How to Install Multiple Add-ons with Python Script I am constantly using new workstations where I have to install a new version of blender. While the blender cloud add-on allows one to sync settings between devices, it does not sync user-installed add-ons themselves. If I have all the add-ons I want to install in a folder I download form a cloud location, how could I create a script that would automatically install and activate them?

You can designate the folder with the scripts, create a list of files within this folder (i.e., directory), and use the wm.addon_install() command on each file. You can create a list of the module names you want to install, and then loop through them with wm.addon_enable()

import os
import bpy

# Define path to your downloaded script
path_to_script_dir = os.path('/Users/YourUserName/Downloads/scripts')

#Define a list of the files in this folder, i.e. directory. The method listdir() will return this list from our folder of downloaded scripts.
file_list = sorted(os.listdir(path_to_script_dir))

#Further specificy that of this list of files, you only want the ones with the .zip extension.
script_list = [item for item in file_list if item.endswith('.zip')]

#Specify the file path of the individual scripts (their names joined with the location of your downloaded scripts folder) then use wm.addon_install() to install them.
for file in file_list:
    path_to_file = os.path.join(path_to_script_dir, item)
    bpy.ops.wm.addon_install(overwrite=True, target='DEFAULT', filepath=path_to_file, filter_folder=True, filter_python=False, filter_glob="*.py;*.zip")

#Specify which add-ons you want enabled. For example, Crowd Render, Pie Menu Editor, etc. Use the script's python module.
enableTheseAddons = ['crowdrender', 'pie_menu_editor', 'animation_nodes','blender_cloud']

#Use addon_enable() to enable them.
for string in enableTheseAddons:
    name = enableTheseAddons
    bpy.ops.wm.addon_enable(module = string)


BGUI change color for Text_Input how can I change the color of the text_input widget in the BGUI?

I've tried:

self.input = bgui.TextInput(self.win, text="text", color=(0, 0, 0, 1), size=[.4, .04], pos=[.04, 0.12],
        input_options = bgui.BGUI_INPUT_NONE, options = bgui.BGUI_DEFAULT)

but it didn't work, the color is still white. In the default theme the TextInput color is set to black too.

Thanks in advance.

Looking at the code for BGUI, it appears that the color parameter is not being used in text_input.py. Your best option is to use theme to customize the input text color.


Planes rendered into two triangles of different colors? I defined some glossy planes by specifying the four vertices and vertex order for each. I rendered them in Cycles under an outdoor HDRI lighting. Strangely, some of the planes split into two triangles rendered in very different colors.

At first I thought it was due to surface normals, so I made sure the surface normals all point to the camera. However, the problem persists.

Why is it so, and how may I fix this? Many thanks!

For future readers: (TL;DR) This triangle effects can be removed by enabling Auto Smooth under mesh settings.

Credits to @DuarteFarrajotaRamos:

  Is your mesh smooth shaded? It looks like it is flat shaded ,so non
  planar quads will inevitably show visible sharp edge. Make your mesh
  smooth shaded, check Auto Smooth under Mesh Data in the Properties
  Window or add an Edge Split modifier. You may need to manually mark
  some edges as Sharp in Edit Mode if you have a mix of Smooth and Flat
  shaded areas in the same object


Deselect objects that do not have UVMap? I am in need of a way to remove a UV Map datablock of the same name from all selected objects in my scene. I have accomplished this...

import bpy

for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    uvt = obj.data.uv_textures
    uvt.remove(uvt['UVMap'])

BUT I am looking to improve the functionality of my code to filter through all the selected objects, check to see which objects have the unwanted UV Map datablock, and remove the UVMap from only the matching objects.

For example: Plane.001 has "UVMap" & "Map2", and Plane.002 has only "Map2". Right now, if I have both objects selected, I get an error saying that it couldn't find bpy_prop_collection[key] "UVMap" and fails to execute the script. This must be because Plane.002 doesn't have a "UVMap" datablock...

Here's my current code:

import bpy

for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    uvt = obj.data.uv_textures
    if uvt != "UVMap":
        obj.select = False

    uvt.remove(uvt['UVMap'])

How can I have blender deselect Plane.002 and then run the script only on objects that actually have "UVMap" datablock?

obj.data.uv_textures is a list of uvmaps. Each item in the list has a name property that you can test -

import bpy

for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    uvt = obj.data.uv_textures
    for m in uvt:
        if m.name == "UVMap":
            obj.data.uv_textures.remove(m)


Unwrapping a model "loosely" with each face separate? I have a... weird mesh. It doesn't look that weird, but it makes the automatic unwrapping in Blender do weird things. It stretches and distorts the texture; it does all kinds of things.

This mesh, however, contains not many faces. Pretty much, each of them are rectangular, with maybe a dozen or so triangles.

That's why, I'd like to unwrap it in a way so every face is separate.

The left side shows how unwrapping works now, the right side is how I'd like it to work. Forgive me the Paint picture, but I didn't deem it necessary to launch something more powerful for just a rough sketch.

Do I just manually mark every edge as a seam, or is it a hidden, existing function somewhere?

The answer is simple: Mark all edges as seams and then unwrap.


What FOSS way(s) are out there to convert cdr/dwg/dxf to Blender formats and back? While already using Blender, I'm considering to use it to create models for a milling (machining) and have read on a site of one of the companies that mill stuff that they accept cdr, dwg and dxf file formats. I'm not sure if every other accepts all 3, so I'm better to be prepared to change file format. So I'd like at least to be able to export to these formats (ideally import as well) with minimal time consumption and without use of heavy tools (like CAD systems) and preferably free and open source software and only one piece of software (for 3 formats). Any known tools for this?

I'm on Windows 10 currently, but mentioning Unix solutions are also encouraged as I'll install some Unix in the nearest future.

I'm not sure that you will get an open source tool for these, as all of these formats belong to Software producers (Corel / Autodesk).

I'm not certain about the "cdr" format (and I come from the CAD/CAM world of things).

"dwg" is fairly locked down, although there has been reasonable success at converting them from those other than Autodesk (The kicker here, is that "dwg" is not human readable as a file, and as Autodesk updates the features of this file format every year, and completely changes its version about every three years - it's a little hard to rely on outside of the Autodesk product suites).

"dxf" is still an Autodesk file format, however it is human readable, and it is fairly common for CNC controllers to use them. Blender even has some Add-Ons for it, however the one that comes with is Experimental.

I have personally tested it and it is lacking some enforcement features that would really allow this to be "trusted" for milling operations - I've also included links at the end of this page to reference that standard.

As for other common 3D model file formats in the milling industry:

STL (although you will get triangulated faces - and might not produce the desired resolution) - For Blender there is an import only utility that ships with Blender.
STP, STEP
IGES

Another alternative for you as an open source tool & workflow, would be to use Meshlab in cooperation with Blender, as they both have some DXF & STL output options.

As far as other Add-On resources, you may actually find some things on the web that support this process a little better, you may want to try searching for them, and/or ask about their possible existence on BlenderArtists.org. I hope this answer has pointed you in the right direction.

PDF Link

Web Page Link


Cannot Select Linked When Sync Selection Is Enabled So, I'm currently developing a game with unity for which I created a bird, rigged it, and created several actions for it. I then unwrapped and textured it.
But now all the actions aren't working anymore! And whenever I try to rotate/move a bone all i get is the error message: "Cannot select linked when sync selection is enabled".
I think it might be related to the UV editor, but i have no clue what I should do there.
I hope anyone can help!

That's nothing about UV in this case. That's because you were trying to tweak pose in Rest position. Just remember to simply switch to Pose Position to continue tweaking. :)

Location:
Properties Editor > Object Data Tab > Skeleton > Pose position

BTW, there are indeed two such messages, located in:

source/blender/editors/transform/transform_conversions.c
source/blender/editors/uvedit/uvedit_ops.c

True, it's a strange message for bone transform system, which seems hard to make sense, probably needs to be improved.

Edit:

In the latest build, this puzzling message has been fixed as "Cannot change Pose when 'Rest Position' is enabled". So it is not an issue any more.


Decimated parts falling into each other I created a plane, subdivided and decimated it. After that I edge split the plane to create multiple triangle. To give them a 3rd dimension solidify was used.
When I now want to animate the triangles falling down on a rigid plane, everything works fine so far except that the triangles fall into each other. Is there a way to prevent this? I played around with self collision but nothing I did helped. Do you have any tips?

Since you are using a single object, you have to enable Self Collision to allow parts of itself to collide with itself.

However, you will need a lot of accuracy and samples. The situation of many rigid pieces would be better suited with a Rigid Body Simulation.


How to stop Blender from slowing down zooming and panning? I am working with Unreal Engine so I have entered unit scale of 0.01, and now I have realized that when I want to zoom into an object, it gets really slow well before I reach the object's surface.

Is there a way to adjust the zoom and also panning when you have a super small scale set on?

I know this post is very old, but what I do is if I want to work up close, I switch to object mode, deselect everything, zoom in about where I want to be, then go back into edit mode. The zoom scale is reset from that point. So basically, the zoom scale will always be there, but wherever it starts is wherever you go into edit mode with nothing selected.


How to get mist only at horizon line? Ok I am trying to create something like this - where there is a "layer" of mist that occurs only at the horizon line -

I have glowing objects in my scene that create a glare and Ive followed tutorials to get mist, however it covers the ENTIRE background, not just a line in the center.

What can I do to get the horizon only mist?

Skyguy, here is what I meant:

Create a plane, give it an Image Texture and paint it in black and white.
Change the node organization: Plug the Image Texture you've created into the factor of a Mix shader so that it separates a Diffuse (or Emission) node (probably white) from a Transparent node (make sure that this Transparent is 100% white which doesn't seem to be the case by default). Add a second Mix shader to give transparency to your diffuse, plug it into the Output.
Now you have a plane which creates a mist. It's a much lighter solution than Mist or Volume Scatter (well, I guess...). It won't fit everytime though, as it's a fake 2D mist. But for example if you want your camera to rotate around the scene you can paint on a semi-circular or semi-spherical surface instead of a plane, etc.


