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Why is material preview is freezing?
I've tried to make stone material following that tutorial. But after the middle part of the video, the blender starts to slow down in material preview mode. I know that some nodes are very "heavy" for performance but it's the first time I see a slow motion in material preview.
Here's my parameters of nodes:

Can you help me understand where the problem is?

Probably the three Bump nodes

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos yes, you're right. Can I replace them with something more suitable?

If you want to mix textures you should probably use a Color Mix node

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos thank you very much. It's enough for me. Will you post it as answer?


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How to fill shelf with objects?
I created a shelf for medicine and want to fill it with boxes. I think I can use particle system for that purpose, but I can't use animation cause in that case the boxes with medicine will be too random. I created vertex group from selected faces and use hair system to spawn boxes, but there are problems: 1) boxes are overlapping themselves; 2) I can't randomize boxes size in different coordinates; 3) I can't place boxes over themselves.
For now I getting this:
Result I trying to get:
Is it possible or I should do it manually?

Is this what you are trying to achieve?

I got there with just one cube.
Add it to the shelf by using snapping (to face)

Then add an array modifier to the cube. Select how many boxes you want on the x axis. I set mine to 1.320 to put spaces between them.
Then add a second array modifier, this time selecting the z axis. This will stack the boxes on top. Set z to 1 so there are no gaps.
I added a slight value to y so the boxes sit back slightly and you can see them clearly.

Apply the modifiers.
Go into EDIT mode. Select all by tapping A. Then hit 'P' to separate by parts.
Go back to OBJECT mode. You can now change the position and sizes of all the boxes together.
Select all of the boxes you want to adjust.
Go to the OBJECT menu - Transform - Randomize transform.

From here you can change the size of the boxes and where they sit on one another. Play around with the settings. Don't change location Z or the objects will float above or collide with each other.
You can also adjust the rotation on the Z axis slightly. It all depends how neatly you want the boxes stacked.

It works but seems like snapping option doesn't work for me. What are you using in "Snap to..." option? I'm using face project and "snap with" -> "Median".

There should be a little magnet icon next to the proportional edit icon on the top-middle of the screen. That icon is the "snap to" icon.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Donut tutorial: Weird mesh
I'm a beginner and am following a YouTube tutorial from Blender guru.
Now I ran into a "problem". For now it doesn't really matter or make any problems, but I'm afraid it'll do, if I don't fix it.
Sonmehow one part of my mesh has more edges and vertices that I can't delete without destroying the mesh.

I don't know how I can fix this, to look and function like the rest of the donut.
Did I do something wrong? Should I start again? Or is there any fix?
Thank you!

If you're learning Blender from scratch and particularly following a tutorial like Andrew's donut one, I'd always advise saving your blend file under a different name at the end of each section. That way you can start again from just before you noticed a problem rather than having to start the whole thing again. You can use Ctrl-Shift-S to 'Save as' and increment the filename by clicking the '+' at the end of the filename field in the file selector. Also doing the section again will probably show where you went wrong the first time!

I have a similar sentiment to John, however I always recommend when doing the donut tutorial that every time you make a mistake, close the file and start again from the very beginning - sure it seems like a pain in the butt, but the repetition will make you much more intuitively familiar with blenders systems, and you will start performing actions much, much faster. By the end, you'll be able to do the whole donut scene in 15 minutes with no help.

As far as your problem goes, grab the "middle two" horizontal edges at the top of the offending section, press G, G, (edge slide), and drag them right down to the bottom. Do the same thing loose vertices that are left over on the line (individually) a, but instead of dragging them down, drag them into an adjacent vertex (try to keep a quad "outline" when choosing the vertices to move). Once that is all done, select the whole thing in edit mode, press M (merge), and select "by distance" to get rid of the extra verts you piled on top of one another..

Thank you! That fixed my problem!
I started the icing new, so I'm practicing it, but I also want to learn from my mistakes and learn how I made them. I guess I extruded something and messed it up without noticing.

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


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Donut Tutorial: Stop sprinkles from intersecting
I started Blender guru's donut tutorial and it's brillant so far. But one thing really annoys me.
My sprinkles are intersecting at some points and in the tutorial he doesn't say how to fix it. It's not that big of a deal, since you can play with the seeds, but for a realistic amount of sprinkles there are always intersection, which bothers me.
I know that the solution for this problem might be difficult, but that's okay.
The (theoretical) solution in my head would be:

find intersecting sprinkles
choose one of them
move it on the z-axis (so it now would look like it's floating)
rotate it, so that it touches the icing and the other sprinkle
correct the positioning (since the rotation will lead to another - smaller - intersection)

But since I'm a beginner I really don't know how do this in blender. I'd be able to mathematically solve the issue and maybe I could also code this. But in blender I have no clue.
My icing geometry nodes so far

Playing around with the poisson disk, the sprinkles density and the seed doesn't solve the problem of intersection in the way I'd like. I think it would look more realistic if there are some sprinkles on top of each other, because that happens if you use sprinkles
Thank you so much!

The particles probably aren't the problem, as with the poisson disc that should all be separated.  The instances aren't as intelligent.  There may be a way to find out of the bounding box area of a sprinkle is inside the bounding box area of another and then, if so, remove it.  I don't know the maths for that, but it probably is doable.
Otherwise, I would do the sprinkles with dynamics.  Make a bunch of the sprinkles, make them active dynamic objects, the icing a passive collider with a lot of friction and drop them onto the surface. They will self-collide and then you can bake them out as objects after.  this will do what you really want them to get in Geometry Nodes.
Hope this helps.

Yeah, that helps a little bit! I don't know how to do this, but I guess that I could find it out, since this seems like a more common thing to do in blender than find intersections and rotate things.
But what's also strange: if I set the poisson disk distance to the size of the longest sprinkle (which should lead to no collision, but still much room for sprinkles) I can't get much sprinkles, no matter what I do. If I increase the sprinkle density, it doesn't really change the problem, that I only get a max of 10sprinkles, which is odd since there's room for like 100 not intersecting sprinkles

You need to check the box Pick Instance on the Instances on Point

Hi, thanks for the post. This site is not a regular forum, answers should be substantial, stand on their own, and thoroughly explain the solution and required steps. One liners and short tips rarely make for a good answer. If you can, [edit] your post and provide some more details about the procedure and how it works, perhaps add a few images illustrating some steps and final result. See How to write a good answer?, otherwise it may be converted to a comment.


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weight transfer gives glitchy results
I'm trying to attach some pants to a character rig. I transferred the weights from my character to the pants, and it mostly works well, except two parts which stretch a TON when I animate.

I have messed around in weight paint mode, trying to tweak anything I thought might be causing this, but nothing works. It might be because I haven't done much weight painting and am just missing something really obvious, but I'm starting to feel like something else is wrong. Maybe with my mesh? (I know the normals are facing the right direction, so what more could Blender want from me? lol.)
I also tried weight painting these pants in another software, then bringing them into Blender where I retargeted the pants to the new armature. The results were almost exactly the same as above. However, in that previous software there was no such stretching. It only showed up when I retargeted the pants in Blender.
If it helps any, this is the tutorial I was following. https://youtu.be/12k1gs65tlA

The pants are baggy, and the nearest vertex or face or whatever is on the opposite leg.  Separate source mesh into left and right, separate destination mesh or mark with vertex groups, and transfer from appropriate side (with 2 data transfers for VG groups, or just different targets for separated meshes.)

Data transfer isn't a magic bullet, for complex meshes let's say it is more of a starting point. Have you tried all the element matching methods ? I would advise using Nearest face interpolated, as it usually works well for two objects that are roughly the same shape, but have different vertex counts.
If you're content with what you have and just want to fix these rebellious vertices, you can select them all, then select another point on the leg to make it active (one that you think deforms correctly), head to the sidebar (N), Item tab, Vertex weights panel, and click "Copy". You may need to smooth out the weights afterwards, but it should get rid of the stretching.

Man, you're a life saver. I had tried every matching method with no success, but selecting the rebellious vertices and copying their weights to a good one worked perfectly.

For anyone experiencing the same problem, I'll detail one obstacle I had to get around. In one of the stretched areas, both legs were stretching towards each other and the stretched parts were intersecting both with each other and with the opposite leg, so it was absolutely impossible to select the proper vertices to fix. That is, until I select one pants' leg and separated it into its own object. From there, back in weight paint mode and with x-ray mode on, I used the select tool to select the troublesome vertices. Turning x-ray mode off, I selected a good vertex and copied its weight.

Rinse and repeat for the other pants leg. Once I was done, I joined the two legs back into one object.
Side note: After selecting the troublesome vertices, I tried selecting more than one good vertices to copy to to see if that would do an even better job, but I think that just garbled things up more. It looks like you should just select one good vertex.
I still want to know why my perfectly good weight painting job got messed up as soon as I retargeted the pants to a new rig, but if you don't know that's fine.

Most likely missing bones or bone names not matching quite exactly. That means some of the corresponding vertex groups on your object would be mismatched or empty, leading to some vertices being unbound or only partially bound. Or it could be that some bones in the new rig don't have "Deform" enabled.

When copying a weight value to all selection, it does so using the value on the active vertex (in white).


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How to add vertex in between vertices in a loop
I have a model that resembles a circle. I added loop cuts. I need to add vertices in between vertices that came with those loop cuts. The screenshot below describes my issue more clearly.

If you can temporarily fill these loops (a few ways to do it), then it seems CTRL+R would work, then deleting temporary faces and edges.

You could duplicate the loop ( Shift  +  D )and fill it with Bridge Edge Loops, select edge ring and scale edges to 0 with individual origins then merge by distance( M  ->  B ) and delete only edges and faces( X  ->  O ). You could hide unselected and then unhide everything while working to make it easier to see and select right geometry( Shift  +  H  and  Alt  +  H ) Those will be floating vertices not connected to anything.


