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Wave texture shows in Material viewport, but not in Rendered view
The only UV map is unwrapped and assigned.
Not sure what I am missing.
here are the pictures.
In rendered viewport:

Below is in material viewport:

This is how it's apparently supposed to look:

Help a brother out please.
Here is a blend file:

At first glance, I feel the problem is with the wave texture which is a color output (yellow dot output) given as an input to displacement, which in your case is a vector (purple dot input).Please share your blend file so that I can take a look at it? You can do this by uploading the blend file on this site - https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com and copy + pasting the generated url here.

@Teja Sure thing, blend is in the end.

It shows up fine in mine.Try this out. Add a 'texture coordinates' node and try different options to give as an input to wave texture vector input.(violet dot). 'texture coordinates' node is in input section of add menu (shift +A)

Hmm, texture coordinates didn't help, unfortunately. It's weird that it works on your end. Maybe I should try it on my other PC later on.

You're using Blender version 2.79.6 which now handles Displacement as a vector while the screenshot of how it should work is presumably 2.79b or earlier where it is a scalar. As a minimum should need to add a Displacement node (in the Vector menu) to translate your wave texture into a displacement along the surface normal.

I believe this is because you are using "True Displacement" (Geometry-> "Displacement Only" under settings in the Texture Panel) and your plane has no geometry to it whatsoever.
You can't use actual displacement when you have virtually no vertices to displace. All you have at the moment are the 4 verts that are the corners of your plane. Unless you add more geometry, you can only use the "fake" displacement created by a bump or normal map.
Subdivide your plane a few times (or add a subdivision surface modifier) and you will see the displacement in Rendered mode.
If you are trying to use Microdisplacements (??), then you need to enable the Experimental feature set under the Render Panel and then add an adaptive subsurface modifier to your object. That will also work, but might not be what you are trying to do.
Both are ways of getting more geometry to actually be displaced by your displacement texture.
Just to note - I believe the view you see in Texture mode is a bit misleading. I think that is using a bump map as a kind of preview, and not honoring the settings that apply at render time.

I see your point of view about displacement, and I have tried to add a couple subdivisions, as well as a hundred. I am afraid I didn't work. Check out this 1 minute youtube video, he basically has a similar plane and made it work somehow:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZGdYr_CdJ0

@Boyka I think that's just working as a bump map. He never moves the camera from looking directly down (which is when you would see the greatest effect from a bump map - i.e. when it will look its best). He also never expands the "Settings" section of the Texture panel, but I would bet money that he has this set (which I think used to be the default) to bump mapping and not "Displacement Only" like you have it set in your file. Set yours to bump and put the camera in the same place and you will get the same results. Alternatively use the bump node instead of the displacement socket.


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Creating an infinite ocean (looping)
i want to create a looping ocean.
im creating a time lapse animation for a ship cursing in the sea for 30 days.
i managed to animate the sky and everything else.
so i need my ocean to loop.
im using texture as ocean waves on a plane and its amazing because ocean modifier is too resource consuming.
(the ocean doesn't need to be animated as the ship will move very fast(time-lapse))
see the material im using below.

any ideas?
thank you very much .
Edit :
Sorry for the confusion, I hope this will clarify things.
(Node setup is for reference only, I do not need to animate the actual texture)
my question is different from the referenced question.
I'm not looking to animate the ocean. I'm looking to make it loop (physically) so my ship will be able to cruse indefinitely   (kinda) without the need to use duplicate planes as new oceans once my ship reach the end of the current plane (ocean)
Thanks.

Possible duplicate of How to create a seamlessly looping ocean

@cegaton I don't look to animate the ocean I want it to loop physically. The animation is easy to do as you have mentioned. And I will post how I solved the atmosphere  tonight

Do you consider oldschool cinematography technique, where you move looped background instead of actual object? Something like this: https://imgur.com/a/9CTQS

@serge how can i achieve that please? thats exactly what i want. thank you very much in advance.

Add a plane in Top Ortho view (numpad key 7 on Win), in Edit mode scale down Y axis, add some Bevel CTRL B (turn on Vertex only), select all and delete only faces.

Convert this mesh to Curve using ALT C and rotate 90 degrees on X axis in Object mode

Add another plane in Top Ortho view (now it will be an ocean). Create significant amount of loopcuts to get a better transition on curve's angles

Add Array and Curve modifiers to ocean plane. In Array settings select Fit to curve and don't forget to check First-Last and Merge options in Array to have nice loop.
Now you can animate X location to get loop moving

Additionally you can parent both Curve and Ocean plane to the same controlling Empty for easier manipulation in 3D space.

That must be the most graphical way of "looping" I've ever seen! :D

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Texture doesn't wrap the same in every side of the object
Surely this has been asked before, but I cannot find the question/answer.
I have the following object with a texture on it. The texture wraps correctly to some parts of it, but the sides are extremely distorted. Is there a way of correcting this?

In my node wrangler, I am using the object as a texture coordinate.

Hi :). Looks as if the object isn't properly UV unwrapped. Have you tried unwrapping again?

Indeed I think it's not correctly unwrapped. It seems it has a non-uniform scale, which doesn't unwrap it correctly. But this is a problem of mine. Your solution should work if the unwrapping was good. So thank you!!

it's not clear, you're talking about unwrapping but you said that you used the Object output of the Texture Coordinate? Please share this object: https://pasteall.org/blend/

Use Box instead of Flat in your Texture Coordinate:

It doesn't seem to have an effect, however, I think the root problem is that the unwrapping isn't correct. Thank you still! You literally are always the first one to answer, what a hero @moonboots !

It looks like you're using the Object output of the Texture Coordinate, from what you said, so it should work, if not please share your file. Changing the unwrap won't change anything if you don't use the UV output of the Texture Coordinate

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


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Select box 'frozen' on file screen
An image of the select box is frozen on a file and remains in the same place om the screen when I move view. I am unable to clear it. The select box still works. The image of the box, from a previous selection, remains on the screen in edit & object modes, and when I close & reopen the file.
I hope someone can help, I've spent days working on this file.
The issue can be seen in the images below, the white dashes below the 'A'.
Thanks
Andrew (frustrated)

What you did is selecting a Render Region, shortcut is Ctrl+B. This helps to only view certain parts of the viewport rendered after switching to rendered view in order to only have some parts/region of interest in that moment fully rendered. This can as well be used when rendering through the camera.
To clear the Render Region press Ctrl+Alt+B.

Thank you so much Gordon, your wisdom resolved my problem. (:

@andrew You're welcome. You might consider accepting the answer ;)


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what he did from time 4:06 to 4:08 in this time laps
I'm watching this time-lapse and wondering what he did from 4:06 to 4:08.
This is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iI6YhEbveQ

it looks like Alt left click to select the edge loop, then Ctrl B to bevel?

Why don’t you ask him in the comments?

He selected the loop of edges but had to do it in 3 goes because he couldn't select the whole loop in one go. Then as @moonboots says he bevelled it. Slow the video down to .25 in Settings and you can see what's going on.

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

He Bevelled the edges Ctrl +  B. To confirm, just slow down Youtube video speed to 0.25 and look at bottom left in video where you will see Bevel command activated too

Thank you very much for your help. It's my first question and I'm really amazed with the support of community.

He selected the edges and made a Bevel, not Inset as I initially thought.

Thank you. I will fix the answer.

Thank you for your help man.


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Making faces all face outward consistently
I've read several posts here on the Blender StackExchange, but none of the solutions seem to work, unfortunately. I'm very new to Blender, so please forgive me if I use the wrong terminology. My question doesn't relate to a specific model, I face this issue regardless of the model I import. I'm trying to get all faces to face outward, I'm using Blender's setting that highlights faces in blue/orange to designate if they are outward/inward facing, and I can select each face individually and tell it where to face, but I'm trying to do this for all faces without the need to select each one individually.
It seems that in some instances the faces can't be automatically normalized because they've doubled up. For example, deleting one of the faces will then allow it to be flipped correctly. However this isn't always the case, sometimes when I select all of the faces and tell it to flip outward there will be a face that doesn't, and after deleting it nothing takes it place, indicating that it wasn't doubled up.
I've also tried the Clean Up > Merge By Distance trick, this still doesn't seem to make all faces face outwards consistently.
I feel like having a script is the way to go, I've tried some of the examples given in responses here on StackExchange but they are a little old now and don't seem to work for me. No error is produced, but they don't seem to have an effect.
I'm curious why it's difficult to make all faces flip consistently, I had assumed it would be a case of looping through every face and checking whether it's facing outward or not (which it must know in order to colour it blue/orange) and then actioning the flip if it's inward.
I thought I'd submit a new post incase there are any newer solutions that I've not found through my searching on StackExchange, or if there's a new approach that I could be taking to try and resolve this issue.

If you're not getting consistent normals from recalculate normals, the problem is non-manifold geometry.
Here's an example:

This is a mesh where one of the edges connects three different faces.  No matter what Blender does, it cannot find a consistent set of normals for these three faces.  If it calculates one way, the normals will flip over one transition; if it calculates another way, they'll flip over another.
This kind of geometry can actually be created by Merge operations, and is one of the reasons those have to be done thoughtfully, rather than just merging on a few million vertices without paying any attention.
If you are having trouble with getting consistent normals, you should take frequent advantage of the "select non manifold" operation in Blender.  Non-manifold geometry can cause all sorts of problems for rendering, and is something you should probably be fixing anyways.  Generally speaking, you can afford to ignore the "boundary" condition of the operation, but not the others:

That operation will draw your attention to problem areas of your mesh.

