How can I create an object that changes from low poly to high poly as I zoom in?

You can create a driver for the visibility of low poly and high poly versions, such that the high poly version of the model is shown when the camera is close, while the low poly version is shown when the camera is not close.
With both a high poly and a low poly made, select the high poly and look on properties/object/visibility.  Right click on the checkbox for "Show in renders" and select "Add Driver".
Now open a driver editor view, and edit the driver you just created.  Change it to a scripted expression.  Set the input variable to be a distance, then specify your high poly object as one object for the distance, and your camera as the other object for the distance.  Finally, set the scripted expression.  If you use a scripted expression of "var > 10" then the high poly will disappear whenever the camera is more than 10 units away.  (Yes, this seems backwards; Blender's drivers don't always match the text, and in this case evaluating as True means that the object isn't shown in renders.)
Because you're concerned about performance, you'll want to duplicate this driver to "Show in viewports" property as well.

For the low poly, you'll want inverted drivers, so you'll want to set the expression to var <= 10 (in this example.)
Whenever you duplicate one of these objects, the driver will update the distance to measure the distance for the new object, at least in 2.92.
There are a few concerns regarding this plan however.  The first is pop.  If you zoom in on a low poly tree, it will suddenly be replaced all at once with a high poly tree.  This is a common problem in level-of-detail systems, and you've probably seen it in action in video games.
Another issue is that distance isn't always a good measure of how much screen space something is taking up.  Trees behind the camera may not be visible at all (or may be, via Cycles ray bounces.)  When you look at trees through a refraction mesh that simulates a telescope, they may be distant, but take up lots of screen space.  If you decrease the field of view, things take more screen space, even though the distance hasn't changed.  With more math, it's possible to work around FoV, but with something like refraction, you just don't know until you raytrace it, at which point it's too late to do anything.
Also, there's not all that much performance to be gained.  Even though they're not displayed, all of those high poly trees need to remain in memory for Blender.  The main performance increase you're going to see here is going to be for rendering-- which, yes, includes viewport rendering.  But if you're having laggy solid view rendering, it's hard to imagine that making LoD drivers for everything is going to provide any noticeable improvement.


Simple Python for loop causes Blender to suddenly hog 75% of all ram

Well, one problem I can think of is that you're asking blender to subdivide a mesh  by cutting everything in half 20 times in a row.  That's 2**20 = around 1 million cuts on every edge, meaning a square face would be cut into 1 trillion faces.

If this is really what you want, you can do it in a single step using a single

bpy.ops.mesh.subdivide(number_cuts=1048576)

My suspicion is that this is not really what you want to do.  Mostly because I can't think of any machines that can stash the vertices and face loops for several trillion faces.


Transparent object not fully transparent

When you import the image set the import images as planes to use alpha.

Or set the material to use the alpha channel in the alpha input of the shader.


These effects are generally achieved in post production, they are mostly render engine independent, so they should work both for Cycles or any other engine without requiring that you  re-rendering you image. You can easily tweak the effects in a flexible non destructive way without ruining your work or having to wait for a long time.

These are done through compositing, check the Blender Manual about it.
You probably want to look into the Distort type of nodes or Filter nodes.

If non satisfy your particular needs perhaps look into making it in an image editing software like GIMP or Photoshop


How do I model this shape of a lipstick?

Start from Sphere and Delete X lower part, Extrude E bottom loop

Select tip vertex and enable Proportional Editing O with Root type selected

Use Boolean modifier > Exact to cut desired part under angle by Plane
(possible with version 2.92)

A bit of adjustment ...


Here's the similar effect I achieved mixing the Toon Shaders (see the nodes setup below). Although I don't know how to achieve the 100% accurate effect.

I used a three point lighting method in this case. You can see the light's setup below.


How to add "wrinkles/folds" to tube packaging

We can achieve this procedurally in the shader editor using displacement in only a few nodes.
We'll start with this approximation of your model.

In the shading workspace, we can add a texture coordinate and take the Generated coordinate space into a Separate XYZ node to look at our object over different axes over a 0-1 range.  In this picture I'm looking at the Z axis.  (Viewer node is just an emission shader, if you don't have Node Wrangler enabled.)

If we insert a Color Ramp here, we can use this later to designate an area of influence for our displacement.  Black means displacement will have no influence, where white is 100% influence.  We want deformation to happen below the top outer edge and fade away as it goes down the body of the model, so I ended up with a ramp looking like this:

To define our displacement, the effect looks most like a voronoi.  We can take the output of a voronoi texture (disclaimer: the scale numbers will be different depending on the scale of your object, find what works for you) into the height of a displacement node, and use our color ramp's output as the scale.  If you need to lower the overall scale, just lower the value of the handles in the color ramp.
Set your material's settings to displacement and bump aaand...

Well, it's almost there.  Depending on what you want, a midlevel closer to 1 probably makes more sense, and Smooth F1 for the Voronoi.  You can adjust the scale and area of influence with the handles and colors of your color ramp.  After some fiddling, here's where I landed.  (2 levels Subdivision Surface)

Extra fun:  You  can randomize the wrinkles by taking the random output from Object Info into the W value of a 4d texture.  This way each object will be uniquely distorted.


Render Animation renders the same frame each time while Wiggle Bones addon is installed

HOW TO RENDER ANIMATION WITH WIGGLE ARMATURE:

Select all bones with Wiggle settings applied and bake them in
the wiggle bone properties area of the Bone tab. When you do this,
that panel becomes deactivated.
…however, rendering animation will still fail until you go to the
armature tab, scroll to the bottom, and uncheck “Wiggle Armature”.


Parts of rigs and items wont show in the final render

Select your objects on the second layer and press W and choose to Clear Restricted Render. Should all be fine now.


Blender 2.74 exporting custom normals without applying split normals modifier

As @Jerryno said, from python you can only get modifiers’ results by applying them into a temp mesh (using Object.to_mesh()), there is no reason for 'EditNormals' modifier to behave differently.

You can also have a look at some official exporters supporting 'apply modifier' feature (like e.g. .obj exporter), that’s what they are doing.


Transparent image like a decal on mesh with principled BSDF shader

I find this questions easier to understand if you don't think in terms of transparency and think in terms of Masks to control how elements mix.

Using the Alpha channel in a mix node will make White areas use one element, and Black areas use the other. Any shade of gray will be a partial mix according to its brightness.

What that means is that the alpha channel of a given image can be used as a Mask to control the mix of color or the mix of shaders.

When you use one or the other is something you have to decide.

If you want to use the color information of the image over the color of a given shader, in a way that all other properties of the shader are homogeneous, then use a color mix node and have the mask be the factor for the color of the shader.

(click on the image to enlarge)

Or you can use the mask to control the mix between two different shaders. Note that doing this will make the masked areas have different characteristics.

(click on the image to enlarge)

Lastly if what you really want is the mask to control the transparency of the object, then use the alpha information as the factor that controls the mix of a transparent and other kind of shader.

(click on the image to enlarge)


Lower the Polycount while keeping the details of sculpting

The purpose of multi resolution sculpt was so that artist could make a high res model. Then bake those information onto a low resolution mesh. "Blender Normals baking" or "Blender Baking Normals" will be the key word you want to search for online videos to learn about the technique. You will also need to understand how to prepare UVs for texture baking which is an essential step before you could produce good looking normals.

All of today's next gen games and games engine real time rendering utilise the normals map to give low res model and high resolution look.

Here is a nice concise read about normals, link below.

http://www.falloutsoftware.com/tutorials/gl/normal-map.html

Here is a nice simple tutorial video on baking a high multi res model's normals to be used on a low resolution model.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa6132QM2Y4


How can I lock transformation of an object's vertices, edges, and faces?

In Blender, you don't need such a feature (not for preventing the edition of other objects, anyway) since Blender works in a different way. As I understand it, in 3DS Max you can select any vertex from any object at any time (unless, of course you freeze it, as you mention); however, in Blender, the procedure is to select an object and then go into Edit mode (Tab) on that object, which prevents you from editing other objects until you go back to Object mode (again, Tab).

As in this case it seems you created the second "object" while in Edit mode (which makes it a mesh, not an object), you can mouse over it and press L to it (actually, connected vertices) and P to make it into it's own object.


How can i switch form Circleselecion back to Boxselection in Edit Mode

You can do this with the mouse or the keyboard.

Mouse

Click and hold the selection to expand the options.

Keyboard

Press Shift + Space then:

B for box
C for circle
L for lasso


Why is mesh reacting weirdly when adding a Solidify modifier or smooth shading?

yes you must have made some bad manipulations but it's hard to tell how it happened. Anyway, you can select all in Edit mode and W > Remove Doubles, with a Merge Distance of 0.02 on the bottom of the left (Tools) panel. Also, recalculate the normals with a ctrlN. Then some isolate vertices will remain and you can delete them: select the main shape with L and invert the selection with ctrli, then X to delete. At last, you have some tris that you could easily replace with quads.


Simple deform modifier is sometimes... not very intuitive.

You need to rotate the origin point by 90 degrees, so that all axis work
Check Tool > Transform > Origins and use the Rotate tool. Then uncheck.
When using an Empty as origin, the same rule applies.

I'm not sure why it works like this :).


Use aligning viewport to selected mesh elements (in this case, edge of the pyramid). This is faster than creating custom transform orientation, however you should keep track of viewport angle.

Select one of pyramid's edges. Set Selection mode to Edge.
Press Shift+Numpad 3 to enter Side Ortho view for selected edge.
Enable Snap during transform, set Type of element to snap to Vertex.
Select vertex to be aligned to the top. Press Alt+Space and select View to set transform orientation to View and to move selection along it.
Grab vertex while choosing for tranform only X or Y axes. Depending on the view press Y or X twice for that. Hover mouse over vertices of pyramid's edges to align selection to them.

(Addition - if the pyramid doesn't have perpendicular side edges)

Set transform orientation to Normal. Set Pivot Point to Active Element. With the top vertex still selected, select one more, which was hovered over while aligning in the step 5.
S to scale based on location of the last selected vertex. Lock normal X axis by pressing Shift+X twice. Hover mouse over top vertex of the side edge of the pyramid which is seen in the middle of the pyramid (in Side Ortho view).

