Blender Best Car Crash Problem I have been trying to find the best car crash with the following conditions:

Rotating wheels when car is accelerating
Car skidding, thus front wheels turn left or right (image the driver trying to take but control of the vehicle and end up drifting)
Car hit an obstacle on the road at high speed and fly off course
Car Crashing (glass shattered, metal part tented)

I have looked through plenty of tutorials on Youtube. How, I am unable to find one tutorial that fulfill all the above conditions.
If I use bones to rig a car, does it mean that there is no possibility for parts of the car to fly off? example the door or a wheel.
--> How can I dent the metal parts? Which modifier should I use?
On Youtube, there are these 2 channels Albin MERLE and TopChannel1on1. Their method require creating a mesh to wrap around the main part of the car and 4 separate cylinder mesh for the wheels.
---> What are the constraints using this method? What are the things I can't do?
I am trying out using this beautiful Mercedes (https://free3d.com/3d-model/mercedes-amg-c63-hi-poly-model-partially-rigged-805791.html). Credits to wishingchain. Whenever I try to add a rigid body onto part of the car, the part will just fall off.
---> What is the reason for that?
This is my first post here. I've tried all avenues and can't seem to find a solution. Will any kind soul please help?
I look forward to a Youtube tutorial on this topic in the near future.
Thank you.
John

After a day of research, I found out some of the answers and I am going to answer to my own questions

Rotating wheels when car is accelerating <- for the wheels, add drivers to an empty axis, then move the axis, the wheels should rotate (tested out, it works)
Car skidding, thus front wheels turn left or right (imagine the driver trying to take but control of the vehicle and end up drifting) <- rotate the front wheels on the z-axis via the empty axis in between key frames (haven't test it out, still figuring out how to add drivers on the z-axis)
Car hit an obstacle on the road at high speed and fly off course <- parent the empty axis to a cube, the cube is in the shape of the car, wrapping around the car (tested out. tried hitting the cube together with the car to a stationary pole straight on. not sure why, but upon impact, the pole was absorbed into the cube and car and stayed inside them. the cube and car then kept shaking while the pole is inside of them)
Car Crashing (glass shattered, metal part tented) <- upon impact, manually dent the car and use key shape key function. not sure about shattered glass. perhaps separate the glass parts from the car at the key frame upon impact? I know about cell fracture but not unsure how to make the glass break upon impact. the windscreens are tempered glass, depending on impact, it should either crack or break. (tested out only on denting the car, it works)

It seems like there's no way to add a rigid body onto the car. That is why I have to parent the car to the cube (that is in the shape of the car). Because every time I add a rigid body to the car, those parts that have a rigid body added will just drop onto the ground all over the place. Please let me know if there's a way around it.
Hope someone will be able to help, especially with the cracking of tempered glass and glass shattering part. Windscreen should crack while side and rear windows should shatter. Because every time I try to add a rigid body to the car, everything just fall apart. I will update again if I can find out more.
Have fun crashing.
John


How to get perfect UV sphere Mercator projection? I'm trying to unwrap a UV Sphere and I can't seem to get a perfect Mercator projection. What process should I follow to get a perfect UV unwrap that looks like the black grid lines in this image?:

Update:

Newer versions of Blender now come with a Generate UVs checkbox (that can do as the name says and provides pretty decent maps) when adding a new mesh for most of the objects. Simply access this from the F6 menu or the toolshelf. This option is only available when generating a new object. The layout is below, still not perfect but useful nonetheless .

Add a UV Sphere to the scene and select an edge with AltRMB, next enter Face selection mode and select a face near the edge you marked. Next hit A to select the entire sphere and hit U > Follow Active Quads.

Note the grayed face near the middle of the sphere along the edge, this means that it had been selected before you selected the entire sphere and this is similar to what you should have done.

After unwrapping, you should get a huge UV map in the Image Editor. Transform it as desired, I would recommend aligning one corner of the map to a corner of the image and scaling it via the 2D Cursor.

A perfectly unwrapped sphere sans exponentially spaced UVs which aren't possible unless you tweak the map afterwards or modify the object's geometry.

You might notice a sharp seam near the top of your sphere where the texture stops. This is caused by the geometry of the sphere as the top vertices merge into a single point and the unwrap method basically ignores it.

To fix, just get an edge ring as close as you can to the middle vertex so that it won't be noticeable.


Metaballs and Soft Body? I'm trying to animate tiny paint droplets sliding and merging on a smooth surface. I want them to look semi-realistic so It'd be better If they shook like a less dense jelly.
So Is it possible to add soft body physics to metaballs? Or at least edit the mesh manually in any way?

I am not an expert, but if you can add cloth physics that would help, as you can simulate jelly quite well with a cloth simulation.
Here is a video about using cloth physics to simulate soft-body physics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdIGfANAF7M&ab_channel=SouthernShotty


baking normal maps for games. Smooth shading issues I've been working on some game models lately, and I was wondering if the smoothing shading is gonna be an issue?

I was wondering: do I have to use autosmooth  or sharp edges and make it look better? Because I've seen some people doing that and others don't care about it. What's the right way to proceed for the best result? I'm gonna bake normals and texture the model in substance painter, in case the info is relevant. Obviously, the high poly model shading looks ok after with a subdivision surface modifier.

Hopefully I've been clear!

If you get the bakes that looks good they should be fine. If it's a glossy surface then you can get stair casing in the normals where they are nearly flat since 8-bit reproduces only a limited number of angles. The simplest way is to add hard edges the windows edge to make it perfectly flat.

Triangulate meshes before baking them. Software does not always agree how to split the faces so it's good to make sure you decide.

You should avoid thin triangles. Thin triangles can act as a hard edge since they usually don't get enough pixels to bend where normals changes. Perfectly flat surfaces with no normal changes can handle thin triangles though.

Separate all hard edged faces on separate UV-islands and give them enough margin.
If they are to close they might fight over the pixels. Remember that mip-maps will be in lower resolution.

Align bevels and other details with pixels where possible. Prioritise sharper bevels.

Give detailed areas of your mesh a bit more UV space so the smaller triangles will get what they need.

You can get distortions and other artefacts where the normals bends but I think it's better if you encounter them, figuring out way they appear and how to mitigate them.


2D hack using 3D, Maybe? Your Thoughts required I was thinking, (first of All, I am new to blender), I am making a 2D/3D mobile game in unity, Everything is 2D but I wanted to give off a 3D vibe. For many reason, 3D models( low poly) are readily available, easy to make (for me). I can make low poly 3d models in blender now ( very beginner level).
My Unity game is a platformer game.. But I am confused whether to go for full 2D or Full 3D or somewhere in between. Lets suppose I want a 2D game since 3D is more performance heavy...
Is it possible that I make a model in 3D but slice it in half Since I am always showing only one side of the model. Is it possible that I Make the model in 3d (just as i want) and after making it, Slice the model in half and export it to unity. That will save the tris count etc and would serve the purpose as well as will be an optimization hack aswell.
what do you guys think?

You can.  You could, for example, adopt the view of your camera, relative to the object, select all faces with a big box select, select invert, and delete.  You'll probably need to copy normals from an original copy of your mesh for your new border verts.
Note that this saves you vert count, which saves you performance on the vertex transform part of rendering, where each vertex is transformed from object space to camera space.  But it doesn't really do much (anything?) for fill rate, the actual drawing of faces on the screen, because by default, backfaces will be ignored by your GPU anyways-- they'll get "culled" at an early point in the rendering pipeline.
Vertex transformation is what keeps Counterstrike under 300fps even with a very modern computer at a very low resolution.  Fill rate is what makes a game get slower as you increase the resolution.  They tend to operate roughly in parallel-- that is, if your performance is limited by your fill rate, because you're rendering 30 screen-sized fog planes at 4k, reducing the number of vertices you need to transform isn't going to do much to improve your framerate.
Also, be aware that it's not only the camera that determines which parts of a model you need to expose to the rendering engine.  Faces can be invisible to the camera, but visible to shadowing lights, which means hidden faces can cast shadows on visible faces.  There are other rendering techniques, like mirror planes, that also render from different perspectives.
If you have a fixed camera relative to your objects, both angle and field of view, and all shadowing lights are fixed relative to your objects, and your objects are well-spaced from each other, then you can go one step further, which is to just render your objects and draw them on planes.  If you render a heightmap and a normal map as well as color, and a heightmap from the perspective of your shadowing light(s), you can use these to calculate 3D effects like specular lighting and shadow buffers.
Realistically, that's difficult to do with even a single shadowing light, as if your objects are locked to a single position relative to both your light and camera, they're locked to a single position relative to each other as well.  But without any shadowing lights, and the use of an orthographic camera, or by accepting some error, it's doable.


Cryptomatte - Clean edges blender people, please, does exist a solution to make a clean render pass for ID colors - materials? I want to achieve a same solution like in VRAY - material ID. After that, I want to import it in photoshop for postproduction. But the output in Blender-Cycles- Cryptomatte is very pixelized and not desired quality at all. I read another similar question in this forum and tried do my best. Exactly it was this article: Cryptomatte doesnt output nice clean edges

I tried to change the film Options - but it also destroys the render quality, so you have to render twice and the solution is still not antianalized, so it can´t be comparable with vray.material.id_output at all?!

Is there a way how to make it ?

I also read this article How to achieve a flat colored render pass from material id/index for masking
And for me It does not matter, If I have to use a python script. I just need to get a perfect material Id Image. I tried Cryptommate for object or material picking and exporting. Results with exports are horrible.  It works great only internal. If you export to EXR from blender and import with  EXR_IO, you get lot of layers with alpha masks. Not the one easy colored layer like in VRAY?! This way of work is not possible in the scene with 300 objects.

Last thing could be making any materials emissive and change ID´s. I hope that blender is far away from solutions like this.

I would be happy happy for any advice. Thanks!

It looks like you are trying to use Pick image output as is. This answer explains why you are not supposed to use Pick image output. In short, it is intended only for picking the values, and it is not Cryptomatte mask.
Cryptomatte masks are antialiased and have clean edges but you need the software capable of using them. You can export them from Render Layers with File Output node, or connect to Viewer Node and export each Cryptomatte image manually from Image Editor. In simplest case just exporting Crypto*00 mask will be sufficient (it allows up to 2 object or materials per pixel). If you use real Cryptomatte masks and still get imperfect edges it may help to either render with more samples or to enable Accurate Mode for Cryptomatte in View Layer Properties (only available with Cycles CPU rendering). Fortunately, in most cases Accurate Mode is not necessary.
If you want colored and antialiased mask (so using Matte output alone is not sufficient) but do not want to use real Cryptomatte masks directly, there is a simple solution too.
Create this simple emission material:

You can use Object or Material Index instead of Random. Just use Math node to divide by total number of IDs and the result can be connected to the H input. This way for each ID you will get predictable color if you know total number of IDs.
Then assign the Material in View Layer Properties > Override > Material Override (you may also want to override number of samples, it will control AA quality):

The result is perfectly antialiased mask. You can either use Render Result directly (if you want the mask to include all objects), or use Cryptomatte to limit the mask to specific objects you decided to pick:


Move an edge in line with an empty I have an arbitrary edge that I would like to move so that it is in line with an arbitrary empty (in this case it will cross over the empty):

I assume that I will need to perhaps find the translation matrix of the 'line' representing the shortest distance between the edge and the empty but how would I do that using script?

I think I may have sorted this now using Vector.project.  For the script to work one would need to create a 2 vertex edge and call it line as well as adding an empty that is renamed empty (not Empty):

import bpy
from mathutils import Matrix

empty = bpy.data.objects["empty"]
line = bpy.data.objects["line"]

mw = line.matrix_world
ev = empty.location

# get the two line points in world space
lv0 = mw * line.data.vertices[0].co
lv1 = mw * line.data.vertices[1].co

# get the vector of the line
lv = (lv0 - lv1)

# get the translation between the original line and the line vector
# and apply that to the empty location to get the location of the
# empty relative to the line vector
evt = Matrix.Translation(lv - lv0) * ev

# get the projection of the new empty location onto the line vector
# - `project` gets the perpendicular vector where `evt` intersects `lv`
evp = evt.project(lv)

# get the translation between the projected vector and the empty
tm = Matrix.Translation(evp - evt).inverted()

# now move the line
line.location = tm * line.location

I have created a simple add-on on GitHub to demonstrate the behaviour.


Blender 2.8: How to select edges behind other edges when in numpad 1 mode In a tutorial I am seeing the guy go into 'Mesh Mode' where he is able to select edges behind other edges.

However I am unable to do this in 2.8.

When I select it just selects the closest edge.

To be able to select occluded geometry you must enable the viewport option X-Ray.

Either use the button on the 3D View Header or press access the with Z key Shading Pie Menu > Toggle X-Ray.


Correct skinning is still not deforming my mesh I just skinned a small model and ran into a little problem with that. I skinned with vertex groups, so I applied all vertices that should be deformed by a certain bone to the vertex group "cube_bone". The bone has the same name of course.

When I look in weight paint mode now, everything looks like its supposed to:

When I now want to try a pose, this is what happens:

Actually its correct that the blue spheres are moving, since they are controlled by the childreen of the bone I am trying to skin. But what is wrong with the "cube_bone" ? Or why do the vertices not move at all?

I also found out, at the "Vertex Weight" Toolbar under "deform" there is no bone applied, only under "all".

On the other working bones, the bone is also listed under the "deform" tab

Looks like your bone has the "deform" option unchecked


Exclude pinned vertices from physics simulation I have some meshes that slightly overlap in a couple of places and I'm using Blender's soft body physics to separate the meshes in the places that they overlap.

I use dynamic paint to weight the vertices from one mesh that overlap with the second mesh. These weights are then used for the soft body goal with default 1 so that only the vertices within or close to the other mesh will actually move.

My problem is that the simulations are slow, because they still take into account all of the vertices even when most of them can't move.

So, finally, my question. Is there any way to exclude certain vertices from the physics simulations, so that they will be completely ignored?

Unfortunately this is not possible as I showed here as well. However, this should be possible if you are willing to dig into Blender's source code and figure out how to ignore the calculations done on pinned vertices. If you are willing to do that, you need to look into the code in softbody.c and see where you can make the necessary changes and then recompile Blender to get the desired behavior.

As I explained here Blender's soft body physics solver will go under significant overhaul in the future and doing what you want looks to be definite possibility once the new system has been put in place. This will take a couple of months though.


Cycle Combined bake without AO I have my material setup in blender and want to bake a combined texture (so it includes lighting) but want to bake my AO separately so that the texture can be changed later without blender and the AO applied to it. I tried disabling AO and a few different combined settings but short of pulling my mesh apart (or to different layers) to prevent the AO to be showing, nothing is working.

If I bake combined (tried all type of combinations disabling AO in bake settings and in world tab) I get this which looks great but I don't want the AO (everything but AO):

Only cheat I found was to explode my mesh (or split to different layers) to lower AO like this:

As you can see, the AO isn't showing as much (easier to see on the chain) but I would like it all removed.

Is there any way to prevent any AO to be baked onto the combined image?

After a few hours of trying the wrong things, I figured my glossy shader node was the one casting the AO, so I disabled Glossy in the Object properties tab, down in Cycles Settings / Ray Visibility.

Now baking combined bakes with light effect but no AO.


How to use Camera presets list I have been exploring the camera settings in the object data tab and changed the camera by selecting (say) Galaxy S3 in the button marked camera presets. I am supposing that that changes the 'render camera' from its default to the focal length and sensor size of a Galaxy S3.

If that results in an equivalent focal length of 27mm do I need to do anything with that eg set the View lens in the properties panel to match it? It doesn't look like the latter impacts on the rendered view.
If I change the camera from default to S3 does this mean that if I map an photograph taken with a Galaxy S3 camera, that I have better chance of integrating it with objects I model?

But what is holding me up right now is

Once I have selected a particular camera in object data I cannot find a way back. I tried selecting Blender from the list of cameras but that retains the focal length of the S3 and maybe other parameters. How do I get back to default?

No, the viewport lens only effects the viewport when you are not in camera mode.
Yes, that's the idea.
Add a new camera to the scene. Shift + A -> Camera. Delete the camera. Now, select your original camera and go to the Object Data tab and change the Camera Data to the new camera's data (which is the default).


How to make a high-poly monopoly car piece I'm fairly new to Blender, and I am having some troubles making the iconic car piece from Monopoly:
The part I am having troubles with is the rear of the piece, which can be observed on the left here:
Note how the rear has a sharp edge going down the middle, with the sides being curved. Also, there is the hump near the top as well. If anyone has any ideas on how to model that shape, that would be greatly appreciated! I have inserted the low-poly version that I currently have.

Edit: I finally made it! Thank you to moonboots for your help. I have inserted the "final" result below. Art is truly never done...

Actually the solution depends on your current topology, so you could share your file if you want us to give a try.
If I had to do the back of the car from scratch I would begin with a 8th of a subdivided cube that I would stretch and mirror:

Then I would cut the shape of the outgrowth with the knife tool:

Extrude it:

Move the vertices:

Then retopologize:

For the rear, you can create a new edge loop then again, extrude:

So from your current topology:

I would simplify like that, then follow the same techniques:

According to this article, the original car could have been inspired by an old Kurtis Kraft Midget Racer, while others surmise it could be a 1934 Mercedes Grand Prix W25, a Maserati 8CTF, or an Alfa Romero 158.
In my opinion it's a mix but the Mercedes is pretty close:

The Alpha Romeo:


Reconstructing camera panning movement in 3D view using track data for Loc only The idea is to do exactly what CG Matter did here but instead keep the empty fixed in the global system, and have the camera move.

The camera is basically panning over a surface.

It seems as if the motion tracking preset "reconstruction tab" has only one of the possibilities covered, the camera being stationary, but what if you're trying to reconstruct the camera movement, which is simply an inverse situation.

What happens, when you press the Link Empty to Track buttons is, that an empty gets added with a Follow Track constraint. We can just add this constraint manually to another camera.

Move the active camera to the position of your object.
Duplicate the camera and rename it to Moving Camera.
 RMB select the Moving Camera and ⇧ Shift RMB select the original Camera and direct parent the Moving Camera to the Camera by pressing ⎈ Ctrl⇧ ShiftP > Make Parent without Inverse. The G grab the Moving Camera and move it to the approximate where the object would be in the original Cameras view.
Add the Follow Track constraint to the Moving Camera and set the Camera as the Object and Camera of the constraint. Choose the correct movieclip and track as well.

Then press Constraint To Fcurve on the constraint. This will bake the constraints movement to fcurves, which we can examine in the graph editor.
In the graph editor flip the keys vertically by pressing ⇧ ShiftM > By Values over Value=0.


Import from CAD System Which experiences and hints do you have when it comes to importing data from CAD systems like Siemens NX, SolidWorks, SolidEdge and so forth?

I'm struggeling with this topic for one week now and just found the suitable solution of STL files. This comes with the downside of having tons of triangles where one single face would be sufficient, a huge file size and overall only flat surfaces which looks ugly with round objects e.g. tires.

I just found out after trying a lot of combinations and options today, that NX has a well usable DXF export when it comes to curves and faces. They are even importable to blender as connected real splines. I was kind of astonished.
The downside is...exporting the volume body itself was not not of that charme. The body is made of flat faces and the resolution value is not respected. Whatever one inputs the resolution of the volume body remains constant.

VRML export has a usable resolution/tolerance value input option that works out fine. The wrl file gets imported in blender nicely. Downside: every connected face (all faces are flat) is an extra object. Joining the objects together is necessary. I also experimented with the wrl file in MeshLab and exported it from there to Collada, PLY and CTM files. The compression with CTM worked really well and didn't loose any visable faces or vertices. Also loading went like a charm. Faces as single objects issue remains, though.

