How to create submenus with dynamic content? I am trying to loop over all the cameras in my scene to populate a menu, and be able to access properties of each camera from the submenu of each menu item. For the minute, I'm just trying to get it to work with one property, the focal length:

I am able to loop over each camera and create a menu item by simply using the camera.name property in the text property of the menu item:

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

    for camera in bpy.data.cameras:

        row = layout.row()

        row.menu(CamerasSubMenu.bl_idname, text=camera.name)

However, what I don't really know how to do is make each submenu's properties relate to whichever camera I selected in the first menu. I managed to pass the camera_name to the submenu class with this in the last line of the camera loop:

CamerasSubMenu.camera_name = camera.name

And then access it with:

class CamerasSubMenu(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_label = "Camera Properties"
    bl_idname = "view3d.camera_properties_menu"

    camera_name = bpy.props.StringProperty()

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

        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(bpy.data.cameras[self.camera_name], "lens")

But the lens property (the focal length) is always the focal length of whichever camera name got passed in last in the loop, e.g. 'Camera.001'. So all submenus are accessing Camera.001's focal length instead of the individual focal lengths.

I presume I'm going about this completely the wrong way, but I attempted it in a similar way I would pass data to an operator (which works).

So, is there a way to have a unique submenu per camera or should I just try something completely different?

Full code:

import bpy

class CamerasSubMenu(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_label = "Camera Properties"
    bl_idname = "view3d.camera_properties_menu"

    camera_name = bpy.props.StringProperty()

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

        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(bpy.data.cameras[self.camera_name], "lens")

class CamerasMenu(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_label = "Cameras"
    bl_idname = "view3d.cameras_menu"

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

        for camera in bpy.data.cameras:

            row = layout.row()

            row.menu(CamerasSubMenu.bl_idname,text=camera.name)

            CamerasSubMenu.camera_name = camera.name

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

bpy.ops.wm.call_menu(name=CamerasMenu.bl_idname)

You can make each submenu have its own context by setting a variable in the UILayout.

The script can be made to work as expected with only minor changes.

Define a context member for each menu, using UILayout.context_pointer_set
In the menus draw function, access this variable directly.

Modified example script:

import bpy

class CamerasSubMenu(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_label = "Camera Properties"
    bl_idname = "view3d.camera_properties_menu"

    # <-- Line removed (menu's don't store properties)

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

        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(context.my_camera, "lens")  # <-- Changed from original

class CamerasMenu(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_label = "Cameras"
    bl_idname = "view3d.cameras_menu"

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

        for camera in bpy.data.cameras:

            row = layout.row()

            row.context_pointer_set("my_camera", camera)  # <-- Added to original
            row.menu(CamerasSubMenu.bl_idname, text=camera.name)
            # <-- Line removed (camera set above)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_module(__name__)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

bpy.ops.wm.call_menu(name=CamerasMenu.bl_idname)


preserve/save context in modal how can i avoid losing the context with this modal operator?

import bpy

def get_next_area(area, reverse):
    #context = bpy.context

    areas = [
        "VIEW_3D",
        "VIEW",
        "UV",
    ]

    if reverse is False:
        for index, c in enumerate(areas):
            if c == area.ui_type:
                if index == len(areas) - 1:
                    return areas[0]
                else:
                    return areas[index + 1]
    else:
        for index, c in enumerate(areas):
            if c == area.ui_type:
                if index == 0:
                    return areas[len(areas) - 1]
                else:
                    return areas[index - 1]

class SM_change_area_type_modal(bpy.types.Operator):

    bl_idname = 'sop.sm_change_area_type_modal'
    bl_label = "S.Menu Change Area Type Modal"
    bl_description = 'Calls Change Area Type Modal'
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO', 'GRAB_CURSOR', 'BLOCKING'}

    def modal(self, context, event):

        area = bpy.context.area
        print (area)

        if event.type == 'WHEELUPMOUSE':
            area.ui_type = get_next_area(area, False)

        if event.type == 'WHEELDOWNMOUSE':
            area.ui_type = get_next_area(area, True)

        # -------------------------------------------------------------#
        #+ Finish/Cancel Modal
        elif event.type == 'LEFTMOUSE':
            return {'FINISHED'}

        elif event.type in {'RIGHTMOUSE', 'ESC'}:
            return {'CANCELLED'}

        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        #self.first_mouse_x = event.mouse_x
        #self.first_mouse_y = event.mouse_y

        # self.initial_backdrop_offset = bpy.context.space_data.backdrop_offset

        #self.mouse_path = []
        context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Get the area from its index in the screen.

Without any "proper" explanation I had an inkling that if the area was indexed from the screen it will remove the context issue seen in code above.

>>> for i, a in enumerate(C.screen.areas):
...     i, a.ui_type
...
(0, 'PROPERTIES')
(1, 'CONSOLE')
(2, 'OUTLINER')
(3, 'TEXT_EDITOR')

The properties area above will always be the zeroth item of the screen areas no matter what its type is changed to.  (Unless areas are joined during operation)

When invoking get the index of the current area in the screen, use this to get the area.

self.screen_area_index = context.screen.areas[:].index(context.area)

Edited code:

Added class properties for current area index, the index of the area in the screen, and the ui type when invoked.

When operation is cancelled go back to original ui type.

Changed the behaviour to pass through when no event is captured.  Not required, personal taste, found it a very handy little tool to flip between types, while still being able to use other tools. Would need to reconsider what finishes the operator in this case.

import bpy

class SM_change_area_type_modal(bpy.types.Operator):
    ''' Tooltip '''
    bl_idname = 'sop.sm_change_area_type_modal'
    bl_label = "S.Menu Change Area Type Modal"
    bl_description = 'Calls Change Area Type Modal'
    #bl_options = {'GRAB_CURSOR', 'BLOCKING'}
    index = 0
    screen_area_index = 0
    save_area_ui_type = ''

    def get_next_area(self, area, delta):

        areas = [
            "VIEW_3D",
            "VIEW",
            "UV",
        ]

        self.index = (self.index + len(areas) + delta) % len(areas)
        area.ui_type = areas[self.index]

    def modal(self, context, event):
        area = context.screen.areas[self.screen_area_index]

        if event.type == 'WHEELUPMOUSE':
            self.get_next_area(area, 1)
            return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}
        elif event.type == 'WHEELDOWNMOUSE':
            self.get_next_area(area, -1)
            return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}
        elif event.type == 'LEFTMOUSE':
            return {'FINISHED'}
        elif event.type in {'RIGHTMOUSE', 'ESC'}:
            area.ui_type = self.save_area_ui_type
            return {'CANCELLED'}

        return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        self.screen_area_index = context.screen.areas[:].index(context.area)
        self.save_area_ui_type = context.area.ui_type
        context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Please try and adhere to the operator class naming convention

class SM_OT_whatever_else(Operator):
    bl_idname = sm.whatever_else


Vertices not working? When I try to add to my plain by selecting two vertices and then pressing E it only extends the edges and not the entire plain how does one fix this?
https://gyazo.com/b46b4cd4c2bf68e416e14fb32ffef16b

You should check if those vertices are duplicates. It looks like vertices being overlapping (2 or more in the same space). It happens a lot when trying to extrude, then "forgetting" to move your extrusion

Correct this issue in EDIT mode. Select all by hitting A, then by go to MESH menu, then choose Clean up, merge by distance. If not, there must be something you are doing wrong when extruding, but I am almost sure those are vertices overlapping.


How to tighten up mesh before subsurface mod added I'm modelling this detail and when I add the subsurface mod, it does odd things.  I cant make any loop cuts on it for some reason so have to use the knife tool.  Would I have to add alot of cuts to be able to get a clean looking mesh... any help on where to make cuts without creating ngons?

Select the edges you want to tighten and hit ctrl-b.


Soft Body Animation to Keyframe Animation I was wondering how to add a normal keyframe animation where I just change the location after a soft body simulation where the object is blown across the screen with a wind force. In my animation, the object stops in the middle of the camera angle and I want to animate so that it rolls off to the side. Thanks.

I managed to do it, you need the add-on "Animation: Corrective Shape Keys" though. You can just enable it in your blender preferences.

What you do is you bake your animation, and then at the frame where you want to keep the shape of the softbody and animate it by hand you go into the shapekeys menu and click "create duplicate for editing".

This will create a duplicate of your object that looks exactly like if the SB modifier had been applied, however maybe with different transforms, but that doesnt matter. Select the new duplicate, then select the original (so it's the active object), and again go into the shapekeys menu. This time press "join as shapes". Your object now has a shapekey of that "applied" shape. Set it to 1, and then at the point where your softbody assumes that shape, keyframe the render-/viewport-display of the modifier to disabled. Because this shape is also active as a shapekey you will not notice that the softbody has been deactivated, but you can now transform it like a normal object again, if however with a weird origin point.

If I misunderstood your question and you want to know how to have your keyframes influence the actual SB simulation, you can do this:

Again, get to the point where you want to use your keyframes on the object. Do the "create duplicate for editing" thing again, give it the same transforms as the original. Set its origin to geometry. Link the softbody modifier (ctrl+L) from the original so you don't have to retype all the values, and enable goal. Keyframe the min and max goal values to be 1 at the first frame so it really takes on that default shape, and then min back to 0 at the next frame. Because you have goal active it should now take the transform keyframes into account, and just need to hide the original at that frame. Basically one object does the first half of the animation, the second one the other. You can use goal from the beginning but then you'd have to animate gravity by yourself and pay attention to other stuff. There might be other ways but honestly dealing with SB is often a pain the butt.

You could also try forces, but I never used them myself so I can give no information about that.


Is there a way to align the view to a non-active camera? I have multiple cameras setup in my scene at predetermined locations. Pressing Numpad 0 will align the 3D view to the current active camera. Is there a way for me to align the view to a camera that isn't active?

