How can I disperse objects with a particle system? I've been working on a project where I need to render a wheat field. I'm using the new cycles hair rendering feature in 2.67. I can't seem to figure out how to render the hair based on an object (which is a wheat mesh). Whenever I set the dupli object, it doesn't render anything at all. Is this a known issue or am I doing something wrong? I am using Blender 2.67.

It's possible that your particles are simply not big enough to see. If you can see them in the viewport, it should render fine.

Also, you don't need hair to instance object(s) on particles, you can do it with normal Emitted particles (to make them static, set the Normal velocity to 0 and also the Gravity weight to 0.

If you still have no luck, try it in an older version of blender (with Emitted particles, not hair) and see if that works. If it does, it's likely a bug that you should report.


Cell Fracture Issue | Cells appear werid I'm having an issue with cell fracture where no matter how many subdivides I do after clicking cell fracture this happens I can't find any helpful info online I have no modfiers set before cell fracture and my sub divisions are applied. Any help would be appreciated
Images
1 2 3 4

I had this issue too just right now and apparently scaling the object up before the cell fracture to a comically large size worked for me.


Light comes out much brighter when rendering? I want the fire in the upper pillar to look like it does in the unrendered image, but as you can see on the pic it's just super bright. I'm rendering in cycles, and the fire is a material I downloaded. The fire in the lower candlestick is looking like it should, anyone have an idea of what I might do?
thanks!
(I know the whole thing is super dark right now, that's about to change)

I had a hidden light source where the fire is, that was the problem.


Limited Dissolve and face loop selection I'm trying to use Limited Dissolve on a larger model, which brings the model down from 600k vertices to 100k vertices (no this is not hand generated :)). Below, you can see a much more simplified model just for this problem.

I created a plane that was sub-divided into several faces. I then extruded the edge faces to create a wall as seen here:

I selected the edge faces by going into Edit mode, then alt + RMB and clicked two of the faces around the border to give me the selection seen above.

In this model (same problem I have in my bigger, more complex model), I have several extra vertices and subsequently faces, that aren't needed. For example: Since the exterior wall is a straight line, that could just be a single quad.

Alas, I came across Limited Dissolve, which I think is exactly what I need to be using. So, in Edit mode I pressed A twice to select everything, pressed X and clicked Limited Dissolve. That produced this:

I unfortunately now can't seem to use the ALT + RMB to select that same outer loop as seen in the first image. I need to be able to select the edge faces as seen above to apply texturing across large segments with lots of faces, but the Limit Dissolve seems to break that ability.

Furthermore, why do the face centers (the dots) seem to no longer be centered in the quads?

I found some similar posts regarding edges but not with regards to the face loop selection:

Loop cut entirely after dissolving an edge
Why isn't 'Loop selection' working if object only has edges?

Thanks!

Okay, so @Denis definitely put me down the correct path. So, when using Limited Dissolve, it does create N-Polygons.

So, eventually I managed to stumble across https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?254109-convert-n-gon-to-quads-tris . I'd highly recommend adding the plugin to blender, which when activated, under the 'Object Data' tab, it will count the number of Ngons, Quads, and Tris for you.

Anyways, so when I clicked 'Select ngons' they popped right up nice and highlighted. I then converted the ngons to triangles, then back to quads, and that seemed to clean things up.

Just wanted to update this post, should anyone come across this.


How do I get a single IK bone to move up when the controller pushes against it? So I have a minecraft rig that uses one IK bone for the arm.

What I want is for the bone to move up when the controller moves up as well, and when it goes down, for the IK bone to not go below its limits.

As you can see, moving the controller up and down doesn't currently affect the IK bone.

What I want is something like this, but when the controller moves. Also, I want the arm to return to position if the controller is moved forwards or sideways and for the IK to continue to be parented to the torso bone.
I hope this is clear enough of what I want. I definitely know in my head how I want the bone to act, and I feel like it is possible inside of Blender, but I've been messing around with the bones for a while now and I still can't figure it out.

The IK goal is to manage a chain of bones and bend them from point A to point B with an orientation towards point C. Here you have just one bone, you should use a damped track constraint instead, which has the simple role of pointing a bone towards another and seem to be what you need.
Then, before the damping track, you can add a Child of with only Z translation enabled. Don't forget to hit the set inverse button.


How to create edges in existing mesh based on a list of vertex indices with Python I parse 2 csvs, one with vertex coordinates

id,x,y,z,r,g,b
0,0.30778491,0.12740749,0.04903458,174.0,84.0,118.0
1,0.3315943,0.0922608,0.08094925,174.0,84.0,118.0

and one listing edges like so

source,target
214,0
214,1

After creating the vertices in a mesh, how do i add the edges between the vertex indices listed in the second csv?

Do I need a nested for loop? itertools? thank you!

import bpy
import csv, os, bmesh, math

#filepaths
filepath = bpy.data.filepath
directory = os.path.dirname(filepath)

verts = []
edges = []
faces = []

csvpoints= directory+"/csv/3d-points.csv"

csvedges = directory+"/csv/3d-edges.csv"

pointsReader = csv.reader(open(csvpoints, newline=''), delimiter=',')

edgesReader = csv.reader(open(csvedges, newline=''), delimiter=',')

with open(csvpoints, 'rt', encoding="utf8") as csvfile:
    pointsReader = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=',', quotechar='|')
    for idx, row in enumerate(pointsReader):
        if (idx > 0):
            vert = (float(row[1]), float(row[2]), float(row[3]))
            verts.append(vert)

obj = bpy.context.object

#create mesh and object
mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new("edgewave")
object = bpy.data.objects.new("edgewave",mesh)

#create mesh from python data
mesh.from_pydata(verts,edges,[])
mesh.update(calc_edges=True)

#set mesh location
object.location = bpy.context.scene.cursor_location
bpy.context.scene.objects.link(object)

with open(csvedges, 'rt', encoding="utf8") as csvfile2:
    edgesReader = csv.reader(csvfile2, delimiter=',', quotechar='|')
    for idy, row in enumerate(pointsReader):
        if (idy > 0):
            edge = mesh.verts.[edgesReader.row[0]], mesh.verts[edgesReader.row[1]])
            edges.append(edge)

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(obj.data)

I simplified it a bit. I later found out I had a syntax error in my loop - I was doing the right thing in principle before.
The object you are adding edges to has to be selected and in edit mode when running the script.

import bpy
import csv, os, bmesh, math

#filepaths
filepath = bpy.data.filepath
directory = os.path.dirname(filepath)

verts = []
edges = []
faces = []

csvedges = directory+"/csv/3d-edges.csv"

edgesReader = csv.reader(open(csvedges, newline=''), delimiter=',')

current_obj = bpy.data.objects["wave"]  # particular object by name

obj = bpy.context.object
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(obj.data)

if hasattr(bm.verts, "ensure_lookup_table"):
    bm.verts.ensure_lookup_table()

with open(csvedges, 'rt', encoding="utf8") as csvfile2:
    edgesReader = csv.reader(csvfile2, delimiter=',', quotechar='|')
    for idy, row in enumerate(edgesReader):
        if (idy > 0) :
            #print(idy)
            bm.edges.new((bm.verts[int(row[0])], bm.verts[int(row[1])]))


Extrude removes material When I try to extrude faces on a pipe it removes material from the base.

Oh I noticed where I failed. I tried to create a pipe by creating cylinder with "nothing" filler and then adding solidify modifier, and I totally forgot to add faces to the inside, and the solidify modifier got confused.


*edited -- How might I create a material like a chunky liquid? Higha blenders! I'd love to hear your ideas on how I would go about modeling and texturing a material that is made of solids and liquids, together. Like liquid with chunks. . I have tried fluids with particles, noise bumps, transparency/translucency and SSS, and can't seem to get the results I'm looking for.

I'd love to hear your approach(s).

Metaballs with displacement for the small details. Try a refractive shader like the glass shader and maybe add some volume scattering.


Model a simple plane into steps I'm trying to make some steps out of a rotated plane with some loop cuts.
A friend of mine did it in 3dsmax but I have no idea what tools I would use to make it in blender.

I'm trying to convert this

to this

Here is a video of the process in 3ds max, the video is about 90 seconds.
Simple Plane to Steps

Ok what he is doing in 3ds max is doubling the edge loops (chamfer tool in max), then scaling the faces to make them flat.
We can do the exact same thing in blender.
Take this mesh. It is just a curved plane with some loop cuts. This will be our starting point to make some stairs/stadium seating.

Select every loop going up the stairs. Easy way to do that is with the Mesh Select Mode set to Edge select the bottom one, and then select edge rings. From the 3D view header Select > Edge Rings.
Bevel the selected edges CtrlB. You want to start the bevel operator then type in a very small number, such as ".0000001" now press Enter. That will have "doubled" all the edges in the middle.
Now switch to face selection, and press CtrlI. That will invert the selection, giving us the selection we want. The bevel operator selects the newly created faces, so in this case the inverse is perfect.
Simply set the Pivot Point to Individual Origins and scale along the Z axis to 0. That will make the rows flat, thus making stairs.


Prevent area light from being reflected on glass? I did setup an easy scene with an area light behind a window. In the glass (simple plane) which is in front the area light is visible - how can I turn this off so that the background is shining throgh?

Thanks to Matt this is now solved. In the Cycles Settings of the Area Light I turned off the setting for 'transmission' and therender shows what I want :)


problems of keeping armature after put dynotopo on in sculpting mode i'm working in Blender 2.81 and making a sculpture where i after been in posemode,go to sculpt mode. When i then activate Dyntopo, then goes my sculpture in rest position,- and all my position is gone, from all my sculpture - se picture 2 . my position is gone from the stack.
Should i aply the armature modifier in object mode.
can i preserve my armature for lather rearangements of position?
If i make copy armature there is coming some problems.

