I'm having trouble putting my windows views back, I tried a few things and they won't go back, they did before So this is a little embarrassing. I have gotten really far on this Harbor Seal project and i can't figure out how to close my python code info viewer? the large arrow won't appear. I have recently saved, I like what I have. Any suggestions?
Is there python script that can hide my python viewer? or simply set to regular format?

The simple way (that doesn't involve careful dragging of a corner) is to right-click the line between two windows - eg, the horizontal between the two top-right frames - and select 'Join Area'. You can then left-click the panel that you want to close. Note, however, that as mentioned by @Timaroberts, you can only do this on frames that match in width/height - otherwise you have to join other areas until the panels you want to join match in size.


Why can't I scale the mesh? I have 2 meshes and I added a 3mm solidify modifier to both of them. The upper red mesh looks merged to me, so I want to scale it a little so that I can't see the red mesh from black.

In the edit mode I select all the meshes and press Alt+s to scale it a little. It's going up or down, but I can't scale little to make it smaller. I applied scale and rotation to both yet to same result. Does anyone have any suggestions or help on how to make it work?

From what I understand try just pressing s + x/z/y instead of alt s. Also make sure proportional editing is off


Adding cloth physics to vertex group I was wondering how to apply cloth physics to this cape vertex group. I do not need cloth physics on the rest of the mesh. The cape is apart of the mesh and is not separate. Any help is appreciated.

Updated: The main goal of the wind simulation is to test the cloth simulation of the cape. I have done both a cloth simulation, which yielded no results when baked with the wind, and a soft body simulation, which pushed the non-pinned cape away from the model but did not have the cape react as a cloth, just as a stiff object that translated across the view port. I feel like I am missing something more fundamental to this process, but I'm not sure what it is.

The entire object, was in triangles which also were separated. A cloth simulation with this would never work to start with, neither would a soft-body simulation. Both are based on a interconnected structure/mesh.

Learning something new along the way, this is what i got, i hope it's somewhat close to your goal.

Now regarding what is needed to get there, or at least to a cape that simulates like cloth:

Since the entire object came triangulated and with all faces separate, we need to select the object, go in edit mode with Tab and select all vertices with A first.
Now we can make the object a whole mesh by pressing Alt+N (Merge) -> By Distance

Now the object can be separated into the two main parts, body and cape. For that we hover over a part of the cape and press L which will Select Linked vertices, thus the cape and the shoulder-part of it will be selected.

To really separate the mesh into two objects we need to press P(Separate) and choose Selection. It will create a new object with the selected part.

conveniently renamed the objects "body" and "cape"
The separated objects allow for a much cleaner simulation, as the bigger the mesh simulated, the more calculations needed, but we are not yet done.
The cape can further be split in two parts, namely the shoulder-part and the cape itself. I'd recommend to hide(if not mentioned, hiding per outliner eye symbol) the body first.
Below a visual demonstration of the steps.

Sideview makes it easier to select only the upper(shoulder) part. Important is to activate "X-Ray" Alt+Z to ensure the entire upper part is selected and not only the us facing part. Pressing P then allows for a separation based on "Selection"
The new object will be the final cape(which we hide for now), the old cape becomes shoulders. And we are left with a hole at the bottom of the shoulders backside.

Face Orientation overlay active here to make the hole easier to see (red is inside)
I would clean up the shoulder parts geometry for a cleaner look, quads and such, but it's not needed for the simulation asked. Closing the hole we end up with this.

The quads along the previous hole, will be used later as location for the pin-group of the cape.
Since the shoulder part is done, we can switch to the cape geometry, as it needs some work before we can work with it. It's gonna be a bit more complicated, so i try to make small steps.
First hide the shoulder part, then make the cape visible, select it and go in the vertex edit mode.
We get rid of one side to reduce a lot of work. For that we go in the top view with Numpad 7 and activate x-ray with Alt+Z.

Then select all vertices on one side of the y-axis and press X Vertices.

Add a mirror modifier and select the Z-axis (situational, here it's Z).

At this point the cape is not usable for simulation, as it has very odd density. So we need to clean this up. Starting with making the cape single-layered. Going along the outer border of the cape, this edge selection needs to be made.

We can see the cape as a 2 layered blanket, the outer is connected to the inner by a border, if we cut away at the border, the layers get structurally separated.
With the border-loop selected we press X Vertices, to delete and at the same time separate the layers. With L (Select Linked) while hovering over a vertex of the left-over faces of the outer layer we select the now separate part(rest of the outer layer), which we then remove with X Vertices. A visual step by step demonstration below.

We are now left with only one layer of faces for the cape, which needs some cleanup, manually with more control, but more time spend here a visual demonstration of some (not all, as repetitive) steps.

The cleaned up and remeshed cape could look something like this.

Again, the settings for the Quad-remesher can be daunting, but results can be great
The mesh having a better topology/density for cloth simulation makes the big difference. We now need to add the pin-group of the cape that will be responsible for fixing the cape to the shoulder-part.

it's possible to add some weight to the sides of the cape going down to stiffen them a bit

visible in weight paint mode, the selected vertices can be assigned a lower value which will be added to the active vertex-group

Back in object mode, we add the cloth simulation to the cape.
Select the preset for silk and add the pin-group to the shape section.

the values are the ones that worked for me.
Finally make the body a collision object. And for later usage it's a good idea to make the body the parent of the shoulders and the shoulders parent of the cape.(Ctrl+P object with the child and parent selected but the parent active)

Lastly as already visible in later pictures, add a floor below the princess and make it an collision object as well. Also, wind, nearly forgot ..
The wind object was already in the scene, BUT it was too weak, and also not interesting enough, just like a hairdryer, on full throttle (still too weak).
So we are setting up the wind like this:

steps should be easy to follow values can vary, but again these worked for me (may be a good starting point)

The final result can be dissected here Princess_with_cape
(I didn't use Blend-exchange as original owner did not use it either, should i get the ok, i'll change to Blend-Exchange)

The cleanup steps i'm gonna add some more info later, hope in the meantime you can work with this.

Happy Blending


Output file different from preview I use Cycles renderer and nodes to output the image, normals and UVs at the same time. Here is what it looks light.

The preview in the RenderLayers node is what I expect (world positions).

However, when I press F12, in the Image file (Image0000.exr for the frame 0, etc), I get this :

instead of the expected result :

(I think that in the first image the cubes are here, they're just the same colour as the plane).

The preview gives me the correct image but the output is wrong. And if I press the Animation button, the result is correct in the files 0000.exr, etc, but wrong in Image0000.exr, etc.

Am I missing something? Is there a problem in my nodes ?

Thank you for your help!

Thanks for the advice for using backdrop to debug, I figured out that it is the alpha node that was problematic :

Could someone explain to me how this alpha node works ? Apparently I got it completely wrong.

I'm not sure what you want the alpha over node to be doing there, but it's whats causing the white output.

Something as simple as this should work:

Example .blend


How to stop colours of overlapping spheres from mixing? I have plotted a series of blue and red spheres to replicate an atomic structure.
I would like the blue and red spheres to remain distinct; such that when I rotate the model, and the spheres overlap, the colours stay blue and red.
The problem I am facing is that the colours mix where the spheres overlap.
E.g) Plotting Blue and Red spheres. I want the spheres to remain blue of red, however when I move the camera, the overlapping spheres appear pink at the intersection.

How do I stop the colours from mixing into this purple-ish tone and keep my spheres red and blue?
See my source code below for more information:

import bpy
import numpy as np

sizes = { 'In' : 0.7, 'Ga' : 0.7 }
colors = { 'In' : (0.0, 0.0, 255.0, 0.3), 'Ga' : (255.0, 0.4, 0.4, 0.7), 'bond': (0.05, 0.05, 0.05 , 0.1) }

for key in colors.keys():
    bpy.data.materials.new(name=key)
    bpy.data.materials[key].diffuse_color = colors[key]
    bpy.data.materials[key].specular_intensity = 0.1

def distance(a, b):
    return np.sqrt(np.dot(a - b, a - b))

def normalize(a):
    return np.array(a) / np.sqrt(np.dot(a, a))

class Structure:
    def __init__(self, filename):
        with open(filename, 'r') as f:
            data = f.readlines()

        self.n_atoms = int(data[0].split()[0])

        self.atom_list = [line.split()[0] for line in data[2:]]

        coordinates = []

        for i, line in enumerate(data[2:]):
            coordinates.append([float(value) for value in line.split()[1:4]])

        self.coordinates = np.array(coordinates)
        self.bonds = set()

    def add_bonds(self, atom_types, cutoff):
        for i in range(self.n_atoms - 1):
            position_1 = self.coordinates[i]
            element_1 = self.atom_list[i]

            if not element_1 in atom_types:
                continue

            for j in range(i + 1, self.n_atoms):
                position_2 = self.coordinates[j]
                element_2 = self.atom_list[j]

                if not element_2 in atom_types:
                    continue

                dist = distance(position_1, position_2)
                if dist <= cutoff:
                    self.bonds.add((i, j))

    def draw_bonds(self):
        for atom_1, atom_2 in self.bonds:
            pos_1 = self.coordinates[atom_1]
            pos_2 = self.coordinates[atom_2]

            difference = pos_2 - pos_1
            center = (pos_2 + pos_1) / 2.0
            magnitude = distance(pos_1, pos_2)

            bond_direction = normalize(difference)
            vertical = np.array((0.0, 0.0, 1.0))
            rotation_axis = np.cross(bond_direction, vertical)
            angle = -np.arccos(np.dot(bond_direction, vertical))

            bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.1,
                                                depth=magnitude,
                                                location=center)
            bpy.context.active_object.data.materials.append(bpy.data.materials['bond'])
            bpy.ops.object.shade_smooth()
            bpy.ops.transform.rotate(value=angle, axis=rotation_axis)

    def draw_atoms(self):
        for element, position in zip(self.atom_list, self.coordinates):
            bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_uv_sphere_add(radius=sizes[element], location=position)
            bpy.context.active_object.data.materials.append(bpy.data.materials[element])
            bpy.ops.object.shade_smooth()

    def draw_structure(self):
        self.draw_atoms()
#        self.draw_bonds()

InGaN = Structure(r'\8x8x5-xIn=0.5.xyz')
InGaN.draw_structure()


How to merge cylinder face with torus? (I apologize if this is a dumb question, I am a graphic designer who is new to the program.)
Hi! I'm currently working on a menstrual cup render and need to add a pull ring to the bottom of the cup. IE I need to merge/join this face:
with the top of this ring:

In other places I've seen this sort of ring created through face extrusion, but the cylindrical face in question doesn't have those inset faces. Merging seems to be the obvious solution, but the number of faces and the angles create an issue. What would be the best way to go about this?

As @moonboots has commented, it depends on what sort of transition you want..
If you were using a sub-d modelling approach, you would keep your pre-subdivision topology to a minimum:

By having only 8 vertices in the circumference of the cup, you make picking a hole with a matching number of vertices from the torus relatively simple:

Allowing you to use Bridge Edge Loops to make your basic fillet. There's a certain amount of adjustment you can make in the tool itself.
After the bridge is made, you can tweak with tools such as:

The shipped add-on Loop Tools > Circle for the profiles, not forgetting it has an 'Influence' setting, allowing you to interpolate between rectangular and circular
CtrlB bevelling edge-loops, to tighten corners, create creases..
Vertex Menu > Smooth, use with care..
With 'Normal' as you Transform Orientation, and 'Individual Origins'as your Pivot Point, you can make tiny adjustments to individual vertices along their normals.

This shows a basic smooth join, after subdivision, (and a Bevel modifier by angle to sharpen the ridges in the cup):

By having the topology straight and simple, it's relatively easy to make variations, using, for example. simple extrusions of faces along their normals.


Can you change the render seed for each frame of an animation in cycles? When Animating using cycles, the noise always looks like it is stuck to the screen, is it possible to change the render seed for each frame?

New Versions of Blender

As of 2.75, this is as simple as checking the little clock icon in the seed input field.

Previous Versions of Blender

You can animate and add drivers to the seed field in the Sampling panel in the render buttons the same way you can with most of the fields in Blender. Simply clicking on the field and writing #frame will create a driver that uses the current frame number as the value for the field. This generates a different noise pattern for each frame.


UV Map and Texture An Irregular, Very High Poly Object I have a very high poly model of a product. I want to apply a simple, uniform texture over the entire object. The model is irregular, an 'S' shape. I figured out how to apply the texture using nodes, but it is not in proportion between the faces.

When I unwrap it, the UV editor shows a triangle, it appears every poly is stacked under it.

*****Please tell me there is an easy way to apply a simple repeating image texture over the entire model evenly without cutting it up, editing UVs, Etc. This thing has a ton of faces.

Notes:
1. I am a beginner to Blender. Please provide a detailed workflow.
2. Using Version 2.8
3. I am not afraid of doing it by hand, just need some guidance on how to tackle it.
4. I attached the pattern.

Thanks in advance.

Best,
Matt

Texture:

Ok, I found out how to fix my issue...

I connected 'Texture Coordinates' 'Object' to 'Vector', then changed Image Texture to 'Box'. Worked like a charm. See image for node settings.


Is Blender 2.8 Cryptomatte samples dependent? In other words, while rendering a single 2000 sample OpenEXR Multilayer image, I open another instance of Blender, with no scene and a clean compositor. After that I drag and drop a low sample image previously done of the same render, with the same Cryptomatte pass in it.

Possibly I can start compositing and export the crypto-matte from here, applying it to the 2000 sample image after it finishes. Is it right? I see the edge of the matte untouched, as Cryptomatte works with object mesh, maintaining the luma black and white matte clean (as an object buffer, I think).

I don't know if I'm explaining it right, but I think that the title is quite clear.

Crypto matte seems sample dependent, but I successfully use a matte generated from a low sample render scene: I than re-render in high resolution this scene using the same matte previously picked, without noise or artifacts.


Apple and Windows require pre-compiled libs at: I'm trying to build Blender 2.71(?) as a Python module on Windows 7 with vs 2013 express and cmake. I've followed these instructions.

I've set the JPEG_INCLUDE_DIR and JPEG_LIBRARY entries to .../lib/win64_vc12/jpeg/include and .../lib/win64_vc12/jpeg/lib/jpeg.lib respectively and done this also for the other libraries like TIFF, OpenImageIO etc.

When I first changed these and clicked Configure I got messages like Found JPEG:...
After that the output is always this:

64 bit compiler detected.
Visual C++ 2013 detected.
Boost version: 1.55.0
Found the following Boost libraries:
  date_time
  filesystem
  thread
  regex
  system
  locale
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:1952 (message):
  Apple and Windows require pre-compiled libs at:
  'C:/00/blender/../lib/win64_vc12'

Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also "C:/00/blender_build_python/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".

I have 3 main suspicions for why this might be but I don't know what to do about it:

1) Boost_DIR always gets set to Boost_DIR-NOTFOUND, even if I manually changed it. However, this and other sources seem to indicate it shouldn't be a problem.

2) I'm not sure what to set the freetype entries to. I have FREETYPE_INCLUDE_DIR_freetype2 set to C:/00/blender/lib/win64_vc12/freetype/include and FREETYPE_INCLUDE_DIR_ft2build set to C:/00/blender/lib/win64_vc12/freetype/include/freetype2 and I got the message "Found Freetype..." but those names seem pretty weird and I don't know if it's correct.

3) There is a setting for PNG_LIBRARY_DEBUG, but there's only the libpng.dll. Setting that as the value doesn't change anything.

So, am I missing something? Is this a known issue and is there a workaround? Should using another compiler with cmake work, even if this doesn't work? Or is there maybe a zipped folder somewhere I can download, that I can just extract into my python folder so I can import it?

edit: I also tried it with the vs 2010 compiler and the win64 precompiled libraries with the same result.

I found the cause for this problem myself: In the guide, it seems to me as if the lib folder is supposed to be inside the blender source folder (it doesn't say to leave the blender folder before running the svn command and at other places it refers to C:/BlenderDEV/lib/...)

Moving the lib folder into the same folder that the blender source folder is in gets rid of the error message. When the Cache is deleted cmake also finds all of the library locations on its own.

I always interpreted the C:/00/blender/../lib/win64_vc12 as being .../blender/none_or_more_subfolders/lib/win64_vc12, though I should have known better. :p

edit: just to be clear, I only found the answer after I had already asked the question.


How to make different materials for different objects? When I change one material, it changes it on another object. Why and how do I fix it? is there some link between the objects?

Here is my blender file of Iron Man's faceplate.

Here is my whole screen with the main portion of the face selected. On the right, you can see the material, and I can tell you that that is the same as the eyes part:

Most likely, you are sharing the material on several meshes. See below. If so, click the highlighted box to create a new instance.... and adding custom names helps keep track of what mesh should carry which material.

After clicking... name it something easy to recognize


Blue Stuff in my render I was rendering this scene (on cycles) to test out the lighting in my upcoming animation project but for some reason the render had blue stuff all over it, I tried to see if it had to do anything with the glossy floor reflection, or maybe the dark setting of the lighting. But I still got the same results.
I also tried the same scene for eevee and the blue stuff was not there.
Here is the .blend file

Not Shure with not so much info. But for me it looks like caustics. if you want to get rid of them just disable them in Cycles render under Render>Light Paths>Caustics> click on boxes that may be on by Default. I hope it did help.


strange face appears in edit mode (concave quad) I am new to blender.  I have been getting a strange face that appears when I move vertices in blender.  You can see it in the attached image.  A face still appears even though I have moved the edge and vertices away.  Why does this face appear.

Short version: Never use concave quads.

Long version: Your topology is not good. I think it can be summed it up this way (the 3D nerds will tell me if I’m wrong):

To create a 3D surface, a software needs 3 vertices, no more (real quads or polygons surfaces would be way too complicated to calculate for a computer), no less (2 vertices make an edge, not a surface, 1 vertex is a point).

So triangles are the basis of 3D. It’s true that we mainly work with quads because it’s much more convenient than triangles but actually the software will always create 2 triangles within the quad to be able to make it a 3D surface.

Now, if you create a ABCD quad, the software has 2 solutions to compose it with 2 triangles: either do it with ABC + ADC or with ABD + BDC. I don’t know how it decides, I guess it’s randomly. Most of the time you won’t notice what way it chose because it won’t make any difference.

But in your case, the triangles choice will indeed make a difference! If it chooses ABC + ADC it will give a correct shape and you won't notice anything, but if it chooses ABD + BDC it won’t give what you want. You would like it to choose the first solution but the software has absolutely no clue that it’s the good way to do it.

So what you need to do is to correct your topology, at least create an edge between A and C.


Can I make a UI button that makes buttons in a Panel? Is it possible to make a button that creates more buttons when you click on it? I was thinking that maybe it'd be a good idea to make extra buttons that store extra info. or functions that you can easily access. I did some searching and found this, but it seems hard to use, and it doesn't seem like you can delete or replace items in a CollectionProperty (actually you can edit items, as @Jerryno said). I've seen how the Surface Panel in the Cycles Materials Tab creates more buttons when I add nodes to it, so I'm wondering if I could do that for myself.

Of course you can delete or replace items from Collection property. Here are functions available to it:

add(
as_bytes(
clear(
data
find(
foreach_get(
foreach_set(
get(
id_data
items(
keys(
move(
path_from_id(
remove(
rna_type(
update(
values(

So lets say we have this: bpy.context.scene.collection Collection property with some items:

bpy.context.scene.collection.remove(5)    # will remove 6th element
bpy.context.scene.collection.move(2,3)    # will swap 3rd and 4th

# replace 5th element with a new one - just assign it new values:
bpy.context.scene.collection[4].name = "New name"
bpy.context.scene.collection[4].value = 42

So the script should work like this:

your Add button will add entries to the collection property
the UI will draw a button for each item of the collection property
every generated button will call the same operator, but will pass it a unique identifier
the operator does different things based on the identifier property

An example:

import bpy

class SceneItems(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    value = bpy.props.IntProperty()

class AddButtonOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "scene.add_button_operator"
    bl_label = "Add Button"

    def execute(self, context):
        id = len(context.scene.collection)
        new = context.scene.collection.add()
        new.name = str(id)
        new.value = id
        return {'FINISHED'}

class ButtonOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "scene.button_operator"
    bl_label = "Button"

    id = bpy.props.IntProperty()

    def execute(self, context):
        print("Pressed button ", self.id)
        return {'FINISHED'}

class FancyPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "Fancy Panel"
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'UI'

    def draw(self, context):
        self.layout.operator("scene.add_button_operator")
        for item in context.scene.collection:
               self.layout.operator("scene.button_operator", text="Button #"+item.name).id = item.value

bpy.utils.register_class(SceneItems)
bpy.utils.register_class(AddButtonOperator)
bpy.utils.register_class(ButtonOperator)
bpy.utils.register_class(FancyPanel)

bpy.types.Scene.collection = bpy.props.CollectionProperty(type=SceneItems)

Edit @Lars comment: How can I have multiple input fields for each new entry, i.e. having an Integer input field next to each button that will deliver the Value to the buttons operator once the button is pressed?