It sounds like the two features you are looking for are both in Edit mode:
a. recalculate Outside (shift+N)
b. Select All by Trait (Interior Faces)
example:  I have set up a cube with an irregular pattern of normals facing the wrong way, and one interior face.

By selecting all the faces and clicking on recalculate outside, it will turn all the faces in the right direction.  However, I still have one interior face, which I may not be able to find that I can select using select all by trait, and then dissolve or delete:

Finally, one extra feature that is useful.  I find going to overlays and enabling statistics helps me to find doubled faces as well.  Then when I select a face I can see if there are more vertices than I expect.


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Render time increased to 2 hours just by adding color
I am learning blender through the Donut tutorial by Blender Guru on Youtube. I rendered this image and it took a few minutes.

Then in the next video where he explained materials and added colors, I tried to render again by adding the materials and suddenly it says it is gonna take 2 hours!! Here is the screenshot of the new rendering process.

I am using Macbook Air M1, Blender V3.1. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? Here is the link to the blend file. Also I know that M1 MacBook air comes with a 7 core GPU. But I cannot find the Cycles Render Devices under settings. Why is this?

just change the time limit value to e.g. 5 secs (or how long you want to wait)

Yes, this will decrease your quality. But for impatient people this settings is perfect.
Also you can try to change to GPU. Might be quicker.

Hey thanks. That worked. And about that GPU part like I said, I can't find the option to select the GPU in preferences like they show in all the tutorials.

you are welcome. please check the checkmark left of my answer if it helped you. Thanks.

I assume you are using 3.1 for native metal support.  Try enabling Experimental Feature Set in Cycles.  I think this will let you choose your render device in preferences.


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Geometry Nodes. What to enter in the result to get a change in the Z axis?
I entered scale to control the size of the object, if I want to control its height, what should I enter? I tried dozens of different ways.

I find this question very unclear.  Perhaps you can rewrite you question to make it more clear

geometry nodes are still not documented as far as I know and are very much a work in progress. I wouldn't be surprised to still see more changes before it is finished and in release.

Where do you find these nodes? I am curious...

@ChristopherBennett geometry nodes, can be enabled from buildbot builds only (geometry-nodes branch)

Oh, it's from a nightly? Makes sense...

@susu all of blender hinges on users testing new features, and it is only natural that we get questions about new features. I misspoke about docs, they can be found here I would bring it up on meta if you wish to discuss it, blender is changing daily and is releasing faster than ever used to.

@Timaroberts Then it is time to create a new tag...

@susu agreed it's only a matter of time before these become commonplace questions once the branch is in master.

Thank you all @timaroberts I'm really new to Blender. I worked mostly with the "grasshopper" software.  There are a lot of basic things that are missing in geometry nodes.  Where can we talk about it?

Geometry Nodes project is still in Alpha stage, it may or may not be included in the 2.92 release in a few months, but even then it wouldn't be fully production ready. Expect nodes and workflow to change regularly

My understanding is that currently what you are trying to achieve is impossible because attribute manipulation is not vectorized : You can tweak the scale depending on an object's position but it will affect all 3 axes at the same time. see : https://i.sstatic.net/J1uEH.png In the meantime you can use Animation Nodes which is fairly well documented and not expected to change soon

I guess one solution to do what you are asking is a tree like the following:

Click to enlarge
The logic behind this is simple, use a  separate xyz node, and use a math>add before the combine xyz node to control scale in the transform node.
The value node simply provides a means for uniform scaling in all or multiple axes.
This produces the following result on a point instance of cubes.

Do note that the geometry nodes project is a work in progress, and some features are still being adjusted as development continues.

I know that.  I need to pick them up in exact values

@שלומירשף the answer provides the current way to do what your question (in it's currently written form) is asking. If the answer does not address your concerns, please edit your question to include all details and information needed including what you have tried that has not worked so that answers do repeat failed or unwanted results, and wasted time for other users.


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How to combine all objects in an .fbx file into one object
I have around 15k fbx files and the models in them are split into pieces. I want to have all of them contain only one object.
I have this:

And I want this:

Having a lot of files, I'm wondering if it is possible to do this for all of them automatically.

have you tried just joining them?  the shortcut is ctrl+J

Yeah, but there are 15000 files and i can't do them manually.

hm, that does pose a problem.  I'm not sure how to automatically join thousands of objects like that. There might be an addon that someone has made for this, but I don't think there's a really easy way around this.


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How to restore a key binding that does not work correctly?
I have a very stupid question:
The last weeks I used the shortcut Alt + C to convert from mesh to curve. If I use Alt + C now, the pop-up menu does not show up, instead the shortcut changes the function of the middle mouse key. Before Alt + C the middle mouse key zooms in or out – after hitting Alt + C it does not zoom in/out anymore, but the the whole model moves from left to right or vice versa.
I have completely re-installed blender (--purge), and loaded the factory settings. This image shows Alt shortcuts including Alt + C

This image shows all zoom view shortcuts:

My feeling is that somehow Alt is interpreted as Ctrl + Alt, no matter if I use a real keyboard, or a virtual keyboard.
How can I get back the original function of Alt + C?

User preferences, search for "convert to" and "zoom view"

Please see my updated post. And thanks for the suggestion.

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How to Automatically Get Weights from Parented Object to Vertex Groups?

Is there a Script that makes vertex groups and then rigs the object that you selected to it?
I know about the Automatic Weights, But it doesn't work the Right way I needed too.

Could you explain a bit more the reasons why weighting with automatic weights does not meet your needs?

It does It to every single bone. I just want it to do it to the bone I selected.

I don't think it is possible to indicate that the weighting is only done from selected bones. What you can do is removing the 'deform' option from the other bones, though.


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How to join 3 planes into one, for a floor that isnt square
I am making a room that has a weird floor. I split it into 3 sections when making the floor, but now when I try to combine the three planes with ⌃ Ctrl + J to combine grand, but one still has a line separating it and the other section of the floor.
How can I get them to combine without the line running through the middle?

There is gap, that's why you see the yellow line. Try to fix it in Edit Mode with the Snap Tool.

For the future, you might find it easier to create a single plane, then edit and SubDivide (face) into quadrants (or smaller).  Then you can extrude or move vertices or edges into the floor shape you want.   I realize one benefit for several planes might be to more quickly define sectional dimension -- but for a single subdivided plane, you can enable Edge Length in ViewPort Overlays, or (via Preferences) enable and apply "MeasureIt" Tools https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.91/addons/3d_view/measureit.html .

sure thanks, turns out there was a small gap as ffeller said, it worked now


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How to Crease the Edges Correctly?
In the picture below I use subdivision and I want to make the angle of this half circle hole sharp

But when I do edge crease, the topology overlaps and creates bad shading;

I don't want to add a support loop because of it's effect on the curvature of the whole cylinder.
I also tried bevel, but that creates  a triangle that ruins the topology also.
Does anyone know the solution?

Here's another possible flow for your support loops:

Perfect solution!

Hi @AlexandreMarcati ! As you say, there are quite a few. This one costs you a slight bevel in the corners.. maybe acceptable.

Thanks ,  that a great idea

The edge crease tool is very limited and will not give a good result in every situation. In my experience situations such as the one you're showing have to be dealt with good old retopology techniques.
Adding loops doesn't have to mess with the curve of the cylinder. Here is a suggestion on how you could deal with that crease without messing with the roundness of the cylinder and still having only quads (although I used two diamond-like faces, they're still quads - except for the big N-gon in the bottom of the hole that was already there, I mean):

This is just one possibility that you can try out and see if the result is good enough. But you can come up with other, perhaps better, solutions on your own if you do some trial and error.

thanks that helpful !


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extrude along normals going wrong
I try to extrude the faces here:

But it get weird and uniform like this:

I make sure that I apply scale and make even offset, but it's the same.
I want to extrude like the other faces that I extrude using bridge edge loop. But this method is taking a lot of work and making shading issues that should correct it by weighted normal, etc.
So is there any quick way to right extrude?


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Orthographic Projection was automatically turned on when I used front/left/top view but now it doesnt work
I factory reset my pc and reinstalled the blender. And my current situation is, before I factory reset, pressing Numpad 1, Numpad 3, and Numpad 7 will automatically turn view perspective ortho on. But now they don't. I've been trying to fix this but it doesn't work. Can anyone help me with this?
By view perspective ortho I meant this

Instead of having users go through links and external sites please use the builtin tools to embed images in your post. See How to upload an image to a post?

Have you checked the preference settings if the feature is turned on? Navigation (tab) > Orbit & Pan (1st section) > Auto [X] Perspective (checkbox in the middle). It must be checked

As @Blunder commented, it's a setting in User Preferences → Navigation:


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How to move an object over a deformed surface and make in follow the surface?
So I modelled this boat and a lake using ocean modifier.

As you can see when it moves, it intersects with the water. Sometimes it's under water and sometimes over it.
Anyone knows how to make it move over the surface such that it adjusts itself on Z axis and only a part of it is underwater at  all times(Like real boats).
Apart from keyframing it to move properly, I have tried everything
Any help is greatly appreciated
Thanks in advance
Blend File: https://pasteall.org/blend/963dfcbdfd6b468a9f2712981165494d

tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxLKpweEkD0&list=PLvE1XtiXcfOklbybsDhi44eEG72cCzc4v&index=6

Create a plane with enough subdivisions, and give it a shrinkwrap modifier with target ocean. Add a vertex group with all vertices to the plane.
Then use copylocation constraint on z-axis to your boat and the vertex group. Hide your plane.