What is the right way to do this ?[!armature in posemode
[]2

Dyntopo messes with vertex groups, and the weights attached to an armature are vertex groups. That means that if you want to sculpt an object that is being posed by an armature, you have two options: either don't use Dyntopo or apply the armature modifier. The latter option is only a good one if you don't plan on changing the pose; if you choose that option, I'd first make a copy of your current object that you can revert to if you change your mind. The other option would be to leave Dyntopo off, and just use subdivisions instead, as long as you're not planning on sculpting small details. In fact, if all you want to do is smooth out the joints, for example, just adding a Subsurf modifier after the armature modifier might do the trick with no sculpting required.


How can i setup lighting in Eevee? Im doing texture painting in Eevee, and I use lookdev mode. But i dont have a world shader and whenever i add any kind of light it doesn't make a change to my scene. What do i need to add / change in my world shader to be able to modify my lighting?

You need to enable your world shader in the Viewport Shading tab.

Check Scene World to use your environment texture.
Check Scene Lights if you want your lights to show in LookDev mode.


How do I delete unused data? I want to quickly minimize the size of a Blender file.

How do I delete any data that is not being used?

If you're talking about materials or textures:

In the Node Editor, all the materials that have a "0 something" name have no user, it means that they are not used by any object and that they will automatically be deleted when you'll close the file.

You can delete them for good immediately if you go to the Outliner panel, select Orphan Data in the dropdown menu, then select all the materials displayed in the materials category and right click > Delete.

If you want to delete materials that have users, select them one by one in the Node editor and click both on shift and on the "X" button on the right of the material name. Now they will have a "0" displayed in front of their name, so again, they will be deleted when you'll close the file, or you can delete them right away in the Outliner.

After deleting materials, if some images (those that have been used by some materials) are also displayed in the Outliner > Orphan Data > image category, again, select them all and right click > Delete.

If you already know by their name the materials and images you want to delete you can directly go to the Outliner then select Blender File in the dropdown menu and Delete all the unwanted materials and images.


Rip but maintain vertices I don't know if I'm explaining exactly right so any reccomendations for title improvements is welcome

Is there any shortcut that I can drag out a new vertice like this, but still maintain the old one?

You're probably looking for a Rip Fill option. Select the vertex, then press Alt+V (or type it via Spacebar menu). Then you can slide the vertex (by taping the G button twice) and delete the unnecessary edges using the Edge Dissolve option (X).


How to use only direct light? I want to create a viewshed analysis with Blender. Something like this:

I tried it using light in Blender Render and Cycles but I can't get it to work due to the light fall off. I have already set the light bounces to 0.

You can do that easier in a compositing step.

Choose whichever renderer.
In the Rendering Tab of the Properties Editor, activate the Shadow Pass.

The shadow pass hold exactly that information: where light hits and where not. The intensity isn't relevant. It is also antialiased.


Image Isn't Rendering Object When Rendered This is my first project, I have a plane that acts as a flag and it blows with the wind fine. I have dragged an image onto the flag, placing an image onto it. The image shows up, as wanted, on the plane and when I play the animation everything works as intended. However, once rendered, the image does not show up and its left the standard silver grey.

Why is my object not rendering correctly?

https://imgur.com/luUmFqL

Image Link
https://imgur.com/XVIpcqk

The above image shows aligning the camera to the view.

Make sure your camera is pointing at your view. The view is convenient for editing.  The camera determines the final render.

Press Control Alt Numpad Zero.

Please rotate the lights so they are pointing directly at the plane.

For the simple scene and sun lamp the light ray passes directly through the plane.  This placement may be good for you today although it is not strictly necessary.  Direction is the most important.

Such as a bright light in your eyes directly.

If the light direction is parallel to the plane no brightness will occur.

If the plane becomes too bright, reduce the energy setting, which is located with the yellow arrow in the image above.

If you cannot get it to work in 8 minutes,  I suggest the following. Save your current file. Either create a new Blender file or a new Blender [scene] .  Then recreate all the objects, materials and textures, and lamps.  Fresh start often helps for a simple scene .


Select all vertices within box boundary when in Front view I have seen other posts relating to this but I am posting now because of a specific situation.
I have a Blend file, created by a designer online, that allows me to create radiators using templates and modifiers.
A video was supplied with this showing how to use the objects.
One of the actions was to increase the height of the radiator by moving the top vertices up, thus ensuring that the scale remains correct. Simply using scaling on the object will change the dimensions of the top part of the radiator. Although this is not by much, given my current requirements, this raises an issue I have come across again and again with selecting vertices. I understand the concept of how box selects the visible vertices in Front view and also that Wiremesh would help. However, in this instance, the vertices combination at the top of the model is very complex and I have been unable to select all the vertices so this Move method cannot work as it reduces the model to a bunch of unselected vertices left behind.
The video, however, worked perfectly (on an earlier version of Blender but, nonetheless, perfect). I could not see any sleight of hand and believe the actions were genuine so this suggests either the object was a damn site simpler in construction in the video or Blender could select all vertices in the box on that plane.
There must have either been a means of selecting all vertices in the current plane view in the previous version or I have completely missed something in latest Blender. I have seen similar in other videos but this is the first time I really want to get this to work in my Blender model.
I am unsure about posting where the video is as I do not want to suggest an issue with the supplier as I am sure everything is genuine.

The question was answered by the following comment:

It's not wireframe mode that lets you select backfacing vertices, it's X-ray mode. They are two separate modes. The one you want is the button with two interesting squares. Turn that on and you can select all vertices inside the rectangle. Also you can constrain your scale to X, Y or Z by typing "SX", "SY" or "SZ" and inputting a number or moving the mouse and clicking. You can also omit axes from scaling: "S+SHIFT+Z+2.5" (no plusses) scales the object along the X and Y axes by a factor of 2.5 but ignores Z. Also note that you can change the orientation of these axes (global local normal, etc) – hatinacat2000 Jul 15 at 23:33


Modifier to remesh objects I remember a modifier which allowed to remesh a object and to choose something like a tree depth. Depth one led to a single cuboid surrounding the whole original mesh. Increasing the depth further the mesh was subdivided in more faces and got closer to the original shape. Can anyone point me to that modifier? I am searching for it now quit a while and just cant find it...

Best regards

You are looking for the "remesh" modifier.


How to add custom property to bone in pose mode with python? I want to create custom property for a bone in "pose mode" and then make it drive a shape key on mesh. As there are lots of shape keys and I need to apply this to every rig I want to script it.

1st Method

Assign a custom property to an existing type

"type" are blender data types please note that "Bone" is different from "PoseBone" type
"custom_float2" is just random name it can be anything you like

bpy.types.PoseBone.custom_float2 = bpy.props.FloatProperty(name="Test Prob", default=0.3, min=0.0, max=1)

For more description on Creation of Custom property
Then Assign it to the bone you wish to use it with

bpy.data.objects["Armature"].pose.bones["Bone"].custom_float2 = 2.0

Select the bone in pose mode and you will see the custom property
Note: bones["Bone"].custom_float2 is unique from bones["Bone 2"].custom_float2 and bones["Bone 3"].custom_float2 just you have to repeat step 2 to assing custom property to other bones

2nd Method

Create the property. Assigning some value is very important.

pbone = bpy.data.objects["Armature"].pose.bones["Bone"]
pbone['myControl'] = 0

Now as Jerryno pointed To change min, max, softmin or softmax you need to adjust the _RNA_UI_ dictionary with those parameters.
There are few things have to be kept in mind.

_RNA_UI is a single dictionary for all ID-Properties for any given object.

we have to check if this _RNA_UI dictionary exists if not create

if "_RNA_UI" not in pbone.keys():
            pbone["_RNA_UI"] = {}

And we have to use update() method to append this dictionary

pbone["_RNA_UI"].update({"myControl": {"min":0.0, "max":1.0, "soft_min":0.0, "soft_max":1.0}})


Creating a smooth surface from huge number of vertices I have a .ply file which contains coordinates of vertices. I've been trying to create a smooth surface which should look something like this.

How can I create such a surface? Is there a efficient way to make it fast and automatized? I have lot of .ply which I need model and I wasn't able to create a single one on my own.

A solution is to use meshlab to generate a surface then import the stl into blender. This is how the image below was generated from the .ply file.

Detailed Steps

Open Meshlab (get from http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/ )
Import the .ply file (File>Import Mesh ...)
Select all points ( Filers>Selection>Select all )
Compute normal ( Filters>Normals, Curvature, and Orientation> Compute normal for point set)
Create a surfaces ( Filters>Remeshing, Simplification, and Reconstruction>Surface Reconstruction: Poisson )
Export Mesh as an .stl file ( File>Export Mesh... )
Import the .stl into Blender.

You should be able to automate the meshlab step using scripts. See http://www.andrewhazelden.com/blog/2012/04/automate-your-meshlab-workflow-with-mlx-filter-scripts/ .
 You can automate the process from within Blender using Python to call the meshlab scripts.

A tutorial on this is at http://fabacademy.org/archives/2014/tutorials/pointcloudToSTL.html


Head cutaway animation - possible? I've got a possible job coming up for our university for the language department where they'd like a cutaway of a head to see how the mouth and tongue work with word sounds. Kind of like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gsgv1m1a0Sc&index=3&list=PL5FCB12D7F83D2133 but in 3d so that the camera can rotate around the head but keep that simple cutaway look (ie solid walls and empty space not like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPEBlP2cbIQ&index=4&list=PL5FCB12D7F83D2133 since it's way too busy in look). I know the camera clipping plane kind of does this but doesn't keep that walled look.

Not sure how to approach this, any tips?

You could set a background image and trace the contours using extrusion modelling (I startet with a plane).

After that you would add a few Shape Keys for all animated parts:

Add key frames of the Shape Key's values RMB with mouse over the value slider.

Quick result:

To finish you would extrude the flat model and perhaps add a bevel modifier.


Cycles is not shown in the render engine list Cycles render engine is not shown in the render engine list with EEVEE and Worckbench  as usual.
Why is not there? How can I get it back?

Perhaps you deleted the cycles render engine add on in preferences. If so I would recommend just redownloading blender from blender.org


Cannot seem to subtract mirrored cylinders from a cube I'm fairly new to blender but have used 3d modelling programs before, and I've become baffled by a fairly simple problem.

I'm trying to model a pool table and I'm building the table bed.

I make a cube the right dimensions, and placed a cylinder at one corner.

I used modifiers to mirror the cylinder to four corners:

As I understand it, I should then be able to add a boolean modifier to the cube to subtract the cylinders, but I just can't seem to make it work.  I can subtract the cube from the cylinders, leaving 4 cylinders with the cube corners chopped out, but nothing seems to work the other way.

What am I doing wrong?

Have you applied scale to both the objects?? If so then Select the cube then apply boolean modifier.Add Cylinder mesh under object and Select Difference operation and then apply the modifier.It should give you the desired result.


Apply image on mesh surface I am trying to add the content of a image to the surface of a mesh on Blender 2.80, but the better I have achieved was to apply the image color to surface. I am using cycles renderer.

I have this function so far, it takes the path to the image and the mesh object as arguments.

def add_texture(texture_path, obj):
    mat = bpy.data.materials.new(name='texture')
    mat.use_nodes = True
    nodes = mat.node_tree.nodes

    texImage = nodes.new('ShaderNodeTexImage')
    texImage.image = bpy.data.images.load(texture_path)

    # What to link here?
    # mat.node_tree.links.new()

    # Assign it to object
    if obj.data.materials:
        obj.data.materials[0] = mat
    else:
        obj.data.materials.append(mat)

I created a material added the image as a texture, It seems that I have to link some attribute of the texture to the material, but I cannot find what I have to do exactly.

Any ideas on how to apply the image content to the mesh surface?

You can complete your code with the following, considering mat.use_nodes = True creates automatically a principled BSDF node.

import bpy

def add_texture(texture_path, obj):
    mat = bpy.data.materials.new(name='texture')
    mat.use_nodes = True
    nodes = mat.node_tree.nodes

    texImage = nodes.new('ShaderNodeTexImage')
    texImage.image = bpy.data.images.load(texture_path)

    principled = nodes['Principled BSDF']

    # What to link here?
    # mat.node_tree.links.new()
    mat.node_tree.links.new( texImage.outputs[0], principled.inputs[0] )

    # Assign it to object
    if obj.data.materials:
        obj.data.materials[0] = mat
    else:
        obj.data.materials.append(mat)

obj = bpy.context.object

add_texture( "your path to texture file", obj )


Chocolate bar making Below you see the chocolate bar I made. The method I used is that, I created a cube, made its size as rectangle and extrude top a little, resize then extrude again. And there was one part of chocolate bar. After that I duplicated it and joined them together to made the final chocolate bar. But is there a way to duplicate the action I do on one face when I work on subdivision? That would make this kind of work so much easier.

I'm not sure I understand your question 100% correctly. So forgive me if I answer not what've asked.

Straight to "is there a way to duplicate the action...?"
⇧ ShiftR is your friend when you've just done something good to a face (edge, vert, multiple selection...) and would like to do the same to others. Just select the next part and hit the shortcut. Big time-saver indeed.

And as the topic suggests let me give you my advice on actual chocolate bar design (who can stand tempted with chocolate :-)).

As suggested by m.ardito you could go with arrays too.
But my favourite for this kind of models is cube-modelling + edge-loops + inset faces. Very quick, in fact.
Don't forget to choose Individual for Inset faces and play with Depth (hold Ctrl). Then adjust by scaling on separate axes with Individual origins as pivots.

With this I really wanted to demonstrate that you don't necessarily need to repeat some action if your model is by-nature very homogenous.


Cannot find spacing button I know there exists a spacing button in Blender (seen it on YouTube) but can't find it. It automatically spaces selected vertices an even distance from each other. Ideal for getting a more regular Grid Fill .

That person probably used the space tool from the LoopTools Addon.

To activate the LoopTools Addon, go to the User Preferences Window and find the Addon in the Addons tab (CtrlAltU > Addons > Mesh > LoopTools), then Check the little checkbox on the right.

After selecting a bunch of verts, use the Space Tool from the Tools Shelf > Tools tab > Looptools, or via the Specials Menu (W) > LoopTools > Space.


Rock PBR Texture Creation within Blender (Procedural) for export in game engines I've seen in Blender Docs that there are some of the procedural textures in Blender like Voroni/Clouds/Noise etc.

I've seen Substance Designer which is a good alternative to create textures for game assets/rendering. I wanted to ask if it's also possible to recreate Materials/Textures in Blender like Substance Designer?

I want to create a rock material like here -

with heavy Bump Detailing like here -

Substance Designer just mixes textures/noises/patterns to generate materials, which I think is also possible in Blender.

There are many tutorials to create a procedural rock over the internet, even one by Andrew Price, but they are of no use here, because I want to create a rock surface (not entire rock using Blender)

From Rock Surface, I mean to create Displacement, Albedo and Normal Map which is fully procedural to create a rock which looks like the 1st image above

The first image of the Rock is what I want to recreate using Displacement, Albedo, and Normal Map

Other tutorials/blogs/ Videos are not helping me because they are not the type of rock which I want to create. Also, they show how to make a rock using Displacement Map. I want the recreation of Displacement/Normal/Albedo map, both three, not only just creation of Rock!

What do I want to create? not a rock, but a rock material, because rock material can be used to create more and more shapes and sizes of rock with different Maps

What type of rock I want to create?
this type -

not this -

Can anyone show me a way to do this and please share the .blend file with the community?

Thanks :)

Ps - if you need any additional info or have any doubts regarding questions, just comment, I'll edit and provide additional info.

There are a lot of time lapse videos by designer which you can also use as reference while answering the question.

I worked ten minute or so and get these. I used two Voronoi for displacement, Clouds and Marble noise for surface diffuse and normal map. I doesn't look really good but you can create these blocky rockey surface like this using Volonoi as displacement map. But I really don't think it worth the effort...maybe you can do "Substance Designer" kind of things in blender, but blender is not specialized for these purpose. Unless you write custom plug-in for those kind of works, It's like digging your grave with a spoon.


Cycles Rendering Issue I have an issue..when I use cycles render and I use color,  normal,occlusion and spec map I see some lines.(I think they are the marked seam lines).It look like the 1st picture here.

But when I take them off and keep just the color map it looks normal.

Any ideas guys how to fix that?Is a common problem to me and I have to find a solution:P Thank you for your time!

I have received your scene and have found the problems. There are some issues with your scene. I will send you the modified files via mail.
Here is a first screenshot for the audience with the solutions for your problem.

You are not using any dilation in your images. (This is not a real problem, but would be better). Dilations can be done with tools like xNormal.
Your normal map is strange and produce extreme curved borders. Together with the dilation problem it produces the main issues to your result. I guess you used a filter to produce your maps like normals, depth etc. This is not really a good way. You should use a better filter for such things or better color templates.
Your mesh need some editing. You are using "custom splits normals data" in your mesh. Remove this data and smooth the mesh. Add an own smoothing value to the mesh then. For example a smoothing of 20 degrees. This makes nice architectual shapes and helps to remove the smooth edges too.


How do I extract 2D pictures from a 360 HDRI? https://hdrihaven.com/hdri/?h=bethnal_green_entrance So basically I am trying to extract 2D pictures from this HDRI (without any warping) so that I can use them as back-plates. Any solution?
i.e is there a way to go from this HDRI
to this single image without warping or loss of quality?

Add this equirectangular texture as world background texture as usual and render it.
By another words - go to Shader editor > World tab, add Environment texture node
(not an Image texture node) and choose directory to HDR image on your drive.

Tips:

since you need only get render of BG, a Camera location doesn't matter
(would be different story if you would like to reconstruct envi)
to easy set view direction (camera rotation) it's handy go to 3D view editor > Properties (N) side panel > View tab > View > View Lock > and enable Camera to View
Wrapping amount (distortion) of rendered image is equal to camera lens value. Range of view you can change in Properties editor > Camera > Lens > Focal Length
use the highest hdri resolution available, since final render use just a portion of the texture, it is possible it would not be enough for backplate in some cases anyway :)
since source texture is high dynamic range (HDR) image it's useful to keep Color Management > Filmic with some Look preset or adjust contrast later


Mesh deforms on one side of model when attaching rig I'm working on a humanoid character with a rig setup like shown here

When I attach the mesh model to the armature rig (I choose the mesh first, then the armature, and choose armature deform with automatic weight), the left side of the mesh by the characters hip gets pushed in towards her center. Like here

I think maybe the problem has something to do with using the X-mirror Mesh Option because it actually worked at one time, it was when I made all the bones symmetrical it seemed to break my model ...

Be sure to apply all scales to your mesh before you add a rig. Make also sure the origins of rig and mesh match.
Out of my head it's ctrl a to apply scales


How to move modifiers of multiple objects up or down? I would like to move a modifier (which I have already identified) to the bottom of the list of existing modifiers. Unfortunately it does not work and I don't get why...? However, if the object is active, it moves perfectly to the bottom:

#ob = my object, not necessarily it must be selected, it is found by a function
#smooth = #my modifier (found through a function)
for m in ob.modifiers:
    bpy.ops.object.modifier_move_down(modifier = smooth.name)

This only works if the active object is ob. Do I have to override the context? There is a similar question to this but I have no idea how to apply this in my case.

It seems that I have solved my problem by overriding the context members:

for m in ob.modifiers:
    c = {}
    c["object"] = c["active_object"] = ob
    bpy.ops.object.modifier_move_down(c ,modifier = smooth.name)

Any thoughts? Is there a better way of doing that?

Override the context by passing the actual object {'object': obj} to bpy.ops.object.modifier_move_up() or  bpy.ops.object.modifier_move_down() operator.

Example on how to move all subdivision modifiers by name (they are usually called 'Subdivision') of multiple objects to the top (position 0) in the modifier stack:

C = bpy.context
mod_name = "Subdivision"

for obj in C.selected_editable_objects:
    # Test whether there is a modifier called "Subdivision" at all
    if any(m for m in obj.modifiers if m.name == mod_name):
        # Iterate through all modifiers in reverse
        for mod in reversed(C.object.modifiers):
            # Move the modifier as long as its position is 0
            while obj.modifiers.find(mod_name) != 0:
                bpy.ops.object.modifier_move_up({'object': obj}, modifier=mod_name)

Related questions:

Move modifier to the top of the stack through python?
How can I put a modifier at the top of the modifier stack?


