Fluid simulation not baking I am trying to bake a fluid simulation in Blender 2.67. Here is a mockup of my scene:

My scene is set up just like the picture, with a sun lamp above a mesh that is supposed to be a riverbed.

The liquid Domain object encapsulates everything except for the sun lamp, and it covers all edges.  Inflow and outflow objects are specified, one each, with the inflow velocity set to Y: -1.0, Z: 1.0.  All liquid simulated objects are enabled.  The mesh is set to Obstacle.  Settings are very, very low:  25 resolution for final and preview, 4.0 second start/end span for 100 frames (real-time), and smoothing set to 0.0, for a whopping 463 KB estimated memory space.

My issue is that when I try to bake it, after specifying a valid directory, nothing happens, except that the status bar appears, my computer saves the baked cache correctly, and then it's as if nothing happened.  Nothing in the menus changes, preview and render both act as if the event never occurred.  I'm also using Windows 7 64-bit with Intel Mobile Express Chipset Family 4 (graphics card).

That's not a lot, so I know it can't be my memory or graphics card issues.  Here is the relevant .blend file. What could the problem be?

I don't use the fluid simulator much but it seems the problem can be fixed by adding some depth to the inflow object. Currently it's just a flat plane. Just extrude it a bit on the Y axis and bake.


How to find if geometry linked to an edge is coplanar I have this mesh:

I need to find all faces linked to the selected edges. How can I find that using BMesh? I know this way:

for e in edges:
    for f in e.link_faces:
        print("Link Faces:", f)
        normals.append(f.normal.copy())

but for some reason this isn't good for me. Is there any other? Thank you.

EDIT: I need to be more specific, so to highlight the problem.
The object I need to check:

Now I need to know if the edges from a selection lies on the same plane. So I check for those edges face normals. The script:

me = ob.data

if me.is_editmode:
    # Gain direct access to the mesh
    bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
else:
    # Create a bmesh from mesh
    # (won't affect mesh, unless explicitly written back)
    bm = bmesh.new()
    bm.from_mesh(me)

# get all selected edges
edges = [e for e in bm.edges if e.select]

# check if all connected face normals are
# on the same plane. the check is strict
faces=[]
normals=[]
for e in edges:
    for f in e.link_faces:
        faces.append(f)
        print("Link Faces:", f)
        print("Normal: ",f.normal)
        print("Normal copy: ",f.normal.copy())
        normals.append(f.normal.copy())

# check they're all the same vector
coplanarity = all(x==normals[0] for x in normals)

print("Coplanar: ", coplanarity)

First selection:

results:

Link Faces: <BMFace(0x11f892818), index=311, totverts=4>
Normal:  <Vector (0.0000, -0.0000, 1.0000)>
Normal copy:  <Vector (0.0000, -0.0000, 1.0000)>
Link Faces: <BMFace(0x11f8927e0), index=310, totverts=4>
Normal:  <Vector (0.0000, -0.0000, 1.0000)>
Normal copy:  <Vector (0.0000, -0.0000, 1.0000)>
Coplanar:  True

Second selection:

Results:

Link Faces: <BMFace(0x109d47b80), index=226, totverts=4>
Normal:  <Vector (0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000)>
Normal copy:  <Vector (0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000)>
Coplanar:  True

The two edges are selected to be on the same face; as you can see, the normals result being different while they're obviously the same. Looks like a non-manifold kind-of bug. So I need to take another route...

EDIT2:

No it's not a bug. I did more tests, there's st. I don't get here...

the blend

Checking if all selected geometry is coplanar.

Similarly to this answer I find using the convex hull bmesh operator, and calculate volume on result a quick and dirty (and somewhat bulletproof) way to calculate if all geometry lies on the same plane.  Doesn't need to calculate face normals at a all.

Here is a test script to run in edit mode, that will report if all selected edges are coplanar.

import bpy
import bmesh
from mathutils import Vector

def coplanar(geom, TOL=0.0001):
    verts = []
    for g in geom:
        if hasattr(g, "verts"):
            verts.extend(v.co for v in g.verts)
        else:
            verts.append(g.co)
    if len(verts) < 3:
        return True
    o = sum(verts, Vector((0,0,0))) / len(verts)
    bm2 = bmesh.new()
    for v in verts:
        bm2.verts.new(v - o)
    bmesh.ops.convex_hull(bm2, input=bm2.verts)
    vol = bm2.calc_volume()
    bm2.free()
    return vol <= TOL

context = bpy.context
ob = context.edit_object
me = ob.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
edges = [e for e in bm.edges if e.select]

print("Coplanar:", coplanar(edges))

As mentioned by @kheetor if you are seeing zero normals, you most likely need to update them bm.normal_update() or on a per face basis with face.normal_update().

Also suggest using a tolerance rather than equality when comparing float values.  For example in your script above.

# check they're all the same vector
coplanarity = all((normals[0]).angle(x) < 0.0001 for x in normals)

would IMO be a better test than normals[0] == x.


How to cut grid into cylinder without distortion? I'm trying to model my mic, the HyperX Quadcast, and I'm curious about how to create the red hexagonal grid bit as seen in this picture:
I have the hexagonal grid, however, I can't seem to figure out how to wrap it around the main cylinder shape without the grid getting distorted.

Anyways, I have a small .blend file that I made to test out ideas, I'll attach it if anyone wants to poke around.

Blender has a modifier for that :)

Add a Simple deform Modifier to your honeycomb
Set it to Bend, around Z axis
Adjust the Angle

Note: Your honeycomb is a bit messy, I'd suggest to use the one from Extra Objects addon instead.


Custom data of vertices, Vertex Layers I found this answer (first answer) Python: assign custom tag to vertices

I'm pretty excited of this. But I have some questions:

1) How to get all vertices which have 'my_id' custom data?

2) How to remove 'my_id' custom data from all vertices. To clear vertices from unnecessary custom data.

Thanks.

1)

 [i for i in bm.verts if i[my_id]]

This will work because any int value other than 0 will return True. Therefore there's an assumption that you aren't using the value 0 for anything meaningful.

2)

Custom id data is removed after bm.free(). I don't know if it can be wiped before.

for the sake of completeness

>>> import bmesh
>>> bm = bmesh.new()
>>> obj = bpy.context.active_object
>>> bm.from_mesh(obj.data)
>>> my_id = bm.verts.layers.int.new('id')
>>> bm.verts.ensure_lookup_table()
>>> bm.verts[0][my_id]
0

This shows that even before you assign a specific value to your layer.int for that vertex, it will already have a default 0.


Activate objects that are hit - Blender Fracture Modifier Build I am trying to do a cgi door break effect, and I am having trouble with the collision. I am using the blender fracture modifier build and have so far been able to break the door. I am using a set up in which the object that is to be broken is animated until the other object comes flying at it. The problem is, once the object ceases to being animated, the entire door falls down due to gravity when I only want the shards to. I am using constraints and need a way to only let the shards of the door that is hit fall.

You could try to set the object flying into the door to be a trigger and the door should be animated and triggered. Both settings are in rigidbody physics Panel in the FM build. This way only the shards the incoming object will touch should be activated.


Scientific texture analysis i'm very new to Blender, so i would like to ask about the feasibility of the following:

I have 200 images of a sphere of a process over time. 100 images are camera recordings from the front of the sphere and 100 are from the back. I want to model the sphere and implement an animation with the 200 images applied on the surface of the sphere.
This will result in a sphere animation where over time a bright/white spot expands radially over the sphere until the whole sphere is white.

Is it possible with Blender to analyse the surface changes i.e. measure how much the white area is expanding?

If yes, do i need additional plugins/scripts? If yes, what are those?

Thank you very much in advance!

This doesn't help you analyze your texture, but it'll at least get you projecting it on the sphere.

Add a UV-Sphere to your scene

Switch to front-view (1) and set camera view Ctrl+Alt+0

In edit mode, use box-select (B) to select the vertices visible from the front, then UV-Unwrap, selecting "Project From View"

In the UV/Image Editor window with your vertices still selected, open one of your images and scale the UV-unwrapped mesh to fit

Add a material to your sphere, using your image sequence

Switch to rendered view, and see your image projected onto the sphere


adding grass to a scene Is there a way to add grass all over my plane without placing the grass manually?

Finished Result :

You will need to use a particle system :

Be sure that the origin point of the objects (that will be placed) is down.
Then select your objects and press Ctrl +
G
Select your plane where the grass objects will be placed, and in properties panel click on particle system and click plus
Continue From here in images :

Be sure to put a check-mark beside advance :

Finished :

If you want decrease the number of objects just decrease the number.


Animating a boolean operation gives inconsequent results I'm trying to make a water level rise in a tube, but both in the viewport as in the final render, boolean action provides inconsistencies. I'm using Blender 2.83 for this.
Most of the times the boolean (an animated box using difference as operation) works as expected but some frames just produce a flat face instead of a volume. (3rd image)

I'm actually using 2 booleans on the water, one to cut the water in half vertically and a second one (animated) to rise the water level, but applying the first one doesn't make a difference.
I believe my boolean objects are big enough.
Here's a screenshot of my setup:

It doesn't make any difference if I make the animated boolean an intersecting one either.
Does anyone have an idea how to fix this?
Here's the project file(s) just in case:
BoolTest01.blend (Boolean as difference)
BoolTest02.blend (Boolean as intersect

I only looked at your BoolTest01.blend file.
First I applied the the Modifier on the "Water" object that had the "B_Box halving" as a target object. Then I applied the rotation of the "Water" object: 3D viewport > Object > Apply > Rotation. After that the glitching seemed to have disappeared.
Hope that (also) works for you.
EDIT:
I've seen some strange things happening in your third file. Among others, on opening the file the "Water" and the "Box halving" behaving as one object when trying to select the Water. And getting a kind of "can't assign value" message (don't remember it exactly and didn't record it) when trying to apply a Boolean modifier at some point.
Also tried a bunch of things to fix your problem. Making the cylinder have an all quads topology and reapplying the Boolean modifiers in various ways.
I was almost out of ideas, but i found another fix that works for me. It is not ideal, but it might be adequate.
I believe the perfect aligning of the side of the "Box halving" and the height edges exactly in the middle of the "Water" cylinder might be responsible for confusing the boolean operation.
So i moved the center of the cylinder slightly to the side (1 mm according to the MeasureIt Tools; hardly noticeable) and that made the glitching disappear.

