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Vary how transparency applies to different objects within a container
I'd like to develop an infographic-style image render where I have a semi-transparent object that contains a number of other objects. Is there any way to adjust how the transparency of the containing object is applied to each object within?
Basically I want to make the container 50% transparent, but I'd like to make one of the objects within completely unobscured, so it stands out visually.

Hello, are you using Eevee or Cycles ? Bender primarily uses physically-based rendering techniques so this might not be trivial to do in a regular scene. You can however leverage view layers to composite some objects on top of others to make them stand out.

Thank you. I am happy to use either really - whatever gets the job done! My preference would be cycles though.


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How do I get my object with a toon shader to have cast shadow's on it behave like it's shader?
When my object with a toon shader is in the cast shadow of another object the shadow is fuzzy. I want the cast shadow to be there, but have it follow the rules of the toon shader so its a hard shadow.
Checking off Render > Sampling > Shadows for either object just removes the drop shadow, same if I uncheck Object > Visibility > Shadow on the shadow cast object.

Wow, I think you have found another issue with eevee next.
I had issues with translucency and material blending i posted here:
https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/wEN1/
I replicated your issue then opened the same file with 4.0.2 and it auto-solved it.

My solution is to not use Eevee Next and stick to Legacy Eevee.
Even if you solve this shadow problem you are bound to have more issues.
I'll only consider using Next when it can match the legacy renders exactly without having to fix it.
Sorry for the bad news, i hope they find a way because next has great raytracing and displacement capabilities.
edit:
The workaround that Markus posted is really good and might do the trick for you. But it still renders the edge differently as shown:

Since your answer is more elaborate, I removed mine. You might want to remove the reference to my post to not confuse future visitors.

I think your solution is equally elaborate. I'll remove it if you insist but you found the best approximation using the current version. My solution may be a non starter if they require the latest features. In any case, thanks. you taught me something.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Cloth-simulation acts weird with body or armature
im new at blender and decided to try out the cloth modifier and got into some issue with rigging
after frame to frame it starts getting "swallowed by body"
I attached cape to the back bone, did some pin group, have collision applied at cape and at the body and really cant find what could be the issue. Appreciate any help!

Check out this video and see if any of these changes help. I found it pretty helpful myself.

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


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Is it possible to invert root and tip from hair strands?
I'm using an addon called hair net to convert hair cards to particles in blender, however, some of the strand turn out to be inverted (some tips are roots)
In the attached picture, you will see it. Red dots are tips and blue ones are dots
Thanks in advance


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making hole mesh to solid mesh

I have two layers and I need to fill between them with mesh.

Is the topology (i.e. connectivity between vertices) the same on both layers ? Or are they completely decorrelated ?

it is not the same, they have different topology.

To clarify, in Blender there is no such thing as an "inside 3D mesh" the kind you have in CFD or FEM softwares for example. A "volume" is just a closed (manifold) surface. So, do you try to make the missing surface that will be connecting the boundary of both layers ? This is not related to extrusion, but more like a Bridge Edge Loops operation.


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Try to make and edge texture in shader
I want to create an edge texture that gives a sharp/used effect. In this picture, it works, but the object has a 'flat' effect when I'm in smooth mode. Does anyone know how I can fix this?

Can you share your Blender project file? Instructions for sharing.

Can you please elaborate on what you're looking for? Is an "edge texture" something that highlights the outline of the object (like the orange border seen in your picture)? Are you trying to draw dark lines along the edges of your object, like a wireframe?


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How should I unwrap this table leg?
I'm somewhat new to Blender, and am trying to render a table. I've run into issues with this table leg's texturing. I can't seem to unwrap it properly. I exported the table design from Fusion 360, so it has a ton of faces. What would be the best way to unwrap it so the texture lines up correctly?
Current Issue:
I've tried unwrapping it, but the issue I keep running into is the grain gets broken. Instead of it being vertical around the entire object, it is vertical on maybe 2 sides, then broken on the other 2. I've tried using the cylinder uv unwrap, but that makes the grain/texture spiraled.

Try adding a seam down one side of the leg, as well as ones on the smaller loops and bumped parts. You should be able to unwrap the leg more cleanly with that.

So is this a wood image texture or a procedural texture? I cannot see what is so wrong about it... apart from the grain on the front face at the top running in the same direction as the one to the left, which looks unnatural.

@GordonBrinkmann thats what is issue is. The grain pattern looks unnatural because of the way Blender unwraps the UV mapping of the object. The texture is a PBR image texture.

Well, as I said, only the top front face looks unnatural to me. The problem is, a texture is like a thin slice out of a piece of wood, basically 2-dimensional. A table leg is a 3-dimensional piece carved out of a wood block or trunk with a wood lathe and/or saw, and if you look at the corner of two orthogonal faces, only one of them could correctly show the 2-dimensional texture, while the orthogonal face would need a texture adding the third dimension to it. So no matter how good the UV unwrapping is, you will always have to somehow tweak it to make it look reasonable.


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Getting selected linked Armature ID file path
I have a linked asset, with library override. The asset has an armature object.
How can i retrieve the path of the linked object/armature ID?
I use selected object as the test.
import bpy
print('-')
selected = bpy.context.selected_objects

for object in selected:
    objName = object.name
    object_data = object.data
    data_link_filepath = object_data.library.filepath

    print(f'objName             : {objName}')
    print(f'object_data         : {object_data}')
    print(f'data_link_filepath  : {data_link_filepath}')

This script works on geometry/mesh objects.
In Armature case, It managed to get the armature object ID and the armature data ID. But it returns error when it comes to the object_data.library.filepath part. Somehow the object_data.library returns as None.

When it is a library override, it is no longer directly linked so no library. You need: object_data.override_library.reference.library.filepath.
object.data.library.filepath works for mesh objects when the mesh data is linked.


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Texture artifacts - only in perspective mode
How do, I have recently started noticing some artifacts on my textures in the viewport while using Blender. I think this is since I moved to 4.1, but definitely 4.2, as that is what I am using now.
I had a good play about and noticed that clicking the Raytracing box helps and improves it, but does not eliminate it.
Whilst looking up the issue I found a really old post on a different forum about z-bias and z-fighting. I didn't think this was the answer as there were no duplicate faces. However in the midst of the answers was one that casually suggested it was a orthographic/perspective issue. They didn't go into any detail but I switched to orthographic and it immediately cleared.
Anybody explain this issue, if there is a way to fix it and what is different in last couple of Blender releases.
Thanks in advance.
Ste

Can you share your Blender project file? Instructions for sharing.

@Jakemoyo
Part of the mesh showing this issue is available in this file here StarLord Edit.
Cheers Ste

Yeah, I'm not getting that effect on my end. Might be a bug in 4.2. Are your GPU drivers up to date? Have you checked the recent bug reports in the Blender github for issues similar to this?

Thanks for checking. I have checked my GPU, all up to date. I can't see anything on the github, but I will keep looking and widen my search as well.
It's just strange that it only does this in perspective mode on my machine? What changes, regarding the texture displayed, by swapping to this view?
Anyway, thanks for having a look.

You could try using a Solidify modifier, to give it a little thickness. The fact that it's a single plane might be causing issues.

@Jakemoyom sorry for the late reply here. I have been away.
All parts of the object are solid, I sell this item for 3D Printing. The model is sound. It seems to be just a viewport issue.


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How can I add a cloudy environment without adding more lights?
I have this scene I am making, currently its with a world, fogs and some lights to create the scene. However, I want to create a mildly cloudy night sky. Like how would expect at a stormy sea? I couldn't find any night time HDRI, so I just been trying by turning the HDRI black and white. It kinda works? But far from good.
Main issue though, is that any HDRI I add, introduces more light to the scene which I do not want. Any suggestions?


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Geometry Nodes Straight Skeleton for Rooftops, almost finished
I need help with generating pitched rooftops out of 2D shapes. I am working to create a geonodes system to experience city planning free for laypeople.
I am trying to recreate a simple limited verison of the the Straight Skeleton Addon, having it directly as a geometry node setup.
I got the center points of the faces through the dual mesh operation, now I only need the extruded edges (the roof skin) to get positioned/merged to the nearest of those center points. I got all inputs already, I just cant get it to move. I tried nearest and sample nodes but cant wrap my head around it.
In short: 3rd image as illustration, upper vert of each edge needs to be moved to the nearest point.
I am stuck and would apprechiate any help or input!

This is a slightly modified version of that solution: Extruding Roofs out of Surface in Geo Nodes.

Note, however, that this variant does not represent a true “straight skeleton”, but merely a simplified solution as you intended, which achieves the goal you described:

Capture the position of each face.
Subdivide the mesh using the Subdivide node.
Create a selection of those faces that are adjacent to fewer than three faces and combine it with those points that are adjacent to three or more points. Due to the previous subdivision of the mesh, this selection contains the points that represent the sloping roofs at the short edges and that have to be moved to the face center afterwards.
Create a selection that either contains the previously created selection or those points that are adjacent to more than three faces. This selection represents the ridge of the roof that needs to be moved up.
Extrude the mesh (with an Offset of $0$) and move the sloped ends to the previously captured face positions and then move the whole ridge upwards.
Triangulate the mesh along the longest diagonal so that the roof has correct edges, but only on those faces that are no longer planar due to the points being moved up.
Merge the vertices.
(Optional) Additionally use the Decimate modifier to remove the excess edges.

(Blender 4.2.0+)

Thank you so much!!!!! ❤


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Blender video output has bad quality

i am rendering a simple video but it is pixelated i tried doing it frame by frame and the .png frames look amazing but then when i put them in sequence the quality goes low again.

Well, you've cut out the interesting parts in your screenshot: all the settings below Encoding.

Change the Output → Encoding → Video → Output Quality to Perceptually Lossless:

Hmmm this doesn't actually explain why his got pixelated. Setting it to lossless will bloat the video. There's something wrong with his setup. I always have mine at Medium quality and the quality is good enough.

@HarryMcKenzie true, I didn't explicitly explain where the artifacts come from, but I though it's obvious and implied by the setting change those are compression artifacts. As for the bloat: there's 3 elements here: compression speed, output quality and output size, can't improve on all 3.

I find it weird though I've never seen such extreme artifacts in my renders so I thought that maybe there was something wrong with the compression.


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Why does my render look like this, with artifacts?
On the viewport it looks ok, but when i render it, it has all this render artifacts... Does anybody have any clue why this is?
Thanks!

"Artifacts"? You mean the noise? Probably not enough samples and no denoising enabled...

Use the same engine as in the viewport. We don't see what kind of engine you're using to achieve the viewport result.

@ChristophWerner I thought the same thing, but it's Cycles in the viewport because there is the "Rendering Done" text in the top left corner of the screen. However, different settings are probably used for rendering and lighting, which we unfortunately cannot see.

Gaston, please upload your scene here. Replace your model by a dummy object if you like, but keep all your settings. In this way we may help.


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[Blender4.0]How to make Curve.Bevel.Round not get squashed when moved

This is what I saw online

This is my

Probably you have non-uniform scaling.
Go to object mode and press Ctrl+A -> Scale

Alt-A just deselects the selected object. The correct hotkey is Ctrl-A > Scale.

Thank you! The problem was solved after Ctrl+A -> Scale

Oh thanks, @JohnEason, Fixed

No problem. I was looking to see if that was an alternative hotkey to use until I realised what it normally does! :))


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Rokoko retargeting Plugin - How to automatically match bones properly?

I want to retarget mixamo animations to my rig generated by rigify. But Rokoko plugin automatically all matches wrong bones(DEF-Something). So I have to fix about 50 amatures manually which is tedious, and I don't want to do these works whenever I retarget. Is there any way to make plugins target correct bones? I tried to hide DEF-Bones, but it was no use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qHfUAniTM0
I followed this guy's tutorial. Thanks in advance for any advice.


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How to see material properties (colors) in main view
Newbie question: I am watching this excellent video by Ryan King to learn how to work with materials. His version of blender seems fairly close to mine. However: when he makes changes to a material, he sees an immediate change in the main view. His objects are colored. However, when I make changes to a material, they do not appear in the main view but only in the Render view when I press F12. This is slowing me down horribly!
I'm guessing that some default has changed recently that's giving me different behavior. In blender 4, what setting do I need to change to see colors and other material properties in the main view?
Blender 4.2.1
Mac OS 14.2.1
His world:

My world:

hello, it looks like you are in Solid view mode while he is in Material preview mode

Ryan has his viewport switched to Material Preview, unfortunately your setting is hidden in the screenshot but it looks like your in Solid shading mode, the button left from Material Preview.

Although you can have colored objects in Solid shading mode as well. More information about the different color modes in Solid you can find in my answer here: Can not display a single mesh as solid

And I actually like the "Rendered" mode even better.

@Joymaker Aha, okay. The different shading modes do serve different purposes though, they are not just there to choose which one you like better ;) One main thing is, the more complex the shading (wire to solid to preview to render), the higher the performance cost for example. So especially in very large scenes it might be more beneficial to work more smoothly than having it look nicer.


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two bones, one I can add a keyframe, the other I receive this message "no suitable context info for active keying set", how to fix it?
I compared everything inside blender about any kind of properties and nothing special differed between the two bones named "whatever" "DEFwhatever2".
I exported to the highly readable xml collada dae format to compare both with meld, and I saw nothing special, and even after I re-imported both bones from the .dae, one of them were still not keyframable.
all these does not solve the problem:
"No suitable context info for active keying set"
Why do I get an "no suitable context info for active keying action" message when trying to keyframe a camera?
What constitutes a "context" in Pose mode?
This question is not a duplicate of the above mentioned ones, sorry if you disagree.

Please include a blend file where this problem happens. (How to add a blend file)

just prefix any bone with DEF to replicate the problem

The only different thing was the name.
The problematic begins with "DEF".
The moment I put a letter "a" before it like "aDEF", it started accepting keyframing!
here has some info about naming:
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/49081/9567
but there is no tip about how breaking is the DEF prefix!
I cant find any official documentation about these prefixes and how they may interfere in your workflow, so I guess we must be prepared for more surprises?

"MCH" prefix gives no error message and blocks keyframing too. To help changing many, create a mouse/keyboard macro to click and rename where you are pointing at.

Are you sure this is not related to Keying Sets? When the bone has no keyframes and you set the active keying set to Available then exactly this error occurs. The DEF and MCH are common prefixes and don't matter. It's a common naming convention. Blender only cares about suffixes like *Left", ".L", "_L" for mirroring.

If the only thing was the name, and you weren't using the Whole Character Acting keying set, then you've encountered a bug and should file a bug report.  There is no code in Blender that uses prefixes to prevent keys being added, except Whole Character Keying set and the list of prefixes it ignores is listed in the manual: (“COR”, “DEF”, “GEO”, “MCH”, “ORG”, “VIS”) + the error message you get only happens if a keying set is active.

yeah, that is it, I always use wcks, as I think it is easier to work that way


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Issues exporting .glb/.gltf with two or more actions in the NLA
Hello blender pros!
Blender noob here - having some issues with turning a rigged animation into .glb/.glft. Also, I'm not quite nailing the textures just yet (the gltf is more shiny than the glb so I have to figure that out too).
The main issue is that I have 276 frames worth of keyframe animation that I would like to split into two animation takes so these can be toggled on/off by the webdeveloper. It works well to export this as a single animation, but when I try to turn the keyframe animation into "push down to action" and then split the track in the NLA where I would like to have the second take start and rename the parts (on this single track) things get weird.
Upon export with keyframe sequence converter into an action, the whole object turns 90 degrees both in the file and in the scene (+Y up is ticked - and un-ticking it doesn't change anything). But when I undo the "push down to action" and just have a track of keyframes - this works again but I only have a single animation take.
What am I doing wrong? How can I get this super messy animation to a single file with 2x animation takes?
To just see if I got the same result with a super simple scene, I made a 4x keyframe animation of a cube moving around with the same approach I meantioned above, just turning it to an action, splitting the track - and there is no animation data saved in the glb for this cube. How do I go about making these two separate takes in a single glb? Exporting it with the keyframes being just keyframes worked though, not through NLA.
Thank you, and any help is much appreciated


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Dictionary updates values without me wanting it to
I am trying to save locations of each selected object into a dictionary and then zero them.
But the dictionary values get updated after I save the values and zero the objects' location.
I just dont understand why and how to get around it. The only thing that worked is to save the location value as a string and then I would have to deconstruct the string back into a vector when trying to restore these locations.
selObjs = bpy.context.selected_objects
newDict = {}
for object in selObjs:
    newDict[object] = object.location
    object.location = (0,0,0)

When I run this, it saves the correct location value for the object key into the dictionary, but the moment object.location = (0,0,0) is called, the value gets zeroed inside of the dictionary too.
I just cant make sense of this, the values are not meant to update without me actually updating the dictionary, are they?
Thanks for the help.

Try object.location.copy().

That was it! Lovely and simple. Thank you Martynas

Im not sure why but it would seem that the variable indeed is getting updated even tho it should not. Saving the variables' copy is all that was needed to solve it:
selObjs = bpy.context.selected_objects
newDict = {}
for object in selObjs:
    newDict[object] = object.location.copy ()
    object.location = (0,0,0)

Thanks Martynas

"...even tho it should not. " - This is how it works. It's intentionally meant to work like that as far as I can tell and is not a mistake or a bug.  You need to copy the value, not use the location itself. Location of objects gets updated by the API - how else would it work?..

Its good that it works like that but literally all python documentation I checked makes no mention of dictionary values auto update when saving variable into it, cuz as the name suggest, i thought i was saving the VALUE of that variable into it, not the actual variable. There are plenty of cases i think of where the way it works is great, but this was rather confusing. Thank you for your help.


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Minimizing mesh deformation
How would I prevent the mesh from deformating this badly when moving bones or at least minimize it?

You will need to be a bit more clear about what you mean by "deforming this badly". Show what you have, what you're aiming for, clear examples of what the problem is, what you've already tried. Share your blend file if possible.  Instructions for sharing.


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UPBGE 0.3, where is the "register component" button?
I am trying to follow these instructions:
https://upbge.org/manual/manual/python_components/getting_started/character_controller_templates.html#character-controller-component
I chose the character_controller_basic.py
but I cant find the "register component" button anywhere.
The manual shows it is in the Components section, but where is that section?
Not on logic bricks editor.
Not on game object properties (for selected object).

in scripting: select this:

in game object properties, game components: press add

enter this:

if you then press P to play you get:

the rotation in the correct Z axis self.object.applyRotation((0, 0, rotate), True) #original code did not work, it was spinning the capsule in the X axis! then I had to change to self.object.applyRotation((rotate, 0, 0), True) and now I can walk around with the capsule, and spin it properly in the Z (top to down) axis. I wonder if that is a bug in BGE0.3?

If you provide me your blend file - I can take a look. Could be several reasons…


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Smooth shading is seemingly creating incorrect normals
I have this happening with my mesh with smooth shading:

The center vertex is crooked even though all of its neighboring faces are pointed in the same direction. This pattern continues across a whole face-loop and creates a long crease between these faces.
I thought that smooth shading was supposed to create the vertex normal by averaging its neighbors' faces, so I'm not sure why this is happening. In flat shading it looks completely flat.
I've tried recalculating the normals.

Do you mind uploading the .blend file?

does the normal get back to original when using flat shading ?

It turns out there were more faces adjacent to the vertex hidden inside of the mesh. Deleting these solved the problem.

Sometimes this happens for no apparent reasons. I have gotten into the same issue several times when importing models from other 3d packages. The only way to quickly remove them if apply normals and smooth shading doesn't work, is to ....

Delete the faces only, around the affected vertice and the edges undeleted.
Hit X to delete and choose "face only".
Turn on F2 add-on in the user preferences.
Select adjacent edges and hit F, to fill it with a face between them.

You should now how a clean mesh with the correct normals.

Note Only use this method if Ctrl + N and applying smooth shading on the model does not solve the problem

.

Thanks, this was helpful and seemed to fix most of the symptoms. But it turns out the root cause was hidden faces on the inside of the mesh.

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


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How can I project several objects towards a plane while respecting object bounds?
I have a situation like below with several objects and I want to project them towards the plane X=0 while preventing objects from colliding. Basically each object goes as close as it can towards the plane without intersecting anything else.
Going from:

To:

Is there a way to do this quickly and easily for any number of objects?

the best thing I could think of is enable grid snapping and then adjust the settings as needed

You can orient those objects along Z axis and set up a rigid body simulation (the big cube will be collision, the rest of them - active Rigid Bodies), then play it and wait until they are stuck on that surface. Use mesh bounds as rigid body options


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Creating a spiral on a sphere
I am trying to create the spiral element of the following:

I've tried different methods such as a curve modifier with a capsule shape, and using 'Curve' strokes with sculpting, but I can't get quite the same results. What would be the easiest way to get these results?

for more examples, something like this:https://www.artstation.com/artwork/qoovD

You could begin with a spiral curve (you need to enable the  Add Curve: Extra Objects addon):

Convert to mesh, fill the faces:

Add an edge loop:

Move it up:

Create additional edge loops in order to round the profile:

Clean the topology:

Thanks, it looks promising but the center doesn't look quite spherical enough


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Is it possible to add distance constraints to the vertices of a mesh?
I'm custom modelling a piece of paper blowing in the wind (i.e. not using the cloth modifier), but it's difficult to even fold a corner without distorting the overall shape of the paper.
I know that physics cloth simulators include this type of feature, but is it possible to get something similar to this in edit mode?

you wanna use the 3d cursor for folding out plane meshes.

Doing something like that manually would be relatively hard, but I would recommend using proportional editing (O, Scroll Wheel to adjust strength). That should be able to do most of it. The next best option would be sculpting. Try using the 'grab brush' to get the overall shape, then just play around with various brushes like the clay brush or the draw brush to get some smaller details, just fiddle with those until you find what you like. Try taking a look at this and this. One of them is a tutorial for animating, you probably won't find much specifically on modelling the paper, but you might find some things in there to do with how he modelled it, and the other short one is just an animation, you might have to do a little bit of digging around to find out how he did it if that's along the lines of what you are doing.

When enabling proportional editing you will want to have the connected version enabled to prevent moving parts close to what you are editing.

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


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Modelling a sphere with 2 flat faces
I'm trying to model something like the object on the left side of this photo:

I need to get a shape that is basically a sphere with two flattened areas, one at the bottom and one on the side with an angle. The part I'm having trouble with is getting the shape while maintaining a clean topology.
The best base topology seems like a cylinder, I just can't find a way to deform it perfectly with the Simple Deform (Bend) + Cast (Sphere) modifiers.

so you don't need to make the central object?

no, just the one on the left

To make a sphere with flat faces:

Put your picture as Background Image.
Create a cube and W > Subdivide Smooth.
Cut it with the knife tool (K to activate, Z to cut through, C to cut perpendicularly).
Use V to separate the pieces you want to delete, then delete.
Clean a bit the rim with some merge (alt M).
Extrude to create faces, merge at center.
Give it a Subdivision Surface modifier and click Shading > Smooth to smooth.

I've tried a more detailed version, with the button holes etc... In that case a UV Sphere seems better to begin:

Put your picture as Background Image.
Create a UV Sphere (48 segments, 24 rings), keep a copy on another layer, give this copy a Subsurf modifier.
Rotate your original sphere 45°. Give it a Shrinkwrap modifier with the copy as Target so that the shape of the original will stick to a sphere shape during the next operations.
Cut the top of your sphere, align the rim to the picture’s rim.
Cut 2 holes on the side, extrude and scale to create 2 circles for the buttons (use W > LoopsTools > Circle, or shift alt S).
Cut the base with the knife tool (K to activate, Z to cut through, C to cut perpendicularly).
Apply the Shrinkwrap modifier.
Make some extrudes for all these holes.
For the sphere's « equator » make a thin bevel and extrude .
Etc…

I would recommend using a boolean modifier, as that means you don't need to change the model topology at all. Create a sphere, the create a cube and position it over the sphere such that the cube overlaps the part of the sphere to be removed. Then put a boolean modifier on the sphere and select the cube, and select 'Difference'. Select the cube and press h to hide it, and you should get a nice, clean cut out of your sphere.
See an example in the image below:


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How can I extrude a dome from a circular face?
I have the following mesh:

I would like to extrude the face at the center so that a dome forms out of it, such that the dome's boundary would be exactly that of the circle. (Think bubble wrap.)
Is there a quick and easy way to do this?

Yes, try extruding and scaling it multiple times:

To help make the extrusions more even, you might try using the To Sphere operator (⎇ Alt⇧ ShiftS). You can define where the center of the "sphere" To Sphere uses by using the 3D cursor as the pivot (.).
If you want to be more precise, try adding a sphere and deleting half, then using Bridge edge loops (W, E)

Note that the number of vertices on the perimeter of the sphere should match the number of vertices around the initial circle.

You can get a dome in the centre without extruding.

Add some extra edge loops CtrlR
Enable proportional editing with falloff set to sphere
Lift centre piece up, adjusting falloff size as needed (with scroll wheel or PageUp/PageDown).

That's darn clever.


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How to Install Three.js Exporter in Blender 2.72b
Does anyone know how to add on the Three.js File exporter in blender 2.72b I can not for the life of me get it installed.
~Thanks.

See if this question is any help.

If that post still doesn't answer your question, could you post some details on what specifically happens (or doesn't happen) when you try to install it? As it is now we have no clue as to what could possibly be going wrong.


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Opacity of an object in 2.8
I am trying to change the opacity or alpha of an object so its see-through in 2.8.  How do I do this?  I can't seem to get to figure out how in 2.8.   Example of what I am trying to do is below.

The setup is very basic. One thing to note is that I've used Wireframe modifier with second material.
Material
Just a mix between Transparent and Emission which is added for colorization and "nicer" visibility.

Material setup
First slot is above material for transparent object, second is for wireframe.
Most important thing here is to set Blend Mode Type as Alpha Blend.

Modifier
In Wireframe modifier set Material offset to 1 to be able to use material from second slot. Also set wireframe Offset to -1. It will hide wireframe object in main object.
Don't forget to uncheck "Replace Original", or else the low transparency would be replaced by wireframe. We want the mesh to have wireframe with the transparency, not just the wireframe.

i didn't need a mix shader.  setting the blend mode to alpha blend was enough to make it transparent by reducing the alpha.  it also exports to unity perfectly

I Found it! There is a button in the 'view object types' header NEAR the top right that enables a a semi transparent view of everything.

The timing is shit as I have finished modelling now. But will help in the future. One thing to note is that if you are modelling from top and side views of an image it might turn those transparent grey too but if you're retopologising something it should help.

Select the object that you want to be transparent, and go to [object] at the property panel.
Click the viewport display and turn on wireframe, and control alpha threshold at Color.
Go to the viewport shading upper right side (default setting) and change Color material to Object or Vertex.


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How can i modify a Displacement texture roughness?
If i add a single  texture as a Displacement texture on Cycles, how can i modify? i had been trying with Mix but i don't get the right number, or maybe is the wrong option?

Did you try a math node set to multiply?

what do you want to modify about the texture?

Hmm, when i added the math node now the object doesn't show up in the render.
I want to for example add the same image texture as a bump, but making the 'markings' based on the same image not too sharp/rough, like using a 30% of the image

Using a ColorRamp node ? (and maybe with Math also)

Displacement expects a number, not a color. You can see that because the displacement's input is grey whereas a color-value is marked as yellow in the Node Tree.
So you normally convert the color to a value via a RBG to BW Node. You then can use Math nodes to freely manipulate the value until it fits your needs. In your case I would use a Multiply and then play with the factor a bit until satisfied.

I've used a Voronoi Texture as a stand-in for whatever texture you want to use, so you can just swap that out.
Note: I've heard that this conversion is done automatically when you connect a color-output to an value-input. Apparently this won't lead to any problems, so you can leave out the RGB to BW node and just connect the color output to the Math input (thanks @TARDIS Maker).

I've never had problems where the RGB to BW node is actually required. It usually does the conversion perfectly fine without it. Another example where this works, is with the conversion of an RGB to a Vector. They're both a 3 Vector, so they can do a conversion with out any issues.

You can use the same image texture as a color and bump maps at the same time. I'll show you how it works using the image below.

Set up the nodes as pictured below. Add a RGB to B&W node (Add-->Converter-->RGB to B&W). It will turn your color texture to a B&W so you may use it for bumps. To control the bumpiness size just add a Mix RGB node, set its type to Multiply and the color to white (if you're using a lower socket) or black (if you're using a upper socket). Change the Factor to control the bump size.

Here's the result:

Instead of adding the Mix RGB node you may add a Math node (Add-->Converter-->Math). Set its type to Multiply as well and play with the Value slider.

Result:

There is also the other way. Add a Bump node (Add-->Vector-->Bump) and set it up as pictured below. Increase the Strenght to make the bumpiness bigger.


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Rendering objects in the same scene with different sampling?
I'm rendering a crystal like object and another with a single planar texture, the first one needs to be rendered at high sampling and the second one doesnt, yet i need to render them both together, is it possible to give an object a number/quantity for sampling while for the others another number/quantity?

I have one that I know will work, I will post an answer ASAP

This can be done using Render Layers. First, make sure your two objects are on seperate layers, but both are selected in the viewport. Now go to the Render Layers tab and press the + button:

Name them HighSample and LowSample, and make the Layer attribute reflect which objects you want to render at higher or lower sample rates.
Important: do not use the Exclude option! This will make the effect completely impossible.
Now that you have your render layers set up, you can change a handy little Samples value to override the set number of samples in the Render tab. If you render now, you will notice it renders two images, with separate objects. All you need to do now is be sure you have Transparent enabled in the Render settings and do a little simple compositing:

Render Result:

The plane has samples set to 10, and the flat shaded Icosphere used 100 samples.

Put both objects on separate render layers
Override the number of samples:


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Low-Quality Wireframe material on Cycles for Preview Purposes?
Is there any way to create a real Low-Quality Wireframe material on Cycles for Preview Purposes on Cycles Render? I need to save time by rendering...

Do you want a Material or a Modifier?

You can easily use the Wireframe modifier to do something like this. You will want to untick the Replace Original checkbox. You will have about as low-res of an effect as you can get. One other important thing is Subdivision modifiers do affect it, so you may need to move the Wireframe modifier up or down the modifier stack, and you may also need to enable Crease Edges to keep the wireframe from deforming.

Sadly the Wireframe node in the material editor does not follow the mesh edges, but the triangulated mesh (quads are treated as two triangles, etc.)

@NoviceInDisguise I don't see why this would speed up rendering times, it raises the poly count.

Yes, it increases polycounts. However it is the only way to do this. The faster way of using the Wireframe node doesn't work as desired, by showing a triangulated topology.


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How can i fade a background/object with black border?
is there any way to ''fade out'' the background?i want the front part to stay the same, but i need to fix that 'background (with the red arrow) putting a Black hole/Black color
Is that possible?

Something like this:
(but backwards)

You can do that in the Compositor if you render the background as transparent.

I think that the solution for you is in this link: http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.4/Tutorials/Composite_Nodes/Setups/Blur_the_Background
Although I don't know why, but it doesn't work for me. I tried many combinations and ended up with this kind of method (which is experimental). I don't think that this is the proper node setup, but the result is quite fine as you can see below:

Go to Compositing Nodes window and set up the nodes as shown below. Add a Map Value node (Add-->Vector-->Map Value) and experiment with its Offset and Size values.

As I said, I don't think that this is a proper method of doing this, but I wanted to share it with you. It may work for you, but if not, please tell me in comment and I'll delete this answer.

After reading your question again i think this is how i would do it:

Turn on "Transparent" in the render panel
Go to the node editor and go to the renderlayer nodes and check "Use Nodes"
Then setup the following node chain:

This setup changes the Alpha of the all the pixels in the render based on how far from the camera the pixel is. The fade can be adjusted using the ColourRamp node.
Bear in mind that the Z value is based on the cameras clipping distances, if you change these you may have to tweak the bottom value in the math (devide) node.

That can be done easily in the Compositor using only nodes. Have a look at this node group:

They will output a nice background like this:

All you need to do now is to add the render image over the top of it. To do that, update your nodes to look like this:

And voila! It works perfectly:

You will of course want to play with color values etc, but the technique is the same.
You may find it works well to use a mixture of this and @ChristyJames answer.


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I added a bump to a material, but the color doesn't seem right
I made a texture with nodes on Blender Cycles, i added a image texture then a bump, and the bump works but the image looks too ''white''.
I need the color back to normal but with the bump, is this possible or i'll have to also make a new material?

The problem you are having is being caused by the fact that you have three shaders, but only one is influenced by the image texture.
Plug your colour map (top image texture) into the colour input of the other diffuse shader and the glossy shader.

Can you please give me the answer with images so i'll follow the steps then give you the correct answer?

You shouldn't need any images, this is straightforward enough

@beavoru This is quite basic. Please read the answer carefully and at least try to get the result before asking for clarification and/or images. Thanks.

Already worked :)

Great, glad to have been of help :-)


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HDRI not being reflected on Cycles
I added a HDRI on cycles, but the image is not appearing on the preview or in the reflection of my material on the model i'm using...
What i'm doing wrong? :/

Your glossy shader is WAY to rough, put it at .025, let me know if that helps.

Nope, still nothing :(

It looks like you have Transparent enabled in Render settings film. This will cause the background to be transparent, instead of displaying the HDRi. And your glossy shader is really rough, which will prevent fine details from being visible in reflections (You could try mixing two glossy shaders based on a fresnel node). And you have AO on, which could wash out and make the effect the HDRi less apparent. And it appears you are using a jpg instead of an HDRi, which will make the light from the environment flatter and less apparent, so you may have to increase the Strength.

To be honest i only need the reflection, not the image in the background...yet when i make it appear unchecking Film > Transparent, it only shows me a single color, i think, of the image, it's a Jpg...i added a jpg due to another tutorial.

Well, now i'm downloading a HDRI, a real one, let's see if this can fix the problem..

The problem still persist :/

How about uploading the file to http://pasteall.org/blend/ ?

It finally worked! i changed the roughness into 0
lol :D

Well, first try using an  environment  texture instead of a  image texture and then go into the  Ray Visibility panel and turn off the channels you don't want the map to show up in.
Next, make sure you have a glossy or reflection shader mixed in to your eyeball material so that it can pick up the environment.

And roughness should be 0 :)


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How can i control the extrude size of a curve while creating it?
i need to make a sightly smaller subdivission on my curve because i need to reach a part of the 3D enviroment without having to move the object, so i use extrude (pressing E) but the curve created is too long and the shape is lost.
Is there any way i can control the curve size while pressing E?

I'm not sure I get what you are saying?

Couldn't you scale the curve you already have?

Well, yes, i can scale it, but i want to know if there's also an option to just make a curve (by pressing E) start from 0 rather than an already made curve

Can you make an answer with pictures? i think that's the answer!


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How can i make a translucent material on Cycles?
I'm trying to make a translucent material on Cycles but still i'm not very experienced with nodes....i want to make a solid color that is still translucent or can receive some light on the borders, for example, like this image:
It's like organic, but translucent at the same time.

Or as a more realistic reference, like this:

Which kind of material will be the best option in order to make this?

I would use a subsurface scattering (SSS) shader (rather than a translucent shader) mixed with a diffuse/glossy shader mix (or whatever you are using for the base surface shader).
SSS basically makes the rays scatter when they hit the surface of an object, meaning the rays don't come off the surface at the same place they hit it.  The amount of scattering is determined by the scattering radius multiplied by the scale value on the shader.  SSS is usually used for organic things such as skin.
You can check out this question and this question and the documentation to learn more about SSS.


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What is this kind of material?
I'm trying to recreate an image on 3D (As you can see on the picture) but the material doesn't ''shine'' on the borders like the original picture.
I was thinking on adding textures but this is for an animation, so maybe a better setup for a material could help more than just a plain texture (which is no problem, i have Zbrush software too)
What's the kind of material that i could use to get some kind of 'texture' or 'ilumination' like the original/real picture?
Or if you have any other idea, what can you recommend? I'm starting with cycles rendering...

You might want to have a look at the Fresnel and Layer weight nodes.

That is one massive node setup you want . . . people would either charge you big $$ to come up with that or be bored for several hours :-|

Gandalf! it worked!!! now i just need to apply a texture image plus that kind of ''effect''

Besides a Fresnel this OSL shader could be useful for this: http://www.swineworld.org/2013/10/osl-lace-curtain-shader-for-blender.html

You could add some emission into the mix or do a post processing pass that enhances the edges. http://www.blender.org/manual/composite_nodes/types/filter.html

@gandalf3 you made the answer!

The top image seems to be the rods and cones that line your retina. The image is likely from a scanning electron microscope, then manually colored. (SEM can't see color)
Fresnel is the easiest way to accomplish the effect.

This has already been addressed in the comments, notify the person who suggested it to post as an answer if it solved the issue.

authors: Юра Сальников


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Duplicate Modifier parameters in other objects?
I have multiple objects, all of them are almost the same but scaled or with little modifications, i applied a modifier to one, but i need the same exact parameters to all the other objects, it is possible to duplicate those parameters on the other objects?
Thanks in regard.

First select (in Object Mode) all the objects you want to have a modifier and then the object with a modifier enabled. Press CTRL+L (Make Links)-->Modifiers. See these answers: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/319/add-the-same-modifier-to-multiple-objects-at-once , http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/3488/is-it-possible-to-apply-modifiers-to-multiple-objects-at-once

Are you asking how to copy the exact same modifier to other objects or how to apply modifiers to multiple objects?

I wanto to copy the exact modifier parameters to other objects, also those modifier parameters also have keyframes already made.

@Gonzou It worked!!! :D


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How to properly add a chrome-like material in cycles to a thin object?
i was trying to put a chrome-like material in a curve that i'm doing, because it needs to somehow 'shine' on the borders, like a detailed curve/tube, something like this:
Is this possible to do with a thin object like this? i need to zoom it in the animation, so that's why i need it to be detailed on the material...oh and also, it should stay with black background so it will not reflect anything at all.
Thank you in regard.

Use the antisopotry shader and the glossy shader. The rest is lighting. Notice that material questions are not necessarily strictly on-topic for this site.

Could you clarify the it should stay with black background so it will not reflect anything at all. part?

It will not and can't reflect anything since the background is fully dark/black

Random shading tips

Different world colors for background and reflections
Below is an example of using a different color for the background than for the reflections. In addition to colors, you can of course also use, for example, an HDR image for reflections and radial gradient for camera, or other kind of combinations.

Procedural reflections
For reflective materials something is needed to be reflected. Common and nice looking method is to use an HDR image. However, sometimes a simple gradient node can look nice in reflections. You can sort of 'paint' your reflections with it in real-time, which is cool :)

Keep the scale
When using procedural shaders, it's important to reset the scale of the object if it has been scaled:

Don't skimp on detail
When modeling an object, it's good to test how the light will bounce off the surface. For example, adding some double-beveling easily leads to nicely highlighted rims for some metallic objects:

My test

dented_chrome.blend

Just add a glossy shader to the pipes and use some oblong planes with an emission shader for lighting. Give them various colours and strengths. You can also experiment with the glossy shader's roughness value to see what you like.

Set the background shader to black as you like.

If you want a transparent background in the image file, check the transparent box in render settings (just make sure you save as a file type that supports an alpha channel like .png).

Here's the result.

What's the point of the color ramp with no input?  And mixing two background shaders with different shades of grey?  You could just have one shader and adjust the color's value.

You are right. I could have just one shader. But I'm used to using the colorramp. You can't forbid me ;). I can replace the picture according to your suggestion if you like. May be simplier and clearer.

I would simply use a glossy shader with a roughness value of around 0.1.  To get the specular highlights as they are in the picture I would position a plane with an emission shader behind the camera facing directly at the pipes.
To get the black background just go to the world panel of the properties view and set the background shader to be pure black.

and a bluish tint to the glossy.

I would suggest either a glossy shader as above or a convolution/environment map for more precise control with very low overhead.

Good advice! Could you expand your question to help people follow what you mean?

authors: らかぬぬ きむしかにしむ


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How can i attach array objects to a curve while animating?
i made an object and then applied the array modifier, then i attached it to a curve with the curve modifier, and it looks good but if i move the curve ( i need to animate it ) the spheres moves weird, apart from the curve...is there any way to fix this? :(
Thanks in regard.

You need to move both, the origins need to stay in the same orientation in relation to each other

Is there an option to only move the curve and make the spheres copy the same parametters in order to just move one object? it will be difficult if not, or maybe i'll be limited.

Copy location constraint maybe?

@beavoru Add an empty and parent it to both objects, with the keep offer option

You mean keep offset... :)

@beavoru Did anything work?

Sorry, i wasn't able to answer, i'll tell you later, i'll try, thanks :)

It worked, but if i move the curve, it doesnt work for animation :(

parent the spheres to the curve so when you move the curve the sphere will follow
animate the curve using shape key


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Is there any way to randomize the keyframes position for multiple objects?
Is there any way i can randomize automatically the keyframes position between a lot of objects? for example, i have 10 objects, with the same animation, and i want to move the keyframes for every single objects on the timeline, so one of those will start at keyframe 1, the other at keyframe 10, the others at 20, 25, etc. I need to know this so i can save time and also making a lot of random animations fast without having to enter in each dopesheet of each item, because maybe then ill have to animate like 100 objects..

It is possible to add randomness to the value of a keyframe/series of keyframes, but adding it tot the location on the timeline is quite different . . . You will probably need some sort of script.

Yes, there is a way to do this! I'm not confident that it can be done easily through the interface, but if you would like to do it with a script, I've written a sample that can get you going in the right direction. It moves the animation curves one way or the other depending on a random number (randomized per object).
    import bpy, random

    for object in bpy.data.objects:
        rand = random.randrange(-15,stop=15,step=1)
        #only effect objects which include "___" in the name
        if "___" not in object.name:
            continue
        #Go through all the animation curves
        for curve in object.animation_data.action.fcurves:
            #only effect if it's a x location curve (x array_index is 0, y is 1, z is 2...)
            if curve.data_path == 'location' and curve.array_index == 0:
                for point in curve.keyframe_points:
                    #add the random value to the x value (which is the frame #) of the keyframe point and it's handles
                    point.co.x += rand
                    point.handle_left.x += rand
                    point.handle_right.x += rand

This is just a little bit to get you going. You could change the data_path to affect a different type of animation curve, or change the array index to affect a different parameter of that type of curve.


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Using a volumetric spot light, it is possible to hide totally the elements that the light doesn't reach?
I'm using a volumetric spot light, and in a animation, i'm moving the light so it shows some elements, and for now i got there three objects, but i do want to know if for example it is possible to totally hide (fade in totally black) the objects that aren't below the light, as you can see in the picture, those are still shown, as faded-gray objects.
I already changed the light strenght, but if i do that i lose another illumination detail that i already made.
Is there any way to fix this? if not ill just edit the video on an editing software using a mask.
Thanks in regard :)

Is the world background color pure black?

You can change your spot with a 0 bounce (direct light only). The light won't bounce outside you volume anymore.

This will affect the lighting of your main object (no indirect light), so you can move the 2 others to another layer and add a "no bounce" Spotlight (duplicated or parented if animation is needed) and composite render layers. Your main object (with a spot with more than 0 max bounce) will have a nice direct and indirect lighting and the others won't be affected by bounces.
This setting was added in blender 2.73 official release (release notes)

Hmmm...the ''Max Bounces'' option doesn't appear for me :/

dowload last official blender : http://www.blender.org/download/ or lastest dev trunk : https://builder.blender.org/download/

You could also handle this in the same way you would if you were using a camera; by adjusting the exposure settings. These can be adjusted in Properties > Scene > Color Management, or of course in the compositor.
Before:

After:

I rather liked the yellow look of this film preset :P
This way you get to keep indirect lighting :)


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It is possible to render a geometry as a blurry object?
I was making an scene and thanks to the help of the people here, i managed to make a volumetric light..but now that i think the 'borders' are too sharp, and this light (seen on the picture) is nothing more than a deformed cube, so i need to know, it is possible to for example just select this single geometry and make it look blurry? actually what i need is to make the borders more blurry (like a light), but it could also help me in the future for references. (Oh, and I'm also using Cycles)
If anyone know how to do this, please let me know.

Try changing the density of the volume

Hmm, i already tried that, but if i do that, the texture/color (white) also goes a little transparent, i want to still keep the color/intensity. :/

Hmm . . . I'm not sure then

change the object index and use this node setup in the compositor

the id mask will create a mask from the object and  the erode will give it smooth edges

How can i change the object index? If i do that, it will not erase my previous node setup?

in OBJECT tab under RELATION there is PASS INDEX set it to 1

it won't effect your previous node setup

Compositing with dilate/erode (or blur) will affect the light circle on the ground too, needs testing IMHO.

When i go to pass index 2 if i edit the nodes, the nodes dissapear on the index 1...why?

size up your mesh with volume shader. the light is supposed to be inside, but sharp borders are your meshe's borders.

Or change the blend factor of the spot shape.


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Different render per layers?
I have like 15 Layers, and a other one with light.
I need to render the 15 layers separate but still keeping the light from the apart layer.
And i need to leave the computer rendering in the weekend doing the full work, how can i render different 15 layers on different 15 folders?
edit: I'm using Cycles.
Thanks in regards.

Use different render layers, output them to a multi layer EXR and them separate them into individual files,  if needed.

How can i do that? those are really new things for me :/

You can use Tlousky's production script to render seperate files - the script also creates the folders and layers automatically. See my answer here: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/16152/save-all-render-passes-to-a-single-exr-image/18406#18406

I going to assume that you really mean 15 layers (objects in separate blender viewport layers) and not referring to render passes (Z, Vector, Normal). +someonewithpc is correct, but I thought I would expand and clarify the answer.
Here's what you need to do. I'm going to assume that you will want multiple render passes per render layer, since it's the more complicated solution. If not, it will be a little simpler.

View the image in a new window to see it full resolution.

Set your output file format to OpenEXR MultiLayer in the the render output panel.
In the Render Layers panel, setup a render layer for each of the viewport layers you want to render. Select the output render passes you need for each render layer (Z, normal, etc)
In the compositor, Add a Render Layer node for each render layer you setup.
Create a File Output node for each corresponding Render Layer node. In the property panel on the right, you will need to manually add additional output layers in the file output node (Z, alpha, etc). You can do this because you set the output file to OpenEXR Multilayer previously.
Hook up the matching input/outputs between each render layer node and file output node. You'll also have to enter the output Path in each file output node. It's good to choose a separate folder to keep each Render Layer frame set separated.
Make sure that the Compositing checkbox is checked in the Post Processing panel in the Render Property section.
Render the animation. You should end up with one folder per layer with 1 EXR file per frame rendered. In each EXR file you will have the render passes selected (Z, normal, alpha, etc.)
You can use the EXR files for further compositing in Blender or another external compositing app.

Note: The main render image (whatever is piped to the composite node in the compositor will still be rendered and written out. I believe you still need to have this hooked up for the rest of the process to work properly (I haven't tested this recently but know it worked like that in the past).

Dammit; I was writing it, in my phone...

This can be easily achieved  by using different RenderLayers, and then outputting the different  layers into one Multilayer EXR file; this file can then be opened to separate the different layers into separate files.
To do this, open the Properties panel,  switch to the RenderLayers tab and add however many Render Lawyers you need,  each with the adequate Scene Layers selected.
Then switch to the Compositor, by pressing Shift + Left Arrow,  or by using the layout selector in the header. Then add the same amount of Render Later nodes as you have RenderLayers. After that add a File Output node; with it selected, open the Properties panel (press N) and in the Properties subsection select the output format EXR Multilayer,  and bellow click the Add layer button. You can name the layers of you want. Then simply connect all Render Lawyers to the output node and your ready to render.


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Change speed between particles appearing/dissapearing?
i created a particle system and the movement works great, also along the time (470 frames at 60fps) works great too BUT the only little thing that is still wrong is the time of the particles dissapearing, is still too fast and it looks bad..
Is there any way to change this? (when the particles appear, and dissapear?)
I'm starting to work with particles, so i'm really new on this but also i'm really interested.
Please help!
Thanks in regards.

May you please specify what you mean by "looks bad?"

Thanks for replying, with that i mean that the particles just dissapear too fast and looks like the particles (a lot of them) are dissapearing in groups and not one by one, i was using two particle systems in order to make the particles able to form a text, it's working, but yet the particles appears and dissapear just so fast that it doesnt really feel the particles are forming the text (while they seem to form the sillouethe)

Did you set the lifetime?

The lifetime is 115, same as the 'end' of the particle.

I uploaded a video here about the problem: https://www.dropbox.com/s/miafpsc3djcaxpl/clip0001.avi?dl=0

Increase the Random property under lifetime. This controls the pseudo-random lifetimes per particle.

It worked! now i have a last problem...and it's that i need to render this as a 60fps sequence, but the problem is that even if i seem this animation and timing working, the preview is showing 30fps, not 60fps...so i'm thinking to re-scale the numbers of the particles (start, end and lifetime) or is there any other better option?
Thanks again :)

You should just be able to double everything.

Did it work????

Somehow, but still it's not perfect, the particles still appear too fast, so i'm trying another particle system that can replace the actual one, since the 'curve' does not really 'fill' the letter :/


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Why i can't re-scale the keyframes from a keyed geometry animation on the dope-sheet?
I'm having the problem that i can't re-scale (move) the Keyframes made by keyed animations of my geometry...when i do that the animation just appears as the same as before, but i did move the keyframes, but nothing happens at all.

Did you cache the animation maybe?

It should work. it looks like you have selected "paso2" object but "paso1" keyframe in dopesheet.


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Is it possible to add keyframes and animate geometry without Shape Keys?
Is it possible to add keyframes and animate geometry without Shape Keys? Just like regular objects? Like moving vertices, edges and such?


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How can i edit a follow path constraint with the graph editor?
I made a follow path constrait with a curve, does it already have a linear interpolation so i can edit it on graph editor? i need the linear interpolation.

Are you using animate path button, or the offset parameter?

If you select the curve, you should be able to animate the evaluation time, in the graph editor =)

As long as you don't click the animate path button in the curve constraint...


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How to properly render a curve/thin object in Cycles?
I was rendering a bezier curve made on Blender Cycles in 4K resolution but it looks pretty awful, it looks too pixelated and the image doesnt even looks like the curve on preview, how can i configure this?

So it's only a problem with the Renderer, not the resolution or something of the curve?

It just looks like a render with a low number of samples to me, which makes the render noisy. If you render any object with the same material it should have a similar grainy appearance.

Two setting for the curve you need to change, to change the curve's resolution.
First to add more loops along the length of the curve change the Resolution of the curve.
The Preview setting controls the amount of loops displayed in the 3D view. The Render setting controls how many get rendered, if it is set to 0, then the Preview number is used.
To add more points around the circumference of the curve change the Resolution of the Bevel.


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Changing shortcut to change views doesn't work. Is it possible? How?
I tried to assign a new shortcut to changing views (Front, Left, Right) and it does not work.
I check conflicts and tried different keys combinations. How can I do that?

If I'm not mistaken, pressing the "~" key brings up a pie menu that contains all the views, making them available for immediate selection. Not exactly what you were asking for, but maybe it will do in a pinch.

It's a conflict with Hide Collection. It has all numbers assigned. Because I tried combination with numbers alt+1 alt+2 ... to change views.


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Is there a way to reverse camera zoom action in Blender?
I'd really like to set up the camera to behave 100% like Maya. The zoom function is inverted with the Alt + RMB  in Blender which is beyond annoying. Is there a way to correct this?

You can change it under Edit > Preferences


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Any tips on how to rig this little robot?
I just wanted some opinions on how to rig this robot if it isn't too much! I mean, as you can see from the picture my rigging is terrible, and I'm kinda lost
Don't know how to make any of its parts move without feeling "organic" and having the whole body twisted, unlike that of an actual robot.
If anyone needs the original model just ask me so we can solve this out.

so it looks like it is already parented? what kind of problem do you meet?

For mechanical objects that don't deform, recommend bone parenting. That is parent each part to its pose bone and don't use the armature modifier.


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Does anyone know how to mesh this robot claw?
I'm just getting started in Blender
I'm trying to model this small robot I really like called "Servbot", from the Megaman Legends series, and I made a quick sketch of him and tried to reply it as a reference on Blender. Everything was going well until I had to make his hands, little claw-like robotic thingys. I'll leave the drawing on the post so you can take a look.
Does anyone know how to make those? Like, step by step or any other method that will make it look closer to the original one (a sharp, hard-surfaced metalic shape claw)?
I already tried booleaning with cylinders, and applying long flat cubes to circle curves so to make them round, but still won't get good results.

This is the basic logic, here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywzv-cnIT8o

There isn't need for a lot of complex mechanics. In 3D, you often fake it.
This is the fastest way I know how to do it:

Start by making a cylinder in a new scene. I chose these settings at the start. The main thing is, don't give it a cap fill type. I set mine to None.

With your object selected in Object Mode, go to the Modifiers Tab in the Properties Panel and create a Solidify modifier. Change the Thickness setting to 0.5. Then apply the modifier.

In Edit Mode, make sure you're in Face Select Mode (3 key), and box select, then delete the eight faces at the bottom center of the new shape. Then go into Edge Select Mode (2 key) and then Alt + Select an edge at the top center of the same object. Then split these edges by pressing Ctrl + e to bring up the Edge menu, then choose Edge Split. Note: This menu item seems to have been removed in Blender 2.83. If you are using this version, use the search function instead (F3) and type "Edge Split" in the search field to get access to this function).

In Edit Mode, choose Face Select Mode again and press a to select all faces. Press p and from the Separate menu that pops up, choose Loose Parts. Now you have two pieces. If not, then the previous step, where you selected edges and split them, was not completed properly, and some edges remained connected. Go back and check, and repeat that step if necessary.

In Object Mode, select either of these two new claw objects, and go into Edit Mode. Again, select all faces, and this time go to the top of the 3D view, and choose Mesh > Clean Up > Fill Holes. This will automatically cap both ends of your new object. Repeat the above steps for the other object.

Now go into Object Mode and select either claw object, and then Shift select the other claw object. Now go into Edit Mode (since both objects were selected before entering Edit Mode, they are both equally accessible in Edit Mode).  Go into the top orthographic view with Numpad 7, and select all faces again, which will select all faces for both objects. Translate them vertically by pressing g, followed by y, then dragging the mouse upward. Align these parts so that the middle of the bottom gap between these objects is centered on the Worldspace origin (try to get close to it, anyway). You can snap by holding Ctrl while moving the mouse, and get even finer control by additionally holding Shift. When you leave Edit Mode now, both objects will have their object origin centered at this location, which will make hinge movement easier.

Go back into Object Mode and, with the 3D cursor at the Worldspace Origin (if it is not there, put it there with Shift + c), press Shift  + a to add a new cylinder. It should appear where the 3D cursor is, which should be the same location as your origin point for the two claw objects (You may find that the Add Cylinder panel remembers some of the settings of our earlier created cylinder). This one needs to be smaller, to fit between the claws, and the Fill Cap Type needs to not be None this time. I chose Ngon, and a radius of 0.2.
Finally, go into Object Mode and select both claw objects, and then add the new cylinder to the selection last. Press Ctrl + p to bring up the Parent Menu, and select Object. The claws will now go where the pivot object goes. If you want, you can lock the axes that shouldn't move in the Transform Panel in the Properties Shelf to the right. You don't even need bones for this setup, nor drivers, really, since you can zero out the rotation values to get your claws back to their starting position, or else press Alt + r to restore the zeroed out values instantly.

Yikes, that's awesome! Thanks for sharing with me dude, I'll certainly add it that way!


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Is it possible to repeat a geometry pattern along the lenght of a curve?
i was adding some deformation to a curve i made on Blender with Zbrush, but the curve is too long, so i wanted to know if its possible to export (just the part) of the curve that i deformed, and then somehow repeat that geometry like a pattern (with geomety, not texture) alongside the Blender curve. (i can export the .obj of the already deformed part of the curve, then import it into blender)

You could theoretically use an Array and a Curve modifier to do that.

Ok, Ill try, thank you!
But do i have to create a new curve then?

No, not necessarily. You may need to remove the Bevel Depth value though.

Posting your .blend file can help us make Specific instructions

You need to use and array, then curve modifier. You start by adding the array, making it the length you wan't. Then add the curve modifier, and select the curve as the object

How did you know :-0

Do i need to create a new curve in order to do that?

No, you can use the one you have...

You just need to make sure it is still a curve, and the sculpted bit is a mesh

Oh...wait, do i need to make the 'special geometry' on Zbrush rect or curve? because the curve isnt like a rect line..

You importeded it into blender right?


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Is it possible to add Noise to a Geometry?
i'm modeling a 3D rabbit...does Blender have a option to add 'noise' to the geometry? like a sphere or a cube? i need it to do the tail, that looks like a cotton ball or something like that.

@beavoru rabbit tails are exactly like the sheep in the question that cegaton posted. just... browner.


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Is there any option to change the contrast on Blender Render?
If I'm using Blender Render, and i want to render an Animation, before anything on the settings, can i set the contrast?

There is no option for contrast but you can change it in the node editor under
Add node -> color -> brightness/contrasts connect the scene node to the brightness/contrasts node and then to the render output node NOTE you need to click
The use nodes button first


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Is it possible to cast shadows from a sillouethe made by alpha texture?
It is possible to get/cast a shadow from the image on the 3D plane with alpha?

blender internal? If yes please add it as tag.

Yes, use the Receive Transparent option

@NoviceInDisguise Please avoid answering questions in comments.

It was already answered, I was looking for the Duplicate question. Figured I'd give an answer while I found it

I activated Receive Transparent, but it doesnt work.

activate cast in material settings, check your light settings for shadows


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I made a Cycle Animation with F-Modifier, but how can i stop it in a exact frame?
I made an animation with F-Modifier on the Graph Editor and it's working, starts from 0 to the infinite...but if i need to make it stops at for example frame 200, how can i do that?

do you want stop the modifier or freeze the animation?

Freeze the animation just in the frame 200

did you try the " Restrict Frame Range " in the modifier ?

Nope, i don't know about that option...where do i activate it?

at the bottom of the F-modifier

@beavarou or you can choose the Limit modifier to clip  the whole animation

if you want to limit the whole animation use the limit modifier :

and to limit one modifier only use the Restrict Frame Range option :

@beavoru check this file

authors: Николай Антоновский


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How can i add a texture to billboard particles?
I'm using a billboard-type particle in order to show a texture/plane look at the camera, the problem is i have the billboard option selected so i can't choose 'object' and the planes from the billboard are working great, but how can i add an object or a (single) texture in order to replace the gray plane the billboard offers?

Cycles or Blender Internal?

billboards use the material chosen at the top of the particles render settings. This works in BI but cycles does not appear to render billboard particles. I just reported it as a bug

I'm using Blender Internal; Blender-Render.

@sambler Where's that option? How do i set it? I can't find it or i just got confused.

The material choice for particles? In the particles Render panel

As answered in the bug report by Brecht, billboards is a feature that is not supported by cycles and isn't planned to be added any time soon.
To get billboards working you need to be using the blender internal render engine. By default the material used for particles is the same material used on the object emitting the particles, you can change the material used for the billboards in the particle settings in the render panel.

authors: Рома Клименко


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How can i make realistic lighting for a 3D car?
I'm making a 3D scene with a car, on Blender Cycles. (fisheye camera)

Everything does seems fine for me but only the car lights doesnt work because i don't know how to apply them, i already tried to put an 'emission' material on the lights but they just appear as 'shadeless textures'.
I feel like a starter on Cycles when adding lights, but this time i want the actual objects produce the light like a real car would do:

I can separate the light object part from the rest of the model, so i can add it a material that can emit and generate some light inside of it, i think, right now the headlights have a glossy material.
How can i setup them?
Thanks in regards.

Lights alone will only go so far. Either you need some volumes to get volumetric light effects and god rays, or composite some glows and lens flares in post production

You'll probably want to use a glare node.


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Render in Real Time? Fasten Render Times?
i do love to use this software, for a lot of things, like faster modeling, and friendly interface;
The thing is, i work for a Dome System, so i have to Render 4K (4096x4096p) resolution frames at 60fps, and in fisheye format, so even little 30 seconds in 3D took three entire days, a LOT OF TIME, (and with basic textures/animation)
I've seen on plugins to other softwares like After Effects, that in 'Elements' you can lower the render times A LOT. Same with Cinema4D and AE implementation.
The thing is, before trying to jump into those mix of softwares, is there any way to fasten render times, in Internal, Cycles or any other possible rendering option? Even if its possible to make it nearly of real-time rendering?
I only use simple textures, maybe bump, not too much geometry because i don't like to use that much due to optimization, but render times is something that is actually killing my own job, because i can't preview somehow the animations i make the same day so it's like being animating things blind.
Please, if someone know a possible option, please tell me, i'm worried.

Have you tried Eevee yet? its still pretty buggy but it may help.

You should provide an example scene so that we can look into possible ways to optimize it.

it depends of your gpu/workstation, gtx 1060 doesn't handle 4k well, you should try to reduce render samples , you should take a look to this tutorial made by Blender guru, aimed to get a smaller render time: click here , by the way if you want something closer to real time rendering, you can reduce samples in preview mode, then you could use rendered mode in blender
you could try:
rendered: 128
preview: 32 or 64
but be careful of it, the less samples, less quality you'll have
but you will have more shorter render times

here is another tutorial to achieve similar "real time rendering" workflow  like evee engine used in last version of blender, but instead, in the oldest versions without the brand new real time rendering engine "evee" ,
hope this can be useful for you, cheers

Thank you, i'm going to try that option, also, i'm going to also share my computer specs if that helps too.


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Does sculpting add polygons?
i'm trying to morph between a regular sphere and a 'head', but i want to ask, when i sculpt the sphere there are added polygons? i'm trying to use the modifiers Shrinkwrap but it does seems to not work perfectly.
Can someone help me with this? or even suggest me a better option to morph between two shapes (it's a sphere and a literal sphere with face with simple features)

Do you want to animate between a sphere and a face? Or just sculpt a sphere into a face?

Sculpting does not add polygons unless you use Dyntopo.

@gandalf3 i need to morph between a sphere that 'grows' eyes and mouth (no literal eyes, just the 'holes' from the original geometry) and if its possible animate it with shape keys or a simple facial rig to close/open eyes and mouth.

Have a look at this tutorial.


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How can i create borders to an entire circuit/track?
i'm making a highway based on a reference, and right now is working as a plane, but i need to make 'borders' for it, how can i make them? if i select all the edges, i can extrude them, but they still appear as planes, after that, how can i give them volume? or is there any other way to do it?
This is the highway i'm making, is a solid mesh, based on curves, but is still a plane (as you can see on the image of the right)

And this is what i want to achieve, those 'borders/blocks' around the edges of the highway itself.

Thanks in regards.

Select all the edges, extrude them and then you will have flat faces as borders. Select those faces (with face select mode) and extrude them upwards. You can extrude faces just like you can extrude vertices and lines.

But will i have to do them separately, one by one? i mean, i can extrude all of them in one shorcut, but what i need is something similar because i want them to have the same dimensions.
Do i need to extrude the borders with S? (Scale)

Select all the faces together, with shift-Right click and then hit E to extrude. After you hit E, you can use the mouse to place the extrusion and click the Left mouse button.


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Is there any method to make almost an automatic 'hive'?
I'm trying to do something like in the picture,

Which is a grid made of hexagons, like a 'hive'.
I  could generate a texture in another software like PS to add it, but what i want is to extrude upwards the yellow part, so the black parts are in depth.
How can i do this, using the options of Blender, without having to model it completely? i was thinking on making one hexagon and then duplicate it infinitely, but i think there should be another way for this.
Thanks in regards.

If you are using a recent-enough Blender, go to File > User Preferences > Add-Ons tab, and activate Add Mesh: Extra Objects.
Now, under Shift A > Mesh > Extras, you will find a parameterised 'Honeycomb' option.
(If you want simple edges to extrude, set 'Edge Thickness' to 0, and remove doubles.)

I'd start with 6-sided cylinders, and array modifiers:

1st modifier to create a duplicate at a diagonal offset (x:0.5, y:0.766 )
2nd modifier for 1 row in say the x-direction (x:.667, and not 1, as the boundig box covers both the cylinders)
3rd modifier to fill the plane in the y direction (y:0.857)

Then I'd either apply the modifiers and remove unwanted geometry, or use boolean modifiers to create holes where I want them (or to limit the structure to a given volume).
The black grooves can be a simple plane, or you can slighty modify the initial cylinder (and/or adapt the array offsets if needed) by extruding the lower set of edges outward. Close the other end of the basic cylinder for the yellow plates.


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How can i keep deformed skinned mesh and rigged bones after scaling them?
i rigged a mesh with bones, an Eagle model i'been making, and then i scaled the wings by scaling the bones, but now i want to keep the mesh like that (bigger wings) plus the scaled bones, but everything as if it were the main, basic position of it, how can i do that?
If i go to object mode, the model gets smaller, but i want to keep the present proportions in Pose mode as the base one.
Thanks in regard.

Pose your model as wanted, select your mesh, in the properties panel - object mode  - apply the armature modifier, select the armature in pose mode, select all bones, Ctrl+A
 "Apply pose as rest pose", then select the mesh and readd an armature modifier, choose your rig as "object".
Be aware that the new rig will not execute old animations properly.


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How can i modify an already rigged model?
I downloaded a model (this one, actually http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/70898) for practicing animation purposes, but i want to add some few features, like sleeves or a nose (because the character doesn't have one) to also practice about textures, so for example i would be able to add a shirt eventhough i can already add one with a plain image alongside the body of the character...but as i said on the title of this question ,the model is already rigged, working with bones, if for example i extrude part of the face of the character, it will be deformed badly and it will appear pretty bad on render, for example, how can i modify simple features without modifing the rig?
I do not only ask this about this model, but of any other model for future reference, i can also rig characters but what if for example, same as this example, i want to modify an already made character that works perfectly with the bones?

There's nothing wrong in the idea of modifying a character which is already rigged, as long as you know what you are doing:
The character you've downloaded has 134 bones, some deforming, some used as machinary, some constrained and/or related to other bones, some used with drivers, to perform deformations using a lot of shape-keys, expecially in the face (as usual).
Maybe you should start from a simplier character, for practicing, until you reach a good comprehension of what is going on.
Anyway, all deforming bones are related to vertexes, so you can freely edit their materials and textures, without affecting the rig.
Viceversa, if you extrude a vertex from another, it will copy the properties of the previous active one: if the new vertex stays in a similar position, very often there are no problems. A lot of problems generally can come out when shapeKeys are involved (all the face, in your case), in which case the new vertexes can seem to move in weird ways: any vertex modification in this zone probably will need a lot of adjustements in every Shape-Key in which it is involved.
Selecting the rig and entering edit mode you can add new bones, and parent them to the rest of the rig; you will have to create a new vertex group in the character's mesh, with the same name as the new bone, and assign a weight to the vertexes you want to move, for having it deforming the mesh.
Consider also that you can parent more than one mesh to the same rig, even if this solution  is not the best, often.
Search for Nathan Vegdahl tutorials serie about advanced rigging, he's the best!


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Why does my object dissapear when i press 'only render'?
I'm making an scene with some trees that are a particle system, i have plenty of planes with that particle system, but the last three planes i created for the scene, using the same particle system, doesn't appear at all, only on Wire-frame Mode, but disappear on 'texture' and 'material 'mode, and also in the render or 'only render' mode on Cycles.

What can i do in order to fix this and make my trees rendereable?
(the ones from the left photo are only a photo reference)

is the particle modifier enabled for render? What are the render settings for your particles?

Those are enabled, the scene is bigger than the picture and there are other particles that are almost the same, but those appears on the render.

You also need to create NEW particle names at SCENE LEVEL (patticle modifier +) and at OBJECT level (name of the particle system to identify parameters). Go to those duplicated planes which are not rendering. Hit the "+" sign so they will be named with a new name. Use that same name and number to name the object properties in particle name as well (+).


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How can i add more duplicates to a curve?
i'm using the Dupliframes method.
But the curve is pretty long compared to the size of the objects, and i need them to be near one of each other.
When i add the maximum number of Frames that is 100, the object appear like this:

And while i can put them near one with another with a number of frames of 400, the mesh just moves to the first part of the curve, like scaling itself, but i need it in every place of the curve, from the start to the end.
How can i add more duplicates, or tell the option to make them one near the other?
Thanks in regard.

You can adjust the amount and density of dupliframes from two different parameters.
Adjust the density of duplicated objects from the number of Frames in the Curve Object data > Path Animation > Frames*. A higher number will yield a denser amount of duplicated objects.
If increasing the value high enough gives too few objects to fill the whole curve, then select the duplicated object and under Object > Duplication increase the End Time value so it fills the whole curve again.

That was just what i was looking for! Thank you so much!


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Why the texture on my model seems so 'blocky'?
I added a normal texture map plus a geometry bump to my model but when near to the camera, it looks like a lot of little blocks, unlike the real texture that is just an 'organic' image.
How can i fix this? or is this a bug? i remember a bug with Blender that had to do something with lighting and geometry, affecting the material, but i don't know if this is the case since its the texture.

Just looks like a bunch of low res texture artifacts

I have had similar glitches. It could be (on an unrelated note) something to do with your UV-Unwrap.

You could try a procedural texture.

I think after all is a glitch, at least the texture, changed the resolution of the texture by making it as a mosaic, but it still appeared like that.
Then i changed the UVs, scaling the faces in the UV editor, and it worked, thanks!

@beavoru If you have a solution please add it as an answer using the answer box below.

I have a solution for the render itself but not for the actual problem, on this actual question/answer you can see it: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/41755/how-can-i-get-shining-borders-to-a-material-in-blender-render?noredirect=1#comment71290_41755
I don't think thats a solution, not at least to this actual problem since it looks like it can be a bug.


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Is there a way to make the Displace modifier still?
When i add the Displace Modifier to a 3D model, the animation of it continues endessly, how can i make it being still without having to press 'Apply' on the modifier bar?

Could you please clarify? Nothing should be moving unless you animated the mapping or the texture.

A screen shot of the modifier settings could help, or even better, a .blend file

@NᴏᴠɪᴄᴇIɴDɪsɢᴜɪsᴇ If you use a 'Noise' texture for displacement it will animate automatically, though it's obviously not mentioned if they are using that.

I never had it do that, I think I always used the more controllable Clouds texture type though.

@RayMairlot Wow, I did not know that....


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How can i variate the size of the outline on Freestyle?
I added an outline for the render with the Freestyle option on Blender 2.8, but when i zoom-in/out the camera, the line tends to maintain the same size, how can i make it change a little when i move the camera? (making the line not that bold when the camera is far away, for example)
Also, how can i 'choose' how much influence it will get? for instance, the shoes look weird in the last picture...

Hello :). @RobinBetts provided a very useful answer to a similar question https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/165907/78972

Thank you very much, that helped a lot!

If you want you can put it as an answer, it truly helped for what i wanted!

Glad to be of help :). Consider marking your question as a duplicate of the linked one. To keep the site nice and tidy :).

Thank you again! have a nice day.


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How to add bezier curves (start and end) to a 'follow path' animation?
I added an object to a curve as a follow path animation but the animation seems too linear, I can only change the parameters of the curve as I see, how can I give it a proper start and end? (like a soft bezier curve)?

It is possible that there is an easier way than this as I am still learning Blender --
Use the offset on the Follow Path Modifier instead of Animate Path to control the movement. Then in the Graph Editor for the object you are controlling on the path you will have a curve to work with. Hope this helps!


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How can I integrate a 3D model in a photo?
If I have a photograph and I want, for example, to add a 3D model of a character so that it seems that it is standing there in the environment, how can I achieve it? At the same time, keeping the tones and lighting of the photograph, and if possible add shadow on the ground so that it really gives the feeling of standing there.

For the shadow do a search for shadow catcher.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/518/how-to-make-a-model-cast-shadows-onto-the-world-texture-background and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/164530/2-81-transparent-background-shadow-catcher


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Cycles rendering output different from shown while processing
i'm rendering an image with a vehicle on it, and it seems to get pixelated on the final output of the render itself, when it's processing it looks great and is working but when it ends the image looks pixelated.
This only happens to that shader of all the objects on the scene, and is from a linked collection (2.8) from another file.
The sampling on the render is 1000 and the image has a resolution of 1920x1080, but this object is a little part of the whole screen.

Can you delete everything else except the effected geometry and shader and attach the .blend file to your question? You can attach .blend files on Blender Stack Exchange using this: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

But the geometry with the problem is a link from a collection, should i upload the two files? The original file doest not give this problem.

I think it would be helpful if it's possible for you to share it without sharing your assets that you might not want to share publicly. The problem does not seem very straight forward. ...at least to me. People might figure it out a lot quicker with the possibility to reproduce the issue.

@MartinZ Thank you, i was able to upload to WeTransfer due to the file size, hope you can find what's going on with the cabin shader because i'm strill trying options (like even re-creating the geometry, new materials, etc) and it doesnt seem to work https://we.tl/t-mnuBdJyP7A


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How to convert Illustrator file (Packaging design with dieline) into 3d model in Blender
Totally new to Blender and try to do my first 3d model. I have an artwork(a box with graphic) I did in Illustrator with dieline. What is the best correct method to make that 2D art into 3D model?
I have seen people export a png file from Illustration, import that png file into Blender, slice the box into pieces then create the dieline in Blender, add thickness on the cardboard, then fold the box.
Is there another easier way to make the 3d box? Trying to avoid to create the die cut in Blender. I tried export the art from Illustrator to SVG file. (graphics with dieline), but what I see after I import the SVG file is all grey box.
I would like to know the options with fastest and best result if it exists? Thank you for all your help in advanced!

My experience is Adobe Dimension and it's very limited to what it can do done.

Can you please clarify what your Illustrator graphic looks like? Did you create an unwrapped box, e.g. as seen at 4:39 here?

@Phrogz, yes similar to your example posted but mine is not only vector art, it also has some real product photos on it. Also, I did created the unwrapped box with dieline on top.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/218155/how-to-make-animation-of-a-cardboard-chocolate-package-from-a-dieline https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/31621/folding-a-cube-animation https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/239430/armature-to-unfold-a-chinese-food-box-to-a-flat-page/239538#239538 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/191418/how-to-model-a-burger-package-with-beveled-edges https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/210073/how-to-parent-bones-to-the-panels-of-a-dieline-package-paper-folding https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/238065/bevel-modifier

You don’t want to fold the box, you just want to wrap an unfolded image on 6 sides of a box?

@Phrogz, you are correct, I don't need the animation. I just need to create the 3d model from a flat 2d artwork.

There must be 100 tutorials on this, but I'm too lazy to look them up and I need to practice these skills. Assuming you have an image with six rectangular pieces:

Create a box in Blender Add > Mesh > Cube

Scale the cube to have the dimensions or aspect ratio you want

Create a new material for your cube

Set the material to use an Image Texture for the Base Color, and open your image

Go into the UV Editing tab at top; your box might already be unwrapped close to how you want!

If it's close, just adjust the layout of the faces in the UV Editor to match your image map.
If it's not close, unwrap it yourself:

Think about which edges on your box need to be cut with scissors to lay the box out like your image; select each (2 to enter edge mode, click on an edge) and mark it as seam (UV > Mark Seam).

after you've marked all the edges as seams, select all and use UV > Unwrap.
If the Unwrap didn't work perfectly, move vertices and edges in the UV editor to match your object.

I was originally unable to upload images to this post, so I made a quick video recording my quick-and-dirty attempt to demonstrate the above. I tried not to use any keyboard shortcuts, but they make your life so much easier.

thank you so much for the instruction! So, this concept is very similar to how I did the 3d model in Adobe Dimension. What if I have a more complicate dieline, for example, a caddy case? What is the best way to create a caddy in Blender?

@VincentChan You would model it, then texture it. But that’s kind of a different question. If you feel that my answer fully solved your question, please tick the checkmark to accept it.

My works usually have the CAD dieline. I think I need to create the model first. My question was how should I start with the process? I have seen people import the png file with dieline, then build the dieline in Blender and fold the package. Another way I see people import dxf file of the dieline, then wrap the dieline with the packaging graphics. Seems there are different methods to create 3d packaging. What is the right way to do it? Thanks!


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What is a best way to remove hair from my head model
I got a model of Geralt's from Witcher head, but essentially I need him bald - is there any efficient way to remove the hair (so that I can easily sculpt it to the skull shape afterwards?). Object and edit mode:

An electric shaver usually works well. Are they separate mesh chunks? If not I seen no way other than deleting manually