Thank you so much

@vklidu: I extended the answer

Thanks @vklidu. I changed it again. I should have watched my own video more often…♂

It's your own? That makes this thing very fun :) Cheers BTW Thanks I didnt know vert-group under Constraint ... until now I used 3point vertex parent thing ... time to check new way how good it is ... probably time to change old habits :)

My memory is very…Ähm…let‘s call it „forgettable“ sometimes I don‘t know what I did yesterday…even if I do these tutorials - and some I made for the 10th time…I forgot thembut the good thing is: everything is new every day…just kidding


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Why does my obj become transparent when I import
When I do import my obj files it's become transparent in some part like in the picture
 I try to fix at here but all I can do is changing the subsurface color but I want the texture thing (I already have the texture but don't know how to put it in the transparent thing)

You have used an alpha channel. Alpha is used to make part of a mesh transparent. That's why it's becoming transparent.

how to fix that?

Remove the Alpha Input to principled bsdf. If that doesn't solve it, please provide the blend file

Since the hat is visible behind the hair, I don't think it is transparent because of the alpha - this looks like backface culling. If he changed the viewport shading to Solid or Rendered the transparency would be gone, it's only shown in the Material Preview. If the transparency is caused by the Alpha Channel it would be black in Material Preview (not transparent), unnoticable in Solid view and be transparent in Rendered view. Looking at the image, if the hat is supposed to have a texture that's not black, than it might be a combination of backface culling and alpha transparency.

This looks like Backface Culling, i.e. when you see the backside of a face it is invisible. This helps for example if you want to see if some face normals are pointing in the wrong direction.
To disable Backface Culling, choose the material in the Material Tab and go to Viewport Display > Settings > Backface Culling and disable it (that's Cycles, in Eeevee it's in the overall Settings of the material).
But: if your material is invisible from the outside this presumably means that the normals on this object are turned inside out. In the Viewport Overlays you can enable "Face Orientation", the outside of faces are shwon in blue, the inside in red. I guess the faces of that object will show up in red.
To correct that go into Edit Mode, hit A to select all faces, then Shift+N to Recalculate Normals. You can tick Inside here if they are still red.
If only some faces are red and some are blue and recalculating normals doesn't make them uniformly red or blue, you can select the faces you want to change, hit Alt+N to bring up the Normals menu and choose "Flip".
EDIT: As I commented above, if the material has a texture which is supposedly not black, than you might have a combination of Backface Culling and Alpha Transparency.
Your screenshot shows that hat is transparent/invisible in front of the hair but all black behind the hair. Backface Culling and Alpha Transparency are shown differently in different Viewport Shading:

In Solid view, you only see the faces without any transparency.
In Material Preview, Backface culling makes faces transparent/invisible when seen from the backside/inside, while Alpha Transparency results in alpha values of 0 shown in black, not transparent. Alpha values > 0 have no effect and will make the material look opaque.
In Rendered view, backface culling is disabled and doesn't effect the material, while Alpha Transparency will make the material more or less transparent according to the alpha value.


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How to export whole scene so I can import it in Illustrator?
I am creating a book cover and I want a 3D illustration in it. My cover should display a 3D object exactly as it looks in design mode (surface view). This is my scene:

I would like to be able to import it in Illustrator as it looks like in the picture (like no colours, no materials, just the raw surface object).
How to achieve it?
No screenshot
Of course this would be possible by just taking a screenshot, but I want a vector object that I can manipulate inside an Illustrator picture, also it matters to me when it comes to the quality of the picture.
Freestyle add-on
This add-on is very strange, it only exports paths so what is exported in SVG is a path and that's it. How about surfaces?

one possible way could be tracing the "screenshot" (or, better, an OpenGL viewport render) with the vector program. Ususally this is used to get 2d vector shapes from images, then import them into blender. I don't think blender can "render" that object as 2d vector shaded...  a "contour" vector 2d object is possible though (eg: freestyle)

I know about Tracing and it is not always the best option unfortunately. It seems strange to me that an SVG export of a Blender scene is not possible...

you say "no colours, no materials" but also "exactly as it looks in design mode (surface view)" imho in the 3d view it has a material (maybe a default one) and colors, shades... you could try either a freestyle svg export or a uvmap svg export (projected from view), then in the vector program shade faces... but I know it would be hard...

You are right, as-is I basically meant, no rendering, as it looks in the viewport.Also, uvmap? What is it?  have tried freestyle and it is terrible :( What is the other option you suggested? Ah thanks btw for providing input so far :)

Freestyle does not look terrible if you set it up correctly. Exporting vector data is not what Blender is really used for, the only viable option is .svg which is possible either from Freestyle or should be here as well (latest messages in BA thread). It is not clear why do you need surface object exported as vector; probably that's about contour of that object which is easier to trace from render made with Freestyle

See the SVG export add-on mentioned here Can blender export 2D curves to svg?


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How do I bend a plane and keep the objects on it following its bend?
I want to to place some objects on a plane (for right now I'll keep it simple and say they're cubes). Then I want to bend that plane but keep the cubes connected to the plane, following the curve of the bend. Also I want to keep the cubes separate and not a part of the plane so I can edit them separately. A good example I can think of that represents what I want to do is the game Animal Crossing.
Here's a screenshot of the game.
Is there any way I could go about doing this?

In edit mode subdivide the plane so to have a grid with enough vertices that will define the position of your cube, then select the 3 vertices nearest the position you want the cube to stay.
Then in object mode select the cube, Shift
 select the plane, press Ctrl+P
 and choose "vertex triangle", so the cube will always follow the average location of the three vertices of the plane.

You can also use the new Surface Deform modifier in blender 2.79.
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/modeling/modifiers/deform/surface_deform.html

Select one of the objects you want to follow the plane
Go to the modifiers panel and create a Surface Deform modifier
Set the surface it's following to the plane.

Now the object should be following the plane.  To copy this modifier to the other objects:

Select the other objects
shift+select the cube that has the modifier on it
hit ctrl+l to bring up the "make links" menu
choose Modifiers  - this will copy the modifier from the cube with the modifier to the other cubes

hope that helps!


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Add-on, how to format and use a custom path
This is the addon I'm trying to modify
https://github.com/florianfelix/render_bbake
I'm using it to bake and export textures for meshes that were imported via fbx.
I want to add a path button to it that will allow me to specify a folder for all textures (of all objects/meshes) to be exported to.
I got the folder browse button in there.  But I don't know how to format the path before the add-on appends the mesh/ texture filename.
Here's the modified add-on:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B41y2IFAXw53bkVPb04yX3g2X2c/view?usp=drivesdk
These are the relevant changes:
added this property to the BBake_Scene_Data(PropertyGroup) class in batch_bake_object_data.py:
all_path = StringProperty(
name='All Path',
subtype='DIR_PATH',
default='',
description='Save all images of all objects in this folder',)

added this to the def draw call in batch_bake_ui.py:
row=box_global.row(align=False)
col.separator()
row.prop(scene_settings, 'all_path')

modified the testob(ob, context) function (gave it a new parameter so I could pass in the scene settings data object) in batch_bake_operators.py to this:
test = context.scene.bbake.all_path
if test:
    path = test
else:
    path = bpy.path.abspath(ob_settings.path)

if not os.path.isdir(path):
    try:
        os.makedirs(path)
    except:
        msg('FAILED to create bake Folder:%s\n for object "%s"\nSkipping.' %(path, ob.name))
    return False

Running this, having specified a folder, "all_path" (just a random empty folder on the desktop), I get a "no such file or directory" error.
Note:99.9% of the code is not mine. It belongs to the former maintainers of this plugin and/or florien/fenix)
Thanks a ton for any help!
Edit:  I'm guessing I'm either not getting the string from all_path the right way, or I'm not formatting it properly to work with os.path.isdir.

It appears I was out of context.
Replacing:
context.scene.bbake.all_path
With:
bpy.context.scene.bbake.all_path
returned the string I was looking for.


text:
How to apply BVH data to Rigify
I want to try out the rigify rig on my model, and would like to apply a BVH file to my rig. How can I do this? When I import the BVH, a separate model with the animation shows up, but the rigify rig is unaffected. Is it even possible to copy a different rigs motion data, or am I going to have to copy it manually.
Thx, Daniel
PS: The BVH code is included in the link below, just copy it to a empty notepad file and rename it to: example.bvh .
https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~pingelm/ComputerAnimation/Motions/bvh/dance01.bvh

The keyword is retargeting. Maybe @josh sanfelici can help you. He did this: https://youtu.be/LU0u_b88K8k (Sorry, I'm not sure how you can contact him here.)

There are multiple way to solve this. but you must follow the this for better understanding.
http://nerdclub-uk.blogspot.com/2016/11/importing-bvh-files-into-blender-rigify.html

You can apply it through a process called retargeting. I would recommend the Rokoko addon for start.
Here is a video on how to use to retarget to different rigs including Rigify
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyxeb48mUfs


text:
how to convert local space rotations to world space in node editor blender?
i want to convert local space to world space , i managed to convert the location by adding to object location vector

but when i rotate the object , the textures are changing , how to convert rotations from local to world space ?

What do you mean by changing? The "usual" way should be, if an object rotates, its texture rotates as well with the object (like object in reality behave), so the texture is not changing relative to the object > which is what your setup does, as long as the object isn't moved anywhere. It changes only when you move it, because then the addition of the location affects the texture.