While this method is a bit more complex, it provides exact aligning of the top vertex making all the side edges of the same length; thus no faces will be splitted in the middle of the pyramid and the shading will be better. You can preview the gif for simple case in the version history.

See also How do I align the viewport to a face normal?


Geometry Nodes instantiate mesh primitives at points

Found a workaround:

Create an empty object that stays at the world origin.

Create a collection named lines.

Create a mesh object in the collection, and add a Geometry Node modifier.

Create a network that outputs the position of the mesh object.

Create a network that creates the geometry based on the location. I've used the x offset here to create a line segment with x offset count. The DeltaX input is the ratio for each increment.

Now duplicate the mesh object until you have enough variations. (You can do this quickly by doing duplicating once, offseting by DeltaX and pressing shift r).

Reference the lines collection with the Point Instance node to access the geometry points.

Hope this helps someone :)


Quick Method

Basically, what we want to do is find the Dot Product between the normals of a bounding ellipsoid projected on to the mesh, and the normals of the mesh. First, enable Auto Smooth normals.

Next, add a Normal Edit modifier after a Subsurf Modifier (4 to 5 subdivisions) and set the Angle on the Normal Edit modifier to about 80 degrees. This will give us the approximate projected normals of the bounding ellipsoid.

Finally, add a Geometry Node and take the Dot Product of the (modified) Normal and (original) True Normal inputs (with vector transform) (it doesn't matter).

Result:

To increase the contrast, you can square the output with a Math node.

More Mathematically Accurate, Plus it Doesn't Mess Up Your Normals

The method above finds the projected normals of the bounding ellipsoid using Auto Smooth in combination with a Normal Edit modifier. This has some limitations: 1) the resolution of your map is tied to the number of faces you have, slowing down rendertimes, 2) the Normal texture coordinates are messed up, so to have "normal"-looking normals, you have to use True Normal, which is again tied to the face count, and 3) the map just isn't as detailed as it could be, due to limitations of the Normal Edit modifier.

If you are willing to work with OSL (Open Shading Language), you can avoid all this with some code.

First, we need to figure out a way to project the normals of the bounding ellipsoid on to the mesh (in this case, Suzanne). I found this helpful, if dense, article here. The important part we need to pull out of this are these equations:

  $$y_0=x_0\left(1+\frac{t}{e_0^2}\right),y_1=x_1\left(1+\frac{t}{e_1^2}\right),y_2=x_2\left(1+\frac{t}{e_2^2}\right)$$

where the x's are the coordinates of a point on the mesh, the y's are the coordinates of a point on the ellipsoid, the e's are the axis-aligned radii of the ellipsoid, and t is a certain value that makes everything right (more on that later).

Let's see if this method even works. I drew up a proof of concept in Desmos. You can look at it here. By moving the red dot labeled "Point on Mesh", we can see the algorithm finding the closest point on the ellipse, we just have to manually adjust the t value.

While having to manually find the t value isn't ideal, it is only one variable. We can use a for loop to iterate through a bunch of values and figure out which value best gives a point that solves the equation for an ellipsoid:

  $$\left(\frac{x_0}{e_0}\right)^2+\left(\frac{x_1}{e_1}\right)^2+\left(\frac{x_2}{e_2}\right)^2=1$$

(naming conventions the same as above)

So, what should our inputs and outputs be? We need the Object coordinates as an input to give us the coordinates of our mesh point, and the Dimensions of our object (X, Y, and Z), both vectors. Since we are calculating t with a for loop, we'll need an iterations count, and a step value to set the detail. As far as outputs go, we need a map of the stretch (dot product), and, just for fun, the ellipsoidal normals.

Let's start coding! Create a new text file in the Text Editor (or something else) and name it stretch.osl. Set inputs and outputs, and declare our variables:

#include "stdosl.h"

shader stretch(
    /*Set Inputs*/
    vector Object = P,
    vector Dimensions = vector(1),
    int iterations = 200,
    float step = 0.05,
    /*Set Outputs*/
    output float Fac = 0,
    output normal Ellip = 0
)
{
    /*Point on Mesh*/
    float X0 = Object[0];
    float X1 = Object[1];
    float X2 = Object[2];
    /*Radii of Ellipsoid*/
    float E0 = Dimensions[0];
    float E1 = Dimensions[1];
    float E2 = Dimensions[2];
    /*Point on Ellipsoid*/
    float Y0 = X0;
    float Y1 = X1;
    float Y2 = X2;
    /*t value*/
    float t = 0;
}

Next, we need to figure out how accurate we want to be. Since we don't want our algorithm to take ridiculously long (or fall prey to floating point errors), we need to figure out how many significant figures is reasonable. I chose 3. Unfortunately, OSL doesn't round to a certain number of significant figures, only to whole integers, so we have to write our own significant figures rounding function. Place it at the beginning of the code, below #include "stdosl.h":

#include "stdosl.h"

float sfround(float num, int d){
    num = num * pow(10, d - 1);
    num = round(num);
    num = num / pow(10, d - 1);
    return num;
}

For the next part of our algorithm, we need a way to figure out how close we are to having an accurate t value. As we saw in the Desmos test, when the t value is correct, plugging numbers back in will yield 1. Let's write a small function to calculate this for us. Place it after the variable declarations:

    float onEllipsoid(){
        return sfround(pow(Y0, 2) / pow(E0, 2) + pow(Y1, 2) / pow(E1, 2) + pow(Y2, 2) / pow(E2, 2), 3);
    }

Now we can write our for loop! Place it below the onEllipsoid() function. I've commented in what everything means.

    for(int i = 0; i < iterations; i++){
        if(onEllipsoid() < 1.0){ /*Point inside ellipsoid*/
            t = t + step;
        }else if(onEllipsoid() > 1.0){ /*Point outside ellipsoid*/
            t = t - step;
        }else{ /*Point on ellipsoid*/
            break;
        }
        /*Refine point estimate*/
        Y0 = X0 * (1 + t / pow(E0, 2));
        Y1 = X1 * (1 + t / pow(E1, 2));
        Y2 = X2 * (1 + t / pow(E2, 2));
    }

To finish it off, we need to turn the point we got into a normal. We can use this answer off of Math SE to accomplish this.

    normal elliptic = normalize(2 * vector(Y0 / pow(E0, 2), Y1 / pow(E1, 2), Y2 / pow(E2, 2)));

Now, all that is left to do is to write our answer to the outputs:

    Ellip = elliptic;
    Fac = dot(elliptic, N);

TL;DR - Just Give Me the Code

#include "stdosl.h"

float sfround(float num, int d){
    num = num * pow(10, d - 1);
    num = round(num);
    num = num / pow(10, d - 1);
    return num;
}

shader stretch(
    /*Set Inputs*/
    vector Object = P,
    vector Dimensions = vector(1),
    int iterations = 200,
    float step = 0.05,
    /*Set Outputs*/
    output float Fac = 0,
    output normal Ellip = 0
)
{
    /*Point on Mesh*/
    float X0 = Object[0];
    float X1 = Object[1];
    float X2 = Object[2];
    /*Radii of Ellipsoid*/
    float E0 = Dimensions[0];
    float E1 = Dimensions[1];
    float E2 = Dimensions[2];
    /*Point on Ellipsoid*/
    float Y0 = X0;
    float Y1 = X1;
    float Y2 = X2;
    /*t value*/
    float t = 0;

    float onEllipsoid(){
        return sfround(pow(Y0, 2) / pow(E0, 2) + pow(Y1, 2) / pow(E1, 2) + pow(Y2, 2) / pow(E2, 2), 3);
    }
    for(int i = 0; i < iterations; i++){
        if(onEllipsoid() < 1.0){ /*Point inside ellipsoid*/
            t = t + step;
        }else if(onEllipsoid() > 1.0){ /*Point outside ellipsoid*/
            t = t - step;
        }else{ /*Point on ellipsoid*/
            break;
        }
        /*Refine point estimate*/
        Y0 = X0 * (1 + t / pow(E0, 2));
        Y1 = X1 * (1 + t / pow(E1, 2));
        Y2 = X2 * (1 + t / pow(E2, 2));
    }
    normal elliptic = normalize(2 * vector(Y0 / pow(E0, 2), Y1 / pow(E1, 2), Y2 / pow(E2, 2)));

    Ellip = elliptic;
    Fac = dot(elliptic, N);
}

Well, now that we have the code, how do we use it? First, we need to enable OSL under the render settings.

Next, add a Script node with Shift + A > Script > Script and select the stretch.osl file, or whatever you named it. We need to give it the Object coordinates, and the dimensions of your object. Since my Suzanne object doesn't rotate, deform, or scale, I just copy-pasted the information out of the 3D Viewport (below the transforms in the N panel). If this doesn't work for your situation, it wouldn't be hard to implement drivers. Anyway, just copy the X, Y, and Z values into a Combine XYZ (Shift + A > Converter > Combine XYZ ) node and plug it in.

As far as the iterations and step values go, the default step should be fine; adjust the iterations until there isn't a visible change in the Fac output (it happens really slowly (depending on your step value), so use increments of at least 25 at first).

Now, a word on the Fac output. Black is more distorted, not white, and subtracting the output from 1 doesn't work to make it that way. Here's why: using Suzanne as our example, there are some areas like the ears or the back of the chin where the closest point is facing into the mesh. In the Fac output, this will look like a big black patch. In reality, it is just a negative value, showing a different kind of distortion. If we plug the Fac value into a Math node (Shift + A > Converter > Math ) set to Absolute, we can see that they are just negative values. Here is a GIF switching back and forth:

Anyway, hope this helps. It was fun to work on ;-). Congrats for reading this far!


Glare node, why is the glare in front of other objects?

Nothing is wrong, that's how glare works.

In real life, lens glare (or flare) is an effect produced by a camera or your eyes when looking at a very bright spot.  It is caused by internal reflections and defects within the lens.

Image by cmwphotography.

Those streaks are not physical things in 3-dimensional space emitting light, they are introduced by the camera, so they can't appear behind anything, they are introduced onto the image within the lens.


Normal maps only lights up one side, while the other one stays dark with an all directional light source

Try changing Object space to tangent space in the normal map node.

Object Space Normals are likely to cause unexpected shading effects, as they do not support object transformation and mesh deformations, like tangent space normals do.
Most of the time normal maps need to be applied relative to the surface of the mesh, not to the whole object.
(https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya-lt/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/MayaLT/files/Asts-Object-space-world-space-and-tangent-space-htm.html)


This is very easy but you are thinking about it from the wrong approach. Instead of setting a delay between the positive pulses, Create a reload property that is always increasing as long as that same property is less than a specific amount. In this case, it is 30.

Then have another property sensor limiting the mouse's input so that it will only send a positive pulse when the reload is at 30.

When using a system like this, you can hammer on the mouse as fast as you want, but it will only fire when the reload property reaches 30. and as soon as you click, The reload property starts increasing until it reaches 30, where you will be ready to fire again.


It looks like a weight paint issue, like if every bone controls all the finger. Check this quick tutorial (youtube) to see how weight painting works and try to fix it by yourself.


Assuming you are using Blender 2.8, just follow the tutorial until the desired vertices are selected, then do the following:

Press Ctrl+B (to activate the Bevel Tool)
Press V (to make the tool act on vertices)
Drag your mouse outwards until you get the same shape as the one in the tutorial.

Note that, whenever you've selected a tool (such as the bevel tool), some options related to its use get listed on the status bar just below the 3D Viewport.


You can use the Mesh > Bisect operation for this.

Just look from the side angle you want to cut from, draw a line over your geometry with LClick+Drag, and release.

There are some settings in the Operator Panel. Enable Fill and Clear Outer to get the cut to produce a face like in the GIF above.


How to register a collection property to a custom property group

Thanks to @batFINGER for the answer.
I just had to use this code instead, using the actual class name instead:
bpy.types.Scene.my_group = PointerProperty(type=MyGroupClass)
MyGroupClass.my_list = CollectionProperty(type=MyListClass)


I've looked at the other works from Alex Pushilin and here is my attempt to reproduce it.

Setup is very simple. One Sun Lamp with warm color and small Size and RGB Background (this one is with Spherical Gradient).

For materials I've used Principled Shader with Roughness - 1.0.

Most important thing here is to use Filimic Color management. I've used Look > High Contrast with a little correction from RGB Curves.

Also I've lower a bit Saturation in Compositing.

Every probably will need a little bit different settings.


Video Sequence Editor rendering a grey video

Okay guys I found out that if you go to the view panel and turn off render REGION, that allows you to actually render with the 'sequencer' option clicked. It's kind of absurd that the notification says Render Border yet the actual option is render region, I understand they have the same meaning but generally these things are very specific.


Mixing texture paint and exported UV png changes color of png...?

Turns out the answer to "why is it brown" is that the subsurface scattering color was pink and I had the slider turned up really high. -sigh- It's always something little like that isn't it

EDIT: here is a screenshot of what it looked like after I altered the subsurface color


Bone constraint mask or bone constraint per action?

Constraints have an influence property that can turn it on/off - an influence of 0.0 means the constraint has no effect while at 1.0 it is fully applied.

You can animate the influence for each action, if you keyframe the influence on the first frame, it will remain that way for the entire action. Each action can have a different value keyed.

With the mouse over the influence, press I to add a keyframe, you can also  RMB on the value and choose Insert Keyframe.

You can also keyframe the influence throughout an action, for example turn it on to pick up the magazine and turn it off to drop it.


Why don't Python tooltips appear for the 'Median' transform values in Edit mode?

Those attributes are not completely using RNA API in its source code

TL;DL What is this DNA and RNA stuff?
RNA is also something that is partially made by code generation, using code in source/blender/makesrna. It is supposed to be a somewhat more abstract and nicer interface to the DNA data. For example, where a DNA struct might use a particular bit in a short for some flag, RNA would expose that as a bool property. So far, this nicer Data API isn't used too much in the C source code. Where it is heavily used is as the interface to and from Python. Most of the Python access to Blender data is generated automatically to use the RNA system. See Source/Architecture/RNA for more information about RNA.

The source of edit mode transform is in source > Blender > editors > space_view3d > view3d_buttons.c::code line 560. Which doesn't seems to provide RNA API for more button information.
Another example from object mode transform, the proper RNA definition is in source > blender > makesrna > intern > rna_object.c :: line code 2740 with the following code:
  /* transform */
  prop = RNA_def_property(srna, "location", PROP_FLOAT, PROP_TRANSLATION);
  RNA_def_property_float_sdna(prop, NULL, "loc");
  RNA_def_property_editable_array_func(prop, "rna_Object_location_editable");
  RNA_def_property_ui_text(prop, "Location", "Location of the object");
  RNA_def_property_ui_range(prop, -FLT_MAX, FLT_MAX, 1, RNA_TRANSLATION_PREC_DEFAULT);
  RNA_def_property_update(prop, NC_OBJECT | ND_TRANSFORM, "rna_Object_internal_update");

Which make those button reveal python tooltip automatically .


Trying to make character for UE4 - Need guidance

Found an Answer that actually works just right:

Export The UE4 mannequin.

Remove anything you dont want to use including MESH, IK bones, Twist bones.

Turn on snap and set it to verticies.
Then grab ends of bones that are in the wrong positions. Move them using the axis arrows onto the correct bones.
Save it for next time as it's own file

Next bring in your mesh. Scale appropriately for unreal
In object mode, select the skeleton. Press shift+C so that you scale from origin. Scale it to your mesh.

Turn on the mirror x and move bones as needed.

In object mode, select the mesh and skeleton and press CTRL+P
set them by weight when asked.

Go into weight mode and fix all the crazy stuff it will do for whatever reason.
Export to unreal.

In unreal make sure you dont choose a skeletal mesh during import.
Open the UE4 skeleton. Get to the rigging options and set it to the humanoid rig

On your skeleton do the same thing.

Go find whatever animation you want, right click on it.
Select Animation re target asset, and in the process just choose your skeleton.

Skip all the rigging stuff in blender.
Where i was having problems was the weighting. I didnt realize when I would just parent the unreal skeleton to what was basically an unreal model with some clothes on it that i was choosing some CRAZY weights.
I was able to fix them fast by setting the weight tool to subtract, full power zero fall off and going through each bone and drawing over the whole model that WASNT obviously supposed to be connected.

I did over do it a bit, but the system is kind enough once it was all set up i could have UE open and blender, modify the weight and export. UE will process the changes and instantly show them in the animation window I had open.

(I had a beltbuckle attached to right pinky, left pinky attached to right ball, all sorts of pieces of the shirt attached to random parts of arms, the spine 1 was the whole torso and the rest of the spines connected to random parts of shit/buttons on shirt etc.

Now i am on to fixing the duster so it doesnt go through the characters legs and it's acting all funny around shoulders when character lifts arms...

I dont do anything to the Root. And the pelvis is in the right position/size.
just get it connected to the spine.

When you do export the FBX you need to go to the settings on left, click in the armature section and untick add leaf bones. Otherwise it adds extra ones to the fingers and such.

Inside unreal the skeleton will have 2 roots. There is a file somewhere supposedly that will fix the export of that. But the links I had to it were either dead or only worked on much older Blender versions.
I found you can click on the highest one in the skeleton mesh asset and right lick, disable from LOD 0 and below. It still shows on the list but isnt connected to anything any more and isnt used.

I put my empty rig FBX here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lq1SBXGq9485KXKbYENgI-sEMUeUCUGN


The camera's view is grey/grayed and I can't see anything out of the camera's sight?

Seems like you are in 'clipping' mode. Simply press Alt+B and you should be good.


Subdivided means alt. lmb not connecting edges

Unfortunately, with that topology, the edge loop selection will always be limited to sections between "quad-poles" (as far as I know). However, there's a good chance you can eliminate some of the tedium of selecting all the edges manually by using "Select Similar". Try with different constraints, if necessary. If there are varying sections of your edge loop (such as varying lengths, like the inner curve being shorter than the outer curve, for example), you may want to select multiple sections of different sizes (yes, this can be done), before you choose the Select Similar, to make sure you get them all.


Alright, I solved it. Cycles can't handle Halo. I need to switch to a Object render rather than a Halo render.


Rigging eyes parented to armature offset

The easier and correct way to do it is using the Copy Location object constraint as shown below:

this will fix your problem.

I noticed also that your Pose Position is different from your Rest Position, where the bones are rotated. To make the eyes roll with the bones I added a Copy Rotation as shown below:

This is the end result:

In Rest Position:

In Pose Position:

Updated .blend file can be found here:


Ok. I found the reason of my problem. It was wiggle bone addon. It seems that you have to bake animation of wiggle bones and then turn it off, otherwise you will get frozen animation of any other bones.


Instancing - make real and join - duplicates itself

It's because all objects use the same Object Data.
You need to make it unique before joining.

Select "realed instances" go to Properties Editor > Data Properties and click on a number on the first row. The "active" one (bright orange) become unique, now join them Ctrl+J.

(The number means how many objects in a scene use this data block.)


Viewport performance changes when in camera?

After more troubleshooting, I found it. My character's rig had an eye target bone constrained to copy the location of the camera. I had totally forgotten about it because the constraint was disabled. So apparently, disabled constraints still get calculated in some way and eat up a ton of resources? But that's a whole other question. Deleting it fixed the issue.


You can try the Tissue addon (https://github.com/alessandro-zomparelli/tissue)

Download and install the Addon.

Create a the base mesh (in this case the part of the helmet).

Then create the mesh you will be using as to create the mesh (for purposes of the tissue addon this will be your "COMPONENT" mesh.

Select the Component mesh, then Shift-Select the Base mesh.

Then on the Tissue Addon select "Tessellate"

A new mesh will be created (you can name it whatever you want).


Can you rotate bones within an IK Chain and allow the IK Target bone to move along with it?

I came up with another solution. I reduced the chain on the IK by a couple and then added IK to the top part of the robot's arm just above the rotator joint. Then I made the IK chain go the rest the way up the arm to the shoulder joint. now I have 2 controllers one that controls the shoulder and top arm location and then the bottom arm can move freely with its own controller bone.


The preview is a sphere, and the scene is a cube. They don't have the same reflections, and that's pretty normal, when you think about it... Did you ever see a box with absolutely so bevel on the edges (that's pretty hard to find) with absolutely the same reflections as a ball? This reflection dot is essentially created by the curve of the sphere. If you want to see the material test on a cube, there are a bunch of buttons at the right of the material test window. They define the shape on which the preview will be made.


