How to use an invisible emitter as mask for its particles? (Cycles) Or in other words: How can I make those parts of my emitted objects/ groups, that are behind their emitter from the camera's point of view, disapear despite the emitter itself being transparent/ not being rendered?

And this preferrably without creating new objects from the particles to keep the particle system editable. Also there are many million particles in the project that I need a solution for and turning each particle into it's own object would be unpartical to say the least. I don't know if its possible to turn several particels into one single seperate object.

I hope anyone can help me as I don't know how to proceed. Any help is highly appreciated!

basic scene setup:

render result when emitter is being disabled for rendering or given transparent material:

desired result mocked up in photoshop:

If the emitter is always a plane then you can use the plane's Object coordinate to determine whether the particle material point is above or below the plane and use this to mix transparency as shown :

In the example image above the plane is set to be mostly transparent (so you can still see where it is) and the blocks extend above and below the plane by the same amount. The part above the plane has a positive Z coordinate (in the plane's object coordinate space) and so the Greater Than node controls its visibility.

Obviously this method will only work if the emitter is a plane and you want anything below the plane to be invisible (even it it would be visible past the edge of the plane).

For an uneven surface where you cannot determine the cutoff mathematically, you can produce the same effect by using the compositor Z Combine node to combine multiple render layers based on depth. This allows you to effectively mix the two layers together so that those parts above the surface are visible while those below the surface - and the surface itself - are transparent.

To demonstrate I created an uneven surface from Suzanne's face and added particles as for the previous example.

Setup the scene with two render layers, both with the Z-pass enabled. The first render layer should render the particles while the second just the mesh (create a duplicate of the surface and move it (M) to the second layer. For the surface to be transparent you should assign a transparent material to both of the meshes.

First render layer :

Second render layer :

In order for the transparent mesh to have an effect on the Z-pass, set the Alpha Threshold of the second render layer to zero. Don't forget to enable both layers by Shift-selecting in the toolbar or in the Scene section of the Render Layer properties.

The Z-pass on each layer should be something like the following :

Now in the compositor you can use the Z Combine node to combine the two layers based on the depth (Z-pass) of each layer - where the particle is closer than the surface it will be rendered as the particle. However, where the surface is infront of the particle it will be rendered as transparent. This is achieved as follows :

And here is the result :

Note that the checker pattern is only there to demonstrate the transparency.

Blend file included


Curls not showing in render I downloaded Blender yesterday and had a bit of fun sculpting. I was trying to add curly hair to my model and it seems to be working in the display but not in the render (see images).
What am I missing?

Thanks! Oli

Make sure your render strand steps (currently 3, under the render heading in particle settings) match your viewport settings (currently 7, under Display in particle settings). With curly hair you may need quite a few steps to capture all the bends.

You may also need to adjust the scaling value under Cycles Hair Settings if you want the strands to be thinner.


How would people usually create smoke? So I need to create smoke because I'm doing a render of a crashing plane. What I was wondering is that do people only simulate smoke or do they sometimes model it? I've seen people do both but I was wondering which way works well.

Thanks!

NOTE: I'm not sure if it changes anything but I use cycles.

It depends.

By manually creating the smoke you have as much control as you like, but it will take more time (at least more of your time. Smoke sims can take awhile)

For more realistic results, animations, or less manual work, the simulator sounds like the way to go.

I'd recommend trying to simulate it first, then moving to alternate methods if you are not satisfied.


How do I get rid of this crease when joining/creating new faces? So I'm trying to create the face of a character model by starting around the eyes and mouth but when I try and join the edges to connect it creates this weird crease. I want to smooth it out but I can't seem to get rid of it.
What I'm doing is pressing F with the selected vertices to create a new face to connect and this happens.

Any help to getting rid of it is appreciated, thanks!

Dont create a single face with F.
Select all the edges you want to join (in both parts you want to join) and use the Bridge Edge Loops command (you can easily find it with the F3 seach menu).


How can I merge these selected faces? I made that shape using boolean modifier and two cylinder.
But two face has been created after modifier has been applied.
I am unable to merge these two faces.
I tried "Dissolve faces" command but it did not work.

You should delete them and create nice geometry by bridging the edge loops instead(Ctrl+E -> L):

This way you will avoid possible shading errors with automatic triangulation of concave n-gons. You can then select the face loop by Ctrl+ click, or select one face and hit Shift+G->C for selecting Co-planar faces, or you could use select linked flat faces function:

You could assign a shortcut to that by rightclicking it and choosing assign shortcut.


Why is hair not displaying in render viewport but displays in solid view (while in object mode)? Solid view looks as such:

But rendered view is unable to produce hair:

You can see the hair displays on the simple sphere, making me think there is something wrong with the lower mesh, however I can not find any discrepancies between the two. Both have the same materials and normal's are fine.

Blend file here:
http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=51690

Hair thickness is too small so that you can't see hairs in the render mode. Go to "Cycles Hair Settings" of the particles and there is "Scaling" option, increases it to a higher number 1 or 2 as you want. – 3DSinghVFX


Animation stutters at beginning and end of loop I am pretty new to Blender so I apologize if this is a stupid question. I know it has been asked before, but during the past hour of trying, I have been unable to implement a satisfactory answer.
I have an animation (of a hippo's tail) moving back and forth in an idle animation. I am using Bezier interpolation to get a nice smooth animation and it works great with the exception of the first and last frames of the loop. I could probably get around this problem in a number of ways. I could add additional negative and positive frames at the beginning and end of my animation and loop only the central portion. I could manually edit the curves to be approximately correct. I could turn the interpolation to linear and deal with the associated issues.
What I want though is to be able to  indicate that the first and last frames are actually the same frame and have the loop working properly. I've tried adding the cyclic F modifier, but I can't get it to work properly.

Thanks very much for the help, it is much appreciated.

I should examine your .blend file to be sure, but I think that  the problem lies in the fact that your loop starts at 1 while the animation starts at 0. Instead of using 0, 8, 16, 24, 32....., use 1, 9, 17, 25, 33 ....
You'll end up with a 1-129 group of keyframes, go to keyframe 128, select all the rim and insert a new keyframe, then set the loop 1-128. If Keyframes 1 and 129 are identical it should loop perfectly.
Another way to loop an animation is via the Non Linear Editor (NLA).


Character bone not bending after adding pole target I have this bone series

and as you can see, the bone is bending nicely. however, i wanted a pole target, so i added one in front of the knee.

heres what happens now:

its not bending, any help is appreciated!

Make sure your knee joint is not straight like this.

Instead, make it bent a little and all will be well. Just like in the image below.


save as a video as .mp4 So I made an intro using animation and it saves it as a .blend and I want it so save as a video like .mp4 or something like that.
I've tried changing the codec because I tried opening the intro with windows media instead of blend. I didn't try all the codec's but I tried some of them.

The .blend file contains the 3D project.
To create an animation in a video format you need to render it first.
Select the output format and encoding, the name of the file and hit Animation (or CTRL F12

UPDATE:
One of the big changes in 2.79 is that they finally separated containers and codecs.
The encoding options from previous versions are still there, but now they have organized differently
If you select FFMpeg video, there will be a new tab for Encoding options.

There you can select the container and the codec for the output file.
Container is the file format for the file, (Mov, Avi, Ogg, MP4, to name a few) sometimes is referred as a "wrapper".
Codec (short for Compression-Decompression) Is how the image is compressed. The picture quality, file size and processing power needed to view the file are largely determined by the kind of codec used and the settings used for it.


New 2.9 Feature - Sky Texture (Nishita) is Changing my Sun Elevation and Generally Misbehaving Yay, a new version. More confounding behavior? You betcha.
I have a scene set with my Sky Texture (in the World Nodes) having a bunch of settings that help me set the scene. Among those, a Sun Elevation of 10 Degrees. However, the second I hit the F12 key to render my scene, the value of Sun Elevation snaps right back to 81.6 Degrees. Every time. I have no idea why it's happening and no idea how to stop it.
In addition, for whatever reason, when I initially set my World with the Nishita texture, the lighting is so completely blown out that I lose all shadows. It's like the sun is exploding. This persists even when the Background strength is 0.100. I've had it down toward the floor and it still looks terrible.
I realize I can wait for some really explanatory tutorial about this, but I've already watched a few from when this was in beta and it all appears quite straightforward. My results, so far, have been disappointing.
Thanks for your attention.
UPDATE
Here is what my Cycles preview of this rando scene looks like.

Note the low values for Sun Elevation & Sun Intensity. I've been aiming at a morning/evening depiction.
For the record, I actually managed to get this working, but then I tried to incorporate an HDRI and ended up back at square 1.
Additional Edit: Now it's resetting to 82 Degrees, not 81.6. In case that matters...

This is a common problem caused by the Sun Position add-on, which takes control over these properties. Try to disable it and you should be able to change the values. The issue has been previously report on the bug tracker in ticket T78618.


How to display Cycles procedural materials in viewport? According to the Blender wiki here, as of Blender 2.78c (or around May 20, 2016), procedural cycles materials should display in the Blender viewport in "Material" mode. Unfortunately, this is not working for me.

Musgrave, Voronoi, Noise, Magic, and Brick textures all refuse to display in the viewport. Checker is the only one that works, and it doesn't shade properly.

Is there some option to enable GLSL for these? Could it be a graphics card issue?

I know there are several questions on here about this, but as of May 20 last year, this feature should be implemented. I am using the latest build of blender off GraphicAll, and am on Windows 7 64 bit.

Here is a screenshot of the result in material mode and my node setup:

I fix it by enable node wrangler add ons. I use internal VGA.


Using two or more separate UV maps and textures on the same material and model I joined two meshes together and now need to add a texture to them. The entire unwrapped mesh is currently on the head's texture: (right)

You can make out the body's unwrapped mesh above the head's unwrapped mesh. I would like to move the body's unwrapped mesh away from the head's onto another texture.

How do I separate the head's and body's unwrapped meshes onto separate textures, all in the same material? (If they can be disconnected onto seperate textures, but with two materials as well, I'm fine with that but prefer the same material).

