Why is my model unwrapping wrong? I made a model of a Sega Mega Drive case, and I want to unwrap the faces to texture it with the label. But the wrap gets distorted. Of course, I can tweak it and make it right but, I still wonder why its not getting unwrapped in a straight line? If I mark seams, it gets divided into 3 parts. I want it to be in 1 part.

the blender file

Marking seams is the right way to do it. It got split into three pieces because you marked TOO MANY seams. Think of the model as a paper box that you have to unfold flat. ONLY mark the seams where you'd have to make cuts in order to lay the box flat. Don't mark seams all the way around.

Even still, it might not unwrap straight. You may still have to tweak it a little, but that's why nobody likes UVs ;-) Your most useful tool in this case will be scale.
Select a horizontal line of UVs, then type S > Y > 0. That will scale them flat along the Y-axis, making them perfectly horizontal. Then you you can move them up or down. It's tedious, but that's the way it's done.


Inset while keeping part of the shape intact I would like to know if it is possible to use the inset function while keeping part of the shape intact.

Circled is the part I don't want insetted, and I tried to show a global idea of what's the result I want to get with this. This knife/sword edge is one use case I can think of, but that would also be useful when insetting at the border of a mirrored object, to inset the global shape instead of just the half you're modifying.

One simple way is to temporarily extrude the shape and inset part of extrusion which will create edges on the boundary. So instead of a plane:

You use the same form but extruded (or just extrude one edge where you need edges to touch the boundary)

Then select top faces plus one on the side and run Inset:

Dissolve unnecessary edges on the side as required (or delete bottom vertices to get rid of extrusion), note that dissolving might create Ngons which are better to avoid.


Create window - problem with geometry - bevel and vertices? I want to create a metro and I want to make windows. I created a cube and used bevel, next I used the Boolean option on my metro and cube. This looks like this:

But now I have a problem with geometry, exactly with vertices. How I can fix this? Create a lot of edges? There must be a simpler method.

The reason for this is simple—you're using a mesh. Meshes can't use curved lines; all Blender can do is approximate them with a bunch of straight segments.

If you really need it to be truly curved, you can try using Curves instead. Unfortunately, I don't think it's possible to use a curve with the Boolean modifier, however, so getting it to cut out a window would be quite difficult. I'd use a CAD editor (here's a list) if you need that.

If you don't need that, but want to change the number of segments, look in the bottom left corner of the 3D view. There's an options panel where you can tweak whatever action you did last (but if you did something since then, you'll have to undo and re-bevel it). To add more segments, you can also use the Subsurf tool – select the vertices, and hit W and then "Subdivide Smooth".


Beveling on extreme concave/convex Edges Currently I am trying to make a gun model, however when I bevel the edges this unfortunate even occurs.

I have tried using bevel (CTRL+B), Intrude, making edge loops and then Scaling inward all resulting in similar issues. How do I bevel the edge without the faces overlapping each other?

If using Bevel you have 2 general options:

bevel the geometry as it is but just at small amount.

This will add tiny beveled edges on your existing geometry; while using Ctrl+B add just a bit of effect. To ensure that no clamping would happen use Bevel modifier with Clamp Overlap option enabled (or while beveling in Edit mode with Ctrl+B press C to enable the same option).

May be not the best solution because if there are tiny long quads (which are not good thing in general), they will make clamping occur really fast and thus beveled effect would be barely visible (across all the mesh).
dissolve / delete some of the edge loops where they are near to each other.

This means that you get rid of some edge loops of your model (like those in the bottom part of your mesh) for beveling to work as expected. Once it was done you can add those loops back if you really need them or add Subsurf modifier to subdivide that geometry (depending on the case).

One more option is to smoothen edges of the mesh with Subdivision Surface modifier. Basically it's one of the mentioned techniques in the Keep sharp edges when using Subsurf - supporting loopcuts. Add them in the corners and add modifier. Note that this increases amount of geometry quite much so keep that in mind.


How do I maintain the road's texture after applying the curve modifier to make the road a single object? I created a road using a road-textured rectangular plane, bezier curves, an array modifier, and a curve modifier. But when I apply the modifiers to make the road one simple object, the material with the road texture gets applied to the whole road instead of individual faces of the road as it was originally.

Is there a solution to this problem?

You have used object coordinates for the texture placement. You want to use UV, in the texture properties window make sure you are using UV for mapping. Before applying the modifiers go into edit mode and hit U->Reset. If this doesn't map the faces correctly to the texture, open image editor screen along the 3d view and adjust the UVs, most likely you just need to rotate by 90 degrees.


Viewport Shading all grey Does anybody know why my Viewport Shading has gone all grey. I must have pressed something because it was all fine a minute ago..
thanks

I saw your .blend file and found the solution to your problem:
your scene is stuck at initialising that is because you have paused your viewport render you can start viewport render by clicking on the play button on the top right corner of the 3d view. Also your object is too large it might disappear when you zoom out so dont forget to change the clipping from 1000m to a 10000m


Can someone explain PTEX mapping and how to use it in Blender? I started some Googling (found this) and I am confused if I can use this in Blender or not. It looks like it was supposed to be implemented in Blender but the latest info I can find is from 2015. Is this something I can use in Blender? is it program based or render engine based (I noticed a PTEX node in Renderman, but not in Cycles)?

It seems the need for this fizzled out, did something better replace it?

Also does it replace UV unwrapping?

And what exactly is so good about it?

Is it the same as doing this?

You can not use it in Blender with Cycles neither internal, it is not supported yet.  Also you can not show them in viewport in Blender. Renderman supports it as PTEX is Disney product.

A Ptex file is an image file format, it isn't a purely 2d file format, but contains 2d pixel information on a face by face basis for a 3d model. So you can use it to avoid UV mapping. In nutshell it stores texture for every face.

It has some disadvantages though. Some of them are:

Some things are just easier to paint in 2d.
No photoshop support. Photoshop is the most common tool for painting textures in the industry, but it does not allow you to paint on Ptex files.
Changing the geometry of the model (like adding or deleting faces or edges) requires you to bake the Ptex file from the old geometry to your new geometry with possible quality loss. This is a solvable problem, Mudbox for example has the ability to transfer ptex from one model to another. But it is an extra step you have to worry about.
Ptex files are generally associated with their corresponding object by name, so Hand01.ptx is assigned to the 3d object in your scene called Hand01. So if you rename your model, you also need to rename its corresponding Ptex file.
Again, since ptex are associated to their object by object name, if you have 200 objects that need an identical color map, its easier to do that using uvs than to create and maintain 200 identical ptex files that are named for each object.

I think that industry will still keep UV especially with UDIM support before PTEX.


What is the best way to store a list of objects with some linked data? Hey I need to store a list of objects each with a value associated, is storing a list of tuples and splitting it at the end ok? Is there a better way to store multiple values?

#store vars
self.stored_selection = bpy.context.selected_objects
self.stored_bevel_list = []

for obj in self.stored_selection:
    for mod in obj.modifiers:
        if mod.type == "BEVEL":
            if mod.segments > 1:

                #store tuple in list (object and number of segments)
                entry = (obj, mod.segments)
                self.stored_bevel_list.append(entry)
                mod.segments = 1

#<modal operator>

#restore each objects segments
for item in self.stored_bevel_list:
    #break tuple into two variables
    item,number = item
    for mod in item.modifiers:
        mod.segments = number

Custom properties.

Could store the segments in a custom property on the object  with the same name as the modifier.

for obj in self.stored_selection:
    for mod in obj.modifiers:
        if mod.type == "BEVEL" and mod.segments > 1:
            obj[mod.name] = mod.segments
            mod.segments = 1

and restore with

for obj in self.stored_selection:
    for mod in obj.modifiers:
        if mod.type == "BEVEL":
            segments = obj.get(mod.name)
            if segments:
                mod.segments = segments
                #del(obj[mod.name]) # remove prop?

Another method would be to make a list of all the bevel modifiers with the segments value.  Need to proceed with a little caution when saving lists of object, or in this case modifier, references. If you remove an object that has the modifier, then try and reference later from list may produce a system fault and crash blender.

bevel_mods = [m, m.segments for o in context.selected_objects
        for m in o.modifiers
        if m.type == 'BEVEL'
        and m.segments > 1]

for m, segments in bevel_mods:
    # print object name modifier name segments
    print(m.id_data.name, m.name, segments)


A shape with Particle effects changes size after being temporarily masked in the Outliner First I created a circle and applied a Particle System to create pine cone style vegetation.

Then I masked the Circle in the Outliner (using the Eye icon), to allow Blender to go faster, and created a little house with a smokey chimney (smoke made with Metaballs) to place in the scene. I converted the Metaballs to Mesh and applied a decimate to it.

Only, when I clicked on the Circle's Eye icon again in the outliner, the Circle was now huge and had undergone a transformation I didn't expect.

Looks small in material view, huge in rendered view. But it used to look small in rendered view too in the beginning.

The only modifier is the one on the smoke (displace), so I thought that was accidentally applied to the Circle, but I can't see this modifier listed when I select the Circle.

What happened to this Object, and how do I make it look "normal" again in Rendered view?

Your particles are huge.

Try using something like .01 for the root size (this value is in BU, at least when Scaling is set to 1).


Accessing property with different ways gives different results I have a PropertyGroup with let's say a property called prop.

I set prop like this:

propGroup['prop'] = something

and then access it like this:

propGroup.prop

If prop is a StringProperty is gives me the original value, but with an IntProperty or FloatProperty it gives me always 0.

And I tested reading the property with propGroup['prop'], it works so it's not type or affectation problem (I think).

I'm using Blender 2.78.5.

[EDIT]

After some research I understand now that the subscription accessing (propGroup['prop']) is for custom ID properties.

So now my question is: is there a way to access a non custom property (defined with propGroup.prop = IntProperty()) automatically with the name string name of the property?

I have a str which contains 'prop' and I want to access propGroup.prop.

[EDIT 2]

Obviously it's not clear in my mind!

I read again this page: https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc%3A2.6/Manual/Extensions/Python/Properties and I don't understand well the difference between dynamic and non-dynamic custom properties.

