Tileable Building UV mapping problem Right now, I am making a building in Blender that can be tiled but I am having trouble unwrapping the UVs for the model. I have used Blender for quite awhile now but I am still not entirely familiar with it, especially in unwrapping UVs. While I do think I have kind of wrapped my head around it, there are some things that I still do not understand.

I have attached a photo as well as the .blend file for the model.

MelbourneBrickBuilding.blend

I need to know how I can go about unwrapping the top of the model that has been highlighted. If you look closely at some of the faces, particularly the one at the very bottom in the middle, the grid has sort of been warped across one corner to the other. Why is this happening? I also cannot figure out why some of the other faces appear warped and stretched as well. I just cannot seem to be able to mark the right seams in order to fix it.

Can somebody please help?
Thanks!

Goolog

The less planar the shape is in 3D the more distortion their unwrap will result in the UV island. While planning and marking the seams always try to imagine how easy it would be to fold the shape out of paper. After all you can fold a flat shape into 3D cube perfectly, but only if you get the seams right.

That being said if you add seams in the corners of the top part you can get pretty good unwrap results. Here I further corrected some irregularity by first unwrapping all the top row quads without seams and pinning (P key) the straight line in the UV editor to guide the unwrapping algorithm. Taking from here you could also scale the vertical ends to be on same axis if that suits your purpose (better for lightmap, less accurate for texture).

Unwrapping isn't the only option for UVs though. A quick and dirty way to map non-organic shapes with OK results is to use "cube project" or use multiple "project from view" commands. If you got a lot of work to do, you might want to take advantage of this and only bother with more precise and time consuming methods when it makes a big difference.

Learning UV mapping takes time but hopefully this gives you a some initial clue on how unwrapping works.


Using a mapping node to disable tiling is streaching texture? I'm having a bit of an issue getting started with UV mapping in Cycles.  It works fine initially, but when I add the mapping node and set min/max to the default values to turn off repeating, I get the following stretch.

This is a bit boggling to me as I followed multiple tutorials where this exact same process works.  See here

Images of the issue:

As mentioned by Róbert László Páli, this is an artifact of the way the mapping node works.

You can get around this using hjaarnio's technique:

Using this node setup that creates a map of where the image is:

Values in the 0-1 range are where the original image is, so if we use that as a mix factor:

It will use the Image texture only where the original image is mapped, and Base Color everywhere else.

Base Color can be a texture or even another shader as well:


Convert Curves to Grease Pencil? I'd like to know if there's a way/add-on to convert curves to Grease Pencil strokes? I know you can convert in the other direction, but I can't find anything to create Grease Pencil strokes from curves.

In attempting to setup guides for a model I'm working on, did so using curves. I'm now thinking GP would have been the better option, and would rather not have to recreate my guides.

First convert your curves in to mesh objects, AltC > Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text.

Now just copy and paste the script below into blender's text editor, then with your object still selected press Run Script.

This script below will draw grease pencil strokes on the active object.

import bpy
from mathutils import Vector

obj = bpy.context.object
mesh = obj.data
scene = bpy.context.scene

pencil = bpy.data.grease_pencil.new("pencil")
scene.grease_pencil = pencil

layer = pencil.layers.new("layer", set_active=True)
frame = layer.frames.new(scene.frame_current)

for edge in mesh.edges:
    stroke = frame.strokes.new()
    stroke.draw_mode = '3DSPACE'

    stroke.points.add(2)
    stroke.points[0].co = obj.matrix_world * Vector(mesh.vertices[edge.vertices[0]].co)
    stroke.points[1].co = obj.matrix_world * Vector(mesh.vertices[edge.vertices[1]].co)

Thanks to CoDEmanX for his making a grease pencil through bpy answer.


Concatenate Movies Compositor I have two movies considered as images (because I need to set up the beginning frame, offset ...) and I want to concatenate them so that one appears before the other one.

Is there an operation in the compositor which can do this ?

As mentionned here :

docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/compositing/types/color/mix.html

the mix node needs a background image and a foreground one. I don't want to mix but to put one movie one after the other after specific frame.

Frames will give you control on the source’s duration (in frames): How many frames do you want to use? Playback will repeat the last frame unless you choose Cyclic* (see below)

Start Frame is the frame in the scene at which the video clip will start playing.

Offset allows you to select the first frame of the video source.

Cyclic* will make the cycle of frames start over. If you want to hold a frame, before or after the specified number of frames or freeze a frame you would need to disable this box.


How do you model an object (car) without all the orthographic views? I for example want to model a car, but there is only one perfect orthographic side view and one imperfect front view images. I've got only 2 views and missing 2 views.

I start to make blueprints (in blender) for the orthographic views but the end result is not as expected and I'm left with blueprints that don't match.
Here for example I tried to make blueprints for the Praga R1R:

https://imgur.com/t8W67Wt

As you can see, the end result is not nice. I tried to match front view with the side view taking reference points but without success (you can see the back side of the car in the front view which you shouldn't).

I then proceed to start modelling with the help of perspective images of the car, but then give up as I couldn't match the proportions.

What do I do?

Without any references to get accurate dimensions, you can take Artistic License on it.
Basically just decide upon what you believe the accurate dimensions to be and go off of them and GL.


array rotation while maintaining object rotation im currently modelling a ferris wheel with the capsules attached to the rim and i use array modifier to achieve that, although it works with empty object as its offset, the capsules also rotate with the empty object. i actually need the capsules to stay unrotated so it'll looks like gravity is pulling it.
how can i achieve this ? (with array modifier or without array modifier

here's a little image to what i want to achieve

i use dupliverts to achieve this with armature as the controller and it turns out like this :

You can use dupliverts to obtain this effect.

Create the capsule
Create a circle composed of 8 vertices as you have 8 capsules
Make the circle parent of the capsule by selecting both the capsule and the circle (in this order) then CtrlP

Then in the circle's object properties panel check "Verts" in the duplication section.

Notes :

The original capsule will not appear in rendering
The positions of the duplicated capsules will depend on the position of the object's center of the original capsule
If needed you can rotate the capsules parenting the circle to an armature


How do you select an edge loop with BMesh? Can someone please explain to me how I go about selecting edge loops in BMesh? I'm new to Blender scripting and am venturing into BMesh but I can not figure out how to actual select an edge loop. Let's say I'm starting with an edge. How then do I go about getting and selecting the edge loop that that edge is a part of? Please and thank you!

This is almost a duplicate of this question. Simply add the select statement at the end. I also branched the code sample to go in both directions of the first edge.

e = bm.edges[0]

for loop in e.link_loops:
    if len(loop.vert.link_edges) == 4:
        e.select = True

        while len(loop.vert.link_edges) == 4:
            # jump between BMLoops to the next BMLoop we need
            loop = loop.link_loop_prev.link_loop_radial_prev.link_loop_prev

            # following edge in the edge loop
            e_next = loop.edge
            e_next.select = True


why do i have a black and white mesh on solid view mode? I didn't use the program for like a week or so when opened it, it was like this

and didn't know what had happened, when started to look around my files they were all like that

checked all the textures (they were fine), check rendered mode (it was exactly as I left it). I have no idea what could be the problem and from certain angles, I'm having way too dark shading.
please help

EDIT: it has no light in the scene and the metacaps are off, I checked

Maybe you are using the black and white matcap you can uncheck or change it on the right panel (press n to get access to the panel)


Error: Object has no mesh data to be used for ray casting I'm writing an operator that casts rays from the center towards certain amounts of points and finds the faces rays hit. I'm facing this annoying error, when I change the property of the operator.

I've managed to strip the code down to minimal code to reproduce this, that works on default scene

Code:

import bpy
import bmesh
from bpy.props import *
from mathutils import *

class SomeOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "some_operator"
    bl_label = "Some operator"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO', 'PRESET'}

    prop = IntProperty(name="Prop",
        description="Prop",
        min=10,
        max=50,
        default=10)

    def execute(self, context):

        obj = context.active_object

        if bpy.context.mode != 'OBJECT':
            raise Exception("Please switch to object mode")

        cover = [Vector((0,0,1)), Vector((0,0,-1)), Vector((1,0,0)), Vector((-1,0,0))]

        for pt in cover:
            dummy1, dummy2, faceInd = obj.ray_cast(Vector((0.0, 0.0, 0.0)), pt)

            obj.data.polygons[faceInd].select = True

        return {'FINISHED'}

When you change the SomeProp value, the error occurs.

You need bpy.context.scene.update() just after execute() for it to work. It seems it needs to update some internal relationships.

Full code (modified to work on 2.78):

import bpy
import bmesh
from bpy.props import *
from mathutils import *

class SomeOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "object.some_operator"
    bl_label = "Some operator"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO', 'PRESET'}

    prop = IntProperty(name="Prop",
        description="Prop",
        min=10,
        max=50,
        default=10)

    def execute(self, context):
        bpy.context.scene.update()
        obj = context.active_object

        if bpy.context.mode != 'OBJECT':
            raise Exception("Please switch to object mode")

        cover = [Vector((0,0,1)), Vector((0,0,-1)), Vector((1,0,0)), Vector((-1,0,0))]

        for pt in cover:
            dummy0, dummy1, dummy2, faceInd = obj.ray_cast(Vector((0.0, 0.0, 0.0)), pt)

            obj.data.polygons[faceInd].select = True

        return {'FINISHED'}

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

# test call
#bpy.ops.object.some_operator()


How to change default scale of new meshes added to scene I have my setup configured for 3D printing, so I've set my Unit Scale to 0.001 and Length to millimeters.  This works fine except whenever I add in any new meshes to the scene they default to tiny.  For example, if I add a new Mesh->Cube it'll be 2mm which is almost invisible.  I have to scale it way up to be useful.
Is there a way to change the default scale of new objects so that they're relevant to the unit scale?  I've read in 2 other places that the size of new objects is based on the grid scale.  Some people said that changing the Grid Scale in Overlays will fix this.  Maybe it did in 2.8, but in 2.9, which I'm running, it has absolutely no effect.  I can set the Grid Scale to any number I like and it will still always plop down a 2mm cube.
Very frustrating because some of the more complex geometries (like say Torus or Metaball) that have options when you create them are too small to be visible, so you cannot see what you're doing.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
-Brian

If you change the properties of an object after you add it in the Operator Panel, the values you entered manually should stay until you alter them again manually. Try adding a cube, changing it's size from the panel, delete the cube and then add a new one. The new cube should have the same size as the value you entered for the last one:


Parts of scene are cut off in the camera's view Because the ground in my scene is very large a big portion is being cut off in the camera view.

