the code:

import bpy
import csv
import sys
csv_path = sys.argv[1]

file = open(csv_path)
reader = csv.reader(file)

header = next(reader) # 1st line is header

data = [ ]
for row in reader:
    name0 = row[0]
    name1 = row[0]
    pathout = 'test-videos/' + row[5] + '.m4v'
    s = bpy.context.scene
    f = s.objects['FirstName']
    f.data.body = name0
    f1 = s.objects['FirstName01']
    f1.data.body = name1+'?'
    bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = pathout
    bpy.ops.render.render(animation=True)

bpy.ops.wm.quit_blender()

And here is the error message:

Read blend: /PI-SAT/proj001/proj001-master.blend
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/PI-SAT/proj001/proj001master.py", line 9, in <module>
header = next(reader) # 1st line is header
File"/Applications/Blender/blender.app/Contents/Resources/2.79/python/
lib/python3.5/codecs.py", line 321, in decode
(result, consumed) = self._buffer_decode(data, self.errors, final)
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xef in position 23:
invalid continuation byte
Error: File format is not supported in file '/PI-SAT/proj001/test.csv'
... opened default scene instead; saving will write to
/PISAT/proj001/test.csv

I have read the file with a different script using the exact same code as in lines 2 - 15 and then printing the names and pathout. Running the script from the command line, not from within Blender, it works perfectly.

I have also run the part of the script within the for loop outside of the loop as a script from the command line and it works perfectly.

What am I missing about the CSV file? I created it in Excel on my Mac; is that a problem?

I think the file encoding is the problem.
The blender python assumes 'UTF-8' and maybe the command line gets the encoding from the system.

Try to give the open method a encoding:

file = open(csv_path, encoding='latin-1')

I think 'latin-1' is correct for Mac, otherwise try 'iso-8859-1' or 'cp1252'.


Physics in blender 2.8 - can't interact with objects while simulation is running Do this in both blender 2.8 and 2.79:

Create cube, enable rigid body physics, set to active, run animation, drag and release cube.

In blender 2.79 cube will act like a real life object, that is, it'll be "tossed" by a cursor drag. Doesn't work in 2.8, cube just jumps back in place.

Example - I can't do that in 2.8.

I guess you looked deeper into this by now but as I'm also trying to achieve the same thing as Ben Clark might as well post my findings here.

I've done some messing and discovered that providing the object is set to be a passive rigid body you can grab it, move it where you want it and then reset the sim (timeline) and it will react correctly.

https://gyazo.com/987177ca2f87fef851519d8e12be3511

To me this looks like something to do with the physics caching system, maybe someone knows how to turn that off? :)

For a quick and dirty workaround, fascinatingly real-time grab physics still works with rigid body constraints.
Wouldn't be helpful if you want to just wack a cube wall with another cube though...

https://gyazo.com/75cdc85da98a0e7a3f67175c4386c9ee

Cheers!


Attempted relative import with no known parent package I'm new to python and attempting to split off my executes for my panels buttons into a new .py file. However, when I try to run the script I receive the following error :
init.py line 27 in
"ImportError: attempted relative import with no known parent package"
the related init.py lines are :
if "bpy" in locals():
    import importlib
    importlib.reload(xmlhandler)
    importlib.reload(zokfunctions)
else:
    from bl_wep_export import xmlhandler
    from bl_wep_export import zokfunctions

    if "bpy" in locals():
    import importlib
    importlib.reload(xmlhandler)
    importlib.reload(zokfunctions)
else:
    from bl_wep_export import xmlhandler
    from bl_wep_export import zokfunctions

import bpy

from math import radians
from .zokfunctions import execute

The zokfunctions.py file has a simple
def execute(self, context):
print("TEST")
return {'FINISHED'}

I've tried several solutions, like removing the period before zokfunctions or using a class in zokfunctions called Hello and registering it, which throws an attribute error if I remember correctly..
I do my editing in VScode and the files itself are in my blender addons folder installed as an addon, so it is addons/myaddon/the init file and zokfunctions file.

To the future me if I make more addons and to newer programmers when it comes to blender, the issue isn't actually the scripts at all. Blenders in-house text editor cannot edit multi file addons, if you try it will throw this error. I was going insane trying to figure out what was wrong with my addon and comparing it to other code.
To conclude, if you're making a multi file addon, it'll work if the syntax is right and it's installed, and you can still edit it this way..


Read value from an fcurve at specific frames I need to get the values from an fcurve at specific frames using a script.These frames do not necessarily have keys on them.
Lets say I have an object selected and I need to retrieve the y position at frame 7. (I am not a python coder, this is to be used in conjunction with the Animation Nodes addon.)
Is it possible?

Thanks!
Sahin

I think this will do what you're asking:

object.animation_data.action.fcurves[1].evaluate(7)

In this example, fcurves1 would access the Y location curve in the collection of fcurves belonging to 'object'. And the Evaluate function will return the value of fcurves1 at frame 7.

This question has a more thorough answer.


Unwrap tapered cylinder without UV distortion at tip Here are 4 cylinders with a wave texture and their UV unwraps. From left to right:

Cylinder with default unwrap
The same cylinder tapered with proportional editing. Tip vertices are all at the same location. No change to UVs, texture tapers to tip properly.
The same, but with doubles removed. The UVs have changed, but the texture still works.
The same, but re-unwrapped with Cylinder projection. The texture is distorted.

My question is: How can I make UV unwrapping like 3 for 4, or other similar shapes that didn't start with clean UVs? Can I somehow split the tip UVs of 4 to be like 3? Can it be done without Cylinder Unwrap?

I am modeling mesh hair where each strand is roughly a tapered cylinder, but wasn't necessarily formed in such a way that I have clean UVs. But I need my hair texture to taper to the tips properly.

In mesh edit mode, mark edges as seams (in the edge menu -> mark seam).  Wherever you have a seam the unwrap operator will unstitch the seam in the UV map and unfold accordingly.

How you pick edges to mark as seams is dependent on what you're unwrapping. In this case you'll want to select the vertical edges towards the tip then mark seam.

When you unwrap these  should end up like your version 3.


How to paint a texture on, based on the way it was mapped on with UV? I UV Projected an object, but now I want to paint certain parts of that map onto it without the whole thing. How can I do this so that the parts I paint still look like the same parts of the map?

EDIT

All the settings you need to see are in this screenshot :-)

In texture paint mode you can either

Paint and modify the existing texture image such as (.png) file.
Paint on a new texture and layer the textures so that one covers the others.
Paint with a brush from one image to another final image ... rather like a clone tool from GIMP

A video tutorial for texture painting is probably a necessary resource for ease of explanation and understanding.


settings bar when I add an object wont let me change anything when I add an object, what do I do if I cant adjust the setting in the bottom left corner. I have tried changing my preferences and random stuff around blender and I cant find anything that works. what do I do?

You have to enable: Global Undo
For 2.8x and 2.9.
Edit > User preferences > System > Memory & Limits: Global Undo


Does an array modifier need to be applied after modelling the character? I made a character and added an array modifier, painted, and animated the character. I want to import the character into unity. Do I have to apply array modifier in object mode before importing into unity?

Yes, Mahesh, you have to apply the array modifier. An array modifier creates illusions of the object that are visible in the Blender viewport, but do not really exist. Since they don't exist, when you go to export them from Blender to the game engine, they will not be exported. In order for them to be exported, they must be applied, which creates the "illusions" into "real" geometry.


How can I parent objects from different scenes? I have two scenes. Particles in one (blender render), text in the other (Cycles render). I need the camera in the particles scene to move with the camera in the other scene - it is for an intro animation. Is there any way i can do this?

I ran into a problem very much like this when I went to create fireworks. At the time, I assumed the same thing as you, "One must use BR for halo particles." I did not run into the camera problem because I used the Track To Object constraint for the cameras so that they would follow the firework's progress. I set the alpha to none and used the alpha over node in the compositor to combine the two scenes.

The assumption that one must use BR for halo particles, however, is not true.

Using the point density node as shown in this tutorial will allow you to use Cycles to render halo particles.

Alternately, to answer the question you asked...

Scenes

I used the default Blender startup file for my example, as it has a camera, light source, and object. The first thing I did is duplicate the scene by pressing New Scene -> Full Copy.

Animation

Go back to the original scene and insert a key frame at frame one, move the camera, and then insert one at a later frame. The camera should now move when you play the animation. Next, go to the Animation Screen Layout. Make sure the scene selected is not the one with the moving camera. Select the non-moving camera. Go to the Dope Sheet panel and change the type from Dope Sheet to Action Editor (the same way you would change from Object to Edit mode in the 3D View). Where it says + New along the bottom options, click on the dropdown menu to the left side, the same way you would select an old material rather than creating a new material. Somewhere in there should be something resembling CameraAction, or Camera.001Action (the name of the moving camera followed by Action). Click on this. The movement of the two cameras should now be linked.


How to fix lighting inside a room What I have done in terms of lighting is pretty ok but I want the bookshelf to be highlighted a bit more and other parts of the room to come into view a little bit more but just enough to be noticed. The center of the project is the light coming in from the window and it should not be taken over.
Blender file
What i have right now:

Eevee
For this of kind lightning you have to add Irradiance Volume object and under Render Properties > Indirect Lightning > Bake Indirect Lightning.

