3D model is partially black in texture mode

It's not a problem. You are using Blender Render instead of Blender Cycles. If you want to continue to use Blender Render, you just need to add a new light source to iluminate that side. It is just a hard shadow! You can add a sun, and rotate it to be horizontal ilumination, as an example.


Can we keyframe hair particle brownian motion?

Yes that is a bug. When the type is set to hair most keyed settings are snapping back to the keyed value which prevents new keyframes being added or adjusted from the properties panels. This is not hair only settings, physics, field weights and force field weights are also affected, while render settings do work properly.

For a workaround you can add keyframes and adjust settings in the graph editor once a value has a keyframe.


Can I paint and sculpt with the same stroke?

The short answer (unfortunately) is "no."

The slightly longer answer is that you might be able to do it with normal maps and textures, but not with a brush-like interface. Dynamic Paint is baked, not live, so you could theoretically make a brush, but you'd have to animate it rather than use it interactively.

Normal maps and displacement maps might create the effect you want, but also not really interactively.

Sculpting is the interaction you want, but there's nothing yet that lets you sculpt and paint at the same time.

Incidentally, you should check out the non-Blender tool Verve Painter by Timur Baysal. It uses a GPU fluid sim to make digital painting a bit more realistic, and a lot more awesome. And it does some impasto stuff like you're thinking of.


Try using  Generated or UV coordinates instead (obviously you need to unwrap it to  use UV coordinates).

Cycles procedural textures are 3D, so object coordinates will center the texture around the origin of the object using the material.

This works fine when moving the object and it's origin as a whole, however in cases like yours it will appear to "slide".


Is it possible to exclude a bone from automatic keyframing?

Since automatic keyframing inserts keyframes for all the objects/bones in your 3d view, the easiest way is to take the bones you don't want keyframed and remove them from the 3d view. You can do that by hiding them, or add them to a bone layer that you hide when not animating that switch.


Where is the "go!" button on the render tab in 2.8?

First (1) Setup your size and output
Second (2) check your layers ready to be rendered.

Then go to the Render menu and select Render (F12). This is the default "GO" button on Blender 2.8. I know you´re asking for the big buttons on 2.79, they´re gone.

A lot of users on the Blender community are asking for those buttons to be back, you're not the only one. This was a recent change.


As you said you can simply unwrap:

Create your stripes with a transparent background and save it as PNG.
Make an unwrap of the part of the mesh that will display the stripes and give this UVmap the name you want.
Duplicate your basic car material and assign this copy to this part of the mesh.
In this material, mix your basic node(s) with the one(s) you specifically want to give to the stripes.
Add an Image Texture node, load the PNG, and use the Alpha output as the factor of a Mix Shader.
In the Image Texture node, use Clip instead of Repeat so that the stripes won't repeat.
Plug an Input > UV Map node in the Vector of the Image Texture node and load the UVmap you've created in this UV Map node.
Now adjust the UV in the UV/Image Editor until the stripes is correctly displayed.


Vertices being moved by armature despite only moving bone having no weight

Sure enough it was something basic. Rigify used bendy bones for the neck, so I guess with such a sharp angle between the head and first neck bone, that neck bendy bone got bent too much, causing this mess.


Why does my material only render correctly on certain faces?

You’re using UV coordinates to sample your Voronoi texture. This is fine, but the default UV map will not automatically compensate for stretching/scaling of the model. To illustrate, I took a cube and shrunk it along one axis:

Note how in the UV map, all six faces are still squares of equal area, even though they aren’t on the model.
Fortunately, all you need to do to fix this is to re-unwrap the mesh. If you don’t care about continuity between the faces at all, you can do the simplest thing of marking all edges as seams by selecting the whole mesh with A, then CtrlE ▸ Mark Seam. Then you can do U ▸ Unwrap, which will automatically compensate for face size:

As you can see, this fixes the texture stretching.


Can't select Edge loop (Alt + RMB is failing )

While in Edit Mode, you have the ability to limit the kinds of selections that your cursor can make.

When I took this screenshot it was set to Vertex selection mode here, the two others are Edge selection and Face selection.

When in Vertex selection mode you can't pick edges or faces directly.
When in Edge selection mode you can't pick vertices or faces directly.
When in Face selection mode you can't pick edges or vertices directly, as a consequence this prevents edge loops from being selected

You can have multiple modes active at the same time, which can be handy, by holding down shift and click on the icon.


Yes.

Turn up the number of AA samples in Properties > Render settings:

Note that this may affect performance. Also note that this setting only seems to take effect in the standalone player. Otherwise the multisample setting in the user preferences is used.


the bake button is not where it should be

Go to Edit > Operator Search > Bake and done


Understand color of Diffuse Direct/Indirect pass in Cycles render

I'll try to explain. Here is an example.
We have an orange ball on the gray plane, lit from the side.

What contains the Diffuse Direct pass? A reflection of light coming from the lamp on the side. As you can see, the layer does not contain information about that the ball is orange.

To get the orange color you need to multiply Diffuse Direct and Diffuse Color.

What contains the Diffuse Indirect pass? light reflected from the ball becomes orange and this light illuminates the plane. And the plane reflects light almost unchanged, so the ball looks white:

Finally, connect all layers together

You can see, gray plane have orange reflect from sphere. This reflection goes from indirect pass.

So if Diffuse Direct and Diffuse Indirect are just gray-scale images, where were no color reflexes in scene


Symmetrize option doesn't mirror bones on the axis

Take a look at the following image.
The Arrows are pointing at the Object's Origin, if you move your objects (armatures too) in object mode, the Origin is going to be moved with the object. This origin is the way for Blender to "say" Here is the "Left" and here is the "Right". So, you need to keep that origin in the center, also known as World Origin. If you wanna move an object, like your bones, switch to "Edit Mode, select all the bones, and then move all bones to one side or the other.

Hope that helps.


How to make local objects link mantain their hierachy in Blender 2.8 python? (SOLVED)

I somehow accidentally using Operator Search (F3) and type in Make Local to selected objects, and the hierarchy perfectly maintain, though using operator is not really ideal, but it works at the moment.
EDIT : Please make sure you turn off Empty and Curve object display, it need to local mesh first to mantain hierarchy

so I change the script to :

# make them local
for obj in scene.objects:
    if obj.name.startswith("C_"):
        bpy.ops.object.select_pattern(pattern='C_*')
        bpy.ops.object.make_local(type='SELECT_OBJECT')

So I hope this can be helpful

Thanks


BGE: Overlapping alignAxisToVect v/s applyRotation

At the end it looks like the method aignAxisToVect overwrites the
  changes made by the method applyRotation

That should be correct, alignAxisToVect should be instantaneous and complete and can overwrite whatever rotation you have applied with the mouse. So you probably just want to change the order of execution.


I am not using mac, but I think I can help you.
First go to Edit->Preferences->Keymap.
And then select Key-Binding:

Now you can search for the shortcut that you want (in this case you will search for ".") and change it to whatever you want.
I hope it works for you.


Blender Render toon freestyle liquid flowing in pipe loop

Using a curve to animate something along a curved shape is most likely the easiest option.

Create a (bezier) curve. ⇧ ShiftA. Shape it.
Useful operations include, Grab G, Rotate R, Scale S, Subdivide W > S, Delete X and changing the vector mode V.

Note, that the bezier curve's object center is at the origin for convenience.
Create a segment of the pipe object. I created if from a cylinder ⇧ ShiftA. It is exactly 2 units wide. Since the object is going to follow the path later, I added some subdivision along its width with the loopcut tool ⎈ CtrlR.

Create two keyframes I. The first at frame 0 in my case and the second at frame 10. The translation between the two keyframes should be exactly the width of the object.
Select the keyframes assign the vector interpolation V > Vector. Then make the motion repeat, by pressing ⇧ ShiftE > Make Cyclic in the graph editor.

Make sure the curves resolution is sufficient. Add an array modifier to the object followed by a curve modifier with the curve selected.

As you can see, the motion along the curved gets repeated the amount of a segment, creating the illusion of a continuously moving shape.

If the extra amount of pipe is problematic, it could be remove with a boolean modifier. Howevery, the curve could also just shape in a direction which hides the pipe from the camera's view.


In the UV Editing mode, how do i rotate the camera on the left side of the split screen?

I believe it is no-can-do. I dont believe u can do it in blender given that the uv editing window works like image view window.
i Guess what u wanna achieve is that ur uv looks like the top view ? And based on the uv, You probably unwrapped it from the view. If so, on the right 3D Viewport, change ur view to top and unwrap it from the view again should suit ur need. BUt I Suggest u do "smart uv project"
Go watch a proper UV unwarp tutorial will make ur life easier


Blender Mesh is deforming when imported into Unity3D

Your model has subsurface modifier applied after the animation deformation which didn't get applied when you exported your model.

So you should apply your subsurface modifier before you export your model.

But,Your subsurface modifier should be at the top of the modifier stack in order to work correctly in Unity as you see it in blender.

So move your subsurface modifier at the top after the skin modifier and apply it.


This depends on how you want to transform your linear value (accelerator value) to coordinates in the BGE.

A very easy way is to define an animation and play it with with the action actuator in property mode. Fill the actuator's property with the acceleration value.

This way you get a direct transformation from acceleration to animation frame to animation pose.

How you get the accelerator value into the property "frame" is up to you.


You can try the Vertex Weight Edit modifier. For example, I can input the following texture as a Texture Mask to the modifier:

... that will then use its value, to control how the modifier assigns weight to each vertex. Tweak at least the Default Weight, threshold settings and fallof type to get the result you need:

Though not instantly updated if we edit the image, the result shows up immediately, and is usable by modifiers further down the stack:

Default Weight and Add Threshold should be of that weight which you'd like to have as the end result, Add Threshold should be slightly less.


How to get rotational difference to work correctly?

Bones look green when they have bone constraints.

The video showing the problem with the driver no longer exists.
The book shows what the driver function should look like in Figure 5.59. Does the driver configuration look the same?


Maybe try something like 2000m x 2000m x 500m (x, y, z) landscape dimensions but keep the sizes to 1 if you haven't already and see if that helps.