When I adjust the scale the camera other mesh cut from the scene.

I do not want to change the angle of the view. The ground is huge yet its not visible in the camera. Any suggestions on how to resolve this would be appreciated.

You need to change the clip start/end for your camera's Object Data if you are working with a small or large scene.

In addition to this often causing problems, it looks like in your blend file your camera is sinking below the ground:

I expect this is causing the clipping you are seeing. I made a new camera that isn't clipping the ground, and it looks good.


Blender - 2.78c - Can't see menus I have started blender and can't see my menus. Any suggestions on how to fix?

As can be seen from the attached image I cant get the top and bottom menu's.

Uninstalled and re-installed and did not fix.

You can click on any main icon panel (the first one) and choose Info.


Can you make a texture glow without it emitting light? this might be a bit of a strange question, but basically I want to have part of a texture be bright even when in shadow but I don't actually want it to emit any light that will then interact with any other part of the scene.
Currently my setup is like this:
Texture that links to both Diffuse BSDF and Emission Nodes which then go into a Mix Node which also has the alpha map of the parts that I want to light up as a Fac entry. This works great for lighting up the texture but then pretty much messes up the scene because when rendering it in cycles it simply adds a lot of noise on the other materials.

Any idea what I could to differently here?

You can use the Light-Path node to determine when to use the emission shader.
in your case, you only want the camera to see the material as emission so use the is-camera-ray-output like this:

you can put basically any shader in the first slot, depends on how the object should look ie in reflections.


Why do bones further down the chain get stretched when a bone is rotated? I have 10 bones inside a cylinder so the cylinder can bend, like an elephant nose or octopus leg. However, when I rotate a higher bone, eg bone 5, the children bones stretch or get longer. How do I turn this off, so bones keep the same length when higher bones are rotated?

Edit: adding screenshots:
Here is a screenshot. It is a cylinder, I used extrude so it would have several sections of vertices, and it has 7 bones in it (the cylinder has the Armature as parent.) I added a cube to show the stretching, it also has the armature as parent with Automatic Weights.

After rotating bone 4, the cube is stretched, and it looks like the bones after bone 4 are stretched too.

What I'd like to do is have the rotation applied, the further down children bones keep their length and not stretch, and for the cube to point in the direction of rotation as it does now, but not stretch the cube.

I've uploaded my blender file, named as "bendAndScale.blend". I'm sure it's some constraint, I tried to add one but couldn't figure it out. Thanks in advance for the help.

The Problem

As I suspected, this is a scaling problem. The bones distort because you have non-uniform scaling on your armature object. Select your armature object (not a bone in pose mode) and look at the scale values in the transform properties. The object is scaled by 0.5 on the Z axis. With non-uniform scaling, any transformation done in a space influenced by this object's scaling will appear distorted. In an armature's case, bones in pose mode will be distorted by the object's scale. Likewise with other objects, if you have a cube parented to an empty, the empty's scaling will affect the cube's transforms. This is all because transform "space" is inherited from parent objects. A good explanation is in Nathan Vegdahl's Humane Rigging course.

The Solution

You need to apply the scale transformation on the armature object. With the armature object selected, press Ctrl+A and choose Scale. The appearance of the bones will change (some axes look like they scale), but the overall function should remain the same. For the sake of cleanliness, I would apply rotation as well. Before applying any transforms, it would be a good idea to unbind and unparent any objects influenced by the armature. This will keep them from being influenced by the transform application and keep their position in 3D space.

For the future, it is best to always leave your armature scaling and rotation unchanged, for this exact reason. To change the size of the bones, it's best to edit the armature in edit mode, or if you're doing animation, scale the bones in pose mode instead.


How to remove title bar in Blender 2.8 Beta? How do i remove the tittle bar for blender 2.8?

In blender2.79 I'm using the hot key Alt+F10

It does not work for Blender 2.8 beta.

In the top menu: Window->Toggle Window Fullscreen

Or use:

Ctrl+Space

To toggle full screen use:

Ctrl+Alt+Space

To see the shortcuts that changed in 2.8 go to:

https://developer.blender.org/T55194


Non Manifold geometry preventing loop cuts I am modelling a simple treasure chest, shown in the screenshot below. However, I am having issues with loop cuts not cutting through the whole model.

As you can see, the yellow line is the loop cut but I would expect it to follow the red line drawn on the screenshot (excuse the rough drawing).

After a Google search, I tried selecting Non Manifold geometry and this highlighted a few of my edges. I think I understand the concept of Non Manifold geometry, but I don't understand what is wrong with my model or how to get around it.

The blend file is attached.

Downloaded the file, here one solution:

This is only one possible solution but can be applied to both sides of the geometry, you can do other ways, but that depends on what you prefer. That said, it's important to remember that "Face Orientation", picture below lower part, helps to find the problems.

Faces shown as blue represent the outside of the volume of the geometry, red though should only be seen if you literally go between the walls. Can be seen at the end of the gif, showing "one" solution.


Weird shadows in cycles I have made a render, but the shadows appear to be blocky. I already researched this topic and almost every article says to do more subsurf, but I already did a lot of it and it doesn't work. Does anybody know how to fix this?
Thanks in advance,
Ice.

This is called the "terminator artifact", and there's indeed few things you can do about it besides increasing the subsurf level to make the tiles less noticeable.

A workaround has been added to Blender to hide this, and was accepted on may 29th, but it's not yet available in the stable release.
Though it is available in the current daily build of version 2.90.


Operator class retrieval I'm trying to get the class of the operator I made. The operator's bl_idname is "object.primitive_manipulator" and it's class is Object_OT_Edit_PrimitiveManipulator.

What works (Give the correct operator as type()=bpy.ops.BPyOpsSubModOp)

bpy.ops.object.primitive_manipulator works fine.
getattr(bpy.ops.object, "primitive_manipulator")

What doesn't work (Gives the wrong class as type()=bpy.ops.BPyOpsSubMod):

bpy.types.Object_OT_Edit_PrimitiveManipulator
getattr(bpy.ops, "object.primitive_manipulator") (hasattr() returns true but it doesnt show up with dir() on bpy.ops, only object does which is odd)

Both of these last two are the actual methods I need to use to programmatically iterate over an array of operator strings to then get their classes and do stuff (I can use string manipulation but I'm still curious to my below question).

What type is this being returned by the two methods described that won't work, why don't they have any parameters, and what is their purpose?

The actual operator class is only accessible if it's defined in the same script, or imported from another file. It's not a standard Python class however, because it is derived from the Operator type:

import bpy

class PrimitiveManipulatorOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "object.primitive_manipulator"
    bl_label = "Primitive Manipulator"

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

type(PrimitiveManipulatorOperator) # returns <class 'bpy_types.OrderedMeta'>

Upon class registration of an operator class, it is made available as type as bpy.types.OBJECT_OT_primitive_manipulator (which is the bl_idname transformed from Python to C notation):

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

    # returns <class 'bpy_types.OrderedMeta'>
    print(type(bpy.types.OBJECT_OT_primitive_manipulator))

    # fails, the class name isn't used in case of operators
    print(type(bpy.types.PrimitiveManipulatorOperator))

The interface to call operators is via bpy.ops:

bpy.ops.object.primitive_manipulator()

# returns <class 'bpy.ops.BPyOpsSubModOp'>
type(bpy.ops.object.primitive_manipulator())

What can be confusing about bpy.ops (which is <class 'bpy.ops.BPyOps'>), is that hasattr() will always return True:

hasattr(bpy.ops, "object.primitive_manipulator") # True
hasattr(bpy.ops, "foobar") # also True

This is caused by the design of this module-like class and presumably necessary to make proper calls work.

The correct way to programmatically get a reference to the operator for a call is to getattr() twice, as you want to retrieve a property and its sub-property:

op = getattr(getattr(bpy.ops, "object"), "primitive_manipulator")
op() # equivalent to bpy.ops.object.primitive_manipulator()

getattr(bpy.ops, "object.primitive_manipulator") can't work because there is no property "object.primitive_manipulator", there's only "object", which in turn has the property "primitive_manipulator".

>>> type(getattr(bpy.ops, "object"))
<class 'bpy.ops.BPyOpsSubMod'>

>>> type(getattr(bpy.ops, "foo.bar"))
<class 'bpy.ops.BPyOpsSubMod'>

>>> type(getattr(getattr(bpy.ops, "object"), "primitive_manipulator"))
<class 'bpy.ops.BPyOpsSubModOp'>

You may want to resolve the operator name in a loop like this:

def get_operator(idname):
    op = bpy.ops
    for attr in idname.split("."):
        op = getattr(op, attr)
    return op

get_operator("object.primitive_operator")()

# if there's a poll() classmethod, you can also:
get_operator("object.primitive_operator.poll")()

# return a blank function to suppress AttributeErrors
# in case the operator idname does not exist
def get_operator_failsafe(idname):
    op = bpy.ops
    for attr in idname.split("."):
        if attr not in dir(op):
            return lambda: None
        op = getattr(op, attr)
    return op

get_operator_failsafe("foo.bar")()


How precisely repeat shapes? Hi I want to find easiest way how to model a circle with circular holes:

The holes should be precisely positioned (e.g. every 15°).

Model the circle
Add cylinder (⇧ ShiftA), then enter edit mode (↹ Tab) and select everything (A)
Scale the cylinder (S) so it has the same radius as desired for the holes
Move it over on the X or Y axis so it intersects the circle (GX)
Exit edit mode (↹ Tab)
Add an empty (⇧ ShiftA) and rotate it 15° on the Z (RZ15)
Add an array modifier to the cylinder
Disable relative offset and enable object offset
Specify the empty as the offset object in the array modifier
Note: You can press E while hovering over the object selection box to pick an object by clicking in the 3D view
Increase the count until there are cylinders all around the circle
Add a boolean modifier to the circle
Specify the cylinder object as the boolean target
Set the boolean operation to difference
Apply the boolean modifier
Delete now unneeded cylinder object and empty


Is it possible to exclude a bone from automatic keyframing? I have a bone I use as a switch but I don't want it to keyframe while in automatic keyframing mode, in my case in visual LocRot.

Is there a way to disable keyframes for this bone to eliminate it from automatic keying?

Since automatic keyframing inserts keyframes for all the objects/bones in your 3d view, the easiest way is to take the bones you don't want keyframed and remove them from the 3d view. You can do that by hiding them, or add them to a bone layer that you hide when not animating that switch.


Upper leg bends inside lower leg I have a problem with the knee, it doesn't bend smoothly, it's just getting inside each other, please help, I was struggling with it the whole day, I managed to do the hand but the leg is a lot harder.

Thanks for your attention!

P.S. Fist time asking help :)

For this you may want to subdivide the object, then make it a softbody. When animated, the softbody will collide with itself (with the right settings), and it won't look as weird. Make sure you check the Self collision box so that it does collide with itself.


Brand new to Blender. Should I download 2.79 or 2.8 beta? I am unsure which version to download. If the interface is different in 2.8 then there does not seem any point in using 2.79?

Any advice welcome

thank you

Blender 2.80 is a beta version, under heavy development (there are still 1121 bugs as I'm writing: https://developer.blender.org/maniphest/project/2/type/Bug/). It is a major version, with a lot of changes in the workflow.

Therefore, as of now, 2.79 is more suitable for projects as it has more documentation and is way more stable.

If you are simply willing to explorer Blender, to learn it, and are ready to accept random crashes or occasional unexpected behaviour, you can go for 2.80.

If you are also new to CG, you should go for 2.79 but have a play with 2.80 to get ready for a future transition.


Quickest way to select last edge loop? Got a cube and can select the internal edge loops easy enough with alt+right click. How ever the last loop which makes an external face won't select in the same way? What's the quickest way to select this loop in an editing workflow?

See the video here

In cases of hard surface meshes like blocks, buildings etc. it's possible to select faces similar by normals or co-planar faces and convert that into the boundary loop.

Select one face in the area around which you'd like to select 4 edge loops.
Select similar faces of that area (use Shift+G > Normal or Shift+G > Co-planar).
From the Select menu in the 3D Viewport header find Select Boundary Loop (or press Ctrl+E and find it in the list).

Note that this most likely will select more than expected once your geometry is complex enough (e.g. there are more blocks like this where faces' normals are pointed into the same direction etc.)

One more possible thing is to select edges by their sharpness. It's accessible through Select > Sharp Edges. Similar effect will have Shift+G > Face Angles.

Note that this will select sharp edges across all the mesh (above some threshold).


How to link a segment to a bone to get a better result? I'm making a rig in blender, pretty simple one, the only problem right now is this:

You can see it's pretty messed up.
I want to get to this result:

So I think I need to rotate the loop cut in the middle of the arm, or something like that, but I want it to be automatic when I rotate the bone. Could anyone help me please? I've been stuck on this for 5 days. (No joke, I'm still a begginer, and everywhere I look, it's either for v2.7 and below, or they use a more complex rig and thus blender works fine.)

Maybe simply shearing the edge loop at the elbow?


How can i animate my object with one bone? I`m trying making an animation with an wand to my game, i follow this tutorial from Blender Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZ3o5tjO51s

I create my wand with 3 separeted meshs and merge with CTRL+j then i create an armature with only one bone and set inside:

Then i selected both armature and wand and click parent with automatic weights.

But when i move the armature in pose mode the wand don't move. Is there a diferent set to make a object move with only one bone

The correct procedure in to select in object mode the mesh first, the armature second (with shift select), then press Ctrl P and choose with automatic weights option. In this way moving in pose mode the bone will move the mesh strictly tied. Another (and better) way is to choose the "bone" option, which can be used when the mesh doesn't have to be deformed (in your case, in which you have one bone only, the result is exactly the same).


Model stretches when posing in blender I have a problem with my model that I can't seem to fix. I looked all over the internet, but I can't find any answers.

I'm making a model for a demo and when I pose it in pose mode, some of the vertices get left behind. how can I fix this?

Also I'm having this strange issue where the tail stretches when I pull on the arms. How can I fix this as well?

That means that a few vertices aren't weighted to any of your bones. Select your rig, go to Pose Mode, then select your mesh and go to Weight Paint Mode. Now select the bone that should be controlling those vertices and using the Add Brush add some weight to those vertices and they will automatically update and follow the bone you have selected. You can make two or more bones control a vertex by giving that vertex a weight from multiple bones.


render on a transparent background (volume is almost invisible) I ran into a problem. If I render on a transparent background, then the output volume is almost invisible.

As you can see, the fire after the render almost disappears. :(

That is, I try to get the result like on the left preview

In addition:
If I remove the transparency, everything becomes normal, but the point is to get a tank with a shot on a transparent background

Thank you in advance! If something is wrong, feel free to edit

The problem was solved through the composer.
I found the answer in one of the old posts of one of the participants Gez.
In discussion: Transparent Image different in viewport than render

Another pretty good solution, namely the “Attempt 1”. Thanks to the user jozxyqk
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/32964/63657


Mirror modifier. Instead of just moving the mirrored vertices it creates new vertex on each side I have encountered a weird behavior when I try to move one or more vertex connected to mirrored ones. instead of just moving the mirrored ones it creates new vertex on each side connected to the old ones an example of the behavior I am encountering can be see in this picture.
This was a simple cube in which I tried to move an edge while the mirror modifier was active, is there any way I can prevent this behavior?

Turn on Bisect, it will cut the model in the middle and mirror it instead of copying/reversing it.


in my simulation some of the water is stuck on walls blender 2.82 so i tried water simulation (pouring water in glass) and the water is almost stuck in the wall and wery slowly going down blue particles on the picture blender: 2.82

Go to the Liquid menu. Check Fractional Obstacles, and drag that value all the way up to 1.

The reason this is happening is that the fluid simulator is actually based upon lots of 3D "cells". The cup, in a fluid simulation point of view, is basically a lot of obstacle cubes stacked together. The size of these cubes is determined by the fluid resolution. This causes a stair-stepping effect like the one you are seeing, where the liquid stands on a seemingly sloped surface.

By using the Fraction Obstacles feature, it is telling the fluid simulator to make the cell representation of an obstacle more like the original mesh bysmoothing it out.


Node wrangler not working blender2.82a in Mac OS I am using Mac Book air as my device and I am new to Blender.

Node wrangler shortcut like Shift + Cmd + Left Click  or Cmd + Space  bar doesn’t work as they coincide with the system shortcut eg. Cmd + Space Bar  in the node editor, instead of maximizing the view, it open up spotlight search of the system.

Because of this I am not able to use node such as temporary view, etc.

Thanks everyone for reading. For those with the same issue, there are two hotkeys for mac.
One with the combination of keys and mouse with CMD (similar to CTRL in windows) and another with CTRL instead of CMD in case it's in conflict with system hotkey.


How to find out which objects share the same color? I have created a scene with a lot of objects and I'd like to clean up the project. My question is: how can I find out which objects share the same color?

There are 2 objects that share the same color, 1 object is the cube but where is the second Object?

You can use the outliner to filter the scene collection by name.

So you can use it in order to search using the material name.

Once done select all the filtered objects using A in the outliner.


Is there any way to clean a triangulated mesh? I've been handed some off the shelf meshes to use and I'm finding a number of them have really dirty geometry which is causing an issue with rendering them in (three.js).

Screen shot of the geometry mesh can be seen here:  actual mesh can be downloaded here http://just.dabe.co.uk/dump/three/model/iphone4.obj

The problem is when using THREE.SmoothShading the bad geometry shows up. Is there a tool that can fix a mesh so the polys are equally spaced etc?

I wouldn't recommend retopo for a relatively simple mesh, just create it from scratch scale a cube and add a bevel modifier (apply it when your're happy with the result):

Than add two loop cuts like in the next image this will help to avoid crazy meshes when using Knife project


Graph Editor Shows No Keyframes Trying to use the graph editor but I see no keyframes to an existing camera path. I want to eventually alter the speed of the camera path by manipulating the keyframes in the graph editor. How do I find / reveal the keyframes in the graph editor?

The simplest method to find keyframes in the Graph Editor or Dope Sheet is to disable the "Show Only Selected" filter. With that off keyframes on all non hidden objects will show, not just the selected object(s) which is the default.
The button right next to it (dashed square icon) is the Show Hidden filter. With that off (as shown in the image below) all keyframes will display.


Animating orthographic scale on a camera, can't select the action in the action editor I added some keyframes on the Orthographic Scale property of a camera to add a zoom to a 2D animation, and I can see the action it created in the NLA strip but I can't seem to find it in the Action Editor on the dope sheet when I want to go back and make changes. Is there any way to edit this action?

Aha, figured it out - you can't open it in the Action Editor since it's not an object level action, but you can bring it up in the dopesheet for editing by selecting it in the NLA Editor and hitting Edit->Start Tweaking Strip Actions


Where is the edge loop hotkey set in the keymap section of 2.8? Alt+LMB does nothing, and I'm trying to determine if this is a bug and the nature of the issue so I can report it. In looking at the keymap settings, I can find "Edge Ring Select" twice, but not "Edge Loop" which should be Alt+LMB.

Can someone tell me where specifically I can find this hotkey to make sure it's present and set? (ie what is the full path to it in the Keymap tree, or what search term will show it)?

Is there a way to add it back manually?

I've tested this on the Feb and April 14th builds of 2.8 and the same issue is present. I've also reset to factory defaults.

The ⎇ Alt-Select can be found under "Loop Select" and should exist in the default settings.

Edge loop select refers to edges that are connected end to end, while edge ring is a ring of parallel edges between two edge loops.


