Blender 2.82 Parts of solid (opaque) objects in cycles renders are slightly transparent in photoshop After rendering my scene in cycles with a transparent background, I saved the image as a PNG with alpha with 0 compression.  I thought everything was fine until I examined it very closely.  Certain parts, mostly the darker areas, appear to be about 5-10% transparent, barely noticeable. They SHOULD be 100% opaque. The only thing that tipped me off is that I have my Photoshop transparency set to a Pink/white checkerboard.  Some areas I can barely make out the checkerboard underneath.

I've checked the materials, and there is no transparency set, no alpha mask/layer, nothing. Other areas of the same object seem fine, although maybe I just cant see it in the brighter areas.  It also happens on other objects in the scene with different materials.

I can workaround by duplicating the layer in photoshop, but I'm really curious If anyone seen something similar, and what could be causing it.

Here are links to the blend file(s), I don't know why there are 2 but I included both.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/1xlinwk8xok1sif/stackexchange.blend/file
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ghc2f5zhdp8672w/stackexchange.blend1/file

After having a look at your file (without textures attached) I have several suspicions:

"Noah's place bighter 2.exr" may have alpha issues
World background nodes> "Background" node itself was set to 0.920 instead of 1.
Compositor nodes> "Composite" node was set to "Use Alpha". Disable that?
Render settings>Film>Transparent>"Transparent Glass" was on. Turn off if you don't need it.
Render settings>Film>"Transparent" was on. Turn off if you don't it.

You can also check the alpha of your render directly in blender "render" window by right clicking the final render image and holding the mouse cursor over image pixels in question. It reads out RGB and alpha values.


"skip" renamed to "frequency" in BGE logic bricks? In the logic editor, there is a "skip" instead of "frequency", I want to know if this is just a name change or a function change. I needed to make a flame, I was watching a tutorial and his version had "frequency" while mine had a "skip" instead.

The frequency parameter was only renamed to skip in 2.75 as documented in the release notes.

  "Frequency" parameter is renamed to "Skip" in the Logic Brick sensors as it represents skipped frames between pulses.

It still does exactly the same thing, controls how often the logic brick can run.


Export cycles material to unity I have been experiencing an issue that once I have a material created and looking the way I want it, I cannot seem to export it correctly with the textures mixed.

I don't know the correct words to use, but in blender I have the material created using the nodes editor, and I have placed two textures inside of there (one for the rock texture and one for moss, my object is a rock). When I export this model and import to Unity (the game engine I am using), I find a materials folder but the material inside of it does not have the textures assigned, it's just a plain white material?

How can I export my material from blender in a way that it will allow me to import it WITH TEXTURES into Unity?

You will have to Bake the material before you can use it in unity. Specifically the color data from the material.
Well what pass holds the color data? That depends on how your material is set up. You might have to bake a Diffuse pass, a Glossy pass, or an Emission pass (those are the three most common passes, but there are 11 total passes).

If you are using a Diffused BSDF, Principled BSDF (non metallic),  and Toon BSDF shader then bake a Diffuse pass set to Color.
However the Anisotropic BSDF, Glass BSDF, Glossy BSDF, Hair BSDF, and Velvet BSDF shaders will all output a pure black Diffuse pass. For these you need to bake a Glossy pass set to Color.

If you have an emissive materiel, you will need to use (no surprise here) an Emit pass.

The interesting one is the Principled shader. When set to metallic, it too will be a pure black diffuse pass.

These here are the minimum steps to bake the color of a cycles material to a texture (I'm using a diffuse pass here). You may depending on your UV layout need to create another UV map. Possible to bake texture to new UV map?

With the object in question selected, open the UV/Image Editor and create a new image which will be used to bake to.
In the material nodes add a Image Texture node, select the image you just created and keep it the active node (light yellow outline).
In the Properties Window under the Render tab scroll down to the Bake heading. Change the Bake Type to Diffuse, and choose only the Color pass. Now press the large Bake button.


time offset in blender compositor? I want to subtract the current frame from a previous frame, I have a image sequence and I want blender to subtract the current frame from the frame with an offset of -4. If I am on frame 5 so blender will subtract and use frame 1.

The image node has an offset option which does exactly this:


Vertices of an object rotate on different axis I recently downloaded a bitcoin model from cgtrader.
The problem being that the vertices of this model seem to have several different origins, so if I rotate the object in edit mode, the object doesn't keep its initial shape...
Do you know what to do in this case ?


Switch between modes I seem to have trouble switching between modes. I have to open and start a file in sculpt or I can't use the sculpt feature. For example, I start model and get the basic shape then go up to modes, choose sculpt. My object is there but nothing happens. I can't use any brushes or anything. But if I open a new sculpt file, the sphere is there and I can use all the brushes on it. What am I missing?

I believe that the issue is arising from either one of the situations below.

1) When you switch to Sculpt mode, the sculpting tools will only act on the previously selected object. Switch back to the Layout mode and make sure that you've got the sculpting object selected.

2) Your object may not have enough geometry to be sculpted on since the sculpting brushes act by moving the existing vertices of the object. So if you are attempting to sculpt on the default cube, for example, the brushes only have the eight corners to work with. You can add more geometry to the object by subdividing it. Alternatively, you can enable Dyntopo located in the header bar while in sculpting mode. This will add additional geometry as you work.


Rigging a Pac-Man-like character I have created a character that is basically a big moving eye with a tail. I am having problems wrapping my head around how to assign bones and weight it appropriately. Here's a picture:

I have been trying to mess with the weighting of bones, but it has not produced any good results. The most acceptable solution I have found is using two halves of a sphere and then assigning a bone to each of them. Here's how it looks:

However, this solution produces some artifacts where the spheres meet, and it gets even worse when lighting is added.
How can I go about adding bones to this character so that its eye can blink? Note that I can't use any fancy Blender built in stuff because this model is going to be used in my game developed with libGDX, which I believe only supports bones and weights.

If it's hard to imagine what I'm asking, you can think of it as a Pac-Man. How would you rig a Pac-Man so that he could move his mouth?

I just made an example.

Bind each half loop to each control bone;
Add a bone constraint called Copy Rotation to each bone except the outermost one, set all target as the outmost bone (the longest one in the image below), adjust the Influence value for each degressively.
After that, you can control the open/close action simply by just tweaking the outermost bone.


Why does blender select random faces in edit mode? (Ubuntu) I am following this tutorial to model a basic human male https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9l9Eq4eX-I
every time I try to select a face in edit mode it selects a different face either three faces away or on the other side of my mesh it’s becoming very tiresome and I was wondering if anyone else has had the same problem or if you know how to fix it.
Please help as I enjoy using blender but cant do much more than simple texture editing.

I click the face that has the 3D cursor by it but it selects a different one.

In edit mode, you see the three boxes for either putting select mode into 'vertex', 'edge', or 'face'?  Next to that is a button called 'Limit selection to visible'.
When it is 'selected' or darker, selecting parts of the mesh will no longer select what is behind the cursor on the other side.

See pic.


Make a hole with Boolean but without 'fill cap' Here's a question. I'm dissecting a paprika based on a reference image. Now I'm 'slicing' the paprika with the Boolean tool, but this has an automatic fill-cap function. What I mean by that is that it fills the mesh instead of leaving me a hollow paprika, as I desire. Please check the attached images for more clearity.
Is it possible to disable the fill-cap (like at the Curve Modifier)? Is there maybe a better/different non-destructive method than the Boolean Modifier?
Oh, and FYI I'm using this non-destructive way of modelling because I'm not sure how thick or thin I want my paprika slices to be and I'd probably want to keep tweaking it 'till the end.

You can make the paprika hollow non-destructively by using a solidify modifier before the boolean:

Like you mentioned, because this is a modifier, you can tweak the thickness whenever you want.


How to save materials to image Blender How to save materials (the texture tab) as image?.
Example: I have these stars models, but i want to save the texture too, to don´t have any problems when i open it in a program.

If by save the texture you mean bake the texture then make sure your render engine is set to Cycles.
UV unwrap your object so the texture maps onto it correctly when you bake it. I suggest that you do not have any overlapping islands.
Then you should be able to press bake with it set to diffuse.
Although, it seems that you have a diffuse shader set to a yellow color with it mixed with a glossy shader and if you want to bake the reflections into the texture that would be different.


How do I find the setting affected by a f-curve using python? Knowing my f-curve, how can I find the animated setting?

 bpy.data.actions['Material.001Action'].fcurves[0]

The answer was pretty simple. Just add this at the end of line:

.data_path

bpy.data.actions['Material.001Action'].fcurves[0].data_path


Animation Nodes - Replicate an object on an already replicated object In the following example, I do have a spline replicated. Now I want to place an icosphere on all of the splines. Can't find a way of doing this.

In short I have a mesh replicated on a spline, then I want to replicate this entire system on a new instancer/replicator. In this case, a circular replicator spline.

Use a "Get Length" node to create the same amount of icosphereinstances as there are splines.

Create a Loop subprogram to loop through the spline list.

we can now use a replicate spline node to get info for each of the splines and position the icospheres accordingly.

Use the spline and object lists as iterator inputs and connect them to the evaluate spline and an object transform output node.

invoke the subprogram.

