Getting color from a face/polygon via python to select the corresponding face/polygon Okay, I need help again.
I've got a model with colored vertices. So far, there are only two colors applyed (red and white. It's a reference model which I use to define the script for automation). I need to select all white polygons in that model, so I can select them and hand the selection over to another function which generates another model based on the selection. Selecting the vertices is posing a problem, as vertices can have more than one color at once. So I tried to use the polygons.
Now, these polygons should have a color, right? How do I extract the color values so I can do something like this ((very) pseudo code):
for polygon in mesh.polygons:
    if polygon.color == red:
        plygon.selected = True

I read through other questions, but they all want to apply another color to a polygon. I don't need that. The color is already there. And it seems I have dive more into python to extract the snippets which would do the trick for me from the other answers.

Welp, I don't really like to answer my own questions. But I found the solution and I wanted to share it with you :)
bm = bmesh.new()                          #Generate new bmesh object
bm.from_mesh(obj.data)                    #Assign the model mesh
    for face in bm.faces:                 #goes through the faces
        for loop in face.loops:           #goes through the loops of each face
            #your condition here, eg:
            if loop[bm.loops.layers.color[0]] == Vector((1,1,1,1)): #the left side is the vertex color
                loop.vert.select = True   #to select the vertex if correct
            else:
                loop.vert.select = False  #a good addition. sometimes all vertices are selected from the beginning

So the trick is convertig it to a bmesh and go through that bmesh.
After everything is done, just throw it back to the bpy-mesh:
bm.to_mesh(obj.data)

And if you change the view to edit-mode you will notice that all the (in this case white) vertices are selected while the rest is deselected. Just make sure your object is in object-mode. At least, when giving returning the bmesh back to your mesh.
(And for all the newbies: "obj.data" stands for "bpy.data.objects['x'].data", which is of course the mesh of the object :) )


How can you save Blender materials as image files? How can I change my object material to an image texture? I want to be able to export a blender material applied to an object as (for example) a .png file. Is this possible ?

One way to do this is if you are using the default internal render engine is to generate a UV Map from an object hosting the material and then bake the texture to an image.

Open the UV/Image Editor and create a new image (you can set the output resolution from here), next select the object, Tab into Edit mode and press U to generate a uv map, for very simple models you can use the default Unwrap or Project from View (for more complicated objects it's also best if you use a simple object with the material on it as opposed to unwrapping a detailed mesh) go to the Render tab and under Bake, you can set the Bake Mode to Textures (if you are using a custom texture) or just use Full Render.

In the image below, I created a simple green material and added a wood texture to it and the did a Full Render bake, the result is shown in the Image Editor on the left. After that, use the Image menu to save it.


How to turn a mesh inside out, like a sock? I am working with a 3D scan of an object that has convex ridges. Here is a screenshot of the object:

I am trying to use the interior of the model to create a space for a video game. As you can see in this image, the ridges of the model are concave when viewing the interior of the model:

If you imagine flipping a sock inside out, that's what I'm trying to do with this model. Is there a way to flip the model inside out so that the ridges are convex, rather than concave, when viewing the model from the inside? To be clear, I am not talking about flipping normals: if you were to do what I am imagining with a model of a human head, when viewing the interior of the head the nose would be pointing inside.

I already tried to do this with a cloth simulation and a collider around the bottom edge of the model, but that ended up smoothing out the ridges I am trying to preserve.

Thank you, and let me know if I can clarify anything.

EDIT: This is what the flipped mesh looks like following cmomoney's suggestion:

This could be achieved by baking a displacement map in Blender Render engine from your mesh to a simplified unwrapped version of your mesh, then using a subdivision and displacement modifier on the simple mesh with the baked image as the texture and a negative strength.


Material does not appear in Unity The texture that I made in Blender on Object, doesn't appear in Unity

eg.
World Ugliest Dog In Blender:

The same in Unity:

Are you using fbx in the process? If yes make sure you are embeding doge textures within the fbx. You have to set this in export options:


Is it possible to achieve a spirograph efect? I've been trying to create a spirograph effect by using a few parented empties, rotating at different rates, with an emmisive object at the end of the partent chain.

I tried using motion blur to get a long line drawn of the object's path, but what I get is just two lines. I guess the motion blur time resolution was not enough. So I have cranked that up for my emissive object, but nothing has changed. I guess it's because of the empties.

I tried slowing down the animation so the motion will span more frames to hopefully make the motion blur arcs more precise - but nothing has changed.

I wonder if there are any other approaches that could help me generate Lissajous curves with Blender.

How about tracing the position of your object with an edgeline?

import bpy

start_frame = 1 # when do you want to start the tracking?
end_frame = 1000 # and when should it stop again?
stylus = 'Empty' # name of the object to track
new_name = "Whirl" # name of the created object

verts = [] # list of all vertices
edges = [] # list of all edges

sce = bpy.context.scene # the current scene
old_frame = sce.frame_current # remember the current frame

vertex_count = start_frame
while vertex_count <= end_frame: # iterate through the specified time
    sce.frame_set(vertex_count) # set the frame so the object is in the right place for any given frame
    loc = bpy.data.objects[stylus].matrix_world.translation # the global coordinates of the stylus
    verts.append((loc.x, loc.y, loc.z)) # add the position to the vertex list
    vertex_count += 1

edge_count = 1 # starting with the second vert because the edge list is one item shorter
end = len(verts)

while edge_count < end: # building the edges
    edges.append((edge_count - 1, edge_count)) # assigns the indices of the verts to the edges
    edge_count += 1

#edges = [(x-1 , x) for x in range(len(verts)) if x > 0] # this does the same as the above edge code. list comprehensions are scary

mesh_data = bpy.data.meshes.new(new_name + '-mesh') # makes a new mesh
mesh_data.from_pydata(verts, edges, []) # fills verts and edges into the mesh
mesh_data.update()

obj = bpy.data.objects.new(new_name, mesh_data) # makes a new object with the mesh linked
sce.objects.link(obj)

sce.frame_set(old_frame) # repair the frame position

You can even animate it using a Build Modifier. And if you want a particle effect, just convert the mesh into a curve with ALTC, maybe change the spline type into bezier with auto handles and you can let a particle emitter follow the path.


The Node Editor won't work for the object selected I'm still learning, but I'm trying to follow a tutorial to apply texture to a model.
I only want to apply the texture to one object in the scene, so I selected it, unwrapped it, and painted over it.
Now I selected it in the Edit Mode (I can't select it in the Object mode because all is locked together) and went into Node Editor, but the nodes are greyed out.
Why?

Make sure Use Nodes is enabled in the header of the node editor or in the properties editor:


Imported SVG does not fully show up in rendered view I brought in an SVG logo and have had almost no problems so far. However, I've gotten to a bit in the logo which has 3 letters. The one in the middle does not fully show up in rendered view. I can go into edit mode and I see the full letter, but I'm stuck as to how to convert it to mesh and make it render correctly. I've included some screenshots. Despite how wonky this letter looks, I can't change the shape at all. It has to be exact like the logo I'm working from.

OK, so I experimented some more and found something that seemed to work. What I did was open that logo in Illustrator and then export it using the asset export. For some reason, doing that instead of doing the Save As actions, fixed my issue. Maybe I had screwed something up in the original SVG export settings. So while I'm not sure this is the reason, it may help you if you come across this.


How to change grid floor? Is it possible to change the grid floor?

It is hard to time root bone animations with the current one.

I would like to change it to something like this, or better:

Is this possible?

If you want to increase grid density, open N-panel in 3D View, reduce scale and increase line count:


How do I make the area brighter so I can see vertices in really dark areas or angles? I'm working on a model in blender and in certain angles, there's shadows that cover vertices and edges, making it really hard to see what I'm doing unless I go in at a really awkward angle.

I found a really handy trick for this and maybe it will help someone else out too.

First, make a duplicate of your lamp.
Then position that second lamp so it's Behind your camera, not in front (really important)
Parent the lamp to the camera by dragging and dropping the lamp onto the camera in the hierarchy.
Finally, press 0 on your keypad to go into camera mode, then press Ctrl + F to go into free camera mode and move about normally.

You'll notice now that you have much more light then before and if you have multiple viewport windows open, you can even see the camera and lamp move around together (so you can see it working, not that useful but still cool!)

When you finished all your work on your model, delete the lamp :)

Hope this helps somebody out there! :)


Shape Keys: Why did it do this? So I made some shape keys for the lips, added some eyebrows and went to work on them, only to notice that they're being affected by the lip shape keys.

How do I fix this? Do I have to make the eyebrows before adding these shape keys to the face? Also why and how are they affecting the eyebrows?

Shape keys are for when the modeling is done. Don't start adding shape keys and then expect to be able to add verts, edges or faces later. You may still move verts around a little, but results are sometimes unpredictable.

https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?303554-Editing-the-Basis-shape-key-after-making-shapekeys

Can I fix broken shape keys after editing basis?


Triangular grid fill I have a triangular space I want to fill with Grid Fill. The two long sides have each 33 vertices. So connecting them should give the vertical edges of the grid. The short side (on the left) has seven vertices. There should be 7 horizontal grid edges radiating to these vertices from the triangle point. How can I make Grid Fill do this?

Create a edgeloop on the other side

Starting from a similar situation

Just model the last face picking the last three vertices and press F.

Then subdivide the internal edge a with the same nuber of cuts of the vertices on the opposite side.

Now you can run the Grid Fill command

Note: the accuracy of the interpolation on the triangular tip depends on the size of the face, but nothing prevents you to subdivide the edges and make a tiny temporary face that at the end will be collapsed in one point.


how to put a object in blender in focus? Viewport focused on the Selected Object how to put a object in blender in focus? Viewport focused on the Selected Object

i click on emultating mouse pad, saved changes. everything works besides the "period" to focus, idk what im doing wrong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYj6e-72RDs
10:13-10:38

can anybody help me?

Are you hitting period on the number pad? If your keyboard doesn't have a numpad this thread may be useful in remapping the key:

Emulated Numpad Mapping - Numpad Period?