Again, i hope that (also) works for you


Object disppear when i change to the render cycle view I am new in blender. I am trying to change it to cycles render but the object I build just disappears! And I an see them when I change it to edit mode. Can anyone help?

It's kinda tough to answer that. Have you checked in the outliner if the object is visible for rendering? Look at this:
Object appears in Object mode but not in Render


how should i align the axis to the propeller center in this model.so that i can rotate it in animation Hello guys,so i want to create a axis which is alligned to the propellor surface.i want to later animate the propellor

You can parent your object to an 'empty' object.

Add an empty object (Shift+A > Empty (choose another display type if necessary)
Parent your object to the empty (first select the object, then the empty and press Ctrl+P

Now the Rotation properties of your object can be animated in the empty referential. In my example, just animate the "Z" component and that's it.


How to remove motion blur from images using the compositor? I'd like to know if it's possible to use the compositor for removing motion blur from image sequences, originally from a video footage. Using filter -> sharpen is OK, but I'm trying to find some better node setups. Any ideas?

Motion blur is reducing the information in the image. There is no way to add that information back. Say that you took a video of something blurry, that looks like motion blur but isn't. There is no way (for a mathematical operation) to know if that objects should be deblurred.

There are approximations, but they are quite complex math operations and they always leave artifacts (due to missing information).


How do you type fractional lengths into blender? No, not 1/{number}, {number}/{other number}. Every time I try and type a fractional transformation into blender, it forces me to only type 1/{something} when the reality is most people want as much precise control over the numerator too. How can I make blender do what it is supposed to do and just type any fraction?

I suppose you are talking about the numerical input of Modal Operators, because in ordinary input field you can input a python expression with no problems.

In modal operators it is different. Numerical input works fine, but the divide / and minus - keys function as toggles instead. / toggles between {input} and 1/{input}.

There is however an expression mode you can enter by pressing the = key first (* also works, which is close on numpad). You can now enter any expression, like 3/2 or 3-2 and it works.

I like to do this rather than having to apply the operator in 2 steps: 1st for the numerator and 2nd for the 1/denominator to have a resulting numerator/denominator transformation.

Note: correct order matters. If you press  / first, you enter into 1/{..} mode. Then if you enter expression mode, you cannot go back and get rid of the 1/{..}. You have to cancel the operator.


Why is my camera stuck In the torso of my character? I began trying to position the camera by going into camera view.  The camera view was in the torso of my character for some reason.

I had a camera in the scene, but as far as I know the camera is not a child of the rig.  I also tried removing the camera and adding it again but that still didn't help.

There is no camera object in your scene, and the cube object is set as the scene camera (yes, you can have non-camera objects set as the camera):

Add a real camera object by pressing ⇧ ShiftA> Camera in object mode, then make it the active scene camera by setting it in Properties editor > Scene > Scene > Camera, or by pressing ⎈ CtrlNumpad 0 with it selected:

This way you can move the camera object around as you like, and set camera options such as focal length, DoF, lens type, etc.


set the UVs to their vertices's coordinates? Is there a way to unwrap the UV's so that they match the coordinates of their respective vertices in the XY, XZ and YZ plane?

I have a tiling texture and all my faces are aligned to either the XY, XZ or YZ plane. So, I basically want the texture tiles each unit in either direction.

To get your image to display once on each face, select the entire mesh and press U > Reset. Each face will now be mapped to the image bounds.

In the UV/Image Editor header turn on UV and Edit mode selection sync.

Now in the 3D view you can select any faces with the texture on the wrong way, and rotate them in the UV Editor.


Get day and time in python and assign that value to BGE property I am trying to make a realistic day/night/season simulator for a BGE project. the lighting and sky will be animated based on the time of day, and the ground will have 365 frames - animated between green grass, leaves, and snow, as the seasons progress. I know how to make everything run perfectly, except for one part.

I have an object, called Time of Day Control Empty. (the name could easily be changed if it is too long, or the spaces are a problem)

I need a script to, upon running, find how many days it is into the year, and assign that value to the property "Day"

Then, I want the script to constantly update the property "Minutes" with the value of how many minutes into the day it currently is based on the current time.

The property "Day" should only range between 0-365, and the property "Minutes" should range between 0.00-1440.99 - It would be nice if the seconds were represented in .00 - .99 based on how far it was into each minute, at the end of the float property "Minutes," but that isn't really necessary.

Supposing that the current time was 2:27:27 PM on December 25th, the properties should look just like this:

I'm sure this is possible, but I have no idea where to start. How can I go about making this script?

You can get the current time in python with the time module (who would've thunk, right?)

time.localtime() gives you a struct containing everything you need:

import time
import bge

def clamp(n, nmin, nmax):
    if n > nmax:
        return nmax
    elif n < nmin:
        return nmin
    else:
        return n

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

# this returns a struct containing the year, month, day etc.
now = time.localtime()

# combine the hour and minute to get the total number of minutes, plus seconds (clamped to avoid tangling with leap seconds) scaled to .00 to .99
own['minute'] = now.tm_min + now.tm_hour*60 + clamp(now.tm_sec, 0, 59)*.01667
# we don't even need to do anything to get the year day. Note that this can return 356 on leap days, so be sure you either clamp it here or handle such a situation properly later.
own['day'] = now.tm_yday

Just hook it up to an always sensor. I set the skip on the always sensor so it only gets executed once a second at 60 tics per second, to avoid using extra precious cpu time:


Transparent image planes in cycles have strange borders I get strange borders on my image planes, even if there is a perfect 100% alpha.

The rendered output looks like this:

I know that this problem was once in the old blender renderer due the "premultiply issue", but now I don't see any premultiply option in cycles renderer.

The node setup is the standard "import image planes" for cycles as shadeless:

Maybe you know a workaround or a setting option in order to fix this?

Seems like there is some aliasing issue with your alpha channel.

I can see two solutions:

Change the texture interpolation from Linear to Closest.

If that doesn't work try adding a Math node to the alpha channel and set the mode to Greater than and the value to .5


Extracting exact distance information for an animation so basically what I want to do is have the exact distance between my Camera and an object, preferably in the metric system, for every frame of my animation.
I have been looking into the camera properties but can not seem to find anything for that, i have managed to change the units to metric but that's about it.

You can use the "MeasureIt" add-on: enable it from the user preferences.

Then select your two objects and, from the left panel of the 3D viewport (T), look for "MeasureIt" and click on "Link" under the "Add measure" box. Then hit "Show" to visualize it, if it isn't displayed already.


My Camera Width is Blocked I Was following one of the tutorials of Blender Guru and I think I have done some mistake that my camera has became like this.

Render tab settings

i think mistake is here

You should change your render resolution.

It can be found in the properties panel (the right-side one) under the render tab (the first one with the camera icon).
If that doesn't work, try changing the Aspect Ratio.


Can't export to .wrl after I have changed the pose. I am able to export as .wrl files, but if I have changed the pose of my object, this option is not clickable. How do I solve this problem. I have tried to "Set as rest position" and "Convert to mesh from surface". But it dosen't seems to unlock the export option.
I am new to this program.
Thanks you for helping :)

The vrml export addon only exports the active mesh object, if the active object is not a mesh object then the export option is disabled.

After using the armature to re-pose your object you need to re-select the mesh object to be able to export it.


Texture appears in Edit Mode but not in Rendered mode Hi,

I've placed a texture on this object and it looks fine in Edit mode but when I switch to rendered mode these black bands appear. It's all assigned as the same material so I'm really unsure as to why this keeps happening.

Can anyone help?

Figured it out. I needed a mother loop cut to stop the subsurf at the limits of the object...


how do I parent to a soft body? I have a cube that's a soft body falling down some stairs.  I want to put a little sphere inside the cube and have it stay at the center of the cube while the cube falls.  How do I set this up?

You could parent the child object to 3 vertices of the soft body object: Select the child, shift select the soft body object, go into Edit mode, select 3 vertices, press CtrlP > Make Vertex Parent, and the child will follow:


recalculate keyframe position after moving an animation is there an option to move and scale an animated group of objects?
for example i have a group of three animated objects. i want to move all that animation across the screen till it fits my needs without harm the animation and the relations between the animated objects.I can for instance delete all the y positions' to be able to move it on the y axis, but i can't find a way to scale it or to move in another directions without harming the entire animation.
any help will be appreciated.

Hi solution is very easy - add empty "Shift+A" -> "Empty" - choose one. And make this empty as parent of this objects: select all objects (with shift) and as last select empty (empty must be active object). Press "CTRL+P" -> "Object (Keep transform)". Now you ca move/scale empty and all object will follow it. Works also for animation.


Chose file format when taking a screenshot with python I'm trying to take a screenshot with Python using
bpy.ops.screen.screenshot()

However I can't figure out how to chose what file format to save the image as. It will by default be saved as a PNG (see screenshot below). Does anyone know if there would be a way to chose another file format (such as jpeg, bmp etc.) when saving a screenshot through python?

Thanks in advance! :)

Currently there is no way, you can only save directly to a PNG.

This is caused by the way the operator works, where the options to choose the image format are only initialized when the file-selector is used.


Read image metadata from Python I know that it's possible to display metadata in the Image Editor, but I need to access this info from Python, eg. in the form of a dictionary; is that possible at the moment?
If not, is there a specification for the way this metadata is stored?

See bpy.types.Image for the available information about images.

The current image of an editor can be accessed from SpaceImageEditor.image. So for a given context

context.space_data.image

Can you be more precise about what kind of metadata you are interested ?

