I still don't know the answer to the overall issue, but I have found why this occurred for me specifically.

First, turning off Windows Aero (or doing anything that disables it) will solve this problem. With Aero on, it seems that I get normal performance on 2 of the 3 monitors. In the past, my web browsing monitor was the odd man out. After some flipping things around, I found that whichever monitor was plugged in second (out of 3) will be the one that has issues. So un plugging and re-plugging the screen I wanted good performance on solved the problem, even with Aero enabled.

There must be a lot of variables going on behind the scene that I don't understand, so if anyone ever figures that out I'll be happy to pick a new answer. But for now, this does shed some light on the situation.


Normal map from retopo is having artifacts, despite subsurf

This is due to a poor UV unwrapping (I guess you Smart UV unwrapped your mesh right?), UV maps seams should be hidden as much as possible. Search for UV unwrap 3D head on google to get an idea on where to cut.

Also read the Tangent Basis parts of this post to understand why your normal map create this kind of artifacts: http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Texture_Baking


I there a way to move multiple vertices preserving a straight line

I can´t see in which axis you did the capture but for Option A I will assume it is a TOP VIEW so:
Select both of these RED circled vertex, now press S, SHIFT and DRAG to the RIGHT to scale them and make them align at SCALE 0 for both vertex.

If this is not what you expected, you can select and SLIDE the vertex you are interested by selecting the vertex and then press GG to move it

If this is still not what you expected, then select the vertex you want to align parpendicularly. Press X, D. Your vertex will be removed. Now, use the KNIFE (K) to make a clean cut from the appointed verted like in this graphic marked with the BLUE line as option 2.

Thanks for voting me up on this question or selecting it as your answer.

BFCT_Schiller


how to bend straight faces to make a curve

There are different ways (as always) to try and get what you want to achieve.

To prepare I rotated the Mesh 90° around the X axis and applied the rotation. So we can watch it from Orthograpic Top View while editing (I just prefer that).

Like @AntonPg suggested:

Go into Edit Mode
Select the middle Edge
Activate Proportional Editing (experiment with the settings ..)
Press G and then Shift + Z to move the selected Edge only on the X and Y axis (without Z axis). Then move and adjust the proportional editing influence radius (MouseWheel).


What do the bars between keyframes mean?

This means that the keyframes which the bar connects are the same.
From the manual:

When the value of a given channel does not change at all between two neighboring keyframes, a gray (unselected) or yellow (selected) line is drawn between them.

E.g. If you insert a LocRot keyframe on frame 1, then rotate and insert another LocRot keyframe on frame 10, the Location will not have changed so there will be a bar drawn between each location channel keyframe:


I found it tricky to work out as it keeps moving :) From what I can see you have a pole (6 edges) at the top and bottom of the connecting strut. You will need to move this away from the edge and probably surround it with a loop so it does not cause issues with the rest of the mesh. Possibly have a few static shots?


The Rip Fill tool comes close but it still requires a bit of cleanup to remove hidden faces.
It can be accessed either by pressing space and typing "rip fill", or you can use the keyboard shortcut ALT+v.

In the example you posted, you can now press either x, y, or z to constrain the movement to whatever axis is appropriate.

The squashed and hidden faces may cause you problems so you can remove them by first using Vertex Connect Path ,j, and now Remove Doubles should collapse them.

If you want the nGons, you can select the faces and press f for Make Face.

If the model is at some arbitrary angle,  you can set the Transform Orientation to Normal and then double tap z to move the face along its normal.
If you only tap z once, the movement will still be constrained to the Global axis, the second tap activates the custom Transform Orientation.


adding scenes into blender video duplicates soundtrack from original video

Laying text on top of a video strip in the VSE:

The VSE's built in Text tool?  That gave me no joy either so I do it this way...

In Blender's 3D window, press SHIFT-C to center the 3D cursor.

Add text for one of the subtitles and if there's no camera, add one of those also.  Ensure it is pointing straight down by pressing ALT-R.

View through the camera with Numpad-Zero key.

In the 3D window press N to bring up the window's properties and open the "View" tab and tick "lock camera to view".  Close with N again and zoom the camera in and out so you can see all of the text.  (the "Home" key will automatically fit the view to the available space.
(You can alternatively scale the text)

Various fonts aren't hard to setup, but we'll get to that below.

When you get the text looking right, make a save of this Blender setup and use it as a template for future text image creation.

Render what's in the camera viewport and save it as an alpha layered image in .png format.

To do this go to the render properties at right, (ALT-SPACE) open up it's "Output" tab and nominate the folder for the image and set it to the png format.  Make sure to press the RGBA button at extreme right in order to add an alpha layer.

Whilst in the rendering properties, go to the "shading" tab  and set it's 'alpha' setting slot at right, from 'Sky' to 'Transparent'.

Render using OpenGL or with Blender's internal render.  I prefer OpenGL for this job.
Goto upper left of window and click on "Render-->OpenGL Render Animation"

By choice I'd be creating the text images in one Blender file and using another to produce the final mixed movie in the VSE to keep things straight forward and predictable.

Once the text images have been rendered, lay them over the main movie in the VSE where they're supposed to show.

You'll need to set each text strip as an "Alpha Over" in it's properties panel but read on beforehand....
(Highlite the strip & press N)

The image strips can also be faded in and out by keyframing their opacity.

Because you'll most likely have to position and scale the text, add an effects strip for each text image.
Select the text strip, press SHIFT-A and select "Effects strip-->Transform."

When you use Effects strips, it's best to leave the text properties alone and set Location, Scale, and Opacity settings in the Effects-strip properties instead. (at right when you press N)

The movie along with subtitles can now be rendered.  The VSE will render this arrangement up quite rapidly compared to the method you have been using.

Fonts:

You can use most fonts that Windows does.  Simply goto the C:\Windows\Fonts folder and copy those you like into Blender's Fonts folder.  That's found in -

C:\Blender277\blender-2.77a-windows64\2.77\datafiles\fonts\

Once you've got a selection of fonts -

Select the text properties at right (F icon) and open the Font tab, click on the "Regular" folder, and select from those you've copied across.

Saving Blender in various setup configurations, will retain all your settings and likes, ready to be used at any time.

Colours and/or textures for added text objects can be set up as with any object.


A bone moves vertices that have a vertex group weight that matches the bone name.

Starting with the weight painted arm, in edit mode select the arm and use P->separate by selection. In object mode, duplicate the new arm object and move it into position for another arm. Rename the vertex groups in the duplciate arm to match the corresponding arm bones, eg. rename arm1_upper to arm2_upper. Repeat for each arm.

In the original mesh, delete the arm meshes. In object mode, select all the arms and then the body, use ⎈ CtrlJ to join them into one mesh. Each arm bone should now move the matching arm.


What you have basically done is destroyed all areas except the 3-D view editor. Thankfully, you can easily bring them back by dragging the corners of the area to split it, then changing the new area to what you need (see the blender manual on “User interface”), or like one of the commenters said, you can open a new blend file, then open this one without loading its UI.


You can use the Bevel tool.

In Edit mode, select all the edges you want to be rounded.
Hit Ctrl+Shift+B to initiate the tool.
Adjust the offset (radius) of the rounded corners by sliding your mouse.
Adjust the number of segments (subdivisions) you want with the mouse wheel. The more there is, the smoother the corner will be.
Validate the operation with a mouse click or by pressing Enter.

You can adjust those parameters, and many others, by expanding the "Last Operator" panel (bottom left of the Viewport; it should be labelled "Bevel"):

I assume you want to round edges of a rectangle, a planar surface; if you want to round the edges of a volume, you should use Ctrl+B instead.


A Way to Create Blender Materials in Text or Script? (Included: Script to Retexture SFM Models in Blender!)

Gorgious very helpfully pointed me towards the API documents I was struggling to find as well as an example script generating node trees in Blender. In essence my question boiled down to "where are the relevant API docs, I can't find them", and they provided exactly that in the comments of my question.
Nodes: https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.Node.html
Node Sockets: https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.Node.html
Node Types: https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.ShaderNode.html
EDIT: I have completed my script and it works! It's not general-purpose so I am hesitant to share it, but here you are. The VMT files can be present anywhere either at the same level or in some subfolder relative to the .blend file. Additionally, you need to have used VTFEdit to batch convert all the texture files (vtf) to PNG's. If you prefer TGA, just edit my script and replace PNG with TGA. Also, the actual Shader node tree is visually a mess, because I didn't do any actual placement of the nodes and they all overlap, so it's very utilitarian.
Currently, I only went for the basic properties, being $basetexture, $bumpmap, and $translucent (which sets the material blend mode to Alpha Blend).
import bpy
import os

source_dir = os.path.dirname(bpy.data.filepath)

for r, d, f in os.walk(source_dir):
    for file in f:
        if 'vmt' in file:
            mat = open(os.path.join(r, file), 'r')
            material = {}
            material['cancel'] = False

            lines = [l.lstrip().rstrip().replace('"', '') for l in mat.readlines()
                        if 'basetexture' in l or 'bumpmap' in l or 'translucent' in l]

            material['alpha'] = False

            for l in lines:
                if 'translucent' in l        :
                    material['alpha'] = True
                else:
                    img = l.split('/')[-1] + '.png'
                    found = False
                    for ro, do, fo in os.walk(source_dir):
                        for fi in fo:
                            if img.lower() == fi.lower():
                                img = os.path.join(ro, fi)
                                found = True

                    if 'basetexture' in l:
                        material['base'] = img
                    if 'bumpmap' in l:
                        material['bump'] = img

                    if found == False:
                        material['cancel'] = True

            mat.close()

            if material['cancel'] == False:
                # Begin constructing node tree for this material
                material_name = file.split('.vmt')[0]

                new_mat = bpy.data.materials.get(material_name)
                if not new_mat:
                    new_mat = bpy.data.materials.new(material_name)

                if material['alpha'] == True:
                    new_mat.blend_method = 'BLEND'

                new_mat.use_nodes = True
                node_tree = new_mat.node_tree

                nodes = node_tree.nodes
                nodes.clear()

                links = node_tree.links
                links.clear()

                master_node = nodes.new(type='ShaderNodeBsdfPrincipled')

                if 'base' in material:
                    bt_node = nodes.new(type='ShaderNodeTexImage')
                    bt_node.image = bpy.data.images.load(material['base'])
                    links.new(master_node.inputs['Base Color'], bt_node.outputs['Color'])
                    links.new(master_node.inputs['Alpha'], bt_node.outputs['Alpha'])

                if 'bump' in material:
                    bmi_node = nodes.new(type='ShaderNodeTexImage')
                    bmi_node.image = bpy.data.images.load(material['bump'])
                    bm_node = nodes.new(type='ShaderNodeBump')

                    links.new(bm_node.inputs['Height'], bt_node.outputs['Color'])
                    links.new(master_node.inputs['Normal'], bm_node.outputs['Normal'])

                out_node = nodes.new(type='ShaderNodeOutputMaterial')

                links.new(master_node.outputs['BSDF'], out_node.inputs[0])


Dark shadow on some faces, already recalculated normals and merged vertices

This error is most probably caused by shade smooth.
To fix this go to object data properties -> Normals -> Check the Auto Smooth Checkbox


Just select the whole vertex group and grab the x axis arrow and move it toward the other end of the curve, to the right.


