text:
Why does editing a material on one object change lots of other object's materials as well?
I'm relatively new to Blender (2 weeks in), and I'm working on Blender 2.81. Every time I edit my material it spreads out to the other objects as well. I am super confused, because the other objects are on different scenes and should react individually when materials are applied. I attached a photo below, and as seen, the pink color as an example spreads all over the place instead of the specific object. Any ideas? Let me know if I need to supply anything more.

As seen here, I'm trying to color the roof, but it colors everything else.

Objects can share materials. All of the other objects are using the same material, blender will not assign a new material to new objects you have to do it yourself. So create new materials and assign them to the objects you want.

You are probably using the same material for all of the object. I'm seeing a number 8 on the right of your "Material" Name, that means that material is being used by 8 objects. Probably that's the thing if, so, you just need to click on that number (make you are in Object Mode) and you will be able to change that color only.

This is where a naming convention is handy.  Rename this material Rooftop.  Any object that uses the Rooftop material and has faces assigned to it, will in part be pink.  See the docs https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/materials/assignment.html#assignment  Notice materials can be mesh linked (every object using that mesh has the materials) or object linked (setup material slots on a per object basis).

The comments give the right answer (sorry to "steal" it, but otherwise they won't be marked as an answer). If you want an object to be the only user of a material you've given to multiple objects, click on the number next to the name. By default, the material called "Material" in your example will then be duplicated and renamed to "Material.001" and the active object will be the only user. Of course you can now assign this material to other objects as well if you want them to have the same material.
The advantage of having the same material on multiple objects is of course to be able to change materials, textures etc. on many different objects without having to merge them into a single object.
The advantage of duplicating a material by clicking on the number is, especially if you have a very complex node setup, that you can easily assign a material on one object that is similar to a different object and only make slight changes.

This is not entirely correct.  Commented on question before seeing answer.  https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/185371/why-does-editing-a-material-on-one-object-change-lots-of-other-objects-material#comment310617_185371  Doing as above will also change the material on all objects sharing the same mesh, (eg created via Alt-D dupe linked) when the materials are mesh linked (the default case).  Important to note that materials come from a global pool, same name means same material.  Btw Don't worry about stealing answers from comments.

Of course you're right. I was just looking at the screenshot and since the objects have completely different shapes I was assuming they have different meshes. And when I was talking of "different objects with the same material" I was implying that they are not identical or linked.

Agree.  Decided in end to add an answer to elaborate and expand a bit on comment, in way of explaining how if some objects do share a mesh making slot a single user material will alter more than just the active object once again, also the choice of material link.  May fall on deaf ears, but still IMO worth explaining for those that come to question where shared mesh is the case.

Good addition, it may definitely help someone who ends up here.

Material Assignment
Given your newness to blender decided to add this answer to explain another way you may encounter similar behaviour in the future.
Firstly highly recommend reading the documentation on material assignment
Materials are stored in a global pool in the blend file. A material with the same name, is the same material, regardless of mesh, object or scene.
Get into habit of naming materials on creation, eg in this case "Rooftop".  If it is copied via pressing the users number to "Make Single User" its name will be "Rooftop.001".  Beware will get as confusing as hell if  you get to "Material.033" but only have 7 unique materials
All faces of meshes by default use material in the top slot.  Other materials need to be assigned to faces.  The default for a new object is often material "Material" in top slot.  If none of your objects share a mesh the quick fix is well explained via @GordonBrinkmann's answer ie assign the mesh a new material for slot.
If in the future it is possible you may have objects that share a mesh, read on
Object and Mesh Linked materials.
Example with 5  cube objects, each using one of two cube meshes and one pink material.

Example, default cube "Cube" with pink "Material" mesh linked.
"Cube.001" is a mesh linked duplicate AltD, shares the mesh "Cube" shares the material
"Cube.002" Has a duped mesh ShiftD has a mesh copy "Cube.001" using "Material"
"Cube.004" and "Cube.003" are linked and unlinked dupes (with meshes "Cube" and "Cube.001" respectively) both with object linked material to "Material"
The material in top slot of object "Cube" is made a single user and changed to Blue.
Some observations.
The number you see next to a material is its users. For a mesh linked material this is the mesh, for an object linked material this is the object.
The users of the material "Material" originally shows as 4 despite  5 objects using it.  This is because first two objects have  mesh linked materials to mesh "Cube" counting as one user.  The mesh "Cube.001" is another and the two object linked materials the other two.
In the outliner  the mesh linked materials show up as children of the mesh (should have expanded one), the object linked materials as children of the object.
Making the material a single user on original cube => "Material.001" (Blue) is also changing the material on objects that share the mesh  eg "Cube.001" object shares "Cube" mesh, since their materials are mesh linked.  We have made the material in slot 1 of mesh "Cube",  "Material.001".
Object "Cube.003" also uses mesh "Cube" but with an object linked material, it still points to pink "Material" as does the other.
Summary
Using a mix of mesh and object linked materials allows for example a default set of materials on a mesh (mesh linked) to be "changed up" on an object that shares the mesh, on a per object per material slot basis.
IMO it is good practice to have as few meshes and materials in a blend as possible.  Learned this the hard way , my early blender files would be a mess of copied materials, meshes, armatures.  Have written numerous scripts to try and clean it up .. post mess, the more organized from the start the easier it gets.. trust me
Hope this will in some way help when you get to adding common ubiquitous objects to scene , eg fence posts: can have a million fence post objects all sharing a singular fence post mesh, all using the same mesh linked materials.
To have one fence post red, object link and assign the material of one fence post object.... otherwise making material a single user will alter all fence posts to same colour, somewhat similarly to hassle in question.

Just to answer in a single sentence:
Editing one material will affect all of the faces that have been assigned to use said material.


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How to search for files in Sequencer by format, through my Custom Node?
I am creating a Custom Node that handles Audio. I want to get the list of all Sound Strips (Files) that has been already added to the Video Sequencer. I want to create an Input that when you click lists such files. I have seen such nodes in the Compositor.
What can I do to achieve this? I checked the code of compositing nodes in github and it is all in C, I want to implement this in Python. Also, if I do implement this, can I also add a Custom Input Socket that accepts Audio Files to the same Input? Can Blender support that? Blender Documentation for Nodes and Audio seems to be very poor. (Please don't mention Animation Nodes, I am trying to create a separate Node Editor)

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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What is this 'view only the selected area' mode I am in, in the 3D viewport and how do I out of it?

I've managed to enter this 'view only selected area' thing in the viewport and I have no idea how to get out of it.

Hello :). This looks like clipping region. Press Alt + B to switch it on/off.

omg thank you so much, i've been pressing random combinations of keys for an hour ;)

This looks like clipping region.
Enable/disable it through View > View Regions > Clipping Region.
Shortcut: Alt+B

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


text:
What is the correct 'data_path' to animate the colour of a Principled BSDF node with Python?
Version: 2.83
I want to change the colour of a material during animation - via python script.
I can create a cube wherever I want, called myobject and attached to it an appropriate material:
        material.use_nodes = True
        principled_bsdf = material.node_tree.nodes['Principled BSDF']
        principled_bsdf.inputs[0].default_value = colour
        principled_bsdf.inputs[5].default_value = 0
        myobject.active_material = material

I can then move the object for each i and use myobject.keyframe_insert(data_path = "location", frame(i)) to insert frames appropriately. What is the correct data_path channel to insert keyframes for different colours, so I can change principled_bsdf.inputs[0] for whichever keyframes I want.
This question asks the same question, but doesn't have any answers: Change the color via python script
Note that using data_path = "color" doesn't give an error, but also doesn't work.

Keyframe the default value of the socket
Animating by keyframe  the base colour of the bsdf node
To the python console.
From material "Material" get the bsdf node
>>> mat = D.materials['Material']
>>> bsdf = mat.node_tree.nodes['Principled BSDF']

What color is it now?
>>> bsdf.inputs['Base Color'].default_value
bpy.data.materials['Material'].node_tree.nodes["Principled BSDF"].inputs[0].default_value

>>> bsdf.inputs['Base Color'].default_value[:]
(0.800000011920929, 0.800000011920929, 0.800000011920929, 1.0)

Make it red and insert a keyframe at frame 30
>>> bsdf.inputs['Base Color'].default_value = (1, 0, 0, 1)
>>> bsdf.inputs['Base Color'].keyframe_insert("default_value", frame=30)
True

Same for blue at frame 50
>>> bsdf.inputs['Base Color'].default_value = (0,  0, 1, 1)
>>> bsdf.inputs['Base Color'].keyframe_insert("default_value", frame=50)
True

True above is indicating the success of adding the keyframe.  To keyframe a single channel (r, g, b, a) -> index 0, 1, 2, 3.  To keyframe just the green channel
input.keyframe_insert("default_value", index=1)

One material.
See this answer, https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/185314/15543
Could instead consider using one material and animate the object color.
ob.keyframe_insert("color", frame=33)

Thank you! This does the trick!


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Some actions are not being exported with the FBX file
So I made some animations for two arms and a gun. The gun and arms are both separate armatures. The animation structure is set up like this: On the arms we have, e.g. PistolRunning, and on the pistol armature we also have PistolRunning because it needs to follow the right hand thus animate as well. When I export the whole thing, I only get 1 animation on the gun (should be equal to the animations on the arms). And the arms also do not export all actions. In blender everything plays fine, and on both armatures are the same amount of animations.

FBX files with multiple armatures are a nuisance for game engines to read. I do not know that it's even possible. Your workflow can benefit by rigging objects and animating those armatures (guns) so that other armatures (hands) can engage with them, even after being exported separately.