Is there a way to see more physics setting for an object? I was following a tutorial oh how to make a basic water simulation then I got to the part where I enable the domain's mesh and couldn't find the "mesh" checkbox anywhere. I seem to be missing a few other settings in the physics tab. Is there some advanced settings or something?


How to make this effect that the light of lantern being translucent? (Japanese lantern) I'd like to make this type of Japanese lantern. The modeling is quite easy but texturing is bugging me. Eventually I wish it could be exported to Unreal Engine. I don't know whether it could be done in texturing process or have to be done in UE. Need some help please.

A simple mix between Diffuse and Translucent seems to work fine in both Eevee and Cycles. Make it a bit more subtle with an Image Texture and Noise nodes etc...


Is the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT with Navi 10 compatible with Blender 2.81 on Linux? If I want to select my GPU under OpenCL, I only get the following message:
"No compatible path tracking GPUs found. Cycles are rendered on the CPU"

I've already tried to find the reason (Google, etc.), but I can not find a reason or a solution.
I think my GPU actually should be supported! (or am I wrong here?)
I've enclosed my system information below this post.

Does anyone have an idea how I can solve this?

Thanks,

Oliver

System information
System:
Host: terra
Kernel: 5.4.0-2.gf582eb1 standard x86_64
bits: 64
Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.17.3
Distribution: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20191127

Machine:
Type: Desktop
Mobo: ASUSTeK
Model: Pro WS X570-ACE (v: Version X.0x)
Serial Number: <root required>
UEFI: American Megatrends (v: 1104, date: 10/29/2019)

CPU:
Topology: 8-Core
Model: AMD Ryzen 7 3800X
Bits: 64
Type: MT MCP
L2 Cache: 4096 KiB
Speed: 4123 MHz
min / max: 2200/4000 MHz
core speed (MHz):
1: 4119, 2: 4120, 3: 4120, 4: 4140,
5: 4139, 6: 4113, 7: 4108, 8: 4102,
9: 4108, 10: 4120, 11: 4135, 12: 4149,
13: 4143, 14: 4140, 15: 4121, 16: 4102

Graphics:
Device 1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD / ATI] Navi 10 [Radeon RX 5700/5700 XT]
Driver: amdgpu
v: Kernel

Display: x11
Server: X.org 1.20.6
Driver: amdgpu
FAILED: ati
unload: fbdev, modesetting, radeon, vesa
Resolution: <xdpyinfo missing>

OpenGL:
Renderer: AMD NAVI10 (DRM 3.35.0 5.4.0-2.gf582eb1 standard LLVM 9.0.0)
v: 4.5 Mesa 19.2.6

Info:
Processes: 356
Operating time: 1h 49m
Memory: 62.72 GiB
used: 1.80 GiB (2.9%)
Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.36

Yes, you need OpenCL capable Drivers. Install theese ontop of amdgpu.

https://www.amd.com/de/support/kb/release-notes/rn-amdgpu-unified-navi-linux


How to "Merge" a Mesh So I have a mesh I downloaded, but it intersects itself. I would like it to be one large single shell instead of having various intersection areas. Like the edges would go through faces. The model isn't multiple objects but one large intersecting shape. Is there a way to make it so it becomes one large shell? 3D Builder, a program which comes with windows, has an option called Merge, but it does a really messy job with it and so I would like something like that in blender.

You basically want to separate each shell into its own object, and then boolean all the objects together.

To do this quickly:

Select everything in Edit Mode
P > Separate by Loose Parts
Enable the Bool Tool add-on (included with blender by default)
Select all the objects in Object Mode
Click the Auto Boolean > Union button in the Bool Tool panel:

You may want to triangulate the mesh in edit mode (Ctrl-T) afterward to make more sense of it.


How do I clear the render border? In the 3d viewport I am using a border region to only render things inside the selected region. I did this with CtrlB. I cannot get rid of the region. How can I make the border disappear?

Use Ctrl + Alt + B to clear the render border, or if you open the Space menu and type "render border", you should see the option.

There is also Shift + B, but this is the legacy shortcut for border render IIRC and it only works when looking through the camera. Use Ctrl + B as you can have different render borders for the viewport (when doing realtime rendering) and the camera.


Blender 2.83.4 Eevee viewport color and rendered color are different with transparency Having an issue with rendering png, movie files or any render with transparency.  What I want from the Eevee display viewport render and actually rendering the animation or screen render give me vastly different results. The picture attached will show the color on the left around the model is green (left) and correct blue (right).
If I disable the transparency from the render properties panel under film I get what I'm looking for. The Blender Render is wrong.

display viewport render is OK

If I disable the transparency from the render properties panel under film I get what I'm looking for.

The viewer for the render image is broken and has been broken for a long time.It cannot display luminous pixels that are transparent at the same time.
PNG is a format that can't do that either. It cannot do associated alpha channel correctly.
If you look at the rendered image as color (not color+A)

Or add a black backround and use alpha over to composite you the image over it and you should see if the render is correct.
As for saving the image, save as EXR and everything should be fine.
More info:
Rendering fire animations with transparent background
Render semi-transparent volume with cycles
and
How do I get the Glare node to output transparent instead of Black background


Creating a edge tile with modifiers I'm trying to create a edge for a wall. I'd like to use modifiers on the straight parts to form the edge. I'm using tilable objects. The edge is 1x1 and the straight parts are 2 units in length. This is how it should look like, which I created by hand:

This is how I tried to replicate it with a SimpleDeform modifier. I also tried a Lattice and the spin tool but did not manage to solve it so far.

I also want to bend the edge this way:

How do I archive this? What modifiers should I use? I'm aware that the edge will get stretched.

I did manage to do it with a Curve modifer and a SimpleDeform (stretch) modifer. But this is not "pixel" perfect. Still open to other suggestions.


How to bend a tube with consistent thickness? Modelling a Newton's cradle, but i can't seem to create the stand shape:

I have tried to use a path, and got this result:

It looks pretty good until you reach the top, where it is flat. The thickness is not consistent. So i am looking for an alternative way to make the stand. What are some ways to make this type of shape?

Start by creating your base cylinder, duplicating it and rotating it 90 degrees, and place it where you need it, so that you end up with two straight pieces to be connected.

Then use Bridge Edge Loops, add the number of desired cuts and setting the smoothness to have the correct profile and avoid overlapping geometry.


viewing rendered animation from command line I've looked around online for this but it seems every source I find is dancing around the issue. I've created a build script so far that looks like this

  blender oop-blender-demo.blend -P model.py -- $1
  blender oop-blender-demo.blend -a

I want to add one more line that allows me to actually view the rendered animation like you can do in the blender app by going to Render --> Play Rendered Animation

Is there anyway to succinctly do this?

Call the operator

To Play Rendered Animation you call the operator. For example sake saved to a file scripts/playback.py

import bpy
bpy.ops.render.play_rendered_anim()

To call the operator from command line

blender -P scripts/playback.py tests/demo.blend

The operator makes a command based on your User Preferences > Files > Animation Player  settings.

Which in the case for Internal Player will be something like

Executing command:
   '/../bin/blender -a -f 24 1.0 -s 0 -e 4 -j 1 /tmp/0000.png'

see blender command line arguments

The script that generates the command can be found in 2.79/scripts/startup/bl_operators/screen_play_rendered_anim.py


Cycles Volume Scattering with Voxel Data Problem

I am trying to visualize the electron density of some simulations. The data would consist of a file with the density of electrons at each point in space. From reading documentation I have found that the voxel data structure would be great for this kind of data and allows for multiple frames as well.

Is it possible to use voxel data or something similar to apply a material with volume scattering? Currently I cannot find a way to use this kind of data (only image textures are allowed). Resources I have looked at typically mention that it is only possible in the blender renderer.

For those wondering since there are not really any supported volume formats (as of spring 2016) supported in Blender Cycles hacks must be used. I settled on a solution that used the answer posted in a related question. It is important to note this solution is a general method to create 3d image from a 2d image and is gpu accelerated. I was able to use this method to create 3d volume scattering.

Here is an ugly but fully working one that I produced with the following python code to create the input image. I found this approach to also be very memory intensive as expected since each image was 200x200x200 pixels.

import numpy as np
import png # using pypng

n = 200
x = np.linspace(0, 10, n)
array = np.zeros(n**3).reshape(n, n**2)
for i in range(n):
    for j in range(n):
        for k in range(n):
            array[i, j+k*n] = (np.sin(x[i]) * np.sin(x[j]) *
np.sin(x[k]))**2 * 2**16
array = np.floor(array).astype(np.uint16)
image = png.from_array(array, 'L')
image.save('hello.png')


How to get that realistic palm leaf shadow? I want to have a shadow of a palm tree leaf on my product in Blender (cycles). Something like:

I want this to look realistic, is modelling the leaf the best way to go about this? Is there any other way?

If you need only the shadow of the leaf you can place a transparent clipart of a leaf in front of a light. The size/radius of the light source determines how soft or hard the shadow is cast. (Well, the shadow is not that dark as in your image but you get the idea.)


Why are my objects gray? Some of these pieces of rubble are a dark gray color, and won't texture properly. I can't figure out why. The normals are fine, there's no overlapping geometry, and even when I convert the tris to quads, the objects remain dark grey and won't texture normally. What did I do? These are sculpted, but so are the large, unaffected pieces with them. How can I fix this? :(

The reason meshes are different is that darker mesh doesn't have Material assigned to it and brighter one has.


Can I bake a Bump Map from a highpoly model? I wonder if it's possible to bake a bump map from my high poly mesh to my lowpoly one?

Yes.
With Blender Render, in Bake Mode, select Displacement. It's basically the same as bump.


How to redirect to a specific scene on start-up, but allow redirection afterwards in BGE? I have a game with multiple scenes. I'd like it to always redirect the user to the scene "Opening Scene" on startup, no matter what scene is currently open.

I could use an always sensor hooked up to a scene actuator, but this means that I can't switch back to any of the scenes after startup, because they will automatically redirect back to "Opening Scene".

Is there any way to do this so that the scene gets redirected at startup, but after that allows redirecting to other scenes?

In general I suggest to start the game with the current scene. A dependency to a specific scene will make development much harder as you always need to go through this opening scene. Switching right at the beginning increases load time.