Most of the time when your boolean its due to questionable topology. I am guessing you are using the boolean modifier at the moment but there is actually a better option. Select the logo then the mesh you want to emboss it in, then use the shortcut Ctrl - (minus), it'll make the logo transparent and can cut into the model much more cleanly. Once you are satisfied go to your 'modifier' tab on your mesh and apply the b_tool modifier. Good luck.


Snap an empty to a bone's coordinate, quickest way?

I use the procedure described here to parent an Empty to a bone.  For example set the cursor to a location between a characters eyes; I then add an empty between the eyes (Empty.eyes.rig-dz1), parent that to a face bone to track (might also be able to add Copy Location constraint instead?).  I then have another character whose Eyes have an animated Copy Location (target==empty).  So that when it is enabled, eyes will look the other as the other moves.


Rigging and Bone Weighting: Ignore Y Rotation (Twisting), Only Follow X & Z Rotation (Bending)

The simplest way do this is to add another bone that is a copy of the bone with twist (e.g create a forearm-notwist bone from the forearm bone). Make sure it is the same size with the same parent, location and orientation as the bone it copies.

Then add a damped track constrain to your no-twist bone, pointing to your original (e.g. forearm) bone, and change the head/tail slider to 1 (point at the tail.

If you need to you can also add copy location and copy scale constraint to the new bone, depending on what other transforms may be applied to the original.


How to make a glowing crystal texture in Cycles?

You can achieve a similar effect using the OSL shader developed for this (Distance from the surface as an input node for use with volumetric materials) answer.

Here is the material node set up :

Note that I've swapped the IOR for the Glass shader compared to your answer. I believe you must have flipped your normals to get the effect in your example image - adjusting the IOR produces the same effect for refraction.

This produces the following result :

Adjust the Multiply node and the Emission strength to adjust the glow.

EDIT : You can adjust the prominence of the glass by either reducing the IOR further (although depending on the look you're looking for this might be undesirable - the refraction might look 'odd' since low IORs don't exist in the real world) or by adjusting where the 'glow' starts - either by adjusting the Color Ramp to increase the 'black' region or by adding a Subtract node to shift the start of the glowing region away from the boundary. I've updated the material to include the Subtract node (and have removed the unnecessary Mix shader).

Here's an example with decreased IOR and increased gap between the glass and the glow.


Intended compatibility of files contents while transition from 2.79->2.80->2.81

If it crashes then it's a bug. Please report it on the bug tracker (Help > Report a Bug in Blender). It would be ideal if you can create a .blend file that can be shared publicly.

You should be able to open and run 2.79 files in newer version with the exception of removed features such BGE or the Blender Internal render engine which no longer exist in 2.8 and beyond.


The brushes collection is available thru bpy.data.brushes  Like most (maybe all) ID object collections in blender, items can be removed with collection.remove(obj).

import bpy
# get the brush
brush = bpy.data.brushes.get("Brush67")

# if brush is None well make a new one for example

if brush is None:
    brush = bpy.data.brushes.new("Brush67")

# remove the brush

bpy.data.brushes.remove(brush)


How to repeat an action with offset in NLA?

If you want to make it this way, you have to increase the lenght of the action manually. You can also use the Repeat function of the NLA editor below the red frame.


One way to do this is to use Constraints and a mesh:

Instead of a curve, use a mesh object made up of two vertices:

Subdivide it with loopcuts (CtrlL) or W> Subdivide.

Hook each end vertex to the corresponding object (or bone) with CtrlH:

Assign a Vertex Group to the end vertices.

Make the line object a Soft Body object and set the vertex group to the end vertices group:

Add a Skin modifier to the line object, and use Vertex scale (CtrlA in edit mode) to scale the size of the hose.

Add a Subsurf or Bevel modifier afterwards to round the hose out.


How to activate an action after another action happens

In the Action Actuator you can set a property which reflects the current action frame. You can then check its value and start the second action when the end frame of the first one is reached.


Select a good vertex, Ctrl+L to select
 all good 226 vertices, then Ctrl+I invert selection, then delete the extra vertex.


When you import an object from another .blend file with Link or Append from the File menu, it comes with all linked datablocks, so UV maps, materials, textures, and various others will be also imported.

When you import from a different file format with File > Import, what you get depends on what the format stores. For example, "Wavefront (.obj)" can contain mesh, UV map, and texture, but not armature. When you import an SVG file, you will get several curve objects.

For an example of using multiple .blend files in a project, look at the files from Big Buck Bunny.


How to drive camera's Y location with same camera's Focal Length

This solution uses only 1 driver, to drive the y value of the camera's transform depending on its focal length.

I used a linear regression calculator online (Search "Linear regression calculator" on your favorite search engine) and I mapped a few values of the focal length and the resulting y value necessary to keep more or less the same objects in frame. I arrived at a value of y (transform) = 0.28 * focal length +1. I assume the exact values will be different from scene to scene but it can be found quite easily using said regression calculator. I used this simple setup :

In order to drive the y transform value, right click in the focal length field and choose "Copy as new driver". Right click in the y transform field of the camera and choose "Paste driver". Right click again in the field, and choose "Edit driver". Then change the evaluation type to "scripted expression" and enter the above formula (in my case 0.28 * lens + 1) :

The result :

Edit :

If you want to use this technique to be always true for its local z-axis, that is to say the forward/backward axis of the camera, follow this :

Select the camera, Press SHIFT + S then choose "Cursor to Selected"
Press  SHIFT + A then choose "Empty" (whichever type)
Add a "track to" constraint to the empty, set it to one of the objects of focus in your scene. If you don't have a particular object, just add a new empty and set it somewhere in the middle of your scene. The constraint should look like this :

Select the camera object, then the empty, and press CTRL + P, choose "Set parent and keep transform"
Now when you move the empty around your scene, the camera should follow it exactly and always turn toward the focus object you chose earlier.
Do not move the camera directly . If you followed previous steps this should already be working. You will most certainly have to tweak the values a little bit though.

Result :


You need to add more control points in order to achieve what you are looking for, using proportional editing. Try selecting all and subdivide the curve a couple of times, or just the portion you want to twist. Then select the last control points (as you have already done in the gif) activate proportional editing and rotate.
Hope it helps.
Cheers


How to find name of a nodes type to create with python

It's ShaderNodeValToRGB.
Turn on Python Tooltips under Edit > Preferences > Interface. Then go to the Shader Editor and hover over a node in the Add menu to see a tooltip with the name.


Typically, like most home computer programs, Blender stores what you create in the directory of your choice. When you press File->Save (as) or Ctrl+S to save the .blend file you'll get a File Save dialogue where you can pick where to save it and how to name it.

.blends are not stored inside the Blender App.


Particles are not in contact with object

It seems it is the child particles which are being placed above or below the surface. I found that changing the 'Children' type on the particle system from 'Simple' to 'Interpolated' created a more accurate result, though I'm not quite sure why 'Simple' children wouldn't respect the location as much:


Can't add nodes from custom nodes template

It's not deprecated, it also isn't documented very well yet, expect some trial and error to learn pynodes.

Running the included pynodes template works for me, of note is that switching between nodetree types actually de-selects the active custom nodetree. (Probably worth reporting as a bug)

While I cannot create nodes here, you will notice the new button in place of the node tree name, this may show even if a nodetree exists, it just isn't active.

After making the nodetree active I can add nodes.


Why is the Viewport rendering completely different from the Camera rendering (Cycle, Transparent material with refraction)

in the inspector click icon of the filter or funnel

and enable the option that looks like a camera and the one that looks like a screen to the left of the camera

are there any objects with camera on but are hidden? or on in the camera but off with the screen?

alternatively is there a modifier that is different in the viewport vs render?


First of all, after seeing your scene, increase your particles lifetime so they can actually reach the floor.

Then you need to create an actual collision object, because physical objects do only interact with special defined collision objects.

At deafult settings, the particles are bouncing very heavy after touching the collision object and if you want to change this bounciness you have to go to your collision object and change the stickiness.

And If you want to prevent them from gliding on the floor, increase the friction.


You might be able to do it that way, but I think I would make use of microdisplacement for the model.
I would recommend a tutorial but I can't find anything recent on it right now.  I'll just give you a quick and dirty rundown of the settings you need.
Cycles render engine
I recommend experimental feature set

I created a cylinder and added some loop cuts just to even out the geometry that our subdivision modifier is going to add.

Add a subdivision modifier and set it to something fairly high.

We can choose to use Adaptive here, it's available if you checked Experimental.  You may want to use this for rendering if you run into memory problems.
Add a material and then go into the material settings to enable displacement.

This is a node group I threw together just to get a decent example for you; something with some bigger globs and fine crunchy detail.

You could use an ambient occlusion map to guide the discoloration.  There's a lot more you can do here, but hopefully this will give you a starting point.


