Since your mesh is triangulated, you should create three triangle faces. For instance you could connect them in the following pattern.

In order to accomplish this, switch into Edit Mode (TAB) and enable Vertex Select.

Select the three vertices (and only the three vertices) that are supposed to form a face. Once they are selected press F to create the face. Deselect the vertices (ALT+A) and repeat with the next three vertices.


To get the pixelated look in the view port you have to turn off Mipmaps.
That setting is in the user preferences under the System tab.

For a small texture to be rendering like that, both MIP Map and Interpolation bust be unchecked. Those settings are in the texture tab of the properties window.


Cant seem to shrink fatten this the way I want

Use Ctrl+A to shrink and fatten vertices/nodes when using skin modifier


Push the render button (or F12), then F3 to save the image.


For cloth collision (and, indeed, any collision in Blender) it is important to ensure that the simulation starts without the meshes overlapping - otherwise they will instantly repel and can cause unpredicted results.

With cloth, if the ‘garments’ are intended to be quite tightly fitting you can use sewing springs or cloth shrinking to bring the garment together around the model once the simulation starts. Those options are found within the Cloth Sewing Springs panel.


Render image rendering incorrectly with a checkered pattern

What @Jachym Michal said is correct. Press ALT H in the viewport, your second object should appear, otherwise search in the outliner.  Btw. this irregular pattern of triangles and weird stripes is called z-fighting, where z is the distance to the camera, it means 2 faces occupy the same space and the camera has troubles deciding which one to show in each sample.


First, in Object mode, press Ctrl + A and apply rotation and scale.  Then use Alt + S instead of just pressing S to scale.  This should scale the edge out proportionally.

This demonstrates the difference between S and AltS:


Assign metaballs to trails form a particle system

In particle system you have render, select object and now your trail is rendering a specific object that you select


Single continuous mesh vs disconnected parts

The best reason to use separate parts is because it makes the process easier. And because it is much easier to join two objects into one than to split one object into two, in my own workflow, if I have the slightest hint of a doubt that I might want to be able to access the items separately later on, I make them separate,

But separate does not always mean two objects. Sometimes I make two or more meshes as sub-objects of the same object, for example, I might make the rear wheels of a wagon as two sub meshes of the same object, but the axle as a separate object altogether. When I make two or more meshes sub objects of the same object, I make some effort to make sure that those sub meshes are easily separately accessible. One way is to assign them to different vertex groups, but sometimes it is enough to just make sure that there are no connections between the sub-meshes, so they can be selected with CTRL-L.


Note: This is only a partial answer, since more information were provided in the comments after it was written. Color management is nonetheless relevant for a correct output.

The reason your correct value of $0.5$ is saved as $0.735357$ is because you're using the Standard view transform and your Display Device is set to sRGB.

The scene linear values are transformed into the sRGB color space (IEC 61966-2-1:1999). During this process gamma correction is applied.

$$\gamma_{sRGB}(x) = \begin{cases} 12.92x,& x \le 0.0031308\\
    1.055 x^{\left(\frac{1}{2.4}\right)} -0.055 ,              & \text{otherwise} \end{cases}$$

For an input of $x=0.5$ this results in $1.055 \times 0.5^{\left(\frac{1}{2.4}\right)}-0.055=0.735357$

In order to save the scene linear values use the OpenEXR (.exr) format. Blender will not apply any view transforms or display transforms when using this format. Alternatively, if you're certain that your output is in the $[0.0, 1.0]$ range, you can also set the view transform to Raw and use any other image format to save an approximation of the values. Blender will map the values to the $[0,255]$ range automatically.


Is there a way to change the color of the actual vertices?

To change the color of the vertices to a color of your choice, go to the top menu Edit > Preferences > Themes > 3D Viewport and change the color for Vertex.


Go into Edit mode.  Click the vertex-select icon.

Press C for circle select.
Color in a couple vertices you want to align, then right-click.

Tap S to scale, then X, Y, or Z to limit along one axis.
You have to decide which axis is best.
Then press 0 to zero out that axis.

If you notice movement along the wrong axis, no worries,
just click X, Y, or Z at this point to affect another axis instead.
Tap Enter to finalize command.

Repeat with each pair of vertices 'till complete.


Million of vertex/edges (don´t know exactly the name)

So in light of your wrong retopo setup these are the steps you need to take.

Prep High Poly mesh
1. Turn off "show wires" and "draw all edges" on the high poly object.
2. Give this a dark color material with some soft specularity to aid in retopo work.

Prep Low Poly mesh
1. Create a new plane mesh to be your new low poly retopo object.
2. Turn on xray on the object property panel.
3. Turn on show face normals on the navigation panel in the 3d viewport.

Prep Retopology tools
1. Turn on snap tool, on the drop down menu choose "face"
2. Turn on "snap to self"
3. Turn on "project individual elements on the surface of other object"
4. Turn on "automatic merge vertices"

Learn the "F2 addon" or other addon suggested and use it to work retopology.

Here is the screen shot.


To align bones in Edit Mode select the bone you want to align and then the bone you want to copy the alignment from. Then press Ctrl Alt A (Align Bones).

As a side note: If you need them to have different rotations, parent them on additional bones and use the copy location constraint on the parents instead. That way you can rotate the childs freely without worrying about their translation.

An easier solution might be to use Pose Space to Pose Space for the copy location constraint and tick on Offset in the constraints panel.


Trouble connecting bones and finding the right orientation for a spine

See this tutorial on rigging: https://cgi.tutsplus.com/tutorials/building-a-basic-low-poly-character-rig-in-blender--cg-16955

There you can learn some of the fundamentals of a biped character rig. Unlike a human body, all the bones of a rigged character may not connect directly. There you will see how to use Make Parent > Keep Offset to connect your bones in a proper armature.

EDIT: I've constructed a basic rig for your little guy based off the article I linked to. I recommend that you rig him yourself for education's sake, however I am providing the Blend file for your reference.

The Blend exchange site isn't working for me right now, so here's a PasteAll link: http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=46291


OK I got it, you need to put the shader on the Domain, not the flow object.


Bezier Curve - Split one large end into multiple wires

You can only have two segments attached to a point in a curve, but you can have multiple disconnected segments in the same curve object.

While in edit mode, many of the steps you use in mesh editing work in a similar way.

⇧ ShiftA to add a new curve that is part of the existing object
⇧ ShiftD to duplicate the current selection
E to extrude a segment that is connected to the selected point/s
L to select points linked to the point under the cursor
⎈ CtrlL to select points linked to selected points
F to fill in a segment between two selected points

Each point has a radius property so you can give the shielding a larger bevel than the inner wires. You use ⎇ AltS to adjust the radius of a point, this can also be edited in the properties sidebar.

The disconnected pieces can be positioned close together so that the smaller wires appear to continue on inside the larger wire. Different materials can be assigned to different curve segments the same as assigning materials to selected faces in a mesh.

Then after setting the bevel, you get one object that appears to be multiple wires.


Crashes After Left Clicking (BLI_assert failed: /build/blender-RL3axj/blender-2.82) After fresh install

Ok it's just a bug with the one downloaded via apt-manager. Downloading from Blenders official site has it working now


You can change the Viewport Shading in the top right corner of the 3D editor. Open up the drop-down menu by pressing the upside-down ^, then select MatCap. Then, press the ball to change which MatCap you want to use.

I believe this is the one you're seeing in the video.

Note that these settings will only be visible if you're in the Solid Viewport Shading mode.


How best to create angular pipes for a set?

You don't say what version of Blender you are using, but for a number of versions, Blender has included an add-on that produces several types of pipe joints: elbows, Y-joints, T-joints, C-joints, and N-joints. In versions up through 2.72, this add-on had to be explicitly activated in the add-ons tab of the User Preferences, but since 2.73, the add on has been activated by default. So you may not need to create a new set of pipes. To modify a pipe, see my answer to question 33692

Otherwise, this question appears to be a duplicate of question 27386. One aspect, though, about your image that is not referenced in either the question, or my answer, is flanges on the pipes. Upon some consideration, my personal approach to the flanges on straight pipes would be to model the cylinder, and where I wanted a flange, to locate four loop cuts around the cylinder, scaling the center two edge loops out to make the flange, and moving the other two edge loops towards the flange. Where I was using two fittings to make a joint, I would place the fittings so that there was a gap between them about the size of the flange. I'd then select the two edge loops on either side of the gap, bridge across the gap, and extrude the bridged faces out to make the flange.


How to add a checkbox to a panel header?

Add draw_header(context) function to your Panel class and supply any bool property. Following example is based on ui_panel_simple.py template:
import bpy

class HelloWorldPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the Object properties window"""
    bl_label = "Hello World Panel"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_PT_hello"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "object"

    def draw_header(self,context):
        # Example property to display a checkbox, can be anything
        self.layout.prop(context.scene.render, "use_border", text="")

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.label(text="Hello world!", icon='WORLD_DATA')

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


How can I fix my rotation issues of an object following a path?

Simplified Bird and Circle Path.

Know that your final location and orientation is a combination of the displayed bird rotation and the effects of the Path Constraint [PC]
Choose correct origin for the bird. This might be middle of body. Perhaps near spine.
Remove all location and rotation keyframes for the bird for initial phase.  This eliminates competing animations. Fresh start.
For the initial phase your bird can start at the origin
Enable the Follow Curve option of Path Constraint [PC]
If need be choose correct initial rotation of the bird.  Typically in degrees one of 0, 90, 180, 270 in object mode on one or more axis.  You may want to keyframe this as a safe starting position at a known reserved frame number X.
Enable Fixed position in the [PC].  Set keyframes in [PC] for offset.
If the bird is always consistently tangent (lined up) to the curve you are golden.  If not allow your self one additional rotation keyframed on the aforementioned reserved frame number X.
Get the above steps to work. Archive File and consider more complex animations later.