@GordonBrinkmann i don't want the usual way , i don't want the texture to rotate with the object , is there any way i can do that?

Use Object in the Texture Coordinate node, and choose a different object (e.g. an empty) in the object field to draw the information from, no need for adding.

@GordonBrinkmann Thankyou , this is exactly what i want.


text:
Misaligned part of the model
I need this part in yellow circle:
To be like this:
But when it is placed like that, this is happening:
I need it to be like this:

Why is this non-alignment happening and how to fix this?
I am following this youtube tutorial: Blender Day 6- Modeling Aircraft - Introduction to Blender/ Beginners Series

It looks like you're using more than one reference image - one or the X and Y axis, respectively - is it possible they are not correctly aligned/placed?

I adjusted "Offset Y" as this is what they advised me to do here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/263163/centering-of-the-model-in-blender-3-0-1 Maybe is that problem?

It's possible... there are a lot of things to consider - are the images meant as reference images - are they meant to have the same scale and proportions? If they are, that should be a relatively easy matter of adjusting the vertical offset of one of the images. If they are of different scale, then you might be in for a bunch of tedious manual scaling/aligning.


text:
Blender 3.1 getting slower and slower on startup, what is the cause of this?
I have noticed Blender's load times getting slower for some reason and Im trying to understand what is at the core of this issue. I have heard this is most likely due to add ons.  Thoughts?

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.

I just tried launching 2.93 and 3.1.  Both took about 7-8 secs on my platform (https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/22017930  Acer 885 with zippy i5-8400  16 GB, modest Nvidia GTX 1050).  R U opening a certain blend file or start with empty?

It was lagging on both. After a recent update its been fine again.  I have a Threadripper 3990x / 64G ram / Nvidia RTX 5000


text:
Modeling a detergent bottle
Im curious what the best approach to modeling this....during the blockout, what areas should be addressed first?  Im using the mira tools plug in (mira curves tool) to handle the curves.  Any help would be appreciated.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/253199/how-to-create-this-3d-recipient https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/177845/rounded-shapes-with-hard-surface-modeling-lubricant-bottle https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/55635/making-rounded-dips-in-cylinder

In the first link shared by Duarte I've added an answer for your bottle


text:
Change settings like 'limit selection to visible' or 'trackball rotation' with python
My original intention is to transfer settings with a .blend file, but as far as I know, ordinary blends don't store everything.
I have tried to understand the API documentation for a while now, yet since I'm not a developer, I have a hard time closing the 'assumed knowledge' gap.
So far I've found bpy.types.SpaceView3D.use_occlude_geometry but no sample code or link and I just get error messages.
Blender's Info window output isn't revealing much either when I push the button manually, at least not to the untrained eye.
bpy.data.screens["Default"].(null) = False
So, here are my needs:

Switch MMB with SHIFT-MMB
Turn on trackball rotation for viewport rotation
Disable Limit selection to visible

Switch MMB with SHIFTMMB
view3d_km = bpy.context.window_manager.keyconfigs['Blender'].keymaps['3D View']
view3d_km.keymap_items['view3d.rotate'].map_type = 'MOUSE'
view3d_km.keymap_items['view3d.rotate'].type = 'MIDDLEMOUSE'
view3d_km.keymap_items['view3d.rotate'].shift = True

Turn on trackball rotation for MMB
bpy.context.user_preferences.inputs.view_rotate_method = 'TRACKBALL'

Disable Limit selection to visible
for scr in bpy.data.screens:
    for area in scr.areas:
        for space in area.spaces:
            if space.type == 'VIEW_3D':
                space.use_occlude_geometry = True

This really helps. It seems to be enough to change the .shift values of view3D.rotate and view3d.move

Yep - if it's already set up to use middlemouse, which it usually will be.

Not sure on the first one (you want to swap rotate with pan?) but...
Turn on trackball rotation:
bpy.context.user_preferences.inputs.view_rotate_method = 'TRACKBALL'

Disable Limit selection to visible in all 3D Views in all screens:
for screen in bpy.data.screens:
    for area in screen.areas:
        if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
            area.spaces[0].use_occlude_geometry = False

Since Gimp and basically all 2D areas in Blender use MMB to pan, and since I pan more than I rotate and because it once was a simple toggle button in Blender, I use MMB to pan in the 3D view. My muscle memory likes it.

This is a great example how four lines of code give me a clear picture instantly. Thank you


text:
Can't select Pose under Scene Collection to Enter Pose Mode
So I downloaded the recent version of blender on my new PC. I've used 2.8 forever but figured I'd get the most recent version on my new build. On the previous version I could select the Pose line (with the green guy next to it) to instantly switch to Pose mode with that armature's bones made available. However, clicking on it in this version does absolutely nothing and I'm not sure why. Someone, please help me feel dumb and tell me why I can't select Pose. I reviewed my preferences, but couldn't find anything inhibiting.

This behavior was intentionally removed in September 2020. At least one person filed a bug, see T80757. Quoting from there:

This was a conscious decision. The outliner only allowed entering edit and pose mode. The new mode column does not allow entering modes, but allows switching the active within all modes. [...] Entering the mode must be done from the viewport.


text:
Decal projection on complex shapes
I'm trying to add decals to stairs. I've set up a image as plane on the $X$ axis, and all I want is blender to do is project the image along the $X$ axis. However, through all the methods I try it doesn't work. It textures the top of the steps and I end up with a triangle like texture. All I want is to have an image and then along one axis just apply it to the object

don't you want to do it in the Shader Editor?

i not sure what you mean

could you please show a picture?

Forget about "Decals", as new planes to be added on top of other surfaces.
Why is it is such a bad idea adding faces on top of other faces?
3D render engines have a hard time when two co-planar surfaces are parallel and on top of each other, or close together. That will result in a problem called z-figthting, where the render engine cannot distinguish clearly between two or more surfaces and they end up rendered randomly on top of each other.
A more efficient way is combining different textures or materials that are part of the same object.

Get an angle of your object "front on" by using one of the orthographoc angles (Numpad 1 for front, Numpad 3 for side, Numpad 7 for top, or Numpad 9 to flip any angle by 180deg), and then press U (unwrap), and select "Project from view" This will make your UV map resemble a "snapshot" from that angle.

After that, connect your image texture as normal. It comes out looking like this:

If you want to stop the image from appearing on the top and sides of the stairs. you can use the respective axes from the Normal Vector as a mix factor between your image and whatever other material (I used plain white for the example). The Normal vector doesn't like being recombined without a third axes, so you have to do it in 2 stages - one for each respective axis that you need "erased":

this is almost the result im trying to get, however its wrapping around the stairs on the side, and i couldnt understand how to replicate this, im trying to put the image on only the front part of the stairs

Does the object have to have only one material, or are you ok with using more than one?

well the stairs are all supposed to be plastic but the decal doesn't, that why the stair are one object

I edited my answer with a possible solution for you.

i already have a specific material for the stairs, and the image i want to add is semi transparent, does this method still work?

Not sure. Try it and see. If the other material has transparency, you might have to do a similar thing, except instead of mixing your material through a MixRGB node, you'll have to mix your 2 materials (bsdf's) with mix shaders, using the same separated normal vectors as mix factors,


text:
How To Bevel A Single Edge To A Flat Surface?
I want to make this edge to like beveling to a flat surface.
I don't know if i got the term right.
See the image below:

So you could simply select this edge and bevel it?

That option warps the angles on the side, that then would need to be moved into the exact possition they were in separately.
To preserve the geometry:
Split the object down the middle,
Move the two halfs of geometry away from each other and then
Fill in the faces between them.

@Toby, I don't see what you mean, it doesn't seem to warp the angles, but maybe give your own answer to make it clearer?

Thanks for the answer, i solved it. Thank you so much

When the edge is Beveled at the raised edge it only moves those vertices not the vertices in the recesses next to them, changing the angle of the face.

Separate the two halves

Then fill in the faces between the selected edges with the F key.

Be sure to select all the edges that would touch the fill or it won't connect properly to those edges, like selecting these next three edges:

oh ok yes, it really depends on what he wants to do


text:
I am having trouble with the subdivision surface modifier
I am using Blender to try to create a simple handgun, though I have run into quite the problem. I am an noob at Blender so please forgive my simple understandings. With edge split it creates blotches and leaves holes as seen here:

 Without edge split it does a similar thing, as seen here:
 Though it doesn't create holes, it just folds out in a very strange way. Any help is much appreciated.

Subsurface modifier is more complicated on these sorts of objects. You probably want to simple subdivide the mesh first in edit mode to have a less dramatic effect.

The fact that modifier is more complicated for some particular case doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be used. It is correct to use low-polysinh mesh which will be subdivided further on, it's critical to make its geometry good enough. Regarding the problem it seems that there are double vertices in the mesh. If you upload the mesh and post link here as comment it would be easier to check.