Include images added to 3d model when exporting to glTF, OBJ, or DAE I have imported a 3D model into Blender, and then used Add Images to place a number of png files inside the model. When I export to glTF, I am not able to view the images within the model.

The glTF Blender addon supports meshes with textures, but I'm not sure about standalone image imports... You'll probably need to create planes and add your images to them. For best results, see the guidelines in https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.80/addons/io_scene_gltf2.html.


My Context Menu Is Gone For Edit Mode And Object Mode Something weird happened and I cannot seem to trace what's causing it.

By default, when you want to switch between Object Mode and Edit Mode you press Tab and the context menu appears right?

Well mine is gone. When I press tab,  I will immediately go to Edit Mode, hit Tab again and back to Object Mode without having that pie menu.

This is happening on my laptop. I checked if it's something to do with the file so I opened the same file on a desktop and there it is, it's working properly. I see the context menu when pressing Tab.

Is this a setting I screwed up accidentally?

To clarify, in the screenshot below, I no longer have the option to see those menu when I press Tab, it will automatically switch to Edit Mode.

That should be this option in the preferences:


What is the actual film manufacturer reference for the film response data? I would like to understand if there is some reference for all this film response data and if/how it was validated.

https://developer.blender.org/diffusion/B/browse/master/release/datafiles/colormanagement/luts/film_response/

Thanks.

P

The original dataset was taken from the Computer Vision Laboratory, and more specifically this portion of the site. The research PDF is available here.

The response data didn't include the primary colours, nor the log encoding as the results are normalized. They are essentially junk Instagram-esque filters sadly.


Animation Nodes's vector distance : can't make it work like in the official example I was reading this AN documentation page about Vector Distance.

I don't know if it is still up-to-date, but I recreate the same setup and I can't make it work the same way:

it seems that the position of my empty is ignored.

Can anyone help ?

Here's my blend.

The Empty in your blend file isn't in the boxes' plane but 8.4 BU above it. With the current node setup the boxes will only be affected when the Empty is closer to 1 BU to the boxes' center, which perhaps didn't happen if you only moved the Empty in top view.

If the Empty is moved within the Z=0 plane the boxes will scale correctly.

You might also want to consider adding a Math/Multiply node after the Vector Distance node, or use smaller boxes, if you want to affect more than one box at a time. With the current size of your boxes only one of them will be closer than 1 BU to the Empty.


How to get the vertices from an edge I make a selection of specific edges

indices = [442, 443, 444, 445]
edges = [e for e in bm.edges]
ee0 = []
for vert in edges:
    if vert.index in indices:
        ee0 = ee0 + [vert]

No I would like to get the vertices connected to these edges
So I tried

verts = [v for e in ee0 if e.select for v in e.verts]

the result of verts is empty
How can I get the vertices connected to an edge?

Code edit

To the questioner,  Please ignore this answer.: it is for others who may come across this question / answer after code to get bmesh elements from their indices, or for those like me who cannot see "not nice" code with out suggesting alteration.  Rather than long-commenting added here as an alternate answer.

If we have the indices of vertices  can look them up via bm.verts[index], after calling bm.verts.ensure_lookup_table()  to ensure the indexing.  Similarly for edges and faces.  Need only loop over indices.

[bm.edges[i] for i in edge_indices]

Looping over every vertex and checking if v.index == index or worse if v.index in indices, then appending with verts = verts + [v] (suggest verts.append(v)) is both grossly inefficient and s shown, not required.

Use a set for verts in edges to have only one occurrence of each vert.  There will be same vert added to list for each connected edge in the list comprehension. Cast it back to a list if need be.  list(set(verts))

import bpy
import bmesh

context = bpy.context
ob = context.object
me = ob.data
bm = bmesh.new()
bm.from_mesh(me)

edge_indices = [0, 2, 4]
bm.edges.ensure_lookup_table()

edges = [bm.edges[i] for i in edge_indices]

all_verts_in_edges = set(v for e in edges for v in e.verts)

print(edges)
print(all_verts_in_edges)


Fluid mesh isn't showing in Mantaflow simulation The blue preview particles are showing, but whenever I tick the "Mesh" box under the physics properties on the domain, nothing happens. I've done multiple bakes with the box ticked, but it still previews as particles instead of a solid mesh. the mesh that is being used as an inflow (from geometry) source is planar, but the "is planar" box under settings > flow source is ticked.

Troubleshooting tips that I have tried that did not affect the outcome:

adjusting the resolution divisions
setting the surface emission of the flow mesh to a nonzero value
Setting the fluid cache type to "All"
closing and reopening the .blend file

What am I missing here?

Figured out that I had set my domain to display as bounds in its object properties. Duh


How to keep parts of single object easily selectable in 2.8? I have a humanoid character, and I want to be able to select and move it's parts (like the hand highlighted on the photo) easily - that is without having to select all their vertices/faces all the time:

I tried 2 approaches: make hand a separate object, and use parenting - this does not work, since the edge vertices will not be connected to other parts, and I would need to snap them to edge vertices of other parts every time I move any part, to keep the mesh seamless.

Second approach - use vertex groups - looks like it's just what I need, but the select feature is not yet implemented...

Have I missed something? How do you solve this problem?

You want vertex groups as you've mentioned.

So go into Edit Mode, then press 1 to make sure you are selecting vertices.

Go into plan view with NumPad 7 so we're all setup.

Now click open the Mesh Properties Panel and expand Vertex Groups if not already visible.

Now the essential part. Click the + button to create a new vertext group.

Double click it to rename Hand

Then in 3D view box select all the vertices of your hand and click Assign.

This assigns the selected vertices to the group.

Now if you deselect all vertices, you can select them again by clicking Select.

You should now have all vartices which were assigned to the group selected again.


How can I import an obj sequence into blender? I have an obj sequence of a fluid simulation from Realflow. I've found a few tools that can import an obj sequence into blender, but most are outdated and don't work. Are there any scripts or plug-ins that can do that?

There is a patch for Blender allowing you to use RealFlow .bin files inside blender.

https://developer.blender.org/T41935

However it looks like the patch is no longer in development, due to alembic support coming very soon.

see: http://lists.blender.org/pipermail/bf-committers/2015-March/045025.html


How to scale an object in animation? I want to create a scene for bridging in 3D-Printers. I scaled the abutments. But I couldn't find a way to scale bridge part. I know that my explanation is not that good. For you to better understand you can check the pics.

Thanks.

So my problem is,I don't know how to scale this part between 2 abutments.

Create a Bezier Curve and place it on top of your 2 cubes like in the picture

Select the top-left corner adn press E to extrude it and place the new vertex in the top-right corner (use X or Y to keep it at the same height). To get right corners set the Properties > Object Data > Shape > Resolution Preview U to 1.

Keep extruding until you get a rectangular spiral (I did it quickly so it's not straight, but you get the point)

Create a rectangle curve (it has to be a curve, not a mesh!) by using a circle with resolution set to 1 or by using the addon Add Curve: Extra Objects (it's already inBlender, you just need to enable it in the User Preferences).
In the spiral's Properties > Object Data > Geometry > Bevel > Object insert your rectangle and enable Fill Caps

Resize your rectangle and animate the End slider

If you want your corners to be a bit rounded you can increase your Resolution Preview U, but you'll have to play quite a bit with your vetex handles


How to prevent a newly create window to change its content when switching between workspaces? hello, how do i prevent this behavior of any newly created window /window dupplication ? i want the content of the window to stay the same when switching from workspaces to workspaces.

can it be done within blender ? can it be done with python?

The only solution I found is to create an extra camera and lock it to the view. Then you'll have to make the camera active in each workspace to be able to switch between the workspaces, preserving the angle of view. A bit annoying workflow, but it helps to solve the problem


Is it possible to create instance with different scale animation data but the same mesh with python? I want to duplicate objects. I want them to have the same geometry, with many polygons, so I do not want to create copies, I'd like to create instances. Then I want them to have different scale animations

but when I'm duplicating objects with command:

bpy.ops.object.duplicate(linked=True)

and then creating an animation of scale of duplicated object the source object has the same animation, how can I change that?

Here is a test script, select an object(s) and run. It will add the selected objects to a group, remove any animation already on those objects. Then using the group create 20 group instances with random locations.

Using code similar to here to create a simple 2 keyframe random scale action

import bpy
from random import uniform

def random_scale_action():
    action = bpy.data.actions.new("RandomScaleAction")
    data_path = "scale"
    # (frame, value) for keyframe point
    for axis in [0, 1, 2]:
        # new fcurve
        fc = action.fcurves.new(data_path, index=axis)
        # add a new keyframe point
        fc.keyframe_points.add(count=2)
        for kfp in fc.keyframe_points:
            kfp.co = (uniform(1,100), uniform(0, 1))

    return action

context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene

# create a group and add the selected objects to it.
group = bpy.data.groups.new("CubeGroup")
for obj in context.selected_objects:
    # remove any animation data.
    if obj.animation_data:
        obj.animation_data.clear()
    group.objects.link(obj)
# create 20 randomly located dupli_groups.
for i in range(20):
    instance = bpy.data.objects.new('dupli_group', None)
    instance.location = [uniform(0,10) for i in range(3)]
    instance.dupli_type = 'GROUP'
    instance.dupli_group = group
    scene.objects.link(instance)
    instance.animation_data_create()
    # give a random scale action
    instance.animation_data.action = random_scale_action()


seamless texture in blender i would like to create seamless texture directly in blender,  is there a manner to do it, i tried with offset but the tiling seams not working,may be i do wrong and also in photoshop to blend texture better there's the content-aware feature, is there a similar thing i can do in blender. I  use photoshop, but i would like only use blender. Making seamless textures in blender would be great no? but is it possible, I'm very beginner, so forgive me if the question seems stupid

In your brush settings, activate Tiling (X  and Y). Now when the brush go past the left of the texture, it continue to draw on the right seamlessely.

In the Properties of the Image Editor, you can check Display/Coordinates/Repeat. Now the texture repeats itself on both axis, and it's easy to see if it is seamless.