Song always starts at the beginning Currently whenever I render an audio clip it always starts from the beginning regardless of where I am in the audio clip. It's obviously a bug, but any idea on how to fix this?

You should turn the options: "AV-sync" and "Audio Scrubbing" on. It should help fix your problem.


Why my object size has changed while appending? I'm trying to follow an online course. I was creating my models on separate files and appending them to my scene. Until today, everything was working correctly. But now when I append my object, its size changes and it becomes very huge. Here is the screenshot of my scene:

I added every piece by File->Append... and didn't touch their size because they were already in the correct size but now when I append something it gets very huge. What would be the problem? Are there anything to follow while appending objects?
EDIT: Here are some steps that I go through before the problem occurs:

Added the plane surface to my scene
Set its coordinates to (0, 0, 0) by using 3D cursor
Realized that my chess board is floating so tried to set its coordinates to (0, 0, 0)
Tried to move all pieces at once by using 3D cursor and messed around with Apply Transforms option
Realized that my knight now looks weird because I didn't apply the mirror modifier in the original .blend file and it's now mirroring in the wrong axis
Deleted knight, appended it again but it comes with incorrect size now

I'm sorry if there are still missing details in my question. I don't know what to share as I'm new to Blender and 3D modelling in general.

The problem is solved. It appeared to be my mistake. When I complete the scene, I resized everything to make them fit in my view of camera because they were huge (the board's size was 48 Blender Units and the whole grid is 10 Blender Units as far as I know). So the newly appended objects were in correct size but every other object in my scene was too small compared to their original size.

... and didn't touch their size ...

Well... I think this doesn't count because I didn't resize them individually so I don't remember it while asking the question :D


How can I make a peach material similar to this picture? Do you have any idea how to make a peach material like in the picture? So that it is also a bit shiny and that it also becomes darker at the bottom just as in the picture.

Switch Color Management from Filmic to Standard
The rest seems to get Color Ramp
Colors I grabbed by picker directly from your screen

... or you can let contribute also Ambient Occlusion.


High poly mesh too high I'm new to blender so I'm very confused and don't really have a work flow yet. I blindly sculpted a model and now the poly's are too high to texture paint or vertex paint it. I know I have to like retopologize it or UV unwrapp it, but I'm super new at this and am just confused on what to do next and how to go about it. Could anyone give me some insight on the steps I should be taking after building a high poly mesh and not wanting to lose detail? (3,314,926 verts) Thanks!!!

Maybe you can try to use the "Decimate" modifier.
It will try to reduce the number of poly but keeping the global geometry of your mesh.
You can also search for some retopology workflow, or some addon.
And last, you can try to use some other tool for Blender like Instant Mesh
https://github.com/wjakob/instant-meshes


Is the screenshot dialog part of a python script? Someone just asked whether it would be possible to change the default for an export script. I rightclicked the button>>Edit Source and got this instructive message:

"Active Button is not from a script, cannot edit source."

And I thought to myself... hm... yeah... bull...

So I found the script because I already knew where to look and answered the question, hopefully satisfactorily.

It so happens that I post the occasional screenshot in here and it's almost always just a region, not the whole window.

Could above message be wrong again?

Is it possible that the screenshot dialog has some python code hidden deep wthin the installation bowels where I can turn True into False, so "full Screen" doesn't bother me anymore?

If yes, where would it be? My motivation to compile from source is somewhat limited.

Set default settings in the shortcut.

As a workaround to editing scripts, set the properties in the shortcut. As long as the operator is invoked using the shortcut, the new settings will be used.

For screenshot the default shortcut is CtrlF3

Edit settings from  User Preferences > Input > Screen > Save Screenshot  Uncheck "Full Screen" setting on the keymap editor.

A "helper" operator

Alternatively, can write a simple helper operator with the settings you want already set.  For example having to type in the filename each time. Sample script below saves screenshot into a folder of your choosing and simply timestamps the filename.  Change screen.screenshot to screen.area_screeny in keyset above and not have to bother with invoking the file select dialog.  The script is based on scripting > templates > python > operator simple

import bpy

def main(context):
    from os import path
    from datetime import datetime
    directory = "/home/batfinger/Pictures/"
    filename = "Blender%s.png" % str(datetime.now())
    filepath = path.join(directory, filename)
    bpy.ops.screen.screenshot(filepath=filepath, full=False)

class SimpleOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "screen.area_screeny"
    bl_label = "Area Screeny"

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return True

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

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    # test call
    bpy.ops.screen.area_screeny()

Note: edit the directory above to suit.


Speaker sound does not play when set with Python I am trying to import and set the sound of a freshly created speaker using Python. Strangely the sound plays normally when I import it manually, but when I use Python to do the same thing it does not. Even when imported via script, the sound still shows up normally in the speaker-menu.
This is my code:

bpy.ops.object.speaker_add()
bpy.ops.sound.open_mono(filepath=my_file_path)
bpy.data.speakers["Speaker"].sound = bpy.data.sounds[os.path.basename(path)]

I have made sure my file path is correct.

If my_file_path is a relative path, use the absolute file path instead.

Be aware that bpy.ops.sound.open_mono gives no warning or error message even if the audio file is not found (or does not exist). The sound still shows up normally in the speaker-menu but you can't hear anything.

I also had to call update_tag() and relink the speaker to the collection. I have no clue why this is necessary, but the following code works in Blender 2.83:

my_file_path = "/absoulute/path/to/test.mp3"
bpy.ops.object.speaker_add()
speaker = bpy.context.object
speaker.data.sound = bpy.data.sounds.load(my_file_path)
speaker.data.update_tag()
bpy.context.collection.objects.unlink(speaker)
bpy.context.collection.objects.link(speaker)


Rotate does not update dimensions I'm new to Blender and I'm following some tutorial and reading the documentation.
Here is described how to rotate or scale an object.

I imported an stl file that is shown rotated of 45 degrees on z-axis.
When I select, its dimensions are:

X 201 m
Y 201 m
Z 15 m

This is because it's rotated of 45° as said (it's a magic wand, like a rod).
So I rotated it by 45° using the transform panel (or R key).
Well, now it's aligned to the Y axis!

But the dimensions are still the same!
I'm expecting something like:

X 15 m
Y 283 m
Z 15 m

I'm in trouble now because I cannot scale it as desired.
Surely I'm missing something obvious... but I cannot find it out from the documentation.

If you want to check final size after a rotation, you need to apply the rotation: CONTROL+A > APPLY ROTATION

before rotation applied:

after rotation applied:

more info:

  Applying transform values essentially resets the values of object’s
  position, rotation, or scale, but does not actually do anything to the
  object. The object origin point is moved to the global origin and the
  transform values are set to zero. In terms of scale, the scale values
  return to 1.

  To apply a transform select the Apply sub-menu from the Object menu or
  use the shortcut Ctrl-A and select the appropriate transform to apply.
  The Operator panel lets you choose the combination of transformations
  to apply.


How to arrange UV mapping to Square as like attached video? At 01:30 on the below video, UVs arranged to Square as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lvpNM1DrYU
If I do follow this action(select all>UV Cylinder Projection), UVs become like below picture(4st).
I would like to know how to fix my UVs as well..
1st picture: modeling
2nd picture: original UVs
3st picture: youtuber's result
4st picture: my result

Your view is taken into account when you choose Unwrap > Cylinder Projection, you need to be in front orthographic view when you unwrap.


How can I simulate the atmosphere for an animation of sunrise? I'm trying to create an animation of sunrise,
I searched for some videos and I noticed the sky has multiple color,
For example it starts with purple from black, goes to Yellow  then turns into light blue(day sky color)-

I tried gradient material on a dome with no luck.

How can I simulate this in blender cycles?
Can I use volumetrics and multiple light colors?
Fog? Or what?
My scene is in the sea so I need all around lighting which will have different colors.
I did some research but unfortunately I didn't find anyone who made something similar.

Thank you for your answers.
Cheers.

If you are talking about Cycles, try using the Sky Texture parameter node in the World settings tab. With it you can create a semi-realistic sky with a sun. The sky and sun reacts in color to the position it is in. You control the position with the shadowed sphere gimbal.

If you need more control, I would probably start trying to connect nodes with color ramps and curves.


Finding python operator for every tool within Blender To calculate an oriented bounding box as defined here. I need the convex hull of an object. I know that there is an operator in Blender to do this, since you can go to edit mode, press spacebar and type "convex hull".
However, I have been unable to figure out how to call this operator from python. I know that one can usually find a python operator by hovering over the respective UI element one uses to invoke the operation from the interface, but that does not work in the spacebar-search.

Therefore:
Does anybody know of a reliable way to find the python operator for each tool within Blender?

If you pull down the main menu an area appears which shows the log of invoked operators (I don't know the name of this area).

There you can find operators which are not displayed in tooltips.


When I open blender, my textures and materials turn bright pink? When I open blender, the textures and materials I used turn bright pink. Does anyone know how to help?

This means that Blender can't find your textures. So you either moved or deleted these textures. Simply relocate your textures for your material and it will look like normal. You can pack all of the external data (images, sound files, video files and appended data) into your blend file but this will heavily increase the size of it, to do this: File> External Data> Pack all.


Topology question regarding circular holes Hopefully general topology questions are ok here. If not then I apologize. I'm still new and trying to focus on topology. I'm working on an insect type model (bee/wasp) and have kept it all quads but have now inserted circular holes for the legs.

My question is: if this is intended for a video game should I use n-gons to "contain" the holes and keep it low poly? Or insert edge loops to keep it all quads? Will having n-gons around the holes cause problems for texturing and animating later? Also I noticed that the edge loops I added makes the model all quads but also introduces 6 sided poles, is that bad? Did I do it incorrectly?

I've attached images with and without the edge loops. Thanks so much for any insight you can provide. I want to be confident in my topology choices.

Image without "extra loops"

Image with "extra loops" (and 6 sided poles :/)

Reference Image (still a ways to go lol)

For a game engine, use triangles. Most game engines do not support ngons anyway, and the ones that do are just converting the ngon to triangles.

