text:
Whole image is not rendered?
I'm new to Blender. I have version 2.90 and I made my first model but when I press F12 to render, it renders only half of the image not the whole image.
Is there any way to fix this?
This is the actual image:

This is what it looks like after render:

I hadn't touch my settings. Everything is  default settings...
Anyone know why it happens?   Thanks! in advance hope you will find the answer>>

This is what it is supposed to happen.
The first image in the question is not the camera view, but the perspective view in the viewport.
You see the small box with a filled black triangle on the left? That's your Camera, and your picture will be whatever the Camera sees. That's what you render out. You need to switch to your camera view. Click the small camera symbol in the right side of the viewport to go into camera view, or press Numpad Period

Then change the Rotation and Location of the camera to frame the desired picture.

Can I zoom in or out in my camera perspective?

if you specifically want a picture from the back side then you can zoom out by moving back by clicking G > Z > Z to move backwards


text:
Why does the same material look different on another object?
I have a PBR material. I have assigned it to the floor and the side wall. On the floor it has good scale, but on the side wall it looks compressed. The side wall and the floor has the same material. How can I get the same correct scale on both objects?

The procedural Brick texture in the 'WO_Wood Texture' node group has no vector input connected to it so it uses 'Generated' texture space that maps the texture's x y z values to the bounding box of the object so it depends on the size and orientation of the object - if you rotated the object and applied rotation (ctrl+a) you would see the texture change its orientation. To solve the issue you need to use texture space that is uniform in size. You could use 'Object' space and it would be the same size for objects with the same scale, but you would need to match orientation by applying it while the object rotation is aligned to the texture and then rotating it back to the way it needs to be in the scene. My recommendation however would be to use UV texture space and match the sizes and orientation of your UV maps:

It solved but pbr material are working without uv as i know is that correct or wrong i dont know. Thanks

This material can just be called 'a material' without the buzzword PBR. Pretty much all materials can be called PBR, because they are all based on physics more or less in one way or another. PBR might also refer to a specific workflow where texture maps are created keeping scene referred values in mind. The term is pretty much useless and changes nothing. It certainly has nothing to do with what way of mapping a texture you choose. You can use 'Object' texture space as I explained to get same results. I just think UV is easier to understand as it is the most common way to map textures in 3d.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Should I UV map a joined mesh or keep the meshes separate when exporting a character to a game engine?
I want to create a character with a weapon and then export it to a game engine.
Should I join all the meshes (character and weapon) and start UV mapping so I have 1 mesh and 1 texture or do I need to UV map separate meshes?
What's the difference between the two ways?
I want to create a character that only has 1 unique weapon, like in League of Legends.

Hi. I hope you don't mind my edit. If you do please use the edit link and re-edit the question. I hope I did not change the any of the meaning you intended and it is clearer, without any unnecessary text that does not contribute to communicating your question now and this will help you get better answers sooner.

It's alright to edit my post, because i am still bad at English.

As the weapon its other independent object I would not join it with the character, and you can use as many texture as you want if you have different materials.

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


text:
Is there a hotkey for making a face from the inner outline I did in this picture?
I am trying to make the darkened section of the reference image:

Select all inner edges (like on screenshot), then go to Mesh - Faces - Fill (Alt+F), it will fill all with Triangles, selecting all of them. To turn Most of them into Quads, go to Mesh - Faces - Tris To Quads (Alt+J).
If there's any Triangles left - dissolve their edges, and then just continue the needed loopcuts through created faces, where needed (mostly at the place, where Triangle's edges were dissolved) with Knife tool (K).
I'm pretty shure that there's a better method, but this will work, too.

You can make a face with Make Face (f), or Fill (Alt+f), or Grid Fill - see the Faces menu (Ctrl+f), but I don't see how this would help you in this particular situation as the middle part seems to be a separate object in your reference image. You should model it as such.


text:
How to assign a new material for each object using Python?
Is it possible to assign a new Material(Principled BSDF shader) to each mesh or a selection of meshes in my scene using Python?
The script should use the individual mesh name to name the material and delete the existing material if there was a material before.
How can I approach this problem?

I opened a new Blender session and created a new principled Material called "Material.001"  then I created a new principled Material called "Material.002" the following code allowed me to set the material I wanted to the cube and should give
you a jumping off point. bpy.data.objects["Cube"].material_slots[0].material = bpy.data.materials["Material.002"]

Run this with your objects selected:
import bpy

# I separated the creation of nodes to a function so it's easier
# to edit later if needed
def create_nodes(mat):
    mat.use_nodes = True
    nodes = mat.node_tree.nodes
    for every_node in nodes: # this removes all existing nodes
        nodes.remove(every_node)

    # creating Principled node and moving it:
    node = nodes.new('ShaderNodeBsdfPrincipled')
    node.location = (-190,100)

    # creating Output node and moving it:
    output_node = nodes.new('ShaderNodeOutputMaterial')
    output_node.location = (40,100)

    # creating the link between the two nodes:
    links = mat.node_tree.links
    link = links.new(node.outputs[0], output_node.inputs[0])

# this saves the currently active object so it can be restored later
active = bpy.context.object

# let's loop through all selected objects
for every_object in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    # I only want to work with objects capable of having a material
    if every_object.type in {'MESH','CURVE', 'SURFACE','META', 'FONT'}:
        if every_object.name not in bpy.data.materials:
        # if there is no material named after the object yet let's make one
            mat = bpy.data.materials.new(every_object.name)
            # and let's create the nodes for it
            create_nodes(mat)
        else:
            # if the material already exists let's just use it
            mat = bpy.data.materials.get(every_object.name)
        if len(every_object.material_slots) == 0: # if there are no material slots
            every_object.data.materials.append(mat)

        # The only thing left now is to assign the material to
        # all material slots. We probably do not want to loose the info
        # about how the object is divided into separate materials
        for every_slot in every_object.material_slots:
            every_slot.material = mat

Thanks Martin, this does exactly what i was asking for! great!

Would you mind explaining the steps- so i can learn from it :)   ?

I tried to add comments. If you have any questions, let me know.

line 40, in
AttributeError: bpy_prop_collection: attribute "active" not found
How to do it in 2.9

https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/124259/43889 found the answer
replace line 40 and 43 with
bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = every_object

It's better not to use operators at all and use every_object.data.materials.append(mat). I updated the answer.

Sorry for my English, I'm Brazilian and new to blender.
I've been looking for this script (first of all thank you very much Martynas Žiemys was very utiul for me) but it was out of date, so I'm putting it here with modifications to help someone who needs it like me, but the credit is all from the friend.
again, very grateful, helped me a lot ...
import bpy

# Separei a criação de nós em uma função para facilitar

# para editar mais tarde, se necessário
def create_nodes(mat):
    mat.use_nodes = True
    nodes = mat.node_tree.nodes
    for every_node in nodes: # isso remove todos os nós existentes
        nodes.remove(every_node)

    # criando nó Principled e movendo-o:
    node = nodes.new('ShaderNodeBsdfPrincipled')
    node.location = (-190,100)

    # criando nó de saída e movendo-o:
    output_node = nodes.new('ShaderNodeOutputMaterial')
    output_node.location = (40,100)

    # criando o link entre os dois nós
    links = mat.node_tree.links
    link = links.new(node.outputs[0], output_node.inputs[0])

# Isso salva o objeto ativo no momento para que possa ser restaurado mais tarde
active = bpy.context.object

# vamos percorrer todos os objetos selecionados
for every_object in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    # Eu só quero trabalhar com objetos capazes de ter um material
    if every_object.type in {'MESH','CURVE', 'SURFACE','META', 'FONT'}:
        if every_object.name not in bpy.data.materials:
        # se ainda não houver material com o nome do objeto, vamos fazer um
            mat = bpy.data.materials.new(every_object.name)
            # e vamos criar os nós para ele
            create_nodes(mat)
        else:
            # se o material já existir, vamos usá-lo
            mat = bpy.data.materials.get(every_object.name)
        if len(every_object.material_slots) == 0: # se não houver slots de material
            # vamos ativar o objeto atual e criar um slot de material
            bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = every_object
            bpy.ops.object.material_slot_add()
            # vamos deixar o objeto ativo como estava
            bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = active

        # A única coisa que resta agora é atribuir o material a
        # todos os slots de material. Provavelmente não queremos perder a informação
        # sobre como o objeto é dividido em materiais separados
        for every_slot in every_object.material_slots:
            every_slot.material = mat

Note: I didn't comment on his answer because I'm new to the community and I don't have enough reputation :P

Apart from language of comments, what is the difference here?  Btw would remove every instance of every_ eg for slot in ob.material_slots: IMO reads a lot better since  every_slot  is not "every slot" it is  one item.


text:
I can't see faces on my model in all modes
I'm new to Blender and this community.
Sorry for bad English.
I created a model with Blender 2.78. When I finished (no texture, no animation, only a model with grey original starter color) I added smoke effect to see what happens.
From that moment I can no longer see faces. Only vertices and edges in all modes. I have tried all options, all modes, all buttons but nothing.
I can only see my model selected(orange lines) in each mode. I can select vertices, edges and faces but this last it's impossible to see.
Is it a bug? Must I redo all my model from the begining? Obviously don't answer me with a suggestion to try h,  alt+h...

maybe in the Properties panel > Data > Display > Maximum Draw Type > Solid?

yes, was in Object panel>Display. very thanks u save my head to the wall

Hi. I attempted to correct some of the language in the question. I hope I did not change any of the meaning. If I did, please forgive me, and edit your question using the edit link.

Welcome @wiseman.
You must enable the draw type to texture.
See the image below:


text:
How to smooth the mesh to make it smooth
Mirror and screw modifiers are used.
Could you please advise on the following questions:

How to smooth the edges on the surface to get a smooth transition?
How to smooth the surface to make it smoother without a hump?

Download .blend

Hello maybe first thing dissolve some edge loops in order to have a more regular gap between them?

It looks as if you may have a Mirror modifier on that object. If you do, make sure you don't have an internal face between the halves.

Yes, there is a mirror modifier.
But when using it and removing extra edge, the hump does not disappear

again please share your file, it will help

Please, help!:(


text:
Problem with addons installing
I just installed the program yesterday
I have problem with installing any addon.
I don't see addons in search. When I try to download or install from extensions.blender.org
it gives an error.

In addition I can say, using the example of the 3D-print addon - it is not searched for in the search, is not added and is missing from the tab. this is with all addons
UPD get extension screen looks like

Hi. I might not understand you correctly. Are you looking in the Get Extensions tab of Edit->Preferences?  Using the example of the 3D Print Toolbox you should find it listed in the Get Extensions tab. Click the Install button and it will then appear, activated, in the Add-ons tab. This method of installing addons changed with version 4.2.

Thanks for your answer. I added my post - Get extension screen also looks very interesting.
Remote refresh do noting

If you have installed portable blender version. Try to follow these steps:

Open blender
Go to Preferences > System > Network
Check this option Allow Online Access.

Allow Online Access has been confirmed.

my problem is looks like https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/124731
but it says that fix was included in one of the latest versions of the program.
but I see the problem in both 4.2.3 and 4.3


text:
Rigify Incorrect armature for type 'base_generate'
It's my first time using blender for rigging so I am a bit lost.
I have placed all the bones in the metarig in their correct place in edit mode. When I try to generate the rig, I get this error message:
CONFLICT: bone {bone.name} owned by rig {rig.base_bone} has different parent rig from ORG-thigh.R
Incorrect armature for type 'base_generate'

As you can see, the problematic bones are not displayed correctly in the error message, so I am a bit in the dark. I have checked the parents and bone type of both my legs, but everything seems normal.
I have tested generating a fresh rig in a new scene, and everything works normally.
EDIT: Turns out the missing names in the bracket is just a bug in the source code. When fixed, it displays the names correctly. The error message is now :
CONFLICT: bone ORG-heel.02.R owned by rig ORG-thigh.R has different parent rig from ORG-thigh.R
Incorrect armature for type 'base_generate'

There is enough ressource online to guide from here.

My problem was the same as everyone else online: I had accidentally changed the rigify type of one of my bones (foot.R in my case).
For the bug, line 501 of base_generate.py is
raise MetarigError("CONFLICT: bone {bone.name} owned by rig {rig.base_bone} "
It should be raise MetarigError(f"CONFLICT: bone {bone.name} owned by rig {rig.base_bone} " instead. I'll try to make a bug report later.


text:
Why do l have black little glitchy squares
l am a beginner blender 3D artist and l ran into an issue of these little black glitchy cubes showing up when moving my mouse around and l also saw that when rendering this it made that part turn really black as shown on the right but I’m not sure if it is the same issue with the glitch part or something else and l have tried YouTube videos to try to resolve this problem but no luck. I have a project due tomorrow and l really appreciate your help.

Z fighting, most likely anyway.

Thank you so much l didn’t really knew what z fighting was but l searched it up and looked up a video and it got back to normal thank you so much:D


text:
Python: how to iterate through and rename shape keys?
I have a model with Japanese characters in the names of objects throughout the model. I've found this script which translates those names into english:
https://github.com/toruta39/blender-datablock-translator
It works well, however, it does not translate the names of shape keys. I'm attempting to modify the script to include shape keys but have not been successful. I believe shape keys data are stored in bpy.data.shape_keys. How do I loop through shape keys and modify each name?

What about this?
import bpy

for shapekey in bpy.data.shape_keys:
    # rename / translate shape key names by changing shapekey.name
    for keyblock in shapekey.key_blocks:
        # rename / translate block key names by changing keyblock.name

Worked. Thanks! I knew it had to be simple, but I'm new to Python.

Note, even though you can use bpy.data.shape_keys, typically these are accessed via the mesh.

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


text:
how do I turn on the wireframe?

As I pressed any key while working, the wireframe disappeared as seen. I tried to go back using the z key to no avail
it is blender 3.6

Reactivate the Show Overlays button (or AltShiftZ):


text:
Scripting: custom export file
I use the Defold game engine, its very new and very barebones, but i got used to it very fast and decided to both use it in future projects - specially now that im switching to 3D - and to contribute to it. The main problem for Defold right now is the lack of a proper scene/level editor and thats where Blender comes in. My original idea was to use Blender as a scene/level editor and export very basic data such as transformations and basic custom properties. My first thought was to just export a GLTF file and use the nodes and the custom properties to mount a scene in Defold. Thing is, the exported GLTF is quite complicated and hard to navigate and use. Take this scene for example:

Its just Suzanne in an empty scene, following the export configurations I expected the final result to be very simple (just like the scene itself). But it turned out to not be really like this:

I tried exporting without meshes, materials, vertex colors... Still, the GLTF scene was delivered in a very odd manner:
{
"asset":{
    "generator":"Khronos glTF Blender I/O v4.3.47",
    "version":"2.0"
},
"scene":0,
"scenes":[
    {
        "name":"Scene",
        "nodes":[
            0
        ]
    }
],
"nodes":[
    {
        "extras":{
            "random_data":1.0,
            "is_this_checked":true
        },
        "mesh":0,
        "name":"Monkey",
        "translation":[
            -6.501957893371582,
            2.798858880996704,
            -2.6240763664245605
        ]
    }
],
"meshes":[
    {
        "name":"Suzanne",
        "primitives":[
            {
                "attributes":{
                    "POSITION":0
                },
                "indices":1
            }
        ]
    }
],
"accessors":[
    {
        "bufferView":0,
        "componentType":5126,
        "count":2532,
        "max":[
            1.325934886932373,
            0.9392361640930176,
            0.8223199844360352
        ],
        "min":[
            -1.325934886932373,
            -0.9704862236976624,
            -0.7782661318778992
        ],
        "type":"VEC3"
    },
    {
        "bufferView":1,
        "componentType":5123,
        "count":11838,
        "type":"SCALAR"
    }
],
"bufferViews":[
    {
        "buffer":0,
        "byteLength":30384,
        "byteOffset":0,
        "target":34962
    },
    {
        "buffer":0,
        "byteLength":23676,
        "byteOffset":30384,
        "target":34963
    }
],
"buffers":[
    {
        "byteLength":54060,
        "uri":"test_map.bin"
    }
]

}
The nodes part is the actuall data im interested in, but alongside it comes a lot of "garbage"/unwanted info as well, besides it coming weirdly formated - I mean, why is it "extras" isntead of just "Custom Properties" or something like this? I first thought that i'd have to create my own custom export script for this, which I think should be the way to go, since I will eventually need more functionalities, in specific, im also planning to export curves to create paths and alike. Although i found many resources on Blender Python scripting, I did not find many on export specifically, most were about automating very simple tasks like creating a button to add a prefab mesh or cube. To be direct here, im asking for some guidance on what and where should I search for to accomplish my objectives - manipulate the export routine to filter what gets, doesnt get or how it gets into exported into a file. Any help is greatly appreciated!

The GLTF importer/exporter is written and managed by the KhronosGroup on Github here so you should ask any questions about it there.

@JohnEason my question is not about GLTF specificaly, im more interested in how i can customize the export, i thought i made that clear at the end. The GLTF example i gave is just because its the only thing that more closely resambles a scene that blender can export to. Sorry for any confusion. I also cant reply to your comment specifically, hence im tagging you.

The complete source to the exporter is on that Github page and a question like that is really not suitable for this Q&A site which is here to help with problems using Blender, not to customise exporters..

Guess a question about blender python API then really isnt blender related at all. But thanks for the call out, off course ill read a whole github to understand it all, much thanks!

There are no Blender developers here and no-one here works for or has any association with the Blender Foundation so you'd be better asking the developers of the exporter directly. Sorry we can't help further.

This site is not to teach you the basics of how to write a Python add on, but how to fix an addon writing problem you’re stuck on. You asked for resources on how to export, and we told you the best we could. The back-and-forth of developing the modified exporter in the way you want would be far too long for a single question post on this site. If you don’t want a full add-on but just need a Jerry rig script to get you by, be aware that Python can save files directly without Blender, via the open() function. I also suggest you look into fully parsing the gLTF, but IDK ♂. Merry Christmas!


text:
Is there a Blender alternative for Maya's Smooth Mesh tool? Something that both subdivides and smoothes a mesh? (regular sub-d modifier is NOT it!)
I've been losing my mind over this for the past couple of days so please bear with me. I'm learning more about topology and am following a Maya-based course to do so. The principles are the same, but I am hitting a wall regarding a function Blender doesn't seem to be able to recreate.
The instructor rightfully says that you can't just add loop cuts paralell to ones that define the curve on curved meshes because these disrupt the flow and create wobble. Instead, he uses Maya's smooth mesh tool to BOTH subdivide the mesh AND smooth it out so it retains the original shape. This is the tool:

I'm working on an assignment that has students recreate shapes and add proper topology to them. Here's the basic result:

While this is correct (the triangle isn't disrupting the shading and it gets resolved through subdivision), I want to create a denser mesh to reduce pinching in the part where the redirection is. This is where the problems start.
If I select all the verteces and use rigt-click > subdivide, the faces either start to follow the cylinder's original, non-shade-smoothed form at smoothness 0 or the top becomes wobbly at smoothness 1.
Instead, applying a single sub-d modifier set to 1 and simple rather than Catmul-Clark does EXACTLY what I want - it subdivides the mesh while keeping its original look intact. The modifier HAS to be applied and the topology can be worked on again if you need smaller details:

HOWEVER, whatever I do to subdivide this mesh further results in these deformations! (disregard the rounded corners, I'm talking about the visible reinforced vertical lines that make the cylinder look like whatever the 20-sided equivalent of an octagon is called the denser the mesh is)
Catmull-Clark:

And it's EVEN WORSE if I use simple now:

Clearly these extra divisions aren't following the curve. How do I get them to follow the curve? Presumably the first subd wasn't following it either, so this just exacerbated the problem. How do I make it so that the original curve stays intact no matter how many subdivisions I need later?
I NEED to be able to both have that extra topology the applied first sub-d provides AND preview further subdivisions with equal smoothness. The Maya guy just uses his magic Mesh Smooth tool when he needs more topo and can then do whatever he wants while I'm stuck with a wobbly mess!
So, do you guys have any idea what I am doing wrong and what I can do to address this? An add-on maybe? I have machinetools and meshmachine if that helps.
Before you ask, the model isn't at fault - you can reproduce the problem on any regular cylinder. I have also tried every available setting in the subdivide operation's pop-up menu and the sub-d modifier.
Thank you.