EDIT:
To be more clear, I basically want to keep the current unwrap (yes, overlapping) and move the top unwrap (the body's) onto a different texture and keep the heads unwrap on this current texture without interference from the body's unwrap.

First you will have to unfold your entire mesh and separate one area for the head and one for the body. There can be no overlapping meshes.

Now save the 'UV layout' to do the texturing.

What I did was like that, half I used for the head, and half for the body. The rest is transparent not to overwrite one image in the other at the time of placing in the blender.
Head

Body

Now just put them in the blender and that's it.


Metallic Map Color Space When applying Metallic maps what Color Space should I select?

For PBR textures - Metallic/Specular, Roughness/Glossiness, Height/Displacement, and Normal Maps, should be set to Non-Color. Basecolor, Emission, and AO can remain in whatever color space they use natively.


Weird stuffs in smoke + fire sim So, i've been messing around with this project for a solid total of 10+ hours. And i still can't figure out why the fire is so weird. It has this bobbly blocky thing even in "decent" resolution at one point (256).
How do i terminate this issue? Any help/tips are truly appreciated!
oh yeah, here's my settings, im in b2.92

The simulation is set for smoke and fire, and for whatever reason the smoke is occluding most of the inner flame, making the voxel nature of the simulation very obvious. I recommend you set it to fire only, and only use the flame smoke, or possibly make the smoke not as dense (in the material settings).


Can't add bones to a sphere When I clicked on a sphere and then pressed shift + a and looked to add a bone the option doesn't show. What am I doing wrong?

You probably can not add an armature (bone) because you may be in edit mode. If you are in edit mode, then exit, and go to object mode. Then you can add an armature, and use it to rig the sphere. Could you please add an image? That would be very helpful.


Force draw objects in front of others Here is what i want to do:

I want the penrose triangle behind the flask. The triangle is partially in front, but i want part of it to render behind the flask. However the flask is glass, so the triangle needs to also be visible behind the flask.

The only I can think of is to break the triangle into multiple objects and join them in the compositor. Any better suggestions?

I have a somewhat imperfect solution for you, but I think you could work it up into a perfect one.

That's a very raw render from the technique I'm suggesting.

And here's the compositor node tree.

I've used two render layers, one for the flask and another for the triangle. I've also given both objects Object IDs and the layers Object ID passes. Rendering uses the Transparent setting in the Film section.

Take the Object ID masks from the two layers/objects, and use the Math converter "Minimum" to create a binary mask of their overlapping areas.

Feed that into an Alpha Over node that takes as its input two versions of the flask layer, one opaque and the other translucent.

Then some more jiggery pokery to make sure that the transparency of the background is preserved, because otherwise it would obscure the triangle. That takes the Minimum of the Alpha values from the previous Alpha Over node and the original Layer.

Then another Alpha Over with the mixed-alpha flask as the second input. It shows the flask in front with the triangle visible through a translucent section.

Unfortunately there is no refraction, as there would be with rays cast through glass. You might be able to achieve it with a more complex set up, if you want to. But as it is, the flask is always in front but with the triangle visible.

Please forgive the crudeness of the models and render.

Edit: Slightly better example:


Possible to create new Application Handler? Blender's application handlers are listed here, but is it possible to create a new one?

For example, I'd like an application handler which is a callback for every time I add a strip to the Video Sequence Editor.

The Blender/Python API can’t (yet)...
  ...
  - Define callbacks or listeners to be notified when data is changed.

Source: API docs

App handlers can't be created with Python, they need to the coded in C. The fact that registering arbitrary event callback isn't supported suggests that such an event driven design is not intended in Blender.


Objects Randomly Disappear This isn't the first time that this has happened to me. This also happened to a different project I had 2 months ago in version 2.8.
Objects would just disappear the next time I open the project. Yes I checked if they were in a hidden collection, I kept toggling / , and I tried Alt + H . The first picture was a test render I made, and the second is what it is now from the same view.

There is no way that I accidentally deleted them, since staircase is made of 3 separate objects and I would have to select all of them at once then delete them. Besides that, other objects in different locations also disappeared at the same time.
The one thing I noticed is that the objects disappear after open and start working on a different project. There is no particular order that they disappear either. Below is a couch that I modeled. The main cushion was the first one that I made, followed by the 4 large pillows, then five smaller ones (The three in the middle and two on each side that were leaning on the arm rests). Even though I made the cushion first and the small pillows last, they both disappeared, along with a table I modeled many weeks before the couch itself.

I need help to somehow find out how to recover the objects and/or prevent this from happening again.
edit: screenshots of my outliner

Try to press the 1 button on your keyboard (not on numpad) in object mode. You are maybe viewing different layer. This happened to me a few times.


Animations become messed up after rotating whole object. Is there an absolute (non-relative) posing mode or something? (Beginner)
I manually create keyframes with an option to include whole bone system of posed character. I wish to render animations of this character from 8 different angles, so I tried rotating it in object mode, but animations become messed when character rotation is different from original. I understand, that when I was posing bones, they must have calculated absolute viewports transform values.
Is there a way to pose armature relative to itself, so I could apply global transform to whole character and not mess up animation ? Or do I have to manipulate only camera to take all angles ?

Generally when you parent the mesh to the armature using Ctrl P the mesh object becomes child of the armature object (and vertex groups get relations with bones), so keyframing the whole armature in object mode should do what you're looking for.


I can't render audio with my video This is probably an easy fix but I can't figure it out. I'm trying to render the audio with my video along with my video and when I play the video on the media player, I can't hear ANY audio. I've been looking at youtube videos but none of the videos have the same version of Blender as I do. Can Blender render both the audio and video at the same time?

As stated already, you need to set an audio codec, also some video formats don't support audio.

A combination that does work is H.264 for the video (selected from the Output panel) and AAC for the audio (selected from the Audio codec dropdown on the Encoding panel).


How to control many tiny lights I've been modeling in blender for several years now, but only recently started doing some animation.

This thing I'm currently working on requires controlling hundreds of little lights turning off and on. If I was just doing a couple, I'd merely animate the emission materials as needed. But for something of this scale, having tons of individually animated materials seems rather impractical. They also need to be animated in patterns, which depending on the solution could make it harder or easier.

This is a rough example of what I'm going for in terms of shape and number

Thus far, my attempts at google have resulted in nothing, and so I turn to the ever helpful boards. If any more experienced animators had any tips or recommendations, that would be lovely.

I'm working in Cycles if that matters.

Thanks!

The basic principle is the same as this:

https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/39509/1853

Where you have an array of light bulbs.

An empty in the scene to control the size and placement of the texture.
And a texture to control the strength of an emission shader:

Animating the texture mapping of the texture you can make the lightbulbs make any pattern:


Attempting to export as a .OBJ with .mtl, but the resultant .mtl file lacks an actual map This issue has been causing me undue frustration over the past few days. I've been attempting to export a model in .obj with the associated .mtl and image texture. I know this can be done because I was doing exactly this on another mesh just last week.

However, this time no matter what I do it refuses to do this. Images are below detailing the issue.

So, the mesh and texture are imported, UV unwrapped and assigned as a material to the object in Eevee via Node. The situation is summarised in the below images.

My intent, as above, is to export as a .obj. I save the texture image in the UV window to the same target folder for the mesh. Then I set up the export settings reccomended by many others, ticking write materials and using the copy pathway as below. This exports the mesh.
enter image description here

However, the resultant material file appears to be incorrect, containing no such map_kd reference to the saved image from the UV editor. Naturally, on loading into another program no textures, as a result, are loaded.

Does anyone know what the issue is here? I was doing (and succeeding) the same thing on Blender 2.8 earlier this week on other material-assigned meshes (although they were from a third-party, so already mapped and textured). What gives?

The purpose is simply to view the model in meshlab (which takes .obj) or another simple model viewer, rather than to import into any other rendering/game engine.

The problem is that the .obj exporter requires a material setup using the Principled Shader in order to write an .mtl with the map_ attributes. Unfortunately the documentation is still work in progress for Blender 2.8, that's why this wasn't previously documented.

The fix for your problems should be to replace the current shader nodes with the Principled Shader and to plug your texture in the base color socket.

Alternatively you can also add the texture by hand. This requires the following line in the .mtl if your texture is in the same directory and called pc2.dds as shown in your screenshot:

map_Kd pc2.dds


turning two objects in a collection,one into edit mode and leaving on in object mode I am watching a particular youtube video by sociamix on modelling a character base mesh. There is a part around the 9th minute where he inserts a UV sphere into the face mesh in object mode, scales and moves it perfectly into the eye socket space and then changes the face mesh back to edit mode while the UV sphere remains in object mode. I have tried several times to do it but it just doesn't seem to work for me.By it doesnt work for me i mean i try to turn the face mesh back to edit mode while leaving the uv sphere in object mode, but rather,when i click on tab to do so,they both go into edit mode,with the uv sphere being selected
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlaMfIgS2ns

Examining this video was an interesting exercise. I was able to get this to work as he shows, but had to watch a few times. What is curious to me is that I was able to get the needed face snapping behavior without any of the checkboxes activated that he recommends in the video, which confuses me. Just to be clear, there is nothing special about the whole Object Mode/Edit Mode situation you describe. It is true, the eye is in Object Mode while the head is in Edit Mode, but the relevant point is that the video demonstrates Face Snapping while using a checkbox called Project Individual Elements. According to the tooltip, this feature allows the snapping elements to interact with other objects. So that explains how he's able to bridge the gap between Edit Mode and Object Mode. Except that it doesn't because as I said, I was able to get it to work without the Project Individual Elements option checked. So this is a mystery to me. Maybe someone else can shed some light.
I thought I would point out that I use a different technique to get eyes and eyelids to meet, and I think it's superior (if only because it requires no vertex tweaking) to the one in the video.
I start by creating a vertex group. In Object Mode, select the eyelid geometry, then go into Edit Mode and select the inner-most edge ring for the eyelid object (highlighted in green in the pic below). This vertex group will contains only the vertices from the edge ring which defines the inner rim of the eye lid.