In general modeling, you should try to avoid triangles and ngons (there are some cases where they are ok), however when modeling for a game, low poly takes precedent over nice topology, so triangles are normal.

In your case, even if it was not a game model, I would not want a ngon in the middle of the model. Ngons have a nasty way of deforming a model, and any ngon that is not perfectly flat will cause shading artifacts.

What is the technical difference between an Ngon and a bunch of Tri's?
When should N-Gons be used, and when shouldn't they?


Blender Stereoscopy, What glasses I see that blender supports Steroscopy in the viewport. What kind of modes are there and which glasses are needed. I am not sure if this is considered off-topic but it is useful to know nevertheless.

Display Modes:

Anaglyph
Interlace
V-Interlace
Side-by-Side
Quad-Buffer

This feature is not officially in Blender yet, but probably the behavior will not change when it is added.

With a regular monitor, only Anaglyph will give you the 3D effect, and for that you would use the typical red-cyan anaglyph glasses.

The other display modes are meant for 3D monitors or projectors, and you would pick the display mode that works for your device. Those devices would come with the appropriate glasses if they are needed.


Volume Scatter Causing More and More Fireflies with More Samples I am trying to create a cloud of dust, and the volume scatter is creating a large amount of fireflies. However, unlike the other posts I've read, increasing the samples creates more fireflies, and as the accumulate, they create shiny, reflective spots around the edges of my mesh. I have a single spotlight and a blue background to light up the volumetric mesh, and changing lighting features such as "Casts Shadows" and "Multiple Importance" seems to have no effect.

Here's an example of the problem with 50 samples:

one with 200:

and finally one with 500

As you can see the fireflies get more and more concentrated around the edges as the samples go up, and create weird highlights and reflections in the end.

I will note that I am an advanced Blender user, and I am very familiar with eliminating fireflies, but these ones seem to defy logic. I've never seen a problem like this. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Graves.

Try increasing and decreasing the size of your spot light, to see its effect.

Consider adding a large plane with emissive light settings and a "go between" opaque plane with a hole in it to substitute for a spot light.

Also consider setting your rendering "clamp indirect" to 0.1 or 0.2 to clean up the fireflies.


Vray-like displacement I've recently started using Blender in favour of 3ds max with Vray. 3ds max allowed me to use a detailed displacement map on a simple plane which resulted in 3D displacement. It was very effetive to create intricaty with minimal amount of modelling and keeping the files light. Blender seems not to be able to do this. In order to displace the mesh needs to be heavily subdivided to produce pleasing results. Is this correct, or am I missing something? Is there plans to implement this in Blender?

Ludvig

Is this what you mean?

Blender/Cycles has render-time displacement in the (still in 2.81) Experimental feature set.

It can be combined with Adaptive Subdivision

This plane is subdivided only once in the working geometry:

The rest is done at render-time:

(In its Properties tab > Surface panel, the material's Displacement settings include 'Displacement')


What is the simplest way to remove objects from a group inside of an Animation Nodes Node tree? I am attempting to create an animated particle that is an instance of a group that is created with nodes. I have been able to successfully add instanced objects to a group. While this is working fine, it is removing the objects from the group once the instance count has been reduced seems to be the only sticking point. I have tried unlinking every object in the group, from it that is beyond the index value of the instances, how ever i can not get it to remove all objects from the group or i can not get it to add all instances too the group. Can any one point me to a method that can add all objects and remove them all as well as simply as possible?

There is a node called Object Group Operations. It can link/unlink objects from Object Groups. By using this in a loop you can link them all to the group.

There is no node to remove all objects from a group.


The smoke domain is completely filled with smoke The domain is filled with smoke before the simulation started.

That is normal. As long as there is no simulated smoke, the complete volume of the domain is filled with the volumetric material.


Boolean modifier is giving intersection instead of difference I cannot get the boolean modifier right in the following file: para3.blend

What I want is to subtract the parabolic shape ("para") from the cube.

The cube is supposed to have some kind of trough after the operation.

You need to unify the normal vectors of your parabola extrusion and then the boolean will display correctly.

To unify the normal vectors:

Select the parabola extrusion in the 3D view
Hit Tab to enter edit mode
Hit A to select all of the mesh
Hit CtrlN to recalculate the normals of the outsides
This makes all of the faces point in the same direction which is necessary for Boolean operations (and a lot of other stuff) to work correctly.
Hit Tab again to exit edit mode.  You'll need to hide the 'Para' object to see the effect as shown.


How can I instance linked assets with attached armatures? For a short film project I created many assets, each in it's own blend file. Some of the assets contains armatures. I want to link these into the movie scene file, instantiate them multiple times and animate each instance individually.
Is this possible?
Currently I achieved something similar only by duplicating the assets into the scene file which break the ability to update the placeholder assets.
Is there a good workflow?
Greetings

I solved my problem by trying out and want to share my solution.
Using "Duplicate Linked" is exactly what I was trying to achieve:

After rename and reparent the linked collection I could individually pose each door:

The armature, the mesh and all materials are linked to the asset library file and changes are reflected in the movie file.
Hope to help others with same problem :-)
Greetings


using particle system to cover hollow objects I want to use particle system to put particles on the inside of this hollow cylinder (to project from inner surface to the hollow cavity or lumen) but when i use particle system it automatically covers the outside of the cylinder with particles.

Although you can give hair a negative length,

it is better to change normal directions

or solidify a tube and choose what faces to generate particles on.


Bevel doesn't look right Beveling used to work as one might expect, but something changed and now the bevel is funky.

I would like to see a smooth arc of 90 degrees.  Instead, the arc appears to go about 20-25 degrees before changing abruptly.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Make you you apply object transformation. If you resized the object, the modifiers will still be subject to warped dimensions.


How to make particles emit from certain parts of a 3D object? I made a spaceship with animation and I want the particles to come out from only the thrusters but it's coming out from all over the spaceship!

Use Vertex Groups.

In edit mode
Use Vertex Groups in the Particle System Settings ... Sub Panel Vertex Groups.

In [edit mode] a vertex group was created
The same group was used in the Particles System Panel ...  Density.
Quick Tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzRS2cCiBnc


How to improve "square" artifacts on smoke simulation? I have the following smoke. I am noticing some "square" artifacts. For example in Houdini this situation can be solved by selecting the Gaussian filter, however this is not the case. Any ideas? Thank you guys.

There are a few thing that you need to play with to get the right look.

Make sure your render samples are high enough.
Under the geometry dropdown make sure you change the step size.

Make sure your divisions are high enough in the domain object.

I actually created a preset pack (for Cycles) of different smoke elements to get started quicker. I also created a material to control the smoke a little easier. Its not perfect but its good for a lot of scenarios.

Hope this helps.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/23859364/Pollution.zip


Why do these shadow catcher planes seem to let light pass through making new direct shadows to appear? I'm solving a VFX problem: virtually stage an indoor scene.
My workflow:

Create a room, carve out windows, assign material and use HDRI to light the scene.
Add the objects on the floor and walls.
Make all objects created in step 1 "Shadow Catcher"
Render the scene.

Problem:
While the objects seem to have been lit with global illumination, they also seem to cast direct shadows as if the HDRI was lighting the scene without the walls in the way.
Here's the rendered image:

To compare, I disabled shadow catcher planes and rendered the whole scene. The dark shadows are no where to be found and the shadows look consistent with the scene. (pls ignore the blotchy look on the wall; too few samples)

Given the popularity of shadow catchers, this problem might be due to my limited understanding how they need to be used. Please advise.

Shadow catcher is most of the time used to blend CGI Objects into real world scenes, you could also use the shadow catcher to render an object with transparent but with the shadow below. These are not the only ways to use the shadow catcher, but some examples. Blender Manual


Controlling vector mapping using object geometry I'm building a shader where a single UV-mapped texture is applied as the back and front of a plane using the geometry > backfacing property. The mapped image looks like this:

In the end the top part should be on the front and the bottom part should be on the back. That would look something like this:

This node setup does the trick and so far it's working as expected:

Now, in this simplified setup, both image texture nodes load the same file. Only their vector input is different. What I would like to do now is have the geometry node define the Vector mapping rather than to have two image texture nodes and two diffuse nodes.

The reason is that in my final implementation there are five image texture nodes, each defining a property like diffuse, glossy, glass, roughness, ...
The whole setup is powered by a python script so I prefer to define five different image texture nodes rather than ten.

Yes, you can do this pretty easily in Cycles using a Mix RGB node.  Since Cycles considers colors and vectors to be no different from each other you can actually run vectors through color sockets and vice-versa.

Just use a Mix RGB node to mix the two vectos with the Backfacing value plugged into the factor.  You can then plug the "Color" output from the Mix node right into the image texture nodes.


Blender 2.73a crashes on start up I am using windows 7 64-bit, freshly installed. I installed Blender 2.73a but after installation, when I open blender it crashes (Blender has stopped working), but Blender 2.68 works perfectly fine.

A similar question has been asked before but the solutions haven't helped.

If the problem is related to having a PYTHONPATH environment variable set, you can do the following so you don't have to modify your PYTHONPATH variable. I am running 2.75a and this fixed my problem.

Make a batch file somewhere like your desktop

To do so, create a blank .txt document and name it blender.bat (MAKE SURE THE EXTENSION IS .bat and not .txt)

Edit blender.bat and add the text below

set PYTHONPATH=""
cd C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\
start blender.exe

Your blender path may be different, so make sure you find the correct path
run blender.bat

This will temporarily set the PYTHONPATH to "" (nothing) during your blender session but is restored after you close.


Is it possible to copy data from one scene and paste it into another within the same .blend file? I want to create a variation of one of my earlier scenes in one of my games, and I was wondering if it is at all possible to just copy that original scene and then paste it in as a new scene or inside a new scene so I don't have to go about recreating the whole scene again and focus on the variations themselves.

There are other ways to get data from another scene:

A) when you create a new scene, you're given several choices:

(taken from the relevant manual section)
"

New Creates an empty scene with default values.

Copy Settings Creates an empty scene, but also copies the settings from the active scene into the new one.