Notes:

your dimensions of object is huge (chair 40 m) ... you can select all and scale it down or go to Scene Properties > Units and change it to something like 0.02 to result with something closer to reality
usually is used Sun light type (but I see it penetrates walls too much and I don't know how to avoid) always helps to ad Solidify modifier to walls
to avoid unwanted volumetric penetration change Render Properties > Volumetrics > Start to 4 End to 10, Distribution 0.8

Cycles
Same setup (irradiance is not used off course) ...

If you need brighter interior, there is more things you can try, but just increasing light Strength seems to be enough.


Wave-Modified Collision Object Not Changing Please see a gif pic of my situation:

http://gph.is/2EwjmKs

The gif image shows that the ball responds only to the mesh-shaped collision object that is present at frame 1 in the first half of the gif picture.

In the second half, you can see the ball exhibits the same behavior without a moving mesh that's in the same shape as frame 1 in the first half of the gif pic.

How can I elicit a dynamically changing collision object for my wavy plane?

Enable 'Deforming' in the Rigid Body Collisions panel should do it.


How to change color of glossy highlights? let's say, I have a texture with black background and yellow skulls everywhere on it.
I want the black background to have a white reflection color and the yellow skulls i want to have a black "reflection" when shine on. (I guess black reflection isnt possible, but i want them to turn black when shine on)

I already have several specular maps to achieve that but the only part missing is that i dont get to turn my skulls black when shine on. Is there any node setup which can achieve that? (something like "if reflection"->diffuse black) I just can't get it working.

Thanks for your help

EDIT:

Here is a screenshot. I need the skulls which are hit by light to turn black..if even possible

http://www.pasteall.org/blend/41884
.blend file

You will have to resort to some compositing tricks to achieve this effect.  Cycles can't really perform an "if [glossy] reflection" check like you describe since a glossy surface is always reflecting something.  You want it to change the surface's properties based on what is being reflected.  This is impossible due to the backwards ray-tracing nature of Cycles since changing the properties of the surface will affect what is being reflected, creating a circular dependency.

To create the effect you are looking for I created three render layers, the main layer (as you have now), a just glossy layer (to use the lamp's highlight as a mask), and a black diffuse layer (to be mixed in with the mask layer).

The only other change I had to make to your scene was swapping out the mesh light with a point lamp since using material overrides in the render layers also overrides the emission material.  However, it basically looks the same and renders a bit faster and with less noise to boot.

First create two more materials.  Create one material that is just the black diffuse shader you want the skulls to turn into.  The other material should look like this:

The color ramp is simply to map your texture to its extremes (i.e. skull = pure white, background = pure black).  It is then used in a mix shader to make the skulls glossy and give the background a holdout shader (i.e. not rendered, pure black and transparent if enabled).

Next add two more render layers, I called one "mask" and the other "diffuse".  Give each one an override material, the "mask" layer should use the glossy/holdout material and the "diffuse" layer should use the pure diffuse material.

Now you can render your scene and head over to the compositor.  For the compositing, just mix the main layer with the "diffuse" layer, using the "mask" layer as the mix factor.

Which yields the following:

If too much of the skull pattern is darkening for you just add a Brightness/Contrast or RGB Curves node between the mask layer and the mix node and use it to knock up the contrast of the mask.


How to snap part of a mesh to the grid? I have an I-Beam where one end is on the grid and the other end is between grid lines. When I turn on "snap to grid" and moves all vertexes in the other end it snaps in grid increments, not to the grid itself.

Do I really have to create a dummy on the grid to be able to snap to it?

Blender v2.69

EDIT
I'm aware of ShiftS and it works fine for simple meshes.  However this is what happens if you try the "Snap selected to grid" on a complex mesh:

You can CtrlAltQ to toggle Quad View, then click to the nearest grid crossing to place 3D Cursor there, then ShiftS > Cursor to Grid to snap the 3D Cursor in two of the side views (to snap it precisely to the grid dimension as you want). Then, ShiftS > Selection to Cursor (Offset) to offset the selection to the 3D Curor, without collapsing:

NOTE: Snapping cursor to grid currently depends much on the view zooming, in other words, the visual grid scale, so, if it cannot be easily snapped to the crossing, just give it another try after zooming in or out.

UPDATE: For your concern in the comment, you can temporarily add an empty to assist snapping:


Creating displacement maps from 3D geometry? I'm working on a pair of drumsticks for an up-close, photorealistic image. I tried making the normal map with some degree of success, but now I'm thinking that a displacement map might be better. However, every video I've seen shows someone making a displacement map from a plane, or from something using a multi-res modifier.
I went and modeled a low-poly drumstick, duplicated it, and sculpted in details with DynTopo, so no multi-res modifier. Is it possible to turn my sculpted details into a displacement map?
My blend file is in the link above, if anyone wants to poke around.
Thanks!

There are ways of baking scalar/vector displacement maps from non-planar originals, in Blender, by using an intermediate bake of high-res shading-point positions and subtracting low-poly positions from them in a shader, using a  corresponding UV map. But that's fiddly, and complicated.
As far as I can see, your sculpt is of surface details. (Mainly dinks from rim-shots?)
I'm assuming either you want a low-poly final, in which case your height-map will be used as a bump texture (the geometry would not support displacement), or you want low-poly geometry, and the renderer to generate the subdivision for true displacement...
In either case, I think it would be easier, for this kind of detail, to use  a low-poly mesh in the first place, without going through an all-round sculpt? You could texture-paint straight into a height-map, (while seeing the results), use and manipulate ready-made scratch-maps, or, if you're looking for paricular 3D characteristics, sculpt into a flat surface, bake that, chop bits of the image out to use in collage in your UV, or as texture-paint-brushes... any combination of these things, or others not mentioned here?


How to overlay someone (and his/her movements) in a video clip tracking eyes,face,mouth of a 3d character I want to replace/overlay the faces and the bodies of the people that are in a video clip with a series of 3d characters of the same size and shape.

I set up 8 tracker points for the character's face and eyes in the Movie Clip Editor. The solve camera motion gives a value of 0.6,as you can see below...

After that I have added a camera solver constraint to the head/neck/clavicles bones of the character...

but when I play the animation I see that the mesh does not move correctly according to the movements of the girl that's behind it,rather it breaks. Can someone explains what can I do to fix this ?

Here you can see a video to better understand what happens. And here you can give a look inside the blender file. thanks.

Well, first of all I would be surprised if this would work at all.
The faces you are tracking are so extremely tiny, that the solver has barely a chance to solve that correctly.
Second, you have a moving camera, so you should solve that first.

So first track the room and solve the camera for that.
Then, in the objects panel of the clip editor's sidebar, add an object and then place markers on the person's head and try to solve it.
But as I said, I really don't think it's possible, considering how tiny the persons are in relation to the frame size and how blurry the footage is.


Blender 2.8 Transformation Constraint Problem I added transformation constraint to a cube and target was an-other's cylinder rotation but instead of changing its location smoothly the cube jumps to final and start positions.The same cube changes its location smoothly when i set the source to location of cylinder.Is this a bug in blender 2.8 ?

I guess your problem is that you need to apply the rotation of your cylinder: ctrlA. As it was not aligned with the Global orientation, there was a confusion in the rotation orientation.


Stick a plan on a mesh I am wondering if it's possible to stick the orange plane on the face made by the three columns? I tried with the tutorials showing how to snap objects together. but the plane is never parallel.
Thanks

Snap to Face will allow you to project the elements onto other faces, similar to what a shrinkwrap modifier would do when set to axis projection mode. However, if you want to snap every vertex onto the target, there is two buttons to enable. Face Snapping (marked on the left), and project individual, marked on the right:

Then, a source geometry which looks like this...

...would snap like this:


How do I get the edges of the Manhatten Voronoi texture? So I was trying to create a sci-fi building material for a building and I wanted to use the Voronoi texture. I found Manhattan to be the most suitable but I found out that I'm not able to make the edges a thing. The edges are only available for Euclidean when using "Distance to Edge". I didn't find any solution, any ideas on how to make it?

You can output it to a ColorRamp to get this kind of effect :

Note that the interpolation is set to Constant, to get a clean sharp edge.
Instead of the ColorRamp, you can probably use some Math nodes for a more controllable effect.


Putting an image texture onto a selfmade object So what my new Problem is, is that im trying to add the texture u can see on the left side on the picture here:

to ma knife, and the first row should go from top to bottom on the left side, the other one from top to bottom on the right side. If i add that image texture now, it looks completely muddled up.

Can somebody arrange the picture to fit the knife?
Heres the Download link for the Texture and the Blender Knife...
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qK4hvAY_Ivl-L5L4dlWAW2mz8pjgnP4Q

Thats how i want it to look like:

Thre's no need for so much seams.
A very simple UV map is enough.

(Repair the mesh - more steps below) :)
Add just a few seams where needed
Use the UV editor to position the UV map
Set image texture to Clip - so it's not repeated across the model.

Using just one material is very limiting, but sometimes needed.
Use more materials if you want different color on your mesh.

