Separate Mirrored mesh when exporting? I've created a humanoid model that I'm exporting as an FBX for use in Unity. The model is composed of many sub-meshes, because I want the model to "explode" in the game, and send the individual pieces flying. So, for example, I have individual "Hand", "LowerArm", "UpperArm", etc objects in my model. Currently each object has an unapplied Mirror modifier to keep the model symmetrical.

The issue is that when exporting this model as an FBX, the "Hands" object contains both the left and right hands as a single object, as opposed to being separate objects.

A very manual way to address this is to apply all of my Mirror modifiers, then manually separate the vertices on one half of the model to a new object. The obvious downside to that is that it's destructive, and I can't easily edit the model anymore after doing that.

I was hoping there might exist a "separation" modifier, which could intelligently separate a mesh into two pieces depending on whether the vertices are on one side of the model or another. That way, the modifier would be applied on export, but I wouldn't need to apply my Mirror modifiers in Blender.

So, in short: Is there a way to export an FBX of my model that separates my current "Hand" object into "LeftHand" and "RightHand", without having to manually apply the Mirror modifiers, and manually separate the vertices?

Thanks,

-Dan

I suggest you name your mesh with the suffix .l since it is the left side which is modelled (even if there is a subdivision modifier).

Here are some manual steps.

Duplicate objects. ⇧ ShiftD
With the duplicates selected, mirror them ⎈ CtrlM, X.
Export as fbx but deselect apply modifiers.

Or use a short python script. (Paste this in Blender's text editor and click Run Script with the objects selected. The script will automatically remove the modifiers and create a duplicated mirror, even if the mirror axis isn't x.

If you're using a different naming scheme than .l/.r, change this line
    new_obj.name = re.sub(r'\.l\.\d\d\d', '.r', new_obj.name).

new_obj.name = re.sub('left', 'right', obj .name) would replace left with right. (You would name everything with the left prefix beforehand (e.g. "leftHand".)

import bpy
import mathutils

for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    # Check if a mirror modifier exists.
    for mod in obj.modifiers:
        if mod.type != "MIRROR":
            continue

        mirror_name = obj.name.replace("Left", "Right")
        if mirror_name == obj.name:
            mirror_name = obj.name + "_mirrored"

        # Reference the mirrored object. Create it if it doesn't exist.
        mirror_obj = bpy.data.objects.get(mirror_name)
        if mirror_obj == None:
            mirror_obj = bpy.data.objects.new(mirror_name, obj.data.copy())
            mirror_obj.name = mirror_name
            bpy.context.scene.objects.link(mirror_obj)
        else:
            mirror_obj.data = obj.data.copy()

        axes = [mod.use_x, mod.use_y, mod.use_z]
        dir = [(1,0,0), (0,1,0), (0,0,1)]
        for axis, direction in zip(axes, dir):
            if axis:
                mirror_obj.data.transform(mathutils.Matrix.Scale(-1, 4, direction))
                mirror_obj.data.flip_normals()

        mod.show_render = mod.show_viewport = False
        break

To remove the duplicates created by the script and re-show the mirror modifier simply undo the actions of the script with a single undo step. ⎈ CtrlZ

For 2.8x, this script can be changed to:

import bpy
import re
import mathutils

scn = bpy.context.scene
objs = bpy.context.selected_objects

for obj in objs:
    new_obj = obj.copy ()
    new_obj.data = obj.data.copy ()
    if len(obj.users_collection):
        obj.users_collection[0].objects.link(new_obj)
    else:
        scn.collection.objects.link(new_obj)
    new_obj.name = re.sub(r'\.l\.\d\d\d', '.r', new_obj.name)

    for m, n in zip (new_obj.modifiers, obj.modifiers):
        if m.type == "MIRROR":
            axes = [m.use_axis[0], m.use_axis[1], m.use_axis[2]]
            dir = [(1,0,0), (0,1,0), (0,0,1)]
            for axis, direction in zip (axes, dir):
                if axis:
                    new_obj.data.transform (mathutils.Matrix.Scale (-1, 4, direction))
                    new_obj.data.flip_normals ()
            obj.modifiers.remove (n)
            new_obj.modifiers.remove (m)

scene.objects is change to collections system
mirror modifier used axis are now accessible as a vector


Exported model from Blender has holes when imported in Unity so I have a problem with exporting. I finally have gotten myself to pick up Blender and this is my first attempt at a low poly model created from the ground up. And in blender it seems to render just fine

But once I export the image, and open it up into unity to see how that renders it, there seem to be holes in it and stuff rendered inside out (just an observation?)

Can anybody help me suggesting how to fix this problem?

Including the blender file

Unity does Backface culling by default whereas Blender only does it on request. The issue is that the normals are flipped. If you want to turn on Backface culling in Blender it is in the Properties panel.

Here I have removed a face from the default cube.

and now with Backface culling enabled.

You can see through the faces that are facing outwards. To fix this, i.e. making a room, you can flip the normals so the faces face inwards.


Working on small objects in MM but Add menu adds relatively giant objects I'm Working on small objects in MM but the Add menu adds relatively giant objects compared to scale I am working. I can't figure out how to get them down to size and when I zoom out I cannot see new object.
Is there a way to tell Blender to add a new object in a smaller initial size?

After adding new object press F6 and set acceptable size or radius of the object.

Next time, during session, then you add same object, blender will remember that size.


How to use MakeHuman materials? I made a model from MakeHuman. I want to add the color of the eyes, of the skin....
I have these materials on the right side:

I don't know how to use them.
Thank you

When exporting from Makehuman, I choose the ".dae" file format, and then import this into Blender

Upon importing into Blender, my scene looks like this:

I then switch to the "Material" view, which changes my model to a brighter shade of grey:

Next, I go to the "Materials" tab, and click "Use Nodes"

I then click the little dot to the right of the "Color" widget, and choose "Image Texture" from the drop down:

From the little drop down to the left of the "Open" button, I then choose the skin texture, since my currently selected mesh is the body mesh:

My mesh now looks like this:

I then select the eyes, which are part of a separate mesh, and repeat the above steps; click "Use Nodes", click to the right of "Color" and choose "Image Texture", click the drop down to the left of "Open" and choose the texture for the eyes.

Does this help at all? If you need to know how to create and assign custom materials within Blender, then I suggest you look at the following links:

[Blender Render]

http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/learning-materials-textures-images.php

[Cycles]

http://www.blenderguru.com/tutorials/introduction-to-cycles/

There's also cycles-specific and blender render-specific documentation here:

https://www.blender.org/manual/render/index.html


Spine and Stomach deformation in Humanoïd character I've been lurking on the forum for a long time. I'm not exactly new to blender, but I haven't started so long ago. And I happened to run into a problem that I couldn't find the solution for on the internet or by myself.

When setting up my rig for my humanoïd character (semi-realistic woman), I notice than when I bend her back, her stomach deforms in a weird way and becomes smaller when it should be sticking out a little bit. I've tried to craete more bones with stretch to constraints but it results in just making "ripples" on the stomach and looks even worse.

Here are the screenshots:

I think that my topology, although not perfect, is pretty good. And i've had the same problem and all of my other humanoïd models.

Do you have an example of a rig I could set up or of a deformer I could apply or is it normal?

Thank you in advance.

I've managed to improve, but not solve, the deformation problem that I had by doing the following:

1: I slightly changed the mesh, making the stomach portrude more and making a nicer back bend. That enables me to bend the back less to achieve the illusion of a bend.

2: I divided the lower spine in 3 bones instead of 4 and shifted the whole spine and chest more to the centre of the mesh.

I think it looks significantly better and the side bends (wich I will not show) look pleasant.

I will still work on it and try to add strech bones. Maybe it will help. Or maybe, as someone has suggested, this is the limit of the blender rigging system and I will have to rely on shape keys.


Why Isn't Mirror Tool Working Correctly? I am trying to follow this video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbSmoZCrP8I and make the tower the way he does. At about the 5:30 minute point he turns the circle and deletes 3/4 of it. When I try to mirror it like he does some of the edges are missing and don't make a complete circle. I tried it with a plane instead of a circle and I can make it work. Why would the mirror function leave out some edges?

Here is a image of what is happening. The left side is what I am trying to mirror.

Yes, I know he uses the Mirror modifier on both axes, X and Y. I left Y out of this image to show how it's not mirroring even one axes correctly. Here is a screen shot with both X and Y axes.

LeoNas, thank you, that worked. We can call this one solved.

I figured it out.

After you rotate and delete some vertices, you must apply the rotation.

Object>>Apply>>Rotation.
Ctrl + A, then R.


Move edges closer to origin Basic example I've got a cylinder and I want to move half the edges closer to the centre of the cylinder. I thought selecting every second edge and scaling constraining X & Y (Not Z) axis only would work. But it doesn't seem to have any visible effect.

I am using 2.8 if it makes any difference.

In Blender 2.80 (Beta) it works still the same as in Blender 2.7x

With the edges selected, hit S, then Shift+Z to scale the vertices along the X and Y axis.


why do I have no option for luxcore API I downloaded luxrender, but every time I try to render anything an error comes up that viewpoint rendering is only available when luxcore API is selected. I wanted to change the luxrender API from classic to Luxcore API but There's no option for that. What should I do? Yes my system does not support openCL. So I downloaded luxrender no openCL from the luxrender site, during the installation when it was extracting Luxblend it starts to give error message through out the rest of the installation.

I'm running Luxrender 1.6 fine on both my Linux machine and the Windows one with LuxCore API. However, it can be tricky to set it up correctly. I can imagine two scenarios where the LuxCore API won't show up:

You have installed Luxrender correctly, but forgot to update the LuxBlend plugin. Remember that the Luxrender installer does not do this automatically for you. The Luxrender version and LuxBlend plugin really need to be of the same installer, they break compatibility very quickly.
You are trying to use the Luxrender OpenCL installer, but your system doesn't support it (that was the issue on my linux machine)

If it is 1., then you can open up Blender, go to User Preferences -> Addons, find the LuxRender plugin, and remove it completely from your system. Then, Save your User Prefs, quit Blender and restart. This ensures that when you install the new version, the Python cache will for sure be regenerated. Now install the Plugin, you can find it in the Programs folder where you installed Luxrender to. So again, User Preferences, Addons, 'Install from File', and point to your folder/Luxrender/LuxBlend.zip. It should look like this on Windows:

You should now see the addon and be able to activate it. Set the Path to your Luxrender installation correctly, Save User settings, and restart. Note from the screenshot the plugin version:

With the newest plugins, they also added a 'Update LuxBlend' button. At the moment I recommend using it, because then the 'Opactiy' option for area lights will show up, but that's a topic you can find on the LuxRender forum.