It depends on the graphics file format (i. e. png format) and might be a question for Stack Overflow

Reading chunks from png

import os

# chunk generator
def chunk_iter(data):
    total_length = len(data)
    end = 4

    while(end + 8 < total_length):
        length = int.from_bytes(data[end + 4: end + 8], 'big')
        begin_chunk_type = end + 8
        begin_chunk_data = begin_chunk_type + 4
        end = begin_chunk_data + length

        yield (data[begin_chunk_type: begin_chunk_data],
               data[begin_chunk_data: end])

# open arbitrary pngs
blender_path = os.path.join(os.environ['HOME'], "Documents", "Blender")
pngs = (os.path.join(blender_path, elem)
            for elem in os.listdir(blender_path) if elem.endswith(".png"))

for png in pngs:
    with open(png, 'rb') as fobj:
        data = fobj.read()

    # check signature
    assert data[:8] == b'\x89\x50\x4E\x47\x0D\x0A\x1A\x0A'
    print("-" * 80, "chunks of: %s" % png, "-"*80, sep='\n')

    for chunk_type, chunk_data in chunk_iter(data):
        print("chunk type: %s" % chunk_type.decode())
        if   chunk_type == b'iTXt':
            print("--chunk data:",  chunk_data.decode())
        elif chunk_type == b'tEXt':
            print("--chunk data:", *chunk_data.decode('iso-8859-1').split('\0'))

Output

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
chunks of: /home/User/Documents/Blender/0001.png
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
chunk type: IHDR
chunk type: pHYs
chunk type: tEXt
--chunk data: File <untitled>
chunk type: tEXt
--chunk data: Note Test
chunk type: tEXt
--chunk data: Date 2015/08/12 17:07:41
chunk type: tEXt
--chunk data: Time 00:00:00:01
chunk type: tEXt
--chunk data: Frame 1
chunk type: tEXt
--chunk data: Camera Camera
chunk type: tEXt
--chunk data: Scene Scene
chunk type: tEXt
--chunk data: RenderTime 00:00.06
chunk type: IDAT
chunk type: IDAT
chunk type: IEND

So metadata for png is stored in tEXt chunks, separated by 0 character. See png specification


Why are procedural textures defaulting to pink? I've searched throughout this forum and see that the reason textures are in pink is because "the link to the texture file is missing". I understand the whole external file linking workflow from other work I do.

What I don't understand is that I've not imported any textures which could have been lost. I'm using Blender (2.76) right out-of-the-box (and yes, I'm a complete noob), building from a blank start-up cube (no appends).

There appear to me to be default "textures" listed under 'type' such as 'clouds' and 'voronoi'. I've managed to apply a clouds 'type' with no additional external texture file to create a crude, but sufficient-for-now, wood effect.

What are the items listed under 'type'? Are they textures or some 'other thing' and if so, what is the 'other thing' (So I know what to look-up in the index of the noob guides I'm using)?

Thank you.

Change the default color of the procedural texture as shown in the image.
Property panel > Texture tab > Influence Section.

There are many types of texture in the list. Most of them are
classified as procedural. Procedural is just a way of saying "code generated
textures" ... instead of the regular images made from a bunch of pixel (RGB)
information.
The power in procedural map is that it can be applied in many ways
(as a mask or as a texture), mixed with other procedural textures to
form new ones... and this is just two of the many benefits.
The image / Environment map type texture is the only two types that isn't consider procedural.


How to make a see through silk material? I have tried a couple of things now but can't seem to get the material just right. I am trying to create a white blouse material that looks like the picture below. Has anybody got some tips or maybe some samples that are close to it?

I'm not sure exactly how physically correct this is but artistically it should look fine.

  Note: I've exaggerated this effect a bit to be better visible.

Mix Principled BSDF with Translucent (pure white color) shader trough Layer Weight > Fresnel. You can tweak Fresnel to make it more/less transparent.


3D Scene in VSE: Hide an object keeping the shadow I have a scene (add / scene) in my VSE, and I made the lights and shadow to match those of the background footage. Now what would be the best way/strategy/approach to hide the plane, only retaining the shadow?

PS - The plane has the basic "new" material for now ; I'll make adjustments later, I just want to know if what I want to achieve is possible..?

EDIT: YES, I know you can use an image as the background/drop of a 3d scene, but this is not what I'm trying to do at all, thank you very much.
EDIT2: Apparently, it is simply not possible. The "only shadows" material checkbox of Blender Internal didn't make it into cycles. I guess it was too handy, intuitive and straightforward ;p

As of Version 2.79 Cycles has an option to make an object a shadow catcher.

From the release notes

  This option will make object to only receive shadows in a way that it could be alpha-overed onto another image.


Object that is not in preview is in render I am new to Blender, and decided to try making a short animation of a metal monkey head exploding.
I wanted to export it as an MP4, so I followed the instructions( going into the render tab, setting it to export as MPEG video with h264 in mp4 encoding), however, when it renders, the MP4 file is complete blackness with a tiny picture of a green and orange checkered cube that undergoes several light changes.
At first, I thought it was because I didn't have enough lighting, as that is what problems like these usually are. However, it is not, because first of all, I added a sun to the project and got the same result, and second of all, the green and orange checkered cube has had visibility turned off. The camera is also facing the monkey object, I made sure of that by setting my perspective to be from the camera's POV.
Why does it appear to be cropping the green and orange cube, and why is it showing that cube in the first place?
A portion of the exploding monkey animation preview

Render

EEVEE Engine

Cycles Engine

Let me know if you need more info.
Thanks!

I think the problem is that while visibility is off for workspace, it's not off for renders. There are a lot of objects in the scene that are rendering. Go to the Outliner window, and up in the upper right hand corner you'll see what looks like a funnel. Click on that, and up pops different visibility and selection toggles. You'll see the "render" setting (a little camera) is lit up for all those cubes and planes you have left in the scene.
Blender isn't like photoshop, where if you turn off the visibility of a layer, it's not active. So make sure you click those cameras to turn off what you don't want to see in the render, and see if that works.
Good luck!


When I join particles they somehow multipy I've created a particle system (grass), converted the particles and moved them to another layer to get the grass as separate objects. Now I want to join them by Ctrl j. However, when I select two grass blades and press Ctrl J additional blades appear. What am I doing wrong?

What information do i need to provide?

When you convert a particle system, the new objects all use the same mesh data. This is the same as making a linked duplicate. When you join two of these objects together, every other object using that same mesh will show the same duplication.

Blender seems to recognise this, so that if you select all of the particle objects and Join them in one go they will be joined into one object without the duplication. The original object you used for the particle system will receive the same duplication so you may want to separate it first.

In the mesh data properties there is a number between the mesh name and the 'F' button (only shown if it is greater than 1). This number indicates how many objects are using this mesh data. By selecting the original object used as a particle you can click this number to separate the object from the others preventing it getting the same duplication when you join all of the others.


Smoke not rendering in Cycles I made a new Blender file and added Quick Smoke to the default cube. I changed the renderer from Eevee to Cycles and switched to GPU Compute. When I render, all I see is the cube; the smoke doesn't appear. I've tried switching the cache type to Final and rebaking the sim and nothing changes. When I save the file and close and re-open Blender, nothing changes, and if I rebake after that, nothing changes.

Viewport:

Render:

I should note that while I am on 2.9 alpha, this happens in 2.82 and 2.83 beta as well.

Before this gets marked as a duplicate, I've tried everything listed on other questions on this site and on Google that I could find.

make sure that you didn't disable render for the domain.


How to Snap/Align Verticies at an Angle. I'm making this model and as I'm tweaking and making adjustments, the straight lines start becoming a little jagged. Now, I know about the trick to flatten a set of verts or faces by Scaling on the Z axis and hitting 0. But my un-flattened faces are at a 20ish degree angle. And I need it to be at 20 degrees rather at a flat 0. How would I make a set of verticies snap or align to each other and remain at the same angle they're at currently?

Picture reference on what I mean below.

You can scale the edges with a custom Transform Orientation with two axes locked.

Select some edge that has an orientation that you are happy with.
Once it is selected press ctrl+alt+Space to make(and activate) a new custom Transform Orientation from the edge. The newly created Transform orientation will have its Y axis going along the length of the edge.
You can now select all the edges that you wish to straighten. You could manually select them or use some tools from the Shift+g menu, or ctrl + click to select the shortest path between two edges and check Face Stepping option in the bottom of the t panel or the F6 panel.
You need the pivot center for scaling to be set to Individual Origins in the Header of the 3d View for this to work.
Then you just hit s for scaling, hit shift+y twice to constraint scaling operation to the x and z axes of the selected Transform Orientation only and hit 0 to scale them to 0.


UV Editor does not preview the corresponding image texture of selected object I could've sworn that UV Editor automatically shows the corresponding texture of an object but now it's stops doing that. How do I fix this?

Try to exit the edit mode (in the right half of the screen) and switch to "rendered view" instead of "material preview" on the top right. In this way your rendering engine (usually Eevee or Cycles) is used to generate the preview instead of the Viewport engine. Depending on the options you've chosen, they might only be available with these rendering engines.


Place/spawn objects along curve with randomized scale and rotation? Is possible to place/spawn objects along curve with randomized scale and rotation?
I'm looking for lazy way to create flowers and randomized procedural patterns.
Thanks

Yes, use a particle system.

Use the techniques described in my answer to array a small plane ver a curve. Add an Array modifier set to fit curve and and a Curve modifier afterwards to a small plane or object that will be the base for ditributing your flowers.

Instead of Duplifaces as described in the answer add a new particle system to your plane object.

Turn on the option to Use Modifier Stack, emit from faces without Random and Even distribution. Then set Particles per face to 1 (if you desired a perfect single item alignement).

Under the Render Panel  of your particle system set it to either Object and pick your flower object or Group if you have a set different ones to distribute.

Turn on both Unborn and Died and turn off Emitter. You may also need to disable the physics set to None

You can now control the size randomness from the Random Size property under the Render panel.

Adjust particle count as necessary to match the number of arrayed items.


How to save texture? Ok, I have fully colored/textured a pretty decently sized hatchet I made in blender a few times now and each time I saved and closed my blender. When I reopen the blender file it is completely unpainted.... Being very frustrated what am I doing wrong? I've tried saving the image of the texture but it keeps telling me "invalid path:" and I can't see the rest of the error message. I think my problem is that I'm saving the blend but not the texture mapping thing. (sorry don't know the correct terminology for everything)

Try this: press spacebar and then type "Pack." Select "Pack all into .blend". See if that works. That will copy all the source files blender uses (in this instance: texture images) into the .blend file. I don't entirely know if it will work, but I hope it will.