Difference between VSE Add Blend Type and Compositor Mix Node Set to Add

Most likely the difference is not how blender does the add operation, but the fact that you are dealing with two very different kinds of images.

  "I personally prefer the compositor's look"

In the compositor you have the original rendered layers, 32bit float linear, scene referred information.

If you compress that into a video format then you've transformed your images into something quite different: 8 bit display referred images that have been converted using the view transform (set in the color management section), and on top of that they have been compressed using some codec that basically trows away a lot of information in order to have smaller files and creates a new set of problems...

What is the solution then?

  "I do not want to loose more quality in the original footage"

You don't want to loose quality on the VFX created in blender either! like the quantization and saturation errors you show on the last image.

So instead of rendering to a video format, save your elements to OpenEXR files. You will preserve all of the information from your original render and it will give you even more flexibility for your final compositing.

Also, since you are dealing with emissive elements with no opacity, you need a format that can do proper associated alpha. EXR will allow you to use proper transparency for the emissions and glows.


It doesn't collect all the transforms, it just uses the relative offset, that the target had have at the moment you created the constraint. For the Child of there are two buttons 'Set inverse', and 'Clear inverse'. They change that stored offset. So to get what you ask, you need to change the offset. I have no idea, where and how it is stored in the constraint data, but I'm sure it's accessible from the python API.


from .xyz import FunctionA also imports FunctionB and FunctionC - confused why

A blender addon is a python module. Using bpy.utils.register_module(__name__) will register every class within the module, which includes classes in all .py files within a module made of multiple files.

Don't confuse importing with blender's registering process. By importing you are bringing the class into the current namespace, which could be a methods namespace, but blender's register causes a suitable class to be registered as an operator under bpy.ops making it available to display in a menu using the layouts operator() method.


How can I use the NUMPAD_PERIOD function to focus on an object when I'm on a Macbook Pro?

The only way to emulate the numpad . is to go to blenders * User Preferences > Input*.

Then in the search field type "show active" and remap the function to a key you don't/won't use.


How to turn off subsurf modifier on a lot of objects at the same time

Simplify
Enable scene simplification in Properties > Scene > Simplify and set the subdivision level to 0:

Copy to selected

Select all the objects
Disable the subsurf modifier in the viewport, then  RMB> Copy to selected:


Blender MantaFlow ... no visible result!

The mantaflow branch works a bit differently than you may expect. First bake the fluid sim, then enable fluid mesh and bake the mesh. There is no visible mesh changes before baking the mesh.

You can pause the bake after a few % and start the mesh bake to see results at the beginning before finishing the bake.

There is also fluid particles that can be baked, this can give the extras like bubbles floating on the surface.


How to animate plane to sound falloff in animation nodes 2.1 (Blender 2.8)?

Connect "Frame" to Time Info node in Sound Falloff node so that it has frame information


How do I make objects jump back to start within a given radius of an area after a collision to a specific object?

While I wasn't exactly able to get the effect I wanted using this method I found that I could take a UV sphere, or possibly an Ico-Sphere and set the texture to an alpha clip while also simply rotating them on the Z and X(y depending on which way you want it to rotate) directions. This gives a nice looking snow effect, and might even work with dust. The shape must always be close to the ground in order for it to give a desired effect.


How to render a new texture image from scene

You can render the diffuse color viewed from the top
but the color won't exactly be the same unless you set the look in color management to none:
Here is a more detailed answer: render albedo (color passe without shadow)


There is an addon called MultiEdit, that will enable you to edit multiple objects at once.
Here is the post on blender artists where the download can be found.

After you have installed and activated the addon, you just select the objects that you want to edit together, and click on the MultiEdit Enter button in the tool shelf.
Then when you are done, toggle back out of edit mode and click on the MultiEdit Exit button.


You can use the same technique as before, but using a bone constraint.

The only difference is that you must add the constraint from Properties > Bone constraints panel instead of the Constraints panel, while in pose mode:


On the bottom left of the screen you will see Playback.. click that and right at the top of that pop up menu is a Synch sub menu.. I just had to find it myself :)


Separate by loose parts creates weird pattern

Is this the result you're looking for?

If so, then, yes, the problem was duplicate vertices - 222 to be exact. Select the whole thing, go to Mesh> Clean up> Merge by distance. When I did this, I still noticed two stray edges bisecting planes near the back (second time I tried I found only one for some reason) - look for them, select them, right click and choose "dissolve edges".
After that, re-select the area you want to duplicate/separate, and it should work the way you intended.
Also, is there some special reason you're separating By Loose Parts, instead of by Selection? By selection is what I used without thinking, and I can guarantee it works (I tried both ways and they both work).


Why isn't parent offset visible? Any tools to help?

I'm not use that I understand the question. But it seems to me that instead of using the parenting tool, you might want to look into an interactive and non destructive workflow using constraints
like Copy location, Child Of and Copy Transforms You'll have very clear control on the influence and is quite easy to create complex parent-children hierarchies.


How to hide a certain object in blender 2.8?

In final 2.80 you can do it:
obj.hide_set(state)

API


Can't select vertices by right clicking in UV editor (2.7)

You probably have activated 'UV Sculpt'.Disable it and you should be able to work normally again.


Motion blur not quite like real camera motion blur - cycles

I figured out the answer: I had set two key frames in the timeline, moving the boxes in between the two. And, then I had set the green line to the last key frame.

This meant that the boxes stopped on that frame. I needed to set the green line to a spot in between the two lines to show the blur on the motion of the boxes.

Simple!


My custom timer is cancelled when loading a *.blend file

First such practice as modal operator running in background without user actually starting it from UI or having the ability to end it is bad. For example it will block F8- reload plugins.

Try to use the scene_update callback list in app.handlers instead of modal operator for what you wanna do.

Now also from such callback list you can monitor if some modal operator is or is not running and eventually call it. But again, this is very dirty.


How do I "cookie-cut" my world texture only using my existing object?

If you render your object with a transparent background, yuor render will have an alpha output in which the object will be white and the background black. In the compositor you can use this output in the input of a "Set Alpha" node which carries the background image you want (a render of the background sky  or directly the image of the sky).


How to set a random value for only visible shape keys?

import bpy
from random import uniform
context = bpy.context
obj = context.object

def set_shapekeys(obj, value=0.5, random=False):
    sk = obj.data.shape_keys
    for i, kb in enumerate(sk.key_blocks.values()):
        if not i or kb.mute:
            # assume kb[0] is 'Basis'
            continue
        if random:
            kb.value = uniform(kb.slider_min, kb.slider_max)
        else:
            kb.value = value

#set visible keys to random

set_shapekeys(obj, random=True)

#set visible keys to 0.7

#set_shapekeys(obj, value=0.7)

Use set_shapekeys(obj, value=0.5) to set all visible shapekeys to 0.5


lock background reference image (Blender 2.8)

Make the Empty not selectable
In the outliner, uncheck the "arrow" icon next to the name of your empty.
Lock the transformations
In the Properties sidebar (N), check the "lock" icons next to the Location/Rotation/Scale properties.


Screenshot the viewport - How do I adjust the quality of the OpenGL render?

Merely illustrating the comment from @Lemon: "You can change the render image size in the render panel".


How can I use the new BVH nodes to know if a certain object is inside a volume?

In general if statements are a bit difficult to implement still, but checking wether are a point is inside a volume is (at least partially) possible.

Note: The solution I present here will give 'random' results if the mesh has no volume. Also it doesn't check if the whole object is inside the volume (it only checks the location vector of the object).

The main idea is to take the location of the object and shoot a ray in a random direction. If a polygon in the bvh tree is hit we have to compare the normal of the polygon with the direction of the ray. If the angle between both is lower than 90° we know that the location of the object is inside of the mesh. If it's larger the point is outside.

Let's model this idea with nodes:

Create a new group with the inputs and outputs that you'll need.

Make the shoot a ray in a random direction and calculate the angle between the normal and the ray direction.

Check if the angle is lower than 90°.

Due to the fact that the angle will be zero if the ray doesn't hit any polygon we have to check that both is true: The ray hits a face AND the angle is lower than 90°.

Here is an example on how you can use this group:

ps: For the next release of the Animation Nodes I'll write a node that does the same thing as the group here.


Should I wait when Blender isn't responding?

You can wait if you want, but it's probably going to take a long time before it will start responding. If you close it there is a way to recover you data; Blender autosaves your projects every 5 minutes, and you can change it if you want.

When you open Blender, go to 'File', then in the option, click 'Recover Auto save', wait for some time, and Blender will show all the autosaves it has taken according to the date. Click the unsaved projects, and save it when it opens.


Metallic maps are maps that tell the shader which parts of the object to make metal, and which to make dieletric.  If you want to make a custom map, the best way to do it in my opinion would be to texture paint a black and white map in blender.  it's not really a type of map you can bake.

hope this is helpful :)


Why is Blender's default cube 2 cubic meters instead of 1?

There is no reason. But the default cube goes 1 unit in every direction, it's the same size as a sphere with a radius of 1 unit as well as for example procedural spherical gradient, a plain axis empty has lines going 1 unit in each direction of all axis as well. If it was 1 unit size and it was centered it would have sides ending at half a unit in all directions, that might be weird. So for what it's worth, it has some sense behind it. I think it is mainly this way, only because it had to be some size, and this is no better or worse than anything else. You can create a cube of any size and hit ctrl+u to save another default file if that makes more sense to you.


object turns black when rotating in view

When you see black artifacts on rendered model and you know that all normals are facing correct direction, then most likely it's still bad shading of faces. It will be present because of inappropriate topology of the mesh.

Taking into consideration your example, the reason for black artifacts is Ngon (face with more than 4 vertices, in your case n = 256) in the middle of the mesh. More than that, this face is non-planar (the vertices which form it aren't located on the same imaginary plane):

To fix this first make the face flat (and vertex loop which forms this face being located on flat "surface" too); then either inset the face (more a workaround than a solution) or fill it with new faces.