The best solution I have found is .FBX.  Tried a lot of others including OBJ but settled on this.

In my case, SolidWorks files opened in Rhino, saved as .FBX, import that into Blender.

There are lots of export options when saving to .FBX in Rhino, had to set Maximum Angle to 2.0 (instead of 1.0) in order to get the rounded surfaces to appear round, and not jagged.


Create island mesh grid with drawn vertices? I am trying to create some terrain, specifically in the shape of an island.

I drew an outline of the island with a single vert. I want to create a mesh so there can be different levels of height on the terrain.

Vertex Outline Example:

What I tried first was using a plane that was subdivided many times and then intersecting the plane with my filled vertex outline with the Boolean modifier. This worked to some extent, however I ended up with a bunch of ngons around the edges of the outline. Secondly, I read here saying to possibly try the grid fill option, but I believe the geometry isn't setup to work with that as it did nothing.

What is a good way to generate a custom shape mesh in the form of an island so that I can apply and shape terrain on the top surface?

Update In Regards to Mr.Zaks Answer
It's importing into Unity 3D as one mesh, but in pieces. This is because Unity 3D has a 64k vert limit. You can correct this by either lowering the vert count or creating tiles of your mesh into 4 pieces. Hopefully this helps someone else in the future!

There are several ways to make that profile with more or less even topology suitable for further landscape editing; one is to use curve's 2D type to fill the outline and then once converted to mesh edit the topology.

On the image below, from left to right:

original outline created as mesh;
outline converted to curve, its Z axis is clamped because it's set up as 2D curve but it's filled with faces;
outline converted to mesh and has 2 modifiers - Solidify and Remesh. The first one to give thickness to the outline as Remesh doesn't work with meshes without any thickness, the second one to generate new topology. Adding thickness is possible without modifier, e.g by extruding curve in the Geometry scroll.

Note that those tiny quads in the corners might not be desired as they can cause problems especially with any kind of subdivisions; it's best to change them before giving outline any thickness.


Link python array to x-position of element I have a python array:

x = [0,0.1, 0.5, .... ,45]

The number of elements in the array equals the number of frames in the scene.

Can I link or upload this array to an objects x-position?

I would love to avoid to loop through all frames and assign the position that way. I am new, therefore I am not sure what is best.

You can do it with something like that (the code is commented, so I think it is clear):

import bpy
from mathutils import Vector

scene = bpy.context.scene

# Get the object
obj = bpy.context.object

# Define first frame and frame step
frame = 0
frame_step = 10

# Your x positions array
x_positions = [0,0.1, 0.5, 0.7]

# Loop over positions
for x in x_positions:

    # Set the current frame
    scene.frame_set( frame )

    # Assign the location
    obj.location.x = x

    # Insert a key frame (replaces old one for this data path)
    obj.keyframe_insert( data_path = 'location' )

    # Go to next frame
    frame += frame_step


Beginner: black polygons while texturing I'm trying to texture just a standard cube but some of it's polygons remain untextured (black). Here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfaxOVjdIqc

What I'm doing wrong?
Thanks

You are using the Blender Internal (BI) rendering engine, which is not physically based and thus does not interact with light realistically (as it's physically-based counterpart Cycles does).

The polygons are not actually black, they simply have no light falling on them (BI doesn't have the capacity to compute correct environment or bounce lighting). Try adding more lamp objects to the scene to illuminate the different sides of the cube, or simply drag the current Point lamp around.

Alternatively, it is recommended that you use Cycles as your main render engine, not only for the realistic benefits that it adds but because the BI engine will no longer be included (or supported) in the upcoming 2.8 release.


render only composite So this may be a noob question, but I've got a video set up with nodes, and I go to render, but blender makes 2 passes, one is the scene (which had been previously used for smoke simulation but doesn't have anything in it now) and then the compositor. It slows it down a lot, and I can't find anything online about how to only render one part of the blender project, wether it be the 3D scene, the node compositor, or the VSE. Help please?

Delete the renderlayer node from the node setup, and then blender won't render the 3D scene.

If there is anything in the VSE or the compositor,  by default blender will prioritize rendering it over rendering the scene unless you explicitly disable it in the render settings:

If use nodes is enabled, then blender will only render the 3D if it's needed for the composite. (i.e. there is a renderlayer node using the scene as input)


How to control the number of particles with a custom slider I define have defined an IntProperty, like so:

bpy.types.Scene.mycount_particles = bpy.props.IntProperty(
    name = "particle count",
    default = 300,
    min =0,
    max=10000,
    description = "Short description of your prop, to show in the popup"
    )

And the I put it in my Panel (Hello Word Panel)

row.prop(context.scene, "mycount_particles", slider=True)

But now,  I need my slider to update number of particles, using a Python script itself and not drivers.  How can I do this?

Add an update function to your property which would be called whenever you change the that property :

def update_particles(self, context):
    bpy.data.particles['ParticleSettings'].count =bpy.context.scene.mycount_particles

bpy.types.Scene.mycount_particles = bpy.props.IntProperty(
    name = "particle count",
    default = 300,
    min =0,
    max=10000,
    update = update_particles,
    description = "particles number of the first particle system"
    )


How to turn off computer after rendering? What is the easy way to turn off the computer automatically after blender completed a render* and saving that render?

My computer is not a monster, that would be helpfull so i can render at night

The Alarm and Shutdown add-on can be used.

Alternatively, you can render your scene from the command line, and then add a command to shutdown after it completes (or fails).

On Windows this would be something like:

"C:\path\to\blender.exe" -b "C:\path\to\your file.blend" -a && shutdown -t 0 -s -f


How come my mirror modifier messes up when I apply subdivision? Ok, when I applied my subsurf modifier my mirror modifier messes up... how can I fix this?

Here is the mesh before I applied the subsurf modifier.

The order of stack modifiers is very important. When you apply the Subsurf Modifier the result will be as if it was first in the stack.
The solution is to apply the Mirror Modifier first and then Subsurf Modifier.
If you still want mirror modifier then you can delete half of the mesh and add the modifier again.


Need Help figuring out Autimatic Weight Painting Working (slowly) on my first character rig.  In Blender 2.79 I was able to generate a rig using the Rigify Cat(Meta_Rig).  I added thumbs to each paw by copying the adjoining finger.  The wing bones were added with the basic_super.copy from the Rigify Buttons in the Metarig properties pulldown.  After a bit of trial and error Rigify generated what looks to be a usable rig for the figure.  Time to move on to weight painting.  I would like to use Automatic Weight Painting to start out, though I know a lot of hand painting will also be needed to get it all working right.  Grabbing my main mesh and then the metarig in Object Mode before hitting Ctrl-P and selecting With_Automatic_Weights generates the error Error "Bone heat weighting: failed to find solution for one or more bones".  Checking everything in the mesh I can think of I'm guessing it might have to do with the wings being outside the main mesh.  I understand it should be possible to apply Automatic Weight Paints from a few bones to the mesh at a time.  Say a leg or the spine.  After several days of reading files and watching tutorials I am only more confused than when I started and do not even have a start to a weight map.
Any help that can be offered will be much appreciated.

BLEND FILE

The problem lies in the front feets, if you separate them (P, in edit mode) the rest can be weighted automatically. As you know, there will be a lot of manual adjusting needed, and some topology seems not good for smooth deforming. In such complicated models, I generally prefer to use the "with empty groups" parenting option, then select one vertex group afther the other, and manually paint (or assign) its weight.

Anyway, it works!


Apply displacement to a video? Has anyone come across a method to apply displacement to videos? When I import the video it comes in as an empty and doesn't provide me with the option to use any modifiers. I would like to apply displacement that changes as the video progresses. If anyone can point me to some resources, it would be greatly appreciated!

Niko

In your preferences, make sure you enabled the "Import images as planes" add-on

Go to Add (or SHIFT + A ) > Image > Images as Planes

Then choose your video.

Add your modifiers :

Set some keyframes and play.


Backdrop doesn´t work/ image won´t show up (for compositing) Hello, i am in the last part of the blenderguru-tutorial.
I want to use compositing in order to change the final image.
The problem is backdrop won´t let the image appear in the background
of the node-editor. The only hint i have is as follows: in the video it appears that andrew used "Last: Link Nodes". I don´t know what that exactly means...

You will need to shift-A add a Viewer node and connect your image/renderlayer node to the Viewer as well as your Composite. At the bottom header, tick the option for 'Backdrop' like you have, and the image should show up in the background of the node editor.


How to achieve screen tearing effect or video glitches I do not know at all what this effect is called, therefore I cannot search for the answer on the web. I am referring to the thing where the RGB color will shift individually when the camera jitters/move

So, how can I achieve this sort of effect in blender? and for future reference, what is this effect called?

This can be done in compositing with a displace node driven by a texture.

1st, let's see the basics.
In the node editor, select compositing and backdrop.

Now add a displace node (shift+A to open the menu or click "add")

link it to the image and to a viewer node (Ctrl+Shift+Click on the displace node) and you can move the image on X and/or Y with the X/Y scale values. Nothing really interesting yet.

Now we want to control where this effect will affect the image. This can be done with a texture.

In the properties panel, go to texture tab and click "new"

change the type to blend

and the blend to vertical

Now back in compositing, add an input/texture node and choose your blend texture

The outputs are Value and Color. Value is the alpha, color is...the color :)
Now plug the color output to displace's X Scale intput. You'll se a very small effect.

We now need to control the power of the effect.
Add a Converter/math node and change it to multiply. Connect the Texture-Color output to the 1st math input and the math output to Diplace-X Scale. Change the math value to 20 and you'll see something like that.

Some explainations :
The texture is black in the bottom, white in the top. Black means no effect, white means full effect (from 0 to 1). AFAIK, 1 is a 1 pixel displacement so the math node multiplies this by 20, what means 20 pixels.

Now let's play with the texture.
go back to the properties panel in texture tab. In color, check Ramp.

also chage the interpolation to constant (allows TV line/pixel effect).