I want to have multiple panes with each one aligned to a different camera while I'm working on the scene. Currently, I have to manually move the view in each one to be (roughly) in the same position as the camera I want to look through. It'd be better if I could automatically align the view to the exact location of any camera.

One quick workaround which provides approximation is to use Align View to Active command to align viewport camera to currently selected but not active render camera.

Roughly the procedure would look like:
1. Selecting camera you want to align viewport to.
2. Running View Selected command (as one way to center viewport to selection).
3. Running Align View > Align View to Active > Top (in 2.79 layout it was Shift+Numpad 7).


Rotation tool not tilting I have been trying to tilt a selected part of an arm to bend limbs, I try to tilt it to the right. However, it goes side to side.

Here is an example.

https://gyazo.com/e7639bcb68cb1c6a57ed61ffab05f9c8

Select the armature and go to the "object" tab on the right side of the screen (orange box) and tick the option that says "In Front" (it's under "Visibility" or "Viewport Display" or something). This will always draw the bones in front of the mesh.

Change your rotation space to "Local" and pivot to "Active Element" at the top of the screen. With the armature selected, press CTRL-TAB to enterms pose mode. At the top of the screen, click the gizmos icon to bring up the drop down menu. Make sure the Rotation gizmo is activated.

Now you can see which axis your rotation is affecting by clicking and dragging the colored circles.


Help with placing an image on 3D text I've been trying to add an image to some 3D Text for a while now but unfortunately, it always comes out lopsided and uneven. UV Editing doesn't seem to work with text even after it's converted into a mesh. YouTube videos aren't helping either.
Here is the image I'm trying to put on the text

Here is the 3D text (selected), notice the lopsided image reflections
Thank you

Convert the text to a mesh. It's going to have a lot of tris.
Select all in edit mode and clck on 'Mesh' at the header of the 3D viewport and click on ''Clean Up'.
Select 'Limited Dissolve' which will drastically reduce the number of tris appearing while retaining form of the text mesh.
You can further increase the value of the limited Dissolve' from it's adjustment pop up bar that appears at the bottom left immediately you click on it hence reducing the mesh's noisy face Tris but do this slighty as giving an high value input will make the mesh to loose form.
At this point you should be able to use the 'Smart UV Project' which will project something quite relatable then go ahead texturing. Should work out fine now.


I've changed position of vertices with python but nothing happened I'm really newbie at blender. So I want to change an object from a python script.

If I create a new project (Ctrl+N) and open python console, I can changing position of vertices:

bpy.data.meshes['Cube'].vertices[0].co.z += 20

But if I'm using .blend file with mesh from here:
http://www.blender-models.com/model-downloads/humans/id/head-mesh/
I can changing vertices too

but I don't see anything new at 3D view window.

What I'm doing wrong.

Please try your statements with the 3D View Window in object mode not edit mode.


How to get rid of random, uneditable stretches? Hello!

I had just recently began using Blender, in hopes to create models for a game of mine.

As practice, I was following a tutorial for character modelling on youtube, but had come across a strange issue... As I was down below creating the feet, this had somehow occurred:

[Random protrusions from chest ^]

After realizing this, I didn't make too big of a deal out of it, until I realized I couldn't edit any part of them (faces, edges, vertices, etc.)...

The protrusions are endless, at no point does the stretching discontinue.

I tried saving, closing Blender and reopening to see if that would fix the problem, but it had done no such thing! Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

Here's an additional image (I was going to include several more, but I do not have a reputation of 10 or more):

Switch to Edge Select mode (Ctrl+Tab > 2)
Select the protruding edge.
X to delete

Then you can re-add the faces in the chest where the protrusion was.


how do i save my selfmade favorit color ramp gradient in node editor? i have created some cool favorite color gradients in the node editor.
 i want to save all of these so i can use them again later , also for use in other projects , but where is the save button ?
 on the picture you can see the gradient color , but there is no save button near around it .
how do i do this ?

to be more specific , in one project i want to be able to choose from hundreds of cool gradients that i have created in blender and have saved these , for later use.
so when i work on a project and i don't like a gradient that i have used , i can go to a list where i have saved my selfmade gradients , and just pick out 1 of them , and than check out a next one , until i find one that i like. just about the same idea how you would do with choosing a right jpg for your texture, you have a folder somewhere , where you saved all your favourite jpgs , where you can choose from and check out which one fits best to your object. image now you can only choose from one JPG texture,  or in the worst case you need to hustle around a lot to try to import a second jpg etc etc .  that is how i feel now with the gradient question . there should be a save and load button somewhere to enjoy working with gradients on your object , just like you would enjoy cool JPG textures on your object. it seems no problem to choose from thousands of cool jpgs. just by one click , and keep going searching until you find your best one that fits here on your object.  if i can't save my cool self made gradients , i have no other choice then wait for an update for this , hopefully soon , maybe did i miss here something , but i have seen no option to load and save cool selfmade gradients. anyone ?

this question has been marked as a double, but it is different in my opinion.
Can I make a custom node from a group and have that available in other projects?
that was the other question that has been compared to my question. it is different , because i am not asking for a node combination to save it and use it elsewhere.
my question is how to save a specific part inside the node it self. how to save a favorite selfmade gradient collor ramp. and have these gradients saved in a folder with maybe 50 other different color combinations. that is not the same like how to make a custom node from a group.  because i don't want to make a new node for every color change that i wil make. so there is the difference. so far i only see answer where i can change my gradient when i create new nodes , but this is not gonna be a good solution .  imagine you have to create a new node for every jpg texture that you will import ? i mean in a situation when you scroll through your list ofjpgs and want to test all of them to pick out the best texture. it is easy and quick , with just a click , and the same workaround should be for changing a rollorramp, and go through your list of gradients , where you can choose your favourites to see if it fits your object in your project.  that is not the same thing as creating custom nodes to use in other projects question .
blender has been around for a long time now , it should be there. it is so standard for an app working with gradients.

i am afraid blender is still in the stoneage regards to some specific simple basic functions that should be already updated long time ago .
lets just hope, it will happen someday.
but if i missed something , and someone can point me to an answer i would be happy to hear it .

i am not looking for a complete node combination export , like the other question. and than re-use ,  for each tiny color change that i make,

i need to create a list in a folder next to my jpg texture folders, where i can keep all my favorite gradient colorramp patches and choose them as easy as i choose a new jpg texture.

i guess the answer is No , but it should be yes . anyone agree ?

Depending on how often you want to use your gradients, you can save them in two ways.

Both methods start by grouping your ColorRamp node. After you have set the gradient as you want, select the color ramp node and press CrtlG that will create a node group only containing the color ramp node. Rename the new node group, in the properties region N so you can find the gradient later.

If you use the gradients a lot, just save the node groups in your start up file.

The second method is to have a file of node assets, and when you want a gradient Append the node group from the file, with ShiftF1.


How to add a light that is only visible to the shadow path? I saw this option mentioned in another answer:

How can I cast artificially darker shadows?

I want to try this but I do not know how to add a light that is only visible to the shadow path.  My apologies if this has an obvious answer!  I am trying to learn everything at once and I am missing some fundamentals right now.

The Shadow Ray output is a little unique in that its type is determined based on its end point (a light source), rather than its start point (the material it last interacted with).

Making a light source invisible to everything except shadow rays will cause it to only block light from other light sources and not influence anything else.

However, it is possible to limit the number bounces a light source is allowed to influence. (I suspect this is what more you want to do)

Lamps have a Max bounces setting, which when set to 0 will only allow that lamp to illuminate directly (disabling "bounce lighting" for that specific lamp):

To do the same with nodes (e.g. for mesh lights), you can use the Ray Depth output of the light path node:

As always when working with light paths, it's important to keep in mind that rays are traced backwards (from the camera).


Convert node-based texture to exportable image This is a follow-up to this post - Seamless grunge texture overlay across two materials
I have my node-based texture (thanks to moonboots) and now I need to somehow get it into UE4. I read up on texture baking but I don't know if it makes more sense to try that or would it be easier to recreate the texture directly in UE4? I pressed the Bake button in Blender and it saved internally, how do I export that out into an image file?
Thanks

With your baked Image Texture selected in the Shading tab (the node should have a "selection outline" - like when you selected it before baking), you can easily save your image from the UV editing tab:


Tracking forward/backward camera motion Has anyone been able to track camera motion going primarily forwards or backwards?  It seems that whenever I try, Blender is unable to make any sense out of all the trackers going in all directions and gives me a crazy blue error line in the tracking graph editor and triple-digit solve error values, despite all the individual trackers having solve errors under 1; I've tracked many primarily side-to-side shots over the years, so I know how to do a good camera solve.
I'm just wondering if Blender's 3D tracker has no way of interpreting forward/backward motion, which sounds like a crazy idea, given that Blender is so good and that no one seems to have noticed such a huge chunk of tracking functionality to be missing; but at this point, after having failed to solve multiple such shots over the years (and actually seen no examples of other people doing it), I'm really starting to wonder.
If anyone can say that they have successfully done it, then I'll have my answer (namely, that it's not a weakness in Blender, but something I'm still not doing right, which I can maybe try getting some help on in another post).
EDIT:
Attached are the blend files for a couple of the shots I've attempted tracking over the years (that I've been able to find).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1P4EOqos0YEDJkJnqh_Xsa4CcL2eU_XSY/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DZ0nhQDz_Nh0fraI2oXzY7AzF5u9TNIO/view?usp=sharing

Blender can track backwards and forward accurately with no problem. I've done it many times.
So there is your answer.
Most likely the issue is with the compression used on the video. Intraframe compression or image sequences works great. Video with long GOP does not and might lead to errors retrieving frames going backwards.


How to fix gap between rigid body objects? I've having some trouble animating my donut. When it reaches the surface there's a gap between the objects, and sometimes the object jitters and bounces when it reaches the surface and I don't understand why that happens.

