How to handle absent textures procedurally?

The solution would be to automate creating the material nodes, that way you add the number of colours you want and then add the black filler at the end.

import bpy

obj = bpy.context.object
if obj.active_material is None:
    obj.active_material = bpy.data.materials.new('Material')

mat = obj.active_material
mat.use_nodes = True

mat_nodes = mat.node_tree.nodes
node_links = mat.node_tree.links
# remove everything except the output node
for n in mat_nodes:
    if n.type != 'OUTPUT_MATERIAL':
        mat_nodes.remove(n)

#  RGBA           red       green      blue
colour_list = [(1,0,0,1), (0,1,0,1), (0,0,1,1)]
data_imgs = bpy.data.images
# length should not be less than colour_list
img_list = [data_imgs['img.001'], data_imgs['img.002'],data_imgs['img.003']]

out_node = mat_nodes[0]
col_space = 200
padding = 40
prev_mix = None

for x in range(len(colour_list)):
    mix_node = mat_nodes.new('ShaderNodeMixShader')
    mix_node.location = (out_node.location.x - (mix_node.width+padding) - (col_space*x),
                        out_node.location.y)
    if x == 0:
        node_links.new(mix_node.outputs['Shader'], out_node.inputs['Surface'])
    else:
        node_links.new(mix_node.outputs['Shader'], prev_mix.inputs[1])
    prev_mix = mix_node

    img_node = mat_nodes.new('ShaderNodeTexImage')
    img_node.image = img_list[x]
    img_node.location = (mix_node.location.x - (img_node.width+padding),
                        mix_node.location.y + (img_node.height+padding+150))
    node_links.new(img_node.outputs['Color'], mix_node.inputs['Fac'])

    dif_node = mat_nodes.new('ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse')
    dif_node.inputs['Color'].default_value = colour_list[x]
    dif_node.location = (mix_node.location.x - (dif_node.width+padding),
                        mix_node.location.y - (dif_node.height+padding))
    node_links.new(dif_node.outputs['BSDF'], mix_node.inputs[2])

fillin = mat_nodes.new('ShaderNodeBsdfDiffuse')
fillin.inputs['Color'].default_value = (0,0,0,1) # black
fillin.location = (prev_mix.location.x - (fillin.width+padding),
                    prev_mix.location.y)
node_links.new(fillin.outputs['BSDF'], prev_mix.inputs[1])


VSE Audio and Video Sync is off by 2 Frames Every Time

First off many others have had this problem.

Now you actually can set the Framerate Base with precision out to 6 places. (Go ahead and right now enter 1.00125 as the framerate base.)
Notice in this screen shot that blender knows that my custom frame rate is 23.97; yet it is still displaying that the framerate base is just 1.001.

Copy the line below into the Python Console then press Enter you will see what the value really is.
D.scenes['Scene'].render.fps_base


The main reason is because it's cheaper to buy the final model than it is to pay an artist to create the model. Since the model can be sold any number of times as well, the original creator benefits despite selling it for less than it cost them to make. I've used models that cost over \$200, but would otherwise take well over a week to create, and that's assuming I could find all the references needed to create the model.

As to the types of models and their uses, that depends on the situation entirely. I would imagine a lot of the models like buildings are used as backgrounds for ads or commercials, or as background models for animations. Depending on the situation as well, the models could be used as the focus of the animation, but as you mentioned that is pretty rare as finding exactly what you need can be tough.

I can (try to) lay out a hypothetical situation to make things more clear. Say a company wants a 30 second ad created involving a flyover of a city and the camera then drops to a parking lot where something happens. Assuming none of this can be filmed in the real world, there's a lot that needs to be created. Let's say that it would take a single artist 2 weeks to create the entire shot from scratch. If the artist gets paid \$200 a day (probably on the low side) and works 6 day weeks, you have a total cost of \$2,400. That's not including any textures or references that may need to be bought. Now lets say there is a 3d city scene available for \$500, plus a parking lot scene for \$200, And a fleet of cars for the lot for \$400. Some background images could be used to speed things up, adding \$50, and some sky HDRi's for \$100. We're now sitting at \$1,250, but there's probably a couple days work for the artist to add it all together and create the final elements or modify the bought ones. Say that adds another \$400. We can round the total cost to be \$1,500, or \$900 less than paying the artist to do everything. This isn't entirely accurate of course, as it's just some random numbers and times, but the point is that despite the costs of the models, which can seem high, time is money, so it's a matter of what is the cheapest.


Bendy bone ends don't follow rig, also 'stretch to' issues

You might add your blend file to see whats wrong: http://pasteall.org/blend/
I assume that you didnt apply scale to the model before doing automic weights (that could explain the weird lower picture). Make sure you parent the bones correctly. If you find it difficult to make a skeleton start with rigify and remove the bones you dont need, then in the end turn some of the bones in bendy bones.


Solidify modifier issue for increasing thickness

Few things you can check:

Your topology of the case: make sure it has less or no triangles and has a smooth flow.
Try adding an edge split modifier.
Ctrl+N to reapply the normals of the faces.


How to wrap a complex object with one continuous image?

What you're describing is UV Mapping. You need to create seams and unwrap a map of the 3D object. That doesn't mean the seams need to be visible. You can texture paint right over the seams and they won't show.
Image files are 2D, and this is why we must do this.

In the following screen shot, notice how I have painted green over a seam in Texture Paint Mode and on the 3D model it appears to be seamless? The break in continuity occurs on the 2D image instead, which you can see below.

Here's a .blend file of the screen shot if you want to examine it further.

You might be thinking "that's fine if you're painting, but what about photo textures?" There's a solution for that too. You can use "Stencil" Brush Mapping to paint an image onto your mesh (onto its texture, really), and also use the Clone Brush to blend the image across the seams.

Here is an example of how stenciling and cloning can be used to paint photo textures onto your 3D objects:

This is the result of just a couple of minutes spent playing around, so you can imagine the possibilities.


Blender Motion Blur deactivation for certain objects doesn´t work

Vector Blur Solution
When using the Vector pass and the Vector Blur node, individual objects can easily be "unblurred" by mixing in the raw render which has no blur.
To enable the Vector pass, Motion Blur must be disabled.

The Vector pass an be enabled in Properties > View Layer Properties > Passes > Vector.

I have also enabled Object Index for creating the object mask, but using Cryptomatte would work even better.
My boat proxy object has its Pass Index set to 1 for this mask.

In the compositor, the object's mask can now be used to zero the Vector pass and mix in the raw render where necessary as seen in the node setup below.

The Dilate/Erode node is used to reduce the color bleed artifacts from the Vector Blur node.
Side-By-Side

my proxy scene with the blur removed on the right side of the arrow object


How do I mass-remove UV maps from multiple objects?

You can use the following script:

import bpy

selected = bpy.context.selected_objects

bad_uvmap = 'UVMap.001' # Enter the UV map name you want to remove here

for obj in selected:
    try:
        badUV = obj.data.uv_textures[ bad_uvmap ]
        obj.data.uv_textures.remove( badUV )
    except:
        pass

Paste it in the text editor (open a text editor view, use the "new" button and paste).
Change the line "bad_uvmap = 'UVMap.001'" by replacing 'UVMap.001' by the name of the UV map you want to remove
Select all the concerned objects in the 3D view
Come back to the text editor and use 'run script' or AltP


When I render the model it appears without the subdivision surface modifier

You need to apply subdivision surface.Dont leave it click apply and then you can render video or image with sub surface.


blender (2.92 BETA) liquid simulation with viscosity becoming really stretched on one side

Because you are too close to a Domain border and since you have set collide with all sides of domain it probably stick to it.
When I move it at center it seems to be fine.

Consider if Domain dimension 28 m is necessary. For realistic result is better to work with real size. To avoid possible issues Apply Scale Ctrl+A to all simulation participant to get them all at scale one.


Add a mesh from a list of locations, rotations and scales?

Not sure of an addon like that but you can easily create your own script. The following creates new objects using the same mesh data and positions them with your data.

import bpy

scn = bpy.context.scene
orig_data = bpy.data.objects['Cube'].data

obj_specs = [
        [(1.32, 3.434, 4.4), Euler((24.1, 32.1, 0.0), 'XYZ'), (1.2, 1.3, 0.75)],
        [(12, 32.4, -32.2), Euler((0.0, 90.0, 32.45), 'XYZ'), (0.8, 1.0, 1.2)],
]

for loc,rot,scl in obj_specs:
    new_obj = bpy.data.objects.new("newObj", orig_data)
    new_obj.location = loc
    new_obj.rotation_euler = rot
    new_obj.scale = scl
    scn.objects.link(new_obj)

scn.update()


Make changes to the Radius of the default Circle?

Here are the steps you can follow.

Hit ShiftA on the keyboard.
Select Circle.
Hit T to activate the Tool panel.
Under the "Add Circle" Header, key in the radius of the circle you need.

Note Take care not to move the circle before you change it's radius the option would be unavailable if you moved the circle before hitting T


Missing import option for 3ds format in the GUI?

First you need to activate the 3DS import addon.
To do that:

Go to the user perferences window via the keyboard shortcut CtrlAltU, or the File Menu --> User Preferences.
Go to the addons tab
Choose the Import-Export addons from the left vertical category list.
Find the "Import-Export: Autodesk 3DS format" row, then press on the checkbox on the right.
If you want this to be available every time you open blender, Click on the "Save User Preferences" below.

Or visually:

After you do this, you'll have the 3DS format available in the File --> Import menu.


Is there an add-on for batch STL importing?

Start with importing obj file:bpy.ops.import_scene.obj

Then you export the scene with bpy.ops.export_mesh.stl : doc

After doing this, you need to delete all instance inside your scene and loop the process again. Should be a fairly easy add-on without tricky point.


I realize this is ancient but I'm replying anyway because I had the same problem and figured out a solution.

Instead of making a gamma cross of multiple strips, just make two different gamma crosses, one for your text layer + color strip, one for your image layer + color strip. Worked great for me!

Best of luck!

MalcolmRoseGM

Edit: I've been asked to include a screenshot. Here is what my example looks like:

So basically this whole contraption makes an outro where I have some text on the screen ("continued in part x"), a little demon guy who rotates, then both the text and the demon guy fade out and a short outro video plays. What we're concerned with is the fadeout.

Please note in the picture that I've first made a gamma cross with the "part2.0" strip + the black color bar, then I made another gammacross with "Transform.002" strip and the black color bar. The first is the image file that contains the text on a transparent background, the second is an image file which contains the demon image (the transform strip is only necessary because I wanted to offset it to the left. I assume you are doing something similar).

This entire effect probably could have instead been done with one gamma cross if I had just, say, combined the images in an image editor but I didn't want to do that since I was already doing transformations and things. Again, I assume you are doing something similar!

The end result looks like the outro at the end of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJFsKE2jqYU&t=1h54m50s

Hope this helps!


How can I extract the rendering as images on the hard disk instead a video file?

change the file format to whatever image format you wanna use. Then when you're done with that you can convert the images into a video using the built in video editor


Christopher Bennett has given you a solution but if you want to keep a low-poly look for your object, you could give it Auto Smooth (Properties panel > Object Data > Normals).

When used with Shade Flat, Auto Smooth won't try to smooth between faces but only between the triangles within a face:


What are the differences between mark sharp & edge bevel weight?

The Mark Sharp option is used with either the Edge Split Modifier or when using split normals. It tells Blender that the edge you've marked should be treated like a perfectly sharp edge with no smoothing.

The Edge Bevel Weight is used with the Bevel Modifier. It tells Blender what the relative widths of the edges should be when you use the Weights option in the modifier.

Smooth Shading should be used when you want your entire object to be shaded smooth.

Auto Smooth should be used when you only want sections of you mesh that are already fairly smooth to be shaded smooth, and edges that should look sharp to stay that way. Say you have an object that is mostly smooth but has a few ridges that should be really sharp looking. Using Auto Smooth, you can set edges with a certain angle between them to be kept sharp, while smoothing all the rest.


Suggestions to make a "uwrap" animation with this ball model

If you are looking for result like in your second image - ready to use file (print-cut-glue), use build in "Paper Model Export" addon by Emu.

But for unfolding, use his "Convert to Armature" addon - download version for 2.8x. More info here.

Unfold Animation

download-install-enable addon
select object, go to edit mode (Tab), select edges you want split
Ctr+E > Mark Seam
search Split Seams
additionally select one face you prefer to start generate bone tree
search Convert to Armature

That's all ... to be precise, object is not animated yet. Script generates Armature object with bones assigned to faces and creates unfolded Pose. To animate unfolding - go to Pose Mode (Ctrl+Tab), select all bones, add Keyframe (I) > Rotation, move on Timeline, Clear Rotation (Alt+R), add second Keyframe > Rotation.

If you have more complex mesh you can let "Export Paper Model" script to Mark Seams for you (3Dview > Properties Panel (N) > Paper > Unfold). Continue as described above - search Split Seams ...


.. But why not just make some temporary edges in your tin, and make your label by duplicating some faces and separating to a new object? It Uunwraps cleanly, if you keep the aspect ratio, and can be scaled to your image?


Why are all the correct axis's are blocked on my follow path?

select your armature
apply all transforms
object -> set origin to geometry
move your armature to the beginning of your path
armature -> follow path -> change settings to this:

and you get this:


I think what you're looking for is mirroring weights, not transfering them.

First, just for the sake of having a clean file, delete the Armature modifiers you're not using. Second, to mirror weights you need two things: that the bones are correctly named, telling Blender which are right bones and which are left bones (see Naming Convention here*), and that you have an active mirror modifier or the X Mirror option turned on in Options, in the T menu while painting weights. If you didn't have the bones named correctly when you created the Armature modifier and created the vertex groups then you need to either rename them manually in the Data menu or delete them and create the Armature modifier again, recreating the vertex groups.

So, explained in other words:

Name your bones correctly BEFORE creating the Armature modifier (which creates the vertex groups with the same names).
Have your model with an active Mirror modifier or turn on X Mirror in T menu in Options tab without the Mirror modifier.
Paint.

*Extract from Blender's Naming Convention documentation linked above:

  If you have a bone that has a copy on the other side (a pair), like an arm, give them one of the following separators:
  Left/right separators can be either the second position (L_calfbone) or last-but-one (calfbone.R)

  If there is a lower or upper case L, R, left or right, Blender handles the counter part correctly. See below for a list of valid separators. Pick one and stick to it as close as possible when rigging, it will pay off. (...)


Blender edit mode will only let it move stuff at intervals

Please check, that snapping is turned off.


Blender modeling: To sphere tool does not rounded the face of model

I found the solution by luck. Actually i forgot to click on the adjust edit cage to modifier.


Your bump map texture influence is not visible because you have wrong texture coordinates.

Either unwrap your mesh or change the type of used texture coordinates.

Change Coordinates - Since it is a procedural texture you don't necessarily have to unwrap your mesh for the texture to be visible. Just go into the Properties Window > Texture Tab select your Stucci texture named "Texture" and in the Mapping panel > Coordinates change from UV to either Generated or Object.
Unwrap Mesh - You may optionally prefer unwrapping your mesh. Just Tab into Edit Mode select all faces with A and Unwrap with U. Select your preferred method. For quick results just use Cube Projection.


About anvil modelling problem caused by mirror modifier

Here's the answer to the problem.  First, grab the center loop and move it towards the center till the clipping does not allow it to go any further.  This makes sure that all of the vertices on the center loop are at the center of the model.  Next, you must move the mirror modifier up above the subdivision surface modifier.  This is a general rule of thumb that will remove the seam problem.
Glad to be of help!


It's a problem of bones orientation, in Edit mode select your left upper and lower arms and rotate them (ctrlR) 180° and it should work.


Rigid Body Constraint: how to prevent stretching

I had no enough time to test, but it could work ... (I'm not sure how much realistic it is)

create simple topo (lowpoly) skirt with Cloth sim
top loop assign as vertex group for Pinning

create rings
manually parent each as 3point vertex


Try example points on mesh in lines  it will give you some kind of
lines.
than follow orientation algorithm, creating matrices based on
three points -

(0,0,0),
first vertex of an edge
second vertex of an edge.

on top - make planks (length can be the length of an edge)  and
texturize them


How to use Keyframes and the Python API programmatically?

Figured it out!
Here's how to use the Python API to set it:
# X, Y, and Z location to set
default_cube.location = (0.0, 0.0, 0.0)
# Set the keyframe with that location, and which frame.
default_cube.keyframe_insert(data_path="location", frame=1)

# do it again!
default_cube.location = (3.0, 2.0, 1.0)
# setting it for frame 10
default_cube.keyframe_insert(data_path="location", frame=10)

Details on .keyframe_insert() can be found in Blender's manual.


Different axes using completely different measurement scales?

Measurement scales are always the same, the units used for display are chosen based on the the length being displayed, eg. you will see 10mm not 0.01m.

The problem you show is from an object that was scaled in object mode. This question can give some more insight into other issues with object scales.

When you have a mesh object and an edge in that mesh is 1 metre long directly along the x axis, the object scale is then applied to the mesh which means it might be visually measured at 0.2 metre in length.

Below you can see a default cube that has been scaled on the y axis in object mode and then scaled again in edit mode. Each edge is the same length as you would expect from a cube, the object scale is then applied to give a very rectangular appearance to the drawn cube.

The solution is to apply the scale to the object while in object mode - CtrlA and select Scale.


i would split the map editor up in two parts, Terrain editor and Prod editor.

For the Terrain i would do it with textures maps, so when you edit the terrain you are painting on Bump,Normal,Spec,Diff and so on.

For the prod you need to make a inventory like menu, and then Edit object "add/remove" in a RTS like way.

This might be a quite big project, but if you split up the problems in smaller pieces i think it can be done, and it will make it way more convenient for other ppl to help you with it.


How to create a flat ramp out of stairs?

A subdivided and extruded plane does the trick. See below:

Here the number of subdivisions is 7


Import .obj with vertices' UV specified into Cycles?

When you imported the .obj file, it should have also imported the UV Map that was stored within it. You can verify this under the mesh tab of the properties panel. With the object selected, go to the properties panel (bottom right by default) and click on the mesh tab (looks like a triangle made up of three dots joined by lines).

If you scroll down to UV Maps, you can see all UV Maps applicable to your object. If you have just imported your object and done nothing else, you should see one entry, being the UV Map that you imported along with your object.

Cycles will use that UV Map by default for any image texture in any material that you assign to the object. If you have more than one UV Map on an object you can select the relevant UV Map using the UV Map node, but you should not need to do this unless you have created a second UV Map.


You are dealing with a curve object. Curve objects are different than mehses. You cannot add faces to curves.

You can convert them to a mesh as stated on the other answser. but you can choose to keep them as curves.

To fill, just convert them to a 2d curve and select "both" as the Fill mode.

If you need more concentric rings, just duplicate one of the rings and resize.

If you must convert to mesh, then press Alt C in edit Mode, select convert curve to mesh. Enter edit mode, select all vertices and do "bridge edge loops"


The simplest way is to simply parent one to the other - transforming the parent will then similarly affect the child.

Select the second text object and then hold the shift key and select the one you want to use as the controlling object. Press Control-P to set the parent and make parent. Moving, scaling or rotating the parent should now affect the child as if they were one. If you want to link more than just two Text objects then simply select more by clocking them while still while holdig the shift key - just make sure the last one yu select if the one you want as the 'parent'.

To prevent accidentally grabbing and manipulating the wrong one, select the child and set each of the Transform Locks in the object properties panel to a padlock and you'll no longer be able to manipulate that object in the 3d view.


You're after the Snapping menu.  When snapping is turned on, the magnet is solid with a wavy line, and you can configure what feature the snapping applies to.
Snapping off:

Snapping on:

To turn off snapping mid-transform, use Shift + Tab:

See the snapping documentation here: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/editors/3dview/object/editing/transform/control/snap.html


Linking cell fractured fragments together with Rigid Body Constraints set as 'breakable'

Why is it exploding?

The model explodes, because the game engine (BGE) detects an impulse from all objects against other and so every body is repelled. The impulses are calculated by BGE because the intersection of of all parts' collision bounds at the start point (here: frame 40) is interpreted as an impact. Read more about collision detection

What's the solution?

Use a larger margin at the cell fracture options
Additionally choosing the right collision shape might also help. In most cases Convex hull is just fine.


blender soft body not updating after obstacle moved

Make sure your plane (that stops the soft body) has collision turn on. Then also make it a rigid body (type "passive") and animated:

Now you can animate the plane's movement the way you want. The soft body ball (in my case) will interact with it.


extrapolation in graph editor in blender 2.8

May the graphs are made readonly by accident.
Go into the graph-editor, position your mouse on the left and expand the graphs label. Then hit TAB and watch, whether the tiny lock symbol shows an opened lock.


Smooth shade on a low poly object will always fail (why do you even want to smooth shade it? what do you expect from the smooth shading?)
If you want to bevel angles, you need (in addition to smooth shading) to add subdivision modifier and then add as many supporting loops as you need (that's a lot to learn btw).


This occurs because of two things:

Your image is a highly compressed JPG, creating banding issues and artifacts which get amplified by using it as a bump map.
I would suggest using a PNG with a higher bitrate.
You set the bump strength to 3, which makes the color data clip. 0-1 is the safe margin if you have 100% black in your image (which you do). I suggest working with the distance value instead if you want to have a more pronounced depth effect.


Why are my Verticies/Edges/Faces locked from moving up and down?

The scale of the object in "object mode" is set to 0. While scaling the z-axis with 0 in edit mode is great to get a flat surface, in object mode, this leads to this expected but explainable behavior.

Set the scale in z-direction to 1 while in object mode and it will work again.

On another note I would be VERY CAREFUL to have an object SCALED IN OBJECT MODE, if you are trying to model a real world floor plan with REAL WORLD UNITS.

I never use scale/rotation in object mode unless I'm compositing multiple objects together.

In this case I would suggest to apply apply scale in object mode and then select all and scale in edit mode.


how to control splines trimming in animation nodes

I found the way to do this.
"curve object output" needed target curve for each animated curve.
so I duplicated 13 curve by hand,and called those by index from loop node.

But I guess there are more straight way for this problem, so still wish to get advices.


warning message when the images has not been saved

There is not a warning per se, but the image name in the Image Editor will have an asterisk next to it indicating it has changes to it - also, on my system, I do get a warning when closing a file that there are changes not saved. There is an option to pack all images into the file, and that works for some people - but also best practice is to save the image to disk first, and then make use of the save all dirty images operator.


Using Blender with processing or Max MSP interactive programmes

Basically you could use the game engine to perform real time updates using input from another system.
You could trigger playback of pre-recorded actions using an Action Actuator Logic Brick by a script that does the communication with the external component.

Related:

Blender armature control in real time?


You can do it, and using your path, by you'll need to use the path to deform another mesh object, rather than using your path directly as geometry.

Here, I start by making a straight cylinder, with sufficient loops (some provided by CC subdivision) to be able to deform around a curve.
I then give it a curve modifier to deform it in one axis, to give it the U shape you want.  This requires creating another path to define the curvature of your U.
Then I give it another curve modifier, to follow the main path.  The U curvature acquired from the first curve modifier remains.
Curve modifiers can be tricky for those starting out, and I'd recommend researching them more if you have trouble.  You'll want to have a good understanding of a single curve modifier before trying to use two in conjunction, like I'm doing here.  In my picture, I've set my curves to bounds clamp and stretch in properties/object data/shape.
What about your original curve's bevel?  This is now represented by the diameter (and vertex density) of the original mesh that is getting curved.  You can adjust this either by scaling that mesh in edit mode, or by adjusting the scale of individual curve controls.


Why does one of my objects disappear when I render?

My assumption is that it is hidden from the render. Go to the outliner and make sure that both the eye and camera aren't grayed out.

Otherwise make sure that all of the following optios are checked (make sure object is selected).

Edit

Icing:

In the modifier tab make sure render of the subdivision-surface is same as view.:


How do I apply different normal maps in different areas inside a material?

You'll need to do three things :).
1. Create a separate UV map for each texture (3 in total).
Only faces you put inside UV bounds will be used. Faces outside bounds will be ignored.

2. Connect a different UV map to each texture (use the UV Map node).
Set textures to Clip, so they don't repeat.
3. Combine the textures using Mix RGB nodes set to Add, fac=1.
And plug the result into a Normal Map node.


hair color isn't changing and stays white

i got it

particles -> render -> choose a material slot


UV wrap a rectangular texture on a circle mesh

You can use a triangle fan, and simply reset the UV map.

Use a circle with a triangle fan (one vertex in center)
UV > Reset
Rotate and Scale the UV map

Done.


How does damping in the generic spring constraint work?

My solution for this problem is to add a second parallel spring.

the first spring has stiffness 10.0 and damping 0
the second stiffnes 1.0 and damping 1

Now it acts together similar to a damped spring (I think not exactly physically correct).

A solution for physically damping is to set the damping in the spring to zero and the damping in the ridig body dynamics of the object to a high value. The disadvatage is that this damping is always relative to the world coordiate system.


Animating a series of objects along a path independently

You can add an array modifier to the object, this will allow you to control the distance from one to another. A Curve modifier will make the meshes follow the curve. You can keyframe the object to make it move along the curve.

Method 1:

Note that this will deform the object along the curve

Make sure the origin of the curve is at the start of the path.

Place the object at the start of the curve as well
Select the object. Add an Array modifier:

Count: how many copies you want
Offset: how far each object will be from one another

Add a Curve Modifier and select the curve in the Object slot.
Animate the object by setting key frames. You only need to animate the Object along one axis depending on the orientation of the curve.

Method 2:

Note: This will not deform the object along the curve. This method is a bit of a workaround and a hack.

Make sure the origin of the curve is at the start of the path.

Create a cube at the origin of the curve.
In edit mode merge all vertices into a single point. Alt M -> Center
Back in object mode add an array modifier. And set the Offset to constant.

Increase the offset to where you can see each individual point

Make sure your object is at the start of the curve
Parent the object to the array of verticies. Ctrl P
Set the Duplication type to Verts under the mesh properties. Enable Rotation.

Use the array of vertices to animate the object along the curve. Animate by setting key frames. You only need to animate the Object along one axis depending on the orientation of the curve.


Can I make a sim where "water" breaks a "glass window"?

Cell Fracture

You can use object, particle system or Annotation Tool to initiate break structure. Directly in add-on specify Collection to store parts.
Select shards, search Rigid Body > Add Active
To protect shards from falling you would have to search Rigid Body > Connect
or in this case could be enough just select border shards and set them under Physics Properties > Rigid Body > Type > Passive*. On right-click Copy to Selected.
Add Sphere, search Rigid Body > Add Passive, check Animated, add two anim keyframes

Since glass is freaked from beginning ... for animation you would have to render glass and hide generated shards for render (Outliner > Render Visibility - Camera icon that can be keyframed) up to break moment, at this frame switch Render Visibility for glass and shards.
Fracture Modifier
There exist also great Fracture Modifier in special blender build (https://blender.community/c/graphicall) that keeps glass uncracked until collider breaks a glass.
Fluid Sim
Then run Fluid Sim

Tip:

To let fluid collide with all shards - in 3D viewport select one shard enable Fluid > Effector, Select Similar Shift+G > Collection, when all shards selected Make Links Ctrl+L > Modifiers
To keep shards frozen in initial position you can (in this case) change under Scene Properties > Rigid Body World > Cache change Simulation Start Frame


No IK option under Add Object Constraint

Inverse Kinematics is a way to let the computer calculate bone angles by the position of just one. For example, moving the hand bone around would cause the elbows and shoulders to automatically bend in the correct ways without the animator manually doing it. (I wanted to say this because it seemed like you were confused about what this is).
As such, the Inverse Kinematics constraint cannot be assigned to an entire Armature/Object because it is not a bone.
Instead, with the Armature selected, go into Pose Mode (You can find it under Edit Mode). Inside pose mode, look inside the Properties Editor on the bottom right section of your screen. Find the little blue bone shape with a loop around it. This is the Bone Constraints tab, where individual bones can be constrained. The Inverse Kinematics constraint will also be found here.


How do you use drivers to hide an object or mesh?

Press Right mouse button over eye icon (or camera icon if you want to hide object in render) in outliner, chose Drivers > single from target.
mouse cursor will change to dropper, click on custom prop.
That is all!


Why can I not select any vertices at all?

This is weird. Check the following:

The selected Object is a Mesh (not a Lamp, Camera, Empty or other form of weirdom).
You are in Edit Mode. To check this, look at the lower part of the 3D-View for selectable box with the text Edit Mode or Object Mode. If you hit Tab (with your cursor in the 3D-View proper), it should switch between Edit- and Object Mode.
Hit A to select / deselect all vertices.
IF no visible change happens, you are doing art. Else, it is the vertexial selection that fails.

Hope this helps.


Why does my render quality decrease when I open my file in an older version, then bring it back to the current version?

Check the "multiple importance sampling" option in the world panel. Sometime recently, I believe post-2.76, it was changed to be enabled by default. Disabling it would produce the result you see here, and might happen if you change Blender versions without explicitly setting that flag.

See this answer for what that setting does: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/8156/8081


You just deleted some central vertices, however if you want to cut you actually need to generate new vertices at the cutting plane (so no delete is necessary). To do this you can either:

Copy the mesh four times and do four boolean operations with some cubes you add (see boolean modifier)... this might be the easiest option
Or: Use the knife bisect tool in edit mode (and set the exact cutting plane in the popup menu after using knife bisect). You can then use seperate (select and press P) the parts as seperate objects.


How to fill the surface of a mesh with cones which point to the normal, do not overlap, and have the minimum possible space between each other?

Particle Systems

If you want denser visuals you may use smaller particles size and a greater number of particles.  Your machine may easily handle 100,200 particles, or may not depending on hardware.  Mine is hesitating a little at the numbers below.  Note that you can choose to [render only] the particles by clicking the eye icon off below. [Render only] would allow easier responsive user interaction and produce same render quality. Render On. Visual Eye Off.  Save some compute cycles. So the first two images will show high density particle systems.  To save time the other images will show low density particle systems.

Above image with a fairly large number of particles.  Not yet even to 100,000.  Just a beginning example of dense population.  Of course there are other considerations for a visual effect.

All particles are emitted by frame 0.  Gravity is 0.

Image above.  The Particle System uses the Cone as the duplicated mesh.

Image above.  Two different meshes with different colors.  They are placed in a Blender Group. Keystroke Control-G.  You can be much more artistic than these explanatory examples.  This allows multiple models.

Image above.  You can use the modifier panel to convert particles into ordinary meshes, which can be custom edited.