AlphaMasked images turning pink in Cycles

Usually when an object turns pink it is because the original file got moved since you last opened Blender.

It is still showing up in your 3D window because that is using a different part of ram.

I would relocate the file and load it again and make sure "leaf" (leave lol) it where it is once you bring it in to Blender.


Is there way I can merge all grease pencil keyframes into one frame？

Copy and paste in Edit Mode.
Also you can merge layers in the dropdown menu near layers Merge Down, though there is an issue if the keyframes don't match up


Mesh Curve not exporting properly to unity

It turns out my model was 2d so it was invisible from the upper side. I just needed to rotate the model the other way to see the model. There was nothing wrong with the shape of the model. Thanks to stacker for his help.


My personal preference is to use vertex snapping, not shrink-wrapping, as a form of retopology to avoid this kind of problem.

Often excessive subsurface and/or complex topology can lead to this problem. Keep in mind that the shrink-wrap modifier uses the normal of each of the faces of the  mesh to calculate the deformation, not necessarily its proximity to the original one. Make sure it makes sense looking at it without shrink-wrapping it.

Other possibilities include that your normals are not consistent or the shrink-wrapped mesh is not completely outside the object to be retopologized. But as previously said, just look at the mesh with the modifier turned off and adjust to make it as clear as possible what you want to do.

I would take a youtube tutorial on shrink-wrap retopology so you understand the concept completely before proceeding.


Cannot light portions of object with point light

While im not a Pro. I Think, I THINK. You should try increasing the strength of the Light. Or try using multiple lights. I Could also say Try to Transparent the background and Raise the color of the background to a bright color Preferrably a Bright White This will make the Background transparent, And the objects in the rendered image will be Nice and bright.
If you want to have the background grey i won't reccomend the latter.

One of my renders of a character for one of my games. With one default pointlight just above the head, Not bright, I Would like it more bright.
Now i have changed the Strength of the Pointlight to 900.
As you may notice the ribs are more bright And so are alot of the other parts.


Can multiple video cards benefit to Cycles Preview?

Just got chance to receive first-hand answer from Cycles developer:

  Yes, multiple GPUs will also help in 3D View, no extra settings or so needed. It works already.

  Actually, in 3D View, it does the same as regular render (by pressing F12)
  if "Progressive Refine" is enabled, which renders all tiles with 1 sample, then again, all tiles with another sample.

  One thing should be mentioned is that although GPU got advangtages on speed, a lot of optimizations these days still are CPU only.


Custom Depth of Field in User Perspective view?

Yes, you can turn it on in the Shading menu, but it works only through a camera.


How do I make a pulsating light effect material?

A pure-shader option, for use on a simple plane, or any surface:

The top branch wraps the circumference into segments, using a Gradient > Radial node. The wrap is controlled by 'n Spokes' input.
The middle-ish branch wraps the radius into rings, by length from the object origin. The wrap is controlled by 'n Rings' input.
There are quite a few 'convenience' nodes in there, so the user doesn't have to fish around for tiny numbers, and to put 0 at the middle of each cell the plane is divided into, when the circumference-wrap and the radius-wrap are combined to give a per-cell X and Y.
The bottom branch splits the radius into color-bands, with an extra bit to dim the center to pure black, if you want to.

This sort of result:

I guess there's a limitation here.. the dots are not perfectly round. The 'Roundness' input fudges that. But they aren't round in your reference, either.
The effect is animated by keyframing the 'Phase' input.


copy the size and scale a texture is mapped by, from one object to another

Very big difference of UV maps

UV map of the "Object A" looks like this:

Note: it's scaled up very much; texture space isn't seen here, but it's located where the cursor is placed.

UV map of the "Object B" is this:

It's not scaled as much as the first one, and it's unwrapped not in the same manner. For the first object Project from View probably used (and no seams on the mesh), while some other method used for "Object B".
Thus the objects definitely won't look the same.

Make one object look like another

What you should try is to unwrap and scale UV maps of both objects roughly in the same way; then you'll be ready to assign the same material for the objects (or creating new one).

Possible solution

Enter orthographic mode (Numpad 1). Select "Object B", enter Edit mode, select all.
Use U > Project From View.
Open UV/Image Editor to scale and position UV map in adjacent way (it depends on texture, but most likely you won't need to rotate it). Make the scale of UV map so it to fit the texture space (it may be eaiser to setup mapping settings then).
Set the Size in the Mapping scroll of the texture settings to something like 50 (for X and Y axes). This is intended to substitute scaling UV map; while it does roughly the same, it's simply easier to control the UV map which has size of texture space in UV/Image Editor. To adjust scale just tweak that Size parameter.


There are many way to model depending on experience, style and end use. Here’s one approach:

Delete the default cube.
Add a plane > Press SHIFT + “A” and select “Plane” from the drop down menu.
Go into Top View > Press “7”.
With the plane selected go into “Edit Mode” > Press “TAB”.
Subdivide once > Press “W” and select Subdivide from the drop down menu.
Select five vertices and delete them > Press “X” and select Vertices from the drop down menu.

Add two Loop Cuts > Press CTRL + “R” > Left click and drag to where you want it then Left click again to set in place.
Select three vertices and extrude . Press “E” and drag holding CTRL to snap them to the grid. Left click to set in place.

Add a Mirror Modifier (This can be done any time after step six). Check off boxes “Y” and “Clipping” in the Mirror Modifier panel.

Select all of the vertices. > Go into Front View by pressing “1”. > Press “E” to extrude. > drag downward.

Press “S” to scale outward.

Press “E” to extrude downward.

Add a Subsurf Modifier and set Shading to Smooth to finish it off.


Using rigify armature, how do I create a control for eye color?

You can add any object to be the controller. Then add drivers to the RGB component of your material. (Right click the RGB color box and click Add Driver). Then for the eyes, go into the Drivers Editor and select the Drier to be of type Averaged Value. For the object, have it be the object you want to control the color. Set type to Y rotation. You can do this for R G B and A. Then when you move/rotate your Nurbs circle (or whatever object you want, the color will change (need to be in rendered view).

Here is a .blend file with a simple set up. If this doesn't quite make sense, let me know!


Why does the parent go haywire, when the child's rigid body physics is set to "animated"?

I still don't know why it does that, but I have found a way to perfectly avoid this bug.

Suprisingly, is has nothing to do with the fracture modifier, or the child, but instead with the rigid body simulation.

In order to avoid this bug, 2 small steps are required:
1) After simulating the rigid-body-physics, the simulation must be baked.
The settings for that are not in the "Physics" tab, but in the "Scene" tab.

2) After baking, the simulation must be "baked to keyframes"
The settings for that aren't in the "physics" tab nor in the "scene" tab, but in a place entirely else. Both tabs are in the Editor-type "Properties".
But all the way on the other side in the so called "3D View Tools pane", in the "Physics tab" are the settings needed.

After these 2 steps are done, the rigid body settings in the "physics" tab can be closed, because the simulation is now an animation. The fracture modifier and the rigid-body phsyics on all children now work the way they schould.


How to delete the vertex on the edge without deleting the edge its on?

Select vertices you want to delete
Press X on your keyboard
Select Dissolve Vertices


v2.6 Primitive method Python code to add circle

The snippet you pasted relies on old API calls, and when it is run in a recent version of Blender it will produce the following exception / Error message

TypeError: Converting py args to operator properties: :
keyword "radius" unrecognized
Error: Python script fail, look in the console for now...

Bookmark this link www.blender.org/api/250PythonDoc/, it points at the latest docs automatically. You can also use the help menu.

See the current API page for bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cone_add, You'll see that now (September 2015) must specify radius1 or radius2, radius doesn't exist anymore. And cap_end is now end_fill_type

Parameters:

  - vertices (int in [3, 10000000], (optional)) – Vertices
  - radius1 (float in [0, inf], (optional)) – Radius 1
  - radius2 (float in [0, inf], (optional)) – Radius 2
  - depth (float in [0, inf], (optional)) – Depth
  - end_fill_type (enum in [‘NOTHING’, ‘NGON’, ‘TRIFAN’], (optional)) –
  - (....)

For the circle example you might use something like this.

import bpy

def makePrimitiveCircle(objName, v, r, f, loc, rot, layers=[0]):
    bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_circle_add(
        vertices=v,
        radius=r,
        fill_type=f,
        view_align=False,
        enter_editmode=False,
        location=loc,
        rotation=rot,
        layers=[(i in layers) for i in range(20)])
    ob = bpy.context.active_object
    ob.name = objName
    ob.show_name = True
    me = ob.data
    me.name = objName + 'Mesh'
    return ob

f = makePrimitiveCircle('pizza', 20, 1.2, 'NGON', (1,2,0), (0,0,0))
print(f)  # does return the new object
# <bpy_struct, Object("pizza")>

# you could use this to specify layers directly..
makePrimitiveCircle('pizza', 20, 1.2, 'NGON', (1,2,0), (0,0,0), layers=[0,3,5])


Blender Game Engine - Jumping help for 2.76

The way you describe is good.

You apply a velocity as long as the user holds a key. This turns the character into a rocket (constantly firing the engine).

Keyboard sensor -> AND/OR -> Motion Actuator [LinV (0,0,1)]

Another way is to apply a force. The advantage is that it adds to the current velocity rather than replacing it.

Keyboard sensor -> AND/OR -> Motion Actuator [Force (0,0,1)]

Hint:
Regarding slow falling - Are you aware that the default cube has a size of 2x2x2meters? If you box-modeled your character from that it might be a giant of 10+meters. It will surely fall slower as it travels a large distance.


How do I make every triangle to quad at once?

Tab to enter edit mode, A to select all, finally press Alt+J to convert tris to quads.
sample video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKDWW10IJoo&feature=emb_logo


How to select only a border of selected area?

Select Boundary Loop

You can find the function in the Select Menu.

It will select only the boundaries edges of the provided face selection.

As said in the manual's page:

  ...based on all regions currently selected, it selects only the edges at the border(contour) of these islands.

Here's an example of usage:


Changing Grease Pencil stroke placement? (2.8 Beta)

You could try to move the Stroke OBJECT (in object mode) to the place where you're drawing, using it like the 3D cursor. Then, it will work like the cursor was before.

Hope that helps-


Bones act different comparing camera perspective and Z view

The 2nd image is in orthographic view instead of perspective view.