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Blender 2.82 crashing while trying to load HDRI for the world
I was trying to create a simple scene and for the world, I wanted to add a HDRI. Here, I ran into a roadblock. Blender 2.82 crashes while loading the HDRI. I tried multiple HDRI files, each with differently resolution.
I am running Blender 2.82 in Manjaro, Linux 5.6.8-1 64-bit kernel with AMDGPU open source drivers. My hardware is AMD Ryzen 5 2500U with Vega 8 Integrated graphics and 16GB RAM. This is a laptop and I do not have any discreet GPU.
I believe its a problem with the Drivers because, if I download blender portable edition from the main site and run the Software rendering version of Blender, everything works but performance is very bad.
I tried Blender from different sources, I installed from the package manager, from the main website, from the AURs but all seems to be giving the same error. I tried with Linux kernel version 5.4 also, but it gave the same error.
The error message is given below
[ajith@SoulCubeLaptop prakriya_oms]$ blender
Read prefs: /home/ajith/.config/blender/2.82/config/userpref.blend
Warning: property 'release_confirm' not found in keymap item 'OperatorProperties'
Read blend: /home/ajith/Works/Graphics/3D/Umbrella_in_the_rain/umbrella_in_the_rain.blend
Writing: /tmp/umbrella_in_the_rain.crash.txt
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

The log file contents are given below
[ajith@SoulCubeLaptop prakriya_oms]$ cat /tmp/umbrella_in_the_rain.crash.txt
# Blender 2.82 (sub 7), Commit date: 2020-03-12 05:06, Hash 375c7dc4caf4
bpy.context.space_data.shader_type = 'WORLD'  # Property
bpy.ops.image.open(filepath="//stone_alley_02_4k.hdr", directory="/home/ajith/Works/Graphics/3D/Umbrella_in_the_rain/", files=[{"name":"stone_alley_02_4k.hdr", "name":"stone_alley_02_4k.hdr"}], relative_path=True, show_multiview=False)  # Operator

# backtrace
blender(BLI_system_backtrace+0x34) [0x5650e7d71a34]
blender(+0xed6cf5) [0x5650e5ad7cf5]
/usr/lib/libc.so.6(+0x3bd70) [0x7f0248e92d70]
/usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so(+0x7a6364) [0x7f0221ef9364]
/usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so(+0x7a66ae) [0x7f0221ef96ae]
/usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so(+0x7e5b30) [0x7f0221f38b30]
/usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so(+0x4f627c) [0x7f0221c4927c]
/usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so(+0x4fa587) [0x7f0221c4d587]
/usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so(+0x4fb958) [0x7f0221c4e958]
/usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so(+0xe703c4) [0x7f02225c33c4]
/usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so(+0xdd17c0) [0x7f02225247c0]
/usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so(+0xe76cdb) [0x7f02225c9cdb]
/usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so(+0xe66705) [0x7f02225b9705]
/usr/lib/dri/radeonsi_dri.so(+0x9c069a) [0x7f022211369a]
/usr/lib/libGLX_mesa.so.0(+0x3823d) [0x7f023db3d23d]
/usr/lib/libGLX.so.0(+0x14c23) [0x7f02463e4c23]
/usr/lib/libGLX.so.0(+0x1b975) [0x7f02463eb975]
blender(_ZN16GHOST_ContextGLX22activateDrawingContextEv+0x1e) [0x5650e64b6e8e]
blender(wm_window_reset_drawable+0x49) [0x5650e5cbf2c9]
blender(DRW_opengl_context_disable_ex+0x66) [0x5650e5d7cc96]
blender(wm_draw_update+0x4c9) [0x5650e5c98ed9]
blender(WM_main+0x34) [0x5650e5c96e14]
blender(main+0x344) [0x5650e5aa9154]
/usr/lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf3) [0x7f0248e7e023]
blender(_start+0x2e) [0x5650e5ad40fe]

This is almost certainly an issue with your graphics driver (radeonsi_dri.so). Please try to update your graphics driver if you haven't already. It seems that there are plenty people experiencing issues with Vega 8 on Linux.

I am on the latest kernel for Manjaro. I will try to get AMDGPU PRO drivers working in the laptop. Or go back to an older version of the linux kernel. Meanwhile if someone found a workaround, it will be greatly appreciated.

Just an update. I tried downgrading kernels all the way till 4.19, but the problem persists with Blender 2.82. I tried different version numbers for blender, and it seems to be stable in blender 2.80


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Divide a model into 4 equal pieces in blender?
I have a 3d model that i need to print using a 3d printer but the 3d printer i have is too small for the model i have. I need to split the model into 4 equal parts so that i can print them individually and then join the pieces somehow.

This is what the model looks like from the top. It is a circle. How can i achieve this?

did u try boolean modifiers?

with the boolean, or if the topology is clean you can easily rip some edge loops

You can use the Bisect tool. Go to face edit mode and select all faces, then use bisect. You can just place the bisect gizmo and then focus on the tool dialog where you can precisely define the cutting plane position and orientation and have some options (Fill, Clear Inner, Clear outer) to define the resulting rest of the model. In the screenshot you can see some setting for your use case. Duplicate your model and then apply the bisect twice so you are left with another quarter of your model. Repeat this until you have your 4 separated pieces.


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Left click causes 'rename active item' in viewport and scene collection
I am having trouble in using left click in the viewport. Left click causes the rename dialog to open and hence I cannot select and deselect any object. It is very annoying as the left click is not working as we normally expect it to.

Same issue is seen if I try to click anything under Scene Collection.
I checked online for a related solution but didn't find any.
My setting in Edit -> Preferences -> Keymap -> Select with Mouse Button is set to "Left". But yet I am seeing this issue.

I searched if there are any other settings to assign this kind of functionality for a type of mouse click, but I cannot find any.
I am using Blender 3.2.2 version on Windows 11. On Windows 10 too I had the same issue and had re-installed too. Issue is seen irrespective of using a mouse or the laptop touchpad.
Please help!

Any particular reason you're using such an old Blender version? 3.3.6 is the current LTS version, 3.5.1 is the current version and 3.6 LTS is due at the end of this month (June).

@JohnEason I am taking a course which uses 3.2. So to follow it up, I was using 3.2 version. But I got the solution from the community.

I got this solution from other Blender users.
Press F4 -> preferences -> click menu icon (indicated by 3 lines at the bottom left) -> load factory preferences.
Click on save preferences.
OR
Edit -> Preferences -> Keymap -> Window -> search for Rename active item -> click Left Click and assign it to any other shortcut.


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Easy way to get rid of overlapping faces?
I'm basically brand new to blender and finished the shape of my mesh. Here's the thing though: I did my modelling quick and dirty, partly due to time constraints and partially due to noob incompetence. Now I have a whole bunch of these overlaps in various places:

...and as a result it's screwed my AO bake, causing a bunch of these black and grey spots all over the model, like so:

Short of just clone-brushing my AO in Photoshop to some semblance of sense, is there a way of easily cleaning up these kind of overlaps? Some of them are pretty darned big.

My consistent experience with this has been that fixing stuff after the fact takes almost as much time as it would have doing it well from scratch, that is on top of the time it originally took to do it quick and dirty. All this without the satisfaction of well made work and often to get patchy end results

There is no one universal easy way to fix bad geometry. In fact "clean" or "tidy" geometry usually means geometry that is specifically easy to work with, and "messy" or "bad" geometry is considered messy and bad because it is, like in this case, hard and time consuming to work with it. It is bad precisely because of situations like the one you are in now. When there are no issues like concave n-gons, inconsistent normals, overlapping or non-manifold geometry and everything is in quads, you can use various selection and modelling techniques based on the properties of the "tidy" topology. "Tidy" and "messy" geometry differs in a way that many modelling workflows just work with "tidy" geometry and do not work with "messy" geometry. That is why in many cases it might even be easier and faster to model something from the start than to attempt to fix it when it is modelled poorly. So if you want to get rid of the noob incompetence you mentioned, you should start thinking ahead when modelling and never model "quick and dirty" unless you know for sure you are going to get away with it in the future(which is often really hard to predict).


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How to render all scene (Animation) using one blender file?
That are my scenes.
What I want to say is, by combining these scenes into a new scene in video editing, it will allow me to render these two scenes as a cohesive whole? How can I do that?

Look for tutorials on Blender's VSE (Video Sequence Editor). There are lots on YT.

Could you please provide me with a link to the video? I can't find on YouTube what I want to achieve. The videos I come across only focus on importing pre-made films and editing them or demonstrate adding individual scenes, but they don't explain how to render them.

I'm no expert on the VSE but you could try this one.

Okay Thank you.


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How can I stop selecting verts I cant see through separate mesh?
I would swear up and down It wasnt doing this before because it suddenly started happening and Im losing my marbles. Im trying to edit the back of these shorts in edit mode. I will select Verts and somehow it goes through the body mesh and grabs the front of the shorts too. Im using lasso tool. I dont have x ray on. I tried gpu depth picking on and off both same result. Please help me, I have a lot of clothes to edit.

It might be a bug

If you hide the body and front vertices are seen from back side in time of selection, so they are selected as well. I don't think Blender ever considered other objects in viewport as blockators.

Hi. What version of Blender are you using? Could you upload a .blend file to https://blend-exchange.com/ with just the problem shorts in it and add it to your question? Maybe someone could see from that what is causing this odd behavior.


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The suitable brush for toes in sculpt mode?
I'm trying to make a character in blender and stuck with feet in sculpting mode. I can't find suitable brush to create toes. I've tried to "grab" it, but it breaks my topology, tried to "snake hook" it, but the only thing i'm getting is a sharp hooks. For now, the best thing for me is a "blob", but maybe there is something more suitable, because it still looks ugly.

Do you want separated toes or just carvings?

@Blunder can you explain the difference between separated and carvings? I can't understand what you mean. I planning to rig it to get compatibility with ue4 skeleton.

I mean something like this where the gaps are etched in but the toes are actually still joined together. I think sculpting separated individual toes is hard because they are very close together. And do you need these details when you want to rig and animate the feet anyway? It might be easier just to sculpt a rough base shape, do the retopology, and then bake the details into a normal map from a MultiRes modifier that is on the low-poly version.

@Blunder I already experienced how hard it is, but I think I should do it in this way to improve my skills faster. Even if i won't need it for rig and animation.

