I have figured out how to unwrap my objects is there a way to label which side is which? When I export my uv map as an image I get lost in figuring out which side is which, is there a way to label them within blender?

Color-mapping.

What is color-mapping?

You create some materials with different colors (red, green, orange, yellow, blue, etc).
You then apply the different colors to different parts of your model.

How you do that?

go into editmode
select the part of your mesh you want to assign the color to
(with the part selected) go to you materials and click assign
the color should now be assigned to the part of your mesh.
this method is pretty comon
after this, create a new image in the image-viewer
go to your render tab
scroll down to bake and select "colors" or "textures" (i dont know
which of both right now^^)

you now have a colored texture, which you could for example use in Photoshop. For example you want some parts of your model to have a metal texture. Pick a color for the parts, bake the map, in Photoshop "select color" and bam, you have the perfect part oif your uv-map selected ^^


Unable to see HDRI in background I've just been looking at various similar questions and can't seem to find the solution so thought I'd try asking here juts in case someone has had a similar issue.
I've been working with this project for a while now and suddenly the HDRI stopped showing as a background in rendered view. I've been using cycles but changed it to Eevee and still doesn't show. I've checked everything in the world settings and the viewport shade settings and still isn't showing. The lighting seems to be fine, it's just the lack of image.
Apologies in advance if this is a really easy obvious thing! I'm very new to Blender and would appreciate some help from someone a little more experienced than me.

Thanks!
Anna

In your screenshot, your view is set to Ortographic not Perspective, this usually makes the HDRI just a blurred color instead of a real image. You can toggle between those views with Numpad 5. However, then there is still color, but your viewport shows this grey checker texture which means you've set the background to Transparent. Go to Render Properties > Film > Transparent and disable it.


Incorrect Vector Pass output (No Alpha & Zero Values) I am looking to render the vector pass in a OpenExr format with all channels. I have rendered on both 2.7 and 2.8 and the generated images have an empty alpha channel. The compositor is set as follows:

Two issues arise, the first is that the alpha channel is missing on every image as can seen by the recorded rgba values at the bottom of the window in the image below:

Also where a zero value would be expected, it seems to be set to RGBA(0.0039, 0.0039, 0.0039, 0). As seen below:

The same issues spans different versions and scenes, is there something wrong in my configuration or is this a bug? Thanks for any help in advance!

Did you make sure to disable the Motion Blur check box under the Cycles render properties panel? If not, the Vector Pass won't work properly

Also, for some reason, in order to save the Vector pass to OpenEXR with proper values, you first need to convert it from to RGBA then to Image format.

Something like this should work:

Also, to verify the values stored in the OpenEXR, just drag and drop the file into the compositor where you can also doublecheck them (that's what I did).

Alpha channel is not used for the Vector Pass which uses XYZ components of each pixel vector stored as RGB only for the OpenEXR file. (see comment below)
The non zero value could be attributed to movement of your camera, the background of the scene, rotation... or whatever image/color processing of the viewer used.


Rename action in blender 2.8 I am trying to rename some actions in my scene, but the only way I have found is to go to the Blender file in the outliner and modify it there. This is unconvenience because if you have thousands of animations, its not clear to know which one is each.

If I select an object with an animation and I can see the action in the dopesheet or in the graph editor, what should I do to change the name of the action in Blender 2.8?

Ctrl Left Click

In most editors, can Ctrl Left Click in name field to rename.  Image example showing graph editor and dope sheet.


Whats wrong with this weight paint? I have an arm and at the inner elbow, its dipping in when bent?

You have to subdivide this certain area, where the bend is happenning, just add a couple of loopcuts


Bullet physics compound shape I'm trying to to create a compound shape pretty much in the same way I did in my C++ code.

Create three shapes (two btCylinderShape, and one btConeShape)
Create a compund shape using the tree
individual shapes (btCompoundShape)
Create a rigid body btRigidBody using the compound shape passing a transformation matrix with some translation

How can it be done in blender?
AFAIK, the option in Properties view panel>Physics tab>CollisionBounds disclosure triangle>Compound has to be enabled for the three bodies, and one of them needs to be the parent, while the other two are its children.

This works pretty well, but I need to add some offset to the parent too, as the picture shows, how can it be done?
Using a fourth empty body as a parent would introduce an additional shape, that would mess the hole thing.

Is there a way to add an additional transformation to the physics shape attached to a mesh?
I'm currently using Blender v2.67b for Mac

Instead of directly messing with the Physics parameters, this situation is way easier to handle with ordinary mesh tools.

You can merge your three objects by using the Boolean modifier. First, select only one of your objects, then go to the Properties>Modifiers menu and select the Boolean modifier. In the modifier options, for 'Operation' select 'Union' and for 'Object', select one of your other objects. If you then hit 'Apply', your first object will now have the overall shape of those two objects merged.

If you have three objects, you'll need to do this twice (because the Boolean modifier only operates on two at a time).

Also note that the modifier will leave the original copies of the objects in addition to the new, merged version, so at the end, make sure to delete the original objects.

Then, in the Physics panel, select 'Mesh' as your collision bounds.


how to scale background images in V2.77 I saw a tutorial where someone was able to scale the size of a background image using an older version of blender, but in my version I can't find any way to scale it.

You can scale a background image by using the slider found in the Background Image panel:


What's the best way to build a GUI for non-blender users to control materials? OK so I have a scenario whereby my colleagues are creating an image and overwriting a texture, they can then open a blender file and hit render to get an image showing off the design.  However I need them to be able to change certain colours of materials without ever having to know anything about node setups.  They are comfortable with design software but 3D etc is beyond them.

I am looking to create a separate scene that will act as a simple GUI for them, whereby they can change certain colours of materials with colour picker boxes etc.

I'm comfortable with scripting in other languages and feel I could get on with Python but is there a way of doing something like this without much scripting?  I see the option to 'add custom properties' on an object (probably not what I'm looking for but it gives you an idea)

Hope that all makes sense.

Tom

You can display any existing property in any place you want.
This means you can show properties of nodes, like the diffuse color or mix factor, in your own panel.

Example:

import bpy
from bpy.types import Panel

class ExamplePanel(Panel):
    bl_label = "Example Panel"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "render"

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

        obj = context.active_object
        if not obj:
            layout.label("Select an object")
            return

        mat = obj.active_material
        if not mat:
            layout.label("Create a material")
            return

        nodes = mat.node_tree.nodes
        # Note: you will have to edit these node names to use the ones in your setup
        diffuse_1 = nodes["Diffuse BSDF"]
        diffuse_2 = nodes["Diffuse BSDF.001"]
        mix = nodes["Mix Shader"]

        layout.prop(diffuse_1.inputs["Color"], "default_value",
                    text="Color of first diffuse node")
        layout.prop(diffuse_2.inputs["Color"], "default_value",
                    text="Color of second diffuse node")
        layout.prop(mix.inputs["Fac"], "default_value",
                    text="Factor of mix node")

if __name__ == "__main__":  # only for live edit.
    from bpy.utils import register_class
    register_class(ExamplePanel)

To find the names of your nodes, open the right side panel in the node editor (shortcut N) and select the node:

Here you can see the new panel on the right, and the node editor on the bottom.


Why does blender cover the whole cube and not selected areas with materials? I have tried a lot of different ways to cover the Roof of my cube with a material, but every time I tried, blender covers the whole cube with the painting color. How can I simply coloring just parts of a cube?

To add a material to a specifc face (you can only assign and see material colors to faces), you first need to add a base material to your object, next enter Edit mode, select the face and then add a new material slot and create a new material or pick an already created one from the list and press Assign.


How to write controller to activate Blender Game Engine actuator? I am new to Blender and but working on some simulation which involves Blender Game Engine. I want my mesh to follow a path while in motion. For that I am doing the following:

create a KX_SteeringActuator
configure it on PATHFOLLOWING
configure velocity, acceleration, turn speed
potentially setting target and navigation mesh (checking selfterminated)

So my python script has some code like below:

actuators['Steering'].behavior = Path_following
actuators['Steering'].velocity = 3.000
actuators['Steering'].acceleration = 3.000
actuators['Steering'].turnspeed = 120.000
actuators['Steering'].distance = 1.000
actuators['Steering'].target = target
actuators['Steering'].navmesh = navMeshWhole

Now, I can not figure out how do I activate the above actuator, so that my mesh object starts moving towards the target. I want to have a python controller for the above Actuator. If any one has idea or dealt with similar problem, please guide me. I want to write a python controller to activate this actuator.

--> If I have a Keyboard sensor, linked with an And controller which is linked with the above actuator then, if Game Engine started (pressing p in blender), it gives desired behavior on the Keyboard-Sensor key-press. The mesh object navigates towards the target object, following the path. Dont want to use Keyboard sensor and And controller. Thanks a lot !

Also you can controller.activate(actuator) like this:

logic.getCurrentController().activate(actuators['Steering'])


Is there a way to change the color wheel used in the node editor? I really dislike the color wheel for picking certain colors, especially browns. I would really like a few more options to pick the colors. A large amount of swatches would be especially nice. Now I often go to a site listing color codes and copy paste these into Blender, which is a laborious process.

You can choose from four different color picker types in the user preferences:

Perhaps you like one the options better:

You might be also interested in the Palette addon which only works only in paint modes (Image Painting, Texture Paint, Vertex Paint, Weight Paint)


How do you animate the labels for a diagram in Blender? I'm making this animation and the parts need to be labelled.

This means that the lines from the label to each part will be animated and so will the text be animated.

two examples showing what I'm trying to achieve, here and here.

However, please remember that the lines will have to have an entrance in some manner. This is the context:

This is the type of animations I wish for the lines: http://vimeo.com/27093074
Current .blend file.

To create animated lines like in the video you linked, you could use Curves and animate the start and end bevel factors. (see this related question)

Add a curve object
Set the Fill to Full in Object Data > Shape

Increase the depth in Object data > Geometry > Bevel:

Animate the start and end bevel factors by right clicking and selecting insert keyframe, or pressing I while hovering over it.

E.g. by animating the Start bevel factor from 1 to 0:


How can a cloth simulated sail be prevented from flying away? I added a cloth simulation to a canvas and want it to be moved by a wind force. The sail is blown away. How can this be prevented?

A few vertices should be added to a vertex group:

this vertex group is assigned in the cloth settings with ticked Pin option.

Besides that I found that a vortex works better than plain wind force.


How to compose a rotation matrix with Euler Data? The picture is my current set up. From the data set of Euler angles in the text editor, I would expect the object to rotate ~10, 20, 30,... degrees around the X axis, but it rotates noticeably larger than the input angles. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I am doing wrong? I am currently using AnimationNodes.

As mentioned by Duane It probably has something to do with your units.

The Combine Euler node supports composing eulers from degrees as well as radians, check the documentation:

It is worth mentioning that parsing can be easily done in Animation Nodes as:


How to bypass OpenGL 1.2 requirement for remote GPU rendering? Disclaimer: I am aware that this question is very similar to these two and that the answer to my question would probably be applicable to them, too:

How to run blender 2.77 on a virtual network render machine with no Opengl support on windows?
How to run Blender through RDP on Windows Server 2008 R2 - opengl error

However, my situation is different from the two mentioned above in that the machine I want to render on is a physical machine that has an nVidea GTX 870Ti GPU (i.e. I definitely do want to render on the GPU, not the CPU) but it has no monitor attached to it - I only ever access it via RDP from my main workstation. Now, the RDP display driver apparently does not fulfill Blender 2.77's minimum OpenGL requirements and the fact that there is no physical monitor attached means that I also cannot connect via TeamViewer... (haven't tried VNC yet... would that work?)

I am currently working around this by using Blender 2.76 on that machine but I've already encountered situations where the render results differed from Blender 2.77 due to bugs that were fixed in that version and thus were unusable for animation rendering.

(Quick explanation on what I'm doing: I'm trying to distribute rendering of animation frames across multiple machines. For this purpose I have shared the project and output directories with the additional render boxes. I also have the "Overwrite" option unchecked and "Placeholders" checked. I.e. I'm not using any special network rendering addons.)

Is there any solution to this? Maybe a custom 2.77 build somewhere?

The problem is that the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) does not allow for OpenGL, a workaround is using an app like TurboVNC. I've been able to render in headless machines that way with no issues.


Update viewport while running script I have a script, which creates multiple objects through a loop. However, the script freezes the viewport until it is done. Instead, I would like every object to be seen in the viewport one by one as it is created.

In its simplest terms:

import bpy
import random
for i in range(1000):
    XYZcoord = (random.random()*100, random.random()*100, random.random()*100)
    bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_uv_sphere_add(location=XYZcoord)
    # Update the viewport here.

Is there a way to update the viewport after every iteration of the loop to see every newly added object as they are created? Or do I need to use a different method?

The UI (including viewport ) can be updated during the script execution but it is advised against it in the Blender API documentation for these reasons :

  Tools that lock Blender in a loop and redraw are highly discouraged since they conflict with Blenders ability to run multiple operators at once and update different parts of the interface as the tool runs.

so to update the UI during execution you can use wm.redraw_timer() :

import bpy
import random
for i in range(1000):
    XYZcoord = (random.random()*100, random.random()*100, random.random()*100)
    bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_uv_sphere_add(location=XYZcoord)
    # Update the viewport here.
    bpy.ops.wm.redraw_timer(type='DRAW_WIN_SWAP', iterations=1)

a good alternative has been suggested by @Zeffii which is the modal operator triggered by timer


Objects shows through other objects when compositing I'm trying to composite some lights using screening but while it looks fine head on, it shines through parts of my main object.  Sorry my node setup is large; hopefully you can see it better when you click on the image.

Here you can see what I mean as the lights go through the hose:

Here is my node setup:

Thanks!

EDIT:

I found the solution.  Not sure why this worked, but I just made the hose (and subsequently every other object on the first layer) a pass index of 1, and used an ID mask (with 0) directly from the first layer into the factor of the screen node.

Here's the updated render:

My example was made in Blender Render, but it doesn't matter in this case.
First of all enable Object Index pass in Render Passes tab, then give index 1 to your hose (note, that objects with same index will produce combined mask, and to keep them separate use different numbers).

Edit: Material index pass is usefull when your object can't be physically separated in parts, so apply different materials for these parts.

This is overall setup:


Blurry but HD Render - How do I make it sharper? I've new to animating with Blender and I'm having troubles with my rendering.
(Note: These are two still images of the same frame out of my animation project)

The thing is that it is supposed to look like this:

But.. When rendered, it comes out like this:

What's wrong and how do I fix it?
(Note: I know about the Black background in the second image, and how to fix it.)

EDIT - Blend File: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/29219

I've found out why it was blurred. As @cegaton suggested - It was a defocus node that was added . . .

Can be found in node editor (ShiftF3) as said in the wiki.


Wrapping a flat object around a cylinder and joining it I'm trying to make a nanotube model and while I can get the flat structure to loop around a circle, I'm not sure how to join the ends of it into a complete structure. I started with the flat structure and am now trying to revolve it.

There is no direct way I can think of to achieve your goal. However, I think it would work if you set your array modifier to object offset and then select an empty of your choice. By moving and rotating the empty, it should give you more control to find the best position.

I doubt it would work, but the Shrink wrap modifier might also be able to solve your problem. If you want, I'm willing to look at your file and see what I can do.


How to create a prefixed list of transform data for objects? I'm trying to create a message of transform data for all objects with a prefix, that blender will send to external application and I need it to be in a following format:

values = { 'msgInstruction=' : 'MOVE_OBJ', 'pref.OBJ1=' : values, 'pref.OBJ2=' : values, 'pref.OBJ3=' : values, .... }

You can use startswith('prefix') to detect objects' names start with this prefix.

I have changed the keys so there values don't get overwritten by new ones ,this is the portion of the code that needs to be changed :

def RunPerFrame(scene):
    prefix = 'prefix'
    url = ''
    values = { 'msgInstruction=' : 'MOVE_OBJ'}

    for obj in bpy.data.objects:
        print(obj.name)
        if obj.name.startswith(prefix):
            mat = bpy.context.object.matrix_world
            loc = mat.to_translation()
            rot = mat.to_3x3().to_quaternion()
            scale = obj.dimensions
            qtX = round(rot.x,3)
            qtY = round(rot.y,3)
            qtZ = round(rot.z,3)
            qtW = round(rot.w,3)
            loX = round(loc.x,3)
            loY = round(loc.y,3)
            loZ = round(loc.z,3)
            scX = round(scale.x,3)
            scY = round(scale.y,3)
            scZ = round(scale.z,3)

            name = obj.name.replace(prefix,'')
            this_object = {'object=': name,  name+'_rotQuat=' : str(qtX) + ',' + str(qtY) + ',' + str(qtZ) + ',' + str(qtW), name+'_objLoc=' : str(loX) + ',' + str(loY) + ',' + str(loZ), name+'_objScale=' : str(scX) + ',' + str(scY) + ',' + str(scZ) }
            values.update(this_object)


Is there a way to do mirror Image mapping in EEVEE? I need this option enabled to display some models properly.

It's possible to calculate mirroring UV coordinates by creating a sawtooth shaped graph.

Here is it implemented with nodes for cycles and EEVEE.
Since modulus is behaving in a different way below zero, the Fract operation is a better choice, but then we also need to scale the value to the 0 - 1 range.


Difference between FINISHED and CANCELLED as return values What is the difference between

return {'FINISHED'}

and

return {'CANCELLED'}

in an operator?

For example, lets assume I have a simple non modal operator which places a cube in the scene and returns {'CANCELLED'} afterwards. Are there any consequences or further impact?
My guess was that the cube would be removed from the scene (like an undo) because of potential errorneous behavior. But it stays there just like everythings works fine

AFAIK it's so that you can check in a script whether an operator executed properly or not, by inspecting its return value. For Blender itself it doesn't matter, but it starts to become relevant when you use one operator from another.

For example:

result = bpy.ops.object.delete()

if result == {'FINISHED'}:  # Can also do: `if 'FINISHED' in result:`
    print ("Successfully deleted object")
else:
    print ("Could not delete object")


How can I set and get the vertex color property? I can't find a way to display RGB values (or equivalent) without using the python shell.

I would like to get and set color values numerically (ie. not painting), I can't find it for weight painting either (I expected it to appear in the "n" panel with something like "vertex" as a title).

I would like to get and set color values numerically (ie. not painting),

There may be add-ons that cater to this, but at present (March 2016)

Blender doesn't have a (non-Python) way to set the Vertex Colors per selected vertex/vertices. Per face is however, as stated below, not a problem.

There is no built-in interface (yet) to get the rgb value of a selected Vertex. Each vertex can be shared by a number of faces, therefore a vertex doesn't necessarily have one color associated with it.  Behind the scenes the Vertex Colors are not stored in the data per vertex but in a Vertex Color layer, which stores vertex colors for each face of the mesh.
Possibly this explains that a bit more clear. There are 9 verts in this subdivided plane, and the middle vertex is used in 4 faces and therefore has 4 different colors associated.

Vertex Color Map
You can set a collection of faces to one colour in vertex paint mode, by selecting them and setting the colour from the colour picker, then shift+K will fill the selection with that colour. You can  enter numericals into the Blender colour picker.
You can pick faces with face selection masking
If you want to do it by script:
import bpy
import random

# start in object mode
obj = bpy.data.objects["Cube"]
mesh = obj.data

if not mesh.vertex_colors:
    mesh.vertex_colors.new()

"""
let us assume for sake of brevity that there is now
a vertex color map called  'Col'
"""

color_layer = mesh.vertex_colors["Col"]

# or you could avoid using the color_layer name
# color_layer = mesh.vertex_colors.active

i = 0
for poly in mesh.polygons:
    for idx in poly.loop_indices:
        r, g, b = [random.random() for i in range(3)]
        color_layer.data[i].color = (r, g, b, 1.0)
        i += 1

# set to vertex paint mode to see the result
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='VERTEX_PAINT')

Also a small blogpost about vertex colours here and here, if you are so inclined.
For Weight Painting, i'm not sure -- i'll let someone more familiar with that give an answer


Downloaded PBR texture looks different in Blender I'm looking for a way to further improve the look of my metal texture.
I'm trying to use this texture from a free pbr website. (first image)

If I just import and use the provided textures it looks more like a glass texture than a metal.
I tried to toyed with the roughness, but it tends to "sacrifice" the  reflectiveness of the metal.

Any idea how should I improve it.

If you have node wrangler turned on, you can just select the BSDF node and then hit [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [T], then select all the material files in the download and the materials will be attached properly.
Then, make sure you're working in Cycles render engine to make it look more like the material preview.


Make camera follow armature joint I know it is possible to force a camera to follow an object by crt + t to Make a Track and follow a constraint, but this does not let me to force a camera to follow a particular joint of a skeleton – it follows the global position of the entire skeleton instead.

Is there any way to enforce a camera to follow a particular joint of a skeleton?

Camera tracking to a particular bone of an armature.

Yes. The camera can follow a particular joint of a armature.

If you specify an armature as a target, the interface allows a bone selection and a Head/Tail selection as seen below.

The highlighted camera name [CameraTrack] with a gold sphere can track a particular bone along any head to tail point.  The camera can also track any object parented to a bone of an armature for extra flexibility. The object named [Cube.on.Bone] is the red cube. Both constraints work.  Choose one only.  Note only one constraint is active, so you may choose which one is active.  The eye icon indicates only one constraint is active.

The camera named CameraTrack has no rotation.  Inspect your camera rotation.

Click to see larger version of image above.


How to get the collection an object belongs to? I can access objects belonging to a collection like so:

objects_in_collection = bpy.data.collections["My_Collection"].objects

How can I access the collection a specific object belongs to?

Object.users_collection property returns a tuple containing all linked collections:

>>> obj = bpy.context.object
>>> obj.users_collection
(bpy.data.collections['Collection'],)


Mirrored simple colored material doesn't render while BGE game It happens always!
But only today i noticed that this is exactly because i used mirror modifier.
Why it works ok in Shift +Z, but doesnt work at all in the game?

How to fix this horror? Multitexture doesnt help, Recalculate normals doesnt help, Remove doubles doesnt help...

One screen - render Shift Z

The other - render BGE Game engine

the third - render Flip direction applied BGE (wrong view from the front of the building disappeared, but still other sides have it

Uploaded the file (without cleaning doubles or recalculatig)

This is problem with normals orientation.
Object is composed of multiple non-manifold meshes. There is one selected on the screenshot below and moved away, it's a wall while as I understand windows were left in place:

In this case Blender won't distinguish what is inside and what is outside so recalculating won't work here. Best solution in the long run is to remodel. This would allow easier selecting, adding details if any etc.
Fast and dirty solution though, if time is important and if the building isn't going to be visible from inside or from close distance, is to flip normals manually in places where you want them to be inside. Select a face, run Select Linked (Ctrl+L) and flip normals inside. You can enable Backface Culling in the Properties shelf to see which faces require repair.


How to simulate a sheet of paper in Blender Game Engine? I am trying to simulate the physics for a sheet of paper in Blender Game Engine.
For this, I am using an ordinary plane (subdivided in several faces). I tried doing this by defining soft body physics for the plane, but I can't seem to get the physics parameters right. Mostly, it's possible to let the plane behave a bit like a more stiff cloth, but not like paper.
Is it possible to get the physics parameters right to simulate paper, or is soft body not the right way to go and I should try something completely different?

The biggest problem I see here is that the softbody algorithms in the game engine are not physically correct, they are only made to look plausible and be fast. Especially the stiffness of softbodies depends on the mesh resolution: higher subdivision results in less stiffness.

A setup that looks fine for paper is a plane with just a few subdivisions

and the following Softbody settings

Make sure you disable Shape Match since this seems not to work with flat objects. Also make sure Bending Constraints are enabled. Otherwise the paper can just fold along the edges with no resistance. Also increase the Margin so that collisions will be detected correctly. Be aware however that this will make your paper float slightly above the ground.

This is what the resulting paper looks like when falling onto the ground:

One thing that is still missing however is air drag. Maybe you can simulate that using a Force field constraint actuator but I have not found out how they work yet.


Can I import .mtl file without the corresponding .obj file to a blender project (.blend file)? I know that .mtl file containing textures is usually associated with .obj and Bledner loads .mtl automatically (in most case scenarios) when corresponding .obj is imported. But is there any way to load such .mtl to .blend file or how can I work around this problem ?

The Obj file format is made of two files. The obj part contains the mesh informations. Geometry, UV mapping, normals. The mtl file contains a primitive Phong material, including existing paths to textures.
This material settings file cannot be loaded separately, it is tied to the obj file. And it does not contain textures, just paths to the textures. Embedding textures is not supported by the obj specifications.
But you can open the mtl file in any text editor. Have a look for the map kd entries. That's the paths to the textures.


Why can't I get rid of seams when texturing objects? my objects always have a clear line where the texture ends and begins again.  I have a feeling it's how I'm unwrapping it, but I don't know any other way.  Theres a black seam in the middle of that bullet and also on the other side of the head.  Then the square you can see where the texture ends on the edge's. I painted the bullet so its not an image that I pulled off the internet.  I painted the uv map using photoshop, so it is an image texture but the texture was made for that uv map.  I also added my UV layout there.

It's not a problem of UV unwrapping, it's just the material itself. You won't get rid of the seams entirely, though.

As long as you don't use purely procedurally generated materials (that means no image textures are involved), it's next to impossible to create a UV map without visible seams. You would have to straighten the polygons on your UV map so it fills the whole texture map (granted your image texture is tileable).

If you want to use image textures and want to get rid of the seams, you need to "paint them away" in Texture Paint Mode. Use the Clone Brush, clone a similar looking part of the image and paint over the seam to make it less visible.

"Hard" 90 degrees angles like in your cube example are still problematic. You can solve this by using the "Chinese Box unwrap" instead of "Smart UV Project" , which results in less seams. Then start painting over the remaining seams starting with a very small brush.


Is it possible to select all of one type of node in the node editor? I have a project where I am pre-rendering frequently via File Output nodes, which are numerous and spread throughout the node tree. Is there some way to select all nodes of a certain type with a key command (same as selected)?

Here is a handy dandy little script that will select all nodes of the same type as the active selected node

import bpy

#Get composite nodes
nodes = bpy.context.scene.node_tree.nodes
#Get indentifer of the active node
find_type = bpy.context.scene.node_tree.nodes.active.bl_rna.identifier
#loop through nodes
for node in nodes:
    #if node has the same idetifier
    if node.bl_rna.identifier == find_type:
        #select it
        node.select = True

In action:


mesh animation & boolean: avoid bugs & glitches (Cycles)? I'm working on an isometric animation where a road scrolls.

The road should appear only within a specific "domain", so I added a boolean modifier on the road mesh, so it is constrained within the desired space.

Thing is, I can't make it work as it displays a lot of bugs & glitches.

How could I fix this / achieve the same effect ?

Here's the project file if you want to have a look.

Thanks !

The sides disappearing is because the cube you are using for the road domain is a little bit too small, scale it about 0.03 bigger on the Y axis and you will get a better boolean result.

Your second problem is the caps on the ends of your road mesh. By using an array modifier you get these repeated along the road, this leads to the ends appearing and disapearing as it moves along. For this remove the faces at both ends and apply the array modifier, then recap the ends.


Modelling Asian eyes HELP! I really need help modeling Asian, specifically Chinese eyes. I’ve been learning character modeling recently and I would say that I have a pretty solid grasp on almost everything except Asian eyelids. I can’t figure out a way to model the monolid on top and epicanthic fold on the inside corner while having clean topology and without my model ripping and tearing. Does anyone have any advice? I can’t find any tutorials covering this anywhere on the internet. I’m going for Lucy Liu eyes. Please help!

The best I've ever been able to do is to use one of the human modeling programs or blender addons like Makehuman or Manuel Bastioni Labs to approximate the shape I want and then replicate the topology into my own model.


Subdivison surface modifier corrupt my model! edit: thank u guys i solved my problem with dissolving some distorted vertices and adding new ones via knife tool.

Hello everyone i am a newbie at blender. I am watching a character modelling tutorial but i have a problem. For some reason subdivison surface modifier scattered vertices on my models face and it creates roughness . And i dont know how can i gather them like a line. I tried to fix it  with repositioning but i couldnt.  What i done wrong and how can i fix it?

Screenshots:

Here's what your going to want to do.

First, uncheck the little three vertex icon at the top of the subdivision surface modifier (the triangle one). That option makes the vertices follow the subdivided mesh, which can be useful in some cases, but in your case will just lead to confusion and a messy looking model.

Second, select everything in edit mode and press ctrl-N to recalculate the normals. It looks like blender somehow flipped the direction the faces should be pointing, which is giving you the blue color instead of a light grey.

Third, while still having everything selected, press W then choose remove doubles. It's hard to tell from your images but you may have some vertices exactly on top of each other, which can cause some issues as well. This option will get rid of and doubles.

Finally, as noted above, the geometry of your model could use some work. Making clean topology takes a lot of practice, so don't be discouraged here. You really want to avoid using triangles or faces with more than 4 vertices. When using a subsurf modifier with such faces, the modifier cant smooth then out as cleanly as a 4 sided face, and thus you can get rough spots and pinching.

One tool you may find helpful is the smooth tool. Select a portion of your mesh in edit mode, then press w and click smooth. This will even out the mesh a bit and reduce bumps and uneven faces. This usually does result in a slightly flattened mesh though, but using alt-s you can 'inflate' the faces a bit and the result should be pretty good.


Pose Mode - Clear Transform - All still creates jumbled skeleton Using tutorial to give character a bone in its body:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBYb1YmaOMY
Following the guide:
Akward pose in Object Mode
(Which explains for to clear the transform very well.)
When I am following this guide, I get a Random Generated collection of bones being jumbled.
What am I doing wrong as I have followed the guide but it does not revert to the edit mode state in Pose?
See screenshot here.

So following this tutorial below fixed my problem -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-2v_CKmVE8
its a double loop, and to fix it, I had to create a duplicate of the hand.


Question on creating a spiral I saw that using the Add Curve: Extra Objects add-on, it's easy to make a spiral curve, but I also wanted to try to make one "from scratch."

I tried using the screw modifier on a single vertex, but nothing rendered.

I then created a line and also (by accident) an unattached vertex, and then applied the screw modifier. This time, voila!, it worked, giving me both a spiral screw (with a two-dimensional surface) in the middle, and also a one-dimensional spiral curve (mesh) on the outside. I then deleted the screw in the middle, leaving me with the outer one-dimensional spiral curve (mesh), which was what I wanted. Finally, I converted the mesh to a curve.

The only thing is, this all seems a bit clumsy to me to have to create the extra object and then delete it, so I'm wondering is there any way using the screw modifier to create a one-dimensional spiral curve (mesh) by itself, without creating the two dimensional screw as well?

Thank you in advance!

That's true.. the Screw modifier doesn't seem to know how to display itself in Edit Mode, unless there are faces to display.

The screw of a single Mesh vertex is there, if viewed in Object Mode.. and if the modifier is applied, a valid spiral of edges results. (Not so for a single Curve point, where the modifier can't be applied in any case)

If you need to be able to see a screwed single vertex in Edit Mode, a get-around is to make a small E extrusion from it while editing, and delete it when no longer needed.

This does seem anomalous behavior.. but then, so many settings in the modifier deal with faces.. perhaps this case was overlooked, or considered too awkward?


Is there a way to cast a shadow only on certain objects/materials but not on others? I have an idea in my head of an animation where the (soft) shadow of some otherwise invisible object is constantly being cast on a character's face. I created that shadow-casting object and parented it to the character's head bone and unticked the "Camera" option in its Cycles settings. So far so good. This would probably work for most shots.

However, that object's shadow is currently also being cast onto other objects such as a wall behind the character or another character standing in front of them which is not what I envisioned...

To put this in more bland, concrete terms:

Light source(s)
    ⇩
  Object A (shadowcaster)
    ⇩
  Object B (foreground)
    ⇩
  Object C (shadowreceiver)
    ⇩
  Object D (background)

ObjectA's shadow should only be visible on the surface of ObjectC, not ObjectB or ObjectD.
The shadows of ObjectB and ObjectC should be visible on all other objects that are behind them respectively.

I suspect the solution might be more related to render layers/passes and compositing rather than material settings (e.g. Light Path nodes) but so far I haven't been able to make it work either way...

Any hints?

It's pretty interesting question, but the answer is surprisingly easy.
You need to duplicate part of the mesh, on which you need the shadow to be casted, give it Transparent shader and move it just a bit above the surface of the original mesh. Then to the casting object material, you need to add node setup shown below and voila.


Beveller Not ... well, Bevelling I'm introducing myself to the Blender community via a problem. I use Ctrl+B to use the beveling tool on a cylinder (LEGO head), and everything looks like it's working, only no bevel. Just straight orange lines across the shape. I made sure to apply scale, so I don't know what the problem is.

Any help would be extremely appreciated! Maybe a LEGO statue in your honor. :-)

You need to select the edges at the end of your cylinder when you add the bevel.

It looks like you have selected an edge loop that is offset from the end, which just adds extra edge loops along the cylinder.

The bevel tool needs a corner to do add a bevel. Use the  mouse wheel to add extra cuts to get the rounded bevel.


How to make bpy.app.debug a prop? To show mesh indices you need to go to the Python console, type in bpy.app.debug, and then in the Mesh Display panel in Edit mode you can find the Show Extra Indices checkbox.

I would like to have a button or a checkbox in the Edit mode panel that sets the bpy.app.debug flag to true, so that i don't need to go to the python console for that.

The flag exists. So all it needs should be a prop with the valid parameters. That's where i struggle. It doesn't allow bpy.app, and when i just type in app then i get a warning that 'Context' object has no attribute 'app'

layout.prop(app, "debug", text="Debug")

How can i add a prop here that accesses bpy.app.debug?

Dummy property to update bpy.app.debug via UI

Script below uses a dummy boolean property on the window manager, with an update method to set bpy.app.debug to same.  Button is prepended to the 3D view header.

import bpy
from bpy.props import BoolProperty

def toggle_debug(self, context):
    bpy.app.debug = self.toggle_debug
    print("bpy.app.debug = ", self.toggle_debug)
    return None

bpy.types.WindowManager.toggle_debug = \
        BoolProperty(update=toggle_debug)

# function display the button
def display_toggle(self, context):
    layout = self.layout
    wm = context.window_manager
    layout.prop(wm, "toggle_debug", text="DEBUG", toggle=True)

# prepend to 3d view header
bpy.types.VIEW3D_HT_header.prepend(display_toggle)

To add properties to, or display properties in the UI,  the object must be an ID type.  Below is a simple test in python console to see if an object is an instance of an ID type.

>>> isinstance(C.window_manager, bpy.types.ID)
True

>>> isinstance(bpy.app, bpy.types.ID)
False

see that bpy.app is not, hence the error trying to use layout.prop(bpy.app, "debug")

Also the error in your posted image is because app was not defined, assumed you meant bpy.app.


Merge multiple meshes into one single mesh? Is there any addon that will allow me to merge multiple different meshes into one solid mesh?

I've spent a great deal of time constructing a fancy window frame, but I made it out of multiple individual meshes.

There are two methods of combining meshes that I know of;
The first uses the addon BoolTool:

Select the separate objects that you want to combine
Press Ctrl+Numpad +, to perform a union operation
Press Ctrl+Shift+Numpad Enter to apply the operation

Your separate pieces will now be combined, with new geometry created at the intersections, forming one solid mesh.

The second and lengthier way uses the Intersect (Knife) mesh operation:

Combine two (or more) objects together with Ctrl+J
In edit mode, select all of the faces of one of the meshes, the easy way to do this is to select one face and press Ctrl+L to select all of the linked faces
Press Ctrl+F to bring up the faces menu and select Intersect (Knife), cuts will be made into the unselected faces where the selected faces overlap with them
Select all of the faces and perform the Remove Doubles operation

You will end up with the same result as the first method. It is advised that when using this method to only combine two objects at a time, repeating the above steps for each pairing.

In both cases you will likely be left with N-GONs, a quick, though messy way to remove these without resorting to the Knife tool is the following:

Select all of the faces and/or N-GONs and press Ctrl+T to triangulate them
With all of the faces still selected, press Alt+J to convert the resulting triangles to quads

This may save some time in some areas of the mesh where the N-GONs are relatively simple, but the resulting topology may be lacking.

I hope this helps.


Water animation works in viewport but renders differently (cycles) I have made a simple water text animation using canvas and brush, when i run it in the viewport it looks amazing causing ripples as a sphere glides through the text, however when i set the render animation up and hit render it renders the animation with just the ball going through the text but no amazing ripple effect, i am using blender version 2.8.3
Thanks
Stuart

The answer is that in the tutorial i was trying to follow the guy dosent bake the Dynamic paint where as in newer versions of Blender you need to open up the cache section of Dynamic Paint and click on the bake dynamics button


How can I achieve a domed or "hangar" type cross-section shape? Warning: I'm a day-two Blender user.

Specifically, I want the long, straight edges on the top face of the mesh to sort of "merge down" with the same edges on the bottom face (essentially, reduce it to one edge instead of two), with the curved ends ending up with flat bottoms and topsides curved in an even arc.

This shape was imported as an SVG, extruded and then converted to a mesh, but the geometry of it is super janky and overcomplicated-- WAY too many triangles and vertices. Ideally, the top face would simply be a series of long thin faces that line up with the sides. I tried to simplify the mesh in a couple of ways, but it didn't pan out and now I'm stuck. Should I just be reconstructing this shape some other way, or is this shape I've imported salvageable?

EDIT: I've been asked to clarify the end shape I'm talking about.

Shift+A Select Add a Mesh then select Add a Circle from the drop down menu. You can change the number of vertices in the tool bar on the left.

Press Tab to go into Edit Mode. Select the number of vertices desired to delete bye selecting them and then pressing X and then vertices from the drop down menu.

Select the bottom two vertices and press F to connect them.

Select all of the vertices and press E and then press the letter of the axis you want to extrude them along. For example press E and then Y to extrude along the Y axis.


How to export Collada files in blender Hey i have created an underground tunnel in blender and i want to export it in collada format in blender for using it in my scenekit project but when i export collada file in blender it losses all textures and lights materials which i rendered in blender .You can see in this image i rendered in blender
After exporting to collada format it looks like this
Can some one explain how to export collada files which should be completely like original blender rendered....thanks

You can select how textures should be exported in the "Export COLLADA" options usually on the left hand side of the file browser after you pressed File -> Export -> Collada. The Texture export options are deactivated by default.


where is "View Selected" in blender 2.83? where is "View Selected" in blender 2.83?
(i used to bind this to "Numpad ." with emulate numpad on using 2.7 style keys)
now i am disabled, i can't just centre the view on objects

With the default keymap is still Numpad Period key.
Or use the menu View>Frame Selected. If you enabled tooltips in the preferences it will show you what is the current keyboard shortcut on gray letters on the right of the command.
If you need to change the shortcut, right click on the command and select Change Shortcut.


How get drawing area in callback for quadview? I need help with Quadview drawing. I know how get the quad using the mouse position, but the problem is get the drawing area in the callback.

I have some code like this:

bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_add(draw_callback_px, (self, context), 'WINDOW', 'POST_PIXEL')

..

def draw_callback_px(self, context):
    # mi draw code here
      quad = get_quad(x, y) ???
    # need information of area in pixels or location to select Quad

But, I need the area that is drawing to detect the Quad.

how can get it?

Thanks to CoDEmanX, I have the solution:

 if not context.space_data.region_quadviews:
        rv3d = bpy.context.space_data.region_3d
    else:
        # verify area
        if context.area.type != 'VIEW_3D' or context.space_data.type != 'VIEW_3D':
            return
        i = -1
        for region in context.area.regions:
            if region.type == 'WINDOW':
                i += 1
                if context.region.id == region.id:
                    break
        else:
            return

        rv3d = context.space_data.region_quadviews[i]


Editing different meshes together -- Bezier curve and Circle I've had 100% success finding answers to questions on this site, though, I've finally become stalled on one problem in which I don't even know how to phrase into a search.

I can't seem to edit both meshes at the same time. The first mesh started from a 'CIRCLE' and the second mesh started from a 'BEZIER CURVE' which I converted to mesh via ALT+C --> Mesh from Curve.

I'm trying to knife the intersection and delete the inner faces but I cannot get both of the objects into edit mode (mesh) at the same time? I notice both are on different scenes - "BezierCurve" and "Circle", which I feel has something to do with the problem?

Here are two pictures showing the two different meshes in edit mode while the other one remains in object mode. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

You can never enter edit mode in two objects at the same time, this is a fundamental part of Blenders design philosophy
If you want to edit two meshes at the same time join them together with Ctrl+J. Have in mind that this may have undesirable effects, and will mess with modifiers.
Knife project doesn't require entering edit mode in two objects at the same time, only the object to be cut. You may be confusing it object mode Boolean operations
Knife project will not work well for what you are trying to achieve. It only works when the "knife" object is a flat shape or fundamentally bi-dimentional

You may want to use the Boolean modifier or edit mode Boolean Operations instead. The former requires two objects, but no edit mode, the later requires you yo join both objects.

Have in mind that both Knife Project and Boolean operations are discourage modelling tools. Booleans are very prone to errors, and both will produce low quality meshes, with bad topology, duplicate geometry, artifacts, hard to texture and bad for animation.


complex sphere deformations I am trying to design this chair, the base is very easy.

What I'm struggling with is the weird cut in the middle, do I manually have to move vertices? if so, i will have to apply my subsurf 1st? Just a little lost.

Mesh

In the image above are three stages of the mesh. Left to Right. Hemisphere.  Hemisphere with a loop cut and delete vertices.  Last mesh image has subdivision surface modifier.

Create enough vertex density appropriate to the model.  Because there is a deep recess with edges near each other you should consider the object as possessing protrusions .. or arms.
Remove Vertices for flowing face density if possible
Hemisphere from sphere
Loop Cut for more density.  This prepares for the deep cut.  You can barely see how the Z height of the cut face area is now half of the surrounding face z height.  Thus allowing more detail.  Loop Cut can be searched.
Delete vertices on Both Sides.  This will allow the deep cut while keeping regular vertex density.
Consider Proportional edit or Lattice to shape the mesh.
Subdivision Surface Modifier
Modify and Improve to your tastes
You are the Artist and can improve the crude mesh depicted above

Most forward mesh to viewer has used proportional edit.  Proportional edit may be searched here at BSE.


add-ons in a linux installation of blender I have been trying to find a how-to or article which explains installing add-on .zips in Linux. I am using Ubuntu 20.04. It seems that there are a lot of add-ons available at Blender Market, like "Construction Lines" which only come as a .zip, but you can only see this after you have purchased. It seems the .zips don't install into the Ubuntu installation. Are they thought to work? Am I just doing something wrong? Is there a divide in the community or processes for making blender add-ons for Linux vs Windows? There doesn't seem to be much written about this, so I am thinking that I am just doing something wrong and perhaps it's supposed to work.

Avoid using distro packages since they don't usually work well. Grab the binary from the website unzip it and double click on the executable to run it.


What do these yellow key frames mean and why can't I select or delete them? I'm new to animating in Blender. Using version 2.82 and these key frames (not the bars between the keyframes) look exactly like the white ones when the white ones are selected, but I can't seem to do anything to them and they don't appear under summary.

You are using the filter/search option of the dopesheet. You have entered the filter string i and hence only the names of curves containing i are showing. (Even though we still get the visual indication that there are more keys, which we can't select.)

Simply remove the search term, to view all of the keys of the selected objects.


Loop_multi_select selects nothing? I am trying to select a loop from an edge using loop_multi_select.

def loop_from_edge(edge, mesh):

    bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='DESELECT')
    edge.select = True
    bpy.ops.mesh.loop_multi_select(ring = False)
    selected_verts = [v for v in mesh.vertices if v.select]
    return selected_verts

I have also tried mode toggling based on someone's suggestion.

def loop_from_edge(edge, mesh):

    bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='DESELECT')
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
    edge.select = True
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
    bpy.ops.mesh.loop_multi_select(ring = False)
    selected_verts = [v for v in mesh.vertices if v.select]
    return selected_verts

The selected_verts array remains empty. I know that edge is valid and contains vertices. I am concluding that loop_multi_select isn't selecting anything, or I somehow cannot access the selected verts. How do I make loop_multi_select work?

there are two problems :

edge.select = True not working as expected because passing the edge itself doesn't work (switching modes seem to break this pointer ),you should pass the index of the edge instead
selected_verts = [v for v in mesh.vertices if v.select] will be empty unless you switch back to object mode to update the mesh

this is the working code :

def loop_from_edge(edge_ind, mesh):
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='DESELECT')
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
    mesh.edges[edge_ind].select = True
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
    bpy.ops.mesh.loop_multi_select(ring = False)
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
    selected_verts = [v for v in mesh.vertices if v.select]
    return selected_verts


Camera Positioning (Similar to Maya?) So when I used Maya, I was able to pan the viewport around, and wherever the center of the viewport was, I would rotate around that, instead of some other rotation point. Is there a way for me to set this to be the default in Blender? Thanks!

When you are in he camera view (numpad 0), you can either use the "lock camera to view" option in the right menu in the viewport (open with N).

or press Shift+F for a egoshooter-like camera control (WASD to move, Q and E to move up and down and tab to enable gravity and finally the mousewheel to control your speed). I think this is the best option for camera positioning.


Script to help with edge loop deletion I'm not new to Blender but I am new to the scripting aspect, so this isn't something I can throw together yet.. But I need this functionality to speed up my workflow. I would like to ask if the process outlined below is possible to script.
loop through all objects and do the following to each:

In edit mode, select a single edge at the end of the "cylinder" (doesn't matter which side)

Select edge rings

Checker de-select

Select Edge Loops

Delete Edge Loops

I think the first part is probably the hardest.. it needs to "find" and select an edge in the end loop. I would like to learn scripting so I plan to build off of this one here. Help in building this script would be greatly appreciated!

Here is what I came up with:
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'EDIT')
bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode(type="VERT")
bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action = 'DESELECT')
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'OBJECT')
obj.data.vertices[0].select = True
obj.data.vertices[1].select = True
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'EDIT')
bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode(type="EDGE")

#bpy.ops.mesh.edgering_select
bpy.ops.mesh.loop_multi_select(ring=True)

bpy.ops.mesh.select_nth(nth=1, skip=1)

bpy.ops.mesh.loop_multi_select(ring=False)

bpy.ops.mesh.delete_edgeloop()

It isnt very clean or "Pythonic" so any suggestions would still be appreciated!


Irregularity in my rendered image Close to a final result but not yet ... I have this irregularity in my rendered image (left bottom corner).

I guess it is caused by a small irregularity in my mesh ??

Is this correct ? And how best to solve such issues ?

No, that is a red spot in the image you are using as environment (it seems a red "camera" led)... :) it is just reflected by your glossy phone model.


How can I reset and align bones? My question is quite easy and straight forward.
I'm rigging a low poly dog I modeled in order to give him a "pose" before rendering. My problem is that once created the bones for the right part of the body I duplicated them to the left part of it in order to to avoid to re place them one by one. The paws [front and back] of my dog point to an external object [null] in order to avoid to have them always parallel to the ground.

My problem is that once duplicated them the paws of the other side still point to the pointers of the right side. I tried to duplicate them and link to the bones of the paws but nothing happens.

Is there a way to "unlink" the left paws and "relink" them to the new pointers?
I'm adding the bones I created in order to make my explanation a little bit more clear.

Thank you in advance for your help
Ciao to everyone!

P.s. I uploaded the file on 2shared.com in order to make it accessible to everyone.

http://www.2shared.com/file/gKR5AgUL/bulldog_ricomincia_zampe.html

If you select in edit mode a bone whose "pointing" you want to change, you should be able to go to the tab that looks like a single bone in the Properties panel. Then, under Relations, go to the Parent: drop down menu, clear the current parent, and select the new desired one from the list. Repeat this process until finished.

I used this website when learning to rig. There are many good pointers on it.

Update:

To answer the question in your reply, select the offending foot, and go to the Bone Constraints tab in the Properties panel. Where it says punta_zampa_ant_dx, click and change to punta_zampa_ant_dx.001, the other empty. Repeat for the other offending foot, but select its empty instead of punta_zampa_ant_dx.001.


How to cut one group of faces with another group of faces? First off, I would like to apologize for any mis-terming or anything of the like, as this is my first blender project. I'm trying to make a mesh model, and I like to have everything neat and connected. I have run into one problem multiple times, that is that I need to connect two parts of the mesh at a certain point, which is inside another face. Is there any way that I can use both face to "cut" each other, sort of making a cross a corner? I have some screenshots below for clarification.

You could try and use edit mode Boolean Operations (only available in Blender 2.77+)

Go into edit mode, select one of the groups of faces you want to use, open the Spacebar Menu and search for Boolean. Then choose one the the options that suits you best.

If you need the original intact faces you may need to create a copy of your objects first.

Have in mind that these will merge faces together and likely result in bad topology and non manifold meshes.

You should always strive for clean topology manifold meshes, and quad-based or quad-dominant topology


How to display edge lneghts on non-highlighted edges? When I'm in edit mode, I can use the N menu to toggle on the edge info Length option.
This is great, but the problem is that I need to see the length of the edge while I'm edge beveling a vert. (crl+shift+b).

Is there some way to do this?

Thank you.

In the N panel Under Mesh Display
Click on the length
And active on Normal (i.e. vertex, edge, face) what length you want to view
If you click on the vertex it show the vertex, etc


how can I select all objects in a collections using python? I want to select all objects in a collection (collection names are known).
pseudo:
selectedObjs1 = allObjectsInCollectionName; <--- How?
for all objects in selectedObjs1:
    process...

Thanks.

If you want to process every object in a collection, you would have to iterate through Collection.all_objects:
collection = bpy.data.collections["collection_name"]
for obj in collection.all_objects:
    print(obj.name)

Further reading: How to list all collections and their objects?


How to use those arrows for scaling the cube? Im following a tutorial but they dont tell you how to bring those arrows in. Can help me how?

Most likely the "tutor" is scaling the object.
Press S (shortcut for "scale") and move the mouse out (to grow), or in (to reduce size).
But you should seriously consider following a "tutorial" that actually explains things... Don't waste your time with videos that don't help you learn.


Rotate along curve, using a empty? I´m trying to rotate an array of objects along a curve, using a empty object in the middle that can be rotated.
Using a curve-modifier I'm able to rotate the objects as the green arrows show. But I would like to just rotate the empty (red arrow) to get the same result or maybe I should use a bone?

Is there a way to still be able to rotate the objects after pressing apply on the curve-modifier?

If you want to use the empty as a kind of control object, you could parent the object(s) being deformed to the empty using Ctrl-P and the objects would move around the curve when the empty was moved.


Sticky Selection Mode has no effect on random proportional editing in UV Editor After UV mapping the default cube, I have

I keep the Sticky Selection Mode setting in the UV Editor header on Shared Location and enable proportional editing with Proportional Editing Falloff set to Random.

Then, if I move the selected vertex with G, all the other vertices come apart.

Is there any way to keep the vertices together?

I don't think so. Sticky Selection mode is for, well, selections. What it does is make it so that when you select one vertex, it also selects the one the are on the *same* position.

So it doesn't, and furthermore shouldn't, make what you want.


Why can't I create edge loops inside of my mesh The edge loops do not go on the inside of the cube wall. I made the wall from a cube following a floor plan. I tried using the knife tool but the edges it generated were not able to be selected. What is a solution to this. The walls all have 4 vertices and are not n-gons.
Thanks
Blend File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ktpjiulkh9Ij2qSE3IGn35xmdYjVs1Ur/view?usp=sharing

Here's the problem:

Loop cut only works on quads, but inner wall face has some extra verts. I assume you have a window or something on the other side.
You could fix your topology by having those loops continue all the way around. You usually want most of the mesh to be quads, exectly to not encounter problems such as this.


In Blender's built in text editor is there a way to read a built in class or function's docstrings? I suppose I can just google search the scripting documentation and keep another tab open but can I do this more directly in Blender? Maybe using the python console or directly in the text editor? I also installed the Code Autocomplete addon but I am not sure if it does what I want.

When inspecting a python object in the Python Console, press ⎈ CtrlSpace to Autocomplete.

If the completion is ambigous, the console will complete the command upto a certain point and offer you the options. If you end with a period, all properties are displayed.

⎈ CtrlSpace on a not completed function (where the closing bracket or more is missing) will print a docstring if available.


How can I simulate physics steps in advance? Think of the trajectory of two objects that will collide in the future. I want to display this collision as a prediction, so that the player can do something to avoid the collision.

At my disposal is the linear velocity at t_0, but if I only add that to my current position I just get a straight line (obviously) but if I save it in an object with python, this value will be available at the next timestep t_1 and I can reconstruct the change of velocity from that.

If I assume this change to be constant I can get to some curve, which is better, but it's still nowhere near what the gameobject will actually do.

Is there a better way to do this?

I think you can use four ray sensors, info can be found here from blender api.
Depending on what you are doing, you may want use radar.

From that if some sensor collides with some obj you can get the distance obj1.getDistanceTo(obj2), world trajectory and speedobj2.localLinearVelocity in m/s.

Anyway, I come up with this, the trajectory. I hope its useful.

from bge import logic
from mathutils import Vector
import math

class vehicle:

    def __init__(self, body):
        self.cont = logic.getCurrentController().owner
        self.body = body
        self.front_ray = self.cont.sensors["front_ray"]
        self.main = self.moving
        pass

    def moving(self):
        velocity = Vector((0,40,0))
        velocity.magnitude = 4
        self.body.setLinearVelocity(velocity,1)
        self.body.applyRotation((0,0,0.02),1)
        if self.front_ray.hitObject:
            self.check_thread(self.front_ray.hitObject)
            pass
        pass

    def check_thread(self, obj):
        rot_obj = obj.localOrientation.to_euler()
        self_rot = self.body.localOrientation.to_euler()
        max_angle_limit = math.radians(-160)
        min_angle_limit = math.radians(-200)

        if rot_obj.z < max_angle_limit and rot_obj.z > min_angle_limit:
            print("ALARM : COLLISION DETECTION FROM :", self.front_ray)

        pass

def main(cont):
    own = cont.owner

    if not "init" in own:
        own['init'] = True
        own['vehicle'] = vehicle(own)

    own['vehicle'].main()


How to bring back Archipack measurement diagram when I click other tools? I'm building a wall using mesh Archipack and the measurement diagram disappears every time I click other tools. How to bring it back?

Select your object, then press "N" to display right panel of 3d view, find "Archipack" tab, and press "Manipulate" on top of this tab.


Solidify modifier distorted I'm working on the legs of a garden fireplace, but when I use the solidify modifier to give thickness to the legs, they become very distorted. I hope the image will clarify this bad explanation.

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

The scaling is probably not uniform across the mesh (i.e. X, Y and Z have been scaled to different values in object mode), therefore the "Solidify" thickness varies according to direction.

Do CtrlA > Scale to fix this and this should fix the behaviour of Solidify too.

Example: the mesh (with solidify) is stretched along a single direction. Solidify gets distorted. Then "Scale" is applied and it gets fixed.

at the end it's not a glitch: it's me comparing the effect before and after


How can I animate these planes for Unity game Assets? How can I animate the blender file here:  to be used in the Unity game engine? People recommend using the Action Editor. Furthermore, would I need to merge all the planes into one object for use? Hope to hear from you soon <3

Is it your plan to just rotate arms and legs as if It where 2D pixel art?

Use the timeline (the meter with the frame numbers and the green line indicating current position, at the bottom) to go to say frame 25. Now rotate the legs to pose the character as if it were walking, press key "i" to insert a new keyframe, in the menu that just appeared click on "LocRotScale", now drag the green line in the time line from 25 to 0 and from 0 to 25 again, watch how your character walks. Apply this to do more complex movements.

The good thing is that you only need to pose the character in the initial position, then advance x number of frames (depending on how fast you want the movement to be) and pose it in the final position and insert keyframe there. The frames in between will be extrapolated by Blender. You only need to insert more keyframes in the middle of a movement to do more complex movements.

Also, you probably want linear extrapolation of keyframes: How do I make animations a steady speed?

Yes, you can use the Action Editor to save each animation as actions but... I would not trouble myself into do so, I would just save all animations as a continuous very long time line. If you will export as a 2D spritesheet that is precisely the more practical to do. If you will use it as 3D assets maybe you need the actions in order to trigger them by action name from the game engine code.

I don't sure about the state of .blend files support in Unity, I don't know If It will import the actions at all.

No, you don't need to merge all planes into one object. Actually, by having them as separated objects, you can insert keyframes for each plane individually and move them independently. If you join everything into a single object, you will have to use an armature to animate legs and arms (because I think that changes done in Edit Mode to the mesh are globally applied across all keyframes making it impossible to create keyframes by rotating things in Edit Mode. While poses done with armature can be keyframed).


How to cover a surface with cells (Biological tissue) I am looking for an efficient way to cover a mesh with cells (spheres) to obtain results similar to the image below (i.e. a realistic biological tissue).

It's a problem I have struggled so much and I have tried many things but I am probably missing something. The closest I have ever got to it was by sourrounding the mesh with a particle emitter (the wireframe sphere in the image below) and having the cells fall from it and stick to the mesh, like here:

The problem with this setup is that I have little control on where the cells land, and it seems I need to generate so many more than required because many overlap. Moreover, when I try with more complex shapes, cells have a hard time reaching all points and leave empty gaps:

I have also tried with the tesselate function of the tissue addon, but it leads the pattern that is generated is too "regular" (EDIT: added picture for clarity), I would need cells to be all offset to each other, and possibly adapt to each other's shape at contact points, like in the example image above.

Do you have any solutions I could try?
Thank you very much in advance!

Final:

Overview:

I think the best option would be to use Metaball as a Hair object.

This method will need a little bit of experimenting as it could highly differ between meshes.

Metaball settings:

In Edit Mode set Resolution as low as possible, it will be better looking while rendering, as preview resolution is always a bit lower.

Really low Threshold along with high Stiffness will give more defined Mballs. As well as scaling Ellipsoid on Y axis. Higher scaling, more noticeable bumps.

Particle System settings:

Nothing fancy here.

Tweak all settings as you like. In this example I've used ones below.


generated texture displacement adds a line to the displacement I'm trying to add displacement to an object via generated textures in cycles. For some reason it adds this line across my objects. If I view the texture on the surface it looks fine (see 2nd screenshot). The moment i use a diffuse color on the surface the line shows up. I've tried adding a "normal" node as well as displacement node. I can't make the line go away. Any ideas? Thanks!

You are presumably using a Blender version greater than 2.79b - eg, 2.79.5 - where the Displacement socket is now a vector rather than a scalar value (blue rather than gray). You need to add a Displacement node before the Displacement socket to convert the ‘height’ from your texture into a vector along the normal of the surface, rather than interpreting it as a cector in world space.


Make an object infinitely far away? I have a moon object and I'd like it not to be affected by parallax for the camera. I want it to look as if it's infinitely far away, without just moving it really far away in my scene. Is this possible?

You could make the moon move relative to the camera.

Select the camera and ⇧ ShiftS snap the cursor to it. Then add an empty at that position. ⇧ ShiftA

Select the moon. ⇧ Shift select the the empty and parent the moon to the empty ⎈ CtrlP.

Select the empty. Add a Copy Location Constraint. Choose the camera as the target.
Fake lighting by the moon with a sun lamp. The sun lamp type sends parallel rays, which simulate an object which is infinitely far away.
You may encounter that the moon is casting a shadow (from the sun light) or emitting light (if you're using the cycles render engine). To prevent that in cycles, you modify the moons visibility settings and disable all options except camera.

If you are using EEVEE, simply move the sun light between all object and the moon, which has to have the furthest distance to the camera.

Due to the relative offset, the moon is always at the same position.


How to scale an object relatively to the distance of its edges? In that kind of situation

I'd like to scale down the whole object until the top edge and the bottom one are separated of 1 unit distance. How could I do that?

Not sure if this is what you need.

Enable edge length in the overlay

Add an edge between the two points. You can do this with fill f to make sure it does not split the mesh at all.

Scale the whole object s and hold down the shift to be more precise. Stop when you get to the correct length and then delete the edge you added.


After finishing using blender, I tried to render it but the render icon won't show up at the top left of my laptop screen. How do I fix it? I finished using blender and all for bending limbs for this game called ROBLOX but when I actually finished it, it won't show up. When I say it won't show up, I mean the icon you use to render something in blender literally won't show up. All I saw were the icons View, Select, Add, and Object. Please get back to me ASAP

So what seems to have happened here is you switched out the main menu bar for another 3d view. If you look at the extreme top left of your screen, to the left of what you have in the screenshot there should be a little icon with two small arrows. Click on that and a menu will pop up showing all of the different editors in blender. To get the menu you had before  you will want to select the info editor (the one with the blue i icon third from the bottom). That should get you back to where you were before.


Odd Vertices When Using The Knife Tool When I use the knife tool on my mesh, any face connected to the cut becomes "incorrect". (I don't know the true term)

The underside of my mesh was smooth before I cut the mesh. Now, there are odd triangles that even appear in the render.

Have you tried the J "join" tool instead?

Here is a link to the Blender Reference Manual on Vertex tools

https://www.blender.org/manual/modeling/meshes/editing/vertices.html


Visual Studio can't read submodule definitions in Bpy OS: Windows

Python version: 3.7.4  (is in path, system wide install)

Blender version: 2.83 (from current source)

Issue: I can't get Visual Studio to show code suggestions past the main bpy level.

I followed the steps to build blender as a python module exactly but I can't seem to get it to work properly: https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Building_Blender/Other/BlenderAsPyModule

How could I build bpy to work like any other library?

Importing bpy into python console works:

For reference, listing modules in the console shows these modules do exist

The problem was that for some reason the available docs don't work for Visual Studio Community, but they do work for VS Code.

I feel like VS Community just doesn't know where to look for the rest of the definitions bc if you move the entire 2.83 file from bin\Release\ to C:\Python37\, the IDE actually shows some code suggestions but not everything. At this point it's easier to just use VS Code for addon development and VS Community for blender development


Dragging files into blender Is there away to click and drag an STL file from a folder or my desktop to Blender? or do I have to use the old fashion way file-import?

Just the good old fashioned import I'm afraid. If you have a lot of STL's, I believe you can batch import them via. Python scripting. I have found this thread, this however is OBJ's and on Mac, but perhaps it cna point you in the right direction:-)

Drag and drop importing of .OBJ files


What is an easy way to correct the position of the lower jaw of the dog? After animation and parented to armature? Is it possible? I have this dog mesh which is already parented to the armature. I made sure that the whole head was parented to the head armature, but the lower jaw still somehow appears to be deformed after animation. Initially it looked fine, but after turning the dog head around, the lower jaw move weirdly.

What can I do to fix this?

Additionally, I tried to edit mesh while it is parented to the armature. It didn't work.

I tried to weight paint the head portion of the mesh again. Which didn't work either.

Update: Since I couldn't figure out how to correct it, I decided to edit each frames that involves the deformed mouth in photoshop. Which kind of sucks, but I think it looks fine, almost noticeable (I think). I would still like to hear the solution though.

I have figured out how to do it in a way. I couldn't correct the jaw. What I did was duplicate the lower jaw and then separate it from the body mesh. Reparent the lower jaw (which have to be rescaled and repositioned), but it still follow the animation pretty well.


Mirror vertex groups I have already weight painted and assigned geometry to the left half of my model. I would like to copy thee contents to the right half of the model. How do I this?

.blend file

Go to the vertex group panel and choose Copy Vertex Group (from the drop down menu) for each group you want to mirror. Then select the copy and choose Mirror Vertex Group.


Can't update / remove keyframe values from an imported Collada file I'm trying to edit keyframes in an existing animation in a .dae file I have imported to Blender 2.68a, however none of the changes I make seem to stick. I select the bone in pose mode, change the rotation and/or location and then insert or update the keyframe, however when I move to another frame my values are lost and the bone resets. Its as if the keyframe was never set, I can see the new keyframe however in the dopesheet.

I've applied an armature to a cube in the same file and animated it in the usual fashion and everything works fine so I'm assuming it is a setting or issue to do with the setup of the imported Collada mesh. None of the keyframes appear to be locked, and no settings jump out at me immediately as being the cause.

Google hasn't been much help, however I did find the post below where the OP seems to be having the exact same issue as me, unfortunately he didn't seem to find an answer.

animation problem - losing pose on an inserted keyframe

I feel like it is potentially something really simple I am missing. Unfortunately I can't post the file itself as I purchased it and can't freely distribute it, I have attached an image showing my file setup however.

Has anyone come across a similar problem?

The problem seemed to be that the imported collada file had multiple sets of clones of the same keyframes - 5 in my case. I'm not sure if this is a problem with the current collada import script or just with certain files, but I managed to fix the file by deleting all but the last set of cloned keyframes for each bone via the dopesheet. Once this was done I could successfully change the Quaternion channels and keyframe them as per normal. The imported animation is preserved and now editable.


How could I add the FLIP Fluids obstacle component to multiple objects at once? I'm creating a simulation involving a cell-fractured object. There are 600+ objects in my scene that have to be FLIP Fluid obstacles, is it possible to add the component to each object automatically? There's a similar feature to this for copying Rigidbody settings.

SOLVED! I selected all of the fractures, clicked on the sidebar, and hit the Add/Remove Obstacle button.


'Snap during transform' not doing anything I've encountered a strange problem with the snap during transform setting, where it seems to be being ignored.

I've tried toggling it on/off, using the different snap modes (to vertex, edge, face, etc), snap targets, but the behavior that I previously had (being able to drag a vertex towards another and have it snap) seems to have been lost somehow.

I'm assuming I accidentally hit a key combo that changed something but I'm fairly new to blender so I'm not sure what that would be.

Hitting Ctrl seems to move the vertex some units in a direction, but doesn't actually snap it to the nearby vertex.

Here's a quick image of what I'm experiencing:

I should mention that snapping to grid seems to work fine - all other snapping methods do not.

The reason why it does not seem to work is that the mouse cursor is not hovering exactly over the vertex which is to snap.

Enable Snap during transform by clicking on the red Magnet symbol or by pressing Shift + Tab.
Choose Vertex as Snap Element
Enable Snap onto itself

*If Snap during transform is disabled you can hold down Ctrl during Translation (G).*

Hover the Mouse cursor over the desired Vertex

Make sure you hover exactly over the Vertex otherwise it won't snap

A little circle will appear on the Vertex

&nbsp

Another possibility to achieve the desired result is to Merge the Vertices

Select the two Vertice by holding down Shift and click RMB
Press W and choose Merge
Choose 'Merge at Last' or 'Merge at First' depending on the selection order


How to select outer edge of selected faces? For example, when faces like below are selected, is there any fast way to switch the selection from the faces to the edges that are marked as blue? (Deselect the faces, select only the outer edges.)

With the desired faces selected, go to Select > Select Loops > Select Boundary Loop.

If you use it frequently, right click on Select Boundary Loop, and add it to the Quick Favourites menu (Accessed by Q)


Textures bake transparency as white I'm trying to bake tile maps into a single texture for someone and I'm having difficulties baking transparency.
For example one texture is literally transparency with baked shadows but this bakes as a white texture with gray shading.
All images are .tga format and are between 128^2 and 512^2 resolution.

Turns out, you need to edit the alpha and specular values under Z Transparency and turn on the Alpha influence.

Basically, remove the Alpha and Specular values entirely(Set to 0 or -1, can't remember which) under the Z Transparency in the Material Editor. Then, under the Influence tab in the texture editor, add the Alpha channel and then shift it to 0.


How to do transparent textures on Emission node in Blender Cycles I want to apply a transparent texture to an emssion node in a way that the the emission node will emit just from the not transparent parts of the image texture.  How to achieve this effect ?

Here' s a Picture of it

Are you going for something like this?

If so, then it's as simple as someonewithpc said, just an Emission shader mixed with a Transparent shader using the texture for the Fac.


How can Waves of the Ocean Simulator flattened on a Beach Area? I'm currently trying to flatten waves of the ocean simulator on a beach area using a lattice. But sometimes the end of the waves mesh becomes visible. When the influence of the lattice is increased too much it pulls the whole ocean to the beach.

What would be a better way to achieve this?

The images should illustrate the issues faced:

I just tried out using the shrinkwrap modifier and it worked. Set the mode to "project". You might have to make a separate mesh that the ocean shrinkwraps to that doesn't include those things that look like rocks and stuff.

Beyond that, you might also want to look into using fluid simulation or animating little waves or something similar if this isn't what you're after.


Blender equivalent of GIMP Levels tool I have been trying to replicate the effect of Gimp Levels tool in blender but could not quite get the same result as in GIMP.
My attempt is summarized on the picture below, I tried to remap the values to a new range but that did not really work.
Any idea how to achieve the same effect?

The upper part of the Levels tool, "Input Levels",

should be equivalent to mapping the "Value" channel of the input image to the output image through a ColorRamp:

Separate HSVA, then recombine them with Combine HSVA, but add a Color Ramp between the V sockets. In the Color Ramp add a slider ("+") and moving the three sliders should behave the same as in Levels.


Export TGA or BMP textures for WebGL Bablylon.js has a exporter plug-in for Blender. Works great, but some of the models that I get from turbosquid have TGA based textures. Since WebGL needs textures in JPG, PNG, or other web friendly formats, I am forced to convert hunderds of TGA  or BMP textures by hand to JPG or PNG.

Does anyone have a batch way of doing this?

(also I am specifically looking for suburban scenes such as:
http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/housing-development-rt-3d-model/760773

But they do their trees as two-intersecting planes (great for Max 3DS). But WebGL engines like sprites. So I also need a way to convert those artifacts..

(see below for the tree meshes that will not work in WebGL):

There is an addon to batch convert image files with blender.

After installing the addon, the usage is simple:

Tell the addon where the folder of images is (must contain only the images to convert)
Give it a output folder
Set the render settings correctly (you will want PNG)
Click the Batch convert button.

To keep the original file sizes, check the Keep Original Resolution check box in the Batch Converter settings in the tool shelf.


is there have any way to use a Virtual numpad? I want to press the Q KEY to show the Virtual numpad. and then use left mouse to select the view.just like press the numpad keys.

is there have any way to do like this? or have any addons to do ?

Enable the pie menus addon, one of the pie menus it adds is the view menu which is attached to Q.


best way to select edge to use bmesh.ops.bevel I would like to bevel some of the edges of my object.
I tried this code (works but is not consistent)

bm.edges.ensure_lookup_table()
ebd = [
        {'idx': 20, 'profile': 0.5, 'offset': 0.005, 'segments': 10},
    ]

# first get the edges
for i in range(len(ebd)):
    ebd[i]['edge'] = bm.edges[ebd[i]['idx']]

# bevel each edge
for i in range(len(ebd)):
    e = ebd[i]['edge']
    bev_geom = [e.verts[0], e.verts[1], e]
    p = ebd[i]['profile']
    o = ebd[i]['offset']
    s = ebd[i]['segments']
bmesh.ops.bevel(bm, geom=bev_geom, offset=o, segments=s, profile=p)

I noticed that the index number of the edges changes. So every time I run this code another edge is bevelled. maybe I do something wrong idk.
What I did noticed is that the vertex number is the same every time I insert the object. So I was wondering and could not find any on the forum so far that shows me how to select an edge based on 2 vertices. Or how I can select the edges I want and then bevel them so that every time I insert the object the correct edges are bevelled.

Another code I tried is

    indices1 = [3, 15]
    vertices = [e for e in bm.verts]
    v_edges = []
    for vert in vertices:
        if vert.index in indices1:
            vert.select = True
            v_edges = v_edges + [vert]
        else:
            vert.select = False

bmesh.ops.bevel(bm,
                #bev_geom=v_edges,
                geom = v_edges,
                offset=0.005,
                segments=10,
                profile=0.5
                )

This will obviously select 2 vertices.
Can i use these 2 vertices to select the edge between them?

Regards

I tried thes Lines:

import bmesh
from bpy import context as C

m = C.active_object.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(m)

indices = [0,1]
for e in bm.edges:
    if e.verts[0].index in indices and e.verts[1].index in indices:
        e.select = True
        break

The selection doesn't show up in edge select mode, but if you go to vert select, and back to edge, the edge will be correctly displayed as selected.
How to continue from there with the operator, I have not tested.


why this face is always black? I unwrapped the whole mesh, but one face is always black, I tried CtrlN and ShiftCtrlN but there is no change.

in the 2d editor "View > UV Local View" isn't selected

you can get the blend here : http://www.pasteall.org/blend/37300

The black face's normal is flipped so you have to recalculate the normals (Toggle into Edit Mode Tab > Select All A > Recalculate Normals Ctrl+N)
and also move the light source to see that the texture is there and it's just bad lighting causing the black face.


Texture Mapping with a Circular Texture I have a planet texture that I would like to map onto a UV sphere. The texture is a circular texture (I have attached it below).

Currently, I've been using a node setup that works for mapping matcaps onto spheres. However, it just causes the texture to be pixelated on the mesh, even when I apply a subsurf modifier.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

The texture is only half of the sphere. If you UV-unwrap the half UV sphere by "project from view", e.g. in X direction, it could work, because the texture is itself projected from view - but I haven't tried myself.


Why NLA editor run only the top action strip I get an error when I try to create a walk cycle using two action strip. The first is walk cycle in place and the second moving cycle from point A to point b. I could not understand why the NLA run only the top action ?
When I put the walk cycle as the top, the person walks in place and when I put the moving cycle at the top the person moves from A to B without any motion walking!!!

You keyframed all bones in the movement action:

When you delete everything but the first (master) then it would work as expected.

The reason why couldn't see this is the checked show_only_errors option:

.blend


How do I remove the shadow of an emitting geometry? How do I remove the shadow cast by the rectangle using the cycles renderer?

Extrude the plane slightly or use a cylinder. What you see is not the shadow, rather the geometry emits no light to the ground in this spot.

In case there are multiple light sources in the scene, disable the Shadow property for each emitter (Object Properties > Cycles Settings), see How to render an object without its shadow?


Making road like in YT tutorial trouble When I use curve modifier with array modifier to make a road this happens:

https://imgur.com/a/2ig4yRc

tutorial I work with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPmzhqfw-7I

On your file you didn't create any Curve modifier, so nothing happens. Put the Curve modifier below the Array modifier. You'll see that your object is completely swollen. That's because you have somehow played with the vertices radius as you can see in the 3D view T panel if you select the curve, switch to Edit mode and select all. Bring this value back to 1.


Mirror modifier changes behaviour of scaling 2.8 I think I'm just doing something wrong here. I looked around here and found several issues pertaining to scaling and mirroring but I couldn't find one that I felt was applicable to me.

Basically I'm learning Blender for the first time through an online course. They had us cut one of our models in two, and then apply the mirror modifier.

This works fine, but then I try to scale out the top ring of my model by three units, and got some weird results.

The top one has a mirror modifier with the top ring scaled out three units and you can see how it's created this oval shape.

The bottom one is the same shape as above pre-scaling. I applied the mirror modifier so it became a full shape again, and then selected the top ring and scaled it out again by three units, and it presents how I expected the mirror modifier above to.. So what am I missing?

You can find my .blend file here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rSZ_AsEMzvMw5ZtUSTj-y5NMIoj8Fer0/view?usp=sharing

If you use median point or individual origins as pivot point as you can see on the first picture the transformation's origin won't be at the center of your selected mesh because it doesn't include the mirrored verts only the real ones. So you have to use the 3D cursor as the transformation's origin at the right place as you can see on the last picture.


Is there a way to pack all simulation results in to one file? So I have a simulation that I will do on one computer then move to another to do the rendering.The reason is because computer A is faster at simulation but bad at rendering computer B is horrible at simulation but is great at rendering. So would there be a way to put all of the simulation files together(Packing doesn't work).

No you can't pack the simulation into the .blend file, but you can save the blend file and the baked simulations on to the same folder and move them to a different computer for rendering.

Just make sure you use relative paths //


2.81 "Alpha" drop down menu in Scene>Film tab missing? I changed from cycles to evee and back and there is no setting to change Alhpa from sky to transparent, I'm trying to make the background transparent in cycles and nothing is working please help, RGBA is ticked, Scene>File>Transparent is ticked yet still nothing.

I played around with some of the settings i used, it looks like the Volume scatter in the shading tab was the problem i removed it and it works now


Object persisting in scene after endObject is called I have a problem with objects that have their endObject method called persisting in the scene even after the next frame is called.

The game is a basic shooter where at the end of every game I need to delete all the projectiles and targets from the scene and repopulate it with new targets:

if 'restartGame' in data:
       # get current scene
       scene=bge.logic.getCurrentScene()

       # clean scene from expirable objects
       iter = 0
       not_clean = True
       while not_clean:
            # gather expirable objects
            balls = [object for object in scene.objects if 'Ball' in object.name]
            bullets = [object for object in scene.objects if object.name=='Bullet']

            # mark as expired
            for ball in balls:
                ball.endObject()
            for bullet in bullets:
                bullet.endObject()

            # wait for garbage collection
            bge.logic.NextFrame()

            # update scene
            scene=bge.logic.getCurrentScene()

            # check if expirables are gone
            balls = [object for object in scene.objects if 'Ball' in object.name]
            bullets = [object for object in scene.objects if object.name=='Bullet']

            not_clean = (len(balls)+len(bullets)>0)
            print('attempt {}: Balls = {}, bullets = {}'.format(iter, len(balls), len(bullets)))
            iter += 1

        # repopulate targets
        scene.addObject('Ball1')
        scene.addObject('Ball2')
        scene.addObject('Ball3')

Most of the time, the above code works with a single pass of the while loop. Sometimes I get a single bullet persisting. Much more rarely it seems to be impossible to delete any of the objects and I end up with, e.g., 52 bullets and 3 targets in the scene that cannot be deleted. They are not visible, but they remain in the scene and if I break the loop they accumulate.

The weird thing is that sometimes they get deleted by themselves by the time the next call to the restartGame is made. Any ideas for what might be going wrong?

The game is controlled by an outside script through socketing, which makes simply reloading the blend file hard. Any workarounds?

It emerges that the issue was that bge.logic.NextFrame() did not produce the next frame independently, but it required a manual incrementing of the simulation time. I have gotten rid of my problem by adding the following lines:

simulationTime += dT
bge.logic.setClockTime(simulationTime)

Hope this helps somebody.