How to make an exact loop cut on an oblique edge? I did stand for my model, and I want to do support edges on 3mm at all faces. I did this everywhere by this method: I press ctrl + R, created loop cut, bring it to the end of the face and then move it, like G + X + 3mm. When I got the last loop cut, I faced a problem: I cant move loop cut on Z axis, because face is oblique. I looked for how I can solve this, maybe move loop cut not on the Z axis, but move on normal axis. I hope you understand, there are model and picture, where I did what I want, but I need exactly straight cut.

Problem solved:

Subdivide edge one time.
With Edit Mesh Tools add-on set edge length (before this you need to apply scale by Ctrl+A> Apply> Apply all transforms or (in 3d Viewport) Object> Apply> Apply all transforms).
Switch to any orthographic view (top, bottom, left or other) and extrude vertex by pressing Ctrl and enabled (in 3d Viewport in Edit Mode) Options> Auto Merge> Split Edges and faces (on top).
Do this with all sides, removing duplicates if needed. You can check edge length by using Overlays> Measurement> Edge Length (in the 3D Viewport).

You can do the same thing with the Knife tool, but the Knife won't work in all situations.
Also, one of the ways:
Bevel edges with settings: segments - 2, profile - 1. Bevel has differrent modes (Offset, Width and other), we need Offset. For bevel modifier you can do vertex groups where you need and bevel just them.


How can you invert an F-Curve Basically I have a lamp moving on the Z axis according to a sound baked, then unbaked F-Curve, the problem is it's moving the exact opposite way I need it to, and so I believe I need to invert the F-Curve in someway.

Bake to a prop, find the ramge.  map to [0, 1]

In the code in

https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/39241/15543

I show how to get the minimum and maximum value of an fcurve.  The range of the fcurve. (It is generally always  the case that the minimum is 0 for baked fcurves). The range is  A = max - min .   This can also be done pretty much by eye, picking the maximum and minimum points and noting the values in graph editor..

For sound drivers, (which is very much on back-burner, there is an aubio version for 2.8 coming which bakes up to 10x quicker in my preliminary tests) I used these for control points on an fcurve envelope modifier to map the range to [0, 1]  With the unit range, the curve can be amplified with a generator modifier, or a via a variable with A * fcurve.evaluate()  the inverse is A * (1 - fcurve.evaluate(frame))

The last image of https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/39241/15543 shows a baked sound and its inverse as the amplitude is changed.

Here is a section of that image showing the envelope modifier.

action frame range 1 to 44, fcurve has max 0.3 something, mapped to [0, 1] with envelope

Here is some code from sound drivers to add an envelope modifier. The min and max of the fcurve is the default min and max of the modifer. The envelope control points are added at each end of fcurve and map range to range [0, 1].

        action # the action
        fcurve # an fcurve from that action
        _min # calculated min of fcurve
        _max # calculated max of fcurve

        mods = [m for m in fcurve.modifiers if m.type == 'ENVELOPE']
        # remove mods (shouldn't be any)
        for m in mods:
            fcurve.modifiers.remove(m)
        # add a new one
        m = fcurve.modifiers.new(type='ENVELOPE')
        m.default_min = _min
        m.default_max = _max
        # add a control point at start end
        for f in action.frame_range:
            cp = m.control_points.add(f)
            cp.min = 0
            cp.max = 1

Recommend baking to some custom property to avoid having to bake sound for each animated property. Bake once drive with that.

How to bake multiple audio sounds to f curve?

Unbaked

If you have unbaked the fcurve you can simply select all the kfps of fcurve in graph editor and S Y-1 to invert using scale.

PS This is my little part of blender as a patch needed to be written to expose envelope modifier control points to the python API.


How to make Blender open on secondary monitor, including save/open/prefs window? I use a dual monitor set up (Dell as primary monitor, Wacom Cintiq as my secondary).  I want blender to start up on my secondary monitor.  Manually moving the Blender window to my secondary and saving the preferences doesn't seem to solve this.  It still always opens on the primary monitor.
In addition to that, I want the "Preferences" and "Save/Load" pop up menus to also open on my secondary monitor.  It always pops up on my primary monitor, and the size of the window changes each time which is doubly frustrating.  It completely kills my workflow to have to toggle my wacom pen between monitors, look over to the other monitor to select something, then toggle my wacom pen back to the secondary monitor.
Thanks in advance for your help!

Try creating a new project, setting the all the windows as you want them to be and save it as your startup file.
This can be achieved by going to File > Defaults > Save Startup File.
I use this so Blender starts in both my monitors, but I see no reason why it woudn't work in your case. Hope it helps.


Re-add edge loops after using ctrl f I am working on a really big project and I made an error in my mesh so I had to remove the faces and used ⎈ CtrlF to add a new one back but it ends up like this:

Is there any way I can use something like ⎈ CtrlR to add a few new loops in that one face? It does not need to be aligned with the old one, I just need to add something in there.

Yes, this is possible.

Delete the extra faces so the hole is even
Select the boundary with ⎇ Alt RMB
Press ⎈ CtrlF> Grid fill. If it looks strange, adjust the options in the redo panel until it looks right.


My mesh is deforming strangely when I move it in Pose Mode I made a mesh of a bird and my rigging is almost done. However, the wings are giving me some trouble. Although I'm pretty sure I've weight painted them correctly, when I move the bone, it looks like a wet McDonald's French Fry. I'll attach some images so you can see what I mean.

More details would be helpful..
But I think that top bone some how got unchecked for deforming. Just check in bone section in edit mode.
If I am not wrong then It should work.


Can't achieve 1cm unit scale, it's always larger I have the default settings for everything, and in the scene I went to set up units to metric, 1.000 and centimeters, but the grids are 100cm large and if I move an object with the snap to increment, it snaps to 100cm moves or 10cm if I snap with the shift button as well. If I set the unit scale to 100.00000, it shows the grids of world much smaller, but when I move the object, it again says 100cm, even though I barely moved the object. I just want it to snap increment to 1cm and for it to really be 1cm.

Three things to do for precise snapping:

Use Orthographic View, View > Perspective/Orthographic, Numpad 5
Use Top/Side/Front view, View > Viewpoint, Shortuct: ~
Zoom in (grid scale changes)


How can I set an audio strip in 2.8 so it plays according to where the playhead is in the timeline? In 2.79 when I ticked under the playback menu, Audio Scrubbing, AV Sync and Frame drop, I knew that the timeline indicator was in sync with the audio.

Currently in 2.8 the timeline playhead is nowhere near the real audio, but lagging way behind, which makes the animation rather painful.

I actually missed the AV Sync onption at the top of the playback menu.

Selecting AV sync,  makes things much better;)...  though still too jumpy, when compared to the same audio strip on 2.79. Is Frame drop the missing link or else?

Cheers


Bake multiple Armature animations within one file with IK I am just working on a small WebGl project based on the three.js framework and I am just trying to switch between several animations I made in blender. I know therefore I need to bake my animations since they have inverse kinematics.

Let's say I have two animations in my blend.file, a walk cycle and a run cycle. Now I want to bake both of these animations and export it into one collada file. How do I do that?

The problem is, when I bake my first animation, I lose my IK for the second one and can't bake it.

Help is much appreciated!

Thanks so far!
Marten

So, I did some more research and I found out that the blender collada exporter isn't able to export multiple animations within one file.

To fix my IK problem, I simply duplicated my armature several times. Than I used 1 armature/ animation to bake every animation. After that I was able to use my main armature connected to my mesh to select all the baked animations. That works pretty good, but nevertheless it's too bad collada doesnt support multiple animations.

For now I am going with JSON.


Is there any open software to provide cloud rendering via P2P? I'm thinking about the idea of doing a distributed rendering via internet but i don't know where to start. Is there any sort of open software to provide P2P rendering or something like that?

There are Blender render farm services similar to folding@home: (Anyone can volunteer their computer time; the work is done and sent to a main server for collection by the project submitter.)

BURP - Big and Ugly Rendering Project
http://www.renderfarm.fi/
http://www.renderweb.org/RenderWeb/index.jsp (Inactive?)
http://www.vswarm.com/ (messages in forum saying that it appears to be abandoned.)

The list of blender farms I found these on, that also includes normal payed and free render farm services.

(I did not find any that are strictly P2P though. The ones I found are master-slave, but such a setup can be considered "cloud" too, (meaning computers on the internet are doing work for you) but one of them-- the master/main server is in charge of managing the workers and jobs.  A headless P2P distributed farm, like bitcoin or something is likely possible, but is perhaps more complicated than it's worth for now.)

Concerns from ideasman42's answer do apply though, especially privacy.

There are also tools for building your own private distributed render farm: (These can be setup on spare machines, cloud/vps servers...)

http://brender-farm.org (thanks Gwenn)
BURP can also be used as a private render farm. (thanks jesterKing)
"Render: Network Render" A network rendering plugin included with Blender, with farm management tools. Video tutorial on how to set it up.
More listed in this answer by Aldrik


how to make selected vertices rotate/scale/transform around themselves, not the cursor this happens whenever I use the "cursor to selected" thing in a project and then the transformation point is linked with the cursor and it drives me nuts

okay, it turns out it was just changing the pivot point


how to make an object like a flat? I am new to Blender.

According to my toturial, I have to create an abject like a flat.

He hit F and the object changes,
but when I hit F in my object, it does not change

I am using the blender 2.81

The reason this happens is because you have 'subsurface' modifier enabled.
What subsurface modifier does is basically adds extra geometry to your mesh.

In your case, the type is set to Catmull-Clark which in short will basically smooth out your mesh.

So if you start with a basic cube

and apply the modifier on it, it will smooth it out and it will start to resemble a circle

Now an easy way to make the object look like what you want it to be is add extra vertices where you want the detail. So if I were to add some extra vertices at the corners of the cube it will start to resemble the cube again

Now if you understood this you would have guessed you need to add extra geometry in your mesh at the top of your coffee(or water? depends on how far you are in that tutorial)

An easy way to add geometry to a closed loop is the inset tool(hotkey I), this tool basically makes another smaller loop inside the loop and connects the vertices.


UV Projection influence? I want to make 1 face of an object be the only thing that is affected by the UV Projection modifier

I tried recreating this but I can only do it by separating the face and having it as an individual object

I have read that I can use more materials and more UV maps to achieve this in the same object, but doing it that way would create confusion and make things more complicated since this will be used in a rig and that rig will be used multiple times in several scenes, I will also need to change the image texture a lot and doing it with more materials and UVs will take more steps

I believe it's possible with some sort of trick because one guy did it, I tried contacting him but he never responds, it's not impossible

Here's the blend file of a comparison with both test and result objects

I'll get to an answer in a second.

We've been back and forth in comments, and no, your latest .blend clarifies nothing.  Presumably, your object on the viewer's left demonstrates the need for the UV project modifier, but if you alt-g reset the bone and apply the UV project modifier, then move it back into position, it behaves exactly the same as it would with the active UV Project modifier.  So, yeah, I still have no idea about why this needs to occur.

Now, I'll give you an answer, but it's not the answer you're looking for, because I'll instead tell you how to limit a UV project modifier using only 2 UV maps, no extra objects (beyond the required projector and projectee), no extra materials.  Why ignore your explicit limits?  Because I still haven't heard any reason why your limits are important to your output, and because the reality is, doing it with 2 UV maps is extraordinarily simple and easy to implement.  Maybe you've been doing it a different way and think it's too complicated; it's not, and I'll show you.

Let's start with a single object and a single UV map.  Unbelievably, yours is already perfect...

Why is it perfect?  Because the faces that you want to use your UV projector modifier on are already out of bounds: all of the faces have U coordinates <0.  This is important as we'll see.

Now let's make another UV map.

So ugly!  But the actual content of this UV map doesn't even matter.  Do anything you want here.  Arrange your UVs into NWA lyrics as an easter egg, it's cool.  I just reset the whole thing to demonstrate that it doesn't matter.  In practice, it's just going to be a copy of your first UV map, since that's what you get when you hit the + button for a new UV map and don't do any other work, because you don't need to.

Time for the modifier.  This is the exact same modifier you have on your .blend, except it uses our second UV map.  I'll give you a picture, but you already know how it works.  You might want to notice that I'm back on UV0, and so I've got an ugly white face where my beautiful pixelly face ought to be.

Now, we don't need any additional materials, but we do need to edit our existing material.  I'm doing some hacky things here, just to save us some nodes, and I'll explain them; you can always feel free to do it the "right" way instead, and I can explain that too.  Here's our nodes.

So, first, notice the face is now there; it wasn't before.  This is working.  It's working in rendered preview too, but the lighting's poor, so I used mat preview instead.

Now, let's explain what I'm doing.  I'm getting two different UV coords.  And then I'm mixing between them on the basis of whether the first UV coords are out of bounds.  More particularly, on whether the U coordinate is less than 0.  So what I'm doing is using UV0 to code for whether or not my face should get affected by the UV project modifier.

The hacks are:

1) I'm just sending UV vector to a math node.  The math node ends up operating on the first element of the vector only, which is U.  That's why it works.  More professional would be to run this through a separate XYZ node first.

2) I'm using a Mix RGB node to blend between the UV.  Mix RGB doesn't actually know whether it's getting a vector or a color, all it does is mix.  Here, it does fine.  We could separate XYZ, multiply each channel by fac or 1 - fac, then add them, which would be more professional, but harder to fit into a screenshot, and Mix RGB works fine.

What do I end up with?  A single object where the OOB status of faces on UV0 determines whether or not we use UV1.  Add the armature modifier and you're good to go.

See?  Not so complicated.


How to build an operator that corrects StringProperty("subtype = 'DIR_PATH') from relative path? I'm trying to build a "smart" operator, this has to transform a relative path (Cause of a lot of trouble sometimes for novice users), so I was thinking something like this, if the StringProperty(subtype = 'DIR_PATH') property is relative
I have written a script that demonstrates what I would like to do, but I don't know how to continue and if it is possible to do this.
As you understand (I hope) I try to build an operator which is passed the right argument to interact with it (In this case 2 distinct properties).
import bpy, os

bl_info = {
    "name": "Test",
    "author": "NoobCat",
    "version": (1, 0, 0),
    "blender": (2, 92, 0)
    }

class MYADDON_OT_Realpath(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Convert to Realpath"""
    bl_idname = "myaddon.realpath"
    bl_label = "Realpath"
    bl_options = {'INTERNAL'}

    path: bpy.props.StringProperty() # <-- Is useful?

    def execute(self,context):
        context.path # <-- Is Useful?
        os.path.realpath(bpy.path.abspath(context.path))# Im very confused
        return{'FINISHED'}

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

    def draw(self, context):
        scn = context.scene
        preferences = bpy.context.preferences.addons[__name__].preferences
        scn_prop = scn.my_props

        layout = self.layout
        col = layout.column()
        #Case 1:
        col.prop(scn_prop, 'my_scene_path', text = "Add your scene prop path")
        if scn_prop.my_scene_path.startswith("//"):
            path = scn_prop.my_scene_path
            row = col.row()
            #row.context_pointer_set(name="path", data=path) <-- Is Useful?
            row.operator("myaddon.realpath", text = "Convert to realpath").path = path
        #Case 2:
        col.prop(preferences, 'my_preferences_path', text = "Add your preferences path")
        if preferences.my_preferences_path.startswith("//"):
            path = preferences.my_preferences_path
            row = col.row()
            #row.context_pointer_set(name="path", data=path) <-- Is Useful?
            row.operator("myaddon.realpath", text = "Convert to realpath").path = path

class MyAddonPreferences(bpy.types.AddonPreferences):
    bl_idname = __name__
    my_preferences_path: bpy.props.StringProperty(subtype = 'DIR_PATH')

class SceneProperties(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    my_scene_path: bpy.props.StringProperty(subtype = 'DIR_PATH')

classes = (MyAddonPreferences,
           SceneProperties,
           LayoutDemoPanel,
           MYADDON_OT_Realpath)

def register():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.register_class(cls)
    bpy.types.Scene.my_props = bpy.props.PointerProperty(type=SceneProperties)
def unregister():

    for cls in reversed(classes):
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(cls)
if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

With a setter and getter.
Instead of writing an operator, here is a suggestion re using a boolean property to toggle between the two, and set the path accordingly.
IIRC, (and I didn't) had asked a similar question re globbing string properties with a file or folder subtype, in particular to glob a file.  Have asked a new question.
For the case shown in question, consider adding your own "use relative" property
Have set up a generic setter / getter on path property, and on boolean property the getter simply looks at if the path starts with "//" it is relative, and toggle using the setter.  Will also use the option available in filebrowser of setting relative_path of the invoked and active in the file browser,  operator bpy.ops.buttons.directory_browse()

Example, file saved in tmp folder, draw method added to text editor footer for testing
import bpy

def update(self, context):
    print("update")

def set(self, value):
    print("setter")
    self["foo"] = value

def get(self):
    return self.get("foo", "//")

bpy.types.Scene.foo = bpy.props.StringProperty(
    subtype='DIR_PATH',
    default="//",
    get=get,
    set=set,
    update=update,
    )

def get(self):
    return self.foo.startswith("//")

def set(self, value):
    print("set relative", value)
    if value:
        self["foo"] = bpy.path.relpath(self.foo)
    else:
        self["foo"] = bpy.path.abspath(self.foo)

bpy.types.Scene.foo_relative_path = bpy.props.BoolProperty(
    name="Use Relative",
    get=get,
    set=set,
    )

def draw(self, context):
    layout = self.layout
    row = layout.row(align=True)
    row.prop(context.scene, "foo")
    row.prop(context.scene, "foo_relative_path")

classes = []

def register():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.register_class(cls)
    bpy.types.TEXT_HT_footer.append(draw)

def unregister():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(cls)
    bpy.types.TEXT_HT_footer.remove(draw)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


Blender bug with metric units When I set Blender to metric units with scale '0.01' (centimetres) or any other scale, except '1', I meet a bug.

Sometimes, Blender displays some values in meters. If I click into value and then press Enter immediately, it changes units to centimeters, although such operation should not change anything.

Proof: https://youtu.be/cJ-TfmF0PlI

UPDATE

It is a bug and it can be fixed.

One way is to adjust value after click. Initially it was 1.54844 m. Once clicked, it became 1.54844. Since absent units means cm, Blender should change the value to 154.844 immediately after click.

Other way is to retain unit in the window, but make it not selected, like windows do on file rename. Once I click F2 on file with extension, it selects name but extension:

By default Blender interprets input at the base unit measurement in that system. All you need to do is to input a unit as well as a quantity and this will work as expected (i.e. 12m or 12cm etc.)

As you have noted in your question, changing the Scale option changes what this base unit is. In your case the base unit is cm, so for any other unit of measure, you must input that unit after the numerical input.


What are the benefits to using procedural textures VS image textures? I have been seeing a lot of cool tutorials for procedural textures in Cycles lately, but I was wondering, are procedural textures actually more efficient rendering-wise than image textures? Do they help speed up the render, or would image textures be a better choice? What are the benefits to procedural textures?

Theoretically, a procedural texture is better, in the same way a vector graphic is better then a raster image. It has infinite resolution, can cover any surface, doesn't require UV mapping, and can be created without getting of your chair or browsing on the web.

However, an image texture has advantages to. Sometimes a scene, using image textures, can be finished in under an hour, vs a procedural workflow might take days. Image textures also, if sourced from a photograph, can have natural and realistic qualities a procedural textures might not (unless the procedural texture is really really really good).

In list form:

Procedural Textures Pros:

Infinite resolution
Increased editability
Can be applied to nearly any model without repetition or resolution issues.

Image Textures Pros:

Fast to create download.
Good results easily


cycles volume rendering 3D image texture (CT or MR dataset) Is it possible to render with cycles a 3D texture from discrete image data (eg. image sequence)?

Basically I'm trying to get volume rendering of medical data with cycles.

I've had success importing CT data into blender using the free 32bit version of the open source DICOM viewer OsiriX, free registration required (1).

Import your data into OsiriX
Double click the image-sequence to open it in the 2D Viewer
Choose "3D Surface Rendering" from the "2D/3D" button in the middle of the toolbar
Select the desired level of detail and (most important) the brightness of the pixels which should be considered the "object" (2)
Use the "3D-SR Export" button in the new "Surface Rendering" window to choose your preferred output format (.rib, .vrml, .iv, .obj or .stl)

I went with .obj and it imported smoothly into blender.

(1) OsiriX is Mac OS X only. The site http://www.idoimaging lists free medical image viewing software for many platforms. Maybe there is one with a similar feature set…

(2) Maybe you have to experiment a little in finding the right values. The available presets for Skin, Bones and Metal usually work just fine, but I have to admit, that I have no medical knowledge and therefore cannot say if this would be the case with all the CT/MR data sets out there.


Stop a script with code? Sometimes I have a big script and I want to do some tests without it running until the end. I'd like to add a lign of code to terminate the script where I want it without closing blender.

I've found this code online but it quit Blender, which is not what I want, I'd like the equivalent of a CTRL+C in the console.

import sys
sys.exit()

Depending on what the rest of the code does (and whether it handles any exceptions) you could simply raise an exception with :

raise Exception(“I’ve just triggered termination of my script”)

If the code doesn’t specifically handle exceptions then this will terminate the processing and Blender will report the message raised in the exception.

Obviously, you can replace the text with your own, appropriate to the situation.


"cursor_location property cannot be animated" error in Blender I'm trying to make an animation but every time I press I to get the frame, now it says "cursor_location property cannot be animated".

Does anyone know how to fix this problem?

Where in Blender UI is your mouse cursor hovering when you press the I key?
Are you by any chance hovering the 3D Cursor Position coordinate boxes?

You seem to be trying to animate the 3D cursor position, which apparently is not animatable. As far as I know it is part of Blender UI data or temporary run time data, I think, not a property from your scene, and thus not a type or data that can be stored or animated.


Is there a way to delete bones that don't have any weight assigned to them? I'm trying to rig a model, but the model has upwards of 500 bones and many don't have any weight to them. I was wondering if there was a way to delete bones that aren't weighted to the mesh.

This is a little round-about, but if your zero-weight bones have their deform-attribute toggled off, there is a plugin to convert IK-Chains to FK-Chains whose side-effect is tossing out all the non-deforming bones from the armature.

Take a look at it here:
https://github.com/chinedufn/blender-iks-to-fks


How to access the 3D cursor with 'Local View' support? Some scripts use the 3D cursor (for adding new objects or for a point of reference).

A common way to do this is using bpy.context.scene.cursor_location.

However in Local View each view has its own cursor, making tools behave strangely when local-view is enabled.

So the question is:

What's a good way to access the 3D cursor which will use the cursor as seen by the user?

Here's an example of 2 different ways to access the cursor.

Checking the space type and using only 3D views.

def context_cursor(context):
    scene = context.scene
    space = context.space_data

    cursor = (space if space and space.type == 'VIEW_3D'
              else scene).cursor_location
    return cursor

Using getattr with a fallback, however this isn't so reliable since it may return a 2D cursor for the image space (which probably isn't what you want).

# don't use this example!
def context_cursor(context):
    cursor = getattr(context.space_data, "cursor_location",
                     context.scene.cursor_location)
    return cursor

Note that when the 3D view isn't a Local View. context.space_data.cursor_location  will use the scene's cursor.


Cycles does not render with GPU My blender system tab shows CAICOS in compute drop down...when i render with graphics processing unit compute.my render screen. is blank.but with CPU its rendering.I do not n have any error messages in console window.I have ATI 6490m graphics card with memory 1gb

Make sure, that you are running on newest drivers.

On linux run:
CYCLES_OPENCL_TEST=all ./blender

On windows:
set CYCLES_OPENCL_TEST=all
then run blender

Switch to cycles, go to system settings and select your graphic card.

The performance is limited and initial compiling of the kernel can take few minutes. But according to this AMD statement, there is a fix slowly coming in. No words on performance improvements though.


How can I hide all the animation controls? I am only interested in modeling and not animation. Is there a way I can hide all the animation related panels from the blender interface? They take up screen real estate that I could use for other tools.

Either change the view type

or just combine one view with another by right clicking the edge between them


How to make mutually exclusive Modifiers or Object visivility What I want to do is have several modifiers on an object, like booleans in this case, but have them be mutually exclusive from one another. So if I display one, the others would turn off and vice versa. I've managed to make one modifier's display setting be the opposite of another with a driver but it doesn't seem to work with more than one variable and can't be manually turned on/off either.
Is this even possible to do?
I'd like to do the same with the visibility of objects in a collection as well but I imagine that's a different story.

I would do it with a custom property.
Select an object, an empty for example. Go to Object Properties > Custom Properties and click Add, and Edit it. Set the Property Value to 0 and the Default Value to 1 (so it will only use integers) and set the Min value to 0 and Max value to the number of boolean cutting shapes -1. In your case 2. Click OK.
Then right click the value field next to "prop" (the name of the custom property) and do Copy Data Path.
Now for each of your drivers set the Data Variable Type to Single Property.
As Prop choose your Empty object with the custom property. And mouse hoover over the field next to Path and Ctrl+V paste the Data Path. It should now say ["prop"].
Finally enter for each of your drivers respectively, in the field next to Expression: var==0 , var==1 and var==2.

Now if you set the custom property to for instance 2, only the boolean modifier with the driver with the expression var==2 will show.


How to set default save location for an image? Currently, when I have a rendered image (or any other kind of image) I want to save, the file browser always insists on starting the save location from my Documents folder.
I would prefer to set a default location for the file browser to start from, so that I don't need to navigate to the appropriate folder before saving.
I have already attempted to set this in "Preferences" by modifying the "Render Output" filepath to point to the desired folder. The file browser is able to 'see' this location (I'm able to open it up from the file path), so the path is clearly valid. However, setting this property doesn't seem to do anything at all, as far as I can tell.
I've also attempted to create a new Blend file, save a render to the desired folder, and then save the start-up file. This also doesn't do anything to the file navigator's behavior.
Please note that I am not referring to where animation frames are saved by default- I am aware this is under the Output Properties panel. Rather, I want to specify a default save location for the file explorer to start from when saving a render.

Were you able to figure this one out? I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding, or if this might have to do with some kind of computer file storage settings or compatibility error. You may have tried this already; But after doing the usual render action:
Render Image (f12)> Save As
In the file explorer I click the "Create New Directory" folder icon and then from then on it always renders to that folder, for the project you're working on. If you have multiple projects that you would like to keep saving to the same folder, it should usually keep it the same.


How can I know what render engine a file is made for? I'm an intern in a lab and they want to use blenderfiles for generating stimuli for a visual perception experiment. The previous intern got started, and now I need to finish. Because of how this experiment will be set up, we need files all made in the same engine. I know that you can see the engine on top of the screen, but I think she changed it sometimes to a different engine, and now I don't know the real engine anymore.

First, unless the previous person used an external engine, when the file is loaded, whichever file is being used for the blendfiles will be displayed. But more fundamentally, it would seem to me that all of the files just need to have the same engine, and you could reset any that don't conform to the desired norm.


Smooth contours with grid lines Total noob here.

My goal is to be able to create figures in the following style (source):

with a workflow consisting of Blender and Inkscape. I'm sufficiently skilled with Inkscape, but I'd really like to get the mathematically defined shapes done to perfection in Blender.

Currently, my challenge is to draw the surfaces (open or closed) smoothly, but with grid lines. I'm using the Freestyle renderer with the SVG exporter addon.

I'm also using the addon for extra objects which includes meshes generated by equations of the coordinates.

My current best effort is illustrated here:

where I am rendering all of the edges as "Freestyle Edges".

I would like the nodes in the grid to be connected smoothly (i.e., I want the underlying mesh to have a higher number of samples than the selection of Freestyle edges). This might be as simple as me learning how to select ever 10th node in a row or something, but I don't have the Blender experience to make that a trivial task.

Any advice is appreciated.

To connect the nodes smoothly, all that's needed is to (CtrlE > Edge Data) mark Freestyle edges on a low-poly version of your curved surface, as you appear to have done, and then assign a Subdivision Surface modifier with Catmull-Clark interpolation. (The newly generated faces and their sides are not visible to Freestyle, unless you apply the modifier, and mark them afterwards). Then you set the Freestyle Line Style to select only by Edge Mark.

This is assuming that the result of CC subdivision is mathematically accurate enough for your purposes. If not, it is possible to select every n'th loop on a more densely divided grid.

Select 2 parallel edges, n apart, on the loops you will eventually want to mark.
Hitting CtrlShiftNumpad + will select successive edges at the same interval, across the grid.
Using the Select menu in the header, select 'Loops' > 'Edge Loops'.

Loops will be selected at that interval, to be marked.


Missing objects in the final render I have been trying to render a thumbnail for a Roblox game. I have everything ready I just need to render it. When I try to render the final product It only shows the terrain and not the actual people. I think something is wrong with the camera. Not sure though.

Make sure you enable all objects renderable in the outliner panel. It's the Camera button next to the object name.

Also make sure your render layer is connected to a composite output node.


Change value of sun light emission strength from Python console or script I need to programatically modify the value of sun light

From the picture, it seems we can code it from

bpy.data.node_groups["Shader Nodetree"].nodes["Emission"].inputs[1].default_value = 1.2

however, the code produce an error that

>>> bpy.data.node_groups["Shader Nodetree"].nodes["Emission"].inputs[1].default_value = 2
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
KeyError: 'bpy_prop_collection[key]: key "Shader Nodetree" not found'

I found a similar post it is related to changing the material, but mine question is related to the sunlight, how would i do it ?

Yes the tooltip can be a little misleading, look for the node_tree property on the lamp data object.

With the lamp as context object

>> C.object
bpy.data.objects['Lamp']

>>> C.object.data.node_tree.nodes['Emission'].inputs['Strength'].default_value = 2

# or via bpy.data (D)

>>> D.objects['Lamp'] == C.object
True

>>> D.objects['Lamp'].data
bpy.data.lamps['Lamp']

>>> lamp = D.lamps['Lamp']

>>> lamp.node_tree.nodes['Emission'].inputs['Strength'].default_value = 3


Can't change the color of the sprinkles following blinder guru in his tutorial for beginners i colored the sprinkles but then i wanted to change some colors but i couldn't .. when i go to the compositing mode, the nodes aren't the ones of the sprinkles although i made sure i select the sprinkles

The Compositing and Material Editor are two node-based Editor Types that are very different. Beginners can get these mixed up.
The Compositing Workspace is to edit your final renders and do things like color correction, effects, and things like that.
The Material Editor is the actual Editor you want. This will actually let you change how the material is defined through tweaking nodes, and you can simply access it by changing the Editor to "Shader Editor", and selecting a sprinkle. If you want to change the colors, just go to the colorramp (the thing with a colorful bar) and change the colors by selecting flags.


wacom tablet right mouse and 3D cursor just got a new wacom tablet , mapped
 the right mouse button
for selecting ,everything great  but how can i  get rid of the 3D cursor,wich is following my pointer the all time ???
(disabling it in user- pref just left it frozen in the middle ...)

unfortunatly after installing window 10 , reinstalling the driver , the stylus is not selcting with RM button , just get a variation of usless ripple effect at the cursor and it does not select anymore...

I've been using a wacom tablet for a long time. What works for me is mapping the tip to click, the lower button for right click, top button to double click. Then I enable Emulate 3 Button mouse.

To zoom in I use CtrlAlt while pressing/draggin the pen
Alt Drag to rotate
ShiftAlt Drag to move siedeways and up/down
Selecting I do by hovering over the vertices/edges/faces and clicking on the lower button

I like this configuration because Continuous grab lets me select and grab in a single operation.


How to rebuild mesh in optimized way? Example inside I've made an example house out of blocks. Is there any way to automatically rebuild my model into one solid mesh without unnececarry polygons?

There isn't one.  Because you created individual blocks, even when they're joined they're still independent meshes. Tools like dissolve faces only work on completely connected meshes.


If I select a single vertex and drag, the whole object stretches out instead of just the vertex selected I subdivided the cube and changed to edit mode so I can edit the vertex. The problem is if I select a single vertex and drag, the whole object stretches out instead of just the vertex selected. The proportional editing if off, so I don't know what is wrong cause I am new to blender.

You can subdivide and It'll add another geometry and then when u select the object from the subdivision you can drag it and it'll stretch out from the subdivision only.
You can add subdivision by pressing "R" and you can scroll up or down in order to increase the no. of subdivision.And then right click if u want it to stay on center.
Thank you hope it'll help


Functions of the Texutre Coordinate Node I've been looking around, and I haven't found any good explanations on what each of the sockets from the Texture Coordinate Node does.  Can somebody please explain this?

Each socket represent a different mapping function that maps surface coordinates to the texture coordinates. What you get from the socket is 3D vector array which can be manipulated with vector or math nodes to alter the mapping (usually using the Mapping node).

The different mapping options are explained here:

How do texture coordinates work?

How the vectors itself and math works and what you can do with it is explained here:

How do I create repeating patterns with cycles' procedural textures


Issue with Volume Absorption inside Glass first time posting here and very new to blender, Im following BlenderGuru's latest tutorial and I'm having some issues with volume absorption, this is of course not a job, I don't have a deadline, so I wanna know what is wrong with it and how to fix it not just do it in a different way.

I rendered each picture at 128 samples using denoiser with cycles in blender 2.80, I'm not sure the exact value I applied to the volume as I changed it a lot to check different results and they were all basically the same, with that foggy look, however it should be at around 700 for this one.

One thing I noticed is that the material looks a bit different in the material preview than in the last picture here where it looks opaque on the sides while in the preview it looked glossy

In the first one the water is the same material as the cup, so you see there shouldn't be an issue with the geometry

Edit: Just found a way to add the blend file so is easier for you to check http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=52500

I was facing the same issue when doing the Blender guru tutorial. I tried searching in a lot of threads for multiple hours but did not find a solution that worked. Then, I found an alternative method from a blender StackExchange thread that worked quite well for me. It talks about tweaking the IOR values of the faces of the coffee which face the glass.  The link for the thread is given below -
Liquid IOR
Image before tweaking the IOR value-

After tweaking the IOR value of the coffee faces by following the solution in the link and setting it to 0.8-

IOR set to 0.91 based on the formulae used in the link-

You can play around with values further to get the desired look.


Sky-only pass with the foreground knocked out? I'm having some difficulty because even though the Transparent Sky option is just what I need, I don't want it for every pass in my scene - I need the sky to be rendered too in other render layers.

There is a BlenderArtists thread (can't find the URL at the moment) where the suggested solution was to duplicate the whole scene and have one of the scenes render with a transparent background, but that would surely kill my render time for this animation to have to build the BVH for a whole mountain landscape in two scenes.

There is a BSE question that somewhat addresses this kind of issue, but I believe the sky is not lighting the terrain. (It would be nice if I'm wrong... can't download the .blend to check) I need my terrain to be lit by the sky color.

Things I've tried include:

Setting a render pass with the entire material as a Holdout shader (but it just shows black without sky transparency checked).

Various combinations of render layers... but I can't get something that just serves as a mask between the landscape and sky.

I've considered using Material IDs or Object IDs, but concluded that it will cause problems for tree leaves on the mountain horizon, which rely on their texture alpha to look like leaves instead of square planes.

Update:
Based on the answer suggested, I created a makeshift mask that separates the terrain (foreground) from the sky (background). Basically I used a Color Ramp to squash all non-black values to white. This might be a solution for some cases but it's certainly not elegant, as the horizon is not anti-aliased. Also if the sky is black (like space or a very dark night sky) it doesn't work at all.

Update 2:
I figured out that I can make a sky mask by rendering a mist pass at extremely far away values (beyond all geometry) leaving just the sky white and all else black. This solves the anti-aliasing problem, the only drawback being that it prevents me from doing an actual mist pass in this same scene... so it's still not a total solution but good to know about.

Edit: Since posting the above screen shot I've realized the mist's Start distance doesn't need to be extremely far away - it can be any distance if the mist Depth is set to 0.00, and if given a closer Start value such as 0.0001 it may actually render faster than with a far away one (although a mist pass calculates quickly in any case).

Is there anything else I haven't thought of?

If you go to "renderlayers -> Passes" You can activate the "environment" pass. This will deliver the background as an RGB value in the compositor. All abjects are now black. This gives you the freedom to combine them as you wish.


How do I scale a rigged object? I would like to scale this pair of hands:

But when I try to do so,this happens:

The fingers don't scale,I think this has something to do with the bones,(forgive my ignorance,it is all morning that I search for an answer). It would be also fine if I could just scale the posed model,It has already got the pose that I need.

Without seeing your whole model, it is hard to say, but here is a solution to try... Here is my 'hand' rig:

Now add a new bone and parent all of the bones to it.

Now select the parent bone and scale it.  All of the children bones and their meshes will scale with the parent.

It is possible you have a break in your child/parent relationship in your model? But in general all children bones scale with their parent and, if you do not have a parent bone, you can add one for this purpose.


Rendered eevee is blurry My Eevee render is blurry, pixelated whereas the viewpoint is totally fine. I tried different setting, increasing sampling, etc', but it seems that I'm missing something more fundamental.
I downloaded couple of files from Blender.org, used the same setting, then when I moved the camera position it all became pixelated.
Any input would be highly appreciated!
render result
blend file

Your active camera has Depth of Field enabled and the focus is controlled by the object camera DOF. But for some reason, your camera DOF is in the nirvana. If you select it and try to grab it with G the location is nan(ind)?! Similar to this question nanind-m-location-for-camera. (Honestly, I don't know how to fix this.)
I just would delete the bad object, create a new Empty and specify it as DOF object. Move the Empty (Sphere in the screenshot) to your model. This is where the camera's focus is. The background will be blurry.


Texturing a human model I have just started learning Blender. I have been following this course on Udemy.

i - https://www.udemy.com/blender-character-modeling-for-beginners-hd/learn/v4/

I am trying to texture my model but facing some issues in Blender, i am using blender version 2.79.

i have two questions.

first when i seemed the model and unwrap it, it is of the side view, how can i switch it to its front view, and

Second question is when i bake an image on the model it says no valid selected objects

If you want to bake normals with "Selected to active" checked, you have to select an object that contains the details that should be baked and select another object where the details should be baked onto. This object has to be the active object.


Exact transform issue This is my first post, just letting you know. I'm often trying to move things in edit mode to exact locations and I find that it either won't let me put it at an exact location like it rounding the value but it's some weird value like 0.000002 when I want it to be 0.0. I can't figure out what's going on with this.

I also had an issue where it would display the location on one of the axis as being 0.0 wich is what i wanted, but it wasn't if I zoomed in and looked closer. When I'd click to change the value it displayed a value something close to 345345-e.32345.

Let me give you an example of the issue. NOTE: it's recreated, not an actual example, but it's quite close to what it's like. It only showed up like that when I clicked on the value otherwise it showed as 0.0. When I tried to set it to 0.0 it didn't take effect. I had to move it to somewhere else and then back to 0.0 before it stopped showing that, but if you zoom in to the object it still isn't centered at 0.0 – it looks like it is until you really zoom in but it will cause issues when I merge it with other geometry that's meant to line up perfectly with it. I also have issues with part of models having parts that don't line up even though I constrained all to cuts extrude and what not too axis. And I end up with tiny holes in my models, and I end up with light leaks.

I've had these issues for years actually. Usually I can fix them but it takes forever and I have better things to do with my time. While I'm at it I'd like to know how to move an object by moving the location of a vert in the transform toolbar like how in the 3d view you can move from active element rather than the median point. I'm pretty sick so I hope I'm making sense.

Here's a WIP model that has the issue described.

I've spent over an hour manually realigning the verts – it's still not done.

Here's a close up on the edges showing what I mean.

your best option in this case is mesh-align-plus, and modify it according to your needs, I do not understand much of your question but I try to deduce with risk to make a mistake, but this surely fits your problem


How do I apply sharpening via compositing to several movie clips simultaneously in my video editing project? I’ve assembled a sequence of movie clips in Video Sequence Editor.  What’s the most efficient way of applying the same sharpening filter in composting to several clips at once?
Thank you

Afaik, there is no sharpening filter in Blender.
In general, if you need to add an effect filter to several strips, add an Adjustment Layer over all strips and add an effect to that.
For modifiers, there is a button in the sidebar/Strip Menu to copy the modifiers from the active strip to all selected strips.


Issue with lighting and rendered environment map I'm trying to create a simple environment map for a Unity game I'm working on but I'm getting weird lighting issues, it seems like the lighting for each face is rendered differently. I'm using Blender Render in Blender v2.76.

I've added the map as a skybox in Unity which displays the problem:

I've created a very simple scene that displays the problem, it only has a few objects in a single mesh with a couple of lights. An empty above center is used as the Viewpoint Object.

The environment settings are using the static map defaults except that I've switched to Equirectangular coordinates.

Above is the environment map output though rearranged so the faces to connect to make the problem more obvious. Last two faces are bottom and top respectively, notice how the bottom is much darker than the plane is in the other faces as well.

Why am I getting this odd lighting behavior?

Example file:

I believe your issue is that you are using the Blender Render engine instead of Cycles (much newer). This would definitely lead to the darker bottom faces because Blender Render does not utilize bounce lighting (in real life, if you have a desk with a cavity under it and a white carpet floor for example, when photons hit the carpet, they bounce and also hit the underside of the desk, illuminating it). Blender Render also cannot do proper environment maps.

To fix all of these problems, go to the top bar and where it says Blender Render, instead select Cycles Render from the dropdown:

 -->

Select the camera and go to the Camera Object Data tab in the Properties panel. Change the settings under Lens to Panoramic and Equirectangular. This will create a true world image.

Go to the Render Settings tab in the Properties panel. Under Light Paths, change the settings to these. These are the optimal bounce lighting settings that I use in almost every render. While on the subject of lighting, I would highly recommend repositioning your lamps and changing their strength and color so that the image looks better.

Go to Properties panel > Render Settings > Sampling and change the Render: samples to 250. Also change the Clamp Indirect: value to 3. Both of these will improve your image's clarity.

Go to Properties panel > Render Settings > Dimensions and change the X: and Y: dimensions to 2000x1000. Up the percentage slider to 100%.

Lastly, since I assume you want a panorama like this:

...and not like this:

...change your camera positioning in the 3D View Properties panel to this:

After adjusting the lighting as well, I was able to make this:

Also, here is the adjusted .blend file:


Weird shading after extrude, tried everything (i think) I am trying to exctrude some faces and after I do it I am getting really weird shading. I have tried:

-splitting nonplanar faces
-removing doubles
-increased vertices

Is there anything else I can try? Anyone know what causes this?

Add an Edge Split modifier. Ideally, you would redo/alter all the letters to have no more that 4 vertices per face.


How can a Normal Map affect the look of a model? What are the limits of normal maps? As far I understand, they can improve the appearance of a model, but how much can the appearance of a low-poly mesh be improved with the addition of a normal map? Can sharp edges appear as beveled because of a normal map?

I know normal maps don't change geometry, so I don't think you can make a pretty beveled cube out of the default cube just with a normal map. Is that right?

Normal maps simply trick the render engine into thinking that the face is at a differnt angle at that place. It cannot control height (It can still appear to create hight difference, but the are not accurate*) only angle.

Limitations

- Changing the silhouette: normal maps won't change the outline

Another angle

- Accurate depiction of height

Working With Limitations:

Design your mesh to work with these limitations

make sure the silhouettes match
make sure all height differences are clearly define.

Adding enough supporting geometry to complete the illusion


How to pass arbitrary floating-point data from Animation Nodes into a shader? I want to pass arbitrary floating-point data from Animation Nodes into a shader.

I have found the Set Vertex Color node, but I have two problems with this method. The first is that the values are limited to the range [0.0, 1.0], and the second I think is due to color space transformations.

For example, the Red channel output is in the range 0.3 to 0.5:

0.47818
0.42225
0.4
0.37775
0.35661

But if I log the values in the shader using a (very slow) custom OSL script, I find that the incoming R values are different:

0.094118
0.117647
0.070588
0.133333
0.145098

How can I send an unbounded floating point value to the shader without any value transformation side-effects?

Animation Nodes:

Shader:

shader shaderDebug(color input=0,output color debug=0)
{
  debug = input + 0.00001; // script is not a no-op; dont optimize away
  printf("debug: %f, %f, %f\n" , input[0], input[1], input[2] );
}

You can transfer any kind of data (float, integer, negative, greater than 1, etc.) from Animation Nodes to Shader (Material) with the help of UV Map Data Output node or Set Vertex Colors node but for this, you need Animation Nodes + Extra Nodes.

Method-1:
First, we have to find the total number of vertices for individual polygons using the Mesh Object Input node and Separate Polygons node. Then, Create Float List (the list you want to pass to the shader), and now we have to make its length equal to the total number of vertices of polygons which we can achieve with Fill List node (length = total number of vertices of polygons). Now, connect this final list to the UV Map Data Output node (Note: Create Float List's length <= Total number of vertices),

We have stored the data in UV coordinates which we can access in the material (I have added the color ramp node to show the difference between the values of the passed list),

Blend File:

Method-2:
This is also doable with Set Vertex Colors node in Blender2.81x but node-tree is more complex and slower. Here is the example, in which first I have mapped the Float List to 0-1 range then passes it as vertex colors.

Then, in the material, I have re-mapped them to back their original values with the Map Range node,

Blend File:


EEVEE subsurface scattering (SSS) causes artifacts/banding Why am I getting this banding artifact and not getting translucency (e.g through the ear)?  In the various online demonstrations of EEVEE's SSS I've looked at, there's not banding and translucency works.  Is there some setting I'm missing?

My setup is one lamp that's behind Sussanne, and Sussanne's material is Principled BSDF with SSS=1 and transmission=0.  It's Blender 2.8 for Mac OS.

The two images below show the banding effect.

In render settings, the SSS samples count changes but doesn't remove the banding.
In render settings, the jitter amount has no effect.
In render settings, "screen space refraction" on/off has no effect.
In material settings, "subsurface translucency" on/off has no effect.

I discovered through more experimentation that subsurface value set to 1.0 is extremely high.  Values below 0.3 don't exhibit these artifacts.  Also:

moving the light further away from the object reduces artifacts even at sss=1
it's not necessary to turn on screen space reflection/refraction
SSS translucency does work.  I don't know why it wasn't working when I created those screenshots.  Maybe I just needed to reboot, or maybe I had some weird settings.


Mesh with editing failures I'm new to blender and I was interested in using it to develop game mods.
I started with a simple one and am having problems with the mesh of the personage's legs.
I edited the right side of the leg and then used Modifiers> mirror to mirror the other leg. But the other leg appeared with cuts in the mesh.
I used the remove double and the mesh has dark spots. How can I solve this?

You could try resetting the normals for the faces, in Edit Mode, select all the faces, go to Mesh at the top selection bar or press Alt + N, then set Normals from Face.


How to restore cloth presets? Is there anyway to restore the Blender default Cloth settings?
Or is there anyway to find what the default settings are?

I didn't realize at the time that by changing the values I was overriding the default values.

Using Blender v2.76.

To restore default settings of presets choose them again from the dropdown list (this can be done not only for cloth presets, but for other presets as well). Note that any already made changes will be lost.

This won't work if you changed any preset settings and then saved your User Preferences; new settings will overwrite default ones.          Note that preferences were separated from startup file.

If attempting to restore cloth preset after its deletion most likely you will need to install Blender once more (if you haven't saved backup of .py files with settings before deleting them) because file is being deleted as you press 'minus' button.


(bpy.ops.mesh.transform.resize)how do I call this operator as a modal rather than directly executing it? I was trying to call this function as a modal through code but unfortunately when I execute bpy.ops.mesh.transform.resize(long list of values here), it applies the function directly and I want this as a modal just like when I press the "S" key triggered through code.

You can achieve the behavior you desire ( user interaction ) by explicitly passing the execution context (INVOKE_DEFAULT) as the first argument.

bpy.ops.mesh.transform.resize('INVOKE_DEFAULT', ......)

The default execution context is 'EXEC_DEFAULT' and is implicit for all operators. In such a case just the execute() method defined for the operator is called using the default or passed operator properties. But in case an operator defines an invoke/modal method and 'INVOKE_DEFAULT' is the execution context, either an operator properties user interface can be used to execute the operator or can be run modally or both.

Further details can be found at the links below:

bpy.ops calling operators and execution context
bpy.types.Operator


Adding hotkeys for bisect I am trying to add hotkey for bisect, but i can't find this option in user interface -> input. Using search on "bisect" gives 0 results. How can i find it there?

In Edit mode go to tool shelf under Add-> Bisect right click on it and add shortcut a pop-up to give a selection of the key. Add the key. Go to User Preference Setting save user setting so next time it will be save.


why i cant create a hole with bool tool addon I have array of 10 sphere. With the array applied. I removed all the doubles and checked the scale of both the mesh. I tried to make a hole with the Bool Tool addon. Selecting the sphere and the mesh pressing ctrl + -(minus) key. 2 Sphere disappear and it did not cut the hole. It looks like they joined the mesh. Thanks

Geometry is too much complex.
Change Overlap Threshold in Boolean Modifier to zero.


why do objects appear to be emitting light? It looks like the bed to the right, the pane beneath the window and beneath the couch are emitting light? why? all light sources except a moon outside is turned off.

All of these materials are basic Diffuse BSDFs. the wall with the window in it has a JPEG-texture wrapped on it.

i'm working in Cycles Render btw

Edit: heres the whole shebang with the layout of it all. the sun and the moon are the dots on the very right. the room where the "human" is sleeping on the couch is to the left. everything outside the room is just scenery, so that's why it looks very sloppy.

the "human guy" in pic 1 has nodes like this:

I have btw tried turning of all the light sources in the Outliner window, does that render light anyway somehow?

uploaded the .blend if anyone is interested

Mystery solved.  You have a lamp object called "sol kon" whose viewport visibility was turned off, but the render was left on.  That's what the light is coming from when you render.


How to do away with facets in render? New to Blender.  Took Lynda’s class on Blender Essentials, but still have some questions.

My question/trouble is:
I imported into Blender a .obj that has 660K faces.  It’s a small part that goes over a cup.  When I setup up a ‘product shot’ the part renders with many facets showing.  How do I get rid of all of these facets?

Have done these things:
Under shading - I selected Smooth - this smooths things out, however the edges get deformed and no longer looks real.
 I selected the object and selected Add Modifier, then Subdivision Surface.  Anytime I went above 2 for View, the computer would crash (Subdivide UVs was selected).  And render was set for 2, sometimes I selected 3.  But - this did nothing to improve the surface finish.

Please note - when I bring this .obj into Adobe After Effects with the Element 3D plugin, the object is extremely smooth.  I would really like to animate in Blender, but may have to do this in After Effects.

Too bad Blender isn’t more like Fusion 360 where you can scale and bend/rotate the edges of a face, or am I wrong?  I would think you could greatly reduce the amount of faces needed and the size of this file.

Go to the Properties panel > Object modifiers tab (wrench) and add an Edge Split modifier. Adjust the value until it looks right. This will get rid of the "deformed and no longer look real" edges.

Note that this works with Smooth shading enabled like you had.

Progression of the Edge Split modifier (Image from the Blender Reference Manual):

Edit:

What I did produced the following result. Note that I was unsure exactly what color you wanted, so I chose a medium-light red. I edited the material as well to get rid of the Volume Absorbtion. Change the color through the Glass BSDF color settings.

Render result:

Material settings:

I did the following for the cup and sleve meshes. I started by keying Tab to enter Edit Mode, A once or twice to select everyting, and Alt + J to convert the majority of the triangular faces into quads. Read more about that in How do I convert a triangle mesh to a quads one?.

I then turned the Edge Split modifier up to a Split Angle: of 30. There are still some imperfections, but from the camera's distance, they really don't show. Those are just down to the mesh and the modeler, who designed a mesh with awful topology.

I was able to do something about the water. This is a good lesson: If you are going to have water, unless it's a fluid simulation, have the water be part of the cup. What I mean by this is that instead of having an alternate water object, one should add a second material to the cup following the steps outlined in Add different materials to different parts of a mesh?.
I changed the viewport color for increased clarity. I would go over how I selected the inside of the cup, but it really would take forever.

Viewport coloring:

A coke bottle that I made where the glass is also colored instead of having a separate liquid mesh inside:

The noise is down to optimizing the Light Paths settings, upping the samples, changing the Filter Glossy, and Clamping Indirectly. I also upped the lamp and world lighting. Read about many good ways to reduce noise and optimize a render in these two BlenderGuru articles:
7 Ways to Get Rid of Fireflies Once and For All
4 Easy Ways to Speed Up Cycles
Check out the settings here to see what I did:

Some of the Tris to Quads magic reduced the file to 30 mb so Blend Exchange, here I came! Note that I split the objects into 3 layers so I could play with them easier. Lastly, if the .blend file does not render clear enough for you, just keep upping the Render Samples: until it does. :)


Fill a volume with spheres from a particles generator I'd like fill a volume with spheres from a particles generator

Maybe I can use Rigid Body options
but I don't know how I can

Could you help ?

It a sphere volume with Solidify modifier

I tried with Blender 2.78a I have some crashes to apply Rigid Body informations to spheres objects generated by particles generator. What could I do to fill the volume
with spheres ?

EDIT: I use three Arrays Modifiers and use I copied Rigid Body informations from Active Object

If I am correct that this is the effect that you are trying to achieve, the most important thing is enabling collision on the volume sphere, not rigid body simulation.

A quick visual walk-through of what I did...

1. Add three spheres

Volume sphere
Emitter sphere
Particle sphere

Note: the max draw type of the volume sphere was set to wire to make it easier to see.

2. Setup particle system on the emitter

Give the particles a long lifetime (like 250+)
Emit them from the volume of the mesh
Turn off gravity effects
Set the render mode to object with the particle sphere selected

3. Enable particle collision on the volume sphere

Note: the default settings work fine if you don't want particle damping/killing.


Dupliverts rotation not working I've been trying to create a spiked sphere using dupliverts, followed all the steps (spike facing Y axis, parent-child, checking rotation) and it still won't work. I tried different axes and still no luck. The spikes are not pointing towards the normals. Any help please.

On the Object Data tab, you need to go to Relations Extras (Just below Duplication) and under the Tracking Axes pick Axis: +Z and Up Axis: Z.


How can I find help learning Blender? I was wondering if there would be anyone willing to tutor or teach me to start with blender, and get a decent way into it...I find the wiki and video tutorials somewhat difficult because I'm not very good at self-study. I understand it might not be worth it, as there is no way for me to pay you, but maybe we could work on projects together once we finished or as we go along? I'm also very willing to help you with your projects as I learn new concepts.

Thanks in advance, I appreciate it!

While not exactly the type of tutor you are asking about, the Resources for Blender page, under the first category, Learning, there is a link to an answer which points to two on-line courses, one geared towards high school, and one geared towards college level learners. My suggestions is to work through either—or both— of these is as a start. You need not be a student of the sponsoring institutions to use the courses, and they are free. They are also complete courses as you might find in contemporary US high schools and colleges, where some classes are conducted on line. Having worked through these, you may find you don't have as much need for a tutor.


Blender python : How to set object appearance in viewport? I want to set object to be as textured or wire like in

  Property/object/viewport Display/Display as ..

How to do this using python ?

Thanks

Mouse over see the property test in console

Make sure python tooltips and developer extras is checked

Mousing over the desired field..

python: Object.display_type

Testing in the console

>>> C.object.display_type
'WIRE'

Get it deliberately wrong to see what options are available.

>>> C.object.display_type = 'XXX'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: bpy_struct: item.attr = val: enum "XXX" not found
         in ('BOUNDS', 'WIRE', 'SOLID', 'TEXTURED')

>>> C.object.display_type = 'SOLID'


rounding selected faces Hey I created a plane and subdivided it several times till I got a nice grid. Now I want to draw an oasis. I already rounded out the outer shape. I might want to do it several times and I rounded it by hand. Is there an automatic way? I want to repeat it for the middle area now. I will have to do it for a much bigger area soon.

Is there a way to select only the green area? I can get the selection in the UV Editor as the "sand" area is on a yellow colour and the "gras" area is on a green area. Can I get the UV Editor selection to the object editor? Is there another way?

Check out the loop tool plugin, it comes along the with blender.

Just enable and have a try. You seem to have used lot of subdivision, which makes the task a little difficult.


How to bend a specific part of an object or differently achieve a bend/round surface this is actually my first post on the Blender StackExchange so I hope I ask my question properly^^.

I am rather new to Blender and currently trying to model a Desert Eagle. It's going good so far, just started it 2 hours ago but now I ran into a problem. I am trying to make the red marked piece of the gun but I have actually no Idea how to properly get this bend surface. I thought about using a Deform Modifier, but as the whole green marked part is one object it would bend the whole object, which I obviously don't want. Sculpting isnt really an option for me as I want to keep it as low poly as possible additionally I have no clue how sculpting works, actually never used it. Is there any option to get it close to the picture? I doesn't have to be perfectly round but I cannot manage to even get close to a rounded surface.

Thanks to all of you in advance :)

As your base shape is a cylinder you could begin with a cylinder and use the Boolean modifier to cut off the parts you're talking about, then continue to model, create some edge loops, use the knife, and at the end add some bevels to sharp the edges:


Shape Keys are inactive in Edit Mode How do I activate shape keys?

In edit mode, ( Properties Window --> Data )

The + and  - buttons in the Shape Keys tab are gray and inactive.

Any pointers?

Shape keys work by storing two states for your mesh and allowing you to blend between the two. First off though I would caution just adding shape keys with no armature. They can have uses without armatures, but they are most commonly used to either correct bad/weird deformation or to add additional details to the deformation that are hard to make with an armature.

Here's a quick rundown of how shape keys work. This isn't extensive by any means, but should get you up and running with shape keys.

First step is to start in object mode, then add a shape key with the little '+' icon. This will create a shape key called Basis. This is the first state that blender stores, and as the name suggests, it is the default, original shape of your mesh, as if it had no shape keys.

Next, add another shape key. You can name this one whatever you want by clicking on the name. This will be the second state that is saved for your model. By default, the slider will be set to 0, which is fine.

Now, with the second key selected, go into edit mode. You can edit different keys by selecting whichever key you want to edit. Note that you do have to be in object mode to select a different key, which is why they are greyed out in your case. Now you can edit your mesh to be whatever state you want to blend between. You could, for example, close an eye, or create some wrinkles that would appear when the mouth of your model would open, or whatever you like. Once you are happy with your model, go back to object mode. You will notice that it will go back to your original model.

The slider under your shape key will now do something, and if you adjust to anything other than 0, you will see your model blend between the two states. You can continue to edit and add as many shape keys as you like as many times as you like.

One thing to note, in addition to what I cautioned at the start, is how shape keys deform your mesh. Unlike an armature, which connects the vertices to a bone and makes them follow the bone, shape key deformation is linear. Basically what that means is each vertex will go in a straight line between its position in the Basis key and the additional key. To give an example, if you made a shape key to bend a characters elbow, and you went into edit mode and rotated the mesh about the elbow, so that in edit mode the motion is proper, the shape key would not pay any attention to how you moved the vertices, just the start and end positions.

Here is a link to the Blender Manual page for shape keys (link) which you can go through to find out more about each setting and the workflows behind it, but I would suggest trying things by yourself a bit first to see what you can figure out.