We won't use alpha, all we will change here is the BW value of the colors and add/move color stops (with the "+" above the ramp). Let's do something like this :

and see the effect

This is what we want : we can displace some parts of the image (controled by the texture) and change the power of the effect with the math node (0=no effect, can also be negative). The the value in the math node can be animated.

This is the basic. We can do something more interesting.
1st, let's correct the hole created with the displace.
Add a Color/mix node, click use alpha and plug the displace output to the 2nd color input of the mix node. The 1st color input can be any color you want, or a texture/image and will replace the holes alpha.

As this is a bit long and the basics are covered and (hopefully) understood, let's see how we can achieve the effect on RGB. We could use 3 different textures but we'll do this with 1, controling the displacement of each color.
Go back to the properties/texture tab. The texture will now use RGB values to control the image RGB displacement.

Add as many color stops as you want, change their R G B values. I'll use this :

Back in compositing, we need to separate RGB colors from the image AND the texture, use the texture's RGB to control displace of each image channel and combine them back. This is the complete node setup :

The math value can be changed/animated separately or you can plug an Input/value node to control them all.
You can also use 2 (or more) textures with separate displaces and animate a color mix node to control wich one is used.
You can use the texture's alpha to control another displace plugged to Y Scale.


Why does my mesh keep breaking [![enter image description here][2]][2]When I watch tutorials I follow them as well as I possibly can but my mesh always ends up breaking.
Example the faces overlap vertices instead of being multiple faces, faces overlap them selves and kind of flicker like there taking up the same spaces.
Some of my mesh also ends up with vertices where they should be like they auto connect to another location

I'm not sure what tutorial you're following, but I think I see what happened.  It looks like you selected the opposing faces, then extruded them along the Y axis by pressing E and then Y like so:

Which has the unintended effect of squishing the far face inside the cube, since both are moving in the same direction. Which causes the overlapping mesh you're struggling with.
What you're probably wanting to do is extrude the two faces away from each other.  For this you'd press E to extrude, then S to resize them, and Y to still restrict it to the Y axis:

Or alternatively you could extrude just one of the faces with E and then Y, repeating as needed:


MMD Textures missing vertices after importing i am using the MMD_tools plugin for Blender 2.83 and I am having difficulty with missing vertices of the textures after importing a .pmx file. See the below images for examples of this. I have seen similar problems online, but the solution is still not clear. Rendered in Cycles.

There are issues with the vertices in your models.
First, I would recommend Removing Doubles and Recalculating Normals.
Select all vertices, merge vertices by distance (M > By Distance or Right-Click > Merge Vertices > By Distance), and recalculate normals (F3 > "Recalculate Normals")
If that didn't work, try Clearing Custom Split Normals Data
Select all vertices, press F3 and search for (F3 > "Clear Custom Split Normals Data")
Let me know if this helps. :)


How to get to face select mode in Blender? How I get in face select mode in Blender?

For those who are in the newer Blender versions (this is for 2.81), here's where the buttons changed to:

In a 3D Viewport editor, make sure you're in edit mode (usually by pressing Tab). The new icons will be in the upper left corner, just before the editor's menu bar.


Blender 2.80 Cycles light wont render Download Project - BlenderScene100.blend - Blender 2.80

I was playing around with blender 2.80 when I made the scene above, whenever I render lights just disappear, I can't show you what its supposed to look like as whenever I take a screenshot the lights disappear -

I have no idea why this is happening, any help?

I don't see any problem in your file, except that the light sources are really dim. If you look closely in your screenshot, you can even see a faint reflection. Note that you have volumetric scattering on, which will make things dimmer than they would be otherwise.

Things you can try:

Increase the emission strength of the spot lamp (a lot, for some reason spot lamps tend to be dimmer).
Increase the emission strength of the emission shader on Cylinder.001.
Increase the emission size of the spot lamp. This won't make it brighter, but it will help it converge faster.
Increase the exposure in Properties > Render > Color Management.


Subdivision surface modifier error I'm having issues with my object with the subdivision surface modifier. I can't seem to find what I'm doing wrong. It creates overlapping faces that I can't edit.

You are probably in this situation:

The problem is due to the ngons surrounding the hole: they are not easily processed by the subsurface modifier, so you need to change them into quads.

Enter edit mode
Set mesh select mode to "face" CtrlTab
Select the ngons
Triangulate CtrlT
Make quads AltJ (reselect and redo it as needed)
There is some glitches at the corner
So surround the hole CtrlR
And adjust the position of the surrounding section


Animation Not Rendering all the Way Through I have several cameras that each take over at some point during the animation. While rendering, the last camera doesn't render; only the first one does.

I thought maybe it would be because I can only have a limited number of cameras, so to make a test, I erased the first. However, the last one still does not work.

I am using the VSE for post processing.

OP's answer to the question that was originally an edit.

I solved the problem! I'll leave it here if anyone needs the help.

The problem was that in the VSE, the scene I used initially lasted only 700 frames. Later, I added more animation to the scene, but did not lengthen the VSE Scene strip.


How to reduce face/poly count for characters while keeping quads? I really hope this is possible, I've made some characters for a game but the face/poly count is way too high as in like 10 times too high, I have tried using the decimate tool to fix it but one it still leaves quite a lot of faces even if I put it to 0.1, two it makes it triangles instead of quads and it also makes it look very bad.

Is there any way to reduce the amount of faces my characters have by a huge amount without using the decimate tool?

The "standard" procedure is Retopology:

using both the "snap onto surfaces" function and/or the shrinkwrap modifier you will build a new mesh projecting vertices onto the charcter you already made.

In this way you can control the amount of vertices and distribuite them exactly where you need them, following good edgeflows and avoiding triangles and N-gons.

If the new LoPoly character still misses some important details you can bake a normal map using the "selected to active" function, so that the missing details will be reproduced by the heghts illusion of the normal map texture.


Smoothing out mesh with holes I am making holes in my mesh to put tubes inside. The problem is that it doesnt work well with subsurf. I know one way to fix it but it changes the shape too much. I have made a video to show what i am doing. Hopefully some can provide diferent ways to do it. I have tried boolean mod but it turns out the same way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28U5_XMF5dE

A couple of things you could do differently that will help...

Apply Rotation & Scale before going into Edit Mode. That will keep your use of the Looptools > Circle from creating ovals.
Add an extra vertical edge loop in the middle of each section where you plan to put the holes.
Add an extra horizontal edge loop that cuts across all three hole areas.
THEN start doing the extrude/scale operation(s), followed by use of Looptools > Circle to create the holes.

Doing it this way will give you eight-sided holes which work out better in the long run.


What is the official name for this icon/button? What is the official name for this button/icon:

It's found in many places throughout Blender:

I can't find it anywhere in the manual.

If you know, can you please cite the source for your information (i.e. a page from the Blender Manual) because I'd like to read about it.

Thanks!

Andrew Price called it "Dot Symbol" button:

http://youtu.be/xYiiD-p2q80?t=8m58s

I would call the particular ones you show "Node Material Properties Dropdown Buttons" to be honest. I'm not sure why a differnet icon is used here, using a symbol not "universaly understood" like Andrew said.


Can't Select Bones or Bone Tips in Edit Mode I recently downloaded Blender 2.8 and began working on a new model in this new version of Blender. I'm creating a skeleton for the mesh, but I'm unable to select the bones, or bone tips, in edit mode (not pose mode) to extrude from or move around. The only thing that works is clicking around the bone tip of the base bone, and doing that goes through selecting the bones in order of their hierarchy on the armature.

I'm not sure if it's just me, if there is an option I need to change, or if this is just a new change added to Blender, which is not a very effective new way way to go around edit bones within an armature.

Had the same problem because I was following an old tutorial but the only way I could find was to be in edit mode when adding bones to keep one Amature hierarchy
Hope that helped?


Why I can't select the vertices of both my objects? I've created two objects (according to a tutorial) and I would want to select the upper vertices of the lower object and the lower vertices of the upper object in order to create a bridge between them but even though I can select both objects in Object mode (with Shift+LMB - only like this I can select them) only the first one selected can be modified. In the following picture I've selected both objects but only one can be modified:

What should I do in order to create the bridge between the two objects?

Blender only allows us to edit one object at a time (2.80 will add the ability to edit multiple objects). By having your mesh in different objects you need to edit them separately.

One option is to join the objects and edit them as one ⎈ CtrlJ. After you have finished you can separate them again if you wish with P and choosing by selection or loose parts.

Another option is to use snapping to align the verts of one object with the verts of another.


Render always displaying as completely white? I've been working on a Physics simulation (standard one shown by blender guru) and i decided to completely texture the scene and put in lights and a background (the background consists of a coloured plane placed just behind all the objects in the scene. But just as everything is complete and in place, (with the physics converted to an animation) just as I go to render, every image is completely white (I have tried going to different frames to confirm it is uniform). The materials on the objects are fine, it looks as if an overlay has been put on the scene (as no objects or light is visible).

Steps I have tried:

Delete the camera and replace it with a new one
Change the settings of the camera
Change the emission strength of the lights
Change the colour of the lights
Change the positioning and distance from the objects of the camera
Confirm that in the "rendered" viewport it renders just fine
Confirm that the camera is at the right angle and view
Delete the "background" plane and change its colour
Delete the "background" and 3-point light planes
Confirm that all nodes are linked in the object materials
Adding and changing scene and render layers

None of these have made a difference in any way, manner, shape of form, what am i doing wrong? Here is my .blend file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByrVExzCnPwYNDM3Z3NEZGxzSGc

You are looking at the Depth pass
I think you are just looking the wrong render pass (or at least, not the one you were expecting to see).
In the image editor menu's tab there's a field where you can control which one of the render passes you set up for the render layer should be shown.
The Combined pass it's probably what you are expecting to see, but currently you set the filed to Depth.

You just have to switch it back as shown in the image sequence above.
If you are wandering why the Depth pass (also called z-pass, or z depth pass....) is all white, I'll suggest to read this related question:
Z depth pass in Cycles, rendering white


Quick way to add Bump node This is what i got but how it works can anybody explain me.

Node wrangler auto texture setup

This is my image below

Is there any quick way to add a bump node. With press 1 click it should set the nodes and just can add the images in the position. Like a macro or any addon just press 1 click and it set all bump nodes and i have to just drop the images in that. Im having 75 buildings and i want to add all of them the bump so always i have to select the material add 5-6 nodes so if there is a quick way. Any suggestion or help. Thanks

or

Activate the Node Wrangler Addon.

With the sphere unwrap

Click on add material with the selected default material just change the diffuse material to Principled BSDF.

Before u go to next step u must save the image with the name (normal, spec, Ambient, disp.) Note : without name it will not work so just the normal name should be to the images so that addon find out correctly.

With the Principled BSDF Node Selected Press Ctrl+Shift+T

A window target select the file which are saved with the name

Click ok and render


Blender won't let me set the path to Mcell or Python I'm getting an error that there's a file/permissions error while setting the path to blender. I was able to download mcell as a gz file. But it wouldn't let me map it. I was also unable to gunzip the file in terminal. It showed that the file exists but when I try to gunzip it an error message comes up. I am not sure what I'm doing wrong.

Try removing the extra .gz extension in your gunzip mcell-3-3_osx_intel.gz command. It looks like gunzip is trying to find your file by appending a .gz extension after you specify the filename.

That being said, the permissions error you're getting is probably not the same thing that's preventing you from using gunzip in the terminal. You can actually change the permissions of the file using the chmod command, but it might be easier to just follow the change file permissions instructions on a Mac that's a little less risky if you're not how to use chmod in the terminal just yet. Make sure you're setting the permissions to "Read & Write".


Are features from Blender daily builds typically in next release? I have a script which is not working on Blender 2.69, but it works fine on the latest build from builder.blender.org/download. Perhaps they tweaked something in how rigid body simulations are baked to keyframes.

Should I expect my script to work with the next Blender release?

In other words, do the daily builds have experimental features which will be removed or is it typically just features that are planned to be included with the next release?

Yes they will typically be in the next release.

There's a Variation column on the builder download page, if it's Official, then it's build straight from current master branch.

Features available in these official builds will typically be in the stable releases, although there are rare exceptions when a feature may be disabled (if its not ready) or removed.

It's a new feature, but still under heavy development. It is supposed to be initially released in 2.70. But the current release cycle has been streched a lot already, and people may eagerly wait for other things to be available in a stable release. So the developers may decide to do a release soon. They post-pone the tabs for 2.71, to let them mature, and not throw them in an unfinished state at the users.

If you rely on certain features in an addon for example, and want to ensure compatibility with the next stable release, I would wait for the first Release Candidate (expect 2.70 RC1 at the end of February). If nobody finds bugs in the RC, it will become the stable release. Otherwise there will be another or even a third RC, until all show-stopper problems are solved. Hence, all features of the RC will be in the stable release (functional changes are not allowed in this phase).


Rendering images instead video encoding I have added an image sequence to the VSE and set the output at Quick time movie. When I click Animation then Blender starts rendering the first image instead the video encoding. Why is this happening ?

Most likely you need to enable the sequencer in the post processing settings (found in the render context of the properties window).


UV Unwrap End of a Pipe I have a pipe-like mesh that I need to unwrap so that it'll accept a brick texture. The sides of the pipe are easy. My problem is trying to figure out a way to unwrap the ends so that I can have a single row of brick texture continue around radially.

Okay, not an easy thing to say with words. How about a picture...

I used the grease pencil to give an idea of how the desired unwrap will look.

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

Select the end faces, hit U button to unwrap and select Reset from the menu.
Hit U button again and chose Follow Active Quads.
Scale and move the unwrapped faces in the UV/Image editor to desired location.


Disable translation for rigid body? I have a rigid body with translations and rotations. I want to disable any translations completely. How can I achieve that?

As mentioned by eromod, you can lock the transformations in the (n) properties shelf.

Another (Less good) idea: You can set the Translation Damping under Rigid Body Dynamics to 1, but this still allows the object move a little bit.


How do you set the rendering size? How do you size the camera to fit the size needed on the youtube channel art? It says it's too small when I upload the image. I need to make the camera at least 2048 x 1152 pixels. It would be nice to have it at 2560 x 1440 pixels though. I tried the other questions, but it didn't make it any wider than it was before. The Y and X values under Resolution in Dimensions Under Render Settings just made the camera taller.

Set the desired size for the rendered scene in Scene->Dimensions->Resolution:

Then render using F12 and save the resulting image


Plank texture in mesh I am modelling a wooden house and I'm having some trouble modeling the outside of the house which is covered in vertically aligned planks.
I have tried using the displacement map from a downloaded texture but it doesn't really work. I think the easiest way would be to model the mesh with loop cuts and then extrude every other surface to make a kind of plank texture.
But the problem here is the top of the house is a triangular prism and I can't figure out how to get the loop cuts to align vertically... Any thoughts and ideas?

Instead of cutting each plank (which you can do, depending on the level of realism that you want to give to your object) you could use your image to create a bump map, so that it creates a bit of 3D feeling:

Seam your object:

Unwrap:

Create a height map from your current wood plank picture, with a soft like Crazy Bump or with a site like this one :

Create this kind of node setup, plug the Bump node into the Normal input socket of the Principled BSDF:

Here is what it gives:

Once you've done that you can still create additional edge loops and move the planks the way you want, or even extrude, cut holes, etc:


How to fill spaces left between curved roads I made roads with beveling curve in the geometry section. It works perfect for straight lines but whenever the road is curved it breaks up int smaller straight roads which do not join from edge to edge.

I want it to be a perfect curved road. Help!

I tried making a road doing the following and it worked fine.

Create a curve for your road. Create a plane and in edit mode hit X and then “only faces”. Next convert the plane to a curve.

Finally, go into the curve for the road and set the bevel object to a the Plane curve.

This worked for me, so I hope it helps!


how to get an empty for an object to move with the object? I have done a couple of tutorials to do with simple car models animated in the rigid world. What I have noticed is that empties associated with the moving objects, like wheels and the car body stay where they are while the objects move off. You then see a long dashed line stretching from the empty to wherever the object is.

Shouldn't empties for moving objects move with their objects? Is there a way to make those kind of empties travel with their objects? I have just thought of turning off the visibility of empties, which makes things look better but can anyone comment on my query. In rendering they would disappear anyway I know.

Select all the objects and the empties you want to move together and click Ctrl+J. You Group the objects and they move together.


Exporting render image into Photoshop and still get material distortions Apologies if this question has already been asked.  I'm completely new to Blender and I want to use it to create 3D objects for compositing in Photoshop.

I don't know if this is even possible but here goes.  I've created a basic model that has arms and legs.  I've set it to be transparent so it looks like glass in Blender.  With another object behind my model you can see the distortion this glass material creates.

I open the blender file (.3ds) in Photoshop which treats it as a 3D object.  Doesn't look pretty to begin with.  What I notice straight off is that a photo  I drop in behind my 3D object layer isn't distorted at all.

Does anyone know if this it's possible to have 3D objects distort a 'normal' photo layer in Photoshop?

No need to take the 3D to photoshop. Bring the image to blender instead.

Go to user preferences (Ctrl ALt U)
Enable the import images as planes addon.

On the 3D viewport you can add images as plane (ShiftA).
Then select the *psd (PNG, Tiff, JPEG, etc) image you want to import.


How can I display only one camera view option in a custom pie menu? pie.operator_enum("VIEW3D_OT_viewnumpad", "type") - this gives list of views.
 I want only one "camera" button , not all from the enum (front, left, right etc.). How can I do it?

bpy.ops.view3d.viewnumpad(type='CAMERA') - this isn't right.

pie.operator("VIEW3D_OT_viewnumpad").type='CAMERA' - this is right


Is there a quick way to copy the Object Name to the Mesh Data Name? I like to keep my scenes clean. Much of my Blender life is spent naming an object, copying the name and pasting the same object name into the mesh data name. Is there a quick way of doing this (or an add-on out there) where I can name a single-user mesh and the mesh data will be replaced with the same name?

My answer is a tip rather than a true solution, but it may save your time a bit. Instead of copying and pasting you may just click on the object's icon and drag it to the mesh datablock window.


Ctrl + T doesn't work I usually used Ctrl+T for my Texture Setup, but it doesn't work.
I enabled my node-wrangler-add-on, but nothing changed.

I already googled for a whole while but didn't find anything helpful.

The ctrl+t key binding is not used for texture setup in the latest version of blender (2.79b). You will need to set it up manually.


I can't animate my Shape keys Hi if i link a character to a new scene the shape keys and the object data tab aren't available anymore.

How can i animate my Shape keys like the eye blink in a linked blender scene?

You mast create a driver to the Shape key mix value for manipulating this value from a Armature.

In Shape keys click on Value of your Shape key and select Add Driver -> manually create later. Or press Ctrl + D while hovering value slider by mouse. Driver will be violet:

Next in Graph editor - select Drivers mode:

On N -> Drivers panel setup driver like this:

Finally, check, can you manipulate shape key by moving bone in Pose mode?

And at last, in new scene press Ctrl + Alt +P -> select armature object. It will creates a local copy of armature, and you will be able to manipulate the bone, that control your Shape key.


What's the order of constraint evaluation among multiple objects? I've seen that Blender will evaluate the constraints in a stack from top to bottom. That's a very clear definition.

But in what order does Blender evaluates multiple constraint stacks? I've not found any explanation on that topic yet.

For example, I have A/B/C 3 cubes, all have a copy-position constraint to limit only Z position. And they form a constraint cycle (A->B, B->C, C->A)
I can see in blender that, no matter how I try to move them on Z axis, none of them would move a bit.

Could someone who understands the blender implementation help to clarify this part? or just point me to some code/docs on this?

Any help is appreciated,

The problem not the order of the constraints as much as the cyclic dependency between your objects' constraints. Blender even warns against it in the system console (in Windows, open through the menu Window > Toggle System Console):

Let's see What is happening when you have a dependency cycle of this kind of constraint. First it's best noting that generally, when you add a copy location constraint to an object, you can no longer set the constrained object's location manually. It will get its location values ONLY from the target object.

Let's say we started with these Z positions:

A = 5
B = 3
C = 0

When we add a copy location constraint form A --> B, A will move to from 5 to 3 since its copying its location from B.

A = 3
B = 3
C = 0

Now let's add another constraint from B --> C.
B moves from 3 to 0, and since A is copying its location from B, A also moves to 0 (this is the same as if both A and B copied their location directly from C).

A = 0
B = 0
C = 0

Currently the only non-constrained cube is C, so you can still move it wherever you want, and the other two will follow it wherever it goes.

But now you add another constraint, from C --> A.
A has a value of 0, which it copies from C. C has a value of 0, which it will now copy from A. Since all cubes are now constrained, you can no longer set their location manually, due to the copy location constraint taking over. And since both A and C have 0, and B copies its location from C, all are stuck in 0 forever and ever ;-)

Bottom line, cyclic dependencies are a bad idea, and if you add a Copy Location Constraint to an object, you can no longer control its location manually.


Painting on mesh doesn't work I can't paint on mesh, but can in uv/image editor. I believe I saw solution long time ago and cant find it anymore. Also everything work with new blend file. I probably pressed something and can figure it out what. Its not face masking.

So as @moonboots pointed, the problem was that in "Texture paint mode" ToolShelf>Slots>Mask checkbox was enabled. It must be unchecked in order to draw on mesh itself.


VSE audio playback problem in 2.80 I have several meta-strips with lots of sound strips in each. I want to edit one of these meta-strips, but when I playback the meta-strip from inside, Blender still plays all sounds from all other meta-strips.
I decided to mute all meta-strips except from the current, but it did't help. Sounds are playing from all strips, even from muted off. Even if I mute all of the strips, sound is still playing (video behaves as expected, though).
In 2.79 it works just fine.
What happened in 2.80? Is it a bug or I missed some tiny option?

Sound like a bug you should report. Remember to mention that it worked correctly in 2.79.


Custom cycles math function I have created a material with several math nodes, and I think it would be much easier if I could just write my own function in Python which would take some values and produce the output I want.

Is there a way to do that? I checked the script node, but it looks like it's more to define custom shaders only...

No

Unfortunately there's currently no Eval / Custom math node for Cycles as described in the question. Unless it's an OSL definition it has to be pre-compiled. Look through the OSL examples, you might find that it is capable of doing at least some of what you want.

See the specs: https://github.com/imageworks/OpenShadingLanguage/blob/master/src/doc/osl-languagespec.pdf

And suggested reading: Understanding the Cycles 'Script' node

But..

Node trees can be scripted and groups can too. I imagine it is possible, with sufficient willpower, to write a script or addon that translates a (Python like) expression with variables into a node-group with inputs and outputs. Perhaps something like:

# {materialname: material.001, groupname: NodeGroup}
sockets = {inputs: [var1, var2, var3], outputs: [var4]}
theta = var1 / 300
gamma = sin(theta * var2)
var4 = gamma * var3

and to the outside world that would look like a single node.

To make a useful implementation is not a trivial thing, but it could move away from pure python syntax to a more domain specific syntax to provide more convenience for specifying the types of inputs and outputs (Vector, Color, numeric..).


Is there an easy way to re-import / re-append image files in a large quantity? My rather (as of recently common) problem is the following:

Every time I download 3d-asset-packs like the ones you can find on Kitbash3D for instance, the image textures are all un-linked in each shader (even though I haven't changed the relative location or name of any image-file).

With "un-linked" I don't mean the nodes in the shader being disconnected, I mean the fact that I have to re-import / re-open every single image file in every image texture node within each shader to get the desired look. As you can see below, all the image-texture-nodes have the correct file-names already added (i.e. the used to be linked), but they only show once i re-open those files.

Manually re-linking all the files usually isn't a problem (although it is rather time-consuming)... at least it wasn't. But this particular 3d-asset-set comes with minimum 100 textures (see below) and re-opening all of those files manually would just be an absolute abominable waste of time.

Now to the question:
Is there an easy way I can re-link all of these image-files?
Maybe some sort of automatic recognition of file-names needed in other nodes, once I re-open one file (similar to what after effects can do)?
Is there something I can do in the .blend file to re-append all the images?

Nevermind, found the answer:

Issue solved by clicking on file > external data > find missing files and navigating to the folder with the textures.


How do I do I unwrap from a point of view? How do I unwrap this object from my point of view, so that is perfectly aligned with the mesh behind it?

As you can tell in the following image, I tried my best to position it myself, but took a long time to get it how it looks. Any tricks or tips?

Thanks for your time.

///
Edit: I was told I missed some details so here some more
https://i.gyazo.com/45f9298ce16cfe784d6f30ebdf7e1df2.png
You See this tiny cube that out of line with the mesh behind it we will call the mesh behind it mesh1 and the tiny cube that out of line mesh2
///
So I want mesh2 uvmap to be aline with mesh1 uv map perfectly without affecting mesh1 uvmap I hope this make since
thank you for your time once again

You can try this:

Select your objects and go to edit mode
Select all faces of the both objects and switch to Top view
From the menu select UV -> Project From View
Switch to object mode and create a material for one of the objects
Add your texture to the material
Make sure you create a Texture Coordinate node and connect the UV slot to the Vector slot of your image texture.
Apply the same material to the other object.

Edit:

This was added to the question:
"I don't want to affect the plane UV map"

In this case you can use the Data Transfer modifier on your Cube to transfer the UVs form the Plane to the Cube (I used a Torus instead, it's a bit more visible)

Position the Cube somewhere above the Plane
Use Data Transfer modifier on the Cube
In the modifier settings as the Source select your Plane
Check Face Corner Data with Nearest Face Interpolated settings
Click on UVs
You might need to click Generate Data Layers

For the Data Transfer modifier to work properly you will need more edges/subdivision on your Plane.
If you don't apply the modifier you can move your Cube and the UV data will adapt to the new position.


Is there a way to add objects to an empty group? I think it is a special case. If I remove objects form a group that group still exists without objects. So I can add objects to that group via Properties / Object / Groups / Add to Group button. The list will show the name of the existing groups so I can add object to one by one.

So the question: how can I add more than one objects to an empty group (not one by one)?

Select your objects you want to add to the empty group and run Python script:

import bpy

group_name = "James Bond"
for o in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    bpy.data.groups[group_name].objects.link(o)


How to boolean with non manifold geometry? (note : my understanding of manifold is that the object is solid, closed. Tell me if I'm wrong)

I'm working in an industry. I use Blender to adapt ingeniery/simplify CAD 3D models of a power plant for making virtual tour. Part of this work is about making a cut in the plant (like a cake you cut a part to see the inside).

The 3D models are very complex and requires a lot of work to be manifold (because the CAD software we use makes ugly 3D, with disconected faces and the vertices rarely are where they should be). I don't have the time to make all of them manifold (a power plant is a lot of machines...).

If no error of me, Blender Boolean requires Manifold geometry, and I can't always have it. So to boolean-cut I'm stuck in using 3DSmax where there is the « Boolean » tool, which accept non-manifold geometry (edit: but just cut, it doesn't create new faces).

It's a pain to switch between 2 3D softwares, and I would like to continue using Blender. Is there a way in blender to cut non-manifold geometry?

I will demonstrate my approach on Suzanne so that it is a bit more complex than say, a cube.

Setup the "knife cutter". For this I use a simple mesh with 3 vertices. Notice that the cursor is set to the pivot point for easy rotation control.

Perform the knife project.

Clean up the cut out vertices. Notes: use wireframe mode so the selection goes "through" the mesh, don't select the verts along the cut line...just the ones inside.


Scripting: silence all nested audio metastrips I'm finishing an edit and it has lots of different audio sources. I have been a bit messy and there's layers of metastrips containig both audio and video. I need to silence all audio inside all metastrips and keep ON all audio outside metastrips..

Selecting one by one would be a literal nightmare. Is there a way to script it with python maybe? I have no practice coding in blender..

Thanks in advance.

This selects all sound strips in meta strips and mutes them

import bpy
context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene
se = scene.sequence_editor
sounds_in_meta_strips = [s for ms in se.sequences_all if ms.type == 'META'
               for s in ms.sequences if s.type == 'SOUND']

for s in sounds_in_meta_strips:
    # mute the sound
    s.mute = True

Extended to append a toggle button to the Sequencer Header.

import bpy
from bpy.props import BoolProperty

def mute(self, context):
    se = self.sequence_editor
    sounds_in_meta_strips = [s for ms in se.sequences_all if ms.type == 'META'
               for s in ms.sequences if s.type == 'SOUND']

    for s in sounds_in_meta_strips:
        # mute the sound
        s.mute = self.mute_meta_strips

def draw_button(self, context):
    scene = context.scene
    layout = self.layout
    layout.prop(scene, "mute_meta_strips", toggle=True)

bpy.types.Scene.mute_meta_strips = BoolProperty(name="Mute Sounds in Metas", default=False, update=mute)
bpy.types.SEQUENCER_HT_header.append(draw_button)


Why are my vertices being mirrored and how do I fix it? Bear in mind, I am quite new to blender.

I've run into a problem. I'm trying to model a head and I'm creating the vertices and faces, but when I move some vertices another one snaps to a completely unrelated position.
Here are some images highlighting the problem:

All I did in there was move the selected point a little bit back along the y axis.

Do any of you know why this is happening and how to fix it? I really need help on this.

You have X Mirror enabled. Open the toolself with T and untick it, it's under Mesh Options. What this does is that it will try to mimic whatever you are doing on one side of your mesh on the other.

From the wiki.

  The X-mirror option of the Mesh Options panel allows you edit both “sides” of your mesh in a single action. When you transform an element (vertex, edge or face), if there is its exact X-mirrored counterpart (in local space), it will be transformed accordingly, through a symmetry along the local X axis.

This didn't affect the mouth area of your model as only half of it was modeled while you had a complete eye ring.


How To Curve Road Without Array Modifier? Ok so I have road and I would like to curve it smoothly without using arrays.
I have it subdivided. Any ideas of how should I do it? Check the image below of my road and below that image you will see copy from internet of how I want it to look like:

Internet copy:

P.S. I forgot to say that I would like to do something so the road wouldn't have a lot of subdivision. What I mean is that I want it to be 1 solid road without any pieces that it is made up with. Because each time I upload it to software one of the faces goes invisible.

You may use a Spin Tool.

Snap the cursor (Shift+S-->Cursor to Selected) to the bottom vertex of your plane, select the edge and then press Alt+R to spin it. Play with the settings in a Tool Shelf (T)- change the Center X position to make the curved part of the mesh longer.

Continue modeling using spin tool and close the road (remove doubles when finish).

TEXTURING
Select one edge in the middle of the mesh, then press Ctrl+E-->Mark Seam. Enable Face selection mode, select the whole mesh, then unselect and reselect one of the faces. Press U-->Follow Active Quads-->OK. Change the viewport shading to Textured.

Go to UV Editor and scale the UV island to fit the pattern scale as you like.


Vertex sliding along line until intersection Is there a way to slide a vertex along a line until an intersection of another line, which has no vertex at said intersection like it is shown in the picture?

I am a total beginner in blender and couldn't figure this out by searching for tutorials,

3 options to create a vertex at the intersection between two edges:

Activate and use The tinyCAD shipped add on > V2X: 'Vertex at Intersection'
EExtrude the edges to make faces, select them, and search for 'Intersect' (Spacebar in 2.79, F3 in 2.80). Check the 'Self Intersect' option. Delete excess vertices.

Create a plane below the edges, and Knife Project the edges down onto the plane, which will create a vertex at the intersection between the projected edges, (and possibly some surplus geometry) That vertex can become a snap target, or you can duplicate the edges out of the plane.

This last method can sometimes be quite useful ..  the lines only have to intersect in your chosen projection, which you define by the orientation of your plane, before  Shift Numpad 7 aligning your view to it, to execute the Knife Project.


How may I achieve the effect of insetting a concave n-gon? The picture above shows the outer walls of a house I'm modeling. The walls of the main house (highlighted orange) need to have an inner layer of insulation, which is half as thick as the present walls.

Ideally, I could create an n-gon with the selected vertices and then do an inset to get the geometry I want. However, an n-gon cannot be created from the selected vertices. Or at least, no n-gon is created when I hit [F].

Is there some way I can avoid a lot tedious vertex shuffling?

An alternative and perhaps more accurate method would be to use the Solidify modifier twice.

Trace out the outside walls outer edge ground plan then add a Solidify modifier to create the inner edges of these walls. In the example below I set my walls to have 0.2m thickness and selected only the Even Thickness option. The solidify modifier needs faces to work with so the outer walls were extruded up 1 meter.

After applying this first modifier add a second. This will be for the insulation thickness. In object mode apply this modifier.
 The second modifier created unwanted faces ouside of the outer walls so these will need to be deleted. Also delete the extruded edges to return to a simple 2D ground plan.

With Snapping to vertex enabled use extrude to add the missing inner wall and insulation.


Removing item from bpy.app.driver_namespace Was wondering if there is a less vigorous way of removing an item from the driver namespace, perhaps using pop() or popitem()?

import bpy

dns = bpy.app.driver_namespace
dnc = dns.copy()

# clear dns
dns.clear()

#remake with any key beginning with "ST_" removed

for k, v in dnc.items():
    if k.startswith("ST_"):
        continue
    dns[k] = v

Edit

Looks like dns.update(...) is the go:

D.update([E, ]**F) -> None.  Update D from dict/iterable E and F.
If E is present and has a .keys() method, then does:  for k in E: D[k] = E[k]
If E is present and lacks a .keys() method, then does:  for k, v in E: D[k] = v
In either case, this is followed by: for k in F:  D[k] = F[k]

which gives me:

import bpy

dns = bpy.app.driver_namespace
dnc = {k:v for (k, v) in dns.items() if k.startswith("ST_")}

dns.update(dnc)

Both of these are ok for a 'startswith search', but seem overkill if I know the name of the item I want to remove.


Smoothing out jagged mesh edge in edit mode I have a mesh with some jagged edges that need smoothing out without having to do a lot of manual work. It's a zig-zagging mesh and I'm trying to fill out the creases so that there is a somewhat continuous outer edge. The image below is a screenshot of the mesh, with the red line marking where the mesh should follow.

In other words, I'd want to fill in those jagged creases with edges like so:

Searching around, most solutions are for making blocking meshes look smooth via shaders, but what I'm trying to do is a little more crude.
One question closer to mine had a pretty good solution: How do you make a jagged circle edge smooth?
Here @ChristopherBennett suggested using Loop Tools.
Gave that a shot but it doesn't look like it works very well. It misses some of the inner vertices, even when I delete the faces underneath (because I thought it was maybe confusing the tool)

Was thinking about smoothing out the outer edge and then lofting the top and bottom.

In this case, You could select chunks of your mesh in Edit Mode, and invoke (Header Menu) > Mesh > Convex Hull, followed by X > Limited Dissolve:

But you lose some edges.
One other possible approach, if you need to retopologise, or Convex Hull is not a good starting-point:  somehow make parts of the mesh available to the shipped add-on Loop Tools, and its Curve operator. (Much Slower)
In Edit mode, duplicate off a region with a profile of interest:

and..

F fill, or X > Limited dissolve, convert it to a single non-planar Ngon
To make it available to Loop Tools > Curve, at least, extrude it. This one is inset, too. Select the projecting vertices. A good sign of acceptable topology is that this can be achieved by selecting the first two vertices, and the rest, incrementally, by using CtrlShiftNumpad +
Invoke Loop Tools > Curve on that loop.
Duplicate the loop, or delete the other vertices.

Now, with Snap set to 'To: Vertex' and 'With: Active', snap the fixed profile back on to the original model. Repeat the process with other profiles.
Then you can (Edge Menu) > Bridge Edge Loops reproduce the shapes with better topology.


Use the Shrinkwrap modifier to form a skin over a collection of objects I'm trying to use the Shrinkwrap modifier to form a skin over a collection of objects, but:

I have to provide a single target object. I'd rather keep the objects separate, but I could put them all into the same vertex group?
In which case, how can I apply all vertices of all selected objects to a vertex group at once?

I don't think this is possible. Not the way you're looking at it anyway. However, this might be a viable solution. If you're trying to do this in the editor (rather than in the BGE) you could create a single duplicate of each of the objects you want to wrap around. Merge them together. Wrap your cloth or what have you around the duplicated/merged version of your objects. Apply the modifier. Delete the duplicate version. Move your cloth to the objects.

If you're trying to do this in the BGE I'm not sure it's possible without manipulating verts in script.


UV Triangulation Issue I'm trying to model a tower for a castle with shingles that wrap around it evenly. I keep encountering a problem where the faces of my unwrapped mesh will triangulate themselves and cause unwanted warping in my textures. Example:
Before scaling

Afer scaling

I've tried adding a triangulation modifier, but that only reverses the direction of the warping. Does anybody have a workaround for this? I would deeply appreciate any help or explanation!

The why is given here.
Workarounds:

If you want to keep the grid at the same size:

Use the option "correct face attribute".

If you want to stretch down the grid when scaling down:

Use some subdivisions to compensate the triangle effect. Only vertical subdivisions are needed, so you can also give some loop cuts manually.


Unwanted lines showing up on rendered cube So I have a "twisted" cube that I rendered an image from, as shown below:

I was wondering if there is a way to smooth out the diagonal lines on the cubes faces.

Every quad is treated as 2 triangles, this is what is causing the problem. You need smooth shading for the edges inside the quads and sharp for the corners of the cube.

To do this set the smoothing to smooth and in the mesh properties check the auto-smooth option and set the angle for cca. 70° (depends on the twisting).

This way faces with angle with more than 70° will keep sharp shading between them.

You should also densify the geometry so it follows the ideal curved/bended surface closer.


Add texture slots in blender 2.8 special cases slots = mat.texture_slots
slot = mat.texture_slots.create(0)
for slot in mat.texture_slots:
i have this occurrences in old plugin how to implement this in blender 2.8

Here are some rough replacements for the functions you posted:
import bpy
from bpy_extras.image_utils import load_image
from bpy_extras.node_shader_utils import PrincipledBSDFWrapper

# Sets a base color map to be used by the material.
def set_base_color_map_filename(mat, filename):
    ma_wrap = PrincipledBSDFWrapper(mat, is_readonly=False)
    image = load_image(filename)
    if ma_wrap.base_color_texture:
        ma_wrap.base_color_texture.image = image

# Returns base color of the material.
def get_base_color(mat):
    ma_wrap = PrincipledBSDFWrapper(mat)
    return ma_wrap.base_color

# Sets base color of the material.
def set_base_color(mat, clr):
    ma_wrap = PrincipledBSDFWrapper(mat, is_readonly=False)
    ma_wrap.base_color = clr

# Finds a base color image for the material.
def find_base_color_image(mat):
    ma_wrap = PrincipledBSDFWrapper(mat)
    if ma_wrap.base_color_texture:
        return ma_wrap.base_color_texture.image

# Finds a material which uses the specified image; if not found, the function creates a new material
# So this function never fails.
def get_material_by_image(image):
    for mat in bpy.data.materials:
        ma_wrap = PrincipledBSDFWrapper(mat)
        if ma_wrap.base_color_texture:
            if ma_wrap.base_color_texture.image == image:
                return mat

    mat = bpy.data.materials.new(image.name)
    ma_wrap = PrincipledBSDFWrapper(mat, is_readonly=False)
    ma_wrap.base_color_texture.image = image
    return mat


Sculpting a photorealistic human face for animation: use the multiresolution modifier? I'm locking down a production workflow for sculpting photorealistic human faces for animation but having a conceptual problem about whether or not to involve the multiresolution modifier

the sculpt workflow is: character sculpted in actual real-world clay > form captured via photoscan to an ultra-dense triangulated mesh > clean-up, sharpening, additional details and skin textures done in blender > mesh retopologized to lightweight animation-friendly all-quads > wrinkles and details recovered via normal maps and displacement maps plus a subdivision modifier

there seems to be no reason to use the multiresolution modifier in this process - is there a strong reason to use it that I'm missing? - it's a very powerful modifier, it obviously must have some important uses

a related issue: I have sometimes had difficulties with data loss when relying on the multirez modifier to preserve high rez sculpt work, especially when trying to save/restore multirez data using the .btx format - I suspect I'm not understanding the place the multiresolution modifier occupies in a professional sculpt > animation pipeline - can someone clarify?

From what I understand about the development of blender and the workflows that are out there, the multi resolution modifier is no longer frequently used, and for good reason. I think it still has uses, but overall it's no longer an essential modifier for workflows such as the one you describe.

The multiresolution modifier was, for a long time, the only feasible way to sculpt in Blender. Manually creating a dense mesh or using the subsurf modifier (applied) was an option, but these are destructive methods that lead to objects that are so dense they are difficult to edit.

With the addition of dynamic topology, there is now a way for an artist to create highly detailed objects without this modifier. In your case, a scanned object replaces this, but the  results are the same: You and up with a dense triangulated mesh, and the workflow you outlined is a great way of turning that into a final product.

Since dynamic topology is much more free from an artistic point of view than the multires modifier (you don't have to worry about topology at all) it's no longer used much for initial sculpts as there are better options out there.

However, the multiresolution modifier still has a place, and that place is in  adding details to modeled meshes. Not everyone is a sculptor, and sometimes hand modeling an object is the best way to go about it. If you then want to add details, this is where the mutiresolution modifier is great. It allows the artist to add details non destructively, and gives the option of baking this detail to maps. Using an applied subsurf modifier or a dense mesh won't allow you to do this, as any detail you add is practically permanent.

Finally, the mutiresolution modifier can still be a good way to sculpt an object from scratch, provided the topology is OK, or you start with a simple model. All in all, this modifier has it's uses, mainly in workflows where a mesh with good topology is the starting point.


Align and snap one object to a slanted and rotated other object How to align these two objects correctly? I've tried snapping option but origins normal is off. Is there a way to change it?

Using the same snapping setting as in your question, Blender will snap applying the smallest rotation possible.

So you can do that in two steps:

Place it in a first side
The grab it to another side

Similar to this question.

If you want the handle to be in another direction, rotate it first (for instance 90 degrees around Z) and snap again.


Objects intersecting in render but not in viewport So I modelled this boat and made it move across the lake using a shrinkwrap modifier and copylocation constraint(Like Chris said in this question )
Now the problem is that whenever I view this boat in viewport, there is no intersection between water and boat but whenever render the scene, the boat and water interects.
Viewport:

Render:
Anyone have an idea why this is happening and how to solve it? I am at the end of my wits here.
BLEND FILE: https://pasteall.org/blend/16806ed8d94b4412b3db3799957febc5

it depends on your frame.
With starting frame 5 i see water in your boat in viewport...

it looks like you applied the boolean modifier. I wouldn't have done that.
And if you apply, you cannot change it afterwards.
And i think - if you apply, it is "just for the moment". But unapplied the boolean modifier will also work for animated objects.


How do I use the inpaint node? Upon reading this post the inpaint node is mentioned.

The manual for this node is still on the "to do" list...

So, What is the purpose of this node and how do I use it?

InPainting is provided to solve problems like "wire removal" and holes created during chroma-keying as shown in the image here. To make this example clearer, I've used a fake wire (and a fake object) but in reality you'd normally use fine, chroma-keyed wires. This isn't the only way to remove wires of course, but it's a simple one.

You can use motion tracking to do the same thing - the point is when the wire has been removed you're left with a small hole in your frame. For a single image this isn't that much of an issue and could be filled in with Photoshop (later versions have InPainting as part of the healing brush), GIMP, Krita etc.

However, if this is a video you've got 24 - 30 frames for every second of footage and that's a lot of painting. As InPainting is done in the compositor, you don't have to worry, even for long sequences.

In the left image shows the "wire" in place and after chroma-key has been applied you'll see you're left with a blank space - it's shown as a black line here but it will be alpha in your blender output.

InPainting fills in a couple of pixels using the surrounding "background" and voila, your wire is removed. Note that the wider your "hole" is, the more noticeable this effect is! If you use more than a few pixels of infill, the effect is almost as irritating as the wire and your viewers won't be impressed.

As part of this demonstration I've left a little of the chroma effect visible so you can see there's no cheating. Normally, you'd look to get a perfect key.

Inpainting can also cover up a multitude of other minor sins such as control points for motion capture: use it sparingly and it will amaze.


How to scale vertices selection? So I'm watching this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVPcT0dJmoY

and around 41:44 he selects only a small part of the circle, How does he do that?

To clarify:

That circle, how does he create that? Whenever I try to do what he's doing, It does this:

It affects the whole circle, not just a portion of it.

When you have Proportional Falloff Editing enabled, you can adjust the falloff size with scrollwheel while moving/rotating/scaling. As it is affecting the whole mesh, it seems you have the falloff size being bigger than your view, so just scroll down while editing. The falloff size can also be edited after action in bottom of toolbar (hotkey T) or by hitting F6.


Need some modeling/workflow tips on Kettlebell/grenade look I'm trying to model this with a physical surface(as opposed to just texturing/bump mapping etc) like this

Thanks! I appreciate the help

I really would recommend using a normal map since the detail is so small. You're going to have to have a huge number of vertices to get it to look decent.

If you're sure you need to be modeled, you'll probably want to use a displacement modifier:

Here's the modifier stack:

And the texture settings:


Move object along path How can I let an object follow a path? In this case, it's a cart following a track on a rollercoaster. I have done it before and I would like to recreate it. I could move 'G' the cart along the X-axis and it would then follow the path. At the moment the object does not move at all along the x-axis.

Any ideas?

Making an object move along a path:

Blend file:

First up place your 3D cursor where the center point of the path is to be.

Add a "Curve-->Path" at that point.

Select the curve and goto edit mode.  The path's direction of travel will be indicated by the (feather) arrows.  Go back to Object mode and rotate the path in the Z axis to it's desired direction of travel.

(Remember you're currently at the proposed route's mid point)

Return to Edit mode and at far right in the curve's properties panel, click on the Geometry icon. (a letter C drawn back to front)

Select the "2D" button.  This will ensure there will be no variation in height from ground level to make the route a lot easier ro set up.  Later it's height can be varied like a roller coaster if required.

Further down open the "Path Animation" tab, set the "Frames" slot to the maximum frames the object will be taking to travel the entire route.  The higher the frame number, the slower it will travel.

Place this same frame figure into the "Evaluation Time" slot immediately below.

This is a good time to set your timeline's max frames as well.  Give it more frames than the path's maximum unless there is a specific need not to.

With the path still highlited, get back into Edit mode.  You'll see that there are 4 vertices. (waypoints)  You can have as many of these as you wish, but for now we'll stick to just four.

Drag one of the end vertices to where the path is to end.  If it distorts the curve too much, just move it to some convenient holding point.  We can place it properly later.  Just make sure it's been moved to somewhere so it will be travelling in the right direction.

Do the same with the other end vertice.

Now move each of the inner 2 vertices to intermediate points, then the end vertices again until you end up with a roughly circular shape.

With the route laid out, it's time to setup the 2 keyframes that will force an object to move along the path.

Make sure you're in Object Mode.  Press SHIFT-C to center the 3D cursor to location 0,0,0 ((x,y,z)

Add a cube or whatever but don't place it on the path, leave it where it is for now.

It's important that the cube and curve both share the same Origin point, so with the cube selected, press T to get the "Tools" panel up at left. Open the "Tools" tab at top left and select "Origin-->to 3D cursor"

Now select the curve and do the same.

Select the cube again, and in it's properties at right, click on the Constraint icon. (looks like two links of a chain)

Select "Follw Path". (in rightmost list)

Click on the cube icon (Target) to see your curve listed there.  Select that.

The cube in the 3D window should jump to the starting point of your curve.

Also tick the "Follow Curve" box when you want the object to be facing forward and always aligned to the path as it travels.

Select the path curve again and drag the timeline cursor to frame 1. Make sure the path's evaluation slot is showing 0. (Zero)

Place the Mouse cursor into the Evaluation slot and press letter I (i).

This will INSERT a keyframe in the path's strip in the Dope sheet.

Now move the timeline's cursor to the frame where the object is to reach the path's end point. (destination)

Check that both the Frames and Evaluation slots are both showing the same (end point) frame numbers.

With the mouse cursor still in the Evaluation slot, press letter I again to create the destination keyframe.

Your cube should have jumped to the curve's destination waypoint in the 3D window.

The path is now setup, your cube ready to take passengers and fares!

Drag the timeline cursor (or press CTL-A) to see the cube moving along the path.

If wanting to set a camera moving along the path, you might like to take a peek at this Camera "Jitter" When circling around object if the camera is a nervous passenger and gets the "jitters", literally!

Adjustments to the path's length, speed of travel, intermediate starting and stopping points are all possible.  If needing help with these, new questions would be best.  This post is already too large.


How do i make the camera rotate about the object using the mouse or keyboard in the game engine? please how do i get the camera to use the character as the pivot point while  rotating with the keyboard or mouse? I also want the camera's view still centered on the character like in a normal animation. I tried the pivot constraint,change of the universal pivot found beside the view-port shading and even tried changing the camera's origin point. The first two worked fine in the editor window but not while playing the game while the third one didn't work at all.

Press Shift + F on keyboard
Once you press shift+F on keyboard u can move the camera where you want with the arrow up down front back and A S W D key like games