Dupligroups

The thorn has its parent as indicated by outliner windows and properties window.
The duplication mesh has duplication indicated by Duplication Panel.  Faces and Scale.  Your mesh is the Shark.  The mesh in picture happens to be a stem or tentacle.  The Scale selection uniformly scales the thorn to the size of the face which may be of interest to you.

Displacement Modifier

Above Image.  Horribly non artistic use of the Displacement modifier.

You may also see Tapering a tentacle mesh with uniformly scaled suction discs


Is there a way to reduce the blur caused by denoising while still reduce noise

The blur is an artifact of how denoising is performed. It can't always be totally removed, but can be controlled to a certain extent by adjusting the Denoising parameters found in the Render Layers Tab of the Properties window.  In the next screen shot I have moved denoise to the top of the tab. It is usually farther down.

The Diffuse, Glossy, Transmission and Subsurface parameters are flags that tell the denoiser to use those types of rays in calculating the replacement pixels. You can experiment with them to see if they help.

The Radius parameter sets the area of pixels around the pixel being denoised to consider when calculating the replacement color.

The strength parameter controls how much to consider the surrounding pixels.

The feature strength parameter controls the number of passes over the image the denoiser makes.

If you hover over each parameter it will give a brief summary of the effect caused by that parameter.


How do I create a circle-pattern effect on window-glass?

It can be done by applying a texture to the Displacement input of the glass material node. The glass must have some roughness to it.

You can use a texture like this one, made of two circles shifted by half their diameter and ridged in a concentric fashion (in your picture it looks more like an hexagonal packing, so if you're going for an exact copy you shouldn't use my mockup):

Then assign a material to the glass. I suggest using Principled BSDF with nearly 1.00 transmission; it must have some roughness in order to scatter light (the higher the roughness, the stronger the halo). Just plug the image texture into the Displacement socket of the Material output, but make sure to strongly decrease its effect by using a Math > Multiply node and setting the value to a very small number.

Finally, you should get something like this:

P.S. A realistic window wouldn't be just a plane, but rather a solid. Make sure that you don't apply the texture to the opposite face too.


Your alpha channel is mostly white. try to make it better or use this trick to use the black color as black alpha.


UPBGE - setting a Rigid Body Joint to 'breakable' with Python?

got it

https://shuvit.org/python_api/bge.types.KX_ConstraintWrapper.html#KX_ConstraintWrapper.breakingThreshold

you create the constraint -> set the breaking threshold

constraint = constraints.createConstraint(#args)
force = 10
constraint.breakingThreshold = force

etc


Yeah, turns out I just needed to increase the number of render samples even more. I was originally rendering at 256 samples, and increasing it to 500 didn't make a noticeable difference (hence why I thought the problem wasn't related). But increasing the number of samples even further to 1000 made a significant improvement, and 2000 virtually solved the issue. Thank you and hope this helps anyone else with this problem.


Yes. You can use Custom Falloff node to make your own falloffs. For example we can make Mesh falloff using BVH Tree and Custom Falloff node.


How to get adjacent vertices of a vertex? (with Python)

Yes, this is possible using BMEdge.other_vert

This script runs in edit-mode.

import bpy
import bmesh

obj = bpy.context.edit_object
me = obj.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)

for v in bm.verts:
    for e in v.link_edges:
        v_other = e.other_vert(v)

        # print some info
        print("%d -> %d via edge %d" % (v.index, v_other.index, e.index))


The custom context has an invalid region set, which results in the region data rv3d pointer being NULL in gp_camera_view_subrect() (gpencil_convert.c).
In your custom context region is set to [bpy.data.screens['Scripting']...Region]. Instead of a list it should be a single bpy_struct. This can be fixed by modifying your override dictionary:

override = {'window': win,
            'screen': scr,
            'area'  : areas3d[0],
            'region': region[0],
            'scene' : bpy.context.scene}

Alternatively you could copy the current context and modify the area and region.

import bpy

context = bpy.context.copy()

for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
    if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
        for region in area.regions:
            if region.type == 'WINDOW':
                context['area'] = area
                context['region'] = region
                break
        break

bpy.ops.gpencil.convert(context, type='CURVE', use_timing_data=True)


What you want is synchronized selection between the outliner and the 3D View.

It is called "Sync Selection" and is default behavior for the Blender 2.81, I don't think it is available in previous versions, as far as I know.

You can toggle it on or off from the outliner Filter popover.


Blender does not support shear or skew transformations, thats why the state you request can not be reached on object/transform level but only on data/mesh level. I have added a possible workaround at the end of the post.
Translation, Rotation, Scale
First, let's confirm that Blender only supports translation, rotation and scaling transformations. Select the untransformed default cube.
Open up the Blender Python console, type bpy.context.object.matrix_world and press enter.

Cool, we are confronted by 16 numbers of a matrix. bpy.context.object is simply a reference to this object. matrix_world is the transformation matrix. A transformation matrix contains the objects transformation: translation, rotation, resizing, shearing and skewing.
Look at these slides for a brief overview or this beautifully crafted blog post for a more detailled explanation.
The _world part in matrix_world simply refers to the resulting matrix with all parents transformations applied. Since the default cube has no parents, we could also use matrix_local.
We can not only output the matrix of the default, we can also assign it using python. Obviously we usually only work with partial components of the transformation matrix of object (tranlation, rotation, scale) since the matrix is not very intuitive. Open Blenders Text Editor and paste the following script.
import bpy
import mathutils
from math import cos, sin, pi

mat = mathutils.Matrix( [ [1, 0, 0, 0],
                          [0, 1, 0, 0],
                          [0, 0, 1, 0],
                          [0, 0, 0, 1] ])

ob = bpy.context.object
ob.matrix_world = mat

Here we assign a matrix to the active object. Pressing ⎇ AltP or the Run Script button will assign this matrix to the cube. We don't see a change, because this is the so called identity matrix, which doesn't transform the object (or it transforms all points in place).
However, we can do simple transformation with a matrix via python code. Here are three examples (for translation, rotation and scale) which you can replace in the above code snippet. The results are seen in the image below.
# translate x by -1
mat = mathutils.Matrix( [ [1, 0, 0, -1],
                          [0, 1, 0, 0],
                          [0, 0, 1, 0],
                          [0, 0, 0, 1] ])
# rotate z by pi/8 (~22.5°)
mat = mathutils.Matrix( [ [cos(pi/8), -sin(pi/8), 0, 0],
                          [sin(pi/8), cos(pi/8), 0, 0],
                          [0, 0, 1, 0],
                          [0, 0, 0, 1] ])
# scale y by 2
mat = mathutils.Matrix( [ [1, 0, 0, 0],
                          [0, 2, 0, 0],
                          [0, 0, 1, 0],
                          [0, 0, 0, 1] ])

Shearing or Skewing
As far as I understand, the following matrix should shear the object along the objects X axis. You may be familiar with Shearing from Edit Mode, where you can shear points with ⎈ Ctrl⇧ Shift⎇ AltS.
[1, 1, 0, 0],
[0, 1, 0, 0],
[0, 0, 1, 0],
[0, 0, 0, 1]

However, in the 3D view, we can see, that assigning this matrix with the code snippet from earlier will only scale and rotate the object. What happened? I guess, Blender is trying to show the transformation in the GUI, converted it to TRS and displayed it in the Transform panel. The other parts of the matrix were ignored and the matrix reconstructed without the shear/skew.
In fact, if we go into the python console and execute bpy.context.object.matrix_world it shows an entirely different matrix, than what we just inserted.
<Matrix 4x4 ( 0.9210,  0.5395, 0.1117, 0.0000)
            (-0.3815,  1.1907, 0.5395, 0.0000)
            ( 0.0790, -0.5395, 1.3025, 0.0000)
            ( 0.0000,  0.0000, 0.0000, 1.0000)>

What can happen when unparenting?
When unparenting an object, it can require a transformation matrix, which includes shear/skew and can't be expressed with just TRS.
Let's look at an example, where everything is fine first. The Empty is the parent of the Cube.
The empty is scaled to 0.5as can be seen in the Transform panel.
The Cube is scaled to 2 on the Y-Axis.

Even before doing any unparenting, we can figure out, what's going to happen. The Cube must have a scale of 0.5, 1.0, 0.5 to remain in its current transformation.
We can also figure this out, by multiplying the matrices.
[ 0.5 0   0   0    ]         [ 1   0   0   0    ]       [ 0.5 0   0   0  ]
[ 0   0.5 0   0    ]    x    [ 0   2   0   0    ]   =   [ 0   1   0   0  ]
[ 0   0   0.5 0    ]         [ 0   0   1   0    ]       [ 0   0   0.5 0  ]
[ 0   0   0   1    ]         [ 0   0   0   1    ]       [ 0   0   0   1  ]

This is the same as what Blender would tell us when calling matrix_world of the child Cube.
>>> bpy.data.objects['Cube'].matrix_world
Matrix(((0.5, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0),
        (0.0, 1.0, 0.0, 0.0),
        (0.0, 0.0, 0.5, 0.0),
        (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0)))

In this second case the cube is rotated by an angle which is not a multiple of 90° and the empty has a non-uniform scale of 1, 0.5, 0.5.

[ 1   0   0   0    ]         [ 0.7 1.4 0   0    ]       [ 0.7 1.4 0   0  ]
[ 0   0.5 0   0    ]    x    [-0.7 1.4 0   0    ]   =   [-0.3 0.7 0   0  ]
[ 0   0   0.5 0    ]         [ 0   0   1   0    ]       [ 0   0   0.5 0  ]
[ 0   0   0   1    ]         [ 0   0   0   1    ]       [ 0   0   0   1  ]

Even though we can't see it in the numbers, we end up with a transformation matrix which is not representable with only translation, rotation and scale.
Unparenting the cube results in it's shear changing.

And it's obvious, that we can't scale the right cube towards the shape of the left. We need to scale along the green arrow, but there is no axis of the cube which points in that direction. If the rotations were done at 90° angles, this would not be a problem. Again ...
Most transformations can not be reached using only location, rotation and scale.
But wait, right before unparenting, we were able to see the correct transformation matrix using matrix_world of the child Cube, right? Yes, and that is a way to "apply" the transformation to the points.
What happens to the matrix when unparenting?
How does the matrix change when unparenting since shear and skew are ignored?

We can reproduce this process by extracting TRS from matrix_world with python and the mathutils module.

Get the matrix_world of the child Cube.
Extract the location, rotation and scale using the the matrix' decompose() function.
Assemble a new matrix from the location, rotation and scale.

The result will be the same matrix as the one we receive, when we unparent the Cube. It is different from the original matrix.
import bpy
import mathutils

mat = bpy.context.object.matrix_world

loc, rot, sca = mat.decompose()

mat_loc = mathutils.Matrix.Translation(loc)
mat_rot = rot.to_matrix().to_4x4()
mat_sca = mathutils.Matrix.Identity(4)
mat_sca[0][0], mat_sca[1][1], mat_sca[2][2] = sca

mat_out = mat_loc @ mat_rot @ mat_sca
print(mat_out)

We want the points of the mesh to be transformed by the original mat, but we are left with the reduced mat_out after the transformation.
The Workaround
We want to apply the missing transformation directly to the points, so that the unparented resulting transformation matrix is "enough" to reproduce the original transformation.
Using the naming from the previous code snippet:
mat_out @ mat_h = mat

mat_h is the missing part of the transformation, which is needed to return to the original transformation (mat). We can get it's value with the following line:
mat_h = mat_out.inverted() @ mat

And we can apply this to the cube, before unparenting is with a short script.
import bpy
import mathutils

ob = bpy.context.object
mat = ob.matrix_world

loc, rot, sca = mat.decompose()

mat_loc = mathutils.Matrix.Translation(loc)
mat_rot = rot.to_matrix().to_4x4()
mat_sca = mathutils.Matrix.Identity(4)
mat_sca[0][0], mat_sca[1][1], mat_sca[2][2] = sca

mat_out = mat_loc @ mat_rot @ mat_sca
mat_h = mat_out.inverted() @ mat

# Unparent the object.
bpy.ops.object.parent_clear(type='CLEAR_KEEP_TRANSFORM')

# Move the vertices to their original position,
# which the mat_out can't represent.
for v in ob.data.vertices:
    v.co = mat_h @ v.co

Paste this script in Blenders script editor and press Run Script or ⎇ AltP. It will unparent the mesh and apply the transformations, which can no longer be represented by location, rotation and scale, directly to the points.


How to import a .mhx file into blender using a python script

Download the make human blender tools from the make human website.
Open the zip. It will create a "blendertools" folder where you opened it.
Install the make human scene importer script:
blendertools\mhx_importer\import_scene_mhx.py
Once the plugin is installed, this command will become available to you via python:

bpy.ops.import_scene.makehuman_mhx(filter_glob="*.mhx", filepath="", scale=1, advanced=False, enforce=True, mesh=True, proxy=True, cage=False, clothes=True, shapekeys=True, drivers=False, diamond=False, rigify=True)


Does Blender 2.8 work with Nvidia 1050 Ti graphics?

Is this what your preferences looks like?

If there is a card showing up there, then you need to check the checkbox next to it. If not then I am quite lost, since there isn't really a reason a gtx 1050 ti wouldn't work with blender, except if you have an outdated driver or something. As far as I know all of the 10th gen Nvidia cards work in blender 2.8 (I personally had a gt 1030 work fine).

P.S. If this doesn't work, please clarify what OS you are using.


How can I get straight lines on a UV map?

Aside from perhaps some add-on, I'm not sure of a way to do what you want in one action. If you are open to another solution, perhaps consider the align auto function in the UV specials menu. It does basically the same thing as scaling to 0 on X or Y, but can save time as you can just use Shift+R to repeat the operator after using it.

Just Altselect your edge, and then use W>A(Align Auto) to activate the operator, followed by Shift+R after each selection to repeat the function.


Renderers are coded to behave like materials in real world. They try to be physically correct.

Most of these effects you are describing are non-physical and cannot be achieved with real world materials. Some even don't conserve energy of light!

Only effect that can be done with materials is Multiply. An effect that can be done with lights would be Add.

This non-physically correct renderer can be surely made and programmed, but I don't know of any. I don't even know why anyone would have a need for something like that - what you want could be probably achieved in post-production using these blend modes on 2d layers.


How can I Make Sure No Hair Is In The Mesh?

In your case the hair cannot get inside as the default Path render method is used. Shorten the hair as I can see it has the default length which is way too long. Make the length something like 0.1. And If you want hair all over your mesh, increase the hair number. If it's too low not all faces get it. Like check at the info bar how many faces your mesh has, multiply this number e.g. by 2 and input this value as the hair number. Set your Hair/face to 2 et voila.


Sometimes zooming with the mousewheel becomes very slow

The more you zoom in, the slower it becomes. This feature helps with precision zooming when very close to something.

Here's what you should do:

Instead of zooming in to something while you (the viewport camera) are very far from it, select that thing whether it is an object, vertex, edge, face, or whatever then press  Numpad . . This will take you closer to the object, then you can zoom in from there.

Always think of the viewport camera as an actual camera. When you want to take an image of something small, you don't stand very far from it and zoom in, but you get as close to it as possible then take the image.


Smoke Effect Colors Overly Dark and Gray When Rendering with Cycles or Eevee in Blender 2.92

The color is there, you just needed some more light. :)
Also, the colors are multiplied by the color input of the Principled Volume node.


How to remove "missing script files" warnings in add-on prefs?

I had the same problem in Blender 2.83.
I suggest that you load the Blender Add-on factory settings by going to the "Edit" menu, Select the "gear" icon to get to "Preferences..." and after that, click on the lower left corner button besides "Save Preferences*" (it shows 3 horizontal lines through it).
Then, by re-enabling the Add-ons one by one, you'll easily spot the culprit for the missing scripts.
Usually, an updated version might have been already published if you do a search for the defective Add-on.
In the case of the Blenderkit being the one giving you problems, go to this answer provided by SHA:
https://blenderartists.org/t/blender-2-8-blender-kit-addon-install-error/1173445/12?u=pierregagne98
Hope that helps!


Well I goofed. It turned out to be the rigid body world settings in the scene tab.
Turns out the speed was at zero, so there wasn't any chance that the fractured cube could move.


How to modify accurate 3D models to protect technical know-how

Setup your decimate modifier on one of the objects.

Then, in object mode, select all objects (A) or all needed object (Shift+RMB).

Make sure your decimated object is active (different color, usually brighter orange), if it's not, Shift+RMB on it.

Use Ctrl+L to open the link menu and select "modifiers"

All the selected objects will now have the exact same modifiers as the active object.

About export : modifiers are applied when exporting, so it will be destructive. There can be a checkbox (depending on file format) to apply modifiers or not.


Is there a way to "clip" or "clamp" the height of a normal, so that bumps go to a certain height and then abruptly flatten, as if chopped off?

Pass the bump height through a Math > Minimum node. Set the empty value to your desired clamp height.

0.5 Clip

0.75 Clip

No Clipping


How to copy rotation from Active to Selected in Python?

Copy Global Rotation
This example I am copying the global rotation of the active to all other selected objects.
Get the rotation matrix of the active object from its 3x3 rotation matrix, and convert to 4x4
Then for each selected object, decompose, keep the scale and location and recompose with the new rotation.  A 4x4 transform matrix is composed of translation, rotation and scale.  M = T @ R @ S. Decomposing is separating the parts into a vector, quaternion, and vector for each respectively.
import bpy
from mathutils import Matrix
context = bpy.context

ob = context.object

R = ob.matrix_world.to_3x3().to_4x4() # rot matrix

for o in context.selected_objects:
    if o is ob:
        continue
    # decompose
    loc, _, scale = o.matrix_world.decompose()
    # recompose
    o.matrix_world = (
            Matrix.Translation(loc) @
            R @
            Matrix.Diagonal(scale.to_4d())
            )

for local use the local matrix. For basis (ie what you see in UI rotation field) use basis matrix. Does a child object inherit the matrix from the parent?
Another method would be to add a copy rotation constraint to each, and apply. Apply a Transform


PSD image texture - material not updating?

Image used as textures will not update automatically every time the file is changed, but you don't need to close blender to make the changes visible.

The easiest way to do this is to re-load the image in the UV/Image editor window. The shortcut is AltR

On the Properties panel of images used as texture there is also a button to reload the image from disk.

There is an addon to sychronize gimp with blender, but I don't know if it still works. I avoid using GIMP... but the info is in this answer:

Can Krita and Blender be linked?


How to stop ambient occlusion texture baking in cycles from only having black and white color output?

Cycles Baking behaves a bit different from BI Baking due to the design. However, you can simulate what you expected by creating an auxiliary object, and tweak the Distance value located in World tab to get rid of the "normalized" look.

Create a big enough object, center it to the target objects;
Tweak the Distance value based on the dimension of the new object. (As shown below, I created a 20 x 20 x 20 cube object, so that the distance between the sword and cube is around 10.)


How to develop a VSE file format importer for DNG + CR2 image files?

First off blender seems to read CR2 files without issue, at least with the few samples I downloaded. It could read more data, that is blender loads one of the samples I have in the natural resolution, while the OpenImageIO file viewer automatically rotates it to match the rotation of the camera. Blender's file browser will filter out CR2 files by default but if you disable the filter and select a CR2 file it will read it. Adding CR2 to the list of available file formats is all that is needed here. Once loaded blender says the CR2 file has a TIFF file_format. This would be a minor change that should be accepted as a bug report, test with a variety of files to make sure first.

For DNG, blender only sees the thumbnail - or the thumbnail is found first and mistakenly read as the image data. (if you have one without a thumbnail try it).

From what I have read, DNG is a variation of TIFF/EP so I see two options, first is to adjust blender's TIFF reading code, the other is to use OpenImageIO to read DNG files. The image viewer built as part of OpenImageIO can read the sample DNG files that I have found, so this may be a viable option for adding support. For reference using OpenImageIO to read PSD files was added here, it is possible that this code added for PSD may only need minor changes to also work with DNG.

I'm not sure this will be considered an acceptable bug report as it is adding support for a new file format. You may want to add DNG image support to the requests page or you could talk to some of the developers at #blendercoders on IRC to see if someone is interested in adding this image support, unless you want to submit a patch for it yourself.

Update:

A quick test with just adding to the file suffix list shows that telling blender to use OpenImageIO to open DNG and CR2 files works. Simply adding the file suffixes to the code used for PSD files allows DNG and CR2 files to be opened. As mentioned at the start this brings in CR2 files rotated based on image metadata the same as opening the images using iv. Images opened this way report their file_format as JPEG so further work to distinguish DNG and CR2 files from PSD and JPEG will be needed but should be minimal.


