What advantages in using progressive rendering? I'm using CPU rendering, I've heard somewhere that progressive rendering is faster than non progressive, so I checked it in the render panel, I also increased the Tiles size to 256 for both, my question is, is it really faster, because it looks slower than non progressive with 32 for Tiles size.Also one of the advantages I heard about is that if you feel that the render is clear enough, you can just cancel and save the image "talking about rendering stills". But what if I'm using Composite? I'm mixing a white color with Mist, and mixing that with the rendered image, since this will be calculated after the render is done, will composite still happen if I cancel the render?  I know this looks like many questions, but it's not, the main question is: Why and when to use progressive rendering?

Progressive render is always slower than a properly configured non-progressive render.

You use progressive rendering if you don't know how many samples to use. For example, you might use progressive on your initial render to get a feel for how many samples will look good, or to extrapolate how long a given number of samples might take. You might also use progressive if you have a specific amount of time to render, but don't know how many samples you can get done in that amount of time.

You might also use progressive if you don't know how much time you'll have to render the image. For example, if you have a SUPER complex scene and you know you're going to be out of town for a few days, you might start the progressive render, set it for umpteen-billion samples, and just let it go until you get back... whenever that is. That way, you're rendering the WHOLE time (it doesn't stop too soon with too few samples), but you also have a FULL image whenever you decide to stop (without having to wait for the last tile... or two... or more, to finish).

http://www.blenderguru.com/articles/4-easy-ways-to-speed-up-cycles/

look to 3. point

With CPU you should use a small tile size it will be faster.

With GPU you should use a big tile size.

Progressive rendering will make a tile as big as your image -> render time will be long

Composite could be done if you simply take a image (use openexr format if you use passes)  as input


Flatten a Curved Section of a Mesh I have a mesh I generated by converting a beveled curve to a mesh. The result is very useful, but I would like to make one curved part of it flat. Can this be done without selecting each face and moving it?

You can do this fairly easily if you use proportional editing and scaling.

Turn on proportional editing:

Select the top layer of vertices using box select:

Scale (S) along the Z axis (z) then press 0 to scale it it flat. Scroll your mouse wheel to adjust how much of the mesh it affects:

And you get:

If your curve isn't flat like in the previous example, it's still possible, it just takes a little more work.

Select the edge loops around the area you want to flatten (using Alt Right click):

Pull them out to be flat with the middle edge loop.

Shift-Select the middle edge loop and push all of them in:

Continue tweaking it until it's flat enough:


Speedup Cycles for material-only renders I render planes with procedural materials and don't need any other effects in those renders. The preview is generated within seconds but the final render takes minutes.

What and how should I disable to make the final renders be generated as fast as the previews?
Is it possible to setup those configs with a Python script?

To speed up Cycles, you are going to have to sacrifice realism.

If that is okay for your projects, you might try adjusting the filter glossy field, disabling Shadows, Caustics, and Bounce light, , like so:

Set the fields labeled, "Max" and "Min" to adjust the overall amount of Bounce Lighting, but note that this will also disable the "reflectiveness" of an object; If you don't want that, then adjust the fields bellow, with out changing the "Glossy" one.


Shorten video with speed control effect strip already applied I've got a video in the Video Editor workspace with a Transform effect strip to scale the video and a Speed Control effect strip to double the speed. I added these effects, then found the frames where I wanted the video to start and stop. I've positioned the video so that the start point is at Frame Start for the scene, and it starts there fine. But when I want to take frames off the end, the speed changes. If I turn off "Stretch to input strip length" in the Speed Control and then try to shorten the video, it randomly freezes at some seemingly arbitrary point about halfway through and doesn't finish. How can I avoid these issues?

The UI of the Speed Strips are super unintuitive. I've tried to address the subject matter here without any success: https://developer.blender.org/D6110
There are four ways to change the speed of the strip, using the speed strip options. I hope listing them here will help you and others out:
"Stretch to input strip length"

The "Use as Speed" does exactly the same as the Multiply Speed:

If "Scale to Length" is selected the strip duration goes from 0%(first frame) to 100%(last frame) and those values needs to be animated:

When "Scale to Length" is unselected, and behaves like the previous setting, but in frame numbers.


Interpolation of animation cycle extremes I'm working on a cyclic animation. I applied the F-Curve modifier Make Cyclic for better seeing what I'm doing. In the image you can see the f-curve for an specific bone. My question is, is there a way of interpolate the beginning and end of a cyclic f-curve?

I mean. Blender interpolates automatically the f-curve between 'START' and 'P', and between 'P' and 'END'. In the image, the interpolation in the interval 'i1' between 'START' and 'P' is made taking into account 'START', 'P' and 'END'. Nevertheless, the interpolation does not take into account the virtual 'P' that lies before 'START'.
I myself have tuned dozens of times the START and END points of every cyclic animation I have done because I haven't find any obvious way to do this. But this tuning is made on the fly, manually, by tweaking the handlers for the extreme keys of the animation. Is there a way to force Blender into interpolate the f-curve between P, START, and END treating 'START' and 'END' like if there were the same keyframe?
I have only found this post about the very same topic 4 years ago, but there were no solution and I don't know if any plugin, addon or functionality has been added since then (2012): http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?257538-Looping-an-animation-smoothly
Thanks in advance.
Edit:
I know one feasible workaround for this issue, as stated in the link above. I could make two copies of P and place them in the exact position the "Make Cyclic" transform calculates. It then would interpolate correctly. But I don't want this. It is a workaround that, applied to all the curves for all the bones for all my cyclic animations, is a real PITA. As also stated in the link above, I tweak here and there almost every keyframe in my animations, but I want to have the basis of a well done interpolation and not to lose hours tweaking start and end keyframes of every looping animation to make them look finely interpolated. I have read that 3DS has this feature. Is not an automagically feature like they say in the link. I just want the interpolation Blender does in every frame in every animation, but taking into account the cyclic nature of it.
Edit 2:
This is the page that describes the function 3DS that I talked about. Just for reference.
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/3DSMax/files/GUID-8D3FF404-082E-44D5-99B1-68F960A45D0D-htm.html

Anyway, I have just created the solution (solution or workaround, others may judge). If you have encountered this page by looking for a solution, congratulations.

I created a script that solves this situation by copying the second and next-to-last keyframes before and after the first and last keyframes, forcing the curve to interpolate and removing those keyframes leaving the interpolation untouched.

Here it is:
https://github.com/aravergar/cyclic-animation-interpolation


Straight rotation on non straight Axis Hello, i have this model that i am trying to program on BGE, as you can see in the first gif the claw is rotating correctly on Y axis, but when i move the sphere  to a non 90 degree angle on the z axis the claw rotate very weird(i know that is intended to do that due to how the program handles the space), how i can make it rotate straight on the Y Axis like  the first gif even when its not in a 90 degree on Z axis?.
PD: Sorry for my English, i am from Chile South America

Just hit the axis key twice instead of once. This will make it rotate in local instead of world space.

(P.S.:  Your English is perfectly fine. Also, just as a helpful tip—if you need an exact rotation, you can always type numbers instead of dragging the mouse.)


BGE: How can I make a hostile animal artificial intelligence? In the blender game engine, how do I make an animal change it's condition from walking to attacking when it sees the player?

You need to use states. Basically this will be :

Near property Player > And > State set state 2

It will look like this.

Now on state two, you need an Always sensor rigged up to a Steering acctuator with the player being the target object.

To avoid being stuck in state 2 forever, make something to switch back when the player isn't nearby anymore.


Is it possible to de-bevel all or parts of a mesh? Is there an easy way to un-bevel parts of a mesh that have been beveled?
e.g. Convert this:

into a normal cube?
Edit:
Is this possible with perhaps some trick of calculating where the original edge was and collapsing all the selected edges to that point? (python?)

If I didn't use a bevel modifier but I beveled directly the shape edge of the mesh with Ctrl+b, I usually use this procedure:

In edit mode, set the Pivot to Active element;
select all edges I have to de-bevel and for last one I select the one aligned to the original position that I will use as reference;
scale the selection to 0 on the needed axis only, to align all beveled edges to the reference edge;
repeat the same operation with the other side to de-bevel changing the last selected edge and axis accordingly, as needed;
Remove double vertexes.

This works on one "beveled corner" at once and if the edges to be de-beveled are aligned or orthogonal to axis. If they aren't there is the need to set a different xyz ref system to match local edges alignment.

If you wish, see the following video to see the tutorial I made:

http://sendvid.com/5rs3n0uz


copy and paste dynamic effect in graph editor I'm animating scaling an object.
Id' like to add a dynamic effect to the end of the scale, i.e. a bounce.
I am able to box select the key of the X, Y and Z channels and add a dynamic effect to all three in the Graph Editor.
But when it comes to editing the bounce I cannot find an easy way to manipulate the bounce of all three channels simultaneously.
Then I hoped to be able to copy the dynamic effect from one channel to the other two. No luck there either.
Am I overlooking something obvious or is there just no easy way to sync a dynamic effect across several channels?

You can do this by adding two keyframes. One at frame 0 and the other where you want it to stop scaling.
When you've done that, click on the first marker and press T and change the interpolation to bounce.


How to design a part to fit exactly onto an existing 3D model? I have been trying to fix the front fender part of a vintage pedal car for a friend. It is a piece that is broken, and I would like to design and 3D print a part that fits perfectly to the broken part, kind of like what was done here... The .stl file from a 3D scan of the broken fender is available here and was I hoping to get some advice or help. Please note that the complete part is symmetrical. Thank you

This is what I would do:

Start by importing the file and aligning it with the grid. Aligning with the x-y-z axes will make tranformations easier.

Next, go into Edit mode and select the good half of the model by pressing b and clicking/dragging your cursor . Preferably, you should do this after smoothing out the scanning imperfections so that you don't have to clean each side of the model independently.

Use Shift+d to duplicate the selected vertices and p to separate them from the original mesh. The new mesh is no longer closed, and you will need to close off the opened edge of the mesh before performing any boolean operations. Select the outer ring of vertices, and use Shift+F to fill the empty space.

