How do I modify this script to affect bones instead of shape keys? import bpy
import csv
import numpy as np
data_path = 'C:/Users/E/Desktop/example.csv'
ob = bpy.context.object

with open(data_path, 'r') as f:
    reader = csv.reader(f, delimiter=',')
    names = next(reader)
    data = np.array(list(reader))
shapekeys = ob.data.shape_keys.key_blocks
for i in range(data.shape[0]):
    if data[i][1] != '0':

        for shape in shapekeys:
            if shape.name in names:
                index = names.index(shape.name)
                shape.value=float(data[i][index])
                shape.keyframe_insert("value", frame=i)

# The script does all the data mining to get the needed values.
# It allocates 3 values needed to utilize
# shape.name = bone name
# shape.value = location Y
# current frame = i
# I added these lines below but it doesn't work

    pb = ob.pose.bones.get(shape.name)
    if pb:
        pb.location.y = shape.value
        pb.keyframe_insert("location", i ) # y location

This script gives me an error
"armature object has no attribute"
So what is it that is needed to make this script allocate bone values locations Y?

Something like?
Speculating that the data file is akin to
name value
Bone 10.0
Bone.001 22

and using a string to emulate the file, ie data.splitlines() to emulate a text file buffer. Example below, pose bone "Bone" keyframe location 0 at frame 0,
Run script  with the armature object active and not in edit mode.
import bpy
import csv

context = bpy.context
ob = context.object
frames_per_line = 20

data = '''Bone, 0
Bone.001, 0.4
Bone.002,  1.0
Bone, 10
Bone, 20
Bone.002, -2.9'''

for frame, (name, value) in enumerate(csv.reader(data.splitlines())):

    pb = ob.pose.bones.get(name)
    if pb:
        pb.location.y = float(value)
        pb.keyframe_insert(
                "location",
                 index=1,
                 frame=frames_per_line * frame
             ) # y location


Why is my glass material noisy and opaque instead of translucent? I have been following a youtube tutorial on creating a window glass material. In the tutorial the outcome is perfect but when I copy it the outcome is grainy glass which is opaque rather than translucent. I have tried turning the reflective and refractive caustics on and off both together and individually. But this at best only has minor effect.

It seems like Blender messed up. After messing around for a while to no avail I closed blender. When I went back to it and reloaded the scene the glass was transparent and the graininess for the most part had gone.


C3D Importer does not work, Context is incorrect error I'm trying to import a *.c3d motion capture file into Blender, but when I click the Import C3D button, I get the following error:

What is wrong?

Make sure you are in Object Mode before you import!

You could also add a mode switch command to the import script:

bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT', toggle=False)


Why can I see through the objects in Solid mode ?? isn't it what x-ray mode is for? I don't know why its happening but its making me crazy.....
Tried changing the clip start and clip end, tried tweaking some values in viewport display under Object Property tab, tried to find out where the hell this Limit selection to visible is (sadly not available in blender 2.9+).
Does someone knows how to solve this issue ?????
Edit Mode - Side view screenshot for better understanding how the overall mesh really looks:-
Edit Mode - Front view with solid mode ON but X-ray mode OFF, chair's Back Leg visible through the mesh :-
Same as previous image with X-ray mode ON :-

Looks like you have enabled Viewport Display > In Front in the Object Settings of the chair object.


How to reverse camera direction tied to a path? I have tied a camera to an invisible box.
Next I have tied the box to a path.
After adding key frames the camera inside the box moves through the path.
However, at some point of the animation, I would like the camera to "reverse". That is, I'd like the camera to follow the path as previous, but I'd like it to rotate to point to the other direction.
The illustration shows more precisely what I want to achieve. The camera circles around, rotates to point downward and goes up (zoom out from the plane).
Red - camera orientation
Black - camera movement
When I add a key frame on the box, or camera, Blender seems to ignore my settings. I suppose because box and camera are tied to the path.

Create the curve.
Add the cube, create a constraint for it: Follow Path, enable "Follow Curve" and click the "Animate Path" button.
Add the camera, parent it to the cube. At the beginning of the scene, set it to point along the path. Set a Rotation keyframe for the position before the camera should 'reverse'.
Go to the frame / time when you want the camera to rotate, add a second Rotation keyframe to the camera.

Example file below:


How to fix no active image found in material slot I'm learning the texturing,give color, uv unwrap and baking through tutorial on youtube.

Somehow i got this error "no active image found in material slot"

( link 1: https://imgur.com/a/MBU4OuQ )
( link 2: https://imgur.com/lgtMQfq )

tried to solve it by reading forum but still cannot understand what does it mean by material slot, let alone to fix it.

what did i do wrong? need help.
version used: 2.8

To bake into an image you need to have it selected in the Node editor

you don't have to connect it to anything

just an image texture node then select the image you want to bake on and make sure that the node is selected


Wobbly gear ring needs fixing Any suggestions on cause/fix for this wobbly gear ring?  Seems that while rotating on y axis it wobbles quite noticeably.  Couldn't find anything obvious in mesh but I'm somewhat of a newb at this.

I tried the following method with some success.  It's tedious and not very precise, but hopefully someone posts a better solution.

In EDIT mode and viewing ring gear along its profile so it appears as a straight line, I slowly rotated it. Whenever I noticed the profile getting 'thicker,' this indicated a 'wobble' where the opposing arcs are not aligned because the circle is slightly skewed along its axis of rotation at that point. I then adjusted the rotation along the perpendicular axis until the profile narrowed or thinned.

These adjustments need to be made in edit mode so they are applied in object mode.


Make an array/ animation node with adjustable angle and size for instances I struggle with something might be a simple question. I was trying to make an adjustable array. The array element align the curve that need some loose part and tihgt part for further modifier. And the element I want it to be adjustable can change the angle and change the size.

also the array I'll need to attach it on the surface.

I'm afraid the question not so simple as it looks like. I think the perfect solution for this - Animation Nodes

For example, this is a basic setup of objects on curve:

After this, you can try to find a way how add to control of scale and rotation of objects. For example, I use distance between empty and object to set scale for elements of array:

I'm afraid, Animation Nodes is a big topic, that I can't discus in one little post. But I give you an idea and providing file for you:


I-beam pointer background color inversion The background color of the I-beam cursor inverted as follows (only in Blender):

Seems that something got toggled…

N.B. Loading the factory settings couldn't solve the problem.

Specs: blender 2.79b - f4dc9f9 // MacOS 10.13.6

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Following: User Preferences > Themes

Extra:

It should be this setting, in the "user interface" section:


The difference between Factor and Image: How can I combine them? I do not understand here what is the difference between Fact and Image:

Inputs
Factor
Controls the amount of influence the node exerts on the output image.
Image
The background image. The image size and resolution sets the dimensions of the output image.

How can I combine those two: Image and Fact ?

It is easier to understand if you use a black and white image to combine the elements.
This black and white image has two values: 0 means Black, and 1 means White.

The Factor input determines how two other elements in a node are combined:
Whatever is black will be the color of the Top image socket,
Whatever is white will be the image connected to the Bottom socket.

All other values between 0 and 1 (different tones of gray) in the Factor image, will result in a mix between the two values.


Is there a way to exclude parts of mesh from curving when using curve modifier Is there a way to make parts of a mesh thats bending according to a curve (curve modifier) rigid?

Yes. Select those parts in edit mode.

Press Ctrl+i to invert selection. Everything else is selected.

Create a vertex group. Assign the selected vertices to the vertex group.

Exit edit mode.

In Object mode apply the curve deformer and select the vertex group. It will be applied only to the parts you previously selected.


Set JPEG compression for image.save() I'd like to know how to set the compression ratio for jpg's for a python script, that is baking ambient occlusion for me. I use the image.save() method of the baked image in the script.

The settings you are looking for are the scene's render settings. When you save an image it will by default use these settings as well. The quality (JPEG compression) parameter is under the scene's render image settings:

bpy.context.scene.render.image_settings.quality

However, an Image data object's normal save function ( bpy.data.images['MyImage'].save() ) will not use the scene's render settings. It uses the image format settings which relates to the image saving dialogue opened through the UV/Image Editor's UI.

So to save and take the render settings into account use the Image data object's save_render function:

img = bpy.data.images['MyImage']
img.save_render( filepath = img.filepath, scene = bpy.context.scene )

The filepath = img.filepath bit makes sure you save on the image's existing file path. The scene = bpy.context.scene makes sure you save with the current scene's render settings applied, including the compression or quality parameter.


Apply tilt to my rotating earth As you can see I am animating planets revolving around a clock but I wish to emulate the earths axial tilt whilst it spins but I cannot find a way to do so. What I get is weird wobble spin. How do you suggest should I do this?

additional info: that planet is parented to an empty and the empty follows a bezier circle.

Unless I am misunderstanding your question. You should be able to just tilt the earth and then rotate it setting keyframes how fast you want to do it. It should still follow the parent.

Dont do anything to the parent just set keyframes on the earth itself by rotating Z space. Not sure what the wobble is, check the graph editor to make sure nothing looks weird there. Maybe apply scale CTRL + A. Make sure you dont have to many keyframes that is making it look weird.


Does Blender consider each frame to be separate scenes, while rendering animation? While rendering an animation in blender is each frame considered a different scene?

I don't have much experience with animations what I do know is that while creating a video several images are rendered (frames) and then combined at about 24FPS.

My question is, are each of these frames considered a to be a different Scene?

I can only answer the first question.

Each frame is NOT considered a different scene. Every scene has their own frames/timeline.

So "Scene 1" could have 250 frames, and "Scene 2" could have 150 frames. However, the first 150 frames in each of these scenes are different. Changing some animation in frame 50 in "Scene 1" does not affect frame 50 in "Scene 2" (unless you've specifically linked them).

At the top of Blender, you can see which scene you currently reside in:


Merge by distance messes up shading? I have recently encountered the following problem: I am importing a model from WOW Model Viewer, but it is imported in such a way that faces are not connected, so in order to rig and animate it properly, I have to use Merge by Distance to prevent "...bone heat weighting ..." Error. However, this messes up the shading for whatever reason.

Model before merge by distance:

Model after merge by distance:

Q: How can I get my model shaded as it was originally?

So the problem wasn't in the "Merge by distance", but rather because after I imported the model all edges were marked as sharp and I cleared them. If I don't clear them everything works fine. So to anyone having the same problem leave the edges marked as sharp.


Which animation features don't support sub-frames? Blender can render sub-frames, see: (see: How do I animate time?)

However not all capabilities support this (Fluid-Simulation for example, writes out a discreet mesh per frame, with no subframe interpolation support).

Question: Which animation features in Blender currently don't support sub-frames?

With regard to time-remapping, which is particularly useful for gradual transitions from normal-speed into slow-mo/fast-mo speed).

Note: the Sequencer can do time remapping with the speed strip, but this applies to other kinds of subframe operations too - motion blur for eg.

While I would like to make a comprehensive list (in one go), this involves quite some research.

Please add in the comments if I miss something.

Subframe Supported

FCurves (and anything they animate)
Drivers (including the frame variable passed into PyDrivers)
Shape Keys (Mesh/Lattice/Curve)
Shape Keys (Mask)
Curve/Path constraint
Rigid-body physics
Particles

Subframe Unsupported

Movie/Image sequence
Fluid-simulation
Smoke-simulation
Hair-simulation
Cloth-simulation
Video SequencerNote that while its possible to access sub-frames via the Speed-Effect.Exporting subframes from the sequencer it's self is not supported.

Note:

In some cases if subframe support isn't working where it should be- this should be reported as a bug.


Filling space between two identical curves/mesh I wanted to create a flat coil for a project. I used this workflow: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/7090/12883

I copied my first coil. Now I have two coils in two dimensions (the first above the second). The space between those is the third dimension. (Z Axis)

Is there an easy way to fill the space between those spirals?

At the moment I am filling the space between both spirals by selecting four points and filling that part, then selecting the next four points and filling the next part (as you can see in the picture).

For reference:

You are looking for the "Bridge Edge Loops" command.


How can n-gons be selected? Editing a mesh for a while I didn't notice that I created a n-gon. After adding a subsurf modifier the mesh heavily deformed, it took while until I found this:

Is there an easy way to select n-gons?

Yes.

Press 3D view > HEader > Select > Faces by Sides:

Then set the type to greater than and the number of vertices to 4 in the redo panel (F6 or at the bottom of the tool shelf):

Edit Blender 2.8

This option is now in Select > Select All by Trait > Faces by Sides


Cannot enter edit mode after moving item to another layer? I just duplicated my model and moved it to a new layer to sort of 'save' a copy of it and now I can't enter edit mode?

You can reproduce this by opening a new project and duplicating the cube via Shift+D and then move that cube to a new layer. Once that happens you're no longer able to enter edit mode. Why? How can I maintain a copy of my model on another layer and edit the current layer?

To enter Edit mode the active Object ( not an : Empty, Camera, Lamp ) should be on a visible layer.


Show custom thumbnails in file browser for folders Is there a way in the Blender file browser to show custom icons or thumbnails for folders?

It bugs me when I'm browsing through textures and I have to open all folders containing a group of PBR textures seperately to get an idea how one looks.

It would help, if there would be a way to preview files like Windows does it (see screenshot), or if there would be a way to set icons manually/via script.

As far as I know, this isn't possible in Blender for now. The file browser is being revamped for one of the next versions (I think 2.81 or 2.82 if I remember correctly), so maybe it will be a thing then.


How can I create a Bowen knot? The Bowen knot is used on Apple keyboards as the symbol of the ⌘ Command key, also known as Viking's Shield, Heraldic Knot, etc.
I'm trying to work out the overlap. Ideally, I want to use a Bézier curve which can then be modified in various ways using circles or planes for various end results. I guess I can use either a screw modifier or a modified spiral for the end circles, because they must either tilt up or down accordingly depending on the flow from one corner to another, right?

The flow from one corner to the next is pretty straightforward. As simple as connecting vertices. It's the end curves I'm having trouble figuring out.
How can I create a Bowen knot?

From left to right:

Create a circle and in edit mode shift it

Delete a quarter of the vertices

Duplicate/rotate 3 times

Join the vertices

Rotate each circle (say) 10 degrees

Convert the mesh into a curve

Curve settings:

Give it extrusion. As the extrusion is along Z, rotate the knot around X so that it is Z up and apply the rotation.
Shader: get the U of the UV that is along the curve and add a color ramp.
a better, quicker way

Start from a plane instead of a circle.
Add subdivisions.
Next steps are the same.


Texture appears stretched on extruded sections of mesh I have a maze game in blender and to make the maze I subdivided a cube I flattened out and then selected some parts, extruded it, and raised it up. But, when I put in the texture, it didn't really work (see images). The walls were just lines. I really need to know how to fix that, even if it means that I don't see the texture the right way on the top. I just need the walls to look nice on the inside.

This can happen for several reasons, the most common being that you modified the mesh after initially adding the texture, hence the stretched look. A simple fix is to just unwrap the model again.
The fastest way to get a good result with a generic box model like that is to press U > Cube Projection or Smart UV Project depending on how tiled you want certain subdivided parts to look (can read more and experiment with the unwrapping types here).
Extrusions after adding texture

Extrusions after correcting using cube projection unwrapping

Extrusions after correcting using smart uv project


When you choose automatic weights does it have settings? The automatic weights are pretty good but I wish it had a more shallow reach per bone. Or reach by surface instead of volume.

Stuff like that?

For more control you could use the Envelope Weights instead. For this, select your armature and set its Display properties to 'Envelope'. The bones will now show in 'Edit mode' surrounded with a halo indicating the extent of the envelope and this can be varied for each bone via the properties panel ('N') via the Envelope attribute. The reach of influence of that bone is also affected by the Head and Tail radius. When the armature is parented to a mesh via the 'With Envelope Weights' option, the reach of the envelope will affect the influence of each bone.


Modellng a chain link from a torus primitive? Starting by a torus, I'd like to make the shape of a chain link without touching the torus minor radius.  Saying this I'm excluding the use of scale in object/edit mode, as it will change the minor radius and deform the continuity.

Is there a way to move all 4 link edges symmetrically?

For an End Chain Link (on the right in the picture) it is enough to start with a torus, split it vertically and re-bridge it later.  The Common Chain Link (left in the picture) does have slightly squeezed/angled sides, which I'd prefer to deform/edit once for the one corner and all the others shall just follow the editing, i.e. remain symmetrical along the X-Y-Z axes.

It's not really a scaling operation. It's a translation of half of the torus.

But strictly speaking, to keep a perfectly even profile, you have to duplicate the central edge loops (in the illustration, by splitting the loops, moving one half of the torus, and re-bridging the loops)


How to use dynamic topology for terrain modeling I tried to get some hills and valley on a 2x2 Km plane with dynatopo, but it is invisible as it seems to be limited in the height it can produce. How can i get it to make bumps that are realistic for that use (100m big or even more) ?

Notes: I know the solution using subdivided planes and proportional editing but it is not as powerful and flexible.
As it as to fit the rest of the scene, I can't realistically work on a 2m plane and then scale to 2Km every time to check if it's ok and then back to 2m to polish, that back and forth is way to time consuming.

Try applying scale to the object, with CtrlA > Scale.

There shouldn't be any limit to the height you can sculpt, but object scaling might make the sculpting influence too small. Also this is probably a general sculpt mode problem not specific to dynamic topology.


Script to scale objects resets scale when scrubbing through frames I am writing a Python script for Blender 2.8 in which I replace objects in the scene with new objects.
I start by importing the new object as a .FBX and linking the original object data to the new object.
The new object then needs to be scaled down to fit where the old objects were.

The issue is that when I run the script it appears to have worked until I change the animation frame and the scaling I have applied is erased.
Here is a snippet of the code

import bpy

file = '\\Fruit&Veg\\Banana_FBX\\Banana.FBX'
i = file.rfind('\\')
new_asset_name = file[i + 1:-4]
bpy.ops.import_scene.fbx(filepath=file)
bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = bpy.data.objects[new_asset_name]
bpy.ops.object.scale_clear()

bpy.data.object['Orange'].select_set(True)
bpy.ops.object.make_links_data(type='OBDATA')
bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = obj

ratio = bpy.data.objects[new_asset_name].dimensions[2] / 0.255 # how much larger new object is

bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(1/ratio,1/ratio, 1/ratio), orient_type='GLOBAL', orient_matrix=((1, 0, 0), (0, 1, 0), (0, 0, 1)), orient_matrix_type='GLOBAL', constraint_axis=(False, False, True), mirror=True, use_proportional_edit=False, proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1, use_proportional_connected=False, use_proportional_projected=False, release_confirm=True)

I'm pretty sure your scale is keyframed. Just like when you scale manually and there are scale keyframes present, it will ignore your changes (unless you use auto-keying) and reset to the scale saved in the keyframe. FBX often have everything keyed by default export options of the program they were created with, even if the property isn't animated. If that's not the case, please don't downvote, but provide more detail, maybe share the .blend. Thank you.


Scale object and keep relative camera angle I'm making a re-creation of a real-world picture of mine, and I want it to have accurate scale so that the falloff of my light looks correct. Problem is, my base mesh is far too big:

I want to scale down my base mesh, but I also need to keep the exact camera angle I've established. Is there a way to do this?

Ah, silly me. I had the pivot point set to 'individual origins,' but setting it to 'median point' solves my scaling issue.


Extruding 3 circles from a uv sphere, general modeling advice I am trying to make a smooth, well meshed corner from a sphere with 3 extensions at right angles.  As you can see from the image that the mesh is 'messy'.  Any suggestions on how to do this better?
I start with a uv sphere, proportional grab from a pole, then duplicate and rotate the 3 extrusions into position and union the result.  I've tried this multiple times but always end up with a mesh that is less than perfect.
I've realized that a uv sphere has 2 poles so clean grab of 3 'sides' is tricky.
I've followed a number of tutorials but am now venturing off into modelling my ideas and I'm finding all kinds of interesting challenges.
I've tried similar with an ico sphere and a subdivided (rounded) cube but I've not been happy with any of the results.  I've also tried uv spheres of different segments and rings.
The left hand side shows the mesh inside the sphere, the right hand side show the render view outside with red circles around the problem areas.
Any advice or ideas are welcome.

