text:
Extrude along Local axis
I made an inset and want to extrude it along its local axis I'm trying to extrude the tip of this kettle,I have turned on from the transformation orientation local axis.I tried on the Y and Z, and both go incorrect direction. I'm trying to get it along the axis as shown in the example.
Thank you.

normally, if you just press "E", the face should be extruded in the direction that it is facing. Is this not the case in your project? If not, please provide your .blend file using https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/.

Here is the Blender file:

The orientation show in the last screenshot isn't local axis for that face as it doesn't have any similar orientation (so Normal won't work too). As that drawn line is parallel to faces in the bottom of the tip you can create new transform orientation with that face selected, deselect it and extrude (or align viewport with those faces)

actually the axis you're talking about is neither aligned to global nor to local, so what you could do is select a face that is aligned or perpendicular to the good direction, then align the view with some shift 1 (or 3 or 7), then Transformation Orientation > View, and use the widget to move the extrusion

I understood up to the:  Transformation Orientation > View, can you please screenshot this?
Thank you.

https://zupimages.net/up/20/23/jnht.jpg

if I understand correctly you want to extrude along the teapot spout axis?

Maybe this is what was implied for me to do or maybe not. But I ended extruding the face then using the g to drag it inwards and giving it a bit of a rotation.
https://ibb.co/1Lct5FP

I think your question was not clear, if I understand it correctly ( extrude along the teapot spout axis) I gave you an answer, another method would be to glide the face along the spout direction (GG), extend it outwards with alt, then recreate an edge loop where it is supposed to be in the middle of the spout, with GG then E to align the new edge loop on the right inclination

is there a specific terminology which you specified, so I can search it on a video tutorial?


text:
Addons not available after install
I am trying to install several addons to my blender 2.79 under OSX. I have the addons as zip files.
I follow the documented process, go to the settings, click on install from file, select the file, I can read a message in the bottom of the screen where blender says that it is copying the addon.
Unfortunately, the addon does not appear in the list of addons afterwards, I checked the folder in the user library and the addon has been copied there but it does not show up in blender.
Any idea, how I can debug this! Is there a log file that I could look into?

It would be tremendously helpful, if you could tell us which add-ons you are actually trying to install.

I tried a few. All with the same result. The original intention was to download and install https://github.com/CGCookie/retopoflow

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Make the edge of a model smoother
I have a mesh that resulted out of a photogrametrie and that I'm editing in blender. I'm trying to remove the scattered part of the edge at the end of the mesh so that the mesh has a smooth end (as indicated by the red line in the picture). Does anybody know a good way how to achieve this in blender (other than manipulating each and every vertex)

You can enter sculpt mode and smooth those vertices with Smooth brush (Shift+Left click) while adjusting brush radius. It's possible to enable Dyntopo (dynamic topology) in Sculpt mode which will edit topology based on brush size / existing details size. Another not always acceptable option is to rebuild the scan if too many details need to be edited

You could draw a curve with grease pencil(d), making sure it would hold the part that needs to be cut away inside if it was closed, convert it to a curve select it and then the object so the object is active and enter edit mode and just use knife project. You don't need to use grease pencil and could create the curve some other way as well.

Grease pencil smoothing functionality might also be useful:

This looks like the solution I have been searching for but I'm not quite able to reproduce it. After I drew the curve with the grease pencil it is not selected and I don't find how to select it for transformation. Is there a trick? Sorry for the stupid questions but blender is really new for me. I'm using blender 2.79b.

Grease pencil does not need to be selected, it is not the same as an object. When you draw it, a new grease pencil layer is created and it is active already since it is the only one there. You can see me deleting the grease pencil layer in the n panel after the conversion in the GIF.

Thanks! I can reproduce it now! Basically that is what I'm after but I'm having a bit trouble to draw a nice curve. Is there any way to edit the curve after I drew it?

It is quite easy to edit the Curve object that you convert the Grease pencil stroke to, just hit tab to enter edit mode and you can edit the vertices of the curve. You can convert it to Bezier Curve if you need it smoother. Also have a look at the t panel,Grease Pencil tab for grease pencil properties once you create a grease pencil layer in the n panel Drawing Brushes section with smoothing options at the bottom appears - you can smooth the strokes as they are drawn. I find it to be one of the easiest ways to make nice smooth curves.

I added a GIF showing how to smooth grease pencil strokes to the answer.

Cool stuff! This getting better and better! Is it also possible to re-smooth the curve after I corrected a few vertices?

You can manipulate the curve objects in all the usual ways curve objects can be manipulated - you could use proportional editing for example, or convert it to polygon edge(alt+c), simplify it with limited dissolve, convert it back to curve and set spline type to bezier to have bezier handles. But these are separate questions.

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


text:
Multiple objects sharing the same name in Blender
I need to have multiple objects sharing the same name in Blender.
But Blender is adding a series of number in the name of my duplicates ( object.001 ).
Is there a way to delete those numbers at export, or to force Blender to share the same name on multiple objects ?
Thanks :)
( I'm using the 2.79 build )

The object names are unique. Would joining all the objects with CTRL+J work for you? Resulting in a single object with the correct name. Alternately you would have to change the way the export works via code. Which export are you using?

No, joining all the objects would not work in that case. I used it for baking multiple HighPoly onto a single Lowpoly. However now I have a script that rotates wheels, and I need to share the behavior of one wheel with all the other ones, without changing my base script.
I'm using .fbx export.

.FBX is a binary format. I was hoping it would be ASCII and you could just edit it manually. You will either have to edit the FBX export code and recompile Blender, create your own export code as an add-on or find anther application that can edit the .FBX after Blender has produced it.

All N wheel objects, which must have unique names (eg wheel.FL, .FR, .RL, .RR can share one single  mesh.  Grouping, matching the start of name, custom properties, use the wheel mesh,  are some ways off top of my head to find specific objects in a script.

Haha thanks. Editing the fbx export code is way beyond my abilities. But I just see there is a way to use ASCII instead of binary in the fbx exporter. I'm trying to edit the file and tell you if that worked, thanks for the tip!

batFINGER : I was trying not to edit the script, but I guess I'll have to at some point.

Masu, I have a bad news. Your target application could be very confused if the object that is referenced in the script as "wheel" in reality is four different objects. Check the target application manual how to change the object reference in the script. And if your script finds the object by name, doesn't it mean that object names are unique there?

So far as I know there is no way you can't give objects the same name. te reason is to make sure you don't get confused with the object, so that you can locate and find parts fast.
So far as I know it's impossible.


text:
Need Help with UV Unwrap

I'm trying to UV unwrap this object and the main half is perfect but the second half seems to rotate and skew towards the edges so I'm just wondering if my seams are correct?

I couldn't figure out how to square the UV mesh in blender 2.8 so I copied the object into 2.79 and used the UV squares addon and copied it straight back into 2.8


text:
How to copy F-Curve Modifier(s) from one object to multiple objects in Blender 2.8x
I have an object that animates to float up and then starts slowly rocking in mid-air.
I achieved this by using the Noise modifier for the different location/rotation values and it looks good, my only challenge now is somehow copying all those different modifiers to 30 different individual objects but as far as I'm aware Blender doesn't support this functionality natively, so I looked online and came across this old post but I'm not sure entirely what I'm doing and if it even applies to 2.8x
If anyone could help me execute this efficiently I'll be so thankful!

If you're still wondering about this, here is a way that can speed things up hopefully.
Copy the modifier, select all the other objects and filter to show the curves you want to paste to, then select all the curves and hit paste. Now make sure the "Only Active" option is deselected and you're done.


text:
How to assign different material for instance objects
I have an object and I made instances of it, but everything is connected, shape & material...etc, how to assign different materials to those instanced objects ??

Let's see how to illustrate this. We will use this setup :

A cube parented to a plane, then the plane is set to "Instance" its children on each of its vertices. As you noticed you can't directly access the instantiated cubes unless you make the instances "real", but then you can't go back.
Let's circle the "Object info" output to see how we can use it to our advantage to differentiate each of the instantiated cube.
Note : I don't know if this is a bug or intended, but child objects under instancers are not instantiated when using a "Collection Instance" (Add > Collection Instance or SHIFT + A. More on that later.

Location

So the location output takes the XYZ world location of each object's origin. In this case we use it so the XYZ values are translated to a RGB value.
See it in movement :

Put them in a collection and use collections instances (notice that the child cube is not instantiated, is that a bug ?) :

Object color

This can be used to individually tweak the objects. You can select it there :

The instantiated cubes will take the color of their instancer, so they will all share the same color. But you can make individual instancers have different colors.
In collection instances, this breaks. I don't really understand since in this method, the instances share their color with their instancers :

Object Index

This one works differently, here the instancer does not matter. The instantiated cubes will share the same color as their origin, child cube.
The object pass index can be used in the compositor after rendering, too.
Inside collection instances, the effect still works but the child cubes are not instantiated :

Material Index
I don't see how this could be used here.

Random

This will give you a random value between 0 and 1, per object, including instances. You will have the most variety here, but also the least control over the effect.
When using collection instances, a different value is picked for each object, but each subsequent collection instance will have the same random value. The child object is still missing :

Quick fix, combine the random and position :

For more advanced effects (roughness, alpha value, animation) with these controls see  my other answer here : https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/163699/86891

... And how!  There are 'pop' s... and there are POPs! :D Jeez!

I'm amazed !! This is remarkable !! Can't thank you enough fro the clear instruction, bro :) I will definitely give it a test :D

@YoungGilgamesh Did it work out? Accept the answer if it did!

You can assign materials to objects, rather than their data...

... it's the little dropdown on the far right, just above 'Deselect'.

I suppose that's duplicate linked, right ?? because when i use "instance to scene", there's no material panel when I clicked instanced object.

I think you can't assign different materials to different instanced objects. However, you can use the outputs from the "Object Info" node in order to differentiate between each of them.