Next, go to the Object Data tab, and look for the Vertex Group section. Click the "+" sign to add a new group, which will be empty initially. It will be called Group by default, but you can name it whatever you want. Click Assign.

Then create a Shrinkwrap modifier for the eyelid object. In Object Mode, select the eyelid object, then click on the Modifier tab in the Properties Panel and create a new modifer. Make it a Shrinkwrap.

Point the Shrinkwrap modifier to the eye object as its target (left green arrow), and use the  Vertex Group input field to point it also to the vertex group you just created (right green arrow). If you don't use the vertex group option, the entire eyelid mesh will completely collapse against the eyeball. If you do use the vertex group option, only the inner rim will touch the eyeball. And that's exactly what you want.


Getting exactly circular/rounded NURBS corners How can the weight of a NURBS curve/surface be calculated such that corners are exactly circular? It has something to do with the angle of the corner, but that doesn't seem to be displayed anywhere.

I'm not absolutely certain this pertains, but it may not be possible. NURBS cannot be used to represent a circle exactly, but may only be used to create an approximation, however close. You may want to refer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-uniform_rational_B-spline for more information (especially the note in the section titled: Example: a circle).

Of course, this is a good answer if you are attempting to make a full circle. If your goal, however, is to make an exactly circular join between two perpendicular segments, it may or may not be possible.

Then again, as blender is typically used to generate imagery with a finite sample size (i.e. pixels) it may be possible that the rendering of the NURBS approximation of a circle would be sufficiently accurate so as to be indistinguishable from an actual mathematically precise circle.

Hope this helps.


Is there a way to "remesh" a mesh with even edge loops? I made a mesh manually, but I want the mesh to be remeshed in such a way that the edge loops that comprise it are all as evenly spaced as possible, similar to what bevels do on their own along a single curve. Is there any addon for that?

If you search for an addon called Loop Tools, they allow to space vertices or edges. Once you have enabled this addon, select all the vertices or edges you want to space, press W --> Loop Tools --> Space.


How do I delete a face? By hollow, I mean that I want only the sides and the base of the frustum to be visible. I already have a 3D Cone Frustum so now I only want to subtract the inner regions from the cone. So, my question is of course, how to do that ? I thought of using boolean but it only shows the option of a cone, so is it possible to use another one as a boolean modifier ? if yes, then how. I am a total noob and hence forgive me if its a bad question.Thanks in advance.

In Edit Mode enable Face select right click on the top face you want to remove.

Then press X or Delete. This shows the Delete popup menu, where you can select Faces.


Why is Blender not letting me move an object that has been keyframed? How do I stop Blender from forcing an existing keyframe position while I'm trying to move the object/bone to set a new keyframe? This seeming position/screen refresh is slowing me down. (Note: "Snap to..." is not enabled.)

The steps I'm doing to set a keyframe:

I Select the object/bone with Right click and then set a LocRot or LocRotScale key using "I" on the keyboard.
I move along the timeline and Select another object with right click.
I re-select the 1st object/bone via right click
I press the "R" key on the keyboard to rotate the object to a new position. But the Object/bone refuses to rotate. It WILL rotate toward my mouse but flitters back and forth between it's keyed position and the new position. As soon as I release my mouse the object/bone "snaps" back to the keyed position.

As long as I don't have a keyframe on an object I can move/rotate it wherever I want. However, once I set a keyframe I can't re-position said object/bone in the 3D-Viewport (using the mouse OR the sliders). I'm forced to set a new keyframe before re-positioning, and to change the keyframes in the Graph Editor one channel at a time. This is hardly time saving or an organic workflow for animation.

I've had this problem with Blender 2.78, 2.79, and now even after buying a new computer in 2.81. I've shut down the program and re-started the project in 2.82.
Here is The current Blend File I'm having an issue with:

The culprit at the moment is the empty named "_CameraPivot."
The "force keyfrsme refresh", or whatever it really is, is not happening at the moment but I anticipate it will happen again. Even restarting the program and re-opening project in 2.81, even after saving the project in said state, results in the "force keyframe refresh" being gone. But I can't constantly be shutting down my workflow and restarting the program every time this problem raises it's ugly head.

I can't help but think there is some hidden command key for this as a function which I'm not aware I'm pressing (I.E.: Like how pressing the Caps-lock key, toggling/hiding the brush cursor, in Adobe Photoshop is an annoying/panicky thing if you don't know the function exists but a useful tool if you do.).

Is there anyone who can help me with this issue/function? It's got to be a simple thing as it's not covered anywhere I can find.

Here's a video link to the problem I'm having: RecordedVideo

This is a very odd issue which seems to be caused by the 'Import Images as Planes' add-on. Disable the add-on in the Preferences (and re-enable it if you still want to use it) and the issue should be gone.

That add-on has some code that runs when an object moves, and somehow it's got into a broken state and is trying to update the object positions when you're trying to move them. The problem seems to keep occurring in different versions of blender because the properties that are related to the broken state are stored in your file. Disabling the add-on removes these properties and if it is re-enabled it will set them up afresh in a working state. At least, that's what seems to be happening.

By the way, while that does solve that issue, there are still some other issues in your file, related to the drivers you have set up in the compositor in each of your scenes (which may have been set up by the add-on?). The System Console (Window> Toggle System Console for Windows users) prints out a lot of errors when you change scenes and a lot of the drivers seem to have missing references to objects.


Divide a face into multiple vertical edges Blender newb here. I want to divide a face into multiple faces (vertical edges).

From:

To:

Naturally, I can use the Knife tool and do it manually, but if I have many divisions to create this seems highly inefficient.

For the picture I subdivided and simply deleted each horizontal edge between the desired edges, but this is also absurd.

This seems very simple but nothing related has come up in my searches.

Thank you!

I figured it out.

Ctrl+Tab to select Edge mode.

Select the two horizontal edges and choose to Subdivide under Mesh tools. Number of Cuts will dictate the vertical edges.


How to achieve this kind of custom brush in Blender? I am trying to create a brush that allows for seamless alpha textures that can be drawn curved. The result should be similar to what is found in this video.

This is what I am currently getting.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks for your time!

Following the suggestion in the previous answers, I made the brush to work closing to the ZBrush.

I used a SculpDraw with a custom Texture and Rake activated.

Stroke Method to Space and set the space to 30%, in this case.

I tested in a double subdivided cube and I used a Multiresolution modifier with a value of 6.

Unfortunately, it does not work well on too close curves, but I think it's a good start.

Also, I'm providing a screenshot of my Blender setup.

Just in case, I'm using the 2.79b version.


How do I rotate the petals flat? I'm new to blender and just trying to play around with the particle system though I can't seem to figure out how to rotate these petals. I'm sure there's a simple answer. I just want to rotate them flat but changing the phase in the rotation tab doesn't help, it just rotates it around a weird point.

try to rotate the object (the initial petal) where the petals are inheriting from, in object mode or even in edit mode if it has modifiers on it.


texturing 2.8 cant see proportions and profile I need help with this problem, because when this is irreparably it would be a huge downside of 2.8 and a reason for me to change the program.

If I go into TexturePaint Mode my view looks like the first pic, but i prefer the look of the second picture (just like 2.79). But i cant figure out, how to do draw, meanwhile it looks like the second pic. And no i dont want to paint on the UV in the UV-Editor, I prefer to do it live on the object

Your help would mean such a big relief for a me, because like this it got almost impossible to paint complex objects like faces correctly.

Best regards, Marc

As Jackdaw has already suggested in the Overlays menu lower the Texture paint Opacity value.

Note: In the image below the viewport shading is in Solid mode.


Using the Grab brush in Sculpt mode When I am in Sculpt mode and I want to use the Grab brush, I'm not getting the result that I want. I start with a mesh cube, select Multires and subdivide it twice so that the cube now looks more like a sphere.
Now I want to use to Grab tool to pull part of the sphere down or to the left so that I can make an egg-like shape. If I have x selected under symmetry and I pull down, for example, from the side view, I find that when I look at the new shape that I've just made, there are two "legs" instead of one big shape.

What settings should I use to be able to do what seems to me to be a fairly easy thing in Blender? I am using a large radius and I've tried changing the strength.

Disable symmetry or pull the shape on the Y axis.


CTRL+Z No longer undoing, switching between Solid and Textured display modes CTRL + Z in blender no longer undoes, and instead switches between Textured and Solid display modes for geometry in 3d mode. Any idea how I might have caused this to happen?

You might have changed your keyboard layout to another language. German to English would result in such a behaviour, since it switches the Z and Y key.


How can I access bone's 'animation_data.action'? This is the script I've got. It just basically offsets every selected objects animation for the other one as shown in this Tutorial

import bpy
obj = bpy.context.selected_objects
objlist = len(obj)
offset = range(objlist+1)

for i in range(objlist):
    animData = obj[i].animation_data
    action = animData.action
    fcurves = action.fcurves
    for curve in fcurves:
        keyframePoints = curve.keyframe_points
        for keyframe in keyframePoints:
            keyframe.co[0] += offset[i]
            keyframe.handle_left[0] += offset[i]
            keyframe.handle_right[0] += offset[i]

It works alright but when I change it to:

import bpy

obj = bpy.context.selected_pose_bones
objlist = len(obj)
offset = range(objlist+1)

for i in range(objlist):
    animData = obj[i].animation_data
    action = animData.action
    fcurves = action.fcurves
    for curve in fcurves:
        keyframePoints = curve.keyframe_points
        for keyframe in keyframePoints:
            keyframe.co[0] += offset[i]
            keyframe.handle_left[0] += offset[i]
            keyframe.handle_right[0] += offset[i]

I get this error

  AttributeError:'PoseBone' object has no attribute 'animation_data'

Armatures store data differently than other objects, they contain a rest position for each bone that locates the bone within the armature structure as well as pose position used for animation. The data for an action is stored within a generic objects data, to get the armature animation data you want, you need to treat the armature as an object to get there. The path to the fcurves of the armatures action is

bpy.context.active_object.animation_data.action.fcurves

The list of fcurves in the armatures action will contain every curve for every channel of every bone in the armature that is keyframed, each curve has a data_path with a value like pose.bones["hips"].location, by extracting the name you can compare it to the selected bone names with something like -

bone_names = [b.name for b in bpy.context.selected_pose_bones]
...
for curve in fcurves:
    if curve.data_path.split('"')[1] in bone_names:
        # do stuff


How to split one control end of bezier curve I am making a path using bezier curve and having an object which follows the path using steering actuator. My problem is having a path which resembles the English letter "Y", for that I need to split one of the control end of the curve. How can I do that?

Also, if the path has the shape of "P", how can I join one control end of the bezier curve to an intermediary control point?

I am not an expert in Blender. Please help me, thanks in advance.

I think you can create such shapes only by combining 2 or multiple curves, because

  Each new segment is added to one end of the curve. A new segment will
  only be added if a single vertex, or handle, at one end of the curve
  is selected.

wiki page

The same may be applied to creating 'P' shape, thus joining 2 curve segments - it'll raise an error "Cannot make segment". You can duplicate that curve segment and place it atop of existing one, but still it'd be 2 different curves (example below).

As another way you may want to use simple mesh with all vertices deleted except for one. You then extrude shape needed either with E or Ctrl + LMB:

After adding mirror modifier you'll get that 'Y' shape. If you convert now this mesh into curve with Alt+C you'll see that it actually consists of 2 curves:

It's just the same what you would get if extruding this shape with curves manually.


How to project a 3D Bone POSE Matrix to 2D (XZ) Plane? I have a Posebone Matrix which I want to project to the Front (XZ) View.
Currently the bone axis can direct anywhere because they can have a custom bone roll which can direct the axis anywhere. I want to make this roll independent and somehow project it on the Front plane.

I tried this function, but it doesn't seem to give me proper results.

Since nobody else posted an answer yet, i had a try which might help you.

Note

This works only with the following options enabled

Inherit Rotation
Inherit Scale

Also drivers/constraints don't work.

import bpy
from mathutils import Vector, Matrix

obj = bpy.data.objects['Armature']
pb  = obj.pose.bones['Bone.001']

# constant
VEC_Y = Vector((0.0, 1.0, 0.0))

# components
loc, rot, scale = pb.matrix.decompose()

# projection
y_world = rot * VEC_Y
y_proj = y_world.copy()
y_proj.y = 0.0
factor = y_proj.magnitude
y_proj.normalize()

x_proj = VEC_Y.copy()
z_proj = x_proj.cross(y_proj)

# new world matrix
mat_rot_new = Matrix((x_proj, y_proj, z_proj))
mat_rot_new.transpose()

mat_scale = Matrix.Identity(3)
for i in range(3):
    # uncomment to uniformly scale the bone
    # to match the length of the projected bone
    mat_scale[i][i] = scale[i] # * factor

mat_world_new = mat_rot_new * mat_scale
mat_world_new.resize_4x4()
mat_world_new.translation = loc.copy()

# new local matrix
mat_world_old_inv = pb.matrix.inverted()
mat_basis_new = pb.matrix_basis * mat_world_old_inv * mat_world_new
# pb.matrix_basis = mat_basis_new

def get_mat_offset(pose_bone):
    """ calculate the (local) rest matrix of the bone """
    bone = pose_bone.bone
    mat_offset = bone.matrix.to_4x4()
    mat_offset.translation = bone.head.copy()
    mat_offset.translation.y += bone.parent.length
    return mat_offset

# ================================ Debug =====================================
# visualize source and target transformation with an empty for easy testing

def get_empty(name):
    empty = bpy.data.objects.get(name)
    if empty is None:
        empty = bpy.data.objects.new(name, None)
        empty.show_x_ray = True
        empty.empty_draw_type = "ARROWS"
        bpy.context.scene.objects.link(empty)
    return empty

mat_parent = pb.parent.matrix
mat_offset = get_mat_offset(pb)

get_empty("Source").matrix_world = mat_parent * mat_offset * pb.matrix_basis
get_empty("Target").matrix_world = mat_parent * mat_offset * mat_basis_new

for child in pb.children:
    # adjust the children bones so their world matrix remains unchanged
    mat_offset = get_mat_offset(child)
    mat_offset_inv = mat_offset.inverted()
    mat_basis_new_inv = mat_basis_new.inverted()

    mat_basis_child = (mat_offset_inv *
                       mat_basis_new_inv *
                       pb.matrix_basis *
                       mat_offset *
                       child.matrix_basis)

    if child.bone.use_connect == True:
        mat_basis_child.translation = 0.0, 0.0, 0.0

    get_empty("PB_" + child.name).matrix_world = mat_world_new * mat_offset * mat_basis_child

# =============================================================================


2.8 Bone editing and pose problems, cant select single bones I´ve built a rig in 2.8, however when I try to select a single bone in edit or pose mode, i can´t.
All i can do, is doubleclick the first bone i created to cycle through the other bones. I have tried in new files and rightclicking, but  the problem persists.
Help, i need to get an animation done soon and this is breaking my back.

I'm facing a similar problem. I just went into Animation mode and deleted my mesh to grab a bone in pose mode. That's not a full solution, but at least it gives some control to explore the problem further.


Glass material with darker areas Cycles I'm modelling a nutella pot, however I have a rendering problem.

As you can see I have a dark spot around the glass pot, my shading render is very simple though :

Also, I made the nutella model and the pot to intersect as saw in the Blender Guru donut tutorial series so there are no arctefacts. I tried to play with Light Paths values but it didn't changed a thing.
I'm clueless here.

Edit

Here is the .blend file :
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1raZvaCW-5wCaXbtoebrNK1KYopJt6opm

I've recreated your scene, and after examining the renders, it seems that the HDRI/Scene that you've created for lighting is causing the dark spots;

Try using another HDRI, or rotating the view, to see what I mean. I'm using this HDRI;

Which can be found in various resolutions here;

https://hdrihaven.com/hdri/?c=indoor&h=lebombo

Edit:

I see. Forgive me, I don't eat gnutella, and so our bottles were totally different. While mine was perfectly round, yours has a very unique (and by the way nicely modeled) shape;

Your specific issue is the table (you didn't pack the images, so this is going to look a bit odd);

If I change the table to a darker color, you see that the issue with your bottle isn't dark parts, it's an especially light table, contrasting against a dark background;

I bet you could replicate these results in real life with a bottle of gnutella and a table.


How to curve an already made curve? I created a curve, but now i need to take all the object and curve it again, like this:

You can use the powerful Curve modifier to do this. Make a curve to use as the factor, name it something you can remember, and then select the curve you want to bend and go to modifiers and add a Curve modifier. You then will need to select the name of the curve you want to use as the factor, like this:

Now your curve should conform to the shape of the circle, however it may look a little odd:

What you need to do is select the circle and scale it to the desired size, you should end up with something like this:


Vertex paint and bake color id? Hi i always bake color id with use material and color diffuse, but now i do my model option brush in blender. I use vertex paint for this :

It is possible to bake color id with this ?

You can use Input > Attribute node to feed Vertex Colors to Diffuse node and than Bake Diffuse Color as usual.


How do i make these parts of my model smoother and less discolored? So i am pulling final strings together to finish my project and i have these 2(used to be more, but i eliminated them whit knife tool or edge loop) unsmooth or discolored meshes. How do i get rid of them? I tried knife tool and edge loops and they dont seem to really work(that well)....

You should avoid triangle faces, especially where you need smooth curved surfaces. Use quads instead.

I fixed your model's normals to make it renderable but it won't be perfect...

You can solve some shading issues changing the blue edges back to normal. The blue edges are marked as sharp, this means they won't be smoothed. Some of them have been marked by mistake so you'll have to check.
This is how to "unmark" them :

In edit mode
1- change your selection mode to edge
2- select your edges and use Ctrl+E to open Edge menu
3- click on clear sharp


Is there a way I can specify my loopcuts' distance from the edge using units instead of a [-1,1] value? I'm trying to figure out how I can make a mesh with loop cuts of an exact distance:

If I'm making a mesh of something I'm going to subsurf and I want control loops to clean the edges up, I want to have the option of ensuring all the edges will be the same; using a value dependent on the size of the mesh itself for the edge slide doesn't seem conducive to this.

In this case, CtrlB beveling would give you a quick, clean result, with the settings as shown:

Or put the same settings in a Bevel modifier, for instance, by Bevel Weights, for a less destructive method.


How can I create a mouse Shortcut in Blender 2.8x or 2.9x to select object siblings in a collection with double click I hope you are doing OK.
I want to create a shortcut entry to be able to select a collection with double click in the 3d Viewport but I cant find the right command to put in the identifier.
If I check the console, the command that runs with select siblings is:
bpy.ops.object.select_grouped(type='SIBLINGS')

But if I go to preferences - Keymaps - 3DView - Object Mode. and create a new entry with that command and Mouse and Double click, it does nothing.
Has anyone tried to do something similar?
Any Advice would be appreciated.
Thanks.

I manage to do it with this config in the keymap configuration:
under preferences - keymap - 3D View - Object Mode (Global)

Then when working, when doing double click on an object I select the "Collection type" in the sub menu.
Later it remembers the last option used.
Now I can select objects in a collection quickly. Kinda like the "grouping" objects in another software.
Thanks.


Blender compositing conflict I am having a huge problem with compositing an effect I want. I finally finished animating, now I'm heading to compositing, and I got Glare on before I started animation, because it's difficult to deal with trying to get the desired parameter. Here is my node setup so far. (Note: I will be adding multiple effects than just two.)

I tried so many things, yet to find out what the problem is. I even searched it up. I tried another composite. Like Transform. Still gets dismissed. What's the problem here? Am I doing something wrong?

Use only one composite node. Think of it as the output image.

The other nodes can be added after each other or in parallel and mixed in a variety of ways:


How to make the same thickness in several places? How to make the same thickness of the roof in several places? I don't want to change angles of edges to 90 degrees to measure it, I wanna keep edges with existing angles. Help me, please.