Sculpt brush not orienting to mesh surface correctly

@Blunder fixed the issue for me, I needed to apply the scale of the objects.


How to list all collections and their objects?

You can access all collections through bpy.data.collections. The objects within the collection (and child collections) are given by bpy.data.collections.all_objects. This is documented in the BlendData types and the documentation of the collection type.
A little example script for printing the content of the collections:
import bpy

for collection in bpy.data.collections:
   print(collection.name)
   for obj in collection.all_objects:
      print("obj: ", obj.name)


Cannot continue my model because of unexplained angles in the X Y and Z orientations

Try to change the transform orientation type to Global (in your case it is set to Normal).

You may also add a custom transformation for precise axes set up. Press Ctrl+Alt+Space and name it in the Transform Orientations panel of the Properties Shelf (N). In my case I filled the edge loop with a face (F) to set up the axes along its normal. Then added a custom transformation, deleted the face (X-->Faces) and extruded the edge loop along local Z axis (pressed E, then Z twice).

If the entire thumb moves while transforming it means, that you've enabled the proportional editing. Disable it.


How to copy Posable Models With textures

You can save the .blend file, then in the new instance of Blender go to File -> Append and select the object.


All those textures are prepared for the glTF format, but with some caveats:

The Mix texture contains Ambient Occlusion, Metalness and Roughness
The Normal map has inverted B channel (it was probably baked with flipped normals)
The "OP" texture is empty, so there's no need to use it at all

Since these models are made by fans in their free time, some issues are to be expected :).


Topology question regarding circular holes

For a game engine, use triangles. Most game engines do not support ngons anyway, and the ones that do are just converting the ngon to triangles.

In general modeling, you should try to avoid triangles and ngons (there are some cases where they are ok), however when modeling for a game, low poly takes precedent over nice topology, so triangles are normal.

In your case, even if it was not a game model, I would not want a ngon in the middle of the model. Ngons have a nasty way of deforming a model, and any ngon that is not perfectly flat will cause shading artifacts.

What is the technical difference between an Ngon and a bunch of Tri's?
When should N-Gons be used, and when shouldn't they?


Boolean modifier - Difference, doesn't cut both sides of a cylinder

After having several failed attempts at rectifying your model (Which had many internal faces, inverted normals etc.) I tried to replicate it myself. These are the steps I took:

To your first and larger cylinder, apply two boolean modifiers set to diference. Connect one to your smaller cutting cylinder.

Go to the smaller cylinders Object tab in the properties window and scroll to display. Change the dropdown menu called Maximum Draw Type to wire. This should show only the edges of your cutting mesh. Do the dame for your two cross cutting planes.

Now select both the cutting planes and hit control J to make it one object. Now apply the other bolean to the single cutting object.

Fixed!

Cool! So what does this mean?

When we are using modifiers such as boolean, try not to apply the modifiers until you see your results as you wish. Yes, you may say too many modifiers slows your system, but that is why we try and group items where possible, plus it keeps out scene neater.

Remember, plan what you want to do before you do it.

And if you hit trouble as you have in your situation, it is better to start again. Many times I have seen people hit problems that even I cannot find a solution for. When I try and remake the model, or they to do so, 90% of the time it works the second time. It may be frustrating when you redo your work 5 times over, but it has almost always saved me time in the long run. Plus you learn from your mistakes!

A mistake does not a failure, it's just another step towards success.

Sorry for the pep talk but there you go.

Good luck with your project and I hope I helped,

BFB


can't use different materials in one object (blender 2.82a)

Im using 2.82.7, windows 10 and have had no such issues.
I opened up file, didnt change a thing, except switched workspaces and put the two 3d views in rendered and lookdev modes, seems to work fine for me.

Possibly you just need to tab out of edit to make it update a change properly.


Is it possible to change the colour of vertex indicators in Blender?

Go to File -> User Preferences then in the Themes tab select "3D View" on the left side and change the color of "Vertex".


Mesh does the mesh deform when I move a bone

This problem occurs due to your last bottom child bone. You can solve this in weight painting mode. You just select top bone of leg and you see no color with white / blue/ yellow / red to your right leg mesh. just try to select bottom bone of left leg and see right leg shoe has some white color. So remove that white color in weight painting mode. solve problem.

** Edited **

First change your blend from subtract to mix i left brush panel show in first image.

then in second image you can see different color circle. In this you can see painted and not painted mesh by selecting bone with same color. Now You can easily paint your mesh and remove painted mesh with just increase and decrease weight from 0 to 1 in left brush panel.


It's a bit hard to find good links about this unfortunately, partially as it happened so long ago and there doesn't seem to have been a lot of documentation about it :/. The best guide I could find was this blog post about porting BGE scripts.

Suffice it to say that the python API underwent a major change as part of the 2.4x to 2.5x transition, and the blender module no longer exists (the modern equivalent is bpy).

Here is the latest blender python api documentation.


Blender BGE, Logic or python problem. Always place two elements?

The script is triggered twice. On positive and negative pulse of the sensor.
Check if the sensor triggering the script is positive:
How to ask Python if a sensor is activated, BGE?


If you do not wish for the wood to be transparent, I suggest removing the Transparent BSDF, and perhaps changing the blend mode to Opaque;


Compositing: How the resize the scene to fit the matte?

You can use a Plane Track Deform: in doing so, you'll be able to apply the scene both on a rectangle or a deformed plane.

Open the "matte image" in the Movie Clip Editor on "Tracling" mode
Add 4 markers near the corners

Select all the markers and add a Plane Track

Drag the corners to fit the "hole" you want to fill with your scene
Open the Node Editor and the Plane Track Deform (add > distort > plane track deform)


The Perspective view is weird. I am in solid mode and I still only have outlines of the objects

The reason why your viewport goes haywire is because of the viewport's Clip Start/End values which you set to crazy amounts.
To give you an idea, your largest object is 2 000 meters (2 kilometers) wide, yet your viewport is set to render stuff up to 100 000 meters (100 kilometers) away.
And you also stuff close up to 1 nanometer from your viewpoint, that's 0,001 millimeters!
A sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick, a strand of human DNA  is 2.5 nanometers in diameter. You really don't need those clipping values.
In most cases you shouldn't set the Clip Start below 0.001 (1 millimeter). Even that value is rarely needed, and it's only when you need to be really close to something, like when you modelize something of a few millimeters. On a large scene like that, you probably do not even need to set it under its default value: 0.1 m (10 centimeters)
As for the End Clip, it is way too large and will lead to rendering & performances issues. Unless you need to set your camera on one end of your map and be able to see everything up to the opposite end, you don't need more than 1000 m (1 kilometer).
Just a before/after comparison:
crazy clipping values

normal clipping values


Blender 2.81 - Sculpt level disappeared from Multires modifier

The removal is intentional and temporary to avoid the occurrence of a bug that corrupts mesh data when the multi-resolution modifier is used while sculpting. Once T58473 has been fixed it will likely be available again or an alternative approach will be provided.


Yes, the compositor should be used. The most straightforward approach would probably be to animate a mask which you use to selectively blur (or remove) parts of the video.


You can create a Custom Orientation from the edge you want to square to. That's the little '+' in the header's Orientations dropdown. If you have to do this a lot, I would recommend creating a shortcut for it, and/or adding it to your Quick Favourites menu.
(You can also set Custom Orientations to be used after creation, and to overwrite previous creations, to avoid clutter, in the F9 'Adjust Last Operation' panel.)
'Y' then becomes the direction along the edge. If you set the Pivot point to 'Active Element', it's quite quick to select the vertex to be moved, then the vertex to square to, and SY0. (Scale the vertices to 0, along Y, to the active vertex.)

However, the result is only one of the possible edges in the plane at right-angles to the target edge.
You can use the same strategy to flatten vertices onto a plane of your choice. Select any 3 vertices to define the plane's direction, and again, create a Custom Orientation from them. Select any set of vertices, with  a vertex lying in the the plane you want to flatten to active, and this time, SZ0.


How to make Blender use text file as an input of bones animation?

Hardest part is formatting the data (IMHO). I'd probably read the values and create a dictionary of location lists per object, which allows to structure and access the values in a reasonable way:

dict = {
    object-1 : [
       [row1-X, row1-Y, row1-Z], # Frame 1
       [row2-X, row2-Y, row2-Z], # Frame 2
       [row3-X, row3-Y, row3-Z], # Frame 3
       ...
    ],
    object-2 : [
       [row1-X, row1-Y, row1-Z], # Frame 1
       [row2-X, row2-Y, row2-Z], # Frame 2
       [row3-X, row3-Y, row3-Z], # Frame 3
       ...
    ],
    ...
}

Reads the data and creates the dictionary

import bpy

file_data = [] # create an empty list
animation_data = {} # create an empty dictionary

# read the file
with open(<PATH-TO-FILE>) as f:
    content = f.readlines()
    for line in content:
        # store the line as list in file_data
        file_data.append(line.split())

# create location keyframe dictonary
for line in file_data:
    try: # try converting strings to floats
        floats = [float(i) for i in line]
        # create composite list of this line
        composite = [floats[x:x+3] for x in range(0, len(floats),3)]
        # store it in the dict to organize the values
        for c, item in enumerate(composite):
            #key = "object" +  str(c)
            animation_data.setdefault(c, []).append(item)
    except ValueError:
        print ("Incorrect data")

Adds one cube per dict item to the scene as well as the keys, starting at frame 1

if animation_data:
    for i in animation_data:
        bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add()
        # get the newly created cube
        obj = bpy.context.object
        # get keyframe location values
        obj_keyframes = animation_data.get(i)
        # start animation at frame 1
        for c, loc in enumerate(obj_keyframes, 1):
            bpy.context.scene.frame_set(c) # set frame
            # move the cube and insert a keyframe
            obj.location = (loc[0], loc[1], loc[2])
            obj.keyframe_insert(data_path="location", index=-1)

It's basically the same for loose bones of an armature

if animation_data:
    # get the selected object
    selected_obj = bpy.context.object
    if selected_obj.type == "ARMATURE":
        # continue if number of bones match the data
        if len(selected_obj.data.bones) == len(animation_data):
            for i in animation_data:
                # get the values from the dict
                obj_keyframes = animation_data.get(i)
                for c, loc in enumerate(obj_keyframes, 1):
                    bpy.context.scene.frame_set(c) # set the frame
                    # move the bone and insert a keyframe
                    selected_obj.pose.bones[i].location = (loc[0], loc[1], loc[2])
                    selected_obj.pose.bones[i].keyframe_insert(data_path="location", index=-1)
        else:
            print ("Data does not match number of bones")


What are good practices to keep in mind when lighting for scene-referred data?