How to make every single part of a complex geometry thinner? I got a CT-scanned DICOM images of a luffa (loofah) and I got a 3D version of it using a software called InVesalius (quite similar to 3D Slicer and you can export the geometry in various formats such as .stl, .obj, .x3d). I want to setup a CFD simulation of this luffa. The problem is, it is impossible to get a proper realistic (thin, hair-like) geometry of this luffa using both aforementioned software.
How do I do that in Blender using the exported 3D geometries? (I couldn't find anything searching & surfing the internet).
Here is how it looks like in real life:

And here are how the 3D geometries I exported from InVesalius (or 3D Slicer) look in Blender:

Close up:

How could I get a hair-like, thin geometry of a natural luffa in this virtual reconstruction?

Here are two ways you might be able to go about doing this, though they aren't going to provide you perfect results. Both of these techniques involve moving all faces in along their normals.
Option 1
In edit mode, select everything and hit ALT+S, then slowly draw your mouse down to shrink. You may wish to select the Offset Even checkbox in the little settings box.
Option 2
Add a displace modifier to your mesh. Leave the Midlevel at 0.5, and set the strength to 0.0. Then, slowly draw the strength into the negative numbers, which will shrink the mesh. The exact number will depend heavily on the scale of your mesh, and the degree to which you need it thinned.


Changing object dimensions along Y axis - scales Z axis I am a bit confused about axis systems in Blender. In the first figure - the green and blue represent the Y and Z axis. When I translate the object in Y,Z directions it moves perfectly. However, when I change the object dimensions in Z direction it causes the object to change in the Y direction.

Also, in the first figure the dimensions in (Y,Z) are (725,2809) respectively - but obviously the extent of object in Y is much greater than in the Z direction. This makes me suspect that the dimensions are being shown in a coordinate system different from the one displayed on the screen. Any hints on how do I find it?

For sake of completeness - the airplane shown in the figure was imported as a .obj file. Since, it was composed a number of smaller meshes - I joined all these meshes into a single object and moved the geometry to origin. This is what is shown in figure 1.

This is because the object is rotated 90° around the X axis.

So blender is scaling the object around the local Z, then rotating the object so that the local Z is aligned with the global Y.

To fix this, apply the rotation with ⎈ CtrlA> Rotation.


Hidden keyframes in timeline Soo, I think I accidentally pressed something and I don't know how to fix that. The thing is that keyframes in the timeline are know hidden behind the numbers

The animation still works, I can add new keyframes, but I cannot select any of them as they're hidden... does anyone know how to get back to default settings?

With mouse cursor over your Timeline press Home on your keyboard or go to View > Frame All:
.
Same trick applies for Dope Sheet (and pretty much any other view in Blender).


Why does performing any translation on parent bone move entire mesh? I have a 3d model of a  snake thing. The snake thing has bunch of bones in a line. All on the bones are parented to the bone at the front of the line.

I would like for the first bone to only move the head part of the mesh.

Because the parent bone moves all the other bones, and (I'm assuming) those bones are all weight painted to modify the mesh via an Armature modifier.  Is there a particular issue that you have with this setup, or another goal you have for this?


How to get rid of Jagged edges in objects How do I fix this? There jagged edges in all my objects, I have no idea what's wrong as I'm a newbie.
I was modeling and I realized there jagged edges midway, I did not use any nodes at all.

You can adjust that in Blender Preferences (Edit -> Preferences -> Viewport -> Quality):


How can I have presets for multiple render options? I've been working on a huge scene and i'm using the quick render feature a lot. but i'm always stuck with one option to render with all the time if i want to change settings such as sampling,performance, light paths settings and i have to go and adjust these numbers manually.
i usually render my quick render with lower light paths number but when i want to get an actual render i have to go back to these numbers change them again and i always forget what were the initial numbers.

Is there anyway i can have multiple rendering options presets, let say one for testing, one for quick render one for production. so far the only value i know i can change is sampling for quick render and final render.

is there any addon for it , or is it hard to write addon myself?

one suggestion i got was to have multiple scene but if i change anything in one scene i have to copy it across and it's more time spending moving stuff around.

I just checked, and when I create a new scene and 'link objects' then I can switch between scenes and the position of my object is the same in both if I move it on one or the other. If I use 'Link Object Data' then the objects are there but they are only moved in the scene where I made the movement, and in original position in the other.Maybe choosing 'Link Objects' can let you share the objects and then make the settings locally for render different then.

An addon or script is not that hard to make yourself if you look at simple examples for making your own operator that acts as a macro to perform some action or change a setting. cgcookie intial python scrtipting and cgcookie setting up custom panel. These are only two examples of all kinds of stuff you can find on the internet, and depending on how you want to access your script you might even just keep it handy to call up and run when you want to from the text editor, or go so far as to make a custom addon panel for yourself.


How do I bake both the paint texture and sculpted effects into one normal? Right now I have a sculpted texture that I used a method I learned on youtube to bake. You have a low poly version of your object and a high poly sculpted version right on top and bake the high poly effects onto the low poly which gives you a normal map. Now I want to begin painting my object however have a question.

How would I go about baking the paint texture part of my object (like effect of wood or stone)?

if i understood you, i think you have to bake both as normal maps separately, and then save the images that you got and then open a image editor like photoshop or gimp and then set to overlay mode the first layer and then join them and export it to png or other image format, and then setup the normal in your node editor.


Strange shadows on mesh following curve I'm currently modeling a scene that features a highway overpass at night with light streaks.

I have constructed the main piece of the overpass, and made it follow along a bezier curve with little to no problem with an array and curve modifier.

The only problem, is after I render, I get some strange shadows on the road that do not make much sense as to what the reason is.

I thought at first it was the road lines causing a problem (they are on a separate mesh for ease of use), but even after rendering without them, the shadows still appear on the road.

I've tried recalculating normals and other fixes, but it hasn't worked. It might be the mesh, but I tried to keep it as low poly as possible.

I'm not entirely sure what is causing the problem, so any help would be great.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT

Here's the modifiers on the highway

Delete the faces on the beginning and the end (left and right seen from image 2) of the parts. It needs to be open at the ends for the parts to merge. Play with the merge distance, make it larger until it snaps. I can see from image 2 that the parts did not merge causing shadows in between. You need an equal amount of  vertices on begin and end to make it snap.


sculpting result is fuzzy When I try sculpt, the results are appearing "fuzzy". I thought it may have been the need for more vertices, but extra subdivisions did't help.

This started happening after I used the Scale function to resolve another issue I had.  Or at least became more obvious.

Any ideas on what I can do to fix this?

Sculpting acts on vertices. These are either from the mesh itself (real geometry) or created with Multires modifier / dynamically with dyntopo. However in any case it uses geometry for painting with brushes because by painting you change position of certain vertices. Dyntopo in this case is kind of lazy way since it creates as many vertices as required for currently required level of details, subdividing / collapsing only  part of mesh which is being worked on.
If geometry is uneven sculpting result won't be even as well in case of sculpting without dyntopo. Mesh in the file you attached is one of these examples:

This is wireframe of the mesh in question.
It won't act predictable being sculpted because proximity of horizontal edge loops is enough, while there are relatively small amount of vertical edge loops. When sculpted horizontal displacement will be detailed since there is plenty of geometry, but vertical will be lacking because there aren't as many vertical edge loops as horizontal ones. Since the sculpt will look stretched; inspite of the fact it has ~ 150 000 faces, it isn't really sculptable.
There are 2 general ways from here.
First, un-/subdivide edges of the mesh to get more or less even amount of edge loops in both directions (i.e. to get nearly squarish faces all over the mesh). In Edit mode either dissolve horizontal loop cuts (X > Dissolve Edges), or add more vertical loop cuts (Ctrl+R).
Second, enable dyntopo and set Subdivide Colalpse method of details with proper details size. Note that mesh will become triangulated.
Depending on the case both methods as always have their advantages and disadvantages; use the one which is faster for your situation.


Move object by a given distance on rotation of another (bolt & screw) I am looking to make a constraint to animate a cnc model. So i want to have a given object travel along an axis as a result of the rotation of another screw and bolt.

To be specific a 360 degree rotation should move the child object 2mm limiting the rotations to 125 or 45 000 degrees for a total travel distance of 250mm.

Constraint should be able to work in both directions like a normal bolt and screw animation.

Thanks

Sounds like you need to set up a custom driver based on the rotation of the screw. This video is on corrective shape keys but is a good introduction to the use of drivers in animation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mrceZ6fe-o


Corrupted UV map on exported and re-imported object I have a problem with an object texture
I import the object as obj and it's fine with the texture.

But when I export the object and import it again with another form or type
it's texture gets corrupt or change.

Since I am a beginner I do not know what to do.

try to choose project from view instead of unwrap .


Can't find registered Python addon inside Blender 2.91.2 (tutorial example) I have exactly the same issue as here: Can't find my addon inside blender 2.90 (first addon).
But in my case adding the addon Category didn't work.
Following this tutorial https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/advanced/scripting/addon_tutorial.html, after installing Blender 2.91.2 I put the following script in Text editor and run it:
bl_info = {
    "name": "Move X Axis",
    "version": (1, 0),
    "blender": (2, 91, 2),
    "category": "Object",
}

import bpy

class ObjectMoveX(bpy.types.Operator):
    """My Object Moving Script"""      # Use this as a tooltip for menu items and buttons.
    bl_idname = "object.move_x"        # Unique identifier for buttons and menu items to reference.
    bl_label = "Move X by One"         # Display name in the interface.
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}  # Enable undo for the operator.

    def execute(self, context):        # execute() is called when running the operator.

        # The original script
        scene = context.scene
        for obj in scene.objects:
            obj.location.x += 1.0

        return {'FINISHED'}            # Lets Blender know the operator finished successfully.

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

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

# This allows you to run the script directly from Blender's Text editor
# to test the add-on without having to install it.
if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Then, I look for it in the menu search with no success:

I don't find it in Edit -> Preferences -> Add-ons neither.
I tried putting "blender": (2, 80, 0), like in the tutorial, removing "version": (1, 0), , with no result so far.