You display the values of the Collection property items in the UI, and the user can change them. They get passed to the operator:

def draw(self, context):
    self.layout.operator("scene.add_button_operator")
    for item in context.scene.collection:
       row = self.layout.row(align=True)
       row.prop(item, "value")
       row.operator("scene.button_operator", text="Button #"+item.name).id = item.value


Where Is My Material Textures Influence Panel? thanks for reading.

So I've got a stumper.

I'm working on a character right now and I've begun work on his hair.

I was going through some tutorials to make sure I knew where I was headed with transparent textures in Blender Render. However, when I went looking for the influence panel it was missing! Here's what my selection of panels actually looks like.

I went looking online for help. Everyone and everything suggests the influence panel should still be present, even the manual. So, I put together a .blend file to spread around and ask for help.

Now here's where I really got confused. I opened this .blend on another pc to make sure it was working and that pc's version of Blender DOES have the influence panel, right where it's supposed to be!

Just to be clear, here's the breakdown:

PC A does not have influence panel
PC B does have influence panel
PC A and B are both running Blender 2.77a
PC A has the 3Dcoat applink, simple3Dcoat applink, and Luxrender addons
PC A runs Windows 10
PC B runs Windows 7

Shortly after I posted this, I narrowed down the answer!

After tracking down the differences between each set up one by one I realized I had forgotten one alteration: PC A's version of Blender had the Luxrender addon. After a very brief search I discovered this Luxrender bug.

Deactivating Luxrender and reopening Blender did the trick. The influence panel is back!

Thanks to anybody who came by. Maybe this will help someone else.


"edit" a bone in pose mode I have a robotic arm-crane like machine. It has an IK set up so when I move the end everything else moves. But I want there to be an extendable arm that will "edit the length of the long bone. Is there any possible way to do this?

You can use a transform constraint on the extendable arm bone to turn the control's movement into scaling.
You will want something like the following settings:

You only care about translation on the bone's Y axis, so local space and only a y range. The size of the range specified for location (i.e. the Max position) controls how rapidly the control will move the upper part of the telescoping arm.
unused scales should be 1 -1 ranges not 0, or things can disappear.
scale in local Y space again, along the bone's axis. Scale minimum will need to be tweaked for the appropriate rest position.

As you are scaling the bone this can get inherited by child bones, which you don't want, so make sure that for all the children you uncheck the inherit scale option in the relations section:

Depending on how you are attaching your model to the mesh, you may wish to add two child bones to the extending arm to position each part. The lower part can have a copy rotation to the scaling bone, and the upper part can be parented to the scaling bone. In my blend file I have added two smaller bones derived from the main arm are just there to define the position of the two parts or the arm in the armature. This can be useful if you want to rig other parts that need that information, and allows you to use an armature modifier and vertex weights if you need to export to a game engine.

Example blend:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ee_ZH70Mk4e2HfVfx3BCoHiKV6tqwcc_/view?usp=sharing


How to show curve vertex tilt + radius value slider in custom toolshelf panel Is it possible to generate a field in the a custom toolshelf panel that displays the curve vertex tilt value and make it editable like the tilt slider insider the transform tab in the properties panel?

I see that the operator is transform.tilt but I have no idea how to generate a UI value slider that displays the value and can edit it.

Is that even possible with Blender?

Curve vertex tilt transform command:

bpy.ops.transform.tilt(value=8.36929, mirror=False, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SPHERE', proportional_size=0.0323492)

Unfortunately the content of that Transform panel are defined outside of the Python api. But you could have something monsterously convoluted like this to show up the Tilt value of a single selected Control Point of a bezier_point

    if context.active_object:
        if not context.active_object.data:
            pass
        else:
            # you do more checking here to verify the kind of active_object
            # I will ommit this from the example.

            data = context.active_object.data
            points = data.splines.active.bezier_points

            selected_points = [idx for idx, p in enumerate(points) if p.select_control_point]
            print(selected_points)
            if len(selected_points) == 1:
                idx = selected_points[0]
                point = points[idx]
                col = layout.column()
                col.prop(point, "weight_softbody", text='weight')
                col.prop(point, "radius", text='radius')
                col.prop(point, "tilt", text='tilt')

This approach only works when 1 point is selected, i'm sure it's possible to adjust the mean value too but it's more complicated, and might involve writing your own operator -- I haven't looked very deeply.


How to import a .mhx file into blender using a python script I need to write a python script in order to import .mhx file and management it. I don't if it is possible to do that or no? Any help?

Download the make human blender tools from the make human website.
Open the zip. It will create a "blendertools" folder where you opened it.
Install the make human scene importer script:
blendertools\mhx_importer\import_scene_mhx.py
Once the plugin is installed, this command will become available to you via python:

bpy.ops.import_scene.makehuman_mhx(filter_glob="*.mhx", filepath="", scale=1, advanced=False, enforce=True, mesh=True, proxy=True, cage=False, clothes=True, shapekeys=True, drivers=False, diamond=False, rigify=True)


Multiplying Texture Coordinate I have been following a series of tutorials, and have come across the following node configuration:

I can see the behavior this creates with my own eyes (adjusting the value at the bottom sort of "scales" the texture, though seemingly inconsistently).

I am, however, at a loss to really understand what this is doing. It appears to be feeding the texture coordinates (essentially, if I understand correctly, vectors representing every point on the surface) into a node designed for image data, and them multiplying it by a single value? This just seems like complete gibberish to me.

Please can someone explain in plain English the operation that is happening here, so I can visualise what is actually going on?

(If it makes a difference, the output from this group drives the strength of an emission shader, which is then plugged into the Volume of the material)

Take a look at the cubes below and their materials.

Material of the left cube:

Material of the middle cube:

Material of the right cube:

All three materials above are equivalent, despite using different nodes

What you are doing is multiplying the 3 individual values of a vector (the object coordinates) with a certain value. The second material above might be what you expected what you were supposed to use. It takes a vector, splits it up into individual values, multiplies the values with a number and combines the values back into a vector. If you compare the first and the second material, you can see that they are almost the same, except that the first uses 'color' nodes and the second uses 'vector' nodes. The reason why this gives the same result is because vectors and colors are actually pretty similar. Both consist out of three values ('X','Y','Z' vs 'Red','Green','Blue'). This means that you can basically plug colors into vector inputs and vectors into color inputs. This also means that you can use some color nodes to do operations on vectors, like in your example the color multiply node.


Free fall physics simulation capture as a video I have a project I am working on where I have objects positions randomly in the space and let them fall using rigid body simulation using python scripts and blender as (GUI-less) background. I am able to get the initial position and final position (after 500 frames). Now I would like to also generate video of the free fall of the objects from frame 1-500 into a video file as scene by the camera.
I am able to generate images using node-editor at the end of the simulation. I am looking for a flag that is like below pseudo code.

start recording
start the free fall
end after 500 frames
stop recording

Any pointers would be of great help!
Thanks in advance.

Edit1:  To clarify more on what I want to do!
Thing to note here is that, I have single python script and I am generating 10 different scenes one after the other, where each scene has objects positions randomly. Currently I am using bake-all method to get the final state of each scene and render the scene out to see whats the final stage. Now instead of getting the final frame for all these scenes, I want to start the animation before baking each scene and render it out to a video. I want to do this for each scene one by one in the loop.

Edit2: I guess I am in the process of figuring it out. I found out that

bpy.ops.rigidbody.objects_add(type='ACTIVE')
bpy.ops.ptcache.bake_all(bake=True)

Does do the physics simulation before hand store it in a file. Now all I have to do is to do the below to get the animaton? I will post the results when I find it.

bpy.context.scene.camera = camera
bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True)

I am posting a part of my code here that I believe will make sense.
After setting up the scene I do the bake_all like the below and call the render_ogl method I wrote

    scene = bpy.context.screen.scene
    scene.frame_end = 150
    scene.rigidbody_world.point_cache.frame_end = 150 #If this is not     written the simulation ends at 250 default
    scene.rigidbody_world.solver_iterations = 60
    scene.rigidbody_world.steps_per_second = 240
    scene.rigidbody_world.time_scale = 10
    scene.rigidbody_world.use_split_impulse = 1
    bpy.ops.rigidbody.objects_add(type='ACTIVE')
    bpy.ops.ptcache.bake_all(bake=True)

    #Create the camera with respect to which rendering should be done
    my_camera = createCamera('my_camera', (1, 1, 1), list_ob[0])
    set_camera_params(my_camera, render)

    #Set lamps to see the ogl rendering
    my_lamp = createLights('my_lamp', (15, 0, 50))
    set_lights(my_lamp)

    #Ogl rendering
    render_ogl(my_camera, scene, fp, ind)

The render_ogl method is as below.

def render_ogl(camera, scene, fp, ind):
    #Some scene nodes I have for the rendering
    scene.use_nodes = True
    nodes = scene.node_tree.nodes

    #Use the default nodes generated in blender
    render_layers = nodes['Render Layers']
    output_viewer = nodes['Composite']

    #Add output file node
    output_file = nodes.new('CompositorNodeOutputFile')
    output_file.base_path = "/home/kar/Desktop/Blender_Render_Output/"

    #Link all the nodes
    scene.node_tree.links.new(
        render_layers.outputs['Image'],
        output_viewer.inputs['Image']
    )

    #The settings to save the file as per the given indices
    scene.render.filepath = fp + 'zbuffer' +str(ind)
    scene.render.image_settings.file_format = 'FFMPEG'
    scene.render.image_settings.color_mode = 'BW'
    bpy.context.scene.camera = camera
    bpy.ops.render.render(animation=True)

    return


How to rotate/pan Blender viewport like the Meshlab trackball? I find rotating with the mouse (middle-click+drag) very unnatural in Blender (2.8).