As far I understand it, you can check your scene exposure and range by switching to one of the False Color looks in Color Management.

Here's what the colors mean:

Low Clipping Black Scene Linear value 0.000176272 and below
Nine Stops Down = Purple Scene Linear value 0.000351384 to 0.000702411.
Eight Stops Down = Blue Scene Linear value 0.000702411 to 0.002814643.
Six Stops Down = Cyan Scene Linear value 0.002814643 to 0.044567918.
Two Stops Down = Green Scene Linear value 0.044567918 to 0.018009142.
Middle Grey = Gray Scene Linear value 0.018009142.
Two Stops Over = Green Scene Linear value 0.719634476 to 2.883658483.
Four Stops Over = Yellow Scene Linear value 2.883658483 to 11.39491214.
Six Stops Over = Red Scene Linear value 11.39491214 to 16.29174024.
High Clipping = White Scene Linear value 16.29174024 and above.

I've been recomended to make sure you don't see red or white which means you're probably overexposed in those areas. Likewise with avoiding the lowest regions of Black and Purple which indicates severe underexposure. If you can get a well exposed image rendered out, you can make a wide range of lighting adjustments in the compositor with the Color Balance node in CDL mode.

Troy S may need to correct this, but this is my current understanding of creating balance lighting in your scene.


Use the Erode Node

A simple Dilate/Erode node in Threshold mode with "Distance" set to the same value as "Edge" does exactly the right thing.

With the math node "Power" afterwards the result matches the image from the tutorial perfectly.

Additional explanation

Linearity of the gradient

The Threshold mode of the Dilate/Erode node has a linear falloff. Here is a proof:
In the viewer-result you see the texture above and the output of the erode node below.

Congruence of the results

Here is a proof that the result of photoshop's inner glow effect is the same as the result of my proposed node graph above. The differences still visible are caused by different image formats and scaling blurriness.


How to get translucency in parts of skin material?

To achieve the effect you are going for, there are 2 ways to do this, depending on what rendering engine you are using.  I will show you both ways to do it.
Using cycles:
to get translucency in certain parts of your mesh,  all you simply need to do, is turn up your subsurface value in the shader editor.  (see picture below)

after this, the light will shine through only in parts the mesh that are thin enough.  to adjust how much light you want shining through based on how thick/thin your mesh is, you can edit the "subsurface radius" values directly underneath the "subsurface" value on the "principled BSDF" node. (see image below)

After that, it's pretty much done.  You can adjust the other settings to your liking.
Using Eevee:
When using EV to achieve this result.  you do pretty much all the same things that you would do as if you were using cycles (read the above text first if you haven't already) except for one thing.  Make sure you have the desired object selected, then go to the materials tab, and enable: "subsurface translucency".  (see image below)

Once this is done, it should work.  adjust other settings as needed.
And there you have it.  I hope this helped!  :)


i finally could bake this i just had to bake it with a diffuse shader which means i had to put my node setup in the color input of the diffuse node and then add other separate image with a new image created and just keep it selected and without plugging it in another node and then go to the bake settings, select diffuse, and uncheck direct and indirect button and then bake and wait until the bake was done.


blender vse video height not divisible by 2 or pillowboxing

EDIT: The most direct answer to the question is the discrepancy between the capture dimensions and the export dimensions. The video is being captured in 2594*1458, which is a 16:9 ratio, whereas blender is exporting at 2952*1458, which is not a 16:9 ratio. It is likely to be a simple typo. This ratio difference is causing the letterboxing on the exported video.

sambler: Requiring dimensions to be divisible by two is a limitation of the H.264 encoder in Blender.

Original post

Render Dimensions:

The first problem here is blender downsizes the video to a non-divisible-by-two height. A simple way around this is to bump your scaling percentage up or down one or two percent. A better way would be to manually input dimensions instead of using the percentage slider. Blender can do math in text input fields, so you can simply put 2952/2 into the X dimension and 1458/2 in Y. If the result is an odd number, just bump it up one pixel. Amaranth Toolset (included in blender) has a nifty tool to show the final resolution of the render. Enable it in your user prefs and a new line of dimensions will show up in the render properties:

Letterboxing:

The second problem is letterboxing, the black bars on the top and bottom of the video. This is actually Youtube's fault because your video isn't a perfect 16:9 aspect ratio. To see your aspect ratio, simply divide your width by your height, in this case 2952/1458 = 2.024... Compare this width/height ratio with that of HD video: 1920/1080 = 1.777... You can see now the ratios are different. This difference ends up as letterboxing on Youtube. Pillarboxing occurs when your video is more square than the 16:9 player.

There are three ways you can deal with this difference: upload the video in its original aspect ratio and accept the letterboxing Youtube gives you; crop the sides off the footage to get a perfect 1.777... ratio on your output; distort the footage to fit within the desired ratio.

Personally, I would take the letterboxing because it means the entire area of my footage is visible without distortion, especially because the whole desktop is important.

Distortion:

If you absolutely do not want letterboxing, but still want all of the footage, you will need to distort the footage to fit in the 1.777 ratio. To do this, simply change your render output dimensions to a 16:9 ratio (2592/1458, 1920/1080, 1280/720, etc.). Blender distorts VSE strips to fit the render dimensions.

Cropping:

To make your video 16:9 ratio, your dimensions would need to be 2592 wide by 1458 tall (or some percentage of). A normal application would allow you to crop the video, but blender does not. You will need to use a transform layer on your VSE footage to compensate the aspect ratio difference between your footage and the new render dimensions.

Start out with your footage in the VSE. Change your render dimensions to 2592 wide by 1458 tall. Your footage will look distorted; this is expected. Select your strip in the VSE and add a transform layer effect. Open the properties region for the strips by pressing N. The Effect Strip panel contains scale controls for X and Y dimensions. The one you need to worry about is X. Input this value into X: 1.139 - this corrects the ratio difference. I came to this number by dividing your original ratio (2.024...) by the desired ratio (1.777...). If you have multiple strips, you will need to do this for each one because the effect strip is linked to only a single input strip.

Final Thoughts:

Letterboxing may be ugly, but it is a necessary evil if you don't want to lose information. Cropping may be more acceptable for camera footage. I can't think of a time when distortion is acceptable.


How can you move the origin at the base of object?

Just answering based on Moonboots's comment, because I promised the OP a gif :)

Select the base vertices
I Edit mode go Mesh > Snap > Cursor to selected
In Object mode go Object > Set Origin > to 3D cursor


Why is blender crashing when trying to render?

Similar questions are asked regularly in this site, and the answer is mostly the same: the scene's complexity is larger than the resources available on your computer.

Some of the reasons your scene demands so much RAM:

You are using a lot of very large image textures (2x and 3k). Even though you are using jpg compressed images that might not seem like large files, blender needs to access the image as a whole decompressed image. The larger the image, the more RAM used.

Read: Why does Blender use so much memory for large textures?
Some of the subsurf modifiers have a subdivision level of 5 for rendering. For every level of subdivision you are increasing the number of vertices exponentially, so it  is easy to run into a situation where you have a very large number of vertices.

Try to keep the subsurf levels as low as you can by using better topology and using fine detail only in those areas that need a lot of detail.

For more info read:
Blender render crash when using subsurf modifiers.
You have 3 different render layers that you want to render simultaneously. Blender has to cache the information of every layer separately and keep it available for compositing.

A workaround is to render each of the layers separately, save it as an EXR file and combine them later in the compositor or other compositing app.

Read also: How to Render a Complex Scene without it Crashing

As is, your scene needs at least 1gb of ram to render:

2 or 3GB is very little RAM. Most of that is used by the operating system itself, leaving you very little to work with. Microsoft's requirements to run WIndows 10 are: 1 gigabyte (GB) (for the 32-bit version) or 2 GB ( for the 64-bit version)

To deal with scenes that are larger than your available computing power consider using a render farm or try to get access to more powerful computers.

A (slow) alternative is to try to change the settings of your operating system to use more virtual memory. But that you will have to research yourself as it is out of the scope of this site.


How can I create a realistic floor water fountain

Your water is hitting the domain cube. Gravity is 32 feet per second square which is less then 10 meters per second. I don't even think fire hoses have a velocity of 100 meters per second. You are putting out way too much water, and it is hitting the top of the domain and flowing down the sides. You want it to shoot up and fall back on gravity without hitting anything.Try 10m/sec Z velocity on your inflow.


Adding more subdivisions in X and Y resolves the issue.

It doesn't matter if the Outside property is checked or not.


Three possibilities (at least) :

Modifying the scale in the texture panel

Setting the texture (of color2) X scale to -1 will flip the image horizontally.

Adding a vector mapping node

The same principle, but set up in the material nodes :

Adding a second UV map

Create a second UV map in the properties panel using the '+' button (1) and eventually rename it
Unwrap in that new UV map and scale it -1 along X using S+X+-1 (in 2)
Add UV map nodes in the material (3)


Motion track image does't appear in render

The images used in the workspace are for reference only.
Go to compositing workspace, check Use Nodes and thenShift + A > Image Sequence.
Then Shift + A > Viewer and connect image sequence to the viewer and Composior node. If the image size doesn't fit, you can try to use Scale node, I am not that sure if that's the right name
The basic node setup for tracking is described here:
Transparent rendered object over tracked background


I found this addon and updated to 2.8. I think this is what you're wanting.

Addon located here


Bevel Modifier is Not Showing in Object Mode

The reason this was not working was because my boolean was above the bevel in my modifier stack. As soon as I moved it down, it worked.