You can use the parameter of the evaluate spline node to offset the icosphere along the splines.


How to switch from ctrl-b render selection to default selection Somehow I switched my default selection with Ctrl+B to a rendering window mode. How do I switch it back to default mode so I can actually select objects again?


How to render multiple (say 1000) overlapping objects seperately (one per frame)? I am quite new to Blender and thanks for your help.

I need to render multiple .stl files (say 1000) by timeline (one per frame) generated from a third party software, which are basically calculated tsunami meshes. They need to be shown only one for each frame with city/environment created in Blender to compose a decent coming tsunami scene.

I have read some threads talking about rendering objects individually using ID Mask, whereas they seem to be limited to non-overlapping objects. And only objects with the same Index of the frame would be rendered, but what about the background (houses/trees/roads...), which need to be rendered for all frames? It might also be annoying to set Pass Index for tons of objects correctly by hand.

How to render individual objects (one per frame)

How to output ID masks as seperate files for compositing?

The other thread talking about key-framing the visibility for objects might help, but I don't think it is a good idea to go through the 1000 objects and do this one by one with unbelievable time consuming and high mistake risk, except for using scripts though.

How to make an object invisible at a particular keyframe without moving it in Blender (2.59)?

Is there another way to do this automatically in a cleverer way, or some scripting idea?

===========

P.S. I managed to render similar scene using CINEMA4D before and found a way out using Python to toggle with each object's visibility.

How to script the Render_Visibility for a sequence of objects?

Now I am asked to test in Blender, so...Any ideas?

Based on a previous answer I would use a script that imports each stl file and keyframes the visibility as it goes.

import bpy
scn = bpy.context.scene
for f in range(scn.frame_start, scn.frame_end):
    fpath = bpy.path.abspath('//sim_data_{}.stl'.format(f))
    bpy.ops.import_mesh.stl(filepath=fpath)
    obj = bpy.context.active_object
    # key as visible on the current frame
    obj.keyframe_insert('hide',frame=f)
    obj.keyframe_insert('hide_render',frame=f)
    # hide it
    obj.hide = True
    obj.hide_render = True
    # key as hidden on the previous frame
    obj.keyframe_insert('hide',frame=f-1)
    obj.keyframe_insert('hide_render',frame=f-1)
    # key as hidden on the next frame
    obj.keyframe_insert('hide',frame=f+1)
    obj.keyframe_insert('hide_render',frame=f+1)


How do I Texture paint with Realistic Textures? I've been working on something in Cycles Render. Basically, I'm trying to create a wolf character, and I've successfully modeled, rigged it, placed the seams and unwrapped everything correctly. But now I feel a bit lost.

I loaded the UVs on to Photoshop and placed my own created fur texture on the UVs and then loaded it into blender, but it doesn't look all that right, and the seams seem quite visible.

Then I read online that I should try with Texture Painting, but I only seem to paint flat colors on it. I can't use my own fur texture as the "paint".

What can I do?

If you don't want to paint with a solid colour in texture painting you can choose a texture to use as a brush to paint onto your object.

The first step is to define the texture, while any built-in textures can be used an image would be the most common source. In the texture panel create a new brush texture and select the image (this will look a little different if your using Blender Internal)

In the Tools sidebar T you will find a panel for Texture, choose the texture you have setup and select stencil for the mapping type. You will also see options to alter the rotation and scale for the texture. You can also create a new brush texture by clicking the + under the texture preview.

When you move the cursor over the 3dview you will now see the texture in a transparent overlay. You can use  RMB to drag the image into place, ⎈ Ctrl RMB to rotate and ⇧ Shift RMB to scale, when you  LMB on the texture it will paint it onto the image in the selected material slot. This allows you to easily place the brush texture to match up with existing texture on your model.


Bone heat weighting failed to find solution! I keep getting the "Bone heat weighting failed to find solution"-error when I try to parent a mesh to an armature.

I've deleted doubles, fixed normals, added and removed various modifiers. I'm pretty sure it's because the mesh is asymmetrical, but that's on purpose and it needs to be this way.

I've also tried all Parenting options; the only one that gives the error message is "With Automatic Weights", but the rest just deform the mesh (bones only move parts of the mesh and weight paint doesn't seem to be an option).

Is there some way to get around this?could anyone please link to a way to parent an asymmetrical mesh to an armature?

PLEASE HELP I´M DESPERATE!!

Follow this instruction

Have your mesh/armature as two objects (not parented and with no vertex groups on mesh)
Select mesh (object mode). Separate > Loose Parts.
Shift-select Armature (do shift-LMB in Outliner if you keep selecting mesh by accident).
Parent > Automatic Weights. This gives your meshes vertex groups.
Outliner - click "white arrow" of Armature to Restrict Viewport Selection.
(Important!) Select any obect that isn't Armature (so its name in Outliner is no longer highlighted white).
Select all. Join.
Outliner - Unrestrict viewport selection of Armature.

Tell me if it works ;)

Or try with this link

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?130935-Bone-heat-weighting-failed-to-find-solution-for-one-or-more-bones


Gridifying Objects using BMesh I'm working on a script which generates a bunch of cuboids with integer length sides. From there I would like to effectively turn each face into a grid in which each vertex is aligned to the world grid (i.e. on each integer coordinate). Currently I have been looking at using the subdivide operation (bmesh.ops.subdivide_edges) to make this work, but this seems long-winded and time-consuming (requires getting all the edges from each operation, finding out which to use for the next, etc). Is there a better way of doing this, or would it be easier to do repeated extrusion when constructing the cuboid (i.e. extrude by 1, n times, rather than extrude by n once)? The way I would do this manually is using a loop cut, can this be done with bmesh?

For info, I'm using blender 2.81a and hoping to do this purely within bmesh.

Thanks in advance,
Jacob

To anyone else looking to implement this, please see the link batFINGER directed me to: link


Is there a way to save preferences for import/exporters? I often use the .fbx export plugin in Blender, and every time I must disable the apply scale and enable selected only options. I realise that not everyone wants these settings enabled by default, but is there a way to save the settings so that I never have to do it again?

Note: I can probably edit the script to change the default, but I have a strong feeling that it can be done and saved with my user prefs somehow.

Yes, you can use operator presets. (Press the + icon to the right hand side of Operator Presets dropdown).


Control multi-material object transparency I'm animating the assembly of an equipment, I have a couple of materials repeated on multiple objects, and also some objects have multiple materials assigned (so there is a blue paint material, red paint material, shiny metal, etc., and some objects can have the three of them).

What I need is to control the transparency per object, in this case to animate a "fade in" for each piece of this machine. It would be impractical to duplicate every material and then synchronize the materials on the same object to fade in at the same rate.

there has been a recent change in blender, that lets you use a custom object property inside a material node tree. Here you have a tutorial to set it up.
https://youtu.be/WWwS-0AHotY
I faced the same problem several years ago, and the solution at that time was using node groups, but it was quite time consuming.


Cut apart cube with text I'm looking to make a jigsaw puzzle to be 3d printed. I'm making a cube that is 22cmx10cmx4mm and putting text on it and extruding it out 1.5mm from the surface of the cube. I then join the text and the cube making one object.

I have tried appending a jigsaw mesh and a boolean modifier to cut through the complete piece into jigsaw puzzle pieces but it's not working. It either doesn't cut through properly or it only saves half of the text and inverts the rest. I have tried both difference and intersect boolean modifiers. Intersect gets rid of the base and difference keeps the base but not all of the text.

Is there a way to divide a cube into puzzle pieces keeping the text on top of it?

If I got what you mean, it's not easy, but it can be done, imho.

But you have to be willing to do some retopology, because you need text mesh (blender always creates this from font object with bad topology) and booleans, two times (produces bad topology)...

first, experiment with a little cube base and a single letter, trust me.

create the box base and text mesh and ensure it has good topology (all quads, no doubles, a good mesh)

boolean "union" of the box and the text.

with more complex setups, it is a good idea to retolopogize the applied union result (all quads, no doubles, a good mesh) - optional but suggested

create the jigsaw pieces, as a single object but separated islands, ie: the pieces.  (again, ensure all quads, no doubles, a good mesh), and scale this mesh to make its bounds to "surround" the previous base+text union.

seeing this in transparency:

boolean "intersection" of the base+text with the "surrounding" jigsaw mesh (see settings on the right)

which gives you


Having trouble with knife tool I am having an issue with the knife tool. I'm attempting to make a cut where the maroon line is in the above image, however, when i click the left mouse button, the line goes away, and no cut is made. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or need additional information, I appreciate it.

The reason you're having the issue is because there's no face there to subdivide.
 Editing in Solid Shading often makes things like this difficult to see.  Faces will always have a little black dot in the center, though.

Go to edge selection, hold Alt and click one of the edges surrounding the void then press F to fill the face.

After that, the knife tool will work as expected.


