can i lock my zoom in position while sculpting? I have a tendency to zoom in a lot in blender, but while trying to sculpt this "zoom in" habit can get annoying. Is there a way that i can lock the the zoom in position while sculpting in blender?

Thank you!

You can temporarily disable Zoom event in the User Preferences.

Zoom in/out to position you'd like so to work comfortable. Then open the window with Ctrl Alt U, type Zoom in the search input textbox and look for the event in the 3D View, to disable/enable simply check/uncheck that option (exact option depends on the type of zooming that you use so frequently):

You may want to leave the User Preferences window opened while you work so not to search for options you've changed.

Note that still you will be able to zoom with other ways in the 3D View window, and using any way in other windows.


Import OpenVDB files? Is there any way to import OpenVDB files into Blender for rendering, exported from Houdini? Will there be an option in Blender 2.8 (stable) or is there any other build that supports Houdini's .vdb files, which allows to render them in cycles or eevee?

OpenVDB loading in Blender is limited to smoke simulation caches. The system is not designed to load external files. There's probably some horrific way to format an VDB so that Blender is fooled into thinking it's a smoke cache, but I'm not aware of any working setup for that.
There is an eventual plan to add a volume object to Blender that would support loading arbitrary OpenVDB files, among other things. There is no timetable or version for this.

In the meantime, in certain limited cases you may be able to get by via using Houdini's scatter SOP to fill the VDB with points, exporting these points to Alembic, then using Cycles' Point Density texture to render the point cloud. It won't have the exact shape and is of limited functionality, but depending on your needs it may do the trick.


Change circle segment depends on diameter I want to program a tool for checking radial parts of a mesh.

The idea is:
You push a button, the scripts add an object (circle) to the scene.
Then you grab it place it and when you scale this circle it changes segments depending on the diameter.

I'm stuck on this for now

import bpy
import bmesh
import math
import mathutils

class OPA(bpy.types.Operator):
# Make a new BMesh
    bm = bmesh.new()

# Add a circle XXX, should return all geometry created, not just verts.
    bmesh.ops.create_circle(
        bm,
        cap_ends=True,
        cap_tris=True,
        diameter=2,
        segments=8)

# Finish up, write the bmesh into a new mesh
    me = bpy.data.meshes.new("Mesh")
    bm.to_mesh(me)
    bm.free()

# Add the mesh to the scene
    scene = bpy.context.scene
    obj = bpy.data.objects.new("Object", me)
    obj.show_wire = True;
    obj.show_all_edges = True;
    obj.draw_type = "WIRE";
    scene.objects.link(obj)
    obj.location = bpy.context.scene.cursor_location

# Select and make active
    scene.objects.active = obj
    obj.select = True

    #while True:
        #if obj.select == 'True' and scene.objects.active == obj:

bpy.utils.register_class(OPA)

Your operator does nothing. It's missing an execute or invoke function.

To do what you want to do, you could create a modal operator:

In its invoke function you would create a circle curve object.
In it's modal function you would change the U resolution of the curve and the scale, for instance based on mouse movement
when confirming the modal, you would convert the curve to a mesh (if that is what you want)

Check the template scripts in Blender to understand how operators are structured.


Why Does The Camera Make Weird Angles when animated? I have a simple animation wherein i show one angle, then switch to another and back. My problem is that the camera makes big angle change. How do you do a smooth transition without adding so many key frames to let the subject stay in frame?

Please see video  enter link description here

I just want the camera to move to Top View without zooming in in between frames.

Thanks

You can add an empty to let camera stick on it (make parent with transform), and rotate the empty to make your camera rotate

You only need two keys for this job with a super stable result.


Inserting extra vertices / triangles to give the model more geometry I have a lo poly model.

I would like to give it a bit more geometry here and there.

This is a screenshot of what I would like to achieve:

The left side shows the "original" object.
On the right side one can see how some extra vertices were inserted.

This was done in a different software.

How could this be done in Blender?

Thank you very much!

I'm using Blender 2.81.

First, I have to select the faces in question.
To do that, select the face selection.

Select all your faces by using Shift.

Then, click the "Edge" menu, then click "Subdivide" to subdivide all selected faces.


Animation preview lagging I just downloaded blender and I'm starting with this whole world. The thing is I have a little project for college where basically I'm doing a box with courtains inside, a back door and a water container on the side. Whenever I press the play button below the scene is really lagging, the fps are in red and display 6~7 fps. Like I said, I'm new so is this an error due to a missconfiguration from my part? Is my graphics card not enough or not properly configured? Are my onjects too many for the scene? Because with one cube moving around it seems to be just fine. Is this preview how my actual project is going to be? I would really appreciate some help :)
I have an Intel core i7-6700 CPU @ 3.40GHz 3.40 GHz, 8GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 and Blender v2.83.0

Animation is laggy in the viewport the first time you run it. It will be at the desired framerate once you render. Also, remember to set your output to video so you don't have to put together an image sequence.
~Dan


Can't crop image's size in Blender 2.8 Hi I want to make pixel art from my 3D renders and I found that scaling render result in compositor and pixelating it with node gives better result than rendering with low resolution.

Problem is that I can't crop it in blender and it's still big image with small pixelart in center

So I want to get rid of this transparent area. Thanks.

You can add an Output->File Output Node

When you render the image a full render will happen, then the Compositor will crop it

But at the same time a file will be saved that is just the result of the crop.


Rendering AMD Radeon R7 360 I am using this graphic card, but I don't know how to render via this GPU?
Is it possible? And how to do it because I don't see in options to choose my GPU.
Tnx

The opencl support needed to use an AMD card is not 100%. The list of supported cards hasn't been updated for a while, with some other cards also being reported to work to varying degrees.

First check that your gpu drivers are up to date. The opencl libraries provide the list of available hardware that blender uses to offer available GPU options.

While I'm not sure if the devs are interested in bug reports relating to opencl, they generally appreciate reports of what hardware works and what doesn't.


Error when installing matcaps Tried installing matcaps from older blender version. Here's the info log. What can be the problem here?

On Windows you need to be an Administrator (or run a program as administrator) in order to modify C:\Program Files. Your problem can be solved by logging in as a user who is an administrator and manually copy the files to the C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.81\datafiles\studio\studiolights\matcap directory.


Particles not appearing in viewport I am trying to make a missile. I want to put bolts on it to make it look a little more realistic. I was going to use a particle system to put them on there, but when I add the bolt in dupil object it doesn't show up. Help!

Please excuse my ignorance on Dupil Objects function. However, you could possibly create a bolt mesh and use the array modifier to get equal distance across the body, both vertically and also across the circumference with the same modifier set to an 'empty'. that's how I usually create bolts


How to select all non-CPU CUDA or non-CPU OpenCL devices for Cycles rendering (command line)? I'm looking for a way to have Blender 2.8 render with Cycles using CUDA but only for Nvidia GPUs (no CPUs selected) and do the same using OpenCL with only AMD GPUs (no CPUs selected).

My goal is to basically have a "CUDA script" that when run passes all available Nvidia GPUs in the system to Blender to render, while another "OpenCL script" sends all AMD cards.

I can detect and select a certain card with wmic but I can't find a way to match my behavior in the GUI of Edit > Preferences > System > CUDA > (only select Nvidia GPUs) for example.

Is it possible to have a blend file containing a script to render with just GPUs of a particular technology?

Thanks,

.trey

You can filter the devices returned by get_devices() by their type. The following script enables all CUDA devices that aren't CPUs. You can do the same for OpenCL or even combine the two into one script. If you want to disable CPUs that are already enabled in the preferences, you'd have to add an else case that sets device.use = False.

import bpy

preferences = bpy.context.preferences
cycles_preferences = preferences.addons['cycles'].preferences
cuda_devices, opencl_devices = cycles_preferences.get_devices()

cycles_preferences.compute_device_type = 'CUDA'

for device in cuda_devices:
    if device.type != 'CPU':
        print(f'Activating {device.name}')
        device.use = True

An add-on could be implemented like this:

bl_info = {
    "name": "Enable GPU devices",
    "author": "Robert Guetzkow",
    "version": (1, 0),
    "blender": (2, 80, 0),
    "location": "Properties > Render > Enable GPU panel",
    "description": "Enable GPU devices (CUDA/OpenCL) for rendering",
    "warning": "",
    "wiki_url": "",
    "category": "3D View"}

import bpy

def enable_gpus(device_type):
    preferences = bpy.context.preferences
    cycles_preferences = preferences.addons["cycles"].preferences
    cuda_devices, opencl_devices = cycles_preferences.get_devices()

    if device_type == "CUDA":
        devices = cuda_devices
    elif device_type == "OPENCL":
        devices = opencl_devices
    else:
        raise RuntimeError("Unsupported device type")

    activated_gpus = []

    for device in devices:
        if device.type == "CPU":
            device.use = False
        else:
            device.use = True
            activated_gpus.append(device.name)

    cycles_preferences.compute_device_type = device_type
    bpy.context.scene.cycles.device = "GPU"

    return activated_gpus

class PREFERENCES_OT_enable_cuda(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "preferences.enable_cuda"
    bl_label = "Enable all CUDA GPUs"
    bl_description = "Enable all CUDA GPUs as render devices, CPUs will be deactivated."
    bl_options = {"REGISTER", "UNDO"}

    def execute(self, context):
        try:
            activated_gpus = enable_gpus("CUDA")
        except (RuntimeError, TypeError) as e:
            print(e)
            self.report({"ERROR"}, e)

        if not activated_gpus:
            self.report({"WARNING"}, "No CUDA compatible GPUs found.")
        else:
            self.report({"INFO"}, f"Activated {', '.join(activated_gpus)}")

        return {"FINISHED"}

class PREFERENCES_OT_enable_opencl(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "preferences.enable_opencl"
    bl_label = "Enable all OpenCL GPUs"
    bl_description = "Enable all OpenCL GPUs as render devices, CPUs will be deactivated."
    bl_options = {"REGISTER", "UNDO"}

    def execute(self, context):
        try:
            activated_gpus = enable_gpus("OPENCL")
        except (RuntimeError, TypeError) as e:
            print(e)
            self.report({"ERROR"}, e)

        if not activated_gpus:
            self.report({"WARNING"}, "No OpenCL compatible GPUs found.")
        else:
            self.report({"INFO"}, f"Activated {', '.join(activated_gpus)}")

        return {"FINISHED"}

class ENABLE_GPU_PT_panel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "Enable GPU"
    bl_category = "Name of your tab"
    bl_space_type = "PROPERTIES"
    bl_region_type = "WINDOW"
    bl_context = "render"
    COMPAT_ENGINES = {"CYCLES"}

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        engine = context.scene.render.engine
        return (engine in cls.COMPAT_ENGINES)

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.operator(PREFERENCES_OT_enable_cuda.bl_idname)
        layout.operator(PREFERENCES_OT_enable_opencl.bl_idname)

classes = (ENABLE_GPU_PT_panel, PREFERENCES_OT_enable_cuda, PREFERENCES_OT_enable_opencl)

def register():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.register_class(cls)

def unregister():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(cls)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


Will it be possible to render out the Workbench viewports in Blender 2.8? In the same way as you can currently render the active viewport in Open GL? Some aspects of the Workbench renderer look as if they will be very useful for NPR people.