It looks as though you already have taken care of making sure that Collision Type is set to "Mesh" and that the Margin is set nice and low. I can only suggest that you check all your participating objects for these settings and perhaps lowering the margin setting even more. It may help to apply scale, as suggested by the gentleman who answered this similar question.


part of a mesh doesn't move with the rest I was learning rigging using this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9f-WVs3ghI , but when I add automated weights to the mesh and move its head hat stays in the same place . why does it happen ? all mesh parts are joined together . did I do something wrong /miss something ?

Blender file

This is actually quite simple, you just didn't add weight on  the hat

As you can see, the hat has 0 weight, the amount of weight it has is how much influence the bone has on that part of the mesh

Here I set the weight on the hat to 1 (Max influence) so the head bone has 100% control over the hat, an easy way to add the weight to individual objects is to separate them in edit mode using "P" then select "Loose parts", I don't like to have all objects joined in one single mesh because that complicates things when doing weight painting or other stuff involving rigging

so there you go!, just set the hat weight to 1 and that's it, easy cake :)


Mixamo rig bones are messed up when imported to blender I got a model and a rig from mixamo and when i import it into blender all the bones are pointing upwards. Tried importing it with "!EXPERIMENTAL! Apply Transform" but it didnt fix it. when importing i tried it with "Automatic Bone Orientation" and it fixed almost everything except the toe bones.

ive found a solution.
These 3 boxes need to be CHECKED.

!Experimental! Apply Transform
Force Connect Children
Automatic Bone Rotation.

im using Blender 2.81.


Render Object with CT scan effect? Is there any addons or tricks that I can use to turn my object into a CT Scan result? meaning they looks like this from all angles:

Greatly appreciate your help!

Volumetrics
X-ray images can be simulated with the use of a quite simple volumetric shader in conjuction with a very good modeling.
The information stored in such imagesis basically just one: how fare the X ray radiation goes far? The variations is caused by the different nature of materials. Each one of them let the ray pass more or less.
In Cycles engine, there is no X-ray radiations, but we can simulate the behaviour with light. The energy of the source will be absorption by passing through a volumetric shader like the following.

The hard part is that you must:

model everything with it's own, real, thickness in order to achieve a correct absorption calculation

create a different volumetric shader for each kind of material of your scene (one for glass, one for metal, one for filament...) and estimate the light absorption value (driven by the Density parameter).
The model in the above picture comes from a collection of CC0 Bulbs on Blendwap


Where the operation "rotate selected edge" is in Blender 2.8 As the title states - where is this option? I can find it through the search box, when pressing F3 and typing "rotate selected edge". This operation is available in edit mode and rotates and edge in a triangulated face so that it flips the edge to two opposite corners.

You can find the function in edit mode in the RMB context menu:

by default it has no shortcut
Or in the Edge menu Ctrl+E:


Why are the size and shape are different in edit and object mode? When I change the mode, the mesh looks different. Edit mode-skinny, object mode-fat. Before I made the skeleton, everything was fine.

Make sure that before you do automatic weigthing, that you apply the scaling to both your mesh model, and you rigifie armature  [CTRL + A]

once all scales are applied it shouldnt deform, i see this happen often with people who begin with this.


Why do my chains separate when falling when I use physics with them? I was following a tutorial for making a realistic chain where you use Rigid Body Physics to make a chain fall on a plane. I'm trying to use this technique in one of projects, but I can't get it to work. I tried doing the tutorial in a new project and it still didn't work.

I am using torus objects and duplicating them to make a chain. I select all of the objects and go to the "Physics" tab in the Tool Shelf (T menu) and press "Add Active". I then go to the "Change Shape" drop down and choose "Mesh". When I play this it takes forever to simulate, and about 4 frames in, the links in the chain start to separate as they fall. I want them to stay together (which works fine when I do this in a new project using only the chain mesh).

Try making your chain links dramatically bigger. Blender has a problem with small objects with rigid body physics. Hope this helps!


Rotate without distorting size I'm trying to create a 45 degree angle on a specific sized rectangle. However, when I rotate my end vertices, the size of the rectangle also changes.

How can I rotate without changing the size of my object?

The object on the left is what I am trying to acomplish. The object on the right is what happens if I rotate the two vertices to a 45 degree angle.

The command you are looking for is called SHEAR. Select the vertices you want to rotate and press Space and type in "shear" (or ShiftCtrlAltS at the same time)


Is there a way to script for Lux to work on original nodes? I recently asked a question regarding Lux's ability to output values based off of the angle of a surface relative to the viewer and I thinking, if worse comes to worse, I can just script my own node. Bit of a problem though, I can't find a script node available. Personally, I'm actually quite surprised, Lux's developers seem to be on the ball for most stuff; you would think they would include one so the user isn't particularly limited.

Even if there is no way of directly scripting in Blender for Lux, I'd still be incredibly happy if I can open up my favourite plain text editor, write up a file in that and put it into a specific folder or something and have it work (all of this is assuming there's actually proper documentation to coding for Lux).

LuxCore's shader code is written in C++ and OpenCL.
To write new textures or materials, you have to clone the codebase, write your code in C++ (and optionally OpenCL) and compile the binaries with your changes.

Some information on this process:

LuxCoreRender Github Repository
Compiling LuxCore
Implementing a Texture

Unfortunately we don't have detailed in-depth documentation on the development process yet. But you are welcome to ask any question in our forums or discord.


Cannot assign material to the correct face When I select the face and press "assign material", the material isn't assigned to the face but somehow to parts of it and parts outside of it...

How can I assign a material to this face?

You are dealing with two issues: non-planar geometry and the interpolation generated by the subsurf modifier.

Let's start with the second.

The subsurf modifier is designed to make things rounder by subdividing the existing faces and make them smoother. If the faces are too big for the complex shapes you are trying to achieve, you'll see artifacts.

The solution is to edit your mesh with a bit more density so that the shapes are better described. Then the subsurf modifier will not be interpolating the surfaces and it's materials in such a drastic way.

Now, for an explanation of how to deal with non-planar geometry read this answer


Shader doesn't affect entire Object Why does the the shader color not affect the entire object and why does it produce a gap?

That's the reflection of the table. Try hiding the table/plane object and take a look.

Edit to address followup question;

... Technically, yes, you can disable the table in the reflection. Start by switching to the Cycles rendering engine (and make sure GPU is selected if you have a GPU capable of supporting Cycles);

In the Object Properties, Under Visibility -> Ray visibility, uncheck "Glossy";

The result;

It should be noted, though, that this will produce a highly unrealistic result in your final scene.


How can I rotate a cylinder in such way that one of its faces would be perfectly aligned along one of the global axis? For example if I have a cylinder:

and I want to rotate that cylinder in such way that one of its face would be perfectly aligned along one of the global axis; how can I do it?
 Currently I just rotated it by eye to roughly match the global axes. Something like in the image below (you can see that its normals are roughly aligned along the X and Z global axis).

If the face you want to align is the top/bottom one, you can do so when you create the cylinder by pressing align to view (you have to align your view first, 7 for top view etc). For one of the side faces, you can compute the angel and type it in while rotating. For 8 faced cylinder, the angle from the center to the face is 360/8 -> 45 degrees to rotate by one face. The cylinder is perfectly aligned when you create it, so you can just press R and type in the angle. You can also compute the final rotation and type it in in the object menu.


Embedding a sphere within a hemisphere I am new to Blender and would like to create a model for my chemistry students where I show a section of a 2s orbital. Basically this means creating a fuzzy sphere of one color embedded at the center of a fuzzy hemisphere of a different color. I tried to create a UV sphere, apply subsurf, and smooth for the inner sphere. I then duplicated this sphere and scaled it up for the outer sphere. Afterward, I cut off half the outer sphere and now have the inner sphere sitting in the middle of a hollow hemisphere. I just wish I knew how to close the gap between the edge of the hemisphere and the inner sphere, and have the two objects be blurry/fuzzy with different colors.
Thank you for thinking about this and any suggestions you could offer.
Das
Tags

Boolean difference modifier
A boolean difference modifier will do this for us. Simply need the two spheres and a "chopping block" object.

Two UV spheres, smaller in larger.  Use the cube as a difference boolean modifier target to cut away from the outer.
The cube is displayed as a wireframe, and can be hidden from render (and or viewport)
Could also use the inner to "core" out the slot.

Can transform, or change the chopping "cube" to for example a spin modifier created cylinder to animate a reveal.
How to use a mesh to reveal an object
Re a blurry material see
material issue - how to make blurry/emissive material?
Related
Create a sphere with multiple layers and a chunk cut out showing them


Get π in python scripted expression for a driver? Get π in python scripted expression for a driver?


Bending pieces of an object I'm trying to bend an object but I'm encountering some problems. I've used the bend modifier to bend the base but now i have to bend the "arms" and its totally screwing up when i want to add another bend modifier. Any of you know how to do this correctly?

The object to the left is the one i would like to replicate. The one on the right is my sad object.

Link to source and amazing artist :
https://onemoreneon.com/

Thanks in advance

for this part of your object, you'd rather:

Begin with a cubic shape.
Add some vertical edge loops.
Round the faces with the Proportional Editing option (Sphere Falloff mode).
Give it a Solidify modifier.
Round the angle edges with bevels (ctrl B).
Smooth your object with a Subdivision Surface modifier.
Sharpen the edges with additional edge loops.
When you're happy with the thickness, apply the Solidify.


How to increase/decrease the size of the buttons inside the panels? I've downloaded a .blend file recently and all of the interface elements look very small. I remember that there were an easy trick to make everything bigger (or smaller) when I was using Blender 2.49 long time ago. My question is how to do it increase or decrease the size of the buttons within the panels using User Preferences and without using it?

Go to the panel you want to change then CTRL and push the MMB . If you move your mouse up, the keys get bigger if you move down the keys get smaller.


Mirroring stopped working entirely after hours of using it without error. Blender 2.90 I have Googled the heck out of this and am still not finding my solution.
I'm several hours into modeling a character and suddenly mirroring doesn't work. For any vertex. For any axis. I have restarted Blender and reopened the project to no avail.
I am able to create new Mesh cubes in the same Collection and mirroring works on them.
I am new to Blender so I maybe I simply hit a hotkey by mistake? I have no idea what it could have been if that's the case.
I have found answers online saying to "apply rotation," but this does nothing for my model. I have "applied" everything, all transforms. I haven't added a rig to it.
[Edit]: I have tried "snap to symmetry" on both the entire mesh and only half the mesh and neither works. Also, Sculpting in the sculpting tab works as expected. Still not working for modeling. It's like the functionality broke entirely or something.
[Edit 2]: When I "Add" a mesh to the scene in Edit mode, rather than object mode (so I technically add it to the character object), I am NOT able to mirror any axes on the newly added mesh. Only when I add a whole new object in Object mode.
[Edit 3]: Here's the .blend. The butt is lovingly modeled:

My project consists of 1 Collection containing 3 lights and my object. That is it.
Thank you!
Please let me know if there's any other information I can provide.

In edit mode (TAB), select all vertices (A). In mesh menu, click "Symmetrize" to fix the symmetry (use -X to +X or +X to -X). It should be fixed if you use X as mirroring axis.
While all vertices are selected, you should also fix your normals with Shift + N.
You should also try mirror modifier (but you have to delete 1 side).


How to align region borders? Back in the old days, it was fairly easy to merge windows. They moved in regular steps of x pixels and they always lined up.

For quite some time now I sometimes experience situations like this:

Since they don't line up and the movement seems too coarse, it's impossible to merge the horizontal regions. What to do?

And just as I was typing a few days ago, I thought to try out ctrl and yes, ctrl does the trick. Just hold LMB on a border and then add CTRL.


Better practices with subdivisions surface modifier I'm learning blender with help of the wiki, and other articles around the web(including blenderguru and blender artists).

I'm trying to make a model for a character that I've sketched, but Im having some problens with the junctions of his neck, this makes me wonder what's the best practice for creating a junction such as this one.

First try render result

Mesh of the first try

Second try with subdivision modifier

Any light on this matter?

It looks like your neck is not actually connected to the body. Try deleting the shoulder face, then select all the base neck vertices plus the 4 shoulder ones and hit "f" to create a face. Then try the subdivision again.


Cant make glare work while compositing I have a simple monkey model, that is completely black but has white, emissive eyes, like that:

Then, in compositor, I have this setup:

Clearly, you can see the preview is not showing any glare effect. I think, that I'm missing something there, but for the sake of me I can't figure out what.

Try lowering the Threshold value.
The Glare node works based on the luminance (or brighness) of the pixels in the image, the Threshold value means that pixels that are brighter than that number will be affected by the glow, while values lower than the set number will not.

By lowering it, you are changing the node's level of tolerance. If it's set to a low value, it means that even a small amount of light will make the glare show up.
You also may be rendering in EEVEE. Switch to Cycles.


Cycles Render without Shading (only texture and albedo) I have a Cycles scene with textures and diffuse materials. Now, I want to render images without any "shading." So, the pixel values of the images will be just the texture and diffuse value of the surface.

How can this be achieved?

Thanks in advance!

I'll show you two solutions:

mix the Transparent and Emission shaders with the Is Camera Ray of the Light Path node as a factor

do the same as above but without Transparent node and uncheck the Shadow checkbox in the Cycles Settings panel of the Object header


How do I get a driver variable to taper down to 0 once the variable is doubled? I have a driver that is expressed as "var if var<=0.26666 else needsomethinghere". when var reaches 0.26666 in the local space x axis, I would like for else to taper my variable down to 0 once my object reaches .57 on the x axis. If i need to add another variable im fine with it. Just want my object to follow until .26666 and then .26667 all the way up to .57 brings my object back to 0.0 on the xaxis. currently ive placed 0 for else, which jumps it down to 0.0 past .26666. changing i the direction of my driver in the negative x past .26666 is the desired result.

In order to get the value moving back down towards zero once the bound has been reached you simply need to specify an expression that gives the desired result. The key is to think about the boundary cases - in this case, what happens at 0.26666
So, up to 0.26666 you want the output to be var
Above 0.26666 you want it to move back towards 0 - so you need to subtract var ie, -var, BUT, at 0.26666 you want it to equal 0.26666... ie, you want it to be (0.26666*2) - var
This would result in the expression var if var < 0.26666 else 0.53332 - var.
You can actually link multiple of these conditionals together so you may want it to stay at zero once it reaches zero. ie,

below 0.26666 : var

0.26666 -> 0.53332 : 0.53332 - var

over 0.53332 : 0

This could be produced with :
var if var < 0.26666 else 0.53332 - var if var < 0.53332 else 0


Python Code In Work Area I have what most experienced Blender users would most likely consider to a minor problem, but to me, a nearly blind old man with numerous health issues who knows almost nothing about Blender, this is a real show stopper. All I about it is how to set up an Add-on named Blender2SCS, which sets up the program to allow importing, editing and exporting of SCS Software models from Euro Truck Simulator 2. In the game are various companies where the player gets jobs, picking up and delivering cargo in semi trailers. Once properly set up, the extent of my ability is to import company sign models and export them for use as other company signs.

Here's the problem I have. I'm getting very twitchy in my old age. I had just opened a sign model and I twitched, a particularly big one, and I hit the keyboard and the sign model I was preparing to export disappeared. I thought I must have closed it and went to re-open it. Everything seems normal when I open the program, select my Operator Preset, etc. But no matter what model I open, the work area in Blender is all text, which is so small I can't read it. Normally, I would copy it and put it in my text editor and see what it says, but it won't let me copy it. Looking at a zoomed in screenshot of it, I can see it is Python code.

I have no idea what changed or how to set it back to displaying models again. If anyone knows about whatever mode this is and could tell me how to set back the way it was before, I would greatly appreciate it. I know I could install the latest version and start over, but it's possible that Blender2SCS won't be supported in it (it's no longer in development) and I would have to revert back to 2.78c again, so I wanted to see if anyone could tell me what happened and how to undo it first.

Thank you!

James

PS; I did not know what kind of tag this required, and your page for listing them isn't available. So I chose "modeling", even though it may not apply. It wouldn't let me use "settings".

Well... Now I am really showing my ignorance about Blender. Last night I tried everything I could think of. I clicked on anything and everything that looked like it might be the right thing to change it back, and found nothing. But as I was making a screenshot, I saw a button I didn't see last night (my vision is clearer this morning) and I don't remember what the label said exactly, but "previous" was part of it, so I clicked on it and it changed it back to the model I had been trying to export last night.

But it's Murphy's Law of Seeking Help... As soon as you ask for help, you figure it out yourself!

Thanks anyway...


Inconsistent boolean behavior Blender 2.72  Boolean operations with the primitive forms give expected results.  Trying to use a e.g. cube to remove the tabs from a hand by difference to leave the hand doesn't give the expected result.   Trying to use the cube in the same position with an intersection does not result in the removed tab.
One of the operations looks like a union.
Any suggestions?
If you want more info, please tell me how to obtain it.  I'm not having a good day with Blender.

I just got consistent behavior (after 2 days) by selecting both pieces, going to edit, and recalculating the normals to be outside, then back to object and performing the operation.
Do you need a picture for that?


Curve modifier, deformation only on Z axis Hi I want to model a staircase rail. But when I try my curve modifier the ramp don't deform along the curve like a real staircase rail should do, only on the z axis... Is there a way to tell blender to only deform my object on the z axis while still following the curve organic form?

Thanks

The basic mesh must be straight, then I will  put an array on it and a curve modifier follow my curve, but the curve modifier don't work like that..
..  I want it to adapt to the complex  curve, as you can see, deformation are only occurring vertically, the object is not tangent to the curve!!

Thanks

Array a Z deformed panel

No, the Curve modifier has no option for that yet.

The trick you can go for at the moment is to Shear your panel and set up an array modifer that not only offest on the X axis, but also in the Z of the right amount to build a seamsless mesh.

Luckily stairs usually have steps that are evenly spaced on Z, so the linearity of the height growth imposed by the usage of the Array modifier should not be a problem in this case.

The curve is now defining only the path of the rail on plan:

Note for example that in the picture there the tile is romboid shaped, not squared shaped.


Hide part of one object's mesh while manipulating another object I have a character head, with all the face skin on one object and the inner mouth lining on another object. Is it possible to hide all skin vertices except the lips area while I'm working on the inner mouth object? (I know I can split or duplicate the lips mesh off the face and just hide the full-face object, but I want to know if I can avoid having to delete another object later.)
For instance, I would like something like this:

... while I'm working on the inner mouth (pink object).
If I attempt to work on the mouth without doing something about the face skin (clip mask is imprecise), I get this:

Select the vertices you want to see:

Assign them to a vertex group:

Add a Mask modifier to the object, using the vertex group:

When you quit to the Object Mode, or if you enable the modifier's visibility in Edit Mode , you should see the difference:


How to delete internal intesected faces? The following mesh is created by converting a curve with bevel effect like below:

The mesh has some faces which extrude into the inside of the shape. This effect can be seen by cutting the mesh into halves (using boolean modifier):

If I want to get rid of the internal faces and only retain the outside faces which can be seen from this graph, what is the best way to achieve that without too much manual work? (I have a lot of characters to deal with, so I am seeking an automatic way)

I have tried clean the mesh up and use "Intersect (Knife)", but that does not do the job cleanly. It still misses some faces and leaving them extruded inside the shape. Basically I only want to keep the contour of the mesh.

Attached a blender file for demo.

Shrinkwrap is actually the best way I can found and it works pretty well. Comparing to the heightmap approach talked about here BlenderExchange, the shrinkwrap approach is easier to operate and involves less processes.

Here is how I do it, first create a plane mesh over the beveled object, subdivide the surface with 30 slices:

Add subdivision surface and shrinkwrap modifiers.  The subdivisions need to set to 4 or 5. The mode of the shrinkwrap need to be "Project" (You might need to turn on "Negative" if "Positive" doesn't work.)

Apply the modifiers and edit the mesh. To do this easily, go to a side view and box select the vertices on the top layer, remove the vertexes:

Then you get a beautiful top contour without internal intervening faces:

The shape will have more details then necessary. Use limited dissolve to fix that

End result:


Buggy shading on a simple model I have a model with no complex shading, only Lambert diffuse and a texture. I have these weird black spots and buggy lighting that appears when exported to a game engine too. How do I fix it?
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzBoGW_cEeBcVHhqZDU1V3RyTFk/view?usp=sharing

The main problem which causes this unexpected result is normals splitted in a wrong way.

In Edit mode with all selected access Specials menu with W and choose Remove Doubles.
With all still selected press Ctrl+N to recalculate normals.
Then in order to get rid of ugly artifacts caused by smooth shading normals should be splitted (see How to smooth shade an object while retaining hard edges?). In Properties Editor > Object data tab in Normals rollout you can see that Autosmooth option is turned on but angle setting is greyed out. See What does it mean when my Angle setting under Auto Smooth greyed out ?.

In the same tab open Geometry Data rollout; button Clear Custom Split Normals Data is active, so data is  present.

You can use 2 ways: clear custom split normals and set up either Autosmooth angle or Edge Split modifier, or leave custom split normals as they are (e.g. if they should be preserved) and uncheck Autosmooth option.

See also:

Shading in object mode differ from sculpting mode?
Editing custom split normals using Normal Edit modifier.


How to divide a circle into slices for each side Sorry if the terms I used are incorrect, but I was wondering how I can divide a circle into several triangles, one for each side of the circle, as well as subdivinding those into quadgons like so:

I made the example on the left by hand (selecting each vertex and adding a face) which took way too long, and would clearly take too much time to do with other more complex circles.

I tried using subdivide and loop cut and slide, to no avail. So how can I do this quickly?

There are several approaches.

Adding rings

If you have a circle that is a triangle fan and you want to give it rings, just Circle Select C the edges that make up the "spokes" of the circle, Esc out of Circle Selection, and Subdivide W > "Subdivide".

In the Operator Panel on the left you can adjust the number of subdivisions.

Creating a triangle fan

If you don't yet have a triangle fan and need to create one, select the edge loop of your circle, Extrude E, then Scale S inward. Type "0" to scale in to the absolute center, Enter to commit. Remove doubles W > "Remove Doubles".

Note that the face normals may not be pointing in the direction you want. In the GIF above this is evident from the dark shading. You can remedy this by selecting the faces of your circle and pressing W > "Flip Normals".

Starting with a triangle fan

When you create your circle there is an option for Fill Type. Set it to Triangle Fan and you will already have a circle made up of tris.

Insetting

A less common approach, but good to know about.

If you have a circle that is an n-gon, with the face selected, press I and you can inset it inward. Finally, Scale S in to "0" and Remove Doubles W > "Remove Doubles".

Beveling the center vertex

If you're starting from a triangle fan, one more approach you can take is to bevel the center vertex to create the edge ring necessary to perform a Loop Cut. If you type in a near-zero value the 8 resulting center verts will be right on top of each other and you can easily patch the center hole later using Remove Doubles.


How to reproduce a smartphone cover material with some specific reflection patterns I am working on a smartphone render, on Blender 2.79 with Cycles, using mainly the new Principled shader. Everything is working perfectly, I am not new to 3D nor Blender, but there's a very specific surface that has proven difficult.

The back cover of the phone is made of some sort of glass (tempered glass) on top of a plastic surface (as I have come to guess, I might be wrong); and the mix gives a very particular kind of reflections.

I have managed to get close by combining Anisotropy and Clearcoat, but the result is still not satisfying. I'm even thinking about working without the Anisotropic reflections at all.

Here's a link to some pics of the real phone and some screens of what I have done so far.

I hope someone can help me with this.

Thank you

This is really just a supplement to Nicola's answer: my approach was to control the Anisotropic Rotation with a grad something like this:

simple

And a simple, dark, slightly blue-tinted glossy material, (roughness around 0.1).

resulting in this kind of response to peak light-sources in an HDR environment.

These are the nodes: I'm not knowledgeable enough in this area to justify them -  I've a feeling changing Anisotropic Rotation is equivalent to  rotating tangent space, bar some mapping, but how it's done in the Principled shader is something I have to look up.


Add the Same Modifier to Multiple Objects at Once? Is it possible to add a modifier to more than one mesh at once?

I have a lot of unique objects,  and I want to set a subdivide modifier to them, would I have to do each one individually?

I have tried selecting all the objects and then adding a modifier, but as I expected, it only added it to the active object.

You cannot use the modifier panel to apply a modifier to multiple objects, it only applies it to the one selected last. However, you can use Ctrl + L to copy the modifier on one mesh to all the other selected ones. You select the object(s) to apply the modifier to then the one that has the modifier.

Update:
Cool new trick thanks to Greg Zaal

If you Alt-Click on a property, it’ll work on all the selected objects at once, not just the active object. This works on most properties, including modifiers (as long as all the modifiers have the same name, which they do by default).


How do I set up an odd angled hinge? I have a door on an angled wall bent 5.5° in x and the hinge of the door is also on an angle y of 5.5°. I tried using an empty to pivot but mid way of the door opening animation the door goes off its hinge the most @frame 30.

How to make it work?

The door will rotate around it's origin, so first move it's origin to the hinged edge.

In edit mode select the hinge edge of the door.
Snap Cursor to selected - ⇧ ShiftS->Cursor To Selected.
In object mode, set origin to geometry. ⎈ Ctrl⎇ Alt⇧ ShiftC->Origin to 3D Cursor.

Focusing on the door by itself, animate it so that it rotates on it's hinged side.

Align the hinged side of the door to the global Z-Axis.
Keyframe the door rotating on the Z-Axis.

Then parent the door to the empty and move the empty so that the doors rotation aligns with the wall.

Clear the rotation of the empty.
Align the empty to the bottom corner of the door.
Parent the door to the empty.
Move the empty so that the door aligns with the wall.


combine triangles with squares What if I will combine triangles and squares together in one object, can that make my object more broken in some ways when rendering? Do I have to make my object only with triangles or only with squares?

For example here.

No, it is perfectly fine to use both triangles and squares in an object. For example, the object below has squares and triangles, and it works just fine.

As discussed in the comments below, there are many reasons why you might prefer to work with squares when modeling instead of triangles, but you can definitely use both if you wish.


Smoke renders, but not fire in 2.79 Cycles. However, both are fine in rendered viewport I have a scene with a rocket launching, so obviously fire is pretty important. However, after setting up the shaders and simulation, I can't get the fire to render. Strangely, the smoke is still rendered and the fire still emits light on the rocket, but doesn't appear below the rocket or shade the resulting smoke. Even stranger, the rendered viewport (ie 3D View set to Rendered) renders the scene perfectly. I'm at a complete loss. Here's a photo of the two views and my domain material:

And a closer image of the domain material after I redid it (still didn't work):

How can I get the fire to render? Thanks!

cegaton was right, it's a known issue with the viewport -- disabling Transparent under the Film tab and using a big plane behind my subject with a holdout shader let me render the flame correctly, then I used a lighten blend mode to composite it in Affinity Photo. Thanks, everyone!


upgraded to 2.9 bool shortcuts changed? I've just updated to 2.9, and can't use the Ctrl numpad - shortcut to make a bool difference anymore, manually adding a modifier works fine. The emulate numpad option isn't checked.
Has the shortcut changed? I can't see any difference in the documentation regarding bools.
Thanks in advance

My first time upgrading, I didn't realise I had to re-enable add-ons.
The issue was resolved by edit > preferences > add-ons then reactivating Bool-Tool.


Rotate object texture I have created this sign, but when I added the red texture to the face, the texture turned out sideways. Is there a way to rotate it? The original image is the right way up.

In the texture settings there doesn't seem to be a rotation value.

The way of doing it with simple (non-UV) texture mapping, is to tweak the mapping coordinate and scale.

For example:

Switching X and Y axis, and scaling X by -1 will rotate the texture 90 degrees clockwise.
Switching X and Y axis, and scaling Y by -1 will rotate the texture 90 degrees counter-clockwise.
Scaling X and Y by -1 will flip the image vertically.

But you see that it's quite limiting, less intuitive and flexible than UV-map based rotation, described in gandalf3's answer.


Flickering faces in Edit mode 2.83 I have this issue from the 2.83 update. I tried a couple of things but nothing seems to fix it. Here is a short video of how it looks. Video

Also if I move my mouse over the XYZ on the top right the faces become see-through even though the option is disabled. The see-through disappears when I move the camera around. You can see this at the very end of the video, although my mouse doesn't seem to pass the XYZ. It worked 100% of the time when I hovered over XYZ when I retested it.

I had the exact same behavior and it came out of nowhere.

Pixelated diagonals over faces
Faces flickering from gray to orange when selected
Strange see-through

I already worked in the same version of Blender (2.83.0) before on the same computer without this problem.
Solved it by uninstalling Blender and reinstalling version 2.83.2


Importing Bodyparts3D into Blender When I download a system from bodyparts3D, it's divided in different parts, and it's not organised in a single entity; and when I import body parts into blender, strange stuff happens. In fact to see the object, I need to rotate myself to see it, and I don't precisely know how to control it. So, how should I import obj. files from  Bodyparts3D? How it's downloadable a system in a single unit?

Pay attention to your tool shelf at the bottom left, you need to ensure that you don't split the verts on import.

As for the position of where the body parts land in space, my guess is that the original units were something other than what Blender is using by default, and that the origin is a shared origin, with the rest of the body parts, so that there relationship is kept.

