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How to delete unused vertex groups?
I downloaded a model and found that there were way more vertex groups than bones in the armature. Is there a way to delete all vertex groups that are not assigned to a bone?

You may first wish to make sure these vertex groups aren't being used for something else such as particles, shape keys, modifiers, etc. Vertex groups are used for a lot of different things besides just bone weights. But assuming you still want to remove these groups, it can be done like this:

Make sure all the bones of the armature are visible. With the armature selected, go to the Object Data Properties tab of the properties panel, and make sure all the Layers with bones in them are visible (the ones with a dot have bones). Shift + click to select multiple layers.

Enter weight paint mode. From object mode, first select the armature, then select the mesh by Shift + clicking on it. Press Ctrl + Tab and select Weight Paint

Select all the bones by pressing Ctrl + A

Lock the selected groups from the menu at the top of the viewport. Weights > Locks > Lock Only Selected

Or if you want to preserve some other vertex groups as well, use Lock Selected instead, and make sure all the groups you want to keep are locked.

Delete the unselected groups. In the mesh's Object Data Properties, press the drop-down arrow on the right of the Vertex Groups section. Then select Delete All Unlocked Groups.


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How to create an air distortion/blur effect in eevee?
I would like to recreate an air distortion/blur effect like the ones seen in marvel vs capcom 3 to give more "punch" to my animations (images attached to give an idea of what im looking for)

still / animation ?

One way to do it would be to play with Principled BSDF Transmission and IOR.

I modeled a crude Christmas tree like shape by taking a cylinder and adding some edge loops to it. Next I selected randomly some of the faces and extruded them along individual normals. Then I moved the extruded vertices down.

and set the Principled BSDF transmission to 1 and IOR to 1.01.

This basically means that the material is almost air but not quite. It's quite close to warm air with a lot of distortion.

Remember to check Screen Space Reflections under Render Properties and Refraction under Screen Space Reflections.

and Screen Space Refraction under Material properties.
Next I animated the object to scale up, follow a curve and vanish by changing IOR from 1.01 to 1.00.

I'm not sure it's possible due to the way EEVEE handles lighting and refraction calculations. I went with my intuition to  try and create a node setup that could be used to warp the background similarly to what you showed (animating it, and making it "pop" in and out of existence is a later step). I tried adding this to a plane in front of the background. However, while I could get a rather convincing replica using Cycles, the same thing gives jack-all-nothing in EEVEE. See the images below:
Cycles

EEVEE (Nothing but disappointment)

To anyone reading - If I am incorrect, and there is in fact a way to do this, please feel free to share, as this would be a rather substantial answer.

In post there is always ways to mix Cycles and Eevee, have you tried this node setup doing that?

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

sort: votes


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Blender did not run and shows some error

When I tried to run the blender it shows this I don't know how to solve this as I am new to coding. Anybody help me with that??

Your GPU doesn't seem to fulfill the minimum requirements for running Blender 2.8x. If your GPU is supported, then this could also be caused by an old graphics driver and you should try to update it.

but when I open it in windows it works perfectly but didn't run in ubuntu terminal and showing this errors.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Launching blender on the command line results in a error
When I launch blender from the command line, it results in the following error:
❯ Blender -d
Switching to fully guarded memory allocator.
Color management: using fallback mode for management
Color management: Error could not find role data role.
Blender 2.90.0
Build: 2020-08-31 12:16:14 Darwin Release
argv[0] = Blender
argv[1] = -d
BLT_lang_init: 'locale' data path for translations not found, continuing
Read prefs: /Users/jayjayjay/Library/Application Support/Blender/2.90/config/userpref.blend
read file
  Version 280 sub 39 date unknown hash unknown
Color management: scene view "Filmic" not found, setting default "Standard".
blf_load_font_default: 'fonts' data path not found for 'droidsans.ttf', will not be able to display text
uiStyleInit: error, no fonts available
blf_load_font_default: 'fonts' data path not found for 'bmonofont-i18n.ttf', will not be able to display text
blf_load_font_default: 'fonts' data path not found for 'bmonofont-i18n.ttf', will not be able to display text
Warning! bundled python not found and is expected on this platform. (if you built with CMake: 'install' target may have not been built)
Fatal Python error: initfsencoding: unable to load the file system codec
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'encodings'

Current thread 0x0000000129716dc0 (most recent call first):
[1]    8791 abort      Blender -d

Is there a way to resolved this error? All the libraries are in the place they were when they were installed.


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"scale to bounds" missing in blender 2.9?
In blender 2.8 there was a search result when hitting space that allowed me to scale an object to perfectly fit within a specific size, called "scale to bounds" I believe. in 2.9 this appears to be missing or I can't find it- can this still be done in 2.9? it was very useful for me and I still need the feature for the stuff I need to create.

I think scale to bounds if from the 3DPrint addon. Activate it in the preferences.

that is correct- thanks. you should post that as an answer so i can mark this answered

"Scale to bounds" is from the "3DPrint" addon. Activate it in the preferences.


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How to animate eye texture (move pupils)
I have a character model with flat eyes that use a single texture. Is there a way to make the pupils move in an animation. I've tried rigging but that only works with spheres and uv project messes up the uv map.

Does https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/149719/2d-face-animation-on-3d-model-transparent-texture/149722#149722 help? Basically use a separate UV for the eyes and layer them over the base texture to avoid warping the rest of the texture.

Use the UV Warp modifier as explained here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/195493/need-some-help-for-an-experiment-eye-animation


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Rigging mechanical rods
I'm new to rigging process and I can't solve my problem. I'm trying to create armature on this mechanical arm but there are a lot of constraints (for my experience) How can I rotate multiple rods with different pivot?
Thanks a lot if someone can help me

hello, maybe show the different positions the arm can get, etc

This is a terible explanation. So sorry for that.
My problem is bind block A to the movement of four different rods.
The pivots are yellow dots.


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Animating in Real time problem
I was trying to replicate the effect here in this video :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoSRMxMDYsk
However, the problem is that if I try to animate it like in the video in real time, it just starts glitching out like crazy. But it doesn't in the video.
When I animate it once with just location is fine. But if I do another pass with rotation only, the cube will spasm out and not rotate correctly as the original location animation plays out
Can anyone tell me why this is happening?

No, if you dont tell us more info this is impossible.

It's simple. When i animate it once with just location is fine. But if I do another pass with rotation, the cube will spasm out and not rotate as the original location animation plays out.

i had a similar problem and had to use keying sets to limit what you animate in each pass


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Very strange- sculpt mode hides vertices
Very weird issue!! Blender 2.90.1
In edit mode my model appears to be as normal, no part of the mesh is hidden (alt + H). If I enter either weight paint mode, vertex paint mode or sculpt mode no changes can be applied to the mesh. I can't sculpt the mesh and I cant weight or vertex paint onto it. If I return back to edit mode, all of the meshes vertices are now hidden, I can bring them back with Alt + H. However the mesh isn't hidden, just the individual vertices...
Example with images:
Edit mode > into sculpt mode > back into edit mode
This is my original mesh in edit mode

This is the viewport toggled to sculpt mode

This is the mesh with hidden vertices when back in edit mode. the mesh can be returned to its original state by hitting Alt + H

I need to be able to sculpt!! Help!
Some details:
The mesh is a character that has an armature applied from mixamo, with weights, however it was previously working so I don't think that is the route of the problem
The Problem applies only to the specific object AND I joined other objects to it (Ctrl + J) and they are able to be sculpted - their vertices don't get hidden when toggling in and out of sculpt mode so it is only specific vertices within that object. This is shown here: (please excuse the terrible topology- I'm not fixing it)
The problem does not resolve by appending the object to a new file.
I will try exposing the object as an obj and re- importing it but that's a quick fix and I would really like to solve this issue.
Thank you for your help I really appreciate any input.
(Computer specs MacbookPro Pro, Processor - 2.8 GHz Intel Core i5, Memory - 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 Graphics - Intel Iris 1536 MB. Don't know if this is helpful but the more info the better)

please upload your blend file here, https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/?ref=be-community-add-2 otherwise we cant know what is happening...

Hello thank you for your response - the problem seems to occur when unhiding the vertices in edit mode. for the vertices to be usable in sculpt mode they have to be unhidden in sculpt mode... Which seems very odd and fairly unintuitive. hope this helps someone.

yeah use mask hide option in sculpt mode instead if you want to hide something...


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How to get rid of corners rounding on blender?
I'm a beginner with blender and not sure why my corners are rounding off? I would like them to create a square face, I've added reference images below. Thanks in advance :)

If you don't want rounding when using a Subdivision Surface modifier, you need to supporting geometry (ex: loop cuts). See here for more - https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/199262/75504

yea, if you don't want rounded edges, add loop cuts in edit mode and slide them super close to the edge to get ride of rounded edges

The shape has a subdivision surface modifier.
A possible way to obtain sharp corners is to change the way this modifier uses the edges with "edge crease", ShiftE.

Go in edge select mode
Select the surrounding edges
And use edge crease

Thanks very much! All these solutions have worked great.

Hi! If that solves your issue, please consider to accept the answer. How this site works: https://blender.stackexchange.com/tour Thanks @KerriO'Shea


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How to make complex connections across spheres
I have this mesh here, I'm making it for a game. My question is, how I can make every sphere connect to each other like the three center ones. I've tried so many ways already, but everytime the topology just makes it impossible.

(This post doesn't resolve my problem)

you need to create holes in spheres: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGQgqlVq_Cg ... then create bridges between the spheres, have you tried and why didn't it work?

The easiest way to do this is to use metaball objects instead of straight mesh objects, and you might consider looking into that.  Metaballs can be converted to meshes at any time you'd like with the "convert to" operation,

@bjorn HI. Please don't post the same question more than once. If the linked duplicate didn't help, you should edit your original question and state how you tried and why it didn't help. Editing will put it up for review so it can be reopen. Posting "doesn't work" without stating why, doesn't help us give you any other suggestion

Are the spheres at static positions and sizes? Or be anywhere, any sizes?