Right, that is what i had in mind. But my gun is already rigged and has animations, and the arms armature interacts with the gun rig correctly. However this is only the case if you set the animation on both the armatures as the same. So the arms armature animation e.g PistolShoot will only properly animate if the slide going back and forth animation (also named PistolShoot) is chosen from the gun rig action tab. I can provide the blend file if that will make things easier.


text:
Blender rendering only one frame, not whole animation
I am trying to render a short animation. It plays as it should in the render preview, but when I render it the only thing displayed is a single  frame. I am not using multiple cameras (only one), and I have my only camera set  as the active camera. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
Edit: This is similar to another user's question but the answer provided was info I already had (it didn't work)
My render settings:

Link to .blend file: http://www.mediafire.com/download/0zva43sa2sdi9x2/Agassi2.blend
When rendering it won't follow the camera's view or path. It renders some other still image of a random area on the surface's grid. As mentioned above I don't have any additional cameras.

Possible, but not the case

@cegaton That much I can do.

Ive uploaded the .blend file

The thing that jumps out at me is your Frame Step is 236.  That means it will try to render frame 1, then it will increment to 1+236, and since 237 is after the end, there is no more work to do.  It is unusual to use a Frame Step other than 1.

but when I render it the only thing displayed is a single in-animate frame.

I don't know what front you mean exactly by this, but your uploaded file suggests several courses of investigation:

None of the objects are currently set to render.  Make sure that is indeed what you want, by making sure the things you want to render has that camera next to it on the Outliner.
I don't know if this is some sort of cross-computer transfer error (like all the textures missing), but you don't have a output file type defined.  Trying to render the scene gave me no output files.  Just go under Output under Render settings, and choose something.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Material not applied?
I have been following (or trying to, at least) some basic tutorials about applying materials and textures to the default cube. There are two textures applied: first is a wood-type: colour influence. The second is a black-and-white-type: normal influence.
That's all I do before render: Select the box and add the two textures.
First one is applied as it should.
Second one is simply not applied, although it does show up correctly in the preview in the Texture tab in the Properties panel.
How can I apply the second texture as well?
Note that both textures are to be applied to the entire box, not to selected faces of it.
(Using Blender 2.77a, rendering with Blender Internal).
UPDATE

Left: preview, center: 3d view, right: render

Can you upload your .blend using blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com please? Thanks!

Consider the process described here. http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/516/add-different-materials-to-different-parts-of-a-mesh

@Lukaash done (see edit above)

This question is NOT a duplicate of linked one, because this one has nothing to do with assigning different materials.

Your bump map texture influence is not visible because you have wrong texture coordinates.
Either unwrap your mesh or change the type of used texture coordinates.

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

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Refraction planes texture view vector mapped
Refraction planes texture view vector mapped?
My blend to test: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/1a9yqhqfis5wlrx/mIN5.blend

Principle is: texture is fixed, whenever you move object texture will not move together with object.

And I'm want to do this with refraction texture. Refraction as fixed background texture, I'm not sure, but it's called view viewport. Important! Plane must have 3D scene objects view inside.
And finally result have to look something like this:

How to do 3D perspective on only 1 plate with fixed texture?
Any demo?

Please, suggest me any possibility solution.

Can you place an image to help others to understand your question?  Can you rephrase the question?


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Has there been an issue with keyframing the alpha channel of a material when rendering in the GPU since 2.9.0?
I am trying to depict the "disappearance" of meshes via a decrease in their alpha channels. The animation is done using a python script and cycles. The problem arises during render of the animation into discrete PNGs. When rendering in the CPU of any computer, the animation comes out as expected, but when the GPU is enabled (NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070), the orbitals come out pixelated (2.90.1) and don't get animated (the alpha channel at least, the orbitals still move) at all (2.93.1).
Follows an image of the orbitals during the fade out animation using 2.90.1:

To generate the frames, the following command line command was used:
blender -b iso.blend -P main.py

Where iso.blend is the blender file with the camera positioned and two random materials already created and main.py is the script below:
import mathutils;
import bpy;
import numpy as np;
import os;
import re;
import sys;
import json;
directory = os.path.dirname(bpy.data.filepath);
if not dir in sys.path:
    sys.path.append(directory);

#The following commands tells blender to use the gpu
# enable GPUs
known_devices = [r'GeForce RTX 2070 with Max-Q Design',r'GeForce GTX 1080 Ti',r'NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070', r'GeForce GTX 970']
cuda_devices = bpy.context.preferences.addons['cycles'].preferences.get_devices()
print(cuda_devices)
bpy.context.preferences.addons['cycles'].preferences.compute_device_type = 'CUDA'
gpu_found = False
for device in bpy.context.preferences.addons['cycles'].preferences.devices:
    if device.name in known_devices:
        device.use = True
        print('Enabling: %s' % device.name)
        gpu_found = True
    else:
        device.use = False

#MAKING THE ANIMATION #####################################################
def set_active(obj):
    bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = obj;

def get_active():
    return bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active

def select(*obj):
    [o.select_set(True) for o in obj]

def deselect():
    bpy.ops.object.select_all(action = "DESELECT")

def animate_alpha(obj):
    init = 1
    end = 0
    for t0 in np.arange(0, 10)*10:
        transition = 5
        for m in obj.material_slots:
            mat = m.material
            material = m.material
            imp = material.node_tree.nodes["Principled BSDF"].inputs[18]
            imp.default_value = init
            imp.keyframe_insert("default_value", frame = t0)
            imp.default_value = end
            imp.keyframe_insert("default_value", frame = t0 + transition)
            imp.default_value = init
            imp.keyframe_insert("default_value", frame = t0 + transition*2)

N = 6
theta = np.linspace(0, np.pi*2 - 2*np.pi/N, N)
r = 1.5
x = np.cos(theta)*r
y = np.sin(theta)*r
coords = np.vstack((x, y, x*0)).T

meshes = []
for c in coords:
    bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_uv_sphere_add(location=c, radius = .4)
    ball = get_active()
    ball.active_material = bpy.data.materials.get("positive")
    deselect()
    animate_alpha(ball)
    meshes.append(ball)

deselect()
bpy.ops.object.empty_add()
dummy = get_active()
select(*meshes)
bpy.ops.object.parent_set(type="OBJECT")

deselect()
select(dummy)
set_active(dummy)
dummy.rotation_mode = "QUATERNION"
dummy.keyframe_insert("rotation_quaternion", frame = 0)
dummy.rotation_quaternion = mathutils.Quaternion([0, 0, 1], np.pi/2)
dummy.keyframe_insert("rotation_quaternion", frame = 100)

# Setting up the defatult rendering properties
for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
    scene.cycles.device = 'GPU'
    bpy.data.scenes["Scene"].view_settings.gamma = .92;
bpy.data.scenes["Scene"].render.film_transparent = True;
bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_x = 512
bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_y = 512
bpy.context.scene.render.tile_x = 512/2
bpy.context.scene.render.tile_y = 512/2
bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_percentage = 100
bpy.context.scene.cycles.samples = 60
bpy.data.scenes["Scene"].render.image_settings.file_format = "PNG"
bpy.data.scenes["Scene"].render.image_settings.color_mode = "RGBA"

for i in range(120):
    bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = os.path.join(os.getcwd(), str(i).zfill(3));
    bpy.data.scenes["Scene"].frame_current = i;
    bpy.ops.render.render(use_viewport = True, write_still=True)

Note that this script is simpler than the original, as it only shows the spheres. But the error persists in this version.


text:
Connect 2 nodes to Mix RGB node for all materials via python script
I want to connect an image texture node and a vertex color node to a Mix RGB node (with Multiply as blending mode and Fac set to 1), which then connects to the Base Color of my Principled BSDF node - for all materials at once.
Basically I want to turn this:

Into this:

For every material at once.
My main goal here is to mix every image texture with my vertex color basically. Connecting them manually would be way too much work as my object has a ton of materials.
Any help would be appreciated, not very familiar with python at all.

Try this
import bpy

# Name of your vertex color layer, change it if you need to
VERTEX_COLOR_NAME = "bakedVertexColor"

def get_texture_node(principled):
    if principled.inputs["Base Color"].is_linked:
        soc = principled.inputs["Base Color"].links[0].from_socket
        if soc.node.type == 'TEX_IMAGE' and soc.name == "Color":
            return soc.node

    return None

def insert_multiply_vcolor(mat, principled, tex):
    mul = mat.node_tree.nodes.new("ShaderNodeMixRGB")
    vcol = mat.node_tree.nodes.new("ShaderNodeVertexColor")

    mul.location = (
        # Cenetered on the horizontal
        (tex.location[0] + 240 + principled.location[0])/2 - 70,
        tex.location[1] - 100
    )
    vcol.location = (tex.location[0] + 100, tex.location[1] - 260)

    mul.blend_type = 'MULTIPLY'
    mul.inputs[0].default_value = 1.0  # Fac
    vcol.layer_name = VERTEX_COLOR_NAME

    mat.node_tree.links.new(principled.inputs["Base Color"], mul.outputs[0])
    mat.node_tree.links.new(mul.inputs[1], tex.outputs[0])
    mat.node_tree.links.new(mul.inputs[2], vcol.outputs[0])

for mat in bpy.data.materials:
    if not mat.use_nodes: continue

    principled = mat.node_tree.nodes.get("Principled BSDF")
    if not principled: continue

    tex = get_texture_node(principled)
    if not tex: continue

    insert_multiply_vcolor(mat, principled, tex)

Thanks! Worked perfectly.


text:
Connect 2 nodes for all materials via python script
I want to connect 2 nodes for all materials at once.
Specifically the vertex color node with the mix vertex color node
I want to turn this:

Into this:

For every material.
Any help would be appreciated, not very familliar with python at all.

John's answer seems to be absolutely correct for how you presented your question. However, if you'd rephrase your question as:

How do I change each Vertex Color output going to a node labelled "Mix Vertex Color" to use Alpha output instead of Color?

Then the best answer I can come up with would be:
import bpy

for mat in bpy.data.materials:
    nodes = mat.node_tree.nodes if mat.node_tree else []
    vc_nodes = (n for n in nodes if n.type == 'VERTEX_COLOR')
    for vc, link in ((n, l) for n in vc_nodes for l in n.outputs['Color'].links):
        if link.to_node.label == 'Mix Vertex Color':
            mat.node_tree.links.new(vc.outputs[1], link.to_socket)
            print(f"Changed material {mat.name}")

This turns this:

into this:

That is, it iterates over all materials, and then makes sure to change each link from a node of type VERTEX_COLOR to a node with a label Mix Vertex Color, to go from the Alpha socket.
Alternative code
import bpy

check = lambda x: x.from_node.type=='VERTEX_COLOR' and x.to_node.label=='Mix Vertex Color'
trees = (m.node_tree for m in bpy.data.materials if m.node_tree)

for tree, l in [(t, l) for t in trees for l in t.links if check(l)]:
    tree.links.new(l.from_node.outputs[1], l.to_socket)


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Adding motion blur to a background behind glass
I would like to add motion blur to the background of my render, the problem is that I have some glass in front of the background and I can't find a way to preserve the glass and the roughness map on top of it without blurring that too. Do I have to do 2 renders? If that's the case how can I combine them together using the blender compositor? Do I have to composite on another program?

The image shows the glass before the background, by the way, the background is an HDRI

If you’re willing to use compositing, your problem is mostly solved. You won’t have to use an external compositor I’m sure.

Yeah I am willing to use compositing my problem is how i get there with compositing ahahahahah


text:
How To Make the metarig follow the advanced rig in blender
So I've been working in unreal engine lately and I've gotten an error about "bind pose", so I did a bit of research and I figured out that the problem is because of how my Metarig doesn't follow the advanced rig, and so the bones of the metarig are not connected to any mesh data during the animations which produces the error. I GUESS the solution could be to make the metarig follow the advanced rig, but I don't know how to do that. But perhaps there is a different solution, after all what I called "research" was really just a quick google search .Any ideas?

P.S - In the screenshot the red arrow points to the advaced rig- hip box. All I did was move it down a bit and you can see how the metarig doesn't follow along.
Thanks

The best solution for the question is shown in this video by cg-dive. The tutorial is very helpful and easy to follow along, and had achieved exactly what I wanted.
And I also want to correct myself and say that, deleting the metarig is a bad choice since you are going to need it to apply ik to your character, and also when creating a physics asset there are going to be hundreds of collision bodies and that's going to make things greatly tedious, however if you opt to keep the metarig and follow the steps in the video, your physics asset will only have the necessary collision bodies that are needed to create an accurate and manageable physics asset.
Essentially we create a copy of the generated rig(or the game rig in this case) and we delete everything but the deform bones. Next we use a short script to apply the transforms of the generated rig to the game rig, and that's it. The process is a bit complicated but the tutorial is clear and easy to apply to whatever rig you created.
https://youtu.be/INK__p3CWUw

Hello and welcome. Please can you revise your answer to explain how you fixed it. Links can be used as supplementary information but should not be solely used as the answer itself as they can potentially get removed in the future.

You have parented the generated rig to the meta rig. This is not correct and not necessary. Select the rig armature and clear its parent (Alt+P).
The metarig is used only to lay out the bone structure on the mesh. It could be deleted after the rig is generated, but it is recommended to archive it in case you want to make changes. In that case, you can generate or update the rig again with the help of the metarig armature (see Generate Rig button and Advanced Options section).
The generated rig armature has the deform bones on layer 30, and additionally a lot of control and helper bones. For game engines, you need to export the deformation bones. Their names all start with the DEF- prefix and have the [X] Deform option enabled.

For UE4 (and Unity) there are add-ons that additionally fix some issues: Simon Orsborn / Rigify UE4 Exporter and this one: Rigify Export To Unreal Addon. (found them in the blenderartists.org forum).
Blender's export script for FBX files (File > Export > ...) has an option to export only deform bones. It's a bit hidden in the export dialog. On the right side, scroll down to the Armature section, expand it and tick the [X] Only Deform Bones checkbox.

Thanks! I ended up running into another issue of animations not playing, but I fixed the problem by just deleting the armature. It seems optimal to delete the extra rig and be done with all the problems it brings along with it.


text:
Deleted Game logic layout by accident
Accidentally deleted game logic layout is there anyway of getting it back?
haven't been able to figure it out.

Possible duplicate of Layout selector missing

So what I got from that was I need to reload my UI in user preferences? I'm not sure if my problems the same as the one you showed, I've completely deleted game logic layout from the drop down menu at the top nothing else changed, I can still do everything as normal I just don't have the option of game logic, I'm pretty new to blender so i might not be explaining this properly.

@ProjectMedal Maybe share a screenshot then? What is the expected behavior, what are you seeing/getting? See https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/608/how-do-i-ask-a-question-that-is-hard-to-describe. As it is now, it's not clear what you're asking. Closing as unclear until clarified.

Can you have another look at it now with the screen shot, might make a bit more sense i hope :S

Awesome that's exactly what I was looking for thanks :)

You have 2 menu below that looks like icons with 2 arrows. In your screenshot  there are icons like "cube" (which is view port where you can see your objects, scene and anything you are working on) and "clock".
If you don't use the clock just click on it and choose Logic Editor, and then after all set up you can save this view as  "game logic" - just rename it from "default". So as we see even we accidentally delete any of menus we can add it by yourself

Hi and welcome to Blender Stackexchange. Please add images of what you mean by editing your answer. You can do this by using the edit link below your question. That would help us a lot to understand your answer.


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How can I get My normal map to show on a shadeless material
When I add a normal map the preview material looks fine, but when I play My game it is all black unless I use shadeless. then however the normal map doesn't show up


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Making a normal map work in bge
When I put a normal map on my object the object looks fine. But in play mode it shows the normal map as a texture.

Are you in multitexture mode? Try changing to GLSL mode.


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How can i simulate erosion and corrosion on objects?
It´s possible to simulate corrosion and erosion on object geometry and texture ?

So, what im trying to ask, is if it´s possible to simulate erosion on this blocks. By Geometry and texture. Like reducing the geometry of the individual blocks (for each block is a rigid body).

Do you have any reference images of what specifically you are wanting to achieve? What have you tried thus far that hasn't worked for you? Is it a material that you're looking for? An effect via modeling/ modifiers?

I edit the post, sorry

Still image @ChristopherTiller


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Convert hair particles to mesh, while keeping them deformed by armature
I use a new workflow to map some fur on my characters using vertex weights, i wonder how i could convert the hair (or fur here) particles to mesh, while keeping them deformed by the armature i use with my character?
Or if you know any other way to export the mesh with the hairs as mesh, and deformed by the rig?
On top, the hairs are not yet converted, they fit the deformation of the armature, on bottom, hairs are converted, they don't follow armature anymore.
I want the hairs to keep being deformed by the armature, like on top picture, even after the "Convert" button is pressed.

The new mesh needs to parented to the Armature. After you have pushed the 'convert' button - select your new mesh in Object Mode and shift select your armature. Ctrl P and choose Armature...
...select your bones in Pose Mode. Select your new 'hair' mesh and enter Weight Paint mode. You should see your bones are selected here too. Under weights click Assign automatic from bones. If need be, weight paint to adjust the effect.

No that's not what i ask for, i know how to parent a mesh to an armature, but the converted hairs have even lost the vertex weights and vertex group from the past mesh, so it gives bad results.
I want to know if it's possible to convert  while keeping the hairs affected by the armature like they already were.

Maybe add some images or examples of what you are trying to achieve? I very clearly have no idea what you are asking...

Updated the answer to include another step. Should work now...

Well, my bad, the hairs have no weights before we convert them, it was an illusion cause it takes a position relative to faces on the mesh.
So ok i suppose i have to make the weights myself.
Btw, your operation is not really possible since there is plenty of meshes created when we convert the hairs, not a single one, no?

Try it and you'll soon see it it's possible. One bone can move every mesh in the universe if you assign and weight it. How good it looks? Well that might take a bit of back & forward. Good luck!

well i wanted a fast a clever solution somehow, ill try to script something instead i suppose.


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Is it possible to access the angular velocity of an object from a driver?
Is it possible to access the angular velocity of an object from a driver script? I know how to do this in BGE but this is for an animation.
Currently I am saving the current rotation for use in the next iteration to calculate the angular displacement, however the time between iterations is variable. Before I attempt calculating the time offset, I wanted to ask if there was an API for the non BGE physics engine.
I am working on a governor for a steam engine with bob weights that swing out when rotated. The displacement of the weights is proportional to square of the angular velocity.


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Glossy reflections and smooth shading
I'm having a hard time creating a chrome object with flat faces but with smoothly bevelled edges.
If you start with the default cube, add a bevel modifier set to, say, 4 segments, set to smooth shading and render in cycles, then everything looks as expected. If you now add a glossy material with no roughness and an HDRI environment things don't look quite right - at least to my eye.
On the main faces inherited from the original cube the reflections are slightly bent. The bending is reduced if I increase the number of segments in the bevel modifier. At 100 (the max) things are just about OK. Adding loop cuts or a subsurf often makes things worse with some views revealing the triangulation used to render.
I think I understand the cause and that is due to the interpolation of the normal over the whole face which creates a slight curving of the reflection.
Adding an edge split and adjusting the angle works but adds sharp edges as you'd expect and the faces drop back to planar. Applying the bevel, selecting the large faces and making them planar adds a crease around them.
Explicitly modelling the bevel makes no difference.
Adding an inset face simply adds reflection weirdness to the outer "frame" faces that are created.
My objective is to have the main faces of my object flat mirrors and bevelled edges as close as possible to cylinders that smoothly join them.
Any thoughts?
Update
Here's a picture I constructed in PovRay to illustrate the issue, or rather to show what I'm aiming for:

Here's what I created in Blender 2.76rc3 using a bevel modifier with a segment count of 4:

And here with a segment count of 100:

This next image shows that making the centre panels flat shaded causes the normals to be split and thus display a discontinuity:

This next one shows that adding an inset face causes even more strangeness.

Here's my result using a subsurf - admittedly it could be improved but I was trying to avoid this method as it will not work with the target object that I really need to use the method on.

Finally, here is the result I managed to achieve using the Blend4Web normal editor to set the corner vertex normals of the main faces to be equal to the normal of the face.  I accidentally used a different radius.

This is the best so far but still I'm not happy with the process.  I thought at the start that I was doing something fundamentally wrong but I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that this is just the way it is.

