MMD Textures missing vertices after importing

There are issues with the vertices in your models.
First, I would recommend Removing Doubles and Recalculating Normals.
Select all vertices, merge vertices by distance (M > By Distance or Right-Click > Merge Vertices > By Distance), and recalculate normals (F3 > "Recalculate Normals")
If that didn't work, try Clearing Custom Split Normals Data
Select all vertices, press F3 and search for (F3 > "Clear Custom Split Normals Data")
Let me know if this helps. :)


After updating Blender from 2.79 to 2.81, all my bones don't work as they should

Delete the Rigid Body simulation.

It is good to Apply Object Transform

and parent the character to the armature,

so it will follow it.

I recommend you to transfer the character to the new blend file to get rid of the legacy scene settings.


(2.8) Where are the performance options for rendering?

Same place under performance Hasn't changed.


How do I snap a vertex along a local axis?

Look at TinyCAD, aside the for me only downside that the edges need to be in the same mesh, it should be the perfect solution for you. It comes with Blender and can be activated in the preferences.

In your case i then would:

Create a duplicate of the edge from the lower object with Shift+D
Leave it in place by pressing RMB
Separate by selection with P press Enter to accept the first choice.
Go in Object Mode and select the new object and the upper object
Join those objects with Ctrl+J
Now you select the joined object, go in Edit Mode and use the "V2X - Vertex at intersection" function of TinyCAD in the RMB menu.
You get a new vertex at the intersection, which you can then use to merge the corner of the upper object on.

As i mentioned, the add-on has the drawback that it needs you to join meshes, so i forked the add-on and adjusted the V2X function, if you have more of those situations it might be interesting for you to check it out.
My forked version got merged, so here the link to the original repository.
TinyCAD/b28branch

Here a little explanatory visual:

This version is for Blender 2.8+
You can replace the files in the "scripts\addons\mesh_tiny_cad" folder of your Blender installation. I recommend to make a backup of the files first.


These look like inverted faces.

Check your Face Orientation through the Overlay menu.
They should all be pointing outwards (blue color).

You can recalculate them through:
Mesh > Normals > Recalculate Outside


What options do I have to make metal engravings and etchings in blender?

sculpting and baking the normal is the best way of doing these... another not so very recommended process is to take out its UV layout into image editing software and create a greyscale map of the design you need over it and then use it as a bump map on the mesh...


There are a few ways this can be done.

The way I would go with is to draw the pattern of the wings in Photoshop/Gimp and use that as a bump map on a glass shader.

Another way that I did above is to make a base shape for your wing.

Subdivide it 4 or 5 times, apply it, then go into sculpting mode and sculpt the wing pattern (better than I did).

Then use the node set up above.

You can just use a glass shader with an emission shader in the volume, I used 3 different colors for the emission shader and mixed them with a noise texture to break up the colors.

For the glass shader I added a transparent with a layer weight node as a mix factor just so I can hide the glass and make it a little more magical.

If you use the node set up above, play with the noise texture settings and the colorramp flags to clamp what you see.

The multiply (math) node is there just to make the emission brighter or darker.

You can play with the roughness value of the glass shader too, It looks like here wings are a little bit frosted.


How can I solve this .obj to .icn conversion problem?

after trying everything for days I asked that question and to my chance I reached a solution from somewhere else.
so the solution was to create triangle's instead of quads for the faces and that's it. nothing else is needed.


License of project files created with Blender

Yes, you can do whatever you want with your files when you create them. Blender's license does not have any restrictions on the work you produce with it. In fact it has very few restrictions on what you can do with Blender itself.

You can read the license here: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html

The license also comes with Blender itself - in its installation folder you will find GPL3-license.txt file with all the text of it.


Is there any visio like symbol set for Blender?

I don't know much about Visio at all and in fact it's the first time I hear about it, but a quick Google search reveals that it is possible to save diagrams created in it in SVG format. You can also import SVG format to Blender. If you press F4 followed by P or go to Edit -> Preferences, navigate to the Add-ons tab and search for "SVG", you will find an option to enable SVG import add-on:

Other than that, Blender is a content creation software package, so you can also just make whatever diagrams using it's modelling and drawing tools. This is the way to go with most things, because you cannot expect to find assets for every single idea you imagine.


Blender/Cycles doesn't have this feature currently


You can animate Opacity value of Adjustment strip, for creating nice fade effect.

How to animate values:

Select Adjustment strip and in the N-tab find Opacity value.
Set time where you want to fade start, hover mouse cursor over the Opacity value and press I
Set time to the end of fade, set Opacity value to 0 and press I again, while  hovering cursor over the Opacity value


Getting the number of faces a certain vertex is part of

a very nice feature of bmesh :)

import bpy
import bmesh

me = bpy.context.object.data

# Get a BMesh representation
bm = bmesh.new()   # create an empty BMesh
bm.from_mesh(me)   # fill it in from a Mesh

for f in bm.faces:
    for v in f.verts:
        lf = v.link_faces
        print('num faces:', len(lf), 'faces: ', lf[:])
    break


Try copying the pose, then pasting x-mirrored= shift+Ctrl+V.

You can copy the pose in the pose menu, right next to the mode changing button.

See the one that says Pose?

Once you copy a pose (Copy Pose) you can either paste pose or paste x-flipped pose.


CUDA & OpenCL GPUs compatibility in Cycles

Currenty, there is no support for AMD and nVidia GPUs to be used simultaneusly in Cycles (update is to arrive very soon from what I understand). One option is to use Radeon Pro Render engine developed by AMD. https://pro.radeon.com/en/software/prorender/


bpy text attributes: how to set, how to discover

Text objects are Curves with the subclass TextCurve. To create a text object(without using bpy.ops):

font = bpy.data.curves.new('myFont', 'FONT') #this is the 'data' of the text.data in your code
text = bpy.data.objects.new('myText', font)
bpy.context.scene.objects.link(text)
bpy.context.scene.update() #in your case do this outside the loop

To set the extrude:

font.extrude = 0.1


Limited Dissolve changes vertex positions?

Thanks to Robin, his script, and taking a second look, I realize now that Blender uses single precision floats instead of double. In the first python script, it is printing whatever python thinks (double precision).

Don't use 5 degree (default?) with Limited Dissolve. This lead to original vertices being deleted.
Less than 1 degree limited dissolve doesn't have this problem.


Well, I may be a bit of an idiot, but I found the issue.

The two front vertices were missing the edges that would have connected them to the edge running back to front.  Old mesh (left), new mesh (right):

When unwrapped, results were as desired:

Thank you to those who responded!


Improving AA in Cycles / Removing jaggies

Here's an example of a similar problem I'm facing at the moment.

Here the ribbed feature of the can happens to be on the boundary of pixels for every rib, this means cycles won't know which colour to make most important (that would require spatial antialiasing), it doesn't have contextual information that our brains have. This is the Moiré effect, it almost looks transparent.

But if I zoom in and render just the can at higher resolution it's obvious that the geometry is fine.

I may be wrong, but I think this is an edge case which directly relates the feature size being so close to pixels and that causes the jaggie pattern to emerge. As for extra AA, cycles does AA implicitly I think it's part of the algorithm, if it's getting it wrong there's little that can be done (without changing the geometry a little)

This may seem like a lazy answer, but it's normal to render at higher resolution than the final needed render, and sample down in post-processing to help the AA. In the case where you have features which are about the same size as a pixel (or in a pattern of every 2nd pixel), this becomes important. It's easier to sample down once you have all the right pixels than it is for Cycles to perform AA with insufficient information.

Other helpful ways to reduce jaggies are:

bevels to make the surface edges less abrupt (help guide the light)

but make sure the bevels are finer grained than the pixels used to represent them, so go for a multi-cut fillet if you can spare the geometry.

add imperfections (most surfaces are not flawless..it all contributes to realism and helps break up unwanted patterns)
softer lighting, more bounces.
The post processing tab has a Dither option to help avoid banding, worth seeing if that tames the effect a bit.
reduce the glossyness, or specular effect, it will be most noticable at the corners. that means the difference between:

and


Python Scripts with Blender, Make Human, and Sheepit

If the scripts are used to rig the characters - try to bake it. If you want to render physics simulation you have to bake the simulation into keyframes to use the render farm...


Yes, Python can make a popup menu.

The options are either...

Create a popup on the fly. using bpy.context.window_manager.popup_menuhttp://www.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_2_75_release/bpy.types.WindowManager.html#bpy.types.WindowManager.popup_menu
Define a menu subclass of bpy.types.Menu, then call it. see:http://www.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_2_75_release/bpy.types.Menu.html

Both of the links above include examples.

Regarding "How to get the result of the selection", The way Blender works, menu items reference operators. So you would need to define an operator which is referenced from the menu.


Is there a Blender Python UI code to draw a horizontal line or vertical space?

The definitive place for UI examples is the UI cookbook. The layout templating syntax hasn't changed much since the early 2.5 releases.

There is layout.separator() for a subtle space between consecutive items. The vertical space is added automatically if multiple items appear on one row.

class LayoutDemoPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    """Creates a Panel in the scene context of the properties editor"""
    bl_label = "Layout Demo"
    bl_idname = "SCENE_PT_layout"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "scene"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout

        scene = context.scene

        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(scene, "frame_start")
        row.prop(scene, "frame_end")
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(scene, "frame_start")
        row.prop(scene, "frame_end")
        layout.row().separator()
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(scene, "frame_start")
        row.prop(scene, "frame_end")
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(scene, "frame_start")
        row.prop(scene, "frame_end")
        layout.row().separator()
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(scene, "frame_start")
        row.prop(scene, "frame_end")

Or for a more defined delineation, one might use layout.box()

def draw(self, context):
    layout = self.layout

    scene = context.scene

    box = layout.box()
    row = box.row()
    row.prop(scene, "frame_start")
    row.prop(scene, "frame_end")
    row = box.row()
    row.prop(scene, "frame_start")
    row.prop(scene, "frame_end")

    box = layout.box()
    row = box.row()
    row.label('some label')
    row = box.row()
    row.prop(scene, "frame_start")
    row.prop(scene, "frame_end")
    row = box.row()
    row.prop(scene, "frame_start")
    row.prop(scene, "frame_end")

    box = layout.box()
    row = box.row()
    row.prop(scene, "frame_start")
    row.prop(scene, "frame_end")

A vertical split using box and column. You might struggle with this, this is normal.

def draw(self, context):
    layout = self.layout

    scene = context.scene

    col = layout.row()
    split = col.split(percentage=0.5)
    box = split.column().box()

    row = box.row()
    row.label('some label 1')
    row = box.row()
    row.prop(scene, "frame_start")
    row.prop(scene, "frame_end")
    row = box.row()
    row.prop(scene, "frame_start")
    row.prop(scene, "frame_end")

    box = split.column().box()
    row = box.row()
    row.label('some label 2')
    row = box.row()
    row.prop(scene, "frame_start")
    row.prop(scene, "frame_end")
    row = box.row()
    row.prop(scene, "frame_start")
    row.prop(scene, "frame_end")


In cycles material how to get stencil effect similar to blender internal material

With trial and error I got this result, which is what I was looking for. The two images are mixed based on the pupil image's alpha channel, overlaying it onto the eye image. Next the eyes are mixed with the background using the eye texture's alpha channel.