You can change it to perspective view simply via clicking the grid icon like button

If you are not sure what orthographic and perspective views are you can read about it here

What are the differences between Orthographic and Perspective views?


Transparent Coffee Cup with Color Volume Makes Strange Objects

There is a known blender issue with "liquids" in cups. Make sure the liquid mesh fully intersects the glass (as in the boundry of the mesh is inside the glass wall, not inside the empty space)


reconfigure roll of bones without losing waightpaint

Changing the roll of bones will not effect your weight painting and your model in rest-position will be exactly the same.

What will change is your bones pose transformations -> your armature in pose mode will look different. That's because such transformations are in local space and changing the roll of bones changes the bone's coordinate system base around it's Y axis.


Creating dynamic, shaded backgrounds for animations

Here's my solution. It provides for altering the Horizon Color and the Zenith Color, and assumes you are using the Blender Internal render engine.

It also allows you to provide a list of frame numbers and colour values for setting up multiple keyframes.

Also, the default interpolation type for animation curves is Bezier which would give you smooth transitions between colors. Because you want abrupt color changes I added code to alter the interpolation mode to Constant for the new animation curves.

import bpy

scn = bpy.context.scene
world = bpy.context.scene.world
world.use_sky_blend = True

#bgColorList[frameNumber, horizonColor, zenithColor)
bgColorList = [
[1,     (1.0, 1.0, 1.0),    (0.8, 0.8, 0.8)   ],
[15,    (0.8, 0.8, 0.8),    (0.8, 0.8, 0.8)   ],
[30,    (0.5, 0.5, 0.5),    (0.2, 0.2, 0.2)   ],
[45,    (0.8, 0.8, 0.8),    (0.8, 0.8, 0.8)   ],
[60,    (1.0, 1.0, 1.0),    (0.8, 0.8, 0.8)   ],
[75,    (0.5, 0.5, 0.5),    (0.2, 0.2, 0.2)   ]
]

#set up all keyframes for background colors
for bg in bgColorList:
    frame = bg[0]
    hColor = bg[1]
    zColor = bg[2]

    scn.frame_current = frame
    world.horizon_color = hColor
    world.zenith_color = zColor
    world.keyframe_insert("zenith_color")
    world.keyframe_insert("horizon_color")

#modify the interploation mode of the animationt curve to be consant for immediate changes on frame entry
for f in world.animation_data.action.fcurves:
    if f.data_path == "zenith_color" or f.data_path == "horizon_color":
        for kf in f.keyframe_points:
            kf.interpolation = 'CONSTANT'


Pull upward on the hatched corner to create a new area:

Then, click on the editor type selector and choose Timeline:

You now have a timeline in the new area.


When exporting from Makehuman, I choose the ".dae" file format, and then import this into Blender

Upon importing into Blender, my scene looks like this:

I then switch to the "Material" view, which changes my model to a brighter shade of grey:

Next, I go to the "Materials" tab, and click "Use Nodes"

I then click the little dot to the right of the "Color" widget, and choose "Image Texture" from the drop down:

From the little drop down to the left of the "Open" button, I then choose the skin texture, since my currently selected mesh is the body mesh:

My mesh now looks like this:

I then select the eyes, which are part of a separate mesh, and repeat the above steps; click "Use Nodes", click to the right of "Color" and choose "Image Texture", click the drop down to the left of "Open" and choose the texture for the eyes.

Does this help at all? If you need to know how to create and assign custom materials within Blender, then I suggest you look at the following links:

[Blender Render]

http://www.katsbits.com/tutorials/blender/learning-materials-textures-images.php

[Cycles]

http://www.blenderguru.com/tutorials/introduction-to-cycles/

There's also cycles-specific and blender render-specific documentation here:

https://www.blender.org/manual/render/index.html


Why the same object looks different in render / solid view?


Adding a wave texture to a specific part of my texture

Add a second (wave) material. Unwrap your whole mesh. In layout mode select the faces you want to be "wavey" then assign the second material. Hope that helps


Thanks to @Jbergman for the answer (see comments for additional details).

The main problem was that I had a concave "saucer" obstacle under the fluid, hoping that it would keep the fluid from pooling against the sides of the domain.  The fluid wasn't technically touching the saucer mesh, but I had the saucer's Volume Initialization set to Volume.  This caused the simulator to include the concave volume in the obstacle.  Setting it to Shell fixed it (using a closed mesh as the obstacle may have fixed it also, but I didn't try this).  [Since the saucer was invisible, no one could have found the problem without the original blend file; sorry about that.]

A few other points that he reminded me of:

The domain was much bigger than it needed to be.  Making it smaller
allowed me to use a higher resolution.
I didn't apply the scale to the domain; apparently this can cause
other odd behavior.
The resolution is going to limit how close the first frame looks to
the original mesh.  It's close enough now that I can just copy the
first frame of the domain mesh and use it for the first 24 animation
frames, instead of the original mesh.  If I was really ambitious, I
think could edit this domain copy to look more like the original and
use shape keys for a smooth pre-sim transition, as discussed in the
comments.

Below is how the first frame looks now:


Oh my. After a some search i've come up with the answers.

Followed This and This which are basically the same answer. Worked like a charm.


Delete overlapping faces between two objects

You can try using the mask modifier. If you want another work around select in the mesh the limits that you want to cut and hit the V key to separate after that hit the L key to select the mesh island then delete the unwanted piece. You may also separate the selection as an object with the p key.


How can I open a circular window in a cylinder?

Start by adding a circle where the window will go.
E then S to extrude then scale the circle giving making a (still flat) window frame.

Add a Shrinkwrap modifier then a Solidify modifier to the window frame.  Set the Shrinkwrap modifier Target to your main cylinder object. Set the Mode to Project and choose the correct axis for your object (in my example it is the positive Y).
The Solidify modifier is simple, give your window frame the Thickness you want, and set the Offset to 1.

Last step is to cut a circular hole in your mesh for the window. You can do that with a boolean modifier, knife project (how I do it in the gif), or manually adding loop cuts and deleting faces to make a hole. The answers to this question do a good job of explaining the processes.

Animated gif of the entire process.


How to find lost image in uv/image editor?

Use:

View > View Fit
Or View All

Or use a hotkey like lemon mentioned (provided you are using blender's default hotkeys):

Home or Shift + Home


What it looks like to me is a flipped normal. When they flip, they often get that slightly darker gray color, and in Unity they will not render at all.
You can flip your normals by in the edit mode, selecting the faces that are looking odd, then at the top selecting mesh, going down to normals, and clicking flip. if all faces are selected you can recalculate them to either face inside or out at the same location.
I hope this helps you.


My feet armature looks off center in pose mode but fine in edit mode. Why?

There are 2 reasons here why the bones position is not the same in Edit and Pose mode.
First off, you've moves the bones in Pose mode. To reset select all bones and press AltG (AltS and AltR to reset scale and rotation).
The second thing is that IK bones will always point towards their controller (i.e. their Target) as soon as you switch to Pose mode, you'll see what I mean. For example for the bone called Angle.L the target is the bone called Ankle_IK.L:

if you enable and disable the Ik constraints:

So if you don't want the IK bone to move when you switch into Pose mode, you need to correctly align its target in Edit mode (or align it to its target):

Note that as you have a chain of several IK bones you'll need to do it for all of them.


How to lower the polygon number but keep smoothness?

Add a decimate modifier

click the Un-Subdivide button
increase the Iterations field to two


My mesh goes nuts when I try to move points

It sounds as if you have Proportional Editing enabled. Click on the O shaped icon and choose Disable, or just press the hotkey O (in blender 2.79) until the blue circle turns grey.


Origin to geometry does same thing as geometry to origin

I had this same issue as well, with a rigid body world activated.  I had to either move to frame 0 and then set the origin, or I could uncheck the rigid body world and then set the origin, or I could adjust the simulation start of the rigid body world to the same frame as the frame start in my output properties- and then set the origin.
Don't know why the rigid body system does this to the objects but at least there's a solution.


Error on Launch "Can't Detect 3d Hardware Accelerated Driver"

I cannot comment on m.ardito's comment due to my rep level. But, I want to add that I was having this problem with version 2.78 when I got this error. I went to SourceForge and found version 2.76. I did get the message when I started the app. But, in this version you are allowed to proceed to open and use the app. The message is just a warning with version 2.76.

I haven't had any problems so far. But, I'm only doing simple beginner stuff.

I should note that I am using library computers and running the Portable version off my flash drive. Some of the library computers will run version 2.78 and some won't. There are about 50 computers in each of the different library branches I visit. None of the computers are configured the same way. And, they just started installing Win 10 on some computers, which may cause...who knows what.


STL Export from Makehuman Model giving strange results?

Never mind, I've got it worked out.  It was a question of units.  I'd scaled it in metres in Blender, but Shapeways no longer seems to accept uploads in metres, just in millimetres and inches.


Normal Map has seams when applied in Cycles

I had to set the image texture to Non-Color-Data.

Now it works.


The best way to set material/model HDPE plate?

1- You should model it, this is called beveling (bevel modifier or CTRL+B with edge selected)

2- Through texture is the best way, either with face loops and face assigning different material or with one material for the whole mesh and a node system with gradients, mapping node, and very contrasted ramps.

This is a cool project and an easy model but you'll have some trouble if you don't study subdivision surface modeling and some common modifiers (solidify, bevel, mirror...). This is typically a 'hard surface' model, might want to do some googling with theses key terms to learn a bit more about modeling in Blender. For more specific questions stack exchange will be there for you though :)


Is it possible to have a plane with its normal as reference for Transform Orientation

You can create custom transform orientations. The shortcut is ⎈ Ctrl⎇ AltSpace or in the properties sidebar in the Tranform Orientations panel you will find a small + that will create a new orientation based on the current selection, in this panel you can also rename and delete any custom transforms you have created.

Once you have defined a custom transform you can activate it in the transform orientation menu so that your transform manipulator is oriented the way you want.


for one of my project i was using this addon: https://sourceforge.net/projects/pointcloudskin/files/latest/download?source=files

it did its job very well - just had to make sure the ASCII data is correct (x,y,z)

I am not sure if its compatible with 2.76a - but once you manage to import the data and skin the point cloud - you can always go for newer blender version.

He has also a CSV import addon - which also comes very handy in this matters.