Moonboots
Thank you for your answer, your video actually helped and I almost finished my mesh. The only thing I'm struggling with is the top-right sphere. Any idea on how to do that?


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UV Project messes up UV map
I am trying to animate eyes using the UV Project modifier, but when I enter the empty I want controlling the modifier, the UV is messed up.
Here is the mesh before I apply the UV Project modifier:

And here is the mesh after the modifier is applied:

I've tried editing the UV map and moving the empty to see if it's just in the wrong place but I can't stop the texture from looking distorted. Any suggestions?

hello, could you please pack your image and share your file? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

@moonboots How do I share a file?

read the instructions of the page I've linked, or use: https://pasteall.org/blend/ Don't forget to pack your image (File > External Data > Pack All Into .blend)

@moonboots. Here it is: https://pasteall.org/blend/2736976f273242b4ac46f718026d1a1d

Bring back the scale of your empty to 1 with AltS
Rotate it 90° on the X axis
In the Image Texture node, switch from Clip to Extend
Scale the empty as much as needed in order to have the scale you want for you image


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grey shape dissapearing and unable to get back?
So I am new, have been casually messing around trying to understand the controls and I noticed a problem-ish thing??
when I am making the shape and sizing I can click off the shape and the grey of the shape disappears nd leaves the meshing. I was wondering if there's a way to fix that or what it is..??

Hello, Lydia :). Please add some screenshots to illustrate the problem. I'm unable to replicate the issue. https://www.take-a-screenshot.org/

jachym i have the image saved but idk how to post it

Hi :). There's an add image icon when editing a question :). How to upload image to a question

okay i figured it out. its uploaded jach. :D

Hi :). This looks like a glitch caused by your graphics card (GPU). Check this little guide to see what you can do. Points 2.1 - 2.5 are enough. Good Luck.

This may be because you've inadvertantly enabled x-ray mode. Either click the icon shown below or use ALT-Z to toggle its state.

is the button supposed to be blue to gray?

@LydiaBlocker simply, blue mean active or enabled and grey mean inactive or disable. What you need to get back that grey of shape is make it disabled (grey). This color will vary on different theme though.

Should be blue when active. If you start with a new project, you'll see its inactive state.

Rather than "messing around" trying the controls I'd watch some of the very good Youtube videos explaining the user interface from scratch. Most of them are currently for version 2.8 rather than 2.9 which you are using but very little of the basics have changed. Try the official Blender one at https://tinyurl.com/y5bbqdcq for starters.

those videos have full on tutorials of making things john


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Blender Shifts Audio Sometimes
I apologize for the lack of information; I am new to Blender and am unsure why this is happening. I recently started using Blender for video editing as I wanted an open-source video editor. In general, it does an amazing job. I keep running into a big issue with is causing me not to use it, though.
When editing clips, sometimes, for no reason, Blender moves the audio track from the position where I clipped it. For example, if I have a video where someone is talking, and I clip just one scene from their speech and then edit other clips and come back to that scene, the audio would have shifted to a different point in the video where it was split.
I have no idea why this is happening, and it is driving me crazy. I just spent all day on something and didn't even want to restart as this is the second time it has done this. Does anyone know what may be causing this? I am on Blender 2.90. I do have av-sync on.
This could be how I am using, but I am just so new to Blender I have no idea.
SOLUTION:
Frame rate! When I was importing video clips from different sources it skewed the frame rate, use handbrake to fix it.

Great you solved it :) Can you write "solution" as regular Answer? Thank you (or hide entire question). Thank you

@vklidu I added the answer :3

The solution to this issue is to make sure you use consistent frame rates. One of the videos I pulled in changed the frame rate from 30 FPS to a custom frame rate which screwed the other clips. Setting the frame rate back to 20 FPS fixed this issue for me. I know you can use handbrake to set all of your videos to the same frame rate; however, if you are like me and just want a simple solution of
setfps <video-name> <frame-rate>

or at least a handbrake-like program that uses mpv for previews instead of VLC, I am unsure what program to use.
As an update, you can use FFmpeg to reencode a framerate!


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How to close timeline window
I accidentally open the second timeline widow. What's worst it is moving simultaneously with the properties tab. My question is - does anyone know how can I close this window. Here you is what my problem looks like

If you grab the bottom corner of the top window you collapse the top timeline and you get rid of your 2 problems:

I may be wrong but for the moment it looks like if you have sticking windows, you can only get rid of them with the creation of a new one (or directly collapsing 2 windows but you'll need to recreate the one you had):


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How to increase bone size?
The bones on an armature are way too small and I can barely see them, even with the "in front" option toggled. I tried scaling the bones but scaling them all together moves them out of place since they don't share the same origin. Is there an easy way to increase the size of al of the bones?
Note: The bones are in octahedral model.

enable Pivot Point > Individual Origin?

Scale the object. Apply the scale.

You mean this is to have a custom view of bones so that they are easier to see?

You can switch pivot point to individual origins to scale multiple objects about their own origins simultaneously.  You can also look into the use of custom shapes for bones to change the way they're displayed without changing the way they behave.


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information about the number of polygons of a particular selected object

Is there a way to get statistical information in Blender for
an individual object, not all objects in the scene, how to view
statistics of a separate selected grid, each time switch to the mode
editing, even with the TAB hotkey, is very inconvenient
...
It is also not clear why the transition to the local view with the
key - /  also does not help to see the statistics of a separate
object, only the editing mode how so?


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How to replace images in blender file?
I downloaded a model from someone but noticed the textures take up way too much space. Is there a way I can replace this images with lower quality images without having to replace them in the shaders?

I suppose all the textures you're talking about are packed? What you could do is go in the File menu > External Data > Unpack All Into Files which will create a texture folder next to your file, replace all the high-quality images with low-quality, keeping the exact same name, then File menu > External Data > Pack All Into .blend.

From the image editor, you can resize them:

If they are not packed in the blend file, save them after that.

I didn't know that, too bad there is no "constrain proportions" option

@moonboots, yes I agree.


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keyframes does not work when i use time remapping. How can it get fixed.?
When i start a project with blender, i can set key frames.but when it goes a little more complex, i doesn't work. I made a screen capture to show my problem in this link.
https://we.tl/t-jFhgm3FTB0
I tried lots of tutorial solution. but i can't make it work right.

maybe share your file (just the camera)? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

@moonboots it's about 400mb. and it takes so long. did you watch the capture i've linked?

@moonboots I've found the problem. it's because of the Time Remapping option. What shoud i do before or after rempping to make Key frames works correctly?

in that case are you sure you want to remap?

@moonboots yes . its too fast.

so maybe the solution is simply to move the second keyframe, bring it back to the left?

@moonboots I tried but think it doesn't work this way. Every thing should set on 100/100 time remapping, then it can be extended.


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How to set the global position of a bone in an action (e.g. animation)?
I am trying to create a walk animation. As I want to use it in a game later on, I started with moving the root bone forward. For the first half of the animation, I want to keep the controller bone in place, then in the second half move it forward. So the inverse kinematics I applied would move the leg, but leave the foot in place.
However, as I copied the starting keyframe of the foot and pasted it into the middle of the action, it didn't affect the foot at all - because the root bone moves and affects all childs, so the foot controller as well.

As you see here, the bone shin.R.Control has actually exactly the same keyframe at the start as in the middle. But it doesn't affect the actual position at all.
I did my own research, but I found only questions & solutions about python scripts.

it's hard to understand, are your trying to create a "treadmill" walk cycle or does your character move forward for real? For solution 1 you need to move your root bone forward but it will be deactivated later, for the second solution you don't need to move the root bone. First solution: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/159782/lego-walkcycle-sliding-problem/159796#159796

I want the latter effect you described. For the latter solution, why wouldn't I need to move the root bone? If the root bone is not moved, the walk animation in game would always reset upon animation restart.

Just checked; the highest parent becomes the origin.

aah ok I was going to ask. So I suppose you make the armature, therefore the origin/root, move with some commands. So why should the root move within the actions? I try to understand, I hope an expert will answer

Maybe you should try the method I describe in the link except you don't disable the root at the end (so the character moves forward for real)

You're right, actually, I don't have any reason to move the root bone if the armature is parented anyway. I should have thinked more about this before asking this. Could you actually send this as an answer, "There is no need in moving the root bone if the armature is the parent at the end anyway. See this link for how to make a walk animation: ", so I can mark this as solved? Or how would I handle a question posted here with another underlying problem, actually? Deleting?

actually yes you should move it but try the method I link, if the root becomes the origin it means at the end it won't move. Leave your question as it is for the moment, give a test with my method, come back and tell if it works and I will answer with the necessary precisions

The root does not become origin, but more the armature, which makes the whole root motion thing senseless. I'll try your link now

sure, but to make it easy to create the walk cycle you can indeed move the root and use the method I linked, once imported in the game engine, the root won't move if I understand correctly

Had a few other problems that were related to my bone structure, but it worked. Thanks!

so did you use the linked method?


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How to reduce faces of quad mesh
I have converted a tri-mesh to quad-mesh and now need to reduce the number of mesh faces.  Currently 125,000 faces and need to be under 50,000 faces.  Any help?
I'm not going to share the file since it is someone else intellectual property that they sell.
It is a tri-mesh STL of a nurse wearing boxing glove and wearing a mask. The final use will primarily to be gifts for first line nurses. I'm retired and 70 years old, so no business intention on this file.
My end goal is to convert it into a solid in Autodesk Fusion 360 for subtractive machining.  Fusion can only convert quad mesh into a solid.  Fusion will only do that for models with less than 50,000 faces.
After posting the question I found a YouTube on using Decimate in Blender and tried it. Chose modifier, decimate, un-subdivide like the YouTube. Changed the iteration to 1 and it reduced it to 975,000 faces, iteration to 2 only lowered it to 965,000 and iteration 3 to 958,000.  There was promise at first iteration, but lost promise as time went on.  I couldn't find a way to enter a value in iteration, just the arrow to increase single digit at a time.
I have Carveco Maker, which didn't do the heavy lifting. I've tried Autodesk Meshmixer and Netfabb without the result I want. I had Meshcam, but a hard drive crash wiped it out and no help from Meshcam since another revision had been released.