Shrinkwrapped eyelid showing glare like outer eye glass material

The Shrinkwrap modifier includes a Distance property that allows you to control how far off the surface the mesh is wrapped - higher values give a larger separation. Increase the distance until your ‘outer eyeball’ no longer shows through.


Creating a sphere with glowing circle on it

To do that:

Simply use two spheres:

One for the body ShiftA then mesh>UV sphere
Then create a second one at the same place, and keep only the edges that make the ring

Select the other one and delete them.
Delete this:

And scale it a bit S to avoid the two spheres to overlap.


Is there a way to fracture a mesh only by it's polygons?

As far as I know with the Cell Fracture modifier you only have the option of splitting by mesh vertex, not face which is not exactly the same, but could yield approximate results.

Check the first option on the top left

Otherwise look into the Explode modifier which uses particles to break an object by its faces


How do I lock multiple bones location in Pose Mode?

With the armature selected and in pose mode this will set the location lock for every bone. You may also want to lock the rotation by setting lock_rotation

import bpy
for b in bpy.context.active_object.pose.bones:
    b.lock_location[0] = True # x
    b.lock_location[1] = True # y
    b.lock_location[2] = True # z

If you want to do it using a preset list of bone names -

bone_list = ['upper_arm.L','upper_arm.R','thigh.L','thigh.R']
for bn in bone_list:
    bone = bpy.context.active_object.pose.bones[bn]
    bone.lock_location[0] = True # x
    bone.lock_location[1] = True # y
    bone.lock_location[2] = True # z


Using rigify, Automatic weights parenting fails

To make Rigify work properly you need to enable running python scripts or scripted expressions. When opening your file click on Reload Trusted button on the top of blender screen.


How can I customize the Render Button in the Render GUI to execute a custom script

The easiest way is to right click on the render button (or any UI item) and select Edit Source. You will see a message in the info header to 'See properties_render.py in the text editor'. Simply change one of your windows to a text editor and select the properties_render.py from the text block list. You will find the cursor located on the line used for the UI item you selected.

If you search the blender python api documentation for UILayout you will find the operator function used there takes the operator name as the first argument. So you would change "render.render" to the name of the operator you want to use.

Remember to save the edited text block back to the text file. Also this file will be replaced with each blender upgrade so creating an addon may be a wiser choice for something you plan to keep using.


The Perspective Transform is having trouble with the minimum Z-clip being set to 0. Go to the N Properties Region of the 3D view > 'View' panel, and set the 'Start' and 'End' of the clip to sensible values for your project, avoiding a Start of 0.

If you want the TL;DR, check out the 'Remapping the Z coordinate' paragraph on this page. Note that, if n=0, then f*n is always 0, and information is lost.


Show plane texture while in weight paint mode

Set the 3d view shading type to Rendered, select the area you want to paint on with Ctrl+B, change the mode to Weight Paint and...paint!


Legos falling into place and stacking up. Can someone point me in the right direction?

i made a small file for you  click here to download
i would use dupliverts on a distorted plane. the 4 distortion modifiers use a blend texture in several progressions, and are controlled by animated empties. this way the mesh gets to rest in the end.
its tricky to aniamte the plane using the empties, so that it looks accurate, but its surely much more straight forward than setting up a particle simulation, or even animation nodes.


Get the group via bpy.data.groups, all objects of that group are accessible via a Group's objects property:

import bpy
import random

group_name = "Group"

group = bpy.data.groups.get(group_name)
assert group is not None

first_ob = group.objects[0]

random_ob = random.choice(group.objects)

If you wanna select another object from a random group the active object is in, use .users_group:

import bpy
from random import choice

scene = bpy.context.scene
ob = bpy.context.object

random_group = choice(ob.users_group)
obs = random_group.objects[:]
obs.remove(ob)

try:
    random_ob = choice(obs)
except IndexError:
    # no other object in chosen group
    pass

#bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')
for ob in scene.objects:
    ob.select = False
random_ob.select = True
bpy.context.scene.objects.active = random_ob


Need an advise how to join two subsurf meshes

Select the object you want to join. Select the other. Then type Ctrl J.

If the two are the same object. Edit mode: select the vertices you want to join. Type W then Merge.

I hope this helps


Moving mirrored UVs to other quadrant for baking

In the UV editor check the Coordinates Normalized property (Properties Panel > Display).

Instead of moving them manually in grab mode, you can enter values in grab, rotate or scale mode. They will appear in the menu bar of the active area (image editor). Minus - and Backspace work, while entering a value in a transformation mode.

To move some faces 100% out of the uv space, press the following: G > -1 > Enter.

With normalized coordinates many similiar transformations can be made, for example flipping or flopping vertices. Just set the cursor coordinates to (0.5, 0.5) and the Rotation/Scaling Pivot to 2D Cursor. Then scale with a value of -1 along x or y. (S > X > -1 > Enter)


how I can make the mesh invisible and keep the fire?

If your mesh is one piece, and you don't want to work destructively,just go in the edit mode and select the unrequired vertices and hit H on keyboard to hide it
You can unhide it by alt+H
If your mesh in seperate,just click on eye button in the outlined
If you want your mesh to be seperate,select the unrequired vertices and press P to seperate it as other mesh


128 samples with node denoiser animation still flickering

I played with light bounces, clamping, filter glossy and caustics settings and I tried to set it to the min possible value without loosing too many details; this have reduced a little bit the noise but still looked so bad.

Then I found a tutorial on youtube, so I removed the neons objects with emission shader and replace it with area lights, with this I've almost removed all the noise

Then I tried to switch from Path Tracing integrator sampling to the Branched Path Tracing and this completly removed almost all noise but increase a lot time render (from 3.00min to 15.00min)

So I tried to decrease the samples number (from 128 to 32) to decrease the time rendering, this added more noise but still look good

Now I will play with settings to adjust it more and increase details and then try to add a denoise node.


How do I move game pieces around a three dimensional board in a turn based game?

Represent the board using a more abstract notation. Essentially, you need a way to store co-ordinates in 3D space.

One way would be to place empties at all possible piece locations. Then you can snap to them. This is quite a limited approach. A better solution is to use a mathematical representation. For example, a sphere is very easily notated in ... spherical co-ordinates (two angles and a radius). Thus to snap a piece to a location is just a coordinate conversion issue. An easy way to think about this if you don't have experience with spherical coordinate systems is if you have a single piece at the top of the board, parent it to an empty in the middle of the board, and then rotate the empty. The piece will follow the surface of the sphere.

You will need python for this for the reasons pointed out by Quacksilber. I can think of ways to do it using animations and logic bricks but it will be a huge huge huge effort that will be very tedious.

I am quite interested in your game. Looks a bit like chess? Programming chess is never easy at the best of times (aka a flat board)


Material only assigning to part of object, not all of it

You need to set the diffuse color as shown below for all the parts you want to have the same material. So I added new material for the other parts as well and set the diffuse color to be the same as shown below:

The updated .blend file can be found here:


You can use the Mask brush. Paint on the face that you don't want to deform. To erase the whole mask, press AltM. To erase some parts, press Ctrl while you paint:

Then sculpt, the maskded area won't be affected:


How can I get this shimmery/pearlescent fluid?

Try something like this. It's just a Noise Texture with the distortion and detail turned up, and flattened a bit on the Z-axis. I used the Noise as a Mix Factor for the colors and also used the colors for a bit of Subsurface Scattering. I used the inverse of the Noise for a bit of Transmission so the dark areas look more "gooey". I upped the Metallic value a bit as well, because polishes like that often contain a metallic "sheen: component.


Activating Add-on, getting: ImportError: No module named 'bpy.utils.previews', 'bpy.utils' is not a package

You need to update to Blender 2.75. Versions prior to this don't have bpy.utils.previews which is used for custom ui icons and preview images. You will also need to install the add-on again, probably.


Need to render a VERY HQ 2.4 meter tall image

For print a 2.4 meter billboard you are absolutely don't need it to be in "HQ". Check this answers here.
You don't have to render all in once - you can render layers and then compose them. Explained here
I can presume that if you rendering a work for this kind of printing, you will have to make some post-production work - color correction, text layout etc. So the right workflow is to render the elements you need in blender and than combine them in your preferred editor, trying to make minimum layout work in blender.


Removing Animations in dopesheet action editor

Remove all the animations with the 'X' button. The active ones or the ones with the 'F' button enabled will be saved after reloading your saved .blend file.


How to create manifold threads on cylinder with non-destructive editing?

Yes.

Start with a screw from a non-manifold mesh.  In this case, I'm using a plane, with an empty to define the screw.
This gives a mesh that is manifold other than boundaries, appropriate for a solidify modifier.  In the example pic, the faces do not intersect.  You can eliminate the intersection for other meshes by reducing the thickness of the solidify.  (In the presence of other modifiers, it may be necessary to use modifier-generated vertex groups to modulate the thickness of the solidify.)
Of course, that leaves us with a hole in the middle of the screw, which might not be appropriate for the boolean difference we wish to create.  We can fill that hole by boolean unioning our manifold screw with a manifold cylinder.
This particular cylinder is placed and scaled by eye, in order to demonstrate the technique.  In a real life situation, you'd scale it differently.  If it's totally necessary, you can even scale it non-destructively in a number of ways.  I would probably armature deform it, with a stretch-to bone parented to and stretching-to a pair of non-deforming "marker" bones that shrinkwrap-projected onto a linked duplicate of the screw mesh.
I've applied all modifiers at the end and selected non-manifold to demonstrate that the resulting mesh is perfectly manifold, with its normals facing the right direction.
Here's a pic where I use the final object to cut into a cube:

The applied boolean difference is applied on the right.  On the left, the modifier is live, with the screw, and the cylinder used to "fill the hole", displayed as wireframe.
If you're having trouble using the final object as a boolean, you might be trying to solidify too much, creating overlapping geometry.


Scene renders black with ambient occlusion turned off in cycles

You have lots of options when it comes to lighting. Your question is quite vague so we don't know what your intentions are.

You can increase the intensity of the light source, but that will only make the spot brighter, as there is no other light in the scene. The contrast (ratio between bright and dark values) will be too high.

If you use gray tone for the background surface. You'll get a brighter scene. Think of the background as a giant sphere that surrounds the scene emitting equal amount of light at every given point. The contrast will decrease, as the dark areas will not be in complete darkness. Changing the strength, or the color, of the background will let you control how bright the level of global illumination.