RightClick "Assign shortcuts" doesnt work in Edit-mode? I am using my own custom menu,
and i discovered that i can assign shortcuts to "my operator"
but i cant assign shortcut to the same thing while in editmode.
in editmode the shortcuts cant be assigned and disappear if assigned in object mode.
Its because of the way i scripted?
All the operators works fine if i "click" them in any mode.
The standard menu of blender works fine in edit mode too.
For exampe
While in editmode-faces , i can assign a shortcut to the Right-click "pokefaces"

While a lot of blender depend on the "context"
Being in Editmode and "Assign shortcut" will not , create a shortcut for edit mode.
Instead the default Behavior is create a shortcut for the category expressed in the bl_idname.
So having named the operator  object.myactions will create a shortcut for the "object category "
If i used the name                      wm.myactions  the shortcut will be placed in "window"
The shortcut for object will be ignored while in editmode,
So, create your operators using the category you want that to be placed
or
Create manually the shortcuts
(for example going in preference keymap , window and add your operator like object.move_x
it will work even with the object. because mapped in window)


Changing emission light overtime Blender 2.8 Alrighty, so I have my short little animation finished except for one thing. I can't figure out how to lower the emission light over time in separate frames.

Hover your mouse over the emission strength and hit I. The property will turn yellow, meaning that you created a keyframe. Then go to a different frame, change the strength and it will turn green (meaning no keyframe) then hit I again hovering over that strength bar. It will turn yellow and you've got yourself a basic strength changing emission shader.

Note that this works for most properties in blender. That is how you can make transformations over time.


Domain blocking light paths (Cycles) I have a baked particle simulation that emits light. I am trying to only catch the reflections but for some reason they aren't rendered properly within the domain.

I want to combine this with real life footage, so I need the reflections seperate. Different passes (indirect and direct diffuse) have the same issue.

Here is the scene with the domain in blue as well as my light path settings (right) and the renderd reflections (left).

The baking of the particle sim took very long, so It would be great if the solution didn't involve changing the simulation.

It seems the domain object is rendered as a solid, in order to change that you can either disable the rendering of your Domain Object:

or disable some settings for the domain object:


Rigify. Question about Axis I turn on my axis, but it does show on my every bone
only one shows at the root
Thanks.

It's showing you the axis of the armature object, because you enabled axis in properties/object.  Enable viewport display in properties/object data/viewport display to enable the display of axes for each bone contained within the armature.


Extruding inwards leaves vertices alone I am trying to extrude some face inwards (the opposite of extruding outwards).
In this screenshot you can see that I have selected the faces:

In the next screenshot can you see that I was actually able to intrude the faces, but the outer vertices stay where they are:

Does anybody know why this happens and how to avoid it?
Thank you!

Yes, it does.

Extruding in 3D modeling means something like:

  to shift a selection in space while creating all the geometry
  that is needed to keep all the non-selected parts in place

You can have more detailed information about how tha algorithm works in the official manual page.

Let's consider a UV sphere:

Notice how in the example above the non selected faces keep their positions (and so their edges and vertices). Is something different from grabbing, as involves the creation of new geometry.

By extruding, for example, along the normal axis, you may see from the pictures above how the operation does the same thing. In both cases (positive and negative normal axis extrusion) the surrounding vertices of the initial selection geometry keep their position.

One way to achieve the result you want is to extrude inward and than dissolve the starting geometry.

After inward extrusion, assign the selected faces to a vertex group, than extend the selection with Ctrl++. Than that go to Vertex groups and remove previuosly assinged vertex group from the selection.

Press X to open the "Delete" menue and choose "Dissolve edges".


Can I use my two PC on my own network to Farm Render in Blender? Is it possible to use Cycles engine to render only GPU based from two computers in Blender in my own network at home? TY.

I was trying to find out if two computers in the same network could render in Cycles the same frame or only one instance using GPU Computed feature, and not an animation or several frames. In other words the GPUs to pick up tiles of the same frame. So far I noticed it's possible the computers to pick up different frames if it's an animation going, but not same frame.  Thank you.


Seeing invisible objects in the dope sheet Is it possible to make objects that are invisible in the viewport remain in the dopesheet?

The little ghost button at the bottom of the dope sheet enables/disables showing invisible objects.


How do I fix the this rig to blend it's knees the right way? i'am currently having a problem with my rig. It doesn't wanna seem to blend like a normal leg would. I noticed this problem after I added the Inverse Kinematics. Here are some pictures.

When you add an Inverse Kinematic constraint to a bone, the Inverse Kinematic panel, in the Bone tab, allows you to lock the axes you don't wont the bone to rotate on.


How do I remove unwanted Transform Orientations? I'm using a lot of custom-defined transform orientations (Ctrl+Alt+Space) recently while modeling. The list has grown too large, how do I remove some or all of them?

The custom transforms are also listed in the 'Transform Orientations' panel in the Properties shelf (N).

Choose the custom transform you would like to delete from the list, then press the 'x' next to it to remove it:


Where is Weight Paint? How can I activate the Weight Paint?
I'm a completelly new user and all the Tutorials I find shows in the same place I'm trying on the picture, please what am I doing wrong?

I believe you need to Tab into OBJECT mode. From there, if you grab the drop down window (that you note in your screenshot), Weight Paint should be available.


How to create a base that contours text I'd like to take a word and create a thin base that contours the letters and not have any through-holes. I've sketched an example of what I'm looking for.
I'd describe this as a 'skirt' in 3D-printing terms.

Just copy the text you have already, make it thinner(z) and larger(x,y), then convert it to mesh and delete the "holes" by hand. i think, there is not automatic tool for that.


Why does my model look "patchy" after I enable smooth shading on it? [![enter image description here][2]][2]

How I do I fix those strange patches? I tried hours of subdividing areas and such but to no luck.. Is there a simple fix? Could someone people help, I'd be glad to share the Blender file I just really need to get this finished as soon as possible.

Blender file, would be amazing if you could help :)

The normals appear to be inverted in those areas. In edit mode, select the whole mesh (A key) and then recalculate the normals by pressing Ctrl + N (or using the menus: Mesh > Normals > Recalculate Outside).


How to reduce amount of edge lines as in picture? I am currently moddeling a house using a guide on youtube. Pretty much everything went allright untill I ended up questioning myself on this:

In the screenshot below you can clearly see there are a whole bunch of lines and edges, which are making the interface really messy and hard to work in:

Now what I basically want to achieve is the following:

Which will most likely be a lot easier to work in.

You might have noticed that the outer edges of the building aren't visible either, how can I fix these two "problems"?

This might sound like a dumb question, but thank you all in advance for taking the time to help me out!

A better workflow would be to use “Loop Cuts” to form the edges of your doors and windows. In “Edit Mode” place you cursor near an appropriate edge and press “CTRL” + “R” then right Mouse click to insert it then you can move it by moving the mouse. When satisfied “Right mouse click to lock it into place. Rinse and repeat for the other edges.

If you need to delete an edge loop press “X” then select “Edge Loop” from the drop down menu.

If you need to move an edge loop after the fact press “CTRL + “E” and select “Edge Slide” from the drop down menu. This will work for a section of an edge loop as long as it is bound by at least two vertices.


Animation Nodes: Create Polygon Indices List I want to create a Mesh from scratch, using Animation Nodes (V2.1.4 in Blender 2.8).

In the first step, I want to create a triangle fan with n individual triangles.

So I have a loop, that creates the vertices - no problem here:

But it seems like I sill don't understand polygon indices.

The way i thought it functions is:
I have my polygon p1 with three vertices v1, v2, v3 and poligon indices: p1: 0,1,2

My lists produce exactly that - but that doesnt work.

The full loop:

and the error I'm getting:

Any hints?

A mesh that have polygons has to have edges that align with those polygons. In this case, you haven't provided edge indices to the node, so a mesh can't be created. The easiest way to create edge indices is to use the Edges From Polygons node.


Rigid Body Joint Constraints can't hold model together in game engine I made a simple model (wanted to mess with physics and python scripting).

That's bunch of boxes held together with RigidiBody joint (6dof joints with all limits checked)

Problem - model falls apart in play mode:

It DOES try to adhere to constraints, but after wobbling for a several seconds it eventually collapses, which is really disappointing.

Here's the file.

Is there a way to fix that (so it adheres to constraints PROPERLY) or should I try another software?

The idea was to try to make this thing walk using physical forces (exercise/fun, not a serious project)

The scene was tested on windows platform, 64bit blender 2.74 on 64bit windows 7.

Due to lack of solution I gave up on trying this experiment in blender.

I also investigated V-Rep as possible alternative only to find out that it has same issue.

In the end it looks like I'll have to do that experiment (when I have time) in unity3d, because PhysX apparently does not have this stability problem.


Blender 2.8: Best way to copy moves (rotations and translations) between 2 meshes I have two meshes, « MasterCube » and « TargetCube » in different places. I would like to copy all moves (Translation X/Y/Z and Rotation X/Y/Z) from MasterCube to TargetCube in keeping the original locations of my two meshes. When MasterCube moves, TargetCube have to do the same from his original location.
I tried with « copy rotation », « copy location », « copy transform » and « transformation ». I even tried Hooks and more. I got a partial solution but not complete. For some solution, my TargeCube rotates around the pivot of the MasterCube in place to rotate around its own pivot. For other solution, the TargetCube location move to the MasterCube first off all, and follows this one in a kind of superposed mode.
The only good solution I expect to uses is Drivers. 3 Drivers for each location dimension (x,y,z) using the MasterCube location coordinates in the math expression to compensate, and 3 others for rotation. So, 6 Drivers.
Anyway, for a so simple idea to just clone moves, I guess there is a simplest way to do this. Could you tell me if Drivers really are the regular solution ?
Thank you.
Example of bad result with Parenting. The TargetCube rotates around the MasterCube pivot.

