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Shape key on top of the modifier stack?
Is there a way to create a shape key/blend shape on top of the modifier stack.
Like using an edit poly modifier in the end of a modifier stack.
Basically a non destructible medthod for creating some details at the end of the project.

Yes, this is possible.  However, this is almost always going to be asked as an XY problem, where the questioner thinks this is the solution to some other problem Y, and they just need to figure out how to do X-- but in fact understanding X won't solve the other problem, and other solutions to Y exist.  So I don't expect this answer to be useful to you, but I'll answer the question anyways.
To approach this problem, we first have to know what shapekeys are, but it turns out that's pretty simple.  A shapekey is just a per-vertex, object space vector.  When we run a shapekey at 1.0, we add that vector to the position.  When we run two shapekeys, we add both those vectors to the position.  When we run a shapekey at 0.5, we add half of that vector to the position.
So if we want to evaluate a shapekey at some arbitrary position in the modifier tree, we can do it by using a different modifier that also just adds a vector, in object space, to the vertex position.  The displace modifier does exactly that:

To do this, we're going to need a decent UV map, one that exists inside the 0,1 UV square, one that doesn't have any overlap, because we need to bake a displacement map from our shapekey.
Here, I baked the base position to a floating point, non-color texture and packed.  Then I baked the shapekey position to a new texture.  Then I baked the shapekey position minus the base position.  This forms an XYZ displacement map representing the shapekey.  (Here, it's a little bit off, because I forgot to turn off subdivision for the bake.)  This could almost certainly be optimized, but it's the basic procedure.
I can use that XYZ displacement map in a displace modifier, from UV coordinates, in local space, using RGB->XYZ mode.  My strength is 1.0 (this corresponds to the strength of the shapekey.)  My midlevel is 0.0.  I tell it to use a texture for the displacement, and set that texture up as an image, referencing my baked Diff.  Let's look at it with a modifier before the displacement:

At first, that looks very odd.  What's happening?  We're armature deforming, and I've used my root bone to turn Suzanne upside-down.  Then, we're applying our shapekey after the armature.  We're doing it via a displace modifier, but it's the same thing, it's just translation of each vertex by an object-space vector.
Shapekeys are in local space, and our mesh's local space hasn't changed.  Instead, its vertices have deformed inside of its unchanging local space.  So the shapekey is doing exactly what it's supposed to do: it's translating the vertices in the positive Z.
That's not usually what people want.  That's why knowing how to do this is unlikely to actually help you, and why shapekeys are designed to run before other modifiers, and why there aren't a lot of tools to make it easy to make them operate afterwards.  But, on the chance that this is exactly what you want, that's how you can do it.

You can use geometry nodes to save vertex positions and then another geometry node tree to restore it or interpolate between the old position and new position (which is what shape keys do, they interpolate between sets of vertex positions).

Create a new file with default cube.
Ctrl3 to subdivide.
CtrlPage Up twice to go to Geometry Nodes workspace.
Click a button in the center of screen  to create a new node tree.
Use this setup:

In modifiers stack, name the output attribute oldpos:

Add some modifier that doesn't remove or add geometry (that wouldn't work with shape keys too, as it messes with indices):

Repeat p. 4.
Use this setup:

Optional: you may want to press N key to open a side-panel and modify the input attribute to properly describe what it is:

In modifiers stack, define the input attribute

You can now interpolate by dragging the Mix RGB node Factor slider:

You may think it's useless as you could just control the modifier's factor, but this way you get a shape-key-like direct (simplest) interpolation, plus you can actually deal with indices changing by something like Transfer Attribute in proximity mode...

I want to have a "sculpt layer" on top of the modifiers. I don't know how to use that for that purpose.


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Black lines in Smoke render
Hello I'am new to blender, and I'am creating a ink drop in water animation using quick smoke simulation cycles render then after I finished rendering there's a strange black parts in the animation.
I would like to ask how can I remove these parts.

The attached link is the animation I rendered and the blend file.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/unismmxg1w31y3v/AAD24U5jXFh5umXuNgczPao8a?dl=0
Thank you in advance

Try 2.80 version (or 2.79 daily build) there is no this behavior:

And by the way, try this setting in color ramp, in my opinion, it produce more cooler ink-drop look.
Maybe this is a bug, and it was fixed in new version...
in 2.79b adding a little bit tint of color also helps:

Than you so much in suggestion and answer!
It works as you said.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Infinite Bounce
I have made a soft body sphere that bounces of a plane. Like in real world the sphere bounces back not as high as it has been dropped from.
Is there a way that the sphere bounces back to its original starting position and thus bounces infinitely?
Thanks

You can increase "Bounciness" on both the sphere and the plane. Problem is, with a bounciness of 1, the sphere will bounce higher than its starting position. So, you'll need to tweak the values.

depending on your use case, it might be easier to manually animate the bounce and squish, than leave it to the physics and soft body.

thanks for the info. what is the parameter that alters the bounciness?

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


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Code behind the Simple Deform Modifier
I would like to improve the documentation of the Simple Deform Modifier. Therefore, I have inspected the source code (click here to view online. The math is 'do-able'. For example: the transformation for the taper-mode is as follows. However, I have trouble understanding the coordinates
  float x = r_co[0], y = r_co[1], z = r_co[2];
  float scale = z * factor;

  r_co[0] = x + x * scale;
  r_co[1] = y + y * scale;
  r_co[2] = z;

I assume that the r_co[0] to ...[3] are the X,Y and Z-coordinates of the vertices. So, the tapering is scaled in the X and Y axes, with a weight from the Z-location/distance.

Is this Z-location/distance calculated from the origin of the mesh? It should be 0 at the origin  because vertices are not scaled in X & Y axes for the origin-plane.
What is the Z-location/distance of a vertex at the border of the mesh? It should be 1 because the tapering is at its max at that point.

So, are these R_co[0] ... [3] coordinates expressed in a number varying from -1 to +1, with 0 at the origin of the mesh? Is there any documentation about this?
Thanks.

AFAIK it is still the case that: Questions re blender source code are considered off-topic on BSE See https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/296/what-should-our-custom-off-topic-close-reasons-be/321#321

@batFINGER, though clarifying simple deform behavior can be really helpful...

@batFINGER, and also why this "source-code" tag exists?

That's for all the Python-code.

@batFINGER I thought this superseded that link? https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2216/source-code-questions-in-2016

Personally I'm pro source code questions. On the other hand I understand why they are off-topic.   The question could be re-jigged to say emulating the modifier with python, using the source as a guide. The question above has moved into decoding the source.  Even the first assumption may be off since the deform axis is arbitrarily Z and the axis indices are ordered based on modifier setting.  @RayMairlot was there a conclusion from that?

@batFINGER With meta questions I think when there is a general agreement over something (i.e. answers in support of it), that is the conclusion (even if other questions haven't been updated to support that). It's generally the source I cite when people mention source code questions. I think unless another meta question about this arises in opposition to it it's fair to assume that it's on-topic (and maybe that question you linked, and others, should be updated now).

@Ray  Where the motive is better to explain the use of the coded tools, I'm definitely for, at least,  'where do I find?'  source-code questions. This tool is so counter-intuitive.

After further research.
The Simple Deform modifier modes are in fact basic operations of rotating (Twist & Bend) and scaling (Taper & Stretch). The code for the Taper function is given above.
The calculation of the deformation is performed in the local coordinate system. The parameters r_co[0] … [3] are thus the local X, Y en Z coordinates of the object. Depending on the location of the origin of the object, these can be positive, negative or both. In the figure below, the origin is at the bottom of the object, so all local Z coordinates are positive.
Originally, the parameter Factor comes from the user (0.750 in the example) but is adjusted somewhere else in the code for the size of the object in the Deform axis. It is also influenced by the parameter Limits. In the example, the deform axis is Z and the object has a size of 3 units in this axis. So, the factor used in the function is 0.750/3 = 0.250; e.g. the total amount of deformation is spread over the entire deform axis.
So, all vertices are scaled in the local X and Y axis. The local Z-coordinate remains unchanged.
Following the given formula the deformed vertex is calculated as follows:
Vertex (-0.5,0,3);  -0.5 + (-0.5*(3*0.250)) =  -0.875
Vertex (-0.5,0,2);  -0.5 + (-0.5*(2*0.250)) =  -0.750
Vertex (-0.5,0,1);  -0.5 + (-0.5*(1*0.250)) =  -0.625


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How to draw or copy a image as realistic texture for 3d models?
How to draw or copy a image as texture for 3d models?
I've tried to copy some images from Internet but they can't fill my model smoothly since they aren't seamless texture.
So I want to draw my own texture, and I want to know if there are some methods or tools that can draw realistic texture easily.
I've had problems with car tire there is repeat pattern problem.
This texture is from the game model file.

,and this one is from my own model.

How to make texture more realistic like the first image?

Texturing, especially texture painting is an art form, there is no short answer here. You should check out how to do it in general and for realism using the clone function to copy parts from actual photos is probably the way to go for you.

Please don't ask the same question twice. Edit your previous question instead.

Your question gets no answer because it is too broad and subjective. Try to explain what you've done so far and how and tell what specific issue you've encountered. Thanks.

You can block out the base colors of the texture with texture baking. Add an Ambient Occlusion node to the material & you will get a base to work with. The dirt, scratches, etc you have to paint. This can but done on an extra texture & mixed into the base texture and finally, bake it again. The pattern for the tires can be done with normals (https://blenderartists.org/t/how-to-add-tyre-tread-using-normal-map/1114861/4), uv map it and then bake it as normals to your texture.


