When you export your FBX in Blender, at the top of the Export FBX dialog, there is an option for how external data is saved ("Path Mode"). click the drop-down for that and choose "Copy". Also click the button next to it that looks like a box ("Embed Textures").
Now your texture will be exported.
NOTE: "Complicated" materials will not be preserved when you export in .fbx format. As a general rule, anything more complicated than plugging an image texture node into a material property will fail in another application. Use only Principled BSDF shaders and only a single Image Texture node for any one of its properties--those properties should be limited to PBR-workflow standby's: "Diffuse"/"Albedo", "Roughness", "Normal". You will have to rebuild the rest yourself in the game engine you import the .fbx to.


Display Value of a nodes RGB input in a panel

Use the indexed element, eg red is index 0

For array properties can display an individual element in a layout.prop(...) by specifying the index of the array element.  Eg for the red channel of mix color input input.default_value

layout.prop(input, "default_value", index=0)

The color node socket input has a type 'RGBA'

def draw(self, context):
    layout = self.layout
    # node for testing
    node = bpy.data.materials["Material"].node_tree.nodes["Mix"]
    input = node.inputs["Color1"]
    col = layout.column(align=True)
    for i, c in enumerate(input.type):
        col.prop(
                input, "default_value",
                text=c.upper(),
                index=i)


How to keep camera always in horizontal position?

I have found the solution. All I needed to do is add constraint to empty - copy location and choose only Z location checkbox. Easy.


How to create detailed Procedural materials?

Most textures have a detail slider, but oftentimes it's better to mix in another noise texture at a smaller scale.
One of the biggest giveaways that you're looking at a rendered object is a lack of variation.  Looking at the following object, it's painfully obvious it's a render.

We can generate some noise to break up the base color and it gets much better.

However, it's still clear what you're looking at.  Procedural textures come with their own challenges, and if you imagine using procedural textures on many things in your scene everything starts to get a perlin noise "sameness". So for lack of a better term you need variety in your variety.
You must take measures to break up the pattern.  You need a diverse toolkit and the ability to mix and match elements.  For example to cover up this base color we might do something like mix in a layer of noise that's just humongous on top of the other.

Bearing in mind that everything here is just Base Color and the rest is default Principled, we're getting there.  If we can identify features that we want to add we can generate noise maps that have those features and choose where to mix them in.
So I want this to have a horizontal grain, I can do that with a wave texture with a high scale.  I don't need real geometry so I'll use a bump node to convert that into height data and plug it into the Normal socket:

Now in my mind we've run into another problem because the lines are too perfect.  So another thing we can do is distort the coordinate space before we feed it to the texture.
Wave texture does have a distortion option but it's not exactly what I want.

So yes, we are sending vector data into a color input and vice versa, but the node will treat XYZ just like RGB... and vice versa, and just do the math and get on with our lives.
You don't need to mix in much noise in most cases.  If you use a viewer node on it you'll see it gets out of hand pretty quickly.  It's really easy to drown out a wave texture in particular.

The effect is... almost human imperceptible, but as Andrew Price says it's one of those things that you'll never notice unless it's not there.
So to finish this off I think I'd raise the scale of the wave texture a bit, and maybe take that same pattern and apply a color ramp to it to use it for the roughness.  Maybe one more splash of some earth-tone color.
At the end we have this:

And really we used one wave texture and the rest is just perlin noise.  Surely doesn't look like that second image, though.
There are plenty more ways to provide layers of detail to your object.  Displacement is a big one but I'll leave that for a more targeted answer.
Here's an example of a procedural printed cardboard material that uses the clearcoat layer and clearcoat normal to provide the imperfect reflective sheen leaving me room to provide tons of bump data beneath the surface.

In your picture it looks like you're using subsurface scattering.  Just be aware that this makes it harder to identify tiny details on the surface since light penetrates through.  However... just because they're hard to identify doesn't mean you wouldn't miss them if they weren't there.


Security Popup about a Driver when Appending a Material

You can right click it and hit Delete Drivers.
It looks like it's randomizing the origin location of the noise textures hooked up to the bump map to give it a more random appearance based on whatever parameter that driver was looking at.


How can scene metric scale be used as node input?

Managed to do it via driver. Not sure if it the right way to do this.


How to Use Pillow (PIL) Inside Blender Addon?

I finally had to copy my PIL package from C:\Program Files\Python37\Lib\site-packages\ and moved it into the Blender Foundation\Blender\2.8.2\python\lib\site-packages and everything started working fine.


can makehuman/MB-Labs be used to make a SPECIFIC human face from photos?

Tools like this are best viewed as a starting point, they are generally designed to provide a broad range of human shape variations rather than specific ones. Every human is slightly different and it is infeasible to provide parametric controls sufficient to capture all this variation.

The idea should be to start with major proportions and work down to finer details, getting as close as you can in the tool and then switch to sculpt/manual modelling etc to refine. Textures also make a big difference, and neither makehuman or mb-lab provide much here, you may want to look at projection painting from photos if you can find some that are good enough.


Transformation Constraint - Can't map location to rotation

As the cube's Z rotation is supposed to be influenced by the  empty's Y location, you need to set the Z Source Axis to Y:


What's the best way to select the same region on multiple meshes?

Go into edit mode for each of your meshes and assign 1 vertex group for all vertices for each mesh. Also name them:

Now merge all the meshes into 1 with Ctrl+J. It will preserve the vert groups:

Delete the vertices you want.
Separate your meshes back with selecting each vertex group and P>Selection:


Is it possible to have multiple bevel objects along a curve?

Nope, this isn't supported, nor do I think it's coming in any near future.

It probably wouldn't sit very well with Blender, since it's a mesh based. This would be more suited for NURBS based modeling tools or CAD software.

Closest thing I've ever seen is BSurfaces Addon but it's not a very good solution.


Modelling a Dagger (1): How to bend straight faces

One approach would be in Edit Mode add a loop cut in the middle CTRL+R and delete the vertices on one side so you are working with half of the blade.

Add a Mirror Modifier and check "Clipping".

Add some loop cuts from top to bottom CTRL+R and scroll the mouse wheel to increase the number of loop cuts then Right Mouse click to complete. I used 12 in this example.

Select "Proportional Editing" and a "Fall Off Type". I choose Spherical. Select vertices in the middle and press "G" and use the mouse wheel to determine how many neighboring vertices are affected (Illustrated by a circle in the viewport)as you drag. Right mouse click to complete.


blender cycles render bake doesn't uses world emitted light

Second edit, I finally found the cause of the problem, I have in blender 2 objects, one is engulfing the other this engulfer is a tube with a weird shape, the thing was that I had this tube as "restrict from viewport visivility", in the "preview" the tube was not affecting the rendered image but in the "bake" it was, can this be considered a bug?


scaling an object by a factor of exactly ten

you type in x 10 in the scale properties - so if scale is 1.000 you write 1.000 x 10 in the scale properties panel


My objects fade out when I increment the opacity of my background image

The Setup you're currently using is quite common in modelling, as you usually want to compare a blueprint or sketch to your model and trace some elements of that. A feasible value for the Opacity would be around 0.3, so you can see your model more clearly, but still compare to your underlay.
If you want the underlay to really be behind the model you're creating, set the Toggle Switch just below the Opacity slider to 'Back'. See comparison screenshots below:
Front

Back


There're some faces with twisted vertices the scaled model reveals them:

To fix it remove the faces and recreate them by selecting the edges followed by F.

You might also want to consider to remove the loop cut in the upper part.

Related:

What is non-manifold geometry?
How to create a smooth surface onto a rectangle frame?


Can I make a plane renderable but not effect the light in the scene?

I figured it out. Go to your object properties and in Visibility>Ray Visibility, uncheck "Shadow"


Texture coordinate and displacement modifier

I messed around a bit with vector math and found a quick fix:
By subtracting the object's location from the geometry's position output, you can get the same results, regardless of where the object is in the scene. You can then tweak the vector with a vector math node to perfect the result (scaling the object vertically might mess the math up a bit though).
I'm guessing blender hasn't yet implemented your approach with modifiers. In the first image, you can see the original material with the displace modifier applied. The second image is my suggested fix.

Happy blending!


Cannot solve uneven beveling due to vertices (?)

Assuming you want to bevel at a 45° angle:
First (with the Ctrl + B hotkey) you need to press C to enable clamp overlay which will make the bevel stop when a bound has been reached.

Then you want to select the mesh and merge by distance (F3 and search it) because the 2 edges will be slid up against each other so that the vertices are very close.
Afterwards you can select the 2 edges forming the bevel and have as many segments as needed.

If you want to make the bevel even bigger, then you can repeat this process again (minus making all the segments) by bevelling the 2 outer edges with 1 segment and with Clamp Overlay turned on. Every time the outer edge meets with another edge, use merge by distance to prevent 2 edges in one place.
You should also join vertices to make sure you don't have an Ngon like so

You can do it like this but the cleaner and more efficient option is just to use less edge loops like what CtrlAltF2 mentioned earlier.
Edit: Additional picture showing the maximum bevels I could do, not pretty though.


Problem with Grass Floating above Mesh - Grass Essentials

Fixed. Apparently there was a group handling issue with Blender 2.78 which, in the case of Grass Essentials, caused the grass to basically disappear. I upgraded to 2.78c and the grass displays accurately upon re-opening the file.


material distributed based on mesh and not on vertex

I finally fixed the last problems

With the help of removing vertex form the shrinkwrap modifier, i made it for my goal, perfekt. Smart uv protektion was the key. Thanks Bruno.


How to round specific face with modifier(non-destructively)?