In order of preference, IMO: manual retopology, quad remesher (paid addon), instamesh addon/3rd party app, native blender remeshing tools, decimate modifier.

Well, what is it? A building, or a dragon? You can always use the decimate or simplify tools, but IDK if this will help or tremendously hurt you.

Hello, please give more informations about the kind of object, how your topology looks like, etc, maybe share your file: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/


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How to make eyeglass lens material
I am trying to make a pair of eyeglasses but am having trouble with the lenses. I can't seem to make the lenses look right. I tried using the glass shader but it made the lenses look more like a mirror. I also tried the transparent shader but it just made the lenses invisible. How can I make a material that looks just like a glasses lens?

hello, you don't say if you use Cycles or Eevee, also maybe share what you've done so far so that we can see why your current material doesn't work? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

I didn't remember this answer actually, I hope it will help the user, but it looks like you are 6 months late  ^^

yes but sometimes the questions look similar but the problem car be very specific and different

You're right, I vote too close too

Go to the Material Properties panel and set Blend Mode to Alpha Hashed under Viewport Display -> Settings.
Alternatively, you can switch render engine to Cycles under the Render Properties panel.


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I need some sculpting advice and best practices
I’ve been sculpting on and off for about a year now, mostly just doing fantasy stuff like dragons and monsters. Things that don’t need super correct anatomy or stuff like that to look cool. I started like that so I can get comfortable with the tools and understand sculpting as a whole.
But now I want to get serious and learn how to sculpt characters, human characters. I started out with the body as it seemed easier, and while it probably has anatomical mistakes, I ended with pleasing results. However, the face is a different beast entirelly.
I’ve sculpted maybe 30 faces now? And only now I got a good result. Something that doesn’t look like a Skinwalker at the least.

This is the best I’ve managed to do without using any references at all. And here is my problem. I only have one monitor to work on, and it’s not a big one either. So how can I place dozens of references and still be able to sculpt all on one monitor?
As of right now, I feel lost on a human face. This character was suppose to be a male, but ended up looking like a female. And I feel is because I don’t have references to guide me. And speaking of references, does anyone know any good references specially designed to teach someone how to sculpt a human face?
And finally, what are the best practices to learn how to sculpt human characters as fast as possible?
And, I would like to end this by saying that I’m not interested on becoming a character artist, or an artist at all. I’m a solo game dev and I wanted to make my own assets for my game instead of buying them. Which is why I’m in Blender and am learning Sculpting, Texturing and animation. I’m also not necessarily aiming at realism since I want to have a more stylized aproach to my game.
So, to sum it all up:
-How can I place and use references while still being able to sculpt all in one single monitor?
-What are the best references for beginners to use to quickly learn how to sculpt human faces and where to find them?
-What are the best practices to become good at sculpting in the shortest ammount of time?

I think only your first question is suitable for this site format. Also only one question per post is preferred. What's wrong in using the image editor or placing reference images directly in the 3D space?  Most know resources for Blender are listed here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/15355/resources-for-blender. Best practice, best tutorials,... it's an high debatable topic that fits better in Blender Artist. Have you check there?

Please [edit] your post and make a single clear question that is not opinion based. Make new questions in different posts, one question per page. Please take a minute to take the [tour] to understand how to make better use of this site. Read also the following link


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Materials tab not showing
Using Blender Version 2.91. I've purchased a model and when opening the file (and even when opening only the default cube in Blender) the materials tab isn't showing. I can't follow the tutorial to change the feet mesh. I've tried selecting the correct mesh file, I've tried old versions of Blender.

You've selected the armature, armatures don't have material

On the screenshot yes, but as I said, selecting the mesh isn't doing it. I've tried on 2.8 and it worked, but for some reason 2.91 doesn't have materials. Will I have to work on the 2.8 and miss the new features?

Maybe it's a bug, could you please share your mesh (just a part of it) so that we can try? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

I'm running v2.91 and there is a material tab in Edit and Object mode. Maybe your outliner is too large and it got pushed out of sight? You can hover the mouse pointer over the tab icons and use the mouse wheel to scroll the icons.

Select the object, not the armature. Please [edit] the question  and show the interface with the selected object.


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Mesh Changes Shape when Parenting Armature
My low poly character's chest and arms changes shape when parenting armature with automatic weights.
I don't know what is going on and here is the file. Just simply parent armature to cube(modified into low poly character). Link

But when I parent the armature,

This happens. Please help.

First thing, bend a bit the elbow in Edit mode so that Blender knows in what direction the arm is supposed to bend:

Now correct the IK Pole Angle value, for example the correct value for left arm is -90°:

Thank you so much! That worked!


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Weird shading problems
Anyone knows how to fix this weird shading without having to delete the faces ? I don't want to delete the faces and adding them again to not ruin the UV map. Also all the faces normals points in right direction so I don't know what is causing this.

Hello :) Perhaps related: Inaccurate shading on object

Also avoid ngons (so yes, you may have to redo some faces)


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How to create detailed Procedural materials?
I'm trying to create a procedural bumpy skin for lizards or dinosaurs but  it's a bit blurry.

Is there a way to make these procedural textures in blender more detailed or Sharper?
UPDATED:

And my node tree:

However, I'm still not super happy with the results. Feels like it's missing something....:\

Hello :). Noise texture has a fairly soft look. You can increase the contrast (sharpness of the bumps) with a ColorRamp.

I'm already using that and this is as sharp as I can make it.

For questions like this it helps if you show images of the current node setup you are using.

I just did with an update.

In this particular case, you might try using an RGB Curve node to directly model the bump depth you want in the node viewer.
To preserve some surface detail, you might also try dividing your subsurface map to bring down the overall scale.
This one was done with microdisplacement:

And bump:

Awesome! That's exactly the sort of crisp look I wanted! But the micro displacement scares me a bit. Could that somehow be baked as well? This is suppose to go in to game engines.

Perhaps but that's probably a question someone else is better equipped to answer, it's not something I have done.  Feel free to ask a new question. :)

Alright, thank you! I'll mark this as answered since I got a better understanding of nodes and a really good starting point from where I can take my material. :)

Most textures have a detail slider, but oftentimes it's better to mix in another noise texture at a smaller scale.
One of the biggest giveaways that you're looking at a rendered object is a lack of variation.  Looking at the following object, it's painfully obvious it's a render.

We can generate some noise to break up the base color and it gets much better.

However, it's still clear what you're looking at.  Procedural textures come with their own challenges, and if you imagine using procedural textures on many things in your scene everything starts to get a perlin noise "sameness". So for lack of a better term you need variety in your variety.
You must take measures to break up the pattern.  You need a diverse toolkit and the ability to mix and match elements.  For example to cover up this base color we might do something like mix in a layer of noise that's just humongous on top of the other.

Bearing in mind that everything here is just Base Color and the rest is default Principled, we're getting there.  If we can identify features that we want to add we can generate noise maps that have those features and choose where to mix them in.
So I want this to have a horizontal grain, I can do that with a wave texture with a high scale.  I don't need real geometry so I'll use a bump node to convert that into height data and plug it into the Normal socket:

Now in my mind we've run into another problem because the lines are too perfect.  So another thing we can do is distort the coordinate space before we feed it to the texture.
Wave texture does have a distortion option but it's not exactly what I want.

So yes, we are sending vector data into a color input and vice versa, but the node will treat XYZ just like RGB... and vice versa, and just do the math and get on with our lives.
You don't need to mix in much noise in most cases.  If you use a viewer node on it you'll see it gets out of hand pretty quickly.  It's really easy to drown out a wave texture in particular.

The effect is... almost human imperceptible, but as Andrew Price says it's one of those things that you'll never notice unless it's not there.
So to finish this off I think I'd raise the scale of the wave texture a bit, and maybe take that same pattern and apply a color ramp to it to use it for the roughness.  Maybe one more splash of some earth-tone color.
At the end we have this:

And really we used one wave texture and the rest is just perlin noise.  Surely doesn't look like that second image, though.
There are plenty more ways to provide layers of detail to your object.  Displacement is a big one but I'll leave that for a more targeted answer.
Here's an example of a procedural printed cardboard material that uses the clearcoat layer and clearcoat normal to provide the imperfect reflective sheen leaving me room to provide tons of bump data beneath the surface.

In your picture it looks like you're using subsurface scattering.  Just be aware that this makes it harder to identify tiny details on the surface since light penetrates through.  However... just because they're hard to identify doesn't mean you wouldn't miss them if they weren't there.

I'm using a voronoi texture which doesn't have a detail slider. Voronoi seems to be the closest to "bumps".
I am using SSS since I'll be using that in the end and I'm not sure I understand what you mean by breaking the "sameness".

Oh yeah, that's true.  Voronoi is a pretty smooth transition though, I'd mix or even use the Math add node to lay a noise texture on top of it.

I can add some pictures later to explain myself more clearly, thanks for feedback

Yes please do! I just used a Math node and got already much better results but I wouldn't mind seeing an actual example and maybe even further tips onhow I could improve this?

Also, is it possible to distort a Voronoi texture? It also doesn't have a distort option and that would be very handy!

this became a whole adventure...

Wow. Thanks for the answer but I'm afraid something got lost in communication. I'm not really trying to get rid of the " CG look" since I'm aiming for some stylization and it's all going to be baked into textures to be used in a game engine. The goal was never photorealism. What I wanted was information on how to create some clearly defined bumps, not a clay vase. On the other hand, I did learn more about nodes so that's something. But sadly the question still remains unaswered.

yeah I was trying for a general form answer, it's just what it turned into.  If it's helpful at all I'll leave it, it at least has an example for you to distort any texture


text:
Confused about x/y when extruding along normals in Python
I'm a 3D newbie but I have programming experience. I'm using Blender 2.91.0 on Linux.
I am trying to write a script to create a path/road from JSON data. The general strategy is to start from a block, and then extrude the "forward-facing" face for each item in the track_data list (this script only goes up and down, no curves). My problem comes from that extrusion: when using "orient_type": "NORMAL" I know that in this context "z" is the normal itself, but I don't seem to have a reliable way to tell which one of x or y points up (global "z"). What is even weirder is that it seems to change according to the value of the extrusion.
I have been able to produce a reduced test case that shows what I'm talking about:
#!/usr/bin/python3

import bpy
import bmesh

# Cut off point is around 1.1945 ????
MULTIPLIER = 1

track_data = [
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": 0}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": 0}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": 0,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -6.041601,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -6.041601,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -24.154236,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -24.154236,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -54.301429,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -54.301429,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -96.422468,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -96.422468,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -150.432527,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -150.432527,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -216.222836,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -216.222836,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -293.660902,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -293.660902,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -382.590776,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -382.590776,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -482.833365,}}}
]

# Initial segment
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add()
cube = bpy.context.object
bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(6, 4, 5))
bpy.ops.transform.translate(value=(0, 0, -4.95))

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

for segment in track_data:
    altitude_diff = (segment["p2"]["world"]["y"] - segment["p1"]["world"]["y"]) / 400

    bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(cube.data)
    bm.faces.ensure_lookup_table()
    for face in bm.faces:
        face.select = False
    # Select the forward-looking face. Hacky, but seems reliable enough.
    forward_face = bm.faces[-5] if len(bm.faces) <= 6 else bm.faces[-4]
    forward_face.select = True

    extrusion = (0, altitude_diff * MULTIPLIER, 2)
    bpy.ops.mesh.extrude_region_move(
        TRANSFORM_OT_translate={"value":extrusion, "orient_type":"NORMAL"}
    )

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

If you run that script, the result will be the first image (the "y" coordinate is the global "x" so it turns left). If you change the MULTIPLIER constant at the top to 2, the result will be the second image (the "y" coordinate is the global "z", so it goes down... which is what I what).

So, is there any way to make sure that x or y in that extrusion is consistently "pointing up" (in my case it will always literally be global z)? I am not doing any rotations in this script, and the full script will only use rotations on the z axis (for curves).
I have tried playing a bit with other parameters to TRANSFORM_OT_translate, like orient_matrix, but I don't know what to try and I cannot find documentation anywhere.
EDIT: I realised that I will only be rotating for curves (not shown in this script) so the question is a bit simpler, because I am looking for the global z.

Bmesh take on this.
IMO would step straight into API methods using linear algebra, and bmesh for operating on mesh ASAP.  ... no mode toggling mind boggling mesh operators, ...
Have used question script to add the initial cube, then from there gone object mode bmesh

Transformed (translate and scale) the mesh using matrices.
Given all six faces names Y is north, Z is up.
Then chosen to "go west". This is travel 2 in direction of west face
normal, and up by elevation difference each step.
Totally confused as to MULTIPLIER and its cut off point, so left it
out.

Test script, goes west.
import bpy
import bmesh
from mathutils import Matrix
# Cut off point is around 1.1945 ????
MULTIPLIER = 1

track_data = [
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": 0}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": 0}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": 0,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -6.041601,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -6.041601,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -24.154236,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -24.154236,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -54.301429,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -54.301429,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -96.422468,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -96.422468,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -150.432527,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -150.432527,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -216.222836,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -216.222836,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -293.660902,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -293.660902,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -382.590776,}}},
    {"p1": {"world": {"y": -382.590776,}}, "p2": {"world": {"y": -482.833365,}}}
]

step = 2

# Initial segment
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add()
cube = bpy.context.object
me = cube.data

M = (
    Matrix.Translation((0, 0, -4.95)) @
    Matrix.Diagonal((6, 4, 5)).to_4x4()
    )
me.transform(M)
bm = bmesh.new()
bm.from_mesh(me)

west, north, east, south, down, up = bm.faces

go = west

for segment in track_data:
    altitude_diff = (segment["p2"]["world"]["y"] - segment["p1"]["world"]["y"]) / 400
    go = bmesh.ops.extrude_discrete_faces(
        bm,
        faces=[go],
        )["faces"].pop()
    bmesh.ops.translate(
        bm,
        vec=step * go.normal + altitude_diff * up.normal,
        verts=go.verts,
        )
bm.to_mesh(me)
me.update()

Thanks so much! I'm surprised that the order of faces is consistent, similar things have felt pretty random to me, even as in "different every time I run the same, unmodified script".
The MULTIPLIER is what I mentioned in my question: changing the amount to extrude by changes what x and y point to! The cutoff is when the change happens: values under the cutoff point seem to always behave the same; same with values over it.

BTW it seems that the bmesh.ops.translate call should be inside the loop. At least that's how I made it work. I cannot edit the answer to correct it because SE wants me to modify more than just four characters


text:
How to switch between fk and ik when they are separate armatures?
I have a model that I want to be able to switch between IK and FK. The ik and fk bones are two separate armatures but connected through bone constraints. How would I be able to switch between FK and Ik and keep the position when posing?
Kind of asking the same question here: How can I seamlessly switch between IK/FK?? but the armature in this question is all one armature instead of two like I'm asking. Also, this was asked in 2.7 and I need to know where it is in 2.8/2.9

IK/FK switches are constructed using three groups of bones: FK chain, IK chain and a deforming chain.
The deforming chain bones have a set of constraints that make them copy the FK loc rot and scale, followed by a set of constraints that make them copy the loc rot and scale of the IK chain.
By animating the influence slider of this last set of copy IK constraints (generally using a single slider, and drivers to control all the constraints at once), you will switch between IK and FK, that can be in separate rigs without problems.
The premade sliders you see in the previous answer are related to Rigify rigs only, which builds for you the IK/FK set, adding some more convenient options, like a snap IK to FK and a snap FK to IK function.


text:
How to remove these wrinkles/stress lines
I'm trying to remove these creases from the faces, what are some of the best approaches to clean this up?

The best approach is proper modeling. Those subdivisions are due to non planar polygons. Having such long faces as part of the long cylinder will make this more evident. Try using a subsurf modifier.

In addition to what @susu said, you also want to minimize the usage of ngons in your mesh.

Can you provide your blend file? So we can check it out?

If you add a bunch of loop cuts horizontally (CTRL + R) this should minimize the tearing effect

shade smooth + subsurface modifier

Won't work. Smooth shading is already on. The main problem are the ngons and the resulting non-planar and quite long triangles. Also, 4 words rarely make a good answer.


text:
How to create editable object mesh for an object made using modifiers
I want to know how to make I solid mesh to work with when I have used say array modifier to design an object. Because when we use array modifier it just makes the same object visible the number of times we want it to, it does not create a duplicate of it.
Like I have made a chocolate bar by using array modifier but when I switch to edit mode it only shows the 1 editable piece which I made initially not those made by using array modifier.
Can I make the changes permanent like if I created the cheese using spheres and boolean modifier and now after getting my cheese ready is there any way so that I delete the spheres and the cheese remains intact as it was.

for the first one maybe you can try animation nodes addon and object instancer node. so you make what you need and you can change instances. and i dont think i understood but maybe you can try apply boolean modifiers

do you want to add a screenshot? I read chocolate bar and then cheese ... huh? Try to apply the array modifier to make the change permanent.

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

THANK YOU VERY MUCH CHRISTOPHER


text:
What is a glow map and how do I use it?
I downloaded a set of textures and one of the textures included was called a glow map. I looked all over the web to figure out what it was and can't find anything. How do I use the glow map? By which I mean, how do I connect it to the Principled Shader?

you probably need to plug it into the Rougness socket of the Principled

Glow, as in emission? Maybe to the emission socket of the Principled BSDF shader. Please [edit] your question and show an exaple image that shows the result you are after.

I think 3DS refers to 'Glow Maps' . If this is one of those, I would plug it into Emission Strength, if it is black and white, or Emission (color) if it is color.


text:
How do I access the Save pop-up on older files
I just switched to Blender 2.91 and I am having a problem: when I close a project I did with 2.90 I do not get the option to save. Saving manually does work, but it adds a file called quit.blend every time. What should I do

quit.blender is a copy of the file that was last opened, in case you need to recover the last session.

The save prompt when you exit blender can be enabled/disabled in the preferences, (Load & Save tab). Have you checked if it's turned on?

@Blunder It is on, and I only have the problem when I am using older files.


text:
What is an exponent texture?
I'm trying to convert an SFM model to Blender and came across something called an exponent texture. Do I need this, and if so, how do I plug it into the Principled shader?

Hello :). Could you please add an example of such texture?

I'm not familiar with SFM, so I googled and found: https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Phong_materials , which suggests that the image you're looking at is a remapping of specular power (remapped from 0,1 to 1.0, 150.0).
Specular power is used in some engines for gloss/roughness.  A high specular power indicates high gloss/low roughness.  Blender does not use specular power to control gloss in any of its shaders, in either Eevee or Cycles, and specular power does not map linearly (or in any particular way, really) to Blender's various roughness models.
If you wanted to use this perfectly, it would require a separate render layer for every light, where you computed the specular highlight in compositing from raw values.  (Basically, specular = specColor * lightColor * clamp(dot(normal, (light+view)/2))^SP.  Which is then added to a no-specular version.)  This is tedious and doesn't lead to great looking output anyways.
If you wanted to use this in some fashion, you would use a remapped version of this and plug it into any roughness inputs your shaders use.  Like I said, there's not really any mathematically correct way to do this, so you'd be doing it by eye.  Main thing is to realize that a high SP corresponds to a low roughness and vice versa.
Note, that link suggests that different channels may or may not be used in SFM.  The above should be correct for a grayscale exponent texture, which should be the norm.  Technically, it is the red channel that is used as the exponent, while the green channel sounds like its used to tint the specular.  The link does not give any more info on how the green channel is used, other than suggesting it is rarely used and not compatible with all SFM branches.


text:
Hiding vertices doesn't work in sculpt mode
I am trying to do some slight model edits via sculpt mode, but only need some parts to be affected. I find it much easier to select and hide the vertices than to use the mask brush in sculpt mode, but hiding the vertices has no effect because when I exit sculpt mode, some vertices that I hid now appear to have been affected by the sculpting. Is there away for the selected vertices to not be affected without using the mask brush?

Yes, thankfully there is a way, though it’s not quite as flexible as edit mode vertex hiding. Has to do with something called “face sets“ if I remember correctly. Look around in the menus for hiding selected faces, and see if you can figure it out. I personally didn’t get very far, but I was able to get something done thankfully.


text:
Cycles reflective materials not rendering transparency correctly
A reflective material in Cycles will reflect the world color even if the world color has an alpha of 0. If the world has a transparent material, the reflective material will show black pixels instead of transparency.
Example:

The plane on the left is a has a simple glossy shader with roughness 0. It reflects the cube and the world color, even though the world color has alpha 0. As you can see (behind the cube itself), the render properties are also set to allow transparent background. The glossy shader doesn't support alpha it seems, which is a bug in my opinion.
Example 2:

Here the world is set to transparent but the glossy shader is still not rendering transparency.
The principled shader has this issue as well.
Does anybody know a workaround?

Sorry, this is intended to happen. However, you might be able to have a workaround by setting the world color to bright green, and then green screening the reflections out. First though, have you tried the “film -> transparent background” setting in the render tab?

The Film -> Transparent checkbox is on. I could use green screening, but some of the other reflections in my scene will also be green so it would be a pain to deal with.


text:
Merging nurbs sphere with cylinder
I want to merge the nurbs sphere with a cylinder as shown in the image below. I am a bit new to blender and very unsure how to go about doing it. The way I learnt to merge two objects is with ctrl + j but this does not work in this case.

Here's how I'd go about it:

Add your UV/Nurbs sphere.

Go into 'Edit Mode' and select the top faces then delete them like so:
EXAMPLE

Go into edge mode and, whilst holding 'ALT' click the one next to it select the ring:
EXAMPLE

Press 'E' then 'Z' to extrude that ring a little bit on the 'Z' axis
EXAMPLE

Press CTRL+R to add about 3 loop cuts (scroll on mouse to increase number of cuts. For a sharper connection add 3 cuts or 4 depending on what you want.
EXAMPLE

Using the 'Ring Select' method I described above, select the open ring and, again, extrude it up a little.
EXAMPLE

Now add a SINGLE loop cut, as we did before, but this time, when you've done it, press CTRL+B to bevel it - using your scroll wheel to add 3 or 4 new edges.
EXAMPLE

8.Move them up so that they're just below that top edge.
EXAMPLE

Now select all of those top vertices and move them up to the desired height.
EXAMPLE

Once again select that top open ring using the 'ALT' and click method.

Press 'F' to cap it.

Go into face select mode and select that new face.

Press I to inset that face by about 0.004, pretty much a tiny amount. You can change the values in the bottom left...
EXAMPLE

Now add about 8 edge cuts, or as many as you need so that there are an even number of edges in-between the top and bottom of the cylinder.
EXAMPLE

Come out of 'Edit Mode' right click you mesh and choose 'Shade Smooth'

Now add a 'Subsurface Modifier' and change the 'Levels Viewport' to 2 or 3 depending on what you'like.

You should now have this result:

Thanks! just what I wanted.


text:
What algorithm is used for "beauty" triangulation
When applying triangulation modifier, what kind of algorithm does Blender use when choosing the "Beauty" option for quads or polygons? Is it Delaunay triangulation on individual polygons?

After a quick look at the source code, I believe it tries to find a triangulation that leads to the best angles for each triangle (ie biggest minimum angle and smallest maximum angle).
For a quad, there are only two possible splits so it tries both.
For a polygon with more sides, it does some sort of greedy iterative search of an initial triangulation and edge rotations.
Possibilities where triangles that are flipped relative to the initial polygon are discarded.
Relevant code:

bmo_triangulate_exec in https://github.com/blender/blender/blob/main/source/blender/bmesh/operators/bmo_triangulate.cc
BM_mesh_triangulate in
https://github.com/blender/blender/blob/main/source/blender/bmesh/tools/bmesh_triangulate.cc
BM_face_triangulate in
https://github.com/blender/blender/blob/main/source/blender/bmesh/intern/bmesh_polygon.cc
BM_verts_calc_rotate_beauty in
https://github.com/blender/blender/blob/main/source/blender/bmesh/tools/bmesh_beautify.cc
BLI_polyfill_beautify in
https://github.com/blender/blender/blob/main/source/blender/blenlib/intern/polyfill_2d_beautify.c


text:
Why are there extra deform bones in rigify armature?
I'm working on a rigify armature and noticed when I generated the rig it forms extra deform bones in the arms and legs. I'm fairly new to this add-on so I'm not sure why this happens. Is there a way to remove these bones and have the armature work properly?

There are a lot more bones in the rigify armature than there are in the metarig.  The metarig exists only to guide the placement of the actual bones.  The bones you're showing are twist bones, which are used to prevent Y axis rotation at the shoulder and groin, which usually improves apparent deformation.

Example for the twist bones: Look at your hand and forearm. Now, turn your hand around (180°) and have a look at your forearm. The forearm at the wrist turns around with the hand but at the elbow it doesn't turn at all.

As said, this is to improve your weight painting in case of mesh flipping issues during twist movments.
You can modify the number of limb segments produced by the metarig in Bone Properties > Rigify Type.
For example, if I set the left arm Limb Segments to 1:

The metarig will produce a rig with 2 segments per metarig bone for the right arm and only one for the left:


text:
Masking a plane
I have a plane that should be masked similarly to what the person displays in this video with a torus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS-36yegLcg But when I apply all the masking rules as shown in the video my plane is not doing the same thing and is just displaying lines. I am a little new to blender and not sure whether this modifier works on a plane or not similar to the torus object.

have you subdivided your plane a bit?

No I didn't, but have just done it now and the transition did work! Thanks for the help!

Your plane doesn't have enough topology, it has only 4 vertices, the Mask modifier makes 2 of these vertices invisible and therefore your whole object invisible. The solution is to subdivide your plane, it will keep the weight gradient.


text:
How to make particle system animate in different key frames
I have a water spray which sprays particles at a given frame range. In-between there's a break where the spraying stops but after certain frames I want my spray object to spray particles again. How can I do this using the particle system? because currently I only have one frame start and end option. I want the emission to take place between multiple frame ranges.

Would it be practical for you to have the particles still emit, but turn transparent (invisible) for a certain period of time?

Would be better to have them stop at a certain frame range, but don't mind giving it a try to see how it looks on my animation. How can I go about making them transparent?

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

When I search for the "greater than" node, its not showing up with anything.

It's a Math Node set to Greater Than (click the drop menu that says "Add")


text:
How do I connect these two vertices by extending them along its edge util they reach each other?
How do I connect these two vertices by extending them along its edge util they reach each other?
Since the left edge is parallel with the Y axis, it is easy to move the vertex down the Y axis, but how do I move the vertex of the bottom edge since it is not parallel with the X axis?

Enable addon tinyCad, there should be Auto option in the right click menu

@MrZak that did it! thank you very much! Make your comment an answer and I will mark it as the solution, if you want!

You're welcome to post it instead with sharing screenshots of how you did that

Edit: grilled by Mr Zak  ;)
You can extend the 2 edges so that they overlap: slide GG and C to extend. Then enable the TinyCAD addon, select all and right click > TinyCAD > XALL Intersect, it will create a vertex at the intersection. Remove the rest.

Or, as mentionned by the Great Robin Betts, don't slide, just select all and choose VTX Auto, it will intersect automatically, you'll just have to dissolve the remaining vertices with CtrlX:

Grilling you some more ... you have the option of using  VTX AUTO, eliminating the need to slide. Well ..OK, you have to dissolve some verts instead, much of a muchness.

wow I didn't know that, I'm going to edit my answer


text:
How can I cut these faces in this direction and make vertex along the way?
There should be one vertex in each of these curved faces. Don't know how to explain it better, sorry, I hope the red line speaks for itself.

if I understand correctly what you ask, you can do it with the knife (K to activate, C to cut vertically)

I've just edited the question and added another picture. See if it is better.

it looks like you have 2 separate meshes, which makes things a bit more complicated, you could use a knife for the vertical line, then create a vertex on the edge of the other mesh and make it stick to the other mesh? please give more precisions or even share your file: https://pasteall.org/blend/


text:
Objects are moved after reopening the file
I'm trying to add windows and doors to the walls of the house I'm making. All objects/walls were made using the Archipack add-on.
I'm using the boolean technique to cut openings in the walls for the doors and windows. It's proven to be a tedious task for me and I carefully spend my time getting everything just where I want it.
I also get a weird glitch after adding the boolean modifier where the windows and doors stretch hilariously large so I have to then go back and re-size them. Perhaps that's a trouble for another post...
My main problem here is that after I finally get everything sized and in place and it all looks good, I save and exit. However, when I re-open the file I get this weird problem where random doors and windows are no longer anchored to the walls.
I've repeated the process several times making little tweaks here and there but this problem persists. In the image, I've circled the object that has moved position after saving and closing and I've put a dot of the same color in the location of where it's supposed to be. There's also a random gap in the wall that keeps appearing? I just have no clue and have found no other helpful resources.
I'm using Blender 2.92 and Archipack ver 1.2.84. I've tried downgrading and upgrading without luck.