Link Objects This option creates a new scene with the same settings and contents as the active scene. However, instead of copying the objects, the new scene contains links to the objects in the old scene. Therefore, changes to objects in the new scene will result in the same changes to the original scene, because the objects used are literally the same. The reverse is also true.

Link Object Data Creates new, duplicate copies of all of the objects in the currently selected scene, but each one of those duplicate objects will have links to the object-data (meshes, materials and so on) of the corresponding objects in the original scene.

This means that you can change the position, orientation and size of the objects in the new scene without affecting other scenes, but any modifications to the object-data (meshes, materials, etc.) will also affect other scenes. This is because a single instance of the “object-data” is now being shared by all of the objects in all of the scenes, that link to it. This has the effect of making a new independent copy of the object-data.

Full Copy Using this option, nothing is shared. This option creates a fully independent scene with copies of the active scene’s contents. Every object in the original scene is duplicated, and a duplicate, private copy of its object-data is made as well.

"

B) You can link any object from one scene to another.

As this other "Make Links" manual section says

"
Links objects between scenes or data-blocks of the active object to all selected objects. In some case (i.e. Object Data, Modifier) the target objects must be of the same type than the active one or capable of receiving the data. The existing data-block of which will be unlinked from them.

Objects to Scene... Lets you create links to the selected objects into a different scene than the current one. A scene name must be chosen other than that of the current one. The Link Objects to Scene Operator panel lets you choose between scenes.

This makes the same object exist in two different scenes at once, including its position and animation data. The object’s origin will change its color.

"


Non-destructive design around a circle/cylinder I want to create a ring with smooth custom details around its rim. Basically a Blender alternative to SolidWorks wrap function.

Does anyone know how to create a ring like the one in the picture?

Ideally I want to make it non-destructively using curves.

Thanks in advanced

I don't know if you can do it with curves and full non-destructive, but here is a way to do it with mesh and destructive...  ;)

Create your wave profile.
Bend it 360° with the Simple Deform modifier / Bend mode.
Give your object a Solidify modifier.
Give it a Bevel modifier / Angle mode so that the angles will be sharp when you'll add the Subdivision Surface modifier. You might prefer a Bevel / Weight mode if you want to have a different bevel on top and bottom. Or add some edge loops instead of Bevel modifier.
Add a Subdivision Surface modifier to smooth your object, also, smooth it with Smooth shading option.
It looks like you can't avoid the seam where the 360° shape joins, so I guess you need to apply the Simple Deform modifier.
Once you've done it, remove the doubles so that it joins properly.
Link-duplicate the ring with altD.
Rotate this copy 180° on the Y axis.
Create the inner ring.


thoughts on separated geometry this is the initial mesh

but the problem is that the ring i added creates this undesired effet

i found a solution that is leaving the mesh separated

the only other solution I can think of would require increasing the number of rings, but i'm trying to keep it lowpoly. What are your thoughts on this solution i've found? could it cause some problem later down the line?

The line is being caused by a "crease" which is the result of 2 edges being too close together on a curved surface. Although the inner edge is necessary for the geometry of the "top part", it is interfering with your mesh where the geometry is not needed.
One thing you could do is grab a section of the inner edge in the middle of each "gap" and edge slide (G + G) it so it pulls the second edge away from the first where they don't need to be close together. There may still be some artifacts in the corners though (circled in yellow), and if this ends up looking too incorrect, you may be best going with 2 separate pieces.


Can I use a programmable gaming mouse for modelling Hi I just wanted to know if I could use a gaming mouse (with programmable 6 button) and assign the extra buttons to some modelling tool hotkeys in blender. Is there any option to add the extra buttons on the mouse to add an assignment like that?

Thanks in advance.

There is no problem, just press the mouse button when setting up the shortcut and Blender will recognize it as Button5 Mouse for example.

You can also set the mouse keys in most mouse management software to act like Ctrl, Alt, etc.

Lastly check if there are good drivers for your gaming mouse if you are on Linux or MacOS.


Why does my render result look different than the rendered preview in the 3D view This is the rendered preview.

This is the render result.

I tried to increase the sample size but the problem persists. I want the render to look like the rendered preview.

You seem to have an active compositing step. To disable all compositing, uncheck the Compositing checkbox under Post Processing in the Properties Area.

Compositing alters the image after it is rendered, it is set up in node editor. You could also delete all compositing nodes, alternatively to turning compositing off.


rotating linked torri with arrow mapping I am trying to map an image of an arrow around a torus and then rotate the torus to animate it, around both its major axis and its minor axis.
I have had responses to this issue back in 2018, but now I need it to work and I do not have the means or ability to figure out why shift-r does not do anything in the blender I have. I believe blender can do what I need, but it has yet to be proven to me, as no one has yet done the animated torri with the arrow images at full bleed. If it can be done and the blender file provided to me, especially if I can animate expanding torri and the whole linked torri spinning in space as well as rotating around both axis (all four - two major and two minor), I am willing to pay money for that blender file.  I do not have the time to get up to speed with blender this time around. I appreciate the work, skill and talent, required and involved, based on my experience with Autocad mostly back in 1991 as well as the early 2000's.
I have tried using armatures in the torus and rotating the armatures both around the minor axis and the major axis of the the torus but this kinks the surface of the torus.
The single arrow, on a grid 24x24, extends to the full extent of the torus' surface, which is divided into 24x24 faces to facilitate mapping - whether in Blender or not, but in 2D animation.
Ultimately two torri are linked, each with its own arrow image, one positive and the other negative.
The positive arrow on one torrus maps into the negative hole arrow in the other torrus.
Here is a link to the entire completed animation done in 2D: https://www.sites.google.com/site/hesusjoychrist/home/hesus-joy-christ/the-spirit-of-one-animated
I would like to be able to duplicate this 2D animation in 3D Blender.
I need to be able to animate the segments of the torri so that they can expand and contract. This I will have to figure out myself I suppose.  So I think I need armatures that can influence both and each torri to fatten and thin as they rotate.
Here are some more images to illustrate the mapping: Male positive Arrow image mapping Female negative Arrow image mapping.

Here is a 2D map of the arrows, but I am using 12x12 rather than 10x10, and the arrows are full bleed in that they both extend each to the limit of the torrus mappings.

That can be something like this (if I understand the question...):

The idea is to hook a grid (1x2 proportions) then simple deform bend twice to make a torus and finally weld to remove doubles.
Then if we move the hook object (only in X/Y axis), that will rotate around the simple deform with bend option.

In short:

Hook will move all vertices (in the animation, just move the hook empty in X/Y so that the arrow will move around the torus)
Simple deform / bend 360 makes a tube
Simple deform / bend 360 makes a torus
Weld merges doubles


BGE: How do I setup camera collision? I'm trying to make a game, and the camera goes beyond the walls of the room. Is there a way to stop the camera from doing that? Also, if it cannot be done without logic bricks only, can I please have a thorough explanation of the code used?

I'm basically trying to implement a system where if the camera collides with a wall, it moves a little forward.

Here's the .blend: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1cRCpiEAXrtOGxWYmRNS3c5RTg/view?usp=sharing

I understand how this is a "noob" problem; but quick searches online either revealed methods that did not suit my needs, or methods that did not work.

Thanks.

This can be done with a  very simple script. I've been using it out of a question asked earlier, but I can't find it anymore, so kudos for whoever made it.
Essentially, this script uses a ray of variable length and moves the camera to the position that the ray hits at. Your going to need to add an empty that points toward the place you want the camera to be, and then put your mouse-look logic on the empty, not the player (at least for the up/down axis)

from bge import logic

def collision(cont):

    own = cont.owner
    scene = logic.getCurrentScene()
    replace = scene.objects['ReplaceEmpty']
    target = scene.objects['Camera.001']
    ray = cont.sensors['Ray']

if ray.positive:
    target.worldPosition = ray.hitPosition

also, (I'm not a code monkey) you'd probably need something on the end like

else:
    target.worldPosition = replace.worldPosition

then, simple rig that up to a TLT always sensors, and Viola! cam-collision!


Why is Ctrl + J not doing anything? I'm trying to follow this tutorial: Create a Realistic City - Blender Tutorial

At timestamp 6:38, he selected all of the objects (using A) then joined them together using Ctrl+J. However, when I use Ctrl+J, nothing seems to happen.

I am using Blender v2.78

This can be a solution in GUI:

Step one: make sure the ojects that you want to join are of the same type, i.e. all are meshes.

Step two: select the first object.

Step three: select the second object.

Step four: click 'Join' button shown in the screenshot here (yellow arrow)


Separator within an EnumProperty I'm trying to insert an separator to an EnumProperty like used in the Operator object.select_by_type. This is the Property used by this Operator (blender-2.77a.tar/blender-2.77a/source/blender/makesrna/intern/rna_object.c - it's written in C):

EnumPropertyItem rna_enum_object_type_items[] = {
    {OB_MESH, "MESH", 0, "Mesh", ""},
    OBTYPE_CU_CURVE,
    OBTYPE_CU_SURF,
    {OB_MBALL, "META", 0, "Meta", ""},
    OBTYPE_CU_FONT,
    {0, "", 0, NULL, NULL},
    {OB_ARMATURE, "ARMATURE", 0, "Armature", ""},
    {OB_LATTICE, "LATTICE", 0, "Lattice", ""},
    {OB_EMPTY, "EMPTY", 0, "Empty", ""},
    {0, "", 0, NULL, NULL},
    {OB_CAMERA, "CAMERA", 0, "Camera", ""},
    {OB_LAMP, "LAMP", 0, "Lamp", ""},
    {OB_SPEAKER, "SPEAKER", 0, "Speaker", ""},
    {0, NULL, 0, NULL, NULL}
};

The line {0, "", 0, NULL, NULL} creates a seperator (In Python the tupel is sorted different from the C-one). In Python I can't use a tupel like ("", None, None) within the item-set and a tupel like ("", "", "") creates a new column (described here: https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?409613-How-to-create-columns-in-operator_menu_enum-SOLVED).

How can I add a seperator to an EnumProperty in Python?

Thanks.

From the documentation for 2.9:

When an item only contains 4 items they define (identifier, name, description, number).
Separators may be added using None instead of a tuple. For dynamic values a callback can be passed which returns a list in the same format as the static list.

This is conspicuously absent in the documentation for 2.79, so there may not have been an easy way to do it in Python when this question was asked. But for newer versions, you can just use a straight None instead of a tuple.


Make a car look smooth not flat So this is my first attempt on a car (yeey) Nissan GTR. But as everyone knows a car does NOT have flat faces... So that brings me to my problem, everytime when i try to use Smooth Vertex my car gets messed up. So, how can i make my car look smooth and not flat faced? This is what it looks like now:

Thanks Alot!

Select the faces in Edit Mode, then select the menu option: Mesh/Faces/Shade smooth


How to use some special symbols like ™ ,♟, ⚘, ✿,  etc in blender? I was facing the problem regarding symbols like ™, ♟, ⚘, ✿,  to be used in blender. Changing the font type to MS Gothic helped to view ™ ♟ ✿ but ⚘ and  symbol is still not visible.

Try the font Segoe UI Emoji Standard, you can find it under the filename seguiemj.ttf in the Windows Fonts directory.


Make an object only visible from a certain angle? I am modeling a cartoon character with a mouth that is designed to only be displayed on a single cheek, not in the middle. Its parent is a head mesh. I made two copies of the mouth: one on the left cheek of the head, the other on the right. I am wondering if there is any way to make the mouth on the side of the head that the camera is not primarily facing disappear? (i.e: if the camera is directed to the left side of the head, then the left mouth is visible, but the right one is not, and vice-versa.)

Because the camera is primarily facing the left side of the model, I need the right mouth (higlighted) to disappear.

I am using Blender Internal.

Blend file: Blend

The answer is using a Light Path node, just like Todd just said, but I'm using a different approach and a different node factor, since according to attached images, this has to happen while both mouths would be visible from a 3/4 angle:
1- Create a plane to go directly in the center of your character, The cube in the image here represents your character's head, the two spheres represent the mouth.
2- Assign a simple transparent material to the plane.
3- Mix a transparent shader to the material of the mouths (the spheres in this example), add a Light Path node, Add node>Input>Light Path, use the Transparent depth as a factor. This will make the object that this material assigned to, disappears when it falls behind an object with a transparent material, which is the plane here. Check the image below.
That's it check the animated GIF below to see how this will work, no need to say that from a front view, both of the mouths will show, so you can extrude the far edge of the transparent plane to the left or right to solve that issue.


Is there a way to duplicate a particle system onto a seperate mesh without using python? I have two identical meshes for an animal character model. On one of them I've done a bunch of grooming work on the fur that I'd like to now duplicate it to transfer to the other. I'm using 2.92.
I've tried looking up the answer but all of the ones I've found are either from years ago using a version of blender that hardly resembles 2.9, or lay out a bunch of python code that seems to be more trouble than it's worth.
Just wondering if there's either an easy way or alternatively a clever way to do it, or if I'm all out of luck. Thanks!

Assuming the meshes are stacked in the same space:
First, copy the particle-related vertex groups to the other mesh.
Then, disconnect the particle system.
Select the new mesh, then select the one with groom.
Use copy to selected.
Reconnect the hair on the new mesh.
Should be all good. You may have to re-assign the vertex groups in the particle settings.
Best of luck :)


Change extrapolation type from Python running in the background I have a script that that changes objects in my scene and then creates and renders an animation of the object. It does this on a large batch of objects and makes the same four animations for each object. I typically run this from the command prompt with Blender running in background mode.

The problem I have run into is that I need the extrapolation type for these animations to be linear but I think by default is constant. I need a way of changing the extrapolation type from python while Blender is running the background.

I have tried the changing the extrapolation using:

old_area_type = context.area.type
context.area.type = 'GRAPH_EDITOR'
bpy.ops.graph.extrapolation_type(type='LINEAR')
bpy.ops.graph.handle_type(type='VECTOR')
context.area.type = old_area_type

However, this gives me an attribute error for context.area.type saying that it is set to 'NoneType'.

I looked closer at the documentation and area.type refers to subdivided screens within the editor. However, since my script is running in the background there are no area types to change to/from, thereby causing a NoneType error.

But, if I remove the area.type lines it gives me an incorrect context error for the extrapolation changes.

How can I change the extrapolation type from the background if I can't change the area type?

You can't really directly set the context.area.type, or any context property for that matter - it is a read only reflection of the current state of your scene.

To use the graph editor's operators under bpy.ops.graph, you need to override the context for the operator to "make it think" it's running within the graph editor. Here's an example how to do this for another operator.

But instead I would suggest changing the interpolation and handle types using lower level code instead of using the graph editor's operators. Here's a chunk of code that will do this for all of the active object's animation curves:

import bpy
C = bpy.context
o = C.object

# Iterate over all the objects animation function curves
for fc in o.animation_data.action.fcurves:
    fc.extrapolation = 'LINEAR' # Set extrapolation type

    # Iterate over this fcurve's keyframes and set handles to vector
    for kp in fc.keyframe_points:
        kp.handle_left_type  = 'VECTOR'
        kp.handle_right_type = 'VECTOR'


Weird light around my meshes in Cycles rendering What could be source of this weird orange light around cookies and what could be fix?
I am using Cycles render and CPU(I have old GPU which is not supported in Blender 2.9 anymore).
I am talking about orange light between cookies, where my mouse cursor is on the 2nd image.
I accidentally applied subdivision surface modifier so those cookies have a lot vertices, but there are no other modifiers active.
I am using 3 lights, 2 area and point, but even if I disable them, this orange color can still be seen. Lights are white.
For plate I am using Porcelain from BlenderKit addon, but even if I disable plate that orange color is still there.

I'm guessing you are using a texture to make the cookies look dusty with faked normals or bump-mapping (not bad, BTW), and are mapping whatever texture via UV coordinates. I also assume that the orange light you are talking about is the bright orange ridging on the edges of some cookies.
The fact that this is at a corner and seems to be in a straight line makes me think this is a texture mapping problem, and that the normal changing is not happening there, which leaves those parts of the cookies appearing perfectly smooth, and thus brighter.
Check that those edges of the cookies are properly UV mapped and not scrunched into some corner, and if you are using an image texture, check that the image node's mapping setting is set to "repeat" and not "clip."
Separately, one cookie that is sitting flat is penetrating the plate, thus making it look unnaturally bright, because in real life light gets trapped between the edge of the cookie and the plate, making it dark. This is called "Ambient Occlusion," and can be faked in EEVEE, though Cycles should do it by itself.
To help you position the cookie correctly, use Wireframe view and then go into orthographic from the side.


Two materials on one object I'm trying to do something simple and I know there are a few tutorials on how to do this but the steps set out don't seem to work for me.  What i want to achieve is a tile with an asphalt image texture on one side and a grass texture on the other.

The video shows the problem i'm having https://vimeo.com/239592554 although the resolution is not that great.

My workflow is:

select object and enter edit mode
select required face
type 'U' and unwrap face
create new material
select 'image texture'
find asphalt image and select
assign material
turn the object over and select opposite face
repeat steps 2 to 7 using the image of grass

The problem i have is that the grass then appears on both faces.  I can't see what i'm doing wrong but hopefully you can.  I'm using Cycles.

Many thanks in advance.

Stephen

Following helpful responses, I've tried with a fresh instance of Blender and a 'straight out of the box' mesh cube.  Then tried to add basic BSDF materials to separate faces but every time the material gets applied to the whole cube not just the selected face.

Could it be something to do with my Blender set up/user preferences?  I can't think what.  Anyway, gif of the new test included below:

You can perform a "double side material" node setup with the geometry node (selecting the backfacing option). The following image presents half a cube where the exterior is grass and the interior is gravel. The backfacing option uses the same UVmap but shows the texture for the other side of the faces, so from your steps, you can ignore step 8 and step 9. The same technique is used to create double sided pages, in a book or similar.


Why the curve twisted at one side Converting mesh to curve i have made the shape. With the circle im making a bevel shape. One end of the curve is been twisted. I have selected all the verts and set the radius to 1. Applied rotation scale. Still the curve is twisted. Any suggestion or help.

Your Curve Segments are highly twisted. To correct this you can use Twisting > Smooth under Curve Data tab - Shape section.


How to achieve cake crust material? I'm making a Victoria sponge in Blender, and I'm not sure how to make the outside texture of the sponge cake. If a picture of a node setup could be provided, that'd be amazing. Thank you! :)

You could try something like this.

What I did was combine a Musgrave and a Noise texture and used that as a mix factor for the "Cake colors". I then took a lightened (softened) version of this mix and used that as a Bump Map of sorts. I also took the normal values from the Bump map, and the color data from the Noise Texture to provide the values for an Ambient Occlusion Node which I then colored dark brown and mixed with the original "cake color" to make the "darkened baked bits".
Lastly, I isolated the Z vector of a Gradient Texture (so it would lay flat) and "shaped" it with a ColorRamp to make a "top cap" mask which I would then use as a mix factor to apply the whites of yet another Noise Texture to the Cake by using a MixRGB node set to lighten. This makes the "icing sugar" on top.


Add camera shake to a camera with track to mod How can I add camera shake to a camera that has a track to constraint to a moving object?

Create an empty, set it child of the moving object, set the camera track to constraint to the empty, then add some noise to the Z loc of the empty.
To do this set a starting loc keyframe, then in the graph editor select the Z loc channel of the empty and add a graph noise modifier.


Pack external files - with photoshop files? Ok I know you can pack external images into your blend by packing external data, but I this doesnt really work with photoshop files.

I have several images as planes that link back to .ai files that are placed into photoshop files, and these are fed into blender. Packing them results in gray images - what's the easiest way to pack files so I can send the blend to another computer?

a bit late, but I think the best solution is to save those PSDs as TIFFs.
TIFF is apparently supported by Blender for Packing. And you can still place your .ai files in a TIFF file.
I am having the same issue right now, and all PSDs were't packed and appeared pink.
But all TIFFs are still there. So I think that should be a good workaround I think.


Control logic editor using scripts? I'm trying to bypass the GUI and just use the logic editor via scripts, e.g. I want an object to move +1 blender unit in the x direction each frame for a physics simulation but don't want to have to use the GUI to implement this. Is there any way to work around this?

Thanks!

Ok so based on your comment, I can tell you that you will need at least an always brick or sensor to activate the scripts. So you can't dodge that one.

Afterwards you can put them all in the same script, but it is not recommended cause of possible delays and cause you miss some of the good stuff blender has.


How to align pivot points with pivot points of different objects Here are two objects.

Both now have the pivot point at the center of the object.

I want to move the pivot point of the second object to the pivot point of the first object.

How can do it?

You can use 3D cursor to set your object origin.

Select your desired object, shifts to set cursor to selected.

Select back your object, search set origin (or menu > object > set origin). Origin to 3D Cursor


Difference based colorramp I'm trying to color a cube based on it's distance from another object along the z axis. I can color the cube based on it's own z axis, but when I try to reference another object (e.g. the plane in the below image), the entire cube is shaded the same color. Please let me know what I'm doing wrong.

Texture Coordinates

That's because you are using Object's Texture Coordinates, which determine how an image is placed upon the faces, while you need Object's Cartesian Coordinates.

Texture Coordinates usually vary from one point to the other. Referring to the picture below we can see how the gradient is assigning to each point at the same Z the same value. Every little step has it's own value.

The distance of an object to another involves instead Cartesian Coordinates, which is a single triplet of values (the coordinates of the object origin) that are the same for all object's point.

Ideally you should base your distance calculation upon the Cartesian Coordinates and use the resulting vector to tweak the Texture Coordinates, but as the Texture Coordinates (option Object) is already consiedering the position of the Object, I would just reference the plane.

When the distance between the two origins increases the Object is coloured with the highest value of the color ramp.

Subtracting the position of the Cube object would allow instead to use the plane as an "absolute" controller of the gradient. Moving the cube alone would not change the gradinent mapping upon its faces.


Is it possible to change the text color inside the VSE by changing the source code? I would like to know if it is possible to change the color value of a text strip made in the VSE.

The default color is white, but what if you have a background which the predominant color is white?
Is it possible to change the text color via python or changing the source code since there is no option in the user interface?
Meaning a different solution other than to render the text with an alpha background and then change it by color correction and re-render it again.

You can do it directly in the VSE. In the Properties panel, scroll down to Add Strip Modifier, add a Color Balance and change the Gain.


How can i create the shader of the virus? I've been trying, but my result is not convincing at all

here it is:
(Note that the model is missing a subsurf)

here the node setup

Thank you

Actually, maybe you should try Subsurface Scattering at the end of your node organization, it will give translucency and it will take your volume into account:


How do I change camera targets when following a path? I have a nurbs path setup and my camera operates following the path. I can get it to track an empty, but I want it to change between a couple of empties as it progresses down the path.

Is there a way to do this using the timeline?

You don't "change" camera targets, but you can have several Track-To constraints in the same object with different influence values at any given time.

Just keyframe the Influence parameter over the course of the animation so it points where you want at the correct moment.


Twist rope around an object I have this:

That's the hilt of a sword, and pretend that the plane is a small rope. What I want to do is achieve an effect similar to this:

But I can't find a good way to do it. As you can see I added a curve modifier and a nurbs curve, but getting the curve to follow the shape of the hilt is basically as difficult as doing it with the mesh.

I thought about using the shrinkwrap modifier, but I get this result:

I think shrinkwrap might be the thing I need, I just need to fix that problem.

This specific structure is a bit complicated by using normal methods, such as other guys suggested, However, you can do it quite well by a combination of a few modifiers:

Create the unit model for half round of the bandage;
Subdivide, tweak position of each vertex;
Model the other half round of that bandage.
Add Shrinkwarp, Array and Solidify modifier.

Tip: Shrinkwrap modifier is always not so "accurate" by default, but using VGroup with weights assigned will make things more flexible.

example file


Have letters fall into place on plane I want to have my letters fall and hit the plane, bounce and then land in order to spell words. How do I achieve this?

You can use a Rigid Body simulation to make your letters fall and bounce without having to animate them by hand - the problem is how to arrange so that they end up at the desired final positions when they come to rest. This can be achieved by Baking the simulation into keyframes and then adjusting the start position so that they end in the desired orientation.

Firstly start by creating your mesh - one way to achieve this is to create a Text object and use the 'Convert to Mesh' option to create the mesh (the objects need to be in Mesh format in order to be able to animate as rigid bodies).

Create the text object :

Convert to mesh by selecting the text object, pressing Alt+C and selecting 'Mesh from Curve/.../Text'.

Give the text some depth by either Extruding in Edit mode or by adding a Solidify modifier and clicking Apply.

Next, separate the individual letters by selecting everything in Edit mode, pressing P and selecting 'By Loose Parts', then select all of your letters in Object mode, select Set Origin (in the Tool shelf (T) or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+C) and select Origin to Geometry.

Finally, in the Physics tab set the selected objects to Active rigid body.

Make the floor a Passive rigid body to it will interact with the letters, position them above the floor, run the simulation, and they should fall and bounce.

Note : If any of the letters come to rest on the wrong 'face' you can adjust the simulation by moving the 'origin' further back into the object - this will make it's centre of gravity further back, resulting in it tending to be at rest on its 'back' face - this can be achieved in Edit mode by simply selecting all vertices and using Grap (G) and moving them forward in relation to the origin. Alternatively, just slightly adjust its start orientation and re-run the simulation and repeat until you get them falling in the correct orientation. If they collide, move them appart from the other letters to avoid collisions.

Now, to adjust the positions of each 'fall' we need to bake the simulation into keyframes - select Bake to Keyframes in the Physics toolshelf :

Once baked the simulation will no longer change. Run the animation to the end when all letters are at rest and adjust the positions by either adjusting the 'Delta' transform settings (this is applied after the keyframes so can 'offset' the location and rotation) or by adding an Empty at the same location as the 'at rest' point, parenting it to the letter, then moving the empty to the desired final resting place. Repeat this for each individual letter.

Finally, you can get more variation by delaying the animation on various letters (by moving the F-curve to the right in the Graph Editor) so as to give a more 'random' fall :


Bending an Object into a Sphere Im using polyhedrons created only from hexa- and pentagons to simulate tiles on a planetlike gameboard, to make my board look like a planet and not an polyhedron. I want to make it spherical while still keeping the tiles mostly intact, what would a good approch be?

I cant use subdivision surface or bevel because that only rounds out the edges and leaves the faces mostly flat. The Solution probably involes subdividing the faces and then telling the object to try to become a sphere, which is the part i dont know how to do.

The polyhedron i use looks like this

Another approach:

Just to tidy up, select all edges, CtrlE > Edge Data > 'Clear Sharp'
Assign a Subdivision Surface modifier with the 'Simple' option (1 or 2 levels)
Assign a Cast modifier, 'Sphere' option, Factor: 1

You can apply the modifiers to bake them into the mesh, if/when you need to, (in order, top to bottom)..

You can assign an 'Edge Split' modifier above the others, if you need to split out the surface tiles,
and apply it followed by  P > separate by Loose Parts if you need the tiles to be separate objects


Copying an object with python without actually creating a new object I ran across this script on another forum and would like to implement it. However, I'm running into a major bottle neck (performance-wise) when it gets to linking the new objects back to the scene because in my actual implementation I'm attempting to generate about 1000 cubes.

From my understanding, it sounds as though there is a way to duplicate the object, but keep the duplicate as a part of the original object as is done in Edit Mode when using Shift+D.

import bpy
from mathutils import Vector

ob = bpy.context.object
obs = []
sce = bpy.context.scene

for i in range(-48, 48, 3):
    for j in range(-48, 48, 3):
        copy = ob.copy()
        copy.location += Vector((i, j, 0))
        copy.data = copy.data.copy()
        obs.append(copy)

for ob in obs:
    sce.objects.link(ob)

sce.update()

How would I go about implementing a similar script but instead of creating separate copies of the object just add them to the existing object eliminating the need for the loop that links objects back to the scene?

If it's speed you are going for

import bpy
from bpy import context

obj = context.active_object

# add two array modifiers
count = 32
arrays = {"x": (1.5, 0, 0),
          "y": (0, 1.5, 0)}

for axis, displace in arrays.items():
    mod = obj.modifiers.new(axis, 'ARRAY')
    mod.count = count
    mod.relative_offset_displace = displace
    bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(modifier=mod.name)

bpy.ops.object.origin_set()


Convert animation node result into editable object Is there a way to convert an animation nodes result into an object?

For example, animations nodes are used to generate the face of a clock. I want to convert that result into an object that can edited. Is there a setting or procedure that will do this conversion?

Most of the time you can simply copy the output of Animation Nodes in the viewport and continue to work on that copy. The node tree that created the object can be deactivated.


How to twist an object with Sverchok? If I want to twist an object in Blender I can easily do it, for example with proportional editing:

How can I achieve the same result with Sverchok? I've been trying with "List item" but could not get results. I would like to twist an object imported from the scene with Object In rather than a mesh created directly with Sverchok.

Thanks

This is one way to do it. currently:

first split the verts of the object
then multiply each vert's vector by a unique matrix (which is some function of z-height here i'm multiplying the vertex's Z component by 51.94)
then recombine using mesh_join.

We don't have a proportional editing method inside sverchok, you'd need to combine math nodes to emulate that feature. Not impossible, this layout should suggest further development.

You can import this json Gist ID directly 8e11420e351e79be0760f86c2f51de06 in the Sv Import/Export panel. (make sure you update Sverchok to 0.5.6.2 or later)


How can I stop the grey tint that covers the viewport when I'm using edit mode? Whenever I enter edit mode on my scene, a greyish tint is applied over the entire viewport until I go back to object mode. How can I disable this effect for edit mode?

Disregard, I had to unset 'fade inactive geometry' under the 'show overlays' dropdown menu.