Since you don't provide information on your system, (e.g., processor, &c.,) it is possible that there is another explanation, but I have noticed the same behavior you're experiencing, and consider it to be because of the the way Blender, or C / C++ (the language in which Blender is written) handles floating point numbers. I have noticed similar discrepancies in numerical values at very low precision levels (the fourth or fifth significant digit from the far left, including those both to the left and to the right of the decimal point). This applies to all previous versions of Blender as well.

In most cases the difference between the observed and expected values to be so small that it could be ignored; a difference of .0002 in 50.0000 is four ten-thousandths of a percent, (or about two and a half inches in a mile) and in most cases is below the threshold of being noticeable.


Is it possible to create custom Camera projection volume modes?

Deforming the Image as Lenses Would

Camera lenses deform the view. If you want to deform the rendered image, there are quite a lot of ways to do that in Blender. You could use Blender's compositing functionality, or you could also use an emission shader for shade-less material and map an image or a movie to some 3d object like a plane and use all the tools available in material nodes, that would include manipulating texture coordinate vectors with any math or manipulating the UV mapping or you could even deform the geometry that has the image or movie projected on it in 3d space. Obviously you could also do all the mentioned things together one on top another if you wanted.

Projections

Programming unrealistic projections or manipulating volume of the camera view does not seem to be possible using Python. It might be possible in OSL.

You could however achieve some interesting results without programming:

Baking Functionality

It is possible to bake a color of a completely reflective surface so it is possible to define the shape of the projection with any geometry you wish:

Its best to disable all Cycles rays except camera so that the 'camera' object does not interact with the lighting in the scene in this case. Rendering an animation with this way would require some Python scripting.

In addition to that objects with Refraction BSDF shader could be used to construct lenses.

Constructing Lenses for Cameras out of Refractive Objects

Another way with an actual camera would be to make a lens from a refractive object:

This kind of 'lens' could approximate the curvature of the volume visible by the camera as well because it can be constructed out of multiple objects. It might be very intensive on render resources if you wanted it to be more precise and it is limited by the way refraction works in Blender's Refractive BSDF shader, but it is possible:


How to limit a bone between other two bones, for scale and position

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, but I'll take a guess:

If you want A's base to be at B's base and A's tip to be at C's base, you might benefit from drivers.

Unfortunately, the expressions to map from B and C to the proper pose for A would not be trivial.

Also, blender has some shortcomings in its dependency system that prevents intra-armature drivers from being calculated correctly in some circumstances.


adding a boolean modifier to a rig/bone character

The armature is a separate object. If you look in the outliner, you will most likely find the character mesh object parented to the armature. You should be able to add a boolean modifier to that object.


Can I render faster in cycles with a Radeon R5 graphics card?

I have experience with an R5, although I'm on a really crappy laptop here.

In my experience, OpenCL support for Cycles isn't that good. Slow, limited(no support for HDR textures, volumetrics, SSS), and the architecture still is pretty crappy. My AMD A8 usually does just fine for all rendering tasks. Then again, I'm on a crappy 4GB RAM computer, so test your setup.

In short, there is support. It is not guaranteed to actually be of assistance. Get a Nvidia if possible.


When you select the fbx file, there is an option to "Import User Properties" if you turn this off the file imports without error.


Texturing is not rendering in blender internal

You say you are using Blender render, but your file is set to Cycles render. Your Node tree is wrong, not using the texture image and plugging a Normal coordinate from Texture Coordinate node to Normal of Diffuse shader node.

I added a frame to show yours and then corrected it by using a texture Coordinate node to plug the UV coordinate to the Image Texture node mentioning my own image(yours was not packed into file before upload) and then that Image texture is plugged into the Color socket of the Diffuse shader node.

If you want to use Blender Render then you will need to turn off 'Use Nodes' and add the image through the Properties editor texture panel.


Armature not animating in Blender Game mode?

Never mind, found out that it was because I was applying the game logic to the objects for the character model instead of the armature. May be worth knowing for anyone else that may have the same problem though!


What I did was dump FLASH thinking and take up AFX thinking.
I made 3 collections FG, Character and BG. And arranged the same on the Y co ordinates as per their names. That provided me the hierarchy as needed.


It may have to do with the height image format. Here is what a jpg height image map gives:

here is what an OpenEXR height image map gives:


Did I destroy my 12 hour render trying to save it?

If you didn't specify a place for it to be saved blender automatically places it in a folder on your C drive called tmp. C:\tmp\ you might find it there.


There is couple of thing you should do.
1. Switch direction of your path
Enter Edit mode and in N-panel find Curve Display -> Normals, make it bigger to see actual direction of the curve. You need to keep direction "from the particle system". So select every vertex and hit W -> Switch Direction
2. Participant elements of Particle Physics have to be on the same layer
Right now your Particle System and Curve guide force are placed on different layers. Move the Curve on the same layer where Particle System is.
3. Check "Path Animation" option in curve's settings
Curve guide force will not be working without enabling this thing


Vertex sliding along line until intersection

3 options to create a vertex at the intersection between two edges:

Activate and use The tinyCAD shipped add on > V2X: 'Vertex at Intersection'
EExtrude the edges to make faces, select them, and search for 'Intersect' (Spacebar in 2.79, F3 in 2.80). Check the 'Self Intersect' option. Delete excess vertices.

Create a plane below the edges, and Knife Project the edges down onto the plane, which will create a vertex at the intersection between the projected edges, (and possibly some surplus geometry) That vertex can become a snap target, or you can duplicate the edges out of the plane.

This last method can sometimes be quite useful ..  the lines only have to intersect in your chosen projection, which you define by the orientation of your plane, before  Shift Numpad 7 aligning your view to it, to execute the Knife Project.


boolean not working (did remove doubles and flipped normals...)

your "carving" T shape has some mesh issue: here in face select mode I circled something surely wrong...  (front and back of the shape)

it should be just that. no, wait also the base mesh has similar issues in the "T" mesh island... (front and back of the shape)


It is also possible to directly keyframe the positions of the mesh vertices
Edit updated for 2.8.
import bpy
from mathutils import Vector

def insert_keyframe(fcurves, frame, values):
    for fcu, val in zip(fcurves, values):
        fcu.keyframe_points.insert(frame, val, options={'FAST'})

obj = bpy.context.active_object
mesh = obj.data
action = bpy.data.actions.new("MeshAnimation")

mesh.animation_data_create()
mesh.animation_data.action = action

data_path = "vertices[%d].co"
vec_z = Vector((0.0, 0.0, 1.0))

frames = 0, 25, 50, 75, 100
values = 0.0, 3.0, 5.0, 3.0, 0.0

for v in mesh.vertices:
    fcurves = [action.fcurves.new(data_path % v.index, index =  i) for i in range(3)]
    co_rest = v.co

    for t, value in zip(frames, values):
        co_kf = co_rest + value * vec_z
        insert_keyframe(fcurves, t, co_kf)


Is there a possibility to move multiple objects to a deferred origin, but maintaining the space between them?

Below are detailed instructions on how to shift multiple objects as if they were one. I am using a house models that is made up of separate models.

Go to Select Menu
Select All by Type
Select Mesh

Press Shift + Ctrl + Alt + C then “Origin to Geometry”

Press Shift + S select “Cursor to center”

Press Shift + S select “Selection to Cursor (offset)”


Creating custom arc shapes (multiple bumps)

Use NURBS Curve to model the lower part

Still in Edit Mode add another NURBS curve and model the upper part or the 180° arc
Convert both to mesh, close at the bottom with edges and fill
Extrude these bottom edges
Y-Extrude the whole model


Edit: It's now easier since 2.8 as you can enable the Affect Only > Origins in the Options and use it to realign to a custom orientation.
Previous versions:
If you've rotated your object in Edit mode, you will only be able to get back to the original rotation position with a trick like the one I'll explain below. In Object mode, if you reset the rotation to zero with alt R it will only reset the rotations you've made in Object mode, not the one you've made in Edit mode. And also, if you've applied the rotation in Object mode with ctrl A, you also won't be able to reset (again, except with the trick like the one below).
How to avoid it: if you want your object (cube for example) to remain orthogonal to the grid, don't rotate it in Edit mode, only rotate it in Object mode, and don't apply the rotation with ctrl A. This way you'll always be able to go back to the original position with a simple alt R.
Now, the trick to align a randomly rotated object (cube for example) to the grid
as explained by refa42 in a youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pfTDzAaXp4


How to redirect to a specific scene on start-up, but allow redirection afterwards in BGE?

In general I suggest to start the game with the current scene. A dependency to a specific scene will make development much harder as you always need to go through this opening scene. Switching right at the beginning increases load time.

Logic handler

For easier handling I suggest to create a group with one object that performs the switch. This way you can easily create one instance at each single scene without creating it again and again.

Another option is to link an object between the scenes.

Concept

At game start you want to switch to the opening scene when:
- the opening scene was not visited before

You need a sort of store/restore method.

Storage

As you switch scenes, I suggest to store such information in a Python module. It will survive any scene switch (in difference to object properties). The storage will survive as long as the game session runs.

Code

The code is pretty simple. Please keep in mind it should run in module mode (script mode will not work this way).

caller.py

alreadyCalled = False

def isFirstCall(controller):
    global alreadyCalled

    if alreadyCalled:
        return

    alreadyCalled = True

    for actuator in controller.actuators:
        controller.activate(actuator)

Setup

Always Sensor -> Python Controller Module: caller.isFirstCall -> Scene Actuator: to opening scene

Remarks

This will work with the first call "caller.py". Any subsequent execution of "isFirstCall" will not activate the actuators even when executed within the same frame.


Blender 2.8 display a subdivided view of the mesh, but without applying subdivision to the object

Ctrl + n where n = a number so  Ctrl+ 2 means a subdiv modifier with 2 subdivisions

Ctrl + 0 keeps the modifier but does not show the subdivisions.


How can I use vertex colors as an input in my material?

Even easier than the suggestiong of @Robert Gützkopf: Enable the Node Wrangler Addon. It will put that option exactly where you pointed out it's missing.


Developers have decided that there were too many themes shipped by default with Blender.

Some were of poor quality, unfinished or not well supported; maintaining them and updating for the new UI is also a lot of work. Developer time is better spent on other features and refining these two to a higher polish level.

Rather than shipping a multitude of themes of dubious quality it is better to focus on two well supported high quality themes instead. One dark and one light, should suffice to please most users taste.

You can still make your own if you like or download and install third party ones. A call for content has been put up if users want to contribute their own.


Can you work with homogeneous coordinates in the Python API?

Make the vert.co 4d

  From Perspective projection of transformation matrix
  wiki

  The simplest perspective projection uses the origin as the center of
  projection, and the plane at ${\displaystyle z=1}$  as the image
  plane. The functional form of this transformation is then
  ${\displaystyle x'=x/z}$ ; ${\displaystyle y'=y/z}$. We can express
  this in homogeneous coordinates as:

  $\begin{pmatrix}x_c\\ y_c \\ z_c \\ w_c\end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix}1 & 0 & 0 & 0\\ 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 1 & 0\end{pmatrix} \begin{pmatrix}x\\ y \\ z \\ w=1\end{pmatrix}$

  $\begin{pmatrix}x'\\ y' \\ z' \\ 1\end{pmatrix} = 1 / w_c \begin{pmatrix}x_c\\ y_c \\ z_c \\ w_c\end{pmatrix}$

To emulate above would map the vert co to 4d using w of the result

  Is there any way of getting at the implicit 'w' of the homogeneous
  vector, or do I have to divide it by hand?

yeah suppose I've done that.

import bpy
from  mathutils import Matrix
from math import radians
ob =  bpy.context.object

m = Matrix( ([1, 0, 0, 0],
             [0, 1, 0, 0],
             [0, 0, 1, 1],
             [0, 0, 0, 0] )  )

m.transpose()

R = Matrix.Rotation(radians(30), 4, 'X')
#m = R @ m
for vert in ob.data.vertices:
    v = m @ vert.co.to_4d() # sets vert.co.w to 1

    '''
    # vert.co.w is set to vert.co.z
    v =  vert.co.to_4d()
    v.w = v.z
    v = m @ v
    '''
    vert.co = 1 / v.w * v.to_3d()

If run on default cube, flattens it to the plane z=1.  However others will fail with zero divide error.

The question is how to handle $\ w_c = 0$

  One property of homogeneous coordinates is that they allow you to have
  points at infinity (infinite length vectors), which is not possible
  with 3D coordinates. Points at infinity occur when W=0. If you try and
  convert a W=0 homogeneous coordinate into a normal W=1 coordinate, it
  results in a bunch of divide-by-zero operations:

  This means that homogeneous coordinates with W=0
  can not be converted into 3D coordinates.
  What use does this have? Well, directional lights can be though of as
  point lights that are infinitely far away. When a point light is
  infinitely far away the rays of light become parallel, and all of the
  light travels in a single direction. This is basically the definition
  of a directional light.

Playing around with meshes using above Not sure how useful the answer is. In first example in question above, worth noting m.translation = (0, 0, 1) whereas in second it is zero.  Converting 3d vector to 4d sets w to 1.  Which I assume is done for us since it doesn't spit the dummy multiplying a 4x4 with a 3x1.


How can i change the color/ texture of the coffee foam?

There are a few things happening, I think.
First, your objects are not scaled to match real-life size, so (assuming Price's models are scaled) your settings will be different due to a different coordinate space.  At this point scaling your objects down would mean going back and adjusting your arrangement and all of your textures and lighting, so it's probably best to just solve these last issues, render and move on with the knowledge for the future.
The voronoi textures can be scaled up something like 10x and then when you look at the output you get something much closer to tiny bubbles as seen here.

You may not see that, however, because you are using viewport denoising.  It's a great tool but you have to understand that at low sample counts it's going to smear away any fine detail.  You need more samples to give the algorithm enough information to preserve the detail, and even then there are some patterns that just don't denoise well.  You can use a render region to render a small area of your screen much faster.
For the color of the foam, I felt a little more comfortable when I turned it more orange and lowered the saturation a little.  Tbh color is not my strong suit, but my main advice would be that brown is just dark orange.

To your last question, a blend file can act as a container for all the necessary files but you have to enable that option.


How to export an animation from Blender and load it in Unity?

You should bake your animations before exporting to FBX using bake option:

this option includes all constraints and even any rig which is done in Animation Nodes addon.


Blender (2.9) can't rotate or scale any objects in object mode using keyboard

uncheck "locations" here:

and i free tip:
don't ever just try out any shortcuts, if you are not sure what you are doing because nearly every shortcut does something in Blender - and something different n each area.


How do I add separate transparent images on an object?

In your case, it'd be easier to have all the symbols inside one image texture.
Then you just rearrange the UV map.


I actually just figured it out. Go to the shading dropdown to the right of all the shaders then select texture as the color.


Increasing topology without affecting shape keys

Dissolve X, Vertex Connect Path J, Knife Topology Tool K

With the Basis key active and all other keys set to 0.0, these operators allow me to thoroughly retopologize a character model (~18,000 vertices) and maintain shape key deformation and vertex weights long after rigging and adding almost one hundred shape keys. They use the current surface detail of the mesh to retain shape key/vertex group information, as opposed to destructive operators like Delete which have tendencies force a global recalculation of surface detail.


How can I rotate an object's coordinate system without rotating the object?

You could try is this, however it seems to me you are looking for Custom transform orientations.

In your situation:

Select the triangle object and enter edit mode (↹ Tab)
Select the edge along which you want the custom Z axis to be aligned and press ⎈ Ctrl⎇ AltSpace
This should create a custom orientation and set it as the current orientation. You can switch orientations in the Header or the properties region (N) of the 3D view. In the properties region you can also delete unwanted orientations.

Note that to clamp a transform operation (translate, rotate, scale) to the axes defined by the custom transform orientation, you must press the axis key twice (e.g. GZZ).


How to do a ray_cast from camera origin(position) to object in scene in such a way that ray would pas through a given pixel coordinate in camera view?

You obtain the rays like this:

Casting rays from the camera into the scene for each pixel
(2nd part of answer - F12 solution)

Then you build a BVH tree from your mesh:

import bpy
from mathutils.bvhtree import BVHTree

bvhtree = BVHTree.FromObject(bpy.context.active_object, bpy.context.scene)

And you intersect this tree with the ray:

location, normal, index, dist = bvhtree.ray_cast(ray_origin, ray_direction)

You are interested in the location. The index and normal refer to the first polygon it intersected. If there's no hit, it returns (None, None, None, None) tuple.

It's wise to cache the bvhtree for performance reasons, its building is costly, but speeds up ray casting. The tree needs to be rebuild only when the object changes, this you get from the object.is_updated and object.is_updated_data flags.


How do I create a precise, tight fitting render border around an object?

Full disclosure, the add-on I'm about to recommend is a paid for add-on created by me.

'Animated Render Border', my add-on, allows the user to select an object from a drop-down list and automatically detect where the render border should be positioned so the object is encompassed by it:

You can choose whether it does this via the object's bounding box, or more precisely, using its vertices (if it is a mesh, curve, armature (uses bones) or lattice). It also has a mode to allow a more manual fine tuning ('Keyframe' mode).

As the name might suggest, this is actually intended for objects that are animated that you want to be contained within the render border, but it works perfectly fine for stills.

There are some limits in that modifiers that alter the object's geometry aren't currently supported and there are some objects which can't be 'tracked', like empties, lamps and cameras.


Not sure I totally understand the issue or if I recreated your setup correctly, but the Vector Transform node seems to be the correct answer.

If you transform from World to Local coordinates it seems to fix the issue of a moving eye.

The Gradient Ramp might need some adjustments afterwards


Selecting Mitsuba Renderer Crashes Blender

Using this developer build, seems to solve the issue on my machine. More information can be found here. I had the same problem.

Also, the path should be /usr/bin and not /usr/bin/mitsuba


The interface to create material looks different

Switch from Blender Render to Blender Cycles, top of the main interface. That's your main problem - You're working in the old render engine.

Then... You have to set up a bunch of nodes in the node editor - Specifically a Glossy and Diffuse shader going into a Mix shader, which goes to the mesh's material output.


Why does my my door have odd circular lighting effect on it?

I'm sorry I'm a little new to this. I tried creating a cube with the exact dimensions and it turned out fine. I've discovered that the lighting behaves in this way if you changed the shading here to 'Smooth' as opposed to 'flat'.


Snapping mesh together by a point without stretching the object

On the object you want to move move the origin to the face that should line up with the other object. In Edit Mode select the face and use Snap Cursor to Selected That will move the 3D cursor to the center of the face. Then switch to object mode and do Transform Origin to 3D Cursor.

Next, select the other object and, in Edit Mode, snap the cursor to the face you want to snap to. Exit edit mode, select the previous object (the hemisphere) and do Snap Selection to Cursor.

(The shortcut for the Snap tool is ShiftS


Model does not impact the the surface to make a wave

The wave dynamics are in relation to a Mesh Volume which is why the cube is working. The geometry of the yacht hull are only planes. If you made a mesh with volume it works just fine.

Select the 'Hull-Cube' and press "/" to go into local view. In edit mode press W to remove doubles, which will remove a lot of doubles. Select all the top vertices and press F to fill. The back vertices and fill. Now you have a Mesh Volume.

Happy sailing!


Try to work with quads, it will help for the operations like inset, bevel or add edge loops, at the end if you need to smooth with a Subdivision Surface, just add some edge loops to sharp the edges:


How do I get denoising to work for all OpenEXR passes?

You might not be able to use Denoiser feature since it is done on the render itself as it goes, using 3d data. You could use the Bilateral Blur technique outlined by Bartek Skorupa and used here on a node group I used when helping with Theory Animation. You could then correct only those passes that have the problem with the noise.


How can I fix this SubSurf Modifier issue?

This looks like the sort of thing that is best modeled using hard edge surface modelling, with manual placement of edges instead of using a subdivision surface modifier that will round everything off, then keep constantly fighting against it to try and keep sharp corners and tight edges.

Anyway, edge creases seem to work, all you need is an extra inset, then set edge crease to 1 on all corner diagonal edges.

Or alternatively you could instead use full control-edge-loops all around the sphere to keep smoothing from propagating too far.

Select the four edgeloops limiting the indented area and bevel them with the bevel tool Ctrl + B.

Select the relevant parts and extrude them inwards by vertex normal

Now add control edge loops with Ctrl + R around every sharp edge so smoothing won't propagate too far

Repeat for all necessary corners inside and outside where the edges must be sharp


Trying To Create Human Model For Android - Need Help Bake Texture -

Your Normal map is set to color data. Set it to non-color data.


Guidance on how to set a plane to look like the sea during a storm

Turn off colour in the influence panel. Only apply this to the normal map


How do I scale down/zoom out an environment texture?

Vector Mapping node is the way.

Make sure you are using an Environment Texture node connected to the Generated socket of a Texture Coordinate node. Then use the Vector Mapping X or Y scale to control it.

Make sure you scale only in one of the three axis, otherwise it will yield no visible effect. Also have in mind that this may introduce some stretching distortion, as spherical environment textures can't really be "zoomed out" in the traditional 2D image sense.


Difference between subdivide smooth and multiresolution?

Reference Link
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/modeling/modifiers/generate/multiresolution.html

DESCRIPTION
The Multiresolution Modifier (often shortened to “Multires”) gives you the ability to subdivide a mesh similarly to the Subdivision Surface Modifier, but also allows you to edit the new subdivision levels in sculpt mode.

To Conclude:
Multiresolution modifier is used when you want to do 3d brush sculpting work. As you sculpt from low resolution and progress to higher resolution the modifier allow you to step up your mesh resolution. Example of such models are cloth, faces, landscapes or fine details.

For the regular subdivide its used for subviding models that does not require sculpting. Often used along with box modeling technique where you start your model with a regular box or single polygon plane. Usually applied on models like cars, planes or any hard surface models.

Hope that answer your question.


You can set the world node tree from the "window" texture coordinates (so no distortions).
Then use an image texture (not environment texture).
The image won't move when the camera moves.


GPU doesn't render the image with many moving particles

The reason why it struggles so much is the motion blur. since it has to know where the particle was to make the blur effect. and with so many particles looks like GPU just cant keep up. simply turning off the Motion blur helped, but if you need motion blur, you probably need to use CPU Only render. Why CPU only? because if you use GPU render with CPU acceleration the tile that supposed to be rendered with GPU won't let the CPU finish the job.
I hope it will help someone :)


why doesn't my emitter emit particles anymore normally?

You can parent emitter to an empty object and try animating empty using animation nodes.
or
Bake AN animation using Set Keyframes Node


Adding a 3d array (ndarray) as displacement for material output in blender python

You can only connect a node output socket to a node input socket, it isn't just an array.

While it is possible to create custom pynodes and be able to add them to a cycles material tree, they aren't fully integrated, mainly they fail to update properly. You can find a pynode template in blender's text editor.  The two main projects using pynodes are sverchok and animation nodes and you will find both of these use bpy.app.handlers to update their custom node trees.

You might find drivers to offer a better solution. It is possible to add custom functions to the driver namespace to give you more control.

You can add a driver to control any value that can be keyframed, right-click  a value and choose add driver, you can further edit drivers in the graph editor.


Flipping keyframes in walk cycle animation not working

Something weird is going on, but you can solve it by selecting in edit mode all the .L bones, delete them, then select all the .R bones, Shift+D to duplicate, Esc not to move them, Shift+C set the cursor to center, make the cursor pivot point, Ctrl+M  X to mirror the bones on the X axis, Then Armature - Flip Names.

Everything now works as expected.

The reverse (L-R) of this whole operation doesn't work!


Shortcuts for Start and End values in the Timeline

The shortcuts are now:

Ctrl+Home to set start frame
Ctrl+End to set end frame.

And you can remap it by going into Edit > Preferences > Keymap > Animation  and edit Set Start Frame and Set End Frame


How to add resolution to a mesh created from a curve

The easiest way to go about this would be to make use of an addon called SIRE outline. Also see this answer.

Once you have installed it. It should appear in the Toolshelf, T. What you should be after early is supporting geometry with good edgeflow.

Use the Inset feature of the addon and offset your outline to the desired amount.

After that, it's just a matter of filling in the even faces and for the rest, you have the supporting geometry near the curved edges so a ngon should suffice.

After that, it is as simple as extruding the model, giving it some depth and chamfering the edges. If you should also need to smooth the model, to keep it sharp simply add edgeloops to the edges or make use of the crease tool.


How to activate new mode in Blender 2.8 that displays viewport objects with different colors?


It looks like parenting high-poly meshes fails, I don't know why, but if you merge by distance with a value of 0.0005 it won't be noticeable and it will parent correctly (and anyway you should work with a much less polygon version)


Blender runnning slow in weight paint mode

The lag is probably an indicator that Blender is trying to recalculate and redisplay one or more procedural modifiers while you're trying to weight paint.

Try temporarily disabling any rigs (which would cause Blender to recalculate mesh deformations to match the rig pose), particle emitters (recalculating position of all the emitted children), modifiers etc. that are using the weight paint.

Edit

If it's still lagging, your system may actually be the bottleneck. Many of the processes Blender must go through are single-thread processes that can't be spread out over multiple cores. Since 100% usage of a single thread/core is less than the total capacity of your CPU/GPU, it doesn't display as 100% usage.

You can confirm this by checking the individual core utilization in Task Manager. Look for single cores that are approaching max utilization.

Edit 2

You could also try using local view by pressing / to hide everything else in the scene.

Your power settings in Win10 could be the issue. Open the start menu, type Edit power plan, go to Change advanced power settings, and check the Processor power management > Maximum processor state.


How to create and animate the water reflection (Caustics) on an object?

As @gandalf3 mentioned, Cycles is not great at this, if you want to make your render physically accurate; My approach can give you photo realistic results, which are not, however, physically accurate.

Water Movement

You can use a Displace modifier, a Stucci procedural texture and an empty for Texture Coordinates in order to simulate the water movement. Do keep in mind that you'll need a lot of samples in order to get a usable image and a build with the Metropolis patch.

To do this, first add a subdivided plane (Shift + A>Mesh>Plane); then, go to the Modifiers tab in the Properties editor and add a Displace modifier and press the New button to add a new texture. After that, go to the Texture tab and select Stucci; you can later tweak this setting for better results.

Then add a Empty, go back to the Modifiers of the plane and select Object in the drop down list for Texture Coordinates; after that, set the object to be the empty you created earlier.

You can then animate the position and/or rotation of the empty, in order to "animate" the water movement.

Then you can simply add some glossyness to the plane point a lamp at it and render.

Caustics Simulation

A better way is to simulate Throw Patterns on a Spotlight.

Add a Spotlight (Shift + A>Lamp>Spotlight); then add another plane, in the location of the spotlight, and move it down. After that, parent the plane to the spotlight, by selecting the plane first and then the spotlight and pressing Ctrl + P>Offset (Keep Offset). Now, go to the node editor and add a material to the plane, wich looks like the following node tree:

In order to animate the caustics, you can use a Vector Mapping node.

Here, you can animate the X and Y values, for the location, in order to move the caustic pattern around.

Now you can point the spotlight at your objects and git it a test render. Make sure the strength of the spotlight is rather high - I used 2000 - otherwise, you'll not see the light on your object. Also, you can control the softness of the throw pattern by adjusting the distance of the plane to the spotlight or the Size field found in the Lamp tab, on the Properties editor, when the Lamp is selected:

This gives me this result:


Is there a hot-key to jump between markers in the timeline?

While @gandalf3's solution worked, I found it a little awkward to set up (user preferences that rely on scripts that need to be in your project, if I understood correctly), and I found that there's now a built-in shortcut adding feature on the menu:

In the timeline viewport menu, click Marker
Right-click on "Jump to Previous Marker"
Click on "Add Shortcut"
Hover over the pop-up "A" box, so that it turns into "Press a Key"
Hit your target combination, eg "Alt-Left"
(repeat for "Jump to Next")

I might be missing something the scripts in @gandalf3's answer provide, please let me know if so!


Set the color of faces in python efficiently

This seems almost instantaneous and much faster than the original function above:

import bpy, time
from random import randint

start = time.time()

def paint( obj1, obj2, mat1, mat2, pairs ):
    # First assign the 2nd material as the active, default material for all faces
    obj1.active_material = mat2
    obj2.active_material = mat2

    # Add mat1 to both objects as the 2nd material slot (index=1) if not already included
    if mat1.name not in obj1.data.materials:
        obj1.data.materials.append( mat1 )
    if mat1.name not in obj2.data.materials:
        obj2.data.materials.append( mat1 )

    # Now iterate over the pairs and set material 1 as the active material for the selected faces
    for p in pairs:
        i1, i2 = p
        obj1.data.polygons[i1].material_index = 1
        obj2.data.polygons[i2].material_index = 1

    obj1polygons = [ p[0] for p in pairs ]
    obj2polygons = [ p[1] for p in pairs ]

    # Set mat1 as the material for all polygon indices not in the pairs list
    for i in range( len( obj1.data.polygons ) ):
        if i not in obj1polygons:
            obj1.data.polygons[i].material_index = 0

    for i in range( len( obj2.data.polygons ) ):
        if i not in obj2polygons:
            obj2.data.polygons[i].material_index = 0

faceCount = 512
redFaces  = 50

pairs = [ ( randint(0, faceCount - 1 ), randint(0, faceCount - 1 ) ) for i in range( redFaces ) ]

mat1 = bpy.data.materials['mat_one']
mat2 = bpy.data.materials['mat_two']
obj1 = bpy.data.objects['obj1']
obj2 = bpy.data.objects['obj2']

paint( obj1, obj2, mat1, mat2, pairs )
print( "Ran for: ", round( time.time() - start, 5 ) )


You have locked your camera to the character. Press N to open the properties shelf. Go to View panel and delete the name of the object under the Lock to Object header.


To "draw select" like this in blender 2.8+, use Ctrl + Right Click (hold). Use Ctrl + Shift + Right Click to deselect.


I would start over completely and create the topology in 2D first, in all quads, tracing the reference image.

(Sorry for the two-billion pixel screen shots. You can thank retina display.)

Anyway, if you make topology like this you can get the curves you're hoping to achieve without cutting.

Consider this a starting point, and also just an example of one possible way you could do it.

Note the tightly-spaced holding loops around the curves that add sharpness. These also serve as a buffer between those curves and the 5-poles in some spots:

Above: A 5-pole (marked in red) buffered by a holding loop (green).

As you've probably noticed, more closely-spaced holding loops create sharper edges.

Above: A more widely-spaced loop (green) will create softer edges, while a more tightly-spaced loop (orange) will create sharper edges.

Topology is a broad topic, but it's just about collecting different techniques, and adjusting how you think about shapes. It's half art form and half math. Stick with it.


Honestly... Blenders a bit broken with directories, there's honestly nothing i can say until they update there #NAME system of pref Codec. Sorry but its just a waiting game.


Cryptomatte Pick isn't working. What have I forgotten?

for me its working pretty good. using this since blender beta.
few tips to find out..

1- try this sample file
in my case, it looks like this.

steps i did to check

create objects
assign materials
switch to cycles
turn on cryptomatte (as you have already done )
hit render
use cryptomatte nodes in compositor, tested via object and material both.


I can't figure out how to make PNG file with UV map

First, you should try the latest version of blender (2.81 at the moment), then just go the the UV menu (in the UV Editor) and select "Export UV Layout" : you 'll be asked to choose a file name, image type AND a resolution so you can paint on it in an external paint program.

But If you want, you can also just go the Texture Paint mode, create an empty texture Map and directly paint on your model ! Have Fun !


Disable everything else

As you thought, ther are lots of things you can avoid to render if you are looking for just the freestyle edges.

You just have to disable all the elements you can find in the Include section of the Layer panel you can find in the Render Layers tab (except Freestyle obiuvsly, if you are using Blender Render)


Can't use hotkeys for vertex/edge/face selection

go to preferences>keymaps>3D View>Mesh>Mesh(Global) at the bottom click 'add new' in the new key map paste mesh.select_mode and configure the keymap how you want.


Bringing in Multiple Animations of a Single Armature to Be Used For One Animation

Assuming you're in the file you'd like to combine the actions in:

Goto File >> Append
In the file manager, navigate to the file with the walk/run/front flip.
Click on the actual .blend, you'll see a bunch of datablock categories (Action, Mesh, etc).
Click on Action.
Select on the action you want to import, and click Append.
You should be able to load this action in the Dopesheet/NLA now.  Note that this action won't update from the original file.  If you wanted that, do the above, except clicking Append on the menu, click Link.


rigid column and bean not falling correctly

You can move the origin "to geometry", going from

to

then it will fall as expected:


How do you scale about local axis, x in this case?

If that's the result you're after:

Try scaling around individual origins and hit SHIFTZ to exclude the Z axis while you're at it.


Generate a repeating mesh pattern without extra geometry - twisted cable/guitar string

Assuming Cycles, how about something like this :

This is simply a cylinder with a procedural texture based on a Wave Texture and a Radial Gradient Texture.

The Object coordinate is split into it's X,Y,Z coordinates and just the Z is used to feed into the Wave Texture X coordinate. Without any offset this would simply result in rings along the length of the mesh. Adjust the Scale of the Wave Texture to get the desired pitch. Adding in the output of the Radial texture skews the rings and this can be adjusted (using the Multiply node) to join each ring to the next to produce a continuous winding.

To double up the strands you can include maths nodes so that the 'dip' in the wave becomes a second strand - by subtracting 0.5 and then using Absolute to make the negative section positive.

Adjusting the pitch produces the following :

Use a metallic material and this might be reasonably close to your needs.

One limitation of this is that the 'turns' must be aligned with the texture space - in this case the Z axis of the Object coordinates - so the mesh must be aligned with the axis and cannot be curved. However, this limitation can be overcome by simply UV unwrapping the mesh and ensuring that the faces are all alligned and oriented correctly in UV space and this allows the mesh to take on any form while still maintaining the twists.

One way to achieve this is to create a curve or a path along the desired route of the 'string' and set the Curve Bevel settings to give it thickness.

Convert it into a Mesh (Alt-C).

Go into Edit mode and select all faces (A) and select Mesh/UV Unwrap.../Follow Active Quads to unwrap the mesh. Open a UV/Image window and scale and align the unwrapped 'island' so that the narrow edge is just the same size as the UV image space as shown below.

With the UV Map scaled and positioned as shown, the Y coordinate can be used in place of the Radial Gradient in the previous material. The X coordinate will represent the length along the 'string'. This produces the following material and result :

Adjusting the Multiply nodes and the Wave Texture Scale will adjust the pitch and twistiness of the string.


How to access linked objects from a linked collection? (Blender 2.8)

I use this:

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/addons/object/edit_linked_library.html

I set it to appear in my favorites panel. It opens the linked file; and when you are done; you


How can I get the new Templates to work in Blender 2.79?

It looks like it doesn't work with Environment Variables at this moment because of this bug:
https://developer.blender.org/T52442

I hoped it should be solved by this fix:
https://developer.blender.org/rB2aa2bec43a7f1fa214833c73d033ae1785c600f3
... but it still does not work even in the most recent builds.

But regardless of Environment Variables, you should still be able to test your template by moving the bl_app_templates_user folder with your template to Blender's user directory c:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.79\scripts\startup

So it will look like this

Make sure you no longer have a duplicate of your theme in the previous path (Blender program directory).


Can't select individual vertices by right clicking in UV image editor (v2.46)

Make sure you are in Vertex select mode in UV Image Editor View.  Edge and Face Select Mode are possible conflicts.
Make sure you do [NOT] have proportional editing enabled. Turn it off.


Macbook trackpad very slow scrolling/panning (disable acceleration?)

I have the same issue, I'd suggest using a mouse with a scroll wheel, makes life much more easier.


UV maping a sphere to have stripes runing between both poles?

If you do it backwards, so instead of unwrapping an icosphere you create a plane and turn it into a sphere, you have a lot more control on the results.
To turn a plane into a sphere see this answer

Unwrapping a plane will give you perfect UVs to do what you want:

.blend file

related:

What is the best way to unwrap a sphere?
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/13927/1853


As far as I can see in the attached image, looks like you are doing the extrude using Vertex as the sub-object in edit mode, there's nothing wrong with that, except that you need to select all the vertices that are shaping the face before extruding. Alternatively, try using Faces instead as the selection method, by pressing Ctrl  + Tab while in edit mode, then choose Faces. The weird colored faces are simply faces with flipped normals, to unify the faces normals, select all faces, then press Ctrl  + N


Assuming 2.79: it only exists in Object mode.

Select this mode from the header/footer of the Viewport (or, if you are in Edit mode, just hit Tab)

If you are using Blender 2.80+ and following a <2.79 tutorial, then most of the transforms that used to be under Tools > Edit are now in the header of the Viewport under "Object".


Blender renders solid color square instead of image

i would recommend to NOT lock the camera to the view, because then the camera is always changing its position whenever you move the view -> so uncheck this

in the shading preview you do not see what the camera sees. You see just your selected object. This view has nothing to do with the camera.

instead tap on this icon here (the most right one) -> this shows your camera view, if ...

you tap on this camera icon

and then this text appears: Camera perspective

then you see a frame ...everything in this frame is your "real" camera view.

Happy rendering!


It is possible this might be related to auto-IK ; try going to the toolbar on the left of the screen, clicking on the options tab and turning off auto-IK.


How to parent several cameras without adjusting one and interfering the others?

Parenting should not be used as an organization method for the outliner, it is a scene hierarchy system and has obvious implications in the 3D view as you've already experienced.

Use groups instead by grouping objects together and using the outliner in Groups mode so you can have objects in "categories" or "folders" without affecting their behavior.

A proper layer system is being worked on for the upcoming Blender 2.8 but it is still far off


Rotate the plane about x,y,z axis in Blender

In general these:

R,X
R,Y
R,Z

Will start rotating whatever it is around the global x,y,z axises, and these:

R,X,X
R,Y,Y
R,Z,Z

Will start rotating around whatever transform type is listed in the box in the 3d View Header:

(Normal is equivalent to Local for objects, but averages selected normals when editing meshes.)

As an aside, if your objects are rotating around unexpected places check the left two buttons in this picture.


Stuck at the "Part 5, Level 1: Sculpting", where Andrew works on the fixing the Icing droplets

I don't know what process you used, but here's the proper way to do it:
Press 'o' on your keyboard to enable proportional editing in edit mode (first remember to undo your process of making the icing stick to the donut) and then grab one vertex on the icing which you want to stick to the donut. then press 'G' to move. You will see a circle surrounding that vertex. Use the scroll wheel on your mouse to change the size of the circle. Then, make the circle big enough to cover the part of the icing you want to stick to the donut. Then just move (remember to press 'G' or you won't see a circle or you won't be able to move your icing.) the vertex. You will see that some more verticies re moving with that single vertex. Change the size of the circle by using the scroll wheel on your mouse to specifiy how many verticies you want to move. That is how you can stick the icing to the donut.


You have to click on the small pin-looking icon in the top left corner of your Properties panel.


A build considered as not stable is a version in developpement. They have new functionnalities/changes that still need to be tested, or contains known bug that will be fixed before official releases.

An Experimental Build Branch, as said in the description are build with another compiler than the "usual" one. They should be stable (release 2.78) but you never now what can appen using a compiler that wasn't used for tests.

If you have no reason to use one of them, use the official release


Some vertices aren't visible when i go to edit mode from weight paint mode

ok .....i have solved the problem , the problem was a bug.......i have uninstalled my blender 2.91 version ....and installed the 2.838 lts  version and this solved the problem .........lts version is better because they keep fix bugs


How many points does the perspective in the viewport use and is it changeable?

I'm no architect, but this should only depend on your camera alignment.

1 point perspective - camera aligned to 2 axis
2 point perspective - camera aligned to 1 axis
3 point perspective - camera not aligned to any axis

As given in the link in the comment and mentioned by  @haarigertroll mathematically these are special  cases of the one point perspective.


How to make texture coordinates follow curvature of mesh

Follow Active Quads or Reset should be very handy if your road is made up of quads. This will give each quad a tile, which should be seamless if your texture is also seamless.


Vertex Parented empties become offset after Set Origin to 3D cursor?

Script to fix
To make the parent relation directly to the vertex, so editing will reflect position, run script below. Zeros the location of the empty and clears the parent inverse.
When setting origin to geometry of mesh both the location and parent inverse of the empties are changed, reflecting the translation of the origin location.  (The (0.18, -0.06, -0.41) part of the matrix shown in comment above).
Select the mesh object (make active) and run the script.
import bpy
from mathutils import Matrix
from bpy import context

scene = context.scene
mesh_ob = context.object
empties = [e for e in scene.objects if e.parent == mesh_ob]

for e in empties:
    e.matrix_parent_inverse = Matrix()
    e.location = (0, 0, 0)

The UI equivalent would be select all empties, AltG clear location and AltP clear parent inverse.
Script to add empties at each vertex
Since I have touched on scripting, feel it is a good idea to include a script to add empties to each vertex of a mesh object.
Have named them "Vert<i>" where i is the index of the vert, given them circle display and 0.2 empty scale.
import bpy
from bpy import context

ob = context.object
coll = context.collection

for v in ob.data.vertices:
    mt = bpy.data.objects.new(
        f"Vert{v.index}",
        None,
        )
    mt.empty_display_type = 'CIRCLE'
    mt.empty_display_size = 0.2
    mt.parent = ob
    mt.parent_type = 'VERTEX'
    mt.parent_vertices = [v.index] * 3
    coll.objects.link(mt)


Is it possible to do projection mapping with blender

Sure you can, and it works like a charm. Follow Robin's link. If you want to use fSpy (because its better). You need an extra step. Based on the the example in the previously mentioned link by stuffmatic, the workflow is as follows:

CREATE A PLACEHOLDER IMAGE: Use any drawing software that allows you to work in full screen mode. This is a must. For example Blender:

Open Blender, set the render size to match projector.
Go to Blender-> UV/Image Editor, create a new image matching the projector and render size, enter paint mode, set radius to 1 and paint stroke to line (choose high contrast background/line), and draw diagonals precisely to mark center and corners.
-While still in the UV/Image Editor; go to View -> Duplicate Area into New Window.
-Drag that window into the second display (the projector).
-Enter full screen with the following commands alt+F9 and alt+F11.

DRAW GEOMETRY ON THE PLACEHOLDER IMAGE:
The idea is to place yourself inside the projector so you can obtain an image of what the projector "sees". Now you must draw lines that will help you understand the scene when you import the image into fSpy. While watching the real, scene that should now have the placeholder image projected on it, trace as many straight lines as you can. Keep in mind that you need to define 2 or 3 sets of vanishing points (lines that are parallel in reality but that would eventually converge when projected to 2D perspective. Save the image.
CALIBRATE IN fSpy:
Open the image and use fSpy to calibrate focal length, camera position, center point. Keep in mind the number of vanishing points you have, different options will give you different results. Save the fSpy.
IMPORT CALIBRATION INTO BLENDER:
You have to install the plugin for your version of Blender. Once you import the fSpy file you should have a new calibrated camera in the scene looking at the center of the scene (which should correspond to the center point as you placed in fSpy).
RECREATE GEOMETRY:
Set your placeholder image as a background image and. Model the surfaces you want to have mapping content, and create your motion graphics content.
MAPPING:
Go crazy using realtime or rendered video output for sweet open source mapping. The best part is that if anyone moves your projector, you can simply repeat the calibration and match the scene with no need to alter the content.

P


I created a Start File; When used, though, the materials are broken

Pink means that something was either moved, or is now missing.
The first thing to do is to run File>External Data>Report Missing Files* and File>External Data>Find Missing Files to report and locate the missing files.
Note from the manual:

Report Missing Files
This option is useful to check if there are links
to unpacked files that no longer exist. After selecting this option, a
warning message will appear in the Info editor’s header. If no warning
is shown, there are no missing external files.
Find Missing Files
In case you have broken links in a blend-file, this option will help you to fix the problem. A File Browser will show up. Select the
desired directory (or a file within that directory), and a search will
be performed in it, recursively in all contained directories. Every
missing file found in the search will be recovered. Those recoveries
will be done as absolute paths, so if you want to have relative paths
you will need to select Make All Paths Relative.

Once you have fixed your file paths, save your start-up file again with Ctrl+U


You can use the Hook modifier.

Select the face and add it to a new vertex group
Add a new empty (position doesn't matter)
Add Hook modifier to your Object and target the Empty and the vertex group

This cube has a "Static Face" vertex group containing one face


Can I transfer UV seams between objects?

Data Transfer modifier to the rescue:

In your case, the mapping sounds as if it should be via Topology


You can right click the key frames and clean them or you have to delete them and place the object in desired position and then add the key frames.


My model doesn't set up for texture painting properly

Here is a simple way to do that:

List item
Select your object
Go to Edit mode ( Tab key)
Go to UV Editing ( see bottom of the application)
Move the mouse under your object, press U key, and select Smart UV Project.
You can use Mark Seam / Mark Sharp ( Ctrl+E) to fix your UV map.

This will make your texture based on the UV map.
This texture is your cloth material (with UV).

When you are painting your texture you will paint on this texture.


Try using Branched Path Tracing instead of the default Path Tracing Sampling settings. This allows more control of the different light paths and how much effort is spent rendering each. This allows you to increase the samples for Mesh Lights (which should reduce the graininess) independently of the other paths.


BGE how to move the inventory up and down with logic bricks

I suggest to use messages to request showing/hiding the inventory. This way you can request both operations from any object you like just by sending an according message.

You need to message subjects:

show inventory
hide inventory

This can easily be implemented with a point and click logic:

Additional you can set up an equal logic listening to keyboard input. This way the player has the choice to use keyboard or mouse.

View Status

The inventory by itself should have a status that is either shown or hidden. As there are just two status you could use true/false, but I think it is better to allow more status that might come later (shown, hidden, short ...).

State Machine

I recommend to use the build in state machine.

States

You can define the states as follow:

State 1: shown

Hint: the name of the first controller is the name of the state

State 2: hidden

As the names suggest the menu should be fully shown in state "shown" and minimized/hidden in state "hidden".

The initial state can be set at the lower button bar. The upper button bar is to show the logic of the different states.

Transition

As we know what the states are good for (semantics) we can now think about when to switch to what state (transition).

state 1: shown
if receiving message "hide inventory" -> switch to state 2 "hidden"

state 2: hidden
if receiving message "show inventory" -> switch to state 1 "shown"

The implementation is straight forward:

Actions

The above logic switches from one state to another. While the logic of the state machine itself is complete with that, the audience will not see any effect. So we add some operations -> actions (not to be confused with animation actions).

There are four types of actions:

entry actions (executed when entering a state)
exit actions (executed when leaving a state)
transition actions (executed when performing a specific transition)
state actions (executed while in state)

What we wan is to play an action that moves the inventory into the camera's view, when entering show state.

Symmetric animation

When the hide animation is the reverse of the show animation we can use the flipper mode of the action actuator.

I assume frame 1 is the "hidden" pose and frame 10 is the "shown" pose:

Do not forget to enable the [Level]. It makes the sensor trigger the controller on level change.

This logic performs both the entry action (play forward) and the exit action (play reverse).

Asymmetric animation

When you have two different animations when showing and when hiding, you might want to use one entry action on state "shown" and another entry action on state "hidden". The animations can have different speeds or different curves. They should end at the same pose the other animation begins to avoid visible animation gaps.

(Hint: you can use the same always sensor by temporarily disabling "State" on the sensor column)

Toggling

Quick and dirty

You have two buttons right now. You might want to have one button for both show and hide = toggle.

As the messages are exclusive (only one will be considered while the other is ignored) you can send both of them at the same time, to get a toggle button:

Clean toggle

When you can't assume the messages are exclusive (e.g. when you have three states) you might want to introduce a "toggle inventory" message.

You add or exchange the show/hide logic:


How to make a Emission shader RECEIVE shadows?

You can't, either use a shadowcatcher plane that you composite on top of your footage or don't use Emission shader on a surface that is supposed to receive shadow.


Stange material/mesh glitch in LookDev mode

Your material blend mode is set to alpha blend, changing it to opaque fixes the issue.


Partially semi-transparent texture in Cycles

The general way you want to do this is by using the mix shader node to mix between your "solid" shader output (diffuse, glossy, principled, any shader you want) and a transparent chader node. By plugging the alpha channel of your image into the "Fac" setting of the mix shader node, the alpha channel of the image lets you control how transparent the result is. The alpha channel is what changes when you make parts of your image transparent in Photoshop. You can also use nodes like the noise or Musgrave texture nodes to procedurally generate transparent and opaque portions of the object. Just plug the factor output to the factor input on the mix shader node.

See this post for an example.


Probably you have turned on "Individual origin" Pivot point.


How to make particle system animate in different key frames

Try something like this. I used a sphere as an instanced particle. In the field of the Value Node, enter #frame which will make the value correspond to the current frame number as you animate.
I made a simple "solid until frame 100 - transparent until frame 200" setup using Math Nodes set to Greater Than as a mix factor for the transparent mixes. If you are using EEVEE, remember to change the Blend Mode of the material to something other than Opaque, and also disable the shadows under Shadow Mode (as they will be visible when transparent otherwise).


How to pin a cloth in blender game engine

Cloth is not supported in the BGE.

You can use the Physics Type Softbody.

You can pin the softbody with rigid body constraints.


Lasso "Fill" Tool alternative for Texture Painting

Your question is for a Lasso Fill Tool, but the video is showing the combination of a Lasso Selection tool and a Bucket Fill tool. We have a Fill tool in the Paint tools, but we do not have a Lasso Selection tool.

The easiest work around for now is to use the Mask tool in the 3d view to paint a selection with a hard brush and then invert the mask, switch to the Fill tool and drop a color fill into the unmasked area. In the 2d Image Editor, you can use a hard brush to paint a selection with a solid contrasting color and then switch to the Fill tool and turn down the threshold level to only affect the colored pixels of the contrast color.

The 2d image editor solution is only good for solid fill and not for any extra painting inside after the fill as far as constraining the selection for paint. The 3d view Mask tool solution is very good and can be considered to be akin to a Layer Mask in Photoshop styled editors, except there are so many more ways to utilize more than the single UV mapping of your object with the Mask tool.

The creation of a Lasso Selection tool in Blender is a good topic for a proposal on Rightclickselect.com community page, and it may have been suggested there a few times now.


How to slide a vertex with UV to avoid stretching?

I'm not sure about programming it in, but here is how I would do it.
After importing the image go ahead and put in your loop cuts or whatever where you want to crop the image to.

This distorts the image. To fix that, just re-unwrap it.
The command is bpy.ops.uv.unwrap()
Or you can hit W > Unwrap.

Then just delete the outside vertices and you will get a cropped image.


Artifatcs are caused by overlapping faces.

On the right side you have this situation (correct):

while on the left side (overlapped/dubled geometry):

You can clearly see the problem also in Solid view display mode.

As faces shares the same location, camera rays can't tell which one is visible from camera, so shows a bit of one and a bit of the other.

You have to create a gap between faces


How do I get a cable to realistically follow the back of my security camera when it moves?

A way to do it is to use a curve for the cable.
You can hook the curve handle linked to the camera to an empty. Then parent this empty to another one driving the camera rotation.


How to regain smooth shape whilst scaling a group of edges that contain both creased and non creased edges?

It seems i've solved my own problem after more struggeling. The culprit was me in the end, that went for a crappy geometry (the triangles and such) once i started over clean keeping everything planar until the last steps, the isues were no more. the lesson at the end of the day was; go for squares, not triangles :D.


I added these to clarify what I do

You could select one empty, then press ShiftS --> Cursor to selected!

Add a curve (since you can modify it's thickness), press Tab to enter 'edit mode', select one vertex, press ShiftS --> Selection to cursor. Press Tab to exit 'edit mode'

Select the other empty, ShiftS --> Cursor to selected. Then select the curve, press Tab to enter 'edit mode'

select the other vertex, press ShiftS --> selection to cursor

result:


How to turn off what seems to be an auto extrude

Blender has no auto extrude functionality like what you describe to my knowledge. Based on your description, the most likely culprits are.

Duplicate vertices, to fix, Tab into Edit mode and perform a Remove Doubles operation from the W specials menu.
Proportional Editing, this is usually indicated by a circle that shows the region being affected, check your view header for a blue icon/toggle this with O. See Why is an object stuck to another?

Or it could be a combination of both of the above.


Appending a sub-menu under an existing sub-menu in Blender 2.8

Minor issue: VIEW3D_MT_add_curve doesn't exist, you have to append to VIEW3D_MT_curve_add rather. Further reading: https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.Menu.html

import bpy

class MY_MT_CustomMenu(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_label = "First Menu"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_MT_custom_menu"

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

         # call the second custom menu
        layout.menu("OBJECT_MT_sub_menu", icon="COLLAPSEMENU")

class MY_MT_CustomSubMenu(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_label = "Sub Menu"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_MT_sub_menu"

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

        # call another predefined menu
        layout.operator("wm.call_menu", text="Unwrap").name = "VIEW3D_MT_uv_map"

def draw_menu(self, context):
    self.layout.menu(MY_MT_CustomMenu.bl_idname)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(MY_MT_CustomMenu)
    bpy.utils.register_class(MY_MT_CustomSubMenu)
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_curve_add.append(draw_menu)

def unregister():
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_curve_add.remove(draw_menu)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(MY_MT_CustomSubMenu)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(MY_MT_CustomMenu)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Based on: How to create a custom UI? and Python: Extend “Select Similar” menu?


How to achieve a “Photorealistic Camera”

Setup a few extra luxuries on your camera. Such a Depth of Field, which can sometimes be a deal breaker in photorealism. Set it up and see instant realistic results. Play around with the focal length of the digital camera on blender, see which one suits your scene better. There are tons of little settings that you can adjust to make it more believable, but remember, photorealism isn't just in the camera, its in the scene.


Just had the exact thing happen to me and fixed it in last ditch effort. Phew

Can't re-trace my steps exactly to emulate the problem, however the fix is still fresh. Screen Split 3D viewport in two, in the new viewport I hit numpad 0 and from there navigating the virtual cam - Shift pan and Ctrl zoom - seemed to return the initial viewport back to functioning as it should.

Would love to know how that happened in the first place. Did I accidentally hit a slider or dropdown? Or is this a bug?


select your rock
tap CTRL-A -> scale
then it works.
explanation: whenever you do something with physics, always(!) apply scale and rotation, else it won't work or works weird.


How to create curved edges (something I thought was impossible) like this internet example?

This looks like they aren't using actually curved edges (as far as I know, you're right that would be impossible) but rather they're using a Subdivision Surface modifier with the "On Cage" option turned on (you can see it at the top of the modifier, next to the options toggling using the modifier during render, in the viewport, and in Edit mode). If you don't see that option, it may be because the subdivision modifier isn't first (the option disappears if there's another modifier before it).
As I understand it, the "On Cage" option just projects the edges onto the surface produced by applying the modifier, which makes them look curved. It's just an aesthetic thing, though - internally, the edges are still straight.


How do I set two object locations to be exactly the same?

Set origin point to a common feature in both meshes thats easily identifiable, example - tip of the nose.
Now place both objects at same location and they should line up


Blender game controller using arduino not working properly

i don't have arduino but this should work, the problem its that you have an always sensor true level triggering = false (see the img), this means that your script will runs once.

Make it TRUE and now your script will run every frame.

And now your script should be:

import serial
import bge
from time import sleep

ser = serial.Serial('COM3', 9600)

movement = 0.1

def left():
    print("Function Started")
    cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
    player = cont.owner
#    count = 1
#    while count < 50:
#        print("Count " + str(count))
#        count += 1
    if (ser.inWaiting() > 0):
        var = ser.readline()
        print(var)
        var = str(var)
        var = var[2:-5]
        var = int(var)
        print('Int var : ' + str(var))
        print()
        movements = [var * movement * -1, 0, 0]
        local = False
        player.applyMovement(movements, local)
#        sleep(0.1)
#    ser.close()
    print("Serial port Closed.")

Since i dont have arduino i tested with this script.

#import serial
import bge
#from time import sleep

#ser = serial.Serial('COM3', 9600)

movement = 0.001

def left():
    print("Function Started")
    cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
    player = cont.owner
#    count = 1
#    while count < 50:
#        print("Count " + str(count))
#        count += 1
    if True:
        var = '0.005564256'
        print(var)
        var = str(var)
        var = var[2:-5]
        var = int(var)
        print('Int var : ' + str(var))
        print()
        movements = [var * movement * -1, 0, 0]
        local = False
        player.applyMovement(movements, local)
#        sleep(0.1)
#    ser.close()
    print("Serial port Closed.")

#left()


Why are circles always created upside down?

You could also bring the shape into the position (illustarted by the first image) by moving it along the x-axis.
G,X  followed by mouse movement.


How do you generally deal with topology?

Something like this for the head:

And this for the hands:


In what situations would you use a height/bump map?

A height map is useful if the camera is going to be close enough to the surface to "see through" the trickery of a normal map. A normal map leaves the surface where it is, and just changes how light reflects off; but if the "eye" is close enough that the difference in height itself would have been visible, that looks super weird.

Here's a heavily subdivided plane equipped with a normal map generated from a noise texture:

And here's the same plane, with the same texture, except that this time it's treated as a height map:

Isn't the second one a thousand times more believable? The first one would be good enough if seen from a great enough distance, or if the bump-map were "weakened" so that it reflected much shallower bumps; but this close up, only the height map can be realistic.


How do I animate an image in the Video Sequence Editor to match the underlying video?

What you want to do is quite easy to do in blender with motion tracking.
Open a new project as VFX File > New > VFX
In the Clip Editor (not the Video Sequence Editor) open the video you want to use.

Add a tracker on the face or whatever feature you want to track.
Track the element.

In the solve tab of the tools window, in the geometry section use "Link empty to track".
And in the scene setup select "Set as Background" so that you can see the image as background on the camera view.
Import the image as plane, set it where you need.
You can then use that empty as parent to any object on the 3d workspace.

To render, composite the rendered image on top of the movie clip (the image used in the 3D viewport is for reference only).

Or you can opt to create 4 trackers and creata a "Plane Track" that can be used to deform an image as if follows the placement of the trackers.
Read:
How would I attach text to a tracked point on video clip
Is it possible to take a mask clip and 'connect' it to a specific point on a moving object?
Overlaying an image to cover a face in a video?


black and white hair texture to colored hair

I assume that you already made a simple cycle material and UV wrapped your hair texture on your polygon hair.

Transparency

Since your picture is full black and white you can use it as an alpha mask to mix between your hair color and a transparent shader:

Add --> Shader--> Mix Shader

Add --> Shader--> Transparent BSDF

For the mix shader

Factor : your picture in an Image Texture
First Shader input : BSDF of the Transparent BSDF node,
Second Shader input : your color Shader, for the example I simply use a diffuse shader but you can make more complex shader to have a better result
Output of the Mix Shader to the Sufrace of the Material Output Node

Apply a texture

Now you can add a texture to your hair.

You can add pretty much any kind of color input, in my example case I used just a noise Texture and a color ramp as the input color of a Diffuse Shader, but you can use an Image Texture or any other input color.

Here is the node setup :