Are shifted objects you adjusted later? It is not definitely boolean issue, seems more like you manipulate with objects in non appropriate way. Addon is using parametric modeling to automate some processes. After reopening some processes where recalculated, the same happens when Boolean operation is pressed.

@JachymMichal Thanks for structuring OP :)

@vklidu Well I love to see paragraphs everywhere :)

Thanks for editing my post. I’ll try and keep your standards in mind for next time.

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.


text:
Again with the (67) Donut | Donut
I was doing Part 2, Level 1 again and the particle add has always only put in 1 white cookie off the side of the donut.  I am getting so many it looks like shaving cream.  I looked up at the user perspective and it changed again, just by opening up that file.  It now says (210) Donut | Donut, I did not do a thing except open the file.  This is what it looked like literally 1 minute ago.  Does anyone know what this is and what damage or confusion it will cause later on?  Andrew Price's says (1). Even worse, this is now in every saved donut.

What do you mean by "...and the particle add has always only put in 1 white cookie off the side of the donut. I am getting so many it looks like shaving cream."? I can't see any shaving cream on your donut. The (67) is the current frame of the timeline. Do you see the blue 67 at the bottom of your screenshot and the play/rewind buttons above this? Press the first button |< and the frame will be (1) again.

I am not sure what happened to my text, only the jpg shows.  Right under my funny 67 pic is my shaving cream donut.  That tiny thing in the middle is the icing, I have no idea where my donut ran off to.  Changing it to hair bring ups the strands but they are all grouped in the middle of the donut hole.  I have never looked at it that way so that may be normal.  This is the first time the shaving cream has happened.


text:
How to fill triangle hole of mesh?
It would be very appreciated if someone know how can I turn this triangle mesh to proper mesh.
3d file:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HlKps1PNBrXrzZWu9mEfq2yhZJAADu1H/view

I think it might be more trouble fixing than it's worth fixing that instead of just adding a fresh icosphere. But you could try transforming to sphere and then using F to fill in the holes.

Can you explain a bit?

Well I mean, unless you just want to fill in the holes and keep the strange topology, just making a new mesh would be a lot easier, as there's really no fast way to do that due to the nature of your mesh.

You can fill in a hole in your mesh by selecting three to four vertices and pressing F

Oh! Yeah. But I need exactly this mesh. It's for Pro evolution soccer. I have to convert it to work properly. Thanks I'll try it.


text:
Convert files packed in Blend file
A model I downloaded has textures packed that are in TGA format. I want to convert the images into PNG format because it takes up less storage space. Is there a way I can easily convert all the files without having to unpack them, and replace the textures one by one?

The first thing I thought of was unpacking all, converting externally with FFMPEG or Python PIL, and then blender scripting them back in with the different file name extension. Shouldn’t be too hard with bpy.data

@ZargulTheWizard ...but only if you know how to use python and you can develop a bit with python - which not everybody is capable of... ;)

Or you could unpack the Blend Files, open in photoshop or Gimp and export as PNG. But if you hace like 100 or more, is going to take a while

@Chris oh, alright. Hang on…

This is easily done with Python scripting, but I include in that statement a non-blender Python installation on your system. To do what you want from scratch:

Backup the blend file!
Go to python.org and download the latest Python (not the embeddable version).
Install Python on your system, and check the “add Python to PATH” when it comes up.
At the Command Prompt, type: python -m pip install pillow and it will download and install the Python imaging library (an easy way to convert the files).
In blender, unpack all images to one folder using the File menu (“use local directory” probably will work, but make sure nothing else is in there except the blend file).
Open IDLE (the Python IDE you just installed. You will see a Python shell.
Run the following code in that shell:

from PIL import Image
import glob
files=glob.glob(“C:\\Users\\Anthony\\the_blend_directory_here\\*”)
for f in files:
    Image.open(f).save(f.replace(“.tga”, “.png”))

The script should convert all unpacked images to png, one at a time. Close the Python shell upon verifying success.
In blender, go to the Scripting screen, and run the following code:

for img in bpy.data.images:
    img.filepath=img.filepath.replace(“.tga”, “.png”)
    img.reload()

Re-pack all files.
Delete the external images.

Sorry, I couldn’t get the code to separate properly :( I hope you can still read it


text:
Uploading photos in Blender
When I'm trying to upload photos in Blender-General using Import in File, its not working. The square outline of the image is coming but not the actual picture itself so i end up with a blank rectangle. Can anybody tell me if there is any way to fix this?

So what type of image are you importing? Referance image or image as planes are two common import types.

explain exactly what you are doing. Best with screenshots.


text:
Measuring edge angle relative to faces normals (negative angles allowed), and automatically select similar
Ive got a mesh, and Im wanting to select all acute edges with angles relative to their adjacent faces to a certain degree.  But it seems that even if a connection between two faces is flexing inward, or outward, the sign of the angle stays the same.  Is there any way to allow signed angles for use in the "Select similar" tool?  Im using blender 2.92.0
Or if not, how do I select edges that bend inward to a certain degree?
Here is a screenshot showing what happens, and in red of what behavior Im looking for.  If I were to select edge C, and select similar with a tolerance of 50 degrees, It would only select C and A, not B (as this is the default behavior)

Hello :). This script by Leander could help: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/124206/78972


text:
How can I bevel weapon's handle?
I am working on M4 model, and I have finished the base mesh (image 1).
When I mark edges and use bevel - weird thing is going on, totally unexpected (image 2).
Rotation & scale is 1-1-1.
IMAGE 1

IMAGE 2

Hello :). The geometry is too tight. Related: How to bevel boolean cutouts

Well, it isn't a boolean cut actually, but I will check it

I recommend using Limited Dissolve on the model first.


text:
Disappearance of 3D axis from viewport
In my recent project work, I did something that resulted in the disappearance of the 3D axis in the viewport of the "Layout" workspace, not only that all that four buttons(including zoom thingy, move, camera and projection buttons). I am not sure what lead to this. Weirdly, both 3D axis and 4 buttons exist in all workspaces except in "Layout".(screenshot attached)
I googled to check the problem and found a similar issue caused using transform hotkey(devtalk blender). Although I didn't do anything similar.
Is this a bug? How can I resolve this?
Specs:
OS: Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS
Type: Blender LTS
Blender Version: 2.83.14
Missing 3D axis in viewport of Layout workspace

3D axis i am talking about, as u can see this appears in all other blender workspaces

The Interactive Navigation controls can be toggled by pressing the gizmo icon in the upper right corner of the 3D view or by pressing ⎈ Ctrl` (backtick not single quote/apostrophe).

thank you. It worked.


text:
How to fix overlapping faces?
I was trying to create my model and used primarily beveling/inset. I inset the face and this happened. How do I fix this?
https://i.stack.imgur.com/KvzjD.png

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

The tip that caused the discussion was also moved to chat, so here it goes again: Instead of having users go through links and external sites please use the builtin tools to embed images in your post. See How to upload an image to a post

Delete all the front faces and and start again.
Make sure to start with just one face.
Select it in Edit Mode. Use Inset Faces and then Extrude Region. No need to Bevel yet unless you want to round off the edges afterwards.


text:
Gun is not connected to hand when imported to unity
I made a shooting animation for my fps arms and gun, and it works great in blender. When exported to unity, the gun bone is no longer a child of the hand bone and the gun doesn't move with the hand. How do I fix this? I don't want to make it all one armature, because then I can't switch guns easily. I also don't want to duplicate the prefab to edit the gun and make it a child of the hand because then when I make changes to the gun in blender it won't apply anymore.  Does anyone have a solution for me?

Probably the parent/child relationship is established with a Blender constraint, that Unity doesn't recognize.
In this case you have to bake your animations: in pose mode go to pose menu > animation > bake action, and check the "clear constraints" option.


text:
Turn a flat mesh into sphere (for eyes)
I'm working with a model that has flat meshes for eyes. I want to turn these flat meshes into spheres so I can better work with the eyes for posing. How do I either make the flat meshes spherical, or how can I make a sphere that can shape around the flat surfaces?
BTW, here are some methods I have already tried:
Shrinkwrap modifier on sphere: This led to a weirdly deformed and too flat sphere.
Shrinkwrap modifier on lattice parent of sphere: Slightly better results but still has bad deforming.

Can you add screesnhots for better understanding? Why don't you delete the flat surface of your mesh and add a sphere instead of it?

You can cast to a sphere using a modifier or an operator with Alt+Shift+S:


text:
What should I do if the rendering doesn't match the video?
I used an HDRI environment map, but even with it, the rendering doesn't fit into the "live" environment captured on video.  The image in the video is a little noisy, the black color is lighter, and the white color is darker. How can I fix this and bring the quality and colors of the rendered object closer to the quality and colors of the video?

[Edited because I misread the first part of the question]
To add noise to your render you can tray overlaying a noise texture over your rendered image in the compositor. Specific settings or animated values are hard to predict, but it's a start.

To adjust your blacks and whites you can try going to the Render properties tab and under Color Management you can enable "Use Curves", then you can add handles to the curve in the little graph to tweak your values (sliding the "ends" of the curve might be most useful for you in this case).

I don't think Denoising will help when trying to match the render to the original noisy footage.

@Gordon ah yes, I misread that. Hm, maybe generating a noise texture and overlaying that on top of the render in the compositor?

The Noise texture is a good idea. And actually it changes with every frame I think, not like e.g. Clouds, which needs to be animated in order not to look weird and static.


text:
Is there any USDZ exporter for Blender?
I am trying to export to .usdz. I am using Blender version 2.92+ and I need to export the model along with its animation and the textures into one single .usdz file. However, I couldn't find a plug-in that imports and exports .usdz files.
Is there any other file types that can do the same job? Is there any converter to convert my file into .usdz format because I need to use it in Apple's Motion.

