text:
Suggestions for fog?
So i have been working on this scene for a while using cycles and wanted to have a fog with a shape like in the image, the problem is that it looks too cheap, cut out and i cannot think of anything to make it look better, any help? (i took screenshots so thats why the render looks grainy)

Below is my node set up for the fog inside the mesh

thank you!

If you want these curvy shapes you can try Volume Empty object with two volume modifiers.

Add a Cube, switch to Sculpt mode and with enabled Dyntopo use Snake Hook tool
Add Volume > Empty object
Add modifier Mesh to Volume and use the Cube as Object
Alternatively for more distortion you can use Volume Displace modifier with Cloud texture

Sculpted - three drags with Snake Hook tool (screen from edit mode)

Volume > Empty object with Mesh to Volume modifier

Added Volume Displace modifier > Cloud texture

... another example smaller size texture and higher Density set in shader

Volume modifier available from Blender 2.92 and above ... I'm so big fan of this feature.
Just a few clicks :)
BTW - ad to "graine" render - in Properties editor under Render property >Sampling > Denoising enable Viewport / Render Screens above are just result of 4 samples :)

This is brilliant! thank you very much

If you want the most realistic result, you should consider using a smoke simulation. However, if you want to do it using a shader, you can try something like this. The object I used is a plane, placed in front of the scene.

All I did to make it was to warp the vectors of a Noise Texture with another Noise Texture  (to make it even more random and "whispy") using a Vector Math node. The MixRGB in the middle is to lessen the warp effect.

Then I used the same warped vector combined with a Gradient Texture and a ColorRamp to make an alpha mask.

I show it in the photo (but not connected) that I also combined (multiplied) the original Noise Texture that I used for the warp factor (through another ColorRamp) with my alpha mask to make more "holes" in it.
The end result looks like this. Don't forget to put a light in front of it to make it show up:

You could create a cube, give it this node setup, which is a mix between a Noise Texture and a Gradient through a Math (Multiply), the Gradient making the Noise fade out on the Z axis:

Here is what it gives:

Front view:

Or you could try to improve your solution:

Create your cloud object with metaballs, keep the Resolution low to make them smooth. When you're glad with your shape, select them all and in the header menu > Object > Convert to > Mesh:

Create your material, plug the Principled Volume into the Volume socket of the Material Output. Plug a Noise Texture into the Density socket of the Principled Volume. As this setup won't take the cloud shape into account (the cut out aspect), plug a mix between Transparent and Diffuse into the Surface socket of the Material Output with a Layer Weight as factor:

Here is what it gives (I've added two Point lights in order to make it a bit brighter, but you could also add an Emission shader in your node setup, or give your Principled Volume a bit of Emission Strength):


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Render what camera sees and not first frame
Sorry for the noob question, I just can't find the answer anywhere.
I've just setup a few key frames of animation and I happy with it.
However, after the render I noticed that there were a few glitches with some of the cloth physics.
All I want to do now is to move the camera and render what the camera sees in order for me to troubleshoot the scene.  However, each time I press render, it insists on rendering the first frame of the animation key frames.
Surely there's a way I can still render what the camera see and not forcing me to scrub through the key frames to get the camera where I want it?
Regards,
Val

No need to scrub every time from the beginning. You can adjust the range of frames to start rendering (and playing) from however you want. Look in the Properties Panel for the Output Settings tab, and adjust the range for the frames you want rendered. Your file is likely starting from the beginning because the start frame is 1 by default. Change this setting to something later in the timeline.

You can alternatively change this same range setting in the Timeline Editor window, which can be found at the bottom of the screen while using the Animation Workspace. Changing it in either location changes it in the other.

Thanks for your reply.  Yes, I also stumbled upon that... what I ended up instead was to add another camera that I could use to just go around the scene and do quick 1 frame renders without disturbing any of the other keyframed cameras.. etc..  But again, thank you for your answer

Here's a animation that shows this.  When you see the highlighted box your looking through the camera and that's what will be rendered.

Thanks Rick... While I very much appreciate you taking the time to give your explanation with a fantastic little video... that part I knew, it was the fact that the camera would only render the keyframes at any one specific frame number... I just wanted the freedom to move about the scene and render what the camera saw at that moment in time... so I added another camera to the scene and that gave me the flexibility I was after.. Thanks just the same, I always appreciate a helpful community such as this..

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Extruding 3 circles from a uv sphere, general modeling advice
I am trying to make a smooth, well meshed corner from a sphere with 3 extensions at right angles.  As you can see from the image that the mesh is 'messy'.  Any suggestions on how to do this better?
I start with a uv sphere, proportional grab from a pole, then duplicate and rotate the 3 extrusions into position and union the result.  I've tried this multiple times but always end up with a mesh that is less than perfect.
I've realized that a uv sphere has 2 poles so clean grab of 3 'sides' is tricky.
I've followed a number of tutorials but am now venturing off into modelling my ideas and I'm finding all kinds of interesting challenges.
I've tried similar with an ico sphere and a subdivided (rounded) cube but I've not been happy with any of the results.  I've also tried uv spheres of different segments and rings.
The left hand side shows the mesh inside the sphere, the right hand side show the render view outside with red circles around the problem areas.
Any advice or ideas are welcome.

Maybe related: Corner modeling technique

It's not clear why you're not satisfied with a subdivided cube, you can subdivide it 3 times with a Smoothness of 1:

Cut off 3 holes, make the holes circular with AltShiftS:

Extrude:

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


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GNs: Rotate Object Instances to fixed reference point 3.2.2
I'd like to rotate my Instances on Points objects so they all face outward from my the center of my geometry.  The default setup has them all facing one way.
I've seen examples of how to do this with Attribute Vector Nodes (https://www.blendernation.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Simon-Thommes-demonstrating-the-use-of-Geometry-Nodes-to-populate-trees-with-leaves-procedurally-with-complete-control-on-orientation-and-scale.-Check-out-his-demonstration-videos-on-this-link.-728x374@2x.jpg), but that has been replaced with a vector math in 3.2.2 and I don't see how to do it since the vector math is very different from the 2.9 Attribute Vector Nodes.
But really my only question is: How can I do this with 3.2.2?  Basically I want my branch segments to go outward from the core of the tree with a tad of randomness.
Maybe I can get the origin point of my tree and put that into an Align Euler to Vector but I do not see how.

why not using the pivot point of rotate instances?

This is the basic setup for "track to" geometry origin


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3.2.2 Anyway to taper volume scatter so the boundary is less defined/more blended; cycles
My volume scatter 'fog box'/cube has a hard edge that I would like to soften.  Is than an easy way to do that?  I am trying multiple 'fog boxes' with decreasing density but am wondering if I could do anything here with GN.  I also tried subdividing my cube and altering the shape to be less flat at the top but that seems to be a bit too fiddly.
Too sharp, want this transition to be softer, to fade out more

I usually use a Gradient Texture, separated on the Z-axis to soften the falloff. The Invert Node is not necessary (you can invert with the ColorRamp instead), I just put it there to make it more clear what's happening. I usually like to warp the vectors of the gradient with a Noise Texture first, to give a more natural look:


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Scene is too heavy; how to identify most 'expensive' objects
I have a scene which is taxing my computer memory such that blender is almost unusable (not even talking about render here, just UI).  I know I have a few very expensive objects, but it's been a few years since I worked on this project so I have to hunt around and try to remember which ones are large.  How can I quickly identify the heavy hitters, so that I can either delete or rework them and basically to make my project leaner and easier to work with? (I'll focus on render later)
I keep trying to use the status line, bottom right, but I think it shows stats for my entire project, not the selected object or object hierarchy.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/218229/using-global-nodes-to-control-environment-quality/218245#218245

Thx Allen, I will check that out.  On another site I found this python script (or variation) that does what I need
`import bpy
from bpy import context
sumfaces = []
for o in context.scene.objects:
if o.type != 'MESH':
continue
me = o.data
verts = len(me.vertices)
edges = len(me.edges)
faces = len(me.polygons)
sumfaces.append(faces)
print("%s: verts:%d edges:%d polys %d"
% (o.name, verts, edges, faces))
print("total polys %d" % sum(sumfaces))`

Jon, feel free to post as a self-answer

Added a much better answer, a long time coming.

I've written this script that helped me a lot with my last project. As a new blender user it's too easy for me to bloat my projects w/o knowing where the bloat is.  This inspector lists out my project so it is more knowable.  To use this script in Blender 3.0 you will have to follow the instructions here Blender 3.0.1 How to import 'tabulate' into script
to pip3 install the tabulate import.
import bpy,os
from bpy import context
from tabulate import tabulate
import operator
import sys
import numbers

import os
print("PYTHONPATH:", os.environ.get('PYTHONPATH'))
print("PATH:", os.environ.get('PATH'))

#
#  Sorts a table based on a col tuple
#
def sort_table(table, cols):
    """ sort a table by multiple columns
        table: a list of lists (or tuple of tuples) where each inner list
               represents a row
        cols:  a list (or tuple) specifying the column numbers to sort by
               e.g. (1,0) would sort by column 1, then by column 0
    """
    for col in reversed(cols):
        table = sorted(table, key=operator.itemgetter(col))
    return table

#
#  Takes a table and for all numbers in the table
#  formats them with commas and returns a new table
#
def insertCommas(table):
    newTable = []
    for row in table:
        resultsRow = []
        for col in row:
            if isinstance( col, numbers.Number):
                newCol = '{:,}'.format(col)
            else:
                newCol = col
            resultsRow.append(newCol)

        newTable.append( resultsRow)

    return newTable

#
#  Prints a table and summary of all project meshes, including total and unique total (dups vs linked)
#
iTotalVerts = 0
iTotalUniqueVerts = 0
iTotalEdges = 0
iTotalUniqueEdges = 0
iTotalFaces = 0
iTotalUniqueFaces = 0

resultsTable = []
totalObjects = 0
totalDups = 0

#
# First build a table of all items and their names/addresses
# so that we can understand when we have a 'linked' object
#
name_dict = {}
address_dict = {}
for o in context.scene.objects:
    if o.type != 'MESH':
        continue

    name_dict[o.name] = o.data.as_pointer()
    address_dict[o.data.as_pointer()] = o.name

#print("name_dict " + str(name_dict))
#print("\n")

#
#  Now build the list of objects and sizes and look up dup counts
#

for o in context.scene.objects:
    if o.type != 'MESH':
        continue

    name_dict[o.name] = o.data.as_pointer()
    obj_mesh = o.data

    resultsRow = []
    me = o.data
    verts = len(me.vertices)
    edges = len(me.edges)
    faces = len(me.polygons)

    iTotalVerts += verts
    iTotalEdges += edges
    iTotalFaces += faces

    resultsRow.append(o.name)
    resultsRow.append(verts)
    resultsRow.append(edges)
    resultsRow.append(faces)

    address = o.data.as_pointer()

    dupCount = 0
    address = name_dict[ o.name ]
    for each in name_dict:
        #print( "Looking for address " + str(address) + " comparing with " + str(name_dict[each]))

        if address == name_dict[each]:
            dupCount = dupCount + 1

    resultsRow.append(dupCount)
    if dupCount > 1:
        resultsRow.append(str(o.data.as_pointer()))
        totalDups = totalDups + 1
    else:
        resultsRow.append("")
        iTotalUniqueVerts += verts
        iTotalUniqueEdges += edges
        iTotalUniqueFaces += faces

    resultsTable.append(resultsRow)
    totalObjects = totalObjects +1

print("address_dicts = " + str(address_dict))
sortedResultsTable = sort_table( resultsTable, (1,0))
formattedAndSortedTable = insertCommas( sortedResultsTable )

headers = ["Name", "Verts", "Edges", "Faces", "Link Count", "Linked to"]
print(tabulate(formattedAndSortedTable, headers=headers, stralign="right"))

strTotalObjects = '{:,}'.format(totalObjects)
strTotalDups = '{:,}'.format(totalDups)
strTotalVerts = '{:,}'.format( iTotalVerts)
strTotalEdges = '{:,}'.format( iTotalEdges)
strTotalFaces = '{:,}'.format( iTotalFaces)
strTotalVertsUnique = '{:,}'.format(iTotalUniqueVerts)
strTotalEdgesUnique = '{:,}'.format(iTotalUniqueEdges)
strTotalFacesUnique = '{:,}'.format(iTotalUniqueFaces)

summaryOutput = "\nSummary: Objects: " + strTotalObjects + "/" + strTotalDups + ", Unique: " + '{:,}'.format(len(address_dict)) + ", Verts: " + strTotalVerts + "/" + strTotalVertsUnique + ", Edges: " + strTotalEdges + "/" + strTotalEdgesUnique + ", Faces: " + strTotalFaces + "/" +strTotalFacesUnique
print( summaryOutput)
print( "\nNote: Total/Unique, Totals include all linked objects, Unique only counts unique objects")

Here is a sample of the output, nicely tabulated, a list of all Meshes and their vert/edge/face sizes as well as a 'linked' count and the memory address (for recognizing dup objects).  The summary shows the totals for both all objects and just unique objects.  This information makes it easy for me to find large objects and/or objects that are better served as dups.  I see no way in the Blender UI to know if a particular object is a duplicate or a linked object.  This gives me that visibility too! :-)
ENJOY!

And Updated output
--------------------------------------  -------  -------  -------  ------------  -----------
                              FogPlane        4        4        1             1
                          FogPlane.001        4        4        1             1
flying-sparrow-silhouette-25-424287647        4        4        1             1
                      lonemountain_sky        4        4        1             1
                              iceberg3        7       12        7             1
                              iceberg8        7       12        7             1
                              iceberg1        8       18       12             1
                              iceberg2        8       15        9             1
                              iceberg4        8       12        6             1
                              iceberg5        8       15        9             1
                              iceberg6        8       15        9             1
                              iceberg7        8       18       12             1
                              iceberg9        8       12        6             1
                                  rock        8       18       12             1
                             iceberg10       10       24       16             1
                         Landscape.006   10,526   20,815   10,290             1
                         Landscape.003   13,720   27,158   13,439             1
                         Landscape.004   13,720   27,158   13,439             1
                             Landscape   16,384   32,512   16,129             1
                         Landscape.001   16,384   32,512   16,129             1
                         Landscape.005   16,384   32,512   16,129             1
                         Landscape.007   16,384   32,512   16,129             1
                              IcePlane   17,689   35,112   17,424             1
                                 Ocean   17,689   35,112   17,424             1
                         Landscape.002   20,535   40,451   19,921             1
                              tree.004   31,928   55,972   24,044             1
                              tree.009   36,556   49,198   16,880             1
                         MainLandscape   42,084  125,428   83,345             1
                              tree.002   43,372   76,012   32,640             1
                            leaves.001   47,054   63,219   21,646             1
                                leaves   57,180   76,934   26,388             1
                              tree.005   66,940   90,270   31,048             1
                                  tree   71,384   95,904   32,836             1
                              tree.008  140,382  188,353   64,382             1
                              tree.001  193,644  359,728  177,948             1
                              tree.007  204,526  252,671   78,250             1
                              tree.003  330,782  413,827  126,434             1
                              tree.006  338,582  423,615  129,438             1

Summary: Objects: 38/0, Unique: 38, Verts: 1,763,933/1,763,933, Edges: 2,587,172/2,587,172, Faces: 1,001,841/1,001,841

Note: Total/Unique, Totals include all linked objects, Unique only counts unique objects

I made an addon that helps finding heavy objects. You can make a selection, set up the amount of vertices it can have (10k, 100k etc) and it will leave selected only those that are above it. You can also run it on the whole scene.
It reads subdivisions, curves, Geometry Nodes... pretty useful :)
https://gabrielmoro.gumroad.com/l/selectbyminimumverticescount


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How to make circular dependency work on two objects with modifiers + Geometry node
I made a geometry node to make skin of characters shrink whenever a tight clothing/accesoires is worn. Like this image down here.

How it works:
Arm Object: For this to work, I gave the Arm object a geometry node modifier that moves in normal position based on the 'Band'objects proximity.
Band object: The Band Objects is connected by using a Surface Deform modifier binded to the Arm object. So when the Arm objects shrinks, the band shrinks with it.
By looking at the screenshot, you can see that this seems to work. But the problem is, that it does not render as in the screenshot. Instead, it shrinks the entire object as if ignoring the Band object. If I delete the Surface deform modifier, it works fine, but then the band object does not deform anymore.
My question is: Why does this seem to work in the viewport, but not when rendering?
My guess is that this has something to do with how blender calculates the objects in a particular order. Since both objects influence and depend on each other, I guess that is the problem?
I know how to find a way to work around: By creating shapekeys! Yes, I am aware of that. I made this node to make a quick and easy way for multiple characters and clothing sets. If there are other suggestions other than shapekeys, then please let me know.
Thanks a lot
I can provide Blend file if needed

I imagine you checked in the console that you have indeed "Dependency cycle detected" error messages ? If not, may I suggest to look here: Dependency Cycles In Blender - How To Find And Fix them

Thank you for the link. Yes, it does give a dependency error! Nathan gave an answer in how to avoid that. Thanks!

Usually, what you need to do to make what seems to be a circular dependency work, is to reconceptualize exactly what you want so that you can build it without any circular dependencies.
You have a band, surface deformed by a mesh, and that mesh is measuring its proximity to the band.  But most likely, you want the proximity to the band from before it gets surface deformed, not after.  You offer:

If I delete the Surface deform modifier, it works fine, but then the band object does not deform anymore.

So it's clear that what you want is not really a circular dependency, not conceptually.  You want the proximity to the object from before it gets surface deformed, and then you want to surface deform it.
You can do this by creating a third, non-rendering object.  Duplicate the band to band.001; disable rendering on band.001 and delete the surface deform modifier on it.  The arm gets proximity from band.001, while the original band, the rendering band, gets surface deformed from the arm.  (In many cases, you would then parent band to band.001, but not where you're surface deforming, which shouldn't be accompanied by transforms-- but, surface deform may not be what you want to be using.)  You now have a clear, linear hierarchy: band.001->arm->band.

Why does this seem to work in the viewport, but not when rendering?

In Blender, objects get updated in a number of circumstances; every time they get updated, all of their modifiers are recalculated.  When there's a circular dependency, it's pretty much a crapshoot as to which object is evaluated by Blender first, like on a frame change or a file load, but if you do something that updates the first object, like tab into and out of edit mode, then that object will get re-evaluated, which will allow it to read from an object that is dependent upon it-- but, only once, not in an unending loop of recalculation.
But the instant you render, these objects are, yet again, recalculated from scratch.  The circular dependency makes it so that you might see one thing or the other in the viewport, depending on what actions you've taken that update objects.  But, when you have a circular dependency, what you see in the viewport is not necessarily what you'll get when you render (which is a very bad thing, and a reason to never have any circular dependencies even if they seem okay.  You don't want to spend a day rendering just to discover that it doesn't look like your preview.)
Here, it sounds like you're not after a true circular dependency-- that the addition of an extra object can turn it into a healthy hierarchy.  Every once in a while, someone is looking for a truly interdependent system.  Physics is an example.  In cases like this, GN can be useful.  You calculate all operations before implementing any of them; you likely repeat this a number of times.  However, here, it doesn't sound like you're looking for this.

Nathan, thanks for your detailed answer. I am wondering: does Blender have an future that allows you to choose what order to 'calculate'? I think a feature like that would be awesome.
I marked your your response as correct, because it works nicely. A smart solution! But in my case, not what I was looking for. For me, I would have to make the band.001 object connect to a rig. THe problem with this, is that when the Arm objects has shapekeys, I would have to copy ALL the shapekeys to the band.001 object, which is time consuming for multiple sets. That's why surface deform modifier is perfect.

@DarkSoul "I am wondering: does Blender have an future that allows you to choose what order to 'calculate'?"  I would be surprised if Blender ever implemented something like that.


text:
weird bone axis/rotation problems (from blender to UE4)
i'm quite new, to unreal engine en blender. (installed both 1,5 month ago)
and i start working on my first game/interactive experience.
and i have run in a lot of problems sinds ;p (of course ;))
but now i have this problem where i can't find a solution to.
i'm not quit sure of the problem is in blender or its a problem in the unreal editor.
so i hope you guys can help me out with this one. :)
here i have a download link to this pictures, blender file & the fbx file: https://we.tl/t-0vUF3JDmJz
so here the problem:
i have made this model in blender (image 1A):

a skeleton and a animation with it (image 1B):

witchs i wanted it to import into UE4, and at the first sight, everything lookt alright (image 2A):

but as soon as i start the animation, things started to look really weird (image 3A, 3B & 3C):

i think UE4 or blender has done something really weird with the axis of my bones.
and if i take a look at the skeleton tab, i think i can see the axis's of my bones (or the bones them self) out of place (image 4A & 4B):

so i went back in blender to check de axis from my bones and meshes, and as far as i can see the axis's for the bones and meshes are there perfectly in place (as it should be, because of using the "shift+s" methode) (image 5A & 5B):

i have searched a lot on the internet but unfortunately i can't find the solution for this problem.. :|
and i really running out of options here.. :(
I'm using: windows 7, blender 2.80 & unreal editor 4.20.3
so if you know a solution, please tell me! ;D
really big thanks already for reading and thinking! ;)
gr grover
PS: i'm from the netherlands and i'm really bad at speaking and especially writting english, so srry if i made this hard to read! ;)


text:
Multiple root bones found error
I have a question about rigging.
I try to make a player character in blender to export to FBX (to use in the Unreal Engine).
However every time I try to import it in Unreal Engine I get an error that my skeleton contains multiple root bones.
I really don't get why it's saying that, I can only find one root bone.
So my question is: Is there a command or something where it will tell me how many root bones my skeleton has and witch bones are root bones?
(normally I would try to delete my skeleton and start all over but this model cotains 306 bones, so yeah.... I rather try somethings else first ;p)
Thx in advance for reading and thinking! :)

I faced the same problem, and I had to debug the unreal engine code to understand what he was doing. I describe the process here to solve the issue. This is for 3dsmax, but the concept is the same also in Blender. http://planeshift.top-ix.org/pswiki/index.php/Import_a_char_3DSMAX

You can check it in the Outliner. After you open the armature's hierarchy you can see how many bones are directly below of the armature. The "left" has two root bones, the "right" has only one. So if you click on the triangle near the armature data and you see more than one bone immediatelly, then you have multiple root bones.


text:
How to add custom image/ design on the cupcake wrapper?
I have modelled a cupcake on which I would like to add different styles of wrappers. I tried texture painting on them. But the result was not satisfactory. How do I use custom images on my wrapper or texture paint the polka pattern?
This is the modelled cupcake on which I would like to have the below looks:

The polka dot (Tried texture painting in blender)

Or use a custom image like this one

I would appreciate any help/ links to follow. Thanks !

Here is what a Cylinder Projection unwrap gives, so you can easily paint on an image in the Image Editor or project a custom image:

If you want to paint in the 3D view, create a cylinder (that has a bit larger radius as folds tend to shrink the radius of the object) and paint on it, then use the result on your object.


text:
How to color match object and hdri background
I have an HDRi background with ledges and a photoscanned rock.  The colors/tones of the ledges and rock do not quite match.  I am willing to change the tones of the HDRi rocks OR my single rock - either way as long as they better match.  What is the best way to do this?  I am working in cycles.  The free floating photoscanned rock (right) is redder than the background HDRi ledge (left).  I would like to tone them more similar.  I would think a simple shader setup for the photoscanned rock would do it and I would think this would be basic functionality for 'blending'.  Please advise

It's hard to see the real difference because the background image is semi-transparent and that affects the color a lot.

You do this by inserting color correction nodes between the image texture's Color output and the shader's Color input.  In this case, I would probably use an RGB curves node to adjust the red tint, so my shader might look like this:


text:
Blender 3; CUDA errors, Cycles, Render, GPU Compute
I have a project that was rendering in cycles GPU compute just fine but at some point went wonky and now GPU Compute always fails.  What steps can I take to get GPU compute working again?
I might be able to disable various layers and shaders until I find the culprit, but is there a better way then 'hunt and peck'?  I am not very satisfied with CPU render.
I have two Nvidia GTX 1070Ti SLI cards and generally GPU compute works fine, but I've done something in my project that is causing issues.  It was working with a 2048 tile size, and now that it's not working, even a tile size of 128 has the same issue.

Windows Event log shows that the Driver is crashing and restarting.  By exiting blender and restarting it and using 128 tile size, I was able to use GPU Compute.  While not the answer I was hoping for, I now know that the issue seems to be something with the display driver.

I had a number of overlapping meshes/shaders as my project was very dirty.  After I cleaned up unwanted/unneeded meshes/shaders everything started working great again.  I think the take away is - keep my projects clean and crisp during development


text:
Hair emitter Object wrong orientation; Blender 3.0
thx in advance
I have two planes, one with a vertical tree image texture and one that is flat 'ground'.  I want to use a particle system to place the trees on the ground.  However the hair emitter has the tree the wrong way on the ground.  I do not see any particle system ways to properly orient the tree on the ground.  Before I changed the Render from Path to Object the 'hairs' had the right orientation.
Surely I'm missing some basic thing.  It appears that older versions of blender had rotation controls for the hair that I cannot find in 3.0.  Also all of my objects have all transformations applied and neither object is being effected by any modifiers.

Particle systems use different orientation than Viewport (because reasons)
Simply rotate the origin point of your object by 90 degrees so they match

Apply all transformations could be also solution.


text:
Blender 3.0.1 How to import 'tabulate' into script
thx for the patience.  I'm not very familiar with python and I am trying to use a tabulate import but get errors.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "\CheckObejctSize.py", line 5, in
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'tabulate'
Error: Python script failed, check the message in the system console
I've read a whole bunch of threads on what to do, but none have helped.  I was going to use the blender/pip to add tabulate but I can't seem to even find pip.
I found a thread that suggested:
import ensurepip
ensurepip.bootstrap()
pybin = bpy.app.binary_path_python
subprocess.check_call([pybin, '-m', 'pip', 'install', 'tabulate'])

which produced
Defaulting to user installation because normal site-packages is not writeable
Looking in links: c:\Users\Jon\AppData\Local\Temp\tmp99hzlnij
Requirement already satisfied: setuptools in c:\program files\blender foundation\blender 3.0\3.0\python\lib\site-packages (57.4.0)
Requirement already satisfied: pip in c:\program files\blender foundation\blender 3.0\3.0\python\lib\site-packages (21.2.3)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "\CheckObejctSize.py", line 10, in
AttributeError: 'bpy.app' object has no attribute 'binary_path_python'
Error: Python script failed, check the message in the system console
Why can't I find pip when it seems that it's already there and how can I get tabulate import working in Blender 3.0 scripting?

Convoluted but I got it to work:

Download the get-pip.py file from the web.  https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
Place it in ...Blender Foundation\Blender 3.0\3.0\python\bin
Run Blender Foundation\Blender 3.0\3.0\python> .\bin\python.exe ./bin/get-pip.py

You will see:
Collecting pip
  Downloading pip-22.0.3-py3-none-any.whl (2.1 MB)
     ---------------------------------------- 2.1/2.1 MB 8.3 MB/s eta 0:00:00
Collecting wheel
  Downloading wheel-0.37.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl (35 kB)
Installing collected packages: wheel, pip
  WARNING: The script wheel.exe is installed in 'C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 3.0\3.0\python\Scripts' which is not on PATH.
  Consider adding this directory to PATH or, if you prefer to suppress this warning, use --no-warn-script-location.
  Attempting uninstall: pip
    Found existing installation: pip 21.2.3
    Uninstalling pip-21.2.3:
      Successfully uninstalled pip-21.2.3
  WARNING: The scripts pip.exe, pip3.9.exe and pip3.exe are installed in 'C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 3.0\3.0\python\Scripts' which is not on PATH.
  Consider adding this directory to PATH or, if you prefer to suppress this warning, use --no-warn-script-location.
Successfully installed pip-22.0.3 wheel-0.37.1

This will have created a Scripts directory, now I can use pip3 to install
Blender Foundation\Blender 3.0\3.0\python> ./Scripts/pip3 install tabulate

With Subsequent Blender upgrades I ran into problems again, and now I have this script which has been working
# From https://b3d.interplanety.org/en/installing-python-packages-with-pip-in-blender-on-windows-10/
import subprocess
import sys
import os

python_exe = os.path.join(sys.prefix, 'bin', 'python.exe')
target = os.path.join(sys.prefix, 'lib', 'site-packages')
print('target is: ' + target)

print('sys.path is: ')
for i in sys.path:
    print(i, end="")
# print('sys.path is: ' + sys.path)
print('HELLO')
print('sys.executable is: ' + sys.executable)

subprocess.call([python_exe, '-m', 'ensurepip'])
subprocess.call([python_exe, '-m', 'pip', 'install', '--upgrade', 'pip'])

subprocess.call([python_exe, '-m', 'pip', 'uninstall', 'pip', 'setuptools'])

subprocess.call([python_exe, '-m', 'pip', 'install', '--upgrade', 'numpy', '-t', target])
subprocess.call([python_exe, '-m', 'pip', 'install', '--upgrade', 'tabulate', '-t', target])
subprocess.call([python_exe, '-m', 'pip', 'install', '--upgrade', 'scipy', '-t', target])

print('FINISHED')

See https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/244520/scene-is-too-heavy-how-to-identify-most-expensive-objects/244531#244531 to understand how this is used.


text:
How to make a granola Cereal
I'm fairly new to blender and I've finished the infamous donut tutorial so I guess I know my way around blender enough to say I'm not fresh-of-the-boat new...
I've given myself a new project/challenge... Though I'm not entirely sure which approach is the best.
My goal is to have a bowl of granola/muesli in similar layout as this image:

I'd like the render to be able to stand up to close inspection, not necessary at a oat-flake level, but enough to frame a box of cereal/bowl and its contents...
I've created the bowl from another tut... and I've made one oat... and then the realisation of "I still dont know what I'm doing" hit me... do I make the oats into a particle system? how do I texture them, using an image or procedural?

I would love some help and guidance...
How would you guys tackle this one?
Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated...

Image texture is going to be easier and more realistic. The particle system is really similar to the one of the donut. What did you try already and not working?

Here's a texture you can use (you can shape the flake as a cube subdivided.. and painted using the texture with "stencil" method) https://www.freepik.com/premium-photo/oat-flakes-isolated-white-black-background_5733969.htm

Hi Sanbaldo... thank you for your reply.  I guess I'm new to a proper workflow... I've not had too much problem with modeling a variety of different oats now, all with slight variants in texture, the same for cashews and almonds.  I guess I was hoping for a magic button for procedural textures, instead of me painstakingly do image textures.  I always wanted to know if I should use the particle system in order for them to fall in the bowl for realistic placement, or should I do like the sprinkles weight map and use like a semi circle as the base?  Thank you again for your help.

Particle system will drop them into the bowl, but the problem is they don’t interact with each other in that case. I wish they did. You could make a particle instance of rigid body oats, then make instances real, and then possibly use a python script to keyframe enable them one at a time so they don’t all explode away from each other.

PS: “my doughnut icing is flat,” “my doughnut sprinkles are all the same,” “my doughnut is square, pls help!” “My donut has too many calories and is weighing down my PC”… etc.

Yeah, I was thinking of making the oats rigid body, to eliminate all the clipping that's happening in my render... I appreciate the help and replies.

Here's an example you can look at - All the textures seen are entirely procedural - no image textures were used (except for the table - I nabbed that from 3dtextures.me). And although some of the stuff looks a bit hammy upon closer inspection, most of it looks ok from a distance.
Bear in mind - this is in no way a final project - just something to provide an example of one way to go about something like this. Making it look great "up close" would likely require a few more rounds of "tinkering". Either way, it should give an example of how I would start to go about something like this.
Instead of simply using a particle system to "fill" the bowl with granola particles, as you were first thinking, I would suggest instead you use a combination of a Textured Base (the granola pile & milk), littered with actual cereal bits and seeds (created separately and instanced using geometry nodes), and topped off with some fully modeled and manually placed pieces (the berries).
Starting with the bowl, make a face around where you think the milk-line should be and then separate it into it's own object with P. This will be the basis for your milk/granola stack.

Inset the face so the inside circle is rather small, then add loop cuts to the surrounding section to give more geometry so we can make it "lumpy" in the next step:

Select certain sections on the mesh, turn on Proportional Editing (O) and raise some sections near the center. Change the size of the edit with the mousewheel. Do this a couple of times - picking different points each time and making the edit wheel slightly smaller - so there's a  "big mounds with smaller lumps" kind of thing. Try to do a better job than I did at keeping the milk line flat-ish (I guess I was in a hurry).

For the texture for this section, I used 2 Principled BSDF's mixed with s Mix Shader, using a Gradient Texture, separated on the Z to act as a cutoff between the Granola Texture (Made with mostly Noise Textures) and the Milk Texture (basically shiny white with some subsurface scattering). I added a Displacement, which looks good at full strength in Cycles, but it causes it to clip through some of my geometry particles and I haven't been able to figure that out yet, so I left it at low strength.

Next I made some "seed and nut pieces". I made some shapes with simple geometry that will be "strewn about" the dish with Geometry Nodes later on.

I then gave them procedural textures to try and approximate what they're supposed to be (Pumpkin Seed, Wheat seed, Nut chunks).

To distribute them along the surface of the "granola mound", I used Geometry Nodes (A much better alternative to the particle system if you ask me). I used the nodes to distribute the seeds and nuts all over the surface, giving slight alterations to their respective scales and rotations. There is a way to use weight painting to "isolate" where the stuff gets spread around, but I think it looks fine "all over" here, with bits floating in the milk and stuck to the sides of the bowl a bit. Notice that I put the "nut chunks" into their own collection and then instanced the collection. You could do this for all the seeds if you want, but breaking it down like this gives better control over the distribution of the different kinds of seeds.

Next, I modeled some larger fruit pieces that I would manually place over the dish.

Here is the end result put together (works in both Cycles and EEVEE, with very minor differences).

Because it's such a large project, I didn't go in to too much detail about a lot of it. Instead, I'll post a copy of the .blend file here so you can get a better look at how it's all put together.
File is here -
EDIT - I had a bit more time, so I played around with the file a bit more. I fixed the "milk" level, used proper weight paint assignment for the Geometry Nodes (yes, the stuff that's still in the milk is there on purpose), and I added some more "muesli" bits such as almond pieces and coconut shavings. Although this looks like a final project, it is far from it - I didn't just "do it all" for you, this is meant to be a learning experience for all that wish to see, and indeed I found I learned a few things along the way as well. I certainly did not do the Geometry Nodes justice, as they can be arranged in such a way as they can switch between "pre-setups" on the fly. To get a better ideal of what I mean, take a look at this link where they employ the process when making a salad - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj951PB6tXs&t=113s
Here's a pic of the updated file (in Cycles), and a copy of the updated project. Oh, I even threw in a Material I made to replicate the counter - it's yours for free if you want it.
New image:

New file:

Great content!!! Procedural texture are not really the easier way to go for a new user..

Agreed. I thought I'd just showcase what's possible (along with some examples). Besides, the other route involves UV mapping or Bounding Box projection, which is also a lot to explain to a new user (though undoubtedly easier). Regardless, my procedural textures are by no means photoreal - they don't pass the super up-close test. If you want to see what I mean, flip over one of the strawberries. I was at it for far too long and still couldn't find something that didn't look god-awful. So, I did what any good artist would do and hid it by flipping them. Out of sight, out of mind ;)

So thats  where you've been for the last 24 hours! Some of your friends must have been beginning to worry about you! :D

Wow, I have a LOT to learn... All of you guys are so helpful, its heart warming to see that this day and age.. Anyway, I've certainly appreciated all your work Christopher, Im going to download the file and study it... Im uploading my blender file, and while its nothing like your result, I was trying all the things mentioned.  I was using geometry nodes instead of particles.  Though I found that my oats were clipping together too much with my settings.  Also, I found that my lighting is horrible, despite me using a HDR... my oats and nuts dont look great..

I need to wait before I can upload my blend file again (I forgot to export with packaged textures).. and its also failed to upload twice on me, maybe because its 100+ mb... When I upload the blend file here, I get "There was an internal error attempting to complete your request."  .. here is an external link: testingyoursite.com/granola-blend.zip

The easiest way to fix your lighting is to delete the point light and maybe increase your HDR strength to like 0.7. If you want to go one farther, set up an emission plane like in my file. If you want to stop objects from clipping through others of their own type, change your Point Distribute node from Random to Poisson Disk (lets you set a min distance between points - you may need to increase density after this). Lastly, give your milk a subsurface value (also change the radius numbers to 0.5 apiece), and turn on viewport denoising and it already looks pretty decent - https://ibb.co/S5vPj9n

@RobinBetts Lol. Actually, I spent most of the time toying around with my new color scheme for 3.0 (new numbering system - feels like it deserves it). Oh, and I have a wife and a 2 year old- no friends to be concerned here :D

@ChristopherBennett Thank you again, my man... I have learnt very much, in such very little time!  Time for me to me tinker and waste a good part of my day :)

@ChristopherBennett I've spent the whole day, I just couldn't get the shaders working with the GranolaMilk ... The only way it would work was for me to copy and paste your exact model, but I was trying to learn where I've gone wrong by reproducing what you have.  Also, did you infact you a texture map for the granola? I couldn't figre it out how neatly yours is coming out... If you could look one last time, I'll be forever in your debt...   testingyoursite.com/granola-blend2.blend

I took a quick look. I'm not sure what your desired end result is so I'm not sure how to advise you further. I did not use any image textures for the granola, in fact, I wasn't really trying that hard to reproduce anything specific - just the simple form of a dark line running through a brown "chip" like the ones I saw in your reference image. I just messed with the settings on a wave texture  (mainly) until it looked "good enough". I don't think you need to overthink small surface details too much - especially when the objects are viewed from a distance and are among a bunch of other "junk".


text:
How to link "Franck the sheep" to a scene
I'm a noob who (for about 20 years now) once in a while plays around with blender. I now downloaded blender 2.83 and the gooseberry-benchmark-scnene. To be able to play around with the sheep I subscribed to blender cloud and downloaded the fully animatable character, but I'm not able to link it to the scene according to the instructions, because I can't find a "CH-Franck_sheep" which should be choosen (s. https://cloud.blender.org/p/characters/5d40511bfe6b50fb62faea7d).
I found a "franck_sheep_high", but that only seems to be the model without the rig,...
Any help?
Thanks in advance!

I don't know much about that high sheep, but if you can't find the file then keep looking

There is nothing that begins with "ch"!

What does the CH stand for ?
There probably is those under a different name, try to stop following tutorials and you might realize that you are not a newbie anymore.

@Mick Are you "inside" the blend file and looking at the collection names?

There are tons of folders and "names": Action, Armature, Brush, ...

...inside the .blend file!

I now opened the sheep by double clicking on it and then it opens with everything in it. As in the browser the top entrance is "Scene collection" i suppose that the "scene" within the .blend-file was loaded, but when i try to link the scene to an existing scene, nothing happens.

The author of the (2019 version) of the sheep fixed it now


text:
Rig pose of proxy armature isn't saved
I've linked a (collection with armature) of an animatable character from blender cloud. I have made a proxy of the rig and am able to pose the character, but when I save it and reload the .blend-file the characters pose is reset! Why isn't the pose saved. I thought by making it a proxy it is not anymore linked to the original character file and savable!?

I'm using Blender 2.90.0 Alpha (released on 2020-06-22 at 22:06) and the Rain v2.0 model from Blender Cloud (https://cloud.blender.org/p/characters/5f04a68bb5f1a2612f7b29da). I ran into the same issue, the import instructions on other characters say to:
(paraphrased)

Center your 3D cursor. File > Link > [character file.blend]
Collections > CH-[character], then press Enter.
Select the Collection in the Viewport.
Object > Relations > Make Proxy...
Select RIG-[character].
Pose the proxy to your liking.

I've discovered that if you create a new Action in the Action Editor (inside of Dope Sheet) then jump to frame 0 (or 1, whichever suits your workflow better) and keyframe ALL bones (enable all hidden bones beforehand just to make sure all are selected), then turn on Auto Keying, it saves the action with all the keys to make sure your pose is saved when you save the .blend file. Let me know if you need more detailed instructions, I kind of glossed over it because of the limited time I have to write this at the moment. I realize this is a hacky way of saving the pose, but it's the only workaround I know of so far.

This is due to protected layers on the armature. https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/animation/armatures/properties/skeleton.html#protected-layers
Also, keyframing your poses is always a good idea, and quite the opposite of hacky. If you aren't keyframing your poses you're hanging by a thread, and opening yourself up to various ways of losing said posing, this being only one of them!


text:
Why are my particle objects "sticking" to the particle emitter?
Running Blender 2.83 on Windows 10. I've got one emitter set up to emit objects, and many duplicates of that object; however at all instances, the emitted object seems to "stick" at the emitter.
I've noticed this behavior in multiple .blend files; I've had to go to great lengths to hide the emitters (which, in some cases begin glowing as powerfully as the sun from all the "stuck" emitters) to compensate for this problem.
It it just a "Blender thing"? I noticed this bug filed over a year ago; definitely would have to disagree with the "fixed" status...
https://developer.blender.org/T61109


text:
Strange issue regarding procedural textures
I am fairly new to this software and have been experimenting with the interface for the past month. Recently I wanted to create an object with a voronoi texture but something strange is happening. The texture splits in half in inverts the 2nd half. I have looked up online to have found nothing discussing this problem. The normals on the object are all fine and I have even pulled up a new file just to test it. Here are some screenshots of what is happening. I'm sure the answer is fairly simple most likely a setting I accidentally activated. Thank you.

I think it would help if folks could see your node-tree

This is a default UV sphere I made in a new file and the node tree is just the principled BDSF, the material output, and the voronoi texture plugged into displacement.

You have to connect the texture through the height input of a displacement node first - see below:

Yes that was the problem. As I said earlier I was sure I would be something simple. Thank you for such quick responses.


text:
GN density with weight map too thin
I have a GN setup with a collection Info of 3 objects to be displayed on a plane.  The objects are small and I want them to be fairly close together.  I have a weight map to control the distribution.  The parts of the weight map that are full on RED don't have the objects dense enough for my desired output.  Should I give up on the weight map and just use the density?  The issue is I only want my collection objects in a certain part of the plane, NOT everywhere.  It's like I want a controllable density and a weight map.

A VG is a 0,1 range thing.  A density field is not.  Run your density through a map range node or a math/multiply node to make it bigger.

You can plug the weight map on the Selection socket of the Distribute Points on Faces node, or the Selection socket of the Instance on Points node. This way you can adjust the density independently.
The result is slightly different depending on the socket you choose.
Distribute Points on Faces

Instance on Points


text:
v2.81.16 cycles; render shows nothing, finishes in .01 ms
Thanks in advance - I have a physics scene using cycles that I've been working with and I can't render it anymore but I can watch it in the timeline.  I was able to render it and create a nice animation but since then I've made a few camera angle changes, (zoom in as the cube is destructing), but when I try to render any frame I just get a checkered background.
Below are two frames from the Timeline and the render output.
I've verified that my camera is the only camera and as you can see in my screenshots that camera is looking at my scene and it is the active camera object.  I have not modified the Clip Start/End.  I've tried both Cycles CPU and GPU (as well as Eevee - same result).  I've deleted my physics bake and rebaked.  I might delete and recreate the camera, but I would like to identify any mistake I might have before blaming Blender.
What am I missing?  Screenshots of frame 76 and 246 with Camera/Scene settings and shot of blank render

Bottom right of your second screenshot, uncheck the sequencer.
Edit
The sequencer tells is essentially part of Blender's integrated video editor.
Checking Use Sequencer tells Blender to render the contents of the Video Editor rather rendering the scene.

Awesome!  That did it.  I will look for that in the doc to better understand.

Would be good if you could add some information into your answer as to why this solves the issue.

Lol added the explanation. To be honest, all I knew was that I'm not the only person who's accidentally checked use sequencer. Had to glance at the manual myself to add it XD


text:
Blender 4.02 Where is the Node Search input box
I have blender 4.02 and now when I am in the Node Editor, GN editor or Compositor and choose 'Add' (as in add node) I am NOT offered a search box, which is generally what I use.  I no longer have this search box and have to hunt the node menus.  How do I fix this?

What if you do Shift + A and then type a letter? Does it work?

Yes, thx, I always used the Add -> Search.  I guess I'll have to adjust.

If you use the add menu, you also just need to type a letter after you click ADD

You should watch live streams by Cartesian Caramel on Youtube. He's complaining about this change several times in each video. Then you would have been aware of that. Actually I find it more convenient to start typing right away.

In 4.0 you can search in every menu by typing Space while menu is opened.

But the Add (Add object, Add modifier, Add node) menu is not requiring to press Space first. Just start typing.
This feature is introduced in 4.0, and you can find it in release notes

Click 'Add' and just type something to search.


text:
2.91 fluid sim, renders w/o fluid
I have a fluid sim that is baked and looks good when I play it, my water flows nicely.  When I attempt to render it to png as a series for future image sequence, the water does not even show up.  This must be a simple problem on my part.  None of the fluid sim videos seems to have any issues like this.  I reviewed and reviewed and searched, to no avail.  Help is appreciated!

the best help you will get if you provide your blend file. Normally this happens if you didn't setup your material in the right way.

Maybe you turn off the render in the outliner tab?


text:
2.9.1 no Rock or Modular Tree Generator / Installed but no menu pick
In 2.9.1.0 I've installed the Rock Generator and the Modular Tree add-ons but there are no menu picks for them under Add.  The do warn that I need to 'upgrade' to 2.8 to use them.  Does anyone have them working in 2.9.1 and/or know of a good free solution for 2.9.1 for generating rocks and trees?

Modular tree addon works from a node editor, not from adding mesh. Ive never used rock generator though, so i dont know about it

Rock generator is under add Mesh > extra objects iirc

Forgive my noobishness - WRT Modular Tree - I cannot find the 'Node Editor'.  The doc for Modular Tree says "View3D > Tools > Tree > Make Tree".  I've looked for a 'Node Editor' but 'Editor Types" do not have a "Node Editor".  I've looked 3DViewport in both Object and Edit mode and at the (T)ools and (N) menus but I just can't find it.  It's definitely showing as installed.  thx in advance!


text:
UV unwrap changes Material thats Using uv coordinate
So I made this plant and I wanted to join it into 1 object, uv unwrap it and export it with a baked texture, but the problem is when I uv unwrap it the material changes (because Im using a texture coordinate uv material).
does anyone konw how to fix it? (blender 3.0)

See https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/15510/possible-to-bake-texture-to-new-uv-map .  You need to create a new UV map and bake to that new map.

Actually, the material does not change when you unwrap, it's the UV map that changes and your material uses the default UV map of your object as a texture coordinate :

Select one of the leaves and go to UV Editing tab and you will understand :

This is the map that is used for the material now. But this is what happens when you unwrap the mesh again :

The map is completely distorted and since you only have one UV map, you just overwrote the one that your material uses, hence the unwanted change that you noticed :

To fix that, undo everything and go to the Mesh tab from the properties editor and under UV Maps click on the + icon to add a new UV map :

Make sure that this UV map is the one selected before you hit Unwrap and your original UV map would be safe.
I hope it helped you solve your problem.

Thank you!!!! It sure did help, the only thing was that when I exported the object, it used the default uvmap, which I didnt know, but then I re unwraped it and now everthings good :)


text:
Alpha map to mesh without using SVG
So I made this plant in blender and I want to use it in another program (Zappar) but it only accepts mesh, My plant's leaves are using alpha maps, I wanted to know what would be the best way to convert it to mesh...
I've tried:

converting alpha map to svg and then to mesh (didn't work, too complex)
tracing the alpha map with a mesh and extruding... (tds, takes too much time)

My best guess is to create it again using 1 leaf and array modifier...

I would suggest the free graphics program Inkscape, trace bitmap feature, and with an inverted image, enable remove backgrounds and save it as a plain SVG. You may not get an answer, as an SVG is really the best way to get this object into Blender, and then use an extrude or knife project workflow.

I do have Illustrator and I tried using the SVG but it didnt work as well as it did for you.. immana try it again later, Thanks!

If you absolutely cannot get an SVG, you could create a new texture then displace it on a target cube with a modifier in the Z axis.

The only problem with this, is that you must cut away the base and find a way of capping the faces.
Update:  I have found a bit of a trick with the modifier stack.  Using the subdivision, displace, and re-mesh modifiers you can cut away the back "plate" of your extrusion.  It will work, as long as the option in re-mesh, "remove disconnected" is checked.

SVG s produce a smoother result.  The cleanest way to do this is to use a program with a Trace Bitmap function to produce the .SVG.  Both Illustrator and Inkscape do this.  So you don't have to manually trace anything.

Inkscape produces a good result when the background is white and the objects are  black, going to Multiple Passes, and checking the Remove Background check box. I found that the cleanest format exporting from it was with the plain .SVG file format.
Here are the results side by side:


text:
Placing text on a curved surface in 360 degrees
0
I am still very new to modelling, and have been scratching my head on how to make this thing work. I am trying to model a guitar knob. I want to engrave a font on the front surface with numbers like this:

The problem is, the extruding part of when I engrave the font is not perfect. I could not make the text curve inwards, so it lays perfectly like the sample shown above. Here is mine currently (very horrible):

And here is the horrible view from the side:

I am using Blender 2.8X by the way. The method I have used is to add a text, and created a circle curve and let the text follow the curve.
Thanks a lot guys!

If you use a bezier curve(circle), you can use "Ctrl+T" to adjust the tilt of the curve in edit mode. You may need to switch direction of the curve though (under Segments menu)

I am not sure what I did, but the text did not rotate inwards. I tried tilting the curve and adjusted the modifier for the text, nothing seems to happen.

@RobinBetts I just finished the last part, hope it is sufficient details to follow.

@Xylvier even nicer! already UV'd ..  I will delete my comment in a while :)

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/33434/how-to-add-curve-modifier-to-text  https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/107019/text-on-round-surface-mug

3 Solutions!
1. Non-destructive method

Add a curve "Circle"
Add a text object and edit it to represent the text, font and size
Set it to Vertical alignment to center, to have the text align at it's center along the circle

Select the curve and adjust the Resolution U of the curve to a reasonable high value to get a smooth text later

With the curve stil selected, go in edit mode and press Ctrl+T
You can now move the mouse to change the tilt of the curve, kinda like how the street is tilted in sharp curves in car races.

The arrows show the direction of the curve, so it may be that you need to switch the direction if your text ends up upside down. For that go in "Segments" -> "Switch Direction".
Go in object mode and select the text object
Add a solidify modifier, this will allow you to use different materials for front, rim and back faces (if you don't need this, just use the text objects "Geometry" -> "Extrude" parameter)
Add a curve modifier and select the circle as target, the axis should be set already to "X"
Now we need to add a heavy modifier to make sure the text will be smooth and not glitchy from the bending, the Remesh modifier. Once the remesh modifier is added, move it between the solidify and curve modifier!
Set the remesh modifier to "Sharp" mode, then the "Octree Depth" will need to be increased til you are happy with the result.
BE careful though, the higher the value the more your machine will have to work. A value of 9 or 10 gave me the best result, while i would go with 9.

It should look somewhat like this:

A little advice, this method is for an as clean as possible (to this point non-destructive) result and it's heavy on the machine, so saving first is highly recommended.
For boolean operation you will need to convert the text into a mesh though.
2. To generate something more like in your first picture:
Everything up to step 8, then:

In the text object set the fill mode to "None", this will make the text disappear, don't worry, soon we'll see it again
With the text object selected, go in the "Object" menu and use "Convert to"-> "Mesh from Curve/Met/Surf/Text"

Now with only the outline of the text, add a shrinkwrap modifier to the text and select the knob, activate the "On Cage" visual helper (4th right to the shrinkwrap modifier name) and it should look something like this (that knob is just a placeholder based on the first picture)

Step 11 and 12 can be left out, if the text is close enough to the surface by tilting the curve, otherwise it helps to make the text stick as close as possible to the knob geometry.

Go out of edit mode and apply the shrinkwrap modifier
Go back in edit mode and press A to make sure all the text objects elements are selected
Go in object mode and first select the text, then the knob while holding Ctrl thus having the knob as active (brighter outline)
Go in top view, then toggle back in edit mode
Go in the "Mesh" menu and use "Knifeproject"
You should now have the text/numbers cut in the geometry/mesh of the knob and can adjust your camera to a view you like again

Deactivate the text object and make sure that the knob object is selected
Back in edit mode
The result usually leaves you with the faces of the cut text
selected, i recommend to go over the result and correct eventual
problems, as it seems to never be 100% clean, after that...
Press RMB and select "Extrude Faces Along Normals" to push the text faces in the knob and get the engraved look

To get cleaner results, use a higher subdivided knob to knifeproject on.
3. And lastly (should not be forgotten, even if we like to build everything in Blender) using a texture you can safe yourself a lot of heavy geometry:

Select the faces of the ring-section on your knob make sure they are kept as a circle, marking inner and outer loops as seams for circular shaped surfaces helps.
To get the best results for the situation at hand, i created the 3 flat surfaces like mentioned and broke up the borders with one cut/seam each, resulting in a rolled out stripe and 3 circular parts like in the picture below.

Note: Donating more texture space to certain surfaces of a mesh can in this case ensure the best resolution where it's visible, as the rest is pretty much just color, but in case borders of the surface need some details, you may need to ensure that at least the affected islands (UV-map parts representing the surface) are scaled equally (for example island 1, 4 and 5 as they would otherwise become blurry towards the island 4 and 5 due to lower resolution given to them).

You can export the unwrapped UV-Map as template for the Numbers to fit on
Create the Text/Numbers arranged in a circle in a program of your choice
Numbers in black, background in 128,128,128 grey (medium value) saved as .png
Use the .png file as (non-color/raw) texture and use it for the bump/displacement (displacement best with either high subdivision on the knob, OR if you use cycles you can go experimental and activate "Adaptive" in the subdivision modifier, which gives great results without you having to increase the subdivisions too high. You may only need to adjust the "Dicing scale".

Here a Screen full with the essentials for the texture approach:

Top left: UV-Map exported
Top right: Evee render
Bottom left: Bump/Displacement texture generated with Inkscape
Bottom middle: UV-map above the texture
Bottom right: Shader for the knob, using both bump and displacement (cycles/evee output) as well as color from the one texture.

Might be better to read.
Fine tuning is fun each should have for themself ;)

An image texture seems like the most suitable solution here :).

While i agree, the question was giving me 2 thoughts, the first was extruded text and the second the engraving which i do not really like with boolean for the mess it can and most the time creates. Then i started with the texture approach. Mentioned now there are 3 solutions at the top.

Top answer. Added related links above primarily for them to link back to this answer.

Thank you so much! I have got the time to do this and I like the convert to mesh method the most!


text:
How to attach a rigid body to a cloth simulator
I'm trying to make a parachute that can hold rigid body items as they fall and slow the rigid body's fall. I've tried using wind to make the parachute fall slower, but I can't figure out how exactly to attach the rigid body object to the parachute. How would I do this? I've tried using hooks from the parachute ropes to the rigid body, but this only stretches the parachute.

I think rigid bodies can only be controlled with rigid body constraints. I've never been able to get them to work like I want, though.

This may not be the approach you're looking for.  I've posted it in case you can use it.  The Blend file is below...

The canopy and ropes are mesh and joined as one object.  The lower end of the ropes are all apexed as one and those vertices given a hook.
The box and cylinder are separate objects.  Both are given rigid body physics which is delayed until the box reaches the ground at frame 70.  (Animated at frame 1 and switched to "Dynamic" at frame 70)
A Nav(igation)-Empty (the large circle at the canopy) is the parent of all four - the hook, canopy, box, and cylinder.  The Nav-Empty is keyframed to descend and sway and all 4 objects are forced to follow.
At frame 70 when the box reaches the ground, it's physics are switched to "Dynamic".  So too is the cylinder's.
The physics engine takes over and they ignore their parentage and react with the ground which is also a rigid body, but "Passive" and set to "Mesh".
Both the box and cylinder's antics are then baked from frame 1 to when they settle down at frame 93.
(all boxes are ticked in the baking panel)
Once baked, make sure each object's physics are switched off and the redundant physics strips in the Dopesheet, deleted.
With the canopy, box, and cylinder under no constraints, (operating purely under keyframes), the parentage of the canopy's apex hook can then be changed to be a child of the box from frame 1.
When it's played again, nothing should change.  The canopy's ropes however will follow it's parent about on the ground, and being a hook, won't pull the canopy about with it.
All that's left is to rotate the canopy's Nav-Empty a little as the box shoots off to the left, then morph the canopy's deflating shape with shapekeys as it 'floats' to the ground.


text:
How can I have an object not react to an hdri in eevee
I'm making a water animation with objects hovering above it. I have an hdri set up to give the water better color, but my object hovering above the water is too bright. Is there any way to have the objects floating above the water not be lit up by the hdri but still able to be lit by a lamp?

did you try decreasing the "specular" and increase the "roughness" of that object?

No, but I'll try that!


text:
Texture goes away when using the explosion modifier
I've been following this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d59AouNM9lk   Which makes an object slowly dissolve with the explosion modifier. The only difference for me is that I have a texture on the object that is UV unwrapped. When I apply the explosion modifier, the texture goes away. How can I keep the texture on the object as it disintegrates?

Never mind, I figured it out. I didn't connect the textures to a texture coordinate node. Once I connected it to the object coordinate, the texture appeared again.


text:
How can I add two world backgrounds?
I made a space themed world background for my blender eevee scene. The only problem is that space is dark so the rest of my scene isn't lit up well. The way my scene is set up, it seems like the best course of action is to change my space background, but I would like to keep it. Is there any way I can have the space world background as well as another world background to give the scene light without compromising the space background?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/53359 Same concept, but replace emission with a world shader or better yet, mix at texture level

Use one HDR to light the scene and one to render as background. Read: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/81007/how-can-i-render-an-object-with-an-hdr-background

how to use multiple HDRs

Can I use an HDRI to illuminate the scene and another one for the background?

How to set two different HDRI, one for environment lighting, and another for background, in 2.8 using Eevee?


text:
Using add-ons for commercial use
Can I use any blender add-on commercially? I've done some research on the topic, but it seems kind of confusing. Blender comes with pre-installed add-ons which are made by developers and the community. Can I use these add-ons for any purpose. What about add-ons from the web? From what I can gather, once your get the add-on, you can use it for whatever purpose, but I would really like a clear answer.

Yes, you can use the pre-installed addons commercially. Third-party addons should come with their own license, but I have yet to encounter a Blender addon that forbids commercial use.

@Leander Can addon developer forbid commercial usage? License — blender.org. Or they need to make commercial license under the core script which doesn't use any Blender API (how?). Or the statement on official webpage is only for built-in addon?

They can't forbid it. Blender and its addons is under GPL. And this means every user of the software, or an addon, is allowed to use and modify it in the way he wants as long as he does not violate the GPL.

FAQ — blender.org

Can I use Blender commercially?
Yes you can. Any creation you make as an artist with Blender is your sole property, and can be applied for any purpose you choose to. This also applies the Add-ons and Python scripts you write for Blender.
If you like to distribute Blender itself, you have to be aware of the GPL rules, which basically means you have to make sources for Blender available as well. However, in general it’s sufficient to provide information that forwards to blender.org.

All software nowadays should contain licenses, no exception for Blender. License — blender.org, which the licenses of Blender itself is basically using GNU V2 and V3 but some of the component is a slightly strict license. eg. Cycles: Apache 2.0
If your usage contain any modification of Blender and redistribute it with commercial license, it will probably cause some problem since that's not what GNU wanted. But if your just using Blender to creating content, it will be fine.
And there's also an interest point is that, Sharing Blender or Blender add-ons or scripts is always OK and not considered piracy.

It is not this easy. Things like manual and additional content like images may not be under GPL. And you are not allowed to redistribute this content with the addon then. Usually just the source code is under GPL.

@Tiles So in practice, addon can be protected by making it hard to use without additional content?

Depends. But yeah, when you bundle an addon with let's say image functionality, and put the images under its own license, then you can just distribute the code, but not the images ... That's at least how i know it.


text:
There are strange lines that appear on my glass in my phone render. How do I get rid of them?
I've been working on a phone model for some friends, and there are strange lines that appear in the glass when I render it. I'm using Cycles. Here's an example:

I think it might have something to do with the distance between the glass (which is now just the outside layer of white) and the layer below it, but it doesn't appear in the render preview... Is there anything I can do about it? It only appears in the final render.
If you need the .blend, here you go: Google Drive

Your model has very bad topology (N-gons) and that's the problem of the artifacts in render (but you can see problems also without rendering, check my screenshot)

more info:
What is an Ngon?
If you're unfamiliar with what an ngon is let's go over a very quick review so you can understand this question a little more. An ngon is a face or polygon that is made up of five or more sides or edges connected by five or more vertices. Anything over a quad (4 sides) is considered an ngon.
More here (https://www.pluralsight.com/blog/film-games/ngons-triangles-bad) and on youtube/google if you look for ngons.

I've tried to select all the n-gons in the model, turn them into triangles, and then converted them into quads, but the issue is still there for some reason.. here's a new file with all the n-gons removed https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rvxWQ_ssxWnth17lYzYfRFjXV-DOqFun/view?usp=sharing


text:
Is there a way to reduce the blur caused by denoising while still reduce noise
Im trying to reduce noise on my renders by using the denoise feature, but it makes the image very blurry specially the metallic parts, even when I reduce denoise strength to 0.2 it still has no effect, clamping indirect to 0.5 also doesnt help much. Also can't really afford to go beyond 500 samples to reduce the noise further since I got a long 2000 frame animation. Any other tricks or suggestions? Thanks


text:
how to work with dynamics and animated objecs
I want to drop several objects into a jar one by one, not all at the same time. How can I achieve this? I tried to hold objects with another passive rigid body and then animate that object away allowing objects to fall, but the active rigid body objects dont animate at all.

I'm new to blender myself, but I think your solution would lie in the timeline key frames. For each object you can start movement at one key frame, move, and stop at another key frame. Hope this helps.


text:
How would I merge these 3 pipes with this corner?
These are my 3 pipes

I want to merge them together and have this look at its corner

How would I achieve this?
thanks in advance.

Edit: Probably much easier since 2.8 with the new Mirror "Bisect" option
Former answer:
I've found an answer for a basic 3 cylinders shape, but it looks like it's not exactly what you're looking for. That said, I'm not sure your drawing means anything in 3D. Anyway, perhaps my solution will help?

Create a cylinder with Cap Fill Type > Ngon.
In Edit mode, rotate it and move its cap to the origin with the Snap to Grid option (or put the 3D Cursor on the center of the scene, choose the 3D Cursor as Pivot, and S Y 0).
In Object mode duplicate the cylinder once and presse Enter.
Rotate the duplication 120° on the Z axis.
Duplicate and rotate again. Now you have a 3 branches star.
Join the 3 cylinders with 2 Booleans modifiers / Union mode.
Apply the Booleans.
Select all and W > Remove Doubles.
Delete the inner edges.
Delete the useless vertices.
If you want to extend the cylinders length, you can select all the caps and use alt E > Individual Faces, or select each cap and move it on its normal axis.


text:
Map_Kd not passed correclty in mtl file
The picture pretty much sums up the problem :

Two of my materials have this problem and I can't work around why that is so. Every other material has the path of the texture of the texture file as it should. Here we only see a dot instead. Does anyone know why this happens?

Blender allows us to pack image and other data files into the blend file.
An image texture that is packed into a blend file and not saved to disk, will export to .obj with map_Kd . in the .mtl file.
The solution is to view the image in blenders UV/Image editor and save it out to a file. Image->Save As Image or press F3.
You can also use File->External Data->Unpack All Into Files to unpack multiple files in one go.


text:
Why does the floor not have a texture?
I put in a texture diffuse and normal texture image for my floor but it doesn't work. It has the texture correct in the preview but it doesn't show in the render?I would appreciate some help.

In order to see a texture on an object, you first must unwrap the object. In Edit Mode, select the entire object and then press U.
From there, there are many options. For a simple plane, I recommend going to top view and pressing project from view.

If you're unhappy with the size of the texture, go into the image editor, select your entire object in edit mode, and scale it up or down.


text:
Limiting add-on installs to User Prefs directory only
I'm looking at how we might set up a studio Blender environment.  I'm setting BLENDER_USER_SCRIPTS in the launch environment, pointing to our global Blender area, call it \ourserver\ourblender\scripts.  This bypasses the normal USER scripts location in %APPDATA%.
If users install an add-on through Preferences-Add-ons->Install... it installs into our global scripts\addons directory, which is undesirable.  But the install pane has a "Target Path" popup, which in addition to the "Default" value has a "User Prefs" value which installs the add-on to the additional "File Paths->Data->Scripts" local location the user may have specified, which would be acceptable.  Is there any way at startup to remove the "Default" option from that popup, or freeze the popup to "User Prefs", or otherwise prevent saving to the "Default" location?
I'm trying this in our startup code:
newtarget = EnumProperty(
        name="Target Path",
        items=(
            ('PREFS', "User Prefs", ""),
        ),
    )
cls = bpy.types.PREFERENCES_OT_addon_install
bpy.utils.unregister_class(cls)
cls.__annotations__['target'] = newtarget
bpy.utils.register_class(cls)

This unregisters Blender's addon_install operator, tweaks its 'target' annotation to remove the unwanted 'DEFAULT' option, then reregisters the class.  It's a hack, but a relatively clean hack, and superficially seems to work.  But any alternatives or suggestions would be welcome.


text:
Externally linked object API info
Assume I have an external .blend file \\ourserver\ourshare\ourasset.blend,  with a collection "ourData" representing what we'd like to import into another .blend file, "ourshot.blend".  ourshot.blend has an empty toplevel collection called "Assets" where our linked imports will go.  I can do something like this in Python to reproduce the File->Link... operation:
filename = r"\\ourserver\ourshare\ourasset.blend\Collection\ourData"
alc = next((lc for lc in bpy.context.view_layer.layer_collection.children if lc.name=="Assets"), bpy.context.scene.collection)  # wants layer_collection, not Collection type?
bpy.context.view_layer.active_layer_collection = alc  # so is active collection for link()
bpy.ops.wm.link(filename=filename)

This produces an "Assets/ourData" entry in the Outliner, with another "ourData" entry contained in that, as would the manual File->Link. I can grab the newly linked thing:
ac =  bpy.data.collections['Assets']  # started out empty
obj = ac.objects[0]    # the thing just linked in is only one, since it was empty
print(type(obj))    # bpy.types.Object

But I can't seem to figure out where to get interesting link information from "obj".  I'd like to determine the path to the original file it was linked in from, for instance, and I'm not sure the proper way to determine that it is a link, for instance.  There also doesn't seem to be anything that represents the second-level "ourData" Outliner entry?

Based on what you already have as script you should be able to use obj.data.library.filepath to display a relative filepath between current file and import location.

To determine if it is liked data instead of an object created in the open file you should be able to use obj.data.is_library_indirect

Unfortunately, after retrieving "obj" as shown above, obj.data is None.
obj.name is "ourData" as expected  and obj can be retrieved via bpy.data.objects['ourData'] as well.  type(obj) is "bpy.types.Object", and obj.type is "EMPTY".
I'm a software type, not a DCC artist, and I don't really know my way around Blender, but FWIW I haven't found anything in the Outliner UI or elsewhere that seems to display the linkage filename either.

in the outliner there is a drop down selection for the type of data displayed. You can select blend file as the data type to display linked file data. You will then want to collapse the "Current File" tree to easily see linked file information.

That "Blender File" view is showing entries from the bpy.data.libraries collection, of class bpy.Types.Library, not attributes of the collection item that I refer to as "obj".  I still can't see how to programmatically find that library entry given "obj", the object from the scene collection.  obj.library would seem to be where this should be, and thus obj.library.filepath, but obj.library is None as well.


text:
Is it possible to have inches as the default imperial unit?
I work with imperial units quite a bit in Blender. For me it would be more intuitive if the units would default to inches, rather than feet. For example, if I were to use fractional inches in the advanced numerical input mode, I'd have to use the inch marker after each element. It would be nice if 12' 2 3/4" would produce 12 feet 2 and three-quarter inches instead of 14 feet and 3/4 inches...

You can set it to inches and save your start-up file: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/data_system/files/startup_file.html -> File > Defaults > Save Start-up File Does that help?

Thank you for your comment @brockmann. I can change the units to imperial - that's not my problem. What I cannot do is change the default unit of the advanced numeric input mode to inches instead of feet.

Ahh, ok. Searching for it... @Qwerty


text:
PVRGeoPOD add-on is not found from preference after installation
I downloaded the add-on, PVRGeoPOD (Mac) from here. Then I double-clicked the downloaded .pkg to install on my Mac.  But when I want to activate it from the Preferences in Blender, I can't find the add-on.  Could anyone tell me how to install the add-on please?

https://www.cgchan.com/static/doc/sceneskies/1.1/installation.html
That's how to install an addon. It seems like software that has a business behind it, and this question is toward that software. I would ask them how to install.

I managed to add PVRGeoPod like this:

create a .zip file containing PVRGeoPOD, libPVRGeoPOD.dylib, PVRGeoPODScript.py. I named it PVRGeoPod.zip.
open Blender, go to preferences > Add-ons > "Install..."
select the new zip file
it installed the add on under ~/Library/Application Support/Blender/...


text:
Bpy script, issue w/ my rotations on a sin curve
trying to figure out why the downward slope of the sin worm is getting flattened (cross sections are 'over-rotated' ). Btw I get the same kind of thing doing slope with dx/dy (prev - next slope). Any ideas. Thanks.

Don't post images of text, post the actual code so we can debug it ourselves. If your code won't work by itself then pare it back to get a workable example that still contains your issue.

The correct formula is:

tan(slope_angle) = height * cos(x.value)

So:

slope_angle = math.atan(height * math.cos(x.value))


text:
Get UV coordinates from UV map in blender
I am trying to get all the UV coordinates of each vertice to use in a OpenGL program to display a texture onto a cube. I was able to get the edges in blender by using the 2D cursor in the Uv editor. I get something like this:
static const GLfloat g_uv_buffer_data[] = {
    0.874f, 0.751f,
    0.874f, 0.499f,
    0.623f, 0.499f,
    0.623f, 0.751f,
    0.374f, 0.751f,
    0.375f, 0.499f,
    0.125f, 0.499f,
    0.0124f, 0.751f,
    0.623f, 0.751f,
    0.623f, 0.499f,
    0.375f, 0.499f,
    0.0f, 0.0f,
    0.623f, 1.0f,
    0.124f, 0.751f,
    0.623f, 0.751f,
    0.375f, 1.0f,
    0.623f, 0.499f,
    0.623f, 0.249f,
    0.375f, 0.249f,
    0.375f, 0.499f,
    0.623f, 0.249f,
    0.375f, 0.0f,
    0.623f, 0.0f,
    0.375f, 0.249f,
};

Using the UV map in a openGL program to display some cubes with this UV data that I received from Blender using the same UV map gives this result:

This seems to be a cause in incorrect UV coordinates. I have tried searching online for a way to get all UV coordinates from the blender program to put together to make some data like the g_uv_buffer_data[]. In older versions of blender there seems to be a part at the bottom of the screen where it shows the UV coordinate of that vertice. I have not been able to find something like this is Blender 2.81. I know that this isnt some rendering problem within the UV map because it works fine on the generic cube in Blender.
So how can I properly get the uv coordinates of the uV map to use it in my OpenGL program to map the texture to my cubes.

Have tried triangulating your mesh before collecting the edge data?

I have this produces similar results


text:
Why can't I collapse the screen?
I tried to collapes the screen by pulling the thing onto the new screen. However, it isn't doing anything? I don't know why not. I also can't open the properties tab. When I push "n" it doesn't open the right tab. (I want to open the particles tab)

The blue mark is the thing that should let you collapse the split screen

Hello and welcome. Please search before posting, all these questions have been asked before

As the linked question shows, you will have first have to collapse the Timeline and 3D view on the left before being able to collapse the other view. Essentially, you can't directly collapse into an already divided area.

When selecting the 3 diagonal lines, make sure your cursor is a cross hair and not arrows. you should see the screen turn gray and an arrow appear and that is when you should let go of the mouse.
To open the properties tab, make sure that your cursor is in the panel before pressing n.

Ya I know but it still doesn't do anything. It doesn't even show the grey arrow. my cursor does turn into a cross hair though.

Did you drag the three lines to the screen you want to close?


text:
Smoke collision with emitter object
How do I make an the emitter object of smoke collide with the smoke/fire itself?
For example, I want to simulate the plasmaflow of a capsule reentering the atmosphere. How do I get the fire to curve around the capsule and not go through it?
Here the capsule is hollow on the inside but has thickness. Only the bottom faces emit fire and there is a wind force applied from the bottom. On the left picture there is still fire on the inside of the capsule.


text:
Blender renders HDRI instead of background clip

I am a little confused right now. My plan was to take a 360 image with the camera in the spot where that red thing is, take that picture as enviroment light for more or less realistic reflections. Then I filmed the same spot with my camera and tried to add that metal sphere in.
Tracking worked fine.
The problem now is, that blender shows the actual footage I want in the preview render but when I try to render a frame by hitting F12 the background is this distorted version of the footage.
It cant be the image from the 360 camera because the perspective doesn't fit.
How do I fix it?

Ok, turns out this automatically created node was responsible. It's not supposed to be here.
I guess I'm not gonna delete this post for now in case someone else needs it.


text:
Domain blocking light paths (Cycles)
I have a baked particle simulation that emits light. I am trying to only catch the reflections but for some reason they aren't rendered properly within the domain.
I want to combine this with real life footage, so I need the reflections seperate. Different passes (indirect and direct diffuse) have the same issue.
Here is the scene with the domain in blue as well as my light path settings (right) and the renderd reflections (left).

The baking of the particle sim took very long, so It would be great if the solution didn't involve changing the simulation.

It seems the domain object is rendered as a solid, in order to change that you can either disable the rendering of your Domain Object:

or disable some settings for the domain object:


text:
How do I get hair particles to not intersect eachother?
The picture shows it pretty good, I want to build a city by using a hair particle system. The only problem is, that the houses are overlapping eachother. I am already placing them on the vertices only (which would be fine if all houses were rectangular and aproximately the same size) but since the different buildings have different shapes, this doesn't fix the problem.
I am doing this in Blender 2.8. Are there any addons that can do this?

Do you ever tried grouping?

I feel slightly stupid. What is grouping?

Currently you have selected different objects in different Particles System and adding objects in place of Path seperately, right?

No, I have all the buildings in a seperate Collection which is placed by a single particle system.

I am not talking about the data you have arranged in Outliner Panel. Watch this.


text:
Smoke Sim rendering in Viewport but not in final render (2.8, Cycles)
Im trying to render a scene which contains a smoke simulation. It renders in the viewport but not in the final render (both in Cycles):

Things I've checked:

Rendering is enabled in the outliner
Smoke has volumetric material
Gone through render settings (none indicate any function that would prevent the render)

To preview the final render I've set the samples to 16, but that wouldn't cause this, would it?
The trees and grass are invisible in the viewport for performance reasons.

try to increase the density to above 20 in the principled volume.

Have you baked the cache ?

save Project(if you don’t save the project the bake will not work)
select "Smoke Domain"
select "Physics menu"
select "Cache"
click on the Bake

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