In case of 2.: Uninstall Luxrender, Download the non-open-cl package, and try that.


When rigging the character verticels are flipping (solved) So I don't know what did I do wrong when I do the rig or something but it just doesn't works correct.

screenshot:

anyone knows how to  fix this problem?

edit: I deleted the download link because the problem is solved. (but If you have it please don't use it for any work hehe)

Actually you have two identical meshes in the same object, go in Edit mode and check out (use L to select a whole mesh), one is correctly rigged (at least it seems) and the other one not. Delete the bad one.


Is There a Way to Change a Prop with an Update Def without Calling the Update Def? Is there a way to change a prop with an update def without calling the update def?

def update_prop(self, context):
    print ("update")
    if self.variable > 10:
        self.variable  = 10 #10 is a variable that changes in my code
    #i want to set the prop without recalling the update
    else:
        print("else")

class Props(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):

    bpy.types.Object.variable  = bpy.props.IntProperty(
        name="variable",
        default=0,
        min=0,
        update=update_prop,

In the example, simply setting a max will do this for us

import bpy

def update_prop(self, context):
    print ("update")
    print(self.variable)

bpy.types.Object.variable  = bpy.props.IntProperty(
    name="variable",
    default=0,
    min=0,
    max=10,
    update=update_prop)

In python console

>>> C.object.variable = 22
update
10

>>> C.object.variable
10

If you wish to set a value and not fire an update, set the id property.  A property defined via bpy.props for example ob.prop is stored as ob["prop"] once set to non default.

May  be better to use a getter / setter method(s)  Internal "get/set" function of property?

def update_prop(self, context):
    print ("update")
    self["variable"] = 4
    print(self.variable)

>>> C.object.variable = 22
update
4

>>> C.object.variable
4

Note this has been answered recenlty, couldn't find that one


Why did my tracks disappear? I shift-clicked the X, next to the F for saving a data block; did I just erase all the info from the solve?  I thought the tracking info was linked to the Camera, not the video clip?
Also, I moved file locations of both the .blend file and the movie clip file.  Moving the movie clip file seemed to "unlink" the tracks from the movie clip, I re-opened the movie clip file and it was now Movie-Clip.001, but at that point the tracks were still there, linked to the camera.
Now, after shift-clicking the X for the movie clip data block thing (and saving, closing blender, and re-opening blender), it's all gone, no tracks, no markers, the camera doesn't move or anything....  I'm going to re-track the movie clips; I just want to know what NOT to do next time.  I hope this makes sense.

To fix the file location issue I did: Outliner > change the "display mode" to "Data API" instead of "View Layer or "Scene" > scroll down to Movie Clips and in there I found the file paths from Movie Clip and Movie Clip.001 and just copy/pasted Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V the correct file path.
Still not sure how to fix the deleted solve data/track data.
Best I can tell is shift-clicking the X for the Movie Clip data block (deleting the false user) and then saving the blend file permanently deletes the solve/track data and the clip must be re-tracked and re-solved.  "Ten four rubber ducky. Over and out."


what to do with island type faces? I have a model for 3D printing, to make the model I need to do Boolean operation, after the Boolean, I will have many of this island type faces (like the figure) that I need to get rid of them. the model is big, therefore, manually deleting them is not an option. can anyone suggest me a proper way to do this?

It looks like bad normals and some geometry errors in you model.
Have you tried the classic Select all > Remove Doubles > Recalculate Normals?
(A to select all > W > Remove Doubles then Ctrl + N)

You could then try to use the operator Select Non Manifold Shift + Ctrl + Alt + M to select said faces, although if they are attached to the rest of the model mesh, deleteing then will most likely create more problems for 3D printing, like wholes and discontinuities.

You could then use the Select Non Manifold operator again to detect new problems that might arise and try solve them one by one. Maybe remove doubles and recalculate normals again.


Object Chasing Another Object I have two objects, Object A and Object B. Object B can be constantly moving whatever I set its position to be, or it's movement. It could also not be moving at all. I want to be able to make it so that Object A chases Object B (by moving towards it every frame) at a constant speed where if Object B changes position, Object A's direction of movement changes as well. I am using normal Blender Render, so can someone suggest me an easy way to do this, even if it involves Python coding. It's basically making an object face another and translating on its own local forward.

Want I don't want is the two objects two have their vertex positions linked to each other so if I drag one in the editor, the other one will move as well (aka parenting). I do not want that.

This means that if Object A's speed is set to 0, then changing Object B's position won't affect Object A's position.

Again I want that so as I play the animation frame by frame, the first object is moving towards the second object at a constant speed and the second object itself can move somewhere else which will change the heading of the first object in order to still be following the second object.

Here is something I put together to answer this q about a month ago, noticed it active and dug it up.

Before running script set up a scene with a sphere named "Sphere" and a cone named "Cone", give the cone a track to constraint to make it face the sphere.  The Cone is given a speed custom property.  Animate the sphere and the cone will track it.  This is done with frame change handlers.

NB: Need to fix for when the speed is zero, the track to constraint has no effect, (simple driver) 1 if speed > 0.0 else 0 and what to do when the objects collide.

import bpy
context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene

obA = scene.objects.get("Cone")
obA["speed"] = 0.01

obB = scene.objects.get("Sphere")
preloc = obB.matrix_world.to_translation()

def getloc(scene):
    global preloc
    preloc = obB.matrix_world.to_translation()

def setloc(scene):
    global preloc

    # set location for frame 1
    if scene.frame_current == 1:
        obA.location = (10, 10, 10)

    loc = obB.matrix_world.to_translation()
    v = loc - preloc
    if v.length > 0.000001: # it has moved
        print(scene.frame_current, v)

    # move object A towards B
    dv = loc - obA.location

    speed = obA["speed"]
    print(dv.length)
    if speed > 0.000001 and dv.length > 0.000001:
        obA.location += speed * dv.normalized()

bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_pre.clear()
bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_pre.append(getloc)
bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.clear()
bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.append(setloc)


"Select Interior Faces" buggy and unpredictable? I wrote a tool that outputs a Blender python script that generates a given Minecraft world in Blender using the fewest cubes possible. It's working great, but I'm having terrible difficulty trying to remove interior faces (for optimization reasons).

After I "Remove Doubles" the "Select -> Interior Faces" will select several faces. However, some of them are actually exterior faces and it doesn't even detect a significant number of interior faces.

I don't think there's anything strange going on with my geometry; the vertices are all snapped to the grid, and nothing overlaps.

Is "Select -> Interior Faces" just poorly implemented in Blender? Or is there precursory steps to using it?

First, it may be useful examine this in wireframe display, instead of the solid display you have in the screenshot in your question. I suspect the reason why some of what are marked interior might be more obvious that way.

Whether the problem is a bug, will depend in part upon how one defines what a bug is. I suspect that in this case, the software is working as designed, and the problem lies in the difficulty in describing for the software what an constitutes an "interior face". The best definition of "interior faces" I can find is in the hint that appears if you hover the cursor over the "interior faces" option of the select menu in the 3D viewport in edit mode. That reads

  Select faces where all edges have more than 2 face users.

which explains why some faces that appear to be exterior faces are selected in your screenshot. For example in the center of your screenshot are three exposed faces which are showing to be as "interior" Examining these closely, you will see that each of the edges of these faces is connected to three different faces. For example, the leftmost edge of the left face is connected to the two fades one can see on either side, and then also connected two the face perpendicular to these two. Examining the other three edges would reveal that each edge is part of three faces, and by the definition of an inside edge as given in the tool tip, the face is interior.

There are also classes of interior faces that the algorithm would not catch. An example of one of these is an interior face in a cube defined by the lower far left, the upper far right, and upper near left vertices. When displayed solid, it is obvious that this is an interior face, but none of the edges belong to more than one face, so it would not be reported by the "select > Interior faces" option.

I don't know that I'd say the algorithm is poorly implemented, but it might be that this may be a good implementation of an algorithm that is not the best one for your purposes.

You might find the algorithm associated with the "Non-manifold" option from the select menu item (shortcut SHFT-CTRL-ALT-M to give more satisfactory results, although I don't know how this algorithm is different from the "interior faces" one.

You might also reconsider how your tool that generates the python script, is generating a new cube? The screenshot suggests that you may be generating the new cube by adding a new cube mesh primitive. If this is so, it might result in the kind of interior faces you are seeing in the screenshot. As an option, you might modify your python script so that where you need a new cube, check to see if will be attached to the existing mesh. If it is, then check to see if there is a common face between the new cube primitive and the existing mesh. If there are no common faces, check for common edges between the new cube primitive, and the existing mesh. And if there are neither any common faces, nor common edges, check for common vertices. If there are common vertices, edges, or faces, then create the needed geometry by extrusion from the existing mesh, rather than adding new primitives, because extrusion should reduce the number of interior faces. Of course, if you need a cube where you don't have an element to extrude from, then you'll have to add a mesh.


How do I make part of a texture transparent? How to make some part of the texture transparent? I'm using the image below:

Is it possible to just use 1 image, by making that the texture won't render ONLY the black color?
Is it possible to use 2 images (1 for texture, 1 for mask)?
I know that it can be done with transparent PNG. Just curious about the other method, which allows me to use JPEG. Most of the tutorial I found so far is only about making texture half-visible, which is not what I seek.

You can connect it like this:

NOTE - your image has good black and white cutoffs, so you probably don't need the ColorRamp for the alpha, but in case there's more gradient, that's how you solve it. Also, pay attention to the blend modes I've highlighted. You can pick anything to your liking, just not opaque.


Is it possible to select a face in the UV editor and find it in the 3D View? I have a mesh which i have Smart UV projected , and i have many loose UV faces . I would like to know if i am able to select a face in the UV/Image editor , And make it select the face on the 3D mesh. Is this possible?

I cannot select every face on my 3D mesh to find the correct face in the UV , That is very time consuming and confusing. Thank you.

In the header of the UV editor window there's a button named "keep UV and edit mode mesh selection in sync", an icon with an arrow pointing to a cube mesh.

That resolve your problem.
Consider that also in the UV window you can choose if to work with vertices, edges or faces!
Notealso: if this button is selected, you can't edit the UV islands.


GPU/CUDA volume and SSS support As my fedora repos are way behind and still on blender 2.69, I've gone and compiled the latest myself. Everything seems to work and is quite recent. I can even bake CPU SSS, which is great. However I still get the error "Volumes/SSS not supported on GPU". Have I missed a flag or library (eg OSL support) in CMAKE or is this still on the todo list? If its just not finished yet, I don't mean to rush the devs but definitely looking forward to its release.

Unfortunately, these features aren't finished yet.
SSS
GPU SSS is working, but still experimental.
To test it, you need to add one line in the kernel_types header file:
diff --git a/intern/cycles/kernel/kernel_types.h b/intern/cycles/kernel/kernel_types.h
index 8d7adb2..1175c16 100644
--- a/intern/cycles/kernel/kernel_types.h
+++ b/intern/cycles/kernel/kernel_types.h
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ CCL_NAMESPACE_BEGIN
 #ifdef __KERNEL_CUDA__
 #define __KERNEL_SHADING__
 #define __KERNEL_ADV_SHADING__
+#define __SUBSURFACE__
 #define __BRANCHED_PATH__
 //#define __VOLUME__
 #endif

It seems the main reason that this isn't yet included as  an experimental feature is that it requires compiling kernels twice:

we cannot make it available just under experimental, we would need to compile all kernels 2x (for each architecture).

Update:
GPU SSS is enabled in master as of this commit. Now any new development build will have SSS on GPU. This will be in 2.72.
Volumetrics
Volume support for GPU was unofficially working shortly after its addition (see 2:22 of this video), however broke with the addition of scattering (see 2:50 of this video).
According to the same video, GPU volumetrics was supposed to be fixed for 2.70. Since that was not the case, I can only assume that development was delayed and it's still due to be fixed at some point.
update:
GPU volume support has been added to master as of this commit, but currently is in a very experimental state and smoke/fire renders are not supported yet. This will be in 2.72.


RC 2.7 Blender/Volumetric Shading Cycles I went onto blender.org and saw a Release Candidate for Blender 2.7 came out. In the description it seems the long awaited volumetric shading in cycles has been released. From what it sounds like is it allows you to make smoke and clouds in cycles. I tried the quick smoke and it has the same thing where the domain appears as a solid cube, and not invisible. What am I doing wrong?

Smoke rendering is still not quite possible in 2.7, simply because there is no way to put the smoke voxel data into a cycles shader.

This is a target for 2.71:

  For 2.71, the following features are planned to be worked on:

  Volume rendering: smoke / voxel textures, better sampling, camera in volume

However, it is possible to render volumes based on textures:


How to bake a cavity map from hi-poly to low-poly? Cavity Map Baking from Hi-Poly to Low-Poly

I have a hi-poly mesh object and a low-poly mesh object. The low-poly one is UV-mapped. I created a cavity map material in Cycles for the hi-poly object and I want to bake the color onto the low-poly object. The problem is that when I try this all the areas where the hi-poly mesh protrudes beyond the low-poly mesh get occluded and don't register in the bake.

Hi-poly and low-poly objects overlap like so:

And here is the problematic result:

My Cycles bake settings:

The material node setup of the low-poly object (bake target):

My Cycles cavity material (node setup and result on the hi-poly mesh):

One thing I tried without success was to enable double-sided normals in the Mesh Context options. Is there a better way to do this, or maybe some obvious solution I'm missing? Thanks in advance.

Update: Fixed!

Here is the result after applying lemon's answer, just to show for comparison:

This is a "symptom" of a need for 'ray distance' :

The bake casts rays around the meshes.
If parts of the mesh you want to bake to are too far from the highpoly mesh, the bake will miss them.

Hypothesis : as you use here an emission material that can involve problems for parts of the lowpoly that are inside (not lighted).


How do you set the start/end handles of a curve? I have a curve that isn't a closed loop.

Is it possible to change the start/end handles so the gap is in a different place?

Select the start and end points of the curve  and press  AltCto make a close loop..

Then delete a segment where you need to open the curve:


Is there a way to get insert face to be larger than the selected face? When you have a face selected and you hit I, it does this extrude/scale thing where you can give it an exact unit and it will scale it exactly that many units in, but it only does it smaller than the original face. If you were to do ES, then it does the same thing but it scales it as a percentage, though it can be larger than the original face. I need to do the insert face but have it larger than the original face by a specific unit; not a percentage. Is there a way to do that?

You can also outset faces using the inset tool properties panel, just tick "outset".

You can specify the thickness of the outset in units.


Is it possible to change power of zoom in /out in viewport with respect to distance from active object I have a problem with zooming in while modeling small details on my meshes as blender decreases my zooming power when I am close to my mesh this also happens sometimes when I decrease scale of a large object
I am unable to go further closer to the mesh from particular distance from the mesh

When zooming in blender, the viewport camera will move closer to its centre of rotation. You can move the centre of rotation by panning (holding shift and the middle mouse button), or the easier way would probably be to press the decimal key on your numpad to centre the camera on the selected object.


What do the parameters of the Cycles Noise Texture do? I am a bit confused by the parameters of the Noise Texture node in Cycles.  The Blender manual does not really shed much light on the topic.

Specifically:
1) What does the distort parameter do?
2) What is the range and distribution of the noise in the three color channels?

I have tried adjusting the noise output "by eye" with color ramps, but I would really like to have a more mathematical way to do it.  I am trying to use the noise texture to generate bump maps, so it is hard for me to visualize exactly how the pastel looking texture will translate.

I am familiar with Perlin noise in general.  The scale parameter seems fairly intuitive.  I assume that it sets the fundamental spacing of the lattice or simplex points.  My experiments in adjusting scale seem to confirm this, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn there is something more going on here.  I assume the detail parameter is related to amount of higher frequency noise that is added.  The usual parameters for this are octaves, persistence, lacunarity, etc.  I'd like to understand what "detail" actually means.  Playing around seems to confirm the general concept, but it always has less contrast than I am used to for Perlin noise.  I expected the output value fac to be normally distributed between 0 and 1, but it doesn't seem to be close to that.  It looks more like a normal distribution between about 0.7 and 0.9.  When I render colored noise and look at the RGB channels, each channel seems to have a similar distribution.

Here is a histogram from the GIMP showing noise with default parameters:

Is it possible that my rendering setup is causing this?  I have the noise texture pluggen directly into an emission shader as shown below.  I have no lights, the camera is 1 meter away from the plane, and the camera is pointed directly at a plane with this material applied:

I apologize in advance if I am mixing up two completely different questions with the noise texture and the emission shader.  I am still new to Blender, so it is difficult for me to separate some of these things.

As for the distortion parameter, I have played around with it a bit.  Obviously, it is distorting the noise and adding a lot of detail in the process, but there is no reference anywhere to the math involved.  I assume that the Blender devs are implementing some known algorithm.  I animated distortion from 0 to 10 to see the effects.  Interestingly, from 0.0 to 1.0, the noise just seems to translate, then the distortion builds from about 1.0 to 9.0.  From 9.0 to 10.0, there is not much going on.

GIF animation->
link to higher quality avi animation

I don't think having a math formula will help much in getting the visual effect you want. But if you are really into understanding the math implemented in blender, I think your best chance is looking into the code. The relevant files are /intern/cycles/kernel/shaders/node_noise_texture.osl and /intern/cycles/kernel/shaders/node_texture.h.

I am not familiar with Perlin noise, but looking into the code, "detail" seems to refer to the number of octaves. It is hard for me to understand what "distortion" does, but noise is generated not at original point, but at a point shifted by random (and strange) amount proportional to the distortion.

Since you are more familiar with the stuff I think you'll be able to get more out of it (and maybe post it as an answer).


Gradient background idea I just curious that how can I make this gradient background?
I use gradient image texture but It didn't look like this.
Should I use light set ups?

Thanks.

I guess there are many ways to do it but here is one:

Create a plane that you bend on the background. Give it a Subdivision Surface modifier and a Smooth Shading.
Create a Spot and play with its parameters (mainly Lamp Size, Spot Shape Size and Strength).
To give no influence to the World, disable all its Ray Visibility options .


HDRI light the mesh in viewport render (shift + z) but not in final render I use the add on easy HDRI, it work when I use the viewport render with shift Z, they add light to my mesh but when I make the final render they don't have any effect on the mesh.
My scene only contain a camera, a shpere and a light on the right of that shpere.

The environnement passe is checked:

as you can see on the render layer node, i try to see only the influence of the HDRI on the mesh
but It seems There is no light coming from the environnement.

Here I join the blender file, I would appreciate if someone can help

The problem was that use Environement wasn't checked in the layer section of render layer.
Instead Environement was checked on the passes section, which is useless if Use environement is uncked.

The Environement passe is not responsible of the light on the mesh, it just show the environement (in my case the HDRI I use to light the scene.
Here is an environement passe:


Keying visibility of object collections with single property in 2.8? I know this is a common issue, but I can't believe there isn't a better way to hide/reveal objects in an animation, besides moving them far into the distance from camera, scaling to 0 or keyframing the hide_render value, but all of these pertain to single objects, and require adding animation data to each object.
It also appears you can no longer keyframe the viewport hide property either in 2.8 but I need a solution that applies to render and viewport display.

All I want is to make a collection of objects invisible with a single property in 2.8 that can be animated/keyframed, but I cannot find an elegant solution.
I could parent all objects to an empty and apply 0 scale/move far away the empty, but this is hacky and inefficent with regards rendering.

Just wondering if there's a simpler, more elegant solution that I've missed.

You could make a link to object animation data.
First step: Keyframe single object visibility
Select one object and in Object Properties under Visibility keyframe property Show in Viewports. This can be done by hovering cursor over the checkbox and pressing i . Keyframe will be placed in your timeline to current frame. For example you can keyframe object visible at frame 0 by checking the checkbox and keyframing it and make it disappear at frame 100 by unchecking the checkbox and keyframing it.
Second step: Link other objects animation data
Select all the objects you want to keyframe and last select the object that was already keyframed. Press Ctrl + L  and select Animation Data. Now all selected objects will appear and disappear at the same frame.


Make Emission Gradient local I have this sort of sci-fi scene with ambient emission lights. I would like to have a gradient for each of them. Somehow my setup creates a gradient over the entire image rather than localized for each plane that emits. How would I have to change my setup in the node editor to get both emissions upper and lower to have a gradient in Z?
Thank you very much in advance!
Marlon

When they're one object, you need to use UV mapping. When they're
separate, it'll work right away :). – Jachym Michal 30 mins ago

Making the planes separate objects was the solution (or working with UVs).


0 Weight Vertices still affecting deforming bones I have an issue with Automatic Weights with my human character, it fails. So I'm trying to weight paint manually, however strange things happen:

There's no weight painted under the neck. You don't have to care about other vertex groups, I already checked many times, there's no weight under the neck.

However when I rotate the neck bone, vertices at the end of the mesh still affecting on neck/head bones even it is 0 weighted:

I don't know why this happens, those vertices doesn't have any vertex group, all 0 weight painted.

What should I check to fix this issue? Any advice will very appreciate it!

This happens because a very small amount of weight was assigned to those vertices. The value was too small so in weight paint mode I couldn't see that properly because it was just totally blue.

So I remove the each vertex group one by one, and find the bone that making this issue and repaint to 0 weight under the neck, and now it works.


Hooked bezier curve differen position in edit & object mode I have a drawing for a moving machine with some wires.
The wires are made by an bezier curve, and hooks to annimate it.
Hooks as I needed better control over it than cloth-sim based rope tricks.
The strange thing is that in Edit mode the curve is not the same shape as in object mode, despite the hooks.
There is a small but notable difference in position of the wire as a result.

What can cause that ?

I dont use bones, only parent child combinations and hooks in this drawing.

(i cannot show the drawing because of NDA contract)

When you enter edit mode the object will be displayed as it is before the modifiers are calculated. If you use hook modifiers, they will not show up there unless you enable this box:


Cycles Materials to Unity Shader I have a really nice looking crystal material using cycles applied to my object; it's pretty fast and very simple - Just one glass node. Is there any way to convert this into an HLSL shader for use wihthin Unity? My understanding is that cycles materials are left out when Blender files are used in Unity.

I don't think that is possible, at least the results will look different.
Cycles uses a completely different rendering system than what realtime graphics applications like Unity use.

The Cycles Renderer is a ray tracer and has full knowledge of the whole scene all the time. It can model shadows, reflections, refractions and indirect lighting pretty easily, but they cost a lot of computation power.

Unity on the other hand uses OpenGL and Direct3D for rendering. Both APIs are optimized for realtime graphics, but during rendering only single objects are known. Reflections and shadows have to be faked by rendering the scene multiple times from different angles. To get performant global illumination it is precalculated and refractions are usually faked by distorting the final image.
So even if you export all the settings from Cycles to Unity, the rendering engine in Unity can not use them correctly.


drivers and custom properties for buttons I'm just beginning to get into drivers and custom properties for bones and I was wondering if its possible to set up drivers or custom properties for buttons rather than sliders. The reason is I have a face rig with tons of "stretch to" bones and every time I edit any bones I have to manually go through and hit the "reset" button in each bones' individual constraint menu. What I'd like to set up is a driver or custom property so that I can hit one button to reset all the stretch to bones at once.

Not sure drivers and custom properties are a good solution for that.

Lucky for you, I have run across similar strugglers these years when rigging and collected some python scripts which you can run to fix all that. Simply copy-paste them into the text editor, and click the run button when you need them. You have to be in Pose mode though.

First one : reset every "stretch to" constraints of an armature :

import bpy

for b in bpy.context.selected_pose_bones:
    for c in b.constraints:
        if c.name == "Stretch To":
            c.rest_length = 0

Second one, same use as the previous, but to set inverse of every "child of" constraints of the armature :

import bpy

ob = bpy.context.active_object

# Take a copy of current layers
org_layers = ob.data.layers[:]

# Show all layers
for i in range(len(org_layers)):
    ob.data.layers[i] = True

for b in ob.pose.bones:
    for c in b.constraints:
        if c.type == "CHILD_OF":
            context_py = bpy.context.copy()
            context_py["constraint"] = c
            ob.data.bones.active = b.bone
            bpy.ops.constraint.childof_set_inverse(context_py, constraint="Child Of", owner='BONE')

# Reset back to orginal layer state
for i in range(len(org_layers)):
    ob.data.layers[i] = org_layers[i]

I'll be working on making those scripts more easy to use, as add-ons with accessible buttons right in the viewport's UI. You can follow the advancements on my github.


How do you fade the edges of a model? I have a model that is made of a flat plane that has been sculpted in the middle.  I need to fade the edges of the plane gradually into transparency.  How do I accomplish this?  I am totally new to this!  Thank you for help!

Edit:

Response to Cegaton:

Thank you, this works just as described on a new plane.  It is really just what i need, but it does not work on my model, which was modeled in Blender 2.7, if that makes any difference.  On my model, the adjustment only affects the top half of the mesh, and the bottom part is either translucent or opaque, with sharp edges.  I am baffled.  I will add that the model was made from a plane but many nips and tucks and extra rows of vertices have been added since the beginning.  I wonder if there is something about an older model that does not work with the new compositing options ('separate xyz'  was not available in 2.7).

PROBLEM SOLVED: The transparency begins at model's origin.  I moved the origin point from the center to the bottom of the model and now the transparency adjustment is operating exactly as demonstrated in Cegaton's answer.

Suppose you sculpted this beauty out of a plane:

To make the flat area transparent you can create a node setup like this, where the transparency is controlled by the height (Z axis) of the model.

EDIT:

If you are working on an older version of blender that doesn't have the separate XYZ you can use a separate RGB node:

For finer control on the transparency use a Vector->Mapping node. By moving the Location values on the Z axis you can determine the height where the transition starts, and by moving the sliders on the color ramp you can determine how smooth the transition will be.


Old Game Texture Style Question I have a very basic question, honestly just the name/definition would help, about the way old games did their textures/graphics. I have this picture from a game called Mother. I'm wondering what the name is of the circled edges is called. In old games, the more diagonal an edge was to the players perspective, the more pixelated the line was. As you turned to look at it more dead on, it would become one flat edge. What is this called and can it be done it blender or is this accomplished more in the game engine you are working in? Is it based on low res textures or the object mesh or shading? Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have been racking my brain trying to remember what this is called. Thank you.

This is called stair-stepping, or the staircase effect.  It's the lack of anti-aliasing causing this effect.


Applied boolean modifier leaving shading artifacts with flat shading I tried to manipulate a cube with the Boolean modifier. I tried to cut out an edge of the cube with a cylinder. Also, the shading result looks awful in FLAT SHADING mode, so I turned on SMOOTH SHADING.

Has anyone an idea how to achieve a better result. (I also cut out a Sphere first, this made the result less awful).

I used Blender Internal and rendered with smooth shading for smoothness.
Using flat shading looks okay, except the "round" cutouts :/
Face normals are okay.

First image is smooth shading.

EDIT:
User Pisurquatre suggested the EdgeSplit modifier, works perfect to me
(Maybe a little tweaking here and there):

Another way is to use the Auto Smooth option in the Mesh Context.

Set your object's shading to Smooth first to see the effect.

One advantage this has over the Edge Split modifier is that it won't cause problems if you add certain other modifiers subsequently in the stack, such as SubSurf. Another is that it doesn't increase your vertex count.

Note that any edges that have been marked as "sharp" (Edit Mode: CtrlE > Mark Sharp) will remain sharp even when the Auto Smooth angle value is at its maximum 180°. Knowing this, you can manually specify which edges should be sharp instead of relying on an automatic calculation by angle, if you need to be precise.

So you can choose between the Edge Split modifier and Auto Smooth depending on which is most appropriate for your needs.


Vertex count number display Is there any way to show the number of selected vertices in Edit Mode?

In 2.9 version of Blender, you can also have the stats in the 3D viewport, using an option in the overlays:


Exact Math formula of the MixRGB Node (Multiply Option) I'm trying to write a GLSL shader that is supposed to do what the cycles nodes do with texture color mixing and stuff, but I'm not sure about the math involved behind the MixRGB node. I'm interested in the multiply mode of the MixRGB node.
I suspect that the node is simply multiplying the input colors by default.

output = color1.rgba * color2.rgba

But what happens when I'm setting the frac as well? Is it multiplied along with the others as well like:

output = color1.rgba * color2.rgba * frac

color1 *= ((1.0 - fac) + fac * color2)
/* r_col = current value, col = new value, (fac == 0) is no change */
void ramp_blend(int type, float r_col[3], const float fac, const float col[3])
{
    float tmp, facm = 1.0f - fac;

    switch (type) {
        case MA_RAMP_BLEND:
            r_col[0] = facm * (r_col[0]) + fac * col[0];
            r_col[1] = facm * (r_col[1]) + fac * col[1];
            r_col[2] = facm * (r_col[2]) + fac * col[2];
            break;
        case MA_RAMP_ADD:
            r_col[0] += fac * col[0];
            r_col[1] += fac * col[1];
            r_col[2] += fac * col[2];
            break;
        case MA_RAMP_MULT:
            r_col[0] *= (facm + fac * col[0]);
            r_col[1] *= (facm + fac * col[1]);
            r_col[2] *= (facm + fac * col[2]);
            break;

From GitLab:
https://gitlab.com/ideasman42/blender/-/blob/dyntopo_knife/source/blender/blenkernel/intern/material.c


How to make a player follow the cursor? at first I'll link a video of the effect I am reffering to in the title.

In this video if you skip to 03:40 - 04:00 and to 05:00 - 05:30 you can see two different visualizations of the effect I want to accomplish.

Considering the effect visualized in 03:40 - 04:00, what I did in the past was to add an object everytime I right-clicked my mouse over the navmesh in the hitPosition. That object had the mesh of those arrows(animated) and had a lifespan along with logic bricks that made the player follow those newly-created objects. The problem with this idea though was that the time the player took to travel from his current position to the arrows(cursor) was different every time but the lifespan was fixed. I had many problems with this way I was trying to create this effect and I abandoned it.

Untill I saw this effect in 05:00 - 05:30. This is exactly what I wanted to do. Most new games with isometric or nearly-isometric cameras have this "player to cursor" motion where the player travels to cursor when right-click mouse is pressed and stop travelling when not.

What's the best way to achieve this in blender GE?
I will still have my navmesh to stop the player from getting to some areas.

I would not remove the "target" object. Just let it there. You need just one.

You can activate/deactivate the steering (rather then adding/removing the target object).

To do this you need to sense the events when to do what.

Unfortunately you did not say what you want to get. You just mention what other games are doing.

  "player to cursor" motion where the player travels to cursor when right-click mouse is pressed and stop travelling when not

right mouse button sensor -> AND -> steering actuator

This activates the steering on when pressing the right mouse button, and deactivates the steering when releasing the button.

You also need to think about when to place the target object at the hit position under the cursor. Typically you do that once at right mouse button.

You can continuously do that while holding the right mouse button too (be aware the situation when the cursor is over a non-targetable position).


Material is being squished according to the dimensions of object, how can I fix this? The issue I am having is that my brick photo texture is getting squished if the opject it's being applied to is not perfectly square.  As you can see in the image below, the object on the left, which is a longer rectangle has long thin bricks.  The object on the right, which is more or less a cube, has bricks of the correct dimensions.

How can I make it so even if I am applying the brick texture to a tall thin rectangle, the bricks are normal dimensions?

You will automatically have this deformation with the Texture Coordinate Generated outlet, because it will try to fit the faces of your object. So you have several solutions:

Put a Vector > Mapping node between the Texture Coordinate and the Image Texture and play with the Z scale to find the correct value.
Use the Object outlet instead of the Generated one, it won't deform your texture. Anyway, you'll probably need a Vector > Mapping node between the Texture Coordinate and the Image Texture to scale up or down the texture.
Unwrap your object and open the UV/Image Editor to place the texture on your wall, but I guess it's a solution you try to avoid? It will be necessary if you want to be precise though.


Center a movie clip in the Blender VSE I'm making a video with resolution 1920 x 1080 in the 16:9 ratio.
I have a recorded a clip from my phone screen in portrait.
I am using my version of the default Video Editor screen layout. My edit simply has an extra window for a File Explorer.
The clip isn't 16:9 so I first tick Image Offset to stop Blender from stretching the clip, and then make the Blend field Alpha Over in the dropdown list so I can add a background that is 16:9.
The problem I'm having is that the clip is not centered, but anchored to the left. I can change the X Offset value but I can't be certain of what value is exactly centered.
Any help is much appreciated.

Just do some math in the X offset field directly. Look at the Original Dimension of your Clip where you will find out its width x height. Then type into the X offset "1920/2-width/2" (replacing width with the actual one from its Dimensions) and hit Enter. Do the same with Y, typing "1080/2-height/2"...

Or with an Editor/View of the type Python Console opened and the Clip selected in the VSE you should be able to just run this line of code to center your Clip/ImageSequence:

seq = bpy.context.selected_editable_sequences[0]; seq.use_translation = True; seq.transform.offset_x = bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_x/2 - seq.strip_elem_from_frame(bpy.context.scene.frame_current).orig_width/2; seq.transform.offset_y = bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_y/2 - seq.strip_elem_from_frame(bpy.context.scene.frame_current).orig_height/2


Scale my Text Object How do you shrink or resize a text object?

Exactly like any other object, just press "s" and scale it. Then you can press "ctrl+a" to apply scale


Blender Player on Playstation 4 PSVR Are there any plans, ideas or success stories to run Blender Player on Playstation 4 PSVR? PSVR could be really nice alternative and relatively low cost just after Android Cardboard but much better performance and quality. I don't really want to give up field to Unity. Blender Powers! =)

I am re-editing this post to store information on how Blender could be used with PS4/PSVR gear. Details below:

Using DS4 PS4 Bluetooth controller with Blender: https://t.co/swDQevV1aJ
BlenderVR project: https://blendervr.limsi.fr/

As far as I know Blender Player only runs on Windows, Linux and Mac. And to a much lesser extent a basic Android version.

Did not know about FreeBSD on PlayStation though, but on Android it was pretty much a proof of concept. It's feature incomplete and experimental, without any kind of support or continued development.

Have in mind however that the Blender player is  sort of a dead end. It is considered old and outdated, and development has sort of stalled. It is also considered for removal for the future Blender versions

A much more modern and future proof technology would be browser based WebGL technologies which have good support in every modern browser and mobile platforms and also have some extent of VR Support.

Blend4Web is a great Blender Addon which removes much of the need for coding, while being open source and free for personal use.


How would I make a door open when a key is pressed and a character is near? I am trying to make a door open for a game i'm making using the blender game engine, i have the animations set up for the door, I have everything set up for the door to activate yet nothing happens. How would I get this to work.

I tested your .blend and as you said everything is set up correctly.
But the 'Near' sensor only gets activated by "Actors" (this is a physic 'property') so you need to go to the physic tap of your character (Cube) and actiate Actor.


How to make lumpy grass I've been trying to find a way to make lumpy things like in the example image. My attempt looks bad, how can I make this?

You can do it this way (well in my example my salad looks like cheese but it's just a bit of displacements):

Create a circle and extrude it several times to make several concentric circles.
Give it a Solidify and a Subdivision Surface modifier. Press Smooth in the T panel.
Drag down the external circles of your mesh.
Extrude down some of the peripheral vertices.


The materials tab appears different than the usual material tab when i open my blender a material is applied automatically and i am unable to use the material node editor. The materials tab also appears different than the usual material tab. I am having trouble applying the usual gloss, mix, and other shaders

Nodes are used to create materials using cycles renderer. You can see "Blender render" selected on top of your Blender window (which is old Blender render and soon is said to be removed with next version), click on it and switch to Cycles to get nodes to work.


get worldOrientation as the target of other objects If I have an object in my game, and I want other objects moves to the same orientation. what should i do?

I want it moves slowly to the orientation, but not the get the position without a time.

Thanks.

It's unclear if you mean the object's position (worldPosition) or orientation (worldOrientation).

Either way you can get smooth change of orientation by using bge game object function alignAxisToVector(vect, axis, factor). As vector, input the other gameobject's corresponding vector (like positive X-axis) and as the factor using a small number like 0.1 to make the transition smooth. https://www.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_2_77_0/bge.types.KX_GameObject.html?highlight=alignaxis#bge.types.KX_GameObject.alignAxisToVect

You can get smooth change of position by first getting the delta vector between the objects and then adding only a small factor like 0.05 of it to your objects position every frame.


How do I name a selected group via python script Hi python/blender users,

I was wondering if anyone knows a simple python command that allows me to rename the selected group. I am working on a script that requires a renaming mid operator. I found one to rename the selected objects but not a group specifically.

Best,
Brad Hamilton

Using Object.users_group returns a list of all groups the object is assigned to. Decide which group of the list you'd like to rename and assign a new name to GroupData.name property.

import bpy

obj = bpy.context.object
obj_group = next(iter(obj.users_group), None)

if obj_group:
    grp = bpy.data.groups.get(obj_group.name)
    grp.name += "_special"


Problems when exporting .mu file I was trying to import some models and Blender send me this error message :

attribute error : "scene" object has no attribute "cursor_location"

Someone knows what is it ?

Thanks for your answers !

This error has already been fixed by commit 5eea1995659bf17a0c716b1207207333f85fb67b. Remove the currently used add-on and install the most recent version of the .mu importer/exporter add-on to solve this problem.


Simulating the atmosphere Some months ago I watched this video of Blenderguru about "How to create a realistic earth in blender". In this video blender render is used and now that I understand texturing in cycles a little better I am trying to rebuild this "realistic earth" with cycles.

At about 22:00 min Blenderguru starts explaining how to simulate the atmosphere using blender render. The idea is that near the edges the atmosphere gives a bluish tint to the earth. I tried to work this out with the setup as above (same idea as used for a transparent balloon) but blender guru is doing something with fresnel. I think that is a better solution ? How to simulate the atmosphere with fresnel ?

I think what you want to do is mix whatever shader you are using for the earth's surface with a bluish shader towards the edges.

To do this just plug both shaders into a mix shader (like you already have), with the bluish atmosphere in the bottom socket.  Then control the mix factor with a Fresnel node.

]


I have two layers with different objects in an animation how do I render these two layers together? Question pretty much says it all. Also one more question: in the place where you can click on the layers there is a gold dot in one of the slots and a grey dot in another slot does the gold dot mean that layer will be rendered because the grey dot layer is not being rendered?
Thanks!

To activate more than one layer, you need to Shift+LMB the layer buttons in the 3D-View Header or the Render Layers, or you can press the appropriate number on the top row of your keyboard (Shift+1, Shift+2,... for the top row, Shift+Alt+1, Alt+2... for the bottom) To select all press `.

The darker buttons are visible layers, and the lighter ones invisible.

The dots in the layer buttons indicate that they contain at least one object. The layer that contains the active object will have an orange dot instead of a grey one.

Documentation of Layer Settings


Make correspond rotation to preview I'm trying to rotate a star (made of multiples spheres) but my star is downsized before restored to normal size ,causing me troubles.
Here is the rotation I performed (and looks fine in preview)

And here is the result when adding the keyframe

I'm guessing Blender resolves the rotation as simplement straigth forwards movements and circular ones. How to make this ?

Create an empty in the center of the star, parent all spheres to the empty and animate the rotation of the empty.


How to properly bake normal maps? I was trying to bake a normal map to give detail to a figure, and recently I got so frustrated I started working on a test file, to see if it was me doing it wrong. Sure enough, it was.

Steps I took to bake:

Create a cube.
Subdivide it flat 5 times.
Deselect all vertices and select random vertices with select >>> random and scale it out.
Repeat step 3 3-5 times.

5 Duplicate the cube and move it over.

To the second one, add a decimate modifier with unsubdivide mode on level 2. Hit Apply.
Unwrap the decimate cube with smart UV project.
Create a new image on the smart UV project. Keep the default settings and apply.
Select the first cube and then the second.
Under the bake tab in the camera panel in properties, select normals for the mode, and check selected to active. Set the margin to 0 and hit bake.

My result:

As staded by @Yvain baking one object maps to another involves projecting them on the baking faces. If you move the object away, or the faces are not pointing each other, you'll not get expected results.

While it would be cool not to have the object in the same place for baking highres to low, a similar behaviour would limit the user possibilities.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, as baking normal maps involves many aspects, such as resolution, uv maps, shading, cages...

I would suggest to have a look of these tutorial:

The Fundamentals of Perfect Baking (not blender related)
Blender 2.71 - Cycles Baking using Cages


Cannot remove double vertices I tried to follow a tutorial , which showed to remove double vertices in blender by pressing F3 and typing "Remove double vertices" but I just can't find that option to remove those extra vertices.

Also i tried with the Merge By Distance option but i still see 13 vertices where it should be 9 vertices.

I want to remove double vertices between the triangle plane and the top of the cube

Please help  Sir,

Merge by distance should fix your problem, but you need to select the entire model. If it still doesn't work try increasing the merge distance.

Try identifying of which vertices you have duplicates by using the box select tool on one of them and paying attention to the bottom left of the window. If it says "Verts: 2/13" you press "alt + m" and click on "at center". Repeat this until all duplicates are gone.


Create model from XYZ data points I'm trying to create a 3D heat map model out of data that I have from a csv file. I have a few thousand data points with XYZ coordinates.

I'm able to import the data into blender as a point cloud with this python script, however I would like to create a model with solid faces. Is there a way when importing the data to somehow join the points to create faces instead of generating thousands of separate points?

Currently, this what I have in terms of point cloud

The end product would look something like this (minus the texture) and obviously the model wouldn't be as regular as this one

Any help is greatly appreciated!

From the file you provided, here is the result:

Effectively, this is not as regular as the sample image in the question!!

This script works only if we have a rectangular grid along X and Y.

Here is commented code (tell me if some additional explanations are needed):

import bpy
import csv
from operator import itemgetter

csvfile = open('G:\\Telechargements\\Heatmap_ES_output_01.csv')

inFile = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=',', quotechar='"')
# skip header
inFile.__next__()

#Read and sort the vertices coordinates (sort by x and y)
vertices = sorted( [(float(r[0]), float(r[1]), float(r[2])) for r in inFile], key = itemgetter(0,1) )

#********* Assuming we have a rectangular grid *************
xSize = next( i for i in range( len(vertices) ) if vertices[i][0] != vertices[i+1][0] ) + 1 #Find the first change in X
ySize = len(vertices) // xSize

#Generate the polygons (four vertices linked in a face)
polygons = [(i, i - 1, i - 1 + xSize, i + xSize) for i in range( 1, len(vertices) - xSize ) if i % xSize != 0]

name = "grid"
mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new( name ) #Create the mesh (inner data)
obj = bpy.data.objects.new( name, mesh ) #Create an object

obj.data.from_pydata( vertices, [], polygons ) #Associate vertices and polygons

obj.scale = (1, 5, 0.2) #Scale it (if needed)
for p in obj.data.polygons: #Set smooth shading (if needed)
    p.use_smooth = True

bpy.context.scene.objects.link( obj ) #Link the object to the scene

Blender 2.8

For 2.8:

The last line:

bpy.context.scene.objects.link( obj )

should be replaced by:

bpy.context.scene.collection.objects.link( obj )


Render and saving image progressively by adding samples I am looking to save the render preview as image without taking a screen shot. I am just trying to render it sample by sample as my machine gets heated up like crazy when fully rendering with only 200 samples. I know about rendering in parts but would really just like to render sample by sample and save the image once i am happy with the result.
Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks!

What you ask is not possible directly. It's possible only to use a workaround - basically the same technique as for stacking images in compositor.

Render with Progressive Refine enabled (to get the whole image at once) until satisfied with amount of noise for one iteration, stop the render. Change the frame to get different noise pattern. Render once more into another file / render layer (i.e. create additional Render Layer, select it and enable Pin icon to render only active one; repeat for all layers). Overlay the results in the compositor.

Setup with saving to Render Layer nodes is shown; the one with images will be the same but opening files instead. Find the most appropriate file format for that operation

Now once  you decide the image is still too noisy, render several times more and overlay them the same as before (so add several more Render Layer nodes and increase value of the Value node).

Note:  this isn't intended to be used instead of the final render (although it can be used as asked - render the same a bit more and overlay on top of already saved image). While this technique can be used to save the final render results in some cases, in most of them it might not be worth time spent on it. Instead it should provide you with 2 things:

an idea of how the scene looks like with given setup without waiting for [some time] only to preview the render;
rough understanding of how many samples does your image need to stop looking noisy with given circumstances.


Can I make smoke to cast light? Is there any way to cause (or fake) light emission from the fire within a smoke simulation? Obviously smoke doesn't work in Cycles but is it possible in BI for the flames to contribute light to the scene in the same way that FumeFX does in 3ds Max?

Alternatively is it possible to convert a flame into a cloud of particles in order to hack this somehow on a different pass?

What I do is in the Blender Internal Renderer select the material that is going to have light cast on it. Then enable mirroring and turn down the glossiness.

You can adjust the number of samples it uses for smoother results.

Sorry for the wait, lack of internet at my home right now.


Exactly positioning and aligning objects I'm trying to get productive with blender. Now I have this challenge I can't solve.
I imported parts of a cnc chair I'm designing. Precisely positioning the parts is my goal. How can I do this ?

So I want to go from here:

To here:

In the last screenshot the part look aligned but not exactly :(
I tried to figure out snapping but I get the impression that's not gonna cut it, I'd love something like sketchup style moving/rotating/positioning.

I've been also looking into the NP-station add on, I can't get that to work though.

Edit:

Thanks for the answers and replies. It looks like I want/need something like np-station or mesh align plus. Tiny-CAD only seems to work in edit mode (?) while I need to align and position objects. Getting into origin and the 3D cursor was useful too.

But I placing my bets on getting mesh align plus to work for now.

Here are some useful tips for precise modeling in Blender:

01) Set your units to milimeters
Properties Panel->Scene->Units->Length

02) Set snapping to Increments
and enable Absolute snapping.

03) Use orthographic view and side views
This allows you to use grid better, and align precisely
Orthographic view shortcut: Numpad 5
Viewpoint shortcut: ~ or use Numpad numbers.

Switch to orthographic view and out

Use ~ to switch views

04) Make use of Quad View

05) Learn to use 3D cursor and work with Object origin.
These are very powerful together for precise object alignment.

06) Adjust your grid scale.
The default setting is good for most situations, but sometimes you may need to adjust it.

07) Blender is no CAD, but it will get you there :).
And as @Leander said - tinyCAD addon.
Enable it in Preferences->Addons  (and Save preferences)


How can I solve this shadow problem? Every shadow is working well until I separate the objects, pictures:
My method when separating:

select faces on the mesh
inset faces a little bit
select the inner faces
separate it from the original mesh
make the edges sharp on the original mesh and on the separated mesh as well

What could be the problem? How could I solve it? I even recalculated normals, applied rotation&scale&transform.
Thank you in advance!

It's the normals. to fix it I can suggest 2 ways, average the borderline normals with an add-on or just replace normals.
Here is how you can replace normals:
before separation, copy your object and hit f2 and call it "my.normal.source.01" or anything.
hide it
on original model, do the separation.
add a modifier in the end of stack of original object and named "Data Transfer"

select the source (we called it in this example "my.normal.source.01")
mix mode to Replace

do the same for the lid
Done.
Now if you want to move the object your source have to move with it you can parent it. if you don't like that just apply the Data Transfer modifier. that will write normal data into your object.


Compatibility with macOS Big Sur (macOS 11) is there any experience, if the upcoming macOS Big Sur is compatible with the latest stable Blender version? I tried it in Parallels, and it keeps crashing.
Falk

I'm using Blender 2.90.1 on MacBook Pro 2013 Retina with the latest macOS Big Sur. No issue so far. Would love for Blender to support Metal though. Fingers crossed.


How can I add more god rays coming out of the holes? I am trying to render my first volumetric lightning logo and there are two light planes inside the logo where the inscriptions "PC", "&i", processor are. So what I want is for these planes to create stronger god rays than they currently do. How can this be achieved?

ADD:

I tried the solution that @icYou sugested. So I imported my .svg file of my logo, converted it to mesh, opened edit, marked all vertices and removed doubles. I then deleted all vertices except the ones who form fonts "PC" and extruded the text. What I get are some weird black lines where only vloumetrics should be... These black lines were visible also in the Blender before rendering. It is kind of weird and I need an advice on this.

Instead of adding mist to the whole scene you can cheat and just put the rays over your text.

I just extruded the text in z space and gave it a volume scatter and absorbtion material. All you need to do is change the density to have it look stronger.

hope this could work for you.

EDIT :

The problem is with your SVG file.

The "&" symbol and the other complicated part to the logo should only have the outline. You don't need all those lines inside the "&" symbol. So I would clean up the SVG file (edit>select all the vertices you dont need> delete). Make it as clean as possible. Also you need the inverse of SVG file. I would bring it back into Illustrator (or whatever you use) and Inverse the colors. You need the lettering to be extruding not the outline.

Here is a pic where you can tell the clean parts from the weird parts.

If possible go back to illustrator clean up the logo so it is more basic (just for the god rays). When you import it into Blender make sure after you scale it up so you can see it, that you go to OBJECT>APPLY>SCALE. And only after that go to the curves tab and go to the extrusion setting and I put in .10, but adjust to your liking.


What exactly does the "Non-color data" option for image/environment textures do? Image and environment texture nodes have an option to use Non-color data:

Could someone explain what this setting does and when it should be used?

I have seen it used with HDR environment lighting. Is there a reason for this?

This option stops blender from applying color-spaces to the image, this is useful when you want to use the numeric value of an images pixel rather then the perceived color value.
By default Blender converts an 8bit-per-channel image (As you would get with JPG, TGA, PNG, BMP etc.) from sRGB-colorspace to linear-colorspace (also known as rec709), before using it for compositing - where all color is assumed to be in linear-colorspace.
Examples where you don't want this include normal-maps, z-depth-buffer and displacement-maps - Where 0.5 should displace half the distance then 1.0.
Color spaces are fairly involved, so more could be written about the topic - but simple rule of thumb is if you are not viewing the image data as a RGB-Color, then you should set Non-Color Data.

Note that OpenEXR is an exception and color is assumed to already be stored in linear/rec709 colorspace, to display these images Blender converts them into sRGB (unless you choose a different colorspace).


Spinning single component around axis without affecting the compounding units I am currently working on my first project with Blender. I decided to make a yo-yo. I am working on the string portion and have it stretched out currently. What I have now is a yo-yo body with a string stretching down from the yo-yo ring attached to it's center axis.The issue is mechanical in nature. I would like to rotate the string around the axis of the yo-yo by just rotating the yo-yo body and having the string top portion remain locked to the ring portion at that exact location.

My goal is to have the string wrap up around the yo-yo center axis ultimately then have it unwind downwards. I understand the manual method is always there and I particularly don't mind resorting to taking the string, strand by strand, and wrapping it around the center axis of the yo-yo body.

I've already tried the method outlined here https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/26413/58522 and the one directly below it to apply delta transforms. I've also tried locking the position of the yo-yo ring in place with a key frame lock but that did not help wind up the yo-yo automatically in the manner that I would like.

I am new to blender, which is an issue as well. However, I took time to read materials outlined on the Blender Stack Exchange Tutorial page, and after studying basic concepts undertook this project.

Thank you in advance.

Are you trying to make an animation or just a still image? If you want a still image, I've had a sort of similar situation where I resorted to a simple cheat. I needed to have a guitar string reach up to a tuning peg, and then wrap around it repeatedly.

My solution was to make 2 strings. One string reaches up to where the curve is supposed to begin, then cuts off. Where that string ended, the other string starts.

The other string is made by just creating a single flat circle, positioned right at the end of the first string, whose size and number of vertices was the same as a cross section of the first string.

Its face is perpendicular to the top of the peg, and I positioned it close to the peg. Then I added the screw modifier, chose the peg as the axis object, and messed around with the iterations, steps, and angle settings to create a coil.

The modifier can be a little confusing. If it doesn't seem to wrap exactly around the central rod of the yoyo, make sure that rod has its scale and rotation applied in object mode (ctrl+A). Then make sure the origin of the rode is in the middle of it (ctrl+alt+shift+C). For the string itself, you can reposition the origin (same command) to different spots to control how tight the coil is. If you move the small disc that creates the string up and down in edit mode (well, in my case it's up and down) then the coil gets more compressed. If you tab into edit mode and move it, the entire coil just moves vertically without getting tighter or looser. So to get the modifier to cooperate, you have to pay attention to the position of the origin of everything, and whether you're moving things in edit more or object mode.


Spot lamp rotation and dupliverts Looking at the image above, I would like to replicate this setup but with spotlights rather than cones. Basically I need an "array" of lamps, but lamps do not support modifiers. So by looking a bit online, I found that the only way to do an "array" of lamps was to use dupliverts. Now dupliverts would work well if I needed them all to point in the same direction, but they point away from one another. Usually with a mesh, I would set up my tracking axes correctly and then rotate my child object and apply its rotation, to get the result you see on the picture. However with spotlights, even if you CAN rotate it, you cannot APPLY its rotation (error message "Objects have no data to transform").

How can I achieve this setup?

1) Dupliverts + Origin offest

For your particular situation, where your base geometry is made by vertex and edges only you can obtain the effect by shifting the object's origin from the geometry.

Since you don't have faces but ony edges and vertex, vertex normals (which is the vector that the lamp will follow, blue in animated the image below) is always directed as the origin-to-vertex vector is, letting you achieve the desired result.

2) Duplifaces

As moving the origin may not be suitable for all the kind of workflows, you can duplifaces instead of dupliverts. You'll have more controle on the faces normals, which is the vector that your lamps will point to.

In the picture below you can see the target shape in orange, and in vivid yellow (active object) the shape parented with the lamp. It's the same shape, rotated by (360/6)/2=30° and scaled a bit to get the center of the face overlayed with the target shape vertices. Faces were created by extruding the edges.

Adjusting the Z difference between the innee and outer boundary edgeloop will give you full control of the lamps orientation.

3) Particle System

Emit particles by mesh's vertex, one for each (in your case the number must be 6) without any randomness (we must be sure to have one, and just one lamp for each vertex). Set Size=1 and Rotation checkbox enabled. Than rotate the Lamp on its Y axis by the choosen factor:


3D camera tracking and object tracking are not on right position I'm sorry if this question as already been asked, but I couldn't find it anywhere so asking again. If someone knows please write in comments.
The story is, I've a video clip form (hollywoodcameraworks). Very common clip, where a women is holding a gun kind of object and walking on a street.
Please see the images.
I've tracked camera very nicely with 0.01px error. Very smooth camera tracking, this worked great.

and for object I tracking 0.25px error I don't think that is bad at all,

And in 3D space ... both things are tracked, 3D box-object has also applied constraints to the tracked OBJECT respected to the camera. that seems fine on the 3D space.

But the ISSUE is.. the 3D box-box object is too low to the surface... I won't be able to cast shadows since I want to change the road into cracks on concrete or anything in 3D as well... so don't want to do it separately ...   Can somebody give me some tip where I'm doing wrong.

Thank you.
one more small question: how to add file as attachment.?

And after some testing.. I've found the solution..
My camera solution's scale was little.. I had to increase that..
See my first results with solved scale.

I selected two points with good results 0.01 and 0.01px,
Hit Apply Scale
Scale up and keep look on the result preview in right top corner in my image.

. this is what I got..

Perfect. Thank you to ALLAH for giving me solution..  :)


Access new objects location after separation of mesh? Hello Blender scripters,

I am a beginner trying hard to work on some scripts. I have been stuck on this problem for some time and any help would be appreciated.

I have managed to programmatically select vertex groups and separate them into new meshes based on selection. However when I try to access the location of these newly created meshes in object mode they return me the location of the original mesh from which they were separated.

Is there anyway to calculate the location of these new meshes? Please let me know. Thanks!

After you separate the meshes their origins are still the same as when they were together. This is normal behaviour. After you separate the meshes into its parts you need to set origin to geometry for every newly created mesh.

import bpy

for object in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    bpy.ops.object.origin_set(type='ORIGIN_GEOMETRY')  # set origin to geometry

After you do this you will be able to successfully query the new locations.


how to control the same value on multiple different materials with an object's z location? You can do this with drivers, and I've seen multiple blender channels that use an empty to control the value of multiple lights.
i was wondering how i would use drivers to control the value of multiple math nodes within the margin of -1 to 2 with an empty's z location. the reason i want to do this is because i need to control the transparency factor of multiple objects but only in the viewport so that means not an animation.
also, what i mean by "within the margin of -1 to 2" is that if i move the empty up then the value will only increase up to the value of 2 then after that point, no matter how much i move the empty up, the value wont go past 2.. and same with the -1 value.
there is an equation out there that lets us do this but i have yet to find it. :(
you don't have to tell me the whole equation i just need some better insight on how i would achieve this or maybe someone's experience using a similar driver setup in there own projects. thanks.

Simply use the Map Range node to clamp the results between -1 and 2.

Add a Map Range node with min = -1 and max = 2 values
Check Clamp
Select your empty's Z location and go RMB > Copy Driver
Paste the driver to the Value field of the Map Range node.

The Result of the map range is shown here as a slider


adding an obj to new layer in blender 2.79 and linking the existing object to the new collection in blender 2.8 same? I was following a tutorial for fish animation. In the tutorial they are adding a plane and adding that plane into separate layers. Then all operations are performed on that plan. So in Blender 2.8 how to achieve that? I tried by creating new collection and linking the plane object to the new collection ? Is this the right way to do?

My purpose is to hide the plane object while rendering animation
Can anyone help me to solve that with python ?

My aim was to hide the plane object while rendering. I achieved by adding plane and fish in different collections and unlinking the plane object from all other collections and then disabling that specific collection for rendering.


Why is glass material increasing noise, and what to do about it? I have a quite simple rendering in Cycles, containing some droplets with a standard glass material – only glass node, connected to surface of material node.

The problem is, the glass increases the noise enormously. First Picture with glass:

Second picture for comparison with plain white diffuse material instead of glass:

This is just an extremly simple scene, and it's just rendered with 32 samples for testing purposes.

Is there a way to reduce the noise added by glass material? Please keep in mind, this is not about the noise in glass itself, but about added noise everywhere else.

Short version: glass shader is more complicated and needs more calculations to obtain a nice result. So either you set samples to higher values, either you use some trickeries in the shader or in the rendering settings in order to reduce the complexity (but at the cost of accuracy).

I invite you to read the Blender Manual about Glass BSDF, which explains this more precisely as well as giving you ways to reduce noise.


Transform (Rotate) with 4x4 matrix via python I have imported geometry that I am rigging for showing assembly of a product. The driving curves have been imported from rhino, from which I have built up the model further in Blender.

As part of the animation, I would like to show how all the parts fit in a box, when they are flat. However, rotating each part by eye is proving difficult as each part is quite 3 dimensional. Thus, via Rhino, I have calculated the transform matrix needed for each part in order for it to be flat on the ground.

I would like to use the data from this matrix to transform objects via python.

Update: Here is a simplified version:

, where the orange is the target.

Here is the output that I get from Rhnio python going from A to A':

R0=(-0.470458022353494,-0.807963312121372,0.354773921630525,-6631.4567921258), R1=(0.645229984870226,-0.589232780440685,-0.486295174846007,3943.31281557432), R2=(0.601953084407421,0.000129305847915359,0.798531444247745,2890.46728702281), R3=(0,0,0,1)

I make the following output into a python list and then set it to the updated matrix from above

import bpy
from mathutils import Matrix, Vector

obj = bpy.data.objects['Untitled'].pose.bones["topfrontleft"]

m =  (0.879972675860339,-0.0926548147745,0.465900391755896,-1329.45963312555), (0.443132751289856,-0.193193761313235,-0.875391075647866,1124.19004435354),(0.171118247050034,0.976775949687925,-0.128946848111055,3977.30420903923),(0,0,0,1)

m_new = Matrix(m)

obj.matrix = m_new

Here is a ling to the Blend file: http://1drv.ms/1X8vHXO

I took your blend file and modified the code a little bit. At first I inserted the R0, R1, R2 and R3 values into the matrix. Then to transform a given matrix with another one you have to multiply them. The order is important.

import bpy
from mathutils import Matrix

bone = bpy.data.objects['Untitled'].pose.bones["topfrontleft"]

m = [ (-0.470458022353494, -0.807963312121372,     0.354773921630525, -6631.4567921258),
      ( 0.645229984870226, -0.589232780440685,    -0.486295174846007,  3943.31281557432),
      ( 0.601953084407421,  0.000129305847915359,  0.798531444247745,  2890.46728702281),
      ( 0,                  0,                     0,                  1) ]

matrix = Matrix(m)
bone.matrix = matrix * bone.matrix

After executing the code in your file the bone is 'flat', but instead of being parallel to the x axis (so that it matches the other edge) it is parallel to the y axis.. Are you sure that the matrix is correct? If yes you will need some other matrices to rotate it in the correct direction, but at least it's already flat :D


Make the pipe end follow an arc I would like the end of the pipe to form an approximate 270deg arc, as sketched, rather that the parabola as it is now:

I have no idea, which deform to use.

It is going to be dust-vacuuming pipe, the dust source a bit below the centre of the blue arc. As of the final shape, it is not precisely determined as far as it works well. In any case, the object should be bounded with two parallel planes from the top and from the bottom, as it is now, and the blue sketch lies on the bottom plane.

The pipe's profile should change, from top to bottom, somewhat like that:

Model source:

Whichever shape you want the nozzle, it's probably better to loft it than to deform it. Make a series of profiles with the same number of vertices, use 'Bridge Edge Loops', adjusting its options, (Number of cuts, Profile, Smoothness, etc)...

... and then you can use modifiers to Solidify, Bevel, and Subdivide the geometry.


Material not applied? I have been following (or trying to, at least) some basic tutorials about applying materials and textures to the default cube. There are two textures applied: first is a wood-type: colour influence. The second is a black-and-white-type: normal influence.

That's all I do before render: Select the box and add the two textures.

First one is applied as it should.

Second one is simply not applied, although it does show up correctly in the preview in the Texture tab in the Properties panel.

How can I apply the second texture as well?

Note that both textures are to be applied to the entire box, not to selected faces of it.

(Using Blender 2.77a, rendering with Blender Internal).

UPDATE

Left: preview, center: 3d view, right: render

Your bump map texture influence is not visible because you have wrong texture coordinates.

Either unwrap your mesh or change the type of used texture coordinates.

Change Coordinates - Since it is a procedural texture you don't necessarily have to unwrap your mesh for the texture to be visible. Just go into the Properties Window > Texture Tab select your Stucci texture named "Texture" and in the Mapping panel > Coordinates change from UV to either Generated or Object.
Unwrap Mesh - You may optionally prefer unwrapping your mesh. Just Tab into Edit Mode select all faces with A and Unwrap with U. Select your preferred method. For quick results just use Cube Projection.


Files Context Menu too limited Is there a way to incorporate Windows file context menu into the blender context menu?
For example, when I use 3dsMax, I am able to right-click on a file use use something like OpenWith to launch my installation of GIMP to graphically edit and refine an image.  Whereas with blender I need to copy the location, and then open up file manager, search for the file (perhaps a folder with many files), and then OpenWith.
when using a more File-Explorer-like interface, I can also highlight/find the file in a large folder by replacing the last letter the '*' end hit enter to narrow/filter the file list.  Again a great convenience that I don't have with blender File View.
Am I over-looking a way to regain this productivity in blender?

Yes, the blender file browser is limited, but there are some workarounds for both of the things you mentioned.

Editing images. Blender has an option in the image editor to “edit externally,“ which can be set in user preferences to open images in whatever your favorite image editor program is (GIMP in my case), and then you can reload the image from the source to update it when you’re done.
Filtering. The file browser itself has search box in the header at the top that does not look in subdirectories. Try this for quick filtering of large directories.


Infinite Animation Loop for one thing while I animate other things? I made a character in Blender that is holding a Raygun.

The raygun currently has an animation from frame 0-5 where a light moves and blinks on and off. The Raygun animation is what I want to have loop forever while I make a walking animation for my character.

I know I could simply duplicate the frames for the Raygun animation throughout the whole walking animation, but is there a more efficient way?

Thank you for any help!
PS: I'm using Blender 2.80 if that matters

In the graph view, add a cyclic modifier. That will repeat the animation indefinitely regardless of how many frames are in your final animation.


How to change world background based on active camera? I'm trying to create a scene consisting of multiple cameras which all should have it's own unique environment. But I'm having trouble setting up an automated node setup.

How can I setup the world node editor so when a certain camera is set as the active camera, the correspondent background is activated for rendering?

EDIT:

Blendfile for testing:

This can be achieved using Drivers to feed an attribute of the Active Camera into the Environment material.

The current active camera can be determined using Python (as defined here) using :

obj_camera = bpy.context.scene.camera

We can distinguish between the different cameras by setting the Pass Index of each camera object to specific values - eg, 1, 2, 3.

In the Environment material, add a Value node, right-click the value field and select 'Add Driver'.

Ensure the Value node is selected and swap to a Graph Editor window and select Drivers. Highlight the newly added driver and open the properties panel with N. In the Drivers panel, set the Type to Scripted Expression and set Expr to 'bpy.context.scene.camera.pass_index'.

Note : You'll need to enable the File/Auto Execution/Auto Run Python Scripts option in the File/User Preferences settings if it isn't set already (this allows Blender to run Python code).

You should now find that as the Active Camera changes the value of the Value node in the Environment material changes to reflect that camera's Pass Index and this can be used to generate values (using Greater Than/Less Than maths nodes) to drive the Mix Shaders to select the desired material.

Note : The displayed Value value for driven values doesn't always update immediately in the node tree - but the actual value used by the Environment material is correct (it has simply not been refreshed on-screen). Moving the mouse over the Value node should trigger the display to refresh.


Fastest way to keep the last frame of a clip persistent I have a video clip I would like that the last frame of this video clip last more seconds so the user can see it very well. Which is the fastest way to keep the last frame of a video persistent on the screen for a determinate amount of time without stretching all the video clip?

To hold the last frame simply drag the tail handle to the right. It will repeat or hold the last frame. If you want to do this in the middle of a strip then make a hard cut (not a soft cut) shift-k, this will remove the ghost handle, seen after trimming or soft cutting. You can then drag the tail out for a freeze frame again.


I am having problems with a particular corner on a car I'm modeling The top picture is where I am now, and the bottom picture is where I want my topology. I basically want another two edges horizontally across the front bumper, but also want an edge loop around the light. Any ideas on how to achieve this? (or really, any ideas at all as to how I could model this correctly?

You can add the edges you want with the Loop Cut operator (⎈ CtrlR) for the edge loops and the Fill operator (F) for the standalone edges:

But when you try filling it in you may encounter some ngons and tris:

I'd suggest adding a couple more edge loops to handle these spots:


Bones with copy rotation rotate when the parent bone rotates I'm trying out a way to rig a coat's hem using copy rotation bones that are copying the rotation of the legs, so it would rotate when the leg moves. So far it's working fine, until I rotate the waist bone, for some reason the coat hem bones start rotating as well instead of being stationary like other disconnected bones that are parented to the waist bone.
Here's an image of what I mean:

How can I prevent this from happening?
The .blend file:(https://blend-exchange.com/b/lZr3gmq3/)

First, I changed your coat tail bones from Quaternion rotation to Euler XYZ because you won't ever need quaternions if you don't also have 3-axis rotations (and you don't have them because the local Y of your coat tail bones is not of relevance to any motions). This change wasn't essential to the solution which appears below, however, so while my version of your file has this change, if you don't want it, you can safely switch the coat tail bones back to Quaternion if preferred.
Start by selecting all your coat tail bones in Pose Mode. Open the Bone Constraint tab in the Properties Panel. Uncollapse your Limit Rotation constraint listing (NOT the Copy Rotation one). Hold down the Alt key, and while it is held, change Owner from Local with Parent to Local Space. By holding Alt while doing this, it applies the change to all selected bones at once.

Your coat tails will now respect the rotation of your waist bone, but also rotate with your thigh bones.

Here's a link to a recent video I watched that I thought was very good for helping me more deeply understand how constraint space works in Blender.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhRrVn5gXZk&t=626s
Hope this helps.


Valid Index but value not found I'm currently trying to access the skin modifier's radius variables in a program I am making which uses this line of code:

bpy.data.objects["Plane"].data.skin_vertices[0].data[0].radius

It comes out with the error:

RuntimeError: bpy_prop_collection[index]: internal error, valid index 0 given in 4 sized collection, but value not found

Any ideas how I can fix this?

I have found the answer, The reason for this error is because the data linked to the skin modifier is locked when using edit mode. Simply setting it to object mode unlocked the variables.
Hopefully this helps anyone who was as confused as I was.