Particle Rendering problem (looks like a texture rather than particle) I'm trying to create a mountain in the distance that has a bunch of lights on it randomly to simulate populations of people. I'm using Blender's cycles render.

To do this, I'm using 3 different types of icospheres with a shadeless material to act as the light points.

Here is the nodes for the shadeless material, I have one in a yellow, white, and red variant.

I have these icospheres being used as children on a particle system on the mountain. So that they can be placed at random spots on the mountain.

I had assumed they would just be small points of lights on the mountains.
Unfortunately, upon rendering, they come out looking like a bad texture applied to the mountain, rather than just the small points. They render fine on the first few passes, then on the last, it squashes them into the weird looking texture thing.

Here's an example. (The circled area is just where I had placed the parent icospheres next to the mountain to display how it SHOULD look).

I don't think it's due to the samples, although I have been rendering at a pretty low sample size (around 50) just for previews.

It might be a problem with the actual particle settings, I just can figure out which ones.

Here's an image of my settings.

If anyone could help figure this out, I would be really grateful.

Thanks.

The issue is that you have the particle size set way too small. I changed it to a size of 1.00:

And got a result like this:

At a size of 0.020 the particles are less than 1 pixel across, making some of them invisible to the camera, and blurring others. By changing the size for all of the particle systems, I got this result:


Is it possible to duplicate keyframes to multiple bones? Do I really have to animate all four legs of an animal one by one if their motion is identical, or is there a way of animating just one leg and then copying all the animation keyframes to the other four?

I understand that some of their parameters might have to change (such as position on X and Y axis), but those parameters can easily be changed. It would take much longer to animate every single leg by hand than to just change a couple of coordinates.

Select a source bone
open a graph editor
select all keyframes you want to copy
press Ctrl+C
select the destination bone
set the cursor at the appropriate position
press Ctrl+V


Glowing Eyes On Model Texture for export into ohter Programms i find some cool Tutorial to how i can make cool glowing eyes on my little Model but they all for Rendering. Is is possible to have Glowing eyes on my Model Texture standalone ? So that i can import it into unity or unreal ? Or is it needed to make the glowing eyes in the engine itself ?

Hopefully i dont miss any other Post about this :)

I make my models in blender then and I color my objects at UV editing. After that I export my blender stuff to Unity as fbx files. I simply just export them to Unity and I create a new material. After creating my material I place my pallets to Albedo slot (Which you can see in the first image). Now you can drag and drop your materials to your objects material slot (which you can see in the second image).


custom color property in panel draw layout I have my panel with draw definition. And want define color for BGL in panel.
I know that Color class exists in blender, but how to use it? How to create custom color property for my panel?

The graphical representation is determined by the subtype field which is set in this example to 'COLOR'.

from bpy.props import FloatVectorProperty
...

object_color = FloatVectorProperty(
   name="object_color",
   subtype='COLOR',
   default=(1.0, 1.0, 1.0),
   min=0.0, max=1.0,
   description="color picker"
   )

Documentation on custom properties,
Nice tutorial on addons


Subdivision surface is different Hi guys I'm new to blender, I just following the tutorial。 and my modifier just show the different results after i enter edit mode. How to solve this problem? thanks !

Or Apply your Subdivision.

Until you hit "Apply", it's just a previz of the subdivision that you COULD get.

When rendering, it doesn't matter but the best practice would be to apply all your subdiv before final rendering...


How do you customize Rotate, Scale and Grab? I was doing some work on blender and I ran into a couple of problems.
1. You know Rotation and Scaling is a point. It usually rotates/scales from the center of the object. But mine now rotates about the 3D cursor.
2. Usually in Edit Mode you can go wild. You can change and modify points(vertices), edges or faces. But in trying to move a point or an edge, the whole object or very large parts of the object move.

I'll like that you help fix these problems. And when I started this project everything  was in place and worked according to how I was used to it. I know it changed because I clicked or pressed a button by mistake.
I tried to load factory settings, it instead  opened a new file.
Blender version 2.79

Change Pivot point from this menu:

Also, you can switch between Bounding box and 3D cursor using .  (point on keyboard) and ,(comma)

Turn off Proportional editing:

Also, you can turn on/off Proportional editing using O


Automatic import, group and export with command-line (CLI) Hi there for a while now we are building stuff on sketchup (cause we love the simplicity of the tool :o )

But we still use blender for exportation purpose on THREE.js

So the actual workflow is to export in .dae with SketchUp8 and then import in blender, group all the elements with ctrl+J (it avoids material duplication)

Sometimes we also have to slightly rename the materials (cause they are renamed MATERIAL_NAME.001, MATERIAL_NAME.002 and we don't want this)

Then we export the object as is in .js format with the THREE.js exporter plugin.

As you can see it's a pretty tedious task. Is there an easy way to automate this through the CLI ?

Thanks

You could prepare a Blender file with a text block that contains the python script with all the command you need (import, convert materials name, export...).
Then you can type:

your/blender/path/blender -b blendertemplate.blend --python-text pythontextname


Mirror modifier distort ambient occlusion texture on mirror axis My ambient occlusion texture appears to be black at the centre of the mirror. Clipping at the centre is correct. What might be the problem?

I think your problem is not the mirror modifier but the Subdivision Surface modifier.
It has a checkbox Subdivide UVs which is enabled by default.

If it was enabled during baking it can create this kind of black seams if you

delete the subsurf modifier
do not display the subsurf modifier
lower the subdivision level
or disable Subdivide UVs afterwards

I guess you want a low poly character with smooth AO, so you probably deleted the subsurf modifier. In this case you should just deactivate Subdivide UVs during baking.


My background reference image isn't showing within blender? Good evening everyone. I'm a person new to blender, and I was watching a few tutorials that would take me through the process of creating/rendering a creature design in 3d, and from what was shown, I would need to have a side profile sketch of the design to import into blender as a background reference. I've attempted to open the image a couple of the different ways, through accessing the backgroung images tab as was shown inthe tutorial, and by simply dragging and dropping the image into the program. I've also tried changing the format of the file between .jpg and .png, to little avail. Is there someone who could help me through this issue? I'll link the image in question below.

Select the image and look at the object data. You can see there are two checkboxes: Display Ortho and Display Persp. You can also set the transparency etc.

Also look in the scene collection and make sure the disable selection is not turned off (the white arrow). If you cant see this then click on the filter icon in the header.


Sphere projection option is missing I'm trying to map a texture to a sphere without UV mapping, and here's my node setup:

I wanted to set the image texture projection to "sphere", as I saw it being used in a tutorial, but as the picture shows, I don't have the option to use sphere projections. I am using Cycles render and have the texture on a UV sphere, not an icosphere.

In the screenshots shown Blender version 2.71 was installed. One should have upgraded Blender to a newer version as this functionality was added as of 2.74:

  Nodes
   Image texture node now supports sphere and tube mapping.
  12ccac6, dda3554

Thank you cegaton


How to play multiple tracks in video sequencer? I am a beginner, so it seems to be a simple question. I have 2 tracks in video sequencer. I have added transformation to each of them so that they do not overlap. When I play animation, I see only one track, other is hidden by chess field. How to show both of tracks? (Blender 2.82a)


scale bone to negative didn't work? I've tried looking almost everywhere , but no one seems to actually ask this question . I've created a 2D character in blender and rigged it .

My question is , why can't I scale non-root bones to negative values ?

Since im doing 2D , it's common to flip some body parts and stuff , but I've tried to flip non root bones (the head) with the child (hair and face) with   <-1> , but it snap back to positive scaling , the flipping works with the root bone but it seems it didn't work with individual child ? Then what workaround I could do to this problem ?

Well , I hope this gif explain better , I mean the root bone is the main (first) parent , and the non root is the child , [bone] is the parent and [bone.001] is the child .


Internal rendering engine makes all textures red, cycles renders have a pink tint I decided I wanted to get into 3D modeling. As a linux user and huge open source supporter, I decided blender was the tool for me. I've been watching blender guru's tutorials on youtube for getting started. However, no matter what color the material, if I render via the internal renderer, all materials rendered are red, and so is the background.

I thought I might be doing something wrong, but the fact the cycles renderer renders with the "missing texture" colors tips me off something might be wrong the software

But hey, at least cycles showed the texture on the donut

Blender was installed from the AUR on arch linux

First screen shows that your file is using cycles nodes and is set to Blender Render. You cannot use them this way, you need to use the file with Cycles.

Second screen shows a lot of red because the sky texture is red, and that is casting onto all the objects.Cycles 'missing texture' is usually full magenta, not that dark red you see there. Try shifting to your World shader and check about changing to a white or even a sky texture to see what happens there.


Do I have bad topology? I created my first character in Blender but I feel like the topology isn't right. Can you please give me suggestions for improvement?

Thanks.

In my opinion it seems rather good, I would say 3 things:

For the face, the classic topology includes the bottom of the nose and the mouth within the same edge loops circle, it makes the modeling and the animation easier, but if your face works as it is, do you really need that?
You have 4 vertical rows of faces going from neck to pubis, that seem useless, you could simplify that with one of these two methods.
To animate and have a nice bend, you'll probably need to add some edge loops where the bend will happen, for example around the elbow.


How do you delete specific objects without deleting everything? I'm sorry for asking such a simple question, but I'm new to Blender, and even after much research I couldn't find a solution to this problem.

When I try to delete a specific unneeded object in object mode, all of the objects I entered get removed. How can I get rid of the unneeded object without getting rid of the vital ones?

In Object mode you can create several objects, and to delete one or several of them, just select and press X.

If you select one object and enter in Edit mode, you can create several distinct meshes within this object, "distinct" meaning not linked between them by any edges.

Example: in Object mode, create a cube. Then select it, enter in Edit mode, and press shift A to create another cube within the object. The object now consists on 2 cubes.

As explained by Ashutosh, as long as these meshes are distinct you can select one or several of them, hovering your mouse over their vertices, edges or faces and pressing L. Or click one of its vertices, edges or faces and clicking ctrl L.

Now you can delete what you've selected or make it a separate object pressing P (Separate) > Selection. If you select all the meshes of an object and press P (Separate) > By Loose Parts it will create as many objects as you have distinct meshes.


Collada Export Options Panel Not Showing in 2.82 Just started using 2.82.

When I try to export a model as Collada in File > Export > Collada/Dafault (.dae) I no longer see the Export Collada panel with Operator Presets show up.

Am I missing a preference config or an Add-On?

Found the answer. The panel is now part of the File Browser panel. I had not expanded the right hand side of the browser panel. I just noticed a little '<' at the top right and that popped open the panel with Operator Presets and the other options.


Wrinkles fade out when retopologizing When should I sculpt the wrinkles,texture?Before or after retopo?And if after, how do I add wrinkles if the mesh is retopologized? And can I texture paint the mesh if it is made by triangles and the retopo isn't done?

Thanks!

The big wrinkles should be sculpted and the small ones should be painted after the retopology and after baking the normals.
If your model is meant to be rendered within Blender, you can restore lost detail on the retopologized model by adding a multiresolution modifier and a shrinkwrap modifier that you apply (only the shrinkwrap). Note that you have to apply it while the shrinkwrap is below the multires, otherwise it doesn't work.

Painting on a triangle mesh is a bad idea.


How to properly fill? I'm just getting started at Blender - so far I've been making stuff by subdividing and extruding vertices, and then filling in the faces.

Unfortunately, when I load up these models, individual faces go missing:

If it matters, I'm using the OBJ file format.

What you have:

Internal faces (pointed by Duarte Farrajota Ramos), loose edges, unconnected vertices, unnecessary faces...

You can try to clean it up by Recalculate Normals (suggested by CGEffex), Remove Doubles, cutting faces and connecting vertices to have mostly quad topology.

You should avoid creating ngons and tris (these could be useful sometimes).

But...

What you need:

In this particular case you can recreate this mesh fairly easy just by using Extrude and Snapping (to existing mesh).

I will not explain it step by step as this is kind a Blender 101 and you can find large number of tutorials about extruding basic shapes.

Final thoughts:

You have mentioned that you are using .OBJ files. I understand that you are importing them. If yes then it will not be easy to clean them up. I have fairly good experience with them (exported from various CAD-like software) and always it was nightmare to work with. I can't give you any more tips besides those from above. In my case I've recreated from scratch 70-80% of meshes just to save some time.

Blend file:


Hotkeys to change viewport (Maya preset) won't work, why? I'm using Maya presets. The hotkeys don't seem to work ether in 3D or Quad view.

It doesn't really bother me in 3D View but it's a problem in quad as I can't seem to change my Top Ortho view to Back Ortho view to adjust for my reference image.

Keybindings show that I should press Ctrl + Numpad Number key, but it doesn't work, I unlocked the view-ports under "Display" and nothing happens.

When I tried it under Blender default settings it worked perfectly.
Also I tried this on two separate computers with different scenes, same result.

I'm a beginner in Blender.
http://imgur.com/K6UFnfw

Everything works as expected, it's just that the keybindings assume Ctrl+0 should be pressed in order to activate front ortho view according to the Maya interaction preset (not Ctrl+Numpad 0).

If numbers from Numpad were expected it would be visible from this setup.


Cycles Render Device not available I was working on a smoke sim in 2.78c and when I tried to render, I got nothing. I noticed my device was set to GPU Rendering (with no GPU in my laptop) so I set it back to CPU. Nothing. I checked User Preferences, and it shows None in Cycles Compute Device. I reloaded the factory settings, but it still gives me nothing for compute devices. I'm pretty sure I still have a CPU...? Anyone know what might be causing this?

Compute Device None is a bit misleading here – it just means, that there's no GPU available. The scene will be computed by your CPU. Your invisible smoke is quite another matter and should be handled in a separate question.


When I Import Two Models Into Blender I Can Only Edit One at a Time So I made a few models for a project I'm working on and I decided I wanted to certain parts individually and then import them in as a .obj file. So I did that and then when I tried to go into edit mode I could only edit one of objects. Also I noticed that, when highlighted the objects have different shades of orange. I would really appreciate any help I can get to solve this problem.

Thanks, Nova

Editing multiple objects

First of all, you can only edit one object at a time.  Normally if you want to edit multiple objects at a time you will have to join them with Ctrl + J.  However there is an addon called multi-edit which allows you to edit multiple objects simultaneously.

The active object

When you go into edit mode with more than one object Blender will keep all other objects selected, but will only allow you to edit the geometry of the active object.  The active object is marked by a slightly lighter orange border than other selected objects.  It is typically the object which you single selected last.  If you do a group select (such as box select with B or brush select with C) the active object does not change.

Check out this post for more on the active object.


Select all the last vertices of every branch I'm modeling a tree trunk with the use of the skin modifier. Is it possible to automatically select the last vertex of every branch? Preferably with Python.

Top view of the tree trunk with several last vertices selected

Select verts with only one linked edge

import bpy
import bmesh

context = bpy.context

ob = context.object
me = ob.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
for v in bm.verts:
    v.select = len(v.link_edges) == 1

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me)


how will you model a cityscape at night? I am really not able to imagine the backside of this picture i modelled the railings but cant move further so please help me by telling me what approach should i take to model this.

I'd recommend modeling the fence, vegetation and other props in the foreground.

Don't forget to get the grungy texturing right.

And the perspective, which can be done easy with this PLUGIN, If you don't like it or have any technical problems there are many alternatives, there was a good one mentioned by Andrew Price, can't seem to remember what it's called now.

Then, render it with alpha background, by ticking Transparent under Film settings.

After, choose the right background and just plug it in Photoshop or Gimp.
Here's one of the top results in google image search: BACKGROUND

Then it's just post processing: Desaturation (Black and white) with high contrast. I'd further recommend going to blenderartists "work in progress" and let your peer artists guide you through the rest to get a more accurate result.


How do I add more than 8 decals to an object? I'm trying to add multiple decals to an object. For example a race car with all the sponsorship logos. The method I tried restricts the number of decals to the number of UV maps that I can create in blender which is 8.

This is the link to how the nodes are setup.He sets up the nodes at roughly 10-12 minutes in.

https://vimeo.com/36632196

So is there a better method of doing it where i can use more than 8 decals?

Image above.  Rendered image with two imagined logos on particular faces.

Image above.  UV Maps.  Color Blue used to increase visibility of Seams.

Mapping Extension set to Clip.
Even if you see Blender Render the UV Map applies to Cycles Render as well. Combined with the video tutorials you have seen you can do this. Note the part of UV is off the image which is what I want.  The Clip setting allows us to exclude modifications of color from parts of the mesh.  Please click to see larger image.

What is presented here is a quick summary, not a tutorial.


Realistic Rigging with real skeleton? I am sculpting a human model. I want to eventually rig it, so I am planning ahead with good mesh topology etc. I want it to be as realistic as possible so I was brainstorming on some ideas for the rigging. Lets say I have a human skeleton rigged with all the muscles that stretch and contract according to joint positions and rotations. Is there an efficient way to overlay the body mesh around the skeleton and muscles? The idea is to give it accurate movement and mesh deformations that simulate real flesh and bones. The problem I've had with other rigs is certain positions and rotations of joints just don't look right. Has anyone ever tried this?

I will share my technique for muscle deformation:

You can use shape keys. However, there is a difference in the approach between a hinge joint (elbow, knee) and a ball and socket joint (shoulder, hip). In the first case you only need one shape key (if you ignore forearm pronation / supination).
When dealing with shoulder however, it is necessary to have a shape key for every extreme pose and then blend between them.

In the image are some of the poses that need to have shape keys, but there can be more (arm raised in the back + rotation)

The way I’m applying the shape keys is to reduce one to 0 and to raise the other one to 1 at the same time. Blender will calculate the transition. Then it’s up to the user to estimate the “arm’s”
position relative to the extreme and to blend the shape keys.

I posted this because I don’t think a more complex rig or muscles system will make the difference. I hope it helps.


How to create a glitter texture? A pretty simple question, how do I create a glitter texture? I was thinking about a car's paint job, but it could be used for ornaments, fancy dresses, etc. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thought I would update this answer a little, This works for 2.79 (Cycles) and 2.8 (EEVEE)

This is also partially taken from Rich Sedmans wonderful answer.

Sorry for so much bloom (but I love the way it makes the glitter sparkle :P)

The trick is to have the incoming geometry node plug into a glossy shader, with a very low roughness value.

This is just copying and pasting the Geometry node, glossy node and use the factor input of the mix shader to control the small speckles.

Be sure to change the scale factor on all to Voronoi textures so the speckles show up in different spots.

Just change the color of the glossy shader to whatever color you want the flakes to be.

EDIT

I created the node in a more user friendly group, I also attached the blend file.


Will audio render in sync, like when previewing in textured or solid mode? I am trying to lip sync a character, which requires timing. In the cycles render engine in textured mode, things are slower but I animated the character that way, so my sound is in sync. But if I go to non texture mode and everything is gray, it's all faster and the sound is out of sync. When I render a movie file will it be at the slower speed and be in sync, or the faster speed like in solid shading. Here is just a little image of the scene if it helps.

It will not render it at the slower speed. However, there is a way you could be able to get around this.

Just look in the upper left corner of the 3D view while the animation is playing, and get its approximate frame rate. (average the values it changes to). [this number is the framerate the animation is playing at due to lag]

Now choose a "custom" as the framerate and set the FPS to that average.

Alternatively you can use time remapping to adjust the "speed" while still sticking to the target framerate.

This is not the optimal way to do things, and it will not work perfectly, but it is the only way (that I know of) to do what you are asking. Also note that to render it how it looks in the viewport (but at the proper frame rate) use open GL render.

Unfortunately, this framerate lag is natural, and there isn't much of a way to fix it. If your computer is not fast enough and can not handle processing the info for each frame that fast, it will have to slow down. Here is a picture of my quadcore's (8 thread) workload while running a 1,000,000 particle simulation. The FPS lagged down to 7.

The arrow is where I stopped the simulation before starting it again. The only way to fix this is to simplify your scene to make it run faster, or use compensations that will help speed things up, like viewing in solid view-port mode. If you move objects that are not necessary while animating to other layers, and have those layers hidden, this will also help. You can also simply hide objects.

There is a good way to avoid this in the future though!

Us the A/V sync feature (audio/video sync)

In the timline, open the "sync" menu.
Change it to "AV Sync"


Image or Movie inside Text? I'm trying to get an image or movie inside some text to achieve something like this :

HOWEVER I'm aiming for the the text to be on a transparent background so i can re-purpose the text for any project.

I've found a tutorial on BlenderDiplom's channel that shows you how to add animated fire in the 3D view and then use the compositor to have it become the text- this is achieved in Cycles. The link to the video is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xQ4ppukCHE

But my problem with this method is that 1. The black background is present when rendered out and 2. I prefer working within Blender Render engine.

Now I know i can add an colour key node in the compositor to get rid of the black background but it also removes the any black in the image that's 'inside' the text.

I'm sure there's a super simple solution but I can't seem to crack it.

Any help will be much appreciated!

So i'm following Edgel's answer and tried to unwrap the text with the Smart UV Unwrap and Project from View and entered render view and the text remains white instead of showing the image inside the text:

And here is the text in the 3D view in edit mode:

This is remarkably easy to achieve in Blender.

The text & font, once decided is typed in, converted to Mesh with ALT-C, given a Material slot and coloured white.

It's shading is set to "Shadeless", no Specular, and best rendered using a Hemi Lamp, not a Sun.

If you use a Sun,  set it to "No shadows" as a precaution, or remove the shadowing in the text's material properties at bottom.

Give the text a texture slot and use your video or image.

If it's video, in the image tab tick on the "Auto Refresh" box.  Tick the "Cyclic" box also when looping is necessary.

Edit: (15/4/2017)

At this point we come to a choice -

If you want a kalidascope effect, do a UV unwrap and select the top choice "Unwrap".  i.e. you select "Unwrap" twice, or press U from Edit Mode and select "Unwrap".

If however you want the video to be spread across the text normally and without distortion, in the texture Properties (at right) open the "Mapping" tab and select "Generate".  (it's usually defaulted to UV)

The video should now appear in the text and play. (Press CTL-A)

-=====-

The choice as to whether to use the Blend file to lay the text over another video, or store it as it stands in a bunch of single frame image files (.png) will decide what you do from here.

For example, you can simply load your background video into the "Background Image" panel and drag it's opacity to full - OR - add a 'plane' under the text in the 3D window and texture that with the background.

This would avoid filling a folder up with single frame png image files.  Choose the output as say - H264 with RGB highlited.  One single, good quality file.

This was my choice here and rendered out using "OpenGL".  (Top left of 3D window - "Render-->OpenGL render animation")

-=====-

If it's deemed desirable to store this as an alpha layered video, then read on those who don't know how...

In the Render properties, open the "Shadings" tab and select "Transparent" at the right.

Make sure the Post Processing panel boxes are both unticked.  (No nodes are used)

The text can now be rendered out on a transparent background by setting the render output to a folder of your choice and  the format  set to PNG (images),  it's RGBA button clicked at far right.

Back in the 3D window press "N" and open the display tab, tick the "Only Render" box, untick "World Background".

You should be ready to render now.  I did this in OpenGL and also checked that it worked using Blender Render.

A lot of single framed images will be produced.  (These can be zipped and bundled into a single file for storage)

You can test to see if the transparency is there by loading one of the images into Gimp or the VSE.  A checkered pattern should be under the text.


Empties not fully processing in node tree I'm not sure if this is a limitation of the way I'm using animation nodes or of this is an actual bug.  I have a file that I am reading to instantiate a list of empties to use as falloff object controllers.  When the frame comes that creates the empties, only one is initially processed and I have to execute the node tree again to have the rest of the empties produce their falloff effect.

Does this require me to have execute always on to have all of the empties fill in their falloff information or is there something about the order in which I'm doing things.  In that regard - is there another way for me to use the distance away from an object to determine if nearby objects should be scaled that will update properly?

Right now the project I am working on is just a static viewer resulting from a file while I'm learning what I can do with animation nodes. I preferably wouldn't want to use always execute for a static viewer that should only need to update once per frame.

Example from image.

Probably not relevant to the question, but for reference this is the node tree.

Found a workaround.  I just needed to put in an execution trigger that moved an object based on the frame. It's a little hacky but it gets the desired result.


How can I create a 2-D texture of green clouds on a black background? How can I create a 2-D texture of green clouds on a black background? I want to have an emission surface which emits green light from those clouds in the texture. How do I go about it?

In your shader editor, I would suggest something along the lines of this:

That's a Noise Texture, generally Perlin, taken to an adjustable power with an adjustable factor added to it, used to mix RGB between jet black and glowing green. Then, it's attached to the color of an emission shader, with an adjustable strength (I went with 4.6), and finally tied to the surface output. You can play with the power and the addition to bias your clouds toward green or black, and change the contrast.
This would work equally well as a world shader, if you're going for a background instead. You could also use the noise output to mix the emission with a transparency shader (Mix Shader) to have a clear background, if you needed to. Have fun!


How to get the distance from one vertex to other vertex along the normal polygon? I need to get a distance from the vertex to the vertex along the normal of the polygon.
Look, I've got a polygon that I want to move to its normal to any too.
In this case, I move the polygon with index 36 to the vertex with index 31 to the normals.
I just include snapping to the vertex with the closest parameter. I get the distance of 0.3568.
How can I reach the distance of 0.3568 between the 30 and 31 vertex using Python?

Use a dot product between the normal and the distance vector for the distance along normal.

import bpy
import numpy as np
from mathutils import Vector

# Use active object and active face in its mesh
ob = bpy.context.object
mesh = ob.data
normal = mesh.polygons[mesh.polygons.active].normal

# v1 is the origin point and v2 is moved to v1 along the active face normal
v1 = mesh.vertices[30]
v2 = mesh.vertices[31]

dvec = v1.co-v2.co
dnormal = np.dot(dvec, normal)

v2.co += Vector(dnormal*normal)


Best way to animate a robot/turret? So I made this:

Every object is seperate objects (each leg, the main body, the neck, the torso, the head...) and I was wondering if it would be better to rig or to move each piece or something else?

You could also use IK-Constraints to control the legs.
Add a plane as Targets for each leg so the legs can be moved around with them.   To control the rotation, empties are used as Pole Targets
The Legs are parented to the body.

Demo .blend


the opposite of subdivide So i was wandering is there a way to transform object 2 into object 1, without going into edit mode and deleting all extra vertice from object 2
i tried the un-subdivide option but it did something else :/ help please.

Thanks to zeffi's comment i was able to figure out a better way that decimate modifier, with almost none shape changes.
1)select mesh
2) go to edit mode
3) select all vertice
4)press delete and click limited dissolve
this will maintain the geometry but will get rid of non used vectice


UV unwarping stretch I am trying to make a shoe model but I have a problem with materials. how ever I unwarp it, it gave me stretch in some places from the map. please, take a look on my project file and try to find the problem.

Looks like your material isn't using the UV map, but generated coordinates. Try changing the following in your Material Nodes:

(I can't test the change as your attached blend file doesn't include your texture)


Chroma key and a few images for background I am making a movie using chroma key effect.
The foreground is a video taken in front of a green panel, filmed with 24 fps. Assume this video have 1000 frames.

The background is a sequence of 5 images.

generation with VSE:
I wonder if it is useful the have the following reasoning: since I need
only five images for my background I don't need to generate a background movie consisting of 1000 frames and where a lot of frames will be repeated.

So I generate the background movie with 1 fps (it's not the best optimization and the size of the background movie is much smaller). However since I want to "mix" these movies using chroma effect, it appears I need to have the same fps for both movies ?

generation with the compositor:
A sequence of image can be provided as an input in the compositor. However in this sequence of images, it appears that one image corresponds to  one frame so the problem is still there : I can't choose how long one image should last but I need to repeat a lot of times each images.

Is there a way to avoid repetitions of the background images ?

You can use Maths nodes to set up logic that allows you to select an image based on an input and this can be used instead of the image sequence or video. For example, consider the following nodes :

The images are set in each of the Image nodes highlighted. To corresponding Greater Than nodes should each have incremental values and these will control the Mix such that subsequent images are selected as the input Value is increased. ie, Value less than or equal to 1 selects the first image, less than or equal to 2 selects the second image, 3 the third image, etc. Continue the chain for as many images as you require.

All that is now required is to keyframe the input Value so that it selects the relevant image for the frame in your animation.


Copy Logic bricks between states I am using states to set the speed output of different truck upgrade levels and engine upgrade levels. Everything is working fine, except that I need five states just like this one with slightly different values for the motion actuators. Is there any way to copy all the logic bricks from one state into a different state?

( Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V doesn't work.)

You could use a python script to create as many logic bricks as you want.

First I create the single UP sensor, I use the length of the sensor array to get the last one created and store that in up_sens then set a few properties.

For the speed sensors we want 5 sensors with varying values so we can loop through the values and create each one, we keep track of these in a list for later. Then we do a similar loop for direction, using a list of keys instead of numbers.

We finish off with two loops that lets us create a motion actuator and controller for each combination of speed and direction, with the up always included and using link() to join each of them together.

import bpy

obj_sensors = bpy.data.objects['VehicleLogicCube'].game.sensors
obj_controllers = bpy.data.objects['VehicleLogicCube'].game.controllers
obj_actuators = bpy.data.objects['VehicleLogicCube'].game.actuators

bpy.ops.logic.sensor_add(type='PROPERTY')
up_sens = obj_sensors[len(obj_sensors)-1]
up_sens.name = 'UP=1'
up_sens.property = 'up'
up_sens.evaluation_type = 'PROPEQUAL'
up_sens.value = str(1)
up_sens.show_expanded = False

# create speed sensors
sp_sens = []
for sp in range(5):
    bpy.ops.logic.sensor_add(type='PROPERTY')
    sp_sens.append(obj_sensors[len(obj_sensors)-1])
    sp_sens[sp].name = 'Speed='+str(sp+1)
    sp_sens[sp].property = 'Speed'
    sp_sens[sp].evaluation_type = 'PROPEQUAL'
    sp_sens[sp].value = str(sp+1)
    sp_sens[sp].show_expanded = False

# create direction sensors
dir_sens = []
for dk in ['W','S','A','D']:
    bpy.ops.logic.sensor_add(type='KEYBOARD')
    dir_sens.append(obj_sensors[len(obj_sensors)-1])
    dir_sens[len(dir_sens)-1].name = dk
    dir_sens[len(dir_sens)-1].key = dk
    dir_sens[len(dir_sens)-1].show_expanded = False

# create motion actuators
m_idx = 0
for sp in range(5):
    for dk in range(4):
        bpy.ops.logic.controller_add(type="LOGIC_AND")
        and_cont = obj_controllers[len(obj_controllers)-1]
        and_cont.show_expanded = False

        m_idx += 1
        bpy.ops.logic.actuator_add(type='ACTION')
        nact = obj_actuators[len(obj_actuators)-1]
        nact.show_expanded = False
        # create action here or create before starting script
        bpy.data.actions.new(name='Motion'+str(m_idx))
        bpy.data.actions['Motion'+str(m_idx)].use_fake_user=True
        nact.action = bpy.data.actions['Motion'+str(m_idx)]

        nact.link(and_cont)
        up_sens.link(and_cont)
        sp_sens[sp].link(and_cont)
        dir_sens[dk].link(and_cont)


What do the bars between keyframes mean? Between some keyframes a bar is drawn, when is a bar displayed?

This means that the keyframes which the bar connects are the same.
From the manual:

When the value of a given channel does not change at all between two neighboring keyframes, a gray (unselected) or yellow (selected) line is drawn between them.

E.g. If you insert a LocRot keyframe on frame 1, then rotate and insert another LocRot keyframe on frame 10, the Location will not have changed so there will be a bar drawn between each location channel keyframe:


2.79b Blender texture paint stroke oddity https://i.imgur.com/fooqOYA.png
Strokes have these "bounding box" or "update area" like discolorations. They are cleared once I Undo, and so remove one of the strokes. Only in UV/Image Editor, does not appear in 3D view.

Edit: It was something with the file itself it seems, for when I copied my work onto startup file those Discolorations (they are only visual, not color information) in UV/image editor did not appear anymore.
Its not the first time that I run into it, will try to be more conscious of when it happens and update here.

Suggestion is to have a fresh start.
Delete the Brush in question and create a new one.  Use the new Brush and see if the problem persists.

You may have changed a setting unintentionally. There are many settings in Blender that you or I or some others may not have the time to track down at the moment. In the sense of triage you may have more important things to occupy your concerns.


Are addons written in python compiled at runtime? Or, are the interpreted each time they are executed? If not compiled (JIT?) then how much slower is their execution than native code?

Python is by default an interpreted language. Blender bundles and uses the default python runtime (CPython), ans therefore python code in blender is interpreted.

However there is a catch. Most of Blender's API is actually written in native code (C) and is then exposed to the Python runtime through generated bindings.

Relative performance is trickier, as this is dependent on many many factors. And there are other issues here as well, in particular the GIL, which prevents the CPython interpreter from being truly multithreaded. Efficient use of the Blender API and the Numpy library (bundled with Blender) can bring most performance issues to acceptable levels. It is best to start with those anyway, and only look at other alternatives when you actually run into issues (i.e. avoid premature optimisation). You may find that the main performance bottlenecks are things other than code execution speed anyway (e.g. file handling).


Use Multiple Image Editors in Compositor I was looking into the compositor for the first time, but I came across something that is an issue. There seems to be no way to view multiple outputs from the node tree.Both image viewers just show whatever the most recent viewer I clicked on is.
Am I correct in this or am I doing something incorrect here?

You’re doing everything right.
This is just the way Blender works.

Here’s how you can make it work:
1) In one image editor choose Render Result from the top-down menu. This will show output from the Compositor Node.
2) In the other one choose Viewer Node to see output from selected Viewer Node.

As you noticed, Viewer Node only shows the last selected one. It’s a limitation of Blender.
However, you can use Split Viewer Node node to get side-by-side comparison.

How to make it work

Note:
Blender Compositor has some slight limitations, but hey, it’s free :).


3D manipulator disappeared from object I'm not sure what's happened here, but my 3D manipulator widget (for X, Y, and Z axis) has disappeared from my main object in Object Mode. It shows up in Edit Mode no problem, as well as every other object in Object Mode. Any ideas? Thanks.


How do i activate 'rendered view' in Cycles. Shift z is not working How do I activate rendered view? The hotkey is 'shift z' but this does nothing.
when I press 'shift z' it just goes to wireframe mode.

What am I doing wrong? I am using a mac - blender version 2.9

Press z to open pie menu. Rendered view is at top.


Dynamic props dialog into operator good day. I want to change the props into operators dialog. something like this:

if I select the option A....then show for example some buttons

but if I select option B then show for example some slider or text entry

some code that Im test is:
class PUPA_OT_FitArmature(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "view3d.test"
    bl_label = "test"
    bl_category = "test"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    options = [
            ("Select option","Select option","Select option"),
            ("Option A", "Option A", "Option A"),
            ("Option B", "Option B", "Option B")
    ]
    CollectionName:  EnumProperty(
        items =options,
        name="Collections"
    )

    test_checkbox : bpy.props.BoolProperty(
        name="test_checkbox ",
        description="test_checkbox",
        default= False
    )

    slider : bpy.props.FloatProperty(
        name="slider",
        description="allow change some size",
        default= 0.1,
        min =0.01,
        max = 2
    )

    def testM(self, context):

        print("test")

    @classmethod
    def poll(self, context):
       return context

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        return context.window_manager.invoke_props_dialog(self)
    def execute(self, context):
        D = bpy.data
        C = bpy.context

        self.testM(C)

        return {'FINISHED'}

but I can not use if else within the property definition because the register is in process... then something like this don't work

some ideas please?

You can't doing logic operation when defining class attribute in python. To customize the layout of redo panel—the dialog box that usually came out when you call operator—is using draw method.
Say you want to certain property is hidden when you change another property, first you define property to toggle the change, with EnumProperty
options: EnumProperty(
        name="Options",
        default=0,
        items = [
            # identifier    name       description   number
            ('option_a', "Option A", "Active Button", 0),
            ('option_b', "Option B", "Show a Slider", 1)]
        )

items is a sequence of enum items, list of tuples. You can read the documentation here. Then you define the layout in method draw.
def draw(self, context):
    layout = self.layout
    layout.prop(self, "options")

    if self.options == "option_a":
        layout.prop(self, "prop_A")
    elif self.options == "option_b":
        layout.prop(self, "prop_B")
    else:
        ...

Make sure to draw the layout for enum property as well, unless it will not show you anything on the panel. When you define draw, blender will not automatically draw the layout for all defined properties so you have to do it manually.
Complete code:
import bpy

from bpy.props import EnumProperty, BoolProperty, FloatProperty

class PUPA_OT_FitArmature(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "view3d.fit_armature"
    bl_label = "Fit Armature"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    options: EnumProperty(
        name="Options",
        default=0,
        items = [
            ('option_a', "Option A", "Active Button", 0),
            ('option_b', "Option B", "Show a Slider", 1)]
        )

    test_checkbox: BoolProperty(
        name="Test Checkbox ",
        description="Test Checkbox",
        default= False
    )

    slider: FloatProperty(
        name="Slider",
        description="Allow Change Some Size",
        default= 0.1,
        min =0.01,
        max = 2
    )

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

        layout.prop(self, "options")

        if self.options == "option_a":
            layout.prop(self, "test_checkbox")
        elif self.options == "option_b":
            layout.prop(self, "slider")

    def testM(self, context):
        print("test")

    def execute(self, context):
        self.testM(bpy.context)

        return {"FINISHED"}

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Result:


object separating itself during softbody simulation First time asker hope I'm doing this right!
I've made a jellyfish and wanted to try out softbody physics with it. Since it's a bit too much for my laptop to handle i put it inside a ball and linked the two with ctrl+j, making them the same object. I though since the ball was less complex it would be easier to calculate its collision with the plane, and it does bounces as I wish. Unfortunately the jellyfish gets out of the ball and splashes on the plane. (see gif attached) Is there a way to make the jellyfish stay inside the ball?
Thanks in advance !

That is a tricky problem.
The mesh geometry (length of the edges for instance) is of influence on the physics settings (like Edges Push and Pull values) and thus on how the object behaves during physics simulation. Because you have essentially two (very different) meshes in one object, they behave differently.
You could try to simply connect the to meshes in Edit Mode:

But the added edges will somewhat influence the shape of your meshes:

Also I don't think it will work for your jellyfish, since it is a more complicated mesh. I think if you want to control the behavior of both meshes, you'll have to make them two different objects, and sync their movement. I think I would animate the jellyfish manually without physics, to follow the movement of the ball.
(You might not need it, but just in case: If you were to do this, it might help to know about Cache setting to keep you simulation from changing for some reason. Can I save the baking cache?)
Not great answer I think, but I hope it helps. : )


Can action strip converted back to keyframes? In the NLA editor when you convert an action to a new strip then the keyframes disappear, is it possible to "get them" back?

The action editor and the graph editor both allows us to edit the active action of an object, only one action can be active for an object at any given time. When an action is added to the NLA editor it is unlinked from being the active action for the object.

While an action is removed as the active action for the object, it is still an action which contains the same editable keyframes and f-curve data, it can be edited again at a later time by making it the active action again. This can be done by selecting it in the action editor when the object is selected.

You will also find that it can also be associated with a different object and added to the NLA for both objects allowing both to be animated the same with the timing being offset for each object if desired.


Storing Path in a Variable and Reading it in another py file? Quick question:
I have a panel.py file, a operator.py file, and a __init__ that puts it all together.

My panel has a class that uses a bpy.types.PropertyGroup to store a PropertyString into a variable called file_path. It also has a class that uses bpy.types.Panel to create the PropertyString like this:

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

    tools = context.scene.worth_group_tools
    selected_path = col.prop(tools, "file_path")

My question is, how do I access this variable on my operator.py page? I've tried:

from . Tools_panel import PT_Panel
def execute(self, context):
   print(PT_Panel.draw.selected_path)
   return {'FINISHED'}

But that doesn't work.  Any suggestions?  My code works fine until I try to print with PT_Panel.draw.selected_path.

You can access the file_path in the operator, just like you did in the panel, by using the context. Through it you get a reference to the same instance of the PropertyGroup that stores your settings.

context.scene.worth_group_tools.file_path will give you the StringProperty.

You cannot access a local variable that only exists in the function scope from outside the object.


Paint segments on spaceships I would like to create a segmented look of my spaceship with hatches and paneled armor segments. I have the outline of it already modeled, but I am lost how to create the segments. I don't want to model them, I would much rather paint them on with a texture.

UV unwrapping gives me a texture, but painting the UV externally makes it very difficult to figure out what the final distortion will be.

How can I paint on nice, straight geometric lines directly onto the model?

Not that this is preferable, but at least you can make something happen with bump if you want.
First we set up our object to paint, and set up a 4k image texture to the Bump slot of our object, checking the box to use Float.

Next we turn on Face select masking so that we can make a selection while in texture paint.

Next we use View>Align to View>Top to get our object view to the top of the selection so we can make as straight a curve as possible.

After setting stroke method to 'Curve', use ctrl-click to set points along the features you want from view, making sure to follow the curve of the underlying wireframe as reference.

Turn off Face select masking, and press the Return key to stroke the curve - I use a small brush radius here, but be careful not to zoom in and out because that will mean a lot of variation in stroke width.
Lastly, you can preview the result after switching to Object mode, and then determine if you need to invert the color of your texture to get the opposite direction. White is up, Black is down, and grey is middle.


Question about '' inset faces'' I am trying to inset a face with 12 edges, however when i do so, i get weird geometry.

What am i doing wrong ?

See pic

Apply scale with CTRL+A before the insect face


OK my search for this answer wasn't so straight forward. I knew how to solve this with MeshLab, but I couldn't get another python functions to work so...

I ended up just writing a script that ran MeshLab. This helped: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/54143202/using-meshlab-function-with-python

The only thing to note is that it appears that calculating normals via the script wont work. Other than that follow the instructions for running a script.


Rounded Ends (or caps) on Biezer Curve Pipe Trying to make a simple bent hook with rounded that looks like the attached, but with rounded ends.

However I can not get the ends to close with a rounded cap.  I do not want to use an array --the instructions given with the first suggested / help link (shown next) do not work anyways. Can anyone please help? Pipe with round caps (ends)?

Make 2 bend curve as seen in the image.
Make a small circle curve.
In Object mode select the bend curve and go to curve tab at the right hand.
In the Geometry panel under Bevel Object select the circle.

As soon as you click the circle you will get the tube shape. If you scale the circle you will find the tube getting thicker and thicker.

If you want to fill the caps of the tube:

In the Geometry panel under the Bevel Factor choose Fill caps.
If you check on the caps the opening will be closed and if you uncheck it the opening will be open.


Updating cylinder's properties using a scipt I created cylinders using the bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add() command (I used this example). How can I update their radius (or any other property) using python script, instead of deleting the objects and recreate them?
I'm using those cylinders to display connection between areas in the brain, as part of an addon I'm implementing. I want to let the user to pick the radius of the cylinders (for rendering purposes), or to automatically change them according to the connections' strength (which may vary).

An example using a custom property with an update method.

import bpy
from bpy.props import FloatProperty
context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene

def bond_strength(self, context):
    self.scale.x = self.scale.y =  self.bond_strength
    return None

# create a custom property on all objects
bpy.types.Object.bond_strength = FloatProperty(name="Strength",
                                               default = 1.0,
                                               precision = 4,
                                               update=bond_strength)

# adds a slider to UI object properties panel. # would be in a custom Panel
if True: # only need to run this once
    def show_strength(self, context):
        self.layout.prop(context.object, "bond_strength")
    bpy.types.OBJECT_PT_context_object.remove(show_strength) # put in unregister
    bpy.types.OBJECT_PT_context_object.append(show_strength)

# add a primitive
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=1.0)

#create more
cyl = context.active_object  # newly created cylinder

for i in range(4):
    cyl = cyl.copy()
    scene.objects.link(cyl)
    cyl.bond_strength *= 0.5
    cyl.location.x += 2


How do you array a curve When I try adding an array modifier to a curve, it says that it "Cannot apply constructive modifiers on curve." I'm making a bezier curve which will be followed by the camera to make it seem as if the camera is "Walking", like a 1st person 3D animation. I made the first sequence of the curve but have no way of making it longer without individually modelling every single step throughout the walk path.

Is there any way to sort of array the curve to avoid this?

I couldn't find any really easy way to do this, but I found one which is far easier than modelling each individual step / bump.

First I modeled two full cycles of the sequence -- middle, low, middle, high, middle, low, middle, high. This sequence mimicks a bobbing motion of the camera, as if it is walking in 1st person. Then, I deleted the last 3 vertices of the curve, leaving only middle, low, middle, high, middle.

I turned on snapping to vertices, tabbed into edit mode, selected the whole curve, and duplicated it. I then used vertex locking to lock the very first vertex of the duplicated curve to the very last vertex of the original curve, essentially moving the entire curve where I wanted it. Then, I deleted the very first vertex of the duplicated curve (leaving only low, middle, high, middle), selected what is now the new 1st vertex of the duplicated curve, as well as the last vertex of the original curve, and pressed F to join them.

If anyone knows of an easier way, please post.


How to rig a car wheel. I don't find the add single driver option I am following different tutorials about how to rig a car wheel and they all show in some moment the option to "add a single driver"

but this option does not appear to me.

Does anybody knows why? Maybe a Blender update?
Thanks in advance

Yes, it's an UI update that happened between 2.77 and 2.74.

The workflow initially was to assign an "empty" driver and then define it in the graph editor. Nowdays it's provided an option to set a driver based on a picked object.

You can obtain the same result shown in your video by choosing "Manually Create Later (Single)" option in the driver menu.


Focus object “.” Issue I’ve started learning Blender 2.8 this week and I can’t seem to focus on object with the numpad shortcut .

When I have object in my viewport that I can see, selecting them and using the shortcut will frame up on the object just fine, it’s when I drag away in to no mans land and can not see my object in the viewport were I’m having my issue.

Selecting the objects in the object manager and using the shortcut doesn’t work as it does in the tutorials I am learning from. Sometimes when I select objects in the manager they will have read text but mostly it’s orange.

To reiterate, I can’t  frame up on objects once out of my viewport and selecting them on the object manger does nothing either.

Any help would be appreciated as it’s a useful shortcut.

You need to move the mouse back into the 3D Viewport. Since each Editor has their own respective keyboard shortcuts, Blender will pass the keyboard commands to the Editor your mouse is hovering over. So select the object in the Outliner, move your mouse back over to the 3D Viewport, and press ..


Is it possible to set a global Blender preference so that all keyframed motion is linear by default? I've been working on some animations recently, and I've noticed that I'm having poor luck with certain things, namely the fact that I don't really use Blender's graph editor very well.

One of the major issues that I have is pretty widespread among 3D graphics programs; when I create an animated object, it defaults to using a curved graph instead of a linear graph, which means that the most movement is at the middle of the animation, and stuff just practically stops near the beginning or the end. While this helps with organic camera movements or such, it's also not what I usually want. Can I set animation curves to default to linear?

Yes, Its under Editing > New F-Curve defaults

You might know this but just throwing it in additionally, You can select the curve in Blender, at any two or more points and use T to change it to Linear Interpolation (LERP).


Why dissolve edge acts differently I want to understand how the dissolve edge works, so I tried the following ways, but they act different from one to another:
1.Remove single edge, end vertices remains still.

2.Remove connected edge, red vertices removed, instead adjacent vertices connected instead, how this would happen behind the scene?

They acts in different ways, from the first situation, I surpose remove edge doesn't impact any of the vertices the edge connected, but when it comes to situation 2, the whole idea proves to be wrong, I'd be appriciated if somebody could give me a comprehensive explaination of how the "Dissolve Edge" works behind the scene, thanks.
Edit:I suppose the second situation should be like this:

Edit: It is very informative, however, if the "Dissolve vertices" is selected as default, then why the end points belonged to the edges that is to be dissolved is still there, as the red dots showing below, the red dots is still there after edge dissolved:

If you are looking for some kind of thumb rule you can generally say: In default mode with the option Dissolve Vertices enabled, it works like this: if the edge you would like to dissolve leaves one or more vertices with each only connected to two different edges, than these vertices (and the connected edges) will be dissolved as well and the bounding vertices will be connected with a new edge.
Example 1:

Example 2:


Boolean operation section cut pattern black I want to use the boolean modifier to create an architectural perspective section this requires that the faces/surfaces touching the section plane/box to be colored in black (architects would relate to this).

I don't know how to do it in using Blender, if someone could help me.

This is a similar result but the cut faces are colored in orange.

https://www.plusspec.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/PlusSpec_Villa-Savoye_Section-AA.jpg

The solution is to apply the material of the cut plane to the objects you want to cut below their original materials. Here this dark brown material is applied to the cut plane as a primary material and to the box as secondary material. Then the boolean operation colors the common faces with the material of the section plane.


New window without creating a new Screen object I work with dual monitors, but there are many reasons why I may end up with only one window open. For example, if I accept the save while closing Blender, it opens with only one.

Is there a way to open another window without creating a Screen datablock? For example, by opening an existing Screen in another window (rather than creating the unneeded Screen datablock)?

My current process is to Duplicate the existing Screen to a new window (Ctrl-Alt-W), then delete the Screen datablock it creates.

I have two monitors but I only have one blender window open. I expand the window to fill both monitors and then alter the screen layouts so that there is a split on the edge of the physical monitors. By setting the window size then saving the startup file, it always opens to this size, and includes my layouts, I also disable Load UI so that I keep my layouts with other files.

You may notice that the two monitors are different resolutions, I have a python console filling the off-monitor part that is not visible.


Hanging lamp attached to a cord animation I am trying to make an animation showing a hanging lamp attached to a cord.
I am quite at the beginning regarding to physics (and blender in generell).
So I made a cord, put the cloth simulation on, pinned the top few verticies and put some smooth wind on it. Now I want the the lamp to move with the hanging cable. How  can I do that?

You can use Object Constraints:
Add a new vertex group to the cord, and add the bottom vertex to it. Add a "Child Of" object constraint to the lamp, select the cord as target and the new vertex group as Vertex Group. Then position your lamp so it sits under the cord. The lamp now moves with the bottom vertex of the cord.
Result:


Animation nodes loop text problem Hello wonderful people!

A problem solving mind needed here...
I have expired the use of mine...

AIM:

To create a text animation sequence (for character dialogue) with a style that types into place letter by letter and then opacity fades, then repeats several times with different text objects - using animation nodes.

PROPOSED METHOD:

To have several text objects in a list, which will cycle through in an animation sequence as follows:
Text object one will appear letter by letter as if being typed into place, then it will hold for a second and fade out.
Then text object one will move out of place and in its place text object two will be placed, then it will animate in the same way - type into designated area, then hold for a second then fade, then for the remaining text objects.

THE STORY SO FAR...

I created 3 text objects, put them in a list and have a repeated time of 70 frames, during which the text is trimmed to give typing effect.
I created some math and logic to give us a signal when the repeat cycle is complete, so that when 70 frames is up, a 1 is given which could then trigger the next text object in the list, but I am not sure how to change the index of the text object list to the next in the sequence...

Please see the screenshot of the nodes setup and the blender 2.8 .blend file is also attached.

blend file:

SOLUTION (Omar Ahmad):

Create a new loop with an iterator of type ‘integer list’ named integer. Add two parameters of type ‘integer’ named sum and padding.  In loop node’s N menu, in Advanced Node settings, Add a generator of type ‘integer list’.  In the loop node’s N menu add a ‘reassign parameter’ node for the sum parameter socket.
Create a text list with text objects populated…
Create expression node with numpy statement.  In the expression Nodes N menu, under Advanced Node settings, insert the module numpy, by comma separating to add it to the current module, so that it reads math,numpy.  Add an input of type ‘integer list’ named sums and an input of type ‘integer’ named frame.
Add a get list element which receives the text list, and has an index as the result of the expression node, which makes its calculation based on the frame in ‘time info’ and the integer list of the invoke subprogram node for the recursive sum loop.

current frame minus the numpy expression.
math result in to trim text end, to give the amout of text trimming.
then the text selected list goes in to the text input of the trim node.

The integer list of the recursive sum loop is received from the text length node, which outputs a list of integers, which are the character lengths of each text item in the text list.

The sum integer gives a delay before the text animates.
The padding integer gives a delay between each item list animation.

I am assuming you want to maintain a uniform typing speed across texts. In which case, we can assign a weight to each text based some other factor. This weight act as a duration multiplier to maintain a uniform typing animation. In this case, I will choose the length of the text as the weight. Next, I will compute a list that represents the starting times of each animation based on the weights we just computed. This can be done using a simple loop as follows:

The padding is just a constant added to pad the duration allowing for holding the animation for some time. Next, we want to know, at any time, which text are we typing. To do that we use the following numpy expression:

numpy.argmax(sums.asNumpyArray() > frame) - 1

It basically gets the index of the first element in the sums list that is larger than the current frame.

Make sure to import numpy in the Advanced Node Settings of the Expression node. Next, we get the text and its starting time at the output index, we subtract the its starting time from the time and use that as the end trim value as follows:

Now, lets divide the time to slow it down a bit and see what the result:

Increasing the padding will increase the interval between the starting animation of each text. The fading effect can be created just as we did, so I will let you do that on your own.


Tire modelling. Problem with sharp edges on tread I'm modelling high-poly tire with tread. I have problem with sharp edges on tread connection(array+circle modifier). Have you got some ideas to correct it to smooth surface?

-----------------------------PROBLEM SOLVED-------------------------------

Given that you are using a curve modifier to bend your array, try increasing its resolution. The default value is 12, but it might not be enough for the kind of detail you need.

Also, make sure to enable "smooth shading" for the object.


How to change scale of a texture through nodes I have created a wave texture which I assigned to one face, this is the object rendered:

This is the node setup:

I have set the wave type to be "rings", but in the rendered object these rings are stretched out like ovals.

How can I scale the texture in one axis to get circular rings?

Add a Vector Mapping node.  You can control the scale and placement for different axes:

Or plug it to the scale depending on what kind of effect you are after:


How does UV mapping effect value of a pixel in cycles render? I've found that a mesh in my scene has huge uvs.

Because of this, I am getting weird artefact as seen this image.

Value of a certain pixel after render (with denoising):

Value of the pixel after uvs normalized (uv coordinate value clamped to 1000).

This couldn't have been due to denoising as I've disabled denoising and confirmed that the pixel still get high values.

So, my question is, why is changing uvs effecting the light value of a pixel in cycles render by such huge magnitudes?

Also, here's the node setup for my material if it's relevant.

I have replicated this behaviour by unwrapping the default cube, going into the UV/Image editor and drastically scaling up the UV map by a factor of 9999999.

This would appear to be a problem with the Interpolation of the image - the problem is no longer evident if you switch to 'Closest'.

To explain this a little, the Interpolation setting comes into effect when the point in the image does not exactly match the position of a pixel - in which case Blender attempts to produce a value some way between that 'closest' pixel and its neighbours, effectively to try and 'blend' the edges. The extremely large scale UV map will be causing rounding issues with the floating point coordinates and this is most likely resulting in overflow. When Blender is trying to determine how much to blend between two adjacent pixels, the calculation appears to be triggering a divide by zero or overflow, resulting in a corrupt color being returned.

The solution is to simply re-scale your UV map to a more reasonable range - or use Closest interpolation.


Is Blender crashing because this file is too big? Context: Noob here. I need to import a .dae file into blender but it weighs 2.22Gb. Suffice it to say, blender crashes when trying to open the file. Activity Monitor app reads an increase in memory pressure coming from blender up to 6.51 Gbs (RAM installed is 8Gb) before it crashes. A decrease in performance of OS is not evident, however, which leads me to believe the file is too big for blender.

I am ready to give up but I wanted to run this by the community before I did.

It's likely that your suspicions are correct: the file is just too large for the amount of RAM you have.

To be clear, it's not too big for Blender. Blender can handle any size file so long as the OS can give it enough RAM, quickly enough. Sometimes there is technically enough RAM available, but the OS can't allocate it quickly enough, so it's not available when Blender needs it. This situation is unlikely for small files, but becomes more and more likely as the amount of RAM you're wanting to allocate at one time increases.

I'd recommend one of two tests, 1) find another system with more RAM to try importing the DAE to see if the problem is with the file's integrity, or its size. 2) If you have access to the original data, export a much smaller subset of the data, and see if that works.

It may be possible to export pieces of the model/scene in smaller files, import them separately into Blender, and then put them back together.

Google Sketchup can apparently import DAE files as well, so you could test importing with that.


Can you use a face to slice other faces? I am pretty new to Blender (currently working on my 3rd model). I need to tidy up the in/underside of the model to help reduce the impact on performance in the game it will be going into.

Is there a way I can use the flat face to slice the crystalline structures to make new edges so I can delete the unwanted sections?

There are two methods that are standing out to me.

One is the boolean modifier. For this, you need to make the crystalline structures a separate object. Than add a boolean modifier to one of the objects and use the union type. This will actually join the objects, the downsides are that it can create sloppy topology so it really depends on how willing you are to have n-gons and triangles in your mesh.

The other one is the intersect tool which is new with 2.72. For this you need to be in edit mode and have everything selected. The easiest way to find it is to use the spacebar search menu. Just search "intersect".

Here's a demo on the intersect tool:
link

This won't join the two meshes like the boolean modifier, but instead it puts the verts where they need to be and leaves the user up to deciding what to do with the mesh.

I hope this helps.


Merge multiple vertices along axis I have been modeling a character only to have blender hiccup during a save while setting up a UV workspace.  Fortunately I was able find an Autosaved version that was relatively recent to I don't have to start Retopology all over.  So I'm marking my seams.  The mirror modifier in the Retopo has been finalized but figured Symmetrize should be fine for copying my seam markings from one side to the other.
Symmetrize seems to have added extra geometry along the X-axis however.  It doesn't go all the way around the model but shows up in sections like shown in the picture.  Is there a relatively simple way to merge multiple sets of Vertices to 0 on the X-axis instead of having to go one group at a time?