Unregistered "static draw" handler for sequencer

Define a "drawing class".

Similarly to method used in this answer  When registered the widgets are drawn on all VSE spaces.  When unregistered the drawing handles are removed.  Simple message and location passed to class.  In script below two "widgets" are created drawing "Bob" and "Jack" at different locations on VSE.

bl_info = {
 "name": "VSE blf test",
 "author": "",
 "version": (0, 1),
 "blender": (2, 7, 9),
 "location": "Sequencer",
 "description": "",
  "wiki_url": "",
 "tracker_url": "",
 "category": "Sequencer"}

import bpy
import blf

class DrawingClass:
    def __init__(self, msg, loc):
        self.msg = msg
        self.loc = loc
        self.handle = bpy.types.SpaceSequenceEditor.draw_handler_add(
                   self.draw_text_callback,(loc,),
                   'WINDOW', 'POST_PIXEL')

    def draw_text_callback(self, loc):
        font_id = 0  # XXX, need to find out how best to get this.

        # draw some text
        x, y = self.loc
        blf.position(font_id, x, y, 0)
        blf.size(font_id, 66, 72)
        blf.draw(font_id, "%s" % (self.msg))

    def remove_handle(self):
         bpy.types.SpaceSequenceEditor.draw_handler_remove(self.handle, 'WINDOW')

widgets = {}
def register():
    widgets["Bob"] = DrawingClass("Bob", (0, 0))
    widgets["Jack"] = DrawingClass("Jack", (140, 140))

def unregister():
    for key, dc in widgets.items():
        dc.remove_handle()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Might find this handy for 2D  coordinates in VSE.

PS.  Initially forgot to change SpaceView3D type in handle_remove, and found another sure fire way to crash blender.  Suggest actually passing the space type to class as well as demonstrated in BGLWidget class


How can I make the particle systems look more like fur?

Turn on advanced, go into physics, and add just a little bit of Brownian motion will go a long way.

It's worth noting that your Children viewport setting is 1/10 what will be rendered.  Hair systems can be RAM intensive, beware.  Save often.


If you want to apply the pose as rest pose and the model is already skinned, you need to apply the Armature modifier first, then apply the pose, then add a new Armature modifier from the modifier menu.

You can also probably join both the armatures together (CTRL-J) and parent the bow on a bone level.

But if you wanna have swap-able weapons, then the common practice is to have a dedicated weapon bone and copy it's global matrix to the weapon of choice in engine.


Why is extrude just moving face instead of expanding it?

I found this answer to a related post How to extrude and leave the original in place?
Select the Face, Shift+D (duplicate), cancel (Esc), extrude (E)
then select everything and do a Merge by Distance in order to remove the duplicated verts.


You can use a curve modifier applied to your text object though it will distort the text shape along the curve slightly. Not sure if that is the effect you are going for or not


How to change a flat section of a mesh into a smooth curved one

From a similar model you already have, you can use "smooth vertex":


Here is a try:

Create your profile shape (here an extruded triangle) and a curve, give your shape an Array and a Curve modifier so that it follows the curve, then a Wireframe modifier so that it thickens the edges. Disable the Replace Original option of the Wireframe modifier so that you can still see the original faces.

Create 2 materials, one for the faces, one for the edges. The first material is a mix between a Transparent shader and an Emission shader, with a Layer Weight as factor.

The second material is a basically a mix between Emission shaders and a Transparent shader, with a Noise shaders as factors, in order to create a blend of colors and transparency.

In the material list of your object (Material panel), put the first material (faces material) above the second one (edges material). In the Wireframe modifier, choose Material Offset > 1 so that the edges will have the second material of your material list.

Here is what it gives:


You can't do much in Blender to have a better mesh imported. Hopefully your CAD program's export settings have more options for better exported mesh.

For that particular object and problem, I'd go like this:

Select a clean faceloop in order to see how many faces there are in one ring (in my case, 128):

Select the absolute center vertex of the object and place the 3D cursor there by hitting Shift+S and selecting Cursor to Selected

Select another vertical faceloop that doesn't have any of the crappy geometry. Make sure to zoom in and add faces to the selection all the way to the cursor, both from top and bottom of the object. (In my case I needed to select 2 triangles near the 3D cursor and from the bottom.)

Hit Ctrl+I to invert the selection. Delete all the faces.

Use calculator to find out what is 360 degrees divided by the number from phase 1. In my case 360/128 = 2.8125 degrees
Press . to use the 3D cursor as pivot point. Select all with A or AA. Do the following without clicking with mouse, moving is okay: Shift+D to duplicate the faces, R to rotate them, Z to use only Z-axis, type 2.8125 (or the number specific to your case), hit Enter. Press , to use the default Bounding Box Center as the pivot point again.

Press and hold Shift+R to repeat last action until you reach the whole circle.
Select all with AA, press W, select Remove Doubles, Ctrl+F and select Shade Smooth to be sure the geometry is nice and clean. In some cases you need to press T or F6 right after Remove Doubles in order to adjust the Merge Distance to make sure all the vertices are welded together.
There you have it, a clean bowl :)


How to add a freestyle stroke to a specific edge in blender?

Go to Edit mode and select the edge, Ctrl + E, choose Mark Freestyle Edge.
Then go to the Render Layers properties tab. Under Freestyle Line Set, set up the Edge Types as in this screenshot:

Don't forget to enable Freestyle under the Render properties tab.


Check this this question here creating a spherical array. It uses duplication methods in the object panel to array the other objects on a mesh, you could use faces instead of verts.

My method:-

The steps:-

  Add an icosphere
  Change the subdivision levels by pressing f6 to bring up the menu
  Go into edit mode and select all the faces.
  Press Ctrl+B to bevel and while in the bevel mode, press V to bevel only the vertices, eyeball the ratio to make the faces as equal as possible.
  Select all the faces again and press I to inset all the faces, while in the inset mode, press I again to inset individual faces.
  After inseting, delete the faces.

The blend file:-

This method is poor and inconsistent as some of the faces remain unequal and distorted. While you can use the duplication method to array the hex mesh onto a sphere, the array would still remain separated and some places would still have distortion. I'm sure the animation nodes add-on or sverchok could easily do it, but I have no idea how to do it. You can try editing your question to make it suitable for animation nodes, that way it would attract more people to answer your question specifically pertaining to the animation nodes or sverchok.


Select the left edge and press S, x, 0.
Repeat with the right edge.

This scales both edges to 0 in the horizontal direction, so they will become straight. They will be of different lenghts, so scale them up vertically to create a set of squares. (Look at this duplicate post for pictures)

One thing to mention: since in the UV editor the faces are rectangular and in the actual mesh they are trapezoids, the texture will result a bit distorted. It's not a problem if your camera is far away, but if it's close it will be quite ugly, and in that case i'm afraid the only way is to UV unwrap every single face in the belt in order to preserve their shape while being able to control their orientation (and since a conveyor belt is made of separated panels, I don't think that the seam between them would be so bad)


If you've already set the World to 'Transparent' then you shouldn't need to disable the lamps or set the world to black - just use the Alpha channel of the output as your matte - it will be 1.0 wherever it hits an object and will be 0.0 wherever it does not. In Eevee, transparent objects will produce alpha of 1.0 (as transparency is only simulated in Eevee).

For a faster render you could switch off unnecessary features (that don't affect the Alpha render) such as Screen Space Reflections, etc.


Why does 'bone roll' have a separate hotkey from 'y-axis rotation'?

If you look in the Properties/Transform panel you will see that individual bone transforms are defined differently to other objects; they have a Head location, a Tail location and a Roll angle whereas other object types have Location and Rotation property sets. The Roll Angle can be used to influence how they deform when e.g. IK Chains are animated.

The rotation hotkeys in Edit Mode will spoof the usual effect by changing the Head and Tail transforms for Bones rather than changing the Rotation properties like they do for other objects. If your bone happens to have its main axis (from the fat Head end of the diamond to the thin Tail end) aligned to one of the global axes then the more relevant Roll Angle hotkey is required.

In my Edit Mode example here I have some bones along each of the global X, Y and Z axes and one that is not aligned to any of the axes. Those on the X axis only respond the the Y and Z rotation hotkeys, those on the Y axis only respond to the X and Z hotkeys and those on the Z axis only respond to the X and Y hotkeys. The diagonal bone responds to all three rotation hotkeys. All of the bones respond to the Roll Angle hotkey.


The smooth vertex tool might provide the help that you wish for.  It is on the tool panel (type "t" to open) under the "tools" tab (view first image).

You can then edit how the amount it smooths it and how many times to repeat the process.  (view second image).
You can also decide which axis it uses to smooth the vertices.  You do this by checking/unchecking the boxes underneath the smoothing settings (green circle on second image).

This may be what you wanted, and it may not.  If this did not help, please let me know, and I will do my best to help you.  Best of luck!


To use 3D cursor as center of rotation, use the Pivot Point menu.
(You changed Transform orientation in your screenshot)


Defining materials for a whole scene (file)

Materials are conceptually associated with users. In order for a material to be persistently stored it either needs to be assigned to an object (a real user) or the Fake User option needs to be enabled for it. If neither is the case, then the unused material won't be saved. That is the reason why you're always creating materials linked to an object when using the user interface.

However this doesn't mean that a material can only be used for one object. You can assign a material to as many objects as you like, across different view layers and scenes.

Creating a material

A material can be created in the Material Properties. You will need to select or create a new material slot, then you can create a new material using the New button.

Alternatively you can create a new material based on another material by clicking on the New Material icon shown below:

Reusing existing materials

Once you've created a material, it can be assigned to other objects. Select the object in the 3D view and choose a material from the dropdown list.

Users and fake users

Materials that are currently without any user will be marked with a zero in front of its name in the dropdown list. If you don't assign this material to an object or activate the fake user option (the shield icon marked in yellow), it won't be saved in your project.

If a material has multiple users, then a button with a number will appear. You can create a separate copy of the material for the currently active object by clicking on the button (marked in red).

More information can be found in the manual.


Pie menu and limited viewport shading options (show subset of an enum)

nope, to display a subset of an enum you can use wm.context_set_enum

        f = pie.operator("wm.context_set_enum", icon='SOLID', text='Solid')
        f.data_path='space_data.viewport_shade'
        f.value = 'SOLID'

        f = pie.operator("wm.context_set_enum", icon='WIRE', text='Wires')
        f.data_path='space_data.viewport_shade'
        f.value = 'WIREFRAME'

You might use a loop to reuse some code:

        modes = [
            ["SOLID", "SOLID", "Solid"],
            ["WIRE", "WIREFRAME", "Wires"],
            ["BBOX", "BOUNDBOX", "Bounds"]
        ]

        for ICON, VALUE, TEXT in modes:
            f = pie.operator("wm.context_set_enum", icon=ICON, text=TEXT)
            f.data_path='space_data.viewport_shade'
            f.value = VALUE


Turns out the End Clipping of the camera (Max viewing distance) was the one causing the issue. I down-scaled all the objects in my scene and set the clipping distance of my camera from 1500 down to 100 and that fixed the problem.

Do not set your render distance past 200 as it will most likely give you clipping issues.


How to display Image reference above even I isolate certain object?

Works just fine for me.
Make sure you selected all objects you need isolated.


How to get the exact color as output that we are looking for?

The values and position of your lights (and world/HDRI) will affect the color of your object, and all the indirect lights as well, so you can't get the exact same color, except, of course, if you use an Emission node.
I've noticed though that if you delete all source of light, create a sun, reset its rotation, give it a Strength of 3.1 and an Angle of 0, you'll get the exact same color in render. So if you want to keep the exact same color you need to stay around these values, or if you play with one of these values you need to compensate with another.
If you test Emission or a sun with this precise setup but still don't get the exact same color, it may have to do with the Render settings (example: the Color Management settings, View Transform must be on Standard).


Cannot reenter draw mode after inserting 3D object

This will return the workflow of the Grease Pencil in Blender (2.83.5) from the Layout workspace.

I will start by returning to 2D Full Canvas from the newly created Layout workspace created in OP Step 3.

With no Grease Pencil objects in the world, the Draw Mode doesn't exist returning to 2D (Full) Canvas.
(continued steps)
5. Press Shift+A > Grease Pencil > Blank

Drag out another Viewport and switch it to Outliner.

Select the GPencil layer in Outliner then, drag in another Editor and switch to Properties.


There are three reasons why your node tree don't work as you expect it to. The following three sections explain those reasons in details.

Data Copying

First, please read the Data Copying section in the documentation to understand what we are talking about. You expect all the vertices to move one unit upward, your reasoning is that the condition is always True and this is true. However, notice that your If True input is connected to a Set List Element node that, in turn, is connected to a parameter of the loop. Since that parameter is connected to the If False input of the Switch node, enforced data copying is performed, subsequently, the Set List Element doesn't edit the list, but rather a copy of the list that is only available is the scope of each iteration. By the end of the loop, you never moved any vertices, you moved only one vertex in each iteration in its scope. Cut the connection going to the If False input and you will see the loop works as expected, that's because data is no longer being copied, that is why when deleting the condition branch, everything works as expected.

Instant Overwrite

You are outputting the vertices to the mesh at each iteration and each iteration overwrite the vertices location that was written in the previous iteration, so, the only effective data written is that of the last iteration simply because it will not be overwritten. In that last iteration, the If True input is the original vertices except for the last vertex moved upward one unit which you observed as that at the location (1,1,0), the reason for this is what which we described in the foregoing section. In conclusion, never write data inside a loop! Output the data from the loop then write it.

Infinite Offset

You are getting the vertices locations from the Cube and outputting it to the Cube, upon continuous execution of the node tree, the vertices will start to move to infinity, which, I assume, is not something you want. In conclusion, your source shouldn't be your output, either cache the vertices location or output to a new mesh.


Scaling Texture based on distance to camera

It is. The crucial point is using the cycles Camera Data node, from then on should be trivial.

Just use the View Distance output socket to transform the texture coordinates as you see fit.

In my setup I just use a Color Mix node to mix between two Texture Mapping vector coordinates with different scale factors, and the View Distance as mixing factor, but you can get inventive with the distance value and use it as you see fit.


No "Sun Position" Addon in my Blender 2.8 on MAC

Make sure you select Community Addons (FYI, I am on 2.83.8):


How to Map Procedural Bricks on a Pyramid

This is rather easy to do :).
Just unwrap your object using Cube Projection and connect your UV map.

Select all vertices of your object.
Go to UV > Cube Projection

Connect nodes like in this image.
Use the UV output - this will connect your UV map (that you just made).


How to close a true hole in model? The model is closed, but has an edge loop that creates a hole throught it

Have you tried to fill the holes with ctrl F > Grid Fills?


Why does displacement modifier produce a different (and unwanted) result when applied to a selected plane in a 3d object?

You can use the vertex group to achieve what you want. Take a look at the image.

Other option, could be to set the direction to apply the modifier, in this case to the Z axis, but it will replicate the effect on both faces (top and bottom) of the mesh.


Blender assign armature to mesh: “bone heat weighting failed to find solution for one or more bones”

The OP originally posted this in their question.

If it happened to you too and you were looking for any solution, I solved in this way:

select mesh in edit-mode;
in the bar "Mesh tools" select the voice "Remove Doubles" (that remove duplicate vertex).

Here there's a video that explain the procedure.

Another way to solve the problem would be add a modifier to the mesh:

"Decimate" modifier.


How to precisely set position in edit mode by typing in numbers?

Both in Object Mode and in Edit Mode, you can use the Transform menu of the Properties Panel on the right-hand side of the 3D View (shortcut N).

If you have only one vertex selected, it will position that vertex precisely. If you have more than one selected, it will affect the median position of all the selected vertices.

Edit Mode:

Object Mode:


How can I shift the orthographic camera view over large (>10) distances?

I eventually solved this by directly computing a basis for the orthographic plane myself, and moving the camera along the basis vectors as desired. This was relatively easy, thanks to https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.Camera.html?highlight=view_frame#bpy.types.Camera.view_frame. For a given camera object cam, I did this by identifying the pair of top-most and left-most vertices in Camera.data.view_frame(), converting these back to world coordinates with Camera.matrix_world, and taking differences to get two orthogonal vectors which correspond to the local X/Y directions in the orthographic plane, but can be manipulated in world-space:
    top_frame_verts = sorted(cam.data.view_frame(), key=lambda v: v.y)[2:]
    left_frame_verts = sorted(cam.data.view_frame(), key=lambda v: v.x)[2:]
    x_axis = cam.matrix_world @ top_frame_verts[1] - cam.matrix_world @ top_frame_verts[0]
    y_axis = cam.matrix_world @ left_frame_verts[1] - cam.matrix_world @ left_frame_verts[0]

I then moved the camera like:
    cam.location -= x_axis * MagnitudeToShiftInX
    cam.location -= y_axis * MagnitudeToShiftInY

These vectors have the further property that setting MagnitudeToShiftInX = 1.0 makes an orthographic camera moved like cam.location -= x_axis * MagnitudeToShiftInX shift a single "camera box" in the indicated direction, so that the new camera frame will just barely border the old camera frame after this translation. That is, they are normalized to the size of the orthographic camera bounding box.


How to make things easier to tell they are selected?

If you go to your user preferences and go to Theme, you will be able to customize how selected objects are show in your viewport. Two key values that can help with this are the Outline Width and the Active Object color.

Additionally, I find it easier to work against a dark background and use the Solid OpenGL lights to accentuate my objects against the background. Also it's not uncommon to find it hard to pick out objects that are close to each other at times, an easy way to tell this is to just change the viewport shading to Wireframe with Z.

The default theme has its shortcomings so my personal setup of many years is a bright diffuse lamp from the top left followed with some subtle darker colors to illuminate the other corners. I have a thick white outline to show my selected objects in both object and edit and a dark gradient background. You could also just use one of the default themes under Presets in the same theme tab.


Most modifiers do not work in the BGE, and only a few constraints work in the BGE. The only modifiers that work are the ones that are essentially applied before the game starts (edge split, solidify, subsurf, Etc) No modifiers will update during BGE runtime. As such, any modifier that usually changes the mesh data will not work. There are only a few constraints that work in the BGE, the rigid body joint is good example of one that works (and was designed for the BGE). Instead of using a Follow Path constraint, I would recommend using an armature for this. From what I understand, you want a bunch of objects to follow a curve, kind of like a hose between two moving parts.
You can do this with a solid mesh, or multiple separate objects, but the process is the same.
Start with the scene that you want to add your hose to. In this example, I will be using this lovely crane rig that I just threw together.

It looks fine and lovely, but the cylinder needs a hydraulic hose. Lets model one. I'll use a curve to get the shape how I want it.

Now I'm going to duplicate the cures, and move the extra copy to another layer in case we need to get back to the cure. Although it is unlikely we will need them, it is a good idea to make copies of objects like curves and objects with modifiers before you apply them, as doing so is usually not reversible. I'm also going to texture the hoses and add fittings for good measure.

Now I'm going to add an armature and extrude it along where the curve was, but only in the part where we want the hose bending.

I then parent the hose mesh to the armature using automatic weights. This will make Blender estimate what parts of the mesh the bones should control. In this case it worked perfectly, because the armatures are right where we want them, in the middle of the hose, and we ant the armatures controlling the vertices right around them. You may need to go into weight paint mode and modify it slightly depending on your specific circumstance, but if you are rigging a hose, this should not be necessary.
To make sure that this worked, we can go onto pose mode on the armature and test it.

We can select the last bone in the chain and apply an Inverse Kinematics Bone Constraint.

Add an empty at the end of the last bone on the chain. I'm calling this one Hose 1 End, but it could be anything. http://awesomehackforinlinetooltip.qqq/qoinbfoibg.png Parent that empty to the cylinder.
On the Inverse Kinematics constraint, set Hose 1 End as the Target. Check the rotation checkbox.

This will make the final bone in the rig align to the empty's rotation.
Tweak the empty's rotation and position until the hose fits in the fitting.

Before we can test it, we need to add some logic on both armatures. A simple always - and - run armature is all that is needed.

Put that on both armatures.
If we test it now, the first hose should be working.

Now, we can simply repeat the process on the second hose. Add an empty at the tip of the final bone on that chain. Parent that empty to the cylinder Set an Inverse Kinematics Bone Constraint on that second armature. set the empty you just added as the target for that constraint. Check the rotation checkbox, and rotate the empty until the hose is in the right place.
If we test it now, everything should be working. (for the purposes of viewing, I have added a camera parented to an empty, with orbiting controls on the empty)

It works!! Yay!!
This process would also work for an array of objects, by simply applying the array modifier, and using the same basic string of armatures. You may want to use one armature for each object in your chain, and you may also have to use weight painting to make each bone control 100% of its corresponding object, but no other parts of the mesh. Other than that, this system will work for any sort of flexible chain, string, hose, Etc.


Keep mesh strait with same scale when moving bones

This looks like issues with the weighting on the mesh, not any bone constraints, the bones are not changing scale in your images.

You can correct some of the minor bumpy issues by setting weights appropriately, this may require some experimentation to get the correct ones though. To fix this, set the armature modifier to affect the edit mode cage and go into edit mode on the mesh. Select one of the incorrect vertices and view the weights assigned to it in the 'n' panel (this will display the weights of the white, active, vertex). You can play around with these until you get it right. Whe you are satisfied, select the whole edge loop, with the vertex you modified as the active vertex, and use the copy weights on the 'n' panel to update all the weights in the edge loop. Repeat for each edge loop until it looks good. This is a slightly tedious way of doing weighting, but it guarantees accuracy.

The shrinkage at the bend though is a fairly fundamental artefact of the mathematics used to calculate how each vertex is affected by the armature (generally called Linear Blend Skinning). Checking the 'preserve volume' checkbox on the armature modifier tells it to use a different method to calculate this (called Dual Quaternion Skinning), which may give better results.

If there are still problems after trying these two options, look into corrective shape keys (dvd linked an example in the comments - 3.08m into https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ezy20MU6g) or adding additional bones to correct the deformation (this usually requires some experimentation with constraints and weighting to get right).


You have to select your armature:

Press Alt+H to make your armature visible, and select it
In the Dopesheet window, stay in Action Editor mode
In the dropdown menu, select the animation you want


I made a Cycle Animation with F-Modifier, but how can i stop it in a exact frame?

if you want to limit the whole animation use the limit modifier :

and to limit one modifier only use the Restrict Frame Range option :


Blender Separating vertices on object when restarting Blender

I believe I found the answer to this. It took a while but I think I finally found it. In Blender 2.8, you will select everything by pressing the "A" button and then you will go to the Mesh option on the nav bar on the 3D screen and hover over the merge option and then click by distance. So if anyone has this problem then this should help. If my answer seem to be confusion then here is a screenshot.


EEVEE is an engine that does rasterization (like Blender Internal or like game-engines), the key difference to ray-tracing (Cycles) is this:

rasterization is a technique where the scene's geometry is projected onto a raster of pixels:

Every pixel's color is determined with shader code based on surface normals and light positions (generally Blinn-Phong & Lambertian shading), edges are anti-aliased, occlusion is determined by using z-buffer values. To make the output look nice, additional "trickery" is needed: light maps, light probes, screen space ambient occlusion, shadow maps, blurred shadows, screen space reflections, distance-sorted transparency, ...
raytracing shoots multiple rays into the scene per pixel from camera, lets them bounce around the scene, rays obey laws of physics and if they reach light source they shade every surface they went through or bounced off with the light's color and energy:

Occlusion, soft shadows, anti-aliased edges, reflections/refraction, global-illumination, caustics, ... It all happens naturally, because light itself is being simulated (to some degree, spectral phenomenon of light is not simulated in Cycles for example, but in some other renderers it is implemented).

Eevee uses OpenGL 3.3 API to do its rendering, which is a set of functions that through drivers use GPU hardware to accelerate its computation (Blender Internal uses same way of rendering the scene as Eevee does, but does use its own code that runs on CPU and is not GPU accelerated).

This is how the rendering pipeline works (from top to bottom, non-programable steps in italics):

Vertex specification - takes input data (vertices with vertex colors, locations, UV coordinates, which vertices make polygons, etc.) and puts them into buffers on which next parts of pipeline operates (the GPU hardware can efficiently operate on these buffers in a parallel way).
Vertex processing

Vertex Shader - vertices go in, altered vertices go out. Here they are for example transformed in space (object transforms), code works on each vertex individually for efficient parallelization
Tessellation (optional) - patches of vertex data are subdivided into smaller primitives in 3 stages:

Tessellation Control Shader determines how much tessellation to do on each patch (face)
Tessellation Primitive Generator subdivides the input patch
Tessellation Evaluation Shader takes the subdivided patch and computes new vertices values (displaces them for example)

Geometry Shader (optional) - can create new vertices or delete them. Instancing is handled here, generation of multiple levels-of-detail for meshes or  outputting primitives in places of single points (particles) happens here.

Vertex post-processing - output of previous stages is collected and prepared for primitive assembly and rasterization. This includes:

Transform Feedback - output from vertex processing is stored into buffers so it is easy to re-use the transformed data multiple times.
Culling geometry outside the view frustum and by near-far clipping camera planes.
Viewport transform happens here - vertices are transformed into window-space - these are the coords that are rasterized.

Primitive assembly - meshes are divided into a sequence of triangles and sorted in such a way that it is efficient to rasterize.

Face culling is performed, faces that do not face the camera are discarded.

Rasterization - projects the geometry onto a raster of pixels and outputs a collection of fragments. Each fragment represents a segment (fragment) of a rasterized triangle (like grabbing french-fry cutter and slicing triangles into fragments with it) - the fragment size is related to the pixel area. Multiple fragments can come out each pixel (multi-sampling). Each fragment has a (x,y) window-space position, interpolated per-vertex output values (interpolated normal and UVs, vertex colors,..) and can hold other attributes.
Fragment Shader (sometimes called Pixel shader) - takes the fragments and samples colors and computes z-depth value for each of them. Takes care of how pixels between the vertices look.

takes single fragment as input and single fragment is put out (efficient parallelization)
colors are sampled from textures (albedo, roughness, transparency, normal, masks,...)
normal of each fragment is finalized (normal maps or bump maps)
fragment is shaded, see Blinn-Phong and Lambert shading models

Per-sample operations - fragments from Fragment shader are processed and written to frame buffer(s). These operations also include:

determining blending (transparency)
z-depth culling / depth test (it is performed per sample). This can be done before Fragment Shader too.
culling with Stencil buffer happens here - a stencil can be specified and fragments outside stencil are discarded (like the ones hiding behind UI elements). Also can be done before Fragment Shader.

A special stage that does not fit particularly somewhere in the pipeline are Compute shaders. They are generally not directly responsible for drawing triangles and pixels - they generate arbitrary data anywhere they are invoked in the pipeline. Current GPUs can run main pipeline and several compute workloads at the same time. Effects like screen-space ambient occlusion, soft-particles, volumetric effects, blur and depth-of-field and many others are usually implemented with Compute shaders.


Select edges you want to separate and press Ctrl+E and chose Edge Split.

Then move legs apart manually by selecting faces and moving them.

Then fill inner faces F.

If you are using Mirror modifier uncheck the Merge option, move legs apart, then check Merge on again.


Ideas for how to make a cube explode into smaller cubes in game engine

I did this in a way that is not computationally expensive for physics with the "Bake to keyframe" option.

I make my basic set up in Blender Render. The eight cubes that will compose the fractured cube are all set to rigid body "active" objects. A plane is added below them, and set to rigid body "passive".

Next, I add the object that will force the cubes apart, it can be anything, a monkey, a cube, ect... ect... Place it at the junction between the cubes and make it passive like the ground plane.

Now, play the animation through to make sure you like it. Scaling the "exploder" object has great effect on how the cubes break apart.

Select all the cubes and SpacebarSearch + "bake to keyframes". Click it, then click "Okay" on the popup window.

Now all you need to do is make each cube play the animation(s) always in game, parent them all to another no-collision object, move to another layer, and have the original cube add the parent when it dies.

If you create more than one such animation and use a Random sensor you can have great looking, variable, computationally inexpensive exploding cubes for your game.


How To Replace Data From New Data Coming From Another .blend?

It can be a python script with a name comparison.
https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.ID.html#bpy.types.ID.user_remap


You may have luck looking into the Curve modifier.  You can make a curve with flat and coiled shape keys. Then you can add a curve modifier to your text mesh and animate the transition between the two shape keys.


Maximeroz has made available filmic config.ocio files for Nuke and also an explanation on how to set it up:-

http://www.maximeroz.com/blog/#/filmic/

http://www.maximeroz.com/filmic-nuke

https://github.com/maximeroz/filmic-blender/tree/dev/extra

It is dated July and November 2017, so I don't know how current the information is.

There is also a config for Maya.


Eevee bloom effect covers my texture as camera gets further away from the object

OK a few mn to spare to take a crack at it:

The basic concept is to render the smile on a separate layer and overlay it over the bloom effect using Compositing.

In this example, I used a curve instead of a texture for the smile. A texture could still be used as long as it is rendered with some transparency around the smile.

Remove the smile texture from the star material
Check the Film/Transparent box, this allows to do compositing properly

Create your smile using a curve and beveling it. Use a black emission shader. Parent it to the start
Create a 2nd Layer just for the Smile. We'll use this collection to render only the smile in the second layer

Make sure to enable Environment on your main render Layer

Create a second render layer and disable the main collection, leaving just the Smile collection enabled.

Composite the environment and the two layers using Alpha over nodes

Now the smile should remain visible no matter how far the star is or how strong the bloom is. Note that since the composite effect is only applied at render time, the Viewport bloom will still cover the smile if the star is far away.


Blender Cycles Procedural Cut Aluminum (Cut Aluminium)

I could achieve something like this. Remeber to have UV map with 45 degree rotation, or as much as you want.

I've had better results using PBR shader (not diffuse/glossy mix) from CynicatPro but you can find him on YouTube and whole PBR tutorial here will be too much.