Start with flattening Ngon.
Use scaling along normals for that (press Alt+Space, choose Normal and scale, see How to flatten a face to avoid distortion (make an ngon planar) for more info).

Insetting Ngon

Once face is flat inset it to avoid presence of Ngon near the curved area of the mesh. Press I and change Thickness value of insetting.

However this isn't the best solution as the vertices will start overlapping when insetted further than half of the original Ngon. This way is easier though as it creates less geometry which is easier to select / handle with.

Fill with new faces

Delete the big face (choose Faces in Delete menu), select boundary loop and use Grid Fill via Ctrl+F or Mesh > Faces menu in 3D View header:

Note that this way create extra geometry at the cost of "all-quads". Beware that this can affect on render times / performance. Also it may be more difficult to handle with bigger amount of faces / verts. You may want to add created faces to a new vertex group while they are selected.

Do the same with second Ngon on the other side of mesh.


Your mesh is the active object, but not currently selected in object mode. Switch to object mode and select the object, then click bake. It should work fine now.


Smoke doesn't appear when rendering animation

I followed this tutorial some time ago too, and I had the same problem. My mistake was, that I started this tutorial in blender render and then changed while working to cycles. You need to add the quick smoke effect after changing to cycles than its working perfectly. If you got any problems to understand just write me back!! ;)


Your file has a fluid object where Smoke Color is set to black, and in your domain material, the Color in the Principled Volume node is also set to black. If you want colored smoke, you have to set colors to the volume at some point or another.
Sorry for a very long answer now but I want to give you examples on how to use color on the smoke. It works like this - I'm using two Flow Objects in a single domain with only one domain material:

In the settings of the Flow Object you can specify a Smoke Color. This is first of all shown in the Solid View so you can distinguish them in the 3D Viewport.

In Rendered View however, if your domain material is set to the default grey color without any Color Attribute set, it shows the default grey.

If you enter the Color Attribute "color", the smoke gets colored by the Flow Object settings, but they are darker than the original colors because they are combined with the grey color set in the Principled Volume node.

You can even give them a different tint by keeping the attribute and changing the node's color setting. I don't understand exactly how the colors are mixed, I guess it has something to do with volume absorption.

A different way to color the smoke is to use the Volume Info node. If you plug it into the Color socket of the Principled Volume shader without using the Color Attribute, it colors the smoke according to the settings of the Flow Objects.

This is just the same as if you were using the Color Attribute and combining it with full white in the node's Color setting.

Using both the Volume Info node and the Color Atrribute will combine each color with itself instead of a single tint for both, meaning it will make the colors more intense (and maybe a little darker, too).


How to export an edited clip into a video file in the VSE?

I will try to answer your question. I will be my first answer so bare with me ;-) See the attached image. Specify the render preset (such as the HDTV 720p or some other). Specify frames per second. Enable Sequencer in the Post Processing tab (this will switch render mode from 3D rendering to video sequence rendering). And in the output tab choose H.264 (it will be MPG4 by default as I recall). Also specify an output path and filename. And hit Animation.


Eevee - How to cast shadow on a background image

Update. Found this video on "Shadow catchers" for EEVEE.
Solved the problem perfectly. Thank you "Blender Pirate"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WYCZGOCPEY


Transparent model does not render correctly, looks ok while editing texture

In the Properties window, go to the Material Properties tab. Scroll down to Settings and change the Blend Mode form Opaque to Alpha Blend (or possibly Alphas Clip or Alpha Hashed, depending on your preference).
It is the same for EEVEE and Cycles.
However, take care not to confuse the aforementioned Settings with the Settings under Viewport Display that are available in Cycles, since they only affect the 3D Viewport and not the render.


Rotating Specific Degrees On The Timeline

The best way to do it (imho), would be to go into the Item Properties, change the Rotation and add the Keyframe with the Button to the Right. After that, change the Position in the Timeline and change the rotation and add another Keyframe.


How to render a large number of stacked glass sheets

FIRSTLY, do you have photo reference? ;-) This render might actually BE really realistic, but your eye is fooled because your brain knows that it's fake. Also, photo reference will help you be specific about what changes to make.

The basic glass and transparent shaders aren't terribly realistic by default. You'll want to look into Physically Based glass shaders. It's a complicated subject, especially for Blender, but essentially you'll build your own shader with a transparent shader, a refraction shader (it doesn't do any reflection), and a glossy shader. You'll put these individual components together with mix shaders, modulating the factor on them with Fresnel or Layer Weight input.

The full details are a bit beyond the scope of this site, but searching for "physically based glass" should get you closer. Also looking at how people have built "fresnel glossy" shaders for Blender will be helpful because the principle is similar.

Here's a helpful link, for as long as it's available: http://www.chocofur.com/6-shadersamptextures.html

It would also be helpful to add a colored checker pattern and/or noise pattern behind and under the glass just for production, so you can see what's going on a little more easily. Then remove it once you get everything right. These stark white, grayscale environments can be very tricky.

Hope that helps!


Cloth simulation appears corrupt in render

This is because the cloth simulation is baked using the viewport settings of the modifier(s) above it.
As the subserf modifier above it has a viewport subdivision level of 1, but a render subdivision level of 2, the vertex locations stored in the cache are nonsensical when rendering.
To fix this, just set the render subserf value to 1:

If you still want to use two subserf levels, you have two options:

Re-bake, with the viewport subdivisions set to 2

Add another subserf modifier below the cloth modifier. These subdivisions won't be taken into account with the simulation, but they will smooth the result out a little bit (though a smooth modifier could probably get you comparable results with a lot less vertices), and you won't have to rebake.


Blender Python Scripting Screen Layout Closes on Execution in Windows OS

Thanks very much for the responses. Zeffii is correct, I had used the following code to delete all objects, but it was also resetting the view. Removing the below code resolves the issue. Thanks again.

def reset_blend():
    bpy.ops.wm.read_factory_settings()

    for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
        for obj in scene.objects:
            scene.objects.unlink(obj)

    for bpy_data_iter in (
            bpy.data.objects,
            bpy.data.meshes,
            bpy.data.lamps,
            bpy.data.cameras,
            ):
        for id_data in bpy_data_iter:
            bpy_data_iter.remove(id_data)

reset_blend()


You can always increase the Timesteps in the Domain which calculates more data inbetween frames to make it smoother which then applies to all fluid objects in the domain.
Or, if you have different fluid objects in the domain, you might only want to increase the Sampling Substeps on the fast moving Flow object (the picture shows the default values for Domain and Flow).

For more details check the Blender Manual:

Adaptive Time Steps
Sampling Substeps


This started not as a real and proper answer, but to demonstrate that at least on 2.76b, with Sapling 0.2.6, sapling addon worked as you would expect:

So, I suggested you to detail exact blender and sapling versions you are trying. It could also be a bug or a changed behavior...

Meanwhile, I found  a 2.79rc2 lying on my disk, so tried also launching Blender-softwaregl (opengl sw emulation due to my crappy notebook), here the addon is named "Sapling Tree Gen", version 0.3.3, it behave like you said: the tree is always at grid origin, no matter where the 3d cursor is.

It seems that there was a big change from 0.2.6 to 0.3.2 labeled as a "major rewrite", I guess starting just before 2.78 release, see this diffusion page.

But, good news! Browsing the sources on that page, I found a single line that reverts the behavior of sapling 0.3.3 to how it was in 0.2.6

find the file <blender install folder>/2.79/scripts/addons/add_curve_sapling/utils.py
go to line 1604, it should be like

#treeOb.location=bpy.context.scene.cursor_location attractUp
change it to

treeOb.location=bpy.context.scene.cursor_location #attractUp
save the file
(if it was open, close and) start Blender
now sapling should behave as it did in 2.76 :)

Note: I've later found a comment by the addon developer stating that he did
"Fix Armature, Tree location generation to 0,0,0 (this was causing fails with armature weights & probably pruning)"

So, use this with caution, and revert if necessary...


Can't Seem to Fully Isolate Already Separated Islands in UV Editor

select the vertices you want to separate via the UV islands, then in the viewport, press Y. That should rip it with the shortcut I believe. Some game engines don't like multiple UV islands on one mesh so it's become a standard practice for me.


Besides the Theme I cannot see any difference, so let's fix that.

hit Ctrl+Alt+U to open User Preferences.
Go to the "Themes" panel and look at "Presets". Select "Sensei", if it's not there.
Hit the "-" button to get rid of it.
Hit "Restore to Default Theme"
Hit "Save User Settings"


This video helped me with rotoscoping:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hppbUi2i74


Object mode - How do I turn off visible wireframe?

The answer is simple as you said. Select your object, go to the object properties panel and the make sure that wireframe isn't enabled under viewport display.


How to enable GPU rendering on older Nvidia GPUs?

As iKlsR said in the comments to your question, we discarded the sm_13 cycles kernel... This is exactly the one needed for your series of cards. Please take my advice when I talk to you as a developer - you don't want to enable this for your card.

First of all it's a hassle to setup nowadays! We don't care for this cards anymore, we don't even check if the code still compiles for it (and it certainly won't with our latest speed improvements for Cycles).
Second, it's slower than rendering with CPU in your case.
Third and foremost you are missing some important features with your kind of card:

There is no support for:

Render-passes,
Ambient Occlusion,
Many Cycles multi closures
Hairs
Motion blur ...

As you can see, this is by no means the optimal way to go! I understand when someone doesn't want to upgrade a system, but in this case you should upgrade for sure!


Blender is freezing while editing and playing the animation

Okay, I think I found the answer. I deleted the opengl32.dll file from newest version of the Blender and it started working as it used to before these problems. To test this "method" I rebooted my PC, and Blender worked perfectly. I hope this won't change anymore.


For version 2.8

Use the render properties section of the scene editor.

There you can find the options that are available in your particular version.