Motion blur not applying to rigged propeller

I can't be quite certain WHY, but Cycles isn't properly understanding the mesh distortion that your armature is doing. When I separated the moving parts of the rotor from the mast into two separate objects, and then animated the rotor object instead of the armature, the rotors blurred properly:

I suspect the armature isn't what's causing the problem, rather that it's the mesh distortion. Here's why: I also tried animating a shape-key instead of using the armature (with the whole mesh as one object), and Cycles did the same thing you're seeing. So, it must have something to do with Cycles not properly blurring meshes when they are deformed, instead of TRANSformed (LocRotScale). Even turning on "Deformation" in the motion blur settings for the mesh didn't change anything.

I suspect that you can still use the armature, so long as the moving components are a separate object from the non-moving components (or from components that move differently). I'd wager that your test rotor was also a separate object from the two cubes below it, and that's why it blurred properly.

This MIGHT be a bug. I'd recommend looking in the forums to see if it's been discovered. In the mean-time, it's somewhat more conventional to separate a mesh by moving parts, anyway ;-)

I hope that helps!


Is it possible to not create keyframes automatically when drawing with Grease Pencil?

Yes it is possible. Just hit the button to lock the frame in the grease pencil layers panel.


Using opacity map with principle shader and another color map

Here you go - I plug the black and white image into the mix factor of the mix shader as a way to define where the transparency shader will take effect.


Trouble replicating the animation where the colour only spreads onto a specific area

Even though you have part of the process completed, I will give an overview of the steps.
You could transform all images in the node editor, but since Blenders transformation nodes are inefficient to handle, I will suggest the 3D space.

Load your image into the compositor. Set the project size to match it's dimensions.
I will use the images as planes addon to quickly get my ink movie clip into the 3D view. Import it with the options Auto Refresh and Shadeless.
Then I added an orthographic camera. The movie clip should play, if you selected auto-refresh.
Set the image as a background image in the 3D view. Transform the movie clip plane in camera view.
Set the World Background to black. The render will be used as a mask based in the luminance.
Mask the image in the Movie Clip Editor.

Load your Renderlayer and Mask into the compositor and multiply them with a ColorMix node.
To color the masked portion red, use a ColorMix node. Connect the multiplied masks with the Fac input.

Rendering it results in the desired effect.

Further notes.

If you change your scene size (using the percentage slider), you will need to add a scale node to the Input Image.
If the ink movie clip mask is not white, the effect will not be 100% opaque. You a RGB Curves node or a colorramp to shift its whitepoint.
You can use the mask with many other nodes other than a MixRGB node.


Creating geometry based on the transparency of a PNG image

You can start from plane

from bottom extruding (E) on Y axis, scale (S) and repeat process up to top.
add Subsurface Modifier
Sharp edge (Shift+E) = 1 (pink edges)

Unwrap (U) > Project from View
switch to UV Edit layout (from top row) and adjust position on image in edit mode

(if you need more smooth shape increase Modifier)

You can start from Curve Object

add Curve > Bezier
(in edit mode select and delete all, click with Ctrl to create a new point)
Extrude (E) selected point to shape
change handle type (V) for corner points

From half of shape you can generate 3D object by Screw Modifier

Convert to Mesh object you can use Boolean Modifier to Intersect another object to finish cut.

You can use Knife tool

go to edit mode hit (K) Knife to do cuts arround the drawing, but it is a bit dirty way, since plane is already Unwrapped moving points will move texture as well (there was an option to disable moving UV, but I cant find it now). To smooth shape in specific part you can use Subdivision Surface modifier as well, but triangulate it first.

Example all of them (Plane visible, others are hidden from Outliner)

You can use Greace Pencil

to redraw icon from scratch


How to bend a tube with consistent thickness?

Start by creating your base cylinder, duplicating it and rotating it 90 degrees, and place it where you need it, so that you end up with two straight pieces to be connected.

Then use Bridge Edge Loops, add the number of desired cuts and setting the smoothness to have the correct profile and avoid overlapping geometry.


Modify the size and location of the Rigid Body Collision Object

You can not resize the collision box itself, but you will notice that if you scale your object your collision box will scale as well.
To customize the collision box:

Scale your object in Edit Mode to fit the collision box.
Note the scale factors on paper and take the inverse of those numbers by calculating 1/x.
Then scale your Object by those Factors.

You can also do this with translation by translating in Edit Mode to fit the collision box and doing the inverse in Object Mode

Notice that this will work perfectly for cubes, but if you want spheres you have to keep them spheres. You can not turn spheres into ellipsoids.


Purpose of the languages selector in the Python Console

Well, Blender has lots of submenus and options that serve no apparent purpose, so...

Anyway, Blender source code is managed by the Git version-control system which maintains a history of changes as a series of "commits".  In this case, the commit that added this menu is documented as follows:

commit ddeb9f8e24da6076ed76be1573cc152def5751ae
Author: Campbell Barton <ideasman42@gmail.com>
Date:   Fri Nov 6 23:53:40 2009 +0000

    - added console language type
    - separated python console from the interactive console
    - added shell console type (simple example)
    - console types are autodetected and can be selected in the menu

So, a decade ago, one of the lead Blender developers thought that having support for multiple console languages might be useful.

There's still some dead code around, so you can enter the following in a Python Console to get a Bash shell:

>>> bpy.context.space_data.language='shell'
>>> bpy.ops.console.language()
/bin/sh: 1: Syntax error: Bad function name
/u/buhr$

After this, "Python" and "Shell" will appear in the View->Language menu, and you can toggle between them.  Have fun!


Apply Texture only on parts of Object with nodes

You could achieve this in two different ways

Either use two very similar materials, one with a texture other without, then use two distinct material slots for each. One for the parts with the logo the other for the parts without.
Reset and clear your UV coordinates for all faces of the bottle you want to keep without images. just enter edit mode, select all the faces where you don't want your image to appear and clear the UV coordinates. You can easily set them to X0,Y0 for example, in the UV editor by setting the cursor to 0,0 coordinate by pressing . and scaling them all with a factor of zero.


How to select faces of a mesh and apply extrude using a python script

This is not really a complete answer as it does not result in a complete chair but it covers the trickery you seem to need.

There are a few snafoos as I've copy/pasted from my own code base which treats a few features not present in your problem, it's useful code however so have at it I say.

The code is cut up so that I can describe what I'm doing but really it is a single script. So stitch it together and run it in blender then the chair button will appear at the base of the add mesh menu. Usefully I've split it up so that it may be made into a package aswell. So if you made each part into it's own file and resolved the imports as necessary you would have the start of a package. The double hash comments indicate what I'd call each file.

Imports

Imports gotta have imports. I use the bpy_extras methods as it provides you with a proper Scaling/Rotating/Translating matrix. It also does object/mesh (a.k.a data) registration within the scene. In prior question(s) of my own the more experienced guys indicated that they don't use this helper, I figure this gives the blender team some control over object creation in packages and therefore I use it. The rest of the imports are pretty standard stuff.

import bpy
import bpy_extras
import bmesh
from math      import *
from mathutils import *

Data

I do not fully utilize it here but these two methods allow for re-entrancy. That is you can edit the mesh after you've done something that breaks the history's breadcrumb trail. Usually I add an Edit Panel to facilitate this.

## utilities.py
def prop2data(prop, data) :
    """
    prop2data

    Given a PropertyGroup and ID-Data populate the latter from the former
    """
    for key in prop.rna_type.properties.keys() :
        if key in ["rna_type"] :
           continue
        if isinstance(getattr(prop, key), bpy.types.PropertyGroup) :
            if key not in data :
                data[key] = {}
            prop2data(getattr(prop, key), data[key])
        else:
            data[key] = getattr(prop, key)
            #print("{} : {} -> {}".format(key,getattr(prop, key),data[key]))

def data2prop(prop, data) :
    """
    data2prop

    Given a PropertyGroup and ID-Data populate the former from the latter
    """
    # The order of arguments matches prop2data this is deliberate and
    # indicates that the structure is traversed according to Property-
    # Group rather then ID-Data (Which should be preferred).
    for key in prop.rna_type.properties.keys() :
        if key in ["rna_type"] :
           continue
        if isinstance(getattr(prop, key), bpy.types.PropertyGroup) :
            if key in data and isinstance(data[key], dict):
                data2prop(getattr(prop, key), data[key])
        else:
            #print("{} : {} <- {}".format(key, data[key], getattr(prop, key)))
            setattr(prop, key, data[key])

Properties

I wrap all the properties for a given geometry into a pointer class for various purposes. It's helpful to pass these parameters into the data2prop and prop2data methods and to toss them into the geometry method for example.

## Properties
class chairProperties(bpy.types.PropertyGroup) :
    """Chair properties"""
    height     = bpy.props.FloatProperty(
                 name        = "Height",
                 description = "The total height",
                 default     =      1.0,
                 min         =      0.0,
                 #update      = _height_,
                 unit        = 'LENGTH')
    length     = bpy.props.FloatProperty(
                 name        = "Length",
                 description = "The total length",
                 default     =       3.5,
                 min         =       0.0,
                 unit        =  'LENGTH')
    width      = bpy.props.FloatProperty(
                 name        = "Width",
                 description = "The total width",
                 default     =       2.5,
                 min         =       0.0,
                 unit        =  'LENGTH')
    inset      = bpy.props.FloatProperty(
                 name        = "Inset depth",
                 description = "The depth of the inset",
                 default     =       0.5,
                 min         =       0.0,
                 unit        =  'LENGTH')

Geometry

This next section has quite a bit going on. Firstly we provide stock unit vectors lying along the principle axes. This is largely done so that you're not dropping plus and minus signs everywhere.