Welcome PaulMC :) I'd recommend start off with a suitable test scene: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/21807/cycles-advanced-shader-ball Anyway, enjoy blender.se!

I'm sorry but I don't understand what you are asking.  The test scene you refer to doesn't include surfaces of the type I described above.  Doubly curved surfaces like in that scene can be convincing as mirror surfaces but it doesn't mean that the reflections are correct.  Please can you elaborate?

Could you post an image depicting the problem? I feel that the question may be quite interesting, but I'm not 100% sure of what you are talkning about. I'll modify your post to add a couple of images I made. If they not reflect what you where looking for, feel free to rollback/substitute yours.

There are two common ways for modeling rounded corners. One, using a bevel modifier. Two, using a subdivision surface modifier. Both have advantages.
Bevel Modifier:
The bevel modifier's main problem is the sharp edge it gives on each side of the bevel as seen in the image below. It can look very 3Dish when using highly reflective shaders. But the advantage is that it keeps a relatively low polygon count in comparison to subdivision surfaces and keeps a better curvature by maintaining a perfectly circular curve.
To reduce distortion in the reflections, one can add edge loops to correct the normals so that they face directly outwards. See image below.
Subdivision Surface Modifier:
The advantage to the Subdivision Surface (sub-surf) modifier is the smooth transition of faces that the catmull-clark algorithm creates. But, to get noon-distorted results, you must have a high subdivision level, Causing polygon counts to double or quadruple.
In the end, neither are perfect. But the sub-surf modifier will give better results. At the cost of your render speed.
An example of the subdivision method:

An example of the bevel method with added edge loops to improve normals:

Thanks, however both your pictures show the problem I'm having.  I need the interior panels to be flat and to act as a mirror.  At the moment they are bending the reflections as if they are curved surfaces.  The bevel only curves the new faces that replace the edge, it is the smooth shading that interpolates the normal that is causing the curved look.  The subsurf curves both the geometry and the smooth shading only "reflects" that.  What I'm trying to achieve is flat shaded large faces with a smooth shaded bevels and no discontinuity between them. I'll edit my post with more info.

@PaulMc I added a better example of how well the subdivision method works. It actually has very little distortion on the planer area.But I see that you added that can't use this method for your model. So i'll look more into it.

@PaulMc To improve the normals. You can add edge loops to reduce the distortion. One of these two methods should work for you. If not, you might have to use another software to get a perfect refection. Blender's normal editing tools are limited.

Thanks.  This improves things a lot, by using the edge loops to obtain an inset face instead of using the inset tool this avoids the creation of the three edge poles (which in turn cause normal and reflection problems).  Preserving quads is the order of the day - yet again!

@PaulMc  You don't have to add that many edge loops, just a few proximity cuts around the edges.

@PGmath Yes, that's true. I wasn't thinking.

You are correct that the problem you are describing is due to the normals being interpolated across the entire flat faces, creating a curved look.  You can fix this by adding some proximity cuts near the edges of the bevels.

Here's a render, notice that the flat faces have perfectly straight ,un-distorted reflections.

Just for more exhaustive options in the answers, One could of course render with POV from Within Blender using native addon, then the Superquadric Ellipsoid primitive with a small ring manipulator value and a cross manipulator value around 2, would provide a rather close shape. For an exact similar shape with mathematic non mesh primitives, CSG operations are available in the boolean modifier to combine POV cylinders and POV cube. All within Blender UI.

Thanks for the information, however, the updates to the bevel, especially the normal hardening feature have resolved this.


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Problem with texturing UV map

My model texture is for some reason "glicthing", whenever i move the camera it randomly "glitches" in different places, like if it had 2 overlapping textured faces, but theres only one.
What am i doing wrong?
[edit] I had the mirror modifier  on, it was mirroring my texture and overlapping with itself causing the "glitching" effect

Didn't worked, i don't have any overlapping faces, much less objects.

Nevermind i found the problem


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Deleting face leaves 'hole' where it shouldn't
Alright, I'm fairly new to Blender and I'm currently following this video tutorial (Blender Tutorial: Create a Spaceship Corridor in Blender by Blender Guru) in order to get familiar with basic modelling, extrusions, mirroring etc.
At 7:25 (direct link), the guy creates a little handle for the door/structure thingy he's currently modeling. He selects a face at the lower part of the mirrored model, goes to extrusion mode (E), cancels extrusion (ESC), scales it (S) and then he decides to remove the lower face.
It should now look like this:

However, when I follow the exact key combination (shown at the lower right of the video), I end up with that:

Did he somehow 'extruded' the face by moving it inwards? There aren't any keys showing up that might indicate this.
I hope this isn't a stupid question. Blender heavily relies on keyboard shortcuts for efficient working and until I'm not 100% familiar with them, a lot of it is pure sorcery. :)

I'm not too sure why there isn't a hole in the tutorial (it's hard to say without looking at the mesh itself), but if there had been a hole his next adjustment (moving the bottom edge down with clipping enabled) would have fixed it. This is preferable to increasing the merge distance, as you don't have to worry about accidentally merging vertices that weren't merged before.

From the video I see he's setting a mirror modifier (on Z and Y), and that the bottom edge of the face that is deleted is just on the lower limit of the vertical mirror (Z). So the geometry you see below is a mirrored face, mirroring the above face.
The "trick" should be that he has "merge" in the mirror modifier, so, I think that in his model the "deleted face hole" height is in the range of the "merge limit", so the modifier is "filling" the missing area.
If your does not, try increasing the "merge limit" until you get the same effect... (I tried with a simple plane, and with my mesh scale this happens setting a mirror merge of 0.1117)

Obviously it is not sane to have a "merge limit" too high, but if it works, this will confirm that it is what he did in the video.
Btw, just after that point he also set the "clipping" so that the modifier prevents him to add vertices below the Z mirror line (while he's dragging the lower edge of the lowest face remained), since there's a mirror, and adding vertices below that line could probably make accidentally troubles in the mesh, without it.


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Catching a wide range of scene events using scripting
I have an idea for a Google Cardboard app, where I need it to display a Blender scene and update it as soon as it gets edited in Blender. Technically it should be a remote yet ultra simplified renderer.
I'm not sure where to start. I only know there is a scene update callback in Blender:
http://www.blender.org/api/blender_python_api_2_76_release/bpy.app.handlers.html
But I guess it's not enough as it does not provide extra information about what's changed.
Does an object have a modification timestamp? Or is there a dedicated API that can be used in my case?
Thanks


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Face Selection Masking for Painting overlaped by the texture
Doing the Piero Course, when it comes to paint the textures in the model direct in the Texture Paint mode, when setting the Face Selection Masking for Painting, the overlaping wire frame won't show. Some regions like the eye and the fingers of the model show white lines that resembles the wire but only in these regions:

Is there a additional configuration that I'm missing so I can paint with these wire outlines? The .blend file is in this link.
Edit: Packed .blend file with textures and updated the link.

There are no textures in your .blend. Please pack the textures (http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/30906/how-do-i-pack-textures-for-sending-off-to-a-render-farm) and upload a file again.

I'm sorry, but since the Blender 2.73 version release you can't display the wire outlines while painting.

''Paint mask selection now only shows selection boundary (so you can better see what you are painting)'', as you can read in this manual: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.73/Painting

Only workaround I have is by using a second UV map of an image texture that is a square with 0 alpha except for lines painted at the edges - this is then placed in the slot below the main painting texture, and with a standard UV reset, the wires are then visible but you can limit paint to the selected face and selected texture slot.


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resize/edit multiple meshes relative to their orientation/position blender
Let's say I have three identical meshes, but some of them are rotated as shown in the image:

Now in edit mode, I want to move the face to change the size of the mesh, what are possible workflows for the mesh to resize? See the arrows I drew in the image. I want the face of the mesh move relative to its object.  I tried experimenting with parenting object, shift+G (select face by normal/coplanar) etc.
I am stuck. Hope I explained myself clear.

in the case you show, you could extrude along normals, then dissolve the edge that it has created?

If you want your meshes to remain identical for a while during modelling, or permanently, but with different orientations, they could be AltD instances of one another, instead of ShiftD copies of one another..

For entirely separate objects, in this case, you could set the pivot to 'Individual Origins' and the orientation to 'Normal'.
You can edit multiple meshes simultaneously, using GZ to translate faces along their normals, averaged per selection-island:

This can be simply achieved by the following procedure:
When in edit mode, select the faces you want to extrude, and set the transform pivot point to individual origins:
Now, when you extrude, you get this result:
Now if you don't want the edges, you can select loops by double clicking on them and press X>Dissolve Edges.

+1 .. but it doesn't need to be an extrusion followed by a dissolve.. if you don't want the extra edges, then as well as setting 'Individual Origins' you could also set the orientation to 'Normal', and use GZ on the faces.

Hmmm... I guess you're right. Anyways, thanks for the tip.


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Why when I rotate the finger bones, the assigned vertices don't stay aligned with the bones?
when I rotate the finger bone, the vertices assigned to the bone rotate in the right direction but do not remain aligned with the bone. What could be the problem?
This is an image in T-Pose

And this is when I rotate the finger bone

They are probably assigned to other bones too

You don't have any weights assigned to your fingers, go to Weight Paint Mode to fix this.

I did "assign automatic weights"

you are right, I assigned to the hand bone all the vertices of the hand, including the fingers! Fixed this, now it works well!
Thanks a lot!

For issues like this, see the weight paint section at the end of my answer on this topic: Parenting Mesh to Bones Issue

Hello, Raffaele .. glad you have a fix! This looks more like a slip-up (easily made) Than a question requiring an answer in the archive for  future readers, so it's fair to close it. By all means edit for a re-open if you disagree.


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Baking texture | Issues | Low Quality
I've been trying to solve this problem for several days, but I can't figure it out.
I made a model of a house. My model is made up of multiple meshes: this is intentional, as having a single mesh I think would have made baking even more complicated.
So I'll just take the roof of my house as an example. As you can see from the image, the quality rendered by baking is very poor, yet I used a 4096x4096 image for the baking. I just can't figure out where the problem is. I did the Smart UV project with a very small Island Margin.
This is only the difference in the color map
This is color map + normal + displacement (on the right the baked texture)
What else can I do to improve the quality? I purposely separated the meshes of my model to have better UV Mapping, but it doesn't seem to work
Thank you in advance


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CTRL + Shift + V doesn’t work properly (Frame Animation)
I have a problem with my animation. When I try to copy and reverse a frame, it doesn’t work properly… If I just copy it, it works 100%, so the command CTRL + V works. The problem is just when I do CTRL + Shift + V…
I tried different suggestions that I’ve found, for example to reset the rotation and position of all the bones…
I really don’t know why it doesn’t work.
I hope you can help me!
Thanks
here you can find my blender file (https://easyupload.io/yr32vp)

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

please share your current file (with the keyframes you've created)

I think I ve found the problem: the problem was that at the frame0 I created just the keyframe of the bone "mano001.L" (Left side) but I didn't create the keyframe of the relative bone on the right side XD

I've now solved the problem with the shoulders and hands, but still the feet are not perfect... here is the file https://easyupload.io/bbpgks

SOLVED the problem with the feet too! There wasn't the same "rotation x" between the right and the relative left side of a bone of the foot https://streamable.com/uc0pug

maybe:
goto preferences/keymap/key-bindings
enter "ctrl shift v" in the search field
look wether there is any other command assigned to the same keys - note: key bindings depend on the blender space/region/window (actually used by you) .


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How can I create a twisted pole?
I'm looking to make a pole shape similar to this excluding the piece on the top

Possible duplicate of Model a simple 3D spiral shape?

In that case how would i create that?

Play with the Screw modifier.

Create a circle.
Hit R X 90 Enter.
CNTL-A > Rotation and Scale.
Edit mode. Select the circle. G X 2 Enter.
In the Modifiers palette, select Screw. By default, you will have generated a torus.
Screw: 1.5 (play with this value).
Iterations: 3 (play with this value).

That gets you your barberpole pillar. From there, experiment :)

So this is the first time I've done this on blender.stackexchange. so here goes.
You'll want to start with a taurus.  I did it with 48 segments (not because it was a good one to start with, but because I wanted to know if this would work myself). I then removed the inner vertices in edit mode until I had a tire-like taurus.  Then I removed two of the 4 of the faces, 2 from the top and 2 from the bottom, in a staggered fashion.  I then, used the proportional editing tool with a group selection, to move some of the faces on the bottom near the cut down, then did the same with the top.  Afterwards, I moved about half the mesh up in the z direction, and the other half down until you get one segment of a screw.  Do Shift+D to duplicate the mesh, then combine it with the new mesh by using control+j.
You then want to begin connecting the vertices of the old screw segment with the new one, all the way around.  Once that's done, duplicate the mesh again, drag it up in the z access, then repeat the process before with connecting the vertices.  You may need to rotate your screw segments until the bottom and the top two faces line up.  Think of a spiral staircase and you get the picture. Keep doing that until your satisfied with the shaft, in the same process of duplicating, dragging up in the z access, joining, then welding.
Once you're done with the shaft, create a sphere in your scene.  For this one I used a dozen segments, but if you want to combine the sphere with the shaft mesh and every piece after this, you need to use the same number of segments. Grab a group of verts just above the center of your sphere and up in the z access, move them down until they go about where the lower ones are.  Use Control+Shift+Click to select all the verts in the middle, scale them outward.  To repeat this process, skip a horizontal segment by grabbing every other row of verts, moving them down along the z access, then deselect.  After that, select the verts that you skipped, then scale them out uniformly.
Once you do that, create another taurus made of 12 segments(or however many segments you've been using so far).  Delete the inside verts like you did in the beginning, leaving a tire.  Deselect that, select your frilled sphere, delete the verts on the bottom.  Extend your lengthen the verts below to get the connecting points.   Scale them up just a tad.  You'll then join the frilled sphere with the taurus using control+j.
During this whole process try to keep it as close to cylindrical as possible.  Working with the proportional editing tool can produce some really uneven shapes, but with extra attention to detail and time, you can make it look good.
Hope this helps.  Please see the screenshots I used for reference.


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Material saving issue during "Seperate by Material"
During my workflow I am joining meshes together and then using "Separate by Material" and vice-versa. During this process, sometimes the materials are not saved. I posted about it in this thread:
Material names missing
I now uploaded a Blender file to Blend-Exchange to show the issue.

Here are the steps to reproduce what is happening:

Open the Blender file
Notice Mesh1 and Mesh2 have material slots and materials
Join Mesh1 with Mesh2
Go into edit mode, and select everything in the joined mesh and do
"Separate by Material"
Save the blender file
Re-open the Blender file and notice the material slots are there,
but the Materials are now "missing", as shown in the linked question

So why might this be happening?

I'm not able to reproduce this, it's not happening here. What version of Blender are you using?

Using 2.77a  Date:2016-04-05  18:12   Hash:abf6408   Windows 10

I just looked at the bug reports and this seems to be listed as some type of bug. https://developer.blender.org/T49228     [RC2] Fix T49228: Separate by material, materials disappear after reload (rBab934e7d61).  It sounds like the same issue I'm having. I'm going to try to download 2.78 and see if the issue still happens

This was a known bug in 2.77a.
https://developer.blender.org/T49228
I now installed Blender 2.78a and the issue is resolved by using the new version of Blender. The material is now saved and loaded correctly.

This was a known bug in 2.77a.
https://developer.blender.org/T49228
I now installed Blender 2.78a and the issue is resolved by using the new version of Blender. The material is now saved and loaded correctly.


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Vertex doesn't move correctly while in "normal" transform orientation
I've had a re-occurring issue. When a vertex is selected, and the transform orientation is set to "Normal", the vertex does not move in the same direction that the transform manipulator is oriented.
Blender file:
To see what I mean:

Open up the file.
Select the vertex (it is added to the vertex group in the file)
Select Normal transform orientation
Grab the green y-axis and move the vertex.
Notice the vertex does not move in the direction of the displayed green arrow.

Is this an issue or am I doing something wrong?
I am using latest version of Blender.

Yeah, I get the same behavior. When I make vertex normals visible I can see the axis it transforms along, this is also the axis it transforms along when I press G,Z,Z (so the positive Z). It would seem that it is transforming correctly, but the 3D manipulator widget is displaying incorrect axes.


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How can I remove part of a mesh without distorting a rigged character?
I am trying to remove the tail from Rinky the red squirrel's mesh. I used the bisect tool to trim it off. But when I switch back to object mode, his face is bizarrely warped:

How can I chop off his tail, while leaving his rest pose intact? (I need the rest pose to remain the same because the next step is exporting to FBX, which seems to only recognise the rest pose.)
Rinky is from Big Buck Bunny (c) copyright 2008, Blender Foundation / www.bigbuckbunny.org
Shared under CC-BY 3.0

Well this is definitely a side effect of whatever rigging setup was used to create him. I would guess that for whatever reason, the tail was important enough to the animation (for balance perhaps) that other bones in the rig were made to be dependent on the tail. I would first try removing his armature as a test to see if that fixes it, and then undo that, go back, and try to study his rig in detail. Worst case scenario, you re-rig him from scratch.


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How to create a flat vortex force field?
I'm trying to make a sort of accretion disk around a black hole, except I can't figure out how to create a vortex that forms a flat ring shape rather than a tornado shape. I've tried scaling along the z axis, but if you scale it to 0, it just stops working altogether.
How do I flatten this vortex force field (for use with smoke effects) so that it will form a flat disk rather than a tornado shape?

I added a vortex force field. If I scale it to 0 along the z axis, the radial force it exerts on the particle system disappears. If I add a falloff to the force field, the radial force disappears also. This is my scene: imgur.com/GbIm3sE The dark gray circle in the center is the gravity lensing object, the sphere in the very center is the black hole object, and the spiraling lines mark where the vortex force field is. The rendered image is posted in an earlier comment of mine.I need particles to be sucked off of the star object on the right and spun around the black hole in a disk shape

Something like this?

@sambler Yeah, except my emitter is taller than the vortex itself (a star) so when the smoke / particles fly off the star, they form a tall tube instead of a flat disk. I'm trying for something like this http://blogs.futura-sciences.com/e-luminet/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2015/02/cygx1-605x372.jpg

@hawkenfox If you scale to 0 along the z axis, the vortex no longer has an effect. When I set falloffs, the vortex no longer seems to have an effect either. If I scale the z force down without scaling it to 0, it still does the same thing. I'm trying to make an accretion disk (you can look it up if you don't know what that is because the appearance is important). It's not a prank, otherwise I wouldn't have done this work so far: http://imgur.com/dSitGLR

I added a vortex force field. If I scale it to 0 along the z axis, the radial force it exerts on the particle system disappears. If I add a falloff to the force field, the radial force disappears also. This is my scene: http://imgur.com/GbIm3sE The dark gray circle in the center is the gravity lensing object, the sphere in the very center is the black hole object, and the spiraling lines mark where the vortex force field is. The rendered image is posted in an earlier comment of mine.I need particles to be sucked off of the star object on the right and spun around the black hole in a disk shape

@Sanix25 you ought to add the last comment to your question above it's much clear ... while I try to work on it and see if I can find a solution.

I'm not sure what is "emitter is taller than the vortex itself" but if you mean forcing particles to move round while a star is quite big then you could setup force field faloff settings.

Ok I hope this is what you are looking for?

DOWNLOAD THE BLEND FILE HERE.

a link + image only answer won't be very useful if the link goes down. You should give a description of the technique used, maybe more UI screenshots.

@zeffii I would do that once the OP decides that it's the answer he wants. Basically I am still quite unsure if he is looking for this effect. Moreover Mega.co.nz never failed me :)


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Rigify finger controls rotation not moving correctly
I have a humanoid mesh and created a meta rig with rigify.  All goes according plan except after skinning the mesh the fingers don't behave as they should when scaling the finger controls (wanting to make a fist),  all the fingers go off in a wonky direction some bending upwards or sideways instead of down.  So...  I figured that I screwed up the rotation of the bones at some point.  Is there a good way to go back to the meta rig stage and adjust the rotation of the bones to line up with the mesh better.  I feel like I saw this somewhere but now cannot find it.
Edit:
I believe what I'm looking for is a way to automatically adjust the "Roll" of each finger bone to align with the hand.  Am I looking at this the correct way?

When rigging with rigify, most of the time bone roll will be correct, however on occasion if you have to adjust the metarig a lot, the rolls can get distorted. This is particularly common on the fingers as they have many segments and often require a bit of adjustment depending on the exact position that the hand is modeled. I find is always worth checking bone rolls in the hand when using rigify.
Rolls can be adjusted with ctrl-R. For rigify fingers you should have the bone's Z axis pointing in the direction you want the finger to curl when you scale the control bone down. There is no automatic way of setting this as it depends on the mesh.
Re-running generate from the metarig will update the generated rig provided you have not renamed it.

The problem is automatic calculation of bend rotation on Rigify's part, it uses the bends and rotations of joining bones to try and figure it which way they should be bending.

in edit mode Recalculate the all finger bone rolls to -z axis.
go into pose mode and click on the upper 3rd bone of each finger(individually).
In bone settings change bend rotation axis to manual (x axis in my case)
Thumb will probably be a different axis
Regenerate the rig

For my character in X-Pose this worked: recalculate on local -z axis, fingers on x axis, and thumbs on -z axis.

For my character in T-pose the following worked: Recalculate on global -z axis, fingers set on x axis in pose mode except for thumbs. Z for right thumb and -z for left thumb in pose mode.


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Blender player lauched by command line
I am looking for a list of arguments that is possible to give to blenderplayer by command line on linux. I need to open a blender file with blenderplayer in a specific scene. I cannot find anywhere!

Sorry maybe if you tell us more about what you want to actually achieve there would be more ideas coming from viewers. I really don't understand why you need to tweak something that already has strong system of customization via python scripting. Best regards

Did you read the output from blenderplayer --help ?

@ideasman42 I tried 'blenderplayer --help' but it seems that the command doesnt exist

If you take a look here or here or execute the command blenderplayer -h, you can check the list you are looking for.
usage:
blenderplayer [-w [w h l t]] [-f [fw fh fb ff]] [-g gamengineoptions] [-s stereomode] [-m aasamples] filename.blend.


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How to change the speed of an action in bge without interrupting the loop?
I have an analog controller and I want to change action speed on the runtime, but without interrupting the loop of the action. I tried this but it doesn't work. The loop restart all the time when the variable_that_changes changes.
armature_object.playAction("run",0,30,play_mode = bge.logic.KX_ACTION_MODE_LOOP, speed= variable_that_changes)

I suggest to use skip the automatic play modes and implement an on counter.
You can do this even without python. Define a float property "frame" that is supposed to hold the frame of the pose to be played.
Whenever the property change activate an action actuator in property mode with that property.

Now you can implement logic that manipulates the property frame.

Just adding "frame" in the action property doesn't work, but adding it also in Frame Property works! Thanks. Modify your answer and I will accept it!

Oh sorry I forgot the true level triggering. Now it works! Thank you

However it seems working better using the AlwaysSensor with the  true level triggering.

Using the always sensor is inefficient - unless the property changes all the time. As this is your current situation, it should be fine.


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Is it possible to program materials with Python
Sorry, noob question. But when I play with node materials I often end up with some weird setup using countless nodes and connections. I often thought:"If only could code this, would be so much cleaner".
I know there is "script" node, but afaik only for Open Shading Language.
It would be interesting mostly for Cycles, but BI is also interesting.
Any joy?
Esample:

So I like a python script node. It has inputs and outputs. In python I do processing.
import bpy
...
nodeOutput[2] = nodeInput[1] * 23
...

Something like this http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:2.5/Py/Scripts/Cookbook/Code_snippets/Nodes ? It probably wouldn't be more clearly.

No, not what I meant. I update my post with example!

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/23436/control-cycles-material-nodes-and-material-properties-in-python/23446#23446


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Map a procedural texture like an image texture
Is it possible to map a procedural texture like an image texture?
Image textures have the posibility to be mapped flat, cubic, spherical etc.
Can I take for example the x and y part of a procedural and map it cubic, so this x and y canvas is mapped equaly to every side of a cube?
EDIT:
Sorry qeustion was asked wrong: I wanted this for Cycles Renderer.

Answer updated to include cycles in the mix

Blender Internal:
Yes, procedural textures can be projected the same way as image textures. In the texture tab, scroll down the procedural texture's settings to the Mapping group. You can find the projection and axes drop downs there.

Cycles:
Cycles does not offer shape projections (cube / sphere / tube / flat), but using but a Texture Coordinate Input node set to Generated or Object, and a Vector Mapping node, a similar effect can be achieved. Just play with the scale and rotation values to fine-tune the effect:

Years of Blender and I never found this... Sorry just tried out but it seems not available for Cycles?

The cube/sphere/tube/flat projections aren't available in cycles. In all honesty I've never found them extremely useful. You can get the same effect in cycles using the Object or Generated mapping options in the Texture coordinates nodes, and the Vector Mapping node. If you're unfamiliar with this technique, I can add this to my answer.

Imo it does not answer the question cause how this solves mapping for example Brick texture to the cube in a way of box? The texture wont be applied the same way on all the faces and that was the question - or not?


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Smooth edge loops
A simple example what I like to do:

In this workflow I am using the "smooth vertex" operator to smooth the edge loops. For my desired result I need to delete the bridge edges to smooth only the loops, as the operator takes the connected mesh into account. The operator seems to ignore the hidden property of mesh parts, so I can't get it done without deleting and regenerating the bridge edges.
That's fine for this simple example. But for more complex models with worse topology, where it's not as easy to recreate the deleted edges it can become a lot of work.
So my (actually two) questions are:

Any suggestions to smooth the loops in the above manner without affecting the other mesh?
Is it desired behavior of the smooth vertex operator not to take the hidden property of verts/edges/faces into account or is it just not implemented yet?

You could try to add Laplacian Smooth modifier with desired vertices assigned as a vertex group (in modifier properties) to limit its influence on them only. Other similar modifiers like Smooth or Corrective Smooth most likely will give you result from the right part of your scheme and so won't be appropriate.

to fix on the Z dimension, use scale, S Z 0
Then you can use "to sphere"
ALT SHIFT S  and dragging to the amount
or pressing 1 to get 100% circle
this after fixing Z as above
like

[edit] Now, I see from your "desired" that the loops are not necessarily  on the global XY plane, so my method above is not entirely sufficient.
I found a way to fix that, too, maybe you know this already but: after "scaling Z 0" your edge will be aligned to XY, as said, which is not what you want. Unfortunately there is not (afaik) a method to directly achieve what you want, but you can do this:

before "scaling Z 0", add a new object, a simple circle, and try to put it on your desired final position.
then, edit you more complex shape with jagged edges, do "scaling Z 0"
then, with that now Z scaled edge loop, view it from the side
then activate snapping to edges (header icon list next to magnet)
now, in edit mode from the side view, rotate/move the edge loop, snapping it to the "simple circle" you placed before, even acting from other sides.
when your corrected edge loop is now aligned as it should, you can then delete the simple plane you adde just for this scope. Tell me if you need a more detailed example.

[edit2] after your comment, I add some more image about point 1-6 just above:
As in your example the shape has jagged edge loops not aligned do any global plane at all: you add a simple circle (on the left) and place it where the final edge loop needs to stay

like this

then, you scale Z 0 the jagged edge loop, that also align it to XY

then, using the snap to edges tool, you rotate it to align to the previously placed simple circle which is "in the right position"

so now your edge loop is again in its original position (you just need to use "to sphere", as said at the start, to smooth it completely) and you can remove the simple plane just used as reference

Yes, the vertices of the loops are not always in the same plane, so scaling them to the same plane is not an option. I guess I should have shown that clearer in the example.

I updated the example image in my question to have the loops a little less noise and more shape, to see that the loops verts are not on any plane at all. By using "scale Z 0" you force them to. Sure after the rotation they are not on the global XY-plane anymore, but they are still on a local same plane. If I find the right button, I'll attach the .blend :)


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When I create multiple actions, they affect each other. How to avoid all this?
I try to create a second action to my character, but when I create it and set the the first keyframe, I noticed that it affects my first action too...
How can I avoid this?
Here a video https://streamable.com/s0tgwu

are you sure that you have set a keyframe for all the bones at the beginning of the first action? otherwise the first action will keep the transforms from the second action for these specific bones

do I have to create a keyframe also for the bones that are not directly animated?

it's better to create a keyframe (RotLocScale) for all your bones at the beginning of an action so that you are sure that no bone will inherit some keyframes from the action that was played before

it works now! thank you!

Unless you have good reason not to do it, it's better to create a keyframe (Rotation Location Scale) for all your bones at the beginning of an action so that you are sure that no bone will inherit some keyframes from the action that was played before.


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Problem with topology
I would like to ask, if someone is able to give me some advice about the topology of this character (I need it as game asset).
My problem is that when I apply the “shade smooth”, my character gets some shadows on the leg and under the arm. Another problem is that it’s not completely smooth and some visible edges remain, such as on the chest or near the neck
Is my topology so bad? Do I have to do it again, or can I improve it somehow?
Thank you in advance

Hello and welcome. Please use a title that matches the content of the post. It should read like a question, be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the problem so that anyone searching for similar issues is likely to find this. Remove anything superfluous, avoid using words like "this", "help with", "issue" or "question about", instead describe what "it" is. Remember, your title is the first thing visitors see, answers you get depend heavily on it. See What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?"

Hello please share your file: https://blend-exchange.com/

Have you tried using the Subdivision Surface modifier instead?

I've uploaded the file with the mesh topology. I tried to use the subdivision surface but it doesn't help

you have to copy the link of the upload to your question so that we can access it

ops sorry, here the link

It's opinion based, but the topology would probably be considered "bad" by most professionals. It's too dense, the forms could be held by less topology and it could be more evenly distributed and aligned with likely deformations. If this is for learning, that's great, you should practice and try to do it. If you need a character that is generic human shaped, don't waste your time reinventing the wheel. Human anatomy has been modeled millions of times. Try MakeHuman, it's Blender add-on or any one of hundreds of humanoid generators.

I don't mean to just use it as is. I mean, you can definitely start with something already made. I also think this might not be a completely bad idea from the perspective of learning, because the basic forms are generally OK with most of these generators so there are things to learn from them, but there is also plenty of space to improve depending on your circumstances as they are quite generic. Nothing wrong to take something that is already made for a starting point and modify it as you need.

It has nothing to do with your topology, it's because you've enabled the Shadow option in the Viewport Shading tab, it's the projected shadow of the other leg:


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How to create texture for stained plastic?
You can see the white spot under Sony Text. I think Spot reflection and randomize on black plastic surface. sometime used headphone, ps3 and other electronic plastic material.
I've been searching texture like this for a long time. So far, I don't know exactly how to do it. How to call exactly? Some people used to voronoi texture to get this result but for me it didn't work. How can I do it... thank everyone.

Try to looks specifically for "texture/material imperfections" or "surface imperfections" You should find a lot of materials for creating this. Personally, I make things like that procedurally with Voronoi texture + colorRamp to create them. But if you need textures there are tons of them to use

I think the speckles are a variation in the reflectivity of the particles in the composite. They show up more brightly in the highlights, and, to some extent, are darker in the shadows. They should 'sparkle' slightly? Different flecks should be picked up according to view/light angle?
You could use a fine Voronoi.

Use it to vary the base color between black and dark grey
Select a fraction of the cells with a Greater Than threshold, and reduce their roughness, for glint and piano-black..
Use it to introduce a very slight height-variation for a Bump node

You can cheat the 'Specular' fraction in the BSDF a bit?
If the flecks are too obviously Voronoi cells, you could muddle them slightly by mixing with Noise

Thank You Very Much ! This is exactly what I want. I'm really appreciate for your kindness answer.

Maybe try with a Noise Texture and a ColorRamp, and add a bit of bump:


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Best way to curve parts of an object?
I'm making an archway thing and have got stuck trying to only make a certain part (the highlighted faces) of it curve:

I've used an array and curve modifier to get some little support things to curve correctly, using just one object. The trouble with that is, modifiers affect an entire object, whereas I only want to affect one section of the main arch object.
What is the best solution to this problem? (I'm aware of how bad the... topology(?) is)

Maybe simply create a quarter circle and stick it to the existing topology?


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Why ray_cast is behaving like this?
Why the result of ray_cast function is giving me that result?
The hit point should be Vector(0.5, -1.0, 0.0), but it is returning Vector(0.666..., -1.0, 0)
I have tried a lot of combinations to try to understand what is wrong, but no clue of what happens, so I decide to ask it here.

Yes, it is the default cube. I double check and the two vector (v1 and v2) are what is showed in the image.

Related http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/50716/strange-object-ray-cast-behavior/50718  You are ray casting from v1l in a v2l direction, it's not from-to.

Thanks batFINGER... In fact the function cast_ray expects a initial vector and a direction, giving by (vector2 - vector1).normalized()... Now it works as expected.

Thanks to batFINGER, I found the error. The ray_cast function should be supplied with a point (v1, in my example) and the normalized direction, reached by (v2 - v1).normalized(). Now it is working as expected.


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How to bend an object with SimpleDeform without stretching it?
Hi could someone please help me to find a way to bend an object without stretching it? Should i use rigging?

as you can see when i try to bend this Object (Strap) it stretches the whole model.

You haven't said how you are actually trying to bend it? In any case, did you apply the Scale to it (Ctrl-A > Scale in Object mode) before trying to bend it?

i am very sorry to disappoint you, but if an object has thickness, you cannot bend it without stretching it. This is in our world mathematically not possible.

In Object mode, right click > Set Origin > Origin to Geometry so that the origin stick to the geometry, otherwise it will deform the shape, see how it deforms if I move the mesh away from the origin:


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Blender function to transform a selected edge along a custom axis
How blender is Setup:
In Blender I have created a triangle and extruded it. Selected an edge and created a new transform in the UI and named it "Edge.001" it is currently active. Now I have selected the edge perpendicular to it and I want to pull that edge along one of the custom defined transform's axis.
I am trying to write a python function to do the following.

Make an extrusion of the selected edge.
Transform the edge along a particular axis with defined length.

That is equivalent to doing:

"Pressing" E to extrude and pressing "Esc" so that the duplicate is on top of the original edge
With the custom user defined transform ('Edge.001") selected pressing "G" to grab and constraining along the y axis of the custom defined transform by pressing the short cut corresponding to the  axis (lets say "y" axis) twice i.e. "YY".

I have the following code.
def pull_edge(axis,length):
    # Note: Please define axis before calling function
    # Extrude mesh but do not transform
    bpy.ops.mesh.extrude_region_move(MESH_OT_extrude_region={"mirror":False}, TRANSFORM_OT_translate={"value":(0, 0, 0), "constraint_axis":(False, False, False), "constraint_orientation":'GLOBAL', "mirror":False, "proportional":'DISABLED', "proportional_edit_falloff":'SMOOTH', "proportional_size":1, "snap":False, "snap_target":'CLOSEST', "snap_point":(0, 0, 0), "snap_align":False, "snap_normal":(0, 0, 0), "gpencil_strokes":False, "texture_space":False, "remove_on_cancel":False, "release_confirm":False})

# Pull along local axis
# Unclear how to do this.

I cannot understand how blender in the info panel gets those transform values they are different from the value specified while grabbing.
E.g. Grabbing an edge along  y axis of the custom defined transform by a value of 0.26 seems to generate the  values (-0.216937, 0.0633597, -3.36766e-009). This is what blender does.
bpy.ops.transform.translate(value=(-0.216937, 0.0633597, -3.36766e-009), constraint_axis=(False, True, False), constraint_orientation='Edge.001', mirror=False, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1)

How do I proceed ?

I think http://web.purplefrog.com/~thoth/blender/python-cookbook/extrude-edge-along-custom-axis.html will accomplish your mission.  Here's a copy in-line:
import bpy
import bmesh

def guess_edge_order(bm, edge):
    """ We need to create a new face,
    but if that face is going to have a normal consistent with an adjacent face
    we need to choose the order of the vertices carefully.
    """
    v0 = edge.verts[0]
    v1 = edge.verts[1]
    if len(edge.link_faces) != 1:
        # it is going to be non-manifold.  balls!
        return v0, v1

    face = edge.link_faces[0]
    nverts = len(face.verts)

    i0 = [ i for i in range(nverts) if face.verts[i].index == v0.index]
    i0 = i0[0]
    #print(["indices", i0, face.verts[i0], face.verts[i1], i1])
    i1 = (i0 + 1)% nverts
    #print(["next", face.verts[i1] , "==", v1])

    # does the polarity of this edge match the order of the vertices on the face?
    if (face.verts[i1].index != v1.index):
        return v0, v1
    else:
        return v1,v0

def mission1(obj, axis, len):

    bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(obj.data)

    # collect a set of all the vertices from all selected edges (without duplicates)
    verts = set()
    for edge in bm.edges:
        if edge.select:
            verts.add(edge.verts[0])
            verts.add(edge.verts[1])
    print(verts)

    # create new vertices "extruded" from the vertices of all the selected edges and
    # stash them in a hash so we can map from the old vertex to its extruded partner
    newverts = {}
    for v in verts:
        v2 = bm.verts.new( v.co + axis*len)
        newverts[v.index] = v2

    # for each selected edge create a new face from the original edge plus the extruded vertices
    for edge in bm.edges:
        if edge.select:
            v0,v1 = guess_edge_order(bm, edge)
            v2 = newverts[v1.index]
            v3 = newverts[v0.index]
            bm.faces.new( [v0, v1, v2, v3] )

    # if we don't do this, it will look silly in the editor, and maybe even cause problems during render
    bm.normal_update()

    # apply all the changes we made back to to the target mesh data
    bmesh.update_edit_mesh(obj.data, destructive=True)

#
#
#

obj = bpy.context.active_object
scn = bpy.context.scene
# which custom orientation are we using?
orientation = scn.orientations['Face']

x_axis=0
y_axis=1
z_axis=2
m1 = obj.matrix_world.to_3x3().inverted() # this is what we need to map from world space to object space
m2 = orientation.matrix.transposed() # we transpose this so we can extract a column
global_axis = m2.row[z_axis] # this is the custom orientation axis we want in global space
axis = m1* global_axis # now we have the necessary extrusion vector in the object's local coordinate space

if True:
    print (m1*m2.row[x_axis])
    print (m1*m2.row[y_axis])
    print (axis)

mission1(obj, axis, 1.5)

Thank you seems to work did not understand the code. Will work towards extending its functionality. I am new to stack exchange not sure how to accept your answer.


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Green line in grease pencil (not from Onion Skinning)
I am working with grease pencil and have the strange green lines as seen below that only appear when going into rendered mode AND there is a light shinning on the grease pencil object. Otherwise, the line is black. I have tried:

Using Eevee, Cycles, and Octane.
Blender 2.93
Blender 3.0
Changing the Onion Skinning colors.
Going forwards and backwards in the timeline.
Looked for an option for multisampling based on other posts, couldn't find the option.
Rendering with GPU and CPU. No change from either.

Does anyone know what the green line is being caused by and how to get it to show as the intended color when in render mode?

Figured it out:
I somehow had used vertex paint and painted those areas. No idea how... but, I'll leave this up for anyone else who does the same.


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a .OBJ model can't be seen, is this a bug or what?
so i import a model that downloaded from a website, the weird thing is, it loads perfectly, i can see it on solid mode and texture paint but cannot be seen on Rendered mode. what is happening?

can you show as more informations? render engine, material settings, render settings? It may have alpha set to 0

it's on Eevee, for the material settings and render settings, it's on default. i'm new on blender

AMD gpu? See: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/204297/amd-gpu-material-in-material-preview-mode-and-rendered-mode-is-entirely-gra

@brockmann is it good if i just update the blender to latest version instead?

try from easiest to hardest, try to look at settings of that object, if it is not object, try different object, is it same or not? If it is still bad, try to reinstall blender or use other versions, still nothing good? try drivers


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I can't move the handles in half and graph mode, how do I fix that?
On occasion, I find myself unable to move the handles of the keyframes, only the entire keyframe itself. It's probably an easy fix but I'm a bit new so things such as this confuse me.

To manipulate a single handle and not affect it's twin - Select the handle. Press V F G and drag it about with the mouse.  (No mouse buttons are required)

Maybe you have proportional editing activated, so moving one handle affects the entire keyframe. Press O or Alt O to enable/disable it.

The same problem. I solved it by turning Proportional Editing FCurves off. The shortcut is O.


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Why Does My Baked Texture Have Dark Spots?
I baked a skin texture for my model using Cycles Render Engine, however the fingers are a darker color.

This is the setup:

This is what it looks like not being baked:

Why is this happening? It only happens to the fingers; the rest of the body is the correct color.
Thank you!

hello, hard to say, maybe share your file so that we can try a bake: https://pasteall.org/blend/

Are there any hidden objects (in the viewport) that are still rendered and could cast this shadow on the hand?

@Blunder, there are no hidden objects. The only thing enabled in renders is the body that I'm trying to bake.


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How can I make particles not pass through the surface and not get "stuck" in it?
I want to make the falling autumn leaves.
I did a system of particles, but when the leaf particles reach the surface, (to which I applied collision modifier), they do not entirely remain on the surface, but are "stuck" in it.
How can I make particles not pass through the surface and not get "stuck" in it?

I think I can get you an answer by the end of the day. I'm fairly sure it's because particles are point based, so they're only detecting one collision point instead of a full mesh. I think the way to go is either rigid bodies, or soft bodies. Rigid bodies would probably be easier.

Thanks, @TARDISMaker, but in this case i will have to manually create each leaf?.. And how to make them rotate and move naturally? ..

@MaximVelichkin Just add rigid body properties to the meshes the particles are duplicating

Probably with some force fields. Wait, do you need them to start at different times? If so, I might have to think about his a bit harder. I have a method, it's just not very efficient compared to particles. @NoviceInDisguise applying rigid body the original mesh contols the particle collisions?

@TARDISMaker Thank you! I think in this case,to make particles fall to the surface at different periods of time, I can use multiple emitters with different settings. Nevertheless, I am very interested to know more about your method!
Now, however, two major problems are: 1) Particles "stuck" in the surface. 2) particles continue to rotate after the fall on the surface (I post it in another question on this site, but so far no response).

@TARDISMaker I think so, I seem to remember doing that. You might want to test it

@NoviceInDisguise I just tried to apply to the original meshes (leaves) rigid body and soft body, the result is the same. But maybe I'm doing something wrong? I really need to fix this as soon as possible, and I would be very glad to see a more detailed description, if possible.

I don't have a full on method, I just have some ideas that I'm going to mess around with tonight. Both rigid body and soft body at the same time? Basically a rigid body is for meshes that stay rigid, soft bodies are for meshes that bend a bit. You'll probably be fine with rigid bodies. When is your deadline?

You might want to check this addon out: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?279329-Copy-Particles-to-Rigid-Bodies It might do what you need but it won't be as fast as a particle system and it's probably quite buggy. I haven't had time to try it out. You also might want to check out this thread, it has similar problems to what you have, exept that it's at a much larger scale: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?338993-1-000-Cars-Falling-from-Sky I don't know how much of it will be useful, but it could be helpful.

@TARDISMaker, No, I tried rigid body and soft body separately.
There is no formal deadline, but I need to finish it as soon as possible - today or tomorrow.
Thank you very much for the information!

I've been messing around with this for a few minutes, and I'm not finding anything that would work. Rigid bodies are more for heavy objects and don't work well with light objects. I haven't tried soft bodies, and particles have the same problem. I think the best way to take care of it might be to just cover it up. Some things you could to, are hide the fact that they are sticking into the ground with grass (I think how they are behaving is actually fairly similar to how they would with grass), you could also carefully position the origin to maximize the likelihood of realistic collisions.

@TARDISMaker, Thank you very much, I made leaves with the help of this addon!: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?279329-Copy-Particles-to-Rigid-Bodies
But, i do not know why, the animation stops at frame 250, while i need to animation lasted longer. Could you take a look, if you have a minute? Here blender file: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/35724 I need to finish this shot today. Maybe you'll understand why the animation stops at frame 250, and how to fix it? Here's a video to make it clear what I mean: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1v2jDqNOv8&feature=youtu.be

That seemed to work quite well! It's the rigid body cache. This is basically how much the simulation will bake, after that amount, it won't bake anything else. It's found in the scene tab of the properties view. Just set that to 500 and you should be good! You should probably answer your question (so you get the points :) ) and so that the question can be properly closed.

@TARDISMaker Yes, problem solved! :) Thank you very much!

Let us continue this discussion in chat.


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How to connect two sections of a mesh (sawed off shotgun)
I was wondering how I could connect the grip of my shotgun to the body like image one instead of the way i have it where it is just laying on the object.(check picture two)

I guess your question is too vague and too broad, what have you tried and why don't you succeed, what is the specific problem you've encountered?

To join 2 separated meshes press ⎈ Ctrl + J in Object Mode. If you want to split them press instead ⎈ Ctrl + P.

Thanks for the comment but what I need to know how to do is how to connect the grip seamlessly to the body like in the first image of the finished shotgun.

If you want the grip to be seamless, I think that you've got a couple of options:
1) In Edit mode, select the "back" faces of the front of the gun (where it needs to turn into grip) and extrude the grip directly from it to replace the stock that you've already made (or at least the central round core).  As you extrude the new stock out, you can start transitioning the shape to be more rounded. This is probably the cleaner approach but is more work.
2) You can use a Boolean Union modifier to join the current stock to the front half of the gun (make sure that the two meshes have some overlap for this to work correctly).  Then, you can go into Sculpt Mode, enable Dyntopo, and use the Smooth tool to ease the transition from barrel section to stock section.  If you want a more verbose description of this process, let me know and I'll type it up.


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Workflow musings
As a relative newcomer, I'm working on getting a grip on the basics, and it is starting to make some sense. However, although I have a general idea of what the program can do, I haven't come across any mention of a 'core workflow'.
Maybe that isn't the right term; what I mean is, some kind of structure that you would follow regardless of whether you were creating a simple object or a larger and more complex one. I understand that each object will have its own detailed aspects, but is there a sequence of core actions that need to be followed in every case?

"is there a sequence of core actions that need to be followed in every case?" No "I haven't come across any mention of a 'core workflow'." That's because there isn't one. It is highly dependent on type of work being done and even personal preference. You could roughly say Model > Unwrap > Texture > Rig > Animate > Render, but even that is bound to be contested sooner or later.

I'm certainly no expert, but this same question bothered me for some time.  Ulitimately, workflow is entirely dependent on what you are trying to achieve.
In a studio, many of the steps are divided amongst the workforce, e.g Modellers, Texture Artists, Riggers, Animators, Lighting, Direction.  Some steps may be performed in parallel while others cannot be performed (or rather must be reworked ) if a specific step changes.  Consider a mesh, if you change the mesh, then the texture mapping will change and the textures themselves may need to be reworked.
It is more helpful to think in terms of assets, i.e props, characters, scenes etc. It may be better to focus on a specific asset and break it down e.g Model -> Sculpt -> Remesh -> Unwrap -> Texture.
Blender does a lot of things, there is no start -> finish playbook, only the advice not to attempt too much in a single blend file, look at link/append functionality and understand that you have the ability to pull assets in from other files.

If we are talking about modeling, you'd differentiate organic object to 'hard surface' one. For the first you'd start with a sculpt and for the second you'd model with subdivisions. That being said there is tons of ways to do each things, and every artist has his favourites. So follow tutorials and you'll start understanding what's best for you depending on what you want to achieve.

Thank you for your answers. It is probably too early for me to be specific on what I want to do, but this will be enormously helpful in guiding my thinking as I progress.


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Fluid sim not working, no liquid is being made
I've been trying to make a sim of oil flowing out of a pipe onto some objects I made for a school project. The problem is that no matter what I try, the domain doesn't seem to want to show up while it's baking. I've tried scaling up the inflow object and moving it out of the tube it was in and that didn't work. Then I tried changing another object into an inflow and still the domain doesn't create any liquid.

Earlier when there were less obstacles and the domain was smaller it did work.

How to upload an image to a post

@absurdAviator I've fixed the images for you, but please take care formatting your questions.  If you get stuck, you can click the help icon on the toolbar.

All obstacles must be completely enclosed by the domain.  If not then the fluid won't bake. This quite often catches people out, me included.
I strongly encourage you to read the documentation at blender.org as it details what to watch out for in the Fluid Simulation section of the blender manual.  Good advice for any time you get stuck.

Thank you so much.


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Cycles: Light through coloured glass
I'm fairly new to blender,I started following this tutorial but the results are a bit far from what I want.
I want to manage to get the crystal material to be transparent, so when the light comes through, it reflects on the ground with the color of the crystal, right now, a hard black shadow is cast.
I cranked up the transmission to 1 and made sure the transparent shadow was enabled but I can't seem to make it glassy enough.
Any help would be appreciated as well as tips to improve the render.
Thanks,

For a crystal, You do not want to use a Principled BSDF. It has diffuse bounce which crystals do not.
Use a glass shader, and set the IOR to be just above 2. This should handle everything.

You're running into a limitation of the Principled trying to do everything, but it ending up terrible at it.

To have light travel through a Principled shader, the alpha needs to be less than 1.
See https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/shader_nodes/shader/principled.html

By setting the alpha on the Principled BSDF to 0.2, the result will match the image above.