Is this the effect you're looking for?

The trick is to set "Mix" to "After Original" and the "Copy Transforms" constraint goes on the follower object.


Properties bar shrank (ate magic mushrooms?) I just signed up since I'm new to Blender. Did some work in gMax.
At some point the property bar appeared tiny and hardly readable. The other bars are ok-
If I open earlier saves the bar is normal.
Thanks
TOM

enter image description here

Make sure your mouse cursor is hovering the desired editor or area, then press Numpad + or Numpad - (plus and minus sign from the numeric keyboard on the right) to zoom in or out of the interface.


How do I delete one single shape key? So I added a shape key, but later I had no use for it so I decided to delete it. So I went to the Blender wiki and read the shape key article, which clearly stated "The "X" button: It allows you to delete the current key". So i did exactly that, but when i pressed X nothing at all happened. I also tried using the "delete" key on my keyboard, with the same result. So how can I delete the Shape key?

Shape keys can be added and deleted through the Properties editor (the on the right ) under the Data tab in Shape keys :


Everytime I weight paint it moves the model I am fairly new to blender. Please, if you know the answer just post it down here, and get it over with.

Whenever I weight paint the model I have it moves the painted area to some weird origin position.

Examples:

See how here the bones are in the correct place...

And then when I weight paint (it's not proper, just an example) it moves to some other position.

And then here is when I weight paint the entire thing. As you can see it gets moved to some other origin position. Notice how the bones are in the same place.

What's going on here and how could I fix it?

Your armature looks like it's set too low. If you lift it up a bit that may help with your problem. But also remember that weight painting is joining the bones to the mesh. They are meant to interact. It looks like you might have too many pieces of armature around the shoulders. I'm certainly no expert but I hope this helps.


How do I export a blender game to be played within my website? Basically what the title says.

I haven't made the website yet, so I'm not looking for a specific solution. Is there ANY way that it is GENERALLY possible to play a blender game in-browser?

There is no way to do this.  As described here you can create only Windows, Mac and Linux native applications from BGE.

If you want to create a 3D web application from blender, you should
use a specific addons:

Blend4Web
Verdge3D

Both looks the same, but main difference between them is that Blend4Web uses JavaScript as main scripting tool, Verdge3D uses special block-style logic editor


Project image on uv sphere (for pool balls) I'd like to create pool balls. There are several balls with different colors and numbers. There should be only 1 model with various textures which can be edited in a 2d image application.

Example:

I'd like to put a ribbon like this on the blue area:

Is there a way (uv projection?) which allows me to project that flat ribbon on the sphere So that it'll look similar to this in the end:

Using the Cycles Render Engine.

Create a UV Sphere > Shift +”A” > Choose “Mesh” > “Sphere” from the drop down menu.

While still in Object Mode > Shading > Smooth from the Tool Bar (Press “T” to toggle it on/off). Also press CTRL + “A” and apply the Scale. (You can also add a Subdivision Surface Modifier).

In the Materials Tab create a new material.

In the Node Editor create your node set up. Including your image texture with an Alpha channel. I used a .PNG with an alpha channel image file.

EDIT:
I realized the the stripe (purple area)did not have any gloss so I've added an additional node set up for that.

Also I took out some roughness in the Gloss Nodes / Added  slight blur to the Image Texture / Added a slight bit of yellow and red to the white part of the ball.

Go into UV Editing Mode press TAB to go into Edit Mode and select all > Press “U” and select “Sphere Projection” from the drop down menu.

Select “Texture” and you will be able to see a preview of your texture.

If the texture is stretched while still in edit mode and your cursor in the UV Editing window adjust the “X” scale of the UV Map scale by pressing “S” then “X”.

In this example in order to avoid a gap in the image texture on the back of the Sphere > in the Image Editor scale the UV Map down to fit the Texture.


How to correct collision between particles In the use particle system how to avoid two particles intersect each other as in the following figure:

Our settings for particles:
Physics = Newtonian, [checked] Size deflect,
Render: Object: dupli object : icosphere

Update:
The original aim was to simulate separation of sands by some structures (combinations of tubes) due to their weights and the system configuration. So in our model, we used particle system to generate a continuous feed of sands into the system. Finally some sands are collected in some containers somewhere in the system.
The Figure shows a collector in which the intersection problem discovered. We also realised that not having self-collision between sand particles may bias the separation procedure as the particles do not collide each other, they were expected to do.

There is a free addon for blender name "Molecular"
this addon is exactly what you need

http://pyroevil.com/category/scripts-addons/molecular-script/

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?233643-Addon-Moleculars-physics


Create a loop of falling objects I'm trying to create a scene with marbles falling down on a plane, I want to loop this like a long gif to where it seams like infinite marbles falling.  The problem I am having in getting it to loop well.  if I do a rigid body simulation, the marbles fall then roll off the plane.  The problem is having the animation loop.  I do not want it to be packets of marbles falling then off screen and only the plane showing.  I want it to look continuous falling marbles with no brakes.  I cant think of how to loop this. any help is greatly appreciated!

Baking the rigid body sim worked for me. Thanks.


Use cycles's denoiser on multi-layer EXRs The built-in denoiser that comes with Cycles in Blender 2.79 is awesome. Sadly, it's come too late to use in a current project... However, I have multi-layer EXRs containing all the render layers from Cycles for this project. Is there a way to feed these pre-rendered render layers through the Cycles denoiser? I couldn't find a node in the compositor to do this :(

This would also be really helpful when tuning the denoiser parameters. Currently, I have to wait for an entire render to complete to test any denoiser settings change. It's clear that the denoiser does run as a post-process (it has to wait until each tile has fully rendered before applying the denoising) so I feel there must be a way to feed in already rendered layers...

Take a look on B°WIDE nodepack:

https://bwide.wordpress.com/node-groups/bwide-nodepack-for-blender/

It has a PassCombineDeNoiser, that combines Cycles render passes & denoise it pass by pass based on Normals. You can also denoize exr-files, if you have all needed layers. It looks similar to new denoizer


How to move(without scaling) objects from center of those objects and preserving dimensions I had a problem this morning and I don't know how to make it.

I have multiple cylinders that are placed in circle every 20 degrees. I would like to move all of them at once far/near the center and not scaling the cylinders. I would like the preserve the dimensions of the cylinders.

Is there a way to move those objects away from the center and keep dimensions of those objects?

Maybe this option is what you're looking for (Manipulate Center Points):


Sound works in Blender, but no sound in the final render I set the video to understand Xvid, and I have a codec, but no matter what I try I can't seem to get the sound to work when it's finish rendering. It works before I render but once I render, the sound is just gone.

I've tried to change the codec and output settings, but nothing works. I think I need specific settings for this.

I assume that you are using Windows if you are using xvid, but correct me if I'm wrong. I use a Mac, but this should transfer over in a manner of speaking.

On Macs, I can select the QuickTime video format. Once selected, there is a video codec option and an audio codec option. I generally select AAC as my audio codec. I would imagine that there is some format on Windows in Blender that works like QuickTime on Mac.


Moving object while following it with camera I'm looking for a shortcut to lock camera (3D view, not the object: "Camera") temporarily onto an object while moving it (object). For example if I move a cube in x-axis and it leaves the visible area in viewport, I could press a shortcut to follow the object without the need the disencage from the action of moving the cube (and scrolling back etc..). This is a feature I found really helpful in Unreal Engine 4 and I've been trying to find a way to do it in Blender, without success.
Also, I know this is pretty lazy, but aren't that what shortcuts are made for :)
Thanks!

You could try using a camera object and locking the camera object to the view in the side panel settings when selecting a camera object (under view).

When you go into camera view (numberpad 0) it will move with the 3d camera.

Edit* You can setup multiple cameras this way and scroll through them by setting markers in the time line.


Blender plugin import python from other file fail I am trying to create a plug-in.
In my __Init__.py I am trying to import code from another file operator_add.py, which is located in the same folder in the same level:

if "bpy" in locals():
    import importlib
    importlib.reload(OBJECT_add)
else:
    from operator_add import OBJECT_add

However this does not work, when I install the plug-in it gives me an error saying the No module named operator_add. Did I miss anything?

importlib.reload only reloads modules, not arbitrary objects.

As BatFinger also suggested, import your module (so import operator_add), and not just one name from it (so not from operator_add import OBJECT_add). You can then reload it with importlib.reload(operator_add).


Remove light ball from reflection in TV I have created a scene where there is a TV screen on the wall, in the final render there are what I can only describe as "light balls" on the glass material within the tv. (extruded plane with glass texture on it).
The lights are Point lights with a IES node on them. Is there a way to make the "balls" not be there?