How can I make it work the same as in Meshlab (which rotates around a track ball)?

There's a setting for that under Main Menu > Edit > Preferences > Navigation Tab > Orbit & Pan choose: Orbit Method: Trackball

Otherwise Blender will constrain you to turntable rotation, which does not allow full free rotation around all axes (it keeps the Z-axis upright while rotating).


Faces same width around sphere i want to create a sirene with 'iron bars' around it. Something like this:
Now, when i try to extrude the faces around the sirene, i get this:

The faces are getting smaller around the top of the sphere, as expected
But how can i make these faces the same width all over the sirene?

Thanks

One method would be to select all the edges you want to form the cage and duplicate them to provide the framework for the cage. Go into edit mode and choose Edge Select mode. You should be able to use the Edge Loops select tool to make the selection simpler as you can simply click one edge and Blender will extend the selection around the mesh (hold Shift-Alt and right-click to select).

Once selected, duplicate with Shift-D, Esc and then (without changing the selection) use Separate By Selection (press P and select Selection) to separate the duplicated edges to a new mesh. Come out of Edit mode and hide the old mesh (right-click the original object and H) so it doesn't get in the way.

To turn the duplicated edges into the frame you can simply add a Skin modifier to the new mesh to form the bars around the edges (you may need to Apply Scale first (Ctrl-A, 'Scale') to ensure the skin is uniformly scaled). Set the radius of each vertex in the properties panel to set the size (select all with A first so as to affect them all). If you have strange artifacts on some of the vertices then you might need to Remove Doubles first (doubled vertexes will cause the skin to behave strangely).

Unhide the original mesh with Alt-H and scale and position the cage as desired.

Add suitable materials and you're done.

Alternatively, to add flat faces - as in the original question - you could select each section of the separated cage (eg, an edge Up the side, over the top, and down the other side - or a loop) using the Edge Select mode and extrude it out in the relevant direction. However, the Skin modifier effectively does all this for you.


viewport woes : cant hold drag anymore I cannot use hold up-arrow and drag my model in viewport with mouse anymore.. guess i must have turned on (or off) some settings, but cannot figure it out. Any suggestions?

Go to Properties window > View > Uncheck "Lock to Cursor", it locates above "Lock Camera View". I just faced this problem LOL.


Unable to move drone object after adding background image in Blender 2.80 I have added drone 3D object and trying to move it along axis after adding a background image.
I want to move drone over the background image,but image itself is moving .
I am selecting the drone and pressing i and then selecting co-ordinates.
I was able to move the drone before adding bg image.
Please find the attached screenshot.

Starting with 2.80, adding a background image actually adds an empty object that displays the image. This object can be selected and moved like any other, even if it is set to draw its image behind scene objects.

I would suggest making the empty non-selectable. In the outliner, select the empty. If the cursor is not visible in the restiction columns, you can enable it in the filter menu by clicking on the funnel in the header. You can also find the same option in the objects visibility properties.


I need to export a list of particle coordinates This code was built for Blender 2.78, but I trying build the code in 2.8.

Blender doesn't show any errors, just opens a new empty text file.

I'm using the code from here:

import bpy

object = bpy.context.scene.objects["Plane"]
particles = object.particle_systems[0].particles

bpy.ops.text.new()

for p in particles:
     bpy.data.texts[-1].write("<particle x='"+str(p.location[0])+"' y='"+str(p.location[1])+"'z='"+str(p.location[2])+"'/>\n")

Is there something I am doing wrong?

Of Blender 2.78 to Blender 2.82 there were several changes.

Now the code that yes work:

import bpy

depg = bpy.context.evaluated_depsgraph_get()
object= bpy.context.scene.objects['Plane']

particles = object.evaluated_get(depg).particle_systems[0].particles

bpy.ops.text.new()

for p in particles:
    bpy.data.texts[-1].write("<particle x='"+str(p.location[0])+"' y='"+str(p.location[1])+"'z='"+str(p.location[2])+"'/>\n")

I get to this code after find these links:

Particles python access is broken in 2.8

Manipulating particles in python


Backfaces give strange results with Fresnel Node in Cycles I'm trying out a fairly common material setup, mixing a diffuse and a glossy shader with a fresnel node. My issue is that my material has some backfaces owing to its construction. They render correctly using either shader on their own, and if I look at their normals plugged into an emission shader they appear to be treated correctly.

However if I use a fresnel node, the results come out strangely, as if the backfaces normals are being treated as flipped (I know of course they really are, but surely this should be ignored when rendering?).

Here's an image showing the issue:

Left: Mesh with some flipped normals. Middle: Normal output of geometry node plugged into emission shader. Right: Fresnel node plugged into emission shader.

I know in most circumstances the solution would be to recalculate the normals, but the mesh I'm working with is a thin sheet that you see both sides of. Is this a bug or can anyone suggest a workaround?

If you use the Fresnel node that has an IOR, then this is the correct behaviour, as the IOR is computed taking the direction of the normal into account.

A quick solution would be to use the layer weight node and select "Facing". You can alter the effect using an RGB curves node afterwards. Fresnel is basically "Facing" with a blend of 0.5 and an exponential curve afterwards:

The example above uses exactly the same normal setup as you do, but by using "Facing" the flipped normal faces are treated the same as the regular ones.


Why my active objects are not sliding down when the passive rotates? I'm making a rigid body scene for the first time.
When I rotate the passive plate myself when the timeline is playing, it works and they slide down. But when I give a rotation keyframe to the passive plate and then play the timeline, nothing happens.

You probably just need to set the passive "animated"

"animated" means that the simulation assumes the active or passive object will be transformed during simulation, so to take its future transform into account...


scattering instances in Blender Let's say, I want to populate a parking lot with cars. Coming from Modo, I'd use replicators:
-create an array of polygons, one for each parking space
-create a group of cars
-add a replicator item, that would place one car on every polygon and use the
   polygon's rotation to place the replica
-I could do a random rotation in 180 degree increments, to get some randomness
-I could also rotate polygons manually for more control
-A percentage slider and seed value allowed me to control how full the parking
   lot was

Is there a way to do something similar in blender? I've come quite close with the hair system, but I can't figure out how to precisely control the Z rotation of individual hairs

Any pointers will be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance

Blender's particle system is.. weird. It's a more little old and probably could do with a refactor. Among other things, the axis are wrong.

However, that doesn't mean it can't be made to work:

Switch to emission particles
Enable rotation

Rotate your emitter polygons so that their surface normals are aligned with the +Y axis of the instance:


Circular / Shape indentation onto curved surface? I'm currently trying to teach myself blender for video game modelling by creating a Nuka Cola bottle from Fallout 4, only I've run into a a bit of a problem. I'm trying to create the circular indentation on the front of the bottle where the Nuka Cola label will go.

After watching a video on cutting holes into curved surfaces, my attempts have somewhat worked... but not well. Does anyone have a good method for producing shaped (not just circular) indentations on the front of the bottle? I'd like to move onto creating the other bottles too (such as Cherry which has a different shape sticker & indentation).

-

-

As you can see in Fig-2, there's a slight indentation behind the label of each bottle. I'm looking to create the Nuka Cherry bottle after this.
I'd also like to ask anyone else who produces models for video-games if the triangles in Fig-3 are an issue? that was the best way I could align them with my current knowledge and the lighting seems to be fine when rendered.

Thanks!

I'm no expert in this field but I've used the "Knife Project" for this sort of thing as distinct from "Knife".  i.e. call upon the "Mesh-->Faces-->Intersect" then the knife project function to cut a hole in the bottle and in the shape of the intersecting object which would be in this case a cylinder.

You might be having the trouble I did and not using the Ortho view to make sure you're looking dead straight onto the bottle when you cut the hole.  The safe way to view exactly perpendicular to the bottle is to use the numpad's Home, END and PgeDn keys to set your viewpoint.  If you're just a fraction out, your hole won't be shaped or aligned correctly.

It's also essential that the bottle be aligned exactly with the X/Y axis so your hole goes through in perpendicular fashion.  You can set this in the bottle's Properties panel at right.  Open it's Transformation tab and see that it's Z "Rotation" axis is set to exact multiples of 90 degree segments.  i.e. 90, 180, 270 or 0 degrees, no fractions.  These figures can be typed in to get exact alignments.

The X/Y rotation numbers should be at zero, and if not, then in multiple of 90 degrees.

Once a hole is there, extrude it's vertices to the depth you want into the bottle, then close the inside base of that hole up and texture that surface with the label itself.

(Save each attempt in progressive Blender files so you can come back and redo if necessary)

I've only just started using the "Boolean" function and found that a relatively easier method of cutting an intersecting hole than the knife project, so you might like to try this first.

As for the Cherry bottle, you'd have to fashion an object to the shape of it's label first then extrude it so you've got a sort of 'drill' or punch, and proceed as with the circular label.

If you still can't manage a circular hole, get back to us here with a comment.  It's simple enough but you have to stick to some rules.

PS: is it essential to indent the labels?  You can't just "Paste" them on?


Wrinkles or cloth stimulation I am making a pair of pants and I am wondering if sculpting or using cloth stimulation would be better for creating wrinkles.

If you need to animate your model you can try a simple trick: get a 2D image of a curtain with wrinkles, desaturate it, make it tileable and use it in "multiply" mode with the diffuse texture of your material.
This makes fake wrinkles that very often do the job!


Use Proportional Editing for whole faces not individual vertices I've made a tile grid where every face is disconnected from other faces ( no common vertices ). I would like to get a following effect:

But instead I get following:

How can use proportional editing for faces only, not vertices ?

First you need to extrude all the faces individually.

Then select all the bottom vertices and hide them using H button to leave visible only the top faces and use proportional editing to move the faces up.

Then select all the faces, change Pivot Point to Individual Origins and scale on Z axis to zero using SZ0 buttons.

Then unhide hidden geometry with Alt+H shortcut.