Using a combination of mirror transformations, rotating, and moving, place the closed mesh in the desired position on the other side of the model. You might have to move the new mesh down slightly or decrease its scale by a tiny amount, so that none of the new mesh's faces hide faces along the top of the original mesh.

The new mesh is now overlapping the broken edge of the original mesh and needs to be trimmed to fit.

In Object mode, select the new mesh (blue) first, hold Shift, and then select the original mesh (red). Press w, and click Difference. Blender will subtract the original mesh from the new mesh and introduce a third mesh containing the difference. The third mesh (colored green here) should closely fit the original mesh's broken edges.

I can add a .blend file later today if it will help. Cleaning and accurately scaling the mesh will probably be the most challenging part of this project.


Blender Material Preview Transparent Objects Bug (2.91) Hello!
I am getting this error in Material Preview mode. Does anyone know?

This is an AMD Radeon drivers issue. Roll back to July's update (20.7.2) and you'll be back in business.


Array with more than one empty is it possible? I want to scale an array in the middle and at each extremity and I was thinking about having 3 empty located along the array but the array don't seem to be able to have more than one empty to control the scale like I want.

I already tried using the curve radius but this distort my object.

The reason I want to use array is because the object doesn't get distorted and it is keeping the same distance between them.

Here an image to explain what I need to do :

Array + Curve Radius is the way; you just need to use duplifaces with the scale option instead of arraying the final object directly.

Setup a simple plane object and use the array as desired on it. This plane will only be used as "emitter" for the true geometry you wan to to array.

The array on its own will guarantee constant spacing. Then add a Curve Modifier and adjust the curve radius as you already described.

This will distort the plane, but not any duplis it may have, so now parent your true array geometry to said plane object with the array.

In the Properties Window > Object > Duplication turn on Faces, and tick the Scale option.


My edge loops is not complete When I attempt to create an edge loop, it stops at the corner of the mouth. I want it to continue into the upper lip.

Does anyone know why this is happening?

Actually you only have one face (made of 6 vertices) while it looks like you have two (because you've created an edge from a vertex to another). An edge loops can't go through a ngon so it can't go through that face. So delete the face with X (Delete) > Only Faces, and fill the 2 faces.

What happened? Actually you must have created 2 vertices on the lengths of your face, then, instead of J to join, which would have separated and created 2 faces, you must have pressed F to fill, which has created an edge between the 2 vertices, but didn't create 2 faces, and kept the original face.


Editing shape after parenting armatures After parenting the body with bones I tried to modify the shape and add more loop cuts in edit mode but, when I am trying to move the hand in pose mode I got this shape? so, what is the issue?

Your weight paints are probably off. Click on your model, switch to weight paint mode, go to Object data properties panel, and click on the bone causing the problem under vertex groups. Where the problem is occurring, there should be red dots. Change the brush type to subtract and make the color of the red spots causing the problem blue.
Here is where you click on your bone:

Click on the option that has the name of the bone causing the problem.
If you want me to elaborate, just ask.


Dynamic generated json file read I have an external script that generates a json file with rotations. I want to read this json file with blender, but it seems there is a problem with the json reading functions in blender.

import json
from pprint import pprint

with open('blendjson.json') as data_file: #This line throws this error : "Python script fail, look in the console for now..."
    data = json.load(data_file)

coordx = data['coordx']
coordy = data['coordy']

#This works as long as I can get values for the varibales coordx and coordy :
bpy.ops.transform.rotate(value=coordx, axis=(-1, -0, -0), constraint_axis=(False, False, False), constraint_orientation='GLOBAL', mirror=False, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1)

bpy.ops.transform.rotate(value=coordy, axis=(-0, -1, -0), constraint_axis=(False, False, False), constraint_orientation='GLOBAL', mirror=False, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1)

This script works in itself when launched through the terminal (python blendjson.py), except for the bpy objects of course.
Is there a way to read the json file, or a better way to get these two variables ?

As Rich has pointed out, the file you are trying to open does not reside at the location Blender starts up from.

By running os.getcwd() you can see, that you are working in the folder where you installed Blender to.

To open the file (which I guess is residing in your homefolder), you can use the os.path module:

os.path.expanduser('~')

This will give you your homefolder, which you can then combine with other directories using

os.path.join(direc1, direc2, file)

Another option is to use os.chdir(directory) to move to a new working directory first, before opening the file (e.g. you can use os.chdir(os.path.dirname(__file__)) to move to the folder where your python file sits)

Happy coding, Mr. Anderson!

Hint: When using different operation systems, make sure you always use the os.path module, as it can handle the differences in path separators ('\ for Windows, / for Linux and so on). E.g. os.path.abspath(filepath) to get a proper absolute path for the provided filepath.


How to use array to create circular array without spiralling I am trying to build a Colosseum. I have one arch and want to use an array for the rest. I've added an empty at the center and added the array. Done the object offset, but no matter what I do I keep getting a spiral effect instead of all of the duplicates sitting on the same level.

Create an arch or an object to be repeated.

Create a closed curve (circle) This curve will control the perimeter.

On you object add an Array Modifier with the Fit Curve option and your cicle selected.
Then add a Curve Modifier using the circle again to control it.

Then add another array!

If you add an empty in the middle of the circle and use it as an offset object you can create variations in size and rotation by changing the placement, size and rotation of the empty.


Script to UV split and translate dynamically I want to apply the uv.select_split and after that the transform.traslate, but dynamically.

Manually is really easy, you press Y and then press G.

With python I tried this in the Image-Editor:

bpy.ops.uv.select_split()
bpy.ops.transform.translate()

But I always need specify the values to transform.translate and I don't want that. I want to set it like the G key.

Any ideas on how to do this?

To invoke the operator as if you pressed the G key you can simply do the following:
bpy.ops.transform.translate('INVOKE_DEFAULT')

Note that you have to have your mouse cursor placed in the correct area.

This works according to the documentation of Operators/Execution Context:

When calling an operator you may want to pass the execution context.
This determines the context that is given for the operator to run in, and whether invoke() is called or only execute().
‘EXEC_DEFAULT’ is used by default, running only the execute() method, but you may want the operator to take user interaction with ‘INVOKE_DEFAULT’ which will also call invoke() if existing.

The last sentence is crucial. Operators like translate that run until the user confirmed further inputs (keystrokes and/or mouse movement) are called modal operators. They have to be invoked for them to take user input, else you have to give parameters.
Note: Possibly something interesting for you is that you can override the context of an operator (the area it is run in) to be the UV editor. You have to call the operator as
bpy.ops.transform.translate('INVOKE_DEFAULT', {'area': areaoverride})

where areaoverride is one of bpy.data.screens[idx].areas with any valid index idx.


How do I add (a chrome) texture without a 2D image? "TxDiffuse missing" error I'm importing multiple identical linked objects into a game asset.  I want the objects chrome.  I found this thread on "making a chrome texture in eevee:" How to make a chrome texture in eevee?
Following the thread, I created a new material called "chrome" and used the settings as indicated.  I used the shader tab to create the node layout as pictured in the thread.  The objects appear chrome-like.
I did not UV unwrap the (parent) object as I'm happy with the chrome appearance on the objects.  I wouldn't know where/how to unwrap the object UV islands as I don't have an 2D image, just the chrome appearance generated by "chrome" settings as indicated.
When I import this modified asset into the game dev editor it shows the new material "chrome", but it gives an error message "TxDiffuse is null", i.e. that the material has no assigned texture.
I'm very new to this and clearly don't yet understand materials versus shaders versus textures.
Thank you for your help.

If you're exporting your material outside of Blender, the node setup you used to create the material will no longer work. It's like the node setup is a dynamic material and to export it you need to save a still version of it (i.e. bake it).
There's a really good explanation of how to do that here: How do I bake a texture using Cycles bake
In essence, you choose a look you like and create a texture (a still image) for the object's surface. When you export that object into whatever other program you're using, you apply that texture (image) as its material, and you get the same look you had when you baked the material. The UV map is what is used to assign the right parts of the texture you made to the right parts of the object. Of course, that means the material isn't dynamic anymore, so you can either deal with that or combine the texture with whatever builtin material editor the program you're using has.
For a metallic material that has a lot of reflection going on, a baked texture probably isn't the best choice, so its better to use built-in tools in whatver program you're exporting to.


Solidify modifier isn’t working as intended - it scales outwards instead of applying thickness Trying to create the basic shape of a phone and instead of applying thickness it just moves everything sideways and outwards. Tried to recalculate normals and nothing happened. Any help?

Modifiers act on the ‘base’ mesh and I believe it is acting on the mesh as expected but the problem is that you cannot see the effect of the solidify due to the scale of the mesh in one dimension.
In your example you are seeing the effect of thr modifier in the X and Y dimensions but not in Z -as you have scaled it to a size of zero in that direction to make it flat. This means that the solidify is also squashed flat so you see no effect.
You should select the mesh, press Ctrl+A and choose Apply Scale. This will reset the scaling of the mesh back to 1,1,1 and your Solidify should again behave as expected.


Blender noise during paint in Texture paint mode I have weird problem. During paint in texture paint mode after paint the color is not filled but have any "noise". Like on the image:

In texture painting, brush can have a texture assigned to it as a pattern. When it is, the pattern will be applied to every stroke done with the brush (appearence will depend on settings of the brush mapping etc.):

See more about how to assign a texture to the brush and paint with it.

If you want to continue drawing with solid color, unlink that texture in brush settings by pressing X button next to its name. For more about that refer to Users (Sharing) and Removing data-blocks in manual.


Twisted bones in unity but not in blender We have mocap animations and when adding those animations to characters in unity their lower bodies get twisted like that.
But when I import those animatinos to Blender to inspect they don't have such problem.
Also I remember, we asked another person to look at these animatinos in another 3D software and he said, he saw errors in animatinos right away. I can't even see Them in Blender, and don't know where to look to solve this problem.
Would be so thankful if anyone could give me directions. Thanks a lot.

Try applying your transforms before you export. Select the object then at the top of the viewport click Object button->Apply->All Transforms. Then export it. This solves a lot of Blender to Unity issues and is something you should normally do with exports.
If not that it also might be an armature pose issue between editing modes (Object mode of armature, edit mode, pose mode etc not set properly)


Align edge loops with different scale What would be the quickest way to align multiple edge loops that are scaled differently to one that is scaled correctly?

Let's say I want to shape all the edge loops of the first example like the top one, so that they form a cylinder.

That can be done very quickly with Loop Tools addon that can be found and enabled in the user preferences.

In edit mode select top and bottom loops and in tools panel look for Loop Tools section, select Curve and all the intermediary loops will be aligned automatically.


Cycles Render does not reflect camera view I'm new to Blender, so not sure of the terminology.

I'm having a problem/misunderstanding with Blender 2.73, using the "Cycles Render" engine.

When I render a single frame to a .png file, I am seeing a model with missing detail compared to the Camera view in render mode.  I've looked through and experimented with the setting in the render property sheet, but cannot seem to bring the detail back.  Below are the images:

Rendered Image:

Camera View (rendered):

Original Solid View:

I'd be grateful if anyone can point me in the right direction.  I'm not sure what additional settings I'd need to share.

Thanks
Andrew

The visibility setting is different for viewport an render, check if the visibility is setup correctly for all objects

This also applies for modifiers, so if that din't help check that also.


how can i offset a gradient in a colorramp i have set a gradient with a colorramp on a cube , as you can see in the picture.
what we see is that the gradient is exactly in the middle of the object.
i want to add an offset node. so that the gradient will show up at another point on the object.
 for example the complete white part would now be in the middle.
 or the black part would be in the middle , in stead of having the black part all the way to one side now.
how can i do this the best way ?

You can use the the Mapping Node, add it with Shift-A>Vector>Mapping

You edit the location to move it. You may have to try negative values.


Turn cycles normal map into geometry displacement? How can I convert a Cycles procedural texture displacement (which is just a normal/bump mapping) into geometry displacement?

I am aware that I could use the above image as a texture for the displacement. This is not ideal as it is affected by the lighting.

You can use the displacement modifier to do this, just remember that you have to subdivide the model to get more geometry to displace.

If you want to use a procedural texture you can do it changing the texture in the modifier

Also you can use cycles displacement but this is an experimental feature


unity blender with armature set in blender I am creating a very simple animation in blender of opening the box flaps and following the link here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh2fhnQlJqU

I started to save the blender file under the asset folder in unity. So, I could see the effect of the changes in unity.

Everything was fine, and the box in blender and unity looked the same. However, as soon as I reach the step where we are animating the box and setting default position for frame 1 and close the top lid at minute 15:30 in the video and then I actually save the box to see how it looks and the box becomes sort of disformed.

If i open the flap again to default then it looks correct again, any sort of rotation of the flap disfigures it in unity. The rotation is around x axis. Any pointers or help of what i am doing incorrect in this case.
I tried using a blender add on to fix rotation , however it became worse.

thanks.

Mohnish

2 things to try:

A) Unity and most game engines are sensitive to having a root position to base all other transformations off of.  Unless you tell it otherwise, that root transform will be the bone at the top of the armature hierarchy.  Make sure you have a root bone that all other bones are parented to, and make sure you do not apply animations to that bone.  Without knowing more, I suspect you only have one bone, are animating it, and Unity is not handling that very well.

(EDIT) With the file provided, it turns out A is mostly true, but there is one more aspect you need to address.  If you check the console of Unity, when it imports, it actually gives a descriptive error:
This means that all the verticies, which have not weight associated for them to a bone, will default to the first bone (the lid).  So moving the lid will move the rest of the box too...because they were arbitrarily assigned to the lid.  Just weight paint the rest of the box onto your root bone, and it works just fine.

B) It sometimes helps conceptually to have a one or two frame "idle" animation for things, especially if you are using the Mecanim editor in Unity.  Then you have better control as to when the animation plays and how.


How do I Paint on has an Image that is used as Texture? (I don't have any access to external programs, nor the patience or time to learn them. I want my Blender problems to stay in Blender.)

I have a Picture inside my UV Editor, and I wanted to know a way to apply a material, color, or paint to affect this image, or my mesh.

'This picture wraps around my barrel. I have cracks in the wood itself, and separating the individual planks. I want to apply 'black' to those cracks.'

I wish I could provide visuals, but apparently the 'Blender Forums' doesn't allow 2 images.

To paint on a mesh in Texture Paint Mode you need a UV unwrapped mesh.

Then, there are a couple of options:

Paint on a texture using the UV editor.

Enable Paint Mode and press T to bring up tools for painting

The image below shows where you toggle paint mode on

Choose the tool you want to use, and paint directly on the image.

(Please see this link for more info)

Paint using the 3D viewport.

Enable paint mode, select your tool and paint directly over the mesh.

IMPORTANT: After you've painted on the texture you need to save the image on the UV/Image Editor. Use Save Image on the menu or AltS to overwrite the original image with the changes or use F3 to save as a different file)

If you don't save the image and close blender, all of your painted texures will disappear forever

You might also find this pages from the blender manual useful:

Texture Painting

UV Unwrapping a Mesh


Nontransparent patches rendered transparent in Cycles? Original .blend file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dlipv36yu28rk46/SE.blend?dl=0 (~120MB)

I manually segment out human body parts from an image and make each body part a .png image where the alpha channel is 1 for that body part and 0 anywhere else. So for example, I have a RGBA "leg image" as follows.

Now I use them as textures of planes that are stacked up at different heights in Blender, like this.

Here are the material node settings.

I then render them with Cycles under "full global illumination." Here is what I get.

Sorry for the typo -- should be right arm/leg

As you can see some body parts (e.g., right arm) look transparent, and some even completely disappear. Why does this happen, and how can I fix it?

Your planes are touching, Cycles can't figure out which is in front of what.

You have overlapping planes with or coinciding geometry in your scene.

Organize your blend file, be thorough move them apart in Z direction a consistent amount of units.


How to pass variable (tuple) to operator invoke How can I pass a variable (if possible a tuple) to an operator class I'm calling by it's invoke?

class MyOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Operate"""
    bl_idname = "object.myoperator"
    bl_label = "Operate"

    myvar = None
    filepath = bpy.props.StringProperty(subtype="FILE_PATH")

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        context.window_manager.fileselect_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def execute(self, context):
        print(self.myvar)

...

prop = bpy.ops.object.myoperator('INVOKE_DEFAULT')
prop.myvar = "Hello World"

Or:

bpy.ops.object.myoperator('INVOKE_DEFAULT').myvar = "Hello World"

Error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "\myoperator.py", line 151, in execute
AttributeError: 'set' object has no attribute 'myvar'

location: <unknown location>:-1

I've tried everything I could think of for hours now, but it seems I'm incapable of doing that.

I changed your code snippet a bit and made some comment. I hope that solves your problem.

import bpy

class MyOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Operate"""
    bl_idname = "object.myoperator"
    bl_label = "Operate"

    # make the variable a property of the operator
    myvar = bpy.props.StringProperty()
    filepath = bpy.props.StringProperty(subtype="FILE_PATH")

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        context.window_manager.fileselect_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def execute(self, context):
        print(self.myvar)

        # I added this here because otherwise it will through an exception at the end
        return {"FINISHED"}

# this is how you invoke the operator, but you have to register it before
bpy.ops.object.myoperator("INVOKE_DEFAULT", myvar = "Hello World")

Unfortunally you can't do the same thing with tuples (except you have numbers)...
Here is some more information on how to define properties: https://www.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_2_76_2/bpy.props.html

About tuples as parameters:

When the tuple only consists of numbers or booleans, the tuple always has the same length <= 32, you can use either a BoolVectorProperty, IntVectorProperty or FloatVectorProperty.

A more generic solution would be to use the CollectionProperty.
Therefor you first have to make a property group that contains the structure of the individual elements in the collection.
In your case you only have a tuple with multiple numbers, so the PropertyGroup would look like so:

import bpy
from bpy.props import *

class SingleNumberProperty(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    value = FloatProperty()

In your operator you can define the collection property that uses this type.

class MyOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "my_operator.my_operator"
    bl_label = "My Operator"

    numbers_collection= CollectionProperty(type = SingleNumberProperty)

In the execute function you can unpack this collection in the following way:

def execute(self, context):
    my_numbers = []
    for item in self.numbers_collection:
        my_numbers.append(item.value)
    return {"FINISHED"}

The part that was the most difficult to find out is how to pass the tuple as collection. Basicly you have to create a list of dictionaries. Each of these dictionaries need to have a "name" key. In addition to that they can contain the data you want to set on the properties ("value" in this case).

The list of dicts can look like so:

[ {"name" : "", "value" : 12},
  {"name" : "", "value" : 15},
  {"name" : "", "value" : 20} ]

So lets say you have a list of numbers and want to transform it to this data structure:

numbers = [12, 15, 20]

# long way
packed_numbers = []
for number in numbers:
    packed_numbers.append({"name" : "", "value" : number})

# more pythonic way
packed_numbers = [{"name" : "", "value" : number} for number in numbers]

The final step is to call the operator and pass these packed numbers as parameter to the collection property:

bpy.ops.my_operator.my_operator(numbers_collection = packed_numbers)


Flat surface not being shaded consistently across quads I've been working on a mesh and realised that part of it is not being shaded consistently across the borders of each quad. I've isolated the section into its own blend file and cannot figure out what's causing the issue.

The section in question is a flat plane with some loop cuts. It's set to flat shading and the face normals are all consistent and pointing in the same direction. There is no modifiers applied.

Does anyone know the cause of this and how to correct it?

Blend file can be downloaded here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DW8WcC2wAT3FR1h9uUGkHZmDef-mzgR3/view?usp=sharing

While deactivating the "Auto Smooth" helps at the moment, i believe that something else happened and messed the normals up.

In my humble opinion i think that the surface should be fine even if the Normals are set to "Auto Smooth", in that regard i checked and found that if you press Alt+N and use the "Set From Faces" option, the surface normals are corrected.

Here the visual confirmation:


Replicate Animation with AN 2.1 How should we replicate this animation within Animation Nodes 2.1?

By: https://twitter.com/InfinityLoopGIF/status/1085886521205538817

We start by creating a helix using the following equation:

$$
\begin{aligned}
x &= \cos{ft}\\
y &= \sin{ft}\\
z &= t
\end{aligned}
$$

Where $t\in[-1, 1]$ and $f$ is a factor of frequency. This is implemented in Animation Nodes as follows:

We then vary the radius of the helix such that it lies on a unit sphere. To do so, we note that since $t\in[-1,1]$ represents the z location of the points, then $\sqrt{1-t^2}$ represents the $x$ location of the point if the point lie on a unit circle, or in our case, a cross-section of a unit sphere. This is due to the fact that:

$$
\cos^2{t} + \sin^2{t} = 1
$$

Hence our equation become:

$$
\begin{aligned}
x &= \sqrt{1-t^2}\cos{ft}\\
y &= \sqrt{1-t^2}\sin{ft}\\
z &= t
\end{aligned}
$$

which can be implemented as follows:

This gives us only half of the spiral, to get the full spiral, we flip the spiral and combine it with the original as follows:

We then use those vectors to construct a spline:

We then replicate the output spline by rotating it along the z axis with angles of:

$$
\frac{i\pi}{n} \ \forall \ i \in \{0\dots n-1\}
$$

Where $n$ is the number of splines. This is implemented as follows:

Which gives this result:


blender game engine objects ramdom duplicate I have a large landscape which has mountains . How can I spread my trees ramdomly into the landscape in a quick way instead of placing them one by one?  . Just to be specific , my land scape is made of cubes and looks similiar to minecraft.

You'll likely want to use a particle system. Add a particle system to your mountain mesh, set it to hair, and set it to render your particles as your tree mesh. See the example below.


How can I make boundaries for a numerical value in the node editor? I am trying to make a node setup where:

If the input is 0 or anything less it outputs 0
If the input is 5 or anything greater it outputs 5
If the input is between 0 and 5 it outputs the input

I can't figure out how to do this because 'greater than or equal to' and 'less than or equal to' are not options for the math node and the minimum and maximum nodes are only boolean and don't allow me to output the original number (if it is allowed).

Maybe there is a better/more efficient way to do that, but the Clamp parameter should do the job :


Imported genesis 8 female's vertex groups are not following bone they should be parented to (I'm a noob) I recently brought my Genesis 8 Female to blender using the Daz to Blender bridge. I was happy with the results until I tried to pose the figure. It seems the vertex maps for the "upper jaw" and center forehead are not parented correctly so when I rotate the head, they do not follow (I believe this is the root of the issue). I feel like I've looked at dozens of solutions online but I haven't been able to find something that works. I have no idea how to simply tell those vertex groups to follow the head's movement. Please help if you can.

The weight painting is probably off. To fix the teeth find the vertex group with the weight painting for the head first. The bones of the armature have vertex groups with the same name. I don't know if the teeth in your model is a separate object. In my model, it is.
Select the head object, go to Weight Paint mode and search the list of Object Data Properties > Vertex Groups for the head bone. If the head turns red, you probably found the right one. Remember the name of the vertex group. In my example, it's "spine.006".
Disclaimer: I used Rigify's metarig for a quick pose and the weight painting is very rough and done lazy. But it does the trick for the non-animated pose.

Go to Object Mode and select the teeth object (ignore this step if the teeth are in the head object.) Switch to Edit Mode, select all vertices of the upper teeth and the palate (key L may help). Assign the selected faces to the "spine.006" vertex group. Create a new one if needed. The upper teeth should be in place now.
Repeat the steps for the lower teeth if needed and assign them to the jaw vertex group ("spine.005" in the screenshot). So you can open the mouth properly.

For the glitch at the forehead, you need to check the weight painting in the vertex groups to see what's wrong there. There is probably one vertex assigned to another bone/vertex group or not completely assigned to the head vertex group.


Blender Puple Mesh issue with texturing Im still new to blender but I found this problem... Im using the latest version and I found out,
I had a small project with a TON of textures and was looking really good, but I came back online
the following day and I found that all my textures have turned purple??? I have no idea what happened
 but all the original textures have disappeared. If anyone could help that would be awesome.

Thanks

Yes this is a really common issue and im surprised that it hasn't been answered before... its imply just saying that your mesh has no material data, so say you have allocated it to a image texture node, you have no image set to it (no image data for the mesh). so make sure you have at least one material properties to it.

Thanks.


Splash Screen 2.79 test render does not work I downloaded the Blender 2.79 splash screen demo file:
https://cloud.blender.org/p/gallery/59819ee681191741ad07d283
I change nothing and hit directly the render button. But all I get is a blurry image without the agent.
Any suggestions what I'm doing wrong?

Greetings

You need to select frame 11 for rendering. Otherwise the initial frame is rendered which is a blurry screen with a small pose of the agent in the background.


Show panel, only when a collection is loaded How to show a panel, only when a particular collection exist (or appended)?

Here a bit more explanation of what I am aiming for in case the question is not clear:

In the screenshot above you see there is a panel called 3point light Ctrl. What I want is that the panel "3Point Light Ctrl" only shows up after the user clicked on "Add 3 Point Light" in the "Add to scene" panel.

Often I see a poll function in other addons like:

@classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return context.active_object is not None

And so I thought I could do it as follows:

@classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return return bpy.data.collections[“ThreePointLight”]

But that doesn't work, and I realize it is expecting context, not bpy.data.  Any idea how I can do this?  (It's for Blender 2.80).

You are going to want to use python's membership operator: in

@classmethod
def poll(cls, context):
    return "ThreePointLight" in bpy.data.collections

Using bpy.data.collections[*name string*] would result in an KeyError in the event the name does not exist.


Faces distorted when rendered and 3D View in Rendermode does not work in Default Layout I got two questions. First:

When rendered, these Faces/Vertices are messed up. I thought the normals were wrong, but it seems they aren't. The materials have no Texture and no alpha activated.

My second question is:
In the Default Layout (only there), my 3D View in Rendermode doesn't render, but shows the solid variant.

I couldnt solve my second Problem, but this is only a minor one.

The answer to the First.

I had an Hemispheric Light in Blender Render. When i turned this off there was no problem anymore. I am Using this figure for Unity, an there was no Problem at all.


Tool already edits when using shortcut keys I'm sure this must have been thought out, but I find this behaviour really off-putting...so, let's use bevel as an example. In the supplied gif, I am first activating the bevel tool using the ctrl+B shortcut, but this immediately makes the tool active. It doesn't wait for me to press the mouse down.
Yet, when I activate the same tool via the menu, as you can see in the gif, it waits for me to click.

Why is there this different behaviour between two ways of activating the same tool? If I want to use the shortcut key, I have to put up with a tool working in a way that I do not want?

For the shortcuts, that is always how blender worked. Since clicking on the tools on the left is just switching the mode, or what will happen when you click/drag (look at the select tool, then switch to the 3D cursor tool), you have to activate it to work. Hope this helps :)


Is it possible to move an object closer or farther away while keeping the same perspective? If I grab an object and move it left or right, or up-and-down, it moves in a path perpendicular to my current view. Is it possible to move an object parallel to my current view?

In other words, I want the object to move closer or farther away while maintaining the same relative position in my view.

Is this capability built into to blender?

If I got what you ask yes, it's possible, switch to view transform orientation then grab the object and press ZZ (constrain the grab on view Z axis):


Is there a specific way to unwrap a character model? Like let's say you either unwrap the whole character itself or separate the head and the rest of the body so you have two different texture to work on for better details? Or is it more of a self preference?

And another question is how do you unwrap the head and the rest of the body separately (the character is one mesh) without the uv layout overlaying with each other on the uv layout?

There are several ways to UV unwrap and they are all for technical reasons.

As you mentioned, the head might be separate so that it gets a different (larger) image than the rest of the body.

Another way is to have the head on the same texture file, but occupying a larger space.

You can also UV half the mesh with the other half mirrored and "folded under". This will look like you textured half the body, but it covers both sides. This is mainly to conserve resources, as with background characters or with realtime (videogame) characters.

You need to create seams to unwrap. To separate the head, you usually create a seam that goes all the way around the neck. Where the seams go, however, depends a lot on what the geometry looks like.

Once you unwrap, assign the textures. Mind that the texture you see is just for the preview, it wont show up on the render until you assign materials.


Align object to edge | "Fence-generator" I want to build a 'Fence-Generator'. For that i did simple path from points connected with edges.
What i did so far:
Aligned fence-poles to verticies and fences-walls to edge centers. but now i want the rotation of fences-walls to match the rotation of the edges.
I tried to calculate the angle but i didn't got it to work.
Any help on how i can calculate the right rotation for the wall would really be appreciated!
Loop Setup for Pole and Wall Generation:

Object and loop initialization:

Current State. I want the walls rotation to follow the edges.

Presuming the base wall object is aligned along X and long 1 unit.
You can have the angle using the angle from the edge to X axis.
So if you have the vector <e1, e2> of the edge, the angle is given by atan2 (arctangent B/A in Nodes) from x, y componants of <e1, e2>.
Note: in the nodes below, have used iterations on object and edges instead of by index access.


Is there an unsubdivide function in Blender? I am wondering if there is a modifier or tool that will essentially undo a subsurf or subdivide command.

You can use the 'Decimate' modifier set to 'Un-Subdivide' mode:

Increasing the number of 'Iterations' will increase the number of times the modifier un-subdivides the object.

This works particularly well with quad based geometry. Below, the monkey on the left (that had a Subsurf modifier applied) has 8,000 vertices, while the un-subdivided monkey on the right (with 2 iterations) has 2000 vertices, with all details preserved well.


Can't Publish BGE to EXE I'm going to try and use the BGE to do a simple arch-viz. But before I commit to that I need to make sure I've got the ability to publish an EXE for the presenter who will be showing it to the client.

I created a simple BGE scene that simply spins the camera around a cube when the user hits a key. It works just fine in Blender.

I then published it to EXE using the Save As Game Engine Runtime (v0.3.1) per the Blender Wiki instructions. The EXE is created, the dlls are all copied over. But running the EXE gets me a brief console pop up and then immediate crash.

I've tried with both official 2.75 and the 2.76 test build with the same results.

I'm on Windows 7 Professional.

Blend file is here: Dropbox

Thanks for any and all assistance.

Go to where you installed blender, and copy all the files except blender, blenderplayer, and uninstall to the folder where you .exe is. This should fix your issue.


How to copy multiple values between objects Lets say I have 2 objects and I want to copy the x, y, z coordinates, and scale along the y and z from one object to another. The way I would usually do this would be to copy each of the attributes separately while selecting first one object and then the other. I was wondering if there was an easier way to do this, using only one step. If not in one step, is there a way to do it in multiple, without having to repetitively select the objects and copy values by hand? I assume I could use a python script, but writing one every single time I wanted to do this operation seems doesn't seem very efficient.

I am using blender 2.8, but I can probably use an answer for 2.79. Thanks in advance for any answers.

Make sure the Copy Attributes Menu addon is enabled (by default embedded with Blender but not enabled). Then select first the object(s) that should receive the properties, then the target object holding the Shift key > Ctrl-C > Copy Location/Rotation...


matrix_basis isn't affected correctly I'd like to set the matrix_basis of an object. Unfortunately, the matrix isn't get updated correctly.
This is my test scene, consisting of an plane and a cylinder object:

My objective is to get alpha, the plane's x angle, and apply it in some way to cylinder.
Here is the code:
import bpy
from math import *
from mathutils import *

plane = bpy.data.objects['plane']
cylinder = bpy.data.objects['cylinder']

alpha = plane.rotation_euler[0] # x rotation
print('alpha=%.2f' % degrees(alpha))

'''
# normal rotation matrix around x axis
# works fine
m = Matrix(( \
    [1, 0, 0, 0], \
    [0, cos(alpha), -sin(alpha), 0], \
    [0, sin(alpha), cos(alpha), 0], \
    [0, 0, 0, 1] \
    ))
'''

m = Matrix(( \
    [1, 0, 0, 0], \
    [0, cos(alpha), 0, 0], \
    [0, sin(alpha), 1, 0], \
    [0, 0, 0, 1] \
    ))

cylinder.matrix_basis = m
bpy.context.scene.update() # is this call needed?

# prints different matrix than m
print(cylinder.matrix_basis)

# for debugging
print(cylinder.matrix_world)

This is the console output of it:
alpha=-17.10
<Matrix 4x4 (1.0000,  0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000)
            (0.0000,  0.9890, 0.1478, 0.0000)
            (0.0000, -0.1478, 0.9890, 0.0000)
            (0.0000,  0.0000, 0.0000, 1.0000)>
<Matrix 4x4 (1.0000,  0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000)
            (0.0000,  0.9890, 0.1478, 0.0000)
            (0.0000, -0.1478, 0.9890, 0.0000)
            (0.0000,  0.0000, 0.0000, 1.0000)>

The first printed matrix is the matrix_basis. As you can see, it differs from m. For example, the element of the second row, third column have to be 0 but is 0.1478.
I haven't apply any constraints to cylinder. So whats wrong by setting the basis_matrix in this way?
Edit:
In addtion to @mont29 's answer, I've found the following document:
issues in orientation-matrix in Blender <2.50

Current implementation of orientation-matrix system in Blender is not reliable: there are limitations / some nasty problems with mirrored/non-uniform-scaled geometry in Blender
Perhaps, it is not a bug, but a system design side-effect: insufficient/incomplete representation method of object orientation data with "all-in-one loc/rot/scale-matrix".

Yes, m isn't orthogonal (m.is_orthogonal == False), so Blender can't handle it.

matrix_basis only supports valid transform matrices - not a specialist, but by the look of it your m looks more like a shearing one?

Note that internally, there is no matrix_basis at all, Blender only stores translation/rotation/scaling separately, and converts them to/from RNA's matrix_basis. So if a matrix cannot be represented by a translation, rotation and scaling, then you cannot expect it to work.


Vertex color values over one Is it possible to paint vertex colors that are higher than one?

Vertex colors are exposed through the python API as floating point numbers. If this is how they're stored, they should happily accept any value without clamping to [0-1], even negative values.

Potential uses include per-vertex light emission or material hardness.

Yes vertex colours are exposed as three floating point values, but in the background they are stored as three integers that are clamped to values between 0 and 255. You can see the actual code doing that here.

This would be a decision made to conserve space, a floating point value uses 4 bytes of RAM while the integer used fits in 1 byte, that saves 9 bytes for each vertex. This leads to being limited to the 16.7 million colours that can be stored in a 24bit RGB image when using vertex painting.

Blender supports image formats that store float values, so you could look at using an image texture to get more variation in your materials.


Where is the Z in my Render Layer node in composite? There is supposed to be a Z in the render layer node

But it is not appearing for me. Please tell me where I can find it?

In 2.79 Z renamed to Depth

So, here it is:


Why are there dotted lines in wireframe in 2.8? I am testing 2.8 and I stumbled over the wireframe.
As you can see the I put a cylinder in between two objects.
The lines being hidden by the other objects are more dotted than solid lines

In the top-View it is even worse

With overlay disabled it isn't better though

Am I doing something wrong or is it a bug or is this feature still not fully implemented?

Perhaps this is will help :

Object mode > Overlays > change the Wireframe value from the default 0.5 to 1.0.

and toggle the Show whole scene transparent button:


why is my mesh fully lit from all angles with no lights in the scene? I am playing around with materials in blender cycles, and for some reason my mesh is brightly lit with no lamps in the scene. ambient occlusion is off and I tried restarting blender. what is going on here?

The World Background itself (grey) is also a source of lighting. To remove its influence, change the Color to black in the box on the right, or set the Strength to 0

This can also happen if you forget to connect your material to a shader before connecting to the material output:

This example just uses a Diffuse BSDF - note that despite the object no longer "glowing", it is still lit, even though there is no light in the scene - that is from the World Background as mentioned at the top:


How to get edges and normal map from 3D model? I want to extract edges and normal maps from the 3d model using freestyle.
However, my rendered normal map looks like this

But it should look like this.

there are two problems, there's no blue channel in the rendered normal map. And there is a shaded area which is black even lamp exists there.

I think I should render matcap in shading properties, but I have no idea how to render like matcap.

Ref: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/blender_render/textures/properties/influence/bump_normal.html#bump-normal-maps

Normal maps in Blender store a normal as follows:

Red maps from (0 - 255) to X (-1.0 - 1.0)
Green maps from (0 - 255) to Y (-1.0 - 1.0)
Blue maps from (0 - 255) to Z (0.0 - 1.0)

Since normals all point towards a viewer, negative Z values are not stored (they would be invisible anyway). In Blender we store a full blue range, although some other implementations also map blue colors (128 - 255) to (0.0 - 1.0). The latter convention is used in “Doom 3” for example.

If you want to achieve the default Blender normal map definition (z start from 0.0 instead of -1.0). You need to defined what will happen if -1 < z < 0
Below is two examples for how to calculate it by node editor:

Is the first one you are asking for?


How To Get A Quaternion Camera Rotation That Is Independent Of View Orientation Here is the problem,
If I roll the view 90 degrees using Shift + 4 or Shift + 6. All of the view controls stop working correctly.
Rotating with the mouse left and right causes camera rotation up and down and vice versa.
Its impossible to use.
All other 3D modeling programs resolved this issue using quaternions for camera controls, so that camera controls work the same way independently of the where the camera is and what angle it is rotated to.
Is it possible to get this kind of control with Blender? Or is it not going to work with the view rotated 90 degrees perpendicular to the screen.

I've never experienced myself the specific problem that you are talking about, so I don't actually know if this fixes it, but you are able to change the rotation mode for the camera from XYZ to Quaternion.

The image below shows the setting being changed in the properties panel.

I hope this helps! (but it might not, idk)


How to speed up blender animation playback. It is slow I've been trying to make this animation, and every where I've looked people don't have as low of fps.

I have a 16GB RAM computer with a new graphics card.
(I'm able to play Mine craft and blow up a TNT town with Little lag)
( And I'm able to play counter strike at a constant 90 fps )

Example:

Actually your GPU will have a little impact on your view-port fps when playing animation. If you are able to rotate/navigate without lag, your GPU can handle the geometry fine (almost any modern GPU will handle millions of polys). Then if you get slow fps in playback the bottleneck is somewhere else.

If you get lag in just navigating view port check the OpenGL settings in User Preferences under System tab. Enable VBO.

Between each frame, the scene has to be updated with all the objects inside - this happens on CPU. Behind the scene this is managed by Dependency graph - a structure that keeps track what is dependent on what (parenting, constraints, ..). The current dependency graph is obsolete and is single threaded in many places = does not use all the CPU power, has poor optimization = is re-evaluated in cases where it is not needed, etc.

You can try the new DepsGraph with a command line argument (see the link above).

Things to do to help your animation fps (if anyone has other tricks or I forgot some feel free to expand the list):

If there are simulations/particles always bake or at least cache them so they don't need to be recalculated between frames.
If there are deformations on subdivided geometry use Simplify in Scene properties to limit the subdivisions - less vertices have to be updated. Or try the OpenSubdiv option to calculate it on GPU (but this still has limitations)
Close any other view-port windows - have just one. Set it to Only Render in the Display settings in Properties panel (N). If you have animated textures close also Image/UV windows.
If your deformed geometry doesn't change vertex order/count you can export it as .mdd file format and import back in Blender or bake it into Shape Keys.
There is not much else you can do, if nothing works the scene is just too complex and your only option is to preview the animation with OpenGL preview render (button in view-port header)


How to smooth extremely dense mesh? I have an imported model (which actually is a surface projection of an microscope Z-stack image, exported as STL) which is extremely grainy, composed of almost 1M verts. Is there any way to reduce number of verts/faces and smooth it to recover the general cell shape? I tried smooth and remesh modifiers, but it didn't help a lot :(
Thanks for any ideas!
Art.

Try scaling it on the Z axis to 0 in edit mode to get rid of all the bumps if thats what you are asking.


Multiple material copies merger I'm looking for a way to merge same materials. I have archviz projects and I'm importing stuff from 3ds max. Problem is that materials are mess.
After Import hundreds of objects to blender I got thousands of materials, but problem is that they are copy of themselves and it looks like that:
ANYNAME.001
ANYNAME.002
ANYNAME.003
....
ANYNAME.099
And I want to make sth like - Check object name if its the same but only difference in name is this .001 .002 etc change every copy of material for every object with material that is .001
This is problem 1, problem 2 is:
I have material called Metal_black, and I have this ANYNAME.001 - is there a way to change material to every object that have ANYNAME.001 to Metal_black (I mean without copying material nodes into ANYNAME.001 but changing every ANYNAME.001 to Metal_black).
Is there plugin or is here a good soul who could help me with that, .py script would really help.

Question 1
Just pick one of your materials, rename it accordingly.
Then pick all objects who should have the same material where the last one in selection is the object with your renamed material. Hit Ctrl - L and pick "materials"
This replaces all materials with the last one.
Question 2
Every object can have multiple material slots (1) with names and these slots can pickup the actual material (3).
In Blender it is possible to rename the slot and/or replace the content (material) of the slot.
To do so just go to the material properties panel and select the material you wish to assign (4).
Notice that if you look at the info row (2) you can see how often a material is used  and also make sure does not get deleted, if it is nowhere assigned.


best practice for add-on generation with many functions single file or split it up? This is quite a theoretical question.

A simple function can remain inside an add-on text file. But what if you have many functions and your text file gets very long. Would it be better to split each function into logical segments lets say one file for modifiers, one file for mesh editing and such and then have one add-on file that calls / loads the code from those text files?

Or, is it better to keep everything in one file?

Are there facts I should be aware of to help me make a choice?

In my opinion you should always use multiple files for non-trivial addons (e.g. more than one operator).
I agree that it can be complicated in at first and I have to admit that it took me quite some time until I was able to create multi-file addons in a nice way.
BUT, a few months ago I developed an addon template for my Code Autocomplete addon that allows you to create multi-file addons very easily. Without having to care about reloading etc.
Since then I always use this template. Even as large addons as Animation Nodes and Code Autocomplete use it (and some others as well, e.g. this one).
Here is how I setup a new addon:

Create a new folder in Blenders addons directory. It's not super important but I suggest to use a name that can be a python identifier and all lower case.

Inside of this folder I create a _ init _.py file with this content.

Create a developer_utils.py file with this content.

Setup a git repository in that folder.

That's it. You can simply create more .py files in the folder now and all of them will be loaded and reloaded automatically. If you define operators, panels, ... inside of one of these files they will be registered as well (by the bpy.utils.register_module(_ name _) statement in the main file).
Ah and don't forget to create a _ init _.py file in each subdirectory. I generally keep them empty.
The Code Autocomplete addon can do the first 3 steps for you.
http://code-autocomplete-manual.readthedocs.org/en/latest/addon_development.html
So why should you use multiple files:

Much better support by version control systems like GIT.
The dependencies in your code are much clearer, because you have to import functions you want to use in a file. That makes refactoring much easier.
Easier to extend without cluttering existing code.
Better separation between parts of you addon like operators and ui.
Makes it possible to write reusable modules.
Easier to manage in modern code editors, because most of them use a folder as project (I personally use Atom atm and like it very much!).

In summary: I only see benefits in using multi-file addons and using the template I developed most of the difficulties are gone.


Animation render creating black image files I have just completed my first large project and have a camera fly through the scene. I started rendering the animation to .png files as there were quite a few but after several hours I had to pause it to do something else. When I try to start again from the next image file and render the animation, all I get is a series of place holder files with nothing on them. Any idea what I am doing wrong?

Thanks but I realised what I had done. I had created a video file with what I had and then forgot to delete it from video editor. Once I did that it works fine.


Modifier application order What order are these modifiers applied in?
I would think the Armature would be applied first, followed by Lattice. Or is it the other way around?

Blender modifiers are always calculated from top to bottom, where on top is the raw unmodified base mesh, and modifiers are calculated from the first in the list down to the last one at the bottom, as stated in the Blender Manual


Calling delete() operator after revert_mainfile() I have a script that tries to derive several blend files from the same source file. However after a while I realised that the delete() operator apparently doesn't work after reverting the file. I could nail it down to this, that can be run with the default startup scene.

import bpy

# if this line is removed, delete() behaves as expected.
bpy.ops.wm.revert_mainfile()

bpy.context.scene.objects['Cube'].select=True
bpy.ops.object.delete()

Expected result: Cube should be deleted.

Actual result: Cube is selected, but not deleted

Feature? Bug? Something I don't understand about how scripts operate when loading/reverting files?

This can be tested by copying the script in a text window and hitting 'Run Script'

EDIT: It's been suggested that I should refresh the UI to see the result. This is irrelevant to the problem. (As I did) you can confirm that nothing was deleted programmatically.

It is basically a timing issue: your code below revert_mainfile() is called before the scene is ready, it's simply too early.

A load_post handler alone doesn't help either, the argument passed to this callback is None.

If you register a persistent load_post handler, which sets up a scene_update_pre handler, the execution will be delayed until the scene is ready:

import bpy
from bpy.app.handlers import persistent

def scene_update_callback(scene):

    # self-removal, only run once
    bpy.app.handlers.scene_update_pre.remove(scene_update_callback)

    ob = scene.objects.get("Cube")

    if ob is not None:
        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
        bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')
        ob.select = True
        bpy.ops.object.delete()

@persistent
def load_post_callback(dummy):

    # self-removal, so it isn't called again
    bpy.app.handlers.load_post.remove(load_post_callback)

    # use a scene update handler to delay execution of code
    bpy.app.handlers.scene_update_pre.append(scene_update_callback)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    bpy.app.handlers.load_post.append(load_post_callback)
    bpy.ops.wm.revert_mainfile()


Why does Blender gets frozen once I rotate an object and then crash? Yesterday I installed Blender on my PC with these characteristics:

My problem is that Blender crashes when I open it. First it gets frozen when I try to rotate any object and then it crashes. I don't know what to do.

I suggest deleting all evidence of Blender from your computer and trying to reinstall. it may be a fact of repeated downloads or simply that your computer's software is not designed on the same framework as Blender. it may also be an idea to clean out your computer as it may be a stray program interfering with the startup. check in detail the running requirements of Blender before installing and make sure that instillation.
It may very well be that your software cannot handle blender, or that you somehow managed to download a damaged version of the files


Textured Sky in Orthographic Mode I was hoping that there might be a way to make a textured sky while in the camera's orthographic mode? I am making a pre-rendered 2.5D platforming game, and it would save me a lot of trouble if I could find a way to do this. It's easy to use Dynamic Skies in perspective mode, but as you know, as soon as I go to orthographic mode I just get solid colors...

I suppose I could just use a plane and texture it with a sky, but in the long run, that will be kind of a hassle to do every time for every flick screen that I am making.

Here's an example of a render from Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, which is the closest that I am going for:

How can I achieve a sky like this one in orthographic mode?

Thank you!

Would you be able to set "Transparent" on and then add the background in via the compositor? (See set up below).


Transforming a cube to a sphere using transform to sphere isn't creating a sphere it creates a spike shaped mesh Took a screenshot of blender pressed f6 to show the options that were by default for the to sphere transform. It creates a spiked shape mesh not sure why any help would be appreciated thanks.

There may be a scaling issue here. If you take a cube and:

In edit mode, subdivide it
In object mode, scale it along one axis
Back in edit mode scale it back down the axis so it looks like a cube again
And then use ShiftAltS .. 'To Sphere'

...you wind up with a similar result to yours.

In short, in object mode, CtrlA apply any scale that might be locked into the object's transform matrix.

If ever you make a non-uniform scale of something in Object Mode.. make a mental note of it, and/or keep an eye on the Transform panel in the Properties Region of the 3D view (in Object Mode). You may need to go back and bake the transform into the mesh by applying it.


Have second window with different perspective open only when a second monitor is connected? I have Blender on my laptop,  into which I sometimes plug an external monitor, and set up some different regions to make my workflow smoother/easier.

When I save and close my project, the multiple windows are saved as expected.  However the next time I open Blender, I might not have my second monitor connected, and both windows will be forced onto one display.  Is there a way to detect if my second monitor is connected when I open a project, and automatically get rid of the extra window when it is not?

Couldn't you create 2 different screen layouts? one for single monitor and another for duo monitor?

That way you'll have them both saved and you can switch between the 2 and then all you'd have to do is stretch blender to fit duo monitors.


Reverse Curve Guide Direction When I create a curve and add 'Curve Guide' Force field, at one end there is a dotted circle and the other end a solid circle. As far as I have understood, the solid circle is for particle start and the dotted one is the end points. But I whenever I create the curve guide force field it automatically sets a start and end point. is there a way to reverse it ? Like interchange the solid and dotted circles keeping the curve as it is ?

You need to reverse the curve's normals direction: select it, go in Edit mode, then right click > Switch Direction.
To display the normals, go into the Viewport Overlays and enable Normals:


Normals Disable Smooth Shading? I'm having an issue that whenever I input a normal map into a shader normal node in blender 2.9 it disables smoothing for that object and the polygon face edges become visible in the render.

Any idea why?

Here's a question: which is more high-res, your object, or the normal map? If the object is more high-res, than the normal map is going to hide that with it's low-res faces.


Are samples correlated to the output resolution? If I increase my resolution camera output have I to increase the render samples value too?
Are these two setting correlated?

Short answer: No.

Light is sampled per pixel. So if you render with i.e. 200 Samples, Blender takes 200 Samples of each pixel. It doesn't matter if there are 5 oder 219928 pixels.


Why is Blender moving objects with locked locations on the Y axis after exporting to FBX? I am exporting a model with two separate mesh objects, plus its armature to which it is rigged using Rigify. In addition, I have separate animation "clips" saved as Actions for the purpose of bringing them into Unity.

Unity import issues aside, I am having a strange problem where the rig is being translated to (0,-0.23194,0) upon completing the export. Furthermore, the rig's location is locked on all axes in the property bar.

I am guessing there is some animation data somewhere causing this, but after going through each action I couldn't find any unusual translations for the rig's root.

Is there something else I may be missing here?

For reference, I have attached an image of my FBX export settings.

Thanks in advance,
Matt

Well, when I imported the FBX into Unity, it was the object called "rig" (the armature object generated by Rigify) that was being moved around. Checking that object for strange translations in each Action, I found nothing.

But I did notice a stray "LocRot" channel that didn't seem to be attached to any particular object. At least not by name. This was what was moving the rig around.
So removing this channel fixed my problem.


How can I remove the part of the object that is inside the (hollow)cylinder? How can I remove the part of the object on the right that is inside the cylinder?

I also want to remove the part that sticks out:

How can I do that?

EDIT:
New screenshots to show the objects:

I'm not sure you've made a good topology but anyway if I've correctly understood what you want and if I wanted to do it quickly I would use the Knife tool


Bullet doesn't fire towards expected direction I'm making an FPS game with blender and I can't get my bullet to fire in the right direction. Here's a link to the blend file https://mega.co.nz/#!AB1hSDob!sb_eL0uVHdRKFUwrG_74FjulLrU2gzRhIvrmXSOHYek

Any help would be awesome. This is all a learning experience for me.

You can easily fix this problem by checking one button.

very simply, your bullet is always firing along one axis. When the "Local" box is clicked (the little square L) your bullet will fire along the local axis of the object that is emitting it.


How can I make this model? I added a torus and I was trying to extrude the faces but I couldn't get the exact shape!
Should I continue with torus or circle will be much better?
How can I make the part (circled in red) shown in the image?

P.S.  I have to use python scripting to make this model

Add a Torus go to edit mode. Select a loop and confirm that you're in face selection as shown in the GIF.

import bpy
bpy.ops.mesh.select_nth(nth=3, offset=0)
bpy.ops.transform.translate(value=(0, 0, 0.5), constraint_axis=(False, False, True), constraint_orientation='GLOBAL', mirror=False, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1, release_confirm=True)


Where is the toggle for 'Limit Selection To Visible'? In Edit mode, in the Solid mode, I cannot seem to find the toggle for 'limit selection to visible'. Sometimes I just want to grab all the vertices I know are in an area quickly, to then scale then in the X, Y or Z quickly. Can I turn 'limit selection to visible' off? Do I need to go into XRAY mode to do this every time?

That is what Toggle X-ray does. Control if you can select through objects or not. It shows vertices that otherwise would not be visible, and allows you to select them.


Wrong zorder in viewport but ok in cycles render I have stumbled upon a problem while using Images as planes addon. When loop cutting and bending the plane, the object is wrongly sorted in viewport, while correctly rendered in cycles. The material is simple texture to emissive. The image is PNG, but does it matter with emissive material? Normals seem to be correct (cyan lines on the image). The problem is not present when using "Solid" viewport shading.

Thank you for all suggestions.

@scurest was right! All that was needed was to set blend mode in material properties:
Material properties -> Viewport display -> Settings -> Blend mode = opaque


How fracture an object into spinters like it's made of wood? I have a simple table leg I would like to fracture. The result should look like wood, i.e tall sharp splinters. How can I achieve this (with or without the cell fracture addon)

The cell fracture addon allows tweaking of the "aspect ratio" of the shards via three scale values:

Note that these seem to adjust the scale of the shards in a similar fashion to the way the mapping node works (adjusting the scale of the texture by adjusting the scale of the coordinates). These means that it works backwards from how you might think, smaller values make the shards larger in those directions (0 is infinity). So setting the Z value to 0 will make the shards infinitely tall (bounded by the original object of course).

Setting the Z value to a very low number works okay for getting a splintery fracture:


Is it possible to make nanometers or angstrom a default unit to work with? I'm trying to make nanotube models and molecules in Blender but I'd prefer if I can work with the defaulted units as nm or angstroms.

See: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/data_system/scenes/properties.html?#units

That is the official explanation of units in blender and how to change them.


Blender 2.8 : enter 'select box' mode while in transform mode I used Blender version 2.8. When I have Select Box tool active, if I left click and drag empty area, it will create border selection (or box selection). But when I have Move tool active, if I left click empty area, it will move the selection immediately. This is not what I want. I want to enter 'box selection' mode whenever I left click the empty area just like any other 3d software. How to set this up?

You need to configure key-map.
Find tool Select box, copy operator name view3d.select_box and paste it into "Tweak" sections of Grab, Scale ets (where you want to use it)

If tool haven't "Tweak" section, you can create it by pressing add new and copy settings from other one

In this gif, I don't use B or any outer keyboard buttons


Where to prop_search for vertex groups? Where to prop_search for vertex groups?

This doesn't work:

row.prop_search(context.scene, "vertex_group_density", ob, "vertex_groups", text="Density")

context.scene seems to be the wrong place, but which is the right one? In e.g. the particle system dialog source, there's just a "psys" instead of context.scene, but that doesn't give me a further lead.

Man-pages say "Data from which to take property", I'm not exactly sure what is meant by that:

 prop_search(data, property, search_data, search_property, text="", icon='NONE')

 Parameters:

    data (AnyType, (never None)) – Data from which to take property.
    property (string) – Identifier of property in data.
    search_data (AnyType, (never None)) – Data from which to take collection to search in.
    search_property (string) – Identifier of search collection property.
    text (string, (optional)) – Override automatic text of the item.
    icon

here a simple answer using one of the TextEditor -> Python templates:

import bpy

class LayoutDemoPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the scene context of the properties editor"""
    bl_label = "Layout Demo2"
    bl_idname = "SCENE_PT_layout"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "scene"

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

        scn = context.scene
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop_search(scn, "vgr", context.active_object, "vertex_groups", text="Density")

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(LayoutDemoPanel)
    bpy.types.Scene.vgr = bpy.props.StringProperty(name="vertex_group_density")

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(LayoutDemoPanel)
    del bpy.types.Scene.vgr

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Here we use

bpy.types.Scene.vgr to register a StringProperty to keep the string name of the prop_search choice.
Accessing the 'vertex_group' happens by passing an object reference, this can be done by using context.active_object or ob if you alias it earlier in the code.. you could have something like:

ob = bpy.data.objects[some_object_name]
row.prop_search(scn, "vgr", ob, "vertex_groups", text="Density")


Wrong behavior when I try to apply the UV grid texture to my object I'm trying to apply the UV grid textures to my character,but for an unknown reason,it did not work as expected. When I go in Object mode and then I change the texture viewport shading to Textures,the look of the skin don't change. It should look like a grid chess,but,instead are the eyes to change look,infact they seem to be darker. Where is the error ? thanks.

While,it worked in a earlier version (the white,blue,black are the colors of the eyes) :

In the first screenshot, it seems that the penguin has no material, unlike in the last screenshot where the penguin has 3 materials assigned (and there it shows the texture)..?

Could it be just this?

Edit:
Following you request in comments/chat, I did a test:

1.I  downloaded your file, saved on my desktop

I created a new default file in blender
I appended just the penguin mesh from your file (I found it's named "untitled" in your file, under "mesh" folder.
Then I selected my default cube object, and switched to the "object data" in its properties panel
From the "browse mesh data to be linked" selection tool, I selected the previously imported penguin mesh, named "untitled".
Now my "cube" object has a penguin shape. Your UV grid also gets imported.
Setting viewport shading to "textured" shows the textured penguin!

So, I think the object in your file was corrupted, but the mesh is fine.

You can correct your file in this way, I think.

Btw, your mesh has arms normals inverted, select all mesh vertices, and fix them (CTRLN).

This is my file:

Hth.


Where to find the undo list? How do I get the list of operations done in blender? Usually Undo/redo are found under edit menu. But I'm not able to locate undo list.

This wiki page says by pressing AltU it should show history. But somehow I'm not able to view it.

Note: I'm new to blender.

Try CtrlAltZ. That wiki page is for Blender 2.4x.

Here's the 2.6x page (which is current for 2.7x, as there is no 2.7x wiki yet)

If you want to access it from a menu, it's in 3D view > Header > Object:

If you want to access it from a toolbar, it's in 3D view > Toolshelf (T) > Tool > History:


Rendering issue: Camera keeps rendering the exact same scene I ran into a rendering problem: I set up a scene to render and it went well, then I moved the camera around, found a different angle but still in the same scene, when I tried to render it, Blender kept rendering the previous rendered scene (with the previous angles). How can fix this problem? I used Cycles. I also unchecked the sequencer option under post processing

If your camera has a keyframe, that will override any future changes to your camera, unless you either set a new keyframe, or delete them. To check this, mouse over the timeline and press shiftleft-arrow. Then select your camera and move it to where you want it. Go back to the timeline and press shiftright-arrow. If the camera moves back on its own, then you've put a keyframe on the camera.

If there's a keyframe, the select the camera and in the timeline you should see a yellow line. This is the frame where you keyframe was set. If you don't have any animation at all, then you can just delete all keyframes. To do that, open the Graph Editor, press home, select everything in that panel and delete it. If you do have animation that you want to keep, then you probably know how to find the keyframes for the camera and delete or modify them.

I hope that helps!


How to manage multiple f-curve modifiers I have more than 30 bones animated and each of them needs the "cycles" f-curve-modifier to continue animating up until frame 100.

Is there any way to change all these modifiers simultaneously, or do I need to go trough each modifier separately in order to change their end frames?

If I'm understanding the question correctly, you should be able to apply the modifier to one curve, copy it, select all of the curves, and then paste.


How can I combine an animation with transparent background and a pre-rendered scene(panoramic camera)(VR Video)? I have an animation where the camera is focused on a table and some experiment is going on. I want a classroom surrounding, the end result being a VR video, where I move my head to see the class as well as the animation going on at the table.
Is it possible to render the experiment animation happening on the table with a transparent background (camera in panoramic setting) and then combine it with the classroom scene that I render separately.
Otherwise, I'd have to place the table in the classroom and render out all the details of the classroom for every frame of the animation.

The first image is the table on which some experiment related animation will go on. That's the part i want rendered with a transparent background i.e only the table and whatever's on it.

The second image is the panoramic view of the classroom, that I want to render separately and then somehow merge the previous animation with this.

PS: The scene is downloaded from the blender website for the purpose of explaining my query.

To lay the Video clip on the Background

The picture above will be the result.

Node Setup

Switch to Compositing, and click on Use Node

Set it up like this.

Step by step of setting your node

To get the Viewer

To get Alpha Over

To add your Image

To fit your Image to Scene Size

I use Render Layer,
But in your case, you need to load the clip to Motion Tracking since you have rendered it.

Then you need to Add Movie Clip from the Compositing Panel as indicated, and replace it with my Render Layer Node


Good Tracking Markers with BAD Object Tracking Solution I'm having some trouble with object tracking.

I use a cube covered with printed dots to be my tracking object (I've tried a lot of different kind of shapes like cylinder). So far, I get bunch of good tracks, so that the marker stays on the exact point it should be. But When it comes to solving, it's a mess.

First, it didn't rotate the right way even i use perspective tracking.
Second, the perspective tracking looks fine in the camera but actually they are not.
Third, I got high error around 4~6.

Here is the file with the footage:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19WplgpAXHwrAnZDppBlfXRJ2aYZZbfXN?usp=sharing

Here is my question:
1. What is going on? is their any way to fix it?
2. Is their a better kind of marker shape i can use?
3. What is the best shape for the tracking objects?

Thank you

The error was using tripod solve, and not defining the correct span of frames to be used for the solution.

Using tripod solving does not result in accurate 3D information.

If the span of frames used for the solution is not set, blender might try to solve the object in the wrong segment of the video. Enabling the "Keyframe" option means that blender will choose what frames to use to find a solution automatically.

After turning off the tripod solve and allowing blender to define the keyframes to be used, the solve error was very low.


How to build different scenarios in the Compositor It is my understanding that you use the Compositor for post-production, after rendering the scene. Now I would like to build several "scenarios" for post-production. For instance a node tree that does some color corrections and a node tree that does all kind of fancy stuff with the rendered image. And I want to chose which "scenario" I apply. Is this possible in Blender ? I had the idea to do that with render layers but that does not seem to work. Currently I can only think of building several blend files but that has clearly some disadvantages. How to build different post-production scenarios in Blender ?

I see a couple of options:

1 Using a new scene.

Without having to create new files you can use a new scene with linked objects. Changes in the compositor for one scene will not affect the compositor options for other scenes:

2. Using a a Switch and/or Split viewer node

The switch node allows you to re-route the node flow, so you can compare different inputs:

A split viewer node creates a viewer that allows you to compare both inputs simultaneously, by splitting the window horizontally or vertically.


How to export multiple NLAtracks to a single .fbx file in blender 2.80? Ive been trying to export an object that has 2 animations to the .fbx format, but when I export it back into blender instead of showing both animations playing, I just see one. On top of that in the action menu the action displays the same animation twice.

This happens even though both animations are pushed down and the NLA strips option in exporting is checked.

I do know that I got it to work once, but I don't remember what I did to do so, because i've actually been tweaking export settings and redoing animations for 4 hours now. When I switch the order of the animations (e.g. move to top of list) it will also switch which animation is being exported. It will only export the animation on the bottom of the list.

If this is a bug in 2.80 that would really be a bad thing for me, since my computer doesn't support version 2.79

I'm not sure what your use case is, but I'm using this to import animations into Unity game engine. The NLA tracks thing doesn't seem to work with 2.8 and Unity, but you can have several actions created in the Dope Sheet --> Action Editor, and when you export, select "All Actions":

One thing that messed me up was that you have to completely delete the .fbx file and create a new one in order for Unity to recognize it properly and update the list of animations. Reimporting or refreshing doesn't work if you just replace the file that was already there.


Need detailed instructions on how to make a football image rotate using Blender 2.83 I am a newbie with Blender (Version 2.83) on Windows 10.
I want to make a simple 3D animation for rotating a football. Now I have one footabll image in the Blender IDE.
But I can't find any good step-by-step guide. What I want is: to rotate the footall image for 360 degress within 60 seconds, I don't know which axis, I think Z-axis should be OK.
I read some documents, but it didn't help me, just made me more confused.

Assuming you want to rotate the ball as an object (the question is a little hard to understand, sorry), the best way would be to keyframe animate it.
At the bottom of the layout there is a timeline, pull that up so you can see it a bit better.
Keyframe animation works this way: you define a bunch of key poses that will occur at given times. The computer then will fill in the transitions making a smooth animation without much effort.
So to spin the ball:

Select the ball, make sure you are on frame 0.
Press I and select "rotation".
Move the bar a few frames forwards, for example 20.
Rotate the ball 90 degrees (any direction)
Press I again and select "rotation".

If you stopped now and pressed the play button and started from the beginning, you will see the ball spin... a quarter of a rotation. So repeat this process to have the ball make an entire 360-degree spin.
Now open a graph editor window with the ball selected and you will see a bunch of points. Each point represents the value inside a certain attribute of the object (e.g. rotation x) at the given time.
Press A to select all and V. Choose "Vector". This will make the ball's rotation smoother. Then press N to open up the side panel. Go to properties and add a "Cycles" modifier to every attribute that was animated. This will make the ball spin infinitely.
That's it! Keyframe animation is a very useful animation method because the user only needs to specify a few poses and the computer will fill the rest.


How to reduce vertex count on a mesh I need a way to fix this mesh.
It has way too many faces and when I import the .stl file to other programs it gives me a broken polygon message. I want to 3D print this object in matter control once I fix the problem.

Select all vertices, hit X button and select Limited Dissolve from the menu.

Then hit F6 button and adjust Maximum Angle to get desired result.

Then to triangulate the mesh hit Ctrl+T shortcut.


How to model a uncontinuously screw like in picture This is not a continuously screw.

Thank you for your great help. Can someone tell me how to create this style of screw?

Basically you do what is done in the first answer to this question:

How to model the bottle threads?

Because you want about 3 short threads all starting from the top, make a cylinder with the number of sides being divisible by 3, for example 33.  The cylinder in the first screen shot only has 32 sides, so the picture is only approximate.  Where the user, Xtremity, makes his single thread from one poly only, you need three, situated as shown in the first screen shot.  But make the threads one at a time.

Follow that answer/tutorial that Xtremity wrote, with only the following changes as shown in the second screen shot.  Put about 100-120 in the Angle of the Screw modifier, and change the value in Screw until your thread has a much height as you think it should have.  Iterations should stay on 1.


How to get dirtiness on a simple texture? Whenever i downloaded a texture it looks very simple like the image bellow

so i want to add dirtiness like the image below
I am using Photoshop to prepare my textures so somebody please tell me how to do it in Photoshop. Thanks in advance.

I would recommend establishing a paint set up in Blender first on the model by painting details on the model in the 3d view using Texture Paint mode, and then take the saved image textures into Photoshop to further build on the initial block out. Here in the picture I have used a cloud texture on a texture paint brush set to multiply and Rake and Random for the stroke, and painted grunge burns on the areas where I cloned the image texture into my basic canvas texture.

One thing to note is that you can use Photoshop to paint in 3d view, so you might just try importing your model as .obj with your basic material and texture and then adding a layer in photoshop, doing your detail work there.


Importing Cycles Materials to Unity I am creating a map for a game I have been working on and I really like the Material I have made for it. I have learned about Cycles baking but the mesh is so large (5 miles x 5 miles) that it won't bake at a high enough resolution without crashing, it gets a blurry pixelated look to it. I know I can't import the nodes I used into Unity. I'm open to learning Unreal Engine 4 but so far I have heard it doesn't import nodes into it, but it does have a material editor that maybe someone would know how to recreate. Answering any of the following questions would help: Would it be possible to import the material I am using into Unity and keep the texture (without baking)?  Is it possible to import the material into Unreal Engine?  Is there a game engine that would work best with blender and imports all the materials (I know blender has a game engine but I haven't heard great things about it)?  Is there a way to recreate the same texture in Unity or Unreal Engine (it isn't too complicated of a material, picture of the nodes is below)?  Thanks very much for the help, I'm new to game development and I just can't seem to get past importing the meshes to a game engine.

Unfortunately, importing blender materials into Unity is still a fantasy. But, the best thing you can do is to bake the textures in blender and then use that as the image texture in Unity.
Google how to bake textures and your all set :)


Fluid Simulation: Inflow is stretching to the edge of domain when baked Here you can see an animation of my fluid sim. The inflow is that small black circle.

For some reason, the fluid flows in from the space between the inflow and one edge of the domain...

Here are a couple other views showing the domain and inflow windows.

How might I go about fixing this?

Additional notes:

I get "No active UV layer found in the object" when I bake via the render panel (not when I bake via the physics panel). I don't know if this is significant or not.
Object scales are all at 1.0x, 1.0y, 1.0z.

The normals of the inflow object are inverted. Flip or recalculate them.