So in my case I have a property group where I defined non dynamic custom properties (like this propGroup.prop = IntProperty()) and I want to access it with a string variable.

It works with StringProperty but not with IntProperty or FloatProperty. So I'm confused. Do you know if this behaviour is normal with the blender API?

Ok I solved my problem. I used setattr and it works. Sorry for the non-clearness of all this :-).


Will Blender charge me for exporting videos? Almost every single app I've attempted to use wouldn't let me export my video by email or drive. They don't even let me put it on my desktop. I'm a student and a couple of my classes ask for videos. Will Blender make me pay to share my videos with my teachers?

No, Blender will not charge you.

Blender is an open source 3D development software that provides free access for anyone to do almost anything they want with it.

Even if it was, you will find that many programs will provide free student copies and accessibilities.

Taken from the licence page:

  This license grants people a number of freedoms:

  You are free to use Blender, for any purpose
  You are free to distribute Blender
  You can study how Blender works and change it
  You can distribute changed versions of Blender

The Majority of restrictions are for the source code and software distribution.

As @Duarte Farrajota Ramos said, you should take a look at the licence if you have any queries.

Good luck with your project and I hope I helped,

BFB


Color mapping not displaying in viewport display Good day,
currently making an explosion in blender and i need to enable color mapping in order to display the smoke. But i dont see them in the viewport display setting.

Color Mapping was recently renamed to Grid Display. In your screenshot you'll find it just at the bottom border of your drawn frame.


How to save each individual "object" in an obj file as separate obj files? I've been importing some somewhat complicated obj files for a project. I noticed that these models had different segments that would end with a line starting with 'o' followed by some name for that segment (I'm assuming 'o' stands for 'object'). The format I'm converting these obj models to is incredibly niche. It's a custom model format and afaik only one obj converter exists. All it can do is take the entire obj file as a single model with a single universal texture and convert it to other format which quite literally only contains a list of triangles as raw data.

This has produced an unusual issue for me. I have been forced (by my own insistence to not waste more time coding my own converter) multiple times now to hand-edit these obj models as a result of the model format. I'd have to copy the obj files X times according to however many internal objects there are and then hand delete the face elements corresponding to that object via a text editor.

Preferably it would be nice to just open a model and then click "save as individual pieces" or click save on each object if there is some spot in the editor that they are listed. Does Blender have such a feature? I've only ever used it to convert a few models to the obj format as the other converter didn't support those formats.

I created a quick scene with a few basic Meshes Joined together to form a single Mesh

In Edit mode I selected everything and pressed P to bring up the Separation menu and selected "By loose parts"

Now in Object mode you can see even the over lapping components are separate Meshes.

From the File->Export menu select Wavefront (.obj)

And check "Selection Only"

I did not look into it, but you may be able to use Python to select each Mesh in turn and call the Export module in a loop.


Extruding outwards evenly I would like to know how to extrude with even length in all directions. When I extrude with selected faces I get some lengths higher than the others.

This is especially seen when you subdivide:

After the extrusion you can trim the 3 axis in the toolshelf (T).


UV mapping artifact - Black edge (alpha area) What could the problem be? Thanks!

Planes with transparency on them will always look this way in the viewport.This is because, as a way to be able to render the view port quicker, blender simplifies the transparency: instead of rendering the gradient from solid color to transparent, it renders a gradient going from solid color to grey, and only the fully transparent parts of the image will show the face behind them. This is expected behavior for the viewport.

When you render the scene, it will render the transparency as expected.


Is it important to model a car to be subdivided in all quads or will tris work? Merry Christmas Everyone

I'm having a hard time modeling a car.
My true question is, is it a must that my car model will be made only of quads? I tried this method but it seems like I'm creating unnecessary vertices than I should. I understand that it is crucial for it to be all quads instead of tris if one is aiming for a clean edge flow.

After I model the car I plan on adding a subdivision modifier. So should I use triad on places that it is required or should I use quads to manipulate my way through disregarding the extra vertices it will generate?

I'm so stuck. These page was intended by me to have all the problems I'm experiencing outlined, but I leave the rest to whosoever that can give me a way throughout my issues. [sigh] help please!

When tris get subdivided, they become quads. Use tris in your mesh sparingly.

At regular intervals or when you're finished with modelling, you must check for double points in mesh before unwrapping or rendering. To do that, select entire mesh, press W and remove doubles. Note: Doubles occur when you use mirror modifier. So always remember to remove doubles before ever rendering - otherwise you will have rips in rendered mesh.

Whenever I get stuck on topology, I always go to Pinterest for ideas - TONS of ideas and sources for inspiration. If you haven't got Pinterest, it is time that you start a new account there. Pinterest is where you pin pictures to your boards: those on topology, node compositing, alpha brushes, etc.
In this link, my board is called Mesh Studies and I collect others' topology works. I have those for hands, feet, faces, etc.
https://www.pinterest.ie/ritag2/a-mesh-studies/


How to select random just one object? "Select Random" selected by percent of visible objects, but how to select random just one object from visible?

select > select random > f9

in the box set percent to >   (1/amount of object)*100

it will select 0 or 1 or 2 objects depending to seed
you can see how many got selected in the bottom right bar.


Boole Cut Surface Material I have a Boole, which I don't plan to commit, so that it can be animated.  I'd like the cut surface to be a different color than the object that I'm cutting.  Is there a way to do this, or maybe a plug-in that achieves this result?

I'm using 2.8, btw.

Thanks!

I found this question to be interesting so I did some research on it.

What I found out is that you need to add slots for all materials to the main object. The cutting objects will assign material IDs for its material to the cut out faces.

In the scene below I have created a green cube and a red cube that cuts from the blue cube.

I didn't know this. Neat!


Make another object invisible from Boolean for OBJ ewport I am beginner and I am trying to understand how blender works. My basic idea was to make hole inside object using Boolean Modifier. I put cube, apply boolean, then I put sphere as boolean object. So nothing happens, but when I clicked on EYE icon of sphere I got perfect result. Now I try to export this as .obj (which is my goal) and sphere is visible inside windows 3D object viewer. My goal is to only have cube with hole inside. What am I doing wrong?

You haven't selected Selection only when you export .obj-file.
Select your object. Select File -> Export -> Wavefront (.obj).
Check Selection Only checkbox and press Export OBJ

To fix the topology you need to make sure that there are no overlapping edges.
You can see your object wireframe by checking Wireframe checkbox under Object Properties panel from Viewport Display. You should check this to your object (The Cube).
From same panel change Display As to Bounds for your cutter (The Sphere). This way you can see if there are overlapping edges. Raise or lover the sphere so the edges are as far from each other as possible.

And also .obj export is not very good with quads so you need to make all your faces into triangles. Select your object and in Edit Mode press A to select all. Select Face and Triangulate Faces.


Why is this image not staying in place when using the UV Project modifier? So I am trying to use the UV project modifier to make a uv map stay, even when the mesh is modified. Example:

As you can tell, the map stays. The problem is, its not perfect. Part of the pixel in the first image is outside the vertices.
 I used the modifier and an empty to control it,

 manual rotating, moving, and scaling the empty as needed. When I don't do that, the map looks like this:

When it should look like this:

How can I make the uv map stay like in the first 2 pictures without messing up the UV map?

Here is a setting with 3 empties as projectors on a cube.

Face: pointing to the cube's face. Z of the empty is opposite to the face
Right: pointing to the cube's right par. Z of the empty is going right (opposite again)
Left: same principle

Use "override image" option in the modifier.

Each empty has been moved and scaled to fit the image texture at the wanted location.

edit as unclear. If you don't use override option, just make so the empty are well oriented (minus Z pointing to the wanted face). It supposes that you have placed the UV map correctly before using the modifier.

Related documentation


Outliner issue - expanding manually I appear to have lost the ability to expand Outliner hierarchies manually.

I am able to expand and collapse with +/- but it expands everything visible collapsed and collapsing collapses everything.

I used to be able to click on the +/- bubbles to open/close the specific item I want but this is where my problem lies. I can't. At least not anymore, which is what I need because my projects contain a lot of seperate objects at times and expanding everything is hella messy.

I'm not sure if this is an issue caused by version, a script, or a hotkey/preference I may have selected to cause this inability. Was hoping someone might know so I don't have to reinstall everything to fix the problem.

I also can't select items on outliner with left click either. Which maybe the source of the issue.

You can restore the default key maps if you go to User Preferences(ctrl+alt+u), Input tab and choose Restore for the Outliner:

You may have conflicting settings in other key maps as well. You could also try searching for everything assigned to mouse buttons.

If all fails, you could restore all key maps to default. If that fails, there might be an add-on that is causing the trouble, you would need to disable all enabled add-ons one by one to find the one causing issues.

You could rename or delete(maybe backup first) %appdata%\Blender Foundation\Blender\[your version] (on Windows) folder to restore everything to default, but that would disable all installed add-ons as well as your UI color theme.


How to curve only part of an object? I am making a sword and require some help. Until now I have made swords in blender by making two meshes, one is the blade and handle the other is the guard. Now today I am wondering if I can make the sword one mesh and if its possible to curve part of the mesh, the guard, with out affecting the rest of the mesh.

One way to approach this is with proportional editing:

Press O to enable it (or select Enabled from the drop down in the header)
Select the tip of the guard and press G. Then use the mouse wheel to adjust radius as you translate the tip.


Slow down audio in VSE In my VSE I only have a audio strip, no video strip and I want to slow down the speed of the audio, because  I'm making an animation and want to get the lip-sync correct. Is there anyway to do this without the changing the FPS or anything like that?

The only way to do this in Blender is to change the Audio Strip's pitch value. Its in the Strip's properties panel in the VSE (N key). But it won't change the length of the strip nor will it change the waveform for you to see where the sound has stretched to. I would suggest doing an Audio Mixdown after the pitch change and re-importing it.

But honestly the sound will change to much, why not use Audacity free Audio editing software, it is open and there are portable versions available. It will do speed changes much better than Blender.


Can't use loop cut on some faces I can't describe it with words, so I recorded video.

video

And I can't even cut them separately.

Can anyone help with it?

So as I said you have inner faces, but there are hidden so you need to unhide and delete. You can't create edge loops if the edge separates more than 2 faces, and by the way those inner faces are not good for your topology, it may create artifacts.


How can I properly add a subdivision surface to the side of a model? Eevee Blender 2.82a I am working on a Star Destroyer model. I am at the point where I want to add textures. I want to add a subdivision surface modifier to the side of the ship only. I went into edit mode, selected the side (it has a mirror modifier), unwrapped it, added a texture and compiled some nodes together. I added the subdivision modifier. Firstly, this modifier is affecting the entire ship and not only the selected side. Secondly, I am not seeing the modifier's effect on the sides. I am including an image of my result and one of what I want to achieve. I tried with the discombobulator instead but it isn't working so I am assuming that my side isn't made up of quads. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

you could try going into edit mode, selecting the side of the ship, and in the right-click menu select subdivide


Keeping the Camera out of meshes in the BGE Is there any simple way to have a camera act as a slow parent to an object yet still not go through meshes?

In many 3rd person 3D games, the camera will sometimes zoom into the player to avoid clipping through meshes.

Is there any simple way to have a camera act as a slow parent to an object yet still not go through meshes?

But the answer is ... there is no build-in solution. This is because any solution would be a specific solution to your game. So you need to develop your own feature.

Btw. slow parent does not matter in that situation.

Examples:

Perform a ray test from target to the camera. Set the camera on any hitpoint discovered. This way the camera will be behind blocking objects.
Perform collision test at the sides of the camera's view. Let the camera orbit around the target to avoid blocked views (see FreeView).


Im having trouble with a glowing object Im trying to edit edit a texture to have a shiny color but I cant get it right.

I want it to look like the one on the right.

Here is the
It doesnt have to look exactly like it just anything to get rid of that glow. Thanks in advance.

In Blender 2.8. If you don't want any glow effect, don't enable it.

Disable the Bloom here.

Now if you want to keep the white highlight on your model, this will be done with either the material, either by cranking up the main light's strength, either both.

This could be an example of material:


pyNode with button: any way to find which node the button pressed was on? I want to have a pyNode with some buttons on it that modify the node. Similar to how some of the built-in nodes work (Color Ramp, Curves, etc).

I can easily put a button on the node using an operator, but the operator doesn't seem to have any way of knowing which node actually called it? Clicking a button on a node doesn't select or make active that node and all I seem to have to work with is context and event?

So, is this possible using pyNodes? Is there a way to make a button without creating an operator? I couldn't see how that would be done either.

It's possible, but you need to set a property or two on your operator so that it can find the value. Eg:

class MyOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    tree: bpy.props.StringProperty()
    node: bpy.props.StringProperty()
    ...

Then where ever you draw it, set those properties. Eg:

def draw_buttons(self, context, layout):
    op = layout.operator("myoperator.operator")
    op.tree = self.id_data.name
    op.node = self.name
    ...

You can then use those values in the operator to find out where it was called from.


Particle emitter not displaying during rendering I am trying to create a donut by following Blender Guru on youtube. The render was working fine but suddenly the icing of the donut is has become invisible.

While modelling:

After rendering:

Can somebody please help me find a solution?
I am using blender 2.81a

file:

Go to the particle settings of the icing -> Render -> Check "Show Emitter"


How do I make a procedural swirl texture? How do I swirl a procedural texture to get a result similar to this?

The Hacky Way

One way to do this is by stretching the mesh, so to speak, rather than the texture. When a mesh is bent by the deform modifier, cycles will give us the coordinates of the unbent mesh, but deformed to match the mesh's deformation. To see how this is useful, consider the following gif:

Unfortunately, for some reason this only works for the surface coordinates; we get undeformed coordinates if we try and use them for a volume shader.
However, it's possible to fake volumetrics using an array modifier.

The complete process:

Create a plane (⇧ ShiftA> Mesh > Plane) and give it a few loopcuts (⎈ CtrlR)
Add a subsurf modifier, set it to Simple and increase the number of subdivisions a bit.
Add a simple deform modifier, set it to Bend, bend it 360°
Add an array modifier, use the Z constant offset to make a "stack" of planes.
Finally, slap on a shader such as this:

The Scale nodegroup performs identically to the scale component of the mapping node while in Point mode. I use it instead in case I wish to connect something to any of the scaling factors, and just because it takes up less screen real-estate if I don't need any of the other transforms

The Real Way

The above method renders fast, but doesn't work so well if you get too close or want to go inside it.
Instead of using some modifier trickery to get blender to generate the coordinates we want, we can generate them ourselves by transforming the default generated coordinates to polar coordinates.
This has the distinct advantage of letting us use real volumetrics:

Nothing special with the object this time, just a solid, flat, doughnut-shaped mesh with no modifiers. Everything is done in the shader:

The first group ("Centered Coordinates") takes the default generated coordinates (which are the normalized object dimensions, i.e. the entire object is within the 0..1 range, with each extreme of the object along a given axis being either at 0 or 1), and subtracts .5 from the X and Y so that 0,0 is in the middle of the object.

The next group ("Polar Coordinates") is where the important stuff is. It transforms the X and Y coordinates of the input to polar coordinates. It leaves the Z untouched.
What this transformation does can most clearly be seen by comparing the way the X and Y coordinates vary before and after:

The add and multiply nodes on the polar Y axis in this example just transform the values from -1..+1 to 0..1 for the purpose of visualization

Before the transform, the X and Y vary along the axes. After the transform, the X varies with distance from the center, and the Y varies with angle to the center.

From here on, the shader looks pretty much like that of the first method. The only major difference being the use of a musgrave texture instead of a normal noise texture, which is, of course, completely up to interpretation.


When I start my Minecraft Animation, the FPS is drop down about 2ˇˇ3 When I'm editing my animation there is no issue with FPS, but when I press "space" to start the animation, the fps drop down very low, to about 2-3.
My specification: gtx 1650 and ryzen 5 1600, so I think this is not problem.

It's hard to know why your scene in particular might be slow without more information but since playback in particular is slow then you should consider things in your scene that are only calculated during playback.
For example:

Simulated objects (e.g. rigid body or soft body dynamics)
Particle systems
Fluids

You could try disabling parts of your scene to narrow down what might be slowing things down: maybe a specific object or set of objects?
If you find that it's a simulation of some sort, consider baking it to a cache.
If it's a complex modifier you may be able to export that object to an Alembic cache and use that to reduce the cost.
Finally, if your scene is simply way too complex you may want to split it into smaller pieces, do your animation in a simpler scene, then create a master scene that references all the pieces to create your final render, where you expect each frame to take a long time anyway.


Node Wrangler -- 'ShaderNodeBsdfPrincipled' AttributeError I ran into a problem while using Node Wrangler.When I try to use the 'Add Principled Setup' option in the Node Wrangler menu and select the desired texture/PBR material files blender gives an error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.81\2.81\scripts\addons\node_wrangler.py", line 2689, in execute
    if not active_node.bl_idname == 'ShaderNodeBsdfPrincipled':
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'bl_idname'

location: <unknown location>:-1

Can anyone help me with this?

I had the same problem. Try selecting the Principled BSDF node before trying to import your materials, that fixed it for me


Rendering multiple smoke simulations from python script in cycles I am using Blender 2.77 and want to render many smoke simulations in cycles from a script. The idea is to take one template smoke simulation, change the parameters as specified in a csv table, render with the changed parameters and then move on to the line in the csv table.
Whenever I run my script, the rendered output of the smoke simulation is the same although the parameters are changed in the blend file.
I suspect that I need to rerun the smoke simulation each time I want to render, but I am not sure how to do that.

# for each line in csv file do this
for k in range(len(outputName)):

# skip first line
if k == 0:
    print (" skip header")
else:
    # change smoke settings according to csv file

    # get the attributes from the Camera, Flow and Domain object
    myFlow   = bpy.data.objects["Circle"].modifiers["Smoke"].flow_settings
    myDomain = bpy.data.objects["Smoke Domain"].modifiers["Smoke"].domain_settings

    # get the domain and flow attributes
    smokeVorticity  = myDomain.vorticity  # amount of turbulence
    smokeAlpha      = myDomain.alpha
    smokeDensity    = myFlow.density
    smokeTempDiff   = myFlow.temperature

    # set domain and flow attributes
    smokeVorticity     = vorticity[k]
    smokeAlpha          = alpha[k]
    smokeDensity        = density[k]

    # set windforce
    bpy.data.objects["Field"].field.strength = float(force[k])

    # set render output settings
    bpy.data.scenes["Smoke"].cycles.seed = int(seed[k])

    # set number of samples to render each pixel (the more the longer it takes)
    bpy.data.scenes["Smoke"].cycles.samples = 3  #crank this up to at least 300

    # set end frame
    bpy.data.scenes["Smoke"].frame_end = 50  # change this to 100 later

    # set render path:
    fileName = bpy.path.basename(bpy.context.blend_data.filepath)
    fileName = os.path.splitext(fileName)[0]
    bpy.data.scenes["Smoke"].render.filepath = os.path.join("//renderings", "smoke", outputName[k], outputName[k] + "_" )

    # render the scene
    bpy.ops.render.render(animation =True)
    print(outputName[k] + " rendered, moving on to next file")

I figured it out; I needed to free the bake cache before baking:

    # free bake cache
    bpy.ops.ptcache.free_bake_all()

    # bake the smoke simulation
    bpy.ops.ptcache.bake_all(bake = True)


Blender 2.8 Array modifier rotating individual parts I am currently trying to model a snake with the array modifier. I want the snake to go around the pole (as displayed in the picture) but I want the red (belly) of the snake to be in contact with the pole (as in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wInhCU79_IY&list=WL&index=23&t=465s timestamp: 7:59) . At the moment you can see that it is facing towards the outside of the curve.
Does anyone know how I can fix this?
I have tried to add an empty and use that as my object offset but this makes it so that the different sections of the snake are not connected properly.