Remove spot left by sun lamp on surface Note that I am a noob before answering.

I have attached an image of an Earth that I'm creating. I want to remove the glare of the glossy reflection on the surface of the Earth in the center.

Is there a way to do this in Blender Render?

Thanks, Greg

In the material of the sphere,decrease the specular intensity.


Displace modifier - undesired artifacts in texture I'm creating a model that I want to later print in 3D. I am using a Displace modifier after a Multiresolution modifier to add a patern to some faces (using a vèrtex group plus displace on the Y axis to ensure that only the desired areas are displaced).

However, when it is rendered, in the lower face that appears as selected in the UV map shown above, two undesired effects appear:

an horitzontal noise, that I think it might be the full texture that is rotated 90 degrees and compressed to cover the whole face.
some light displacement outside the vertex group, as you can see in a face in the back part of the model

I have recreated the materials and textures and ensured that there's only one UV map. I've also removed the displacement map and applied the texture as a verification, and in this case the object is properly textured, as you can see below:

... aaand, just before pressing the post button, it occurred to me that the multiresolution  could be causing a distortion due to the shared edge at 45°. I applied the modifier and inspected the generated faces. Indeed the generated subdivisions distorted the UV mapping, and also the vèrtex group spreaded towards the backward faces, creating the undesired displacement. So I modified the faces to ensure that all the edges are parallel. The displacement has improved a lot, but still there's an light, horitzontal undesired artifact...

I'm afraid I'm running out of ideas. Does anyone have some idea of what might be happening? Thanks!

---------------- ANSWER ------------------
I've marked the response below as an answer. I wanted however to summarise the things I've done to fix my problem:

I modified the mesh to have a more square faces. When I first improved the appearance of the displacement, I just removed the oblique edge and created a square at the righ-low corner. But was not enough to get rid of the artifacts shown in the screenshot. However, after seeing the answer below, I added some edge loops (3 to be precise) and then the displacement worked well.
I then applied the multiresolution modifier, and corrected the vèrtex group to which the displacement is applied, and got rid of the displacement noise in the back faces.

For displacement to work well all the faces should be equal size squares.


Difference between bump map and normal map Does normal map contains height information? Because it stores x,y,z axis information, but is the z axis equals to height information? But some comments I saw said that normal map does not contain height information, then what the z axis is representing?
Why does bump map is ‘directionless’? From my perspective, they store the height information in black and white. With that information, how does the direction of the bumps cannot be retrieved? I tried to create a simple bump map example to show what I am trying to ask. The below bump map only has a white rectangle, so the white will be pulled outwards and the black will be push downwards. But isn’t that we can already know the direction by the white and black data? Such as the direction that I marked with green arrows, which shows the 5 direction of the faces for the rectangle (1 top face and 4 side faces).

Many people claims that normal map and bump map are nearly same, but the below normal map and bump map has quite a high amount of differences, so how are they nearly the same when there could be so much differences between them?

I know the difference between bump map and normal map are probably asked and answered by many times, but I don’t really find any answers that could answer the questions that I have asked above. I sincerely feel sorry if there are repetitive question asked.

Below are some articles and sites I have searched, but I feel like there are conflicts between them so I wanted to make the concept clear.
https://www.pluralsight.com/blog/film-games/bump-normal-and-displacement-maps
https://forums.cgsociety.org/t/normal-vs-bump-always-better-to-use-normal/1410917/52
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/ask

Thank You So Much For Helping

This has nothing to do with blender, but could be useful anyway.

The normal map contains pixels with vectors. Each pixel has a vector, where is that pixel pointing. In the standard light blue purple color, it is pointing straight out from the surface. As the color changes, it points in different directions.

A heigh map (or bump map) has a height value stored as a value between black (lowest) and white (highest).

The bump maps in your post doesn't look like it will produce roof tiles when projected on a flat surface.

They describe about the same information, in different ways.

Looking at a single pixel in a normal map, it is impossible to say what height it is. Just the way the surface is tilted (direction and amount). But if you look at more pixels surrounding it, you can build up a relative height. If you stand on a slope, you can see that, up the slope, the ground is higher.

Looking at a single pixel in a height map, it is impossible to say what slope it is. But you know exactly how high you are. But by looking at your neighbours, you can work out a slope.

To work with a normal map in a material in blender, you have to run it through a Normal map node. This also have a strength value, to determine the scale of the bumps.

EDIT:
To me it looks like your bump map isn't meant to be put on a flat plane. It looks like baked normals for a lowpoly model of roof tiles. I don't know where you got these maps.

The normal map you have, that will give roof tiles when mapped onto a flat plane. Not very good ones if you get close. But from a distance, it will work.

Here is an image I made, showing the difference. Normal map on the left.


No material on objects in linked group? I took a few meshes and armatures, and placed it in a group. Then I opened a new blend and linked the group. Now all materials are gray, and it looks black on rendering.

I tried to add a proxy, and that works for animating the armature, but there is still no material.

Why is that? When I tried the same thing with a simple red box, it works. However I can see the materials used in the linked file when I look at materials for another object. However if I try to use them on the default cube, it doesn't seem to work.

Any help appreciated!

Change the render engine to the same as the source file, in this case Cycles, instead of Blender Render which is the default for new scenes. (Thanks to Duarte Farrajota Ramos)


How to get rid of this circle looking from the render? This height texture is made out from a photo, but it leave circle looking thing on the render result. How can I fix this problem? Thanks!

The problem has resolved. It is because of the texture image is 1k 8bit. So I used a 32bit 3K image to make the texture for rendering. During this problem, I also discovered Photoshop 3D filter makes pretty good bump and normal textures.
These two articles explained it very well.
How to get rid of the odd lines shown in the image?
Why does my displacement look jagged - Cycles?
Keep blending, be safe and peace.


Graphics glitch affecting entire Blender window I may have encountered a bug in Blender: it shows green dots and other random colors all over the interface, and if I move the mouse pointer the colors change!

Here's a picture of how the screen looks:

This solved the issue for me:

from File > User Preferences > System, set "Window Draw Method" to Full


Is there any visio like symbol set for Blender? I'm new to Blender and like it a lot. I'm looking for a symbol set kind of Visio style. Like network symbols (servers, disks, terminals) of database symbols (entitie, relations).
I would like to create a database architecture landscape in which you can fly around and visit the individual parts in the architecture.
Q: Is there any visio like symbol set for Blender?

I don't know much about Visio at all and in fact it's the first time I hear about it, but a quick Google search reveals that it is possible to save diagrams created in it in SVG format. You can also import SVG format to Blender. If you press F4 followed by P or go to Edit -> Preferences, navigate to the Add-ons tab and search for "SVG", you will find an option to enable SVG import add-on:

Other than that, Blender is a content creation software package, so you can also just make whatever diagrams using it's modelling and drawing tools. This is the way to go with most things, because you cannot expect to find assets for every single idea you imagine.


How to Reposition an Empty Without Moving the Instances inside it? I have a car model where the wheel instances are grouped under an Empty.  However, the Empty's position is not at the axis of the wheel where I want it to be for rotating..

Is there a way to position the empty without moving the wheel instances?

Thank you - I achieved the desired outcome by unparenting the instances with keep transformations, to reposition the empty, then reparenting the instances with keep transformations.


blender crashing in arch linux I have installed Blender 2.83 in my arch Linux installation and it crashes. I downloaded it from the repo then also tried from the official site. It still fails.. help needed

# Blender 2.83.0, Commit date: 2020-06-03 14:38, Hash 211b6c29f771

# backtrace
blender(BLI_system_backtrace+0x34) [0x55806be25ba4]
blender(+0xd03e7d) [0x558069b6ee7d]
/usr/lib/libc.so.6(+0x3c3e0) [0x7fa86daaa3e0]
blender(GPU_draw_list_command_add+0x57) [0x55806bcf68f7]
blender(+0x10b9355) [0x558069f24355]
blender(+0x10bac94) [0x558069f25c94]
blender(+0x10e5916) [0x558069f50916]
blender(+0x10b22f3) [0x558069f1d2f3]
blender(DRW_draw_render_loop_ex+0x2c7) [0x558069f1d5f7]
blender(view3d_main_region_draw+0x98) [0x55806a5d3dd8]
blender(ED_region_do_draw+0x8a1) [0x55806a1a1e61]
blender(wm_draw_update+0x4d5) [0x558069e30a75]
blender(WM_main+0x34) [0x558069e2ea34]
blender(main+0x36b) [0x558069b3d31b]
/usr/lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf2) [0x7fa86da95002]
blender(_start+0x2e) [0x558069b6b0fe]

Note: My arch installation is also new.

< My Problem >
Blender freezes whole UI of operating system.
< Solution >
I am not responsible if this damage your OS or any other thing
I have Intel UHD 630 GPU, I switched from Intel to MODESETTING driver, this fixed my issue, Try it IF it works for you , share with other people. :)
*To enable MODESETTING you have to  edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
Put MODULES=(... i915 ...)  below  MODULES=""
*Delete this package from system xf86-video-intel.
*Then reboot system.
< About System >
CPU: Intel core i5-8400
Ram: 8gb
Gpu : Intel UHD 630
Os: EndeavourOS
< How to revert these changes? >
*Install this package system xf86-video-intel.
*You have to edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
remove  MODULES=(... i915 ...)  below  MODULES=""
< Reference >
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Kernel_mode_setting#Early_KMS_start


Methods to appear and disappear objects Let's think of this example (among many others).

To simplify my drop sheet and render times I have one simple (A) object for far distances, and one more complex (B) when I dolly in the camera.

Let's say on frame 150 I need to switch from object A to object B.

What could be some methods to appear and disappear objects on an animation?

Some examples I have used:

Keeping object B on a different location out of sight, anchor it at frame 150 and move it into position at frame 151. And vice-versa with object A.

One con is that If I turn on motion blur, those two frames render the motion blur.

Keyframing transparency.

The con is that the material gets more complex, and when overlapping with the other object in has render issues.

Simply rendering Roll A until frame 150, turn on and off objects, and render from frame 151 and compose later.

What other methods can I use?

Maybe this is similar to your third attempt.
You can animate the viewport and render visibility.
Just hover over the 'eye' or 'camera' icon and press 'i'.
Then move to the next frame, disable both visibilites and set new keyframes. Other way around for the object that should appear.