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Problems with box select and click-drag select
I'm having an issue with the box select, I cannot select multiple meshes by click-dragging over them or even with using the box select shortcut (b), then click-drag. I am able to select a single mesh + light sources with the box select tho- This problem also carries over to edit mode and I cannot box select edges or vertices. I’ve tried resetting all of the user preferences but nothing is seeming to fix it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
To add a little more detail, I can select multiple objects only by holding down shift while clicking on them each individually.  I can also still use circle select to select multiple objects, the problem is limited only to box select in object mode. Tried a different mouse and still the same problem- Wondering if it’s with this current upload of 2.8 because it is working fine on my laptop which has a version I downloaded about a week ago.

This post is hidden. It was deleted 1 hour ago by Robert Gützkow♦.
I've got the same problem. it was working fine, i mashed the keyboard and now I have to use shift.
I think we've turned the default selection to '-' instead of '+'
must be a hotkey somehow. anyone know what it is?

Maybe try changing the select mode by pressing W.

But W only switches between selection types... in his question he says Circle Select for example works. It seems like only Box Select is affected. I have to admit I can't reproduce this error so I'm curious what this is.

Ah, I see, my bad sorry, maybe there is some thing that he changed key binds for selecting. You're right I don't know what this is either.

Thank you. This actually helped me. I didn't know why i could drag select stuff in Object mode and not in the Edit mode. Probably had hit the W without knowing what it does :|

can you confirm that your UI looks like this?

Try to left click mouse on the select box icon and then press 'Remove Shortcut'
Hope it helps :)

I had a similar problem. It turns out that the file is to big for my computer to process. Selecting works well in isolate mode and also when the box selection is really tiny.
If someone also have this problem I suggest splitting file into two (like I did interior of a castle in different file then the garden and exterior) OR suffer with selecting only by tiny box selections. Turning some layers off also works.


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Issues with Render Selected in 2.8 (Ctrl-B)
Has anyone else had issues in 2.8 using the "render selected" tool that can be accessed by Ctrl-B in object mode? The selection box still shows up but it does not make a difference to what my viewport looks like

Admittedly I don't have an up-to-date version of 2.8, but isn't it called 'Render Region' (previously Render Border) and not 'Render Selected'?


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Gravity keyframe not working on render
I'm doing a 10 second animation for a project at uni. Part of this animation consists of a box falling on a button to activate it. I wanted this to start at frame 190 and as nothing else uses gravity in the animation I decided to keyframe the scene gravity so there isn't gravity up until frame 190. This worked great and on viewport mode I can see the animation working, however when rendering the image the box won't fall.
Thank you for your help.

You have to bake the animation before rendering.Have you baked the animation?

Just did that and is working like a charm! I feel really stupid, thank you for your help :)


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Blowing sand / dust (I've tried the smoke method and it looks like smoke not dust)
Evening everyone - I'm trying to get a simple sand / dust blowing across the scene and am a bit stumped. I've tried smoke and its too smoke like. I've tried particles with various force fields but it just looks wrong. I've notice a couple of animators use - what seems to be - video overlay??
Any thoughts would be appreciated. I'm working on a desert scene with wind blowing...
Andy

why didn't particles work? Video overlays seems to be a good idea but you need to find the videos

show us your particle try (blend file) and we pimp it up ;)

https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/219639/2214 ... or probably if you can attach some reference of desired result.

Thank you for the input guys - The animation I did (with smoke) would probably be too big to post here but it wasn't too bad but it looked like smoke blowing across the scene and not granular particles of sand. Particles are either to small to be seen or too big to be real. Apologies for the poor descriptions. I noticed there doesn't seem to be any Youtube videos suggesting how to do this (dust trail / cloud yes but blowing sand no) so maybe Blender is not suited to it?? I'll try and post the smoke results


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How to render motion trails (paths)?
I have a simple character animation from mixamo which is moving in circle (as in screenshot). Is there any method to track the path of specific vertices (eg: the motion of hand) and render the path? I tried Btracer but its crashing.
Thank You

if you don't mind using animation nodes and installing some extra nodes it is pretty easy, just checkout this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw0hmTBGhhM

Would motion paths be sufficient for your needs?

@Chris Thanks for the link. I have read its possible with Animation nodes.

@MartyFouts I have to render the paths, In motion paths i am not sure if its possible to render the path.


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Any ways to clear the stretching of projection from view?
I applied a texture to an object via projection from view. But there are stretches occurring at the boundaries. I tried texture paint to clone but failed. Is there any method to clear that stretching?
Thanks

If you don't want any stretching you need to choose another way than unwrap > Project from View I guess?

In this case it seems just moving the edge of UV map can unstretch: https://i.imgur.com/vMGdYvf.gif

If you don't need a proper unwrap, you can easily apply surface textures with a setup like this:

When you raise the Blend value, you'll see the seams start to blur and disappear.


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How to avoid particles passing through an object which is the emitter itself?
As in the screenshot the particles are emitting from a specific portion of the bigsphere. I made a vertex group and assigned that group for the particle system so than the particles will emit from that specific part of big sphere. The issue i am facing is the particles now coming out is overlapping with the big sphere, some particles are coming out of the mesh which is not a part of the vertex group. I want these particles emit from that portion without overlapping with the mesh of bigsphere. There is also a pulsating animation applied to the vertex group with simple deform modifier.
I tried "size deflect" and also making the bigsphere a collision object but its not working.
Solutions?
Thanks

What is the modifier order?

@vklidu There are multiple modifiers. Order is first the modifiers and then particle system

I don't think you can let collide particles with its emitter ... you would have to use a "dummy" -  exact copy of emitter with Collision physics hidden from rendering ... if it is not working share your simplified file to demonstrate your issue. You can use https://blend-exchange.com

THanks for the reply. I will try it

Since my model is a high poly mesh, it was bit difficult for me to use the duplicate. So I created a plane, applied collision,  and used it in front of the emitter. Even then the particles where passing through the mistake I did was I dint subdivide the plane, now the issue is solved.

Great it worked. Since this site is meant to be knowledge base ... Would be great if can write regular Answer so others can learn from you. Thank you


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How to select "in between values" with Math nodes
I like to take age values of particles between 20 and 40 and change color of an object in between these values. How can I do it?
Thanks

By the way, because you give no information on which render engine you want to use and nobody mentions it: the Particle Info node that gives you the particle age only works in Cycles, not in Eevee.

Presumably, you want their age-- their lifetime is their total lifetime, determined at birth, not the current time since emission.
To map color to some particular range of ages, first map your age range to a 0,1 range, then use a color ramp:

All particles younger than 20 frames are green.  All particles older than 40 frames are red.  Between, we gradate (by linear RGB, as set by the color ramp.)

First off, this solution only works in Cycles not in Eevee because the Particle Info node which is needed for the particle age doesn't work in Eevee.
Sorry for repeating parts of your answers, but since the question is open for different approaches or what exactly the outcome should look like, I thought I'd sum up and combine everything so that one can pick what suits them best. This is just an addition if you also want to indicate with another color if the particles are out of the 20 to 40 age range.
In this case, a Compare node comes in handy. To test if the age is between 20 and 40, you take the average (20+40)/2 = 30 and half the distance (40-20)/2 = 10. Plug the age in the first Value input of the Compare node, enter 30 as the second Value and 10 for Epsilon. Now this node compares if the age is 30 +/- 10 (i.e. 20 to 40). The result will be 1 if it is in this range, otherwise 0. This you can use as factor for a Mix RGB node. The first color shows when the age is out of range, in the second color you plug the Color Ramp.
The result looks like this: Particles will change from blue at age 20 to green at age 40. If they are younger or older, they are black.

But also Marty's answer with the Greater Than and Less Than can be of use, if you also want to indicate by different colors if the particles are under age 20 or over age 40. In this case you check for an age less than 20 as factor in a Mix RGB node and mix in the Color Ramp as first color for 0 (no, the age is not less than 20) and some color for 1 (red in my example).
This result goes into the first input of another Mix RGB where the factor is determined by a Greater Than node checking if the age is greater than 40. On 0 (age not greater 40), the result of the first mix node will pass through, on 1 (age greater 40) the second color (in my example black) will indicate older particles.
It looks like this, on the left there are red particles which shows they are under age 20, then comes the color range from blue to green. The particles on the right side are black which shows they are over age 40.

If you want to change the color in a specific range, you want to use two compare functions because you want to know if the particle's age is greater than 20 and also less than 40.  So you need two math nodes, one for each compare:

But how do you use those results? The compare node returns a 0 if the compare fails and a 1 if the compare succeeds.  Since there is no math node for logic functions, you need a way of faking the and function.  Turns out multiplying the two results gives you the correct values:

If either compare returns 0, multiplying it by the other gives 0.  If both return 1, then the multiplication returns 1.  We can feed this into a mixRGB node:

Since the mixRGB node gives the top color when its factor is 0 and the bottom color when its factor is 1, that tree will give the bluish color if the age is out of the range and the reddish color if the age is in the range.

Great answer! Just one little note: since these nodes don't include the minimum and maximum values, if the output was intended to be red on 20 and 40 instead of just between those frames, you'd need to set the inputs to 19 and 41 (of course that won't matter most of the time).

English is ambiguous for this usage.  "between 20 and 40" can mean either inclusive or exclusive of the end points.  I took the inclusive path.  In math, we use the parenthesis versus the square bracket to indicate whether a range is inclusive or exclusive, by convention, of course.

I just added the comment to add extra info. Sometimes newbs get frustrated when something doesn't work exactly as they expect it to, so I hoped adding the comment would help such a person out should they run into that problem. Didn't mean for it to sound like you did it wrong or something.

Sorry if I came off rude.  I only meant to expand on your comment, which I agree with.  I also forgot to thank you for the compliment.  Your extra info was useful.