There are several addons to make this process fast, but here's a way to do it in plain Blender.
Select all the objects.  Get the 3d cursor where you want them aligned to (perhaps by cursor to selected, perhaps by typing the coordinates into the N panel's View tab 3d cursor section), and set the transform pivot point to 3d cursor - by default I believe that's the . key, though there's a dropdown for it also at the top of the 3d view.
Next, scale the objects with the modal scale operator (s by default), lock the scale to the axis you want to align on, and type 0.  They will all be snapped to the pivot point along that axis.


particle object rotation beginner question I'm afraid to post such a noob question. using blender2.8

but I want to make scene in which so many dead leaves sitting on the ground like winter forest.
my particle settings are foloowing:

==========

Type:Hair

▼Emission
 ▼Source:
Random　 ☑

▼Rotation:
Orientation Axis:   Normal
Randomize:5

▼Object:
GlobalCoordinates:   ☑

▼Rotation:
Orientation Axis:   Normal
Randomize:5

▼Render:
Render As:      Object

==========

kinda expected, most of the leaves are not sitting on , or lying down on the ground, but they are standing..

How do I get leaves lying over the ground and still leaves are rotating just only horizontally with randomized.

This is because the origin of the leaf object is at the bottom(so try to set the origin at the bottom of this leaf object). Also, try to rotate the original leaf object(experiment with the rotation of the leaf object you will get an idea about it). I think you know how to change the origin of the object.


How do you create parallel spirals like a rollar coaster track? I've added a curve spiral with Curve -> Curve Spirals -> Spheric (This might require an add on to be enabled like "more curves"). I'd like to have a second spiral that is parallel to the first to create a spiral track that a vehicle like a roller coaster might ride on.
This is proving to be quite difficult however, since you can't just duplicate and move or scale it since the ends don't line up top and bottom. I'm thinking there's a formula that I need to use to generate the two spirals, perhaps using an XYZ math object or similar.
Here's the top (nicely aligned):

And the bottom (which is not at all aligned):

And the overall shape I'm going for:

As a side issue, the spiral shape also seems to be beveling in a strange way. The bevel object is just a circle (curve) but it deforms into an oval shape that changes axis the whole way down.

So, to do what you want to do, instead of duplicating the spiral, why aren't you simply using one unique spiral and give it a bevel object made of several circles (or whatever shape you need to create your tracks)? Don't forget to choose Twisting > Z-Up so that the tracks don't tilt along the curve. If needed, tilt the spiral curve's vertices. It also could be done with an object made of several meshes, following the curve with an Array and a Curve modifier.


How I create a game using my 3d models? Ive created a 3d chess board and its pieces in blender and I'm now learning python to create a playable chess game. How do I take what I've made in Blender to use them for the pieces for the game?

Go to File> Export and select the file type that you need. Then save the file wherever you want to.
If you want to export individual pieces, select the piece that you want to export and repeat the process above again, but checking the Selected Only box.
You can now use the mesh(es) outside of Blender.


Tank asset's meshes disordered in Unity I recently followed along a tutorial to create a tank in blender, but whenever I try to import the asset into Unity it is in complete shambles. I'll attach screenshots on how it looks in Blender and then in Unity after the import, any ideas why this happens?

This is because the models were transformed in world space (Object mode) in Blender. To fix, you need to make everything have a common origin or space by resetting their transforms to 1. Otherwise whatever package imports these will try to fit it into their world using said transforms. To fix, simply apply the rotation and scale and maybe even the location as well with Ctrl + A.

Related Animated mesh has incorrect transforms when exported to Unity


Swap control+click with shift+click Ctrl+click is like Window's shift+click in the explorer - selects everything from point to point. Shift selects additively. What are the names of their controls in the preferences menu? I want to swap them (so that ctrl+click adds to selection).

Ctrl + Click  used to select shortest path.

Try to change it to Shift + Click, then change Select in Mesh to Ctrl + Click.

I didn`t change every other options in selection, but it is ok for me


Follow Path interpolation problem: numerical instability? I am trying to get good camera paths and pointing.  I've been trying to use an Empty that follows a path as the "Track To" constraint object for my camera.  I noticed some bad jumping and think I have tracked it down to a problem in the evaluation of the path.  Up through frame 17 the empty tracks the path nicely:

At frame 18 the Empty "Leaps" off the path by .1 Blender units.  This is quite a distance to be jumping off the path in 1 frame when the camera is only 2 Blender units away.  This causes an annoying jump in the camera angle that I cannot seem to get rid of:

Is there a better way to get smooth positioning?  I don't really want to have to keyframe the Empty position for this as it would be an enormous number of keyframes (curved path).  This looks like some sort of numerical instability.  If it were a more gradual deviation, I could adjust for it by moving the control points of the path.  I'd really like suggestions on how to address this.

To reproduce this:

Start a fresh Blender session & delete everything.
Add a path
Add an Empty
Add a "follow path" constraint to the Empty
Choose the path you created as the target
Select the path.
Edit the path to have the following 10 points:
-2  0 0,     -2 -2 0,
0 -2 0,     2 -2 0,
2  0 0,     2 90 0,
2 92 0,     0 92 0,
-2 92 0,     -2 90 0
Under Path Animation set 2 keyframes for "Evaluation Time": frame 1 to 0.0, frame 100 to 100.0
Now toggle between frames 17 and 18 and see the "jump" to the right.

I've tried a number of things including inserting a lot more control points into
the path, but the problem persists in one form or another.

I recreated your example just to see that happens, although on my system, the "interesting" frames were different.

Path is a parametric curve, P(t). It is natural that the dP/dT = (P(t+dt) - P(t))/(dT) is not constant.  Blender is trying to find such a dT(i) for every i-th frame to make your point moving along the path in constant steps. And it fails sometimes.

This is happening because your path has a long segment (from y=0 to y=90), while your other segments are significantly shorter. You can try inserting more control points into the longest segment (just subdivide it a few times). This will increase the accuracy of derivative computations.  I usually keep my segments at equal lengths.

PS if you shorten the longest segment, the error will reduce dramatically


How would I apply a gloss or anisotropic shader to my model? I'm using an older version of blender and i'm having trouble finding how to apply a gloss or anisotropic shader to the model in blender engine. I'm attempting to apply the shader to the grip and the slide (The gold and dark gray segments) any help would be appreciated.

enter image description here

Your mesh objects are not rendering because many of them have Material issues. Either they do not have a material set up, OR they have the wrong material type for the render engine chosen. You have the Blender Internal engine selected, but your materials nodes seem to have been set up in Cycles originally.

Changing the engine to Cycles allows all the objects to render, so the solution depends on which engine you are intending to use.

If you do actually want to use the BI engine, then you need to replace your the nodes in your Materials to use BI type nodes with a proper BI output node.


How to set driver distance max and min influence? I have drivers set up between two Empties as an experiment (before I move on to more complex endeavors), and I want the scale of one Empty to be controlled by the distance between it and the other Empty - in such a way that when the Empties are at their maximum closeness (0 distance) this is the max value (or 1), and when they are separated by a distance of x this is their min value (or 0). How can I set this up?

In the image above, the distance from "Empty 2" is controlling the X,Y,Z scale of "Empty 1". However, Empty 1 shrinks when Empty 2 is brought closer - which is perfectly logical, but I want the opposite effect. This would allow for more intuitive rigs to be created where an Empty can be brought closer to an Armature's Bone to create an effect.

There may be cases where I want the min value to be greater than zero, so that Empty 1 does not scale down to an infinitely small size and disappear when Empty 2 is moved away past x distance.

I'm sure there's a way to do this with an expression, but how exactly I do not know. Please pardon my weakness when it comes to math and coding.

I tried a few different expressions involving -var or var*-1, but haven't made much progress.

Here's the magic formula for the driver:

1.0 if (var <= 0.0) else 0.0 if (var >= <maxval>) else (<maxval>-var) / (<maxval>)

So if I want my max value to be 5.0, then the formula would look like this.

1.0 if (var <= 0.0) else 0.0 if (var >= 5.0) else (5-var) / (5)


Rigid or soft body dummy legs? I have a little floating robot character, it's just a sphere with an eye and 4 little "nub" sort of feet legs that extend from it's bottom. I want to do keyframe animation on the sphere, and have the little legs swing and bounce around (within limits on their movement), while attached to the sphere.

I have some limit rotation constraints set up on them but I decided I want to just simulate them like a puppet's feet or something, instead of manually animating them. How can I achieve this? The sphere is not yet rigged and neither are the legs, will I need to rig them to do this? Or can I handle the little feet with physics and constraints alone?

I've tried rigid and soft body and setting their parent empty as a constraint target but the feet just fall down infinitely when I bake the simulation. I've never tried to do simulations so I'm not sure where I should be looking to do this. Also at the base of my little feet I have a small colored ring from which they extend, this is animated using a lattice so that when the feet move, this little "rubbery" part deforms a bit as well, and if possible I'd like to preserve that in any simulation, though it's not that important and I could do without it. I should note that I've done a simple character similar to this before but that was without needing any physics.

I think you mean you want the children objects (i.e. the legs) to follow the parent in a delayed way like this:

To do so:

Parent the feet to the body.
Under Relations Extras in the Object Settings, check the Slow Parent checkbox and set the Offset to 10.0

This next step is optional, but if you want to prevent the feet from ever getting farther than a few units away from the body, you can add a Limit Distance constraint. Go to the constraints tab, add a Limit Distance constraint, set the distance to something around 4.0 units and set the target to the parent object:


Arrows do not appear at selected point on mesh I attached an image to explain what is going on. The center of red, blue and green arrows should appear at the white point inside the red circle when I chose the white point to edit it. And if I hold and drag the Blue arrow up, the white point goes down although it should go up. Please help me to fix this, I tried hours to fix it but I can't find a clue >.<

Expected :

Center of blue, red and green arrows is at the white Point inside the red circle.
Hold and drag blue arrow up, the white point should go Up, drag green arrow to the right, will make it move to the right ...

Thanks for helps.

Disable "Adjust cage" option

Bender is capable of showing the result of some modifiers in edit mode. Subdivision surface & Mesh deform are one of those. In addition there is also an option called Adjust edit cage to mesh result; from the Blender's reference manual page:

  This lets you grab the vertices as they lie in their new smoothed locations, rather than on the original mesh.

Despite this, the 3D manipulator will stay stiched to the un-adjusted cage of the mesh, creating the small gap you mentioned.

In your case the modifier causing that is the last: Mesh deform.


How can I soften my Volumetric Light borders? I made a volumetric light based on a sphere, the borders are too notorious, it even looks like a texture. Is there any way to soften the borders like adding a blur, but in the single object, without messing with anything on the render layers?

Here I used a Gradient Texture node set to Quadratic sphere to generate the tapering of the volume. The ColorRamp node is used to control the strength, note the the right edge of the color ramp has a value of 1 (the center of the volume) and the left edge is 0 (no strength on the outer edges of the volume).
click for full size


How do I join these vertices? While testing the armature of my character, I've noticed that I've messed up the model and now when I move some of her bones around some parts of her body disconnect from each other...

I've already tried using ctrl-J to fix it, but it has done what it could and it's still messed up, help?

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

P.S.: I've heard of it but now I forgot what command fixes faces that are occupying the same place like in this situation...

Any help on that too?

select d 2 vertices u want to join den hit d V botton on d keyboard dat sud do it but u cant do multuple vertices at d same time it has to be one b4 another


Perfectly snaping and aligning two objects by face center using the least possible steps? I want to be able to perfectly center and align one piece of geometry to another that is at an arbitrary angle. The following screenshots demonstrate better what I'm trying to do:

Does anyone know how to accomplish this simple task in the most efficient way (least possible steps)? I am open to add-ons that offer this functionality via script as well.

Here's one way (to get the ball rolling) :).

Poke faces on the target face (to get a center)
Enable Vertex snapping > Median and Allow rotation (to snap origin point)
Flip the mesh upside down (since Blender keeps the Z orientation)


Is adding a lot of loop cuts bad? Im creating a mesh, or more specifically a very detailed robot. I look for modeling suggestions to the following concerns.(see below)

is it suggested that i use a lot of edge loop (for definitions sake), while also using a subsurfice modifier.
for some reason i feel like all of my edge loop are going to bite me right back later on. (has this happened to you? if so what do you suggest)

p.s I'm box modeling.

Thank you!

It depends a lot on the situation and what you're modeling.

Generally, I try to get the main shape of my model in before adding in the subserf, and then once it's to the point where I need extra geometry, or smoothing, I'll add in the subserf, and start to add in holding edges.

If an edge loop isn't adding anything, get rid of it. Every vertex should have a purpose.

If you're getting to the point where you think that it's becoming a bit too messy, it could be a good idea to retopologize your mesh to streamline the topology.


Trying to create shapekeys by moving verts Hello I am trying to create shapekeys by moving verts instead of sculpting. When I go to do this I noticed the gizmo is set to the verts resting position instead of the new posed position. How can I fix this?

The gizmo appears at the origin of the object.
Always apply Transforms CTRL A before shape keys because its good to have Ref. points at 0 when starting.
For now, just SET ORIGIN to C.O.M at the object mode.


Particle children "simple" stop showing on certain frame I'm simulating particles with boolean object as the emitter and icosphere as particle.

Adding simple children was fine, but when it hits a certain frame (43 to be exact), the children just gone on display and in render.

Tried several things that I thought could've been the quirk, like;

changing numbers of particles,
moving the boolean mesh so it won't completely disappear
deleting cache manually

Anything I should tweak? Or is there a workaround?

Thanks in advance

Just found out, the culprit is the Boolean.
Tweak translation of intersecting objects to make it work.


Parent Grouped Objects in Animation Nodes I have a simple scene featuring a cell-fractured Cube object with the following Animation Nodes setup, based on Jacques Lucke's tutorial here.

I was wondering how it would be possible to effectively parent all of the individual fractured pieces to an animated Empty object and have them rotate as if the cube was a whole (see the .gif for reference, below), whilst retaining the individual piece matrix transformations defined within the AN setup?

This is using Animation Nodes 2.1 for Blender 2.79.

Thanks in advance! :)

UPDATE:

Using Omar's suggestions, I have been able to parent the Fracture Group objects to the Animated Empty object by multiplying the Animated Empty's matrix input by the manually generated ID Key initial transform matrices of objects in the Fracture Group (see below).

I would also like to parent the Sphere Empty object to the Animated Empty. I have been able to do this again by manually creating an ID Key of the Sphere Empty's initial transforms, however, I was hoping that there would be a more automated method, rather than having to generate ID Key's by hand for each object I'd like to parent. Below are several attempts at automating this approach. @OmarAhmad, the first .gif below is a reference of what I'm trying to achieve, although obviously, this one uses the manually created ID Key's.

Reference:

Unsuccessful Attempts without ID Keys:

Using World-Generated Matrices:

Using Object Transforms:

Parenting in essence can be implemented as a simple matrix multiplication. For instance, give an empty and an object with a certain initial transformation. In order to parent the object to the empty, we simply multiply its initial transforms by the transforms of the empty as follows:

So, to answer your question. All you have to do is multiply the output matrices to the transforms of the empty.


Blender 2.80: What is the difference between "Rendered" and "Look Dev" display modes? By pressing "Z" inside the 3D viewport in Blender 2.80 one can access the display modes of Blender. I would like to know the differences between "Rendered" and "Look Dev". Thank you.

LookDev uses the eevee renderer and some pre-selectable hdris to light your object. It ignores the lights in your scene. Rendered uses the lights in the scene, and you can change between cycles render and eevee.


Blender addon for creating crowd Just simple question : what is the proper addon for creating for example hundreds of bug crawling on wall. Where the bugs can make a contact with the surface like walking or crawling on a bumpy surface.

There are only two add-ons in my mind that I could recommend for making crowd scenes easier to make, but you might know that it can also be achieved using particles.

Crowd Master: http://crowdmaster.org/

MCPrep: https://twitter.com/TheDuckCow/status/1070655223545425920


IES Lighting on Transparent Alpha Background I've been looking for this question and answer but have only come across a similar one in regards to shadow, I was unable to find an answer.

I'm creating assets for a project and am using IES lighting for certain light models (These are built into the models as flat planes, if you can imagine transparent textures around the edges of the model with "Bloom" effects)

I use a generator to create different styles of IES and can import them into Blender as lights, but the problem is capturing the lighting itself with a completely transparent background, so the image can be used as an "Overlay" on textures, such as Brick, Stucco, Wood etc.

I was thinking I could have the light casting the effect on a wall, somehow change the wall and background to be transparent and be exportable with an transparent/alpha layer.

Any ideas on how to do this?

Yes, you can do this with a holdout shader on the diffuse plane:

Note that the world background must be completely black/zero strength so that there are no other sources of light in the scene, and Transparent should be enabled in Render settings > Film.


Should I use stencil for this? I'm not quite sure how I should do those 3 blue speckles on my character's head.

First I thought creating some kind of black and white stencil and paint over it, but  I'm afraid that would leave the edges of the blue circles jagged(?)

How would you guys texture the head?

I'm using Cycles.

You may create a procedural b&w mask and use it as a factor for mixing different shaders. It requires some experimenting to do it right but give you the full control over the dots' shape and sharpness. You may also create a b&w mask via Texture Paint mode.

PROCEDURAL MASK

Set up the material nodes as pictured below. Set up the texture coordinates to Object and play with the Mapping node settings to place the dot where you want. Set the Gradient Texture's mode to Quadratic Sphere. Use Color Ramp node to set its blurriness.

Now duplicate the nodes with Shift+D and mix them using MixRGB color node (Multiply).

Play with the settings of the duplicated Mapping node to place the dot on the top part/other side of the object.

By repeating the process you'll get a b&w mask for mixing the two shaders.

PAINTED MASK

Unwrap the sphere (I marked a seam along the vertical edge loop and then unwrapped). Go to Texture Paint mode and add a new Diffuse Color paint slot. Set the image color to pure white. In painting tools set the brush color to black and set the curve's type to line e.g. In Options bookmark uncheck the Occlude, Cull and Normal checkboxes to paint through the mesh. Paint the dots and save your image. Use it as a mask as in the procedural example above.

Here's the .blend:


Custom brushes not saved I spent a lot of time making custom sculpting brushes that use textures with different settings.  I assigned all of the textures a fake user.  When I saved my file and reopened it all of the textures I loaded for my brushes where unloaded.  How do I make reusable brushes in blender?  Thanks.

I finally figured out why the icon paths are being lost, follow all the steps you're doing so far and then;

Save the blend file to where your custom brush Icons folder is (in my case I am modifying my startup file so I've put my custom brush Icons folder into %APPDATA%\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.90\config)
Then do File > External Data > Make All Paths Absolute.


Root bone as pelvis vs ground? In many rigs I have seen, the root bone is located in the pelvic area. However, where walk cycles are concerned I have also seen tutorials where there is a ground bone (or whatever you want to call it) that is hierarchically above the pelvic bone, but of course physically located at the lowest part of the armature - usually Z:0. This bone serves to position the entire character while walking, jumping, etc. Today I found myself asking: couldn't that just be an Empty instead?

What are some possible advantages or disadvantages of having a ground bone vs using an Empty (as a Parent of the Armature object) to control the character's position?

Having the ground bone as part of the same armature makes it much easier to animate as you can just stay in pose mode for the one armature the whole time. Furthermore actions are designed to be applied to single objects so it helps there as well.

The only reason why you might not have a root ground bone is if you are planning on exporting the rig to another piece of software with different expectations (e.g. matching a default skeleton in a game engine that has the root at the pelvis). In this case parenting to an empty isn't going to be that much help either though as the program likely won't know what to do with that either.