Can I change the size of the camera view? Please let me know how to change the size of the camera view. The red dotted line of the square is too small for me.

You can always maximize the camera view fit the current window by pressing Home

You don't need to leave the Lock Camera to View mode for this to work.


Have light cast on an object visible, but the the object to be invisible Does anyone know how to achieve the effect of having a light cast upon an object, yet for that object to be invisible when rendered, yet the light that is cast upon the object is still visible?
I've tried experimenting with the Light Path Node, Mix Shader Node, The Object Properties/Visibility Tab, but with no success - it is an obscure thing to ask for I suppose...
If this isn't clear I can rephrase!
I'm working in 2.90.1 and in Cycles
Thanks!

I know you want it in Cycles, though you can do it using Eevee:

The node setting:

The key point is to use "diffuse" and "shader to rgb" (the left part). This is some kind of preshading that allow to test the light intensity. This result is then tuned through a colorramp to mix between the lighted and transparent parts.


Cloth Simulator gives strange shading Whenever I extrude cloth and plays the animation , it mixed up with another side of mesh , How can I overcome from It ?

Cloth simulation works best with a 'flat' mesh - rather than one extruded to give thickness - otherwise both 'sides' of the cloth have to be simulated separately and they can overlap (which is, I believe, what you are seeing). If you want to give your cloth thickness, you can add a Solidify modifier below the Cloth modifier in the modifier stack. In this way the cloth simulation will simulate a 'flat' cloth while the solidifier modifier will give it 'thickness', without the possibility of opposite sides intersecting.


Normal map bake problem with weird artifacts I was following this tutorial on how to bake a normal map https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LuEqvO9QsE
and the result is this

I even tried using the cage method and the result is pretty much the same. What's going on

Your scene is on metric unit and your shirt is very big (15.7 m height), so you'll need a high value of Max Ray Distance, give it for example 2. Also to have a better result I've used a 2048 X 2048 picture and an Extrusion value of 1 (not sure how it works though):


Extremely grainy render I am trying to create an under water scene but it is not turning out like the tutorial I am following. My main issue is when I come to rendering the image it is extremely grainy and I cant get it to look realistic. Would someone be able to help me with this problem and explain in really basic terms as I have no other experience with these kind of projects. Thanks in advance!

Its a viewport render preview at 32 samples.
No wonder its grainy.
Increase the samples.
With glass materials try at least 1000.


How can I cut a circular hole into this curvy shape? I'm trying to recreate the PARTU air purifier below, but I have problems cutting a circula hole into the curvy body.

My approach is to model the curvy body first, then use a boolean circle to cut through it, like this:

But the result is a total mess:

What's the optimal way to make this shape in Blender?

Actually it looks like the "crown" is a distinct part:

So I would create 2 different objects, and for the main part I would do it this way:

Create your basic shape from a subdivided cube:

Use the knife tool to cut (K to activate, Z to cut through)

Press V to separate, delete the useless part.

Mirror the shape, merge some vertices with alt M to keep a clean topology:

Give your object a Subdivision Surface modifier, extrude the hole, add some edge loops to sharp the edges:

Alternative topology (no triangle):

You could also use a Shrinkwrap modifier to get a different topology:


Model a shape with multiple curvatures How would you approach the modeling of a shape like this (circled in red)?

The goal is to have a model for CNC. I am still quite weak with modeling so I am not sure about how to address this. What I did for now has been extruding the shape vertex by vertex, trying to keep only quads, adjust the Z of some of them, adjust the crease and apply a Subsurf modifier.

How would you do this? Please without sculpting.

Alberto, I'm not sure to see exactly the same thing as you, but anyway here is how I would do it. First I show how I would correct your own topology so that you can have a curved face. And also it looks like there's a slot in the middle of a face, so I also tried it.


Texture problem: model only renders in black and white So working with a head model, I have a color image for texturing the face/scalp/neck and have the UV mapped properly to the image but when I render the image is always in black and white only.  I cannot find anyplace in any settings or in materials or texture panes where I can see why this should be so.  If I delete all materials and try to make a new one, I am only allowed to select black and white images of the color texture.  If I reload or replace the texture with the same image again, same thing.  It is in color in the Texture selection in the 3d model window but as soon as I render it, in the 3d window or via actually rendering of the still image, it is black and white.

WTF?

Here's some screen captures:

Found the issue.  In the material pane under preview one of the settings was wrong.  I changed "color" to  image texture and then was allowed to select the texture image.  That corrected the color rendering issue.


How to extrude properly? How do I extrude so that the circle moves inwards like at 13:04 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU_pi1UxISs? When I do it the vertices just move up.

It looks like you forgot to enable your subsurf modifier by clicking the eye icon:

Right before then he enables the subsurf modifier, which causes the smooth subdivided interpolation of the mesh you are seeing.

Note that since the subsurf modifier is a modifier, you can enable it and disable it whenever you want without having to worry about doing it before or after various modeling operations. In other words, you have extruded it correctly, it just won't display the subdivided mesh until you enable the modifier.


Why doesn't the Graph Editor show my keyframes and connecting lines I have a Graph Editor open alongside the dopesheet, as you can see in the screenshot (following). The Graph Editor is not showing my keyframes or the connecting lines. I have checked to make sure the eye icon is turned on. I have also check in the previously asked questions and didn't find an answer. This seems really simple, but I don't know what else to do.

The screen shot is a little low res, so it's hard to see.

Your keyframes in the dope sheet are in the 340 to 410 range but the graph editor is set to show the -200 to 200 frame range.

I think if you press the Home key while the cursor is in the graph editor the view should zoom to your keyframes.

Alternatively your keyframes are simply out of view on the y-axis of the graph editor and the Home will also solve this.


Is it possible to control dynamic bevel segments with a stylus? I am learning to use Blender with a stylus and pen display. There are times when the mouse scroll wheel is used to do things like increasing or decreasing bevel segments dynamically. Is there any way to configure Blender, or some keyboard shortcuts that will do this when using a stylus?

Found it. For Blender 2.79 the Numpad Minus and Numpad Plus also do what the missing scroll wheel does.

For Blender 2.8, When you are in the Bevel tool, press S (for Segments). At the bottom of the screen there is a list of all Bevel Properties that can be triggered with hotkeys. You can switch to different properties at will and the last setting will be set for you.


Lock/Unlock all vertex groups weights I have many Vertex Groups created. I would like to be able to lock/unlock all vertex groups instead of having to click the "lock" icon on all vertex groups individually. Is there anyway of doing this? Or does anyone know of a plugin or add-on which exists to perform this?


How can I create procedural tiles with uniquely seeded textures for each one? [Updated] My goal with this experiment was to create a procedurally tiling floor where each tile is unique.
After messing around for a while, this is what I came up with:

Result:

I was really pleased, until I realized I have no idea how to make this tileable/repeatable. I found this post, but those solutions didn't work (or I failed to properly implement them). I tried to find out how to recreate the Brick Texture node from scratch because I think that would probably answer my questions, but this was really all I could find.
I was even less pleased with my work when I started inserting my marble texture into the material and realized it wasn't going to work. I tweaked some things and this is what I came up with:

My end goal is creating a procedural texture where tile shapes are created by a voronoi texture node and each tile has a different "seed". Is there a way to do this? I imagined using colors values from the voronoi node to provide the value that seeds each marble tile, but I can't figure out how to actually do that.
This is as far as I've been able to get (it doesn't tile and I'm pretty sure each tile's texture is static). Any help and/or feedback would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Updated node tree. Still doesn't do what I want, but at least it's prettier...

UPDATE: Thanks for the help! I spent a few more hours cleaning up the shader and adding a bunch of input sliders. These are the "final" results. The textures, tiles, tile shapes, grout thickness, and seed are fully procedural! The grout is pretty bad, but it's 7AM and I'm going to sleep.

Updated Blender file:

I wonder how much computational difference there actually is,between using the Voronoi node for tiling, and doing the maths yourself, especially after you've introduced a couple of Noise nodes to do your randomness for you.. ?
Anyway, you certainly get lot out for not much in, in the way of nodes, with this kind of tree..

(I've made a group of it, here) .. You get UV-per-Cell, by subtracting the Position output from the texture-space, which lets you tile any texture you like into each cell:

You get 3 random numbers (a color) per cell, which you can use to randomise any of the cell's attributes (here, used to randomly rotate a texture, per cell):

And from the parallel Voronoi in the tree, you can get the distance to the cell's edges, which you can use to make a grouting mask, as here, or you can map ranges of it to other ranges to bevel tile edges:

And you can use the Randomness setting in the Voronoi nodes to take you from square tiles..

.. to Voronoi tiles, without any further adjustment.

(Just the group.. the other trees are a bit of a rushed mess :) )


How to make game, made with the BGE, without having to provide source code of the game? The blender FAQ says that if I combine my blend files with blender's game player, my license becomes GPL automatically?

Combine? can you explain it more, what combine is talked about here?
Is there a way to avoid that without making my own blender player nor using BPPlayer?
I also researched something about making a .bat file to launch my game, is that a way to avoid it? How can I protect my .blend files from being read plainly in notepad like apps?

In simple words, I want to make a commercial game in blender and avoid providing the source code (my .blend files).

Stand Alone:
The Blender Game Engine is GPLed.  There is not a way to release a game made in the Blender Game Engine without including the Blender Game Engine.  Including the Blender Game Engine makes your game GPLed.

Stand Alone, load external .blend:
You can compile the BGE into a standalone player that loads the .blend of your game, and have the .blend be under a different license.  This would make it illegal for someone else to use your work, but it would trivial for people to break the law and poke at the blend file.

Encrypt:
You could obfuscate the blend file using encryption libraries in python.  The executable which is GPLed would contain the key, and a smart enough dedicated enough person could get at your blend file. It would prevent the average Blender user from being able to steal your assets though.  See: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/pycrypto for a crypto library.

Practicality (opinions included, sorry):
There is nothing on your computer that you can't "steal" assets of if you are dedicated enough.  There is no way for someone to both have something and not have it at the same time. Stop worrying so much about "theft", and generate a game good enough that people people are willing to pay. If you get big enough where you see large scale copyright infringement, use the DMCA and other copy right laws if you feel the need; but I think you'll find that over enforcing copyright and preventing modding will hurt you in the market place more than a few free loaders abusing your game assets.


Can faces of one object be selected by the shape of another object? A shape created using the ant-landscape plugin looks like this: (selection is another sphere):

I tried to incorporate the Boolean Modifier but found no solution.
How could the highlighted areas be selected?
I also tried to select the hilly areas with Select/Sharp Edges but this would switch to vertex selection.

1. Using Vertex Groups with Data Transfer modifier

Assign all the vertices of the sphere to Vertex Group with value of 1 and scale the sphere to very small size.

Create a vertex group and add DataTransfer modifier to the landscape object.

Then in the modifier select the sphere as Source Object, enable Vertex Data using Vertex Group(s) and set Vertex Mapping to Projected Face Interpolated.

2. Using Vertex Groups with VertexWeightMix modifier and spherical blend texture.

Create a Vertex Group with a value of 1 on all vertices of the landscape object.

Then add VertexWeightMix modifier, in the modifier select created vertex group in Vertex Groups A and B, set Mix Mode to Difference and create a new Texture Mask with Use Channel set to Value.

Then open texture settings, change Type to Blend, in Colors enable Ramp, set interpolation between color stops to Constant and Blend Progression change to Spherical.

Change to Weight Paint mode and adjust the texture color ramp till you get desired result.

3. Weight Paint mode with Transferring Weights to active object.

May not be as precise as previous methods but quicker to setup.

Assign all the vertices of the sphere to Vertex Group with value of 1.

Then in object mode select the sphere and holding Shift button select landscape object and switch to Weight Paint mode.

While in Weight Paint mode create a Vertex Group and in Tools tab click Transfer Weights button, then in Operator panel change Data Type to Vertex Group(s) and Vertex Mapping to Projected Face Interpolated and adjust Max Distance to get desired result.


Replace Alembic Cache Files from py I need to change the FilePath of an already imported Alembic File Cache.

In the UI it is done from the Datablocks>Cache Files>File Path, but I need do it with PY + File Blend + New Path)

Search all cache files
List
Change filepath
Save

Any idea???

You can find this in the Python tooltip:

In this example I would change bpy.data.cache_files['3DSMAX_character_armature.abc'].filepath to point to the new Alembic file location.

Iterating over all Alembic caches can be done with for cfile in bpy.data.cache_files.values(): …


Make object glossy, but not reflect other object's colors? In Cycles, I would like to make a metal object have a shiny, glossy material. The only thing is, other object's colors reflect off of this metal object.

I would like to make it glossy, but not reflect any other colors.

How do I do this?

One way to do this is by preventing other objects from appearing as a reflection on any glossy material by disabling the Glossy option in :  Properties➩Object➩Ray_Visibility


What is snapping in Blender and how to use it properly? I am reading the Blender manual and I have come in contact with snapping a lot. I don't know what it means and also how to use it properly. I need help.

Snapping is when you use the position or even orientation of something else in some operation to align/snap/move to/scale to/rotate to something that you are editing with that operation.
Blender has loads of various great snapping functionality.
Snap Menu
There is this snap menu that you can call with Shift+S:

Snapping in Transform Operations
And then there is also snapping in transform operations that depends on all these settings of your Transform Orientation and constraining of the transform operations or Axis Locking, Transform Pivot Point and Snapping Settings. These work in so many ways, that it would be hard to describe them all. You can find out more about it in the manual that you are reading and the links to it that I put in this answer, but the basic idea is that you combine all of those settings to make snapping situation that you happen to need. For example if I want to snap the center of Suzane's eye to the vertex of the point of the cone in my scene, one of the many ways to do that could be to set the Transform Pivot to the 3d Cursor, Snapping to Vertices and Snapping target to Center, this way, I could drag the cursor with Shift+ right-click, hold Ctrl down to enable snapping for it and snap it to the vertex on the eye, and then use grab G transform operation to snap the place the cursor was at to the vertex I hover my mouse over:

But you can see that there are many settings there and they will all work differently in combination with each other, you can also use rotation and scale transforms with various ways of snapping, and also you can use a to snap to multiple targets(you need to temporarily release Ctrl to press a if you are using it to only temporarily enable snapping during transform operation)
You will eventually get the feeling of what you need when you get familiar with all the settings, you should just try them out, and of course you will find it very well documented in the manual.


Weak normal map bake? I have baked my high poly to my low poly , But the end result gives a very weak bump
This image is the low poly

this image is high poly
is there anyway to get strong bump maps?

When looking straight at a model, there must be visible curvature on the model for the normal map effect to be visible.

I've illustrated this using several cubes and a 3D Viewport Matcap Normals' surface.  The view is top-down orthographic.

The cube at the top-left is just a default cube with no bevel.  It is invisible to normal mapping.

The top-right cube has only a very small bevel and it is barely visible in contrast to the plane.

The two bottom cubes were beveled enough so that the curvature across the top and side surfaces is clearly visible.


How can I make a view that seems like orthographic, but not exactly? For the start, I thought was orthographic, but when I used the orthographic camera, it didn't match up. Client say they want a so-called "industry schematic", talking about a 135 degree look.

I found a trick to do this, which is using lattice. I align the lattice with the cube, and move the upper four points a little bit along the axis showing on the following image. But I want to achieve this by just using the camera.

With some limitations (or I haven't found the how to, probably), we can tweak the camera matrix when using Gpu module. So that we can have the equivalent of viewport rendering.

The image above is taken with a orthographic camera placed in front of some cubes:

On bottom left the addon (see below) shows a vignette of the tweaked image.
When in camera view you can move the camera or the object and view the corresponding result of the projection:

To take a screenshot, use the D key.
Limitations:

The camera targets along Y and it Y position is fixed to -8 units
The rendering is limited to the 3D view size
Moving objects along Y may push them out of the view
Works in rendered viewport shading but for Eevee or Workbench only (not Cycles)

Principles of the script:

It is based on simple modal operator template
Uses this documentation example to make the rendering

The "key" part of the code: as we can give to the GPU module the matrices we want, have added empirical values to make the projection (offset and tweak below).
camera_matrix = scene.camera.matrix_world.copy()
# Static camera position in Y
camera_matrix[1][3] = -8

view_matrix = camera_matrix.inverted()

projection_matrix = scene.camera.calc_matrix_camera(
    context.evaluated_depsgraph_get(), x=width, y=height)

# Empirical offset and perspective tweaks
projection_matrix[0][3] = OFFSET_X
projection_matrix[1][3] = OFFSET_Y

projection_matrix[0][2] = TWEAK_X
projection_matrix[1][2] = TWEAK_Y

# Draw the 3D view
offscreen.draw_view3d(
    scene,
    context.view_layer,
    context.space_data,
    context.region,
    view_matrix,
    projection_matrix)

Blend file: execute the script then search F3 for "oblique" in the 3D view. Esc to quit. D to take a screenshot. You can zoom in/out by scaling the camera.

The rendering itself is equivalent to "viewport render image" (menu "view"). So you can have the shading you want and disable gizmo and overlays if you want).


Why is my AO a single colour ? ....grey I want to bake Ambient Occlusion Map of my mesh, In Blender Internal, but once it is Baked it is a Single colour. I have no idea why.

I would like to know on what really the Ambient Occlusion Map depend on, should I adjust my lighting?

EDIT: World Settings

SECOND EDIT: My Materials are just default as when you press the New button.

p.s. My first time baking AO

I actualy found out now that the Selection to Active was Checked, when I unckecked it everything worked fine, thanks for help Carlo.

If you are trying to Bake the Selected Object pass to the Active object without selecting at least another object, the operation fails: no information can be baked.

To bake a texure from a single object, you should disable the option by unchecking the box.

It comes out  grey because in BI the ambient occlusion get coloured by the Diffuse color (grey in your case).


Why Alt C before Ctrl J? I am doing this tutorial. After creating this large building (consisting of several meshes) in part 1 CG Geek is now joining all these meshes to one object. This is done in the first five minutes of the tutorial. But before he joines those meshes he does AltC. I don't understand why he first does the AltC and then joines the meshes

I'm not entirely sure, but I can say 2 possibilities from top of my head.

One, there are curves somewhere in this model. They cannot be joined to the mesh as-is. So he converts them.

Another one, which I probably see somewhere around 6:00, is that he wants to apply his array and mirror modifiers, but cannot, because modifiers cannot be applied to multi-user mesh (if you try clicking "Apply" it will give a warning). But the trick with Alt+C -> "to mesh" does it by applying this modifier to mesh data. Note that all the objects having this data will now look different, so pay attention to all of them. I have a feeling that it was made as a safety measure, so you would not accidentally ruin all the objects having the same data by applying a modifier to one of them (because objects may have the same mesh data and different modifiers).

Clarification of multi-user data

I have a cube in the center, called cube_1. I have created the one on the left by duplicating it with alt+D (it's cube_2), and the one on the right with Ctrl+D (cube_3). If you take a look at Object Data tab, you can see that cube_1 and cube_2 have the same mesh data called "Cube", while cube_3 has a different one, called "Cube.001". Also, notice a "2" near "Cube"? That means that this mesh data has two users, which are objects cube_1 and cube_2.

When you try modifying cube_1 or cube_2 in Edit mode, they will both get modified, because you change their shared mesh data. Obviously, cube_3 has a separate mesh data "Cube.001", and modifying it will not affect two other cubes.

Now, let's focus on the first two cubes sharing the mesh data. I'll add array modifier to one of them an bevel modifier to another.

One thing to note is that a modifier, while it stays in the modifier stack, does not change the mesh data. So, even though these objects look different because of modifiers, they still have the same mesh data. If you go to edit mode, you will see the same simple cube as it was.

Now, if you try to apply a modifier by clicking "Apply" button (in Object mode, Blender disallows applying modifiers in Edit mode), it gives a warning that it cannot be applied to multi-user data. When you click the "Apply" button, you basically tell Blender to make what you see as a result of a modifier into an actual mesh data. But this same mesh data is shared by another object, and this would cause it to immediately change its shape too, depending on the modifier you applied. This could be dangerous, because it may change other objects with the same mesh data unexpectedly and ruin your scene. So, Blender avoids doing that to multi-user data.

Alt+C is more like a dirty workaround to me. It forces all the modifiers on the selected object to be applied, regardless of mesh data being shared by others. Here I did it to the left cube.

See that the right one with array modifier changed shape? That is because the mesh data is different now, as shown here:


How to split faces where they intersect I am working in edit mode in Blender 2.8.

There is a volume through which I constructed 2 planes. Now I want to remove the excess parts. To do so, I think I need to split the faces where they intersect.

See the image: I want to remove all parts marked with a red cross.

To do this, I think I just need to figure out how to create the edges with the green dotted lines, but I can't figure out how to do this.

Maybe another way to explain this: if you look at both the horizontal and vertical line in the front, these do not intersect. Although they are in the same plane, there is no vertex where they cross and I can't find any button to perform this action.

Solutions I tried:

Rip apart the faces. In the screenshot I'm trying to adjust one of the faces, but this doesn't really merge the top edge with the horizontal face, which is what I'm looking for. Or maybe I'm not using the tool correctly.

Go into face select mode and select the faces you want to delete then press x so the delete menu will appear then select face to delete the face and to again close the open face go to edge select mode and select the edges you want to close and press f to make the face.


Snapping vertices not working I have a problem with snapping vertices. So I have a character's body and I have a arm unattached to the body. I wanted to use the snapping tool and I had vertex selected and the magnet as well as auto merge. When I press g it doesn't snap to anything. Am I doing something wrong?

In edit mode, Snap onto itself feature disables snapping to other vertices within the same object.
In 2.9, the feature is under the Snap icon dropdown menu:


Blender started lagging when using more (single) bones So, I was working on a project that involved rigging, and everything seemed to go fine when I was working with a single bone (extruding it). But then I wanted to use the same sequence of bones to rig the other 2 legs of the model, so I copy-pasted them and put them into place. Since then, It's been impossible to work in that file. When you try to select something, it takes forever, or when you rotate around in the 3d view, Its super laggy. To solve the view lag, I tweaked some stuff, and it seems to go better. But I still have the selecting problem.

Had a similar problem, but not with rigging. Check the size of your .blend file and see if it seems too large for your average model. I once made a simple hanger for clothes and it's size was over 15mb. I deleted few objects and managed to find out what was causing it.
If your file seems too large, try deleting the object/bone that makes blender lagspike the most when you select it and save the file somewhere to see if that fixed it.

PS: wanted to comment, but you apparently need 50 points to do that...


Is there a way to turn Duplifaces (Instansing in version 2.8) into a mesh? I have a mesh that has duplifaces (https://youtu.be/diI8xJ9oo_8) on it and I want to know if there’s a way to make all the duplifaces one mesh so I can edit each part that’s duplicated individually in Belender 2.8 (in previous version solution was shift ctrl-A on the parent object, but now it doesn't work). Thanks

In object mode select the parent object, press F3 to access the search menu and type "make instances real".
Or in the menu look for Object>apply>make instances real. (or press ⎈ Ctrl+A and select Make Instances Real)

Form the blender 2.8 manual

Make Instances Real creates a new object for each instance generated by the selected ones, and removes any direct instancing from those.
In the end, each instance becomes a real object.


png resolution is wrong when opening file from the UV/Image Editor I was sent an png for a texture by a friend.
The image is 192 x 24 pixels

it's properties are correct in windows explorer when I view the downloaded file, but as soon as I open it in blender...it's y pixels are halved so it's very much blender. but I don't know why.

If I use the blender Image Editor and Alt+S to save the image again, the original is converted to 192 x 12 (Which is half the y)


What does this stone texture node group do? I am following a procedural stone texture tutorial and they showed this node group, this acts as the starting point for pretty much the whole texture, but I have no idea what it does. It basically takes texture coordinate object, separates xyz, and then subtracts data from object info
Wouldn't this do the same thing?

This is likely trying to add some randomness into the texture coordinates so all objects don't have a perfectly matching texture placement introducing some variation between them despite using the same texture.
It takes Object texture coordinates as base then separates each axis into separate components so an arbitrary value can be subtracted to in each direction (Color for X, Object Index for Y and Random for Z) and it doesn't always offset the same amount for each axis.
I do have some doubts about its real effectiveness, since as far as I know both Index and Color aren't really random, but is user adjustable values.
On the other hand it does allow some degree of "manual placement" on per-object level.


Creating a block from two wireframes I'm a very new Blender user (read: no experience).

I would like to create a block between two wireframes without losing the "texture" of the wireframes. A previous attempt using the Loft function was largely successful, but seemed to connect points from the bottom wireframe to points on the top wireframe.

Is there an easy process to create a block between two wireframes without having the wireframe points connect between layers.

Thank you for your help :)

EDIT: Currently I have three wireframes 'layers', I've sketched these out, but simplified them for the purpose of this question.

I would like to connect layer 1 and layer 2 to create one block, and also connect layer 3 and a copy of layer 2 to create a second block.

EDIT 2: Following Rick Riggs' animation, I was able to create this. This looks like what I am trying to do, but the object still has an internal structure. What I am trying to create is an object that has either no internal structure, or is solid, so that I am able to calculate a volume. My apologies for not being clearer, but this is very new territory for me. Thanks again for all your help :)

This may be what you are looking for, if it is then I will circle back around to explain the details.


How to tween the alpha channel (visibility) of an object? Edited 5/16/19. This was a beginner question, and I worded it all wrong because there was so much stuff I didn't understand.

My understanding now is that before creating an animation I need to create all the objects I expect to need in the 3-D View panel. I can't add a new object once there are lots of keyframes and tweening happening, because the existing keyframes may interfere with the new object. There are also mysterious things called "actions" using advanced editors that I know I will never understand.

When I create a Material with .5 alpha, I cannot assign it to the selected object.

I'm looking for a solution that tweens the alpha property of an object, so that an object gains or loses visibility gradually. If this really cannot be done in Blender, please someone post "this cannot be done in Blender". I would be surprised, since Blender can do everything else.

I apologize for being such a beginner. I started learning using cgcookie.com, but after the success of the first course I couldn't keep up with the fast videos and had to quit. I now search the web to learn each new thing I need in Blender, so this question of animating the alpha channel is probably useful for others, too.

The outliner displays ALL object in the scene independent of keyframes. You can add and delete objects from your scene anytime on any keyframe.

However if you want your object to show up at a certain keyframe just animate its visibility by pressing I while hovering over the visibility icon of the object thus adding a keyframe for that property.

You could also do a search for the answers, since you are not the first one to have this kind of problem ;)
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8844389/how-to-make-an-object-invisible-at-a-particular-keyframe-without-moving-it-in-bl


Baking normal maps from compound high-poly models I learned how to bake normal maps and it's working well so far. My model is a simple oven to which I'd like to add some rivets. The model will be used in a game, so the rivets should only exist in the normal map.

I know how to do that by adding geometry to the high poly model, but if I later add some more parts to the low poly model, I think I have to redo the work of adding the rivets, or I have to also add the parts of the low poly model to the high poly one. I'd like to avoid this work and add geometry in a non-destructive way.

My question is: Can I add geometry to the high poly model as objects so I can move them, use the array modifier etc?

I tried to parent the rivets to the high poly model, but they are ignored in the baking process.

You can bake several objects into your lowpoly.

Simply select all of them, then maintain Shift and select your lowpoly. Make sure the lowpoly is outlined in yellow (meaning it is Active) while other objects are outlined in orange (meaning they're Selected).

In the baking options, check "Selected to active", and hit the "Bake" button.

While many objects can be selected at the same time, only one can be active. It's usually the last selected object, and its name appears top left of the viewport.


How do I rotate bones along axis? I am dealing with a certain model.
In DAZ3D, the bone rotation is very convinient and what I would consider "natural".
When I export the model and import it in Blender and try to rotate the finger bones as I do in DAZ3D, it doesn't feel natural. The bones do not rotate along the axis.
Here is a video of what I'm experiencing.
How could I achieve the same bone rotation strategy in Blender?
Thank you!

Here is my blend file:

Edit: I have set the orientation to local as somebody suggested, but it wouldn't help. Here is a video:
Edit 2: Somebody suspected improper import settings. I have tried many ways, but I couldn't get it to behave normally. If anybody would give it a try, here is my model.
Edit 3:
I think it's a bug. If I import the same fbx into DAZ3D again, it works perfectly fine.
I have therefore filed a Blender bug report here.

Do the following in any order, it doesn't matter.
Select Rotate tool from toolbar.

Enter pose mode.

Set your Transformation orientation to local. Set your selection pivots to be individual origins as rotating a group of bones doesn't usually make much sense with bones. Now you can rotate one or more bones and those will each rotate from their own pivot. You can curl fingers for example.

If you don't like gizmos for some reason, you could also select some bones, then press R then X after it, and then move your mouse to rotate your bones along x-axis. This of course works for Y an Z-axis too.


Can you view two Render-Slots at the same time in blender? I know you can save them and use an external viewer; not an eloquent solution however.

When I open up another window, it won't let me view two different
slots.  Each time I change one, the other sync's up.
They appear to be linked somehow.  How do you un-link them?

You cannot view different render slots simultaneously within Blender :-( There are some ways you could "hack" it, like saving it out and loading it into the image editor. But it'd just be a hack.


How to connect vertices in a mesh efficiently? Suppose If I have a concentric rings as in image 1, then how to connect the vertices among the rings efficiently, so that I can achieve what is in image 2

You can create a surface from edge rings using the Looptools Loft tool or use Blender's default operator Bridge Edge Loops.

LoopTools addon

If you don't have the Looptools enabled, enable them through the user preferences:

To use the Loft tool, select your loops in the order you want to connect them (the order is important).

Then either go to the Tools panel on the left --> Looptools --> Loft (as seen in the gif above).

Or: open the specials menu using W --> Looptools --> Loft.

Bridge Edge Loops

Select edge loops, press Ctrl+E > Bridge Edge Loops (or find it in menu of 3D View header: Mesh > Edges > Bridge Edge Loops).


How to disable field overlays of particles in Blender 2.8? It is quite distracting to have the fields of each particle in the view port.

I don't want to disable all the overlays in the viewport, I just want the fields of the particles to be gone.

If you go to the properties bar, under data, there is a display option which gives you the option of changing the size of the field outline.  You can set it down as far as .01, which is almost invisible.  It will at least make it far less annoying.

I found this using version 2.79, but hopefully that option is still available in 2.8


Exporting a Wet map image in Blender 2.8 Yeah I know how to export a wetmap in Blender 2.79 but I do not find the option in 2.8. I'm talking about the physics tab in Dynamic Paint there used to be an option to save your wetmap. In 2.8 that is just a wird symbol where you can write a title.

With my 2.8 blender built Dynamic Paint only works in the viewport wth the render display mode and the surface canvas. Then I can export it as well and use the resultung images in an image node as a sequence to plug into my material's shader node. It does not work in eevee or in workbench or in the Look Dev mode in Cycles. It really only works in Rendered mode in Cycles with a surface Canvas. Wish I would have gotten that memo. I mean it's supposed to be a major release not a beta. Yeah I'm grumpy about this.


white edge around objects with alpha - cycles I had a problem with white edges around my materials, especialy with trees like this. And yes I tried every solution what I found there and on google.(alpha-straight,progressive..etc) The texture is in .tiff with alpha channel.

After a while I found that problem is the .tiff format.
The solution is very simply resave the .tiff to .png with transparency.


Is there a better method to add uniform thickness to a curve pattern that has been converted into a mesh? I have the following mesh with no thickness or faces:

I wish to be able to apply a uniform thickness along with clean geometry without creating too many vertices.

The solidify modifier isn't getting me what I desire:

The skin modifier is getting me closer to what I want, but I am unable to control the thickness of the object, generating extra geometry from what I need and creating undesirable faces and edges.

The process here is after the skin modifier is applied, the geometry is flattened on the Z axis, vertices doubles removed, and then extruded.

There has to be a simpler, less computationally expensive and more flexible solution to this that I am unaware of.

Maybe there's a simpler way but you could try with the Wireframe modifier:

Select your mesh, fill with F.
Give your object a Wireframe modifier. Enable Boundary, choose the Thickness you want.
Apply the modifier.
In Edit mode, select all and flatten with a SZ0.
Remove doubles with a W.
Delete the unwanted faces.
Work the angles.


Generate Rig is not scaled correctly So at first I was having problems generating my metarig so I went into the preferences and turned on the auto run python scripts which fixed the problem, but then I ran into another one my generated rig isn't scaled accurately to fit my character or pre-existing metarig what am I doing wrong? I've tried everything so far and I'm still running into problems.

You can simply scale the rig with mesh using S then apply scaling using Ctrl+A


Error in loading model I get a certain error in loading a model and I would like to understand what it is saying to fix the problem.

I am using Meshio add in to input a pmd/pmx model from the animation program MMD into Blender  and it gives me this. Other models have been successfully imported before and they work like a charm.

Help will be appreciated.

The line p_bone=pose.bones[b.name] is giving the error key "" not found. The two quotes after key indicate that b.name is an empty string which is not a key in the pose.bones dictionary.

That might indicate that one of the bones does not have a name, it could also indicate that a bone has an unusual or non-text character that is causing an error when reading it into a string.

Another possibility is a zero sized bone, blender doesn't retain bones that have zero length, this means as the bone was initially created blender deleted it and then when it was referenced again later you get an error.


Problem with bridge connecting to edges of face instead of round extruded part I'm very new to blender, so sorry if I am asking a dumb question.
I have been following the Donut tutorial from Blender Guru and I'm now creating the Coffee cup.
The handle is done and I'm now trying to merge the last bit of the handle back into the cup. I have deleted the faces of the parts I'm trying to connect. But the problem I have now is that when I try to connect both with a bridge edge loop or pressing "F" with Vertices selected, the bridge doesn't connect properly. On the side of the cup it does so fine but on the side of the handle it tries to connect to the edges of the face instead of the actual part.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong? I know it's probably something dumb but I can't seem to find it. And nobody in the comments seems to have the same problem
Here is a link to the video:https://youtu.be/SBtDix7xGOg?t=365 with a timestamp of how it's supposed to look

You have 3 problems:

Overlapping vertices on the bottom and top of the cup handle, so select all and press AltM to merge:

Inner face on the top of the cup handle, it makes the bridge bad, so first delete this face loop:

Then delete this face:

Now bridge the top and bottom of the handle with the cup, use CtrlE > Bridge Edge Loops instead of LoopTools to have a good result right away.

The result is not good, it's because the normals of the handle are flipped as you see if you enable the Face Orientation option, so select the handle and press AltN to recalculate:


Cycles compositor - apply color balance node only on a part of image In compositor I want to apply color balance node only on a part of image for which I have a mask.
I have issue with combining original image with modified part so that a colors aren't mixed together but they're replaced (in place of the mask)
How can I achieve this effect?

Based on the information in your question I am assuming you already created the mask.

Instead of combing the two results after you have colored corrected the one you could restrict the color correction to a specific region.

To do this feed the mask into the Fac Input of the Color Balance Node.

You can also use an image as a mask. Plug the image into the Fac Input of the Color Balance Node. Note that white means apply, black mean ignore. THis mean that the color balance will only be applied where the image is white. In my case I had to invert the colors to only apply the color balance on the scribble.


How to animate a colour change along a section of a cylinder? I want to animate a section of a cylinder that changes colour and follows the path of the cylinder. Below, I've quickly illustrated what I'd like. I want the green section to move left-to-right and then following the path continuing towards the camera.
How can I achieve this? I note this answer, but it isn't quite what I'm after. It's only along one direction (X, Y or Z). I want the colour change to follow the cylinder regardless of what direction it's moving in.
I am following Maulik Sharma's suggestion and it works nicely. However, the way that I'm constructing my cylinder is causing issues with the UV unwrap. I generate the cylinder, scale it into the mirror and then difference bool the cylinder with the mirror to leave this face:

Now, I simply extrude this face along a direction:

The UV unwrap for an object like this is quite unruly and doesn't allow the 'colour' change to flow properly:

What's a better way to generate my cylinder so that this doesn't happen?

As Alexis King says, you can unwrap your cylinder with the Follow Active Quads method in order to have an orthogonal grid (make sure that your topology has quads that are rather the same size):

Then give it this node setup: Texture Coordinate (UV output) > Mapping > ColorRamp (in Constant mode and with your main and stripe colors) > Diffuse > Output. Now you just need to keyframe the Mapping "Location" values to move the stripe along the cylinder:


2.8 Smooth Shading in Edit Mode Recently I have started learning blender. In a tutorial I am told to apply the smooth shader to eight specific faces (in a sphere). However when I am in edit mode the options "Smooth" and "flat" are not showing up. They are visible when I am in object mode.

I can select the option "Shade Smooth" after I press space bar. Why are these options not showing in my toolbar on the left? How can I get them to show up in the tool bar?

All help is greatly appreciated.
Kind regards,

Patrick

In Blender 2.8, Shade Smooth is in Object Mode(Layout Active Workspace), Object > Shade Smooth.(See picture below)


Why my "Match the camera to 1:1 to the render output" (shift + numpad-enter) shortcut doesn't work? I'm looking at shortcuts in version 2.79b, specifically:

shiftnumpad-enter
which calls view3d.zoom_camera_1_to_1
and is supposed to "Match the camera to 1:1 to the render output"

When in camera view, and "Lock camera to view" option is on, I can zoom or dolly the camera with shiftMMB or shiftctrlMMB. Pressing shiftnumpad-enter doesn't do anything though (laptop with azerty layout and external numeric keypad).

I read: Is it possible to view the scene in the viewport camera view at 1:1? but the question is dated 2014 and the explanations seem not relevant in current version.
From the comments and answer so far, changing the number of pixels in the render settings should allow for the effect to be seen. But it's not the case:

My questions are (for version 2.79b):

How do we use shiftnumpad-enter?
Why it doesn't work on my configuration?

I initially didn't understand what was the purpose of the shorcut, as nothing was happening. After some exchanges on the site, Martin Z suggested to check whether the menu option (View | Navigation | Zoom Camera 1:1) did show the same problem. It didn't, the menu option worked as expected.

Confirm the problem is with the shortcut

This is an indication of a potential keyboard problem, and for those suspecting something similar:

Confirm the shortcut is really the one you think. You may look at the menu entry or use space to display the search window. The shortcut will be indicated near the description of the function.
If the shortcut is the one expected, then try running the function using the menu. If it doesn't work better, then the problem is elsewhere.

Keyboard problem confirmed... what is the cause?

In my case I use a laptop and an external USB keypad. The problem is the keypad, which brand is Targus:

I don't know whether this device doesn't generate the correct key code for key Enter, or whether Blender developers didn't bother or weren't able to differentiate the internal keyboard Enter from the USB keypad Enter, but in Blender API both keys appear the same.

Workaround

The solution is to change the shortcut associated with the function. It's done in user preferences (open this window with the combination ctrlaltU (or menu entry File | User Preferences in the "Info" header).

Select Input tab and type a part of the function name, for instance "1:1" in my case, in the search field to display the function and its binding:

Put the mouse pointer over the keyboard shortcut
Press Enter to activate the key recorder
Type a new shortcut, in my case crtlaltreturn to prevent overwriting one already in use.

Don't forget to save the user preferences, else the new binding will be lost when Blender will be closed.


Cannot find dragging lines I dont know how I got this one. I cannot get the property panel. I dont see any short cut keys like T & N for the third panel? I don't also see the three lines in the corner to split the screen. There are only three dots that only moves up and down.
Please help me with this. Thanks.

Looks like you have maximized your 3D view.

You can toggle this action with the shortcut keys  CTRL + Up Arrow  or with SHFT + Spacebar

Or find the option in the View menu


How can vertex paint be rendered? I have added some vertex paint and would like to see it in the render.

It looks simple enough on all the tutorials, except I don't have those options available; Having spent hours researching I am still lost, how can this be done?

You should plug your vertex colors into the color input of your shader.

With your object selected, add a new material:

Create a meaningful name for the new material. Next, open a node editor window. One way to do this is to create a new UI window by dragging up the triangle in the bottom-left of an existing widow:

You can change the type of your new window with the button on the bottom-left -- select "Node Editor"

You have to type the name of your vertex color layer into the Attribute node. The default name is Col:

You can check the name of vertex color layer in the Vertex Color section of the Object Data tab in the Properties panel:


python script to move another object when a certain object is moved Suppose I have a cube and a sphere. I want to write a python script such that when I move the cube by a vector (x,y,z), the sphere also moves by the same vector. I want to be able to move the cube by hand, and have the sphere move automatically. I realize that I can do this by selecting both before moving, but I would like to accomplish this with code. Is this possible?

You can use drivers to do this, or use a constraint. The constraint is probably the fastest option (performance-wise), as they are written in C.

If you want you can even add drivers or constraints via Python, in case you want to have scripted control over those.


Fading out particle system from one side I am trying to animate a part of a forest being cleared and being replaced by a building. I was wondering how I would animate the tree particles in the area fading out in transparency from the top of the image to the bottom, with the bottom trees fading out last. The area around the clearing is a river. I have created a separate particle system with only the trees that I want to disappear. This particle system is hidden in the  picture. I was looking into using the distance from an empty on the top side with no success yet. Thank you.

I apologize if I did not explain the problem thoroughly. I found a rather simple way to achieve the effect. I first made a gradient and mapped it to a plane.

By setting the particles to use the uv map of the plane and checking "From Instancer", I used the gradient to determine the factor used for transparency.

By animating the location of the gradient I achieved this sweeping effect.


No transparency on imported planes I recently downloaded Blender to do some 2d cut-out animation, so I'm a complete newbie.

After separating my drawing into parts in Photoshop (with transparent backgrounds), and saving them as PNG's. I tried importing them into Blender as separate planes but, can't see the transparency.
I tried saving the files different ways, and the individual pieces display properly on Photoshop and Gimp.

There's probably an obvious answer but, I just don't see it

I'm using version 2.76

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Although you didn't specify, it sounds like you are using the Add Images As Planes add-on.

You'll want to pay attention to the Operator Panel options that appear while the file browser window is open.

These options are contextual and vary depending on whether you are using Blender Internal or Cycles.

For Cycles it will look like this:

Be sure to select either Diffuse & Transparent or Emission & Transparent. With the former, scene lighting will affect the image texture. With the latter it will be shadeless.

You will also have to check the Use Alpha option. You can select either Premultiplied or Straight alpha, depending on which schema your file uses for its transparency.


Is there a way to "clip" or "clamp" the height of a normal, so that bumps go to a certain height and then abruptly flatten, as if chopped off? The pic may explain better.

Cycles. . . . . .

I don't want smaller bumps that are still basically bubble-shaped... I could get that by just decreasing the strength of the normal in my normal map node.

What I want is for the bumps to come up from the surface at a certain strength, and then get abruptly clipped/clamped so that they're limited in how far they rise above the surface.

I thought of trying to use a color ramp or contrast node to limit the brightest and darkest parts of the image, to clip it that way, but it doesn't work. The normal map is one of those proper purple-colored things and not easily edited in photoshop. I tried playing with height and distance settings in a bump map, but that just seems to make shorter bubbles, not "cropped" bubbles.

Pass the bump height through a Math > Minimum node. Set the empty value to your desired clamp height.

0.5 Clip

0.75 Clip

No Clipping


How to randomize window lighting on skyscrapers without separating each window into a separate object? I want to make a building where each window has a randomized lighting value. I can achieve this by separating each window into a separate object and assigning them a material that uses a random number, but is it possible to achieve this without having to separate each window into a separate object?

Ultimately I want to make a city of these skyscrapers, so I imagine it would be computationally way more expensive to have to separate each window into its own object (not to mention annoying having so many objects in the outline editor).

Assuming your windows are fairly regularly spaced you can separate the individual 'windows' in the window material by using a Modulo function to convert each of the X,Y,Z Object coordinates into a 'stepped' function. This separates the surface into individual 'cells'. By carefully setting the spacing of the 'cells' (the Modulo functions) to match the positions of the windows you can ensure each 'window' has a consistent solid illumination.

The 'stepped' coordinates are then randomized via a Noise texture and Greater Than used to illuminate only those above a threshold (higher threshold results in fewer 'lit' windows).

Further combine the Object Info 'Random' property into the coordinates (multiplied by a suitable amount so as to make the different objects wildly different) and you have random 'cells' per "building".

This produces the following material :

With the following result (this is showing the 'lights' only - obviously the surrounding building needs to also be included in your final mesh) :

Note : Don't forget to Apply Scale so that the lighting 'cells' are the same dimensions over each object.

For less regularly spaced 'windows' you will need to adjust the Maths nodes to produce the required arrangement of 'window cells'.

There is another way, borrowing a technique used in Per face vertex coloring - essentially to create a UV map where each face is represented by only one pixel in the image. This UV map can then be used as coordinates in the noise texture used to determine whether each 'window' is illuminated.

There are two ways of achieving this :

Using a script

Paste the following script into a Text Editor window :

# Run this script to generate a UV map and Image with 1 pixel per face so each face has a single colour.

import bpy
import bmesh
import math

# Get selected/active object
obj = bpy.context.object
obj.update_from_editmode()
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(obj.data)

# Get count of faces
num_faces = len(bm.faces)

# Create UV map
obj.data.uv_textures.new("facepixels_"+str(num_faces))
uv_layer = bm.loops.layers.uv[0]
bm.faces.layers.tex.verify()

# Process each face and position each loop vertex around the centre point
faceidx = -1
for f in bm.faces:
    faceidx = faceidx + 1
    loopidx = -1
    numverts = len(f.loops)
    for l in f.loops:
        loopidx = loopidx + 1
        luv = l[uv_layer]
        luv.uv[0] = float(faceidx)
        luv.uv[1] = 0.5

Select your 'windows' object (with one face per window) and click 'Run Script'. This will generate a new UV map with 1 pixel per face.

Manually

Unwrap the 'windows' mesh using 'Lightmap pack'.

Then in the UV Editor select all the faces, ensure 'Individual Origins' transformation mode is set and scale to zero (Select all (A) then scale to zero with S0Enter). This should produce the following result :

Note how each face has become a single point in the UV.

You can now use the UV Map (whether created manually or via the above unwrapping method) in the following material :

The Add and Multiply adjust the 'Random' object info value to adjust the noise for each separate mesh (building) - you can adjust those to get different random patterns. Adjust the Greater Than node to affect the threshold for which windows are illuminated for more/fewer lights.


EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION when trying to bpy.ops.scene.new(type='LINK_COPY') I am actually trying to open a blend file from a script and I have to make a copy of the scene so that I can make some modifications in the new scene. However, after I run

bpy.ops.wm.open_mainfile(filepath = 'a saved .blend file path')
bpy.ops.scene.new.(type = 'LINK_COPY')

blender crashes and leaves an error of 'EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION'. I believe that the context could not have been set and this problem is showing up but I have not been able to figure out how to get rid of this error. My script is actually long but these two line of code is sufficient to reproduce this problem for anybody.

What would I need to do before trying to make a copy of the scene?

The problem can be solved by using a persistent application handler that is executed once the project file has been fully loaded. bpy.app.handler.load_post allows you to append functions that shall be executed once the loading is completed. The annotation @persistent is required in order to keep the application handler registered even though a different project is loaded. This is required since normally application handlers are freed once a new project is loaded.

import bpy
from bpy.app.handlers import persistent

@persistent
def load_post(dummy):
    bpy.ops.scene.new(type="LINK_COPY")
    bpy.app.handlers.load_post.remove(load_post)

bpy.app.handlers.load_post.append(load_post)
bpy.ops.wm.open_mainfile(filepath="/path/to/your/file.blend")


How to select objects in the outliner with only hotkeys Hopefully this is a super easy answer for someone. Just curious if anyone knows how to use the keyboard to make an object selection from the outliner? I mainly need this because I have a ton of objects that I need to name and doing this with arrow keys, a hotkey for object select, and then using F2 to rename would be so much more efficient than having to click on each one with my mouse.

Thank you so much!!

In outliner you can use 'A' key to select all objects.
With one object selected press 'shift' and select another object for range select.
Use 'B' key to box select.
Besides use Batch rename instead of single Rename!


Trouble with simple deform on an array I'm very new to Blender (and 3D modeling in general), but I have a basic understanding of the interface and some of the principles involved with creating shapes.

I'm attempting to model a character of mine, starting with the "face" area, which contains his mouth. Because his face is round, and ends with these repeating scalloped shapes, I decided to design a segment of his face (scalloped end included):

And apply an Array modifier to it, set to the number of scallops I figured the character needs, which is about 10.

With a little offset included on the X-axis to create the desired overlap, I then dropped down a circle mesh set to the circumference of the character's body. I then applied a Simple Deform modifier to the scalloped shape, and attempted to bend it 360 degrees, using the circle as the axis. This is where everything breaks:

It doesn't maintain the shape I'd intended, the scaling is all off, and it doesn't seamlessly connect. I'm really lost as to where I went wrong with this, as I've attempted several different methods that all resulted in my shapes looking wrong.

I think the best way to this is with only array modifier and object offset.
Create a empty at the center and rotate it (36°).
You can still edit the shell and maybe add solidify and subsurf modifier!