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Smoke simulation through small gaps
I would like to do a smoke simulation which pass through the gap between two planes. Planes are set as Effector and Effector Type as Collision. The smokes will pass when there is a considerable gap between the two planes. When I reduce gap width the smoke wont pass. I changed the value of Surface Thickness of Effector but it didnt work. Is there any method to make smoke pass through small gaps?

the small rectangle in the corner of the domain is the "resolution cube". Everything which is smaller than that won't take into account. So just increase the domain resolution and you can make your gaps smaller.

@Chris Thanks alot. Will try

@Chris Thank You. It worked

glad i could help


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Why these big checker boxes are seeing in texture and rendered mode?
In the render (1st Pic) and texture (2nd Pic) modes, why these big checker boxes are showing? Is there any solution to remove these?
Its a transparent sphere with some noise textures and soft body/collision simulation
Thanks
Arun

Any chance you're using a bevel modifier? Closest I could get to recreating your symptoms came when I attached one to the sphere, but even that doesn't look quite the same. How did you add transparency? Could you post a screenshot of your node setup?

Just now i found a way, I am using "Alpha Blend" in the blend mode and the option  "Show Backface" was ticked. I just unchecked it and the checker boxes vanished.

change alpha blending mode to something more accurate like alpha hashed


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Is there any technique to give a metaball effect to the particles emitting from a UV Sphere?
I have a UV Sphere emitter which emits sphere particles. As in the figure the emission is not organic. Is there any way to make it more organic like the particle is stretched out from the sphere like metaballs separate?

You can't really emit particles directly from Meta Objects themselves, so you'll just have to fake it.
Just add a large Metaball overlapping your real UV sphere covering the actual emitter.
Adjust its size so it covers it entirely, or alternatively make the real emitter non-renderable.

Make sure it is named after a similar prefix to the particle Metaball (MBall## by default), so they actually interact with each other.

This is beyond the scope of the original question, but by popular demand here are the settings for the first demo image, relevant properties circled.
Simple particle system with Newtonian Physics, pointing to a small Metaball object.
Under Velocity turn off Normal and increase Object Z slightly. In the Field Weights disable gravity so they "float up", then add a texture to it.

Make the texture is Blend type, and turn off all influences except Size. Switch Mapping to Strand/Particle so it maps out "through time" rather than any spatial coordinate. Under the Color panel enable the Color Ramp and flip the default result direction so they shrink with age rather than grow.

Man, this is great. But can you elaborate a bit more about the settings? Thanks

Just a simple particle system emitting small Metaballs. Gravity turned off, and a Z force puling them up. Only "fancy" thing is a texture affecting their size over time so they shrink as they go up

ok... we'll have to search a bit to reproduce that great effect so... will try to do ; )

@lemon Check it out, let me know if anything is unclear ;)

Duarte... will give a try tomorrow... a blend file would be time sparing... but we have to work too, to learn around this, so this is not a request... Thanks again, this answer should be one of the great ones.

I rarely even save my answer files, providing a ready made solution feels detrimental to learning, compared to recreating the steps yourself. It also seems beyond the scope of the original question, but it took all of five minutes to make from scratch, so I'm sure catch on quick :)

The whole texture system seems more 'legacy' than any other part of Blender.. I guess nodes will deal with it, so not worth special attention..

I've been aching for the legacy texture system to be replaced by node based solution, ideally compatible with Cycles/EEVEE nodes. One could then conjure up more complex setups or even match a displacement node with the material textures.

Thank You very much for the tips


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Curve bevel not working properly, my mesh ends up deformed
I cant seem to figure out why this happens.....Applied a bevel to this curve set to OBJECT and then I selected my profile I have imported. Somehow it ends up deformed.I have applied scale.

I think we'll need to see your Blend file. You can share it via https://blend-exchange.com/ following the instructions there to copy the link to your question into the field on that page and it will then appear in your question.

First thing, on the top of the Object Data panel, switch the Shape from 3D to 2D, if this is not your problem, in Edit mode select all and right click > Set Curve Radius >  1 and Enter

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/66353/how-to-make-beveled-90-degree-corners-on-a-curve-better https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/113888/bezier-curve-with-bevel-object-nice-corner


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Blurry reflections in Blender 2.8 Beta
So I have Metallic to 1 and Roughness to 0 in the new Principled BDSF for my spheres in this attached image (My first render from Blender - yey!). But in the reflections of this image everything is pixelish (even the edges of the lamps as well as the HDRI bg-image).
Am I doing something wrong here or is this a bug?
(I am new to Blender and used to work in Max so it might be me).

First and most importantly are the spheres set to smooth shading? (if that was not it then) Do you have the denoiser on? What is the resolution of the HDR? How many faces are in the spheres? Any sub division modifier?

Thanks David!
It was a noob mistake from me. I had the Subdivision Surface Modifier set to high in the vieport but low in the render. So turning it up solved the problem. Maybe keep the post here if someone else runs into the same problem. :)


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blender 2.8: 'Object' object has no attribute 'hide'
Code from example:
import bpy

bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')
for ob in bpy.context.scene.objects:
    if not ob.hide:
        continue
    ...

Fails on ob.hide:
AttributeError: 'Object' object has no attribute 'hide'
How to solve this issue? It seems that example was written for 2.79.

Blender 2.80 use a more complicated (sound and safe for code) API to deal with some attributes.
As the object.hide in Blender 2.79 is replaced by getter and setter function:
object.hide_get() # get the hide value {True, False}
object.hide_set(True) # set hide to True

so, ob.hide needed to be replaced by ob.hide_get()


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Cloth simulation workflow
I’m making my first project with Blender and it’s special effects for a film project. I would need to animate a cloth with a cloth simulation. It’s just a plane that tries to imitate house curtains as I’m trying to make curtains move in a weird way.
I have a plane with dimensions 5m x 14m (measurements of the real curtains), and that will be made into cloth and then manipulated with various collision objects.
I have two separate questions on this:

video reference.
I need to sync the animation to filmed footage, so I have imported the film clip as image plane. To use as a reference. Is this the correct way to use reference video? It seems to mess up the cloth simulation in 2.8 and I need to remove it before baking…
baking
I’m trying to mach the cloth properties to the filmed real cloth. That means tweaking a lot of the cloth properties in order to get right mass, bending etc.
The problem is that the baking of the cloth physics takes a lot of time. For every little tweak I need to bake the physics again which takes 15-30minutes… so it makes this extremely tedious work. Is there a better way to do this?

I’m aware there’s the surface deform modifier, but as I’m trying to mach filmed footage, I find it quite complex way of getting exact results.. or would it be the best way to do this?
How would you do this?
My setup is Ryzen 7 2700x and RTX2070. Blender 2.8
Thank you!!


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psd file to textures
I'm very new to Blender so this may be a very stupid question. Anyway, I'm trying to make a special effect for a video. It should happen in a shopping mall, so I bought a pre-made shopping mall from cgtrader website. It includes a blender file, but that doesn't have any textures in place. It also included layered photoshop file, which looks like very nicely rendered view. It says in the original text "The file has all lightning setup and texturing ;multi layer phososhop PSD file included" Also there's a folder of some textures. So my question is: how do I get these textures into my Blender file? Can it somehow automatically link them? It's a huge file of a shopping mall so making all the textures by hand seems like huge work. (which I tried to avoid by bying the readymade file..;-) Thanks for any help!!

If the materials on the objects reference the psd file as a texture, they will show up inside blender.

Ok, thank you for help!  Didn't work that way though unfortunately. I contacted the seller.. I hope they can give me some info..


text:
Converting particle simulation into meshes for Keyshot
I created a particle simulation that emits icospheres with 0 gravity, but affected by a wind force field, with the intent to make it look like it's being blown away by the wind. I'd like to render this animation in Keyshot, so I have to export this file as an Alembic. I used a Python script posted by jasperge to convert the particle simulation into meshes.
The script ran successfully, but playing the animation shows that the particles are gigantic. Anyone have an idea why this may be, or if there's something I need to change in the script? I'd appreciate any help. Thanks!
Before script:

After script:

Script used:
import bpy

# Set these to False if you don't want to key that property.
KEYFRAME_LOCATION = True
KEYFRAME_ROTATION = True
KEYFRAME_SCALE = True
KEYFRAME_VISIBILITY = True  # Viewport and render visibility.

def create_objects_for_particles(ps, obj):
    # Duplicate the given object for every particle and return the duplicates.
    # Use instances instead of full copies.
    obj_list = []
    mesh = obj.data
    for i, _ in enumerate(ps.particles):
        dupli = bpy.data.objects.new(
                    name="particle.{:03d}".format(i),
                    object_data=mesh)
        bpy.context.scene.objects.link(dupli)
        obj_list.append(dupli)
    return obj_list

def match_and_keyframe_objects(ps, obj_list, start_frame, end_frame):
    # Match and keyframe the objects to the particles for every frame in the
    # given range.
    for frame in range(start_frame, end_frame + 1):
        bpy.context.scene.frame_set(frame)
        for p, obj in zip(ps.particles, obj_list):
            match_object_to_particle(p, obj)
            keyframe_obj(obj)

def match_object_to_particle(p, obj):
    # Match the location, rotation, scale and visibility of the object to
    # the particle.
    loc = p.location
    rot = p.rotation
    size = p.size
    if p.alive_state == 'ALIVE':
        vis = True
    else:
        vis = False
    obj.location = loc
    # Set rotation mode to quaternion to match particle rotation.
    obj.rotation_mode = 'QUATERNION'
    obj.rotation_quaternion = rot
    obj.scale = (size, size, size)
    obj.hide = not(vis)
    obj.hide_render = not(vis)

def keyframe_obj(obj):
    # Keyframe location, rotation, scale and visibility if specified.
    if KEYFRAME_LOCATION:
        obj.keyframe_insert("location")
    if KEYFRAME_ROTATION:
        obj.keyframe_insert("rotation_quaternion")
    if KEYFRAME_SCALE:
        obj.keyframe_insert("scale")
    if KEYFRAME_VISIBILITY:
        obj.keyframe_insert("hide")
        obj.keyframe_insert("hide_render")

def main():
    # Assume only 2 objects are selected.
    # The active object should be the one with the particle system.
    ps_obj = bpy.context.object
    obj = [obj for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects if obj != ps_obj][0]
    ps = ps_obj.particle_systems[0]  # Assume only 1 particle system is present.
    start_frame = bpy.context.scene.frame_start
    end_frame = bpy.context.scene.frame_end
    obj_list = create_objects_for_particles(ps, obj)
    match_and_keyframe_objects(ps, obj_list, start_frame, end_frame)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

When you use the script you need to specify a object to duplicate ?
If so, before launching the script scale down your object and apply the scale, (Ctrl + A).