It's not clear why you're not satisfied with a subdivided cube, you can subdivide it 3 times with a Smoothness of 1:

Cut off 3 holes, make the holes circular with AltShiftS:

Extrude:


Making glass Orbs with effects inside Does anyone know how this type of an orb could be created using Blender?

I've tried using Glass material with an invisible Emission object inside that would emit tiny spheres but without an Environment it looks weird and very bleak.

No matter what lighting I experimented with I don't get such a nice-looking orb. Any suggestion is highly appreciated!

Final result

It's extremely simple setup. The one from your image.

Steps

Create UV Sphere and add to it Glass Shader.
Add Plane with choosen image, use Emission Shader for this. You can use Images as Plane Addon then you need to switch from Diffuse to Emission.
Place Plane behind Sphere and...
That's it.

Final thoughts:

If you want clear background behind the orb, select Plane and in Object tab > Cycles Settings, uncheck Ray Visibility > Camera.


Strange artefacts after applying a subsurface modifier? After adding a subdivision surface modifier to my model, I get these strange artefacts:

It looks a little bit like Z fighting, but there is definitely not any intersecting geometry so I am really not sure what is causing it. Does anyone have any ideas?

Same settings as you, and no Z-index fight:

Can you share the blend file?
thanks


Where can I find Zero Brush in Blender I am new to Blender. I just download it and start my learning here. I have question about Grease Pencil...I don't see Zero Brush menu when I press my short cut key "T" and I don't see it in my search menu either...Please guide me through it if you know thanks!

This is a commercial addon you can find at BlenderSensei.com - you need to buy it and install separately.
https://blendersensei.com/zero-brush/


Rigging a Wheel to Turn Corners: Drivers vs. Bones The tutorials I've found show how to rig a wheel to roll automatically, in one direction (X or Y), in relation to the location of an empty or bone. I've managed to get the wheel rotation to work along both the X and Y-axis in a drivers-based rig, but the wheel rotation when steering on the Z-axis isn't always accurate.

A bones-based rig could possibly work if there's a way to set the axle or driver bone to local space, but I don't see a way to do this, and it might just result in the same issues as the drivers-based rig.

Your thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.

The two rigs I've made are downloadable here, both controlled by the "ground" empty/bone.

Both approaches will not work when dealing with corners, they will only work in straight line. There is more about why that is here:

Making wheels spin as car moves

You need to either:

construct a path for the car (or for each wheel if you want to be precise) and drive the wheels with that
Use Animation Nodes addon, this lets you access animation F-curve data and compute the wheel rotations
Use rigid body physics to simulate the wheels and collision with ground, bake the simulation into keyframes
Create a PyDriver (a driver with added function through script that can access blender f-curve data) or a frame change handler. With both you can access animation to compute the path and drive the wheels correctly
Write a script for your rig that will add/update animation of the wheels to the f-curves, similar to a script that would snap FK and IK bones in a rig, but with different function
Write an own engine that will simulate the wheels collisions and add it through app-handler to execute on each update of the car rig


cutting face at texture wrap i've been looking everywhere for this but i can't find anything at all... basically what i'm trying to do is something like

normal:

what i'm trying to do:

is there any way i can achieve this?

You could:

Make a flat plane, and create UVs.
It should automatically adjust to the texture you have.
Duplicate it, and then move it to each side, so that you create that checker board pattern you want.
Then, you could simply create a cylinder and use it in a boolean operation to cut the flat planes into the circular shape you want.
You'll need to do some extra cleanup, but it should work.


How can I create an L shape with two beveled sides? I've been trying to get this right but it seems like I get stuck every time.
This is what I'm looking for, but time and time again I've been stumped.

I have to add this boolean difference to it when it's sculpted out:

But when I go to sub surf it, this happens and it becomes very difficult to add loop cuts around them to fix it, actually they don't even show up at all and using the knife tool is too difficult.

Here's a cruder but see through version of the shape I'm looking for.

You can do this with the bevel tool.

Start with a cube, in edit mode (TAB) select the edges you want to make round:

press CtrlB to use the bevel tool and set the parameters for Amount to 1 and Profile to 0.5

Remove doubles (press the Spacebar or press Ctrlv->Remouve Doubles)

To make the first shape you describe extrude these faces:

For the second shape you'd need to make a cut before extruding:


Imitate Copy Transform Constraint in BGE To put it simply, I need something like the Copy Transform constraint that'll work for the BGE.

I have a setup for landscape Level of Detail, in which there are 2 scenes (one for high-poly models and one for low-poly models), each with a camera. The high-poly scene's camera has the low-poly scene set as a scene background.  Look at this video for more info on my LoD method.  The problem is I can't figure out a way to make the cameras in each scene move in exactly the same way while in-game to make the scenes line up correctly.  If needed I can use Python scripts, but I don't know the language all too well.  Thanks to anyone who helps in advance.

as I understood this script may help you.

from bge import logic

cnt = logic.getCurrentController()
scn = logic.getSceneList()[0] # the background scene or low-poly scene
cam1 = cnt.owner # the high-poly scene camera
cam2 = scn.objects['Low_poly_camera'] # the low-poly scene camera

def c2tc1(): # we set the cam2 pos/rot to the cam1
    cam2.worldPosition = cam1.worldPosition
    cam2.worldOrientation = cam1.worldOrientation

c2tc1()

How it works:

this code should run always with high-poly scene camera that moves, you don't need to move the low-poly scene camera it will follow the high camera always.

Make sure that:

True level triggering  pulse mode is active so the code should run on each frame.


How to add extrapolation functionality in Blender 2.69? I saw this short tutorial on youtube,
someone made a rotation animation of two keyframes, opened the graph editor, changed the interpolation mode to linear and selected linear extrapolation. The effect was, that although he animated a limited rotation, the extrapolatiton made the rotation infinite in both directions.

I tried to make this with my Blender (version 2.69), but as I opened the Key-window inside the graph editor there was no Extrapolation mode to select, only interpolation mode.

Do I have to add this mode separetly or is there another way to create this infinite rotation ?

In 2.69 this was in the Channel menu (⇧ ShiftE):

However I recommend updating to the latest version (2.75). See Is it advisable to update Blender to the newest version as soon as possible each time?


How to access node tree of a selected node group in python? Scenario:

I have these two node group instances "Test 1" and "Test 2" containing image textures. Now I would like to modify nodes inside of a selected node group in python.
To access the nodes inside a node group I have to know the name of the node group (e.g. "Material.Input 1" for node group "Test 1"):
img_node = bpy.data.node_groups ["Material.Input 1"].nodes ["Image Texture 1"]

But I would like to do this dynamically using the selected node group like this:
active_node = context.active_node
# active_node.name: Group.003
# active_node.group: Test 1
img_node = bpy.data.node_groups [active_node.???].nodes ["Image Texture 1"]

How can I achieve this?

First off, to get the currently active node, you can use

currNode = context.active_node

from within an addon / Operator (which I suppose you're doing, otherwise there would be no bpy.context.selected_nodes). From the Python Console, getting the currently active node in the compositing tree would be

currNode = bpy.context.scene.node_tree.nodes.active

From there, you can use

currNode.id_data

to retrieve the tree this node lives in. This also works in Material Node Trees. To retrieve the materials (remember it could theoretical be more than one material using the same node tree) you can to:

print ([x for x in D.materials if x.node_tree == currNode.id_data])

So in your example:

# get a node first
x = D.node_groups['NodeGroup'].nodes['Group Input']

# now get the tree of this node (which is the node group)
x.id_data    # this gives you 'Node Group' again

Edit: Find the node tree of a group

After the question has been rephrased, this solution would be smarter: Node groups simply have an own Node Tree themselves. You can think of it like:

ShaderNodeTree.nodes[someGroup].node_tree.nodes[someOtherGroup].node_tree.nodes.thisCanGoOnForever

So in your case:

active_node = context.active_node
# active_node.name: Group.003
# active_node.group: Test 1

# find an image node in the group node tree
# groups have their own node tree to collect nodes
img_node = active_node.node_tree.nodes.get("Image Texture 1")

If the Image Texture named "Image Texture 1" exists, img_node will be the object. Otherwise, img_node will be None.


How to copy a specific area in a 3d map? I bought a 3D map of whole hong kong city but only specific area is needed. (i have attached an example photo for your easy reference)

Any chances to copy the selected area and save it as another 3D object file?

My purpose is to put it in powerpoint as a 3D object, for presentation use.
(as you can imagine, the original file size is too large, not feasible to put the whole city map into a powerpoint)

Thank you so much for your help!

Your request it's not so clear, but I'll try anyway.

press Tab to get into Edit Mode
press Num 7, Num 5 to get in Top ortographic view
press the X-Ray button (in the picture)
press B and drag with the mouse to select the areas you want to delete (or use the circle selection tool with C)
press Del (the "delete" button, which has different names in different countries) and choose Vertices

keep doing that until you get the area you want, and try to cut along streets or parks, so that you don't cut buildings in half
press Tab to get back into Object Mode
select your model and export it from the File > Export menu

If you want to make a game or something else and you need the map to be closed (so a smaller map instead of a portion of a bigger one), you need to create some natural barriers, like walls, mountains or sea, on the edges of the map.

While doing that you need to re-route the severed streets (just copy-paste the existing ones)


Using CMU Graphics Lab Motion Capture Database I have been attempting to import CMU motion capture into Unity through Blender.  I was specifically using actor number 127, action number 3: Run.  I was downloading asf/amc file format.  I then used amc2bvh to convert it to bvh. (I have also tried the native AMC importer, but it doesn't seem to to work as well) Once it is imported, I save the blend file and import it into Unity.  I change the avatar to be a humanoid avatar and leave the defaults.  This is the result.