You should have used "only" the catmul. Now you don't have a cylinder anymore and it will subdivide what you have: not a cylinder.

I see what you mean Daniel, and this does indeed seem to resolve the mesh curvature. Still, I'd like an option that doesn't lock me into Catmull-Clark's mushiness just yet. The best thing about the simple sub-d was keeping the sharpness of the original form while getting additional topo.

Can you link to a demo of the Maya tool? Just linking the tool’s logo isn’t really helpful.

I know this is far from an optimal solution, but a boring workaround: you can create edge creases to prevent the deformations where you want for the first subdivision. After you apply the modifier, you can remove the creases

There you go @TheLabCat: https://youtu.be/igeCjABWI7U

Also, here's a concrete example where he uses the smooth tool:
https://youtu.be/_bpsEd_5IW4?t=6081

"The best thing about the simple sub-d was keeping the sharpness of the original form while getting additional topo": well, if you only want more geometry without the Catmull-Clark smoothing and if you are planning on applying the modifier i.e. working destructively instead of keeping procedural subdivisions, then you can just as well simply select all in Edit Mode, right-click and choose Subdivide from the context menu.

It looks like Maya turns on smoothed normals when you use its "Smooth" tool, so it seems to be a combination of Blender's "Shade Smooth" setting and the Subdivision Surface modifier. Smoothed normals are where 3D software fakes the look of mesh being infinite-poly, by interpolating normals between faces when it shades them. Here's an example of a low-poly cylinder (no caps) with smoothed normals turned on:

If you ignore the top and bottom (clearly octagons), it looks round. This is because the normals are interpolated across the faces. For all images where normals are shown, cyan is the real face normals, pink is the interpolated aka smoothed normals between the real ones:

But, when you add a SubSurface modifier to the mesh with “simple” (which means no moving existing vertices, just subdivision), you’re adding extra breaks in those flat polygons, without geometrically smoothing them afterward, so the mesh remains just as (un-)circle-shaped:

Smoothed normals in 3D work by bending normals of faces to match each other at the face edges while being in their original orientations at the face centers, so subdividing the cylinder means that there’s a patch of faces for every original one face, and all their normals are pointing the same way.
Here is a top view of the cylinder with normals shown.
Before subdivision:

With subdivision:

Because of this cluster of unanimous faces, there’s no normals smoothing between them to be seen (normals smoothing of a face does not take more than its direct neighboring faces into account), and you'll only see smoothing between faces that are not coplanar (i.e. flat to each-other).
View of the cylinder with subdivision edges shown:

Hope this helps!
S.D.G.


text:
Clearing creases via script

I want to use mean crease in my python script, but i cant access its code via "edit source". I need a button which clears all creases on selected edges with single click, and put it in my custom pie menu. I've found some info on it : mean crease function is scripted with C. Any ideas how to get "mean crease" in python?

In object mode you find it in obj.data.edges.crease. While in edit mode you would need to use bmesh.from_edit_mesh() and get the edge crease from the custom data layers.

Here is the line you need

bpy.ops.transform.edge_crease(value=-1.0)

import bpy

class UIPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "Crease Clear"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_region_type = "UI"

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return (context.active_object is not None) and (context.mode == "EDIT_MESH")

    def draw(self, context):
        self.layout.operator("crease.clear", text='Crease Clear')

class OBJECT_OT_HelloButton(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "crease.clear"
    bl_label = "Crease Clear"
    country = bpy.props.StringProperty()

    def execute(self, context):
        bpy.ops.transform.edge_crease(value=-1.0)
        return{'FINISHED'}

bpy.utils.register_module(__name__)

Если ты хочешь чтобы кнопка осталась в системе, после перезапуска блендера, сохрани текст в файл с форматом .py и нажми последовательно эти кнопки
If you want the button to remain in the system, after restarting the blender, save the text in a file with the format .py and click these buttons sequentially

Thx alot. This code works for pie menu's too. Thats what i was looking for.

authors: Евгений Гейзер

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


text:
Strange lines appearing when render Anisotropic BSDF
I'm trying to render a steel plate with the Anistoropic BSDF. I would like to have curved reflections as it happens in pans or pots (for cooking). Instead, when I render, I get this strange straight lines appearing on the plate surface, and I cannot get rid of them. As a source light I'm using two planes with emmision. Here are images of the case (with the plate nodes) and of the rendered image. I don't know it this can help, but it was created with FreeCAD. May be it can be related with the problem.
Here is the link to the blender file

Thanks all for you help.
David

Here is the final fixed result:

Shading
You need to click on the Tangent menu in the material settings and select a Tangent node. Make sure Radial is selected it its settings. Play around with the Axes: to figure out which one to use.

Gandalf3's image from here.
Modeling
Your mesh is covered in triangles (not good). From the .blend file that I downloaded, this was my process:

A twice to select everything.
Alt + J converts many tris to quads.
Ctrl + Tab, then 3 to enter Face Select Mode.
Alt +  RMB while hovering over one of the edges around the outside rim to select this face loop:

Ctrl + I to Invert Selection.
X > Faces to open the Delete menu and delete Faces.
Ctrl + Tab, then 1 to enter Vertex Select Mode.
Alt +  RMB while hovering over one of the edges in the topmost edge loop to select this edge loop:

F to create an N-Gon face.
Ctrl + I to Invert Selection.
F to create an N-Gon face.
Tab out of Edit Mode.

Here is the fixed .blend file:

P.S.
This is not included in the .blend file, but if you want less spotty anisotropy, you should use these settings in the Properties panel > Render tab.

They produce this result:

Thank you for your reply Shady Puck, I tried what you said and effectively reflections seem to be radial. However the strange lines still are there. I noticed that smoothing the nodes the lines vary, so I guess they are related with the elements. However I still dont know how to solve the problem.

@DavidS. Can you upload your .blend file to Blend Exchange and edit your question with the provided link?

@DavidS. See my edit. If this answer helped you, please consider marking it as accepted by selecting the checkmark in its upper, left-hand corner. It would help me greatly and make me very happy!


text:
problem with texture rendering
I know that this is probably something simple, but when i render my project, I do not have any texture. The object remains completely black. I spend hours trying to understand, but still the same problem. I think it have something to do with the node stuffs, I do not understand much of it.
Here's the texture:

Here's the .blend:

Your object has three materials.
Go into edit mode, then select the materials one after each other and press the select and deselect buttons to find out, which material is assigned to the object. Right now, only the first material mug.002 is assigned to the object.

This material is set up wrong. It you can not plug a color output in the Surface - input of the Material Output node. The Surface input needs a BSDF output, like from the Diffuse BSDF node.

Fortunately, you already have a properly set up material for the object: Material. In edit mode, select all vertices A, then select the material Material and press Assign.

The material will show correctly.


text:
Texture painting with a texture mask does not use the color specified
I can't get the texture mask to show the color when painting.
RESULT:

As you can see, I want to get the blue to appear when painting the texture mask on. Instead, it comes out as a black color.
Following this tutorial here, I'm trying to get the color to appear on the texture mask as done there.
GOAL:

As well as the color changing, there is also the default TexDraw brush drawing with it too, I think. It turns the skin darker along with the texture mask.
How do I get the texture mask to have color and the same brush to change the skin color at the same time?
EDIT:

Could it be that you paint with Ctrl being pressed? Other than that (flipping brush colors on fly) I couldn't repeat that behaviour

Doing that did not change anything. With Ctrl and without.

Ctrl should change how the brush paints (if you hold it while painting) as it is shortcut for flipping colors (color with secondary color below the color selector) which are different in your setup. If it's possible upload the file here http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ so it's possible to take a look at other options.

I added the file, but I don't think that ctrl is the solution.

Remove Texture from the Texture rollout in the brush settings above Texture Mask one. What it was doing before was painting with tiled texture of skin and black parts between them masked with texture of skin from Texture Mask.


text:
Texture Mask paints mesh with a grid instead of random

So I changed the Mask Mapping from Tiled to Random, added a bit of Jitter, and when I click to paint on my mesh, after a while it starts to look like it's following a grid. Is there a way to make it look like there is no grid at all, and it follows a random order?

Found the answer with a little tinkering. Checking Rake or Random or both removes the grid it keeps locking onto.

If anyone knows why or how this works, comment.


text:
Motion tracking points are not accurate enough
I want to get a more accurate track, but some of the makers seem to have a mind of their own and are bouncing all over. I am not sure if this problem is caused either by some of my settings, my footage, or just Blender not being able to do a good job. (Possible?)
My footage was shot using an iPhone 4, focal length of 35 I think (It changes whenever I solve to 41.14).
If my footage being too blurry is the problem (I think that it's not too blurry), I tried changing the Tracking Present to Blurry Footage and that didn't change anything that I noticed. Same with the rest of the presets.
What would fix the markers from jumping around?
GIF of Footage

Well, your "marks" aren't that great. If you later want to render something on top of your desk, how about you just paint 2 or 3 little pieces of paper in a nice flashy color and put the on your desk? Blender should then be able to do better tracking. Also, the tracking doesn't look that bad. For jumping markers, you can "retarget" them manually.

What isn't that great about the markers? I thought it looks best with a black and white look, that the keyboard has.


text:
Is it possible to be able to hold the spacebar to make a player jump higher? Game Engine
I would like to be able to have a min jump height as 1 meter, and max jup height as 3 meter. When the spacebar is pressed and released quickly, the player jumps up one meter. When the spacebar is held down for a longer time, the player jumps up 3 meters instead of one.
Is this possible to make in the logic bricks or python for BGE?

Yes, it is possible.
Typically you measure the time between pressed and released. Minimum is one frame, so you will always been able to measure the time.
You need to define how you want to convert the time to jump height (or force or velocity or whatever.

Due to it's dynamic nature I suggest to implement the usage of the result that in Python.


text:
How to do a script that could output my 3d files with the required color/lighting and angle versions
I need to create versions of a large amount of 3d files in many different colors and  with varying degrees of tilt. Is it possible to create a script that could output my 3d files with the required color/lighting and angle versions. I am coming at this from an automation stand point. For instance in Photoshop there is a feature that lets you batch automate files from a folder.

A great amount of automation is possible in Blender via Python scripting. Mostly any repetitive tasks can be automated and since it is scripting it is even more flexible and powerful than Photoshop's actions or batch processing scripts.
You can find more information on Blender's Python API in the documentation.
Be aware that the subject is quite complex and requires a lot of effort to master, so no single answer here on Blender Stack Exchange or other forums on the web will teach you to use this, however if you ask specific clear, well formed questions about specific issues you face while learning, Blender Stack Exchange can be a lot of help. You should attempt to use correct terminology, be specific and make the titles of your questions informative and reflecting the actual question. Best to form them as a question as well. See: How do I ask a good question?
When learning Blender's Python API, you can get a lot by studying the script examples that come with Blender:

As well as any add-ons that you can find in [Blender's install directory]\[version number]\scripts\addons\.
Blender's Python Console has a priceless autocomplete function as well, that shows you possible options when you start typing something if you hit Tab(previously Ctrl+Space) while still hovering the mouse over the area of Python Console:

Oh, and I almost forgot - you need to know how to use Python obviously. You can find all about it at not a very surprising web address: www.python.org. The website is amazing and really has everything you might need. This is also ridiculously good: www.w3schools.com/python/ .

I understand it is a vauge type question. I guess I am looking for someone who could assist my company with this 3d type problem. A person with these type of skills, is there a good title for this kind of professional?

I don't think BSE is a very good place for job offers... I suppose you can find a lot of people who are able to help you, but I have no idea how it would be appropriate for you to go about it here - I don't see a lot of that happening around here. You could try Blenderartists.org forums. There is  a paid work section there: https://blenderartists.org/c/jobs/paid-work

See: https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2399/blender-paid-work/2400#2400 so job offers seem to be mostly considered as off-topic: https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1/what-questions-should-be-definitely-off-topic/6#6

thank you for the information.


text:
How to listen to 3d cursor changes in Blender script?
I'd like to create script that does something to the scene every time 3d cursor moves. So far all handlers I've checked fire only when some object on scene changes, except 3d cursor. If possible I'd like to avoid polling for it every second. My question is whether there is handler in Blender that fires every time 3d cursor location is changed.

Message Bus (bpy.msgbus)
https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.msgbus.html
import bpy

def msgbus_callback():
    print("3D cursor location change to: ", bpy.context.scene.cursor.location)

owner = (bpy.types.View3DCursor, "location")

bpy.msgbus.subscribe_rna(
    key=owner,
    owner=owner,
    args=(),
    notify=msgbus_callback,
)

Since in some cases using Message Bus doesn't work, it is proposed to use Application Handlers (bpy.app.handlers)
https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.app.handlers.html
import bpy
from bpy.app.handlers import persistent

last_loc = bpy.context.scene.cursor.location.copy()

@persistent
def on_depsgraph_update(dummy):
    if bpy.context.scene.cursor.location != last_loc:
        loc = bpy.context.scene.cursor.location
        print("3D cursor location change to: ", loc)
        last_loc[:] = loc

bpy.app.handlers.depsgraph_update_post.append(on_depsgraph_update)

Note that as per the documentation this will not work for changes directly in the 3D viewport (SHIFT + right click, SHIFT + S > Cursor to selected, etc)

Wow, thank you. Application Handlers do seem to work with SHIFT+right click

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ it no longer works as of Blender 3.5.1

I recently tested on 3.6 and it still works.


text:
Connecting Hand and Wrist
Having a problem with connecting hand to wrist/arm. I've tried a few different methods, and so I've found the best one that looks the best, but there's still a clear divide where the two are connected. Looked for interior faces, doubled points, etc., but nothing of that sort. Is there an easy fix for this?

Looks like either a case of inconsistent normals, or an internal face. There may also be different materials attached to each part of the mesh

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos Normals are fine, as far as I can tell. Tried a fix for normals and it didn't change anything. There are no internal faces. Additionally there are no materials attached to the item

@cegaton edited

@cegaton I wish it was that easy, but yes I did remove doubles :/

I would check normals in Edit Mode > Properties (N) > Mesh Display > Normals > Face Normals and then make sure the lines are all pointing outwards from the model

@Xuan Yep all face normals are facing the correct direction.

Switch to face select mode and remove the internal face in that area.

I fixed the problem by deleting the apparently corrupted points, re-extruding from the arm and then reconnecting the points. Dunno why or how the method I was using before was being troublesome. Thanks to all the help.


text:
Cannot resize windows
The 2 windows/panels I can resize are the ones you get by pressing "T" and "N"
I'm a blender beginner. I can't seem to resize any window after I create it, neither the properties panel on the right. The double-edged arrow does appear, but when I grab it and move nothing happens.
I'm on Mac.
Please help.
Edit:
here is a video demonstration of the problem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rig5zg9l4QQ&feature=youtu.be

Have a look in  File > User Preferences > Input > Screen Editing > and check how you have the  Move Area Edges  setup.
You need to have this option checked to be able to resize the windows by dragging on the windows edges. Also check to see what the selection method is. Mouse, Left Mouse button.

I already fixed the problem by doing "Load Factory Settings" but thanks.


text:
bpy ray_cast doesn't find intersection from camera position to object position
I am currently trying to discover if any background object is in front of my foreground object (obj.name = 'Mhx2test') with blenderpython. To do this, I use the ray_cast method. So what I do is sending a ray from the camera directed to the foreground model what should return a position I can compare with the position of the foreground model to determine if the first intersection was with the foreground model or any other background model. I built a very basic scene with a Cube being between the camera and the foreground object:

So the camera view shows that blue cube in front ob the foreground model. Sending a ray towards the foreground model should thus return the nearest intersection point with the cube. However when I run the following code it doesn't discover any intersection, i.e. the result is 'False'.
def detect_nearest_intersection():
    scene = bpy.context.scene
    me_tmp = bpy.data.meshes.new(name="~temp~")
    obj_tmp = bpy.data.objects.new(name=me_tmp.name, object_data=me_tmp)
    scene.objects.link(obj_tmp)
    scene.update()
    ray_cast = obj_tmp.ray_cast
    camera = bpy.context.scene.camera
    mod = bpy.data.objects['Mhx2test']
    direction = mod.location - camera.location;
    direction.normalize()
    result, location, normal, index = ray_cast(camera.location,direction)
    print("Raycast from %s to %s" % (camera.location, mod.location))
    print("Result: %s, location: %s, normal: %s, index: %s" % (result,location,normal,index))

Here is the output of the result:
Result: False, location: <Vector (0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000)>, normal: <Vector (0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000)>, index: -1

The ray_cast documentation from here:

ray_cast(origin, direction, distance=1.70141e+38) Cast a ray onto in
  object space Parameters:   distance (float in [0, inf], (optional)) –
  Maximum distance Return (result, location, normal, index): result,
  boolean location, The hit location of this ray cast, float array of 3
  items in [-inf, inf] normal, The face normal at the ray cast hit
  location, float array of 3 items in [-inf, inf] index, The face index,
  -1 when original data isn’t available, int in [-inf, inf]

I am using blender v2.78 (former versions implemented the ray_cast as ray_cast(start,end), v2.78 seems to use ray_cast(start,direction))

Transforming the world coordinates to local coordinates fixed it.

I'm having a similar problem and this answer is very vague. I didn't downvote your answer but some elaboration would make it much more useful for people struggling with the same problem.


text:
(Physics) Animated Model with Armature interacts with cloth, but not other objects
I cannot find a answer to my problem.
The armature-animated model interacts perfectly with cloth physics, but will not interact with a physics-based cube.  I cannot find a answer to this problem.  Please help.
Cube: Active + Dynamic
Cloth: Active + Dynamic
Model: Passive + Animated
For some reason the cloth hits the cube but not the model itself.  Why?!
I just want the model to be able to push the cube off by turning.

Check the modifier stack, they are applied from top down, the armature needs to deform the mesh before the physics collision.

Just figured it out, apparently this had something to do with it...


text:
Bending Metal with soft body
I am trying to follow this tutorial.
crushing-metal-tutorial
I'm wanting to simulating two metal doors being smashed in.
Following along the tutorial, I make a low poly cage mesh for each door and configure the collison objects and the soft body modifier to each door.
The simulation perfoms as instructed. However I'm unable to complete the tutorial and get the desired effect that I want as the mesh deform modifier isn't bending the high-poly doors to the shape of the cage meshes.

Add the “Mesh Deform” modifier.
Now that we have the physics all set up, we want to make it affect our hi-poly object. Unhide it by pressing Alt+H and move it to match up with the cage mesh’s new position. To make it get affected by the cage mesh, you need to add a “Mesh Deform” modifier.
A “Mesh Deform” modifier allows a certain mesh to control how an object deforms. For the “Object”, choose your cage mesh. The “Precision” amount is how accurate the binding is. The higher it is, the more accurate, but it also takes longer to calculate. I usually just put it at “4”. Now just press “Bind”.

My intact doors do not follow the cage mesh shape when I bind them.

parts of the original doors are welded to the floor plain when I run the simulation with the binded mesh.

With the modifier applied the 'high'-poly mesh has strecthed vertices from the start to end of the simulation. The final frames of the simulation also doesn't apply the deformation to the doors.
What is the correct steps to apply the deformation of the cage to the high-poly doors?


text:
Can mining rig be used for blender rendering?
I have seen some mining rig with 6 gpu in one motherboard, can you use that for rendering?
edit: http://www.coinminingrigs.com/how-to-build-a-6-gpu-mining-rig/
1x 1200 Watt Power Supply
1x 6 GPU Motherboard
1x Skylake Dual Core CPU
1x 4 GB RAM (system memory)
6x Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU’s (6 of these, I like EVGA and Gigabyte)
1x USB Riser Cables (6 pack)
1x Solid State Drive (for OS / mining software)
1x Custom Mining Case
heres what it looks like

What kind of GPUs and Rig? You need more details before anyone can help you.

What is a "mining rig"? Where have you seen this? What specs does it have? WHat jobs will it be rendering? With which software? What render engine?

simple answer is yes.

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos that is a machine for "mining" bitcoins.

Oh I see thanks for the clarification, for a moment there I though he just miss-typed "mini-rig" as in some sort of small computer case

May be you won't be able to render with your minig rig, because it uses 1X risers for the GPU, which may not provide sufficient through put. Can anyone comment if he/she know answer to this limitation.

I went out and purchased a P106-90 video card for about $70.
The card showed up properly on windows 10 and automatically installed the drivers.

Blender automatically detected the card

And it cut renders down from
1:32 to 49 seconds
Which means I was able to cut my render times in half.

Additionally, searching the blender benchmark data shows benchmarks from users with the cards p106-90 and p106-100
https://opendata.blender.org/benchmarks/query/?device_name=P106-090&device_type=CUDA
Note: According to some sources, the eevee render only uses the first gpu, so its likely adding a second gpu won't increase the speed of previews. Only Cycles renderer is able to use multiple GPUs.
Also these cards can only be leveraged for blender, since nvidia blocks the ability to use these cards for video games.
Additional information

Motherboard: ECS A885GM-A2
Windows 10 Home

Finally some one tried it (all it takes is some facts to dispel the myths)!

If the GPUs supports either CUDA or OpenCL it will most likely work.
Check https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/render/cycles/gpu_rendering.html for more info about Blender/Cycles GPU rendering.

The below is from official Blender Documentation.
Can multiple GPUs be used for rendering?
Yes, go to User Preferences -> System -> Compute Device Panel, and configure it as you desire.
Would multiple GPUs increase available memory?
No, each GPU can only access its own memory.
Source: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/render/cycles/gpu_rendering.html

Technically yes, however these gpus have custom firmware that prevent the cards from being used for anything besides mining.
People on the following forms have had mixed results using them for gaming.

https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/a5pb4z/anyone_know_whether_the_nvidia_gtx_1060_p106_a/

https://www.blendernation.com/2019/02/22/headless-mining-card-gpu-106-100-as-a-graphics-cards/

This user in particular reports success using the cards with blender

https://blenderartists.org/t/solved-blender-ubuntu-not-detecting-new-gpu-after-switch/1150099

They did have to reset blender to forget previous video cards that were used.
blender -b --python-console              # Start python console
>> import bpy
>> bpy.ops.wm.read_factory_settings()    # Load factory settings
>> bpy.ops.wm.save_userpref()            # Save factory settings

Additional information

https://blenderartists.org/t/how-to-set-gpu-preferences-remotely/1147766/12

Additional users have reported mixed results depending on what graphics driver version they are using. Nvidia is actively trying to prevent people from using these cards so even if you do get it working, there is no guarantee that it will work after additional updates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08eeXcIeM14


text:
Rendering sequence of PNG for later animation - Render output does not show progress very well
I have an animation for which I am rendering thousands of PNGs to later be combined by the VSE.  When I start the render animation for the PNGs the Render output window is mostly gray and occasionally flashes an image super fast before if moves to the next PNG (Occasionally a rendered image will stick in the render view but it does NOT list the frame number).
That gives me some idea of where in the sequence my render is, but I have to pay close attention and mostly I miss the frame number it's on.  If I delete all of the previously rendered files I can see which files are being produced on the filesystem so that kind of works, but if I am over-writing files I can't tell.
Is there some way to configure blender render view (like a 1 sec pause between renders for the result to show) or watch the console output to keep track of my sequence generation?
Like I say, more of an irritation than a problem but I would not be surprised if someone has a solution :-)

I don't think I understand the question completely. If blender is rendering faulty frames but most of the animation is OK, just render the whole thing. In the OS identify the corrupt frames and delete them. Then just re-render and make sure that the overwrite option is disabled. Blender will just render the missing frames without over writing the good ones.

Sorry if I was not clear.  The frames are not faulty.  I am just rendering lots of frames very quickly in rapid succession (to later be put into a video).  The render output window does not show each frame as it renders so I cannot visually track the progress of the multi frame render job


text:
Can you change the render seed for each frame of an animation in cycles?
When Animating using cycles, the noise always looks like it is stuck to the screen, is it possible to change the render seed for each frame?

New Versions of Blender
As of 2.75, this is as simple as checking the little clock icon in the seed input field.

Previous Versions of Blender
You can animate and add drivers to the seed field in the Sampling panel in the render buttons the same way you can with most of the fields in Blender. Simply clicking on the field and writing #frame will create a driver that uses the current frame number as the value for the field. This generates a different noise pattern for each frame.

Also note that you can use #frame/2 to change on every other frame, etc.

@gandalf3 Oh my got i never new that #frame trick. Seems like it works for every value. This is awesome! My life makes sense now!

You can press I hovering on seed on the start frame, add a keyframe, go to last frame, change the seed to some pretty high number, and add another keyframe. This will also achieve the result. The previous one is still nicer.

Thanks @Róbert László Páli, this seems so obvious now I know. I don't know why I never thought of this way myself.

Some time ago I noticed the same disturbing thing, and the solution did not came to my mind somehow, and when it did, I felt the same way. :)


text:
Blender GPU rendering pcie x16 to x1 using riser cables
Do blender GPU cycles rendering, need x16 or x8 pcie lanes?
Riser cables enable 6 GPUs (depending on motherboard) because its using x1 pcie lane. Will it bottleneck or not because its doing only calculation not output.
Pcie 3.0 speeds
x1 = 1GB/s,
x8 = 8GB/s,
x16 = 16GB/s,

Thanks :).

I was hoping someone had the answer to this question. My gut feeling is saying that it will work just fine rendering and blender through a 1x to 16x riser. I do think it will bottleneck just a little bit whenever it's sending the information to the GPU but I think it will be imperceptible for the most part. I have seen the GPU risers used in gaming and you do have a fairly significant drop in performance but I think that's due to what you said cuz there's two way communication that's constantly taking place. But with blender my understanding is blender Sims 2 textures and all that stuff and the mapping sing mapping to the GPU the cheap you calculate 2 and then sends the results back now granted it's doing that several times a second because it's doing in tiles and so forth but the two-way communication is nowhere near as rapid as it is in a gaming situation. Or at least that's my assumption. I do plan on trying that very thing out within the next couple months or so. My motherboard has 116 x lot and two 1X slots and I'm going to buy a 1x to 16x Riser and then hook my GTX 1060 to it and see what kind of drop of formats if there is a drop in performance there is. I'm going to bookmark this question and then come back and add more to it or leave another answer whenever I do this little test.

It should be fine as long as your scene fits in VRAM. Newer builds allow CUDA cards to use main memory when VRAM isn't sufficient, and the AMD drivers do something similar for OpenCL. In those cases, where your scene exceeds VRAM, PCIe bandwidth plays an important role and you should expect significant performance drops when going to PCIe 1x.

This answer matches reality. This can be seen with Thunderbolt connections to eGPUs as well, since that can only handle 5 GB/s (40 Gbps).  TB 3 (or 4) is close to PCIe 4.0 x2.

Processing power of the GPU's is more important than the transfer rate.
.blend files are actually pretty small.  10 meg can easily hold be an entire scene.
If you use a ton of polygons and huge textures it may be bigger,
but the real bottleneck is how long it takes to raytrace all the light paths.
So yeah, putting in as many GPU's as you can, may help speed things up.
I wanna say they tested this on Linus Tech Tips, but I don't recall the exact video.
This comes to mind, but it mighta been another one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM1vaHflxFE
I'll look more thoroughly when I have more time.
Edit: That goes into details about power consumption when you go down that route, so I'll leave it up, but there was another where he included Cinebench and Blender test results from a multi-GPU rig.  The results were nearly instant with more cards in there.
I've seen so many of their vids, I can't recall the exact one.  All those memories meld together after a while.  It might'a been one of his gaming servers.
Here's a different YouTuber that made a box for a riser-cable setup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cep89FQrCow
He doesn't show results, but you might be able to just ask on his channel to do a comparison, with & without.  I'd imagine he'd get a kick outta showing it off.

Blender file sizes have little to do with GPU bandwidth.  I routinely run out of VRAM when rendering with high subdivisions or adaptive subdivs. Even a single cube can crash Blender GPU rendering. The problem is the number of vertices that need to be synced.


text:
Microdisplacement problem
I have 3 images for terrain - one main height map, one aplha selecting slopes (which I can replace with some nodes any time), and one height map of rocks for the slopes. Now I can use main height map for microdisplacement, no problem. But I want to have these details of rocks for the slopes too and everything rendered as microdisplacement. My PC won't handle traditionally displacing plane with main height map and then using microdisplacement for rocks only.
To clarify, I cannot mix both displacement textures with alpha fac because then rocks will only be elevated on z Axis, I want them to use normals of current mesh part they are displacing.
Here are main displacement and slope selection, I got rocks from cg textures so just imagine a simple rocks height map.

You can add the rocks hightmap to your Main hightmap, with a mix node (set to add, factor of 1), or a silmple math add node. Plug the output of the add node into the displacement socket. To control the strength of your displacement use a multiply node inbetween. (Values below 1 will reduce terrain hight, values above 1 will grow it.)
The slope information is only used for color, don't add that to the displacement. It will give you wrong results.

Gotcha, when I mix these textures, the rock texture will only elevate the mesh in one direction, on z axis, that's why I have the problem. I need blender to displace it... twice so to speak so that rock displacement uses normals from already displaced mesh, but everything has to be done by microsdisplacement, not by modifiers.

But maybe it would work if I could somehow distort the rock texture by main height map

could you share the textures (if they are free), or upload a screenshot of them? I'm not able to give a detailed answer without seeing the textures.

I ll upload with lower res in a sec

btw to make it work properly I have to use slope information to factor and I can control it over color ramp to change the strength of rocks over main displacement

sooooo, detailed answer please?


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Ultra realistic excrement material needed
Hey I need a very realistic poop material for cycles, I already have the cracks and shape, but I need a material with the correct look. I'm looking for something like this:

Any help is appreciated, thanks!

What you showed is not only a material, it's a heavy subdivided geometry with possible displacement applied to it.

1 - This looks like a separate geometry. Not part of the material aspect.
2 - This is part of the material, a bump or normal map.
My best point for you to go is sculpting, it will reproduce a organic model and you can easily reproduce these bumps you see.
For the material aspect, if you want to go for realism, Principled BSDF is great to simulate real gloss and light information.
I tried a simple material to show you what I mean:

You can see that with some adjustments you can achieve your goal, but then again, this is a heavily detailed object, it is not just a material.


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Using 3D Bezier Curve but having different shading
I used 3D Bezier Curve to create a 3D model. However, it kinda has different shades. I don't know what I did wrong. Could anyone please tell me what I did wrong? Thanks.

In Edit mode, try to select everything and hit CTRL+N to Make Normals Consistent, also go to Shading/UVs and press Faces: Smooth. And make sure you don't have any vertices doubles (W -> Remove Doubles). Hopefully something of that could do the job :)
If not, upload your .blend via this url and add the link to your post:
http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com

Is your curve made from a single continuous segment, or does it have multiple separate segments?
If it has multiple separate segments some of them may have a different direction, yielding inverted normals. You can either:

Invert the curve direction of the affected segments in Edit Mode, by pressing Switch Direction button in the tool shelf, or
Tick the Calc Order in the Screw modifier to make them consistent automatically

If you already converted it to a mesh or applied all modifiers just enter edit mode, select all faces and press Ctrl+N to recalculate normals.


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How to snap an object to another object's edge
How to snap an object to another object's edge.
I'm trying to find a more accurate way to place this object so that the edges are touching. I want to do this so that in my next step I can perform a boolean operation more smoothly.

I'm trying to get it to snap to the place where I'm circling it with the mouse.
I've tried googling and searching this site as well as the blender manual.
Any help would be appreciated. I'm really new to blender and trying to learn a good workflow.

When you use snap to edge the mouse has to actually touch what you want to snap to.

Click on the magnet to enable snapping.
Click on the option for snap to edge.
Move the object but make sure the mouse touches what you want it to snap to.

Animated gif for future reference:

Change the snapping mode in the snap tab in the 3d view header to Vertex and drag according on your specific axis until a small ring appears on the vertex you want to snap to when you hover the mouse over it.

It should have been edge, not vertex. However, that part about the mouse having to hover over it was what helped me figure it out. Thanks!

Vertex snapping is better than edge snapping in some cases. In your case it fit the description. If your edge is non symmetrical or not parallel, you cant snap to its normal.

I didn't have a vertex in that area though so it didn't really work in my case. But the info is still valuable.

Yes there is, at the end points of the edge there are two Vertex, you can snap to either.

You're absolutely right. I just didn't have the mouse hovering over that vertex! Thanks now I know :)

Add a vertex to both the anvil's and cylinder's edge.
Line them up at same height by eye
Snap vertex to vertex.
Remove extra vertices.
(Probably not the ideal solution.)

Thanks, but I managed to answer the question myself without having to add extra vertices. :)

Nice. I actually never noticed that my mouse had to touch the geometry while using snap-to-x. Cool observation.

I still think Blender needs some work in the snapping department. As you can see in @LateralTerminal's answer, Blender chooses which part of that oval should snap to the anvil. I think a better option would be to select "snapping" vertices in object 1 and 2 (outside of edit mode): the vertex to snap from then the vertex to snap to.
There's a nice feature in Fusion 360 called "Move - point to point": You select the start point then an end point - the two object snap together at exactly those two points.
I just don't get why Blender would make the decision about which part of the first object should do the snapping. I'm currently dealing with an object that snaps away from the target object when I hover the mouse over the target object.

Snapping and precision modelling will be updated and it was announced recently as the development fund has enough to pay for the dev. There is a discussion here https://devtalk.blender.org/t/discussions-for-better-snapping-and-precision-modeling-to-come/5351/10

@barkest Now that's what I'm talking about.


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How can I make a Driver expression access image RNA data through the image texture node?
So still trying to automate some processes.
I am trying to use drivers to access information about an image (pixel x/y size and DPI)
The location is simple
bpy.data.materials['Fabric'].node_tree.nodes['IMAGE01'].image.size[0]
But the driver cannot access it through a Texture node

As you can see, it works if I go through the image variable. But not useful when the user changes the texture.
What do I need to make it work?

What is being driven?

A value in a Mapping Group Node

Use self in drivers

Can use self in drivers, to see what is going on can make a driver method, register it, and print to system console what the value of self is, and often more importantly what self.id_data is.
Here is a little test driver foo(self) that also returns a random number, so we can see if it is working, and when.
import bpy
from random import random

def foo(self):
    print(self, self.id_data)
    return random()

bpy.app.driver_namespace["foo"] = foo

Now add as a driver.
Add the driver directly into the property by typing #foo(self) before its a driver. Once it is a driver simply edit the expression in field.

On first time, Make sure use self is checked, and update deps to fire it up.  If it breaks may have to update deps again.
For the simple driver will see that
<bpy_struct, NodeSocketVector("Vector")> <bpy_struct, ShaderNodeTree("Shader Nodetree")>

is printed to sys console, and the driver is a random value.  Ok then self.id_data is the nodetree to which the texture node belongs.
Extending, will give a value of 4 if no image or no  node named "Image Texture" .. but if there is will return the image width.
import bpy

def foo(self):
    print(self, self.id_data)
    node_tree = self.id_data
    tn = node_tree.nodes.get("Image Texture")
    if tn:
        print(tn)
        if tn.image:
            return tn.image.size[0]
    else:
        print("NO IMAGE")
    return 4.0

bpy.app.driver_namespace["foo"] = foo

Could extend further by passing the name of the image texture node and image height or width as an int for instance, and not rely on it being called "Image Texture"
def foo(self, name="Image Texture", index=0, default=0.0):
    ...

        tn = node_tree.nodes.get(name)
        ...
            return tn.image.size[index]

    return default

Now can type #foo(self, "BarTexture", 1, -44) into a prop on nodetree and it will be the height of the image in the node named "BarTexture" or -44 if there is no image or no node.
Notes:
An issue is crossing an ID line in a path for a driver variable.  Starting from material going thru nodetree. If defined as a group then try using the nodetree ID type in a variable  (Haven't had much joy doing this).
Remove print statements if happy with result so you don't spam the console.

Thanks everyone for your help.
I found the solution. It's a syntax issue.
In the console viewport, the code to get the pixel height or width is
bpy.data.materials['######'].node_tree.nodes['######'].image.size[0]

but the code for the driver is
node_tree.nodes["######"].image.size[0]

The Apostrophe ( ' ) should be converted to Quotation marks ( " ).
Don't know why, but it works.


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Blender UV mapping equivalent of disabling Normalize Map in 3ds Max
I'd to perform essentially the same type of UV mapping described in this question, i.e., UV map a mesh such that the resulting UV coordinates for each face aren't scaled or normalized and are based on the actual size of the object face (not limited to [0,1]). This is useful for large polygons intended to use a tiling texture with known real-world size, e.g., an image of bricks, a wallpaper pattern, or (in my case) a reference grid where the dimensions of each square on the grid should correspond to a fixed number of units in space.
Unfortunately, the answers provided to the question linked above don't work in my case: no alternative source of mapping coordinates produces the desired result and the UV project modifier isn't feasible given the number of faces that need to be mapped (since each face would require an empty controller object aligned with its normal vector).
The desired mapping can be accomplished in 3ds Max by disabling Normalize Map (sometimes called Normalize Clusters, depending on the dialog and version) when UV mapping. The 3ds Max documentation describes Normalize Map as follows:

When on, scales the mapping coordinates to fit into the standard coordinate mapping space: 0 to 1. When off, the mapping coordinates are the same size as the object. [...]
For example, if you take a sphere of 25 units that's planar mapped from the top, and then apply Unwrap UVW and turn off Normalize Map, then when you open the editor, the radius of the sphere's mapping coordinates is 25 units. As a result, the texture map is tiled onto the sphere surface many times. With Normalize Map on, both the sphere and the map fit into the 0–1 coordinate space, so they're the same size.
In general, for best results, leave Normalize Map on. One reason to turn it off would be to turn it off is if you want to map several elements of different proportions with a texture of a specific aspect ratio, such as brick, keeping the texture the same size on each object.

Is there a method that can be used to obtain equivalent results in Blender?
EDIT: it's important that the resulting UV map be "exportable", as my intent is to use the mesh and its UV mapping in another program.
EDIT 2: here are some screenshots from 3ds Max to clarify what I'm trying to accomplish. The upper images show the UV map and resulting texture mapping with normalize enabled (this matches Blender's behaviour) and the lower images show the result with normalize disabled (which I'd like to reproduce in Blender).

Object texture coordinates are the way to go, why won't they work for you? Only case I see they may fail is if you have lots of non orthogonal or curvy surfaces, or non uniformly scaled objects. If you really need UV Mapping you can try the Simple Box UV Map addon

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos using object texture coordinates (selected under Texture > Mapping > Coordinates) results in distorted mapping on all but one face of the object (the face in question lies in the object's XY plane). Most of the object's faces have normal vectors pointing in arbitrary directions (i.e., not along the x, y, or z axes).

In your image texture switch the projection method from Flat to Box it won't totally solve non orthogonal cases, but it helps

Just read you edit, there are a few dynamic procedural ways to do it with Cycles node setups, but if you require it to be exportable then don't bother with any of those node based solutions since non will be exportable. Only way to get truly exportable UV Coordinates is through actual unwrapping or modifiers. Only option I see is that mentioned addon, if it still works in the current versions.

The Magic UV addon (available here) can be used to accomplish the desired result.
To install the Magic UV addon:

Place uv_magic_uv folder in the Blender/(version number)/scripts/addons folder.
In Blender, go to File > User Preferences > Add-ons.
Scroll down the list and enable "UV: Magic UV".

Use:

For a given texture intended to be X units by X units in size, make a reference square (e.g., the side of cube) of those dimensions.
Switch to the UV Editing screen layout.
UV map the square such that it occupies the entire UV area (no margin).
With the square selected, press U and select World Scale UV > Measure.
To apply the same scaling to other faces, select them, press U, and select World Scale UV > Apply.

A video demonstrating Magic UV's World Scale UV functionality is available here (recorded by Nutti, the creator of the addon).

Try "Average island scale" in the "UV" menu:
EDIT: Do read the responses to this answer, the solution in this answer is not precise, however it is easier than the "propper way" and in certain cases might just be enough. For the propper solution read Reign of Error's solution involving MagicUV addon.

It's my understanding that this ensures that all islands use the same scale (relative to each other), but doesn't ensure that they're scaled such that 1 UV unit = 1 actual ("world space") unit.

You are correct, I recently realized just that. Still I am using this solution alongside Substance Painter and I never saw a significant lack of quality. I do believe my answer has the right to exist, as it it easier than the propper way.


text:
How to cut faces away?
I have a cube and I want to cut along an edge so that I can move a face away from the cube.

Basically I want to make a cut along the orange selected closed line and at same time keeping all the faces (I just want to be able to move away faces without deforming the cube).
Note that my initial mesh is just a cube subdivided once, but seems the functions are a bit bugged:
Here's what I tried so far:

Attemp 1

Vertex Edit mode -> Edge Select -> Select ring to cut and press V

Don't work here's the result:

Attemp 2

Vertex Edit mode -> Vertex Select -> Select vertices to make a ring and press Y

Don't work either here's the result:

Thanks for linking. however both of the methods in that question don't work at all :(. I added both attemps to the question

In edit mode using “Face Select” select the four front faces. Press ”P” and choose "Selection" from the drop down menu.

Ah! I was moving the edge but not the center of the face! Thanks that did it.

I edited the duplicated answer to add the missing piece of information! :)

I'm surprised to see that you finally used the method which was written you'd like to avoid (seperating selection into new object). Both mentioned ways do work - splitting will split only selected geometry; ripping will create hole in the mesh on the selected edges.

I never written that I'd like to avoid a particular method. Can you quote the exact statement? O_O

In edit mode using “Face Select” select the four front faces. Press ”P” and choose "Selection" from the drop down menu.

This has the additional benefit (compared to the other answers in linked question) to move already stuff in another Object. Does that preserve smooth normals?

If the Normals are not facing the direction you want you can change that under the "Shading/UVs" tab in the tool bar.

You saved me hours :*


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Hair collision problem in Blender 2.8
I have been trying hair dynamics in Blender 2.81. I am using a hair particle system on my mesh. I need the emitted hair to interact and collide with the mesh. Can someone tell me how to achieve this?

You can watch this YouTube video it's for you. That what you need.
https://youtu.be/Lfo9ISZg1BI

I am also struggling with this.
Here you have some advice: How do I stop hair particles going through the body and the head?
Hair dynamics works, but not perfectly. In faster speed of the object, some strands always will go trough the mesh. Also there is a bug in Blender 2.8. - When the quality step (hair dynamics) is above 1, hair explodes. So, don't use this verison if you want some collisions.


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How do i get rid of these black shadows?
I'm trying to render an animation about this children's crib. Essentially I'm creating a "How to install" guide as the printed one is dated and difficult to understand.
Using Blender 2.78 in cycles, I can render my object just fine. As I'll want to show where certain screws go and how the parts slot together, I want to use transparencies.
First I combined the diffuse shader with a transparent shader through a mix shader. At 50% and at 100% transparent I get these results.

So essentially if I tried to make the whole object transparent, I get these "shadows" remaining on the render.
So I decided to focus on one panel. I went 100% transparent for the Grey color and it works fine. When I try to do the same with the chrome color, the color or hue disappears but again i'm left with a kind of shadow from where the objects where.
I've removed doubles, made sure nothing is overlapping but I'm still stuck. Think it has something to do with shadows or the way I'm using the shaders. Anyways I fairly stuck and would appreciate any help. Thanks, Adam.
It won't let me post another pic yet as I'm new to the forum but my settings are as follows:
Transparency Max:4 Min:1, Bounces Max:4 Min:1, Diffuse:4, Glossy:4, Transmission:4, Volume:0,
Shadows: Checked, Reflective Caustics: Checked, Refractive Caustics: Not checked, Filter Glossy:1.0,

Looks like some of the rays are being terminated before reaching a light source or lit surface: how many transparency bounces did you set? could you show you light path panel?

By increasing the Transparency Max from 4 to 24 (with some trial and error), I was able to successfully eliminate the all of the shadows from my animation. I originally tried increasing the Bounces Max to 48 with no success, so I dropped it back to 4, then increased the Transparency Max amount and everything worked.
Thanks to everyone for their help and suggestions.

You could always turn off shadows under the object tab:

Tried that but nothing changed. I have 12 (yep) lamps in the scene because I need the highlights/shadows so I'm thinking it has to do with light getting trapped there or the "shadows" are baking there. When I turn of the shadows I get this result which is not what I'm after. It eliminates all the shadows running across the centre board and doesn't remove the "shadows".

are you just turing off the shadows on the front panel object? Because you should still get the shadows on the other 3 walls

The picture above has both the front panel and the back panels with the shadows turned off. When I render just the front panel with shadows off, nothing changes. I've tried increasing the Max Bounces to 48 under Light Paths, also tried checking Transparent Shadows under Material/Settings but nothing. I've also changed the entire front panel to the same material but that didn't help.


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High Poly Mesh UV Mapping
I am still in the learning stages of Mesh modeling, but I've just sculpted two well looking Mesh Sci-fi helmets and I wish to have them textured by a Friend. I tried to UV map both of them but they both froze after clicking 'Unwrap'. Im positive it must be too high polly, and if so how could I fix this problem? Or how could I get a viable texture map a different way?

Since, it is not possible to unwrap a highpoly sculpted mesh (i am thinking about 500k polys) in blender. You are left with few choices.
duplicate your highpoly mesh, add a deciamte modifier, decimate and apply the modifier. Turn your Triangles to Quad and then unwrap it. You can always get Details by baking normals. (Worst idea in my opinon, but fastest).
or
Retopologize your model (best option) , unwrap retopo and bake normals, ao, cavity maps.
(retopo is good too , when you want Hard surface and edges too).
By the way, There is no point in giving highpoly mesh to your friend for texturing, as it wont be usable in game, but render only.

How would I go about Retopologizing it? And would doing so allow him to be able to Texture it then?

@user2016 For retopo you would create a new low-poly mesh on top of the sculpted one using the snapping tool. To explain how this works you would need a tutorial like: http://cgcookie.com/blender/2010/08/30/retopology-and-normal/

It don't anwser how to unwrap high poly photogrammetry without realitycapture

Handwork way:

Imagine your model dissected on several most plain parts, like front of face, back of body, left side of finger (you need to dissect your model like animal and put its skin on texture)
Open your mesh in edit mode and change selection mode to faces
Look at plain spot and select its faces with C or B selection tool
Press U and select cube projection
Rotate, move and scale your dissected part in Blender's Image editor
Repeat with every part

You can check your work in real time with Textured view.


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Starting two rigid body animations at different points in time
I am animating a rigid body in cycles but I am experiencing problems when it comes to other rigid bodies. As you can see I would to PEN (White one) to drop after the three rings but both of them seem to occur at the same time. Please Help.
Thank you.

I think it would be better to split your question to two. One for the keyframing and another for the rolling effect.

Select the pen then go to the frame in which you don't want the pen to fall (presumably frame 1) and uncheck the Dynamic tick in the rigid body menu. Then mouse over the tick and press I.

This adds a key-frame. Then go to the frame where you want it to fall, and check the Dynamic box (so it's on) and press I to add another key-frame. Then the object will have dynamic rigid collision when the key-frame is hit.

Glad to help :)


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Problem motion capture Blender
I’ve a problem with Blender, I have to make a feet and animate it using a .c3d file with the motion capture of the movements.
But when I try to make the armature and assign the marker to the armature and I press the play, it’s like if the joint of the bones is not connected and they move free but they follow the markers and if I connect the joint and the bones not move.
Also I have tried to make an armature with the bones connected with the key E and they didn’t move. So I need to make a joint that let the bones follow the markers with an anatomical movement.
Could someone please tell me how I can find a solution for my problem?
My .blend file can be found here:

could you provide a .blend file to be able to have a look and help you?

Yes! Could you provide an email adress for sending it to you!! Thanks :D :D

You can upload it through http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ then send me the link

Ok! Perfect! This is the link :D

is the constraints you made in this file are correct? I can't figure out what is the structure of this c3d to be able to create a proper armature, could you explain or show what is the expected result you want?

Yes @Tak! The constraints that I made is copy location for each bone with his marker. The expected result is a foot doing dorsiflexion-plantarflexion movement (this: http://denverfitnessjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/image003.gif).
My .blend file is the right foot and the .c3d file there are 5 markers (1 in the heel, 1 in each side of the ankle, 1 in the first finger and 1 in the fifth finger), you could see here a scheme that I make: https://we.tl/IlzpmlsEPO

Thanks for the info, I've added an answer and uploaded an updated blend file :)

To me you will only need to Bones, one connecting the ankle with the heel and another connecting the heel with the toes.
First you need to construct the armature properly:

Shift+A add armature, then add a bone
Select the two markers 01, 04 to position in between, and align 3D cursor with Shift+S then Cursor to Selected, this will position the bone between the two markers.
Then enter edit-mode of armature and select the bone and Shift+S then Selection to Cursor
Select the markers 05, and align 3D cursor with Shift+S then Cursor to Selected
Then enter edit-mode of armature and select the second bone and Shift+S then Selection to Cursor

The second step is adding bone constraints:

For the first (root) bone use two Copy Location constraint with second on 50% influence to get in between position of two markers 01 and 04. Then add Damped Track to track marker 05
For the second bone use two Damped Track constraints with second on 50% influence to get in between position of two markers 02 and 03.

Result is shown as below:

The updated .blend file can be found here:

Maaany thaaanks!!!! :D

@Yaicobr Not a problem, glad I helped :) you can upvote the answer if it was helpful ;)


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Texture painting isn't showing up on mesh
I am currently trying to paint a texture on my mesh and it is not working. i brought up the UV image editor, made an image texture, selected mesh and unwrapped it. I then created a material and selected my image texture as the color. I try to go into texture paint mode to start painting but nothing happens. I have tried to flip normals being i saw someone else have the same problem and that was their answer but not for mine. Any help?
This is my .blend file:

.Blend file provided above

@Tak I am using version 2.78

I'm using the same version and it's working fine. What OS are you?

@Tak I am OS X El Capitan 10.11.6

I'm windows 7. Looks like an OS issue. I'd raise an issue in blender bug tracker. Will update my answer accordingly as well.

Okay thanks @Tak I will be looking forward to the update

No worries, if you could accept the answer so that people with the same issue can know the reason causing this issue.

@Tak have you ever found anything out?

What do you mean?

@Tak is it my computers software do you think? Or something wrong with blender for mac in general ?

I've just tried on my mac and it's working as well, so it's not a Mac issue, it's something wrong with your system. I'll delete my answer.

Oh, and i'm using Sierra by the way

I have no problems painting with your file as is(just changed color) and I am on OSX El Capitan as well. I opened your file after download with 2.78a and just changed the color of the brush and started painting.

Thank you guy for the help. It just started working after force quiting the app about 20 times .


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Prevent the light source from appearing in the reflection
I have a glossy, metallic ball, rendered below. My problem is that you can clearly see the two lights used in the render. This lighting looks O.K. in the example, but what would I do if I wanted to remove the lighting from the reflection?
Note that I do still want the reflection, I just don't want the huge white spots. I also don't really want the brightness or position of the light to be noticeably changed.
Bonus question: Would there perhaps be a way to just soften the lighting rather than completely removing the white patches? Is there perhaps a way to make the white spots slightly darker without affecting the brightness of the light, or maybe a way to just smoothen out the white patches, so it is more of a gradient?

see https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/17910/how-to-make-a-cycles-light-emisson-object-invisible-to-the-camera

I don't believe that this is what I am looking for. It seems that in this article,   it simply makes it so that the object is unaffected by the light, making the object black. I would like to keep the shading but just remove (or at least make less obvious) the large white spots.

I don't think what you are asking makes any sense. The two white dots spots are the reflection. The light hitting the ball is the only reason you can see it. You could make your lights invisible to the surface, but then were would be nothing to display.

In cycles, go to your material that emits light. Your setup should look like this:

If you are using Blender Internal, and all you wish to do is remove reflected points of light, simply go to each light source's properties and switch off (untick) "Specular".

In the 2nd image the left lamp's 'Specular'  has been unticked, which takes off the point of light reflection but leaves it's lighting effect intact.
As pointed out in the comments above, removing both would also remove the ball's shiny surface effect!  One point at least should remain

Not quite what I was looking for, but I'll just find some way around my problem. Probably should have also clarified that I'm using cycles.


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Animation of Dupliverts with Shape Keys with Python api
Description of Problem
I would like to create an animation of 100,000 atoms with 10,000 frames from my molecular dynamics simulations. Currently I am using dupliverts with a single uv sphere for each atom type. This has worked great in creating a single frame using the python api. However, I am unsure on the correct way to specify the change in vertices at each frame in Blender. I have data that will give me the position of each atom at each timestep/frame.

What I have Tried
What would be the ideal way to animate this simulation? From reading I have seen that using shape keys would allow me to specify the change in the vertices from initial positions (Basis). However, this would mean that I would have to create 10,000 shape keys and change the value from 0 to 1 for each step but would allow me to take advantage of interpolation. The best example I can find showing how this can be done using the blender python api simple example of shape key python api. However, when I used this I was only able to create one shape key not the 10,000 that I would need.
edit:
So I got the functionality that I need using this code. But it still does not answer are shape keys the correct way to handle 10,000 steps?
obj = bpy.context.object
shape_keys = ['step ' + str(i) for i in range(10000)]
for shape_key in shape_keys:
    obj.shape_key_add(name=shape_key, from_mix=False)

for shape_key in shape_keys:
    bm = bmesh.new()
    bm.from_mesh(obj.data)
    shape = bm.verts..layers.shape[shape_key]
    for vert in bm.verts:
        vert[shape] = 'change vertex position here'
    bm.to_mesh(obj.data)

Probably very inefficient would be interested if there are better ways.

It is possible to keyframe each vertex. While by default Blender does not provide a GUI way to do this, it does include the AnimAll addon that provides a way to visually keyframe various components and values like vertices and edge creases. A python script can also easily keyframe the vertices.
import bpy
from random import random

obj = bpy.context.object
for f in range(bpy.context.scene.frame_end):
    for v in obj.data.vertices:
        m = random() * 0.1
        if f%2:
            v.co.z += m
        else:
            v.co.z -= m
        # index of 2 means only the z-axis
        # -1 (x,y, and z change), 0 x-axis, 1 y-axis
        # you will get weird behavior if the index and
        # axis changed do not match
        v.keyframe_insert('co', index=2, frame=f)

Once keyframed they show in the graph editor and dopesheet like any other animation, meaning modifiers can be added and interpolation types changed. You will find the fcurves in obj.data.animation_data.action.fcurves.

Perfect I like how the code example just works and does not require any addons. As an added benefit it feels like it is the "correct" way to do it.  What would the index be for changing x,y,and z?

I edited the above answer to include info on what index to use.


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Appending Materials
I am trying to append models from a separate blender file.
The objects get appended but the associated material do not show up in the new blender file.
The materials show up in the materials tab with an additional Node<none> message.

I tried appending materials separately but the materials still wont show or render on the object.
How do I get to append materials along with the object

Materials made for cycles (with nodes) show up like this when you switch to Blender Render. Switch the render engine to cycles.


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Wireframe and halo together
I have a simple mesh and like to render it as halo and wireframe.
Unfortunately they render only wireframe OR halo. I tried to mix halo and wireframe but i guess it affects only to the color.

What i also tried to assign the halo material to vertices and the wireframe material to the edges.
Any idea?

Would adding the shaders work? (Set Mix blending mode to Add)

I'd say the trick here is having to overlapping objects with different materials.
If you make an instance of eachoder they'll virtually be one and the same object, changes to the mesh will propagate to other clones seamlessly and each can have it's own material one with halo, other with wireframe.
Make sure you apply materials By Object instead of By Data otherwise you won't be able to have different materials per object.

I already did this successfully too but in my next step i like to animate the deformation of the mesh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCBaLcsMCRs&t=0m43s) but by cloning the mesh i must first animte the mesh. How to keep the order of materilaize and then animate?

If you animate through shape keys animations should propagate automatically to all instances. Otherwise clone the object after creating the animation and re apply the materials.

authors: Генадий Звягинцев


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Why I am seeing patches of diffirent transparency in this model with GLSL
I am in GLSL mode and I have a material with transparency, my problem is that transparency is not displayed as it is in the final render of BI. Instead of a smooth result in transparency I get patches that are more transparent than other areas and I dont know why. This problem happens in texture and material mode.

and this is the blend file

Answering here as well for completeness sake.
The issue with occlusion is fixed in blender, but the issue with sections having more or less transparency is not
The cause is that faces of transparent objects in blender are drawn randomly. Due to depth culling, if a front face is rendered first, then all faces behind it will get culled. So randomly, some parts of the mesh will get the face closer to the view rendered first and have the most transparency, while other parts will get more than one face rendered and be more opaque.
To solve this we would need to render faces sorted from back to front, but to keep viewport performance fast in blender, we skip this currently.

It appears to me like an artefact of the way the viewport is drawn. As you move around you can see sections darken and lighten, these sections match up with faces in the mesh occluded by the front most faces.
There would appear to be some inconsistency when calculating the transparency as it passes through each face.

yes exactly, also its as if some areas act as refractions to transparency, so they delay the way transparency pass through them like a glass. It looks to me as well as something wrong with how GLSL renders transparency but I dont know if my card (GT 755M 1GB)  is to blame here, MacOS or Blender. If I start the BGE things get even worse.

I'm on FreeBSD with a GT520, so OS isn't specific. It is blender using GLSL to draw transparency, I think it is a blender bug, not sure if it is a known limitation or easy to change.