If I understand correctly what you want, you can select the edges you want to bevel, give them Bevel Weight in the N panel, then in the Bevel modifier, choose Limit Method > Weight and play with Offset and Segments values:


Problem with custom button for apply transformations on model

When adding an operator to a layout, you should only add the API path, e.g. "object.transform_apply". Any parameters can be configured after if you store layout.operator in a variable:

operator = layout.operator("object.transform_apply", text="Reset Transforms")
operator.location = False
operator.rotation = True
operator.scale = True


When working in the UV editor, how can I snap the face corners to the four corners of the image?

You can check Constrain to image bounds option in the UVs menu:

Then you can scale your UVs as long as they take less place then the texture space. When they meet the boarders you'll no longer be able to scale them up.


Is it possible to export a program created with the animation node as a python script?

Animation Nodes provide operators that provides the execution code of the current node tree. You can find that operator under the Developer panel, by pressing the Write button, the execution code of the selected node tree is written to a text block called Execution Code. For instance, the following node tree:

Have an execution code:

import numpy, sys, bpy
import itertools
from time import perf_counter as getCurrentTime
from mathutils import Vector, Matrix, Quaternion, Euler
AN = animation_nodes = sys.modules.get('animation_nodes')
from animation_nodes.data_structures import *
from animation_nodes import algorithms

nodes = bpy.data.node_groups['NodeTree'].nodes
_y52bwsmno0e080h = nodes['Random Vector']
_csk7p8pg5vv2v5d = nodes['Vector Math']
_8aspl5k05rbhwxn = nodes['Separate Vector']
_seed_y520 = _y52bwsmno0e080h.inputs[0].getValue()
_scale_y521 = _y52bwsmno0e080h.inputs[1].getValue()

# Node: 'NodeTree' - 'Random Vector'
_seed = _seed_y520 + 25642 * _y52bwsmno0e080h.nodeSeed
_randomVector_y522 = algorithms.random.getRandom3DVector(_seed, _scale_y521)

# Node: 'NodeTree' - 'Vector Math'
_result_csk1 = Vector((abs(_randomVector_y522[0]), abs(_randomVector_y522[1]), abs(_randomVector_y522[2])))

# Node: 'NodeTree' - 'Separate Vector'
_x_8as1 = _result_csk1[0]

# Node: 'NodeTree' - 'Viewer'
_38xn88352kup1e3.execute(_x_8as1)

Notice that variables like _seed_y520 and _scale_y521 needs to be substituted with the seed and scale of the Random Vector node respectively.

Another example, a subprograms like this group:

Have an execution code:

import math, numpy, sys, bpy
import itertools
from time import perf_counter as getCurrentTime
from mathutils import Vector, Matrix, Quaternion, Euler
AN = animation_nodes = sys.modules.get('animation_nodes')
from animation_nodes.data_structures import *
from animation_nodes import algorithms

nodes = bpy.data.node_groups['NodeTree'].nodes
_o7ggcrgv1v0zeqz = nodes['Group Input']
_71b912e7wlqq8tj = nodes['Float Math']
_uyl54rvlbgh0b0p = nodes['Group Output']
_b_71b1 = _71b912e7wlqq8tj.inputs[1].getValue()
__socket_False_1_uyl = None

def main(group_input_0):
    global _b_71b1

    # Node: 'NodeTree' - 'Float Math'
    _result_71b2 = group_input_0 + _b_71b1

    return _result_71b2

The output code will not work out of the box as you might expect it, it depends on the animation_nodes module, functions defined by subprograms as well as values defined in the node tree interface.


How to bind a series of commands to a custom hotkey (scripted macro)?

If you just want to apply a subsurface modifier you can just press CTRL+2..., where the number (2 in this case) is the number of subdivisions you see in the viewport.
If not, i always prefer AutoHotkey (https://www.autohotkey.com/) to bind keystroke sequences to a custom hotkey, it's very easy to program and you can turn it off insantly...


How do you sculpt bricks? You don't. Seriously. Just Don't. There are easier ways.

I'll use the texture you picked for this answer, but there are plenty of sites where you can download pre-made repeating textures for free. (This one has terrible barrel distortion, and will look atrocious if you want it to tile.)

Danish Brick wall.jpg by Grey Geezer CC-BY-SA-3.0

I took that texture and tweaked it slightly in Photoshop to get this height map:

By using nothing more than a default plane (and a pile of modifiers) you can use that bump map to create this:

And by doing a bit of shading and lighting, you can get this result:

The stack of modifiers is fairly simple, but I would not generally recommend trying to go so detailed with the subdivision surface modifiers like I have here, unless you have a powerful CPU and a lot of ram. (It looks scary, but one at a time they are not so bad.)

The first Subdivision Surface modifier is simply to subdivide the plane, to make some geometry for the Displacement modifier to work with. The Displacement modifier takes the given height map texture and adjusts the height of all the vertices depending on the value of the nearest pixel. The second Subdivision Surface modifier cuts back any sharp edges created by the Displacement modifier. At this point there is a stupid number of vertices and faces in the object (there would be over 500,000 just in this section of wall!) so the Decimate modifier cuts that back to something sensible. (If your scene is going to be a closeup of something stuck to the wall, then being super detailed isn't necessarily bad). The final Smooth modifier evens out vertices along the Z axis which have large height difference to nearby vertices. This not only makes the mortar look smooth but it helps flatten out any uneven surfaces on the bricks. And finally, the material on the bricks themselves.

In this material, the image texture's default mapping is UV, so that does not need to be specified. (The plane's UV map simply has the one face filling the entire map). The color data  from the texture passes through a diffuse node and goes straight to the surface output, giving the color. But the color data from the texture also branches off and goes into a Hue/Saturation/Value node (with the value set to .2   - like the displacement modifier, the displacement output of a material takes the value of each pixel fed to it and creates the appearance of displacement on the surface of the material. Without toning down the texture's color data, the displacement would look utterly terrible. Multiplying the value by .2 in this case makes it look sensible.

Bonus crystal Suzanne on top!


Can't snap two objects without space between

Are you snapping in Object Mode?  If so, the only snap source will be the pivot point of the object you are moving.

If you snap in Edit (Vertex) Mode, switch the snap settings to target 'Vertices', with the source set to 'Active'. Select all the vertices in the moving object, and Shift right-click the vertex you would like to be the snap source twice to make it active. Now with snap switched on, move the active vertex over the vertex you would like it to match.. it will bring the other vertices along with it.


Blender 2.82 Mantaflow will not fill volume

Was able to make it work by tessellating the tank effector to a high mesh.  Large, open, poly faces don't have enough vertices to calculate the containment.


Text input field panel add-on blender 2.8

As i mentioned you declared the prop in the wrong way here is an example of how you could do what you want.

just copy and paste the code in the blender script editor and click the register checkbox (im not sure if you have to do that) then click run script, now if you go to the object tab in the properties area at the bottom you should have a Selection query panel, you can type bpy.context.scene.QueryProps.query in the console that should give you the current value for the query property, changing the property in the panel will change the property value to what you typed in.

import bpy

class QueryProps(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):

    query: bpy.props.StringProperty(default="testtest")

class SelectByQuery(bpy.types.Operator):

    bl_idname = "object.select_by_query"
    bl_label = "Selection of object by query"

    def execute(self, context):
        try:
            bpy.data.objects[self.query].select_set(True)
            return {'FINISHED'}
        except:
            print('Could not select object')
            return {'CANCELLED'}

class PanelThree(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_idname = "VIEW3D_PT_SelectionQuery"
    bl_label = "Selection Query"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'

    def draw(self, context):
        props = bpy.context.scene.QueryProps
        layout = self.layout

        col = layout.column(align=True)
        rowsub = col.row(align=True)

        rowsub.label(text="SELECT *")

        rowsub = col.row(align=True)
        col2 = layout.column()
        rowsub2 = col2.row()
        rowsub2.operator("object.select_by_query", text="Query")
        rowsub.prop(props, "query", text="")

classes = (
    QueryProps,
    SelectByQuery,
    PanelThree
)

def register():

    from bpy.utils import register_class
    for cls in classes:
        register_class(cls)
    # Register QueryProps
    bpy.types.Scene.QueryProps = bpy.props.PointerProperty(type=QueryProps)

def unregister():

    from bpy.utils import unregister_class
    for cls in classes:
        unregister_class(cls)
    # $ delete QueryProps on unregister
    del(bpy.types.Scene.QueryProps)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

also don't forget to mark the question as answered if it answered your question, if you have any question about the answer feel free to write a comment.


Cannot locate the "Multi Resolution" tab

What you want is the Multiresoultion modifier. It is in the Modifiers tab under the Generate category.


Why is 'Inset Faces' insetting faces individually?

The faces are being inset into two regions because Inset isn't taking into account the Mirror modifier.

Make sure you don't have any more doubles, and immediately after pressing I to start insetting, press B to enable the "boundary" option.


Why doesn't selecting a UV island select the corresponding vertices in the model?

This is now possible as of this commit. Will be in 2.75 or any recent development build.

To use it, enable Sync Selection, switch to face select mode (⎈ Ctrl↹ Tab), and enjoy ;)


How to project/imprint a texture using a mesh as its source

You can bake this. Give the texture mesh an emission material. Select the object, then the target object (SHIFT).

In an image editor create a new texture (square, left)
Add an image texture node to the material of the target object,
select your new texture. It does not have to be connected to
anything, but make sure it's active (clicked on)
In the render settings tab, copy my settings.
Press Bake.


Animating wind turbines you created in Blender will not be a major issue. Creating the meshes, linking them together, and creating the animations to show movement will not be a major issue, either, being straightforward applications of modeling and animation techniques. But the "see which performs better" part is out of scope of this site, in my opinion. The performance of the wind turbines is a matter of physics, and mathematics. How fast the turbine will spin at a given wind speed is a matter of the geometry of the blades, including the angle of attack, area of the blades, and other factors. I'm not aware of anything in Blender, or any Blender add-on that would automatically assess these factors.

Now, as to your first question, about other languages, &c.,  according to the help center this question is explicitly out of scope for Blender Stack Exchange. It is probably a better fit at the physics.stackexchange.com site. Besides which there are probably other users on that site who are familiar with details of Newtonian mechanics, and fluid dynamics that I have forgotten, if indeed, I ever knew them.

As to your second question, I'd model the turbine, the wind engine, and the mast as separate objects, as the turbine will need to rotate relative to the engine, and the engine and turbine will need to rotate on the mast. Making the turbine, and animating it, are relatively simple, and there are a number of tutorials on various sites that can show you how to do that. I wouldn't use clothing, except perhaps if you are modeling a Dutch windmill like this one

where the vanes of the windmill are covered with cloth. Standard modeling techniques will work just fine in making the model, even with the Dutch windmill, as the cloth there is stretched tightly along the windmills vanes.


Blender 2.79b Grease pencil brush hotkeys not working (Windows7 ,64bit)

Finally ,there were some old files from previous versions of blender lying in Program files directory.Deleting them and reinstalling blender worked and now grease pencil shortcuts work.


Adding a plastic cover over teeth (braces)

Teeth plastic braces
In short - Solidify, Remesh, Boolean modifier

I used model from Blendswap. Teeths on this model are open on bottom part. For remeshing is necessary close the mesh topology (make manifold). Go to edit mode, select all and press Fill (F). Same for Gum object, just here is better to use Grid Fill.
Add modifiers

Solidify desired thickness
Remesh > Voxel > Size 0.01
Boolean > Difference > Object "Gum" (decrease Threshold 0 m)

Copy Object (just for safety) and Apply modifiers (cmd+A)
Because bottom part is after boolean operation filled, go to edit mode search for Sharp Edges > increase to 75 deg, press (V) Split, select one bottom face and press (L) Linked, (X) Delete
(or you can use Edge Split modifier for the same purpose)

Note:

I tried to make smooth transition between teeth, but you can make it more sharpen if you use Solidify only for the final result (so skip first Solidify and start directly with Remesh modifier).
Solidify used only at the end prevent brace to overlap gum as visible on the first image now, or use Solidify for Boolean operation on Gum object as well.
To select bottom part with Sharp Edge is a magic in this case :) Previously I spent several hours by selecting bottom part with Select Similar Co-planar that seemed to be fine but there left a lot of small parts around edge that raised as a lot of issues after Solidify on final mesh.


Right click the line you want to copy, and it will highlight. Press ctrl-C to copy and then also right click it again to deselect it or otherwise it will copy every line that is highlighted next time you highlight and copy. Paste it into the text editor, etc.


Cycles Volumetrics are rather slow and for this specific setup, a compositing solution may be more suited, however you can use the geometry information to limit the density of volumetrics.

In this example I created a large cube, encasing the scene, and made the Z information influence the scatter density. That way, the density is high near Z = 0 (the ground) and low as Z grows (the sky).


How do I change the frame rate when working in 2d animation?

The framerate for all projects in blender is set in the Properties window >  Output > Dimensions > Frame Rate


How to change the material (texture) in the BGE?

One sloppy logic-block way is to make a duplicate of your character model, put it on a hidden layer, then use the Edit Object actuator and Replace Mesh drop down option. The hidden layer character model will have your alternate material (texture included).

ad: I say sloppy because if you do this as a programmatic alternative, you're gonna have a hidden layer full of alternate materialed copies of one object. And that could wreck memory allocation as all those materials get loaded into memory.

Programmatically, if you wanna take the time, the KX_BlenderMaterial python object is a much cleaner way of swapping materials. look for the blender 2.78 or 2.79 api docs. It has an example of mixing textures, but you might be able to puzzle it out. (https://docs.blender.org/api/2.79/#) I would suggest downloading the zip so you always have it.


I'd say it's an issue with offsets and / or scale.

Here is the default cone, with its origin moved to the tip.  (Add default cone, move cursor to (0, 0, 1) then transform > Origin to 3d cursor. Now we add an empty at this point and make it the object offset.

ie the origin of one blade (basically its pivot point) and the array modifier object offset, the empty, are at the same point.  Ok that's offset dealt with.

For your blade, make the origin the pivot point in centre of propeller nose cone. Even if this means it is outside the blade mesh.

Rotate the empty to 120degs on y, and "whallah" a cone propeller.

Make sure the scale of the empty and prop (in my case the cone) is (1, 1, 1) by applying scale, or this will effect the array modifier result. (increasing or decreasing in size of each iter)

Lastly, if I make the empty the parent of the cone, I can move the whole set up by moving the empty without upsetting the array mod.


Any reliable and comprehensive GPU/CPU cycles rendering study

I don't think the GPU power is bottlenecked by CPU in any way. You either render using CPU or GPU. If you're using a CPU you need to set the tile size to some small number like 16 x 16 or 20 x 20 so that each CPU thread will be responsible for one of these tiles and the process becomes more efficient this way. When using a GPU for rendering you need to set the tile size to a higher number such as 224 x 224 and so on so that you can benefit from using a GPU.

Blender OpenData might give you some ideas on what GPUs/CPUs are better for rendering.


How to propel an object, rotating freely in zero gravity, towards a collision with a fixed plane?

Put the origin at the bottom or at the top.
then it will rotate as you want to achieve


How does one continuously draw straight lines in Grease Pencil 2.8?

alt key only works for horizontal and vertical line. I'm still looking for straight line with an angle. Hope it helps you a bit ;)

Press 'W' to select which path you want to draw (line, rectangle or circle)


Why does the rig generate below my mesh?

In Object mode, select your mesh and apply (Ctrl A) location, rotation and scale, do the same with the generator rig, then generate.


Impossible to invoke a message inside of a timer app?

this is how you get menu working in a app loop

import bpy
from bpy.types import Menu

class VIEW3D_MT_ScriptLauncher(Menu):
    bl_label = "Save Your File?"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_MT_fc_main_menulaunchscript" #other id if two pies

    def draw(self, context):
        layoutT = self.layout
        layoutT.label(text="30 minutes passed witouth any saves", icon='COLORSET_02_VEC')
        layoutT.label(text=" ")
        layoutT.separator()
        col = self.layout.column(align=False)
        col.label(text=" Quick save ")
        col.label(text=" Quick save as ")
        col.label(text=" Quick save as copy ")
        col.label(text=" Quick save as new version ")
        col.separator()
        col.label(text=" Don't ask anymore ")
        col.label(text=" No ")

    @staticmethod
    def every_n_sec(C_dict, times=10, interval=10):
        if times > 0:
            bpy.ops.wm.call_menu(C_dict,
                name='OBJECT_MT_fc_main_menulaunchscript')

            bpy.app.timers.register(
                lambda: __class__.every_n_sec(C_dict, times - 1),
                first_interval=interval)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(VIEW3D_MT_ScriptLauncher)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(VIEW3D_MT_ScriptLauncher)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    # pass context dict to the function so bpy.ops works in timer
    C_dict = bpy.context.copy()

    bpy.app.timers.register(
        lambda: VIEW3D_MT_ScriptLauncher.every_n_sec(C_dict))


I figured out the problem.  It's still a bug, and wireframe still gets stuck on, but all I need to do to fix it is go to a different frame in the timeline.  Then, the stuck wireframe goes away.

Just scrub the timeline to fix.


How to fix the shadow line in the middle of the face?

This is probably due to how Blender is currently rendering your mesh's normals. A normal vector is a vector which is orthogonal to a plane. In this case, the faces of your mesh.
The configuration of your normals tells Blender how light should interact with the faces of your mesh. Is your face a flat surface, or is it meant to represent a rounded side of a cylinder or sphere? Is the face facing away from you, or toward you?
The first thing to check is whether or not you have any normals pointing the wrong way. In Edit mode, selecting everything with A, and press SHIFT+N to recalculate normals.
On more complex, or non-manifold geometry, this doesn't always work as desired. You can manually flip the normals of particular faces by selecting them and hitting ALT+N, then F.
Correcting Flipped Normals:

The next possibility is that Blender simply isn't displaying the normals in the way you want. Blender can display the accurate normal of each individual face (flat shading), or it can average these normals across faces (smooth shading). Finally, it can combine these two effects based on a cut-off angle.

You can switch between flat and smooth shading from the Object menu while in Object mode by selecting either Shade Flat or Shade Smooth. Auto Smooth is selected from the Object Data Properties tab of the Properties shelf.


Laser beam pathway with refective mirrors

I created a test blend to verify the concept. You can find it here:

There is a 'laser emitter' which has a simple particle system enabled, along with three 'mirrors' with very simple collision enabled. Also, the scene has had gravity disabled.

Once you open the blend, immediately look at the particles property page on the right side. Look for and click the 'Bake' button. Then go to the Timeline at the bottom and click the play button.

You should see a flow of 'photons' being emitted from the 'laser', bouncing off the mirrors.

Adjust the mirrors to your liking. Make copies of the mirrors to add more.

After any adjustment of the mirrors, click the 'Free Bake' button. It will free the computed particles and the button will revert to the 'Bake' button once again. Click the 'Bake' button to 'apply' the new mirror configuration, then play to watch the new laser beam path through your mirrors.

Hope this helps.


Need to re-render every time I change something in the compositor because of full sample

One simple, however not ideal, is to save the final render to an external file; then loading it up and applying the composite to that.

I would recommend using a multilayer OpenEXR file; these however take up quite a lot of disk space.


You can use G (to move an object) then tap X (to move it just on x axis) or Y(y axis) and ...you guessed it Z to move it on the z-axis.
So Tap G->X to move it on global x-axis.
Tap G->X->X to move it on local x-axis. Analog with x, y.
For rotation is the same, just with R -> X (rotates on global x-axis)
UPDATE:
you can navigate with these numpad keys:


Bake a giant UV with multiples materials and textures tiled?

You cannot bake anything with overlapping UVs and outside of UV coordinates in the square (0,0),(1,1). You could create a separate UV map if you need to have different UV maps for other textures:

It's fine to scale other UV maps than the one used for baking, but you could also use a vector mapping node.
You would need to connect the right UV maps to the image node you are baking to and to other textures as well:

All UVs intended for baking need to be inside the square and not overlapping like this:

This defines where the information from the bake is going to be saved in the baked image so if you have overlapping UVs you have places on the image where Blender would need to save information from multiple places of the 3d object so that cannot work.


How do you make the hat transparent but show the parts that are colored in?

If you use Cycles and the black parts in a Image Texture, then you can use Mix Shader to use transparency.

The other way (with Image Textures) is just using Transarency of the Image (png file with transparency e.g.).


How to join two bones that are part of the same armature

FILE BLEND

Here some shots of the final result

In order

1) In Edit Mode I select boneA and press alt + f in order to switch its direction (as you can see is the only bone having the opposite direction respect the others bone of the tail of your bird)

PS remember when you use alt + f your bone will switch direction AND will lose every connection with the other bones; for this reason i will do step number 4) and number 5)

2) I take the boneA and i move its "head" near to the tail of boneB

3) Now I follow the step i tell you before:  select boneB - press shift - select boneA (remember the order is important); in this way you'll have both bones selected.

4) Press Ctrl + P and click Connected

5) In the end to keep your boneA connected with your bird's tail (i.e. the boneC and the others) i add a Copy Location in boneA


Application mtree not working (MacBook Pro, Catalina 10.15.7)

You have to download the 2.8 version of mtree i have version 2.83.10 and had the same problem when i downloaded the master but you need the 2.8 version.
to do that goto:
github
after downloadin the zip just goto preferences addon - install addon - navigate to zip and click install addon, wait a few seconds and then select mtree from the checkbox and mtree awayyyyy...


Why are the objects in my hair particle system not sitting on top of the ground?

This is because hair particles use the global +X axis as "up" for orienting the particle.

If you rotate your objects 90° on the Y axis so that the direction you want to be facing up is instead facing global +X, you get the following result:

It isn't necessary to apply the rotation, since you have Rotation enabled in Particle Settings > Render.

Note that if you don't have Rotation enabled, for some reason the "up" direction becomes global +Y, and you will need to apply rotation for changes to take effect.


How can I seperate objects within objects (which are not touching each other) into independent ones?

Go to edit mode, press 'A' to select every cube, then Press 'P', And select "separate by loose parts. This will take a little time to calculate, but it will work.


Emitter object shows up in reflection/transmission

I just added a light path node to the emitter material, with the Is Glossy Ray switching between emission and transparency, and got this.

Is this what you had in mind?

Edit: in case you'd ever want to control both Is Glossy Ray and Is Camera Ray from the shader instead of using the Ray Visibility tab in object properties, you can do that with a math node. Connect both Is Glossy Ray and Is Camera Ray to the math node via Add. Maximum also works. You will get zero only if both are zero, meaning you get visibility only if it's neither a camara ray nor a glossy ray, which is what we want.


Time remap doesn't interpolate cloth simulation properly

So ... if I'm right, cloth sim doesn't have subframes (substeps) and I don't see any interpolation to solve those jumps (smooth missing transitions).
As a workaround you can try export the cloth sim object as Alembic (.abc) format without time-remapping. Under Output Properties > Dimension > Time Remapping set New > 200. Import this object back and under Modifiers Properties you can find already added Mesh Sequence Cache modifier > enable Vertex Interpolation. It will generate smooth transition between ramped time frames.


How do I merge two quads that overlap each other into one?

If you have overlapping faces like this:

You can select the edges to be merged:

Then scale them to 0 on the X axis SX0

and then press the space bar and type "remove doubles"


cycles renders fire in single image but not in animation. how to fix?

turns out im just dumb. the animation renders fine, just not the first 3 frames. they are black. i propably just didnt got to frame 1 when testing with single image.

NO NEED TO ANSWER


Blender is not the best tool to use for procedural modeling workflow. Its workflow is quite destructive actually. There are better tools like Modo's MeshFusion, Houdini or Moi3D if you value procedurality.

It is possible to create the shapes parametrically and mesh them with clever math, there are some auto-retopology tools out there, but humans can do usually better than that. Maybe in couple of years there will be AI to do that well for us.

Since the workflow is destructive it's important to finalize the design before modeling. That's what concept art, sketches and 2D studies are for. There is some room for experimentation in modeling phase, but it should be well defined beforehand.


If I made a good armature, can I use it for another mesh as well?

You can absolutely reuse armatures among meshes, and doing so allows you to bring over NLA actions and other animations associated with the armature. It's not trivial to do this, since both meshes must be weight painted to the needs of the armature and bones... but since you will probably accumulate a lot of animations over time, it is a good investment for important characters, or those that have a lot of actions.

I use common armatures for sea turtles, fish, mosasaurs, dinosaurs of a common body plan, etc, and the whole mixamo concept is based on the idea that yo will accumulate and use common armatures.

Additional information: how to copy a rig to another mesh

Mixamo: https://www.mixamo.com/#/ -- Thgis is not Blender specific, but a handy way to see how others have animated particular sequences and their files will work with Blender. You would be downloading an FBX, and importing into Blender via File | Import FBX.


What do this color difference stand for?

Green Tools are tools that add new geometry to your model, like poly build, spin, extrude, ...

Violet tools modify existing geometry, so most of the time they change vertex locations. Smooth is a good example of that category.


How to have a nice visual join between two colliding meshes?

In 3D modeling this is often quite difficult.

You could make them the same mesh and join the geometry, then use a vertex-group or vertex-colours to blend between 2 materials (most obvious solution, check on tutorials for blending between materials).

You could cheat...

add grass (particle systems), pebbles, rocks etc - this is what happens in real life isn't it? It will likely increase your render times but hide the join.
you could apply alpha to the lower part of the mesh that meets the ground so you don't see a sharp change.
You could add a strip of faces which sits just above the join and blends between the 2 surfaces (with alpha on both sides so you don't see any hard edges), I don't recommend this but it can be made to work, you just have to be careful that lighting is ok and its not casting shadows on the faces below it.
You could render them on different layers and composite them, alpha blending parts of the lower mesh. (I don't recommend this but adding for completeness)


This script will add a new bezier curve, and set its bevel and resolution properties:

import bpy

bpy.ops.curve.primitive_bezier_curve_add()

c = bpy.context.object

c.data.resolution_u     = 24     # Preview U
c.data.fill_mode        = 'FULL' # Fill Mode ==> Full
c.data.bevel_depth      = 0.02   # Bevel Depth
c.data.bevel_resolution = 4      # Bevel Resolution

On a more general note, Blender can help you find the Python API commands and properties for doing most anything. When you hover with your mouse cursor on a property in the UI, you'll see a tooltip message, that includes the Python API at the bottom (in the example below I placed the cursor over the Bevel Depth property):

Also, the online API documentation is your best friend. There's a convenient search box on the left menu, that will get you all kinds of useful stuff if you type in "curve bevel", for instance.


How to create a good glass reflection with Principled BSDF

Honestly, for this I would just use a mix of a Transmission shader and a Glossy shader. But if you want to use a Principled shader:

Set the base color to #FFFFFF, so you don't have darkened glass. (Unless you want darkened glass, of course.)
Set the Transmission to 1 and the Transmission Roughness to 0.
Set the Specular to 0, you don't need it.
Set the Metallic to 0.2 or so. This will control how strong the reflections are; you should probably adjust it to fit your specific light source.
Set the IOR to 1.0, since you're making a cabinet—refraction will just slow things down.

Here's a quick test render:

(I got the HDR from here.)

As you can see, the icosphere is a reflection, the cube is not.


Why do I get a "Permission Denied" error when importing an obj file?

You are getting this error because your user doesn't have permission to read the file. In your specific case, there dosen't seem to be a problem with the permissions of the file itself but rather with its containing directory.

To view or change permissions, right-click the file in Windows Explorer, click Properties, click the Security tab, and select your username in the "Group or user names" pane.
One workaround that doesn't involve fiddling with permissions is to copy the file to somewhere else with Windows explorer.


Due to some silly mistakes. This one works.
import bpy

objs = bpy.context.selected_objects

for obj in objs:
    bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')
    obj.select_set(True)
    bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = obj

    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='SELECT')
    bpy.ops.uv.pack_islands(margin=0.001)
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')


Is it possible to export just the keyframes of an animated model into COLLADA in Blender 2.8 (unbaked animation)?


Mate, Gleb created roof details meshes (antennas, chimneys and stuff) himself and grouped them to use in the particle system. You won't find them in your .blend file. You can try to find similar objects online, but if I were you, I'd just create them myself. It would be nice exercise for a beginner.

To group objects, you need to select them and press Ctrl+G. On the left bar (under T key) group name field will appear. You can leave the name as Group or change it to your liking. Highlight of grouped objects should turn green. Check this image to see an example:

The group name will appear in particle settings.


The window of the unwrapped faces didn't pop up on the left in a new window.

The UV Editor doesn't automatically pop up, you need to open the UV Editor manually by creating a new panel and selecting it:


I'm having problems while unwrapping uv's from some meshes I have

Those mentioned parts of UV are Pinned.
(vertices marked red)

Press Alt+P to Unpin and Unwrap U again :)


Armature breaks apart my objects which are Ctr-J'd to form a solar panel array deploying?

Do you need those little connection pieces at the hinges to stay together? If that is what's wrong, it's because you didn't merge the vertices. Or maybe you thought you did, but you have face-caps in the way (you might need to delete the faces where 2 pieces connect in order to merge the vertices).

I don't really notice any "bendiness" unless it is happening at those little pieces and I can't see it so well. You can fix that by weight painting each solar panel solid red for only it's associated bone's vertex groups (and paint that region solid blue for all other vertex groups): select the mesh, go to "weight paint" mode (chosen from same drop down as Edit/Object modes dropdown). Press the N key. Click the weight paint tab in that menu if it isn't already open. Scroll down until you see the part that lets you control the Falloff. Select "constant" falloff. This will paint vertices a solid color.

Now go into the Data panel (the tab on the right that looks like a green triangle) and you will see your vertex groups for each bone. Select and work on those one at a time, coloring each vertex between the 'hinges' solI'd red (or erasing color if necessary) so each bone affects ALL of just one panel and it's half of those little end pieces.

That will do it. Easier than it sounds. Might take you 5 minutes.


Unwrapping planar rectangle doesnt result in same rectangle in uv editor

If you want to maintain the proportions of a planar mesh, set the view from top ortho, then press U "project from view" option.


Blender use as world editor, level editor..etc, License problem?

If you don't re-distribute the modified Blender, you can do what you like.

You can sell your own modified Blender if you like, as long as you include the source code.


Why are these buttons performing the same operation?

Give it a unique bl_idname

Both operators have the same bl_idname = "mesh.add_object". When you register you are effectively overriding the first with the second.

Give it a name like

bl_idname = "mesh.add_retopo"

and call it in code with

bpy.ops.mesh.add_retopo()

or use its, now unique id in the UI layout.

layout.operator("mesh.add_retopo")

Links.

Why does operators bl_idname have to contain 1 dot?


Create an empty in the center of the star, parent all spheres to the empty and animate the rotation of the empty.


How to make texture appear only in dark spots?

Because the planet is a sphere, with no irregular self-shadowing, you can use a simple mask, in another object's space.

In this example, the planet is at the global origin, rotating about Z. Its diameter is 2 units. The sun is down positive X.

Add an Empty at the center of the planet. (Its local positive X points toward the sun). It will not rotate, while the planet does, and the mask between emissive and invisible lights will be in the empty's Object Space, not moving.

The lights texture is in the planet's Object Space, and turns with the planet.

A simple Black/White transition is made by a Color Ramp, down the X of the empty, and centered on it, to make the mask.  Dimensions may have to be changed, depending on your model.

So the tree is something like this:

(You will obviously be using your own textures, not procedural lights, as shown here, so those nodes don't matter)

With this sort of result:

If you're animating the planet going round the sun, you could parent the Empty to the sun, and the mask will stay pointing in the right direction..

or, in other circumstances, you could constrain the Empty to point its X at the sun in another way.


Trying to make it rain donuts using particles

I'm not the expert, but I might be able to help...
I've had something like this, but not with doughnuts (unless that is why the cake... never mind). I would suggest some form of applying the particle system, prefferably somehow starting all the doughnuts in different positions mid-air. You may be able to randomize their positions with a script.


The answer to "How to make VSE render faster?" will help you accomplish this. You can split this process up on several computers as wished and join all the frames into your final video via ffmpeg later.


How can a light cone (volumetric) be setup with cycles?

In real life these effects are caused by particles in the air such as water droplets, which reflect and scatter light. Usually these effects are only clearly visible when there is not a lot of other light sources, such as at night.

In your case it looks like you are going for a more non-photorealistic look, so you may want to give up on trying to simulate the scattering and just use an emission shader.

Add some cones to act as the light sources.
Note that they shouldn't intersect or contain non-manifold goemtry. If you want to intersect them, use a boolean modifier or a remesh modifier to make the final geometry intersection free.

Add some nodes with a horizontal gradient to fade the intensity of the emitted light out before the hard edge at the end of the cone. Note that this particular mapping setup assumes that the origin of the cone is at the point, and that the rotation is not applied.

In this example I also made it so the cone material doesn't illuminate other objects, as I wanted to do the illumination only with spot lamps to further reduce noise. The last mix shader is optional.

There are some limitations, for instance there are no volumetric shadows. But not too bad for converging in about 20 samples :)


CUDA ERROR - illegal adress when rendering

Sometimes when I render things and it doesn't work I just make a new project and then I append everything into that new project from my old project then it usually works. It's annoying but I don't know how else to fix it.


I think the Layer Weight gives rather good results, you use it as a factor between a black Diffuse and a white Emission. Put a bit of Bump into the Layer Weight if you need to give the surface some little details.


Accidentally removed cloth preset, how can I restore it?

I actually tried removing the rubber preset in 2.75 just to see what will be the best way to restore it, but it wouldn't really let me remove it at all. It's still there even after I pressed the remove button.

But anyway, in any other version, try to load factory settings and see if that helps. If not, take this as a great opportunity to update to the latest version of Blender!


Repeting texture rather than scaling texture? How to fix it

In order to prevent the image repeating, set the Image Texture node from ‘Repeat’ to ‘Clip’. This tells the node to only output a single image within the 0.0 -> 1.0 range.


How to fill a hollow object to make it whole inside?

Polygonal models don't have an inside. They tell a renderer where their surfaces are.

If you want to slice an object as if it were solid, you have to reconstruct a surface where the slice cuts across it.

Here we have a cube inside a sphere inside a cube. All three objects have a Boolean modifier assigned to them.

The other cube displayed in wireframe to the left is a cutter object, and will be used as a target in the Boolean modifiers, set to 'Difference'. This will cut away the objects inside its volume, an construct a surface at its intersection with them, making it look as if the objects are solid.

Actually, there are 3 separate cutter-cubes, one as a target for each modifier, with their leading faces just slightly displaced from one another. If all the objects were cut in exactly the same place, Blender wouldn't know which new cut surface was in front of which,  and there would be rendering artefacts. So the outside cube is cut away slightly more than the sphere, which is cut away slightly more than the inner cube.

Now if you animate the cutter-cubes together, you can create the illusion that the objects are solid.


It depends on the level of detail you wish to accomplish. If it is a minor prop for a game a texture map on a cilider will do just fine.
Otherwise I would sculpt the general form the bandage starting with a cilinder and multires. Then do a Uv unwrap and create pattern on the side by applying a displacement map and the top by sculpting using a texture. When finished  a normal map can be generated if disired


Is it possible to recursively instance object particles?

Here we have a red Suzanne, emitting blue Suzannes, emitting green cubes, emitting grey hair.

I have managed to do this with the 'Particle Instance' modifier.

The Particle Instance modifier is applied to the object you want to instance. On the modifier, you then pick an object that has a particle system that you want to instance the object onto (at the position of each particle.)

For the above image I added a hair particle system onto the red Suzanne. I then created a smaller, blue Suzanne and added a Particle Instance modifier to it, picking the red Suzanne as the target.

I then added a separate cube (green) and added a hair particle system to that.

The final particle system is added to the blue Suzanne, under the Particle Instance modifier. It emits the cube in the normal fashion by choosing the cube as the render object on the particle system.

As you noted, the hair emitted from the green cubes does not appear in the viewport but do appear in the render.

Note: The blue Suzannes will not be identical, they will each have a unique placement of green cubes on them. I wasn't able to solve this, the linking was already getting quite complex and slow.

This is quite a complex setup so I may have forgotten a few settings or overcomplicated the setup. For this reason I have included the blend file.


In Cycles you need to add the Mix Shader and adjust its Factor value. When set to 0.5 (the default) it gives equal share to Translucent and Diffuse BSDF.


Focal Length in Walk/Fly Navigation Mode

If you'd like to use Fly/Walk Navigation in 3D View and adjust the focal length, open up the Properties Panel N go to View and set the Focal Length property for the actual viewport:

If in Camera, select the Camera go to Properties > Object Data (camera icon) and set the Focal Length property to what ever you like.


I have some strange noisy places in render

I can see this grainy fields also on the left side of the picture, only maybe not that obvious. Are you using Cycles? => more samples should help.

Could also happen in the image compression for example if you save as .jpeg => try an uncompressed image format

EDIT: 200 samples are still not very much. You get clean image at this size from about 500 samples. Especially for renderings with very small or weak lightning, transparencies and reflections Cycles gets very noisy.

Anywhay you should read this article where further omptimzing possibilities are explained


Animation Nodes - calculate factorial of frame numbers

I think you'd just be better off with an Expression node (Shift + A > Subprograms > Expression) with a Float input and the code factorial(x). It looks like this:


How to wrap up an independent blender application with customized UI for clients who do not need to install blender?

This is possible without any significant modifications.

Download blender (the zipfile version)
Add your own 2.72/config/startup.blend, userpref.blend(depending on your configuration these files may have to be copied out of your personal settings into a directory relative to blender.exesee: https://www.blender.org/manual/installing_blender/directorylayout.html)
modify startup.blend so the view is organized as you like (you can match the view you've created fairly easily).
Any other runtime customizations you can add to a Python script in a text block (enable register, so it loads on startup).

You may also want to:

Disable the splash screen: Preferences -> Interface -> Show Splash
Rename blender.exe
Change the icon (shouldn't be so hard with a recourse editor, you could also make a custom build).


A curve with a curve bevel object would produce this shape with lots of control.

The bevel object is the cutaway side view of a slice of the chair. The chair curve is the overall shape of the chair.


Principled volume shader's weird behavior in Eevee

Okay this seems like a bug but only with some types of hardware. I updated Blender to 2.83.5 which was released yesterday and am so happy that they fixed it. However, it only works with newly created files. Old files still have the problem sadly.
Edit: I don't know if they really fixed it or not but I tested again and sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't.


For the purpose I recommend you to use Shrinkwrap modifier which contains a lot of options to snap one object vertex ti another:


Can't identify where this lip is in hiding in this model

Probably not (yet) an answer, but at least I can show something that seems weird in your model:

You have some different faces for interior and exterior sides of your bag, but their normals are all directed outwards, instead of being as usual, ie: I expected the exterior face normal pointing outside, and the interior face normal pointing inside the bag.

It seems there are many face normals set like this, it seems a bit weird imho.

I will try to learn Threejs basic concepts to experiment (never used before, but interesting) but I would try before making this mesh look better in Blender before...

edit: imho, this mesh has many problems (many of them clearly found by the 3d print addon mesh checker, or the mesh analysis tool, btw) which can confuse an external engine: face distortion (non planar) face overlaps, and others...


Hair all goes weird once I change the mesh

It's easy before going into edit mode go to particle system disconnect all hair system by clicking on "disconnect hair"
Edit your mesh and reconnect hair
NOTE: - if you have activated children of hair then first connect the hair and re-activate children
To re-activate Children: - go to children tab in particle group and click on "none" Then click on 'simle' or 'interpolated' by your choice.

Hope it's helpful to you.


Preventing that this dialog appears seems not possible at the moment.

But you can define a 'custom operator' and 'create a shortcut' see: Create Shortcuts for Particle Edit Brushes?

For daily work I've converted this into an Add-on, which creates the shortcut automatically:

Install the Add-on via File > User Preferences > Add-ons. Once it's enabled you can press Shift+P for Set Parent to Object and also Shift+Alt+P for Keep Transform operation in Object Mode:

parent_shortcuts.py

bl_info = {
    "name": "Parenting Shortcuts",
    "description": "Parenting Shortcuts",
    "author": "poor",
    "version": (0, 0, 1),
    "blender": (2, 75, 0),
    "location": "3D View",
    "category": "3D View"
}

import bpy

# operators
class SetParentToObject(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "object.set_parent_object"
    bl_label = "Set Parent to Object"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    def execute(self, context):
        bpy.ops.object.parent_set(type="OBJECT")
        return {'FINISHED'}

class SetParentKeepTransform(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "object.set_parent_keep"
    bl_label = "Set Parent to Object (Keep Transform)"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    def execute(self, context):
        bpy.ops.object.parent_set(type="OBJECT", keep_transform=True)
        return {'FINISHED'}

addon_keymaps = []

# register
def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(SetParentToObject)
    bpy.utils.register_class(SetParentKeepTransform)

    # handle the keymap
    wm = bpy.context.window_manager
    kc = wm.keyconfigs.addon
    if kc:
        km = wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.new(name='Object Mode', space_type='EMPTY')
        kmi = km.keymap_items.new(SetParentToObject.bl_idname, type='P', value='PRESS', shift=True)
        addon_keymaps.append((km, kmi))
        kmi = km.keymap_items.new(SetParentKeepTransform.bl_idname, type='P', value='PRESS', alt=True, shift=True)
        addon_keymaps.append((km, kmi))

# unregister
def unregister():

    for km, kmi in addon_keymaps:
        km.keymap_items.remove(kmi)
    addon_keymaps.clear()

    bpy.utils.unregister_class(SetParentToObject)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(SetParentKeepTransform)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


animation nodes with follow path object contraint not possible?

Follow path animation can be done inside AN without any constraints.


What would be the most efficient way to retopo this mesh?

The geometry looks OK. You do not need to retopologize this. It can be improved by editing and removing some loops or sliding some edges(Shift + V) and merging some vertices, but I don't think you need to do a lot here. Starting from scratch seems unnecessary for many purposes. Obviously, since you did not tell anything about your context or what you are planing to use it for, it's hard to say for sure.


Create a curved face between two bezier curves in Blender 2.8

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

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


How can I procedurally narrow the pupil of an eye?

You currently have a node setup for one object to make the iris and the pupil. You would need to have just the iris as the background, and then another object parented to it to be the pupil. It would look like an eye, not two objects.


What is this 'view only the selected area' mode I am in, in the 3D viewport and how do I out of it?

This looks like clipping region.
Enable/disable it through View > View Regions > Clipping Region.
Shortcut: Alt+B


Modifying my rough hard plastic material for photo realism

You could try a setup like this. Some things to note - First, as you can see from the graph, Bump Nodes facilitate Normal inputs, and Displacement Nodes are used for Displacement. Displacement doesn't have quite the effect in EEVEE as it does in cycles, but it still does has some effect (especially with Ambient Occlusion turned on).

On the topic of Normals, the contrast of generated textures (Such as a Noise Texture), is far too high to be able to plug directly into a Bump Map at full strength and still have it look "natural". As you can see in the graph, I mixed the result of a Noise Texture .996% with pure white. and I still had to reduce the strength of both the Bump Node and the Displacement, otherwise it still looked too strong.
Although I know it breaks the rule of Metallics/Dialectrics, I found the materials benefited from a slight increase in the metallic values, to work in conjunction with the roughness to make the reflections (or sheen) look a bit more realistic given your lighting setup.
Lastly, as you can see, I mixed some Ambient Occlusion "shadows" with the base color, which allows for some extra perception of detail while keeping the Normal Strength on the subtle side.
To save you the trouble of setting up all the nodes again (as I have already done it), I will post your .blend  with my modifications, so you can see the results without too much effort, and can then decide whether something like this works for you.
File is here -
As a final note - I know the example I used is in EEVEE, but it works just as well in Cycles.


You can render the outline if you enable Freestyle.

In the controls for freestyle enable Silhouette and border.

The outline can then be exported in SVG Format by enabling the  Frrestyle SVG Exporter

The exported SVG can then be edited in any vector graphics program like Inkscape, Illustrator, etc.


Why is this bone suddenly not connected?

You'll find that if you select the bone you want to be the child, then shift-select the bone you want to be the parent and press CtrlP, then choose the "Connected" method of parenting, the bone will become a connected child of the parent.

But it will also do something you probably didn't expect - jump to the tip of its parent bone instead of the root. This is because this is necessary in order for it to be "connected". Bones are unidirectional in their flow of parenting hierarchy. That is to say that each bone's root is like its beginning, and each bone's tip is like its end, and each connected child bone must begin where its parent bone ends.

If a bone is not "connected" that means a gap of distance is allowed between the tip (end) of one bone and the root (beginning) of the next, but the root of the child is still relative to the tip of the parent, as you can see by rotating a parent bone in Pose Mode and watching how its child bone moves.

It is possible that you selected your bone's root and extruded, thinking it would be connected (because it looks the same when you do it) but in reality the newly extruded bone was not created as a child at all. If you select a bone's tip and extrude however, you will get a connected child bone. It's easy to get confused by this at first.

The Outliner is your friend, and will reveal to you the hierarchy of your bones or parented objects. The Relations section of the Bone Context can also show you if the active bone has a parent or not.


How can I move a project that includes images-as-planes?

You can pack all external data into the blend file by clicking on "File → External Data → Pack into .blend file"


The mesh is not a perfect mirror so it can't find the opposite side. You could try to use the "Topology mirror" option and see it that helps.


You can either use the wireframe modifier or the skin modifier:

For Wireframe modifier:

Add Cube
Subdivide with 2 divisions
delete edge vertices
add wireframe modifier

For skin modifier:

Add Cube
Subdivide with 2 divisions
delete edge vertices
delete all faces (faces only!)
apply skin modifier
Scale with ctrla


Imported Sculptris textures/bumpmap not fitting mesh properly (tiny patchwork effect)

Thanks for the help everyone.

It seems I've found the problem boils down to uploading the texture incorrectly.


What is the single line of code required to change a preference in 2.8?

Figured it out myself via "Blender 2.80: Preferences API" although it should have been easier to track down.

bpy.context.preferences.inputs.use_rotate_around_active=True


Imported .3ds models when rendered become transparent

One of your issues lies within the Render Layer options. You need to have no mask layers, and you need to move the objects to separate layers. To disable the transparency of the background you can go to Render Settings > Film and un-tick the Transparent checkbox.

Feel free to comment if I have not addressed your issue, your question is rather vague.


Including an animatied plot in animation

One way to do this is using the Blender video editor.
You create the animation and render it to a sequence of images. Then create you animated graph and save it as a sequence of images.
In the video editor, you add the animation as an image sequence in one channel. Then in the next channel add the graphs as an image sequence. Use the editor settings for the graph to position and scale the graph.
When the video is rendered, the graph will be overlaid on the animation.


Unable to individually give material to bark and leaves

The Sapling Gen Addon should create two separate objects for the tree and the leaves if you select the leaves and add a material with whatever color you want it should assign that material to the leaves only.


How do I have two perspective views for sculpting?

You need to put your mouse as on the picture below (on this narrow black line between viewport and editor type) and right click:

than you can choose between horizontal or vertical split and left click on the place where you want to split your viewport

now you can scuplt in both areas :)


Cycles SSS seemingly incorrect colour for thin surfaces or small objects

Without seeing your current setup (what you've already done), it's a little hard to say exactly what is going on and how to change it..

Here's what I came up with after a bit of fiddling (just trying to match the reference image by eye):


Can't see textures on imported .fbx model

Duarte's comment got me to google some more, and I found someone who recommended replacing the Principled BSDF node in the Shader Editor with a Diffuse BSDF. This fixed it:

Happy to get it working, although to be honest, I'm not sure why this worked.


Is it possible to set all characters in all vertex groups to lowercase?

It just so happens that I have a snippet of python that does exactly that:
import bpy
from bpy import context as C
import re

for vg in C.active_object.vertex_groups:
    new_name = vg.name.lower()
    print(vg.name, '->', new_name)
    if new_name != vg.name:
        vg.name = new_name


How do I change where an object goes when I press Alt+G

By definition AltG, AltR and AltS will bring back the bones to their rest position, i.e. their position in Edit mode.
If you want to go back to a particular pose that is not the rest pose, you may be interested by the Pose Library that is in the Properties panel > Object Data.
You can create as many poses as you want, to create a pose, click on the "+" button, to recall a pose, click on the magnifying glass icon, to change a pose, click on the "+" button and choose Replace Existing.
Note that if you select one bone only and click on the magnifying glass, it will only recall the pose for this particular bone.


Blender only shows blank image when rendered

If you tap the right most button here:

you can check how the rendered image would look like.
There you can also see the black screen.
Then tap on the two button right to your cube001: (eye + camera)

Then add a sun : strength : 50
and you will get:

hint: without any light in the scene (whatever "form" of light) you won't see anything (which results in black screen)
instead of adding a sun you could also change the world shader to a background shader as @Gorgious said.


Help with non-manifold geometry and stl file

There were three main issues with you non-manifold mesh:

Faces going through other faces - You need to reconnect them vertex to vertex.
Disconnected edges (with gaps) - hard to notice, check for non-manifold vertices
Holes in mesh - just fill them through Vertex > New Face (F)

To check for non-manifold geometry try this:

Select > All by trait > Non-Manifold. This will highlight all non-manifold vertices. There should be none.
Check face orientation - this will also reveal small holes and missing faces

Faces going through other faces

Disconnected edges (with gaps)


ImageViewport.refresh() seems to do nothing / how to re-render in BGE before taking a screenshot

BGE API:

  bge.render.makeScreenshot(filename)

    Writes an image file with the
    current displayed frame

Your changes to the scene will be rendered after all logic of the current frame completed. Regardless what you do and in what order the rotation will not be part of the already rendered output of the last frame.

Your idea to perform logic (rotation) in one frame and call makeScreenshot within the next one is correct.

I strongly suggest to separate these two operations. Rotating an object and making a screenshot are two separate operations. As they need to run at different time points running it from the same controller makes the design unnecessary complex.

As you want to create the filename dependent on a previously chosen number I suggest to transfer this number somehow to the other processing. In this case I suggest to send it via message. This serves two puposes:

tells when to make a screen shot
provides information necessary to create the file name

I would not send the file name as it is the responsibility of the saving operation to care this detail, while the rotation processing cares just the random selection (it selects an option not a file name).

Randomly Turn

turnRandomly

import bge
from mathutils import Euler
import random
import math

controller = bge.logic.getCurrentController()

if all(sensor.positive for sensor in controller.sensors):
    owner = controller.owner
    new_q = random.randint(0,3)
    if new_q == 0:
        q = Euler((0.0, 0.0, 0.0)).to_quaternion()
    elif new_q == 1:
        q = Euler((0.0, 0.0, math.radians(90.0))).to_quaternion()
    elif new_q == 2:
        q = Euler((0.0, 0.0, math.radians(180.0))).to_quaternion()
    elif new_q == 3:
        q = Euler((0.0, 0.0, math.radians(270.0))).to_quaternion()
    owner.worldOrientation = q

    for actuator in controller.actuators:
        try:
            actuator.body = str(new_q)
        except AttributeError:
            pass
        controller.activate(actuator)

Assumptions:

all sensors needs to be positive (AND behavior)
should have a message actuator (otherwise there will be no error but make screenshot will not be triggered)
all actuators will be activated

Make Screenshot

makeScreenshot

import bge
from datetime import datetime

controller = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
if all(sensor.positive for sensor in controller.sensors):
    for sensor in controller.sensors:
        try:
           bodies = sensor.bodies
        except AttributeError:
            continue

        for body in bodies:
            option = body
            filename = 'e:/temp/q_{}-{:%Y%m%d-%H%M%S}.png'.format(
                option, datetime.now())
            print ('saving {}'.format(filename))
            bge.render.makeScreenshot(filename)

assumptions:

all sensors needs to be positive (AND behavior)
non-message sensors will only be checked without any further processing
all bodies will be processed (e.g. several messages arrive at the same frame)
the screenshot will use a timestamp in name (rather than a non-unique random number)

As the message will trigger one frame later, the screenshot will be made a the right frame.

Be aware these operations do not need to be performed by the same object.


Vader's solution works, but I think this modified version is slightly more efficient because it only unlinks the active object:

import bpy

selected=[]
# de-select all selected objects and add to array:
for obj in bpy.context.selected_editable_objects:
    selected.append(obj)
    obj.select = False
# reselect active object
bpy.context.object.select = True
# Make single user and apply scale
bpy.ops.object.make_single_user(type='SELECTED_OBJECTS', object=True, obdata=True, material=True, texture=True, animation=True)
bpy.ops.object.transform_apply(location=False, rotation=False, scale=True)

# select objects again
for obj in selected:
    obj.select = True
    # reset scale
    obj.scale = 1,1,1
# link selected to active
bpy.ops.object.make_links_data(type='OBDATA')


An invalid edge can prevent the Knife tool from obtaining a lock on it. Usually because the edge is doubled, often from making an extrusion of a face, thinking it's been cancelled with a right-click (which only cancels the move, not the face-creation) and leaving the double face in place.  Your first step would be to select all vertices, and Remove Doubles.


How to have emission plane light the scene including glossy objects but not show up in glass reflection?

For the emission plane material, you can make use of Sigular Ray to get rid of perfect reflection and transmission.

Comparision:


How to make an infinite landscape or the floor like in games like temple run in blender game engine?

i did something similar in a car game. (Infinite road) If you want to you can download the blend and see how i did it. The file of the Track generator is: TrackGenerator.py

The idea behind the concept is, that you create all kind of objects with the same start and ending. So they have seamless connections. Than you add a new random object when the player gets close enough to the end of your path (or in my case the end of the road).
To controll where to add the next part of the track I created an empty. This empty always is at the end of the path. It is also the object where the script is connected to.
Alway when a new track part is added this empty gets an new Position and orientation. To get this information you need an other empty which is parented to each end of a track part. (those parented objects will automaticly  be added to your scene if you add the track Part, you than can acces them by writing: trackpart.children[0]).
you also need to make shure that the origine of the trackPart objects is at the beginning of the trackPart.

here is an overview what the script does:

it chooses any random trackPart

it adds this part at the and of the Track (with the help of the empty)

than it repositions the empty to the new end of the track.(with the help of the children from the trackPart)

and than it will wait until the player is relativly lose to the end of the track. When he is close enough it will repeat the Process.

here is the code :

from bge import logic as l
from random import randint

def main(co):
    trackGenerator = co.owner
    scene = l.getCurrentScene()
    auto = scene.objects["auto"]
    if trackGenerator["trackLenght"] < auto["distanz"] + 40:
        trackNr = randint(0,anzahlanTracks()-1)
        spawnNext(trackNr, trackGenerator)

def spawnNext(type, trackGenerator):
    scene = l.getCurrentScene()
    name = "TrackPart_" + str(type)
    nextTrackPart = scene.objectsInactive[name]
    next = scene.addObject(nextTrackPart, trackGenerator)
    trackGenerator.worldPosition = next.children[0].worldPosition

    print("size ",next["size"],"   trackLenght: ", trackGenerator["trackLenght"])
    trackGenerator["trackLenght"] = trackGenerator["trackLenght"] + next["size"]

def anzahlanTracks():
    scene = l.getCurrentScene()
    name = "TrackPart"
    anzahl = 0
    for o in scene.objectsInactive:
        #TrackPart_
        if o.name[0:10] == "TrackPart_":
            anzahl += 1
    return anzahl

If you need more information to understand just ask.

CarGame with infinite Road


Why subdivided faces with smooth shading acting weird?

The most likely reason for this is your object normals are facing the different directions at these edges. To fix, go into Edit mode, select the mesh and recalculate normals with CtrlN, Or you could manually select faces and flip the normals.

You can often confirm or investigate most most odd looking artifacts on your models by enabling a normal display type under Mesh Display in the Toolshelf (N). On a clean model, depending on the use case, both the vertex and face normals should point outwards.


Does Blender have something like a 'prefab'?

Reading about Library Overrides I found Proxies. It solves my problem perfectly!


I took a look at your file, and the first thing I did was remove doubles. Select all in edit mode, press W>remove doubles (or just press  R). Second, I recalculated normals with  Ctrl+ N and then I unwrapped with Smart UV project. I think that this will be the best way to go for you. This is the result you can expect:


pole targ it does not work as I would like

There's an option called Pole Angle that can be found just below the boxes where you selected the bones for the constraint. If you adjust the angle, you can get the bones pointing where they should be.

It could be that you have a bone rotated by 90 degrees somewhere, but it's most likely that the constraint is simply using a different axis than you want. Try 90 or -90 degrees to straighten things out. All this option does is take the default orientation that the constraint uses, and offsets it by however many degrees you input (so the limits are 180 and -180).


Knife project on subsurf-object leaves artifacts

The knife tool is creating ngons, which are faces with more than 4 vertices.
Ngons and tris do not work very well with the subdivision surface modifier. See When should N-Gons be used, and when shouldn't they?
When working with subserf, you pretty much always want to use quads (faces with four vertices) exclusively.
Instead of knife project, you could make a rough circle shape out of quads and then use the subserf to round it out:

What I did in the gif:

Inset the plane (I).

Then in edge select mode (⎈ Ctrl↹ Tab), ⎈ Ctrl⎇ Alt⇧ Shift RMB on the edge ring created by the inset to deselect it.

Subdivide (W).

Switch to vertex select mode (⎈ Ctrl↹ Tab) and delete the center vertex.

Make the inner loop circular with the To sphere operator (⎇ Alt⇧ ShiftS), or the circle operator of the bundled loop tools addon.

Extrude the shape to make it 3D (if you want), and add a constraining loop cut to make the subserf stay closer to the shape of the base geometry (⎈ CtrlR+E to make the new cut aligned to the existing edge loops, and F to pick between the edge loops you want to align to).

Make the outer edges of the cube/plane sharp with edge crease (⇧ ShiftE).


How to get / set attributes scene property in blender 2.79?

The code given in the linked answer as you rightfully point out only works in Blender 2.80. I cannot find the source at the moment, but I read somewhere that __annotations__ have been added to Blender 2.80 for exactly the reason you are trying to use it: So that a user can conveniently check out custom added properties that came from Add-ons. There is no true replacement for that in Blender 2.79, the feature simply did not exist.

Other methods can get you a long way though. The given code example can be changed to this:

def my_function(self, context):
    first_scene = bpy.context.scene

    ### new scene creation comes before the loop:
    new_scene= bpy.data.scenes.new("New scene")
    context.window.scene = new_scene

    ### copy attributes from source to target scene:
    for key in first_scene.scene_prop.bl_rna.properties.keys():
        source_attribute = getattr(first_scene.scene_prop, key)

        ### copy attribute only if it can be written
        ### bl_rna.properties returns more props than you defined yourself
        ### one example is 'rna_type', which is write protected
        ### so use the .is_property_readonly() method that each prop offers to check this
        if not first_scene.scene_prop.is_property_readonly(key):
            setattr(new_scene.scene_prop, key, source_attribute)

There are only two major differences here. One is that the property string list is retrieved using .bl_rna.properties.keys(). You will see .bl_rna on most corners of Blender Python, it is a way of inspecting the internals of the current Python object you are dealing with. Most commonly you will then use the properties path from there (as we do in this code example) to get to the custom defined properties.

The problem we are facing now is, we also get additional ones that were created by Blender itself. rna_type is a common one, I've seen others as well though. Some of these properties, like the mentioned rna_type, are write protected. That's where the second change comes in: Your custom scene_prop has a method called .is_property_readonly(), which needs a string passed on to it - the key we just retrieved. So the if-clause makes sure we just try to set the prop if it can be written.


texture problem (going over the whole body)

I think you problem is the UV, your Main character is using all the UV layout and your spider is using all the UV Layout too, once you export both as a single object your are getting only one UV Layout for both objects, you need to arrange your UV's before you move frome Blender

Hope that helps

Good Luck


Your question is not clear, if you're talking about what he's doing a 3:10 (not sure though):

Select the 3 edges of a corner, then press shiftG (select similar) > Length, it will select all the edge with a similar length, in this case the edges separating the 6 faces of the cube.
Now to separate these 6 faces, just press V (rip).
As Pivot Center, choose Individual Origins, now when you scale down the whole mesh, each face will scale individually.
Note that his cube is shrinkwraped to another round cube, which makes the individual faces follow a round profile.


Weird deformities when remeshing and using the grab brush

Had clipping enabled in Mirror modifier. Unchecked that and now it is fixed.


Try this:
import bpy

sky_texture = bpy.context.scene.world.node_tree.nodes.new("ShaderNodeTexSky")
bg = bpy.context.scene.world.node_tree.nodes["Background"]
bpy.context.scene.world.node_tree.links.new(bg.inputs["Color"], sky_texture.outputs["Color"])

You can then tweak the options like this:
sky_texture.sky_type = 'HOSEK_WILKIE' # or 'PREETHAM'
sky_texture.turbidity = 2.0
sky_texture.ground_albedo = 0.4
sky_texture.sun_direction = mathutils.Vector((1.0, 0.0, 1.0))  # add `import mathutils` at the beginning of the script


Graph Editor - Moving only one side of a tangent for multiple keyframes

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

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


Your error comes from this bit

verts = [[1, 2, 3]]

for i in range(0, 3):
    vert = [1, 2, 3]
    verts.extend(vert)

print(verts)
#[[1, 2, 3], 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3]

you want to use verts.append(vert)

If you use append you will have 4 verts  and your faces has [0, 1, 2] are you trying to build a mesh with a triangular face and a hanging vert?


When I subdivide a face, how do I get each face from the result in Python?

Bmesh approach

Using the bmesh operator bmesh.ops.subdivide_edges(..) with cuts = 1 and use_grid_fill = True will produce the result of subdividing a quad face into four.

Test script, run in edit mode, subdivides face 0, prints the four newly added faces.

import bpy
import bmesh
context = bpy.context
ob = context.edit_object
me = ob.data

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)

face = bm.faces[0]
ret = bmesh.ops.subdivide_edges(bm, edges=face.edges[:], cuts=1)
for f in ret['geom']:
    # new geometry
    if isinstance(f, bmesh.types.BMFace):
        print(f)


As workaround, you could get away with Import Image as Plane Addon which creates a simple plane that you can use as reference. It actually also creates a texture shader for which you can use interpolation as closest in the shader texture node.

If you still want to be able to position it in front and change the alpha not as convenient as the background image but, you can add transparent and a mix shader. And disable selection mode to let you select object located behind it.


Strange Cycles noise pattern not based on samples or denoiser - bug?

It seems like a compression artifact try disabling compression by setting to 0;


Is it possible to create a new type of context with Python?

Answer is actually very simple: no. :)

Afaik this is not even in our TODOs - we rather aim at creating custom spaces from py… But no ETA on that either.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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


The Pivot point of every object is glued to the 3d Cursor

You probably just changed your pivot point to 3D cursor.
It's the second dropdown menu on top of viewport.


What you are describing is exactly one of the uses of texture baking. In this case you could use either cycles or the old blender internal.
The process would be:

Texture the object.
UV unwrap the object.
Bake the Perlin noise texture.

I'm using cycles, but the same principles apply to the BI (in the blender internal renderer you can pick what type of noise generator it uses, cycles only has perlin noise.)
Texturing
Texturing is very easy, because it is all procedural. My material is super basic, just the noise texture and a gamma node to boost the color:

Yes I'm using a teapot as my demo.

UV Unwrapping
In edit mode simply select everything and hit U > Smart UV Project. Depending on your model and what else you are going to do with it you might need a better UV map. Sufficient to say, smart uv project does not always do the best job. Yet if all you are going to do with it is bake a map, then this will do.

Texture Baking
Before you can bake the texture you need to create an image blender will bake to. So in the UV Image Editor create a new image. "New" button in the header. Or if the new button is not showing, then click the "+" plus button in the image data block control, its still in the header.
Important Add an Image Texture node to the material for your object. Set the texture to the image you just created. The Image Texture node should not be connected to anything, but it must be active.

All set for baking.
In the Properties window go to the Render tab and scroll down to the Baking section. Here change the bake type to Emit (notice I'm using an emission shader in my material), and hit the large Bake button.

Presto you have a 3D procedural texture baked to a 2D image for further use anywhere.


Export UV mapped texture maps to images?

The approach I am taking now is to bake Diffuse with only Color Pass turned on, i.e., without Direct or Indirect. What I get looks like "the pixel-shifted-around versions of the original diffuse map", and it definitely matches the UV coordinates in the .obj file because it's baked. Hence, it serves my purposes for now.

That said, I am not sure if this is really the best way or even the correct way of doing this thing.


First thing, you should lower down the Subsurf View value of all your objects to 2 because at 5 it's hard to work.

Now, about your problem, it's because your eyes, eyebrows and eyelids are separate objects, and you didn't parent them With Automatic Weight but directly to armature as a simple parent: as you can see, if you select them, enter in Edit mode, and see what are their vertex groups in the Properties panel > Data > Vertex Groups, there's only Armature (meaning the armature object on its whole will move these objects, but not the bones within this armature, i.e. like a basic parentage from an object to another).

So first select eyes, eyebrows and eyelids, join them to the whole body with ctrlJ, go back in the vertex groups list of the whole body and delete this Armature group. Now assign all these new vertices to the group called "head". It should work (well, still some corrections to make in Weight Paint mode so that the neck bone doesn't affect the head mesh).

Hurray and Happy New Year !!!!


Any way to turn off the black lines in curve edit mode?

Sure thing.

These lines show the Normals orientation.
Just uncheck the corresponding field in the Viewport Overlays panel.
You can also adjust their length with the slider.


Texture Paint: Color shows different on the mesh

Try changing the viewport shading type to Material.


Check object for modifiers

import bpy

obj = bpy.context.object

if not obj.modifiers:
    print ("no modifiers")
else:
    print ("object has modifier(s)")

Check object for specific modifiers

import bpy

obj = bpy.context.object

for modifier in obj.modifiers:
    if modifier.type == "SUBSURF":
        print ("subsurf")

For all types see: http://www.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_current/bpy.types.Modifier.html?highlight=subsurf#bpy.types.Modifier.type

In your case I'd recommend using a list comprehension which returns True or False:

print(0 < len([m for m in bpy.context.object.modifiers if m.type == "SUBSURF"]))

or Python's any() plus the list comprehension.

print(any([m for m in bpy.context.object.modifiers if m.type == "SUBSURF"]))

Adding the Modifier if it isn't present

import bpy

obj = bpy.context.active_object
subsurf = obj.modifiers.new(name='MySubSurf', type='SUBSURF')
subsurf.levels = 2
subsurf.render_levels = 3