The light balls are the point lights reflected on the glossy surface, the size depends on which radius you have set in the Point Lamp properties. Reducing the radius will make the reflection smaller (but presumably the shadows also sharper, I'm not sure about IES lights because I don't use them).
To get completely rid of the reflections (no matter if you're using a Glass BSDF or a Principled BSDF), select the Point Lamp and go to the Object Properties tab, there you will find Visibilty > Ray Visibility. Disable Glossy and the light will not show up in reflections.


Unable to find Simply Cloth on blender I have bought and downloaded Simply Cloth add on however I cannot find it on Blender

Usually you're provided with a zip file or something, and you can hit this Install button in Preferences -> Add-Ons and choose the file.


My object is too transparent, how to fix it? I'm following this tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF6qkByl-_M and around 29:25, he copies his material nodes from the grass to his leaves and mine turned out to be too transparent.

Here are my nodes for the grass:

If you need anymore information here's my .blend file:

Ok, so all I had to was move the Alpha output and move it to the third mix shader from the right like-so.

Thanks root.


Selecting a curve by its name with a Python script Is it possible with a Python script to select the curve of an object with its name ("location x", "location y", "rotation z", ....) instead of its number.

For example, I tweak the Z location of an object with

bpy.data.objects["Pixel X0006 Y0006"].animation_data.action.fcurves[2].keyframe_points[0].interpolation = 'LINEAR'

and I would like to select it by a name rather than with fcurves[2]. It would be more convenient for my scripts.

Is it possible to do that ?

Yes its possible.

This is an excerpt from an older, non latest version of Blender script.  The relevant part may still work. Note the find function.  You can see the name of the curve in the FCurves Editor Panel.  Note curves may have an index X in the set [0,1,2].

object_bq = bpy.data.objects[name]
test = object_bq.animation_data.action if (None != object_bq.animation_data and (None != object_bq.animation_data.action)) else None;
if (test):
    fc = object_bq.animation_data.action.fcurves.find("Some Curve Name Visible in the FCurves Editor Panel");

fcurves.find

https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.ActionFCurves.html?highlight=fcurves%20find#bpy.types.ActionFCurves.find


Having two different wall materials, with graffiti on both I am working on an abandoned hospital. I would like to add graffiti here and there on the walls. The graffiti is a PNG with alpha.

I have managed a rudimentary look and feel on a test piece, to be refined a lot soon, but the graffiti seems to make the materials under it transparent too, resulting in this type of image:

So the question is, what should the node system be to allow three materials on one piece of wall?

Welcome to Blender Stack Exchange!

The most common way to set this up is to have 2 shaders, one for the wall, and one for the paint.

Then, add a mix shader with both the wall and paint shaders connected. Then, use the alpha output of your image as the factor.

It would look like this:


Can I render faster in cycles with a Radeon R5 graphics card? I have a Windows 10 PC with AMD Radeon R5 Graphics 2.00 GHz, Is there support for it to improve Blender Cycles'rendering using GPU? Thanks

I have experience with an R5, although I'm on a really crappy laptop here.

In my experience, OpenCL support for Cycles isn't that good. Slow, limited(no support for HDR textures, volumetrics, SSS), and the architecture still is pretty crappy. My AMD A8 usually does just fine for all rendering tasks. Then again, I'm on a crappy 4GB RAM computer, so test your setup.

In short, there is support. It is not guaranteed to actually be of assistance. Get a Nvidia if possible.


Object not appearing the render, but is appearing in viewport render Sorry in advance if this is a duplicate, but I have read anything I can find with "Object missing in render".

I am doing the updated blender 2.8 doughnut tutorial.

My Icing for my Doughnut is missing in action.

My icing appears just fine in the viewport, including in render mode.

However if I do an actual render:

It does not seem to be disabled, these are the setting I have already checked and they all seem to make sence.

However I have not watched this tutorial but it seems particle system is used for sprinkles on ice and I think You Have Disabled the 'Show Emmiter' Option in Particle settings
but in viewport display it is enabled that's why this ice is shown in viewport but not in rendered view

for emmiter ie; ice to be visible in rendered view just go to particle settings and in render check "show emmiter " and this will work


Custom scene properties mysteriously resetting I'm writing a script, where an operator is registered in the Add->Mesh menu. Clicking this menu displays a panel, where the user can enter certain parameters and then invoke another operator using a button in the panel.

I'm using custom scene properties for the parameters, as shown in this code snippet.

The text property is set to an empty string whenever I edit it. It starts out with the default value "Lorem ipsum". Whenever I change the value in the panel text box, and then click away, the text box loses its value.

Here's my stripped down code, which still doesn't work:

def initSceneProperties(scene):
    bpy.types.Scene.photoPath = StringProperty(
            name="Path to photos",
            description="Path to the folder containing the JPG photos")
    scene["photoPath"] = "Lorem ipsum"
    return

initSceneProperties(bpy.context.scene)
# ==============================================================
class add_mesh_point_cloud(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "mesh.point_cloud_add"
    bl_label = "Add Point Cloud"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}
    bl_description = "Generate a point cloud from photographs"

    def execute(self, context):
        return {'FINISHED'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        return {'FINISHED'}

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.prop(context.scene, "photoPath")

What's happening? How can I fix it?

If you use the operator panel in the toolbar with register, changing a value in the panel will undo the changes made by the last call of the operator's execute method (including the change made to the scene's custom property which causes the update procedure and then gets reset to its previous value when the undo is performed) and run the method again with the new parameters given.

You could simply use another string property for the operator and assign it's value to scene.photoPath in the operator's execute method.

import bpy

class add_mesh_point_cloud(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "mesh.point_cloud_add"
    bl_label = "Add Point Cloud"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}
    bl_description = "Generate a point cloud from photographs"

    photoPath = bpy.props.StringProperty(
                    name="Path to photos",
                    description="Path to the folder containing the JPG photos"
                    )

    def execute(self, context):
        context.scene.photoPath = self.photoPath
        return {'FINISHED'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        self.photoPath = context.scene.photoPath
        return self.execute(context)

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.prop(self, "photoPath")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    bpy.utils.register_class(add_mesh_point_cloud)
    bpy.types.Scene.photoPath = bpy.props.StringProperty(
                                    default = "LoremIpsum"
                                    )


Parenting Object to Bone not Working I am attempting to add a hat to an animated character. The correct procedure outlined in the answer here:

Parenting an object to a bone not working

"The correct procedure to parent the empty to the bone is:

Select the empty

Shift select the armature

Go to pose mode

Select the bone you need as parent

Press Ctrl P and choose "bone" option."

This does not work. Note attached video.

I have tried to parent via "bone relative", I tried the hip (master) bone. I tried to parent to the head (which is not the correct process). Nothing is working - I'm stumped.

You can see from the video that in rest mode the hat is correctly parented. Could it be that I was attempting to attach it rest mode rather than pose mode? That's a bit harder....what is the correct process?

Parenting to Bone not Working

The answer to the problem is that I was trying to parent the object in REST mode. In order for this to work it has to be POSE mode.

If anyone wants to contribute an understanding of what REST mode is even for, that would be helpful for anyone getting to grips with this problem.


How to Link/Append a data-block using the Python API? I'm searching a way to append a group in Python.

It should behave exactly like the Append function (ShiftF1) works, all objects should be local and editable. The idea is to append a character (with rig etc.) via Python and not Link it (to be able to modify it without making everything local one by one).

Thanks

Here's a solution. It appends an instance of the group (Blender 2.7x only):

import bpy

filepath = "/path/to/file.blend"
group_name = "CubeGroup"

# append, set to true to keep the link to the original file
link = False

# append all groups from the .blend file
with bpy.data.libraries.load(filepath, link=link) as (data_src, data_dst):
    ## all groups
    # data_to.groups = data_from.groups

    # only append a single group we already know the name of
    data_dst.groups = [group_name]

# add the group instance to the scene
for group in data_dst.groups:
    ob = bpy.data.objects.new(group.name, None)
    ob.dupli_group = group
    ob.dupli_type = 'GROUP'
    bpy.context.scene.objects.link(ob) # Blender 2.7x

Credit: solution is based on this answer: Import object without bpy.ops.wm.link_append

It's basically the same for objects:

import bpy

# path to the blend
filepath = "/path/to/file.blend"

# name of object(s) to append or link
obj_name = "Cube"

# append, set to true to keep the link to the original file
link = False

# link all objects starting with 'Cube'
with bpy.data.libraries.load(filepath, link=link) as (data_from, data_to):
    data_to.objects = [name for name in data_from.objects if name.startswith(obj_name)]

#link object to current scene
for obj in data_to.objects:
    if obj is not None:
       #bpy.context.scene.objects.link(obj) # Blender 2.7x
       bpy.context.collection.objects.link(obj) # Blender 2.8x

As of Blender 2.8 groups have been replaced by the new collection system:

import bpy

# path to the blend
filepath = "/path/to/file.blend"

# name of collection(s) to append or link
coll_name = "MyCollection"

# append, set to true to keep the link to the original file
link = False

# link all collections starting with 'MyCollection'
with bpy.data.libraries.load(filepath, link=link) as (data_from, data_to):
    data_to.collections = [c for c in data_from.collections if c.startswith(coll_name)]

# link collection to scene collection
for coll in data_to.collections:
    if coll is not None:
       bpy.context.scene.collection.children.link(coll)

Further information: https://www.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.BlendDataLibraries.html


Removing Doubles Ruins Mesh of My Character I created a character in blender. I tried to parent it to the rig but it says "bone  heat weighting failed to find solution for one or more bones". After more than two days of research and restarting parts of my character, I found out removing doubles makes me able to parent the character using automatic weight painting. I had to change the merge distance from 0.0001 to 0.001. But, it made my mesh look messed up. The lips aren't separated anymore, the eyelids are gone and there's a lump in the middle of his brow bone area! I've tried redoing my head topology but it still gets messed up. I attached the blend file and a pic of what it looks like.

this is the link

One of the known limitations of the automatic weighting system in Blender is that it really doesn't like dense meshes, especially ones that aren't really close to the bones or that overlap.

With that in mind there are a couple of things to do when parenting your character to the rig. The last one is what's giving you the trouble, so pay close attention to that.

First, and this is also just a good practice, is to make sure your model is neat, with no messy areas, excessive overlap, etc.

Second, make sure all your bones are placed appropriately. In many cases this will be roughly in the center of the parts of your character.

Third, you want the Armature modifier to be as high on the modifier list as possible for a bunch of reasons (do keep it after the mirror modifier though). One of them is that placing a subdivision surface modifier before it will give it a TON mode geometry to try and weight. More geometry equals more problems when weighting. Plus, when you place the subsurf after the armature, you get the added bonus of some smoothing after deformation instead of before, which gives cleaner results in many cases. One of the steps I took when getting it to parent was to remove the subsurf, parent the character, then re add the modifier back afterwards (note: I did not test to see if this was absolutely necessary, but it can only help).

Fourth, and this is the main issue you were having, is you need to be conscious of the scale of your objects. Your scene was in Blender units (the default, and that's completely fine). Blender units are for all intents and purposes the same as metric units, just with no name. So 1 Blender unit is 1 meter. When modelling in 3d, it's best practice to keep things reasonably sized. Approximately real life is best, or somewhere around there. A typical human sized character would be somewhere a bit under 2 meters. However, your character was only the equivalent of 27 cm high. That's a lot of detail squeezed into a small area. Blender can handle it, but the automatic weight painting really doesn't like that. So, to fix your problem, you will need to scale up your character and the rig. I scaled them by a factor of 50, but you can try less if you like. You can also resize things after you've parented them. After resizing, it's also a good idea to apply the scale (and rotation and location while your at it) so that Blender knows where everything is and how big it is (this can be done with Ctrl+A).

The steps I took when I got your file to work were to place the take the unmodified character you provided, as well as the rig from layer 20 and place them on a separate layer (just to keep things clean, not really necessary though). Then, I removed the subsurf from the character. Then I scaled both objects up by 50 (note you'll have to scale up the eyes and any other parts as well after) and applied the location, scale, and rotation (Tip: when you scale up the eyes and things after, if you apply location first they'll scale the same as the rest of the character). After that, parenting with automatic weights should work. It may take a bit to sort itself out, but it shouldn't fail.


Boolean Difference Tool Not Changing Shape So I'm designing the head model for a video game character, and my boolean tool stopped working.

I'm trying to subtract two UV Mesh Spheres from a complex shape in order to create eye sockets like so:

When I overlap the shapes and try to do the Boolean Difference, for some reason it does not subtract the sphere from the face of the object (lets call it "skull"), but half of the sphere still exists inside the shape (what would be the back of the eye socket).

Can someone please show me how to fix this? It's really slowing down my project, and I don't want to start playing with the vertices.

Thanks
-K

I don't have enough reputation to comment but looking at the blend file you posted, it looks like the normals on both objects are flipped inside out. Using "Make Normals Consistent" on both meshes seems to make it work okay.

You said you already did this, though. Perhaps the "Inside" checkbox is checked for you? I didn't see that in the blend file you posted though so I'm not really sure. But the skull mesh in your screenshots and both the meshes in the blend file you posted are definitely inside out, you can tell from the weird purple black thing they've got going on.


Why isn't my model moving with my rig? I'm very new to Blender and I have a rigging question. I imported my model from Zbrush, and built a rig for the character. I select the rig, then the model, and pair them. Now when I move my rig, the model doesn't move. Am I missing a step, or could there be something wrong with my rig? Any suggestion would be great!

You need to parent the mesh to the rig, so you've selected them in the incorrect order. Once you do that you should get a list of armature deform options in the parenting menu when you apply the parenting.


Selecting a font in python panel I'm trying to use prop_search to select a font that is loaded in the current blender file, similar to the example given here. The problem is I can't figure out where a collection of fonts for python to search through is.  This is what I've tried.

fonts = bpy.data
col.prop_search(fonts,"BlockFont",fonts,"fonts")

After a little more work I found it.

fonts = bpy.context.blend_data
scene = bpy.data.scenes['Scene']
col.prop_search(scene, "Font", fonts, "fonts")

For anyone else trying to use this, here's a quick breakdown.
The second argument is a variable to store the selected font in (see the link in the question for an example).  The first argument is where blender looks for that variable (in this case, the variable was created with bpy.types.Scene.Font = bpy.props.StringProperty(), so it needed to be passed bpy.data.scenes['Scene']) .  The last argument is what it populates the drop down list with, and the argument before that is where it looks for that property.
my problem was I was searching for the variable in the fonts instead of the scene where I created it, where of course it didn't exist.


View looks around in first person, rather than orbiting around If I hold down the middle mouse button and move my mouse around, the view should orbit around, instead just looks around, similar to how it does in fly-mode. If I press the button to enter/exit fly mode, it still does the same thing.

It turns out my blender was just glitching and restarting it helped.


How to allow setting hotkey in add-on Someone just asked here about adding a custom hotkey to an add-on that I made a some time ago. This add-on, for some reason, doesn't show any hotkey setup options when you right click on it like most operators show in Blender.
After doing some research, and looking through add-ons that I have made in the past, it appears that registering operators like...
bpy.utils.register_class(SomeClassName)

...doesn't allow the operator to have the hotkeys, but registering the entire module...
bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)

...does show the hotkey controls.
Is this intended behavior? Is there anything to do if you don't want to register the entire module like this?
Edit:
For the script that I linked to, simply registering the module instead of the operator class does not provide the user with the hotkey controls.
Here are some screenshots showing what I mean in case of any misunderstandings:

An operator represents an action or task that can be performed in blender. A button is blender's GUI representation of an operator which allows the user to initiate the action, while a keyboard shortcut is a non-gui method of executing an operator. Keyboard shortcuts can be edited in the user preferences and each belongs to a group that (should) represent the context that it is available. For example, the loop cut operator can be found in the 3DView/Mesh group so is available when editing mesh objects.

When right clicking on a button, the "Change Shortcut" and "Remove Shortcut" menu items are available if the button's operator has a shortcut assigned to it. See interface_handler.c

The "Add Shortcut" menu item, represents blender having some idea of what group the shortcut should be added to. Blender "guesses" the group based on the operator's bl_idname property and the menu option is only available if a valid group can be guessed from the operator's name. See wm_keymap.c where you will find the available group names that can be used. The group names used there are the uppercase version of the first part of the bl_idname of the operator with the _OT part being optional. For example giving your operator bl_idname='screen.my_operator' will enable the add shortcut menu item which will add a shortcut that will be found under "Screen" group in the shortcut settings.


How do connect this without ruining the topology I am almost finished making this character butt I can't seem to connect her head to the back of her head.
i have a picture right here

I am not sure of how it will lead your loops, however to keep it all quads I can think of those connections:


How to create black color in Eevee without any reflections? I try to make a a scence where I want an object not to be affected by any lighting, reflections etc...
Here is the picture and the black planet should not contain anything but black.
I would be so happy if there is an answer to this.
Cheers
Robin

To make an object that receives no shading, just plug the color directly into the Material Output with no shader in between.
As you can see from the image, the black planet is surrounded by lights and an emission object (I put planes to show that there in fact lights there). You can see with bloom on, that there will still be some color bleed-over, but there is no "reflection" on the black planet:

Here is the same thing without bloom (for reference):


Why is my rendering in cycles NOT grainy at all? I'm following Blender Guru's doughnut tutorial and have the rendering engine to cycles. At first, the render was grainy, as it should be. I stepped away from the computer for a while to wait as it renders an image and when I came back, the screen was blank, probably from crashing.
I opened up blender again, and the doughnut wasn't grainy at all, like in Eevee rendering. I didn't save the project before it presumably crashed but I don't think I lost any actual progress. I know this isn't an actual problem, and I'm not gonna complaining about the smooth rendering but I'm a bit worried that some settings are off and that that might screw me over later. Rendering image still takes time though, and the image turns out a little grainy. Any idea why this is, or did my mac just randomly transcend into a super computer?

what you mentioned does appear to be denoising , in the cycles render properties tab below the samples , check for the denoising properties , inside the denoising , you wil find 2 options , render and viewport denoising , render denoising is used for deoising your render , which means that the denoising will not appear in the render


How To Make A Solid Object Drop To The Ground Like It Was Liquid So I have a simple bouncing ball animation, but I just wanted to something "weird" for the ending. Is there a way to change the ball's material on the fly, where after the last bounce it changes materials and physical composition from a rigid body(baked animation now) to a fluid sim?  (within 30-40 frames)

No you can't.

But you can animate the visibility of objects so that on impact the original object is hidden and a replacement becomes visible. Object transparency is another property you may want to animate to ease the transition.

The render visibility is shown as a camera in the outliner, with the mouse over the camera for the object press I to insert a keyframe for the value. The same can be done for other values like transparency in BI materials or Cycles nodes.

You may also want to render two sequences and mix the two together to get more control over how and when they replace each other.


Mesh Deform modifier in 2.83 not behaving (This is a tricky one, might be a bug) I have a problem with the Deform Mesh modifier in Blender 2.83 (which I suspect may be a bug).

I created two simple rigs in exactly the same way to demonstrate this, one in 2.79 and one in 2.83.

In 2.79 the rig works perfectly.

The tank tracks follow the Curve modifier nicely.

I can deform these moving tank tracks and it also works perfectly.

If I follow the same steps in Blender 2.83 using the same modifiers, same process, I can get the tracks to turn just fine...

...but when I use the Deform Mesh modifier I get this:

You'll notice that the tread pieces that are vertex parented spasm on rotation.

But this only happens when it's animated.  In the same file, (the same file!) if I move the Mesh Deform controller and then MANUALLY rotate the tracks I get this instead:

Personally, I think it's a bug, but I'm open to get community answers before I report it as such.  I'm also very open to it being human error as well.

Let me know what you guys + girls think?

A link to BOTH files (from the images) is here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sD9AIzSouclUJgGaLjXn5VcVuzf7GI8u

Contains:

  TankTracks - deformation 2-79.blend

  TankTracks - deformation 2-83.blend

While the Mesh Deform modifier still doesn't work like it did in 2.79, (I've now submitted it as a bug) I was able to get a work around with Lattice.  This actually works amazingly well.  Thanks to Richard Lester for the solution.


Graph Editor - Moving only one side of a tangent for multiple keyframes This is a question from a Maya user.
I can't find this in the manuals, and I feel really dumb. They all take it for granted.

I have a lot of animated properties in the graph editor. They all do the same. I'm moving them around together. But I want to change them to Free Tangents, which I did, and change their animation by moving the handles on both sides of the point.

But I can't do it. I changed to Maya preset in the settings, so I could do it the same way I do it there. But there is NO WAY to move the tangents by selecting and moving them using the handles...

EDIT:
Moving one tangent is possible by using Middle Mouse Button, BUT this doesn't work at all for several tangents. I want to move all of them at the same time.

How do you do it?

To scale only one side of a group with free tangents:

Select the set of keys
Press C and hold Shift to deselect the tangents you do not want to scale
Right click to confirm the operation
Press S then X to scale along the horizontal axis as required


blender symmetries are weird. It works strangely When I made the chest, I mirror the ball on my body and used join.
The symmetries, which worked well in the face, became not the x-axis of object standards as shown in the picture.
What should I do?

If I am not mistaken, your object origin has moved. Try resetting it.

Enable "Affect Only Origins option" (see image)
Select your object in object mode and hit Alt+G to reset its transfrom

Or

Shift + C to reset cursor.
right click -> set origin -> to cursor


How can I get the Total Face Area of multiple meshes? In edit mode, there's an overlay option to measure the face area of selected meshes. The problem is when selecting multiple meshes you get the individual face areas for each mesh.

What I'm looking for is a way to sum all face areas to get the total face area.

Total face area of selected meshes

Calculates the total global face area of all mesh objects selected.

Uses bmesh from object to get modifier deforms, and transforms using the world matrix to take into account scale.

import bpy
import bmesh
context = bpy.context
dg = context.evaluated_depsgraph_get()

bm = bmesh.new()
areas = []
for o in context.selected_objects:
    if o.type != 'MESH':
        continue
    bm.from_object(o, dg)
    bm.transform(o.matrix_world)
    area = sum(f.calc_area() for f in bm.faces)
    print(f"{o.name} faces: {len(bm.faces)} area: {area}")
    areas.append(area)
    bm.clear()

print(f"Total Area: {sum(areas)}")


Cutting with Boolean Modifiers I have a scene where I need to be able to "interactively" cut a mesh.  I have set up a bounding box, and the object I need to cut is set inside.  When I move the vertices of the bounding box, the object is cut because of my implementation of a boolean modifier with the "union" property.  Here is an example:

However, the sphere is just being flattened in this image.  What I need is to be able to literally "cut" the sphere, so that it is hollow on the inside.  Is this possible, and how can I do it?

Here is how I want it to look, but with the ability to be animated.

Any help/suggestion is welcomed!

Edit:  I added a photo of how I want the image to look.

You could add a solidify modifier to the sphere before the boolean modifier:

Also note that you can set the boolean modifier to Difference and use a plane as the Object, it may be easier to animate than a cube.

For this to work, the normal of the plane must be facing the sphere:

You can flip the direction of the normals by

Pressing Flip Direction in 3D view > Tool Shelf (N) > Basic > Normals
Pressing CtrlN and enabling Inside in the Redo menu (either at the bottom of the Tool Shelf, or by pressing F6).

Result:


Why object deformed in Follow Path (ctrl + p)? I'm trying this method I found in youtube: https://youtu.be/ZgdobdXzKM4
But the problem is the child/duplicated objects deformed when applying the "Follow Path". What would be the reason deformed and what would be missing settings should I configure?

I do not know what you did wrong, but, I did everything that was shown on the video and it worked. Try again.


Why do original legs have orange dots, but mirrored ones do not? I tried to follow a tutorial about Bones but I had to delete them and recreate them from my memory but now I have a problem. Please look at my photo! I've got 4 legs mirrored via "modifier" and 4 bone structures which I duplicated on the other side. I parented everything for a bit more overview.

Now I'm confused why the original legs on the right have those 4 fat orange dots, I think I need them on the other side, too! What did I do wrong?

The orange dots are the object origins of the selected objects. It looks like you have created multiple armature objects, one for each leg.

You only want one armature object for the spider, then add multiple bones to the armature while in edit mode. This allows you to move the entire spider as one while moving individual parts in pose mode as needed.

You can select multiple armature objects and merge them into one by pressing ⎈ CtrlJ


Wrap Geometry Around Mobius Strip I have a geometry which is an extruded, rectangular plane with features on it, which I would like to wrap it around itself with a half twist in the way a mobius strip is constructed. Something similar to this:

How would I go about constructing such a geometry?

I start by making a few assumptions:

Your geometry is not too prominent.
It can get distorted quite a bit.

If these are true, you can use this trick.

There is one possible way. First you start by baking the height of the flat geometry. There are a number of ways to do this, see here for some possibilities:
How to make a displacement map from existing 3d geometry

Armed with the height map you model the Möbius strip. Unwrap it (hint: you only get one side). Then add a displacement modifier to it (you probably also want a "Subdivision Surface* below. Level four or five should do it.). Set the Displace to use the height map. Also set it to UV (messed this up myself a few times) and decrease it's strength. You can finish with the combo solidify-edge split-subsurf lv.2. For optimum results set the shading to smooth.

I hope this helps.


Make a blender material dull My roughness is 1 and yet I can't seem it get my material dull.
Sorry if this is a noob question, I'm very sure it is yet I've been trying for hours to figure it out.
I'd tried messing with the material in multiple ways yet I can't seem to stop my material from reflecting. I don't want the pink box not to reflect, I want the material to be dull.
As you can see in the image the roof is reflecting some of the pink color for some reason.

Here is my material (roughness is 0 but it doesn't make a difference whether 1 or 0):

Thats actually not a reflection but indirect light.
you can use a light path node (more info on the node here) to control the color of your cube before and after light hits it.
Here is a basic node setup for your cube material:

the upper color of the mix color node controls the color of the light after it bounces off of the cube. the other color is the color of your cube itself.
Before

After


The Claw of my Mesh deforms when I bend the Armature Any clue as to why this is happening?

The claws and the pads are all weight painted red. Here is my link Do you have any solutions

Here is a link if you need more info https://drive.google.com/open?id=1q45-Xk_Mt_fwbmZFbHyrrMJZLnvQDvcW

there must a vertex group (a mesh) assigned to that bone and it makes it bend, be sure to check how are assigned all your vertex groups after parenting, also lucks wrong tilted that bone, in the right panel appears an option for that called "tilt" then you can fix it, also rotating in the local axis might work too.


The coordinate and handles (co, handle_left, handle_right) can be read / set from the KeyFrame keyframe point.

Test code, runs on action on active object. Prints the fcurve name and each co and handle.

import bpy

context = bpy.context
obj = context.object
action =  context.object.animation_data.action
#print("fcurve_dic = {")
for fcurve in action.fcurves:

    print("'%s[%d]' : [" % (fcurve.data_path, fcurve.array_index))
    for kfp in fcurve.keyframe_points:
        #print("\t{", end="")
        vals = []
        for prop in ["co", "handle_left", "handle_right"]:
            co = getattr(kfp, prop)
            vals.append("{'x':%.4f, 'y':%.4f}" %  co[:])
        print("\t[%s]" % ", ".join(vals))
    print("\t]")

#print("}")


Modeling Waffle Shape of Cone So I have completed a model of an ice cream cone, but I'm stumped on how to achieve the waffle pattern. What would be the best way to go about this?

Is Sculpting with an alpha good? Or can you achieve this with the poke tool? I tried leaving criss cross edges but it just didn't want to work.

Any help would be appreciated!
(If you need Blend file, let me know! I don't know how to upload .blend files here yet)

You may model it using poke and bevel tools.

Select the faces you want to put the pattern on and hide the rest of the mesh with Shift+H. Press Alt+P to poke faces. Select vertical edges (select one of them, go to Select-->Select Similar-->Face Angles), then dissolve them (except for top and bottom ones) with X-->Dissolve Edges. Do the same with horizontal ones. You now have the pattern base.

Select all the faces, press Ctrl+B and drag the mouse to achieve the desired patern's thickness. Inverse the selection with Ctrl+I. Extrude and scale faces inwards (E,I,Shift+Z).

Unhide everything (Alt+H), select the pattern except for very top and bottom edges. Go to edge selection and press Shift+E to crease it.

Finally, you may bake created pattern to the low-poly version of your ice cone (bake normals) and apply it as a normal texture.


Return active FCurve with python i'm trying to write a little addon to help deal with FCurves modifier, and i would need to get the active modifier from active FCurves.

So far i'm not able to return active FCurve in python, i don't really know where to look. The purpose being get the active modifier in this FCurve, i tried to just iterate and get modifier marked as active, but they can be several (one by FCurves) so it won't work as intented.
I can only get selected FCurves with

fcurves[index].select

Do you have any idea where to look for this property ? Cheers guys !

Ok i finally found it, you have to call

bpy.context.active_editable_fcurve

from graph_editor context, active F Curve doesn’t seem to exist as a property out of context afaik !


How to reopen folder select dialog (probbably by clearing string property) I want to create a function that:

checks if a file test.txt is in a location from filepath variable
if it is not the displays the dialog again

I've got this:

class FileBrowserOperator(bpy.types.Operator):

    bl_idname = "object.file_browser_operator"
    bl_label = "File browser Operator"

    filepath = bpy.props.StringProperty(subtype="DIR_PATH")

    def execute(self, context):
        while not os.path.isfile(
                        context.scene.content_path + '/test.txt'):

            context.scene.content_path = self.filepath
            print("Path:")
            print(context.scene.content_path)
        return {'FINISHED'}
    [...]

But it shows the dialog only once. I assume, that at the beginning of the loop I've got to clear this value somehow, but I do not know how.
Thank You in advence

I'd suggest just recall the operator, eg  the operator file export template operator_file_export.py  Used a directory property for a folder path, to keep filepath as a file path (usual usage).

class ExportSomeData(Operator, ExportHelper):
    """This appears in the tooltip of the operator and in the generated docs"""
    bl_idname = "export_test.some_data"  # important since its how bpy.ops.import_test.some_data is constructed
    bl_label = "Export Some Data"

    # ExportHelper mixin class uses this
    filename_ext = ".txt"

    filter_glob = StringProperty(
            default="*.txt",
            options={'HIDDEN'},
            maxlen=255,  # Max internal buffer length, longer would be clamped.
            )

    directory = StringProperty(subtype='DIR_PATH')

    def execute(self, context):
        if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(self.directory, "test.txt")):
            return {'FINISHED'}
        else:
            return bpy.ops.export_test.some_data('INVOKE_DEFAULT')


How to scale loop cut instead of scaling whole mesh? I want to scale the difference between to loop cuts. It worked great on another mesh in another project by pressing SX or SY to scale the loop cut, but this time it scales the whole mesh with focus on the cutted area (as seen below).
I thought about what is different between this and the other mesh, but I can't find one.

https://vimeo.com/498472202

There are two main problems.

You're using Pivot > Individual origins, change it to Median
You have Proportional Editing enabled, disable it


Is Object Space Normals the same as Bent Normals Is Blenders normals that are using Object space the same as what other engines/applications refer to as bent normals?

Bent normals are Tangent normals mixed with some Ambient Occulsion in some way, so to me I don't think object space normals are indeed what other refer to as bent normals.

However other posts on here confuse the matter, hinting that they are the same!.

Edit: To give some clarity, bent normal look to be the average of the unoccluded directions.

No its not the same, this is object and tangent normals are related to the direction of the face at 'that' point. One is aligned to the world (object) and the other is aligned to the axis of the mesh (tangent).

Bent normals are as stated (after some research) the average of the unoccluded directions, causing a curve/lip/bend as they rotate.

Further information on what a bent normal map is; https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/Engine/Rendering/LightingAndShadows/BentNormalMaps


Delete all unused textures from Blender using Python With large projects that have hundreds of textures, it can be very difficult to deal with them in the UV image editor using the following little drop-down menu.

The best solution that I've come with so far is to modify the UV Image Editor code using some code from the Sculpt and Texture Paint section which is very helpful but it's still difficult to tell if something is in use and it has to be reopened every time something is selected and deleted.

(It now looks like the following in case anyone is interested.  You can do this by menu-clicking the image icon next to New and Open then selecting edit source and changing the following line in space_image.py

layout.template_ID(sima, "image", new="image.new", open="image.open")

to be

*layout.template_ID_preview(sima, "image", new="image.new", open="image.open", rows=8, cols=16*)

This question deals with deleting textures and it's what I already do.  But it's time consuming and very difficult to find the unused textures when there are a couple hundred of them, especially if the drop down menu has to be reopened and searched for everyone one of them.

So my question is the this:
Is there a way to delete all the unused textures using a Python script?

I have found one script that does not work very well.  Sometimes it does and sometimes it does not.
This gives the impression that there is something going on behind the scenes when it comes to how textures are considered to be in use.

By the way,  I don't use Fake User or pack images so this may simplify things a bit.

Remove all images with zero users from the blendfile:

import bpy

for img in bpy.data.images:
    if not img.users:
        bpy.data.images.remove(img)


How to organise dope sheet keyframes with color or strips/groups and how to change the order of displaying animations? I'm animating a book with a lot of pages, and few objects defines a single page animation (I'm talking about latices, empties and meshes).
Using NLA isn't a good way of organise this kind of animations, because it can make strips only with bones, or animations of an one single object.

Animations of three cubes looks terrible in this editor, and it can not be joined into one strip/group. So if I wanted to offset all animations I need to select 3 different Actions blocks.

Dope sheet is better, but it still is confusing when you dealing with a lot of keyframes of different objects (think that you need to offset a few keyframes, that you couldn't label in any way, and you need to search for them in thousends of keyframes looking all the same - grey dots...)

Is there any way (maybe an add-on?) to color keyframes? It would help a lot:

Or is there any way (maybe an add-on) to organise keyframes into group/frames/strips?:

And also I hate that I can not change (or I don't know how to change?) the order of displaying animations in Dope Sheet. The list is always alphabetical, but sometimes I want to change keyframes of 2 objects, and it would be nice if they were one right on top of another even that one object is called "A-something" and the other one "Z-something", and there are lot's of objects with animations on the scene that they have names starting with different letters.

I know that you can HIDE the keyframes of other objects by hiding those objects so for example we can display 2 animations in Dope Sheet Editor from hundreds of animations (which is nice), but it's also mean that I could not see the other objects on the scene (which really sucks). Are there any add-ons to fix that problems?

There is some built-in color coding. Select a keyframe in the dope sheet, and press R, you should see a list of options. The same is available in the timeline, see: New Keyframe Types


Why will a background image not show up? Can someone please help me thanks!
https://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/modernplanes/boeing/19885/view/boeing_747-300/
this is where I got the image from

Background images are only visible in Camera View or in the Preset Ortho views along an axis.

Numpad 0 for camera view
Numpad 5 : shifts between ortho and perspective view
Numpad 1 : front view
Numpad 3 : right view
Numpad 7 : top view
Ctrl+Numpad 1 : back view
Ctrl+Numpad 3 : left view
Ctrl+Numpad 7 : bottom view


X access mirror modifier behaving like Z access mirror? Something bizarre seems to be happening where applying the X access mirror modifier mirrors on the Z access and the Z access modifier flips it over the X.

You can see in the photo below that X is selected to mirror, but it's not mirroring on the X. It's flipping on the Z instead.

I tried doing these cursor fixing steps, although it seems like it might be a different problem, since it don't work.

What went wrong? How do I fix it? This is 2.8 Beta.

You must apply the transforms, or avoid the rotation in object mode.
See here:
Problem creating mirror in X, Y axes


Create a curved face between two bezier curves in Blender 2.8 I'm trying to create a curved face between two curved edges. I've converted two parallel bezier curves to mesh

but when I switch to edit mode, select 4 of the vertices, and hit F it doesn't create a face.

Can anyone see what I'm missing? I'm very new to Blender.

It looks like each side is a separate mesh object (You have two white 'active' vertices, one for each mesh). If you select both in object mode you can join them into one using Ctrl-J.

Editing multiple meshes at the same time is a new feature in 2.8, and allows for many useful operations, but if they are separate objects, they still can't share any of their actual geometery.