As for the skinning process: it a bit of try and error process.

good luck


import bpy
from random import randint
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add()

#how many cubes you want to add
count = 10

for c in range(0,count):
    x = randint(-10,10)
    y = randint(-10,10)
    z = randint(-10,10)
    bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(location=(x,y,z))

Run this script in the Text Editor with the Run Script button.
The var count controls how many cubs will be added.
The three vars x, y, and z are random numbers for the placement of the cubes. Change the sets of numbers, to change the range where the cubes can be added on each axes.


Objects are moved after reopening the file

Don't use Object or Edit mode transformation tools.
For adjusting elements after you release it under Create tab > Archipack ... use Archipack Tab to manipulate and adjust elements.

Also check some tutorials ... you don't have to create each wall as separate object.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qJHGig67_0
The best point to start https://github.com/s-leger/archipack/wiki one of the links is Documentation.


How to display a image texture only on the outside of a object (cylinder)?

If the object has different surfaces for the inside and outside of the cup, just assign a white material to the inside.
If there is no thickness and you are seeing the backface of the object on the inside use the Geometry > Backfacing information to control the mix between two different shaders.

Read more about the Geometry node here:
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/shader_nodes/input/geometry.html?highlight=backfacing
how to use a texture on each side of the same face
If you are using a solidify modifier read this answer:
Add different textures to front and back of plane with solidify?


How to select vertices contained in object

In this case, you can:
Select the cylinder, shift select the grid then enter edit mode.
Go to wireframe view and uncheck X Ray. Then from the top view, box select.


Blender keeps crashing/closing without log entry

So if found out what the problem was:
My new G502 Logitech mouse.
I tried my old one and Blender never crashed again.
This post is closed.


Animation Node 2.0 Object Instancer question

Animation Nodes is a powerful system, but it is bare bones in certain aspects. The best way to make something like your scene is by using procedural methods.

Lets say you have m number of polygons, you want n number of spheres to be sticking out of each face, then you should instance a sphere m*n number of times. To position the spheres we will need the polygons centers and normals. We will repeat the list of the centers and normals n number of times to match the number of spheres. All we have to do is to set the location of the sphere to the the center plus the normal multiplied by some factor, the problem is that there will be n number of sphere at each face. So to solve this, the factor will be constant for each layer of spheres but increases by each layer. From that reasoning, we can implement this like this (Let me know if you need a more detailed explanation):

This will result in:


this is not a total script but it does the job :

in the default scene (or empty one) create this compositor node setup

you need to run this script just to have random numbers available in the driver :

import bpy
import random

def rand():
    return random.uniform(0,1)

bpy.app.driver_namespace['rand'] = rand

now add a driver for the value nodes with the scripted expression rand()
set the number of frames to render to the number of textures
render the animation and you'll have the output directory full with textures


You can do this using shader node too(Procedurally)
Follow this node group:

Value node gives the fade effect. Play with the values to get the desired effect.
Result:

P.S. Make sure you join both the objects
P.P.S If you wanna change the axis on which the fading occurs, change the value of last greater than node with Y or Z output from separate XYZ node
BLEND FILE: https://pasteall.org/blend/e1e9617c0bed4c18b372d759462ffb94


If I look a fresnel node trough an emissive shader what reflectance curve do I see?

I'm answering my own question because I start understanding a bit more about the topic of polarized light.
I'm niether a scientist nor a mathematician so I will simplify things but don't hesitate to correct me or give more information in the comment so I can update/complete the answer.

What I know :

After reading more about Polarization :

A ray light is a wave moving multiple directions, 2 plans x and y (non polarized)
A non polarized light is P polarized after bounced on a dielectric material (water/glass/plastic...).
Bounces on metals are non polarized.
We haven't have spectral rendering in Cycles, so the light isn't acting as a wave, no polarization of rgb light.

What I assume :

Light in Cycles must be think like non polarized
Defaut fresnel considerate that most light is polarized because it seems to  apply a P polarized curve on fresnel
Direct ray need non polarized fresnel curve, and after one bounce on dielectric surface, it need P polarized fresnel curve.

Edit :

The second assumption isn't right because I was assuming that the drop down of the curve was a sign of polarization, in fact it's a sign that default fresnel node isn't suitable for metallic shaders (dielectrics are ok).
The third assumption isn't right either, first because if a ray hasn't bounced on something there is no fresnel curve, second because polarized light is way more complicated than that, and we haven't got any way to know which ray is polarized or not. So the best choice is to use unpolarized curve.


Disable IK then re-enable with different pose

You may be able to achieve something similar to this with the auto ik setting, but I'm not sure as I don't really use it.

IK/FK switching while preserving pose is difficult in blender as it currently stands.

The only way I've seen it done is by having 3 sets of bones, one for the FK pose, one for the IK and one to actually deform the mesh. A driver is then created to determine which chain controls the deform chain. Scripts are then provided to snap the FK chain to the IK chain's position and vice versa.

The above technique is used in the Rigify rig that comes as an addon with blender.

Also as an aside, why do you want to enable IK after posing? This will cause the rig to use IK interpolation(straight line between poses) between poses rather than FK? Most of the time you will actually want FK interpolation(arcs between poses), the only time you normally want IK if the end of the chain is explicitly fixed (e.g. a foot planted on the ground), and in these cases it is often easier to pose by IK anyway.


Need help with strange scaling behavior on my torso model; following a blender video

You have a different number of loop cuts than the example - were you embellishing the design, or had you made some errors in following the example?  From my own experiences, making errors and then correcting them during a tutorial led to some weird results and it was a while before I learnt to remove duplicates.

To check your theory about double vertices, select your entire mesh (A followed by A again should do the trick from the view in the images) and then select remove duplicates from your left hand menu. Off the top of my head, I can't remember if it is T or N to display this menu from the view that you have in your images - one will bring up the right properties menu and the other will bring up the left menu options.

Are you also trying to scale along the right axes? S-Y will ensure it is locked on the y-axis as noted in the video. Selecting Shift-Y instead of Y will result in the scaling happening along the X- and Z-axes. Can't judge from your static screen shots.


Achieve Escher holding sphere, but with real image

Do compositing using a lens distortion node to give a bit of sphere effect on your image, add this to your rendered glossy sphere with modeled arm with the sphere objectID as factor/mask

the render of the sphere and hand has to use a black background (because you'll add your reflection) and also you have to check tranparent in render settings/film options


Why are some lines on my model drawn differently?

Those are edges that have been marked as "sharp". In the tool panel in edit mode (press T if not visible) you can find the tools to mark them as smooth again:


How to rotate/spin an animated soft body object

A work around I found for my specific situation was to animate the camera instead of the soft-bodies. This gave me the desired effect of a more dynamic animation.
I parented an empty to the camera, and keyframed a rotation to that so the camera's pivot point was around the two soft-bodies.


I'm not sure why, but something in your rigging is to blame here.
When I removed the head object's parenting to the armature, it popped back into existence.


How to Add a Shader to a Specific Part/Area of an Object?

You can assign another material to the faces that should have a different shader. Just go into edit mode, select the faces that should have a different material and assign it to the face:

Otherwise you could mix two shaders depending on a texture:


Boolean (difference) not working properly on rather simple geometry

Make Sure all the Scale values of the Smaller Simple Block are Positive ... greater than zero.

The scale values should all be positive.  Remove the negative sign.

The smaller item in the picture needs to have all scales positive for clarity and to have the boolean modifier work.

Here are suggested settings for the modifier.


You may use the Bridge Edge Loops option. The subsurfed result'll be similar to the one achieved with beveling.

Select the same amount of vertices laying on the oposite sides, press Spacebar, type Bridge and click this option. In the Tool Shelf options (T) change the number of cuts to fit the edge loops' number. Then unselect the top vertices (C, hold Mouse Wheel) and select only bottom ones (C). Hit W-->Remove Doubles and increase the merge distance. Fill the hole with diamond quads (select vertices and press F).


Does Baking Texture Atlas also include the normal maps for the texture?

No, the textures atlas is just that, for object textures only, and is adjusted with the tabs below the bake tab..so that you can include or exclude texture properties from the texture atlas. l think that the process could be applied to the normal maps too.. but the manual is not clear on that.. so proceed with caution...


How to popup simple message box from python console?

One way to do this is by using a operator and the self.report() method. Here is a example

import bpy

class MessageBoxOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "ui.show_message_box"
    bl_label = "Minimal Operator"

    def execute(self, context):
        #this is where I send the message
        self.report({'INFO'}, "This is a test")
        return {'FINISHED'}

bpy.utils.register_class(MessageBoxOperator)

# test call to the
bpy.ops.ui.show_message_box()

This will show a little message box up in the top tool bar and really isn't efficient for a bigger/longer message.

Another more efficient way of displaying a message box is window_manager.popup_menu() here is an example script:

import bpy

def ShowMessageBox(message = "", title = "Message Box", icon = 'INFO'):

    def draw(self, context):
        self.layout.label(message)

    bpy.context.window_manager.popup_menu(draw, title = title, icon = icon)

#Shows a message box with a specific message
ShowMessageBox("This is a message")

#Shows a message box with a message and custom title
ShowMessageBox("This is a message", "This is a custom title")

#Shows a message box with a message, custom title, and a specific icon
ShowMessageBox("This is a message", "This is a custom title", 'ERROR')

You can see hear I made a custom message box method called ShowMessageBox() this is what the method will show starting from the first example to the third:

Hope this helps! (sorry for the super late reply)

EDIT for 2.80

UILayout.label(text="") requires text to be a keyword argument.

self.layout.label(text=message)


Script to remove animation from a specific bone instead of the armature using script

As batFINGER suggested in his comment. This can be done using bpy.ops.anim.keyframe_clear_v3d(). To do this in python you need to select the bone first then apply the operation. Below is a script to delete animation of a specific bone, in this example, a bone named 'Bone' will have its animation deleted:

import bpy

arm = bpy.data.objects['Armature']
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='POSE')
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')
arm.select = True
bpy.context.scene.objects.active = arm

bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='POSE')

bpy.ops.pose.select_all(action='DESELECT')

for pb in arm.pose.bones:
    if pb.name == 'Bone':
        arm.data.bones[pb.name].select = True
        bpy.ops.anim.keyframe_clear_v3d()
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')


The volume of an object resulted from a boolean operation is "sometimes" a negative number. Why is this happening?

I have figured it out!
In this case, the object that is generated from a boolean operation should go through a triangulation.


Screen Space effects such as Shadows are a technique (borrowed from game rendering) to improve the visual look of a render without having to spend too much additional time considering features that are not visible. As such, it is a trade-off between realism and fast renders. Only 'visible' components are considered and so there can be noticeable issues with elements towards the edges of the visible frame.
One way to resolve this is to render an additional border around your frame by increasing the camera Sensor Size. This will have the effect of rendering additional area around the frame without affecting the perspective of the camera. The additional space will be used for rendering screen space reflections, etc. and you can then use the Compositor to clip the unwanted section from the final render.


Can I convert a heavily triangulated STL file to quads?

3D scanned files are not only heavily triangulated, but also tend to have loads of polygons. As with every question, it depends on the purpose of your final result (still image, animation, 3D game asset, printing) if this is good or bad. Another important but missing information would be the kind of model we're talking about (thus my answer will be quite broad). Things can work on a 3D scan of a rock but that doesn't mean that they also work on a 3D scan of a person.

Blender offers some basic possibilities to convert triangles to quads (mainly the decimate modifier) but it only rarely does its job in a way that you could call the result a mesh with clean topology.

There are also tools out there which are specifically programmed with the goal of creating clean topologized meshes. Instant Meshes is one of them.

As someone whose primarily focus is creating game assets, I would  go the "hard" way and do the re-topology by hand, as it's shown in numerous tutorials around the internet. You could then use your scanned model as the high-poly model and bake all the medium details as a displacement map and all the fine details as a normal map. These models can also be used in still renderings, animations and of course in 3D printing.

Again, this answer is very broad due to the lack of information regarding the purpose and the form of the model in general.


Cryptomatte from Blender to Fusion Studio 16

Blender

enable Properties editor > Layers Properties > Passes > Cryptomatte Object
export animation as image sequence in Multilayed OpenEXR format (Float Full)

Fusion

go to File > Import > Footage and select your image sequence in your directory (so it is imported as one node)
search Cryptomatte (from screen i see you have it instaled, so i'm not going trhough installtation process)
now you have to specify what object to use as mask, for that select cryptomatte node and place source cursor on desired object in image (Torus in my case) and click Add in properties editor, or you can type name of your blender's object directly into field (see image).

I had some issue with edge, but was solved with additional node (macro/group?) here (you will have to Login first). I was also asking for the same kind of node tree fix on BA Thread, but without help for now.


I think that if you want to keep the quality of the textures maybe you need to make 4 or 5 materials, or a very large texture for all. For one material you need to join a couple of meshes, make a "Lightmap Pack" unwrap and then a bake of the textures, that way you'll have a single texture for all the meshes you have joined


How do I make a floor plan with specific dimensions?

First delete the cube and add a plane. Then go to the Scene panel and set units to Imperial

Then go to the Properties panel and enter 13 feet for x and 11 feet for y value like below

Make sure apply the object scale with Ctrl + A so further transformations don't get distorted


I think it's just your Handle Type.

If the Handle Type is'Free' or 'Aligned', the default behavior of E extrude is to copy the source vertex, along with its control points. If the control points are extended, that will also create a segment of some length. If the extrusion is from a 'Vector' or 'Automatic' (unadjusted) vertex, the system has the opportunity to adjust the front-facing handle of the previous vertex, as you extend the curve.


Rendering a scene makes the background footage extremely bright

Go to the Compositing screen layout, and then back to the Default screen layout. This should clear things up. I think maybe the nodes just need to load.


You are using Cycles as your rendering engine. Only EEVEE has that shadow setting panel:

Things happen a lot between Cycles and EEVEE, beware of what engine are you using.


This is caused by using smooth shading on an object with sharp corners. Blender is trying to make a 90 degree corner look like it's smooth. This leads to various shading issues as seen in the image. Setting the shading to flat is the best solution, but using split normals, an Edge Split modifier, or using the Auto Smooth normals option all work too.


why adding sub surface getting this result

The top and bottom faces of your mesh are single Ngons.

Change them to quads and the subsurf works as expected.


Is it possible to use a CSV file to assign to frames poses from a pose library?

This is a CSV like control file which starts with the frame number, an object variable (short cut and a list of assignments where Arm.L references a bone layer and things like KuenHalf or Tan are pose names

0 SET:A=r6839C
1 A:All=IRAS
10 A:Arm.L=KuenHalf,Arm.R=Tan
20 A:Arm.L=Fook,Arm.R=Bong
30 A:Arm.L=KuenHalf,Arm.R=Tan
40 A:Arm.L=Fook,Arm.R=Bong
50 A:Arm.L=KuenHalf,Arm.R=Tan
60 A:Arm.L=Fook,Arm.R=Bong

The source to create the animation from a control file is on github.

Note that this was designed for Makehuman created MHX rigs.


How to blur a single layer in a grease pencil object?

I don't think you can but you can approach it by using a combination of modifiers, which support layers.
Let's say you have two strokes created with the same material but on two different layers :

Add a Thickness modifier, in the influence set it to your target layer

Add an Opacity modifier, set the layer. Set the mode to Hardness and decrease it.

Add another Opacity modifier, set the layer again. Decrease the strength or the factor.

You might want to disable or enable Self Overlap on the material if you want to decrease the artifacts.

The artifacts are particularly prominent on sharp turns.


Sketchup to Blender: aligning multiple objects to a grid

I don't use sketch up.  So don't bother reading this if you allready know how to center an object. But if you are brand new to Blender. I know that it can be impossible to learn the basic functions so here I wrote the instructions and give a link to a really good tutorial that will help with the basics on object manipulation; url is at the bottom.

Here are two different ways to go about moving your object to center:

Use the cntrl alt shift c, function. pressing these four buttons will bring up a menu titled "Set Origin". First select the option "origin to 3d cursor".  Next place your 3d cursor on your grid where you like ( the little red and white target symbol that goes wherever you click ). Press cntrl alt shift c again. This time select " geometry to origin". This way is useful for resetting your object geometry for use with modifiers such as mirror modifier, and may be just the thing for the problem at hand. Again I don't use sketch up so I hope I am not wasting your time here

Tips and Pointer for cntrl alt shift c:

*make sure you are in object mode

*make sure you have active object chosen in your outliner panel.

on your transform panel go to the bottom and manually center your 3d cursor by typing 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 into the three boxes for 3d cursor location x, y, and Z.

The more simple way might work ...

The other way is to use your transform toggle hot;key N. With your transform panel open there will be location data for your active object at the top. On the x, y and z axis. If you simply type 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 into each of these boxes x,y, and z. That should bring your object to center more easily.

tips and pointers:

You might try applying transform

https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/User:Fade/Doc:2.6/Manual/3D_interaction/Transform_Control/Reset_Object_Transformations

have you seen this stack exchange entry? a user named GM writes about converting files. You may have probably converted your skp to a blend file? in which case, my answer is probably enough allready.
Import SketchUp ".skp" files

here is the turorial I like for manipulating objects:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmQKZydrYY8&feature=youtu.be


Can't preview smoke simulation on Blender 2.82

Fixed it. The default Cache Type is set to "Modular". In order to see the Smoke preview in the viewport, it's necessary to switch it to "Replay".

Big thanks to Pablo Vazquez that found this solution on Twitter.


Try CTRL+F11 in the main Blender screen (this is not the render result)


Can you animate a beveled spiral curve into a tapered version with even thickness?

Looks like all I had to press was this button.


It may not be 100% accurate but the Remesh modifier could give you a idea of what the 3D printed object would look like.

To get the voxeled style, choose Blocks from the Mode menu.

To get the right size I would add a voxel-sized cube (whose dimension can easily controlled in the Properties panel) as reference, then tweak the modifier's parameters (start from the the Octree depth and than refine with the Scale) till the subdivision are about the same size of the reference cube.

Warning: if you alter the object's bounding box size, you must re-eyeball the subdivision rate.


How to have Blender run my script from the filesystem rather than the script window?

Have a look at Blender's add-ons folder for many examples.  C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 2.91\2.91\scripts\addons if you are on Windows.
Let's have a look at MeasureIt add-on for example. It has multiple files:

If you open the __init__.py, you can see that measureit_main is imported

and if you open it, you can see other imports:

.zip files that you use to install the add-ons are just simple zip files containing a folder named after the add-on and all the files in it.
You could also have a look at How to run a python script external to Blender to run bpy commands in Blender'spython console


2.8 object not showing in preview and render

I had changed instancing from Verts to None and it showed up again in preview and render.


Not sure if if you are looking for a physically based animation or a realistic simulation, if not here is a way to fake it.

Create a simple curved mesh object with a single edge sequence shaped as de desired vortex section.

Add both a Screw and a Displace Modifier so it looks as illustrated. Adjust displacement texture as desired, and if necessary add a Subsurf before displacing for higher detail level.

Create a 2D bezier curve object centered on the vortex mesh, roughly the same size, so it flows upwards towards the wider part.

Add two shape keys ($Base$ and $Key 1$) and modify $Key 1$ so the vortex wiggles around. If you wish for the top to remain untilted make sure the top handle stays vertically aligned to the top vertex.

Animate the Value property for $Key 1$ so it goes from $0$ to $1$ and back to $0$ during your animation interval so it loops seamlessly.

Add a Curve modifier to the vortex mesh, pick the previously animated bezier.

Now just animate the rotation of the vortex mesh and tweak the curve shape keys to achieve the desired effect.


Somehow flipping the normals solved the problem, But why?
edit: not really, only in edit mode it looks ok then. Outside it looks strange again.
The tile at the left side has normal like other co-planar faces. Rest of the row has normals flipped inside.
edit2: i found out, that it has something to do with the origin of the object. when i move the origin outside the object, the artifacts dissapear...


What is the problem with my bump mapping?

I have figured it out.
The subsurf for rendering was accidentally switched off when baking the bump map.

Thanks for all your inputs!


How do I attach floating vertices to the mesh?

To join the floating vertices to the rest of the mesh, you would need to delete the faces sitting in the area, select adjacent vertices then press F. This will fill in edges between the vertices, and once you've gotten all the lines, you can fill in the faces by selecting edges and pressing F.

There are a couple of ways you could have gone about doing this differently though. The first way would be using the Cut Through option for the knife tool. You'd use it by first pressing 3 on the Numpad to enter the side orthographic view, pressing K to enable the knife tool, than Z to toggle cutting through. What this will do is create the cuts on all parts of the meshes that your cutting lines project onto, including the far side of the turbine.

A better way to have gone about modelling it would be deleting half of the turbine and applying a Mirror modifier to reflect the object across its origin, thereby cutting the modelling time in half.


ship teleports itself to a different position

That points to an issue with location. If you have keyframes on the location in blender then unity will be applying that part of the animation when you play it. eg you place the ship in unity at x=20 but in blender you have a keyframe that says x=0 then unity will move it to x=0

As you want the ship to move up and down then you may want keyframes on the z-axis but remove the x and y location keyframes.


Non-Destructive Mirror of a Multires Modifier Sculpt

Use Animation Nodes add-on, it is open-source and totally free. I'd suggest a setup like this:

The node tree duplicates A then modify its scale (new y = y*(-1)). In your case, you may want to do it with x instead. I tried to sculpt A.  After I mouse-released the sculpt brush, B would be updated too. In this approach, I can't sculpt the new object (so-called B) directly.

This issue as well as a few similar ones will be solved by Everything Nodes project for vanilla Blender but the implementation is not done yet and there is still a long way to go.

Here are some of Chris-P's Animation Nodes Youtube tutorials. I have no affiliation with the author. However, the first few episodes of the series were very useful to me as beginner. Feel free to comment about better tutorial please.


How to render a background image correctly?

My guess would be that You missed to check the "transparent" checkbox under "film" in the "render" tab. Furthermore, You, perhaps, have switched the inputs in the "alpha over" node. See image to find critical settings marked with red circles.


Apply a Material just to the part of an object that was edited by a boolean modifier

This is how it works by default - materials transfer from one object to another with boolean operations. You just need to have material slots for all the materials used on both objects.
So if you just add a material slot and set it to the same material as the object that you use for boolean operation has it will transfer to that area.


Merging verts by distance breaks smooth shading (Blender 2.8)

Assuming your weld (or merge by distance) is setup correctly, just define a sharp edge and then add an auto smooth


Is There a Shortcut to Make a Bezier Curve Straight

Can you make your question more clear, what do you mean make it straighten?
Do you mean you want to "unwrap" it as in keeping it's length and making it linear, or do you want to make individual segments linear?

You can either use the toolbar button Set Spline Type to make a whole spline into a Polyline that will force all segments to be lines, or you can select a bunch of vertex and press V to access the Handle Type menu and make selected vertex into Vector type that will make segments between them straight.

Alternatively if you just want to make a 2D "planar" spline you can just press the 2D button in the Properties Window>Object Data Tab of your bezier curve object.


Actually, it is the specular value input, specular is reflectivity. It's just that in some non PBR setups specular is a way of faking a reflected highlight without calulating actual reflections, and they called it specular. But in the principled shader specular means reflection and that's where you would put the reflection map, also sometimes called a specular map.

Play with the specular value and you'll see you can go from zero reflection to 100% mirror reflection. Roughness is basically your way of dulling down or polishing up the reflectivity, it's like a gloss value


Flickering and funky cameracontrolls in perspective-view

Hello and thank you very much for your comments!

The problem was indeed "Clip: Start". As soon as i changed the value all problems were gone. Visuals and controlls restored to normal.
But this must have been a bug, since i could not reproduce the problem by setting the value back to 0.001.

I hope some people can use this workaround in case they run into the same glitch.

Thank you for your Help!


An alternative, Sub-D approach: absolutely no better than yours, but with all the tools in Blender that are geared to working this way, personally I find this kind of pattern  gives rise  to fewer mysterious faults in the mesh, and is easier to tweak later.

Starting with a bevelled pair of drawers:

CtrlR  Cut in 3 edge-loops in both directions
F Fill the central faces
AltP Poke the filled faces
CtrlShiftB bevel the central vertices
Select both resulting faces, and Loop-Tools > Circle, ( or Space-Bar > Circle) setting the Radius field as desired.
Inset I and Extrude E the circular faces, to create holding loops and the recess.
Assign a Subdivision Surface modifier.


Soft Body Self Collision Weird Behavior for half verticies

The problem is actually due to the geometry of the UV Spheres and how this is interacting with the self-collision as it results in intersecting collision spheres at the start of the simulation resulting in inconsistencies from the start. To understand this you first need to understand a little about how the self-collision works.

Soft Body self-collision acts on the vertices of the mesh - with each vertex being modelled as a sphere that repels any other vertex an each sphere sized independently based on the surrounding mesh. Within the Self Collision properties panel you can configure how Blender calculates the self collision spheres with options of Manual (set a single size for all vertices), Average (set each ball based on the average of the lengths of all of the connected edges), Minimal (based on the shortest connected edge), Maximal (based on the longest connected edge), AvMinMax (based on the average of the shortest and the longest connected edge). The default is to use the Average.

Now consider the geometry of a UV Sphere - particularly at the poles.

At the pole you have a single vertex surrounded by a large number of edges - this should not cause a problem as the collision ball will be based on those edges.

Considering the next row of vertices you should see the problem :

Each vertex in this row has two close neighbours and two much more distant neighbours - actually about 5 times as distance as the closest. Using the 'Average' method of ball sizing results in collision balls that are larger than the distance to the next nearest neighbour (ie, if the shorter distance were 1BU then average would equal (1+1+5+5)/4 = 12/4 = 3BU. The default 'ball size' is 0.49, resulting in a ball size of 3*0.49 = 1.47BU - so the vertices are considered as being instantly 'in collision' - and they repel each other.

The solution (to prevent them collapsing) is to change the self-collision ball size to prevent this initial intersection. This can be achieved by changing from 'Average' to 'Minimal' - so that rather than 1.47BU in the above example, the initial size would be 0.49BU so the collision balls would always be separated.

Of course, this doesn't explain why when the spheres are duplicated as in the original example only some of them distort in this way. I suspect that this is actually a bug - although, arguably, it is having to deal with a mesh which is not really suited to Soft Body simulation (as it has vertices with neighbours that are at radically different distances).

The other solution is to use better soft-body-friendly geometry such as Icosphere.


Can selected elements be rotated in opposite directions?

In general no. But for cases where the mesh/armature is symmetrical. Then X-Mirror from the Options Tab can be enabled.


Second Paint Slot Not Showing Details in Texture Mode

Changing around the order of the paint slots in the texture tab is what solved my problem. I had them backwards. I put my base layer at the top, and my detail layer 2nd and it's working fine now!


How to align an object by one or two edges to xyz axes?

I think you can do it by tricks like parenting, constraint, snapping, addon, and scripting.

Method 1 (parenting):

Select the edge you want to align;
ShiftNumpad 7 to align view to selected edge;
ShiftS > Cursor to Selected;
Switch to Object mode, ShiftA to add an empty, F6, toggle Align to View, set it as parent to that object;
Select the empty, AltR;
Select your object, AltP > Clear and Keep Transformation. Then delete the empty.

Method 2 (constraint):

(as method 1)
(as method 1)
(as method 1)
(as method 1)
Add another empty, add a Copy Rotation constraint to it, select the first empty as Target, leave other settings as default;
CtrlA > Apply visual Transform, then delete the other two empties.

Method 3 (snapping):

Select one vertex on the edge you want to align;
ShiftS > Cursor to Selected;
Switch to Object mode, ShiftA to add a new empty, then move it for a certain distance along the expected axis;
Select all vertices of your object in Edit mode, with another vertex on that edge active (NOT the one in Step 1). Enable Snap mode on 3D View header, set Snap Element to Vertex, and make sure the Snap Target is set to Active;
CtrlAltQ to toggle Quad View, switch Pivot Point to 3D Cursor, snap the active vertex to the empty in two of the three Ortho views individually (it may depends on the actual case). Then delete that empty.

Method 4 (addon):

Luckily there is an addon called Precise Align (the latest version is 1.1), which can well handle this:

Select one face that includes the edge you want to align;
Find Precise Align tool panel in the toolbar, click Create Empty button, click Swap Empty Origin if it is not aligned with the expected edge. Make sure Parent to Object is toggled;
Back to Object mode, select that empty, AltR;
Select your object, AltP > Clear and Keep Transformation. Then delete the empty.

Method 5 (scripting):

Actually, I'm not good at scripting, but I'm sure it can be done. Welcome anyone that can complement with the scripting solution here. :)


How to use my own geometry as mesh deform cage in BlenRig add-on?

Yes, Although you may end up needing to spend just as much time correcting the weights.

The data transfer modifier can copy vertex weights, but you will probably need to do some tweaking after and of the modifier settings to get things right. It will also need the blenrig cage to be made to at least roughly match your new cage, as you are going to want to use the "Nearest Vertex" setting.


Strange selection behaviour from 2.8 to 2.79b

This is happening because of incompatibility between the two versions.

Blender 2.80 differs from 2.79 a lot. The two versions are not 100% compatible. You should not work in 2.79 with data saved or made in 2.80 or you will experience some issues, like for example this what you are seeing in this case.

If you only need to get simple geometry made in 2.80 to work in 2.79, you can export the models in some other format like .obj and import them to 2.79. It will work fine this way. However if you needed to export more complex things like materials, normal data, animation, rigs and other things you may experience a lot more problems and it might not be possible/practical to solve those. It is best to choose a version and stick with it in one project.


In 3dsMax the Relax Tool has multiple options to relax the UV mesh: By Face angles, Edge angles and by Centers. And it can also relax the island borders.

Blender lacks these features, and it's relaxation ("Minimize stretch") usually makes things worse (because the border doesn't relax so the stretching from border propagates inside).

Instead what is used in Blender is UV Sculpting (UV > UV Sculpt Q). This brings up a brush with additional options in Tool Shelf panel T:

The default Grab brush can be switched to Smooth brush with HC and Laplacian smooth methods. Also Lock Borders can be turned off to smooth the island borders.

Note that both the smoothing algorithms are not real UV relaxation. They work spatially, not angle-based. The difference is that HC preserves the shape of islands better. After sculpting you should still run Minimize Stretch for best results, that's why it is in blender.

It takes a bit more work but you can get same stretch-less UV map as in Max.