Have you tried to tilt the vertices? Select your curve, go in Edit mode, select the vertices you want, and CtrlT to tilt, or use the N panel:


How do I get rid of artifacts on boolean text? I have taken 2 letters and combined them with a boolean, but now I get these artifacts everywhere. I tried using ⌘ Cmd + R to add parts, but that made it worse (some faces dissapear).
How can I make this proper/one flat color?

You have shaded smooth your object but the topology is bad (ngons and stretched triangles), therefore these artefacts. But it depends on what you want to do at the end, if you don't care about having a perfect topology and you want a quick fix in order to have a correct appearance, use the Auto Smooth option in the Properties panel > Object Data > Normals. It will smooth all the angles below the angle you'll set and keep the other ones sharp, therefore it will remove all these artefacts:


Import DXF and make it fit work area I feel like I've fallen at the first hurdle, importing a DXF file.

By that I mean, I figured out how to enable the dxf import tool, and imported the file I had, but that's about it.

I'm struggling how to manage the workspace and actually view the file I've imported or do anything with it. Maybe I'm doing the import process wrong? Do I import it as a new scene, do I center geometry, etc, etc?

When I selected center geometry I could at least see something, but it looked like my imported file is maybe way to big for the workspace, as all I could see when I zoomed right out, was the first letter or so of some text from the imported file. (see screen shot).

Ok, I went the other way as you pointed out. Used 0.01, which brought a lot more into view, but still very large, so... used 0.001 which brought more into view, but it doesn't look anything like the plans I see in Autodesk?

To give you an idea of what it should be looking like, this is it in autocad. View from each side, floor plan for ground and 1st floor... two view of the entire building plot, one showing topography and a street view elevation.

Two more Blender screen grabs: this is imported at 0.0001. The first image is relatively close up to the workspace grid, and then second is zoomed out. The closer view looks like I'm getting close to the size I need. In the zoomed out view... I've no idea what is forming the large circular patterns as I can't see anything like that in the original drawings???

Would it help my progress if I removed some of the layers from the original file? I obviously don't need things like drains and internal wood framing, water mains, wiring, etc.

As you can see from the last screen grab... I've kinda got the plans into the work area, but I don't know what is affecting the view. What is causing this grey shading across the work area?

There was more of it, in ever increasing circles going out from the center, but I removed some by hiding certain layers, but can't seem to view just the plans without this shading?

Check scale, center geometry to origin, shift+C, clipping planes...

When importing DXF there are a few options to work with.

One is the scale. The default settings is scale = 1, wich obiuvsly means that Blender will multiply by this factor the incoming units of the DXF.

So if you had drawn with your vectorial software a square of 2mx2m, blender will import an object of 2unitsx2units.

If you were working in cm, your square shall measure 200. If in blender you are going to work in meters, you must put a 0.01 factor...

This is valid also for the location of objects. So it is important to consider also the relative distance of the square from the origin of the sistem. To avoid problems, if Is possible, I would suggest to move the geometry to the origin in your drawing software.

Another tool that may come useful is Shift+C

It will extend your view till all visible objects are in the 3d view. If it seem that the camera de-zoom too far away, there are probably objects much distant from the origin. Notice that they might come outside of the 3D camera's clipping planes, making them invisible.


Clear custom split normal data just for selected faces When I hit "Clear custom split normal data" it clears them from the whole object, which is not what I want.

Is there some way how to apply it only to specific selected face(s)?

You can aim a Data Transfer modifier at a vertex group. Vertices in the group will receive the data from the chosen source. Those not in the group will not.

Top left, below: A cylinder with two regions of faces split out, and left where they were, so the normals do not interpolate. Top right, an intact version of the Cylinder.. ('Form')

.. Bottom left, the 'D_XFer' vertex group. Bottom right, the normals partially transferred from 'Form', to the cylinder with split faces,  according to the group.
If you apply the modifier, its result becomes a Custom Split Normals layer.
So, the steps I was thinking of go as follows:

ShiftD make a duplicate of your problem object
Clear Custom Split Normals on the copy, (giving you some unwanted loss of smoothing, as described)
Assign the vertices whose smoothing you would like to restore from the original to a vertex group.
Give the copy a Data Transfer modifier, targeted on the vertex group, with the original as its source object.

This should pick up the desired normals from the original, leaving the others cleared. When you apply the modifier (in Object Mode), a new Custom Split Normals data layer will be  created on the duplicate, which is a partial copy of the original's. So you will have 'Cleared Custom Split Normal Data for selected faces.'
There may be better approaches altogether, repairing topology by remodelling? or simply reassigning split normals from scratch, using 'Autosmooth' in the object's 'Data' tab 'Normals' panel?... but this is a way to transfer some normals, but not others.


Change and save smoke/particles color Newish to blender. I want to change the Rainbow CC Node color from blue to red. Every time I change it to red it renders blue and the colors reset back to blue. Any help is appreciated!!!

The border around the colour swatch indicates that it is keyframed, which is causing the colour to go back to it's animated setting. The border on the colour swatch is equivalent to the green and yellow backgrounds of keyframed numeric values.

Right click  on the colour and choose "Clear Keyframes" to remove all of the animated data. The border will then disappear and your colour selection will stay.

If you only want the colour to change at a certain part of your animation, then you need to add keyframes to make the colour change when you want it to.


Mantaflow simulation is baking the fluid in the wrong place and at the wrong scale As you  can see from the provided picture, when I start baking fluid in this scene, the fluid flows from the wrong place and at the wrong scale (changing the size of the real inflow also changes the size of the "fake" inflow), it is also flipped in velocity direction. I have tried clearing the fluid cache as well as checking normals and surface thicknesses. No other inflow objects exists, only the collision effectors of which there are 4. Does anyone have any idea what might be causing this? I have had no issues in the past working with the new simulator and this is the first time I have run into this issue. I am happy to answer any further questions as well. Thank you!

The fluid simulation is sensitive to the scale of the domain mesh - if it is has been rescaled (resized in any way) you should Apply Scale to ensure the scale is set back to 1.0 in each dimension. In your case, the adjusted scale (possible negative scale) was affecting the results of the simulation.
To address this, select the Domain object and press Ctrl+A and select Scale to 'Apply Scale' (the same option is availble through Object/Apply/Scale menu). You should then Free and re-Bake your simulation if necessary - to pick up the changes.


How to have an object lie on a specific face I've been trying to get this object to lie flat on this face but I'm having no luck, any suggestions?

In your case, this is pretty easy to do, since your mesh is already aligned to the axes.

Position the 3D cursor at the bottom vertex of the triangle you have selected. You can do this by selecting that vertex, then hitting SHIFT + S, Cursor to Selected.

Duplicate this vertex with SHIFT + D, and move it away along the x-axis.

Set the pivot point to 3D cursor. In your snap settings, Snap to Vertex, Snap with Active, and make sure Rotation is enabled. (https://i.imgur.com/RBV0Z5U.png)

Select one of the other two vertices of your target face, then with your cursor over the mesh, hit L to select the rest of the mesh while retaining your active vertex.

Press R to rotate, Y to constrain the rotation to the y axis, and snap to the vertex duplicated earlier.

These instructions work in this case as I say because your mesh is already aligned with the axes. If you need to align an object to lie on a face that has an arbitrary initial orientation, see the answer to this question: How do I orient a face so it lays flat?
It's a bit more technical and finicky, but it's really powerful once you figure it out.


rigid column and bean not falling correctly I created a column tied to a beam that should fall over because of the weight of the beam, however, as seen in the linked video the column falls, but does not topple over.

I tried changing the "shape" in the "Rigid Body Collisions" section to "Convex Hull" as well as to "Sphere" and "Mesh" the results were the same.

https://youtu.be/18qDe29EL4o

How do I get the column to topple over as it would in real life?
Thanks.

You can move the origin "to geometry", going from

to

then it will fall as expected:


Problem appending a Node Group in Blender 2.71 I am currently having a problem while attempting to append a Node Group into a new file.

I think I have followed the steps correctly; I created the node configuration, selected all the nodes, Ctrl + G, saved to nodes1.blend; Opened a new file, Shift + F1, navigated to the Node Editor of nodes2.blend then pressed Shift + A>Group, select the the group from nodes1.blend ... And there is a problem: the appended node is nowhere to be found.

The funny thing, is that when I go to Outliner > Datablocks, I can see the Node Group has effectively being appended (see screenshot below)

But the Group is just not available in the Node Editor; Am I missing something? I used to do this all the time with other Blender versions; Has anything changed? Please help. .blend file on request.

I found the solution to the issue.
I was trying to add the node group in shader mode, and not in Composite mode, as I should be.
I thought I had set it to Composite, but I guess I hadn't. As soon as I changed to Composite mode in the Node Editor, everything worked as expected.


Blender pauses during render When rendering, Blender usually is frozen until the image is rendered.
However for my scene, Blender is 100% responsive, and renders significantly slower.
For reference, viewport render works fine as expected.
How can I solve the issue?

in the render tab, theres this option, lock interface:

as the description says, it locks your blender when rendering to give more memory
its locked as a default, maybe you accidentaly unchecked it


How To Smooth Shade Newly Added Mesh To an Already Smooth Shaded Object Hello I tried to modify and add mesh to an object that already has smooth shading. I can't figure out how to smooth only the new part of the mesh I just added. If I smooth shade the whole object again I will just add unnecessary vertices to the whole object.

Are there any alternatives to splitting the new part of the object mesh into a separate object and smooth shading as a separate object and reintroducing it to the mesh?

Okay so I found the answer after playing around with it for a little bit.

What you need to do is select the new rough mesh you want to smooth in edit
mode and press P to separate "Selection" as suggested by @Jagredom .

Then with the mesh selected click on the smooth shading button from Object mode.

After this you have to switch to edit mode with the mesh still selected and click on the recalculate normals button under the Shading/UV Tab. This will get the mesh smooth and uniform with the full object.