Logic handler

For easier handling I suggest to create a group with one object that performs the switch. This way you can easily create one instance at each single scene without creating it again and again.

Another option is to link an object between the scenes.

Concept

At game start you want to switch to the opening scene when:
- the opening scene was not visited before

You need a sort of store/restore method.

Storage

As you switch scenes, I suggest to store such information in a Python module. It will survive any scene switch (in difference to object properties). The storage will survive as long as the game session runs.

Code

The code is pretty simple. Please keep in mind it should run in module mode (script mode will not work this way).

caller.py

alreadyCalled = False

def isFirstCall(controller):
    global alreadyCalled

    if alreadyCalled:
        return

    alreadyCalled = True

    for actuator in controller.actuators:
        controller.activate(actuator)

Setup

Always Sensor -> Python Controller Module: caller.isFirstCall -> Scene Actuator: to opening scene

Remarks

This will work with the first call "caller.py". Any subsequent execution of "isFirstCall" will not activate the actuators even when executed within the same frame.


what is an overhang face I was recently getting into some 3D printing, and I was checking out tools in Blender. I didn't quite understand what  an overhang face in a 3D model was and what some angle values had to do with it.

First of all, I believe the question was migrated wrongfully, but let me clarify some:
What is an overhang?
An overhang does not exist in a model per se. Overhangs only exist in the print, and areas that will become overhangs are pointed out only by slicing software. But now, what is an overhang?
Overhangs are parts of a printed model that are not supported by the model below. Bridges are overhangs that have support on both sides but not in the center.
A good example for what in printing is an overhang would be the left arm of Rodin's The age of Bronze:

I have colored some areas red and some in blue. Blue are areas with a pretty steep angle, where the structure below the print supports the print being not over the print. These are not overhangs
Red areas are where there is no structure below (left am, chin, fingers of the left hand) or where a very flat angle does not allow the structure below to support it (right arm).
So, now that we looked at the areas where there might be support needed for the overhangs, let me load a 90 MB 3D-Scan of the statue into a slicer (Cura). It highlights areas that the slier considers overhangs in red. To do this, the slicer compares the angle of the surface to the horizontal: a vertical is 90°, a horizontal 0° and somewhere in between that there is the set "overhang angle". To see areas the slicer points out, I had do pan into the ground, and to make it especially visible, I chose to set the "overhang angle" down to 40° in the first case, and a more normal 60° in the other case:

Now, you can do tricks to make an overhang not an overhang - For example, by angling the whole statue back so much that the chin is pointed to the air, it is no longer an overhang, but I buy that at making the back of the statue an overhang.

What has this to do with blender?
Nothing! Blender is a very powerful tool to modify 3D files, but it does (currently) not have a visualization of what is an overhang. It is good design to think of areas that will become overhangs in printing, but it'S ultimately the slicer that will show what is an overhang and what not.


Import Rhino into Blender - problem sculpting (I'm new to the sculpting and Blender world, and need a bit of help)

I'm currently working in Rhino and hoping to import some Rhino models into Blender for additional sculpting, then put back into Rhino.

I have been importing my Rhino files as FBX into Blender (OBJ will not work for some reason, the geometry does not appear in the file)

The issue I have, is when sculpting the mesh breaks apart into many pieces, particularly when sculpting.

With ZBrush its possible to use Remesh and Project to make a new mesh nearly identical to the original geometry from Rhino, but new so that it can be pushed and pulled with the sculpting tool with no issue.

Even using the Remesh modifier does not help, as the mesh is still breaking apart at the edges (especially when smoothing)

Any thoughts on how to proceed?

Attached is a screenshot showing the breaking.

Firstly, welcome to the Blender world.

Sculpting works on the vertices mainly, means the density of the mesh needs to be high enough, while you also have another problem due to the object import.
I would guess that the object you have is build of split parts, means the caps and the cylinder are not really merged.
To check this you can go in edit mode and select a vertex of the cap, pressing L should then only select the cap. Means the cap is a loose geometry and not connected to the rest.

Solution of the first part needed:

Select the object and go in Edit Mode
Press A to select the entire objects elements
Press Alt+M "by Distance" to merge all vertices that are sharing the same location, essentially merging the caps with the cylinder part.

Now to the sculpting part, you have 2 options:

Using Dyntopo, which will allow you to set a certain density that will be dynamically used to sculpt and change the mesh while you sculpt. Easy to use on low density meshes. The lower "Detail Size" you set, (shown in the picture below) the finer mesh will be generated at the parts you sculpt, causing the mesh to gain a lot more vertices/density.

Increase the density of the mesh manually, either by using a subdivision surface modifier, which can casue problems without control-loops, or by using the "Subdivide" function in the context menu by RMB in edit mode.

I would recommend to try the dyntopo method first to see how it works out, as the other option includes a lot more work to be able to start sculpting.

And finally regarding the back to rhino idea, i do not know if rhino can work with the resulting high density mesh. As far as i can remember back (long time) Rhino was Nurbs based.


How do I model Laser scanning effect? So i'm trying to build this sci-fi looking scene and trying to scan one of my model but it won't give a decent result I tried using sun lamp reducing its size and blocking it with plane having a narrow slit.
Here's the link of something similar

Here I have set a Spot light lamp to have a gradient that results in a laser line.

The Gradient Texture is sourced from the lamp's normal and the constrained via additional colour stops set to Constant.

The key was to up the strength to 10,000.


My object becomes darker during animation I have made this animation:
https://i.imgur.com/qXzYD8o.mp4
Each frame consists of an object that has been generated independently using python. These objects are isosurfaces of a function at different points in time (it is a rabi oscillation for a single electron in a molecule as the molecule moves from a ground to an excited state). The algorithm used to generate the surfaces provides me with the list of vertices, normals, and faces that define the surface.
There are two emission planes, one below and one above the object. The renderer that I am using is Cycles.
I do not understand why some of the objects appear darker. Could it be that the normals are pointing in the wrong direction in those objects? If that is the case, is there a way to ignore the normals?
EDIT: This is a blend file which contains two objects from two sequential frames. One object appears darker than the other:

So, when you generate objects, you made them without normals. I don't want to say, that they have no normals completely, because mesh can't be without normals. What I see, that all normals are rotated in the same vector, so your objects look completely flat:

But what causes the jittering in colors? This vector is different from one object to another. This mean that your object is shaded completely flat as a single plane can be, but each time the plane is rotated in a different angle.
So, how to fix that, depends on your code. I guess you should use update function (update(calc_edges=True)) to update normals, but maybe I'm wrong. I noted, that clearing custom normal data (in "Geometry data" section) force normals to be recalculated:

You might be wondered why if your object shaded flat, you still see some shading in the render? It is because ambient occlusion still have effect even without proper normals


Loop cut shortcut not working on Blender 2.8 I'm a newbie just getting into Blender and I'm following a tutorial that was filmed using 2.8 in beta. In the tutorial, the author is doing CTRL + R and mouse wheel to change the number of cuts but it's not happening in my official 2.8 version of Blender. Has this changed when 2.8 came out of beta? Also, after he creates a number of cuts, he is able to move the cuts vertically on the Z-axis and I'm not able to.

In a comment you write

  I was in edit mode and have selected the loop cut tool, the same tool you have there in the image.

That is exactly the problem. If you have the Loop Cut tool selected in the toolbar, choosing the number of cuts with the mouse wheel doesn't work and LMB does not allow you to slide.

Try selecting the Select Box tool (or any other tool really) and then Ctrl+R will work as shown in the tutorial.


Rigify rig not visibe in blender 2.8 Firstly I understand that blender 2.8 is a release candidate, that being said...

I modeled and rigged my character in 2.79, opened it in 2.8. it seems odd to me that the rig isn't visible. I can see the IK endpoints (hands/feet), but none of the FKs, armatures, or tweaks.

it kind of seems like the layers are invisible (2.8 doesn't use layers anymore?), just curious if this is something im doing wrong or if it's a 2.8 bug.

I have found the problem to this, u have to go on pose mode find the bone (ctrl) in the properties under display and for some reason the wireframe is off. You have to enable it for every ctrl bone.

Cheers!


Is there a way Blender can export to PDF(.U3D)? I'd like to export my 3D models in Blender to .U3D file format so that I can place them inside PDFs. I could use this at work when I send reports to clients, in my resume, etc. There is an old plugin that does this, but it doesn't work anymore. Has anyone out there made a plugin/fixed the old one?

I cannot see it in the the list of Import/Export. However, you can convert to another format, and use an additional tool. These formats can be read/written by Meshlab: PLY, STL, OFF, OBJ, 3DS, VRML 2.0, U3D, X3D and COLLADA. Export as one one of the highlighted formats, import it into Meshlab, and export to U3D.


Is there any way to get rid of too many polygons in mesh? I am trying to edit my mesh in edit mode, but because of its polygons numbers, I can barely move the screen. I was sculpting the mesh and applied my multi resolution modifier at level 4... after I figured out my mistake at puting it at 4, I couldn't get the modifier back... is there any way to join meshes?

There are two main ways that I know of:

Using the Decimate modifier. It combines near faces that are similar.
Un-subdivide works for me, but you could also use collapse or planar depending on your situations. On Unsubdivide, more iteration means less faces.

You could also do a manual re-topology. That's where you go through and manually combine faces.
I'm not a master at this, so I can't tell you much, but I'm sure there are some great tutorials online about it.


how to bake a roughness map with different intensity reflections I color my object with two colors, the first color uses metal elements, then for the second color I make it with metal elements as well but for the second material I make it by drawing in a texture paint, so the two colors overlap (the first color is below and the second color is above)  then what I wanted to ask, how do I bake the two materials with different reflex intensities? ( to lowpoly object)

Use a Mix Shader node to combine your two different materials then use a black and white mask to tell that material what part is what, if you don't want to make a new texture you might be able to get away with doing a color ramp.


How can I exclude a collection from rendering with Python? Can anybody help me write a script that excludes certain collections (for rendering)?

In the outliner the tooltip says: Layer.Collection.exclude and bpy.data.scenes["Scene"].exclude, so I've tried things like:

bpy.ops.outliner.LayerCollection('Structure').exclude
bpy.data.scenes["Scene"].LayerCollection('Structure').exclude

The online Python link is here: https://docs.blender.org/api/master/bpy.types.LayerCollection.html#bpy.types.LayerCollection.exclude but I don't know what to do with that information.

Use the View Layer

From the context view layer

>>> C.view_layer.active_layer_collection
bpy.data.scenes['Scene']...LayerCollection

>>> C.view_layer.active_layer_collection.name
'My Leaf 0.0'

>>> C.view_layer.active_layer_collection.exclude
False

Alternatively from scene

>>> C.scene.view_layers['RenderLayer'].active_layer_collection
bpy.data.scenes['Scene']...LayerCollection

>>> C.scene.view_layers['RenderLayer'].active_layer_collection.name
'My Leaf 0.0'

Related

Change active collection


Moving the 'center of the object' to the actual center... I have sculpted a model in sculptris (maybe i have done something wrong, it's my first time) and exported it to an object then reduced polygones and stuff, and now i have some stuff to do in blender but i noticed that the center of my model isn't really the center. It has moved to his left and idk how to move it to the right position. I have never used Blender before so maybe it's a dumb question. Here's an image of what it looks like:

I'm not a Blender guru so please be as precise as you can if you know how to fix this.Thank you for your.

Changing the Center is easily done with the moster of a shortcut Ctrl + Shift + Alt + C.From the dropdown select

Origin to geometry If you want to move the center.
Geometry to origin If you want to move the mesh.

If you want finer grade control of the position of the center, you can go to Edit mode by hitting Tab, select all vertices by hitting  A and move the mesh with the widgets. The center doesn't move, so you can position the mesh onto the center like this.

In Object Mode you can center an object so that the center is at the center of the scene (by moving the mesh) with the hotkey Alt + G.

I hope this helps.


Create a cube similar in 3D Studio Max I would like to know if there is a way (native or addon) to create a cube exactly like you can in 3D Studio Max?
What I mean by that is click once to define one of the corners, then again to declare a rectangle, and then once more to bevel it. I believe it's a really useful feature and I would be glad to see in Blender.

Thank you in advance.

To directly answer your question, there is no way (native or addon) to have this exact tool in Blender. It could definitely be implemented with Python but as of this answer I have not seen it done.

EDIT: Just saw this video about upcoming features in Blender 2.8 and the tool you are looking for is actually included in the current builds of Blender 2.8. THe most up to date build for 2.8 can be found here. Just remember this is still very incomplete, and also not very stable.


Ocean displacement map not showing waves, even with enough faces Already found tons of similar posts and the answer is always the same: add more geometry...but I already have 4000 faces and even with 16000 faces, still no waves. The only thing changing is the z-position of the plane. Does anyone knows how it works?
I cannot believe that. I tried every parameter except scale...thanks! and scale to 1
Blender file

As Einstein's Minion pointed out, you have the scale set to 0. Increasing to around 4 seems to give a pretty substantial effect. As others have also mentioned, adding more geometry helps, so I added a Subdivision Surface Modifier to the top of the modifier stack for the purpose of this example. This should really be all that's necessary to make the waves show properly:


How to combine proportional editing with vertex slide? So, I am trying to do some basic facial animations with shape keys, and I would like to do most of them with proportional, but also I need most of time to use vertex slide. When I try to do vertex slide + proportional it doesnt work.
Is there any practical way to do that?

Proportional editing will alter the connected edges which isn't really compatible with using it as a reference to limit the transformation.

If you change the 3D manipulator to Normal you can restrict movement to an axis relative to the starting position of your geometry which might give the result you are looking for.

If the normal of the selected edges doesn't match what you are after you can make a custom orientation from the edge you want to follow before starting to move the vertices.


operator error when open a new file The operator work correctly when I call it. But report error when I open a new file.
bl_info = {
"name" : "Test",
"author" : "Public",
"version" : (1, 0),
"blender" : (2, 90, 0),
"location" : "View3d > Tool",
"category" : "3D View",
}

import bpy, blf

class Test_operator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "object.test_operator"
    bl_label = "test"

    @staticmethod
    def draw_callback_px(self, context):
        blf.size(1, 12, 72)
        blf.position(1, 50, 50, 0)
        blf.draw(1, self.s)

    def modal(self, context, event):
        "some code..."
        return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        self.s = "hello world"

        args = (self, context)
        self._handle = bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_add(
            Test_operator.draw_callback_px, args, 'WINDOW', 'POST_PIXEL'
        )
        context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(Test_operator)
def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(Test_operator)

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.90\scripts\addons\testcallback.py", line 20, in draw_callback_px
blf.draw(1, self.s)
File "C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.90\2.90\scripts\modules\bpy_types.py", line 717, in getattribute
properties = StructRNA.path_resolve(self, "properties")
ReferenceError: StructRNA of type Test_operator has been removed
How can I fix it? Thank you very much.

Operator is invalid, callback isn't removed
At issue here is the draw callback belonging to the space is persistent when another file is opened, whereas a modal operator is not.  The solution below removes the draw callback if the operator becomes invalid.
Asked
Removing space draw callbacks after losing the handle?
with relation to having issues like in question. If the handle is attached to the operator and the operator is "lost" there is no way to remove the draw callback.  Well no one has answered how to .
If you were to put in the line
print(repr(self))

into your draw call back method,
All going well, and run from text editor (main thread)
<class '__main__.Test_operator'>

if the operator is removed will see
<bpy_struct, Test_operator invalid>

Once this is the case error shown in question will begin. Without going into great details the "rna" is  how blender objects store their properties under the hood.  When the instance of the blender operator is no longer required its rna is trashed.
Using repr avoids using a try catch clause. Would be keen to find out if there is a nicer way to check for this.
As a workaround to resolve issue of lost handle, when using operator as an argument, and owner of properties to draw, could set up a class variable list of operators and handles. When
repr(op).endswith("invalid>")

is true,  remove its callback via handle, remove from handles... and avoid the error message.
Test script.  Have made a class method to check the validity, and validate  the list.
import bpy, blf

class Test_operator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "object.test_operator"
    bl_label = "test"
    handles = []

    @classmethod
    def validate(cls):
        invalids = [(op, handle) for op, handle in cls.handles if  repr(op).endswith("invalid>")]
        valid = not(invalids)

        while invalids:
            op, handle = invalids.pop()
            bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_remove(handle, 'WINDOW')
            cls.handles.remove((op, handle))
        return valid

    @staticmethod
    def draw_callback_px(self, context):
        font_id = 0  # XXX, need to find out how best to get this.

        # check handles
        if not Test_operator.validate():
            return

        blf.position(font_id, 15, 30, 0)
        blf.size(font_id, 50, 72)
        blf.draw(font_id, self.s)

    def modal(self, context, event):
        "some code..."
        return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        self.s = "hello"

        args = (self, context)
        self.handles.append((self,  bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_add(
            Test_operator.draw_callback_px, args, 'WINDOW', 'POST_PIXEL'
        )))
        context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(Test_operator)
def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(Test_operator)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Window Manager
IMO would instead make a drawing class, similarly to link atop answer, or as a mixin class or as a wrapper for the callback.
Adding further to How do you remove a draw handler after it's been added? can leverage the window manager to keep a context reference to the draw handler classes.
Here is a quick cobble together by I think you can see where this is going.  Can communicate with the draw callback via context from your operator when it is run again.
import bpy
from bpy.types import PropertyGroup
from bpy.props import PointerProperty
import blf

class DrawingClass:
    def __init__(self, context, prop):
        self.prop = prop
        self.handle = bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_add(
                   self.draw_text_callback,(context,),
                   'WINDOW', 'POST_PIXEL')

    def draw_text_callback(self, context):
        font_id = 0  # XXX, need to find out how best to get this.

        # draw some text
        blf.position(font_id, 15, 50, 0)
        blf.size(font_id, 20, 72)
        blf.draw(font_id, "%s %s" % (context.scene.name, self.prop))

    def remove_handle(self):
         bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_remove(self.handle, 'WINDOW')

class DrawCallBacks(PropertyGroup):
    _dc = []
    def add(self, cb):
        self._dc.append(cb)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(DrawCallBacks)
    bpy.types.WindowManager.callbacks = PointerProperty(type=DrawCallBacks)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    # test
    wm = bpy.context.window_manager
    wm.callbacks.add(DrawingClass(bpy.context, "FoogleDoodle"))

Can open a new file go to console
>>> C.window_manager.callbacks._dc
[<__main__.DrawingClass object at 0x7fed5b609a30>]

>>> for cb in C.window_manager.callbacks._dc:
...     cb.prop
...     cb.prop = "MumbleGrunt"
...
'FoogleDoodle'

and the callback prints "MumbleGrunt" to screen.


What is the size of the default grid floor? I'm a total Blender beginner. I'm struggling with something regarding the default platform/floor that comes up when you first open blender.

Does anyone know the size of that default floor/grid/area that sits there before you, once you've just opened up the Blender programme? I.e. is it one mile long by one mile wide? Or one metre long by one metre wide? Etc?

The reason why I ask is because I used the shapes tool to draw a cube on the screen, whose size (actual "measurements", not merely "scaling") I made 10 MILLIMETRES long by 10 Millimetres wide by 10MM depth, but then it just seemed to disappear from the screen! When I re-sized its measurements to 10 METRES H. by 10 Metres W. by 10M D., then it did show up clearly, sitting on the floor/platform/area's base (not floating in the air, of course). Why would a large cube stay sitting in front of me on the screen, when a tiny cube vanishes into thin air? So, of course, I can't even see it or click on it to move it around any more.

Blender 2.79 or earlier
The X-Y grid that is visible in the viewport at all angles is 16x16 "units" large.

It is infinite if you are in any of the ortographic views: Top Numpad 7, Right Numpad 3 or Front Numpad 1.
What is a unit?
By default the "units" are dimensionless. But you can make them be meters or inches by selecting "Metric" or "Imperial" from the "Length" menu under the Scene panel

Blender 2.8 Alpha
In Blender 2.8 Alpha the base grid is infinite. The units are Meters by default.


Making a Cutout to in Low Poly Model without affecting the surface flow I am making a model of Helicopter. Its comparatively low in polygons. I want to create a cutout in it. Deleting faces or doing boolean operation on major portion of model, my model becomes a mess and shape drastically changes. Can anyone suggest what is the correct way to do it.

Adding more geometry also causes the shape to change.

The "problem" is caused by the subsurface modifier.
it's the expected behavior.

You have a few options here:

— proximity loops: use ctrl + r to create supporting geometry around the edges of the hole

– edge crease: select the edges around the hole and press shift + e to change the crease weight (the edges become red)


Black clouds in Texture Paint I am trying to use the Texture Paint feature in Blender, but for some reason, the Clouds texture has black where there should not be color painted.  How do I fix this?

I see 2 problems. I believe you are following Blender Guru's doughnut tutorial. That was the first one I followed as well.

Make sure to use a "Texture Mask"

In the drop-down titled "Brush", choose "Brush Mask - Texture"

After these adjustments your brush should match Blender Guru's brush.
EDIT:
Here is a screenshot of most of my screen:


Make a fan rotate constantly throughout the game in BGE I'm a currently starting to work on a blender game and I'm beginning to worry about the small details.

For example if I had my characters in a room and there was a desk fan on a table, how could I make that fan constantly move throughout the game?

I suggest you turn the fan axis via a motion actuator:


Blender 2.80: Left Mouse Button is moving cursor, not selecting (despite proper keymap settings) I'm using v2.80.  I have chosen "Select with: Left Mouse Button", and as far as I can tell, the LMB is supposed to Select.  Instead, it's moving the cursor around.

It seems like moving the cursor is supposed to be Shift + RMB, which works.

In the keymap settings, it's configured correctly:

Select: LMB
Set 3D Cursor: Shift + RMB

Yet, the behavior I'm experiencing is that LMB is moving the cursor, rather than selecting.

Shift + LMB is working, so I can just do that.  But this seems like a bug.  But this is also my second day with Blender, so there might be something I'm missing.

I'm on Windows 10.

In case something goes wrong with the configuration, you can restore the default settings through File > Default > Load Factory Settings.


Script node missing in node editor Following a osl in cycles tutorial And the option of what shading system to use is missing and also I cannot activate the scripting node when I am in node editing mode. I am using blender 2.67b, And I have tried to use the search option (as shown in attached image). If any body knows what is/or what i am doing wrong could they please inform me. Cheers

First, make sure that your Render Engine is to Cycles and that you are in the Shader node editor, not the compositor.

The Script node is there..

The changes in the Render panel were more than likely made in the space of time from 2.65 to 2.67.


Given a grouping of selected vertices in a mesh, how do I test if they form a contiguous edge loop? I'd like to be able to run a a test on a grouping of selected vertices in a mesh. The function would return a boolean result based on whether all the vertices in the grouping are connected in a linear fashion, thereby forming an edge loop.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no IsEdgeLoop operator in the API at this time. Bmesh seems to have some better mesh tools, but I don't see a solution as of yet. I'm thinking some clever algorithm to traverse an array of vertex indices is required, but could use some input from others.

I'd implement the following algorithm:

Give each vertex a unique ID.
Choose one of your grouping's vertices, and add its ID to a set() S.
Check all vertices ID that are connected by an edge to (2). Add these IDs to S.
Are any of the IDs in (3) the same as the ID in (2)? If yes, Return True.
If not, for each in (3), recursively do steps 2-5. If you run out of edges/vertices, return False.

Note: you use the vertices IDs in S to avoid choosing already processed vertices in step 5.

EDIT:

Pseudo-code could be something like:

grouping = [ selected vertices in a mesh ]

S = set()

for v in grouping.vertices():
    S.add(v.id)
    for vv in v.edges().vertex():
        if vv.id in S:
            return True
        else:
            S.add(vv.id)
return False


Save rendered images in different formats When I try to save the rendered image, all I get is a *.png picture format. Can I save in other formats (.jpeg .bmp .gif) straight from Blender? How ?

See the Output panel in the render settings. It can also be changed post render with Image > Save As Image (F3) in the Save As Image side panel.

If you want to output to multiple formats, this can be done using the File Output compositor node.

For GIF see: Can Blender render animated gifs?


Is there a way to show statistic info? Is there a way to get Statistic info in Blender? Or heads up display? Like when I select a group of vertices, I need a way to know how many vertices are selected and How many polygons "or triangles my scene has.

For Blender 2.79 and older check the header of the Info Window, above the 3D View to the right by default on the factory screen layout.

For Blender 2.8* series check the status bar running along the bottom of every main window towards the right.

For 2.9 series this has been moved into each independent viewport, so it can display relevant statistics for each separate 3D View depending on what is shown/selected in them. You can toggle it on or off from the Overlays Popover in the 3D View header.

There are statistics about the scene's total count of vertices, faces and triangles, in addition to your current selection of objects.
If you enter Edit Mode, it will switch to showing statistics about currently selected objects.
Global scene statistics (not dependent on viewport states) can be found on the status bar, in addition to system stats, like available memory and GPU VRAM.

If you need to see them at the bottom right of the screen you can enable the information using Edit > Preferences > Interface > Editors > Status Bar, and enable the information you want to view as part of the Status Bar.
You can also just right click on them and pick the desired options.


How to apply scale to multi user? What is the correct way to apply the scale to an object which has a multi user while maintaining its linked object data properties (e.g. modifiers, materials, vertex groups, etc.)?

In other words: I don't want to make it a single user. Changes made to one object should reflect on others.

Is this even possible?

I know you said no single user but your goal is to keep them linked so here's
my workaround:

unlink only one in object data panel
apply the scale to this one
link the others to it in the object data panel

It can be a little bit of work in relation to the number of linked objects but it works. I had 25 objects sharing the same data and it took only a few seconds to finish.


Why is this plus sign in a yellow circle appearing on the selected face? I am new to blender (about a week working after work). And I face this problem that I have this plus sign in yellow circle. And I am not sure how to get rid of it. I have no idea what is the name of it (if I would know name I probably would google it).
This happens in edit mode.

Check your Tools panel, on the left of your 3D View (displayed with T), you must have activated the Extrusion tool, select another one if you want. To use the Extrusion tool, you can either click on it on the Tools panel, or activate it with the shortcut E, in that case you won't see the yellow point.


How can I scale and extrude a mesh proportionally? I'm trying to create an arena.

Is there a quick way to extrude and scale proportionally the grandstands and make it more and more like that?

I would like to keep the height and the depth of each row equal to the other.

Separate off the first tier of seating (seat and back) into their own object.  Add a new empty at the origin.

Select the seating object and add an array modifier with a fixed count of say 15 and clear the relative offset checkbox.  Use object offset with the object set to the Empty.  Check the Merge checkbox.

In front orthographic view, move the Empty up on Z until the seating rows are correctly aligned.  In top orthographic view, scale the Empty until the tiers are correctly aligned.

Apply the array modifier, join back to the original object and remove doubles.  You should have a clean mesh.


Why i cant see ''Bake data'' on my blender 2.83? I am trying to make a fluid simulation but after all the settings done i dont see ''Bake data'' option in my physics panel.

Scroll to the bottom inside the domain settings to the Cache menu, switch the type to "Modular". In version 2.83, the default cache type was changed to "Replay". This just means that the simulation will take action when you press the play button.


How to easily identify which nodes have logic bricks attached to them in the outliner I downloaded an .blend file that has a lot of objects listed in the outliner, I wonder how can I find which nodes have logic bricks attached, because in the logic editor there seems to be no way to do that.

You can run the following in the Text Editor to select all objects in the scene with a logicbrick.

import bpy

bpy.ops.object.select_all(action="DESELECT")
logicbricks = ("controllers", "sensors", "actuators")
for obj in bpy.context.scene.objects:
    if any(len(getattr(obj.game, brick_type)) for brick_type in logicbricks):
        obj.select = True
bpy.context.scene.objects.active = obj


GPU render with multiple cards: Does card order matter? I recently added a new card to my system. I am running a Titan X and 770. When testing my render speed, I found that, for the same scene and same samples, the 770 took 1:53 to render it, and the Titan took 1:20. However, with both working together, it took 1:16...only a 4 second improvement over the Titan alone.

I know that you don't get the full power of the second card, but this seems a little extreme. In Blender's options where I select the compute device, it lists 770+Titan, with the 770 first (The titan is in the primary motherboard slot and runs 1 of the 3 displays.) Does this mean it's primarying the 770 and then not making full use of the Titan? How do I fix this?

EDIT: When watching my GPU monitor, I can see the 770 being used, but the Titan rarely shows activity above a couple %. It seems like the 770 is getting all the tiles or something. What's with that?

EDIT 2: When testing viewport rendering, things actually slow down when using both cards vs using just the Titan.

So I just tested this:

No, card order does not make a difference. Doesn't really matter which one is set as system (if the system is doing nothing) or to which the monitors are plugged. The render times were off by fractions of a second (BMW benchmark scene with 2 cars).

Both my cards are in PCI Express 3.0 at x16 slots.


How to get rid of double faces on my mesh? I want it to look the same as this side

Consider

using Mesh/Cleanup/Limited Dissolve.  Mesh Menu in Edit Mode.
using a Mirror Modifier to keep both sides exactly the same.  This means you would delete one side, right or left and let the modifier keep the sides in correspondence.  The modifier can merge the middle vertices.
Delete the loop ring.  Then Bridge Edge loops on the two open loops which need to be closed. This is on the Edge menu.


How to make a futuristic helmet visor/mask material? How to make similar material to the mask from the picture (the red\orange thing)?

Thank you!

It's pretty simple. Basically it's just Principled BSDF.

Set:

Color to #F7E4D3
Metallic to 1
Roughness to 0.4
Anisotropic to 1
Anisotropic Rotation - here is 0.2 but for another mesh it could be
different value. Tweak it as needed.


What is wrong with my mesh? Freestyle render is glitchy and won't show certain lines I’m a beginner modeler and make backgrounds for a personal comic in a freestyle render. But for some reason in this particular file, freestyle render is not working properly. Each line appears, however, there is a passage and a door in one of the walls. These lines do not appear at all. Unless I check "Hidden" in the Freestyle settings. But this causes the walls becoming transparent. What's wrong with my file? You can download it from here:

There is an object called "Cube" still in the way. You have set certain objects to Hide in Viewport (by clicking the eye icon in next to an object the Outliner), but not set them to Disable in Renders (by clicking the camera icon next to an object in the Outliner). To show the camera icons click on Filter (the funnel icon in the Outliner) and activate them under Restriction Toggles. Then you can also disable objects in your renders.


How do i render animation? I can not change the file to a Xvideo file which is the only movie file that seems that it would work. I have sound in my animation and already have it in the video sequencer editor. I also have sequencing turned on. It still only gives me 4 options for movie files. How can i make Xvideo an option?

What I would do is render all the individual frames then open up a new instance of blender, and then load all of the frames you just rendered into the VSE (Video Sequence Editor). Then just choose the file type of the video, and render the animation.
See this video if you need extra clarification: https://youtu.be/5RKeDJtMT-Q


Complex 2D animation rigging I want to animate a few custom characters. They need to be 2D. I have all body parts individually (PNG files) parented to the 3D meta rig at the corresponding angles. I have front, quarter-turn, and side view. I wuld have no problem if I was allowed to use separate bone structures for the same character. I have been key framing the alpha fade parameters to hide unused assets when rendering. The biggest issues I have are the toggling between eyes and mouths on each character.

I have a separate rig for the mouths using UV mapping technique and sliding a bound obj over a map of the mouths. When I have 2 or more mouth rigs in a scene, the rig glitches and doesn't render. I just copy the rig when

For the eye rig, I have one asset for the different eye colors and a separate one for all the eye lids for each direction the character faces. I do not know how to set this up.

All tutorials I have access to say I must redraw all assets in Grease Pencil then manipulate them. That would work, but I already have the assets made by an artist.

I have both blender 2.79b and 2.8 beta.

i hope, i understood problem (not sure), For toggling eyes / face etc.

you can create a simple property to control, which elements (meshes) you wanted to show / toggle.
i.e > add a property on a control bone. assuming default name is 'prop'
now, for example, you want face side (v1) when prop is 1 and face front (v2) when prop is 0.
in blender 2.8 setting up drivers is pretty fast / easy.

right click on property and copy as new driver
select face side , in object viewport display setting, right click paste as driver
select face front, do same as above step 2.
try changing property value, both objects will hide or unhide (don't panic)
select one of them, edit driver, change 'average or sum' to 'scripted' and replace expression '0 if prop==1 else 1'

select ground plane and change prop value in side bar (to test). i hope this helps.
SAMPLE FILE:


Turn Toggles off programatically I am trying to create three toggle widgets to work together.  The workflow I am trying obtain is when one toggle is clicked the other two toggle widgets get their states set to False programmatically.

import bpy

def toggle_ui(a_bool=True, b_bool=True, c_bool=True):
    bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_a=a_bool
    bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_b=b_bool
    bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_c=c_bool

def tgl_a(self, context):
    print("my test function", self)
    print(self.type_a)
    # toggle_ui(True, False, False)
    bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_b = False
    bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_c = False

def tgl_b(self, context):
    print("my test function", self)
    print(self.type_b)
    # toggle_ui(False, True, False)
    bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_a = False
    bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_c = False

def tgl_c(self, context):
    print("my test function", self)
    print(self.type_c)
    # toggle_ui(False, False, True)
    bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_a = False
    bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_b = False

bpy.types.Scene.type_a = bpy.props.BoolProperty(update=tgl_a)
bpy.types.Scene.type_b = bpy.props.BoolProperty(update=tgl_b)
bpy.types.Scene.type_c = bpy.props.BoolProperty(update=tgl_c)

class HelloWorldPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the Object properties window"""
    bl_label = "Hello World Panel"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_PT_hello"
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'UI'
    bl_context = "object"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.prop(bpy.data.scenes['Scene'], "type_a", text="a")
        layout.prop(bpy.data.scenes['Scene'], "type_b", text="b")
        layout.prop(bpy.data.scenes['Scene'], "type_c", text="c")

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Whenever I run this bit of code and click on any toggle widget, Blender explodes. It would be great if some one can nudge me in the direction on how to set this up properly in Blender.

Thanks in advance.

A.Kal

If you call an update function on every value change, you will go into infinite loop without condition check (every update function calls other update functions). So first make sure that you change value only, if value for given bool property is True

import bpy

def toggle_ui(a_bool=True, b_bool=True, c_bool=True):
    bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_a=a_bool
    bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_b=b_bool
    bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_c=c_bool

def tgl_a(self, context):
    print("my test function", self)
    print(self.type_a)
    # toggle_ui(True, False, False)
    #print(type_a)
    if bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_a == True:
        bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_b = False
        bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_c = False

def tgl_b(self, context):
    print("my test function", self)
    print(self.type_b)
    # toggle_ui(False, True, False)
    if bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_b == True:
        bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_a = False
        bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_c = False

def tgl_c(self, context):
    print("my test function", self)
    print(self.type_c)
    # toggle_ui(False, False, True)
    if bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_c == True:
        bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_a = False
        bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].type_b = False

bpy.types.Scene.type_a = bpy.props.BoolProperty(update=tgl_a)
bpy.types.Scene.type_b = bpy.props.BoolProperty(update=tgl_b)
bpy.types.Scene.type_c = bpy.props.BoolProperty(update=tgl_c)

class HelloWorldPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the Object properties window"""
    bl_label = "Hello World Panel"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_PT_hello"
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'UI'
    bl_context = "object"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.prop(bpy.data.scenes['Scene'], "type_a", text="a")
        layout.prop(bpy.data.scenes['Scene'], "type_b", text="b")
        layout.prop(bpy.data.scenes['Scene'], "type_c", text="c")

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


How would I combine hard surfaces and soft surfaces for rigging a robot? I've been struggling for awhile now to rig a robot with a "rubber covering" over the midsection while the chest and waist stay solid, unbending or moving while the rubber portion bends and stretches to connect to both parts. Is there any way to manipulate the mesh/armature/weight paint to make it work properly?

Here is a 'robot' that has a chest, waist, and mid section.  It's fairly simple, but it does for exposition:

I'll explain the loop cuts in the middle section below.  The top cube serves as the 'chest. The middle cube as the 'mid section' and the bottom cube as the 'waist'.
I added an armature.  It's very simple and the parent hierarchy is also simple.  The chest is the child of the upper mid section. The upper mid section is the child of the lower mid section. The lower mid section is the child of the waist.  Notice that I named the bones to match their roles.

Also notice the position of the head and tail of the bones.  They match the center of the horizontal planes that make up the parts of the robot.  This will matter in how well deformation works.
In object mode, I parent the robot to the armature, selecting "with empty groups":

You could try automatic weight painting, but since this robot is simple, I decided to populate the groups by hand.  To do this I select the robot, then shift select the armature and then type CTRL-p to bring up the parent menu.
This is where I differ with the first answer to this question:  The vertices of the shared planes should go in vertex groups for both of the bones that meet at the plane.
The next four steps involve selecting vertices and adding them to the vertex groups that were created by parenting.  First I select the robot and go into edit mode.  Next, I select a vertex group from the Properties editor -> Object data properties -> Vertex Group list:

Notice that there are four vertex groups and each one has the same name as one of the bones.
I make sure the weight is set to 1 and then I select the relevant bones.  Since I selected the chest vertex group, I pick:

I click assign in the vertex group list to add those vertices to the Chest vertex group.
Next I pick mid section upper and the bottom of the chest as well as the upper half of the mid section:

I click add to add these to the mid section upper bone.  The other two bones are
mid section lower

waist:

To see why I placed some vertices into more than one vertex group I select the armature and in pose mode, I rotate the chest:

As you can see, and as you should expect, the middle part of the robot has deformed as a result of the chest movement.
Now look at this pose where I rotated the mid section upper:

It shows a rather bad deformation at the middle of the mid section.  This is where fractional weights come into play.  That bone should also gently deform the next part of the mid section as well.  This is where weight painting becomes important.
I also said I would explain the extra loop cuts.  As you can see this robot doesn't deform very smoothly.  The more loop cuts you add the better the deformation will look but the harder that weight painting will be.
Unfortunately this answer is very long already and there's really a lot to weight painting.


How to solidify (cylindify) a screw a with cylinder instead of a rectangle? I need twisted cylinders instead beveled rectangles. Can I modify my current model or must I restart from scratch?

The twisted cylinder tunnel I'm looking for:

I figured out a pretty easy way to do this
First, create a circle mesh (not a sphere) and ↹ Tab into edit mode. Press A and F in that order to create a face.
While in edit mode, grab the face, hit G, X and press 2 in that order to move it to the right.
Stay in edit mode, press period key, and change it to 3d cursor.
Then, grab your circle, hit ⇧ Shift+D, R, Z, 60 in that order. Repeat this 5 times to get this:

After you get this add the screw modifier, and it should work


Objects missing in view window so this is really frustrating. Im not sure what is going on but on the left view windows you can only see the cushion, and on the right you can only see the chair. I dont know why they arent appearing in the same space. Ive already done alt H to unhide everything and they just dont appear in the same space anymore.

Any ideas?

This is after pressing the link button, just the chair appears still missing the cushion.

You have unlinked the layers for the 3D views, so different layers are appearing in different 3D Views. To re-link them make sure the Lock camera and layers button is checked in the header of the 3D View:

You also have your objects on different layers, so upon enabling Lock camera and layers, one or more of your objects may disappear as the other 3D views will now only be displaying a single layer. The 20 squares, arranged in a grid, to the left of the red box in the screenshot are your layers. You can move objects between layers by selecting an object, pressing M and selecting a layer or view different layers by clicking one of the squares.

See the Layers section of the Blender Manual for more information on managing and viewing layers.


Getting divider line between 2 mirror Im making a simple model. I have added subsurface and mirror modifier. Im getting a divider or partition line between 2 mesh. I have on the clipping and merge in the panel. How can i dissolve the divider or partition line between. Any suggestion. Thanks (Please do not tag duplicate plz reply with comment or answer)

Your problem has 2 origins: the simpler is that the subsurf modifier should be after (down) the mirror modifier. The harder is that the mirror modifier uses as mirror pivot point the origin of the object, and your mesh is not in line with the axis. You can  solve the issue in this way:
switch to top ortographic view (toggle Numpad7 and 5); rotate your mesh until is quite aligned with the axis; in edit mode select the center line and scale it on the x axis by 0 (S,X, 0, Enter); put the cursor aligned with this edge loop (Shift S, cursor to selected, then - in object mode - set origin to 3D cursor); select the edge loop next to the central one and dissolve it (X, dissolve edges).
It's always a good practice to mantain the origin of the object in the center of the scene during the modelling phase, then move objects to the desired position.


Plastic with fluid inside Can anyone help with a node setup for the plastic and the fluid inside it?

This is my reference picture:

I have already modelled some of the containers and the liquid inside, but I wanted to create a more photorealistic render.

Here is what I have so far:

As you can see, the material is either too transparent (and it looks glassy) or too opaque (and you can't see the fluid inside). Any help is appreciated.

Here's my .blend file:

EDIT: Here's my render after playing with Michael Ben David's setup:

Still figuring things out, but it already looks pretty good!

I played around a little bit and came up with the following setting for the plastic and the fluid, I think it comes close to the real anti-frost fluid/container and by changing the settings slightly you should get what you want. I would also make the walls thinner, in the corners you can see that there is still quite a lot of plastic


Video editing: weird transparency blending with "Alpha Over" I'm working on a video in the sequencer, and as part of this I want to overlay a scene containing some text. The text is rendered via node-based shading, and in particular uses a "clouds" texture to define the alpha-value of the final composite.

If I render the scene by itself, or set the relevant scene-strip to render using a mode like "replace", all looks as expected. See here:

However, if I set the scene-strip to render using the "alpha-over" mode, then I get a strange artefact: in places where the scene is completely transparent, I see the colour of whatever was present there (if anything), and using what looks to be additive blending!

Here you can see the same text rendered over a simple blank "colour" strip:

And here over a video-strip; note how the areas that one might expect to be fully-transparent seem to "glow" against the background colour, as though blended additively:

I'm really stuck as to what might be causing this.

It looks almost as though, when presented with an alpha-value of zero, the "alpha-over" blending switches to blending the RGB colour additively with full alpha--but that makes little sense.

It also occurred to me that perhaps I was getting negative alpha-values due to the application of the "clouds" texture, and in particular my handling of it.

But if that were so, I would expect simple high-opacity rendering, not this odd additive-like rendering. And furthermore, the alpha-values go through a "math" node that has the "clamp" check-box ticked, so it should, presumably, only be getting values between 0 and 1.

So I'm stuck. Does anyone here know what might be the problem, and how I might fix it? :/

[edit]
Oh, I forgot to mention: this is using Blender 2.78c, I believe.

[edit 2] Amusingly, the actual additive-blending strip-mode works as expected, with fully-transparent areas being invisible.

[edit 3] I've also discovered that I can get the expected result if I place the background on top of the text-scene and set the former to use the "alpha under" mode. If called for, this might at least provide a workaround.

[edit 4] It seems that if I add a very small amount to the final alpha-value given to the "composite" node in my "compositing" node-system, the problem disappears. It really does look like there's an issue with alpha values of zero, specifically, for some reason. o_0

[edit 5] A stripped-down version of the blend-file: Test Blend-file

In this version, there's just a simple plane being rendered over a colour-strip. Note that, when the scene alone is rendered in the "Default" layout, it has transparency as expected. However, when rendered as part of the video in the "Video Editing" layout, the transparency shows the above-described issue.

Video Editing is set up in the "Video Editing" layout, and compositing in the "Default" layout.

You're combining rgb values and an alpha, without premultiplying rgb values.

You can use the builtin Alpha Convert node, to do the premultiplication.


How do I move a vertex along the normal axis via scripting? So I'm looking at using a python script to randomly move each vertex in a mesh back or forwards on the z axis.

I've got it moving on the local/global axis but I'm wondering how I can do this on the normal axis. I've tried doing the following:

for v in bm.verts:
    v.co.z += v.normal.z * random.uniform(-0.05,0.05)

But this also only seems to move the vertices up and down, not outward like they would do if moving along the normal axis manually.

Anyway I'm probably missing something pretty simple here so thanks in advance.

if you only change v.co.z all will follow the z axis...

Try :

for v in bm.verts:
    r = random.uniform(-0.05,0.05)
    v.co.x += v.normal.x * r
    v.co.y += v.normal.y * r
    v.co.z += v.normal.z * r

As batFINGER says in the comment, that can be written as :

for v in bm.verts:
    r = random.uniform(-0.05,0.05)
    v.co += r * v.normal


How to make fog with an image plane? I was trying to remake a scene from Assasin's Creed. It features the main character jumping from a pretty large building. I already have two volumetric lighting in my scene. Its literally impossible to use any more volumetric fog or smoke in it since my scene is pretty heavy with a lot of simulation and stuff. I recently saw Ian Hubert's splash screen. I saw that he used image planes for making steam besides the boat. Unfortunately I am using cycles and is not able to use the same node setup.
An example of what I want:

Ian Hubert's image(appended):

Node setup:

What happened is that it is completely transparent in cycles(with the same node setup)...
I would like to create the same in cycles with the same image (as I could.'t find one online).

In your node setup you mix Transparent with Translucent. Translucent is not a good choice, it is generally mixed with an opaque node, it is made for objects like leaves, which are opaque when light hits from the front, and gets transparent when light hits from behind, which is not how smoke works, plus if you mix it with a Transparent it might be completely transparent on one side.
You should use a mix between Transparent and Diffuse or Emission, like that:


How to create 2.35:1 movie with no stretching? I am working in blender in the video editor and I want to make my 16:9 film into 2.35:1. My film is 1920x1080 so I type 1920x800 in properties as a resolution but video doesn't became cut, it becomes stretched.

What can I do to get my 1920x800 resolution video without any stretching?

To use a video strip's original resolution without any stretching, activate the strip's Image Offset. Change the setting's X  and Y value to offset the video image's position in the overall image.


Special request: "double depth maps" I have a particular request:

For each pixel of an image, I would like to know at what distance the ray first entered the mesh and at what distance the ray last exited the mesh of an object.

In fact, I need to generate not only the "visible" depth map of an image, but also the "invisible" depth map.
Those would consist in two point clouds that would act like a "mould" for my object.

Would it be possible to solve this with a Python script?
Should I loop over each pixel and call the ray_casting function? I'm afraid it would take a long time to compute (I have many images to generate).

What functions would you use? Any help on how to code this is welcomed, I am Blender beginner.

Thanks

Here is an example setup for rendering both front and back depth using red and blue channels with Blender Cycles.

We are rendering "depth" through Cycles emission that mixes with transparency so we can receive emission from the backfacing surface as well. In this setup the emission value is derived from world space Z-coordinate and orthographic camera is facing down.

Red emission receives depth as is, so a face that has Z-coordinate of 0 is black and 1 is fully red. Red depth is multiplied by inverse of Transparent Depth so we are only receiving it from the front surfaces where the value is 0 and inverse is 1.

Blue emission receives inverse of depth, so a face that has Z-coordinate of 1 is black and 0 is fully blue. Blue depth is multiplied by the Transparent Depth so we are only receiving it from the backfacing surfaces where the value is 1.


Blender Basics Tutorial, sprinkles appear underneith the surface with solidify modifier So I did the Blender donut tutorial on my work PC last year. I wanted to refresh Blender and get back on track learning. Finally got a new PC that can handle blender well.
Installed the new version of Blender 2.92. I have noticed quite a few weird UI changes, but the one thing that is crippling is the offset of the particle generated in Part 2 of the series. In the new version the particles appear under the ICing... see figures.
Is the issue with solidify modifier? Is it something that can be reversed/swopped/offset in the Particlsettings? I might add I didn't get this with the previous version of blender, so many I missed something or it was moved?

The top is clear.

I see the normals are different in the new version, so flipping that in the modifier -> Solidifier options sorted that out.


How to "peel off" segments of a sphere? I want to make a plant that has long 'slitlike' leaves (long, and narrows to a point at each end). So I made a UV sphere and have removed the horizontal edges so i just have the slits 'on the sphere' as it were. Now I want to "peel off" each slit individually and shape it so that it has the shape of the leaf. How might I do that?
thanks

the plant should look like this: enter link description here

Although there are other better ways to do this, but for your question:

I think you are asking how to separate part of a object as a new one. Basically, in Edit mode, select the part you want to peel off, hit P and choose Selection to separte the selected part as a new object.


How to draw shapes in 2.8x from a script - does bgl still work? For an addon, I want to draw a rectangle next to the mouse cursor.  I tried using the gpu package, but it only works with draw handlers in a specific region or space.  Since the shape needs to stay with the cursor, it could be anywhere on the window.

That leads me to bgl, but in 2.8x it looks deprecated - most code samples online to draw shapes with bgl don't work since functions and keywords are no longer included.  Is there a way to draw a rectangle with bgl still in 2.8?  Or do I need to look somewhere else?

BGL still works. The old snippets used fixed function pipeline which is no longer available in Blender since it is running on OpenGL Core profile. Programmable pipeline for OpenGL is actually much easier, more understandable and a more streamlined way to do things. Just use regular modern tutorial for OpenGL to draw a rectangle, make sure that tutorial is using Core profile, and not FFP.

In order to draw outside the viewport, you need to hook your draw handler to multiple Space sub-types, and determine visibility on what you draw based on the cursor position.

You can use GPU module alongside with BGL (technically it is also an OpengGL wrapper. The only difference is that BGL is a direct 1:1 mapping of OpenGL function calls and GPU module provides a set of convenience classes to automate certain common tasks. But they are still using the same single OpenGL draw context.


Grey screen when pressing P in BGE Eveything was working fine while I was in the BGE until for a reason I don't know, the scene doesn't render. Or to be more exact the 1st layer doesn't render.

I tried to copy all layer 1 objects to layer 2 and then when I pressed P, layer 2 stopped rendering as well.

What do I do wrong? I've seen people talking about clipping etc. but I didn't mess with any settings.

Here's the blend file so you can recreate the above.

As @m.ardito correctly noticed I had disabled rendering for the objects, which is clearly visible in the outliner.


Transparent PNG material without dark how do I make PNG transparent without dark?

I'm trying to add aurora borealis to this planet but it looks more dark than usual, I tried to put a multiply node for the clouds and it did worked but not for the aurora because it needs to be green and multiply node make it look white. I also tried different blend mode but it's not working, thanks for any help.

You have nothing controlling the factor of your mix shader. You need to use the alpha channel of your PNG file to control how the mix factor, so that the transparent parts are not mixed in.


My UV map has too many pieces I hit UV unwrap and my model has split into a lot more pieces than I marked out with seams and I don't know why. Can anyone help me? I am sure it is simple.

If you want to use seams, don't use "Smart UV Project" but "Unwrap". Smart UV project has the potential to split up into even more pieces than your seams showed based on geometry (the angle between faces), but "Unwrap" will simply use your seams. As far as the one vertex by itself, it was most likely not selected before the unwrap. Use A to select all, then do an Unwrap.


How to make Daredevil dripping wax using liquid simulation so i was wondering if anyone knows how to go about recreating the dripping wax effect as seen in the intro in the Daredevil show.
Check out the intro:
https://youtu.be/KFYFh8w4758
 if anyone know i would be very interested to learn how
thank you :)

The effect is accomplished by using a hidden underlying mesh object to serve as a obstacle/attraction. This effect can be simulated by Blender's built-in fluid simulator, but could be easier and done more prettily with an add-on called FLIP Fluids. If this is just a personal/experimental project, you could go ahead and download it from their GitHub repository at https://github.com/rlguy/Blender-FLIP-Fluids. If you're planning on selling it your work or sharing it with larger numbers of people, probably buy it from their Blender Market page.

Jeez I just realized how much that sounded like a sponsorship
Anyway, I still think it's a valuable tool to be aware of.

Honestly, probably some in-depth fluid tutorials will teach you all you need to create this effect whichever method you choose. Take a look at this video, as a good starting point.  https://youtu.be/3o9E2t0cTCc

That will give you a basic overview of everything, then you can teaser h individual aspects a bit more closely.

I hope you get this working! Seems like an awesome project.


Modifying blend weights without "painting" Instead of using the painting tool to assign blend weights for rigging, how can I manually key in the weight for each vertex?

In the right (N) panel in the 3D view, there's a section called "Vertex Weights". It lists all the weights the active vertex is assigned to, and you can change any of them here.

Note that this only works for the active vertex, not all the ones you have selected. If you want to assign the same weight to a group for all the selected vertices, go to the Mesh tab in the Properties panel, go to the Vertex Groups section, find your group and set your weight, and hit Assign.


Pie Menu Box Overlapping Python Question I've been trying to clean up a pie menu I created. As you can see from the screenshot, my menus overlap. I'm not entirely sure what options are available to me, I've created this looking at other people's code. Ideally I would love to be able to control the width of them as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! :D

Here is some of my code...

class EditorSwitcherMenu(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_idname = "editor_switcher_pie_menu"
    bl_label = "Ian's Tools"

    def draw(self, context):

        layout = self.layout
        pie = layout.menu_pie()

        box = pie.box().column()

        box.operator("ian.recalc", text="Recalc Normals", icon='TIME')
        box.operator("ian.flip", text="Flip Normals", icon='TIME')
        box.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text="", icon='DOT')
        box.operator("ian.ngon", text="ngon convert", icon='GO_LEFT')
        box.operator("ian.tri", text="tri convert", icon='ACTION')
        box.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text="", icon='DOT')
        box.operator("ian.cpiv", text="Set Pivot Curve", icon='POSE_HLT')
        box.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text="", icon='DOT')
        box.operator("ian.cpipe", text="Curve Wire 1", icon='IPO')
        box.operator("ian.cpipe2", text="Curve Wire 2", icon='IPO')
        box.operator("ian.cpipe3", text="Curve Wire 3", icon='IPO')
        box.operator("ian.cpipe4", text="Curve Wire 4", icon='IPO')
        box.operator("ian.cpipe4", text="Curve Wire 5", icon='IPO')

        box = pie.box().column()

        box.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text="", icon='DOT')

        box = pie.box().column()

        box.operator("ian.modelprep", text="Ian's Obj Prep", icon='VPAINT_HLT')
        box.operator("ian.modelprepnv", text="Ian's Obj Prep NO VPaint", icon='WPAINT_HLT')
        box.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text="", icon='DOT')
        box.operator("ian.batch_export", text="Export to Substance", icon='RECOVER_LAST')
        box.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text="", icon='DOT')

        box = pie.box().column()

        box.operator("ian.exddo", text="Export to DDO", icon='RECOVER_LAST')
        box.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text="", icon='DOT')

Not an idea solution, but it gets the job done. I went ahead and just made it 4 menus that are broken up using "column_flow".

here is the code example...

class EditorSwitcherMenu(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_idname = "editor_switcher_pie_menu"
    bl_label = "Ian's Tools"

    def draw(self, context):

        layout = self.layout
        #layout.scale_x = 50
        #layout.scale_y = 50
        pie = layout.menu_pie()
        #pie.scale_y = 1

        box = pie.split().box().row().column().column_flow(2)
        box.scale_x = 2
        #box.scale_y = .6

        box.operator("ian.recalc", text="Recalc Normals", icon='TIME')
        box.operator("ian.flip", text="Flip Normals", icon='TIME')
        #box.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text="", icon='DOT')
        box.separator()
        box.operator("ian.ngon", text="ngon convert", icon='GO_LEFT')
        box.operator("ian.tri", text="tri convert", icon='ACTION')
        #box.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text="", icon='DOT')
        #row = box.row(align=True).column_flow(2)
        box.separator()
        box.operator("ian.cpiv", text="Set Pivot Curve", icon='POSE_HLT')
        #box.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text="", icon='DOT')
        box.operator("ian.cpipe", text="Curve Wire 1", icon='IPO')
        box.operator("ian.cpipe2", text="Curve Wire 2", icon='IPO')
        box.operator("ian.cpipe3", text="Curve Wire 3", icon='IPO')
        box.operator("ian.cpipe4", text="Curve Wire 4", icon='IPO')
        box.operator("ian.cpipe4", text="Curve Wire 5", icon='IPO')

        #box = pie.split(percentage=.80).box().row(align=True).column()
        box = pie.split().box().row().column().column_flow(2)
        box.scale_x = 2

        #box.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text="", icon='DOT')
        #box = pie.split(percentage=.80).box().row(align=True).column()
        box.operator("ian.modelprep", text="Ian's Obj Prep", icon='VPAINT_HLT')
        box.operator("ian.modelprepnv", text="Ian's Obj Prep NO VPaint", icon='WPAINT_HLT')
        #box.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text="", icon='DOT')
        box.separator()

        box.operator("ian.batch_export", text="Export to Substance", icon='RECOVER_LAST')
        #box.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text="", icon='DOT')

        #box = pie.split(percentage=.80).box().row(align=True).column()

        box.operator("ian.exddo", text="Export to DDO", icon='RECOVER_LAST')
        #box.operator("mesh.primitive_cube_add", text="", icon='DOT')
        box.separator()
        box.operator("ian.pbrmap", text="PBR Map", icon='COLOR')


Partial transparency in viewport (cycles)? Is there a way to display partial transparency in the 3d view in cycles while modeling?

Related: Partial transparency on object?

The method above looks like it only works in rendered view in the viewport which isn't very compatible when modeling. Is there another way to have transparency in the 3d view?

Try to unselect "Limit selection to visible" in the 3D View header bar.
This works only in edit mode on the selected object...
I don't know if it's enough for your purpose.


Create additional Edges when subdividing When I make clothing and subdivide one piece that I am going to sew together with some other piece, I want addtional edges to be created.
So, suppose I have this:

In that case, I dont want it to be transformed like this:

But rather like this:

Is there any one or two clicks solution to this?
If there isn't, I would also be thankful for relevant API references, so I could maybe write an add-on that does exactly what I want.

I couldn't really find an existing solution that satisfied my requirements, so I wrote a script that does exactly what is descripted in this post.
You can get it here.
Since this is my first time I am working with Python, I would be thankful for some feedback, especially regarding the installing process as an add-on, because that just doesn't work, yet.


Automatic save of render image after finishing Is it possible to have blender save the single image when it finishes rendering it? I dont want to wait until its done as I let it render during the night. Ideally, I would want the PC to turn off as well when finished rendering. Thank you in advance.

Daily build includes addon Auto Save Render under Testing tab

I wanted to paste .py file (add-on) here for user of official build, but I don't know how to :)


Issues with the pivot point and scaling I am trying to align the bottom of the model I am building by using the scale tool. When I squeeze down the Z branch of the scale tool there is an issue where instead of the selected Vertexes being compresses in the same direction (Towards each other), they tilt up or shoot in the opposite direction. Is there a way to reset the pivot tool, or delete history/freeze transformations like in MAYA.

But, when I do that some of the surfaces get pushed up or pushed down and away from one another. Is there a settings menu for the scale tool?

So I am trying to level out all the surfaces on this model, I am trying to use the vertical scale tool so they'll compress towards one another.

It looks like you have your transform orientation set to "view". Set it to "global", select all the vertices you want to level out, and then press S+Z+0. This will level out your selection on the Z axis.
You can apply the transformation while on Object Mode with Ctrl+A, which then will let you decide what kind of transform you want to "freeze". Remember that you need to be in object mode for this.


How do I delete sculpting brushes in 2.8? I downloaded a popular sculpting brush pack and included/appended it in my default startup file.

The textures somehow went missing. How can I delete the, now useless, brushes from my project?

You have it in the tools panels, not in the toolbar for some reasons:


Why does my material panel look different? Complete beginner here.  I'm trying to follow this tutorial on Anisotropic shaders, but my property panel looks nothing like the property panel in the tutorial.  For example, when creating a material, this is what his property panel looks like:

But this is what mine looks like, if I follow the same path:

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious.  How can I see the property panel shown in the tutorial?

This is because you are using the Blender Internal render engine.

Switch the render engine to Cycles at the top of the screen in the Info panel: