Portion of glass appears opaque in render

I would say it is just coincidence. The upper part is shadow casted by outside wall. It looks solid for several reasons. Partly because rendering this glass is very noise and thanks to denoising it just looks like flat (even more with your contrasted image).

When rendering in viewport without denoising, it looks also solid but with some more details.

As you already discovered - two "Table Lights" do some difference in render, even they are far and with very low power (just 10W and 60 W). Here rendered without those lights.

With those lights the render is significantly darker ... that is weird and I don't have an explanation for that, just theory.
Left render with two Point lights / Right render without ...

With provided file I didn't get such solid thing for final render with 240 samples.
Left render with two Point lights / Right render without ...

There is a difference in light rays bouncing, so it can be possibly caused by Render Properties > Light Paths > Clamping > Indirect Light.
Also you are using Limited GL preset so try to increase Max Bounce for Diffuse to 8. With those changes the render seems to be same brightness also with the two Point Lights.


Image Alpha Background Renders Black when using "Import Images as Planes"

The reason you see black in the background of your image is because your image is not using the alpha channel.

Press N to open the panel on the image/UV editor and enable the Use Alpha option for the image:

Other things could that could be happening:

1.-The Alpha channel was not enabled during the import process.

If you are using the images as planes addon to import images that have an alpha channel you have to enable the Use Alpha option, and then choose the shader you need.

When the window to load a file opens, you can click on the gear icon on the top right to display the options for the new plane (or you can press the N shortcut)

In 2.8 check the box for Use Alpha

For older versions of blender the options are:

In newer versions of blender the Use Alpha box might not be there but you can still select to have transparency as you import the image:

2.-Your Image has no alpha channel.

Open your file in an image editing software (gimp, photoshop, etc), delete the black background to make it transparent and save it again in a format that supports an alpha channel (JPG files do not support alpha, PNG, TIFF, OpenEXR do).

How can you tell if your image has an alpha channel?

At the bottom of the UV/Image editor's window you can select which channels to display:

Switching from RGBA to Alpha will allow you to see the alpha channel only

The white areas on the alpha will be opaque, the black areas will become transparent.

Just for comparison here's what the same image with no alpha channel looks like (As you can see it does not contain the outline of the leaf, just solid white):

AS AN ALTERNATIVE

If you don't want to edit your image, you can use the black information to control the transparency using a node setup like this where the parts of the image that are darker than 0.1 will be used as the mix factor for transparency. (Note that I inverted the order for the mix shader sockets)
:

NOTE
Alpha transparency for the texture will only be displayed in rendered and material view.


Can't get background image to show in cycles render

I don't know if I got what you wish, but for a simple object-over-background you could use something simpler like this:

[edit: I added another node setup, as suggested by cegaton, you can see both give same result in the two UV/image panels above/right]

note: without linking to the compositor node, imho you get no compositing in the final render...


Background Green Screen Refuses to Render

So immediately after writing this post, I had a realization. Sometimes objects don't show up in the 3D viewer, so you increase the distance you can see by hitting 'N' and going to 'View'. However I can already see it in the 3D Viewer, but then I thought that there were different properties set to the camera than the 3D Viewport.
There is a post that deals with this, which makes my post a duplicate.
How do I increase the render distance?


No, but you do have recently opened files listed in File->Open Recent.

There is the Edit Linked Library addon that adds buttons to switch back and forth between linked mesh object files, but at this stage it doesn't support VSE strips. You may want to make a suggestion to the author or use it to make a similar addon for the VSE.


How do i set the base to control the entire character?

Be sure to visualize all bone layers, then select the pelvis bone and move it (in pose mode). You'll have to set the controller bone as parent of the pelvis and of all the bones not moved by the pelvis (tipically all IK controllers and poles).


How can I make a ramification with curves?

Try Sapling tree generator, which is built in newest Blender version (user preferences -> addons -> search "sapling" -> enable (tick the box) -> in 3D view Shift+A -> curve :)
Play with the settings, and I'm sure, you'll find what you want ;)


How do you get your objects local transformations back after applying them?

As far as I know there's no way to recover those applied transform without undoing. One solution could be copying the transforms to an empty and then copy them back again from the empty when you finish.


Cycles - How can I make a sphere see through?

I think you are asking for front face culling. I have made the material in cycles since you didn't specify which engine you are using. The sphere contains a blue cube and the front faces of the sphere are not rendered. If it appears black you need to set up a shadow-less light or place lights on the inside of the sphere.

The setup:


Maybe try adding a HDRI for your lighting/reflections. Go to the World section of your shading tab and add an Environment Texture (not an Image Texture).
Blender has some HDRI's at ...2.91/datafiles/studiolights/world. You can also find plenty more for free online. One of the most popular places is HDRI Haven (https://hdrihaven.com/hdris/):


Transparent background in PNG, but MP4 background is black

Mp4 does not support alpha channel. You need to encode using a codec that does.


There is no way to "convert" logic bricks. They are native code and have much more connections to the BGE core code than Python has.

Mimic an action actuator

You might mimic the action actuator with playAction().

Dynamically configure action actuators

Your question sounds like you want to either dynamically change the configuration while the game is running e.g. setup a different action, or you do not want to use the GUI to setup a lot of actions to play.

In both situations you can still use one or more pre-set action actuators. The BGE API of the BL_ActionActuator allows you to change the configuration of each of them on the fly. Do not forget you need to activate them after configuration change.

I hope it helps


How can I copy soft-body settings to other objects?

Despite the settings being presented as a unified collection, there is some inconsistency within the physics settings. The force field, collision and rigid body settings adjust object properties, while the others are modifier properties. While the distinction may seem small it alters the location of settings when trying to access them from python.

If we set obj = bpy.context.active_object then

# force field settings -
obj.field.strength = 1.4
# collision settings
obj.collision.stickiness = 0.4

While modifier properties belong inside the modifier settings data -

# cloth
obj.modifiers["Cloth"].settings.mass = 0.4
# soft body
obj.modifiers["Softbody"].settings.friction = 0.6

We can create a short script to copy the soft body settings from the active object to selected objects.

import bpy

"""
Copy soft body settings from active object to selected objects
"""

srcSoftBody = bpy.context.active_object.modifiers['Softbody']

def mod_copy(source, target):
    for attr in dir(source):
        if attr == 'effector_weights':
            mod_copy(source.effector_weights,target.effector_weights)
        elif not attr.startswith('__'):
            try:
                setattr(target, attr, getattr(source, attr))
            except:
                pass

for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    if obj is not srcobj:
        mod_copy(srcSoftBody.settings,obj.modifiers['Softbody'].settings)

With some small adjustment this could be adapted to be used for other physics settings. While fluid and cloth should work with adjusting the modifier name, smoke and dynamic paint have settings in multiple groups, eg instead of settings smoke uses domain_settings, flow_settings, and coll_settings


Blades of grass didn't turn out what I wanted

Two problems i noticed was that there was very less number of grass blades and for some grass blades have problem with their rotation.

*Increase the number of particles inorder to increase the density of particle population. (you might already know this)

*If you have mentioned regarding the rotation of the grass, the problem might have caused due to the following factors.

1) Origin, Scale and Rotation of grass blade set incorrectly.

To demonstrate quickly, below image shows where the origin has to be if you consider the triangle is a grass blade (origin have to be at the very bottom of the model). Set the origin of every grass blades like this.

Also, apply the transformation to the object (all the grass blades used as particles). To do this press Ctrl+A in "Object Mode" and apply "Rotation" and "Scale". [Scale will be set to "1" and Rotation will be set to "0" by doing so]

2) Rotation in Particle settings set incorrectly.

Check this settings under the "Rotation"

(i) "Initial orientation" to be set correctly.

(ii) Randomization values of orientation and rotation shouldn't to be too high values.

Also, "Recalculate Normals" for the plane you are using as ground. This will set all faces in correct directions if there are any flipped faces. (You can do this by going into edit mode and select all faces and by pressing "Ctrl+N")


Boolean Modifyer dissapears if I delete object

Blender keeps data of all modifier in temporary state until the modifier is applied. Simply putting at this stage you can do whatever you want with modifiers. So, blender is not sure at this point. You can delete the modifier and object will return back to it's base form. So, modifier data and object data are dependent to each other. If one is affected then other one will be affected too.
Coming to your scenario, Assume there is a cylinder going through the cube. Boolean modifier is configured to affect the cube. So, if cylinder is going through the cube it will make a hole in cube. When you delete the cylinder you will loose hole too. Because object data and cylinder data are dependent to each other. So, to save your hole apply the modifier. This will now make modifier data independent to modifier object and your target object will be modified. After you can delete the modifier object. in this case after applying modifier you can delete cylinder and you will have hole in cube.


Softbody is clipping and shrinking when it comes in contact with an object (with collision enabled)

Maybe the inner thickness of your collision object is too high and thus surmounts the outer thickness, effectively pulling every softbody-vertex into the collision object.
As far as I know the thickness values are actually in meters, if you didn't know that already.


Tangent shading for BI was introduced in 2.42. According to the feature note:

Using the 'tangent' option in the Material → Shaders panel alters the direction of shading to use the tangent vectors, giving anisotropic shading for any of Blender's diffuse and specular shaders. This is useful for creating brushed metal or wood, where the microscopic grooves in the material give highlights that follow a direction, rather than just being circular.
Currently, Blender uses a mesh's UV co-ordinates to define the direction of the shading (along the V axis). This means that models must be UV unwrapped to take advantage of tangent shading.

So, an expected anisotropic result needs UV coordinates to know which direction the light should stretch. To be exact, the anisotropy will stretch the light vertically along the UV coordinates.

For the attached case, You can unwrap it from the side view with UV unwrap methods like Cylinder projection, which is usually recommended. Besides, using UV as the Coordinate type in Texture setting is the better choice as well.


How can I access cloth properties via python?

Direct Access
You can access all 'cloth properties' of an object by referencing the cloth modifier:
>>> bpy.data.objects['Cube'].modifiers['Cloth'].settings.mass
>>> 0.30000001192092896
>>> bpy.data.objects['Cube'].modifiers['Cloth'].point_cache.frame_start
>>> 0
>>> bpy.data.objects['Cube'].modifiers['Cloth'].point_cache.use_disk_cache
>>> False

To find the desired property you can use python's dir() method, which returns a list of valid attributes for e.g.:

modifiers['ClothModifierName'].collision_settings
modifiers['ClothModifierName'].settings
modifiers['ClothModifierName'].point_cache

which also contain all the relevant attributes.

Click to enlarge

Setting Cache attributes like use_disk_cache and frame_start of the active object:
>>> obj = bpy.context.active_object
>>> obj.modifiers['Cloth'].point_cache.use_disk_cache = True
>>> obj.modifiers['Cloth'].point_cache.use_disk_cache
>>> True
>>> obj.modifiers['Cloth'].point_cache.frame_start = 10
>>> obj.modifiers['Cloth'].point_cache.frame_start
>>> 10

To avoid assignment errors you can check the respective 'property type' by using python's built-in type() method:
>>> type(bpy.data.objects['Cube'].modifiers['Cloth'].point_cache.use_disk_cache)
>>> <class 'bool'>
>>> type(bpy.data.objects['Cube'].modifiers['Cloth'].settings.mass)
>>> <class 'float'>

Multiple Objects
In order to set the attributes for multiple 'cloth objects' I'd suggest to check if the respective object has modifiers (also see this answer: Check if active object has a modifier) then iterate through the modifier list and check whether the type is correct:
import bpy

# get objects in selection
for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    # check if object has modifiers
    if obj.modifiers:
        print ("has modifiers")
        for modifier in obj.modifiers:
            # if object has cloth modifier
            if modifier.type == "CLOTH":
                # use disk cache attribute
                print (modifier.point_cache.use_disk_cache)
                # set the attribute
                modifier.point_cache.use_disk_cache = True
                # mass attribute
                print (modifier.settings.mass)
                # set the attribute
                modifier.settings.mass = 1.0

If you need to bake the simulation via python, see this answer: Setting the context for cloth bake


Given that you are dealing with a stationary camera you can't determine 3d information by solving the camera.
You need to use the trackers to solve an object.

If you can solve the object correctly you should get tracking information in 3d space. Then you can use the link empty to track to get what you need.
Keep in mind that if the object you are tracking doesn't move much and there is no parallax information, blender will not be able to determine 3d information correctly. Currently there are no photogrammetry tools built into blender.
Read:
Object Solve option not avaliable

Old Answer(before the OP explained the kind of scene being tracked)
You need to solve the scene first.
Then use the option in the solve menu: Geomety > Link Empty to track.

From the Manual:

Link Empty to Track
Creates new empty in 3D viewport and appends contraint which parts it to the active track.


A plane not visible in Viewport appears in render

First press the button marked red, then enable the option in marked yellow. It should make the plane appear in the viewport and you can remove it. Don't ask me why it's not enabled by default. This is the method to hide objects in 3d View but not for the actual rendering. It's meant to work across linked copies in different scenes or separate files.
Also see: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/outliner.html#restriction-columns


The reason for this is that there is a big difference between frames and logic ticks. There is a default of 60 logic ticks per second, and 20 frames per second.

The current frame rate in your scene can be found here in case you accidentally changed it, but the default is 20.

If you add a delay sensor, and hover over the
 delay field, the tool tip that opens shows this:

The relation here is three logic ticks for every one frame. So for your mouse sensor, it should have the true level triggering set to 15 for 5 frames to play on your action actuator

You can avoid this by changing your mouse sensor's delay between positive pulses from 5 to 15


How to transition from plane to cylinder

Steps:

Enable LoopTools add-on.
Create Circle with chosen vertices count. Mine is 16.
Go to Edit Mode rotate Circle 90 degrees (X or Y axis).
Select top most vertex on the Circle and hit V to Rip selected vertex to two vertices. Now Circle has 17 vertices.
Create line with 17 vertices. I've done it by adding a Plane, deleted two vertices and CtrlR > 15 (15 cuts + 2 verts = 17).
Level line with Circle bottom. I've used snapping. And also scale it a bit.

Select All A than W > LoopTools > Bridge and set number of Segments and Strength of this bridge.
Extrude line to have a plane and extrude circle to have a tube.


Euler formula for geometric modeling faces, holes

It is not entirely clear what you are asking, but the Euler formula is
V - E + F = 2 (1-g), where g is the number of holes (the genus).
Perhaps you also have cavities? Then look at this San José State exposition.


Save a file with filename prompt from script?

After a bit of research, I found a solution for you.

To fix your issue, simply pass the value 'INVOKE_AREA' into save_mainfile, bpy.ops.wm.save_mainfile('INVOKE_AREA'). This will open a file selector if the file is not saved, otherwise it will bring up a prompt that confirms the user wishes to save over the file. If you want to avoid the confirm dialog, you will need to call save_mainfile without 'INVOKE AREA'.

Passing 'INVOKE AREA' defines the operator context, which allows save_mainfile to bring up the file selector.


Is there a way to "unprotractor" a mesurement with the ruler/protractor tool?

Grab the angle point, and drag it out of the viewport window, and release. This will make it go back into measurement mode.


More effective way to subdivide the cone?

There are many ways to do it I guess. Here's mine:
After adding a cone set it's base fill type to triangle fan. Select the lower edge and press Ctrl+B to bevel it and scroll the mouse to add two additional edges. Change the mode to Percent (press M tree times) and place the edges very near to each other. Next select the very upper edge and place it on top of the cone pressing G twice. Add a subsurf modifier.

Finally dissolve the edge at the bottom (X-->Dissolve Edges) and add the edge loop (Ctrl+R) to replace it.


You can press N to show the side panel an change from multi texture to gls.

If the image still white change the viewport shading shortcut Z to material or texture.


Faster Process suggestions for Interior Renders

If you are creating scenes multiple times, each with similar ideas/looks, why not create an asset pack?

Firstly, create your tables, windows, chairs, vases, couches, curtains, etc. and put them on a single .blend file, group them by object type, then import the file whenever you want to use them. It saves loads of wasted time.

Secondly, You may know this already but I'm going to mention it just in case. Use the boolean modifier for windows. It's a time saver. This is a great thing to use on the asset pack windows as well.

Thirdly, if you don't want to use an asset pack and need to create unique objects whilst cutting back on time, create objects with single colours or built-in textures like noise. This often means you do not need to worry about UV unwrapping. This though may not be what you are looking for but it is quite a viable option.

Fourthly, whenever possible, keep your objects in a cube-like fashion. UV unwrapping becomes 100X easier. Plus, when your items are like this, you can use smart UV unwrap and it normally works a treat. If your meshes become complex, take a look at the decimate modifier. It may help, or it may not.

Fifth, Create all your models, then texture. I know this may sound stupid and people will argue with me on this one. I find this something of personal help. It may work for you, it may not. I just find that you can keep yourself in the modelling headspace much easier if you're not switching between two tasks. Plus, if you find an object doesn't quite work with the scene, you don't have to re UV unwrap it when you're done. 'OHH, but it's not the same without colour'. That, my friend, is what my recommendation 3 is for. Add solid colours before you texture. Ensure everything works well together.

Sixth. Simple but helpful. Use backface culling on the walls, floor and roof so you can see your scene from the outside.

Finally, use the mirror modifier. The number of times I see people using the mirror modifier to create their object, to only apply it and UV unwrap the whole mesh. If you have used a mirror modifier, or can use one, it can halve the time spent on each object. Even if you need to texture each side slightly differently, (the left handle needs to be blue, the right red) still UV unwrap with the mirror modifier. Once you have unwrapped, apply the modifier and both sides UV will appear on top of one another. Move the handle to where you want it.

Tadaa, Seven wonderful tips, as you requested :P

You may use them, you may not, but all my recommendations are up to the preferences that suit the user.

BTW, I would love to see a render of your scene when you are done. I love the look of interior designs :D

Good luck with your project and I hope I helped,

BFB

Quick afterthought:

If you want quick, less realistic renders and the option to look in realtime, I recommend checking out Blender 2.8 and its new feature EEVEE.
It does take a while to get used to the new interface and it is still in production, riddled with bugs, but for what you are doing, I believe it will help you allot, particularly with texturing.


How to exclude an object from Freestyle render?

So you want freestyle on the plane but not the plane :)

This is very easy to do. Add the plane to an object group. Select it and press CtrlG.

Now in the Scene tab of the Properties panel scroll down to the "Freestyle Line Set" section, and add Group to the "Selection By:" setting. (outlined in red in the image below)

Set the group you made earlier as the "Group" (the group field will be on the bottom).
Now depending on which plane you grouped, click the "Inclusive" box if you grouped your airplane; because you want to only include objects in the group in this freestyle lines. Conversely  if you grouped the ground plane click the "Exclusive" box, to exclude the ground plane from freestyle.


I locked one axis in edit mode and don't know how to unlock

Omg it was scaled to 0 on its flat surface... and I could not see it
My bad XD


So far you are correct in your mapping.  if the emission texture is black and white, its a map to tell the shader where the object should emit light, (it would be used as a factor between the principled node and an emission node.)  If it has color, it's a color map for your emission.
I hope this is helpful.


You can use "UV project modifier" to do that:

The principle: the modifier will take the object (often camera) as point of view to determinate UV map projection.


Wrapping up comments section with additional gifs.

Moving camera:

You can move Camera in many ways.

Grab it with G.
Fly with it Shift+F.
Or just Lock Camera to View and move around like in Viewport.

In example above I've locked camera and expanded its view along viewport.

Change Focal Length:

Second option is Focal Length under Camera tab. This one seems to be solution for you as basically it will show you more without zooming in or out. Note that it will distort objects appearance. Lower values = more distortion.

After lowering value you will need to move camera towards objects.


Apparently Auto Smooth wont work if you have custom split normals, if you want to use it you will have to remove any custom normals and loose it's data.

In the Properties Window > Object Data (Mesh tab) > Geometry Data Panel > Clear Custom Split Normals Data button and you should be able to use Auto Smooth

Otherwise just add an Edge Split Modifier


Why do the Boolean options disappear when the Boolean modifier is applied?

The idea is that you don't apply a modifier until you need to (if at all). It is not uncommon to never apply the modifiers if you don't need to directly access their result in edit mode. You can leave modifiers in the modifier 'stack', which allows you to turn them on or off, re-order them and change their settings. Once you apply the modifier, any changes the modifier makes are written directly (and permanently) to the mesh.

As you say, the only way to undo the effects after applying a modifier is to undo, restore a previous version of the file (if you have one) or restore a previous version of the mesh (if you have one).

Because applying a modifier is 'destructive' (to the original object) it is not uncommon to either not apply the modifiers or to keep a copy of the original mesh on a spare layer if they do need to be applied.


This is from snapping. You must've accidently turned it on. Click the magnet again to turn it off. You can find it at the bottom of the 3D viewport (the main window.)

When you know it's on, snapping is a helpful tool to move stuff exact distances without having to type it in.


Attribute nodes are case-sensitive, if you change "Flame" to "flame", that should correct the issue!


You probably have a test build with a tweak patch. Yes, tweaking involves mouse.

  (...) drag and let go via either left or right click, which most applications have.

This means you click on an object, drag it while holding down the mouse key and release the key when you're done.

You may also read the posts by a pansi and Fligh users


I would like to know how to render a 3D cylinder into this 2d line art style

Here is one way:
Render your scene

Using a completely transparent material, so that only the background color shows

with an orthographic camera, to remove perspective and make it like a diagram

Using Freestyle to draw the lines.
First, the material. This will be in blender internal, not cycles. Just make a normal material, turn on transparency, and turn the alpha to zero. This will make the object completely invisible. You can set the background color by changing the "Horizon Color" in the World tab in the Settings window.

To render with an orthographic projection, as used in diagrams and blueprints, change the projection type on your camera object:

And finally, to draw the lines, first turn on freestyle: there's a checkbox at the bottom of the Render tab of the Settings window. The default settings will create lines at the creases of your object and around the silhouette. To also draw the occluded lines, like the back bottom half of the cylinder, turn off the "visibility" selection criteria for your freestyle line (render layers tab of the properties window):


How can I stop Blender from rendering the 3D scene instead of my video?

The solution is to check the Sequencer tag. I wasn't able to find it from other answers originally as it has moved in the new 2.8 UI.


For the record, there are a few different methods to combine alpha correctly, loosely summed up as:

Correlated geometry: Use an add. Examples are where you are certain the geometry doesn't occlude each other at the subpixel level.

Uncorrelated geometry: Use a probabilistic A+B-AB. Examples include two pieces of glass overlapping, or any element where the geometry overlaps another piece.

Further reading:
http://lists.openimageio.org/pipermail/oiio-dev-openimageio.org/2012-July/005642.html


wireframe while everything else is solid

Check in edit mode if your object actually has faces. Otherwise go to the the material tab and see if you have invisible (next to backfacing) checked, as it makes the objects look like wireframe. I added some images to show. Hope I was helpful.


Impressing a spiral on the surface of a cone

Since the example isn't linear, you could make a profile and bend it

Create the shaft profile as a flat plane. Subdivide it evenly using loopcuts.
Give it a Simple Deform Modifier > Bend and target an Empty 01
Add Simple Deform Modifier > Taper and target Empty 02

By moving Empty 01, change the diameter of the shaft.
By moving Empty 02, change the taper direction.
Then just apply the modifiers, fill the gap you're done.


How can I mask an object to allow another object to show through?

Generally, you would combine the 2 images using a mix shader, and use the mask image as the mix factor. See Below:


Your demand sounds a bit strange considering the fact the BGE does not support paths.

You already have an animation. You can simply play it. To play rotation or location animations at different locations ensure the animating parts of the door are parented to a not animating object, such as a static empty.

Sample structure:

base (fixed)

frame (fixed)

wing left (animated)
wing right (animated)

You can align the door by moving and rotating the base object. (Indeed the frame can act as base too).


What should be selected in order to store a pose?

Not familiar with the MakeHuman rig specifically, but generally speaking, on a sufficiently complex rig, you typically have control bones and deformation bones. You only set keyframes on the control bones... this is both in animation as well as building a pose library. Judging from your screenshot, I'd say you should only set keys on the larger, L-shaped finger bones and not the bones located within the mesh geometry. Those should remain hidden in nearly all cases.


Okay, so here's your problem:

Your image node settings for your textures are set to "Clip" when they should be "Repeat". As you can see by my screenshot, it now works.


Is there a hotkey for automatic key-frame insertion? If not how do I set it?

There is no such a key as far as I know.
2.79
To add it in 2.7 you should go to User Preferences(ctrl+alt+u), Input tab:

And add a new hotkey for the area of Blender you would want it to work in. You can use wm.context_toggle with a context attribute tool_settings.use_keyframe_insert_auto:

2.8
In 2.8 you can just right click the icon and choose Assign Shortcut:

It seems the button does not refresh instantly on the interface when you use such a shortcut. It refreshes when you move the mouse to another editor or perform some other action that refreshes the UI. I believe that should not affect the functionality.


Is it possible to play the rendered animation backwards continuously via the built in player?

When playing in build-in player, you can hold LMB then drag towards left / right for manual scrubbing. Some other commonly-used features:

P to toggle ping-pong mode.
0 to toggle loop.
Enter to start playing when paused.


Compositing: When using Alpha Over node, only one render layer appears!

You render layers seem fine, What I think is missing is compositing checked in the Post Processing Panel in the Render tab.

Edit you need to have all 3 layers active in order to work, in the scene part of the Layers Panel, only the layer  3 is active. Shif select the other two layers to enable them.


How do I make my background image in VSE visible?

The background image on the viewport is for reference only. It will not render.
Add a strip with your background image, place it under the scene strip, and make the blend mode for the scene strip Alpha Over

To make the background transparent please read: How do I render a background image as a sky in blender 2.7x


Start by selecting all the objects you want to have the same modifiers applied to.
Add the decimate modifier to the active object. The active object is the one that is highlighted in a lighter colour than the others, it is also the one that you can alter in the properties window.
Press CtrlL and select modifiers. This copies the modifiers from the active object to all other selected objects.

If you want more control there is an addon called "Copy Attributes Menu" that you can enable (it is included with blender) that allows you to copy selected modifiers.

If you then want to apply the modifier to all objects you can use AltC and select Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text, it may sound odd to convert a mesh to a mesh but it applies all modifiers to the selected objects.


Can I use Blender to create an open loop race car track level?

As J.Doe yes you definitely can! There's even tutorials on that exact task,

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

Although this specific video is on a loop track making an open one wouldn't be much different I don't think. Of course depending on what you're actually trying to do you may need to look for more specific tutorials, like if you're making it for animation inside blender or if it's intended for a game or perhaps you want terrain around your track, there's tutorials out there for a lot of tasks in blender if you need them. Best of luck! :)


Simple answer is No if you haven't already saved the last image to disk - a generated image texture that is being used to bake doesn't save automatically, so if you rest to bake again without saving previous results, it will not come back if you escape and undo.


Smoke option missing in physics properties


Blender 2.8 Eevee Transparent Background Output

Firstly,  Render an Png or Tiff Image sequences which supports RGB + alpha  instead of Video.
Secondly,  To enable transperancy go to Render Settings in the properties panel and under Film go to alpha and select Transperant from the drop down.


Why does a face on one side of the cube not go with the vertex?

This is happening because of the way polygons are displayed. In order for the geometry to be displayed it needs to be triangulated as video cards draw only triangles behind the scenes(math is easier this way and pretty much all computer graphics currently are built on that). There are two ways to triangulate the side faces in your example:

What we are observing here is automatic triangulation algorithm failing to guess what kind of triangulation is desired in this case.

Errors like this will happen from time to time if you have concave n-gons. The best thing to do here is to get used to not having them in your geometry.

You can solve the issue manually connecting vertices of any concave geometry to make them convex as you can see in the GIF. If it happens that you need an automatic way to fix these issues you can also go to the Mesh menu in the header of any 3D View panel and choose Clean up -> Split Concave Faces while you have everything selected in edit mode:


Reopening your file removes all datablock that have been created and then not used, nor marked as "Fake user".

I.e. you create two materials for an object, then assign only one of them.
The unused object remains as datablock with no users.
When you close the file and then reopen it, the unused datablock (i.e. the unused material) disappears.

I don't know if this is your case!

See Blenders manual section on: Garbage Collection


The  cloth self-collision is affected by the scale of the faces making up the cloth. This means that when you have a fairly coarse level of subdivision the self-collision Distance will result in a cloth that is quite separated whereas if you subdivide the mesh more finely the cloth is permitted to get closer before colliding. Since you only have a single face-width between your folds the self collision is forcing the sections apart in your first example, resulting in the cloth being blown out into the unnatural shape.

The solution is therefore to simply add more subdivisions. This will result in  the scaling of the self-collision to be more appropriate and will also produce a more natural behaviour of the cloth - but this will also significantly affect the simulation time.

To demonstrate this working, here's my subdivided example mesh :

I first ran the simulation with lower subdivision and a Self-Collision Distance of 0.55. This resulted in overlapping faces as in your second example. Using a high Distance also caused the cloth to 'blow out' as in your first example.

However, the higher subdivisions allow the Distance to be left at the default value of 0.75 without the cloth being 'blown out' while also preventing it from self-intersecting. In addition, the cloth was allowed to collide quite close together so there is not a significant gap between the layers. This produced the following result :

This was produced with the following cloth settings :

If you still have intersection issues (particularly from fast moving collisions) you may need to increase the Cloth Quality Steps and/or the Collision and Self-Collision Quality settings (this will also slow down the simulation).


How can I delete internal vertices/faces and edges?

I think booleans are the answer, but you can do this without separating parts of the object. As of Blender 2.77 you can use the Intersect option in edit mode.

Here I have two overlapping cubes:

Select one of the parts (as shown above) and choose Mesh> Faces> Intersect (Boolean) from the 3D header.

From the toolbar (T) change the boolean type to 'Union':

The two meshes have now been 'merged' with their overlapping geometry removed:

You can either do this once for each piece of intersecting geometry or select all the intersecting pieces (apart from the piece they are intersecting with) and boolean them all at once.


Yes, though you may need to change the driver to a scripted expression (easy to do). See The Blender Documentation for more info.
I’m guessing you copy-pasted the driver.

Right-click the driven property (purple) and click edit driver.
In the appearing dialogue, change the mode from averaged sum to scripted expression.
Put an abs(...) around the variable now in the scripted expression field to take its absolute value. For example, if the variable was position the code should be abs(position).


Older Version of Blender for ARM processors?

You can run blender 2.82 on the Pi, with the following command:
sudo apt install blender
then:
MESA_OPENGL_VERSION_OVERRIDE=3.3 blender
But that's a hack, it's slow, and lighting doesn't work correctly.
On the plus side, you can compile blender 2.79 by running a modified version of the setup script and disabling cycles embree. To edit the setup script successfully, remove all mentions of sse, and replace all -march=i386 flags with -march=native.


How could you draw a box.menu visually like an box.operator?

You cannot, .menu() entry is always drawn borderless. To make a border around you can only place it inside a box:


If I understand your question, this is native behavior. Freestyle edges can not only be excluded, they can also be included. And you can include ONLY freestyle edges if you so desire.
This setup does it. I removed all edge types but edge marks:


Ok, here the script that adds button with such function to "Select all by trait menu". Feel free to improve

bl_info = {
    "name": "Select Doubles",
    "author": "Lambdadelta",
    "version": (1, 0),
    "blender": (2, 78, 0),
    "location": "(Edit Mode) Select > Select All by Trait",
    "description": "Select all duplicate vertices.",
    "warning": "",
    "wiki_url": "http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/68326/select-all-overlapping-vertices",
    "category": "Mesh",
    }

import bmesh
import bpy
from mathutils import Vector, kdtree

def select_duplicate_vertices(context, distance):
    obj = bpy.context.object
    me = obj.data
    bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
    verts = bm.verts
    verts.ensure_lookup_table()

    # Create a kd-tree from a mesh
    size = len(verts)
    kd = kdtree.KDTree(size)
    for i, vtx in enumerate(verts):
        kd.insert(vtx.co, i)
    kd.balance()

    # Deselect all
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action = 'DESELECT')

    # Select duplicate vertices
    for i, vtx in enumerate(verts):
        vtx_group = []
        for (co, index, dist) in kd.find_range(vtx.co, distance):
            vtx_group.append(index)
        if len(vtx_group) > 1:
            #print(vtx_group)
            for index in vtx_group:
                verts[index].select = True

    # Switch to vertex select
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode(use_extend=False, use_expand=False, type='VERT')

    # Show the updates in the viewport
    bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me, False)

class SelectDoubles(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Select duplicate vertices"""
    bl_idname = 'mesh.select_doubles'
    bl_label = 'Select Doubles'
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    distance = bpy.props.FloatProperty(
        name = "Distance",
        subtype='DISTANCE',
        default = 0.001,
        min = 0.0,
        max = 50.0,
        description = "Minimum distance between elements to select.",
        unit='LENGTH'
        )

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

    def invoke(self, context, event) :
        select_duplicate_vertices(context, self.distance)
        return {"FINISHED"}

def menu_func(self, context):
    self.layout.operator(SelectDoubles.bl_idname, text="Select Doubles")

def register():
   bpy.utils.register_class(SelectDoubles)
   bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_edit_mesh_select_by_trait.append(menu_func)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(SelectDoubles)
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_edit_mesh_select_by_trait.remove(menu_func)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


It seems to be a subdivision issue.
I cleared the parent, subdivided the plane and parented it again with automatic weights. It works fine then I think.

Edit: Here is the edited file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1kZZFuC196PkZ_omzLCpyDzy4sQYdYoy3


Absolute Location of a Mesh with Curve Modifier Applied

If you are using Animation Nodes, try to minimize your use of modifiers and constraints, because transferring data between blender and AN is not optimal. In this case, a simple spline evaluation or spline projection will give you what you want:


Why doesn't the mirror modifier work with object groups?

The closest that I can think of to applying a mirror modifier to a group is to use the mirror object functionality, and have the constituent objects in the group be mirrored by using the mirror object. According to the Blender manual, the definition of a mirror object is

  ... another object (usually an empty), to be used as the reference for the mirror process: its center and axes will drive the plane(s) of symmetry. You can of course animate its position/rotation to animate the mirror effect.

Otherwise, the mirror modifier is designed to be applied at the object level, and won't work at either the group level, or the mesh level.

To see how to use a mirror object, do a search of the available blender tutorials using the search parameter "mirror object".


How to use Shader Editor for Grease Pencil Strokes and Fills

You can't, found this on the official documentation.

  The shader is not yet a BSDF capable shader to interact with Blender lights and can only be setting up on the Material Properties panel (it is not a shader node).
  https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/grease_pencil/materials/grease_pencil_shader.html

Hope they add it soon.


Distorted Noise: Size smaller than 0.0001

I don't think your issue is Texture Size value, but not enough geometry of your object. Try to use SubSurf modifier before Displacement modifier.

BTW for such a small details I would use noise texture as Bump Map or for Microdisplacement.

Note: Quite strange for me is that textures for Displacement are different than for shaders - there is not this texture. On other hand, Noise texture node use opposite scale values, like 10000 for similar 0.0001 of Distortion Noise. And with node there in not problem set 1.000.000 :)


As mooboots said in his comment, use the array modifier:

Create the curve of the bars and and empty
Make sure that both the empty and the origin of the curve sre in the center of the disk
Apply all eventual rotation and scale of the curve and the empty
Create an Array Modifier on the curve
In the modifier, disable Relative Offset and enable Object Offset. In the field below insert the empty. There shouldn't be any visible changes
Rotate the empty on the Z axis using a nice angle (like 5, 10 or 30 degrees) ans increase the Count slider in the modifier
Done

You can still change the curve or the angle, just remember that if you want to move them you need to always move the empty and the curve together


Deform Blast Bags on Ship Turret when moving the barrels

Given the restricted range of movement required, a physics/cloth simulation might be a bit over the top? Maybe a 2-bone armature will do.. The joint between the bones is at the center of rotation of the barrel.

The root bone could be a child of the turret, the barrel-bone constrained to point down the barrel. You could start with automatic weights, and tweak in weight-painting to something like this:

Barrel Bone

Root Bone

If you want to introduce folds in the fabric, you can use corrective shape-keys. There is one in this animation, but only to suppress unnatural bulging...

If you haven't rigged to an armature before, I wish I could give a complete description in one BSE answer, but it would be too broad. Maybe check out some basic tutorials (not bothering about Inverse Kinematics to begin with), and if you get stuck on a particular step, call back with another question. This isn't a bad starting exercise.


The option to make objects not selectable still exists. On the top of the outliner window look for a filter icon (looks like a funnel).
Click on it and you will have access to other restriction toggle switches for the objects in the outliner.


How to extrude as a round shape in concentrated areas?

Here's how I would go about it.

lets say we have our initial shape (mine is slightly different):

I extrude a rectangle out of each one (Alt + E , extrude along normals):

Now, I select only the long edges (this can be done quickly using the box select in x-ray):

Then, I just bevel the edges to create a circle:

Final Result:

If you want yours to be more circular, just extrude out a larger square initially.


The solution is to delete data collections. There are plenty of collections in bpy.data which are not cleaned after deleting the object. For example if you add a camera, an entry in bpy.data.camera would be added but after deleting the camera object that entry remains that finally leads to out of memory errors. So the solution would be some thing like this:

def clear_collection(collection):
    for item in collection:
        collection.remove(item, True)

def cleanup():
    clear_collection(bpy.data.actions)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.armatures)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.brushes)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.cameras)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.groups)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.images)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.lamps)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.materials)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.meshes)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.objects)
    clear_collection(bpy.data.textures)

cleanup()


Rotate the result of a loop around an object

The easiest way to do this is to use the Transform Vector node like so:

Keep in mind that we are only changing the location of the object, so they won't rotate or scale. You could do that too, but it works a bit differently:

Side note: You can think of a matrix as a container for the location, rotation and scale of an object. Combining multiple matrices means to execute these transformations one after the other. Here is small video I made to explain the basics of matrices for artists. Maybe it helps to understand this node tree better.


How to render transparent textures in blender render?

On Material Tab, go to Transparency Section, activate leaves' Material transparency, set it's transparency mode to "Z Transparency" and then set the Alpha value to 0.

On Texture Tab, go to Influence Section, tick Alpha and set it's value to 1. Don't forget to tick Use Alpha on Image Section.

If you use an opaque image with transparency mask image, you can make the transparency mask to overlay the opaque image one using Texture Index and do things above (But, I don't guarantee it will always work).

if material still black in render mode, On Material Tab go to Shadow section tick Receive Trasparent e don't tick Cast.


I always find it easier to convert a flat text object into a mesh and to extrude the mesh. this generates a much cleaner geometry that doesn't really cause any trouble with boolean modifiers.

Here's an example:

import bpy

C = bpy.context
S = C.scene

# Add a new text object
t = bpy.data.curves.new( 'text', 'FONT' )
t.body = "Testing 1 2 3"
o = bpy.data.objects.new( 'text', t )
S.objects.link( o )

o.select = True
S.objects.active = o

# Convert to mesh
bpy.ops.object.convert()

# Extrude text
bpy.ops.object.mode_set( mode = 'EDIT' )       # Go to edit mode
bpy.ops.mesh.select_all( action = 'SELECT' )   # Select all mesh elements
bpy.ops.mesh.extrude_region_move(
    TRANSFORM_OT_translate={"value":(0, 0, 1)} # Extrude by 1 BU on Z axis
)
bpy.ops.object.mode_set( mode = 'OBJECT' )     # Back to object mode

# Test Boolean
cube = bpy.data.objects['Cube']
m    = cube.modifiers.new( 'Bool', 'BOOLEAN' )
m.operation = 'DIFFERENCE'
m.object    = o


Change Background Color of the 3D Viewport

You can change the background color by going to: User Preferences > Theme > 3D View > Theme Background Color > Gradient High/Off

Note: CTRL + ALT + U opens user preferences immediately.

You can also change the color of the wire by using Wire and Wire Edit in the same menu.


What are the hotkeys used in this video in Blender 2.69.1?

CTRL + A in object mode with an object selected you can apply the location, rotation, scale. CTRL + J in object mode with at least two objects selected will  join the objects to one object CTRL + V in edit with some vertices or edges or faces selected mode gives a vertices menu ALT + F in edit mode with 4 edges selected fills it with a face (beauty fill).

The hotkeys are the same for version 2.62 and 2.75 so i guess they are the some for 2.72b


Add a curve object and create the basic shape.

In the geometry section of the curve, give it some extrusion to get the height you want.

Use an array modifier to get as many copies as you need.


How to get a vector type from a FloatVectorProperty?

Incorrect usage.

Property Definitions (bpy.props)
This module defines properties to extend Blender’s internal data. The
result of these functions is used to assign properties to classes
registered with Blender and can’t be used directly.

In python can set up a property on some class Foo with
Foo.prop = property(getter, setter)

the property definitions module is doing much the same for blender classes, with added goodies for UI etc.
>>> bpy.types.Scene.prop_vector = bpy.props.FloatVectorProperty(default=(1,2,3))
>>> C.scene.prop_vector[:]
(1.0, 2.0, 3.0)

Notice it is a tuple the size of the vector property (default 3).  To make it of vector type
v = Vector(C.scene.prop_vector)

Also consider to set the subtype of the FloatVectorProperty to eg. Direction to get <class 'Vector'> out of the box.  DIRECTION will typecast it to a vector but assign it no units.  For a translation use 'TRANSLATION` to put the lengths in chosen scene units (eg millimeters, inches).  See also the unit property
Generic XYZ vector
>>> bpy.types.Scene.foo = bpy.props.FloatVectorProperty(subtype='XYZ')
>>> C.scene.foo
Vector((0.0, 0.0, 0.0))

Following demo is based on operator_simple.py template:
import bpy
import mathutils

class SimpleOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "object.simple_operator"
    bl_label = "Simple Object Operator"

    def execute(self, context):
        # Print type to console
        print (type(context.scene.my_vector))
        # Vector addition demo
        print(context.scene.my_vector + mathutils.Vector((1, 2, 3)))
        return {'FINISHED'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(SimpleOperator)
    bpy.types.Scene.my_vector = bpy.props.FloatVectorProperty(
            default=(1, 1, 1),
            subtype='DIRECTION')

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    # test call
    bpy.ops.object.simple_operator()


Extrude multiple Shapes along the same Curve

As far as I know this is currently unsupported, since curve geometry itself and Bevel Object are both part of Object Data.
Maybe this will eventually be supported when Library Overrides project is merged, until then here are two workarounds.
Workaround 1 - Curve deform modifier
Use bevel objects on independent "dummy curves" with a simple straight geometry, but set handles to Free or Automatic so there are enough geometry subdivisions.
Now to each of these dummy curves add a Curve Modifier and set it to an independent instance of the same "deforming curve" sharing object data. There must be one instance of "deforming curve" for each "dummy", both at the same world space coordinates, so deformations are undistorted.
Easiest way to set this up is probably to complete a single "curve bundle" and then clone both around and just change the bevel object.

Cons: The dummy curves wont keep up with severe length changes from the deformations, only shape changes.
Workaround 2 - Array + Curve deform modifier
Slightly extrude your "section defining curves" so they have a small but non zero height, then add an Array Modifier set to Fit Curve on Z axis.
Pick a "path defining curve" as curve to fit. Now add a Curve Modifier set to the same curve object on Z axis.
Clone this modifier setup around to different "section curves", but always set the "path defining curve" to an instance of the original one so they always copy the same path shape. Once again make sure objects using Curve Modifiers are always coincident with their deforming curves.
Cons: Since this relies on an Array Modifier there will always be a slight  difference (as little as the extruded height of the section) in length between deforming curve and the actual profile. Decreasing height will improve precision at the expense of performance.


Copy materials and material indices to instances which aren't copies of anotther object

The Mesh Object Input node have a Material Indices output, you can use that as the input material indices of the Mesh Object Output node as follows:

Alternatively, you can use the following expression to get the material indices:

[p.material_index for p in object.data.polygons]

Where object is your object. To apply modifiers first, you can use the following expression:

object.an.getMesh(bpy.context.depsgraph, True).an.getPolygonMaterialIndices()

As for copying materials themselves, the 2.8 version have a system to set materials to object. But if you are on an older version, you will have to use a python script. Something like this should work:

target.data.materials.clear()
for material in source.data.materials:
    target.data.materials.append(material)

Where source and target are you source and target objects.


Can I model a house in a way that I can turn details on and off?

There are several ways to go about this. You named most of them in your question actually.. You could use parenting, and you could even use multiple files, however here are the most practical ones I could think of:

Hide and show objects as needed
You can hide the selected objects with H, and you can unhide all objects with AltH. You can also use the outliner to toggle visibility, which combined  with the Groups view, you could use to hide/unhide groups of objects (you can group the selected objects with CtrlG).
Use multiple scenes
For an object you want to appear in more than one scene, select it and press CtrlL> Objects to scene, then select the scene you want it to appear in (aside from the current scene).
Note that modifying the object in any scene will update it in the other scenes as well.
Use layers
You can move the selected object(s) to different layers by pressing M and selecting the layer(s) you want the object to appear on (use Shift to select multiple layers).
Any objects on at least one of the visible layers will be displayed (unless hidden in some other way).

Some useful shotcuts for handling layers:

Pressing numbers 1..9 (0 is layer 10) will set that layer as the visible layer. You can use Shift to keep the existing visible layers visible, and you can use Alt to operate on layers 11..20.
` will toggle all layers visible (press it again to go back to the previous layers)

This is probably the most intuitive option (also arguably the fastest, as you can use convenient shortcuts like M), however you are limited to 20 layers and layers cannot be named (I sometimes write down what is in each layer with the text editor).

I assumed this is just for real-time display. If you want to animate and render this, then that's something else..


It's in Properties > Object > Display:

Note that this option is only available on mesh objects.


Is there any alternate to Mirror modifier

Yes there is.
Select your object, go to Edit mode. Press A until everything is selected then press S (to scale). Type "-1" and then press Enter.
The object will be mirrored and its location will be based on the Pivot point.


In version 2.79 Video encoding settings have been simplified.
Read:https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.79/More_Features

Choose FFmpeg video in the output panel.

A new set of options appear in the Encoding panel

There you can choose the flavor of Mpeg that you want to use:


Remove plane while keeping shadows intact

Select the plane in object mode, in the properties menu, go to the object subfolder, open up cycles settings and check the shadow catcher box. The plane will now act as a shadow canvas, and i actually suggest making it a bit bigger so that it catches all of the skull's shadow.


How to align object pivot to selected points or edges?

You can create custom orientation.

Select some vertices and your desired orientation (Normal in this case)
Add it as a custom orientation through Transform Orientation menu > +
Your custom orientation will now apply to all objects (you can change it in the list)


Color not showing up and neither is the option

Weight Painting, Texture Painting and Vertex Painting are all completely different.

Weight painting directly modifies vertex groups, which can be used to designate areas of an object (such as where you want hair to grow).

Vertex painting allows you to color the individual vertices. This technically could work, however if you have a low-poly model it's going to look pretty bad. Additionally, as far as I'm aware, vertex painting is not compatible with Cycles. PGMath points out that it is possible with Attribute nodes.

Texture painting is what you want.

Exhibit A: Our model

Step 1: UV Unwrap Your Model

If you have already done this, or already know how, go ahead and skip this step.

Basically you want to go into edit mode and select a bunch of vertices so that if you took scissors and cut along the selected lines, you'd end up with a bunch of more or less flat objects. Like so:

Now press CTRL + E and click Mark Seam.

Press A twice so that every vertex is selected, and then press U and click Unwrap.

Great! You're done with this step.

Step 2: Setting up the texture

If you have already done this, or know how, you can skip this step too.

First you need to create a texture for your model. Making sure your model is selected, and that it has a material, go to the texture panel and click + New.

Under Image, click + New and use whatever settings you'd like.

  @cegaton says:

  Beware: blender does not automatically save the texture in the blend
  file. The texture has to be saved first by pressing CTRL F3 or using
  Image Save in the image editor. Otherwise the next time you open the
  file all of your texturing work will be gone.

Step 3: Setting up the texture painting

Almost done! Go into Texture Paint mode. Press T to make the panel on the left visible. Click on the Slots tab, set the Painting Mode to Image, and select the image you just created.

Now you should be good to go!

Step 4: But it still doesn't work!

-- Make sure you don't have a texture set

Though it's not very clear, the Texture setting does not set the texture it draws on. It sets the texture that the brush uses. Unless you have a specific purpose for using it, it should not be set. If your texture panel looks like this:

That is probably your problem. Click the little X to the right of the F and +.

-- Make sure your settings are configured correctly

These settings may cause you problems:

Drawing mode: You want TexDraw. That should be the default.

Foreground color: If it's the same as the background color of the image, it won't have any effect obviously.

Strength: Make sure it's larger than zero.

Blend: Set it to Mix to make sure it's working. You can mess with it later.

The End

Blender has so many features that a problem like this could be any number of things. If you've followed all the steps and it still didn't work, I'm stumped. If you could upload your .blend file though, we would have a much easier time helping you.


Images as Planes leaving white areas of images looking gray

Colors are directly relative to light, your "white" value is determined by the color of the texture but by the light too (colors are just parts of light spectrum not absorbed).
For the diffuse part, RGB of 0.8 means that the surface diffuse 80% of the light it recieved.
For exemple pure red means (in RGB values) that green and blue are absorbed R=1 G=0 B=0.
Just to let you know there isn't any materials that returns 100% of the light it recieved.

3D rendering needs knowledge about light and photographie, I recommande you to read about this two topics.
There is a good doc about physically based rendering by Allegorithmic that you can read too.

Edit your question to add pictures if you can, I don't remember if you have the right when you start here.


Weird reflection on glass from specific angle

Check that your normals are pointing in the right direction and that your glass has 'thickness' rather than being just a single face. Reflection like that which your are seeing would indicate that the normals are pointing in the wrong direction, resulting in "total internal reflection" when light is incident at above the critical angle.


Is gone the Handles of Curve tools in 2.8 version?

I have found, it is in the Control Points menu


There's a new UI method intended for this (see below) but I find that the standard binding workflow actually works. In Object Mode, create a Grease Pencil object. Next Create an Armature object, and use Edit Mode to make whatever adjustments are needed to get them to line up as desired. Next, in Object Mode, select the Grease Pencil object, and Shift-select the Armature object, and from the Parenting menu (Ctrl-P), choose to bind with Automatic Weights. The Grease Pencil object will follow the bones.

The new UI for doing this is in Edit Mode for the stroke itself. First, create an Armature modifier for the Grease Pencil object, and point it to the Armature to be bound, as a target. Then in Edit Mode for the stroke, from the Grease Pencil Menu, go to Weights > Generate Weights > With Automatic Weights.

I assume these methods are the same and don't know why you would choose between them. But I think it's easier to use the old method.


How to fix a 3D scanned object with texture in Blender?

If you want a clean mesh out of your 3D scan you should first

Do a retopology of your 3D scan. Basicly treat it as if it were sculpted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9NAv_q_wfU

If you plan of doing this more often think about buying Blender Retopo Tools: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZH8RJDr6pg

Here is a quick and dirty retopo guide for 3d scans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbtWoJXbytM

Lastly transfer UV coordinates from your 3D scan to the new (retopo) mesh.
Can I transfer an already made UV to another object?


How to use drivers in order to allow a rotation of an object in the x axis to be mirrored as a rotation in the y axis?

Hover on the y rot value, right click and choose "copy as new driver", then hover on the z rot value and right click "paste driver".
Then you can choose "edit driver" to change the math if needed.
Remember that thoose values ar local, and it's a good habit to apply (Ctrl A) rot and scale to any object before starting animations and simulations.


How does code execution work in an Animation Nodes node tree?

I will try to explain the execution system of AN:

At first there are normal nodes. Each node resembles a specific function. It computates an output based on the input.

Multiple nodes together form a network. All nodes that have the same color belong to the same network (except Invoke Subprogram nodes, these are a bit special to make it easier to see what belongs together).

There are different types of networks. At the highest level I differentiate between main and subprogram networks. By default all subprogram networks are colored and main networks are (light) gray. Furthermore there are different types of subprograms: Group, Loop and Script

Main networks can be executed on their own while subprograms cannot. Subprograms always need to be called from another network. Most of the time they even have additional input which the caller has to provide. To call subprograms we have the "Invoke Subprogram* node.

Multiple networks (both: main and subprograms) together make up a node tree in Blender. It is not important in which node tree the subprograms are because you the Invoke Subprogram node can also invoke subprograms that are in another tree. However, it is important in which node tree your main networks are.

Each node tree can be executed individually. Executing a node tree means to execute all the main networks in it.

Because of that each node tree has separate execution settings. A node tree can either be executed automatically (this is what the Auto Execution panel is for) or you can execute it manually (or both).

So in your case you could put the nodes that should only be executed once in one node tree. And all the others in another node tree. For the first one you can disable Auto Execution and just use the Execute Node Tree button.

I also wrote something about it here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/43697/5449


Baking procedural noise to a texture from a moderately low poly model seems to bake additional info

I've figured it out! Turns out, even if it doesn't show visually, apparently if the mid-level of the input to the bump node isnt 0.5, it bakes respective to that, meaning areas that should be flat are baking as if they're offset.


Using scenes and render layers to composite an object isolated on white background with shadow

Cycles

Here is an example file for you to inspect.

The wiki page for Renderlayers in cycles:

  Render layers are used to render different objects in the scene into different images. This way they can, for example, be color corrected
  or otherwise manipulated separately and then recomposed in compositing
  later.

  Which objects contribute to which render layers are defined by these
  layer settings:

  Scene Layers: only objects on these layers will contribute to the image.
  Camera Layers: objects on these layers are directly visible to the camera. When an object is in the scene layers but not camera layers,
  it will still cast shadows or be visible in reflections, so it's still
  indirectly visible. This is equivalent to disabling the Camera in the
  Ray Visibility panel for the object. The way this works may be
  somewhat confusing at first, but it's designed such that render layers
  can be recomposed to give the full render, without any missing shadows
  or reflections.
  Mask Layers: objects on these will mask out other objects appearing behind them. This is equivalent to assigning a Holdout
  shader for camera rays to the objects on such layers.
  Exclude Layers: scene layers are shared between all render layers; however sometimes it's useful to leave out some object influence for a
  particular render layer. That's what this option allows you to do.

The object is on Scene layer 2, the lights are on Scenelayer 3, and the background is on Scene layer 4.

Transparent is enabled in Properties > Film:

And RGBA is enabled in Output:

The settings for each Renderlayer:

For the Renderlayer to result in only the object, we need to include the lights and the object layers, and disable the background layer (we don't want to exclude entirely, because we want the bounce lighting on the bottom of the object):

For the Background, the lights and background layers are enabled, and we exclude the object layer entirely, as we do not want shadows:

This one is the same as BG, except we don't exclude the object layer, so shadows cast by our object will be visible:

Compositing

Replace the image inputs in your setup with the appropriate Renderlayers:

Result:


As long as you don't need the smoke to start animating again after it has stopped you can set the start and end frame for the bake to before the set animation frames start.

Above I have set the start frame to -50 and the end frame to 1.  Once baked, the smoke animation will be done by (and freeze) at frame 1 and stay frozen for the full animation.  (For some reason the end frame can not be set lower than 1, but the start frame has no such limit.)


Animator Glitching when skipping from one key frame to another

It is a cyclic dependency.

When you move the foot controler, the console output reads. (Screenshot at the end of the post.) Open the console from the infobar menu: Window > Toggle System Console on windows.

Dependency cycle detected:
  shin.L depends on thigh.L through Parent Relation.
  foot.L depends on shin.L through Parent Relation.
  IKKnee.L depends on foot.L through Parent Relation.
  thigh.L depends on IKKnee.L through IK Constraint.

I suggest parenting the IKKnee bones to the IKFoot bones. Then there will be a hierarchical dependency.


Blender freezes, but no resources are maxed out

Processes like render can be separated in different parts, as you can see as a tiles. But some processes (like the smooth) can't be divided into threads to use all the processor cores. In this case one thread use only 1 CPU core: 1/4 or 1/8 (depends of how many cores in your CPU) of all CPU power. If so, CPU monitor will show that only 25% or 12% of CPU is used.


How do I apply a texture in Blender Render without it being influenced by the object it's applied to?

Its quite easy, just pick the "Window" coordinate in the texture panel under "Mapping"

One bit of advice though is that during animation, when you move the object or camera, the texture will move with it. i.e. your "pixels" wont stay in the same spot, so you will potentially have a flicker in your "dithering".

For stills though this is totally fine.


How to import a STL file using the file browser?

You can just add the built-in operator import_mesh.stl to your draw method of your panel which will open up the File Browser as usual and allows the user to select one .stl file:

import bpy

class OBJECT_PT_CustomPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "My Panel"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_PT_custom_panel"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_category = "Tools"
    bl_context = "objectmode"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        #layout.operator_context = 'INVOKE_DEFAULT' #'INVOKE_AREA'
        layout.operator("import_mesh.stl", text="New", icon='FILE_NEW')

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Related: How to call a confirmation dialog box?

In case you want to import and modify the .stl object for whatever reason, have a look into the Operator File Import template (operator_file_import.py) that comes with Blender.

Demo operator based on the template, allows to import the file, print the object reference and assigns a new material to the incoming object in one go:
# ImportHelper is a helper class, defines filename and
# invoke() function which calls the file selector.
from bpy_extras.io_utils import ImportHelper
from bpy.types import Operator

class ImportSomeData(Operator, ImportHelper):
    """This appears in the tooltip of the operator and in the generated docs"""
    bl_idname = "import_test.some_data"
    bl_label = "Import Some Stl File"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    # ImportHelper mixin class uses this
    filename_ext = ".stl"
    filter_glob: bpy.props.StringProperty(
                default="*.stl",
                options={'HIDDEN'})

    def execute(self, context):
        if self.filepath:
            bpy.ops.import_mesh.stl(filepath=self.filepath)
            # Print the imported object reference
            print ("Imported object:", context.object)
            # Create a material
            mat = bpy.data.materials.new(name="STLMaterial")
            # Append the material to the last slot
            context.object.data.materials.append(mat)

        return {'FINISHED'}

Further reading:

How to assign a new material to an object in the scene from Python?
Import multiple STL files and modify the incoming objects in one go?


Rendering problem - only rendering one layer?

Found the answer - in the outliner I had an object that had the "eye" turned off so that it wasn't visible in the view window, but it was part of another collection that was turned on, so it became visible in the rendering (Donut was peeking through it). The collection needed to be turned off (uncheck box) and the problem stopped. Thanks to Igor Svara for his help.


Guess what... im holding another Major L, @FFeller just told me the solution, i thought it wasnt gonna work cause i just did so much other stuff to figure this out so i didnt thought this small thing can be the fix, but it was. Just pressed Alt + H. Veeerry weird why it didnt work earlier before i posted this question, cause i obviously have tried pressing alt+h, or maybe thats what i think i did and its just me being dumb.


Change object.color property of multiple objects at a time without scripting?

The ALT multiple-property editing mechanic does not work if you click directly the Color Wheel, however it does work if you're tweaking the Red, Green or Blue channels of the color.
Note that you will have to set the display to RGB instead of the default HSV beforehand. It does not matter if you press ALT when clicking on the color field, but you do have to press it when scrubbing or before inputting a value in one of the channels.
Illustration :

Also note that if you are scrubbing a channel field, the value of that channel in all the selected objects will get relatively incremented by the scrubbed value, but if they start with a different color, their color won't always match when you finish scrubbing.
Illustration :


You can't apply a subsurf to part of an object, but you can control the way it subdivides.  Consider this object

If I apply the subsurf I get

It solves your problem by rounding, but it rounds where you don't want it to. There are several ways to fix this, depending on your need.  Here are a couple.

You can bevel edges and control how the rounding happens, perhaps making it less obvious

Select edges you want to control

Enter CTRL-B. The cursor will change.  Moving it controls the width of the bevel. Rotating the scroll wheel controls the number of steps

You can use the bevel modifier to accomplish the same thing but with more control.

You can create edge loops.  Consider the base of the extrusions. Enter CTRL-R. Place your cursor near the base of it until a red line appears around the extrusion

Left-Click and then move the line where you want it

Left-Click again.

My example would require a lot of edge loops or a lot of bevels. Here's a version with all of the edge loops selected.


Invoke the filebrowser

If the filebrowser is invoked with only a directory property and no filepath it will only have choice of folder to export to.  Possibly more handy than having a path to set in the UI.

To call the operator from code with a directory use bpy.ops.object.colladaexport(directory="/tmp") and it wont invoke the filebrowser.

import bpy
import os

from bpy.props import StringProperty, BoolProperty, EnumProperty
from bpy.types import Operator

class ColladaExport(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "object.colladaexport"
    bl_label = "Multi Collada export"
    filter_folder = BoolProperty(default=True) # only folders
    directory = StringProperty(subtype='DIR_PATH')

    def execute(self, context):

        selection = [o for o in context.selected_objects if o.type == 'MESH']
        scene = context.scene
        for ob in context.selected_objects:
            ob.select = False

        for obj in selection:
            scene.objects.active = obj
            obj.select = True
            filepath = os.path.join(self.directory, "%s.dae" % obj.name)
            '''
            bpy.ops.export_scene.collada(
                    filepath=filepath,
                    use_selection=True,
                    )
            '''
            print("collada export", filepath)
            obj.select = False

        for obj in selection:
            obj.select = True
        return {'FINISHED'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        wm = context.window_manager
        wm.fileselect_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

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

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(ColladaExport)
    bpy.types.INFO_MT_file_export.append(menu_func_export)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(ColladaExport)
    bpy.types.INFO_MT_file_export.remove(menu_func_export)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    # test call
    bpy.ops.object.colladaexport('INVOKE_DEFAULT')

Note: just found out the collada exporter I have doesn't work, so I commented it out

As a stand alone property

If you wish to define a directory on say the scene object, use the 'DIR_PATH' sub-type of a StringProperty

bpy.types.Scene.directory = StringProperty(subtype='DIR_PATH`)

can display in a draw method via

self.layout.prop(context.scene, "directory")

which will include a browse button in layout to set folder using filebrowser, like that shown for setting the render output folder.

and can use this setting in operator above from draw method with

op = self.layout.operator("object.colladaexport")
op.directory = context.scene.directory

in which case could remove the invoke method in operator above to not invoke the file browser.

Since you are using if for an addon, saving to the addons user preferences would be a good option.  See this answer

EDIT  given the edit to your question, you need to register the scene property.

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(ColladaExport)
    bpy.utils.register_class(VrTools)
    bpy.types.Scene.directory = StringProperty(subtype='DIR_PATH')

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(ColladaExport)
    bpy.utils.register_class(VrTools)
    del(bpy.types.Scene.directory)


How can I programmatically create a mesh similar to this one?

Here's my attempt at simulating your reference image using modifiers:

All it is is a cube with some modifiers:

The ocean modifier generates the base mesh/distortions, and the waves are done with a displace modifier using a wood texture.

There was a project/challenge a while back called "default cubisim" with a lot of great examples of modifier art.


How can I enable or disable bone constraint in blender game engine

Use the "run armature" actuator. you can even set it to enable/disable individual constraints like the one in your example!

heres a simple setup with a  cobra lashing out at a cube.


Bones change rotation to first frame of last animation

Make sure the action isn't still associated with the object, either via the action editor or NLA.  To see if an object has an animation look at the outliner

Here the Cube has an action (CubeAction.001) a driver and has NLA tracks.  The camera has no animation.

How to clear all animations.

Select all the bones (pose mode)  and  clear transform

You can make a "zero" animation action here by inserting a LocRotScale.


Make fluid move around the edges of an object / mesh

You are looking for fluid obstacles. To set an object as an obstacle give it "Fluid" from the physics panel and then choose "Obstacle" from the drop down menu.


How do i make shape key driver only show up when it rotates backwards in the x axis

You can duplicate the Bone.046, set a copy rotation of the original in local space, followed by a limit rotation constraint, and use it as source for the driver.
As it is a copy it will inherit every parenting options.
Limit rotation must be last in the stack.


Converting code to work in blender with sliders

Fragment Shader Solution

If we multiply the normalized polar angle by some number representing the number of strips and take its modulo with 1, it will give us a number of sub-normalized polar angle spaces.

If I get the fragment that is less than some scalar ranging between zero and one representing the thickness, we will get sharp strips.

If I get the fragment that is less that some value representing one minus center hole radius and the fragments that is larger than some value representing one minus outer hole radius. And take both values and add them to the strips we get sharp hollow strips.

To better understand the previous step, notice that the addition of both values gives a mask as follows:

Now, notice that the final result is deformed somehow, this deformation is resulted from rotating the space such that the amount of rotation of each fragment is proportional to its distance from the center. The equation of rotation is as follows:

$$
\begin{aligned}
x^\prime &= x\cos \theta -y\sin \theta \\
y^\prime &= x\sin \theta +y\cos \theta
\end{aligned}
$$

Where $\theta$ is the amount of rotation which is proportional to the distance to the center. So, by rotating the space using the previous equations, we get:

Notice, that by rotating the space, I mean the space used to compute the strips. So, from all of this, we get the shader that you were hopping to get:

Animation Nodes Solution

If you want the output shape as a mesh, then Animation Nodes can be used. The circle node can be used to easily make sharp strips, this can be done using such a simple node tree:

Same as before, we should rotate the vertices of the mesh such that the rotation factor is proportional to the distance to the center of the space. There are multiple ways to do this in Animation Nodes, one way is to use matrices just like the code above uses, another is to use the equations we used above, a third is to use the high level nodes in AN like falloffs and such. In this answer, I shall I use matrices.

Simply compose a matrix composed of the mesh vertices and multiply it by a z-rotation matrix its value is proportional to the distance to the center. Then extract the new vertices locations and compose a mesh from them. Also, make sure to increase the amount of inner loops in the circle node, ensuring there is enough geometry to create the desired effect.

This gives the final result:

By duplicating the mesh and mirroring it, we get the pattern you are after. Same goes for the fragment solution.


Is it possible to change the local orientation of an object without joining it to a "helper" object?

Nowadays, it's:

(Object Mode) Header > Options > Affect Only > 'Origins'.
(Edit Mode) Select a face/3 verts (Z normal) or edge/2 verts (Y along) you want to align to, and create a Custom Transform Orientation from the selection. (That's the little '+' in the Header > Transform Orientations dropdown)
(Object Mode) Header > Object > Transform > 'Align to Transform
Orientation'.

Depending on version, you may have to go into the F9 'Adjust Last Operation' panel on the alignment, to select the right orientation.


Python, How to Roll a Pose Bone along a Vector in PoseMode?

Rolling a pose bone.
Using python, how do you get the "roll" of a pose_bone?
IMO this is simply a case of rotating the bone around any pivot point that is on a line parallel to  y axis vector passing thru points head and tail.
Matrix math to translate, rotate, scale with respect to a pivot point in Object mode
import bpy
from mathutils import Matrix

def rollposebone(pb, roll):
    R = (
         Matrix.Translation(pb.head) @
         Matrix.Rotation(roll, 4, pb.y_axis) @
         Matrix.Translation(-pb.head)
         )
    pb.matrix = R @ pb.matrix

# test call, roll 3 degrees.
from math import radians
context = bpy.context

rollposebone(context.active_pose_bone, radians(3))

Please also note that blender  natively uses radians, as does math and numpy. Recommend using as above, ie if you wish to pass a value like 90 degrees pass via radians(90) rather than converting to and fro in code.  If making a UI give any angle property a `unit = 'ROTATION`` and it will be displayed in the chosen rotation unit, which is by default degrees.


Does anyone know how to fix the eyes while soft body effect is applyed?

For everyone stuck with this problem.

The main issue is the Mass, Blender extends the vertex group so the jiggle effect affects the head which causes the head to also have this slight jiggle.
While the eyes are locked in place by the bones.
The Speed, should be on 1.000 it makes the belly jiggle slower but also the affected head.

By changing my soft body settings like in the picture below I have solved this issue, and turned off the soft body edges.

I hope this answer will help for those who have this issue.


Why are the UV objects scaled after "Project from view"

Here a bit more precisions on how UV scale works.
When you unwrapped you probably didn't load your image in the Image Texture node (in the Shader Editor), so by default it unwrapped at a 1:1 scale. As the selected image in the UV Editor is not 1:1, it appears stretched.
To make sure that the UV is proportional to the mesh, select the right Image Texture node in the Shader Editor, load the right image, then unwrap again.
Before (Image Texture node selected but no image loaded):

After (Image Texture node selected with image loaded):


edit mode show a bunch of weird vertices after loading

You have a Shapekey selected, so when you try to edit, you are editing that key. The key itself has most likely been messed up due to changes in model topology or vertex ordering.

If you select the Shapekey called basis, then you will be able to edit the underlying shape.


You don't give enough precisions about what is your object: what sort of material you use, have you unwrapped your mesh, etc... but basically if some parts of your object need to be glossy and you can't use the topology to assign different materials to different faces, you should use a Mix Shader to mix something like a Diffuse (or whatever) and your Glossy (or whatever more compex mixes of nodes of course). Then you'll use the Factor socket of the Mix to determine what part will be glossy of diffused, for example a Noise Texture (if you're ok for a procedural texture, make it B&W because the Mix factor needs to be B&W), or an Image Texture (Non-Color mode) if you have unwrapped your mesh. It would give something like this:


First I would start by making the initial cuts. This is called "ripping" a mesh - press V in Edit Mode while the edges you want to cut/rip are selected. Then Press Esc to snap them back to their original location (they're still ripped).

From Object Mode, in the Mesh Context add two Shape Keys, the Basis and one more. After selecting the second Shape Key, Tab back into Edit Mode.

You can then enable Proportional Editing AltO and with the ripped vertices selected pull them to the peeled back position. Sharp Falloff may be the best falloff curve to use when doing this.

Tab back to Object Mode and move the Shape Key slider to see the peel-back effect animated.

You can then add a Solidify Modifier to generate the thickness of the suit automatically.

This is just a basic answer to get you started, as your question is really pretty large in scope (it's a project of its own). You may need to use cloth simulation. You may need to use a Shrinkwrap Modifier to get the suit to fit precisely onto a body. You may need to even rig parts of the rubber suit. There isn't really one quick method for doing this that I know of, but a combination of the techniques I mentioned above can probably be used to achieve a satisfactory result. Good luck!


You can turn all the duplivert objects into real objects by selecting the object with dupliverts and choosing Object> Apply> Make Duplicates Real from the menu in the 3D view, or Ctrl+Shift+A .

Then select all the individual objects and press Ctrl+J to make them a single object.


Make the hole an edge loop and then hit G followed by an axis key, that is x, y or z, to move it along the red, green or blue line that appears.


Can you randomize the triangles of an icosphere?

An easy way to get random triangles on any geometry is to start from a highly subdivided object and apply a Decimate modifier.

You will get nice regular triangles with the Collapse option. Use the Ratio to tweak the number of final faces.


is there a way to get the final object space normal (with normal maps applied)

its very simple, the normalmap output in tangent mode does exactly what i was looking for, i was being dumb, i had refactored my node networks into a bunch of nested groups and one of the inputs had set the normal intput to a float instead of a vector...
it took me to recreate the entire normal tbn matrix in nodes and debug the out put vs the normalmap node to realise ;)


Please make sure you are on the Material Under Viewport shading,

As shown below:


Multiple GPUs in AWS G2-8X LARGE I can only use 1 out of 4 GPUs

I know this question is pretty old but posting this in case anyone is having similar issues.

The question is a bit vague. I'm assuming you're using python script to call and render something in blender. I'm also assuming that you're using the following lines in the python script for setting GPU as the render device:

bpy.context.scene.cycles.device = 'GPU'
bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device_type = 'CUDA'
bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device = 'CUDA_0'

where the CUDA_0 means to use the first graphics card, CUDA_1 for second graphics card and so on. To make use of all the graphics cards, all you have to do is to modify the third line to:

bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device = 'CUDA_MULTI_0'

Unrelated: If you want to see what all options are available for this setting in your current system, use the following in the python script:

print (bpy.context.user_preferences.system.bl_rna.properties['compute_device'].enum_items.keys())

Please note that if you give only this line in the script, it will show only 'CPU'. Make sure you set the render device to GPU using the code sample I've shared, and then use this line.


Just to save your render and all your channels like mist, light passes, cryptomattes etc. to OpenEXR which allows to store all the data you need in order to comp your renders in a next stage or at any given time.
From Wikipedia:

OpenEXR is a high-dynamic range, multi-channel raster file format ... It is notable for supporting multiple channels of potentially different pixel sizes, including 32-bit unsigned integer, 32-bit and 16-bit floating point values, as well as various compression techniques which include lossless and lossy compression algorithms. It also has arbitrary channels and encodes multiple points of view such as left- and right-camera images.

Further reading:

OpenEXR in the Blender Manual
Save all render passes to EXR image?
What image format encodes the fastest, or at least faster? PNG is too slow


Black contour artifacts when using OpenEXR renders with bloom and transparency background in VSE

At first I thought it has something to do with the blend mode of the material (settings panel: Opaque, Alpha Clip, Alpha Hashed, Alpha Blend). But, that seems not to be the matter.
The reason of this artifact lies probably within the AlphaOver blend mode in the VSE. You can find a very nice explanation with CGCoockie (Working with Alpha Edges for Compositing in Blender).
A possible work-around is the following:

Duplicate the strip with the 'blooming'shape.
Set the Alpha attribute in the Source panel to "Straight".
Increase the scale of the duplicated strip a little untill the black artifact is covered.


How can I globally disable specific ray visibility settings on multiple objects at once?

If you are able to select all the objects you want to change a property for (adding them to a group can help with that), you can hold Alt while clicking a property to change that property on all the selected objects.


Saving the deformations on an object after using soft body

Run the simulation to the desired frame and then apply the Soft Body modifier in the modifiers tab. This will 'freeze' the current state of the soft body into the now static mesh.


Set vertex location to always be between two other vertices

There is a way to achieve this using three empties and two contraints. However it is only possible to manipulate the vertex positions in Object Mode, in Edit Mode it won't be possible for reasons I'll try to explain at the end of this answer.

The basic setup can be tested in this Blend File here:

As you can see, there are three Emties and a subdivided plane in there. First I created the Empties and snapped them to the vertex locations. Then, I added two Copy Location Object Constraints on the Center Empty. One copies the location of Empty A, the other one empty B. To make the Center Empty really centered between the two, set the Influence Parameter of the second constraint to 0.5

Next, Hook the three vertices to the corresponding Empties. You can do this in Edit Mode using Hook to Selected. Now, if you change the value of the influence slider, the Empty Center slides towards Empty B or A, depending on the value:

If you move A or B, this happens, while the sliding value still works:

Making it dependant on Edit Mode position fails because of the way the Dependency Graph is evaluated. The current DepsGraph still works on an Object level, meaning if you move a vertex in Edit Mode, Blender is informed about a change of the Mesh object. Blender then would trigger an update cycle on it. Now, if that results in something, say an Empty, to be moved, and this Empty again had some kind of relationship via Drivers, Constraints, Vertex Parenting, whatnot, back to the Mesh object, this would mean that the Mesh object has to be updated AGAIN. This is not allowed, as that would trigger another evaluation cycle, and the game would go on forever. It's therefore called a 'Dependency Cycle' and has to be avoided at all cost.


How do I overlay Textures in Blender Cycles?

Use the node tree you see here. The upper image node will point to that specific part of the image you want to overlay. You have to MASK those parts in the alpha channel  (I recommend you use .png with transparency) White=1 black=0 (non visible).

The second node it´s your regular image. The Texture coordinate nodes and mapping can share the plug for both images, but I´m doing it like this since I can sense in your post from what you write, this is what you want.

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BFCT_Schiller


How to extrude inside mesh while keeping relative proportions from edges

Select all internal Edges and delete them.

Select whats left (two circles should left) and press Ctrl+E and choose Bridge Edge Loops.

Press I and Inset is working fine also you will have neat topology.


Can't remove unnecessary Geometry in Object

I find this a rather unsatisfying answer, as it does not involve "proper" modeling, but a functional way to get an acceptable mesh for 3d printing (I think/hope) would be to bake a height map of your object, then use that height map to displace a subdivided plane.  This bypasses the problem of self-intersecting geometry because the height map is an undifferentiated mass of height data.

The crispness of your edges and the smoothness of your surfaces will depend heavily on how much you subdivide your plane.  It will also depend on the resolution and bit depth of your height map image, I'd suggest using a 16-bit file format.  You'd have to relate all that to your 3D printing methodology to determine whether you'll get an acceptable result.

Please let me know if you'd like a description of how to bake a height map or what I did in this particular case, my previous answer here has some info.

But as a general matter, I'd love to learn a more . . . elegant solution to the problem of self-intersecting meshes.  Something that doesn't involve a lot of manual retopologizing.


You can get the cursor location using bpy.context.scene.cursor_location

to change the cursor location you just set its values as shown here bpy.context.scene.cursor_location = (0,0,0)

In blender 2.80+, the syntax is :

bpy.context.scene.cursor.location = (0,0,0)


Instead of trying to model the curves manually, you could instead let the subsurf modifier do most of the heavy lifting for you.

An example of this might be something like:


please find this setting in edit > preferences > keymap


Object says it's zeroed on an axis, but it's not. How do I fix?

Coordinates are linked to origins of objects.
So, Right click in Object mode > Set Origin > Geometry to Origin will move the object to its origin which has zeroed coords.


When you added, or I guess when the particle system for the leaves is generated, under the particle tab in the render section, the emitter checkbox is unchecked, turn that back on, and your trunks will begin showing again.

This setting here