Techniques for modeling a network of blood vessels

This is a nice case of how node based geometry generation can create crazy stuff. First off, you'll never guess who this is in the following Blend file:

You will need the latest iteration of Animation Nodes, which you can currently get from here: https://github.com/JacquesLucke/animation_nodes Click Clone or Download and choose download .ZIP, then install as usual.
I've put a lot of comments directly into the node tree to explain what each section is doing, so I won't repeat all of it here. Just the basic concept: I'm using a bunch of points, generated by a Vector Wiggle node in a loop, plus an empty which defines the area where most vessels shall grow from, plus a few parameters to control all the effect. The magic nodes that enable it is the BVH nodes, found in the Node Tree under Shift + A -> KD & BVH Tree. Those nodes allow you to split up a mesh into a BVH Tree, and then calculate distances, find closest points, project points back onto the mesh, and so on.
I'm then generating random points using Vector Wiggle, and then comparing their location to the BVH Tree. There is a node which can check if a point is inside or outside the mesh, and in conjunction with the switch node and the Find nearest surface point node (kind of a Shrinkwrap for Animation Nodes) I can pull back 3D points which went out of the mesh back onto the mesh surface.
There was an issue which I was then fighting for a long time, which is the nature of Shrinkwrapping: Two Spline Points could get disclocated quite far from each other this way. I dunno if it is a glitch or the nature of math, but my approach to it was to resample the whole spline again in another loop, and reproject the stray areas again. This way, the spline would adaptively get closer to the volume / surface, and the shape becomes readable.
For the beveling of the Spline I used Blenders standard tools, so a Spline Curve to define the profile, and the bevel parameters in the Object data tab.
For more info, please study the Blend File, and if you find improvements, please let me knoe.
Important: For performance reasons, Auto Execute is turned OFF in the file, you'll need to either change a property or click Execute Node Tree explicitly
EDIT
Here is a few screenshots of areas of the node tree:
Main Program, with a single vessel in 3D:

Run on a Default cube, the controller in a corner:

setting first parameters:

The Vector Wiggle in action, creating the main points of the spline, which will be edited later again:

preparing the spline for resampling, and then smoothing it out:

the resampling sub-loop in detail:


Yes, I do believe that you are correct in thinking that you need to up the steps of the simulation. You can find those in the cloth modifier tab under "Physics" in the Properties.

Also, check if the hands and other body parts that need to collide have the collision in the "Physics" tab. More important, however, is proper subdivision. Make sure that the hand has proper subdivision and the cape is not only subdivided in one or two axis. For example make sure it looks like this:

And not this:


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.


When dealing with robotic and mechanical animation, you should assign every vertex of torso to the torso bone  ONLY, the hip vertices to the hip bone ONLY, and so on. As long as a group of vertices are assigned to a bone/vertex group ONLY, they will move exactly with their bone, without distortions and deformations (and the value of the weight is not important, you can set it to 1.0, but any other value is OK). Deformations will occour when there are difference between the weights of different vertices, which tipically occour when using automatic weighting. So use instead parenting with "empty groups" option, then select the hip vertex group, select all hip vertices and click "assign" under the vertex group properties tab. Do the same for all the others vertex groups.


When I export a animated blender model as GLTF into three.js it stretches out

There has been recent development done with blenders gltf exporter, so try exporting with a current development build of blender, you can get a daily build or go to GraphicAll if you don't want to compile yourself.

Using a recent build (week old) I can export your blend file to gltf and do not see the issue when importing back into blender, which I do see when importing your sample glb file. Using sandbox.babylon.js also shows the new export to work.

Another thing to try is to apply the transformations to the armature and mesh, the two in your blend file do not have the same location. When the two are moved separately you can see a similar distortion, try it by moving the mesh object in blender separate to the armature.


Does Blender have different languages (language as in speech language as english, not computer language as python)?

Yes you can change the default interface language in blender.

To do so open the User preferences, go to the system tab, on the bottom right of the screen there is a checkbox that says "International Fonts" check it then select one of the translations then choose to apply it to "Interface" or "Tooltips" or both.


This can't be done with current snapping tools. You need a vertex in the intersection

Enable TinyCAD addon
Select both intersected edges > RMB > TinyCAD > Vertex at intersection
Snap to the new vertex


You can configure this in User Preferences > Keymap (Input in 2.7x); just set the shortcuts for view3d.rotate and view3d.move accordingly:


Video Editing in blender 2.8 - FFmpeg renders nothing

I had the same problem.

Rendering animation from 3d keyframes worked fine, the same as you rendering into avi jpg or raw worked fine but ffmpeg just left a blank render window and nothing happening, no errors nothing.

As input I use a png image sequence of size 4800x6299 [px] (this is important).

I decided to add an effect transform with 2 keyframes at the beginning and the end with position x set to 0 (so no movement, just to get some keyframes to see what happenes) then I tried rendering and got an error saying: output dimension is not divisible by 2.

So I deleted the transform effect, changed height from 6299 to 6300 (1px is not going to make much difference anyway), hit render (this time again only the pure image sequence) and it started rendering.

So not sure if this can help you or not but I'd try checking that your output size both width and height are divisible by 2. If that doesn't work try adding some effect or something with keyframes and check if you get an error message as I did and try to check if yo uget any errors at the bottom.

This is after official 2.80 release so I'm nto sure if it's still relevant with your or not so I'm leaving this here if it helps someone else in the future.


Archimesh basically is a collection of existing cad addons packaged and extended by Antonioya. (window maker, door maker, a wall generator, blinds..)

Archipack is a framework intended to provide parametric objects developpers a fast and easy way to program, focusing on mesh generation, and providing on-screen real-time manipulation, native preset and material handling, and strongest support for linked objects.
Inspired by archimesh, current implemented objects are ment to boost users productivity with a fast and reliable way to get "ready to render" models.
See Archipack wiki


Blender settings and Windows drivers for OpenCL rendering

Just go to http://support.amd.com and download the latest driver. You cant do much wrong. Other then that, there's no special setup needed.

Also: As you can see here, the OpenCL/AMD support in Blender got a huge leap with 2.79.


I can think of two things that you might have done:

You have Motion Blur switched on as suggested by Mechanic
You have used a transparent material to hide it.

I can't say anything else if you don't provide the blender file through https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/. With the actual file I would be able to troubleshoot your problem effectively cause I can't see your settings and stuff through the two images.


Why does copy paste keyframes paste keyframes additional to those I selected?

Selected channels
As the tooltip suggests, when you paste from the buffer, the keyframes are pasted into the selected channels.
If no channel is selected, the keyframes are pasted into all the editable channels.

Duplicate
In my opinion, this is the easiest way.
You can duplicate the keyframes (Shift + D) and move them by entering the number of frames or by moving the mouse.
Include only selected objects
Alternatively, you can include only the channels related to the selected object.

or
Protect channels
You can protect the other channels from editing:

Select the channel
Press Tab (locked / unlocked)


Cycles imported whiskey glass not transparant

Just increase the number of total bounces in the scene (the other values are subdivisions of this main values).


IK bone does not perfectly follows the target

Open the Blender debug console and make sure Blender is not detecting a cyclical dependency chain in your armature.  IK constraints are the first to freak out when these are present in your model.


How to change material to another material at specified keyframe

You could use a Mix RGB node, plug one texture into the first input and the other into the second input. Then set keyframes for the Mix factor, change it from 0 (first texture) to 1 (second texture). For an instant change insert a keyframe for 0 at frame 19 and another for 1 at frame 20. If you set the 0 at an earlier frame you can make a smooth transition between those textures.
EDIT: Since Alexis mentioned the Mix Shader node in his comment, here something just for completion: If you really meant materials like in the title instead of textures, you can of course create two completely different node setups in one material. And just before the Material Output node you insert a Mix Shader node, connect those two different setups each in one socket and keyframe the Fac value in the Mix Shader node.


To what degree does Cycles' sample level impact other passes?

Depends on the pass. Z and Object/Mat ID are not antialiased at all, and require only 1 sample. Normal, mist, and UV are also just data/stats, but since they are antialiased you need a few samples to get a smooth result. 8-16 is usually enough. Vector is a bit of a weird case that I confess I don't fully understand. It doesn't appear to be antialiased in the normal sense, but does seem to gather some multisample data - possibly time variance?

The remaining passes are just components of the main render, so they're essentially dependent on the samples rate of the full scene. However, since different components denoise at different rates, some passes may clear up more quickly than others. The "color" passes (including emit and environment) are just texture readouts and generally don't take more samples the normal/UV/mist. AO, shadow, and the direct/indirect passes contain the lighting portion of your render and generally one of them (usually one of the indirect ones) will be the last component to clear up.


Body Deformates In Weird Ways When Bone is Rotated

From your Screenshot i can tell that a lot of vertices are assigned to the Vertex group/Bone from the lower arm (or the corresponding hand/fingers). You should be able to see this influence if you go into Weight Paint mode and select those bones.

First I recommend going into wireframe mode and selecting every face you know, shouldn't be influenced by these bones at all. Then hit "Remove" for the Vertex Groups of the Bones in the corresponding lower Arm and Hand. This way those Bones won't effect Areas they aren't supposed to.

After that you'll have to balance the influence from the upper and lower arm in Weight Paint Mode, so it bends in a natural way.