I couldn't do this rainbow reflection at angle but Noise Texture mixed with... Light Path, Camera Data??? could be the thing.

EDIT:

Here's the .blend file:


Blender 2.8 Beta wouldn't load old 2.79 Key Configuration

Keymaps and input settings changed significantly between 2.7# and 2.8 to the point where it is not trivial to make them compatible.

For this reason, importing old keymaps has been intentionally disabled.


This is caused by uneven topology. you need to make all of the topology on the front of the phone flat. We will use vertex snapping to fix this problem.
First, select the edge loop that borders the camera, but not the one that actually makes the indent.

Now we need to enable vertex snapping. You can enable snapping by clicking on the magnet in the 3D window bar. Alternately, Shift+Tab will also turn snapping on. Now you need to change the type to "Vertex" Do this by open the pop-up next to the magnet in the 3D window bar and selecting the cube with the two white vertices.

Now all you need to do is grab the loop along the "Y" axis (G>Y) and mouse over the next largest loop to bring them even.

an orange circle will appear to tell you where you are mosing over to snap.


How to dynamically set Current_ Frame in Driver Namespace Function Call?

Return the value from a driver, don't set it.
So many things wrong with such a little script.
In addition to comments below question:
Don't mix context and drivers, the driver returns a value to the property it is driving.  To drive the z rotation of an object with wiggle, simply type directly into field.  Using hash as first character when first entering informs blender to treat input as  a driver expression #wiggle(1, 35)
Here it is seen as purple (a driver) after being added as above

The frame is known to the driver namespace as "frame", have used that rather than passing frame via arguments or setting up a variable using scene.
import bpy
from bpy.app import driver_namespace as dns
from math import sin

def wiggle(frame_start, frame_end):
    frame = dns["frame"] # saves passing it
    if frame_start <= frame <= frame_end:
        return sin(frame) / 10
    return 0.0

dns["wiggle"] = wiggle


Components of animation flicker and disappear/reappear

The objects appearing and disappearing is a problem with the clipping distance of the camera. Select the camera and make the clipping start distance much smaller.


How to apply all transformations to an object at low level?

Mesh transform

# transform the mesh using the matrix world
ob.data.transform(ob.matrix_world)
# then reset matrix to identity

ob.matrix_world = Matrix()

Recent answer where I used Mesh.transform Problem with rotating objects by script


How to make blurred smoke enough visible with an orange background

The two things that are most likely to help are density and colour.

In your smoke shader, run the density factor through a math node. Use either multiply or power with a value that suits your taste.

Also, use a colour with better contrast against orange. Blue would be my choice since it's opposite to orange.

Okay, here's the changed portion of the node tree:

Notice the frames labelled "Smoke colour" and "'Density' multiplier". It is that transparency shader which lends the contrasting colour to the smoke against the background, effectively filtering the colour.

The density multiplier allows fine control of the smoke texture's rendering. By first multiplying the value various pixels can be moved above or below a value of 1.0. Passing this through a power (read: exponential) node then amplifies the gradient.

Updated .blend


As stated in https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/168589/86891, you have to access a specific object's property in order to change each individual object if they share the same material. Each object has a few specific properties : Render pass index, viewport color, etc.

But you don't have to use the Animation Nodes for this since the shader nodes contains a "Random" -per object info which will act exactly as what you want to achieve.

However if you really want to use AN, use this setup in your shader :

And in your AN tree :


how to find the data_path for scripted keyframes

To get the data_path of a UI element (property, icon..), rightclick it and select "Copy Data Path"

Wrapping the resulting data_path with double quotes is a legal python string representation (eg: "modifiers['Bevel'].width"), and arguably should be allowed. But the parser of properties favours 'modifiers["Bevel"].width', presumably to keep the string parsing to a  minimal implementation.

The above will be able to compute most kinds of data_path, but if it fails you can

make a keyframe for the property
go to the Outliner (set to view Datablocks)
navigate to Actions -> (Object/Scenename)+Action -> F-Curve
See Data Path. (this is what the initial

  path to the property to key, analogous to the fcurve's data path

refers to.)


You can't. The armature isn't a mesh or considered as a 'real' 3D object in Blender. It's a visual aide for positioning your mesh, nothing else. Thus why it cannot be rendered.

As said in the Blender Manual

  These shapes will never be rendered - like any bone, they are only visible in 3D Views.


How can I seamlessly switch between IK/FK?

Under the Rig Main Properties you have the IK/FK slider. Below that you have two options to snap the pose to either the IK or FK position.

p.s. I notice you are using the MetaRig to animate. Generally the MetaRig is used to generate a new rig with all the bells and whistles like IK/FK organised for you.

The 'generation' also creates the Rig Layers which makes switching and controlling easier...


You've selected a bone:

What you see is the rotation manipulator:

your animation shows a rotation around the y-axis.


(How) Can I get rid of these fireflies in the zDepth pass?

Glossy shaders won't affect the z-pass at all. The z-pass is literally a gray-scale of how far away each pixel is.

The answer to this question is exactly the same as any other question dealing with Cycles noise (though it might not seem like it at first). Noise in regular renders is a precision issue, and the noise here is also a precision issue. The way that Cycles improves precision is with more samples.

It's slightly different with the z-pass in that there's not nearly as many contributing factors to "how far away is this pixel" as there are to "what color is this pixel." But there are some. The main contributor is likely anti-aliasing. But even then, the solution should be the same: render more samples.

cegaton's recommendation to adjust the near and far clipping planes, is also a good idea.

If that doesn't help... well, I may just be mistaken... and that's okay.


Why Blender export only exports one object out of a grouped object?

It turned out that this add-on requires objects to be joined, not just grouped. Ctrl+J did the trick.


Why my bubbles particles stop working at frame 11

Based on the conversation, i would check out the object that is used for the bubbles, should that be animated and shrink, it would also reduce the particles size.

Below the direct relation between size of the object and the resulting nearly dissapearing particles:


Bug report Python script Mail is possible?

import bpy

bl_info = {
    'name': 'Add-on',
    'category': 'User'
}

class MyAddonPreferences(bpy.types.AddonPreferences):
    bl_idname = __name__
    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        col = layout.column()
        col.operator("wm.url_open", text="Report a Bug").url="mailto:someone@somemail.somedomain"

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

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


How to specify Nurbs path vertices in python?

Based on your starting point script below. Added reference to spline types since bezier curve points are stored differently than nurbs curve points.

import bpy
import random

def pathPointLoc(cpath, points):

    if cpath.type in ['NURBS', 'POLY']:
        cpath.points.add(len(points)-1)
        for (index, point) in enumerate(points):
            cpath.points[index].co = point
            print(cpath.points[index].co)
        cpath.use_endpoint_u = True
    elif cpath.type in ['BEZIER']:
        cpath.bezier_points.add(len(points)-1)
        for (index, point) in enumerate(points):
            x, y, z, w = point
            cpath.bezier_points[index].co = x, y, z
            cpath.bezier_points[index].handle_left = x-1, y-1, z-1
            cpath.bezier_points[index].handle_right = x+1, y+1, z+1
            print(cpath.bezier_points[index].co)
    return

cu = bpy.data.curves.new("MyCurveData", "CURVE")
ob = bpy.data.objects.new("MyCurveObject", cu)
polyline = cu.splines.new('NURBS')  # 'POLY''BEZIER''BSPLINE''CARDINAL''NURBS'

scn = bpy.context.scene
scn.objects.link(ob)
scn.objects.active = ob

cu.dimensions = '3D'
cu.bevel_object = bpy.data.objects["BezierCircle"]
cu.taper_object = bpy.data.objects["BezierCircle"]

pts = [(0, 0, 0, 1), (0, 0, random.randint(1,4), 1), (0, 1, 1, 1), (1, 4, 1, 1)]
pathPointLoc(polyline, pts)


Use Blender Cuda Build to use GPU in Simulations:

I think you've misunderstood the description for that build. It is merely stating what features were enabled at compile time. It's possible to build Blender without some things, such as the smoke simulator, or without CUDA. The description merely says that CUDA Cycles and the smoke simulator are both enabled, and that the build is speed optimized. It does not mean that the smoke simulator uses CUDA. Or anything else that doesn't normally support CUDA.

Compiler settings cannot add GPU compute support to existing code. If someone says they "compiled with GPU support enabled" that means the code already supported it, they just compiled without disabling it.


How do I make a mirrored part of a mesh merge with the one I modeled

If you apply the mirror modifier after UV unwrapping, you have two identical UV overlapped.
Select linked faces (mouse over the UV, then press L) and move the UV to reveal the other UV.

To mirror the UV horizontally, select the U option before applying the modifier


Add a mesh of the cutout(orange piece), enter it in the place want to be cut out, add a boolean modifier to the main mesh(letter),(its already at difference from default), click the eyedropper and select the mesh cutout(orange), apply the modifier and move away the mesh cutout(orange) to get a result you want.


Linking materials with groups and drivers

The limitations of Blender's linking system make this a little awkward, but you can make it work with the proxy system. Proxies are Blender's funky solution to editing linked properties. You can "make a proxy" of a certain object from a linked group. This makes a local copy of that object which will then push any changes into the linked object it was copied from. Here's generally how it's meant to work in practice.

Your asset has an armature in its source file. This armature object is set up to control all other objects and materials in the asset via drivers, constraints, parenting, modifiers, or whatever. You pack everything into a group, then link that group. With the group selected, you hit Object > Make Proxy in the 3D view, and select your control rig from the object list in the prompt. You now have a control proxy that you can move and manipulate to control your linked asset.

It doesn't necessarily need to be an armature, you might just use an empty in this case. But essentially what you need to do is connect your material's wetness in the source file to some property of this empty/armature via a driver. A custom property on the object datablock is probably easiest:

Once you make a proxy of your control object, you will then be able to adjust this "wet" property from the main scene. Word of warning though: it will affect ALL instances of this group in the scene, not just the one you had selected when you hit 'make proxy'. Best way to get around that is to add a symlink to your source file, then link the group again by select the symlink. Blender organizes links by filepath, so it will believe this is a different asset even though it's reading the same one. You can then make the new linked copy its own proxy and control them separately.


Can image texture parameters be accessed from python?

Ah, nevermind! I found the answer almost immediately after posting.

bpy.data.images.new("StringName", 1024, 1024)

...I wasted an hour looking for this simple answer...


move a vertex to the position of another vertex (different object) in python?

I wrote this example script for you. Mind the comments.

import bpy
import bmesh

# Get the coordinates of the first vertices of 'Plane' object
firstObjData = bpy.context.scene.objects['Plane'].data
bm1 = bmesh.new()
bm1.from_mesh(firstObjData)

bm1.verts.ensure_lookup_table()

# Convert local coorinates to world coordinates before assignment
vertCoordinates = bpy.data.objects['Plane'].matrix_world * bm1.verts[0].co.xyz

print(vertCoordinates)

# Set the coordinates of the first vertices of 'Cube' object
secondObjData = bpy.context.scene.objects['Cube'].data
bm2 = bmesh.new()
bm2.from_mesh(secondObjData)

bm2.verts.ensure_lookup_table()

# Convert world coorinates to local coordinates before assignment
bm2.verts[0].co.xyz = bpy.data.objects['Cube'].matrix_world.inverted() * vertCoordinates

bm2.to_mesh(secondObjData)


To get the adjustable boundaries, you need to make your camera active.
Simply click on it in the Outliner.


Many models sharing the same animation sequence?

The key to sharing animations between objects is actions. An action is a sequence of animation keyframes that is linked to an object. The Action Editor is a sub-editor of the dopesheet.

When you have two or more objects that you want to share an action, select the new object then select the action in the action editor.

When you play the animation you will find that the two objects will now move in unison. There are two ways to adjust this, one is to make the animation unique to the object by clicking the number next to the Action Name. This duplicates the action, similar to duplicating a material etc. making it unique to the object allowing you to adjust the frames that the action is performed on.

Another option is to use the NLA Editor to adjust timing of the action.

Here you can see that metarig is playing action LiftLeg from frame 1, metarig.001 also has the LiftLeg action associated with it at frame 1. By clicking the down arrow icon (the arrow will be in 2.71, in earlier versions it looks like a snowflake) in line with metarig.001's LiftLeg action it will turn into an NLA track as seen with metarig. Now you will be able to adjust the action timing.

You can easily drag the action in the timeline to alter the start frame, but if you open the properties sidebar (press N) you also get access to more options like scale, repeat count and blend mode. Scaling allows a character to perform the action quicker or slower than other characters. You can have several actions for an object in the NLA at the same time and choose how they blend together, so you can have you character walking and then have a wave action override the arms at a given time.

Here the metarig repeats the walk cycle 5 times and just before the third time he starts waving.

If your using the game engine then you can use an Action actuator to play a specific action when you want it.


How can I render an animation where we can see through a mesh similar to 'in front'?

Here is one way you can do this.

First, set the camera type to Orthographic and make sure the X Rotation = 90 so that it is looking straight forward. You can play with the Orthographic Scale to zoom in and out.

Second, add a Geometry Node to your ground shader and connect that to a Separate XYZ node. Take the Y from the node and connect it to the Alpha of your shader.
You can plug the output to the first input of a Math node set to add to move where the cut-off happens by changing the second value.

Hope that helps!


When using the boolean modifier, the resulting faces disappear when applying the modifier

This is a somewhat older link, with instructions likely intended for 2.79. But the answer given by zeffii is an amazingly good primer on the subject of booleans in Blender, which demystifies them by covering all the likely problem situations, as well as their remedies. Very much worth reading, in my opinion.

The Boolean modifier is not working


Is it possible to elongate particles based on velocity?

Half of the solution (read below) with animation nodes
I got close to the solution using animation nodes. It might be very easy to work on this to make it a complete solution but, I must admit, it's my first time using AN!

I've used Animation Nodes v2.0.
The plane (Plane) emits a particle system with 3 particles with a starting normal velocity and default newtonian physics. Particles must not be displayed via the particle system Render settings. In fact, we'll do it using animation nodes. I've also created a "water drop" mesh (Sphere) for duplication.
This is my animation node setup:

It creates as many copies of Sphere as there are (alive) particles, then it scales them along their Z axis by an amount proportional to each one's Velocity vector length. Finally, it rotates the instances to match the direction of the velocity.
HOWEVER, I am not able to pass a list of rotations to the "Transform Output" node, so I'm only passing ONE rotation, namely that of the first particle!!
If anyone knows how to pass a list of rotations instead of a single rotation, feel free to add a new answer.

Blend file (requires animation nodes):


There is a way to do this in blender. Its not as good as the one on maya (as much as I hate to say it...) but it works
Now this is on a mac so the shortcut is different
So here is a picture of the very bottom of your screen when you use the knife tool:

In the middle you should see something that says midpoint snap. This snaps your cursor to the middle of the nearest edge. The shortcut will be to the right side of the text. For me, it is the symbol ^/^ (which is control on mac) When you use it, it will only connect to the middles of edges, so it is basically 90 degree tool. Once you do this, use an edge slide (press g twice while an edge is selected) and move it to your desired location
Hope this helps.


Use a better lighting, possibly with an HDRI in your scene. A part of the reason why the textures look unreal is that they are completely grey and flat.
Use image textures and include slight bump mapping for things like the fake leather and so on. What I like to do is get, for example, a leather texture that might be any colour just for the texture, then combine the colour input with a MixRGB node to what I want.


You can do this by adding an event handler to the frame change event.

import bpy

def my_handler(scene):

    fm = bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].frame_current

    if fm >= 1:
        lampStrength = 100
    if fm >= 50:
        lampStrength = 200
    if fm >= 100:
        lampStrength = 300
    if fm >= 150:
        lampStrength = 400

    scene.objects['Point'].data.node_tree.nodes['Emission'].inputs['Strength'].default_value=lampStrength

    print("lamp strength: " + str(lampStrength))

def register():
    bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.append(my_handler)

def unregister():
    bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.remove(my_handler)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Credit for frame change portion of script here: Running a script for each frame


Mirrored object not perfect aligned after adding mirror modifier

If the vertices at the edge of your model are not aligned with mirror axis you'll have gaps.
To align the vetices do thei:

Deselect all the edges and select only the ones that form the edge of the model (Alt+RMB), and then scale those vertices to 0 (press SX0).


Permission denied when opening .txt file with python

I had the same problem today! I don't know if It's too late now, but this is my solution: insert the entire file-path for your file.
Example:
file = open("C:\\Users\\userName\\Desktop\\Codes\\f.txt","w")


While there is a small python script that handles the header and menus for the outliner, most of the outliner drawing is handled in C source files. This means that customising the outliner appearance requires a custom build of blender, though you can add menus as shown here.

I would suggest you keep using the panel in the properties editor that you have already started with.


Wireframe modifier with intersection "nodes"

This can be accomplished through instancing.

Create your object
Duplicate the object SHIFT+D
Add a wireframe modifier to the duplicated object
Parent the original object to the duplicated object: Select the original object first, then the duplicate and press CTRL+P, Set Parent to > Object.
Create a sphere object and scale it to the desired size.
Parent the sphere to the original object: Select the sphere first, then the object and press CTRL+P, Set Parent to > Object.
Select the original object and open the Object tab in the properties. In the Instancing panel enable instancing for Verts and disable Render Instancer

The instructions above create instances of the sphere at the vertex positions of the object and a wireframe version of it. The duplicate object is necessary because the wireframe modifier creates new geometry, which would be used by the instancing. This would result in spheres being placed at the vertices of the generated wireframe mesh instead of the original vertex positions.

You can download the example project below:


Constraint objects to rotate in opposite ways

You are looking for the Invert option:

You can select this option for any single or combination of axis.
Check out an animation made by @SixthOfFour using this technique here.


Cycles rendering double question: render quality and render time

For interior scenes, I find that using portals can work well. Set up an area lamp in a window facing into the room. Set it to portal, and set up another opposite of it on the other side of the scene.
I also turn off caustics in my render settings, set light bounces no higher than 6-8 in most cases unless the first render just doesn't look right, and set my tile size to 16 x 16 to 18 x 18. Granted, I am using CPU, so this is more efficient for me I have found. For fireflies, I also set indirect clamp to a minimum of 1.01


If you use the Cell fracture addon, there is an option called Margin. It sets the space ('cracks') between the fractals. If you see these cracks, the reason may be that your Margin is set too high.

Ensure, that it is not too small, because otherwise the physics engine thinks that the parts are intersecting each other, calculate a repelling force and this will tear the the ball apart.


volume scatter in blender giving me a dark screen with some crazy amounts of fireflies

There's a circle called circle.001 that you've parented to your lamp object (called Sphere). This circle obstructs your spot light. It won't cause any problem in the Viewport because you've disabled its visibility, but you've enabled it for Renders. So delete this object or disable its visibility for renders.

Also:

Reset the Compositor.
Don't use the Volume Scatter for the whole world, as you explain it looks like you can't use any other light than Spots if it's assigned to the whole world. Instead, create a cube that encompass your scene and give it the Volume Scatter node.


How to animate a colour change along a section of a cylinder?

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

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


You could fake holes with normal or bump maps, but if you want to create real holes, create a plane, subdivide, select all except the borders:

Press CtrlB to bevel the vertices (go into the Operator box to select Vertices):

If you want more than 4 vertex holes, increase the amount of Segments and choose Shape > 1 to make them round:

In Face Selection mode, select one face and press ShiftG > Polygon Sides to select all the similar faces:

If you ever change the holes size, choose Transform Pivot Point > Individual Origins. When you're good, press i twice to inset each face:

Extrude down a little bit, then again twice, then give it a Subdivision Surface and Shade Smooth:


Where Is Shadeless Material Option For Blender 2.8?

The option shown there is for Blender Internal renderer, which has been removed in Blender 2.8. See the following questions for information on how to create a shadeless material using the shader node graph.

Totally white shadeless material in Cycles?

Node for setting render colour, regardless of lighting

These setups will work for both Cycles and EEVEE in Blender 2.8