Example of a proper UV unwrap

How to repair the mesh:

Apply object scale and rotation through Object > Apply > All transforms
Remove stray and connect unconnected vertices/faces/edges
Make the mesh manifold (watertight)
Correct face orientation through Mesh > Normals > Recalculate outside
Delete the old UV map entirely

Here is a repaired .blend for inspiration.
Yours might look a bit different, but that doesn't really matter :).


About Creating a Vertex on the Edge I am modelling a cushion. As in the picture, I connected vertexes on beveled edges but I want to extend them to the outer edges too. How can I create a vertex on the outer edge to connect it to the existing one?

Press K to enter knife mode, click on the first vertex, then click on the edge where you want your new vertex. Hit space when you are done, Voila!


Same mesh displayed differently on different machines I have file of a mesh and it appears normally in Blender, on my Windows machine, as shown below

But when I open the same file using Blender, on my Ubuntu machine it appears like below

So, could anyone explain why is it displaying weirdly on Ubuntu (lower one), meanwhile, on Windows (upper one) it's ok?

In Windows you're in weight-paint mode and in Ubunto you're in wireframe view (in object mode).  If you want to change the Ubuntu version, hover over the 3D view and hit Ctrl+Tab to switch modes.  Alternatively, use the menus at the bottom of the 3D view to switch between modes (see screenshot).


How can I fix the default orientation of a model? I downloaded a 3d motorbike from unity asset store. But its facing forward along -x-axis. All the parts are separate as children of a main object. I would like to fix it so that its facing along z-axis by default.  How can this be achieved in blender?

I'm assuming you are importing a .fbx file but even if you are not these setting are available on some other format imports. Simply select the orientation before importing


Meshes pushed other side when sculpting I'm new to sculpting, and i've noticed that the mesh is pushed when sculpting and not compressed.
So for exemple if I have a wall, and if I dig some holes with a brush on one face for exemple, at a certain point I will be able so see all the mesh going outside behind the wall at the opposite face..

So i wanted to know if there is a way to avoid this ?
Thank you !

You can use the Mask brush. Paint on the face that you don't want to deform. To erase the whole mask, press AltM. To erase some parts, press Ctrl while you paint:

Then sculpt, the maskded area won't be affected:


Laying eye shapes on a curved character head surface Beginner Question-- I'm trying to model eyes like EvilCorp gets on the eyes of some of its more "cartoony" models (examples: this one or this other one). The eye shapes on both of those images aren't built into the head-- they seem like they're just on top of the head, like buttons on clothing-- but sort of wrapped along the underlying head shape.

In both cases, it seems like I should be able to model out head shapes and then have cylinders sort of wrap onto the head shapes, but I can't seem to figure out how to get that to work, how to get cylinders or squares or anything to wrap along a curved surface.  I've tried using a shrinkwrap modifier like was recommended over here but that doesn't seem to work right.

Suggestions?  Am I headed in the right direction looking at shrinkwrap?  Or any suggestions on good tutorials?  Thanks.

1 Select your cylinder.
2 In properties select the chain link icon.
3 Select in [Add Object Constraint] the "Track to" option.
4 Target: choose the sphere. NOTE: The origin of both objects should be in their center for this to work.
5 Try different "To:" and "Up:" combinations until the flat side of the cylinder is aiming at the sphere.
6 To move the cylinder against the sphere use the translation manipulator, it normally says: "Global" next to it, change that to "Normal" and one of the manipulators arrows will align to the sphere to allow you to translate it till they connect.


Unlinking objects from duplicated scene I have created a scene by duplicating another scene (using the Link Object Data option). I would now like to unlink some light sources. I have tried right-clicking them in the Outliner and clicking on Unlink, but it did not help - changing the strength of the light in the duplicated scene also changes the strength of the original light in the original scene. What am I missing?

I think your problem is the following one:

Unlink in the Outliner will unlink the object from its Collection, not from its duplications.

A linked duplication is a complete other thing than an object linked to a collection. To link-duplicate an object (make a copy that will follow all the modifications on the original), you need to press altD instead of shiftD.

To unlink a duplication, i.e. make it single user that won't depend on its linked duplications, select your object, go to the header menu > Object > Relations > Make Single User > Object & Data, then select Selected Object.

The problem is that it will also unlink from the objects of the same scene (maybe there's a way not to but I don't know it).


How do I increase the number of circle vertices? (Blender 2.8) I have a circle mesh but I need to increase the number of vertices. How can I do that?

In Edit Mode, select all the vertices (A), right click and choose "Subdivide" (W if you use right click for select), then open the boxed dialog at the bottom left of the Viewport (also "Edit > Adjust last operation") and increase Smoothness to 1.0. You can select the multiplier (number of subdivisions) too.

Alternatively, at the moment of creation of the circle (top of Viewport, Add > Mesh > Circle) you had the option of selecting the number of vertices: this is done again by opening the boxed dialog at the bottom left of the Viewport and changing the number of vertices. But it can't be done once you have done any other operation.


Import camera animation from Maya 2014 There's a bunch of import/export formats common to both Blender and Maya, but which of them support animation? FBX is supposed to, but for now our addon doesn't support that yet.

Specifically, I need to get animated cameras from a Maya scene into Blender.

One way would be to export a file for each frame (which would need markers and attaching cameras to them to make each frame's camera the active one for that frame) but that wouldn't work with motion blur.

The DAE_FBX exporter works, just select the cameras and use File > Export Selection > (channel box) DAE_FBX Export. The usual y-up versus z-up happen, but otherwise it's fine:


can I change the UV editor when colour blind? I have Deuteranopes(red-green colour blindness) and wondering if its possible to change the UV range in the UV editor?

There is no way that I know of to change what blender generates from these options without editing the code and creating a custom build.

This would however make a good feature request and it would be worth trying to get in contact with some of the devs and seeing if they can help.

That said their is a fairly simple workaround. If you want a greyscale version, you can just save the image out of blender and use your preferred image editing software to convert it to greyscale. Then whenever you want to check your UVs, just load this converted image from disc rather than using blender's generated options.


Linking materials with groups and drivers I am working on a project setup and trying to understand how it will all work behind the scenes. It involves several layers of linking, material groups, and drivers.

Can I have a value in one file drive a driver on an object linked in from another file? For example: If a material on an asset within it's own file has a driver based on some custom value of a scene, how can I have it take that value from the scene it is linked into rather than the scene within it's own file?

Or, inversely, if I setup a driver in the main file, how can I have it drive the appropriate parameter of objects that I link in?

An example of this would be if each of my materials or material groups had an input for wetness. Different materials are effected differently, and will need to be setup within their own file. These assets are then linked into whatever scene file I'm composing a scene in. A rainy scene will have a wetness of 1, and a dry 0. That needs to properly connect to each material's wetness input and drive it.

EDIT: This question was originally too complex and involved several questions, I have simplified it.

The limitations of Blender's linking system make this a little awkward, but you can make it work with the proxy system. Proxies are Blender's funky solution to editing linked properties. You can "make a proxy" of a certain object from a linked group. This makes a local copy of that object which will then push any changes into the linked object it was copied from. Here's generally how it's meant to work in practice.

Your asset has an armature in its source file. This armature object is set up to control all other objects and materials in the asset via drivers, constraints, parenting, modifiers, or whatever. You pack everything into a group, then link that group. With the group selected, you hit Object > Make Proxy in the 3D view, and select your control rig from the object list in the prompt. You now have a control proxy that you can move and manipulate to control your linked asset.

It doesn't necessarily need to be an armature, you might just use an empty in this case. But essentially what you need to do is connect your material's wetness in the source file to some property of this empty/armature via a driver. A custom property on the object datablock is probably easiest:

Once you make a proxy of your control object, you will then be able to adjust this "wet" property from the main scene. Word of warning though: it will affect ALL instances of this group in the scene, not just the one you had selected when you hit 'make proxy'. Best way to get around that is to add a symlink to your source file, then link the group again by select the symlink. Blender organizes links by filepath, so it will believe this is a different asset even though it's reading the same one. You can then make the new linked copy its own proxy and control them separately.


Multiple drivers on a single objects x rotation I am working on a project that needs each of six arms to respond to more than one input.  I used several bones to accomplish this with the first driving a cube's rotation and each subsequent bone driving the x rotation of the first bone. Results is each bone rotates the cube's x rotation. I have the .blend of the test file at: brokensky.biz/blendfiles/drivertest.blend

My question is: Is there a simpler way to do this? Can multiple objects or bones affect a single driver?
Thanks.

You can go the "Drivers" way. Using multiple variable as input (one per bone) and adding them together to get what you want.
Here is more detail about how to use Drivers in blender :
https://blender.org/manual/animation/basics/drivers.html

Here is an example from your blend :
http://www.pasteall.org/blend/38396


How to UV Unwrap and Scale UVs with Python (while in object mode)? I realize similar questions have been asked, but I'm having a lot of trouble and would like to understand.

How can I UV unwrap (smart project) the originally selected object and scale all UVs (scale double) while in Object Mode?

I have a script that adds some array modifiers. It also adds some empties to manipulate the arrays. When I attempt to unwrap it I can't get past the 'failed, context is incorrect'

I read a little about override, but I'm not sure how to use it.

I've included the code for setting up the empties and arrays. I gets input from the user as to how many are needed. I greatly appreciate any help!