If I add bone rotation constraints to the thighs and limit the rotation on the Z-axis, then that seems to resolve the problem with this particular one.  I would like to fix this a better way that way I can use the rolling animation in such in my game.  If anyone has any idea how to solve this, it would be much appreciated.

I suggest using bvh files from this library
CMU-BVH

On youtube, check out Benjycook Blender MoCap Addon Tutorial, which uses the same library.
BenjyCook


How to make an object with particles on it looks partially wet trying to make an object with a material that looks partially wet.
like these reference photos.

i've tried using a "wet map" nodes group provided on a blender user's website. unfortunately, the material almost wholly became more shiny or glossy than before using that wet map.
i wish the material can have two different characteristics; like different gloss/highlight/reflection, and different IOR perhaps.

any suggestion in the material setup with nodes that we can make for that?
plain material without physics simulation to consider, maybe?
*pardon my english. not a native speaker.

EDIT:

this what i've got with the fluid sim.
and the whole thing get shinier all over it. also, the way the palm sugar syrup is flown on the surface was a bit weird.
i wish there's a way i can learn how to achieve this. either with a better fluid sim. and, especially the way we can set the material up in the node editor. even if the model/scene doesn't involve fluid sim.

by the way, there are two parts of the fluid where it's wet on the surface. and they look quite dark as if close to black.

and this is how i made the material setup, using the wet map nodes group provided by planetblender.

Although fluid simulation may be your best bet, here is a way to use dynamic paint to simulate an effect similar to your photo.

To create the dynamic paint effect, I made some blobby "fluid like" meshes to act as dynamic paint brushes.  The lupi mesh (and a coconut flake mesh, for the particle system) were the canvas.  From right to left: the meshes including the brush objects; the dynamic paint effect on the canvas; the result on the material.

The material on the Lupi is what uses the wetmap as a factor to mix between two principled shaders.  One shader, the "wet" shader, has a red tint (varied with a noise texture) and more glossiness via a clearcoat.

Getting the dynamic paint to apply to the coconut particles is more complicated.  After the particle system is set up on the Lupi mesh (I used a "hair" type of particle system), it is necessary to apply a Particle Instance modifier to the coconut shreds - otherwise each particle will not act as its own separate Dynamic Paint canvas.  As mentioned before, the coconut shred mesh has a Dynamic Paint canvas applied to it.

The coconut particle material is much simpler, it's just got a base color of white (for "dry") and a reddish tint plus a clearcoat (for "wet"), with the wetmap as the factor of a Mix shader.

The above is not a step-by-step but hopefully it provides guidance as to the general technique.


Low-Quality Wireframe material on Cycles for Preview Purposes? Is there any way to create a real Low-Quality Wireframe material on Cycles for Preview Purposes on Cycles Render? I need to save time by rendering...

You can easily use the Wireframe modifier to do something like this. You will want to untick the Replace Original checkbox. You will have about as low-res of an effect as you can get. One other important thing is Subdivision modifiers do affect it, so you may need to move the Wireframe modifier up or down the modifier stack, and you may also need to enable Crease Edges to keep the wireframe from deforming.

Sadly the Wireframe node in the material editor does not follow the mesh edges, but the triangulated mesh (quads are treated as two triangles, etc.)


moving a USB cable along a curve So I think this may be fairly easy but I am not finding the solution. I want to move several USB cables along a curve and have them plug themselves in. Naturally I thought to just model out the cables and then apply a curve modifier, the only flaw is I do not want the head of the cables deformed... So how can I get the cable to follow the path and deform while having the head follow that same path and not deform?

Thank you so much!

Here is a link to a youtube video that does what you are wanting in some aspects, and it worked for me, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRAfhJQFjRo&list=PL2DcM9Gsef16GjHLpFtYS1A0iBlsCoq6G ,  i Would reccomend starting at 2:12, thats when he uses the curve


Rotation animation on z-axis in Blender I am  quite new to blender and it is first time I am making a character and an animation with it in blender.

I have a rabbit character that I gave some animation keyframe so it has an idle animtion, a walk animation and a jump animation.
I want to use this character later in Unity for a little game. I want to make a side view game, so the character can for example can walk to right and left. I do not know if you can flip/mirror the animaiton in Unity.
In blender I want to make an animation where it walks from right to left, and then an animation where it walks from left to right.

I tried changing the position of the character by rotating the whole armature on the z-axis to 180, and I hoped with the auto-keyframes turned on it would create new keyframes automaticly with the new location and rotation of the armature but as I play the animation it changed the whole animation to be 180 on the z-axis, so the whole animation was flipped. It did'nt work as I would love to.
I then tried to create a new Action and copy the keyframes and then do the 180-thing on the z-axis, but it also changed the characters position on the other Action...

I do not know what to do from now on.
I just want the character and keyframes to be flipped, so I get an animation that both walks from right til left, and left to right.

Hope you guys will help me!

Update

I tried to look at this question Rotate whole animation by 90 degrees

But this did not help, I could rotate it by using an empty cube and parenting it to the objects, but it still rotates the whole animation.
I have an animation where it walks from right to left and i like to keep that, I just want an animation from there on that walk the opposite way from left to right by just rotating the object and armature and make keyframes of that.

Suggestion. Select armature in object mode. Go to  start frame 02. Insert Key frame rotation.  Go to end frame 08. Rotate armature on Z-axis. Insert key frame rotation. Test Animation.
Consider watching a tutorial video on a video website.  There are some really useful introductory tutorials on the web.  Search Blender Tutorial Keyframes.


Why is there no option to convert a mesh to metaball object? I realize this wouldn't be optimal for detailed meshes, but it would certainly be useful for creating others.

Sometimes I have meshes I'd like to join together, only I'd like them to interact as if they were metas.

One Meta from Mesh Exterior?

Since metas look similar to a remesh modifier with low poly, couldn't the add-on just lower the poly count as much as necessary (and only use the object outline as a guide) before converting to meta?

Multiple Metas as One?

The answer to this question: "Are there any non-standard meta objects available?" says it's not possible with python programming but suggests there may be a work around if the shape is composed using many meatballs. I feel there must be some other reason a "convert to meta" add-on isn't available.

One indirect way to achieve this will be using a grid distributed particle system, with a meta-ball as the particle object.

Here are the important particle system settings for doing this:

And here's the meta version vs. the original:

You can also set the overall resolution via the metaball's resolution property.

Since these are all fairly simple PS properties, it wouldn't be difficult to automate them as a script or addon.


Why can't I see the Cycles Rendering button in Node Editor? When I enter into the Node Editor to mess around with materials, i'm greeted with no cycles render button, nor any of the others.

The buttons aren't there.

Please help, I've tried to see if it was enabled in Add-ons and it was, yet it's just not there in the node editor. I've also tried to change my rendering from CPU to GPU rendering, but to no avail, it's not there.

Please assist me, I've had this problem ever since i got blender.

There is no cycles render button on the node editor.

To switch render engines the button is in the info window.

then select your render engine

If that is not the button you are looking for please add an image on the original question that shows what buttons you expect to see.


Where to start with UVW files and adding them to a object so I have ordered a model and textures from someone and they have sent me over the .fbx file containing the model. He has also sent 3 uvw files. I know it has something to do with wrapping or unwrapping but I dont know what to search to learn how to do this? Any help would be helpfull. Thak you.

You don´t add them to an object previously treated with uvw maps. If they are present and not knowing what kind of obects is, is somewhat difficult. But, you can check the uvw maps appplied to the object in the corresponding uvw editor in Blender. For that you need to go into edit mode and select all the faces as shown in the screenshots.
In order to select all faces and don´t miss anyone go into wireframe mode which is the first sphere in the shade view as shown in the second screenshot in the upper right part of the screen. .


Is there a way to render "material preview", as seen in the main layout (viewport)? Is there a way to render "material preview", as seen in the main layout (viewport), outside of a screen capture software, which is causing issues for me?

You can render directly from any viewport using the "Viewport Render" option:

Be sure to set the color management to Standard when rendering this way. Otherwise, the exported image will be run through filmic twice resulting in gray highlights.


How is the force necessary to counter gravity calculated in Blender? Different values are required to balance forces in the physics tab with the force of gravity. For example, if the force of gravity is defined as -9.8, a force field setting of about 234 is required to counter the effect of gravity for an object with a mass of 1.

My expectation was that the force-field setting of 9.8 should counter gravity. However, the required setting is far away from that. Changing units from None to Metric did not affect the ratio.

How is the force necessary to counter gravity calculated in Blender?

For example, create a simple scene with a cube, a plane, and an empty. Enable rigid-body dynamics for the cube. Enable a force-field for the empty on the physics tab.

The gravity is left at the default setting.

By experimentation, the counter acting force-field is found to be about 234 to balance the cube.

This setup results in the cube staying almost still. It would be useful to be able to calculate the force-field setting required to calculate the balance force rather than use experimentation.

The blend file with this setup is located at:

The force field has many paremeter such has application point, shape of the object, range ... whereas the gravity is the global variable that has no parameter except it's the value.
So you can't expect to counter the gravity with a forcefield at a value of 9.8 .


Preventing BI Emit material from lighting through objects I have a material with emit (Blender Internal renderer) on top of a cube with deep hole on it. What I expect is the light should not be able to get into the hole. However it is as if the top of the cube does not exist at all and light the hole completely. (Reducing indirect lighting bounce to 1 makes the ceiling of that hole dark, understandably)

Any way to make a material blocks emitted light?

Changing the emit material's transparency mode to Raytrace helps a bit, but not completely.

Z transparency ones for comparison

I tried to replicate, probably not identical, but it seems that indirect lighting is the factor mostly affecting that... I just reduced it from 1.0 to 0.2 here:

turning it off removes the colored shade completely (but also on the top face of the bottom cube):

Since indirect lighting here works only with "approximate" gather (if you use "raytrace" gather it works better and is very similar to turning off indirect like above), I guess that "approximate" word means: faster, but it does not fit well in all situations...

eg:


Is it possible to have a camera track a new empty in the middle of an animation? I don't think it's possible, but I'd like to have one camera filming a single scene instead of binding different cameras to markers.
Is it possible to have a camera track an empty and then part way through an animation, move to a new empty and track that?