In Blender 2.80 the workbench engine can be used as an interactive viewport renderer, viewport rendering (to image or animation) or final render (image or animation.

Interactive Viewport

Workbench is used when the viewport is in Solid mode.

Viewport Rendering

In the view menu there are two operations. One for Viewport Render Image and one for Viewport Render Animation it will use the same settings as your current viewport.

Workbench as render engine

In the Properties panel it is possible to set the render engine to Workbench. Now when you do a final rendering it will use the workbench engine.


Set physics type in bge using python? I'm trying to set up a scene using a script that places a bunch of cubes in random locations throughout the screen and sets their physics type to rigid body. Ideally, I'd like to have one cube be an agent whose actions can be controlled via a different script. How do I set objects' physics type en masse using python in the game engine?
I've tried

ActiveObj.game.physics_type = 'RIGID_BODY'
ActiveObj.game.use_collision_bounds = 1

as well as

for obj in bpy.data.objects:
     bpy.ops.rigidbody.object_add(type='ACTIVE')

but, obviously, neither works in the game engine. How do I get around this?

It's easy to turn a rigid body static and back again. Start with a rigid body, and then you can suspend/restore the dynamics:

import bge

cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
own = cont.owner
own.suspendDynamics()
#OR
own.restoreDynamics()

A slightly more hacky way to turn a rigid body static is to set it's mass to infinite (ie no force will have an effect).

import bge

cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
own = cont.owner
own.mass = float('inf')

To make it rigid body again, set it's mass back to a proper number

To make an object dynamic is hard as BGE doesn't have access to the inertia tensor/radius of gyration. Even setting the angular velocity cap to 0.0 doesn't work. I guess you'd have to, every frame, set it's angular velocity to zero and restore it's orientation.

(untested code):

import bge

own = bge.logic.getCurrentController().owner
if 'ori' not in own:
    own['ori'] = own.worldOrientation.copy()
own.worldOrientation = own['ori']
own.worldAngularVelocity = [0.0, 0.0, 0.0]


How to make weight painting faster I've set up my bones, but my weight panting is slow. Every stroke takes almost forever to show up. I don't know if it's my computer itself or something else. What could be going on?

Disable all modifiers of the mesh except the one, which binds the mesh to the armature. Additionally set the shader mode to "flat".


Rendering to Texture with bgl in Python Is it possible to render a shader generated Texture in Blender Python with a shader ?

That's what I have so far:

    texIDinput = inputTex.gl_load()
    texIDweights = NetData.mWeights.gl_load()

    # 50% alpha, 2 pixel width line
    bgl.glEnable(bgl.GL_BLEND)
    bgl.glColor4f(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0)
    bgl.glLineWidth(2)

    bgl.glBegin(bgl.GL_LINE_STRIP)                  # begin a vertex data list
    bgl.glVertex2i(0, 0)
    bgl.glVertex2i(255, 255)
    bgl.glVertex2i(0, 255)
    bgl.glEnd()

    bgl.glCopyTexImage2D(texIDweights, 0, bgl.GL_RGBA, 0, 0, NetData.size, NetData.size, 0)

    NetData.mWeights.update()

But I dont get Lines on my Texture after running the Script ?

I am not an openGL expert. The documentation links to OpenGL 2.1. I don't think this version supports render to texture.

import bpy
import bgl

viewport_info = bgl.Buffer(bgl.GL_INT, 4)
bgl.glGetIntegerv(bgl.GL_VIEWPORT, viewport_info)

WIDTH  = 400
HEIGHT = 400

img = bpy.data.images.get("texture")
img.gl_load(0, bgl.GL_NEAREST, bgl.GL_NEAREST)
tex = img.bindcode

out = bpy.data.images.new("output", WIDTH, HEIGHT)
buffer = bgl.Buffer(bgl.GL_FLOAT, WIDTH * HEIGHT * 4)

bgl.glDisable(bgl.GL_SCISSOR_TEST)
bgl.glViewport(0, 0, HEIGHT, WIDTH)

bgl.glMatrixMode(bgl.GL_MODELVIEW)
bgl.glPushMatrix()
bgl.glLoadIdentity()

bgl.glMatrixMode(bgl.GL_PROJECTION)
bgl.glPushMatrix()
bgl.glLoadIdentity()
bgl.gluOrtho2D(0, 1, 0, 1)

bgl.glClearDepth(1.0)
bgl.glClearColor(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0)
bgl.glClear(
    bgl.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT |
    bgl.GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT
)

bgl.glEnable(bgl.GL_TEXTURE_2D)
bgl.glBindTexture(bgl.GL_TEXTURE_2D, tex)

bgl.glBegin(bgl.GL_TRIANGLES)

bgl.glColor3f(1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
bgl.glTexCoord2f(0.0, 0.0)
bgl.glVertex2f(0.0, 0.0)
bgl.glTexCoord2f(1.0, 0.0)
bgl.glVertex2f(1.0, 0.0)
bgl.glTexCoord2f(1.0, 1.0)
bgl.glVertex2f(1.0, 1.0)

bgl.glEnd()

bgl.glCopyTexImage2D(
    bgl.GL_TEXTURE_2D, #target
    0, #level
    bgl.GL_RGBA, #internalformat
    0, #x
    0, #y
    WIDTH,
    HEIGHT,
    0 #border
)

bgl.glBegin(bgl.GL_QUADS)

bgl.glColor3f(1.0, 1.0, 1.0)
bgl.glTexCoord2f(0.0, 0.0)
bgl.glVertex2f(0.0, 0.5)
bgl.glTexCoord2f(1.0, 0.0)
bgl.glVertex2f(0.5, 0.5)
bgl.glTexCoord2f(1.0, 1.0)
bgl.glVertex2f(0.5, 1.0)
bgl.glTexCoord2f(0.0, 1.0)
bgl.glVertex2f(0.0, 1.0)

bgl.glEnd()

bgl.glFinish()
#bgl.glGetTexImage(bgl.GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, bgl.GL_RGBA, bgl.GL_FLOAT, buffer)
bgl.glReadPixels(0, 0, WIDTH, HEIGHT , bgl.GL_RGBA, bgl.GL_FLOAT, buffer)
out.pixels = buffer[:]
img.gl_free()

#reset
bgl.glEnable(bgl.GL_SCISSOR_TEST)

#necessary(?)
bgl.glViewport(*tuple(viewport_info))

bgl.glMatrixMode(bgl.GL_MODELVIEW)
bgl.glPopMatrix()
bgl.glMatrixMode(bgl.GL_PROJECTION)
bgl.glPopMatrix()

Result


Procedural stretched materal I was experimenting with Blender's material nodes and texture and accidentally created a (in my opinion, beautiful) stretched material by creating a small mesh and applying a large image texture. If it matters, I'm using Blender 2.82a.

How can I procedural generate this material using Cycle's material nodes?

I'm very inexperienced with Blender, so details would be appreciated.

Description of material: cross section of wood stretched along the curve of a mesh

Material samples:

You can stretch any texture using the Mapping Node.

Add Mapping node right after Texture Coordinate node
Change type from Point to Texture (but it will work either way)
Crank up the scale disproportionally


Get Location of an empty with shrinkwarp constraint I like to read the location values of an empty by a phyton script.
The empty has a shrinkwarp constraint an is projected to an plane (ground).

With >>>

bpy.data.objects['empty_left.005'].location

i get:

Vector((3.6352062225341797, 5.1430134773254395, 0.0))

but the z-value is the origin value and not the projection value.

If i use the z-value as a variable for a driver, the correct value is used:

You can get the location from the world matrix:

empty.matrix_world.translation


How to create a reflective diffraction grating with cycles? I have been wondering how to create a diffraction grating material with cycles.

From the Wikipedia article:

  In optics, a diffraction grating is an optical component with a periodic structure, which splits and diffracts light into several beams travelling in different directions. The directions of these beams depend on the spacing of the grating and the wavelength of the light so that the grating acts as the dispersive element.

Diffraction is what creates the colors on a compact disc.  I am interested mainly in reflective rather than transmissive diffraction, i.e. the light is diffracted on a bounce rather than as it passes through a material.  I have heard that cycles currently does not support true diffraction (though most of what I have read is from a while ago).  So I would be equally interested in some kind of node trick to achieve the effect if this is still not so.

You could try a setup like this:

It's probably not physically accurate at all, but with a bit of work you can make a pretty decent looking effect.


Lighting without highly visible shadows How I can achieve lighting that we have in Autumn mornings using cycles ? We have some ambient light with very blurry shadows - I'm thinking about something like this:

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3565/3403192179_0c3044e5df.jpg.

A shadow is merely the absence of light. The sharpness or distinction of a shadow is determined by the area from which the light is emitted. Thus, both increasing the size of a light and/or adding more (spread out) lights will create the appearance of subtle or blurry shadows. Simply put, more light means less shadows.

In practice there are a few ways to achieve that sort of overcast lighting:

Large light source
Multiple lights
Environment lighting

1: Large light source

All lamps (except the Hemi) in Cycles have the option to increase their Size:

The exact size value that works for you will depend entirely on the scale of your scene and how far away the light is. A small lamp (left) will cast harsh shadows, while a large lamp (right) will cast soft shadows:

2: Multiple lights

Similarly, you can add more lights which will increase the total area that is emitting light.

On the left is a single area lamp with Size = 6, and on the right are 5 area lamps (with reduced intensity) arranged like a dome above Suzanne, also with Size = 6:

Using multiple light sources is a little more tricky to control, but creates slightly more interesting shadows. Here is a screenshot of the scene rendered for the right image above:

3. Environment Lighting

Cycles allows you to emit light from the World - an infinitely far away sphere around the scene.

By default, the world colour is a dark grey (left), however if you click Use Nodes, change it to white, increase the strength and add some buildings just out of view to block some light, it can be used quite effectively (right):

Here is a screenshot of the scene rendered for the right image above:


Why blender rendering objects to block/cut each other? And how to avoid it? It looks like one object projected and blocked/cut another.

It gets worse with more distance between objects.

How to avoid this mess?

It seems to be a problem with the camera end clipping.

As you see it
 the left cube is renderer with a proper camera clipping while the right one is rendered with a too low end clipping

As you see it

you can change the camera clipping in the properties menu while the camera is selected.

Try to increase the camera end clipping


Rolling shutter effect Is it possible to create an artificial shutter effect in blender to render something like this?

Everything in Blender is artificial. (lighting, shading, ...)

Blender Cycles has the rolling shutter functionality. Go to the scene settings and enable motion blur. In the Shutter Type, select Top To Bottom. Make sure to choose a relatively large shutter time and a small rolling shutter duration.


Exporting to 3ds without smoothing First I'm not a 3D modeler and I cant change the geometry of the model. Can I export to a .3ds without smoothing? Smoothing is causing tons of issues in my model (shading issues). I want it to just look like it does when it's flat (when viewing inside of blender). Can this be done?

This object is badly designed, imho :) but it surely can be fixed!

I guess it comes from a vector import (cad maybe) but even if blender in solid mode does a decent job of displaying it, this mesh has many flaws. You shouldn't believe me, you should believe the numbers.

Numbers: your model has 70% duplicated verts. A simple "remove doubles" reduces your 38287 verts to 11504!You have 26783 doubles...

But it's not all, imho: in wireframe mode you can even see many weird edges here and there, but to get more numbers, I used the bundled "3d print toolbox", which makes easy to find mesh problems.

Here the result after removing doubles...

Since we know nothing about your "own renderer (OpenGL)" it could be this one to visually show the model weird, probably due to many issues in the model. If you could post a picture of the model in that renderer something could perhaps be guessed...


How would I make the material for these LED headlights in Eevee? I've been trying to make an LED light similar to the one showed above, but I can't find a way to make the glass material be simultaneously transparent and emissive like in the picture. I tried making the glass itself emit light, but it looks really dull compared to the picture. I also tried making the top and bottom faces of a cube emit light, but that doesn't light up the glass in between. (Picture is in rendered view below).

The glass texture is just a principiled BSDF with full transparency, yellowish base color, and everything else set to 0, and the lit up planes are just yellow emissions of strength 10 with a gradient texture.

Here. Try something like this. EEVEE doesn't really play nicely with the Glass BSDF all the time, so you often have to find workarounds for good looking "shiny transparencies". In the shader below, I omitted the Glass shader, in lieu of a combination of shaders (many of which make up the glass shader anyway). I angled my screenshot so you can see reflection from my HDRI of the surface, showing it is indeed "shiny". Make sure to pay attention to the Blend Mode options I have highlighted on the right:


Objects other than leaves with Sapling addon? The Sapling addon does an excellent job of modeling the shape of the trunk, branches, and leaves of a variety of trees, and can be used to quickly produce realistic trees in my models. However, real trees often also have flowers, berries, pine cones, buds, etc which I would like to include sometimes.

Is it possible to add these objects using the Sapling addon? If not, would it be possible to configure a particle system to add these objects onto the tree-object created by the addon?

1) When creating the tree with Sapling, choose 'Rectanglular' for the leaves' shape because it will allow you to create a UV map. Also, make sure to select the appropriate leaves distribution.

2) Select your leaves and enter Edit mode.

3) Open an Image/UV Editor window and Activate the "keep UV and Edit mode in sync" option in the UV editor window

4) In the 3D View, select 2 vertices that are on the branch side, they will appear orange in the UV Editor.

5) In UV Window, with the box selection, select all those "branch vertices" which are actually above each other.

7) Subdivide once, you get the vertices that are directly on the branches, select them as well in UV Window and separate with P in the 3D View.

8) A new object is created with only vertices, put a particle system on it with emission per verts. Done :)

Really useful to replace default leaves with nice 3D leaves as well :)

An example. I made the new leaves and fruit using that method (The branches are the default one, ugly but it's not the point) :


How should I make scenes with atmospheric lighting brighter? I'm working with indoor lighting. I have a small room with two windows. I'm trying to create an atmospheric light. I have something like this

(sorry for a bad quality)

For that I used a spot lamp... The result is good but the room is too dark and it's hard to see objects in the room (if I place any). I thought about adding planes to the window frames, that would emit light, but how do I make plates let the atmospheric light through? Mostly the question is about where and how I can put additional lights, and whether I need to do that.

What I want is to have atmospheric light, but at the same time add some light to the room so that I can see other objects more clearly.

Whenever you are dealing with volume scatter and volume absorption your light sources will seem not as bright. Depending on the settings used for volume, a lot of the light is lost due to scattering, so it is normal to have lights that are much brighter than normal.

Without changing your current setup or adding any more lights you can use the ASC-CDL node to change the values for your scene and control the contrast and brightness:

More info on the CDL see this post: What is the the ASC-CDL node?

For even greater and more nuanced control on your image, use the powerful  color management options, you and use custom Lookup Tables (LUTs) to control how the values for the scene are mapped into the sRGB values.

More info here: Render with a wider dynamic range in cycles to produce photorealistic looking images


Mirroring during retopology creates aberrations on mirrored axis No idea how else to explain than to show this:

It should be mirroring it, but for some reason the other side comes out really weird. And not just this part. There are other parts, too.

Side A with mesh off:

Side B with mess off:

Side A with mesh on:

Side B with mesh on:

Even the back is messed up, where it is supposed to be symmetrical (note that the right side is the mirrored part):

For comparison reasons, here's the matcap version of the rear as shown above. It's symmetrical, as you can see, because it was done symmetrically when sculpted:

Out of interest in rearranging modifiers, moving the shrinkwrap modifier before the mirror and hiding the mesh makes the holes disappear that would otherwise be there, but the mirroring is messed up if mesh is enabled in that the "keep above surface" on the mirrored side doesn't work:

Again, it should not happen, but it is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Your high-poly object is not really symmetrical, try to remirror your rabbit with the dyntopo Symmetrize button, you'll see holes both sides.


Holdout plus glass shader problem! In my scene, I needed to hide a group of elements from the camera, so I hid them behind a simple plane with a holdout shader and as expected, the objects were invisible to the camera.

But here is the interesting part, later the client asked for some modifications and one of them required the scene to be seen behind a glass. So naturally I added the glass element - it was an automatic door - and to my surprise found a strange black square out of nowhere. Analyzing my scene I finally found that the problem was in the combination of the holdout material and the glass shader.

So the holdout shader works fine when seen directly throw the camera, but if I add a glass element between the camera and the holdout, then the holdout element becomes visible as black to the camera.

I tried switching off the transmission property on the cycles settings of the object but the result was that the holdout element became invisible to the camera BUT it stops hiding the elements behind it.

I finally resolved it in practical or artistic ways, like moving the objects away from the field of view or just changing the perspective of the camera. But the problem remained.

To clarify I attach some pics and a blend file to test the effect.
BLEND FILE: you will see two views of camera. Switch one of them to renderview and play in the outliner, hiding or showing the elements to see what I mean.

Apparently I can't post more than two links so I had to put everything into a RAR to share only one link.

To clarify let's see what you will find on the pics:

We have a simple cube: H01.JPG
We want to hide it so we add a plane with holdout material: H02.JPG
The cube becomes invisible to the camera. Now let's add a glass object in front of them to see what happen: H03.JPG

Houston! Now the holdout element, which was supposed to be invisible is visible to the camera and looks black as the night!

Let's try to turn off the transmission property of the holdout element to see what happen...: H04.JPG

As you can see the holdout element becomes invisible to the camera through the glass but is not a holdout element anymore! Now we can see the cube...!!!

IMAGES + BLENDFILE:

https://we.tl/GVfLvxqWPg

Any idea is welcome!

The Holdout shader is a non-realistic shader that acts much like a black hole. From a data perspective, it really is exactly that.

The glass shader receives information (in the form of ray casts) about what's behind it, and what can be reflected in it. If that information is coming from a holdout shader, it will be null/black/empty/World/Sky. A glass shader that tries to refract, reflect, or transmit a holdout shader will produce some strange results.

For this reason, a holdout shader is really only useful for compositing.

If you want to have objects in your scene that don't render, there are a number of better ways to do this.

For one, you can disable "renderable" for each object in the outliner by toggling the camera button. This doesn't render the object at all in any regard. I think it still participates in simulations, but it won't be visible, nor cast shadows, nor participate in any other render calculations. This will work with both render engines:

Another option (specific to Cycles) is to turn off visibility for specific types of rays (Properties panel -> Cycles Settings -> Ray Visibility). This can be a really fun thing to play with. For example, if you uncheck only "Camera" then you will see the object's shadow, it will appear in reflections, and it will appear through glass, but it won't be visible if it's directly viewed by the camera.

A third (somewhat more complicated) option is Render Layers. You can put those objects on another layer, and not render that layer. Note: there are some constraints, modifiers, and simulations that don't like having their participants on different layers.


How to make generate noise texture interact with displacement map So I have created a basic concrete floor by applying a displacement modifier, using an image for the displacement map.

I then, used a noise texture in the material to generate the random puddles. The issue is that where the floor is glossy (water/puddle) the displacement is still active and therefore makes the puddle lumpy when it should be flat.

My work-around was going to be to use the generated noise texture and overlay that on the displacement map so that wherever the puddles are, the map would be 50% gray.

Is it possible to bake the generated noise texture to an image file that I would be able to composite in photoshop?

I would like to avoid making the noise texture in photoshop to begin with because I like being able to modify it in blender to get puddles that fit seamlessly into the scene.

I have attached an image that illustrates the issue. Hope there is a better work-around for this! Thanks in advance.

Using generated textures with the Displacement Modifier in blender is kind of outdated, because it relies on the old blender internal textures. You can't mix these textures using Cycles nodes and therefore also won't be able to bake them using Cycles. While there probably is a way of achieving this switching over to blender internal i would recommend you not to use Texture Displacement Modifier but rather to do it the native Cycles way:

The Tools:

Cycles "Displacement" output socket

By default it affects the normals and the angle based shading math and (not the geometry itself like the Displacement Modifier). So it's an efficient way to fake roughness/displacement similar to using a normal map.
Because the floor is very flat and even you probably won't see great difference to real geometry displacement like in your screenshot.

Experimental: Cycles Microdisplacements + Adaptive Subdivision Modifier

If real geometry displacement is needed Cycles offers a new (still experimental) technique introducing real geometry (micro-)displacement. It is very handy and memory/performance efficient because the actual subdivision and displacement only happens in the renderengine while the object stays lowpoly while editing. This video by Andrew Price gives a good overview.
Here is how to enable it in three steps:

Enable Experimental Cycles in the Render-Tab:

Switch to Geometry Displacement in the objects material:

Add Subdivision Modifier "Simple" and "Adaptive": A dicing scale of 1 means the mesh gets subdivided pixeldense - there will be at least one "sub-vertex" per rendered pixel.

The Setup:

Option 1: Using one object/material

So this is how you could setup one cycles material for both concrete and puddles:

Option 2: Two separate objects/materials

The setup above has the disadvantage that if the water is semitransparent the concrete shining through doesn't have displacement.
Another solution would be to add a second plane below the concrete that serves as the water level and use the puddles mask to dig holes in the concrete material. This requires micro-displacement. In this screen I have exaggerated the effect for demonstration purpose:

Also check out the other cycles procedural texture nodes. As an alternative you could also create the holes using sculpt mode...


Particles render in viewport, but not in final I have a super simple Particle system. I am instancing a sphere (Render->Object->DupliObject->Sphere) with a white emission material.
When I set the viewport to render everything shows up fine, when I hit F12 nothing shows....
WHY?

I don't have any postprocessing enabled in the rendersettings, and I tried to cache the particles, but nothing so far...
Any ideas?

Here is a simplified scene that shows that behaviour

I could create a new system in a fresh scene, and append it into my main scene. So the problem is not related to the rendersettings.

This is because the particle emitter is hidden in the render:

Particles inherit the object level properties of the emitter, so hiding the emitter object will hide the particles.

To exclude the emitter from the render without hiding the particles, disable Emitter in Particle settings > Render:

This is already disabled in your file.

To hide the emitter in the viewport without hiding particles, see Is it possible to hide particle emitters in the viewport without hiding particles?.


Why does my volumetric light disappear when I disable camera visibility? I have been playing around with volumetric lighting and wanted to make a basic render. I create a point light put a UV sphere around it and deleted some of the faces to get the volumetric light. However the cube for which I'm using to control the volume scatter is still visible. I went an unchecked the Camera for ray visibility but the moment I do that my volumetric light disappears. Any suggestions?

With camera turned on:

With camera turned off:

Disabling camera ray visibility prevents an object or shader from being evaluated until after a ray has bounced for the first time. Directly visible volumetric light comes from striking the volume on the first hit. By disabling camera ray visibility, you prevent this interaction since there is no first hit on the volume.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish? I'm not seeing anything wrong with your first image.

Btw, you may get somewhat improved performance by using an emission texture on your light itself instead of enclosing it in a sphere with holes. The texture will prevent sampling around the solid areas of the sphere. Use the texture coordinate > normal output to mapping on a point light.


Export script doesn't show up in a menu got a strange problem - after i install .py script it doesnt show up in File - Export section. Here's the some code:

bl_info = {
    "name":         "Yoba Exporter",
    "author":       "----",
    "version":      (0,0,1),
    "location":     "File > Import-Export",
    "description":  "Export YMesh",
    "category":     "Import-Export"
}

import bpy

class exportymesh(bpy.types.Operator) :
    bl_idname       = "object.exportymesh";
    bl_label        = "Export YMesh";
    bl_options      = {'PRESET'};

    filename_ext    = ".ymesh";

    def execute(self, context):
        export()

def menu_func(self, context):
    self.layout.operator(object.bl_idname, text="YMesh (.ymesh)");

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__);
    bpy.types.INFO_MT_file_export.append(menu_func);

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__);
    bpy.types.INFO_MT_file_export.remove(menu_func);
if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Could someone help, please?

The error is in the menu function itself here:

def menu_func(self, context):
    self.layout.operator(object.bl_idname, text="YMesh (.ymesh)");

it should be:

def menu_func(self, context):
    self.layout.operator(exportymesh.bl_idname, text="YMesh (.ymesh)");

the reason is, you need to pass on the name of the operator as a string to the self.layout.operator() function. The name you get by using the .idname property, but of course you need to call the idname of the right class! Your class is called exportymesh, not object.  :)

also, the execute() function in an operator needs to return a set. To indicate your operator worked, you append this as the last line in the execute function:

return {'FINISHED'}

By the way, Python doesn't need the semicolon at the end of a line. It accepts it, but it is not mandatory.


How to have the head of a bone move freely? I've set most of the important control and pole bones and they worked, but the head of the chest bone is locked. The tail can move freely.
The file:

This rig works normally. The bones of the spine are point to the wrong way. Unfortunatelly you have to remake those 3 bones, because now the pelvis is the children of the chest.


Is there any way to replace an object? Is there any way to replace some object with another object?

For example, I have a bunch of cubes randomly placed throughout my project I want to replace those cubes with spheres. How can I replace the objects?

As usual there is may ways to achieve this. One approach would be to use the Link Object Data function, which basically allows you to swap out the Mesh Data (i.e. what you have in Edit Mode) with a selected mesh. The shortcut is Ctrl + L. See it in action here:

Whichever method you choose, you might get issues in regards to scale. If your cubes have different scale values in the Transform Panel, the spheres will have those different scales as well. If you had applied the scale before, all final spheres will be equally sized.

Even more important is the scale of the sphere. If that is not applied, but the cubes are, the resulting spheres will have a different size than the 'original'. The reason for both behaviors is this: The final representation of an object is a combination of Object and Object Data. The object holds the location, rotation and scale values. The data holds the mesh vertex coordinates, face info, etc. But the mesh data stores this info always as if the scale was 1. The output for the user is however displayed as the combination of both at all times. So before the sphere gets displayed on the screen, Blender applies the transformation matrix onto each vertex, and shows you the final result.

Final note: With this method, all objects will share the same mesh data. If you manipulate one, all of them will update when you exit Edit Mode.


iphone X Camera Preset? Hi I'm shooting on an iPhone X trying to track my footage. I don't know the iPhone X's camera info and am having trouble finding info that looks like should be putting into blender.

If you have the information please post or point me in the right direction to go. Thank you.

You should use your favorite search engine to find the dimensions of the camera sensor and lens used in your device, Then type them into the  Sensor and Lens settings for motion tracking in the Movie Clip editor. To make a new preset just press the Plus sign on the camera presets so that you can use it for future projects.


How are these Custom Node created? I downloaded a Model from BlendSwap and  when I was looking through materials, I these nodes which I have never seen before.

Examples:

How do I create one of these custom nodes?

Group Nodes

Those "custom nodes" are really called Group Nodes.  You can create a group node by selecting a group of nodes and hitting Ctrl+G.  You can see and edit the contents of a group node by selecting it and pressing Tab.  Once created, you can add a group node with the Shift+A add menu under Group.

When editing a group node there are two special nodes. The Group Input node allows you to pass information into the group node by plugging its sockets into nodes in the group.  Likewise, the Group Output node allows information to pass out of the group node by plugging nodes in the group into its sockets.

You can quickly add inputs and outputs by plugging other nodes into the the empty circle node sockets at the bottom of the input/output nodes.

Click to enlarge.  This is a simple fake light group node I have created.

You can also add inputs and outputs (as well as remove them, change their names, default values, adjust minimum and maximum values, and change their order) in the N toolbar under the Interface rollout.

Group nodes are very useful for grouping specific node trees you use a lot.  I have created a few node groups I use frequently and included them in the startup file (with fake users) so I have them whenever I need to use them in any project.


Switched from cycles to blender, made render turn black and white Hi so I was creating something in cycles and then I realized that I needed to use the halo material for an effect and so switched back to blender render but now when I try to render the picture it comes out as black and white (it came out in color in cycles) I have the render settings set to RGBA but it doesn't work in RGB either.

Please help
Cheers

Also a side question, although cycles is better than blender from what ive read they both have different unique features so which is better for what?

Not an answer to your question directly but a possible work-around:
To get a similar look to halo particles still using Cycles Render I often use a material node setup like this. So for a particle system with a kind of basic halo as the particles just create a sphere with this as the material and select object as the particle type under the 'Render' tab and use the sphere you created as the object.
Take note of the 'Blend' value in the 'Layer Weight' node. It was increased from the default 0.5 to about 0.9 to get a softer edge. Tweaking this value, the curve and the emission value should get something to your liking.


a vertex is not inside of gizumo's circle i get annoyed for this.
Is this proper behavior or a bug?
Can i fix this?

This is intended functionality. You are using a subdivision modifier and viewing the geometry generated by it while controlling the actual geometry. Since the modifier smooths the surface, the locations of the vertices change.

You can toggle the preview of the effects of the modifier in the Properties Editor, Modifier Properties tab:


Cut out everything within a volume. Is it possible? I have a very large model of terrain, spanning several thousand kilometers, with meshes of buildings and trees scattered across it. I'm only interested in one single area of the terrain, and I want to cut out a cylindrical volume around the area, and delete everything outside the volume. I'm familiar with the knife tool, but that's on a per-mesh basis, same with the boolean modifier.

Is there any way I can achieve this?

I have no such a big terrain here ... but this should work (with blender 2.8 at least...I don't know whether older versions will work).

Create the cylinder and position it at the correct place.

Select a mesh on the terrain inside the cylinder.
Add a boolean modifier and set it to intersect. Check the result.
If ok select everything and deselect the cylinder then.
Select the mesh from before.
Copy the boolean modifier with "copy selected modifier" to all the meshes.
deselect everything. Select the mesh from the start.
Press ALT and then APPLY of the boolean modifier.
Make a backup of your blender file before :)


Matching group Dimensions in Blender with Python I am trying to write a script that re-sizes imported glb models to a fixed dimension (x/y/z = 1, whichever is the longest). The problem is that the models usually consist of many nested objects for which I can not get the absolute dimensions. I built a resizing function in Threejs but unfortunately blender doesn't seem to support giving absolute dimensions of a group of objects.
I am lost here, and would appreciate any hints towards a solution.

This is the process that worked for me.
I basically just select all objects of type MESH and join them. Then I remove all objects of type EMPTY that might be parented to the mesh (eventually normalising the transforms with transform_apply(location=False, rotation=True, scale=True)).
From there it becomes very easy to programmatically manipulate the object.


object parented to bone does not stick to its place I have attached an empty to the head bone of a rig.

This empty is the parent of a face - it has a nose, eyes, hair... attached to it.
(I did this because I need to toggle the face attributes in my animation).

Thing is, when I'm moving the head, the parented elements are not sticking where they should, it seems to slide and I don't understand why.
I DID have parented it in rest pose as answered here for the same problem...

Does someone understand that or could have a look ? Here's the blend.

Thanks !

PS file has been made under 2.8

Your rig uses weight paint for moving the body parts, whereas your glasses are curves with empty parent, which is parented to the bone - head.
Rotating bones causes them to affect the body with the weight used from weight paint, and the decorations are just parented to them, so body is deformed with weight (more or less), and decorations are just copying full rotation from it's parent.

So, when you rotate head you are affeting the neck as well, so weights are applied. However, your accesories use only head bone transform info.


I would like to simulate spiky ocean waves from an old animated cartoon Recently I watched a German movie called Käpt'n Blaubär: Der Film. I loved this movie as a child and when I re-watched it I was really impressed with the wave physics. They are unrealistic and over the top spiky but that's what I like about them. I have attached a YouTube link where the waves can be seen. My goal is to recreate them in Blender, and although I have some modeling experience, I have never worked with physics and liquids so I do not know how to approach this project. Is there any modifier I could use for this or maybe a displacement map? I would appreciate some help with this!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3yK-LWCCQY&feature=youtu.be

Would this be close enough?

How it looks when animated:

The Ocean Modifier creates a pretty realistic wavy sea, and the Simple Deform modifier enhances the vertical component.


Export model with multiple textures to Unreal Engine 4 I encountered difficulties importing a model with two textured materials from sketchup.

SketchUp image with a brick and timber texture from JPEG maps.

Blender recognizes my two materials as different 'UV maps' on the dropdown menu. Online tutorials recommend deleting the second UV map (ID19) and replacing it with a LightMap.

However, after exporting my .fbx file and opening it in UE4, my second material disappears (brick texture disappears (color is there though!) but timber texture remains)

Could someone shed some light on how I can get the brick layer to come up? I am able to export with one single material on but not with two different materials on a model. I assume it is not to do with scale as the timber is scaled to the exact as the SU image.

You replaced the brick texture with a lightmap. Try to skip that step and see what happens. Alternatively, you could texture the same thing in blender using material slots.


Animation doesn't affect root bone, althought I can move it around I have made a mesh controlled by one root bone, I can move it around and set Keyframes, but the thing wont animate..! What have I done wrong?
And another problem: It seems to be impossible to set the origin of the armature so the transform panel in n-menue is zero zero zero, when the origin is in zero zero zero. (that would make it easyer to animate for me)

Greez Lu

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bx08abxowgBzX2RNVWsxX1VzU1k/view?usp=sharing

Ok I dont really know what I did.. I started making every "in Body Action"  single user and tried to delete loose actions i didnt use and then it worked..


How Do You Use An Image As The World Background? I'd like to use a background image for my world, but I'm not sure how to do it.   Right now I am using the sun as a lightpoint and it looks like sky and a flat plane (not realistic). I was thinking of just using a mountain background image for the world.

I've done that through textures etc. but I don't see ANYTHING in render even though it shows in worlds?  What am I doing wrong?

Also what's a cheap quick fix for cases like mine so it looks like the world isn't JUST blue sky?  Thanks guys!

Setting a World Environment Background Texture in Cycles

You can easily set a very nice background image for your world by creating an Environment Texture for your World.

You can use many different kinds of background images, but one of the best types for creating a beautiful 360° background is an HDRI (High Dynamic Range Image). These types of images are designed to wrap around your world in a spherical shape so no matter where you look in the scene, you still see the background image:

There are many sources for free HDR images -- HDRI Hub is one. You can also see many examples in Google.

Here's how to set one up in your scene in Cycles:

Make sure you are using the Cycles Render engine and make sure you are in perspective view, if not press (Numpad-5),

Set your World's Surface to an Environment Texture and use an HDR image for the background.

Object Properties window > World tab > Surface section > click Use Nodes
For Color, click on the options button (  ), then select Environment Texture
Then click Open and select your HDRI file. Here, I'm using "Street in the woods":

However, in order to see your background image while working on your scene, you MUST be looking through your Camera (press Numpad 0 to switch to it) and also you have to set the 3D Viewport Shading to Rendered:

Now when you render your scene, your background image will be visible wherever you point the camera.


How to child a control point of a Bezier curve to an object The straight line is a 2D Bezier curve, with two control points. The bevel function gave it some thickness. The circle is a separate 2D object.

Now, when the circle moves, the idea is that that end of the Bezier curve should move with the circle, staying at the circle's center. The other end should remain where it is.

So, somehow that end of the Bezier curve should be "attached" to the center of the circle. I thought using the Hook modifier. But that requires a vertex group to attach to the object. Bezier curves apparently can't have vertex groups (couldn't find it in the property view), so can't use the modifier. Then I considered using the parent function, but apparently a vertex can indeed parent an object, but an object cannot parent a vertex (at least, I couldn't find a way). And anyway, again, Bezier curves don't have vertices. So wouldn't have worked either.

Anyone?

I found the solution in a YouTube video:

Suppose you want to make Object A the parent of a control point in a Bezier curve (Object B).

select Object A, then shift-select Object B (so both objects are selected)
click edit mode. Object B will open edit mode.
select the control point you want to "attach" to Object A. click ctrl+H.
choose "selected object"

When you now move Object A, the control point will move accordingly, while the other control points of Object B won't, hence deforming the Bezier curve.

PS: you can also use this method when Object B is a simple mesh object (i.e. vertices instead of control points).


How to constrain rigid bodies to an axis? In the game engine there is an option to constrain rigid body translations and rotations on an axis:

Is it possible to do this with the 3D view rigid body physics system?

In blender 2.80 (and likely earlier versions), you can selectively lock translation and rotation axes, limiting physics simulations to your choosing.

Do this in the Transform sidebar (hit N to toggle).

As seen above, both X and Y axis has been locked, forcing simulation to only translate along Z-axis, but otherwise rotate freely.

This can be handy for quickly placing objects using physics. For example:


Is there any way to make X Mirror respect delete? I find X Mirror (found in Tool Shelf> Options> Mesh Options) very useful, but it would be more useful if it would mirror my deleting vertices as well as morphing them.

Does anyone know how to achieve this?

Current solution: Delete half the mesh, then apply mirror modifier, but when I have a bunch of bones and textures already in place, it's annoying to re-add them.

I think Carlo's option makes sense, though it might need more explaining. The X- mirror splits down the center and mirrors in the negative X. Any changes you make in the negative, be that deleting or adding vertices will be updated in the positive X after you have applied symmetry. It does not work if you flip the process and work on the positive X first as the negative X will not be updated.


Paint Edges and Faces separately? Is it possible to paint the edges and faces separately, so that it will look like a squared notebook , for example?

a) First, create a grid mesh object then add a WireFrame modifier.

b) Then adjust thickness as you like at step (1), uncheck the "Replace Original" option at step (2), and change the "Material Offset" to 1 at step (3), this will automatical assign the second material to the edges in the material slot.

c) Now open the material panel, add two the materials to the grid mesh object. The second material automatical will assign to edges or wires due Material Offset option which we set 1 previously in WireFrame modifier.


Cutting into cylinder I was modeling a chess set. Bishop was my biggest problem. The slice looks ok without a subsurf. Add a subsurf of 2 and ugliness happens.

I went to just practicing on a cylinder. looks ok, but I'm still get creases/folds. I get the slice by beveling a flat cube and booleaning.

So far this is the best I can get.

Thanks for any help or suggestions. Just another noob wading neck deep in blender water.

Not sure if my solution is a perfect as I would like, but here is what I ended up with.

I removed the edges inside the slice and allowed the Subsurf to create the curve. That eliminated the mega ngons that was being created.

Here's one way I would approach it:

Select the faces to create the indentation, and Inset with tweak enabled. I while holding Ctrl
. (If desired,
you may change you transform orientaion to normal,
and rotate the faces to suit your object better.)
Crease the edges that border the hole with
Shift+E
Bevel the creased edges with Ctrl+B

Final result:


Internal script modification I would like to modify an internal file but I don't know how to replace it.
Indeed, I want to modify a script in Templates>Python>Operator File Import but I don't find a way to do it in the text editor. Maybe it's obvious, in fact I also don't find my answer in the existing questions.
Thank you in advance.

The templates files are only meant to be used as starting points, you don't need to replace any of them.

In blenders text editor choose the Templates->Python->Operator File Import, modify the contents in the text editor and save it to a file using Text->Save As. The best place to save the file would be in your config folder. You could save it to your desktop and use the Install Addon From File button.

Once you have saved it into your configs addon folder, you can enable the addon in your preferences and use your import addon.


Why is my animation being broken up into several files when i export it from blender and import into unreal engine 4? [![enter image description here][3]][3]

I created an animation for gun recoil but when i export my model together with its animations and import to unreal engine, the animations break up into several files and the animations in these files don't match the one in blender. I posted 3 pictures. The first is in unreal engine, second picture shows how i parented the individual meshes together and the third shows how i did the animations. Any help would be appreciated.

This is likely a result of exporting everything on one level. What I can make out from the screen shots you might not be working in NLA strips and the action editor. If you're exporting your mesh along with your animation, you're including superfluous information that Unreal is importing for you.
Here is a UE4 thread going into NLA strips. First thing you should do is switch from Default mode to Animation. This will give you a better layout. Change the dopesheet on the left to Action Editor from the drop down menu. The window under that will be the graph editor, change that to NLA editor. Here is a thread that goes into NLA animations: https://forums.unrealengine.com/showthread.php?67714-blender-digital-fbx-not-include-all-animations


Rotation Path Not Shown in Graph Editor I created a couple of LocRot keyframes but the rotation path and keyframes aren't shown in the graph editor (no, they aren't hidden).

Make sure you have the object that you keyframed, selected. By default the graph editor only shows keyframs from the selected object(s).

Or if you need to work on it with the object deselected, you can show all object's keyframes in the graph editor by disabling the Show Only Selected as part of the View controls in the header.


Blender Video Editing Output differs from Preview I try to make a short movie clip using Blender's video sequence editor. I'm using 6 different clips which I want to put together using transitions. The clips are distributed around 4 different channels/tracks.

I'm using Blender 2.72b on Linux with all ffmpeg codecs and everything installed.

My problem is:

All looks excactly as I want it to in the preview on the upper right, but the rendered video is completely different.

Some (not all) Gamma Cross transitions are simply black and the some of the single clips are too long although I've cut and deleted the unwanted parts.

All these wrong/broken transitions and cuts work if I only render the transition plus minus 10 frames or something. So only the whole video together is broken, but consisting of working parts.

This is what it looks like in the Blender preview

This is what I get as output

So the gamma cross transition is replaced by a much shorter gamma cross from black.

Don't wonder about different image sizes, this is only my incapability of making proper screenshots.

Can I force Blender to render the video exactly as in the preview window? Or does anyone have an idea what's going on?

Screenshot of the whole Blender Window

It looks like a gamma issue. Make sure your Color Management is set up correctly. You can try to set your gamma value to 2.2 and make sure sRGB is the color space for the sequencer to display the preview in the right color space.


How can I get position and type of Handle in bezier curve? I want to get a position and handle the type of specific spline

as you know there are some types

for example, I want to get point 1 type and position
position = Vector(2.0, 0.0, 0.0)
type = 'ALIGNED'

based on bezier spline point documentation and this useful blog
you can get the position of handle by handle_left and handle_right
Handl positions
handle_left
handle_right
you can get handle type by handle_left_type and handle_right_type
Handle types
 enum in [‘FREE’, ‘VECTOR’, ‘ALIGNED’, ‘AUTO’], default ‘FREE’

so you can get them easily
import bpy

# Type of the first handle
print(bpy.data.curves['BezierCurve'].splines[0].bezier_points[0].handle_left_type)

# Type of the second handle
print(bpy.data.curves['BezierCurve'].splines[0].bezier_points[0].handle_right_type)

# Coordinates of the first handle
print(bpy.data.curves['BezierCurve'].splines[0].bezier_points[0].handle_left)

# Coordinates of the second handle
print(bpy.data.curves['BezierCurve'].splines[0].bezier_points[0].handle_right)


How can a changing angle be measured and used as a property in BGE Logic Bricks? I'm trying to measure the angle of a moving boom and put that moving angle number into a window on-screen. What needs to be done to constantly measure that angle? Can this information be used in a property? This is in BGE, without animation.

Assumptions

I assume you have two objects - Object A and Object B.

You need to define what axis of what object you want to measure. Remember each object has three axis (X, Y and Z).

Example

I also assume you want to measure between the local Y axis at Object A (forward vector = [0,1,0]) and local Z axis at Object B (up vector = [0,0,1]).

I assume you have not turned the objects at all. This means initially the angle between the two axis is 90° (when you measure this should be the result).

Vectors in Space

To compare vectors you need to ensure they are given within the same space. Typically you convert both into scene space.

First you need to convert the local axis vectors from local space to scene space.

worldVector = object.worldTransform * localVector

Example

Imagine your object at the origin without rotation. The local forward vector is (0,1,0) facing towards the scene's background. The vector in scene space (world) is (0,1,0) too.

Now turn the object by 180°. The local forward vector is still (0,1,0), but the object is now facing the scene's foreground. The vector in scene space is (0,-1,0).

Formulas

The concrete formula for both vectors is:

import mathutils

forwardVector = mathutils.Vector((0,1,0))
upVector = mathutils.Vector((0,0,1))

objectAForwardVector = objectA.worldTransform * forwardVector
objectBUpVector = objectB.worldTransform * upVector

Example:

Object A is turned by 180°. Object B remains unchanged at the origin.

The vectors will be:

objectAForwardVector == (0,-1,0) # turned by 180°
objectBUpVector == (0,0,1)

Compare Vectors

As both vectors are now given in scene space we can perform operations on it. You wanted to know the angle between them:

angle = objectAForwardVector.angle(objectBUpVector)

Be aware the angle is calculated in radians. You need to convert it:

import math

angleInDegrees = math.degrees(angle)

Example

The final result will be:

angleInDegrees == 90°

Now turn object B by 90° around x. The new objectBUpVector is (0,1,0).

math.degrees(mathutils.Vector((0,-1,0)).angle(mathutils.Vector((0,1,0)))) == 180°

Be aware there is no negative difference. The result is always between 0 and 180.

Snippet

Start with the default scene (one cube). Add a text object. To the text object add an always sensor with True Level Triggering enabled. Connect the sensor with a Python controller that executes this script:

Demo

import bge
import math
import mathutils

UP_VECTOR = mathutils.Vector((0,0,1))
FORWARD_VECTOR = mathutils.Vector((0,0,1))

scene = bge.logic.getCurrentScene()
objects = scene.objects

cube = objects["Cube"]
camera = objects["Camera"]

cubeForwardVector = cube.worldTransform * FORWARD_VECTOR
cameraUpVector = camera.worldTransform * UP_VECTOR #the camera looks against the upvector!

angle = math.degrees(cubeForwardVector.angle(cameraUpVector))

textObject = bge.logic.getCurrentController().owner
textObject.text = "Angle: {:.0f}°".format(angle)

Now apply any logic to the cube that turns the cube (does not matter how). When you run the game p the text will show you the angle between the cube's forward vector and the vector the camera is facing against. This means when the cube's y-face is facing the camera you get 0°.


How to procedurally add a precious metal vein to rock First of all, here is an example picture of how the effect looks (source: http://marksteinmetz.photoshelter.com/image/I0000OqcTcB07acQ):

This is different from the usual rust texture in that the gold (or other precious metal vein) is somewhat continuous and not just randomly distributed over the (volume of the) rock.

It would be nice to be able to somehow procedurally generate this texture with a percentage of gold content (e.g., 0%-100%) and take two inputs:

One for the gold texture
One for the rock texture

..., mixing the two procedurally based on a percentage ratio as previous explained.

Even a surface texture version of this would be greatly appreciated. I tried searching, but can't find anything that produces an effect similar to what is show in the picture (displacement aside, but would be a great bonus).

Just use a texture to determine the mix between two shaders

Adding a color ramp (or RGB curves would work as well) you can control how the texture affects the mix.


Units and Dimensions I would like to build a 3d model of a wooden pallet but I having problem figuring out the dimension and scaling?

Is it that there is no need to scale?

Where is the ruler?

How do I draw the outline of the wood panel first?

Thanks

In the Properties Window > Scene > Units you can define what units your scene is in, and how dimensions are processed, although it is pretty irrelevant and won't really make any difference.

Then in the 3D view you can press the N button to open the Properties Region, there you have the Transform Panel where you can see the real dimensions of an object.

If you edit it don't forget to apply the scale to the object with Ctrl + A, so you are always working with evenly scaled objects and don't get unexpected results in Edit Mode.

Lastly in Edit Mode, under the Properties Region there will be a panel available called Mesh Display.
There you can turn on Edge Length option, so you can see the dimensions of your mesh.

You can also use Snap to Increment with the Absolute Grid Alignement option turned on to stick to an orthogonal worldspace grid.


Wacky IK arm Movement I have an arm rig shown below.  C stands for control, and D stands for deform.

I'm having a problem where when I try to move C_Hand in order to move the forearm, it does move, but it spins around wildly.  Impossible to animate!

Here's a picture of the C_D_forearm's IK constraint:

Does anybody know the solution?  If I haven't given enough information, please let me know.  If this is a duplicate, I apologize.

Edit:

I figured out that by unparenting C_Hand from C_D_forearm, the problem would be solved.  However, I'm almost positive that it should still be parented to C_D_forearm.  Can anybody clue me in?

Yes you need to unparent the IK controller, otherwise it creates a bug because the bone that is controlled is not supposed to control its master.

Also:

I would put the controller vertically so that you don't confuse it with the hand.
Parent the hand to the controller if it's not already.
If you want the hand to stick to the forearm, give it a Copy Location constraint with the forearm as Target with a Head/Tail value of 1 so that it sticks to the tail and Space > Pose Space <-> Pose Space.


Align Active Camera to View - Not working in 2.9 Align Active Camera to View
I used to do use this command all the time in 2.79. Now in 2.8 it's not working anymore - greyed out in the menu.

Why might this be?
For anyone who doesn't know - this operation is useful because you can use the Viewport to approximate what you want framed in the shot, then place the active Camera there (as a starting point before fine-tuning its position). I mean, was useful when it still worked.
Additional info - camera settings:

The camera was behaving like the Active Camera (possibly because it was the only one in the scene), but technically it was not the Active Camera.
Selecting the camera object and specifying this resolved the issue.


Moving and rotating using CSV I have used the script to move an object using CSV. Can it be modified to include rotation as well? Can this be done using one imported file, or is it best with two imported files. One for Location the other for Rotation.

The object needs to move and rotate using all csv coordinates.

import bpy
import csv

f = start_frame = 1
frames_per_row = 10
csv_path = "C:/Book3.csv"

ob = bpy.context.object

with open(csv_path) as file:
    csv = csv.reader(file, delimiter=",")

    for row in csv:
        ob.location = [float(v) for v in row[:3]]
        ob.keyframe_insert("location", frame=f)
        f += frames_per_row

This is a somewhat trivial task given the code is basically already there

Data contained in the same csv with columns like:

loc_x,loc_y,loc_z,rot_x,rot_y,rot_z

import bpy
import csv

f = start_frame = 1
frames_per_row = 10
csv_path = "C:/Book3.csv"

ob = bpy.context.object

with open(csv_path) as file:
    csv = csv.reader(file, delimiter=",")

    for row in csv:
        ob.location = [float(v) for v in row[:3]]
        ob.rotation_euler = [float(v) for v in row[3:6]]
        ob.keyframe_insert("location", frame=f)
        ob.keyframe_insert("rotation_euler", frame=f)
        f += frames_per_row

If two files need to be used you can either zip them beforehand or keep track using the keyframe. It is also possible to use quaternion rotation.


Weird deviation when extruding vertexes I banged my head yesterday, thinking my modeling was sloppy, but now I see the problem is somewhere else.

Take a look at the picture:

What I did: simply extrude the top-left vertex to the bottom-right vertex of the cube, using the Snap during transform option, set to snap to vertexes.

In every case, there is a deviation of sorts and will happen on one axis (always the third axis, which should always stay at 0, but it deviates instead).

Does anybody know what's causing this issue and how to fix it?

EDIT: If I wanted to simply connect those verts, I could have done it just as easily by selecting them both and press "F" to create an edge. That is not what I wanted to do.

What I want to do: basically, by extruding vertices to other ones using the Snap feature, I was measuring if there were deviations in my mesh geometry, removing those extrusions after (with Ctrl-Z). The Extrude feature can easily be used as a measurement tool like that - even extrude a face toward a desired edge or vertex, to check how it sits in correlation to the face being extruded.

But with those deviations that happen even on the basic starting cube, how in the world can I use the Snap-to feature when it produces such deviations?

Try this - don't snap to anything.  Get into Ortho view mode so you're looking flat at the side to be extruded, extrude one vertice only a small distance in the axis that will take it along top edge.  Then press G and move your mouse down so the loose vertice is near but not touching the bottom right vertice.

Highlite the loose vertice, and with shift held, highlite the 2nd vertice at the corner, press ALT-M and select "first to Last" or similar, to "marry them". (my term)

If that doesn't deform the cube's shape, do the same with the other side.  Round it all off by removing any doubles.


Remove Parts of a Flat Plane I'm trying to start my model with a basic flat plane to represent a floor.  It isn't a square room, there are alcoves and other things that make the room irregular.  I've been trying to work out how to create such a shape in Blender and nothing I'm searching online comes even close to showing me how to perform what really ought to be a pretty basic task.  Here is a sketch of what I'm trying to draw.

The measurements are there because I need it to be fairly accurate as it's based on a real room where I need to place furniture etc.

I've started by creating a 2743x3625 plane in Blender, and I want to remove the two cutouts, one in the top-left, and the other skinny one on the left side wall.  I thought I could do this by creating two more planes of the appropriate sizes, positioning them and using the Boolean tool to subtract them from the main shape.  This doesn't seem to work however, even if I extrude them to 3D shapes and try that way.

I've also tried adding loop cuts, but I can't manipulate those accurately enough.  If I try to set a position, it does so relative to the middle of the plane where it starts.  Am I stuck with this method?

Is there some other/better way of doing this?  Ideally this shape would be a single plane, not a bunch of planes grafted together, but I don't know if this is possible like it is in other modellers.  Any help will be greatly appreciated... I'm pulling my hair out.

(Blender 2.79)

Ok I came up with the solution by myself, based on new info provided about Boolean modifiers not working on flat planes in answers to my OP.  Instead of trying to model a 2D shape and then extrude it to a 3D shape later, it occurred to me that I should just create the 3D shape in its entirety and then use the Boolean modifier as it's intended to cut out the alcoves from the room.  I created cubes in the dimensions of each alcove, then used snapping to position them relative to the appropriate corner (a fiddly process), then apply the operator.  This has achieved exactly what I wanted.

I guess that if I still wanted a 2D shape then I could have still modelled it as above, then deleted the edges/faces that make it 3D, leaving a flat face in the shape I wanted.


Particle speed and density I am using a Particle system to simulate falling dust / debris. The particle start and end fairly quickly. They should look like a short burst of falling dust.

I cant figure out how to get the particles to fall at slightly different speeds.

The particles should be falling downwards with very little Brownian motion.

The fact that the particles are falling at the same speed makes them look odd / too uniform (almost like a static image of some particles which is moving down rather than individual particles.

Also the particles end at a set frame so I get a uniform trailing edge (as below).

A bit of air drag helps a bit but not much.

Question 1. how to vary the downward speed of the particles?

Question2. Can the density of particles be animated so I can brake up the distribution?

Thanks
Oliver

Yesterday I found out how to control the particle's speed.
You can do this from "Timestep"!

You can find it in the "Particles" tab in the "Properties" window. Then go to "Physics" menu. Over there is the "Timestep" slide, which by default is on "0.040" which is quite fast. So if you want slower the particles you can change this to "0.005" or even for very slow motion you can set it to "0.0005".

And most of all!!! You can keyframe the particles "Timestep", so you can do nice and cool animations. I have made a quick demo in which you can see that. It's here: Particles speed test in Blender .

I hope I was helpful!

P.S.
I want to apologize about my bad english (it's not perfect).


How to eliminate offset and follow rotation with parent vertex I have selected two objects.
I used parent vertices to make the object follow the vertices of the object.
But when I use this, the distance between the object and the vertices is increased.
Also, when I select the base object and rotate it, the following object does not rotate.
Why does this happen?
Is there a way to solve these?

Your video is a bit fast to follow.  It looks like at the point that you vertex parent your smaller cube to your bigger cube, your smaller cube jumps?  This can happen in a few situations, but usually when an object has been parented to something else previously.  It's a bug, but a small, easily rectified one: undo the parent operation, then clear parent inverse on the small cube (alt p -> clear parent inverse) then parent it to the big cube again.
It moves with the cube's rotation, but it doesn't rotate with the cube's rotation, because it is parented to a vertex, and rotation just isn't a property of something 0-dimensional like a point.  Blender can't tell you or anyone what way that vertex parent is rotated.  If you want the small cube to acquire rotation from the vertex parent, you need to parent it to three vertices.  Select the big cube, enter edit, select three and only three vertices on it, then in object mode, parent the small cube to the big cube with vertex (triangle) option.


Reset all points' mean tilt is there a way to reset the mean tilt for all selected points of a curve?
I can't seem to find a way (I wish there was a scale (S T 0 option or similar).

You can reset curve tilt in Edit Mode by selecting the desired vertex and pressing AltT.


Particle system splitting in half the noob I am recently tried to make a tree, and to make the branches, I decided to make a particle system with my leaves on my branch mesh. But I noticed that some of the leaves were floating out of the mesh. After playing around with the particle settings (enabling rotation, setting inittial rotation to global z and phase to -0.480) I realised that the disposition of the floating leaves was absolutely not random, but in fact a duplicate of the shape of my branch :

But I don't know what I'm supposed to do to correct that.
Any help would be very appreciated :)

Here is my blender file

Change your leaves origin to last of petiole, and set inittial rotation to Velocity/Hair. It might help


Image texture not following the animation File here:
Absolute newbie here. I made this eye texture following a tutorial on Youtube as part of a character. When I animate the character the texture from the eye sort of lags behind until the eye becomes completely red with a blue empty circle in the middle. I'm trying to find a solution but I'm completely lost tbh- sorry if a similar question has been asked, I did check but couldn't find anything that works

As opposed to "object" texture coordinates, "generated" texture coordinates will stay stable "around the mesh" when the mesh is animated.

As "object" texture coordinates, at starting point, are here roughly between -1 and 1 (nearly a sphere) and "generated" texture coordinates are between 0 and 1, we can scale by 2 and remove 1 to go from the second to the first.

So that you can chain this mapping with the existing one, for instance:

or if you prefer you can also tune the value manually.


How to hide add-on source code Can I hide the source code in an add-on for Blender?
I want to sell add-ons for a fee.
And I want to hide the code.

While that seems possible it is not at all recommended. Not only would that go against Blender GPL license, it goes against it's open source philosophy.
The way I see it you are totally encouraged to sell your addon, everyone is entitled to make a living from its hard work. If you invest time and resources into creating something you should be able sell it, so that it becomes both rewarding and sustaining, allowing you to invest back more time and efforts to improve it.
If you sell Blender addons to users however, you are always essentially paying for a "download service" or "access" to relevant files technically, not actually buying the code itself.
The Blender license states that any script that interacts with its code and hence with it's API must be published with the same or a compatible license. Externally linked code or libraries (like say an external render engine, or closed source third party resources) may use any different licenses.
Quoting the official license

Sharing or selling Blender add-ons (Python scripts) Blender’s Python
API is an integral part of Blender, used to define the UI or develop
tools for example. The GNU GPL license therefore requires that such
scripts (if published) are being shared under a GPL GPL compatible
license. You are free to sell such scripts, but the sales then is
restricted to the download service itself. Your customers will receive
the script under the same license, with the same free conditions as
everyone has for Blender. Sharing Blender or its scripts is always OK
and not piracy.

The philosophy is always to share our findings and globally improve our collective knowledge, there is more to gain globally for the community as a whole from sharing, than from restricting the information flow for personal gains.
To answer you question directly, there are a few solutions around to obfuscate or encrypt Python code (that may or may not work well within Blender), but as an interpreted language I fear this something fundamentally hard to achieve and inherently easily reversible for anyone determined to actually do it.


make a hotkey to determine the orientation and the pivot point? Is there a way to make a hotkey on the orientation and the pivot point? when you defined the workpiece of the two data: Global - active element, Norman - individual origins, view - 3D mouse ... etc.

like in MODO ...

Well, the 3D cursor really has no orientation...but orientation for any kind of transform already exists as local, normal, global and screen....they can be found at the bottom of the viewport near where you found the pivot point options(median point, cursor, individual objects, bounding box etc...)

but technically you can set a hotkey for the transform orientations in the user prefferences...they are already defined and you can see them merely by hovering over them with the mouse.


Compositing fog destroys PNG alpha in Images as Planes when using Cycles I'm following Andrew Price's spaceship tutorial and taking advantage of the inbuilt addon called Import Images as Planes.

Here you can see 2 Images as Planes used for the steam columns, close to the door.
If you ask why?, it's because I already have enough polygons, for my laptop to render...
And I thought that a smoke simulation would simply be an overkill.

Issue:

I wanted to try compositing, even if I'm still not ready with the definitive
geometries and textures.
And... All is fine except for mist.

You can see I can use some Blur and Glare withuot big issues (apart the orange LED
wall panels which became white - so I thought to assign them a different Material
Pass and a separate ID Mask - now they are pinkish, but not so bad at all).

But! If I enable the Map Value node, which creates the mist... what happens it
that the steam columns contours are MANGLED (well, not only the contours)!!

Now, is there a way to fix this issue (is it a bug or am I doing something wrong?) or do I have to give up and sacrifice that wornderful oniric mist?

[EDIT]

To whom can be interested in: the original blend is here (much better han mine).

Here's the Steam column I used for both Images as Planes:

You can't see it because it's white on a transparent background, resulting in white on white.

The problem is Z Channel in Cycles - it does not take into account material transparency:

I recommend not using the Z channel pass but to render nice custom Z pass like this:

Assign this material to scene objects (this material has value based of ray length - distance to camera):

You will get nice anti-aliased Z-depth render that you can use for the mist.  For alpha-transparent planes mix in Transparent shader like in the image and render them on separate render layer so there's nothing behind them (then composite them back in).

To create group node group them with Ctrl+G. Go inside and outside group node with Tab.


Hooking Empty to a Plane I try to apply these effects shown in this screen. But I couldn't complete it. As far as I can see, Wintermute hooks the Empty to the Plane and do some scale changes on it.

Original article - Bar graph transition
Video tutorial
I tried lots of options to hook and try to change its scale like him but I failed. The closest result I get it with is the Stretch to option of Object Constraints. How can set it properly?

I don't know where you failed, but according to your blend ...
You created a vertex group "hook", but you didn't Assign two top vertices to this group.

When you Assign two top vertices to Plane, position Empty on top Plane's edge, add Hook modifier, set Object > Empty and Vertex Group > hook

Than Duplicate Plane (so you don't have to set modifier for each) and change Strenght value for each 1 / 0.8 / 0.6 / 0.4 / 0.2
Now when you move Empty along Y axis bars are scaled accordingly ...


Why does the water keep escaping in my fluid simulation? I am trying to do a water simulation. I have a small cup that I have created in blender (as an obstacle) and my water source (just an oval). My domain box is large enough to encompass both the glass and the water source:

Here are my settings for my domain:

I am using the default blender renderer. I have the cup setup as a collision for a water simulation and I have the sphere inside of the cup set as a fluid in a fluid simulation. When I bake the scene, here is what I get:

As you can see, the water is going through the cup, but the cup is having an effect on the water. Here is the rendered view:

How can I keep the water in the cup??

As others have mentioned, it's the resolution that's key here. However, I see that you've baked at two separate resolutions: 120 for final and 45 for preview.

You can see from the render view that the "final" quality bake has less "escaping" water. To preview that in your viewport without rendering, change the "Viewport display" dropdown to "Final." The downside of this is that it may slow down your viewport.

If you want even better quality, you could either:

increase the resolution, or:
Alt-D to linked-duplicate the cup object, then scale it down a tad (maybe 95%) and position it inside the real cup. Turn off the viewport and render visibility. Set its parent to the "real" cup, but mark both as collision targets (Physics → Fluid → Obstacle). This will essentially shrink the bounds of your cup and may or may not completely solve the problem.


Only one object usable in face select I need to select some faces on different objects to apply a material. But all of a sudden in Face Select I can only select faces of one object at a time.

The other faces are not selectable, not even by box-selecting the whole screen.
Is this some Kind of setting? How can I toggle this?

Since one must be in edit mode to select a face, and one can only have one object active at a time, it is outside of the design parameters of Blender to be able to select faces on multiple objects at once.

This is not to say that you cannot apply the same material to faces on different object, you just have to select each object in turn (in object mode), switch to edit mode, and select the desired face(s), and apply the desired material.


How to delay fire and smoke animation? I have 3 animations on my movie: broke, fire, and smoke. I want the broke first, then fire, then smoke, but they are all starting at the same time. How to delay fire and smoke animation? You can see from the gif, as the plane is going to the ground, the ground fire is already burning. I just want the fire to burn when my plane crashes. i want to delay fire and smoke. how can i do that?

i did make a video for you. because my English is not good. look this video. i want to fire animation be active when plane arrive the graund. if you watch the video you can understand better me. look this video. youtube.com/watch?v=YS1LRsoSh7w&feature=youtu.be  if i change destinity and flame rate just animation smoke and fire not showing but moving. i want to animation delay when plane arrive the graund. and active.

youtube.com/watch?v=YS1LRsoSh7w&feature=youtu

Blender let's us animate almost any value that we can alter. To get the results you want, you need to animate the values that change the effect you want.

To keyframe a value, go to the frame you want to set the value and with the mouse over the value press I or right click and choose Insert Keyframe. The value will get shaded in yellow to indicate the value is keyframed on the current frame or green to indicate it is keyed on another frame.

At frame 19 keyframe smoke density at 1.0 and keyframe flame rate as 0.0.

At frame 20 set density to 0.0 and flame rate to 2.0 and keyframe both.

Re-bake the simulation.

Now you only get smoke until frame 20 when you start getting flames. Keyframe other values to get the variations you want at various times. Note that for the simulation, you need to allow a few frames for the smoke/fire to disperse as it doesn't just disappear when you turn it off, you only turn off the smoke/fire being emitted.


Display bounding box around objects I would like to know how to display a Bounding Box around my objects in Blender, much like the Bounding Box from Maya 3D. All I want to be able to do is determine the outer edges of an object.

I've looked everywhere in the interface, but cannot see how to turn that on.

Assuming you just want to display a bounding box around or instead of each object, you can do this with Draw types.

Drawing a bounding box instead of the object:

You could set Viewport shading to Bounding box to draw the bounds of each object:

A comparison between Solid and Bounding box:

To do this for one object only, you can set this in Properties > Object Display > Maximum draw type:

Drawing a bounding box around the object:

This can be done by enabling Bounds with the Maximum draw type still higher than Bounds:

This looks like this:

You could do this for many objects by:

Select the objects for which you want to enable Bounding box
Enable Bounds in Object > Display
Right click on the Bounds option and select Copy to selected:


How to render All layers in my Compositor at once I have a node grid that renders and adds 10 different layers together. I have added a composition node in the end of the node grid. Though when i Render (F12) it seems like only one of the layers in the composition is rerendered and the other nodes are just applied without rerendering. How can I make all nodes rerender when hitting Render(F12)?

Sorry if my question is unclear, I am a Blender beginner so find it hard to explain my problem.

Any help appreciated! Thanks! :)

Currently I have to press each "green-render-button" (marked in image) to finally get the complete result. I would like to be able to just press Render (marked in orange) and have them all rendered into final image.

Obviously there is something I don't understand because I can't make sense out of it...

You selected Only render the active layer option in the Render layers list.

With this option only currently selected render layer (active one) will be rendered while others won't be; thus while compositing you'll see new results only on this active render layer.
From manual:

  Using Render Layers can save you from having to re-render your entire image each time you change something, allowing you to instead re-render only the layer(s) that you need.

Deactivate this option and all the Render layers will be rendered again when you press F12 (or with any other way).


Joining 2 objects in Blender 2.8 loses UV mapping on 1 I'm a bit new at Blender, so this question might sound stupid, but I've tried every suggestion I can find here and nothing is working for this.

I have 2 separate objects with their own UV and material. I've named the materials and the UVs to be unique prior to joining them. I've made certain that both objects have both materials. But, as soon as I join them, both objects always try to use the same UV map. I've tried added vertex groups and assigning them prior and after joining, but that was no assistance, either.  Is there some basic step I am missing?

Blender file:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!At__F5mV_pKlgdFMYC3Ivy50t0VZZQ

If more UV maps are linked to an object, the materials used by that object need to have an Input > UV Map node attached to the Vector socket of their textures, specifying which UV Map to use, so either of these:


odd distortion with smooth shading when extruding vertices I am very new to blender, I am trying to create a simple creature, here I try to extrude some legs, but I get this weird distortion where the legs and the body meets when I use smooth shader, what is causing it?

This is an important topology issue, not strictly Blender-related. Basically you have to add some loop cuts, trying to have even quads over all the mesh, then add some others loop cuts to "hold" the edges.

Hover your mouse over the leg, press Ctrl R, scroll the wheel until you get the desired number of loop cuts and confirm with left click. Then do the same near the start and the end of the leg, moving the single loop and confirming. The direction of the loop is dependent by the mouse position.

Experiment with this tecnique and search articles and tutorials on Topology, it's an essential skill for good modeling.


How can I fix this SubSurf Modifier issue? I'm trying in vain to reproduce the following image. I tried all I know to maintain the straightness of the edges by applying a crease of 1 and by adding edges but as I apply a SubSurf it's a 'disaster' . Idealy I would like to have the edges not too sharp as we can see on the image.
Thanks for you help.

This looks like the sort of thing that is best modeled using hard edge surface modelling, with manual placement of edges instead of using a subdivision surface modifier that will round everything off, then keep constantly fighting against it to try and keep sharp corners and tight edges.

Anyway, edge creases seem to work, all you need is an extra inset, then set edge crease to 1 on all corner diagonal edges.

Or alternatively you could instead use full control-edge-loops all around the sphere to keep smoothing from propagating too far.

Select the four edgeloops limiting the indented area and bevel them with the bevel tool Ctrl + B.

Select the relevant parts and extrude them inwards by vertex normal

Now add control edge loops with Ctrl + R around every sharp edge so smoothing won't propagate too far

Repeat for all necessary corners inside and outside where the edges must be sharp


Blender 2.8 - Sprinkles particle are not visible when rendered I just started learning Blender, so I'm following the donuts tutorial from Blender Guru. Unfortunately, I'm stuck at part 7 on rendering Sprinkles.

My problem is, the Sprinkles is visible in my viewport :

However, when I render it, the sprinkles are gone :

My Blender file can be downloaded here.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

I think you need to click the camera icon next to the Sprinkle collection for it to show up in your render