The selectPlane method does most of the magic, I wrap it into a function so I can cherry pick verts, edges or faces. One can then make sub-selections of that selection to decide what is or isn't extruded.

clearGeometry simply strips out any mesh data while preserving the object and object.data (mesh) data blocks.

chairGeometry populates the object.data with the geometry you require. Here you should note that when selectPlane is called you must use a location and normal vector that are rotated with the object's co-ordinates, the way you do this is different. For the location you're flinging a point about in 3 space. For the normal you're taking one of those principle vectors and flinging it about in 3 space, you then need to re-center it about a zero by subtracting a zero that you also flung about in 3 space. Finally the last trick is in the selections by using sets, fx and fy you can make sub-selections using set theory. fx&fy in this case selects the corner faces, 'fx|fy' would select the skirt, fx|fy-fx&fy the edges and 'go-fx|fy' would get the center. This provides quite a lot of flexibility. For the rest there is a little algebraic trickery to make the center of the object coincide with the base of the chair once everything is extruded. This is also used to select the appropriate faces.

## geometry.py
AXES = {'+X':Vector(( 1,0,0)), '+Y':Vector((0, 1,0)), '+Z':Vector((0,0, 1)),
        '-X':Vector((-1,0,0)), '-Y':Vector((0,-1,0)), '-Z':Vector((0,0,-1))}

def selectPlane(bm, normal = 'z', location = Vector((0,0,0)), feature = 'verts', tolerance = 0.1) : # bpy.context.active_object.location
    '''
    Select all the geometry within a plane described by a position and a normal
    '''
    normal = normal if isinstance(normal, Vector) else AXES[normal.upper()]
    if isinstance(feature, list) :
       return {key : planeSelect(bm, normal, feature, location, tolerance) for key in feature}
    else :
       return {'verts' : [vert for vert in bm.verts if abs(vert.co.__sub__(location).dot(normal)) < tolerance],
               'edges' : [],
               'faces' : [face for face in bm.faces if all([abs(vert.co.__sub__(location).dot(normal)) < tolerance for vert in face.verts])]}[feature]

def clearGeometry(sc, ob, me, ps):
    '''
    I understand to be the best method of clearing the mesh data
    '''
    bm = bmesh.new()
    bm.to_mesh(me)
    me.update()
    sc.update()

def chairGeometry(sc, ob, me, ps, matrix = Matrix.Identity(4)) :
    '''
    Create a Chair Shape
    '''
    bm = bmesh.new()
    # Provide Geomerty
    bmesh.ops.create_cube(bm, size=1.0, matrix=Matrix([[ps.length,       0,                   0,0],
                                                       [        0,ps.width,                   0,0],
                                                       [        0,       0,ps.height - ps.inset,0],
                                                       [        0,       0,                   0,1]]))
    # Lower Geometry
    cx = [-ps.length/2+ps.inset,ps.length/2-ps.inset]
    for x in cx :
        go = selectPlane(bm,
                         normal   = matrix*AXES['-Z'] - matrix*Vector((0,0,0)),
                         location = matrix*Vector((0, 0, -(ps.height - ps.inset)/2)),
                         feature  = 'faces')
        go = list({item for face in go for item in [face] + face.verts[:] + face.edges[:]})
        go = bmesh.ops.bisect_plane(bm, geom=go, plane_co=(x,0,0), plane_no=(1,0,0))
    cy = [-ps.width/2+ps.inset,ps.width/2-ps.inset]
    for y in cy :
        go = selectPlane(bm,
                         normal   = matrix*AXES['-Z'] - matrix*Vector((0,0,0)),
                         location = matrix*Vector((0, 0, -(ps.height - ps.inset)/2)),
                         feature  = 'faces')
        go = list({item for face in go for item in [face] + face.verts[:] + face.edges[:]})
        go = bmesh.ops.bisect_plane(bm, geom=go, plane_co=(0,y,0), plane_no=(0,1,0))
    go = selectPlane(bm,
                     normal   = matrix*AXES['+Z'] - matrix*Vector((0,0,0)),
                     location = matrix*Vector((0, 0, -(ps.height - ps.inset)/2)),
                     feature  = 'faces')
    fx = {face for face in go if any([v.co.x < min(cx) or v.co.x > max(cx) for v in face.verts])}
    fy = {face for face in go if any([v.co.y < min(cy) or v.co.y > max(cy) for v in face.verts])}
    # the next line is useful if the bmesh operator needs faces, edges and verts
    #go = [i for s in {[face] + face.edges[:] + face.verts[:] for face in fx|fy} for i in s]
    go = bmesh.ops.extrude_face_region(bm, geom=list(fx&fy))['geom']
    for v in list({item for item in go if isinstance(item,bmesh.types.BMVert)}) : v.co.z-= ps.inset
    # Update the Object
    bmesh.ops.transform(bm, matrix=Matrix.Translation((0,0,ps.height/2 + ps.inset/2))*matrix, verts=bm.verts)
    bm.to_mesh(me)
    bm.free()
    me.update()

Operator

Next we provide the operator blender will call. This really just wraps the Create/Review/Update/Delete Geometry methods in blender specific boilerplate.

## operators.py
class MESH_OT_primitive_chair_add(bpy.types.Operator, bpy_extras.object_utils.AddObjectHelper):
    """Creates and Modifies a simple Chair"""
    bl_idname      = "mesh.primitive_chair_add"
    bl_label       = "Add Chair"
    bl_description = "This operator creates a Chair"
    bl_options     = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}
    part           = "Furniture:Chair"

    instantiate = bpy.props.BoolProperty(   name        = "New Object",
                                            description = "Used internally to control Object Creation versus Modification. See Object Creation in the Project Readme",
                                            default     = True,
                                            options     = {'HIDDEN'})
    dimensions  = bpy.props.PointerProperty(name        = "Dimensions",
                                            type        = chairProperties)

    def execute(self, context):
        if not self.instantiate and context.active_object and 'part' in context.active_object.data.keys() :
            sc = context.scene
            ob = context.active_object
            me = ob.data
            ps = self.dimensions
            data2prop(ps, me['size'])
            clearGeometry(sc, ob, me, me['size'])
        else :
            sc = context.scene
            me = bpy.data.meshes.new(name="Chair")
            od = bpy_extras.object_utils.object_data_add(context, me, operator=self)
            ob = od.object
            ps = self.dimensions # Using either od.object.GEOMETRY (Object Registered Properties) or self.GEOMETRY (Operator Registered Properties) os sc.GEOMETRY (Scene Registered Properties)
            me['ID']   = 'Not Used'
            me['part'] = self.part,
            me['size'] = {} # Localized Data Store
        # Dimensions
        # Your would adjust the properties here to ensure the various contraints are met
        # Geometry
        prop2data(ps, me['size'])
        chairGeometry(sc, ob, me, ps)
        return {"FINISHED"}

Interface

The interface consists of a button at the end of the Add Mesh menu. This is not really the proper place for this but it'll do.

## interface.py
def addChairMenu(self, context) :
     self.layout.operator(MESH_OT_primitive_chair_add.bl_idname, text="Add Chair")

Registration

The last bit simply un/registers everything and provides the name of some one to shout at when it all goes pear shaped.

## __init__.py
bl_info = {
    "name"         : "Furniture",
    "author"       : "Carel",
    "version"      : (0, 1),
    "category"     : "User",
    "location"     : "View3D > Add > Furniture",
    "description"  : "This allows one to create various funriture, specifically a chair",
    "warning"      : "Alpha Release, may wobble",
 }

def register():
    # Properties
    bpy.utils.register_class(chairProperties)
    # Operator(s)
    bpy.utils.register_class(MESH_OT_primitive_chair_add)
    # Menu(s)
    bpy.types.INFO_MT_add.append(addChairMenu)

def unregister():
    # Menu(s)
    bpy.types.INFO_MT_add.remove(addChairMenu)
    # Operator(s)
    bpy.utils.register_class(MESH_OT_primitive_chair_add)
    # Properties
    bpy.utils.register_class(chairProperties)

if __name__ == "__main__" :
    register()

Notes

This code sort of stems from this question if you want to understand it better. There is also now a related question.


Can a mask stick to a shape in the motion tracker?

The mask control points can be controlled by trackers.
So track the hand (or the edges where the hand moves over the book cover) and parent those trackers to the mask.

To do that select the mask's control point, then shift-select the tracker to control it and press CtrlP. Now the control points will follow the tracker automatically.


How to calculate "blend" based on "spot size" and inner cone angle?

From the Blender Wiki:

  The value is proportional and represents that amount of space that the
  inner cone should occupy inside the outer cone (SpotSi).

This is quite confusing, because the value is calculated by subtracting the area of the smaller circle from the area of the larger one instead.

R = bigest Radius
r = smallest Radius

blend = π(R*R - r*r) / π(R*R)

It should be:

blend = (R*R - r*r) / (R*R)

blend = 1 -> r = 0
blend = 0 -> r = R

BUT the result is not exactly what I expected.

In this example, the smaller black circle is half as large as the radius of the larger circle.

The orange lines are the cones of the spotlight obtained from the formula:

blend = (R*R - r*r) / (R*R) = 0.75

This is the manual setting (blend 0.71):


A particle system with Dupli-group is probably a good way to go.

I'd start by creating a dozen or so rock templates. Using modifiers, you can come up with this pretty fast:

Then create a new plane that will serve as the base of where the rocks will go, and create a particle system to it. The particles system controls where the rocks will go, distribution, size, etc.


Adding a new image texture slot to a particle system in Python

After carefully enumerating all properties of the texture slot, I found one difference.

After explicitly setting

mtex.blend_mode = 'MULTIPLY'

it finally started working. The blend mode is set to MIX by default.


Why depth map renderings stored in 16-bit PNG turn out to be 8-bit?

It doesn't matter what the bit depth is if the format is output referred. 32, 16, and 8 bit integer, and even in float instances, may result in output referred ranges, typically 0.0 to 1.0. In these instances, the bit depth doesn't increase the range, merely the number of steps between them.

The only real option would be a float format that supports deeper data ranges such as EXR or TIFF. Blender's TIFF support did not appear to support float instances when last examined, and even if it did it may be bound to output referred ranges.


The screen grab on the question shows a project open on v 1.72

Boolean tools in edit mode were introduced in version 2.77.

Update to a newer version of Blender


The way Cycles works is by creating a rough approximation of the final image and then cleaning up the noise over time.  The more samples you set in Cycles, the more time it has to clean up the scene (but the longer it takes to finish rendering).  The reason it's not cleaning up anymore for you is that you don't have the samples set high enough.  You can change how many samples you use in Properties -> Render -> Samples.  There are two settings, one for the viewport and one for the final render.  You typically want the final render to have more samples than the viewport.  If the image is too noisy, you can increase the samples, and if it takes too long, you can decrease the samples.

If you're not sure how many samples to set it to, you can set the viewport samples to 0 (aka infinity) and wait until the image clears up (and you can't move around in the scene while it's clearing up).  Once it's clear enough, you can look in the top left where it says, "Path Tracing Samples", and whatever number that's at, you can set the viewport or final render to that.  Note, it's okay if you have the viewport samples set to something low enough that it still is a little noisy.  As long as the final render samples are high enough, the final render will look good.

(In this scene, 38 samples is good enough for the viewport, but I'll probably want the final render to be set for something like 64 or 128 just to make it nice and clear [if you look closely at the shadows, you can see a little noise])


Is it possible to render vertices in Blender?

You can use DupliVerts to achieve an effect like this. Compared to other methods for rendering vertices, DupliVerts are going to give you by far the most control over materials, though the procedure for using them is slightly more complicated. They also have the advantage of working regardless of which render engine you are using.

To use DupliVerts to render vertices, follow these steps:

Add a new mesh object (I prefer using spheres for this) and scale down to your desired size
Using the Transform panel (N), move that object to the exact same location as the object you want to render the vertices of, by manually entering in the coordinates
Now hold down Shift and select your target object. Make sure both the target object and your sphere are selected, and that the target was selected last
Press Ctrl+P and parent the object
Go to the Properties>Object panel, scroll down to "Duplicate", and select "Verts"

Now you will a copy of your sphere positioned at every vertex of your target object. You can now choose which materials to use for each of the objects. If you want to render only the vertices, then assign a Transparent material to the target object, and a visible material to the dupliverts.

My result, using DupliVerts on an Icosphere with and orange diffuse material in Cycles:


BGE Mouse Look Min and Max Bounds Changing?

You should use the actuator.angle attribute, or actuator.angle[0] if only the X value is needed. Here's a example script I made and test file attached here.

import bge

from bge.logic import expandPath
from ast import literal_eval

def main(cont):

    # Objects
    own = cont.owner

    # Sensors
    S = cont.sensors['S']
    L = cont.sensors['L']

    # Actuators
    MLook = own.actuators['MLook']

    # Properties
    path = expandPath('//save.txt')

    data = {
        'pos' : list(own.worldPosition),
        'rot' : list(own.localOrientation.to_euler()),
        'mouse' : MLook.angle
        }

    ### PROCESSING ###
    # Save
    if S.positive:

        with open(path, 'w') as opened_file:
            opened_file.write(str(data))
            print('Saved data to', opened_file.name)

    # Load
    if L.positive:

        try:
            with open(path, 'r') as opened_file:
                data = literal_eval(opened_file.read())
                print('Saved data to', opened_file.name)

            # Set obj data
            own.worldPosition = data['pos']
            own.localOrientation = data['rot']
            MLook.angle = data['mouse']

        except:
            print('Cant load saved file')


How can i have different mass on same object?

Getting mass is easy.  You apply rigid body in physics menu then open the setting arrow in it. The default is 1kg but you can change this to particular materials eg lead in the object>rigid body>calculate mass menu option. This works well and I've built complex shapes using micro cubes like lego/mineworld and then hot their masses and simulated them.
I too would like advice on best approach to double pendulum. I tried 3 UV Sphere connected by nurb paths extending the many youtube  simple pendulum Blender examples.  I can only get the middle ball to swing and one nurb path just gets stuck locking the second pendulum.  Did you complete? I wish some guru would show how its best done...


Making square torus with square cross section

Steps:

Create a Plane and convert it to Curve - Alt+C > Curve from Mesh/Text.
Add Bezier > Circle.
With Circle selected go to Data tab and choose Plane as a Bevel Object - you will probably need to scale down Plane.
Set Resolution > Preview U to desired density.
Add Solidify modifier and set Thickness. I've used minus value to create "inner" wall.
Convert your curve object to a mesh - Alt+C > Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text.
Optionally you can add Solidify again.


How to use Curve Modifier to buldge part of the mesh (modelling rabbit ear)

It would be a lot easier to model what you want directly without modifiers. Use proportional editing.


Blender game: How you can make an object to emit light?

I don't believe you can, you could however parent a light to the object and give the object a shadeless texture. It for all intents and purposes would appear to be emitting light in that case.


Low poly normals when baking with Cycles

Firstly, make sure everything is smooth shaded. Then see to it that all normals are facing in the right direction. Or you can simply go to Edit Mode and press Shift+N and normals will align to the face direction. If this does not help you, check your UV and make sure there are no overlapping UVs.


Blender object randomly invisible to camera

Try appending all your objects to a new file. If it's a glitch it's a glitch and this is what usually saves my day in such situations :-) I've experienced weird behavior with visibility/renderability before...


If you want to keep the Mirror modifier and have the logo correctly displayed, enable the modifier's Flip option. To make sure that the logo won't repeat, enable the Image Texture's Extend option instead of Repeat.


Can this low-light animation in Cycles be rendered sharply and in HD, and how?

To be honest, this scene is relatively light-weight already.
A single frame at 1000 samples at 50% resolution takes almost exactly 20 minutes on my CPU (a quad core intel xeon, though the clock rate is only 2.5 GHz). Naturally using a GPU (or both CPU and GPU at once) would help dramatically.
Rendering simply takes time. Even the giant renderfarms at ILM or pixar spend as much as four hours or more[better citation needed] rendering a single frame in some scenes.
If you want to render the scene exactly as it is in a short time frame, you might consider sending it off to a renderfarm such as SheepIt, a free distributed blender-specific renderfarm where blenderusers from all over the world donate and exchange their processing time.
Optimizations
For reference:
Default setup (100 samples, 40% resolution, frame 20):  1:19

As far as things you can do without changing the result go, this scene is already pretty optimized.
You can shave off a few seconds by reducing the bounces. (an optimization of a few seconds at preview resolution and samples can turn into minutes at full quality)
Reduced bounces: 0:59

Keep in mind that tile size can also have a sizable impact on rendertime, but the nature of this impact heavily depends on the scene and your hardware.

Scene changing optimizations
By using an arealamp to do the main illumination and dimming the letters, allowing the less-noisy area lamp do all the work, a lot of the noise is less noticeable. Adding a glare node helps cover the noise directly behind the letters somewhat:

Yes, the rendertime increased (thanks to the glare node), but now the result appears slightly less noisy.
Taking this to the extreme you could even make the letters visible only to the camera:

Now it's nearly at a point where you might be able to get away with 100 samples for the final render (you might still want to use 200-300 or so).

Other options

As mentioned above, use a renderfarm. Here's a list of renderfarms which support or even specialize in blender/cycles.

Render it overnight or in the background over the course a few weeks (perhaps using only a single core while using the computer for other things)

Bake the lighting for diffuse materials (only valid if no light sources are animated)


Why does the mirror modifier disappear when I merge objects together?

When you merge two or more objects together, all selected objects will inherit the modifier stack of the active object (the object selected last).
If you're selecting the teeth object first (the object that has the Mirror modifier) then the key object (the active object that doesn't have it), the Mirror modifier will be deleted, since the active object doesn't have one.
The best solution is to copy the object that has the Mirror modifier, put it on a different layer for backup, then go to the original object and apply the Mirror modifier before merging it with the key object.


I have view port quality issue (Sorry if this has been asked before I couldn't find an answer)

Ok I figured it out.
It was the camera clipping start length, it was set to low it doesn't like it when you just drag it to the lowest point.

like in this image


A 3D cloud effect with shadows on a planet can be generated using the experimental micro-displacement with adaptive subsurfaces and shader displacement. Using subsurface scatter and transparency in the shader given an appearance similar to a volumetric shader.

Procedure (tested on blender 2.79b)

Create the planet by adding a sphere to the scene. This will be the planet surface.
Add a second sphere for the clouds. This sphere should be slightly larger than the planet surface. The distance between the cloud sphere and the planet sphere will be the height of the lowest clouds.

Add a subsurface modifier to the cloud sphere. Enable the 'Adaptive' option.

Enable experimental feature support in the render panel.

Create an image for the cloud height

Create an image for cloud coverage. This image will be used to set the transparency used for the cloud shader. If you look carefully, you'll see that the cloud coverage in this example is set to cover more area than the image for cloud height.

Enable cycles and create a shader for the clouds. The cloud material is a mix of a subsurface scatter and a diffuse nodes. This is mixed with a transparency node using the cloud coverage image. The cloud height image is connected to the displacement input on the material output node.

Without displacement, the clouds are flat.

With displacement, adaptive subdivision, and experimental features, the clouds become 3D.

If clouds with overhangs are needed, multiple layers of clouds can be used.

Blend file:


why isn't volumetrics showing up in the viewport in cycles x?

Create cube -> object -> quick smoke -> works


Make an object orbit another object indefinitely

So my understanding is that you are attempting to make an object orbit around another one. In order to have this happen, the general workflow is to first make an Empty at the pivot point, parent an object to it, and then animate the Empty.