Subdivision Surface modifier folds stuff. It's kind of meant for that. It smooths your mesh, it's not like it actually subdivides. It emulates subdivision placing "imaginary" vertex in middle of the existent ones. Those imaginary ones can't be edited, they move calculated by the program as you move from point to point the real ones, and when you apply the modifier, just then they come to life. There is no way to correct that bending using just the modifier, I believe.
Why don't you try, actually modifying the mesh using Space->Subdivide or in the viewport in Edit Mode: T(on left of view port) ->Subdivide ?
Be aware that will add real vertex to the thing and make it heavy if abused. Next time if you are planning on doing all with the Subsurf, start right from the start using it, and model your thing with it active. I'm telling you that doing that will turn your crazy, because the program will still smooth the planes; I mean you will be working with the vertex putting them in places that make your modified by modifier mesh "nice" to the eye, but at the moment of turning the modifier off at any given moment, you'll realize that the vertex are not actually where you put them. Because the modifier calculates stuff placing them that way so that the algorithm for the modifier shows you nice stuff.
For the time being, use the Subsurf modifier for organic stuff of smooth stuff, and not for sharp edged things like rocks, guns, etc. You can always use cylinders, cubes and subdivide them with "real subdivide". And turn on the Smooth shading in the T menu (on left of view port) in Object mode.
EDIT: Please, take a look at this page. These are the geometries you need. Although 2nd option may be better since doesn't require you to add geometry at all.
Keep sharp edges when using subdivision surface

Subsurf can be and is used for hard surface modeling, see related . The problem is to create good supporting geometry which won't transform into a bubble.

I agree. I just meant to do that for the time being because he said he was a noob at the moment. But, yes, knowing where to put supporting geometry does the trick.


text:
Problems with textures in Standalone Player
I am trying to render an object in Standalone player, but textures don't work. However, similar blend file does not have this problem. The only difference I have found is in texture mapping : mapping in problem file is set to "Generated" and in working file to "UV". I tried to switch to UV, but it requires "Map" field. I am confused, why in working file UV map is assigned and it is texture, whereas when I try to assign texture as UV map in problem file pop-up window does not contain any names, except some weird UVTex and UVtex.00. I also tried to unwrap texture in edit mode, but it didn't show any effect.
There was a similar question:
Texture appears in render but not in game engine
But it doesn't say, how to make "UVMap" map.
Could you make some suggestions, what is the root of problem with rendering in Standalone Player? And if my clue is right, how to set UV map?
Problem file : http://www.filedropper.com/problemfile
Working file : http://www.filedropper.com/workingfile

For your bump texture to work you need to change the bump method. Set it to one of the first three in the menu. Also set the space to TextureSpace, as for the other picture, as was said by Duarte since it is not an image but a Voronoi it will not  work meaning you have to bake it. Apart from that both embedded and standalone players work with this file on my pc.

Procedural textures and generated texture coordinates or not supported in Blender OpenGL renderer, that means you won't see any procedural textures in Blender's Viewport nor in Blender Game Engine or Standalone Player.
For you textures to work the have to be image based textures (Voronoi, Noise, Clouds etc. procedural texture wont work) and the have to be UV Mapped, that means you have to create an UVMap Chanel, unwrap your mesh mesh and use that UV Chanel on your texture afterwards, generated texture coordinates won't do.
Unwrapping is an involved and time consuming process, try searching for video tutorials about unwrapping

Textures here are image-based and I did UV unwrapping. It renders perfectly in Game Engine as one shot, but it doesn't work in Standalone player.


text:
Growing memory usage when rendering animation
I'm using Blender 2.77a with Windows 10 64 bit on a 8 GB RAM PC and AMD R9 390 graphic card with driver 16.4.1.
When GPU rendering a very simple animation (350 faces, 150 frames, single PNG files) local memory usage in Task Manager goes from 80 MB to over 2 GB after the first 20 frames so I need to stop, close, run again Blender and start rendering from the last rendered frame. It works with CPU.
I read that Blender doesn't store frames in memory so I would check some rendering setting before fill in a bug report because of a memory leak.
Any idea ? Thanks.

Why is that a problem? Unused RAM is wasted RAM. It's probably just trying to cache things.

Yes is a problem because Windows shows a low memory error message and crashes so I cannot leave Blender unattended.

Oh, but that's not related to the RAM usage; my guess is that's a timeout thing where the graphics card hasn't responded for, like, 2 seconds, so windows just kills the program. You should be able to google the exact message, and find a fix rather easily. And post your error message.


text:
Material are not being applied to the model
I'm new to blender and hit a bug probably.
I checked the material/texture/rendered view but the material is not being applied. I also created a new project and tested with a simple cube and tried the voronoi texture. The texture doesn't seem to work while I successfully applied bevel. I have checked the documentation and saw some tutorials and the followed the same steps as the videos but the material won't work.
EDIT:
OS is Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
Using cycles render, it didn't work in blender render either.
I was using 2.76 when I posted the question upgraded to 2.79 and the issue persists.
I assume material will be applied when I left click or press enter by selecting a certain material. Here's a screenshot

Hi, why don't  you start showing/explaining which renderer are you using, and how you set up materials? And which blender version/OS are you using?

edited the question

"I assume material will be applied when I left click or press enter" Not necessarily. As you have several materials it might happen another material is applied and not the one you expect. See https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/516/add-different-materials-to-different-parts-of-a-mesh

But I don't have multiple materials.

You have. There are 2 materials - "Material.001" and "Material.003" (the latter currently selected) and empty material slot in the middle. Note - if material is selected from the list of present materials it doesn't mean it is applied to the model. Note also that faces can be assigned to material slot even if it's empty. So to avoid confusion remove empty slot and work with materials

"I assume material will be applied when I left click or press enter by selecting a certain material." You assume wrong, this has been asked countless times, selecting materials from the list doesn't apply them, see https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/84731/i-cant-change-materials


text:
I can't find where to change the strength of the sun in version 2.70a
I have viewed the tutorials of lighting and shading, but the version used in the tutorials must be older than that I use.

If @stacker's answer didn't solve it, could you post a link to the tutorial in question?

I'm not aware of a recent change of the energy slider in the lamp properties in the Blender internal renderer. From the image you posted you are using the blender internal renderer.

The size in Cycles only changes the sharpnes of the shadows, not the sun intensity. To change that, you have to enable 'Use Nodes'. Then you will get a 'Strength' slider for the lamp which is similar to the 'Energy' slider of BI.

@maddin45 sorry removed that part, since he is using BI.

Nothing to be sorry about, I am not mad at you ;) But for completeness you could add the (updated) Cycles answer anyways, so that people who are searching for the answer will find the settings for Cycles as well.


text:
Extrude Edges equivalent in Blender?
Is there any tools (perhaps addon) that resembles similar to what Extrude Edges do (from 3DS Max) in Blender with just single click?
Below is a screenshot from one of Viscorbel tutorial

EDIT : here's the video tutorial link, please check it at 01:45
Classic Chair Viscorbel
thanks in advance

Can you explain, what does this function do exactly?

@Crantisz : i guess it is almost similar to bevel an edge, but our bevel edge in blender do not has ''depth'' parameter, instead profile which doesn' help at all

Still very unclear what 'Extrude Edges' is meant to do. Please [edit] your question and add a detailed description of how this function works.

here's the link guys = link
time stamp : 01:45

If I understood right from the video here's what you're looking for.
Just select the edges by pressing B key to box select (in wireframe mode).
With Ctrl+B bevel the edges and with the mouse wheel scrolling make 1 loop at center.
Press Ctrl+- from the keyboard to deselect the edges so that only the center edge is selected.
With the edges selected press S to scale and press shift+Z (to unscale in the Z axis).

 Tags around keyboard keys please, e.g. Ctrl+B.

@RayMairlot sorry i dont know the keyboard keys

You just have to put the kbd tag around the keys you mentioned in your answer. https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5527/keyboard-glyphs

that's it! thanks @atek
it's not a single operator though, but it's better than nothing..
thanks again!

The tool looks like very similar to this is Inset (I). It has offset, that can be set by holding CTRL

But it works only with faces.
Combination of 2 methods: Bevel B and Shrink/Flatten Shift+S exactly similar to this tool:

@selamatpagi, Please do not add a comment on your question or on an answer to say "Thank you". Comments are meant for requesting clarification, leaving constructive criticism, or adding relevant but minor additional information – not for socializing. If you want to say "thank you," vote on or accept that person's answer, or simply pay it forward https://blender.stackexchange.com/help/someone-answers

Not exactly the same but a combination of bevel and scale operations.
select the edges then Press Ctrl + B to bevel,
scroll up once to add a loop (more scrolls will add more loops)
, then select the middle loops and scale it up or down

thanks @Venay, so there isn't exactly similar tools?
i found that bevel edge could create quite like that, but it doesn''t has 'depth' parameter..

@selamatpagi yup, blender doesn't have that. the depth parameter is basically a form of scaling, so you'll have to scale the edges manually.
Scaling along the individual normals might yield better results.

Addon found with similar functional (and even more functional): https://github.com/AlexMcKonst/MASC


text:
(Blender Game Engine) Walk and Run cycle sound problems
This has not bothered me for a while. But when working on the finishing touches of my game I seem to rather have it fixed than to keep it that way.*
My problem is simple. When I walk the 'Walk'sound comes up. But when I run the 'Walk'sound continues with the 'Run'sound. That way it seems like there is more than just one person to control.
The workflow that I used to realize the sounds is easy. I used a part of the ground as collision sensor and gave it a 'Collision' Sensor as well as 2 Different 'Keyboard' Sensors. One triggers the walkcycle sound actuator when pressing the 'W' key while the other needs the 'W'+'Shift' key to play the runcycle sound actuator.
When trying to put the sounds on different logic bricks even connected to the Character it self, it did not seem to make any difference. That is why I came up with this very specific question.
If there is anyone who can relate and or solve this mystery please let me know. Also if I have not provided enough info about my current situation reguarding this small sound issue then let me know as well as I am willing to explain the tiniest details if necessary.
Thanks!,
If some info is not clear; this is the actual Logic Brick for one of the floors I use in my game.