Awesome, that worked! I didn't realize that scaling wasn't a permanent thing if a script is involved. Thank you!


text:
Eevee alpha texture shadow issue
I have a problem with shadows when I use the alpha channel textures. I've noticed this issue is on my 2 PC with AMD and Radeon video cards. On 3 PC with Intel and GeForce I don't have this kind of issues.
In Cycle all works like it should, I have issue only when using the eevee.
Does anyone know why there is such a problem with Radion video cards and if there is a solution to it?
I have the latest drivers on my PCs
screenshots
Cycle

Eevee


text:
How to calculate rotation for Mesh2 based on identical Mesh1 and its local vertices data?
I have two identical meshes. Their rotation is already applied in Blender (0,0,0). I would like to restore rotation for mesh2 based on mesh1 as a reference object.
I have a python script that finds all identical meshes (with the identical geometry data) and converts them to instances. Right now, after linking mesh data, all objects are correctly located to their origin (which is the center of mass) but I lose the rotation.
The purpose of this is to align all meshes to their correct (preivous) rotation after being converted to instances.
Thank you!

So, let’s say you have two unlinked objects, a mug with the handle pointing north, and another one with the handle pointing east, with rotation applied on each. Are you saying that your script would detect that the two mugs are similar and change it so it’s the same mesh block with the handle pointing north, but now you want in the system to add an object transform that moves the one mug back to the handle pointing east, although it is now sharing the same mesh data?

@TheLabCat yes, exactly, we have scenes with hundreds of identical meshes (identical geometry data), we want to convert them to instances and (the reason of the question) to re-calculate rotation for new instance meshses. So that they have the same orientation as previously located mesh.

Communities are referencing to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabsch_algorithm Was wondering if there is a less sophisticated geometry approach to calculating those.

OK, that makes sense. However, adding rotation to an object in blender is extremely easy in Python or in UI, so… I would think all you would need to do is find out from the geometry matching algorithm what the offset angle was. Can you do this?

Hang on… How is your script detecting that the mesh is the same? I assumed it was matching vertices with mathematics, but is it just going on a naming system?

@TheLabCat basically, taking vertex data, indices, edges, etc., and comparing them. That is what I am looking for, to find rotation offset. :)

I would think after it’s analyzed all that and discovered that the mesh matches, it would already have the rotation offset itself. If not, you could try comparing two vertices with their matching vertices and use trigonometry on the vectors between each.


text:
Why is my normal baking ending up with lowpoly normals?
Blender 2.9. I'm following a tutorial on character creation and modelling. I am modelling an orc. So far, it looks great -- except I'm struggling to get my normals to bake correctly from a  highpoly model to a lowpoly one.
Here's my lowpoly orc, with normals on it:

Here's my normal map:

Here's the highpoly version:

And here are my baking settings:

I've tried all manner of ray length settings, extrusion and have even tried a cage with a blown up orc. The steps I've been following are (1) select Cycles renderer. (2) hold ctrl (3) select the highpoly orc. (4) select the lowpoly orc. (5) select the normal map in the nodes window. (6) hit "Bake".
As you can see, my process worked for all the other objects (like the horns, teeth, shackle, belt, etc.) but not the orc!

Don't do 2.  Do 3 as a normal select, but do 4 while holding the shift key.

wow, amazingly, that worked! Can't say this is intuitive, lol. Can you add that as an answer?

added as an answer

The problem is in the way you're selecting the two objects.

Do your step 1.
Do not do your step 2.
Do step 3 in the usual way for selecting an object, by left clicking on it.
Do step 4 by holding Shift while left clicking on it.
Do step 5
Do step 6


text:
Faces tilting and warping
I haven't been using Blender for very long but one issue that I always seem to have is that some of my faces seem to bend and warp in weird ways. I've looked up this issue online but wasn't able to find a solution or even anyone else experiencing the issue. I've attached some screenshots with examples of my problem.Faces warping in a different way even when a mirror is (and has always been) active

From your question I don't really understand what is your problem, please clarify what should happen and what is happening right now

The pattern in your second image appears to be an example of Z-fighting. This happens when two surfaces exactly overlap.  That suggests that you sometimes use the face command when a different set of vertices than you meant were selected.  If you added a blend file showing the problem to your question, it should be easy to check if that's the issue (How to add a blend file)

Could you please be more specific as to which faces bend and warp?


text:
Colorize Point Instance from texture _ Geometry Nodes_
I'm working on 3d carpets assets with Blender, i'm using Geometry Nodes for scattering the fur.
I wish colorize the instances with the pixel color on my "emiter" shader difuse texture.
We can do it simple with Hair systhem, but with GN it look complex for my GN skill
Anybody can help me ?
My actual GN graph:

My curent result:

Wat i wish. (using Hair systhem)

Same question in this thread :
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/213224/control-instance-color-with-geometry-nodes

Thkx Gordon.
Yes it is !


text:
How can I check a game Property?
I need a bpy.data.objects["object name"]["property value"] or a command like this.

Welcome to BSE! If you're new to the StackExchange network, please take the tour:https://blender.stackexchange.com/tour This question does not provide nearly enough information for us to give helpful answers. Please describe what you're trying to do, what you've attempted to achieve that, and what problem you're encountering. This does not necessarily require a lot of words, but it does require specificity. Help us help you!

bpy is the Blender API.
The BGE API is bge.
You can access game properties via dictionary access on the game object
Read
Read and fail when it does not exist
print("property value is ", gameObject["propertyName"])

This is the fastest method, but fails when the property is not present. This is good when the property is mandatory.
Read with fallback value
print("property value is ", gameObject.get("propertyName", "fallbackValue"))

This is pretty fail safe and can be used on optional properties.
Be aware it always creates the fallback value. This costs processing time. Ensure creating the fallback value is fast (or use an existing value).
The property will not be set, when it does not exist.
Read with previous existence check:
if "propertyName" in gameObject:
    print("property value is ", gameObject["propertyName"])
else:
    print("no property set")

Requires more code but is very fail safe. When the property exists the read access is performed twice (once for check existence, once to get the value).
It is good when the property is optional and the fallback situation needs some effort (such as creating larger objects) or leads to complete different behavior. The fallback code will only be executed when the property is not existent. This solution is more efficient when in most of the cases the property is not present (as this results in a single read access).
Read with error handling:
try:
    print("property value is ", gameObject["propertyName"])
except KeyError:
    print("no property set")

More code but fail safe. Pretty efficient as the access will happen just once. The fallback can be complex, it will only be executed when the property is not present.
Write
gameObject["propertyName"] = newValue

It is the exact same code, regardless if you want to add or change a property
Delete
del gameObject["propertyName"]

Example
Initialize Property
try:
    propertyValue = gameObject["propertyName"]
except KeyError:
    propertyValue = "fallbackValue"
    gameObject["propertyName"] = propertyValue

print("property value is ", propertyValue )

[Edit:]
Getting Game Objects
Just in case you do not know how to get or find game objects:
import bge

v1 = bge.logic.getCurrentScene().objects["v1"] # this will fail when there is no object called v1!
farbe = v1.get("farbe")
print("farbe of v1 is", farbe)

Thanks a lot my GameObject is "v1" and the propertyName is "farbe"
I tried it with:
import bge
if farbe in v1:
print("property value is ", v1[farbe])
else:
print("no property set")
error:
Python script error - object 'v1', controller 'Python':
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "property check.py", line 3, in
NameError: name 'farbe' is not defined
I think it says that farbe isn't a property of v1 but shouldn't come "no property set" then? and actually I have set the Property in the logic bricks ans also tried v1[farbe] = 0 and its still not working

sorry I don't know how to answer correctly this doesn't seem right.. :/

oh yeah and when i wrote v1[farbe] = 0 this came:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<blender_console>", line 1, in
NameError: name 'v1' is not defined

The property name is a String. So you need to write v1["farbe"].

The "NameError" means you used a name that Python does not know what it is. This typically happens when using a variable name before creating this variable as you did. There is no variable, function or keyword called "farbe", but you are using this name. So python does not know what to do and raises the "NameError: name 'farbe' is not defined". As stated above: use the String literal "farbe" (with "). Alternative you could create a variable farbe = "farbe" before using it.

but I created the variable "farbe" in blender in the logic bricks. It was set a an integer with the value 0 which i wanna change if someting happens in my game. Isn't that enough? Do I have to Set this property by code?

That is not a variable. it is a property. A property belongs to the game object (you can define and change it via logic bricks). It lives as long as the game object lives. A variable is a named container for a single value within Python. It lives in the code block you created it until there are no references to it anymore. Typically it dies when you leave the function/script

You want to access the property (via name "farbe) -> gameObject["farbe"]

Yeah the problem is, my objects name is "v1" and my game property i set to it in the logic bricks is named "farbe" so I simply tried print(v1[farbe]) in the console but then this error came:
"NameError: name 'v1' is not defined" and i dont know why because i definitely have that object.
Same error came when i tried it in the game with a script in the logic bricks.

The same as before you need to create a variable called "v1" before using it. In your case you should search the scene for a game object of the name "v1". Then you can operate on it. See above.