You could try to extrude with the Shrink/Fatten mode: Select your mesh, press altE, choose the Along Normals mode, drag the extrusion, then in the last operation box (bottom left) enable Offset Even.

(You could also use a Solidify modifier, in this case, enable its Even Thickness option)


How to animate Constraints? I am making a Reloading animation and I want at first to Parent the mag to the gun when it moves, then Parent the mag to the hand.

So to do that I though of creating 2 Child of Constraints and then somehow animate the disabling and enabling of the two Constraints.

So, how do I do that, if there is any way?

or maybe it would better be to do so somehow else.

& please no python

There must be a better way to do what you want, but to answer your particular question about animating child of constraint, you can use the influence slider of each constraint.

Constraint the mag with two "child of" constraints, one linked to the gun, and another linked to the hand. Then you can animate their influences so that when the first is at 1, the other is at 0, and vice-versa.


Exporting a posed armature as a mesh to another blender I would appreciate anyone's help with a nagging problem I have been trying to solve for quite a while.

I have posed a rigged armature in a specific pose whilst in pose mode and would like to export this posed model (i.e. the mesh of the posed model alone) to another blender file that contains a scene. This is a static scene - no animations are required.

For this project I thus do not need the rig. I just need the posed model as a mesh.

In earlier attempts I either did not manage to retain the changes or else failed in other ways.

Would really appreciate someone's assistance to enable me to proceed with my project.

First convert the model to a mesh, which will remove all modifiers, parenting, and such, then export the mesh.

Select the mesh.
Press alt+c.
Select 'Mesh from curve/meta/surf/text'.
Click 'File' -> 'Export'.


Boolean with wireframe on mesh I have a mesh, then I copy the mesh and put the wireframe modifier on it.
Then I select my original mesh and set boolean modifier with the wireframed mesh with the "difference" option. I then hide the wireframe mesh.

Here I expect the wireframe mesh to "carve into" my original mesh at the edge lines. However, this is not working.

When I use the difference option it just acts as a union, the two meshes are merged together (See first image)
When I use Union the wireframe does "carve into" my original mesh, but it makes holes in it (see image). I want the mesh to still be "watertight". (See second image)

Does anyone know a good way to get the effect that I want?

If this is something like what you're after...

Select all edges, CtrlB bevel, by width, with a moderate even number of segments (here,6)
CtrlKeypad - reduce the selection back to the original latitudes and longitudes
O turn on proportional editing, Connected, Sphere fall-off, small radius
AltS scale along normals.
Select the smallest 'large' face, ShiftG select similar by area > 'Greater Than' to select all the large faces, and I inset them a little..

With  Autosmooth switched on, maybe have a play with the new Weighted
Normal modifier, by face area, to get the look you want without
subdivision.


Non-Planar faces issue So I have these non-planar faces forming in my mesh I don't understand why...

Here is the wirframe:

Things I have tried:

Selected all faces and scaled along x-axis to 0 in order to flatten the plane.
Tried to select the rings and (using vertex snap) snap them to the different vertices on the outside.

Here is the .blend file:

Any help is appreciated.

This is not because of "non planar faces", they are planar, this is because of smoothed normals, which are interpolating with the holes, this can be fixed with a small inset, or an edge split modifier, or reducing the auto smooth angle or marking the hole edges sharp, you can check this is the case if you set the models shading to flat.

I would recommend the marking the edges sharp method.

I don't want to meddle too much but if you were to model for a subdivisions approach this would be a lot less messy, and probably easier.

A huge amount of N-gons will limit you, if you do know very well what you need go ahead; N-gons are a tool, very much like animation interpolation that should be left only to perform menial tasks.


Automatic weight painting doesn't affect mesh I have an IK armature set up to move a very simple arm around, but after pairing the mesh to the armature using Ctrl+P then selecting automatic weights it seems as though nothing happens. I select the lower_arm and go into weight painting and nothing is there. I'm not sure if its a problem with the mesh I made since I made it myself from a sphere then sculpted it, or if its something else. The file is attached for reference.

Before assigning a mesh to an armature, the deforming bones have to be marked as deforming by checking deform. When creating bones, this checkbox is enabled by default, you must have unchecked it at some point.

After that, select the mesh, then ⇧ Shift RMB select the Armature and Parent them ⎈ CtrlP e.g. with Automatic Weights. Note, how vertex groups are created for the bones, which have Deform checked.

To ensure deformation, the Deform must stay checked and the Armature modifier (created by the parenting earlier) must be visible.


Why isn't my image texture working? I am currently using blender 2.8 and I was putting a texture on a plane, so it shouldn't have to be unwrapped, but it crashed and when I went to put it back on it just comes out as like an average color value of the image rather than the actual image. I have saved and quit, tried different images on new shaders. Nothing. In the screenshot showing image texture should be marble, but instead it's a bright white, it isn't a scaling or lighting problem.

Also worth noting that I'm using cycles to render.

Many Thanks

Have you Unwrapped That Plane again because as i think this happens only when Plane is not Uv Unwrapped just go to top view and in the edit mode just hit 'U' and then hit 'Project from View'
come back to object mode
and also connect the texture coordinate and mapping node to the image texture
This Should Work For You


Where to find deb file for Blender 2.78c I've been using the Blender PPA which recently updated to 2.79.  However, I want to remain with 2.78c for a while, but I'm not sure how to get it from the PPA (or even if I can, or find a deb file.  We're using Ubuntu 16.04.

I can get a zip file from Blender.org, but I'm managing a lab full of computers with puppet and I've got mass install of deb files figured out, but not from zip...

Is there a Blender 2.78c deb file somewhere for Xenial or Debian Stretch?

Edit, the closest I've found is 2.78a: https://debian.pkgs.org/9/debian-main-amd64/blender_2.78.a+dfsg0-4_amd64.deb.html

I ran into the same problem last night. Fortunately, I found a copy of the original 2.78c package in my apt cache. Here is my solution:

purge any existing blender installation (via apt-get) sudo apt-get purge blender
add the ppa Thomas Schiex sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thomas-schiex/blender;
sudo apt-get update; (Do not install blender from there directly. It would install 2.79 again, which we do not want here!)
download the 2.78c version of blender manually from here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4SAG_u19QW3RnhGYk5tU3kxekE (I would prefer a more official link to a working package here, but I found non.)
install the package via gdebi (assuming you downloaded to /home/$USER/Downloads): sudo gdebi /home/$USER/Downloads/blender_2.78c~1487946787-0thomas~xenial1_amd64.deb (dependencies are resolved from ppa Thomas Schiex)
Finished! Enjoy your 2.78c version of blender again.
to prevent from automatic updates, set the package to be unmodifiable: sudo apt-mark hold blender


Why my point lamp is going in one direction only? My point lamp is lighting in one direction and I don't know why. I've tried rotating and it doesn't work.

Glad if anyone could help.
Thanks

Edit: I found out the normal map was affecting somehow. anf answer helped a lot.

Your normal map node's strength is very high. Try setting it below 1.
If you are using the same image texture, it is better to use a bump node and connect it to the height input.
If you have a proper normal map (the purple ones), the image texture node should be set to non-color data and be connected to a normal map node'.


How to randomize particle effects along a curve guide? I have set a curve guide as the Effector Group of my particle flow. Now, the particles move along a linear path, I want some of them to take a more random path -- like some of them follow the path but then slowly deviate away from it -- so that it seems less obvious. Is there any way I can do that?

This is my setup:

As far as i experimented with my project, I couldn't find a definite solution. However,I was able to bypass the problem. I aligned the normals of the emitter along one of the axis, then with required level Brownian Motion set, I increased the Normal velocity of the particle system. Later I baked the Particle System, however this step was of my preference.
Similar results can also be achieved by setting a Particle System with the necessary -- Brownian Motion and Normal Velocity -- settings along with a Force Field of negative strength. Note that both the Particle System and Force Field have to exist on the same Layer. Also, a Force Field affects all particle systems present on the layer. Therefore, while using multiple particle systems place each of them on a different Layer if you don't want the Force Field affect them too.


How Do You Have Objects Stay In Front Of The Camera While It's Moving? In other words, if you set keyframes for the camera, then between the keyframes it's difficult to determine where to (for example) quickly put text in front of the camera while it's moving.  Is there any way to set objects so they are positioned in front of the camera automatically as it moves?  Thanks guys!

You can Parent an object to the camera by first selecting the object, then the camera (so that the camera is highlighted in yellow), then pressing CtrlP> Object:

The object will now stay fixed relative to the camera:


How can I list all the matcaps and studio lights via python? I'm currently working on new addon for blender 2.8 but I got stuck because I need to find a way to list all the Matcaps and Studio lights installed inside blender.

I'm using this to list all the matcaps and studioligths installed in blender:

import bpy

lights= bpy.context.preferences.studio_lights

list_lights=[]

list_lights.append(tuple(lights))

print(list_lights)

and It works that list all the studio ligths and matcaps, but with this structure:

<bpy_struct, StudioLight("basic_1.exr")>, StudioLight("03_Three_Points.sl")>...

and I would like to have only the name and the type of the light something like this:

['basic_1.exr'], ['03_Three_Points.sl']...

Hopefully someone could bring me some help

Thank you so much in advance

What you are seeing is the string representation of a blender class instance, for example the context scene object.

>> str(C.scene)
'<bpy_struct, Scene("Scene")>'

In this case an object of type bpy.types.StudioLight
Of particular interest the  name and type property.

>>> for sl in C.preferences.studio_lights:
...     sl.name, sl.type
...
('Default', 'STUDIO')
('basic_1.exr', 'MATCAP')
('basic_2.exr', 'MATCAP')
('basic_dark.exr', 'MATCAP')
('basic_side.exr', 'MATCAP')

For example to make a dictionary with the type as the key to a list of the names of all of that type:

>>> from collections import defaultdict
>>> studio_lights = defaultdict(list)
>>> for sl in C.preferences.studio_lights:
...     studio_lights[sl.type].append(sl.name)
...

What types are there?

>>> studio_lights.keys()
dict_keys(['STUDIO', 'MATCAP', 'WORLD'])

All those of type 'MATCAP'

>>> studio_lights['MATCAP']
['basic_1.exr', 'basic_2.exr', 'basic_dark.exr', 'basic_side.exr', 'ceramic_dark.exr', 'ceramic_lightbulb.exr', 'check_normal+y.exr', 'check_reflection.exr', 'check_rim_dark.exr', 'check_rim_light.exr', 'clay_brown.exr', 'clay_muddy.exr', 'clay_studio.exr', 'jade.exr', 'metal_anisotropic.exr', 'metal_carpaint.exr', 'metal_lead.exr', 'metal_shiny.exr', 'pearl.exr', 'resin.exr', 'skin.exr', 'toon.exr']


Look-dev ambient environment not working in Blender 2.8 Eevee I imported this project from an older version of Blender 2.8 (Janaury release) to the latest May beta release.

Upon doing so, my existing project's ambient background is now a checker background when I switch to look-dev and rendered modes in the EEVEE viewport

I tried adding an Environment background as you can see in the screenshot (and also switched to rendered view with the eevee viewport) and the background remains as checkers.

Help

Switch from Transparent to "SKY" on Film>Transparency on the Render tab.


Pixelate Faces in the VSE I need to hide faces from videos I make. I've found tutorials on blurring, which are great, but the render times are too long to be practical.

So in place of that, is there a way to pixelate the face in using the Video Sequence Editor?

You can use a VES transform effect first to shrink the image...

Make sure to set interpolation to off.

Next and another Transform effect onto the first, and reverse the scale. Enlarging the image. Make sure that Interpolation is off again.


Texture Mapping issue in blender I am having a problem mapping a texture.
I am new enough to texturing so excuse me if this is a simple question
I am trying to texture a modular wall part. I am not using uv mapping, I am mapping the textures using Generated Coordinates.The problem I am having is as follows:

I can get the texture to look ok in the zx plane but not in the zy
plane.  In the zy plane the texture is blurred and not sharp.

The original texture png is file attached for reference. screen shot of the mapped texture also showing the mapping settings is attached.

Is there any way of improving this mapping so that both planes are equally sharp?

The model is a plane (for a wall) with the wood face extruded in y+ve  direction, The strange thing is that if a insert a separate cube and scale it in edit mode along the z axis, the textures map fine. See attached image for details
What am I doing wrong?

I managed to figure out the logic of transforming the image, but thats not helping

Any help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
chris

Well, unless you're sure you've done so, I'd check to make sure that the scale and rotation were applied to the object. In object mode, select the object, and press CTRL-Akey.


Reset move gizmo to object face or geometry After rotation has been applied to an object, is there an easy way to re-align the move gizmo back to the object geometry?
NOTE : All gizmos in the image are LOCAL, not global. A shows the desired result, B is what I have now.

Its quite easy if you are using the latest blender versions. After you have rotated your object and applied the rotation, simply go to "Options" and select Affect only - origin.

Now you can simply rotate your Origin using either the Rotation tool or Rotation Shortcut "R".
After you are done rotating the origin you can exit the Affect only - Origin mode.
Note : You can not only rotate the origin, but also can Move the origin and also use Snap features.


How to create and design hoops net and attach ot to a hoop? I wanted to add the torus object and attach net on the torus object in blender. I am not sure how to make a circular net and attach it to a torus object.

Final:

Net/Rope:

I've made the net from Bezier Curve just by extruding vertices and tweaking handles. I've added Mirror and Array modifiers at the beginning to have constant overview of my whole shape. Array count should be even to number of hooks on you rim. Also Relative Offset is a bit smaller than 1 to overlap lines, this will give fake knots on rope.

At the end you will need to add Curve modifier with selected Bezier Circle from the Rim shape.

Next add Bevel to our net:

Now you will need to scale a bit on X axis our whole Bezier Curve (net) because adding Bevel will add also a little offset to it.

When everything is looking as you want duplicate this shape and move it to another layer - just in case.

Last thing before going further is to convert Bezier Curve (net) to mesh.

Cloth:

Add Cylinder with exact same radius and height as our net/rim and some Loop Cuts.

Add Surface Deform modifier to our net select created Cylinder and hit Bind.

Scale/Move/Tweak Cylinder with Proportional Editing to get basic net shape. Our net will follow this modifications due to Surface Deform modifier.

Add Vertex Group to our Cylinder and Assign to it top Edge Loop.

Add Cloth sim to Cylinder and tweak settings. I encourage you to test different values for different cloth behavior.

Now you can hide Cylinder.

Final thoughts and blend file:

I haven't used any complicated methods, all links provided should explain every step and if not - any question should be answered here or with many tutorials around the web. Also with provided blend file you should easily figure it out.

  Remember to Apply Scale and Rotation to meshes.

Blend file:


Combining image texture and brick texture I am trying to combine a BRICK TEXTURE and some IMAGE TEXTURE but without a great success.

I would like that stone textures fit perfectly inside each paving slabs.

I found this exercises very challenging, it will be wonderful if anyone can be any advice or explaining how these kind of nodes are working together.

the image below is what i am trying to avoid

Yorkstone T4 642 x 427 Px RGB 250kB

Yorkstone T5 700 x 396 Px RGB 62kB

Test 1 made with Gimp

LazyDodo's Cycles Brick Tricks

In the linked Blender artis thread of the title, Lazy Dodo is presenting a collection of complex nodegroups themed around the procedurale Brick texture. In practice is reconstructing them node by node with the built in function.

In addition to the usual parameters, their nodes outputs provide several useful function, like the UV of each tile present in the "brick_wall_basic" nodegroup you can find in the blendfile provided by the author or use the add-on:

We can easily use this texture to repat a pattern by simply using the UV output as a Texture Coordinate of our images.

Give those two pattern, in order to overlap them, we'll use the original Brick texture Color output as a mask for a nice procedural variation:

Sincronize the input values between the two procedural textures to ensure a correct overlap between them as long as possible (Brick Texture has no input for the Frequency or the Squash, you'll have to update manually or implement the mask in the nodegrup):


How to create manifold threads on cylinder with non-destructive editing? I'm trying to create a screw with non-destructive editing. After defining screw profile I apply a Screw modifier to it. However, the resulting object is not manifold (closed surface with non-zero volume) so I cannot use boolean difference nor boolean union with the screw body to create final object.
I have tried adding Solidify modifier with -1 offset and thick wall towards inside of the thread object but this does not seem to work either because the resulting object contains self-intersecting faces. I know that if I apply the Screw modifier and close the thread object manually, everything works fine. However, I'd prefer keeping the Screw modifier a real modifier so that I can adjust the number of Steps later to improve curve rendering quality if needed.
Is it possible to create manifold threads using Screw modifier to be used with Boolean modifier?

Yes.

Start with a screw from a non-manifold mesh.  In this case, I'm using a plane, with an empty to define the screw.
This gives a mesh that is manifold other than boundaries, appropriate for a solidify modifier.  In the example pic, the faces do not intersect.  You can eliminate the intersection for other meshes by reducing the thickness of the solidify.  (In the presence of other modifiers, it may be necessary to use modifier-generated vertex groups to modulate the thickness of the solidify.)
Of course, that leaves us with a hole in the middle of the screw, which might not be appropriate for the boolean difference we wish to create.  We can fill that hole by boolean unioning our manifold screw with a manifold cylinder.
This particular cylinder is placed and scaled by eye, in order to demonstrate the technique.  In a real life situation, you'd scale it differently.  If it's totally necessary, you can even scale it non-destructively in a number of ways.  I would probably armature deform it, with a stretch-to bone parented to and stretching-to a pair of non-deforming "marker" bones that shrinkwrap-projected onto a linked duplicate of the screw mesh.
I've applied all modifiers at the end and selected non-manifold to demonstrate that the resulting mesh is perfectly manifold, with its normals facing the right direction.
Here's a pic where I use the final object to cut into a cube:

The applied boolean difference is applied on the right.  On the left, the modifier is live, with the screw, and the cylinder used to "fill the hole", displayed as wireframe.
If you're having trouble using the final object as a boolean, you might be trying to solidify too much, creating overlapping geometry.


When using an Operator Modal Timer, how do i change the time period such that it executes every 5 seconds? I'm trying to use a modal operator timer to get a piece of code to execute every 5 seconds. Currently all i want is for it to print a statement every 5 seconds however, in the future, this will be changed to create a new object every 5 seconds.
Currently i use the following which prints the statement multiple times a second.
import bpy

class ModalTimerOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Operator which runs its self from a timer"""
    bl_idname = "wm.modal_timer_operator"
    bl_label = "Modal Timer Operator"

    _timer = None

    def modal(self, context, event):
        if event.type in {'RIGHTMOUSE', 'ESC'}:
            self.cancel(context)
            return {'CANCELLED'}

        if event.type == 'TIMER':
            print("5 seconds has passed")

        return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

    def execute(self, context):
        wm = context.window_manager
        self._timer = wm.event_timer_add(1.0, window=context.window)
        wm.modal_handler_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def cancel(self, context):
        wm = context.window_manager
        wm.event_timer_remove(self._timer)

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    # test call
    bpy.ops.wm.modal_timer_operator()

How do i change this to run once every 5 seconds?

The event timer has a property which defines how often your modal function will get called with the timer event, just change the value accordingly in the execute function:
time = 5.0
self._timer = wm.event_timer_add(time, window=context.window)


How to get an evenly distributed noise on compositor? I want to generate a random value for each pixel in the compositor, I tried the noise texture but it gets lower values in average instead of 0.5. 50% of the pixels are completely black.
Far to be enough to build random vectors.

How can I get TRUE randomness on compositor?

Adding a blur of two pixels gives a nice distribution throughout the tone range.

Edit

This is custom color noise setup.


Correct syntaxt to call object.draw_type = 'BOUNDS' as pie command? I would like to use bpy.context.object.draw_type = 'BOUNDS' as a pie operator like in the following line:

col.operator("object.draw_type", text="Object Solid", icon="MESH_CUBE").type='SOLID'

But I fail to figure out the correct way how to declare the type and get the error that draw_type has no attribute 'type' AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'type'.

I checked the API and do not find any clues about how to declare this directly inside an operator.

  Maximum draw type to display object with in viewport

  BOUNDS Bounds, Draw the bounds of the object. WIRE Wire, Draw the
  object as a wireframe. SOLID Solid, Draw the object as a solid (if
  solid drawing is enabled in the viewport). TEXTURED Textured, Draw the
  object with textures (if textures are enabled in the viewport).
  Type: enum in [‘BOUNDS’, ‘WIRE’, ‘SOLID’, ‘TEXTURED’], default
  ‘BOUNDS’

  draw_type Maximum draw type to display object with in viewport

Is this one of those commands where you have to define a class with the operator inside so you can all that via a pie instead?

read wm.py I promise this will be an eye-opener.

This has nothing to do with pies, pies are just specialized menu representations.  The property you are setting is an Enum ( a simple drop down in the UI is generally a representation of an Enum )

If you want to set the value of an Enum but don't want to present a dropdown, then you use wm.context_set_enum.

    if context.active_object:
        obj = context.active_object
        set_draw_type = layout.operator("wm.context_set_enum", text="Object Solid", icon="MESH_CUBE")
        set_draw_type.data_path = "object.draw_type"
        set_draw_type.value = 'BOUNDS'

wm.context_set_enum is defined in the class WM_OT_context_set_enum,
which delegated the execute function to execute_context_assign (also found in wm.py)


Import several groups in one step I try to append several groups from a .blend.

At the moment, i use this code:

with bpy.data.libraries.load(my_blend) as (data_from, data_to):
    if data_from.groups:
        for group in data_from.groups:
            directory = join(my_blend,"Group")
            bpy.ops.wm.append(filename=group, directory=directory)

This code works great but he append the groups one after the other and i need to append them in one steps to keep the groups in groups.

Is somebody would have an idea please ?

I finally found a solution in the documentation:

scn = bpy.context.scene

with bpy.data.libraries.load(blendfile) as (data_from, data_to):
    for attr in dir(data_to):
        setattr(data_to, attr, getattr(data_from, attr))

for obj in data_to.objects:
    if obj is not None:
        scn.objects.link(obj)

EDIT.

I edit my post to add a complement to my answer:

To import only chosen object and group, i finally write this code:

with bpy.data.libraries.load(blendfile) as (data_from, data_to):
    data_to.objects = [obj for obj in data_from.objects if obj in list_obj]
    data_to.groups = [gp for gp in data_from.groups if gp in list_gp]

    for obj in data_to.objects:
        if obj is not None:
            scn.objects.link(obj)


IK Bone setup , pole bones targets the bone wrong direction Hey guys I have imported a character from CC and I tried to add IK bones. After added the pole bones I have a issue something like that . I feel like it cause of bone rotations but I could not fix that.
Thanks for any help.
Here is blend file : Download

You need to bend the elbow a bit so that Blender knows in what direction the arm is supposed to bend.


Blender No Equilateral type in camera lens In blender I don't have the "type" option under lens for the camera object.

I really would like to use the equirectangular..

Blender version 2.78c

You must be in Cycles to access this option:


Export/Import Screen Layouts Just downloaded the latest version of Blender and was hoping for an easy way to port over some screen layouts made in the previous version.

Here's what worked for me:

Open previous version of Blender
Save current state as startup.blend (or other filename of choice)
Open the startup.blend file in new version of Blender and choose File -> Save Startup File (Ctrl + U)

Does anyone know of a better way to import/export screen layouts? Even though this worked for me, it doesn't seem like the best practice since some things may or may not get carried over in a startup.blend file.

You can copy the startup.blend file from your old blender config directory to the new one.

Example:
(on most linux distros) ~/.blender/2.69/config/startup.blend -> ~/.blender/config/startup.blend.
On Mac OS, it'd be in ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/<version>/config. Not sure about windows.

The only other things that seem to be there are user-installed add-ons (in scripts rather than config), bookmarks (config/bookmarks.txt) and recently opened files (recent-files.txt). You should be able to copy those without an issue.

For the startup blendfile, it's probably a good idea to save your settings after having started up, or to just continue doing it as you wrote in your question, to make sure that the blendfile is actually of the right version. Shouldn't make a big difference what with it still being a blendfile and the great reverse compatibility in blender, but you never know!


How can I connect a set of vertices to make a 3D model, with a script? I have a set of vertices in an spreadsheet from which I want to make an object. I only need it to connect the vertices and then fill in the faces. How can I do this in Blender?

The easiest path here is to export from excel as a .csv (comma separated values) in a column-format that the existing .csv readers/importers  written for Blender understand. Here's an example of one such addon . This means you don't have to write any import code.

But if you did want some autonomy over the import code, you might write something like this (but use a .csv format it is much easier to parse):

your csv, let's call it circle.csv

x,y,z
0.000000,1.000000,0
0.500000,0.866025,0
0.866025,0.500000,0
1.000000,0.000000,0
0.866025,-0.500000,0
0.500000,-0.866025,0
0.000000,-1.000000,0
-0.500000,-0.866025,0
-0.866025,-0.500000,0
-1.000000,-0.000000,0
-0.866025,0.500000,0
-0.500000,0.866025,0

The least amount of code needed to read a file like that into blender might look something like this. You run from Text Editor, (but remember to get the path to the file correct first..)

import csv
import os
import bpy

filename = 'circle.csv'
directory = '/home/zeffii/Desktop'  # <-- if you have linux or osx
# directory = r'c:\some\directory'  # <-- if windows, the r is important
# directory = 'c:/some/directory'  # <-- if windows (alternative)

fullpath = os.path.join(directory, filename)

with open(fullpath, 'r', newline='') as csvfile:
    ofile = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=',')
    next(ofile) # <-- skip the x,y,z header

    # this makes a generator of the remaining non-empty lines
    rows = (r for r in ofile if r)

    # this converts the string representation of each line
    # to an x,y,z list, and stores it in the verts list.
    verts = [[float(i) for i in r] for r in rows]

if verts:
    # join vertices into one uninterrupted chain of edges.
    edges = [[i, i+1] for i in range(len(verts)-1)]

    mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new("mesh_name")
    mesh.from_pydata(verts, edges, faces=[])
    mesh.update()

    obj = bpy.data.objects.new("obj_name", mesh)

    scene = bpy.context.scene
    scene.objects.link(obj)


Is it possible to re render a single pass and not the whole scene again? I'm experimenting with the values for the mist in my scene (Cycles), however each time I want to test the new values I can't find a way to only render the mist pass. This results in the whole scene being rendered again which takes a lot of time and makes experimenting with the values a real drag.

So the question is, can I render only the mist pass and then use it with the original render in the compositor?

It appears that the answer is no, however I'm not sure why this wouldn't be possible for some passes such as Object Index, Material Index, etc.)

As a workaround, render only one sample (you can also render at a lower resolution while testing).

To combine with the original render you will have to save the render to the hard drive (you may want to use exr to preserve other passes) and then load it back into the compositor with an Image node.


GPU render (OpenCL) is not creating an accurate composite- it only renders top "layer" I am using a Baffin (RX-460 4gb) to render.  I followed the Blender Guru Earth tutorial.  It utilizes cycles.  It basically creates an earth using 3 layers (Earth, Clouds, Atmosphere).

When I CPU render the object, it accurately renders the composite of the three layers.  When I GPU render it only shows the "top" layer- e.g. atmosphere.  A GPU render of each layer is accurate, but it will not produce a composite of all the layers properly.

You can see the correct CPU output versus the incorrect GPU output .

It appears that reducing the size of the textures allows it to render.  However, the output is distorted by noise lines.  No clean image is produced even if I resize the images.  Odd that this would happen with a 4gb card and not a 1gb card.

Perhaps Vulkan will yield better results if it is implemented.  Given the lackluster results with OpenCL, it may make more sense to construct a new method of rendering rather than fixing a broken one.

Update:  I just tried out RC 2.78 and it works!  It produces an accurate image with a GPU render in half the time!


How do I get a python script to run after the .blend file loads from the command line? I am using this command line:

blender -P test.py test.blend

and test.py has:

import bpy
for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
    scene.render.image_settings.file_format = "FFMPEG"

If I run with just this command line:

blender -P test.py

the file format is set just fine. But if I put the blender file back in the command line, the file format is not changed. My interpretation is that the .py file is run before the .blend file is loaded. Whether or not my interpretation is correct, how can I make this happen the way I want it to?

Additional information: This is a stand-along render server for high school students and I need to ensure that a number of things are set correctly and not just the file format.

Command line arguments are run in the order they are given. So at the minute, yes, the Python file is being run and then the 'test.blend' file is being opened.

To fix this you just need to put the blend file part of the command first and the Python file after:

blender test.blend -P test.py

Now your file is opened then the Python commands are run in that opened file.


Linking value to another anywhere in blender 2.8 i want to link value from one value to another. sort of instancing but for values.
for example in this case below:

monkey red and monkey green have a mix color node that both drive them to white if the mix factor is = to 1.

i want to link thoses two value so that if i change one, the other will change too and have the exact same value constantly.

i want to do this also with values in the proprety editor, N panel.. anywhere in blender really.

i heard about drivers, but every tutorials i found is to animate values depending on locations and distances, not linking one value to another.

could someone show me what is the technique ?
i also heard about custom propreties, maybe this could also help ?

thanks

1) add driver (ctrl d) to first value

2) copy driver (sorry im wrong do this at the end !!!!!)

3) paste driver to other value (sorry do this at the end !!!!!))

4) open a driver panel editor type, select the correct object otherwise the driver will not apear, also select the last step in the T panel on the left

5) go to n tab then driver tab

6) set a to scripted expression

7) the expression need to have the same name as the tab below "add input variable", so by default, "var"

8) next to "var" is a little symbol, click on it, set it to single proprety

9) create a custom proprety, in the propreties tab, you can create one in the scene tab, material tab, and object tab, and this custom proprety will appear on the N panel in the 3d viewport when the concerned object is selected, if you want the custom proprety to be not selection depentend then i advise you to create the proprety in the scene tab, or even world tab

10) we go back in the driver editor,in the n panel, and in our variable "prop" we choose the correct cathegory of where the custom proprety is

11) we need a path to the correct custom proprety we just created, so find him, right click on him, and "copy data path", then paste it in the "path" on the driver editor

12) we are done, tweak the custom proprety and the calue will change according to it, you may need to change the calue of the custom proprety in "edit" for it to correspond of the max and min value you want to tweak

JUST COPY AND PASTE DRIVER AT THE END ! i did it at the beginning this may be wrong

------------------------------------

in the case above its linking value for every single value possible in blender (from 0 to 1 at least)

but if you want to link value only trough the node, just use a nodegroup with an input value in it and paste it trough the materials.
in the future with everything node this will be really handy

------------------------------------


point camera to empty I want to point the camera at an empty.
I am close but not yet there.
It keeps moving a roll movement. How can I get rid of that?

The second line with "X Y Z" of the "direction to rotation" node is to indicate which axis of the object is to keep to the direction indicated in the "guide" vector in the bottom part of the node.

Here we have Z=1 (up) as guide so using Y will align to Z.

A complement: using this guide you can also plug the target's rotation as guide. This will give the following effect (note that AN is clever enough to automatically convert the rotation as a direction, adding another "rotation to direction" node):


How do I remove the orange reflection on the bottle? (coming from ground) (cycles) Can you please help me if there is a way to remove this lighter reflection on the bottle. I guess its coming from the ground. I have tried to increase roughness but it didn't worked.
I have no idea about light paths. Guess it can be the answer?
I'm pretty new in blender.

Go to Object Properties and scroll to the Visibility menu. Then inside of it, open the Ray Visibility menu. Inside that, uncheck "Glossy".


Unpaintable streaks in Weight Paint Mode I am new to blender and am currently trying to rig and animate a model of a simple cartoon duck. After creating an armature and assigning it to the model however, I found the automatic weights given were inappropriate, so decided to attempt to fix them using weight painting.

Once of the changes in particular that I wanted to make was to have the flat foot of the duck be fully affected by the foot bone. My problem is this: when trying to paint the foot all red, I get these strange blue streaks appearing:

I have tried painting over them with mixture/add brushes, with and without "limit selection to visible" checked, but it does not seem to make a difference.

Am I painting the weights incorrectly? Is it something to do with the way I have set up my armature or mesh? How can I solve this problem?

For reference:

Vertex view of foot

Wireframe view of foot

Those streaks are normal. They are caused by the way the paint display works. You are acutally painting on the vertices, not the faces. as a result, you will see unwanted blue areas on some of the surrounding faces.


My object isn't fully Rendered, but in viewport is alright I come to you today with this issue.
I've just start blender course @blenderguru (I really enjoy it;)).
As you can see (in render) my icing is gone... but sprinkles are there. And when I check it in blender viewport everything is alright. I am just starting learning, so please be nice :)

Rendered image (icing doesn't show up)

Here's how it looks like in Rendered Preview

And here's an image of my particles settings

P.S.: If it can help here's the blender file

You have to enable Show Emitter option, in Particles Settings.

It's often useful to have the emitter hidden, but in this case it is also an important part of your object.

Enable it here:
Properties Panel > Particle Settings > Render


Darken a procedural wood material quite new to this world, started learning blender with youtube 10 days ago.

So I donwloaded this material :
https://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/73950

I used file>append to add it to my scene from the downloaded .blend file,
with the node editor I tweaked it so that the grain appear nice on my planks :

but I can't find how to change the color, I'd like it to be darker.
Apparently this is not done in the node editor.

Would anyone know where this is done?
And while I'm at it, would anyone have a tutorial explaining how those
materials are done?
The only ones I found use an image texture, but If I understood correctly
procedural material do not use textures, everything is generated.

Thanks.

The easiest way is to go to your node editor and add a RGB Curves node inbetween your wood node and the diffuse node (where the circle is in the pic)

Then just bring down the curve.

You could also TAB into that wood node and look for the colored squares (like your glossy one has) and change the color that way.


Snap to grid lines when moving verticle acros the path I need create new verticle on path in point where grid and path are crossing.

How I make it:
1. Select points
2. RMB and subdivide
3. Select new verticle
4. Shift + V to move across path
5. Trying to move it with CTRL SHIFT and ALT modifiers

Sometimes it works

Sometimes not

How it works in inkscape

Maybe trere is easiest method?

ok this might be a funny solution but it works!

your line
make a line with e to desired location and connect to other with f
do the same to other side
join two new verts with J
clean the verts with ctrl + x


Blender takes a long time syncing objects Why does Blender take more time synchronizing than it does to render. Does anyone know a solution to this problem?

A screen shot of the sync screen:

This may not be a solution, but does help me speeding up the animation render.

In my case one object needs a lot of time to synchronize. While this is happening the computer is not really busy. To use these ressources I started a 2nd instance of blender (background render at the commandline) starting rendering the 2nd half of the animation. This increased the render time of both render instances just a little bit which in general accelerates the animation render almost by a factor of two.

I don't know how that is influenced by the specific scene and the hardware used. But for me it worked pretty well.


How can I render a toon character's head to always be visible in front of his body? Currently, I am working on a cartoon that will be modeled in 3D and rendered into 2D. The art style we want to go with isn't technically accurate within 3D space. The character has no neck and his head always appears in front of his body whether in front view or side view.

Does anyone know of a way that I can make the head object always visible in front of the character's body object and only through one layer of the character's body? Sort of like how Freestyle has QI range for rendering lines behind a certain number of faces. I want to do that, but for meshes.

Blend File

Reference images:

you could make it a flat object with a constrain to always  point it to the camera


How to include vertices to subdivision modifier? I created all the 3 faces attached to the extruded cube with shift+F. I tested some variations and the results were prettym uch the same. It uses some edges to make a nice smooth subdivision and it doesn't use others as subdivision orientation. There, it's sharp. Why is that? How can I make it round where it's sharp?
This is with faces inside. This time, it worked somehow. There's still a lot of sharpness:

When the inside faces are removed, it spikes again. There are never zero value faces (shown):

The file:

Your biggest problem are these internal faces. I can't really think of a reason you would ever want something like this, so start by deleting them.

The remaining problem, faces have fronts and backs, and the reason you're getting that cusp is because some of your faces are pointing the wrong way.

Select the whole mesh with 'A' and hit 'Shift N' to automatically correct the surface normals.


How do you create a dashed circle in blender? How would you create a dashed circle in blender with an empty circle object?
I want something that looks sort of like this:

Related: How do you create a dashed line in Blender?

The answer is pretty simple and in the link which you provided. Add a circle object, go to the bottom left, click on the triangle thingy, and set fill type from nothing to N-Gon, or if you prefer nothing, I don't mind, that is your choice. Then rotate the circle 90 degrees. Then, add an array modifier and set the values to this:

You can change the count to how much you like depending on the number of dots you want. I just set it to 15.
Here's the rendered result:

Hope it helps.


Animation nodes remove duplicate elements from list How can you remove duplicated items from a list of vectors, leaving only one of each item?

You can use this expression: [i for n, i in enumerate(x) if i not in x[:n]]


Rendered object too grainy (Beginner) Why is my rendered object and rendered image so grainy?
I followed tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rNrL7a12xg and when i added material its not looking the same

It is because you have too few samples. Samples are the number of times any given pixel is rendered. By increasing the number of samples in the render settings tab, you can decrease the amount of grainyness, or 'noise' in the image. Increasing the number of samples also raises render times too.

Also, if it's taking too long when rendering an image with very many samples, consider using less samples but with the denoiser.

To learn about the denoiser:

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/render/cycles/settings/scene/render_layers/denoising.html

And

Proper Denoising?

Hope this helps!


How to eliminate black stripe on the horizon from HDRI textures? I was wondering how can I eliminate the black stripes when I render HDRI textures. I'm new at the HDRI world.

If you are learning to use HDR, use a proper HDR image that is meant to be used for a 3D rendering.

You need an image that covers a range of 360 degrees preferably in equirectangular projection or Quadrilateralized spherical cube

In other words: a panoramic image that you can use as the world. Think of it as a large sphere that surrounds and lights your scene. It has to contain the information of the ground and the sky all around.

See: http://blog.gregzaal.com/tag/equirectangular/


Relationship between the sensor size and focal length When i go to the camera values in the datablocks, I can change all the camera parameters:

Horizontal/Vertical FOV and the Focal Length and Sensor Size.

When I update the Horizontal or Vertical FOV, the Focal Length gets updated correctly.

When I update the sensor width or sensor height, the corresponding FOV parameter gets updated, but the Focal Length does not.

It seems to me I will make the mapping completely off and as soon as I change the sensor size, the focal length is no longer correct. Why is that?
I need correct camera values including the sensor size and I am not sure right now in which combination I can achieve them.

The focal length doesn't change with sensor size. A lens with a 35mm focal length is always 35mm. However, the FOV changes for the same focal length with different sensor size.

The reason for the common misconception that the focal length gets longer with a smaller sensor, is that lens and camera manufacturers often (if not always) tell us that for instance "This 50mm lens on this camera is equivalent to an 80mm lens on a 35mm sensor". What this means, is that on a Canon APS-C sensor1 a 50mm lens gives the same FOV as an 80mm lens would on a fullframe 35mm2 sensor.

Crop factor on Wikipedia explains it quite well.

1Nikon has a different crop factor, so a 50mm lens on one of their cropped sensors would be equivalent to 75mm on a fullframe.
2A fullframe 35mm sensor is actually 36mmx24mm. 35mm comes from the fact that film is 35mm wide, including the edges above and below the recorded image.