Set a polygon's normal's orientation as the objects local rotation orientation (if every polygon is an object)

A much much much faster script to do this
EDIT
Noticed the edit re other answer from OP, and given zero  Feedback thought I'd have another look.  As OP noted in answer, Using that many operators is going to give terrible performance
The rate determining step in old version was using face split  and separate by loose parts operators, the latter is notoriously slow.
Here is another take on this with No operators used at all.
The object created from each face has its origin at face center and local Z axis along its face normal.   Could use edges to align the x or y axis along the face..
For convenience adds them to a collection named "FaceCollection"

import bpy
from mathutils import Vector

context = bpy.context

z = Vector((0, 0, 1))

face_col = bpy.data.collections.new(
    "FaceCollection",
    )

for ob in context.selected_objects:

    mw = ob.matrix_world
    mwi = mw.inverted()
    for f in ob.data.polygons:
        me = bpy.data.meshes.new(f"Face{f.index}")
        me.from_pydata(
                [ob.data.vertices[i].co - f.center for i in f.vertices],
                [],
                [range(len(f.vertices))]
                )
        fo = bpy.data.objects.new(
                f"Face{f.index}",
                me
                )
        # face space
        zf = f.normal
        q = zf.rotation_difference(z)
        M =  q.to_matrix().to_4x4()
        me.transform(M)
        fo.matrix_world = mw.to_3x3().to_4x4() @ M.inverted()
        fo.matrix_world.translation = mw @ f.center

        face_col.objects.link(fo)

    # remove originals?
    #bpy.data.objects.remove(ob)
context.collection.children.link(face_col)

This takes a couple of seconds on an old machine with a 4-icosphere with 1280 faces.
End EDIT
NOTE Appears to be a logic error in this  when not Identity Matrix World, didn't bother to fix
Used as answer to Calculating and exporting global rotation of faces created from splitting an isosphere  (possible dupe?) thought it would be good here too

Shows origin and local orientation of one split off face

Adds an icosphere, edge splits, separates and returns to object mode

Selected objects are the result of separate modifier.

For each face object get its lone face and calculate the global center and normal.  See how far the normal is rotated from default quaternion.

Use this to create the global matrix aligned to normal, origin at center.  The object space inverse is applied to the mesh with transfrom (makes origin (0, 0, 0).

The global transform is given to the object by way of world matrix.

Script.
import bpy
from mathutils import Quaternion

context = bpy.context
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_ico_sphere_add(enter_editmode=True)
bpy.ops.mesh.edge_split()
bpy.ops.mesh.separate(type='LOOSE')

bpy.ops.object.mode_set()
z = Quaternion()
for ob in context.selected_objects:
    print(ob)
    me = ob.data
    mw = ob.matrix_world
    mwi = mw.inverted()
    f = ob.data.polygons[0]
    c = mw @ f.center
    n = mw @ f.normal

    q = z.rotation_difference(n.to_track_quat())
    M =  q.to_matrix().to_4x4()
    M.translation = c
    me.transform(mwi @ M.inverted())
    ob.matrix_world = M

Related. Another example of making a matrix based on known orthogonals.
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/177331/15543


There are two steps need to be confirmed for the correct result:

Domain -> Mesh -> Use Speed Vector, make sure it's checked
Domain -> Cache -> Format Volumes -> Uni Cache, make sure it's choosen

then you will have a motion blur of fluid.


It turns out I was overthinking this problem. I simply had to bend the knees before I rig it.


Multires Normal Baking Leaving Blank Image

I solved this after messing around for about 45 minutes - posted anyway in case someone else is as boneheaded.  The multires needs to be set to "Render".  Once I did this, it worked fine.

EDIT: To clarify, the multires modifier "render button" (the button that determines whether or not the modifier is used during renders) must be "on" when baking the normals.


How to make changes to mesh after animating

I watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2fx8TMQDoc and it help me to attach eyes to body itself, but I had to put eyes higher in mesh to make it good in animation. Tell me please if you know how to put them the right way.


How can I duplicate a mesh along a curve?

Based on what you explained in the comments above, I think what you want are Dupliframes. My answer is based on the example in the wiki.

In short, you add a curve to the scene and in the Curve menu under Path Animation, you enable Follow. (You should also set the frames to a more reasonable number as needed such as 10 or so)

Then add the object and in the Object tab in the Properties Editor under Duplication enable Frames and disable Speed.

Then parent the object to the curve or path, first select the object then the curve (so that the curve is the active object) and use Ctrl + P and Set Parent to Object. After, you can select the object and use Alt + O to reset its origin.

Finally, you can now change the orientation of the object by either rotating it (either in Edit mode or Object mode). The arrangement of objects can, of course, be further enhanced by editing the curve. (Shaping it into text etc)

Additionally from the same manual page linked above:

  There are many alternatives to Dupliframes. Which tool to use depends
  on context.

  To use a small curve as a profile and a larger curve as a
  path, simply use the former as a Bevel Object to the latter.
  To arrange objects along a curve, combining an Array Modifier and a Curve
  Modifier is often useful.
  Dupliverts can be used to arrange objects, for example, along a circle or across a subdivided plane.

Additionally, its worth noting that the additional objects are instances and not real objects, this will reduce the load of your scene and also allow you to be more flexible when adding more objects. Alternatively, you can Make Duplicates Real with Ctrl + Shift + A. All objects will now be real objects, but still linked copies. To change this, go to Object → Make Single User → Object & Data and choose All.


Material Preview dosen't show textures but Render Preview does

you have not packed materials that you are using for your project please pack those files in blend file by clicking on file-> external data -> pack all into blends
then save your file and upload it so i can maybe help you


Are there disadvantages to using a mesh deform modifier?

I don't think you can export it to other Software
It will take a little longer to calculate the mesh's deform so it might slow down the render a little but not more than some milliseconds
I do even think you can make better bends with that technique, at least that's in my experience
also if the cage starts intersecting when it's deformed it will still work


Odd unselected/light-colored face when UV unwrapping torus?

That's the active, not unselected. Active is usually the last selected face/edge/vert. Sometimes it's very useful for example if you want to copy modifieres to the selected objects from the active or bake textures from other objects to the active, or merge verts to the last selected's position, or if you want to use UV wrapping by "Follow Active Quads"
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.80/scene_layout/object/editing/transform/control/pivot_point/active_element.html


Is there a difference between imported file types?

Most stores offer all file formats for download without restriction once you buy a specific model.

If that is not the case, then DO NOT buy the 3DsMax (.max) file, since it's a closed file format specific for AutoDesk 3DSMax and you will not be able to open it elsewhere.

DXF is generally more geared towards CAD-Like applications (like AutoCAD or FreeCad or LibreCAD alikes).

If you really have to make a choice either go with the .OBJ or the .3DS file formats, which are some of the most common and Blender as native official importers for both.

OBJ is generally regarded as a more modern and advanced file format, it is well supported in most 3D packages (in case you need to open it elsewhere in the future) and also supports the most features compared to 3Ds which is more basic and limited, so I'd say OBJ is likely the best from the bunch.


Rendering seems slow, am I getting the most out of my hardware?

I never used it but the e-cycles plugin might help if you had to keep the subdivision :
https://blendermarket.com/products/e-cycles
« What’s more, thanks to a new option called "Persistent Data", for fly-through animations where only the camera moves, E-Cycles only needs to do the pre-processing step once for all frames. In the example above, rendering takes just 3 seconds per frame on a single GPU. In this case, the persistent data option saves 7 seconds of pre-processing per frame. »


Each model has to have UVs that correspond to the location of pixels in the texture image to be mapped to it. If the UV map referenced in the texture image mapping is incorrect, then you will see paint strokes apply in odd places. Also happens when multiple faces in the UV editor are overlapping instead of being placed evenly and not on top of each other.


How to make edge length to always be multiple of a certain number?

You can use the snapping features and align all your vertices to the grid.
If your edges are not aligned to the grid you can set the edge length in different ways like described here.


Color banding in Blender Internal render output

I am very appreciative of information found on blendhelp.com... (Has the site died?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwrTaXXSZsY

In any case, the solution to my banding involved:

** Select PNG output and 16-bit color depth

** In post-processing, select an appropriate dither amount. I worked between 1 and 2 and seem to get a nice smooth transition.

This explains why I did not see it earlier, as the original color range was probably narrow enough not to generate this banding.

Hope this helps someone in the future!

Please note all input from troy_s below, as these are really helping me dial this in. PNGs did not work as well as Targas, which do not seem to work as well as EXRs.


How do i make an object emit an object that is emitting objects?

Blender 2.8 will have this feature, that will allow complex manipulation with particles (not only with particles):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQi2BqlQtnI

If you want to try something similar right now, you can try to use Animation nodes, but you need to know, that it has not so good performance as particles.


Exporting / importing .obj messes up the materials

You cannot avoid some changes, simply because .OBJ (.MTL actually) shading model is not exactly the same as BI one (not talking about nodes here, if it’s relatively easy to import .mtl as a basic nodal shader, the reverse operation is practically impossible and hence not supported).

That said, several issues here were fixed in past months (regarding mutual influences between world and material especially), so suggest you try with the latest build from our buildbot, if not yet done. :)


How to let grow PingPong balls inside an invisible box?

You can achieve a similar effect with builtin physics engine.

Just add a bunch of spheres to your scene, set physics type to Rigid Body, Active and collision shape to Sphere. Set it up in advance before duplicating, or copy it afterwards.
Place them inside an invisible container with a simple box-like shape, like the default cube.
Now you need to push them against a wall. Do so by either animating the container shape, or optionally using a second animated object to push them around.

The illustrated example uses an animated squashing box. In retrospective you could probably animate its scale instead, avoiding changing shapes and expensive mesh morphing physics, but this example uses shape keys.
Set the cube mesh up with Rigid Body type physics, with both Dynamic and Animated active, and collisions set to Mesh type, Source as Deform and Deforming option active.

Add one additional shape key besides Base, for that shape key move the back face forward enough distance to squash the desired amount of spheres against the front face. Keyframe the factor for that shapekey from $0$ to $1$ for the desired duration of the animation.


How can I make the default size of new objects 1 x 1?

