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Get x and y position of an empty following a curve
So what I would like to do is print the x and y position of an object that follows a path in Blender from start to finish. At the end there should be an array of [x,y]. I have no idea how to code inside of Blender, but I thought maybe some of you guys know how to easily do this or if there's a similar question that has already been answered.
Thanks in advance to anyone that can help me out here!

Example
Here is an example, based on this setup:

The layout consists of an empty and a curve, both created at the origin.
using this Follow Path constraint on the empty:
.
Note that the Animate Path button has been pressed
If we look at the path's object data properties, under Path Animation we find:
.
The important bit here being that Path Animation is set.
The following code, given this setup, will produce your array:
import bpy

object = bpy.data.objects["Empty"]
curve = bpy.data.objects["Spiral"].data
frames = curve.path_duration

increment = 1

co_list = []
for desired_time in range(0, frames+1, increment):
    curve.eval_time = desired_time
    bpy.context.view_layer.update()
    co_list.append((object.matrix_world[0][3], object.matrix_world[1][3]))

Explanation
The first two lines of code after the import select the object and the curve that it is following.  We take it as given that the object has the follow path constraint.
You need to replace those with two lines that accomplish your goal.
The next line reads the Frames value for the Curve's Path Animation settings.  That's the total number of frames in your animation.  The evaluation time will run between 0 and that time.
We can subdivide the evaluation time as finally as we want, so we use increment to set that.  I picked 1, because that matches an increment of once per frame, which would make sense if you wanted the animation data on frames.
The loop increments the evaluation time of the path animation of the curve.  On each increment, it updates the view_layer so that the location of the empty will match the position it would have on the curve.
The position of the empty is taken from its world matrix.  Since this question isn't about how matrices are used in position calculation I'll just say that those two values are the resulting X and Y position of the empty assuming it was created at the origin, as this one was.
We make a tuple of the X and Y coordinates, and add them to the list.
At the end, co_list contains an array of x, y coordinates, representing each position of the empty as it moves along the curve one increment at a time.
Bonus
The spiral is created using the built-in "Extra Curves" add-on.

This one has two changes from the default settings. Turns was set to 3 and Radius Growth was set to 1.0

Thank you for your excellent answer and comment.

Thanks a lot for this incredible answer. From previous experiences (you can probably guess on which site) I was afraid of asking anything that isn't extremely complicated. This helped me a lot and gave me new confidence in asking simple and sometimes maybe stupid questions!

Thanks a lot for this incredible answer. From previous experiences (you can probably guess on which site) I was afraid of asking anything that isn't extremely complicated. This helped me a lot and gave me new confidence in asking simple and sometimes maybe stupid questions!

If you just get the xy position, it has a simple way to print out.
Select the curve in object mode and run the script. The curve will convert to mesh.
import bpy, bmesh

bpy.ops.object.convert(target='MESH') # convert to mesh

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

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(bpy.context.object.data)

array = []
for vert in bm.verts:
    array.append((vert.co[0], vert.co[1]))

print(array)

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

If you want animate the empty frame by frame:
import bpy, bmesh

bpy.ops.object.convert(target='MESH') # convert to mesh

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

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(bpy.context.object.data)

array = []
for vert in bm.verts:
    array.append((vert.co[0], vert.co[1]))

print(array)

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

# add a empty
bpy.ops.object.empty_add(type='PLAIN_AXES', align='WORLD', location=(0, 0, 0), scale=(1, 1, 1))

oj = bpy.context.object

for i, xy in enumerate(array):
    oj.location = (xy[0], xy[1], 0)
    oj.keyframe_insert(data_path="location", frame=i)

The problem with this approach is that the coordinates of the converted mesh wouldn't match the positions of the empties at frame increments of the follow path evaluation time except rarely by coincidence.  It's an array of points on a curve not an array of positions through time.

agree, because the travel distance is not same


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Python: how to get edge’s index when indexes of two vertices are given?
How do I get index of an edge when indexes of two vertices which making the edge are given? (By index I mean the number you put in the [] to access specific edge among list of edges a mesh contains)

you can do it using the link_edges of each vertice as input.
import bpy, bmesh

print("*"*20)

def intersection(V1, V2):

    if V1 != V2:
        for e in V1.link_edges:
            if e.other_vert(V1) is V2:
                return e.index
    else:
        return -1

obj = bpy.context.edit_object
me = obj.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)

if hasattr(bm.verts, "ensure_lookup_table"):
    bm.verts.ensure_lookup_table()

V1 = bm.verts[0]
V2 = bm.verts[7]

print(intersection(V1, V2))

Great idea using link edges to avoid looping over all edges. for e in v1.link_edges: if e.other_vert(v1) is v2: return e.index ... or return None if the two verts are not an edge.  Avoid using built in types eg list, as variables.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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how do I stop blender from randomly creating multiple (often disconnected) vertexs in the same place? ver 2.82a
While trying to create a low poly standing model I keep finding (while loop subdividing or while grabbing individual vertexes) a face has been lifted off with two (often) disconnected vertexes overlapping the same spot. The model seems to keep doing this in spots I'm not working on even.
I'm not sure, is this a bug?

I've not observed double vertices appearing by themselves, but there are plenty of ways to introduce them accidentally. Without knowing what you did it'll be hard to say how they might've got there, but a common way is by canceling two-part operations like extrude+move and duplicate+move.

Go to mesh > clean up > merge by distance... figured it out but any idea why it happens?

You might extrude (E) mesh and just right click at it. It will create duplicated vertices, merge by distance help to clean them up

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


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How do i put texture from images?
I have downloaded texture and it contains diffuse,normal,height images/maps.How to use them in blender to get bumpy/3d texture?

The typical node arrangement looks like this. Remember to choose non-color for your metallic, roughness, normal, and displacement images. Also, remember all meshes must be UV unwrapped in order to display the materials properly.


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I'm getting outlines around all objects!
I'm getting thin black outline around all objects which is also being rendered and the rendered image looks bad because of it! I don't have freestyle enabled or no cartoon modifier is enabled!Even tried disabling overlays but it is still appearing

I don't see a black outline in either picture.

The pictures look like you're in solid viewport shading, as opposed to rendered. What happens if you switch to rendered?


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One smoke domain, 2 sources -> result rendered separately
Blender 2.83 - Cycles
I have two meshes as smoke sources and I want the smoke generated from them to interact with each other (therefore 1 domain)
I also want to render the smoke emited from these 2 sources separately, which begs the question:
Is it even possible?

I have some wind and turbulence in the scene so 2 separate domains in 2 view layers doesn't really solve my problem (I think)
Thanks for any input!

To render each effector and domain use instances of in different collections and view layers.

Don't forget the last 2 lines in the post: "I have some wind and turbulence in the scene so 2 separate domains in 2 view layers doesn't really solve my problem". Having different view layers will prevent the smoke simulations from interacting with each other, and I require that effect to happen.


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Materials turn into solid color
Whenever I make a material and assign it, it turns into solid color in material mode, and when I export it, it's materials are still solid color. How do I fix this?

This could be a lot of things, can you please share your blend file?

Is there a way for me to upload the file here?

We use Blend Exchange for this purpose.

You can find the blend here:


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Vertex coloring on textured models to use in Unity?
I am making a Nintendo 64/ PS1 inspired game in Unity. I know that those consoles did not have lighting and instead used vertex colors on textured models to add variations in light and in color to save on space. Like Banjo-Kazooie, TLOZ: Ocarina of Time, Spyro, etc.
Here is another example: https://twitter.com/JasperRLZ/status/1094624131012714498
I would like to use this technique in my level models and then export them to Unity, but I can't find a way of doing it. The best I could find is this video, but it doesn't work for me when I do it, and it does not explain much of what they are doing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VEdMQIF_sU
If anyone knows how to do this, please do tell. Thanks!

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/30314
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/90890
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/31330 https://blender.stackexchange.com/search?tab=votes&q=vertex%20colors%20export

Nevermind, I already found an actual solution: https://blenderartists.org/t/vertex-coloring-on-textured-models-to-use-in-unity/1230383/3


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gltf export file size is too large
i need a export of my blender project to gltf format to show real time on my website.
the output generating process working good but the size of file is about 155 mb and the output have a lot of detail and also is editable (i can click on object and move them.)
im using this command for export
 bpy.ops.export_scene.gltf(filepath=filepath, export_jpeg_quality=75 )

is there a way to get light export to show online in browser? just with zoom and 360^ view?

Surely that's down to whatever application you are using to view it on your web site, nothing to do with Blender!

you mean there is no option in blender to minimize the size or ignore details? 155 mb is to large at all!!

What John means is that the ability  to edit a model is a characteristic of the application you open it with, not of the model itself. Export size is mostly dependent on the complexity of the model, if the size is too big, simplify it.

just adding export_materials ='NONE',export_unused_images=False,export_colors=True to bpy.ops.export_scene.gltf reduced the size to 12mb from 155mb and reduced export time to 2second from 22 second.. im speaking about options guys..

Is there a way to get light export to show online in browser? just with zoom and 360^ view?

