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How to control the mix of emission and transparency materials?
I'm trying to make a glowing jellyfish.
I have the model, but I have a problem when I want to blend the glowing material (located in the little thin tentacles jellyfish have) with the transparent one (being that material the main colour of the body) so that you cannot see a clear discontinuity between those materials.
I have tried following some tutorials, but I do not seem to find any of those that really solves my problem (all of them solve the problem with colours, but the shaders seem to not be included).
If anyone could help me, I would be really thankful.
Thanks in advance, Cdeluz

You can see in the image that there is like a red and blueish fade when the glow and the body of the jellyfish conect. that is the effect im looking for.

Could you please provide some examples? Reference photos, or just screenshot from your mesh?

Possible duplicate of How to blend(gradient effect) two different 3D materials, in cycles blender

@LukeD i have posted a reference image for you. thanks for your time

Could you mark exactly the parts from the question on the image? It's so subtle that's hard to tell where you have problem.

As Artturi said, a mix shader can help transition between different shaders.  In the example below, I've used vertex paint to make the black and white image that is used as a factor between a glowing/opaque pink material (mostly an emission shader) and a more transparent purple material (I've used the fresnel node to make the outer edges more opaque, as in the picture you uploaded).
The node setup is more complicated than it needs to be to illustrate the principle, but it does show how you might use it to get something like your picture.

Use "mix shader" node and then for the factor of that node you can use different generated textures or you can paint your own textures. The transition between colors black and white will determine which parts are now done with either of those selected shaders.


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Mask vs delete vertices
I'm working on my first character that I want to rig and animate. I created the raw body and added clothes, everything looks fine so far. I want to keep the render time down so should I delete the unseen vertices under the clothes or mask? Will deleting the vertices effect the clothes shape? By that I mean, will the clothes collapse because there is no body underneath? I am, of course, copying the entire character before manipulating but was concerned that any clothes physics would collapse with nothing under it.I'm using Blender 2.8a

if you'll be using cloth physics than yes, the clothes will collapse if you delete vertecies uder clothes, you could delete them if you would rig the clothes as well as part of the character. But I don't think you should worry that much about render times, due to body under clothes. I don't think you would gain much speed by deleting those parts.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Why can't I open the side menu in 2.8?
I'm working on 2.8 and noticed I could not pop open the window on the right side of the screen. Usually that had a "plus" sign, it only has a "less than" V and won't let me open. Is that a bug? or a feature change? Doesn't matter whether I'm in Object Mode, Edit Mode, Layout screen, modeling screen, etc.
Also have a project that has "Lasso Select" stuck on, can't get it to turn off

W is the shortcut for the selection options, press it once and you should be back in normal selection mode. Or you could change it by pressing (keep it pressed) on the blue highlighted box with the mouse cursor icon in de top left corner of your screen. Then change it to your preference.

Thanks. That was one of those things ya know but just get a brain freeze on. Maybe overthinking changes in 2.8.

This seems to be a bug with the most recent builds of Blender 2.8 (as of writing, build of April 26, 07:03:52 - 513b71c89ad0). You can open these items via the shortcuts N and T for the right and left context menus respectively. Once you toggle the menus via these shortcuts they will respond to the mouse correctly thereafter.
In case these aren't your keybindings (these should be Blender defaults), you can find and/or map them in Edit>Preferences>Keymap. You can search "context toggle" by name or find them under the keymaps of the respective editor windows. You are mostly looking for "generic" editor modes NOTE: Every editor window (3D view, node editor, image editor, etc.) has an independent keymap for this action which means you will have to change every case of this mapping you find if they are all not to your liking.

"seems to be" is not an answer. If you have prove (like a bug report on the official bug tracker ), you might want to link it here. If you believe that you found a bug, then please post it there.

In the View menu, make sure to have the Tool Settings option checked

Press N  key on your keyboard to open the properties menu.

maybe it has changed the shortcut in 2.8?

shortcut working in v3.3

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


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Extra points on "faces" in edit
I just loaded latest build of 2.8. In edit, face view, I have sixteen reference points in each face. Is this a setting I have off with this clean load or is it a bug?

If you turn on subdivision surface modifier visible in edit mode it looks like this.

You can turn off the face center dot in view port overlay option if needed. And that might be submod edit visible to act like the picture shows.


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Joining objects in an array for animation with Boolean stumping me a bit
I'm relatively new to Blender, though rapidly getting comfortable (my background came from CAD/CAM systems). I have a relatively simple architectural project I'm working on where I am creating posts and railings. I first created a wrought iron post that I set in an array of three posts. Between the posts I put a top and bottom rail then added a single picket that I set to array. So far so good. I wanted to use a Boolean to animate that setup disappearing for a new use of the space by the construction contractor. I decided that it would be quicker (probably less overhead) to join the entire group and have the Boolean work on the group. When I join all the items, only the original item in the array appears, all the others disappear. I get very stubborn about finding a solution ( I wrote several technical manuals for CAD/CAM systems and tend to dig deep into programs for solutions first before turning to help). So, before I spend any more hours digging through manuals, and tutorials for something that may not exist, am I correct in assuming that only the original mesh in an array actually physically exists and the others are ghosts that can't be joined? Or am I missing a setting that lets me grab all of them? Thanks.

"only the original mesh in an array actually physically exists and the others are ghosts" that is more or less correct (I'd call "ghosts" as "unexisting geometry yet") only before modifier is not applied (that Apply button) which will make its modifications real. Note that modifiers are non-destructive workflow, they don't change anything irreversibly. When joining, active / selected last object will be the one which modifiers will be used for the joined object.

"my background came from CAD/CAM systems" in the long run, if you want to avoid headaches, you should really ditch the Boolean-based workflow

Although you can use booleans at the bottom of the modifier list, you can also copy modifiers between objects.

Thanks! I just blew right past applying the modifier, once I did everything worked smooth


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Rendering animation as stills or MP4?
I have an architectural animation of about 400 frames ( a part of a larger compilation). At about two minutes per frame, it will take more than thirteen  hours so, I was going to connect a second computer, pull up the same file across the network, and check the "place holder" feature and have both computers rendering the same file. Now, rendering to an MP4 is fairly new in Blender and, though I prefer rendering straight to video, I'm a bit wary about any issues I might run across with this new feature. I'll be pulling the finished render into Premiere Pro for further editing with HD videos, commentary, and stills. So, video or stills? Stills would mean stitching together, not a terribly hard thing to do in Premiere but that MP4 would be way easier. Just hate to get thirteen hours into a render and find the network/placeholder method has issues with video.

Stills are always a good idea. If you crash or need to quit the program for any reason you can pick up where you left off.

I do not recommend you to render directly to video.
If any error occurs during this render, you will lost all the movie.
Rendering in frames (stills) you can render in parts, also in case of error, you can render the remaining frames later.
Use the video editor to render the stills to the final video.

Ideally too, render to EXR half or full. If bandwidth is an issue, use DWAA compression.

And using the VSE to stitch them together takes almost no time.


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CPU Rendering in Blender 2.76?
Ok so I've been trying to render Halo particles in Cycles Render but I don't have the 'device' option to change between GPU and CPU, is there a way to fix this or add it to 2.76?

Halo particles aren't supported in cycles. You might want to look at point density - there is a bconf video demoing point density.

It is visible from your screenshot that you have selected Blender Internal render engine. To use GPU as compute device you should switch to Cycles Render. After that it'll be possible to choose which device for computing should be used (note that you'll still need to set up in User Preferences which compute device to be used as @ToddMcIntosh already answered).
Internal doesn't have possibility to accelerate render with GPU. See Graphics Card Not Avalible in Blender Internal for similar situation.
As for particles, it's unclear why you'd like to switch between CPU and GPU to render them, however this is completely different question and should be asked separately.

You have to go into User Preferences > System and select CUDA or OpenCL, and then select your GPU to enable you to choose the GPU Rendering option.

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


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Changing Multiple Colours at Once
Ok so I was wondering if it was possible to add a red tinge to all of these colours, but I don't won't to go into the node editor and change each one individually to have a red tinge. Is there a way that I can add a red tinge to all of the materials in one go? Essentially have some sort of master control over these 3 colours, so that if I add a colour to one of the materials it will also effect the others.

This is best done with node groups. Add a "main color" group that outputs a color to tint with. Incorporate that into the material nodes. Then, whenever you change the group, all of the nodes get the new color update.

As far as automatically adding the groups, it would be much harder (although not impossible), and it would require a good bit of python programming.

Just an idea, don't know if it's workable for your blend: set-up a light/lamp and give it a red colour.
If there are objects in the scene you don't want a red 'tinge' to, then I believe it's possible to make those objects ignore the light.
This would then be a 'global' overlay on top of all materials that receive the light.

Interesting idea, but this isn't a very usable solution. Lamps add. They don't just color.

Yes, I was aware I was 'being creative'. Ambient light levels would need adjusting, and of course cast shadows would need to be off, though there would still be areas unlikely to receive the coloured light, I presume. I wasn't expecting an 'accept' on this.

authors: Антон Аксельрод

authors: Юрий Платонов

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


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Master Bone to Move Entire Rig
How can I set it so that the selected bone in the photo will move the entire rig with it?
Essentially, the selected bone acts like a parent for all the bones in the rig.

Since this is an IK setup, all of the IK controller bones and pole targets need to be parented to the 'master bone' at the base of the rig. e.g.


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Render particles inside a certain area

Ok so I've got a quick question, is it possible to have particles render when they make contact with a specific object? Essentially make the highlighted object in my scene a domain for the particles, so that when they fall into that area they become visible.
P.s. I'm working in blender render.

I'm not sure whats your goal here but if you want to draw the shape with particles you might want to give the particle themselves a texture definition  using worldspace coordinates and the image, then have it affect the emission and/or transparency.

To make particles rendered only in certain areas during animation you should control their size with a texture assigned to particles system. In this case particles will be emitted but will be visible only where texture allows them.

Create a cube which will act as a 'domain' for your particles (it will affect particles' appearence).
Scale it accordingly with the object. Rotate it 90 degrees by Y axis.
By default texture of Blend type will use X and Y axes for mapping. In this example cube will be moved by Z axis, hence all the coordinate system should be changed. For this reason the cube will be rotated to rotate its coordinates which will be used as coordinate system for particles' texture. Hence do not apply scale and rotation.
Position cube appropriately and keyframe its location.
While in Particle System settings go to Textures tab and create new one (make sure that type of textures is set to Particles in the top of the Textures tab).
Switch its type to Blend (to use texture as a gradient).

Open Colors rollout, check Ramp and create 2 more color stops to make texture influence in both directions (in this case, +Z and -Z). Choose appropriate Interpolation type, in this case used Constant for more visible effect. Set up color stops so black is in the corners and white is in the middle.

Because texture influence should change together with moving object, that object can be choosed as texture coordinates centre. In Mapping rollout choose Object and select that scaled and rotated cube from dropdown list.

Lastly, in Influence tab uncheck Time and check Size. The particles' appearence will be controlled by affecting their size instead of density.
While Density will work it won't cause refresh of amount of particles emitted when object used as coordinates centre moves (probably a limitation) and hence this won't work for animation.

Now particles will be shown only as the cube moves down:

Thank you very much for that, it works but when I go to render the scene the particles don't show up? And it renders the cube as being a solid.

@masterj2001 cube can be easiely marked as non-renderable. As for particles - it's hard to tell the reason, but this doesn't work as expected in Internal. When in BI and with object as texture coordinates, it doesn't take into account object's rotation. More than that, render result depends on camera view (try rotating camera and notice different amount of particles rendered). Probably these are some limitations of particle engine. I don't see any workaround for BI as for now, while this works just fine in Cycles which I tested more at the moment.


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Add rig to already weighted model
I have a model of the Master Chief that I downloaded.  I have created a suitable rig for the model but don't know how to parent the rig to the model and preserve the weights already painted on it... Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

if the model already has weights, it should have vertex groups. Make sure the bones in your rig are named the same as the existing vertex groups. Then select the model, then the rig, and hit Ctrl-P > Armature Deform (and make sure the armature modifier on the mesh is set to Bind to Vertex Groups). If you have additional bones that you want to use that don't have pre-existing vertex groups, you can enter pose mode on the rig, then enter weight paint mode on the mesh, then select the bones you want to have weights for, press W and select Assign Automatic From Bones. I hope this helps!

Yes this fixed my issue, I'll just have to go through and rename all of the bones in my rig. Thank you so much!!!

You're welcome, masterj2001! I'm glad it helped. :-)


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Will EEVEE eliminate the need for cycles and rendering?
So I have been seeing a lot lately about EEVEE, and even though it is in early development it still seems really powerful. What I'm interested in is will it just eliminate the need for having cycles and rendering your scene?
Given the fact that everything is rendered in real time I see cycles and waiting for things to render becoming obsolete.

Simple answer. No. They are completely different things. But. It's always about your needs.

You can expect it to replace the internal render engine but cycles will remain.

No. EEVEE will not replace cycles.
If you want accurate renders, cycles will still be your renderer. Cycles is a ray tracer, so it simulates individual rays of light your scene.
EEVEE uses approximations on the behavior of light and will not be as accurate, however is much faster.
For some projects (such as low-poly renders or stylized works), EEVEE could replace cycles, but when it comes to photorealism, cycles will still be the champion.

I would use weaker wording as Cycles being 'accurate' or 'photoreal'. I see what you mean and I am nitpicking, but put into perspective with commercial solutions Cycles is not there quite yet to be worthy be put alongside those words:) I would tag as photoreal Maxwell and Indigo: https://www.behance.net/gallery/53917965/LENSES-TEST


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EEVEE Spot light
i added spot lights to my model, but on rendering EEVEE mode they partially don't show as you can see on the attached images. could anybody give me an advice? the set up of all the spot light is the same
thanks


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Fabric material
could anyone help me to set up a fabric material of a traditional Bedouin tent. I am trying also to define available world setting as desert environment. My material doesn't look as what i would like. Please any suggestion will be very appreciated.
Tent fabric

My model
Fabric material

Texture example

World

THANKS!!!!!!!!!

Try to use pbr materials. https://www.textures.com/browse/pbr-materials/114558#fabrics-leather-and-paper

Thanks, I have checked but I don't need other textures, I would like understand how to make a realistic fabric material to apply the texture above with it. Thanks very much!

Please ask only one question at a time, make as many posts as necessary

Thanks Duarte, I would like to make a fabric material and use the texture above. The structure above is 42 m tall, could this be a problem?? thanks very much.

Looks like your texture is too small and repeated with high frequency. You need to texture coordinates for your texture or unwrap your mesh.


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Bevel object doesn't work
could someone help me with the following issue?

As you can see by the screenshot above I can't extrude the path using the selected profile. Both the items are curves and I have applied Rotation&Scale.
Thanks for your help

try to rotate a bevel-object in edit mode, It seems it extruded sideways

Can you add a screenshot of Cube.006 (the bevel object) in wireframe, showing where its origin is?

Thanks to everyone, I rotated the profile and it worked.
why is this happening?
Thanks


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Creating .bvh from .c3d
I'm working on a project importing motion capture from physical therapy patients.  What I have been trying to do is import the .c3d data, creating an armature and parenting it to the .c3d, and exporting it as a .bvh.  My next step was to create a model via MakeHuman and map the .bvh to the model, but I am running into some issues here saying that some bones have multiple children.
Does anyone know of a different way to go about mapping the .c3d data to a model?  Is there an easier way to build the armature - I know the .bvh from the Carnegie Melon University works with Make human, should I try to build an armature that matches it exactly?
Open to any suggestions, thanks!

Enable the motion capture tools addon that ships with blender, in the object properties you will get extras to retarget an animation to another armature.


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Is the Unit Scale setting available in the material editor?
There are material and texture properties which are made in scene units. (For example texture scaling, bump distance, etc.)
Using the same material in different units (meters vs.  millimeters) with different unit scaling make the texture look "wrong".
Is there a way to reference the scene's unit scaling setting directly in the material editor?

Why is there no option to use a custom shader attribute in the attribute node in the material editor? That could be driven directly by the unit scale. Is there really no way to get around this? I can't believe that there is no solution for such an important problem.


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Selective collision with particles
I have two collision objects and two particle systems.
I want P1 to interact with collision 1
       P2 to interact with collision 2
Can you help me to achieve that ?
Now both are interacting with collision 1 :(
One will collide with it. One should pass through it.
How can

See [Collision Collection] value on Deflection Panel of the Particle information as indicated by the arrows above.  The outliner window shows how the [collection] is visible.  This is how you restrict influence between particles and a Physics Collision object.
The collision object needs to be placed in the collection specified in the particle system.
Click on the image to see a larger image to read the detail.


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Is lighting needed for a 3D model in blender if you are going to import it into unity?
I'm making a 3D character in blender who has a hood over his head and I positioned the light in blender so you wouldn't be able to see his face because of the shadow of the hoodie, if I import this model into unity will the light effect that I used in blender be removed off the model.

No it is not. See https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/57531/fbx-export-why-there-are-no-materials-or-textures

depends on how you import it. you could import the blend file, that includes the lights, or you could export the model as an FBX.
either way, if you only place the model in the scene, the light won't be included, except if you place the entire blend file in the scene.
or you could parent the light to the model... if you want it to be included, but i recommend using the lighting from unity itself


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How do you make a horizontal loop cut?
I was watching a tutorial series on YouTube and at 5:11 he made a few loop cuts that are horizontal. How did he do this?
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnPkrxz4AQQ

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/modeling/meshes/editing/subdividing/loop_subdivide.html "After the tool is activated, move the cursor over a desired edge. The cut to be made is marked with a magenta colored line as you move the mouse over the various edges."

Initiate loop-cut mode by hitting Crtl + R
While you are still in that mode, scroll your mouse wheel (up or down) / Page UP - Page Down buttons work as well. Or if you have some specific numbers of parallel running loops in your mind, you can make use of the numeric keys as well.


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CPU Only at 40% during bake and render
My render and bake have recently started going by excruciatingly slow.  My CPU is only at around 40%, and my GPU is sitting around 10 or 20%.  I've been rendering a rather simple scene for almost 12 hours, much higher than previous simple scenes.
I'm using the Cycles Render - I have it set to prioritize my GPU, and I've raised blender's priority in task manager - all to no avail.
Anyone have any ideas as to what may be causing this?

If it is set to GPU render it will not perform the actual render process with the CPU, it will only be used for task scheduling, texture loading etc.

Are you talking about a fluid sim bake, a texture bake or something else?

Cycles either uses CPU or GPU not both; unless you are using one of the latest experimental nightlies. If you are using GPU rendering CPU will mostly stay idle, and you can't really prioritize GPU tasks. If you are using CPU then your GPU is not expected to be very loaded.


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Destroying any object into cubes
I’m trying to figure out how to destroy any object into cube shards. As in small cubes. Similar to the derez effect seen in tron legacy when the identity disc is thrown through the player. Ive looked for tutorials but none of them show how to do it. They all show how to destroy just a cube into smaller cubes or how to destroy an object into random shards. Say you were destroying a sphere in the way im describing. The outer cubes would have one curved surface matching the curve of the sphere and the inner faces would just be flat, cube like.

do you mean just how to "refactor" any mesh into cubes (with only outer ones matching the mesh surface)?or how to make it explode? what you mean by "destroy", exactly?

One possible way to replace your exact mesh profile with cubes (with only outer ones matching the mesh surface) could be cutting the mesh shape from a 3d array of cubes using booleans. Then, you could maybe make it explode, fall, whatever.
A simplified example:
I started with a sphere, which I wish to replace ("destroy") with cubes:

Then I add another object a little cube, then add 3 array modifiers for each axis (X, Y, Z) with fixed count suitable to "contain" the target sphere (here array modifiers are disabled - eye icon)

Here is a detail of the first (enabled) array modifier on X: note that I leaved a little space between cubes using 1.05 as relative spacing.

which seen in perspective appears as

then you enable also Y and Z

Of course the sphere is now inside this big 3d array of cubes
Now if you enable a further modifier on the cube array, a boolean that intersects the target sphere, you get this resulting shape:

as you see the cubes are a little spaced as planned.

Now you can apply all modifiers: since boolean is quite slow, I suggest to first disable it temporary (eye icon), then apply all 3 array modifiers. Only then enable again the boolean and apply it.
After getting the resulting shape, identical to the image above but a real object, you need to make each cube a single object, to let it later explode, fall, etc.
So you enter edit mode, select all, and press P to get the "separate" menu, and choose "by loose parts":

beware this is very slow since geometry is quite complex here, blender will seem to freeze but it's not, let it finish (when the "separate"menu disappears, it's done)
After a few (minutes in my case - crappy old notebook) you get something like this (I've just hidden half of the "cubespheres" to let you see the inside and the outside)

Each of the cubes is an object independent that will fall, explode, move as you expect...
As an example, here is after setting all cubes as active (mesh) rigid bodies, and letting them fall onto a passive (mesh) rigid body plane:

This is what i was looking for thank you so much.

I will experiment with this and see if i can figure out how to apply it too more complex geometry. Thank you again


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Missing Add Texture Paint Slot
I'm learnig how to use Blender with Youtube tutorials and I'm stuck because I cant't find Add Texture Paint Slot option. I know where it suppose to be, but I don't have it.
I'm using Blender 2.76b and this is how it looks

Blender 2.77a
How to texture paint your mesh in Cycles Render

If you have a simple mesh you may want to skip this step, otherwise I suggest you to go to EDIT mode and select the part or connected parts which you want to paint separately. Press P, a menu will appear asking you which option to choose (Selection, By Material, By loose parts); select Selection. Now to select either the original mesh or the newly created object you have to go to OBJECT mode and then return to EDIT. From now on, each part of your mesh will be dealt with separately.
If your object is complicated, I suggest you to MARK THE SEAM otherwise leave it.
Split the screen in two parts and on the bottom left of one of the panels, click on the little cube, select UV/Image Editor.
In the other panel (3d view), select the object you want to paint first then switch to EDIT MODE. Remember that for each panel to be active, your mouse must be hovering it. Press U to unwrap. For a very simple object, Smart Unwrap (no marked seam necessary) is very convenient otherwise just choose Unwrap.
Return to the UV/Image Editor panel and at the bottom you will see the icon of an image with NEW next to it. Select NEW and choose a name for the object you are about to paint. Make sure to type a name you can easily associate with the object. Once done, you will see that your object has turned black just like the background color of your UV map. This is because the two are connected so don’t panic! You may also need to zoom out to adjust your view.
Now, on the right side of the 3d view, select Material then New and give it a name by double clicking on Material.001. At the far end of the Color section, there is a dark gray area. Click on it and select Image Texture, right under it a new menu will appear. If your click on the image icon, your newly created UV map should be there, otherwise choose open and select it manually.
Remember to save your work. We are now ready to paint, hover your mouse over the 3d panel and select TEXTURE PAINT. In the 3d view panel, your object is still black at this stage, press T to bring up the Paint tool bar. Select the color you want and start painting your object. You can adjust the radius and the strength of your brush from under the color palette viewed as a colored circle.
As soon as you start painting, you will notice that your UV map gets updated in real time. It is fundamental now to save your UV map as Image. This is the image that you will keep forever even for future references so place it somewhere easy to find and to connect with the original image. Later on, if you want to export your object, you will have to export its related images too.  The colored UV map will be saved as a PNG file.
Select Save as Image from the UV Editor and save your image as a png file. Every time you make changes to this object, an asterisk will appear on the menu next to Image to inform you that you need to save your work.
Back to painting your object, you will notice that the brush may not be as accurate for some little corners. In this case I suggest you to paint directly on the UV map. On the bottom menu of the UV editor, click View and select Paint. Now you can paint directly on the UV map and at the same time, you can see the result in the 3d view. It’s often good to switch between the two.

Once you are done, repeat the process for the other items connected to the object which we separated earlier.
When you are finished painting and you are satisfied with your work, you can join the parts together again so that you can move them around. Select the small objects first and the main mesh last by right clicking on it while holding SHIFT down. When all the objects are active, press CTRL + J to join them. However, if something goes wrong you can again split the parts with the Separate option as explained earlier.
Texture painted objects are often very dark when rendered. In this case, once you have arranged the lighting appropriately, there is another tweak that you can use to balance the light.
Go to the right hand bar in 3d view and select the world; it’s the icon with Planet Earth. Select Ambient Occlusion and adjust the factor. You can see the changes in real time if you select the Viewport Shading to Rendered.

If you want to see more pictures of this tutorial:
https://everythingisamiracleblog.wordpress.com/
There is other stuff as well so browse down if you can't see it immediately
Have fun!

As of 2.78c, it is still not possible to use more than one Paint Slot when Painting mode is set to "Material". You still need to use Blender Internal renderer to use more than one Paint Slot.

You can add as many texture paint slots as there are images in the material nodes, the slots amount will update once you click on them.

I think the OP is not just missing the "Add Texture Paint" button but also all its related functionality, like being able to set what the texture is used for (diffuse, specular, etc.) as shown here

authors: Вадим Редькин


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Is a triangle with 4 verts considered a quad?
I was curious to know whether or not this shape is considered a quad or not?

Considering it is in the shape of a triangle but contains 4 verts, I wasn't sure whether it would be considered a tris or a quad.

The polygon has four edges. So it is a quad. How the vertices are arranged doesn't matter.

Also a good way to tell is if you try to create loop cuts, as you can only do loop cuts on quad geometry

Yes, it is a quad, even if two of the edges are exactly in a line. If, for example, you were to use triangulate (Ctrl + T while in Edit mode) you would find that it was split into two tris (hopefully from the bottom right point to the middle left one).
I generally find making tris into quads like this makes for a messier model, though, unless there is a reason for it. If it works with your mesh, then go for it, but if you are just doing something like this to have quads, I don't think it's a great idea (feel free to correct me if you think I'm wrong).

Yes, there is even a "trick" used sometimes that when you get a triangle you just add a cut going to one of its edges and get a "triangular" quad.


text:
Is there an easy way to set render settings from a file?
I would like to set many render settings from a text file.
The file looks like this:
# Comment
bpy.context.scene.eevee.use_gtao = True
@ bpy.context.scene.eevee.gtao_distance = 3

I read this file as a text file and split and process each line.
(Ignore comments or do special functions on numeric values which are preceded with a @ sign).
I'm still not "fluent" in Python so I don't quite understand how to use the list what I get for each line.
If I enter bpy.context.scene.eevee.gtao_distance = 3 in the script window in Blender it works but how do I use key and value (from the list) to set the actual rendering properties this way?
bpy.context.scene.eevee.gtao_distance is only a string from my list, how do I make it  an actual property which I can assign a value?

If you want a very fast way to execute your file, you can go something like
with open(filepath, "r") as f:
    for l in f.readlines():
        exec(l)

However this is a security risk if you don't trust the contents of the text file. If you want a secure solution look for bpy.context.path_resolve(path) see https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.Context.html#bpy.types.Context.path_resolve so in your case something like this :
with open(filepath, "r") as f:
    for l in f.readlines():
        if l.startswith("bpy.context"):
            path, value = l.split("=")
            path = path.strip()
            parent_path, attr_name = path.rsplit('.', 1)
            parent_object = bpy.context.path_resolve(parent_path)
            value = value.strip()
            # Here you might want to write custom behaviour to cast to the correct data type :
            value = int(value)
            setattr(parent_object, attr_name, value)

Thank you very much, the first one is really super simple. By the second version I get an error: "Value error("Path could not be resolved: %r" % attr) - Path could not be resolved by bpy " It's regardless of the actual setting I try to change. I printed the parent_path variable and that is correct. (In the example: bpy.context.scene.eevee)

Yeah I actually didn't test it thoroughly, I'll get around to it. First one is more than sufficient for a one-and-done script. Cheers


text:
Runtime Error when calling the Report function of a class from another function
I have a problem which I don't understand why it is happening.
I need to display an Error message using the self.report function of a class. This works when it is called directly from the class but fails with a Runtime Error when called from an update function.
I rewrote the problem in a very simple sample code:
import bpy

x = 20

class Another_OT_Class(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "another.class_"
    bl_label = "Do_Something"

    def execute(self, context):
        if x < 10:
            print("Whatever")
        else:
            self.report({'ERROR'}, 'This is the error message I want to display')
        return {'FINISHED'}

def updVariants(self, context):
    if context.window_manager.Variants.variant_sel == 'Var1':
        bpy.ops.another.class_('INVOKE_DEFAULT')
    elif context.window_manager.Variants.variant_sel == 'Var2':
        bpy.ops.another.class_('INVOKE_DEFAULT')

class Variants(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    variant_sel: bpy.props.EnumProperty(
        name='variant_sel',
        items=[
            ('Var1', 'First Variant', '', '', 0),
            ('Var2', 'Second Variant', '', '', 1),
        ],
        update=updVariants,
        default='Var1'
    )

class TestPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "Test Panel"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_PT_test"
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'UI'

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        row = layout.row()
        row.label(text="Class Direct Call")
        row = layout.row()
        row.operator("another.class_",text=r"Push the button")
        row = layout.row()
        row.label(text="Enum Property")
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(context.window_manager.Variants, 'variant_sel', expand=True)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(TestPanel)
    bpy.utils.register_class(Variants)
    bpy.utils.register_class(Another_OT_Class)
    bpy.types.WindowManager.Variants = bpy.props.PointerProperty(type=Variants)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(TestPanel)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(Variants)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(Another_OT_Class)
    del bpy.types.WindowManager.Variants

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Pressing the "Push the Button" button produces the required error message but pressing one of the Variants buttons, results in a Runtime Error:
Error: This is the error message I want to display
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/_BLENDER/Test/SCRIPT_Error_Msg_Test.blend/ui_panel_simple.py", line 20, in updVariants
  File "/usr/share/blender/4.1/scripts/modules/bpy/ops.py", line 107, in __call__
    ret = _op_call(self.idname_py(), kw, C_exec, C_undo)
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RuntimeError: Error: This is the error message I want to display

File "/_BLENDER/Test/SCRIPT_Error_Msg_Test.blend/ui_panel_simple.py", line 16, in updVariants

This doesn't make sense to me. Why can't I call the report function from a Class from another function?
It is also strange that the Error Message get's written to the console but not showing on the interface.

I don't know why you need the update function at all. You click either of the buttons for First/Second Variant it sets the variant property in the scene. The update function is not doing anything. Calling the other operator there is what's causing the error. As far as I can tell removing the updVariants function and the line for update in the EnumProperty makes the whole script run as intended.

As I wrote, this is just a small example to show the problem. In my Add-on I'm using a button combinations like the variants here (a switch selector of multiple choices) which is the easiest way to achieve such a selector. This relies on an update function and of course in the Add-on there are far more code behind it.

The report function of operators need to be run at special times.
Display the report when the custom button is clicked
import bpy

x = 20

class Report(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "wm.report"
    bl_label = "Report"

    message: bpy.props.StringProperty()
    report_type: bpy.props.StringProperty(default="WARNING")

    def execute(self, context):
        context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def modal(self, context, event):
        try:
            self.report({self.report_type}, self.message)
            return {'FINISHED'}
        except:
            return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

def updVariants(self, context):
    bpy.ops.wm.report(message="You press a button.")

class Variants(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    variant_sel: bpy.props.EnumProperty(
        name='variant_sel',
        items=[
            ('Var1', 'First Variant', '', '', 0),
            ('Var2', 'Second Variant', '', '', 1),
        ],
        update=updVariants,
        default='Var1'
    )

class TestPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "Test Panel"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_PT_test"
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'UI'

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        row = layout.row()
        row.label(text="Class Direct Call")
        row = layout.row()
        row.operator("another.class_",text=r"Push the button")
        row = layout.row()
        row.label(text="Enum Property")
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(context.window_manager.Variants, 'variant_sel', expand=True)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(TestPanel)
    bpy.utils.register_class(Variants)
    bpy.utils.register_class(Report)
    bpy.types.WindowManager.Variants = bpy.props.PointerProperty(type=Variants)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(TestPanel)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(Variants)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(Report)
    del bpy.types.WindowManager.Variants

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Maybe I abstracted too much... Let's assume Another_OT_Class is doing some important things (comparing X in the sample code represents these important functions) and based on this calculations it might need to throw an error.  Some input is coming through the variant selector.  In your code you replaced my class with a pure report class. (But you still reference it in the panel). The blender classes have their own report function but they only work when called directly. Are you suggesting to write a report function in my Another_OT_Class besides the other functions?

In your case, you can do some jobs in class Another_OT_Class,  if you want to report something, return {'RUNNING_MODAL'} like the class Report.

Or check the x value in def updVariants to decide if reporting is required

Just for the sake of completeness, here is the complete working code:
import bpy

x = 20

class Report(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "wm.report"
    bl_label = "Report"

    message: bpy.props.StringProperty()
    report_type: bpy.props.StringProperty(default="ERROR")

    def execute(self, context):
        context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def modal(self, context, event):
        try:
            self.report({self.report_type}, self.message)
            return {'FINISHED'}
        except:
            return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

class Another_OT_Class(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "another.class_"
    bl_label = "Do_Something"

    def execute(self, context):
        if x < 10:
            print("Whatever")
        else:
            bpy.ops.wm.report(message="This is the error message I want to display")
            #self.report({'ERROR'}, 'This is the error message I want to display')
        return {'FINISHED'}

def updVariants(self, context):
    if context.window_manager.Variants.variant_sel == 'Var1':
        bpy.ops.another.class_('INVOKE_DEFAULT')
    elif context.window_manager.Variants.variant_sel == 'Var2':
        bpy.ops.another.class_('INVOKE_DEFAULT')

class Variants(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    variant_sel: bpy.props.EnumProperty(
        name='variant_sel',
        items=[
            ('Var1', 'First Variant', '', '', 0),
            ('Var2', 'Second Variant', '', '', 1),
        ],
        update=updVariants,
        default='Var1'
    )

class TestPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "Test Panel"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_PT_test"
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'UI'

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        row = layout.row()
        row.label(text="Class Direct Call")
        row = layout.row()
        row.operator("another.class_",text=r"Push the button")
        row = layout.row()
        row.label(text="Enum Property")
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(context.window_manager.Variants, 'variant_sel', expand=True)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(TestPanel)
    bpy.utils.register_class(Variants)
    bpy.utils.register_class(Another_OT_Class)
    bpy.utils.register_class(Report)
    bpy.types.WindowManager.Variants = bpy.props.PointerProperty(type=Variants)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(TestPanel)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(Variants)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(Another_OT_Class)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(Report)
    del bpy.types.WindowManager.Variants

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

AS X Y suggested, I have to use my own Report class as the Blender built in  Class Report is throwing an error if it is called from another Class via an update function. (I would still like to know why is there a difference... Still don't make sense to me.)
With the suggested report function, the Error Message get's displayed regardless how it is called. Thanks!


text:
Artifacts when using DoF, transparency and VSE
I'm rendering a scene with Cycles and using it in another scene's VSE as a scene strip. It has transparent film settings, and depth of field effect. After putting this together in VSE, along with black background strip, I'm getting weird artifacts when using alpha over compositing. They go away when I use add compositing, but that "takes away" a bit of the image I think. Is this a premultiplied alpha kind of problem? What do I do?
Artifact

VSE

Alpha of the render from source scene

What is the artefact? Does this solved your issue https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/158880/2214 ?

@vklidu that's almost (if not) the same as using add compositing, and that is different to what I see when I render the scene with black (instead of transparent) background. I can live with it, but it bothers me I don't understand what's going on. I think I'm going to put together minimal .blend file showing it and file a ticket with blender's issue tracker.


text:
Importing FBX triangulates
I downloaded this old 3DS max file for a dog, then exported it from Max as an FBX using the settings you see in the image on the left. I imported it to Blender with the settings you see on the right and it triangulated the mesh. I looked at another answer that said to uncheck triangulate and preserve edge orientation on the Blender import but there are no such options. I tried checking and unchecking multiple items and reimporting it to the same triangulated result. I have also tried exporting and importing as a DAE but that did not work. Unsure what do try next.

Any suggestions? For a way to import as quads only or detriangulate.

FYI: FBX imports are always triangulated, no matter what settings you put in the exporter or in the importer, no matter what 3D software. The reason for this is that both OpenGL and DirectX are triangulating the mesh anyway, because any 3D hardware is going to convert any kind of polygon into triangles.

Blender has an ability inside edit mode to convert triangles to quads. Press ALT + J with everything selected, or by selecting everything, CTRL + F for Face Menu, then Tris to Quads.
Edit: Something that might take you the rest of the way there is the Quadriflow Remesh tool. Its available in Blender 2.81+. As with all things unknown, I'd test it on a safe duplicate.

Thats awesome I never knew those options were there. It removed most of the quad but there are still quite a bit there. Will those need to be removed manually or is there another way to reduce those?

@LuckyCOINNNN - that depends solely on the purpose of your mesh. Gotta tell us something.

You can also just change the FBX exporter with these settings and it works with 2.83
Make sure you DO NOT select "split per vextex normals" this will double up vertices on import!


text:
How to display tool names?
Hello I'm watching a tutorial and the person has the names of their tools in sculpting mode which is very useful for quick selecting since I'm new to sculpting but I don't have them.
Left side is my screen, right screen is his. I'm on 2.83, he's on 2.80. I've already looked in the preferences and view settings unless there's something I missed. Thanks.

Just enlarge the toolbar from its right:

As you can see rapidly in the gif above, there are three display modes:

Icons in one column (scrollable)

Compact two columns (see picture below)

Icons and names in one column (scrollable also)


text:
Texture not properly applying, weight paint not subtracting
I'm modeling a tree at the moment and I've followed everything the tutorial is saying, but the leaf texture on my leaves is still keeping the white edges. Along with that, I didn't use (or accidentally did) weight paint on the bottom of the twig, yet it is still putting leaves there. In some red spots, it's not really putting any leaves at all!
I've included the blender file as well as a picture.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j55vJ7jik5sjs_yDUaNSeHcssM2y0bDc/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j55vJ7jik5sjs_yDUaNSeHcssM2y0bDc/view?usp=sharing

In order to help you I need to have all the texture you used in the .blend file, open you file then go to File -> External Data -> Pack all into .blend, that way the external images you used are going to be in the file. Send it again afterwards please.


text:
How do I get rid of this text above my toolbar?
I'm not sure what key I accidentally hit, but now I have this text above my toolbar (the one with "file, render, window, help" on it). Please refer to the attached image so that you can see what I'm talking about.
Googling yielded no results so that's why I'm here. How do I get rid of it?
Thanks,
HS

Grab the edge up.


text:
animation of two object using csv file
i have two different mesh in blender and i want both of them move independently using different f-curve at same time and using different csv files but i am not able to do that. Is there any way to do that?

Csv? do you mean svg (imported)? Try to add a meaningful screenshot (use the editor add image tool) to explain what you did and is not working...

@m.ardito assume it's comma separated values.

@batFINGER I know what a csv is, I thought about a typo. But how he is assuming he can "move" a mesh by its f-curve with a csv..? is it possible, how? I think at least it could need a python script maybe?

Definitely would require Python, but it might be possible

@m.ardito pretty sure you would.  On q my guess is Rajneesh want's to read one csv file with frame location etc etc to animate (create fcurve) for one object, ditto for another.

thanks for replying. csv is comma separated files. i have two mesh and two csv files and my csv files contain x, y and z locations for mesh and i want to animate both mesh at same time using python which is i am not able to do.


text:
missing some audio channels when rendering
i'm new to Blender... currently using the Video Editor and running into an odd issue...
i have a long 20+ min edit with exrs as video source and multiple audio sources
but when i render to quicktime "some" of the audio, usually top channel music, does not render.
i didn't have this issue when i had lo-res jpegs as my video source but now with the exr's it's become an issue
any insight into what could be causing this?
thanks!

Try another audio codec if you can, I had a lot of troubles with AAC, but AC3 worked fine for me

ok... thanks for the response. i'll give it a try!

There is also Mixdown option (button "Audio" near "Render Animation" ), it is basically bakes all your audio into one track. So you can bake only audiotrack and then place it in project with EXR's instead of buggy channels

mixdown is a good thing to know about. not sure if it's an option in this case.

i've deduced that for some reason Blender is actually lowering the audio levels of top channel audio tracks. in the end i greatly increased the audio volume and it did the trick.  exr's? not sure yet. the codec might also be a good solution. thanks for the help

If you apply keyframes to audio strips volumes', and you do a long track or have alot of data, usually the keyframes are not respected properly and the audio strips with them either won't be recorded or they will have the wrong volume changes intended.


text:
Blacks are somewhat grey in H.264 encoded quicktime
i'm currently using Quicktime, H.264 as my output. problem is the blacks are somewhat grey in the final output.
is there a better format for video quality?
thanks

One of the better compressed formats is Apple's Prores, which you can't create from within blender. But the blacks not being black is probably fault of the interpreter, namely the viewing application (I'm suspecting VLC). Have you tried replaying it in the Blenderplayer? Id advise you to create videos with ffmpeg if you are an advanced computer user, only rendering images with Blender and combining them into videos with ffmpeg.

yes i'm using Quicktime to view the file. i'm trying to get an idea how it will look in the final product. online i.e. youtube, vimeo, etc...


text:
best output format
i'm working in the Video Sequencer and currently outputing using the H264 format.
unfortunately it's far too compressed for final product. the AVI uncompressed is way to large.
any advice would be appreciated
also....must include audio.

Use ordinary Avi or Mov. But you can't render both video and audio at the same time. You need to render video separately and merged them together with another app

Israel Bamidele this is not true, you absolutely can render Audio and video at the same time.

H 264 has lots of different settings, and can go from crap to barely noticeable artifacts. It's one of the best encoding compressions. If you don't like the compression even with high quality levels of settings, you have to accept the big size of the file.

I'm voting to close this question because it's highly oppinion-based.

I think he is asking for more codec, like H.265?


text:
Particle location more than just x/y/z coordinates?
Using the particle system, I have a certain object being used as hair on another object, with the hair object having a material that changes its colour on the base object based on the hair's position along the x coordinate.
If the base object has a constant slope along the x direction, the colour gradient works fine, but not if the object has parts with differing slopes.  The sections sloped upward seem to be before the horizontal sections in the colour gradient, with the downward sections appearing after the horizontal in the colour gradient.

Disconnecting the particle location results in a monochrome colour, so that implies the issue is the x coordinate location information.

I have been unsuccessfully trying to understand why this is the case.  The results seem to imply the slope or angle of a given section is part of the Particle Info node's location output and not just the Cartesian coordinates.  Is there some way of working around whatever is gong on or to make it so the gradient in the examples is the same?

I'm having a hard time determining the orientation of your particles in 3D space. Can you post a non-render-view from another angle?


text:
Center axis on bone head
Until before the holidays, I was happily using a key combination that would center the rotation axis nicely on the bone head, setting it to “local” rotation.
But I have completely forgotten what key combo I was using. D’oh. And I have searched and searched to no avail!
Can anybody remind me what key combo sets the axis center on the bone head?

Two ways:

Press ALT + .
Select it in the menu:


text:
Transferring materials made in Cycles Render to Blender Game Engine
I have a question about importing objects painted in cycles render to a blender game engine file.
I've just finished my model and want to put it in a game. I textured, rigged and animated it in the cycles render. When I switch to the blender game engine, everything works fine, but my model's textures and material didn't transfer over. Do I have to texture it again in blender's game engine or can I just import the model into a blender game engine file?

Cycles and the BGE don't share the same (or even remotely similar) material systems, and the materials are not transferable between engines. That means you will have to create a new material when switching engines. However, if you have any image textures or any other non-procedural data you can reuse them, you will just have to set up the materials to use the texture.


text:
Sverchok file doesn't work in Blender 2.93
I just started learning Sverchok and created a group node (in Blender 2.92).

I still have it open on one machine (Manjaro Linux).
I wanted to work on it on my laptop (also Manjaro) which already has Blender 2.93.
If I load the file, the Groupped Node is stated as Undefined:

In the Terminal there are lot's of Errors:

Is this related to the Python difference between Blender and Sverchok?
I'm scared to restart my PC as it also had the Update to Blender 2.93...
Not a great start for me and Sverchok. :-(
Is there a workaround or a solution for this?

Suggest try the latest release instead of downloading the master: https://github.com/nortikin/sverchok/releases/tag/vstable10 Otherwise consider to file a bug report over at github so the devs get noticed (a few of them hanging around here as well).

i had contact to a sverchok developer and he told me not to use monad because it won't maintained anymore. He advised me to use the "normal" group node.

Thanks both of you for the comments! The latest release solved the problem. I could open the file and replace some deprecated nodes. Chris, I was a bit confused because there are 3 ways to group nodes: CTRL-G creates a Monad, then there is "Add Group Node" in the Sverchock Add Menu and there is the "Node" menu in the TitleBar where the standard Blender Make Group entry is but that one is grayed out. So it's a bit confusing, especially that the hot key creates a soon to be deprecated group. Now I know how to do it properly. Thanks!

If you need help on Sverchok you can also create issues on their GitHub site. They answer very quick.

Super! Thanks Chris! I will do that, especially as these kind of questions are apparently not welcomed here. (This got closed because it's Off-Topic, which is strange as Sverchok is Blender only and there are many Sverchok related questions here.)


text:
Invoke the File Browser inside an Add-On but wait with the rest of the script until it's closed
I'm writing an Add-on in which I create a new Collection and then invoke the ImportHelper to load an FBX file. After that I would like to process the loaded data.
My Problem is, that my script doesn't wait until the ImportHelper is finished.
I defined the Import Helper like this:
class ImportFBXData(bpy.types.Operator, ImportHelper):
bl_idname = "import_fbx.read_data"
bl_label = "Import FBX"

# ImportHelper mixin class uses this
filename_ext = ".fbx"

filter_glob: StringProperty(
    default="*.fbx",
    options={'HIDDEN'},
    maxlen=255,
)

use_setting: BoolProperty(
)

def invoke(self, context, event):
    context.window_manager.fileselect_add(self)
    return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

def execute(self, context):
    bpy.ops.import_scene.fbx(filepath = self.filepath)
    return {'FINISHED'}

I start this inside my Operator:
bpy.ops.import_fbx.read_data('INVOKE_DEFAULT')

Everything in front of this call gets executed properly.
The File Browser comes up and I can select a file which is loaded properly.
Because the File Browser runs modal, everything after it's call runs immediately but there is no data yet. How can I make the rest of the script to wait until I select a file, the FBX conversion is done and the data is loaded in to Blender?
I don't mind if the UI is locked up until the conversion is finished but I definitely need the file browser to select the FBX file.

The solution was very simple at the end. Everything what needs to be done with the data which was loaded by the ImportHelper should be part of the execute method of this class.
The invoke method (in my above script) was not needed at the end:
class ImportFBXData(Operator, ImportHelper):
    bl_idname = "import_fbx.read_data"
    bl_label = "Import FBX"

    filter_glob: StringProperty(
        default='*.fbx',
        options={'HIDDEN'})

    def execute(self, context):
        # Everything what needs to be done before opening the file browser
        new_fbx_collection = bpy.data.collections.new("New COllection")
        bpy.context.scene.collection.children.link(new_fbx_collection)

        # Open the File Browser and Import the FBX File
        filename, extension = os.path.splitext(self.filepath)
        bpy.ops.import_scene.fbx(filepath = self.filepath)

        # Everything what needs to be done after the file browser
        ...
        obs = [o for o in bpy.data.collections[context.collection.name].all_objects if not o.parent and len(o.children)]
        for o in obs:
            ...
    return {'FINISHED'}

This way my Add-On works perfectly.

Hi. I have taken the liberty to edit your answer, corrected the code indentation and the context reference (bpy.context -> context) in order to make it a little clearer to future visitors. If you don't like my edit, just roll it back. Further reading: What do operator methods do? (poll, invoke, execute, draw & modal) Also note that according to PEP8 variable names should be lowercase: https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0008/#function-and-variable-names hopefully nice to know...

Thank you for the corrections! I really appreciate it! :-)
As a beginner and without proper programming training it's very hard to write functioning code and such corrections help a lot to see my mistakes. (And hopefully learn from them... =)

The collection known as bpy.data.collections[context.collection.name] is context.collection  which I assume the idea is to use   new_fbx_collection so can simply use that reference.  Re setting active collection https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/155433/15543

You caught me... =) The part where it iterates on the objects, was the first part of my script and I copied it out from an internet example. The create collection part I made later and did not pay any attention to the copied code anymore.
I changed it  to obs = [o for o in bpy.data.collections[new_fbx_Collection].all_objects if not o.parent and len(o.children)] now. Many thanks for the suggestion! Dumb copying is the first step to learn but now I begin to understand the actual structure behind the copied lines.


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Blender 3.1 Optix Error on Manjaro - kernel_optix.ptx
Since the last Manjaro Update I get an error message when I try to switch to rendered view in Blender 3.1.2 :
Failed to load Optix Kernel from: '/usr/share/blender/3.1/scripts/addons/cycles/lib/kernel_optix.ptx' (OPTIX_ERROR_INVALID_FUNCTION_USE)
I tested it with Blender installed from the Manjaro Repository as well with Blender from Blender.org (extracted to a location).
Both of them gives the same error message (with different kernel_optix.ptx location of course.)
Before the update, both version worked fine.
Strangely, 3.0 (from Blender.org) works without a Problem.
Does anyone else experiencing the same Problem?

Submit a bug report via Help > Report a Bug in Blender.

It was working (same Blender installation) before the Manjaro update so it might not be a bug in Blender itself. Before I submit a bug report, I would like to know if it's just me who has this problem or other Manjaro users as well. (In the Manjaro Forum are far less Blender users as here, therefore I ask it here.)

Fair enough, but since you haven't had any other comments here I'd still suggest submitting a report so that the Blender developers can test it with the latest Manjaro version to see what's going on.

You are right. As it seems it only affects me. I submitted a bug report. Lets see what the outcome will be.

There was a second user who had the same Problem (with Ubuntu instead of Manjaro) and commented on my bug report. After he started with clean 3.1 settings, the problem disappeared. I can confirm that creating new settings instead of copying the 3.0 settings solves the problem.
I experimented a bit with my 3.0 settings in 3.1 afterwards. The settings themselves without add-ons worked. Then I started to disable the Add-ons and as soon as Sverchok was disabled, the problem disappeared again. Strangely, after re-enabling Sverchok the problem didn't came back so I don't understand why this problem happened. (My question if the other user also uses Sverchok was not answered.) It seems to be a very rare Problem and the solution at the end is simple.

maybe to completely remove sverchok (when updating from button there mey be left some old files). and try again

In the meantime I figured out that it wasn't Sverchok. It is the LuxCore renderer. If I deactivate LuxCore in the Add-Ons, everything is fine. If I activate it, Optix for Cycles is broken. I haven't continued to write here or in the Blender bug report because apparently I'm the only one left who has this problem.


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PropertyGroup for Texture Nodes
I would like to create a PropertyGroup Class with some of my own settings and then I would like to assign a settings instance to 4 different Environment Textures in my World.
This is what I would like to achieve for my Textures (example from Blender.org)

class MaterialSettings(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    my_int: bpy.props.IntProperty()
    my_float: bpy.props.FloatProperty()
    my_string: bpy.props.StringProperty()

bpy.utils.register_class(MaterialSettings)

bpy.types.Material.my_settings = bpy.props.PointerProperty(type=MaterialSettings)

# test the new settings work
material = bpy.data.materials[0]

material.my_settings.my_int = 5
material.my_settings.my_float = 3.0
material.my_settings.my_string = "Foo"

I defined my class:
class Env_Settings(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    env_name: bpy.props.StringProperty()
    env_rot: bpy.props.FloatProperty(default=0)
    env_bright_cyc: bpy.props.FloatProperty(default=1)
    env_bright_eve: bpy.props.FloatProperty(default=1)

but I'm having trouble to understand where to hung it under.
I can't put it under:
bpy.types.World.env_settings = bpy.props.PointerProperty(type=Env_Settings)

because then I can only instance it once. (All other instances will get the same values).
So, how can I define 4 instances of my Settings Property for the four Environment Textures in my World node group?
Thanks for any suggestion.

You should use a collection property. I think this should help https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/24808/86891 and https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.CollectionProperty.html

Fantastic, thank you! This is even better as not all of my settings are actually related to the environment texture itself. Initial test works, now I try to implement it in to my Add-On.


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Circuit board (technical elements) with particles
So I was watching this video the other day: https://youtu.be/-pH48mSEH0M?t=243 and at one stage they show off how they made some of the technical elements of their VFX's. 3DS was being used for this, although they were using particles; therefore, making me believe that a similar effect might be achievable in Blender.

I have minimal knowledge over how 3DS works but after a quick search, I believe this add-on was being utilised https://vimeo.com/81328417 (the functionality of the add-on is shown at 1:30)
Essentially, the main components that I want to try and replicate are:

Restrict particles from moving on the z-axis (restrict movement on any single axis)
Limit the particle direction to multiples of 45°
(Potentially the most important aspect) Have the particles leave a mesh trail behind it

I have a theory for how to achieve the 3rd step, but unsure how it could be done. If the path of the particles could be transformed into a bezier curve, then the effect of the wires could be created by using a bevel object and then animating the start and end resolutions. That's how I believe it could be achieved, although unsure whether that'd be possible and or how to even pull that off.
Additionally, I feel as if this could be achieved through the use of animation nodes. I have not tried to do this using animation nodes due to my lack of knowledge over how to use them (I do not mind of the solution requires the use of animation nodes, just wanted to clarify why I hadn't attempted to use them to solve the problem)

Animation Nodes can be used here. First, read my answer here to create the trace visualization. Then, we are going to alter the node tree to limit the computed directions to multiples of 45 degrees. To do that, the Snap Vector operator would be used. Take the following node tree for example:

The snap operator snaps the vector to the nearest point in a grid with uniform spacing, the spacing is defined by the snap vector. Since the origin point of the space is also a possible point for snapping, and since we don't want to snap to it, we normalize the vector first, consequently, the vector will never be closer to the origin, except for the case of a zero vector, which is practically impossible to happen in a curl field, so we don't have to worry about it.
Now, all you have to do is quantize the output vector of the curl subprogram using the snap node as shown above.


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Asset library not showing since upgrade to 4.1 but only in one job
I have an archvis project I have been working on and save new versions as I work along. I upgraded to 4.1 and this one job, that I have done a lot of work on, will not show any assets in the asset library except those I just added since upgrading. Now, the odd thing is, it is only that job. i can start new jobs, pull up old jobs and all my assets are visible in the library, it is just that one job. I have tried clearing the file paths in preferences and reloading but that doesn't help, it still will not see assets but all the other jobs, and new jobs will. I have tried "save as" with this job but that doesn't work either. Is there a way to repair the links inside that job? I have tried "refresh library" but that does nothing. It won't even show the Hair essentials that come in the basic Blender install.

Never could find a way to clean up the library so I opened a new job in a new window, went back to the original and copied the main collection, which held everything in the job, and pasted it the new job and everything was there plus the library worked. Must have been something corrupted in that job.


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Toon eye structure
I'm planning out some animated characters that will use toon-style eyes, something new for me. I was looking at numerous pics of the M&M characters as a study and can't figure out if the eyes are kept simple as an almost flat eye or, if they have intricate eye sockets. I'm used to creating stylized characters with eye sockets and multi-part eyeballs, but my new characters have a flat face and don't necessarily need all that work, especially topology surrounding the eye for the eyelids and sockets. Characters like the M&M ones look like they just have the eyes and lids sitting on the surface, or slightly buried in it. That would be a lot quicker to create and rig. Is just planting those parts onto the surface a common method for simple characters. or am I looking at problems down the road when animating?

for the eye orbits it looks like flatten spheres simply put on the surface of the head. As for the eyelid I guess it would be good to see a video sequence where he closes his eyes

That's where it gets fuzzy. The one above is the "newer" characters. You can see the eyelid looks very defined all the way around. When I watch clips, some make you say "definitely a separate item planted on", then you see a different character where the demarcation between the lid and skull is smoother, makes you think they went through the trouble of modeling the topology of the eyelid in with the head but, for most examples, they seem to be a separate item that is placed on, actually set in just a little, to give that sharper line around the eyelid.

In Cycles you could use an Input > Bevel node that you plug into the Normal input of the Principled BSDF. It creates a visual welding between the head and the eyelid (that are actually 2 different meshes within the same object):

Wireframe:

Rigged:

With shapekeys:

Screenshot from this ad:

That looks a lot like what they are doing. I was just looking to keep it simple like that rather than do all the facial topology loops when they weren't really that important. The mouth I of course, had to work the topology loops because it gets so much work for expression but the eyes can really be a lot more simplified in the toon style.

See my edit, you can probably do it with 2 half spheres and 2 bones

Yah, as simple as they are either a couple bones or just shape keys would work. The mouth would be more complicated, but I think characters like this draw their expression from the face moving at the mouth, a toons eyes are always pretty simple.

Yah, as simple as they are either a couple bones or just shape keys would work. The mouth would be more complicated, but I think characters like this draw their expression from the face moving at the mouth, a toons eyes are always pretty simple.
The characters I am creating are kitchen cabinets so I need to keep the eyes flatter because I want the doors to occasionally be opened, just swing out then swing back. Blender's character eyes from "Fright Night" have the flat toon look but are actually large orbs flattened by a lattice yet are still too big so I was studying options.

yes you could use Lattice but I think you can probably do it with a simpler solution


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Edge flow in animation
I'm working on a character and was following some of the tutorials Blender has for Rain and Snow. A smooth edge flow is always emphasized but when I get to the pants, they have modeled in cloth folds. The thing about those is, they whack out any smooth edge flow and instead, send the flow in all kinds of directions. In the picture of Snow, I clicked a couple flows, and you can see they go all over. Isn't this a no-no? What will this do to animation later? I'm wondering because I spent a bunch of time modeling in similar folds then sat back and second guessed myself as to whether I was making a mistake or not , both of these have the edge flow swirling around the legs  it seems that would bring problems come rigging time.

Yes that's weird but if it doesn't cause any problem when animated...

It can be a bad idea.  Where the loop bends, the weight gradient probably doesn't; under deformation, this leaves you with a (more) non-planar face where you could see triangulation.  But topology is a balancing act, and, like the pirate code, the rules aren't rules so much as guidelines.

Yah, even though this topology was done by the Blender team, I had to question it as a smooth edge flow was stressed so much previously. As you click on different flows, you really see a lot of really hard shifts that don't carry on up the leg at all, they shift ankle to knee then right back down to the ankle.  I'm thinking that modeling the folds isn't the best way to go, the diamonds you add create too many edge flow changes. I think I'll just rip them out of mine and find another way to make folds in clothes.


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Am I over thinking hair in 3.6?
I've been wrestling with hair on my character for, well, too long. I used photos from wig companies as guides as they are the only source I can find with multiple views of styles. Now, I was fighting hair going over ears on a short, choppy bob cut when I got to thinking that maybe I'm over thinking this. I'm going through a bunch of manipulations to get any duplicate/interpolated hair from passing through the ear itself, even though the outer strands would lie well. Maneuvering those guide hairs creates a bulge, which has that domino effect of having to manipulate every guide around it to smooth out the bulge and, you never really get that right as every "correction" creates two more problems. So I'm thinking, it may not even matter if some of the hairs go through the ear as they are covered anyway...unless that creates problems later on in animation/rendering. So, does it even matter if lower layer hairs go through covered/unseen parts of the ear? Or am I overthinking this thing?

These questions might provide you with a solution: Question 1 / Question 2

Thanks but that's not it. The hair is evenly spaced over the head and the only point that a guides children enter the surface are at the ear...unless I'm manipulating the curve around the ear far enough. I'm wondering if I should even be concerned with some of the guide curves children penetrating the skin given that they really wouldn't be seen.  Would this create a processing problem later or, is it purely a cosmetic I shouldn't worry about?


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How to place an image on top of another image (in the target image 2D texture space)?
I would like to place an image on top of an equilateral HDRI environment texture, like this:

I would also like to be able to manipulate the placed image (move around in the large image's XY space, scale and rotate).
(I could do this of course in a paint program, but then it would be already fixed in size and position.)
Trying to to this the following way is not working as the manipulation is not in the large image 2D texture space:

Also, the small image is mirrored on the horizon line despite it is set to clip.
I can't find a way to do this. Is there a way and if yes how?


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Audio playback timing is inconsistent
I'm still quite new to Blender and video editing but I'll do my best to provide as detailed of info as I can.
The issue I'm dealing with is I used a screen recorder to record audio for the voiceover for a video I'm making. I then went to edit out the cuts and add in still images I'd created for this video. As soon as I start adding in any images and making any cuts in the audio, the audio gets very random and will sometimes play back faster then normal, and when I pause and hit play, it will start playing several frames back, causing the audio to go out of sync with the current frame. Let's say I'm on frame 580 when I pause. When I hit play again, the sound will start playing from, say, frame 560. Another time it may start playing from frame 555 when I pause on the exact same frame, so it's very inconsistent.
I have had video-audio sync issues in the past but that was when using both the video and audio from a screen recording, and I was able to find a solution to that issue, but this time, what's baffling is that this is so inconsistent, other then that I can guarantee the sync issue will eventually start happening as soon as I start doing any edits. It does not seem to happen as long as I leave the video+audio in a single, raw, unedited cut. This also does not seem to be quite the same issue as I ran into before as the fix for that is not possible for this issue, the option for fixing that other sync issue was a setting in the video strip, which I'm not even using for this video, I just delete that part, and that setting isn't even an option in the audio properties.
I'm using Blender 2.8a and I know there is a 2.8c out now, but am not sure if this is a known bug or if it's been fixed or not, couldn't find any dev notes on the Bender.org site to see what bugs have been fixed or are waiting to be fixed.
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions I'd love to hear them.

What is your Sync Mode set to?  How are you cutting and splicing your audio?  A screenshot or two would be nice, also.

I'd love to add screenshots, but that's impossible due to a bug in the image tool. I don't know what my sync mode is set to and don't know where that info is located in Blender.

As for how I'm cutting my audio, I'm using the Blender cut tool. Tried using both hard and soft cuts, both produce the same issue.

I'm unsure what bug you're referring to but you can simply Alt+PrtScreen is you're using Windows to make a screenshot.  Just paste in Paint or some other image file editor.  The Sync Mode is listed in the toolbar of the Timeline Editor.  The possible values are AV-Sync, Frame-Dropping, and No-Sync.  You should at the least try each of them and see if it helps.

It's a bug with the Stack community tool to add/link to images. Believe me, I've tried to post screenshots and I can't. I just get this popup that I can't do anything with, it's totally unresponsive. You can see more details on that issue here: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/297270/cant-upload-or-link-to-any-images-image-tool-seems-broken

It was set to "no sync" tried "av sync" and so far so good. Thanks. Hopefully this solution will stand the test when I get back to editing my video properly again tomorrow.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Glad to hear it.  If that works for you, you should add it as the answer below so others can benefit.

I will as soon as I get another issue I'm having figured out. I was able to get through editing the video ok, but ran into issues while rendering. I think that problem may have been caused by the fact that the file was recorded at 15 FPS and I didn't notice Blender was set to render it at 30FPS. Changing that setting seems to mess up the whole file as all my audio tracks then stretch out to double their original length and overlap each other. I'll have to re-do the editing from scratch again and hopefully all goes well. When it does I'll post what I did to fix both the main issue and this one.

So I was able to get the video edited without any problems this time. Turns out my original issue was indeed the Sync Mode setting, which needed to be in AV Sync for the audio playback timing to work. The later issue was also causes by the Rendering options being set to the wrong FPS. It was set to 30 fps when the files I was importing were recorded in 15 fps. Once I got those sorted out everything worked and I was able to create and upload the video with no further problems. Thanks for your help @bertmoog.
Update / Note:
The "AV Sync" setting is now called "Sync to Audio".
It can be found in: Timeline > Playback > Sync


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How do I resize colour effect strips in the VSE?
I need to be able to resize the effect strip "Colour" in the VSE, which is defaulting to full screen size, and I can find no options to resize it to be smaller and occupy the exact part of the video I need it to occupy. It's all or nothing. I tried looking it up in the Blender manual, at https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/editors/vse/sequencer/strips/effects/color.html, but those instructions were not helpful at all and appear to be wrong. I have no tools to edit the size of my colour strip and I tried using the "crop" tool inside the "edit strip" box, but that did nothing.
So how am I supposed to do this?

When you enable cropping, enable "Image Offset" as well.

I also recommend you check out the VSE_Transform_Tools Addon which makes this kind of thing a piece of cake.

"When you enable cropping, enable "Image Offset" as well." - I tried that and it doesn't work. It always crops from the right, regardless of whether I set a "Left" or "Right" side crop. I also can't see the frame in the background to know when I have the crop aligned in the right place and size. I just see the "transparency" BG in the front frame (the colour strip). I checked the link for that addon, but I can't find anywhere to download it, just info on contributors and contributions history.

When Image Offset is enabled, you'll need to also set the x and y position as well to crop from both directions. I really recommend that addon for this kind of thing.

OK, thanks, I did manage to find the download link, which was hidden a bit in a long list of other things. I'll try it out next time I have some spare time to work on my video. Thanks.


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IK restraint makes hand rotate weird in relation to gun, how to fix?
So i'm trying to make a gun animation in blender, so I set up an arm rig and modeled a gun, the only problem is, is that the arm's IK constraint messes up rotation, so the hand won't rotate with the gun in the way I want.

(I'm new at this if you couldn't tell)

Is it a child of the bone? If it is, make sure it is positioned correctly after the constraint is added.

You need to change the rig. Now you have almost no control over wrist rotation. Also it's never a good start to have rig rotation and location different then 0,0,0 and scale different then 1. It will in almost every case cause problems after exporting to a game engine, so you need to fix this. As for the rig, you need to make IK targets of the hands chains to be exact copies of hand_l and hand_r bones, parented to the root bone. Then give both hand bones Copy Rotation constraint set to World Space > World Space and Bone target of appropriate IK target bone. This will give you more control and make your work easier.Also use Child of constraint for IK targets to follow gun bones, when you set up the grip (don't forget to click on set inverse after that or you will be disappointed)  It's hard to repeat rigging steps just by reading it and .gif would be to large, so here is a link with your file, but with fixed rig. Compare and learn.Happy New Year :)

The file link is broken, can you fix? and also thanks

It's working now @Meep


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Inventor imported object has different reflective properties than blender made one
I've been using Inventor 2020 for some mesh design for different things and decided to test an imported object and how well I could create materials for it in Blender.
For some reason however, the way the Inventor glass (Right) reacts with light is drastically different than the way a quickly made Blender glass (Left) reacts with it (Same material).

The meshes of the glasses are of course different, but similar enough in the bezels, and thickness of the mesh that I don't think I should be seeing such different results in appearance (but maybe I'm wrong).
How would I either change the imported mesh to behave the same as the smaller glass, or change my material nodes to accomplish a similar affect?
Thanks in advance!

Okay so I'm dumb, the Inventor glass broke on a thickness function and only the rounded lip was defined, with a correct thickness the glass reflects and refracts as expected! Blender treats a glass plane differently than a glass mesh in terms of reflective properties, hence the issue of differing appearances!

You are talking about the way it bends / refracts light, right? Yes, a thicker lens will look different than a thinner one, even with the same IOR (index of refraction) setting. Also, I'd also convert those triangles to quads (Edit Mode, select all, ALT+J) and make sure you use the same AutoSmooth settings for both. For fun, you might also try a flat material and put a solidify modifier on it to quickly change or animate the thickness. This could be helpful in making a glass too.


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Substance Designer and Blender
So I recently purchased Substance Designer and developed a granite material for a blender scene. (Below)

So it's all fine, nothing wrong with the program, but how do I export it? I'm not expecting it to be native to the program, but I couldn't find a single addon for Blender to import a .sbar file. All I could find is how to export substance painter stuff.
So do any of you know how to do it without more paid software?

Export it as textures (image files). There is no way (afaik) to export procedural texture from SD to Blender.

@LukeD How can I export them as an image texture?

As far as I remember right click on New_Graph and Export, but don't take my word. I don't have SD anymore. Look on allegorithmic forums.

Use the Adobe Substance Designer Blender addon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXUe1aqWxjw

Blender does not currently support importing packed substances (.sbsar files). Due to licensing issues, this may not ever be supported. In any case, you can just export the graph outputs as images and load those directly into Cycles. Note that .sbsar files are "compiled" to raster images prior to being rendered - even in renderers that support them natively, you do not get infinite resolution like you do with builtin procedurals such as the noise node.If your Substance doesn't have published controls or external inputs, and it doesn't look like yours does, there's not really much advantage to using a .sbsar vs image inputs. I wanted to clarify this, as it's a frequent misconception about how Substance works.
To export the outputs, right click the graph in the outline (the graph, not the package) and select "export outputs to bitmaps". Choose a path and check the channels you'd like to export. Official documentation is located here, if you need it: https://support.allegorithmic.com/documentation/display/SDDOC/Export+bitmaps
Once you have your channels as images, you can load them in Cycles and attach them to the Principled BSDF like usual. See my answer here: Which is the best workflow to follow when texturing and importing textures from Substance Painter?


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Problem with export model .fbx - I get empty file
Hi i try export my model house to substance painter.

When i choose export .fbx next "export seected" I get empty file :

but when I create a simply cube, this export work. Please help what I can do ?

I store most of my files in obj or fbx, the exporters work fine for most cases, so I'm pretty sure there's somethign wrong with your approach. I see the model is offset from the center of the grid, could it be that you are simply not seeing it as it is outside of the camera view on your viewer?
If not add more information please.

I hope that's about you this :  https://image.prntscr.com/image/tByHc9oiRSCiYReYwiAMAQ.png


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Inflatable object creation
I want to make my text looks like an inflatable object, I have seen much artworks like that but it's mostly on C4D, was wondering is there a way to make something like that in blender. thank you

If you search for Blender Pillow there are a number of tutorials. But basically you create each surface as Cloth, stitch them together and then inflate with a force field. e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMwQbqKuR_4

Rob, it would be great if you could make a complete answer for the object he's showing, I don't think it's easy to do it (not as easy as a simple square pillow at least)

Personally I'd sculpt this and if I needed to make 100s of them I'd make it inside Houdini. The free version can export .obj Unlike Blender Houdini can simulate pressure inside volumes correctly.

Thank you for the suggestions I will give it a try :)


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Problems with extrusion and subdivision modifier
i'am fairly new to Blender. I am trying to model a simple piano and i think i did a good job so far, however, when i added the subdivision modifier, i've got some weard shapes and i don't know how to fix them.

As shown in the picture, the face is caving in, but i thought it would connect to the upper side instead.
Can someone explain to me why this happens and maybe provide an solution?
Thx for the help.

there must be a gap or an inner face, also try to keep quads. Maybe share your file if you want us to have a look: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/


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Get an animated rigid body object affected by the rigid body world speed (Slow-motion)
I have an destruction animation with particles, rigid bodies and smoke. Now I want at some point all the animations and simulations be in slow motion.
This works all fine, BUT my "destroyer rigid body" is an animated rigid body - this is because I want this object to be on a excact location at the end of the animation.
I know i can animate the "animated" option on the rigid body just before it collides, but then the object will just destroy and then fall down. But the end position of the destroyer object should be higher than in the beginning..
I also could just slow down the animation of the destroyer object, but this would lead to a wrong destruction animation.
I hope you understand what i mean..

Any help would be appreciated!

Another way is to slow down the whole animation, or change the fps to 120 (to make a 25% slow-motion)... but the render time would be enormeous!

nobody any idea?


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Drive value with no input
I’m trying to create a procedural tile texture using Brick Texture nodes, however I am having a slight problem.
I want to be able to drive the offset value of the brick textures from outside of the group meaning that it needs an input, however it doesn’t have one. I’m really struggling to find a way to have a group input drive the offset values
Concept:

I don't think it's possible to directly drive the brick texture Offset from an input socket but you can formulate nodes to adjust the input Vector to achieve the same effect using the following nodes :

Note the two Value nodes on the left hand side - these can be used to adjust the Scale and Offset (the actual Brick Texture's Offset can be left at Zero). Adjusting the Scale or Offset should produce a similar effect to that of the actual Brick texture node.

This works by using the Scale and Y coordinate to calculate (using a Modulo node) where each alternate row of bricks starts and ends, and then calculating the offset (again, based on the Scale) and adding this into the X coordinate to offset those rows of bricks.
Note that this is only currently capable of adjusting the Scale and Offset - additional work will be required on the Maths nodes to allow for adjusting some of the other brick values (such as the Row Height).
Blend file included

This also works. I wonder what the reason is that there is no standard socket for offset?

I don't know if it works, just an idea: Drivers. Create a value node, rightclick on the value field and "copy as driver", then rightclick on the offset value and choose paste driver.

This seems to work for me!


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event "close program"
Main question:
in my addon, i create a python-thread, for do not blocking UI. (1) its wrong?)
thread created on checkbox-"on", and destroyed on "off".
problem when checkbox is "on". when i close blender, blender does not close :)
i find this solutioin, but not work for me, callback not fired
i need thread for "filewatch", and do something on os "file-modified" event
how can I solve this problem?
sub question
i have a class extends from bpy.types.PropertyGroup and
checkbox-property = bpy.props.BoolProperty(
    name="Switch",
    description="",
    default=False,
    update=checkbox_update_handler
)

default=false not work in some cases.
how i can set always false, when blender\or new file startup
Thanks!

Properties of the window manager are not saved, and will have their default at start up.ii)  adding the following  bl_options = {'SKIP_SAVE'} on an operator property, makes it return to default after use. (not sure if / how it works for other props.  It's been my experience that threads and blender don't play well together if you are referencing blender data from the thread.  Might find this recent post interesting on auto-updating changed text files.

@batFINGER i no have a "operators" on checkbox i use "update-callback" function. but i moved propertyGroup to WindowManager and it helps. Thank you

I found a solution also based on atexit,
but thread need property daemon=True.
Then python interpreter do not wait he will complete the work and fires atexit-callback


text:
How do I keep objects hidden/shown when switching between animated actions?
I've a character who wields a two-handed sword. I've animated 2 walk cycles, one with weapon sheathed and another with the weapon drawn. I'm going with the approach of using two individual meshes for the sword in both positions, thinking I can hide the one that isn't in use and leave the other shown. However I'm having difficulties when switching between my actions in the action editor. Once I've keyframed the invisibility of the sheathed sword in my weapon-drawn walk cycle, it stays invisible in the weapon-sheathed walk cycle and I don't seem able to switch the visibility on and off without affecting the other walk cycle also. Is there something I'm missing or is this not possible at all?
I'm a novice, recently started making assets for games and am learning as I go. I've been stumped with this one for a couple of days now with no luck troubleshooting.
In fact, As I'm writing this, I've somehow bunged this up further. I can't keyframe either of the sword visibilities without hiding the character armature and both swords at once now.
Is there an easy way to do this??
Also wondering how to use the IK/FK arm setup to the same effect. Any help would be great.


text:
Shift+L is not working properly
I am working through the Blender tutorials by Blender Guru, and I am having trouble with linking the material of my doughnut sprinkles (objects) in Part 7 on particles; I'm using Blender 2.79b. As I go through, I have added the material to the first sprinkle. I unselect that sprinkle, then I Shift+Select the other sprinkles before selecting my sprinkle with the assigned material last (making it the active one). I press Shift+L, selected Material from the drop down menu, and all the sprinkles become unselected except the active one and none of the other sprinkles get the material assigned. I'm not sure what is going on here, and I can't find any suggestions. Now I can easily go through and select the individual sprinkles and assign the material, which is easy with a small number of objects, but if I want to create a scene with a large number of objects that are assigned the same material, that's not going to be so easy. Any idea what is going on here?

Here is the answer:
Use CTRL+L instead of Shift+L

Hello and welcome to the site! Could you elaborate a bit or add some screenshots? OP clearly had some effect when pressing Shift+L, so maybe you could explain what that did.


text:
Lighting and Cycles Noise and artifacts
Can anyone help me on how I could make a better render to my scene? No matter what I do it always shows these fireflies and never render with the quality i need...
I´m using filmic color management, 128 samples (and even when I increase this number I still get noise), and Filter Glossy: 2.
For lighting, I´m using a sky hdr.

Thanks!

Also see https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1703/how-to-reduce-fireflies-in-cycles