To control the Bind of the Surface Deform Modifier with Python I'm going to write a script that adds Surface Deform Modifier to multiple objects in batches and binds it to the target object.
I succeeded in adding a Modifier to all selected objects and setting a target object, but failed to bind. Currently, my script runs Bind operation only for the active object.
How can I fix my script?
import bpy

obs             = bpy.context.selected_objects
modifier_type   = 'SURFACE_DEFORM'
modifier_target = bpy.data.objects['Plane']

for ob in obs :
    ob.modifiers.new(name=modifier_type,type=modifier_type)
    ob.modifiers[modifier_type].target=modifier_target
    bpy.ops.object.surfacedeform_bind(modifier=modifier_type)

Set the object active (and preferably, use the new modifier name instead of a constant name).
import bpy

obs             = bpy.context.selected_objects
modifier_type   = 'SURFACE_DEFORM'
modifier_target = bpy.data.objects['Plane']

for ob in obs :
    # Set the object active
    bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = ob
    modifier = ob.modifiers.new(name=modifier_type,type=modifier_type)
    modifier.target = modifier_target
    bpy.ops.object.surfacedeform_bind(modifier=modifier.name)


How do I snap an object to an empties world position in the bge to simulate re-spawns I need to get an object from the scene named "Target" (this is where the player will spawn at)

and get the sensor connected to the python controller, then when the sensor is triggered, move its Owner (the player) to the "Target" object.

thanks for the help! BLEND' ON!

get an object from the scene named "Target"

scene = bge.logic.getCurrentScene()
objects = scene.objects
target = objects["Target"]

  get the sensor connected to the python controller

sensors = bge.logic.getCurrentController().sensors
sensor = sensors["sensor name"]

  when the sensor is triggered

if sensor.triggered:

or do you mean "when the sensor evaluates positive condition"? (Which makes more sense)

if sensor.positive:

  move its Owner (the player) to the "Target" object.

sensor.owner.worldPosition = target.worldPosition

I hope it helps

You can find more details on BGE Python in the BGE Guide to Python Coding


Odd Transparency or Normal Issues I've been trying to resolve this issue all morning and I'm sure it's something small. I looked into the material but that seems fine...I reset the material to make sure.
My normals are facing the right direction....
At some point i hit all the options under Mesh>normals and "smooth vectors" did do something but still looks wrong.
Looks like this in EEVEE and the viewport.  Cycles looks fine but i'm trying to use eevee
It might have to do with object properties?  Anyways any help would be greatly appreciated so i can move on with this small project.
Also the building mesh came from using "image as planes"  and then extruding out the sides.

You're experiencing a sorting problem due to Alpha Blend. Changing the Blend Mode to Alpha Hashed in the material properties should fix this issue. If you have to use Alpha Blend make sure that Show Backside is disabled.

Sorting Problem
When writing to the color buffer using transparent blend modes, the order in which the color blending happens is important as it can change the final output color. As of now Eevee does not support per-fragment (pixel) sorting or per-triangle sorting. Only per-object sorting is available and is automatically done on all transparent surfaces based on object origin.


How can I remove objects via datablocks outliner? I am searching for a method to remove corrupted or unused objects, without having to directly click on the object.

I am not sure if its an unsolved bug, but currently many of my files suffering from 2 empties, that aren't in the outliner list for "all scenes", but can be found in the "Blender file" outliner list and of course in the datablocks. Unfortunately I can not click on the objects in the Blender file list, so deleting there isn't possible.

I know these empties were used as custom bone shapes in an armature. This armature doesn't exist anymore, so I guess both empties are trapped in my file. They are not linked.

How can I safely remove objects from the datablocks /the file, even if I don't know where they are?

[Edit 2 Jan, 2016] You can delete datablocks of any type by way of the outliner window. Find the object, select it in the outliner, right-click on the item, and select "delete" from the context menu.

[Original answer]

But you wrote in your question that many of your files are

  "suffering from 2 empties".

Your problem might be that these can't be deleted as empties, because they are phantom bones and not empties at all. You will probably find the objects you want to delete if you look under the armatures in your file. You don't need to be in datablock view to do this. If you select the armatures in the "all scenes" view of the outliner one by one, I expect you will find which armature contains the bones (or that the two bones may not be in the same armature. In either case, in object mode in the 3D viewport, looking under armatures, I expect you will be able to delete the phantom bones.

But, it might want to be careful about deleting the bones, because it is possible to delete a bone from the middle of a chain, so that there may be other bones connected as children of the phantom bone which will be deleted if you delete the phantom bone.


To Bake, or not to Bake Is Baking necessary every time? Or are the times when you just don't really need to? For instance, animation render vs video game engine style export. If so, or not, would it be the same for all 14 baking options in bake mode?  Can you bake only from the Properties panel?

Is Baking necessary every time?

No.

To explain, there are some times, when it is just more of a hassle then it is worth.  For instance, when using the Blender Internal engine, which can be pretty fast, you can be using basic enough materials that by the time you finished baking, you could have finished rendering.

Regarding animation rendering and video games, that depends as well.  Non-moving lights and objects will benefit from baking, as they do not move, but the camera moves.  In videos games, the player is typically moving around the scene, which prevents lighting from being baked onto the model, as it needs to be dynamic.

About the 14 different baking modes, each one will obviously do something different, otherwise it would be one big button that says "Bake".  The other modes are important for each specific task.  For instance, baking colors, or textures, while they seem similar, using them incorrectly will most likely take a lot of time, and not produce the result you are looking for.

I am pretty sure that there are other locations you can bake from, I think at one point (stretching back here) I had a scene where I just wanted to bake a shadow for one object, so I did.  I believe you select the image you are baking, and select the object, and then you click bake, and it will bake for that one object.  I think I followed Blender Guru's tutorial here.


Armature Symmetrizing Problems One of my bones is simple not symmetrizing with the rest of its compatriots. I have  tried symmetrizing it by itself to no avail. It simply refuses to cooperate.

Anyone had this problem &/^ found a fix/work around?

I feel a little silly answering my own question so quickly, but this was easy to miss so it is best to make sure it is documented.

The shin didn't symmetrize because the name was ever so slightly off. I had "shin.L**.**" instead of "shin.L". That extra dot on the end was enough to confuse Blender into not working properly.

Keep a sharp eye on your bone's names.


getConstraintId returns zero with soft bodies I want to create some constraints in BGE with phyton (between a soft body and a dynamic object) and then remove them after a while. I tried this code to save constraint's id:

import bge

p = bge.logic.getCurrentScene().objects["Plane"].getPhysicsId()

o = bge.logic.getCurrentController().owner

o["c"] = bge.constraints.createConstraint(o.getPhysicsId(), p, 1, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0).getConstraintId()

the constraint created and all of parameters seems to be correct but getConstraintId always returns zero and I can't understand why?

As an experience I understand that Blender's Game Engine can't create constraints on Soft Bodies dynamically by bge codes. Actually it creates the constraints but you don't have any access to them.


Image textures with transparancy Help How can I mask an image?
I imported a downloaded image from CG textures that had the chequered background.
I converted it from JPEG to PNG.
I imported it into Blender 2.74 and later in 2.76 as an "Images as Planes"
Adjusted the "Import Options" to "Use Alpha" and " "Premultiplied" and "Emission/Transparent" but it still shows the chequered background when rendered.

I also did the long way with UV unwrap and "Transparent" nodes and Alpha noodle In Image texture to Mix shader "Fac"

In Blender transparent areas are not rendered as checkers... if you converted a jpeg that had checkered background to png, that does not make checkered areas transparent!! Your png has no transparency, I feel, this is why the checkers are always there...

You should either download that image again, but directly in a format that supports transparency (like png) or convert the checkered part of the png to a true transparent area...

In Blender if an image has supposedly transparent areas completely black or white, you can tell it to use those absolute colors to get transparency  (that is the purpose of "calculate" and "invert" options in the image texture  "image sampling" panel). "calculate" uses blacks in image to represent transparency, "invert" makes "calculate" use whites.

This assumes your material and texture are set to be transparent, and the texture has some influence (>0) on material transparency.


How to disable disappearing of Stencil Brush while navigating viewport in Texture Paint Mode? I've got 3D scanned model, it has complicated geometry.
I UV Unwrapped it, now it's time for painting.
I've shot several photos of the real object, and I started to paint the 3D object using photos of the real object.
That's maybe one of not so common situations: the 3D model has the same geometry as real one, so it looks like it would be easy to paint it with stencil brush, but I'm having very hard time with this, most of because of every time I'm rotating, panning, zooming the viewport - the stencil image disappeares, it makes almost imposible to perfectly match viewport with these photos.
Can I disable the disappearing of the Stencil while navigating the viewport?
Also, is there a way to zoom the viewport without changing perspective? (such as "Size" parameter in Camera options? I know I can assing camera to viewport, but that's not what I am asking for)

Instead of using only the Stencil Brush, you can use the old method of multiple UV layered images projected from different views and then use the Clone tool in the 3d viewport to paint from the source layers in the final texture layer. After you get the bulk of your paint finished, you can then use the Stencil Brush to fix areas that need cleanup.


Fluid sim not colliding with effector Okay, a pretty simple problem, you can see the fluid sim is passing through my effector. How do I fix that?
So far I've tried flipping the normals, adding and applying a solidify modifier, and decimating the mesh (I read that high polygon density can affect collision). Granted, I could re-topologize the mesh but I'd rather avoid it.

The Collision Effector surface thickness has to be at least 0.5 Thickness, which I have reported as a bug. And I have no idea why the default Sampling Substeps is '0', when I find that is often insufficient.