You can have several "track to" constraints, and animate (keyframe) their respective influences:


Scene added in VSE with local timing I have several scenes (Scene1 and Scene2 in the example) with videos and effects on them. In a main scene (AllScenes), I have added all these scenes in VSE to make one movie.

My problem is about the effects: the key frames in my scenes are in global time not in local time, so the effects won't happen in the right moment.

In my example, Scene2 has an effect (between 5 and 22 seconds) that I want to find back when I add the scene in AllScenes. But, the effect on Scene2 still happens between 5 and 22 seconds whereas the scene has not started yet.

See this file:

What would be the solution to my problem without rendering each scene and importing them as video?
Is it possible to add a scene with local based key frames?

Just doing copy/paste with ctrl-C ctrl-V will not copy the keyframes.
From your diagram I will assume that you want to re-use an effect strip in the VSE.

To copy keyframes you must make a duplicate strip using Shift-D .


Animation Nodes : How to access object properties in the 3D viewport I require some help please. Blender 2.8 Animation Node Addon. I am using the "Object Transforms Output". Here I can rotate and move objects, but in the 3d viewport I cannot do anything.
I would like to do both. Use the Node and also move the object in the 3d viewport and update the node automatically.
It needs to be the same as using the transforms in the property panel.
My goal is to have all objects listed with each of their transforms. Can this be done? Thanks in advance, if anyone can help.

You can use the ID panel to create ID Transformation Keys to objects and set those ID Transformations in your node tree as follows:


How can I view my 3D rendered 360 pictures on gear VR? I got a gear VR with an app that lets me view pictures in 360, I have made the app able to recognice my usual 360 rendered pictures. But I have seen the same app can also show 3D 360, which means there is depth in sight in the 360 image. I have rendered a panorama picture with the stereoscopy option "spherical stereoscopy" activated. It gave me two panorama files on the output. Which are for Left and Right eye. How can I turn those into a 3D panorama file usable in Gear VR? Would love some help on this. I have gone through google about an hour with no luck on this topic, or even any information on those filetypes.

This might be helpful:

How to render an environment to a Cube Map in Cycles

There is a section about rendering an "Equirectangular Map to Cube Map".
You can also download .blend files that come with the 3D camera and a compositing setup which seems to be pretty well documented.

I do not know of a way to view spherical images. You can view equirectangular images in the Samsung Internet Browser with some html biolerplate but the resolution really makes this a non-viable option.

Turning your scene into a Cube Map allows you to upload the file for viewing in the Oculus Photos app and it is the best solution in regards to quality.

The only downside is that you need to modify the cubemap image to follow the Oculus format which differs from what the Blender Internal mechanism expects.


Is there a way to redo modal arguments? Hey is it possible to change redo_last options during modal?
This script adds a plane in edit mode and then obviously adds
a new plane every time it loops, is there a way to make the plane and then toggle through the rotation without repeating the add plane operator?

bl_info = {
    "name": "test_modal",
    "author": "test",
    "version": (1, 0),
    "blender": (2, 79, 0),
    "description": "test",
    "category": "3D View"}

import bpy
import blf
import bgl

def draw_callback_px(self, context):
    screen_x = bpy.context.region.width / 2
    font_id = 0
    blf.size(font_id, 32, 72)

    # X
    if self.axis == 'X':
        bgl.glColor4f(1, 0, 0, 1)
        blf.position(font_id, screen_x, 7, 0)
        blf.draw(font_id, "Axis: X")
    # Y
    if self.axis == 'Y':
        bgl.glColor4f(0, 1, 0, 1)
        blf.position(font_id, screen_x, 7, 0)
        blf.draw(font_id, "Axis: Y")
    # Z
    if self.axis == 'Z':
        bgl.glColor4f(0, 0, 1, 1)
        blf.position(font_id, screen_x, 7, 0)
        blf.draw(font_id, "Axis: Z")

class TestModal(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "test.test_modal"
    bl_label = "test"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'GRAB_CURSOR', 'BLOCKING'}

    def execute(self, context):
        if self.axis == 'X':
            bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_plane_add(radius = 10, rotation = (1.5708, 0, 0))
        elif self.axis == 'Y':
            bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_plane_add(radius = 10, rotation = (0, 1.5708, 0))
        elif self.axis == 'Z':
            bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_plane_add(radius = 10, rotation = (0, 0, 1.5708))
        return {'FINISHED'}

    def modal(self, context, event):
        if event.type == 'Z' and event.value == 'PRESS':
            self.axis = "Z"
            self.execute(context)
        if event.type == 'X' and event.value == 'PRESS':
            self.axis = "X"
            self.execute(context)
        if event.type == 'Y' and event.value == 'PRESS':
            self.axis = "Y"
            self.execute(context)

        elif event.type == 'LEFTMOUSE':
            self.report({'INFO'}, 'Completed')
            bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_remove(self._handle, 'WINDOW')
            return {'FINISHED'}

        elif event.type in ('RIGHTMOUSE', 'ESC'):
            bpy.ops.mesh.delete(type = 'VERT')
            self.report({'INFO'}, 'Cancelled')
            bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_remove(self._handle, 'WINDOW')
            return {'CANCELLED'}

        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        args = (self, context)
        self._handle = bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_add(draw_callback_px, args, 'WINDOW', 'POST_PIXEL')
        # store vars
        self.axis = "X"
        # deselect all
        bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action = 'DESELECT')
        self.execute(context)
        context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)

        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

BMesh Approach

I've rejigged your script to use an edit mode bmesh.  Adds a plane on press of "axis key"  X, Y or Z at the cursor location. Rotates the mesh locally about given axis.

It will keep rotating mesh 90 degrees on given axis. (4 times will return to starting point.  Test event type vs previously set axis to remove this behaviour.

bl_info = {
    "name": "test_modal",
    "author": "test",
    "version": (1, 0),
    "blender": (2, 79, 0),
    "description": "test",
    "category": "3D View"}

import bpy
import blf
import bgl
import bmesh
from mathutils import Matrix
from math import radians
axes = "XYZ"
def draw_callback_px(self, context):
    screen_x = context.region.width / 2
    font_id = 0
    blf.size(font_id, 32, 72)
    col = [0, 0, 0, 1]
    if self.axis in axes:
        col[axes.index(self.axis)] = 1
        bgl.glColor4f(*col)
        blf.position(font_id, screen_x, 7, 0)
        blf.draw(font_id, "Axis: %s" % self.axis)

class TestModal(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "test.test_modal"
    bl_label = "test"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'GRAB_CURSOR', 'BLOCKING'}
    bm = None
    verts = None
    mwi = None
    def execute(self, context):
        loc = self.mwi * context.scene.cursor_location
        if self.verts is None:
            self.bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(context.object.data)
            ret = bmesh.ops.create_grid(self.bm, size=10)
            self.verts = ret["verts"]

            bmesh.ops.translate(
                    self.bm,
                    verts=self.verts,
                    vec=loc)

        bmesh.ops.rotate(
                self.bm,
                verts=self.verts,
                cent=loc,
                matrix=Matrix.Rotation(radians(90.0),
                        3, self.axis))
        bmesh.update_edit_mesh(context.object.data)

    def modal(self, context, event):
        if event.type in axes and event.value == 'PRESS':
            self.axis = event.type
            self.execute(context)

        elif event.type == 'LEFTMOUSE':
            bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_remove(self._handle, 'WINDOW')
            self.report({'INFO'}, 'Completed')
            context.area.tag_redraw()
            return {'FINISHED'}

        elif event.type in ('RIGHTMOUSE', 'ESC'):
            bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_remove(self._handle, 'WINDOW')
            context.area.tag_redraw()
            if self.bm:
                for v in self.verts:
                    self.bm.verts.remove(v)
                # bmesh.ops.delete(self.bm, geom=self.verts) # ??
                bmesh.update_edit_mesh(context.object.data)
            self.report({'INFO'}, 'Cancelled')

            return {'CANCELLED'}

        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        args = (self, context)
        self._handle = bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_add(draw_callback_px, args, 'WINDOW', 'POST_PIXEL')
        # store vars
        self.axis = "V"
        self.mwi = context.object.matrix_world.inverted()
        context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)

        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


Location of object in OSL I'm running Blender 2.78

Using OSL, I am trying to find the location of an object. In the Node editor, I am in Shader Nodes for World. The object I'm trying to find is a UV sphere named 'MySun' and has an emitter material using cycles.

In the OSL script, I'm trying to get the location of MySun like this:

vector Sv;
getattribute("MySun","object:location", Sv);

When I run it, I get an EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION error and Blender crashes. I've searched all over for the correct way to do this and have found people saying it couldn't be done, or that you can only get the location of the current object. What's the current object when you're working on "World"?

These were posts from several years ago, so I'm hoping that if there was a bug it's fixed by now, because the documentation certainly seems like getattribute is made to get the attributes of any object you name.

Is there another way I'm supposed to reference an object?

Thanks!

This functionality still not supported. And will not in the near future - see developers answer here https://developer.blender.org/T52154

But you can "Bake" scene objects into OSL script and query object parameters in material nodes later. There is even addon for that:
https://github.com/IPv6/kristallum/blob/master/blender/addons/sceneFeatBaker_v01.py

It creates text block with OSL shader (or replace existing one), that can find object location, dimensions, orientation, etc during render by name and/or name prefix. For direct use in material nodes


disable different snaps on zoom When using the grid and snap-to, it uses various distances based on your zoom level. Is there a way to turn that off?

I want to snap to the zoom level I'm explicitly telling it to be at, not some arbitrary number because I happened to zoom out.

To get zoom independent snapping you need to keep the displayed grid from subdividing. As described here (Grid: disable auto subdivision) to keep the grid from subdividing go to "View" -> "Properties" -> "Display" -> "Subdivisions" -> *set the value to 1*. To change the size of the snap, change the "Scale" value in the same section.


Mesh subdivide x&y indepenently I need to subdivide a pre-existing mesh grid with different values for x & y (like I could in pre-2.8). Is this possible in 2.8? I have looked through the UI and searched online for a few hours...nothing so far.