This doesn't involve the material or messing with the motion blur.


Object in animation not rotating as expected I'm trying to make a lamp do a jump with 360° salto. I inserted a keyframe halfway the jump with the object rotated 180°, expecting it would subsequently complete the rotation in the same direction. However, the object would reverse direction instead. Here's a clip: https://youtu.be/izNrIoVZnAg

I figured the reason was that the object chose the quickest direction to get in the rotation of the keyframe at the end of the jump. Hence I inserted another keyframe at around 3/4th of the jump with the lamp rotated a further 90° in the desired direction. However, it would still reverse direction. Another clip: https://youtu.be/0bsV_sZfzOc

If the final keyframes put the object back in the starting position, at 0°,
what happens is (for the first video):
- rotation starts in the required direction, from 0° to 180°
- on reaching the 180° keyframe, the rotation starts for the second part, rotating from 180° to 0°, not from 180° to 360° (which is what you wanted, but didn't specify).

Adding an extra keyframe at 270°, only means that the object will continue rotating until it reaches the 270°, and then go back to 0°.

For blender, 0° is not the same position as 360°, if you want to get a full rotation, your end position must be 360°.


Character deforming with rigging and adding automatic weights Im super new to blender so.. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. I added some bones and IK and every time I add automatic weights his body gets all twisted and deformed and distorted. I tried a bunch of things and googled a whole lot but I still can't figure it out... I'd really appreciate some help so I can rig a character properly in the future. Thanks!!!! :)
Here is the file:
http://www.filedropper.com/characterforz

Select the armature, go to pose mode, select all bones, Ctrl A: "Apply pose as rest pose". Then you can parent your mesh to the armature. It's a good habit to apply rotation and scale (Ctrl A) to both mesh and armature also. You will have to tweak the pole angle of your IK leg ion order to get the right deforming direction of the legs. Search for Nathan Vegdahl free rigging course for advanced rigging techinques.


How to export a texture as jpeg or png? I downloaded my Blender model from the Internet, and it already had built-in textures for its materials and meshes.

How can I download the texture as a .png or .jpeg to edit it?

If I understand your question, you want to save on your hard drive a texture from a Blender project: open a window as UV image editor window, select the texture from the drop down menu (which contains all the images in the project) and choose "Image - Save as image".


Exporting a shape made with modifier:boolean-difference I have made a new shape, using a boolean modifier. I subtract 1 shape from another, then hide the shape I subtracted & I'm left with the new shape. However. I am left with 2 objects, 1 being hidden, instead if 1 new shape. I want to export the new shape. ???

You need to apply the modifier first. Then you will have 1 shape. To do so you can either click Apply on the right in the Properties Tab or if you want to use python you can use bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(apply_as='DATA', modifier='newTray'). But you need the object having the modifier selected for it to work. tray.select = True should do the trick. After that you'll still have to delete the object you subtracted from the other one (in your case trayCutout). To use python it's bpy.ops.object.delete(). Again, for it to work you need to select it first: trayCutout.select = True and deselect the other one tray.select = False.

So we have (if you want to delete trayCutout, otherwise you'll have to leave the last three lines out):

tray.select = True
bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(apply_as='DATA', modifier='newTray')
trayCutout.select = True
tray.select = False
bpy.ops.object.delete()


character made with multiple objects one armature or different armatures This is a character that I made in Blender with multiple objects

When I added an armature fist, and joined the object and test, it didn't work. Then I linked parent but that didn't work either.

What should I do now; I only know how to make models with multiples objects not with modelling.

One way to fix this is to select the object, for example, the arm, and then select the armature. Be sure you take the armature into edit mode and select only the bones you want to have effect on the arm.

Once this is completed, parent the object to the selected bones using Ctrl+P > With automatic weights.

Do this same thing for the rest of the model.

Edit 2: Here is a step-by-step for applying an armature to separate objects.

Step 1: Select the piece you want to be the child of the armature by right clicking on it.

Step 2: Select the armature, also by holding Shift and right clicking on it.

Step 3: In the bottom left of the 3D viewport, switch to pose mode.

Step 4: right click on the bone(s) you want to be the parent of your object.

Step 5: Press Ctr + P, then select "with automatic weights.

that bone is now applied to the object, repeat this method for the rest of the model.


UV editor showing colours as hazy I've been following along with Imphenzias video on Low Poly modelling and when i get the part of picking colour in the UV editor the colours are hazy and cloudy. like steam on a mirror if that makes sense? i'm very very new to Blender so i haven't probably tried enough in terms of fixing it, but i have noticed that this effect isn't shown in tabs such as 'Texture paint' 'shading' and 'animation' so i think its only an issue within UV editor.
here's the link to the video if you want to see exactly what i did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jHUY3qoBu8&t=236s
the part that i'm talking about is around 2:10 and goes till 4:50.
Cheers :D
edit: added photos
1.

this is what the colour should look like

Edit mode has a light grey overlay that affects colors.
You can disable it in the Overlay menu > Faces (uncheck)


How to add keyframes and change the shape key (named shrinkwrap) value with Python? I'm animating a model (a lightsaber) and I want the blade to ignate. I found a method that uses the shrinkwrap modifier but I don't know how to code it with python. This is the animation with the shrinkwrap value= 1.0
And this is the animation with the shrinkwrap value= 0.0
It's kind of difficult to me to explain, but basically is adding keyframes and each keyframe added needs to have a different shrinkwrap value. I'm also open to other methods, but I need to code the animation.
This is what I have so far:
import bpy

lightsaber = bpy.data.objects['Lightsaber']

lightsaber.keyframe_insert(data_path='location', frame=1)
lightsaber.keyframe_insert(data_path='location', frame=4)
lightsaber.keyframe_insert(data_path='location', frame=10)

Thank you.

Your "shrinkwrap" is a shape key.
You have to access it through the object data, in the shape_keys part and get the key_block by its name (or index).
That can be:
import bpy

#Get the object
lightsaber = bpy.data.objects['Lightsaber']

#Get the shape key
shrinkwrap = lightsaber.data.shape_keys.key_blocks['Shrinkwrap']

#Assign values and insert keyframes on it

shrinkwrap.value = 1
shrinkwrap.keyframe_insert("value", frame = 0)

shrinkwrap.value = 0
shrinkwrap.keyframe_insert("value", frame = 50)


Blender undesiredly merges objects into single object at export I have the following Blender structure:

When I export it as an obj with default export settings, I see the following if I import it for example into Unity:

As one can see, Blender merges the 4 objects into a single one.
However, I don't want that.

I have tried changing the export settings, but none of my approaches kept the objects separate.

Can somebody explain why Blender merges my objects and how I could keep them separate (as children of a main object)?

This is what I tried and what didn't work:

I got it.

I unticked "Objects as OBJ Objects", and I unticked "Objects as OBJ Groups".
Also, I ticked "Write Materials" and "Write Material Groups".

Here is a screenshot of the entire settings:


Why isn't light working? I'm new to Blender. I've got a scene, I downloaded from an Internet forum about a year ago, but light isn't working.

If I create a new file, add a mesh and shine a light on it I get light.

When I follow the same process in the scene I want to light the spotlight has no effect.

Any ideas?

Thanks to @Timaroberts it appears the scene is upside down or something.

When I move the lamp underneath the plane and rotate it the scene lights as expected.

It looks to me like the energy settings of the lamp, in wireframe you won't see the lighting, and your rendered viewport looks normal for a single spot at default values. Change the lamp's strength to a higher value, or you may use a plane with an emission material and you will see your scene much more clearly.


How do I find the controls after adding in an object? Where else can I find this after adding in an object?

when you add an object in the 3d-view, the creation variables (which you are searching for) are still accessable and editing them can be done. After any modification in the 3d-view (such as selecting another object) the creation variables can no longer be accessed, you have commited to the creation values. Use regular editing for changing the mesh, or create a new object until you're satisfied.


Blender rendering just one frame when percentage scale is >50% (Cycles) I have a scene where I just move the camera on a path.
It lasts 96 frames but when I try to render the animation with 100% percentage scale it stops at the first frame as it is a single image.
I've tried changing it at 50% and in that case it works and I have as output the correctly animated video.
I've also tried to render all the 96 single frames as images and then put them in the video sequence editor to create the final video, but it didn't work: it still renders just the first frame and then it stops.

These are my settings:

Edit:
This is the blender file (just the camera and the path with the cube). I don't know why but by appending camera and path in a this new file, the camera moves just a bit along the path (while if I add the entire scene it works)

If the animation works at 50%, you could try doubling the resolution and rendering at 50%.

Maybe the .blend file has some issue.

First you could append the scene to a new file.

If the animation doesn't work yet, you could start from a new file with the default cube and light, and append only camera and path.

Add the other objects until the animation stop at the first frame and check the very last object you've added.


Melt a complex mesh and then animate it using force fields I am struggling while trying to perform a sequence which includes the following actions:

Melt a mesh with a viscocity like mercury or something similar.
Animate it with a force field, to achieve a fusion effect.

If you want I can send the blend file. I am a little bit frustated because I can`t achieve this effect.

Any help?

For the melting you have lots of options, for example:

A high quality fluid simulation with a high viscosity.
Shape keys + sculpting
Cast modifier (Apply as shape key)

The fluid simulation is probably the best for a good melting animation and being able to control it with force fields, but fluid simulations require tons of processing power to look good in my experience. I would probably go with casting it to a sphere with a < 1 factor and a control object located slightly below the object. I'd apply that as a shape key and sculpt it a bit, and then only do the fluid sim when the object is already melted (there's less detail to lose when it's already smooth, and you might get away with lower settings.)


"VERTEX" parent type in python not working I am scripting a script that parents an empty to a vertex of a mesh. When I change the parent type to VERTEX, it gives me the error:

  enum 'VERTEX' not found in ('OBJECT')

Here is my code in context:

empt = bpy.data.objects.new("Empty", None)
empt.parent = meshobj
empt.parent_type = 'VERTEX'
empt.parent_vertices[0] = meshobj.data.vertices[1]

For me, your script does not break at the parent_type setting line, but one line later. The parent_vertices array does not expect an object to be given, but an integer: it is the index number of the vertex that needs to be passed on. This slightly modified version of your script works for me in both 2.76 and 2.78:

import bpy

meshobj=bpy.context.object

empt = bpy.data.objects.new("Empty", None)
empt.parent = meshobj
empt.parent_type = 'VERTEX'

# only pass on the index, not the vertex object
empt.parent_vertices[0] = 1

# add the object to the scene so we see what's happening
bpy.context.scene.objects.link(empt)


Missing brushes for Texture painting in 2.8 I downloaded Blender 2.8 and I wanted do some texture painting. But I noticed that there's only 1 brush in my Blender.

There was more brushes in Blender 2.79.

Where are all the brushes gone? I need them.

The tool has changed a bit, and things are now in a different place.

Simply, this in 2.79:

has become this is 2.8:


IK Flexible Bones Twisting Mesh I created a tentacle, added an armature, changed the bones to b bones, added ik, target null object and noticed that the bones looked twisted (without me doing anything). Once I started posing my tentacle the mesh started to get twisted at certain positions.

Model is available here

any tips to avoid this let me know. I appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

I was watching a tutorial today and they mentioned the roll setting for the bone. It made me think of the problem I was having with the tentacle and I went to the model, changed the roll setting to be the same on all bones and the problem has been fixed.


sculpting vs. proportional editing differences? What are the differences between sculpting and proportional editing? They seem superficially similar to me.

Yes, in basic terms they perform the same task.

Proportional editing is a more technical method. You select specific vertices and move them with the surrounding vertices also being moved based on the choice of a preset curve.

While sculpting deforms the vertices in a similar way, the user gets a more artistic approach to what part of the mesh moves. Brush strokes are a much quicker, dynamic way of selecting which vertices get moved.

Additionally, sculpting offers the ability to define the falloff curve or use an image to define how the surrounding vertices are moved, which s not possible with proportial editing. This gives sculpting a way to model shapes on the surface of a mesh much faster than you can do manually. The trade off (particularly with dynamic topology) is you don't have control over the topology, so you can just as quickly get a messy looking mesh.


Edge Bevel Weirdness I was working on a model when I encountered this problem while trying to bevel an edge. I'm not sure what's causing this even after I've tried merging duplicate vertices and applying the scale. If anyone knows what might be causing this issue, I'd love to know why this is happening.
Thanks!

Edit: As per Allen's suggestion, I've added a simplified version of the model with the problem edges marked with red seams. They don't exactly replicate the GIF I've posted, but I think it's a similar problem nonetheless.

This is happening because you have some faces pointing inwards and some pointing outwards. You can tell by turning on Face Orientation and Face Normals in  Overlays:

To fix it, select the whole thing in edit mode and then select Mesh > Normals > Recalculate Outside. You can now bevel as you wish:


Best way to create blended cylinder/hexagon? I'm fairly new to Blender and I'm trying to create a mesh that smoothly transitions from cylindrical endcaps to a flattened hexagonal midbody.

I'm able to make one pair of faces easily enough by selecting verts and doing a normal z scale operation of 0.  You can see one of the faces generated this way on the right side of the mesh.  However, this doesn't work on subsequent faces since the scaling operation moves the verts that border the neighboring hexagon faces, distorting them.

I've highlighted the next face I'd like to flatten.  How can I do this while keeping the verts on the far right and left side of the face stationary?  I've seen people using vertex hiding to hold geometry in place but I can't do that since I need to have all of the verts in the face selected when I do the scale transform.

Alternately, it there a better way to do this than distorting a cylinder mesh primitive?

You can use the Bridge Edge Loop, an operator available since 2.63 version, to connect two different profiles (obiuvsly works best if they have the same amount of vertices):

A similar function can be found in the LoopTools Add-on, but has fewer options (it's where the Bridge Edge loop operator came from):

A possible result:


Is there a "latch" node in animation nodes? I need a Boolean node that does the following. If the input is true at any time, the output becomes true and stays true. Even if the input is removed or becomes false, the output must stay true. It's like detecting a pulse or touching a button then walking away and the bulb doesn't turn off when you walk away.
By nature, the node should have another input to turn it off.
Is there a node that does that in animation nodes? If no, Is there an easy workaround?
Thank you,

You can use a custom property on an object to do it :
Create a new empty and set your node tree like so :

Now when you toggle the boolean input, the custom property is updated and persists between frames.

Now there may be more efficient ways to rig it but your latch logic boils down to :

In action :


Error while trying to use Curve Modifier - Cannot apply modifier for this object type I was trying to use a curve modifier on some text. Everything works fine until I try to apply the modifier. I'm not sure whether I'm doing something wrong. Can someone be kind enough and give it a quick look please.

You need to convert the text to a Mesh object.

Object -> Convert to -> Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text


How to run Octane Sever as a Daemon on Linux mint? I just installed Blender 2.81 Octane Edition and Octane Server on my Linux Mint 19, but i was unable to run the Octane server. I read the installation manual on the otoy website, on which it said that you need to run server as a Daemon, and i don`t no how its done i am new to linux environment, so please help.

Bit of a late reply but to my understanding a daemon is just a service that runs in the background.
(This answer is based on my experience in Ubuntu)
After youve installed Octane Server and Octane Blender. Just navigate to usr/local/OctaneServer.
Double click on the OctaneServer file.
While this doesn't seem to initially do anything(Giving the impression it failed),if you boot Octane Blender and proceed to change your render engine to Octane it should ask for your Otoy login details which means the server is working.
Quick tip. Inside Preferences/Addons/OctaneEngine make sure to tick "Deactivate License on Exit" this ensures that you don't encounter any unsavoury license bugs(Assuming you shut down Blender properly).


Modify all linked instances It seems that inherited attributes that can be overridden is needed in Blender for objects considering its complexity. In any event, I thought I read that linked objects only have location and rotations unique to each instance, which would accomplish the same thing for me. But when I change the dimensions of one, the others do not change. I also tried this after having made the two objects reference the same mesh. Is there a way to edit the dimensions of all the linked objects at the same time?

You can select a copy of an object and add a Copy Scale constraint with the original object as a target.

Duplicated objects will have that constraint. To copy this constraint to existing objects, select them, make sure the object with the constraint is active, and press Ctrl + C, then B


Strange Offset Keyframe Behavior Thanks for reading this. I'm working on an animation in 2.8 and am seeing something I've never seen before. It must be a setting I turned on without realizing it.

In the image below, you can see the playback head is on frame 128. However, when I move an armature bone, the keyframe is added to frame 158. I can't understand it for the life of me. I'm used to just making changes and they get recorded where the play head is.

Edit: a clue, if I click on frame 158 with the right mouse button, the playhead moves to frame 128. There's some kind of offset happening...

It was because I was using time remapping on the output options. If "Old" and "New" are set to different values, it creates offsetting behavior with keyframes in the dope sheet and timeline.


Array instance offset variance I have a 3D stack of tiles that is actually 1 tile with an array modifier creating the instances offset to form a pile.

Is there a way to make each instance have it's own random variance in the X and Y axis and in Z rotation so that it is a realistically more chaotic imperfect stack, without me having to "apply" the modifier and manually nudge each tile around?
This would be great so that I could adjust the "Count" and each new tile would automatically be randomly slightly different placement than the one below it.

Here is the desired look:

I don't know how to do that and keep it in an array modifier, but here's a workaround: Drop the array and duplicate the tile in the Z direction. Select the tiles you want to randomize, then go to Object > Transform > Randomize Transform. The controls will appear in the toolshelf T.

Also:

There was some activity toward improving the existing array modifier in this way a few years ago, but it never got to the trunk.

Here's the story on Blender Nation: http://www.blendernation.com/2012/01/05/advanced-array-modifier/

And here is a build for it on GraphicAll: http://graphicall.org/537

You could model with that, apply the modifier, then continue working in your preferred version.


Cycles: how to get glass reflexion on precious stones I have cytrine and blue topacio stones.
I have added glass shader material using IOR number for both stones.
I have an emission light dome.
When i render the scene my gold ring shows reflection, except my stones.
How can i get my stones with reflexion and more realistic ?

Lighting glossy surfaces is always about dealing with whatever is reflected on them.
I think your setup is quite nice, but in my opinion the reflections on the glass could be brighter. I would add more contrast to the surrounding dome's texture.
On the dome you are using for lighting you might want to change the texture to the color input socket and have the intensity be a value you can control:

In this example I'm using a dome with a voronoi texture to create a somehow random pattern for the light. The curves let you control the contrast. The whole idea is to get an interesting a pattern to reflect on the glossy surfaces.


How to make the top of candy mountain from Kirby super star First post (yay) i know this may sound dumb but, in kirby super star theres a backround with mountains called "candy mountain" i was wondering how do you make that "spiky cone" of the mountains

http://kirby.wikia.com/wiki/Candy_Mountain

Not the base of the mountain just the tops, the "spiked" white area

thanks!

I thought it would be easy, but as this object is both smooth and sharp, it is not. Maybe there's a easiest way to dot it, anyway here is mine:

Create a plane and subdivide it vertically (for example 7 times).
Give it an Array modifier and, in Count, choose the number of duplications (i.e. the number of spikes you'll need), for example 12. Enable the Merge and First/Last options.
Create an Empty at the origin point of your plane.
Give your plane a SimpleDeform modifier with the Bend option enabled and choose the Empty as Axis, Origin.
In the same modifier, choose 360° as Deform Angle . Now your shape is a ring.
Give your plane a Subdivision Surface modifier, and Smooth it in the T panel.
In Edit mode begin to move up and down your vertices so that it creates spikes. Move some vertices along their edges to sharpen the top and bottom of those spikes. Now you have a kind of crown.
Keep a copy of this object + Empty.
Apply the Array modifier, then apply the SimpleDeform modifier. Keep the Subsurf.
You need to make some corrections to join the first and the last object of the Array (maybe the gap is avoidable, I don't know), use alt M to merge vertices.
Now you can begin to extrude and scale the top, then close it with a alt M.
You can give your object a Solidify modifier if you want to give it thickness


Changing tooltip for menu entries which use the same operator I have created a set of menu entries which all use the same operator, but with different operator parameters:

As it is now all menu entries show the same tool tip. But i need to add different tool tips here so users can be better informed about what the different entries do. The only idea i have so far is to create a unique operator for each menu entry. But how can i do this dynamically?

Or is there a better solution to get different tool tips for each of the menu entries?

Here are the menu and operator that i use (simplified):

class MyAddMenu(bpy.types.Menu):
bl_label = "MyMenu"
bl_idname = "OBJECT_MT_my_add_menu"

def draw(self, context):
    lo = self.layout
    op = MyAddItem.bl_idname
    ps = get_p_list_from_somewhere()

    for p in ps:
        text = "entry-%s" % p
        lo.operator(op, text=text, icon='OUTLINER_OB_ARMATURE').p=p

class MyAddItem(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_MT_my_add_item"
    bl_label = "Add Item"
    bl_description ="The operator Tool Tip"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    p = StringProperty()

def execute(self, context):
    # Do something
    return {'FINISHED'}

Using a dynamic operator enum property
Add a custom property "prop" to the scene to show dynamic behaviour.  Once added will add a new item to menu.
import bpy
#populate itemslist
def items_list(self, context):
    items = [
        ("RED", "Red", "This will add RED",  'OUTLINER_OB_ARMATURE', 1),
        ("GREEN", "Green", "This will add GREEN",  'OUTLINER_OB_ARMATURE', 2),
        ("BLUE", "Blue", "This will add BLUE",  'X', 4),
        ("YELLOW", "Yellow", "This will add YELLOW",  'BLENDER', 8),
        ]
    # test dynamic by adding custom prop "prop" to scene
    if "prop" in context.scene.keys():
        items.append(('BLACK', "Black", "This will add BLACK", 'BLANK', 16))
    return items

def draw_enum(self, context):
    self.layout.operator_context = 'INVOKE_REGION_WIN'
    self.layout.operator_menu_enum("object.simple_operator", "type", text="My Menu")

bpy.types.INFO_MT_add.append(draw_enum)

class SimpleOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "object.simple_operator"
    bl_label = "Add Avastar..."
    bl_description= "Avastar"
    #bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'PRESET', 'UNDO'}
    #dynamic enum property
    type = bpy.props.EnumProperty(items=items_list)
    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return context.active_object is not None

    def execute(self, context):
        print("run with ", self.type)
        return {'FINISHED'}

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

PS: from your screenshot it looks like you are using presets, check out Python add drop down menu that stores data  The preset code is in 2.77/scripts/startup/bl_operators/presets.py


Creating paper pinwheel from an image I have to create a 3D model from an image.

For research purpose, the created model should be almost the same as what it looks like in the image.

My steps :

Create a simple triangle mesh
Add a simple deform modifier(Bend) to the mesh
Add a Bezier circle for this modifier
Adjust circle & modifier

No matter how I adjust the transform of Bezier circle or the deform angle in modifier, the model just don't look like the same as what it looks like in the image.

I have tried other ways such as curve modifier,
but this is the best result I could get.

Is there a better way of creating this model?

You may try to use Curve and Array modifiers starting with a simple plane instead of triangle.

Add a curve and a plane. Make sure they both have the origin points placed in the same position. Subdivide the plane many times with W-->Subdivide then give it a Curve modifier. Fit the plane to the curve.

Select diagonal vertices and connect them with J. Delete half vertices of the plane. One segment is ready!

Apply the Curve modifier and delete the curve. Snap the plane's origin point to the straight angled corner of a mesh as pictured below (Shift+Ctrl+Alt+C). Next add an Empty there.

Apply the transformations of the objects (Ctrl+A-->Rot&Scale). Add an Array modifier to the plane, change the count number as you like, uncheck the Relative Offset checkbox and check the Object Offset one. Type Empty in the window below. Select an Empty and rotate it as you like.


How can I do color keying using the VSE? I've been playing around with the VSE a lot lately and I was wondering about its tools-- the strip effects-- and what you can do with them. One effect I want to pull off in the VSE is color keying, is there any conceivable way to do this? If I could pull off green screen effects with just strip modifiers and strip effects, it would solve most, if not all of my problems.

I edited together a 3 minute long video with a handful of static shots in front of a green screen, I rendered it out and figured it would be easiest to take care of all at once in the compositor but I also thought input nodes could be animated to accommodate a new background for each shot. That is the real problem I'm trying to solve if the VSE green screen doesn't work out.

Great thanks in advance to anyone who helps out here.

Option 1

The VSE cannot do a chroma key by itself. You can however make a simple key with modifiers. In this example I have:

The foreground strip (source A) at the bottom to serve as key source
Then I slightly blur it to hide imperfect edges

The yellow color effect serves as background
Duplicate the foreground source clip to the top (source B)
Add a Mask Modifier to it using strip Blur as its input

To source A add a Hue Correct modifier and set its Value and
increase key colour (blue or green) range to all other colours to
0 . Use the curve to tune colours in or out of key. Switch to the S button for saturation and edit the curve so that all Control Points are at 0 or black and white.
Add Curve modifier to source A. Raise the black control point
(bottom left to the top and lower the white point control point (top
right) to the bottom. Place an extra control point in the middle and drag it right up to the top making a high contrast key image.

Remember to press the refresh Sequencer button while you do these changes to see the result.

Option 2:

Otherwise use the compositor. It has proper keying nodes. You can add your source clip as an input to a compositor in another scene (this is important). Perform the key there but don't add a background, make sure to use the Convert Alpha node to premultiply the output. In the VSE add that scene (with the compositor active) as a scene strip, make sure to use Alpha Over. Then place and trim as you wish over the background strip in the VSE.


problem with sharp transitions between rotation keyframes Maybe this question was asked in some other post, and if so feel free to direct me to it. But, help please :( .

For TLDR, skip to the 2nd to the last paragraph.

I have an animation project consisting of an object which is orbited (in a curvaceous way) by a first camera on a track. the track goes all around the object, as seen below (though it looks like a closed loop, it's actually a bezier curve that has a tiny opening). The first camera has a damped track constraint to an empty in the object. It also has a locked track constraint to an empty on another, nearly identical track above this track. The empty on the above track has almost the exact same movement and speed as the first camera. It is meant to keep the first camera pointing...I guess, up. (If the two tracks are identically aligned, it can be problematic at a couple points in the animation, triggering the camera to "snap rotate", but I'll treat this as another matter.)

Another camera copies the transforms of the first camera on the first track, and this "copy camera" is used by a Python script to insert VisualLocRot keyframes for the duration of the animation.

The script that uses the copy camera, before it finishes inserting each keyframe, does a "camera to view selected" on the subject being orbited, which fits the entire object to the vertical or horizontal edges of the camera view.

Problem is, I'm getting what I call "rotation artifacts", pictured below, in the F-curves. Just by looking at the selected keyframes, I can kind of tell what's happening, but I don't understand why Blender is doing it that way. (Why can't the curves keep going up or down, without breaking like that?) I don't know how to fix.

I hope to soon grasp all the algebra and trig I need to understand this problem better. Are quaternions my magical unicorn solution? Please let me know if I've done a bad job of explaining this, or if you need more info.

The Gimbal Lock ... maybe?

You might have tripped on "Gimbal Lock" problem with Euler. And yes Quaternions method let you avoid the "Gimbal Lock" issue. There is a very clear video about gimbal lock issue here ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc8b2Jo7mno&list=PLLJePYWucKoOm0NN3blOFqAlvL5Etyf6A

Understanding the topic may help you avoid gimbal lock if you want to continue
using Euler solutions. To summarise what I have learn is that if your object is a camera, you can avoid Euler's gimbal lock with some good knowledge and learn how to avoid them. However if you are working of an object like a fighter jet that has radical rotation in your scene, it's best to apply Quaternions.


What is the best way to unwrap a sphere? After reading How to get perfect UV sphere Mercator projection?
It seems that there is no perfect solution for getting rid of the stretch at the poles of UV spheres.

According to What is the difference between a UV Sphere and an Icosphere?, icospheres can be used for stretch-less UV mapping:

  All faces have the same area, which may be useful for certain types of UV mapping containing non-organic textures. An example that comes to mind is an isocahedral die or billiard balls where stretch must be minimized near the point where the number is printed onto the ball.

Incidentally, a lowish-poly billiard ball is exactly what I'm attempting to create.

However, my attempts at neatly unwrapping an icosphere have mostly failed (smart UV unwrap works perfectly for using baked textures, however I was hoping for something more like the example in the 6th post of this thread, with a nice clean rectangular map).

How can an icosphere (I assumed the term "geosphere" in the thread was referring to a (geodesic) sphere made of triangles, like an icosphere) be cleanly unwrapped? Or if it's not possible, is there another way to do this which I'm missing?

I'm planning on using the resulting sphere in the BGE.

I find the results are best when islands best match the actual shape of the geometry.  The closer you get to this the less stretching you will have.

For a sphere, I find this works best for me.  A cube with sub-D at level 2 which is applied then corrected in Edit mode with the To-Sphere tool.

Then

Or even better for less stretching.  (however, more seams mean more chance for the lighting to show artifacts with specular highlights on normal maps).

EDIT:  It just occurred to me that some of the issues which people are having with stretching in their textures may be related to the Sub-Divide UV's  Option in either of the two sub-D modifiers(Multi-res).

If you don't set this button appropriately, then you will likely have stretching and it matter matter how well the UV's are laid out.

As a general guideline, it seems best to disable the Sub-Divide UV's option when your mesh is mathematically evenly spaced.

So when you have built your mesh with somewhat un-evenly spaced lines, then you may want to leave Sub-Divide the UV's on for the least amount of stretching.

I toggle it on and off rapidly while watching the model and how a checkered texture is become stretched or not.
I do the same thing with the little eyeball icon that turns the modifier on and off.

Keeping an eye on this should help minimize the baking difficulties.


Spawning objects in animation I'm trying to make a conveyor that drops parts into a box. Is there a way to spawn an object on the conveyor on a timed system so that it can fill the box? I've looked all over and could not find the direction to go.

Some ideas:

Frame X-1: set the object position outside the screen, Frame X: move the object into the screen
Use an emitter to emit the parts (with the number of emissions you can control the frequency of emission) (see image 1)
You can have all the objects invisible and animate the visibility in the timeline using the shader

image 1: