Problems with Baking (three materials into one texture) I am new to blender and I downloaded a model with three different materials shown on 'Textured' mode, I also tried this first on Blender Render and here's what I did.

The model is a pokemon, credits to ROEStudios.

Step 1: I imported the model //The Model is a wavefront file//

Step 2: I added the texture to it + I deleted the lamp and cube

Step 3: I split screened it and I went ahead and add a blank image with a size of 4096 * 4096

Step 4: I joined the model into one + I UV unwrapped (Smart UV Unwrapped)

Step 5:I selected the UV unwrapped model and the other one and hit bake, my choices are:

*Bake Mode: Texture

*Selected to Active

*Margin is 16px//Distance is 0.000//Bias is 0.001
And from there, the texture/material seems deformed and out of hand.

Is there more steps I might've missed, Thanks.
Model can be found here

http://roestudios.co.uk/project/3d-pokemon-models/136-flareon/

Nevermind, I just watched an online tutorial of baking. I forgot to add a little space for the objects before baking. **Margins


Subdividing a simple plane does not work I have a plane and cut it in half with a loop cut. When I try it to subdivide this is not happening. After clicking for I while I removed doubles and to my surprise some 10000 doubles were removed ?? Anyway, while in edit mode I try to subdivide this plane and it won't work. Truly ashamed I ask for a solution ...

You have subdivided the edges and not the faces. If you go to vertex selection and zoom in into one of the edges, you will see many many unnecessary vertices. To fix this, just select your corner vertices (change to vertex selection, pressing Ctrl+Tab), Shift+RMB  the corner vertices, then press Ctrl+I to inverse selection, press X and delect all the unnecessary vertices.
Press a until corner vertices are selected and press F to fill. Then Ctrl+Tab to face selection, then you can subdivide the faces.
If it crashes, by the amount of vertices built, you may to this, select just the corner vertices, press P and seperate by selection.
Exit the edit mode, delete the old object (that has huge amount of vtx), go to your new object  that has just the desired vtx, select all by pressing a, press F, change to face selection, subdivide.


How can I make the bending smoother on my rigged arm? I'm creating a minecraft rig, and I'm a bit unique, and want some smoother bends on the arm as shown:

Now, I'm not fond of the look of the inner part of the bend. I'd like to make the curve look better, so it's closer to the red line as shown. What ways can I accomplish this?
If not possible, I'd like it to be a sharp bend on the inner part. I'd highly prefer the smoother bend on the arm though.

Why not add an additional bone from the middle of the vertical bone, with a "StretchTo" bone constraint tied  to the midpoint of the next bone. Then you can assign the vertices on the inner part of the elbow to the new bone. As the elbow bends, the bone (and the vertices bound to it) should deflect like you are asking.


How to switch "context area type" via Pie command? Object/EditNodesUVImage In a Pie menu instead of switching just edit/object mode I would also like to swap out the content of the display like from 3D view switch to node editor for the selected object. But I have a hard time figuring out how to write this.

I went to the API page to see if many I can get some clues from there.
https://www.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_2_76_2/bpy.context.html?highlight=context.area#bpy.context.area

If I switch the modes the console reads this out:

bpy.context.area.type = 'IMAGE_EDITOR'
bpy.context.area.type = 'NODE_EDITOR'
bpy.context.area.type = 'VIEW_3D'

To define a edit/object mode switch I 3D view I know you can do it this way:

bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()

pie.operator("object.editmode_toggle", text="Edit/Object", icon='OBJECT_DATAMODE')

So I tried this but obviously it odes not work

pie.operator("context.area").type='IMAGE_EDITOR'

With the following error message:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "\Modeling Toolbox Pie Beta.py", line 654, in draw

AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'type'

location: <unknown location>:-1

There are already shortcuts defined to switch areas.

UserPreferences -> Input -> Window

If you browse these shortcuts you will find Context Set Enum, which uses the generic wm.context_set_enum operator. The keys are SHIFTF1-F12

So you can copy the arguments:

op_props = pie.operator("wm.context_enum_set")
op_props.data_path = "area.type"
op_props.value = "VIEW_3D"

See Area.type for the available options

Further you might also try wm.context_pie_enum to automatically layout all enum items in a pie menu.

Just define a shortcut and type area.type in the data_path field.

Note

You can find a listing of all context attributes here


Flat arc to 3D curve I have a task to create a 3D model from a paper-based plan, part of which illustrates a curve to be cut from aluminium and then bent into an arc for use vertically  – easy in life, perplexing (so far) in Blender.
It's almost like I need to take each vertex on the outer edge and rotate it around the corresponding local X axis of the corresponding inner vertex.

Can anybody suggest a way to take a 'C' shape, as shown above, and turn it 'edge on', please?
I've spent an inquisitive morning tinkering, but it's time to ask for a hand now.

If I understand correctly, what you could do is:

Use your picture as a background image.
Create a cylinder, extrude inwards.
Only keep an arc.
Scale on the X axis (because it seems a bit deformed).
Make sure you've applied the rotation with ctrlA.
Give it a Simple Deform modifier / Bend mode. Give it the Angle value you want.


How to use SSS texture in Blender? How do I properly connect the SSS texture in a Blender using nodes?

If the texture is a black and white image, chances are that it is supposed to drive the Subsurface Amount. Simply connect the Color Output to the Subsurface Input in the Principled Shader. If the image is colored, connect it to the Subsurface Color input to drive the Color of subsurface.
Here is an image of how to connect the nodes (assuming you have a black and white texture):
The top setup is basic, and the bottom setup gives you more control over the amount of subsurface by adjusting the ColorRamp.


Copy drivers from one Armature to another of the same kind I have a mesh/armature combo, which I developed in a good amount of steps.
The first iteration has drivers for bones which drive other bones of the armature. While developing the neither the armature nor the mesh where topology-wise changed.
In the current last iteration I noticed (too late) that those drivers got
lost somewhere.
The first iteration and the current iteration are in two different files.

How can I copy/transfer those drivers from the first iteration of that armature/mesh to the current last one?

PS: I cannot provide a *.blend file. It is not my decision.

File append from the menus allows the Blender User to move an armature from one file to the other.

Now the two armatures are in the same file.
Now you can copy and paste Python Scripts or drivers from one armature to the other.  This can be done manually or from another script.  For small amounts of copies I suggest the task be done manually, otherwise via Script.

Of course you may be able to just copy and paste the text of the driver from while file to the other.  Two Blender files can be open at once.
This proposed answer is intended to be a high level guide to complete your task.  This is not a tutorial.
We have not discussed the particulars of a simple copy of a driver from one object to the other.  The detail required to do so was not given in the original question.


Bmesh: Immediately encounter strange error after adding new layer and running bmesh op The script is simple:

import bpy, bmesh

mesh = bpy.context.edit_object.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(mesh)
geom = [e for e in bm.verts[:] + bm.edges[:] + bm.faces[:] if e.select]

cut_layer = bm.edges.layers.int.new('cut')
ret = bmesh.ops.bisect_plane(bm, geom=geom , plane_co=(0,1,0), plane_no=(0, 1, 0))
bm.edges.layers.int.remove(cut_layer)

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(mesh)

I get the error:

TypeError: geom: 8 BMEdge has been removed

Here's an example blend file:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9DFPZBPKp6ARjE5NXgzSTU0eDQ

Can anyone explain what's going wrong here?
I know the function itself looks a little pointless but that's because I've boiled the problem down to it's simplest form.
Why does the operation have a problem with the new edge layer I've added?
I can't find anything online about this...

Assign your int layer before you assign geometry.  PS took out verts from bisectable geometry.

import bpy, bmesh

mesh = bpy.context.edit_object.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(mesh)
cut_layer = bm.edges.layers.int.new('cut')
geom = [e for e in bm.edges[:] + bm.faces[:] if e.select]

ret = bmesh.ops.bisect_plane(bm, geom=geom , plane_co=(0,1,0), plane_no=(1, 0, 0))
bm.edges.layers.int.remove(cut_layer)

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(mesh)


Bake Follow Track constraint to f-curve? I have an empty with a Follow Track constraint so it copies the movement of a track point in the Movie Clip Editor.  How can I "apply" the constraint to the object so I can see the f-curve of the object's movement in the graph editor?

Simply click the Constraint to F-Curve option on the constraint. This will remove the constraint and produce the required keyframes to replace it. You can then view and edit the animation in the Graph Editor.


Can I prevent a specific bone from moving during Auto-IK posing? Can I limit chain length during Auto-IK posing, or otherwise prevent the movement of specific bones?

I'm familiar with the ability to limit chain length when setting IK bone constraints, but I don't see any similar option while posing with Auto-IK enabled. Is there such a feature, or other way to lock a specific bone from moving during Auto-IK?

In Bone settings (Pose mode) find IK controls. Don't mind that they are greyed out, they are still working. Lock these axis (click on "lock icon") to fully exclude desired bones from the IK chain.

How to quickly lock many bones?

Select desired bones and lock axis as described earlier, then click on "lock icon" with right mouse button and select Copy to selected, repeat for every axis (X,Y,Z)


How to copy an action strip from one object to another? I have those two identical armatures. I would like to copy a part of one's animation to the other. I came up with the idea of making an action strip and then I'll copy it. As shown in the pic, I need to copy a3 to the second object.

I used the method of CTRL+L > Animation Data. But copies everything and it affects a2.  Affecting a2 means that in larger projects it'll affect all the strips which isn't a good idea.

I appreciate your ideas :)

Assuming, both armatures have same bone names (etc)
just did a quick test, NLA editor won't let you copy action strips from one object to another via dragging / moving (G key) .

Option 1 (shift + A) in NLA editor will let you pick action as well

Option 2 (as shown in image)
Right now, best way to do is to use 'Action Editor' in Dope Sheet Area. Just use the action there on armature and then use it in NLA


How can I have a seperate texture and UV map for each of my different vertex groups? I have ten different image textures, and I have sorted each face in my mesh into 10 corresponding vertex groups. I'd like to associate each group with their image, and have a unique UV map for each one. How would you do this? How do vertex groups and UV maps interact with textures?

How do vertex groups and UV maps interact with textures?

Vertex groups are ,like the name suggests, just a grouping of vertices and don't store any information about textures.
the UV map is what connects the two together, it defines for each face in a mesh what part of the texture it has to show when rendered.

  How can I have a seperate texture and UV map for each of my different vertex groups?

I'll work with a subdivided cube and two textures.

I will assign the cube two textures,one to the top faces and one the right faces, both defined in vertex groups with their respective names.

add as many UV maps as you need, it's a good idea to give them meaningful names.

the workflow is as follow:

-In edit mode ,make sure nothing is selected (press A once or twice).
-select the right texture in the UV image editor
-select the right UV map from the list
-select the right vertex group, and click on selected
-press W and select one of the UV unwrapping methods.
if you are not happy with how the UV is mapped to the texture you can either adjust it manually in the Image editor or do it again with a different unwrapping method.

once done, you repeat the same process with the other textures as necessary.


Can renders be made to include glossy reflections, after baking on textures without glossy in Cycles? I have a large interior scene with a lot of complex lighting, and I'm trying to reduce render times in it as much as possible. It includes lots of point and area lights, and exterior light filtering between beams. So, I'm looking for a way to bake the diffuse lighting onto the textures of objects, but have the glossy reflections be calculated during rendering. Can that be done?

It has occurred to me that maybe this can be faked, by baking everything except glossy, creating copies of the objects, and under Cycles settings leaving only glossy on for the copies ... Would that then mean that rendering is only calculating those glossy reflections on the fly, and doing everything else with the textures, so it is still a lot faster?

This is the sort of situation I'm dealing with:

Blender 2.79. Under 'Render" (down at the bottom) there is a section marked "Bake". Within this section de-select "Glossy". This is different from your workflow you described, which is to fake it through the Object settings.


How do i make a inset with rounded shape? i was thinking about trying to make a model of the bottle in the picture i attach. I have right now just added a block and used the knife tool to select the area in question.
I think i can handle to form the shape of the bottle, but the selected area is kind of a inset but rounded into the shape of the bottle. So my question is how to do this. I tried with the knife tool but the result was not very good, i allso had a idea of using the boolean tool, but i guess its not more easy to create that shape as a stand alone object.

I would be very glad if some one knows a good way to fix it.

Sure you can sculpt it, but you can also just mesh model it...

The edge requires a loop that you can bevel depending on how sharp you want the edge. The challenge is smoothing out the geometry at the pinch...

Also just added a mirror modifier and of course the sub-division...


Blender game engine importing .obj error i have some .obj model files, which i wanted to use for a game in Blender. Sadly there are some problematic issues. When i start the game engine, the model seems to be sort of inside out...? My first thought were normals, which are flipped or wrong otherwise, but even that doesn't seem to be the problem. In addition to that, i found out that this wrong look is only sometimes when i start the game player, not every time...

I really don't know what i am doing wrong here...

Here is a picture of how it should look like (the front at least):

And here is a picture from the wrong model (notice that i just started the game player again, i changed nothing...):

At the second picture you can see the bottom of the model from the inside or something. Sometimes you see like an overlapping kind of scenario...

Does someone know if this is just a bug or how i can fix it?

You can download the corresponding .blend file here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/dqm8woo2nmo639a/Shiptest.blend/file

Thanks in advance!

The imported material is set as transparent. The selected transparency method, "Z transparency", give weird results if the object has internal geometry.

To fix this, in the material properties, uncheck "Transparency".


Array modifier is scaling objects for seemingly no reason I'm somewhat new to blender (I've been using it for a few months but am still not fully comfortable with it). I'm trying to take a cylinder and duplicate it around an origin in a circular shape. I'm trying to get it to look something like this:

I looked up some tutorials on this, and they said to put an empty at the center of the rotation, and add an array modifier to the cylinder with "Object Offset" set to the empty. I did that, and instead of rotating around, the cylinders are getting scaled (it looks exponential). I'm not sure why this is happening. It's happened before but I wrote it off as some bad modifiers I applied earlier. But this is simply a cylinder and an empty. A screenshot of my setup and results is below:

It's kind of hard to see, but the empty is at the origin of the grid, inside the second smallest cylinder. The really small, thin cylinder is the one to which the modifier has been applied. Thanks!

The array modifier's object offset offsets each copy by the location, rotation and scale difference the object and the target, the empty in this case, have. You object has an uneven scale that is less than one, and since the empty has larger scale than the object, the object is scaled up for each copy.
Hit CtrlA -> apply scale to set the object's scale to 1 on all axes and the scale won't change. Also for doing circle arrays, there should not be difference in location, else each copy of the object will also move by some offset. You can apply the location of the object as well to move the object's origin to the scene center.


How to create a custom property on an object by pressing UI button? I'm writing a tool with a very simple panel with buttons.

On pressing a button a custom property with a specific name is to be assigned to the active object.

The UI should have 2 buttons Target and Clear

Pressing Target button in the UI should create a custom property.
Pressing Clear button in the UI should delete customer property that was created by the Target button (if such customer property is present).

For example, I have Cube and Sphere (names) objects. I would select Cube, then Sphere, press Target button, and Cube will have custom property names "target" with value "Sphere".

Selecting both of them in any manner and pressing Clear button would remove that custom property.

How do I go about making such basic add-on?

EDIT: Here is a mock-up that should explain it all :)

Link to full screen image: http://i.imgur.com/HE2HGyn.png

you want ID properties, they can be set per object

obj = bpy.data.objects['whatever']
obj['some_property_name'] = 'some_value'
obj['some_property_name_2'] = 33

>>> obj['some_property_name_2']
... 33


Crack in my wine glass I am doing this tutorial to make a wine glass with the spin tool. After applying the spin tool, a subdivision surface modifier and the solidify modifier my glass looks like in the image. Somehow I did something wrong resulting in a "crack" in my wine glass. When I did this process again I am sure that I set the spin tool at 36 steps and 360 degrees. What did i forget ? Hope I did not ask a question that what was already answered

here is the blender file

It looks like you have a face inside the glass wall, the subsurf modifier does not handle this kind of non-manifold geometry very well.

Look closely, see the face within the wall.

To get rid of it just go into wireframe view and select the spare face and delete it with Del > faces.

Edit:

I looked at your .blend file and since in your particular case you are using a solidify modifier to get the glass thickness you can't directly select the offending faces and delete them.  Just go into edit mode and select all with A, then hit W > remove doubles.  This will merge the duplicate vertices along the crack.

Here is a comparison:

See how before I removed doubles, when I selected the edge loop at the location of the crack only have “tails” in one direction?  This means there are double verts at that location.


Is it possible to create an own object data type through Python? In Blender, using Python you can create objects via:

import bpy
obdata = bpy.data.meshes.new('name')
ob = bpy.data.objects.new('name', obdata)

This would create an empty mesh, which could later on be linked to a scene etc.

But what if one would like to extend the possibilities a bit, and generate something like a custom mesh type? Something like:

import bpy
obdata = bpy.data.my_custom_mesh_type.new('name')
ob = bpy.data.objects.new('name', obdata)

where my_custom_mesh_type is defined via:

class MyCustomMeshType(bpy.types.Mesh)
    ...

Is this possible at all?

One can extend the objects in Blender (if you want to make your own).
For example take a look at BoltFactory, IvyGen etc, many addons add objects.
However keep in mind that Blender Python is implemented as an API
Adding stuff by inheriting from a base class is possible in python however the rest of the program will not know it, ea dont suspect that cycles or eevee or fluidsims or particles will understand your custom object attributes /methods.

If its only about adding some extra valeu property (maybe fro some other script) then in the normal view of object properties you can add custom attributes as well, perhaps thats usefull to you.
(object tab => add custom properties)

You might not even require python to do so, but if you want to that in code:

bpy.ops.wm.properties_edit(data_path="object", property="demo", value="1.0", min=0, max=1, use_soft_limits=False, soft_min=0, soft_max=1, description="this is demo tool tip")


Bevel Glitch with Subdivision Surface (Modifiers) I'm editing some models from an LDraw library (Lego) and I've run into some sort of glitch when I have a bevel modifier and a subsurface modifier active on the object. Here's what it looks like:

I don't understand why the bevel and subsurface modifiers create a bunch of overlapping faces on corners like that. I have the blender file here (v2.79):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k6dO09pKbkgGIEyTnPCb-kXfczQD_7Rb/view?usp=sharing

Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

The bevels are helping the boundary loops stay sharp while being subdivided but the flat areas still get displaced according to the subdivision algorithm.

This becomes apparent if you set your sub-d to level 1
Go to object properties - display - wire - draw all edges

this should help you see how, when the first sub-d is created, the unfortunate topology folds over the supporting edges.

I've got no sure way of fixing this other than reworking the problem topology.
Though, you might have better luck with not using bevel at all and only using sub-d with creased edges. (Albeit I doubt it will be enough for this kind of case)

Anyhow GL maybe someone else will come back with one operator solution for this.


How to scale the texture used by Displace modifier I'm trying to create a displacement texture. However the texture is appearing too small on object.

How do I fix this? I began by subdividing the plane multiple times and then added displacement texture.

Displacement map made with procedural textures

Switch to Textures panel in order to open texture used by Displace modifier. You will find different options which vary depending on texture type. The Size option is accessible for many of them which is one you need if you work with procedural textures.

Image textures

If you have image texture, I'd suggest changing texture coordinates which use Displace modifier.

In modifier's panel, Texture Coordinates option, change it to Object.
Add a simple plane somewhere nearby, choose it as object in mentioned option.
Now to scale image which is used as displacement map scale that added mesh. Displacement map will be resized according to that:


Display all users of a datablock How can I see all the "users" of a datablock?  Is it possible with the Blender's UI?  With Python?

For example, I'd like to know which 3 objects are the users of my material:

Without Python:

You can simply select one of the objects and use Shift+L > Material to select all the objects that share the same material. If the object has more than one material, it'll check for the one that's currently active.

With Python:

It's a bit of a workaround. Each material has the attribute users, but this is only the number of users and not actually a list of objects/data.

So in order to get a list of all the objects that use a certain material, we have to loop through the objects, then through each object's material slots:

import bpy

objects = bpy.context.selectable_objects
mat = bpy.context.object.active_material

for obj in objects:
    for slot in obj.material_slots:
        if slot.material == mat:
            obj.select = True


Iris Mechanism Blades for 3d Printing I am interested in 3D Printing an iris mechanism but tinkercad doesn't give me the versatility I need, so I am using blender but I am trying to figure out how to split a circle into the iris blades so they're all even. I have split my octogon into triangle divisions, but I'm having a hard time trying to separate the triangles to mimic the shapes in the similar to the blades in the image below:
(I apologize in advance for any improper verbiage, but I am still new to blender.)

Does anyone know if there is a modifier or a tool to separate my shapes below?

Ok. Actually, to model this blade, you have first to understand the underlying geometry. Its the intersection of 3 circles that make up that shape. In the following I will show you how to make that shape (with the hole) step by step.

EDIT:
0. go into Top Ortho by pressing Numpad 7

Create a circle with 30 vertices

Go into Edit Mode (press Tab) and make sure the circle is selected (if not press A until it is). Press Shift+D to duplicate the circle. Before confirming the action press Y and type in 1 to move the circle by one up.

Press . (not on your Numpad) to select Cursor Pivotcenter. Then press Shift+D again and this time press R and type in -72 to rotate your Circle correctly.

Next select the vertex at [0, 1, 0] (where the 3D Cursor is in the next image) and press Shift+S. Select Cursor to Selected in the popup menu. Your Cursor should now be where it is in the image. Then create a Circle by pressing Shift+A and make sure it has 6 vertices.

Activate the little magnet in the bar at the bottom of the 3D Viewport. Select Vertex in the combobox right next to it. Now press R and let the rotation snap in place exactly as shown in the image below. Then Confirm by LMB or Enter

Now Scale with S and let it snap to the same vertex. Again shown below.

Reset your Cursor to the Center py pressing Shift+S and selecting Cursor to Center. Make sure the setting with the magnet stayed the same and press R. Let the rotation snap in place like shown below and confirm.

Press S to scale and let it snap like shown below before confirming.

Select the vertices as shown in the image below and press Alt+M. Select At Center in the popup menu.

Next up you have to remove all temporary vertices. Make sure you are in Wireframe Mode (to the right of the Edit Mode combobox). If you are not in Wireframe Mode press Z to enter it. Press C to use the circle selection tool and select the vertices shown below. When finished press X and select Vertices to delete them.

Select everything whats left (press A until that is the case). Press W and select Remove Doubles. (In 2.8 press Alt+M and select By Distance)
Select the two vertices like shown below and press X and select Edges.

Select every vertex around the big face (every vertex except two which are part of the hexagon) and press F to make a Face. Select (only) the 6 vertices of the hexagon and press F. Then press I and adjust the size of the hole that you what to be in there. Then after you confirmed press X and Faces to make the hole.

The following part is completly optional and because you are a beginner it may be hard to do for you. In the picture below I made a beautiful topology to be used with the Subsurf Modifier. I made that mostly by using the Knife Tool (K). If you want you can copy my topology with that tool. The most important step here is to add the Edge Creases at the inner tip. Select the 3 vertices that are the closest to the 3D Cursor in the image and press Shift+E. Move your mouse until a Crease +1.000 appears in the bottom left corner of the 3D Viewport and confirm with LMB.

Press Strg+2 to add a Subsurf Modifier and exit the Edit Mode (Tab).

Add a Solidify Modifier in the Modifier Tab (shown in the image above) by clicking on Add Modifier and select it there. You can then Adjust the Thickness of the blade and Apply that modifier.
Enjoy tinkering


Is there a way to duplicate objects betwenn two objects? Is there an add-on or other way to  duplicate specified number of objects between other two objects? Modo has this function and for 3dsmax I have a script: https://youtu.be/A1rFqZxpxjc

If you only want to do a single object between two existing objects, you can use 3D cursor snapping. In object mode, that is respective to the object origins.

So you'd pick the two objects you'd want to place the new object in between. Then snap cursor to selected. (This places the 3D cursor at the average position of both object origins.) Then pick and duplicate an object. Then snap it to the 3D cursor location.

By the way, the default menu option for 3D cursor snapping (2.7x) is Shift+S.

Alternately you may want to look into the Oscuart Tools add-on. It allows distribution of objects. That may function more closely to what you're wanting. I'm not exactly familiar with the workflow involved there, but it'd be worth looking into.


How do I turn off these bounding boxes? When editing my model, it looks like this:

when I press P to go into 'game-mode' (or however it is called)
it looks like this.

This question is NOT about the Texture space bounding box (dashed orange or black, depending on selection state) around the selected object. This I can turn off in the properties area, in the objects tab, in the Display panel, by ticking off the Texture Space.

It is also not about the bounding boxes you get by selecting a different viewport shading. As you can tell by the right most object, the red bounding boxes are bigger than the objects Texture space, ... or viewport bounding box (I checked).

What are the red boxes surrounding my objects?

Why are some meshes green while others are not shown at all?


Change object origin precisely? So here is my current state:

I want to move the object origin (small yellow dot) exactly in the middle but to the right so when I mirror the object it will work correctly.

I can't figure out how to do it. I know how I can move the 3d cursor and change the objects center to match the 3d cursor.  However, I do not know how to get the 3d cursor to the exact spot.

I know where I can input the exactly location of the 3d cursor but I don't know how to SEE the current object center so I know the proper Y/Z pair to put in.

How can this be done easily?

There a couple of ways:

Tool shelf > Tools [tab] > Set Origin > Origin to Geometry or Origin to Center of Mass (which could be the same depending on your object)
You can move the 3D cursor to any point related to the object mesh. In edit mode, snap it to any point of the object mesh, or the mean point of any selection within the mesh, like this: Shift+S > Cursor to Selected or Active or Center.  Then tab back to object mode and as in #1 ... Set Origin > Origin to 3D Cursor


Uneven Lighting on Faces (Cycles) I've a Toon Link model here. His mouth is a separate object from his face which unfortunately is an issue.

I'm trying to make a render of this model with lamps in Cycles, but the mouth doesn't "blend in" with the rest of his face like it should and does in games.

I tried EdgeSplit in the modifiers and that sort of helps, but the lighting is still a problem.

Here's a link to the model

Any help and tips would be appreciated! If more information is needed just say the word and I'll edit the post, etc.

Blend4web has a tool called Normal Editor. It has a feature, that may help.

It makes custom vertex normals based on nearest vertexes:

After this operation blender creates custom vertex normals, and if you change something in geometry normals will not update, until you not delete custom normals. To delete them goto mesh settings and click this button:


Problem with UV-mapping a Character I'm trying to UV-unwrap the body of my character and for the head it works well. The body texture, however, is behaving strangely. The texture moves, when I rotate around the mesh.

UV Map:

EDIT:

Files:

blend: http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=51686

texture: https://i.stack.imgur.com/8A5jT.png

What's going on here?

The texture is behaving like a reflection because you chose a reflection mapping preview. To choose the direct UV mapping preview, ...

go to the Image Editor
open the properties panel N
go to the Game Properties section
activate UV Coordinates unter the mapping header


weird ambient occlusion shadow i've been working on a small oven model and i have a problem with the AO bake,
for whatever reason there is a big round shadow in middle of the front and i have no ida what causing it.

Here is a screenshot of what i mean

and on the rendered ao texture

any idea whats happening?

edit:
i'm using blender render with approximate setting

edit2:
blend file

For me it looks like a somehow artifact of Approximate method of calculating AO. If you slower Error value in Approximate settings, you will likely get rid of this effect (and increase your baking time):

(I added Edge Split modifier here)

If using Raytrace method (like it's already described here), results will be similar, but at the same time you'll have more control over settings (actually, over baking time):

.blend


Rendering objects only for left or right camera in 2.8 I am working on a stereoscopic animation in 2.8 where some objects in the scene should be visible only for the left eye and others only for the right eye.
I use multi-view stereoscopy in cycles. I want to render everything at once as side-by-side stereo images.

(of course I could render them separately by putting them into separate collections, turning them visible and render one eye/camera at once and after then the other. But I want to keep it short)

Managed to solve the problem by creating three collections.
In left scene is collection "left", and the collection "right" is instanced here but not rendered.
in right scene is  collection "right", and the collection "left" is instanced here but not rendered.
And finally collection called "both" is linked to both scenes.

For linking or instancing a collection from another scene you have to go to "Scenes" view in Outliner, this enables to see collections from other scenes. You can then right click on the collection you want to link or instance here.


Why is my action modifier not being activated? So, I basically have a few empty objects that are adding 1 to their 'Interval' properties every refresh of my game. The script I'm adding to the object that has an animation is connected with an always sensor on 1 positive skip and an action actuator with all the data prepared. The name of the actuator is right in the script. I'm sure. The animation is supposed to be activated as soon as the Interval property of "Empty.007" in my scene is higher than 60. But it isn't activating. Could anyone help me with this?
It would be greatly appreciated.

import bge

cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
own = cont.owner
act = cont.actuators["Action"]
scene = bge.logic.getCurrentScene()
Interval1 = scene.objects["Empty.007"].get['Interval']
Interval2 = scene.objects["Empty.008"].get['Interval']
Interval3 = scene.objects["Empty.009"].get['Interval']

acc = 60

if Interval1 > acc:
    cont.activate(act)

Your action actuator is not being activated because you have a sintax error in

Interval1 = scene.objects["Empty"].get['interval'] you have to use parenthesis in the .get('interval')

Cube logic:

from bge import logic

act = logic.getCurrentController().actuators['Game']
obj = logic.getCurrentScene().objects['Empty']
print(obj['interval'])

if obj['interval'] >= 60:
    logic.getCurrentController().activate(act)

Empty logic:


Is it possible to extrude along a curved path like those made by a spirograph? I was looking at spirograph drawings and I was wondering if Blender has any way of extruding along such a path so that it could be turned into a mesh object. Here's a link to some spirograph pictures:
https://www.google.com/search?q=spirograph&num=100&safe=off&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS511US512&espv=210&es_sm=119&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=_aonU9OiH8PlyAHgxYBw&ved=0CAoQ_AUoAg&biw=1076&bih=603

I assume you would need to know the mathematical formula for the curve?

You can also use an Array modifier to create a basic design:


Custom trackpad pan/zoom/rotate behavior add-on I'm trying to write an addon to customize the trackpad panning, zoomimg, and rotating gestures, but can't find a way to read the actual trackpad parameters for position and so on. The properties in the event structure (mouse_prev_x/y, mouse_x/y, mouse_region_x/y) shows the current pointer position which happens to be standing still on the screen.

This is the addon that I'm talking about:

space_view3d_pan_naturally.py

There are no examples on the web for handling the TRACKPADPAN event.

The class bpy.types.Event is the one that is supposed to have the relevant parameters to retrieve from the TRACKPADPAN event, that is what I'm guessing from the documentation.

This snippet of code in particular, from my add-on, printf to the info view that the trackpad event has nothing to do with the mouse coordinates that are available in bpy.types.Event

#....
def modal(self, context, event):
    #....
    if event.type == 'TRACKPADPAN':
        self.report({'INFO'}, str(event.mouse_x))
#...

go to preferences, input, emulate 3 button mouse


Can I use Blender Game Engine (BGE) to create a simple interative movie? I have a 1000 frame animation organized into 4x200 frame sections and I would like to use BGE to loop certain sections and then use a "next" button progress to the next section.

kinda like:

var progress1; var progress2; var progress3;

if progress1 = 0
   play
   loop frames[1-200]
else
   play
   goto section2

//section 2
if progress2 = 0
   play
   loop frames[201-400]
else
   play
   goto section 3

//section 3
if progress3 = 0
   play
   loop frames[401-600]
else
   play
   goto END

Can this be achieved?

I suggest to split the animation(s) into several segments. That means you have one ActionActuator for each segment defining the begin and end of the action to be played. E.g. start:1, end:200

To deal with each single segment I recommend to use a state of the build-in state machine. This allows to focus on the specific segment without creating too much spaghetti bricks.

Here is an example with two states. You can configure your ActionActuators as you like, but I recommend Mode:play

State A:

State B:

As you hopefully see the structure of each state is pretty similar.

when entering the state -> start playing
when the playing ends ->
transit to the next state (can even be the same one, if you want to
implement a loop.

And yes, you can transit to other states on any event you like, e.g. key press.

To get more details have a look at Action sequences with logic bricks - the power of the ActuatorSensor. It comes with an example.

I hope it helps


What does 'Blender's System supports only quads' mean? It is stated in a lot of website that blender's system supports only quads. But blender also renders polygon. So, what does this mean? And how is it different from programs that supports polygons(example wings 3D)?

First let's solve some term confusion here. Every face of a mesh is a polygon. A tri is a polygon with three edges. A quad is a polygon with four edges. And a N-gon is a polygon with n edges. n stands as a variable here for any possible value. In 3D a N-gon describes a face with more than four edges. So when somebody talks about a N-gon then you know: he talks about a face / polygon with more than four edges.

Now for your question: The statement that Blender supports just tris or quads is not longer true. Since Blender can deal with N-Gons too since a pretty while. The code part that made this possible is called Bmesh. Which is a special code part under the hood of Blender to deal with the mesh geometry. It gots introduced with Blender 2.63. More to read here: https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.63/BMesh


BGE - move (absolute) camera to static target I want to move a camera to a specific target coordinate or object.
I tried the actuator "Motion" but i get just relative movements and no movement to a static object.

How can i realize this?

Thank's for your help

With your camera create an animation action with location keys.

Example:

frame 1 - Position A
frame 2 - Position B
frame 3 - Position C

Option A)

When you want to set position A you play the action from frame 1 to frame 1.
When you want to set position B you play the action from frame 2 to frame 2.
When you want to set position C you play the action from frame 3 to frame 3.

You need one action actuator for each position.

Option B)

When you want to set position A, assign a property "frame" the value 1 and activate an action actuator in property mode playing the frame of property "frame".


Blender 2.8 Displacement node not working I am trying to add a displacement node to this mesh to get a brick wall but i can't seem to get it to work on this particular mesh and i don't know why. Can anybody give me some ideas because i looked everywhere for an answer and i still cant get it to work.
thanks

The displacement is too weak, you're seeing it in the others because of the scale of the object.
Apply the scale (alt+A) in any mesh that it worked that you will see that the displacement effect is gone.
In the same way, press S+Z in the mesh of the pic and you will see the displacement
And you also need to be in Cycles "rendered" view to see it. The Shading preview will always use Eevee


Changing textures realtime in game engine I am looking for a way to change the texture in the game engine.
I have managed to apply 4 textures and enable/disable them usong a python script. The textures change is working, but only becomes visible when the BGE stops.
It seems that textures are not reloaded in realtime.
How can I force update the texture in realtime ?

You can use texture bind ID.

Once you have it, you can pass a image buffer into it I think.


Is there a way to schedule a render? I have a very long render and I was wondering if there is any way to make it only render at night so I can still use my computer during the day.

Edit: this is a single frame render, it will probably take upwards of 30 hours because it will be at 12k, 4096 samples, and has many polygons.

Start to render when you go to bed?
If the render is not completely done in the morning, just continue from the last frame of the previous render session.

If that's not enough of an answer, please provide more info.


Ungrouping a node group with Python What is the correct way to ungroup a node group from a script?

Essentially, I have a material that contains both nodes and node groups. I would like to expand all node groups in that material, leaving just "regular" nodes.

I have tried to "cheat" by making the node group selected and active, and then trying to call bpy.ops.node.group_ungroup(). This, however, gives an error that the context is not correct, and I don't know how to correct it.

I don't want to use bpy.ops if it can be avoided. My objective is simply to ungroup all nodes in a given material. I believe that I must be able to do this through bpy.data, I just don't know how.

I can't find any low-level way to un-group the nodes. Consider that ops.node.group_ungroup() does a lot of things for free (keeps the references/data of the nodes, removes the input and output node, keeps the connections etc.) so I'd suggest to write your own operator and just call it within the Node Editor either by using spacebar or creating a button.

import bpy

def main(operator, context):
    space = context.space_data
    node_tree = space.node_tree
    node_active = context.active_node
    node_selected = context.selected_nodes

    if node_active.type == 'GROUP':
        bpy.ops.node.group_ungroup()

class NodeOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "node.simple_operator"
    bl_label = "Simple Node Operator"

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        space = context.space_data
        return space.type == 'NODE_EDITOR'

    def execute(self, context):
        main(self, context)
        return {'FINISHED'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(NodeOperator)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(NodeOperator)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

In case there is no way around calling bpy.ops.node.group_ungroup() within the Node Editor, you can switch the current area.
Example based on: poll() failed, context incorrect? - Example: bpy.ops.view3d.background_image_add()

import bpy

def main(operator, context):

    area = context.area
    old_type = area.type

    # Set the area to NODE_EDITOR
    area.type = 'NODE_EDITOR'

    space = context.space_data
    node_tree = space.node_tree
    node_active = context.active_node
    node_selected = context.selected_nodes

    if node_active.type == 'GROUP':
        bpy.ops.node.group_ungroup()

    # Reset properties area
    area.type = old_type

class NodeOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "node.simple_operator"
    bl_label = "Simple Node Operator"
    '''
    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        space = context.space_data
        return space.type == 'NODE_EDITOR'
    '''
    def execute(self, context):
        main(self, context)
        return {'FINISHED'}

class LayoutDemoPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the scene context of the properties editor"""
    bl_label = "Layout Demo"
    bl_idname = "SCENE_PT_layout"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "scene"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout

        scene = context.scene
        layout.operator(NodeOperator.bl_idname)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(NodeOperator)
    bpy.utils.register_class(LayoutDemoPanel)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(NodeOperator)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(LayoutDemoPanel)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


How to model the curly cable part of the phone Hello. I am a beginner in Blender. I started modeling this phone and when I got to the curly cable part it was a real challenge. Could someone guide me on this.

There are several solutions, here are 2. You could create it with a Curve modifier or with Spline IK. The second solution is bit more complicated but it will probably give a better result.
Also, I explain how to create bone controllers for each handle of your curve: it's useful when you want to animate or even keep a basic reset shape for your curve.
With a Curve modifier:

Create your cable profile, it looks like a rectangle, shift it a bit from its origin. In Object mode apply the rotation of the object.
Give it a Screw modifier, play with the parameters.

Create a curve, flatten it, subdivide it a bit, make its origin begin at the same point as the cable origin, make sure its normals direction goes in the right direction, if not switch with W > Switch Direction.
Give your cable a Curve modifier, choose the curve as Object.
Now if you bend the curve, the cable will follow.

To give a bit more smoothness to your cable, bevel its profile vertices with a shiftctrlB.
Give a Subdivision Surface modifier to the object.
Now your cable is ready, you can apply the Screw modifier and parent the phone handset to the vertices of the cable end, or you can try to keep the Screw but I guess it will make the handset setting more complicated.
To animate you can hook the curve handles to bones, as explained further, or to empties.

With bones and Spline IK, as explained here by Peter Drakulic:

You've made your object and your curve (see beginning of method 1). Apply the Screw and Curve modifiers of the object if you want. Keep the curve.
Add a bone as long as the curve, subdivide it a bit.
Keep your armature selected, switch to Pose mode and give the top bone a Spline IK constraint with the curve as Target and the number of bones as Chain Length. Deactivate the Y Stretch option. Now when you move the curve the bones follow.
Parent the object to the armature With Automatic Weight. Put the Armature modifier above the Subsurf. Activate the Preserve Volume option of the Armature modifier.
Again, to animate you can hook the curve handles to bones.

You may want to create some bone controllers for each handle:

Create a new armature with each bones at the exact same point as each handle.
Switch the armature to Pose mode.
Select one of the bones.
Press shift and select the curve.
Go in Edit mode and select the corresponding handle.
Press ctrlH > Hook To Selected Object Bone.
Same thing for the other bones.
Now you can control the whole curve with this armature.


Syncing action and lips of a charecter with pre recorded voice over I am trying to animate my character according to the pre recorded voice over, but the problem is my 3D view port is running at 3 FPS, and I want my animation at 24fps.
I wonder how complex scenes in movies are animated if it is too slow.
Anyway, is there any work around to complete my job?
I also want to to know what are the hardware specifications I should have to play my viewport playback at required FPS

There are a few approaches you can try. I would first enable Simplify to make the scene a little lighter while you're animating.

Another way to make your animations run faster is to split up the blend file into multiple files, and use them as linked libraries. You'd have one file with the rigged character model, another one with the scene, and a third one with the animation data. You can then link the rigged character into the animation file, make a local proxy of the armature, and animate the character. Because the animation file doesn't contain the rest of the scene, your computer will have an easier time moving from frame to frame. Once you have the animation the way you want it, you can link the animated character into the scene for lighting & rendering.


How to animate a character throwing their hat on the ground? I have a snowman with a hat.
Link here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jji57qkhwe3yhhp/robotHat3_childOf.blend?dl=0

I want to animate the snow mans hand grabbing the hat and throwing it on the ground in front of him.

How would you go about animating the hat being released from the hand and falling to the ground.
I need a simple and quick technique as I will be creating a variety of such motions.
Link to successful result; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwYacsbW5Pg

Here I explain how to use Child Of constraint to make your character pick and hold his hat.

Also, give your hat Physics > Rigid Body > Type: Active. Give the ground Physics > Rigid Body > Type: Passive. At frame 0, enable the Rigid Body > Animated option of the hat and create a keyframe. The frame before he releases the hat, create a second keyframe. The moment he releases the hat deactivate Animated and create a third keyframe, the hat should fall.


Weird background artifact How do I remove that artifact (marked with a blue circle)

I solved it. The problem whas crated by the power node that crated a mirror. I removed the mirror by seting all valus below 0 to 0.


no Shape keys and weight painting, are they compatible? I've made a shape key for blinking, but the head is also weight painted 100% to the head bone. When the head is not attached to a skeleton, the blinking works fine and I can control it via a script in Unity 3D. When the head is weight painted, the eyes stay wide open.

I'm assuming that the head bone is telling those vertices to stay in place and this must be overriding the shade key. Is that right?

Is there any way shape keys and weight painting can work together?

*I should add that this is only a problem when the character is being animated. I'm not sure how to get around this as I can't exactly not animate the head. I'm stuck.

You need to export the FBX file using the ASCII exporter, not the binary one.

My character can now blink while being animated. The only issue is that the ASCII exporter exports the model x100 smaller. This can be easily changed in the model properties panel, but if there is a way to import it with the correct scale that would be great.


Add hot key for align to axis? Is there any way to map the sequence of commands "s, x, 0", "s, y, 0", and "s, z, 0" to keys? I use these a lot while modeling, and was hoping to map them to a single button, but can't seem to find any way to do it.

I was able to achieve this in the UV editor using the align commands.

I tried copying the python output of these commands to a custom hot-key, but it didn't work. I'm a programmer, but I don't know much about python. It seemed like the script was too complex for a hot key.

Thanks for any advice,
Robert

Save this to a .py file and install it as an addon

import bpy

bl_info = {
    "name": "Scale 0 Operators",
    "author": "Jan Kadeřábek",
    "version": (1, 0),
    "blender": (2, 7, 0),
    "location": "",
    "description": "",
    "category": "User",
}

class scale_x_0(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "view3d.scale_x_0"
    bl_label = "Scale X 0"

    def execute(self, context):
        bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(0, 1, 1))
        return {"FINISHED"}

class scale_y_0(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "view3d.scale_y_0"
    bl_label = "Scale Y 0"

    def execute(self, context):
        bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(1, 0, 1))
        return {"FINISHED"}

class scale_z_0(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "view3d.scale_z_0"
    bl_label = "Scale Z 0"

    def execute(self, context):
        bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(1, 1, 0))
        return {"FINISHED"}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(scale_x_0)
    bpy.utils.register_class(scale_y_0)
    bpy.utils.register_class(scale_z_0)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(scale_x_0)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(scale_y_0)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(scale_z_0)

This will allow you to set a shortcut for each "scale 0" action.

So after enabling the addon, navigate to User Preferences -> Input -> 3D View -> 3D View (Global) and add shorcuts by inserting corresponding operators, i.e. for scale X = 0, enter view3d.scale_x_0:

It should work for UV editor too, just assign the shortcuts again in Input -> Image -> UV Editor.


Kirigami project: lay down low-poly buildings to paper My project is to model a few low-poly buildings, then to loopcut each building by 4 or 5 on the X and Z axes in order to get each face (as a flatten sheet). Then get all those faces in front view/flat and lay them down to paper to be printed.

In fact my biggest doubt is about this last part, how to screen those faces one by one independently. And possibly with a "centimeter" metric system?

There may be something to do with the unwrapping tool most likely, but it's an option I still haven't ventured yet!

If you got my request, I simply need few tips or tricks you may have. I anyhow would do my best to obtain something right.

I'm not entirely sure I understood what you have in mind, but your description really made me think of the Export Paper Model add-on:

The add-on must be enabled (Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Export Paper Model > ✔)

Create your mesh (or meshes) the way you'd normally do it. Blender 2.8x uses real-world measures by default: you can check in the properties menu (N) that the dimensions are the correct ones for your project (you can work on the model "cm" scale, or keep in mind a ratio, e.g. 1:125, and work at the real-world "m" scale, just make sure you then set the factor in the Paper Model add-on)

You can also use the Measure tool

Once you're happy with your mesh, you can use (N menu) > Paper > Export Paper Model. This will create a PDF with cut-and-fold paper model with the correct real world measures


Scaling: What’s the difference between Ctrl+A and S? I saw some blender tutorials, and a doubt arises to me. Whats the difference between using Ctrl +  A and  S to scale something?
For instance, I modeled some branches using Skin modifier and if I select a vertex and use Ctrl +  A it allows me to scale but not using the  S key.

CTRLA while in Edit Mode changes the vertex radius; nothing else.
Only things like modifiers that use that property of the vertex to change something are affected. It's a nondestructive and indirect way of control since it only affects functions that read that value from the vertex.
Scaling on the other hand, at least in Edit Mode actually changes the mesh. It moves stuff to or away from the current pivot point. It is direct manipulation of the mesh.


What is "Set normals from faces"? If you are in the mesh Edit mode, you can find a button called Set normals from faces in the Tool Shelf, Shading tab, Normals section. The Blender manual seems to have no information about this feature (or at least I can't find any).

What does it do and in which cases could it help? I would like more information than the brief message from the tooltip.

You need to have Autosmooth activated. Then you can select a few faces, and with a click at the tool the normals of the involved vertices will be calculated in direction of the normals of the selected faces. Where two faces meets each other the normal will be middled.


Viewport shading bug 2.8 I can see the half of my viewport as u see it is no matter if I look through the cam or just so. Please help me out.

Render Region is active in your project. You can clear the region by pressing CTRL+ ALT+B or through View > View Regions > Clear Render Region in the menu.

In case you meant that part of your model is missing and not just the limited render view, then it's probably because of clipping start or end. Adjust the distances so that the entire model can be displayed.


Is there still the material override feature within render layers in Blender 2.8? I could not find this feature in the alpha version of Blender 2.8, nor could I find any information on whether the feature will still be available with the release. I only found a hint in Where is the Layers panel in Blender 2.8? where a responder said the interface for the layers is not yet fully implemented. Does anyone know if this feature will still be available with the new release? Thank you.

The 2.8 version is not released yet. Even the developers cannot be absolutely sure about how everything is going to be when it's finished. Ability to override materials per render layer is an essential feature. Even though nothing can be said with absolute certainty at this moment it would be very logical to assume this functionality or a way to achieve similar results will remain in one way or another once Blender 2.8 is released. Once again, let's remember the obvious one more time: at this moment Blender 2.8 is not meant to be used for production and is expected to have a lot of serious issues.


Set Array modifier to duplicate the object in both directions I modeled an object and want to have it 5 times in a row. I am using the arraymodifier, set the offset in my desired achsis to 1,1 (for a small gap) and the count to 5. My problem is now, that this extends the object to one direction only. I want my modeled object to stay in the center, 2 copies left, 2 right. I tried adding another array modifier with the negated offset, but that modifies the output result of the first one, obviously.

Is there a way for doing this? I could of cause apply my modifier and move the object back to where it belongs, but i dont want to apply yet and also i'm curious now if there is a solution for this.

Works with three Modifiers for a x-Axis symmetrical centered model from Front view:

Just add your Array Modifier to your object for the right two duplicates.

Then Add a Cube, translate it 1 BU to the left (minus x-Axis) in Edit Mode (thus keeping its Origin) and scale it up if necessary to encase the complete left half of your Mesh.

Now add a Boolean Modifier behind your Array Modifier selecting this Cube as Object in Difference Mode splitting your center Object in half, optionally hide the cube (H) and afterwards

Add a Mirror Modifier to replicate the right half to the left side...


How do I get 4 view points in blender? I want to get a Top view, Front view, Left view, and Perspective view in blender just like GMAX.
I have fiddled for a few minutes without the crisp line look.
Also I would like to get the time line for animation on the bottom to if possible.

Switch on 'Quad View' in the Properties panel (N in the 3D View).

Or press Ctrl+Alt+Q.

By default, Front- Side and Top-View are fixed and a bit different than GMAX. But you can switch off 'lock' and then reassign the roles.

Having the timeline below is just a simple matter of splitting areas.

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/interface/window_system/areas.html


Notify Operator when scene property update I want to call a method of an operator when a scene property has changed.

I know there is an update callback:

bpy.types.Scene.h_dock = bpy.props.EnumProperty(
    items = h_dock, name="Dock",
    description="Dock to left or right side",
    default="0", update=???)

But how to add a method of an operator here or any other class/instance in which I have to update member variables?

Thx

here is how i did it in my addon, i registerd my property's in directly in the register def and made a def at the top of my script that gets called when the value of the property changes

def Update_BoolProp(self, context):
    pass
bpy.types.Object.BoolProp = bpy.props.BoolProperty(
    name="BoolProp",
    description="description",
    default = True,
    update = Update_BoolProp
    )

i think that you can define the update function where ever you like as long as you can access where you define your property's.

ps: your vids are really helpful


Unchecking shadow in Ray Visibility isn't removing shadow I just started with Blender and wanted to make a cosy low poly cabin in the woods. I wanted to make the window shine a warm glow so I added a plane with emission in front of the window. Now I like how it looks if I could just remove the shadow. I have googled and people keep saying the same thing, both with transparancy nodes and unchecking the ray visibility shadows, but I just can't get it to work.

How do I get rid of the shadows from the invisible plane? An alternative method achieving the same result would also be nice, but I'd love to learn what I'm doing wrong with this method.

Thank you.

It's not that it's casting a shadow, it's that it's not able to cast light directly downwards because none of it's faces are pointing downwards. This creates an area with less light (shown in red below):

A better solution to this would be to use a sphere as your emission so that light is pointing in all directions.


Huge increase of memory use when increasing the resolution I've been struggling to render an interior scene (pic below), which I don't think is very complex, around 2,5M of vertices. As I had many problems running out of memory, I had to do some optimisations, this is what I've done:

Render with the CPU (It would take 50 hours)
Get rid of a couple Adaptive Subdivision and use regular Normal Maps. Now I only use it for the carpet.
Reduce some levels of most of the Subdivision modifiers in some secondary objects.
Use 1K textures instead of 3k for most objects.
Decrease the resolution to 1980x1250px.

With these tweakings I managed to reduce the poly count to 1,7M and, most importantly, to render the entire scene using around 4GB (I have a 1060 6GB, so there's no much room).

I tried to increase the resolution to see how much I can get, so I've tried to increase it by just 15%. When starting, the memory usage is higher but no errors, it's still below 4.7GB which It's the limit for my graphics card. But when it reaches a specific tile the memory usage increases to... 22GB!

Why does increasing the resolution this little produce a huge difference?

This is the scene:

And here's the screenshot of the error:

The .blend file is(90MB)

I've uploaded it to Dropbox, here's the link.

Thanks in advance,

If you see memory usage changing while rendering, it could be because of Denoising enabled, try:

lowering the render tile size
changing the tile order (from Hilbert to Left-to-right), so the minimum number of tiles are kept in memory
disabling Denoising altogether

Explanation why extra memory has to be used for denoising is here:

Why does Denoising take up so much memory?


select the same vertices on view port and UV editor without selection sync? - python I want to select some vertices on object and select the same vertices on the Image/UV editor but without the 'selection syn'c as it selects undesired vertices.

I wrote this script but unfortunately it does not return any UV vertices coordinates.

import bpy
import bmesh

obj = bpy.context.active_object
me = obj.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
uv_layer = bm.loops.layers.uv.verify()
bm.faces.layers.tex.verify()

bpy.context.scene.tool_settings.use_uv_select_sync = False

for f in bm.faces:
    f.verts[0].select = True
    f.verts[1].select = True

    for l in f.loops:
        luv = l[uv_layer]
        if luv.select:
            print(luv.uv)

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me)

Thanks in advance

BMLoop.vert

When iterating through the face loops (, which in case below is f.loops), the vertex of each loop element (l), is the vert property BMLoop.vert   of the loop. (l.vert).

    for l in f.loops:
        luv = l[uv_layer]
        if l.vert.select:
            print(luv.uv)


Hard Edge won't smooth with Sub Div Doing some modeling with Subsurface Div on and there is a hard edge that simply will not smooth.
See imgur: https://imgur.com/a/EynncsB

I've tried all of the following:

-Verified no dup. verts

-Verified Normals Outside & In

-Checked for Clear Edge

-Tried smoothing Object

-Loop cut and added additional loop for potential topology issue...

I'm out of ideas, anyone know what could cause this?

With some trouble shooting it appears this could be fixed by increasing/adjusting auto smooth. Per the blender manual the auto smooth angle appears to have a threshold that if broken will consider the edge sharp.


CUDA ERROR: Launch failed in cuCtxSynchronize()” and “cuCtxCreate: Launch failed” when Rendering in Cycles using GPU When I render my image, it stops, giving the error message "CUDA ERROR: Launch failed in cuCtxSynchronize() Line 1372", then when I try to start the render again, I get the error message "cuCtxCreate: Launch failed"  all the answers I have seen say to update your graphics card driver, however, mine is up to date.
I have a GTX1080 with 4gb of RAM.

Bumped into the same error once.

Found following thread at developers forum:

  Then it occurred to me that the Gforce Experience runs in the background (and being in my opinion, not a well written program) may be overlapping the memory of Blender or at least hogging the memory. So I un-installed it and magic! All Cuda errors and memory errors went away. Blender works again as it should!


Game Asset Workflow and Software Pipeline I'm brand new to the Blender world (and 3D in general). I started diving in about a week ago, with the ultimate goal of making assets for a video game project I plan to start next year with some friends.

My question is what is the de facto workflow to create meshes, apply maps, texturing and lighting effects for game art? I'm especially hazy as to where and how you create the various maps (like normal and height maps) and add textures (i.e. wood, steel, etc.)... Is that typically all done in Blender and brought directly into your game engine or would that part of the process handled in Unity/Unreal?

I've seen some great tutorials online but they usually only handle one part of the puzzle and don't explain how the various pieces are integrated. The more detail you can provide, the better! I'm a longtime Photoshop user, but if you explain the process from the Gimp perspective, I'm sure I can figure out how to translate it to PS.

Specifically

Do applied Blender shaders work in game engines or are they only for rendering directly from Blender?
If so, do lighting effects (like emissive materials and specularity) work in an equivalent way in other game engines?
Can you stack multiple maps (i.e. diffuse + specular) and then import the targeted asset in another program?
When you unwrap a mesh, can you import it into photoshop? Is there a "best practice" to doing so? Any tutorials you'd recommend?

TL;DR

What is the standard game asset workflow for Blender? For example:

high-poly mesh in Blender >
bake to low-poly mesh >
UV unwrap >
digital paint and maps in Photoshop >
apply maps, shaders and lighting in game engine (Unity/Unreal/whatevs)

There are many ways. Sometimes, I use this way:

model low poly first
UVunwrap it
texturing
In properties panel, go to "data" tab and then "UVmaps", add a second UV map
by clicking on the plus button, highlight it by clicking on it, unwrap the
low poly model for a second time for a good unwrapping because of the
texturing
create a new texture and bake "textures" and normal maps
Remove all materials and the second UV map
duplicate the low poly
add more details to the second low poly models
bake normal map of the the high poly mesh on the low poly one


How to make overlayed composited images stay intact while changing render resolution? There is a scene I'd like to composite. In this case the desired result is to overlay some clouds on top of the mountains:

This works as long as the render resolution stays the same. For the sake of decreasing render times the percentage of resolution is set to 52 (so the image is almost 2 times smaller than final resolution).

Now once the result is satisfactory it would be great  to increase the resolution to 100%. However if doing it just dragging the slider the render won't be satisfactory anymore:

Obviously clouds didn't take new resolution into account and are of the same size while the rest of the image enlargened. How to composite the render result so the overlayed images on top of it stay intact?

The node setup used for these clouds is one Scale node set to scaling relatively to input image size (so to enter fractions of 1 factors), then Translate node to move images to its place (relatively to input image size as well) and Rotate node.  All of them are added to image after mist.

Convert Premultiplied is used here because of input png images I can't substitute which can't treat alpha normally (not related though).

As I thought it should help if Scale node is set up on Relative mode however it isn't related with output image, it will scale relative to input image so that's not what I'd like:

  Relative
      Percentage values relative to the dimensions of the image input.
    manual

The straightforward solution is to edit values of the Scale (and possibly Translate) nodes in order to fit new resolution but that's quite unflexible as resolution might change once in while (also images to be overlayed can be anything, e.g. simple mask textures used as factors for other images etc).

How to overlay images on top of the render so when render resolution changes overlayed images continue being scaled respectively to the new image size?

Scale node set to Scene Size mode will scale image accordingly to the render resolution:

  Scene Size
      Sizes an image to the size of the final render resolution for the scene. For example, rendering a scene at the standard 1080p resolution but setting the render percentage at 50%, will produce a 1080p image with the scene scaled down 50% and leaving the rest of the image as alpha.

If feeding it with original image and then plugging the output of the node into nodes shown in the setup above it will work for different render resolutions:

The node setup will be the same with the only difference that now it has 1 additional Scale node.  Fit option used here which is the easiest one for preserving image original ratio:


Starting and Stopping Rigid Body Simulations Given a rigid body simulation, can i pause it in the middle, move a camera and start it again?

Kind of like a bullet time effect

This is what I want it to do:
http://imgur.com/dQbhNP4 (sorry about the quality)
but with keyframes

Thank you

Under rigid body tools on the toolshelf there should be a "Bake to keyframes" option. You can run your simulation, and then bake it all to keyframes.

Then in the dopesheet, you can move these keyframes later in time starting from when you want to animate the camera.

E.g.

Simulate 20 frames
Move keys on frames 11 to 20 to frames 16-25
Animate camera between frames 11 and 16


What will reduce my rendertime? What would reduce the render time? Should I get a better GPU or more RAM?

Without knowing your system specs, this answer will be a bit of a shot in the dark however, generally speaking, given a decent system with a modern architecture, your best bang for the buck will come with a "more better" graphics card. GPU rendering is an order of magnitude faster than CPU.

On my particular system, GPU rendering is 4 times faster than CPU rendering.

Think of it this way, a \$200 graphics card will likely get you better performance than \$200 in combined CPU and RAM upgrades.

There are also a dozen things you can do in Blender, not the least of which is play with the tile size (Render > Performance > Tile Size). This is just trial and error--so pick a frame, change tiles to 32x32, render, check the render time in the upper left corner. Change tiles to 256x256, repeat. Pick the faster one and try a couple values on either side -- if 32x32 was faster, compare 16x16 and 64x64. Values should be increments of base 2 (so; 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512...).


Prevent Loose Bone Joints I have this slider-crank rig working but the circled joint between the "ROD" bone and the "PISTON" bone pulls apart a little bit as I rotate the "CRANK" bone away from PISTON.  And the ROD bone pushes into the PISTON joint when CRANK is rotated towards PISTON.
ROD is parented to CRANK, and has "Track To" targeted to PISTON.
PISTON is unparented, and has "Copy Location" targeted to ROD tail.   And "Limit Location" on all axes except local Y.
Is there a way to make this joint behave more like a "connected" joint --- stable, with no movement?
Thank you very much for any assistance, Rob Blender 2.91.0
.blend
slider-crank.blend

You can use the Theorem of Pythagoras:
I added three bones, for clarity:
j3 is simply child of Crank.
j2 uses a copy loc constraint to copy only X loc of j3
j1 is the traget of Rod track to constraints, and piston copies loc of j1.
We know that a = square root of (square c - square b) by the Pythagoras theorem.
c is a fixed value, equals to Rod bone lenght.
b is equal to the distance between j2 and j3.
We want that the x loc of j1 is equal to x loc of j3 + a.
So I've set a driver on its X loc to follow this formula.
In the drivers panel the first variable uses a "distance" operator, while the second variable (varj3) use a transform channel (x loc of j3 bone).
The fixed number .067 is simply the square of the rod bone lenght, measured in Blender units (I suggest to do the operations using  blender units, then switch back to imperials when you have finished).


Blender with Niftools addon, how can I export an fbx file with a texture linked to it? I'm trying to export nif models to fbx models using NifTools addon, when I import the nif model I get to see the name of the texture, here's an example:
But when I try to export it to fbx I get this:
The name of the texture is gone, the only thing remaining is a "Box02" which is the name of the mesh I'm using.
So when I need to load a fbx model on another program I eventually need to manually indicate what is the right texture for this model, and this can be very troublesome as I'm trying create a scene with multiple models.
Note: I've already tried exporting the nif model with the path mode set to "Copy" and activate the Embed Textures option, but this doesn't seem to be working as my FBX file keeps missing the texture data.

This is likely because the texture is not set as a material for the object, but is still showing up in Texture Paint mode because it is in the tool’s active slot. Was the NIFtools addon originally designed for 2.79?
Anyway, you need to actually set up the texture as a material in Object or Edit mode. More on the subject can be found here: Blender Manual: Materials, Index


Fricked up my under-arm joint topogroaphy It has a really wierd shape and I'n not sure how I messed it up this bad. I could have solved it if i didn't apply the subdiv modifier for sculpting. Basically looking for any idea or possible solution. Feel free to answer whatever you feel like could save the joint so I can look forward on having it animated

I was able to do it by selecting the edge loop before the joint, hiding it and deleting the whole arm and rebuilding it from those vertices by extending it.


Is possible to generate a preview material from python? I would like to generate the preview of a list of materials. I could create a sphere and apply the material, render and save it in a loop, but what I would like is to use the internal functionality of template preview.

My idea is to get the image object of the template preview, and then save it as any image.

I have seen something about using a custom render, but I don't know where find more information.

I will appreciate any idea.

BlenderKit has a built in thumbnail renderer that does a pretty decent job, and the operator can be used quite easily in your custom script. The disadvantage of it might be the speed, since it renders a full cycles scene, unlike the preview that has obviously many optimisations and renders instantly.


Corner modelling technique I am making a bracket for three rods in blender and I figured out it is harder than it seems.

I managed to make this by painstakingly placing each vertex in the correct position and I am wondering, is there a better way to do this.

I included an image to show what I am talking about.

You can also use the Bevel tool.

Take the default cube, and extrude three sides
Select the outer edges and bevel them (e.g. Bevel modifier)
Remove double vertices (e.g. Weld modifier)

This image shows which edges to bevel


How to create outgrowing stripes/planes from object center? I am trying to create the 'pumpkin creases' like it displays in my poorly created image.
I can't explain it with words but it looks like magnetic fields? It is also the reason I am posting a question because I simply can't find the right words for describing this.
I need it as shader of course.
So the 'texture' from top would look like outgrowing spikes or lines from center.

https://i.imgur.com/9cgI20e.mp4 -- somewhat visual representation of how the lines grow along the planes and towards the ends of the lines.

Not totally sure this is what you expect.

Though, from object "texture coordinates" you can take x and y value so that "arctan2" math node gives you the angle around z axis (between -pi and pi).
Then use this multiplied angle with a sinus (a value between -1 and 1) and plug it as displacement height.
The sphere has some subdivision thanks to subdivision modifier.
Also, the material settings (using Cycles) has a displacement set to "displacement and bump" or "displacement only".


Modify default settings for subdivision surface modifier In some other 3D packages, like XSI, subdivision surface can be directly interacted with by default. It is possible to display a cage and modify that cage, but it is not mandatory. I have seen some Blender videos, such as this one, where something similar is being done. I notice three things:

Wire and Draw all edges are turned on by default for objects.
Optimal Display is turned on by default for subsurf modifier.
Mesh elements can be directly selected from the subdivision surface and there is no cage visible.

How could I set these as defaults in Blender? Do I have to write a Python add-on? Is there an example that I could look into? Intuitively, I feel this should be a popular requirement.

The video you linked to is a tutorial for the Sensei addon, which is a free addon that you can download and try. You will notice that the Sensei addon replaces a lot of the blender UI so that it's own operators are used, which is how the various defaults are different than blender's defaults.

Like the Sensei addon, you can create your own addon/s that perform tasks with your settings. You can start by creating an addon that defines an operator which adds a subsurf modifier with settings you want as well as turning on the draw wire settings for the object. This can be then be added to existing menus or custom hotkeys. To learn to create addons start with a Python tutorial if you don't know Python yet, then go through blender's addon tutorial.

Some code to put into your operators execute() method could be something like -

# bpy.context.active_object is needed if you test this script
# inside an operators execute you only want context.active_object
obj = bpy.context.active_object
# objects draw wireframe settings
obj.show_wire = True
obj.show_all_edges = True
# add a subsurf modifier
m = obj.modifiers.new('Subsurf', 'SUBSURF')
# this turns on optimal display
m.show_only_control_edges = True
# this shows the edit mode vertices on the
# deformed mesh not the real vertices
m.show_in_editmode = True
m.show_on_cage = True


not clear glass how do I fix is it hacked? i have a picture in my blender glass how do I fix? Is it hacked?

By default the Material Preview mode will use a default HDRI (world image) and that's what is reflected on your object. To change that you can go into the Viewport Shading panel and check Scene World for example:


Problem with Baking Dynamic Paint with Ocean modifier I've got problem with baking Dynamic paint which I use to make wave from Brush object and foam trail from it. And I use Ocean modifier

This is how it looks in viewport without baking, it should look similar in render

When I bake Ocean modifier foam spreads everywhere

But when I bake dynamic paint everything (waves from ocean modifier and foam trail) looks good, except it doesn't have waves from brush object (sphere)
Maybe, I making some dumb mistake, but I can`t find reason


Union partially overlapping cubes without boolean modifier My goal is to generate a model composed of many partially overlapping cubes. But I need to get rid of the parts where they overlap, so I have a single mesh without any intersections. One of the purposes is 3D printing. With the boolean modifier I can make it work sometimes, but often the resulting model is totally corrupt (missing parts, weird geometry, non-manifold). BMesh and Carve both have issues. I've had the same experience with the boolean modifier in e.g. Sketchup.

So my question here is how would I manually connect these cubes and remove the overlap? Eventually I will have to do this in Python, but I can't program it if I don't know how to do it to begin with...

Image of example model with partially overlapping cubes:

Image showing inside of example model with internal geometry removed:

Rules:

Each cube has the same height (Z scale)
Each cube belongs to a certain 'floor'
Therefore each 'floor' has the same height
The difference in Z location between two following floors is the same (floors are distributed evenly)
Every cube on a higher floor is supported by at least one cube from the floor directly below it (meaning no cube will float in the air, except for cubes on floor 0)
Cubes on the same floor may intersect each other (I didn't show this in the example images)

Basically it's a tower of cubes with dedicated 'floors', like a building. But each floor is pushed down a little to overlap the floor below it.

The way I think I should tackle this is as follows:

Place all the cubes in correct position, but without pushing down each floor (so no overlap, only touching)
Calculate the places where the faces touch using the Shapely for Blender Python module (using 2D boolean operations)
Cut a hole with the Knife project for each of these parts where the faces touch
Somehow merge/connect the vertices which surround the newly cut hole - this should connect the previously separate floors
Continue with 2, 3 and 4 until finished
Select the faces that face down (except for the faces of floor 0) and pull them down a bit to create the overlap which we didn't make at step 1

I hope I'm on the right track here. I can do step 1 and 2 but from step 3 I don't know how. It sure would have been nice if the Bool Tool Auto Boolean Union would have worked for me but unfortunately that's not the case. I've included a simple example Blend file, as well as a complex one where the Bool Tool fails.

I'm using Blender Version 2.78c.

Turns out Python+Blender is not the right tool for the job. I used Python+OpenSCAD instead and so far I have not experienced any issues with the union boolean modifier. Glad to find out there's an easy solution that just works and that there's no need to do any complex stuff in Blender.

From OpenSCAD I can export to STL and import in Blender if I need to do some manual adjustments.


Help with texture mode in viewport I can't see the textures I assigned to my material on my object in the 3d view port in texture mode. However I can see them in render mode. Why can't I see them in texture mode so I might be able to edit them better without the lag of trying to do it in render mode? I also think this is the same reason why I can't bake the textures that I've applied to the materials on the object to a separate texture for exporting and importing purposes. I've searched all over the internet and it's a common problem, however none of the solutions have worked for me. I've tried switching between cycles and blender render. In the shading options I've tried both multitexture and GLSL shading with all the different options. I've tried opening the image to the UV editor and manipulating the unwrapped projections to see if they show in texture mode. All of these thing's I've saw in render mode but I can't in texture mode. Also, it's not how I unwrap object either because I've done this with just a simple cube (easy unwrap). I've even gone as far as thinking there was a bug in the program, uninstalled in and reinstalled it and I still can't see textures in texture mode. I'm asking please, If anyone has some insight that may help me, please let me know. I've added a picture to help illustrate my problem. Thank you.

Yes schustudrai said it you must link your image with the button here:


Blender cycles won't render halo particles I am an inexperienced user of blender, and created a scene of a manikin using blender  2.69 and rendered it using cycles  to produce a .png image which I was very happy with. I wanted to progress further and incorporate the use of Halo particles with this scene, but discovered that cycles will not render halo particles. (I looked at the 'dupli'  option but this won't give the same effect as a BI halo particle when rendered).

Question 1 - will the new version of blender  - v 2.74  using Cycles render halo particles or do I have to retreat to Blender Internal - BI (Blender render).

Assuming it probably won't, I opened my blender file and attempted to render my scene using blender Internal.  The result was  a complete blacked out manikin and only a white floor visible.

Question 2.  Am I going to have to start all over again, because I need to use the halo features of BI and using cycles seemed to have put me up a blind alley, or is there something on my current file that I could change/focus on so I can get it to render (and therefore use the halo features) with BI.

To render Halos in Cycles you need two objects: an emitter object with a particle system, and a second object that acts as a domain. The domain object should enclose the emitter object plus the area where the particles will be.

On the domain object you can use the Texture->Point Density node to control an emission shader that will be used as volume for the domain:

Select as Object the emitter object and its particle system, plug the density to the strength of the emission shader and lastly plug the emission as the volume for the domain's material.

Example file:

NOTE: Currently (version 2.76) this method works only on CPU rendering, no GPU yet...


How to merge two faces by creating a third I'm very new at blender and sometimes I get stuck in stupid problems, but I want to know how to merge two faces by creating a third as a "bridge".

Here's a pic where I'm stuck

I want to merge these two selected edges by creating a face with the same dimensions of the one at bottom.

Here's what I want

is it possible to do this without knowing the exact dimensions of the face at bottom? if not, how do I get the properties such as Dimension/Position/Angle of the selected face??

Thanks in Advance

Here is a two-step solution:

1) Duplicate your face
Mesh->Duplicate
Shortcut: Shift+D

...and move it up
- use snapping options
- use orthographic view and side view to be more precise

2) Select your edges and connect them with a new face.
Vertex->New Face
Shortcut: F


How to 2D-stabilize and enlarge canvas to preserve outside pixels? I stabilize a movie clip of 1920x1080 using multiple markers and rotation stabilization.

Great, but a lot of it goes out of the original canvas. I know I could increase the influence so it almost stays in the canvas, but I want to preserve that large movement.

How can I enlarge the canvas so no pixel gets lost, while never rescaling the footage in order to preserve its maximum quality.
e.g. I would like to render a 3840x2160 video where my 1920x1080 footage is moving around in the middle, and I don't care how the rest of the canvas is filled.

NOTE: I spent hours putting those tracking markers already so I would like to preserve all this and simply enlarge the canvas.

Thank you!

Well... I found the answer and it's in fact quite simple.
Setting the rendering to a large resolution with scale 100%  is enough to do the job!

I used the nodes though, to connect Movie > Stabilize > Compositor.


How would I create a stripe on top of a brick texture? How would I create a stripe on top of a brick texture?
Currently I have the brick texture setup like this.

Which gives me this result

But I'm stuck now as I don't know how to add the white stripes which appear every 5 rows or so for 2 rows.
This is how it looks and what I would like to achieve.

Use two brick textures. The trick is thinking of one that can be used as a mask to mix the original texture with some other color, the white elements will be one texture, the black elements will be a color (or a different texture if plugged to the other socket of a mix color node).

On the second brick texture play with scale Mortar size and Brick, until you get a black and white pattern. This pattern (or mask) will be used to determine what parts of the object get the small bricks.
Evaluate the results by plugging the output to the shader you will use, but using the Fac output instead of color.

Then use that same Fac output to control the color on a color mix node.

Additionally, you can use a mapping node to set the texture's scale on $X$ to zero so that you are left only with horizontal stripes.


How do I keyframe transform and rotation values whilst moving and object on a path using 'Follow path' contraint thank you in advance
I've been banging my head for the last week trying to solve this issue. I need to export my files in a specific way and require my NLA animations made a specific way as im using my gltf file within a web framework.
I am aware that we can create keyframes and move cameras on paths and capture keyframe values of the offset, but how do I record keyframes for transform and rotation properties? when I keyframe said properties, no values are recorded as these do not change whilst the object is constrained to the path.
I have tried everything I know of and cant manage to solve this problem.

You can create an empty, set a copy loc constraint on the camera targeting the empty, set a copy rot using "Add" mix instead of default "replace", set the empty to follow the curve path.
When everything works as expected, select the camera, in the 3D window, object mode, go to Object menu, choose animation, bake action, enabling the preferences in the image below.
Now you can delete the curve and the empty, animation is baked as camera keyframes.


Why cant i subdivide? I have looked every were and cant find out why I cant subdivide this face. I split a default sphere and filled the top with a face and it wont let me subdivide that face. I need to so i can  use the displace modifier on it!

In fact, it does subdivide but you don't see it because the scene is in edge selection mode. And as there is no vertex in the center, only border edges are divided.

But what you can use is a grid fill CtrlF then "grid fill":


How to avoid pinching when constructing joint topology? I am making a model for a friend. The arms are giving me trouble. Specifically the arm sockets.

What's giving me trouble is that the arms are very close to the head, unlike the human body, leaving very little space for shoulders or a neck. Because of this, I have no clue how to structure the topology correctly, even after browsing through the Blender StackExchange for an answer that applies to this situation.

With this current topology, the arm socket pinches really bad with an armature.

How should I structure the topology of this arm socket so this arm can move around in all directions (like arms usually do) without this bad pinching? (I want to avoid resorting to creating an arm that's just punched through the torso, so please avoid this unless it's the only solution.)

Here is the .blend file:

Thank you in advance.

Topology alone will not do much for you. It's about how the bones influence/deform the topology.

To minimize pinching in such areas you can do 4 things:

Use Corrective Smooth modifier after the Armature modifier. This is designed for this problem (new in Blender 2.75). Use the vertex group input to influence what regions to smooth.
Change the bones point of rotation (this will change the radius at which the vertices rotate when bone rotates).
Smooth the deformation influence - couple options:

smooth bone weights or smooth them across multiple bones
use low-poly lattice or mesh deform to deform the mesh, deform the lattice/meshdeform with armature - this smooths the deformation

Use corrective shapekeys driven by bones.