Does anyone have an update on the issue ? I currently work with Blender to provide animated objects/scenes for AR, on Android and iOs. The only issue is that animations don't work in iOs' AR.
I tried to install ths usd_from_gltf converter, but I kinda got lost in the steps, and honestly I never have done any coding before... Is it really the only solution ?

You can export to a regular usd file, abc, fbx or obj (for static meshes) and use Reality Converter which allows to convert any kind of file format to USDz (it's just a fancy/simplified GUI for a python library developed by Apple also available on developer.apple.com).

Alternatively you can try BlenderUSDZ a simple Blender add-on which allows direct export to USDz (limited in functionality though) or export to gltf and then convert the gltf file to USDz using a converter developed by Google if you do not have access to IOS.
Note, all shaders should follow the Metallic/Roughness workflow to ensure interoperability.

@user126825: Please consider to accept the answer. How this site works: https://blender.stackexchange.com/tour

Thanks for your support @Chris, appreciated. The user is gone so I don't think this will happen at all. I hope this is going to help future visitors though, it's a valid list of all options we got.

Tried using the add-on but file size is way small. Doesn't look like the entire model is being exported. Not sure why.

Try to apply the scale @KDP: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/scene_layout/object/editing/apply.html

Thank you. I applied scale and tried export, and now I get an Error window. It references the following files: in init.py , export_usdz.py , and scene_data.py . I'm pretty inexperienced, but it sounds bad!

Blender 2.93? @KDP If so, see: https://github.com/robmcrosby/BlenderUSDZ/pull/62

Thanks @brockmann . Yes, 2.93. So, is it just a matter of waiting for the pull request to be approved, then reinstalling the plugin?

Just click the fork, download from there, remove the old one and install the provided io_scene_usdz.zip via preferences > add-ons > install  @KDP

@brockmann was able to replace but still getting similar errors. I'm on a PC and see that this plugin is tested on Mac. Guessing that has something to do with it.

@KDP Works like a charm on IOS, never had the time to test the add-on on linux or windows. I guess the only way getting an usdz file on any other OS for free is using the gltf converter by google.

In a terminal you can run unzip file.usdz to extract a folder containing the .usd file and a folder of other assets.


text:
How to make a fingernail shader
What's the best way to make a decent looking fingernail shader? By decent-looking, I mean one that is not too complicated but looks realistic enough to look like a fingernail.

Hi :). You only need one shader - the default Principled BSDF. It includes subsurface scattering which will come in handy for fingernails :).

It will depend on if the fingernails are attached to the fingers or modeled as part of the fingers. The color comes from what is under the fingernails, otherwise the nail is a cloudy translucent color. There are also waves in the nail running with the length of the nail. The gloss is nearly the same as the skin.
If the nails are for females it maybe best to have them be polished, if for male you can have them short. If part of the finger and long you would need 3 parts, the crescent at the base the main color and the cloudy translucent tips. That means you will need the nail mesh able to support the different materials. So much depends on how you are making your models.


text:
Merging vertices by distance changes geometry
I have a model I imported from Source Filmmaker that I want to remove double vertices from. Normally I just select all vertices and merge by distance, but this particular models changes in geometry when I merge the vertices. Here are some pictures to show what I mean:

Mesh after merging vertices:

Merge by distance is not something you can do without thinking.  It does what it says, and only what it says: if any vertices are closer than the distance you specify in the operator panel, it merges all close vertices at their median point.  This can catch more vertices than you intend-- with some meshes, even with a distance of 0.
If you want to use merge by distance more judiciously, try selecting mesh borders that should join, then merging only those; then repeat with different mesh borders.  "Select non manifold" is a useful operation for finding mesh boundaries.


text:
Geforce MX 330 graphics card
Does anybody know if this model (GeForce mx330) graphics card is supported to work with Blender?
I did not find this specific model on the list provided on Blender's requirements webpage.
and can I count on it for handling medium expectations? (I will try to avoid high poly, simulations, or renderings on this system as much as possible).
Thank you!
PS The graphics card is mounted on this laptop: Aspire 3 A315-57G-37M9. Any comments on the laptop are welcome as well:)))))

Blender 2.93 requires a graphics card with OpenGL 3.3 support. The GeForce MX330 supports OpenGL 4.6. It should work.

@Blunder  Thanks a lot!


text:
Could someone please let me know what this download is- "sha256"
I apologise in advance for the stupidity.
Could someone let me know what I have just downloaded from the blender.org site. I had clicked on the "sha256" by accident and something just downloaded, I have not got a clue what it is could some let me know
Thanks

Sha256 is an encryption protocol used as a  checksum that is used to verify that the file you downloaded is the exact same as the file as on the site (the one you downloaded from). If your file got corrupted during download (or if someone tried to sneak a nasty file in), you will notice a difference in the checksum numbers. This is used mainly for security verification to make sure the file you got was the correct one.

This question kinda explains what this sha256 is https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/189000/how-to-verify-the-checksum-of-a-downloaded-file-pgp-sha-etc Like @ChristopherBennett wrote it's just used to make sure that the file with actual blender installer didn't arrive to your PC corrupted/broken/hacked/swapped.

Ah ok, thank you. I just got a bit confused because I couldn't open the file up and have never heard of the term. So, its just file of text to reference to check that you've made a legitimate/authentic file download right

@Stack151 Correct

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SHA-2 I guess this is a XY problem: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY-Problem You do not get blender installed on your machine?


text:
https://www.blender.org/download/ vs https://download.blender.org
I had seen that there are two sites for blender with the term "download" in it, I know that https://www.blender.org/download/ is what's usually used for downloads so what is the other for?
Thank you

Hello :). "download.blender.org" is a blender.org subdomain with an archive of all released Blender versions.

https://www.blender.org/download/ is a download hub for users to browse many versions of Blender, including the latest stable version, long-term support, and previous versions. However, the files to be downloaded are not hosted on that path. Instead, the user will be redirected to one of the external mirror sites to download the files from there instead.
https://download.blender.org is one of the external download mirrors that actually hosts the files for users to download them from.


text:
How do I track a camera that moves a long distance (IE, a bike going down the side of an entire mountain), without losing accuracy?
I have a couple of videos I pulled off of youtube of bike runs down the sides of mountains, and I would like to digitally add in some crazy scenery as a joke like lava pits in the jumps, etc...
however, I keep running into a problem with my much simpler test footage (which is me walking through a long curved hallway in a first-person game), where I am able to get a perfect track (error less than half a pixel) with all the due manual work put in, but for some reason, the parallax between the footage and the 3d blender scene seems to get worse the longer I walked in the footage, even with the error maintained at a very low number.
my understanding of how blender's motion tracking works is that everything between the A and B keyframes is where the algorithm does all the actual calculations, and everything else is kind of just lazily extrapolated somehow.... if that's the case, is there a way for me to force blender to do the accurate calculations for the entire scene? or is there a way to perhaps do multiple camera tracks, and then align them perfectly with each other and link them together seamlessly?
I'm just looking for a way to track the whole scene from start to finish as the camera moves through it for a long distance, but every tutorial I see is just tracking a small area and hovering around the object, which is barely useful knowledge for anything more complex than that.
i am well aware that there's a similar question already posted here, but there is not enough information in the answer to really help me (I've tried it): Tracking very long shot with no points in common between first and last frame

Sorry, I'm really no expert at motion tracking. I was just wandering, if you say the parallax between footage and 3D scene gets worse - are you doing object motion tracking or camera motion tracking, to put it simple?

@GordonBrinkmann camera. sorry if this wasnt clear


text:
How to "un-subdivide" bones
Let's say I have a chain of bones and I want to reduce the number of bones in that chain by half. Is there any possible way of doing this?

Try using "Dissolve Bones" in Edit Mode-Armature.
Select the bones to be removed and press "X" , a menu will popup with the Dissolve Bones option.


text:
How to find out what is using an image in a blend file
I downloaded a model and found some images that I don't think are needed, but the images do not show up in orphan data so something is using them. How do I find out what is using the image(s).

Via a script.
An image, like a mesh, world, material ... in blender is an ID object. Given the image is our ID object of interest Run over all the ID objects in the blend and list and report any where ob.user_of_id(ID) is > 0
Copy and paste the script block below into the text editor and run it. Output is written to the system console:
import bpy
from bpy.types import bpy_prop_collection

def search(ID):
    def users(col):
        ret =  tuple(repr(o) for o in col if o.user_of_id(ID))
        return ret if ret else None
    return filter(None, (
        users(getattr(bpy.data, p))
        for p in  dir(bpy.data)
        if isinstance(
                getattr(bpy.data, p, None),
                bpy_prop_collection
                )
        )
        )

img = bpy.data.images[0]
#img = bpy.data.images['Foo'] # an image named Foo

# report
print(repr(img))
print("Users:", img.users)
for users in search(img):
    print(users)

Test run. Image used in material, "Material", node group "NodeGroup", reference image empty "Empty", texture "Texture" and world "World".
bpy.data.images['Screenshot from 2021-06-17 17-17-47.png']
Users: 5
("bpy.data.materials['Material']",)
("bpy.data.node_groups['NodeGroup']",)
("bpy.data.objects['Empty']",)
("bpy.data.textures['Texture']",)
("bpy.data.worlds['World']",)

.. or users of context object, edit to img = bpy.context.object
result
bpy.data.objects['Cube']
Users: 2
("bpy.data.collections['Collection 1']",)
("bpy.data.scenes['Scene']",)

Any idea how to adapt this to search for actions assigned to an armature even if they aren't the current linked action? I've created 8 actions on one rig and I want to return all those action names as a list.

Is this impossible because blender shares data blocks by default? So after unlinking an action it has no metadata that says it was created on a specific rig?