    #define selected object
    obj = bpy.context.active_object

    #store current object to select again?
    object1 = obj

    # code so that I can move the origin of each empty
    # store the location of current 3d cursor
    #saved_location = bpy.context.scene.cursor_location.copy()

    # give 3dcursor new coordinates
    #bpy.context.scene.cursor_location = (1.0,0.0,0.0)

    # set the origin on the current object to the 3dcursor location
    #bpy.ops.object.origin_set(type='ORIGIN_CURSOR')

    #CREATE EMPTIES TO MANIPULATE ARRAYS
    #for i in range(int(context.scene.arry_amnt)):
    #    i_amnt = i
    #    e_mount = ("E" + str(i_amnt))
    #    bpy.ops.object.text_add()
    #    obt = bpy.context.object
    #    obt.name = e_mount
    #    obt.data.body = e_mount
    #    obt.data.offset_y = i_amnt
    #    obt.show_x_ray = True
    #    obt.show_texture_space = True
    #    obt.hide_render = True

    #    if context.scene.rnd_rotation == 1:
    #        obt.rotation_euler[2] = random.randint(0,2)

    #    if context.scene.rnd_location == 1:
    #        obt.location[2] = random.randint(0,2)

        #ADD ARRAYS
    #    p = obj.modifiers.new(name= "BLIX01", type='ARRAY')
    #    p.use_relative_offset=False
    #    p.use_object_offset=True
    #    p.offset_object = bpy.data.objects[e_mount]
    #    p.count = context.scene.arry_cnt

    #how can i select the original object and unwarp / scale uv
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='DESELECT')

    bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='TOGGLE')

    object1.select = True
    bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()

    bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='DESELECT')
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode(type='EDGE')
    bpy.ops.mesh.mark_seam(clear=False)
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='SELECT')
    bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()
    bpy.ops.uv.smart_project(angle_limit=30, island_margin=0.02, user_area_weight=0.03)

Look for python code in bl_operators

Some default blender operators have their python code available in 2.79/scripts/startup/bl_operators in this case uvcalc_smart_project.py .A quick peruse of the code and you will see that most of it can be done in object mode, by passing operator properties to the main(...) method. . Except "aspect correction"

print("Smart Projection time: %.2f" % (time.time() - time1))
# Window.DrawProgressBar(0.9, "Smart Projections done, time: %.2f sec" % (time.time() - time1))

# aspect correction is only done in edit mode - and only smart unwrap supports currently

Quick test in console, in object mode (defaut scene camera view) (Please also note that even though blender uses radians as its rotation unitprojection_limit appears to use degrees going from 1 to 89. So pass it  30 rather than radians(30)

>>> from bl_operators.uvcalc_smart_project import main
>>> main(
main(context, island_margin, projection_limit, user_area_weight, use_aspect, stretch_to_bounds, )
>>> main(C, .02, 30, 0.03, True, True) # not radians?
Smart Projection time: 0.10

producing

Scaling UV is pretty trivial see python templates > Operator UV simple  Script below doubles the size of object mode context object UV.

import bpy
import bmesh

def main(context):
    obj = context.active_object
    me = obj.data
    bm = bmesh.new()
    bm = bmesh.from_mesh(me)

    uv_layer = bm.loops.layers.uv.verify()
    bm.faces.layers.tex.verify()  # currently blender needs both layers.

    # scale UVs x2
    for f in bm.faces:
        for l in f.loops:
            l[uv_layer].uv *= 2

    bm.to_mesh(me)

Note:

bm.faces.layers.tex.verify()

is no longer supported in 2.80 and will need to be removed.


Any good free materials libraries online? I'm wondering if there's any addons or online libraries of materials I can download. I've found one called online_mat_lib, but then discovered it was from 2008 and thought by now something like that might already be integrated into Blender.

Some resources:

600+ Materials at Open Material Repository
Temporary offline (http://www.blender-materials.org/) backed up by the above.
For textures cgtexures is a good resource.


Track to in animation nodes I want the planes affected by the object fallof to rotate towards the origin of the sphere. Basically what would track to constraint do. Is there a way to achieve that?

I have tried converting sphere¨s direction to rotation but didnt get the result I wanted.

You can use a second Offset Matrix node with rotation mode to achieve the desired result.

The rotation itself is calculated with the Direction to Rotation node, like you assumed.
The direction has to be calculated from the already translated planes, otherwise the vectors would be incorrect. You can get them with a Decompose Matrix node from the first Offset Matrix.


Irregular mask size compositor vs movie clip editor As you can see from the two images below, the mask comes out smaller in the compositor then what I did in the movie clip editor.
Why can I not see the whole dog in the compositor?

Your mask node indicates 'Scene Size' and your scene is set to 50% of the render settings. Try adjusting this to either 100% of the render settings (if they match the image size) or choosing 'Fixed' and setting the actual pixels in X and Y axis.


Keep Scene resolutions in sync Different Scenes can  have different resolutions. But a lot of the time, you'll always want them to be the same. Its a big hassle to have to update several other scenes all the time, especially while still working on things. And for whatever reason, you cannot use Drivers on the resolution fields.

Is there any workaround to have my secondary scenes always have the same resolution as my primary?

This script will apply the resolution of the first scene to all other scenes. It will auto-update all scenes as soon as you change the resolution in the first scene.

import bpy

def set_resolution(scene):
    x = bpy.data.scenes[0].render.resolution_x
    y = bpy.data.scenes[0].render.resolution_y
    for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
        scene.render.resolution_x = x
        scene.render.resolution_y = y

bpy.app.handlers.depsgraph_update_pre.append(set_resolution)

All you have to do is run the script once after opening your project in the Scripting workspace.


Given a set of points, build a quad mesh such that each point is in the center of a quad I have a complex grid of points in sort of an elliptical orientation.  I would like to make a 2D quad mesh such that each point is in the center of a quad.

I had been trying to accomplish this programmatically with some difficulty, then I though maybe this functionality is already implemented in Blender.

Is there some way that I can generate such a mesh given such a set of points with Blender?

EDIT

Here are a few images to better show what I am trying to do.  The given points are in blue.  I want to surround each point with a quad and have minimal gaps between them.

Use Dupli verts

1st mesh with center vertices, under Properties > Object > Duplication switch Verts:

2nd mesh a simple quad (add plane) and parent it under 1st mesh:

if you want to convert it to editable mesh, do it with Shift+Ctrl+A

Edit: To rotate them like in your picture, connect your points with edges so they form concentric ellipses. Extrude them so you have some polygons - this will give those verts proper normals:

Check the rotation in that Duplication tab and convert to geometry, delete the original plane, concentric ellipses and delete the bottom dupli-objects:

The spacing is determined by the position of your input vertices so this should end up in what you want..


How to convert solidified plane to cube/rectangle I took a plane, and applied the "Solidify" modifier to it.  Is it possible to convert that to a cube, or rectangle, so that I can manipulate its edges with the bevel tool more easily?

Just make sure to add the bevel modifier after the solidify modifier. If you applied it, it should work perferctly fine.


Solution for constraints - need help Hi fellas I have a problem with solving an issue possible to find in the .blend file provided.

If You open the file there is a simple scene with constraints applied to the AXIS parenting two objects. Rotating the "toroid" along the Y GLOBAL rotates the axis along Z LOCAL. Problem is that to work as designed all objects has to be rotated simultaneously cause parenting axis to the toroid somehow break the global-local thing so to keep the axis in place all objects has to be rotated.

To test the function simply select ALL objects from the front view and rotate along Y so You could see how its working. Problem is when the rotation is finished, the next rotation does not work (global rotation somehow "resets" to 0,0,0 again imo and whole thing break-up).

Rotate for example for 30 degrees along Y, confirm it and try to rotate again to see what Im talking about. I need to solve this somehow but failed using all combinations in mind. Probably something else than constraints will be needed but dunno what.

Appreciate any idea and solutions buddies!

Sincerely, Jan

Attempt to clarify what I wrote:

'Axle' is my short name for BezierCircle.004. You can display it's local axis by selecting it, going to the Properties window, Object tab, and enabling Display->Axis.  (Here I have moved display to the top of the tab.  It will normally be farther down)

You will see that the local axis are parallel to the world axis. Now do the same for the empty.  You will see that the empty's local axis are not the same. The Z axis of the empty points roughly in the direction that I meant by 'axis of axle'. (Here I've move the empty and the axle into local space.  The yellow axis are that of the axle, orange that of the empty.

Now rotate all of the objects on the world Y axis. The local axes still have the same orientation with respect to their objects, so the next time you rotate the rotation will cause the effect that looks like a reset.
Blend file with my version, which might not match your need:

Notice the axis orientation.  The 'axle' and 'wing' have the same orientation as the empty. The Empty is the parent of the axle. The axle is the parent of the wing. There are two constraints on the empty: Copy (Y) Rotation and Limit Rotation.

It should be possible to arrange all of this so that only the rim has to be selected, but I didn't manage that.


How to create variable wall thickness with Solidify Modifier? I am using Blender 2.83 and I need to 3D print a hollow vertical cylinder that is 40x40x40mm with a front wall thickness of 2mm and a back wall thickness of 4mm. Can this be modeled in Blender?
I have succeeded in creating vertex groups for each half of the cylinder and in Blender it looks like I have achieved the desired thicknesses by using two Solidfy Modifiers.
However when I slice the exported STL file, the slicer only sees the thicker half of the cylinder. Any help will be greatly appreciated, thank you.

For this, I wouldn't even bother with the modifiers. Instead, try duplicating the faces then extruding along normals.
Start with your cylinder:

Select half the faces (front side), and press Shift+D to duplicate, and then let them snap back to their original position by right-clicking the mouse. This will make sure the inner faces stay in place when you extrude. Once this is done, right click again and select "Extrude Faces Along Normals" (you must be in face select mode for this to appear in the menu). You can enter an extrusion value - I entered 0.02 to represent 2mm, as my base units are set to 1M.

Now, select the other (backside) faces, and do the same thing, this time using 0.04 as an extrusion depth. Don't forget to duplicate the faces first (I only mention because I forgot twice while testing). Once this is done, you will notice a small gap between the two sets of extruded faces. Luckily, because of your unit length, fixing this is easy. Simply add a loop cut (Ctrl+R) around the larger extrusion and right click to leave it right in the center (coincidentally the 2mm mark).

From here, select the vertices on either side of the "gap" and press M (Merge) and select "At Center". You will have to do this for each set individually - top and bottom, both sides.

Finally, select the whole mesh and do a "merge by distance" operation to clean up any leftover duplicates. The final result should be a watertight cylinder to your specifications.


How do I scale an angled bone on only two axes? How do i scale on only two axis a bone that is on a diagonal in view 3? Every time i try to scale with ctr alt s i get a longer bone as it were and pressing x/y/z scales the bone in the wrong direction since it is at an angle.

Select pivot you do not want to move, press Shift + S  Snap Cursor to Selection , press . (Period) key select 3D Cursor the bone will then scale away from the 3D Cursor. Don't forget to press . (Period) and reset to Median Point afterwards.

To see through one bone to another you can toggle Xray in the top right hand corner of the viewport
This will put the bone in the right place, but it will not connect it. To do that, you might be better off not using duplicate (Shift + D ), but rather using extrude (E ), which will branch out a new, connected, parented bone from whatever bone is selected.
I'm not sure what you want here, but if the 3D cursor way is what you need, remember to switch over to the bone tab in the properties editor and change the new bone's parent, probably also checking the box Connected.


Object renders black with UV mapped image? I have an image texture UV mapped on a cylinder. Im trying to render the cylinders in white but they render in black. Any way to change this? Not sure if my node setup is correct. I have several lights in the scene btw..

I've had this problem in the past when using glossy, glass or transparent materials with an alpha.

Here is the correct setup for alpha textures with a glossy (same process for glass and transparent).

You can remove the transparent node if you don't need it.

The Curve node is there in case the black or the white are a little bit grey in the alpha.

NB there is an invert node for when I use inverted alphas. Not useful here.


Absolute Value in BGE I have an Game Property called Speed (it is an Integer). I want to use that property to display the speed that my vehicle is going on a speedometer. When the vehicle is going in reverse, the speed value becomes negative, seriously confusing the poor gauge. How can I make the Integer Speed always positive?

This can be done by having two integer properties. One called SpeedRaw and another called SpeedCorrected - the names really do not matter, you will be fine as long as you know which is which.

You simply need to check if SpeedRaw is negative. If it is, it will assign SpeedCorrected the value of SpeedRaw *-1. If SpeedRaw is positive, SpeedCorrected will simply be the same as SpeedRaw.

The end result works as follows:

This also works for float values, however the second property sensor needs to detect when SpeedRaw is greater than 0, not -1.


Glass looking wierd in rendered result That's the glass in the  rendered viewport shading. But when i render it, its coming out totally wierd.

How do i go about this please

You most likely have modifiers that are not visible in render mode, changing the way it will look. Make sure that every modifier is enabled for rendering.


Confusing problem when I'm trying to mix Diffuse with Glossy shader Alright, so I have a confusing problem when I'm trying to mix together a Diffuse and a Glossy shader. To be more precise, this is how the scene I'm trying to create looks like with only the Diffuse shader active:

Then, when I'm adding the Glossy shader, it looks like this:

Is this normal? I mean, it seems to work somehow, but why is everything grayed out? I mention that I have a specularity texture that I'm using on the factor socket on the Mix shader. This is how my node setup looks like:

The only way (that I know) to fix this issue is to connect the default image texture (the one that I"m using for the Diffuse shader) to the Glossy shader as well. But from what I learned so far this isn't a good practice.

Am I doing something wrong or that's how it is supposed to look like? Is this the correct workflow?

I've tweaked a lot of settings here and there and I'm thinking that maybe I've messed up something. Do you have any clue on what's going on? :)

Thanks!

The problem appears to be that you're trying to apply techniques common to older raytracing software like Blender Internal to a physically-based rendering engine - cycles in this case.

It's a real problem if you come from a world of specular maps, shadow maps, bump maps, displacement maps and so on.

Some of these maps are simply there to help the fake the look of objects in the real world. Indeed, I use maps in my own ubershader which allow me to include metals, paints, glass and even holdouts all in a single (albeit complicated) map image.

It's really hard to wrap your head around physically-based rendering, but once it clicks, you won't want to go back to the old methods.

For basic specularity the following:

The two shaders - diffuse (also called albedo) which is your colour and only the colours.
A mix shader to make sure that the light leaving the scene does not exceed the amount of light entering it.
A fresnel node to keep the mix looking as it should.

Try a setup like this:

and experiment with the IOR value in the fresnel node: values below 1 are not physically accurate and values above 2 are getting outside of a reasonable range too - but you can use them if you like the effect!

That's really all there is to it. You can feed the colour input of the diffuse node with your image and let Cycles do the rest.

If you're doing metallic objects, remember that they don't have any colour of their own (by and large) and get everything from their environment. There are a few exceptions like gold, but metals are so hard that pretty much all light bounces right off them. There are also fresnel effects for a very few metals such that the fringe around the object (a sphere is great for experimenting on) changes colour.

You can see these effects here. An IOR of 1.25 gives a nice effect (and is reasonable for objects like this but as we push it higher you can see how the light appears to creep around the edges. When I push it to ridiculous levels (5 in the example) you can see the entire surface looks unreal.

One area where you might want to use a specular map (or at least, the equivalent) is where you have a wet surface such as a road with puddles. The puddles are reflective and the road is a dielectric (a fancy word for non-metal).

I get around this using the fact that the colour in real-life is limited so that no colour should be darker than 20% or brighter than 80% (0.2 to 0.8 in your Cycles engine.)

This allows you to cheat by putting areas of 100% white or 100% black on the image and then filtering using a value node to switch to a different shader group.

Here's a simple node setup - not that where I've used a chequer texture to make the effect visible, you'd plug in your albedo/specular map and area that's 100% black or very dark using these values, gets the glossy treatment. I left the fresnel out of this to keep the node setup cleaner.

and the result:


Trying to retrieve current frame number for use in Cycles particle age material I'm trying to create a cycles material to make a particle flare out when it dies in a collision with another particle using Blender 2.72a.
I've managed to get particles to attack and kill other particles using Boid physics, but getting the dead particles to do anything besides disappear or sit there is proving to be a prickly problem.
I'm spit-balling several approaches.  My current attempt is to drive emission strength and transparency based on how untimely a particles death is.  A particle that dies in a collision will have a velocity of zero and an age less than it's lifetime.  However, since dead particles report 0 for their age, you can't use that to determine if a particle just died unnaturally, or if it expired a hundred frames ago.
I can get around this if I can retrieve the current frame number for the scene and I've even got the code snippet:
bpy.data.scenes['CYCLES'].frame_current
I saved it as a script and referenced it in a Script Node that I was able to add to my particle seed, but I can't access the retrieved value.
I was thinking of modifying the scriptlet to populate a global variable or attribute with the frame number and then access it with the Attribute node.
So how can I store the current frame number in a way accessible to the material editor?
I've included a link to my blend file.  The correct answer doesn't have to implement my code.  If you've got an idea that has nothing to do with python, I still want to hear it.

One way is to animate it:

Add a value node (⇧ ShiftA)
On the first frame set the value to the frame number (in this case 1) and press I while hovering over the input field.
Do the same for the last frame.
Change the keyframe interpolation to Linear (T) in the graph editor.

Ideally you could just type #frame into the value node, however it seems the value only updates when you toggle in and out of edit mode (or in some way cause the object to re-evaluate). It doesn't update automatically when rendering :/

Hopefully this will be fixed with the new depsgraph :)


Bevel specific edges How would one curve specific edges while leaving others alone? I'm trying to model this (circled) object, But can't figure out how to bevel side edges and leave the front-edge flat.

Tried using the bevel modifier in combination with edge creases but that apparently has no effect, not sure what else to do, as I am still very new to modeling/blender.

Using the interactive bevel tool
You can select the specific edges you want to bevel (switch to edge selection mode to make this easier, press Ctrl + Tab in Edit mode and select Edge) and use Ctrl + B and drag to interactively adjust the bevel, additionally roll the scroll wheel to add in edge loops to round out the bevel. To bevel a single vertex, use Ctrl + Shift + B.