You can achieve stuff like this by setting a custom scale value to the grid itself. I'm working in metric system on my machine and have my scale value set to 0.1, which results in the cube being added having a length of 20 centimeters instead of 2 meters. For imperial, you can set it up like this:

set your units to Imperial in the Scene tab. This sets your main units to feet.

Calculate a working scale factor for converting feet to inches, and enter it in the N Panel in the 3D Viewport

If I am not mistaken, feet and inches have a relation of 1:12. So the multiplier will be 0.08333333

Save your Startup File using Ctrl + U
Restart Blender, as this only takes effect after doing so

Test it by adding a new cube. It should be exactly 2 inches wide. Note that the grid lines now are also 1 inch apart each.


Lock properties from applying object transformations

Cannot be done with lattices.

Also somehow locking the scale to its value and performing scale applying would cause the lattice itself to expand/shrink again (resulting in 2x the original transformation).

Use Mesh Deform instead and keep the scale of that cage at 1. Only this setup will be fool-proof. But Mesh-Deform is not a full supplement for Lattice, depends on what you are doing with it..


How to have freestyle render change to outline only at a distance

Solution: Use a freestyle line modifier

For your scene I'd recommend using the Distance from Camera modifier on Alpha of the freestyle lines found in the Linestyle panel. The hack is to choose the same value for Range Min and Range Max. This will draw a sharp distinction between the 'close' and the 'far' objects in view.
With two line sets (one for the 'close' objects and the other for the 'far') you can choose for the 'far' line set to only render the outlines.

Here's a simple example

That's the freestyle setup

The scene without any modifiers

And with the modifiers


Nope, you can animate a model at any time regardless if its unwrapped or not.


how to adjust 'ToolSettings.proportional_edit_falloff' in the user interface?

Apple mouse does not have scroll wheel. virtual scrolling defaults to rotate and does not allow focus adjustment. Using 3 button mouse with wheel works fine and solves this problem.
Perhaps a developer knows a work around for the apple mouse.
Thanks to Markus von Broady for the tip.
.....
Reattached apple mouse, now the circle appears after the 'G' command. Scrolling the mouse wheel down to bring the focus into range (on screen)
was the correct action it appears. Sigh.


Array modifier (vary textures on duplicates)

Well seeing as you said 'slightly' then yes, you can have slightly different textures on an object that has been arrayed:

This cube has a texture which uses 'Generated' coordinates instead of other texture mapping coordinates such as UV.

Generated coordinates can be set for either the internal renderer in the mapping panel of the texture settings:

Or in Cycles with a 'Texture Coordinate' node:

The example above uses a procedural cloud texture with generated coordinates. This method doesn't allow you to specify different textures to appear on each cube, however, it does allow you to slightly vary each different cube.


You added a material to the domain, but it is currently not in use since it is not assigned to any part of the mesh.

This is however an easy fix; just remove the other material from the domain by selecting it (the one named "Material") and clicking the minus button on the right hand side. Your fluid should now be using the material "vino.004" instead.


How do I put a texture on top of a normal map?

This is how you would do it in Cycles:

After adding both images in Image Texture nodes.
Plug your color map into the Color socket of a Diffuse BSDF shader node.
Take the normal map Image Texture, make sure to set it to "Non-Color Data" and plug it in to the Color socket of a Normal Map node. Then, link normal map to the Normal socket of the same Diffuse BSDF that the color map was linked to earlier.


Hair renders from regions outside vertex group

As with many things in life, I do not know the answer. But I do know how to cheat.

In edit mode, subdivide the faces you want hairy. Create a one-face-wide border between the hairy area and the rest of the surface. Assign your weight to the inside faces, and make sure your border faces are blue. Looking at the mesh in weight paint mode will show you if the hairs need a broader border area...

I am not sure this is right, but it mostly works....


Shader Editor not match selected material

You selected an object. That does not necessarily select the material you intended to select on it. You need to do that in the Material tab in the Properties Editor:

In order to assign materials to different parts of an object you need to select desired faces in edit mode and click assign in the Material tab in the Properties Editor:

It is also quite important to name your materials appropriately. It might not be a problem for you now to have Material.001, Material.002 and Material.003, but once you work on anything more than a few objects with 3 or 4 materials, it will get very confusing if you don't name things. It's better to make a habit out of it.


I looked into your file and made some changes of my own.
I noticed in your Softbody settings, under Goal you've selected vertex group: Soft
The issue was that you selected every vertex and weighted them to 1.0. I changed it so the belly part is at 0 weight and tweaked some of the settings and it seems to work for me
I would also recommend to first getting used to softbody physics as Jaroslav advised.


IK-rig doesn't bend when I add elbow-target/elbow-pole

Seems like what's needed is a tiny bend in the armature, in edit mode. In other words, Blender needs to know where your elbow is bending towards. Go into edit mode, move the connection between the upper arm and lower arm just a little bit towards the elbow target/elbow pole. Then you should be good to go.


Why is object mode slow but sculpt mode fast?

Two possibilities:

If you have hidden most parts of the mesh in sculpt mode (H), these faces will be visible in object mode.

If you are using a multiresolution modifier, you can set the preview subdivisions higher than sculpt mode.


Sculpting a photorealistic human face for animation: use the multiresolution modifier?

From what I understand about the development of blender and the workflows that are out there, the multi resolution modifier is no longer frequently used, and for good reason. I think it still has uses, but overall it's no longer an essential modifier for workflows such as the one you describe.

The multiresolution modifier was, for a long time, the only feasible way to sculpt in Blender. Manually creating a dense mesh or using the subsurf modifier (applied) was an option, but these are destructive methods that lead to objects that are so dense they are difficult to edit.

With the addition of dynamic topology, there is now a way for an artist to create highly detailed objects without this modifier. In your case, a scanned object replaces this, but the  results are the same: You and up with a dense triangulated mesh, and the workflow you outlined is a great way of turning that into a final product.

Since dynamic topology is much more free from an artistic point of view than the multires modifier (you don't have to worry about topology at all) it's no longer used much for initial sculpts as there are better options out there.

However, the multiresolution modifier still has a place, and that place is in  adding details to modeled meshes. Not everyone is a sculptor, and sometimes hand modeling an object is the best way to go about it. If you then want to add details, this is where the mutiresolution modifier is great. It allows the artist to add details non destructively, and gives the option of baking this detail to maps. Using an applied subsurf modifier or a dense mesh won't allow you to do this, as any detail you add is practically permanent.

Finally, the mutiresolution modifier can still be a good way to sculpt an object from scratch, provided the topology is OK, or you start with a simple model. All in all, this modifier has it's uses, mainly in workflows where a mesh with good topology is the starting point.


The question is tagged modeling and is pretty big, and I'm not going to make a full-blown tutorial (I wouldn't be able, and is off-topic), so I'm focusing on the basics, trying to get to a decent starting point and ignoring the modeling of details and the shading.

The starting point is simply a curve. Start by adding a Bezier curve.

In Edit mode (Tab), select one of the two default handles and:

E extrude it to the opposite side, making sure to add some variation/randomness
repeat for several loops

rotate the handles in the view you've been using (select, R, repeat) to add randomness, or to align them (it really depends on how messy you want the cable)
change view and add some random displacement of the handles in the perpendicular direction (select, G, repeat)

You now want to add handles along the middle in order to control the shrinking. To do so:

select all your handles (A)
right click, Subdivide

Deselect all the vertices (AA) and select only the middle ones using a box select (B)
Shrink these handles along all axes except the long one, in my example: the X axis (S, shiftX)

The curve is done, now it requires some thickness.

Exit Edit mode (Tab), go to the Curve properties, and under Geometry, increase the Bevel > Depth.

You will probably see some overlaps, that can be fixed by moving some handles manually in edit mode.
The velcro strap can be done starting from a plane and extruding it around the middle: while doing it, look around often to check that it's not intersecting or staying too far from the wires. With a Subdivision Surface modifier, it will then look softer


How to merge all identical materials into one?

Select all the objects that share the same material. Using Select->Select Pattern may be a quick way to do that.
⎈ CtrlL -> Material will set the same material for each object.


If you want to make a shiny, iridescent material, it is very simple.  All you need to do is follow my node setup, which I have provided below:
once that is done, you should have a very iridescent material (see image below).

If you want  to make a security hologram-like sticker in your question, you can simply texture paint an image of a sticker onto a mesh, then add a mix shader and mix your iridescent shader with the image texture (see image below)

hope this helped!  If you encounter further problems, let me know and I'll be happy to help. : )
(PS, you might need to enlarge the images to see the node setup.   sorry about how small they are)


There are a few options open to you:

Yes you can keep the operator instance by keeping the operator running, in this case you would need to start a modal operator, then use some action to trigger it (think the knife tool - it stays running and but act's when the mouse is dragged).Note: This is the most direct answer to your question - however its only really useful in specific cases.
Store the settings externally.
Typically when you store settings externally, the operators invoke function will read from these settings when initializing.

In a Python dictionary outside the operator instance (settings will be lost on restarting Blender unless you implement callbacks to write and restore them)
In custom properties (custom Scene properties is often used for this)
In the addons user preferences (not so good for per-blend-file data)
In a text data block (normally not optimal but including for completeness)


Unable to see smoke, and still see faces of object in Wire(Maximum Draw Type)

not sure what went wrong.
to make smoke first decide your render engine Cycles or BI.

Next on the 3 screen hit space, type quick smoke

you'll get something to start with, keep in mind smoke requires light as well and settings how thick it will be can be tuned, and viewport might not reflect cycles but be just some aprouch to it.


Weird Boolean Modifier glitch (double faced after intersecting with more than 1 mesh?)

Interesting. It turned out that if I separated the extruding cylindrical 'sub-mesh' if you will, then everything works out fine. I suppose it has something to do with the fact that I inserted that object in Edit mode instead of Object mode.


Go to "File"->"User Preferences" and click on the "System" tab. On the left it should say "Cycles Compute Device". On my machine (I have the same card) when I change from "None" to "CUDA" the GPU Compute rendering option stops being greyed out. If that's not your case I don't really know what the problem could be. Good luck!


How to allow Rigid Body Physics take over after follow path constraint?

At the frame before you want to switch from the "follow path" to rigid body, keyframe the "Follow Path" Constraint influence to "1" by hovering over the influence slider and pressing "i". Then go ahead one frame and set the influence to "0" and keyframe the influence again.

Then to do the same thing on the same frames to your rigid body. (I believe the dynamic checkbox controls the rigid body the same way the influence slider would for the "follow Path", but I'm not 100% sure.)


particle collision is weird whith sphere object

If you have already have activated the Collision option on your surface, you will have to adjust the Particle Dampening value. Based on the size of the balls, you would want them to bounce and settle on the surface. If you want to keep the balls embeded into the surface on impact, just don't change anything. But activating the Collision option on the surface the particles are falling to would be your best bet.


"Keep offset" connecting the wrong ends of the bones

I am sorry, but I have finally understood the problem. It was very simple, just needed to select the bones in the other order...

Sorry !


How should clothes be modified to fit a character model?

As satishgoda says in his answer.. the Shrinkwrap modifier is the way to go but it's best to not use a prefab in most cases. These are usually badly shaped or just have a different flow from the rest of your model. They can also prove to be very difficult to try and manipulate to conform to your object..

The best way to make clothing and fit it to your character is to select a part of the upper body in the shape of a shirt and duplicate it.

Here I have the upper body of a base mesh..

I next Tab into edit mode, select and duplicate the part of it that I would like his shirt to be and separate it from the body into its own piece with P > Selection. After this, I just scale it outward the tiniest bit with Alt + S to distance it a bit from the body then add a Shrinkwrap modifier to snap it back to the base mesh. This won't be perfect most times, (especially if you have bad topology) so it might require some tweaking on your part to adjust this..

After that, it's up to you now, you can join the meshes back together if you want to animate etc or you can apply the modifier and shape it a bit.. add pockets etc..


What is the official name for this icon/button?

Andrew Price called it "Dot Symbol" button:

http://youtu.be/xYiiD-p2q80?t=8m58s

I would call the particular ones you show "Node Material Properties Dropdown Buttons" to be honest. I'm not sure why a differnet icon is used here, using a symbol not "universaly understood" like Andrew said.


Add a custom curve mapping property for an add-on?

First off this solution is inspired by the Interpolation From Curve Mapping node in Animation nodes which offers more info on using the curve data.

The idea is that blender offers mapping curves in various places, one that we can dynamically add items to is node trees. By creating a node that uses curve mapping data we can then access that data using layout.template_curve_mapping in our custom panels. While Animation Nodes creates a helper material, my approach is to create a custom node group as it will only be visible in the Add->Group menu in the node editor which keeps it more out of the users view than a material.

While we can add nodes during a panels draw() we can't alter the name, so a solution to have more useful names is to keep a dictionary to map useful names to the less helpful 'RGB Curves.12', this should be stored within a custom property in the scene so that the mapping can be kept between restarts. Another approach would be to create a group with one node for each mapping that you want to use.

import bpy
def myNodeTree():
    if 'TestCurveData' not in bpy.data.node_groups:
        ng = bpy.data.node_groups.new('TestCurveData', 'ShaderNodeTree')
        ng.fake_user = True
    return bpy.data.node_groups['TestCurveData'].nodes

curve_node_mapping = {}
def myCurveData(curve_name):
    if curve_name not in curve_node_mapping:
        cn = myNodeTree().new('ShaderNodeRGBCurve')
        curve_node_mapping[curve_name] = cn.name
    return myNodeTree()[curve_node_mapping[curve_name]]

class CurvyPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_label = "Test Curve Mapping"
    bl_region_type = 'UI'

    def draw(self, context):
        self.layout.template_curve_mapping(myCurveData('TestOne'), "mapping")

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

In the parameters to template_curve_mapping, the first is the curve based node that we use for our curve data, the second is the property that it uses to store the CurveMapping structure.


Applying array modifier to multiple items

Use the following settings for the Array modifier and be sure to add the empty for the Object Offset.  Note that the Modifier should be added to the object that is being duplicated and not the Empty.

Now rotate the Empty


Install new Python modules from within Addon (without sudo/admin privileges)

Thanks to all the help, I was able to piece together a fully automatic solution that works at least on my system (tests on other Linux and Windows machines planned). It looks something like this:
import bpy
import sys
import importlib
import subprocess

# Blender's Python executable
pybin = bpy.app.binary_path_python

def add_user_site():
    # Locate users site-packages (writable)
    user_site = subprocess.check_output([pybin, "-m", "site", "--user-site"])
    user_site = user_site.decode("utf8").rstrip("\n")   # Convert to string and remove line-break
    # Add user packages to sys.path (if it exits)
    user_site_exists = user_site is not None
    if user_site not in sys.path and user_site_exists:
        sys.path.append(user_site)
    return user_site_exists

def enable_pip():
    if importlib.util.find_spec("pip") is None:
        subprocess.check_call([pybin, "-m", "ensurepip", "--user"])
        subprocess.check_call([pybin, "-m", "pip", "install", "--upgrade", "pip", "--user"])

def install_module(module : str):
    if importlib.util.find_spec(module) is None:
        subprocess.check_call([pybin, "-m", "pip", "install", module, "--user"])

user_site_added = add_user_site()
enable_pip()
# All the modules you need, that don't come shipped with Blender
modules = ["module1", "module2", ...]
for module in modules:
    install_module(module)
# If there was no user-site before...
if not user_site_added:
    add_user_site()


Add-ons usually give you an information where they are to find/use from. Most are in the right hand Sidebar opened with N.

Here the Text FX:

Location: "View3D > Tools" refers to the default Sidebar, as mentioned above.
The Add-on gives you the option to "add a text", which depending on the type/function you want chosen from the drop-down menu then generates an object in the 3D-View of Blender.


Yes, Blender does do basic editing.

Keep in mind that Blender was designed as a 3D application so the video editor is a bit of an addon. It works fine and is quite usable, but the workflow isn't as optimized as a normal video editor. The more complex your edit, the more hacky things become. Just keep this in mind.

Moving the locations of files and renaming should be taken care of by your operating system. Doing using Blender would just be over complicating it.


Using the Wireframe modifier and Freestyle seems to me to be using two conflicting tools to do the same job, The modifier doubles up existing edges, which overlap in the Freestyle output.

At first sight, unless you have special reasons, an option would be to remove the wireframe modifier, and leave the transparency to Freestyle.

Here, the cube's material is set to be transparent so no faces are shown, and the 'Visibility' selection criterion is removed for  the solid Freestyle Line Set, so it can be seen through the cube.

For the face transparency to be effective in EEVEE, the Alpha has to be set away from 'Opaque' in the material's Settings panel.

As @Gorgious has commented, for EEVEE, it's probably better to set Alpha than Transmission on the material.

If you need to see one object inside another, and have it occlude the Freestyle lines (while they are not occluded by the containing object), this is one possible logic:

In order not to have the internal object display Freestyle, separate the Freestyle objects into a different Collection, and add a 'Collection' constraint to the Line Set selection criteria.
To have the outer object's Freestyle occluded by the inner object, you can use a QI range, which makes the display of a Freestyle stroke contingent on the number of surfaces between the edge and the eye point.


How can I emit particles without them overlapping each other?

You can use the Grid distribution to place the particles regularly over the surface. Increasing the associated 'Random' setting moves each particle by a random amount giving a less regular appearance if desired.


In the 3D view window, view menu, there are the options "viewport render image" and "viewport render animation", which will render any kind of combination of lighting and overlays you choose (what you see is what you get), and it's very fast.


Can't change opacity of scene strip in Video Sequence Editor

This is already a known issue that is on the To Do list for the VSE.  I'm posting this Q&A because it took me a long time to come across the solution.

As explained in the above bug report, in order to keyframe a scene clip, you must turn off the preview.


I know this is an entire year late, but this worked for me. Click the button that says "Only Show Selected" (the arrow icon!)
Then my keyframes appeared. Apparently they're grouped under the vertex groups or something.


Switch to object mode using the tab key, then press SZ 0 to scale the model to a uniform value on the z axis.

The result is that the selected region will be scaled to the median of all the selected vertices, effectively flattening the selection.


You should probably cancel the installation and reboot your PC, to make sure no installation is running. Then try to install, just for the sake of trying to get a "clean" installation, with nothing interfering.


How to make bones visible through only one object

You can't make object A always be displayed in front of B, but perspectively occluded by C in the current Blender.

The common practice is to create rigs (bones or custom shaped bones) that don't occlude by choosing wireframe shapes. A quick way to achieve this, is to set the Maximum Draw Type (under Properties Panel > Object Tab > Display Section) to Wire. The Armature will always be display as wireframe, making the objects "behind" it easy to see.


How do I get the knee to bend the other direction?

EDIT: After inspecting the file you provided, the issue is that the leg bones actually bend backwards at the knee very slightly. In this case, Blender will never make the point point the direction you want. If you pull the knee joint forward a bit, or even just make the leg bones perfectly in line the IK will work as expected.

In the IK constraint options, right by where you selected the pole target, there is a Pole Angle option that will change the angle of the bend in relation to the target. Since yours is simply backwards, setting it to 180 degrees should do the trick.


Why do the hair particles go crazy when rendering?

That is probably because your modifiers are in wrong position.
If the mesh with hair particles has a subsurf modifier it should be in the bottom of them.