I don't get how I can use the game property I set in blender to my object "v1" and even if I completely ignore that and try this code:
import bge
v1=0
v1[farbe] = 10
if farbe in v1:
print(farbe, v1[farbe])
else:
print("no property set")
at which i often changed something to try whats wrong it doesn't work and always that comes: NameError: name 'farbe' is not defined.
I also tried just:
import bge
v1["farbe"] = 0
print(v1["farbe"])
but same result.
Sorry i feel like im annoying you, but im really new to this.

Oh yeah ind I tried this too:
import bge
v1 = bge.logic.getCurrentScene().objects["v1"] # this will fail when there is no object called v1!
farbe = v1.get("farbe")
print("farbe of v1 is", farbe)
but its still the same NameError like before

I think you should open a thread at blenderastists.org to discuss your issues. btw. You still do not add " around your farbe.

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


text:
Startup file erased after 3.2 update. Can I get it back?
I just fired up Blender and found that it had been updated. That's great and all, but it apparently erased my video sequence editor startup file. Can it be recovered, or do I have to recreate it again?
I'm not super fluent with Blender or video editing, so I'll probably have to do some digging to restore what I had. I'd rather not if I can help it.
I asked a very specific question and was given 2 links with no explanation, and then my question was closed. Neither link answered my question.
My question is, can I recover my startup file now that Blender has already updated? The links provided do not answer that question.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/8542/do-i-have-to-setup-everything-again-after-update https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/23338/where-is-the-startup-file-stored

So, no, I can't recover it? Sorry, but these links don't answer my question.

And now my it says my question already has answers at the 2nd of those links? No it doesn't. I asked if I can recover the file or not; that is not answered in that link.

The links should point you to the location the files are in. Whether you can recover the them or not depends on whether the files are still there or not, which only you can find out, since only  you have access to your computer

Those links are very, very old. But I'm not going to argue with you. If this is as helpful as you can be before closing someone down, then I'm in the wrong place anyway.  Thanks for nothing.

I think Duarte is being very unfair here. Just throwing a link without any explanation is really not very helpful, and kinda rude to be honest. And then closing down the question because you didn't like the response is even worse. Pretty childish.

@vegtabill, if you are using Windows, try searching the %temp% directory. Unfortunately, the file you have lost can be only recovered throughout the %temp% if you have enabled Auto Save in Blender before. Also, along  with your .blend file there is another - .blend1, try recovering it also. Last option I know: Open Blender, under File > Recover press Recover Last Session

Unless I misunderstood what you mean, the startup file is the file that determines what is shown when blender first opens. Do you perhaps mean an autosave or a recovery file?

Alexandre Marcati,  kemplerart, thank you. Just a few words that explain a little go a long way. Believe it or not, I used to be a software dev (primarily Java, backend), and I would often be asked how to do this, or if something was possible. I never, ever "helped" by just throwing links at people and shutting them down. Duarte's responses have a real RTFM feel to them, and for the record that's not a helpful attitude.

If you have installed are more recent version of Blender, then the original configuration files from previous versions will still be on your system. Each Blender version has a dedicated directory where it stores its startup file, user preferences and add-ons.
The files can be found in the following locations, as documented by Blender's manual.
Windows:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender

Linux:

$HOME/.config/blender
/usr/share/blender

macOS:

/Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Blender
/Library/Application Support/Blender/3.1/

Note: By default the Steam and Windows Store version will automatically update when a new version is available. This is documented on the pages "Installing from Steam" and "Installing on Windows". You can avoid automatic updates by using the installer from the official website. Those versions do not automatically update.
All previous release of Blender can be found on this page.

If you still have the previous version of Blender on your system or manually install it again, it should startup as intended when run.

Thank you, Robert. I do indeed have the Steam version now and it updated without my knowledge. I used to have the standalone version, but for some reason I switched to Steam's... I can't recall why. Thank you for this info; it is very helpful.


text:
Is there any way to make edges corners become rounded?
i'm a new blender i'm trying to making edges corners become rounded but i couldn't find any way to makes it.I tried to use Insert faces (shortcut I)
and Bevel but it didn't work as i expected,i don't know if i have missed something please give me an advice.
1.As you can see at first picture the red circles where i want it to be rounded
2.I want my corners to be rounded as second picture at red circles

try Ctrl+Shift+B

probably you should say round instead of curve

Rounding the corners of the inset face cannot be done directly.
But you can extrude it and so have a "volume" that can be beveled.

Select the inset face
Extrude E
Go to edge select mode CtrTab
Select the edges
Bevel CtrlB (use mouse wheel or +/- from the numpad to choose the amount of bevel)
Once ok, remove the extrude face (select it then X then vertices)
Remake the original face: back to edge select mode CtrTab, then Alt select the border then F to make the face

Hi lemon This is exactly what i'm looking for.Thank you so much you saved me.I actually moved from 3dsmax/maya i've just found blender this is very amazing software it's free and open source so powerful and can do entire things as 3ds max thank you again.

There are two bevel functions.

Normal Egde Bevel with Ctrl+B
Vertex Bevel with Ctrl+Shift+B

What you want to do is bevel/round the corners/vertices.

I did as you said but it's still not be as i expected.Anyway thank you for correcting me this my very first time blender

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


text:
I'm having some parts in my object that I can't texturize
I'm kinda new and have been unable to resolve this by myself (I have googled it for more than a day and didn't find a case that coincides with mine).
The thing is that I made this object by copying and joining the hinges (because it would be impossible for me to make the same object twice with the same marked seams) to the door.
Then I unwrapped it and disposed to texture paint but it didn't work on the hinges; so I tried by exporting the UV Map, paint it in photoshop and the apply it, but that also didn't work.
Here is how the door is looking:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw2rHXrRBr0-ek82UDltWjllYzA/view
And here is the texture with the uv map overlaid:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw2rHXrRBr0-ZkpHa3RaUjJVQnM/view
Do you know what could I have done wrong and what should I do?

Do you have several materials for your object ? If yes, probably the hinges material does not use the texture

No, just 1 material and 1 texture :/

I think if you share your blend file here, this can help to understand what is happening for your question http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

I looked at the file, and I noticed you had about 10 materials initiated but not assigned to anything, so after I deleted them the hinge was able to take the material assigned to the other faces of the door.

Did that make sense? Just go into your materials and delete al the extra slots.


text:
How to append many objects without appending materials
Is there any option, to append many objects without appending their materials?
Example: I have scene1.blend with cube object and wood material.
I append cube with wood to scene2.blend, where there also is cube and wood material.
Blender logically creates cube.001 and wood.001, but I don't want wood.001, I need Blender to use the existing wood material instead of creating a new copy.
I'm talking about thousands of objects and hundreds materials. For example now I have natural wood.## ... natural wood.017 and all are exactly the same, and I have few dozens of materials like this multiplied by 17 object copies.
My English is not very good and this is problem little bit hard to explain, so I hope you understand what I mean.

We can understand your problem alright, but unfortunately I don't think there is any way to do this currently in Blender. I'll investigate but I have never seen a workaround.

This is a great question!  I definitely think there should be an option to append without materials.  A good idea to pitch to the devs!

After importing the objects you can use a python script to remove the use of duplicate materials. As each duplicate gets a numeric extension we can test whether the material without the extension exists and use it if it does exist.
import bpy

mat_list = bpy.data.materials

for o in bpy.data.objects:
    for s in o.material_slots:
        if s.material.name[-3:].isnumeric():
            # the last 3 characters are numbers
            if s.material.name[:-4] in mat_list:
                # there is a material without the numeric extension so use it
                s.material = mat_list[s.material.name[:-4]]

WOW,  Exactly what I need. This script perfectly clean up my materials. Thank you very much :-)

Please consider marking this answer as correct if solved your problem, or at least up-voting it if it helped you.

I'm sorry, I forgot.

Not really a solution to the append problem directly, more of a cleanup technique, but if you only have one material per object you can easily select all objects with the same base material name (say wood.001 wood.002 wood.003) by searching for wood in the outliner.
Just go to the Outliner and search for your material name, after searching press A over the list of search results to pre-select all displayed objects in that list, then Righ-Click over them and choose Select.
That should take care of selecting all of them in the 3D view. Now in the 3D view and without deselecting the previously selected objects Shift-Select the object with the original wood you want to use to make it the Active Object.
Alternatively you may instead change the material manually to the desired original wood on any of the search results by making it the Active Object first. (Just Shift-Select one of the already selected to make it active)
Afterwards you can press Ctrl + L Link > Materials to make them all use the same wood material instead.
(Bottom line here is Link > Materials works from the active object to the selection)

Thanks for answer. Yes, this work, but not very useful in my case. The problem is "Shift-Select" must be done manually. Or is there way how to select all marked object at once?

Yes, you can easily select them all at once, I updated my answer, check for details above.

I need explore Outliner features deeper :D Thank you for advice. This really helped me and it also useful for future in many cases :-)


text:
Huge scene - scatter wont work / cant scale scene down
I am a bit stuck here.
I have a very large scene (scifi concept art with 2km tall building + 150km environment). I started with realistic sizes, but now I have to deal with this incredibly large scene. I already changed the units so its easier to work.
I want to use a principled volumetric scatter, but i cant set it correctly. 0,00001 doesnt show a thing, and 0,00002 turns everything dark.

I also scaled down my scene, but this ended up in destroying almost any asset. (I dont know how to fix that.)

Can you help me? What could I do?
Thanks!
Cheers

Found the solution. Move the scene closer to the world origin.

Hi, thanks for the post. This site is not a regular forum, answers should be substantial and thoroughly explain the solution and required workflow. 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 why it works feel free to restore it, otherwise it may be deleted or converted into a comment. Perhaps add a few images illustrating the workflow and final results. See How do I write a good answer?


text:
Inflate geometry with fixed inlets and outlets
I am new to blender, and I am looking to inflate the geometry of an artery like a balloon.

I have used the shrink/fatten tool and it produces the outcome I desired except for the inlet and outlets. I want the artery model to be considered a shell, and if we imagine that the inlet and all the outlets are fixed, I would like the shell to simply expand a percentage, maintaining the original positions of the inlet and outlets.

I hope the images help to display my problem, yet if I haven't been very clear, I will try to explain better. Thank you in advance for the help.

Do you want the size of the inlets and outlets to be fixed, or just their location?

Hey, thank you for answering. The area of the inlet and outlets should increase just like the shell, but I don't want their position to change. Hopefully this makes it more clear.

One approach is to use bones to animate the inflation of the arteries. See this answer - https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/70151/how-to-animate-a-beating-heart which illustrates how to do this to animate a beating heart.

You can give the object a Displace modifier. along Normals, and animate the strength:

This can be modulated by aiming it at a vertex-group, to vary the inflation along the vessels, or combined with a Solidify.. there are various possible elaborations.
Here, a Corrective Smooth has been added at the bottom of the stack, to iron out intersections.

You may need to improve your topology, but this should be OK.

Hello, thank you very much for your reply. The animation you sent is exactly the effect I am looking for. Since I am new to blender, could you please provide me a tutorial on how to perform this?
Also, this geometry was obtained through a 2D to 3D program, so I do not think I can improve its topology. Would that be problematic to achieve the desired result?

Update: The result is the exact same as the one I already have, since the geometry you used does not have a surface in the inlet and outlets... is there a way to obtain your results when there are surfaces in the inlet and outlets?

@Okra yes, you can get solid-walled tubes by adding a Solidify modifier after the Displace .  If you want the walls to get thinner as the vessel expands, you would have to animate that, too, or drive it with the displacement. A step-by-step of key-framing is not  hard, but a little bit time-consuming to describe in an answer. I'll get to it, but can't, right away.

Hello Robin, thank you again for all the help. I do not wish to vary the thickness, nor do I want to animate the final result. My goal is to simply create a new geometry based on the original one to use in numerical simulations in other programs.
I look forward to hear from you when you have the chance.

Ahh.. good. Do you want solid-walled tubes, or the ends of the vessels to be capped (blocked)?

Hello, the geometry is meant to be considered the fluid inside the artery, and therefore the geometry should be closed (the ends should be capped).

@Okra Hi, sorry for the delay. the best I can think of for a 1-off, without messing with normals, etc., is to split the caps off, Shrink/Fatten (or Displace modifier) the rest of the tube, and then Bridge Edge loops between the caps and the rest of the tube to reconnect and fill the gap.

Hello, thank you for the answer. I tried to delete the surfaces of the inlet and outlets, but they are not a single surface. They are composed of very small triangular elements and since the zoom sensitivity is not that great, it's very difficult to delete every single one. Do you know if there is a tool which selects the entire surface automatically?

Hide  big irrelevant chunks, concentrate on one cap at a time, Shift-G Select Similar > 'Normal' might do it. If you can't zoom in, your clip-range might be wrong for the size of your model. You can share it if you like, at https://pasteall.org/blend/

Hello Robin, thank you for the reply. I have shared the geometry through the link you provided (hopefully correctly) under the name geometry_A.

@Okra.. you've got to copy and paste the link to make it available to us, here...

Hello, the geometry is 37 Mb and it's over the limit of 24 Mb. I cannot share the geometry through the pasteall platform.
I followed the steps you provided to eliminate the caps, yet there are still some remnant vertices and edges that I cannot easily delete. In addition, sometimes the vertices the tool selected were triangular elements in other parts of the geometry, and I would not be able to manually search the geometry and find all the created "holes".

@Okra While stepping through the process, H hide the bulk, so you're only working on the relevant region. Add your caps to a vertex-group as you go along, to stash the selection. Consider other traits to select by, for later steps  -  e.g. number of adjacent faces to edge, to find boundaries.


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After applying modifiers, I cannot select faces or edges
I imported a .stl file into Blender and I edited it in the Geometry Node Editor.
I want to measure the area of certain faces, but I cannot see or select the faces or edges as before. Since the model changed significantly after my edits, is there a way to generate faces (essentially meshing triangular elements) and edges onto the new model?
Thanks in advance!

If by applying you mean you just used modifiers, then this modifiers will not be visible in edit" mode unless:

you apply the modifier with CTRL+A
enable "display on edit mode in the options

But modifiers like the geometry nodes only allow you to edit the original object with display on edit mode enabled and not the final result.


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Blender flickering faces in viewport
I have a problem with flickering faces for months now.
I made a video to show the problem better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1uMXez6ruI
I start with a new project with the standard cube, copy it 4 times, and when i go to edit mode of 1 cube, the other three cubes start to flicker. (you can clearly see the problem at 00:19)
I hope someone can point me in the right direction for solving this!
What i have tried up until now:
I made sure it is not z-fighting, uninstalled and reinstalled newest blender version, Clip start is at 0.01m so should be good.
Also turning of AA did not fixed it.
This were the most common solutions I found on the internet and did not worked.

I can't see any trace of that effect here. Have you checked that you have the latest graphics drivers installed?

Hi man, I don't know if you know but this issue was already resolved in that thread that I mentioned in my answer

yes this is Radeon 6000 series issue, it is already known and a lot of people have this issue, it is just because of drivers not being 100% compatible with blender... unfortunately I have 6700XT as well and I wrote the same question here as well (there is also thread at blender community with this as a bug so don't worry they know about it...
You can find more about it here:
https://developer.blender.org/T87927 (this is a thread related to this issue)
It occurs in edit mode, weight paint and some previews
We may just hope that Blender 3.0.0 and new drivers in December will solve this

Apparently I just found the solution somewhere else, under 'viewport overlays' deselect the 'fade inactive geometry' and no more flickering now!
Edit: It is likely a videocard issue, I have an AMD radeon RX 6700XT with the latest drivers.

I have that option checked but it seems to be set to 0.4 by default here.


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Separate meshes with Solidify modifier
When trying to prepare a mesh in Blender for display in the browser I need a solid model for my use case, where the inside and outside of the model have different UV mappings. My idea was to take an existing mesh and use the Solidify modifier to achieve this. However, when using the modifier I am unable to create two separately selectable meshes (or islands) which I can move into place in the UV editor.
The problem is that there seems to be no way to separately select the inside and outside of the mesh after I have applied the modifier. It always selects both sides when using the L-key. I tried applying different vertex groups and different materials but it only seems to be able to separate the rim from the in/outside in different groups, still not allowing me to select the inside and outside separately. There seems to be no easy way to select connected faces either (since they seem to be all connected) that I found.
For now I have limited success with the Displace modifier, create another object, move the UVs in this object out of the way, Join the two objects together again and then re-arrange the UVs as I want them.
Is there an easier way to achieve this? Is there an option in the Solidify modifier that I missed? I have been scratching my head about this for several days now, I hope somebody can help.

Select the whole rim by the materieal, than choose Select>>Loops>> Boundary Loop. Then Edge>>Mark Seam. After this you will be able to select with L or Ctrl+L Separately the two sides. (Only in face selection mode).

Or, if you selected the rim, hide it (H), then use L to select a side (and assign it to a vertex group).

@joshsanfelici -- do you imply that Alex should remove the Solidify Modifier before doing this?   I guess in Edit Mode it doesn't matter?

@james_t he said he applied it.


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How to add an image texture/color as an overlay to a base texture at a specific part of the object and animate the texture/color alpha?
I have this image texture wrapped around a UV Sphere. I would like to add a separate color/image texture in the area inside red circle marked and animate the alpha of the newly added texture inside red circle. Is there any method to do this?

related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/193519/how-to-add-image-texture-to-an-existing-material

You can use the same principle as this answer, and add a math node (or other) to control the decal the way you want.

Thank you very much for the answer and the blend file. I tried the same method with Sphere but the results are strange. I cant get the mapping in the desired area.

Hi. How have you placed the empty? With snapping tools? Or could you show image of the result

Attaching blender file here. I added two image textures. In the mix RGB node I can only view one texture. Also when I use single image and try to map, its giving me a mirror like effect. https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/EBEndqd5

@ArunNura, try this setting https://i.sstatic.net/R2LTR.jpg

The image is visible now, but its giving me a mirror like mapping: https://imgur.com/jpcSZGQ

Depending on what you want to do, move/scale/rotate the empty and eventually add some math nodes to avoid mirroring (i.e. Z > 0 only). I don't have your model, so hard to give setting that will exactly fit for you.

I meant don't have the textures (where not included in your file)

Could you please have a look on this blend file. I am not an expert in math nodes: hope this file will work https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/Y0dWprkK

 Adjusted empty scale/position/rotation and added some nodes in order to avoid the eye to be mirrored.

Oh Brilliant.!!!! Thanks alot man !!


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Registration in Draw mode is very delayed and inaccurate
I'm just beginning to use Blender as a storyboarding program, and was hoping to be able to use the 3d features in Blender to give me better camera control and better use of environment in my scenes. However, no matter what I try, the draw feature is so laggy and sloppy, it makes any efforts to draw in Blender pointless.
I first tried using it in the last version (2.82), then upgraded to the newest version (2.83) with no effect.
It seems to have the same issue whether I use the mouse or my Wacom Cintiq.
The problem is consistent regardless of any smoothing adjustments or settings I've tried, and gives the same results whether I'm drawing a regular stroke, or a grease pencil object.
Here's a video demonstrating the problem
I've been researching this for 2 days solid, but haven't found anything to mitigate the issue, or prove whether it's a setting I can fix, or a bug involving my system, or Blender itself. I've watched other people using the pencil and grease pencil tools and I seem to be the only one having this issue.
If this is common, and the fix is to just draw much slower than I normally would, then that would also answer my question of whether Blender is a suitable program for storyboarding. I would appreciate any answers that anyone has to offer.
Thank you!

I use blender's grease pencil for storyboarding and don't get that. It doesn't look like an issue with blender, but with the drivers/settings for the tablet. On wacom tablets a common problem happens if pen has been dropped  and the nib of the pen is not set correctly. Try pulling the nib out of the pen and re-set it.

Thanks for the feedback! I was hoping to get a fellow storyboarder on the hook- I'm glad to hear it's not a consistent issue. I'll check on the drivers, but the pen works perfectly fine in other programs, and I haven't had any issues with the Pro Pen2.
I'm thinking you're right about the wacom driver though, I'll see if restarting the driver, or reverting to older versions helps.

Update:

I updated my Mac OS from Mojave to Catalina- no effect.

Uninstalled and reinstalled Wacom drivers for my Cintiq - no effect.

Deleted any existing files left over from older versions of Blender, and reinstalled the latest version - no effect.

I went back and installed the Blender 2.79b-macOS-10.6 AND DRAWING WORKED PERFECTLY!

I don't want to constantly use an expired version of Blender with a completely different interface, and now I no the version is part of the issue.
SO... how can I solve this for the newer version?

It might be a bug. If it was working on previous versions and not now something changed.

@Shadyace Have you found your solution? not sure if this help, but my case is I am using tablet called XPPen and in 2.82 too I have issue. After much of test, I realise that the pressure sensor did cost the delay. The new tablet have 2048 pressure sensitivity, so I tweak the tablet sensitivity curve so that the max is 512(old tablet setting), then it works much better. But I still get delay while using cycle preview mode.


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how to make poly render flat?

triangles are showing but I don't have an edge connecting the vertices, I just want the poly to render as flat but it renders as 2 angled triangles. Also when i connect the vertices the opposite way it still creates an extrusion shown in render. I cant really think of anything besides maybe shading smooth but I don't think I should have to.

The issue is that though the mesh is a quad, it is non-planar. That shape could not exist in real life, so the shading is showing artifacts. Almost counter-intuitively, adding an edge and shading smooth might actually solve the issue.

thank you, it looks much better!

Christopher Bennett has given you a solution but if you want to keep a low-poly look for your object, you could give it Auto Smooth (Properties panel > Object Data > Normals).
When used with Shade Flat, Auto Smooth won't try to smooth between faces but only between the triangles within a face:


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Edit object while rendering
Is it possible to edit your project while im rendering an image in blender 2.83 while but net affecting what im rendering

why don't you use a cloud machine to render your work?

If you only want to edit one object in the scene then for simplicity and safety I'd move that object to its own file, make a backup of that file, and link it into the overall scene file. Then start the render of the scene file from the command line and in a regular Blender instance edit the object in its own file.

Open two instances of Blender
Open the same file
Edit the file (on Blender instance 1), save it, launch the render
Revert the file (on Blender instance 2), edit and save it
When render is complete, you can revert the file of Blender instance
1

Beware that this can easily lead to data loss, if you accidentally save on instance 1 after closing instance 2 it will overwrite your work with an older version and no easy way to go back. While it is a useful tip, this should be used with care to avoid loosing work.

indeed, that is not 100% safe

I strongly suggest using git together with blender. You will never lose anything.

Tell us more about git and blender


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Animation not playing anymore
I finished making my animation and I went to change the position of my camera. So I put it in walk navigation and changed the position of my camera. But when I went back into pose mode to play the animation again it wouldn't play. But the keyframes are still there on the dope sheet. Please help

@moonboots No I havent

it is not clear what kind of animation you are talking about, are you talking about a camera animation? but you are talking about pose mode, which is for armature...

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.


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Cannot keyframe multiple bones
Hey guys i have a little problem with keyfreaming.
Anytime i select some bones in pose mode, rotate them and hit [I] on the rotation properties, blender inserts only one keyframe for one bone, the one i selected first, at the same time the Outliner shows that multiple bones are selected. I'm using NLA, and the problem above started when i pushed down the animation i had done first. I tried with a blank project and it worked like normal.
im using the latest version of blender.
What can i be missing out?
Thanks for your help:)
Ákos

maybe make sure you haven't locked the bones tracks?

There are multiple different things that might cause this.  You could have locked tracks in the NLA; as @moonboots suggested; you could have a keying set that is excluding some bones; the animation you pushed down could still be active, et cetera.  Can you add your blend file to your question? ((How to add a blend file)

There was an active keying set, i had no idea about. Thanks guys for advice, it works now:)


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What is blender internal render light?
what is blender internal render and how do i make this on my warning light beacon i recently saw a video on youtube a beacon that makes cycle upon the wall,what i need to buy to do this?
Here's the video:
https://youtu.be/XYaGUv0Q9-Q

Blender internal render? That video is 8 years old so he probably talks about cycles... You dont need to buy anything, just place spot light in a place and keyframe rotation around Z axis glass object, thats all

Wait wait please i like this expain me a little slower what you mean to place and keyframe rotation around z axis glass? What exactly you mean ? Reflector is not making any cycle i have try it i cant understand what i need to do exactly

Someone please expain me with easy words how i can make this i like cycle

This is an animation and to make any animation you need several keyframes. In your case each keyframe is a Spot light parented to an object rotated by a number of degrees. Eg. four 90° keyframes. Then you play it. For details see the documentation.

Sorry im sad now i still dont understand it can you make a video somehow and show me please?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcuyQ4UQTas&t=174s I found this video for your problem, try to look at it


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How can I render on SSH Linux machine?
I downloaded linux version from this official page and extracted files onto as folder. Created a very basic default cube file and uploaded it to via WinSCP as well. When I try to execute this line.
 ./blender -b untitled.blend -o //file -F JPEG -x 1 -f 1

I get this error:
/run/user/47130/gvfs/ non-existent directory
Read blend: /home/ogr/b21946658/Blend/untitled.blend
Unable to open a display
Aborted

How can this be solved to render a single image or animation?
I also did "chmod a+x blender" before these otherwise I was getting permission denied error.
I am not admin of this server any solution without sudo would be appriciated.

Are you rendering with Cycles or EEVEE? EEVEE requires a display to render.

Guess this helps me, switched to Cycles and it now does work. Any workarounds to render with EEVEE? Also will all the output settings be in the .blend file do I have to put as arguments?
Lastly, how can I learn if I can run on GPU or not?


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I reopened a file and I lost all textures and materials :(
I was working on a file and saved it and closed blender when I reopened it was all black, no materials no textures nothing, is it all lost or is there a way I can recover something? If not do I have to start it all agaiN???????

Welcome to Blender.SE, can you tell a bit more? Did you change the files location? Please take screenshot with a proper tool, show us the shader editor where the material should be. Do you have any of the blend1 files in your folder?

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.

Textures are external image files, if you didn't pack them. If you don't save them as image files to a folder, they will lost. Sometimes even while Blender is running.


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How to set split normals in edit mode python
I'm making a function similar to the normal editing function Point to Target. When I run the following code, the split normals are changed from the first to the second image, but once I switch back to Object mode the split normals reset back to the first image. How can I correctly set the split normals so that they save when I switch back to Object mode? I'd like to set the split normals in edit mode so that I can see the split normal lines change as I change a reference point, similar to Point to Target.
import bpy
import bmesh

me = bpy.context.edit_object.data
me.use_auto_smooth = True
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)
for f in bm.faces:
    for l in f.loops:
        l.face.normal = [1, 0, 0]
bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me)
bm.free()

Maybe you were trying to write on a read only property?
Now in 2024 things have evolved, (blender 4.2), but maybe this changes made it clearer:
Copy paste from blender 4.1 documentation:

The Mesh auto_smooth property has been replaced by a modifier node
group asset (89e3ba4e25).
use_auto_smooth is removed. Face corner normals are now used
automatically if there are mixed smooth vs. not smooth tags. Meshes
now always use custom normals if they exist.
auto_smooth_angle is removed. Replaced by a modifier (or operator)
controlling the sharp_edge attribute. This means the mesh itself
(without an object) doesn't know anything about automatically
smoothing by angle anymore.
create_normals_split, calc_normals_split, and free_normals_split
are removed, and are replaced by the simpler Mesh.corner_normals
collection property. Since it gives access to the normals cache, it is
automatically updated when relevant data changes.
MeshLoop.normal is now a read-only property. Custom normals should
be created by normals_split_custom_set or
normals_split_custom_set_from_vertices.


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How to curve an array correctly
I am having huge issues curbing an object.  I have a tube that has been made out of an array of objects to create a ribbed effect.  But when I go to curve it using a bezier curve the it distorts some of the shape massively and other parts not at all, even on relatively "flat" sections of he curve.  All of the tube should look like the section at the end on he image.  Of course I expect some distortion but this is bizarre.
Any help would be really appreciated.  I am a real novice on Blender and I cant find any videos that deal with this issue (maybe I don't know how what to search for to get the right result though).
Thanks.

Make sure both the curve and the object share the same origin point.

maybe share your file: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

I have made sure they have the same origin point.  Thanks though Christopher.

I think I have have shared it correctly moonboots, I didn't know you could do that, thanks a lot.

Don't worry, I think Ive got it.  I didnt realise that you needed to have the object you were curving directly over the Bezier curve for it to deform less. Facepalm.

@NCO If you found a solution can you please write it as an answer? Other users with the same issue will appreciate your help.


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Can you use Geometry nodes to subdivide a face but only along certain edges?
As the question says, I would like to subdivide a face using geometry nodes but only in one direction (the direction with the longer edges).  Using standard tools I would just select the edges and subdivided and that would divide the face as well, is this possible using geometry nodes?
Basically I want to turn the first photo into the second using geometry nodes as part of a larger project (and I can't use a grid as the project will have the original geometry being extruded in the viewport) and I want it to automatically subdivide the longer faces.
Thankyou so much for any help you can offer.