Actually in the tutorial you have mentioned above, it's 'Operator Search' not 'Menu Search' which you opened but may not noticed. So to have a correct result, you need to enable 'Developer Extras' first.

Then you will get 'Operator Search' in Edit Menu.

With 'Operator Search', you can find your first addon.


Change Text Color in Blender Game Engine? I want to change the color of some text in my game. I've tried adding materials, but whenever I press P to play the game, the text stays the same white color. Any ideas?

You need to set the Object color in Properties > Display:

Text objects are made out of polygons in the 3D view, however in the game engine they are rendered straight as text (there are also some issues with picking the resolution to render it at, which is why it sometimes looks pixelated).

If you want to have your text look as it does in the 3D view (3D, with materials/textures), then you'll have to convert it to a mesh (AltC> Convert to mesh). Note that once it's a mesh you can no longer edit it as text.

If you do need to have dynamically editable text, then perhaps the technique mentioned in this comment will help:

  . . . I don't recommend using text objects at all, since they are a
  hack right now. The other problems you get are no depth sorting, does
  not respect materials, Z buffer issues, no alignment. I recommend
  using this method. If anything you could use text objects to render
  text off-screen and combine it with the uv mapping technique.


How to animate rotation of a movie clip in the compositor I want the dog to gradually rotate 90deg over 10 seconds. I do know how to use the rotate node, but any rotation changes I make takes effect from the very start.  What I am looking to accomplish is a animated rotation.

First I made the mask in Motion Tracking, then open that up in the compositor.

screen shot of nodes for final orientation of video

What you are looking for is the Rotate node. Press Shift+A and go to Distort > Rotate.

You can now set the number of degrees to rotate by:

And what is more, it is fully animatable via keyframes!


Smoke Domain renders as a grayish box I know that this question has been asked, but unfortunally there was no answer- maybe through a second try someone else will read this and can help.

Im pretty new to blender, so sorry for my messed up blender file.

as you can see, the smoke domain of my cycles quick smoke effect is being rendered as a semi-transparent-box.
i turned off the shadows in the cycle settings of the domain and the smoke object, so this is not the problem.

-> .blend

really looking forward for some help,
greets,
luk

Sorry this is not an answer.

I will delete, just so I can post a pic.

I just opened your file, disconnected all the image textures (because they were not packed)

Then I just hit Render with all your settings and it doesnt have that same error that yours does.

This is what I got.

Maybe someone else can try your file and see if they can replicate it. It seems like a hardware glitch. Change to a GPU (if you can) see if that changes anything.


How do I animate emission with an audio file? In cycles,

I want an audio file of speech to cause an emission surface to change the amount of emission strength to match the volume from the voice actor's audio file.
No sound = 0 strength
Loudest sound = 10 strength

How do I connect one event to control the other?
Also, can a specific audio file can be isolated to ignore other dialog and sound effects?

For convenience later on, I'll add a Value node, which you can connect to the emission strength or any other input.

Set a key on the property, which you want to be "animated" by the sound wave.

In the graph editor, execute Bake Sound to F-Curves.

Adjust the resulting F-Curve with an Envelope modifier, mapping the output from 1 to 10. Or map the input from 0 to 1 and add a multiply node in the cycles material nodes to multiply it with 10.


Can loopcuts be made when Blender is in background with the "-b" option? I am trying to make loopcuts on an object in a Python script running Blender 2.77a in the background with the "-b" commandline option. If I don't override the context I get this error:

bpy.ops.mesh.loopcut.poll() expected a view3d region & editmesh

There is an answer for this here on StackExchange:

How do I override context for bpy.ops.mesh.loopcut?

...and the loopcut override works when Blender is in the foreground. But when using the technique in the background, this error comes up:

wmSubWindowScissorSet 0: doesn't exist

...and Blender crashes. Online searches don't help on this, I could find no solution. That leads me to the question - can this be done? How can the context be overrriden so that it will work in the background?

My context override is done like so:

def context_override():
    for window in bpy.context.window_manager.windows:
        screen = window.screen
        for area in screen.areas:
            if area.type == "VIEW_3D":
                for region in area.regions:
                    if region.type == "WINDOW":
                        ctx = bpy.context.copy()
                        ctx["window"] = window
                        ctx["screen"] = screen
                        ctx["area"] = area
                        ctx["region"] = region
                        ctx["scene"] = bpy.context.scene
                        return ctx

It's actually quite simple:
You can't use operators in background mode.

When Blender is in background mode or you use Blender as a Python module, then the context does not work as usual, because it doesn't exist. There has to be a 3D viewport etc. for the context to work but all of those things don't exist in background mode.

The solution is to use the internal functions of the operator you are trying to use. But if this operator does not use internal functions you are out of luck.

I got this info from a youtube video where the blender devs answered questions (at about 11 minutes in).


Scale toilet paper cylinder witout affecting inner hole in preparation for unity I am trying to make a toilet paper like object in blender.
I have cut a hole in cylinder with boolean modifier. The problem is when I scale this object in Unity the hole gets bigger as we expect. I need to set this object so that I can scale only the outside of the cylinder. Can I restrict which parts should be scaled? Even when this is possible I don't know whether Unity will do the same thing. I'm new in Blender. Thanks for help!

Unity has only simple transform tools that cant handle this case. Blender can be used to prepare the object for this.
ShapeKeys are the way to go:

Setup your object either totally "full" or "empty"
Create a basis and a key (in Object Data properties)
Select key and edit/scale your mesh with Shift + X to full/empty in Edit Mode.
Export to unity as FBX.
Import BlendShapes should be active by default
In the Skinned Mesh Render > BlendShapes play with your keys

Important: the collider of your base object is static, transformations with BlendShapes have no affect on the collider.


Difference between stacking and extruding meshes? What would be the difference of stacking objects into each other and extruding by starting with one single primitive. How does it influence performance and what are the advantages and disadvantages using either of them?
For reference. Between this

and this

I would recommend using one mesh. You can easily get the mesh you want in this instance by selecting the desired face, pressing E to extrude and then S to scale. Now press E to extrude again, and you have the desired mesh, created in three simple commands.

This method works in many other instances, even on N-Gon or Tri faces. This is a good general modelling technique to know for any modelling project.


How can I make two duplicated object's material's independently editable? I duplicated an object, but now when I try to adjust the color, or texture to one object, it automatically adjusts it's sister's color too. How do I disconnected that relation?

Go to the materials tab, and click on the number that appears next to the material's name. This will make it a single user, by duplicating the material, basically meaning that they can be edited separately.


How to attach the rigged wheels to the car body and make them move left and right? i rigged the wheel but don't know how to attach it to the body of the car and move them left and right like front wheels do in real car. I searched everywhere but can't find the tutorial.

Make an empty at the end of Bone.002 and make it the child of Bone. Put Inverse Kinematics constraint on Bone.002 and choose the Empty as a target.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xxB8mxmHnnE0CvzsjuIFUC7xsNWNQ-v2


unwrap cube with circle make cube, draw circle and extrude in. while unwrap the cube, it did't unwrap perfectly. its unwrap like what in the picture.

The problem you're having are three N-Gons. N-Gons are faces with more than 4 verts. So you need to change the N-Gons to tris or quads. To triangulate a face, just press SPACE and type triangulate, you will then see the option "triangulate faces".

The first picture shows my unwrap with N-Gons, the second one is with triangles.

However, the right way of doing it (if you want to maybe use sub-d or something) would be like this. You the only would have to deal with the edges going over the cube.:


my smoke simulation doesn't render correctly in cycles This is my smoke in eevee rendered viewport:

This is my smoke in cycles rendered viewport:

When I rendered an image same thing happened.
I used only principled volume node and attach to volume.
my .blend file

The solution is empty space in smoke domain settings. it should be zero.


Transparent Background for Animation How I can have an object in the foreground with a transparent background? I do not want to have a background that is just keyed out because that always leaves halos even when I do the correct lighting. So how would I go about having a background that is transparent alpha channel and all? Also what video file do I have to use to preserve the alpha channel?

You need to go to the "Properties" panel, "Render" tab, subsection "Film" and check "Transparent".

Also, keep in mind that animations should first be rendered to individual images, to avoid file corruption, and joined using something like Blender's Video Sequence Editor.
This is demonstrated in this video.


Action not applying fully when importing model to Three.js I have a simple character that I have rigged with an armature and created a Walk animation. I am very much in the learning-phase of how to do this.

I have exported the scene as a glTF so I can import into Three.js. However, when I do so, the Walk animation only appears to apply to some of the bones.

I have imported the model into glTF Viewer where I see the same issue. This suggests the problem is somewhere on my blender model and/or how I'm exporting it.

Here is how the walk cycle appears in Blender. Animated gif: http://g.recordit.co/iTbXdeNprB.gif

Here is how the model appears in glTF Viewer. The arms-out-wide is the armature's default pose. Animated gif: http://g.recordit.co/sgaKQBFXqc.gif

I am hoping someone can point to the obvious mistake I've made. I have used the default options in the glTF exporter - I can't see anything obvious in there.

I should have mentioned this was using Blender 2.80. Some further digging found this issue on the exporter: https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glTF-Blender-IO/issues/439

Having upgraded to Blender 2.81, which includes the fix for this issue, my model now imports correctly with the animation as I expected.


Fill in object's surface with another object I'm facing a big problem here.

First let me show the image while explaining.

To make it clear, this is an piece of an ancient/middle age armor like the image below.

In the image, you see an object (The selected one) which is the main support of the mails and at the side, I have a small object which is the scales. Like the image above, I want to put the scales into the surface of the selected object, but I can't find a solution.

I have tried this:

I have used array (Width and Lengthy) and tried it, but the position of the scales is quite bad.
Tried to do it manually, one by one, but each time it went down, the scales requires to enlarge its scale. (As yo ucan see in the image, the mesh is slightly small above than below in width).
Shrinkwrap, nothing happens there.

Normal maps might work well, but the problem is that I want real polygons.

I appreciate every answer,

You need Tissue addon

available in standard addons
https://vimeo.com/132720942


Cycles menu doesn't have setting required I am working on a project following a tutorial from polygon runway on youtube. As I rendered my image it was really grainy. I search net to solve the problem. One thing I saw is to set your settings on GPU commute. My Blender file doesn't not show that option in Properties Panel > Render Menu.

Though if I open a new file it does show those settings.

If you can’t select the GPU in the render options, go to Edit > Preferences, then I think it’s System. There you will have boxes like CUDA, OpenCL etc. If you have a graphics card, it will be under one of those options. Make sure you check the box for it. Then you can go back to the render settings and you should be able to select your GPU.

Also, enabling the GPU won’t neccesarily give your renders less noise. It will just render faster than the CPU, which allows you to use higher samples for less noise.


How to remove duplicate verts after spin tool? I'm trying to reproduce tank wheels ("ITALIERI" (LEAST PERSPECTIVE)):

But there are too many vertexes and merging can lead to ngons.

Edit:
Second file:

Edit #2:
Made some progress with the topology; overlapping faces/edges as described here:

but there are still highlighted faces that seem separated from the mesh (on the tip of the spokes).
Can't dissolve certain edges
Edit #3:
If there are two or more overlapping faces with the same normals the resulting face appears "brighter".

Your topology is a bit messy, to quickly fix it you can:

Only keep one portion:

Fix the topology, give it a Mirror modifier:

Create an empty at the current origin of the object:

Give your object an Array modifier, deactivate Relative Offset, activate Object Offset with the empty as Object, rotate the empty 37,72° (as you want 11 iterations), enable the Merge option then the First and Last option:

Keep a copy of your object and empty. Apply the Mirror and the Array modifiers, then Merge By Distance to remove any overlapping vertices:

Edit:
Your topology is still bad, your faces are overlapping, etc:

Once you'll be good, you can extrude, use the LoopTools to make sure that you have nice circles, bevel the angle so that it will sharp when you'll have the Subdivision Surface modifier, etc...:

Also you may need to keep only 1/11 of your object again and use the same Array modifier around an object, it allows you to work precisely on a portion of the object without having to repeat the operations all around.


Wrong shadow on the mesh? (bl nodes) When I cast a shadow on my NPR model, I found that there were always some areas of bump that would not receive the shadow, So I seperate the part of the mesh that went wrong. As shown in the picture below, there is one area in the middle that does not receive the shadow. Basically, I use a plane as a shield, and use the sun light to cast shadow in the node. If I don't use nodes, the shadow is fine, So I'm sure there's something wrong with the shadow of my nodes setting. Who can tell me what I did wrong? I will upload the .blender file soon

Here's a simple solution:

Your shadow is working correctly. The problem is that lighting in blender internal/GLSL has several parts to it. Shadows (cast by other objects that block light sources) are one part, separate from shading (an object getting darker where it faces away from a light source). In other words, using just the "Shadow" output of the lamp data node will allow other objects to cast shadows on the material, but not allow the object to cast shadows on itself.

The bright spot in the middle of the shadow was there because shadows work by projecting the light-blocking mesh onto the shadowed mesh. The protruding nose on your shadowed mesh was shielding some of it from being touched by that projection; you could say it was like an anti-shadow. If this seems ridiculous to you, you may enjoy the cycles rendering engine.


how to transfer hair as .obj file I have imported a head from daz3d and used the particle system to create hair.  I went into the modifiers tab and converted the particles into mesh.  Then I hide the head leaving only the hair visible.   Then I select file and export the file under the desired file name.  When I go into daz3d or wings3d and import the file the hair is not there.   The head appears but that is all.   What am I missing?

If you just converted the hair, you then have a string of vertices. Since there are no faces, these will not show up. They are likely there, you just can't see them. Try giving them some thickness. To do this, convert them to curves and extrude them, then convert back to mesh. Or use the screw modifier with a setting of only 1-3 degrees.


Is there a way to use local transforms without pressing keys twice? If you give any object a different rotation it also has a new local orientation. You can still rotate around local axes by using R and XX or YY/ZZ.

First press switches to global orientation.
Second press switches to local orientation.

I usually work 90% with local orientations, so its not very comfortable for my workflow.

Can I change the order to
first press = local
and second press = global?
Is there a way to jump right into local mode (RX = local)?
Is it even possible to access actions of double keys like RR in the user preferences and for example switch to Trackball Rotation without pressing twice and also with a different key?

You could set the 'Transformation orientation' to 'local' and show the translation, rotation and scaling arrow (you can use Shift to select multiple of them), and use these to transform your object.


Cannot apply image to material I am watching a tutorial on how to UV map a model and I have this horse I created.

There should be a section named 'Surface' beneath the section named 'Preview' which is required to select the image. I have tried restarting blender and it just isn't there. I really hope that I don't have to re install blender.

Once you've created a material go to the texture section, and create a new texture ->image. The texture will now be associated with the material.

Open the image you want to use and then you need to assign some coordinates for the texture mapping and what kind of influence the texture is going to have on the material, the default is Color.


Removing internal geometry So in the image below there are two circles, how can I remove the internal vertices between them without messing up the outside shape. I'm working on a gun and this is just a simple way to illustrate the issue I'm dealing with. If I where to go in and delete the internal faces it would leave holes on the outside of the object, is there a fast way to get around this?

Assuming that you are using a release of Blender that is at least 2.77 or newer, then you can use the edit mode boolean tools and save a couple steps.

First select one element of the object in edit mode by linked geometry by
selecting a face, edge, or vertex, and then press L with
your mouse hovering over it.
Press Spacebar and type Boolean and select Mesh: Intersect (Boolean) from the menu, or press Enter when the
option appears in the menu.
Next, press F6 to bring up the options for the tool (or
go to the operator panel in the toolshelf) and change the mode to union.


Blender closing/crashing for no apparent reason I am currently using Blender 2.83 LTS version and it keeps crashing for no apparent reason.
It started 2 weeks ago. I was using Blender 2.81 on Win 8.1 OS at that time and I was getting the 'NVIDIA graphic driver stoped and recovered' error message than. I have checked and updated my NVIDIA grapics drivers and the problem persisted, the only difference being that after the driver update Blender did not show any messages uppon crashing, it just froze for a few seconds and closed mid work (I did not notice any specific circumstances for crashing like for example only while rendering).
I upgraded my OS to Win 10 Pro but Blender still kept on crashing. Ive checked and updated graphics & CPU drivers again and installed Blender 2.83 LTS yesterday to no avail.
I've run Blender in --debug mode from CMD. When it 'crashes' is doesn't print anything so I am left clueless with what is wrong and how to address this problem. I can only work for a few minutes until it crashes.
Can someone please help me troubleshoot this as I am unable to crack the problem with my current google-foo? Thank you !
Edit:
As suggested below I have run blender --debug-all --factory-startup. Just as I started fidling with some material nodes it crashed imediately.

After disabling my GPU Blender resumed to working normally so the reason for constant crashing is obviously in faulty GPU; no amount or mode of driver re-installment solved the problem.
Thank you all for your help.


Looping function in node editor? I want to be able to loop a certain math function (in the node editor) x amount of times. I want to do this without scripting (unless it could be done so while still being able to run on GPU). For instance, if I wanted to take square root of an input, and then then sqrt of that, and so on, x amount of times, WITHOUT just making a big line of nodes, repeating. Anyone know how this could be done?

This can't be done in the node editor alone - the only solution is to (somehow) create the actual nodes themselves. However, there are ways to simplify the creation of the nodes.

One example is to use the Node Expressions (aka Dynamic Maths Expression) addon available from https://github.com/baldingwizard/Blender-Addons/wiki. This allows you to simply type the required expression and the nodes are automatically built within a new Node Group for you.

For example, to generate your example of repeated square-root operations, you could simply enter the expression as :

(((input**0.5)**0.5)**0.5)**0.5

Where '**' represents 'to the power of' and raising to the power of 0.5 is the same as taking the square-root. Simply edit the expression for as many operations as you desire (ensuring to match up the brackets correctly). The above expression will generate the following nodes :

You can perform various actions in the same way, with the add-on supporting all basic mathematical operations (+, -, *, /) as well as various functions such as 'sin(...)', 'cos(...)', etc. with numerous inputs and outputs (see the accompanying documentation for additional details and examples).


How do I make a pure white plane that receives shadows? Basically, I just want a shader for my ground plane that receives shadows but is otherwise pure white. I figured this would just be a simple checkbox or two but it's proving to be more complicated. Most of the answers I see out there involve doing lots of complicated node editor stuff but those questions are 2-3 years old so hopefully there's a better way now?

I'm using Cycles.

There is multiple way,but I see you dont want complex node trees so I will tell you the easiest one.

Add a plane and make the following material:

It basically say that the plane the actual material is diffuse but the camera see it as a white color.
Now we have a pure white color.

Render tour image with :

Shadow pass.
AO pass.
Object index pass.

Now we come to the post production,we multiply your shadows and AO to the image but we have to make sure we are applying only on the plane.

So we do as follow:

While The mask is the object.


Print model for craft object? How do I unfold a model in a way that its print ready for paper crafting? Ive tried 123D Make for crafts and its not working out the way I want it too, also I dont have windows for Pepakura (?)

You can get the desired result using the UV mapping feature.

Start with U to bring up the unwrap menu. There will be several options. Try smart UV project. After doing that, hit F6, and set the Island Margin to 0.03, so you can see the gaps. Next open up the UV image editor, and you should see the layout inside. This is how the paper template will look. If you don't like it (probably to many separate parts) you can use a manual process.

To manually define the cuts, hit Tab  to enter edit mode. Select the edges where you will wan't gaps. Be sure to select enough that it can sit flat. Hit Ctrl-E>Mark seems then use U>Unwrap and set the Island margin to 0.03.

Finally, when you're satisfied with your layout, Go to UVs>Export Uv Layout and save the image.

Useful further reading and help:

Importing an OBJ file: https://youtu.be/5t2Ntn6JDAY?t=1m53s


Object is greyed in viewport shadow So my cube or objects is greyed in viewport shadow

like this below

the scenes settings is cycles and gpu compute

anyone know how to fix this? i'm new to blender, i just followed tutorial from youtube(IanHubert). thanks

There could be a few things going on, but your Device in the Render Engine selection for cycles is greyed out. This could mean that your GPU is not able to be used (old or not supported) - or the preferences are not set correctly (Edit->Preferences->System).

After this is resolved, your lighting setup could also be an issue.


How to export animated object using NurbsPath to Unity I work with Blender 2.8 and create a 3D animation using Path. How can I export my animation as .fbx to my unity project. please help me.

You have to program the animation with armature and bones (which can have a follow path constraint). Then in pose mode go to the 3D window menu "Pose-Animation-Bake Action", and bake your animation checking the "Visual keying" and "Clear constraints" options.


How to apply the multiresolution modifier from sculpt mode? I'm kind of new to blender, I've been using it for about two weeks but haven't used sculpt mode much.

Today I decided to sculpt the head of a character, using a multiresolution modifier to help get the geometry I wanted, but I can't apply the multiresolution while in sculpt mode and if I leave sculpt mode my object turns back into a low-poly model.

If I apply the multiresolution in object mode then all of my sculpting is gone for good. How in the world do I keep my sculpting work while in something like edit or object mode?

You need to raise the Preview value to match the Sculpt, and apply the modifier in object mode.


Dope Sheet mode in 2.8 : is it possible to display Grease Pencil & regular Dope Sheet keys at the same time? Is it possible to display at the same time "regular" keyframes from the Dope Sheet (eg. camera) and grease pencil keyframes, in Blender 2.8 ?

When retiming an animation, it is not very intuitive (and takes more steps) to toggle between those modes.

Any chance you can do both at the same time ?  Thanks !

AFAIK there is no way, for now, to display several Dope sheet editing contexts in the same area. The best you can do is to stack two dope sheets and give them each editing context you need:

Maybe this could be a nice feature request though.


Join objects that have the same texture I'm wondering if there's a way to join all objects that share the same texture image. I don't want to join them if they have the same material, but rather, if they use the same source image texture.

I assume it's possible with Python scripting? For clarity, I'm using Blender v2.76 on Windows 10. I've tried "Select Linked" with Shift+L > Texture in Object mode but it doesn't work.

Edit

To clarify, I'm asking if this can be done automatically/not-manually. Here's why: I imported an .obj file, and for some reason it imported each face as its own, separate object (let's call these "face/objects"). This yields around 3,000 separate objects or so. I figured that, since each of the face/objects share only 3 source image textures, it'd be possible to select each face/object that uses the same source texture image to merge them into one object. In the end this should yield only 3 objects. I hope that made sense.

Yes, you can do this through the outliner editor window. Select all of the objects in your scene which have the desired texture image. Then, moving to the outliner window, expand the datablock for each object to the point where you can see the names of the image textures that you want to use to join the objects. In the outliner window, select image texture of one of the objects you wish to join, then each of the others, selecting these in the outliner window by holding down the SHFT key while you select the objects with the LMB. You can now join the selected objects by using CTRL - J


Ivy gen addon creates round shapes I was working on a scene but needed some quick realistic ivy. I heard good things about the ivy gen add-on so I tried it. I followed some tutorials but whenever I change the length or any settings of the ivy it turns into large spheres and round shapes.


Sculpting with both Z and X axis symmetry? Pretty simple question, i would really like to sculpt some pillars that are symmetrical on both the x and z axis, is there any way at all to enable this in blender? or is there a way to make a model symmetrical along both the x and z axis once modelled?

Thanks in advance!

Yes: 2.7:

or 2.8:

Also, once modeled, you can delete some parts and add a mirror modifier, which can work on X and Z (Pivot point of mirroring is the origin of the object).


Are OBJ files exported from Blender different? I'm having some issues importing OBJ files from Blender into After Effects (for Trapcode). Is there any difference between the way that Blender and similar software generates OBJ files?

A problem blender has in comparison with most other software is its axis differences. Blender uses +Z up, +Y forward, +X right, whereas most others are different. Maya, for example, uses +Z backward, +Y up, +X right; C4D uses +Z forward, +Y up, +X right... It's a mess.

In the export settings, you can set which axes are up and forward. By default, they follow the convention that allows them to import into Maya properly, ie -Z forward, +Y up.

After Effects may be different. I believe +Z is coming towards you and +Y is up. The point here is that you might need to experiment with the axis export settings to get the proper orientation of your object in AE.

Key point to remember is that from the front camera view, forward is going away from you, right is right, up is up. A quick and easy way to test these settings is to just use Suzanne as a test model. She's light and easily recognizable, much more so than a cube. Once you get her to export right, just use those settings for your other objects.


Shattering a bottle with bullet what would the best and easiest way be to shatter three bottles. I tried cell fracture but the vertices just mix and create this weird vertices blob.

I am trying to shatter it with a bullet but if I can't create the shatter portion I am not sure how I will complete this model. Any links would be much appreciated.

I was playing with the model after appending to a different project a couple of times and it occurred to me how silly I was being.  I had it set to be visible on frame 1 but on frame 50 it became invisible then on frame 51 I had set it back to become visible on accident. :P I am a silly rabbit sometimes.


Which keyframing option should be chosen to animate movement and scale? Which keyframe from a the following list should be used for animation of moving and scaling:

List:

Available
Location
Rotation
Scaling
Locrot
LocRotScale
Rot scale
Delta location
Delta rotation
Delta scale
Visual location
Visual rotation
Visual scaling
Visual locrot
Visual locrot scale
Visual locscale
Visual rotscale

Can you provide me with the details of the each of these as I am a beginner.

Instead of using a preset keyset  (like loc, scale) just can just add keyframes in the channels you need using "insert single keyframe"


How to reverse the image sequence of a movie clip in video editor ? I opened the layout for video editing in Blender, added a movie clip onto one channel and made two hard cuts. How do I continue from here in order to reverse the sequence of images of the movie clip part between the hard cuts ?

Enable the backwards checkbox as indicated in the image below.


My mesh is a black wireframe but only on layout mode My mesh is black and transparent, only on layout mode and I do not know how to change it.

The donut is in wireframe view, so to make it the default "grey" again, select the sphere in the top right corner of the interface that resembles a filled circle. This will set the object to a "solid" view.


Strategies for performing lots of world coordinate calculations in Blender I have a lot of calculations I need to do on meshes using global coordinates (distances between vertices, surface areas regions, etc.), and my script is getting slow.  I am wondering if there are any useful strategies to avoid having to constantly re-multiply vertex coordinates by matrix_world every time I need to loop over a set of vertices.  For example, it would be great if there were an "operate in world coordinates" mode, or a way to convert all local coordinates to their global coordinates.

# loop outline that is performed often
mat1 = ob1.matrix_world
mat2 = ob2.matrix_world
for v1_ind in verts1:
    v1 = mat1 * ob1.data.vertices[v1_ind].co
    for v2_ind in verts2:
        v2 = mat2 * ob2.data.vertices[v2_ind].co
        # computations

Further, is a way to use Blender's polygon.area to obtain the area of a face in global coordinates, or do I have to calculate it myself using the global coordinates of each vertex defining the face (slower)?

Thanks!

You should cache the result of the inner loop.

verts2 = [mat2 * ob2.data.vertices[v2_ind].co for v2_ind in verts2]

and might do this for the outer loop as well

verts1 = [mat1 * ob1.data.vertices[v1_ind].co for v1_ind in verts1]

Generally you might gain performance by keeping python objects rather than doing an attribute / index lookup each time.

Tested with suzanne subdivided 3 times:

import bpy
import timeit
log = bpy.data.texts['log']
log.clear()

stmt_setup = """
import bpy
obj = bpy.context.active_object
vertices = obj.data.vertices
mat_world = obj.matrix_world
indices = range(len(vertices))"""

stmt_vertex_iter = """
verts_world = [mat_world * v.co for v in vertices]"""

stmt_index_lu = """
verts_world = [mat_world * obj.data.vertices[i].co for i in indices]"""

time_lc = timeit.timeit(stmt=stmt_vertex_iter, setup=stmt_setup, number=100)
time_il = timeit.timeit(stmt=stmt_index_lu,    setup=stmt_setup, number=100)

log.write("Vertex Iterator %.4f \n" % time_lc)
log.write("Index Look Up %.4f \n" % time_il)

yields

Vertex Iterator 2.5746
Index Look Up 4.8094


How can I arrange items in a circle using Python? I wrote this code with the intention of getting a square arrangement of pillars.

for i in range(0,9):
    for j in range(0,9):
        x = i
        y = j
        z = 0.5
        bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(location=(x,y,z))
        cube = context.active_object
        cube.scale[0] = 0.3
        cube.scale[1] = 0.05
        cube.scale[2] = 0.8
        scene.objects.link(cube)

I'm unsure how I would get the cubes to arrange themselves in a circular pattern. I know that I can set z = 0 (all cubes on the same plane), and that x and y should satisfy the equation of a circle, x^2+y^2 = radius^2; but I'm unsure how to best proceed. Could anyone please lend me a hand?

Thank you in advance!

Could use the polar coordinates r and theta, where x = r * cos(theta) and y = r * sin(theta)

eg below, a full circle with 60 pillars. Like minutes on a clock.

import bpy
context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene
from mathutils import Matrix
from math import radians, sin, cos
z = 0.5
r = 4
theta = radians(360) # 2Pi
columns = 60
alpha = theta / columns
for a in range(columns):
    angle = a * alpha
    x = r * cos(angle)
    y = r * sin(angle)
    bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(location=(x,y,z))
    cube = scene.objects.active
    # rotate if needed
    #cube.rotation_euler.z = angle # or using Matrix
    rotmat = Matrix.Rotation(angle, 4, 'Z')
    cube.matrix_world *= rotmat

    cube.scale = (0.3, 0.05, 0.8)


Particle system. Why is the hair not following the mesh? Why the hair isn't following the mesh?

Pivot point of the particle instances has to be at their bottom.


Fast render animation? Hi I should make a video for a project of a hydroponic containers but the rendering time is over 30 hours ... how can I reduce it while maintaining good graphics ? Thanks !

As a first you need to know what is your priority: time or quality? You can't have both.

This is very complex "problem" and need a lot of study. What is good in one situation may not be good in another.
Generally:

In "Sampling":

set Clamp to higher value
use "Branched Path Tracing" - check noise in every pass in compositor and adjust Samples by render pass.

In "Light Paths":

turn off caustic.
reduce light bounces.

In "Performance":

set Tilles according to your hardware (usually 64x64 for CPU, 256x256 for GPU).
tick "Persistent images" if your textures does not change in full length of animation
try using "Spatial Splits".

In Material node editor:
Use "Light path" for determine rays you don't need. For example disable shadow ray in glass can speed up render quite a lot.

I mentioned only most used features. There is not a general "golden rule" that work always and in every case. All settings depend of your scene and your preferences.

BTW: render animation about 30 hours is not unusual.


How to fill a color inside circle in grease pencil I have to fill a circle with yellow color but if I use fill tool it just fills the borders. I want to fill the inside.
Here is a picture for example:

I just want to fill the inside with yellow by one click, rather than using a brush tool.
Thanks.


world_to_camera_view incorrectly centering on object When I plot points of a mesh to 2d using bpy_extras.object_utils.world_to_camera_view the object is centered to the camera. However the actual camera in 3d mode the objects are not centered.

An image is probably the best way to illustrate what I was expecting versus the results I am getting (see below).

Is there anyway to get these meshes off center as the camera actually sees them?

Expected:

Actual:

I don't know if my python code is to blame.. here it is:

..snip.. (for each vector of each mesh)
blenderVertexIndex = bpy.data.objects[obj.name].data.polygons[indexFace].vertices[indexVector]
coordinate3D = bpy.data.objects[obj.name].data.vertices[blenderVertexIndex].co * obj.matrix_world
coordinate2D = bpy_extras.object_utils.world_to_camera_view(bpy.context.scene, bpy.data.objects["Camera"], coordinate3D)

There may be another issue here, but at least the matrix-vector multiplication order from object to world space is wrong, it should be the other way around:

coordinate3D = obj.matrix_world * bpy.data.objects[obj.name].data.vertices[blenderVertexIndex].co


Recommended Samples and other settings to remove fireflies? I was rendering this single image and wanted to get the best quality render with proper lighting and least (If possible, no) fireflies. I am currently rendering with these settings.

Filter Glossy 0.5

Refractive Caustics Off

Reflective Caustics On

Clamp Direct 0

Clamp Indirect 3

GPU Nvidia GeForce 840m

Tile Size 64x64

Samples 200

Estimated Time per Frame 30 minutes

Is there any way to remove the fireflies further. If so please do tell me.

A great way to reduce the number of fireflies is to clamp. In the Render panel, under Sampling, you'll see Clamp Indirect. This will remove any bright pixels (fireflies). Start with a high value, maybe 1-3. Then work your way down until all the fireflies are gone. Clamping does darken your render, so it's important to use the highest number possible so that you keep as much brightness as possible.

32 samples, no clamp

32 samples, .5 clamp
You can further reduce the noise with more sampling, or, you can use denoising if you are in a dev version.


How to make an animation smoother? I am trying to animate a skateboard doing a trick called a hardflip. The trick involves the skateboard rotating 180 degrees and flipping once.  If I animate the whole trick with two keys, it make it look weird because it involves the flip and rotation. To solve this I split it up and put two keyframes. Then on the second one, I rotated the board halfway, and flipped it over halfway. Then I put a third key and on that one I flipped and rotated the board the rest of the way. The problem is, since the animation is split into three keys instead of two, it looks like the board rotates half way, slows down a bit, then speeds up into the second half of the rotation. Is there a way I can make it look smoother? The image shows the timeline, and circles are over the main 3 keys. The other are just to adjust poses.

Short Answer
The pacing for an animation is controlled by the proximity of the keyframes over time. In the Dopesheet or the Graph Editor windows you can select keframes and move them horizontally. If the keyframes are moved closer to each other the movement will happen faster. If the Keyframes are moved away from each other, then the movement will happen in more frames and will take longer. Additionally you can use graph editor to adjust the animation curves which will affect the pacing of motion.
Long Answer
The hardflip is quite a complex movement: not all motions occur with the same timing, and the number of keyframes needed to describe it is not the same for all axes, and is different for location, rotation and tilt.
The location movement is quite simple for the X axis: the board keeps travelling forward even when it is in the air, but at a lower speed, then lands and picks up a bit of speed again.
Heightwise the motion is almost a parabola, but there is a sharp movement down once the feet touch the board pushing it down back to the ground.

The rotation is the complex part:
On the X and Z the movement is 360 on X and -180 on Y, and they both start almost immediately after the board is kicked on the back to raise it, but the rotation ends while the board is still in the air and the feet of the skater stabilize it and push it down.These rotations can be described with only two keyframes per channel and are basic bezier curves.

On the Y axis it is a very different story because the movement is sinusoidal to describe the hard initial kick and the landing with the back of the board first and then landing the front last.

So, going back to the original question... Once you have the keyframes you need, then you can control the pacing for the animation by moving the keyframes closer or further away from each other...

Additionally you can fine tune movement by playing with the control points and its handles on the curves on the Graph editor window.

Here's the file used for this example:


Create a segmentation picture with each object class rendered in different color ? I am using the blender to create a visual parking scene model, by using the python script the model could produces a RGB picture of the parking scene as well as the depth image, both are showing below.

I am just wondering would it possible to also create a segmentation image which separates each object class with a color, for example all the car object are in red, all the ground are in blue, all the building are in grey, like the examples

Give each object a unique 'pass index'. You can use the compositor, the Object Info node, and some math nodes to convert it to a colour.

This happens when you divide the object index by the maximum index you're using (to get it to a 0-1 value), and apply it to a diffuse material:

By using a Colour Ramp you can take that 0-1 value and map it to discrete colours:

By swapping out the Diffuse shader with an Emission shader, you just get the straight colour values:

This is the final material:

This is the blend file I used:

See the manual for more info.


How to trim this cylinder where it meets a box I have a box that I have extruded to the shape I want. Then I placed a cylinder so that it intersects the box. After that I deleted the bottom faces of both the cylinder and box.

Now what I want to do is delete the portion of the cylinder that is inside the box and join the nodes so that it is one object. I have already joined the meshes so I can select points/edges/faces from either shape. It seems like the easiest way would be to just put nodes where the edges of the cylinder and box intersect and then delete the parts I don't care about. I can't find a good way to do that though.

What's the best way to accomplish what I'm trying to do?

The Boolean is less destructive, but for a one-off, leaving more options in some cases:

Object Mode, CtrlJ combine the components if not already one object.
Edit Mode, all selected CtrlF Face Menu > Intersect (Knife)
Adjust Last Operation panel > Self Intersect

Followed by removing the faces you don't want, and AltM merging the selection of vertices you want to, By Distance.


How to get original height and width of video strip in python? Here is the context :
I call blender by the command line like so :
blender -b -P myscript.py

In the python script i am doing something simple, i add a movie strip with no sound and then print orignal size of the video:

bpy.ops.sequencer.movie_strip_add({'area': area},filepath='/tmp/file.mp4',frame_start=1, channel=1)

active_strip = bpy.context.scene.sequence_editor.active_strip

print(active_strip.elements[0].orig_height)

print(active_strip.elements[0].orig_width)

The problem is that i always get 0 for both height and width which is not the original dimension of the video.

When i execute this inside blender python console i get the right original dimensions.

Any ideas why it does'nt work by the command line?

Thanks

I've found that you have to show strip in the VSE viewport to get dimesions to work. Since there's no viewports in background mode, Blender can't update information about a strip you added. So you're getting zeros.


Animating a Looping Soft Body Character I started using Blender a couple days ago, after messing with Maya on and off for years.

I would like to make an animation with an ending frame that is exactly the same as the first frame for a gif so that it loops.  The object is a sheep which has wool and a soft body modifier. (I also have photoshop and I know how to make a gif using blender and photoshop).

So, I made a low poly sheep, rig, painted the weights, and then made a separate object for the sheep's wool. I painted the weights for that too. I added a soft body modifier, and I made it pretty stiff, I just wanted a very minor bounce affect to the movement in the wool.

However, I'm having a very hard time making a looping gif for it. I cannot add specific key frames with the soft body modifier... There is a small popping effect when the animation loops, because I can't get the wool on the sheep to return to a starting position. I thought I could make an ending key frame that is exactly the same as the first frame.

Any suggestions?

I'm also not committed to the soft body modifier. If there is another way to make the sheep's wool slightly bounce with movement using another modifier I don't mind trying that if I can have it loop.

Physics have a start and end cycle, there is no way to "reset" the cycle once it starts calculating. My goal was set based on a limited knowledge of how the physics work. The best way to go about my goal of making a looping gif, with the wool moving, is to add extra bones and weight the wool to the bones, and animate it manually.

Alternatively, if the pose/animation allows for it, when creating the gif, reuse the images in reverse for the second half, to make the illusion that the wool is going back into place. This doesn't work for some animations, but it'll work for a basic standing position at least.


Blender braided beard I'm trying to figure out how to do a braided beard (fantasy dwarvish'ish style, a bit like this: http://dariofish.deviantart.com/art/Dwarf-Braided-Beard-Test2-409580675).

I am trying out the particle hair. But I can't really make it behave. Here's my results so far:

A couple of things annoy me with this result:
1) Each individual strand looks too thick.
2) It's not braided very nice.
3) The two braids go in a strange direction towards the screen (can't really see that from the picture).

The guy over here made some results I think look much more even:
Large Braids with Hair Particles
But if I try to replicate his settings it all gets much worse.

Does anyone have an idea what I may be missing in order to get closer to the other SE posters results? His braid looks nice and even and the hairs are much thinner.

Important stuff I missed was:

Use Simple children instead of interpolated for this
Lots of steps in render settings (using 9)
Cycles Hair Settings -> Thickness to get better looking hair (subjective, I know)
Other settings can be seen in image below.

Now I just need to figure out how to get rid of that fur-ball attached to the monkeys chin...