Ambient occlusion is different, as is "fake lighting" and has more to do with the interaction of objects. For a better explanation read this post.
The default settings for ambient occlusion are way to bright for most scenes in cycles. So you might want to bring it way down (or you might not want to use it at all). With ambient occlusion objects will be darker at the places where they are closer to other objects.

For a more nuanced control on lighting and the direction of the shadows, consider using other light sources. Like a large plane with an emission shader:


Where is the 'detail flood fill' option in blender 2.9?

As the manual said, you just need to select Dynotopo > Detailing> Constant Detail
And you will see the option below


How to add the properties dynamically by using bpy.types.CollectionProperty?

I found that elements of bpy.types.CollectionProperty must be added in invoke method instead of draw method.
I will also post the simple code for developers who stuck at this problem.
import bpy
from bpy.props import CollectionProperty, BoolProperty, StringProperty
from bpy_extras.io_utils import ImportHelper

bl_info = {
    "name": "Collection Property",
    "author": "nutti",
    "version": (1, 0, 0),
    "blender": (2, 91, 0),
    "location": "",
    "description": "",
    "support": "COMMUNITY",
    "category": "UV"
}

class PropertyCollection(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    name: StringProperty(name="", default="")
    checked: BoolProperty(name="", default=True)

class TEST_OT_TestOp(bpy.types.Operator, ImportHelper):

    bl_idname = "uv.test_op"
    bl_label = "Test Op"
    bl_description = "Test Operator"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    prop_collection: CollectionProperty(type=PropertyCollection)

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

        for prop in self.prop_collection:
            layout.prop(prop, "checked", text=prop["name"])

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

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        wm = context.window_manager

        self.prop_collection.clear()
        for i in range(200):
            item = self.prop_collection.add()
            item.name = "Prop {}".format(i)
            item.checked = True

        wm.fileselect_add(self)

        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

def menu_fn(self, _):
    layout = self.layout
    layout.operator(TEST_OT_TestOp.bl_idname)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(PropertyCollection)
    bpy.utils.register_class(TEST_OT_TestOp)

    bpy.types.TOPBAR_MT_file_import.append(menu_fn)

def unregister():
    bpy.types.TOPBAR_MT_file_import.remove(menu_fn)

    bpy.utils.unregister_class(TEST_OT_TestOp)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(PropertyCollection)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


How do I extrude an object into another creating depth?

Select the object you want to use to create the groove, Tab into Edit mode and press E and extrude it to give it some depth (as deep as you want the groove to be). Next select the panel (the white face) and add a Boolean modifier to it selecting the extruded object as the input, change the operation to Difference and then apply the modifier if you are satisfied with the results. Finally, delete the extruded object and you can enter edit mode to tweak as desired.


How to flatten a non-planar face to a targeted plane?

What @Denis suggested is good, I mean, it can be convenient sometimes with the help of view align. Besides, there are also other ways to do so:

Method 1:

Enable Snap, set Snap Element to Vertex.
Hold Shift and click on Edge Select button.
Use Normal as the Transform coordinate.
Use Active Element as the pivot center.
First select the vertex you want to move, then the edge that contains any two vertices on the target plane. Then R Y Y, then rotate until it snapped on another vertex on the same plane.

Method 2:

Temporarily triangulate the face.
Use Active Element as the pivot center.
Keep the target triangle selected, which is coplanar with that plane, then S Z Z 0.
Select the two triangles, press F to convert them back to quad.

Method 3:

Snap the vertex that you want to move to counter vertex.
Keep it activated, then G G to slide it along one edge, press C once or holding Alt to disable Clamp.
Repeat last step on another edge.

Method 4:

This is sort of similar to Denis's answer, but keeping current point of view unchanged (needed sometimes).

Select three vertices, create a new coordinate system based on current selection (or simply press Ctrl Alt Spacebar), and use it as current transform orientation.
Use Active Element as the pivot center.
First select the vertex you want to move, then select any one of the rest vertices, then S Z Z 0.

Method 5:

This is really a one-stop solution by using a script/addon coded by nirenyang, a friend from local community. After being requested, he made this for us, also posted on BA.

Here is my translated version of his script:

bl_info = {
    "name": "Coplanar by 3 Verts",
    "author": "NirenYang[BlenderCN]",
    "version": (0, 1),
    "blender": (2, 75, 5),
    "location": "3d view - toolbar",
    "description": "Make vertices coplanar using a plane defined by the first/last three selected verts.",
    "warning": "",
    "wiki_url": "",
    "tracker_url": "",
    "category": "mesh",
}

import bpy
import bmesh
from mathutils.geometry import intersect_line_plane, distance_point_to_plane, normal

enum_ref = [( 'first', 'First', 'Defined by the first three selected verts' ),
            ( 'last', 'Last', 'Defined by the last three selected verts' )]
class MESH_OT_3points_flat_trim(bpy.types.Operator):
    """
    Manually pick three vertices to define the reference plane
    """
    bl_idname = 'mesh.3points_flat_trim'
    bl_label = 'Coplanar by 3 Verts'
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

ref_order = bpy.props.EnumProperty(name='Refferece Plane', description='Use the first/last three selected vertices to define the reference plane', items=enum_ref, default="last")
filter_distance = bpy.props.FloatProperty(name='Filter Distance', description='Only affects vertices further than this distance', default=0.0, precision=3, min=0.0)

@classmethod
def poll(cls, context):
    obj = context.active_object
    return (obj and obj.type == 'MESH')

def execute(self, context):
    C = context
    D = bpy.data
    ob = C.active_object

    #if bpy.app.debug != True:
    #    bpy.app.debug = True
    #    if C.active_object.show_extra_indices != True:
    #        C.active_object.show_extra_indices = True

    if ob.mode == 'OBJECT':
        me = C.object.data
        bm = bmesh.new()
        bm.from_mesh(me)
    else:
        obj = C.edit_object
        me = obj.data
        bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)

    bm.select_history.validate()
    if len(bm.select_history) < 3:
        self.report({'INFO'}, 'Pick three vertices first')
        return {'CANCELLED'}

    points3Index = []
    points3 = []
    _ordering = bm.select_history if self.ref_order=="first" else list(bm.select_history)[::-1]
    for i in _ordering:
        if len(points3) >= 3:
            break
        elif isinstance(i, bmesh.types.BMVert):
            points3.append(i.co)
            points3Index.append(i.index)
    print(points3Index)
    if len(points3) < 3:
        self.report({'INFO'}, 'at least three vertices are needed to be selected')
        return {'CANCELLED'}

    points3Normal = normal(*points3)
    for v in bm.verts:
        if v.select and v.index not in points3Index:
            _move = True
            if self.filter_distance > 0.0:
                _move = abs(distance_point_to_plane(v.co, points3[0], points3Normal)) < self.filter_distance
            if _move == True:
                v.co = intersect_line_plane(v.co, v.co+points3Normal, points3[0], points3Normal)

    if ob.mode == 'OBJECT':
        bm.to_mesh(me)
        bm.free()
    else:
        bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me, True)

    return {'FINISHED'}

def menu_func_MESH_OT_3points_flat_trim(self, context):
    self.layout.operator(MESH_OT_3points_flat_trim.bl_idname,
                        text=MESH_OT_3points_flat_trim.bl_label)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(MESH_OT_3points_flat_trim)
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_PT_tools_meshedit.append(menu_func_MESH_OT_3points_flat_trim)

def unregister():
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_PT_tools_meshedit.remove(menu_func_MESH_OT_3points_flat_trim)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(MESH_OT_3points_flat_trim)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


Select the grid loop, key Space, type Grid Fill, and select the option.

Example on a cylinder:


Blender Mapping Strand/Particle in v2.76

It is located in the textures panel under mapping>coordinates>strand/particle


Add a single key frame to the camera the go to the f-curve editor. Selcet the curve for the desired coordinate. Go to the proverties panel of the f-curve editor (if you don't have it press N to get it)

Add a Built-In Function modifier

You're looking for a "sin" type for each of your coeficients.
For example I'll do the X location formula you provided:

Remember to check the "additive" option if your have more then one term in your equation
To enter "cos" you need to use the fact that cos(x)=sin(x+pi/2) Wikipedia: Trigonometric identities

Final graph for X location:

Extension:

In your case you only needed sines and cosines, but it it would be nice if we could do it for any function. It would be nice if we had a any function modifier, but for now heres a work around:
This method is inspired by @gandalf3 comment

Add a driver to the property you want to control using a equation

Then head over to the graph editor, and change from the f-curve editor to the driver-editor. Select the property you want to add an equation to on the left hand side. Now head over the the properties panel.

There change the variable type to "single property" and select the current scene object (You must first select a scene object type). Then type in "frame_current" into the path box. If you want you can name your variable (I called mine "t")

Now all you need to do is enter your equation into the box "Expr:" Remember that this is a python expresion so a quadratic function is x**2 not x^2

If you get an error saying somthing about "Python Auto-execution disabled: reference this question.


Composite mist pass after-the-fact to finished rendered video using the original blend

I think the way to do this is as you said: low bounces, no caustics, etc.

You can bring the already rendered image sequences into the compositor with the image node:

Add an image node (ShiftA> Input > Image)
Open the first frame of your image sequence in the image node
Change the source type to Image Sequence:

Set the Frames, Offset and Start frame values.

Frames is the number of frames to use.
Start frame is the scene frame on which to display the first frame
Offset is the amount to offset the current frame. (e.g. with Offset = 5, the image for frame 6 will be read instead of the image for frame 1)

You can load your sequence of Multilayer images alongside your original render into the compositor in this fashion. If you rendered the Multilayer images with the render passes enabled you should be able to use the passes from the Image node.

You can also use this alongside the Renderlayer node to composite with the render directly, e.g. with a 150 frame image sequence:


Can you download a version of blender and still have access to the previous version

As far as I know, if you create a project in Blender 2.8 you can't open it with the 2.79 version. But you can open 2.79 projects with the 2.8 beta version, but if you save it using the 2.8 you won't be able to open it again with the 2.79.

When you download the 2.8 beta version, it isn't a setup (because is beta) so you have a portable file. That means that the desktop shortcut will be for the 2.79 and you have to create a new one for the 2.8 looking for the exe, so you could have both versions (actually I have the 2.79 shortcut next to the 2.8, both avaliable).


Your insets are distorted based on object scale. To fix this, you will need to apply your object's scale(Ctrl-A>Scale).


How to spread out keyframes parabolically

I made both a slow-down addon and a reverse addon. A combination of those two may be helpful?

How can I slow down or animate time?

How to reverse an animation?

EDIT

This is designed to help you with the result you are looking for, which is not necessarily parabolic.


Add Object Comes Tiny Only For Default Objects

Problem Solved, all i was needed to change was the Grid Scale like shown in picute here
How do i change the grid floor?


Drawing a specific color in the image editor

I think your falloff should be adjusted. Mine stops after radius 1 (2 is the diameter)
I was able to paint pixels successfully without modifying other pixels. Let me know if you need the blend file.
Cheers!


Why does the right leg's bone in my rig move when I move the left?

Most likely, this is a Weight Painting issue.
You may have some spill-over weight that reaches to the other side of your model.

To check for this, go into Weight Paint Mode and go through the Vertex Groups on one side, one by one. Check for weights on the other side of the symmetry line. You can make this visually easier, by choosing Show Active Weights > Active. With this, vertices that are not in the selected Vertex Group are shown in black.

I would suggest Normalizing your weight beforehand so that the colors you see correspond to the actual weights on the vertices.

If you don't know exactly why there would be a difference, watch this rigging tutorial. He goes into detail on the hows and whys: DanPro Skinning Basics on Youtube The series is very good.

After taking a look at your file, I discovered that your bone-naming is incorrect. However you mirrored your weights over, you ended up with one empty set (no weights at all) and one that has the weighting of both sides.

A tip for the future: if you use a Mirror-Modifier on your mesh while building it, you can leave that on through the weight painting phase and it will transfer your weight groups over automatically. That saves a lot of work. The only caveat is that vertex paint will only work on the side that has the actual geometry, not the one with the virtual vertices.

If you take a look at your bones or vertex groups, there is a series of .R leg bones. These should, of course, have their corresponding .L bones.

To fix this, I would suggest removing one half of the rig and mirroring the remaining half over a second time.

If your character was aligned head to tail with the Y-Axis, you could use the symmetrize function, since it is not, you need to do a bit more manual work.

To achieve this, you can do the following:

Go through your right side Vertex Groups and make sure the weight in them is only influencing the right side. Remove all other weight. If you have Show Active Weight on (see above) then the rest of the mesh should be black.
Delete the bones with the number suffix.
Put the 3D-Cursor on the X-Axis (Shift + S > Snap Cursor to Center)
Make sure your transformation origin is at the 3D-Cursor-
Select the bones you need to mirror, for the dinosaur those would be the arms and legs.
Hit Ctrl + M followed by Y to mirror along the Y-Axis
Correct your bone naming from .R to .L
With your bones in place, all that is left is to mirror the existing Vertex Groups over to the other side. There is a detailed guide to do this.

Here is a link to your file, I mirrored your weights over


A character using a hammer - (Blend file below - Vers 2.77, will work in 2.8+)
I'm assuming it's the IK 'using' the hammer or sword that you're having trouble with...
Getting the swing appearing natural is probably best achieved using a curve to guide the wrist or hand and the hammer parented to the hand bone so there'd be no slippage.  Other situations might be best served using the tool to drive the rigged arm and hand.

The setup in this example uses a vertical curve (arc) to guide the swing, but to avoid quirky behavior the left arm's handle (an Empty) is not forced to follow the curve directly.
Instead, a dummy plane follows the curve and that's what gets the curve modifier. (Called 'Curve Follower' in the file)
That dummy plane is made a parent for the arm's handle and this takes the arm down the curve but without glueing the arm to it.  The arm can still be moved about whilst it's following the curve
The hammer is made a child of the hand bone so there'll be no slippage.
The curve itself is given it's own handle so it also can be moved during the process. (the circle empty) This is a parent to both the curve and the curve follower.  It keeps the curve and follower together when the curve is moved forward and back during the swing.
The forward movement of the curve is to force the arm to extend a little and change the hand and hammer's angle.  The wrist wouldn't look too hot if it was twisted to do this.
With all that working properly the arm and hand will be seen to take the hammer down in an arc shaped swing.

On impact, because the backbone is in the process of bending forward and the wrist can't go anywhere, the elbow joint is forced to fold some more and change it's angle, automatically adjusting the hand and hammer's angle as well.  The curve is also moving back and that enhances the elbow's folding angle.
The hammer appears to kick up from the impact as though from a recoil.  This only last for a frame so the curve's follower is animated in the reverse direction to take the hammer and arm back up a little further.
Note that impact and rebound behavior is fashioned in the Graph editor.  Those keyframe handles are used to change the Bezier curves into linear style reactions so the hammer, hand, and arm, appear to bounce a little.  The impact approach and bounce is actually accelerated a little.


Modular assets need quite a lot of planing. First you need to specify a grid size. This might be a floor tile, it also might be bound to a certain measurement like the width of a door frame. Measured from the borders of your base grid, you then need to inset the interior walls and outset the exterior walls. The gap between will be the thickness of the wall.

The next point you need to consider carefully, is the center of your wall. If your grid starts at either the inside or the outside, your modules won't have the right size. You want to have Blender's grid lines exactly in the middle between your inner and your outer wall (see the green lines in the screenshot below. Also notice the slightly thicker lines of Blender's major Unit grid).

My walls are exactly two Blender Units wide. The floor tiles will then be perfect squares and also have two Blender units in width and height. The floor will overlap with the wall but it won't show from the outside, since it goes only to half the size of the wall's width.

There you go, perfectly matching tiles in all directions.

Here's a .blend file with a very basic setup.

PS: You also want to remove all hidden faces. They are unnecessary in nearly every setup, as long as you don't want to create gaps in the wall, where the sides are visible. The floor tiles in my file are just planes but the principle is the same as it is for the walls.


My animations don't export correctly for game engines (fbx file)

I just fixed it by making only one armature for all objects and when parenting (ctrl+P > bone) i just market "keep transform" and for the transparent gun it is just the unity default material....

sorry for bad english


How to rotate bone group 90 degrees for all frames?

The armature should not have really have keyframes on its object at all: just its bones. Then the rotation for the object could be easily applied with Ctrl-A > Apply Rotation.

If the above is absolutely impossible, you could try something like this, but I will warn you it'll get messy fast! This will iterate over every frame and apply the rotation, then add a keyframe.

import bpy

scene = bpy.context.scene

for frame in range(scene.frame_start, scene.frame_end + 1):
    scene.frame_set(frame)
    bpy.ops.object.transform_apply(location=False, rotation=True, scale=False)
    bpy.ops.anim.keyframe_insert_menu(type='Rotation')

You could also, like I said before, do something like this (if you're fine with the rotations getting screwed for the time being):


Is there any way to set pixel values of background to 0 when rendering?

As @no-can-do mentioned in the comments, you would have to go in the world part of the shader editor.
If you want to keep your environment light you can use a setting like the following.
"Is camera ray" will drive the background color.
If it is a ray from the camera (rendered), the value is 1 and the "mix color" will give black.
If it is not the value is 0, the ray will be from the texture and will light the scene.

Note: if you're not using accurate texture format (openEXR), you may have rounded RGB values (i.e: 0.000something becomes 1).


How do you decrease the amount of Vertices in an object?

I doubt there is a way to restore the original mesh (with the exact topology) after applying subsurf modifier. What you can do is use an Un-Subdivide option of the Decimate Modifier (expect some loss in detail though). General rule is if your applied subsurf level was set to 2 you set the unsubdivide level to 4 etc. In my case I set the Un-Subdivide level to 10 on a model with the level 5 subsurf applied.

Note: After appling Decimate modifier you may go to Edit Mode, select all the vertices (A) and hit Alt+J to get rid of some tris to make the topology even more similar to the original mesh.


Cycles Compute Device: None (Not even CPU option)

Download the official version from the Blender website.

As it turns out the problem was with the Ubuntu Software Center version of Blender which for some reason doesn't offer the CUDA option. I downloaded the official version from the website and the option is available and I can render using my GPU.


What happened to Ctrl-Click in Blender 2.8?

The extrude shortcut hasn't changed, the default select button has.

The extrude shortcut is ⎈ Ctrl+ non-select mouse button, where 2.7x defaults to  RMB select, you use ⎈ Ctrl LMB to extrude, Now that 2.80 has  LMB select you use ⎈ Ctrl RMB to extrude, unless you change your selection setting.

In 2.80, ⎈ Ctrl LMB can select a different object while in edit mode. This appears to be a planned feature, it can be useful for example when adding hook modifiers that use different objects for different vertices, where the selected object is assigned to a modifier property.


Three things to make it work.

Your curve's radius is messing it up. Uncheck Radius in the Curve properties.
The object and Curve origins need to match. Set the Object's location to X=0, Y=0
Your curve modifier is using the wrong axis, set it to X axis.


I would start with a plane and then extrude the edge to create the basic shape:

Then add edge loops to get a decent quad mesh

Note that the loops going around are close to the edge.

Make sure the pivot point is at the top centre and the two verts are scaled to zero to make sure they are in line.

add a mirror modifier and apply it. Then add a couple of sharpening cuts on either side of the centre line.

Select all faces and extrude x 3 with the start and end extrude being close to the edge.

Add a subsurface x 2

I did this very quickly but you can adjust the initial block out verts to shape it with the image. The image is not great quality but I am sure you will do it better with more time.


Simple Sphere with Emission as a Volume would be sufficient. We will use for both methods mostly the same setup. Gradient Texture > Color Ramp > Emission shader.

Color Ramp will control color and smoothness.
Emission > Strength... Strength.

Without Emission.

They will look like gas spheres and emission will not affect other meshes.

With Emission.

This ones will affect meshes with light.


macOS flamenco worker test fails: blender_cmd […] does not exist

Turns out you have to set the path to the blender binary of the workers in the setup of the manager! Switch the manager to setup mode, add the path to your blender binary (not the .app) and I set that binary to 'worker' only and added another one for 'user' only that points to the .app.


How to create a torus with divided cuts that correspond to the direction of the torus

Create the basic shape you want for your rings.

Add an array modifier to it.

Add a curve>Circle to the scene.

On you object add a curve modifier after the array and select the circle as object.

Depending select the correct axis for the curve modifier so that your array becomes an indented tours-like object.
Then adjust the settings for the array and the sizing of the object and the circle to your needs.