Using the bevel modifier
Another way is to select the edges, add them to a vertex group from the Object Data panel and then use that group as input for the bevel modifier by choosing Vertex Group under Limit Method. This method is non-destructive meaning you can easily revert/make any changes by deleting the group or updating it.

NB: While you might select edges, the bevel modifier actually works on vertices so depending on your selections, results can vary. When using it, try to keep the edges connected and not spaced or leave gaps.


Black turns transparent in Blender texture My texture has some black text (on right side of picture,) and also a transparent background. But the text also is transparent?!? Plus I must keep the text black.

Picture:

Please help.

Plug the "Alpha" output in the Image Texture node to the "Factor" input in the Mix Shader node, and swap diffuse shaders if necessary.


How to set quaternion rotations for bones in Blender Python I'm working on an import script and I am getting stuck on doing armatures properly.

So far I have been creating edit bones and I have it mostly looking correct, but while the directions that the bones are pointing in are correct, their roll rotations are wrong. And that is quite important.

Is there any examples of how to do this properly? Should I use pose mode instead? Would using pose mode screw up vertex weights when I get to that part?

Could someone show me a code snippet of how to properly set positions and rotations for bones for an import script?

So, in the end I ended up creating the bones using new() then I converted by absolute rotation to matrix and transformed the bone by that. Then after that I added the absolute position to both the head and the tail of each bone and that got me the correct result.

    for i, node in enumerate(jms.nodes):
        scene_node = edit_bones.new(name=NODE_NAME_PREFIX+node.name)

        # Assign parent if index is valid.
        scene_node.parent = scene_nodes.get(node.parent_index, None)

        # If a node has multiple children we cannot connect its tail end
        # to the children.

        pos = absolute_transforms[i]['translation']
        rot = absolute_transforms[i]['rotation']

        # Bones when created start at 0 0 0 for their tail and head.
        # We extend the tail so it sticks out a bit and signifies the direction.

        scene_node.tail = (scene_node.bbone_x, 0.0, 0.0)

        # We then rotate the bone by the absolute rotation that it should have.

        scene_node.transform(rot.to_matrix(), scale=False)

        # Then we add the absolute location to both the head and the tail.

        scene_node.head += Vector(
            (pos[0] * scale, pos[1] * scale, pos[2] * scale))
        scene_node.tail += Vector(
            (pos[0] * scale, pos[1] * scale, pos[2] * scale))


Ortho Viewport is rendering some hidden/covert Edges in Edit Mode For some reason, part of the Edges that are behind Geometry, still get drawn in the scene. The object neither has XRay enabled  nor is "limit selection to visible" active. "Backface Culling" also seems not to be the problem. This only appears in Ortho View and not in Perspective View. Any ideas?
Perpective View:

The problem is the clipping. I'm not sure whether it's a bug or not but lowering the end value solves the issue. Your clip value

lower clip value


How to bake lightmap to a simplified duplicate object? I am importing models from magicavoxel, and then lighting them in blender. I have a high-res model which contains all the materials (as vertex colors) and emitters.

It renders nicely in cycles:

I've worked out how to duplicate the mesh, remove materials and "remove doubles" then "limited dissolve" to create a low poly version of the mesh.

However - I can't work out how to bake from the high res mesh to the low res mesh. I have tried going to "cycles settings" on the low poly standin and disabling "Camera" from Ray Visibility - but when I bake the texture - I just get a big green smudge, I can't see any of the vertex colors baked into the standin:

Can someone explain to me how I should use cycles to bake the lightmap onto the low-poly duplicate?

Limited dissolve with default settings, in most cases can destroy the UV map.
To avoid that you need to enable UVs, in the operator panel in Delimit section.


How to create an edge between 2 selected edges? I'm a 3dsmax user, I'd like to ask how in Blender, we can "Connect Edges".

Please don't confuse it with loop subdivide (https://docs.blender.org/manual/ko/dev/modeling/meshes/editing/subdividing/loop.html).

I don't mean an entire edge loop. I'd just like to connect select edges. I've attached a simple image explaining it.

Connect Edges with 3DSMAX. NOT edge looping(CTRL+R)

In Edge Mode, select the two edges you want to connect, and W > Subdivide, (or  W S).

If you're looking for an effect similar to the 3DS  'Pinch' and'Slide' you can get somewhere near by connecting edges as described with one cut, selecting it, and using CtrlShiftR (Offset Edge Slide) for the pinch, and an ordinary GG for the slide, Not quite as flexible, there's an extra edge in the way.. but it's quick.

As always, it's worth checking out the options for these operators in the tool region.


Cloth sim not obeying hooks I have been studying techniques for creating cloth rigs recently and I hit a snag with what looks to be the commonly agreed upon solution for cloth that must move with bones, which is hooking certain vertices of the cloth to the bones of the armature.

What happens is my hooked vertices get disproportionately stretched and the rest of the mesh geometry doesn't follow realistically.

Here is a very simplified illustration of the problem (1 mesh with 3 verts hooked to bones):

In this example simple edges are used, but extruding to add volume to the cloth doesn't improve it, so I don't think that's the problem. Also, I first observed this on planar cloth meshes.

Is this a problem with my settings (I've tried many configurations), or a bug, or ...what?

Thanks

Cloth pinning option works regardless of modifiers. So there is no need in using Hook modifier on top of Armature to exclude some vertices from Cloth simulation.

Fixed file with deleted Hooks (from author's comment):


Locking plane for a long period When I am modeling and know I will only be transforming across X/Y for a while, I would like to lock Z for an extended period instead of having to press Shift+Z every time I transform. Is there anyway to lock a plane for a long period?

Just lock the transformations in the properties panel (N)- click the padlock icon of the axis you want to lock.


How to add Area lights to gltf? I want to export my scene as gltf from blender and use it in my web app with three.js.
I checked "Include punctual lights" when exporting but I read that this only exports Point/Spot/Directional lights.
What about Area lights ? How do I achieve the effect of Area light in my web 3D scene ?

As of April 2021, area lights are only a proposal for the glTF format. Unless and until they become part of the format, you'd need to recreate the lights in three.js.
One workaround would be to put metadata about the lights onto empties in Blender, as Custom Properties. The custom properties can be exported with glTF "extras", and become available to three.js as object.userData, which you can use to construct new objects at runtime.


How do I make objects in my bpy script have transparent materials? I'm working with an old python script that renders three spheres in Blender using the bpy module.
Each of these spheres has a unique material (they're simply red, blue, and green spheres, respectively). I want the red sphere to be slightly transparent. Below, I have my function for creating this transparent material:
def create_material(r, g, b, alpha=None):
    '''
    Creates a new material with optionally specified alpha vals.
    So far, I only use this on the red sphere. The green and blue spheres have mats
    assigned from bpy.materials.get() which I don' know how to use anymore nor where those
    materials are "coming from".
    '''
    new_material = data.materials.new(name="MyNewMaterial")

    if alpha:
        new_material.diffuse_color = (r, g, b) # setting the color
        new_material.alpha = alpha # Setting what I believe to be the value for transparency

        # Here, I simply copy/pasted what I found related to my problem on StackExchange
        #  but it does not work.
        new_material.transparency_method = 'Z_TRANSPARENCY'
        new_material.use_transparency = True
        bpy.context.object.show_transparent = True

        # Return this new material
        return new_material

    new_material.diffuse_color = (r, g, b)
    return new_material

Even with the above function, I can't seem to create a transparent sphere in the scene. It always shows up as though the alpha value doesn't matter. To me, that implies either the alpha value I'm setting isn't being used or the material is being overwritten somewhere but I don't know where and am having difficulty debugging since I've forgotten most of Blender (this script is about two years old).
How can I make an object transparent?
Thanks!

This sets up a Principled BSDF using the transmission input for transparency. It also throws all the renderer switches for Eevee to show the transparency.
import bpy

name="MyMaterial"
overwrite=True

if(overwrite is True) and ( name in bpy.data.materials ):
    blenderMat = bpy.data.materials[name]

else:
    blenderMat = bpy.data.materials.new(name)
    name = blenderMat.name

    # get the nodes
blenderMat.use_nodes=True
nodes = blenderMat.node_tree.nodes
    # clear all nodes to start clean
for node in nodes:
    nodes.remove(node)
    # link nodes
links = blenderMat.node_tree.links

    #create the basic material nodes
node_output  = nodes.new(type='ShaderNodeOutputMaterial')
node_output.location = 400,0
node_pbsdf    = nodes.new(type='ShaderNodeBsdfPrincipled')
node_pbsdf.location = 0,0
node_pbsdf.inputs['Base Color'].default_value = (0.8, 0.05, 0.05, 1.0)
node_pbsdf.inputs['Alpha'].default_value = 1 # 1 is opaque, 0 is invisible
node_pbsdf.inputs['Roughness'].default_value = 0.2
node_pbsdf.inputs['Specular'].default_value = 0.5
node_pbsdf.inputs['Transmission'].default_value = 0.5 # 1 is fully transparent

link = links.new(node_pbsdf.outputs['BSDF'], node_output.inputs['Surface'])

blenderMat.blend_method = 'HASHED'
blenderMat.shadow_method = 'HASHED'
blenderMat.use_screen_refraction = True

bpy.context.scene.eevee.use_ssr = True
bpy.context.scene.eevee.use_ssr_refraction = True


Cleanup Vertex Weights Is there any way to cleanup/remove empty vertex weights?  Namely, on each vertex in a mesh, remove any vertex weights that have a value of zero or something close to it.

Note that I am referring to something more distinct than vertex groups.  When you have a vertex selected, a "Vertex Weights" tab will appear in the Properties Panel, and it will list all of the vertex weights affecting a particular vertex.

Stuff like that in the image.  I'd like something to remove all of the vertex weights that are at 0 from each vertex.  Or any that have a weight of less than 0.001, since the display there only seems to go out to 3 digits past the decimal point.

You want to be in Weight Paint Mode.  From there, goto Weights >> Clean.  The settings for which threshold you want (if its other than zero) can be found on the tool shelf, on the Clean Vertex group Properties.


Displacement Maps in cycles from Zbrush not rendering properly I'm trying to render a mesh with a displacement map imported from Zbrush in Blender Cycles.

The sculpt and the map (as you can see in the image below) look fine, but the render in Cycles creates some weird 'artifacts' on some details... Actually, I've never managed to make displacement maps work correctly on Blender :( Tried to use the displacement modifier (which gives even weirder results) and the material nodes (rendered in the image).

The mesh itself is also imported from Zbrush (the lowest subdiv level).

Problem solved!

I talked to a friend and he said that since the displacement map deforms the mesh according to the face normals (never knew that), I needed a normal map to smoothen the faces altogether before applying the displacement.

Material node setup as follows:


Find the largest open editor window, split it and set its type I currently have

class OpenNodeEditor(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Open the node editor"""
    bl_idname = "scene.open_node_editor"
    bl_label = "Open Node Editor"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    def execute(self, context):
        bpy.ops.wm.context_set_string(data_path="area.type", value="NODE_EDITOR")

        return {'FINISHED'}

This works, but when I press the button, it switches the space that the button is in (active editor), in this case, the properties editor, to the node editor. How can I make it open up a new section in the layout or open the node editor in the largest open editor?

Your code is working as expected as it is setting the type of the context area, which is where the button is, or the text editor if run from there, or the py console if run from there etc.

You could fix by overriding the wm.context_set_string operator.

However it's prob much easier to find the other area with maximimum area.

import bpy
from bpy.types import Operator
from operator import itemgetter

class OpenNodeEditor(Operator):
    """Open the node editor"""
    bl_idname = "screen.open_node_editor"
    bl_label = "Open Node Editor"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    def execute(self, context):
        screen = context.screen
        areas = [(area, area.width * area.height) for area in screen.areas
                  if area != context.area]
        if len(areas):
            maxarea, a = max(areas, key=itemgetter(1))
            maxarea.type = 'NODE_EDITOR'
        else:
            #split areas
            direction = 'HORIZONTAL' if context.area.width < context.area.height else 'VERTICAL'
            bpy.ops.screen.area_split(direction=direction)
            screen.areas[-1].type = 'NODE_EDITOR'

        return {'FINISHED'}

Also note: your operator above is the equiv of

row = layout.row() # some layout
op = row.operator("wm.context_set_string")
op.data_path = "area.type"
op.value = 'NODE_EDITOR'


Rotation in Blender not working Okay so I have a project my 12 yr old did, so the project was completed but now he wants to continuously rotate a planet. We have did practice in new projects and it worked beautifully. Here is how we are rotating an object: 1. Toggle Camera view 2. Make final frame 90 3. press record 4. press "i" on highlighted object and select rotation for frame one and frame 90. 5. set "z" axis for frame 90 to 360 degrees.
NOW the only step I can't get to work in the project is the toggle camera view. it does not show the whole object in the camera view it only shows a 1/4 of the planet that he is working with. I am not sure if that is the problem. If I apply all those above steps to the project there is no rotation no movement at all. Can someone please help me I have looked all over google for this issue and have no clue. He did not use rotation prior to this and all the objects are just spheres with texture applied or objects pasted to the project from blender market.
Thank you!

In the timeline, go to the first frame of the animation, rotate the object to the desired starting rotation (0 in Z axis). With the object still highlighted, hit "i" and select 'rotation' to set the keyframe.
Go to the last frame of the animation, rotate the object to the desired end rotation (360 in Z for a full rotation). With the object still highlighted, hit "i" and select 'rotation' to set the keyframe.
You have to set both keyframes, or else blender will reset the rotation and will not animate.


Bridge edge loop acting weird between 2 clean edge loops How edges looks like before bridge edge loop:

How mesh looks like after bridge edge loop:

Why is it acting so weird, 8 edges in the first loop, 8 edges in the second loop, that seems simple to connect. Am I doing something wrong?

I think the vanilla "Bridge Edge loop" is not quite efficient.

I tried the "Bridge" tool from "Loop Tools" addon, it works like a charm:

This addon is shipped in Blender. Just enable it in the user preferences and you will find the Loop Tools submenu in the Specials menu (W by default).


How to change highlight color for icons in outliner panel I'm quite colorblind and can't easily see the orange highlight behind the icon of a selected item in the outliner.  I've been all through the themes preferences but the color doesn't seem to come from the outlines sub-panel.  I would be very grateful for any guidance.

The colour in the outliner seems to be linked to the outline colour of the active object in the 3D view.

You can change this colour in User Preferences> Themes> 3D View> Active Object:


Rigid Body stops at the upper surface of a hollow cube I am very new to blender and so forgive me if the question sounds vague. I am trying to create a scenario where I have a hollow bin with cloth on its edges and drop some objects into it (In Blender 2.8). I created the hollow bin by subdividing the default cube and deleting the upper face. later, I added a few planes with cloth simulations which will collide with the cube and rest on it. I have then animated the objects to fall into the cube at a frame where the clothes have settled in. In order to support the collision between the cloth and the active rigid body, I have added passive rigid body properties to the cloth. When I run the simulation, The active rigid body objects do not fall in the cube. Instead, they stop just above the cube and stay there until the simulation ends. I have made all the collision shapes as mesh.
Can someone please help me with the issue.

Possibly your bin needs solid walls and floor (using the Solidify modifier and recalculate outside normals) rather than a cube with upper face removed.


Import Toon Shaded Character to an outside program? I made a character and added toon shading but I can't see it. After some research it seems that toon shading is only visible if you render the image with a camera in the blender scene. I want to import the cel shaded model to Unity so I have to need for a camera or light source since I will have to use Unity's. Is it possible to export a "cel shaded" character?

I cannot say for certain if it can or can't be done, but I would advise against it regardless. Unity comes with a few toon shaders that are fine for most cases and are guaranteed to work with the engine.

What you do instead is that you export the mesh object by itself and build the material you want for it inside Unity. You also assign the texture for it in Unity if your object has one.

If you feel you need more control over the toon shader, there are some solutions over at the Unity Marketplace you could try.


How to bake an object? I have a version 2.90 on blender.I was creating a barrel and I UV unwrapped it and made a new object and named it 'barrel' as well.Now I don't find any option which says bake or anything related to it..
Anyone knows how to do this?Please paste a picture for better understanding

Baking is only avaliable in the Cycles Render Engine.
Switching to Cycles in Render Properties gives you the needed Baking panel.


Displacement not working correctly So I have some displacement for the top plane of my model. The displacement raised the plane. I figured out the cause. It happened because the edges were somehow split while I was modelling. BUT, when I merge the vertices, the displacement ceases to exist. It looks as if I applied a bump map. I tried modelling again but in vain. I am following a tutorial from youtube.

Here is a link

I'll upload pictures for references

Here is my node setup:

Blend file:

With the Displacement node plugged into the Material Output you're trying to give real displacement to your object. It won't work if you don't give it enough topology, you need to subdivide it.

Also, the Image Texture is supposed to be plugged into the Displacement Height input.

I'm not sure I would use this kind of effect for a hardsurface object though, it works fine for organic object but here it will require a very high-poly mesh, you should try to fake 3D with a Bump node.

Here I've subdivided the mesh to get the Displacement effect:

Here it's a low-poly with 3D faked with a Bump node (plugged into the Normal input of the Diffuse this time):


How can I use nodes to make a Genshin-like grass material? I have tried to make grass just like in Genshin, but it is still not like how I want it in EEVEE.

Game Screenshot

My Grass

It looks like the only thing you're missing is some color variation for each blade of grass.
If each blade of grass is an individual object, you can create variation with Object Info -> Random plugged into a Hue/Saturation node.

If you have a clump of grass where multiple blades comprise the same object but each blade is separate, you need to mix in Geometry -> Random Per Island.


Why can't I delete this texture slot? I can't delete a texture slot. For some reason I don't have the X button there or minus. There's not even a delete option and I don't know what else I can do.

Solved: After a few hours i found an answer, it was just holding a shift while selecting unlinking.

If you try to delete it in edit mode it won't let you. Make sure you're in Object mode.


How to have editor panes in the workspace be different editor types I am using Blender 2.8 (Windows 10).  I have now been able to create two editor panes in the same workspace (see this Q/A).  The new editor pane(s) is set to the same editor type as the existing pane.   Trying to change one pane's editor type changes the other pane's editor type.  How can you set them to different editor types?  A tutorial suggestions this is possible (screenshots attached).