For versions up to 2.79, you need to be on the info window

then select your render engine

Note that blender internal and the game engine have been removed starting with version 2.8.


Camera setting does not give the expected fisheye result

The blender internal renderer doesn't seem to support fisheye lenses. The Cycles rendering engine does, however. You can change to Cycles rendering in the header of the 3D view:

With Cycles selected you can change your camera type to 'Panoramic' to reveal several fish eye options:


How about something like this: basically, we first check if the modifier is already existing. If it is, we remove it.  Afterwards, we add a new modifier and set its parameters.

code:

# get the "Simplesubsurf" modifier
simplesubsurfmod = obj.modifiers.get('SimpleSubsurf')

#remove if it exists
if simplesubsurfmod:
    obj.modifiers.remove(simplesubsurfmod)

#add a new "SimpleSubsurf" modifier
mod = obj.modifiers.new('SimpleSubsurf', 'SUBSURF')
mod.subdivision_type = "SIMPLE"
mod.levels = 3
mod.render_levels=3

# get the "Subsurf" modifier
subsurfmod = obj.modifiers.get('Subsurf')

if subsurfmod:
    obj.modifiers.remove(subsurfmod)

#add new Subsurf modifier
mod = obj.modifiers.new('Subsurf', 'SUBSURF')
mod.levels = Subdivisions
mod.render_levels=Subdivisions


It can be done by using an addon called Animation Nodes.

The basic concept here is to get the location of each particle unit by the moment they die on hitting the collider. Then parent them to it immediately.

Here is a template setup:

 (2018-07-21 updated, compatible with AN2.0)

How to Use:

Open the attached file;
Download the addon from the link above, then install and enable it;
Replace Eimtter and Collider object input on related nodes.
Go to frame 1, play animation.


You can access the value of any declared operator property within all provided methods.

The following demo is based on Templates > Python > Operator File Export. Once the execute method is called by the user (when hitting the 'Execute Some Data' button) the values/states of both user properties (in this case my_float and my_enum) are going to be printed into the console:

import bpy

# ExportHelper is a helper class, defines filename and
# invoke() function which calls the file selector.
from bpy_extras.io_utils import ExportHelper
from bpy.props import StringProperty, BoolProperty, EnumProperty
from bpy.types import Operator

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

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

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

    # List of operator properties, the attributes will be assigned
    # to the class instance from the operator settings before calling.
    my_float: bpy.props.FloatProperty(
        name="My float",
        description="",
        default=0.0
    )
    my_enum: EnumProperty(
        name="Example Enum",
        description="Choose between two items",
        items=(
            ('OPT_A', "First Option", "Description one"),
            ('OPT_B', "Second Option", "Description two"),
        ),
        default='OPT_A',
    )

    # Methods
    def write_some_data(self, context, filepath, use_some_setting):
        print("running write_some_data...")
        f = open(filepath, 'w', encoding='utf-8')
        f.write("Hello World %s" % use_some_setting)
        f.close()

    def execute(self, context):
        # Print property values
        print ("User values:", self.my_float, self.my_enum)
        # Write the data
        self.write_some_data(context, self.filepath, self.my_float)
        return {'FINISHED'}

# Only needed if you want to add into a dynamic menu
def menu_func_export(self, context):
    self.layout.operator(ExportSomeData.bl_idname, text="Text Export Operator")

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(ExportSomeData)
    bpy.types.TOPBAR_MT_file_export.append(menu_func_export)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(ExportSomeData)
    bpy.types.TOPBAR_MT_file_export.remove(menu_func_export)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    # test call
    bpy.ops.export_test.some_data('INVOKE_DEFAULT')

Also read: What do operator methods do? (poll, invoke, execute, draw & modal)


Is it useful to paint the seams with smear tool?

It depends on how detailed your texture is. The "Smear" tool is a possibility, if you have a low-detail texture. On higher detailed texture maps it would blur out the details which in your case would be for example the hard lines between the red and the brown area on the barrel.

I prefer the Clone Brush. Use Ctrl+Leftclick to select the are to be copied from, then simply draw with Leftclick over the seam.


How can I make an object follow a path exactly

The issue is that the curve and the object you want to make follow the curve have different origins (that orange dot you see when you select them in object mode) The calculation for the follow path constraint uses that offset to compute how the ball follows the path).  That offset is represented by that blue line you mention.

To make the object be on the path, the origin of the curve and that of the object have to be on the same place:

To make your objects have a common origin do the following:

Select your path and press Shift S and select Snap Cursor to Selected, then select the other object and press Shift S and Snap Selection to Cursor.

Then you can add the follow path constraint and the ball will move to the beginning of the path.

A different way to place the ball at the starting point of the path is to enter edit mode on the curve and select tha point you want the ball to move to and snap the cursor to it and then snap the ball to that place...


Automatic weights affect opposite side of the pants

I found out what was wrong. Apparently I did have negative scaling. I just scaled the pants on the x axis until it flipped itself and now I've got proper weighting with bones.


How to Set Up a Scene with Large Units of Scale

In my Blender 2.8 default length is in meters, so you can just hit N and write "180m" in scaleX for ship length. And say, "0.5m" for smaller ships.


How to make the camera rotate while tracking the target

Just tried this and you can rotate the camera using 'Damped Track' instead of 'Track To'.


Why is my texture applying itself to unwanted objects?

Both the body and the hair mesh are using the same image (Untitled).

In BI the image displayed on the mesh in textured view is determined by what image is displayed in the UV image editor while that geometry is selected.

Create a new separate image for the hair (AltN in the UV/image editor), then "assign" the hair geometry to that image by selecting it in the image editor with all of the hair geometry selected in edit mode.

Note that this doesn't affect the final render unless you have Face textures enabled.

See How is this blendfile hiding textures? and Texture mapped incorrectly in render?


Weight painted scalf not moving as expected

Each spine bone influences the whole strap (for example the top spine as seen in the picture below), it should not be the case, you need to remove the bottom part of this vertex group with the brush Subtract mode.


What is multiple importance sample option

Multiple importance sample (MIS) basically helps guide rays towards light sources, reducing noise
MIS only applies if the material has an emission node. (world materials and lamps behave a little differently).
From the wiki:
Material

By default objects with emitting materials use both direct and indirect light sampling methods, but in some cases it may lead to less noise overall to disable direct light sampling for some materials. This can be done by disabling the Multiple Importance Sample option. This is especially useful on large objects that emit little light compared to other light sources.
This option will only have an influence if the material contains an emission node; it will be automatically disabled otherwise.

Here's an example with a bright light source (a sphere) and a weak light source (a plane above the scene, you can see it reflected in the seconds sphere)
Without MIS on the low strength plane:

With MIS on the low strength plane:

The bright sphere has MIS enabled in both examples. The second example seems to have slightly more noise (look at the shadow of the second sphere and the reflection of the floor plane)
World

By default lighting from the world is computed solely with indirect light sampling. However for more complex environment maps this can be too noisy, as sampling the BSDF may not easily find the highlights in the environment map image. By enabling this option, the world background will be sampled as a lamp, with lighter parts automatically given more samples.

Without MIS:

With MIS:

The wiki really says it all here.
Lamp

By default lamps use only direct light sampling. For area lights and sharp glossy reflections, however, this can be noisy, and enabling this option will enable indirect light sampling to be used in addition to reduce noise.

Without MIS only rays that bounce directly to the lamp are sampled (camera > surface > lamp):

With MIS rays that bounce indirectly are sampled too (e.g. camera > surface > surface > lamp):


Why does my 3D model disappear after applying remesh modifier?

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

also try instantMesh app github link
might give usable results

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


Why doesn't my camera have curves in the graph editor?

I figured it out—The camera was actually on a different layer than the one I was using.


Is there a way to add motion blur to a text object animated via the animation-nodes addon?

What you are asking for seams more like ghosts of previous frames/numbers or slower fading of those, rather than motion blur.

It can be done several ways, depending on the outcome and render, without resorting to actual motion blur and sampling. Considering that the motion blur would slow renders and the rest of the scene may not need it.

Steps for the Animation Nodes part are pretty much the same:

search for time generator (a node that formats as 00:00:00..)
have several instances of the text object (that "display" numbers)
It has to have deep copy to have different data/texts
have a delay for the frame for each instance. In a loop, using instance
assign a convenient property to respective instances to further use for transparency, variation in color or other means of "fading them"

after this you can set and use respective property depending on the convenient render or situation:

use pass_index (object index) to read in cycles or compositor
(it's only integers, so may wanna use 100 or 100/instances or so to get a 0-1 factor in the end)
use object color, directly, if you use blender internal. That is just color
set a different layer and use compositor render layers

If it's just a screen timer, I would choose a compositor version with all the text and ghosts in separate render layers, that you can further tweak and glow etc. For that I would use alpha and not a serious shading and just adjust in compositor as color etc, see below.

Let's see the animation nodes setup for this:

The basis, create instances and assigns delayed times to them.

Setting the convenient parameter to vary:

Set object index (pass index) as 20, 40 etc instead of 0.2, 0.4 ..
(needed if cycles, or compositor)
Setting the layer, just use object/layers node
(The compositor can use layers or object index)
Maybe a transform object out to mave the ghosts under the main text a bit
Setting the object color for blender internal if the case

Example of using the index in cycles

Cycles only allows vertex color (mesh only :( ) or object index

For compositor the way I would use it:

(same works very well without compositor, you just don't get blur)

I would use layers/render layers and a flat emission for all, then compositor mixing, like this:

note that:

If you use this compositor/cycles/An many windows all along, may wanna uncheck AN panel left auto exec and check only the 3 under. Otherwise it may update the compositor continuously.
+
I add 1 to the index
I use Z transform qith a small 002 (works great for simple cycles too)
I use 2 layers / 2 renderlayers and render is set to transparent
I use the alpha in compositor, + bit of blur for ghosts
(may do extra styling for compositor..)


How to mark the seams of UV maps to edit textures in external programs?

If you are painting some textures that are a little bit more complex, you might want to consider doing that on the 3d model in 3d. There are plenty of tools for that in a lot of 3d packages these days, Blender included. Obviously if the textures you need are simple, using an external image editor is a very valid option as well. Especially for every day simple objects.

The usual workflow is to export the UV map as an image and make the textures using that as a guide.

You would simply enter edit mode, select all to view the UV map, go to the UV Editor and choose UVs menu on the header, then Export UV Layout:

You can chose desired options and save the file then.

It is then usual to open it in an external editor and have it as a top layer while working on the texture so you can see the location of the UV islands while you work and disable it once you save your texture:


Why does the mirror modifier not mirror perfectly?

Your vertices are not at the exact center.

change their position to 0 on the concerned axis

This should fix your problem

This could be avoided using clipping in the mirror modifier.


Apply scale (Ctrl+A -> Scale) for target model.

See also: Why is it important to apply transformation to an objects data?


Rigify Generate -- Deformation Bones vs. Armature?

When you generate the rigify rig after adjusting the initial meta-rig and pressing generate in the armature tab (in the properties window), rigify genetates a host of control bones with ready made complex behaviors such as IK, foot roll, fist open/close, and many more.

If you're animating the deform bones directly, and ignoring all these features, you probably don't need to generate and can bind to the meta-rig directly.


Certainly is possible. What you want is the same techniques used in motion capture and compositing.

There are three key elements here:

Matching the perspective of the camera in the photograph.
Reflection of the environment onto the object (most importantly the table).
Shadows of the object onto the environment.

To solve the perspective problem, there is an old addon for Blender called BLAM, it's discontinued but still works for now. They are however recommending that instead of using BLAM you use a new tool called fSpy, I haven't used fSpy personally but it looks very good.

Once you've matched the camera's, try and get an HDRI that matches your environment. If you took the background photo yourself, you could try and capture an HDRI yourself. Alternatively, you could find a different HDRI that resembles the background image. You could probably get away with unwrapping the background image onto a cylinder around the object actually but you will have to experiment to see what looks good.

To cast shadows on (and cut into as requested) the table you will need to use a shadow catcher. Create a plane and scale/position it to match the table. If your object is reflective, I would suggest projecting the table image onto the shadow catcher plane. This will create realistic reflections that match the environment. Place your object as you like on top of (or cutting inside of) the plane. With the plane selected, navigate to the object panel and enable Shadow Catcher.

You can now render this and export it as a PNG, and then put it onto of the background image in Photoshop. Or, if you're familiar with compositing nodes you could do it in blender.

Below is a simple scene. A Suzanne and a plane. Notice how Suzanne is glossy and you can see the reflections of the UV grid.

Shadow catcher enabled on the plane. Notice how you can still see the reflections of the UV grid.

Suzanne cutting into the plane. Still showing the reflections.


How to render gease pencil in cycles in blender 2.8

Ok, figured it out. After the render finishes, the lines are added, so you have to wait throught the whole render.


Bevel isn't working on the "walls" that I just modeled

You need to AltM > Merge by Distance in order to get rid of overlapping vertices. In the Operator box (bottom left of the 3D view) put the factor at 0.001, you'll see that it will delete a lot of vertices (bottom right of the blender interface). Now bevel operation or Bevel modifier will work.


Select all the edges around your pole vertex, Ctrl-E, Subdivide, Select the resulting loop and shrink it so it's quite small and flatten it with the pole.


In order to effect the mesh you need to make sure the texture is loaded in the material. To paint onto it in cycles you need to make sure the image node exists in the node material and to have it effect the render it needed to be wired up.


Edit face triangulation without actually adding edge

Triangulation can't be controlled directly, it's not even done by Blender in object mode. Instead, it is left to the graphics driver to decide how to triangulate non-planar quads (which differs among drivers for different cards). Behavior may even change with VBO enabled or disabled.

You can use the triangulation modifier to get a bit of control with the beauty option, to divide across the shortest diagonal:


Python: Select specific parent object automatically on selection change?

I could solve this with an apphandler I registered to. I added a custom property to the model objects to recognize them in there.

def register():
    bpy.app.handlers.scene_update_post.append(addon.scene_update_post)

def unregister():
    bpy.app.handlers.scene_update_post.remove(addon.scene_update_post)

# ---- In the addon module ----

def scene_update_post(scene):
    ob = scene.objects.active
    if ob:
        # Redirect the selection of a model mesh object to the parent track object.
        if ob.is_model:
            scene.objects.active = ob.parent
            ob.parent.select = True
            ob.select = False

This works even when multi selecting objects!


Press the N key, and in the view tab, press lock to object.


@Gorgious is correct, however there is an alternate means to edit your image in Blender that I wanted to share. In Blender load in the image in the UV Editing workspace (ignore any UV wrapping etc). Then go Image->Invert->Invert image colors. Then you go Image->Save As and now you have an inversed texture which you can directly load in and use as you were previously.

Result:


Particle System does not stick to the mesh if the mesh is moving (global,local coordinate-system?)

It sounds like an issue you get when the modifiers are in the wrong order.

The modifiers are applied from the top down. In this example the particles are generated then the armature deforms the mesh which leaves the particles behind.

Check that the modifier for the particles or smoke is last in the list. Use the little up/down arrows to the right re-arrange the order.

You may want to alter the gravity settings for the particles to alter their direction. Particles usually fall down by default, you also only need a lifetime of one frame for them to generate smoke. Force fields can also be used to control the flow of particles and smoke.


Make a bone head movable within the armature

I'm not sure a full mechanical solution with rigging is possible, with Blender being primarily a modeller/animator.  A game engine might be better suited to this.
If it's only for video however, the simplest way would be to rotate the green strip and have the grey strip looking at the bolt screwed into the green.  i.e. Give the grey a "Track to" constraint.  Set the target as the bolt.

Addendum:  7th Feb 2021
Should the green strip be attached to a hinged window, then it would be the same constraint on the grey strip but the green strip would not be animated, instead, be carried in an arc by the window frame.


How to hook 2 points of a Bézier on 2 different object?

That can be something like this:

import bpy

cube1= bpy.data.objects['Cube1']
cube2= bpy.data.objects['Cube2']
bezier = bpy.data.objects['BezierCurve']

hook = bezier.modifiers.new( name = "Hook-" + cube1.name, type = 'HOOK' )
hook.object = cube1
hook.vertex_indices_set( [0, 1, 2] )

hook = bezier.modifiers.new( name = "Hook-" + cube2.name, type = 'HOOK' )
hook.object = cube2
hook.vertex_indices_set( [3, 4, 5] )

The tricky part is you have to indicate each element of the control points you want to hook. So the hook vertex indices are triplets.

I don't think you can hook control point handles individually, but that may depend of the curve type or the control points mode and have not tested all possibilities.


I want to unparent an object with python

Solution 1:

Assume you have an object in python obj:

Try obj.parent = None

None is a keyword refer to nothing. You assign the object parent to nothing is equivalent to remove parent.

Solution 2:

Directly modified data in object without operator can lead to some problem. You can clear the parent in your blender, and in info panel you should see the python command: bpy.ops.object.parent_clear(type='CLEAR')


Is there a way to make this edge look neater without using loop cuts?

For those who may be having the same question, I figured it out. When I removed the bevel on the outer edges, but kept the bevel on the other edges, the artifacts and problems disappeared. I was able to harden the outer edge by adding loop cuts to the walls of the inside extrusions.


Any extrusions (including solidify modifier) only extrude faces in global y axis, rather than using normals

You need to apply the scale of your object with ctrl A. Then your Solidify will work correctly. If you choose to extrude instead, then use alt S afterwards, i.e. shrink scale.


Access elements of matrix(vectors and Euler angles) in Animation nodes using script node

Here are some examples for creating and decomposing each type:
Vector and Vector list
from mathutils import Vector

# create Vector
x = 1
y = 2
z = 3
new_vector = Vector((x,y,z))

# extract individual elements
x_element = new_vector.x # new_vector[0]
y_element = new_vector.y # new_vector[1]
z_element = new_vector.z # new_vector[2]

# create AN vector list
new_vector_list = Vector3DList()

# append element to vector List
new_vector_list.append(new_vector)

# get element from vector List
first_element = new_vector_list[0]

# get first element's x value
first_vector_x = new_vector_list[0].x

Euler and Euler list
from math import radians
from mathutils import Euler

# create Euler
x = radians(30)
y = radians(45)
z = radians(60)
new_euler = Euler((x,y,z)) # Euler((x,y,z),"XYZ")

# extract individual elements
x_element = new_euler.x # new_euler[0]
y_element = new_euler.y # new_euler[1]
z_element = new_euler.z # new_euler[2]

# create AN euler List
new_euler_list = EulerList()

# append element to euler List
new_euler_list.append(new_euler)

# get element from euler List
first_element = new_euler_list[0]

# get first element's x value
first_element_x = new_euler_list[0].x

Matrix and Matrix list
from mathutils import Matrix, Euler, Vector

# create matrix
location = Vector((0,0,0))
rotation = Euler((0,0,0))
scale = Vector((0,0,0))
new_matrix = AN.utils.math.composeMatrix(location, rotation, scale)

# extract location
extracted_loc = new_matrix.to_translation()

# extract rotation
extracted_rot = new_matrix.to_euler()

# extract scale
extracted_scale = new_matrix.to_scale()

# create AN matrix list
new_matrix_list = Matrix4x4List()

# append element to matrix list
new_matrix_list.append(new_matrix)

# get element from matrix list
first_element = new_matrix_list[0]

# get first element's location
first_element_location = new_matrix_list[0].to_translation()

# get first element's x location
first_element_location = new_matrix_list[0].to_translation().x

# get raw matrix element
matrix_first_element = new_matrix_list[0][0]

I suggest you to look at blender api documentation for more information.


Materials not applying how the appear in preview (after rendering)

What you need is to input some sort of texture coordinate for Blender to map the texture to your mesh. All image textures require this.

What you needto do is to go to the Node editor and press Shift+A and add either a Texture Coordinate or a UV Map node.

Put one of the values into the purple Vector socket in your Image Texture node.

You can use any of these values, plug them into the same place as shown.


Controlling subdivision surfaces quality

There are some methods to do so:

Using edge crease (ShiftE);
Adding suppport edge loops (CtrlR);
Marking sharp edges (CtrlE > Mark Sharp), then add a Solidify modifier BEFORE Subsurf modifier.

Each way has pros and cons, choose one or more to meet the needs.

The above is for shaping in modifier level. However, the resolution cannot be controlled in this level. You may consider to apply modifier first, then select all elements (or particular area) in Edit Mode, X > Limited Dissolve, set the dissolve angle in F6 panel.

Tip: To select faces that are co-planar or nearly co-planar, you can select one or more faces, ShiftG > Co-planar, tweak Threshold in kbd>F6 panel.


Is there a way to animate a morph between different fonts?

SVG of second example

Yes, with this add-on you can do this (and more).

Or, if you use 2d curves:


How do i get the ocean modifier to animate?

Insert keyframes for the "Time". Set the frame to 1, move your mouse on "Time" and press I

Change the frame, add some time and press I again.


Press ShiftA and go to "Texture", and choose "Image Sequence". Then open the folder where the images are stored, press A to select all of them and then add the sequence.


Loop copying over vertex coordinates is not working

List comprehension

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

Question code can IMO be simplified to

import bpy
context = bpy.context

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

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

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

print(vert_list)

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

Alternatively using bmesh in edit mode

import bpy
import bmesh

context = bpy.context

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

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


Solved. I just needed to check 'Faces' option in 'Soft Body Edges' settings.


Getting the actual (not default) value of a node socket that is linked to another socket

Basically this cannot be done easily. The reason is:

The shader node tree is compiled by cycles in SVM or OCL. And here the actual calculation takes place.
Also every sample in Cycles can potentially have a different Roughness (for example when connected to a TextureImage along the way). So which sample do you want the result from.

If you have a special case you can mimic the needed nodes in python and evaluate for your needs.


Replace ivygen leaf cards with custom leaves

Most often you don't want to do that: think about the amount of polygons that would be. (You could kinda get away with it if you work with Ivygen at a small scale. Good luck with doing it with a tree in the Sapling add-on...)

The smart way as long as the camera is far enough to get away with it is to alpha map the leaves. (I believe they are UV unwrapped by default, I could be mistaken.) This reduces the poly but gives you a greater amount of detail.

If you want an example of this technique out in the wild, have a look at this piece from blenderartists: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?382855-Fairytale-Village

If the camera is too close for a pure alpha map, you may want to use dupliobject (and specifically duplifaces) to give it some depth. These approaches can be mixed: the exact outline of the leaf can be done using alpha maps to save on polygons. For duplifaces, see here: You could use dupliobjects. See here: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.4/Manual/Modeling/Objects/Duplication/DupliFaces


How can I animate a Mobius strip on local Z axis?

Have you tried adding a driver to your z rotation axis? I would start by adding a driver on the z- rotation of your mobius strip. Create an empty object, and animate it going up on the z-axis or something, and use that as your drivers input variable. This should work if you only need to rotate on the z-axis.

Here's a video for a quick look at drivers:
enter link description here

Aaand here's the docs if you really want to dive in:
Blender Driver Docs

I took your mobius blend file and applied this method:

Hope this helps!


Yet another smoothing question - still too many facets

Here's some further things to try:

Autosmooth checkbox under Object Data (right above vertex groups.) This will make edges Sharp based on the specified angle. It is the same effect as Edgesplit, but doesn't actually split your edges.

Use a small amount of of Decimate set to Collapse to merge together nearby points, and/or Planar to fix overlapping faces.

Convert to mesh so that you can properly mark edges with Crease (to control subsurf) or Sharp (to control edge sharpness.)

Use the Intersect (Boolean) command under the Faces menu in edit mode to resolve intersections. Note that this will create some dirty topology that will need to be cleaned up by hand, or with small amounts of Decimate as mentioned above.


How to make Blender exit after running Python script from command line?


What you are seeing is a layout feature called frames. The rationale behind them is to help organize your node tree by helping you easily select and relocate related nodes all at once.

For clarity's sake, it may be important to distinguish node groups from frames, since you asked about groups in the question.

The Blender Manual says this about Node Groups:

  Grouping nodes can simplify a node tree by allowing instancing and
  hiding parts of the tree. Both material and composite nodes can be
  grouped.

  Conceptually, grouping nodes allows you to specify a set of nodes that
  you can treat as though it were “just one node”. Node groups are
  similar to functions in programming. You can then reuse them inside,
  which are then called “NodeGroups”, or in other blend-file(s), when
  appending called “NodeTrees”.

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/texture_node/types/groups.html

And it says this about Frames:

  The Frame node is a useful tool for organizing nodes by collecting
  related nodes together in a common area. Frames are useful when a node
  setup becomes large and confusing yet the re-usability of a Node Group
  is not required.

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/interface/controls/nodes/frame.html

You can create a node group by selecting multiple nodes and pressing Ctrl + g. You can create a frame by pressing Shift + a to "add" a new node, and go down to the bottom of the list, to Layout, and select Frame. You can give your frame a name by entering one in the Label field, found in the Properties Shelf to the right (if the Shelf isnt' visible press n while hovering your cursor in the Shader Editor).

After creating the frame, you can drag the the desired nodes into it. Then you can click and drag the frame to move all of the nodes within it.


How to cut the end of this cylinder flat?

I don't know what is purpose of the final model, but I think you can start with Curve object, type 2D. By adding Depth you can get tube shape ... easy to model and readjust laser ray direction, angle to hit surface.

You don't even need to create real "contact" face since tip of beam is hidden in "mirror" object.


I had to manually left-click to select the model, not the armature.
Also, I had to switch to Object Mode first. Here is a video of my workflow:
Workflow


(I made it an answer because comments don't allow for enough characters, and I added my first comment for good measure.)
You can animate the Show In Renders located in Object Properties > Visibility and keyframe the checkbox. Or animate and keyframe the Disable in Renders (little camera icon) in the Outliner. If the camera icon is not there, you can activate it in the Outliner Filter (little funnel icon). Note: Show In Renders and Disable in Renders are the same setting in different locations
The only other thing that comes to mind at the moment is giving the objects materials that can be animated to be invisible. It would be easiest if all objects had the same material. Though you could link the invisibility behavior of different materials with drivers. Here are two answers on how to do something very similar. However, I'm not sure (doubt even) if it will increase FPS and/or decrease render-time.
Also here is a small discussion with some other workaround methods.
Edit:
Just thought of another idea. Most probably it won't work for your situation, but i thought I'd mention it anyway: You could also maybe use instancing. All children objects would need to be the same, and can't be individual objects.
You could parent a single child object to an object consisting of loose vertices instead. The go to Properties > Object Properties > Instancing, and click Verts. You would see a mesh of the child object for every vertex in the parent object. Then you can animate the Disable in Render of a single child object to make them all disappear (or do any other localized animation for that matter).


More vertices are most definitely not "better" topology. I'd recommend this blog about the topology topic.

In your case it would be best to start from scratch. If you want to use what you have got, you only need to keep the outline.

Select the outer edge loop with Alt rightclick and ShiftAlt right click.
Invert the selection. CtrlI
Delete all selected vertices. X > Vertices

Then, convert your mesh to a curve with AltC > Mesh to Curve.
Set the curve to 2D and use its extrude features to give the flat surface depth.


Creating a 3D printable terrain model with blender

Starting from the displaced plane
Apply the displace modifier
Enter edit mode Tab
Select all A
Place yourself in front (NumPad1) ortho view (NumPad5 if needed)
Extrude E then Z
Now scale along Z to zero to flatten the base : S Z then 0

Note: all keystrokes are not visible in the gif as 500 subdivisions is a bit too much on my computer. But the keys are written above (and you can see the operations on the bottom left of the screen)


Your mesh is extremely dense. Understand that, while the denser your mesh is, the smoother it is, it's also true that, the denser it is, the harder it is to control. At early stages of modeling, you don't need the smoothness. But you do need the control. Achieving smoothness can be saved for later. Of course, you can certainly put a Subdivision Surface modifier on your mesh at a very early stage if you want, so long as you do not apply it (meaning you don't "finalize" it) until later. This way, you can go back and forth between smooth and not smooth, to check your results over time.

On the left shows about the maximum ammout of mesh density you want while modeling. On the right shows the same mesh with a Subdivision Surface modifier added.

Another issue is topology. You mentioned a doll, so perhaps this isn't relelvant in your case, but if you want it to be animated afterwards, and exhibit facial deformations that look appropriate, you will need to take into consideration the topology, which is to say, the flow of your mesh's contours. In the pic above, note the flow of the mesh contours, and see how they build rings around the eyes. The same approach will be necessary for the mouth, and any other surface that needs to expand and contract convincingly.

Finally, Christopher Bennett correctly notes that triangles can also create a problem, especially if you want to add a Subdivision Surface modifier at any point, but also, even if you don't, because triangles (and five-or-more sided polygons, or n-gons) can create unsightly rendering artifacts, or pinching during deformation. Again, the included pic shows that all polygons are quads, and this is what you want to strive for as a general rule (there are exceptions, but they don't concern us here). These conventions are especially important in modeling a face that will make expressions.

