text:
Drivers to Keyframes
if got an issue. I'm trying to controll shapekeys with bones. So far so good. It works. But when I am trying to export the animation as fbx it just disappears. So I thought of baking the action on the mesh. So the Shapekeys are keyframed. I can#T find a solution to this. if i mannually keyframe the shapekeys, everything looks fine in Unity, but with the drivers it doesn't seem to work.
Is there any solution to this problem. I am really stuck and I need your help.
Thank you!

If you disable the "All Action" & "NLA Strips" options in the FBX exporter window, the shape keys will be baked (you have to add keyframes to the mesh object too, not only to the armature). In this way only the active action will be exported, so you have to export as many fbx as many animations you have.

Ah, thank you. Yeah I realized it too. That's a bit annoying, that I have to export the mesh with the rif together. Thank you for the help!


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How do I enter edit mode every time I use the transform tool icon
I have a small question , how do I enter the edit mode every time I click on the transform tool.
my current strategy is to delete the actual transform tool from the toolbar (already done that) and then make my own tool that fully implement the transform tool but enter the edit mode at the beginning (couldn't do that).

Which transform tool? To switch between Object and Edit mode just press the Tab key or hit Ctrl-Tab  to bring up the pie menu.

thanks for your reply , but I want to code it to work that way .. I am building my own toolbar for blender.

Ah ok. No idea in that case. I assume you're using python which I don't use.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Can someone please explain to me why the knife tool is not working on some of the faces
I have been stuck here for a while and I couldn't figure out why the knife tool is not working on some parts of the mesh.
This will clear a lot of confusion for me so please help me out here.
Here is a video showing the problem : https://youtu.be/bjkp75bwdos
Thank you!

can u pls provide blend file?

I actually removed that part and started over again, seems to be working as intended now but I am sure I will face this problem again.
I was thinking there is some obvious reason why the knife tool acted that way.

On  the video when you cut the top face two edges appears till the side of the disc. This means the middle face covers the whole area of the circle so the smaller faces on the side are overlapping with it. Probably Blender can't choose which face you clicked on. Take care to avoid overlapping faces.

@FFeller
I see! I will be more careful
At least I understand this shouldn't happen. Thank you very much

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

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


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How can I make a PNG image (imported as "Image as plane") transparent on back side?
I have a PNG image that I would like to be transparent/invisible from the back.
but still retain alpha transparency of the background from the front.
I am trying to see through this image but still have it reflect in a shiny metal surface.
I was able to make it invisible from the back by adding a backfacing output of a geometry node  into the alpha of the BSDF, but this stops the background transparency on the front of the image.
Is it possible  ?

Instead of connecting the Backfacing to the Alpha, use a MIx Shader, mixing your Principled BSDF with a Transparent BSDF using the Backfacing as a mix factor. If you're using eevee, don't forget to change the blend mode to something other than Opaque.

OK thanks, I will try that.

Also I just tried mixing the Alpha channels using a multiply maths node and this worked perfectly too.  It is resolved really.


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Blender - Way to quickly search for open solid?
I just discovered what I thought to be a solid, is an open structure:

It turns out that there are a lot of locations like this, where I thought had faces, but do not. Is there any quick way to find these all in blender, and created faces over them?

Simply putting faces there to cover up the holes would produce messy geometry - because then there would be a lot of inner faces as it seems from the screenshot.
However, at least this helps finding where you have the open faces if they are all structured like that. Because this way you have non manifold geometry and interior faces.
So from the top menu you can choose Select > Select All By Trait and then either Non Manifold or Interior Faces, the first only in Vertex Select or Edge Select mode, the second in all select modes.
You cannot simply hit F then to fill all the holes, but at least you will find them to then manually "repair" them. I would not only fill the holes, but delete the interior faces as well. If you just selected Interior Faces instead of Non Manifold you could get rid of those faces immediately by hitting X > Delete > Faces, but then the edges would no longer be non manifold and you couldn't select them auutomatically anymore.


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Can I automatically extend lines from SVG?
I imported an SVG into blender. I have a bunch of lines that don't intersect that I would like to intersect. Is there a way to automatically extend these? And if not, how do I even manually extend them? When I try to rectangle select, nothing is selected:

I don't think there's any automatic method to do it. If they are co-planar you can:

select the vertices you want to extend
press G to activate the move tool, and press G again to limit their movement to their local axes, i.e. their edges
still in the move tool, press C or hold Alt to release the clamp so they can move beyond the edges they're on, but still in the same direction
move them past the intersection line, left click to finalize the move
delete excess vertices by X > Vertices

Make sure Auto Merge Vertices is active in Edit Mode, otherwise it won't split the edges and create new vertices at the intersection points.


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Why does it look like overlapping when painting, but on UV map, are not overlapping?
When I am texture painting, I am noticing locations where painting at one location also paints in another location.
I have noticed that this is a very common issue when having overlapping face. But even after getting rid of overlapping faces, I am still seeing this occur when faces on the UV editor are close, but not overlapping. Why does this occur, and how can I detect these issues beforehand?

It's normal that it happens if the UV faces are overlapping, if they are not anymore maybe check the Bleeding value, make sure that it's not too high?

Where is this value, I have never heard of it?

N panel > Tool > Options > Bleed

It looks like that was it. It was on 2 pixels, and changed it to 1 pixel and don't see it anymore. TYSM!

maybe you should set a larger margin when you unwrap then

It's normal that it happens if the UV faces are overlapping, if they are not anymore check the Bleed value (N panel > Tool > Options > Bleed), make sure that it's not too high. Also maybe increase the margin between the UV islands when you unwrap.


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Animation issue
Using inverse kinematics I have run int an issue where when the leg moves the calf animation lags behind. It moves but not as much. I manually weighted everything, I removed all double vertices, I completely undid and redid every bone weight just to be sure there were no vertices assigned to more than one bone (if that would even cause an issue I was just troubleshooting at that point) and I cannot figure it out. The calf seems to be moving at about a quarter the pace it should be to keep up with the rest of the leg.

Hi. Please make your title specific to the issue you are having, instead of just the general topic.

Since we don't have the file, they are guesses at best, but do you have the bones parented to any controller objects or empties that would counteract the IK?


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How can I make two animated objects line up?
I have a animation of a enemy holding a bat. The bat is a separate object to the character, and the character's arms are IK'd to the bat. So it's two animations, one for each object.
I'm importing this into Unity, and for some reason these two objects don't seem to line up. It's mainly a problem with the bat, but the bat ends up by the character's feet. I have parented the bat to the enemy model root, but it still does not show correctly.

Would anyone more versed in animation know what could be happening? I'm not sure what's going on. It still follows the animation, but its way closer to world zero than it's supposed to be.

From the hierarchy, the Bat doesn't seem to be parented.  Did you use a Parented modifier?   Perhaps try to Apply the modifier before you export.

@james_t the bat is parented to the actual enemy fbx, the one with the Animator component. In Blender, it's not parented to anything.
Weirdly, I'm also noticing that for some animations it also doesn't animate.
Here's a picture of the blender hierarchy and modifiers:
https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/812122564926111814/1030510438741442571/unknown.png
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/812122564926111814/1030510627392860263/unknown.png

So from what I understand, right now the problem is solely with the bat animation getting lost across the import into Unity.   Edit your question to explain how you are transferring.  obj file?  FBX file?   Have you tried to import the transfer file back into a new Blender session, to see if indeed the file is losing information?  (I am not familiar with Unity)


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It is possible to keyframing strings?
I have a Geometry Nodes that shows a string. And I need to change this string during the animation.
It is possible to change this string like you do to change an integer value?
In my example I change 'col pantalla' during the animation.
Now I need to change 'Temperatura' like the same way.

It is possible without changing my Geometry Nodes?

You can connect both of your strings to a switch node and animate the switch checkbox.

Thanks for your reply.
I don't like this way because I need to change a lot of times the string and the Geometry Node result will be extended.


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I struggle with rigging
I struggle with rigging. I need two pivot points on a model, the problem is, the bones doesn't follow each other. If i put the second bone as parent for the first bone, it's okay, the first bone will follow the second one. But the second one won't follow the first. Here's a screenshot to help you to understand my problem.
On this image, for example : the expected comportement is :
1 - I rotate the first bone on the z axis by 180d, so the plane move on the green circle.
2 - The second bone follow the movement and move along the red circle (rotate on z axis, by 180d and the pivot point is the actual position of the first bone).
3 - Now, the schema is "inverted"
4 - I rotate the second bone on the z axis by 180d, so the plane move on the blue circle.
2 - The first bone follow the movement and move along the pink circle (rotate on z axis, by 180d and the pivot point is the actual position of the second bone).
Like this, i can easily make this as a loop. I need to animate the first bone, then the second one.. and another time the first one. Like this, the object move forward, rotation per rotation.
I've tried some modifiers, like "copy rotation" or "Pivot" but it seems to mess up and my bones have weird rotations. I've tried to parent them with others "abstract" bones, but since i can't have parents loops, it doesn't work.
I see a post here on blenderartists.org but it's not really my problem.

you cannot have a so called "circular dependency" because it makes less sense. What is a circular dependency? if a is parent of b is parent of c is parent of a (in your easier case: a parent of b is parent of a). Because you have to calculate it somehow. And then the order of your calculation would matter. And if you calculate again in a different order, the result would be different. The solution for u in your easy case would be to use child of constraint and use the influence to turn on/off the constraints as you need it.

Yes that's what i'm doing actually, i use Dynamic parents add-on to make it easier. If i animate the "Child Of" constraints, blender doesn't keep the child position when i change the parent. With this add-on, it calculate the new position automatically, make it easier !

Actually, the add-on "Dynamic Parent" solve my problem. I can now make animations with changes on the "Child of" Modifier Value. The add-on recalculate the child position when i change the parent value.
Without this add-on, the position of the child is reset during the animation.
Link to this add-on on Github


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How to create explicit (parametric) functions in animation node?
I'm trying to understand the math of animation nodes (Omar's helping) to create surfaces, and I was very curious how I could use AN to create parametric functions.I used the _surface_z addon for to create some surfaces. So how do I get parameterized functions in AN? It's possible?

Here's a great example of the "gabriel's horn"http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GabrielsHorn.html and Funnel”http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Funnel.html.

Parametric surfaces are very easy to create. A parametric surface is defined by two parameters—usually denoted by $u$ and $v$—that have a certain range and a parametric equation that maps those parameters to a 3D vector. To discretize the surface, we let $u$ and $v$ range in their defined range with a certain uniform step size and apply the parametric equations to get the locations. An implementation of your second example is as follows:

To construct a surface from that, just use the polygons of a grid, because the structure of the output points is inherently similar to that of the grid:

The first example is a subset of what we just created, where it is simply defined to have the X equation to be $u$ and the Y equation to be $v$. Or more simply, it can be treated as a multi-variable function of the x and y locations of a grid points. In fact, the second example can also be described as a multi-variable function of the x and y locations of a circle mesh of a high inner loop count. You can implement this yourself as a practice.

Thank you Omar again. The AN is absurd are many possibilities. I'm having difficulty with node float range it does not connect to the new paramenter vector. Would you know what it is? In 2.80  and [2.79] (https://imgur.com/a/w1FeozE)

@wishmasteregl You need to add a Float List parameter not Float.

I personally think there is another approach. Simply use falloff to decide how to deform the mesh. It's also possible to make the shape more complex depending on your falloff, and curve interpolation settings.

To add, instead of drawing an interpolation by yourself. It's actually possible to use "construct interpolation "node and set the type to exponential. So that the result will be more accurate for that specific function.


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Deformation of the grid with the falloff
I am trying to model a deformation of a grid with interpollation in the Animation Node, but as you can see I didn't can to use FALLOFF for to get a grid according with 1/r². Can someone help me? is it possible to use an configuration(Falloff) in AN to deform the grid according to the equation (-1/r²)?
Equation [-1/(x²+y²)]
[]2

Do you want to use Python to construct the falloff. Because I don't think Animation Nodes allow the creation of custom falloff evaluators using native nodes.

Anything ^^. I have seen in that [link] (https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/87390/how-to-change-a-mesh-given-by-mathematical-function-with-time-i-e-how-to-includ) that you model equations through AN. I still do not quite understand the math of visual programming. I realized that you have intimacy with the math of the AN. If you can help me, I'll be grateful.

So you are just looking for a way to visualize this equation using AN? Is there a reason why you can't do it as I explained in the answer you linked?

I will try. The falloff allows a dynamic with the grid, that is, the movement of the empty in the space deforming the grid, while the modeling of the mesh in the other link is static. What I need is to link an object to mesh and as the object moves in space the mesh becomes deformed. Like this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=segQy1UKV6U

Falloffs in Animation Nodes are mostly hard-coded, that is, you need to write cython/python code to create a custom falloff. So it is much easier to compute the effect you are after manually. A simple implementation of grid deformation is as follows:

Want to transform it based on an empty? Simply subtract the location of the empty from the x and y of your equations:

Want to scale it? Similarly multiply the scale of the empty to the x and y of the equation.

Incredible Omar. Thank you again.  I followed his work on squircleart. Want to go back with squircleart?

@wishmasteregl I took down the site. And probably won't bring it back. However, all of the information that was there is/will be available in Stackexchange, official documentations, and Wikipedia. So no information was lost in the process. Let me know if you need anything.


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Rendering is different from what I set
My layout is formed by the following elements: a metallic spiral tube, two orthogonal planes with the same color(wall and pavement) together with a camera and a sun. I also removed the shadow from the spiral.
Unfortunately the outcome of the rendering is completely different:

There are huge differences i.e. (1) I didn't choose this dark red/maroon background, (2) the wall and the pavement should be white but, surprisingly, the wall takes the color of the background and (3) the spiral tube gets a shadow.
For the sake of clarity these are the settings concerning the background:

In image on the middle panel, I selected "white" since I want a white background.
On top of that this is my layout:

What am I missing? Why do I get that red/maroon background?
Is there a way to fix the colors of both the background and the wall?

Could you perhaps share your .blend file or your lighting settings?

Some info about your world environment color would be helpful as well - there is no reason for the maroon color (by default - missing tor broken things are either black or pink - never a different color). Also, perhaps an image from your Render Preview tab (not material preview) would be helpful, as it might show more about what's different between the preview and the actual render.

How did you remove the shadow? What Image panel are you referring to? One should change the world settings in the World tab of the Properties editor, or in the Shader Nodes editor set to World, or possibly the pull-down in the 3D Viewport editor. What are your world nodes? I suspect that red is a darkened violet indicating a missing texture. The wall being in shadow is expected, because the sun is directly overhead, and it’s pointing straight up. Being a computer model, it’s perfectly flat and perfectly aligned to the sun, so there’s no way for light to hit it.

"The settings concerning the background" are not background settings, but compositing nodes - which can also "do something" with the background but not primarily. The first and most interesting settings for your background would be the World Properties and the Render Properties - in the latter you should have enabled Film > Transparent or otherwise the Alpha Over node in the Compositor is absolutely useless.


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Draw, select and edit a polygon/area
I am new to Blender and would like to create something similar to the picture. How can I create individual Polygons (marked yellow in the image below) and edit them individually? or select all the other areas as well so that I only have to modulate them on one area and it carries over to the others?

Hello and welcome! Is this what you are looking for? https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/addons/mesh/tissue.html

You can easily create the original shape with the Tissu addon or just with some Inset Individual and Extrude Faces Along Normals, you'll be able to select all the tips at once with a Select Similar operation and scale them for example, but you won't be able to easily change every tip at once if this edit is too complicated, maybe it's doable with Geometry Nodes?

thanks so much for your help, i think thats the right way :)


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how can I delete the invisible wireframe that is inside the mesh?
how can I delete the invisible wireframe that is inside the mesh?  i tried that with join and boolean.

i'm not sure to understand, if you boolean there won't be anymore mesh where the 2 spheres intersect

I have now tried again with boolean and it worked. But this was only an example picture. How do I proceed if I have, for example, 50 meshes nested inside each other? I thought there should be an easier way to remove all invisible edges and vertices. In the end this is a sculpture which I then create a wireframe - that's why I want to remove them, because they would then be visible.

do you mean that you don't want to see the inner vertices when you are in Wireframe display mode?

Actually what we see is the sphere that is used as boolean object, what you could do is select it and go into the Object panel > Viewport Display > Display As > Bounds

thanks! tried that with remesh, and it works now.


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extrude faces from vanishing point
i want to extrude the individual faces from the  Cursor point, which i use as a vanishing point - not along the normals. How can i do that?

With the 3D cursor as your Transform Pivot Point:

E Extrude
Right-click to cancel the move (leaving the extrusion in place)
S Scale (uniformly, away from the cursor)

Edit:
As @lemon points out in the commentary, ES will do the trick on its own, without the drop! Which is a lot more Blenderish :)
The only way I can think of, to extrude the faces individually from the vanishing point, is numerically:

AltE > Extrude Individual, and drop.
S Scale by a numerical amount from the cursor
Change the Pivot to 'Individual Origins' and Transform Orientation to 'Normal'
SShiftZ scale the faces numerically again, by [1/the previous scale], back to their original size.

Edit 2:
Once again, the comments have come up with a way not to go Clunk,Clunk,Clunk.
This time, thanks, @Gordon Brinkmann! The individual-origin scale of a plane is automatically in the XY of its normal, since it has no thickness, and to enter a reciprocal numerically, a leading slash will do. So, move 2, if your outward scale was, say, 3.4,  is:

Set Pivot to 'Individual Origins',  and S/3.4

you can E S directly, without right clicking.

One could extrude individual faces and then hook each of them to some objects and then use scale in affect only locations mode in object mode to avoid scaling them.

it is going in the right direction. But I want to extrude the faces individually. If you select "extrude individual faces" it is oriented to the normals. But I want it to be oriented from the cursor. The faces that are extruded should not increase in size, as is the case with "scale".

or is it possible to move the selected faces along the vanishing point of the cursor? Then I could first extrude the faces individually and then move them. But how?

@Urban See edit for a possible route..  someone may come up with a simpler one..

@RobinBetts You don't have to set the Transform Orientation to Normal and use Shift+Z for scaling. When you scale single flat faces with Individual Origins as pivot points, they are automatically scaled on their normal X and Y (because the Z dimension is 0). And as a tip for those who do not know how to scale by the reciprocal value: to scale by 1/3 for example, you do not have to scale with S then enter 0.3333, just enter S, /, 3. The slash after S automatically starts taking the following values as divisor for 1.

great! thank you Robin so much!

Thanks, @GordonBrinkmann !   I seem to have accumulated some crud, in the form of muscle-memory 'learned phrases' which I just use, even when they're not the best.


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how can i delete the vertices and Edges inside a mesh
how can i delete the vertices and Edges inside a mesh? the problem can be fixed by Remesh, but unfortunately the visible faces are also rearranged. Which doesn't look nice. There should be a simple way to delete the vertices and edges within a mesh. how can i do that?

Could you have used the same solution here to separate loose parts into separate objects that can be deleted for the cleanup?  Or are interior and exterior all connected by edges?

Thanks James, unfortunately this does not work. The picture below is just a simple example, which can be solved perfectly with Boolean. But for very complex objects, like at the very top of the image, this does not work. The Remesh modifier removes all the "innards" but destroys the topology on the surface.

I'm not sure that the Select > Select All by Trait > Interior Faces will work.
You can try the Mesh: 3D-Print Toolbox addon, activate it, then select your object in Object mode, in the N panel > 3D Print, click on Check All, then switch to Edit mode, click on Non Manifold Edges and remove the selected vertices with X:

@ Moonboots, thanks. unfortunately both of them does'nt help. It does not recognize the vertices and edges inside a mesh. The only thing that really helps is to solve this with the Remesh modifier. Unfortunately, the mesh then looks very unattractive, since it reshapes all visible faces. Which is not what I want in any case.

it does recognize non-manifold edges, but not vertices

too bad, I just see that this question has already been asked a few times, but unfortunately it can never be answered. There should be a tool that can delete the invisible things inside a mesh. With Boolean-Union this is possible for example, with two simple meshes, remove the "innards". For complex objects this seems to be wishful thinking. Thanks a lot anyway!

again, do you have lost vertices inside your mesh? If you have only edges, 3-Print Tools will work

It worked, even if it is a bit complicated. I have to select and delete all vertices that are inside a mesh. The problem afterwards is that there are holes on the intersections. Is there also a solution for this?

your first question was not clear, in the case you are showing, why don't you use the Face > Intersect (Boolean)?

@moonboots: The image with the cube and the sphere is just an example image, where I would of course use Boolean. But the image at the top is just a single object. My problem is that I have created figures that are very complex, or heavily edited. I like these figures very much from the outside view, but I want to "wireframe" them. Unfortunately I find that the figures are full of Edges/Faces/Vertices inside the figure, which I am trying to get rid of. I can't find an ideal solution for this so far. Remesh Voxel, removes the "waste" inside the mesh, but breaks the topology outside.


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How to remove unused textures and materials
I have a lot of materials and textures in my scene that I don't use, but idk how to delete them. Could someone help me and tell me how to do that? 'Cause it eats up a lot of memory and crashes (._. ) Every time I import an object it creates a few copies of the same material\texture, for some reason...

If you go to the outliner and set the mode to "blend file" you can control the contents of the blend file. (And remove textures, materials etc if they are not in use at the moment)
For the issue of multiplication when importing I would really go through the import settings and make sure that you aren't importing materials/textures, and then just recreate the shading in blender after import.

There's no delete option, and I can't unlink either, it says ''not implemented yet''. It's not in the orphan tab either, probably is still used by some materials, but idk which, none of them marked with 0 users although I'm pretty sure none of the objects are using them.. Is there a way to find out which material uses a certain texture? ('cause imported items all have different named materials and it's a mess xD)

Are you sure you have the outliner set to "blend file" mode? Even if I had texture being used in a material I could remove it with right click-delete in the blend file view of outliner (In 2.79b and 2.80)
The "not implemented yet" sounds weird what version of blender are you using?
EDIT: as for figuring out which textures are tied to which materials I sadly don't know of a way to visualize that in the UI by default :/


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Artifacts on my explosion render
i have  a problem , because when i render my project. On my scene appears rectangle.

Welcome to Blender.se. Please do some more troubleshooting. Have you Replaced the simulation with simple geometry (Cube) (does the rectangle still appear)? Have you tried to make the background transparent. Have you unhid Alt H all objects in the scene? Have you removed all other objects except for the simulation?

You could also use this: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ ...to share the file with us so we could help much faster.


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how to make star-shaped circle into a regular circle plane
So i have this model
As you can see there is a rust texture on top of it, but it is messed up because the circle (after subsurf) that is on top of it is being inverted by some sort of star shape, after removing the face and adding a circular plane, i discovered that there are a bunch of triangles inside the outline of the shape. I would like the texture to be properly shown on top of the barrel and for there to not be a bunch of triangles around the circle

I'd try to use something like rectangles instead of single N-gon. Like this:

Just delete face only, select the outer edge, press E to extrude, right click to cancel moving, S to scale almost to the center. then use Ctrl+R to add few edge loops, and fill the center. It will subdivide more consistently. And fix duplicating faces (flickering ones) to avoid problems on rendering.

I think I might have one, thinner face-ring / inset around the perimeter, too, to hold any remaining stretch in the texture?


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face is flickering in blender and invisible in unity and i cant add a texture
I have an invisible face in unity, and a black/flickering face in blender, I've looked it up,
but cant seem to find answer, so I have no idea how to fix it.  Here is a link to my blend file
I have tried things like normalizing, it did fix parts of my problem, but this is the only one left and I can't seem to add a texture to the cube for some reason, as it just appears white.

You have some overlapping faces. They will never render correctly. And in unity it's even worse because it uses only single-sided faces. Follow the link given by  Duarte Farrajota Ramos, there are some tips how to get rid of them.
Also try to revise your mesh to avoid face overlapping. In your case it's simpler to model it once again. Just use loopcuts (Ctrl+R) to create points, where the new faces will begin, instead of overlapping them.
look this video.


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cycles light source multiplier factor
Hello blender community
In eevee you can change how much a light source interacts withing the scene. For that you have multipliers for Diffuse, Specular and Volume.
It looks like this:

In cycles, these options don't exist:

so how could I achieve a similar slider for each light source?
Since I can use nodes for the lights in cycles, maybe there would be a way to do that using nodes?
Any help is appreceated

Eevee and Cycles don't manage lights the same way, for example what precisely do you get in Eevee that you try to get in Cycles?

I have a scene with volumetrics. In eevee I have it set so that only one light source can brighten up the volumetrics
but now in cycles all my light sources affect the volumetric, which I don't want


text:
Can rtx graphics cards run cycles renders in realtime?
Can Nvidia's realtime ray tracing feature be used to render with cycles in realtime?

Not really any more realtime than any other GPU; the CUDA part of the RTX cards (the part used for cycles) is only an incremental improvement over the previous generation.

Cycles is not a real-time renderer. It is possible to have very fast Cycles preview that could be called 'real-time' with high end graphics cards or/and extremely simple scenes, however if you need more than a couple of samples and more complex lighting with decent image resolution(that is basically every single case you would want to use Cycles for) you will not get close to 25 or 30 fully rendered frames per second. Cycles is not supposed to be real-time. It is not designed for that. RTX graphics cards can be used to render with Cycles, however at the moment no other technologies are used to do that as with any other graphics cards, so they are just a bit faster than older cards, that's all.


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What are wire edges?
In the select > select all by trait > non manifold menu there is the option "Wire". What are these wire edges?

Wires are edges that do not belong to any face.
From the manual


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How Can I Smoothly Deform / Shape This Mesh?

How can I smoothly deform this curved shape without it looking like the second image?

Use proportional editing (Shortcut - O). Scroll the mouse wheel to change the area of affect. It might be a bit laggy with that many verts though.

Does this answer your question? Proportional editing functionality

BTW. Unless you want to sculpt/displace fine details into this mesh, the polygon density looks way too high.. depending on what you want to achieve, if you were using a Subdivision Surface modifier on a leaner mesh, you may only have to move one or two vertices on the original.


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How do I go about animating a rigged 3D model based on 3D keypoints of certain joints in the human body?
I have 3D coordinates of certain joints in the human body. Those were obtained from a video. I also have a rigged 3D model of the human body.
What I want is to make the 3D model of the human body move (approximately) the same way as the human in the video. I think the easiest way for me to do this would be via Python scripting, since I am not new to programming, but I am new to Blender and as such I only have a very vague idea of where to start and what I need to do.
I already tried setting the head and the tail of a bone explicitly to match the 3D coordinates from the video, but this doesn't help me with animating the rigged 3D model, as I do this in Edit mode and from my understanding animation happens in Pose mode.
Here is my (rough) roadmap of what I have to do:

Load the 3D coordinates I obtained from the video (I know how to do this)
Load the rigged 3D model into Blender (I know how to do this)
Obtain certain information (which?) from the 3D coordinates from the video to move the model in the same way the human moves in the video (this is the hardest part; I don't know how to do this).
Move the 3D model in Pose mode and keyframe every frame (not sure if this is correct)

Can someone shed some light on what do I have to do? I googled a lot, but as you know, Blender is a very intricate piece of software and what I am trying to do is pretty hard, so I'd really appreciate some help.


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Deleting Beziercurve points that are Z=0
I have written a script that imports a surface and (several) bezier curves. I then use a shrinkwrap modifier to put the curve on the surface. However part of the bezier curve can be off the sides surface. Those points are not required and should be deleted. I could do this manually but as I have 1000's of files to edit in this way I'd rather delete them during the import process.
Theses points that are off the surface are at Z=0. So it would be sufficient if I deleted all points that are below Z=0.1. I found a way of doing this with meshes that have vertices below Z=0. However they do not work on Bezier Curves. If I convert the curve to mesh I can do it, but converting back to Bezier curve adds a lot of vertices I don't want.
Basically what I'm trying to do is get the selection as shown in the image via python code. Currently my import code stops in edit mode with all vertices of the bezier curves selected. So I need a bit of code that selects and deletes the point that are not needed.

Hello ! It seems it isn't really straightforward to do https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/99811/how-to-delete-bezier-points-from-curve-splines-with-low-level-code maybe you can filter these points ou at the time of import so you don't have to go back to your curve data ?

The imports are empties. I convert them to Curve with my code


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My mesh is messed up when I try to add a circular hole in it

It only happens when I enable the subdivision surface, anyone know why it is happening? I am trying to make a studio speaker and I used a knife projection to make that hole in there but that just happens... (the circle's face is deleted)

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/109618/how-to-connect-a-circle-to-a-grid-with-even-topology/109624#109624

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5856/cutting-a-circular-hole-in-a-hollow-cylinder-without-distorting-the-cylinder also https://topologyguides.com/post/152907366360/cutting-circular-holes-in-curved-surfaces

https://topologyguides.com/post/140479921825/cutting-custom-shapes and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/48954/merge-around-a-face/48967#48967


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Can't Adjust View in Movie Clip Editor
I was following this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmzfaD6IgZ8
and when it got to the point where I need to apply the mask to my 6 frames (png files) of the can, I am unable to adjust how the clip is displayed in the Movie Clip Editor. I can zoom in but I can't click and drag the image left or right to move it to where I want to apply my mask. The person in the video seems to just click and drag. I've tried both LMB and RMB but neither seems to work. I've also tried pressing 'g' before trying to move it and that also didn't work. Lastly, I've checked to see if there were any settings that might "lock" the view in place, but none exist that I see.
For reference, here is a screenshot of what I'm seeing:

Any advice?

Welcome to Stack Exchange!  As a rule of thumb, people who could potentially answer your questions will never watch video tutorials, and external links are discouraged as they can go stale or offline, making this question and answers useless.
If you can state your intention behind the action that isn't working, and what version of Blender you are using (there are two, now!), that would be of great help.

Press your middle mouse button (the wheel) and then it should work.


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Edge slide and snapping to vertex on a cilinder doesn't work with the custom transform orientation workaround
So I was trying to slide a vertex along an edge, as shown here
Is there anyway to snap to vertices while using Edge Slide with Clamp Off?
But my problem is that is not giving me the point of the intersection. Is there a virable I might be missing out like the edge I should constraint to, or what I want is something different?

This is a frustrating aspect of Blender's snap system. Even if you used snap to edge, rather than vertex, as shown, it would still only drop an arbitrary perpendicular.  (Snap has been modified somewhat in 2,8, but I haven't tried it?) I use the TinyCad  add-on to put a vertex at the intersection between 2 lines.

Thanks, I noticed that the direction it snaps to is the perpendicular of the custom transformation.
In this particular case I could get by using the knife tool without hassle, but there may be other cases where the workaraund would be too long and distracting


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keyframing in blender 3.4
when inserting a keyframe, should I only select the rig-frame(s) for the body parts that moved/rotated? Or is it better to select the entire rig (after adjustments) and then insert the keyframe? Or is there a better way?

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

that depends on your use case. This answer cannot be answered in general. That's a bit like: which car should i buy? a mustang or a Tesla?

When I insert a keyframe, I can select the rig-handles just for the body parts that moved/rotated. OR I can select ALL the rig-handles even if they did not move/rotate and then insert a keyframe... for ALL the rig-handles. When inserting a keyframe (at any point) should i keyframe only the items that are different now... or bulk select ALL items and then insert a keyframe?

I would only create keyframes for bones that you actually have moved/rotated because this is how the NLA editor works. You can stack actions and the upper actions overwrite the keyframes of the lower actions. For example, a blink action that affects only the eyes, a wave hand action that affects the arm and the hand, and a walk cycle that affects all bones of the body work well together. If you create keyframes for all bones for the blink action then the character will just blink but not wave and walk at all.


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Scale instances based on mesh edge length
I am trying to scale cylinders (instances) to make them fit to each edge they are spawned on. Unfortunately, hours of attempts amount to nothing.
Here's the initial setup.

If I use "Edge Vertices -> Distance (Vector Math)" nodes to capture edge length data, it spits out a field data into a spreadsheet that accurately represents each edge length.

However, once it plugs into a "Scale", it returns 0, 0, 0, even if using Separate/Combine XYZ nodes. I have no idea why.

Interestingly, if I connect Separate XYZ -> Combine XYZ nodes, the spreadsheet will show the same numbers divided by 3.

Any help is much appreciated as I am completely lost on how to achieve the desired effect.

The problem here is the Scale you get is based on the current geometry used in the Instance on Points node - and the current geometry is just points generated by the Mesh to Points node, so there is no more Distance between two endpoints of an edge, that is why the value is 0.
What you have to do is use a Capture Attribute node before the Mesh to Points node, plug the Distance in there and the output in the Combine XYZ node:

By the way, I cannot see the settings of your cylinder, but if you have left the Depth value at the default 2 m, then this scaling method will make the cylinders twice the width of the edges. If they should be the same width, set Depth to 1 m.


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Distribute points in volume without instances intersecting
I have been fighting with intersecting instances in a volume for a long time now and can't find a solution and also lack knowledge of nodes. "Distributing points on faces" node has a "Poisson Disk" setting which helps prevent points intersection, unlike "Distribute points in volume" node. As the result, I've been banging my head against the wall for two days now, trying to find a solution.
SCENE:

I need to scatter black pebbles within an object (it's orange in edit mode), avoiding blue object.
Geometry nodes (applied to an orange box):

The box is converted to a volume and then points are scattered in it. Raycast node is used to identify the blue object and its bounds to avoid points generation and it does the job partially.
The problem:
This node tree completely disregards the mesh of all instances and generates points too close to the faces of the orange box. Obviously, when instances of pebbles are applied to points, a mesh of pebbles intersects with the face of the orange box.

Ideally, I need instances not only to avoid intersections with the volume (orange box) but also to avoid intersections with each other, providing simulation-like results.
.BLEND File:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F79uOL5ygOjlA7HKpEUrQUSOe2MAy1js/view?usp=share_link
P.S.: Running an actual simulation is not an option, it will murder my CPU.

Hello and welcome! Unfortunately, this is not a task for Geometry Nodes, since you have no way to precisely place the instances in a volume without overlapping. However, you can solve this with Physics.

To get Poisson Disk in 3D (Poisson Sphere?) Spawn random points then merge them by distance. Since Merging moves points to their average position, you need to repeat the process a few times. You won't achieve as much density as possible with Poisson Disk algorithm…

+1 really nice idea...again!

Hey, that's a great idea! It didn't do much in my case but it's something I will keep in mind for the future. Is there some sort of collision system for geometry nodes that we are currently missing in blender? Feels like other 3D programs can manage that issue at ease

I've been doing something else and discovered apparently Poisson already works in 3D??????????


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Can't get back to weight paint with metarig selected
I was trying to remove the toe bone from my metarig. But after i remove the bone, i couldn't get back to weight paint mode with the metarig selected. The steps i did was Weight Paint mode -> Object Mode -> clicks on anywhere to remove the selection -> Clicks on metarig -> Edit Mode -> removing the toe bone. After that, i couldn't get back to weight paint with the metarig selected

Before the steps

After the steps (only body is selected)
The toe bone wasn't removed yet on the screenshot because i had to retrace the steps i did, and i still don't get how can i get back to "before the steps" mode.

In object mode, select the Metarig, shift select the Model, then switch to weight paint mode (Active object = last selected has to be a mesh object in order to access weight paint mode).


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Weight Paint "sliders" not visible

I was following a tutorial on weight painting. When I switch to Weight Paint mode, the sliders that are supposed to be on the top isn't there. I'm using Blender 2.93.13. Are the sliders only available on higher version or is there a setting or an option I need to toggle on?

Apart from what I show you in my answer below, as I can see by the "fps: 22.37" in your first screenshot, you had a playing animation at the moment you made the image, I don't think that was intentional, perhaps you just hit the spacebar accidentally. I just want to say that although in this case it has no effect on the sliders, but there are some settings/options that might not be available while the animation is playing.

Thanks for the heads up. Also i noticed i can also just right click with the draw tool selected and it brings the sliders too.

I don't know if this is the solution to your problem, but there is indeed an option that can be toggled on and off to make the sliders disappear: if you right-click on the editor window's header (that's the menu bar where it says "Weight Paint", "View", "Weights", not the top menu with "File", "Edit" etc.) you can toggle the option Show Tool Settings on/off.


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Inverse Kinematics for tail rig not working
I was following tutorial on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-qVNEKEDJs&t=702s At the part when they added the Inverse Kinematic, i couldn't make it work like the tutorial. I can't make the whole tail moves.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UWGaRd4t7LpQavFpq3BBdsHQ1Zi16su-/view?usp=share_link the .blend file

Simply select the IK controller bone, go to edit mode and press Alt P > Clear parent.
A controller bone cannot be child of a bone of the Ik chain, as it would create a "Circular dependency", where moving the IK would move the parent, which would move the controller, which would move .........

Thanks! it worked.


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Vertex bevel going the wrong way
i was following a tutorial on making a soccer field. When i got to the beveling the vertex, it's going the opposite way. It's making the inner curve instead of the outer curve.

What esxactly are you trying to bevel? You don't seem to have anything in view selected in your image. It might help if we could see your Blend file. You can share it via https://blend-exchange.com/ following the instructions there to copy the link to it and then edit your question and paste the link into it.

That's because your Shape option has a small value. From the docs:

This is a number between 0 and 1 that controls the shape of the profile (side view of a beveled edge). The default value, 0.5, gives a circular arc (if the faces meet at right angles). Values less than that give a flatter profile, with 0.25 being exactly flat, and values less than that giving a concave bevel. Values more than 0.5 give a more convex profile.


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why cant I rotate this Text
I'm trying to rotate this text around a pen to emboss it. but instead of rotating the text horizontally around the pen I am trying to stretch it around the cylinder vertically. I know there's is something I am missing. I have tried using an empty as the ref point but no matter how i play with the xyz rotation and location the text always seems to rotate from the ends instead of down the middle like I want. I have tried using text  concerted to a  mesh as well as svg file i made and nothing seems to work. I know its something simple.. but after spending an evening or two word bending I've decided to call in the big guns!.

i can feel the pain - i struggled with that a lot in the beginning too. It is everything else than intuitive, i hope my answer helps.

To add to Chris' answer, make sure that you've applied the rotation in Object mode (Ctrl A)

IT WORKED!  I swear I tried this like 30 times already. Thanks for your help!

add a text, extrude -> R Y 90

add remesh modifier, sharp, uncheck remove disconnected, octree depth 9

add an empty -> R Z 90

add simple deform modifier, bend, z,  100 degrees (or whatever you like), object: empty

It might not be the fastest way, but it works.

In most cases (in my opinion or common usages), add an empty, rotate its Y up to Z axis (or down to -Z) and bend either on X or Z the deformed object.

nice hint! didn't know that!


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Switch geometry node with captured attribute
Why is it impossible to use Switch with Capture Attribute? The connection becomes red. My goal was to use different shape every second point on resampled curve.

Maybe related: Why is there a red line when I try to connect one node to another?

Just use Instance on Points instead of Switch.

I do not understand how could the Instance on Points alone switch between two meshes. I have this node after Capture Attribute above (the top green connection) , and hoped to input the Switch into its Instance socket.

Here are two use cases: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/291388/how-to-change-the-object-in-geometry-nodes-with-keyframes/291391#291391 Basically you would have to enable Pick Instance and then provide the index on Instance Index

'Pick Instance' is the key.. btw if you feed a collection to that, it will automatically cycle through the collection's  elements: https://imgur.com/a/kIPrwBj You can just link the objects to the collection, if you don't want to screw up an existing organisation.


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No output node in World, Surface with Cycles
With the Cycles engine, I get No output node in World Properties -> Surface:

This does not happen with the Evee engine. Also,
in a fresh Blender file, I see the expected content in Surface line even for Cycles:

What has been lost in my file and how can I get the Surface content back?
Blender version is 3.4.1 .

Maybe you have deleted the Output by mistake, or you've set it to Eevee. Open the Shader Editor, switch it to World, make sure that the World Output is set to All and not only Eevee. If the Output doesn't exist press ShiftA > Output > World Output:

This helped instantly, thank you, @moonboots .


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How do i add emissions to or colors to a single face?

I am trying to add colors for this stoplight, so red yellow and green but not sure how to add colors to each face, or add an emission for a glow affect during rendering


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Geometry Nodes - a curve line between each pair of points at index and index + 1
I have a node setup as in the screen below. I try to create a curve line between every two instances (at index and index+1) given by the "Instance on points" node. When I try to do it for the specific two indices - it works as expected, but once I connect the "Index" node, the Sample at Index node output, become a function, and Quadratic Bezier does not accept it's result anymore. I understand why it's happening and this is indeed expected, but I have no idea how to achieve my goal - is it even possible?
I use Blender 3.5.0
Current:

Wanted (but for every two instance, not just first ones):

The Quadratic-Bezier's input sockets are always round when you instance it. They are not diamond-shaped. This means that they generate geometry objectwise (once) not instance-wise (per point). Try instancing a curve with two points on each position, realize them and continue with that real geometry.

look at this answer, retry solving your issues, then update your question. https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/291514/165102

@shmuel I did understand the "no loop" thing, however I hoped maybe I just don't see some "magic" combination of Duplicate Elements and Set Position that I just can't figure out or something like that.  I don't know exactly - if I knew I wouldn't ask :) but based on the link you gave, basically - the thing I want is impossible right? I just need to try different approach like for example in the answer below

I don't know if something more concise or shorter can be done. But that may be a solution.

Here is the result from six mesh points:

The group input has three slots:

the mesh line
the resolution for each quadratic line
a Z delta for the bottom part of the quadratic line

Top part:

From the input geometry, it creates a mesh line that as a vertex count that is the resolution multiplied by the vertex amount (one resolution amount for each interval + one for the last vertex).
The "set position" is calculated below.
Second part:

This is calculating the vertex position from the quadratic formula given three points.
The formula (parametric on "t") is the following:
P(t) = P0*t^2 + P1*2*t*(1-t) + P2*(1-t)^2

Next, calculating the 3 points we need for each segment of the initial shape/mesh:

which cuts the indices into chunks that are at the resolution size. Then takes mesh points and their middle lowered on Z by the input parameter.

PS: I would be very interested to see a solution that uses only three points on a bezier curve with the good tuning of the handles to have the same result. Is it possible? What is the math?

it's not exactly what I wanted, but it looks good - as mentioned in the comment above, the thing that I want, is most likely impossible at the moment. I'll mark your answer

you may encounter index order issues. To avoid that prefer starting from (for instance) a poly line instead of a mesh (as I did in the example above).

@MattNomatter if you're focused on the implementation detail - connecting fields to circular fields - yes, it's impossible. If there's a particular result you want to achieve which lemon's solution doesn't - you have to explain it, because he solves the problem exactly as I understood it.


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Rendered image looks much darker than in render preview
Per title, my rendered image looks much darker than in render preview
I would like to know how to fix the problem
Please see below comparison:

I'm on below setting:

MacBook Pro 2019
Saved in OpenEXR, Float(Full)

color management as below
(tried "View transform" both in filmic and standard, both look dull in rendered OpenEXR)

-Don't think my composition is related to the color problem

-Still look dull even after importing back the OpenEXR to blender video editing

Also enclosing my blender at below link file for your reference
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YCXYqldqrIo63-DFTKgpuz0cU_XLguF2/view?usp=share_link
If anyone can troubleshoot this and help me I would really appreciate it.

EXR format stores all raw values in precise way, because color channel information is stored as 32 bit floats as opposed to 8bit unsigned integers we see in most regular everyday image formats that we view images in. Not only that, but EXR does not apply any color transforms to those values so color management settings have absolutely no effect on the way renders are saved if you use EXR format. The color values are linear in EXR format. This is very useful, when you want to render something, but continue processing the images after the render is done because that way you can manipulate the linear color values any way you want before applying color transforms and saving it to a format more practical for content consumption so to speak.
What you are observing is different ways different applications deal with that raw linear color information that comes out of Blender's render. This is normal, since EXR format is meant for processing your renders, not for viewing them. It is possible to do color grading and various manipulation in other software than Blender and many people choose to do so if that is what their workflows require, but your default image viewer cannot do much with it. The easiest way for you to further process your rendered images would be to open them in Blender, edit and adjust them and save to some other format better suited for viewing like JPEG, WEBP or PNG. You would need to use the Compositor for that, but add your EXR file or file sequence with Image node instead of taking Render Layers node's output.

If compositing you do during the rendering is enough and you want to skip this post-processing step, you can just choose a different format to render to from the start.

Thanks so much! Didn't realise color management settings have no effect on EXR, it turns out alright after I adjust color management per the before render file in video editing!


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Kd value no longer exported
I was using the Legacy wavefront object exporter in Blender 3.6.2 together with a python script to batch export some objects for use in another program. Now I'm upgrading the script for use in Blender 4.0 which means I have to use the normal .obj exporter. However the MTL format is different and no longer writes the Kd values. I need these for import in another program. Is there a way to make the 4.0 .obj exporter write the Kd values to the MTL?

Kd works for me. It should be the color in the Base Color socket on the Principled node when the socket is not connected. Post your node setup.


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Importing .MTL Files with .OBJ
I recently purchased assets from Master 3D Reality.  When I import any .obj file, I'm not able to see the image textures.  The .mtl file came with the model along with the image files.  I'm not sure what I need to do to fix this.

Does Blender report any errors (in the UI, console, or in the Scripting workspace)? Have you have set the viewport shading to rendered or material preview?

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


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Boolean doesn't take away the part it's supposed to only
I've been wanting to make a boolean into a road 3d model I made with a UV sphere but it doesn't work as intended. Instead of removing the parts its clipping with, it takes away all of the road except for a few imperfections I added.

Hello and welcome! booleans are tricky and it takes some experience to understand what will work and what won't and what workarounds to take. They are also sometimes buggy and create undesired unclean geometry so I would stay away from them unless absolutely necessary and impossible to model without. But from what you have presented it is unclear what exactly you are trying to do. Maybe try providing more details or drawing a sketch.

I think it would help to share a minimal .blend  file that exposes the problem on https://blend-exchange.com/ . There are quite a few reasons this could happen.

Here's the link to the .blend file. I added a few extra things but that shouldn't be an issue.


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How do I add a constraint to a bone so it follows a vertex in another object?
See video: https://imgur.com/RLkOZZf
I'm trying to have this bone at the end of this "rope" mesh follow the very corner of the sail (the vertex). I want the bone to be constrained to the absolute position of that vertex the entire time the "sail" is rolled up. I used a "Child Of" bone constraint for the bone, but it didn't work quite well. How do I go about doing this? Thanks.

assign a new vertex group with value 1 to your chosen vertex and move your bone to your vertex in object mode
choose a child of constraint with your cloth object and your vertex group from 1 to your bone
you might have to click on set inverse/clear inverse to get the right position of the bone

result:

Thanks for replying. However, my bone is not a singular bone in an armature object, it's a specific bone within an armature with multiple bones. So I don't want to affect the entire armature object, just the one bone. Would I be able to use vertex groups on individual bone constraints instead? How can I do that? What else can I do to achieve this? Thanks.

this is (!) a single individual bone - i just was too lazy to add other bones. Of course this works with a single bone. Hint: Try it first before asking... ;)

I did try. I'm not sure what you mean by "move your bone to vertex in object mode" though. I want to move the specific bone, not entire armature. Also, can you elaborate for step 2 please. Are you saying to add child of constraint to the cloth object only? And then what do I set as target there? If you could screenshot/record this step that would be great.

then provide your blend file with your "try" and we can tell you what you did wrong.


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How to make another image text appear on top of the existing image texture

It's connected like this.
I want to add a heart-shaped image to a specific part.
I want to turn the heart pattern on and off.
so I have three questions.

first, I connected it like this.
Is this the right way to connect?
second, If i do this, the heart color mixes.
Can't you make the color you want come out without mixing it?

Third, I used an image of a transparent background
but it's black, and because of that
the parts other than hearts mixed
can't you get rid of the black background?

Hello could you please pack your images (File > External Data > Pack Resources) and share your file?

Connect the alpha output socket of the Image Texture with an alpha channel (cube.png) to the input socket of the mix node.

I guess @Leander means the Fac input of the Mix node.


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geometry node random object placement index random value question

This is the geometry node I connected to.

In addition to cones, there are several objects such as spheres in the collection.
There is no problem in 3.0, but only cone is repeated in 3.2 and 3.4 versions.
In 3.0, until the index node is connected to the attribute statistic node, only the cone is repeated, but when the index node is connected, another object is created.
However, in versions 3.2 and 3.4, even if the index is connected, only the cone is repeated. Why is this happening?

If i increase the min value of the random value, another object is also created, but in the video I referenced, he did not touch the min value.
Question 1. Why is there a difference between 3.0 and 3.2, 3.4 results?
Question 2. Is this node that was created to place objects in a collection in a random order?
Question 3. Is it the right way to raise the min value of the random value node and place it randomly? He didn't touch the min value, so I'm worried if I can touch this value.
Question 4. Please let me know if there is any other way to implement it in version 3.4.

Your setup is not working properly because the Attribute Statistic node is querying the Collection Info in the Point domain. Since there are no points in that geometry (because they're all instances), the result ends up being $0$. The random value between $0$ and $0$ is $0$, so it only picks the first instance—the one with Index $0$.
Set it to the Instance domain and it should work as you expect:
You could also use a [ Domain Size—Instances > Subtract—1 ] setup to get the same highest index number to feed the Random Value—Max socket.
If so, why did it work for Blender 3.0? Because back then the Attribute Statistic node did not yet support the Instance domain separately and instances were handled by the Point domain:
Blender 3.0.1: There's no "Instance" domain option in the dropdown yet.

Is it the same result if I connect domain and subtract instead of index, attribute, and random?
Is it right to connect subtract to the instance index of instance on points?
In that case, only the same object repeats.

@loejua2332 Sorry about not being clearer. $Instance Count-1$ would give you the highest index number as well, that's what I meant. You need to subtract $1$ because index numbers begin with $0$. Updated the answer with a gif showing the two situations.

thank you very much Kuboå


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Gaps appear in the model after normal Blender bake
I'm just starting in Blender and this is my first sculpture. After doing the retopology and uv unwrapping (it has seams where it shouldn't, yes), I was about to do the bake of normals. Once it's done, these gaps appear. I haven't found the solution. Thanks in advance.

Hello and welcome! Does your mesh happen to have any Quick Effects or Backface Culling applied to it?

I don´t think so, but, how can I check it if they are applied?

Judging by the picture of your Modifier Properties, you have no Quick effects enabled. However, in the Settings tab in Material Properties, there is a little checkbox labeled Backface Culling. If this is enabled, try turning it off to see what happens.


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Associate rig to similar character
I made a rig for a low poly character. During the process, I accidentally deleted the original character. The low poly character had a shrinkwrap (to the high poly character) and a multiresolution modifier, trying to not loose detail.
Now, I have 1 blender file with the correct rig and the low poly character, and 1 blender file with the original character, without rig.
I tried to copy and paste things from one project to another, but I doesn't work. I tried to copy the high poly and the low poly at the same position and apply a Shrinkwrap modifier, but it doesn't work.
I'm desperated, I need to have done this for tomorrow.
Please help me. I would upload the blender files but I don't know how to do it So if you want to help, please tell me how can I upload the blender files and I will send them to you if you don't mind to take a look.

Put the blend files on blend-exchange.com then edit your post to add the link

Once you have rig and character together in the same file, you need to parent  the mesh object to the armature object. Did you do that?
To do this, select the mesh object, then shift-select the armature object. Press Ctrl + P to bring up the Parent menu, then select Armature Deform > With Automatic Weights


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Parent with empty groups problem. Cloth
To make the simulation easier when adding the pants, I moved the character's legs a bit in pose mode. Then, with the whole rig selected in pose mode, I hit ctrl A and "apply selected as rest pose".
Once I want to parent the "Empty groups" pants (to later transfer the weights in weight painting mode), the pants are placed wrong (and it is not the same position as the "original")

Hello could you please share your file? https://blend-exchange.com/

Your armature is currently not in Rest pose, so as soon as you'll parent your pants, they'll move to a unwanted position. What you need to do is first bring back your armature to Rest Position:

As you can see the pants are not aligned with the armature anymore, to realign them, you can for example switch to Sculpt mode, and correct the shape of the pants so that it matches the rest of the body (for example you can use the Pose brush):

Then parent With Automatic Weights.

Oh thanks a lot! I'll try to do it.


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Transfer weight painting
I want to transfer weight painting from one character to another almost identical. I have tried with datatrasnfer modifier, but it didn't help me.  I use Blender 3.2.

Try to use the data transfer operation instead of the modifier.

The modifier should work, what was the setting of the modifier?

@moonboots yes, it should, but much more difficult to understand what is happening in case of problem (or in need of tuning something).

Okay I'll try. Thank you!

If it doesn't work, please give more details or even share your file

Hi! How can I share my file? I didn't figure out how to solve the problem

jse this https://blend-exchange.com/ and paste the link here.


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Bezier curves hair makes blender slow
I have made this hair with bezier curves following this tutorial: https://youtu.be/QocAk6TNKp4 . Now I'm going to rig the character, but I'm afraid it's going to be slow, since in editing mode the hair lags. Any advice?

There really is no reason for it to be slow if you followed the tutorial. If you do not have tons of curves with loads of vertexes and the curve you are sweeping along them is not extremely complex. Provide us with more information. What is your HW setup? How many polygons does the hair have? What is the resolution of curves? How many polygons are there in the whole scene? Nobody can help you with the information you provided

If you have lag in the viewport you can hide or replace it. Use the Outliner Restriction Toggles to hide the hair with the "eye" icon in the viewport or even disable it with the "monitor" icon in the viewport to save memory while you do the animation. If you want to see it you can use a low-poly object in the viewport instead, while for rendering the real hair object is used ("camera" icon).


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Finger retopology
I finished to retopology my character. After use a multires modifier and a shrinkwrap, this weird thing happen. I sculpt the body first, and then joined the fingers. There is the problem. But, arrived at this point, is there something can I do?

Hello could you please share your file? https://blend-exchange.com/

Have you checked for inverted normals? - Turn on the Face Orientation overlay on the Viewport Overlay menu.


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Ctrl+B curves rest of the edges
I am a Blender beginner and I have the following problem.
When I do ctrl + b between those two edges it curves weirdly edges I don't want to curve:

I already applied the scale to this object. How can I fix it?

It looks as if you may have overlapping or duplicate geometry. Try selecting All in Edit mode then 'M' > Merge by Distance. If that doesn't fix it please share your file so that we can have a look: https://blend-exchange.com/ and follow the instructions on that page.

 - I think this is it, I removed vertices but it's still stuck

You have inverted normals on your object. You can turn on the Face Orientation overlay as shown on the image below. Inverted face orientation is shown in red and blue is ok.

Select All in Edit mode and use ⇧ ShiftN to recalculate the normals giving the result below.

The areas still in red are the inside of the object and the seperate tabliczka object which may need changing too but you'll now be able to bevel the podstawka2 object normally as shown below.


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Tapering/spreading out part of a Bevel
New to this site however have been playing around with blender for a few years on and off.
I'm in the process of making a game asset so fairly low poly model. I previously made the model before but wasnt 100% happy with the result.
I'm stuck at this stage where I want to take a bevelled curve and sort of spread out the vertices towards the lower part so the bevelled edge is not so sharp and sort of 'tapers' out.
I was able to do this in my previous model by following a tutorial but it was a long time ago and I've completely forgotten the method I used. I know it was fairly simple and it involved grabbing the said vertices and sort of spreading them out.

This is what I have so far and as you can see by my terrible painting I want to spread the lower part out but still keep it fairly even and rounded.

As you can see from my previous model above, this is the desired effect.
Has anyone got any tips or advice on how to achieve this? Its a simple concept but I just can't put my finger on the method I used before.
Joe

I'm not sure what is your problem, it looks good, you should just add some bevels to round the angles and some edge loops to avoid the ngons:

Ah yes maybe I haven't explained it clearly. But the second image is an old model of mine. I'm trying to reproduce it. like you have. How did you go about spreading out the vertices at the bottom of the bevel but still keeping it nicely rounded and in proportion? Thats my main question.
I'm trying to achieve what you did in the first part of your image.

I've just selected the bottom and S to scale

Hmm I've been trying that, but it keeps deforming the original shape but I'll give it another shot incase I'm being really stupid.

maybe enable the Proportional Editing button?


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Texture Paint doesn't paint where I want it to
I'm having a problem where I paint on the model, but it paints on the other side of it. I tried unwrapping my mesh with the least amount of stretch as I can, as I am new to this, but it still doesn't change.
Here's the link to the .blend file : https://drive.google.com/open?id=18csQ79BM-SYYKahkvF_Vx4N4GUuK00q4

If you switch to Edit mode and activate the Face Orientation display option, you can see that your normals point inwards (the faces are red instead of blue), you need to select all and press shift N to recalculate outward, then you'll be able to paint correctly.


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How to create fog in one specific area of a scene rather than using volume scatter to effect whole scene
Title is self explanatory. Indoor scene where you can see the outside. Fog to be illuminated by streetlights.

Instead of editing the world to have scatter volume, you can just create a mesh and place it wherever you want, then remove the surface node, and add Volume Scatter to the volume. Then adjust the Density as you want.
Hope this helps.

Thanks! Works great.


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posing armature after camera cut
I'm trying to pose my armature in a scene directly after a jump-cut. Its mostly static until the cut and i want its location and armature pose to be completely different. Unfortunately, every time I pose and move it, when I go back to check the previous scenes, hes in his original spot but standing the pose I had just completed. What should I do?

If I understand your problem, I think that you have set some bones keyframes at the end of the first static part (lets say frame 100), then  - on the next frame (101) - you moved the armature in another location and posed and keyframed it, but when you come back the location of your meshes are not as expected.
This is probably due to the fact that even if you set a keyframe on all bones of your armature, the location of the whole armature object is not recorded. To do so, you'll have to set on frame 100 a keyframe of the loc (and maybe rot and scale) of the whole armature (in object mode), then switch to pose mode, select all bones and set a keyframe; then - on frame 101 - move the armature, set a loc (rot scale) keyframe in object mode, then switch to pose mode, pose the mesh, select all bones and set a keyframe.
Another (more usual) method is not to move anything in object mode during the animation process, and move everything using bones only.
If this doesn't solve your problem I suggest you to upload your file.

I'll try it out though I may just render everything before the cut, then do the animation and render after the cut. Thanks.


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How to get a complex mathematical object to accept image textures, continued
I am working with a cusp catastrophe mathematical surface; Voronoi and brick textures, apply successfully to it but not image textures. I can project an image onto an object with an image texture but when the same image is projected on the similar size cusp surface, the projection is diffused, has no detail. See image and Blender file.
What treatment/action might the cusp surface need to correctly display a projected image/video texture? I have tried unwrapping the cusp surface but didn't see any change. Does the projected image have to be rectilinear?
The cusp surface I am working was derived from a .stl print file. In case that is causing the problem, I will also attach the initial conversion.

Do you want the texture as if projected from one direction, or as if  folded along with the surface?

for some reason the image and files I posted haven't appeared, However I have progressed the problem by succeeding in (a problematic) unwrapping of the cusp surface. I'll come that in another post

yes I want the image to be projected from above and not wrapped around underneath the cusp but I guess to do anything it needs an unwrapped object, see above


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More efficient mesh than zigzag?
I have a svg with a lot of edges (probably in the 100's of thousands). I was noticing that when I start extruding there's a lot more processing that needs to be done. Is there a way to simplify this zigzag pattern of things seen in the mesh view so that there are less edges? For example, removing all of these inner edges in this shape:

Does this help
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/164296/how-do-i-delete-the-faces-on-this-svg#164308 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=231&v=ctwiT8LYjVQ

Hello and welcome. Press A to select all vertices then X > Limited Dissolve

I would use a Decimate Modifier set to Planar.


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Name of viewlayer from app_handler?
I'm trying to get the name of the current view layer in a pre render app handler, but without success. It only seems to print "ViewLayer" (first?), no matter which view layer is active. Any suggestions?
import bpy

@persistent
def get_view_layer(scene):
    print(bpy.context.view_layer.name)

def register():
    bpy.app.handlers.render_init.append(get_view_layer)

def unregister():
    bpy.app.handlers.render_init.remove(get_view_layer)

if __name__ == "__main__" :
    register()


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My UV changes are not showing up in the viewport
I am practicing with UV Unwrap, using a checker texture on a mesh. I do the smart unwrap and the UV's change in the UV editor, but the changes do not update in the viewport. I can grab a cluster of UV's and move it around but the change does appear on the object. I am sure this is a setting but I don't know what to change. Can you all help? Thanks!

maybe you have created a second UV map, delete the wrong one

Nope--I checked and there's only one UV map

I deleted the UV Map and unwrapped again, and nothing changed in the viewport. How is that even possible?

Check if under "View" is checked "Update Automatically" ... or share your blend via https://blend-exchange.com (copy-paste given code into your Question by Edit

Maybe pack your image (File > External Data > Pack Resources) and share your object? https://blend-exchange.com/


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Selecting unwelded elements of a mesh
I am a Max guy learning Blender. How do I select elements of a mesh? By elements, I mean meshes that are joined, but the verts are not welded. So if I modeled a square and then modeled a bolt and then joined the two, how do I select just the bolt, for instance? Thanks!

Put your mouse cursor over the bolt for example and press L, if you've already selected one or several vertices of the bolt, pess Ctrl L, is it what you want?

That was it! Thanks, guru!!

In edit mode, you can hoover over a piece and press L key to select it. Or select a vertex and press Ctrl L to select all linked geometry (it can be limited by seams, or materials, or others options, in the black little window that appears in the bottom left of the 3D view, called "Adjust last operation").
In case of more difficult situations you can select some vertices and press Ctrl G to assign them to a vertex group, that you can later select and deselect when needed).

This one's quite crowded :) Maybe include the Ctrl-G shortcut for assigning to v group, as well. Then I'll delete mine.

Everybody wants to encourage people coming from others softwares, I guess.


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why are my edges and faces not highlighted
I am clearly in edit mode, and yet suddenly I select a face but it doesn't highlight. Blender is not showing me my faces, edges or verts in edit mode. What is the problem?

Have you disabled the Viewport Overlays?

Not on purpose! I'll look--thanks!

That was it--thanks!


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How to select a new texture in the displacement modifier
I'm frustrated. I am trying to apply a displacement modifier to a mesh but I am stuck because I cannot figure out how to select a different texture in modifier. I want to use a cloud texture to make subtle deformations of the mesh. How do I select a new, different texture? The tutorials I've watched all have a dialogue box (that I am not seeing) where you can select image or film and find the texture through that, but again, I am not seeing that at all. What's going wrong?

If you watch those tutorials closely you will find that the texture type is selected from the texture properties window, by either going to the appropriate tab, or clicking the texture settings button in the far right of the texture name

You must go to another tab first to set up the texture.
Go down to the texture properties tab, select new.  Click on image or Movie and then add "Clouds" from the drop down list.

Select the object, and go back to the modifier tab. The new texture will be available in the drop down list.


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Grungit add on isn't showing up in Blender side bar
I just purchased Grungit, and installed it, but it isn't showing up in my sidebar. It shows up in preferences-I can see it and I checked the box, saved the preferences, but it never came up in the sidebar as it should. I really need this thing asap and don't know what's going on.I have contacted the artist who made it but haven't heard back yet.

Since it's a third-party paid-for addon and not built-in to Blender we can't really help. Have you checked that the version you've purchased is the correct one for the Blender version that you are using?

I fixed it. Just so all of you know and don't lose a work day like I did, this add on only shows up in object mode. All my other add ons work in either Obj or Edit modes.


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I am having issues with subdivision surface
20 year Max user here learning Blender. I am trying to use the subdivision surface modifier to make my low poly mesh into a high poly mesh so I can bake a normal map. I have inset all the faces on this dumpster mesh and it looks fine in the viewport, but when I apply the subserf modifier, the mesh distorts horribly and nothing seems to make it better. What am I doing wrong? Why am I not seeing quads--it's giving me these wierd looking distortions.I'm lost! Thanks guys

Are you simply trying to subdivide the faces, without smoothing the geometry? Switch the modifier to the "Simple" mode and untick "Optimal Display" below to see the added subdivisions. Is that what you're looking for? If not, try to give more detail or an example of what you would expect to see.

Hi--I want the outside edges (where I have inset the faces) to be slightly rounded, the flat surfaces should stay flat

Inset faces is not going to help a lot with the subdivision modifier
You need to bevel the edges, add support edges or use Edge Crease;
Take a look a this image
From Left to Right
Edge Crease, Support edges, Bevel, Inset faces

Thanks. Here's what I don't get--support loops are really no different than inset faces so why is the end result different?

Take a look at the image, support edges are loop cuts, and the inset are cuts that goes from corner to corner

@bobcooksey Left = Inset - Right = Support loops (or bevel with shape = 1 and 2 segments) https://i.sstatic.net/Ipgrk.png

@bobcooksey Inset faces are very different from bevelled faces. Catmull-Clark Subdiv bases its interpolation per-face, and per-edge. The inset faces span entire edges. The bevelled edges introduce new faces at the corners. splitting up the interpolation. It's a good rule of thumb,  to avoid 5 or 6 poles at points of high curvature.. actually that's another way of looking at the same problem. It's  quite instructive to work through a subdiv or two by hand, with pencil and paper. Once done, never forgotten. :)


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Subdivide into separate objects
I'm trying to subdivide a plane into separate sections. Meaning each new square becomes its own object. On top of this, I want to keep a consistent texture. For example, I apply a texture to the plane, and subdivide it into different parts, but the texture stays in the same position if that makes sense.
I though I figured it out, but when I export, it's still one object with one material, despite making 4 unique objects and materials.
Any tips if that makes sense?

How exactly did you go through separating it and what are you trying to export it as?

Applied subdivide, made edges sharp, applied edge split, then separated by loose parts. Then for the material, object-relation-unique data and materials. I want to export as .dae

can u pls show us your material nodes?


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How to flip UV map
I'm trying to flip this UV, but not just flip it's current position, flip it based on the whole texture sheet if that makes sense.
For example, I have this face mapped:

and I want to flip the UV so it matches at the same texture at the bottom when I flip the texture sheet:

I know i can easily slide the UV down, but I want to know if there is a way to flip it exactly.

On sidebar/view, set the cursor location to 0.5,0.5; set pivot point to cursor; scale by -1 in Y axis.

cheers that worked!!!


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Rotating on an angle
I am trying to animate a knob. The knob is on a flat plane, but that plane is angled. How can I rotate the base of the knob (red line) so it remains parallel to its base? I've tried aligning the view to the top and changing the cursor orientation, but it doesn't work the way I want it when I just want to rotate on the z-axis for example.

See if How do I rotate an object along its own axis helps.

If your knob is already aligned with your plane (as you said): Set the Transformation orientation to Normal, then select your "base face" (Edit Mode, Face Selection) and create a new Transform orientation. This gives you a new transform orientation. Then switch to Object Mode and rotate your knob along the z axis (which now corresponds to the face normal of your previously selected face). This should give you a perfect rotation in which the knob always sticks/keeps aligned to the surface.


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Change UV Map Transformation Orientation
I want to be able to change the transformation orientation on my UV map. I want to move it, but parallel to the UV edge.

Unfortunately, currently(version 4.1) there is no functionality like that in Blender. It could be a good feature request on Right Click Select

It's interesting that UV Editor lacks a lot of functionality regarding transformations compared to what is available in 3d viewports. Snapping is also very limited for example. I guess they are not that important for many users. It would be nice though.

Frustrating.. I don't really see any reason, in principle, a UV map shouldn't be first-class geometry, with all tools available, just in view-space? I would have thought that made for simpler implementation, too.. no need for a completely separate system.

But there is no reason some things like this would not be possible with Python(it even seems relatively easy) and we don't see any add-ons for it. Or am I missing something? Maybe I just don't know about it. I think people just don't really need those features... I mean I certainly don't absolutely need them. I want them though. It would be really cool to have everything as in 3d viewport.

I've just been playing with transferring  Position from UV-as-Geometry to the mapped object in Geometry Nodes.. works fine, and gives you all the tools, including Custom Orientation, not sure if it's a bit clunky to post as an answer. Only working as a Geometry attribute, so far.. I'm not writing into the UVMap. I just hope, eventually, Everything Nodes means Everything Attributes, so there's no need for 'Vertex Groups' or 'UV Maps' as separate subsystems.


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Scaling and snapping problems
I want to scale my object so that the red points line up with the blue points. I tried snapping and moving the left points together and then scaling the right red point to the right blue point, but it didn't snap to the blue point. I hope that makes sense. I just want to have the red points line up to the blue points while the object is scaled proportionately on all axis.

Are these points vertices?

You should be able to do it with snapping. Here are the steps:

Snapping should be set to Vertex, snap with Active, and affect Move and Scale.
Select one of the red vertices, and run Select > Select Linked > Linked to select the linked geometry. If the geometry is not linked, manually select the pieces making sure the active vertex is the first red vertex.
Move the selected geometry placing the mouse cursor over the first blue vertex.
Run Mesh > Snap > Cursor to Active to place the 3D cursor at the first red vertex (which overlaps the first blue vertex now).
Switch the Transform Pivot Point to use the 3D Cursor.
Select the second red vertex, and run Select > Select Linked > Linked to select the linked geometry. As mentioned above, if the geometry is not linked, manually select the pieces making sure the active vertex is the second red vertex.
Scale the selected geometry placing the mouse cursor over the second blue vertex.

A GIF is attached below showing the steps.


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Cutting in a plane using an image as a mask
I would like to create independent tortoiseshells meshes from a boolean mask. The boolean mask would be used to cut in the plane automatically.
The method I am using at the moment is to use the cut knife and cut through a plane by hand. I am following the curves of the reference image, here a crocodile skin, to finally obtain independent tortoiseshells meshes.

I am pretty sure it should be possible to use a boolean image to directly cut through the plane with it but I didn't find anything online to help me. Here is an example of a boolean version of the crocodile skin.

Thank you in advance for your answers.

it happens often that people ask here for x to achieve y. But there might be quicker and faster ways to do that. So maybe you can tell us a bit more of your end goal? So maybe you could be surprised be the answers... ;)

@Chris , it is for 3d printing. The end result should be separated tortoiseshells that could be manipulated like a puzzle :) (I hope it helps)

ah, that helps a lot! because what came up to my mind instead of cutting the shapes...i would generate them with geometry nodes ...or other tools.

Do you know any geometry node tool using an image as reference to perform action?

unfortunately no...but i think now others know what you wanna do and hopefully they will help ;)

Do you need the pieces to fit tightly like a jigsaw, or are the gaps as shown acceptable?

( https://imgur.com/a/1VId9B3 )

WoW Robin. That looks clean! It’s exactly what I’d need. The gaps are totally acceptable

Can you deliver your secrets to someone with immense gratitude?

@RobinBetts, I don't want to be heavy :( but are you gonna deliver me your secrets, I have put my project on hold :p

@AndrewKaram  Very sorry, have had to be away. Will put together an answer

This could be a route..
First resolve your pattern to a bitmap. That could be via an external paint-package, or by picking up one of those readily available on the internet. If it's a must to take it from your personal reference, then if you provide it, we could have a go, but it's not strictly a Blender problem.
Once a bitmap, it can be ShiftA added to your scene as a Reference Image (That's an Image Empty).....

Once an Empty, 'Trace Image to Grease Pencil' is available in the Header > Object menu. Trace.
Then the Grease pencil can be converted to a curve. For some reason, on my machine, the curve refuses to fill, in its native Data tab >  Curve > Fill settings. But a little Geometry Nodes modifier, with just one Fill Curve node, did the trick. At this point, you might want to Curve > Clean Up > Decimate the curve in Edit Mode, to get rid of excess vertices.
If you've gone down that road, the object can now be Converted > to Mesh. and you're more or less there:


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my render when i click render it shows 1 image only (not render image normal render)
but the render doesn't work all it shows is 1 image and I don't know how to import a .blend here iv tried going and messing with scene settings rigid body world iv tried cycles and none of it work. I have watched countless videos read countless forums and reddits but none have my answer to why when i render it only shows 1 image and im talking about the render button top left when i click it it does its thing but only shows 1 image instead of the animation made by the rigid bodys in the animation tab that works fine but when i click render top left it shows 1 image

You're hitting "Render Animation", correct? - I did that with your file and it rendered the animation just fine.

Not sure what "Render button" you're talking about? It works fine for me and creates a Mpeg file as expected when I choose Render > Render Animation from the menu or use Ctrl F12. You aren't seeing an error message in the middle of the bottom status bar are you? If so have you set the output path to a valid file path on the R/H Output Properties tab under 'Output'?

You watched "countless" videos and read "countless" forums...? I'm sure you must have missed something there. Make sure you have set a valid path for your file, and as John asked, what "render button"? At the top left there is no "button" for rendering, there is only a menu entry, and clicking on it you have different options, the first is Render Image, the second is Render Animation. If you don't click there, nothing will be rendered at all. As mentioned above, on my computer I can render the animation without problems (after adjusting the output path to a valid target on my drive).


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Blender 2.8 UV Sculpt Brush not showing
Well, I was triying to edit some UVs on the latest Blender 2.8 Beta build, and when I tried to use the traditional UV sculpt tool from Blender's uv editor, I couldn't,  the brush simply does not show up, so I can't use it.
So the question is: Am I missing something or is this a bug from the current build?
If I'm correct, this icons activate the UV sculpt brush functionality but currently they do nothing.

Also I already made sure to have the UV Sculpt option activated

You should report it as a bug. It is broken.

If you create a blend file in 2.79 and then open it with 2.8 the UV sculpt works.


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Does blender have useful skinning tools?
I come from maya, and I'm used to several skinning tools that are quite useful, such as mirror skin weights on command, use a spread sheet to see all the weights of each vertex, copy skin weights between meshes, prune small weights, remove unused influences, etc...
I'm starting to rig in blender and so far the skinning process has been tedious and boring, compared to maya.
Is there any addon that helps with the skinning when rigging? Or is there a tab with skinning options in blender?

The tools that Blender provides for weighting are very powerful, but the ways to use them are not always obvious.

mirror skin weights on command

Blender's vertex group specials has a "mirror vertex group" operation that can be used to flip vertex groups about the object YZ plane.  This might or might not be what you mean by mirroring weights; it's not what some people expect.  It relies on perfect symmetry.  In general, for symmetrical weights on a perfectly symmetrical mesh, you're much better off using a live mirror modifier (which can be applied at any time prior to the creation of shapekeys.)

use a spread sheet to see all the weights of each vertex

Also shown, the spreadsheet view, which can be used to show vertex weights.  You'll see that it is not just showing weights, but additional vertex groups created for editing purposes or for other modifiers and general attributes like position.

copy skin weights between meshes

There's the transfer mesh data operation, from selected to active in object mode; but the real way to do this IMO is via a data transfer modifier, which isn't much more difficult to use than transferring weights and which is very, very powerful.  If your mesh isn't symmetrical, or if you don't want to use a live mirror modifier, this is the way to copy weights from left to right or vice versa, by data transferring weights from a mirrored duplicate of the mesh, but it's good for so much more than that (and can be used as a primary means of weighting, almost in lieu of weight painting-- if you want, you could cut up a plane, assign it weights, and data transfer its weights to essentially paint a 2D projection of weights; you can use it in conjunction with vertex group limiters to mix weights from different meshes smoothly; you can even use it for doing live weighting.)  Data transfer modifiers (and vertex weight modifiers in general) can even be applied on meshes with shapekeys.

prune small weights

There are a number of operations only available in weight painting mode; I get a lot of use out of clean, normalize all, smooth, invert, levels.  Pruning small weights is done with a clean operation.

remove unused influences

Like automatically delete unused vertex groups?  That one, I don't know how to do in Blender short of writing a script.  However, I'm pretty sure there's a BSE post describing the script you need.
Unasked, I get a lot of utility out of radial and linear gradients, out of the weight painting falloff curve, out of occasional GN modifiers to do non-destructive weight editing, and out of creative use of autoweights, on temporary meshes or temporary armatures.  The traditional, dab dab dab weight painting, I almost never use.

The skinning in blender leaves a bit to be desired in my opinion but there are some options. In blender this is called weight painting and it uses vertex groups.
For every mesh there is a weight painting mode, where you can manually paint skin weights by painting. There are several tools here to help you out, with extra brush settings in the right settings panel.

In there is also a menu with some extra features.

Or you can manually add/remove/adjust the vertex weights in the edit mode by selecting vertices and adjusting in the right vertex group tab, and pressing the Assign button.

There is a paid add-on with extra tools for blender (also 2.8) available here: https://gumroad.com/l/weight_paint_tools