When the option for punctual lighting is enabled in the glTF export settings (it is disabled by default), glTF exports may include directional, point, and spot lights. To use them viewers must support the KHR_lights_punctual glTF extension, which is widely supported.
However, creating matching lighting conditions in another 3D renderer remains very difficult. Getting the units of the lighting correct is not enough, the camera exposure and tone mapping also come into play substantially, and cannot be included in exports. Blender's exporter has some options for the lighting units, but practically speaking — it's usually best and simplest to choose a simple HDR for lighting and try to use that in both Blender and the viewer. HDRs are not included in exports, and would be provided to your viewer of choice separately.

the size of file is about 155 mb and the output have a lot of detail

It's difficult to comment on file size without knowing what that 155mb is comprised of. Loading the model in a tool like https://gltf.report/ should give you a better idea, look for the total sizes of meshes, textures, and animation keyframes.
There are a lot of optimization tools for glTF. Two free and open source options include gltfpack and glTF Transform, both are CLI tools. Once installed (separately), gltfpack can be enabled in the preferences panel for the Blender glTF addon (requires Blender 4.1), adding a new section to the exporter options, and reducing the size of mesh geometry and animation keyframes. Blender also supports Draco compression in the exporter settings, which compresses mesh geometry — this option is mutually exclusive with gltfpack.
If the size of your model is mostly textures, there's little in Blender to address that other than reducing resolution, and you will likely need an external tool like glTF Transform that can compress textures to WebP, AVIF, or KTX2 texture formats.


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Why in blender when I try to open a specific file it crashes?
If I open any other file and append an armature from the specific file, blender closes immediately, but I can import all the other object from the file.

What version are u using and what version is the file u opened? maybe u are opening a high version file in low version blender which will usually not work

Hello and welcome. This is Q&A site run by volunteers, we are not programmers nor in any way associated with the Blender Foundation, decision making nor development process of the software. For bug reports please see Where to Report a Bug

Check to make sure the Blender file version is same/below the version of Blender you're currently running.
For example, if you're running Blender 3.5 then you can only open blend files 3.5 and below and not 3.6. You can open an uncompressed blend file in a text editor and it will say on the top line the version of Blender the file was made with.
To be safe just download the most recent version of Blender 3.6.1 to see if it can import what you need. If not it's probably something else. When you save a blend file for the first time the actual file imprints the version of Blender that you first saved it with.


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When exported the Texture of one Object missing
I downloaded this file online as fbx and blend file.
However when I try to export it into my Video editor, the textures of the plane are missing. The textures of the hangar are there strangely.
I tried to give it a new texture and export, but it is still missing.
Then I tried to export an fbx with clicking copy and adding the textures but didn’t work.
I also tried to export as fbx and put the textures with it together in a zip file but again the textures of the plane were missing.
What is the issue? I assume the creator didn’t had a nice folder structure but is it possible for me to link the texture to the object somehow?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/57531/fbx-export-why-there-are-no-materials-or-textures

In addition to the above: try importing the FBX you made into Blender. If it works in Blender, then the issue is the video editor you use.


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Shadows in Cycles
I have a request. Do you know where I am doing wrong? I have soft shading in the preview, but it's hard after rendering.

Thank you Tom

What do you have the View Transform and Look set to under Color Management in the Render settings?

Welcome. Please use a title that matches the content of the question. It should be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the issue in such way that anyone searching for a similar problem may easily find it. Use the [edit] link above, remove anything superfluous, avoid words like "this","issue with" or "question about". Remember, your title is the first thing potential visitors will see, answers you get depend heavily on how inviting it is. See "What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?""

Look at your viewport shading popover to make sure you use the scene lights and world. Check in your outliner that all your light are visible in the viewport and render. If the issue isn't here, please upload your file on Blend-Exchange and [edit] your post to include the download link.

You have a point light disabled in viewport, but enabled in renders.  Check the outliner in the top right :)

for Allen Simpson
Thank you for the notice. That was it.


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Shadow of my model glitches and looks weird
Good evening, I recently found a problem with my model's shadow: the shadow glitches when camera moves, and it generally looks weird:

And here is a shader I tried to use on it:

I tried to recalculate normals, use the "Subdivision surface" modifier and change render engine, but it didn't help. I would be grateful if someone explained to me what the problem might be.

What exactly do you mean by glitching? In the image that you have provided, everything looks fine. Can you provide an image of when it glitches? Or even better a screen recording maybe?

Yes, sure, here's screen record: https://imgur.com/a/H5sRLcQ

This flickering behaviour is kinda completely normal while using Eevee.
Basically the lights are being recalculated every time you orbit. Once you stop moving around, the lights are calculated and usually within a second everything settles down.
This flickering is more prominent on slower computers as they are just not able to keep up with the calculating of lighting according to speed of your orbiting.
But don't worry. This will not be visible in the render if that's a question which arises in your mind. This only happens while orbiting and moving around the scene.


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How do I create a new texture image from another one?
my goal here is to include a .obj of a large mesh in UE4.
The initial problem is that my texture image resolution is 16384 ² and UE4 only goes up to 8192 ².
The obvious way to go under a texture of 16384 ² for me is to cut the original mesh into smaller meshes (also the advice I got).
So I did cut my mesh in 4, tried to import one part into UE4 and it told me the texture image was still 16384 ².
I did some research and found that even if I divide the mesh, it will keep the original texture image. I then saw that cycles allows to bake a new texture from the original, but the output was still in a 16384 ² resolution, it just blacked out the unused pixels.
My question is then : how can I divide my mesh and get a smaller texture image?


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How to merge vertices / faces on a mesh without altering texture
I'm working on a mesh I got from photogrammetry and I need to clean it up a bit as it has around 2 million faces.
What I'm trying to do here is to merge faces that are on the same axis (merge faces that represent the roof or walls for example).
I've managed to merge a few by selecting faces and pressing the "F" key but sometimes I get some texture alterations (as show on image).
How can I avoid getting this alteration?

I don't think you can as you completely change the UV map as soon as you merge the face

You will have to merge the vertices before texturing and UV editing because adding or removing faces changes the UV map and if you are merging them you will have to UV edit them later

To achieve what you want, you should be merging verts on a copy of your original, UV map your copy after completing the geometry, and then bake a texture from your original to your copy.


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How to make the color fade in to another one on the same object? (Like Pic below)

The explosion how it is orange on the inside then on the edge it fades to reddish orange

you would use a color ramp node for that

answer here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/42304/radial-colorramp-gradient-texture?noredirect=1

So duplicate... (@moonboots)


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Don't know what goes wrong when I try to bake a normal map
Hey guys im trying to make a mew low poly mesh and get the detail from the high poly one onto the low poly one.
However whenever I try to bake the normal map it comes out weird like that on the corner.

Also heres the material on the high poly mesh if it helps
Is there a problem with the meshes, or how I go about baking? If there's something else im doing wrong please tell me.

have you given a Subdivision Surface modifier to your low-poly? It may be the problem...

No I haven’t I made it on top of the other one from scratch

I may be wrong but it looks like it's because of your low-poly topology... are you planning to give it a Subdivision Surface modifier? In that case do it before the baking. If you don't I guess you'll have this result. But maybe share your file? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

Okay I’ll try baking a couple more times today and if I can’t get it right I’ll share the file, thanks btw


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I'm not seeing a dark blue color on my mesh in my weight painting mode
In all the tutorials I have been studying, as soon as someone enters weight paint mode in blender, their mesh turns dark blue. Mine is not turning dark blue at all, and when I applied automatic weights to my mesh, my mesh began to droop. Any idea whats going on? My rig works fine, I just can't seem to get the weights to work right now or the blue color to show up. Thanks!

You are in material view right now. Go into solid mode: press Z + 6. To go back press Z and choose the mode ore use the little balls in the upper right corner

Thank you! I got to material mode, but I'm still not seeing that dark blue color. Just my normal gray mesh. My weight painting brush has no effect either. Do I need to select something I don't have selected? Or could it be another issue?

It could be a bug, try going to paint weight mode in a new file on the default cube. If it works try appending your meshes to the new file.

Ok! Thank you, Alex!


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How can I make an indent on a edge loop?
What I'm imagining is essentially like taking an edge loop and pushing it inwards, making an indent. I've tried extruding edge loops down, but that does nothing. I've also tried putting two edge loops on either side of the one I want to indent, and then moving the desired edge loop, but that really messes up the topology. Is there an easier way to do it?

hello, could you please show a drawing of what you want?

On a subdivided cube example you can see how a ring cut on the right side of the top face can add unnecessary faces all the way around.
Alternatively you can localise quads and save on face count in the other two cuts.
The other cut on the top face allows a flat base to the cut.
The cut on the side face of the cube creates an angled finish, adding less faces overall.

I think i understand what you are saying. I am not an expert, but you could select a face. The smaller the face, the smaller the indent. Left click and select 'poke face'. There will be a vertices and the middle, you could drag that around to make an indent or add edge loops.


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Camera rendering not what is in view
i'm trying to render out different angles on this planet but when i move the camera and render the scene the objects are in  different locations relative to where they are in the viewport. Has anyone had this issue before or know how to solve it?
This is the viewport

and this is the render result

This is the viewport

and this is the render result

Viewport orientation is not the same thing as camera orientation. When you render, your viewport orientation is always ignored in favor of your camera orientation. Also, while you can have more than one camera in a scene, only one can be "active" at any time, and only the "active" one renders.  "Active" is not the same thing as "selected," since you can select a camera without activating it. If you look at the camera itself, from within the 3D View, you will see a small triangle on its front side, revealing its "Up" vector. This will be filled in black if the camera happens to be active, and not filled in at all if it is not active. This becomes a quick, visual way to know. If you look in the Outliner window for any camera, and uncollapse its children nodes, and click on the item indicated by the green camera icon, which appears directly beneath the original version you first clicked on, this will activate that camera. Once activated, hit Ctrl-Numpad0, and your viewport orientation will switch to that of this newly activated camera. If you render now, you will see a rendered shot consistent with that of your current view. Though it won't be exactly identical in any case, and I understand that this is normal behavior.


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How do I give a completely black object a glow effect?
I am trying to give an all-black object a glow effect. Is this achievable? I have seen how to create glow effects using emission and world bloom, however, this obviously has no effect on a black object.
I am using Blender 2.82 and am rendering with Eevee in case that info helps. Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide and please note that I am day 1 into Blender.

Here is an example of the effect I am trying to achieve:

this is not easy because it's not correctly in a physic's way (if the object is emitting light, why there is no light in front?). Try to add another mesh between the sword and the camera to mask the light (and apply an emission shader to the sword).

It looks like you want Eevee for easy bloom?
You can repurpose an edge lining technique for it.  Give your object two materials and a solidify modifier with a material offset.  Make one material black, and for the other, give it emission for backfaces, but transparency for front faces:

Note that you'll need to enable some sort of blending (alpha clip is fine) and make sure you're not culling bakfaces, in material settings as shown.
There are a number of additional ways you could achieve this, constraint-placed shadowing meshes, render layers, and probably others.  But this is previewable, simple enough, and should get you what you're after.

I try to achieve it in compositing.

Enable the Bloom Pass in View Layer Properties.
The color of bloom can be change with ColorRamp. Change the Alpha to 0 for the black end.
Subtract the original bloom.
Alpha Over the colored bloom.

I know one way if you want a still image. It's kinda hard.
Render your scene with the black object as a red emmision shader with bloom. Then select only the that object and delete everything else and set the emmision shaders's color to black and also set the film to transperent in render settings and render again.

Then in the composite node editor, alpha overlay the 2nd render over the first one.

If it doesn't work try flipping the order of the 1st render and the 2nd render in the alpha over node.

This could work but you don't have to delete the object, that is prone to error or data loss. You should use two separate Render Layers


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Cube Glowing in Blender 2.82.7
My objects I add in blender are glowing? Does anyone know why?

Are you having trouble when moving your object too? Because I had the same problems before. To solve, deselect everything in edit mode and then go to object mode. You can click to an empty place for deselecting everything or doubleclick on A fastly.

I do not have trouble moving a object. But it solved it!

Nice! I am happy that you solved your problem :)

You might have activated "Flat Shading" on accident. To fix this, go to the top  right where the viewport display options are, click the dropdown and switch to "Studio" or "Matcap" lighting.

Studio lighting gives a clean look and is useful in many places
Matcap lighting gives many more looks to the object to help users see geometry more clearly. Click the orb and select one to change.
The last one is Flat lighting. It has no shading whatsoever so you will only see the profiles of objects. Might help with speeding up the viewport in intense scenes but I don't see much reason to use it otherwise.


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Cloth collision with rigid body stuck at starting point
I wanted to simulate an object falling above a cloth, but found that it kept falling through no matter what I do, while trying to figure out what's wrong I also found that when I put the object under the cloth, it seems that the collision stays where the object was and didn't really "follow" it. Sorry if I'm not communicating things clearly, I'm new to blender.

did you set the collision physics on apple?

It's a classic issue.
As seen in this video at 15:00 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HRIG04a4X0?t=900
You need to:

click on the rigid body object (the one which initial position seems to stay where it is and blocks the cloth),
Go to its Rigid Body properties (in the physics tab),
Under Collisions, change the Source from "Deform" to "Base".

Another pre-requisite is that Collisions are enabled, additionnally to the Cloth simulation or the Rigid Body simulation (but I can't remember if it has to be on the Cloth or Rigid Body or both)

At the physics tab add a cloth physics and scroll down a bit, you should see the Collisions title. Open it up by clicking on it then enable the self collisions.

Sorry, what I meant was, the cloth is acting as if the apple is still there. The apple is using rigid body and collision, but even though the apple has moved because of the rigid body physics, the cloth still thinks it's where it was at the starting point. If I move the apple above the cloth, it will ignore the apple completely and the apple will fall through it instead.

try applying all transform to the apple.
you can do this by ctrl+A > all transform.


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UV Editing problem when select all my character
I'm new to blender and I am trying to do the owl tutorial on youtube. Unfortunately I have some problems with the UV Editing part. When I select every part individually it's look good in the UV editor. But when I select the entire character, it's look like these:  Does anyone know what's going on?

It looks like the UVs for some of the body parts are all funky! I bet there are some parts of the character that are getting missed when you select parts individually.
To start investigating, I recommend entering wireframe view, then selecting random parts of your character. Here I'm holding z, selecting "wireframe," and releasing z. This helps show parts of the model that may have been hidden before. Then I press c and start clicking and dragging on various parts of the model. I then hit right click to stop selecting. (You can hold Z and select "material view" to return to normal.)

While doing this, keep an eye on the UV panel on the left. Hopefully this is enough to help you find which parts of the models have the weird UVs. Then you can choose just those body parts and UV unwrap those all over again.
My guess is that the talons have problems, since there is so much detail on them, and they're small, so it may be easy to miss any issues with the textures.
There may be weird hidden shapes elsewhere on the body too.
I also think those long stretchy rectangles on the left are from the parts of the face that have the "tv static" appearance, like this:

My reason for saying that is: that when UVs get stretched so big that they go outside the texture, they wrap around all over again (like when Pac-Man goes off the screen and comes back out the other side :p), and the texture gets smaller and smaller on the final model. Demonstration:
https://i.gyazo.com/96a92179b4e04d14c672a10fc631302d.gif
(Above: Gyazo video where I'm stretching the UVs beyond the boundaries of the texture. The final result in 3D is that the texture tiles and looks very tiny.)
Best of luck!


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Why is subdivision making strange gaps in this object?
So I have this fairly simple ring object, and it's not nearly smooth enough for what I need to use it for. However, when I subdivide it it creates these two strange gaps on the side/inside of the object. Does anybody know why this is? How can I fix or avoid this?

You have a couple of coincident, but un-welded vertices there.. maybe not caught by a  Mirror 'Merge' setting?  Use M Merge in one way or another to glue them together.
By the way,  topology like this will yield smoother curvature under subdivision, and be easier to work with...

(This one's just a latitude face-ring nicked from a UV sphere, extruded and bevelled)

Select all vertices in edit mode, hit the "m" button and select merge by distance.
This should close the gap between meshes that appear to be close together but aren't merged


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Can I reuse / re-import fluid cache files into Blender?
While making multiple fluid simulations I had saved multiple cache folders with the "data" and "config" folders. Is there a way that I can reuse the cached data to import back the old liquid simulation?
I have already done .abc (Alembic) exports of my simulations, but I would need to access to original data in order to tweak some parameters.

As you have multiple cache folders, if you scroll down in your fluid Domain properties and open Cache, you will be able to select a specific cache folder (Cache folders usually have the word cache in them as you can already see In your image).

Just adding the path to the folder in the cache properties does not load the previously baked simulation contained in that folder...


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RBG light points out of nowhere

So basically I added 3 area lights with different values to create a smooth intensity change from side to side and there are those 3 weird points. They are different on each render, sometimes they don't appear and sometimes they do and it's hard to tell what it depends on. Those two renders are made one after another, without changing anything (on the second one they are more subtle, above my character). Does anyone know what might it be?

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

Could you kindly attach your .blend file?

Maybe update your GPU drivers? It looks like some kind of OpenGL error.

After I played a little with my area lights and changed fog settings, lights suddenly stopped showing and I didn't even noticed at which point, so it's hard to say what caused them. I was too absorbed by trying to fix it and accidentaly oversaved that state of my work, when it was a problem so I cannot give you my blend file. I don't think that drivers were the problem though.
Some days ago I thought I saw something similar in different blend but I just ignored, so I'm gonna pay attention now, examine it if they appear again and continue to seek for explanation to them, by now I have no clue.

This is most likely the following issue: https://developer.blender.org/T77202

@RobertGützkow Yep, it's exaclly what happenes in my blend with a difference that mine is not an animation so I can just render again, hoping that they won't show up this time.
So it's drivers that should be guilty of those artifacts. Also, looks like it only affect Eevee engine. I guess it's all we got now, just need to wait for Nvidia to do the job and fix it although it has been 2 years already since that problem exists so... yeah. I want to belive in the Green Team, but it might take them a while


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How to convert rigged character poses to shape keys?
Is it possible to use a rigged characters poses to create shape keys?
I am attempting to create 52 blend shapes, for my characters face…

I create the first shape key (bases).

I open pose mode and move a few bones to create the first blend shape (Eye Blink Left).

Then open object mode, and select character mesh, and open the modifier tab, and save shape key in the armature modifier.
Then I go to the vertex tab and change the value of the shape key (Eye Blink Left) from 0 to 1; to see if the shape key has been applied.
It has… However, when the value is at 1 the jaw gets bloated, and the arms of the character move slightly, as well.
Every following shape key I make, has the same result.
I’ve checked the weight painting and the rig is fine on that end… So what else can be the issue?

I should take a look at the file to be sure, but probably thoose unwanted vertices shift are due to bone constraints: when you switch the armature from edit mode to pose mode all bone constraints get activated: expecially IK chains, Stretch to, Dumped track and similar constraints can cause little (or even big) shift of parented vertices, that get recorded in the shape key when applying the modifier. This shift should be noticeable when you switch the armature from Pose Position to Rest Position (see image).
A couple of methods to solve:

turn off the bone constraints that cause the shift (copy IK pose to FK and use it during the shape key creation phase)

In edit mode select the shape key, select all vertices that should stay still, go to vertex menu > Blend from shape; press F9 to open the dialog black box and select basis shape key, 1.0 as blend and uncheck the Add option. In this way all selected vertices will be stored in the location of the basis shape key (and will not move when the shape key is activated).

Thank you for you suggestion. I shall attempt this right now; before I lay down to rest. And I’ll comment back if you’ve given me a solution later today. Thanks again.

I haven’t been able to follow your directions as I’m an amateur student of blender. I usually watch tutorials on different subjects. If you could point me in the direction of a video that would explain this, it would be helpful… I’m more of a visual and hands on learner.
But I did do this… I apply the rest pose as the pose position… I had less of an issue this way with vertex movements. So I guess I’ll have to move on from this point as I’m under a deadline.
How can I have you take a look at my file? I’m not sure of how to do that. Treat me like a baby lol.

You can upload your file (or a simplified version, containing only what's useful) using this site: https://blend-exchange.com/


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The brush menu shrunk, how to do i fix it?
What the Title Said it just got really small I must have shrunk it by accident but idk what I hit.

Just hover over the menu and use Scroll Wheelto zoom.


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Create an editor or tab for addon
the way I understand it the most popular way to create an addon is to make it a panel.
Is there any way to create an addon that would look like Properties Editor or at least make a new tab in the Properties Editor that would house addon functionality?
I came across this post but couldn't get it to work:
https://devtalk.blender.org/t/developing-a-new-editor/894

Short answer is with python, no (unless it's a custom node editor), and no

(@Gorgious the devtalk thread discusses how to do this in a mix of C++ plus Python but it's not clear that that anyone has ever accomplished it.)  At any rate, nobody here is prepared to help you debug the C++ code for this.

Thanks a lot for the info!
@MartyFouts I completely understand. I myself am not prepared to dig into C++ to make this happen.
I just thought that maybe I missed something so this is a huge time saver for me. Thanks again.


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My models have disconnected from their armatures and have gone into an A-pose. Is there anyway to to automatically reconnect them?
I booted up Blender and found that all my models had reverted to an A-pose despite their respective skeletons still being posed. I am not sure whether Blender has automatically updated because I cant remember which version I was running; however I am now using 2.93 LTS.
The model and rig was one I imported as I don't know how to make it myself in Blender, however I have never had any issues with it. This is for a University project so any help asap is appreciated.

wht does it give if you parent your object to the armature with Ctrl P > Armature Deform?

It moves my model into the centre of the scene and rescales it but leaves the armature where it is.

could you please share a file with just one character object + its armature? https://pasteall.org/blend/

I've just uploaded it for you, I think I've done it right.

please once you've uploaded, copy paste here the URL it has generated

https://pasteall.org/blend/d013a97ffbad4e9bb46912390ab97d53

I am assuming that what happened is that the armature modifier on your meshes got somehow removed. As long as the meshes still have the vertex groups associated with each bone, you can just re add the armature modifier to each of them, selecting the appropriate asociated armature.

Reset the rotation of the armature with AltR, rotate it -90° on X, apply its rotation with CtrlA > Rotation,  apply its scale with CtrlA > Scale, in Pose mode reset its pose with AltR and AltG.
Unparent the character object with AltP > Clear and Keep Transformation, apply its rotation and scale, parent it With Automatic Weights. It will still need some weight painting (not sure you can avoid that).

That hasn’t worked in reattaching my model to the armature.

It works here, note that your character objects have lost their vertex groups so as I say you need to reparent With Automatic Weights


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Getting rid of an extrusion
I'm new to blender and I wanted to make a support beam for this roof but I don't want the beam to extrude beyond the roof and just end at the base of the roof. How would I go about removing the top portion of this cylinder?

Give your cylinder a Boolean modifier with the plane as Object:

if you have problems as i had with moonboots solution and it cuts off the wrong half: select your plane, TAB -> edit mode -> mesh -> normals -> flip so get you get the right one  ;)

and i always thought boolean with planes won't work because it needs volume...+1

@ Chris, like you I was not sure but it worked  ;)

Blender is just awesome. I am so often positively surprised what it is capable of....faszinating.

With these snap settings:

you can do this:


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Select element like in 3DS Max?
I know Blender has a very unique layout that it becomes so complex compared to Max.
I just need to know if I there's a way to select all of the faces that's part of a high detailed object by just clicking on one polygon. If I want to detach an object, I'd have to spend minutes and minutes selecting every little polygon one by one.

You mean select all faces that are contiguously linked ? Select > Select Linked > Linked or CTRL L

Ah I see, thanks. But I guess I'll have a hard time with the faces that are linked to other details of the object that I don't want selected.

It would be way easier if you just showed a little snippet or diagram of the thing you are trying to achieve, because as it stands apart from a rant about the features apparently not present in Blender compared to Max, your question is a little hard to decipher. :)

if you want to make some faces of the same mesh not selectable by Ctrl L you can create some seams, then when you select, make sure that the Delimit > Seam option is activated in the Operator box

To select all faces connected to a certain face, you do not have to select anything first, just hover your mouse over this certain face and press L. This selects all connected faces under the mouse. This might not seem to work if you are in Vertex Select or Edge Select mode instead of Face Select. In this case your mouse needs to be on or close to an edge or vertex. If you selected the wrong area, hover over it and press Shift+L. The good thing is, using L keeps existing selections without having to hold down shift to add selections.

A more in-depth overview how Select Linked (L) and Select Linked All (Ctrl+L) work and what are the main differences and advantages or disadvantages you will find in my answer here: What is the difference between Selected Linked and Selected Linked All?

@Gordon Brinkmann Ok so, now it brings me to my next question if I can ask. Would it be possible to select faces from editing UV's and then separate them?

Try to select one face of your model and then press Ctrl+L.

What does Ctrl + L do, could you elaborate? This site is not a regular forum, answers should be substantial, stand on their own, and thoroughly explain the solution and required steps. One liners and short tips rarely make for a good answer. If you can, [edit] your post and provide some more details about the procedure and how it works, perhaps add a few images illustrating some steps or the final result. See How to write a good answer?.


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How do I blend two materials with a texture map?
It's not what you would normally think. I want to know how to blend materials to have their own settings like metallic glossiness, roughness, things like that. I used to use 3DS Max and the way it blends materials is by using a black and white texture map like so.
Here's the diffuse texture

And here's where I would want to put different material settings on the parts of the texture.

And here's what the model looks like

Would this be possible in Blender?

you can use your B&W image as a mask in Blender as well, for example you can mix 2 Principled BSDF (each will have a different setting) with a Mix Shader, and use the Image Texture node with the b&w image as the factor of the Mix Shader

@moonboots Can I get some images please? I'm still a bit new to advance material linking stuff. I see where I can use the mask image as a factor but, the where to put the other principled BSDF?

Here is the kind of material you can set: Mix 2 Principled BSDF through a Mix Shader, use the b&w image as the factor of the Mix Shader, plug your color image into the 2 Principled BSDF, set the Principled BSDF the way you want, for example you can give a Metallic value of 1 to the Principled BSDF that is supposed to display the gold area, etc:

Thanks! I got it now.


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Appended material on object doesn't render
I'm a beginner in Blender and currently I'm working on an underwater project with a short submarine animation. The underwater scene and the submarine were made seperately, I later appended the submarine to the underwater scene. Now I'm having problems with the material of the submarine not showing when rendering although in material preview it looks just fine.
I don't know what I'm doing wrong here and would really appreciate your help!

By default, render preview uses bilt-in HDR:

If you click on use Scene World, Blender will show result similar to render one:

So, if you have not proper environment for your model, and there is nothing is reflected in it, it looks flat.
So you should set up environment texture:

You can use bilt-in HDRI images from Blender folder, or download any (for example from https://hdrihaven.com)

Awesome, thank you! It worked out for me!


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Is it possible to use an animated texture to control smoke?
I am attempting to use an image sequence to control which parts of my mesh emit smoke over the course of an animation.
I have set an image sequence to a texture in the Texture Panel, and pointed it at the image sequence I would like to use.  The image in the preview panel appears correct, though it only updates when playback is stopped, or when moving frame-by-frame.  Regardless, I then set this texture in the smoke flow object, under the Texture tab (mapping is set to UV).
Unfortunately, the texture does not appear to update over the course of the animation.  It occasionally updates when I change a setting in the smoke emitter.  The effect is that the smoke emitter appears to only use a single frame of the image sequence as a texture, and does not change each frame as I would like it to.
Is there a workaround to get this to work?


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Why does OptiX Denoising work in Viewport but not Render when rending a specific (large) scene?
I cannot get OptiX Denoising to work on the final render for my complex scene.  However, if I create a new scene and render the default cube (using low samples as a check), OptiX denoising works for both render and viewport.  With my large scene, the OptiX Denoising pass does not occur after rendering is done.  All settings in the "Render Properties" and "Output Properties" panels are identical between files.
Could it have something to do with the size of my scene?  My GPU memory is almost entirely filled when rendering my full scene, though hiding some of my layers (even leaving only the backwalls) doesn't help.  Does anyone have any ideas?
Details:
Blender ver: 2.93.0
GPU: RTX 3070
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
Cycles Render
Devices: CUDA - GPU+CPU

you can try to checklist denoising under this section
*check image below (blender 3.2)

I think the issue experienced by the user asking the question may be that they expect the denoising to occur while the individual samples are rendered. I experienced the same issue.
I think it may function differently than viewport denoise which iteratively densoises but I'm not exactly sure.
I was able to get things working by following the instructions on the following video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A2ahhFT7Fw
"View layer properties -> Passes -> Data -> Denoising Data "
Followed by configuring the "Denoise" element on the compositor tab.
I'm not sure if this is strictly necessary or not. Perhaps the denoise functions without the compositor if you just wait until it finishes rendering all the samples.
Or perhaps there is a way to get the iterative denoise funtionality of the viewports working in the render window, but I wasn't able too, so I'm just posting the solution I used here.


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How to remove light and camera in blender 2.82a
I am learning blender and new to this forum and this is my fist post as well. I am struggling to sort the below mentioned problem of achieving the same result in Material Preview without light and camera. Please note : The first two screenshots are of the reference video that I am following and the person is using Blender 2.80 whereas mine is 2.82a
The below screenshot shows that the person is modeling without a light and yet his objects doesn't looks black in Material Preview mode.
Below image shows outliner with no Camera or Light :

The Ref image shows his viewport in Material Preview :

Unlike mine, where the objects looks completely black in Material Preview when I delete light manually :

While you are still in Material Preview mode, go to the top-right of your viewport and select the Shading dropdown. Under it is a Lighting section. Look for
Scene World and see if it is checked. If it is, uncheck it. With it checked, the actual lighting in the scene is used in Material Shading.

I did as advised by you but it didn't made any difference..

I unchecked the 'Scene World' as suggested by R-800.  I then got three additional options: Rotation, Strength, Background.  I increased Strength to about 1.000 to get my object to show-up without a light. It was otherwise completely blacked-out.

Not working in my case.. Maybe it has something to do with my GPU as blender is not supporting it. By the way I'm using nvidia 9600gt.. released way back in 2009.


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Objects turns black on texturing viewport
Does anyone knows how to solve object or model blackout. It happens whenever I click on the any button that is related to texturing, e.g. look Dev, render preview button, uv shading like the one in the picture. Please, guys help me out! It has been causing me to stand down against BLENDER. Can't go on without my textures showing what's proper

Why are you adding the BDSF output to a displacement node? It's not meant to be there.

Okay. I will change that, I did according to the tutorial I watched, actually what he made was quiet unbelievable. But that's not the cause for the black color. Cos before I touched anything on the port the color was still black

Okay. I will change that, I did according to the tutorial I watched, actually what he made was quiet unbelievable. But that's not the cause for the black color. Cos before I touched anything on the port the color was still black


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Texture not on whole face
I am trying to create my first basic model and render post tutorials. I have created a model of a Coke can (other soft drinks are available) and added a quick texture I aquired off google images.
The problem is that for some reason the texture does not appear to cover the entire face. I think the issue is related to the subdivision modifier I am using as if I turn it off then the texture appears correctly.
Issue

Subdivision turned off

I have done some googling but cant find anything, can anyone help?

In the Subdivision Surface modifier, there's an option called Subdivide UVs, doesn't it fix the problem?

@moonboots answer helped me find the solution, although I couldnt see a Subdivide UVs option. IU tried simple instead of Catmull-Clark subdivision and it worked.. I googled the difference and it came back that the final vertex will be an average of the current ones, so adding an edge loop neat the bottom edge fixed it!

in 2.8 the Subdivision Surface modifier's option becomes "Smooth, keep corners", I think it's what you're looking for. Don't add edge loops, don't use Simple instead of Catmull-Clark.

@moonboots answer helped me find the solution, although I couldnt see a Subdivide UVs option. IU tried simple instead of Catmull-Clark subdivision and it worked.. I googled the difference and it came back that the final vertex will be an average of the current ones, so adding an edge loop neat the bottom edge fixed it!


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Does Blender 2.8 Automatically Denoise Renders in Cycles - Where are the settings?
When I render with Cycles the render is denoised automatically without selecting Denoise under the View Layer Properties - is this normal?
If it denoises automatically, are there any settings for this?
Thanks,
N

Related: Type of Denoiser built into Blender and Which denoiser is better?

It doesn't denoise automatically. Perhaps you enabled denoising in compositor? :)


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How to use the Remesh modifier correctly
I imported a .svg file into blender which created six curves. I converted one of those curves into a mesh. I applied the Remesh modifier to this mesh, but it appears to have no effect regardless of the settings I choose. Is there a better way to fix this topology?

If you want to simplify the topology, select all and X > Limited DIssolve?

Voxel Remesh doesn't work with planar or non-manifold meshes

The Remesh modifier doesn't work with 2d planes. If you want uniform quads you have to make it 3d first by extruding it while it's still a curve, extruding it in edit mode or giving it Solidify modifier. Then you can give it a Remesh modifier set to Sharp mode and apply them both. Then in Edit mode you can select one of the top faces and click Shift+G->Coplanar to select all the other top facing faces. Then just Invert the selection and delete the others to get the flat plane with quad topology.
I'm sure you can also do this with geometry nodes if you'd want a non destructive approach but it's probably more work than it needs to be


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Mirror items on a model

When trying to apply object locations to this mirrored object it makes the "x" part of the mirror it goes far away from where it should be. And when I rotate the entire object all mirrored parts go weird.  how to i resolve this?

The Mirror modifier mirrors the mesh in relation to the object's origin point, as you can see in your screenshot - the orange dot is in the center between the two mirrored half parts of the mesh. If you want to mirror something regardless of the self origin of the mesh, you can specify a Mirror Object in the modifier and the geometry gets mirrored on that origin.

Applying the location will move the object origin. As Gordon says, as the origin is used as the center of the mirror, it will affect how the object will be mirrored.

You usually never apply the Objects Location. The Scale and Rotation should be applied before adding modifiers so that the results are consistent. But applying the location just moves the Origin of the object to (o,o,o). This usually messes a lot of things up. In your case, just move the origin back to where it was by selecting the big ring of vertices and pressing Shift+S->To selection

The comments give you some hints, but let me provide a little more extensive answer to specifically get out of your situation.
The Mirror modifier needs a reference transform to know how to mirror. By default that is the local transform (a.k.a. pivot point, yellow dot, object's origin) of the object where the modifier is added. This can be best seen using the Local option from the Transform Orientations dropdown:

Now, when you apply transforms this will change the local transform and the modifier gets "weird". As @GordonBrinkmann points out, this can be changed by setting a Mirror Object in the modifier. Maybe you're lucky and have some fitting object just in place for mirroring, but if not
Empties come in handy as they contain no geometry. They are purely local transforms and that is what we need. If your object is still aligned you may get away with moving the empty easily to the correct position, but if it's oriented arbitrarily in space this can be become hard to get right. So here is a general approach for that.
First, create a helper face which represents the mirror plane (i stick roughly to your scene):

Now add an empty and use the Snap tool to align it to our helper face:

With the empty aligned, we can remove the helper face again. Now add the mirror modifier and use the empty as its local transform. Note that the mirror setup is now dependent on the empty and not the mirrored object:

Done, the local tansform of the mirrored object is now independent regarding the modifier:

Bonus: if you parent the empty to the mirrored object, you can conveniently move the object around without altering the mirror effect accidently and the empty has a nice place regarding Outliner organisation.


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how do I get a front view face reference picture and a side view reference face picture the same size before modeling the head?
so I am trying to model a bust of Jon Bernthal's Punisher and I couldn't find a side and front reference of his head in the same picture so I had to get 2 pictures from the same photo shoot but I am having a hard time getting both reference views the same size for modeling. Is there a trick to get them equal size or way to model the head with only one view reference? Any help would be greatly appreciated since I'm still kind of new to Blender modeling software.

Hello and welcome, your question is basically not about Blender. But a where to get an asset. Things that you could is to photoshop the images and try to to get the same size for the head as much as possible.

align the eyes with the eyes, the chin with chin?

If it's the same photoshoot in similar position then they should be the same scale, no?
To scale references the easiest you can do is put one on top of the other (With one's opacity lowered) and then align some common reference point on the outline of the head, like the chin. Then set the Pivot point to Cursor, put the cursor on the chin and scale or rotate the side view until other reference points like the ears , hair line or eyes are at the same height. This is an approximation tho, photos distort the image depending on the FoV so it's never 100% correct

I would set up two cameras with the reference images as background images and a human dummy model. So it's easier to guess the point of view, focal length, and so on.

The first image (front view) is a half-body portrait. The focus is on the chest and you can see there is some perspective/distortion. The head seems to be lifted up a bit because of the perspective. This is influenced by the camera's and viewport's focal length.
Since you don't know the used real camera's focal length you have to guess here a bit. Checkout common values for portrait shoots (50, 85, 105, 120, etc).
For sure the head is tilted a bit to the right, so roll the camera a bit.
You can play with the camera's background image settings (front/back, opacity) and the viewport's overlay (wireframe, x-ray) to get an idea if the model/camera position matches the reference image. Set the Frame Method to Fit so the image is not stretched.
Enable Lock [X] Camera to View in the side panel to move the camera. Use the Transform > Rotation values for the camera to mimic the head tilt.

Make sure the eyes, the center of the mouth, the nose and the ears match the reference as closely as possible.
In the side view, the head is not fully perpendicular to the camera. Look at the philtrum (the area between the mouth and nose) and the eyebrows. Move the camera and try to match the inner ear (auditory canal), the eyes and mouth of the reference to get the correct point of view. Play with focal length and the distance between the camera and model (zooming).

Once you are happy, disable the Lock [_] Camera to View in the side panel so the camera does not move when you pan around in the viewport. Now, you can start modeling and sculpting. Look through the cameras to get the front and side view (Numpad 0).


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how do i get rid of the edges sticking out or is there a better way of modeling the picture into card form?

okay so I am attempting to model a 3d image into a 3d printable picture for a surprise gift for friend of mine who loves this character from Baldur's gate 3. i made a plane then added the image to it by adding a texture and then used the displace modifier and then and subdivided it till i got the desired amount of detail before creating a plane the exact same size as the plane i turened into a picture to make the sides smooth like a trading card when i extruded it out. but now its sticking out the sides of the picture and i am just wondering if there is a way to delete the parts that are sticking out or if there is an easier way to take the picture and make it like a 3d card?


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In walk navigation, is there a way to prevent camera from walking through objects?
I am recording the camera walk navigation movement (Like a gameplay) and I don't want it to pass through walls and other objects. Is there a way to do that in blender? I also had the idea of adding collision to the camera but I did not find the option available for the camera.