BGE How to change a music loop in the middle of a game? should help

I see how this would work but keep in mind that the walk and run cycle are triggered by a Collision and Keyboard sensor . So figuring this one out is a puzzle yet to be completed.  Still I appreciate your input thanks David ;D

Analyse
Your setup is not exclusive.
This means you can (and do) activate both actuators at the same time. This happens as both are listening to the same keyboard key W. The only difference is the key modifier Left Shift.
Logical Condition - method
You need to exclude the key of the opposite operation when triggering the first operation.
You can do that with an additional keyboard sensor listening to Left Shift as well, but inverting the output [Invert].
This way the logic will be:
W + not Left Shift -> first actuator
W + Left Shift -> second actuator
Due to the exclusive conditions the actuators will run exclusive too.
State - method
A better implementation is to use the build-in state machine. This way the operations are guarantied exclusive. You can even use the same key to toggle between walking and running.
Example:
State 1: waiting
State 2: walking
State 3: running

waiting: when W -> walking
walking: when not W -> waiting
waiting: when Shift -> running
walking: when not W -> waiting
waiting: when not Shift -> walking


text:
How can i fix this render issue?
I have some problem with rendering. When I render it renders like this

But When I take a preview blender it looks good, like this;

If you want the blend file: Download
Sorry if you do not understand
The frame you need to see = 26, 32 34-36 and more
Anyway please help me

when you attach the blend file attach here http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/?ref=be-community-add-2

You have bad topology: essenciatlly non-manifold vertices and duplicated vertices.
It is noticeable in frame 32. If you disable the modifiers, change to solid mode, you will see the strange artifacts on the surface. I tried to dissolve the non-manifold vertexes and to remove double vertexes, then recalculate the normals, and problem is only slightly fixed. On my advise, the fastest way to fix, will be with retopology: you have to remake the head, but this time, you have to try to keep a simple geometry. Try to see some tutorials on how to do retopology faster. If you are in a hurry, and don't have time to do it correctly, you can cheat it by: while in edit mode > press T to open left menu, go to "shading/Uv's" tab> on shading the faces, select flat> press N to open the right menu > press A once or twice to select all the object> on the N menu, under Tranform tab, on edges data, decrease the "mean crease" to 0, and try a render (worked for me). Yet, if I were you, I would consider retopology in the future. Good luck.

Hard to say, your .blend file looked OK when I rendered it here.
I suspect you have to flip normals.
Edit mode > Mesh > Faces > Recalculate Normals

I've downloaded it too and it looks also fine to me. I even checked frame 26 as in the screenshot. There are no strange artefacts.

Thanks, but it does not happen.

@Brain I use blender 2.78, What version do you have?

It looks fine for me too.

I use 2.79 which is now 2 weeks old (not the stable version).


text:
How can i offset my points along the curve (Geometry Nodes)?
I instanced a bunch of points along a curve with a modified radius.
I'm trying to make those point translate along the curve, but keep instancing at the beginning and disappearing at the end. Like an offset along the curve.
Is there anyway to achieve this ?
Thank you !

pls provide blend file so that we don't have to rebuild everything on our own

You can use solution based on Robin Betts answer from here: Animate Instance Points on a curve in a Loop (geo-nodes)
Something like that:

File (blender 3.1):


text:
Follow path with rotation in animation nodes
I have a bezier curve that I made multiple objects follow in animation nodes via the evaluate spline node. My problem is, they are at the right location, but not rotating along the path. They are all facing up instead of rotated along the curve. Is there a way to use the evaluate spline node or a different one to have the objects rotate along the curve?
My node setup:

just use a node setup like this:

then you will get:

How could I do this with animation nodes 2.04? My evaluate spline node only outputs position and tangent, not a normal

Just Use tangent ;)

Thanks, that worked perfectly!

you are welcome


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Blender 3.0 constantly checks on "Depth" option in Orbit & Pan options
This didn't happen before in 2.xx versions. I start a new project or load older project and start working and camera starts jumping around like crazy. I go into option and this nasty option is turned on again. This is a bug? Is there a way to fix it?

It doesn't do that here although I do usually have it turned on anyway.

Have you turned it off AND saved preferences? Auto-save does not work for me.

I have the same problem, only it keeps turning off when I want it to stay on. Every now and then I try to zoom in and find I can't, and then when I check back in preferences I find the setting has changed. Other preferences don't do this, they stay where I set them.


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How can I make pinned UV vertices more visible?
I was sent a mesh with the task of unwrapping it. The mesh came with a mangled looking UV map (attached below), but that didn't matter to me- the author wanted /me/ to unwrap this so my task was simply to mark seams and pack the UVs nicely.
After marking some reasonable seams and unwrapping... the UV map was still mangled. It took me quite some time to figure out why. The author had somehow pinned some UV vertices and they were not visible at all when I was looking in the UV editor. A mix of color blindness and visual noise in the map made it very difficult to detect what was happening.
To prevent this from happening in the future and wasting more hours of my time, I'd like to configure blender to show these as larger and brighter vertices. Red doesn't show up very well for me, especially when nested near yellows and greens. Turning off the stretch overlay helps a little, but that isn't an ideal solution for my workflow.
Are there any settings that I can use to adjust the visuals of pinned vertices in the UV editor?

Not that I know... in the Preferences under Themes > UV/Image Editor you can only change the vertex size - but this affects pinned and unpinned vertices.
You can set a Vertex color, a Vertex Select color and also an Active Vertex color (which doesn't seem to do anything)... but there is no entry for pinned vertices, so I don't know where else this could be set if at all.

You can change the vertex size in Edit > Preferences > Themes > UV/Image Editor, expand it scroll down and increase Vertex Size. Unfortunately it increases all vetrex sizes so a dense UV map wont look good in edit mode.  I don't see an option to change the pinned vertex color at this time. You can try controlling the display in the Overlays menus (setting UV Opacity temporarily to 0 will make the pinned vertices stand out)

Unfortunate :/ Would there be a way to do this through the python api? Another option I'm exploring is potentially changing the colors used for the stretch visualization.


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Creating a procedural field-line pattern with material nodes
I'm working on a procedural texture that generates a field-line pattern like you might see in diagrams like this:

Requirements
The arrow heads aren't important from that diagram. I'd like to have control over the thickness and the number of field lines displayed. They also should not be constant thickness along their length, i.e. they should be wider the further from the charges they get.
What I've tried so far
My first thought is to create some angle based gradient around each node that can then be stratified, like follows.

The charges in the field diagram are included in the material with the Combine XYZ nodes on the left.
From here, it's clear that this gradient needs to be augmented somehow using the distance from each node to curve these lines toward each node. Unfortunately, I'm unable to figure out a way to blend these gradients that gets the desired result of curving the black and white lines toward the 3 nodes.


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How to combine two middle-grey images and keep the same value?
(i have answered myself, problem solved)
If two middle-grey (0.5 value) images are used and combined in Overlay mode the image will get darker. How can i keep the same value and add the details of both textures?
Here is the ambiant occlusion map with a middle-grey:

And here i add another texture in overlay with a middle-grey this can be a bent map for the lighting or a curvature map, as you can see the image becomes darker and it becomes very dark if i increase the factor:

I must wait one more day to be able to click it.

To combine two textures with a middle-grey and keep the same value connect your previous image to an overlay node and the new in the second slot.
Because Blender uses sRGB and not a Linear color management you need to correct the gamma by connecting it to a gamma node in the image slot and for the second slot connect a math Divide node with 1 on top et 2.2.


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Need help to convert a SKP file into an OBJ without having sketchup PRO
I would like to get an SKP object into my blender project but unfortunately I don't have a sketchup subscription, so I can't convert it in sketchup.
So I wanted to ask if someone in this community has a sketchup subscription, who could convert the file into an OBJ for me...
Here is the link to the .skp object  I am talking about:
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/f2d5f47e563436a4631a5b7d7e03136/Olympiastadion-München?hl=de#contact
I am very thankful if someone could send me this as an OBJ file somehow...
Kind regards Matteo

You can try this addon https://blenderartists.org/t/sketchup-importer-v0-23-released/1223412/93

Unfortunately I can't enable the add on btw. I am using macOS so that might be a problem... are there any other ways?


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move a mechanism according to the terrain
I'm having such a bad time on animating the rows of a planting machine. The rows must follow the deformation of the terrain, but animating them one by one and trying to syncronize as they pass through the deformation is proving to be a real pain in the @$$! So I was wondering if there's a simple way to make those rows to move according to the terrain's deformation. Anyone knows how?
Note: the disc and the shank must be part under the ground.

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.

to add to Crantisz' answer: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/135285/how-to-build-a-carriage-that-reacts-to-an-uneven-ground

If you don't have big valleys and sharp surfaces, you can use Shrinkwrap constraint for that:

If you set Distance positive, the object center will be above the ground, negative - below.

Thank you so much friend! I'll try doing that and parent the movemet to the rest of the mechanism!


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Rig is making lips clip and arms move the eyes
Eyes are moved by the arms and when he crouched the lips go inside his body. I couldn’t add that picture though because I can’t for some reason have two pictures.

you can easily paste two pictures by just drag'n drop or paste them in the question. Please do not make photos of your screen because they are hard to read. Please use screenshots. Thanks. And providing your blend file would be a big help, because you didn't describe anything you made and didn't show us any useful information.

Hello and welcome. Rather than take photos of your monitor post actual screenshots instead, see How to take a screenshot. Photos are harder to read, because we have to guess if we are looking at a external interference like reflections or smudges or Moiré patterns, hardware issues such as a malfunctioning display or connection, a software level bug or driver malfunction, or an or actual artifact or issue with the model itself.