Can I use blender with Azure Nvidia K80 to render using GPU

The problem I was facing was caused by the fact that I hadn't followed the correct setup steps:

1) Use the latest LTS Ubuntu image (16.04) - I was using 14.04

2) Install the correct drivers

Details for using GPU on Azure can be found at:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/azure/virtual-machines/linux/n-series-driver-setup


How not to overwrite current "Render Result" but generate a new image with different name (bpy)?

Though I am still serch and apreciate better answer, but temporally
I made new render-slot for "Render Result" image as "icon-img",
then when save json, if there is no slot name (icon-img) for "Render Result"
make new one, or if there is already "icon-img" slot, set to it as active one.
Then generate json, save render.opengl() image to the user defined path,
and return all setting as same as before.
rr = bpy.data.images["Render Result"]
rs = rr.render_slots
cslot = rs.active
fl = False
for slot in rs:
    if slot.name == "icon-slot":
        fl = True
        rs.active = slot
        break

if not fl:
    aslot = rs.new(name = "icon-slot")
    rs.active = aslot

(functions to generate json with render.opengl image from blender file exploler)
rs.active = cslot
it seems worked for me.. (but I do not know way to remove icon-slot, without use UI)


Blender 2.82a bug? Some faces always shading flat even though all faces were set to shade smooth?

I had something like this happen and it was double verts.

Removed them by selecting all verts and pressing Alt + M Merge > By Distance


How to access the context of a future created screen?

bpy.context.window_manager.windows[-1].screen.name

will be the name of the last created screen.


Setting exact scale/dimension on multiple objects as a whole

For the first part of your questions, it is possible to set transforms on multiple objects: Select the objects, and hold down the Alt key when clicking on a channel in the transforms panel. Enter your desired value. As soon as you hit Enter this value gets applied on all selected objects. You'll need to repeat this channel by channel. This by the way works in many areas of Blender already, not only on transform channels.

To set the origin of all objects to one specific location you can set the Cursor to the desired location first, and then use Ctrl+Shift+Alt+C, which gives you this menu here:

Setting the dimensions as a whole: I assume you want to define the size of the 'bounding box' of a bunch of selected objects, so the selection kind of fits into a box which dimensions you want to define numerically. This is afaik only possible if you really join the meshes together. The dirty hack would be to drop in a cube, set its dimensions to your desired target values, set the 3D cursor as the scaling center, align the bottom of this cube to the bottom of your objects to scale, snap the cursor to the center of one of the cube's faces, and scale the selection up manually until it fills the volume. Not really fast, but doable.


If you don't have a reference to a specific window, you can iterate over all screen areas, and call the operator on all VIEW_3D area types.

for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
    if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
        ctx = bpy.context.copy()
        ctx['area'] = area
        ctx['region'] = area.regions[-1]
        bpy.ops.view3d.view_selected(ctx)            # points view
        # bpy.ops.view3d.camera_to_view_selected(ctx)   # points camera

I think the topic and resolutions to context is incorrect have been covered exhaustively .

If you use camera_to_view_selected(ctx) you can break the loop early if you only have one camera to point, else it will point the camera at the same thing for every 3dview opened.


First things first, I suggest you check the official Blender Manual on the Linked Libraries chapter

1. What's "Link" usually used for?

Like references in Maya. In fact here's what's writen in the manual:

  Link creates a reference to the data in the source file such that changes made there will be reflected in the referencing file the next
  time it is reloaded. But linked data is not editable (to some extent,
  see Proxies).

2. I think append is what we're using in maya as "reference"

No, that's what links do. Appends are more like a simple import, you fully copy-paste some data from one blend file to another. Once it's done, the files have no "link" whatsoever.

2.1. How can I know if something is appended? Is there a icon showing that?

For appended content, they are no different from any other data so there is nothing to sort them apart.
As for linked libraries, they have a chain-link icon in the outliner:

And if you set your outliner to "Blender file" display mode, all your linked libraries are displayed individually at the bottom of the list:

2.2 Collection should be a "group" in maya, but why can't I move/rotate/scale a collection? I have to move/rotate/scale and object on by one?

Because groups in Maya work like a container object which has an origin point, and with this little detail comes the possibility to have a position, a rotation and a scale.
While Blender's collections are nothing more than an abstract group. Like a folder containing your files on your disk.

That's why we keep a very formal object-based hierarchy on Blender, because for now there are only objects which can be moved/rotated/scaled. Or in one word: transformed.

2.3 What's the different between "unlink" (...)

It's not implemented yet, so for now it doesn't do what it should. For what I've understood, "delete" will only remove your object from the scene, while "unlink" will also get rid of the object's materials, textures, object data, ...

2.4 There's an answer said that I can reload a linked data in outliner, but I didn't saw any reload function in outliner.

Set the display mode to "Blender file", and then you will be able to right click any linked data and have the reload operator:

3. I know there's a function "make local", I think it's "import" in maya? (...) But after I make an object "local", I can still click "make local" function again and again and again... ... I don't understand what's the different after I make something local?

It's not really like an import. The result is the same, but you added so many extra steps. It's like walking all around the city just for getting to your postal box in front of your house. If you want to import, use append.

When you use the "make local" from the outliner, only the concerned object is made local. Not its materials, textures, and so on. So you basically made your object local, but not what comes with it so the menu is still available. It's nor intuitive at all but that's how it is for now.
If you want to make a full "make local", you can do this from the viewport's Object menu → Relations → Make Local → All.

4. I totally can't undertand what's "Proxy Objects" used for.

That's what will give you the ability to make some changes to a linked object. But only to some extend.
This is what will enable you to link a rigged character and animate it. First you link your character (but you can't edit because it's a link). Then you make a proxy which is animatable.

5. Can I append a .blend file directly without select "collection", "object"...etc. first?

Nope. Blend file contain lots of stuff you don't always want to link or import, really. It's a bit annoying but that's also what makes blender strong : you can import pretty mutch anything from a blend file.

Good to note that once you've linked/appended something from a blend file, the next time you want to link/append it will open up where you were.

6. Can I append a file which also have and append file in it

Yes, not sure you needed to ask this though, you could have tested it for yourself.


To import brushes in blender, you would have to convert it to jpg or png first. You can do it using GIMP. Open GIMP, drag and drop the PSD file and export it as jpg or png.

Also, appending them wouldn't work since it is not a .blend file. You would have to import them. Open user preferences, add-ons and search for 'Import Brushes'. Activate it and from the file menu, select Import, 'Brush Set' and browse to where you have saved your file.


Is there a way to keep the frame range but skip first n frames

I believe this Add-on does what you need: Loom
In your case you'd simply press Ctrl + Shift + F12 to bring up the render dialog. And then enter 401-1000.


never mind. I changed the velocities and it fixed it


Your bone "Arm.R" have wrong rotate.

So,simply to fix it you should delete this bone and all hand bone and add new bone by symmetrize from left side.


How do I save an object in a blender file separate from the blend file?

If you are looking to make separate .blend files of particular objects you will use later on in different scenes, there are a few things you must consider.

Actually Making Separate .blends:

If you have an object in a scene that you want to keep for later use but you don't want it in that particular scene, you can simply press ctrl+c in Object Mode with that object selected and it will bring up a menu and it will ask you to copy to buffer... Select that.

Now open up a brand new blender and delete everything in the new blender scene except the lamp and camera. (that is if you need to)

Press ctrl+v to paste the object that you copied to buffer from the other blend and it will appear with all the file paths and textures just like in the original blend. If you do not want to have the object in its original .blend file (not the one you copied to) you can delete it because you copied it to a new file.

Always save your progress.

The Things You Need to Consider:

When making separate .blends for individual objects you computer gets full fast. I have had experience. When you computer is full, blender becomes very slow. I have found that putting packs of objects in a .blend file that are related is very helpful and you can find objects you are looking for faster.

EX: You have household items like plates and you have different models for each plate. Put them all in the same .blend but move each different model to different layers.

Another way to have them separate in the same .blend file is to have the objects in separate groups, with this method you will need to have everything in the .blend file visible to the camera because when linking object groups into a new scene it can get frustrating when you try to render things and cannot see them. You can learn about grouping, linking and appending here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOgOKp7fGko

Also when making separate .blends for an object/objects you need to think about your file structure because when you build up a repository of .blends it can get really confusing when you are trying to find something. Good, organized file structure is so much better than having files all over your computer.

An example of good file structure can be found here http://artstorm.net/journal/2011/08/filmmaking-file-structure/

I hoped this helped in some way.


Set camera to side view, press "u" and select "Sphere Projection".

If you want PRECISE equirectangular projection, you'll need to write a script that generates uv coords based on vertex position. Shouldn't be too difficult, seeing that your geometry is normal sphere.


you could use a python script that runs through all your objects and checks if their scale is 1,1,1 and rotation is 0°,0°,0°. if not it applies rotation&scale

import bpy

for obj in  bpy.context.scene.objects:
    if obj.scale!=[1,1,1] or obj.rotation_euler!=[0,0,0] :
        bpy.context.scene.objects.active=obj
        bpy.ops.object.transform_apply(location=False, rotation=True, scale=True)


How to create a button in Custom panel to take you to the specified url

see the docs for bpy.ops.wm.url_open

bpy.ops.wm.url_open(url="")

so a button would be

row.operator('wm.url_open', text='open url').url='http://www.blender.org'


How to inset an extrusion with the rest of the shape?