Editor panes in my blender seem to be locked to be of the same type.  Changing one type changes the other's type to the same type:

Screenshot of splash screen with version:

Ok this isn't possible.  What's being show in the video is opening a different Editor Type which is possible.  What the question is asking for is opening the same Editor Type but with a different Editor Mode.  And this isn't possible: perhaps because the contextual interface on the right would be confusing as it would depend on which editor pane you were in.


Big gap in between sewing Hi, there seems to be a big gap where the two planes are supposed to meet. I have attached 2 pictures which shows the settings for the cloth simulation and sewing effect

The clothing simply isn’t large enough to fit around your model. Either increase the garment’s size or decrease the ‘Outer’ in the collision mesh’s Collision settings.


How do I make sure my objects are always touching the grid floor? I want to use the grid as an imaginary floor.

Is there a mathematical operation to make sure that no matter the length of the object that the bottom of the object is always touching the grid?

Apparently the grid is on 0,0,0 xyz coordinates. If I place my object on the same coordinates it just slashes my object in half. I don't want that. I want the bottom to be on that coordinate.

HA HA! I was going ask this but I think I'm on to it.

What I did is I've gone to edit mode, chose to only select vertex points, selected a bottom vertex point. Copied the Z axis location which was -3.22222 then, I've chosen to select the whole object with A, and just turned that - into a + for the z axis of the whole object and voila we've got a winner.

Someone tell me if this is the correct way or if there's a different way.

There are different ways. If your object has a bottom face that is supposed to touch the plane on z = 0, you select that face in edit mode, call shift+s, cursor to selection.
Then switch to object mode and change your object's origin by selecting origin to 3D cursor, as shown here:

Then, still in object mode, you can move your object to z = 0 by entering the value directly into the coordinates box.


VSE animated mask with scenes? Ok so in a nutshell, I want to make a video that has 2 pictures that overlap eachother, and the overlap is animated, like this:

The clips are in the VSE:

And the blend file(with photos): https://www.dropbox.com/s/xiztxtvxtzmvm5n/Unicycle.zip?dl=0
But I want to add in a black line right where the 2 clips meet.
Help please?

There is no hard edge built in to the wipe effect. Only blur width. You could make a  black bar .PNG then use the Transform effect to rotate it at the same time. You could use this addon http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?280731-VSE-Transform-tool it makes interacting withe the VSE transforms much easier.


Joining text objects and cube I have a cube and created Text objects on all sides of the cube. After converting the text objects in meshes this is the result:

After joining all text meshes and the cube (selected the cube as the last one) this is the result:

Question: What is happening here? Why is my "W" suddenly changed?

The issue is, as @TARDIS Maker pointed out the sub surf modifier that you applied to the dice object. Its effects are being applied to the text. To rectify this you can add a mean crease to the text to prevent the sub surf from taking effect. Select the vertices that make up the text and use Shift-E then 1. This will make your text appear exactly as before (Unlike holding edges which will cause minor rounding) with the added benefit of not having to apply the modifier (Maintaining a non-destructive workflow).


How to join two vse video edit projects? I have a second part for my video editing project in the VSE that I have edited separately. I would like to append it to the main part, so that I could combine the strips, cuts and so on. How can I do it?

The append feature in the main menu seems to be designed for other purposes. But for someone like me that only uses Blender as a video editor, that seems not to be the answer.

I'm assuming you have File1 and File2, and want to transfer the clips from File1 to File2.

Open File2 and select File > Append ShiftF1.
Navigate to File1 and "open" it. In Append mode we can view the contents of the file. Click on the scene folder of the file and select the scene, which you want to append. You can see the name of the scene in File1, if you open it and look in the top Header/Info Bar.
After selecting and appending the extra scene you can switch to it in the current File2. Since both scenes in File1 and File2 had the same name, the appended scene from File1 was renamed to Scene.001.

Open the scene originally from File1 (but now in File2), select all strips and copy them with Ctrl C.
Open the other scene and paste the strips.


Ctrl P isn't working when connecting my armature to my mesh! Everyone keeps saying CtrlP in all of the tutorials and all of the helps forums but CtrlP just isn't working for me. If anyone can link to an online file that I can see or anyone have any suggestions why it isn't working. I mean, I just downloaded 2.79 today and I've been working with Blender for years, so why is this not working for me?

Based on your question it might be very simple:
If you really tried connecting an armature to a mesh, then it can't work, because it has to be the other way around.

First select the Mesh, then hold Shift while selecting the Armature, then CtrlP and you should get this menu:


How to use Displace and Solidify modifiers to produce constant thickness I'm modeling an insect carapace with indentations for 3D printing using the Solidify and Displace modifiers, and am struggling to produce a dented surface with a (nearly) fixed thickness.
Indentations are generated using a UV texture and Displace. Using the Solidify modifier before Displace makes indentations on the inner surface opposite the outer surface, producing thin areas incompatible with 3D printing. Putting Displace after Solidify predictably produces inverted mushrooms around each indentation.

What I want is to have indentations on the outside and bumps on the inside, producing a constant thickness. Failing that, I'd be happy with a means to suppress displacement on the inner surface.
I know of one "solution" I've used before, which is to apply Solidify, UV unwrap, and texture only the outer surface. However, this considerably reduces subsequent editing flexibility. Is there a way to order/tweak modifiers (or use an alternative strategy) to get the desired result?

You can use custom vertex groups in the Solidify and Displace modifiers in order to keep the inner surface intact.
First add a vertex group to your mesh.

In the solidify modifier, expand the Output Vertex Group foldout, and set the Shell group to be your new vertex group.
Also, in the displace modifier, set the vertex group field. You might need to invert the effect with the double sided arrow next to the field.

Result (with a subdivided plane for simplicity)

On Suzanne (probably not the best model for that since there is a lot of mesh intersection but I hope you get the point)


Import/Export problem for .obj files in Blender 2.79 I'm using Blender 2.79. Importing and exporting .obj files worked fine. Then I uninstalled blender and reinstalled. Now I can't able to import/export .obj files. Then I tried back Blender 2.78c. No error popped up this time! -_- .

Can someone please explain?

Error:

I had similar problem. It's caused by Widnows Defender Security Center.
I solved it by opening Security Center -> Apps & browser control -> Check apps and files set to off


Locking an object's pivot point in game engine In the game engine, how do you lock an object's translation while letting it freely rotate?

I've got a record with grooves, with random noise added to all vertices in the z direction.

The needle/arm should drop into a groove on the record, and be free to rotate about the end of the arm as the grove moves up and down.

If I lock the x/y/z translations of the arm, it doesn't move at all. I don't understand why this doesn't simply lock the pivot point, and give me the desired affect.

If I understand the question correctly, the needle is holding the arm up, as it cannot move, only rotate. (locking the translations does let it rotate, but it gets held whereever it starts.)

If that is the case, then you need Rigid Body Joint constraints.
Then the needle will be able to move, but only in relation to the arm.

Here is a quick setup:


Move the camera view display back to the center of the screen. Something strange happened yesterday when I was working on a model. The camera just moved to the right in preview, and I have no idea what I did, nor what to search for. I'm not really sure what to do to get it back to the center..

In camera-view, press shift + middle mousebutton, then move your mouse and reposition your cameraview.

Alternatively your keyboard might have Pos1, works for you as well.


Why the lenses won't follow the glasses? I have joint both the lenses and the glasses frames.
Before that I Parented the lenses to the glasses.
I also used the same Armature modifier.
All the above without avail.

badglasses.blend

It turns out that I had forgotten to assign the vertices to the "head" Vertex Group in the Armature mod (rolling eyes)! Thanks to MadeWithFeet from BlenderArtists that called it up.


Offset spline vectors each on his own origin. (Animation Nodes) I would like to replicate an animation as we can see here below with AN;

https://twitter.com/archillect/status/1068306137341194250

however I have difficulties to displace from each vector origin. Resulting in something like below.

Is it possible to have a offset according to each vector position?

One of the nice things about circles is that their points' locations are also the normals at those points. So simply scaling a circle's points locations based on frequency bins and adding that to the location gives you what you want:


how do i fix these distortions on my mesh that do not stem from misaligned vertices I have an issue with the vertices on the bottom of my chair leg. there are weird distortions happening that do not align with the placement of the vertices.

I noticed that the vertices in question (both bottom and top ring in the view) are not connected in blender like an edge loop usually would (it does for the leg on the other side). What I mean with that, is that when I select an edge with shift + alt + left click or create an edge loop (crtl + r) , it does not wrap around all the way, but is discontinued.

I'm assuming that my problem is related to this, because somehow blender does not view this as a complete edge ring. Is there a way to connect these vertices properly, so that they behave how you'd expect them to? By the way, I added those creases, because there were some weird distortions on my UV-Map around this area, I am assuming that this is related to the same problem, because neither of the problems showed up in the chair tutorial from Blender Guru.

You've created some creases (the purple edges), probably to get sharp edges, and didn't delete them, it messes with your topology. So select all in Edit mode and, in the N panel on the top right of your 3D view > Item tab, bring back the Mean Crease value to 0.