@YoungGilgamesh  ahh, yup,  misunderstood your post.. Gorgious to the rescue.

@Gorgious .. you could pop in an answer illustrating that?

@RobinBetts Done !

That's perfect for "duplicate linked" objects, and it was exactly what I was looking for after long hours of unsuccessful googling


text:
How do I get particles to follow an animated path or armature?
I'm doing this wormhole tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2WTH016rfk and I'm trying to get particles to also follow through the animated tunnel. Emitting from the far end and coming toward the camera. The problem is that the wormhole is wiggling around and the particles don't follow the animated path.
I was able to add a bezier curve and control it with the armature and use it as a curve guide force field. I controlled the position of the emitter with the armature as well.  particles don't stay on the curve when it wiggles around. And the curve doesn't follow the armature very well either.

Thank you for posting your question so clearly.
Time to get serious with particles: Select your tunnel, enter EDIT mode, switch to FACE selection filter, select all faces. Go to the MESH menu>NORMALS>Flip normals. Now all your normals should be pointing INSIDE your tunnel.
2) Switch back to OBJECT mode, now apply a SOLIDIFY MODIFIER, and make it thick enough so that when you deform your object it will deform correctly (like a real tunnel thickness)
3) Go to the dynamics tab and click COLLISION. Set friction to something like 0.2, 0.5
4) Now when you playback your animation, your (already working curve guide force) should be working and particles will not be able to scape the tunnel. Furthermore the expected behavior of the particles will react to the deformation of the tunnel.
Thank you for your consideration to vote this as the answer.
BFCT_Schiller

Thanks for your reply. I actually don't want the particles to interact with the tunnel at all. I just want them following the path inside the tunnel (the path is selected and orange in the photo). The problem is that the path moves around, but the particles don't follow that movement.


text:
Is it possible to bake dynamic paint waves simulation as a black and white displacement map texture?
I am working with the dynamic paint waves function to simulate ripples along the surface of a sphere. I was wondering if it is possible to bake the deformation into a black and white displacement map texture so that I could use that texture with a displacement modifier instead of dynamic paint.
Also, another question I have is how do I bake(point cache) the animation on file? When I press bake, it doesn't let me choose where I want to save the files and the bake doesn't even play in real time. I come from 3ds max and the flex modifier is similar to this. I am able to use a point cache modifier to save the animation to a sequence of files so that I can preview the simulation in real time. It also allows me to save an instance of the simulation so that I don't need to re-simulate every time. Is there a way to point cache the dynamic paint wave simulation onto file?

Dynamic Paint can output to different targets depending on the Format. In your example you're baking to Vertex weights. However, changing it to Image Sequence will give you a new Output panel that allows the output to be baked to a sequence of images :

Once stored as a series of images you can use an Image Texture node set to 'Image Sequence' to retrieve the data and use it to drive the Displacement.


text:
Face exists but no edge
I've been learning Blender for a while now, and there's this problem I couldn't figure out the answer, even after searching for it.
There's this edge I want to move, on the same z axis :

And when I want to move this edge like this :

There's still this face existing even if I moved the vertices and the edge. How could I remove this overflow ? Why does it even exist ? I'm using Blender 2.79. Thanks in advance for your time.

It acts like this because it tries to create a face between your 4 vertices. To do what you want to do you will have to create a transverse edge like that:

Oh, I see, edges are this importants in order to sculpt objects. I see ! Thanks a lot !


text:
Child object drives Parent object movement, Child object behaves weirdly
I make a control sphere parented under a camera, the control sphere drives a target cube's location.
Camera needs to follow the target cube when it moves, so the camera is parented under the cube.
Now the control sphere is moving quite fast and weird ?
Here's what I record :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afq6DbcV3uc
First half camera not parented under cube, looks fine
Second half when parented, when I move sphere a little bit, it goes far away
How can I solve this ???

Maybe there's a circular dependency, if the sphere is child of the camera, and the cube is drived by the sphere, I guess you can't make the camera follow the cube, as the cube is kind of child of its child?

That's definitely circular dependency. A child follows the movement of its parent, you have a clear hierarchy there: moving the cube moves the camera and this moves the sphere. However changing the sphere's location drives the cube's location which in turn again affects camera and sphere, like a dog chasing its own tail. I'm not sure what exactly you want to achieve, but first I would break up this hierarchy. It's nod a good idea to have the "grandchild" control the "grandparent".

There's a circular dependency problem, you can't make a parent obey to its child's child. Maybe describe what is your project exactly so that we propose an alternative solution.

Thanks, let me elaborate :
I'm making a mini car game.
I need a UI to control the car.
Now I'm using the sphere movement to drive the parameter for steering the car
.But as you see the problem above.
I think I need screen space UI or something ?


text:
Select child object in different collection from parent object
I have a rig with clothes parented under it
but i seperate rig and clothes into different collections for organization

As the image above
The problem is when I select one clothes mesh in the scene and try to find it in the heirachy using "."
it always focus on the grey one under the parent rig object, not the actual mesh in the no_sleeve collection.
When the object in the scene gets a lot (not in this case), it just hard to drag along in the outliner and find it.
How can I solve it ?? Thank you, to all of your big brain.

Blender opens the first collection with the selected item. So move the armature collection below all others.

I didn't know that ! Thank you !


text:
How to copy bone transform in edit mode?
I have two armatures as below

How to make the left one into the right one ??

If I understand well, this will result in two identical armatures? If yes, why don't you simply copy the one on the right? Is it because the one on the left is animated?

No, because the right one just can't generate rig, I'm using Rigify but somehow it's just throws error, I only move some bones, didn't touch anything else.

Give a try: copy the left one. place the right one at the same position as the copy. in edit mode delete all bones of this copy. in object mode join the right one to the (now empty) copy.

Above the bone properties is the data properties tab. Choose it. Right at the top is what armature is assigned to armature object. Set the armature of left to same as armature of right.


text:
Drag and drop multiple images in Node Editor?
I can't drop multiple images in Node editor, it only create one node with the first image and others are ignored, any idea ?

That's a limitation. Suggest to put a feature request: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1190/best-place-to-put-feature-requests/1211

I don't know if this is why you want to put multiple textures in the shader editor, but if you want to add multiple textures for a principled setup (Albedo, Normal map, Roughness, Displacement, etc.) you can use the node wrangler add-on and either use CTRL SHIFT T when you have your principled shader selected, or on the right panel with "N" and then Node Wrangler > Add Principled Setup.


text:
How to transfer multiple material to object?
I have a model assigned different materials on different part, now I import a new identical model,how can I transfer assigned materials to new object without going into edit and assign them again ??

Hi :) Thanks for the reply. Actually I'm dealing with ABC files with different anim. They are same mesh but different animation, but when I copy materials to the other, it fails :(

Hey :). Please ask that as a new question with screenshots, and description of the problem (perhaps there's an error message?).

Thank you I've just post it :)


text:
How to mark sharp by angle?
I try to mark sharp, but I found the only way is to select it one by one and mark in edge menu, is there a way to do it by angle just like auto smooth or edge split?
and then I want to turn sharp into seam , how to do it??

You can do this easily using the Select Sharp Edges function.

Use Select > Select Sharp Edges and adjust the angle.
Now you can mark all selected edges as sharp

To turn all sharp eges into UV seams.

Select one sharp edge
Use Select > Similar > Sharpness and mark the edges as seams

Thank you ! I didn't know you can adjust angle with select sharp edge !

@YoungGilgamesh Honestly, I didn't know it either before this question :).


text:
How to cap multiple holes in a model?
Is there a way to quickly fill holes instead of selecting each of edge loop and then fill it ??
for example this sphere

Is there an one click function to cap those holes without selecting them one by one to manually fill them ??

There is a function called "Fill Holes". If you increase the "Sides" number in the left bottom corner pop-up menu it will fill every holes with one face. Of course you have to select everything before use it.

it doesn't seems to work fine for holes with more than one face missing though... ctrl F > Grid Fill may be useful sometimes, but for some holes I guess you need to do it manually (there might be some addons for this kind of tasks)

Thanks for the answer :)


text:
VSE - Scale image on both X and Y axis
I am editing a video in blender and I have to scale a lot of images to fit certain sizes in the image. I noticed that to scale an image in the transform panel, I can only change one axis at the time, and to make the image ratio correct I have to constantly match the y axis scale to the new x axis scale. This is very slow and gets bothersome rather quickly.
Is there a way to change both axes at the same time?

click in x and keep holding down mouse button, then drag down to y -> enter value -> both values will be changed

@Chris wow this works perfectly! Didn't know you could do this, thanks! You can even drag both values together with the mouse for fine adjustments

Glad I could help


text:
joining two objects distorts procedural texture
In blender I created a procedural marble material using nodes and no image textures and also using generated texture coordinates and it looks great in this image

but when I go to join the marble object to the brass object using ctrl j the procedural marble texture looks completely different almost like it stretched in the z axis
Is there a way to join these objects together without having the texture change or stretch
here is the node setup
and here is the blend

I don't think there is an automatic way to achieve that. You need to accommodate for the hight change, using Mapping node.

Right of the bat, I must say that your use of 'Texture coordinate' node as a texture/color input is not in line with its intended purpose. Anyway, the problem here is, all the texture input nodes (noise and voronoi ) don't have their 'vector' inputs connected. So by default, they take 'generated' as the texture coordinates input. And generated texture coordinates work based on the bounding box of the object.This is a problem in our case because when we join the objects, the objects bounding box (black lined box) increases as shown here..
Inorder to have similar marble effect even after joining, we have to scale the texture proportionately. This could be done using texture 'mapping' node under (Vector>Mapping). Here are the steps.

Before joining the parts, note down the marble globe bounding box dimensions.You can find these in properties panel (Hot key 'N') under dimensions section, while the marble globe is selected (as shown below).
Join the two objects.Now note down the dimensions of the new object.It will be as shown.
Now in the node editor for the marble material add the 'texture mapping' node as shown here (remember we need to scale the texture).
Now if you are wondering what the scale values in the red box are, they are basically the ratio of bounding box dimensions. For X & Y: 1.66573/1.11312 = 1.49645 and for Z :3.16439/0.680168 = 4.65237

This will fix the scale and get a result very close to your initial texture. You can fiddle with the 'location' values in the texture mapping node to get a result you like. Feel free to check the attached blend file below with the implementation.

@ Duane Dibbley I think this will teach me something new. Thanks for sharing this link.

thanks for the answer I think I understand it somewhat better although i'm still relatively new to procedural texturing could I instead of having to scale the mapping node just connect every texture input to object coordinates instead of generated and the scale will remain the same hope this makes sense?


text:
How to scale PBR material so it doesn't look repeating
I'm trying to scale the material applied to the cube. Regardless if I scale it up or down, the pattern seems to look repeating. How can I fix this?

I see. The addon indeed doesn't work on symmetrical patterns like you said. This tiling effect happens when the object is too big compared to the texture's resolution. This will easily be solved if you have a higher resolution of the texture (probably 4k).
This happens to me as well. Given my limited resources, the way I would approach this is:

Instead of having 1 massive object(a cube in this instance), I would create a metal plate according to commercial dimensions.

Like the image below, I used array and played with UV offsets until desired pattern is achieved. (I added spaces between the object to show my point) You can also rearrange the objects by stacking arrays to add randomness.

PS. It's a little hard work but this is what I would do.
Cheers!


text:
Rotating multiple objects to specific centre axis
Hi Blender Forum (happy new creative year to all)
I'm trying to rotate these 3 objects, on a 45 degree angle all at once. I couldn't figure out how to do so, so I did them one by one. So how's it possible to rotate multiple objects simultaneously. I know about individual origins, but I couldn't get the result I was after.

I'm not sure I fully understand but maybe try positioning your 3D cursor where you have the red dot in your paint over and then rotate around that with all objects selected and set to individual origins.

Hi Chris, thanks for replying to my question.
I have tried to do that, but even with individual origins, they go the same direction.I need to get them leaning towards the centre of of the cursor. Below is the tutorial Im following, the instructor is doing each leg one by one, but Im sure there is a quicker way to achieve this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuyHco6rhAc
at the 8:00 min he starts position the legs, this will give you a good insight what I'd rather want to achieve, than doing each leg one by one. Hope this helps you understand what technique Id like to learn.

Like in the other answer you should probably used Linked-Duplicates(Alt+D) for this, I wouldn't recommend rotating the cylinder in edit mode like in the tutorial vid just position one cylinder in object mode while retaining it's transform info.
Make your cylinder and put it's origin at the cap of the object where it will be connected to the mics base, go into edit mode and select the top face of your cylinder position the 3D cursor there and set that as the origin point while in object mode now rotate the cylinder in place and position it how you like.

Then select the mic base and set the 3D cursor to it's center we'll use this as your rotation point, in top ortho view in the 3D view panel set your transformations to "Global" and the pivot to "3D cursor" select the cylinder and hit Alt+D then R to rotate the duplicate into position then simply hit Shift+R to repeat that operation for the third.

If you want to unlink the objects later go to the object menu > Relations > Make Single User > Object + Data

Thanks for your help Chris, it worked out well.

You can Duplicate-Link the poles and rotate the original pole in edit mode:

Start with one pole. Press Alt+D to make the other poles (make sure it's Alt+D, and not Ctrl+D)
Go in top view and rotate each of the two other two poles in object mode by 120 degrees each
Select the original pole and go into edit mode and rotate it towards the red dot in your pic.

Note that whatever edits you do to one pole, it happens to the other poles, but not in object mode.

Thank you for your suggestion, both replies I received were helpful, I managed to achieve good results doing it 2 different ways.
Kind Regards.


text:
UV mapping a Logo on Specific face of object
I have a rectangle, and added an image texture on the material. I marked the seams and projected from view on the specific face I wanted the blender logo to be shown. Now my first question is when I add the Blender logo to the face, it's applying to the entire object which seems stretched. Why does blender apply it to all the object and not the specific face which is chosen?

The distribution of the material has nothing to do with the UV layout. You have 3 material slots, 2 of which are empty and apparently not assigned to anything.
Go into edit mode select everything, assign a material to the 1. slot and press assign.
Then select only the face the logo is supposed to be on, select the 2. slot and press assign.
That will fix it in your case, but best practice is to keep it in one material, use a 2. UVLayout just for the logo and mix it in with your main texture (or color).

Ok Frederick thanks for the information, point taken and understood. And Now Ill be posting regarding some further material explanation.


text:
Looping Animation
I have animated the camera in order to make a seamless animation. But I'm confused if there's a slight jump when the camera loops again. Can I upload my file so some can please take a look at it, if I have missed something?
Thank you.

Possibly related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/42001/how-can-i-properly-rotate-my-object  Keyframes are "eased" by default, giving a curve look to graph, slowing the gradient at keyframe points.  Making linear extrapolation is possibly what is required.

Hi batFINGER I have already set my interpolation to linear in the preference.

You need to set the same keyframe as the start frame not to the end frame, but to the end_frame + 1 else the 2 last frames repeat

Here is a screen shot of my timeline
https://imgur.com/Fmn2euK
Also the camera location starts at Y-10m and finishes at Y 10m, the camera is perfectly snapping at start and end point.

As @Gorgious has commented, it sounds like an off-by-one error?
For a quick, even,  50-frame loop of a rotation, for example, without going into the Graph Editor and using features like Extrapolation or Cycling, you could:

Set a key at frame 1 of 0 degrees
Set a key at frame 51 of 360 or -360 degrees, depending on the desired direction of rotation
In the timeline,T set all selected keys to 'Linear' interpolation.
Set the Playback Range to 50.

To tidy up, you could insert a keyframe at frame 50 of the existing rotation at that point, and delete the key at frame 51.

Hi Robin.
I see where you're coming from. I was use to Animating objects in After Effects, and there is no skipping frame like you implied in Blender, which worked like a gem. Seems a bit weird that the seamless animation has to be like this in order not to jitter a frame, but in the end it's the result which matters.
Thank you.
https://imgur.com/R1HO21k

@blenderbreath   hehe... doesn't seem weird to me .. you just don't want the frame at 50(=0) to be repeated at frame 51(=1)


text:
Modelling Technique Question
I'm following a time lapse clip which has to do modelling the PLayStation 5.
I cant seem to understand what the modeller is doing at 0:20 seconds,(I lowered the speed at 0.25) Somehow he is avoid a tri face. But If I continue modelling, as seen from the different angles I've provided I'll get a tri face in the corner of my model. Can someone please tell me what he's doing with the mesh to get a quad when he extrudes the mesh.
Thank you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzGkQAfxakE&list=LLZ2XZXqOZRx6idQLEh4-RIw&index=2&t=13s

I think he simply makes so the right edge of the rectangle is shared with the side part on the right. See the result at https://youtu.be/WzGkQAfxakE?t=26 and following

In the video he had some hesitations but at some step the result is simply to merge two vertices.
In vertex selection mode Ctrl1,
Select the vertex on the left, then Shift select the other one.
Then merge them using AltM then 'At last'.
The model is more or less in this situation:

Whoa, thanks for that demo, this really clarified any doubts I had!


text:
Hard Edges On Corners
I have a model with a smooth curve, and on the front of the model, I extruded the faces inwards, I trying to make the edges less curved, so they look like a rectangle. So I added support loops, which minimise the smoothness on the edges, but it alters the smoothness of the curved mesh. Is there a method to get the edges more harder?
Thank you.

Have you tried using creases?

Select the edges that should be sharp and use Shift+E to adjust the Edge Crease. This controls the weight used for the edge by the subdivision surface modifier. Alternatively you can also control the value in the sidebar. Open the sidebar with N > Item > Transform and change the value for Crease.

Hi Robert,
Thanks for your reply, this method Shift E( Egde Crease) did work, but also required the inner edges to be selected as well, to get the selected mesh to look all squared up.
https://ibb.co/7XkmRVY
Kind Regards,


text:
Adding holes simultaneously within mesh
Im trying to add multiple holes within my mesh, so I divided it up, and then used cylinders shapes to make the holes. On the top image I used the Boolean operation.
And on the bottom image, I subdivided one of the rectangles and used the looptool method with the circle. Once I add a subdivision modifier I am getting weird result with the Boolean but the operation holes, but the bottom Hole looks more acceptable once cleaned up. Is one or the other method the correct way?

Instead of using the cylinders, inset the faces with "i", the subdivision modifier/ subdividing then makes perfect circles, once you sharpen the edges (with edge crease/ loopcuts)

Hi Thanks for replying.
So I tried what you set insetting a face on my mesh. I'm not understanding your next step, can you please post a screen shot?
Thank you.
https://imgur.com/9Tl4Fth

Select the face you want holes on
Inset all faces by pressing "i"
Extrude all faces by pressing "e"
Extrude all faces by pressing "e", press "g" and drag them down
Extrude all faces by pressing "e"

(3. and 5. sharpen the edges, so you don't have to add Loopcuts/Edge Creases)

Thank for your prompt response, Now I saw the wrong modelling approach I was venturing into. It's easy to watch a clip on YT with a incorrect technique and learn the wrong way. Lucky for this forum can save the day!
Cheers!


text:
How to use anchor in blend4web?
How can i display data on my webpage using BLEND4WEB .Is there any way so that i can fetch the data from database and then display it on my webpage using BLEND4WEB?

This may be possible using Javascript programing directly in the application, but probably not doable directly from inside the Blender GUI, but it is not really my area of expertise . Probably better ask this over at their official support site https://www.blend4web.com/en/forums/

This question is a duplicate, as you know. ;-) Let's try to keep Q&A data consolidated in one place on Stack Exchange, so that it will be easier for others to find and use. Thanks!

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is about programing for the web, and not blender or blend4web.

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


text:
View camera not correct
The camera is placed to see my scene from the front, like this:

But if I got to view and then camera, this is what I see:

What is the problem?

Can you upload your .blend using blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com please? Thanks

I added the blend file, I find out that If I delete my ButterflyComponents the view is fine. What is my problem?

@Repolho Please do not edit out the content of the question.  Others who visit the site now with similar problems to what you describe will not be able to easily see if this question/answer(s) will help them.

It looks like you do not have the camera set up as the active camera, you have an object set as camera.

So, select the camera by opening up the tree (left click on it):

Now, set it as the active camera by going to View -> Cameras -> Set Active Object as Camera.

Now you should have the camera working (as in it moves around in the animation)!  Jumping to a frame, it looks like this:

@Repolho No problem, glad to help.

You changed the camera in the scene to be an object, check the image below, you need to go to Scene menu, change it back to be Camera.

It took me a while to resolve. I tried solutions in earlier replies, but it didn't work somehow. Maybe because my camera had animations on it. Here is what I did -
Checked the Use Local Camera in the view panel on the right (which appeared when we press n) and the at the Local Camera field, choose Camera.

I had a similar situation, I made assets file for the new assets library used in blender 3.0. I have my camera setup for the item I am making as a asset. Normally it creates the picture on it's own but sometimes I have to do manually. The issue is I just made a new group of items as assets. It would not automatically create the thumbnail So I did manually except it would not take a picture of the correct item. I tried everything from deleting the hiearchy to deleting all artifacts of camera's in the scene, and adding new camera's... nothing worked. Then I noticed that the new items were not in a folder like everything else so I created one and put new items in it. Picked an item in another folder turning off the new folder and it worked. Now I know what's happening. I forgot to turn off camera's for render for new items I did not want to be in the picture, maybe it's makes it a new issue however it screwed me up so maybe someone else might have the same issue

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


text:
Mesh with with color on the front side, and black in back side
I have a mesh that should be yellow on both sides, front and black, yet only the front side is yellow, my back side is fully black. How can I tell it that both faces should have the same colour? I tried to use the property back face culling but it doesn't do anything.

Well by default all faces have only one normal. A normal indicates the direction that a face is pointing in. In general 3D it is usually not possible to have the same face show different colors. For more on normal's read https://www.blender.org/manual/modeling/meshes/editing/normals.html
Even if you have cloth you have a back face and a front face of cloth it may be paper thin but it still possesses thickness. A butterfly wing has some thickness too and the front and back should usually be modeled as separate faces this is important if you are going to use the model in another engine or you want it to work anywhere.
But certain render engines provide that feature where the reverse side to the faces normal can be a different color.
Blender cycles provides that feature but it is part of the materials.Blender internal also provides that feature but its implementation is different.

I guess you can use this feature if your model is limited to cycles otherwise create another face for the butterfly wing.
You can test the above node setup by  Just adding a plane and adding a cycles material to it and using the above node setup (rotate the plane and and you'll get the idea).

You are right, I ended up creating another wing, flipped the normals, and then assigned the material, that worked. Thank you.


text:
Revert to default scale when seed changed?
So this is the problem. This is the node network I have (simplified). it just takes random list from objects and should change the scale to zero when value is animated. It works but, for instance if the animated scale gets to 0 and after that I want to change the seed of the random selection, those scaled down do not go back to scale 1, but stay scaled down, thus the effect is added. Any clue how to get them back to initial scale? Thanx in advance.

Your approach doesn't explicitly set the scale of all objects, some of which might have been scaled to zero at some point, so their scale never reset.
To fix that, generate a list that define the state of each object, then use that list to control the scale of objects in whichever way you want. It is clear to me that you want to control how many objects gets scaled to zero, so to implement that, we are going to generate a list that has a certain number of zeros, with ones for the rest of the list, such list can be generated using the Fill List node. To make sure it is randomized, we can shuffle it or shuffle the object list itself as follows:

Thank you very much Omar! It is such an elegant solution !

Omar, one more related question: Is there any way to now exclude those objects with scale of 0 ( or less than one) from the new list of objects? I cant find a way to substract the objects with less than 1 scale from the initial group. The intent to have another operation on the remaining objects with scale of 1. Thank you in advance.

@chaba You can use the Mask node on the object list using the output of the fill list as the mask input.

when you change the seed you choose some other objects to scale. this means that you lose the scaled objects. you should store them and clear their scale when you change the seed.
in addition you can make some kind of 'Callback' using animation nodes. the approach is as follows:
store a custom property in your objects. call that SeedForSelection. in the steps after random nodes check if the SeedForSelection is the same as stored on the object; if not delete the animation keys ,clear their scale and clear their SeedForSelection property. after that store new seed as SeedForSelection in selected objects.


text:
Animation positions and animate along the path - Animation nodes
two questions here.
The first: I placed objects in certain positions and would like to introduce new vector positions that would become starting point for these objects and animate them so their last position will be this one. Here's the screenshot:

And the second one: I got objects placed on the spline using the loop, but i'm having trouble understanding how to animate them along the spline (like with Follow Path constraint).
Guys, thank you in advance.

I see your questions on animation nodes. Would you be interested in joining Blender Maths group in Facebook? This group encourages interest in Animation Nodes and Sverchok Nodes and scripts with maths.

For the first question:
It seems you need the Object ID Key feature to store the initial transformation info for the objects. Here is how to use the Object ID Key node:

IMHO, the whole nodetree could be optimized like this:

For the second question:
A basic example setup would be:

BTW, there is a nice template called Distribute Instances on Spline, which is a great start to learn how to make things working like this. You can find it in Templates menu on Node Editor's header.


text:
How can movement speed be set for simple object movement?
I finally decided to start actually animating stuff and followed This YT tutorial. Unfortunately I need my object to remain at a constant speed through its movement (No acceleration/ deceleration.  I.E. start at frame 0 with object moving at 1 foot per second and end with it still moving 1 foot per second.  Currently my only idea is to have it start way out of the scene and end way out of the scene and crop the timeline for the actual animation.

Speed/acceleration is the result of F-Curve's "Bezier" interpolation. You should switch it to "Linear". See more: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/editors/graph_editor/fcurves/introduction.html#settings

How simple is the animation. If it is simple straight line point a to b, then drivers are a simple option the frame is "time" typing #frame / 24 + 1 into location.x of an object will make that component move 1 blender unit every second.  It will be at location 1 at frame 0.

if you want the speed to be linear, select the animated object, open the Dopesheet window, enable the little arrow button on the horizontal menu bar so only the selected object keyframes will be displayed, press T to set the keyframe interpolation and choose Linear. You can also do it in the Graph Editor. Is it what you want?


text:
sharp edges on imported geometry
I'm getting some strange sharp edges on imported models when viewing the material.
Things I've tried:

normals are facing the correct way
shade smooth is on
clean up/ merge vertices
no sharps/seams

Another Odd thing is that when I change faces tris to quads, the edges still remain
None of the material maps have any odd shading

The normal map needed to be changed to colorspace : non-color, and now the model appears smooth.


text:
Animated visibility of an object in render mode is different on rendered image
I was following a tutorial and everything was perfect until I saw the final render animation.
The render view shows what I want

But then when I render the file the letters don't disappear.

I have no idea what the issue is. Any help?
This is the link for the file https://www.dropbox.com/s/ect1165odmlwtnu/Firma.blend?dl=0

From your images it appears that you have keyframed the visibility of the writing - shown by the green around the ‘eye’ icons in the Outliner at the top-right of your images. However, that only controls the visibility in the 3D View window. In order to make the same effect on the rendered result you need to do the same on the rederability of each mesh - the camera icons in the Outliner window at the top-right (the rightmost icons).


text:
Mirror X in Blender 2.8
Is the 'X Mirror' option under the 'Mesh Options' working in 2.8 Beta? It appears to do nothing at the moment. Or am I doing something wrong? Simply enabling it on the default cube doesn't allow me to move one vertex and have the other vertex on the X axis move.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about issues with experimental development versions of Blender

Baffles me also? 2.79+ has it, and I use it during rigging. So useful, I can't use 2.8 currently for rig design?? Anybody else??


text:
Hey Guys, I'm trying to learn how to create something like the attached image in blender for product work
Is there anyone out there willing to please help me or point me to a good tutorial. please]1

Show your work so far. If you have Ø to show, I suggest you create a cylinder with proportional edit.  Please look on youtube for a tutorial for creating a bottle.

Tutorial Series.  Please see all of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY6KPrc4uMw&list=PLda3VoSoc_TR7X7wfblBGiRz-bvhKpGkS. Typically this site frowns on tutorial requests.  There is a list of learning resources that you can search on this BSE site.

This is a tutorial request and not a specific question. Tutorial requests are considered off topic on this site.

Also, please use meaningful headlines. Please read this. It contains lots of information about how to ask good questions and receive good answers.

Two good tutorials, I would go with the one on Lynda if you have a library card you can watch it for free and the teacher is awesome.
https://www.lynda.com/Blender-tutorials/Product-Shots-Blender/160819-2.html?srchtrk=index%3a1%0alinktypeid%3a2%0aq%3ablender+product+shots%0apage%3a1%0as%3arelevance%0asa%3atrue%0aproducttypeid%3a2
Free version on YouTube that's still pretty good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBtWfVkghow
Also, the first one is in Blender 2.7 and the second one is in Blender 2.8 so that may help you make a choice as well.

A brief summary of what they do perhaps?

Please read Your answer is in another castle: when is an answer not an answer?


text:
Model rounded chair
For a project I need to model a chair that looks like this:

I don't know where to start, can someone show the right direction?

This BSE site is not a tutorial site for particular projects. Its quite interesting how you have a close vote even though no words were written to you.  Welcome to BSE. Some people lose their patience when human beginners ask for tutorials which might be considered beyond beginners.  You are a human are you not? This site has learning resources which you can request.  Youtube has many tutorials.  Please see this entire video tutorial series. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY6KPrc4uMw&list=PLda3VoSoc_TR7X7wfblBGiRz-bvhKpGkS

Once you have seen many tutorials please show your Blender work in a screen capture.  Then your question will not be a tutorial request.

Bonne Chance. Happy Blender.

Even if you showed some cylinders and spheres arranged nicely in addition to your image that would be an improvement.

As Atomicbezierslinger told you, your question is too vague. I just tried the wooden cage part, you can do it with a circle that you extrude, then cut in half, then Array around with an empty as Object Offset. Then you choose a cube as Boolean to cut it off.


text:
MHX2 import in 2.79 and 2.80?
Has anyone had any luck installing the mhx2 importer under Blender 2.79 or 2.80 under Ubuntu 18.04?
I have followed the installation instructions correctly, and in Blender  2.79, User Preferences installs the files and shows that the mhx2 importer is installed in the "Makehuman" category.  However. when I activate the plugin, this message appears:
This script was written Blender version 2.80.0 and might not function (correctly), though it is enabled
No mhx2 option appears in the file Import menu.
So I tried downloading and installing the Blender 2.80 beta, then installing the mhx2 plugin, but the results were even less satisfactory.  The installation proceeds without errors, but the Preferences pane does not show that the mhx2 importer is installed at all.
What am I doing wrong?

Have you obtained your copy of the script from https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/mhx2-makehuman-exchange and followed the instructions there for installing it?

Yes, I have.  As I said, I followed the installation instructions correctly.  And just to make certain, I deleted the files, downloaded again and re-installed.  With the same non-results.

I had the same problem. Moreover my previous files were not read correctly. Poses were lost. Fortunately I found the previous version of the mhx2 import file in my old Blender74 directory. Now everything is OK. You can write to me bluerain @ interia.pl (omit the spaces around @) if you want to get the old mhx2 import file.

I can now answer my own question.  The mhx2 importer DOES install and enable under Blender 2.79.  What threw me off is that A: the error message I've quoted in my original question still appears when it's enabled, and B: the mhx2  file import no longer appears in the Import/Export dialogue where I expected to find it.  Instead, it is in an (apparently) new "mhx2 runtime" tool tab.  "Import MHX2" is now found in this tool tab.

Where is this "mhx2 runtime" tool tab in the interface?

Left hand side in the main editor window, the vertical tabs next along with Tools, Create etc. Using Blender 2.79.

For anyone else having trouble finding this in 2.8, In the 3D view, press N to open the right hand tool tray, and find a new vertical tab on the right hand edge of said tool tray.

It's on the left-hand tool tab for me - running on a Mac.


text:
Unexpected Edge Loop selection in Blender 2.80
I'm creating my first donut in Blender 2.80, to get used to the new release of the program and become better at modelling. That also means getting accustomed to new/ altered keyboard shortcuts and the like.
I'm using blender-2.80-linux-glibc217-x86_64 package on Linux Mint 18.1.
To my understanding, many people have been experiencing problems with Edge Loop selection. I had such a problem myself, but by changing the keyboard shortcut in
Preferences -> Keymap -> 3D View -> Mesh -> Mesh (Global) -> Loop Select
to
(Press Alt + Cmd) + LMB
I can make an edge loop selection.
The thing is, the "direction" of the selection is wrong. What I mean by that is, when selecting an edge, instead of selecting the edges that are "in line" with it, the program selects the edges parallel to the original. Like, it selects the edge on the other side of the same face and so on.
I don't believe it's normal, nor is it the intended use of edge loops. It could be useful in some scenarios, but not the typical one. That said, it would be nice if I could toggle between the two selection modes (the typical edge loop and this "unexpected" one)

Thank you for helping me out with this donut.

Try just alt+lmb.

This is expected behavior for Alt+Cmd (or Alt+Ctrl). Try using Alt alone instead.


text:
C4D mograph like behaviour in Animation Nodes
i'm trying to replicate the mograph like behaviour in Animation Nodes. I'm trying to grasp the concepts here and new to this so bit more explanation would be great. I searched but could not find the info i was looking for so if you can help I would really appreciate it.
So i have a plates that are on certain locations. I was trying to randomly scale them from 0 to 1 and I think I got it. Heres the screenshot:

Screenshot 01
By adjusting the Effect Strength from -1 to 1 I'm able to get what I want - randomly scale images from 0 to 1. I hope this is a correct/elegant solution, so I'm open to better ones if they exists.
After that I wanted to add location/translation - like let the plates start from off screen and then fly to their original locations. I added following nodes:

Screenshot 02
Unfortunately in this case the change in Math node iterates and continues to grow without stopping and I was not able to find a way to break the loop.
Could you please let me know how this is done? Is this approach an optimal one? I suppose rotation will be dome as translation too right?
Well thank you in advance for your support. I also attached the blend file so feel free to look. Thanks.
ANIMATION_NODES_BLEND_FILE

As the screenshots were included into your question from your dropbox now they aren't visible (likely they don't exist on dropbox anymore) and your question is less clear for anyone reading it.

You have to use ID Key node. It basically allows you to recover positions from objects previously stored. Use it instead of the object transform input.
Positions are stored on the viewport.
See this documentation.
http://animation-nodes-manual.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user_guide/nodes/object/object_id_key.html


text:
Gradient control on instanced objects from collection
So I have 10 different objects in the collection. I instanced them on the curve with different rotations and locations.
Now I'm trying to control the color over them with vertex color node. But what I'm not able to do is to control the color over the new distribution of objects. AN treats the new object list which is larger as consisting of those initial 10, thus when I move the falloff each new element gets colored according to its coloring in the original collection so no smooth gradient, but rather random one. Any thoughts how I can make AN treat the newly distributed instances as a separate group of objects to apply color animations to.
Thank you in advance.
Attached are the screens of node network and objects in the viewport:

Could it be that you forgot to set a material to the created objects?

Omar, how one can be able to do that? When I apply a material to instance and copy to other instances the number of objects that this material is applied to stays as the original 10 objects. so no change. I was not able to wrap my mind how I can instance objects from group and at the same time retain Deep Copy capability. What am I missing here?

Sorry, but I don't really understand what the problem is or what you are trying to do. Can you maybe make a simplified example where the problem occur or rephrase your question?

I have 10 objects in collection which I randomly instance on spline with total amount of 120. After that I get 120 clones which have materials applied from originals, so with or without a loop I get uncontrolled random texturing. Is there is a way to override the coloring on newly created object instances or any other way to distribute objects but be able to apply colors to instances and not to original objects.

To make a deep copy of the meshes for each instance, get the meshes from the objects and write them to the instances using the Mesh Object Output node as follows:

Omar, worked like a charm!! Thank you very much!


text:
Rigify IK problem in Blender 2.8
So I was testing rigify in 2.8 and I was not able to make the IK working. I just add metarig, Generate the rig right away and IK is not working - hands and knees are not bending as expected. All the sliders were correct. And what I did to make it work is to teak the Rest Length on the selected MCH bones, as shown in the attached grab.
Is this a correct behaviour? Did I solve the problem correct way or it will give me problems down the road?
Thanks in advance.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it about issues with unfinished experimental development versions of Blender

yes thanks for standing in the way of ppl helping each other out on a beta version. so whats your point exactly? that it's a beta? well guess people will still need help or clarification... seriously, there are already a ton of topics here about blender 2.8 -.- this StackExchange can be so counterproductive and shooting itself in the butt, it's unbelievable. Btw: I profited probably the same amount from by wanna-be-wise-guys closed topics as from open ones and never came across bad answers or a bad thread development in any way.

"you can only edit comments within 5 minutes". well here's another stupid stack exchange limitation right there, but let me just create another comment, makes more sense haha :D btw2: it's not experimental!! ;)


text:
Another Mirror Mod Issue
This is kind of similar to another issue I had with the mirror mod, but this time my model that has the mod shows the mirrored version going through the main one. Even if I reposition the pivot point or 3D cursor so it's in the centre, it makes no difference, it never appears in the right place - opposite the main one.
It looks like my shoe model has far too many vertices and has made the file over 38Mb. Not sure of the best way to fix that. I've tried the Decimate modifier, but that ruins the model. :-\
https://www.dropbox.com/s/t5bjrr390g7131x/30_06_18.blend?dl=0

sorry I don't see where is the mirror problem, can you make a screenshot? About the shoe, yes it has too much edge loops, did you apply a subsurface modifier? anyway you could simplify with this method (ring selection, checker deselect, select edge loops, delete): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yptda_yKQIU

besides that, there was a solidify on the shoe, so it looks like both subsurface and solidify have been applied, which was not a good idea, but you can clean that manually... I don't think you'll have a good result with decimate or remesh

Sorry, I forgot to add the mirror mod. If you add it, it should show you what happens. Yeah, I added both a subsurface and solidify mod. I wanted to give it some thickness as well as detail.

About the mirror: you must apply the rotation of your object: ctrl A > Rotation. About the subsurface and solidify: you shouldn't have applied them, I think it's only useful sometimes when you want to export to some other softwares/game engines. Of course if you apply subsurf you will have a lot of vertices, it will be heavy and hard to simplify. Perhaps the easiest thing to do it is to rebuild a new shoe with retopology (create a new object and use snap to stick to the original shoe).

Thanks, guys. Much appreciated. I reverted to an earlier save and didn't apply the subsurf and solidify. Though that video on ring selection is very useful to know. :) Reverting to the old save and preventing that crazy amount of vertices actually helped with the mirror issue. Though I tested Ctrl, A and Rotation and that fixes it too. That's great to know! I've had that issue a few times. :D

great, I've synthesized the answer  ;)

1 - About the mirror: you have to apply the Rotation of your object (crtl A > Apply Rotation)
2 - About the mesh of your shoe: you have too much useless edge loops, come back to an earlier version and don't apply the Subsurface and Solidify modifiers.
If impossible, Decimate won't give a good topology, so you can either:

Simplify with the method described in this video (ring selection, checker deselect, select edge loops, delete): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yptda_yKQIU
Or rebuild a new shoe with retopology (create a new object and use snap to stick the vertices to the original shoe)


text:
Weird Mirror Glitch?
First post here. I have a weird issue in Blender involving the Mirror Modifier, or lack of in this case. I copied a hand model from another project of mine and adjusted it to make it more feminine for my game character, however, even without a Mirror Modifier, the program is acting like there is one; I've got a second one and both will highlight if I click on one and they'll both disappear if I try to delete one. They're both in the same layer as well. The same thing happens with the Subsurf Modifier, too - it still acts like it's enabled. Also, the positioning of it is weird. Even if I set the 3D cursor and pivot point in the centre, the left hand stays at the bottom left instead of aligned with the one on the right on the X axis.
Any ideas what's going on? Have I stumbled on a glitch or something?

Thanks.

Sounds strange indeed. Perhaps try this checklist:

Edit Mode> T> Options> X Mirror = Unchecked.
Alt+S, Alt+R, Alt+G to clear transforms.
Ctrl+A> Location then Rotation then Scale to apply transforms.
Ctrl+S> Cursor to Center to set your 3D Cursor to the center of the world.

If none of this fixes the issue, you may also want to try exporting and re-importing a mesh format like .obj or .dae.
I hope this helps. Good luck with your project!

Thanks for the response. Sadly, only half of the problem has been resolved... Clearing the transforms removed the Subsurf Modifier issue and it recognises that there's no Subsurf mod when it's disabled and re-enabled, but sadly it still thinks the Mirror Mod is on. :-\ I've tried everything you've suggested, but none have worked, sadly.

I see. If you want to post your file on the blend-exchange, i'll take a look at it for you.

I think I've fixed it. Clearing the transforms sets the positioning of the hands correctly, so they're aligned, and in Edit Mode I was able to select the left hand on its own without it selecting the other as well, deleted the faces, which deleted the whole thing, then added a Mirror Mod and now it's working how it should. :D

No, there's still an issue. If I put the right hand in the correct position, the left hand doesn't reflect that position on the opposite side; it moves further to the left. >_<

Here's my file:

Ah yeah. I see. There was no mirror modifier, and the hand object had a rotation on it that needed to be applied. Then you could position it and add another mirror modifier and proceed. Anyways, glad you got his it fixed. You should mark this question as solved.

How do you mark it as solved?


text:
What's wrong with my fluid simulation...?
I've been following this Blender Guru tutorial - https://www.blenderguru.com/tutorials/introduction-to-the-fluid-simulator - however, mine doesn't appear to be working properly. I'm not sure if there are Domain settings I need to adjust first, though I suspect it's more to do with the fluid itself. So far I've tried increasing the resolution, scaling the fluid object to make it smaller, decreasing the size of the Domain cube...
This is what happens when I bake it:
https://i.sstatic.net/5OMio.jpg

Did it work before you bake it, or not at all? What happens if you play the animation?

Not at all. To be honest, I'm not even sure how you preview the simulation before baking. Nothing happens in Render mode anyway.

Bumpety bump. Anyone?

Okay, looks like I've had to look into this further without any help. After a bit of experimenting, it looks like there's something amiss with the starter file I downloaded, which keeps causing the Domain cube to mess up. Even before baking the simulation. I've tried appending just the mug with a fresh new scene, placed it within a cube, applied the appropriate physics, and it seems to be working correctly now.

Nope. Looks like I haven't fixed it after all. Once I've set everything up again, the same problem persists. :(

Be patient, not everyone is on the site 24/7. I played with the fluid simulation this weekend, had a similar issue. My inflow object was a sphere, as soon as I changed to a cube the issue was gone. Have you applied scale to the objects? Increase resolution? there are many things that can go wrong. I suggest deleting the domain / fluid and doing it again, there might be something you overlooked there.


text:
Blender 2.8 - keyframes not showing?
I've just started playing around with Blender 2.80 and I'm trying to animate some lightning I did. Whenever I hit 'I' on the Brightness, whether it's at 0 or 1, no keyframe appears on the Timeline.

Can you please add a screenshot

Don't forget to select "mapping" in below when you want to see keyframes. I did the same mistake :D

Abigail Z's fantastically simple solution did it for me. D'oh! ®

Unticking Only keyframes from Selected Channels did it for me
Blender 2.91.0

Could you show how? Perhaps a screenshot of the interface where they are located and an explanation of how to do it

In the Timeline, go to View> View All:

Keyframes not showing is a result of a different texture, material, or any output/input things selected. It will only show if it is specifically selected

Not sure what this means. Keyframes aren't showing for emission strength in the editor.

Changing "Dope Sheet" to "Action Editor" in the dropdown menu above the summary did it for me.

Sorry for my terrible drawing skills with a mouse.

Sometimes you'll scroll down in the timeline without knowing, I do it all the time. Just hold down the middle click/ball thing of your mouse and drag down in the timeline to see if this happened. If this is the fix, all your keyframes will appear like magic again.


text:
Rendering gives me a black screen
In the past this was due to still having an image strip within the Video Sequencer Editor, but this time that's no longer the case. I'm not sure what's happened to cause this, but whenever I try to render out a single image or an animation sequence, I just get a black screen for each render.
I'm trying to render out a lightning animation on a separate Render Layer, along with a background on another. The Output under Render is set to PNG. I'm not sure what I've changed to cause it to give me a black screen. :-\

I'm still confused with what I can do with the image I have. I've never even heard of or come across EXR files. How exactly am I going to sort out my image file?

I tried replicating the node setup from one of those answers and I still got the same results. :(

Also, before adding an image, I was able to render out a quick animation of some lightning I'd made, and that did show. Now it doesn't, even if I remove the image. I've even tried loading up older saves and they no longer show if I do a quick animation, so something else must have gone wrong.


text:
STL batch exporter alters file name
Blender has a built in option to batch export STL files but it replaces spaces, "(", "[" with underscores which I don't want.
For example:
What the object is named: Sprgr L4.5 Patr (DoppZ S-60 Fl) 1-1 scale - [ 88mm KwK 36 ]
What it actually exports as: Sprgr_L4_5_Patr__DoppZ_S-60_Fl__1-1_scale_-___88mm_KwK_36__
Does anyone have a working plugin for 2.8x that doesn't screw with the name? Or perhaps some simple way to avoid this problem? I don't want to be renaming each file manually. Especially when I have over 10 000 files to export.
I wouldn't mind trying to hack together a plugin but my understanding of python is basically non-existent. And taking an existing obj batch exporter plugin and replacing "obj" with "stl" is obviously not going to work.
This is the obj batch exporter that I'm using and works great:
# ##### BEGIN GPL LICENSE BLOCK #####
#
#  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
#  modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
#  as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
#  of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
#
#  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
#  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
#  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
#  GNU General Public License for more details.
#
#  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
#  along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
#  Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
#
# ##### END GPL LICENSE BLOCK #####
# <pep8 compliant>

bl_info = {
    "name": "Export multiple OBJ files",
    "author": "p2or, brockmann",
    "version": (0, 2, 0),
    "blender": (2, 80, 0),
    "location": "File > Import-Export",
    "description": "Export multiple OBJ files, UV's, materials",
    "warning": "",
    "wiki_url": "",
    "tracker_url": "",
    "category": "Import-Export"}

import bpy
import os

from bpy_extras.io_utils import ExportHelper

from bpy.props import (BoolProperty,
                       FloatProperty,
                       StringProperty,
                       EnumProperty,
                       CollectionProperty
                       )

class ExportMultipleObjs(bpy.types.Operator, ExportHelper):
    """Batch export objects as obj files"""
    bl_idname = "export_scene.batch_obj"
    bl_label = "Batch export OBJ's"
    bl_options = {'PRESET', 'UNDO'}

    # ExportHelper mixin class uses this
    filename_ext = ".obj"

    filter_glob = StringProperty(
            default="*.obj;*.mtl",
            options={'HIDDEN'},
            )

    # List of operator properties, the attributes will be assigned
    # to the class instance from the operator setting before calling.

    # context group
    use_selection_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Selection Only",
            description="Export selected objects only",
            default=True,
            )
    use_animation_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Animation",
            description="Write out an OBJ for each frame",
            default=False,
            )

    # object group
    use_mesh_modifiers_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Apply Modifiers",
            description="Apply modifiers (preview resolution)",
            default=True,
            )

    # extra data group
    use_edges_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Include Edges",
            description="",
            default=True,
            )
    use_smooth_groups_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Smooth Groups",
            description="Write sharp edges as smooth groups",
            default=False,
            )
    use_smooth_groups_bitflags_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Bitflag Smooth Groups",
            description="Same as 'Smooth Groups', but generate smooth groups IDs as bitflags "
                        "(produces at most 32 different smooth groups, usually much less)",
            default=False,
            )
    use_normals_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Write Normals",
            description="Export one normal per vertex and per face, to represent flat faces and sharp edges",
            default=False,
            )
    use_uvs_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Include UVs",
            description="Write out the active UV coordinates",
            default=True,
            )
    use_materials_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Write Materials",
            description="Write out the MTL file",
            default=True,
            )
    use_triangles_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Triangulate Faces",
            description="Convert all faces to triangles",
            default=False,
            )
    use_nurbs_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Write Nurbs",
            description="Write nurbs curves as OBJ nurbs rather than "
                        "converting to geometry",
            default=False,
            )
    use_vertex_groups_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Polygroups",
            description="",
            default=False,
            )

    use_blen_objects_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Objects as OBJ Objects",
            description="",
            default=True,
            )
    group_by_object_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Objects as OBJ Groups ",
            description="",
            default=False,
            )
    group_by_material_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Material Groups",
            description="",
            default=False,
            )
    keep_vertex_order_setting: BoolProperty(
            name="Keep Vertex Order",
            description="",
            default=False,
            )
    axis_forward_setting: EnumProperty(
            name="Forward",
            items=(('X', "X Forward", ""),
                   ('Y', "Y Forward", ""),
                   ('Z', "Z Forward", ""),
                   ('-X', "-X Forward", ""),
                   ('-Y', "-Y Forward", ""),
                   ('-Z', "-Z Forward", ""),
                   ),
            default='-Z',
            )
    axis_up_setting: EnumProperty(
            name="Up",
            items=(('X', "X Up", ""),
                   ('Y', "Y Up", ""),
                   ('Z', "Z Up", ""),
                   ('-X', "-X Up", ""),
                   ('-Y', "-Y Up", ""),
                   ('-Z', "-Z Up", ""),
                   ),
            default='Y',
            )
    global_scale_setting: FloatProperty(
            name="Scale",
            min=0.01, max=1000.0,
            default=1.0,
            )

    def execute(self, context):

        # get the folder
        folder_path = os.path.dirname(self.filepath)

        # get objects selected in the viewport
        viewport_selection = context.selected_objects

        # get export objects
        obj_export_list = viewport_selection
        if self.use_selection_setting == False:
            obj_export_list = [i for i in context.scene.objects]

        # deselect all objects
        bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')

        for item in obj_export_list:
            item.select_set(True)
            if item.type == 'MESH':
                file_path = os.path.join(folder_path, "{}.obj".format(item.name))

                bpy.ops.export_scene.obj(
                        filepath=file_path,
                        use_selection=self.use_selection_setting,
                        axis_forward=self.axis_forward_setting,
                        axis_up=self.axis_up_setting,
                        use_animation=self.use_animation_setting,
                        use_mesh_modifiers=self.use_mesh_modifiers_setting,
                        use_edges=self.use_edges_setting,
                        use_smooth_groups=self.use_smooth_groups_setting,
                        use_smooth_groups_bitflags=self.use_smooth_groups_bitflags_setting,
                        use_normals=self.use_normals_setting,
                        use_uvs=self.use_uvs_setting,
                        use_materials=self.use_materials_setting,
                        use_triangles=self.use_triangles_setting,
                        use_nurbs=self.use_nurbs_setting,
                        use_vertex_groups=self.use_vertex_groups_setting,
                        use_blen_objects=self.use_blen_objects_setting,
                        group_by_object=self.group_by_object_setting,
                        group_by_material=self.group_by_material_setting,
                        keep_vertex_order=self.keep_vertex_order_setting,
                        global_scale=self.global_scale_setting
                )
            item.select_set(False)

        # restore viewport selection
        for ob in viewport_selection:
            ob.select_set(True)

        return {'FINISHED'}

# Only needed if you want to add into a dynamic menu
def menu_func_import(self, context):
    self.layout.operator(ExportMultipleObjs.bl_idname, text="Wavefront Batch (.obj)")

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(ExportMultipleObjs)
    bpy.types.TOPBAR_MT_file_export.append(menu_func_import)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(ExportMultipleObjs)
    bpy.types.TOPBAR_MT_file_export.remove(menu_func_import)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    # test call
    #bpy.ops.export_scene.multiple_objs('INVOKE_DEFAULT')

Would greatly appreciate any help!

This is a Blender internal thing. It's afraid of spaces and . , bc. some platforms might interpret them differently. So blender replaces in any filenames in export scripts the spaces by _ . I don't think there is a way around it, other than creating a second script that replaces the special characters by allowed characters in your object names.

Well the OBJ batch exporter which I included does not do this so it clearly can be made in a way that it does not add underscores and just keeps original name of the object.

btw, a lazy approach would be to take the obj exporter and replace every _obj and .obj with _stl and .stl, might just work

You were right, it's in the .stl batch exporter. I ran into the same problem with .FBX and apparently gave up too soon.
Go to the directory
<path to blender.exe>\2.83\scripts\addons\io_mesh_stl

and open the
__init__.py

line 299, replace
keywords_temp["filepath"] = prefix + bpy.path.clean_name(ob.name) + ".stl"

by
keywords_temp["filepath"] = prefix + ob.name + ".stl"

You may want to make a safety copy first...
Use the built-in stl exporter, but be sure that you don't use characters that are not allowed in filenames. This is why Blender cleans the names, it's less prone to error.

Thank you very much! This works great and it's so simple!


text:
Where is the Viewer node?
Where is the Viewer node located at? Blender manual says it is an Output node but it is not under output.
I have blender 2.77.
Regards,
Koreenium

The Blender Manual is right. There is a viewer node under Output, but it's in the Composite Node Editor. I bet you are looking in the Material Node Editor.
To get one in the Material Node Editor, you have to activate the Node Wrangler add-on, then you can use Ctrl+Shift+LMB to create a temporary Viewer Node.


text:
metalness map in cycles?
I made a model that consists of several pieces, mostly metal but some are non-metal. Instead of making a completely seperated texture map for the non-metal pieces I decided that I am going to make one big instead that has all the necessary textures but then I realised that I don't know if it is even possible to use metalness map with cycles renderer. If it is then how would I set up the nodes?
Regards,
Koreenium

You can assign several materials to a mesh and a material can be used by several meshes.
In this first image, 2 materials (1) are assigned to the left object (2), and the wood part has its UVs located in (3) in the texture.

In this second image, again 2 materials are assigned (1) but to the right object (2), and its UVs are located in (3).

To assign several materials, use the '+' button on the right, so that a new material slot appears.
Then assign (or create) a material for this slot.
Last step, go to edit mode, select the wanted faces and click 'assign' in the material part :

If I use two separate materials would it have any significant affect on the render time If I use the same 8192x8192 texture for both materials?

@Koreenium, this is very depending on the complexity of your materials/nodes, specially the glossy/glass parts if there are any combined with the amount of light sources. If all these is kept simple, having multiple materials will not have so much impact about render time. To tell it another way : what is hard to render is light, not materials in themselves

@Koreenium, additionally, 8192x8192 is big (in itself, not about the render time)... but surely this is ok if you need it...

Thank you for the help. I do have like 10+ parts and most of them are large.


text:
Texture painting margin size
I am painting a texture for my model using Blender "Texture Paint" mode. Is it possible to change the margin size for how much the texture gets painted over the edge of the models UV?
Regards,
Koreenium

In the painting options it is called "bleed" and defined in pixels.

Thank you. Weirdly enough I never even thought it might be the bleed.


text:
Best way to divide a face of a cube into several specific faces
So I want to subdivide the top face of a 8x8x1 cube into this specific pattern:
I tried fumbling around with the subdivision tool, but wasn't able to arrange it correctly. I also have some other more complex patterns, so I wonder if there is an easier way of doing this kind of operation.

Press CtrlR, then use the scroll wheel to bring the number of cuts up to two. Enter out of it, and then press S to to scale, and constrain it to a specific axis. This insures that the loop cuts are evenly spaced, and not one further away from the edge than the other.

You might notice that the middle edges go through the top and bottom sections. While you might now like to see this, it is necessary. You could technically do with out it by using N-Gons, but this is generally a bad idea.

I only use perfectly flat rectangular faces in my models. Are there any issues with for example selecting all the faces on the bottom of the cube that are created by your method and pressing F to merge them into a single face? I am making these models for a game and I'd like to use the least amount of edges/faces possible.

@Hex7CD Well, you're model will probably be triangulated before it goes into the game engine, so it won't really make a difference. But also keep in mind that when anything gets rendered, all faces are converted into triangles anyway. So using N-Gons won't really cut down on your face count. I haven't personally experienced this (I don't really have a reason to export models), but I've heard that you can run into trouble when you export models with N-Gons, so you might want to be wary of that.

After turning away from the problem and coming back to it later, I suddenly had the answer:

Mark 2 opposite edges and subdivide the face with 2 cuts.
Mark the 2 edges going through the original face and subdivide with 2 cuts again, then arrange the edges as necessary.

My other question still persists, though: Is there a generally easier way of dividing plain faces into specific patterns?

The first answer is the way to do it.


text:
How to tilt (rotate in all axis) a video strip in when editing videos?
The tilted video will be played over a tilted Phone image.
I added a Transform Effect Strip  by winch I can rotate a video in Z axis only.
How do I make it rotate in Y and X axis as well?

have you triedto create a meterial based upon a texture, and have the texture point to your video.

https://docs.blender.org/manual/de/dev/editors/vse/sequencer/strips/effects/transform.html
It's not possible, the transform strip only makes 2D transforms.
You can render the video overlay as 3d scene:

a new scene in the VSE project (then it's possible to add the scene directly to the VSE) or a new blend file (then you render the overlay video out and import it to the VSE)
open a 3d view
Use the addon "images as planes" and import your video as a mesh. Select "emit" as shading option.
In the film settings enable "transparent"
Set your iPhone image as background
Enable camera view with numpad-0 key
Transform the movie mesh so that it fits the iPhone screen in the background.
Set the animation length to the frames of the movie.

Two ways to get the overlay in the VSE:

If you used one blend file for both VSE and overlay rendering, then you can add the scene to the VSE.
If you created a new blend file, render the movie out and add it the the VSE. Select "Over drop" or "alpha over" as blend mode.


text:
How can I snap a duplicated part of a mesh to a hole with the exact size so it forms one whole object again?
I am still very much new to Blender, and I've been struggling with this problem for a couple of hours now. It might have been better if i'd just created another project from scratch at this point, but I want to see it through to the end and learn more in the process. Scouring the internet hasn't helped much.
I've been following a tutorial on modeling and composition and made a tea pot. All was fine and dandy until i started working on its handle. After much fiddling I was dissatisfied with the results and decided to delete the handle altogether. This left me with the following situation:

Since it is a round and symmetrical object, my first instinct was to duplicate the corresponding 3x4 side of the pot and just replace the old faces. That's where I got stuck - no matter how i try to snap to the remaining vertices / faces, the duplicated part always becomes deformed since there is nowhere i can snap the middle 2 faces to:

So, is there any kind of way for me to bring this pot back into its original shape, or do I need to start over?

Try to use a Grid Fill option. First select all edges around the hole with Alt+RMB, then press Space and type Grid Fill. If the result isn't as nice as you expected, change it's settings in a Tool Shelf (T).

I can see how this is great in a similar situation, but after having applied it on the pot i tampered with, the grid became rally warped. The other proposed solution was closer to my specific problem, even though both are right.


text:
Everything turns black in Netrender mode
I used Cycles for rendering my scene, and I wanted to render my animation through network render. When I switch from cycles to network render, all of my objects turn black (3D view, no matter whether it's solid/texture/material view). What am I missing? And yes, I've packed everything into .blend files.

What version of Blender are you using?  In 2.77 I can't reproduce it, but I remember it happening in the past (in which renders still worked fine).


text:
Getting to POSE mode in 2.77a
How, pray tell, are you able to get to POSE MODE in Blender version 2.77a? I've imported a free, rigged model I downloaded to practice animating, but cannot get to this mode. CTRL + TAB does not work. Help please!

Try the dropdown with the name "Object mode" in the bottom of the 3D View. Select "Pose mode". Of course, the object must be posable.

Thanks, Gunslinger. I tried the object mode drop down menu. Pose mode is not there. If the object is not posable, shouldn't pose mode still show up? If not, that may be the problem. This is an .obj model (which I think originated in 3D Max), and I have discovered that this is not the rigged version. The rigged version is a .max file, which Blender does not read. Might then the answer be that I have to rig the model first, before pose mode is viable?

A hint, try using the rigify addon (if you are rigging a humanoid). When you have problems with it, come back here. :-)

Ctrl+Tab will toggle pose mode if an object of type 'ARMATURE' is selected, or it will toggle weight paint if an object of type 'MESH' is selected.
Otherwise, you can select the armature in your 3D View (or outliner), then select pose mode from the menu in the header.

Thank you, Timaroberts. I think the problem is, as I recently discovered,  that the model is not rigged after all. I am supposing this precludes the ability to see (e.g., through the object mode drop down menu), much less get into pose mode . Am I right about that?

@Anthony yes, pose mode is only available on armature objects.

Select the armature in the outliner panel and this should give you pose mode when you change from object or edit mode.


text:
Mesh gets deformed when an array of spheres deformed along a curve :(
So I took some edges from another model that I want to turn into a curve for spheres to follow. I did this by duplicating the edges, seperating them into a seperate object and then using the alt + c to convert to a curve.
As you can see, there are quite a lot of points on the curve in edit mode, not sure if this contributes to the weird deformed meshes I get, if so is it just a case of decimating?

So when I add a curve modifier (after using an array to make lots of spheres) I get this result, you can see the spheres get deformed round the tight bend of the dips in the curve, elsewhere they are fine.
Can anyone point me in the right direction to a solution!
Thanks in advance!

There's a way to do this by parenting the object to the curve using "follow path", not the constraint which has the same name. Then by editing the animation paths of both the object and the curve, I can't create the answer right now, I'll do it asap

One of the easiest ways to make an object be duplicated along a Curve (path) is by parenting the object to the curve using (Follow Path):
1- Make sure the object and the curve's origins are at the same position, better to have the curve's origin at the beginning of the animation flow. Select the object then the curve, you need the curve to be the active selection.
2- Press Ctrl + P, choose Follow Path, this is different that Follow Path constraint, the only common thing is the name.
3- Select the object, go to Object menu, under Duplication, choose Frames and un-check Speed.
4- Select the curve, go to Curve menu, under Path Animation, set the amount of frames, the object will be duplicated according to this amount, check Follow, if you want your objects orientation to follow the curve.

Georges, that worked a treat, thanks a lot, much appreciated!!

You're most welcome @Msmith1991

@ georges it works with the square its not working with the sphere can u plz go to my link and solve my problem http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/66272/how-to-rotate-object-along-path-path

@atek looks to me you already had an answer using a third method with dupliverts, anyways, if you still want to use this method, make sure you apply the scale to the object and the curve, then try it again using the exact same steps


text:
Can't export object made with CSV mesh importer to unity

So I've used the CSV Mesh importer which is a third party add-on to create an object based on various X,Y,Z values.
However not only I can't render this object, I don't know how to modify it and when I save it as .blend and try to import it to unity, it shows nothing.
This is basically some vertices and edges.
I'm very new to blender so any help would be appreciated.
I like to be able to change the color and thickness and all, but can't.

Your object has no faces. Blender cannot render single edges or vertices. You can try either the skin modifier, or press alt-c and convert to curve and use the bevel option.


text:
Placing different types of Grass
I'm trying to place two kinds of grass on a ground plane:

The exposed ground north of the east-west road should have short (Bahia) grass, with a sprinkling of weeds.
The exposed ground south of the east-west road should have long (Rye) grass, again with a sprinkling of weeds.
The ground covered by pavement or water should have no grass or weeds.

What I've read here and in grass tutorials suggests I'll need both vertex and weight groups:

Divide the ground plane into two vertex groups -- a Bahia group from the center of the road north and a Rye group from the center of the road south.
Weight-paint the ground so exposed ground has a weight of 1 and covered ground has a weight of 0. (Call this weight group Exposed Ground?)
Set the Bahia particle system to use both the Bahia vertex group and the Exposed Ground weight group for Density.
Set the Rye particle system to use both the Rye vertex group and the Exposed Ground weight group for Density.
Set the weed particle systems to use the Exposed Ground weight group for Density. If I don't specify a vertex group, the weed particle systems should emit from the entire plane, masked by the Exposed Ground weight group, yes?

Will these steps show tended grass north of the road and wild grass around the swamp in the south, with grass and weed particles emitting only from exposed ground?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Crissie

Why don't you try it out?

From what i know there is no such thing as Weight group in Blender.
What you need to do Crissie, is:

Create 3 vertex groups - north(reaching from the edge of the east-west road to the last north most vertex), south (reaching from east-west road edge to the north most vertex), and weed (those two earlier groups combined, so all terrain except the east-west road) and assign appropriate vertices with weight 1 to them.
Use weight paint to cover lake part with weight 0 for south group.
Use the same method to cover road and pavement with weight 0 for north group.
Use the same method to cover road,pavement and lake for weed group
Use north group for Density in Bahia particle system,
Use south group for Density in Rye particle system,
Use weed group for Density in weed particle system.

Thank you, Mzidare. I've never done weight-painting before, and I didn't know I could do that separately for each vertex group. I'm curious why you suggested I exclude the east-west road from any vertex group. Ultimately, I'll be exporting this ground plane to DAZ Studio, and DS doesn't like null vertex groups.

Didn't know that. Blender doesn't care about null vertex groups, and excluding the road would be better then painting weight for it.


text:
Trackers in re-linked footage don't match the features on video
I've managed to get my footage re-linked to my project again after reformatting my PC, but I've noticed that all of my trackers keep moving around. Is there any way to fix this, or have I got to delete them all and start again? :-\ I'd rather not re-do them; tracking is not my favourite aspect of Blender.
Thanks
Save file:

Footage:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/09bq3u1tqzbkmic/Real_Footage.mov?dl=0

How can something like this be avoided? If I, or anyone, were to reformat their PC and reloaded their project up, the video footage won't load, the user will have to point Blender to the video, but they'll find their trackers aren't working correctly anymore. They just sway all over the place.

It is, yeah. I would've asked in the same thread...

Sorry, of course. I'll add it to the original post. Thanks.
EDIT: It looks like the link to upload files is broken. :-\

Nah, I don't think that's it. The page to upload files just wasn't loading up. Now it's fine.


text:
Compressing textures
Apart from ticking the Compress box, what would be the best method of compressing my textures? Without them, my file is about 6Mb, with them, I've got it down to 16Mb. I have three textures I made in Photoshop that are 6.18Mb, 1.46Mb and 4.08Mb. How could I go about compressing them?

I’m voting to close this question because it is not about using blender.

save them as jpg and set quality to 5 in Photoshop while saving :)

Is this about Blender at all?


text:
How can I fix my video tracking?
I'm still learning how to do video tracking and getting my character to walk within a video scene. I'm having a few problems that are giving me mixed results. For one, whenever I select three of my trackers and select Floor, the camera tilts upside down and goes under the grid, so I can't seem to get my markers to appear in the right place when looking through the camera.
Second, there's an object within the video that's in the foreground. I'm not sure how to get my character to walk behind it without him walking over it during playback.
Thirdly - and this has been giving me issues for a while now - I can't seem to hit a perfect balance on my character's walk speed. I keep messing with Scale, Repeat and the Path's Walk Animation under Data, but can't get a satisfying result. My character either animates too slowly and finishes before the video ends or he reaches the end before the video finishes.
And finally, I've noticed the playback of the video is causing some weird blur/artefacts. I'm guessing this is related to the trackers...? This happens at the top and left side of the video, as though it's being stretched.
I'm at a bit of a loss with this. Can someone help me?

Thank you

Thanks for the links, but I still can't get it right, and I'm getting frustrated with it to the point of abandoning it. I hate camera tracking. It's so confusing and tedious. I've deleted unnecessary trackers, but I still get a solve error of about 0.9, I've tried manually adjusting trackers so they stay consistent and they're not moving all over the place, but it still won't work. When I pick the trackers for the floor, they no longer appear in and around the camera. Also, the solve error has now shot up to 26! >_<