Blob is probably a good brush, don't forget to enable the Dyntopo option in order to create additional faces:

Also you can use the Inflate brush afterwards:

Thank you very much! Now it looks like I can work with it.


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How can I make an array around deformed object?
I want to create a ventilation so I made this:

I have a rib (near cursir) and I want to create an array of that's ribs along my mesh. How can I do that? I've tried to use object offset in array modifier but without result:

How can I fix that?

Create a plane, give it an Array and a Curve modifier:

In the Object panel > Instancing > enable Faces:

Parent your rib to the plane, it will duplicate the rib (now you can hide the plane in the Object panel and hide the original rib):

I have problems on the first step. How you get this curve? Should I create it and try to adjust to original mesh?

Yes you need to create the curve, to have perpendicular angles you need to select all the vertices and press V > Vector. You could also duplicate an edge loop of your current object, separate it as a new object and convert it to curve?

Thank you! It works.


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The ways to attach object to other object in certain places
Good day. I want to attach "teeth" (sorry, I don't know the right term in english) to my building in certain places - on the top and in outer side so it will looks like that:

For now i did it with some arrays and duplicates but it work only with primitive shapes - for complicated forms I'll need too much duplicates (there are 8 duplicates on the picture). I thought about the ways how to did this and I suppose I can use particle system with vertex groups or extruding from additional geometry. Maybe geometry nodes but it's too complicated for me. So my question: is there a more native/easy way to achive it? I'm thinking about shrinkwrap modifier but I don't have much experience with it so I don't know how to use it properly. Any advices with direction?

to be honest: this is a "typical" use case for geometry nodes. I would try to learn it - there are hundreds of free tutorials on yt - and also beginner friendly. I would invest the time to learn it - because it opens new horizons.

@Chris I agree with you with your "it opens new horizons", but I think you're underestimate power of basic modifiers... I saw unbelivable things people achive with it.

1. One approach is to use a curve together with an Array and a Curve modifier added to a cube.

add a Path to the scene which creates a Nurbspath object. To get sharp path corners you need to select one control point in Edit mode, and choose the menu entry Curve > Set Spline Type > Poly to get a poly curve.
on the Object Data Properties tab, in section Active Spline tick the Cyclic U checkbox to obtain a closed path.
add an Array and a Curve modifier to the cube to create the instances along the curve (screenshot 1).

It's important that All Transformations for the curve and the cube are applied (Strg+A in Object mode). The cube should be modeled at the world origin (0,0,0). Otherwise, you will get messed-up results.
One disadvantage of this approach is that the Curve modifier, unfortunately, deforms the cube instances badly at sharp corners. It is well suited for circles and round corners that Bezier and Nurbs curves have.

2. Another approach is to use the curve with a Geometry Nodes modifier that instances the cubes.
This method won't deform the cubes. But it requires some extra work for the alignment.

the Resample Curve node adds (or removes) new control points and distributes them evenly along the curve. The Instance on Points node adds the cubes along the curve.
the cubes are all aligned in the same direction. If you want to align them along the curve, you need to rotate them. The other four nodes (Curve Tangent, Capture Attribute, Align Euler to Vector, and Rotate Instances) do this by aligning the cubes along the tangent of the curve.
don't forget to apply All Transformation as noted above.

If you don't like the 45° cornerstones for your castle you need to sort them out with three more nodes (Vector Math (Dot Product), and two Math nodes). Also, remove the Resample Curve node and add control points manually (subdivide) to the curve path. With X, Dissolve Vertice you can remove control points and make gaps in your wall. The Resample Curve node smoothes the curve around the corners even if the spline type is set to poly for some reason. I don't know why. And this messes up the walls.
The Viewer node is only used so that you can see the dot product numbers in the spreadsheet.

Thank you. I thought about curves but didn't know how to make sharp corners.


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Is any way to manage direction of array modifier?
Good day. I wonder, can I place column of 5 (for example) squares than change direction to 90 degrees and continue that row (so I'll got that figure |_ ) ? I want to use just standard modifiers.

@moonboots in that case i'll get 2x2 matrix, not |. And if I'll want to change "thickness" of that |, everything will break I suppose. I think, your way can work if every modifier will affect on initial mesh, but they affect on each other, so maybe I don't know something?

yes you're right, my bad

@Сергей I'm sorry, I have no time to elaborate my solution, but maybe you can simply take the blend file and play around with. It has its limitations and you could definitely expand it to have more possibilities... Link: L-shape.blend

@GordonBrinkmann wow, it's cool but too complicated for me. I can't understand what's happening here but the result is perfect! Thank you very much!

here you are:

You can just use mesh lines as "grid" and instance cubes on that lines.

Cool, thank you! But I think it needs to be two nodes before second mesh line (object info and vector add) because geometry is overlapping each other, so we need an offset for start position of second mesh line.

You are right!!!


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Is there a way to make a curtain with open/close animation?
I'm trying to make curtain that I can open/close in unreal engine. For now I have this:

I suppose I should add cloth modifier to curtain and attach it to rings. After that I should stretch that rings and cloth will follow them. After that I'll bake the animation and export it.
Unfortunately, I don't know how to do any of this things(. I created 100 loop cuts for curtain to stretch it:

and the rings is the one ring with array modifier. Can you help me with details?

You could this in Blender but the cloth simulation does not work in the Unreal Engine. It's better to have a look at the Unreal Engine's cloth physics if you plan to use this in the game engine.

@Blunder I know, but I don't need full simulation. I just need to open and close curtain. So I think I can just bake animation in blender and export it in unreal. I need simulation in Blender just to make this stretch procedurally, not manual.

@vklidu sorry, but I don't understand. Is that a questions?

I deleted my comment now ... your Q was answered and accepted :) Forget it.

It looks like you can export shape keys from Blender to Unity, so you could use this method:
Create a vertex group where the curtain is hung, choose it as the pin group in the Physics panel > Cloth > Shape > Pin Group:

Then create 2 shape keys, select the second, scale down the vertices:

Create 2 keyframes on the second shape key Value, one with the value at 0, the second at 1. Enable the Object Collisions > Self Collisions option, give it a Solidify and a Subdivision Surface modifier. Here is what it gives when you play the animation:

File:

2 questions: how to attach it to rings and how to remove the artifacts?

For the artefact, enable the Self Collisions option. As for the rings, maybe animate with bones?

And then synhronize them?

yes that's it...........

Thank you, I'll try

Well, I can't get this result. How much time and polygons require for this animation?

i'm going to edit my answer and share my file

Thank you very much! I was used 33k polygons with simple subdivision...

wow yes it's a lot to calculate, keep it low poly and add a Subdivision Surface under the Solidify


text:
Why does my rope doesn't follow hooks?
I'm trying to link my boat to stick using rope:

But I want to make my rope physically correct. I found that answer but when I'm trying to move empties to right positions, the rope doesn't follow them correctly:

So, I can't even attach my rope, not to mention tying a knot(
What am I doing wrong?

hello, could you please share your file (only the useful elements)?

@moonboots Of course. File

You have forgotten to assign this tip vertex to the pin group:

Hm, I did it. Nothing changed.

weird, it works for me, see my edit

I can't understand. I recreated this again: Add path > Subdivide > Convert to mesh > Select first and last vertexes and assign them to vertex group > create hook for that vertexes > Add softbody modifier to mesh > add skin modifier to mesh. Nothing changed. File

it works in the file you share, put the cursor at the beginning of your timeline and press the spacebar

Ok, my fault, I did't try to start animation. But the rope still don't follow to empties in realtime, is it possible? Because I can't create a knot like in answer I mention if I'll need to start animation every time.

it won't correctly follow the empties in real time but when you'll keyframe and play it should work fine (even more when you'll bake)

Understood. Thank you!


text:
Tear between mesh
Sorry my English is not very good. I'm a beginner and use Blender 2.79b.
I found a 3D character composed of several parts (torso, arm and leg).
On each part i have a texture file so i do not want to transform these 3 meshs into one.
Problem, when i add a skeleton and move the arm, a tear is formed between the parts (see example image between arm and torso).
How to solve this problem?

Thank you !

I have added material on each mesh, and I have linked all mesh and now it's OK.


text:
Strange geometry when creating a face from points
I am outlining a letter but once I select the whole outline and press F to create a face this weird geometry appears.

I suppose you've given a Subdivision Surface modifier to your objects.
Subdivision Surface divides each edge with a new vertex, then join these new vertices in order to divide each face.
Here you have only one face, so all the new vertices will join at the center of this face. But giving your geometry this will happen out of the shape and this will give outer faces.
To avoid that you need to create some inner edges, like that:

Thank you so much!


text:
How to view my HardOps operations in edit mode?
I am having trouble getting started with the HardOps add on. After I have applied some boolean operations and a bevel to my object I would like to go on edit mode and still see the progress I have made. But when I click edit mode it only shows my base primitive which was the default cube. On the HardOps demos, I see that when they click edit mode they can see the progress they have made and there is a blue wireframe along the bevels, cutouts, etc. How do I enable this?
Thank you!

I'ts been a whle since I used HardOps, but I understand that one of its features is that it tries to keep the modeling non-destructive by default, meaning stacks and stacks of modifiers get created but never applied, so that no changes are irreversible. I know from experience that there is a way to apply these modifiers through the HardOps UI, but I don't remember how. But I do know that applying the modifiers would have to be done before Edit Mode will show you the changes because Edit Mode is always based on the actual geometry. And modified geometry is not actual geometry until applied.

Agree with R-800. The idea of Hard Ops is working non-destructively so all operations won't change the mesh...

Thank you for your fast response guys! This totally makes sense. I'm still wondering how Gleb Alexandrov's cube shows the modifiers as if they had been applied when he goes on edit mode as seen in the video attached. (Minute 7:50) You can see on the right that the booleans have not been applied. Thank you for your help!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTSFcsdMSk4&t=1730s


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Particle>Hair>Collection>Position?
Hi I'm new to blender so any help would be appreciated.Thanks in advance.
Thanks to this tutorial >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35bbyAJodEQ&t=975s
I'm trying to put splash pngs on the ground but I can't find how to fix the position of PNGs
Horizontal black line is the ground and orange rectangles are the splash PNGs.
I want grab those rectangles to the upwards
I've been trying this by Particles>Hair>Collection>Instance Collection

Thanks to both of you :) Now it's solved. I'll search up for what else I could do with the "set origin" from now on .. Thanks a lot!

Go to the object(s) in the collection. Go to edit mode (for each one if you have more objects) select the bottom two vertices, then hit SHIFT + S and choose Cursor to selected. Then go out of edit mode, hit CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + C (yes all at once) and choose origin to 3D cursor. Now the objects should be positioned on top of the plane in your particle system.

In my experience, the shortcut you mention above hasn't had a function of any kind since the debut of 2.80. In 2.79 it worked as you describe. One must now get the Origin options from the right-click menu.


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Why I dont's see colors in object mode?
Why I don’t see colors in object mode on my donut? If I take for example render mode or shading mode, I see them. Moreover if I turn new file blender on and paint cube, I see colors in object mode normally. What’s the matter?

Can you put an image of view port shading?

You are in solid viewport shading mode.
Look at the header of the 3D View and locate the four spheres. There you can change the viewport shading mode.
When you are in Solid shading mode, the color in the 3D viewport is from the materials Viewport Display > Color. When you are not using nodes (as with your red cube), then the material's Base Color is the same as the Viewport Display > Color.

However, when you activate nodes, the rendering settings (defined in the nodes) and the Viewport Display settings are not synchronized anymore.

To preview the material settings and material nodes, switch the viewport to material preview by clicking on the third sphere in the header of the 3D viewport.


text:
Cloth-like simulation but without creases
I'm new to blender and I wonder how difficult it is to achieve the following.
Imagine a scene with small houses and skyscrapers made out of Lego bricks.
Now imagine a very thin and soft scarf that you throw on this.
I saw some great-looking cloth simulations, however I'm looking for something without creases.
What I'm looking for is a material simulation that behaves more as if it was a rubbery, sticky liquid (but high viscosity) substance that then dries, so there won't be any creases.
I hope you get the idea. A different way to express the same would be to throw a polyester scarf and then you heat the whole scene to melt the scarf. But without earth gravity so it doesn't run down, but rather with local gravity so the objects pull the sticky liquid towards them.
Is this doable without going super deep?


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How to join multiple objects?
I have created a bunny rabbit using a path beveled into a circle shape which I have resized accordingly for each different part of the rabbit. A picture below will show you what I mean.
My question is: How can I join all of these shapes into a single entity so that the object moves as an entire unit when I select any single part of its body?
I have tried to select all the items and use Ctrl+J, but it collapses my rabbit, effectively ruining it. The second picture depicts what happens to my rabbit after I attempt to use Ctrl+J on all its pieces. Mind you, each piece of the rabbit is just a copied sphere of the original, resized and recolored. After Ctrl+J'ing, it seems to revert to the original object shape.
How can I properly join all my rabbit's pieces intact?

The best way to do this is to add a fixed constraint to the object.  Simply click 2 objects then add a constraint.

This doesn't meet you're rule for "the object moves as an entire unit when I select any single part of its body" but maybe it's helpful.
Another option would be to parent all the objects to an Empty. Then when you manipulate the Empty, all the parts follow, and each object remains editable and transformable.

Here's a video that may help you join all of your shapes into a single entity so that the object moves as an entire unit when you select any single part of its body.  It's shows you how to do this for Blender 2.7x but will also work in Blender 2.8x it will also get rid of the extra geometry.
https://youtu.be/kf16s5MPBLg
Also
https://youtu.be/YLoKjR8H-JQ
Video that shows this in Blender 2.8x
https://youtu.be/Eb-DO6E0tnY

I would recommend applying the scale/rotation of each object before joining. This may solve your problem.
If that doesn't work, any modifiers applied to a single object may lose their effect upon joining the objects, or their effect may be distributed to other objects.

go to add modifiers, add a boolean modifier, change from difference to union and use the dropper to select the item and click apply, copy the modifier to add more objects and make sure you delete the duplicate object it creates behind the merged object


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Run Python code from blank file every time
I am wondering whether it is possible to run a Python script in Blender 2.82 from the text editor, such that each time the script is run, it reverses everything that was done in the previous run. In other words, if I first run the script from the default home file, then each time I run the code, the result will be the exactly same as if I had manually created a new Blender document and run the code there.
A minimum working example is as follows:
import bpy
#Some code here to delete everything
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(vertices = 360, radius = 1, depth = 1)
bpy.ops.curve.primitive_bezier_circle_add(radius = 2)

I have tried putting the following codes in the commented line, but none of these solutions are satisfactory:

Nothing — A new mesh and Bézier curve is generated each time the code is run.
bpy.ops.wm.read_homefile(use_empty=True) — This closes the Blender window without running the code.
The following code:

for o in bpy.data.objects:
    bpy.ops.object.delete()

— A new mesh for the cylinder and a curve for the Bézier circle are still generated each time the code is run.

Same as above, with the following additional lines:

for o in bpy.data.curves:
    bpy.ops.curve.delete()

— This leads to an runtime error: ‘Operator bpy.ops.curve.delete.poll() failed, context is incorrect’. In any event, if possible, it would be preferable to have a solution that is not specific to a particular kind of object (eg curves), but works regardless of what might happen to be in the scene.

bpy.ops.scene.new() — This runs the script in a blank scene, which is the desired effect. However, I have been struggling to find a method to delete all other scenes with their content.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Maybe try this code:
def reset_blend():
    bpy.ops.wm.read_factory_settings()

    for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
        for obj in scene.objects:
            scene.objects.unlink(obj)

    # only worry about data in the startup scene
    for bpy_data_iter in (
            bpy.data.objects,
            bpy.data.meshes,
            bpy.data.lamps,
            bpy.data.cameras,
    ):
        for id_data in bpy_data_iter:
            bpy_data_iter.remove(id_data)

reset_blend()


text:
How do I start a cloth simulation after an animation?
I'm trying to create an effect where a piece of fabric flies in from the side as a flat sheet from the left, then drops and drapes, then another piece flies in from the back as a flat sheet then drops and drapes, then a third comes in from the right as a flat sheet, then drops and drapes. So for each piece I want an animation to happen, finish, then the cloth simulation to start. This seems like something I would have thought would be easy, but I just can't seem to work out how to delay the start of my cloth simulations for each piece so they start after the animation. How can I animate the start of the cloth sim? I can see check boxes next to each individual property in the cloth sim to animate those properties, but I can't work out how to stop it doing any simulating at all until after the animation has finished.
Thanks

The simulations in Blender usually all come with an option for caching, and the place to cache the cloth simulation also serves as a control from when to when the simulation will be taking place.

Here a little visual demonstration:

So to speak of the most simple solution, all you have to do is to set up the simulation and limit the start and maybe the end (means the cloth would not continue falling or folding and just stay stiff in the last calculated form) of each cloth object simulation.
Happy Blending

Thank you! That was easy. :-)


text:
Object won't highlight in the 3d viewport
This was working fine until I exited blender without saving my file.  When I restarted blender 2.8 and opened my file when I click on an object it highlights in the Scene Collection but not in the 3d Viewport. I am able to manipulate them but I need to see what I have selected.
Jerry

Maybe you deactivated the Outline in the Viewport Overlay? In Object Mode, click the arrow next to the Overlay button (top right) and make sure the box is checked.

To go along with this, make sure that the viewport overlay is enabled. Make sure that the button by the dropdown is blue, as it is in the screenshot.

Thanks, that was the problem.


text:
Can't change background color + can't use Cycles
I'm currently working on a little sculpture and when I want to change my background color nothing happens, same when I want to use cycles..
Anyone has an idea?
Thanks!

Perhaps you're currently in the Material Preview/Lookdev mode? It uses EEVEE regardless of your choice of rendering engine, and has its own independent selection of backgrounds.

If that's not the case, would you mind sharing the .blend file?


text:
Where I can find list of materials and interact with it?
Recently I have created a few materials that I don't need anymore. Now, when I'm trying to select material from available materials, I see that old materials. How can I delete them?

@ChristopherBennett thank you, it works. But the dirty way isn't working - the only change is zero in the name of material. Can you post your comment as answer so I can mark it?

Strange the "dirty" way isn't working - it's been a traditional way of cleaning up unused things. Maybe they "fixed" the way it works for 3.0+. Anyway, I made it an answer, as requested. Glad some part of it works for you.

If you go to the icon above your outliner that has a cone and a sphere on it (display mode), you can click and change it to "Orphan data" and clear any unused materials from there.

If you want a really fast, dirty way, save your file, close blender and re-open the file - any unused materials (orphan data) will be cleared. Beware, doing this will clear all unused materials (even ones you might want to keep). To make sure an (unused) material is not purged, flag it with a fake user by clicking the button underlined below:

Blender should automatically remove all unused data-blocks, including materials, when you save and close a file, but sometimes it can be hard to see at a glance what "user" is assigned a certain material—you might think it's not used at all anymore, but actually it's assigned to an object hidden from the viewport etc...
If you're sure that you don't need a material anymore and would like to get rid of it permanently, you can switch the display mode of the Outliner to Blender File, where you are presented with a collapsible list of all data-blocks used in the file. You can expand the Materials list, right click on the material in question, and press Delete:


text:
Is there way to create triangular faces on mesh?
I've created a mesh and I want to create a ribbed side on it. I want it to look like this (colored side):

The only way I've found is to select every odd/even vertex, drag them down and merge them. But it's too long to select odd vertexes, so is there another way to create that "triangular faces" (sorry, I don't know how to call it right)?

Does this answer your question? How to make all polygons into triangles

@Emir, unfortunately, no. In that case I still need to select triangles that I don't need and delete them.

An easy way to get around the tedious "select every other vertex" is to use Checker deselect.

You find it in the select menu. You can even select 2, then skip 1 or select 1 and skip 3 etc.

After you have the selection, move the vertices and merge them or whatever.

Cool! Checker deselect is the thing I need. Thank you!


text:
How can I place text over image to make it look like placed on object?
I need to add text to this image:

but I want it to look like it placed on the road, so I'll have needed distortion and angle. How can I do this? I can't afford a photoshop (can't do it with other editors too), so I decided I can do this in Blender.

insert a beziercurve along your curve (if you don't have already one), insert a text object with the same origin point.

use your curve in your object data properties of your text object in "text on curve".
result:

Thank you. But it will work only if I have mesh as road. I have just a picture.

that's why  i wrote: insert a beziercurve along your curve/street....

Sorry, I don't get it... Do you mean I should fully re-create scene in 3d?

no, just one beziercurve which follows your street or that "looks" like it follows your street


text:
How to create bag fast with cloth simulation?
I want to create bags from that picture:

and I think I found the fastest way:

create ico sphere with collision
create plain above it with collision and cloth simulation
add subdiv to plain
simulate
turn final object upside-down
add details (like ropes, imperfections, etc)

The problem - I'm getting something like creepy jellyfish rather than bag.
I think the problem is in cloth settings:

I've applied subdiv modifier with 6 iterations and solidify to plain. Can you help me to understand where the problem is? Or maybe a better way?

I would try a method similar to Blender Guru's tutorial for ruffled curtains.  Cloth pinning + shape key animation to cinch it closed

I would do the simulation with the bag upright. Pin the top, let an edge loop below shrink a bit, and place a growing Icosphere in it to inflate the bag.

Create the Bag
Start with the default cube, add a Subdivision Surface modifier with 3 levels (Ctrl+3), and apply it. Add and apply a Cast modifier with default settings (Sphere) to make it more round.
Then edit the cube and delete the top faces. Select the edge loop and extrude it to create the upper part. Create a vertex group named Pin and assign the top edge loop. Clear selection. Create another vertex group (Shrink) and assign one of the lower edge loops to it.

The Stuff (Sphere) Inside
Place an Icosphere in the bag, and keyframe its Scale and Location to make it grow and move it down a little within the first 20 frames or so. You can add a Subdivision Surface modifier and a Displace modifier with a Clouds texture to make it look edgier and more like "stuff". Finally, add a Collision modifier to it (must be the last/bottom).
Bag Cloth Simulation
Add a Subdivision Surface modifier with level 1 and a Cloth modifier to the bag. Set the Pin group for Shape > Pin, a low Shrinking Factor, and the Shrink group in Property Weights > Skrinking Group. Here also set Max Shrinking to 1.0 or a lower value. Then enable Object Collisions and Self Collisions and set their Distance value to a lower value like 0.01 m. Run the simulation.

Post Production
Once you're happy with the simulation (1) you can apply the Subdivision Surface and Cloth modifiers. In the Sculpt mode you can change the upper part or smooth the bag or add more wrinkles (Cloth brush) with the various brushes (2).

Thank you! I'll try it.


text:
How to cut out the part of mesh and add geometry to it without broken topology?
I want to achieve that and apply subdivision surface on that mesh:

I can easy do that with boolean modifier and topology looks great, but after that I can't add additional geometry on that mesh. Even with "simple" option of subdiv it generate additional details.
I tried just to add loop cuts, but it doesn't work too:

I tried to add subdiv and then cut out part of mesh, but can't do anything with it:

Can you help me with it?

Can you show the topology of the object before applying sub-d?

You can see it on 3 screenshot. Or you need it with vertex mode enabled?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/144500/how-do-you-cut-a-clean-hole-into-an-object-that-has-been-subdivided https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/126789/subdivision-surface-modifier-issue

You most likely have double vertices which are either overlapping each other, or your normals are inverted incorrectly. You also have an Ngon on the top and bottom faces and need to use the knife tool (K) to resolve it.
The image below should show how your topology should look.

To fix both of these problems you can try merging by distance, and then closely zooming in on affected vertices and moving them around with (G) to make sure theyre properly joined.
To fix bad normals you will need to select the entire object in edit mode (A) and then go to mesh>Normals>Recalculate outside.
Also, considering how simple the object seems, what you do need subdivision for it?

You're absolutely right! There was a problem with normals on the last screen and knife helped with the situation on the 3 screen. about your question: there is a building, so I need subdivision for additional details, like foundation, roof, battlement and other things. Thank you!


text:
trying to import a zip character models from the models resource.com
So I've been trying to import a model of a inkling and octoling from the models resource website, I saved the model in zip file as that was the only way and also put it in a file in my desktop, I cant seem to actually find the models inside my actual file I put them in even though it appears in the files menu for blender, I've seen people do it but I don't know how to myself, I'm on windows 11.

First you need to extract the zip file. Then look for a DAE, FBX, or OBJ file that you can import into Blender. Use the menu File > Import > ... to import the specific file. Then you need to fix the material if it doesn't look right. Assign the textures files that are included in the zip file in the Shader Editor.


text:
Cant scale an object, trying to scale a torus but wont change size no matter what
Ive been trying to scale something for a good 10 minutes now, pressed the hotkey and swung my mouse around, nothing changed, used the scaling tool and nothing changed, only way I can even change the size of my object is by using the transform menu and that takes way too much precise things, am I doing anything wrong or is it bugged out?

In the Options panel on the top right, disable the Affect Only Locations option:


text:
How to smooth a particular region of the object?
fairly new to blender. After I added modifier property subdivision, there were glitches on my model. How can I resolve it? Also, there're open 'cut lines'. Does anyone have suggestions on removing them? They're not intended to be there.

Check the "clipping" box on your mirror modifier, then select the whole mesh in edit mode (A) then press M (merge) and select "by distance". The "gaps may be a little large to get by the default merge distance though - you can adjust the distance from the operator panel (the little options box that pops up in the bottom left after you perform certain actions). I don't recommend changing the distance using the arrows, however, as it "steps up" too much for each increment. Instead, change the last (or second last) digit manually, until the gaps are removed.

You may also want/need to correct the normals after the merge as well - select the whole mesh in edit mode again and pick mesh > normals > recalculate outside from the menu at the top of the viewport.


text:
skin material gives a green-ish tint because of hair material, how can I resolve this?
Sorry this is a silly problem :/ which I can't resolve.
I geuss some light "diffuse" through the hair and leave the skin a green-ish tint, which is undesirable. Can I somehow let skin material and hair material don't interact with each other?
below picture is the node setting for the skin material.

below picture is the node setting for the hair material + hide hair, as you can see, the green tint is gone.

ps. I thought the outcome would look better but it literally looks like an inflatable doll. Epic fail.

it is greenish thanks to the subsurface scattering value and I'm not sure you can just switch hair off that in some efficient way ... so first try to change SSS strength or you have just wrong SSS color coming from HUE node ... so try to change that.

related: How to use Subsurface Scattering in Principled BSDF


text:
How to animate cloth simulation (with thick fabric) in blender?
I wonder if there's any good ways to have cloth simulation on a dancing animation with something like a leather jacket on a character (with thickness using solidify modifier)?
Or a 2D mesh is a must...
Thanks in advance!

so have you given your jacket a cloth simulation and does it work? this tutorial is rather good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbyfuW5Aocg

just increase cloth quality steps to 20, and bending, left is bending 0.5, right is bending 60, else default cloth settings


text:
Why are the attribute nodes missing in the geometry node editor?
I've sculpted an object in Blender and wanted to play with the geo nodes and I'm very new to using geo nodes. In a few tutorials I followed there were some attribute nodes I couldnt find in the editor. How do you get these?

This is all I have

What particular attribute nodes are you looking for?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/250576/blender-3-0-offical-release-get-rid-off-some-geonodes-that-were-in-3-0a-what-t

Geometry Nodes underwent a system change with v3.0, switching from "attributes" to "fields". The tutorials you're talking about were probably made before that change had happened, so they're now mostly deprecated. Many tutorial makers re-did their older ones with the new system, but obviously not all. When looking for tutorials, try to take care it's relatively new—starting from mid-to-late 2021, iirc.

Thx a lot for the insight will make sure to check newer tutorials


text:
Adding an independent constraint to one bone in an armature
I've been trying to use a copy location constraint on individual bones to have them follow face trackers I generated from some footage. Unfortunately every time I apply a constraint to one bone, it applies to all the bones in the armature so they all follow a single tracker (not ideal).
It's weird because I've been scrupulously following a step by step tutorial but this is the one step where its just not working for me.
Any help would be greatly appreciated

You are in the Object Constraint Properties, not in the Bone Constraint Properties. So you applied the constraint to the whole armature. If you add a constraint to a bone it becomes green. (In the right side there are small colored icons below each-other. You have to select the icon two below the current).

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

That's perfect, thank you so much!


text:
Action editor doesn't quite work well
I’m trying to make separate animations for my character, which will be used for an experimental game in Unity. I’m having trouble with the action editor, it seems to be not working the way it should.
Here’s my first created action, it works fine, just the way it should:
First gif
Now when I add a second action just for the apple’s stem, which should be a separate animation, the peel object not only moves but its animation is also wrong:
Second gif
The peel now opens like a door, which it shouldn’t do that, only peel off like in the first “.gif”. Can it be that I did bad links to the bones? I also tried unticking the animations in the NLA editor, but the peel still distorts if I don’t remove the second action completely. Whenever I create more than one action, it always interferes with the other actions, especially if I create an action on the peel’s bones and then create a new action for the same peel, it gets distorted like if the armatures have 2 different animations playing at the same time.
My project's download link

I did a few things to this file before sending it back to you.

As moonboots said, it wouldn't be a good practice to have so many armatures. So I consolidated them all into one. This required renaming all of the bones, to avoid naming conflicts, so all bone names are now unique. This also means I needed to rename the vertex groups accordingly so that existing skin deformations would be preserved. This will make things easier by allowing you to access all bones directly whenever you're in Pose Mode.
The bone rolls for your peel joints were very much not aligned, which creates a problem for anyone trying to select them all and rotate along one common axis. They are now aligned: rotating along the local Z will unwrap the peels in an appropriate (away from the apple) direction. This was achieved by going into Edit Mode, selecting the base bone for a given peel chain, adjusting the Bone Roll value for it until it lines up as being tangentially aligned with the curved surface of the apple, then select all the bones in the same chain, while adding this newly tweaked bone to the selection last. Then press Shift + n to bring up the Recalculate Roll menu, and choose the option called Active Bone. All the other bones will snap to have the same orientation as the base bone.
After realigning the axes, I needed to recreate your Peel open action, since the keyframe data had originally been set on channels which were now not correct for the new bone orientations. It still takes up the same number of frames. The only difference is that now it makes use of all of the bones in each peel chain (all of them rotate now, as part of the action), instead of only the base one.
The Stem rot action was also recreated, but I didn't really know what it was supposed to do. It's action only contains a single rotation, 90 degrees in the Global Z, because that's what it looked like your video showed. I used the Axis Angle rotation method so that it can be rotated and keyframed on one channel only, even though the bone is at an angle relative to worldspace.
All of your Peel bone joints were changed from Quaternion rotation method to Euler ZXY. My understanding is that Quaternions are not necessary unless you have 3-axis rotations, and I'm assuming your peel animations won't use more than two. I chose Z first in the Euler rotation order because it's my understanding that the first axis should correspond to the local axis you want to ensure is always consistently available. But my understanding on this is limited.
The NLA Editor has two clips in it--one for each of your actions--that are exactly fifteen frames long and, given what I know of your project, work as intended. There was never anything wrong with the actions as far as they themselves went. But there were things wrong elsewhere, as moonboots explained. Finally, various unnecessary nodes here and there were deleted or renamed to help clean things up.

Note: I don't know what the role of the seed-looking eye things is supposed to be, but they were originally parented directly to the armature object. When merging the armatures, they broke, and so I had to decide how they were to be parented, but didn't know what would be best for them. I parented them to specific bones in the peel chains nearest to them. They seem to work as they did before. I just wanted to make you aware of this change, as well as why it was made.
By the way, this file was surprisingly large at almost 16 meg. This is due to you having packed your textures into the Blend file, which isn't strictly necessary for showcasing a problem with a rig. What you could have done was unpack the textures before sending this file. File > External Data > Unpack All into Files. Simply realize that not everyone who might like to help has fast computers/internet connections.

You helped me see that I made a mistake in the file I sent back. It appears that you still have two armatures, one called "Controller", which I had intended to be the only one, and one underneath it called "Armature", which contains all of your peel bones. To fix this, first make sure your 3D cursor is at the worldspace origin. Then, In Object Mode, select the armature named "Armature", go into Edit Mode, and press Shift + a to add a new bone at the 3D cursor location. Give it a name, like "Base Bone."  While still in Edit Mode, select each of the base bones for your peels one at a time (do not select the children peel bones), select also the stem bone, and finally select the Base Bone (make sure it is selected last), and press Ctrl + p to bring up the Parenting menu, and choose Keep Offset. Do this also for the Stem bone and the two smaller upper peel bones, so that they all are parented to the Base Bone. Now  all bones will move with the base bone. Next, go into Object Mode and select the "Armature" armature first, then the "Controller" Armature, and press Alt + p to bring up the Unparent menu, then choose Clear Parent and Keep Transformation. This unparents the "Armature" armature from the "Controller" armature, but by using the "Keep Transformation" option, you ensure that it stays in its new location afterwards. Now, in Object Mode, delete the armature called "Controller." You now have one armature called "Armature" that has a base bone that moves everything. More importantly, none of your actions are broken.
But there is still one more issue. In Pose Mode, the peel mesh objects follow the controller bone, but neither the apple base mesh, nor the smaller seed part objects, follows it. This is because they are not parented or bound to anything. Parenting is probably simpler than binding. But because your mesh parts are only directly accessible in Object mode, and your bones in Pose Mode, multi-selecting these two sorts of things can be a bit tricky to understand at first. Start by selecting your Apple base mesh in Object Mode, then, while still in Object Mode, select the armature. Now, go into Pose Mode, and select your Base Bone. Now, Ctrl + p, and choose the Parenting option Bone. In the Make Parent options panel that pops up in the bottom left of the viewport, expand it to make sure the Keep Transform checkbox is checked. Your apple base mesh is now parented to your Base Bone. But you will notice that your peel meshes now have double transformations. This is because your peel meshes were already parented to your apple base mesh before we started. Unparent them from the apple base mesh. You only want them parented to the Base Bone. Now follow these parenting steps for the apple core and central seeds. You can leave the two topmost seeds alone, because they're only parented to the top two small peel bone chains.

Thanks a lot! I selected your answer because you were really descriptive, clear and told me some remarks that will be really useful in the feature. Also you even uploaded a .blend file, which made things easier, but also simpler to understand. You missed one bone, which is a controller under the apple, so I tried merging with the other bones, I got a "Not responding" error, and it doesn't seem to fix itself so I need to force close the program everytime I merge the bones. Could you help me out with that?

In practice, merging these two armatures is presenting the problem of the apple base mesh no longer coming along with the entire armature, because the base apple mesh is not currently bound to any armature, and has no vertex weights. If you want to bind it, you can, but then you will have to edit vertex weights. By having these two armatures, you have an apple base mesh that follows where your Controller bone goes without having to paint weights, and the peel bone rig follows it also. I'm still trying to find a solution that removes this mult-rig scenario without breaking your actions.

I have a solution, and it's been added to the end of my answer post. Follow those instructions, and it should get you squared away.

omg I really appreciate your efforts. The big new text you've added seemed intimidating at first, but thanks to your crystal clear explanations, I've managed to fix it myself! I didn't do the parenting for the apple core and the seeds, because they seem to move just fine when animating. The controller bone was way too tiny so my bad. Thanks again.

It’s because you’ve erroneously given the action called Stem rot to the armature called arma03. You may not see it because you haven't pushed it down from the Dope Sheet into the NLA, but you'll be able to check it in the Dope Sheet. Dope Sheet will always play over the NLA.
I guess Stem rot is supposed to be used by the armature called Armature (the tail), not by the armature called arma03 (the peeling). But you've erroneously assigned Stem rot to arma03 (you've probably selected the armature and select the action in the Dope Sheet). Stem rot is supposed to move a Armature's bone called Bone. It happens that arma03 also have a bone called Bone. So if you assign Stem rot to arma03, it will move arma03's Bone.
Actions can be shared by several objects or armatures. For armatures, a keyframe is attached to a bone's name. As soon as a keyframe has been created for a bone called boneA, the action will affect any boneA of any armature.
To fix that, select arma03, go in the Dope Sheet and close this action.
By the way you should merge all these armature, it would make more sense, it will be much more convenient and it will prevent this kind of problem.


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Can you change the bit rate or quality in general for .png formats while rendering?
I noticed that you can change the bit rates for the FFmpegs and so on if you want to render in a video instantly. Is there any way to do it for pngs?

PNG is not a lossy format like jpeg. It can vary the file size just with compression quality. Think of it as a zip packer. The more you set compression level, the more time it takes to compress, but the more compact file it produces, but after unpacking a file is the same. The compression level you can change in the output settings. Also PNG can be with or without alpha channel (RGBA / RGB). And also you can save 8 bit or 16 bit per channel color depth.
So, if you render to PNG, it's like rendering to bitmaps (BMP) and then compress them with zip. No quality degradation on any settings. Just time and file size - that's what you can play with.

What a nice answer :). Just to add - Some quality degradation occurs with PNGs - they're rather bad at saving accurate color information.

@Jachym Michal are you talking about the gamma correction? But that is nothing to do with PNG itself, it happens anytime you convert linear to sRGB space.Within 8 bits it does its best. Yes, if you want some post-processing, you'd better use some of "linear" formats (exr, hdr), but the file size... Though, using 16 bit png solves the problem to some extent (256 times better color resolution), and for some post it's pretty enough.

Hello :). Yes, that's mostly it. And unassociated alpha that can cause trouble during compositing. I'm no expert at this, just pointing out even PNG has limits, just so the OP isn't surprised later :).


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Rendering with FFmpeg vs PNG formats
I've noticed while rendering with FFmpeg format, the rendering gets finished a lot quicker than in PNG, but I might be wrong. Which format should I use?

FFmpeg is not a format.
It is a suite of libraries and programs used to create files using different containers and codecs, used mostly for video files.
PNG is a file format in which you can save images.
Which one to use depends on your needs.
Usually when creating animations or video it is recommended to render as an image sequence and encode to video later. That way, if the render stops or fails, you don't lose all of your work and you can try a different encoding and format until you find the one that works for you.

ok, but what about the speed? I tried rendering again, and it seems to be faster on FFmpeg, but now that you said about PNGs this seems like a safer way to do it. Shouldn't the render times for both be same?


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How to make a smoke collision effect?
I've made an animation when an object falls onto a ground really hard. It is now missing a smoke effect, how can I do it, so when the object touches the ground, the smoke particles (or dust) appear in the collision?

Have you tried looking it up on youtube?

that version is really old, and it's 2 years ago


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Fix Blender's script to link two mesh objects and keep the UV mapping each one has
I want to link two mesh objects and keep the UV mapping each one has and I've found solution here, but for me script doesn't work. I'm getting error:

AttributeError: bpy_prop_collection: attribute "link" not found

in 30 line. I've found information about replacing collection system in Blender 2.8 but I don't know how to use that information. I'm using Blender 4.0.2. How can I fix this script?
Full script:
# make sure to be in Object mode
# make sure to have two objects selected
import bpy
import bmesh
from mathutils import Matrix
from contextlib import ExitStack

def work():
    C = bpy.context
    if C.mode != 'OBJECT':
        return
    if len(C.selected_objects) < 1:
        print("Must have at least one object selected")
        return
    # read into bmesh safely
    names = []
    with ExitStack() as stack:
        bm = bmesh.new()
        stack.callback(bm.free)
        for o in C.selected_objects:
            if o.type != 'MESH':
                continue
            m = o.matrix_world
            bm.transform(m.inverted())
            bm.from_mesh(o.data)
            bm.transform(m)
            names.append(o.name)
        # write to actual mesh
        mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new('Result')
        object = bpy.data.objects.new('Merge(%s)' % ', '.join(names), mesh)
        bm.to_mesh(mesh)
    C.scene.objects.link(object)
    C.scene.update()

work()

These points have been changed with Blender 2.8
line 32: see here
old: context.scene.objects.link(object)
new: context.collection.objects.link(object)

line 33: see here
old: context.scene.update()
new: context.view_layer.update()

Yes, I've tried this one, but are you sure it's right option? In my case merge's result doesn't have any materials. Maybe, there is error in original script - in that case your answer is right.


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What does the color blend mode do?
What does the color blend mode in mix shader node do? I've read the documentation, but there is no information about Color blend type. And I don't even know how to google it, because my request looks stupid: blender color mode in mix color.

The Blender docs reference the explanation here in the Krita documentation if that's any help.

It's funny, the manual used to reference Gimp's documentation and now they switched to Krita :D In any case, yeah, blending modes are not unique to Blender you could just google "color blending modes" to find out what that is. It's just various math operations done between pixel values of two images.

Friendship ended with GIMP Now KRITA is my best friend... Take a look here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/253944/60486

If you want to know exactly what the Mix Color mode "Color" does, here is a mathematical explanation:
The color A gets scaled by 1 - Factor. A combination of color B's Hue and Saturation with color A's Value will be scaled by the Factor. The results of these scalings/multiplications are added together to give the final result.
So this setup:

can be recreated mathematically with this node setup (well, actually you can do it with less nodes, I just extended it a bit to show the components a bit better):


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Can I hide seams using texture paint?
I have visually notable seam in my model:

Can I somehow hide this seam using texture paint? I know there is another ways to achive it using shading, but I'm planning to export this model to UE5, so I'm not sure it will have the same nodes as Blender. That's why I need to manipulate texture, not shader.
When I'm trying to use eyedropper and paint right in the same place, which color I've got - I'm getting this result:

so I suppose one of the problems is in blend mode, but other modes can't help me too - color is still different; and different parts of the mesh have different reactions on the same color:

What can I do? I'm not insisting on texture paint, but this is only way I know, which will work everywhere with the same (mostly) behavior.

Looks like the color picked is from another image overlay, but is this a single texture? I’d suggest looking at using the soften tool and smear tool to experiment there as it doesn’t look like a classic seam that is solved with clone tool.

@CraigDJones oh my god, you're absolutely right! The problem was I messed up materials. So now I need only to find a way to get smooth transition from head to body. Sorry, but I didn't understand, what is the soften tool and smear tool? Where I can find it?

In texture paint there are separate tools there in the tool panel, you can see an overview here https://youtu.be/4IsTnQU2f8A?si=-X2-upshuofNFcqe

@CraigDJones thank you. Unfortunately, youtube is banned in my country so I can't see video, but I founded this tools. Can you make an answer from your previous message, so I can accept it?

Ah, okay, I will set up some screen shots that can illustrate the tools we are talking about.

Here are some examples of the tools you can use to smooth and cover your visible seams, but in your case you might just use them to manipulate the patches of color.
Clone Tool works by using Ctrl key to place the 3d cursor where you want to clone from and grab pixels from that area to place under your brush. OR you can choose to load another image in the texture stack using a different UV with 'Clone from Paint Slot' where the image texture clone source can use a different UV mapping and not be directly connected to your node tree, just exists in an image node in your material.

Smear Tool works as it sounds, you should start with lower strength to make the best use here so that it doesn't break the texture and introduce artifacts. Useful for spreading pixels.

Soften Tool works like a Blur brush in other image editors, don't forget that you can also reverse it as a sharpen tool. This tool works best to add a finish before you use a Draw Tool at low strength to glaze a common color to blend.

Face Select Masking can be used with the Fill Tool to allow you to use a Gradient made up of two colors to control a blend in a problem area as well by limiting the reach of the Fill Tool. Set the Fill tool to Gradient and set the color stops to the ranges you are working with.


text:
Is there a way to hide/show seams on model?
I have unwrapped character and I want to understand how it was done:

Usually, when we unwrapping character, we need to mark seams on it, so seams will have red outline like this:

AS you can see, in 2 screenshot UV is distorted compared with original one which don't have any of it. I want to understand, why I can't see any seams in original model? I know that I can hide vertices with H key, so maybe there is similar hotkey for seams?
Unfortunately, can't share blend file.

Your original model is unwrapped but there are no seams marked on the model. If you want to have the seams marked on the model do the following.  In the UV editor, 1: Select all the Uv's.  2: Open the UV menu and choose the Seams from Islands option. If you look on the model you will see that it now has the UV seams marked in red. Why it did not have the UV seams marked to begin with I don't know. If you Add a Blender mesh cube or the monkey head, in edit mode you will find that they have no seams marked but look in the UV editor and you see they are already unwrapped.

How to get UV seams from existing UV islands
As 3fingeredfrog mentioned, you can mark the UV seams from your current UV islands. For this, go in the UV editor while in edit mode, select all your mesh in the viewport, all the UVs in the UV editor, and use the menu UV > Seams From Islands:

Why UV islands don't always have seams
As to why some models can have UVs without seams, "seams" or any form of edge-marking for UVs are only useful for the process of making UVs manually. They are useless to storing or even describing the UV data.
Primitive objects in Blender don't have seams. And it is possible in Blender to make UVs without seams. In fact, all the unwrapping methods you see in the viewport's UV Mapping menu (shortcut U) make no use of edge seams, except the "Unwrap" at the top that flattens your mesh and splits it at the edges marked as seams:

Hence, it's possible to have UV-unwrapped models with no seams in Blender.
Furthermore, it is almost systematic to have no edge seams on models that were imported from outside of Blender.
I say almost, because some formats do support explicit UV seams {FBX, Collada (.dae)}, and as you can see above you can always make seams from existing islands. But even if a data can be sometimes exported by some specific formats, it's also not a very frequent one to export, not every import/export tools exposes it as an option, so it's safe to assume you won't have UV seams even from meshes stored in formats that does support it.
How UV data are stored
UVs are simply coordinates stored per vertex. Here's an example with Blender's default cube in OBJ format:
# Blender 4.2.1 LTS
# www.blender.org
o Cube
v 1.000000 1.000000 -1.000000
v 1.000000 -1.000000 -1.000000
v 1.000000 1.000000 1.000000
v 1.000000 -1.000000 1.000000
v -1.000000 1.000000 -1.000000
v -1.000000 -1.000000 -1.000000
v -1.000000 1.000000 1.000000
v -1.000000 -1.000000 1.000000
vt 0.625000 0.500000
vt 0.875000 0.500000
vt 0.875000 0.750000
vt 0.625000 0.750000
vt 0.375000 0.750000
vt 0.625000 1.000000
vt 0.375000 1.000000
vt 0.375000 0.000000
vt 0.625000 0.000000
vt 0.625000 0.250000
vt 0.375000 0.250000
vt 0.125000 0.500000
vt 0.375000 0.500000
vt 0.125000 0.750000
s 0
f 1/1 5/2 7/3 3/4
f 4/5 3/4 7/6 8/7
f 8/8 7/9 5/10 6/11
f 6/12 2/13 4/5 8/14
f 2/13 1/1 3/4 4/5
f 6/11 5/10 1/1 2/13

In an OBJ file, UVs are described using the vt (vertex texture) lines, and they correspond to texture coordinates in 2D space. Here's how it works:

o defines the name of the object that follows
v contains three 32-bit floats x y and z corresponding to the coordinates of the mesh's vertices.
vt contains two 32-bit floats u and v that defines a UV coordinate, where u is the horizontal axis (0 to 1) and v is the vertical axis (0 to 1).
For example, vt 0.625000 0.500000 means that one of the vertices maps to the UV coordinates (0.625, 0.5).
s defines the shade smoothing state. 0 makes the whole mesh flat shaded, 1 Would make the whole mesh smooth shaded. If you exported a smooth shaded object with some sharp edges, you would also have vn lines after the v lines, describing vertex normals in the form of 32-bit floats x y and z to make up the vector of the vertex orientation.
f defines faces, by associating vertices to UV coordinates. It contains one A/B pairing for each vertex making up the face. Where A and B are respectively the indexes of vertices (v lines) and UV coordinates (vt lines) as they are described in the file.
In our example, we have a cube, which is six faces of 4 vertices, so we have six f lines with four A/B pairing.
The first line f 1/1 5/2 7/3 3/4 means that:

the first vertex of the face associates 1/1, aka the 1st vertex of the list (v 1.000000 1.000000 -1.000000) to the 1st UV of the list (vt 0.625000 0.500000)
the second vertex of the face associates 5/2, aka the 5th vertex of the list (v -1.000000 1.000000 -1.000000) to the 2nd UV (vt 0.875000 0.500000)
so on

As you can see, no seams represented here, just 2d/3d math coordinates and associations.

Great explanation! +1 Do you know what the line s means which has a value of 0? And in the face explanation did you actually mean "the second vertex uses the 2nd UV" or rather the fifth vertex uses the second UV? Otherwise it seems I do not fully understand the 5/2 setting...

i meant the second vertex "of the face", which pairs the 5th vertex of the vertex list to the 2nd UV coordinate of the UV coordinates list. I edited my answer to better explain this, and other things.

Ah okay, yes that's how I already understood it the first time, I only could not make sense of second vertex with second UV when the numbers said 5/2 - I just wasn't sure if it was a typo on your side or if I just didn't get it.

Thank you for so detailed explanation!

Apart from the fantastic answer by @Lauloque which explains quite good how UV mapping works, to answer your question more generally regarding the points "is there a way to hide seams?" and "usually we need to mark seams on it":
First of all one simple way would be, clearing the seams after using them for unwrapping, so that there have been seams but they have been removed.
Another way is, the edges could still be marked as seams, but they are just not showing, because Seams are disabled in the Mesh Edit Mode Overlays. I guess this is closest to your last question, if there is some kind of hotkey to hide seams, although this is probably not what is going on there (in this case, new seams which you create would not show either):

A third option would be: there never were seams. Instead of using seams which are a great help if you want to unwrap everything at once or make changes without having to start completely all over again, you can just as well achieve the same segmented unwrapping by just selecting parts of the mesh and unwrapping them one after another. The boundary of the selection would then basically work like a seam.

Noted! Thank you, but in my case the original solution of 3fingeredfrog is right answer.


text:
Blender Video Editing, Newbie, channel 0
Sorry, a very newbie question.
I'm trying to make a simple video with Blender, but I'm a bit confused about the Sequencer and what I think is channel 0.
After I drag in my video (about 3 mins), it will only play back in a loop on channel 0. This has an underlined dark red background. But though my video is longer than this, Blender appears to be in a loop (as defined by channel 0) for the first 10 seconds.
My workflow is simple, start blender, new video editing project, select video file and drag it into sequencer.
Then however long my video is, blender only plays back the first 10s in a loop which appears to be defined by an uneditable channel 0.
Whats going on? I know I'm missing something simple, but what is it?
Thanks

Just set the correct start and end frame in a timeline area or the Properties Area, Scene > Render > Output > Dimensions. The default frame range 1-250 is 10s at 25 fps, so you will have to increase it 3min * 60s * 25fps = 4500

Channel zero is not used.

Thanks
I'm not sure of some of the "blender language" yet, but my problem was because I dropped a video in and then pressed space (as play).
At the top right pane of the screen is a panel that is described as "Scene" and has a drop down panel that is titled (?) Dimensions. I think this is what Leander described, but there appears to be nothing described as a "Properties Area". (What should I read to understand this?)
My problem was fixed by changing the "frame start" and "frame end" in said Dimensions drop-down panel to be something appropriate for the video I had dragged in.
I had referred to this as a channel 0 being the sort-of-blank channel underneath channel 1. I'm not yet sure of its proper name. But I see now that the "frame start", "frame end" combo selects a display area in the background of the channels, and that the area I refer to is in the foreground, and contains the text for markers and perhaps other things...
Thanks very much for the pointers, I'm hopefully on my way now.


text:
VSE Audio Strip Modifier, using the Equalizer
Happy New Year!
How does one properly apply the equalizer modifier in an Audio strip?
In particular, this "Copy to Selected Strips" option. The various things I've tried appear to make no obvious audio difference.
What I'm after is a simple recipe for making a 240Hz cut.


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Weight Paint Issues...using vertex groups
Trying to apply the appropriate weight paint, however my mesh "breaks" when any form of paint is applied. Am I missing something? I know I have multiple items in on mesh but I'm simply trying to paint a bent shoe...Any help with this would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance
I've tried automatic weight paint but the results are the same. It seems like every time I decrease the affected area the mesh pixelates and gets distorted in an undesirable manner. I apologize for my ignorance.

You just need smoother weights.  I would recommend painting it unposed and using the gradient tool.

Thanks Nathan! I'll try that.

That worked perfectly! Thank you!!


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Image Sequence no longer plays audio or png images after render
I'm trying to fix an issue I'm having with Blender's Image Sequence. After compiling my images, audio and visuals I rendered the file however when I go back to the file, nothing is playing as it should, aside from the first 5 seconds. The PNGs are no longer visible and the audio that I recorded (not from the YouTube videos) can no longer be heard. AI apologize if I'm lacking information here but hopefully someone can point me in the right direction.
Thank you
P.S.
Somehow my FPS was also bumped up to 33.33...not sure how this happened.

Hello, are you sure that the PNGs are still in their folder?

Yes I checked the folder and they are still there.

I looked again and remembered I placed them in a sub folder. I just put them back so the directories match. Thanks.

Hi, Anon ... Is this problem solved, without need for a full answer?

Make sure that the PNGs are in the good folder, otherwise Blender won't find them, or reimport them from your new folder.


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I need some help making a face on an irregular shape I imported from Autocad please
I have an irregular shape with holes in the middle and I am finding it difficult to create faces for quickly, does anyone have any suggestions?

Found this Question. It seems similar and might have the answer you're looking for.

That looked like the perfect solution, but alas it still didn't work. In fact nothing changed at all. Thanks though

Your edges are discontinued, you need to select all and M > Merge by Distance, then AltF to fill, and X > Limited Dissolve to dissolve all the edges that have been created:

Unfortunately alt f only fills half of the whole thing, I think on simpler shapes this would work perfect.

Coud you please share your file?

I converted one to a mesh, and left one as curves to see if its easier one way or the other

Your edges are discontinued, you need to select all and M > Merge by Distance, then Alt F

Tried that after posting, but still didn't work. Did it work for you? I'm not discarding my own user error at all in all this.
i got it to work nevermind, you're a star

Yes it works, see my edit, I'm talking about the mesh, not the curves, of course, for the curves you first need to convert to mesh

At this point though I feel separating the holes and then booling them in would have a better effect, as the back face would be extruded. Anyway, case closed. Thanks

I'm not sure what you mean

As a way to avoid the lines created from having holes in the mesh

You can't avoid edges, you can't create a hole in a face without some edges connecting the inner edges to the outer edges, if this is what you're referring to?

Yes, I have more success solidifying a non hole mesh, then booling in the holes after. But thank you for teaching me this method, it's definitely better.


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Holdout/Transparent shader bug?
I am using a mix shader node to transition between a holdout and a transparent shader, and therefore create a fade in/out effect. There is nothing wrong when the mix shader node is at 0 or 1, but when it's in between, a grey area is visible. What could be causing this ?

Hello, are you using Eevee, in that case what Blend Mode option have you selected in the Material > Settings?

+1 to moonboots, Also, don't take the way your effects look while scrubbing back and forth through the VSE timeline to get an idea of what the final result will look like. VSE uses a bunch of different tricks to buffer the video so it can playback smoothly, but the playback will prolly have a lower framerate/resolution and other compression artefacts. Try rendering a dozen frames or so and see if the problem persists there.

The Transparent BSDF should make something transparent... what do you need the Holdout for? By the way I see you have set the Alpha of the transparent color to 0. This is not necessary and actually has no effect in the Shader Editor.

@moonbots I tried Alpha Blend at first, when I encoutered the problem. I then switched to Alpha Hashed, which gave me the result I showed in my post.

@Jakemoyo I rendered a frame, which gave me the same result.

@GordonBrinkmann The objects I'm trying to fade in almost all have different materials, which means I'd have to go to each one to animate themm fading out. Trying to avoid the hassle, I cutoff shapes of a plane to hide the elements I need and fade them in.

Since you're mixing Transparency with Holdout,  I guess this is a duplicate question then. This question is similar to: Objects in holdout collection showing in render when their alpha value in Principled BSDF is not 1 or 0. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem.


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What settings do I need on the glare node to replicate the look of EEVEE's bloom in Cycles?
I have a scene that I designed in EEVEE, which looks amazing with Bloom activated, but would look even better with Global Illumination and better reflections. The problem is that using Cycles with the Glare node gives me a different glow than using EEVEE with bloom on. Any idea on what settings to tweak, or what other node I should be using ? I'm using Blender 4.0.1 btw.

Hard to tell without seeing your project, but I usually use the Fog Glow setting of the Glare node.


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Does masking vertices help render faster?
So, I typically mask vertices that are not visible when rendered, for example, in a character, the skin under the clothes. Does that help render faster or it doesn't make a difference?

Unless you're getting rid of a lot of geometry, I'd guess it has very limited effect on performance.  Maybe quicker to build and compare against BVH when you render.

You can test by looking at the elapsed render time in the top left of the render screen.

This is a question which you can easily answer yourself by comparing render times - because maybe our models are completely different from yours and an effect might have more or less impact on our models than on yours. So since you can decide if you mask vertices or not, you have all you need to get significant comparisons.


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Are addons generally considered safe to download and install?
Are addons considered safe to download? I mean, it seems that anyone can make their own addon. Who's to say if they're safe or not?

nobody. But if someone makes an unsafe (virus) add-on he won't earn much in future ...wouldn't he? it's like every software - it can always be a virus.

And like any software, common sense would require everyone to research out about what they want to download beforehand, or at least avoid products or authors unknown from everyone, and only download from the author's official channels.


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How to unlink a vertex group from Armature?
So, I have a mesh, and I only want some of the vertices not affected by the armature. I know I can weight paint, but I constantly do automatic weight since I do a lot of changes. Is there a way to tell the armature not to link with a certain vertex group no matter how many times I do automatic weights?

When the vertex group is empty, lock it.

Thank you so much!


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How to bevel curved objects with many sharp turns?
I've created this lovely dolphin and would like to smooth the marked edge:

As soon as i try to apply the beevel-tool, things get out of hand really fast:

I tried to modify the bevel options but did not find anything that would help me. Is there a way to stop the beveled edges to overlap in the sharp areas or is there maybe another way to smooth the edge?
Thanks in advance!

As you have concave profile it will create some bad faces, you need to add some edges across the top face:

Then the bevel will work (as long as it is not too large, otherwise faces will overlap, you can overlap but you'll need to fix the topology):


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Fixing Topology of FBX imports from cad cam
I work doing industrial motion graphics and run into this problem all the time so I thought I would post to see if I'm not alone. Basically every model I import that companies give me turns out like this. Now I know the tricks of modifiers including remesh and shrinkwrap or even using the base mesh to make another mesh from scratch but it seems like there should be a better way...


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working with .obj - fixing mesh
I need good renders of some models that i have as .obj files. However, I have a feeling that they have very messed up meshes:

Am I correct? As when I try to "shade smooth" it looks awful (above).
Even worse happens with subdivision surface. If I'm right with saying that the mesh is the problem here, is there any way to fix it?
If not - second option - I would be happy to model everything from scratch (less detailed), using the .obj as reference, and I'm wondering what is the best way to approach it. If i work with these two objects (my model + the .obj as reference), it gets really difficult to see what is what:

Have you tried shade smooth with autosmooth enabled? Most hard surface meshes will look pretty bad with just AS by itself.

Object Data Properties > Clear custom Normal data

thanks, tried that and it help a little bit, but still not enough, it looks like I will end up creating the models from scratch. Any advice how to use these .obj as reference?

There is a Remesh modifier that sometimes works for me.  You can then Apply it if you want to work further with the new mesh.