You can use bpy.data.user_map :
import bpy

img = bpy.data.images[0]
users = bpy.data.user_map(subset=[img])
print(users[img])

This will output a dictionary with the input subset of IDs as keys and users as values.


text:
How do I export a .dae file from .pmx with textures baked?
I am using Blender version 2.92.0 and I’m trying to export a .pmx file to a .dae file. I’ve downloaded a file on Internet and it comes with a .pmx file and two image files both in .png format. My goal is to export the .dae file so it includes all the image textures (in other words, baked).I want my target file be like the other .dae files I've got:
I tried applying the image textures on the .pmx mesh (MESH ONLY) in Blender and export it via the Blender exporter. This is what I did:
Everything looks fine in Blender. However, when I reviewed the exported .dae file, it does not have any textures. Puzzling thing is that I also attempted to export it as .usdz format but there is no textures either, even though I did check the “bake textures” box.
Does anybody know what to do? Or not I'll have to edit the raw file code manually (Worst case scenario)

Your material should be setup using the default Principled BSDF node like this (in the Shader editor)

Not just for .dae, this will work for most exporters.

Thanks to your help, it works. However, I would like to ask why when I review it in Finder it doesn't show anything? Is this normal?

What is Finder?

It is like File Explorer on Windows but Finder is for Mac. The interface is like the first picture above. A preview of the model is supposed to appear on the right side when the .dae file is clicked. The problem here is that a preview doesn't show even though it does contain the data.


text:
How to find the users of a material?
There are a few materials in a blend file I have that I don't think are necessary in the file. However, none of these materials show up in orphan data. I know something is using these materials because if I add the material to another object, it will show a 2 in the material slot (for those who don't know, this means that 2 items are using the material. One of these is the object I plugged it into and the other one is what I want to figure out.) I checked all the meshes in the file and couldn't find a single one that was using the materials I think are not needed. None of these materials have any fake users either. How can I find what is using the material so I can be sure that I can delete it?

Hard to say without seeing the file, but a material can be referenced in several places, for instance in the render passes override or in geometry nodes

To be sure it is not assigned to anything: if you're choosing a material slot on an object and use the dropdown menu to assign a material, is the one in question there marked with a 0 in front of the name? If not, then it's assigned to something, whatever that might be (as @Gorgious pointed out, it's not necessarily a mesh object).

@GordonBrinkmann There is no 0 in front of the material

Then it's most likely assigned to something...

@GordonBrinkmann How can I figure out what it is? I checked all the meshes and couldn't find any that were using the material.

I would try to find it in the Outliner under a Display Mode like Data API maybe... expand all hierarchy and try to filter with the name... but I don't know. Hard to tell without the original file what to look for. Maybe it's completely easy to find with the correct intention. Without the file I can only give you tell you to look everywhere.

This appears to be the same question as How to find out what is using an image except that it's for materials rather than images. The first answer there, in the form of a python script, will solve this as well; by replacing the image bits with material bits.
Copy and paste script block into text editor and run it. Output written to system console:
import bpy
from bpy.types import bpy_prop_collection

def search(ID):
    def users(col):
        ret =  tuple(repr(o) for o in col if o.user_of_id(ID))
        return ret if ret else None
    return filter(None, (
        users(getattr(bpy.data, p))
        for p in  dir(bpy.data)
        if isinstance(
                getattr(bpy.data, p, None),
                bpy_prop_collection
                )
        )
        )

# report all materials and their users in the console
for mat in bpy.data.materials:
    print (20*"-")
    print(repr(mat))
    print("Users:", mat.users)
    for users in search(mat):
        print(users)

Console output (default scene):
--------------------
bpy.data.materials['Dots Stroke']
Users: 2
("bpy.data.brushes['Airbrush']", "bpy.data.brushes['Pencil Soft']")
--------------------
bpy.data.materials['Material']
Users: 1
("bpy.data.meshes['Cube']",)

Credit goes to @batFINGER, see How to find out what is using an image in a blend file

@brockman deserves half the bounty for updating the python to use mat.*

No problem, was dead easy to adapt it.

lol, thought this was the question I answered. Cheers for the cite. Appreciate the feedback.

Any idea how to adapt this to search for actions assigned to an armature even if they aren't the current linked action? I've created 8 actions on one rig and I want to return all those action names as a list.

No luck with bpy.context.active_object.user_of_id(bpy.data.actions['Mixamo_MocapGuy_Idle Neutral 1']). It also only works for linked actions.

Is this impossible because blender shares data blocks by default? So after unlinking an action it has no metadata that says it was created on a specific rig?


text:
How to have an individual texture for different Displace modifiers?
I don't know if this is something Blender has, or if it is a bug. But I was trying to create a procedural rock using two different Displace modifiers each using it's own texture. However, every time I go to the Texture tab, and I change between them, it always changes that texture on each modifier to the one I'm using.
Example:
Displace 1 - Texture 1
Displace 2 - Texture 2
In the texture tab, it has Texture 1 selected, if I change to Texture 2 then this happens:
Displace 1 - Texture 2
Displace 2 - Texture 2
This makes it very hard to work with the Displace modifier.
Here is the blend file showing what I mean:

To avoid accidentally editing the wrong texture, you can always use this little button in the modifier to jump to the right one.

Thanks, that fixed the issue.

You must have done something wrong.
For the moment both the 2 modifiers have the same texture (called Small). So, for example, for the second Displace modifier, click on the New Texture button, it will create a Small.001 texture (you could do the same directly into the Material panel actually):

Go into the Material panel, make sure that Small > Small.001 are selected (you may have not selected the right modifier or texture here), choose the type of texture you want for this one:

Back into the modifiers, it seems to work, both the 2 modifiers have kept their texture:

But if you change the texture in the texture tab, it will change the textures on the modifiers.

if you are in the Texture panel, make sure that you have selected the good modifier on the top dropdown menu, then select the texture or create a new one, and choose its type

if it's still not good please show a video with your problem

I solved it by clicking the little button on the side as Robin Betts suggested. That seems to keep the right texture selected. Otherwise I kept getting the issue.

mmh that's weird, either you have a bug or you don't select the right modifier on the top of the Texture panel

Yea, it's really weird. Either way I'm marking this as solved. There are two solutions here for anyone else that gets this issue.


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Can't Select Model
I'm new to blender and I ran into a problem that I'm sure is common but for the life of me I cant figure it out. This box around my model is preventing me from selecting the head I think its some kind of boundary that I may have engaged accidentally. I did see something about disabling textured space,I tried but nothing. Please Help.

Press tab and go to object mode.

thanks that worked brockman

... you added a subsurf modifier on top of your geometry (which is just a box as we can see). The modifier subdivides your geometry in a way that it is virtually smooth. See: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/modifiers/generate/subdivision_surface.html If you want to make edits on top, click the little triangle icon (see the linked post).

No problem @AnaliciaEvans


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How do I kill the pie menu when pressing TAB? - Problem resolved with thanks
In earlier versions of Blender, I could press TAB to change from OBJECT to EDIT mode and back. And I could press a number to flip from vertex to edge or face selection.
Now I press TAB and I get a pie menu.
I find it horribly annoying. How do I get rid of i?
ETA - Thanks to Crantisz for providing the simple answer. All I had to do was reload factory settings.

Here is the option "Tab for Pie Menu" in preferenses. Un-click it or click "Pie menu on Drag" also.

Or  "3D viewport Pie Menus" addon is the issue

Thanks for trying to help. The thing is, Tab for pie menu is n ot checked. It never has been. I've never, ever checked it.

Is 3D viewport Pie Menus disabled? Try to load factory settings.

That did it. Thank you so very much.

If so, please consider to accept the answer @Brad63 How this site works: https://blender.stackexchange.com/tour

That is not the default setting. It must have been enabled in Preferences!
Go to Edit > Preferences, select the Keymap tab and uncheck 'Tab For Pie Menu' as shown below.

thank you for trying to help. The thing is, I have never checked Tab for Pie Menu so unchecking it isn't going to do anything for me.

If you have useful add-ons installed and some other handy settings it would be inconvenient to use a"reload factory settings" option. But this pie menu is indeed so irritating. I don't know how I'd switched to it. But the answer to get rid of it is in add-ons preferences. Find a "pie menu" add-on and untick all the pies except edit-delete pie menu.


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can't snap using blender
it's really driving me crazy when I followed the tutorial he was making the icing dribbling but it didn't work with me, it was like stretching but the part where I pulled the icing disappears, I can't even describe it, and yes I used snap to face with project individual elements

in object mode it becomes ugly

There may not be anything wrong here. Unless the icing exactly matches the donut in topology, faces will intersect each other. Once you extrude the icing, this will not be much of a problem. The icing probably soaks into the donut in real life anyway.

As TheLabCat says it's probably normal, if you want to avoid that you need more topology so that you can move the face away


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How to snap this UV map's corner to the 2D cursor?
This is my UV map:

And I am looking for a precise way to snap left bottom vertex to the 2D cursor location, something like this:

When I try to do it with CTRL + move, it's not precise, but my texturing guy requires me to do it so.
Also, I can't use image constrains because when I try to enable it, my unwrap is broken.
Smart UV project may be useful in this specific case, but I'm gonna soon unwrap models, where Smart UV unwrap is gonna be... a bad idea.
Thanks for help in advantage.

Open the N Numbers Panel to see the vertex coordinates, then:

To align the left side to the left border (to move the left edge to x=0), select the leftmost vertex, hover over its x coordinate, CtrlC, then  A select everything, G move X locked to X axis, CtrlV paste the offset, - change the sign and Enter confirm.

To align the bottom side to the bottom border, do the same as above but with bottom-most vertex and Y coordinate/axis.

If your cursor is not in the bottom left, open the View tab in the Numbers Panel move everything an arbitrary (doesn't matter where) distance, and copy-paste the 3D cursors coordinates to the Move panel coordinates: