Is there a way to add fake thickness to an alpha image texture? I'm using Cycles I want to add thickness to a texture with alpha transparency like @rich-sedman do in his nice answer here:
How can I make a hexagonal grill?
But this time with an image texture (jpg+mask or png/tiff) not a mathematically generated one.
It can be separated planes or solidify modifier, I don't mind, even if solidify would be better.
I've already seen things about parallax mapping but not sure it's suitable and as good as this one.

Edit 1

A reference image of what kind of texture I use
https://www.textures.com/download/metalvarious0044/61614
The point of my question is that it can be seen from a side angle and not looks like a paper sheet.

Resolved

The answer of Rich is working, it's not perfect, no material on the volume, quite expensive and volume don't seem to work with UVmaps, only generated or object so for array it's complicate. But if it's not for a close shot it makes the joke.

There is another way - using a similar technique to the procedural hex shader defined here to displace additional Image Textures to "fill in" the faked depth.

The following nodes will generate the required offset based on the surface Normal, the Incoming ray, and the 'depth' behind the image plane :

The output vector can be used as an offset to the Image Texture coordinates and used to mix between a Transparent and Diffuse shader to project a faked "shadow" where the back surface would reside based on the specified 'depth'.

Taking this a step further we can "fill in" the depth by generating multiple 'layers' at different depths - eg, 8 layers at 0.125, 0.250, 0.375, 0.500, 0.625, 0.750, 0.875, 1.000 - by varying the 'Factor' of the MixRGB Subtract node.

Since the faked depth is generated on the image plane (it's all one flat surface rather than additional geometry), the surface normal is the same for the projected 'edges' as it is for the rest of the image. For additional realism we need to be able to generate a faked Normal for the projected layers and for this we need to be able to detect the 'direction' of the closest edge for any point in the original image.

To achieve this, take the Alpha channel from the original image and pass it through a Blur filter in an external graphics package such as Gimp (you could potentially use Blender compositor nodes to do this and save as a separate image but it's far simpler to use a tool more suited to the job).

Passing this blurred image into a Bump node will generate a Normal for each point - which will tend to point "outwards" towards the edge of the alpha "island" for each pixel in the image.

We can use the Cross Product vector math node to generate a faked normal based on the bump map that is perpendicular to the actual surface normal and is pointing in the direction of the closest edge from that point.

The Cross Product produces a vector that is perpendicular to both of the input vectors. Therefore, the first Cross Product with Normal produces a vector that is along the surface but that is at 90 degrees to the bump map generated 'normal' while the second Cross Product produces a vector that is at 90 degrees to that (so it's in the direction of the 'bump') which is also at 90 degrees to the surface normal (so it's along the direction of the surface) - ie, the Normal of the 'edge' of the projection.

The generated Normal can then be applied to each of the 'layers' to build up into the associated 'edge'.

Note that the 'edge' will not be correctly shadowed since the 'image' is still only rendered on a single plane - ie, it will not cast shadows on itself and shadows on other geometry will be limited to rays that pass through the image plane. it will also become distorted when viewed at progressively shallower angles. Note also that this will only work be effective if the 'layers' are sufficiently close together to prevent the rays traveling too far 'into' the image (otherwise the normal will be calculated for the opposite edge). However, it can produce quite pleasing results providing the viewing angle is not too shallow.

Note that there are multiple Image Texture nodes and each must be set appropriately - the 'main' Image Texture and the first column should be set to the actual image while the second column set to the 'blurred alpha' image.

Here's the final result :

Despite appearances there is no additional geometry here - the depth is purely faked and the only geometry is the plane.

Blend file attached

While not suited to UV mapping (since the material cannot determine the scale or orientation of the face), it can be used with Object coordinates to allow the pattern to be repeated (change the Image Texture nodes to Repeat). Also, the Color of the Diffuse shaders can be fed from each 'layer' image rather than being set to a single color - so that the 'surface' color bleeds back along the projected surface. This can produce the following effect :


convert a .fbx model to threejs with textures I have an insanely detailed .fbx model that I need to optimize and export to threejs. It comes with a lot of texture files which I need too bake into one image to go with the threejs model. Unfortunately I can't upload the model as it is proprietary. I need some direction though, I am completely lost at the moment.

Basically three points i would like an answer to:

-make a single image from a whole gamut of textures.

-convert a .fbx model to threejs, with aforementioned texture.

-optimise it all to run with limited resources.

Thanks in advance

Okay, so thanks to Duarte for the direction. Here's what I ended up doing for anyone having a similar issue.

I started by importing the FBX into blender, then joined all the objects so I had a single large object.

Then I added a decimate modifier, made a copy of the object and removed all materials from the copy, after which I added a new blank material.

To end up with a single texture I made a new blank image in the UV Editor (size 4096x4096) and made a smart UV projection of the texture-less model. Then I baked the textures from the textured model into a single image and assigned it to the blank image used as a texture on the second model.

This video helped a lot.

I'm still working on the export, but I'll post an edit when I have the process pinned down.

EDIT: I ended up exporting to collada. It has an efficient loader in threejs and is easy to work with. Blender has a built in exporter.


Don't have ADD IMAGE SEQUENCE option in Texture ( Shader ) guys need help was creating rain effect by CG GEEK
but having an issue
i am not having ADD " image sequence " in texture so i cant add one please help

In the Shader Editor you can find it under Add -> Texture:

In the Compositor under Add -> Input:


Imported object shows aligned to the wrong axis I was doing fine with importing an obj I made in Marvelous Designer into Blender for rigging.  The dress would settle nicely on my SL avi.

Now when I import the object; it is perpendicular to my avi and I have spent a week trying to figure out what I did...  Is there a keystroke or setting that I need to make sure is correct so that my dress fits my avatar again?

Most import/export types have an option to alter the Forward and Up alignment. Try some different options to find which one matches your exported data.


"Keep offset" connecting the wrong ends of the bones I am having trouble with the "keep offset" function that keeps on connecting the wrong ends of the bones together ! As on this picture here, where the dotted line should link the two closest ends of the bones and not the farthest :

Would you have the solution ?

Thanks a lot,

Antoine

I am sorry, but I have finally understood the problem. It was very simple, just needed to select the bones in the other order...

Sorry !


blender cloth simulation not simulating properly with collision im trying to get the hang of blender cloth simulation for an upcoming project of mine but for some reason when i add collision to the human its attached to so as to allow it respond with physics..it went crazy then i increased the gap between them and its still giving annoying reusltslike in the screenshots

EDIT
The blend file with the updated cloth sim file but now its self collision that goes crazy
The new blend file with changed values

maybe increasing the gap will give a better result but it will look too horrible if there is a work around for this i would really appreciate it
and sorry i cant post more images due to my rep

Add more loop cuts to the skirt (i.e., with CTRL-R), to make the mesh faces more square.  I added about 5 cuts between each of yours, and it simulates much better now.  It will start to look jumbled at first, but it should straighten out by around frame 40.  This will of course make the mesh much bigger.  You can also do coarser (but still squarish) faces and use a subdivision surface modifier.


Ocean Modifier does not work I tried to use the Ocean Modifier, but couldn't get anything that resembles a realistic ocean. I tried everything from subdividing and distorting, to generating and playing with all the parameters. Nothing worked, I even tried changing the choppiness to some absurd value (see screenshot below). I don't need the ocean animated, just a freeze version of an animated ocean. So I also added Keyframes at Frame 1 and 100, but did not get a result there, either.

Update: Here's an example with lots of parameters tweaked, where I would expect to see any rough ocean surface, I only get a distorted plane:

Resolution of the mesh vs Resolution of the simulation
There are two possible mode to take advance of the Ocean modifier.
As stated by the Blender Manual's page:

Generate
Creates a tiled mesh grid that exactly corresponds with the resolution of the simulation data

or

Displace
Uses the existing geometry rather than replacing it. Vertices are displaced along the local Z-axis.

Basically, with Generated option enable a new mesh is generated. It resolution is the same of the simulation, and what it is inheriting from the starting objects are just transformation properties (location, rotation, scale, keyframes... and things like that). The geometry of the object doesn't matter

Switching to Displace option, means you are asking Blender to move the vertices of the mesh on the local Z axis (so keep an eye on the mesh rotation) according to a simulation.
If your starting geometry is made up of a single plane, increasing the resolution of the simulation won't result in a more detailed output, as it can be express only with already existing vertices only (4).

You'll have to increase the mesh-to-be-displaced too. You can use, for example, a subdivision surface modifier stacked above the Ocean modifier:


How to use the PIP library in Blender I just got started with Blender and my main interest is to use code to generate 3D images. I like what I see, but I do not like the fact that I cannot just use any library I want.

Usually, when using other python distributions ( Conda for example) I would use the following trick in the terminal to install everything I need.

import pip

def install(package):
    pip.main(['install', package])

install('requests')
install('numpy')

This however, gives a huge error in blender.

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/__init__.py", line 13, in <module>
  from pip.commands import commands, get_summaries, get_similar_commands
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/commands/__init__.py", line 7, in <module>
  from pip.commands.freeze import FreezeCommand
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/commands/freeze.py", line 6, in <module>
  from pip.req import InstallRequirement
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/req/__init__.py", line 2, in <module>
  from .req_install import InstallRequirement
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/req/req_install.py", line 11, in <module>
  import pip.wheel
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/wheel.py", line 22, in <module>
  from pip import pep425tags
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/pep425tags.py", line 131, in <module>
  supported_tags = get_supported()
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/pep425tags.py", line 82, in get_supported
  arch = get_platform()
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/pip/pep425tags.py", line 38, in get_platform
  return distutils.util.get_platform().replace('.', '_').replace('-', '_')
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/distutils/util.py", line 103, in get_platform
  distutils.sysconfig.get_config_vars(),
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/distutils/sysconfig.py", line 511, in get_config_vars
  func()
File "/Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/distutils/sysconfig.py", line 443, in _init_posix
  raise DistutilsPlatformError(my_msg)
  distutils.errors.DistutilsPlatformError: invalid Python installation: unable to open /Applications/blender.app/Contents/MacOS/2.71/python/lib/python3.4/config-3.4m/Makefile (No such file or directory)

Can I use pip with blender using this trick? When looking at the error I get the idea that indeed does exist and that I can access it within blender. It is however  also telling me that it doesn't use the right python version.

I am using a mac, but preferably we would have a solution here that works for all systems.

EDIT

I still have not gotten pip to work in Blender but as of Blender 2.70 this is not as necessary anymore because Blender now includes the Numpy library (thanks community!)

What you can do is just delete the python folder from the Blender directory (or move it to have a backup) and Blender will look for python preinstalled on the system. Note that the version must match (current Blender python version is 3.5.0, it works with 3.5.1 though) and environment variables need to be set (at least under Windows).

Info from here.


How to illuminate the edges of an object in the bge First of all, I don't know if this is what I should call that effect. I'd like to illuminate an object's edges once the object is detected by a ray sensor in the game engine. For example, I'd like the edges to turn red when the ray sensor hits an enemy. Ive been looking up tutorials, but I haven't found anything. Please help.

There is no build-in option that provides you an outline effect.

But there are other options. E.g. via GLSL shaders.

Additionally you can create an similar outline by

duplicating the mesh,
scaling it up a little,
assigning it green shadeless color

(This will not result in a one pixel outline.)


Low FPS Blender(viewport) Started using blender, FPS was great, but the UI was flickering. Googled, I didn't have an opengl32.dll in the directory, then added it. UI Flickering gone, but FPS dropped drastically.

Would like some help on optimizing the FPS. I would rather work with the flicker and higher FPS but that's going to destroy my eyes in the long run.

CPU: i7-6700k 4.0 up to 4.4 ghz

GPU: MSI VENTUS OC RTX 2060 Super

RAM: DDR4-3600 32gb 2x16

Here's a trick that will let you see a faster frame rate while sacrificing a few frames here and there while cycling through the animation: Use frame dropping playback. What this does is remove a few frames here and there while playing the animation so that the playback speed looks normal. Don't worry! This does not affect the playback of the  final render. Here's a picture:
FYI this is 2.79. If you use 2.8+, the playback type is next to it.


Blender freeze after hair particle system really strange but im not able to duplicate the particle system from the left wing to the right wing without crashing blender.
I used ctrl + m, x to mirror the wing, maybe some bug here? Also used https://blenderartists.org/t/boundary-aligned-remesh/1149739 to remesh the wings.
i was not able to reproduce the error.
Best, Joseph
https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/m4nGKg4D

If the color in the Viewport Shading is set to Random it will crash, if it set to Material everything works fine.


Some faces appear darker BUT normals are okay I have noticed that sometimes when I model some objects, some face later on appear to be a bit darker than others. Especially after texturing.
I have checked the normals and they are pointing in the right direction. I have tried recalculating normals to see whether it fixes anything but no luck.

I also tried rotating the objects to see whether it is an issue with lighting. Sadly it isn't.

Also, this isn't caused by a normal or bump texture because the problem appears even before I start adding those.
This is the third model I am experiencing this on.

I will appreciate even just an explanation to understand why this happens.

Thanks in advance.

when this happens to me i just select it and apply "faces>shade flat". if someone has a better answer please share.


How to get really defined plane changes? Im trying to do some anatomy practice and I really want to get these types of sharp plane changes on my figures like this image below

I think I have the anatomy and topology right but I can't figure out how to bring out those sharp edges and obvious plane shifts. Anyone know how to do this?

Edit: I mostly box module so a non sculpt mode solution would be preferred

Even though you are using subsurf and manually poly modelling, you can still use sculpt mode and its tools to shape/edit the mesh, without damaging the topology at all, so long as you don't enable DynTopo.

Maybe you've not ventured into 'hard surface modelling', but perhaps surprisingly, that's where I found the kind of techniques you seem to be looking for - i.e. high poly subsurfed machine shapes which have abrupt seams / holes with nice edging - you may find that's closely related to this question.

To create those crisp edges, you need to deliberately counteract the smoothness the subsurf is giving. So, first you need edgeloops running along the lines where you want that sharp delineation. Then, crucially, you need to sharpen that edge so it isn't rounded out by subsurf - either by adding another loop cut on either side of it, or by adding edge creasing.

Extra loop cuts: (pulled in close to define the turn) - are my favoured method. Typically you need two new loop cuts, one on either side of the corner loop, in order to 'pinch' it sharp enough. This does let you individually tweak either side of that corner individually, with edge slide (g,g). The downside is you do have more geometry to deal with, and 'less clear' topology in some sense.

Edge creasing: (shift-e, move cursor outward, click to confirm) can be more easily taken back out (and doesn't upset your other topology) but it doesn't offer as much control, and in order to create corners properly you often have to mess around setting crease amounts on loops that aren't really ones you'd want to crease.


How would I connect these up...? I'm a bit confused as to how I'd connect these up. Basically, I parented the eyes to the H.eye, so where the targets are moved, the eyes follow. However, if the head is rotated too far, the eyes will bulge out due to their lattices staying in place. I've tried mixing and matching by parenting the lattice to the head, the eye, the target etc. in order to get both to follow the head and the eye target naturally.

First, make sure you're in pose mode with your armature. Then, still in Pose mode:

Select both your eye's lattice objects (it will turn back on object mode, no worries)
Shift select the head's bone (it should switch automatically to pose mode, otherwise do it manually)
Hit CtrlP → Set parent to Bone

This way your lattices are following the head's bone.

The only remaining advice I would give you is to use a constraint Child Of on your C_look_target bone, to make it parented to the head's bone.
That way, the eyes, and their target will follow the head, as well as the lattices, which is usually more practical to use when posing.
When you will need to move the head while the eyes target stay still, simply animate the Child Of influence parameter from 1 to 0, and vice versa when you need the opposite behavior.


Why lines seen in Texture Paint When im painting im getting some gray lines on the paint.

When i fill the color i dont get any lines

But when i paint with color with the brush i get those lines.

How to clean those gray color lines. Any suggestion. Thanks

This issue is caused due to the UV edges touching both the black background and the green paint
It also helps when you use a mipmap as the resolution decreases.

To fix this you need to draw a bit over the UV border. This creates something like a padding.

Another way would be to match the background and the colored areas as close as possible.

Additionally a clean UV unwrap would also help a lot as it reduces the ammount of these edge areas.


Blend4Web loading screen I am currently making a project using blend4web, I am quite new to this plugin so please help me out. Upon exporting my project the plugin seem to generate a loading screen with b4w logo, is it possible to change this loading screen?

There is no way to modify the preloader of the "standard" web player without coding. Developers can customize preloaders by using the Blend4Web API: https://www.blend4web.com/api_doc/module-preloader.html


How to add ringing artifacts? A ringing artifact is one where edges will have a sort of high-contrasting banding pattern across them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ringing_artifacts

Even better would be to have multiple ringing bands, as seen here using a sinc filter:

I already have one way of adding this type of artifact by resampling it with a windowed sinc filter in ImageMagick, but I would like to be able to add this in blender directly. How do I do this?

Try using a Sharpen filter in the compositor:


Force triangles only (or warn user) before exporting with built in blender functions I'm making an export script and I want only triangles (no quads or other polygons). To avoid wheel reinvention I'd like to call the "triangulate faces" command (ctrl t while object selected in edit mode) in order to force uniformity before exporting.

If that's not a supported feature I'd be fine popping up a dialog box of some sort warning the user that non triangles were found in the file and won't be included in the export (which I also don't know how to do.)

A working python example of either would be great.

this script triangulates a model.  If you are in Edit mode it will switch to Object mode before triangulation takes place.  If you add bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT') at the end of the script then it will return to Edit mode when completed.

import bpy
import bmesh

if bpy.context.selected_objects:
    for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
        bpy.context.scene.objects.active = obj
        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')

        obj = bpy.context.object
        me = obj.data

        bm = bmesh.new()
        bm.from_mesh(me)
        bmesh.ops.triangulate(bm, faces=bm.faces)

        bm.to_mesh(me)
        bm.free()
        del bm


This looks like camera clipping, but that's adjusted, so is it something else? The clipping field under Camera > Lens is high enough to not clip just about anything, but this image still looks exactly like it's been clipped. The N-panel > View Clip field is up just as high. What am I missing?

Edit: The issue disappeared when I moved the origin of a couple of objects that are pieces copied from much larger objects in another file. They had been a few hundred units away, and I moved them with Object > Transform > Origin to Geometry. However, the clipping distance was much larger than this. I'd saved after that fix, but was able to recover the session and save it for the purpose of uploading it for review, as Mentalist suggested. Cheers!

The issue is indeed with the camera clip point, but you are moving the settings for the wrong camera!

You have several cameras in your scene, but only one of them can be the active camera. In your particular scene the active one called "camera".

You are moving the clip setting for camera.001, which is not the active one...

Set the clip settings for the Active Camera and everything will be fine!


Distance points between frames in motion tracking I am learning how to track points in Blender and was wondering if it is possible to get the distance a point travels when tracking points.
Blender shows a line with 'knots in each frame to show its trajectory but I would like to know if it is possible to get the value of that distance. Would a python interface be needed for this?

This can only be done with a script.
(modified from this Source)
The script outputs a csv file with the coordinates for each tracker.
from __future__ import print_function
import bpy
D = bpy.data

outputFolder= "/set/your/output/directory/here"

printFrameNums = False # include frame numbers in the csv file
relativeCoords = False # marker coords will be relative to the dimensions of the clip

f2=open('export-markers.log', 'w')
print('First line test', file=f2)
for clip in D.movieclips:
    print('clip {0} found\n'.format(clip.name), file=f2)
    width=clip.size[0]
    height=clip.size[1]
    for ob in clip.tracking.objects:
        print('object {0} found\n'.format(ob.name), file=f2)
        for track in ob.tracks:
            print('track {0} found\n'.format(track.name), file=f2)
            fn = outputFolder+'{0}_{1}_tr_{2}.csv'.format(clip.name.split('.')[0], ob.name, track.name)
            with open(fn, 'w') as f:
                framenum = 0
                while framenum < clip.frame_duration:
                    markerAtFrame = track.markers.find_frame(framenum)
                    if markerAtFrame:
                        coords = markerAtFrame.co.xy
                        if relativeCoords:
                            if printFrameNums:
                                print('{0},{1},{2}'.format(framenum, coords[0], coords[1]), file=f)
                            else:
                                print('{0},{1}'.format(coords[0], coords[1]), file=f)
                        else:
                            if printFrameNums:
                                print('{0},{1},{2}'.format(framenum, coords[0]*width, coords[1]*height), file=f)
                            else:
                                print('{0},{1}'.format(coords[0]*width, coords[1]*height), file=f)

                    framenum += 1
f2.close()

Pay attention to the units used.
The script will output coordinates in pixels, where 0,0 is at the bottom left of the frame.
To use a float values, where the frame has coordinates 0 to 1, change relativeCoords = True
To include the frame number as part of the set, use printFrameNums = True


Invert XYZ Euler Rotation Value I nabbed some code that creates created_box object that represents the Arbitrarily oriented minimum bounding box by volume of the selected_object

I get the rotation of the created box like so:

rotX = created_box.rotation_euler[0]
rotY = created_box.rotation_euler[1]
rotZ = created_box.rotation_euler[2]

I want to apply that rotation in reverse to selected_object such that the minimum bounding box is axis-aligned. I think to do this, I need to pass a ZYX euler instead of an XYZ. How would I go about doing this?

I set my selected object's rotation_mode to ZYXand entered the values as

    selected_object.rotation_mode = 'ZYX'
    selected_object.rotation_euler[0] = rotX * -1
    selected_object.rotation_euler[1] = rotY * -1
    selected_object.rotation_euler[2] = rotZ * -1

This rotated the object into the correct position.

Thanks Robert for the link :)


How to set distance between 2 objects? Is there any add-ons where I can adjust the distance between 2 objects accurately? I am not asking about measurement but location objects w.r.t to each other.
For ex:

You can just use a Limit Distance constraint for that. Simply add the constraint in the Constraints properties and set the target to your other object. Set Distance to the distance you require and Clamp Region to 'On Surface'. This will constrain your object to remain on the surface of a sphere projected around the target object.


Glossy reflecting only one object Glossy in camera tracking

I am having some fun with camera-tracking in Blender.
That is my result so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8-GudfIzi0

My question is: how can I make this table reflect the ship?

Nodes are standard Blender's setup for motion tracking.
There is a plane on Backround layer, receiveing the shadow. I tried adding glossy shader to the plane. But then plane is reflecting surroundings (light and skybox) which is breaking the effect.

Good solution for me would be if plane could reflect only the ship, and be transparent to all the other, but I don't know how to approach this.

Do you know any trick that could help me out?

A while back, I found this tutorial on YouTube. Perhaps you can do something similar.

Another thing you could consider is taking a picture of the desk and mapping it onto your shadow-receiving plane. Then try adding glossiness again. This should provide a nicer rendition.


How to only show preview for template_ID_preview? Note

I have tried to be deliberately detailed in this question: please scroll down to the bottom to see the summary of my question. Thank you.

Background

The UILayout template template_ID_preview gives a nice selection popup with a preview image for each element.

I am interested in tapping into this feature to improve display of selectors, but I can't find how to remove the "extra" features (outlined in red).

Here is some python code to show what I mean (MVCE in parts).

Minimal:

l.template_ID_preview(properties_texture.context_tex_datablock(context),
                      "active_texture",
                      new="texture.new",
                      rows=2,
                      cols=5)

Complete:

import bpy
import properties_texture

def texture_selector(self, context):
    l = self.layout
    l.template_ID_preview(properties_texture.context_tex_datablock(context),
                          "active_texture",
                          new="texture.new",
                          rows=2,
                          cols=5)

def register():
    bpy.types.TEXTURE_PT_context_texture.append(texture_selector)

def unregister():
    bpy.types.TEXTURE_PT_context_texture.remove(texture_selector)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Verifiable:

To use this, right click on the active texture button, then select "edit source" to see it in the text editor.

Replace this line:

layout.template_ID(idblock, "active_texture", new="texture.new")

With this:

layout.template_ID_preview(idblock, "active_texture", new="texture.new", rows=2, cols=3)

Then hit Run Script. This will change the UI from this...

...to this:

The new argument is optional and, if left out, it removes the "+", but there is no such arg for the user count, fake user toggle, and unlink (although unlink is optional, its absence does not remove the associated "x" button).

Question

How can the preview be shown (highlighted in green in the first picture) while removing the rest? Would this only work with custom properties instead of, for example, active texture selection like I show in the screenshot?

I want the template to look more like this screenshot that doesn't have any other settings below the selector:

Please note that this is not the same as the preview for materials, textures, etc. that looks like this:

This is the same sort of thing that the sculpt brush selector tool uses to show a large preview for the brushes.

I don't know what version of Blender this was put in (I notice a lot of new ones since the last time I went through them), but there is now a "ui_previews_dynamic_enum" template in the text editor that demonstrates how to use an icon preview enum like this. It doesn't, of course, talk about linking it with built-in collections such as a materials list as @aliasguru mentions.

There is a difference between "ID" properties and other runtime ones.
An ID property has the basic structure for Blender to save it in the file.
Materials, textures, etc, are IDs (they are part of the .blend file), the HDR previews from that add-on are not (they are in a directory in the disk, and previewed in Blender, but they are not saved in a .blend, unless you actually load one into a texture which is then saved).

Firstly, you should understand if you are presenting ID or non-ID properties. If they are just temporary properties, template_icon_view should be used instead of template_ID_preview.

If you really want ID properties, then the selector comes with some more features for management of the data that is saved (rename, unlink, see the users). At the moment this is not optional, except the '+' to make a new one.
If you want just a preview with no management options, but also with no selector, there istemplate_preview. The buttons on the side are optional.

The template_icon_view was introduced along with the matcaps for Blender 2.66, but the ability to have custom previews from files is from 2.75. https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Brita/Proposals/UIPreviews


How to scale same material on two different objects separately without affecting the other? Want to use the same material on two objects,but when trying to change the scale of material on one object the other gets also affected.
How can I do it separately.

If you have to use the same material, the most straightforward way would be to use the UV texture space,and give each object a UV map with its own transform (including scale)... but this is a 2D space.. (below)

For 3D, you can use the Generated texture space, and manipulating that on the objects, using ShiftT > S (optionally constraining withXY or Z). (below)

Or, you can use the objects' Pass Indices (set in the Object Properties > Relations panel) to discriminate between objects. In the node tree, That number can be picked up using an Object Info node > Object Index, and used any way you like.


Apply texture/ structure to a plane with an image I'm pretty new to blender and this might a simple question but I couldn't find exactly what I needed online, at least not with my keywords. How do I add an extra texture/ structure to a plane that got an image on it?
I got a wine bottle with a paper label, but of course this label isn't perfectly smooth and on top it should be made of some natural paper with some structure (fibers etc.).
But how can I apply this texture/ structure without overriding my original "texture" (label image).
I tried a texture into the displacement input of the Material Output, but this didn't really work as I expected it.
Texture:

Nodes:

Result (with current setup):

Quick example (made in Photoshop) what I want it to look like. Bottom original, top how I want it:

The simplest way to put an image as the texture of a plane is using the import images as planes add on. Go to edit, preferences, add-ons and search images as planes. Click the checkbox next to the add on and close the preferences window. Now, press ShiftA to add to scene. Then, in the mesh menu there should be an option image as plane. Select that option, and choose your image. Please upvote and mark as accepted answer if this helps.
EDIT
Based on what you are asking, instead of putting the texture into the displacement slot, you should add a mix node, connect that to the surface slot, put the current Principled BSDF node into the top slot and add a second Principled BSDF node with the image texture there. Fiddle with the alpha slider until it looks how you want.
I'm on my phone right now, so I cannot guarantee that this answer will work. I will edit this response if this doesn't help, and I'll get onto my computer to test the answer first. However, if this helps, then you're welcome :).


Blender 2.8 - do Materials always have Textures? All the tutorials I've found so far on adding texture refer to UV-unwrap the mesh, then using an image/jpg. I noticed other things like "clouds" etc. in the object's Texture Properties panel.

I've played with making these textures but cannot find how to apply them to a surface or material.

You never apply textures directly to an object, there is no such thing as directly assigning an image to a mesh.

"Visible textures" are always applied to a material. This may seem incorrect at first, because some applications hide this fact from you by automatically creating a material in the background for said texture, or some times an object already as a blank material applied to it, and the texture is assigned to it instead, but generally speaking you can't just put a texture on an object.

Exception being that in Blender you have Object Textures (like Musgrave and Clouds you found) which are used by Modifiers, Particle Systems and other object level data. These can't really be made directly visible, and are not intended for used in a material per-se. They can only be made visible indirectly through their influence in things like a Displace Modifier or a particle system.

They cannot be used in materials nor can they make use of shader nodes. If you want to use textures in materials they should be made with the node editor exclusively, or baked into image textures.

UVs are one of the several type of Texture Coordinates, obtained through the process of Unwrapping a mesh. They are a completely different type of data and are used to map any texture (material or otherwise) over a mesh, so the application knows which part goes where.

There are several types of coordinates that can be used for different requirements, some of them don't require unwrapping.


Where is the default save for animations? I started to render an animation, and part way through it I changed the save location thinking that it was one big file and would save there after. Little did I know that its actually saving every frame, so now I'm missing the ones that were in the default folder. Is there a specific place I can go to get these files or are they gone?

I was able to find the missing frames by starting a new instance of blender (has to be new project) and looking at the default save location.
For me, the default save file was C:/tmp/


Magnet vertices together I am looking for a way to have vertices snap onto each other based on proximity and distance. For example, if I had 2 loops of vertices, I would want it to snap each vertex in loop 1 to the closest corresponding vertex in loop 2 at their midpoint. However, if they are more than a certain distance apart, the vertices would not be affected.

It would be like having 2 different loops/meshes shrinkwrap onto each other, but meeting in the middle.

I am sure this is possible with a script. Is there any way to do it without scripting?

It sounds like you could just use Remove Doubles, and adjust your merge distance.
The only thing here is they don't meet half way. That may be dependent on Mesh origin though. I'll do a little checking and get back.

  Nope this is not based on origin, I think it is more based on vertex indices based on how it acts.

Shrinkwrap with a pass of limited disolve seems to work pretty good just be sure to use it on a closed mesh that has enough topology do bend at the right places.


why does baking in Rigacar not work? all the widgets of the rigacar addon work perfectly when operated manually but the baking doesn't work at all. When I bake the steering I see no keyframes. but when I bake the rotation I can see keyframes but no rotation.  I hope somebody has some expirience with that. Thanks in advance. I've already tried other Blender versions but nothing helped so far

just found out what my mistake was. I added the follow path as object constraint instead of a bone constraint


How to set location of instance objects randomly along input mesh's polygon normal? i would like to ask about animation nodes.

first, i prepared a cube with loop animation along z axis.

and also sphere which its vertices locations will be position of instanced cube.

and i connected nodes like first picture.

.

what i want to do is randomize animation along the polygon normal of the sphere.(second picture)

i tried this way but it moves only along world z.(third picture)

i wish for advice.  thank you.

You can scale polygon center location with random numbers or number wiggle for animation.

Node tree:


How can I create a random walk animation with animation nodes? The idea is to have a bunch of objects that are animated given a random vector each 20 frames. Something like this video:

https://vimeo.com/75135375

The problem that I´ve found with Animation Nodes is how to somehow store the previous positions of the objects that sometimes could be 20 frames away. For the first animation I can use the ID key, but as long as the animation continues I can keep it consistent.

Currently there is no very efficient way to do this.

If you only have a few objects this solution might work for you:

Essentially you generate the whole path for each object in each frame.


Is it possible to create a new type of context with Python? I want to create a new context-panel such as these:

Is this possible with Python? My own context-panel with my own custom panels inside it.

Answer is actually very simple: no. :)

Afaik this is not even in our TODOs - we rather aim at creating custom spaces from py… But no ETA on that either.


Inset Boundary and Mirror only? I've been testing the inset feature in Blender. Does the inset boundary feature, when its on, only work with objects using the mirror modifier?

Good question. You've picked up what looks like an anomaly, unless someone comes along to correct us.

In all the cases in the main square below, the right two faces are selected before 'Inset' is called.

In the top row, 'Individual' is not checked. The two faces are considered a region. The inset is made on all edges at the boundary of the selection, ignoring edges at the internal boundaries between faces.

In the top left case, 'boundary' is checked, permitting the inset at the boundaries between the region and the outside world. In the right case it is not, and the external boundaries are not inset.

In the second row, 'Individual' is checked. An inset is made at all internal boundaries as well as external, when 'Boundary' is checked, on the left.

However when 'Boundary' is not checked, I would expect the inset to be made at internal, but not external boundaries, producing a result like the last in the bottom row. But it doesn't.

The only way I could get the expected result on the far right was to select each face in turn, with 'Individual' not checked, treating each face as a 1-face region, and inset each region individually, with 'Boundary' unchecked.

In short: the  'Individual' setting does not respect the distinction between internal and external boundaries made in the 'Boundary' setting.


How do I format an integer text object using just logic bricks In the BGE is there a way, using just logic bricks and not Python, to format an integer text object so that it stays right justified within a field.

Let's make this a simple two digit number between 0 and 99.  When the number changes from 9 to 10, I want the 1 to shift one digit to the left and the 0 to remain in the units position.  There are two ways I found to do this, neither very elegant.

One way is to use ( with a single ALWAYS SENSOR ) a two frame animation defining the two positions ( a tens position and a units position ) with two EXPRESSION CONTROLLERS, one for the integer less than 10 and the other for the integer ten or greater.  Each controller is attached to an ACTION ACTUATOR that selects the appropriate position frame.  The other way I found was to use constraints in a logic brick setup similar to the position animation just described.

Is there a more elegant way or some feature I'm missing in the logic bricks?

Not really elegant:

I guess this is pretty similar to your solution.


Control a cylinder mesh with multiple curves? I want to control different parts of a cylinder with curves, so that different parts of the cylinder can have different intersections, controlled by curves, regardless of how the curves are scaled. I found a method using curve modifier on different vertex groups, but it is not very practical.

You could use the Spline IK constraint: Create your bezier curves, create one unique armature with bones that follow all around the curves (snap each bone head to each curve vertex), give the constraint to the last bone of the chain (choose Chain Length > number of bones, here, 4), parent the cylinder to the armature. At the end hook each curve vertex to an empty (or, even better, to the bones of a second armature, it would allow to easily come back to a rest pose).


Add pixels to an existing texture inside blender For example.
I have image 500x500 px

Can I change it to 520x520px in blender?
Those additional pixels can be white, black or transparent.

It's quite easy in photoshop or something similar but I would like to do this in blender.

Or maybe if I have 500x500 px image I could create a new texture in blender. Size 520x520 and then copy and paste original texture on top of it.

(I have image that I'll use as a factor in mix nodes. It has sharp edges and I would like to add 20 pixels around and soften the border. That's why I want to resize image)

With Compositor window: here is an example of a 1024*1024 image as backplate of a 500*500 image, that you can save as image, even without rendering.


I'm trying to make my plane (ground) explode up into the air I'm trying to make my plane (ground) explode up into the air. However i only want a small section of it to explode (as if an object is shoot out of the ground). I'm new to blender so i not to familiar to the interface and I'm using version 2.77

Introduction

The discribed method is only one of several methods to create an animation of a ground explosion and it's the fastest method that I know.
It will cover only the basics of preparing the plane, creating the debris and setting up the physics to get this result.

I won't go over the task of texturing here, since BlenderSE is not the best medium to create long tutorials. A good method to texture the debris is described in one of the Timster's videos which you can find here: Project Assets: Low Poly Rubble

Blend file:

Prerequisites

In order to get nice debris, we are going to use the Cell Fracture addon. Hit Ctrl+Alt+U to show the User Preferences, to to the Addon Panel and type "cell" into the search field. On the right side, activate "Object: Cell Fracture", (if you plan to use the addon regularly, you also might hit "Save User Settings"). Close User Preferences.

Preparation of the Base Meshes

Add a plane, resize it to a reasonable size and subdivide it (If you already have a plane or a terrain of some sort, you can use that as well, as long as it has not too many faces). Move your vertices around in the area where the explosion should take place, until you have a nice uneven jagged area. To get a nice shape you might enable proportional editing mode for the rough shape and disable it again for the finer details.

Select the faces for the hole, then press Numpad 1 to go to front view, then press E and Z extrude the vertices down on the z-axis.

Enable Face Select, turn off "Limit selection to visible" and select all the faces below the ground plane. Hit Shift+D to duplicate them, then hit P and select "Selection" to create a new object out of the duplicated mesh. Tab into Object Mode, hit M and 2 to move the new object to Layer 2.

You should now have two objects like these below, each on its own layer.

Rename the object on Layer 1 into "ground" and the object on Layer 2 into "debris".

Go to Layer 2 and tab into Edit Mode. In front view (Numpad 1), enable "select vertices", "Snap during transform", set "Type of Element to snap to" to vertex and also enable "Automatically merge Vertices". Select all vertices of the ground plane. Hit G and Z to move them up on the z-axis until it snaps and fuses with the original mesh.

Still in Edit mode, hit A until everything is selected, then hit Ctrl+N to make the normals of your mesh face outwards. Select the vertices of the ground plane again and move them on the z-axis until the height of your mesh is about 3/4 of its original size. Then scale the ground plane down to 0.9 (Hit S then 0.9).

Hit Ctrl+R to add two loopcuts (Mouse Wheel up), then tab into object mode.

Add a Subdivision Surface modifier, set its type to "Simple" and the Numbers to 3 and click "Apply". Then go to the Tool Panel (T), go to "Tools" panel and click the Cell Fracture Button (it should have been added by the Cell Fracture addon, see Prerequisites). In the now opened Settings Window, set "Source Limit" to 250, select "Random" and click OK.

You should then see something similar to to this in the 3D viewport.

You now still have your original debris mesh in Layer 2 and the newly generated fragments in Layer 3. Switch to Layer 3, then go to the Outliner and select the mesh that should be called "debris_cell". This is now your active mesh. Move your mouse pointer to the 3D view and hit A to select all objects.

Physics

Go to the Tool Panel, then to "Physics" and click on "Add Active" (note how the outline of your selected objects turn from yellow to green in the 3D Viewport). Then go to the Properties Window, switch to the Physics Panel, go to "Rigid Body Collision", enable "Collision Margin" and change it to 0.15 (this influences the force). Go back to Tool Panel - Physics and click "Copy from Active" to apply the changes to all the selected objects. Reminder: You'll have to do this every time, when you change something in the Physics Panel!

Play Animation

Go to Layer 1, select your ground mesh, then go to the Tool Panel - Physics and click on "Add Passive". The ground mesh now should also have a green outline. Go back to Layer 3, hit A until everything is selected, then M and 1 so move everything to Layer 1. Hit A until nothing is selected go to the timeline area and hit the "Play Animation" button.

Enjoy!


Strange indication to a missing UV-Map? Good day.

For some reason I see a strange purple reflection in my scene. I know that this is usually an indication to a missing UV-Map. But I unwrapped every object in my scene. The background is transparent with an image added in the compositor.

Do you guys have some ideas where this might come from?

As written in the comments - I'm just getting old.

Gone is the purple reflection:

[edit]
Sorry for the missing details. I forgot that I wanted to use a world background image at the beginning. Therefore I changed the surface type to "image" without actually asigning one. That caused the reflections.


why shrinkwrap not getting curve shape I have a oval shape with needful verts on it and a cylinder. I want to make the oval shape to wrap on it. Little bending shape with only shrinkwrap modifier.

When i add shrinkwrap modifier it looses its shape. Any help or suggestion how it works.

I suppose it's because you have chosen Nearest Vertex mode in the modifier, so the vertices of your oval stick to the vertex of your cylinder mesh. Switch to Nearest Surface Point and it should work properly.


Object renders black I've imported an .OBJ file to my scene and it looks good in viewport, but when I try to render with F12 it's completely black.

Clearing custom split normals data (in object data panel) removes black rendering issue, but also completely destroys the shading in viewport and render.

Is there a way to somehow retain the viewport like shading in render?

You simply imported the mesh, and that is it. You have no lights in your scene. You (kind of) need a light to see your object. You also could use an hdr, but that is just complicating things unnecessarily.

For just a simple test render, or so you can see your object, a three point light setup will work (and make Gleb Alexandrov cringe).

You also need to turn off Auto Smooth for your object. There is something about the bad mesh (probably has to do with the normals) that is making auto smooth break.
Auto Smooth is found in the mesh tab of the properties window.

After the two changes I listed above, I rendered out your object like this.


Why is render coming out SQueezed together? Hey all do you knoe why this is happening?
Here are my output setting
https://ibb.co/f12ycc9
https://ibb.co/YjxLgrD
and what I mean
https://ibb.co/74FmSvv
Also am interested in how to unsQueeze the image


How do a transform simple object to have a concave shape I am new to blender and wondering what is the most common approach used to model curved surfaces.
I created this simple object (A bed).

I am trying to change the top surface (shown on the left) to a concave (arch like) shape (shown on the right)

I tried sub dividing and smothing the edges but with no success. Any suggestions on how I might achieve this?

I was able to do it in surprisingly few steps using a shrinkwrap modifier.
Here's my version of your starting shape.

I noticed that yours isn't at the worldspace origin. You will want it there for the steps below. Select your headboard in Object Mode, right click on it, select Set Origin, and then choose Geometry, to make sure you're object center is in the middle of your mesh. Then press Shift + c to force the 3D Cursor to the worldspace origin (just in case it isn't there already). This will reorient your view, though that outcome was not intended. Press numpad period to get recentered on your selected object, if necessary. Then press Shift + s to bring up the Snapping menu, and choose Selection to Cursor. Now your object is centered at the Worldspace origin.
Start by creating a mesh cylinder (Add > Mesh > Cylinder)  and take note of the starting options I chose in the Operator panel to the bottom left of the 3D View. You may find that you can't use the same numbers because of a difference in scale between my version of your headboard and your own. I chose 48 because that allowed 12 sides of the cylinder to be placed precisely between the two points of intersection shown in the pic below, at the two red arrows, which is what you want. 12 is the magic number, based on your very own model, because that's the number of sides that designates the row of faces that you want to build into an arch.

Here's what it may look like after you have the new shape in place. Don't worry about how it looks or how long the cylinder is. It doesn't matter.

Next, make sure you're in Object Mode, select the new cylinder you just made, and hide it (h), then select the headboard, and go into Edit Mode. Select all of the vertices shown below. These are the ones you want to change into a new shape. Next you will want to create a vertex group, which will remember this particular selection of vertices, and allow you to target it later in other operations. Create the vertex group by clicking the "+" icon under the Vertex Group Section of the Object Data tab in the Properties Panel. With your vertices selected, press Assign.

Next, go back into Object Mode and, with your headboard selected, go to the Modifiers tab of the Properties Panel and create a Shrinkwrap modifier. Assign the vertex group you created to it. You may also want to unhide your cylinder again (Alt + h in Object Mode) so that you can find it more easily in the next step.

And finally, assign the target, which is the cylinder you created earlier. This will appear to have no effect until you hide the cylinder afterwards. If you want to make this effect permanent, you will need to apply (Ctrl + a) the shrinkwrap modifier. After doing that, you can delete your cylinder. You don't need it anymore.
Hope this helps.


Is it possible to compress or split '.blend' files within Blender? If so, how? I have a large blender file.

How can I compress this file and can I split the file into multiple files to ship it?

All you need to do is check the Compress File box when saving. If your file is still too big, consider using a service like Dropbox or YouSendIt.


Only 1 of my text letters turns black I am creating a stack of 3 block letters on top of each other as a logo in Inkscape.  When I save as .svg and open in Blender to make it 3d, 2 of the letters remain red with black outline.  The 3rd letter turns black.

I am not sure if it is just the letters I am using, but I tried to do separate Red letters, each Object to Path, then saved as .svg. Then open in Blender but they are black.

I tried clicking texture, does not change.  Letters are 3" tall and I scrolled down the text type to find various ones that fit my theme.

My project has background solid color, other small text, boarders and everything keeps it's color, but that one letter.

Also tried saving as Plain .svg, Inkscape .svg, png.  Doesn't fix the problem.  I manipulated the other 2 letters and not the red C, so I went in, manipulated the red C, object to path, saved as .svg, opened in Blender and just that letter is black.

BTW I did make sure to check the original fill, stroke, etc. and they are all the same in Inkscape.

Thanks in advance

I was stumped by this issue as well. I was able to fix it by selecting the text, going under the "Object Data" property, and making sure the "Size" (under the Font menu) isn't set too low. In my case, anything less than .01 caused the problem.
If you set it too low, some letters go black. Raise it back up, they go back to normal. She falls down a well, eyes go crossed. She gets kicked by a mule, they go back to normal. I don't know.

If you need to get the text down past the point of the darkness setting in, just scale it instead of changing the size value.


Why is this arm bone bending the other way after exiting edit mode? I have a bone and I'm giving it a slight bend for a pole target, and on the right side of this image

the arm is bent the other way. Its also bending the other way when I move the ik. Help please.

Its standard practice to add a slight bend in the arms when in Edit Mode, which is what Faceb is eluding to.

That said, you can quickly fix your problem by changing your Pole Angle to 180.


Historical city reconstruction workflow I'm doing some historical research and I would like to visualize a situation from the past.

I have several questions, I would like to make this topic a source for tips & hints when recreating e.g. cities.

I've seen that it is possible to create a surface from Google Earth with Sketchup. Is something similar possible with Blender? I need correct geo. reference and heights.
Via Solid Edge ST6 I can easily use a measurement tool when creating my model. (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI8QE5A2fWY ) Is something similar available for Blender?
Some models I need on my map need to have correct sizes.
In general, how do you best organize a large scene?
at the beginning I just want to add basic shapes (e.g. cubes) to show the buildings. If I later want to update these buildings or add more detail to an existing building. What is the best way to work?

You could try to export from OpenStreetMap
How to model effectively using exact measurements?
It depends on what you want to achieve (should be another question) you could use layers and groups.
For buildings in the background adding textures should be sufficient for close up I would refine the geometry and add more materials. Related: Trying to create a script that makes roofs on selected boxes

Imported .osm after extrusion (Note that exporting a whole city leads to 2GB files which can't be loaded in Blender)

For some cities 360° images are available from Google street view / maps view which help to elaborate on building details and estimate their age.

Check this awesome tutorial Blender tutorial: How to Create a City


Merge a rigified object with new armature for proxy linking I used rigify to create a rig for my character. After that, I created a separate armatures with 4 bones and set them as shape keys for blinking and smiling for my character. This new armature I called facerig, while the rest of the body is called rig. Now, when i am trying to link it to a scene and make a proxy, I can select rig, but how do I join the facerig to that proxy?

You can simply join the two armatures (select the rig, shift select the facerig, press Ctrl J) and then make the proxy in the new scene.


How can I do fog that is denser at the bottom? I'm trying to add a fog to a sea scene that wouldn't cover the sky and get denser further down, so I could not see the horizon.

This is a cheat as well as  faster render. Place a textured plane in front of the horizon with transparent at the top and sky horizon color at the bottom. Use a linear gradient to alter the Fac value of the Mix Shader.


How to do curves in a mesh I am trying to achieve a curve on my mesh. Mainly I am trying to make a dog bowl. I can't seem to understand how to do the curve for the bowl for both the inside and the odd lip thing on the outside ends.

It should be noted that I am a newbie to Blender, I have taken the fundamentals course here: CG Cookie Mesh Fundamentals but didn't see anything on curving a mesh. Unless its a mixture of extruding, subdividing etc that I am missing.

My current attempts have been using insets and transforming downward. But this gives a cone shape instead. Any pointers?

This is my template of what I am trying to replicate in blender.

this should be easily accomplished with a screw modifier.

all you need to do is create the profile of the dog bowl.

Once you do, it will be imperative to put the vertex that marks the center of the bowl on the origin of the object. you can do this by selecting this vertex and Shift+S>Cursor to selected Shift+Ctrl+Alt+C>origin to 3D cursor

Now add the screw modifier. you can set the amount of turn it goes for higher detail.


Core-Shell structure using blender? How can I design a gold nanoparticles and titanium dioxide core-shell structure using blender? I can easily make 2 UV sphere as core and shell, but I have no idea what to do afterwards. Please help me guys, thank you.

Creating the base meshes - step by step.

In this short tutorial I will only cover the creation of the base mesh without the materials.

Add a single uv sphere, hit S followed by 2 to scale it.
Select the vertices for the chunk you want to cut out by going into top view, hitting B and box-select the vertices. Double-check by rotating and selecting/deselecting additional vertices.

Hit X and select "Faces" to delete the selected faces.
Go into object mode, then go to the "Modifiers" Tab in the Properties Window, select "add modifier" and chose "Solidifiy".

Change "Thickness" in the Modifier settings to your liking.

Add another uv sphere and scale it until it fills the inner part of your solidified sphere (hit S followed by 1.6 to match the values I used in this example)


How do i cut 2 objects together Any idea how to cut these two objects so that i get a connected tunnel to be able to walk through? I was able to cut the A part but not the B part of the tunnel.

You are on the right track with using the Boolean Modifier, you just have to use it on the "Lumpy Tunnel" as well.
Add a boolean to your tunnel, and select your staircase as the cut object. As you can see from the photos, the original placement of the staircase causes the bool to make some ugly cuts (Image 1), but if you move it .001 along the Y axis, it makes a cleaner bool operation (Image 2).

After applying the boolean, it's just a matter of cleanup. For me, the bool left a ring of duplicate faces on the inside of the "merged junction (Image 3). I deleted them, and then there was another ring of faces underneath. Select and delete them as well (Image 4).

The result should look like this:


Even with all bone transformations cleared, as soon as my rig is in pose mode, it distorts my model I've tried a lot of different fixes for this, but it has happened to me many times. Everything looks fine in rest mode, but as soon as I switch to pose, it distorts the positions of certain parts of the mesh, such as the eye. Clearing all transformations doesn't do anything, and I've checked multiple times that all the bones are visible. For some reason, applying the pose to rest tends to fix this issue, but it comes back on occasion.
Additionally, at some point, without changing anything, the rig started controlling the wrong parts of the mesh--with the eyebrow denting the middle of the head, for example, while many still work fine. I've tried all different ways of fixing this but been unable to succeed. I feel like it might be connected to the way the skin mesh is attached to the eyebrows (again, something that is unclear, since I cleared parenting and made sure there weren't any deform modifiers).
On said topic-- the eyebrows are created using a mesh deform cage on some lines, which then has a surface deform o some planes. It has repeatedly told me "target has edges with more than two polygons" and I've tried all the cleanup tools, even remeshes in voxels and blocks, just to experiment, but nothing has fixed it, so I'm not sure how to find those edges.
I am new to blender, learning off of youtube videos and etcetera, but this seems like a bit of a trainwreck.

A possible solution to a similar issue I had was that I had left over vertex groups from parented to the metarig and it deformed the character after I parented it to the created rig. I had to delete all the non DEF vertex groups (associated with the bones, not other vertex groups that I created).


Scale Space Between Multiple Objects If I have multiple objects selected can I use scaling to make the objects closer together (without rescaling the objects)?

Yes, enable the pivot-point-align option.

This transforms the center points only.

One way to think of this is as a ferris-wheel - where each gondola stays in place, but you can rotate their locations.

Scale:

Rotate: Even though you didn't ask about this, it helps to understand how the feature works.


Will my Blender installation work after updating to windows 10? I'm thinking of installing win 10 and was wondering if I will be able to pick up everything where I left it...
Obviously I cannot request a 100% guaranteed result but I want to know if anyone has updated to win 10 and then run blender without a problem. Or did you have troubles? Anecdotal evidence welcome, it is surprisingly hard to come by :)

Thank you guys. I went with the update and (for what it's worth) everything went well. I barely notice that I changed OS, my files and apps are all there.
Of course this is my own experience. Backup your data to be on the safe side.

You can save your files in a save place, uninstall blender, update to windows 10, and install the last version of blender (2.77a when writing this) so you have a clean version.

As you can see in blender.org the last version is "Compatible with Windows 10 | 8 | 7 | Vista" so you won't have any* problem.

Or at least not more problems than with windows 7.


Removing reflection/shade How should I remove the shade from that part of object?I've connected 2 edges, and that's how I got that part, but the shade annoys me, and I want it to delete. How can I do that?

At its simplest, that's probably selecting the face in Edit Mode (Face), and from the right-click menu, selecting 'Shade Flat'.


Importing and exporting blender user preference files? I spent some time doing a project in two different computers (personal computer and a shared one in the 3d course), and one of the annoying things was that I always had to reconfigure Blender. It seems that not all settings are bound to the .blend file (things like solid OpenGL lights for the viewport).

Either Blender stores the settings in its installation directory or in the user folder, and both aren't that practical to access in a computer that's not yours (some lock the access to the Program Files folder, for example).

So, is there any plugin that can import and export the user preferences to/from a convenient file (a .xml, maybe?) Installing plugins is something I've been able to do even when I'm not logged in as admin the course machine, so it's a good workaround.

You can use the free Blender Cloud add-on to sync your preferences between different computers. It's a free feature, just requires a Cloud account. More info at https://cloud.blender.org/services


Different scales on multiple purchased models and mixamo/fuse models I purchased a classroom scene online (.obj file), and imported it into blender. At first it appeared nothing was there, but apparently it's just insanely small and no where near the default center point/grid. Once I realized this I was able to locate the classroom and work with all the objects in the room as normal. However, now I want to import a character from mixamo and adobe fuse (.fbx file). When I import the .fbx, it works, but it appears at the default center of the grid like most imported objects normally would.. This means the character is MUCH larger than the classroom. It also means that the classroom is extremely far away from my character at the center of the default grid. Is there a way for me to import my character into my classroom directly (where it is currently located), and at a smaller size automatically?...

If you are using rigs and are not the rigger, restrain from scaling them. Some rigs work with absolute values and would not be functional at a different scale.

Scale up and move your static meshes (classroom). This can only be done after importing the .obj file into Blender.


Help with using Boolean modifier to subtract from a cube I'm trying to subtract the Barium object from a cube to effectively create the inverse surface using Boolean modifier --> Subtract but can't seem to get it to work.

How would I go about doing this?

The easiest solution i can think of which avoids doing many many boolean operations is to use a Metaball as dupli object instead of the Nurbs-Ball you are using. Metaballs will automatically "Stick together" and form a nice single combined volume (Which you can easily use for later boolean operations). If you go into edit mode and do the scaling of the metaball surface tension, you can get something like this:

When you are happy with the result you can select the parent object ("barium") make duplicates real (Ctrl+Shift+A), convert the metaballs to mesh ("Curve to mesh", Alt+C in Blender 2.79b) and then do a boolean operation: (for some reason you need to apply a remesh modifier and triangulate the resulting mesh for the boolean to work properly... see images)

Happy Blending! :)


How to refresh workspace I do these operations in a for loop:

Selecting all objects
Remove
Add a mhx2 model
Add cameras and lamps
Bind cameras to model
Load a bvh file
Render

The problem is how to refresh the entire scene for next iteration? I have tried to load a fresh file using bpy.ops.wm.open_mainfile, but it causes an error. It seems that the entire project including the script loads again. So, I tried to remove objects in bpy.data.objects but I noted that there are bpy.data.cameras and bpy.data.lamps which should be also removed. What is the correct way to do this job? Does selecting all objects and deleting them makes the trick? Note that there is an animation along with cameras, lamps, etc.

The solution is to delete data collections. There are plenty of collections in bpy.data which are not cleaned after deleting the object. For example if you add a camera, an entry in bpy.data.camera would be added but after deleting the camera object that entry remains that finally leads to out of memory errors. So the solution would be some thing like this:

def clear_collection(collection):
    for item in collection:
        collection.remove(item, True)

def cleanup():
    clear_collection(bpy.data.actions)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.armatures)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.brushes)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.cameras)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.groups)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.images)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.lamps)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.materials)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.meshes)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.objects)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.textures)

cleanup()


Transfer uv maps operation error or Mesh not identical? here are two sets of mesh which looks identical, vert edge face count and even the vert index order are the same.
when use “transfer uv maps” from 2 to 1, 1 as active object. mesh 2’s uv is messed up (UV vert split up). vice versa.
if duplicate them and use transfer uv maps operator on their respective duplicates, ( after altering their UVs a little bit) the results work as expected.
how to make sure mesh 1 and 2 are identical? or in this case it is operator transfer uv maps error?
here is the file(http://uploadmb.com/dw.php?id=1604139792&/UV map transfer.blend)
and screen grab:

a work around is to snap every vert from mesh A to mesh B via vert index and use data transfer by close proxy.
please see this post on how to snap it via vert index: snap objects of same topology together by vertex index
special thanks to @lemon for comment here and provide solution in above post.


Texture, Material problem when exporting to three.js I have completed a test model in blender 2.7 and upon assigning a material and texture to a shirt it all appears fine and the texture looks great in blender. However upon export to three.js the material color, blender default gray, of the shirt appears to bleed through the UV texture, which is a white cloth, not to be confused with cloth simulation, and it appears a lighter shade of blender default gray.
But indeed the UV texture is present while I can observe the cloth fabric, threads etc. I have correctly chosen the assign button as needed. Would this be a shading issue or have I missed something after months and months of tutorials and reading?

Set the diffuse color to full white.

Blender internal materials do not overlay the diffuse color over the texture (blending) while depending on your application / three.js shaders probably do take diffuse color into account as a color overlay.

Als make sure to set the intensity to 1 as that might change the RGB values upon export. Blender default materials have a gray value and intensity 0.8 as default, so you could write a little script to update all the materials:

import bpy

for material in bpy.data.materials:
    material.diffuse_color = (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
    material.diffuse_intensity = 1
    material.specular_intensity = 1

A neutral white should therefore produce the proper result.


AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute Even though there are other questions related to the same error scattered around the web, I'm either being really myopic (in which case I profusely apologise) or my problem is unique.

I'm attempting to modify Jean-Francois Gallant neural network add-on, for a project. I am taking the 'hands-on' approach to this and I have learnt a lot along the way. I have changed the names of the variables and I am almost certain the error I am getting is as a result of that.

I keep getting a 'AttributeError' message from the console whenever I run my script from the Blender Game Engine:

  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "main", line 112, in
  AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'DnpolymeraseNum'

Here is the code I believe is relevant. The code in asterisks is the line with the error:

import bge
import math
import mathutils
import nnetga
from random import random
from time import clock
#¸¸♫·¯·♪¸¸♩·¯·♬¸¸¸¸♫·¯·♪¸¸♩·¯·♬¸¸¸¸♫·¯·♪¸¸♩·¯·♬¸¸¸¸♫·¯·♪¸¸♩·¯·♬¸¸¸¸♫·¯·♪¸¸♩·¯·♬`

input = []
for i in range(2):
    input.append([])
    **for ii in range(bge.logic.DnpolymeraseNum):**
        if i == 1:
            input[i].append([0,0,0,0,0,0])
        if i == 0:
            input[i].append([0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0])`

From what I understand the module I've imported is simply not attributed in the module nnetga that is imported. Is there anyway to ensure this happens so I can get rid of this error?

Again, I'm pretty scared to post this question up in case I annoy anyone. If I do I'm sorry, but I'm exhausted.

You can't add properties to bge.logic.

To get this to work in the game engine, add a game property to the object and adjust your script to get the controller to access the property.

import bge

cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()

input = []
for i in range(2):
    input.append([])
    for ii in range(cont['DnpolymeraseNum']):
        if i == 1:
            input[i].append([0,0,0,0,0,0])
        if i == 0:
            input[i].append([0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0])`


Animation: Having the camera view move as if someone is holding the camera and running In my animation I have a hallway and I want it to appear as if someone is running down the hallway with the blender camera. What is the best way to go about accomplishing this? Should I use a path?

There are two methods you can use to achieve this effect, one of them will produce better results, but the other is easier to set up.

Match move, with actual footage:

Also know as Camera Tracking. This technique is a favorite of  Stu Maschwitz, ex-ILM employee and co-founder of the now closed VFX company, the Orphanage. This will produce the most realistic results, but will also be harder work to complete.

Steps:

Go outside, or into a large room.
Place allot of high contrast objects on the ground(a mix of foreground and background markers will yield more precision).
Take a video camera, and shoot video like you're the camera man in your virtual scene
Match move it
Position your camera in your hallway.

This approach will result in very realistic looking results, since it is "Camera Mocap". The down side is, it is a lot of work. As with most visual effects tasks, the more work you put into, the better your scene will look.

Add random noise to your camera's movement:

This is one of the easiest ways to simulate a shaky camera in Blender. It won't produce as realistic results as the above method, but takes way less work to set up.

Steps

Add an Empty.
Parent your Camera to it.
Set a Location and Rotation key frame on the empty.
Open the Graph Editor and hit N.
Add a Noise modifier to the rotation and location of the Camera.
Parent the empty to another empty.
Use the last empty to control the movement of the Camera.

This can work pretty well, with some tweaking. I would recommend first removing the noise effect from certain axis, if that failed.

  Should I use a path?

I wouldn't bother, just key frame it.


Array modifier on parent and all of its children I have a parent with a lot of children. I want to use an array modifier on the whole lot of them, including the parent, but, when I add an array modifier to the parent, only it gets duplicated.

One sort-of-solution I found is to Duplicate Link the parent along with its children, but this requires fiddly manual positioning that I'd like to avoid, and I also think this would make it difficult to add a child. The other solution I found is to add an array modifier to the parent and every single child; although this method does what I want in theory, it's still a lot of clicking.

Create your parent object, then create one child. copy the array from the parent to the child Ctrl-L. next take the child and add drivers to all of the parameters in the array modifier that you want to auto update. now copy the drivers and array modifiers onto all  of the other children. Done!

Using drivers is tricky, Here are some tutorials:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4qYHNA_x4Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajMAvKRCTBg

How to copy drivers onto multiple objects


motion tracking timeline colors I can't find the answer in online docs, or elsewhere. Would you know what the magenta colour means on the motion tracking timeline? There doesn't seem to e different amount of valid tracking markers, so no idea what this could mean, but it results in loose of track on frame 1393 (place where the magenta colour starts). Thanks.

EDIT:
One more image with another color following

The blueish line means that the frames have been prefetched or cached to RAM. Prefetching will give you better performance and playback, at the expense of available RAM.

Uncached frames are being read and decoded directly from the disk file.
(Form the Blender Manual)

Prefetch P
Fills cache with frames. As many frames as fits into cache are load form the drive. This allows to fill in the cache as fast as possible when you really need to track something, but this keeps CPU and drive bandwidth idle if you’ve got Clip editor opened but not actually interacting with it.

It is therefore recommended that you prefetch (cache) all of the frames that you are going to be working with to RAM. To do this load the video file on to the movie clip editor and press P to prefetch (or you can simply play back the video once and it will be cached).
By default blender will only use 1GB of RAM to cache frames. You can change that number depending on the amount of memory on your system. To do that open the User prefences (Ctrl + Alt + U) and on the System tab you'll see the options for the prefetch and cache limits.

Dark purple starts where the tracking is not reliable and has larger errors
If you see red-magenta on the timeline that means that Some Data Failed to Reconstruct, which means that the tracker information is missing or not reliable enough to reconstruct the 3d scene.
Read: Some Data Failed to Reconstruct, Motion Tracking
Recommended reading: How can I get better results when doing camera motion tracking?


How to distinguish material and material slot I have been creating and using materials in several projects now but not really understanding what I am doing. The confusion arises because the word Material seems to have two meanings and is used interchangeably. In one text I have read it is explained that Material has three slots - called Material, Texture and Image. Another says that a Material Slot comprises a Material and an Image. So Material in one meaning is a sub-set of Material in another meaning? But which way around is correct?

In the properties panel under the material button there are two + signs - one to add a material and the other to add a material slot. What is the difference?

Material Slots
A Material Slot is simply a selection of geometry elements. Nothing more. They define which material goes on which part of an object.
For a mesh object, a material slot contains a selection of mutually exclusive groups of faces (one face can only belong to exactly one material slot at a time) to which you may apply a material.
A material slot is a property of the geometry of an object data and is tied to its shape. At the most basic level for a mesh object, you can specify which discrete faces belong to which material slot. Under other object types, it is more limited but the principle still applies, you select a bunch of elements (like a continuous spline in a bezier curve, or a few characters in a text object) and assign it to one slot.
In other words, if you want to apply several materials to different parts of the same object, you create several slots to determine which material goes where.
Material Slots are not materials and hold no color or surface information whatsoever on their own. They are completely independent of material definitions.
Material slots do hold materials in them, and may commonly then have materials assigned or just remain empty. The same material can be applied to several different slots in the same object or shared across different objects, but one slot can only have one material assigned to it at any given time.
Material
A material, on the other hand, is a collection of information (surface properties, textures, colors, images, volumetric data among others) that define the appearance of a geometry either through its surface, volume or emission properties. It may or may not make use of image-based textures.
Materials can also be assigned to a slot in a "Per Object" or "Per Object-Data" basis. The difference is that if you apply a material "Per Object" every instance of that object can override that material independently per individual occurrence and have a different one in its place.
If you apply it "Per Object-data" to all objects sharing that object data (geometry) will have that same material applied to that one slot regardless, if you change the material assigned to that slot in one object, it will sync change it for all instances sharing that data.
Say for example the same car mesh that can have a yellow chassis in one place but a red on another while remaining a linked instance (per-object material), but the tires will always be black rubber regardless (per-object data forced material), if you change the tire material in one car it changes for all of the copies.


How to get a smooth cone shape? I wanted to make a button like this :

And was able to create this button :

But obviously, the shape is not really smooth (I'm talking about the star shape in the center). I already applied a subdivision surface modifier, so this model has already 22k vertices which is way too much I guess. I hope, that there is a better solution to achieve a smooth cone. This model will be exported to Unity so the solution should be exportable (I think stuff like "smooth shading" is not exportable since it's not applied in the model, right?)

This is the model without the modifier :

It isn't smooth because the center part has one vertex, try to change the center part into a circle (to fill, use either press the button F or go to Mesh--> Faces --> Fill and add loop cuts with ctrlR.


Object behind transparent wavy foil/glass has dark spots This is a similar question to How to illuminate the darkness inside glass objects in Cycles? however, the answers there didn't solve my problem.
I have an object that is wrapped in an uneven thin foil (aka a sculptured cube with "Transmission 1.0"). I my shading viewport, it looks almost perfect, like it should be:

However, when I render it with Cycles, the result looks like this:

I turned Max Bounces Total, Transmission, Transparency, basically all the Light Path settings up and down but I don't get rid of those dark spots.
How can I get my render being closer to the output in the shading viewport?
This is the file. The image texture is missing but the dark spots caused by the foil are visible.

I think you've just forgotten to remove two object from rendering, thus the overlapping (I don't know why the render icon is not displayed by default though):


when parenting object to bone, the object changes position I have a robot, when parenting one object (upper arm)  with a specific bone, ctrl_P and selecting Bone, causes the object changes its position. I have no idea why. Can someone give me a clue? with the lower arm, there's no problem at all. I'm using Blender 2.69.

It was my mistake, the object was previously parented with another object, so, when re-parented the object with the bone, its position is now referenced with the position of the bone, forgetting the previous spatial reference with early parent object, so it cause re-positioning :-)


Render has more objects than camera view I'm a novice Blender user, and I'm having this really strange issue where my render has more cubes than my camera view

I used this tutorial (with a couple small changes) to make the cubes in this pattern. I have grid with a hair particle system to create this pattern of cubes with the original models being for them being on layer 2.

Any ideas as to what's causing this issue and a way to make the camera view the same as the rendered view?

Try pressing Alt + H in Object Mode to unhide all objects. It is possible that you accidentally hid some of them so you don't see them in Object Mode but you do in the render.

Also since you used a particle system check, if you used children then it's possible that the number of children to render is different from the number of children to display. To check this go into the Particle System tab under children.

If you are using cycle, select the object that isn't displaying and go in the Object tab, under Cycles settings make sure that Camera is checked.


Why is my object offset from the Bezier curve? I'm watching this tentacle tutorial video. Most of it is working fine; I have a Bezier curve, my tentacle follows it, and so on.

However, I have one problem.

In the video, the tentacle is "around" the curve, as shown. The tentacle exactly follows the curve.

When I do it, it looks like this:

My tentacle seems to be translated away from the curve. This probably isn't a huge problem, but I would like to know why this is happening.

To clarify, I want to understand why the video's tentacles fit around the Bezier, but my Bezier is outside of the tentacle.

That can happen when the curve and the "tentacle" object do not share the same location.

Make sure the location (either under the Object tab of the properties window, or the properties region in the 3D view, accessed by N) are the same for both objects, curve and "tentacle."

If both are the same, in edit mode check that the mesh is at the object's origin. As the gif below shows, when the mesh is away from the origin, even both the curve and object show the same location it will still be off the curve.


How can I edit a shape-key mid-range without drivers? For example, the model I am working on will need shape keys for blinking, adding a shape key is simple enough but turns out when I set the key to 0.8 the eyelid is clipping through the eyeball before falling into place on 1.0 where it looks normal, so how can I edit the shape key at 0.8 so it doesn't clip? every time I try to go back on the range slider and edit all changes are added up to the maximum range and so it would affect how the shape key looks at 1.0, since the model has to be exported to work on a game engine it needs to have single shape keys to assign on certain functions.

Shape keys can be used to change a mesh shape with a certain amount of vertices into an other shape with more (or less) vertices. But for the sake of (my) argument lets assume it is the same amount of vertices for the start and end shape. The same way i think you are using shape keys.
In that case i believe a shape key can be seen as a recording of two location coordinates for every vertex in the mesh. (a recording like an animation keyframe). One for the start shape and one for the end shape.
I think (when the shapekey Value is changed from 0 to 1) an individual vertex moves from its starting position to its end position traveling the shortest possible distance. In other words, it moves in a straight line.
If i understand (or imagine your problem) correctly, you are essentially asking if a vertex (part of a single shapekey) can have a third coordinate location (like an animation keyframe) along the way. A third location it would be at if the Value is somewhere between 0 and 1, and that is not somewhere on the strait line between the start and end location. I'm pretty sure at the moment it can't.
Probably there is some other solution to your problem, but i think you would have to approach your problem (and possibly phrase your (new) question) differently.
Hope that gives some insight : )


Blender 2.8 RC2 Outliner restrict icons I'm just downloaded (current available) Blender 2.8 RC2, and little confused: I see NO restriction icons [commands] in Outliner:

Restrict Viewport Visibility
Restrict Viewport Selection
Restrict Rendering

I Have "hide in viewport" only. Is this OK? Or maybe I miss something? How to get back all 3 restrictions?

You can get all restriction icons by clicking on the filter dropdown.

Once they are all enabled:


How to generate building on surface I have created 20 towers.

Each tower contains few mesh. Each tower is not with single mesh. Some are curve some have array modifiers some bevel etc.
I want to generate on a plane to make a city. With single mesh we can. I have created collection to divide the building small medium and large.

I have created a generation result collection and in that 3 collection (small medium and large).
In the small medium and large collection i have divide the collection in the name s1 s2 for each building.
I tried to parent each building with the base of plane. But all mess. All the parts of the building distributed here and there.
Any solution how can i fix all the building on single plan to make a city. Thanks

I'm guessing here, but it seems you have buildings made with separate meshes and want to place each building as a complete whole, onto the plane?
If so you can make each building's component a "Child" of a parent, which could be an Empty.  You then move that empty onto the plane and all of the building's components will stick together and follow.
You do the same for each building.
Once each (building) is on the plane, the plane itself can then act as a parent for all of the building-parents, i.e. make a city block which will stick together should you move the plane.
See this answer here -
Partial Rotation
If this answer isn't what you're after I'll delete it.  Let us know with a comment.


Exported .mtl does not specify the texture image When I export the .obj file, the generated .mtl does not specify the texture image used by the model.
I expected it to have
map_Kd texture.png

but it does not have it. If I write map_Kd texture.png manually, it works fine.
How can I automate to include the texture image when exporting from blender?
This is my shading scheme:

The textures color output should be attached to the color input of the shader (Diffuse BSDF in your example), for it to be exported into the mtl file.
Edit:
It seems the PrincipleBSDF shader node (instead of DiffuseBSDF) is needed for the .obj / .mtl export to function properly!


What is the function of "removing doubles UV" I was working with blender and I imported a CAD file.

I was trying to UV unwrap the model, which is high poly (see photos).

Can someone explain to me what the "remove doubles UV" option does?

In my case I just used it and from this

I got this

I see there are a lot fewer edges in the UV map but the model stays the same.

This is a very useful function when making textures for game assets.

When modeling game assets you usually get a lot of similar faces that could use the same texture space, so you want to align them on the same spot. But to save even more space, it's a good idea to use the "pack islands" function.

If you haven't merged the UV's with the "remove doubles UV" function, they will get separated again and moved to different parts of the map.


Mesh is really weird importing to 2.8 It seems like moving my mesh to 2.8 is making it do some really bizarre stuff. For example, I had a mirror modifier that worked exactly as intended in 2.79 but now when I go into edit mode, modifier still on mind you, I can freely select all vertices on both sides of the mesh. When I delete some vertices thinking that it somehow duplicated the mesh I just see another mesh beneath it in object mode. but when I go back into object mode and move my mirrored mesh to see if there is another one under it, there isn't, and I'm just stumped at whats going on.

Can anyone help?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1neePPk9PlKjhpp8AIbUOF94m1KHws7hX/view?usp=sharing

It looks like the mesh in the .blend file is already mostly symmetrical, so it shouldn't need a mirror modifier.
Anyways, if you want to fix this, simply select all of the vertices left of the center (facing the mesh, it's the character's right) and delete faces (x > f). Then you'll have what you want.


Extract audio to file from movie clip - with Blender? In this excellent answer I learned how to extract a series of individual frames from a movie clip node.

This solution suits me well - there is a python script, and a few nodes, and it runs automatically.

Is there a way I could extract the audio from a clip - either the whole thing, or possibly just between two frame number limits, using a similarly simple technique in Blender? For me simple is python and nodes - I am not an advanced user, and something I can automate and customize is the most useful in my case.

I've have tried to examine the attributes of the vidNode but didn't find anything that looked like audio:

S = bpy.context.scene
n = S.node_tree

vidNode = n.nodes['Movie Clip']

Currently there isn't a node with that capability built in. The simplest that you might script is the following:

add the clip to the VSE
set start and endframe: bpy.context.scene.frame_start  and .frame_end
call the mixdown operator: bpy.ops.sound.mixdown (see the docs for parameters)
reset frame start/end if you need to.

something like this.

import bpy

def main(filepath_source, filepath_destination, frame_start=0, frame_end=20):
    scn = bpy.context.scene

    scn.frame_start = frame_start
    scn.frame_end = frame_end

    if not scn.sequence_editor:
        scn.sequence_editor_create()

    sequences = scn.sequence_editor.sequences
    sequences.new_sound(
        name='drone_detroit',
        filepath=filepath_source,
        channel=0, frame_start=0
    )
    bpy.ops.sound.mixdown(filepath=filepath_destination)

fp_source = r"C:\Users\zeffi\Downloads\DRONE\0001-2964.avi"
fp_destination = r"C:\Users\zeffi\OneDrive\Documents\chopper_drone4.flac"

main(fp_source, fp_destination, frame_start=500, frame_end=560)

the sequences.new_sound, lifts the audio track off the .avi.

The mixdown operator will output the audio of whatever is between those two frames.


should the size of polygons of a 3d model be the same? I recently learned from my previous question, that it's better make faces with 4 verts.
It really helped me with lots of things, unwraping, texturing, etc.
To reduce the poly counts of my models, I tried removing the unnecassary verts without turning any 4 vert face to n-gone.
But I don't know if it's OK from a professional perspective.
Please take a look at the image below.

M question is, can the polygons of a 3d model have different sizes? not slightly different, the difference between the size of the faces of my model is huge. i personally thought it's cool and fine but wanted to know some professionals opinion.
Thanks for reading my question,
Best regards.

You don't have to care about keeping the same size for all the quads, a topology doesn't need to be homogeneous, only bring edge loops when it's useful, delete all the ones that don't bring anything to the shape, you'll save calculation and your object will be easier to work.
For example look at this topology: You have small quads around the lips, they are bigger around the forehead, and even bigger around the shoulders, because it's exactly what's necessary for these parts, no more, no less.