Start with a cube.

select the cube

press S -> Z and scale it flat as you need

press S -> Shift Z and scale as you need

Tab -> edit mode

Face select

press CTRL - R and insert loop cut

scroll up your mouse wheel until you have 2

click on mouse twice to confirm

select this face

tab E to extrude and extrude as you need

select all top faces

press I and move mouse as you like

now you can extrude again with E if you like

optionally: if you press S and move you mouse you will get:

video tutorial here:
https://youtu.be/mj6LjXgf5c4


How to make the cube follow the nurbs path

The Curve modifier requires some more detailed geometry to curve the cube - otherwise you still only have 8 vertices and 6 faces to spread over the cube. Fron your screenshot you do appear to have a Subdivision Surface modifier but it is after the curve - click the ‘up arrow’ in the top-right of the Subdivision Surface modifier panel to move it above the curve. You’ll then need to increase the View number of subdivisions - set it the same as Render (ie, 2). This will affect the shape of your cube as it will cause corners to be rounded off - so click Simple (which divides without affecting the overall shape) rather than Catmull-Clark (which divides and blends faces and edges into each other).

Increase the number of subdivisions (View and Render) for more detail along the curve.


flat grassshader, like in Dauntless, Fortnite, the Witness, Zelda:botw

Since the suggetions are not working (still getting darker colors of some grassbillboards) :( ,
I managed to build a workaround.

The downside is:

it doesnt work for moving light/objects, because the shadows are baked. ( or is there a way to bake a texture for every single Frame).
it also inst an accurate shadow, because the color stays the same on the Z axis. (So it works best if the grass inst tall)
for large scaled scenes you need huge textures to bake on (10k*10k pixels and up).

How its done:

Bake shadows on a white plane, were your grass is emitted from.
Take the baked texture as an factor between a bright color (light) and a dark color (shadow).
Instead of using the hair particle system, use the emitter system, because it let you project the texture of the emitterplane onto the particles.

But its easier to explain the idea and technik behind this workflow with a picture:

So this question is half solved, thanks so far :D.
 I am also happy to see further ideas to solve it completely.


Shrinkwrap or Skinwrap modeling technique?

Not sure exactly what you did, you should show some images of your project.
I tried and it looks like the example, he also said that he needed to make some adjustments before the "Apply" to get what he wants.
Just the shrinkwrap modifier with a Wrap method in "Project"


How to import recorded iPhone gyro data into blender?

Download SensorLog app for your mobile device (free) and record some motion. Data can be send from device via mail or you can connect to local network. Output format is CSV.
Download add-on csv_fcurve_importer to import csv data.
Addon appear in Scene properties window.
(Works for blender 2.74)

Thanks to zeffii's comment about OSC vs. CSV formats.


Fast access to bmesh verts/edges/faces from python?

One way to speed this up would be to use a Python list comprehension. It's probably not the exact answer you're looking for, but it may help with optimizing the code.


Override dupligroup's object's material (Python)

Here is the basic code how to do it with Python:
http://www.pasteall.org/66951

import bpy

#1 Link like you do now. Dupligroup object is selected
#-----------------------------------------------
#2 take copies (.copy()) of our group objects
#-----------------------------------------------
o = bpy.context.object
objs = [i.copy() for i in o.dupli_group.objects]

#3 link them to the scene
#-----------------------------------------------
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')
for i in objs:
    bpy.context.scene.objects.link(i)
    i.select = True

#4 make single users (mat+tex)
#-----------------------------------------------
bpy.ops.object.make_single_user(object=False, obdata=False, material=True, texture=True, animation=False)

#5 change matslot 0 material
#-----------------------------------------------
for i in objs:
    i.material_slots[0].material = bpy.data.materials[0]

#6 Use original group name
#-----------------------------------------------
groupname = o.dupli_group.name

for i in objs:
    bpy.data.groups[groupname].objects.link(i)

#7 set dupligroup for empty
#-----------------------------------------------
o.dupli_group = bpy.data.groups[groupname]

#Now you have exact mesh clones with different materials and they are still linked on mesh level and you control them with empty object like before.


exporting 23.98 fps as a png sequence in blender 2.8

Inside After Effects you could right click on your image sequence and select  "interpret footage".

With that you can change the frame rate.

Hope that helps.

Good luck


It's possible that your card is decreasing the clockspeed because of high temperature.
You can use msi-afterburner (its free) to see all parameters of your gpu.
Maybe if you are rendering with gpu and cpu, the gpu doesnt render everything (stays cool) and cpu is slower (it takes longer).


Most likely the view on the UV window has been moved or zoomed to a point where there is nothing.
Select a face on the object in the 3D viewport
Then move the mouse over to to the UV editor and press numpad0 to center the window on the selected object.
Or press the Home Key to reset the view on the window.


Why isn't fire being loaded in the render view?

Your material setup is very awkward. Some things seem outright incorrect, like a color ramp being driven by color and then controlling emission strength. Start off with a default Principled BSDF, changing only the Color Attribute field from the default blank to the word color (uncapitalized).
For a custom flame color, perhaps use a plain emission shader, with the density attribute controlling the strength, and the temperature attribute going into a color ramp that starts with black. You may have to use a remap node so the temperature value so it ends up being 0 to 1.


I found out that this problem appears when another program "Bandicam" is open. When it's in the game recording mode, it brokes the render results.


Did you have hidden model in your view port, because they won't be hidden in the render. To hide them in render, clic the camera icon on the left of the TV icon:


Two faces inside of each other sharing same 4 vertices, why and how to fix?

Ok. I got it to work by doing this:

Select all > Mesh > Split > Faces by Edges
Merge by distance
Recalculate outside (just to be safe)

Though I'm still not sure exactly what was going on, there were obviously a great number of duplicate SOMETHING because the merge by distance operation after the edge-split removed 8743 vertices.
I suspect that the fill-holes operation ( on whatever you had selected when you performed it) created faces that were SOMEWHERE? (I give pause here because up until now, I believed it impossible for blender to define 2 faces with the same verts and edges in the same place - if anyone can clarify further, It would be very informative, and I would be very curious to know how this works).
The only way I can conceive of this happening is that there could be 2 faces on top of one another with their normals facing opposite ways, however this theory is negated by the normal's directions themselves as seen in the images below:

Regardless, the "faces-on-faces" theory still has some merit, because that's the only way I can explain an edge split followed by a merge by distance working the way it did. The only other POSSIBLE thing I can think of is that somehow, some faces got "folded back on themselves", creating the ultimate 180 degree non-manifold plane (sounds weirder the more that I think about it).
Either way, my guess is this is likely the result of a fill-holes operation on to many conjoined faces at once. That's the best I can do. Anyone who knows more about how this type of situation can come about is welcome to explain it further.
Here is an updated .blend with the result of the operations (however they worked)


Can't use "Selection Popup Menu" Alt + Right Click (v2.76)

You have to have multiple objects in your scene. Sometimes the scene is so crowded, that some objects overlap each other, so you press the Alt+RMB to choose the desired one. In my case I have the main model, the bones (metarig) and the rough proxy mesh. As you can see, when I hover the cursor over object and press Alt+RMB the pop up menu appears.


you need to place the balls as a group (ctrl+G). With the balls selected, go to physics tab, click "collisions" and select your group under the SMOKE tab.

2nd: Your smoke sim dies too early. I can see you have 250 frames active in your timeline. So you click on your smoke domain and click on -behaviour- uncheck dissolve.

Now, to really make it efficient:
create a shere (ctrl+a). With the ball selected:
Press space bar. Type on the search : Quick smoke.
Press ALT+A. (it will play your smoke for the 250 frames simulating a cache).
Press ESC. (to stop your sim)
Select the balls you want to act as a collider.
Make them group.Name them "colliderballs"
With the group still selected: Go to physics tab. Press: SMOKE and select "collision" button.
Thattá do it.


Somethink like this ? (Using similar, not same teqniques?)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XZjhESZPxA

At the firs place, its not my tutorial, originally its from Pierrick Picaut
and his P2Design. Also you can download whole tutorial from official https://gumroad.com/l/Stylised-explosion-blender for free.

And how he made it ?

The explosion is created by animated mesh with various noise displacement and animated parameters. You can use particle system with noisy-spheres like the mesh also.

For material Pierrick used MatCaps, with right outline setting for smoke, but you can use whatever you like if you get right fresnel-like faced soft outline.

For the exact explosion he used Color ramp and emmission node like this:

This system of material can be used for every toon-like visual, you can use every color you want, or mix with other properties like noises or lights.

So after all if you want change the smoke from shiny yellow-red color to calssic grey smoke Pierrick used Mix node and he animated fac property with greater then mathematical node.

From there is the same steps for every part of explosion. But you can use transparency node instead color ramp at the second input in mix node, so you will get only kinf of outlines for the details.


The weight paint pink color tells you that you are trying to assign weight relatively to a bone which has no vertex group assopciated, because it's a non-deforming bone: all rigify rig works in a way in which the controllers bones are different than the deforming bones.

If you want to assign weight controlled by the "head" bone you will have to check the "deforming" option and create a vertex group with the same exact name.


Noise texture not working on two planes at same time

You have two objects selected in Object Mode. The actual selected object is the one highlighted in a lighter orange. That is a) the last object selected and b) the Active object. You are seeing the Material attached to the active object.

As you can see in this screenshot, I have both objects selected as you do, and it appears that both have the same Material, but they do not.

If I invert the order in which I select the two objects, making the top plane the active object, you can see that the material is, in fact, different.

Select just the topmost plane and see what changes in the Material Editor.


`pip install bpy` Not Working (LookupError: unknown encoding: future_fstrings)

You are missing the future-fstrings package. I'm not sure why it doesn't install automatically but a simple pip install future-fstrings should solve this.


It could be that you have to set the curve handles to to the Vector Type using the v key to bring up the menu.  You can change the handle type individually or all at once depending on what is selected.

I am just guessing here since you did not upload a .blend file to PasteAll.org with the link pasted here.


How can I "checker deselect" vertices of a uv sphere correctly?

You have to deselect the pole vertices before doing Checker Deselect :


Using particle system to array objects on vertices

You need to uncheck the "Random" box.

(Note: this answer was posted before the question showed that "Random" was unchecked already.)


How to customise (add properties to) existing Blender data?

You can use a CollectionProperty to store a variable amount of items like a list, the properties per item need to be declared beforehand:

import bpy

class VectorPropGroup(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    # name = StringProperty() # this is inherited from bpy.types.PropertyGroup
    vector = bpy.props.IntVectorProperty(size=3)

bpy.utils.register_class(VectorPropGroup)

bpy.types.Action.my_collection = bpy.props.CollectionProperty(type=VectorPropGroup)

action = bpy.data.actions.new("My Action")

item = action.my_collection.add()
item.name = "First"
item.vector = (1,2,3)

item = action.my_collection.add()
item.name = "Second"
item.vector = (2,3,4)

print(action.my_collection[0].name, action.my_collection[0].vector[:])
print(action.my_collection[1].name, action.my_collection[1].vector[:])

It will print:

First (1, 2, 3)
Second (2, 3, 4)

Note that you can't add() items from within a draw() method. You need to call it manually (text editor / Python console) or create an operator for the user to be used in a UI.


To resume preview render, click the icon that resembles a "play button" at the top of the viewport next to the overlays.


Blender's video and audio don't sync when editing

If they start off in sync at any point when you start playing, and gradually goes out sync, it means you don't have AV Sync turned on in the timeline panel.


How to make bezier curve handles always visible

While in Edit Mode in a curve, got the the 3D View header, under the overlays popover, towards the end under Curve Edit Mode change Handles to All.


What is the combination of cameras that will a create side-by-side virtual reality view?

The math used is in blender's source code. I think it is all contained within camera.c

Depending on your 3d camera settings, if you don't need the re-creation to be exact, you can do a visual duplication in blender. By enabling the visual display of the 3d camera (in the properties region N) you can see where they are positioned and where they are aimed.

You can use this visual display to position another camera to match the 3D settings.

By taking the settings to the extreme you can clearly see that there can be a distortion, this can be matched by adjusting the x-shift of the camera settings. You may want to check if this value is supported by the external render engine.


Mirror object - Rendering is not equal on both sides.. why?

have found out what is wrong .. just silly me, had baked shadows and there was something wrong when I did that.. so it was my texture that was wrong.. ;)


How can I add the glass stamp to the bottle?

Import your image as a plane, Shrinkwrap it to the bottle and set Wrap Method to Project.

To get the circle around your logo you could just add a circle, extrude it a bit outwards to give it some width and similarly Shrinkwrap it to your bottle. To Shrinkwrap the circle rotate it towards the bottle. Then Solidify it the amount that looks good.

Next give your bottle a Union Boolean from your circle and Bevel it.


Import-Export images to planes not working

Have you tried installing the addon manually? I'm not sure why it doesn't show up, so I went ahead and got the addon for you from my addons folder, try installing it as an external addon to see if it works https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FlUA9t1jur1BGJm_8ABI1kJeMC2xL33I/view?usp=sharing


You could use the Vertex Weigh Proximity modifier to control displacement.
It will use the actual shape of the mesh to correctly displace the surface.

Create a new vertex group in your "skin" mesh and add all vertex to it with a strength of $1$. Now add a new Vertex Weigh Proximity modifier, pick that vertex group, set the "Worm" mesh as Target Object and make sure to set the Distance Mode to Geometry.

After that add a Displacement modifier with weight affected by the previously mentioned vertex group. No texture is required (although you can optionally add one), just adjust strength and displacement distance values as necessary.

You can move your worm mesh around and it will deform according to both position and shape.


Having added a Custom Property in Editor, how do we assign an Update function?

I am looking into it myself atm.

some_value = FloatProperty(default=1.0, update=onupdate)

and then I have a function that handles the update

def onupdate(self, context):

it's important that the function handling has self & context as arguments, and returns none.

You can read more here.


Integrating CG imagery with footage from cameras using ACES

As a loose outline, it’s much better to skip the ACES complexity and focus on what is required. ACES comes with its own entire set of issues, not the least of which is obfuscating the goals and the technical needs.

It’s All About Radiometric-Like Ratios

Integration requires using a specific encoding. That is, the key here is that we seek the radiometric ratios as they existed in the scene. This is perhaps the number one aspect of integration that is, and has been, overlooked for a long, long time amongst many folks.

The key here is to understand that cameras capture scene data. However, despite all cameras doing so, they all do not encode the data in a manner that is useful. Typically, camera encodings can be described in one of two manners:

Ready to view as an aesthetic, display ready encoding
Ready to decode and work with further

The Encodings

You’ll find countless examples online where people take random footage and attempt to integrate it. Some even can look pretty remarkable, such as some of Ian Hubert’s work.

The sad part is that this isn’t the appropriate means to make life easy for themselves. If the footage “looks ok” when played back, it likely is the absolutely wrong encoding to work with, and will result in no end of massaging, sucking up countless hours of time and energy, only to never-quite-look terrific.

This should be common knowledge now for anyone who has tried to take a generic JPEG photo found online and attempted to integrate it into a Filmic based scene; it just can’t be done well. Why? Because the display-ready image has become an impossible to decode combination lock on its way to becoming pretty to look at.

The Cameras

It might shock a majority of readers to learn that you don’t need an Arri Alexa LF to get these sorts of magical encodings. Sony, Nikon, Panasonic, Fuji, Canon, and other vendors now commonly include a log-like encoding scheme in their affordable consumer grade cameras. A good number of them offer the ever-more-useful-and-important on-board 10 bit or greater bit depth recording.

While countless YouTube videos wax lyrical with misinformation about “flat” picture styles and what they are good for, the value of the documented log encodings is entirely and completely missed; log-like encodings capture and encode scene reflectance!

That is, for every log-like encoding scheme such as Sony’s SLog1-2-3, Fuji’s F-Log, Panasonic’s V-Log, Nikon’s N-Log or Canon’s C-Log1-2-3, there is a documented function available in a PDF that describes how the values are encoded with a unique transfer function.

Unlike a display’s transfer function that encodes display linear light however, the gold is in the little detail that those normalized code values can be unlocked back to scene reflectivity!

Where sRGB’s transfer function can be undone to reveal the display linear light output from 0-100%, a log-like encoding can be taken back to the scene’s ratios from some low value to some high value.

Try It Right Now

To really hammer this point home, a simple and revealing test can be done:

Take any old generic render with a reasonable dynamic range to illustrate the point.
Save the image with a sixteen bit integer TIFF using Filmic Log Encoding Base. That’s the very flat, non-aesthetic looking one.
Assert that no looks are baked into the output. We want data, not aesthetics.
Using the Image Viewer, sample around the render using the Right Mouse Button. Note the values from some of the scene energy that appear on the left side of the information bar that appears. That is, the RGB values to the left of the CM values, not the right. They should extend up arbitrarily high.
Also save the exact same image using Filmic with Base Contrast to make it look OK. Save the exact same sixteen bit TIFF.

Once saved. Open up another instance of Blender.

Load the Filmic Log Encoding Base image.
Set the colour space on the image to the corresponding Filmic Log Encoding Base.
Set up a compositor node to assert the file is promoted to float and sample the values in the Image Viewer.
Add in one more input and load the aesthetic output Filmic with Base Contrast. In this instance, the image was encoded for an sRGB display, so the transform is sRGB.

Note the values? Despite the fact that the sixteen bit integer TIFF was encoded using a device referred 0-100% range in both cases, when properly transformed via an appropriate transfer function such as Filmic Log, the values magically are transformed right back into the scene referred domain. The aesthetic “looks good” Filmic with Base Contrast? Hrm... only 0.0 to 1.0 representing the display linear aesthetically warped light, not the scene.

And guess what? Those logs for all of those awesome cameras listed above? They’ll do exactly the same thing!

This allows one to take the log-like encoded footage and seamlessly integrate it into any CGI with nearly no effort whatsoever. Use them as reflections, as emissions, and have interactive lighting on all your work.

But Wait, There’s More

There is one little gotcha with the log-like encodings; they are almost always coupled with a unique set of primaries that are different from the BT.709 assumed lights in your sRGB display, and the default set of rendering lights in Blender for Cycles and Eevee. The details of the particular encoding are unfortunately often referenced as some sort of a “gamut”. That is:

F-Log will be also encoded with F-Gamut
C-Log 1-2-3 may be encoded with a few different gamuts
N-Log will be encoded with N-Gamut
V-Log / V-Log-L will be encoded with V-Gamut
S-Log 1-2-3 may be encoded with a few different gamuts

One must take care to, after linearization with the proper transfer function, to also take the primary lights to the same primaries in the rendering / working space. This is a slightly nuanced subject, and likely requires another answer unto itself once the camera specifics are known.

No Log Camera? No Problem!

Beyond all doubt, this is a mind blowing experiment for the intrepid 3D peep to muck with, and hugely encouraged for anyone who has a log-capable camera.

But what about all of us schmucks who don’t have the releativey more recent cameras with log encoding options? There is indeed hope with a little bit of effort.

It’s entirely possible to take generic camera footage and document the transfer function manually. It’s a little elbow work, but the results will be similar to a native log, and the output will be significantly better than ignoring the core issues. Thankfully, there is an absolutely amazing set of tutorials to achieve just this via Paul Chambers’ website. After having read that amazing series, there is another little hidden gem on his site to help you use that radiometric scene reflectance too!

The key point in all of this is never let some overhyped bit of a plug-in or system prevent one from learning the core principles. No amount of any canned system can help you here; it takes a bit of elbow grease and learning to unleash a heck of a lot of amazing work. You never know... there might even be a super top secret and visually stunning project being developed in dark crustacean labs. I wonder what would happen if someone asked them...


How to display background images in perspective?

Background images will only be displayed in

  Camera Prespective view (Numpad 0)

Any of the Preset Orthographic views

  Front/Back (Numpad 1 or CtrlNumpad 1)
  Right /Left (Numpad 3 or CtrlNumpad 3)
  Top/Bottom (Numpad 7 or CtrlNumpad 7)

Background images will not show in perspective view.

To switch between Perspective and Orthographic view use Numpad 5

Background images are used for reference only and will not be part of the final render.

Alternatives to background images are to use an empty as image or using a plane with the image mapped to it.

To use an empty as image use Add> Empty >Image

Select the image in the properties->Empty->Display tab

Alternatively, you can use the image as background for the world. Set the Texture coordinates to Window.


I would like to 'draw' a basic 2D mesh of any shape using my mouse

I would argue that this approach doesn't really save too much time, since handdrawn shapes must be cleaned... manually. But I concede that it's probably suitable if you're just making a sketch!

Anyway: you can definitely do it using grease pencil! What is the problem you're experiencing?

This is a possible workflow. Precondition: use Blender 2.80 or newer.

Add > Grease Pencil > Blank
Get into an orthographic view (e.g. Front Ortho)
Entrer "Draw Mode", draw; then go back to "Object Mode"
Right click on your object > Convert to Bezier Curve
In the Outliner, hide the grease pencil object and select the newly created Bezier curve.

In my version, I have a little bug whereas the Bezier is not immediately visible. Hop in and out of Edit Mode (Tab) to make it visible

Your curve has probably too many handles. To reduce them, enter "Edit Mode", select all the handles (A), then do Right Click > Decimate Curve. In the box that appears, select a suitable value.

To avoid your mesh to have still too many handles, go in the Curve settings and change Resolution Preview U to 2 or 3
Right Click > Convert to Mesh
You've got your mesh! You can use it as any other mesh. For instance, you can use the Screw modifier


Why is there a black shadow on my baked image?

This is likely a result of the ambient occlusion image. If this doesn't show up in the final render then it probably isn't an issue.


In edit mode using “Face Select” select the four front faces. Press ”P” and choose "Selection" from the drop down menu.


Methods of applying bumpiness to materials

Short answer: Use the bump node and just forget that displacement output is even there.

Long answer: Several years ago, Cycles was very young. Being open source and a much desired project, many people were using it and writing tutorials with it before it was anywhere near feature complete. Back then, it didn't have per-shader normals. What it did have was an experimental displacement feature. This displacement feature came with a function to offset the object normal based on the displacement map. This can be used to adjust the normal for fine detail in the disp map that couldn't be represented with actual geometry. You can also use it for bump mapping by just disabling the vertex displace part entirely. Since there was no other bump mapping support and the displacement didn't work 100% right (and still doesn't) the default behavior was bump-only. So people just used it as a bump map socket, and made tutorials as such.

Some while later, Cycles got per-shader normals. These could support 3D vectors, allowing true normal map support. Being 3D and per-shader, you could also do more complicated effects with them, like smooth gloss over a rough surface, or combining normal and bump maps. In order to support grayscale bumpmaps with this new glorious system, the bump node was created which could take grayscale heightmaps and convert them into normal vectors like a normal map would output. It's not that different from the various "create normal map" filters for Photoshop, GIMP, etc.

Fast forward to today: Per-shader normals work pretty well, you can use them for bump and normal mapping, and any combo of the two. The displacement socket is still there, and it is still normally locked in "bump-only" mode. (devs are waiting for opensubdiv to go with it before finishing up that feature, as I recall). If you want actual displacement or that cool displacement w/fine detail bump, you can enable experimental features, then go to the mesh panel and change the displacement type to "true" or "both". But normally it is set to "bump" which is pretty much the same as the bump node, but with less flexibility. And there's a chance the displacement output might change behavior in a future release.

So there's no real reason to use it. Or, almost no real reason. Since the displacement-bump effect works on the actual object normal rather than the normal used to evaluate a shader, the results of the bump show up in the normal pass, which isn't true of the per-shader normals. And as mentioned, there's the experimental actual displacement. If you don't care about those, though, just ignore that output.


When would you use Simple subdivision rather than Catmull-Clark subdivision?

As an example of a case where simple is might be preferred over Catmull-Clark, say you have a large plane which you want to subdivide non-destructively for use with the displace modifier.

When subdivided with Catmull-Clark, it becomes nearly a circle:

But with Simple it maintains the original square shape:

This is just one example. There are probably many such use-cases where Catmull-Clark subdivision doesn't provide the desired result without extra things like edge-creases.


Rendering with CUDA NVidia RTX 2080 Super GPU same speed as CPU (3900x Ryzen)

Brainscattered answer:
Use RTX not CUDA if you want to see an improvement in render speed.
The CPU is never idle when rendering in GPU, there will always be activity.
If the scene uses only 8% of the GPU it means that the scene is not very complex, hardly a challenge for the graphics card. Blender will not use more than what is needed. With a more complex scene and more samples, etc you will see the GPU work harder (Can you make the cpu go to 100% when typing in word or when reading email? )
In GPU one tile per GPU is rendered, whereas the CPU renders many tiles simultaneously, one per thread, so it is perfectly possible that a multicore-multithread CPU can be faster than GPU.
And forget about measuring CPU and GPU usage, those numbers say very little when it comes to the overall performance of blender.


That menu is dependant on what object you have selected. You need to select the object you want to weight paint, not the armature that will be controlling that object, then the option to weight paint will appear in that menu.


Shrinkwrap modifier not applying correctly

About the modifier stack:

When a modifier is applied, it has to be applied as if it is at the top of the modifier stack (the first one), as to achieve the previewed result you will need to apply all other visible modifiers as well.

About the Shrinkwrap issue in particular:

A couple of things could be causing this. You could try:

Make sure your target mesh is high enough resolution (enough faces to deform vertices to)
Use the Offset slider
Use the Keep Above Surface option

Screenshot:


I've played around with the file, to me it seems that the "rigpelvis bone" has X and Y location keyframes that make the whole model "move". By muting them it seems better (but it's still not perfect to me... feet are still sliding, maybe they need to be animated differently... (I'm not a rigging expert)


Selected Faces show up lighter orange to normal

I think I found your problem

You just need to go into edit mode and select all then on the left tool panel ("T") you need to remove doubles. Looks like you had extra vertices that are not needed. I think this is causing problems with your FBX export.

After you remove doubles you will see at the top a few hundred got removed and the shading got fixed.


Auto Keying does not respect Active Keying Set in 2.8

Thanks @moonboots for pointing out where it was in 2.79. After looking around, I realized am blind...

If you open the Keying dropdown I used in my example above, the same button does exist in 2.8, is placed next to Add & Replace, and once you toggle it on, the auto function will start respecting the Keying Set.


Yes, it will as long as you bake your physics first (I would recommend that it be to an external source - Make sure that you name your cache 1st). Then just be sure to set your render range in either the timeline OR the Render Panel >> Dimensions. Once your bake is done save your file and don't touch it except for rendering, and changing your range the next day.

If you bake your Cache to Disk:

It will save the folder in the same file location as your blend file.
You can copy both the blend file and the cache folder and start rendering on another machine for a different range if you have that at your disposal.


Add/Transfer one object's weight painted vertex groups to different object (identical mesh)?

There may be a more streamlined way.
The nose rig didn't change between the eyes-rig and lips-rig face objects, so I duplicated them both -> deleted the nonfunctional halves of each mesh at the nose bridge -> merged (Ctrl+J) the functional halves. I also merged the same-loop/XYZ-coords edge loops  (Merge by Distance) and cleared sharp edges to resolve a subtle but obvious shading issue. Here, Shift+D and Alt+D didn't seem to differ as a duplication method.


Why does my object not show up in View Port Shading?

You need to insert a light into your scene. Press SHIFT + A then Light to add a light.

In order to view an object, you'll need some light for the object to bounce back to you!


Scale a UV mapping to fit a exact rectangle

You may select the desired vertex of the uv island, press G, then X (or Y depending on what axis you want it to transform) and type the value using keyboard. You can also enable the Snap during transform (Increment) option to snap the vertex to the grid in the Uv Editor (hold Shift to snap by smaller distances).

You can also use the vertex coordinates buttons in the UV Vertex panel of the UV Editor's properties shelf (N).

You can edit your UV island's appearance using the same tools as in 3d view window. To make the edge perfectly horizontal or vertical select the vertex you want the other ones to allign to and press Shift+S-->Cursor to Selected. Next (with the pivot type set to 2D Cursor) select the vertices to allign and scale it by 0 along X or Y axes (S,X (or Y),0).


Python FBX Export Collection and set FBX file name as Collection name

Some help
Script to export all objects in the context collection into a file named after the collection, into the folder of the blend file.
import bpy
from pathlib import Path

context = bpy.context
scene =  context.scene

#for coll in scene.collection.children: # all
for coll in [context.collection]:
    bpy.ops.export_scene.fbx(
            {
                "object" : None,
                "active_object" : None,
                "selected_objects" : coll.all_objects,
             },
             filepath=str(
                    Path(bpy.data.filepath).parent
                    / f"{coll.name}.fbx"
                    ),
             use_selection=True,
             )


If you have a texture image than you probably forgot to Choose it for your UV.Go to UV than select new file (locate that image) Now turn the edit mode and go back to UV tab and make the highlighted cubes fit the whole image.
If you already have an image selected than it must be because you haven't done the shading part correctly.


Renaming Animation Channels with a Script

This should do the trick. Obviously, you will have to fill in the complete dictionary of bone name mappings.

import bpy

d = {"oldname1":"newname1","oldname2":"newname2", }
for action in bpy.data.actions:
    #these so called action groups are the bones, ie one group contains all fcurves of one bone
    for group in action.groups:
        if group.name in d:
            oldname = group.name
            group.name = d[oldname]
            for fcurve in group.channels:
                fcurve.data_path = fcurve.data_path.replace(oldname, d[oldname])