So if that is important to you, then you probably should not change the origin like I did in the demonstration to simplify the scene with one part.

Instead:

I would recommend scaling your active import down by factors of 10 (eg. 0.1), until it comes into view - once you know how many times you needed to scale to make that happen (eg. if you had to scale down by 0.1 [3 times] then your scale factor would be 0.001), then you can do this for all future imports that were modelled with the same factor.**


Why does my model tear apart at its vertices when attempting to pose? I'll apologize in advance if this is an lame question or if I've missed an obvious step in this process, but I only just started using Blender and Unity yesterday, so to say I'm green would be a massive understatement.

Anyhow, my end goal here is that I'm setting up a model to import into Unity to then export as an avatar for VRChat. I've successly uploaded six avatars so far, all performed well while in use. However, each of those models were already rigged, which made configuring them in Unity infinitely easier.
Now, I recently downloaded an .fbx of Prophet from Crysis. Upon opening the scene in Unity, I realized it had no skeleton, and so I imported it into Blender to begin rigging. Creating bones seemed relatively simple, but when I parent the mesh with the armature and attempt to test posing, chunks tear away -- and in some instances it even affects areas in unrelated parts of the mesh, like the upper leg pulling chunks of the shoulder when rotated.

Before posing:

After posing:

Before Posing

After posing:

I've not yet manually weighted anything, I simply set parent with automatic weights. I thought maybe if I went in and specified weights that some of the issue might get resolved, but it either did nothing or made things worse.

Any advice would be immensely appreciated. I've tried to do my own research before asking for help, but Youtube and Google have proved unhelpful in this circumstance.

Here is a link to the .blend file if that would make figuring this out easier:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/5dj5qbojbfcsjtu/prophet.blend

As indicated in my comment, your problem seems to be loose geometry.  I found I could clean it up fairly easily by selecting all vertices of your mesh in Edit mode, then choosing Mesh-->Clean Up-->Remove Doubles and specifying a "Merge Distance" of .06.  I can't tell whether that took out details of your mesh that you wanted to keep, but this resulted in a mesh without loose parts.  Re-parenting the mesh to the armature with automatic weights made everything work as expected.  You could try playing with the Merge Distance of the "Remove Doubles" command if parts of your mesh are getting oversimplified.


About shrinkwrap - Any way to apply it to a vertex group and move the rest the proportional distance? it's probably a very basic question but i have no idea how to get it and i have to say that my use of blender is quite basic.
I have this object that I want to attach to the surface of the mountain

I know that with the modifier I can join the object to the mountain, but the whole shape would be lost ... and assigning a group of vertices will only affect them, being this way:
My question is if there is any way to get the remaining vertices to move while maintaining the proportion with respect to the others, something like this:
I'm still investigating, but any help is more than welcome.
Thank you!
Edit: thanks for the answer, but the problem is that there would be hundreds of objects like this, they are simply a plane to create a forest effect
And the interesting thing would be not to lose the UV map so as not to have to map them all. In fact, being different, I could not even transfer the mapping.

Instead of a subdivided plane, use a subdivided edge like so :

Add your shrinkwrap :

Now add a Screw Modifier set to Z axis, angle 0°, with 1 step and tweak the screw value:

Moving the source object along the X Axis :

You can add a solidify modifier after all this to add thickness to your wall :


Trying to make text float, before a wrecking ball wrecks it I'm trying to create a text that is in the centre of the screen. A wrecking ball comes behind it and flings the letters everywhere. I have made the wrecking ball. I have made the text and made the text so that the wrecking ball collides and destroys the text.

However, because the text is resting on a plane I can't get the wrecking ball to be the centre of the screen. It has also forced me to rigid body constraint the letters with one another, in order to prevent letters such as "P" falling over before even being hit.

Is it possible to allow each of the letters to "fly" so that firstly, they don't need a plane to balance on and secondly so the wrecking ball can be bigger and more central to the camera?

I could render the animation and post it so you can see exactly what I mean, if I haven't been clear enough already (as I'm not great with words :P)

I'm currently using render cycles (I think that's what I'm meant to be using).

Thanks in advance to any help.

I would recommend the following workflow for achieving the desired results:

Choose enable deactivation then start deactivated for your text objects. Also, ensure they are set to dynamic in your rigid body settings.
For your "wrecking ball", it needs to be set to animated as well as dynamic. Also, increase the mass of this object sufficiently.

Now, at frame one, keyframe the starting point for your wrecking ball
object, then move along the timeline to your end point, and set a
location keyframe for your wrecking ball again.

Because start deactivated is enabled on your text objects, the rigid body collision does not take effect until an active object collides with it. After following these steps, you should be able to come up with something like this.

Also note that by changing the shape of your text objects collision you can find some interesting results. For my example, I ultimately chose to use box for my text instead of the default convex hull.


How to shorten a video? Make a Livestream shorter? Is this possible?
I am learning Blender still, so I don't know all the shortcuts and quickies on the software. With that said I don't know if this is even possible for Blender?
How could I make a Livestream footage shorter, compressed like? I want to make a SpeedPaint video for at least 15 minutes or less. I do not want to show an entire 2hr and 28 minute video.

Thank you in advance !

Add a Speed control strip.

Then change the speed in the multiply speed control.

Then just adjust the render range of your project.


How to make arc with many faces looks smooth with subdivision modifier? I'm newbie. How to make this looks normal?

This is arc I tried to make smooth using subdivision modifier.

I also tried this trick but it didn't work.

Here are 2 ways (destructive and not) to do it:


How can I linear increase to Location Value I want want to lineer increase to Location Value.
How can i do that?
For example i have a car and i need to go 100 meter.
But i just know this car can go 20 meter.
I want to go 20 meter and again 20 meter and again and agian.
I don't want to go 100.

You only need two keyframes to animate a value with a constant linear variance.

By default an fcurve uses a constant extrapolation, that is it stays at the last animated value. You can change this in the Graph Editor or the Dopesheet in the Channel->Extrapolation Mode menu or ⇧ ShiftE.

If you want it to stop after a certain time, you can go to that frame and insert a new keyframe, then reset the extrapolation back to constant.


Measure length of "curve" (or similar) by drawing on mesh I know there are a million answers on here about measuring the length of a curve (like this one, which is pretty much what I want to do) but I feel like this situation is a tiny bit different.  I have a scene like this:

Which is the real top of a skull, imported in "real" units.  I'd love to measure the circumference of that hole in the skull and return the length in centimeters, preferably by drawing on it.  I was drawing a curve by eyeball and using the CurveTools addon to get the length, but as you can imagine, its often hard to tell if you're in a correct 3d Plane and actually touching the surface and I often had to manually adjust each point I drew.  What I would love to do is "paint" like so:

And then have Blender measure the length of that, I imagine by creating a curve where that selection is? I tried separating the mesh by selection and then converting that new chunk into a "curve" and that technically happened, but the new curve couldn't be measured by Curvetools, not sure why.
Blender 2.9 if it matters.

Nevermind, found my solution here:
How can I make curves "stick" to a model?
Instead of drawing a selection and then creating a curve from that, you can draw your curve and have it snap to the object as you're drawing.


Why is moving objects, on the Z Plane, so unprecise? When I look through the camera and try to move objects in the scene while constraining their movement to the Z-Plane (G, Shift+Z), the tiniest movements throw them from one side to the other.

But this only happens sometimes.

Other times I can move them precise and without a problem, so surely I must have hit a button that does that.

When translating constrained to a plane, the mouse motion is translated relative to that plane. This is fine when the 'view' is relatively distant to the plane but if the view is close to the plane of motion then any small movement can be drastically amplified (for example, moving the mouse slightly 'up' can result in the object disappearing into the distance).

To test this, simply open the default scene. Select the cube and G to grab it, then Shift+Z. Note that when you move the mouse the motion of the cube closely matches. Cancel the movement by pressing Escape so the cube returns to the centre.

Now move the view so that you are close to the plane of the grid like so :

Now repeat the above keystrokes to grab the cube constrained to the plane. Move the mouse up/down and see how it now behaves - it will shoot off into the distance as the mouse moves up. The motion is relative to the plane - since the plane is at a very shallow angle in the view, small vertical motions correspond to large changes in distance.

To avoid this issue simply ensure the view point is not close to the plane of motion.


How to create a "suspension" for fast moving objects? I have searched this for long and have found nothing about.

I'm trying to make a racing game like Mario Kart, but when my character reaches a certain speed, hes bounces up, like hopping, at any slight change of the ground geometry. Even at invisible edges of completely flat planes with no imperfection.

I know the Object Type Character fixes that with "step height" option, but I cannot use the "servo control"  actuator on it, which is crucial.

How to add a tolerance to this small imperfections with the "dynamic object"?

Unfortunately I'm not a programmer, I am an Artist, and wondering how far I can get using the logic editor, and simple scrips.

Ill leave my project here, so you can see for yourself. Note that the details of the map such as the edges of the platforms are set to "no collision", so this is not the problem.

X Accel
Z Brake
C Shoot Item
A Hop / Drift
Q, E Side Step
Arrows - Direction

This is not too surprising behaviour, and the solution is to not have things rubbing at high speed. In real life, your car would grind the bottom off completely.
Probably the most useful solution is to suggest using BGE's vehicle wrapper.


What version have I installed I read that MB-Lab 1.7.5 requires Blender 2.80.74 or later. I cannot find what my exact version is, it just says 2.80.

Blender 2.9x
There are four locations that show the version in varying level of detail.
Splash screen

Status Bar

About Blender

Export System Information

===========================================
= Blender 2.91.0 Alpha System Information =
===========================================

Blender:
===========================================

version: 2.91.0 Alpha, branch: master, commit date: 2020-08-06 17:52, hash: 9a1ff4445b98, type:
build date: 2020-08-06, 21:59:05

Blender 2.8x
There are three locations that show the version in varying level of detail.
Splash screen with the name of the release

Status bar with the version number

Help > Save System Info detailed information including the commit hash

Excerpt from the system-info.txt
============================================
= Blender 2.80 (sub 75) System Information =
============================================

Blender:
============================================

version: 2.80 (sub 75), branch: master, commit date: 2019-07-29 14:47, hash: f6cb5f54494e, type:
build date: 2019-07-29, 09:44 AM


What's the difference between the Undistortion node and the "Render undistorted"option in the camera background settings? When you do camera tracking in Blender and press the "Setup Tracking Scene button", Blender automatically sets up a compositing node configuration that makes is easy to add 3D elements to the video footage.
One of the nodes is an Undistortion node, that is supposed to undo the lens distortion, to make the undistorted 3D elements generated by Blender fit into the footage.
When you are working on your scene, you can set the video to be the background image for your camera. In the settings for the background image, by default the "Render undistorted" checkbox is checked.
My expectation was that this would have the same behaviour as the Undistortion node in the compositor, but this appears to not be the case.
In the camera background picture, the undistort-option makes the picture look worse than the original: a line that was originally pretty straight, looks bent after performing the undistortion.
In the compositor, the undistorted picture looks exactly the same as the original footage, as if Blender has decided that the original video was not distored at all, and doesn't need any undistortion treatment.
My question is: how is it possible that the Undistortion node has a different behaviour from the "Render undistorted" option for the camera background? Do they, for some reason use different distortion values (K1, K2) to do their calculations?

The camera background image in the viewport, with Render Undistorted option enabled,

should look the same as the result of the "undistort node" in the compositor,

and same as when you check the "render undistorted" in the Clip Display options in the Movie Clip editor.

In the undistorted image, straight lines should look straight, not curved. If they don't, then the Radial distortion coefficients k1, k2 (and k3) are not set correctly, or the optical center of the image might be incorrect as well.
To determine the distortion coefficients photograph a chart (or anything that has straight lines), open the image in the movie clip editor and use the annotation tool to trace thosestraight lines and distort them to match the image as shown in the following link:
How to determine lens undistortion values for motion tracking?


How do I eliminate a harsh lighting issue on my cylindrical glossy model? I am new to blender and have recently created my first model.  I created the mesh and then textured it, added a world environment texture, and rendered it only to find a very dark harsh "shadow" around the rear of my model.  However, the shadow only appears when I add a face to the back of the model to complete the whole mesh.  I have included pictures so you can see what I am talking about.

Without the rear face

With the rear face

In the first picture you can see the model's cylindrical body WITHOUT it's rear face resulting in no shadow.  However, in the second picture, a face was added to the rear of the model resulting in a harsh shadow as shown.
I am using blender version 2.73

It appears that you are using a Subsurf modifier, and a flat many-edged face on the back. That would be called an N-Gon, and is highly frowned upon in Blender as it brings a host of issues into the picture. Quads (faces with 4 edges) are much prefered, as it they work best for almost all of the relevant calculations done by Blender.

This particular issue can be resolved by adding an edge-loop near the face on the back by pressing Ctrl+R


How to load correctly submodule into __init__.py Taking into account the use of bpy.ops.script.reload()? I'm building a module that contains only functions, which I named functions.py, it's in the same directory as the addon's __init__.py file.
So I have various solutions:
Solution 1:
from . import functions

Now I can call the functions contained in functions.py module like so:
functions.my_function_one()
functions.my_function_two()
#Etc.

Solution 2:
from .functions import *

Now I can call functions like this:
my_function_one()
my_function_two()
#Etc.

I particularly like the use of the second solution (But I don't know which is the best idea)
Anyway the question is: when I run bpy.ops.script.reload()
Changes made inside functions.py module will not be reloaded, Only by restarting Blender will these take effect.
So I'd like to understand how to go about solving Solution 1 and 2
I want to clarify that I ask this, as it is quite frustrating to have to restart the blender at every minimum change of the modules.

It is not that bad to use the second method if you're not collaborate and distribute your project with other. In other words, personal usage is fine if you do take care of naming confliction.
The problem when you reload script is a common mistake that you assume that all object you imported from that module is reloaded by the reload method (imp.reload()). Instead reload all relative script, Python will only reload the required script, which is your module, not the * objects.
You can some how use Python built-in reload function to specify the updated script that you want to use and reimport * again:
from imp import reload
reload(function)  # bpy.ops.script.reload() seems like a sugar macro that handle the dependencies

from functions import *
# This is required since you don't reload e.g. `foo()` and `bar()` in your functions

And also if you want to use Method 1 for correctness:
from . import functions as fn
fn.foo('bar')

or
# You should take care about relative import path issue
from ./functions import (
    foo,
    bar,
    a_very_loooong_name_function,
)
foo("cool")
bar("hello")


boolean modifiers working in viewport but not in renders I think this is a simple fix with a setting somewhere that I have missed but I cannot for the life of me figure out why the boolean modifiers are not working properly in my renders.
Here is the viewport (please excuse the lack of textures)

And here is the render You can see that the boolean for the window isn't working. (The render is low sample with denoising and the light artefact is a reflection off the shower screen.)

I have double checked that the modifiers are ticked for the render and viewports, and have checked modifier and boolean object settings but cannot figure it out.
Here is the .blend file if you would like it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ik3yul655e23nqa/Chris%20House%201.blend?dl=0
Thanks in advance for your help.
Dan

Ergh, so dumb. I found the issue while simplifying the file as suggested. It was a solidify modifier on the boolean object that was turned off in viewport but on in render. The issue arose because I created the bool object based on the window and didn't delete the modifier.


My GTX 1060 GPU doesn’t work on Blender 2.9 as OptiX I understand that the non RTX GPU has also been changed to use OptiX in this 2.9 update.
However, my GPU (GTX 1060) outputs a message when OptiX is selected that it will be rendered as a CPU and actually the rendering speed is slower than Cuda and the same as CPU. I rebooted the PC, but the result was still the same.
Am I misunderstanding this update?

The Nvidia GTX 1060 is supported for rendering with OptiX (see release notes), but it requires a current graphics driver. Updating it should allow you to select the GPU as OptiX render device for Cycles. The current drivers can be downloaded from Nvidia's website.


How to scale imported .gltf model? I imported a gltf model in Blender and it's way too big. If I convert the same model to .obj before, I can import it in Blender and set the Clamp-Size to 1.00 and the scaling is alright. Unfortunately, the gltf importer in Blender 2.8 doesn't have such an option.

I already tried selecting everything and scaling it down in the Transform tab to 0.01 (seems to be the lowest I can set it to) but it's still way too big (still so big that Blender is cutting the view in half because one end is "too far" away).

Is there any way to resize it? Im importing an ArchiCAD model which unfortunately doesn't give me any options on export.

Thanks

As Don mentioned in a comment, you should be able to scale the object smaller in a variety of ways, regardless of import format.  You can use the S key and drag the mouse towards the center, which can be repeated multiple times, or you can directly enter numbers (smaller than 0.01) on the Transform panel.

But before you do that, here's something else to consider:

If this is an architectural or other genuinely large model, scaling it down is likely the wrong solution.  You want to configure Blender to be able to preview a larger volume of space.

Open the Numeric panel (if it's not already open, press N in the 3D panel), and look for the clip settings:

The rules here are a little strange, but I'll try to explain.  Roughly, you don't want the Clip End value to be more than about 10,000 to 100,000 times larger than the Clip Start value.  The more digits you put between these two numbers, the more strain you're placing on something called the "depth buffer" which is how a 3D graphics card figures out which polygons are in front.

For example, if you set Start to 100m and End to 10000000m, you should be able to preview a very large model, cleanly.  But if you only set the End value super large, and leave the Start value at its default, you may start to see flickering (Z-fighting) between some of the polygons, depending on how close they are to overlapping.  The good news is, when you're viewing something that large, you don't typically need to get the camera to zoom in on the tiniest details, so the Clip Start can move further away from the camera.

So my advice is, start by adding zeros onto the back of the Clip End number, until the whole back of the model comes into range.  Then, if you see problems, start adding zeros to the Clip Start value, one digit at a time, until the problems subside.


How to unwrap a cylinder to rectangles instead of a circle? I currently made a Model of a Can and wanted to Unwrap the Body, but it always shows up Round. The Model I made earlier though, shows the Unwrap as rectangles, and I would like to do that in my latest Model too. I hope someone can help me, thanks in advance!

For this you need to create so called seams.
Seams define where an objects uv layout is interrupted.

Imagine like you cut that object at those seam lines to then lay it flat on the ground.

In a cylinder you need 1 vertical seam in your case. This will allow it to be a rectangle since it can be layed out flat.

To do so press alt+(optional shift)+rigth click (or left click). This will select the whole edge loop. Now that you have done that you can press ctrl+e and go to "mark seam". It should be highlighted in red now. If the cylinder has a face on top and bottom you need the whole circle to be marked as seam too.

Now press U and select unwrap

Alternatively but not recommended you can press automatic unwrap when pressing u. This will automatically set seams where the angle of faces is over a threshold. I highly advise to not use this but do it manually as this will, not just can but will create odd at best and horrible at worst uv maps. It does not know structure and logic but only knows angles. It's OK for dead simple things like cubes but there it ends.


All white in Eevee render When I try to render image or animation it firts turns normal (1st image) but then it become all white (image 2)
Also there is link for .blend file
Please help

The render layer is not connected to any nodes in the compositor!

Disconnected nodes have no effect on the render image.


Shearing only working on the 2 axis I don't want I am making some sort of underground subway inspired by a blender guru tutorial, and I used f-spy to mark out the axis etc. and that worked fine when I imported it in. I positioned a plane and extruded it up. There was a turn in the subway so I want to shear the end of the extruded plane. When I shear something, it always says, in the information in top left, that I can shear it in the x or y axis, as you can see here.

Image 1
Is there any way of shearing on the z axis? I have come across this issue many times before.
Obviously I could just rotate it, like
this, but the rotating creates this tapered effect. I would like to do it by shearing if that's possible.
Thanks for your time.

By default the Shear tool axis will be the one of the view, for example if the view is this one, the X and Y axis will be these ones:

So if you keep the default Orientation and shear on the X axis, the view will be the axis and the vertices will move along the view's X axis, like this:

But you can also choose to shear on the Global, Local axis, etc... You need to choose the Orientation in the Operator box. In this box, the Axis will be the rotation pivot axis, the Axis Ortho will be the axis along which the vertices move, the Offset will be the amount of units they move.

In your case you can either put your view on top (7) and shear on the Y axis, or stay in user view, press ShiftCtrlAltS to shear, press Enter right away, and in the Operator box, switch the Orientation to Global, Axis > Z, Axis Ortho > Y.


How to imitate Ambient Occlusion in Cycles? I created an object with some basic shading and Ambient Occlusion switched on and thus getting the right look. Now that I need to paste it in my main project (through Append) I need the same effect but it shouldn't affect anything else but this object.

Any idea how to apply Ambient Occlusion to a particular object or imitating it somehow?

The future

There is a very easy way for versions of Blender compiled after last June: not just Blender 2.8 but also Blender 2.79's "latest builds" that you can download from the Blender Builder («These builds are not as stable as releases, use at your own risk.»).

The Ambient Occlusion node

This is the effect of the Ambient Occlusion input on a Emission Shader node: the plane looks entirely flat without AO, despite having a complex geometry (there is no other source of shadows; in fact, the scene has no lights apart from the plane itself). Cavities become evident with AO:

It can be made dependent on the local object only by ticking "Only Local".

Where to use it

You should use a MixRGB node in the Multiply mode to darken whatever color input you have with the "blacks" coming from the AO socket of the Ambient Occlusion node.

More on the Ambient Occlusion node

...in this video from the Blender Developers.

The past

There was a very preliminary "node based" solution also in the stable release, but the old Ambient Occlusion node outputs an Emission-like BSDF (), not a Color () or a Fac (). This makes it basically impossible to add your AO on top of other shaders.

It also doesn't have parameters!

It is basically only good for baking textures, or for shadeless visualizations.


How can I randomize a value for a node? How can I randomize a numerical value for a node? Is there any one node, or combination of nodes that can achieve this effect?

Object Info Node's Random Output

I just discovered there is an Input node that can output a random value:
  Input -> Object Info
However, it only works for Material Shader nodes.

Here is the Blender wiki description of this node:

  Object Info
  Information about the object instance. This can be useful
  to give some variation to a single material assigned to multiple
  instances, either manually controlled through the object index, based
  on the object location, or randomized for each instance. For example a
  Noise texture can give random colors or a Color ramp can give a range
  of colors to be randomly picked from.

  Note that this node only works for material shading nodes; it does
  nothing for lamp and world shading nodes.

  Location: Location of the object in world space.
  Object: Index Object pass index, same as in the Object Index pass.transformed.
  Material Index: Material pass index, same as in the Material Index pass.
  Random: Random number unique to a single object instance.


Textures aren't visible when 3d printing I'm trying to create something like a 2d sprite:

I want it to be extruded for 3d printing in sandstone, but the textures are not showing up.

This is Blender Render, not Cycles. It opens fine in Meshlab but when I send the zipped .obj with the .mtl to Shapeways, it shows as untextured 3d shape.

First i made the flat plane, textured it and then extruded as individual face (Alt+E); after that I exported .obj with .MTL. Later on i tried VRML, X3D with zipped image and some other ones but they don't show up on Shapeways, only the shape shows up. MeshLab opens them as textured.

Texture path is set to relative and texture pic is zipped together with the exported 3d file when uploading to Shapeways.

This is an example of how it needs to be, the sides need to look like they have been extruded, stretched from the extruding on the Z axis. When I extruded the textured flat plane the texture also become extruded on the sides and that is the look I need..
This is an example, not the real model i'm trying to make but the idea is the same I guess. http://rg.to/file/9ef90eb82a896fe65986664923fcfcbf/box.blend.html Thanks

Exporting with textures is sometimes finicky for 3D Printing. There is a helpful 3D Print toolbox addon that makes the process much easier and more reliable. Try using it.

I also have a tutorial to do exactly what you are trying to do in your project. It uses a script I wrote. You can get it here

Here is the tutorial on YouTube or follow the written steps below

Install the addon, then pick an image. Images should be less than 100x100 pixels, so scale it down if necessary. Then make sure to check Join Objects to make sure each cube is connected. Then run the addon.

If you want it taller, all you have to do is either change the Z Depth value in the addon or scale the object in edit mode after the script runs.

Now we need to set the scale of the object so we can get reliable printing results. To use millimeters, change to Metric and set the Scale to 0.001

Then you need to name your object and install the 3D Print Toolbox addon. It comes shipped with Blender, so search for it in the User Preferences. Once it is installed you need to click the bounds button to set the scale. Enter the size you want.

Then all you have to do is export and upload to Shapeways!
It is important that you choose X3D to preserve the colors.


How to check status of Meta Strip toggle with python? In the VSE, if I select a Meta Strip, I can toggle its 'expanded view' with Tab or by calling the bpy.ops.sequencer.meta_toggle() python operator.

How do I check whether or not a Meta Strip is currently in 'expanded' or 'collapsed view' via python?

import bpy

scene = bpy.context.scene
seq_editor = scene.sequence_editor

if len(seq_editor.meta_stack) > 0:
    meta_name = seq_editor.meta_stack[-1].name
    print(meta_name + ' is currently expanded')
else:
    print('All meta strips are collapsed')

See meta_stack for more information.


Populating an EnumProperty using a Function I need to populate an EnumProperty with the names of every group in the scene, so that I can include them in a dropdown (prop_menu_enum) in the interface.

How would one accomplish this? I'm creating a tool that has to do with group instances, and ideally speaking, one could choose the group from which they wanted to instance objects using a dropdown menu. As far as I'm aware, (I could very well be wrong!) the only to do so would be to create an EnumProperty using a function to populate it, but I don't know precisely what that function should contain. I tried making a function that returns a list of containing the group's name as the first two elements, and the third being an empty string, but for whatever reason I can't seem to get it to work!

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

You can use UILayout.prop_search to assign a group to a string.

import bpy

bpy.types.Object.test = bpy.props.StringProperty(name="Group")

def draw(self, context):
    self.layout.prop_search(context.object, "test", bpy.data, "groups")

bpy.types.OBJECT_PT_relations.append(draw)

If you use an EnumProperty blender stores the unique id / number, not the string. So you need a separate StringProperty to keep track of the group, in case the user deletes a group and your enumeration of the groups assigns a different index to the selected group.

def get_items():
    #closure - keep a reference to the list
    items = None
    def func(self, context):
        items = [(group.name, group.name, "") for group in bpy.data.groups]
        return items
    return func

bpy.types.Object.enum_prop = bpy.props.EnumProperty(items=get_items())

def draw_menu_enum(self, context):
    self.layout.prop_menu_enum(context.object, "enum_prop", "Group")

bpy.types.OBJECT_PT_relations.append(draw_menu_enum)


Finished AVI file wont open! (I have newest version of mac and blender) I finished rendering my intro template after about 30 mins. The rectangle where it was rendering went black. I went to my downloads where I had saved it there was a quicktime file that I opened and said "converting....... QuickTime Player can't open "blender finished intro0001-0220.avi" To see if additional software is available that will enable QuickTime Player to open the movie, click Tell Me More. when I did i brought me to the apple website and said I had to download quicktime 7 even though i already have 10.6 I think. I followed the instructions and downloaded it but the file still wont open.

If an error happened before blender finished all the frames that were supposed to be rendered, I am afraid the .avi file may be corrupt. It cannot be opened or fixed. The way to render an animation the safe way is to always render as an image sequence. Meaning render each frame as a .jpg or .png file format. You would then use the VSE (Video Sequence Editor) in blender to combine all the images and save it as a .mov or .avi movie file format.

This way if some error occurs you can still restart the rendered at the point where the error occurred, instead of starting all over again because your movie file was corrupted by the incomplete rendering process.

That is how the animation industry does rendering work at a professional level too. This workflow allow for post production work, like adding visual effects and color correction after the all the frames are rendered.


How to install Filmic Blender under Ubuntu? I want to use the Filmic Blender color management. I'm not so advanced user, so I don't know where I missed something.
I renamed the filmic-blender to colormanagement and placed at the right place (I think): /usr/share/blender/2.78/datafiles. But when I open Blender, it still remains  with the standard color management...
Thanks in advance for any help.

SOLVED!

Under Linux Ubuntu, the colormanagement folder is located here:

/usr/share/blender/2.78/datafiles.

To rename it, since it's a system folder, you must be logged in as administrator. It's easy. I opened Thunar file manager and navigated to the folder location. Once there, I right-clicked and chose "open terminal here". In the terminal, the command is:

sudo mv colormanagement colormanagement_oldbackup

Insert your root password and it's done.
To place the new folder in here, first place the "filmic-blender" folder on your home folder (in my case it's /home/gigabyte). Rename it as colormanagement. Then, open the terminal and type:

sudo cp -R /home/yourusername/colormanagement /usr/share/blender/2.78/datafiles

Insert again your password and it's done.
Remember that you doesn't need really type the whole lines. Use "Ctrl C" to copy from the file manager (right click on the folder/file and, and you'll see the label "location"). In the terminal use "Ctrl Shift V".

The Reluctant Computer

On the computer with Ubuntu 14, I had to allow Blender to access the new colormanagement folder. To do this, you must open the terminal on the folder "datafiles". Then, type:

sudo chown -R yourusername colormanagement

The system will ask for your password and it's done.

Ok, it's a little less easy than Windows, but what can I do? I love Ubuntu...