I don't see any easy way to fix this. Likely you will need to start over. However, if you like the overall shape of your mesh, you can remesh it, and start over with the remeshed version of your model. You can put a Decimate modifier on it, and choose the Unsubdivide option. This is good if your mesh is already quads. But if it isn't, you may be better off using Quadriflow Remesh. Press F3 to bring up the search function, and type in "Quadri..." and it should pop up in the list. Select it, and set the options. Choose how many polygons you want the end result to be. For the most part, you can check all the boxes. Experiment. All you care about at this point is ending up with all quads and also keeping the general shape of your mesh in tact. Don't select a high poly count; you'll make it too dense, and that's already your main problem.

When you get done with this, you can get back to modeling the eye holes. If you have a separate eyeball object, this is ideal, because you can use it as a "cut out" guide. Create a sphere primitive. None of its generation settings matter, but make it about the right size for the face. Move it into position. Now you can model around it. Also, to ensure that you get the eyelid part of your face mesh to perfectly meet the eye object, you can put a Shrinkwrap modifier on the face object. However, by default it will shrinkwrap the entire face to the eyeball, which you don't want. So when setting up the Shrinkwrap in the modifier settings, you will want to be able to tell Blender that you only want the eyelid to be affected. To do that,  create a vertex group for the Face object, with only the vertices for the inner rim of the eyelid selected, and assign those vertices only to the vertex group. Then, when you create the Shrinkwrap modifier, in the modifier settings for it, point it to the eye object as a target, as well as to the eyelid rim vertex group you just created. This way, no part of your face will shrinkwrap to the eyeball object except for the inner eyelid rim, which means your eyelid will meet the eyeball object perfectly.

Sorry this stuff isn't easier. Hope this helps.


This is a common issue with cycles, and is caused by many factors. As your scene appears to not have any glossy materials, increasing sample amount is a good place to start. If you get up near 1,000 samples, and it is not returning a good image, you can try these things:

Use Clamp
This method is used mostly to remove the characteristic "fireflies" in cycles that appear when there is any quantity of glossy objects, or if there is poor lighting. Clamp indirect is especially effective.

For animations it may also be a good idea to vary the seed value with keyframes.

Multiple Importance Sampling
This is fairly straightforward, you can copy the settings below.

Filter Glossy/Bounces
You can use these settings to advantage as well,  try filter glossy at 1 for starts. See this page for more details and an in depth explanation.

Despeckle/Bilateral Blur Nodes
This method uses the compositor and reduces noise fairly effectually, sadly at the loss of quality.

Some other things to try are lamp strength and lamp size.
Visit the Blender Manual for more info.


I guess it's due to the camera clipping settings. Set the clip's Start value to 0.001 and it may solve your problem.


How does texture mapping work in Blender?

I eventually came up with a reasonable model for the mechanism.  But
along the way I was confused by Blender's order of transforms and
its display of materials.

Projection Model

My basic problem was that I was not considering exactly where the
object and the texture are located in what I will call "texture space".
Conceptually the object and texture are placed into texture space and
the surface of the object is colored according to where it intersects
the projected texture.

As a starting point for the texture mapping the object and the image are
made "the same size".  The object's bounding box (a rectangular prism in
its local coordinates) is scaled in the X, Y, and Z directions to create
a cube one unit on a side.  The cube with its distorted object is placed
in the first octant of the 3D texture space with its lower left front
corner at the origin and its upper right back corner at (+1,+1,+1).  The
rectangular image is scaled in the X and Y directions to become a square
one unit on a side (usually making its pixels rectangular rather than
square).

For a Flat projection the texture square is placed into the X-Y plane on
the bottom face of the object cube.  The lower left-hand corner of the
image is at the origin and the upper right-hand corner is at (+1,+1,0).
Each pixel of the texture square projects as a perpendicular rod
(rectangular in cross-section) that extends parallel to the Z-axis
towards infinity in both the +Z and -Z directions.

The problem that arises with rotations is that the axes of rotation are
the texture space coordinate axes which pass through the texture space
origin, not the more convenient axes at the centers of the object and
texture.  So if you want to rotate either the cube or the texture around
its central Z-axis you have to

Translate its center to the texture space Z-axis.
Perform the rotation around the texture space Z-axis.
Translate the center back its original position.

With the Tube projection the image has been wrapped around a vertical
(parallel to the Z-axis) cylinder of irrelevant radius one unit high
centered on (0.5,0.5,0.5).  Each pixel of the image projects
horizontally from the center of the cylinder outwards in an infinite
pie-shaped wedge one pixel high passing exactly through its rectangle on
the surface of the cylinder.

The Sphere projection wraps the image around a sphere of irrelevant
radius centered at (0.5,0.5,0.5).  Each pixel of the image projects from
the center of the sphere outwards to pass exactly through its rectangle
or triangle on the surface of the sphere.

So rotating the object or the texture about the Z-axis without the extra
translations separates the projected texture and the object, grossly
distorting their intersection.

Order Of Transforms

The first diversion on the way to the texture mapping model was figuring
out the order in which Blender was executing the transforms from the
Mapping nodes.

It turns out that within a Mapping node the transforms are essentially
performed right to left.  The scaling is performed first.  Then the
rotations are performed in Blender's default Euler XYZ order.  Finally
any translations take place.

However the order in which the chain of Mapping nodes is applied depends
upon the choice of Texture vs. Point set in the Mapping nodes.  (Assume
that all Mapping nodes use the same option and ignore Vector and Normal for
present purposes.)

With the default Point selection the Mapping nodes describe how the
object is transformed in texture space while the image projection
remains fixed.  The chain of Mapping nodes is applied left-to-right; the
leftmost Mapping node is applied first, and each Mapping node
transforms the result coming from the node on its left.

With Texture selected the Mapping nodes describe how the texture is
transformed in texture space while the object in its cube remains fixed.
The chain of Mapping nodes is applied right-to-left; the rightmost
Mapping node is applied first, and each mapping node effectively
transforms the result from the node on its right.  (This is the effect,
not how it is actually implemented.)

Point and Texture chains create net transforms which move the object
cube and the texture relative to each other.  Choosing between the two
approaches is a matter of convenience for the user.

Display Of Materials

The second diversion on the way to the texture mapping model involved
accurate display of the mapped texture.

The Preview display in the Material section of the Properties Editor is
your best friend.  If you are doing transparency or texture mapping you
need to have it active.

It did not dawn on me for a while that the 3D View was lying to me about
materials.  I naively assumed that if I set the 3D View's "Viewport
Shading" to Material I would see the actual material.  In fact the only
way to guarantee that is to select Render from the "Method to
display/shade objects in the 3D View:" (Viewport Shading) list.  The
limitation is perfectly understandable in terms of computation time;
using Render can be very slow so Material can be expected to compromise.

But one result is that an Image Texture node set for Clip will show in
the Material selection for the 3D View as if Repeat has been chosen.
That was confusing during the early tests.

The other limitation on the Material shading arises directly from
computational expense.  The non-Rendered display methods for the 3D View
cannot display some materials (e.g., transparency) on any object.
And they cannot display any material on some objects (e.g., a meta).

Moral

Do not make assumptions about how Blender works without taking the
time to test those assumptions.


Not sure if this answers your question but if you add a follow path constraint to the empty, check fixed position and then move the offset from zero to one the empty is locked on to the curve which now functions as it's path. I really hope this helps and I didn't misunderstand the question.

(I then, just for effect, parrented the cylinder to the empty, to visualize a handle.)

Here's a picture of the setup.


Glass material not transparent in cycles

Get glass material from: http://blendermada.com/materials/?engine=cyc&category=glass&keyword= Is it Cycles or Eevee? Refractions and reflections in Eevee are not so great. Use Cycles if is a still photo.


When you have several textures and you want to turn them into one you bake diffuse or emit (as you wish) pass, see Bake Taxtures to one Image.

What is wrong and why the warning

The catch that you likely face due to the warning you mention is that if an object has multiple materials baking is happening for all those materials. Thus it takes any selected Image Texture node in every material and tries to bake to it.

There are 2 Image Texture nodes in materials dark_kuma_hand_t01.003 and dark_kuma_face_t01.002, one connected to the shader and used as a source, another one disconnected from everything which is correct.

However there is only one Image Texture node used as color source  in materials dark_kuma_body_t01, dark_kuma_face_t01.003 and dark_kuma_face_t01.004.

This means that once baking is started it will get to materials mentioned in the last paragraph and bake to the image texture used as a source since it can't find anything else there to bake to. Hence color information source for first 2 materials gets overwritten and it also starts providing that black color which is baked above when Clear option is enabled.

This is why the warning Circular dependency for image for material X in object Y is important to notice; it allows to prevent image from being overwritten and saved since you can reload image from disk if it wasn't saved after baking.

The warning isn't always meaning you have wrong node setup; e.g if you bake normal map from highpoly to lowpoly and connected normal map Image Texture node to the tree you will receive this warning as well however it won't mean anything in that case. Still it's better to check your node setup when baking anyway.

How to bake correctly

There are generally 3 ways.
Either copy paste image you're baking to to each material for the object and make sure it is selected for each material for the object, then bake.
Another way is to duplicate the object, remove all materials but those you want to bake and bake from that object to that object (Selected to Active unchecked).
Third way is to create 2 copies of the original object, remove all materials but those you want to bake from the copy you bake from, then remove all materials but one from the object you bake to.


Can I snap to the center (midpoint) of an edge?

Using the snap to function it's quite easy.

In edit mode select the edge you want to align to, then press ShiftS and select cursor to selected. The 3D cursor will be placed in the middle of your selected edge.

Back in object mode select your second mesh and do ShiftS and select selection to cursor your object will then move to where the cursor is.

From there you can move the 2nd mesh using GY so it only moves on the Y axis.


QUESTION ANSWERED. I had checked for render borders, and camera clip distance and objects in Layer 1 blocking camera view and have determined it came in with the automobile in Layer 4. I couldn't see anything just above the grid floor. Then I noticed "Plane 022" in the Outliner with the Viewport (eyeball) disabled. Once I enabled it, I found it was a pan to help reflect light onto the automobile from the creator's original light sources. Only then could I see it. "X"! "Plane 022" gone and my BI render looks great now. Thanks for the help. Sorry about posting the sample image twice. Not used to this Blog.
Cheers.


Armature Flip Name does not really work (Blender 2.79)

I notice that flipping names is working different now in 2.79 version.

After some testintgs now I see that it only works using  W  and selecting Symetrize. This really duplicate mirrored and flip the names.

See the image below:


Have you linked the bone and your mesh? if so have you selected automatic weights when doing so? ( just the way I like to do it )

If you don't want to use automatic weights, just select the parts in the mesh, in the editor mode, and the bone, then link them.
( I'm not a pro, please take what I say with a grain of salt, it might not work! )


Motion tracking. The edges of undistorted footage are cropped, and so are the elements of the 3D scene

The problem:

Undistorted footage the pixels no longer correspond with the original frame size.

The image is being stretched past the limits of the original frame, so the undistorted result will be cropped.

A possible solution would be to render a proxy undistorted plate that has the complete undistorted information, to do this you need is much larger canvas than the original footage. Change Dimensions>Render Resolution until you can see all of the image gloriously undistorted:

Use that undistroted proxy to do the motion tracking, camera solution and 3d elements for the scene.

EDIT:

Then render the undistorted 3D elements as as separate plate before compositing.

Import the new element into the compositor and use the Movie Distortion node in Distor mode using the information from the original clip, and composite with alpha over on the undistorted original.

At this point you can go back to the original frame size in the resolution.


how to fix "object has no uniform scale"?

Select the object and press CTRL+A in 'Object Mode'. Apply the Scale, then try to unwrap.

You can also see the fragment of Blender Guru's tutorial, where he's talking about it:
https://youtu.be/XCEN0qQOsIA?t=345


After a day of research, I found out some of the answers and I am going to answer to my own questions

Rotating wheels when car is accelerating <- for the wheels, add drivers to an empty axis, then move the axis, the wheels should rotate (tested out, it works)
Car skidding, thus front wheels turn left or right (imagine the driver trying to take but control of the vehicle and end up drifting) <- rotate the front wheels on the z-axis via the empty axis in between key frames (haven't test it out, still figuring out how to add drivers on the z-axis)
Car hit an obstacle on the road at high speed and fly off course <- parent the empty axis to a cube, the cube is in the shape of the car, wrapping around the car (tested out. tried hitting the cube together with the car to a stationary pole straight on. not sure why, but upon impact, the pole was absorbed into the cube and car and stayed inside them. the cube and car then kept shaking while the pole is inside of them)
Car Crashing (glass shattered, metal part tented) <- upon impact, manually dent the car and use key shape key function. not sure about shattered glass. perhaps separate the glass parts from the car at the key frame upon impact? I know about cell fracture but not unsure how to make the glass break upon impact. the windscreens are tempered glass, depending on impact, it should either crack or break. (tested out only on denting the car, it works)

It seems like there's no way to add a rigid body onto the car. That is why I have to parent the car to the cube (that is in the shape of the car). Because every time I add a rigid body to the car, those parts that have a rigid body added will just drop onto the ground all over the place. Please let me know if there's a way around it.
Hope someone will be able to help, especially with the cracking of tempered glass and glass shattering part. Windscreen should crack while side and rear windows should shatter. Because every time I try to add a rigid body to the car, everything just fall apart. I will update again if I can find out more.
Have fun crashing.
John


The configuration files are:

startup.blend and userpref.blend, bookmarks.txt, recent-files.txt,

Windows

The following files are stored in:

%APPDATA%\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.73\config

(%APPDATA% points to C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming)

In more recent versions of Windows it will be in:

C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\<VersionNumber>\config

Note that AppData is a hidden folder, you can change directory to AppData from the command line.

Linux

The Linux versions stores the same files at this path

/home/<UserName>/.config/blender/2.73/config

OS X

For OS X, the config files can be located at

/Users/<UserName>/Library/Application Support/Blender/2.73/config

The Library folder is also likely to be hidden by default so you may have to look up how to unhide it.

More info: https://www.blender.org/manual/en/getting_started/installing/configuration/directories.html


You just forgot to check Render in the outliner


Subdivision surface smoothing only some edges

Actually your topology should not allow to have sharp tips, it's just because some of your faces are flipped that you get them sharp, if you recalculate the normals you'll have the same result:

To fix this, bring some edge loops with the knife (K to activate, Z to cut through):


Seems like you've chosen some keying set in the timeline header.

You can clear this by pressing the X next to the name if the selected keying set.


A strange bias for Vertex Weight Edit Modifier

I am not quite sure(I would have to go under several more trials) but I think I solved it.

It can be achived by Switching the Fall off type to Custom Curve and let the Curve always be 1.
As for Default weight, set it to 0.

EDIT:

I managed to get this right so I would like to share the techniques to edit your VERTEX WEIGHT with TEXTURES.

First, I would explain how to do this and later explain how this technique can be helpful. We will be using the Vertex Weight Edit modifier.

Note that I am not sure whether this is what the developers expected to happen. In other words, this might be a manuever of a bug and may be changed in the future version of blender. As, you might have noticed, this modifier is one of the most ignored modifiers. But as for certain, this worked fine on my Blender 2.79 (Hash: 5bd8ac9).

Let's start with a very simple plane.

Divide it up to any number, say 10*10. The number of division is directly connected to the resolution.

Next, make a new vertex group. Please make sure the weight is set to 0. I named this group, texture_weight.

The next step is unwrap it to make a UV map and a texture. I named the UV map : weight_uv, the texture : weight_tex.

As you can see in the picture below, I painted a white circle with 1.0 strength.

Then, add the Vertex Weight Edit modifier.
This modifier is placed at the first column, 3rd from the bottom.

Before explaining the settings in detail, take an overview of them in the image below.

So, let's examine the settings in detail.

1. Vertex Group

I think it's rather obvious what we need to do here. Set the vertex group (named texture_weight).

2. Fall off type

I don't understand why, but it seems that all vertecies in the texture_weight will be effected by the curves y-value when x = 0.

Let me be more precise.

When the variables are as follows;

Col : the intensity of the color (assigned to a vertex by the texture),
OrW : the original weight of the vertex group (you can set them when assigning)
Glo : the Global influence, which you can change at the panel,
Y_0 : the y-value of the curve when x = 0,

the final outcome weight is (OrW + (1-OrW)*Col) * Glo * Y_0.

This formula may seem complicated but the meaning is rather simple. (See the drawing below)

3. Applying UV and Texture

Make sure 4 of the settings are appropriate.

Texture Mask : Set the texture you want to apply. (weight_tex)
Texturte Coordiantes : Set it to UV.
Use Channel : Set it to whatever you want. This will influence whether the Col (in the formula) mean "intensity" or something else. I will stick to the Intensity.
UV Map : Set the UV you want to apply. (weight_uv)

And if you (or me) haven't skipped anything, that will give you this wonderful screenshot.

Usage of this technique

I am rather confident that most of you have wondered why;

this is useful and
these screenshots show some spaces above the plane.

Well, take a look at these:
https://imgur.com/a/9BTMP (I cannot insert the images because I will reach the limit)

As you can see, I actually reshaped my plane so that it can be easily be modified with the texture. I used a combination of Mask modifier and Solidify modifier. (setting the vertex group of the Solidify enables you to manipulate the height)

So, what? Is this technique something different from using Displacement Modifiers?

The answer is absolutely yes.

First, this makes an Solid object while, Displacement Modifiers can only make distorted planes.

Second, thanks to the Mask modifier this erases unwanted vertecies, while Displacement leaves them untouched.

I'll leave a sample file. Hope this will help you in some ways.


What is the blend option in the layer weight node?

It blends the output between all 0 and all 1. This can be most easily observed by plugging the output into an emission shader:

When used as the mix factor for a mix shader node, it will blend between all of one material or all of the other.


What happened to my camera and how to set it back to default?

The sensor size is the zoom and focal length is what it sounds like. you can use Shift + F to move it in first person.

The problem is that the default isn't same for everyone or every scene so it is hard to say what it is in your case.


Creating this halftone effect using Arrays

Here is a different approach that can be easily animated directly in the viewport using objects.

Create a new circle mesh with a filled face. In Edit Mode assign all vertex to a new vertex group with a weight of $1$.

Add a bunch of Array Modifiers to create a dot grid with the desired spacing and density.

Now add add Vertex Weigh Proximity Modifier and make it control the vertex group created above. Adjust the values as necessary for your scene scale.

Now add a Corrective Smooth modifier to your arrayed circle, activate the Only Smooth option and increase the Iterations value as desired (in my case to about 200).

Pick the previous vertex group to affect its weight.

Now use any dummy object to control the smoothing effect with any desired shape. In this case I created a circular mesh, but can be any mesh shape, then assign this object to control the Vertex Weigh Proximity Modifier created above. Moving it about, scaling it or changing it's shape will affect the halftone effect.


User preferences for 2.8 are now under the Edit > Preferences menu, to the right of File menu.

Saving and loading of settings has been moved into the Preferences window and is now done from a dedicated popup dialog, at the bottom left of the panel.

Autosave is on by default, meaning that any changes should be saved automatically on (gracious) exit. If Auto Save is disabled, a save button is made visible and settings are only saved at user discretion (good for testing with keymaps and other hard to reverse or critical settings).


How do I fix the UVs on this propane tank?

That is actually an issue with the normals of you mesh, which is the direction the faces are pointing/facing. You can recalculate the normals by selecting all of the mesh in edit mode and pressing Ctrl+N. This could be resulting from double vertices, so you could try removing doubles with W, again in edit mode with all selected. This may affect the exported file (assuming you are exporting it) in an undesirable way, so just be careful and have a backup.


You just copy/place the Blender folder in your Applications folder. To start Blender open the folder inside Applications, double-click on Blender icon and that's it. You can also drag the Blender icon and put it in your Dock for easy access.