No, unfortunately this is not possible with Geometry Nodes without replacing the object with new geometry.

Using the setup pictured below and outlined in this video, you can stretch curve lines along the faces' x and z axis:

Next, edges are compared to get the longest of the two as per your requirements. A boolean value is captured on one set of lines to switch instances later:

Next, a ray source and ray target are created using the smallest of the x and z scales as the prior setup isolated the largest axis upon which the perpendicular axis will be instanced.

A narrow grid (target) and line (source) are created with two orientations that are switched via the prior captured boolean value. This is to account for the change in orientation when the largest curves are forced from the initial, differing x and z axis of each face:

Finally, the target face normals are sampled with the source edge index and the same index is used to sample the edge's position for the raycast's inputs. The source edges are extruded using the "Hit Normal" as the offset and the "Hit Distance" as the scale:

The result works as long as each face corner is 90°, however the angle between the faces themselves doesn't matter:

However, because there are two targets per corner (enlarged here for clarity):

the other, undesired face might be used as the "Hit Normal," but slightly moving the edge can easily correct it:

Still, if your use case is actually just one plane, it should work flawlessly. The inconsitencies with this setup come from using more than one connected plane only. The distance between the loop cuts can be adjusted via the resample rate of the longer axis:

As noted in the official documentation, the node Subdivide Mesh always subdivides a face at each edge:

The Subdivide Mesh node adds new faces to mesh geometry using a simple interpolation for deformation.

Therefore, there is no way to limit the subdivision of a face to a certain area or range with a simple node.
However, there are some tricks that use Geometry Nodes to force a subdivision (albeit some with dubious results), but this is always done by creating a new geometry:

Is there a way to subdivide the face in one direction?
How to subdivide a selection of faces in geometry nodes


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Can you copy a Geometry Node with the inputs remaining the same?
I have an object with a Geometry Node modifier set up on it (it makes the object look damaged/chipped) but when I copy the modifiers to a different object using Ctrl+C it changes the input values meaning I would have to change them all again to give similar results.
Is there a way to copy the Geometry Node modifer and keeping the inputs as they are set up in the original object?

Select both objects the one with the modifiers as active and use < ctrl + L > link modifiers should work.

Thats what I have done but the settings are changed when I do.  Thats the issue Im trying to solve as I dont want to have to change them individually each time.

you can select target objects then your original object and press ctrl + L and chose copy modifiers. this might help you.

Thats what I have done but the settings are changed when I do.  Thats the issue Im trying to solve as I dont want to have to change them individually each time.

Ignore that and my apologies.  It does work.  Interestingly the command name "Copy modifiers" is the same when you press ctrl + L as when you press ctrl + C but they do different things.  They really should name them differently.


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Is there a way to control the percentages of random instances?
I am looking to randomly instance objects onto a plane using Geometry nodes and Ive got that working fine.  But I want to be able to control the proportion of the different instances.  For example if I have three objects that are being randomly instanced can I make it so that I can set one of them to be 80% and the others 10% each (or some other way that will have a similar effect).

You may take a look as well onto this thread: Select a subset of points in geometry nodes

You should put an ID in the instance on point node. In your example, you can plug a random boolean and set probability to 0.9. You can also use switch nodes to set different ids:


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Transparent texture makes the mesh transparent too

Hi and thank you!
So I applied the skin textures on the body, then on edit mode selected the face area and applied a transparent PSD file with only eyes/mouth being opaque. We see them but the transparent area of the texture leaves a hole in his face... is there a way to fix this? Thank you!
I use Eevee and set alpha clip as a blending mode in texture settings.
Thank you!

read through the following link to understand how to work with transparency in a texture: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/46424/add-a-transparent-image-on-top-of-a-material/46447#46447

Thank you Susu! I've read it before but couldn't find a solution. My model is textured using a colorramp with two colors. If I apply the texture like it says on the link, the color appears off, like he's wearing a skin mask. I'm trying different combinations to get the transparent face over the colorramp texture so it blends seamlessly.

The key concept is not to think in terms of transparency. If your image has an alpha channel use that as a mask to mix other elements. The color ramp texture should not be affected, what you want is to add the color of the eyes on top of the color of such ramp.

Thank you so much! I've figured it out!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Gfxw7wP-Abfq6Yt1Q1vaNRy3ZqmBjxof/view?usp=sharing

So here is the answer:

Thank you to Susu and Rob Proctor for the help! :)

There could be a better way, but I don't think you can have multiple materials per face. You'll probably either have to duplicate the face mesh and then give each their own material or maybe or create a material that utilizes the skin texture and face combined.

I see, in that case, I guess I should duplicate the face mesh. Applying the combined skin texture with face won't allow me to get the look I want unfortunately.
Thanks a lot Rob! :)


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Making a flickering outline
So I haven't seen this posted anywhere. I'm trying to get a as-much-as-possible hand drawn effect. I've noticed that flickering outlines can help a lot to achieve that look. However, I've tried many combinations but couldn't get a good result at all.
I've put an example here https://youtu.be/NLKiEiJUyw4
Any clue on how to achieve this on Eevee would be very welcome,
Thank you very much!
Example of a outline flickering effect

that would be grease pencil - traced object with a noise modifier on it.   image1
You can also try a displacement modifier with an animated texture on your object with freestyle turned on.
The other option is to edit the freestyle settings, turn on noise, and give a low period, high amplitude and animation the seed based on frame (type #frame into seed)

Thanks a lot! The grease pencil will also give a real hand drawn feeling to it. Thank you so much!

You could try something like this. It doesn't give EXACTLY what you're looking for, but i'm sure after playing with some settings you could get somewhere close. This is as SHADER ONLY approach.
This is the setup I made:

What's basically going on here is that through a combo of a Mapping node, a Voronai Texture and a White Noise Texture , I generated a series of randomly gray-scaled vertical lines.  I left in the Separate XYZ node even though I didn't use it because there is an option to only use the X coordinate if you want a more linear, less "noisy" look, but I think it looks better without, hence why I omitted it.
The key factor here is the Value node. Instead of using a number value, you can click on the field and input #frame. This will cause it to use the current frame number as a value, meaning you can use it to constantly change the position, and "scroll" the lines.
On the bottom is a simple recipe for Cel Shading. I wanted to get a bit of a hand drawn for the shadows, I used it and multiplied it with the white noise texture, using it's inverse as a factor. This comes in handy, because it lets you mask different parts of the shadows if you switch the mix positions. See below:
"Normal" mix position gives this shader look:

Or, (and this might look better) you can reverse the positions on the Mix Shader like this:

And the shader result of this.

You can adjust the colorramp values to get a more true-to-image copy of the style you're trying to achieve, and you can also go one further by adding Freestyle to give black outlines. I'm sure by tweaking the randomness of the Voronai Texture_ as well as playing with the values on the Mapping Node, you can get something maybe close to what you like. Anything more would require hand drawing (grease pencil), I think.
I hope this helps some.

This is absolutely amazing Christopher, thank you very much for such a detailed answer. It is in fact a solid setup that I could tweak to achieve the result I want. Thanks again!


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Newbie- Apply texture to specific area
newbie here!!!
Uploaded face skin texture to place on character(xbot) but having a hard time applying the texture solely to the face. How do I attach the texture to a specific part of the body?
Thank ya :)

Thank soo very much...this helps alot :)

If you have a material, just select in Edit-Mode all vertices you want to have that texture like this:

Then tap on "Assign".
Result:

Thank soo very much...this helps alot :)

glad i could help. If my answer helped you, please check the checkmark left to my answer. Thank you and happy blending!


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How to properly unwrap this shape
I'm looking to unwrap this shape. All I know is I need to unwrap and the fact that the shape is different shapes glued together looks like it will give me problems when I'm trying to unwrap it. Can I get help with this? I have no idea what to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7M-B6xnaEM&ab_channel=Blender

the blend file please?

how does your texture look like?

I'm not sure how to add a blend file...I'm new here

Also, the texture will just be smooth colors. All one color except him in his underwear.


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Mesh deforms badly when in pose mode despite weight painting or using vertex groups

this is after leaning the chest bone forward, it seems to leave so many vertices behind and stretches the mesh between the locked vertices. I have parented the mesh to the bones using automatic weights and attempted weight painting and using vertex groups on each bone but the problems still persists.

The phrase “tried using vertex groups on each bone” is like someone describing how a car wouldn’t start, and then saying “I even tried turning the ignition with the key in it.” It makes me think there’s something critical you’ve missed.

there must still be a problem with these vertices, you need to weight paint or assign to the right vertex group, you can also check what vertex group the vertex is part of in the N panel > Item > Vertex Weight. Or please share your file: https://pasteall.org/blend/

@moonboots I just uploaded the file. Weight painting hasn't worked. I tried using vertex groups on each individual bone but this didnt work either. also I dont see vertex weight under the item menu. Thanks for your help.

please share the link it gave you (URL)

@moonboots https://pasteall.org/blend/37cc621ac9bc464fa8975993882595dc

Why don't you join all the meshes (head, pants, body)? Also you need to Merge by Distance otherwise the parentage won't work. Then it works fine for me (you still need to weight paint the pants though)


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My character is stuck in T post after editing base mesh and is no longer parented to armature, the armature still moves but the character wont follow
I had my character mesh animating with the bones how I wanted until I edited the mesh of the character. Now my character is stuck in T pose.

Either the armature modifier is gone or the vertex groups are.

i selected every bone in pose mode then reset position, location, and scale, then reparented using automatic weights in object mode, but in the future is there anything else i can do?

the whole first step to clear the pose probably wasn’t necessary.

what should i have donnne? @TheLabCat

just reparented to the armature with automatic weights.