There are various Object Constraint properties that you can add to the camera (Limit Location, Distance, etc.) but not collision as far as I'm aware. Although I've never used it, I'd guess that the version of Blender with the game engine in it (search for UPBGE) would be more likely to have that option in it.


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How can I stop Blender from altering my model poses?

Where do these keyframes keep coming from? Why does it always stop at 100?
Auto keying has been disabled the whole time and Blender eventually gets rid of some of my desired bone positions when I do certain operations. The undo buttons doesn't help anything.
Also, these auto keys are just empty. The majority of my time, I don't notice when my pose has been changed because I'm trying to test daylighting.

hard to know where it comes from, maybe switch your Dope Sheet to Action Editor, close this action and see what's happening?

@moonboots I usually just delete those keys in regardless if I'm in the dope sheet or action editor. I recently just looked at the action editor in another scene and it just shows the same thing as the dope sheet. I don't know if the keys will alter my poses again. I may comeback if this happens again.

it's weird, it looks as if you had baked your action but I suppose you didn't

@moonboots I'll give you the whole story. A was in desperate need of making the switch from Max to Blender, so imported all my models by FBX format. Up until today I started noticing this problem. Seems that these empty key frames were automatically created after importing. I think me posting this issue may be pointless since all I have to do is delete the empty keys. I won't know yet if the problem would still persist. I'm posing a model right now with deleted keys. I may update you on it.

If you find the answer, write it in the Your Answer field so that it can inform people who may meet the same problem

So, deleting all of the keyframes that the import added on will keep Blender from deleting certain bone positions when performing certain actions during or after posing the model.


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Alternative to Weight Painting?
I'm used to skin rigging in 3DS Max, is there a way to select vertices and just add weights to them according to what bone you have selected? Like a weight table?
I'm also having this annoying issue where the ring isn't 100% following the piece of armor even though it's fully weighted on the left shoulder bone and not the right shoulder bone.

Switch to Edit mode, select the vertices you want then in the Object Data panel, select the vertex groups you want, set the Weight and click on Assign?

@moonboots I think I did it but, it's working now.

Switch to Edit mode, select the vertices you want then in the Object Data panel, select the vertex groups you want, set the Weight and click on Assign.

That. For your second question, if the armor and ring are in the same mesh you can select all the verts in the ring (edit mode), select one vert in the armor, then copy the bone weights from the active vert in the armor to the rest of them in the ring. Ring verts will all have the same weight, so the ring won't warp, and they'll stick with the armor vert you used as your template. Copy the weights with the tools panel ("N"), "Item" tab.

There are two places you can assign weights manually without using painting. Both in edit mode.
From left to right: Vertex Weights panel (similar to the weights table in 3DS) and Vertex Groups panel:

In the Properties Editor, Mesh tab, Vertex Groups panel, you can see the list of all your vertex groups. There you can choose a group and assign it to a vertex with a specific weight.
In the viewport sidebar (bring it by pressing N in the viewport), Item tab, Vertex Weights panel, you can see a list of all assigned weights for your selection. There you can manually set the weights, normalize them (which is very important to avoid unwanted behaviors, like what you have with your ring). You can also unassign weights, but you can't assign them, and the list displays only the weights already assigned to your selection.

So now, I still have this habit of adding an "autokey" so when I set weights to some vertices, I would move the animation slider back and forward to see how the one part of the model would move but, seeing that I won't be able to do that while in edit mode?

You can, just make sure to enable the edit preview on your Armature Deform modifier.

Ok, thanks. I'll see what I can do.


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How do I fix Bone Gaps?
I imported my model from 3DS Max in which the bones always look nice and linked.
Here I'm struggling to make an IK Rig but the bone gaps are my biggest issue now. If I try to target the hand bone with the bone constraint, everything on the model will move towards the hand producing undesirable effects with the model's skin rig.
The thing is that all the bones are linked, it's just that the gaps are a major problem.

There are a few options in the importer window when you import a file. May be one of them solve this problem. If they not you can check in "Connected" in the bone properties tab in Edit mode which automatically snaps the ominous bone's tail to its parent's head.

@FFeller I guess it's the only option that requires exporting the model and then re-importing? And it's going to add another problem because if I have to do that then, the "leaf Bones" can't be fixed. I have facial bones and I use the "Better FBX importer" to have smaller end bones for the face. Otherwise they'd be sticking all the way out.


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Why can't I select more than one vertex to set a weight to?
I'm still trying to get situated with Blender as far as trying to find a comfortable model rigging routine like I had with 3DS Max. I feel like I'll never get used to weight painting. I've tried a bit of it and was somewhat struggling.
I know about vertex weighting in edit mode, I just need to know more things that I could probably do like, how to set Autokeys so I can move the bone with the animation slider back and forth to see how fluid the vertices move, I'm also trying to figure out why I can't select more than one vertex to set weights to. The weight table disappears when I do so.

To answer your immediate question,
You select the first vertex with right click.  The easiest to understand way to add vertices to the selection is by holding the Shift key will right clicking on additional vertices.
Blender has a range of selection tools to aid in mass selection and I recommend you investigate box select (shortcut B) and circle select (shortcut C) reasonably soon.  When you're more comfortable with modeling, the investigate the selection menu.
You can read more about the tools in the manual Selecting Section
EDIT: In response to a comment that the question is not about selecting more than one vertex, but about how to set weight when more than one vertex is selected:

Go to the Properties Editor
Select the Object Data Properties Tab
Open the Vertex Groups panel if it's not already
Scroll down and find the Vertex Group you want to add the vertices to.
Make sure the Weight value is what you want it to be.
Click Assign

I'm well aware of the selection tools and how to select multiple vertices. That's not the problem I'm having. I just need to know why the vertex weight table disappears when selecting multiple vertices. I don't think I want to do "weight painting". I want to manually select vertices and add weights to them.

You definitely need to rewrite your question, then; because what you wrote in this comment is not at all obvious from the way the question is worded.

Okay so I had the same issue, I'm used to maya component editor to assign same value at the same time on multiple vertex.
Blender do not offer this kind of editor instead when you select a vertex in viewport "item" you can see "Vertex Weights" there you can weight using existing vertex group.
Assign the value you want.
After that just select all the vertex you want to have the same value and last selection select the vertex with the correct value.
Then in the same tab "Vertex weight" at the bottom click "copy"
All the selected vertex will now have the value of the one you configured earlier.
Kind of weird ux but at least working :)


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Circular array won't rotate properly
I want to make the wedge object create a circular array around the wheel but instead it spirals off to the centre and changes the size of each new wedge.
I have the wedge's center set to the 3d cursor.
Any ideas?? :)

apply your scale

@Chris I think that you can give it as an answer (apply the empty scale)

@moonboots : but you need the points - or you will beat Gandalf in 2049…but you want to beat him earlier, right?

yes but you'll need to beat me in 2300


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How to script a custom grid and snapping option?
After a half-day of work scouring the API (Blender 3.1), I couldn't quite find something that helps me solve my problem. Questions:

How can I draw a custom grid floor?
How can I create a custom snap option to snap to said custom grid?

My motivation is simple. I'm working with a 3D tile map, where each tile is inside a hexagon volume like so:

When visualizing if each tile fits visually, it is nice to position them like they would be in a hex grid, in-game. The snapping tools work great with square tilemaps, but not hexes. So, the grid is the visual guide, and the snapping becomes obvious.
Ideally I'd like to put the snapping option under here:

But wouldn't be bummed out if that's not possible.
NOTE: Just to make it clear, I'm not asking for the maths to implement those features just which API I could use to implement them myself. I'm happy to provide the source code later to others who find this helpful. The Grid is just a bonus. What I REALLY need, is a way to snap wherever I please.

A simple way to do is: create a lot of dot on the floor and snap to Vertex

I don't think custom snap increment behaviour is exposed to the python API. +1 for X Y's suggestion to first create a vertex grid corresponding to the hexagonal tile centers and snap to vertex

You could use geometry nodes also to create a grid. Maybe you can also just leave out the grid and just use a script to position the hexagons depending on your use case.

To summarize all the good 3 comments of xy, Gorgious and Timmethy:
you could do it e.g. like this:

snap options:

result:

Yep, this solves my problem neatly! Thank you everyone for the help


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Is it possible to create shape keys for hands that are rigged with an armature?
I’m attempting to create several
Poses and movements with the hand, or hands; which are attach to the same armature… Like a first person shooter.
However, I’d like to transition each pose; into another pose, or from choices; within a collection of pose types.
(I was attempting to do this with shape keys, but shape keys don’t seem to work with hand armatures. Or perhaps it’s because of IK FK? Now I’m confusing myself. Maybe I’m wrong about this… Correct me if I am.)

pls provide example blend file so we see what you have done and how we can help. thx

Shape keys move the vertices of the mesh in a straight way. You cannot use them to create an arc or bending. Together with a rig, they are used to correct mesh deformation, for example, to maintain volume and do little corrections. If you want to create transitions between poses try the NLA editor and the Pose Library (requires Blender 3.0).


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How to make a hand armature hold an object, but with collision on the object; so the hand doesn’t go through the object?
Say I wanted my hand armature to hold a book, and I wanted to animate different poses of holding the book, but not have to worry about the fingers passing through the book; as though the book itself has a boundary. Therefore, the fingers would always be on the book… No matter how I pose the hand.
I’d like to be able to do that, and somehow control its release from the book as well, so I may have the other hand do the same.
Is what I am attempting a possibility? I’m curious; as to how?
Thanks

I don't think it's possible, but if you give a Child Of constraint to your hand controlling bone, with the book as target, it will probably make things easier, as you'll control the hand with the book:


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I’m attempting to rig a wheel chair model. But I’m having issues with making the front wheels fuction as in when rotating to reverse & back to forward
The two front wheels are Childs of empties that are circles around the center of each wheel (x rotation).
Each of the empties, are Childs of circle empties that are flat (z rotation), which are supposed to control the rotation of each wheel separately.
Both also are constraints to a pivot empty that is located in the center of both for (Z rotation).
And the pivot is child of an empty for the left and right turning of the front wheels.
I have a driver to control the movements of each tire when going forward or backward… But that’s only in a straight line. Things begin to go funky when I turn, or turn in reverse… I want to know there is a way that I can make the back wheels kinda control the movement, and have the front wheel react as though they are being turned into the direction that the wheel chair is moving in.
I’m not sure if I’m making any sense here. But if anyone can help… I’ll be sure to accredit you for your help. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Do these answer your question? https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/19675/creating-a-trailer-rig https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/81872/how-to-rig-a-truck-trailer-so-that-the-trailer-follows-the-truck/81979#81979


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Blender animation export problems
I've done a lot of imports and exports from Blender to Unreal but I can't seem to find a good solution for my case. It's really important for me that the imported object points into +X direction. Also the Root bone should have 0 transforms and also point in +X direction. Scale should be 1.
In Blender the object and joints point into -Y direction.
I could figure out a way to export the object with the standard blender export settings but then the root bone is scaled to 100. I can get rid of this problem if I scale the object 100 times in Blender and then import it with scale 0,01. This works but is really annoying and costs a lot time to do and sometimes the animation breaks and has to be fixed.
I then bought the better fbx exporter for blender (https://www.blendermarket.com/products/better-fbx-importer--exporter)
and this worked very well and got rid of the scaling problem but I can't seem to find a setting to change the front axis for the object and joints.
So now the question is: Is there another solution to this problem? Maybee an even better export addon? I've wasted a lot of time searching for a solution and would be verry greatfull if anybody could help.
Kind regards


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Why does Assign Material do nothing?

Following a tutorial, I created a black Material and selected Faces in edit mode and hit 'Assign'. Nothing happens, however. What can I be doing wrong?

Change your viewport to rendered mode (it's the farthest right of the four little circles at the top right of the viewport window.)

This solves it. Thank you very much.

You are in solid mode. Materials are only displayed in rendered mode.
If you want to see a color for a material in solid mode use the viewport settings for the material.


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Image texture not showing on object that has UV Map?
Following a tutorial, I'm trying to add a Texture to an object via the Texture menu instead of through Materials.
I have Unwrapped 2 different ways (Project From View, Unwrap). I have tried "Render preview" mode.
I'm very confused as to why it doesn't show up on my mesh (But on the Tutorial the image does show up at this point). I have attached screenshots to show my setup. Any ideas, please?

You need to create a material that contains the image and you need to be in shaded or rendered viewport mode.

are you sure the material thing is necessary? That's how I'm used to doing textures but this tutorial had the guy only using the Image Texture menu and it worked (maybe he left stuff out). What is the point of "Image Texture" menu then? Edit: Yeah, I think he just didn't show the material process. Thank you, that explains so much.

The last time you were able to show Textures that did not belong to a material was Blender Internal Renderer

I think what the tutorial left out was, that before painting on your target, you have to assign the resulting (at first probably blank) texture to a material and then switch into a view that supports textured display.
Either solid with textures enabled, Material Preview or Render Preview.
The Texture Properties are supposed to set the image properties before it is used as a brush. It does not effect the resulting texture directly.
Back in Blender 2.7x and before you could assign textures to UVs without using materials. That only worked with BI and could be pretty confusing, so they removed the functionality.
If you have the node wrangler addon enabled, you can have your material nodes open somewhere and CTRL SHIFT click on a texture node to preview it in the viewport.


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Character's face gets 'wrinkly' when its blendshapes (shape keys) are animated in Unity
Image:
So I'm trying to use a head FBX provided by Unity. It's this head here: https://github.com/needle-mirror/com.unity.live-capture/blob/master/Samples~/ARKit%20Face%20Sample/SampleHead.fbx
It comes with 52 blendshapes (shape keys) for face animation.
If I just upload this FBX straight into Unity and animate the blendshapes, it looks good.
However, if I upload this FBX into Blender, and then export the FBX again (Armature+Mesh only), and then import it back into Unity... then the face gets all wrinkly when animated like shown in the provided screenshot.
Why do I need to be able to run it through Blender? because I want to make edits to the model and then import it back into Unity. But if I can't even import it and export it from Blender (with NO model changes... only doing a test import/export) without it getting wrinkly, then I feel I'm running into a brick wall here.
Any ideas what might be the cause of these weird 'wrinkles' after a Blender import+export? Thanks!

I still don't get why you need to export from Unity to Blender and then to Unity again. The normal workflow is simply to make edits on Blender and export updates to Unity. Making back and forth exports is literally multiplying the changes of having issues.

Oh, I don't export from Unity. I just mean that I downloaded the file from GitHub and then imported it into Blender and exported it from Blender. Then import into Unity. When it goes through Blender like that, even when I make no changes to the model, Unity shows these 'wrinkles' when animating. On the other hand if I never run it through Blender and just import the FBX from GitHub directly into Unity, then Unity does not show wrinkles. So I think there is something about it going through Blender that causes a problem

Oh sorry for the confusion. Perhaps the normals have been somehow baked in place with the default face, and so it goes all wrong as soon as you change the shape. This could be delt with either during the export or the import, and even in the asset's settings in Unity. I don't have Unity right now, but try playing with Blender's FBX exporter Smoothing options. Also make sure you only select what you need to export and use these settings. It's from faint memories, but I think that's the ones we need for Unity.


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Importing arbitrary per vertex information with a model
I am working with some models from a game (Treasure Planet Battle at Procyon), which have their own proprietary binary format (.mdb). I have managed to decode it to some extent, and export the vertices, faces and textures to a Wavefront .obj file, which I can import to Blender.
The models, however, also have lighting or shading information, which consists of two numbers, ranging between -pi and pi, and -pi/2 and pi/2, and the transparency. These three values are defined for each vertex.
I can write this information in the wavefront format as additional coordinates after the x y z coordinates.
Is it possible to modify the Wavefront import (and export) scripts to import and retain this information for each vertex, and be able to export it again.

On the blender side could store in a vertex color layer or in 3 float layers. Sure copy the obj importer / exporter and edit in changes. Where you're at would consider cutting out the obj middle man and import directly to blender.

This worked, thank you!

For anyone else looking for the import script, it's in scripts/addons/io_scene_obj/import_obj.py (at least in v2.90).


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Camera isn't working properly
So down below is the current 3D viewport of the project I'm working on:

As you can see, I have my camera selected and all I want to do is enter the camera view so that I can position it properly to face my car, but the problem is that when I enter the camera view, it's not working properly at all. Here's what I mean:
When I press 0 on my number pad, this comes:

That's what it shows for some reason even though I clearly positioned the camera to face the car. Once I press 0, I noticed that the viewport goes down inside the car instead of going to the view of the camera for some reason.
Then when I pan away and zoom out from that view by using the middle mouse button then press CTRL + ALT + 0, something worse happens:

In the first pic, you can see that my camera is still in the same position where I placed it at and it hasn't moved to the position where I pressed CTRL + ALT + 0.
Then at the second pic, when I pressed the middle mouse button to pan around and see what happened, my car has suddenly moved to the position where I pressed CTRL + ALT + 0 at and I have no clue how that happened.
Can someone pls help me fix my camera? I feel like the car is acting as the camera but I'm not so sure. I'm using the latest version of Blender, 2.82.

It seems to be a bug, you may report it using link on the splash screen.

The triangle on the top of an active camera is full yellow. The camera you've selected is not the active one, actually when you press 0 you switch to the current active one, and when you press CtrlAlt0 you just move the active one to the current view. To make a camera active, select it and press Ctrl0. Then, next time, you can use 0.

Thank you so much! It worked :)


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I dont have the denoise option
once again it seems i dont have an option blender guru does but i dont think its my fault this time- i think. he says we have to click the denoise option under sampling but my menu is different to his. its probably right in front of my eyes but i dont understand stuff

are you in Eevee or Cycles?

you need Cycles to do this. Change render engine to cycles.

yes i am in cycles

Are you using the same version of Blender as your tutorial?
Later versions of Blender moved the denoising options around. I recommend using the latest complete Blender release.
If you're following an older Blender Guru tutorial, some options might be in slightly different places.
These controls (before Blender 3.x):

Do the same thing as these (after 3.x):


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what does project onto self mean?
i was watching blender gurus video about donut making and his options for snapping to face ahd less options to mine because i had "project to self" selected and it wasnt even an option for him. what does this mean and how will it effect my work?

it looks like he has the option as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1isb0x4zYw&t=260s

This basically means that you can snap one element to the other inside the same object.
Example with vertex snapping:


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Why does my vertex moving cause my object to move?
Im trying to add imperfections to my donut and i have snapping off but everytime i select a vertex and hit g to move it the entire object snaps to my cursor and i dont know how to fix it

maybe you have activated the Propotional Editing option?

thank you for the replies i realised that i had my proportional editing too high and just needed to turn it down :)


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How to export only NLA animations to GLB
I have a model with dozen animations, but only a few of them are "pushed down" to NLA tracks. How to export only NLA animations to GLB? I somehow managed to do it before, but not now :)
For example: there is a "Roll" animation (1st screenshot), and there is not a NLA track with this animation. But GLB file has the "Roll" animation.

This behavior changed between Blender 3.1 and Blender 3.2
In 3.1, only actions that are on NLA was exported.
Lots of people asked a way to export all actions, whatever they are on NLA or not.
So, in 3.2, when a single armature is exported, all armature action are exported.
During the development, I asked myself (and other community members) if I need to have this under an option. I didn't any feedback. At end, this new behavior was published without the option to deactivate it.
Seems this is what you are looking for.
So, I just added this option, that will be included in Blender 3.3
You will be able to export only actions that are on NLA by disabled this option :

Note: At time of writing my answer, this code is not yet merged in Blender 3.3 alpha
Edit: This is now part of 3.3 alpha


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Geometry Nodes - Weight Paint is not affecting "Set Position" smooth
I am trying to make a procedural terrain with GeoNodes. My weight paint is not affecting the Set Positions Node in the way, that it takes any weights into account for the translation/sculpting. It is only taking the group as a whole for that gruff and bold effect. And despite the facts the different weight-zones are perfectly working for example with the density of distributed points or the scale of instances.
I also tried to pipe the attribute into the Z value of the Offset. But it resulted in the same issue. I am working with Blender 3.2.
Am I missing something?

The data type of the selection socket is boolean, so it's values will be either 0 or 1 (false or true). Float values are internally converted to boolean using the condition $X \gt 0$.
If what you want is to control what percentage of the translation will be applied, you will need to multiply the translation by the weight:

the color of a socket shows what data type it works with, if you can't see the difference (or it's really hard to see) between a float socket and a boolean socket (and maybe string sockets), you may have some colorblindness similar to mine.
The Blender documentation says that float sockets are gray, while booleans are pink:

Float (gray):
Indicates numeric value’s information. It can either be a
single numerical value or a so-called “value map”. (You can think of a
value map as a gray-scale map where the different amount of
bright/dark reflects the value for each point.) If a single value is
used as an input for a “value map” socket, all points of the map are
set to this same value. Common use: Alpha maps and value options for a
node.
Boolean (pink):
Used to pass a true or false value.

Ah perfect. It worked with the Vector Math Node set to Multiply. The result is now a smooth translation of the mesh form following the weights. Thank you very much.


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Why does it paint on the other side of the object when I'm texture painting?
I'm completely new to blender and I just started texture painting but I'm really confused because every time I try to texture paint on the object the side I'm painting on doesn't have any changes but the opposite side or some other object gets painted?
Also I used the image to paint because I don't know how to paint separate objects
Also am I supposed to send a file on here?

There's a good quick start guide to texture painting here. You can drag and drop images (for instance a screenshot via Blender's Window > Save Screenshot menu) straight into your question and upload a Blend file via https://pasteall.org/blend/ with a link to it in your question or comment.

Hello and welcome. In 3D, the faces have a front and a back, and the normal determines the sides. There is a face orientation overlay in Blender to check them.  Your model should be blue (front faces). Red areas are back faces. You only can paint the front faces. If it's flipped the paint will be on the other side of the object. In Edit mode you can Flip the normals or let Blender Recalculate (the) Outside (key A to select all, then Alt+N)

blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com


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How to get image in real-time?
It doesn't matter if it works like a capture or if the quality is very low. There's no reason for shadows or light, too. I hope to get only materials' color and shape of model. Just i want real-time. How can i do?

Hi! Please take your time and try to explain in detail what you'd like to achieve. Not sure what you're asking for... realtime of what exaclty? Please read: https://blender.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-ask

In Blender there are 4 view modes, they are placed on the top right part of the viewport,  from left to right it's: wireframe, solid, material, and rendered view. I think the material view (the 3rd one from the left) is the one you're looking for.


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GeometryNodes: how to pass attribute between domains?
I want to place packages at a specified x y grid position on a pcb board. For that I use 2 chained GeometryNodes Modifiers.

The first Modifier (Board) creates a cirquid board with a grid of pads and
the second Modifier (Placement) is responsible to instance and place the packages at the specified grid position

To describe the grid I pass attributes (nx, ny) down to the Placement modifier.
Now I want to use ny to extract the corresponding pad index depending on x and y.
That works well if I use an constant value input for ny but if I connect the incoming nx attributes seems always to be evolved to 0.
How can I use ny in the computations in the pad points context in the example?

I know, I could precompute x and y and append them to each of the instances in the first GeoNodes Modifier.
But I'd like to solve the problem in the way described above to reduce redundancy and to learn more about Geometry Nodes.
Is it possible to pass a single value or do I always need a dummy Geometry for that (the mesh.vertex field below).
Many thanks for hints or an solution

although i read your description 3 times i am still not sure what you want. But i assume you want to use a value from the first GN modifier in the 2nd one. If that is right, you can use this in the 2nd GN:

Then in attribute you will have the value you want and can use that.

Thanks,the value is already successfully passed to the second GN. As shown in the table in the screenshot above. My problem is, how to use this value in the instances domain, esp. as input for the multiplyAdd node. (see the red "replace by" arrow)

i don't get it!? just plug from attribute output to multiply add input...

that does not work. (the red line with the "?"). It behaves as though it where 0.

did you try to add the transfer attribute node? as i showed in my answer?

if this doesn't work...please provide blend file.

my transferAttribute has only an Target input. Must first figure out how to fix that.

it works with the TransferAttribute, many thanks!

you are welcome!


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Fill Tool ignores Grease Pencil Lines?
I am using the 2D Animation function of blender. I have Grease Pencil lines drawn on a number of layers and I am trying to fill the area inside these lines using the Fill Tool on a new layer. However the fill tool seems to ignore the lines and fills the whole visible screen. What is strange is if I zoom out the window the fill tool will work sometimes, and other times it fills the whole screen again. This is seemingly at random.
For the life of me I can't figure this out. I have tried "construction" lines, drawing on the same layer as the grease pencil lines, using shift-click with the fill tool, changing the Leak size, the material thickness, watched tutorials. The strangest thing is the tool worked completely fine in another project, but this is the second project I have created that has this problem. I even updated from 2.9.01 to 2.91.
I am sure I am messing something up in the settings. I am still new to blender. But this is driving me crazy! Please help!
https://streamable.com/zqixi5

UPDATE: the above answer by Matt is correct, although turning up the settings never worked for me. I contacted the developers and they gave some extra information:

Grease Pencil strokes have thickness but are attached to 2d wires with no thickness. (Seen in edit mode) These wires must be LESS THAN 1/2 the Stroke thickness away from another 'wire' to consider the leak closed.

The fill tool uses pixel information to fill an area, which changes with the zoom level. This causes the leak to 'open' and 'close' based on zoom. (In the future this may be changed to a boolean method)

Thank you Matt!

This Sounds like you have a gap and hence filling the screen. This depends allot on your line and Fill thickness/leakage thickness. The reason it's filling from a distance is the fill resolution/ thickness/ leakage is relative so a tiny gap when zoomed in disappears when you zoom out.
The gap might be tiny but heres some options for you;

turn up the fill resolution (in advanced drop down). I keep mine at 3 or the fill shape sucks.
increase your fill tool leakage size
Join your strokes to remove gaps. Select the strokes and use ctrl J.
If you only have 1 stroke use F to auto close it.

One of those should sort your issue.
Good luck with it.


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How do I apply maps to a retopologized low poly model?
I have a series of maps created in Substance designer. I wish to apply them to a model. I can apply the maps correctly after uv unwrapping the model.
I need to apply the displacement map directly (without using nodes) to generate a new mesh. This works great using the displace and subdivision surface modifiers, however it leaves me with a very high poly model. I plan on using this in a game, so the poly count needs to be much lower.
I figured I could retopologise the model… but here are my questions:

After retopology, how do I apply the other maps to the low poly model? e.g. normal, gloss, colour etc.

Surely there is a better way to do this if I have all the maps?

Note: I don’t want to apply the displacement map through the nodes because I want the model to contain the height information. The height information is not very complicated either, it’s mainly a bunch of shapes with gradients (not heaps of little details, as that’s what the normal map contains).

First, you need to do the retopology to create a low-poly model and uv unwrap it. Then bake the maps from the textured high-poly model to the low-poly model. Finally, connect the baked maps to the corresponding slots of the Principled BSDF node in Blender.
Use the Displacement map in the material nodes or use it with a Displace and Subsurf modifiers on the high-poly model (as you did). Then bake the Normal map. This will transfer/fake the details on the low-poly object. (Alternatively, you could bake the depth info of the Displacement map and use the baked image as a Height/Bump map. But quality might be worse.)
Note: Gloss maps are inverted Roughness maps. Use this map with an Invert node in the Roughness slot of the Principled BSDF.
I hope this helps.


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Why does joining two objects change the position of another object?
Here I have a left armor piece, the body, and a right armor piece. The left armor piece and the right armor piece used to be a mirrored object but I have separated them. I'm currently trying to join the left armor piece to the body, however when I join them the right side changes. At first, I used CTRL+J to join, but that created a new armor piece on the right. Then I tried to use the boolean tool, but that results in the right armor piece being moved. How can I join the Left armor piece without adding or moving other objects?
[com/Y76Yz.jpg

hello, is Chris' answer right? If not please share your file (upload and copy paste the URL): https://pasteall.org/blend/

The reason for this is the "nature" of join.
If you join 2 or more objects, Blender has to decide where the pivot point is for the newly created object.
Blender takes as new pivot point the last selected object.
So "normally" by joining two or more objects you will change the pivot point (exception: if all pivot points have the same global coordinates).
But the mirror modifier calculates the mirroring on the base of the pivot point of an object (if you didn't choose a mirror object). You can prove that by moving the pivot point of a mirrored object e.g. by object -> set origin -> to 3d cursor.
If you would have used an object/empty in your mirror modifier as mirror object this wouldn't happen because Blender uses then the object instead the pivot point.
Here a small animation how changing the pivot point changes the result of a mirrored object: