text:
Second driven values don't get updated, in my script
Long story short, I'm encountering this issue where a driven property that depends on an output value from my script doesn't update. But this just happen when the input value is driven by another blender property.
I know it sounds confusing but let me show what works and what doesn’t:

This works fine, I can get automatic output with no problem.

This work fine too, I can get the Blender property automatically updated with a driver.

This doesn’t work, as soon as input is driven by a Blender property or is key frame it the output driver doesn’t update the final Blender property.
What I've Tried:
Implemented handlers using depsgraph_update_post and frame_change_post
Called bpy.context.view_layer.update()
Even combining all of them simultaneously
The Goal:
I'm using a CSV file stored in Blender's text editor. The script reads the CSV data and uses an input value to look up and return a corresponding output value. This output value should then drive properties in Blender, such as the Z location of an object or anything.
Everything works as expected when I manually change the input value, but when I drive the input value (e.g., using the "current frame" or keyframes), the output driven Blender property stops updating.
Clarification:
In Blender you can use drivers in properties and this properties ca be drivers of other properties and so on with no issue. So, I think I need some sort of function or workaround to force Blender to update all drivers and dependencies consistently.
Additional Context: The idea was to create a script that would allow for dynamic data-driven values that could be used in Blender properties or Geometry Nodes. Originally I was trying to make a custom geometry node with python but apparently you can’t.
I'll appreciate if someone can help me with this.

import bpy
import csv
from io import StringIO

# Function to read CSV and update the result value
def update_result_value(context):
    obj = context.object
    if not obj:
        return

    csv_data = obj.csv_data_properties
    text_block = csv_data.text

    # Read the content of the text block as CSV data
    csv_content = text_block.as_string()
    csv_reader = csv.DictReader(StringIO(csv_content))

    input_value = str(csv_data.value)
    output_column = csv_data.column_name

    for row in csv_reader:
        if row[csv_reader.fieldnames[0]] == input_value:  # Check the first column
            csv_data.result_value = float(row.get(output_column, 0.0))  # Get the value or default to 0.0
            return

# Handler to update drivers and call the CSV update function
def depsgraph_update_handler(scene):
    bpy.context.view_layer.update()  # Force an update to evaluate all drivers
    update_result_value(bpy.context)

# Additional handler for frame change to ensure updates on animations
def frame_change_handler(scene):
    bpy.context.view_layer.update()  # Force update on frame change
    update_result_value(bpy.context)

# Property group to hold user inputs and the result
class CSVDataProperties(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    value: bpy.props.IntProperty(
        name="Input Value",
        description="Value corresponding to the first column",
        default=0
    )
    column_name: bpy.props.StringProperty(
        name="Output Column",
        description="Name of the column to return data from"
    )
    text: bpy.props.PointerProperty(
        name="Text",
        type=bpy.types.Text,
        description="Select a text block from the Blender file"
    )
    result_value: bpy.props.FloatProperty(
        name="Return Value",
        description="Value found in the specified column",
        default=0.0
    )

# Panel for user interface
class OBJECT_PT_CSVDataManager(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "CSV Data Manager"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_PT_csv_data_manager"
    bl_space_type = 'PROPERTIES'
    bl_region_type = 'WINDOW'
    bl_context = "object"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        obj = context.object
        csv_data = obj.csv_data_properties

        layout.label(text="CSV Data Options")
        layout.prop(csv_data, "text", text="Select CSV Text")
        layout.prop(csv_data, "value")
        layout.prop(csv_data, "column_name", text="Output Column")
        layout.prop(csv_data, "result_value", text="Return Value")

# Register and unregister functions
def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(CSVDataProperties)
    bpy.types.Object.csv_data_properties = bpy.props.PointerProperty(type=CSVDataProperties)
    bpy.utils.register_class(OBJECT_PT_CSVDataManager)
    bpy.app.handlers.depsgraph_update_post.append(depsgraph_update_handler)
    bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.append(frame_change_handler)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(OBJECT_PT_CSVDataManager)
    del bpy.types.Object.csv_data_properties
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(CSVDataProperties)
    bpy.app.handlers.depsgraph_update_post.remove(depsgraph_update_handler)
    bpy.app.handlers.frame_change_post.remove(frame_change_handler)

# Run the script
register()

Please use the python and/or scripting tag when asking about scripting.

I vote to close as "too localized". It's a bug hunt. If there's some kind of weird interaction as described in title: "Second Driven values don't get updated", then the csv part is irrelevant and should be removed from the script with a simpler device to update the values (e.g. a global variable that is being incremented). I don't think anyone else can benefit from this question.

I just want to be able to use data from CSV files. first I was trying to make a node in geometry nodes. But they told me that you can't. Then I was thinking about this approach which is not too bad. so I can use the output in geometry nodes. I use blender for engineering and I think this can be so powerful. Look I talked about it in a blender conference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoTo-HnIvW4

I don't see exactly how they Python end of this even fits into the question. It seems like your question is just "How to get use a property with a driver as a variable in another driver". Am I wrong? Or is the python script running during playback and you want it to read a value from the CSV file based on the frame and then use that value to drive the Z location?

In blender you can run drivers and make that driver run other drivers and so on.
But here the input value is used to return an output value through a script that read data. It could be anything, an array, a list, a table, etc. in this case is a CSV file in the text editor.
And it works fine until I use a driver or set keyframes to run the input value. The output value gets outdated, yes!, but the drivers from the out put value don't.
I was thinking that this is just a matter of finding a function that update everything in Blender. But it looks like is more complicated than that


text:
Creating a pointy/arrow:y ring - how to get started?
I am new to Blender and I know some basics. I am to create a pointy/arrow ring to print out, like this one.

I am trying to understand how I am to create it. I have tried:

making two simple rings with torus mesh, but I have no idea how to make it pointy and bent and then connect the rings at the bottom.
starting with a cylinder and sculpt mode to try to "dig the rings out". Also tried cutting it out with pyramids for the pointy shape, doesn't work.

Any ideas on how to get started? Start from a torus and distort it in some way or dig it out from a cylinder or other shape?
Thanks!

I would suggest to start with a simple subdivideb plane and a bezier curve.
Add to the plane a curve modifier pointing at the Bezier curve, a mirror, a solidify and a subdivision surface.

Nice :). Would you mind adding a screenshot of the curve shape? Just can't wrap my head around it :))

Sorry Jachym, I deleted it, but it's that orangy thin line you can see in my screenshot, starting from the origin and ending on the center of the top line.

oh thanks for the explanation, now i get it :) really brilliant.

So first, I modeled the main shape of the body. That's probably the most important thing when modeling complex objects like this. Try to break it down into the most simple 3D shapes and go from there, rather than building it poly-by-poly.

Then I use  solidify modifier, to give it thickness.

Then I use  boolean modifier to subract out the middle part. This is helpful for two reasons, 1) It allows you to procedurally modifiy the shape really quickly, theres not alot of fiddling with verts, which makes the shape cleaner in the long run. 2) I think it helps you get closer to achieving the shape in the same way the person who actually made the object would have probably done it.
Most complex objects (at least before 3d printing) were made by starting from a rod or cube shape blank of steel, wood, plastic or whatever and then a craftsman would drill, scrape, carve or machine away the parts they didn't want to get the final product. This method emulates this methodology in 3d.

Then once I get the shape I'm happy with, duplicate it, Apply the modifiers, and do a little bit of cleanup (honestly I probably went further than was necessary here), mainly just needed to get this giant N-gon sorted out.

That's pretty easy to do with these 3 steps:

You might have to do a bit more work on the bottom section but this is the only part thats a must-do for the next section.
Then in order to skip having to deal with adding control loops in manually, I  can just mark the edges I want with a bevel weight of 1, then add a Bevel modifier with 2 segments, profile set to 1 (basically only adding the edge loops) clamp overlap off, Limit Method as weight, to only affect the edges we want.

Then add a SubSurf mod and presto.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Can't select anything in object mode in Layout mode

I don't know why I can't select objects in Layout mode. The only way I can select an object is by clicking where its Origin is and when I do, I get an orange outline rather than yellow. My second image is from Modeling mode, where I can click and select any object and I get a yellow outline.

Hello, maybe you have selected your armature and you are in Edit mode? But maybe show a screenshot of the whole interface?

Yes, please show the complete interface. Seeing the rest of viewport and the objects in there, the outliner and the menu bars will give us much more information of what is going on than just a closeup of one selected object.

Hi @moonboots
I just added a full screenshot of my layout.

I'm not sure what's the problem, could you please share your file?

@moonboots
I'm trying to upload to Blender Stack Exchange but my file is 63MB and I don't know how to get it down smaller. I uploaded the blend file here to my Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10ib443D_y9zfO7_fVN-zPmT15zDJ6Aj7/view?usp=share_link

You are in Select Circle mode, switch to Select Box, which is more common:

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


text:
Can't extrude point along z axis
I am trying to extrude a point and I can't move it on the Z axis. What am I missing?

Hello, hard to tell, could you please show some screenshot or animated gif?

Hi @moonboots, I just updated to include my project file

@moonboots I get the same problem with a new project file. I create a point from the Curve menu, then when I extrude a second point, it can't move on the Z axis

Hello and welcome. While files, images, and external videos or links may be helpful additions they should not be the only way to obtain information about your issue. Don't make understanding your question rely on downloading a file, watching a video or visiting an external site. Use the builtin tools to upload images or gifs, along with thoroughly explaining the problem in written form so it can be indexed and searched for thus helping future visitors with similar issues.

Switch your curve from 2D to 3D:

I like those pointing fingers, they are hard to miss.

@MarkusvonBroady Gorgeous, aren't they? :)


text:
Animating the hole in a boolean object
I want to create a boolean object where the object being subtracted is an extruded curve I can animate.
As I currently understand booleans, my curve needs to first be converted to a mesh, which can then be extruded and that object can be used in a boolean. But converting to a mesh means I can no longer animate the shape of the curve. How can I create a boolean where I can animate the curvature of the object being subtracted?

If you add this geometry nodes modifier to your curve:

you get this:

Yes, the geometry nodes setup converts your curve to a mesh and uses then mesh boolean to do the boolean cut. But it is still a curve (as long as you do not apply the GN modifier) and you still can modify the curve as you want.

thanks for the help. Could you share this project? I tried recreating your set up and no hole appears

i added it. Make sure your plane and your curve are on the same flat level. Then it should work. If you move the vertices, you should move them with G Shift-Z so you won't get unexpected results.

Edit: It looks like I misinterpreted your question as before your edit I thought that you were talking about a 3D curve...
You can still use a curve: Create a cylinder (with no cap), give it an Array and a Curve modifier, use it as a Boolean object, in the Boolean modifier it looks like you need to enable the Hole Tolerant option:

Hi @moonboots, thanks for the response. I added a picture to my original post. I'd like to have a closed curve act as the shape of the hole in my boolean, not as the path like in your screenshot. I want to animate the points on the curve that I have and have the hole follow.

@moonboots: i still don't understand that the moderators don't ban u for years because of your sexual pictures.... :D +1 ....sexy!!!

yes don't tell them that i'm addict to cube p0rn

my lips are sealed....!!!!


text:
Can't select objects with Select Circle
I can't select objects using the Select Circle by clicking on their mesh. It only works if I click on their axis. Select Box works normally: if I click a mesh, it selects that object. Is there an option I changed somewhere?

Can't say I've ever wanted to use Circle Select in Object mode but it seems to only select an object when you click on its origin in all my Blend files (including a new project) so I assume that's normal behaviour.

Didn't know that, thank you @JohnEason!

@JohnEason Strangely enough that in Edit Mode all selection methods seem to work the same when selecting faces (in Solid View you can select faces anywhere, in Wireframe View only when selecting the center points), but in Object Mode between Select Box (selecting anywhere) and Select Circle and Select Lasso (selecting only on origins).

Yes. I know. Don't understand that, but I'm sure there's a good reason for it! :^)

Oh, that's the trick! Thanks a lot @JohnEason

Honestly, I would call this a bug not normal behavior. If you have several dozen strands of hair whose location is applied and whose origin is therefore at (0,0,0), then no one would think of selecting the objects at the world origin, especially when the mesh is at 1.8 m height. Hair strands are a mesh that has only edges. It's hard to click to select and you want to use Lasso or Circle select. But how can you select a single object if the origins are all at the same spot?

@Blunder It's a pretty long-standing one if it is a bug. I've just tried it in Blender 2.83 and it's the same in that! :^(

I've just had a look at the bug tracker. Indeed the behavior was already reported in 2014/Blender 2.79b: https://developer.blender.org/T39770 It was not fixed because "This is intentional behavior." -  But since 2018 there is hope and it's on the TODO list: https://developer.blender.org/T57209


text:
How can I manipulate several hair strands instead of the whole hair?

I am diving into the hair particle system, but am a big noob so yeah..
What I want to achieve is basically this:

However, whenever I manipulate my hair-system with the children's kink the the whole hair itself gets manipulated instead of several strands. Does someone know what I am doing wrong? An answer would be very generous :)

If you want to use different kink settings for the hair then you need several Particle Settings. The settings always affect all strands made with a particular setting. So the trick is to use several settings and assign them to different areas.
In Weight Paint mode you can define Vertex Groups. (Use the + button to create a new group.) The in the Particle Settings you can assign these groups. The Density group restricts the area for the hair strands.
In the following example, there are two weight painted groups "Curl" and "Radial", and there are two hair particle settings (2 slots). The groups are assigned to the respective particle settings. The areas can even overlap if you want.

Thank you so much <3

Okey, well... I thought I got it by your description. but as it seems I am too dumb. I do completely understand the thing with the two particle settings, however when it comes to the density...          Basically when I control the density with the weight paint it doesnt make several strands but just reduces the amount of hair. So it gets thinner and thinner but there are no individual strands.

Basically you get about 18 curl strands on the right, while I get 1 big chunk of hair. (as seen above). I feel like the weight paint density thingy is only to get a transition between the 2 systems.

I've used 20 hair particles which are the base of the strand. (Emission -> Number, default value is 1000. You can add them also in the Particle Edit mode.) Each hair particle has 20 children (type Simple). This created the strands. If you increase the number of particles and their children's you will get one big chunk of hair.
Weight paint defines the area. If the area gets bigger you want to increase the number of particles or add more in P.Edit mode so that the density stays the same.

The type "Interpolated" of the hair children can also change the appearance because it spreads hair in a different way over the weight painted area. "Simple" makes them look more clumpy. Play around with the radius setting. Hope that helps :)

Ahhh, now it works.Thank you so so much for the  answers. I really appreciate it!


text:
How to convert the new hair curves to particle system?
I'm currently testing the new curve hair system implemented with 3.5, I've managed to get a pretty nice braid tail, however, due to my workflow needs, I'd like to convert this "curves" to a particle system, so I can get it exported into Unreal as a groom asset;

however, when I click on Convert -> Particle System, this happens:

As you can see, it doesn't resemble at all my braid. Is there a way I can workaround this issue?
This new system has a lot of potential but it'll be basically useless for me if I can't export it into unreal for my workflow.
Any help is appreciated, thank you!

The radius seems to be wrong. Have you set Curves > Shape to Strip in the Eevee render properties to see the correct radius/curve thickness? 2) Is the braid created with GN only? If yes then you have to apply the GN modifier(s) before you convert the Curves to the Particle System.

Woha! it worked! I didn't know that I had to apply the modifiers before converting, now I feel super dumb haha! I really appreciate your help, thank you so much!

What's your method for exporting the new hair system to Unreal for grooms? I've tried Send to UE, but I get "Please enable missing plugins in Unreal: Groom. Or disable the Groom import setting."

sorry for the late response! so you need to enable the alembic groom plugin inside UE, then just export the particle system from blender as an alembic file and, on importing, UE will automatically recognize it as a groom asset

I also need to convert hair made with the new workflow to a particle system, but I can't seem to find how to convert it. How did you do it?

@Blunder thanks for your help.


text:
What section of a sphere does the camera 'see'? Intersection of camera viewport and sphere
Blender 2.8
Scene: A sphere and a camera.
The camera can be moved, but it will always show a part of the sphere. Later on, textures should be loaded onto the sphere BUT ONLY for the part of the sphere that is actually in the camera frame. Thereby avoiding to load data that is not necessary.
I have defined the problem as an intersection of and arbitrary number of camera vectors (red dots in the left panel of the screenshot) with the sphere.

Question: How do I project those points onto the sphere? And how to deal with the horizon?
If I have a list of XYZ vectors that are on the sphere I can create a polygon (in polar coordinates) as illustrated in the right panel of the screenshot. That polygon can than be used to select the mentioned textures.
Any code, advice, or keywords of how to better title this question are much appreciated.
Update 29/01/2020:
I found this tutorial that describes how to calculate the intersection between a sphere and a ray (I called it camera vector before). This is the code for blender to calculate one ray only, i.e. the center of the camera frame
import bpy
from  mathutils import Vector
import numpy as np
from math import acos

R = 2.0

scene = bpy.data.scenes["Scene"]
ro = scene.camera.location  # ray origin
s = Vector([0,0,0])  # sphere center
rd = scene.camera.matrix_world.to_quaternion() @ Vector((0.0,0.0,-1.0))  # ray direction
t = np.dot(s-ro, rd)  # time, i.e. point along ray
p = ro + rd * t  # vector between sphere center and ray
y = (s-p).length  # distance between sphere center and ray
if y<R:
    x = np.sqrt((R*R)-(y*y))
    t1 = t-x  # time to t1
    result = ro + rd * t1
    print('result: ',  result)
else:
    print('camera not looking onto sphere')

result is a vector that describes the point on the sphere

Couple of answers that may be of some use https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/91019/15543  and https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/160388/15543  There is also something from ideasman42 that makes the four planes for camera but cannot find atm.

If you're looking for a way to reduce the required memory, wouldn't it be easier to use a downscaled texture that is still detailed enough for the output resolution of your render?

Camera as planes https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/45324/15543 in conjunction with https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/118908/15543

@RobertGützkow, it is actually not one texture, but many different. There are also objects that will be loaded onto the sphere and I have to make a preselection first.

@batFINGER, thanks this is a lot of input.


text:
Bend a Honeycomb mesh?
I wanted to make a Grill, for a model, and made it from a Honeycomb Mesh which was in an Add-ons (Add Mesh: Extra Objects). Placing the Honeycomb mesh was no problem, but i wanted to make it rounded, but the Modifier "Simple Deform" doesnt bend it on the X Axes.

Please clarify what effect you're trying to achieve. "Correctly" can be very subjective. :) Is my answer on this question helpful?

Check this this question here creating a spherical array. It uses duplication methods in the object panel to array the other objects on a mesh, you could use faces instead of verts.
My method:-

The steps:-

Add an icosphere
Change the subdivision levels by pressing f6 to bring up the menu
Go into edit mode and select all the faces.
Press Ctrl+B to bevel and while in the bevel mode, press V to bevel only the vertices, eyeball the ratio to make the faces as equal as possible.
Select all the faces again and press I to inset all the faces, while in the inset mode, press I again to inset individual faces.
After inseting, delete the faces.

The blend file:-
This method is poor and inconsistent as some of the faces remain unequal and distorted. While you can use the duplication method to array the hex mesh onto a sphere, the array would still remain separated and some places would still have distortion. I'm sure the animation nodes add-on or sverchok could easily do it, but I have no idea how to do it. You can try editing your question to make it suitable for animation nodes, that way it would attract more people to answer your question specifically pertaining to the animation nodes or sverchok.

A couple of options come to mind.
First is to use a cage deform modifier of some sort, like a lattice or mesh deform modifier. This will give arguably the best results, and will give you the most control over the output, but is the hardest to set up.
The mesh deform modifier will give you more control than the lattice as it allows for more shapes, so I would recommend that method for bending your grill. What you want to do is make a cage mesh around your grill, and a cube that is resized to nicely fit your grill with some added edgeloops will work great for that. Then add a mesh deform modifier to your grill, select the cube and click bind. This may take a while, but once its done moving the vertices of the cage mesh will deform the grill. If you have any troubles this way, make sure the cage mesh fully encompasses the grill.
Another tip for this method is to store all of the deformations of the cage mesh in a shape key. The reason for this, is changing the vertex count of either object will break the mesh deform modifier and make you have to rebind. A shape key allows you to very easily 'reset' the cage mesh, rebind, and get back to where you were. For example, if you find you need another edgeloop in your cage, you can add it, but the mesh deform modifier will reset. Then, set the shape key to 0, which will set the cage back to where you started, just with the extra loop added, then rebind, and set the shape key to 1 again.
Here's a setup using the mesh deform modifier, showing the before and after with the modifier and shape key settings used:

The other option, and maybe the best (as in easiest way to achieve what you want, not best or most controllable result) one, it to create a mesh that follows the curve you are going for, then ensuring it is very smooth (use a number of subdivisions) and then using the shrinkwrap modifier set to project. You may have to play around with positive or negative to get the results you want, but it should work well.
The one thing to keep in mind is your grill will have to be 2D, so you will have to add a solidify after the shrinkwrap. If that isn't an option for you, you will probably have to use the first method. Another potential limitation is if your grill needs to be very curved. If it is, this method may cause excessive stretching.
Here's a setup using the shrinkwrap modifier (note the wireframe object is a just a slightly curved plane that has a subsurf modifier on it to make it smooth):

If the shape you want to get is not possible with Simple Deform even with the help of Empties, than you can use a lattice object and the lattice modifier. If more control is needed, you can even stack a ShrinkWrap to project it into another mesh.

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


text:
Question about topology?
Learning the blender ropes. I wanted to uv unwrap this (attached) high poly mesh to uv paint, but I can't as it's too dense.  The object mainly has texture and creases done with the sculpt tool.
I've been looking up ways to retopologise the mesh but wanted any suggestions of which method is best? Grease paint etc
Also for something like this how 'dense' does the retopo need to be in order to get the texture if that makes sense... and once I've retopoed it do I have to 'bake the normals'?
Many thanks!!

Retopology is done in order to provide object with lowpoly geometry which then will take information from highpoly using height and normal maps etc but will be easy to render and maintain (unwrap, edit). There isn't best way to retopo, some general ways are here https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/36525/how-to-easily-make-mesh-retopology. Once retopo is ready you will bake normals from highpoly to lowpoly.

Please only ask one question at a time. You are welcome to ask as many separate questions as you need.

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


text:
Mirror mod doesn't mirror opposite even when origin set to edges
I just cant seem to get the mirror modifier to work.  Ive set the origin to the edges and moved the 3d cursor like suggested however when the mod is added it doesn't mirror the object parallel, it just goes in any other direction but opposite on the axis I dont want it to be

select the corner edge or the edge where u need mirror and press shift+ctrl+alt+c and select origin to 3d cursor and then add mirror modifier

Thanks for getting back! Ive tried selecting the edges and setting the 3d cursor to the origin but when I add the modifier the origin s in the right position but it still cant be mirrored on the other side and still passes through :(

plz attach your file here https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ for detail information

Your object has unapplied rotation of 45 degrees. If you reset it you will see actual mirroring. Either reset rotation (Alt+R), or apply it (Ctrl+A). In this case applying is the easiest way as it doesn't seem to cause any problems with rotation. See https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/22987/mirror-modifier-mirrors-on-different-axis-axes-from-the-selected-ones for similar case

@cegaton That duplicate doesn't actually mention applying rotation.

Thank you so much Mr Zak. I was getting so frustrated with it!


text:
Help adding color to an image texture
I have done much texturing so bare with me... Im making a car and wanted to texture the brake lights with an image like this (pic 1).  I don't want to  project the image, I want to use this as an image texture but with the same colour... how would I go about doing this?
Ive started with a glass material and image texture over that (pic 2) which works fine but its B&W.
Pic 3 has the color but no glass look to it
And pic 4 just has the glass over it.  I was looking for a the texture of pic 1 and with picture 2 colour.

sorry cegaton, I was a bit too vague, I've attached my node set up

Bump... anyone?


text:
How to uv unwrap a curved pipe?
I've been searching for an answer for how to unwrap curved objects (pipes specifically) in blender.  Youtube throws out tones on how to do it in maya but nothing about it in blender.  If I unwrap this ring with a cap on either side and a seam straight dow, the uv island is really pinched on one side.  Any help?
The other question How to uv-unwrap a complex bent object? didnt exactly help massively.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/74041/how-to-perfectly-align-uv-coordinates-automatically/ and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/78358/how-to-straighten-curved-uvs-into-straight-belt and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/92812/how-can-i-assign-the-texture-on-saturns-rings/

Also https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/74515/how-do-i-unwrap-a-cylindrical-object/ and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/74772/uv-unwrap-cylinder-lightsaber-with-extrusions-insets or https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/23133/unwrap-curved-flat-stripe

Hi, I've already tried the follow quads but that doesnt seem to work as my quads arent equal and therefore seems to produce alot of stretching and colour change.  I also downloaded the Tube unwrap but that doesnt seem to be active on the list when i hit 'U'

Might want to check out Tube UV Unwrap addon on this page.

Final:

Overview:
Seems:
This is how I have placed them, not ideal. Seem should be marked along middle edge for a better result. Just count them and select right one.

Unwrapping:
Use my answer from here and don't skip any step. This is crucial.
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/78362/29370
Correcting UV:
Now you should have nice straight UV map.

Select middle edge (or edges).

Turn on Proportional Editing and change Falloff type to Linear.

Move selected edges on X axis to minimise stretching. Don't forget to use Falloff scale - MouseWheel.

Thank you so much LukeD! Im still a newbie to unwrapping and didnt realise about proportional editing! Thank you taking the time to help out :)

@obloquy if my answer was good, please use  accept button and up vote arrow.


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Getting a weird black texture everytime moving the Mouse over a button
Just downloaded Blender (I hardly know anything about it), and the same black texture appears/flutters when highlighting or scrolling/moving the mouse over a Button or another UI element.
p.s: I'm from Germany, my english isn't the best.
Edit: Some Details about my Hardware/Software (not really good , just wanted to try a Software like Blender)
    -OS: Windows 8.1 64 bit; x64 based CPU
    -8 GB DDR3 RAM
    -CPU: AMD Quad-Core Processor A10-7300; 1.9 Ghz
    -Graphic chipset: AMD Radeon R7 m265; 2GB dedicated VRAM and AMD Radeon R6 graphics (Driver Version: 13.351.1002.1002)
2nd edit: In AMD Catalyst Control Center, I put everything on high/maximizing Performance; but I'm still having These Problems with Blender. I searched for Driver updates in device manager, too, found none. Are there any other ideas?

That isn't a texture, it's a problem with drivers for your GPU, Blender's interface can't be re-drawn properly. Update / rollback graphic drivers, Blender relies on OpenGL to draw its interface so maybe your card either is AMD or has old drivers etc.

@Mr. Zak: What do you mean with: "either its amd or..."? Does that mean it doesn't work because of an amd graphic card? (I got an amd)

AMD graphic cards sometimes don't work reliably with Blender. It depends on which one do you have, what operation system do you use.. and many more details. To add details to your question [edit] it, to add comment add it below your question

@MrZak - I'm using AMD/Ati GPUs and drivers since the mid 2000s and never had problems like that (not counting problems with nvidia and Intel gpus). So everything hardware-related is pure speculation until the OP provides sufficient information about his hardware.

@SomeWindowsUser - we can't help you until you provide sufficient information about your hardware setup and operating system. I am exclusively using AMD/Ati Cards since 2005 and never ever had redraw problems like that. Again - please provide more info about your setup.

@metaphor_set i already edited the question, which further information do you need?

@someWindowsUser - the m265 chipset indicates that you are using a Laptop. Many R7 Mobile GPU Laptops have Dual Graphics Chipsets that also use CPU-internal graphics features in some energy saving modes. Be sure to connect your Laptop to the power supply or create a high-energy profile for Blender in the Radeon Settings.

@SomeWindowsUser - please See my comment under your original question.

@metaphor_set thanks a lot! I'll try doing it. And yes, it's a laptop.

Do you mean the AMD Catalyst control center? If yes, i put everything on maximize performance, but i still have these problems.

@SomeWindowsUser - Use this guide to force Blender on GPU instead of APU. https://community.amd.com/docs/DOC-1581 If you are still using CCC try upgrading to a more recent driver version. Sufficient Information also includes the driver version.

@metaphor_set downloaded a recent driver version on AMD website, and I followed the tutorial (was the same what I meant before) but I'm still getting the issues. I added the driver version to my question, too. Have you got any other ideas?

@SomeWindowsUser - so you added Blender to the applications list, switched the settings for it to "high performance" and checked via performance monitor that it uses the correct GPU? Those are the things I did on an old HP Laptop and it works (at least as well as one can expect from a five year old Laptop, no artifacts, thoug... ). Other than that - 13.x is a fairly old driver. Try this (http://support.amd.com/de-de/download/mobile?os=Windows%208.1%20-%2064) instead.

In fact, it was already using the correct  gpu with high performance. I just noticed that the driver is from 2014, too, so I'll try that again. Thanks for helping me out on this.

Finally got my driver updated properly, seems like it's working out, thanks.


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Help creating a boolean with curve

I want to create a wall with a doorway by boolean with the 2 objects in the screenshot. When I add the boolean modifier to the cube, I can't add the other object to the boolean. It says beneath the viewport "Failed to find '".
I created the doorway shape by creating a curve, extruding via the Object Data Properties, converting it to a mesh, and using Merge by Distance to clean it up. I've also tried using the extruded curve in the boolean and this doesn't work either. What am I doing wrong?
Here is the project:

Your blend file works ok for me, but I'm not sure why you're using a bezier curve for a simple shape like that? It's easier to use a cylinder, rotate it 90 degrees on the Y axis, delete the bottom half and extend it downwards. Then use the cylinder as the cutter. That will give much cleaner geometry.

@JohnEason In the screenshot he's trying to select the Bézier object in a modifier on the Bézier object itself - that won't work no matter how simple the object is.

In the screenshot you are working on the object "BézierCircle.001" in Edit Mode. This means you are trying to select it in the modifier of that door object. Of course you cannot choose the object itself to be cut out of itself. Delete the modifier on "BézierCircle.001" (switch to Object Mode for that), then select the cube object and try again.

Yes indeed. You still get horrible geometry using a bezier converted to mesh though which is why I suggested using a modified cylinder. Look at his BezierCircle.001 which is the cutter in xray mode! Even the BezierCircle geometry is not good after cleanup! :^(

@JohnEason Yeah sure, but still this is a question for why it's not working and I won't lecture him what creates best geometry - which can get opinion-based really quick and wouldn't help with the actual problem, even with perfect geometry.

Fair enough. We'll leave it at that.

@GordonBrinkmann Please lecture! John, you said the BezierCircle's geometry isn't good after cleanup. How can I get a better result? I understand that using a cylinder would get me a better result in this case, but what if I wanted to have a more custom bezier shape as the cutter? How could I get better geometry in that case? Thanks!


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How can I keyframe various specific properties of multiple objects?
Is there a way to keyframe the same property across multiple objects? I know pressing I allows you to keyframe certain things like position, location and scale, but what if you want to keyframe a specific property? Ie z location of multiple objects, light power of multiple objects.
This add-on addresses my question, but isn't there a native way to do these things? I'm a Cinema 4D user and it seems like this would be a basic thing you'd want that shouldn't require a paid add-on, so I wonder if I need to un-learn the Cinema way of accomplishing these things?

so just that i understand you right: you are complaining about a free software where the special functionality you are used to, is not in and you won't pay 10 Euro for an add-on, but you have paid several 100 Euro for the other software? Some people i will never understand....If you don't wanna pay, you can write your own add-on for free ;)

Just for your last question: Yes, you will have to un-learn the "Cinema way" not only for accomplishing these things, but others as well. A problem which can happen with other software, too.

@Chris lol, I'm complaining? I'm trying to better understand Blender. No, you clearly don't understand, given your snotty response. It's not a "special" functionality, it's an incredibly basic function used in Cinema 4D and After Effects. In the future. don't even bother replying if this is your idea of help.


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How to edit two bones position without affecting the mesh
I already parented the armature generated by rigify and corrected the weight painting where it had problems, but after all that I just noticed that I placed the toes and foot bones incorrectly and if I move them where they should be, the foot deforms.
This is the foot in rest mode (already moved the bones)

And this is the foot in pose mode. I tried different things like duplicating the body before everything and then after moving the bones, copy its weights. Also tried creating new weights thinking that could fix it, but it also deforms the foot.
Is there a way to move those bones to the correct position without affecting the mesh and without losing the weight paint I already painted?

I want to move the location of these bones because when the character will stand on tiptoe, it will deform incorrectly, but if I move them, the problem I said above will happen.

If in Edit mode you move an IK bone away from its controller for example, when you'll switch to Pose mode it will move in order to stick to its controller, maybe that's your problem here.

@moonboots added screenshots of the bones I want to move, and they are the toe IK and foot spin IK, in that case there is no other solution than editing the main armature and re-generate the rig, or there is a way to move IK bones? :/

You just need to move the IK bone and its controller together, or if you didn't do it, move the IK bone's tail to the controller's head

Rigify's bones are not designed to be edited directly.  You need to reposition the bones in the metarig and then re-generate the rig.  After that, some reweighting may be necessary.


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Objects made with geometry nodes don't stick to the base
I'm trying to create a lot of beads on the base, but they appear around the base and not touching it. At first I didn't bother since I hadn't done the weight paint at the moment, but after doing it, they are still appearing around the base and none or them is detecting the weight paint.
I even watched again the tutorial I saw when doing my first donut, but I have everything as the tutorial and I can't find what's the problem is.
Also tried creating a plane in case the base was the problem, but with the plane the beads were appearing around it too.
What could be the problem here?

The blend file above. I deleted the main model since it isn't the problem.
I could almost fix the problem by setting the origin to geometry (beads) for some reason it didn't work before. But the beads don't detect the weight paint yet.
Also if possible I would like to know why my flower ribbons have an exorbitant amount of vertices. I just noticed that without them I had 700k vertices and with all of them I have more than 2 million. (I first made the first triangle and after that I used the "shift + D" in edit mode to create 7 more triangles inside the same object) just in case it is important to know how I made the flowers.

This seems to me to be a problem with the scaling of the objects. What happens if you select the option Relative in the node Object Info?

@quellenform nothing. They don't change their position, rotation nor their color

Then please check the scaling of your objects or share your blend file with us.

@quellenform I added the file. Also if it isn't a bother, I would like to know if there is a solution for the vertex problem I said at the end.


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Rigify Not working correctly
I am completely new to Rigify and I am following a video tutorial to learn it.
At this point everything looks fine.

but when I hit the Generate Rig button this happens:

Can anyone help me fix this?

the origins of the mesh and the metarig should be in the same place. It's the little orange dot when you select it, as shown in the screenshot above. Select the mesh and apply the Location (Ctrl+A). Do the same with the metarig. The origins are then at the world origin (0, 0, 0). Also make sure you have applied to Scale to the metarig.

"the origins of the mesh and the metarig should be in the same place. It's the little orange dot when you select it, as shown in the screenshot above. Select the mesh and apply the Location (Ctrl+A). Do the same with the metarig. The origins are then at the world origin (0, 0, 0). Also make sure you have applied to Scale to the metarig" - This was it. This was assumed in the video. Easy mistake to make. Thank you


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Python code for Align selected to active
I have one object selected, and another object is active.
What is the python code for Object>Transform>Align Selected to Active? (requires the addon Object: Align Tools that ships with Blender.)
Also is there a way to force the python Consol to echo all commands?
Any help greatfully received.

Did not understand, please explain.

There is no menu entry Object > Transform > Align Selected to Active, is it? There is Cltr+S (Snap) > Selection to Active. The console echos all commands by default => bpy.ops.view3d.snap_selected_to_active()

In object mode under the object menu, then the transform menu the option at the bottom is Align Selected to Active.
(You may need to have the objects align addon active, I don't know.)
When you click this option nothing gets output from the python consol.

I get this error
Operator bpy.ops.view3d.snap_selected_to_active.poll() failed, context is incorrect
When I force the context to be 'VIEW_3D'
in matches the location ut not the rotation. When I use the menu option it matches both location and rotation

@MattL Ah thanks! Indeed the addon Object: Align Tools must be active. Otherwise, the mentioned menu entry doesn't exist.

The python consol definately doesn't echo all commands.
When you select an object for example the consol echos nothing

bpy.ops.object.align
For example:
bpy.ops.object.align(bb_quality=True, align_mode='OPT_3', relative_to='OPT_1', align_axis={'X', 'Y', 'Z'})

As a general tip, after using an operator, go to the Scripting workspace and look at the Info panel  on bottom left - the operator is usually there:

Just a warning: The in the question mentioned addon Object: Align Tools seems to overwrite the operator (Blender 3.3). When it's active the menu entry Object > Transform > Align Objects is replaced by Object > Transform > Align Selected to Active. If you enable the addon it replaces the operator. Then you will get an error if you try to call the operator as shown above. If you disable the addon it removes the menu entry + operator and it's gone! You get a "not found" error when you try to execute the line shown above.

Thanks for the help so far.
This is starting to drive me a bit mad... I'm trying to write a super simple script that creates an empty and matches the position and rotation of a select object (or multiple objects)
Your example almost works for the position, but the original selected object moves ( I want it to stay where it is)
Any ideas?

@MattL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XY_problem Maybe you just want to parent your object or use a constraint?

I'd like this code to work for bones too constraining bones in blender is no easy task

Ok, here's the long question.
I'm trying to write a Nullifier script.
Nullifier was a command in Softimage 3D that would 'pin' an object(s) in space and allow you to move that objects parent around without moving the pinned object. Or ( in the case of a rig) Allow you to pin the hand effector to a table for example.
I've written this same tool in both XSI and Maya but in Blender seems to be a bit more complicated....


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Double-role in blender
Is there any way to achieve a double-role effect using Blender?
By double-role, I mean the effect used in films for showing the same object (most likely a person) two or more times in a single frame.
I have two footage scenes and want to merge them, like if I shoot a video when I am at the left end of the frame and then again when I am at the right end of the frame (camera is steady and has not moved), then I want to merge it into a single clip where I am seen two times, once at the right end once at the left end.
I know that Blender is not suited for such kinds of video editing, but still, is there any technique or a workaround that can achieve by editing video footage through the VSE.

please show a screenshot how the effect should look like

Like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_role. It is not actually an image, but a Wikipedia article about the same

So why can't you just copy the object and move it a bit...!? then you have two times the same object....

I think they mean in the VSE/Composite

An example of a dual role is Justin Roiland playing both Rick Sanchez and Morty Smith in a single production "Rick and Morty". He is a voice actor for both roles, as it's an animated series. This is to prove that "double role" is not related to Blender. However, if you want to mimic some kind of movie trickery where one actor is playing multiple characters simultaneously, then that's just a matter of merging two strips using masking.

Another example of a dual role is the tv series Orphan Black in which the main actress plays a dozen clone characters. How is this related to the VSE? Do you have 2 footage scenes and want to merge them?

@Blunder, yes, like if I shoot a video when I am at the left end of the frame and then again when I am at the right end of the frame (camera is steady and has not moved), then I want to merge it into a single clip where I am seen two times, once at the right end once at the left end.

@MarkusvonBroady, that is exactly what I intend to do. But masking each frame would be extremely tiresome.

The technique to have same actor appear twice in a frame in a frame is  Split Screen The simplest technique is to lock down the camera and shoot the scene twice, with one "version" of the actor appearing on the left side, and the other on the right side. The seam between the two splits is intended to be invisible, making the duplication seem realistic ie film it twice, butt the two halves together in VSE.   As mentioned it is achieved with compositing with the advent of  "digital technology"

Have a look here: Default Cube: Master of hide and seek. It's basically what Markus von Broady and batFINGER described: Split screen, steady camera, masking, and merging (frozen frame + actor). In your case there would be "two" actors.

@Blunder, that is exactly what I wanted! Thank you!

I finally found out a way! It is mainly based on this video by Default Cube and the discussion in the comments, thanks to @Blunder and @batFINGER.
(For the explanation, I have used rendered video clips as I did not have any actual footage lying around.)
Basically, the process of double-role would be to have two video clips with the duplicate person once in each clip, and they should be confined two a particular area, such that they are not to be overlapped or interacting in any way.
The two clips I used: (Please forgive my art skills)

Now, we add both the videos into the compositing tab and use the following node setup:

Remember to set the value of the number of frames to the total number of frames of the video clips (in my case, this is 50).
Now, open the Image Editor and go the Viewer Node the following way:

You will now see the output of the viewer node in the Image Editor tab.
Then go to the Mask mode here:

Then click the + New button.
Now Ctrl-Click on the image to select an area where the other-duplicate-character-of-the-other-clip-is-confined-to and remember to check the Cyclic option.

Finally, go back to the compositing tab and then in the Mask node, select the F Mask option.
All the work is now done!!
Just render the final video and you are good to go!
My final output:

Thanks. Consider an edit, IMO  split screen is the name of one "technique" used to have actors playing a  dual / double role in same frame.  Can be in a dual role without ever appearing in same frame.

In the VSE, you place the two clips on top of each other and then in the top one you crop it and change compositing to Alpha Over:

An excellent technique if we want to apply the effect extremely quickly! But a drawback is that if the the area confined of the characters is not exactly rectangular, then this method fails...

Sure, I just wanted to answer how it could be done in the VSE, since you asked about that specifically. Btw. you can also use masks in the VSE to get a non-linear split area. Anyway, hopefully some day it'll be possible to just roundtrip a vse strip in the compositor, so the workflows can be merged.

.. well worth a UV


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Normal map bakes with transparent areas
I have been trying to bake my high-poly mesh to low-poly mesh but I'm getting a transparent image after baking.

My normals are in the right direction. I'm using blender 2.93.
Can u guys fix the error??
I am attaching the link of my project the baked image is attached in with the project.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RgUyz3G9af0h_j1DqAVmz-XAqwOsAC_0/view?usp=sharing
Thank you in advance!

it works here, make sure that you're looking at the right picture, according to your node setup the one that will receive the bake is called NORMAL

@moonboots. M getting the same bake  image as the image attached in the project file.

@if its ok can u upload the baked file

How have you baked this to get the transparency? I've tried it with 2 new images, one with an Alpha channel, one without. The baked images are both fine. There is no transparency. Used Blender 2.92, increased Extrusion to 0.15 m, and lowered the Subdivision Surface modifier on the low-poly object from 3 to 1.

Here is the baked result, there are still some glitches: https://pasteall.org/pic/03b9e56f7dce45c1abfdba2ff4bef1c0

@blunder, Hi i have tried the same settings mentioned still i got the transparent image as per setting you have mentioned.One exception i have is m using blender 2.93 may thts the bug.anyways m attaching my setting and baked image once again.  image:link setting:link

There is something wrong. I can try Blender 2.93 later. Have you tried to use a new image without an alpha channel/transparency? Just uncheck the Alpha checkbox in the new image dialog to do this.

@ Nilesh Janghel, here is my try: https://zupimages.net/up/21/23/0vyf.png

@Blunder , There is something worng with 2.93 ,even i did the same with 2.92 and got the baked image,please try once with 2.93 once amd tell me, here is the image without alpha checkbox -link

@moonboots, which version of blender did you used??

it's 2.93, the latest, it works fine with 2.92 as well, can it be a problem with your graphic card driver?

I've just tried Blender 2.93 (win64), created an image like yours, 4k with Alpha. The result looks fine, like moonboots' image. But I bake with the CPU. GPU is greyed-out. Maybe it's your GPU or the graphic card driver. In the Cycles settings, switch GPU to CPU and give it a try.

@Blunder  Thank you guys,i fixed the error it was related to my hardware i.e my HDD was causing the issue i moved my files to my SSD,the issue was solved thank you anyways!!

@moonboots     Thank You!!


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Particle's not showing up in render mode ,view port
I have been struggling a lot working with the particles in my current practice. I have been trying out to make bubbles for a beer model in which

working as the fizz bubbles (the emitter is the BUBBLES plane)

top position bubble collector (the emitter is the top plane)

Bottom position bubble collector (the emitter is the bottom plane)

All the emitters are emitting the same object which is a low-poly icosphere with a glass shader(ico). The top and bottom have the same particle system, i.e particle system 2.
The problem is: none of the particles are visible to me not even in the viewport. The particles are only visible when the icosphere is in Edit Mode. Other than that it's not visible.

Please help me with this being a beginner in Blender. I'm stuck and confused about what to do.
PS: Is it because of my current configuration? My config is: legion y520 laptop (16gbram, 1050ti, 128gb SSD+1tb HDD, Windows 10 home)
Any help will be appreciated, thank you!!
Here is the link of my project: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1M_zQQH7q8c2TjDnpPaI7uGSSDc9Xq83T/view?usp=sharing

make sure you are in object mode (you can change with TAB)

change your start frame to 1

select your bottom particle settings and change scale to 10 (you can later adjust this, but for now do it, so you can "see" something

start animation with SPACE

result:

so your scale was just too low, that's all.

Thank you so much @chris !

You are welcome

Had similar problem but solution was different. Posting in case someone else like me stumbles upon here.

Tick this Use Modifier Stack under Emission > Source settings, would help if there are modifiers active on mesh.

Using the term "applied" means the modifiers are no longer on the stack.

you're right, thanks, fixed it.


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How to make "hanging" clothes react correctly with the body movement
I'm having a problem with rigging a skirt and a cape.

As you can see, this is the skirt without any movement.

But once I move the leg a little, the skirt not only will deform horribly, but also moves when the leg hasn't touched it yet. (You can see how the leg was moved just a little and the skirt already detected as if the leg were next to it)

I searched some tutorials to try to fix it and found one where it said that with a cube subdivided by 10, then parented with the armature with automatic weights and then use the mesh deform modifier in the skirt will fix the problem, but as you can see, the problem is still there.

So while looking for tutorials I tried to rig the costume I made to continue with the project while I find a solution, but I have almost the same problem with the cape for being hanging instead of being stick to the body (like the gloves and shirt)
Is there a way to rig the skirt perfectly that I haven't discovered yet? And a way to avoid the mesh merging inside themselves? (Like it happens with the cape)

pls provide blend file

@Chris Added the blend file

ok, just by looking at it for 1 minute: your face orientation of the whole character is wrong:[1]: https://i.sstatic.net/DHML5.png

and question: how shall the witch skirt move at all? there is no modifier and no armature for it....did you delete too much of your uploaded file?

is there a special reason why you did set "normals flip" in all your solidify modfiers?

@Chris That's because the solidify modifier that I have active as the outliner, if I deactivate the solidify modifier, it is okay
https://ibb.co/1s2KVwv

About the witch skirt, since the normal one was giving me problems, I haven't parented that one yet, since I think it will have the same problem

The problem was the position of the modifiers. I had the armature modifier in the third position (subdivision and solidify before it) so once I put the armature modifier first, the skirt deforms perfectly (also with some bones added to manually change some parts)
This also fixed some problems I had with some clothes that didn't move correctly as the body moved.


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How to do toes without creating more vertices
I'm stuck with how to do the toes of the character without adding vertices nor using texture paint.
These are the feet I have, with 10 vertices at the end to connect it with the legs once finished.

I thought a way to do the lines for the toes while adding vertices (although I don't want to add more, and the topology looks awful).

But even with that option, the lines are only seen from the side, if I look the feet from the front, their toes aren't marked.

Any way to do toes like in the reference images without breaking the 10 vertices topology nor texture paint?
I tried with normal maps as a comment said, but it is barely seen with the toon shader. First image is the default shader, second one the toon shader.

Any reason not to use a decal?

@AllenSimpson I want to use a toon shader, and from the tutorials I have seen about decals, all of them connect the image texture to the "default" shader, so I don't know if it will work with the toon shader, also I don't want to use texture paint because I have to wait until finishing the body to paint it and know if the proportions or shape are okay

maybe a bump (or normal) map?

@moonboots I tried with normal normal maps and it doesn't work either :/ I edited the post with the results

If it needs to be modeled, you can do it with this kind of topology, not sure what it will give with the toon shader though:


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How to randomize toon shader colors
I'm trying to do some beads for my model but I have a problem with the colors. I want to add lot of beads with geometry nodes and for that, randomize their color, but I don't know how to randomize the color when using a toon shader.

As you can see on the picture above, I tried a mix rgb node with the random and toon shader linked, but it only gives different tones of red. Is there a way to randomize the color ramp colors while keeping the same "configuration" so I don't lose the toon shader effect?

Also tried by randomizing the color ramp as a comment said, but if I add more colors, they will combine on the beads.

I'm not sure about the way you use the Random output, maybe plug it into a ColorRamp?

Use a Hue/Saturation node - connect your color to the color input, and the random to the Hue input.

One way would be to let Shader to RGB do the tone, and your GN attribute do the colour:

How do I add colors with geometry nodes? I tried by myself before asking, but I couldn't do it.

Hi, @Kai! See the answers to this question which show you how, both in current and alpha versions of Blender.


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Render image without a frame number
Stoopid question: Kind of like old 3DS Max, can you render a single frame to disk without any frame numbers?
C:\blender\render\my_image.png
I.e. Without renaming it directly (or indirectly via a script) my_image0001.png >> my_image.png or Render Image and then Image Save As.
I'm aware of the solutions above, but just wondered if there is a setting or option to do it one go.

In the file output path, if you write the entire file name with the extension, Blender will not add the frame number unless you render a sequence of frames.
Also, if you still want frame numbers but with a specific position and zero-padding, you can write the full name with extension, and use # characters as placeholders for the frame numbers.
More about it here:
Output — Blender Manual


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Purging unused data from Python
I found a lot of solutions for deleting unused data. Most of them are not practical for my case.
I have a very long script and during this, I want to purge all the unused data from the memory.
I'm trying to run this script but I keep getting errors:
import bpy
bpy.types.SpaceOutliner.display_mode = "ORPHAN_DATA"
bpy.ops.outliner.orphans_purge()

The error:
RuntimeError: Operator bpy.ops.outliner.orphans_purge.poll() failed, context is incorrect

Any suggestions?
Note: I can't reload blender; it's a long and continuous operation and can't be interrupted and if I ignored purging data the memory will leak.

The problem indeed is about accessing the right UI in blender. How we can access a certain menu in the UI?

I believe what you are after is to override the context.
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/15118/how-do-i-override-context-for-bpy-ops-mesh-loopcut?rq=1

I tried this:
bpy.context.area.type = 'OUTLINER'
bpy.context.space_data.display_mode = 'ORPHAN_DATA'
bpy.ops.outliner.orphans_purge()
bpy.context.area.type  = 'TEXT_EDITOR'
But still I have error right now that the type doesn't exist! so can I specify a certain area of UI other than the current one (context)?

override = bpy.context.copy()
override["area.type"] = ['OUTLINER']
override["display_mode"] = ['ORPHAN_DATA']
bpy.ops.outliner.orphans_purge(override)

you can call every operator with a dictionary in its call in first place (if there are more than one attributes to pass). this dictionary holds the information you want to override from the normal context. you dont have to name the override like this, any other name will do, too.
the thing is, i cannot help you a hundred percent, because I dont really know which parts of the context you have to overwrite. at least in 2.8, "area.type" and "display_mode" are not part of the original context, so you are trying to override something which isnt there, so the context still stays the same like without overriding at all.
i also dont know what you do have to overwrite, because right now i really dont have time to figure that out, sry, I am myself only learning all of this. you can however see whats part of the original context if you type following into the python console:
override = bpy.context.copy()
override

it will list you everything that is in the original context, maybe you find out what you want to overwrite.

I'm not really expert in Blender's python.. but this should work.. The same error still appears but I'll try to fix it up.. if u can refine it I will be really thankful.

I just edited my comment, hope it helps!

It's not working at all I've tried to change it and fit it but seems useless in my case.. :(

def purge() :
  # print(C.area.spaces[0])
  type_orig, C.area.type = C.area.type, 'OUTLINER'
  # print(C.area.type)
  # print(C.area.spaces[0])
  C.area.spaces[0].display_mode = 'ORPHAN_DATA'
  Op.outliner.orphans_purge()
  C.area.type = type_orig

This is the closest I could come up with, considering that I could not find a way to create an Area instance using blender python. So I modify the current context and restore it to the previous value.


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Instance of my rocket and original model both displaying in render
I have a model of a ship and an instance of the ship i have disabled the original model from the view port

but when i render both models appear like in the image below

how do i only render the instance?

Does this answer your question? Why does my object not show up?

If you mask an object from the viewport, it will relly mask it only from the viewport.
In order to mask it from the render, open the Filter menu in the outliner, then enable the camera icon.

This way in the outliner, you will be able to toggle the visibility of any object from the render:

You have to disable it in the render as well, disable in the viewport only hides it from viewing in the viewport.

you can use the 'Filter' in the outline panel to toggle on and off different settings and to disable the layer from rendering (the camera icon).


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Imprecise FBX Animation
I've made an animation for my unity game. The problem is that every-time I export it the exported animation is imprecise at the feet of my character.
I already tried to set the "Simplify" in the export settings to 0, but nothing changed. I also tried to disable "All Actions" and "NLA Strips", and  applied the scale on the armature and the mesh.
Here are my export settings:

A quick video for better explanation here: https://youtu.be/2veA3o-hGUA
I don't know the problem and this issue is killing my game because its visible at some points :c.

I found this has helped me

1) For your model's Animator component, be sure Apply Root Motion is checked:
2) In the Animator window, click the little gear icon and then be sure IK Pass is checked ("IK" should appear left of the gear when this is enabled.

3) Click on the Idle animation in the Animator window and be sure Foot IK is checked.

4) Click on the Motion value in the property sheet to go to the animation itself. Check Bake Into Pose and select Original for each of Root Transform Rotation, Root Transform Position (Y), and Root  Transform Position (XZ).


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I can't scale my key frames correctly
I am trying to animate a character. I am following a tutorial by David Andrade as I'm new to Blender
Currently, there are 10 keyframes, 1 per frame. I wanted to change the timing of the animation, so I moved my play head to frame 1, selected all keyframes by pressing A, then pressed S, then moved my mouse so to scale my keyframes to around 250 frames.
The problem is that when I am scaling, other new key frames seem to appear in between and the timing is not how I want it. I'm using blender 2.79.

I think I've fixed the issue by trial and error. I first selected all controller bones on the character by clicking on an empty area to deselect all, then pressing A twice. That made them all highlighted with their colors. Then I went to the dope sheet and did what I did previously to the key frames and... Voilà :)


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How to make the trees on the grid not through the grid? (Speedtrees, origin problem)
The trees and the grid are joined somehow and I don't know how to undo this.
This is the tutorial I'm following Large Scale Forest Flyover in Blender 2.8 - Quick and Dirty
1:30 is what applies to me the trees appear halfway through the plane and I don't know how to fix this. I want the trees on the plane NOT halfway through.

you need to move it up in Edit mode (not Object mode) so that it shifts from its origin

Please don't ask a question that is solely about the presence of an external video that can go offline at any time. Briefly describe what's going on, what you did, where the problem is. Also, a screenshot helps readers to quickly understand if they can answer the question or if this question is possibly relevant to a similar problem.

The answer to your question follows in the video right from 1.30 to 1:37.

The orange dot in the center is the object's origin (the root of your tree). To move it down to the Z=0 position (the ground), switch to Edit mode and move all vertices of the mesh up.

Another option is to use the 3D cursor (and Shift+S menu), or move the origin directly in Object mode.


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Strange Rigify Deformation
My issue lies with a rig made from the Bird Rigify skeleton; everything is working well, but when I rotated the chest or hips to the right, the mesh twists crazily into itself. Rotating to the left works just fine.

https://i.sstatic.net/lwjLl.jpg

I saw this happen due to wrong IK chains, is head and neck made into IK chain?

I'll be honest, I'm not sure. I subdivided a bone or two to extend the neck and positioned the rest of the bones experimentally. This was the first time I've added bones to Rigify as well, which I did for the mandibles. How can I check whether it's an IK chain or not?

Well I already did, there is some chain between bone on the top of the head and the chest part, however I am not sure if this is the case

my bet is that you've got a bone roll problem as a result of your subdivide, or you've accidentally introduced a constraint loop.

not  bone roll afaict.  probably a loop but I don't see it in a quick look.  I'll see if I have more time later.

Display these 3 layers:

It will display these 3 bones, they look like one but they are actually overlaying, select them with the lasso:

As you can see if you enable the axis their default orientation is not consistent with the rest of the chain. Rotate them 180° (CtrlR 180). Enable the Pose Position. As you can see it hasn't fixed everything but at least your neck isn't twisted anymore:


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What might be wrong with ball and chain physics here (chain works but the ball detached with similar settings)?
I'm trying to figure out Blender 2.90 failing to apply rigid body physics to ball and chain. Here's a middle of animation for the problematic case:

The screenshot shows that the ball has Rigid Body Type: Active, Dynamic Mass 8 kg, Collision shape is final Mesh and sensitivity margin is 0.002 m. The cube has Type: Passive and the chain and ball are initially connected in horizontal position to the right. When I start play, the ball drops directly towards ground and the chain goes through the connection point in the Ball without any friction. The rest of the chain has sensible physics and correctly collides with the cube when full animation is played. The only difference between the links and the ball is the shape of the mesh and the weight of the object (1 kg vs 8 kg). Adjusting the weight or applying the modifiers doesn't seem to make any difference.
Can anybody explain why this fails? Things I've already tried without a fix:

Adjusting the weight of the ball.
Applying the modifiers for the ball.
Avoid small objects (the example file already has huge objects, the diameter for ball is around 5.8 m).
Reduce the Collision sensitivity margin. The default 0.05 m (if I remember correctly) resulted in huge visible space between the chain objects but didn't prevent chain from detaching from the ball.
Adjust Scene Rigid Body World settings to do 200 steps per second with 5 iterations. The default settings caused chain links to partially fall inside each other and didn't prevent chain from detaching from the ball.
Verify that the vertex normals are pointing outside for each object.

Is there something simple that I'm missing to fix the physics of the ball at the end of chain?
Full example file in a zip package can be found at https://filebin.ca/5eFfDexGdyAD/blender-physics-test.blend.zip

Edit: so as you answered yourself, applying scale of the ball seems to fix the problem.
My original answer:
I'm not sure that this is the best way to fix your problem but if you move the origin close to the link it seems to work:

Or you can select the ball, shift select the last ring, and in the header menu > Object > Rigid Body > Connect:

I didn't expect moving the origin to affect the rigid body physics that much! The workaround with Rigid Body - Connect - Fixed results in last link not working (obviously due fixed connection). If I instead do Rigid Body - Connect - Point the Ball will keep attached to the chain but the connection point of Ball will still intersect the chain. For some reason, if the origin is far enough from the chain, the ring of the Ball is considered visual effect only.

so these solutions don't work? I'm not sure about what you mean by "the ring of the Ball is considered visual effect only"

I guess this is caused by a bug in Blender. I reported bug https://developer.blender.org/T81814 but I also found a workaround: select all simulated objects and apply transforms (Ctrl+A) "Rotation & Scale".

With "visual effect only" I mean that it connection point (half ring in the Ball) does not seem to interact with any other object taking part of Rigid Body simulation. If I move origin or use "fixed connection" instead of "point connection", this problem does not appear. However, I'm not happy with the results of "Fixed connection" because it seems obvious to me that the connection should twist during the animation.

oh yes of course, you need to apply the scale, good point!!

Can you explain why not applying the scale would result the objects to not interact at all? (Speaking about the example file above.) Why does moving the origin help here?

well, I'm not good enough to answer these points  ;)


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Avoid merging two objects from different geometry nodes
I'm doing my first tutorial to learn about blender (the donut) and while adding the sprinkles I wanted to add two types of sprinkles. I added then star shaped sprinkles and everything was good until I saw that some stars are "merging" with the cylindric sprinkles. I tried configuring both objects in one geometry node but I couldn't make appear the two shapes, just stars or cylindric sprinkles. How can I fix the problem?

It might be helpful to people trying to help you if you uploaded an example blend file to the site https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ and add that link in the question.

You can put both sprinkle types (Star and Cylinder) into a collection and bring this into Geometry Nodes. On the Collection Info node, enable Relative and also Separate Children and Reset Children. In the Instance on Points node enable Pick Instance. No need for two different GN nodetrees.

As Gordon said, puting both types of sprinkles will solve the problem, so that:
Remove one GN modifier, put sprinkles in the new collection:

Drag this collection into geometry nodes and connect it instead of one object:

To make it work, all of 3 checkboxes marked by arrows should be clicked.
Also, to align star, I applied its transform (Ctrl+A →rotation) and rotate it in Edit mode to make it perfectly aligned with the surface of the donut.

In case you don't want to use collections for your instances, you can just join the geometry of the objects as instances:

Result:


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Bevel sharp edges in circular shape
I'm working in blender and I'm trying to bevel a 45° edge into a circular shaped corner.
The problem is that the bevel follows a sharper trajectory (not a circle shape, but more like an oval).
I tried it with the superellipse and the support loops profile types, but both don't give me the shape I want. By changing the shape value I can approximately get the shape I want, but I want it to be exact.
My question is: Is there any way to bevel the 45° edge to be exactly circular shaped?
I already applied the scale, so that's not the problem.
Thanks in advance.

Edit: I added a screenshot. The orange line is the current curve and the red circle shows the path I want the bevel to follow.
I also tried making a custom profile type, but this also didn't have the outcome I wanted (I have to admit I'm not an expert in making custom profiles, so maybe someone can help me with this)

Can you show sreenshots?

Added a screenshot

Have you tried using a custom profile (option pictured at bottom of your screenshot)?

I just tried this. I drew a circular shape (manually, so it wasn't an exact circle, but close enough) and applied it. I get about the same result as with the superellipse profile.

Encountered this while trying to find a way to create outline edges equal distance to each edges in mesh, kinda sad this won't work that easily

Seems to me like .375 in the shape parameter is about as close as it gets.
I rationalized this from the knowledge that .5 == perfectly round within a 90 degree corner and .25 == a straight between the bevel points.
45 degrees is halfway between 90 and 0, therefore i just entered (.5 + .25) / 2 into the parameter and hey, It kinda seems like that's it.

With a mesh circle next to it for comparison:

If that's not good enough then by all means, feel free to sift through the 7600+ lines of C++ code in the BMesh bevel operator and maybe read a refresher on calculus and graphing superellipses while you're at it lmao. It's not super simple what goes on under the hood.

Thanks for your answer. Seems logical and the outcome is very close. I'm sure it's a complex matter. Was definitely not trying to discredit the bevel function in any way.

Yeah, lol I only mention it cause I was curious and tried to dive into the code to see if I could make sense of it and uh... no..I could not.

Aha okay, well thanks again since your help got me the closest thus far.


text:
Origin point of Metarig acting as root bone during root motion
Recently I've modelled and rigged a character using the included Human Meta-rig, and after editing out the bones I didn't need, I parented everything to a new single bone at the base of the character called root (Circled in Blue and selected)
Animating with this rig had so far worked just fine as all the actions I had made were in place, however, problems arose when I decided to animate my first root motion action. The animating process worked fine but as I imported the action into my game engine (Unreal Engine 5), the animation did not work as intended even with root motion active. It seems that the engine is reading the origin point of the Meta-rig (Called Meta-rig, circled in red below) as the root bone of the hierarchy, despite the actual root set in blender being the root bone circled before.

As I said before, when imported into UE5, the root of the skeleton seems to be that origin point.
Am I missing something? I have tried reparenting the root bone to be the first in the hierarchy and making it so that it replaces the "Metarig" in the object list to no avail, since it seems to not be possible. Am I doing something wrong? Should that tiny orange dot be moving at all or even considered a bone? Any help or insight is very appreciated.
Many thanks.

No one knows? Im truly at a loss here, my bone hierarchy in UE4 is considering that Metarig as the first bone of the chain and i have no idea how to get rid of it.

I had to figure this out myself after all.
The problem is that UE5, for some dumb reason, takes the name of the armature object and makes it the first bone of the hierarchy if that object is not named "armature" in blender, hence why it was creating the "Metarig" bone at the beginning of my hierarchy. I only had to change the name to that and the root was correctly recognized.
Of course, that means that all my in place animations with the previous skeleton are now broken and I basically have to redo a lot of work I've already done. The joys of game dev, huh? At least I fixed the problem.
Thanks for nuthin bozos. jk I hope this helps someone at some point.

Unfortunately, the root movement animation still won't work. The solution to this is to create keys for the skeleton itself and move the animation keys of the root bone there. But that's not all, you need to set the rotation -quaternions on the stage and swap the keys of the Y and Z axes with the positions of the movement and rotation. And the y-axis is reflected in -.

As it’s currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.


text:
Is there any possibility of fitting bones?
I exported a character mesh (with skeleton) from Unreal Engine 4 using an FBX file.

I think the bones are not in a good position. Can I do something with it?
Later I would like to make a body and assign that to this skeleton

When you import the fbx, look at the import options, click armature and try different primary and secondary bone axes. In blender the length of the bone is it's y-axis (not sure what UE4 uses).


text:
Stuck in opengl render
I clicked opengl render in the drop down menu. Now I'm stuck and can't go back to full render. Can someone help me fix this please?
Edit:
Sorry, I really didn't give enough information. I meant that whenever I rendered my image it wouldn't come from the camera but from the view ports view in the default un-rendered style.
I want it to look like this isntead (Which i could only do with the preview render):

This happened after I clicked opengl render from the drop down menu.

Are you in the image editor (render view) try hitting escape key.  Or change the editor type

An opengl render, in this sense is no different then a normal render, they both open the same window. What kind of new window rendering opens is set in the render settings as the Display.

It sounds like you have the Display set to Image Editor (the default).
In that mode the UV/Image Editor will take over the 3D view. You can simply press Esc and you will be brought back to the previous editor. Or you can change the editor, left most button in the editor's header.
Now if the display is set to Full Screen the UV/Image Editor will take over all of blender. Here again you can simply press Esc to get back, or you can press the "Back to Previous" button that will appear in the info header.  Do not change the editor type. If you do change it, say to the 3D view then go "Back to Previous" the info window that should be at the to of blender will be changed into to UV/Image Editor. Odd I know.
I have always have the Display set to New Window, that way it opens a new floating window just for the UV/Image Editor, and nothing in blender changes.


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How to render edge only object in Blender Eevee
I was making a 3D model of Vibri from Vib-Ribbon and I was trying to get it as accurate by making it from edges only like the models in the original game, and I did it properly, but now I have to do the rendering part so I used Freestyle but it wouldn't show up for some reason.
It's empty:

I found a question that I thought would be good but only worked on Blender 2.7.
I need help because I think it would be a waste of time to make a 3D model with rigging and everything just to not be able to make a test video to show my friends.
Preferably, I would not want it to involve modifiers because I want it to be as accurate as possible.
A screenshot of the thing in the viewport:

This is more or less what I wanted to make it look like in the render:

Blender will only show mesh faces in render. Curves and armature bones as well as meshes only containing vertices and edges without faces will be invisible.

is it possible to get them to show up or do I have to make a specific render engine or something

I decided to try writing a shader for it so if I eventually figure it out I'll put the code as an answer. It's now a Cycles-based question but that's better than figuring it out in Eevee.

Nevermind that was a horrible idea because I know nothing about writing shaders.

I'm pretty sure the proper way would be to use something like Grease Pencil with a Line Art modifier—you might wanna look into that—but I'd like to showcase a method I use often: rendering viewport directly, WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) style.
To get a look like your example, I'm following these steps below:

Go to Preferences > Themes > 3D Viewport and change the Wire color, which controls the color of your edges, to pure white
Under Preferences > Themes > 3D Viewport > Theme Space > Gradient Colors switch the Background Type to Single Color and make the gradient color pure black.
In the 3D Viewport, make sure you're in Solid View mode. Open its options panel and switch the Background mode to Theme so it uses your theme settings you've just set

So, now your 3D Viewport is black, and your edges are white (you might wanna save that theme for later use). To not see faces, but only edges, you have a couple of options. You can simply enter into Edit Mode with your objects selected, select all with A, then X > Only Faces to delete all faces. You can keep that procedural with a very simple Geometry Nodes like this. Another option is to use the Wireframe mode instead of Solid, but that results in slightly dimmed whites for your edges and you can't pick and choose which objects get to be rendered as wireframe as you can in Solid.
That's about it. Blender has an option to render exactly what you see in the viewport called Viewport Render Image/Animation but it's not located in the Render menu, it's under View instead. It'll respect the settings in your Output Properties panel and if you're looking through a camera, it'll render what that camera sees:

it worked perfectly


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How to undo split normals?
Is there a simple way to undo split normals? It seems that it can be done with Python code like described in Clear Custom Split Normals Data on all objects but how to do this for one object using the normal Blender user interface?
Steps to reproduce the problem I'm having (Blender version 2.90.1):

Create a new Blender file.
Delete default cube.
Add new mesh: Monkey
Right click (or any other way to open the Object context menu) the Monkey (Suzanne) and select "Shade smooth".
In Properties view: Object data properties, check Auto smooth and set angle to 50.

The top of the Monkey is now smooth but ears still have sharp edges. Adjusting the Auto Smooth angle results in live update to smoothing of the Monkey.

While Monkey is selected press TAB to enter Edit Mode
Select Mesh - Normals - Split from 3D Viewport menu.

Auto smooth is now broken. How to undo the split normals so that Auto Smooth angle setting of Monkey still works as between the steps 5 and 6? (Obviously I'm not asking how to press Ctrl+Z, imagine that there has been lots of edits to scene after the step 7.)
It seems that at least Mesh - Normals - Merge is not the correct answer. I would have expected merge to be opposite of split but this doesn't seem to be true here.

What is it about merge that seems different?

After Mesh>Normals>Merge, press the "Clear Custom Split Normal Data" button in Properties Editor>Data>Geometry Data.

@scurest had the correct answer for this one. With Blender version 2.92 it seems undoing Mesh - Normals - Split is a bit harder:

Select the object and click "Clear Custom Split Normals Data" in properties editor - Object Data Properties - Geometry Data. (See image below.)
Press TAB to enter Object Edit mode (or select it from viewport top left corner).
Press key a to select all (or use Select - All from menu).
Select Edge - Clear Sharp from the viewport top menu.

It seems that with Blender version 2.92 the action Mesh - Normals - Split does both adding custom split normals data and marking all affected edges as sharp. To undo that, both must be fixed.
This is documented at https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.92/modeling/meshes/structure.html#modeling-meshes-normals-custom


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Select mesh perimeter
I would like to select in python the visible perimeter of a mesh. My idea is to get only the external vertices, not all visible.
Any idea or link that can help me?

BMEdge.is_boundary

Can select boundary edges using BMEdge.is_boundary Below is a test script, run in edit mode
import bpy
import bmesh
context = bpy.context

obj = context.edit_object
me = obj.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
bm.select_mode |= {'EDGE'}
for e in bm.edges:
    e.select = e.is_boundary
bm.select_flush_mode()
me.update()

Not sure here if you are after the "silhouette" verts. As in your question here

If your mesh is not very complex, you can do this manually.

Switch to Edit Vertex mode.
Hold Ctrl and LMB and move the mouse. You will notice the dynamic selection region appears.
Try drawing a circular selection region with some radius. Don't release Ctrl and LMB.
Once the circle is complete, don not release Ctrl and LMB, pick a larger radius and do that again. You will see that the inner circle is now inverted and your selection region looks like a donut. Vertices inside that area are selected.

Second way is to enable the LoopTools add-on in User Preferences (search for it as LoopTools - without space). This extension brings new menu items in the 3d-view.
Select a few consequent vertices that belong to the perimeter and then try Select / Edge Loops. This may or may not work, depends on your mesh. Works well on spheres.

The mesh can be very complex and I want to do all with python. More or less, I want the same you get when select an object in the viewport and you see a highlight color in the perimeter, including internal holes.


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How can I disable the ocean sim modifier's symmetry?
I have started experimenting with the ocean sim modifier, but I am noticing how "symmetrical" the resulting mesh is. No matter how I adjust the parameters, a wave in one corner will appear in the opposite as well, which leads to unrealistic water like this:

I understand this is to allow seamless tiling, but in my case I am only interested in one single tile, and am finding the symmetry to be visually disruptive. Is there any way to disable it?

You could try adding multiple ocean modifiers (set to displace) with different settings/sizes.

True, that's a decent enough workaround. For my original problem, I managed to hide the obvious symmetry with some scaling and careful camera placement. But at this point it's more of a matter of curiosity -- the simulation appears to be performed once, then flipped and superimposed on itself, so is there anyway to simply have it do the first step alone?

I don't think there is a direct way to disable this behavior, no.


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Text script issue
I'm needing to generate a set of different texts each in their own font so that I can see which one would look best, something like this (have a whole bunch of fonts do do this with).

I created a short test script, which when ran it ends up looking like this.

Here's the script, each individual text works when ran alone, but they won't work if all texts are generated.  Any ideas why it won't work?  Probably something simple I'm overlooking.
import bpy

bpy.ops.object.text_add(location=(0, 0, 0), rotation=(0, 0, 0))
txt = bpy.data.objects['Text']
txt.data.body = 'Brush Script'
fnt = bpy.data.fonts.load('/Library/Fonts/Brush Script.ttf')
txt.data.font = fnt

bpy.ops.object.text_add(location=(0, 1, 0), rotation=(0, 0, 0))
txt1 = bpy.data.objects['Text']
txt1.data.body = 'Chalkboard'
fnt = bpy.data.fonts.load('/Library/Fonts/Chalkboard.ttc')
txt1.data.font = fnt

bpy.ops.object.text_add(location=(0, 2, 0), rotation=(0, 0, 0))
txt2 = bpy.data.objects['Text']
txt2.data.body = 'Chalkduster'
fnt = bpy.data.fonts.load('/Library/Fonts/Chalkduster.ttf')
xt2.data.font = fnt

Related

Quick example of all fonts in a directory. I'm sure someone else can improve the coding for optimization.
import bpy
from os import listdir
from os.path import isfile, join

mypath = 'G:\\Blender Working folders\\Fonts'  # your font directory

onlyfiles = [f for f in listdir(mypath) if isfile(join(mypath, f))]
count = 0
for f in onlyfiles:
    bpy.ops.object.text_add(location=(0, count, 0))
    txt = bpy.context.active_object
    txt.data.body = f
    fnt = bpy.data.fonts.load(join(mypath, f))
    txt.data.font = fnt
    count += 1

Thanks, that worked with a few changes, as I'm using a mac

import bpy
from os import listdir
from os.path import isfile, join
mypath = '/Library/Fonts/'  # your font directory
onlyfiles = [f for f in listdir(mypath) if isfile(join(mypath, f))]
count = 0
print (onlyfiles)
for f in onlyfiles:
if f.endswith('.ttf') or f.endswith('.TTF') or f.endswith('.otf'):
bpy.ops.object.text_add(location=(0, count, 0))
txt = bpy.context.active_object
txt.data.body = f
fnt = bpy.data.fonts.load(join(mypath, f))
txt.data.font = fnt
count += 1


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Low render quality despite high render settings
I've created this Scene In blender 2.82 and gave it a test render with 350 Samples, but the quality was very low. Now I tried it with 600 Samples, but it didn't get better. What am I doing wrong?

Info: I'm using blender 2.82 with cycles on my CPU. I set the render samples to 600, set the Light bounces to 6 and used the basic built-in denoiser.

That's a stunning scene! By low quality, are you referring to the camera resolution? Given that the image's resolution you provided is 563x373, I'm guessing you should increase the resolution instead of samples.

And i'd say, a few hundred samples isn't what i'd call "high quality settings". Unless you're making some particular scene rendeted as a static image where the lighting and surroundins happen to need only a few hundred samples to render well. But usually it's not enough.

subtle reflections/refractions can increase in detail to up to 10 000 samples as far as I know.

If blurriness is an issue, you might try checking your camera settings to make sure Depth of Field is not enabled by accident. And if you are sending the render result through compositing nodes (such as Scale), bypass them to see if the image becomes more crisp. From the images you provided, I don't believe your render is getting up-scaled, but I mention it anyway as general advice.

As I commented, I believe you need to increase the render resolution instead of the scene samples/light bounces. See this if you are unsure how.
rendering - How to scale the cameras view bounds? - Blender Stack Exchange


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Cant connect nodes in shader editor
I am in shader editor(blender ver. 2.92) and I simply can not connect nodes between each other. These lines, which should connect those little dots in nodes do not appear and I do not know what to do. I've searched how to deal with this problem for a week and still...Maybe somebody here knows how can I fix that?
I just need to connect these yellow Color dots and I ve tried all sorts of combinations, which I ve found on the forum such as: ⎈ Ctrl⇧ Shift LMB and ⎈ Ctrlt.
File below

have you tried doing a factory reset? File > defaults > Load factory settings

What exactly are you doing to try connecting the nodes together? Please [edit] your question and add a little more visual information. Gifs are useful to add short visual information in these cases. Ctrl+T on the output node will add a new world setup if you have node wrangler installed anyway...

@Mobin thanks for the advice, but didnt work out for me...guess because I am a newbie and settings are not guilty :D

@Chris Added, hope it helps!

Tested your file and it's working fine. I guess it's your graphics card, make sure latest drivers are installed otherwise consider to file a bug report (Help > Report a Bug).

@brockmann oh? thanks for help, hope i ll deal with it :)

I've had this same problem working in 3.0.
I had two windows with shading workspace open, specifically Nodes window.
If I closed one, connectivity and movability returned.

Just increase the distance between the nodes you want to connect a bit and try again.

Note that ⎈ Ctrl⇧ Shift LMB and ⎈ CtrlT mentioned in the question are functions from the Node Wrangler Addon (shipped with Blender but disabled by default).
While they do create connections, it isn't their primary purposes:

⎈ Ctrl⇧ Shift LMB : Connect an output of the selected node to the final output of the node tree (...) to preview its output in the viewport.
⎈ CtrlT : Add a setup of a texture node, Texture Coordinate, and Mapping nodes to any shader node.

The basic way of connecting nodes that should always work is to click and drag a socket, and drop it to another node's socket:

If no noodle appears while doing this, it sounds like either a graphics issue due to your system, or a bug.
You can check if your system meets Blender's requirements on : Requirements — blender.org
To update your drivers, the rule of thumbs is to simply get the latest available. But if you are interested in Cycles GPU rendering, you might also need to get a specific "variant" of your manufacturer's drivers. Hence, you should probably look at GPU Rendering — Blender Manual
If you confirmed your hardware is within Blender's target and your graphics driver is up-to-date, yet still have issues, please report a bug using Blender's menu Help ► Report A Bug.


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Blender mouse problem
I have a problem with blender. Everytime when I click on an object on my viewport it makes me click a different object. For example whenever I click on the body of a human it makes me click the clothes instead. I need a solution to fix the dislocation of the mouse clicks. Especially when I'm in pose mode and  I click a specific bone it makes me click a different one.
https://i.sstatic.net/3xqfj.jpg

Can you post some screen recordings of this behavior? At the moment your description is a little vague.

ok i will do it right now.

https://imgur.com/a/p3bUhdd here

You are currently in Pose Mode. You can click up here, and switch to Object mode to get back to the "Main" view, or Edit mode to get to the modeling view. The shortcut to switch is Ctrl+Tab.