These parts are not assigned to the good vertex groups, so they are going to be moved by the wrong bones.
In Edit mode select the eye and the lips and in the Object Data panel > Vertex Groups, remove these parts from all groups:

Then select the eye, select the vertex group it is supposed to be part of, and press on the Assign button. Same for the lips:


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How does cloth simulation work in Blender 2.79?
Due to the limited capabilities of my hardware, I am forced to use Blender version 2.79 and am currently busy studying the settings for cloth simulation. However, the official Blender guide offers very vague descriptions for each of the settings, which do not give an accurate understanding of how exactly they affect the simulation, the behavior of the polygons. Now I'm trying to understand the meaning of each of the settings parameters, just placing random values and seeing what happens. But for obvious reasons, it takes too much time. The guides on YouTube, on the other hand, are mainly devoted to newer versions of Blender, where the settings and, as far as I understand, the simulation mechanics themselves have undergone significant changes. I would be grateful if someone from Bender's "olds" would share an understandable guide describing in detail all the cloth simulation settings in Blender 2.7 and demonstrating how they affect the result.

Plenty of YT videos for 2.79: here for instance. To search Google just add "+2.79" to your search phrase and you get this result.

@JohnEason Among them, there is no comprehensive manual explaining and illustrating each parameter of the modifier in detail. Naturally, I can watch 24 hours of video material from different lessons, where in each of the 20minute videos, only one minute will contain information that is new to me. But for this I turned to this forum: in order to save time and find a lesson or a course that will immediately explain all the intricacies of working with the modifier, and not force you to repeatedly re-read information I already know in different guides in the hope of finding grains of new knowledge

@JohnEason It got to the point that I simply rewrote all the parameters of interest to me in the search string, placing each one in quotes. And in the end I got only: The aforementioned uninformative official blender guides; Lessons where already set parameters are given to achieve certain results without explaining how and why it works; And some research work on cloth simulation that has no obvious connection with the simulator in the version of blender I need

This forum is for answering specific problems with using Blender, not for providing detailed tutorials on every aspect of a particular function in Blender. I'm afraid that all we can do is point you to available online information and you'll then have to take it from there.


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Paper physics simulation on a highpoly mesh
I want to model a highpoly paper cube with a length of 13 cm and a detail of about 16 polygons per cm². As planned, the cube should simply roll due to different external influences (getting minor dents along the way), then a hand grabs it and crushes it, after which the cube should fall to the floor and begin to partially return the shape in accordance with the physics of real paper.
I wanted to recreate the physics of real paper using cloth or soft body modifiers, but in both cases the problem arose already at the stage of animation of a whole calm cube. No matter how high the stiffness and low mass parameters I set, the cube always either crumpled under the influence of gravity, or turned into an incomprehensible polygonal mess, or simply flew out of sight for thousands meters between frames.
Googling gave me advice to reduce the number of polygons. However, this goes against my idea of making a physically correct model that can both maintain its density with smoothness and get realistic wrinkles due to impacts of other objects in the scene without resorting to sculpting.
How can this be implemented in Blender?

It may be beneficial to add some thickness to your paper by making every quad into a very thin cube.


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Geometry nodes, Mesh intersection line, procedural weld
I am trying to find the intersection line between two objects with geometry mesh boolean to make a procedural weld but I can't seem to find out how to do it.

Blender 3.0 - 3.3
If you have two meshes and want to select their intersection, use the following nodes:

Here I first capture the edges of one bar with Capture Attribute before I merge the two shapes with the node Mesh Boolean.
After that I simply remove the previously selected edges with Delete Geometry and only the intersection line remains.
But of course you can apply the same game with selecting and deleting directly to your mesh created with Mesh Boolean:

Blender 3.4+
Starting from this version, the node Mesh Boolean directly outputs the intersecting edges to a socket, making the solution a lot easier:

Thanks a lot, this is exactly what i needed. I never used Capture attribute with a boolean before. I am trying to wrap my head around why this works but i will figure it out eventually. Awesome work, much appreciated.

Nice trick there, helped me too. Thank you.

I think it works because Union has to add new edges and vertices at the weld. We delete all the vertices belonging to the old meshes and that leaves us with the newly created vertices. Amazing solution!


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Geometry nodes, Arc curve to mesh endpoints dont align
I am trying to make a continuous loop from a few arc curves but when I do a curve to mesh with a curve cicle, the end faces dont align. This example has two arcs but I actually want to do 10 or more.

Perhaps if you described your goal rather than your current approach we might be able to work out a better way to solve your problem?

As quellenform commented, multiple splines won't align, but you can recalculate the ends or even the entire thing.
The reason for the misalignment is that the direction used to generate a profile curve in a point of the main curve is the interpolated value from the two adjacent edges, but in the ends of the curve there is only a single edge.
If you or someone else wants a Geo Nodes to fillet a curve with a true arc, here's one I did:

This is perfect, looks like this is what i was looking for, Thanks.

I love Hulifier's interpretation of my idea, but what I love even more are simple solutions:
Why would you calculate the angle of the ends when Blender has already done that for you?
This image shows four arcs that were extruded using Curve to Mesh:

After all, since we have all the necessary information in hand when creating the arc and the profile, all you have to do is the following:

Calculate the angle of one segment
Select the points of the mesh at the ends
Transfer the positions of the points of the second profile segment (because it already has the correct rotation)
Rotate the positions of the end points according to the angle of a segment

Why not, Indeed?

@RobinBetts Why not a simple solution, or why not calculate everything manually?

Why not be simple? :D I'm just about to post an inferior answer :

I suppose you could wheel out the ol' Curve Deform group (simplified a bit), and use it to deform a prism of an appropriate length, given arc-span and arc-radius, then rotate the whole thing to the start-angle:

Here used to demo with the fixed default resolutions illustrated above:

I am always amazed at the variety of solution possibilities when Geometry Nodes are in play +1

if i understood you right, you just want them to align, and not "one" curve, so you could just increase the resolution of your arc to a high number and the align pretty well:

Yes it is better but not perfect.

yes of course, because the arc will be divided into pieces (defined by resolution) and Blender calculates from that "piece" the angle so it had to be infinite to get a perfect right angle. But  - just my opinion - if you make it high enough you won't see it in render...and you can push it really high... ;) just my opinion


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Geometry nodes zipper problem
I am making a procedural zipper and i am quite far already.
The only problem i am having is that when i draw a curve on the surface in the lower half of the object, the orientation of the teeth are getting messed up. It has to do with the curve tilt, if I reverse the tilt of the curves the problem flips to the upper half.
Does anyone have a solution?

Nice application!

You have done everything right so far, only when generating the rotation you would have to use the Tangents of the curves instead of their Normals:

Thanks a lot, you are my hero. I have spend a lot of time trying to figure this out. I really appreciate it!

You're welcome! Great project by the way and well built! I recently built something similar, but for garments created in Marvelous Designer and then imported into Blender. ...but haven't finished it yet because I find the questions here on BSE much more interesting ;-)

Thats sounds really cool, i am also trying to make a whole series of textile tools like stitches, zippers and buttons for example. It is fantastic that we can make our lives easy now with geonodes. Thanks again for your help. :)

Is it possible to share the blend file for beginners to see how such a thing is setup?


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Driver Logic Chain Question
I'm curious to know does there exist a topic or solution involving what I can guess as a "logic chain" (if-this-then-that) between drivers and target, to limit/control influences?
For example of a gatekeeper:
A. The basic use of a driver: rotation of a cube changes the value of an image's transparency (0 to 1).
B. As soon as the image's transparency value reaches to 1, a second driver is allowed to influence another node value.
C. However, keep in mind, that the second driver cannot activate until the first driver fulfill its duty.
Limits:
There are addons like rapidSDK and RBFDrivers, although extremely convenient for RBF purposes, don't have "logic chains," and no nodes or driver functions I can find can relate to this.

Please show your drivers in the Blender Driver editor. I find the question difficult to understand.  Perhaps others find it easy to understand.  Can you review your question to make it easier to understand?

One reason to declare variables in the Blender driver editor is so so that Blender can perform a topological sort.  Dependency Graph or DAG.  You can look up such terms if you feel the need.

The question is hard to understand for me too. Do you mean use same driver on 2 separate attribute?

I edited the question to make it a lot simpler. My apologies for the confusion. Had to think about it for a bit to make it more concise.

Hi Marquis, there is an edit history in every post. There is no need to title your post as revised or add additional text explaining an edit as it can become distracting.

Here may be a solution you want:https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/261174/2-way-property-link-or-a-filtered-property-display


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What are the Hotkeys to adjust Grease Pencil Brush Radius?
In Photoshop and many other programs, the bracket keys [] are used to increase and decrease the brush Radius respectively
Does Blender's Grease Pencil have this functionaltiy?
I can't seem to find anything of the sort in the User Preferences.
If nothing exists, how would I go about creating it?

The blender manual only mentions tablet/touch pressure as a means to vary the thickness of the brush. You would need to implement your own key combination for this functionality.

No options for this seem to be visible in User Preferences. Where would be a good place to learn how to implement this functionality?

I am also curious.   The closest data path is wm.radial_control with tool_settings.gpencil_vertex_paint.brush.size , but it will popup a ring like 'F'.

As for version 2.8 radius can be changed by using the keyboard shortcut F

In Blender 2.80, while you are in draw mode for the grease pencil object and have Draw tool as active tool.
You can press F on keyboard and drag the mouse/tablet pen to increase or decrease the radius of the brush.

In 2.9.3 pressing  F switches to the Fill Tool in Draw Mode.
The hotkey for Brush Size is  S and  U for Opacity.
These can be set in Edit > Preferences > Keymap > Grease Pencil > Stroke Paint mode > Radial Control.

I am on 2.93.5. In Draw-mode  gives me the size-control, I'd have to go + 1 to get the fill-tool. I can't recognize what you are saying at all?


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Soft body sticking to collision object
I have been trying to make a soft body animation but they keep sticking to the box they fall into.
I've tried as much as I could think of and haven't seen much about this topic online. I feel like it's something really small that I just missed.

you can change the outer setting in the physics tab. this changes the size of the collision box and will stop the object from sticking

I got it! I went to the collision object and turned up 'Outer' to .5 and now it's working fine!

It would be great if you could elaborate on how and why changing the Outer setting improved the simulation.

I just started messing around with random settings and it worked. I don't really know how or why but I found it on the Blender manual and it just says "Size of the outer collision zone."

I have found that many softbody and sticking problems can be solved by increasing the scale of the meshes in the scene.


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Why is my render so fuzzy?

I was trying to render my scene, and the render turned out very blurred. (It is not supposed to be blurred). Is there a setting that I am missing somewhere which is making it look like this?

It looks like you have enabled "Depth of Field". Change the "Distance" to zero.

You have depth of field on your camera.

@cegaton This is Duplcate answer vs duplicate question


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How can I add a new vertex in blender 2.8?
When I click ⎈ Ctrl+ LMB to add a vertex, nothing happens.
How can I add a vertex in 2.8?
For now I merged mesh vertices at the center and extruded from that.
However I am not sure if this would cause any problems.

Ctrl + rmb does what you're looking for. It's changed since they updated to left click select.

It's ctrl+ RMB now. You could always create a face and delete the other three vertices.

It doesn't seem to be anymore, it isn't working

it's ctrl+lmb on mine in edit mode. try that and tell me if it works.

I have just spent the better part of the past few minutes trying to figure out this same thing
There are a few ways to achieve this:

Select two vertices, press  RMB and select subdivide to add a new vertex between them
⎈ Ctrl+ RMB if using  LMB select (note: make sure you are in wireframe mode, as the new vertex may be hidden by your mesh)
Select an existing vertex next to where you want the new vertex and do one of the following:

⇧ Shift+d to create a new disconnected vertex, then press g to drag it wherever you want
e to extrude a connected vertex and again g to drag it wherever you want

Thank you for the edit @cegaton! I was not aware of that markdown.


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remove parts of a mesh using uv map
I just read a nice article about the “Design of a Patient Specific, 3D printed Arm Cast”. (https://knepublishing.com/index.php/KnE-Engineering/article/view/607/1895)
To create the cast model itself is pretty simple as well the uv-mapping part but I found no easy way to remove the honeycombs.
The article just says:
"Using the solid body model that was extruded from the surface of the arm, the pattern can be applied to the cast model. This is done by creating a UV map of the models surface and creating a surface mask of the pattern, this is applied to the model. Using the design mask the areas that not required can be removed from the cast model."
It is not mentioned which software they used but I thought it might be possible in Blender. Any other software suggestions are also very welcome.

It may be possible to achieve in Blender but it won't be trivial. Also if you want to do this properly, forget about UV mapping and certainly forget textures. You wont be able to acquire a quality model from textures, you need actual geometry

That s what I thought too but the mesh in the picture looks really clean. By now I found another video which shows a similar process but they are using Rhino. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trtU1NzUBTI)

Not sure to get it, but something like this for sure is possible:

Pretty nice especially that you explained everything in just one picture. But somehow the modifiers are also changing the overall geometry of the part. Am I using them wrong?


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Fluid simulation and animation
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba0fhHGAXxn/?taken-by=dkpatel25
As seen in above video I made the man using "control" property from Fluid simulation.
How can I make the man walk or animate in any kind with the fluid still inside him???

Have you tried just animating the mesh as you would any mesh? Providing it doesn't move too rapidly the fluid should simply be drawn along with the animated mesh.

You can actually animate the object, and the fluid should stay with the object. You should increase the strength of the control factor while it moves to make sure the fluid doesn't slip away.


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Blender closing/crashing for no apparent reason
I am currently using Blender 2.83 LTS version and it keeps crashing for no apparent reason.
It started 2 weeks ago. I was using Blender 2.81 on Win 8.1 OS at that time and I was getting the 'NVIDIA graphic driver stoped and recovered' error message than. I have checked and updated my NVIDIA grapics drivers and the problem persisted, the only difference being that after the driver update Blender did not show any messages uppon crashing, it just froze for a few seconds and closed mid work (I did not notice any specific circumstances for crashing like for example only while rendering).
I upgraded my OS to Win 10 Pro but Blender still kept on crashing. Ive checked and updated graphics & CPU drivers again and installed Blender 2.83 LTS yesterday to no avail.
I've run Blender in --debug mode from CMD. When it 'crashes' is doesn't print anything so I am left clueless with what is wrong and how to address this problem. I can only work for a few minutes until it crashes.
Can someone please help me troubleshoot this as I am unable to crack the problem with my current google-foo? Thank you !
Edit:
As suggested below I have run blender --debug-all --factory-startup. Just as I started fidling with some material nodes it crashed imediately.

Try starting with --debug-all --factory-startup

Could you please elaborate on this? I have the same problem and have no idea how to do this

Hey, thank you for replying. I've run it as you've suggested. There is a lot of text to sift through here so Iam not sure what to look for. Nothing obvious is standing out so far.

@GlenP
You can open command prompt on a Windows OS if you type cmd in the run window. You can than navigate to the folder where your Blender app is located and launch it from there if you type in 'blender'. If you want to launch it in the 'debug' mode you add  ' --debug'  after the blender command like so : blender --debug
That will run blender and also check/log for errors while runing it

Hmmm. That's strange.What kind of card do you have? Are you using CUDA or OptiX?

I have GeForce GTX 960M and Intel Core i7 - 4720HQ CPU @ 2.60 GHz on my laptop.

If this started suddenly, there is a chance that the graphics card is at the end of its useable life. Nvidia GTX can overheat and fail, giving all kinds of random errors, or no error at all. I've gone through many of them that died on me. Test the card in a different computer and start saving for a new card.

Probably so. Blender crashed a few (a lot) more times today and the last time it did I got the BSOD and the stop code VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE  (nvlddmkm.sys). After some googling it looks like there is not much left for me to do. I will try reinstalling NVIDIA drivers from safe mode and if that doesn't solve the problem than it is probably game over for my graphics card. Thaks to everyone for your responses and time.

After disabling my GPU Blender resumed to working normally so the reason for constant crashing is obviously in faulty GPU; no amount or mode of driver re-installment solved the problem.
Thank you all for your help.


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How to scale an image source at a specific resolution
The scale node use a multiplier, 0.5 to reduce the image size by half and 2 to increase by 2. What should i use if i want to convert any image source at the desired resolution, for example i want to input a 4096*4096 or 512*512 and always get a 1024*1024 output and get the entire image not cropped.

This question is kind of strange.  Blender texture coordinates by default go from 0..1.  If you UV unwrap a square and put a texture on it, you'll see the entire texture whether it is 4k, 2k, or 1k.  If that texture isn't square, it will be squished into a square.  In what context does the resolution of this texture really matter?

In absolute i can downscale correctly but if i upscale to a given resolution the image is cropped.
Yes it's important to get a specific resolution because i am making a node setup to check if a 2k texture is seamless and it translate a 2k texture for that: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?383624-Dark-Blender-(Official-Thread)-optimized-for-sculpting-and-game-asset-creation&p=3058915&viewfull=1#post3058915


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3d heat profile with opacity
I would like to define a 3d, spherically symmetric, profile for objects that changes colour and loses opacity as move away from the centre. Essentially I want a 3d heat map centred on the object. The idea is that if I place many of these objects near each other, than they will blend seamlessly, i.e. that instead of overlapping, the space in between them will get the colour and opacity that is the sum of the two.
Is this possible in blender?
Edit for some figures:
So, firstly what I'd like to is paste a 3d profile on to all my objects. Something like this but in 3d:
I'd like the opacity to follow the same or a similar gradient as the colour in the above image. So that you can kind of see through the edges of the objects, but not the centre.
Then I'd like to add many objects but I'd like them to combine like this:
Notice how one object doesn't overlap the other, rather they blend seamlessly, and the brightness at points between them is the sum of the brightnesses from each individually.

Could you illustrate with examples or existing images what you mean, it may be difficult for someone to help only with a verbal description of what you want. It sounds like you are trying to do some sort of volumetric 3D Voronoi map. There are procedural textures for that in Blender, namely the Voronoi texture that can be used as density texture for a volume material, but I am not sure you would get the kind of control you seem to want from it.

First, give each of your objects a white volumetric emission shader.  The strength doesn't really matter that much as long as you use the same material on every object so the relative density is consistent.
For the objects themselves I am using a collection of Metaballs.  Meta-objects will "blend" into each other similarly to what you are describing.

Now set set your background color to black and render.  This will result in the following black and white map.

Next jump over to the compositor to remap this to the color gradient you want.  First plug the render into a Normalize node to remap the range of the render to [0,1].  Now run that output through a Color Ramp node and set up whatever gradient you want.
I also found that it gives a result closer to your reference images if you also add a small amount of blur.

The result looks like this: