Strange specularity in Blender Internal reflection Cube is standing on mirror plane and Lamp without diffuse lighting produces strange specularity in mirror's reflection. It is strange, because actual object doesn't have such specularity. Is it normal?

The reason you can't see any specular reflections on the cube is because they are just that, reflections. Since the cube's faces are flat planes, you will only see specular reflections if you are at the opposite angle of your light source.

The reason they show up in the reflection is because the light is bouncing off of the face of the cube, (just away from the view/camera which is why you can't see it) and then reflecting off of the mirror.

I tested this on some other objects as well, all using the same materials. The mirror reflects the specular light based on where it reflects off of the object and then off of the mirror.

What it comes down to (as far as I understand) is that we expect the light to behave like diffuse light (the mirror reflects what we see exactly) but instead the light bounces off of the object, then off of the mirror and into the camera, we just can't see when it bounces off of the object since we are at the wrong angle.

You can test this in the real world as well, by using two perpendicular mirrors and a light source. When set up like you have it, you will only see the light source in the horizontal mirror.


Object Mode shows odd Jitter on Mesh? I am working off of the blender 2.83, I started a render and then stopped it to fix a mesh issue. When I returned to object mode I was greeted with this lovely disconcerting sight.
I have done the basics of turning blender on and off, clearing material caches, changing render modes. turning off layer....ect.
Any help would be appreciated, but please someone tell me my file isn't corrupted

Thank you.

If there are no mesh issues, overlapping faces etc. and it also appears when creating new faces, try the following:
In 3D Viewport, press N, to open the Sidebar, go to View > Clip Start / End and change the values to e.g. 0.001 and 1000.
Sometimes these issues appear when you have imported an object which is very large or very small in Blender because of different unit systems or similar reasons, and when you are zooming in or out on the object or change the clipping to make it visible this strange behaviour can occur.
Not sure if this is the case with your file, but I get this error every once in a while.


Imported images no longer reflect on glass or glossy shader I'm modeling a house and I imported an image to be the reflected in the windows. I put it behind the camera so it can be seen in the refection of the windows. It worked fine but then for some unknown reason the image is no longer reflecting in the glass or glossy shader. Other objects reflect but not the imported bitmap. I just copied the objects to a new blender file and they reflect now so it must be something off with the original file settings, not the settings on the objects or lights or camera. Also the light is a lot harsher in the new file even though I copied all of the same lights and the camera from the original. Maybe I accidentally clicked a shortcut that changed a setting. Has this happened to anyone or does anyone have an idea what setting for reflections doesn't transfer when coping objects between files. Thanks

This is how it looks now in the original file

This is how it looks after I copy the contents of the file into a blank file. You can now see the bitmap in the reflection. This is also how the reflections used to look in the original file

I figured it out. For some reason the material was set to a mix shader. So the image was showing up in the view port, but not when rendered. I disconnected the mix shader and just made it a diffuse shader with the image.


Add 3D content to an image using blender I have an image of a scene and I extracted the projection matrix from that, so I have the camera calibration. Now, I want to add some 3D objects to this scene. I have already coded something with OpenGL. You can see the results here (the white wall is added in OpenGL):

Now, I want to achieve the same thing with Blender, because it's easier to work with complex models and complex scenes. Can anyone give me any pointers on how to convert from OpenGL camera to Blender?

If you were using a video, you could use blender camera tracking, and add objects to the scene that way. Then, you could select the exact frame in the video that you wanted to add the objects to. For example, if you had a video of the soccer game, then you could use that.

Here is an tutorial on blender camera tracking:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDIQtwIwAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DCVPcT0dJmoY&ei=J4IoVOy7CIi9ggTB7YDwCA&usg=AFQjCNF6HngfToZ3LNcfFsj9NnkfFfc6hg&sig2=JLK58U_NvMz6XS_KS3IzCA


apply addon object shake to a strip I would like to use the addon: Object Shake and apply it to a strip.
Is it possible to do that?
How?

https://www.blendernation.com/2018/11/02/free-blender-addon-object-shake/#prettyPhoto

The addon you refer to will add a shake to an object in the 3Dview, it is not setup to work with a strip in the sequencer.

To add some shake to a VSE strip, you can animate the strip offset and use a noise modifier to add random movement. The same technique can be used on any animated value.

Enable the offset option and insert a keyframe for the X and/or Y offset value. In 2.7x this can be found under Strip Input.

In the graph editor, select the keyframed value and add a noise modifier. Increase the strength and adjust other properties to get a suitable variation. Repeat for the other value if you are keying both.

To restrict the shake to a portion of the strip you can set the Restrict Frame Range options or you can cut your strip where you want the shake to start and stop and add the noise modifier to the smaller strip.


Eevee renderer looks bad when rendering big objects on long distances Render and preview are showing somehow "glitched" object edges. End clip distance is set to high enough value for object to be fully visible.
(this is rendered at 4km distance - I wanted to remain at scale and I hoped that won't be an issue...)

It's seems there are some problems with objects at distance if ratio between clip start and clip end is to big. Increasing clip start from 0.01m to 1m (both in camera and viewport settings) fixed the issue. I don't know if this is some sort of rounding error, but I hope this answer helps someone else...


Eevee glass shader transparent only at certain angles? So I made windows for my building in an Eevee scene, but at certain angles, it doesn't show what is on the other side and instead shows a reflection of what's below my building. I am using the Principled BSDF, with Transmission at 100%, Roughness at 0, Metalic at 0, and everything else at their default values. IOR is 1.45. Any tips on how to get my shader to just allow me to see through at any angle while still looking like glass? Thanks in advance for the help!
Edit: I also have refractions and reflections enabled in both my eevee render settings and the shader settings

So I found that adjusting "Refraction Depth" In the settings of the shader from 0 to .1, and the problem disappeared.


How to stop objects from flipping when using animations with a camera? Scene & Logic

For example, we have two objects: the animation object (anim_obj) and our camera object (camera). Object camera is the parent of anim_obj.

The following is the logic setup of anim_obj:

Always (skip: 1) > And > Action (Property = prop)

The following is the logic of camera:

Mouse (movement, skip: 1) > And > Mouse (Look)

The following is our scene visualized:

Now, the animation. The animation of anim_obj simply rotates the object on the Y axis 20 degrees over 100 frames. The property prop of anim_obj is for experimental purposes.

Problem

Lets set prop to 50. This means that, on start, anim_obj should be rotated along the Y axis 10 degrees. On start, this is exactly what we see (keep in mind we are not starting the scene from the camera). Now, when we move our mouse to any extent, we see anim_obj move as its parent is camera, which is rotating. The problem is anim_obj itself. For some odd reason, when I move my mouse and camera starts to move, the object starts "stuttering." See for yourself:

A closer look:

As you can see, anim_obj is moving erraticly. I have absolutely no idea why this is happening. If we use motion instead of action to rotate, it will work fine. It seems that animations themselves cause this issue.

.blend

If anyone needs, here is the .blend I used for the example:

This is occurs due to use of properties inside action. If you use integer or float property inside action then it take property value as frame number.
Your animation start from 0 and end to 100 with 45 degree Y-axis rotation.

So When you put property value as 50, its take position of your cube animation from frame number 50. If you want to check this then use also 0 and 100 as property value. You also can check with any number you want between 0 to 100(limit of your frame animation). If you will use value above on 100 then its automatically take last frame of animation as property value.

Your cube movement erotic with mouse because You set properties inside to action so it set given property value between your frame animation as frame animation value( In starting it use original animation frame and in between your cube animation it set given property value and again use frame animation and so rotate cube).

In motion you can not use property so its play your original animation with frame animation, So there is no middle value to change position of cube therefore  in motion Actuator your cube animation play without erotic movement.

And one more thing is. I think it check/update property to every pixel so when you move mouse it play your prop given value from frame animation(with object position change).

** Edited **

First thing -> What do you want to do.
 1) Move cube when mouse move without cube animation.
 2) Move cube when mouse move with animation.

1) If you want to move cube with mouse movement and without animation then just use action actuator with play(action type) and dont set start and end frame in this. Dont use property inside action.

2) If you want to move cube with mouse movement  and with cube animation then just use play(action type) and start and end frame in it still don`t use property.

Main thing You want to make your cube animation rotation with 10 degree rotation with mouse move. So here you can do this with start and end frame just set your end frame to half of timeline like 50. So its move just 10 degree what you want.

you also can do this with two bool properties. First is true then set end frame to 50 and if second one is true then set end frame to 100. you can do this with scripts. sorry I dont know python for this so i cant post python code here. I am working with unity because unity is better then bge for game development.


How to invert a brush texture? I want to invert the colors of a texture brush. How can I do that in Blender without using an external program?

You can use Texture node, which is supported by the texture paint system, too. Actually, it can be much more powerful than just inverting colors.

Open a Node Editor. In the header, switch the Node Type to Texture, and the Data Type to Brush;
Add an existing Texture or Image node, link it to an Invert node before Output. As shown below.


For Anime Modellers: How to paint Anime hair with many hair objects Hi, this is a hair model I've been given to try and paint in an "anime style".
Are there tips or tutorials you guys can give on how I can approach to painting this?

My aim is to make the hair look close to this -- or something simpler.

using reflection as color from glossy shader and maybe vertex coordinates to adjust that effect and also using diffuse and emission for anime style
try different types on math node that i set to square root maybe absolute , you will get different results
its just an idea maybe you can work with this to get what you want


How do i make an object visible behind a specific object? Imagine a green suzanne have an eyebrow

after sometime suzanne grew hair

my question is how do i make suzanne eyebrow visible even though the eyebrow is obstructed/blocked by the hair in rendered view?

Here is how to do it with render layers and compositor :

Set Suzanne, Eyebrows, and hair on 3 different layers.

Create 3 render layers with these different objects on them (here a single example, just do the same for the others) :

Then you do to the compositor, press "use node", and set up the following nodes :

Also, don't forget to set the film transparency :

Then, select all the involved layers, and render your scene.


Loop copying over vertex coordinates is not working I'm completely baffled by this - it makes no sense to me at all!

I'm trying to copy over vertex coordinates from an object in blender into a list, and at the end of the loop the entire list is filled with only the last vertex.

This prints out the list with only the last vertex in every part of the list:

import bpy

current_obj = bpy.context.active_object
verts_l = [v.co for v in current_obj.data.vertices.values()]
verts_w = [current_obj.matrix_world * v_local for v_local in verts_l]

vert_list = [[None, None, None]] * vert_count

def build_vert_list ():
    for i, vert in enumerate(verts_w):
        vert_list[i][0] = verts_w[i][0]
        vert_list[i][1] = verts_w[i][1]
        vert_list[i][2] = verts_w[i][2]
    print(vert_list)

However, if I instead print out the vert_list during the loop, it prints out the correct data:

def build_vert_list ():
    for i, vert in enumerate(verts_w):
        vert_list[i][0] = verts_w[i][0]
        vert_list[i][1] = verts_w[i][1]
        vert_list[i][2] = verts_w[i][2]
        print(vert_list[i])

If I do instead:

def build_vert_list ():
    for i, vert in enumerate(verts_w):
        vert_list[i] = verts_w[i]

it works properly, and I can access the values in the list with vert_list[1][0] for example, however every member of list is headed with some weird  nonsense, which prevents me from doing round() functions on the data.

Can anyone help me? This has me pretty stumped.

(I only started learning Python a few days ago, so go easy on the technical stuff please.)

List comprehension

Not sure why you are getting the issue. For Mesh.vertices make sure you are running code in object mode.

Question code can IMO be simplified to

import bpy
context = bpy.context

ob = context.object
mw = ob.matrix_world
me = ob.data

vert_list = [list(mw @ v.co) for v in me.vertices] # 2.80
#vert_list = [(mw @ v.co)[:] for v in me.vertices] # 2.80 alternate

#vert_list = [list(mw * v.co) for v in me.vertices] # 2.7x

print(vert_list)

in this case see no need to predefine vert_list or enumerate to index.

Alternatively using bmesh in edit mode

import bpy
import bmesh

context = bpy.context

ob = context.edit_object
mw = ob.matrix_world
me = ob.data

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
bmesh.ops.transform(bm,
        verts=bm.verts,
        matrix=mw
        )
vert_list = [v.co[:] for v in bm.verts]
print(vert_list)


Including 3rd party modules in a Blender addon I wish to include the libSBML library in one of my Blender addons. Although I was able to successfully do this on Linux, I'm having problems getting it to load in Blender's python console in my Windows box. I wrote the libSBML developers about this, and they replayed:

When I looked at Blender it seemed to be using Python 3.3.0. (Which is unfortunately the only python binaries we do not currently distribute). So I went ahead and created a set of binaries for the 'official' python 3.3. Looking at the dependencies, it depends on python33.dll and python3.dll. However, Blender only comes along with the python33.dll.
the best thing to do would be to be able to link directly against the library that Blender uses, unfortunately there are no lib files distributed with Blender. So I'm afraid I cannot help there. It would help to know how precisely they built the numpy module they distribute and then use the same build procedure for libSBML.

My specific questions would then be:

Is it possible to either get python3.dll from the official python distribution and use it with Blender, or
if there is a set of lib's that Blender uses that I could compile my own version of libsbml against so that I can include it in my addon.
Alternatively, what are the set of steps that one needs to follow to compile a library against Blender python's libs and dlls in Windows (for example, like the cited mail states, how was Blender's numpy compiled).

DingTo created the Windows builds of numpy. You can find some info in this task's discussion, especially Juicyfruit's wiki page should be of interest.

The compiled numpy libs were added to the library repository and are placed in the site-packages folder when you build blender.

You will have to

provide a complete, customized blender buildor
ask your users to manually place the required lib in blender's site-packages folderor
add the lib to your addon's folder and import it from there (sys.path.append should do the trick)


Eevee ignores alpha in depth pass I beg pardon for this question, but I can't really wrap my head around this matter, as it works flawlessly in all other apps by default but doesn't seem to work in Blender.
Here's the issue

As you can see, there's a couple of cubes and plants which are simple planes with alpha channel.
When I try to render the depth pass or a mist pass, these plants get absolutely ignored

The geometry with a simple material is there but the objects with alpha get omitted. I suspect that it is just my stupidity but  can't find a way to add the objects with alpha to the depth pass.
Anyone can explain this? Thanks in advance.

Fortunately I stumbled upon the material setting
For some reason, if you set your blend mode to "Alpha blend" - Eevee does not render the objects with this material at all. It sort of treats them as transparent for the Depth pass.


is there a way to get the final object space normal (with normal maps applied) Im trying to create a light source within a shader, this light source needs to be in object space.
I have created a node network that does this well, but only uses the mesh normals (in object space), i thought adding the normal map would be simple but im struggling to get something that works correctly and have with help over engineered several solutions including recreating a TBN matrix (think this didn't work as the tangents didn't appear as i would expect them)
however im thinking there must be a simpler solution that im missing? get pixels normal (mesh + map), transform to local space, do stuff?...

its very simple, the normalmap output in tangent mode does exactly what i was looking for, i was being dumb, i had refactored my node networks into a bunch of nested groups and one of the inputs had set the normal intput to a float instead of a vector...
it took me to recreate the entire normal tbn matrix in nodes and debug the out put vs the normalmap node to realise ;)


Continuously renders a previous rendered version, not what is currently in the scene (Cycles Render) Whenever I render my scene, it always renders a previous render which I had done for testing purposes a while ago. It's not an animation or anything, just a still shot of a car I modelled with some lights to make it shiny (putting that detail there just encase it's useful).

I've searched around online for an answer, where I found another person with a similar problem to mine, yet his was fixed by deleting a strip in the VSE (video sequence editor) and I don't have any strips in mine, so it was not helpful.

Here is the model: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/37866

(If you get the model, switch the top right viewport to the "viewport render" mode to see how it's suppose to look, and then do a proper (low sample) render just to see what I mean)

In your case the difference between the viewport and final render is caused by some emission objects which are hidden only in the final render.

In the Outliner there are eye and camera icons that control the visibility of a given object in the viewport and final render, respectively:

Objects with the camera icon disabled will not affect the final render.


Can't find keyframes anywhere, but I can see their effect I have set two keyframes for the image texture node's offset property, which are driving the animation of that image texture.

After trying to use the NLA, I seem to have completely lost these two keyframes. I have two strips in the NLA but hitting tab to edit them doesn't reveal the keyframes for the offset property. Their effect is still seen, as witnessed by the changing offsrt value.

What's going in this blender file? How did I manage to make two keyframes completely disappear from any editor?

Here's the file:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz8CfnsnifVvNUhnM0MybnRkQ0E/view?usp=sharing

This seems to be a problem just with you. I downloaded the file and the keyframes were still visible. Don't know what it could be; maybe close the .blend file and reopen it.

Hope this helps!


Rotation issue. 2.83 I used to be able to rotate upon the origin of any given item that I was working on, but now blender just wants to rotate around the cursor, which i usual have at the world origin. This is a little annoying!! Any ideas or am i missing something? I have searched the web and not had any joy. Tried the full stop, still the rotation is of.

In 2.8 and beyond, you have a drop-down in middle (top or bottom) of the 3d-viewport where you can select the Pivot Point.   You probably have it set (defaulted?) to "3d-cursor".  Change it to "Individual origins".


How to create razor wire I am trying to create fences with razor wires on them, as to be seen here:

I modeled it as a straight wire first, adding the blades in an array and then combined the cylinder and the blades to one object. But when I try to deform it with the screw modifier it get's too distorted. I also didn't get any usable results by trying to start off with a coil already and using particles, for example.

If anyone has an idea to solve this, it would be highly appreciated.

Thanks for reading.

Model a single segment of the wire and razor.

Create a curve object with the spiral shape you need (use the Add Curve: Extra Objects addon to create spirals)

Add an array modifier to the wire/razor object

and then add a curve modifier that uses the spiraled curve as object for the array. Then set the array modifier to use the curve.

The original object and the curve remain editable, so you can shape them to fit your needs.

Here's the example file:


When in Wireframe mode and selecting an egde, only the top is selected and not the whole vertices I am watching this Blender tutorial, where switches to Wireframe viewport shading mode with Z, and he mentions when clicking it should select the whole vertices

https://youtu.be/6FuvpwZeXfw?t=2m12s

But when I turn on transparency, and select an edge, only the edge I clicked is selected not the whole side

https://i.gyazo.com/5bbfe7e209b5b52ab70f78004a3e34ef.mp4

How can I selected the whole side like this?

In the video (at 2m16s) he forgot to mention that just before selecting the vertice he is pressing the C key, C for Circle select.

He explains about C for Circle select at 2m30s as he is selecting the next corner vertice.


Why does geometry deform in unexpected ways when using IK? I'm currently setting up the armature for a character for my college project. However, I don't quite understand why the foot does this. If I set the leg's rotation to 90 degrees, it corrects it, but is there something else I could fix instead? I know that it's the leg's pole that's affecting it, but I don't know why. From what I can gather, everything is lined up correctly. I haven't had to set the rotation for the other bones with IK, either.

EDIT: Even when applying weight paints, the geometry for the toe/foot ends up being slightly angled. It happens if I set the rotation to 0, 90 or 180 degrees.

This is a common occurrence when I set-up IK, I often set the pole angle to 90 degrees (sometimes 180 degrees) to fix the direction the knee points. I suspect it has to do with the orientation of the joints that are pointing to the pole in relation to the orientation of the pole itself.

However, because you can simply apply a correction to the constraint, I don't see much need to think over it further than that. There shouldn't be any problems with animation or posing due to requiring an offset to the pole angle in the constraint. So no need to worry about it ^_^

Edit: I just saw your edit. You should check that your skeleton is symmetrical on both sides. I've had angle issues like this before when the pole OR the leg joints were off by even a fraction of a unit. You need to make sure that your extruded pole joint is directly in front of (ie: same x-location) your knee joint.


What's the simplest way to wrap extruded text around a cylinder? What's the simplest way to wrap extruded text around a cylinder that has a specific radius (for example, the label on a can of baked beans)?

I've tried using the Simple Deform modifier, but that (a) doesn't allow you to choose a radius and (b) requires the text to be converted to a curve.

I'm trying to model a cylinder with radius of 30, which has a line of embossed text that runs around the curved side, facing outward.

Thanks!

Try using a Curve modifier.

Add curve circle (ShiftA> Curve Circle) and set the radius as desired in the Redo menu (at the bottom of the Tool Shelf):

Add the text object (ShiftA> Text) and type in your text (Tab> Edit mode):

Add a curve modifier to the text object in Properties > Modifiers, and set the Object to be your curve circle:

Rotate the text object 90 degrees on the X axis (RX90) and then scale by -1 again on the X (SX-1):

Increase the Extrude value in Properties > Text > Geometry to give the text some thickness:

Optionally increase the Depth and Resolution values for Bevel to round the edges a bit.

Result:


Creating a leaf material that shows transparency from UV image (Blender Internal) I've run into a complication when creating one of the trees for a location. I am not sure how to really ask this question without this picture:

As you can see I have a UV leaf texture that I want to apply to the rectangular generated leaves from the tree. When I put this into the texture tab it shows the leaf in the rendering, but keeps the white space that fills the rest of the rectangular shape.

Is there a way to eliminate this white space between the leaf and the edge of the rectangles to have it look like there are leaves on the tree?

Thank you for any help and suggestions.

Either use these material notes. Or use blenders addon that imports images as planes and enabling transparency on the left


What are good practices to keep in mind when lighting for scene-referred data? My understanding is that your lights shouldn't be limited by the dynamic range the default view can show.

I'm sure there's more to it than just making lights brighter and over-exposing the default view, but I don't know what. How do I know which lights should be how bright?

I've heard that using a logarithmic view transform is useful in these situations. Indeed, even with very bright reflections and dark shadows it allows me to see details in both. The only problem is I don't know what I'm looking for.

How does one light in scene-referred space?

As far I understand it, you can check your scene exposure and range by switching to one of the False Color looks in Color Management.

Here's what the colors mean:

Low Clipping Black Scene Linear value 0.000176272 and below
Nine Stops Down = Purple Scene Linear value 0.000351384 to 0.000702411.
Eight Stops Down = Blue Scene Linear value 0.000702411 to 0.002814643.
Six Stops Down = Cyan Scene Linear value 0.002814643 to 0.044567918.
Two Stops Down = Green Scene Linear value 0.044567918 to 0.018009142.
Middle Grey = Gray Scene Linear value 0.018009142.
Two Stops Over = Green Scene Linear value 0.719634476 to 2.883658483.
Four Stops Over = Yellow Scene Linear value 2.883658483 to 11.39491214.
Six Stops Over = Red Scene Linear value 11.39491214 to 16.29174024.
High Clipping = White Scene Linear value 16.29174024 and above.

I've been recomended to make sure you don't see red or white which means you're probably overexposed in those areas. Likewise with avoiding the lowest regions of Black and Purple which indicates severe underexposure. If you can get a well exposed image rendered out, you can make a wide range of lighting adjustments in the compositor with the Color Balance node in CDL mode.

Troy S may need to correct this, but this is my current understanding of creating balance lighting in your scene.


How can I import an addon into a Blender script? I want to import an addon into a Blender script

Is this possible, are there any tutorials about it?

There are addon utilities available in 2.77/scripts/modules/addon_utils.py which you can import into your script.

Here is an overkill example, lists all addons and then tries to enable addons named ['mesh_looptools','mocap_madness','goose']

import bpy
from addon_utils import check, paths, enable

def get_all_addons(display=False):
    """
    Prints the addon state based on the user preferences.
    """
    import sys
    paths_list = paths()
    addon_list = []
    for path in paths_list:
        bpy.utils._sys_path_ensure(path)
        for mod_name, mod_path in bpy.path.module_names(path):
            is_enabled, is_loaded = check(mod_name)
            addon_list.append(mod_name)
            if display:  #for example
                print("%s default:%s loaded:%s " % (mod_name, is_enabled, is_loaded))
    return(addon_list)
#print all the addons and show if enabled and default
addons = get_all_addons(True)
#enable dependencies
addon_dependencies = ['mesh_looptools','MocapMadness','goose']
for addon in addon_dependencies:
    if addon in addons:
        is_enabled, is_loaded = check(addon)
        if not is_enabled:
            print("%s enabled" % addon)
            enable(addon)
    else:
        print("Error Dependency %s missing" % addon)

Answer from https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?234219-Check-if-Add-On-is-enabled-using-Python&p=1970462&viewfull=1#post1970462

Mainly only need

    is_enabled, is_loaded = check(addon)
    if not is_enabled:
        print("%s enabled" % addon)
        enable(addon)


Boids avoid collision? Im trying to make a flock of birds in a massive cage using boids.
But they keep flying through the walls.
How do I tell them to stay in the cage?

Create your cage, I have used a box
Select your box and enable Edit Mode (Tab)
Keep the box selected and go to Mesh > Normals > Flip Normals
Then go to the Physics tab, and enable the Collision modifier

Now your boids should interact with the cage. Hope it helps.


Call a function with parameters on a certain frame I want to animate any number of text objects using Python.
For example, imagine 10 text objects, changing their values to different strings, on any frame.
In short, I want full control to animate the text.data.body property.
Searching on the web, I found a solution for simple cases -> Keyframe on text body in Python?
And then I wrote my own code. However, I get TypeError: 'NoneType' object is not callable from my console, because I am trying to call my update_text function with different parameters.
Apparently, a function must be given to the 'register' without being called. Does anybody have any idea? I see that this is yet an unsolved problem...
Thanks in advanced!

def update_text(text_obj, old_text, new_text, key_frame):
    cur_frame = bpy.context.scene.frame_current
    if cur_frame <= key_frame:
        text_obj.data.body = old_text
    elif cur_frame > key_frame:
        text_obj.data.body = new_text

def register(update):
    bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.append(update)

# update text content
register(update_text(my_text_obj, "old", "new", 10))

Return a callable
Please read the handler docs https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.app.handlers.html A handler method takes two arguments the scene and the depsgraph. You append a function to handlers. In above update is a callable function whereas update(foo) is the result of calling that function, which without a return, returns None by default. Explaining error message.
That covered, using a method similar to answer here
Handler-script updates in viewport but not in render
Recommend passing the name rather than the object , otherwise object removal may cause null reference issues.  The object is fetched from the scene objects collection by name in the handler.
Q code
import bpy

def update_text(name, old_text, new_text, key_frame):
    def handler(scene, depsgraph):
        text_ob = scene.objects.get(name)
        if not text_ob:
            return
        f = scene.frame_current
        text_ob.data.body = new_text if f >= key_frame else old_text
    return handler

def register(update):
    bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.append(update)

# while testing to avoid buildup
bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.clear()
# update text content
register(update_text("Text", "old", "new", 10))

Am currently using 2.90alpha and this is updating both in viewport and when rendered. Will find some issues with earlier versions of 2.8 not updating in render.
Check out the answer in link above re using a text data block as input using line numbers as frames.  Instead of replacing body on each line could append or hold forward if a line is empty. (eg for example "old" on line 1, and "new" on line 10.

import bpy

# pass arguments to build a handler
def text_body_handler(text):
    lines = len(text.lines)
    # the handler method
    def text_body(scene):
        f = scene.frame_current
        text_ob = scene.objects.get("Text")
        if text_ob and f <= lines:
            body = text.lines[f-1].body
            if body:
                text_ob.data.body = body

    return text_body

bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.clear()
bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.append(text_body_handler(bpy.data.texts["Text"]))

Related
Updating text object in Blender 2.81 using python
Note also:  Avoid mixing context with handlers. It may be the case that the scene being "handled" is not the context scene. (bpy.context.scene)  perhaps given a bit of a bum steer by answer in Q link..


Why does my 3D model disappear after applying remesh modifier? I want to apply the Remesh modifier to a 3D model but when doing so, the model disappears.

I have very limited experience using Blender and have been unable to find anyone describing a similar problem (except for 2D text).

A blender file which reproduces the problem: http://www.filedropper.com/remeshtest

Remesh modifier needs mesh with volume to work properly .
Flat meshes gives blank output as it cant compute the volume and mesh with holes produce a result with the holes filled.

also try instantMesh app github link
might give usable results

If you want to remesh flat/surface/text objects then use solidify before remesh then delete the extra thickness after applying the modifiers


Blender True displacement option not available I tried to turn on true displacement, so I turned on experimental features but when I go to the object settings, where the displacement options are, there isn't anything there:

As you can see, I have experimental features turned on:

I don't know what to do, how do I turn true displacement on?

You find the displacement settings in the materials panel. There you can set it to "true displacement".


Dynamic paint - bake multiple displacement surfaces I'm trying to simulate sand build up after something dips into it (with dynamic painting). I'm using two parented spheres as brushes (one bigger one smaller). The smaller one is in collection "down" and the bigger in collection "up". I have one plane which is canvas with TWO surfaces. One named "down" that uses the collection down and has displacement factor on 2 And second one named "up" that uses collection "up" with displacement factor -1 so it displaces upwards.

When i play the animation in viewport without baking the result is what I want like this.

but when i try to bake the frames it only bakes one of the surfaces not both... Something I'm missing or is there better, different way to do this similar effect? Thanks, tedd.

Just ran into the exact same problem under the exact same circumstances. This happens because you didn't name the cache sequences, so baking one always overwrites the other. They need to be given unique names.


Blender built as a Python module, now how do I install and use it? I built Blender as a Python module on Ubuntu 20.04.
The installation instructions are not very clear.

I don't have a /usr/lib/python3.7/site-packages folder.
When I run make install it says: No rule to make target 'install'

Okay, I think I got it.

cd to ~/blender-git/build_linux_bpy and run make install
this will install to a local path (~/blender-git/lib/linux_centos7_x86_64/python/lib/python3.7/site-packages/2.91)
setting WITH_INSTALL_PORTABLE=OFF on the command line before the call to make install had no effect
~/blender-git/build_linux_bpy/CMakeCache.txt defines the PYTHON_SITE_PACKAGES variable
I found this by running a search using grep -rnw . -e 'PYTHON_SITE_PACKAGES'
I set this PYTHON_SITE_PACKAGES to /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages
I chose that path from the list returned by python3 -m site
I can now import the bpy module from a python script

If anyone has a better way of doing this, let me know! Cheers.


What are these black axes lines on my model? I am trying to deconstruct this mess of a file I downloaded from TurboSquid, I think it was made in Blender Render, in order to reconstruct it in Cycles and I just do not know what these things are.

Those axis you see are empties (or Null Objects).

quote from the manual:

  Empties can serve as transform handles which cannot be edited and do not render. Empties are important and useful objects. Some examples of ways to use them include: Parent object for a group of objects

  An Empty can be parented to any number of other objects - This gives the user the ability to control a group of objects easily, and without affecting a render.
  Target for constraints

  An empty can also be used as a target for normal, or bone constraints.
  This gives the user far more control; for instance, a rig can easily be set up to enable a camera to point towards an empty using the Track to constraint
  Array offset

  An empty can be used to offset an array modifier, meaning complex deformations can be achieved by only moving a single object.

An empty by itself would show on the outliner window like this, with nothing else:

An empty that has something parented to it will show what kind of objects is a parent of:

In your case the empties are controlling something, meshes or other objects.
To find out what that might be click on the Plus (+) sign on the left to expand the tree list (hierarchy).


Blender 2.72 "blender-app.exe" Blender version 2.72 in the .zip downloaded from blender.org there is a new file called
blender-app.exe in addition to blender.exe. What is blender-app.exe for? Which file should I use to open blender?

As @Lord Spectre said, blender.exe is a launcher to blender-app.exe.
From this thread on BlenderArtist:

When the devs moved Blender windows compilation to use mscv2013, it broke the OpenMP support for windows (that makes some functions multithreaded) (while legacy mscv2008 builds were still working good with OpenMP)
This nasty problem was noticed first in a sculpt mode report in which a simple brush stroke on even very low poly stuff was pulling CPU usage to 100% (without any actual performance gain) instead of the +/- 30 CPU use.
As a solution, the devs went with a "launcher" that would apparently set some variable to lower the impact of OpenMP breakage , the discussion between dev can be read on the august mailing list "[Bf-committers] OpenMP issues with msvc2013 builds".


Blender scripting: Subdivided vertices with Catmull-Clark In Blender2.73, I have a model with Catmull-Clark Subsurf modifier. How can I get and set the XYZ positions of subdivided vertices(the red circles) in Python Script?

Alternatively, Can I save the model as just a high polygon model without Subsurf modifier?

It seems this question already answers how to apply a modifier; if you still get the parameters of a modifier, here's how:

import bpy

for ob in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    for mod in ob.modifiers:
        if mod.type == 'SUBSURF':
           print("Subsurface modifier (\"%s\") in object \"%s\", with view level %s and render level %s." % (ob.name, mod.levels, mod.render_levels))
           bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(apply_as='DATA', modifier=mod.name)

The above script will print to the console the level of all Subsurface modifiers in all selected objects, and their names.
Then it will apply the modifiers, so that you can get the coordinates of each vertex.


Easier way to orient custom bone shapes? I've just begun using custom bone shapes and am finding it very tedious to have to align their location/rotation/scale to the bone after they've been assigned. Is there a quicker more precise way of doing this?

I found it very useful to work with "free rotate". You select a bone in pose mode and you press  R, R. First R for rotate, second R for free rotate. You get a very natural way of rotating that way.


Why are there thick edges in Voronoi 3D/4D? I was playing with Voronoi and discovered that if I use 3D/4D, some of the edges are thicker than others. In my opinion, it looks unnatural and neither colorramp nor greater/less than can solve this problem. There's no such problem with 2D Voronoi but it also doesn't have W input so I can't properly animate the texture. And as you can see on the 1st screenshot even if I'm using a plane with Z coordinate equals to 0 or UV coordinates (I believe both give me 2D) this problem is still actual.
Could someone explain why does this happen and how do I get rid of these?

With a 3D or 4D texture you are mapping a cross-section of a pattern that occurs throughout 3D space to the surface of your object.

So sometimes you're cutting through an area that is centered above or below your cross-sectional plane and it creates a different gradient.


How do I get from the default view to the 3D Editor View? How do I get from here:

To Here:

Ctrl+upkey with the mouse cursor in the windows, the same to get out.
Nkey and tkey to pop side panels.


How to model neck ruff (clothing)? So i have been trying to model a neck ruff similar to the one in the picture, but i'm not sure how to go about it at all, i need to create a neck ruff that can be used within a cloth simulation and appreciate any help i can get. though, if you know how to model a neck ruff, but are not sure if it would work in a cloth simulation i'd like to know anyways.

.

I think there are 2 different questions, modeling and cloth.

About modelling: You can create a basic profile, then give your object an Array modifier, then a Simple Deform modifier (Bend mode, Angle 360°). Extrude inwards, then give it a Solidify modifier. Add some edge loops to sharp the edges, it will also allow you to twist it a bit with Proportional Editing option enabled once you'll have the modifiers applied (but you can also keep the modifiers and deform it with a Mesh Deform modifier).

You don't say a lot about how you want to animate it as a cloth, maybe you should give your object a Surface Deform modifier with a (bit) subdivided plane as object and give this plane a cloth physic. If you create a Pinning Group, the less the vertex will be part of the group the more it will be affected by the gravity. Then parent the collar to the plane. It will be much lighter than if you give the whole object a cloth simulation. Needs to be tested though.


Any way to have multiple ID masks? It is possible to have multiple objects share the same ID mask in the compositor. It does not seem possible to have objects possess multiple ID mask values though. Is there any way around this? I want to use ID masks somewhat like groups, and for some objects to be in multiple ones.

You could use a 'binary encoding' technique to allow you to assign each object to a limited number of groups.

To achieve this, allocate each group a power of 2 :

Group 1 = 2^0 = 1
Group 2 = 2^1 = 2
Group 3 = 2^2 = 4
Group 4 = 2^3 = 8
Group 5 = 2^4 = 16
...etc.

You can combine these 'groups' by simply adding them together :

Groups(1,3,4) = 1 + 4 + 8 = 13

So setting the ID to 13 would indicate that that object is in groups 1, 3 and 4.

So '0' is in no groups, '1' is in Group 1, '2' is in Group 2, '3' is in Group 1 and Group 2, '4' is in Group 3, '5' in Group 3 and Group 1, etc.

ie, in binary and each column representing a group (with the first being the right-most digit)

000000000000000 = 0
000000000000001 = 1
000000000000010 = 2
000000000000011 = 3
000000000000100 = 4
000000000000101 = 5
000000000000110 = 6
000000000000111 = 7
000000000001000 = 8
000000000001001 = 9
000000000001010 = 10
...etc....
111111111111110 = 32766
111111111111111 = 32767

Once you've assigned the IDs using the above scheme, you can use Math compositor nodes to determine which groups any particular ID represents by splitting off each binary digit in turn using Modulo 2 (which will give the value of the rightmost digit), subtracting the Modulo 2 to remove that digit from the result, and divide by 2 to shuffle the remaining digits to the right - then repeat for the next group and the next, etc. This can be repeated until you've split off all of the groups/digits into individual outputs to indicate the grouping.

The above image shows splitting to give 3 group outputs. Simply duplicate each block of three nodes (Modulo, Subtract, Divide) and continue the chain linked to the previous one in the same way.

It's quite cumbersome but can work for up to 15 individual groups (the ID has an upper limit of 32767 which is 111111111111111 in binary (15 digits)) but any object can be assigned to any or all of the groups as required.


What kind of Texture map is it and how to use it? It seems like these textures are needed to create dirt, but how do I do this and why do the textures look like this?

The red, green and yellow colors indicate that this is a UV texture from Unreal Engine 4. You might be able to bake the mask into a PBR texture in UE4, or use a separate RGB node in blender to use this dirt mask texture.


Different view from viewport than the render I am a beginner in a blender and this is my first model. I have a problem because the final render is not the same as rendering the viewport. I do not know if this is a problem with the rendering settings or the model. I add screenshots and file.

And sorry for my english, im from Poland and still practicing.

View from viewport:

Render:

File:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1b76DHKwo7jI0lJFjp9LYZqWLeJivarTh

For the bottle you have different levels of subdivision (1 for preview, and 2 for render). That gives the inconsistency.


What are common causes for Blend files growing in size? I have this blend file that seems to be growing.

The file size is now about 250MB. It contains this scene and the texture of the flag is 265kb and the texture of the sky is 640KB.

I have a wind blowing and I intend to render this scene as an animation. I have played the animation a couple of times and I have the feeling that this causes the growth of the file. What could be the reason for the ridiculous file size ?

In each instance the cause of growing file size may be different.

Common causes include:

Groups of objectsCause: Objects in a group might not exist in any scene.Solution: Check groups in the outliner, if you want you can add an empty scene and RMB in the outliner to instantiate all group objects in the scene to check all the objects you have in groups.
Physics cacheCause: Objects with internally stored physics cache may accumulate cache in the blend file.Solution: Clear the cache for your physics objects, you may want to use external cache files too.
Auto-packed texturesCause: Texture auto-pack is a feature, stored per-blend file, that will pack all your textures when saving.Solution: Check that you have auto-pack disabled in the menu: "File -> External Data -> Automatically pack into .blend".

feel free to suggest extras in comments - or add own answer :)


Blenderguru's Coffee tutorial: Coffee does not reflect correct in Viewport/Rendering UPDATE:
So resetting default preferences helped. But I checked the preferences file (not readable with editor). I then screenshot evry settings tab and compared with factory settings. There was no change then 1 addon: NodeWrangler. Deinstalling Nodewrangler didnt help, first the factory reset.
So there must be a different option somehwere else which is also saved in the userpref.blend .
Perhaps anyone else could imagine?

I followed BlenderGurus Beginner Tutorial, and in Part 4, Level 3: Realistic Liquid - Blender Beginner Tutorial I have following problem.
In Viewport (Image right side) you can see the coffee shines more dark through the glass and has dark-reddish reflection on the plate/ground.
In the Rendering the glass looks very greyish and there is a highlight reflection on the plate/ground as if there is some lightsource or coffee won't be rendered correct.
The liquid is sized to fit between the both sides of the glass and I followed all material settings and couldn't find out where the problem is. Could you help me here?

Best Regards
Sören

It should look like this in Render: (from tutorial)

Update:
After the Answer of @Jachym:
Still same false behaviour for me:

Blender File:

I checked your file and everything seems to be working fine.
With such low samples, Denoiser can introduce some artifacts, so perhaps that's what happened.

Viewport (64 samples)

Render (128 samples)

Render (128 samples) + Denoise Node


Why do the Boolean options disappear when the Boolean modifier is applied? Noob question - in ver 2.78 when I hit 'apply' on a boolean difference modifier the properties of that modification in the outliner disappear - it's as though there's no record of the modification. The default name can be changed from 'Boolean' to whatever but once applied it all just disappears. If one makes a mistake it can't be changed - except perhaps by 'undo-ing'. Am I missing something? What's the point?

The idea is that you don't apply a modifier until you need to (if at all). It is not uncommon to never apply the modifiers if you don't need to directly access their result in edit mode. You can leave modifiers in the modifier 'stack', which allows you to turn them on or off, re-order them and change their settings. Once you apply the modifier, any changes the modifier makes are written directly (and permanently) to the mesh.

As you say, the only way to undo the effects after applying a modifier is to undo, restore a previous version of the file (if you have one) or restore a previous version of the mesh (if you have one).

Because applying a modifier is 'destructive' (to the original object) it is not uncommon to either not apply the modifiers or to keep a copy of the original mesh on a spare layer if they do need to be applied.


What is a Transmission Color pass? I was trying to look up what a Transmission Color pass was in the Blender docs, and I only got this:

  Same as above, but for transmission BSDFs.

This was pretty vague, and I didn't understand what transmission was, so I tried a test scene. With the default scene in Cycles Render, I added a plane scaled by 5 at (0,0,-1). I moved the default point light at (-0.7, -5, 6). I changed the default cube's material to a Glass BSDF (I guessed transmission had to do with an object that's translucent), and I selected the "Color" Option in Properties -> Render Layers -> Passes -> Transmission to use the Transmission Color pass in the Compositing Tab. I rendered the scene, hooked up the "Transmission Color" output to the Compositing node, and got this.

I still didn't understand what was going on, so I tried to google "transmission color pass", and I found a site that said this:

  Transmission takes place when light passes through an object without being essentially changed

I also got this from 1:02 in this YouTube video about what happens to light in transmission:

  It can be granted safe passage through the medium itself. Sometimes it'll be refracted...

So from all of this, I'm guessing a Transmission Color pass is a pass where white parts show areas that allow light to pass through freely and black parts show areas where no light passes through. I'm not entirely sure on this, so I was wondering if someone has a different answer as to what a Transmission Color pass is. Also, does this pass only output a black/white image, no gray/color?

Answer is in your first two lines. Transmission pass is nothing else than colors of transmissions rays. Imagine diffuse color pass. It's color only. No other influence like shadows and glossy. Transmission pass is exactly the same, but color of transmission rays. Make your cube red (in glass shader) and you get red color in transmission pass.

PS: Does not make sense write the same few times in documentation

PS2: maybe you try find something that not exist :-)


How to render Animation with solid shading? It´s the first time I´m working with the Video Sequence Editor in Blender 2.79 and it´s realy promising.

But how do I export the whole Sequence as solid shaded Animation? Although there is an Option called "Scene Preview/Render" (which is set to solid) blender renders each frame ...

Sometimes one need some time to find the right button :-)


Use render layers in sequence editor I rendered an animation with different layers (3), and safed every frame as exr.
If I render just one frame I can see the every single layer using the "Render layers" node.

But if I render the whole animation, and then open all the exrs as an image sequence in the sequence editor I just see one layer.

Is it possible to see and edit all layers of the frames in the sequence editor too, and if yes how can I do it?

Whatever I tried I just got one layer of the three.
So acutally its not possible to make a video out of the frames because just one layer is rendered... and all the information from the other layers is missing.

EDIT:
I also tried to render the image in exr multilayer.
But there I just got a black image... and was not able to found any of the layers..

EDIT 2:
The workflow I tried so far:

I have many exr files
Open Blender and switch to Compositing
Open the Node editor and the VSE
Cleared all nodes and added an image node.
Opened all my exr files in the node as an image sequence
Added the Composite / Viewer nodes and activated the backdrop
Then this is what I get:

Sadly I just get one layer like mentioned before.. But directly after the rendering I have a picture will all three layers.
Like here:

With the green box I marked the missing layers.
With the orange one you can see how I made the layers before rendering.
As you can see in the EXR just the second layer (glass) is displayed.

I think maybe it's because the Render Layers node needs the scene.
And when I just import the EXRs I don't have the scene.

But is there a way to get the other layers in the EXRs after the rendering, when I have all images rendered?
I want to do the same like in the second picture (add filters and so on to the single layers) just after the rendering.
Is that possible?

Load the EXR as an image sequence into the compositor of another scene. Route the layers that you want to the Compositor Output Node. Then load that scene as a strip into the VSE scene timeline. Do this for each layer of the EXR that you want to combine. Remember that in the VSE you will need to enable Linear to mix the EXR as they probably are not scene referred.

Make an EXR with multiple outputs:

Then import them into a compositor and route each layer to comp output using 1 scene per layer.

Then mix them as required in the VSE. The VSE isn't really ideal for this to be honest.


Import .obj with texture, where texture is more photos I just downloaded an object and it has come with a folder containing lots of pictures, as texture, but when i import it in Blender it goes all white. How can i import the texture also?

Make sure image search is checked. It may have material id's and if you could import as an .fbx you would probably get your textures. But, you can solve this manually yourself by using ctrl+shift+t with user interface keymap settings inside the shader editor to automatically have cycles setup anything other than gloss maps and ao maps without you having to do anything else. It does not take long.


How do you scale eye texture using armatures? I'm making a FNaF fan animatronic named Tonya the Cat and what I want to do is to be able to scale the eye texture using armatures like Emil "Ace" Macko.

Link to video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6QWh5OKOLY

Can you guys please help me out?

You may do it using drivers. You can set the shapekey's transformation to be driven by the bone's scale as pictured below.

First select the eyeball and add a new shapekey being in Object Mode. Next enter the Edit Mode, set the shapekey's value to 1.000 (with the apply shapekeys in edit mode button enabled) and edit your mesh as you like (in my case I've decreased the pupil's size).

You may set the Min shapekey's value to -1.000, so Blender may create the opposite transformations (pupil's size enlargement) automatically for you

Now being in Object Mode add the single bone and place it in front of the eyeball (name it e.g. eye_pupil).

Now select the eyeball, go to the Shape Keys panel, hover the cursor over the newly created shapekey's value (near it's name), press RMB and choose Add Driver.

Next open the Graph Editor and set it's mode to Drivers. Select the shapekey's name on the left, open the properties shelf (N) and set the settings there as pictured below (you want the shapekey value to be driven by the local Scale value of the previously created eye_pupil bone using the Transform Channel).

You may also add a generator modifier to set the ranges of the driven values (but it's not neccessary).

Finally you'll have to update dependencies (just click the button pictured below).

NOTE: My answer shows how to animate the pupil only as I have the ready model which uses this kind of animation only. The video you provided shows the animation of the iris with pupil, but with the method pictured above you'll be able to do it in the same manner.


Can't export any models in blender So I've been having some issues exporting models with blender (both 2.7 and 2.8) and I have no idea what's wrong. I've tried disabling all addons and resetting all settings to default, but neither of those worked. The only way I've been able to fix the problem is to reinstall blender in a different directory and then export.

This is the error I've message I've been getting

I've been pulling my hair out trying to find a fix for this, so any help would be really appreciated!

It turns out I had somehow enabled controlled folder access in windows defender and it was blocking keeping blender from modifying folders.


How do I scale in, and then extrude a smaller square column up I am 3 weeks in to Blender and completely stuck.  Watched all the videos that show a face selected.  Then the face is scaled in or out then extruded and repeat.  My problem is that I have been unable to find the answer to online or in the manual deals with the scaling part.  The object edges follow my face when I select the face and scale in or out.  I can not just get the face plane to move independently.  Please help.

Have you tried using (g) on your keyboard to grab the face and move it?

you can also extrude in any direction by pressing (e) to extrude, and then the direction you wish to extrude in.

e, x - this will extrude in the direction of X. You can also use (g) after you extrude to fine tune your extrusion

g, x

If this is not what you want, please be a little more descriptive with your question.


Trouble Viewing Whole HDR Image as cycles world When I load an HDR image into an environment texture using Cycles Render, only a small fraction of the image appears. I have a feeling it's an easy fix, but I can not find what needs to be changed.

When HDRs are used as Environment texture they they completely surround the scene, using an equirectangular projection. Think of it like big sphere around the scene.

It is natural then you would only see a portion of the image, which corresponds with the angle of view of the camera.

The main use for this kind setup is to use the HDRi image to light the scene in a very realistic way. In a way every pixel of the image becomes an emitter that contributes to the overall illumination.

If that is not what you are after, but want to use the whole HDR image as background image that fills only the frame, then set the image as Image Texture instead of Environment. Note that this will prevent the HDR image from effectively lighting the scene, and the perspective of the camera might not align correctly with that of the background image.


Aligning object to the X Axis I have a spaceship I have designed and want to import this in to Unreal Engine.   Unreal engine requires the ship to be pointing down the X Axis at the moment, mine is pointing down the Y axis.
How can I change the Axis so that the ship is pointing down the X Axis?

Press R to rotate it and then type in the number of degrees want to rotate it (in this case either: 90, or -90). I would also press Shift+C to center your 3D Cursor and then press Shift+S and select: offset to 3D cursor, to center your object.


Can't select vertices + Loop cut doesn't work Yesterday I installed Blender 2.75 on my Lenovo X230 with Intel graphics HD 4000.

Since the beginning I have been unable to select vertices in edit mode by clicking. Also the loop cut doesn't work at all (Ctrl+R, there is no purple outline and nothing happens after clicking).

I've got a friend who has some tens of hours spent in blender and he is also unable to do that on my pc. On his, however, it works like charm...

I also had some trouble with glitches in the gui, but it got solved by setting window draw method to triple buffering - indicating that intel HD drivers might be an issue.

I read about updating my drivers and that's what I did but was only able to update Intel hd graphics to version 9.18.10.3359 from 15.11.2013. Then, even if trying to update manually, my Windows 7 professional says it's up to date.

Any idea how to solve this?

Lazy_traveller, you omitted a crucial bit of information when you asked your question. That crucial bit is the word, "notebook", which you didn't mention until your reply to Hexbob6. There are settings in the user preferences to make use of a laptop possible, but personally, I don't find them very satisfactory. Based upon my own experience, I would most emphatically suggest getting an external full sized keyboard—the kind with a separate numeric keypad—and a 3 button mouse. You should be able to get both for about USD 25.00 (or up, if you're so inclined) in the US. I have both a USB keyboard, and a USB mouse, but I don't know of any reason, if you wanted, that you could not use a bluetooth keyboard or mouse. It works like a charm. If your keyboard and mouse come with separate drivers, I would be sure to make sure they are the latest versons.

As to CTRL-R on your computer not activating loop-cut in Blender, I suspect (don't know for certain, as I don't have a Lenovo Laptop) that the culprit here is that on your laptop, the key combination CTRL-R is being used to control some aspect of the hardware, so the keystroke is being filtered out, and never sent on to Blender.

If you really want to (or must, for whatever reasons) use your notebook with Blender, do a Google search for "using Blender on a laptop", find the most recent tutorial, and adjust the user preferences as indicated in the tutorial. It is even possible to bind loop-cuts to a different key combination than CTRL-R, if necessary.


Issue with oddly shaded faces in Blender 2.82 Hi everyone and happy new year.
Recently I have encountered a problem with some models in Blender (I use 2.82). When importing a model I have made in Sketchup, Blender "creates" these weird dark grey shapes on the model itself. I have gone back and forth between Blender and Sketchup to fix this - but nothing solves this. Please see the attached screenshots - I have circled the issues in red. There are no vertices or edges close to the problem areas.
What I have tried thus far:

Checked normals and ensured they are facing the right way.
Tried to add edges to the problem area.
Subdivided the model (makes it worse).
Tried various shading settings.
Tried exporting from Sketchup in various formats.
Tried importing the various formats of the model with various import settings.
Removing materials and reassigning them.
Cleaning up the mesh.

The problem persists even when I load it into Substance Painter to texture it...the rest of the model is fine, except for those annoying dark areas. Can anyone advise on what this is and how to fix it? Thanks in advance.

After going crazy with button-pressing, I finally solved it. Under the Object Data Properties tab, I selected "clear custom split normals data" and voila! No idea why the model imported with that...but at least this was one issue that was solved by pressing random buttons! Thanks to everyone that viewed/was willing to help.


Changing camera location for one frame changes it for everything I want to create a short 'scene-inspection' video, where the camera should move in a pre-determined trajectory around a scene (x,y,z, and Euler angles).  To test on a couple of frames initially, for frame 1 I set y- value to -10ft, and for frame 2 to -10.5ft ( ie I am only changing the y direction values).
But I observe that as soon as I set camera location for frame 2, it also changes the value for frame 1 (to -10.5 ft).
The location values arent locked and the camera is always selected as the active object for that frame.
Why is that happening? Pls suggest a workaround.

You need to add keyframes to set the location at different points in the animation - otherwise Blender is not aware of how you want the object to move and assumes you are just moving it to its new 'static' location.
You should set a keyframe at the start of the motion - this can be achieved by simply hitting I and selecting 'Location' (or whatever property you are keyframing) while in the 3D Viewport. Then move to the end frame and move the camera and, again, add a keyframe using the same process. Your camera should now move between those keyframes when you play the animation or move through the timeline.


Mix shader is not working I am new to Blender. Now I am trying to create an animation where the color of the body will disappear after sometime. For that, I am using node editor and in it I am adding a mix shader and transparent shader. Now in the material preview in the properties editor the body is disappearing as I change the value of the mix shader. However, in the scene it is not disappearing. Also, in the animation, the body is not disappearing. I am using the Cycles render engine. Kindly help me with this.

Well, someone should write an answer, because long ago, I got stuck on such things. (Of course I never get stuck now :P)

If the red disk is supposed start off solid red and fade into invisibility at 50 frames in, then it works fine.  It may not look so in the 3D view, unless you have VIewport Shading set to  Rendered mode (the small button just right of the Object Mode / Edit Mode button.)  Textured, Material and Solid view shading modes won't show animation of textures.


I'm having an issue merging after I joined the objects I'm a novice user of 3d art and new to Blender. I was working on my Hatsune Miku model and then this happened after I got done with her feet after joining the objects (body and feet).

I can't merge at all. It only does this for the feet for some reason.

I do not have the blend-file so i can only tell you what could be done based on the uploaded image.
A vertex was probably too close to the mirror-axis. Press Ctrl + Z until they are not merged anymore.

First you should disable the mesh view for the subdivision surface modifier (the last option on the right in the modifier's header bar) so you can see where the vertices actually are. You also might want to turn off clipping and merging from the mirror modifier before you join one object to another. This will keep Blemder from joining vertices.

Then you should select two adjacent vertices from the leg and two from the foot. Then you press "F" to fill them. You might will have to change the flow of the edges or add loop cuts if the loop of the foot does not have the same amount of vertices than the leg.

If both loops have the same amount of vertices you can simply select both loops and hit space and type in "bridge edge loops". This function does connect them automatically so you dont have to connect them by pressing "F" for each face that you want.


How to apply armature/rig transformation to the mesh/shape key? So I added a jaw bone thinking it would help me to model/give some consistency to Key 3 Visemes/shape keys but now I don't know how to proceed from here:

Never mind...

Just after applying it, it will disappear, but no worries, All vertex groups are still there, just Add_Modifier.Deform.Armature And set Armature as the "Object"


The Add Menu or the Shift-a Menu Is Stuck at Meshes I'm new to blender so this question may have an easy answer but, when I press Shift+A on my keyboard, instead of showing all the menus, it only shows the mesh menu
or the add menu where all of the primitive objects are stored.
I use the latest version of blender and I am hoping to get help from you guys.

You are in Edit Mode. In this mode you are modifying the underlying geometry of your object. You can only add or remove geometry, other object types are unsupported. Change to Object Mode with TAB  or in the drop down menu there :


Is it possible to rotate hair (object) in timeline? I'm trying to animate bugs over my character and can't seem to move them in the timeline using hair particle settings. Could anyone give me advice?

I'm not sure how well this technique can be adapted to your situation--it looks like your bugs are largish objects, and I think getting the rotation correct (so the bugs are correctly oriented to the surface) might be hard with any particle system solution.

But if it's useful to you, I can explain how to get an effect like this one:

The bugs are small symmetrical objects (icospheres) that move using brownian motion and are confined to essentially the surface of the sphere by invisible collision objects (also spheres) just below and above the desired "shell" of motion.


Bone Heat Weighting: failed to find a solution for one or more bones I'm having a problem automatically assigning weight to my mesh. I have been following this tutorial http://blog.digitaltutors.com/rigging-minutes-blenders-rigify-addon/ to teach myself how to create an armature and when I get to the section for assigning automatic weights I get the error "failed to find a solution for one or more bones." I do everything it suggests in the order it suggests it and everything up until that point works, as such when I continue with the tutorial the bones are not associated with the rig and I cannot move the mesh around.

I have been looking at other similar posts about the issue and have tried removing doubles, joining the meshes eyes to the rest of the body, turning Axis mirror on and having Bone Envelopes turned on. However none of the ideas solved the problem.

Any ideas as to why this is happening would be greatly appreciated.

It is also a MakeHuman model but I removed the rigging provided by the MakeHuman software manually.

To clarify that this is not a duplicate as it has been suggested. I followed what the solution provided by Shady Puck suggested and removed the armature modifier and instead applied a Decimate modifier. I selected Planar and set the angle limit to 6.4 degreees. I then proceeded to select the mesh then holding shift selected the armature and pressed Ctrl + P and selected "With automatic weights" but the same error message "Bone Heat Weighting: failed to find a solution for one or more bones" still appeared. I then followed the advice of the next answer given in the same link (to set the origin) and still the same error message was displayed.

This is the almost working rig however the left leg (when facing the front) does not operate correctly. https://www.dropbox.com/s/joy7zbcu0zui0hh/Original_V3_With_Armature.zip?dl=0 when using the controls to move the rig.

Use the decimate modifier, as Shady Puck mentioned.  But instead of Planar, select Un-Subdivide, and use 2 iterations. It looked pretty good to me (~29,000 -> ~14,000 polys).  But make your own judgement after trying that out.

If someone else could tell my why this works, I would be happy.  Even better, please edit this answer, so it actually sounds like a good answer.

After applying that Decimate modifier, I went into your 'rig' (did you mean to use 'metarig' to learn?) and selected the bottom-right four layers.  I had to clear the Pose constraints on the bones because they were all wacky, but once I did that, I selected those bones DEF bones and automatically assigned weights to the VGs, no envelopes required.


Creating a spherical array Keep in mind that I am almost completely new to blender.

I was wondering how to create a spherical array. I have Googled and Googled, but I can only find ways to make circular arrays (two dimensional arrays).
Basically I want a way to make an array that simulates the proton and neutron structure of an atom. Atoms have both protons and neutrons in the nucleus, and I want a way to reproduce this using blender.

As you can see in this picture, the Uranium-235 atom has a heck-of-a-lot of protons and neutrons (ignore the one neutron shooting off due to nuclear fission). I do not need the disorganization of the actual protons and neutrons, I just want an array to simulate the structural look.

Thanks.

(Note: I am using the latest version of blender (2.74)

Add a sphere, copy it, scale it down in edit mode

Select the big sphere, go to the Object panel, under Duplication select Verts

Select the small sphere, hold shift, then select the big sphere. Hit CTRL+P and set the paren to Vertex

Result should look like that

You can now go select the big sphere again and go to edit mode, select all vertices. Use the "Randomize" option, I used a setting of 0.06.

You can use the Object info -> Random input together with a Math node to give them different colors.

This isn't an accurate representation of an atom I guess, but you said it's about simplicity and the visualisation aspect.

P.S.: If you are worried about the top / bottom of the result, as there are more spheres, you can try another type of sphere for the big sphere, e.g. the icosphere, that has an even distribution of vertices.


2.9x - How to import multiple obj files? I just want to import multiple obj files into blender:

The addon by poor from Import multiple OBJ files for Blender 2.8x on blenderartists does not seem to work for 2.9 anymore. Any help?

You actually don't need to use an add-on to import multiple .obj files. You can manually continuosly keep on importing them. If you have saved it in a folder and there are too many of them, you can press shift and select the last file you want to import. If there are any files in the middle you don't need, go to the file explorer and drag the all the unnecessary files to the bottom. Then press shift to the last file you want to import and press import. The files might be imported might be in the wrong order and you have to arrange them. Or, you could import them one-by-one. I know it is difficult if there are too many files, but is less CPU intensive while loading all the meshes. This should work without any problems.


Grid Alignment system problem in BGE I'm currently designing a modular road system for use in a game. That, of course, means a lot of by-the-grid design and so on. I've encountered a couple of problems, however and I would love it if anyone can offer any insights.

Problem number one: Grid align is absolutely broken, for instance,
 Both vertices are 'snapped to grid', and it looks okay when you're in the 'meters' zoomed out position if you get what I mean. But as soon as you zoom in to 'milimeters' you start seeing that stuff is not aligned properly!

Part two: What happens to the grid when you start zooming in? I mean you'll see the screenshot(the one below) but the grid lines just go nuts and start multiplying. Any idea why?

Part three: Let me explain my confusion and frustration:

1- If you think something is aligned, zoom to the micrometer level and you'll find out that you never belonged on da grid.

2-You can't really fix it, as you can't move anything by 1 micrometer unit and 'snap to grid' (as stated in 1) doesn't align anything on the micrometer level.

Screenshot:

EDIT

Here's an example scene:

Anyway I guess it may not be an issue, but I was just trying to future-proof myself before I bring everything in Unreal and realize things don't align etc- etc. :)

Edit 2:

Holy moly, that was helpful!
@3fingeredfrog -First of all thank you so much and absolutely, a mm is plenty enough!
@Duarte Farrajota Ramos -Oh, I usually just apply rotation/scale/position when I'm finished editing, totally forgot this time. Is there a big difference, between carefully rotating everything in object mode versus applying the rot when I'm finished?

At the moment you have the scale set at 0.01. From the testing I have just done this means you can zoom in so that each grid square that you are trying to snap to is a single micro meter. Do you really need to build roads to that level of accuracy?

Wouldn’t it be easier to leave the scale at 1.0, then the smallest grid square that can be snapped to is a millimeter?

Which perhaps would mean that you wouldn’t be hitting the rounding / precision issue that Duarte mention ?

Posted this in the Answers section because I can’t add images in Comments


propagate a predefined python surface over time I created in Python a script that models a circular wave on a plane

cf blend file with script python at the link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CaVfRsN_fSqrb2ogYf-WeEMR1hy9S2EQ

What I have to do is to propagate this wave as a function of time (with the frame scrolling in the timeline) what I can not do in python although having introduced a variable frame
because after:

added at the beginning of the script the frame variable

and

seeing modified the line 29 in writing:

29>  return u,v,2*math.sin(math.pow(uu+vv,0.5)+function_affine(frame))

this script doesn't work !

So,my question:

What additional lines do I have to introduce in the script to play the animation or the propagation of the circular wave on this plane according to the frame of the timeline?

thanks

Here is the blend file with the modified script. Basically, you have to:

create a few shape keys, with incremented angle given to sin function
uncheck the Relative box for basis shapekey
make the interpolation type linear
set the value of evaluation time for the end frame one less than the maximum evaluation time


Blender Bevel Object scale issues corners This is bothering me for some time in Blender. It would be excellent if this could work, especially for archviz. Anyone knows is there some workaround to fix this issue, when using bevel object on curve there are scaling issues on corners or ends (not sure where issue is)? Handle types are Vectors.

Attached image.

You can control the radius of each segment of the curve separately:


How to copy rotation from Active to Selected in Python? I'm new in Python and would like to know how to copy Rotation values from an Active to a Selected object.
I already have stored the active and selected object ids in vars and am able to select them both and set an active one. But I don't know how to "transfer" the rotation values from the active object to the selected object.
I'm using Blender 2.91.2.
Thank you

Copy Global Rotation
This example I am copying the global rotation of the active to all other selected objects.
Get the rotation matrix of the active object from its 3x3 rotation matrix, and convert to 4x4
Then for each selected object, decompose, keep the scale and location and recompose with the new rotation.  A 4x4 transform matrix is composed of translation, rotation and scale.  M = T @ R @ S. Decomposing is separating the parts into a vector, quaternion, and vector for each respectively.
import bpy
from mathutils import Matrix
context = bpy.context

ob = context.object

R = ob.matrix_world.to_3x3().to_4x4() # rot matrix

for o in context.selected_objects:
    if o is ob:
        continue
    # decompose
    loc, _, scale = o.matrix_world.decompose()
    # recompose
    o.matrix_world = (
            Matrix.Translation(loc) @
            R @
            Matrix.Diagonal(scale.to_4d())
            )

for local use the local matrix. For basis (ie what you see in UI rotation field) use basis matrix. Does a child object inherit the matrix from the parent?
Another method would be to add a copy rotation constraint to each, and apply. Apply a Transform


Making objects from instances I'm trying to create a random array from a group of objects and have used animation nodes as show in the screenshot.  It works perfectly well and allows adjustment of the 'assortment' using the random seed.

My problem is that i would like now to act on the array items to make individuals rotate at random - in all likelihood, the final objects will all be spheres with a variety of images textured onto them - but i can't separate the array from the original group, they remain resolutely as instances.  I've tried 'separating loose parts', Ctrl+Alt+A and other techniques gleaned from then net but none of them work.

Am i missing a point - can they not be separated into individual objects?

Thoughts and advice much appreciated.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i44t757z4rlui4i/AN%20array%20-%20v1.blend?dl=0

When you get the array you want with AN, delete the AN nodetree and the objects will remain (you may have to be in +1 frame).

This will give control of the objects back to you. However each object copied from the group instance will share the Vertex information. Go to the Object Data view and create Single user for each object.

You can now bring in these objects into AN to manipulate again as you wish.


Where are the brush settings in the Image Editor in Blender 2.80? Where are the brush settings in the Image Editor? I can't find them anymore:

First you will have to exit the fullscreen area overlay. Now look over in the Properties window. There is a new tab called "Active Tool and Workspace settings." This tab will look familiar, and you can find all the same settings you are use to seeing in the tool shelf from pre 2.8.


I have an issue on selections (outlines do not appear anymore) It has been a while I have been using Blender with little knowledge of it. I often use key shortcuts to get quicker in modeling, but it happens sometimes that I miss a letter or press a wrong letter instead, that creates some issues. Long time ago I had the problem by clicking "h", which was hiding the model and I couldn't figure out what I was doing.
This time I cannot see my selections anymore, whether in object/edit mode. Neither the full orange model outlines appear, nor the vertices.. So it is very uncomfortable to use. I may have triggered/toggled something relating to the view. I tried to restart Blender, but nothing changed.
If somebody knows what is it about, I'd be happy to get this problem solved! :)
Thank you

click on this button "show overlays" - then it works like before.

Tip: never "try out" shortcuts if you don't know them. This prevents lot's of trouble :)


How to make clothing and body move as one? I'm still new to Blender and am playing around with models that I've gotten from models-resource. This is what I have now: The cat body and the clothing are 2 separate armatures. I'm trying to adjust the pose of the model but I'm not able to move the clothing and body as one. Joining the armatures doesn't work.

This is what I get after joining the armatures, the body and clothing still acts as 2 different objects! After joining, the clothing's mesh and armature became separated too!

In my opinion you should :

Apply the rotation of the armature (CtrlA > Apply Rotation)
Get rid of the part of the mesh you don’t need, for example the arms, as you have sleeves, but keep everything if needed (but you’ll have to do more corrections after parenting), and anyway keep a unchanged version somewhere.
Join all the objects together with CtrlJ
Unparent the object with AltP > Clear and Keep Transformation
Parent With Automatic Weight, make the needed corrections in Weight Paint mode or in the Properties panel > Object Data > Vertex Groups list and with the Assign button


Cycles mapping node - rotation pivot I'm currently creating a dial where the needle is a separate texture. I would like to be able to turn the needle around the dial via the mapping node, as this will allow me to randomize the needle's position for multiple instances.

However, when using the mapping node and adjusting the "rotate" value, the needle does not spin around the center of the UV map (0-1 UV space). It instead rotates around...somewhere else.

How can I get it to properly rotate around the center of the dial?

Blend file:

The pivot of an image will always be at the origin, which Blender defines as the bottom left.

The trick to moving the pivot is to actually move the image first, so that the point in the image that you want to be the pivot is over the bottom left (the actual pivot), then do your rotations, and then move it back where you want it.

The lighter orange area is the actual UV space (0-1), the darkened part is outside the UV space but still useful to visualize what's going on.

Notice how the first mapping node's location is negative, and the second mapping node's location is the same but positive.

0.5 is used here to place the pivot in the middle of the image, though you can use whatever values you like as long as they're the same for each mapping node, but inverse.


How can I distribute various objects based on their size? Are there any techniques or tools in Blender to help make an image like this?

There are a few things in this image that I'm specifically interested in:

size: big objects at the top, small objects at the bottom
density: distribution is less dense near the middle-bottom
packing: there are small stones packed amongst the big stones at the top
collision: there doesn't appear to be any stone/stone overlaps

Disclaimer: This is not a true way of sorting by size, just a way of faking it by scaling objects.

This works by using a vertex group to affect the particle size and density, simply create a gradient to affect particle size as desired

Start by creating a circular mesh, a cobweb like topology will likely help.

Add a new vertex group and use Weight Paint mode to paint in in a gradient shape to your liking.

Create new particle system set to Hair type, and use the previously created Vertex Group to drive both its Density and Length parameters.


How to batch export shapekeys as OBJ from the active object? I am not a programmer and I don't know what I am doing.

I want to export many shapekeys as OBJ files from an active object. Doing this manually would take an insane amount of time. Unfortunately, I haven't found an existing script that is doing this.

What I want to do: (Blender button: I dont know how to do that)

for each 'shapekey' in the 'acive object':
    if shapekey is 'hidden'
        1. unhide shapekey
        2. export 'active object' as "shapekey's name".obj
        3. hide shapekey

Updated for Blender 2.8

# Export all 'hidden' shape_keys from all 'hidden' objects in the scene.
# Only ACTIVE 'LAYERS' will export objects.

import os
import bpy

basedir = bpy.path.abspath('//')

for obj in bpy.data.objects:
    if obj.hide_get():
        if obj.data.shape_keys:
            bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = obj
            obj.hide_set(False)
            obj.select_set(True)
            for k in bpy.context.active_object.data.shape_keys.key_blocks:
                if k.mute:
                    k.mute = False
                    print(k.name)
                    bpy.ops.export_scene.obj(
                        filepath=os.path.join(basedir, k.name + '.obj'),
                        use_selection=True,
                        global_scale=1,
                        axis_forward='-Z',
                        axis_up='Y',
                        use_normals=False,
                        use_materials=False,
                        keep_vertex_order=True)
                    k.mute = True
            obj.select_set(False)
            obj.hide_set(True)

This script will iterate over the active object's shape keys, set each in turn to 1.0 (while the others are set to 0.0) and save this as an OBJ file.

import bpy
from os.path import join

o = bpy.context.object # Reference the active object

# Change this to the actual folder you want to save your OBJ files in
exportPath = "C:/tmp/obj"

# Reset all shape keys to 0 (skipping the Basis shape on index 0
for skblock in o.data.shape_keys.key_blocks[1:]:
    skblock.value = 0

# Iterate over shape key blocks and save each as an OBJ file
for skblock in o.data.shape_keys.key_blocks[1:]:
    skblock.value = 1.0  # Set shape key value to max

    # Set OBJ file path and Export OBJ
    objFileName = skblock.name + ".obj" # File name = shapekey name
    objPath = join( exportPath, objFileName )
    bpy.ops.export_scene.obj( filepath = objPath, use_selection = True )

    skblock.value = 0 # Reset shape key value to 0


How to use subdivide on this shape that i cant name I'm kinda new to blender and i'm trying to model ww2 gun m1928 thompson.
Ive modeled a handguard at front of the gun:

When i try to apply subdivide modifier, it makes this weird shape:

Here is also edit mode of the object:

Ive used boolean value to create this shape.

Choose edges you want to keep sharp then go Edge>mark crease (Shift+E) and drag up for maximum value


How do I merge triangle faces How do I merge these three triangle faces, which are all on the same plane, into a single pentagonal face?
Thanks!

Select the edges and dissolve them:

(Menu) Mesh -> Delete (X) -> Dissolve Edges


Is there a shortcut to keyframe an entire skeleton? I'm new to animation in blender and I'm trying to make some character animations for UE4. I was wondering if it were possible to keyframe every bone at once instead of having to hit 'I' over rotation for every bone in a new pose? It sure would save a lot of time.

In the timeline, activate the red record button to automatically insert a new keyframe every time you move a bone, and the "two keys icon" aside to use the selected option for keyframing; then select from the menu the "whole character" option to  keyframe all the bones of the character everytime you hit the "I" key.


Origin not updating with transforms I moved the object below with the grab tool and the origin did not update.

This occurs whenever the object is moved (with any transform tool, in any manner).  Nothing in this scene has parenting.

I believe that this issue may have been aggravated by repeated use of setting the 3D cursor position, then setting object origins to it.  As a matter of fact, they move together!

Here are some things that I tried to remedy the situation, none of which worked:

  Setting the object's origin to its geometry
  Clearing object origin
  Applying transforms
  All items under the "snap" and "set origin" menus.
  Selecting different objects (the origin never moves... it might still be the origin of the object in the picture)
  Selecting/deselecting all objects
  Saving to a different file and opening.

As, err, intriguing as it is that the origin is permanently locked into the 3D cursor's place, I want to know if anybody can find a solution to this.

This is because your pivot point is set to 3D Cursor.

To have the 3D manipulator widget move with the model and not stick to where the 3d cursor is, you can use the default Bounding Box Center or just press , (comma). If you work with both, you can also use its shortcut . (period) to quickly switch between them.


Sheep It not launching I have downloaded the newest version of Sheep It from the website, but when I launch the exe file (Im on Windows) it says "Extracting __%", and when it finishes extracting it closes and does not do anything. If I go into Task Manager, I see "SheepIt Renderfarm client wrapper" as a background process.
How do I fix this? I have a 64-bit OS.

I had the same issue on all 3 of my machines.
This is the solution I found; all you have to do is delete the config file located at C:\Users should be called (.sheepit.config). Then it should launch normally.


Round edge where multiple faces exists I've created a sample with a basic cube so I can explain it better, I'd like to smooth/bevel/round an edge  but in one side I've more than one face.
On the left you can see my basic cube, on the right side this is what I got when I bevel it

As you can see when you have multiple faces bevel is applied accordingly, what I really want is something like what you can see in the picture below:

When you have just one face the bevel is applied to the edge (because you just have one edge...)
Is there a way to "round" the edge (this is what I really want) without worrying to much about "subfaces" in my biggest one ? I have a polygon face with lots of "blender faces" in it.

I come from Lightwave3D and modo, so not that experienced with Blender, but I have tried everything and I just keep getting the same results as you. It looks to me like a limitation of the built-in edge-bevel algorithm, and probably solving with some editing is inevitable.
This is how I would approach this in Blender, given my simple experience so far. I have created a simple demonstration case. Pictures would probably explain the approach better:

I would knife-cut the main face at least, although other connected faces might need the same too (as in my case)

I would then dissolve the faces that are attached to the target edge

and lastly apply the bevel and clean afterwards, if necessary

cheers and good luck,