Here is how to do it:

Select the "center" object (the one the moon would orbit around) by clicking on it.
Press ShiftS and select "cursor to selected". That way, when we create the Empty (the point the moon will orbit around), it will be located on the Planet's origin.
Press ShiftA and add an Empty -> Plain Axes.
Select the Moon, then Shift-Click the Plain Axes and press CtrlP, and select "Keep Transform". This will make any transformations applied to the Plain Axes also apply to the Moon.
Now keyframe animate the Plane Axes however you want, and it will animate the Moon as it spins. Maybe add a Cycles Modifier to the animation graph so that it will repeat it forever.

Here is a quick gif that shows this entire process:


Marble rolls in a cylinder smooth animation

Rigid Bodies simulation
v01

Bake to Keyframes
manually adjusted details in Graph Editor
(to synchronize jump on time into hole out)

If you would need more details to RB I can extend answer.

v02
version with Rigid Body simulation only without postpro

to avoid jumping you need more smooth curvature of Cylinder
I had to add more colliders (planes) to push ball into Cylinder and two sides colliders to don't let ball fall from Cylinder
since the animation is slow you can set Collision Margin very low like 0.01 ( in case of cylinder even less 0.001 to keep ball distance from cylinder minimal)

Note:
It really depends what whole motion should looks like, because if you need only this simple result of v02, the Hook Modifier (Timaroberts suggestion) will work faster.
If I Baked to Keyframes this simulation and Decimated keyframes to clean up result, animation curve is really simple.

And result is almost the same


Get the area from its index in the screen.

Without any "proper" explanation I had an inkling that if the area was indexed from the screen it will remove the context issue seen in code above.

>>> for i, a in enumerate(C.screen.areas):
...     i, a.ui_type
...
(0, 'PROPERTIES')
(1, 'CONSOLE')
(2, 'OUTLINER')
(3, 'TEXT_EDITOR')

The properties area above will always be the zeroth item of the screen areas no matter what its type is changed to.  (Unless areas are joined during operation)

When invoking get the index of the current area in the screen, use this to get the area.

self.screen_area_index = context.screen.areas[:].index(context.area)

Edited code:

Added class properties for current area index, the index of the area in the screen, and the ui type when invoked.

When operation is cancelled go back to original ui type.

Changed the behaviour to pass through when no event is captured.  Not required, personal taste, found it a very handy little tool to flip between types, while still being able to use other tools. Would need to reconsider what finishes the operator in this case.

import bpy

class SM_change_area_type_modal(bpy.types.Operator):
    ''' Tooltip '''
    bl_idname = 'sop.sm_change_area_type_modal'
    bl_label = "S.Menu Change Area Type Modal"
    bl_description = 'Calls Change Area Type Modal'
    #bl_options = {'GRAB_CURSOR', 'BLOCKING'}
    index = 0
    screen_area_index = 0
    save_area_ui_type = ''

    def get_next_area(self, area, delta):

        areas = [
            "VIEW_3D",
            "VIEW",
            "UV",
        ]

        self.index = (self.index + len(areas) + delta) % len(areas)
        area.ui_type = areas[self.index]

    def modal(self, context, event):
        area = context.screen.areas[self.screen_area_index]

        if event.type == 'WHEELUPMOUSE':
            self.get_next_area(area, 1)
            return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}
        elif event.type == 'WHEELDOWNMOUSE':
            self.get_next_area(area, -1)
            return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}
        elif event.type == 'LEFTMOUSE':
            return {'FINISHED'}
        elif event.type in {'RIGHTMOUSE', 'ESC'}:
            area.ui_type = self.save_area_ui_type
            return {'CANCELLED'}

        return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        self.screen_area_index = context.screen.areas[:].index(context.area)
        self.save_area_ui_type = context.area.ui_type
        context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Please try and adhere to the operator class naming convention

class SM_OT_whatever_else(Operator):
    bl_idname = sm.whatever_else


How can I calculate and draw the center of mass of various objects, with Python?

A bit late to answer this, but I recently had to compute the center of gravity of various objects, so here is what I got.

1) "origin to center of mass" does not put the origin to the center of mass

What this command does is to consider the object as an empty shell, i.e. it computes the centroid of all faces. This is not the same thing as the center of mass of a solid object with constant density.

2) as far as I know there is no builtin feature to compute the center of mass of a solid object.

See this answer for a basic script that does the job.

3) to be useful, center of mass computation has to consider various ways of defining actual mass.

Some objects will represent some material with constant density (a bowling ball is indeed a mass of plastic). Some will rather be the abstraction of a complex object of known weight (for instance the engine of a car). Lastly, some curves might represent ropes, rods or wires with a known linear weight (the spring of a clamp)

Based on all this, I designed a small script that does compute the center of mass of a collection of heterogenous objects.

3 kinds of objects can take part in the computation:

meshes with a custom weight attribute
meshes with a material that has a custom density attribute
curves with a material that has a custom linear weight attribute

To use it, you have to define the various attributes and materials required, then you just select all the objects you want (selecting "weightless" objects, empties, whatever will do no harm) and run the script. It will place the 3D cursor at the resulting CG location.

As an illustration, see how the CG moves:

Battery placed further back

Landing gear down

I used millimeters and grams as units in my case, so if you want to switch to imperial system or change the scale you'll have to tweak a few constants. See the script for details.

import bpy
import mathutils
from mathutils import Vector

def triangles (verts):
    """enumerate triangles in a face"""
    for i in range (1, len(verts)-1):
        yield (verts[0], verts[i], verts[i+1])

def cg_mesh (obj):
    """center of gravity and mass of a mesh"""

    center = Vector()
    volume = 0
    mesh = obj.to_mesh (bpy.context.scene, True, 'PREVIEW')
    for face in mesh.polygons:
        f = face.vertices
        for t in triangles (f):
            a,b,c = (mesh.vertices[v].co for v in t)
            v = a.cross(b).dot(c) / 6
            center += v * (a+b+c) / 4
            volume += v

    if volume == 0: print ("ZERO VOLUME", obj.name)
    else          : center /= volume
    bpy.data.meshes.remove(mesh)

    # To make a mesh heavy
    # define a "weight" (in grams) custom property at object level, or
    # define a "density" (in g/cm3) custom property in associated material
    if 'weight' in obj:
        mass = obj['weight']
    elif obj.active_material and 'density' in obj.active_material:
        mass = volume * obj.active_material['density'] / 1000
    else:
        mass = 0
    return center, mass

def cg_curve (obj):
    """center of gravity and mass of a curve"""

    # to make a curve heavy,
    # define a "linear weight" (in g/m) custom property in associated material
    try:
        linear_weight = obj.active_material['linear weight'] / 1000
    except:
        print ("NO MATERIAL FOR CURVE", obj.name)
        return Vector(), 0

    # copy the curve and its modifiers
    bones = obj.copy()
    bones.data = obj.data.copy() # copy curve
    curve = bones.data

    # reduce curve to skeleton
    curve.bevel_object = None
    curve.taper_object = None

    # convert to mesh, applying modifiers
    mesh = bones.to_mesh (bpy.context.scene, True, 'PREVIEW')

    # compute skeleton length and center of mass
    len = 0
    center = Vector()
    for segment in mesh.edges:
        a, b = (mesh.vertices[v].co for v in segment.vertices)
        l = (a-b).length
        center += l * (a+b) # / 2 (median point) taken out of the loop
        len += l
        print (l,a,b)
    bpy.data.meshes.remove (mesh)

    bpy.data.objects.remove (bones)
    bpy.data.curves.remove (curve)

    return center/len/2, len * linear_weight

def cg_switch (obj):
    if   obj.type == 'MESH' : return cg_mesh (obj)
    elif obj.type == 'CURVE': return cg_curve(obj)
    else                    : return Vector(), 0

def cg (obj):
    center, mass = cg_switch (obj)
    return obj.matrix_world * center, mass

center = Vector()
weight = 0
for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    c, w = cg (obj)
    center += c * w
    weight += w
if weight != 0:
    bpy.context.scene.cursor_location = center/weight
    print (center/weight, weight)


Why can't I access the rotation and location values of an object moved with empties and constraints with Python?

Modifiers alter mesh at a local level

The hook modifier, or most modifiers modify the mesh data, not the object transform.

The location of the hooked object could be estimated from all the hook empties (average there global translations).

Or use a copy location constraint.  Add all the verts to one group, make that the constraint target.  The rotation can be estimated (depends on mesh) using track to constraints.

For rotation consider parenting.

Can parent an object to 3 of the beautiful mesh vertices.

See this answer https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/175503/15543  The modifier for this case is shrinkwrap.  The cubes are parented to 3 vertices modified "foot" object.


You need to select your bone in Edit mode, then switch to Pose mode and reactivate the Wireframe option in the Properties panel > Bone > Display


Implementing a Night Sky with stars, the moon?

One possible solution is to use HDRIs like the ones available for free at HDRI haven.

They have night skies.

Use is trivial (see below). Also they "rotate" realistically with the camera, which is harder to achieve otherwise.

Go to your World settings, click on the dot at the right of Color, choose Environment, then pick the HDRI file you downloaded. You can adjust the strength afterwards.

Assuming 2.80 (works with 2.79 though).


Assigning hotkey to set keyframes without using the menu

Finally figured it out!

Go to "Preferences -> Keymap" and search for "insert keyframe".

Chose which view you want to edit the hotkey for. For example, under "Pose" click the triangle and it'll show you the python command "anim.keyframe_insert_menu"

Simply change it to "anim.keyframe_insert" and press Enter.

There's one more thing to do. If you go into Pose Mode now, select a bone and press "i" - you won't get the menu anymore BUT you'll get an error "No active keying set".

Under the python code is a confusingly greyed out drop-down menu. Click that and choose what you want the "i" shortcut to do, in my case I chose "Whole Character"

That's it! Now when in Pose Mode selecting one controller and pressing "i" now instantly keys everything on the rig!


you can see the miracle happen in minute 27:00 of the tutorial, BlenderGuru applies both modifiers, which effectively removes the simulation and bakes the mesh at that condition into the object. As soon as modifiers are applied, no more changes are possible.


Duplicating a mesh with shape keys and rig distorts mesh

this is one way i found to solve your problem.

FIRST: put the 3d cursor where the copy of the mesh should go. (seting cursor to center then scaling -1 on X then resetting scale also works)

SECOND: duplicate the original mesh and move it to the 3d cursor.

THIRD: replace all the .L s with  .R s (or to the corresponding bone names)

this should let you mirror your shape keyed mesh fairly easily and should also combine (ctrl+j) without deleting or dirupting up your shape keys


How to create similar video in Blender with particle systems

It looks like small white dots moving on the surface of transparent spheres, a simple way to recreate that could be to mix an Emission with a Transparent node, with a Voronoi Texture node as factor. To make them move, just use the Rotation values of the Mapping node. As you have dots going in different directions, you could simply duplicate the sphere, leave the duplication at the same place, rotate it a bit (RR), duplicate its material, change the Mapping values a bit, you'll have a group of new dots moving differently.


GPU rendering no light penetration in large scene

check the progressive refine box in render panel.


No, Blender has not been used by any big game companies to create games, and no well-known games have been created with Blender. (Unless I missed them.)

However, as an experienced game developer myself, I can tell you that many have used Blender for 3D modelling, and exporting the models into other game development tools such as Unity to create games using their 3D models.

If you're thinking of getting into game development I would recommend you join gamedev.stackexchange.com, and perhaps start off with a couple of YouTube tutorials on how to use Blender and Unity (or other software) jointly.


Alright never mind I've figured out that Blender doesn't actually save the textures to anywhere in your computer once you make them so I guess I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet and start all over :/


Boolean difference modifier misbehaves with fluid sim

The problem appears to be due to quads in the object used in the Boolean operation.

If the you look at the mesh for the object used in the difference boolean operation, there are quads visible.

In edit mode, here is a quad face highlighted.

If you either triangulate the mesh or add a triangulate modifier to the mesh (and enable it...) the Boolean operation looks like expected.


Up at the top, set the "Pivot Point" to "3D cursor" (If your in blender 2.8) If your in 2.79 or lower, it's down at the bottom, directly to the right of your viewport Shading options. (And make sure the 3D cursor is in the middle of your object)


How to set UV coordinates for a mesh in Blender 2.8x with script?

That code worked in 2.79?

Please when posting code in future make sure you leave in all relevant lines. eg in question what is o, i, u, v

Very little difference between this answer and the following, real toss up between answering and closing as duplicate, which I'll leave for others. Quicker to answer and hence confirm in 2.82.

Get/Set coordinates for UV vertices using Python

Add uv_layer to mesh, add uv-coords, with python

Add a new layer (same). Notice if a new layer is added, but there is an existing layer, it will not be index 0. Will be the last, or easier keep the reference returned.

>>> me.uv_layers.new(
new()
UVLoopLayers.new(name="UVMap", do_init=True)
Add a UV map layer to Mesh

get or set the active layer, it can be None a gotcha in answers to links above.

>>> me.uv_layers.active
bpy.data.meshes['Cube'].uv_layers["UVMap"]

>>> me.uv_layers.active = None

Silly example adds random UV (a scribbly mess) to each UV

import bpy
from random import random
context = bpy.context

ob = context.object
me = ob.data
uvlayer = me.uv_layers.new() # default naem and do_init

me.uv_layers.active = uvlayer

for face in me.polygons:
    for vert_idx, loop_idx in zip(face.vertices, face.loop_indices):
        uvlayer.data[loop_idx].uv = (random(), random()) # ie UV coord for each face with vert  me.vertices[vert_idx]


There's an alternative that you know: use "Volume Scatter" instead "Principled Volume".
I had the same issue - but someone already opened a ticket: https://developer.blender.org/T80332 - to solve it.


How to 3D model a shirt (from an image - man wearing a shirt)? Need to put the shirt on a different 3D character in Blender. New to blender

This is a rather large question actually. If you need a full 3d solution, you will have to post some time in learning Blender, as You will need to model the clothes, UV unwrap the clothes and create textures from images taken of original product, and create materials from these.

You can then apply something like the cloth simulator

But it is a large task. If You are looking for a 3D gimmick to a webshop or the like, it is a lot of work. So please consider if it is worth it.


Where are some places to get reference images for modeling?

You can find some at the-blueprints, high resolution vectors are paid and need registration for download.


Objects not appearing in the final render

Possible causes for a Blank render:

No lights in scene.
Objects disabled for Render in outliner (camera icon).
Strips in VSE and Sequencer enabled.
Objects in different layer, or in a layer disabled in Render Layers.
Object blocked by other objects.
Active camera aiming in a different direction.
An object in the scene set as active camera.
Any, some or all of the above.


Put lattice deform operation in a custom menu

To pass arguments to operators via the layout.

op = layout.operator("object.parent_set")
op.type = 'LATTICE'

can also use

layout.operator("blah.blah").prop = value

I prefer the former stylewise.


Why Empty/ Image is freezing Blender (2.77a)?

If selecting objects takes too long , change the selection method :
in user preferences under system tab , change selection mode to OpenGL Occlusion Queries.

if it's still slow , give the empties meaningful names and select them from the outliner instead.

The shortcut  ALTRMB will pop up a menu in the 3d view with a list of object names directly under the cursor,It should saves you the trouble of going back and forth between the two panels.


How to remove the effect reflection of shadow

This is because you appear to have one light source and no bounces/indirect lighting.
So the only faces to receive any light will have to be facing the light source.

In the real world light is reflected and transmitted everywhere, resulting in almost everything getting illuminated at least a little bit.

You have several options to simulate this:

Increase the number of bounces in Render settings > Light paths, allowing light to reflect off surfaces and illuminate "around corners" in a physically correct fashion:

Enable ambient occlusion or add some ambient environment lighting:

In the real world there is always ambient light coming from the sky. Even with indoor renders this can make a difference (light coming through windows etc.)

Note that AO is an approximation of actual environment light, but as it's all based on distance it will illuminate things even inside closed shapes where environment light cannot normally reach.
Add more light sources with different sizes:

If you still want to stick with 0 bounces and no global illumination, try adding a few more light sources. Vary the strength and size to prevent it from becoming too "flat":


Beveling such thing is not an easy, because of small cuts (like objects under Boolean.003, .007, .008). Beveled edges starts to overlap. So you can use only some small range, but even with the value 0.003 it is overlapping. You can notice that since bevelling doesn't appear until you disable Clamp Overlap under Geometry or disable mentioned modifiers.

If you need bevel bigger radius in some areas than others (like bigger radius on base shape and smaller on smaller cuts) move Bevel Modifier up in modifier's stack and use another one.
You would have to use probably some limitations, like Vertex Group for those vertices. But Vertex Group can be set only when modifiers are applied, means destructive way.

Some decent bevelling can be achieved with material Bevel node.


Blender crashes entire PC on Cycles rendering - need help diagnosing the problem

This is most definitely a hardware issue; but don't despair, the fact that it isn't with Blender doesn't mean it can't be fixed. I rendered it on 3.0a on my own machine (desktop, Linux Mint, FX-8300 processor with a GTX 1660 GPU) and it rendered fine.

That looks like a laptop screen, and if I'm right, the first thing I would suggest doing is checking its operating temperature. If you've got an RTX 2080 in there it can't be more than a few years old; but you would be amazed at what I've seen a little stray cat hair do. Cooling mats exist for this very reason, though to be fair, it's also why I stay the heck away from rendering on a laptop when I'm anything short of desperate. But, you use what you've got.
I'm also noticing that your i9-9900K, which is rated for around 3.60 GHz, is reportedly jumping to 4.55 GHz, which causes a massive heat output increase. (Massive.) Do you have your machine overclocked in its UEFI settings? Because for 3D modeling, overclocking is definitely not your friend, and you should consider switching it all off and waiting on it. There's a very good reason that those aren't the factory settings. This would also explain the wait time of a full minute before your entire machine goes down.
If neither of these is working, then the traditional debugging method is to simplify until it stops happening, and then isolate the probable cause. For "any cycles render", does that mean even for the default cube with no material added? At any resolution? Have you checked the Blender error log, traditionally (on Windows) at C:\Users[your username]\AppData\Local\Temp\ ? That may contain useful information for you. (They always end in ".crash.txt", though I haven't rendered on that OS in a long time.)
I would suggest turning off any overclocking settings if you've switched them on, and grabbing a cheap cooling mat. If it doesn't do the job, most stores will accept them for returns. Nine out of ten it's your temperature getting out of control. Grabbing some electronics-safe compressed air, and maybe some cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol, and cleaning out the vents won't hurt you either. At minimum you should keep it elevated enough for proper heat exchange. (In a pinch after a hurricane, I once managed that with a cooking grill... long story.)
Hopefully that will help you get to the bottom of this. Good luck! And props on the H✭R poster, you make me feel less old.


Why does cycles' volumetrics leave stepping artifacts?

The banding in the smoke on the side of the cube is due to the volumetric Step Size and is an artifact due to the way in which rays that travel through a volume are calculated.

In the same way that your Render settings define the resolution of the resultant image (eg, 1920x1080) - and higher resolution results in more 'pixels' in the image and therefore considerably more "work" to render - the Step Size effectively defines the "resolution" of volumetrics. However, rather than define the resolution the setting controls how small or large the steps should be between samples of the volume. The smaller the Step Size, the higher the effective resolution.

For each ray that travels through the volume Blender will allow the ray to travel Step Size scene units through the volume before it samples the volume to determine the outcome (whether it scatters, is absorbed, results in additional emission, etc.). The smaller the step size, the more often samples of the volume will be taken and the more complicated the render (and subsequently longer render times) - so this setting is a trade-off between render speed and volumetric quality.

In your scene you have the Step Size set to 0.1. This is in Blender Units and the cube is only actually around 0.5 blender units in size - so any artifacts of the volume are quite considerable compared to the size of the cube.

Typically you should reduce the Step Size to something that would not be significantly noticeable for your scene. This depends on the size of the objects in your scene, the position of the camera, the "fluffiness" of your volumetrics (soft edges will hide any artifacts), etc. so there is no 'one size fits all' best value.

I'm sure all other render engines must use a similar setting - although it might be hidden/masked from the user and possibly even automatically determined. However, in Blender it is one of those settings you need to be aware of and tune based on the available render time and desired quality, scale, etc.

The banding you are seeing is effectively an interference pattern due to the range of factors that you have set up your scene to highlight this particular problem - in particular that your Smoke Domain resolution is only 32 (low for such a large domain viewed at close range), your Step Size is 0.1 (around 20% of the size of the cube that takes up most of the visible frame), your camera is purposefully positioned on the corner of the domain (which is forcing the largest angle between simulation cells and the camera rays). All of this together is creating a perfect storm of interference. As the rays pass trough the domain they either 'hit' a cell at a sample-point along their length (the 0.1 step size) or they don't. Due to how all the factors interact, the position along the ray where it interacts with a cell progresses along the ray based on all the other factors, resulting in some 'bands' hitting one set of cells (closer in so more likely to have denser smoke) whereas slight changes in angle or start point (due to camera ray angle or due to how the domain surface (the start of the volumetric ray) is a different distance at that angle.

Your domain resolution (32) is not a practical value for such a scene - increasing the resolution significantly reduces the banding due to higher resolution smoke simulation causing less interference.


After doing some tests I found out that Video Sequence Editor gives 5-10 times faster result than the Compositor.

I added a Transform Strip to the Logo image sequence, changed Blend to Alpha Over and adjusted Position and Uniform Scale, then duplicated both Logo and Transform strips to match the video length.


Blender does not render OBJ and MTL import

Your object only consists of connected vertices, it does not have any faces.

Blender needs faces to render an image.


your best option in this case is mesh-align-plus, and modify it according to your needs, I do not understand much of your question but I try to deduce with risk to make a mistake, but this surely fits your problem


Why my blender animation broken after exoprt fbx?

First of all, I'm no expert in Blender at all, but I animated a bit recently and had a similar issue with broken animations when exporting an animated armature.
In particular, the jaw bone of the character jittered around whenever the character moved his head (the jaw bone was an unconnected child of the head bone).
In the end, I found no way of preventing this from happening, until I added a new bone connecting the jaw to the head, so the jaw bone is now a connected child of the new bone and the new bone is a connected child of the head bone.
So connecting the problematic bone(s) to the rest of the mesh seems to fix it and as far as I know, additional bones shouldn't be an issue when set to not-deforming.
I can only explain the initial issue with a bug or something, but I am not sure...
I just hope that this fixes your issue, too.


How to shrinkwrap without losing sculpted details

I downloaded your file and found a way to achieve the result you want.
You need to create a lattice object and give it enough subdivisions for it to be conformed to the surface of your sphere. Then put only the bottom half of one of your leaf inside the lattice.

Then you can use the lattice modifier on your leaf to reference the lattice object you just created. Finally, apply the shrinkwrap modifier to the lattice object and it works. Now, you just have to repeat the process for the second leaf. I should also inform you that I had to scale up your objects to make it work since they were very small.
This forum post helped me : https://blenderartists.org/t/project-object-onto-another-and-keep-the-thickness/600541/5
Here's the modified scene :

The Result :


there is no image in texture paint blender 2.82

For this, you need to load a texture in the texture subpanel of the Bursh settings panel, and set its mapping to Stencil:


What methods should be used to model the curved lip on this model?

You can use the Bevel tool:

Create a 90° angle, bevel it:

Select the bottom vertices, same thing, bevel them with ShiftCtrlB:

Create additional topology if necessary (use the knife tool, K to activate, Z to cut through, C to cut orthogonally):

Extrude with AltE > Extrude Faces Along Normals:


Model flies away from origin in edit mode, animation, etc

I think this is may be issue of delta transform
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/scene_layout/object/properties/transforms.html#delta-transforms


How do you apply a glossy node to a specific image texture when using alpha and RGB mix nodes?

As you're dealing with glossy, you're dealing with shaders, not color anymore, so you'll have to use the "mix shader" node instead of the "color mix" node. It also can be controlled by the alpha output. In my example only the second texture has glossy.


Can I make a custom node from a group and have that available in other projects?

You can save the startup .blend by clicking File > Defaults > Save Startup File. This will save everything (except for user preferences) to be loaded as the default state when Blender starts up. That includes all geometry, textures, brushes, node groups, UI layouts, the 3D view orientation, etc.
I like to save my node groups in a separate "library" file and link/append them in, that way I don't accidentally lose them if I overwrite my startup file on accident (I've done that before..)
How to embed a node group in the startup file

If you haven't already, make a node group by selecting the nodes and pressing CtrlG (AltG to ungroup).

Save it (CtrlS)

Open your startup file (CtrlN)

Press File > Link or File > Append. In the file manager which appears, navigate inside the file with the node group, select NodeTree and then select the node group.

Linking means the node group is only stored in the "library file" and if you make any changes to it, those changes will carry over to your startup file (also, if the library file is deleted or moved, the node group will be missing in the startup file).

Appending copies the node group so it will always work.

In the node editor, add the node group (ShiftA> Groups > group name) and press the F icon (F for Fake User) on the node to save the data block even if it has no users. This will ensure the node group is saved even if it is not used in any materials/node trees in that file.

Delete the group node (Del). Provided you enabled Fake User by clicking the F icon, it will still be in the add menu even after reloading the file. Rearrange the UI how you want it to appear when you start blender.

Save the startup .blend (File > Defaults > Save Startup File).

This procedure should be the same for all types of nodes (Composite, shader, etc.)


How to project an image through the lens?

EEVEE is not supporting indirect lighting right now. You still can use Irradiance Volume and indirect light projection to Bake those effect into your scene.

If you set a proper light map, it might work

Refraction won't provide any light into the scene maybe. And it use some algorithm to achieve it in EEVEE, which is not focus on project light. In these kind of problem, we usually adopt ray tracing to mock the effect, which EEVEE is not good at it. EEVEE is rasterization rendering engine.


You can use texture and color mix node to add noise, same way you would add it to the material. Can find answers/videos from quick search through google even from this stackexchange (link) - I would look into 2nd answer because with the first one your noise won't change through frames. If you want colored noise you can use color ramp between texture and color mix node (and maybe change mix mode?).


How to view objects with a subsurf modifier more simply?

You can check 'Optimal Display' on the subsurf modifier to simplify the view to not show the new subsurf faces:

This has to be done on every object you want to view simplified. You can do this by hand or by selecting all the objects you want to enable 'Optimal Display' on, enabling 'Optimal Display' on one of them and then right clicking on 'Optimal Display' and choosing 'Copy To Selected'.


Why does my text object look weird along its edge?

Sadly it's because of default Smooth shading (Normals) on extruded part of Text object.

You can fix that by adding Edge Split modifier.

Or you can search Convert to Mesh and enable under Data Properties > Normals > Auto Smooth. But you would not be able to retype your text.


In the Dopesheet, you need to check the action you're using in this Action constraint for the UpperArm bone, it is called DrumHit.

As you can see its first rotation keyframe is NOT set to W/X/Y/Z values of 1/0/0/0, but 0.721/-0.654/etc, that's why as soon as you enable the constraint it jumps to this angle.

So what you need to do is to change this first frame rotation setting to 1/0/0/0.

Also I don't know why your Snare, which is supposed to be the controller bone (Target), had a driver, so I deleted it for my test, otherwise it couldn't move.

Now when you rotate it on the X axis, it works.


Maybe you don't tell enough. But if you want to only move the left big bone (bone1) so that the other ones follow you could use this setup:

Give bone1 a Limit Rotation constraint so that it stays on its axis.
Give bone2 a Copy Rotation so that it copies bone1's rotation.
Give bone3 a Track To so that it keeps pointing at the tail fo bone2.
Give bone4 a Copy Rotation so that it copies bone3 rotation.


Set the normal map to non-color data. This means that Blender will read it in linear space, which is what it expects for a normal map.
Also, please disconnect that alpha from the strength of the normal map unless you've got a good reason to have it there. It's (slightly) slowing down your render for probably no benefit.
If that normal map is ripped from the game, you might need to flip the green channel for it to show up correctly in Cycles. The fastest way to do this is to add an RGB curves node in the Cycles material (Add>Color>RGB Curves), click the G on the node so the curve only affects the green channel, and move the points at each end so the one on the left is at the top of the box and the one on the right is at the bottom of the box. This will make normal maps formatted for use with Unreal Engine 3 work better with Cycles' tangent space, although not perfectly. In the end the node should look like this:

Of course, you can also do this in a bitmap editor like Photoshop, Krita or GIMP.


You just need to bend the knees a bit in Edit mode so that it knows in what direction it is supposed to bend in Pose mode


Cut a sized rectangular window into a dome

to be safe, I would do it with the actual math: trigonometry.

I woun't bore you with the details, but the arc lenght gives you the angle, so:

calculate the "h" value with the formula you see in the picture ("L" is the lenght of the arc, "D" is the diameter of the sphere)
create a cube and make it half its size (press S and type "0.5"), so that it is 1 unit wide
merge two vertices in the top face with the vertices under them to create a triangular prism

select the other 2 vertices in the top face and press G, Z and type "-1" to bring them on the bottom face
without deselecting them, press G, Z and type the value of "h" you calculated before: this way you triangle has the same angle of the desired arc
place your triangle so that is has the acute vertex in the center of the sphere and scale it up until the vertical face is all outside the sphere

scale the triangle on the Y axis (in my case) to change the window's width, and rotate the triangle on the Y or z axis to adjust its position
on the sphere, create a Boolean Modifier, set the triangle as Target and the Overlap Threshold to 0 (you might want to add a Solidify Modifier too)

NOTE:

this solution works if the window's width is small: in that case the angular error is negligeable. If the window is large, from the Top view you'll need to rotate a lateral side of the horizontal degrees you need, keeping the anchor point in the center of the sphere

POSSIBLE VARIANT:

instead of moving arounf the vertices of the top face, you could also bring them at the bottom (press G, Z and type "-1"), then rotate the whole top face arounf the center of the sphere of the angle that you can calculate as 2*L/D


If you want that with geometry you could do several things.
If you don't need it to be a continuous mesh you can
duplicate the object, and apply a Skin modifier to the new object, or a Wireframe modifier.

With the skin modifier you need to adjust the thickness in Edit Mode, on the N panel, Mean Radius, X and Y.

With the Wireframe modifier you can just adjust it globally on the modifier.

The results are visually different so you have to see what works best for you.
You can delete some of the unwanted edges on the new object too. if you don't need all the edges.

If it needs to be a continuous mesh, then you have to go by hand making all the loops and extrudes, but unless that is really necessary, I would go with the other options.

If you don't want geometry, just UVmap it and apply a texture, an image or some nodes, like Bricks or even a Colorramp.


Why does the sub surf modifier round off only one side?

Thank you to 'Gorgious' for the answer!
"With the geometry selected in edit mode, type SHIFT + N to recalculate the normals"


How to cut line in a face without Knife?

Knife should work for this:

I suspect the darker face on the right is the result of a second, super-imposed face which is preventing the knife tool from working. To fix it, delete the face or use W> Remove Doubles:

That said, there might be a faster way to get the desired result, for example Subdivide and Bevel:

I also used triangulate (⎈ CtrlT) at the end; not sure if those diagonal edges were desired or not.


Blender (2.79b) closes minutes after startup

Okay so I installed McAfee antivirus, was previously using windows defender as it turns out (thought I had bullguard free trial, must've had to install that myself) and blender seems to be working fine now, so it's most likely defender was blocking it or something, so if anyone has the same issue, look into your antivirus settings


How can I raise the brightness of just the voronoi part of this shader?

If you want to brighten just the "stars", use a second ColorRamp to isolate just the white values (against a  black background). Then, use a math node to multiply this by some value (depending on your desired brightness - higher is brighter) before adding it back to the original (colored) texture.


How to flip normals/direction of curve geometry in 2.8

The control points on Bezier Curves have a Tilt property.

It can be accessed in edit mode

through the Properties Panel (N) in the 3D Viewport under Transform: Tilt
through the hotkey ⎈ CtrlT

The control points, which you want to tilt, have to be selected beforehand.


that would be grease pencil - traced object with a noise modifier on it.   image1
You can also try a displacement modifier with an animated texture on your object with freestyle turned on.
The other option is to edit the freestyle settings, turn on noise, and give a low period, high amplitude and animation the seed based on frame (type #frame into seed)


I was able to achieve this by creating a custom orientation as suggested by @PGmath.  If there is a more direct approach please post an answer as it seems like there should be.

Anyway here's how to do it:

Go to edit mode and select an edge that is in the direction you want to move the face. In my case this was the edge in the diagram below the label 'B'.
Change the Orientation to 'Normal' and notice the X/Y/Z guides now conform to that edge.
Open the Properties window (press N) and scroll down to find "Transform Orientations".
Click the + button to create a new orientation based on the current selected edge/orientation.
Over on the left hand tools panel, scroll to the bottom and in 'Create Orientation' give the custom orientation a name.
Now, select the custom orientation in the Orientations drop-down at the bottom of the 3d view.
Go into face select mode and select face A.
Type G Y Y and move the face along the plane as required. (Pressing Y twice uses the custom orientation, once only uses the global orientation.)

Listen to the little robot man in this youtube video if you need more info on creating a custom orientation.

That works, but far easier would be to just select the face representing the plane to move along (B) and somehow tell Blender to constrain moving faces/edges/vertices along that plane.

I don't have the time or knowledge to write that myself, if anyone does it would be appreciated.


How can you use vector blur in Cycles with fluids?

In short:
Cycles (as of Blender 2.67) does not support fluids blur yet.
A GSOC 2013 project might bring that feature soon.

For now, as a work around, you can try:

Render your primary pass in cycles. Save to EXR.
Render the same scene in Blender Internal, save the Z and Vector pass to another EXR.
Combine the two set of EXRs with Nodes with a vector blur node. Using the Color input from the Cycles EXR, and use the Z and Vector input from the BI EXR.


Make the basic shape

Add solidify modifier (with positive number)

Go in edit mode and select the top circle and Press Alt+D to duplicate

With duplicate just separate pressing "P"-> selection

Extrude the circle and to make extruding inside or inward

In the solidify modifier tab (with the same number just add a negative sign infront of it)


It is simple to unwrap a deformed plane like in your image, back to a square UV map.

In face select mode, select all the faces with A and make one of the faces active.
Then press U > Follow Active Quads and then choose Even and press OK.

This will give you a even square UV layout.


Built-in Cycles Bevel Shader customization

You can simply use any attribute for the bevel radius.

I painted some vertex colors for example and connected them with the bevel radius input.


How to create editable object mesh for an object made using modifiers

You need to apply the modifiers to make them permanent/editable. Click the down arrow next to the modifier's name and select "Apply". Then you can edit all your chocolate bars, or delete your sphere cutter objects, or whatever else you want to do with the permanent modifications.


Cycles - How can I render only pre-baked textures, and not calculate shadows?

You have to setup a material using all these baked textures and instead of a diffuse shader you have to use an emission shader.

This video show the technique very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB09T--_ZvU

Don't be fooled by the title (cause you said you already know how to bake)


Animation twitches/jumps between Keyframes

If you activate foot_ik bone "Toggle Pole" button will be shown in the
side bar. - tetii

That was it! After toggling I saw that there was something seriously wrong with my legs. I deleted the key-frames and redid them, now everything works fine.
Thanks.


You need to indent your call to bpy.ops.wm.modal_test_operator() so it will only be executed when the code as run as a script, which is the case when __name__ == "__main__". Otherwise you're trying to access blend data when the add-on isn't registered, which results in the exception you're seeing. For more information about this topic take a look at this answer by ideasman42. The corrected code is:

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()
    bpy.ops.wm.modal_test_operator()

The current script won't work though because there is no socketFunction() in modalTest_OT_Operator.


You could also try geometric modelling, but if you know how to sculpt that is also my best bet. If you have a Displacement Texture you can make a base mesh with the Displace Modifier to get a first approximation. Either way if you are modeling for VR Realtime Rendering you should make a remeshed version for the final version.


BlenderDiplom has created an Add-on called AReWo (Animation Replicator with Offset) which does exactly what you want. They provide a Video-Tutorial of how to use it and a Download page where you can find the direct link.

Another possibility is using the Animation Nodes by Jacques Lucke.

Or you can use the Blendgraph Add-on to animate Text with a so called Font Repeater Node.


The reason why is because the start clipping length of the 3d view is set to 1 micro-meter.

Blender doesn't like dealing with small numbers, so if you set that to something bigger such as 1 meter it should fix it.


Enable/disable operator depending on a Boolean value

Eeeeh… where do you store that started variable?

Either you use a global variable here (which is not recommended, but would work) or, much more recommended, you add a new property to WindowManager class to store that bool, and retrieve it in your poll() func through the context parameter…


This vertex must be part of an unwanted vertex group. Select it and in the Properties panel > Object Data > Vertex Groups, on the dropdown menu, click on the Remove From All Groups function so that it's not part of any group. Now you can assign it to the group you want.


Rendering with background, but saving with alpha?

This would be a good place to use the compositor:

Have a renderlayer of your object on a transparent background, and another renderlayer with just the background. Let the transparent background render remain connected to the "Composite" output node, and mix the two renderlayers for the "Viewer" output node so you can see it on the background while in blender.

If you want to save time on rendering, and your background doesn't change, you can render the background, save it as a texture, then mix using that texture instead of an additional renderlayer.


Make python script to animate vertex points of any object

import bpy

cell = bpy.data.objects['Cube']
bpy.context.scene.objects.active = cell

basis_key = cell.shape_key_add('basis')
basis_key.keyframe_insert('value', frame=0)

deform_key = cell.shape_key_add()
deform_key.data[0].co = ( 5 , 5 , 5)

deform_key.value = 0.0
deform_key.keyframe_insert('value', frame = 0)

deform_key.value = 1.0
deform_key.keyframe_insert('value', frame = 200)

the main difference in your script is that you set your data_path as "mute" , so just replace data_path="value" then it will work fine


Animating using shape keys, not animating

I just figured out how to get my eyes to slowly open the way i wanted them to. Instead of going to the object data, setting the values and inserting the key frames from there, I instead went into the dope sheet editor, and set the values in the shape key editor which automatically created the key frames for me (as long as i had the right frame set when changing the values.)


Animation frames not being rendered repost with screenshot

I think you are confused on how things work.

Blender is mostly a 3D content creation app that lets you create geometry and virtual models. To those models you can add surfaces, assign materials and textures and place them in a virtual environment, so that you can then create scenes as if they were viewed with a virtual camera. Those scenes can then be rendered as images or a series of images that comprise an animation. Animations can be packaged in a video format like avi or mp4 or quicktime so that others can view them like a movie.

It seems to me that you created a scene in some other software and rendered it as an animation already in an avi container.

What you exported are a series of images.

Blender cannot recreate the elements you used to create those images, it only sees the pixels of each particular frame not the models used to create those images. From that particular "cartoon" file you won't be able to create more "realistic looking" images.

You need to go back to the original app and find out how to export the assets created in F360 in a format that Blender can read as geometry or as 3D objects, not images.

Find out how to export your scene in FBX format.

FBX scenes can be imported into blender.

Note that once you import the objects and camera into blender most likely you are going to need to re-create the materials so that you can do more "life like" rendered images and videos.


These appear to be Moving Hold keyframes. From the Blender Manual:

Moving Hold (slight orange diamond)
A keyframe that adds a small amount of motion around a holding pose. In the Dope Sheet it will also draw a bar between them.

These keyframes are intended to add small bits of motion in between more major keyframes so that characters in a single position don't look like statues. Since they don't signify major movements, the DopeSheet draws lines through them when connecting identical keyframes.
Moving Hold keyframes can be added by changing the New Keyframe Type in the timeline:

Since the icons for Moving Hold and standard keyframes are very similar (the Moving Hold icon is slightly smaller and a little bit orange), it appears that you accidentally selected Moving Hold instead of Keyframe before animating.
This won't affect the animation; the different keyframe types are just to help you keep your animation organized.


Is it possible to put an image on a liquid body?

You can use a UV project modifier. It can make an empty act as projector to beam an image onto an object.

This does the same thing as going into Edit Mode, looking at your object from above and choose Unwrap -> From View. However it does work with objects that don't even have/support a UV map.
EDIT: If you are not dead set on using a fluid animation, I would suggest Dynamic Paint waves. You can combine brushes that paint maps (as mask for your image) and a different brush to make waves. For further information I'd need a reference of what you are trying to achieve.
Also: You can try using a shrinkwrap modifier on a UV-Unwrapped plane that follows your fluid surface.