Duplicate objects transformation applies to both objects I'm facing this frustrating "feature" that I can't seem to remedy; when I duplicate an object (and now, even when I create two completely new objects), their transformations/scaling is synchronized. This is extremely annoying when trying to use any sort of transformation keyboard shortcut.

It should be noted by going to the properties menu (N) and manually setting the properties works just fine.

For instance, here is just the camera selected (trust me, I made sure):

And when I try to transform by clicking+dragging on the X axis OR by hitting G->X, this happens:

They are not grouped (verified by going to the Groups list up in the Scene panel) and they do not have parents (verified by going to Object->Relations).

I have tried the unlink command as well, to no avail.

I have seriously run out of options; what did I change to have my G->X shortcuts transform multiple objects? It seems completely at random, too; certain objects seemed to be "linked" to other random objects, and this "linking" is guaranteed when duplicating even when I do a non-linking duplicate (Shift+D).

What gives?

This could be...

Proportional editing, (disable in 3d view header)
Objects can share an action (shared animation data), (check the action space with each object selected)
a constraint, check object constraints
a driver (unlikely this would be setup by accident, but drivers can do this still)


How make visible grid cell size Blender view port doesn't display scale (cell size) of the grid.

Grid cell changes depending on zoom in/out (1 mm, 10 mm, 100mm, etc) .

I haven't found an option nor a plugin.

Without knowing current scale it's hard to estimate object size.

Grid subdivision

You can avoid progressive subdivision of the grid by setting the Subdivision parameter to 1. The scale of the grid is in the Scale field: it's a multiplier for your current unit.

You can find the parameters in the Display panel of the Properties panel of the 3D view:

I never heard of a plugin capable of printing the coordinates of the grid. it would probably not be very easy to work with, but there are around lots of plugin/tools that can help you in measuring distances, such as:

Mesh Display Info (edge length, angle...)
Transform panel (for the global/local coordinates),
Ruler/Protractor tool
Measure-it add-on
and many other...

See for example:  How to get selected edges length?


Adaptative sampling on Cycles I have a scene I want to render where a small object moves across the camera's field of view. The rest of the scene is just a black void containing absolutely nothing (see image below). I need to render this as an image sequence.

This object is basically a mirror reflecting a somewhat complex scene, so I want to render it with a very high resolution (14mpx or more). And enough samples to get a good quality on the reflections.

The problem is that if i rise the number of samples, and because of the high resolution, it takes ages for each frame to render, while most of the time is just spent rendering a black region. The camera must stay static during the whole sequence.

Is it possible to configure blender to use a high number of samples around the object, and a very low value on the empty region? (I want to make the whole process faster)

Edit

I used the option border in the render menu, as described in this answer

Adaptive sampling is now an integration added to the 2.8x series, and you can enable this by going to the render properties panel (the camera icon), and checking the box for "Adaptive sampling" underneath the Sampling tab.


How to add a uniform complex shape to a high poly geometry? Can anyone help me understand how to add this kind of ring geometry for a high-poly mesh:

It almost feels like the author simply selected an edge loop on a high poly mesh and applied some action that bevels the loop and smoothly extrudes (spins?pops?) the newly created loops. Can anyone tell me how that can be done?

It can be obtained with a subdivision surface modifier, starting from a simple shape:

Here we can make it using a mirror modifier on X, Y, Z.

The base shape is as shown below: just the profile repeated/rotated at the extremities and at the corner.

With the mirror and the subdivision surface, we obtain this:

Now, refine the profile adding two loop cuts and grabbing down the border:

Edit following the comments, if you want to do it from an already modeled base shape:

In edit mode, duplicate an edge loop (note that if the subdivision is already applied on the object, that's changing nothing)
Separate it
Convert it to curve
Give some bevel to the curve
Set the curve 'U' resolution to 1 (that will keep the same amount of vertices around as the original)
Convert back to mesh

After that, to do: remove some edges loops in the inner part in both objects, join them, and bridge edge loops between them.


UV render pass non-linearity I am writing a piece of software that needs pre-rendered UV maps for on the fly texture mapping. I tried rendering these maps in blender, but the color values in the resulting image do not change in a linear fashion.

If you open this image in an image editing program and drag the eyedropper tool horizontally or vertically across the square you will notice that the color values change very rapidly at first then the change slows down.
This results in distorted texture mapping when using a basic shader like this.
gl_FragColor = texture2D(u_source, vec2(uvmap.x, uvmap.y));

Is there a way to render a UV map with linear color value change in blender?

Save as EXR. EXR is the only linearized format available.


Make complex shape without modeling I want to make an object like this:

But it is way too hard for me to model. It dosen't have to be the exact same, just the same look.
Is there a trick to modeling it, or some kind of generated texture?

One "trick" you could try to use is adding texture with transparent "holes" to basic geometries, overlapping them to replicate some similar pattern. The "import images as planes" add-on (included but disabled by default) could ease the process somehow.

Eg:


UVs applied in viewport, but not in render I noticed that one of the UVs on my model does not appear the same in the viewport as it does in the final render. The appearance in the viewport is correct, and matches what is shown in the UV editor, but the render is different. This applies to both Cycles and Eevee. The issue is only with one object for some reason. Note: there is only one UV per object.
UPDATE: I gave the objects proper names as opposed to their placeholder names, which were formatted like: HairRemeshedVersion.00X, and now the UVs are fixed? I have no clue why that worked, but it did.
The vertical lines correspond to the vertical direction on the UVs
Viewport (correct)

Render (broken)

Here are some things that I have tried which did NOT solve the problem:

Applying transforms
re-unwrapping
Deleting unused UV maps (there were none)
using the texture coordinate node instead of the UV map node
Deleting the UV map and then re-adding it

In order to give the character's hair fine details, I use a shader which requires a UV map to give the direction of the hair strands, so it is very important that these UVs work!

How the issue was resolved:
I was able to fix the issue by giving each hair object a new name. The previous objects were named "RemeshedHair.00X" with "X" being incremented every time I created a new object. After changing the names to "Hair front/Hair side/Hair back" the UVs were able to be applied properly.
My hypothesis on the cause of the issue:
I no longer have a copy of the .blend that contains the issue, so I can't say for certain what happened, but I can guess. It might be possible that this issue was just some bug in the way that blender handles it's internal data structures. It might be the case that the UV map was somehow unlinked from it's object in the portion of the structure where rendering data is stored, and renaming the object caused an update to that portion of the structure, resolving the issue.


Locking planes together and animating them separately with shape keys I have several images-as-planes in Cycles that make a face.  I want to lock them all together so I can move them as a group while animating them separately with shape keys.  How can i do this?

Thank you!

You can (sortof) do it like this

set the pivot point for all the planes in the same exact point in 3d space.
this can be done in more then one way: you can join all them togheter (so that all meshes get one single pivot point) and then separate them back again, one by one (the pivot point of separated meshes remains untouched); another one would be manually "set origins" to one 3d point of your choice...
then select one plane as "base" and use "copy location" constraint on all the others, with the "base" one as target.

the constrained planes can't be moved anymore, if not moving the "base" one, which moves all the others too.
shape keys for each plane are still independent
for rotation/scale, just select all them, they will rotate/scale around the same pivot point for all so they will rotate/scale all together


Volumetric Caustics + HDRI Backdrop Goal

Using Blender 2.79b + LuxCore, I'm trying to set up a scene, which would support, at the same time, both A) volumetric caustics and B) Hemi lamp + HDRI backdrop.

Problem

When I assign a homogeneous volume with scattering (called Dust) to the World as it's volume, I get expected results on the side of light propagation as seen on picture 1. But the HDRI backdrop is obstructed by, quite obviously, the whole world full of dust. It is invisible.

Intuitive solution is to limit the Dust volume to only as small area as possible, just around optical elements. To do so, I removed the Dust volume from the World and assigned the very same Dust volume (through material) to the Cube, which contains the whole scene. Only to get unexpected results regarding light propagation as seen on picture 2. Segments 1, 2 and 3 from the first picture are missing. Remember, the only 2 things changed: World got rid of Dust volume and the Cube with Dust volume got turned on. (HDRI backdrop is now visible).

When I tried to randomly turn off some optical elements, I started to see a pattern. It looks as though only the segment of light after the last optical element is visible. Others are either completely absent or only very faint.

Example with second lens turned off:

Example with prism turned off:

Example with first lens turned off (exception from the pattern):

I would expect that a cube with a volume assigned to it, would locally create very similar optical conditions, as World would, with the very same volume assigned to it. But this is not the case.

You can see the text "Not supported by Bidir engine." in material editor. Is that the answer? That, while in case of the World, it is just volume, which is assigned to it, but in the case of the Cube, it is the unsupported material (with the very same volume as an input), which is assigned to it?

(I was also thinking about compositing, but it seems that you can't have two worlds (dust and air) each in different render layer.)

Question

How to set up a scene in Blender 2.79b + LuxCore, which would support, at the same time, both A) volumetric caustics and B) Hemi lamp + HDRI backdrop?

Scene: volumetric_caustics_30.blend

You have to specify the exterior volume of the objects inside the fog cube.
Plug a pointer to the fog volume into the "exterior volume" slot of the two glass materials of the lenses and prism.

Note, the beam between lens on the right and prism still stays very weak. To be honest, I don't know what's up with that. It could be another problem in the volume setup or mesh normals, or it might be a bug in LuxCore.
You can try asking about it in our forum where our main LuxCore developer Dade might be able to tell you more about it.
In the forum I have also written a bit of an explanation about interior/exterior volume setup, maybe it helps you: https://forums.luxcorerender.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1178&p=13864#p13879

Before:
(HDRI was not packed, so I used a green color instead)

After:

(30 second renders)

The prism

The last piece is the prism. Originally, I did my prism from the cube by eliminating one face and merging disconnected edges. Now I tried cleaner way by adding cylinder and setting number of faces to 3. This did the job. The two ways obviously don't lead to the same mesh.

Result:

Link to fixed scene is here and link to HDRI image here.


Blender Pivot Point and Zoom Location Stuck Exclusively on Cursor Location I have no idea why I can't change from pivoting around the cursor to pivoting around my selection in blender 2.80 or 2.81. I used to be able to pivot around the selection. In the navigation preferences I checked the box that states "orbit around selection". The navigation still orbits or pivots around the cursor location so it gets annoying when I have to select lots of different things and rotate them. I used the NumPad . key an the NumPad , key also and tried different pivot point options. It sadly makes no difference. The software is stuck on orbiting exclusively around the cursor. Can anyone help me find out what is happening? I attached an image of the navigation preferences below.

Press "N" to bring up a toolbox menu. Go to the "View" tab and click on the View Lock option. Then, you can lock the camera to the 3D Cursor, view or to an object.

As far as going professional, there are great tutorials you can learn from. A lot of people start off with making a donut from BlenderGuru's tutorial on Youtube here From there, you can continue poking around various free tutorials or start looking into paid ones. I've found the Hard Surface Modelling series by CGMasters here to be a great boost off point after the donut. I've also heard that some Universities are teaching Blender now in their courses, but I don't have any suggestions or insight to their value (from my experience right now as an engineering undergrad, a lot of the tuition goes straight down the drain).

If you're serious about going professional, I would start by building an online profile/portfolio. Get a good following and I'm sure at some point you'll find the right contacts.


Blender Python Scripting Screen Layout Closes on Execution in Windows OS G'day,

I'm using Blender 2.78 64 bit in Windows 7.
I'm trying to use the Scripting Screen layout to run, debug and edit python scripts.

When I press the Run Script button in Blender, the screen layout reverts to the default layout which closes the Scripting Window and the Python Interactive Console. Then to rerun the script I need to reopen the Scripting layout and import the python code back into the Scripting window (very frustrating).

Is there any way to stop Blender from reverting back to the default layout when python scripts are run?

Or, is there a way to make the Scripting screen layout the default layout?

I have seen some suggestions about including input() or raw_input() at the end of the code to prevent the python console from closing. This solution has not worked, raw_input() causes Blender to hang (python console is 3.5.2). Surely there must be a better solution than using raw_input() to pause completion of the script in any case.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Thanks very much for the responses. Zeffii is correct, I had used the following code to delete all objects, but it was also resetting the view. Removing the below code resolves the issue. Thanks again.

def reset_blend():
    bpy.ops.wm.read_factory_settings()

    for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
        for obj in scene.objects:
            scene.objects.unlink(obj)

    for bpy_data_iter in (
            bpy.data.objects,
            bpy.data.meshes,
            bpy.data.lamps,
            bpy.data.cameras,
            ):
        for id_data in bpy_data_iter:
            bpy_data_iter.remove(id_data)

reset_blend()


How to bake two objects (an item and a shrink-wrapped decal on it) into one texture image? I'm very very new to blender and have been searching on how to do this for a while now to no avail, please forgive me if I'm posting a simple/answered question.

I am making a very simple mask that consists of 2 parts:

The mask itself - A rounded shape with a flat color image + some noise for texture as the material:

A "decal/sticker" - an image as a plane, with a subdivision and shrinkwrap modifiers, parented to the mask.

I would like to bake these two together, as they appear now, into 1 texture image that I can simply apply to the mask itself.  I've been able to bake them individually, but I do not know how to combine the two into 1 texture. How do I do this?

1:UV Unwrap the sphere
2. Plug the image of the decal directly into the output of the material node.
3: Select the sphere so its active(Yellow) and drag to select the decal so it is selected(Orange)
4. In the shader editor, create an image with a resolution of say 1024x1024 or 2048x2048.
5. In the bake settings in the render properties panel, switch the bake type to emission, Check selected to Active.
6.Click Bake.
Also, you can apply this detail in texture painting by adding it as a mask in the brush settings.


Intersected meshes make chain break When I use Rigid Body physics and the meshes intersect each other, like the picture, the chain breaks when simulation (AltA) is done. I use 'mesh' as collision shape and increased the solver iterations and steps per second. What could I do to make the chain not break when I do the simulation? Thanks :)

Since I had no luck with your file I created someting compareable.
Getting this working is tricky. You need to find balanced parameters most important are mass and sensitivty.
A mass of 100 is way to much and sensitivity should be > 0, e.g. 0.01 (probably blender units).

With a mass of 1.0 the simulation breaks after 90 frames:

When the mass of the second ring only is increased to 2 it works as expected.


Ugly UV unwarpping in a simple case. What I'm doing wrong? I'm trying to unwrap a very simple model of a building. It unwraps fine except for the foundation of the building, where the angles between the edges are not kept.(screenshots below).

Why does Blednder fail in such a simple situation? And how to prevent this ugly unwraping?

The.blend file is here.
Thanks in advance.

Reselect all your faces and try Smart Uv Project


Collision is not working with multiple object I want to roll ball soft balls down a slide or chute but the soft body balls are passing through the surface.

Here are screenshots at a point in the animation showing the soft body objects passing through the surface

What could be causing the collision not to work as would be expected?

For soft body collision to work correctly the normals of the collision mesh need to be oriented in the right direction - ie, in the direction of the collision. For example, in the case of a simple chute created from a cube by removing some faces you would need to Flip Normals to ensure that they are pointing 'inwards' as shown :

Note how the normals (the light-blue lines) are pointing 'inwards'. To 'flip' the normals you can simply go into Edit mode (Tab), select all (A until all mesh is selected), press Space and type 'Flip Normals' and Enter. To display the normals, press N and scroll down to 'Display' and activate display of the normals (when in Edit mode).

This can produce the following result :

Note : It's usually good practice to have 'solid' (manifold) meshes - rather than having single faces with no width (eg, a cube with some faces removed). For a manifold mesh the normals would all point 'out' of the surface, meaning this problem would not occur as collisions would only occur from the 'outside'.

Blend file included


Unable to individually give material to bark and leaves I am using blender 2.79, and in using the sapling gen addon, I am unable to add different materials to both bark and leaves.I'm a total beginner, so it might be an error on my part.Please tell me what is needed.

The Sapling Gen Addon should create two separate objects for the tree and the leaves if you select the leaves and add a material with whatever color you want it should assign that material to the leaves only.


Object Particles Won't Render in Cycles Says it right in the title. I'm trying to render particles in cycles, I have everything visible and the particles are assigned as objects. I'm sure I'm doing everything right, but obviously I'm not. Any help?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v9cqpgo47n7qe4x/Dyson%20Sphere.blend?dl=0

Check Camera visibility in Object Tab -> Cycles settings


How to make object translations in the UV Editor (Scripting, Blender Python API 2.8) I'd like to to perform translations on objects within the UV Editor via a Python script. Attempts so far have only affected the 3D Viewport.

From a user-based, non-scripted perspective, there are two methods I'm aware of: (1) toggle to transform mode and drag the object (2) adjust the X/Y values in UV Editor > UV Vertex.

However, neither of these methods print useful commands to the console.

Transform

This method prints a standard transform command, which if replicated only affects the 3D Viewport

bpy.ops.transform.translate(value=(0.16838, -0.0870929, 0), orient_type='GLOBAL', orient_matrix=((1, 0, 0), (0, 1, 0), (0, 0, 1)), orient_matrix_type='GLOBAL', mirror=True, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1)

UV Vertex

And oddly, adjusting the UV Vertex values will print nothing to the console.

API Documentation

The UV operators documentation is where I would expect a solution, but it makes no mention of translations.

I've noticed space related parameters in the bpy.ops.transform.translate, but it seems they have more to do with the values of the translation rather than its context.

I'm currently exploring bmesh, but admittedly, I'm not entirely sure I understand the concept. A plugin I'm reading through from 2.79 does something like this:

bmesh.faces[0].loops[0].uv += vector

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks for taking the time.

The following is a response I received from Testure on Blender DevTalk:

It’s not only possible to do using bmesh, it is the correct way to do it.

In Blender, UVs are stored in loops, and loops can only be accessed through bmfaces. It’s super weird, but here’s a really rough breakdown of how it works:

First of all, when I talk about “loops” i’m not talking about edgeloops. In Bmesh, each face has N loops (where N is the number of edges in the face. Think of a loop as being a vert with a pointer to the next and previous verts that make up the face’s boundary. A loop is also like Bmesh’s attic. Any type of data that is not raw geometry coordinates gets crammed in there and you have to spend a lot of time digging through crap to find what you need (I could go on a pretty good rant about this but I digress). Anyway, that’s oversimplifying it a bit, but that should help you understand what I’m talking about.

OK so once you have a loop, you have to specify what loop layer you want data from. In your case, you want UVs- so you have to get and verify the UV layer using bm.loops.layers.uv.verify(). You’ll need that to manipulate UVs on any given loop.

Another tip- BMesh has no concept of UV islands or UV boundaries, or anything like that. If you have two quad faces joined by one edge, you might think that there are 6 verts, and thus- 6 UVs. You would be incorrect, there are two quads, so there are FOUR loops per face, and therefore 8 loops (thus, 8 UVs). If you want to “weld” two Uvs together, you simply give them the same coordinate, as long as they share a vertex Blender will treat them like they’re welded when a user goes to click on it in the UV editor. This is important to note- because if you’re trying to transform a vert’s UVs, it likely has around 4 UVs that all need to be transformed with it, or you’ve effectively “unwelded” the UVs and created a new split in the uv island.

I threw this simple script together, it should help you understand the nuance a bit better:

import bpy
import bmesh

from mathutils import Vector

def main():
    me = bpy.context.edit_object.data
    bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)

    uv_layer = bm.loops.layers.uv.verify()

    # it's useful to organize your UVs into a dictionary if you're manipulating a lot of stuff all at once,
    # otherwise you're going to be looping through bmface.loops a LOT.
    uv_verts = {}

    for face in bm.faces:
        print(f"Face #{face.index}")
        for loop in face.loops:
            print(f"\tv{loop.vert.index}: {loop[uv_layer].uv}")
            if loop.vert not in uv_verts:
                uv_verts[loop.vert] = [ loop[uv_layer] ]
            else:
                uv_verts[loop.vert].append( loop[uv_layer] )

    # now that we have a dictionary of UV verts, it's fairly simple to do transformations on the UVs on a per vertex basis
    # here we take all of the selected UV verts and move them up and to the right by .1
    for vert in uv_verts:
        for uv_loop in uv_verts[vert]:
            if uv_loop.select:
                uv_loop.uv += Vector( (10.0, 10.0) )

    bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me, False, False)

if bpy.context.object.mode == "EDIT" and bpy.context.object.type == "MESH":
    main()

Also, this is a really old doc so some of the info might be out of date/incorrect, but it was useful for me when I was trying to understanding how BMesh actually works.


Creating clock cogs? I want to build a clock and I need to generate the cogs and pinions. I have seen a great tutorial here, but I want to do something slightly different than fiddleware. For example I want to round the teeth ends slightly to reduce the grinding and also reduce the tooth width while increasing the gap the teeth go into.

Although I forget where it is at this exact moment, I noticed there is a screw creator script in Blender (I'm currently using 2.7) and I was wondering if there was any kind of script that would generate a cog given some of it's defining characteristics?

Use Mesh Extra Object addon to create gears.

Gears and extra objects are added from Shift+A menu

The Addon adds the following;

Gears ,
Worms ,
Diamond ,
Gem ,
Star ,
Polysphere ,
Torus Knot
and many More.

Here is a simple usage gif.


Overlapping faces in imported .obj file I've imported a model I made in Zephyr, and the model looks quite nice, except for these strange overlapping vertices/faces all over the place.
Looks like blender just doesn't know what to do about irregularities in the model.  is there any easy way to fix this?

I encountered this to a smaller degree with Qlone today. The best I know:

Select all, and Merge By Distance.
Degenerate Dissolve
Vertex -> Smooth Vertices (will change things!) adjust the strength of the effect as needed.


Making random structures I'm a beginner of Blender, just started yesterday with some tutorials. It was a smooth start, but I feel like it's a bit far away to make a figure like can be seen below. It's a random structure. Could anyone help me to make those kind of random structures?

[Option 1]
is to do it via displacement:
Here via shader displacement and a Musgave texture. This way it stays parametric. Works only with cycles in render view/render.

If you want it to be a solid mesh to further work on here is a tutorial how to do that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McALCOr39rY

[Option 2]
The other way would be from curves, but is not parametric.
Convert your pattern from an image to curve for expl. in illustrator,
then use these curves to build your mesh.
curve menue>extrude
then: convert to mesh from curves


How to keep flat faces flat when using smooth shading Is there a way to make a smooth shaded mesh look like the third column in this example? The six sides of the cube should have their vertex normals aligned with the face normal.

Here is what I've tried so far:

Beveled, smooth shaded (faces are not flat)
beveled, smooth shaded, edge split (faces aren't joined)
Modified in external application (faces are flat, bevels are smooth)

If I got your question right, I think you should use a "subdivision surface" modifier, and smooth shading, to get what you want. Just add some edge on the cylinder top face and side surface, quite near the loop that divides them...

See below images:

or, for the cube version:


Cyles. How can I add a sky to my scene? Well, I'm doing a project and I keep trying to add in a sky but It never works and I don't know whats wrong.

Although I am not exactly sure, I see a square tile pattern behind the ground mesh object. I have never used this feature myself but it seems you have the transparent background feature on. To turn it off go into the properties panel and go to the output section where you choose what format you want to export in, you might have it set as a png, and as far as i know if you have it set as a png and (you'll have to double check if you try and fail as i might be missing a detail) underneath in the FILM section a transpartent option is activated you will make your background transparent or "truly invisible" to the camera. Hope that helps.


How to create half circular-window hole on the wall without resulting ngon? how to create half circular-window hole, I think it called arched window? I only know using knife project, but it will make ngon, and I must cut it one by one into tris/quad.

so, do you know another way to window hole for arched window without resulting ngon?

In answer to the question:

Select the face that you want to put an arch opening in
Subdivide enough times to suit your needs:

Select the edges that surround the area where your arch opening will be:

Select the Circle tool from the LoopTools addon (available in User Preferences if not already installed). This will move the selected edges into a circular shape:

At this point, you can either delete the bottom half of the original face and rebuild the mesh for the lower part of your door opening, or you can realign the vertices that will form the door opening by copy/pasting the appropriate transform values to line them up on the z axis. To do this, just place the mouse cursor over the appropriate transform value and press Ctrl-C:

Individually select each vertex below the one you just copied the value from, and paste the value into the same transform field by just placing the mouse over it and pressing Ctrl-V. You should end up with something like this:

Now you can delete the faces that form the arched doorway.


During Texture Paint, Shadows and Lights Create Distorted Colors I am trying to do some basic texture painting in Blender 2.81 but basically cannot see my base colors because shadows and lights shining make everything darker and obscured. I have included the image below to illustrate my dilemma.

What is the optimal environmental setup for texture painting where I can see the colors evenly from all angles?

You can make changes to your viewport to create a flat color response in the same place you choose matcap or solid, etc.


Is there a difference between imported file types? I've found a model on a site that I'd like to use but it doesn't come in a Blender format, so having never purchased a model before I'm just wondering which format I should buy? The formats available are .3ds, .dxf, .obj, and .max. Are they all essentially the same? I've seen in the Add-ons that these can all be imported, but I don't want to waste my money on one that won't work properly etc., so is there a type that's known to work better?

Most stores offer all file formats for download without restriction once you buy a specific model.

If that is not the case, then DO NOT buy the 3DsMax (.max) file, since it's a closed file format specific for AutoDesk 3DSMax and you will not be able to open it elsewhere.

DXF is generally more geared towards CAD-Like applications (like AutoCAD or FreeCad or LibreCAD alikes).

If you really have to make a choice either go with the .OBJ or the .3DS file formats, which are some of the most common and Blender as native official importers for both.

OBJ is generally regarded as a more modern and advanced file format, it is well supported in most 3D packages (in case you need to open it elsewhere in the future) and also supports the most features compared to 3Ds which is more basic and limited, so I'd say OBJ is likely the best from the bunch.


Unknown Syntax Error in Code So, I am following a tutorial on CGCookie, and it is using Python code to create an audio visualizer in Blender. Now, I've always been a coding geek, but I don't actually know Python. I've taken a few shots at it but overall, I don't know Python, however, I can read and understand the code because I know basic programming concepts. Now, I'm following this tutorial as closely as I can (the tutorial does not provide code to copy and paste) and I am getting a syntax error. As far as I can tell, there is no syntax error. The line of code (specified by the error message) appears perfect. This line of code is supposed to set the 3D cursor to the active object's origin. Here's the catch: if I run that exact same line of code in the console, it executes just fine.
So here's the error message I get:

File "C:\Me\Blender\Blender Projects\audio visualisation.blend\AudioVisualizer", line 17
bpy.context.scene.cursor_location = bpy.context.active_object.location
   ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
location: <unknown location>:-1

It tells me to look in the console for error message, but the console doesn't output anything.
Here's my overall code:

Thanks!

EDIT: Alright. I've tried all the examples and all the procedures that have been suggested by you guys, but it keeps feeding me errors. According to the console, one of the problems it is spitting out is in C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.74\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py. This makes me think there is a bug in the API that is causing one of the many errors.
EDIT: Here are the error messages I get for my code.
Original Code:

Error:   File "C:\Gannon\Blender\Blender Projects\audio visualisation.blend\Audi
o Visualizer", line 35
    bpy.ops.graph.sound_bake(filepath="C:\Gannon\Blender\Sounds\Music\Batty McFa
dden.mp3", low=i*step high=i*step+step

                         ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

gandalf3's Code and zeffii's Code are essentially the same with alternative formatting which changes the line numbers where the error occurs.

Error: Unsupported audio format

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Gannon\Blender\Blender Projects\audio visualisation.blend\Audio Visua
lizer", line 42, in <module>
  File "C:\Gannon\Blender\Blender Projects\audio visualisation.blend\Audio Visua
lizer", line 35, in spiral
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.74\scripts\modules\bpy\ops
.py", line 189, in __call__
    ret = op_call(self.idname_py(), None, kw)
RuntimeError: Error: Unsupported audio format

You got pretty close TheMinecraftMan757, i've seen many people struggle with that tutorial over the last 3 or 4 years. I think even some of the function calls have been changed.

as Gandalf points out:

  to scale_apply() on line 24 should be transform_apply(scale=True)

At the time the tutorial was written, the function call was scale_apply(), but it was changed to a more general apply function that can apply not just scale, but rotation and location. You would never have figured that out in a million years without a bit of googling or more familiarity with bpy.

here's my minimized interpretation of that code.

import bpy

rows = 5
columns = 5

def spiral(X, Y):
    scn = bpy.context.scene  # an alias, lets you use scn shorthand
    x = y = 0
    dx = 0
    dy = -1
    for i in range(max(X, Y)**2):
        if (-X/2 < x <= X/2) and (-Y/2 < y <= Y/2):
            bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(location = (x, y, 1))
            obj = bpy.context.active_object

            scn.cursor_location = obj.location
            scn.cursor_location.z -= 1
            bpy.ops.object.origin_set(type="ORIGIN_CURSOR")
            obj.scale = (0.5, 0.5, 7)

            bpy.ops.object.transform_apply(scale=True)
            bpy.ops.anim.keyframe_insert_menu(type='Scaling')

            action = obj.animation_data.action
            action.fcurves[0].lock = True
            action.fcurves[1].lock = True

            bpy.context.area.type = 'GRAPH_EDITOR'

            step = 20000 / (rows * columns)
            fp = r"C:\Gannon\Blender\Sounds\Music\Batty McFadden.mp3"
            bpy.ops.graph.sound_bake(filepath=fp, low=i*step, high=i*step+step)
            action.fcurves[2].lock = True

        if x == y or (x < 0 and x == -y) or (x > 0 and x == 1-y):
            dx, dy = -dy, dx
        x, y = x+dx, y+dy

spiral(rows, columns)

If you don't set the path to a valid one, then you can get errors like

RuntimeError: Error: Unsupported audio format

remarks:

On windows use r'C:\your\file\destination.mp3', the r turns the quoted string that follows it into a raw string literal, this is perfect for filepaths.
On linux you should really know how to compose a path, but if you're new to it, it might be something like: '/homes/your_user_name/music/some_tune.mp3'
This code can take a long time to bake each graph. Even with a 5*5 grid, it will bake the entire graph 25 times. Here's a version which places a print statement just before it starts baking each iteration, you will need to have the terminal/cmd-prompt open before running the command.

a simple script to test your mp3 filepath, but it is really worth your time to read the python docs about paths

import os

# on windows, string prefix r is used to avoid the need for double backslashes
# filepath = 'C:\\Gannon\\Blender\\Sounds\\Music\\Batty McFadden.mp3'
filepath = r'C:\Gannon\Blender\Sounds\Music\Batty McFadden.mp3'

# on POSIX systems (linux, osx)
# filepath = '/home/zeffii/cookoo_22may_2011.mp3'

found = os.path.exists(filepath)
if found:
    print('yes, this file was found')
else:
    print('nope, the path does not exist')


Batch Manipulation in the VSE? I'm working with the video editing part of Blender, and I was wanting to change the proxy video settings on all of the videos in my project in the sequencer. But I had to go to each individual video to do so. It took up a lot of time. Is there a way to do it faster?

For some toggles, you can first select multiple strips, then right click on them and choose "Copy to Selected".

For batch controls on proxy quality setting, there is a very nice VSE addon here, which can make it much easier.


how to change the render image size without changing camera settings I was trying to change the size of the rendering area, the original size of the image is (1300x800)px, I want change to (2000x800)px (the red box area), but the rendering area does not become wider.
Is there any way to change the size without changing the camera settings?

I think you can achieve your goal by changing the Sensor Fit setting under the camera settings from "Auto" to "Vertical".


Cloth Simulation Not going through Ring Good day,

I'm making a 3D model of a garbage bag holder. Unfortunately, when I got to the plastic bag, I hit a major barrier. I've been trying to make a cloth simulation to make it look like a bag is hanging.

I did a few experiments to see if I could solve the problem on my own. See below a few screenshots of the issue at hand.

This is the garbage bag stand:

I tried to sculpt the bag, but it looks terribly as I'm not skilled with the tool. But I though to attach this screenshot as it is a useful picture to show what result I'm trying to get.

So I started to do experiments with this ring and the floor beneath.

Unfortunately, it does not go through the ring, but rather rests on it as if it were a table.

Any ideas?

Many thanks,

Karl.

How about modeling a "folded" bag, make it a Cloth, add a pin group set to the top vertices and apply some simple shapekeys? Here is a quick example:

With more geometry and some experiment a bit more details can be added...


More particles as more area is painted I want to populate trees along a road with Particles using weight painting to control the density.
My problem is that the particle system needs to know the final particles count - logically, I proceed from start to finish so with every newly painted areas, the tree density will more and more decrease as this number spreads to bigger area. This means I have to adjust and estimate the count every while, which is frustrating.
So is there any option how to tell the particle system to produce maximum (based on a weight paint) of 5 instances on area of i.e. 10x10 meters so the number of instances / particles will grow progressively as I paint?

As I haven't found any solution so far and this fixed-count workflow limits my daily work a lot, I have refreshed my "so-so programming skills" and I ended up with creating a Blender (2.79) addon which does this job for me.

With the addon, you set the Density parameter and the Emmission Number is adjusted accordingly:

I have placed the addon to Github and would be very happy is someone can test it and report any bugs.
https://github.com/jendabek/blender-particles-density


Freestyle line doesn't show anymore The freestyle line used to show but it doesn't anymore and I can't figure out why.

I will link the file here:

After blood, sweat and tears I've decide to just copy my mesh and armature by selecting it and pressing ctrl + c and then in another file pressing ctrl + v and the line shows up in the new file just fine.

I don't know what the problem is in the previous file (I did transfer it via google drive maybe that messed something up?)

Conclusion: If something doesnt render properly try copying your mesh (and armature) to another file


Should "convert premultiplied" be enabled when using "alpha over" with render layers? Do render layers use straight or associated alpha? Should "convert premultiplied" be enabled here?

Raytracing engines are only capable of generating The One True alpha, associated alpha. However, encoding to file formats may have an impact on how the alpha is encoded.

It makes sense when one stops to realize that alpha represents a degree of occlusion at the spatial “pixel” geometry level. That is, it is useful to think of the pixel window as a rasterization of geometry. How much of the window does a portion of the geometry cover? What is the emission value? How occluding is the geometry? Can we model high emission with no occlusion such as the case of flares, glares, fires, glows, etc.?

Only associated alpha is capable of modelling this duality of emission and occlusion. Therefore, “Convert Premul” should rarely be used, and used with caution and informed application[1].

[1] Historically, Blender has long suffered from alpha issues that continue to this day. The Viewer window, for example, still continues to have alpha problems when compositing against a fully transparent background. Always test your composites against a temporary solid colour to avoid the problems with the Viewer. PNGs, being strictly unassociated, used to require the “Convert Premul” toggle in the compositor, but I believe this has been rectified and the alpha is converted in the compositor. TIFFs should be associated alpha in their alpha plane, with an optional TIFF tag for unassociated. Blender incorrectly interpreted alpha in TIFFs as of testing a year ago. EXRs store associated alpha representations of the render buffers, and are by far the best file encoding within Blender.

Further information:

Why should I never ever use "Convert Premul" on Cycles renders?


Pierce a hole on the edge of a cylinder I want to pierce a hole through a cylinder :

I've tried knife project and boolean/difference with this cylinder and it doesn't work. Any idea ?

Edit: I've edited my post as, at first, I didn't understand your question

The easiest way would be this one:

Create 2 circles
Merge them
Delete some vertices
Fulfill the shape with F
Extrude with E and press Z to constraint on the Z axis

but it also depends on what you want to do with this shape later on


Is it okay to move green bones from the armature layer? When you pose your base armature and generate the rig, it populates the controls and the "green bones" that control them in hidden layers. Now, is it okay to move these green bones to move the controllers for the rig in more fitting areas for the mesh? It's a lot easier than undoing the rig, editing the base mesh, and generating the rig over and over again but I'm not sure if this will cause problems later on.
And side question, why are the bones in these layers green while others are the regular gray color?

Green means the bone has some sort of constraint on it, so other bones can interact with it. This is useful because it means the animator does not need to animate every single bone and instead just animate a few main bones.
You can always move the green bones, just make sure you are in Edit Mode. You might not be able to transform them in pose mode because it might conflict with the constraints.


How to achieve a “Photorealistic Camera” I’m looking to recreate the same look that the Vray Renderer can make. Specifically with the RGB Split. I’ve tried using the Lens Distortion Node from the compositor and slightly upping the dispersion amount... but it doesn’t seem to recreate the same look as Vray. I’m wondering if there’s any possible tricks or Addons to make that photorealistic look in the compositor (or someplace else). Can someone help me?

Setup a few extra luxuries on your camera. Such a Depth of Field, which can sometimes be a deal breaker in photorealism. Set it up and see instant realistic results. Play around with the focal length of the digital camera on blender, see which one suits your scene better. There are tons of little settings that you can adjust to make it more believable, but remember, photorealism isn't just in the camera, its in the scene.


Displacement node adds unwanted spikes When I add a displacement node, regardless of whether the input is noise / image, every time I subdivide the surface to get more geometry (whether through direct subdivide or the subdivide surface modifier), unwanted spikes appear.
Here is the sphere without subdividing and an example noise displacement setup.

Here is the same sphere and node setup but with a subdivide surface modifier.

This is apparently an AMD GPU problem.  Similar issues have been found apparently.  My condolences to anyone else out there on Team Red.
https://developer.blender.org/T77095
https://devtalk.blender.org/t/blender-2-83-crashing-on-amd-gpu/13641
Thanks to Rich and Christopher for the speedy and helpful replies!


Is it possible to bake from the point of view of the render camera? As I understand, when we bake an image it is baked as if the camera is on top of each face. Thus, if I have a material that uses the Layer Weight -> Facing value in Cycles Render, this would not work as expected for the baked image.

See example below:

My question is, is it possible to simulate a similar effect as if I wanted to bake from the point of view of the render camera? If not, any ideas to achieve a result that is close to the rendered view above?

You can calculate the dot product between the Geometry -> Normal and a Vector -> Normal that you specify. It will give you a similar effect, ranging from -1 for surfaces pointing away, 0 for tangential surfaces, and to 1 for surfaces facing towards the specified normal.


Blender 2.8 Array Circle along plane I still have no good solution on how to create an array modifier for an object to

1) Rotate in a circle (I know it can be done with an empty that is rotated) but... (see 2)

2) The objects should keep a certain rotation along a plane like this:

So for example where the 3d cursor is there could be an empty with the same rotation as the cube...

... then rotate the empty around the local z axis... will work.

The only thing is now: Let's assume that I have 10 array items. What is the exact rotation of the empty (x, y, z) to create a perfect circle? Because I want to define this programmatically with Python.

Answer found:

You can set the local Z-axis rotation for the empty object like this:

empty_obj.rotation_euler.rotate_axis("Z", radians(angle))


Rigid Body Object Jumps back when keyframing "animation" off I am trying to get a box to float into the air, fly in a direction and then midair activate physics so that it flies off and falls to the ground without me having to animate that. I tried keyframing the "animate" toggle so that it turns off, but when I do this, the box jumps back to its starting position, instead of continuing from where the animation left off. How do I enable physics mid-animation?

You need to change the simulation Start and End frames under
Scene Properties > Rigid Body World > Cache.
[


2D- Bounding box around human model with sub meshes and armature Mast is the entire model, It has sub meshes as can been seen from the figure, like eyes, clothes, but belonging to the same human model. I need to get the mesh of all of that together, so as to draw a 2d bounding box around the object on rendered image (like in this link 2d-bounding box on images)

My object is a human model with armature , imported. I am trying to get 2D bounding box using the code here . In this only object meshes can be passed? How can I pass the complete model to this?

when I pass armature object, this gives
error : Object does not have geometry data in the line

me = me_ob.to_mesh(scene, True, 'PREVIEW')

Is there any other way to do it?
Could some one please help?

You can use this addon made by @sambler's answer found here, which creates a bounding box for the selected objects. So you can select both armature and mesh in your script and modify the addon to get the bounding box data without creating the bounding box cube.


Why is "combine HSV" node showing different color with the same values? I made a glass object and gave it a desired color, but now I want to animate its hue at the end of the animation (like and outro). So I used the "Combine HSV" node and used the exact same values to remake the color.

But here you can see when the color is remade in the HSV node using the same values, the HSV node is giving out a different color. (object preview on the left)

I have already decided on the first color and don't want to change it.
Why is this difference happening and how do I solve it.
Thankyou.

Try adding a gamma node with 2.2 in between combine and bsdf nodes. I tried it and it seems to work.
The one on the right uses the other glass bsdf

I’d assume the RGB color picker is gamma corrected (to preserve the linear workflow), whereas the Combine HSV node as a - let’s say - more mathematical approach to color is not.
Add a Gamma node with a value of 1/2.2 between the RGB node and the Emission shader and you will get the same values as with the Combine HSV node.

Source: https://blenderartists.org/t/different-outputs-of-rgb-and-combine-hsv/675268


Round edges on low poly object I want to make the outline of my glasses frame more rounded without any subdivision modifiers (I want to make this object game ready!) but I can't seem to figure out a way to do so. Bevelling the edge makes really strange subdivisions. Also, manually adding edge loops to smoothen the frame out would take a really long time. Does anyone have a good solution for rounding the outline of the frame?

You can change faces to smooth. Go to edit mode and press T it's in one of the tabs. Make sure you select all the faces you want to smoothen.


Change Encoding Settings through Python API I need help with the python api for setting the video encoding in Blender 2.79a.

I have already set the output type to FFMPEG via:

bpy.data.scenes["Scene"].render.image_settings.file_format = 'FFMPEG'

I now need to set the encoding to output video in MP4 format and haven't been able to find this information yet.

Thanks

Set Output.file_format to FFMPG and adjust the attributes of Render.ffmpeg:

import bpy

scene = bpy.context.scene
rd = scene.render

# Set output type
rd.image_settings.file_format = "FFMPEG"

# Set output format
rd.ffmpeg.format = "MPEG4"

# Set the codec
rd.ffmpeg.codec = "H264"

...

Other options:

codec: MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, HUFFYUV, DV, H264, THEORA, DNXHD, PNG
format: MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, QUICKTIME, DV, H264, XVID, OGG, MKV
video_bitrate: 0 - infinity (integer)
maxrate: 0 - infinity (integer)
audio_channels: MONO, STEREO, SURROUND4, SURROUND51, SURROUND71
audio_bitrate: 32 - 384

For all available options, see the API on FFmpegSettings.


Getting the state of a joystick button BGE I've been trying to figure out a way to make a script that determines if a joystick button has been pressed, being held down or released. I managed to make it work with a keyboard button and then tried to convert my script to work with the joystick.

Here's the keyboard script (works by pressing H)

import bge

cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()

keyboardsens = cont.sensors["Keyboard"]

bStatus0 = keyboardsens.getKeyStatus(bge.events.HKEY)

if bStatus0 == bge.logic.KX_INPUT_JUST_ACTIVATED:
    print("just pressed")

if bStatus0 == bge.logic.KX_INPUT_ACTIVE:
    print("is pressed")

if bStatus0 == bge.logic.KX_INPUT_JUST_RELEASED:
    print("just released")

And here's the console output:

Here's the joystick script (works by pressing button 0, or in my case the B button):

import bge

cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()

joysticksens = cont.sensors["Joystick"]

bStatus0 = joysticksens.getButtonStatus(0)

if bStatus0 == bge.logic.KX_INPUT_JUST_ACTIVATED:
    print("just pressed")

if bStatus0 == bge.logic.KX_INPUT_ACTIVE:
    print("is pressed")

if bStatus0 == bge.logic.KX_INPUT_JUST_RELEASED:
    print("just released")

And here's this ones output:

See the problem I'm having here is that with the joystick, I don't get the initial "just pressed" or "just released" messages, just the in between "is pressed" message. How do I fix this?

You're checking the button status, but the constants used are for sensor statuses. For those checkings, use sensor.status instead of sensor.getButtonStatus. Example:

if joysticksens.status == bge.logic.KX_INPUT_JUST_ACTIVATED:
    print("just pressed")

Remember that sensor.getButtonStatus returns only True or False, and equals to the expression:

BUTTON in bge.logic.joystics[0].activeButtons

Use the sensor.getButtonStatus along with sensor.status to check if a given button is pressed and which status of sensor at the same time.

Below, your file reworked using the method I mentioned, and few additions:

Optimized by using Module mode instead of Script mode in controller
Keyboard status checking without using the Keyboard sensor.


Can you change the font in the Sequencer new Text Effect? I find the default boring and wonder how to change it.

No, it's not possible to change the font on the Text effect as of 2.76. Here's a workaround


How do I fix this face shadow glitch? I have tried using the knife tool, merging faces,and even auto smoothing, but these deformity shadow thingies don't seem to disappear

Here is how to do it:
Your current mesh is having a pretty bad topology since you cut those circles into it.

First of all navigate to Edit > User Preferences > Addons and enable Mesh:Loop Tools

Select a couple of faces in a square shape (where you want the circles to be) and click the RMB > Loop tools > circle.

Voila!! You have perfect circles with a good topology...

BUT...Here too you will see those sharp edges. But unlike yours it can be smoothed out by giving a subdivision-surface modifier of level 2.
You are now free to extrude it to make the tentacles.


What is causing my bones to display irregularly? I'm working on a character animation, and on a test render I noticed a part of the model was being displayed incorrectly. I opened a previous version of the file, which contains the same animation, and the same part of the model, with the same exact rotations and coordinates, is being displayed correctly.
In the newer file, I didn't change anything about that animation recently (was working on the environmental aspects before I noticed the bad thumb) so I'm at a loss what could be causing this. I also tried to manually place the bones where they belong, updating the pose library, applying the pose back into the scene and getting the same result.

I am not sure...
But this happens to me sometimes (quite often) and I eventually realized that the problem isn't always in pose mode - it lies in bone edit mode
In short
See if they look the same in edit mode
This might not be the problem, but give it a shot.


How do I separate objects using the mirror modifier in Blender 2.82? I looked up the question already but they posts are from 6 years ago and the steps are outdated. The problem is that I added a mirror modifier to the shins and feet of my character. The question i how do I make the mirrored part an individual object. I have tried adding an empty axis but it didn't work the way I expected it to. When I select one, both are selected. Thanks]1

I put the bender file
https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/vzkE2NsZ

Go into the modifiers tab, and press Apply, on the Mirror Modifier. That will convert it to actual geometry.

Then, in Edit Mode, select one half of the object, and press P  > Selection. This will make it into a separate object.


Speed control not slowing my video in the video editor So I started editing my YT videos in Blender VSE. I was trying to slow the strip down, I visited the blender documentation to see how to slow strip down and followed the steps but was disappointed to see that the speed controller wasn't working with any value less than 1, so in other words it wasn't letting me slow the clip by any value less than 1.
What should I do ?

To learn about the various Speed Strip options, read/watch this post:
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/185894/37272


Sculpted mesh reverts to original shape upon exiting sculpt mode I sculpted a mesh but when I exit sculpt mode the sculpted information gets lost and the mesh looks exactly like before I sculpted it. If I go back into sculpt mode the information reappears. How can I apply that sculpt information to the obejct, so it always stays?

This seems to have been a display error. I entered edit mode once, which fixed it. It was a fairly big mesh, so I could imagine that the display error happened due to insufficient power.


ANT Landscape erode option? I have just updated to Blender 2.79 and was playing around with the updated ANT landscape add-on when I noticed a new option called Landscape Eroder, this has the potential to be really cool but I can't seem to get it to erode the landscape mesh. All it does is sit for a while processing and before spiting out vertex groups.

What do I with these? They are vertex groups so I can't use them in materials and their doesn't seem to be another part of the add-on that can use them.

Edit: Here is some extra information. All I did was add a landscape with the ANT add-on, the only thing I changed from the default vales is the x and y subdivisions, which I changed to 256 by 256. Then I ran the landscape eroder tool from the landscape tools section of tools panel, leaving it on the default values. It then proceeds to hang for a few seconds, apparently processing, as blender's CPU usage jumps. Afterward the only change is the addition of 10 new vertex groups and the model being triangulated. I am using Blender 2.79 on a mid 2015 Retina Display iMac running OS X 10.11.6.

If you want to create world with erosion try world machine : Download it here. The demo version allows you to export the landscape in low resolution. (You can cheat it by exporting smaller tiles (instead of a big one))


How can put a mesh into a different position? I have meshes of human dental jaws in the image below. I would like to put them in correct anatomical position.  I would also like to rotate them in correct anatomical fashion.  How can I achieve these two goals.

I'm trying to overlapped and solidify object in a simple example, to plan maxillo facial surgery.
The idea is to put the jaw with the teeth into an other position during the surgery.
So I would like to "tell" to the lower jaw that I just cut to "move into this position and to stay there".

In this exemple, I would like the teeth from the back to overlapped the teeth in front of them (mirroring lower jaw in the good position).
Is it possible to do it by selecting region of interest (like the top of the teeth of the back) and show to Blender the similar point in the mirroring teeth?

The second question is during the occlusion of teeth. When I want to close the jaw (if the CT scan is not in occlusion), I would like to solidify the teeth of the upper jaw. Like that, when I'm trying to close the lower jaw, I would find the contact with the teeth, and not passing through the upper jaw...

Thank you again for your help! Blender for ever!

Align identical object by a twin tris
Let's suppose you have an object and another one, very similar to the first, and you want to overlay the two.
If they are not perfectlty identical, you should probably start an iterating computation that would progressively guess the function that best fit all the vertex positions...
...if instead they are identical (as in your case), but with different transformations applied such as in the picture below:

the problem is much more simple. If you'll get able to align one triangular face to the corrispective one, the whole mesh will be aligned. I would suggest to use the Precise Align add-on.
Basically you have to activate edit mode of both object (one at time), select the same triangular faces by selecting the vertices in the same ordere and than create a parented empty with the add-on command:

These two empty are now associated with the mesh. All you have to do is to match position and rotation of the empty object and the two jaws will follow their trasformation:

Overlapped!

Limit object's rotation
Easiest way to set up a moving jaw is to first of all add an empty that would represent the rotation pivot and than parent the upper jaw to it.

Now the jaw will follow empty's transfrormations.

Add a Limit Rotation constrain to the empty and assign min e max angles to limit the rotation of the jaw to a given range too.
Credits: jaw's model by lucasfalcao from Blendswap


Tilt Text for Roulette Wheel I am quite new to Blender (since about 1 month).

I am now trying to build a roulette wheel for practice.
I am now facing the problem that I have to put the parts where the numbers are at an angle.
But if I do so, I can't make the numbers tilted in the same angle, so that it looks realistic.

I hope my explanation is understandable and someone can help me :)

So as your numbers are flat you should rather use an image texture than 3D meshes:

Give colors to the different parts of your mesh (here red, black, and whatever for the rest).

Unwrap the whole mesh.

In the UV Editor, export the UV layout.

Use this UV layout as a blueprint to create the numbers layout in an image editor. Keep a layer of white letters on a transparent background, save as PNG.

Import the image in Blender's UV Editor, align the UV correctly.

Go in the Shader Editor, select the red material, create an Image Texture node, plug it into a Diffuse, plug its Alpha into the Factor of a Mix Shader, plug the red Diffuse into the other socket of this mix. Do the same thing for the black material.

The numbers should appear on the roulette.


Access Grid of 3D View with Python Is there a way to access the grid of the current 3D View and snap the mouse cursor to the grid. Or if snaping is not supported, get the grid interesections so that I can draw points just to these locations and not in between?

PY console code

Each 3d view space has a setting for grid lines and grid scale (as well as grid subdivisions) See 3D View > Properties (N) > Display

For example sake I have set the lines to 4 and the scale to 0.5.

Py console test code, first find the 3d view area.

>>> for i, a in enumerate(C.screen.areas):
...     i, a.type
...
(0, 'INFO')
(1, 'PROPERTIES')
(2, 'CONSOLE')
(3, 'VIEW_3D')
(4, 'TEXT_EDITOR')

>>> space = C.screen.areas[3].spaces.active

Get the settings

>>> space.grid_lines
4

>>> space.grid_scale
0.5

Set up our range (for example -2 to 2) Notice I use integer modulus j // 2 (since odd numbers give the result of prior even number)

>>> g = space.grid_lines // 2
>>> rge = range(-g, g + 1)

Iterate over x and y to give the 2D vec of XY grid. The scaling of 0.5 makes the point (2, 2) => (1, 1)  (_ ... are results edited out for brevity)

>>> for x in rge:
...     for y in rge:
...         space.grid_scale * Vector((x, y))
...
Vector((-1.0, -1.0))
Vector((-1.0, -0.5))
Vector((-1.0, 0.0))
Vector((-1.0, 0.5))
    ...
Vector((0.0, -1.0))
Vector((0.0, -0.5))
Vector((0.0, 0.0)) # origin
Vector((0.0, 0.5))
    ...
Vector((1.0, 1.0))

>>>


How to select object Appended from another .blend file? So, I imported the Object folder from another .blend file. using Append button. I see the model here and everything, with its rigs (I guess that's the correct word) and etc. The problem is, I can't really select it, if I do it with B, it selects other characters too (They are placed close to each other). Is there any way to select that character only?

You should be able to see the model in the outliner and highlight it (thus selecting it) there. You might have to click on some plus signs to open it out and find the model you're looking for.


Is it possible to set the same keyframes values for another property? I'm trying to model a futurist tree.
I would like to animate it as in first time it grows (so from the bottom to the top) and then smaller tree grow inside, but from the top to the bottom. I can't use a driver as the ramifications grows one after the other and do it manually would be awfully long as there is more than 200 ramifications.
So I would like to know if there is a way to copy the bevel end keyframes values to the start bevel, or any other way to have a falling smaller instance inside the middle of a curve.
Thanks in advance (sorry if my english is bad)

So I found a pretty good way, using bpy. I post it if someone needs

import bpy
from bpy import context

for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    print(obj.name)
    bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = obj
    obj = bpy.context.active_object
    for fc in obj.data.animation_data.action.fcurves:
        if fc.data_path == "bevel_factor_end":
            list_co = list()
            my_fc = fc
        for pt in my_fc.keyframe_points:
            print(pt.co.x, pt.co.y)
            list_co.append(pt)
my_fc = obj.data.animation_data.action.fcurves.new("bevel_factor_start", index=-1)
for pt in list_co:
    my_fc.keyframe_points.insert(pt.co.x, pt.co.y)
for fc in obj.data.animation_data.action.fcurves:
    if fc.data_path == "bevel_factor_end":
        obj.data.animation_data.action.fcurves.remove(fc)


texture in material preview differs from rendered preview My minecraft character's head has the preferred texture in material preview but it is pink in (cycles/eevee) rendered view.

Make sure the location of the skin image hasn't changed. If it has, try putting the skin on the character again.


What's the most lightweight format for textures? I want to know what's the best image format to use on textures that consumes the least ammount of VRAM during render.

I'm trying to render a scene in Blender 2.8 EEVEE but because of the textures, baking the IL takes a VERY long time and render times are around 10min mark.

I assume it's the textures that are causing this because the scene is only 1.5 million tris. But the vram consumption is 7GB but I only have a 4GB GPU (GTX970).

So I want to know which image file type will consume the least ammount of VRAM doing rendering.

The GPU does not work in terms of jpeg, png, tiff, tga, etc. During rendering every image that is used as a texture has to be stored in vram using a format that is determined by the engine, so in this case Eevee. This can range from uncompressed to various hlsl/glsl/cuda friendly compressed variants. You cannot really influence that format unless Eevee exposes its internal texture format as a config option.

The source image format you use for your textures will be converted to that internal format once, not on every frame, unless you change your source texture every frame via script or something.


How to invert a black & white video I have here a video. I wish to make the white background black and black font white. How do I do that?

Use the curves modifier

The curves modifier can be found in the video sequence editor.
Inverting the pixels is easy by changing the shape of the curve(s). The left point (representing the darkest pixels) originally at 0 should be set to 1 (to map those pixels to be the brightest) and vice versa the right curve point from 1 to 0.
Here is a gif:

This gif only shows the work for the C-channel (luminance) which is enough for inverting a B&W-video. Note that you have do the same for the R-, G- and B- channels if you also want to invert the colors.


Where did the UV stretch option go in 2.91? I'm trying to look for it, older 2.8 posts show its on the Display side panel but it's not there anymore, does anyone know where it is?

It's an overlay.
2.8 series introduced the concept of Overlays, which are all the things that are drawn on top of your mesh in the 3D view or the UVs in the UV editor.
From the manual:

The Overlays pop-over configures the overlays that are displayed on
top of images. In the header, there is a button to turn off all
overlays for the UV Editor. This option also toggles the visibility of
UDIMs tile information. The options that are visible in the pop-over
depend on the UV Editor mode.

Stretch falls into this category.


Has anyone hooked up PySide to Blender? I'm looking to make some custom gui elements. Has anyone had success using pyside to use Qt to communicate with Blender?

There is at least a video showing someone compiled PyQt into Blender:

http://vimeo.com/86398593

And a facebook post:

https://www.facebook.com/cgtutorials/posts/521688517904188?stream_ref=10

So it seems possible, at least with a modified Blender binary.


How to efficiently instantiate object with memory-hungry modifiers? Using Alt + D to duplicate light meshes with heavy modifiers (like a leaf with a particle instance modifier or a trunk with a subdivision modifier) can lead to huge memory usage. Because only the base mesh is instantiated. The output mesh of the modifier, won't be instantiated. If you have 1000 trunks with a subdivision of 6, they will take 1000 times the required place in memory.

How can I instantiate efficiently such objects ?

Applying modifier works but doesn't allow efficient editing and produce big blend files.

Using Particle systems doesn't allow precise positioning. Hair systems allow particle painting, but hair are not visible in top view and if the emitter's mesh is modified, the "hairs" move as well, destroying everything.

This question comes following that question Convert large particle system(s) to one object efficiently, where I had big memory problems.

Make a group of your object(s) with Ctrl + G and name it (in the tool panel)
In the add menu, go to "Group Instance" and pick the group you want to instantiate.

If you append/link such an object, select "instance groups" on the links before appending/linking.

This allows you to render billions of polygons on a 4Gb computer with precise positioning and also saves space on your hard drive as well.


How to change canvas size in 2D Animator Is it possible to set specific pixel dimensions for the 2D Animator canvas Or even to change the canvas ratio? I want to create an image with the specific dimensions of, say, 273x400p.

Pixel size depends on your render resolution and camera, not your canvas.

You can change canvas proportions in Viewport Display > Canvas
And you can also adjust the subdivisions.


Fixing starting location for NLA I am very new to learning Blender so please bare with me on this one! I've read similar questions and tried the suggestions without success!

I have two actions I want to merge together using the NLA editor. When the second action starts, it jumps locations. I did not make these actions, I am just trying to put them together.

.blend file on Google drive here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1X-3MGEjLqLDbv0jgOK1G5n3nY1bRRED4

Thank you for any advice you can offer!!

You character jumps because its position to its origin has changed between the 2 actions.

It depends what you mean by merging actions in the NLA Editor. You can merge 2 strips to make one in the NLA but if you just want your character to have a coherent animation (i.e. have the same position at the beginning of the second action than the one at the end of the first action) you can do it this way:

Open the Graph Editor. In the NLA, select the second strip. Press tab so that you can see all the bones curves in the Graph Editor.
As the master bone of your armature is Hips, and as the shift between the 2 actions position is on its Z location, select the Hips Z Location track and press shiftH to make all the other ones invisible.
Select the curve with A and move it on its own Y axis, you can see that the armature moves in the 3D view. Move it where it is supposed to be.
Correct on any other axis if needed.

Now keep in mind that it seems like you don't have any transition between the 2 animations, maybe it's better to create one. Also, instead of keeping two separate actions, you can choose to select all the animations of the second action in the Dopesheet and paste them at the end of the first one. You won't need 2 strips anymore as you've copied the content of the second one in the first one, and you'll have to correct the position the same way as explained.


How do you use the Boolean Modifier on an Ocean Modifier to cut a cube in half and apply a material to the bottom half only I would like to create a cross section of a patch of ocean (animated surface at the top, terrain at the bottom and water in-between), the starting point is to create this...

... how can this be done in Blender 2.8?

Thanks,

Simon

With a boolean you can use difference as your boolean and select the ocean object.


Bone index change after parenting I create an armature an all the bones through a script, then parent them. But the bones change the order in the list after setting the parents.

This script shows that each bone index changes after the modifying the parents

import bpy
import mathutils

print('HELLO')
#Clear all
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='SELECT')
bpy.ops.object.delete()

#create armature
armature_da = bpy.data.armatures.new("Armature")
armature_ob = bpy.data.objects.new("Armature", armature_da)
bpy.context.scene.objects.link(armature_ob)
bpy.context.scene.objects.active = armature_ob

bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')

for i in range(10):
    bone = bpy.context.active_object.data.edit_bones.new(str(i))
    bone.head = mathutils.Vector((.01,0,0)) * i
    bone.tail = bone.head + mathutils.Vector((0,0,0.01))
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
print('creation',bpy.context.active_object.data.bones.keys())

print('first parenting')

armature = bpy.context.scene.objects.active
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
bones = armature.data.edit_bones
for i in range(9):
    editBone = bones[9-i]
#    editBone.parent = bones[9-i-1]

#    editBone = bones[i]
    editBone.parent = bones[i+1]

print('pre object',bpy.context.active_object.data.edit_bones.keys())
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
print('pos object',bpy.context.active_object.data.bones.keys())

print('second parenting')

armature = bpy.context.scene.objects.active
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
bones = armature.data.edit_bones
for i in range(9):
#    editBone = bones[9-i]
    editBone.parent = bones[9-i-1]

    editBone = bones[i]
#    editBone.parent = bones[i+1]

print('pre object',bpy.context.active_object.data.edit_bones.keys())
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
print('pos object',bpy.context.active_object.data.bones.keys())

Am I using a incorrect way to set parents?
Is there a way to preserve the bone indexes?

I am aware that I could use the names to reference the bones from the array, but I prefer to stick to indexes.

No, you can't preserve bone indices, outside of edit-mode, bones are order by their hierarchy.

Its best to reference bones by name rather then index, (Or at least get their index once, outside of edit-mode)


Cannot find the action editor in Blender since 2.5x I am using Blender 2.66 and a newbie I was working on a tutorial which is with the 2.5 version. And I am unable to find the Action editor in version 2.66 while trying to animate a walk cycle. Had it gone? or otherwise can use any other way? Please help. Can the NLA editor do what can be done with the action editor?

The Action Editor is a mode of the Dope Sheet


how can i remove the current UV image texture off a mesh? I am currently using the blender render engine and i have a mesh with an UV image texture, but i don't want it anymore. How can i remove it?

go into the texture panel with the object selected, and find the texture with the image you want to remove, then click the X on the top right and the texture/image will be removed from the object


How to prevent sculpting tools from affecting faces through thin walls? While sculpting on models that have relatively thin walls, I've found that the sculpting tool "bleeds" through to the opposing wall (In my case, the external wall is a finely detailed surface, and I'm just hollowing out the inside of a solid to achieve as thin a wall thickness as possible for 3D printing).

I can't imagine an application where this bleed-through would be desirable, and it is certainly NOT desirable for mine.  Is there a way to turn this off, perhaps similar to the toggle that allows one to select either "only visible" mesh points within a selection, or "all" mesh points within a selection?

Currently, the only way I've found to prevent this is to be zoomed in close enough that the relative wall thickness is greater than my tool radius.  This turns what should be a 5 minute task into a 2 hour task.

Try enabling Front Faces only:

If that doesn't work, then try painting the vertices you don't want to change with the mask brush:

These masked vertices won't be allowed to change. To clear the mask, press ⎇ AltM.
UPDATE: In version 2.8 or higher of Blender, the Front Faces Only option can be found in the tool's header bar, within the Brush menu.


Rendering multiple scenes in parallel I have 100s of scenes with simple primitive objects at random locations (not in a sequence) in each of these scenes. For example if I have 2 objects in a scene, the only thing that will vary across all 100s of scenes is the location, orientation of these 2 objects. I have file generated with all these locations and orientations to load into blender from. Currently in my project I am sequentially loading each location, orientation detail of a scene and rendering it one after the other.

Is there a way to generate these 100 scenes in parallel? I have been looking at GPU rendering/cluster based rendering but failed to find any concrete that I can use.

Any pointer will be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Ok, here's my first draft of an answer. I'll revise it as we talk this out more. If this seems to be going in the right direction, I can add further coding samples.

The key to being able to distribute your render jobs between many render nodes is being able to easily tell the render node what scenes to render.

Currently, from what you've described you would have to add some sort of input argument value to tell the script what scene to load and then render out one frame.

I think if you could modify your script to run on a per frame basis, then map the frame number to scene number, that would make it easier to distribute the job to many machines without having to worry about input values for the scene number.

So the file arrangement would be:

GenScene.blend file blank file ready for scene setup
Startup python script ("GenSceneFrame.py") would be run once for every frame of the animation. Let's assume we have 100 scene's to render, we'll set the animation range to 1-100
SceneData.csv file that contains object setup data for each scene

These 3 files would be packaged together in one folder (or with subfolders if you want but you'd have to be vigilant about paths).

You would have initate the render job from the command line so that you can get it run the python script on startup which is where the frame handler will be created.

It would look something like this:

blender -b GenScene.blend -s 1 -e 100 -a -P GenSceneFrame.py

Let's say for convenience sake that you're going to use a commercial render farm service. They would need to be able to launch your render job with the ability to pipe in the startup python script reference.

You would upload the folder as a Zip file, set the render job for frames 1-100. Then the animation job would be distributed between however many render nodes the service uses, or however many you opt to pay for.

Each frame render runs the internal script and sets up the scene for the current frame number and renders out one frame image. At the end of the job you should have 100 rendered images, one for each scene.


How can I see the actual numerical output RGB values of the cycles 'Blackbody' node? (preferably through api) More generally, using the Blackbody node as an example, how can I access the current numerical values of inputs, parameters/settings and outputs of cycles nodes, through the api or by other means?

In this particular case I want to compare the conversion values calculated by the Blackbody node with other color temperature -> RGB algorithms. But I'm interested in the more general situation. If this is not possible, shouldn't it be, and will it be in the future?

Example for the compositor node which is present by default:

import bpy

scene = bpy.context.scene
scene.use_nodes = True

nt = scene.node_tree

#get the node
node = nt.nodes['Composite']

#access by string key in 2.69
input = node.inputs['Alpha'].default_value = 0.5

#older versions of blender might require
#access by index
for index, input in enumerate(node.inputs):
    if input.name == "Alpha":
        print(index)
        break

#link
output = nt.nodes['Render Layers'].outputs['Alpha']
nt.links.new(input, output)

You can hover over the input with python tooltips enabled:

Using python it is only possible to setup the tree and its parameters.

Via OSL you can implement your own shaders. Enable Open Shading Language in the render menu, add a script node and see Text Editor -> Templates -> Open Shading Language

Template Temperature To RGB

shader temperature_to_rgb(
    float Kelvin = 1200.0,
    output color Color = 0.8)
{
    /* Kelvin to RGB */
    Color = blackbody(Kelvin);
}

As you can see blackbody is an inbuilt function of the standard library.


How do I bake this correctly? Ok, I've been struggling with this all day,
I'm trying to bake the materials of the mesh on the left into a single image texture.

Everything looks good in the original one, but the baked texture always comes out flat and it just looks terrible.

Is there anything I can do to bake the one on the left into an image texture that actually looks like the original?

(Original on the left, baked texture on the right)

Ok, tell me if i'm wrong (believe me I'd love to be wrong on this) but it turns out what I was trying to do is not possible because the diffuse texture is flat, and even when faking the normals, it still looks unrealistic. But it works if you bake them separately with just diffuse and color.


My camera will not follow the object it is constrained to I have a camera here that is constrained to look at an empty object. It is also following along a path. I have follow unchecked on the path but when the camera reaches a turn it flips on its side regardless if i'm using follow or not. I locked the Y rotation of it which didn't help one bit. Does anyone have any ideas what to do about this?

When it takes a shit ^^^^^

Ok so I just rotated the camera and it somehow reset correctly enough to even remove the limit rotation modifier. This was definitely a bug, I didn't even keyframe the rotation to fix it... If you are having this problem try rotating the camera on the appropriate axis and it will reset the rotation of the curve. Thanks everyone!


Why png image is not visible I have used the png image and added the nodes as seen below

After render i cant seen the "CE.png" image on the button
After render

Where are my node missing to view my image
Any suggestion or help.

Connect Mix Shader to Surface socket in Material Output node not to Displacement.


Unwrapping tricky cylinder I have a real pain to unwrap a quite complicated model.
The shape is a cylinder that is drilled with multiple holes trough its height. I modeled this part with fusion 360, then imported it as an .obj.

Please have a look at my screen as shown on picture to understand my issue. The unwrapping doesn't work as expected and I can't find a way to make it do what I want...

I was in a similar situation recently. Most online advice was "select one quad and then use the Follow Active Quads thingy", but that wasn't an option for my model.

What helped me was the Cylinder Projection unwrap method, with Direction set to "Align to Object" and both the "Correct Aspect" and "Scale to Bounds" checkboxes checked:

If the holes in your model aren't important and don't actually need to be in your UV map, make sure to deselect them first.


Add-on - open_mainfile() always leads to segmentation fault I've been struggling for making bpy.ops.wm.open_mainfile(filepath=PATH) work properly within an Add-on.
No matter what I do and where I put it, I always get:
segmentation fault  /Applications/Blender.app/Contents/MacOS/Blender

For now I'm testing it like this:

I'm adding a handler to detect when a file is opened
 bpy.app.handlers.load_post.append(load_post)

In this handler I'm setting a Timer to open a new file after 5 seconds
 def load_post(ok,no):
     global t
     t = Timer(5.0, openNew)
     t.start()

Then the openNew is defined like this
 def hello():
     t.cancel()
     bpy.ops.wm.open_mainfile(filepath="/correct/file/path/test.blend")

Why am I testing it like this? Because I'm trying to make an Add-on that opens a file, do something in this file, saves it, and then open the next file. Timer is a simulation of this.
Here is the crash log.
# backtrace
0   Blender                             0x0000000107437387 BLI_system_backtrace + 55
1   Blender                             0x0000000100fe8ef8 sig_handle_crash + 392
2   libsystem_platform.dylib            0x00007fff693415fd _sigtramp + 29
3   ???                                 0x0000000000000000 0x0 + 0
4   Blender                             0x0000000101663bb7 Scene_statistics_call + 39
5   Blender                             0x0000000101556fc2 RNA_function_call + 18
6   Blender                             0x00000001016e67a4 pyrna_func_call + 2004
7   Blender                             0x0000000105e89faf _PyObject_FastCallKeywords + 575
8   Blender                             0x0000000105f5f485 call_function + 773
9   Blender                             0x0000000105f5beee _PyEval_EvalFrameDefault + 27262
10  Blender                             0x0000000105e8a66d function_code_fastcall + 237
11  Blender                             0x00000001016e8221 bpy_class_call + 961
12  Blender                             0x00000001016973e3 header_draw + 115
13  Blender                             0x00000001017000a4 ED_region_header_layout + 404
14  Blender                             0x000000010132b2ff wm_draw_update + 1631
15  Blender                             0x0000000101329040 WM_main + 48
16  Blender                             0x0000000100fe5621 main + 929
17  libdyld.dylib                       0x00007fff69148cc9 start + 1

P.S. If I run this exact command on the Scripting area of the Blend file, and not from an Add-on, it runs like a charm.

Threading is not supported in Blender.
So I changed it to:
import bpy
def test():
    bpy.ops.wm.open_mainfile(filepath=bpy.data.filepath)
    return -1.0
bpy.app.timers.register(test)

But this also wasn't working. Version 2.91.0 Alpha has already a commit fixing this bug.
You can check committed notes here: https://developer.blender.org/T80028


How do I make an automatic tail that is bone rigged? I have character that has a bone rigged tail but how do I set up the bones to automatically behave like a real tail automatically.

For example:

[Updated]
Simplest tail rig ever possible.
The tail has 8 bones the last bone is its tip.
In pose mode.
Adjust all influence to about .5
Add a bone constraint to the 6th bone "track to" the 8th bone.
Add a bone constraint to the 4th bone "track to" the 6th bone.
Add a bone constraint to the 2d bone "track to" the 4th bone.

Done.


Ambient Occlusion Solid Mode and Edit Mode enter image description here

Is there a way to bring back the 2.79 ambient occlusion in modeling, in 2.82a?

The closest thing that exists in 2.8x that I know of is the cavity setting, in the viewport shading settings.

The "Valley" setting is the closest thing to the old "Strength" setting from 2.79b that I can find. Here is a comparison of the 2.79 viewport with AO enabled and the 2.8 viewport with Cavity Type: World enabled.

Hope this helps!


I cannot find interpolate key of grease pencil in tab I want to interpolate keyframes in grease pencil, but the interpolate key isn't found. In addition, although I tried to push shortcut (Ctrl + Shift + E and Ctrl + Alt + E), it doesn't work.

Could you help me if you have any idea?

I had this issue also, Make sure you are using the latest "Blender Builder" /
here is the link https://builder.blender.org/download/

I'm guessing you saw the youtube tutorial from OpenToonzTraining. you're using blender 2.78. If possible when you see his video you will see he is using 2.78.1

Me personally, I think I'll wait for blender 2.79, as there is a risk of instability with the builds as it says on top of it, but I don't know about that stuff yet.


Extrude Tool Not Creating New Face Please pardon my lack of knowledge on lingo (yes im new), but im having an issue with the extrude tool. In the fundamental tutorials it explained to me how to (in this example) create a stack of blocks with the extrude tool and that the tool will basically create a new face on the surface of the previous cube for you to adjust the size, raise up, and repeat. It was working at first but now the tool, instead of creating the new face for a new cube, is adjusting the original face of the first cube and thereby changing the shape of the entire cube into basically a pyramid. What am i missing here? First picture is my issue while the second is my desired outcome

The lower example takes two steps.
First Extrude E, then scale S inwards.
Then extrude E, and pull (transform) G upwards on Z axis.

You may find it simpler to use inset I instead of extrude for the first step to shorten steps.


How do I change the default output file format and location So that when I start Blender the next time, it remembers.

Also, seems odd that when I press render animation that it would output hundreds of .png files by default instead of some kind of default video format. Is there a good reason for choosing images over a single video file?

Cheers.

You can set the settings however you like and then press Ctrl+U to save de default blender scene.

Next time you open blender or start a new project your saved preferences will be as you like.

And yes, there is a good reason why you want to render as images first and then encode as video later:

If you render as video and something goes wrong you will have to start over, as opposed as having to render only the missing frames on an image sequence.
Rendering directly as video can tie up your machine for a very long time, with no real way to stop and re-start the render process.
Other reason to use image sequences is that you can then experiment with different video encoding settings, and compression schemes, and data rates without having to start from scratch.

Render directly to video only to assess the progress, pacing and problems with the animation project, rendering a small or low res as a video file will allow you to evaluate animations in real time.

As for the .png being the default format... well... there is an interesting discussion on this link:

Why is the default image format for saving renders is in PNG?


Cannot export to FBX file, does anyone know how to fix this? So basically I've been stuck on this for about 2 hours now, when I try to export the file I get this error message. I have seen a similar problem but didn't really get how he fixed it, any help is appreciated! The post I'm referring to is this one: Can't export mesh to .fbx.

I think your problem may be an invalid UVW map. Here is the developer task associated with this error. You can try two things:
Run the following code in Blender before exporting until the bug is fixed (Credit  Michael Campbell):

import bpy

for ob in bpy.data.objects:
    if not ob.type =='MESH':
        print(ob.name,'is not a mesh, skipping\n')
        continue
    print(ob.name,'\n')
    m = ob.data
    if m.validate(verbose=True):
        print("something was fixed with the mesh")
    else:
        print("mesh was fine")

    print(" and the cached custom data has been cleared to avoid export issues")

If this doesn't work, try clearing and recreating the UV map. Make sure everything is unwrapped properly.
Another thing to check is to make sure all of your objects have correct location and scale values. Some people have reported export problems where certain objects somehow got set to NaN (Not a number) and weird scaling values.
As a last resort, I would try deleting everything from your scene one by one and try exporting to FBX after each and every deletion. This may help you narrow things down and isolate the culprit of the crash.


Why won't Blender let me import .svg files? I know this seems to be a repetitive question, but nothing seems to work for me. I am trying to make two ping pong paddles to put in Blender using Inkscape. I've watched the YouTube tutorials, and I know I'm doing everything right, or so I think. But when I press import, they don't even show up. I really need to know how to do this so I can make my ping pong animation. Thanks!

My pictures:

It works fine for me, however they come out very small initially:

Once imported and selected, you can scale them up with S. Once properly sized, it's also probably a good idea to apply the scale with ⎈ CtrlA.

Also remember to delete the default cube, otherwise they will appear inside it.


Infinite Falling Images I am a bit of a noob when it comes to animation but here goes.

I need to create a movie/video that has falling poppies and i need them to fall until the video stops, but I need them to fall on a transparent background because I will be projecting the video on to a mesh screen to overlay the brass band playing for a concert

Can anyone help?
Thanks

What you want are particles. This will allow you to have may flowers falling, with minimal simulation overhead. The idea is you have the flowers on "cards" The cards are attached to the particles, and the particles physics replicate the falling.

Steps:

Position you camea
add a plane as wide as the camera in front of it.
Move your flower object to layer 2 M
Add a particle system to the plane, using the particle tab
Particle setup:

Make sure all the circled settings match:

Set the Emit From to Faces, so it comes out of the face of the plane. Verts would have it come out of the corners, where the vertices are and volume would work very well since our plane has no volume.

I set the normal a bit higher to make the flowers a bit faster.

Rotation needs to be set to Velocity hair, so that the planes face the camera, you may have to edit the phase option to the left.

Set the render to Object this will make your particles appear as planes, like you desired. Set the dupli object to match your image of the flower. You can adjust the size to scale the flowers.

Apply these materials to the picture of the flower:

In order to have the transparent background, we need to make a shadeless transparent material. The image will then add alpha back in later.

For the texture use these settings:

Select alpha under influence, then set it to one. The will override the materials alpha.

Render animation.

Note quality has been reduced by high gif compression, it will look fine when rendered

Demonstration:


Walk animation missing I've been trying to create some animations for a creature. I've created a walk animation for a creature already and right after I created an attack animation. However, the walk animation is gone somehow. I can't even find it when I search for it in action browser.

Could you please tell me where it might have gone?

If this has not changed in the latest versions an action will be deleted when it is not used (referenced) in the NLA-editor. You can keep currently unused action by adding a fake user (reference) with the 'F' button.


High poly blade sculpted axe with Notches in it baked to low poly model with that has no notches in its mesh Is it possible to bake a notch of a high poly sculpt to a low poly mesh without having to add extra geometry to the low poly model. Would it be possible to use some sort of transparency map to make it appear that the lowpoly model has a notch on the edge of the axe blade? Modelling an axe for dota 2 if I didn't have to add extra geomtrey for notches in the axe blade I could spend the limited amount of tris on other parts of the axe.

No it isn't possible.

Baking a normal map only affects the shading of an object's surface to give the appearance of detail that would normally be created with extra geometry. A normal map cannot alter the outline of a mesh. You will need to have the notches in the outline of your low poly object.

While a displacement map can be used to move existing geometry, I don't expect it to fit into your usage. It would also mean having the geometry to displace.

Creating a transparency map would not get the result you are after. The material transparency can be restricted to certain areas but that area would be transparent from every angle, leaving the axe with a hole through it when looking towards the blade.