You can do that by subdividing one direction at a time. You can do so by first selecting two opposite edges, and subdividing them. Then, select the new grid lines by holding Ctrl+Alt and clicking on one of the grid lines. Then subdivide that.

Edit


Saving a rendered file with a audio track on it Hi everyone i am just needing some help on my animation i have made. i have rendered it as an animation and added a audio file on top of it but i don't know how to save it as a mp 4 file with the sound on top of it.

Hey buddy you can do it in render tab right side panel. Just. Look for ouput section in this tab you will find Output format sect mp4 as your preference then render . You are done.


I'm trying to get sIBL to work, but it won't install the .py addon for it So I installed sIBL and downloaded most of the free HDR images they offer. I loaded up the library files etc, and now I'm ready to use it with some Blender scenes. Well when I click send to software messages pop up saying things along the lines of: "socket connection error" and "loader script raised exception". So yes I'm having trouble and was wondering if anyone here has a solution or could help me.

I'm using Blender 2.76. Windows 64bit. I tried running both as Admin already, and already tried placing the addon directly in the addon's folder for Blender.

Image of the issue:

This is the error when I turn my firewall off completely:

In the Scene Properties there is a section titled sIBL Gui in it there are a few buttons,
 1. Launch sIBL GUI
 2. Start Server
 3. Stop Server

Press Start Server and you should be able to use the send to software button in sIBL_GUI.


Smooth edges are sharp after rendering I'm a complete beginner at blender so please help in a way a beginner can understand. I'm following the blender guru's blender beginner tutorial on youtube and im on the final 9th episode. I've made a donut and before I put it through a final render, the frosting is nice and smooth. But after I render it, the drips of frosting are sharp and triangular. I have NO CLUE what I did or how to fix it. It makes zero sense and I could really use some help. Heres before final rendering and after final rendering.

Make sure your render settings for your subsurf modifier are at least the same or higher than your view settings. In the following image you can see view subdiv is lower than render.

Set your render subdivs higher or equal to your subdivs.


What is it called when you type math directly into a property? In After Effects we call it expressions or action scripting.
In c4d we use Xpresso or in the old days C.O.F.F.E.E.
What is it commonly referred to in blender when you just want to do something similar to time * 50 in a property without using drivers or invoking all kinds of custom scripting?
I tried searching for expressions and scripting but all I end up with is how to write add-ons and script in python.

Despite saying it's not what you want, what you've described is a driver. It might sometimes be called a 'Scripted Expression' (and the Blender Manual now refers to it simply as an 'Expression'), but it's still just a type of driver.
Type #frame * 10 into a property field, e.g. the 'X' location of an object, and press Enter and the property will turn purple, indicating the expression has automatically been turned into a driver. This driver can then be tweaked either by clicking on the property again or by looking in the 'Drivers Editor'.
The types of commands that can be typed into property fields are called 'Simple Expressions'.
An example of the keywords you can type into a property from the Blender Manual:

Globals
frame
Constants
pi, True, False
Operators
+, -, *, /, ==, !=, <, <=, >, >=, and, or, not, conditional operator/ ternary if
Functions
min, max, radians, degrees, abs, fabs, floor, ceil, trunc, int, sin, cos, tan, asin, acos, atan, atan2, exp, log, sqrt, pow, fmod

Note: You need to have a # symbol in front of the expression, e.g. #frame * 2. In the case of 'Constants', 'Operators' and 'Functions' (but not frame), if you omit the # Blender will simply change the property to be the result of the expression, but it won't be driven by it.


Custom Rotation for a tilted aircraft flap I've been modeling an F-15, but when I rotate the flaps on Y-Axis the Flaps offset from the wing and they look like they are about to fall out, so I end up correcting it by rotating in the X and Z-axis to align them correctly.

However when I rotate them back from the Y-Axis they look distorted again because I did rotations on the X and Z axis. I tried riding it, no help. I saw something about custom orientation to fix it but that was not clearly explained and it was done on an ideal plane that was (0,0,0); mine is pre-rotated on all axis.

I'll take scripts if needed and I'm using Blender 2.8.

When I rotate it on the Y-Axis:

Fixing it using X and Z rotation:

Rotating it back on the Y distorted it again:

Here's the wing with ailerons and flaps:

If you do it this way it seems to work:

Create a bone, in the Properties panel > Data > Display, enable X-Ray (called In Front in 2.8).
Put the bone along the aileron's axis. Use the shiftS > Cursor To Selected and the shiftS > Selection To Cursor to make sure the head and tail of the bone are on the exact positions.
If you want the bone to be displayed as B-Bone, go in the Properties panel > Data > Display (altctrlS to change its thickness).
Parent the aileron to the bone With Automatic Weight.
Select the bone, switch to Pose mode, create a first keyframe with i > RotLocScale.
In the Dopesheet go to frame 20, rotate the bone on its Y axis with RYY. Create a second keyframe.
The bone should make the aileron rotate correctly. You'll have to parent the bone to the wing bone (or whatever bone that will make the aileron stick to the plane).


How to find lost image in uv/image editor? I was rendering my model in cycles render, and I zoomed out and panned away (in the uv/image editor), and now I can't find the rendered image. How do I center it in the image editor?

Use:

View > View Fit
Or View All

Or use a hotkey like lemon mentioned (provided you are using blender's default hotkeys):

Home or Shift + Home


Repairing a Mirror Modifier centre-line non-manifold edges (2.8) So I have made a fairly simple shape (I'm new to blender) that I created using the mirror modifier on the X and Z axis so I only needed to make one quarter of it and the rest was mirrored. It's something I'm wanting to 3D print, so I had to make sure it was properly structured (my previous attempt had appeared in the slicer as... a complete mess.)

Everything works fine, everything is accurate. I use the 3D toolbox to check for errors, and with the mirror modifier still on the queue there's 0 non-manifolds. As soon as I apply the modifier, it changes to 40 non manifolds.

Ok that's fine, it seems to be where the mirrored objects meet. I had Merge selected on the mirror options, but it seems to do nothing. Whatever, no problem. The solution is to Remove Doubles, right? (Going from previous help topics on stack)

2.8 doesn't have Remove Doubles.

Ok so the new version of remove doubles is merge by distance. Select all the non-manifold vertices, merge by distance. Removes 0 vertices. OK maybe increase the distance a little? Nope.

It only removes vertices when I hit 5mm, which happens to be the next row of edges (which it promptly gobbles up). So as far as the merge by distance tool is concerned, I have no non-manifold doubled up edges/verts in the shape. But the 3D Toolkit is determined that I have 40 of them.

I could just select and delete them... but I'm not sure if that's fixing things or breaking them futher. But as this seems to be a question that hasn't been asked yet (since the update changed how things worked) I figured it was appropriate to ask it!

Hopefully someone can help.

Select all vertices in your mesh and hit Alt-M.  From the drop-down, choose "By Distance".  You can also change the "distance" at the bottom-left corner of the window.  Here's a picture to show you where.

It looks to me like this is pretty much the same as the "Remove Doubles" option.  Hope this helps!

P.S.  If you have two vertices that are not at the same position, and you want them to merge to the position of a certain one of those vertices, you select the vertex that has the desired position first, then select the other and merge them, using the drop-down option "At First".  Hope that makes sense.


Why doesn't selecting a UV island select the corresponding vertices in the model? I have a model and I selected an island from my UV map with L, but those vertices didn't get selected on the mesh. Why is that?

Is there any way to quickly select UV islands on the mesh?

This is a follow-up question to Where is the "sync selection" option?

This is now possible as of this commit. Will be in 2.75 or any recent development build.

To use it, enable Sync Selection, switch to face select mode (⎈ Ctrl↹ Tab), and enjoy ;)


How can I merge several UV images into one UV image? I have created several space ships using up to 7-8 single images to texture the objects. As I am a blender beginner I did not unwrap the models and create a texture from the unwrap; instead, I just unwrapped the models and used a lot of different images on their faces.

Now that I want to use the model (I use it in Unity 3D) there are a lot of materials on the objects, one for each image I used. For mobile game performance I'd like to have one single image for each model, including all textures I used.

Is there any way to merge all used images (with their UV mapping still intact) to one big image which will be imported as one single material for the model in unity?

General workflow:

Add a new UV map
Unwrap all of your model into one texture space
Create a new texture (empty)
Bake your materials into that texture

If you struggle post your .blend file and I'll have a look what needs to be done.


Followed Blender Guru's Geometry Node tutorial (gumdrops), have some issues with how it looks I followed the tutorial as closely as possible, have the exact same settings (according to my knowledge) but it does not look nearly as good. It's too transparent. Can someone tell me how to fix it?
(the first one is mine, the second one is the proper one)

This is the screenshot from the tutorial.
I marked things that are wrong in your setup.


Track Matte Key Effect for VSE Is there TRACK MATTE KEY effect for Blender Video Sequence Editor? I use this effect for Videos in Adobe Premiere Pro for Overlay Transitions of .MOV files. Not knowing how to do in Blender, I used Blend modes for these effects, but they don't work exactly as desired like with Track Matte Key effect.
Thank you,
Bhat

You need to work "effects" in the compositor.
It seems you need to track and key at the same time.
If this is the case, you will first need to address the track (movie clip editor), once you generate your 8 obligatory tracking points, you can attach whatever you need, then use the 3D space to "stick" your motion graphics plane (or .mov), and finally go to the compositor window and now work the part of the keying.

Ian Hubert shows different techniques that might be helpful to your workflow here:
https://youtu.be/RxD6H3ri8RI
If you need further assistance with your question, please let us know. Thanks!


How do I make the face smaller? When I select something I want to extrude from a face but the shape that I want to extrude is just a little smaller than the face how can i adjust the face extrusion shape to do this? So in otherwords it's a face inside a face but the second is smaller.

Try the 'Inset' command, which can be accessed using the I key when in Edit mode. This will create a face nested within the current selection.


Using the knife tool on a plane (mesh) makes the cut incorrectly connect to the vertices irregularly I am a blender newbie and have been trying to figure out how to correctly cut a plane so I can mask a foreground object in my project. Whenever I use the knife tool to make a cut into the plane, points connect with the top vertices of the entire plane which messes up my cut. Even if you don’t understand my specific problem, walking through how to cut this step-by-step would be greatly appreciated!

Alright, I honestly don't understand what you are asking. But a quick way to get any flat shape cutout is to delete all but one vertex. Then you can press E to extrude another vertex. These will be automatically connected. Make sure you are in vertex select mode by pressing 1 on the top row, or by pressing the vertex button. Then at the end, you can select your first and last vertex and press F to merge them. Then take all the vertices one side and press E to extrude them and they should extrude into faces. Now you can flatten all the vertices by pressing "S" for scale and pressing Zero. This will automatically shrink all your points into one, press either "X, Y, OR Z" until you get the one that you want. Pressing these will scale only on those axes.


Rigify generated rig, hand IK controller has unexpected rotation I am having the same exact issue as described here:
Rigify widgets generating in wrong position and won't rotate. I would comment but do not have enough reputation.
A three-fingered character with mis-rotation of the hand IK control. See the attached .blend file. I believe I have setup the metarig with the proper rolls, and changing the roll of the hand or palm bones in the metarig has no affect on the outcome in the generated rig. I believe I have also assigned the correct rig types to the first palm bone as well as each of the fingers. All other controllers/bones seem to generate correctly. I cannot seem to set roll manually in the generated rig either. Is there a workaround?

Solved with the help of CGDive! https://blender.stackexchange.com/users/25308/cgdive
The generated rig tries to correct the roll automatically by default, but this can be overwritten by selecting each upper_arm bone and in Bone Properties > Rigify Type > Rotation Axis selecting the rotation axis manually. If you have copied the roll orientations from the human metarig template, then this should be Z manual for the arms. This causes the hand IK control to be correctly oriented when generating the rig.


Unwanted surface on top I am new to blender and I am following a tutorial for making a coffee cup.  On a particular part of the cup, there are no mesh connections and hence the surface is emphasized as another colour.. and on rendering that part is seen as a hole.
I've tried to merge vertices but a lone vertex appears on the middle of the surface and is not helping. Also the coffee cup handle is a mess(I used the spin tool). Can I fix it through sculpting(I tried but not helping)?
I've attached all necessary pictures below:

The following is "fixing" only, as there are few bad things in your model.
For the handle, you have inner faces, that should be deleted (only did 2 in the gif below):

Also have inverted faces. You can see that activating face orientation, then use ShiftN to solve it (except for the last issue, see below):

The handle also has inner part that should not exist: remove them.
Last step, the face that is bad. It is a ngon. Probably you did after removing some parts.
So delete the bad parts and use existing one to replace it.
Can do it by selecting a good slide, duplicate and rotate it ShiftDR and adjust as closely as possible to the bad part.
To do it, make sure the 3D cursor is placed at the center and it is the origin point for the rotation, also, use snap with increments (see what is surrounded by green below):

Once all slices are recreated, select all A and merge duplicates M then "by distance" (tune the distance in the operator panel to be sure to remove the wanted doubles).
Again, this is fixing only, and you'd better redo it all as exercise.
All these done, you should have a cup with no more cracks:


One Click is Detected as Multiple Clicks TLDR:
I don't know how to fix it so that 1 click = 1 click.

Brief background:
I'm making a "lock-picking game" with six pins (objects A-F) that must line up to "unlock". They start at different positions and some control other pins.

THE PROBLEM:
When I'm running my game in BGE and click once on an object, the game detects multiple clicks and therefore performs the resulting action (moving forward one unit and adding 1 to their counter) multiple times. Since it adds however many clicks it detects to the "counter" integer property attached to it, I can see that the number of clicks it detects each time is random.
***I don't know how to fix it so that 1 click = 1 click. Please help.

I feel like there should be an easy solution but I'm having trouble finding it. I don't see anything in user preferences or the System Preferences app (I have a MacBook Air). I know that it's probably registering a number of clicks depending on how long I hold the button down in a click for, but I don't want that.

Also, I'd rather use logic blocks because I'm not too familiar with Python, but if that's what it takes and you have clear instructions and copyable code, I'll take it.

Thank you so much, I appreciate any help I can get!

Make sure that your sensor (whoever clicks)is set to tap mode


Why can't I UV Unwrap this model like this? Extreme stretching First time here at Blender exchange.

So this is how I marked the seams in this test model but when I go to UV unwrap it this is what I get:

Its like regardless of what I do this part here never gets separated into its own island and I dont know why:

I'm obviously not an expert but I've UV unwrapped other models in the past and never had this problem, I've tried different things but so far I haven't been able to pin point the problem, so I'm sure I'm just doing something incredibly silly.

Any help? Thank you!

EDIT: Okay so I just found that I had a couple of vertices really close together and they seemed like they were one so there was some edges that werent marked as seam! But, now that I've fixed this when I UV unwrap it even though it's a lot better I still have this:

Why is it stretching like that there?

EDIT 2:

EDIT 3: What I'm really trying to understand here is that in this example:

Why are those vertices appearing in the wrong position, and why if I manually try to move them in the correct position the other vertices in the other island get moved too even though they are in a different island?

The problem lies in the ngons so you have two options here.

a: Select each faces you want to have an island of and unwrap/smart unwrap it. This won't attach both side as one island but it will give you consistent uv maps for both sides. The UV islands will be overlapping so you want to pack the island.

b: get rid of the ngons:
it looks a bit botched because I knife cut the faces in a hurry.

edit:
You might want to change the method and check/uncheck fill holes to your liking


Custom Prompt for Python Console I'm trying to change the prompt string to the left of the Python Console.

Setting bpy.context.space_data.prompt, either directly or via an operator, will change it only in the scrollback for that in which one did so, after which it reverts to the default ">>> ". Perhaps bpy.ops.console.execute() is resetting it.

Is there a way to make it stick?

I made it work by wrapping bpy.console.execute(), then setting it afterward:

import bpy
class CONSOLE_OT_execute_wrapper(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Wraps command execution to maintain the current prompt."""
    bl_idname="console.execute_wrapper"
    bl_label="Execute Wrapper"
    interactive=bpy.props.BoolProperty(name="Interactive",description="Whatever the \"interactive\" property does for bpy.ops.console.execute.",default=False)
    prompt=bpy.props.StringProperty(name="Prompt",description="String that shows to the left of the current command.")
    @classmethod
    def poll(cls,C):
        return C.area.type=="CONSOLE"
    def execute(self,C):
        print("CONSOLE_OT_execute_wrapper.execute(%s,%s)"%(self,C))
        bpy.ops.console.execute(interactive=self.interactive)
        C.space_data.prompt=self.prompt
        return {'FINISHED'}
def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(CONSOLE_OT_execute_wrapper)
    for kmi in [kmi for kc in bpy.context.window_manager.keyconfigs for km in kc.keymaps for kmi in km.keymap_items if kmi.idname=="console.execute"]:kmi.idname+="_wrapper"#Wrap
def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(CONSOLE_OT_execute_wrapper)
    for kmi in [kmi for kc in bpy.context.window_manager.keyconfigs for km in kc.keymaps for kmi in km.keymap_items if kmi.idname=="console.execute_wrapper"]:kmi.idname=kmi.idname[:kmi.idname.rindex("_")]#Unwrap
if __name__=="__main__":register()

After running the above in the text editor, for now you can then set the prompt in User Preferences->Input, where you expand "Console", find each "Execute Wrapper" and set their "prompt" property. I'll put the option somewhere appropriate in the addon.


Repeat a Python function multiple times I am writing a Python script, and I need to repeat one line of code 24 times. How can I do that? I tried a for and while loop, and still cannot get it to repeat.

import bpy

def selectView():
    bpy.context.area.type = 'VIEW_3D'
    screen = bpy.context.window.screen
    for area in screen.areas:
        if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
            for region in area.regions:
                if region.type == 'WINDOW':
                    override = {'window': bpy.context.window, 'screen': screen, 'area': area, 'region': region}
                    for i in range(0, 23):
                        bpy.ops.view3d.view_orbit(override, type='ORBITDOWN')
                        bpy.ops.view3d.select_border(override, gesture_mode=3, xmin=-1200, xmax=1000, ymin=-1000, ymax=1000, extend=True)
                        print(i)
selectView()
bpy.context.area.type = 'TEXT_EDITOR'

What this is supposed to do is go in a circle and select the vertices on the outside of a model. Unfortunately, it is only moving the camera once and selecting everything.

Thanks for the help!

While I think there must be a more elegant way to accomplish what you are trying to do, the problem lies in the fact that Blender isn't updating the scenegraph when it's deep inside the Python loop.

You can force an update and redraw with:

# bpy.types.Scene.update()
bpy.context.scene.update()

and

bpy.ops.wm.redraw_timer(type='DRAW_WIN_SWAP', iterations=1)

Note: calling bpy.ops.wm.redraw_timer is very much a hack, since scripts are not supposed to be forcing redraws, however it does work.


Showing the volume using 3D Printing Toolbox I want to optimize the volume of the intersection of 4 cameras(not blender camera). I assume that the camera FOV(vertical:70.6 grad and horizontal:60 grad) is a mesh(pyramid with the same FOV angle). I can rotate the 4 of the cameras but I can't change the position of them. Now I put 3 Boolean modifiers on mesh 1 with the operation Intersect and the objects are the other 3 cameras. The Boolean modifier is good because we can rotate it real time without destroying the object. Now what I want to do is counting the volume of the intersection of all of them real-time(I see the volume changing as I rotate the camera. I am using 3D  Printing Toolbox with the Statistic button. Why wouldn't the volume change(always about 443) although I am making the intersection bigger or smaller. Am I doing it wrong? Thanks

Unfortunately this is not a realtime statistic, it is only updated when you manually click the volume button.

So no you aren't doing anything wrong.


Freaky subdivision with n-gons (2.8) I'm modeling a GoPro camera, and am using circular n-gons to make a set of nested depressions for the lens. The model without subsurf looks like this:

(n-gons in question are around the outer edge of the outer circle and in the center of the len)

When I try to apply a subsurf modifier to any degree, I get crazy distortion like this:

My only thought as to what could be causing this is that the mesh isn't all quads, so I tried using a remesh modifier, but only got high-enough quality results at around octree 9 or 10, far higher of a resolution than I want to deal with when render time comes along.

Is there any way short of manual retopo that I can stop the subsurf from freaking out over the n-gons?

Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks in advance for your time.

EDIT 1: I'm running Blender 2.8 Beta, so if all else fails I'm prepared to accept that this might just be a bug, in which case I'll start over in 2.79.

EDIT 2: So I fixed the problem through manual retopology, but I'm still interested in hearing if anybody knows a faster way to do this for future projects. Thanks!

A quick way to fix your topology:

Starting with the wrong number of vertices, having X > deleted faces only
Select the square's edges, and WSsubdivide with 7 cuts
Select both edge loops, and CtrlE > Bridge Edge Loops

EDIT:

.. but if you're subsurface modeling, as batFINGER points out, you really should be heading for a much lower number of vertices to make a circle in the end result:

4 sides .. Noticeably not octagonal under one level of subdiv., or circular under two. You can get away with it if you know it's never going to be close up. Shading artifacts, too.

5.. Can't remember the last time I used it...

6.. Quite a lot of things have 3-symmetry, and a hexagon makes a perfectly good circle

8.. By far the most common because of the shown topology - comes naturally out of a quad, the diagonals can be absorbed in 5-poles in a holding loop around the circle, or your beveled edges, so don't propagate around your model

.. any more than 8, probably large-scale structure rather than detail, or soaking up necessary loops from somewhere else in the model.

The Illustration is of 0,1,2 levels of subdivision on the various polygons, with a 32-circle in the middle for comparison.


Collision not working Help me please I need to pass this work tomorrow

What's wrong with my work? I want that if the character collides with the obs or walls the game would restart but somehow it's not working.
Here is the file : http://www.pasteall.org/blend/37842

It seems the only way the player collides with the walls is because go that small white box. You could either get rid of the box and just use the character, or stretch the box upwards so it collides with the walls on top too, although this may be unnecessary.

To make the restarting game properly work, you the game property called 'obs' should be set to boolean and 'True'. Also, delete the sensor for the collision with the property of 'prop'.


Normal Problem in Unreal Engine I have applied scale, recalculated normals, properly unwrapped my models, but no matter what I do, when I export it, and open the model in substance painter or UE4, the normals are all messed up.

The tower is meant to be comprised of planks of wood, from the inside the planks look fine but from out side the sides go invisible.

Is anyone else having this issue? It's only been happening since the 2.8 release.

@FFeller ur suggestion didn't work at first, turns out i was on Vertex Select not Face Select, so it wasnt recalculating my face normals.


Copy keyframes from one mesh and paste onto another? I know this is similar to other questions, but i cant find an answer.

I have a mesh with keyframes, and it works perfectly. I just created another one, and it needs the same keyframes as mesh 1. It might not even be possible, but if it is, any helps would be great. Thanks!

If you want to give the same animation to another object, here are some basics:

Let say you have given a Location animation to your cube object.
If you want to give the same animation to a second object (cone), you'll need to go in the Dopesheet/Action Editor mode, and scroll in the dropdown menu until you find the cube animation. You can also select the cone, then the cube, and ctrlL > Make Links/Animation Data.
The problem is that once you'll give the same animation, the cone (its origine point) will be at the exact same point as the cube. If this is what you want, everything's ok. If it not, here are two ways to change the position of the cone, you can either:
At frame 1, parent your cone to an empty and move the empty wherever you want in the 3D scene, the cone will follow the empty and it won't overlap with the cube anymore.
Or use the Delta Transform parameters in the Properties panel > Object > Delta Transform. It will allow you to offset the position of the cone object on the X, Y or Z axis, so that it won't overlap anymore.
Another thing: if you want to delay the animation of the cone, i.e. if you want the cone to have the exact same animation than the cube but you want it to happen before or after the animation of the cube, you can  use the NLA editor, push down the strip on the track and move the strip it along the track where you want the action to happen.


Parenting bones issue folding a package I am trying to fold a simple carton (package) dieline structure. Each flap has a bone.
I pretty much understand how to parent the bones (sorta), connected each flap's vertices (in edit mode) to the bone (vertex groups) BUT when I animate, the fold some of them twist and then fold... (see figures).
Twist fold issue:

Please help  Not sure how to get rid of the twisting. Am I doing the parenting wrong?
Here's the Blender file:
I tried looking for an answer everywhere so please be patient with me. If there is a question out there with a solid answer by all means help me find it but I do want to see everyone's answer before someone closes this question out with another answered question (some answers are outdated and not really specific). Thank you for your time and consideration

Classic case of gimbal lock.
If you rotate the middle axis 90 degrees, the two other axes will be aligned thus reducing the degrees of freedom to two.

To fix the problem, you can either change the rotation order or use quaternions.


Hiding Entire Panels and Other Elements from the UI I'd like to hide the vast majority of the user interface.  The users of my addon are biologists who are often quite intimidated by computers, so I'd like to limit the confusion on the screen to just the outliner, the panel of my custom addon, and the 3D view with no overlays, if possible.
How can I access the panels and other interface objects from python, in order to hide them from view?  It's probably fine to just consider the layout workspace.
Thanks for your help!

"Whack" em all.

Script will "whack" (unregister) any registered Panel, Menu or Header class that follows the naming convention.
import bpy

classes_to_whack = (
        getattr(bpy.types, p)
        for p in dir(bpy.types)
        if any(
            sep in p
            for sep in ("_PT_", "_HT_", "_MT_")
            )
        )

for cls in classes_to_whack:
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(cls)

More sensible approach here Unregistering panels in python


UV mapping problem - separated triangles instead of one surface I'm new to blender so this is certainty a simple question but i have searched for a solution and can't find any.
I am trying to UV map an imported CAD model which is a simple beam (se picture below). The problem is that what is one single surface gets divided into several separated triangles in the UV mapping. How do I merge the triangles into one surface?

Just answering this, so it can be removed from unanswered :).

You need to

Apply scale (its at 0,001)
Merge double vertices (122 overall)
Then UV unwrap


How can I import GEOTIFF raster data? I have a terrain model in the form of a GEOTIFF raster which is from the SRTM (Shuttle Radar Technology Mission) data.

Can this raster data be converted / imported into blender into a triangular mesh?

Can 3D city modelling be done, over this mesh?

Blender can use tiff images, not sure if geotiff works to but it should work too. Otherwise you had to convert the geotiff to a png or jpg first.

Add a plane (same aspect ratio like your image). Go to the modifier tab and add a Subdivision Surface modifier. Set it to Simple. Add 3 or 4 subdivisions and apply the modifier. Add again a Subdivision Surface modifier to control the resolution of your mesh later.

Next add a Displace modifier and add a new Image or Movie texture there. With the rightmost icon you can switch over to the texture tab, load your image and give your texture a name etc.

Back in the modifier tab you can play with the values a bit (Strenght 0.2 for example).

You could add the Decimate modifier to simplify your geometry - just play with the values, Collapse mode should give good results for terrain models.

Here I found a tutorial wich covers also the geotiff conversion (under "Create Heightmap") http://www.navimationresearch.net/2013/norway-in-3d-part-1/ sorry link is dead now.


How do I put a constraint on a bone affected by chain length? I'm trying to figure out how to put a constraint on the shoulder bone as shown in the images below. What I'm looking for is a realistic motion where the shoulder moves upward ONLY when the arm bone reaches a high enough angle. The image with the green circle is the position where I want the upward movement of the shoulder to start. I've tried tinkering with the rotational bone constraints but I ran into a couple of problems. The first problem is that I could never get the bone to rotate in the upward direction. The second problem is trying to find the axis behavior that causes the rotation resulting in upward motion. Moving the shoulder bone itself only rotates it in one direction and moving it indirectly with an IK through chain length doesn't change the coordinates of the bone itself.

Blend file:

Try using a Transformation constraint, this allows you to convert a location change into a rotation change.

In the following example I take the Z location of the arm bone with values between -0.3 and 0.3 and convert that to an rotation of the X axis of the shoulder bone from -5 to 5 degrees. Notice in the middle the Z source maps to the X destination.

For more control than that you can create a driver. You can define your own python functions to use in drivers to get as much control as you want.


After you create some subtitles for a video in Blender, would it be possible to extract those subtitles in an SRT file? After you made a video with subtitles on blender, would it be possible to extract those subtitles in a separate SRT so for example if you want to upload the video on Youtube instead of having the subtitles embedded in the video, you could have them on the Youtube window. In order, to avoid creating again the subtitles manually on Youtube itself, an extracted SRT file from Blender would be very handy. Do you think there is such possibility? Thanks in advance


Is it possible to create a particle tracer inside Animation Nodes? I´ve made some attempts with loops but the biggest problem that I´ve found it´s to create incremental lists. To say, lists that add a new element on each frame.

Other thing could help could be also a list made of lists, as far as the positions from each particle are particle list and you need to create a new list with all those lists of positions to create the animation.

As you noticed yourself the list that will contain the elements depends on the frames before -> thus is it Simulation, and this is not supported by Animation Nodes.

Each frame has to be deterministic. (think about what should happen when you go backwards in time or skip some frames during playback, or render the frames in different order, ...).

There is a Trail Count property in Blenders particle system settings, maybe you can use this (in the Render panel)?


Where is the denoise option in 2.90? I was using the denoise option in Blender 2.8, but cant seem to find it in 2.90. The documentation refers to the "Render Layers" but it doesn't seem to be there either.

When I open an older project that was created with 2.8 in 2.9, the denoise option is there and works fine.
is there a setting i need to check to enable the feature by default in new files?

The denoiser options are in the Properties Window > Render settings > Sampling > Denoising.

You can choose what kind of denoiser to use.

NLM is the original denoiser (native non-local denoiser), that runs on any computing device.
OpenImageDenoiser is Intel Open Image Denoiser, that runs on CPU
In this section you can enable the viewport denoising as well.