Armature Parenting Issue Dear Blender Community ,
    I am struggling to solve an issue concerning parenting an armature to another object (so I don't have to animate it separately. In this instance I'm trying to have my 'l' in slavery to be able to hold a pickaxe. The only problem is as the 'I' deforms back upwards to its resting position, the pickaxe stays stuck inside the rock. Do you guys have any ideas on how to fix it?

Not sure I understand everything going on, but if it's a problem with the whole armature, you could try parenting bone to your object. Then make that bone the parent bone.
Or you could try the child of constraint.


How to hollow a filled curve? I have the following curve (imported from an svg object):

and I want to extract the borders of it and ignore the faces.
I've tried converting it to mesh and deleting the faces in edit mode but that would delete the whole object.
Is it possible to hollow that object ? (It's possible to draw some beziers and match it to current curve's borders , but it seems too time-consuming for a complicated object).
Thanks.

Convert object to mesh > edit mode-edges > ALT + double click on the border to select all > shift+D to duplicate > P-separate by selection. You have the border without insides.


How set an hotkey to run a saved script like ui_menu.py (Blender 2.90)? Following tutorials about how register the hotkey for a script or menu.
I always get an error with nameofthefile.py not found or "error in line x" but I copy/paste the whole script.
So lets say i create a new script, from the template Ui_menu.py,
how do I set and register the hotkey to run it while modeling ?

If you need to run any script in any context area. You might need to use a new operator to make the shortcut available due to the lack of operator. The one that scripting editor used will poll the context and only work in scripting area.

Code
import bpy

def create_summary(text: str, length: int = 300) -> str:
    return f"Code Preview:\n\n{text[:length]}"

def list_textname_callback(scene, context):
    return [
        (text.name, text.name, create_summary(text.as_string()))
        for text in bpy.data.texts
    ]

class TEXT_OT_run_specified_script(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "text.run_specified_script"
    bl_label = "Run specified text script"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER'}

    # fmt: off
    script_name: bpy.props.EnumProperty(
        name="Run script from:",
        description="Run this specified script.",
        items=list_textname_callback
    )
    # fmt: on

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        # Prompt to ask
        return context.window_manager.invoke_props_dialog(self)

    def execute(self, context):
        script = bpy.data.texts.get(self.script_name, None)
        if script != None:
            exec(
                compile(
                    script.as_string(),
                    filename=f"{script.name}",
                    mode='exec',
                ),
            )
        else:
            self.report({'WARNING'}, "No script found.")
        return {'FINISHED'}

def _menu_func(self, context):
    self.layout.operator(
        TEXT_OT_run_specified_script.bl_idname,
        text=TEXT_OT_run_specified_script.bl_label,
    )

# fmt: off
classes = [
    TEXT_OT_run_specified_script,
]
# fmt: on

def register():
    for c in classes:
        bpy.utils.register_class(c)
        bpy.types.TOPBAR_MT_window.append(_menu_func)

def unregister():
    for c in reversed(classes):
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(c)
        bpy.types.TOPBAR_MT_window.remove(_menu_func)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    try:
        unregister()
    except:
        pass
    register()

Details:
The arbitrary script you want to run is loaded and executed by another operator. Operator is a class inherited from bpy.types.Operator and been registered to Blender system.
Most of the button in Blender is an UI to invoke operator. The short-cut keymap need an bl_idname to hook on. But the original text.run_script (The small play button in your text editor) cannot select arbitrary script and run, also it cannot be run outside the text editor due to the poll method block unnecessary context call.
That's why you need another operator doing the same thing but accept changing script and run it in every where.
TL;DR:
This addon is only a play button that can accessed in anywhere and run any text block (doesn't even need to be a python script). This addon provide a bl_idname for short cut to assign to, make it possible to bind to shortcut.
If anyone here and want this to be a valid addon, go for the github page and download it. It will be put under testing addon.


What would be the best way of continuing the wall around the corner? Very new to Blender. Lots to learn. Eager to learn it.
In this example, what methods would you suggest for continuing the wall and matching it to the angles of the floor corner?

Use a loop cut (CtrlR) on  the floor, and slide it to set the width of the wall. (While sliding, hitting E will make the new loop parallel to one side of the cut faces, and hitting F will flip which side.) Then extrude upwards.


Snap vertices without overlapping Im trying to get them to not overlap, but be snapped together. the center of the one i move snaps to the vertex of the idle one.

You need to set the Snap Element to Face:


What is the Easiest way to Animate the rigid body properties of a large group of objects I would like to animate 500 or so shards to be "animated" rigid body at frame zero and "dynamic" at frame 550. Do I really have to set a keyframe for each individual object or is there a way to animate that rigid body property as a group?
The shards are in a group, but it appears that the rigid body for a group of objects can only be set, not animated. I've tried using an empty parent object to no avail.

[Select the rigid body object and copy their properties (except for animated).]

Select all rigid body object to be modified.
Alt click on the Animated property. This will change the property for all the selected object to the same value. Now all object have animated enabled.
Use this script to key the property on all of them.

import bpy
sel = bpy.context.selected_objects
for ob in sel:
    ob.rigid_body.keyframe_insert(data_path="enabled")
    ob.rigid_body.keyframe_insert(data_path="kinematic")

Now all objects are keyed.

To remove all Animated keys on a frame, execute the script but replace keyframe_insert with keyframe_delete.


Python Text to 3dObject The TextEditor comes with a feature to covert selected text in the editor to 3d_object.
TextEditor->Edit->Text to3d_object.

It's unfortunate that the api doesn't provide a way to directly input text as a string into the Operator

bpy.ops.text.to_3d_object(split_lines=False)

Since " manually selected text " from a text file is the only way to provide input to this operator,is there any way to get access to this selected text within a Python/Text file , before executing this operator so that it get's directly converted to 3d_object.

To get the selection, remember the lines are displayed from 1, but counted from 0 in the text buffer.

>>> t = D.texts['Text.002']
>>> t.current_character
10

>>> t.current_line_index
12

>>> t.select_end_character
4

>>> t.select_end_line_index
16

To set the selection

>>> t.select_set(
select_set()
Text.select_set(line_start, char_start, line_end, char_end)
Set selection range by line and character index

>>> t.select_set(0, 0, 4, 22)

Text file buffer.

>>> for i, l in enumerate(t.lines):
...     i, l.body
...
(0, 'import bpy')
(1, 'import bmesh')
(2, 'context = bpy.context')
(3, '')
(4, 'context.tool_settings.mesh_select_mode = (False, False, True) # faces')
(5, 'ob = context.edit_object')
(6, 'me = ob.data')


Python How to make pose bone rotation toward a point? I have the pose bone at a location and I would like for it to rotate to face a point
Code:
Pos1 = Vector(bone.location)
#The point location (local)
Pos2 = Vector(10,10,10)
diff = Pos2 - Pos1
quat = diff.rotation_difference(pos1)
bone.rotation_quaternion = quat

But it doesn't seem to line up

Matrices
The rotation difference returns how much to rotate from direction to direction. The result needs to be applied to current direction.
Setting the direction absolutely from the rotation difference result will only work for the case when initial value is 0.
By using matrices, will work for whatever rotation type the pose bone has.
Test script. Rotates the context pose bone to point to the head of the pose bone named "Target".
import bpy
from bpy import context
from mathutils import Matrix

rig = context.object
target = rig.pose.bones.get("Target")

pb = context.active_pose_bone

v = target.head - pb.head
bv = pb.tail - pb.head

rd = bv.rotation_difference(v)

M = (
    Matrix.Translation(pb.head) @
    rd.to_matrix().to_4x4() @
    Matrix.Translation(-pb.head)
    )
pb.matrix = M @ pb.matrix

Emulating the constraint.
Can roll the bone around its Y axis in result above and it will still point to target.
POSE space is one of the more "tricky" spaces since it is defined by the head, tail and roll of each bone as set in edit mode.
To get but one roll result
q = v.to_track_quat('Y', 'Z')

makes a quaternion from vector v that points its $Y$ direction to vector with $X$ axis up.
There is a handy convert_space method available on all objects.
>>> rig
bpy.data.objects['Armature']
>>> rig.convert_space(
convert_space()
Object.convert_space(pose_bone=None, matrix=((0, 0, 0, 0), (0, 0, 0, 0), (0, 0, 0, 0), (0, 0, 0, 0)), from_space='WORLD', to_space='WORLD')
Convert (transform) the given matrix from one space to another


how to turn 3d object into 2d template how do i turn a shape for example this monkey, into a template like this. (ps im not making a monkey)

It's called "UV unwrapping".
Go to UV editing tab, go into EDIT MODE, select all (A) and press U. then choose one of the method to unwrap the 3d model into 2d.


Bevel in Solidified Plane I created a plane and started working on it's corner to add some radius.
Now I want to smooth the edges (perimeter) of the plane. I tried to use Bevel but I am unable to do this as soon as I solidify the plane. Any clues why it doesn't work properly or how to do this?

You can't use the Bevel operator to bevel the edges of your Solidified plane, without applying the modifier, because the edges don't exist at the time the operator is invoked. You can use a Bevel modifier to do it, below Solidify on the stack.
The first bevel, rounding the corners in XY, could be done with an operator, and that may be better, allowing you to, say, inset the plane, to avoid the normals in the triangulation of the large n-gon interpolating badly over the edges into the thickness. However here we go with modifiers all the way, on a once-subdivided plane..

A bevel of the corner vertices only, by vertex-bevel-weight:

Solidify, with defaults..

Bevel the rim, by angle, again, with default settings out of view..

The resulting normals aren't perfect, but can be fixed with a Weighted Normal modifier.


How can I combine these overlapping render layers? I had this scene:

Then I broke it into these two render layers:

Normally I use an alpha over node to combine render layers, but the transparency and overlapping doesn't allow that in this case. Here are the results of "alpha over" with "one over two" and "two over one".

Is there a better way to combine these render layers to get the original back? Or have I broken a rule for what can actually live on separate layers?

Render your layers with Z pass:

Combine them using Z Combine node from Color tab:

On Z Combine node check "Use Alpha" checkbox if needed.


Why is texture distorting at the sides? How to fix it? I have used a basic plane and cloth simulator. Solidify and subsurf modifiers applied after. I'm trying to get the lines to be straight vertically and horizontally but can't figure out what has went wrong or how to fix it. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I'm still in early learning stages of blender]1

You're using object coords. If you watch it right from above it will look okay. But since the edges of the blanket are not flat and have some verticality, X axis projects onto it and you see the distortion

The solution I think is to unwrap the mesh and use UV coordinates:


How to display EnumProperty control like radio buttons, while keeping the selection exclusive? I have an EnumProperty set up on the Scene in the register function:

def register():
    bpy.types.Scene.my_enum = bpy.props.EnumProperty(
        name = "My enum",
        description = "My enum description",
        items = [
            ("FIRST" , "First one" , "Description..."),
            ("SECNOD", "Second one", "Some other description")
        ]
    )

Now, elsewhere in the code I have a Panel, which is to display the 'enum' for selection:

class SomePanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_idname      = "some_panel"
    bl_label       = "A panel"
    bl_space_type  = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context     = "render"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        scene = context.scene
        layout.prop(scene, "my_enum")

So far so good, the control draws correctly, but not the way I want:

Thing is - I wanted a different appearance - I didn't want a dropdown field, instead I want a radio-button like field, as the one found for example here:

... where I can choose one of the options regarding the color mode (BW , RGB or RGBA).

I've found that I can put the "ENUM_FLAG" in the options field of the EnumProperty definition:

def register():
        bpy.types.Scene.my_enum = bpy.props.EnumProperty(
            name = "My enum",
            description = "My enum description",
            items = [
                ("FIRST" , "First one" , "Description..."),
                ("SECNOD", "Second one", "Some other description")
            ],
            options = {"ENUM_FLAG"}
        )

This too worked fine, the result I got now is this:

But now I can activate both buttons at once using Shift, and that's what I want to avoid:

So How can make the selection exclusive? How to force Blender to switch from one option to the other (or in other words: How to disable the Shift functionality)?

Booleans have toggle=True, and Enums have expand=True

layout.prop(scene, "my_enum", expand=True)

The most extensive UI cookbook is still this one though the layout docs are definitely useful after you've struggled a little. Other than those two sources I find it best to read through the draw functions of the add-ons supplied with Blender (you probably did this already.. if not, do)


How to change order of F-curve's modifiers? Is this possible at all? Because UI isn't obvious in this case.

The only way I can find to achieve this (without resorting to scripting) is to use the Copy and Paste facilities to duplicate all the modifiers and then delete the ones that are out of sequence.

Clicking Copy followed immediately by Paste should clone all of your modifiers :

I started with a Noise followed by Generator, clicked Copy then Paste to result in Noise, Generator, Noise, Generator.

Now simply remove the ones that are no longer required - in my example, removing the top Noise and the bottom Generator leaves Genertor followed by Noise - ie, the modifiers have effectively been reversed.


How can I create this type of lighting effect in Blender Cycles? I recently came across this image:

(source: makeuseof.com)

How can I recreate this style in Cycles? I can manage with the modeling part but I have no idea with such lighting. I have tried a glossy shader, a powerful point light and a white background, but it is no where near the realism of the above photo. Currently, I have managed this:

There are two main differences I see between your render and the reference image: the shader and the lighting.

Shading

It looks like in your render you have only used a glossy shader with a red color for the cubes.  However in the real world, the glossy reflections are rarely colored (except on metallics), the color comes from the diffusion.  See how the glossy reflections on the reference image are actually white (the color of the light and background), not red?

Here is my node setup for a general plastic material.

The base is just a diffuse with a little bit of SSS and gloss, then a sharp Fresnel gloss mixed in.

Lighting

There are 3 main differences I noticed about the lighting in your reference image versus your render.

The white backdrop.  To make a white backdrop like what is shown, create a plane, extrude the back edge up, add a subsurf modifier, and add some proximity cuts near the corner to hold the curve to the corner.  Just use a pure white diffuse shader for its material.

The shadows are very soft.  To create soft shadows in Cycles you need to use larger values for the Size parameter on your lamps (found under the Lamp rollout of the Object Data properties panel).  This effectively blurs the edges of shadows produced by that lamp.

The shadows are directly underneath the object.  To create shadows like this I like to use several sun lamps aimed in slightly different directions with different shadow sizes and strengths.  I usually have one slightly brighter main light, and two dimmer backup lights with even larger shadow sizes aimed in opposite directions and angles from the main light.

Result

Here's my result:


F12 render appears pixelated I press F12 to render the camera view, but I just get a pixelish version of the render.

Can somebody tell me how to change that?
I have already changed the object's "Render" Resolution to 100%.

Well, I have something to report now: When I use the middle mouse button to scroll out a little, the render appears a little smaller (seemingly at 100%), and it looks the way I expected. However, I wonder why that is that the render appears at like 125% for me instead of 100%.

This is an artifact of the interpolation method blender uses to display images. Image viewers which use other interpolation methods should display the image just fine.

The artifacts should disappear if you view the image at 100% (Numpad 1), so that no interpolation is needed.


Unexpected Gaps Between Linked Mesh Objects using BlenderGIS addon What I am trying to do

I am working on building a very large mesh terrain using height-maps (DEMs). I am trying to accomplish this by tiling the DEMs using QGIS that maintains the georeferencing data on each tile. Using the BlenderGIS add-on, I import the mesh as a RAW DEM and use Delaunay triangulation to generate the mesh. I use QGIS to generate a hillshade texture and tile that with QGIS using the same parameters for the DEM and then apply to the mesh using nodes.

The Problem

Each tile is imported and save into it's own blend file. I link the mesh object from the external .blend files. Since the entire scene is georeferenced, the tiles are placed in the appropriate location. However, I get these small lines between each tile. I am not sure how to fix this. Is this a problem with the add-on or am I doing something incorrectly?

Since I will ultimately be moving this to BGE, I would like something that is BGE-friendly. However, if the solution is modifying something inside my external .blend files that does not apply.

Here is a screenshot of my tiled mesh 3x3 size:

Here is a screenshot of the mesh with a texture:

Each tile is a 500m x 500m square for a total size of 1.5km x 1.5km. Once I figure this GAP thing out, I plan to switch over to BGE and build a LOD. These are all high poly but I also have low poly version already created for these 9 tiles. When ready, the entire mesh will be about 31km x 31km in size.

Update

I contacted the BlenderGIS plugin developer on Github. He suggested using a smooth modifier, which did not seem to resolve the issue. It only forced me to make all the linked files local, but the gaps remained.

The developer of the add-on suggested to shift each tile by 1 pixel. This sounds reasonably simple for the pictures shown. But when all is said and done there will be about 3000 x 3000 tiles to shift.
Is there a way to create a predefined grid of a specific cell size that I load the tiles into and swap tiles as the camera moves?

Ensure you have the connecting edges on each tile. What I mean with that is.

When you have a left and a right tile (L and R). The vertices of the right border of L needs to match the vertices of the left border of the R. They need to be at the exact same location as the according vertex of the other tile.

As your tiles are in different blend files you might check the positions of the corner vertices of each tile. When the tiles are moved to the center of the scene, you need to subtract the according offset of the tile.


Trying to make a figure eight So I was given a diagram for a lopsided figure eight. The figure eight can be made with two arcs and two tangent lines. I know the angle I'd need to cut out of a circle to make the arcs, and I could calculate the length of each tangent line. But I'm not sure where to start with Blender, I'm really new to it and by that I mean I started using it yesterday. How would I draw a circle with a specific angle cut out of it?

You do not draw the circle and then cut, you just draw the arc.

This can be easily achieved by starting with 1 point (vertex).

Then select that vertex in edit mode and place the (before thought of as useless) 3D cursor in the center of the rotation and click spin inside the mesh tools. in the popup choose the angle and be happy you got an arc ;)

Spin always extrudes the selection, so if you want to add another arc (perhaps with different angle and rotation point) at the end of you new arc, just select the start vertex.

Note: Make sure you are in orthogonal view, or else you might not end up at the same depth you started with ;) You switch between orthogonal and perspective view by pressing NUM5.


Bevel Clipping/Stopping Point? Sometimes I bevel two edge loops right next to each other that will end up touching each other.  This means that when I bevel them they will eventually meet, and they will have the potential to overlap each other.  Is there like a bevel clipping option or something that will keep these from overlapping, but will allow the last bevel loops to come to the same position so I can simply click merge to remove the doubles?  Hope this makes sense.
Think similar to the clipping effect for the mirror modifier.

This functionality is built into the Bevel Modifier, which can be used to bevel only some parts of a model using vertex groups.


Is there an easier way to cut specifically shaped holes in moderately complex objects (particularly from inside them)? I'm new to Blender, so I feel I must be missing something. I'm modelling something that's bound for a 3D printer and I need to cut some specifically shaped (and spaced) holes in it.

I've tried knife, knife project, bisect, and boolean modifiers, all with limited success. Knife (and knife project) were particularly infuriating, as they worked great on the outside of the object, but when I needed to cut the holes on the interior they failed miserably. It seemed my only options were to cut nothing or all the way through from the current view. I finally got the surface I want, but only after hacking the faces to death with the knife and merging edge loops a couple of times. It left the mesh rather a mess...

Is there any better way to do this? What about cleaning up the mesh a little?

Desired result finally:

Ugly, underlying topology:

No Knife!

In STL (the main 3d printing exchange format) everything gets triangulated, converting to quads is a waste of time.

BoolTool has been mentioned, it does add needed functionality to the Boolean Modifer (which can be unintuitive). If you have complicated geometry, curved surfaces with thickness into which you want to cut shapes, then that's a good way to go. But, if like in your image, you have a flat surface then modeling the negative space and snapping it into position and then reconnecting the faces might take the same amount of time.

Take your basic shape:

Then you model the negative space, in place. Learning how to use the snapping tools (vertex snaps in particular) will make modelling easier and speed it up.

I like to remove the object wall, place the negative space where it needs to be, then attach the wall again.

Then select an edge of the remaining opening by holding Alt and Right clicking, this selects the edgeloop if possible (usually it will). Then press F to fill this shape.

With the faces Filled you can press Ctrl+T to triangulate selected faces.

or tidier like yours

At first this may seem like a backwards approach, but when you have simple geometry to cut into the booleans are not the only approach.

Alt + F

docs: Meshes/Editing/Faces

Alt + F is like fill but acknowledges internal boundaries. Islands to exclude from the fill.
 .


How can I fix animated text to stay inside the 'LCD screen'? I'm creating a typewriter effect with animation nodes and I've trouble with figure out how to make text stay inside the 'LCD screen' as I hoped text will stay inside the box but it kept typing over the box. I'm not really sure how can I fix this problem. I hope anyone can help out with this?

Let us say that your writer screen can display at most 20 characters, then we could trim the start of the text by subtracting 20 from the end as follows:


How to add an object from another scene? I'm am trying to create a scene in Blender, by adding in another object from a previously created scene that is on a separate .blend file. How can I do this?
I have tried to append an object from one .blend to another, but it still won't work. Can I get some help in trying to figure this out?

The other answers to this question haven't worked. Is it a bug? How can I do this?

If the scenes are in the same .blend file:

Be in the destination scene
From the Outliner, make sure you see all scenes
In the Outliner, expand the scene with the object you want and drill down to that object
Left-click and drag the icon for that object into your 3D View
Boom... you've copied it over

If the scenes are in different files

File > Append (or Shift+F1)
From Blender's File Browser, go to the .blend file you want to pull from
Left-click the .blend file and go to the Object sub-directory within it
Choose the object you want to get (you did give it a sensible name, right?)
Click the "Link/Append from Library" button in the upper right corner


Subsurface scattering always gives red glow I am trying to create a wax type material with subsurface scattering for a set of hands but whatever I do, the scattering produces a red glow (see attached image), making the wax hands look like actual (weirdly white) hands. Is this physically correct or did I make a mistake somewhere? I tried adjusting the SSS color, background color, and light color, none of these got rid of the red tint. Turning SSS off completely does make it go away.
I am using Blender 2.92

Thank you for your help!

You need to tweak the Subsurface Radius values. They will determine the RGB coloration.
As the manual says, this value corresponds to the average length the light travels between each bounce. The longer the path length is, the further the light is allowed to scatter. This is the main source of a material’s perceived « scatter color. » A material like skin will have a higher red radius than green and blue. Subsurface scattering is the diffusion of light beneath the surface.


Absolutely black object in 3D view/texture display I have a .blender file that works fine on one computer, but when transferred to another one, the model is displayed in black in 3D view.
A material and a texture exist, the texture preview shows the correct image. The object is rendered correctly. But in the 3D view/Object mode/Texture display method, the figure is absolutely black. Material display method yields the same result, but the Rendered display shows correctly textured object. Shading mode is GLSL.
What gives? Could it be something with the video driver or some other system-specific features?

Here is the system information reported by Blender: https://gist.github.com/Fruchtenstein/ffbc2b5c1c65a48aa97f28d8cd9ab209

You might not have the texture files on the new PC, while saving the . blend file go to file and check automatically pack into . blend file. And then try it


How to modify the form of an object? I am modeling a new skin for Vel'koz League of Legends, but I can't figure out how to modify a form.

I want to make this form converging to an empty or to the cursor. Should look likes a cone.

I would get this mesh

Converging on this empty

You could do it with the Proportional Editing option on, but you should have a better result with the Mesh Deform modifier:

Create a cube that encompass your object.
Subdivide it a bit.
In the Properties panel > Data > Display, choose Maximum Draw Type > Wire so that it's transparent in Object mode. To make it transparent in Render mode, go in the Properties panel > Data > Cycles Settings and disable all.
Give your mesh a Mesh Deform modifier with the cube as Object. Click on the Bind button.
Move or scale the edges of your cube to modify the shape of your object.
When you're happy, apply the modifier (maybe keep a unapplied copy somewhere though).


Does Blender have Smooth Mesh Preview? Autodesk Maya has a mode in which when I press the number 3 key on the keyboard, the polygons appear smooth, with the number of polygons unchanged.

This drawing mode works very fast.

Is there a similar feature in Blender?

For me, Sudivisions of Add Modifier seems to work a little slow on Viewport.

No,as far as I know Blender does not have smooth mesh preview. When I change from Maya to Blender it bothered me as well but soon you will get use to it and you realize you dont need it.

Instead of it you can use subdivision surface modifier and its options to turn it on/off in different modes. It is convenient to let it smooth the object in view port but turn it of when you are in the edit mode.

Shade smooth is kind of the same as smooth normals in Maya


Pixelated light cone near source with Eevee In my renders with Eevee, I'm getting pixelation of the light cone near the light source. What settings do I need to adjust to fix this please?

OK, I've discovered the answer.

In render setting for Eevee, go to 'Volumetrics' settings and change the 'tile size' to a smaller pixel size. You can also adjust the 'sample rate' settings underneath the 'tile size' settings.

This does seem to increase render time considerably however.

Another simpler option is to widen the angle of you light cone. I don't know why, but this too seems to eliminate the problem. Perhaps someone else can expand on why.


Where is the option 'Display>Only Render" in the latest 2.8 builds? Blender 2.79 has the 'Display>Only Render' checkbox in the Properties panel. I am not able to find any such option in the latest Blender 2.8 builds for Eevee. Can someone tell where is it?

You can click on the button next to overlays to hide everything:


Textures are inside the model I've imported a FBX model (made by someone else in Blender), but the textures are inside the model. Recalculating your and reuploading the textures didn't help.

UPD: the model itself https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Btqvb60qj4HtmpKEWG0E-dG--hYd7dR6

You need to enable Backface Culling in the material settings. It is the extra geometry for creating an outline blocking the view.

You can build a custom toon shader. Here is one:

This is for EEVEE only.

If you want you can watch some tutorials on Non-PBR shading. For example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3zHGD8V2IY or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCF29s2FRsQ


Can't get 2 Dynamic Paint Canvases to render at once - Blender 2.8 Trying to render both the waves and trail of a boat using 2 dynamic paint canvases, one of the Waves Surface Type, and one of the Paint Surface Type. The two show up together perfectly in the viewport, but for some reason when rendered out, only one of the Bakes appears. Any ideas what is going wrong here?

Thanks!

Blender file:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ifVx50dHrmQLoipd2KTRkFLt6xYGBwNB

Viewport:

Render:

You have to actually name the cache in order both canvas layers to render.


Can we extract contact normals in a scene that undergoes in rigid body simulation? I am wondering if blender offers a way to list the contact normals available in a scene after rigid body simulation. I assume that blender will use this to calculate friction and was not sure if this can be extracted using scripts.

Thanks in advance!
Karthik

Don't know much about how rigid bodies work behind the scenes, and haven't really scripted rigid body sims before.

But if the contact normals are the normals of the faces that were touched during collision, you might be able to get them with a little hack: set up dynamic paint to paint the faces that are touched by the colliding object, then use a script to find all the faces that were painted (via the vertex color map created by the dynamic paint simulation).

Here's a little script that finds these normals if you use a red color for painting the touched object (assumes that the painted object is the active object, with the dynamic paint modifier applied and the default vertex color map name was used for the dynamic paint sim):

import bpy, bmesh
from collections import defaultdict

def get_vcolors( obj ):
    '''
        Vert colors are arranged in an unintuitive way, according to loop vertices, go figure.
        Also, every vertex has as many vertex colors as the number of faces its included in.
        This function outputs a dictionary where every vertex index has a list of vertex colors
        associated with that vertex.
    '''
    vcolor_dict = defaultdict(list)
    mesh        = obj.data
    color_layer = obj.data.vertex_colors['dp_paintmap']

    i = 0
    for poly in mesh.polygons:
        for idx in poly.loop_indices:
            loop  = mesh.loops[idx]
            color = color_layer.data[i].color
            vcolor_dict[loop.vertex_index].append(color)
            i += 1

    return vcolor_dict

o = bpy.context.object
vcolors = get_vcolors( o )

# Find all the verts that have a red value above 0.9
red_verts = []
for v in vcolors:
    for c in vcolors[v]:
        if c.r > 0.5:
            red_verts.append( v )
            continue

# Find the faces that include a red vert and their normals
red_faces = []
for i,f in enumerate(o.data.polygons):
    for rv in red_verts:
        if rv in f.vertices:
            red_faces.append( i )

red_faces = list(set(red_faces) ) # Remove doubles
red_faces_normals = [ o.data.polygons[i].normal for i in red_faces ]

You can find the setup I used for the simulations here (blend file):
http://www.pasteall.org/blend/37568


Strange normal map behavior in Cycles (Blender 2.80) I have a problem with normal map baking from high-poly to low-poly in Cycles. When I apply the normal map on the rendered object appears quads, but in eevee this doesn't appen. The strange thing is that these quads doesn't correspond to the wireframe of the mesh visible in Edit mode.
These quads are visible in the normal map, but why they don't appear in eevee? How can I bake normals without quads?
Thank you.

I had to save the output normal map image (with Save As in the Image editor). This made baking work correctly.


Apply scale/location deforms mesh I'm a total beginner with Blender.
When importing my model to Unity3D, the rotation and the location of the body of the model is wrong.

I think I have to apply scale/location, but when I do that, the second I move the frame bar, the mesh deforms itself on Blender, and the location also changes back to some random numbers instead of staying at 0. When applying scale, the object goes super small (which seems quite strange).

After doing some research, it seems I should have applied scale/location/rotation before starting to animate (ups!). Is there any way I can unparent, apply scale/loc and then reparent while keeping the animation intact?

after applying location:

after applying scale:

EDIT: finally solved the whole import to Unity3D thing by rigging the whole thing again, weight painting and animating while paying attention to all the points moonboots mentioned. Writing this for future reference: I think the key was re-rigging. Somehow Unity3D was understanding one of the main tentacle bones as the root node and that's why it was rotated in such a strange way (just like that specific tentacle bone).

Select the mesh only, open the Dopesheet, switch to Action Editor mode, click on Only Include Channels Relating to Selected Objects option, you can see that you've given your mesh an action called "Action". This action includes X, Y and Z scales that influence the scale of your mesh, and if you applied the scale it made your mesh smaller. You should not give any action to your mesh, only to the armature that controls this mesh, so just click on the X button to close this action. Also you should join the tentacle bones to the root bone to make it simpler.


Can I make clothes be weight-painted and have it have a cloth-simulation? I have a character with a skirt. I want their skirt simulated, as well attached to the body with weight painted. How will I do that?

You have several solutions to animate a skirt: This one that uses Mesh Deform modifier. Or you can try with the Wiggle Bones addon. But if you want to use physics, use Cloth:

Create your skirt, it needs to be another object that the body, parent it to the first spine bone, subdivide it a bit, weight paint the top edge in order to create the pin group:

Give it a Physics > Cloth simulation, in Shape > Pin Group, choose the group you've created:

In the modifiers stack, put a Subdivision Surface modifier under the Cloth modifier. Select the body and give it a Physics > Collision. Move, the armature, it should work:


Why can't I use the boolean modifier on more that two objects before it fails? I am trying to take a cube and multiple spheres and subtract each sphere from the cube. I have been using the boolean modifier to archive this, but it seems to fail after just two spheres and the third one just cut out without the embedded spherical shape.

This can be seen here:

Why is this happening?

Try joining all the spheres into 1 mesh and just using that as the boolean object


How can I create slope with precise angle in edit mode? I'm trying to create slope by rotating face with precise degrees and want the left and right walls stay vertical (I get it at angle like in picture). What is the best practice to to such things?

If I understand correctly the goal is to kind of rotate a face but without connected faces distorting:

One way to do that is to use Shear tool; select the desired face, enter desired axis and amount of effect the face to be "rotated".

Note that as it works regarding current view, you should position viewport point of view accordingly, most likely in preset orthographic view. If shearing the top face of a cube by Y axis enter orthographic Front view and while shearing enter Y axis (not seen on gif here) and then amount of effect.

Another much simpler way is not rotate enything but just grab edges by Z axis - one up, another down. It won't be rather simple to guess how much though as this will be moving edges, not rotating face.


Spray paint gas simulation How would you simulate the paint sprayed by a spraypaint can? It should be animated as hitting a wall covered by a stencil, so it must have some kind of gas-dispersion effect when it collides against the stencil and the wall. I'm working in Cycles, and paint colour is black.

I mean not simulating the paint getting sticked to the wall (that can be made with dynamic paint) but the paint flying through the space in between the spraycan and the wall. That's why I ask about particles system and not dynamic paint.

Would a smoke simulation solve the issue?

I would use both a smoke sim and a particles sim.

You can use a smoke sim on the actual particle system. This is what I did here.

I used the particle system for the little tiny paint drops and of course the smoke for the mist.

Create a circle with a face (as the nozzle for spray)
Create an icosphere to use for the Particles.
Add a particle system to your circle
Make sure you choose your icosphere as the object to emit.
Create a big box for your Smoke sim, make sure it covers as much as you need reach the stencil and wall.
Add a wind Force Field in the direction you want your paint to blow.
Make sure your wall is set as a collision object and have it set as a Canvas for dynamic paint.
Choose your circle emitter and make sure you choose for the smoke to emit from the particles. I have a screen shot below how I set it up. You will obviously need to change the settings to better match your scene but that is the gist of it.


Origin point moves every time I try to select an object I must have messed up either the 3D cursor or the origin point, as every time I try to click and select, to move the object or rescale, the origin point moves along with my mouse wherever I click?

I am pretty sure you're using the Cursor tool (red) instead of the Select Box tool (green). Switch to that one and let me know if everything works.

Note that the 3D cursor and the Origin of an object are different things.
The 3D cursor determines the point in which objects are created in the 3D environment. Read:
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/3dview/3d_cursor.html?highlight=cursor
The Origin of an object is the pivot point where the object rotates.
Read: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/scene_layout/object/origin.html?highlight=origin


glass shader that doesn't show the back of the object I´m making a cell material for a character. I´ve been trying some combinations and I got one that uses a glass and transparent shader mix (transparent shader to let more light pass and give it a better look).

It doesn´t look bad but I want to get rid of a weird looking thing in the back of the model.

As you can see in the picture at the top, if you look at the back of it you can see that there is a part with darker color. That´s what I want to remove.

At the bottom part it´s a screenshot of the material. It looks very simple but that´s because it´s the first test.

Can you help me to get rid of the weird part I´ve explained or tell me why is it there? Thanks.

The simplest way how to do it is use backfacing as a factor. This node setup will remove faces on back of your character.

SHIFT + A -> Input -> Geometry


Particle system adds some pattern to a mesh Modelling a giraffe and adding hair particle system to it for making a fur, the result is absolutely trashy

As you may see particle system adds those triangles that as I know mean mistakes in polygon structure. When particles are turned off everything is ok. Here is wireframe:

Node structure for the material:

Particle system's settings:

Thank you in advance. You are always helpful.

Hair particles will reveal low-poly geometry like this in most cases. The best way to fix this is to use more geometry, making the model smoother. Try adding a subdivision surface modifier, or manually adding cuts and subdivisions to the model.
You could also try using some larger, longer particles, and maybe some more of them as well. This would help make the hair look more "full".


Scene clip in Video Editor affects the image strip above it In the Video Sequence Editor, I have added a scene and over top I added an image strip.

The image strip is set to 100% opacity and therefore should not be affected by whether the scene is underneath it or not.

However, frame 15 is darker than frame 30.

What could be the cause of this?

I submitted a false bug report on this issue and a developer, Sergey, explained the problem: Color Management had been turned off.

Color management is on by default, and Sergey suggests not messing with it.  (someone else edited my .blend file)

To re-enable Color Management, go to the Scene tab of the Properties window and under Display Device, select sRGB.

The problem should be gone.  Please see the bug report for details on why this occurs.


Where is the "Project Paint" and "Layer" option in Blender 2.77a? I am now following a YouTube video that teaches texture painting in Blender 2.61. But I cannot find the Project Paint and the Layer option in my version of Blender (2.77a). Where are they in Blender 2.7x?

The left-hand side is a shot from the YouTube video. The right-hand side is the menu in my blender 2.77a.

First, the video uses 2.61 not 2.7x. I edited your question to reflect this.
The project paint panel resides in the options tab, and the uv layer select is in the slots panel of the slots tab.

Blender User Interface Terms


Why are straight lines sloping in render? Why are the walls in my architectural renders sloping and how do I fix this?

The lens shift controls on the camera exist in Blender precisely to solve this problem. Photographers use tilt-shift lenses to do the same thing.

Rather than rotating the camera upwards to the building, you can keep it pointing straight ahead, and increase the camera Y shift. This will preserve straight vertical lines.

A good visualization of that is here:
http://digitized-life.blogspot.com.es/2013/02/blender-26.html


How to have Blender run my script from the filesystem rather than the script window? I'm trying to figure out a workflow to allow me to develop addons in Blender that doesn't require me to use the Scripting window.  The scripting window is great if your script can be done in a single page, but breaks down when you need to break your code into more than one file.  It also causes problems because what you have in the script window may get out of sync with what you have saved to disk.
The only alternative  I see is to keep recompiling/uninstalling/reinstalling my addon.  (By recompile, I mean running a script I've created to bundle my source files into a zip ready for deployment).  However, it takes a lot of mouse clicks in the Preferences dialog to remove your old addon and then install the latest version.  That's a lot of work to do every time you make a change.
I'm seeing some references to 'reloading addons' by pressing F8 in other posts, but I don't see how that will help since I would still need to rebuild/reinstall my plugin.
Is there a more developer friendly way to go about developing an addon?

Have a look at Blender's add-ons folder for many examples.  C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91\2.91\scripts\addons if you are on Windows.
Let's have a look at MeasureIt add-on for example. It has multiple files:

If you open the __init__.py, you can see that measureit_main is imported

and if you open it, you can see other imports:

.zip files that you use to install the add-ons are just simple zip files containing a folder named after the add-on and all the files in it.
You could also have a look at How to run a python script external to Blender to run bpy commands in Blender'spython console


How to set the socket type in python? How can I set the output socket type of a nodegroup output socket from python?

I don't even know of any good way to do this in the UI.. The only way I know of in the UI is to connect a node output of the type I want (e.g. a yellow color output) to the Group Output node.

I tried setting socket.type, however there is no error message and the socket type does not change.

This is important because the default is a 'VALUE' socket, which converts colors into grayscale.

Here is the relevant part of my script:

main_group = bpy.data.node_groups.new(type="ShaderNodeTree", name="Object Color")
main_group.outputs.new("NodeSocketFloat", "Object Color")
output_node = main_group.nodes.new("NodeGroupOutput")
output_node.location = (600, 0)
output_node.inputs["Object Color"].type = 'RGBA'

You define the type when you create the socket with new() Looking at the list on the bpy.types page there are several starting with NodeSocket that can be used.

The variations of each type alter the visual display - eg. FloatPercent shows % with the value.

NodeSocketBool
NodeSocketColor
NodeSocketFloat
NodeSocketFloatAngle
NodeSocketFloatFactor
NodeSocketFloatPercentage
NodeSocketFloatTime
NodeSocketFloatUnsigned
NodeSocketInt
NodeSocketIntFactor
NodeSocketIntPercentage
NodeSocketIntUnsigned
NodeSocketShader
NodeSocketString
NodeSocketVector
NodeSocketVectorAcceleration
NodeSocketVectorDirection
NodeSocketVectorEuler
NodeSocketVectorTranslation
NodeSocketVectorVelocity
NodeSocketVectorXYZ


Script to store object's entire material setup and reuse them later? What I wanted to do is, using Python, temporarily swap out the existing materials of selected objects, and after I'm done with these objects, reset their material setup back to their original state.

I already have some clue about how to do it using duplicated objects over a different scene with matching names.  But I'm wondering if there is a simpler way to do this?

I'd need to store the entire material setup including what material was inside every material slot of the object.  Thinking this way I actually have some more ideas now.

I can store the material names in each object's material slot in their original order, and when restoring, I can just loop over the names of materials stored for each objects if those material names will not change.
Thanks for any answers, voted close.

what you need to do is to press the little "F" next to your material that you want to save for later.

This will save the material data block even though it is not assigned to any object. Then you can assign a new material to your object to experiment, and then come back later.

you can also set those by scripting

material.use_fake_user

If you want to swap materials back later via script,
you could probably store your original material in the object datablock.
If you have multiple materials, it would be a bit more complicated, but you could remember which material slot held which original material.

Checkout how to work with blender datablocks to save custom metadata:

Datablock Documentation

This is how easily you could add your custom metadata to any object:

C.selected_objects[0]['OriginalMaterial'] = "materialName"
# Access it directly in the console
C.selected_objects[0]['OriginalMaterial']
'material'


How can i make a translucent material on Cycles? I'm trying to make a translucent material on Cycles but still i'm not very experienced with nodes....i want to make a solid color that is still translucent or can receive some light on the borders, for example, like this image:

It's like organic, but translucent at the same time.

Or as a more realistic reference, like this:

Which kind of material will be the best option in order to make this?

I would use a subsurface scattering (SSS) shader (rather than a translucent shader) mixed with a diffuse/glossy shader mix (or whatever you are using for the base surface shader).

SSS basically makes the rays scatter when they hit the surface of an object, meaning the rays don't come off the surface at the same place they hit it.  The amount of scattering is determined by the scattering radius multiplied by the scale value on the shader.  SSS is usually used for organic things such as skin.

You can check out this question and this question and the documentation to learn more about SSS.


How Rendering animation All scene I'm trying to rendering all scene at once
so i'm using this python script code but it won't work
import bpy

for s in bpy.data.scene:
   bpy.context.window.scene = s
   bpy.ops.render.render(animation = True)

but it's not working when i run this code my blender is just freezing
please help me

The code probably is working as expected, but it’s doing something else you didn’t know it was doing: when blender runs Python code, the UI stops. This usually isn’t a problem since most code finishes within a few seconds, but in the case of this code, render times are being waited on. So until all the scenes finish rendering, the UI would be frozen. I agree with the commentor that suggested you run the code in a minimal blend file with just simple cubes and short frame ranges in each scene to test this diagnosis.


Maintain shape after subdivision This rectangular hole is extruded to the inside, then I tried beveling it to maintain shape, but after I add the subdivision it becomes an ellipse. How do I keep the rectangular shape?

You can make it keep its shape by selecting the verts in the area you don't want to be smoothed, and turning the "Mean Crease" setting in  the upper right to 1


Where is the character in physics option of blender 2.7? Following these two tutorials, I can't figure out where is the character option in blender 2.7:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxaHT_AFt_w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=187knmhldR4

First, make sure the current render engine is set to Blender Game. If you then switch to the Physics tab you will find the option under Physics Type.


Mesh silhouette as a polygon or pixels surrounded by the silhouette on the rendered image? Here is my target application. The rendered image with rendered meshes is used in an interactive application. A user may click or point the cursor to an object on the image. Information related to that object appears. So I need to know either

1) the coordinates of the polygon of the mesh silhouette on the rendered image

OR

2) pixels on the rendered image surrounded by the silhouette.

I noticed the mesh silhouette is drawn by default in the object mode. But how to find its coordinates from python for the rendered image?

For the 1) my idea was to use bpy_extras.object_utils.world_to_camera_view(..) to find image coordinates of each vertex of the mesh. Then somehow compute the silhouette. For the sake of simplicity, let's neglect transparency and consider that the mesh doesn't have holes. If you can propose a solution for a general case for a mesh with holes (e.g. a torus), that would be great!

Any hint is appreciated

You can use object index to identify to which object does the pixel belongs to, for this you have to :

assign unique object index to each object
enable the object index pass in the render layer

after that you can output this read the corresponding object for each point from this pass

in the following script we assign unique object index for each object and store this index and name in a dictionary :

import bpy

index = 0
obj_index = dict()

for obj in bpy.context.scene.objects :
    if obj.type == 'MESH' :
        index += 1
        obj.pass_index = index
        obj_index[obj.name] = index

print(obj_index)

this part is for extracting the object index pass from the node viewer image :

# division by 4 since we have RGBA
# object index is contained in any of R, G, B values
l = len(bpy.data.images['Viewer Node'].pixels)//4
table = [0 for x in range(l)]
pixels = bpy.data.images['Viewer Node'].pixels
for i in range(l):
    table[i] = int(pixels[i*4])

print(table[:])

to make this work you have to setup the composition nodes as this :


Blender rendering at 2x speed I hard cut a video into two segments and deleted the middle. Then I put in a fade to black and rendered out the video. Playing back the rendered file is fine up until the fade to black. After which it doubles the speed of the remainder of the video and has a bunch of black frames appended to the end.

I have not added any speed modifiers and have even tried re-doing the edit with both soft and hard cuts. Scrubbing through the video in the editor does not have this same problem. Everything works fine in the preview just not in the output.

One way is to change the render settings to be 2x your source - so if your source is 30fps change the render to 60fps.  This will read all the frames but display at 2x the rate.


Scripting - Proportional edit mesh I want to move a polygone using its 4 vertices. I get the MeshProxy of that vertex then I change its XYZ positions. The problem is that it separates the whole polygone from the object. I want to obtain a smooth deformation (proportional edit as in edit mode). How can I do that in BGE?

Smooth Shading.

A look at the docs bge.types.KX_MeshProxy reveals that

  Vertices will be split by face if necessary. Vertices can only be
  shared between faces if:

  They are at the same position
  UV coordinates are the same
  Their normals are the same (both polygons are “Set Smooth”)
  They are the same color, for example: a cube has 24 vertices: 6 faces with 4 vertices per face

Smooth shading will stop the face separating from the mesh. Un-comment the lines marked with #SS in script below to test.

Pseudo linear falloff on a sphere.

Test script, on sensor event selects a random face, calculates the face center, finds all verts within a distance of that face center (arbitrary hardcoded 0.4) and moves them away using the face center vector.  (Using a sphere to test where the origin is centroid, so any local point on surface is also a radial vector (normal))

A vert at the center of the face can be moved the maximum (1.1) units away falling off linearly to zero for verts on or outside 0.4 from calculated center of face.

from mathutils import Vector
from random import randint

def deform(cont):
    ob = cont.owner

    if not cont.sensors["Mouse"].positive:
        return None

    mesh = ob.meshes[0]
    poly = mesh.getPolygon(randint(0, mesh.numPolygons - 1))
    material_index = poly.getMaterialIndex()
    # find center of poly
    cent = Vector()
    n = poly.getNumVertex()
    for i in range(n):
        v = mesh.getVertex(material_index, getattr(poly, "v%d" % (i + 1)))
        cent += v.XYZ
        v.color = [1.0, 1.0, 0.0, 1.0] # juicy yellow head.
        #v.XYZ *= 1.1 #SS
    cent /= n
    #return # SS
    # get all the verts within 0.4 radius of cent
    for v_index in range(mesh.getVertexArrayLength(material_index)):
         v = mesh.getVertex(material_index, v_index)
         d = (v.XYZ - cent)
         if d.length <= 0.4:
             v.XYZ += 1.1 / 0.4 * (0.4 - d.length) * cent.normalized()


Material names missing I finished joining meshes together. Before I closed Blender, I know the material names were appearing. Then I closed Blender and re-opened it. All of the material names are blank. It also appears Blender won't let me name the materials which are blank.

Switching back and forth between Cycles Render and Blender Render yields the same results.
Using Blender 2.77a

This was a known bug in 2.77a. https://developer.blender.org/T49228

I now installed Blender 2.78a and the issue is resolved by using the new version of Blender. The material is now saved and loaded correctly.


When I add a cylinder, it doesn't even show up on my screen at all I'm modeling a car, the car has circular headlights. okay! ill add a cylinder to make them and just make it very thin, the issue is, whenever I add a cylinder, it doesn't even show up on my screen at all. what am I doing wrong?

The mesh will be added in the position of the 3D cursor. You need to place the 3D cursor where you want the cylinder to appear.
In the meantime you have got the mesh somewhere - it showed up in the Outliner when you pressed Add cylinder.  You can find the object while it's still selected by pressing Numpad . (dot). The viewport camera will zoom in to the selected object. Or, if it's not selected, select it in the Outliner.


Unusual Shapes on Baked Normal Map So, I am basically trying to bake a normal map from my high poly mesh to low poly retopologized mesh. But I got some unusual shapes on my normal map. Some areas just work fine.

High Poly render sample here: . Low Poly render sample here: . Sample from normal map here: .

Check your ray distance in the Selective to Active window of Cycles Bake. When in doubt, set it to 1 meter and it will capture all the data it needs. Good luck by the way!


Is there a way to separate an object and keep the same "look" I want to make a separate object from one of the panels, it is an imported OBJ (I'm guessing this is the problem) but when i do this using P > selection the smoothness/roundness has been removed. I would like to know if there's a way to make the panel a separate object but keep it the way it is.

I think that you need this addon

  https://github.com/fedackb/yavne


2.78 - switching between current shading mode and rendered one not work Switching between current shading mode and rendered one in new blender 2,78 not work for me after I imported my custom keyconfiguration. After resetting to factory settings it works. Can I manually turn this feature somewhere or it is bug?

There have been some recent changes in the default keymap for 2.78, Shift + Z now toggles between the current mode and Rendered mode, as opposed to before where it toggled always between SOLID and Rendered according to the release notes in the wiki.

Unfortunately Blender key map editor is not that good with merging changes between custom keymaps and changes to the official one.

My advice advice to you is to check out the new default keymap and manually copy the relevant operators like view3d.toggle_render and their corresponding key maps from there and paste it into your own custom key map with whatever new key binding you want, making sure you delete the old ones and eliminate any conflicts.


Mirror modifier not copying faces - just vertices and edges? Please could I request some help with mirror modifiers - I applied one to a model I am working on - but have just noticed it is only being applied to the vertices and edges I create rather than faces as well.

Can anyone explain what might be happening please?

To preview the mirrored geometry, click on the right button in the header of the mirror modifier: Adjust edit cage to modifier.


2.8 Having trouble with Boolean Modifier I am trying to follow Andrew Price's Anvil tutorial using Blender 2.8 and the 'Difference' modifier just isn't working for me.  I don't have the 'Maximum Draw Type' that I can change from solid to wireframe (mentioned at 5:07 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxMwa0njGSM) See Screenshot.

I started a new Blender project and I was able to start a new project and 'cut' a cube with the difference modifier just fine, AFTER I applied the modifier.  But I was unable to use the same technique to continue cutting the anvil back in my anvil project.

Can you see any reason why my difference is not working and/or suggest what I should do to make it work?  I've spent more time than I want stuck on what seems like should be an easy problem, ah Blender ;-)

New picture added as requested, front, top and two rotated views

For me I had to follow all the reasons why Boolean fail on this page, Boolean Modifier not working
but I honestly couldn't tell you which one of these solutions worked.

I really think that my issue was that I hadn't selected the anvil in the Object mode and then taking the Boolean picker and highlighting the non-selected cylinder which successfully intersected the anvil in the difference operation mode.


Undo grease pencil stroke in sculpt mode How do I undo a grease pencil stroke caused by

D+LMB drag

in sculpt mode?

It seems like

Ctrl+Z (undo)

and

Ctrl+Shift+Z (redo)

will only affect the sculpting.

Yes, on Blender 2.79 Grease pencil "DRAW" is more like an annotation. (Obviously you can extend it to some animation functions). But yes, If you´re on the UV editor for example, and then D+Mouse drag, when you finish, you will not be able to "undo" the action. Just END the drawing, because you´re in a supra-mode.
Supra-modes are direct override over the system in which -once you start a session with the tool- you can´t "undo" or "change tools" until you end it.

Other tools that work in the supra-mode are "C"ircle select. Once you enter into a circle select session you cannot undo. If you CTRL+Z, session ends. But you don´t undo. Then you CTRL+Z again, and Blender will take you back to the START of the "C" supra mode session select.

I work on 2.79.7B (Daily verision) and NOW you can DRAW (D) and then CTRL+Z.
Check the version you have.

Thank you if you vote me up for answer.

BFCT_Schiller


What do people buy 3D models for? I am just wondering why people or companies purchase 3D models in the first place despite their cost.

I have been planning on making 3D models for sale and I have browsed through websites selling them like TurboSquid or CGTrader, but I start to think about how people use 3D they purchased. I mean, the collection of 3D models on these websites are huge and there are hundreds and thousands of amazing artworks, but I just can't figure out why companies buy them.

For instance, some models are shops like a Starbuck outlet, a skyscraper or industrial buildings. Why people buy them? Are they for rendering? (but what's the purpose of rendering a single building) Are they for product demonstration? (but then it is almost impossible to find the exact building that matches the companies' requirements) Are they for animating? (but a scene usually composed of quite a number of buildings and buying lots of them would be really costly)

This situation confuse me even more when I am looking at expensive, high-end, realistic models. They look stunning but why on earth will someone buy a single high quality 3D model for? (Like a futuristic lazer gun)

I hope someone can answer it specifically on the reasons to purchase 3D models, I have watched some videos regarding this issue but they just give explanations that I just cannot understand (like buying a single cat model for animating :O ) Any help is appreciated.

The main reason is because it's cheaper to buy the final model than it is to pay an artist to create the model. Since the model can be sold any number of times as well, the original creator benefits despite selling it for less than it cost them to make. I've used models that cost over \$200, but would otherwise take well over a week to create, and that's assuming I could find all the references needed to create the model.

As to the types of models and their uses, that depends on the situation entirely. I would imagine a lot of the models like buildings are used as backgrounds for ads or commercials, or as background models for animations. Depending on the situation as well, the models could be used as the focus of the animation, but as you mentioned that is pretty rare as finding exactly what you need can be tough.

I can (try to) lay out a hypothetical situation to make things more clear. Say a company wants a 30 second ad created involving a flyover of a city and the camera then drops to a parking lot where something happens. Assuming none of this can be filmed in the real world, there's a lot that needs to be created. Let's say that it would take a single artist 2 weeks to create the entire shot from scratch. If the artist gets paid \$200 a day (probably on the low side) and works 6 day weeks, you have a total cost of \$2,400. That's not including any textures or references that may need to be bought. Now lets say there is a 3d city scene available for \$500, plus a parking lot scene for \$200, And a fleet of cars for the lot for \$400. Some background images could be used to speed things up, adding \$50, and some sky HDRi's for \$100. We're now sitting at \$1,250, but there's probably a couple days work for the artist to add it all together and create the final elements or modify the bought ones. Say that adds another \$400. We can round the total cost to be \$1,500, or \$900 less than paying the artist to do everything. This isn't entirely accurate of course, as it's just some random numbers and times, but the point is that despite the costs of the models, which can seem high, time is money, so it's a matter of what is the cheapest.


How to create branches/trunks in cycles blender I would like some help with a problem I have been having with cycles blender! I am using Blender 2.79.

I am creating a realistic tree model using this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGFGuL8bfdI&list=LLQivTFjh5_BJGNWA99UmUig&index=1&t=1189s

This is an older version of blender so I obviously take what he says with a grain of salt and use it as a base. I got to 19:20, and I ran into a problem. He started editing the trunk of the tree but it wouldn't select in my version of blender. I have been experimenting for a few days now and I haven't found a solution yet. I opened up the picture in rendered view and all I saw were the leaves I created and no branches or trunk.

I would appreciate any help in the matter! Thanks!

-Jinx

Mr. Zak was correct. The curve on the trunk did have to be beveled and after fiddling with the settings for a bit I was finally able to figure it out. I had a weird setting on that wouldn't allow me to select the trunk but after some time I was able to turn it off and do as was instructed in the video. Mr. Leo was also correct in that I had in settings the visibility turned off as well.


how do i import a texture/uv map for my model? I make morph targets for PoserPro, and  for a while one of the heads I was sculpting was allowing me to turn it on 'texture shaded' and let me see skin texture instead of just a white figure. But now when I do it, it just turns blue. I don't know why. Is it because the figure is now using a PSD file for textures?

So can someone tell me how I can get this working again? Is it because of the PSD file? I have it saved as a PSD in case I need to edit it again.

Forgive me if I'm not using the right terminology but I'm not great at the names of things used in 3D models

I'd just export the texture as a normal image format from Photoshop. Therefore the original .psd file can still be changed.
You should be able to keep the Texture coordinate - as long as you don't drastically change your texture, new exports will still fit onto your model


Strange lines on the mesh Somehow these strange lines have appeared on my mesh. Also, when I try to assign a material to a part of the mesh, everything gets distorted. How do I fix this?
The distorted mesh:

I've tried to clear parenting, but that didn't seem to work.

I've managed to fix those artifacts. Here's something what might help:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T3QdLJOBF8


How can I achieve a "painted" effect in my scene in blender? I would like to model some rooms and offices and achieve this sort of look when in done:

Im fine with modelling, but how can i go by in getting it to look like the style on these images? Is there a way to add a painted effect in blender to objects or even to the whole render? Or should I consider getting this look in post production in another program by applying effects?

The filters in Photoshop are your best bet. Gimp or Krita which are both free might also have such effects, but looking at the Blender compositon nodes i couldn't find any solutions. One thing that can be done in Blender are the lines using Freestyle. This will have the edges of all models show up and there are many advanced features regarding to this.


Can you extend an edge to make a loopcut? I would like to take these beveled edges and wrap them around the mesh as loopcuts (to remedy the large ngon created by bevelling).

Seeing that anytime you bevel something it creates a large ngon, there must be a way to do this to fix the topology. Otherwise, I can’t add any modifiers to smooth the edges (Bevel/Subsurf) because it looks awful.

John

I'm not completely sure about your question, but maybe here is a way to fix your topology, does it give the results you want? By the way you don't so many edges to create a round corner.


How would you animate a particle system to start dispersed, converge to fill a mesh, then explode? Right now I am faking it by filling a mesh's volume with particles and dissolving it twice with different turbulence setting, then flipping the animation of one to join the two clips together. It's a huge hassle and it would be great if I could do it all in a single pass, I just don’t know if it's possible or how.

That is a job for keyed particles, you will most likely want to watch some tutorial videos explaining this in more detail.

Start by creating multiple particle systems, one for the starting position with the particles dispersed, a second one filling the shape that you want, then a third exploding them outwards. Then you setup another with physics set to keyed, in the keys list you add an entry for each system you have setup previously in the order you want them run.

When played the particles will move from position to position of each particle system.

Here is a quick example file that may help.


How can I use Cylinder Mapping on a complicated object? I have an object which is made up of cylinders, but all at different angles. I thought I could just do a cylinder map on each different section and set the angle of the cylinder map (Like in Maya), but it doesn't seem to have that option. I can choose 'align to object' which works as expected for the vertical cylinder section, but it won't work for the other two sections.

How can I easily map the other sections?

The Cylindrical, Spherical and Cubic texture projections in Blender are oriented by aligning an orthographic view before executing the U unwrap command with one of the options in the window with that view.

You can have other 3D views open to keep an eye on things.

On a roughly cylindrical selection of your model you can:

Look directly across its equator, with its poles up and down.
That's ShiftNumpad 7 with a latitude loop of edges (temporarily created and?) selected
You may have to revive the keyboard shortcut for rolling the viewport
Use options something like these:

Or you can:

Look directly down one of its poles
That's ShiftNumpad 7 with a polar face (temporarily created and?) selected
Don't forget you can H hide parts of your mesh to make these operations easier
And use options something like these:


Why is my video playing limited to a couple seconds when i add it to VSE? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCsPmzrwXG0
AS you can see it is limited to the black line. Im sure theres a way to make it view the WHOLE of your video, but i dont know how and i cant find a tutorial to do it. thanks, Bye

I'd be willing to bet that you need to set the frame range. The length of your video is pretty close to 250 frames, which is the default.

Check out #2.

The length of the video is also controlled by frame RATE. Make sure this is set to the same frame rate as the original video.

Check out "Frame Rate" set to 24fps below.


Assigned material has jagged edges So basically when I assign a material to selection, because of the faces being grid-like, the material will have a really jagged zig zag edge. How do I get around this?

One way you could work around this is by using the knife tool. this can cut the white squares around into triangles that can be used to make the material flow a little better. you can do this by pressing k and then cutting out the shape. This should make it so you can have a better looking object. If you need any help with any of these steps, just ask.


Message Sensor can't detect/receive message This may sound stupid idk but my message sensor can't seem to read the message sent by one of my actuators? I have a plane which plays its animation when a key is pressed and has an actuator which sends a message to my human with the subject "Earthquake". My human has a message sensor with the same subject. It is supposed to match right? Or am I doing it wrong? Replies will be very much appreciated thank you!

In the first screen shoot, I have a Keyboard
sensor, on the object ground plane, send a message to all objects (the empty To field) with a Subject of somthing (with the misspelling).

Drag the images to a new tab to enlarge them.

In the second screen shoot, Now on the object human. There is a message sensor listening for a message with the subject somthing. When it receives a message (from any object) with the subject somthing the connected action actuator plays the animation.


Bottom "toolbar" is not there; cannot make new material because of it, I'm quite new to Blender and I want to make a new material using the Texture Node Editor. However, upon opening the Editor, everything is greyed out. Everything. I've tried looking online and a lot say that the toolbar across the bottom of the screen would have "New" or something similar, but my toolbar is completely gone. It looks like this, but Add > Input has everything greyed out. I'm not sure what to do and I would really appreciate help!

You need to go in the shader editor to create a new material, not in the the texture node editor.

However, if you want to edit a texture, you need first to add one in the texture properties. This will enable the check-button "Use nodes" in the texture node editor.
These textures are not a material, but can be used when sculpting or painting your material. They can also be used by certain modifiers.

You need to set the texture type to "brush" and check "use nodes" :


Floating UI window in 3D view One can show the modifier stack inside the tool shelve.
But would it be possible to show this inside a floating window?

F6 opens a window with options of the last command but the window always
goes away.

For a floating panel that stays in place you might want to read this question.

For something closer to the operator properties panel you could define a custom draw method to send to custom popup menu.

def draw_popup(self, context):
    col = self.layout.column()
    row = col.row()
    row.label("Hello World")
    row = col.row()
    row.prop(context.scene.render, 'resolution_x')

class ShowPopupOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "object.show_popup"
    bl_label = "sample show popup"

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        context.window_manager.popup_menu(draw_popup, title='Test this', icon='INFO')
        return {'FINISHED'}

To show the operator properties as shown in your question you can use the invoke_props_popup. To customise the display you give your operator a draw method.

class ShowPopupOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "object.show_popup"
    bl_label = "sample show popup"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER','UNDO'}

    prop1 = bpy.props.IntProperty()
    prop2 = bpy.props.FloatProperty()

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        return context.window_manager.invoke_props_popup(self, event)

    def execute(self, context):
        # do stuff here
        return {'FINISHED'}

    def draw(self, context):
        col = self.layout.column()
        row = col.row()
        row.label("Hello this the operator drawing")
        row = col.row()
        row.prop(self, 'prop1')
        row = col.row()
        row.prop(self, 'prop2')


Is there a simple way to cut a face or add an edge to an existing face? Subdivide takes a single face and divides it into quads. I only want to add a single edge to the face off to the side.

Most of the answers I found on the internet recommend using the Knife tool but the knife tool does not cut a single face the way you would think. In fact I have no idea what logic the knife tool uses but it's not at all intuitive: (below gif).

I'm trying to add a single box to the bottom of this desk object to extrude into a drawer box, but I cannot get a face to work with on the bottom of the desk.

Select the 2 edges and use the subdivide tool. you will have a new edge so you can then bevel it to have more of them and do whatever you want.


What is the way to move a material above another? When I create a new material it is listed last and I don't know how to move it.
I'm trying to render a material together with a "Wire" material and I think that the way that works is when the "Wire" material is on top of other materials and then assign the other materials. In that way on the render the other materials will be on the object together with the "Wire" material Here is an example from blendswap -

http://www.pasteall.org/blend/31068

http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/67420 (read the description)
What is the way to move a material above another?

Delete the top material slot, then add a new slot and select the material from the deleted slot.

In your case, you'll then want to assign the surface material (bottom slot) with everything selected in edit mode.


Does Cycles work with wave optics? You know how raytracers pretty much just trace geometrical rays? I was wondering if Cycles has any wave optic features, where it would act as an actual electro-magnetic wave. Some really useful features would be diffraction, Interference, and polarization. Is there a method to getting/tricking Cycles into working this way?

I don't believe Cycles simulates light as waves. But Dispersion (Diffraction) effects are on the way, and can already be 'faked' in many ways.

If you are interested in optics experiment with cycles, take a look at the pinhole camera and
shaped bokeh.


Change World Background in Time Very new to blender.

Can I change the world (background) and their different textures within one project?

I can create multiple worlds, but only use one of them in one project, there is no keyframing to this. Also, if I add multiple textures, they just get layered on top of each other rather than one texture being applied to one world.

To put it simple: I want to have a green blackground with cloud texture from frame 1 to 50 and then change into a blue blackground with noise texture from frame 50 to 100 and so on. This should be possible, right?

Hope I made myself clear.

Animate the World's material

You could create several world shaders and then mix them with a Mix Shader right before the output node. Mix Shader has an field named Factor that allow control of the percentage of each one coming out from the node and that can be animate.


Blender armature control in real time? I'm new to blender and python I need to control armature in blender game engine via a serial data comes from arduino. I'm useing this code but it does not work.

import GameLogic

arm = GameLogic.getCurrentController().owner

print(arm.channels['Upperleg.L'].rotation_euler)

arm.channels['Upperleg.L'].rotation_euler = [5, 5, 5]
arm.update()

print(arm.channels['Upperleg.L'].rotation_euler)

I'm using blender 2.71 and used a always sensor with the python controller(script). I Can't find whats wrong in this code. Does any one know how to change the euler angles of the armature in blender game engine mode?

You need to invoke your script from an actuator otherwise the scene will not be updated see image at the bottom of this post.
I searched my old sources and found this very messy one that still works in BGE (today tested with Blender (2.68.5):

import sys
import time

import os
import random
import select

from math import *
import mathutils

import bge
import bpy
import math
from mathutils import Vector
from mathutils import Quaternion

def applyKinect(rot,name):
    scene = bge.logic.getCurrentScene()
    source = scene.objects
    main_arm = source.get('Armature')
    #q = Quaternion((rot.w,-rot.x,-rot.z,rot.y))
    q = Quaternion((rot.w,rot.x,rot.y,rot.z))
    main_arm.channels[ name ].rotation_quaternion = q.normalized()
    main_arm.update()
    v = rot.to_euler("XYZ")
    if name.startswith('head'):
        print("%s X:%r Y:%r Z:%r" % (name,math.degrees(v.x),math.degrees(v.y),math.degrees(v.z)))

def map():
    #print("map")
    for i in range(1, 11):
        user = bpy.nui.get_user(i)
        if not user:
            continue
        #print("Map Kinect Found User=" + str(i))
#        rot = user.hip_center[1]
#        applyKinect( rot, 'hip_center' )
#        print("hip_center %r" % rot )
        #rot = user.neck[2]
        #applyKinect( rot, 'neck' )
        rot = user.head[2]
        arm = applyKinect( rot, 'head' )
        rot = user.r_shoulder[2]
        applyKinect( rot, 'shoulder_R' )
        rot = user.r_elbow[2]
        applyKinect( rot, 'elbow_R' )
        rot = user.r_wrist[2]
        applyKinect( rot, 'wrist_R' )
        rot = user.r_hand[2]
        applyKinect( rot, 'hand_R' )

        rot = user.l_shoulder[1]
        applyKinect( rot, 'shoulder_L' )
        rot = user.l_elbow[1]
        applyKinect( rot, 'elbow_L' )
        rot = user.l_wrist[1]
        applyKinect( rot, 'wrist_L' )
        rot = user.l_hand[1]
        applyKinect( rot, 'hand_L' )

def dump(ctx, obj, level=0):
    for attr in dir(obj):
       print( "%s.%s = %s" % (ctx, attr, getattr(obj, attr)))

map()
#test()

I used quaternions (note that you can convert your euler angles to a quaternion using the methods from mathutils).

The data is provided by an addon (and polled by bpy.nui.get_user(i)), the script is executed with a logic block like this:


Tracking recent rigify changes? Apparently they decided to change all the pole toggle functions.
They seem to work / require a different signature then previous version - this has broken many plugins - (Why on earth would you ever change the order of a function signature on something that you need to be backwards compatible?)

Is there any way to track down these source changes to identify the new function signature requirements?
Basically, any test I throw into the console shoots out a JSONDecodeError because of one of the values either being empty.

No, the function described within Autocomplete is either Not complete, or inaccurate and produces errors.
Also note that it is Instanced on a per-rig basis through the rig_ui.py
However it doesn't appear (at a cursory overlook) to contain the specific function itself.

So, I ended up modifying limb_rigs.py @ line 1014 with the following prints

print("Dir Result", dir(self.properties))
print("ctrl_bones",self.properties.ctrl_bones)
print("extra_ctrls",self.properties.extra_ctrls)
print("fk_bones",self.properties.fk_bones)
print("ik_bones",self.properties.ik_bones)
print("pole_prop",self.properties.pole_prop)
print("prop_bone",self.properties.prop_bone)
print("use_pole",self.properties.use_pole)

this outputs the results of a signature enough to pinpoint any new bones and variables that need passing.

It seems to me that the current implementation of the function suffers from a bug when variables are left empty as they should be.

fk_bones is always empty. but a value is required for calling the function because of it's type.
As a result you need a call of this sort

bpy.ops.pose.rigify_limb_toggle_pole_wlnrc42c2a6335e5(
prop_bone="upper_arm_parent.L",
pole_prop="pole_vector",
fk_bones='[""]',
ik_bones='["upper_arm_ik.L", "MCH-forearm_ik.L", "MCH-upper_arm_ik_target.L"]',
ctrl_bones='["upper_arm_ik.L", "hand_ik.L", "upper_arm_ik_target.L"]',
extra_ctrls='[""]',
use_pole=True)

Glad I sorted it.
Still if someone from the Rigify team eventually spots this I'd like you to consider NOT changing function signatures without documenting and publishing your changes...


I finished a blender project, how do I export it with all the features? My project is not complicated, it's a group of spheres and they simply move around. Some have emitter particles, some hair particles, some got wind force fields, there are armateurs involved with follow path modifiers and some parts have lights attached inside.

My question is, how do I export it (as a single file or many files that can later be put together) so that I can use the whole thing in another program?

.obj file doesn't work, it just moves it as an object, no animation.
.FBX doesn't work either, it moves the animation + textures and materials but NOT the particles, attached lights or the wind forces.

I've tried using the convert modifier to make the particles into mesh but that only works for hair and doesn't render when I test the .FBX

Anyone can give me a simple solution or list of pathways to do this? (Not super familiar with blender) Thank you

You should first ask for which software you are exporting. It can be very different if you target 3d printing, VR or an animation short.

Maybe your colleagues are using 3DS Max (there is a .3ds export) or Unity3D (you can use Blender files). However some features like particles for example might not be supported. You should be able to find workarounds (convert the particles to mesh: see here or create particles in the targeted software, Unity3D has a lot of options for example).


Is there a build of Blender that only has the video editor enabled? Seeing as the video editor has become as powerful as it is, it would be great to use it as a stand alone video editor.

Does such a build exist?

In Short, No.
You can make blender builds without many features (collada, game-engine, freestyle, smoke etc). But you can't make a video only version of Blender.


Anyone have any idea why this PBR texture is having weird shading and lighting effects on my plane? I put the normal map image through a normal map node, and it seemed to have these weird issues:
https://gyazo.com/84ab56b0c88554d72c98e1aa37a3de49
When I just took the image and put it straight into the normal input, it didn't have this problem at all.
My node setup looks like this:
https://gyazo.com/37dd2f17f6f4c91e3a015c21e2f97ffd
I tried looking around to see if anyone else has had this problem, but I couldln't find anything except one person who had an issue, but theirs was different in that they UV unwrapped their mesh, while the thing that I'm applying the texture to is just a plane: 4 vertices, not subdivided at all.
Update: I ditched the normal map and instead used a displacement map with a displacement node, but it works, but I'd still like to know what the problem was and how to fix it in the future

You must set the Color Space for your Normal Map image texture to Non-Color. You will want to do this for your roughness map as well. Only Basecolor, Subsurface Color, Emission, and Ambient Occlusion use a "colored" Color-Space such as sRGB or Linear, all the rest (Roughness, Metallic, Height(Displacement), Normal Map, etc..) use Non-Color space.


Click-back-to-window crashing problem I'm using Blender 2.79b to make some Blender remakes, and I've started having this problem where every time I click off the window, and then click back on it again, it always closes on me with no given reason whatsoever.

I've checked the Task Manager, including some stuff on the File Explorer, and got NOTHING!!!

Does anybody happen to know what's causing this problem or how to solve it? It would really help me if you do.

P.S. I will point this out right now. Blender will only stay open if I never close off of it.

Don't worry guys. I figured out the reason behind the problem and fixed it.

The story behind it:

One day, I went looking for new art software (because I've been using Inkscape a lot; i still do, honestly), and I came across Medibang. When I installed it, it didn't look all that interesting to me, so I uninstalled it immediately. In the middle of that, though, came a message that said whether or not I wanted to get rid of "MdpThumb64.dll", and if I chose "No", it would cause no harm. So I clicked "No" on that message and went on with my day.

After that, every other time I went to get on the computer, it would always take a while to load up everything , and I was thinking that the .dll file was the problem, so I deleted it and then felt instant regret doing that. I then went to a DLL-downloading website, and downloaded the .dll from there. I never should've trusted them, because that's when the chaos finally ensued.

I went to Blender, clicked off and on the window again, and it closed itself (which was the main problem here). I could only assume the fake .dll file was behind all this, so I did a System Restore (in which the restore point was all the way back in January of 2019), tried the click-on-and-off thing again, and nothing happened. It never closed on itself after that, therefore I finally solved the problem.

I guess it turns out that there was no "MdpThumb" DLL file on Windows to begin with. (hehe)


Ctrl + B not working with vertex I'm new to Blender and I ran into this problem, when I press the combination of keys "Ctrl + B", instead of the appearance of corner smoothing points, nothing happens. I cannot understand why, and when I smooth the corners in a cube, everything works great.Screenshot of the bevel setting is attached below.Thanks in advance.

Blender makes a distinction between CtrlB, Bevel Edges, and CtrlShiftB, Bevel Vertices.
So, use the other shortcut, or, having reached the Adjust Last Operation panel visible in your illustration, switch at the top from 'Edges' to 'Vertices'.
(In other panels, or the Bevel modifier, it might be a small checkbox - 'Only Vertices')
I didn't realize.. as @moonboots has pointed out - there is a hitch in some Blender 2.90.x's meaning the shortcut doesn't work: you have to go to the panel, and switch it there.


Linking lights to single parameter in Cycles I would like to be able to link lights to a single master control. Say I have 4 down lights in a room, I wish to set one as the master light and when I adjust its intensity, the other 3 lights adjust to the same intensity automatically. I'm coming over from Poser, and this is a basic function in that software. For a room with lots of downlights (like halls) this makes adjusting lighting much easier and faster.
I do have a workaround of sorts for Blender, just would like to know if there's a way to actually gain control of light intensity for groups of lights.

OK, so my options now are:
1) place the lights on a separate layer and set their intensities then use the filmic response options to determine 'exposure'. As long as the lights are accurately calibrated to all lights in the scene, this will work.
2) master parameter drivers as Jerryno indicated above. Probably the most technically correct option.
3) Set a master light first, apply any textures, then use alt D to make copies. These take their data from the original light. I just tested it and it works just fine. Make sure to name the light before making copies if using multiple lighting sets.


Invoke a .py script with a button on the tools panel I have this script - rather lengthy - that creates simple skin, eyes and mouth shaders for figures imported into Blender from Poser. I wish to create a panel/addon (something!) that does the following things:

set the path to the image files used in the shaders
define via dropdown the core figure type
pass this data on to the script, and save this info somewhere
have a button on the panel actually invoke running the script

I have looked at example scripts (the templates) but they all involve in-built operators that do things directly to mesh. Given this appears to be the predominant use of panel tools, I'm wondering if I should use a panel for this purpose or if another mechanism would be more appropriate.

Here is what I have so far... the panel code:

import bpy

class MatShaderInfoPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Create shaders for your Poser figure: Panel"""
    bl_label = "Figure Files Info"
    bl_idname = "MATERIALS_PT_shaders"
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'TOOLS'
    bl_category = "Skin Shaders"

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

    obj = context.object

    row = layout.row()
    row.label(text='Figure Name')

    row = layout.row()
    row.label(text="Active object is: " + obj.name)
    row = layout.row()
    row.prop(obj, "name")

    row = layout.row()
    row.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text='Find Images', icon='FILESEL')
    row = layout.row()
    row.operator("object.runScript", text = 'Apply Shaders')
def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(MatShaderInfoPanel)

...and the custom operator (as kindly suggested by m.ardito in the link provided below):

import bpy

def main(context):
    filename = 'Shaders034.py'
    exec(compile(open(filename).read(), filename, 'exec'))

class runScript(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    # was bl_idname = "object.run_script" - is now:
    bl_idname = "object.runScript"
    bl_label = "Invokes a Script"

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

    def execute(self, context):
        main(context)
        return {'FINISHED'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(runScript)
def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(runScript)
if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

When I try to run the panel code, I get a slew of the following error messages:

  rna_uiItemO: operator missing srna 'object.runScript'
  /home/robyn/Documents/Blender/Projects/AllScripts/Shader_blend/skinShader034.blend/MatShader_panel.py:28

...and this bit:

row = layout.row()
row.operator("object.runScript", text = 'Apply Shaders')

...doesn't end up displaying anything on the panel. I'm clearly missing a step.

The following works for me:

import bpy

class MatShaderInfoPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Create shaders for your Poser figure: Panel"""
    bl_label = "Figure Files Info"
    bl_idname = "MATERIALS_PT_shaders"
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'TOOLS'
    bl_category = "Skin Shaders"

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

        obj = context.object

        row = layout.row()
        row.label(text='Figure Name')

        row = layout.row()
        row.label(text="Active object is: " + obj.name)
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(obj, "name")

        row = layout.row()
        row.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text='Find Images', icon='FILESEL')
        row = layout.row()
        row.operator("object.run_script", text = 'Apply Shaders')

class runScript(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    # was bl_idname = "object.run_script" - is now:
    bl_idname = "object.run_script"
    bl_label = "Invokes a Script"

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

    def execute(self, context):
        print('Yay!')

        return {'FINISHED'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


Weight painting - Suddenly unable to remove paint Suddenly unable to remove paint with 0 weight in Add mode or 1 weight in Subtract, same issue in Mix. It paints in all configurations of blend, weight, radius and strength. Gone through all the other stuff I can think of like lock modes, mirrors, shading, overlays. Vertex groups aren't locked. Tried reparenting and restarting Blender. I must have clicked something I shouldn't somewhere, because it's been fine all day.

So I'd emptied my vertex groups after making a mess of painting and had Auto Normalize selected in Tool Options when I started over. This seems to have prevented me from removing paint. I'm guessing all groups have to contain some weight before Auto Normalize can be employed?