Then you can rejoin the two objects by clicking on both of them while holding shift and then pressing ctrl + J


How to make longer shadow I have a shadow in this scene that only shadows his head and a part of his leggs, if you look closer you can see that the shadow goes away.
How can I make my character's shadow 100% on the ground?

Thanks

Kind regards,
Gamer_io

It looks like your lighting is all around your character causing little to no shadow. Position most of your Light sources on the left side to achieve a bigger shadow.

This is not related to the question, but please avoid thanking people on this site for the convenience of other readers(I know from experience and I apologize if that came off harsh).


How to bend this object I’m trying to make this environment but I’m actually having trouble with this curve. I know I can manually do it but I feel like it won’t look natural and smooth. I saw tutorials using the simple deform but that applies to the whole object while the one in the photo is more like a L shape.

You can begin with a perpendicular plane:

Bevel the angle with CtrlB:

Select all and press AltE to extrude the faces along the normals:

Scale if necessary, select the edges and bevel again to round the angles:


Sculpted with Multiresolution, enable Dynamic Topology wrecks mesh That's my sculpted head, the base mesh is very simple. I have done this with normal sculpting and multiresolution modifier.
Now when I enable Dynamic Topology it throws my sculpting in the trash and I get the base mesh.
Toggling the dynamic Topology off, I get such a sculpt:

How can I rescue my sculpting work and still use dynamic topology?
Should I retopology the mesh?
The mesh will be 3d printed, is it enough to apply the multiresolution modifier in the end, to get the sculpting into the print?

The Multiresulition modifier simply does not work with dynamic topology.

When you try to enable dynamic topology with a Multiresulition modifier on the mesh you will get a warning message like this:

  Warning!
  Generative Modifiers Detected!
  Keeping the modifiers will increase polycount when returning to edit mode.

Also if you hover over the modifier you will see this error message.

  Not supported in dyntopo

You have to apply the modifier before using dynamic topology.

The only way to "rescue" your sculpt now is to go back to a previous save, before you enabled dynamic topology.


Will running Blender on RAM Drives increase Blender's "Speed"? What I am referring as a RAM Drive is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM_drive. If I Install Blender on a RAM Drive, would it increase Blender's "speed"? Additionally, since "speed" is a very loose word, it would be nice to also mention 'what' will be faster (e.g. a better GPU will increase cycles render speed, etc.)

Reserving memory for a file system was a good idea 20 years ago.

Modern operating systems use all the available memory that is left by the running processes for caching.

When you start a program the first time it takes longer than subsequent starts because the files and used libraries are still available in RAM. This is the best way because if a process requires more memory cache areas can be evicted. A RAM-disc whereas would  statically allocate the memory which might be needed by another process and couldn't be temporarily released.

tl;dr

No, It would harm the overall performance of your system.


Pauses for 2 minutes in between rendering animation frames Blender will render 1 frame, then pause for two minutes, then do the same thing again with the next. Is there anyway to fix this? I posted a question thinking blender just stopped after frame one, but the program pauses for two minutes in between two frames.

Blender is not pausing between rendered frames: its generating the curent frame, and sometimes it can take a long time to calculate all the information needed to start rendering.

3D rendering can be one of the most compute-intensive operations you can throw at a computer. With very little effort you can create scenes that will push your system to its limits.

You are probably taxing your system with a scene that has:

Lots of particles
Physics Simulations
Lots of vertices (either from complex/detailed objects, or from
vertices created by modifiers, like subsurf modifier or arrays).
Volumetrics (volume scattering and/or volume absortion).
All or some of the above, and maybe even other layers of
complexity...

You have the option to:

Wait
Optimize your scene
Split the rendering load on different computers (like a Render Farm)

You might be able to find what process is taking so long by checking the top of the UV/Image editor window while rendering:

Things you can do to make the scene more friendly and renderable within your lifetime?

Simplify the geometry: decimate or re-topologize.
Use smaller textures. Textures shouldn't be any larger than the size
they are going to be on the final render.
Bake textures and lighting if possible.
Cache simulations and particles to disk and/or bake all dynamics,
so that the computer doesn't have to compute them again for every
frame.
Keep your subsurf levels as low as you can, no more than 3... read
this post.
Find the optimal tile size for your system
Keep the render samples as low as you can, set them to a noise level
you can live with, remember for animation not all frames have to be
as perfect as a still image.
Split the scene in different render layers that render efficiently,
and composite them together into a final scene.

Avoid rendering directly to video formats: if your computer crashes you'd have to stat over! Always render as image sequences and encode to video afterwards.

Lastly (an option that been deprecated but might still be available on older versions of blender), for geometry that does not change through the scene: cache BVH.


Automatic keyframing offset? I'm trying to get a certain object to use another object's animation data, but offset by (for example) 10 keyframes. How can I do this?

BlenderDiplom has created an Add-on called AReWo (Animation Replicator with Offset) which does exactly what you want. They provide a Video-Tutorial of how to use it and a Download page where you can find the direct link.

Another possibility is using the Animation Nodes by Jacques Lucke.

Or you can use the Blendgraph Add-on to animate Text with a so called Font Repeater Node.


How to Rotate and Animate object every other angle? I am trying to create an animation by rotating an object every 137.5 degrees on its origin (at 550 RPM with 24 frames/sec) and taking those frames to create a video.

How would I implement this?

Driver Approach

You can type a driver directly into field using #.  Typing

#radians(137.5 * frame)

into the rotation.z field of an object will make it spin at 550rpm at 24 fps.

In the added file I've set up two custom properties "spin", how many degrees per frame, and "rpm".

The rotor rotates

radians(spin * frame)

and the rpm is calculated via a driver by

rpm = fps * spin * 60/360

Original post: https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?229688-Helicopter-Rotor&p=1937512&viewfull=1#post1937512


Can't get smoke from Quick Object - Smoke Setting Disclaimer : I started learning blender 3 days back.

I am trying to replicate a tutorial of creating smoke in blender, but I don't get any effect even after following the steps.

In the default sphere, I add Quick Object -> Quick Smoke.
When I play a simulation, nothing happens whereas in many videos I saw just after adding the smoke box(if that's what it's called), they can see the box turning into smoke.

Version: 2.8
Attached Snaps of settings.

Is your outer "smoke box" being used as domain and is "adaptive domain" checked? Make sure the smoke has room to move.

From this tutorial, which might help:
https://youtu.be/6DjGpppAUfI?t=147


How can I control the sharpness of corners using Subsurf? I'm trying to make these corners sharper after SubSurf.

The solution that comes to my mind is adding edge loops to limit its space, but when I try to add edge loops they also affect the intake shape in front of the object in the same loop, deforming it in the way I don't want (I want sharper edges, but not round as I've done)

Any ideas besides boolean?

You can crease edges with Shift+e as well as inputing the Crease value in the n panel:

It is also possible to model the edge loops in such a way so they get narrower where you need sharper corners or edges.

Using Subsurf is also not the only way to model things. It adds a lot of unnecessary geometry and it is always worth to consider if you could achieve similar forms with other modelling tools, for example, using bevels.


How can I optimize the code to parse lines in a file? I have a working importer that needs to handle large data sets ie. thousands of primitives.

When I import a file containing 2500 objects it takes roughly 90 seconds to import. Now if I import the same scene through the obj importer it takes about 10 -15 seconds.

What can I do to optimize this? Here is part of the code below:

    #read each line of the .ssynth file
for line in file:
    if  objCount % 25000 == 0:
        print ("Import progress report: " + str(objCount) + " objects")
        args = line.split()
        argsIndex = 0
        colR = 1
        colB = 1
        colG = 1

    #begin sphere shape. here we import any spheres
    if args[argsIndex] == "s":
        argsIndex += 1
        cx = float(args[argsIndex])
        argsIndex += 1
        cy = float(args[argsIndex])
        argsIndex += 1
        cz = float(args[argsIndex])
        argsIndex += 1
        radius = float(args[argsIndex])
        argsIndex += 1

        colR = float(args[argsIndex])
        argsIndex += 1
        colG = float(args[argsIndex])
        argsIndex += 1
        colB = float(args[argsIndex])
        argsIndex += 1

        # Set the Alpha - maybe we can use this later
        alpha = 1.0

        meshSphere =  bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_ico_sphere_add(subdivisions=2, size=radius, location=([cx, cy, cz,]))

        #convert rgb values to hex for group naming
        def rgb_to_hex(rgb):
            return '#%02x%02x%02x' % rgb

        # Let's set the Object Color
        bpy.context.object.color = (colR, colG, colB, alpha)
        # Name for grouping
        matName = rgb_to_hex((colR,colG,colB))
        # Add a material slot to each object
        bpy.ops.object.material_slot_add()
        # Find the active material
        bpy.context.object.active_material_index = 0
        # Add that material to the slot of each object
        bpy.context.object.active_material = bpy.data.materials["SSmat"]

Suggest not adding a new mesh for every object,
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_ico_sphere_add

Instead you can add a sphere once, then reuse the mesh between all objects changing their scale. Its also possible for each object to have their own material so you can still share object data but have different colors.

Though you could even make do with a single material for all and just use object color.


Ghost Strand Appears after Rendering? I keep having this problem with a strand of hair that appears after rendering. I cannot, for the life of me find whatever particle is causing this.

I've tried hitting the A key highlighting them and translating on all axis. I've tried deleting all the particles that occur on that side of the head. And I've turned down, then off the children and have also adjusted the number of parent strands to no avail.

Does anyone know how to solve this problem, or do I just have a ghost strand? I'm am nowhere finished with this hair mesh, so, if I have to, I don't mind deleting it and starting all over, but I'd rather try to solve this problem for future reference.

Thanks, Blender Community.

Your problem is that you have Subsurf modifier before Hair, but forgot to enable Use modifier stack in Particle System. Moreover you hide Subsurf from viewport render, thus problem remains only in final render.

I assume you have to undo all Hair editing and enable Use modifier stack, then comb Hair from the start. Also your levels for Subsurf modifier are different for final render and viewport. This can cause another problems in the future.


How to tweak verts while in Anotate tool active? In this video retopology is done with addon b-surface using annotation to create mesh, https://youtu.be/FkWvgT75SbA?t=793 at 13:13 he moves vertices while having Annotate tool active. Bottom left corner says the key pressed is EVT_TWEAK_R but i don't know what it is. I am using the default keymap of blender and the tips on bottom show call menu for me instead of select and move like in the video.

They use right-click for selection in the video. It's a preference setting: Preferences... → Keymap → Preferences section → Select with Mouse Button left / right.
With right-click for selection you can use the Annotation tool with the left mouse button, and drag vertices around with the right mouse button. In Selection mode, new vertices can be extruded with Ctrl + left-click. The context menu is opened with the W key.
Video: Right Click Select - Blender 2.80 Fundamentals


Render 2D cross sections of 3D Objects Hello I would like to expand upon a previous post  Create Cross Sections and 2D planes in Blender
I am able to follow the steps outlined in the excellent tutorial linked above, but I am having trouble rendering the resulting 2D slices in a serialized way.  I am hoping I can be guided to a resource that will help me understand what I need to do to execute what I'd like to do.
What I'd like to do is render each slice as a 2D image with each image having an identical image size, and all images in frame with respect to each other. The result should be a series of 2D images resembling a CT scan.
Ideally this could be done with some level of automation instead of manually adjusting the camera and object for each slice as there will be ~200 slices.

Above is an example of the series of 2D slices in 3D space

And above is an example of a rendered image I would like to produce.  However this was a screen shot.  And I need to make sure that my images are exactly in frame with each other and rendered at a constant distance from the camera.
Also I should add that I am comfortable writing scripts, but I have no experience programming specifically for blender.  Thank you for your help
UPDATE:  The below answer worked great for what I was trying to do, and was a much better solution than using boolean expressions to render slices as I had been trying.  I simply rendered images of the primary model per the animation shown below.  Thank you for your help

That can be done using shader driven by the current frame.

The node settings:

The generated texture coordinates is between 0 and 1.
Value nodes: one is driven by the current frame, the other is the amount of frames (here 100).
We then test if the model part is between frame and frame + 1 / number of frames.
If yes, emission surface and emission volume. If not transparent.
The driver is based on the scene and its current frame:

All is done with Cycles.
Depending on the camera settings, that can be perspective or orthographique (so constant size).


Moving a Smoke Simulation in Time If I spend a couple hours baking a smoke simulation and then realize that I want it to happen several frames later in my animation, is there any way to shift what frames it occurs on without having to bake it again?

Locate the cache of the simulation. Per default, this would be in a subdirectory called blendcache_smoke.

Next open up the folder and find the frame index in the filename.

In my case the index is positioned at the -15th to -9th position counted from the end.

  43756265_000001_00.bphys

By simply replacing 000001 with 000011 the simulated cache of frame 1 is moved to frame 10.

Several options:

Replace all the filenames manually.
Use a third party program to rename files.
Use a python script.

This script will do what you asked for.

import os
from bpy import path

def OffsetCacheIdx(pPath, offset = 0, idx_position = [-15, -9]):
    start, end = idx_position
    idx_length = end - start
    if (idx_length <= 1):
        print("Need a valid index position.")
        return

    smokedir_path = path.abspath(pPath)
    smokecache_files = []
    for (dirpath, dirnames, filenames) in os.walk(smokedir_path):
        smokecache_files.extend(filenames)

    smokecache_files = list(reversed(sorted(smokecache_files)))

    smokecache_indices = []
    # parse index to int and store in list
    for i, sc_f in enumerate(smokecache_files):
        name = sc_f[start:end]
        smokecache_indices.append(int(name))

    if (smokecache_indices[-1] - offset >= 0):
        print("Negative frame values, can't do that.")
        return

    for i, file_name in enumerate(smokecache_files):
        smokecache_indices[i] += offset
        new_file_name = file_name[:start] + str(smokecache_indices[i]).zfill(idx_length) + file_name[end:]
        os.rename(os.path.join(smokedir_path, file_name), os.path.join(smokedir_path, new_file_name))

OffsetCacheIdx("//blendcache_smoke", 10)

The only line you need to change is the last line. The first parameter is the path of the folder containing the cache files, the second parameter is the offset (how many frames you want to shift the simulation).

An optional third parameter can be the position of the index in the filename.

OffsetCacheIdx("//blendcache_smoke", 10, [1, 10])


How to add a parent to multiple disabled objects? I select couple of objects in outliner and they are disabled (monitor icon is off). I don't want to enable it. I want to add a parent to those objects. If I select them in outliner and in object property, I set the parent (and pressing Alt), it's going set the active one only, not the selected objects.
If the objects are not disabled, then Alt will work to apply the parent for multiple objects.
Anyone got a solution using python or any other manual way?

No need for Python, you can do it in the Outliner. Select all objects that you want to parent in the Outliner, then with Shift+LMB drag them onto the object which should be the parent.


Smoke animation, color is not changing? Hello i wanted to include a smoke animation for a render.
I have watched a lot of videos about the smoke animation and how to change the color but it is not working for me.
suspiciously the standart smoke is also black instead of grey, and it stays that way.

Here are the things i tried, maybe i´ve done something wrong:

-changing the color of the smoke of the flow object
-changing the color in the materials (I heard that doesnt works anyways since 2.79)
-changing the color in the compositor.
-edit: i actually got it halfway working by only changing one notes color input but that is not the result i want + it is supposed to work otherways

Thank you, this is really bothering me as it is supposed to be working.

You have to change the color of both Volume Scatter AND Volume Absorption.
Also, you might obtain better'n'nicer control of your coloring by using a color ramp + the density attribute plugged in :


linking rotation + location/trying to rotate a robotic "C-arm" along its "mount" I really have no idea how to better word the title. I am on my second day with blender and im trying to rotate a C-arm (X-ray equipment) to model real world equipment. I can manually animate the motion by adjusting rotation then compensate with location to keep the c-arm "anchored" to the "track" since it isn't a perfect arc. I attached screenshots to better demonstrate my dilemma. Is there a constraint that will keep it attached to its parent object's surface as it rotates? or is there a way to link rotation and location transforms together?

Ok, to start, I've created a quick (and not terribly accurate) recreation of an area of your model;

And we'll say I want to move the object on the left in a way that it follows the shared curve in the middle. The quickest way I know to do this is to set the origin of the object to an appropriate pivot point, then simply rotate the object.

Setting the origin

Go to object mode and left click in an area you want to pivot from (this is a bit of a guess at this point);

Set your pivot point to "3D Cursor";

Now hit r and move the mouse, see if the object moves as desired;

No no, that won't do. How about;

Yes, much better. Check the full range of desired motion;

Ok, this will do. right click to stop rotating (or ctrl+z to bring it back to where it was if you confirmed the rotation).

Now, hit space (or F3, depending on your hotkey settings), and search for (and select) "Set Origin";

Then select "Origin to 3D cursor";

Now set your pivot point to "Active Element";

At this point, you can hit r and rotate the object on that point, regardless of where the 3D cursor is;

Technically, you don't need to set the origin

You could pivot on the 3D cursor without setting the origin, but setting the origin allows you to move the cursor around and not have to find the optimal pivot point every time.


Why is it when I change my animation and delete keyframes it deletes keyframes from a different animation? I have 4 animations actions, idle, walk, run, woodcutting.

I swap between the different animations actions to show each of their dope sheets and then I delete the woodcutting keyframes, but in doing so it deletes the idle animations action keyframes. Why is that?

I'm finding it very frustrating learning Blender, any advice would be great. I need to delete the Woodcutting keyframes so I can start over...

How do I delete Actions? I've read the best way to do it is through the NLA editor but there's no right click option when mousing over an action and clicking Delete Strips in the Editor tab doesn't appear to do anything.

I've clicked the + icon 2-too many times, and of course the X icon doesn't delete the active action, it just clears the selection.

Here's a link to the file (and sorry its on Dropbox. Not sure what else to use):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/z9bh0sh81grjmcy/BlenderSaveShare_UsrAnthony.blend?dl=0

What's happening is not what you're describing, actually you're completely misguided because one of your window is completely collapsed, so when you think you're deleting the keyframes of an action you're actually deleting the keyframes of another. So first of all, uncollapse your window, and now you'll see the action that is really selected:

To delete actions, there are several ways, one is to go to the Outliner, select Blender File in the dropdown menu, unfold the action menu, select and right click Delete. You can also shift click on the X, the action has a 0 in front of its name, meaning that it doesn't have any user anymore, it won't be here when you'll reopen the file. You can't delete actions with the NLA.


How to optimize render for this file I got this file with 160 frames, but it's taking 3 hours to render each frame so the whole animation will be 2 weeks of rendering. I brought the samples down to the absolute minimum I could (64) and activated de-noise, then I also found 128x128 to be the optimal tile size. Is there anything I am missing?

The time estimate is from an 18-core machine with 4.4 Ghz per core. CPUs are all pegged at 100%, memory is 50% utilized, and Disks are sitting at near 0%, so I appear to be CPU bound. Selecting GPU Compute doesn't use the GPU, apparently because Blender is deciding it doesn't have enough bandwidth/memory.

Here's the file, there is also a folder with dependencies required to render:
https://github.com/01binary/daap-logo

The file is for a VR project, so it's rendering 6400x3200 stereo equirectangular, each frame 6400x6400.

Thank you!

It seems square samples is enabled. So everything is calculated ith 4096 sampels. In a quick testes 256 seemed enough.


Trying to fake "God Rays"/ Stage Lights with materials I feel like this could be done but a combination of math nodes but I have no clue how to set it up.

I have a spot light with a cone parented to it.

The cone has scatter and absorption.

Is there a way to get rid of the black volume? I just want the light to fade out to transparency. I have tried the gradient nodes but its not working. This is the closest I can get.

I am looking for something like this

Well I think the gradient might be at least some help to you, if you hook it up to the density.  Here is an example with a linear gradient:

Here is the same image with the gradient disconnected:

It is true that if there is ambient lighting, a certain amount of volume particles may be visible:

Some of that could be mitigated by strategic repositioning of your spot lamp:

and/or dialing back the gradient, for example by altering the "location" component of the mapping node (here I set the X coordinate to -0.2):

Hopefully these give you some ideas for tweaking your setup.  (By the way, I did not end up making use of the Multiply node in the group below, but it's another parameter you could play with).


How to transfer uvs from static mesh to the same rigged and animated mesh The problem is quite simple, I have a static character, which is not rigged, this one is fully unwrapped and textured.
Next to it, I have as well, the same mesh, this time rigged and animated, but uvs aren't done yet.

So what I would like to simply do, is to apply uvs from my static mesh to the one animated, as they are the same, that should work whitout any problem. (Although I mostly use this only on statics meshes usually, first time I try with an animated mesh and that doesn't work).

Anyway, I use CTRL+L (the join uvs function in fact). When I open the uvs of my animated mesh, they look good, well unwrapped, but on my model, the texture seems totaly messed up, not applied correctly.

Does anyone know the answer of that question ? The best solution ?

EDIT:
Another test with CTRL + L => OBJECT DATA, this time the mesh has the texture applied well, but gets deformed.

EDIT2: I just would like to mention also this. To be sure it doesn't come from these manipulations. In fact, at first, I received the animated mesh, but the uvs were not done, so what I did, is I applied the armature of this animated mesh, which was mirrored, to get a static mesh. From that mesh, I started to create the uvs. But, I deleted the half of the mesh, to work on my uvs, and then, once the uvs were done, I applied again a mirror modifier, this way I could save some uvs space (as you can seen on the screengrab below).. Do you think the fact I can't copy my uvs to the animated mesh could come from these manipulations I had done previously !?

Select the object you want to copy UV map to, then the source object. Execute Ctrl-L > Transfer UV Layouts. If you're using an older version of Blender, it's in UV Maps property group's dropdown button. This will work flawlessly only if both are exactly the same, no vertices/edges added or removed.

You still need to edit the destination object's texture to use the right UV map, afterwards.

Edit: In your case, it seems like both character meshes are attached to different image files. Two identical objects can have identical UV maps, material and texture, but look different in the viewport because they're attached to different image files:

To fix this, make sure the image file being displayed on Image Editor is the same, when both objects are edited. This doesn't affect how they're rendered, though.


Circular edges on a plane with example How can I make the outer edges of my plane a circle like in image 2?

You can use LoopTools add-on, turn it on it the User Preferences:

After it select outer rim and press W > LoopTools > Circle.


Where are the Settings for F-Curve Modifiers? I tried to follow this, but I'm failing at seeing where the F-Curve modifier Settings are displayed. Once more, the Blender UI is failing me with its logic.

According to the Manual they should be in the Sidebar! No luck in either 2.79 or 2.80.

Blender 2.79

I Went to the Graph Editor and selected Key > Add F-Curve Modifier > Generator. The Cube in my scene disappeared and where in the Sidebar there should have been settings, there were none:

File for 2.79

Blender 2.80

Blender 2.80 is even more confusing since they redesigned the Sidebar but didn't update the Manual to match. I followed the same steps but didn't even know where to look for Settings.

File for 2.80

How does one edit an F-Curve modifier?

I am using Blender 2.82.

Select axis on the left side
press TAB or 'right-click' -> Toggle Channel Editability
press N

You'll see modifiers :)


Why can't I see an outline around selected objects? I think I pressed something I didn't know and now object that I want to select won't get highlighted. The outline thing when you select an object doesn't appear, I still can move it around but that orange thing doesn't appear.

It sound like you disabled Show Overlays. You can activate the overlays by clicking the Show Overlays button, usually found in the top right corner.


Mirror selection but maintain current selection I'm new to blender (have previously tried older versions) and I'm loving 2.8, I'm having some difficulty with something I feel is probably user error but I have been trying to select some vertices on one side of my model and have my selection mirrored to the other side while keeping the current selection (like add mirror to current selection).

Is there an easy way for me to do this without having to create modifiers?

Thanks

This may not be the best solution, but I have found that it works. Start by going into Edit Mode, make sure you've opened the Object Data tab of the Properties Panel (1), then create a vertex group for the initial selection of vertices. Create the new group by pressing the + sign to the right (2), and include the selected vertices by clicking the "Assign" button (3).

Next, while still in Edit Mode, locate the "Select" Menu at the top left of the 3D-View, and open it to choose the "Mirror Selection" option at the bottom of that menu.

Finally, go back to the Vertex Group you created and press the "Select" button to get back your original selection.


Blender has stopped working: Crash on startup I used Blender version 2.68a last year. I wanted to start using it again, but now whenever I start Blender it simply crashes immediately with the message, "Blender has stopped working". I've tried using multiple different versions, including the most recent 2.71 version w/ 32 bit and 64 bit.

Specs:

OS: Windows 7 64-bit
CPU: i7-4770k @ 3.50 GHz
GPU: GTX 770
RAM: 16.0 GB
Hard Drive: 250 GB w/ 53.1 GB remaining

For these kind of problems you should report a bug in the tracker, as there is really no 'useful answer' possible for this.

If every version of blender has simply 'stopped working' it is likely a problem with your computer (eg. drivers problem).
Otherwise you can try a daily build to see if the problem persists:
buildbot
If it is a bug, report it: report a bug
If you need assistance try any of the listed options: http://www.blender.org/support/


How to add a texture to a section that is already a part of a larger object with one? Sorry for the super broad question title that probably has nothing to do with the actual question. It's hard trying to put this stuff into words since I don't really know what I'm talking about.

My problem here is that there's a specific area that I want to add a texture to. However, it's actually a part of a bigger part that already has a texture on it. (If that makes sense). Switching the textures won't work.

I googled around and read about how the hot pink color is because I'm missing a texture somewhere. (Correct me if I'm wrong, I'm still so new at this). The pink hair only shows up when I show the textures on "soldier76_body", but not on any other part. This definitely confirms that my lack of hair texture is rooted there.

Whenever I switch what I'm looking at, like the mask now, the actual hair texture does show up.

I know that it's something to do with the body texture, since it seems to be an isolated incident.

I've already tried adding different textures to the body, but when I do that my model is completely white from the hair texture.

I've already tried duplicating the model, and copying only the hair section and trying to add the separate texture to that and attaching it tot he original model, but it doesn't work.

What exactly am I doing wrong and why did is this happening?

First the odd thing. I don't know the origin of your model, but every mesh of your model has a copy, that can be identified by the .001 extension in the Outliner. This does make things very confusing, so I'm going to work on the copy while the original will be hidden.

Analyzing the Mesh

As I expected, your model is divided into several meshes, with each of them containing sub-meshes. These sub-meshes don't share vertices so they can easily selected in Edit Mode by clicking on one of the vertices and then expand the selection by hitting Ctrl+Numpad + until the whole sub-mesh is selected.

After selecting the hair mesh, we see the UV layout in the UV/Image Editor. Let's keep it as it is. We also recognize the name of the currently assigned texture, which is faceoff.png. We also have a material in the material editor that goes by the same name, so let's keep this convention.

Preparing and assigning the Material

If we click on the image selector in the UV/Image Editor we find an image named s76_hair.png.

Now we create a new material named s76_hair and assign the right texture to a new slot. (Texture names aren't necessarily file names, I chose the first one that matches the UV I looked up in the image editor - in this case it's Texture.006). To play it safe, we also assign the UV map for the correct mapping.

In the last step we assign the material to the hair mesh. With the hair mesh still selected, we go to the Material Editor, select our newly created material and hit "Assign".

If we look at our model in Texture Paint mode, we'll see that now the correct texture shows on the mesh.


Follow path constraint location Whenever I apply the follow path constraint to an object and a path, the object totally changes location to a way far away location.

How can I make it so the object doesn’t move it’s location at all when I apply the constraint.

I tried making the path origin in the same spot is the object origin but that still doesn’t work.

Any suggestions?

First you need to put the curve origin at the point where you want the object animation to begin, so do it in Edit mode with some shiftS and shiftctrlaltC.
You also need to be sure, in Edit mode, that the curve normals go in the right direction. If it's not the case, press W > Switch Direction.
And at last, you have to keep in mind that the position of the object with the Follow Path constraint, relatively to the curve origin point, will be its position relatively to the center of the scene (i.e. Location). If the object is far from the scene center then, when you'll give it the constraint, it will jump as far from the curve origin as it's far from the scene center. If you press altG it will bring back the object to the 000 location, and therefore at the origin point of the curve.


Increase or decrease vertices in circle after working with it? Is it possible to change the resolution of a circle after working with it so that it has a greater or fewer number of vertices? If this is not normally possible, but there is a workflow that keeps it editable, that also counts.

For the creation of a primitive

Yes, and no
You can change the settings right after creating any of the primitives, by pressing f6.
After you do anything else, (besides moving around the view) the settings are gone with no way to get back to them.

Editing loop count in a circle

To reduce the number of edges.
In edit mode, select every other loop by Alt RMB  (use shift to add to the selection). Then press X or delete and choose Edge Loop. Do the same for the edges on the other axis.

To increase the number of edges.
Delete the bottom and top vertex (where all the loops meet). Select everything with A, then press W and choose Subdivide Smooth. The loops will get wavy, to fix that select them with Alt RMB  then press S Z 0. Which will flatten them along the Z axis.

To fix the holes in the top of the circle, select the top edge loop, and extrude it along the Z axis. Then scale to 0, and remove doubles. Do the same for the bottom of the circle.


Blender 2.74 loop tools make circle disappear I have the loop tools addon enabled and when I click the circle button with these verts selected, it just disappears. Why is that?

You can see the selected options in the bottom screenshot. It is worth noting that all the verts are flat on the x plane. Locking in X or not does not change the effect.

When I use the to sphere operator it squishes the verts on Z and stretches super wide on Y, not making a cirlce.

EDIT:

here is the blend

Your object has a pretty extreme object scale on it. To get an idea of how extreme, this is what it would look like without it:

If you apply the scale to the mesh with ⎈ CtrlA it then works as expected:

See Why are the longer edges being beveled more? for some more detail. Suffice it to say that loop tools sees the mesh without the object scale, and that tall thin hole is confusing it.


Enable lamp 'Use Nodes' from python Console I am new to both Blender and Python, I am trying to enable Use Nodes of a lamp from Python console.

I tried the tooltip showing on the button bpy.ops.cycles.use_shading_nodes, it did not give me an error, but also did not really enable the nodes(no change in UI), and I cannot change lamp strength using:

C.object.data.node_tree.nodes['Emission'].inputs['Strength'].default_value = 100

This is the python command used to enable Use Nodes and change a lamp strength

Blender 2.79

# enable Use Nodes
bpy.data.lamps["your_light_name"].use_nodes = True/False

# set strength, set the default_value to whatever you like
bpy.data.lamps["your_light_name"].node_tree.nodes["Emission"].inputs[1].default_value = 10

Blender 2.8

# enable Use Nodes
 bpy.data.lights["your_light_name"].use_nodes = True/False

# set strength, set the default_value to whatever you like
bpy.data.lights["your_light_name"].node_tree.nodes["Emission"].inputs[1].default_value = 10


Does Blender take more time to render with extra objects that aren't visible? I've got an obj file from a client that has about 4000+ layers (individual screws etc).  There are several components that are inside of the structure, hidden from view, and I am wondering if deleting those objects will help render times.  Basically: does the renderer sample all of the polygons or only the ones visible in each frame of animation?

I had rendered an interior, I had a carpet that it used a lot of memory. Even if I rendered a part of the interior without the carpet inside the frame, the render time was big. I just had disabled the render option from outliner (you can find it in filters) and the render time has reduced.


Camera in BGE seeing through non-transparent solids when having small near clipping distance I have a group of legionary puppets fighting busily in Game Engine. They are mesh animated by armatures, and have equipment parented to empties parented to the armatures:

So they look like inthe orthographic embedded player.

However when they are looked at through the perspectivic camera (parented to another puppet's head), both in embedded and standalone player, they show a curious graphic issue:

The bodies of some of them is seen (or maybe actually is) in the front of their shields. What is the cause of this, and how I might try to resolve it?

EDIT: Further testing showed that when they are not moving and displaying the animations the issue nevertheless occurs, and that ortographic cameras avoid it.

EDIT2: The issue was finally found to be related to the absurdly small (0.00000001) 'camera near clipping distance', which I have set to see my own cheek-plate. It has nothing to do with offsets, levels of detail or parenting. But I still can not infer why this should cause such a problem.

EDIT2: The issue was finally found to be related to the absurdly small
  (0.00000001) 'camera near clipping distance', which I have set to see
  my own cheek-plate. It has nothing to do with offsets, levels of
  detail or parenting.

You found the issue by yourself. I just want to answer the followup question:

  why this should cause such a problem.

The 3D engine of the BGE uses Z-Buffer processing to "sort" the rendered pixels. This means your scene will be "sliced" between the near and far clipping distance of the camera.

Within one slice the render can't decide which face is in front of the other. So it will pick more or less a random one. That is the reason why you should avoid planes covering each other with a very small distance (e.g. a painting at a wall). This can cause Z-Fighting at pixel level.

In orthogonal mode you see the same detail level at all distances. Therefore the z-Buffer is equally distributed (all slices have the same thickness).

In perspective mode the object near to the camera are rendered with more visible details than objects more far away from the camera. The sliced near the near clipping plane are thinner while the slices near the far clipping plane are thicker.

As you setup a really close near clipping plane you get a really detailed helmet with the costs of the other characters end in very thick slices.

I assume the result was that the complete shield and the legs are within the same slice sometimes rendered in the wrong order. The slices are so wide that you can't see pixel-wide Z-Fighting (or it is not obvious in your sample images).

Solution

Obviously the near clipping plane should not be that close. When you set up a more practical value (e.g. the default value) you should avoid the z-fighting effect.

There are several different options to show the helmet.

use an overlay scene to render the helmet (best option)
move the faces of the helmet more far away that it is still in the camera frustum


Fit a blanket to a person I have a model of a person exported from the MakeHuman software. I also do have a model of a blanket. What I want to do now, is to fit the blanket to the human, as if the human was sleeping under the blanket.
I have done some research and believe that the shrinkwarp modifier applied to the blanket with target "testHuman" should do the trick. However, the following happens:

The blanket seems too small when I apply the shrinkwarp modifier and is very weirdly shaped
When I increase the offset to about one, the blanket increases to a size which looks about right. When I decrease the offset again, the blanket shrinks again.

I believe, that this has also to do with the model for the human I use. I cannot really choose the whole human as a target, but only parts of it. I will attach some pictures to illustrate.
Can somebody explain to me the behavior occuring when I change the offset? Also, how can I use my human-model for this purpose?

Here is the simplest way, using Cloth Simulator defaults.

Select body, then in Physics tab, select Collision:

Add Plane mesh, set smooth, then in Edit Mode, scale to cover body and subdivide it to desired level of billow detail. Select Cloth in the Physics tab:

Raise Plane above all parts, then press Alt-A to begin simulation:

Pick your favorite frame:


object flips while snapping to another object with align rotation, using face snapping I try to snap the object that is selected in the screenshot onto the object behind it, similar to the one seen on the left edge on the screenshot (from which I copied the selected object). I want it to 'align rotation', so that is selected.

I then press G > Shift + Z to maintain the height. However, when i hover over the surface I want to snap it to, it flips it's rotation, seemingly by 90 degrees:

I applied rotation to both objects beforehand. Any clues? Thanks in advance.

I use Blender 2.74.

If you applied the rotation, then this is working as expected. Transform snapping will align the transformed object's local Z axis to the normal of the face to which the object is snapped.

To visualize where the object's local axes are, set the Transform orientation to Local in 3D view > Header:

Since your object's local Z is aligned to the world Z, this means that the local Z is aligned with one of the small sides of the object:

Note the direction of the blue arrow, which is indicating the object's local Z axis.

If you use an object with a local Z axis pointing out of the large side, then it works as desired:

To rotate the object's coordinates without changing the geometry, see Is there a way to rotate the origin without rotating the geometry? and Set rotation values without applying them.


Cycles - CUDA CPU Extremely Slow When Combined With GPU When rendering materials with more than one or two nodes, the CPU tiles in CUDA GPU+CPU mode are extremely slow.

The GPU tile finished entire image in 20 ish seconds, meanwhile, to even cancel the render it took an additional 10 seconds for the CPU tiles to finish their first sample. This means to finish those 7 starting tiles (16x16, 100 sam), the CPU running under CUDA would probably take almost an hour. The CPU on its own takes about 3 1/2 minutes for the whole image.

Is there any specific cause for the CPU being thousands of times slower in CUDA than plain CPU, or is it a bug? Doesn't seem reproducible with 'plain' materials like a single principled node, even when using volumetrics or caustics.
I have a feeling the procedural textures play a large part since Eevee also bogs down very fast when you start combining them.

.blend demo attached. Running bench in Blender 2.82a on Linux with GTX 1070 and 6700k

This is normal. It is common for GPUs to be a lot faster at rendering than CPUs and in this case GTX 1070 is definitely a few times faster than i7(?) 6700K so for renders that take seconds, this is to be expected. You would probably benefit from combining GPU and CPU on longer renders(think minutes and hours, not seconds), but 20 seconds is short enough time that the render would get stuck on slower CPU tiles at the end when the GPU has nothing else to do. Managing the render process on a few devices probably also takes extra time. You could try using really small tiles and see if that helps, if not, just use the GPU alone.


Problem with Projection of Bones I'm trying to get the rendered position of bones, but it seems that they are off by some amount and I don't find the source of the offset. This is the code I'm using:

import bpy
from bpy_extras.object_utils import world_to_camera_view

hand_pose = bpy.data.objects["Armature"].pose;

render_scale=bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_percentage/100;

height = 512
width = 512

bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_x = width
bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_y = height
bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_percentage = 100

render_size = (
    bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_x * render_scale,
    bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_y * render_scale
    )

bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = 'sample.png'
bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True)

fingers=[ 'finger_pinky.03.L', 'finger_ring.03.L', 'finger_middle.03.L', 'finger_index.03.L', 'thumb.03.L' ]

for i, finger in enumerate(fingers):
    pos = world_to_camera_view(bpy.context.scene,     bpy.context.scene.camera, hand_pose.bones[finger].head)
    print(finger + ' position is ', render_size[0]*pos.x, height-render_size[1]*pos.y-1)

for which I get an output like this:

finger_pinky.03.L position is  255.89732360839844 297.16163635253906
finger_ring.03.L position is  249.3601531982422 292.98570251464844
finger_middle.03.L position is  246.95179748535156 286.85406494140625
finger_index.03.L position is  249.28578186035156 279.54920959472656
thumb.03.L position is  266.2782287597656 270.7700500488281

The bones correspond to the tip of each finger. The obtained positions are not in the right place, as shown in the following figure:

Can anyone give a hint on what I'm doing wrong?

Hernan

You should multiple the coordinate by the matrix_world before passing to world_to_camera_view. The coordinates are not modified when you rotate, translate, scale an object. Instead those transformations are placed in the matrix_world.

for obj in bpy.data.objects:
  if obj.type == "MESH":
    for v in obj.data.vertices:
      co = obj.matrix_world * Vector((v.co.x, v.co.y, v.co.z, 1))
      co = world_to_camera_view(scene, camera, co)


Reloading Multiple images I am working on a visualisation project where I am constantly tweaking around 20 textures at the same time, Is there a way to quickly reload all of the textures?

I am aware of "save-reopen" method (Ctrl+S > Ctrl+O) and Reload Image (Alt+R) but both of them are rather dirty and time consuming.

Is there a way to refresh and reload all of the textures at once?

This refreshes all the UV textures I have assigned to different objects:

import bpy

for image in bpy.data.images:
    image.reload()

Paste this into the Text Editor view, press Alt+P to execute it, and all your textures will be refreshed.