How to center a non-symmetrical object on the X axis xith a python script? Here is my non-symmetrical object :
As you can see the left part (X negative, the black line) is not egal to the right part (X positive, red line).
How can I get equal parts by translating my object with a python script ?
Thank you in advance for your help.

you have to find the extreme values on x axis and calculate where should be the center :

import bpy

obj = bpy.context.object
max = -9999
min = 9999
for i in obj.data.vertices :
    if i.co[0] > max :
        max_ind = i.index
        max  = i.co[0]
    if i.co[0] < min :
        min_ind = i.index
        min  = i.co[0]

shift = (max-min)/2 - max
obj.location[0] +=shift


Deselect active object with Python? 2.8 How do I deselect the active object from a selection of 2 objects with python?

And if necessary, how do I make the second object (the not active one) active once I've deselected the first one?

EDIT1: Ok I found the answer to my first question doing  that:

bpy.context.active_object.select_set(False)

But I need to make the other object the active one, without using it's name to direct the selection or anything like that.

EDIT2:

Found the answer :)

bpy.context.active_object.select_set(False)
for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = obj


applying armature scale yield to change object location What I want to do is apply the scale of the armature, when applying the position of the armature changes.
Here's the armature before applying the scale:

After applying the armature scale (Ctrl + A -> Apply scale) the location of the armature is changed.

As you can see, I have no animations and no delta transform, so why does this happen and how to solve it?.
If I enter the edit mode, the armature is back to position, but when I back to object mode it is shifted as you can see:

Here's the blender file:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hmef1zb-QDFNkFxServ52shOLsP2Vt4y/view?usp=sharing

As you can see your armature has a pose, it has been moved away from its origin and keyframed in Pose mode. If you apply the scale in Object mode, the bones will keep this distance from the origin but, as the armature has been scaled down, the distance will be scaled up as much. So what you need to do before applying the scale is go in Pose mode and reset the pose with an AltG.


Problem with mirroring (mirrored part is higher than the parent object and a middle object) I mirrored my car front fender, now the outcome fender of the mirroring is higher than the car body and parent object of the mirroring process.

Left one is the original fender, on the right is my old fender and the new one I created by mirroring (is there a way to edit both objects like mirroring, but by not using the mirror modifier to create a new object?).

If you don't want to use mirror modifier, you can create linked duplicate of your object. Select the fender mesh, press Alt+D and click left. Now your duplicated object is at the same position as the original object. Now set the x-scale of your duplicate object to -1. Since the second object is not just duplicated, but linked, all mesh edits will show on both objects. This is also called an instance. You can make many instances of the same object.


Embed a Python script in .blend? I have a .blend file and an accompanying python script that needs running very often when the .blend file is open.

As such, I wish to just "embed" the script into the text editor window. This way, I only need to save one .blend file instead of a .blend and a .py. The ideal startup window of the .blend file looks like this.

Can this be specified when I create this .blend file with Python?

Name the text datablock something.py and tick the 'register' checkbox. It'll run whenever you load the file, just like you want.

You do need to enable autorunning Python scripts in your user preferences (this is disabled by default for security reasons).


Where is the Vector math add node? I want to have one material for a bunch of objects and have them generate a different UV for each. This question has been answered here,
but I can't find the "Add" node that accepts vectors.

My Add > Converter > Math > Add node only has grey dots, where I need purple ones.

You want ShiftA> Add > Converter > Vector math instead:


can a transparent object hide a specific object behind it? I have a problem. Can I make a moving object x be hidden behind a transparent plane y so, that every other object behind plane y is visible?
Thank You in advance

The Input > Light Path node, Transparent Depth output, used as a factor in a Mix shader, seems to work:


Adjusting Render Region boundary It seems that at times I'm able to see editable boundaries of the render region to make a small adjust to min/max X/Y and see corner grabs to adjust an X-Y boundary.   At other times I cannot get these and have to redraw the Render Region.   How do I get these adjusts to appear/disappear?

To get the adjustable boundaries, you need to make your camera active.
Simply click on it in the Outliner.


Vertex Indices change after using Subsurf Modifier I have an initial mesh with 4 vertices with indices 0,1,2,3 as shown in the first image with index 0 at the bottom left corner.

Now when I use a subsurf modifier and apply the modifier, the indices are changing as shown in the second image:

Now, is there a way in which I can keep the initial indices assigned to the same vertices so that I can access them later on from a script?

PS: I'm using subsurf modifier and not subdivide tool from edit mode because I have objects with more than 4 sides (before subdivision) and hence not able to use subdivide. I'm trying to create a uniform mesh for the object automatically and felt that using subsurf and triangulate and then applying them is giving me a decent mesh. (I know that I can select 4 vertices at a time make 4 sided faces initially and then use subdivide, but I am just thinking of alternate ways of doing this)

Vertex indices are not meant to be used to reference the actual vertex. They are an internal position in a list, not some property of the verte itself. For instance if you apply the bevel modifier, how would you expect the indices to go? All of them have moved.

If you want to access the location of the original vertices, you could store a copy of the mesh. (not necessarily assigned to an object either) If you want to find the new vertices that map to the old ones, the only way I can think of is to iterate through the new objects vertices, find the closest old-mesh vertices, and threshold so only if they are very close does it count them as the same.


whenever i render my model, my GPU instantly goes to maximum usage blender noob here. I have just finished my first model in blender. all I have to do is render it. but whenever I render it is all pixelated and distorted, this massively intensifies whenever I move the UI camera. I went to the task manager and my  3d graphics card is at maximum capacity. I have a powerful one too. I have tried the entire very little amount of things I can do and it just wouldn't work. pls help
and thank you
HELP WANTED

Maybe you are using a small amount of samples (like 128) and there is not to much lighting. In that case, if you have the denoiser is going to look weird. Also, maybe you are using both the GPU and CPU, I have bad results when I do that (I asume that there is a way of doing it properly). Try to increase the number of samples, change between CPU and GPU and see if something change...
And some pictures of your problem can help!
Good luck


why bgl meshes flip when nothing is selected? As described in API the following script will create a mesh from active object using bgl module:
import bpy
import gpu
import bgl
import numpy as np
from random import random
from gpu_extras.batch import batch_for_shader

mesh = bpy.context.active_object.data
mesh.calc_loop_triangles()

vertices = np.empty((len(mesh.vertices), 3), 'f')
indices = np.empty((len(mesh.loop_triangles), 3), 'i')

mesh.vertices.foreach_get(
    "co", np.reshape(vertices, len(mesh.vertices) * 3))
mesh.loop_triangles.foreach_get(
    "vertices", np.reshape(indices, len(mesh.loop_triangles) * 3))

vertex_colors = [(random(), random(), random(), 1) for _ in range(len(mesh.vertices))]

shader = gpu.shader.from_builtin('3D_SMOOTH_COLOR')
batch = batch_for_shader(
    shader, 'TRIS',
    {"pos": vertices, "color": vertex_colors},
    indices=indices,
)

def draw():
    bgl.glEnable(bgl.GL_DEPTH_TEST)
    batch.draw(shader)
    bgl.glDisable(bgl.GL_DEPTH_TEST)

bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_add(draw, (), 'WINDOW', 'POST_VIEW')

But the created mesh flips when nothing is selected:

Please help!

The script does its job.
The problems is caused by old nvidia graphics driver. A new nvidia gameready graphics driver solved the problem.


snap perpendicular to an edge/line like in CAD I want to add an edge from A to B and i want the line to be perpendicular to the target edge. so it should make 90 deg angle like in the image. How to do this ? do i need addons ? Does anyone know the good one ?

Thanks.

It can be frustrating in other ways, but this just happens to be what the Blender snap system does without add-ons.

Set snap to 'Vertex' and 'Active'
CtrlAltSpace Create a Custom Orientation from side B. (Check 'Use after creation')
K Cut an edge from side A to side B
With Snap on,  G Y Ymove point B up and down its edge

When you hover over point A, it will snap to  the point on side B from which a perpendicular is dropped to it.

What if the new edge isn't in the right place?

Cut another edge, and  G G slide it up and down the face, making the edge parallel to the correctly oriented one by hitting  E, and  F if necessary.


Saving animation with keyframe inserting location and rotation While saving an animation clip with keyframe of armature pose, should I select all armatures and insert location and rotation or can I just insert changed armature's location and rotation?

I selected all bones and inserted new pose. Working great. But doesn't seem to be the optimized solution. Character animations are being used for games in Unity.

You can insert the new animation to the keyframe of the armature who is changed. You can actually keyframe a new rotation of just one bone of an armature, so if you modified a bone rotation in pose mode you can then press I to insert keyframe and then choose rotation, and this will insert a new keyframe for the rotation of this bone.

I attached a .blend file where two armatures are there and adjusted the bone rotation of specific bones.


How to ask Python if a sensor is activated, BGE? I am a total beginner with python combined with BGE.
I wrote that:

import bge

def main():

    cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
    own = cont.owner

    if MessageSensor.positive or MouseSensor.positive:
        MessageActuator.activate

main()

it doesn't work, what's wrong?

Clearly  MessageSensor & MouseSensor & MessageActuator are undefined. And the controller is the one how activate de actuator.

import bge
cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
own = cont.owner
MessageSensor = cont.sensors['NameOfSensor']
MouseSensor = cont.sensors['NameOfSensor']
MessageActuator = cont.actuators['NameOfActuator']

if MessageSensor.positive or MouseSensor.positive:
    cont.activate(MesageActuator)


Is there a way to copy lighting to multiple scenes? I'm slowly beginning to understand how to use Blender properly, so now I'm thinking about creating my own animated series. I want to create an efficient workflow in order to achieve this, well, efficiently, and so I have been using the "scenes" feature for test animations. However, in my desired workflow I want to focus completely on the animation first, and when that is done for each scene I could move onto the lighting and adjust that the way I want. However, I have not yet found a way to copy multiple lights (settings, location, etc.) to multiple scenes in a single .blend file. Is there a solution to this?

If you want to have objects linked from a scene to another, select your object and go in the header menu > Object > Make Links > Objects To Scene, and choose the destination scene:

Any change on the object on a scene will be replicated on the same object on the other scene. If you ever want the objects to be unlinked, go in the header menu > Object > Relations > Make Single User > Object & Data & Materials:


Unable to fill gap between meshes Hi, I'm unable to fill gap between wrist and hand. I've tried pressing 'F' but it doesn't work

These are 2 different objects, you need first to join them (CtrlJ) otherwise you won't be able to bridge the 2 edge loops.


How to decrease the "resolution" or amounts of vertices in a 3D scan? I tried a few days ago to 3D scan an object and also my own face.

The scan includes crazy amounts of vertices and My computer probably isn't the best.

How to decrease the "resolution" or amounts of vertices in a 3D scan? As I said, I'm fairly new to this, so a "for Dummies"-guide would be awesome! Hopefully there are some add-ons or something that will make this process easy
Hope some of you can help!

Sincerely
Andreas

Try decimate modifier. Also face\tris to quads in edit mode, before decimating.
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/modifiers/generate/decimate.html


How to create a good glass reflection with Principled BSDF So I'm part way through a fun small project, and I would like some advice about how to improve the glass material at the far end of the scene on the two doors.

In the ref photo the reflection is sharp, but you can also see inside the fridge or whatever it is.

I'm aware there's still a lot of things left to do in this scene, improve lighting, finish up materials but I'd like to address this glass shader.

PS - Any other tips appreciated, I'm a fairly novice user! I do 3D in spare time because I just love it.

Honestly, for this I would just use a mix of a Transmission shader and a Glossy shader. But if you want to use a Principled shader:

Set the base color to #FFFFFF, so you don't have darkened glass. (Unless you want darkened glass, of course.)
Set the Transmission to 1 and the Transmission Roughness to 0.
Set the Specular to 0, you don't need it.
Set the Metallic to 0.2 or so. This will control how strong the reflections are; you should probably adjust it to fit your specific light source.
Set the IOR to 1.0, since you're making a cabinet—refraction will just slow things down.

Here's a quick test render:

(I got the HDR from here.)

As you can see, the icosphere is a reflection, the cube is not.


modify texture on certain parts of extruded shape I created a picture frame by extruding the profile along a rectangular path.
Is it possible to kind of split the texture at the corners and move it around, so it isn't continuous from one edge to the other?
(Right now it's obvious the wood fibers just bend around the corner and it's not another piece of wood)
Ideally, I'd like to do that with nodes, so it's easy to switch the texture without having to make other changes manually.
[update]
After thinking about it more and trying different suggestions, I guess what I'm looking for is a way to change (in nodes) the coordinates of the texture at, or rather between, some points on the path along which a shape is extruded (i.e. the vertices of the frame). I still have no idea if it's even possible, though, and even less how to do it.

I would like to get a result similar to this, where it really looks like two different pieces of wood.

My suggestion would be to switch to Object's texture mapping with a box projection on the texture:

Since your model is basically a box, it will project the texture from an invisible box around your object, with discontinuity between each side (though you can use the "Blend" option below the box projection setting if you ever want a seamless effect).
You can then control the stretch and position of each X Y Z axes, either via the mapping node or by targeting an object in the Texture coordinates node and transforming that object around as you wish.

If this isn't enough, the next easy solution is to set back the texture projection to flat, remove the mapping and texture coordinates nodes, and edit the object's UVs so that they match.
In the top bar, click the UV Editing tab. Your faces'UV are most likely attached to each other's neighbor, which is normal, but in your case you will most likely need to create some seams. You can select some edges and hit Ctrl E → Create seam, or in the 3D viewprt select one face on your whose texture is in the wrong way, then press U → unwrap. Then rotate the faces as you need in the UV editor.


Ocean displacement map not showing waves I am following this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwJrb3vjAaA He gets the waves on the ocean but I don't. I successfully made waves on a plane but not on the circle (see video). Basically I have to tile the plane onto the circle.  I have attached screenshots.

The circle does not have enough geometry.

Displacement in Blender works by modifying existing geometry on the object. Your circle definitely does not have enough existing geometry to make displacement visible. This is an easy fix, just apply a subdivision surface modifier, or select all the edges and subdivide them in the edge context menu.

Additionally, I see that you are in Texture Preview mode. Note that displacement will only show as bump in that mode, and in order to actually displace the mesh you need to switch to rendered view mode in cycles and make sure that displacement and bump are both rendered.


How do you make a sharp angle with Bezier cruve? There inside blue circle, I need to make a sharp corner, not round corner.
How do you do it?

Pressing V will give you a menu to change the handle type, choose "Free". Then you can move the handles fpr the control points independently.


Cycle renders in gray (no color) Hello,

The blender render does give color but not the cycle. How could this be?
Is it maybe because of my GPU? (wich i cant select as compute device)

First of all: using CPU or GPU would not make any difference on the characteristics of the rendered image, other than rendering faster or slower.

I see three possible reasons why you have a black and white image:

You set up materials in blender internal and didn't create materials for cycles.

When no materials are present cycles will render everything with the default material, which is gray.

Cycles and Blender internal's materials are not compatible or interchangeable. you need to create new ones them using material nodes.

Maybe you did set materials but you set the output to render as B&W. Set it to RGB or RGBA (Red, Green, Blue, Alpha)

Maybe you did set the materials correctly and the output to RGB (or RGBA),
but you set the render layer to use only one material, overriding all of the other materials for the scene:


Render Frames as opposed to AVI? I read a post somewhere that talks about how rendering "frames" is safer than rendering AVI because you won't lose an insane amount of progress if crap happens...

What all does this entail? How can I use this feature, and how can I turn it into a final product (AVI or MP4)?

Thanks in advance!

Ethan

Yes, if you render still frames and your process is aborted, already rendered  frames are saved and you can start a new render from a different frame. More advantages are listed in in Blender manual here.

In short, set your output to still format (e.g. JPG, PNG or MultiLayer) and render the animation. Once you are finished with this, use Video Sequence Editor in Blender to produce AVI/MP4.

The detailed description includes 15 steps, which are covered in Blender manual here. AVI/MP4 approach is called "Direct approach" there, frames - "Frame sequence approach".


How can I check if the active object is a mesh and selected? I want to check if the active object is a mesh before I UV unwrap it. Here's my code and for some reason the execute runs even when a mesh is not selected. What am I missing?

@classmethod
def poll(cls, context):
    our_case = False
    selected = context.selected_objects
    object = context.active_object
    if object is None: return False
    if object.mode == "OBJECT" and all(obj.type == "MESH" for obj in selected):
        return True
    return our_case

def execute(self, context):

    bpy.ops.uv.smart_project(angle_limit=30, island_margin=0.06)
    return {'FINISHED'}

Here's what I ended up with that worked:

@classmethod
def poll(cls, context):
    obj = context.active_object
    objs = context.selected_objects
    if len(objs) == 0: return False
    if obj.type == 'MESH': return True
    return False


Blender alpha/transparent texture only works when selected I have a transparent bubble texture that I got from google and I placed it on a part. I set the alpha to 0, made sure my shading setting is on GLNL like a youtube video instructed me to, but I only get my desired result when its being selected. If anyone knows how to fix this please help as soon as possible.

The first picture is my desired result which is when its selected, the second picture is the result I get, and third picture is the texture I used.

select your object then Go to the object panel in the properties and check Transparency in Display tab for all object you want to see transparent. make sure that you have the correct object selected.


how to use vertex group to instance an object in geometry node? I'm trying to use vertex group to instance an object in geometry node, for example, a table with his legs. But don't work

Each vertex has a weight from each vertex group available attribute:
If we create a cube with a vertex group lid, each vertex gets a new attribute "lid" that contains the vertex weight:

Then we can multiply the scale of each point by this vertex weight and create our instances on all vertices:


How can we build shape keys for protruding eyes? I've been working on the same character for months and have finally come down to the part of facial rigging but I can't get it to close it's eyes using the shape keys, the character is simple and not an optimal design, just experimental:

since his eyes are protruding just using one shape key would not do the trick. So I tried to use a set of shape keys like so:

but when I add a second shape key as a turn point from there: the first problem arises that the object changes to it's basis shape rather than staying in key1:

so I started editing anyway to see if it works out, but blender just extrapolates key 1 instead when I inrease the value of slider 2:

Could anyone tell me what is happening here and how can I fix this, please?

Click the 'Apply Shape Keys in Edit Mode' button right after you make a new Shape Key, so that your shape key is based on the previously made shape key(s).

Also, depending on how your rig is going to be setup, you may have to change the shape keys to blend relative to the previous position, rather than 'Basis' in the blend section too.  But it depends on how you want your bone controls to drive the shape keys.


Fall Trees for Fall Scene Currently, I’m working on this fall scene.

I want to add trees in the background like this:

image source

Also make the light look like it’s filtering thru the trees. So, my question is two-fold:

Is there any good tutorial on creating trees?
What’s the best way to create sunlight rays?

Blender includes an add-on to generate trees - try searching for Blender Sapling add-on Tutorial. This will add a new Curve option to allow you to create and configure a Sapling (there are multiple pages of settings in the Toolshelf after you Add the sapling).

For the "sunlight rays", look into Volumetrics.


Rigid Body Physics - Can't Transform or move mesh when applied I am relatively new to blender and 3D modelling and have decided to try my first animation.
I wanted to make a chain swing slightly and have followed numerous tutorials using rigid body physics, however I keep running into issues.
Issue 1: I created one link of a chain and as the tutorial stated I applied rigid body physics, using the mesh shape as the collision. Then I duplicate that link and when I go to move it upwards and rotate 90 degrees, it won't budge until I turn off the rigid body?
Issue 2: I tried a different tutorial for building the chain, one by BlenderGuru. I created the full chain before applying any rigid body physics. Then when I did apply the rigid body the chain just exploded instead?

Whilst this was done in version 2.77a, from what I read, there are no significant changes with the physics engine in later versions.  All 3 methods should therefore work in yours.
Swinging a chain can (if you're inclined) be reduced to a basic rotation transformation that doesn't require physics at all.  Instead manually keyframe and time them appropriately to emulate how a pendulum would behave.  That's covered briefly in Method 1 below.
A more ambitious version, one using physics and a curve modifier to 'loosen' the chain on the initial overswings is also included further below, along with it's Blend file.  That's shown here -

This chain in all 3 cases was constructed as an array from a pair of mesh chain-links. One rotated 90 degrees along it's axis, then joined with the first. (CTL-J)   Once arrayed and the array eventually "Applied", it will provide vertices for a weight object to be attached later.  If the array isn't 'applied' there'll be no mesh at it's end to attach to.
There's also little need to keep the array active.  The less modifiers operating in a project usually proves beneficial when other forces, constraints etc, are also to operate on a model later or concurrently.

Details -  The basic (emulated) swing.
For a vertical swinging chain, essentially all that's required is to pivot the chain at the top link and rotate it firstly to the left, then to the right.   Some 30 frames might be a typical spacing between swing peaks.
e.g. at frame start, rotate to the left some 16 degrees, keyframe that, advance another 30 frames, rotate the chain to 16 degrees on the right side and keyframe that.  Set the interpolation to Bezier. (which is usually the default)
With one full swing keyframed, in the Dopesheet, those keyframes can be duplicated and slid to the right 30 frames on from the last.  Do this for as many swings as required.
In the graph editor each swing's angle can be reduced a little but linearly, to emulate attenuation so the swings diminish over time and would eventually come to rest.
Check that the swings and timing look natural. (Use the Dopesheet and Graph editor to adjust timing between swing-peaks and behavior respectively )
That's about it for the simplest scenario.

Version 2 - Using Physics - (the Rigid Body Constraint --> Hinge)
Our chain will be the same and still pivoted from it's top link but swinging (hinging) under physics control this time.
With physics and in particular, 'Rigid Body' constraint, things don't always go according to plan and it's often best to use simple dummy (invisible) rigid bodies to get the physics behaving as required, then using those as parents for the real models.
The dummies are the two planes.   'Plane West' & 'Plane East.' -

These can be scaled and moved in order to affect & tweak physics behavior without affecting your model(s).
The 'Hinge' option is used with the constraint.  This will stop the active plane (plane east) from falling away from the other.  'Plane West' is a 'Passive' rigid body and 'Plane East' - Active and Dynamic.
This is what tells the engine which is to swing from the hinge point, (the constraint's Empty) and which is to stay put.  Plane East will swing down, Plane West won't.
Once the swinging is behaving properly the dummies are then used as parents for the model(s).
If you don't want further antics, that's all that's required.
Please note - if Plane East doesn't swing and doesn't fall either, it tells you the constraint is working but it's Empty is pointing along the wrong axis.  Rotate it to the other 2 axis' in turn.  If you've set it up right, one has to work.

Version 3 - Bending the chain's length on excessively high swings
With the swinging sorted, should any bending be needed for the chain itself, that can be achieved by adding a curve modifier to the chain's mesh and using a 'Hook' at a lower control-point to bring about the bend.
Caution -
As the curve, chain, and added hook MUST maintain their relative positions to each other,  a 'Handle' (parent Empty - the circle) is added as a common parent for all three.  It must rotate from the same origin point as the chain and curve's.
It's the Handle-parent that holds them together throughout the swings.  The handle is parented to Plane East, not the chain or the curve and hook.
Should a ball or other object be attached to the chain's end, that would need to be parented to the chain's mesh using the "3 vertices" option.  This would force the object to swing at the same angle as the chain's end and appear properly attached.
Note - The curve is best without excessive control points at least along it's lower half.
Only one between the center point and lower end is ideal for this situation.
Moving this (with the hook) will affect the curve's end angle and subsequently the attached object.
In the example the curve's hook is moved a little to the right on the left swing and a little to the left for the right swing. (See dopesheet and graph editor)  This bends the curve's end enough to angle the weight object, so it looks much like a playground swing that's being pushed too high.
The hook's deforming action should only be in effect while the swings are high and even then reduced with successive swings so there is none when the swings are back to a civilized angle.


Change color of PNG background (transparent to color) I need to change the background color of a PNG to a specific color.
The background of the lable renders black and I want so set the color by my own.

How can I do it within the node editor?

Here's the PNG and the nodes:

Thanks!

I would just add in a MixRGB node between your transparent image and the color of the principled shader.

Make sure you plug in the alpha socket into the factor of the MixRGB node and change the color to your liking.


How to disable motion blur on a single object in Blender 2.8 EEVEE? How to disable motion blur on a single object in Blender 2.8 EEVEE ?

The motion blur currently available in Eevee is camera based.

That means it compares the entire image between two frames and blurs all motion, it is not capable of blurring single objects.


Why are the keyframes for my texture not appearing in the f-curve window or dope sheet? Why do keyframes on compositor node textures not show up in the F-Curve window and Dope Sheet?

Is it possible to access these keyframes in those windows?

Texture keyframes don't always appear in the dopesheet:

If the texture is used by an object in the scene, it'll show up in the dopesheet:

Using the texture in an input texture node in the compositor will not make it show up in the dope sheet (unless it's also used by an object in the scene):


How to select a face of a torus using python? I have to automate the face selection process of torus.
What is the python command to select the face ?

How can I extend this to select a loop of faces?

I want python script which when run will select a face of torus

For 1 click script
Add torus -- go to edit mode --- select a single face (confirm that ur in face selection) -- run

import bpy
bpy.ops.mesh.faces_select_linked_flat(sharpness=0.261799)
bpy.ops.mesh.select_nth(nth=3, offset=0)
bpy.ops.transform.translate(value=(0, 0, 0.5), constraint_axis=(False, False, True), constraint_orientation='GLOBAL', mirror=False, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1, release_confirm=True)

If you just want to select a face loop
Add torus -- go to edit mode --- select a single face (confirm that you're in face selection) -- run

import bpy
bpy.ops.mesh.faces_select_linked_flat(sharpness=0.261799)


Snapping vertex to face during proportional edit I have a human body object. I'm creating a new object that conforms to the surface of the body. I'm using "snap to face" to keep new vertices on the faces of the body object. I want to use proportional editing on the new object. Is there a way to keep all vertices attached to the faces? A plugin, perhaps?

Besides all the good suggestions that came so far, what comes closest to your question in my opinion is the project individual option of Blender. You need to set snapping to snap to face first to see the button. Then you can toggle this option on in the 3D Viewport (red square):

Now, all translation tools, move, rotate, scale, even with proportional editing, will snap the whole selection to other faces from the view you're looking at (hold down Ctrl to enable snapping of course):

Quick animation / comparison here:


Particles should be on ground I need it to be on the ground. What am I doing wrong here?

The solution is to make sure the object you want as your particle is facing straight up to the z axis. Then snap it or move it to the center of the grid in the cursor's world origin. That will draw everything in to the emitter to emit perfectly.


How to make "Scorzo" perspective with Blender Camera? I was wondering if it's possible (i guess it is), to make something like this:

Or like this...

So, how can i do this with the Blender camera?

The effect you are after is caused by the exaggerated foreshortening, or   relative size of the objects, caused an extreme wide angle lens. It's wide field of view will make the elements that are close to the lens look much larger than elements that are slightly farther away.

To recreate that in blender, use a lens with a very short focal length( A smaller value in the lens will result in a wider angle for the field of view).

Then set the camera low, close to the ground and in close proximity to the character, and tilt up the camera to include the whole character within the frame

Here's a link to an interesting article on wide angle lenses:

https://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/wide-angle-lenses.htm


Compositor viewer node output never updates when rendering via Python script Based on this answer, I am trying to extract the per-frame RGB and depth arrays of some animation scene.
However, the compositor render layer and viewer node setup that I am programmatically building does not appear to work. I am connecting 2 outputs of the render layer to 2 inputs of the viewer node, but any call to render() does not actually change or update the pixels field of the viewer node -- the render process itself works (for example, it shows stuff when storing to an output file), nothing happens in the context of the compositor. All output values are always zero.
In fact, even the size/shape of pixels is incorrect (262144) and does not depend on whatever input resolution I pass to the render engine.
Here is a minimal example to reproduce the problem:
import bpy
import numpy as np

width = 640
height = 480

bpy.context.scene.render.engine = 'CYCLES'
bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_x = width
bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_y = height
bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_percentage = 100

bpy.context.scene.render.use_compositing = True
bpy.context.scene.use_nodes = True
tree = bpy.context.scene.node_tree
links = tree.links

for n in tree.nodes:
    tree.nodes.remove(n)
rl = tree.nodes.new('CompositorNodeRLayers')

vl = tree.nodes.new('CompositorNodeViewer')
vl.use_alpha = True
links.new(rl.outputs[0], vl.inputs[0])  # link Renger Image to Viewer Image
links.new(rl.outputs[2], vl.inputs[1])  # link Render Z to Viewer Alpha

# Render
bpy.ops.render.render()

# Get the pixels and put them into a numpy array
pixels = np.array(bpy.data.images['Viewer Node'].pixels)
print(len(pixels))

width = bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_x
height = bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_y

# Reshaping into image array 4 channel (rgbz)
print('pixels:', pixels.shape)  # (262144, ) even though 640*480*4 = 1228800
print('values:', np.min(pixels), np.max(pixels))  # 0.0, 0.0
image = pixels.reshape((height, width, 4))  # Error

I am using Blender 2.83.6 LTS, and am running this command to execute the script:
blender --background --python .\minimal_blender.py

I feel like I am overlooking something simple (I am a beginner to Blender after all) but I cannot determine what?
Note: I am aware that --background could have something to do with it, but I am unable to disable that option, because doing so introduces a whole range of RuntimeError: Operator bpy.ops.wm.append.poll() failed, context is incorrect errors all over the place in my other script, which I have no idea how to fix. So I guess this question is essentially how to force the viewer node to update when running Blender in the background.

Solved -- my problem was actually related to Blender's hard-coded behavior in background mode, rather than to something going wrong with the render process itself.  In order to get the Viewer Node to work in background mode, you need to modify some source code and recompile Blender as described in the link, because it is disabled by default for optimization reasons.  Then run:
path\to\recompiled\blender --background --python my_render_script.py


Modeling hexagon pinhole lens for 3D printing I'm trying to model and 3D print pinhole lenses / glasses but I'm having some trouble creating the hexagon shape with array modifiers.
The lens shape I'm trying to get is below.

I was thinking of using the array modifiers because it will allow me to vary the hole size and the distance between the holes with mm precision.  I would use small cylinders to cut the holes out of a larger cylinder by using a boolean difference on the larger lens/cylinder.  See image below

The question is how can I create the hexagon shape of holes with modifiers?  Is this the best way?

Here is Modifier version you asked for ...
... add a Circle 6 sided, extrude E, scale S - to create a segment with a hole

Array - use two of them to create like "rhombus" shape
Mirror X and Y - mirroring does some parts overlapping, but no problem ...
Weld is used to merge double vertices

Big thanks and credit goes to @Robin Betts. He added two drivers to a second Array modifier. So now just simply increasing/decreasign a count of the first Array automatically changes a count of second Array ... and more of that second driver maths correct distance for segments on X axis.
You don't have to use drivers to make this modifier stack to work. They just make a life easier :)

Notes: When you are happy with a number and size of holes you can easily continue with other modifiers ... Subsur, Solidify, Bevel all with a nice topology that wouldn't be happen (I guess) if you would use Boolean operation.
To get Circle shape around - apply modifiers (in case of version using drivers
search for Convert to Mesh to apply modifiers). In edit mode select outer loop, extrude, scale and
search for To Sphere set 1

Anyway, even Arrays / Mirror / Weld modifiers are applied you can any time select one hole loop and with Select Similar Shift+G > Length to select all holes and with Pivot Point > Individual Origins you can still adjust size of holes.


Blender rendering only one frame, not whole animation I am trying to render a short animation. It plays as it should in the render preview, but when I render it the only thing displayed is a single  frame. I am not using multiple cameras (only one), and I have my only camera set  as the active camera. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Edit: This is similar to another user's question but the answer provided was info I already had (it didn't work)

My render settings:

Link to .blend file: http://www.mediafire.com/download/0zva43sa2sdi9x2/Agassi2.blend

When rendering it won't follow the camera's view or path. It renders some other still image of a random area on the surface's grid. As mentioned above I don't have any additional cameras.

The thing that jumps out at me is your Frame Step is 236.  That means it will try to render frame 1, then it will increment to 1+236, and since 237 is after the end, there is no more work to do.  It is unusual to use a Frame Step other than 1.


Using new PointerProperty with custom property I'm working on development of the appleseed plugin and I'm trying to wrap my head around using the new ability of the Pointer Property to be used with the custom properties we add with that exporter.

Specifically we use the node system with our materials.  Right now a material references it's node tree via a bpy.props.StringProperty.  While this works it has serious shortcomings for linking and appending.  From what I understand we should now be able to have a pointer property in that node tree reference that connects the actual node_group datablock to that property.  I'm still a bit green on Blender's Python API so I'm not sure how to set that up.

This is how I do it in the Blender addon for LuxCore:

import bpy
from bpy.props import PointerProperty

def init():
    bpy.types.Material.luxcore = PointerProperty(type=LuxCoreMaterialProps)

class LuxCoreMaterialProps(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    node_tree = PointerProperty(name="Node Tree", type=bpy.types.NodeTree)

(The init() function is called in the top-level register() function)
You can then access the node tree like this (example from the Python console):

>>> material = bpy.data.materials['Material']
>>> material.luxcore.node_tree
bpy.data.node_groups['Material']

I think it's a good idea to add all properties specific to an external renderer to a PropertyGroup like "luxcore" or "appleseed" to prevent any conflicts. Cycles does the same thing.

Important

Note that PointerProperties attached to the material are not properly loaded in versions prior to 2.79a RC1: https://developer.blender.org/T53509

See also my notes on PointerProperties in the blenderseed bug tracker for issues with backwards/forwards compatibility: https://github.com/appleseedhq/blenderseed/issues/31


OpenCL vs CUDA Rendering Nowdays I have the old Radeon HD 6870, and it's not compatible with OpenCL, so the rendering is made by the CPU, that is a quite slow comparing with GPU rendering.

I'm thinking on a upgrade to R9 380 or a GTX 960 for rendering (and gaming, of course).

Some people say tha OpenCL is not stable in most CG softwares, especially Autodesk's.
Shoud I get R9 380 (cheaper, more powerful) or GTX 960?

Go with the Nvidia.  Performance aside, CUDA works better with Cycles.  Until recently, OpenCL was not even supported in Cycles so it is not as bug-free and stable as CUDA.  Another thing to consider is that usually new features are supported on just CPU first, then CUDA, then OpenCL.  So be prepared to wait a little while to use new features on your GPU if you go for the ATI card.

To be fair, OpenCL is by no means unusable, it just isn't as polished as CUDA.  I do have a friend with an R9-390 and it mostly works fine in Cycles.

In fact, here is a list of supported AMD devices as of May 2015.

With regards to your last statement about other software:

Most commercial 3D software (Autodesk included) won't really work with a gaming-class GPU at all, and definitely not an ATI card.  If you want to use that kind of software you really need a workstation-class GPU (i.e. Nvidia's Quadro cards, frankly ATI's workstation cards are a joke).

However, keep in mind here that Blender is not optimized for workstation cards.  That doesn't mean that they don't work at all in Blender, it's just that Cycles just won't be able to take advantage of the extra features you are paying for in a Quadro.

Workstation cards are also not ideal for gaming.  I do have a Quadro M4000 and it works fine for the few games I play (AoE III, Civ V, a couple old emulators, etc.), but if you are any kind of a serious gamer you definitely don't want a workstation card.


How do I texture an arrayed mesh? As an exercise in Tabletop Simulator modding and learning Blender, I'm trying to recreate the game Kingdom Builder. This game uses different tiles to construct a board for each game session. An example is at this link: https://sodaklady.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/p1010414.jpg
Based on the shape of the board, I thought it would make sense to make it out of a number of hexagons. I created a cylinder mesh with 6 sides and triangle fan fill type, and then used the Array modifier several times, applying the appropriate offsets, to create the right tile shape. Everything looks good up to this point.

Next, I want to UV unwrap it so I can paint different textures for each of the different tiles. My goal is to have the UV map match the board shape to make it easier to create different image textures. I selected all the edges around the outline of the top of the tile, used "Mark Seam" and then did UV --> Unwrap but the map looks very distorted, as shown below.

The top and bottom sides aren't even separated, even though I thought I would have detatched them via the Mark Seam command. I've tried watching some tutorials on UV unwrapping, but haven't found one that seems to cover this kind of case. I have the suspicion it's something to do with the Array modifier as I've seen arrayed meshes behave oddly when playing with other functions (e.g., using a Boolean modifier set to Difference with an arrayed mesh as the reference point does not produce the results I'd expect).
Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong or point me toward a good tutorial on the subject?
Full disclosure, I'm a total Blender newbie. I've done some BlenderGuru YouTube tutorials that walk you through a number of the basic concepts while modeling a doughnut and coffee cup, but that's about it.

It may be a bit hard to say, you need to explain a little more about the way you made the mesh.
Mi guess is that you only create the shape with the array, but you didn't delete the faces in between, so, every hexagon is still a separate object but very close to the other so you don't notice that is a separate shape. If that is the case, you need to delete those faces to make a one mesh and then, unwrap all the final shape or UV Unwrap every hexagon individually


How to loop the particle simulation indefinitely? I've made a simple snowfall particle simulation (using gandalf3's solution: How to make particles fall like snow). Is there a way to loop the animation, so the transition between last frame and first frame is not visible? Is there a setting to do it?

A more "clean" way to create a loop using particles:

let's say the render range is 300

Create ParticleSystem

Start: -150 End: 150 Life: 300
Remove randomness
Newtonian physics type
object, force etc..

Create ParticleSystem 2 (same object)

new data block based on ParticleSystem (everything same as the first system)
Start: 150 End: 450 Life: 300

Change numbers according to render range and remove a frame from the beginning or end of the range.

Happy Blendering :)

Heres a demo:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ipp86jqzoeiqn04/SeamlesParticleLoop.blend?dl=1


Best way to add height with textures? I rendered a normal map for a pattern that I want to map on a curved beveled path later on. This way I don't have to deal with many polygons. It looks as intended from a certain view (1) but lowering the angle gives black artifacts (2). Although there seems to be a solution for this (here and here), I couldn't make it work properly.

So I tried it with a displacement map but even subdividing the model + adding a subsurf modifier avoids the stepping effect. Texture is 4K 16bit.

What other option do I have?

edit:

excerpt of the normal map rendered from a mesh.

excerpt of the displacement map rendered from a mesh.

The reason why your tiles are becoming so rounded off, is because you have created the displacement map from a picture where there is a lot of reflections coming from one of the sides of each tile. Blender sees this as a height difference and this is your result. You'll either have to try getting those reflections out of the map (not recommended, because it's pretty difficult), or you'll have to raise the tiles manually. Also, displacement maps need a ton of faces. More than you would ever need to just raise flat tiles.

Good luck!


How to create a procedural embedded stone texture for ground/asphalt/pebbled concrete? I'm trying to make some ground like or some asphalt like this procedurally in cycles; however, I don't have a good way to make the stones:

Ignore the large pebbles and the pine needles

Is there a good controllable solution?
The important things here are that the stones are distinct (both shape and color), adjustable in size, are distinct form the ground and can  be sharp edged or round edged (sharp edged is a requirement). Its really important that these stones look reasonable up close and that they are controllable.

To anyone thinking about using a voronoi texture, You will have to come up with some serious ways t alter it, as it stands, it has little promise, I tried:

I'd recommend using Brick Texture as a core for stones generation. I've set up these nodes for some tests:

As you see I use Voronoi too (because you mentioned it) but just to shuffle the stones a little bit. I'm sure you can use noise or something else for it.

This gives us the sharp shapes we were after. We can use it as a mask then:

I multiply it by some color, mix with another instances of this "stones texture" with a bit different sizes/frequencies/color and finally add a simple noisy background. I also apply some Image Blur from b°wide NodePack

Personally, I like it when the stones are small and I'm not sure if you'll be satisfied with it much zoomed.

I also did't manage to reach the stones density as on your 2nd image without ending with many overlapping stones.
Here's my general set-up:

UPDATE:
To make it more clear how Bricks-Voronoi pair works I'll give some more images of Bricks without its companion.
No vector input (raw boring squares):

Noise texture:

Wave texture:


Can't see bumps in wiewport, nor are they rendering I just added a bump map to a object, and i can see the effect in the little window, but not the real thing. Also renders don't show it

If you have UV unwrapped your mesh, add in a texture coordinates node into your cycles like this:


Procedural brush stroke texture? I want to make some procedural textures that look like a bunch of brush strokes, pencil scribbles, or the like. The core component being that they are a collection of strokes that go mostly in the same direction and overlay each other, but each contains some smaller bristle marks, scratches, grain, etc. Any ideas on the best way to do these things?

Here are a few examples of what I want to make off google (which I assume were done by hand)

Ok here I got it. I think that matches it pretty well.


Export rigid (non-skinned) animation from Blender for consumption by AssImp I am trying to get simple animations to work, exporting from Blender and importing into my application.

My first attempt was as follows:

Open Blender at factory settings.
Select the default cube and insert a location keyframe.
Select another frame and move the cube.
Insert a second location keyframe.
Export to Collada.

When I open the Collada file using assimp it contains zero animations, even though in Blender the cube animates correctly.

On my next attempt, I inserted a bone armature with a single bone, made it the parent of the cube, and animated the bone instead. Again the animation worked correctly in Blender.

Assimp now lists one animation but both key frames have the position [0, 0, 0]

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get animated (non-skinned) meshes from Blender into Assimp?

My ultimate goal here is to export animated meshes from Blender, process them offline into my own model format, and load them into my SharpDX based graphics engine..

I tried performing the steps in v2.65 r53189 and it exports the animations correctly.
It seems that in v2.66.1 r55078 the Collada export does not output the keyframes correctly.

In the end, I decided to take iKlsR's advice and use x format since it allows me to use the newest version of Blender and is still compatible with AssImp.  It also allows me to flip the z and y axes which is a bonus!


Is there a node in Lux with a similar function as Cycles' Fresnel and Layerweight nodes? I'm fairly new to Lux and I'm wondering if there is an input for its Mix Material similar to Cycles' Fresnel and Layerweight nodes (i.e. the output is specifically dependant on the angle of the surface to the camera and a value like IOR/Blend to modify the sensitivity to a change in angle.)

As an example of what I mean, how would I render a material like this (Cycles generated) in Lux:

I already have a Mix material and the Diffuse material (both the red and white are diffuse materials), but I'm still missing the proper input for the Mix factor.

Short answer: No.

The problem is that such a texture is only possible in a unidirectional pathtracer, but LuxCore also supports bidirectional pathtracing. I have recently investigated this and implemented the basic math operation behind Cycles' layer weight node in LuxCore, but it leads to wrong results when using the lighttracing or bidirectional engines in LuxCore (you can read more and see pictures here).

It would not be hard to implement for the pathtracing engines, but it would make materials inconsistent when switching between engines. Imagine importing some assets for your scene, rendering with bidir and seeing a lot of artifacts. So I chose not to implement it - others might have different opinions.


How do I render a Panorama-tracker stabilized 360° video? I'm new to blender and I need it to stabilize a panoramic 360° video.
I found this addons https://github.com/dfelinto/Panorama-Tracker
I correctly stabilzed the video and I can correctly see it in the 3D View window but I can't find a way to apply that stabilization in the node editor view so I can't render it. I'm surely missing some steps. I can't understand if I should connect something between Movie clip and Viewer nodes and in that case what I should connect.

Thanks guys for helping me. Because of 360 video I need a stabilization that doesn't crop the video or I'll be not able to exactly connect the left and right borders of the image. For this reason I installed the panorama stitcher addons. I need to track two points, set as Focus and Target tracks and It will create a Panorama camera. The correct stabilization is what you can see on top of the screen, that image with yellow curvy line. But the only thing I'm able to get in the viewer and in the file rendering is what you see at the bottom, with the stright yellow line. Even connecting the Stabilize 2D, I had yet tried too, I can't get the rendering like the upper view. I can't find the "Panorama camera" in filters, distort or whatever. I'm stucked here. Here ( https://vimeo.com/75889844 ) he explain how he did it but the missing steps to the final rendering is what I need. Thanks a lot

You have to connect the image result of the compositing to the composite node as well as the viewer node to see anything in the final render.  The viewer node just controls the compositor backdrop.


Rendered image has black outlines from imported image Second day of using Blender, I was trying to make a flower but the rendered object has a black base from the image outline. Here is the before and after image.  Any suggestions?

Increase the number of transparent bounces in render tab


tranform the origin/pivot point of multiple objects So, first off, I'm a software dev who probably shouldn't be messing with blender, so be gentle.

I've got a complex 3d model here, with about 25 discrete components (a spaceship). I've realized that I need the pivot point to be somewhere in the cockpit, so I can rotate the ship in 3d space without the camera flying out of the side of the ship. (Currently the pivot is around a point in front and below the model).

So, I tried the trick of setting only origins to transform, and then using the gizmo to move the origins. Problem is, it only works if there's a single component selected, I can't mass move the origins to where I need them (I have no idea which origin unity picks up). And moving the origin of the container object doesn't work either.

How can I set the origins for this model?

Just to illustrate how to change origin for multiple objects at once as @Delagone suggested.

Position the 3D cursor
Select all the objects
Go Object > Set Origin > Origin to 3D Cursor


How to apply a hair particle effect to a specific material Okay, so I'm making an animal character and I want it to have fur by using the hair particle effect, but only in certain areas where I use a specific material.
I've tried to find tutorials on this but most of them start way far ahead from where I am, have something way more specific in mind, or only apply it to the whole object.
I don't want to use any UV wrapping because I don't think I need to in order to do this

Basically I want a material I can apply to certain parts of my object that will make it appear like it has short blue fur without any complicated UV wrapping

You could use weigth painting. Select your object and go to the Data tab (triangle) in the Properties window. There is a section called Vertex Groups. Click the + icon to create a new vertex group and give it a name. Now you can switch from Object Mode to Weight Paint mode and paint the verts where you want your particles to appear. Blue = no particles, red = 100% of particles.
Afterwards go to your Particles tab, scroll down and open the Vertex Groups section. Click next to Density and select the vertex group you just painted.

(can't provide pics right now, sorry)


Is it possible to make a car with this kind of functional axle? I was trying to make a car and make the axle "work" mechanically.
My idea was to make an axle with a flat end and a wheel that would enclose around it like this:

Only, when I give these objects rigid body properties, this is what happens:

I've played with a lot of the settings and the result is never really functional. So this makes me wonder if I'm trying to use Blender in a way it's not intended to be used...

If making these parts is not possible, I would love to know how to animate the wheels of a vehicle in motion (but maybe that's for another question...)

Select the axle, then the wheel, and press Control+J to join them into one object.  Now the axle and wheel will move together.


Anyone can explain why light passes through the object? Sorry, my English skill bad.
I'm new to Blender. I have a steel barrel but in Eevee Render it look like shadow error, light pass through steel barrel. I don't want that. . Anyone can explain for me why? And how to fix this problem or I missing something in model progress. Thanks !

Select your light, and under Properties, check the box that says "Contact Shadows".

As you can see, however, a small amount of light still bleeds through. If this happens, it can usually be eliminated by giving your object more thickness. In the example below, I used a solidify modifier to make it thicker.

It seems like the only problem areas in your object are concerning the "bands". Make sure they have both inside and outside faces, and that they are correctly aligned with the rest of the mesh.
Lastly, though I cannot tell from your photo, it looks like your object may be mirrored on the Z axis. If this is the case, make sure the two halves merged correctly, and if you're using a modifier to achieve this make sure "Clipping" and "Merge" are enabled.


Can't select edges after dissolving and using loop cut tool I used the loop cut tool around the side of this model and then dissolved the edges because I thought it would save on file size and rendering and now I cannot select the area marked with the darker orange lines at all. Is this retrievable or will I have to start again?

Those dark orange edges are on a separate object which is selected outside of edit mode.  Either you had both objects selected when you went into edit mode, or you Ctrl + xlicked it while in edit mode, or (more likely) you inadvertently disconnected it by hitting P with that geometry selected.

Either way, you can fix this by exiting edit mode and joining the two back together again with Ctrl+J (with both still selected).

If you need to reconnect the edges, select the vertices in pairs and merge them with Alt+M.  (Selecting all with A and hitting W > Remove Doubles may also work to reconnect at least some of the geometry.)


How to change the duration of an added game object in multiple empties simultaneously? I'm trying to make an empty that adds a game object be modular.

Suppose that I have an empty with an edit object / add object actuator.

This empty adds a plane that lasts two seconds.

Later, I did make many copies of this empty, so I ended up with a scene with many empties that adds many planes, that lasts two seconds each.

If I want to change the time for which the planes lasts in the scene, to let's say, three seconds, now I need to copy the game logic to the other empties.

I would like to make this in a more modular fashion, by using linked objects instead of selecting many empties to then copy the logic.

Is it possible?

Actually, when in the process of linking the "empty", and change the parameters of the original one, the modifications do not reverberate automatically to the other empties inside the scene, because Blender reads the copies as different objects.

Assign the "template empty" to a new group "Plane.Adder".
Move the "template empty" to an hidden layer, or scene (does not need to be active), or file (and link the group from there).
Add any number of instances of group "Plane.Adder" -> Plane.Adder.001, Plane.Adder.002 ...

When you change the duration at the "template empty" the instances inherit this change.


How to hide particle source in proxy I have a rig consisting of 3 objects and a skeleton. One of the objects is a particle emitter, using a ball object to render the particles. I put the ball in a different layer so I could render the balls emitted as particles, but not the original one. The 3 objects, skeleton and ball object were put into a group and linked into another file, and I created a proxy for the skeleton to animate it. Things are good, but I can't find a way to hide that original ball in the linked file. There is no way to put it in a different layer as it's part of the group. The ball particles render fine, but so does the original ball. Is there a different technique that will accomplish this?

What Mzidare said was right. I went back to the project today, and tried again. Yes, you can select the ball separately and move it to another layer just like you would if the group was not linked. I tried it with the ball included in the group I linked and with it not in the group and I had the same result. I was pretty sure that I had tried that before, but I guess I must have done something wrong.  Mzidare, if you want you can re-post your comment as an answer and I'll up-vote it.


How can I resize a displacement map in cycles? So I followed a texturing tutorial by Blender Guru that shows you how to add bump-, specular- and displacement maps with nodes in cycles to make your texture look more realistic. I used my own texture to make things a bit more interesting for me but it ends up being way larger than I anticipated.
This is what it looks like:

This is the size that I'd like (but with a displacement map for added realism):

Now I know how to change the size of my image textures for the basic texture and the bump- and specular maps - via changing the values in the textures' mapping-section

but when it comes to the displacement map

there is no such mapping-section there, just an image mapping-section which isn't helpful regarding the size of the texture.

If anyone knows how to deal with this, I'd greatly appreciate your help.

If you are using the UV (also default) texture coordinates mode (with Point or Vector mapping), you can use the Crop Maximum XY values to scale the Displacement Texture up and down with the same values you used for Scale on the colour texture.


Wich rendering engine is the best? Which is better, cycles or LuxCore? The problem is that lve been using cycles for a long time but i see that luxcore has better results and i dont know what i should be using. My objective is to get the most realistic result as posible. The mechanics of LuxCore look easy but ive seen that is hard to use. And also, is it unbiased?

They are different engines - for different purposes.

LuxCoreRender is an extremely advanced, physically accurate engine. It supports both path tracing (rays are shot from the camera) and bidirectional path tracing (rays are shot from both the camera and light sources). LuxCoreRender also has multiple sampling types, along with many other state-of-the-art features that are hard to find even in professional paid render engines. There are also many quality-of-life features that LuxCoreRender has, that make it fast for certain tasks.
 LuxCore does have disadvantages, however. The biggest is it's absolutely terrible motion blur. Because it's motion blur is so bad, it should not be used for animation, like at all.

Cycles is very good as well. It's more typical, and well rounded. You know cycles, it's good! It struggles with things like caustics and dispersion, though.

Here's the final verdict from me. Cycles works pretty great most of the time. And, I recommend using it most of the time. It's shader system is excellent, and allows for incredible effects. LuxCoreRender is amazing too, but is only worth using for archviz and scenes with lots of glass and complex stuff like that. LuxCoreRender was actually developed primarily for archviz, by the way.

I hope this helps!

EDIT: about biases; cycles is partially biased, and LuxCore can be completely unbiased, but can also be biased depending on what you want for that specific scene. In LuxCore, you can control it


Diffusion confusion - what is the right diffuse shader yor which application? with this i would like to start a question / discussion of what type of diffuse shader is to use for which specific application. Cycles comes with a "Diffuse" Node, but other nodes do diffusion as well. Here is an example:

The Question is: What type of shader should be uses for which specific case? What are the differences? Should they be mixed?

Thank you!

Use diffuse for diffuse reflection, use glossy for glossy/specular reflection, and mix them because real materials also have multiple types of reflection at the same time.

It is a common misconception to think that diffuse reflection is caused by the surface irregularities/bumps, but this is wrong, perfectly smooth surfaces still can have diffuse reflection. Actually diffuse reflection is caused by subsurface scattering, but the scattering distance for most materials and rendering scenarios is smaller than the pixel size, therefore luckily we can use the diffuse node instead of the slow subsurface scattering node.

For more details, see my answer to a similar question: What is the technical difference between a diffuse shader and a rough glossy shader?


Eevee Smoke invisible on objects Smoke looks too thin when it is on the small square plane. Here is upside-down view and Flow object (small square) settings:

And this is side view and Domain object settings:

Why is it so, and how can I make the smoke look better?

I found that the following parameters influence on smoke's density above other objects:

Density value in Volume Principled shader (it should be between 30-60)
High Resolution mode in Domain object settings (using this, you can set Density 1.5-2 times smaller)
Volumetric scene settings -> Volumetric Lighting -> Light Clamping. It should about 10-15, or zero (no clamping). Using this parameter you can easily control the brightness of the smoke separately from the density.

And of course the light must be good.

Here is what I've got with Density 30, Light Clamping 10, HighRes turned on, and Sun light energy 10:


What is simplest way to join particles into a single mesh and modify during animation? I would like to modify the mesh from a particle system during animation. Without some way to join all of the particle object meshes together, modifiers like smooth do not work as needed.

What is the simplest way to create a single mesh from a particle system at each frame in an animation so that other modifiers can be applied like Smoothing?

A single mesh can be created from a particle system by using modifiers.

Create a particle system. For this example, also create a container to keep the particles in a volume.
Add a cube which fully encloses the particle system and its container. After some simulation, the geometry will look like this:

Add a sphere which will be used to display the particle system. Any manifold object can be used. If non-manifold objects are used, this solution will not work.
Add a modifier to make this sphere a particle system instance. At this point, each sphere is a separate mesh. Therefore, filtering modifiers operate on each sphere, not the combined mesh.

Add a modifier to perform an intersection with the particle system and the largest cube. This will create a single mesh from all of the spheres.
Add a Laplacian Smooth modifier. The mesh will be smoothed eliminating the appearance of intersecting spheres.

Now other operations like Booleans can be applied.


Baking problems with joined object Like the heading says, baking occures problems to me. In the baked texture the object I joined into the horse mesh before (but deleted all faces and replaced them until every face looked like it was connected to the original mesh, which seems not to have happened? I don't know) shows black holes. In solid view nothing shows any problem. I already deleted the vertex colors which brought no result. Like told, the joined mesh was replaced; at least the faces all were replaced again. I'm totally confused now. What to do?

Edit: Due to armature deform I have got several vertex groups added before I changed the eye surroundings. Maybe the problem here?

Screenshot:

Problem occured due to an extra object that made the lights not be rendered at that position. Solved here.

[Edit: It was a hidden object of the same scene being still allowed to render. The baking so accepted its shadowing for the texture and made this happen -- Rendering just had to be disabled.]


problem exporting model with texture I have a basic problem (I guess). I'm just using the default cube, I added a material then a texture I chose the default "marble" pattern. When I render it, it looks like it should. However, when I export the object (tried all different formats), then import the model back into blender, there is no marble pattern on the cube.

Other formats than blenders .blend don't support Blenders full feature set, have different settings or similar functions, which are not always compatible. Not all Settings, Materials or Datatypes can be saved by export functions. So if you don't want to import your model in a different Program, use the Save As Function to save your file in the native .blend format.


How to draw straight lines of a given length I am trying to reproduce the following picture (white outline) in blender, so that I can use the loft command on it.

Is there any way to do that shape using straight lines and measuring distances and angles?

I have done it pressing ShiftA and inserting a Plane, from which I delete a vertex and with the use of E I extrude line by line until I get the shape I am looking for, but I would like to know if there is a more reliable and precise way to do it.

Since all your measures are integers and all your angles are 45 degrees, you can use Precision control.

Once you have started an extrusion (E) the displacement is displayed at the bottom of the 3D Viewport:

(image from here)

Keeping an eye on it, before accepting the new position, you can hold down Ctrl (while moving the pointer) for "snapping" the transform to an integer number of grid units, or 10 grid units: it depends on your current zoom level. If you need a 10 times finer precision, hold Ctrl and Shift together.

For 45 degrees displacements, make sure that Dx and Dy are the same value, apart from the sign.

Once you have done, you can measure distances and angles using the MeasureIt addon.


smooth shading error on a low poy model creating sharp edges I have a low poly model with smooth shading enabled on all faces. unfortunately, when I go into rendered view, I see odd sharp lines on the edges and tris not previously seen in lookdev view:
Rendered view:
Edit mode:

Try recalculating normals ctrl+N in edit mode or merge vertices by distance also in edit mode I think alt+M for the merge


Mesh modeling review: black hole, cannot select face, joining subdivisions I've run into some problems with my first mesh model, a boat's hull.
I'm unaware of an SE like code review for modelling, so I hope these questions are not frowned upon.

I hereby place it in the Public Domain, except for the image contained from http://www.elb-h-jolle.de/bauvorschrift/bauunterlagen.php (incomplete hull form lines). It's a single mesh with a mirror modifier.

Now to the questions:

Stern corner mesh joints
I've started with the sides of the hull and added vertices / extruded edges to create faces for the stern and top. Should these be managed as quads or an n-gon?:

Black hole and unselectable face at bottom of cockpit
I've extruded the front part of the cockpit's bottom (after subdividing two edges to create the corrensponding face), but the resulting vertical face is black (I can select it) - why?
The bottom of the cockpit does not appear to be a face (I can't select it) despite a "Make Edge/Face" operation on the respective Edge loop. Why could this be?

Bow
This is missing a curve at the bottom, which is a similar problem the the stern corners. Some of these vertices probably need to be joined?

Is there a way to align multiple vertices to x=0 at once? If I use the transform (Properties Region) for a selection, this seems to apply to the group, not individually.
Alternatively, is it possible to align selected vertices in a plane and move that to the desired location?
Of course the purpose is to align the vertices to close the hull for its mirror modifier.

Your question is loaded with many questions that appear to be regarding best modeling practices.
Quads vs N-Gons
In general, there are many ways to model something with either quad or n-gons. You have to ask yourself what you would like your end result to be.

For example, if you are modeling something that you wish you use a subdivision modifier or use loop cuts, then it is best practice to use quads.
If you are modeling a low poly asset that you wish to export to a game engine, then it is also preferable to use quads (that will then get triangulated upon export).
If you are modeling something that you wish to render within Blender as is, without the need to subdivide the geometry further, then n-gons are suitable to use as well.

In your case, since the hulls of boats are usually smooth, you may need to add additional loops and/or use subdivision modifier, so it is recommended to use quads.
Normals direction
Your next question is regarding the direction of your normals. If their are pointing inwards, then they appear dark.

to enable viewing normals, open up the "N" toolbar by pressing the N key on your keyboard in edit mode, and scroll down to select "view face normals"
You can flip the normal of a face by selecting it, and searching for the flip normals command (using the space bar).

Limiting Selection to visible
Based on the file you provided, you cannot select the face at the bottom of the cockpit because you had you have not limited your selection to visible, meaning you can see the bottom faces in solid view.
To enable the option, click the "limit selection to visible" button in the 3d viewport header
Joined vs separate objects

Similarly to the consideration required for quads vs n-gons, it's best to think about what is the required end result.
If some smootheness (via subdivision modifier or additional edge loops), then it's best to have connected objects. However, they should also be quads.
It instead you are modeling disparate elements, then there is no need for the meshes to share vertices.

Best modeling practices
In general with mesh modeling, it is better to start from a single object that you can then subdivide with loop cuts and/or extrusions to get the desired result. I would suggest going through tutorials on youtube.
Below is a quick example of how to model the boat starting from a plane, with a few edge loops, extruding, adding subdivision modifier, and adding additional edge loops to control the softness/hardness of edges.


How to increase the speed of rendering What is the effect of increasing your ram in blender?  Especially in the speed of rendering

RAM is mostly about storage amount. More ram will allow you to render more complex & more populated scenes (more objects, more polygons, more textures, etc....).

It will not have a significative impact on render times, unless you have less ram than is needed to handle the complexity of your scene (the more complex the scene the more ram is required) - in which case your system will store on your hard drives, which are way slower.

The important hardwares in render times are the CPU and the GPU.


Solidify Modifier doesn't work I am pretty new to Blender but with tutorials I came at least this far.

I made a mesh blanket over a mesh bench. I used cloth simulation to make the blanket a nice fit and at the frame I liked I used Apply under the Moderfiers tab in Properties ,to make the cloth a mesh.

This is the front of the blanket and then the back with Solidify applied:

But when I try to upload it into my virtual world, the back is still blank:

You must either apply the modifier manually or enable "Apply modifiers" in the export settings for whatever file type you are exporting to. For Collada, the setting is here:


Equal Amount of Vertices? How would you get the same amount of vertices on 2 different objects in blender cycles? I want to make my mesh text transform into a different word but to do so I need an equal amount of vertices on both different words.

Morphing smoothly between two totally different objects with different vertex counts that also contain submeshes like text or single words is done more easily and efficiently by using particle systems and keyed physics. You basically "fill" your objects (the meshes with its submeshes which in this case are our letters) with particles and then use keyed physics to do the transition.

I recommend the video tutorial from BlenderHQ which you can find here:

Morphing Particle Systems with keyed Physics in Blender


Compositing Mist Over Multiple Render Layers UPDATED

(mushrooms and far trees are background, buildings on right and some vegetation on both sides of middle building is midground layer)

I adjusted the values on the colorramp and the factor to show the issue i'm still having, it seems like the bottom two layers' fog cannot be adjusted individually the way I have the node set. Ideally, I would like to have a little separation between these two layers, however I can't figure out the right node setup to give each layer its own mist layer adjustment.

UPDATE

Made a little progress, I think I'm like two thirds there. I attached my most recent render (top image), the current node setup (middle image), and the version with the mist I am trying to mimic (3rd image). I seemed to have figured out how to apply the mist (minimally)to my background and my midground, but the foreground doesn't seem to be affected by the colorramp slider with this node setup. Still a WIP, among other things, the mist is a little heavy in the version I'm trying to match, but once I have the nodes set up I should be able to tweak that. The mist in the foreground is probably irrelevant for this image, but would be nice to know how to apply it for future renders.

ORIGINAL

I recently ran into hardware bottlenecks on a render, and found I am able to complete the same scene using multiple render layers and combining them during compositing. However, the mist pass that I had on the previous single layer render now needs to be spread over the 3 render layers. I believe I would have to setup a mist to colorramp/mix node for each layer and combine those similarly to "stacking" the 3 render layers I have already. I am trying to avoid volumetrics to cut down on CPU strain. What would be the best way to combine the mist node tree to my 3 render layers node tree to achieve the same depth that a single render layer with a mist pass does? Is there an easier way to add mist to the image that contains the 3 render layers?

Thanks.

Use a math node in the compositor set to “minimum” to merge multiple mist passes:

“Occluding” objects in the mist pass will always have a lower value than what they are occluding, since the distance range of the mist pass is the same for all layers. “Minimum” takes the smaller of the 2 input values. So this will simply merge all occlusion objects. Just add more math nodes if you have more than 2 layers: you can merge a 3rd mist pass into the combined results the same way you merged the first 2.


I Used Shift + L to select all objects in common.. how do I apply a material to all of those now? I did Shift + L to select objects with the same default material, but now how do I apply a material to all of those?

It will only apply a material to the original one I wanted to compare the other objects with.

You select all the objects that you want to apply material to, with the one that you already applied material to as the last selected one, then hit CTRL+L (make links) and choose Materials from drop down list.


How to group objects, But only make into a Single big "Mesh" I would like to know how to group my Limb pieces all together
yet have all individual parts still move with their correct bones; something like this.

If you select the model, there is one big group, but the individual objects can still be moved.

I would like to know how this can be accomplished. Thanks!

To do this:

Select one of the objects (mesh)
Press Shift+Right mouse click to select the rest of the objects
Hit Ctrl+J to join them all into one big mesh
List the big mesh then Shift+right click on the armature
Hit Ctrl+P to parent the mesh to the armature
Select Automatic Weighting


Seperate by loose parts I have just tried to do the "separate by loose parts" option and I think there might be too many objects to separate so blender just crashes. Is there anyway I can do this without it crashing?

Thanks,
Dan

These are the blocks here  ^ ^ ^ ^

If you are having troubles with doing this in one operation you may have better luck by breaking it into smaller pieces.

In edit mode goto side view and Box select one or two levels. Press B to start box select mode.
Press CtrlL to select vertices linked to what is selected, this ensures you keep each piece together.
Press P and choose Selection to separate the selected portion into a new object.
Repeat until you have separated the whole tower into smaller parts.
Select one of these smaller objects and go into edit mode.
Press P and choose by Loose Parts
Repeat for each part created above.


How Can I define rigid plane? I want to pour cubes which are in the image. However when I animate blender p plane passing through to the cubes. How can I solve this problem? I just want to pour cubes and observe falling of cubes when I animate.Can you Help me?
Thank you...

[Final Edit now I think I understand the problem better]

OK, so I have the same behavior as you if I use your AN setup. Blender expects the passive to not be moving, or you to be explicit about it if it's moving.

So my solution:

Select cube, go to physics, add rigid body, select type active.
Select plane, go to physics, add rigid body, select type passive. Under settings, tick Animated.
Play animation.

It should work.


How can I render a light source with a composite fog glow but not blur an object? I seem to have boxed myself into a corner after spending a week of rendering and setting up.

I created a mountain scene with an icosphere (emission material) flying through the canyons, all is fine so far. To get a glow effect on the sphere I used composited with fog glow to get this result.

ORB flying down canyons

At a certain set point the sphere then hovers beside a LEGO castle and this is where I am having terrible trouble. The render is:

Castle is mixed in screen option on mix node

And in my node setup I can see that the screen option on the mix node is the problem.

Node Setup - Castle is mixed in screen mode

So to help speed up rendering I tried to render just the castle and light source and add the landscape in compositing but I just get:

No landscape

Node setup - no landscape

I then tried to use render layers but got nowhere.

How can I render a light source with a composite fog glow but not blur an object? And if possible also use compositing to add the landscape after to cut down on render times?

PROGRESS

I managed to get the castle to render with out the fog glow effect but I still cannot get the background to work. The last mix node is set to mix and if I change it to add the castle looks semi transparent.

Set to Mix

Set to Add

The answer is to use ID Mask with the emission object set to index 1 and use an Alpha Over node to place my transparent render on the background.

All credit to @gandalf3 for this answer.


How can I script moving bone constraints up the constraints stack? I'm running into walls trying to reorder the bone constraints stack on blender 2.78.

I have an armature for which I want to re-order bone constraints on every bone. The way to do this seems to be to use

bpy.ops.constraint.move_up(constraint=name, owner='BONE')

Where name is the name of the constraint.

I'm assuming I need to be in pose mode and I need to select the bone I want to operate on, so:

bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'POSE')
bone = bpy.context.active_object.pose.bones['the_bone_i_want']
bone.bone.select = True
bpy.ops.constraint.move_up(constraint=name, owner='BONE')

This produces a RuntimeError: Operator bpy.ops.constraint.move_up.poll() Context missing 'constraint'

OK, so I'm in the wrong context. Why? Which context has the necessary constraint?

I also thought about changing the active area to the properties beforehand, like this:

bpy.context.area.type = 'PROPERTIES'

This does change the active area, but doesn't get rid of the error message.

Can anyone point out what I'm doing wrong, or give me a way to reorder bone constraints that works?

This can now be done without bpy.ops.

bone.constraints.move(from_index, to_index)

https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.ObjectConstraints.html?highlight=constraints%20move#bpy.types.ObjectConstraints.move