text:
Switch between multiple lists stored in scene
I recently started to learn Python and I started to develop a selection pie, which the user can quickly select objects and quickly switch between selection sets, like working with multiple character rigs and each rig has it's own selection set.

I'm trying to figure out what is the simplest way to switch between multiple lists, that can be stored in scene? I haven't figured out how to append objects to a ID property list, so I'm using a regular list, that the stored scene lists refer to and vice versa. But my functions refer to that temp list('curList'), which isn't stored in the scene.

So my problem is how I can have a function "know" what list it needs to stored and disconnect from the('curList'), before it switches to another list? I thought about saving all lists before making the switch, but I get an error that 'object can't be iterated' or something like that. But as an noob, I haven't figured out a way around that issue? :)

Here is a very simple example of what I'm trying to have functions do automatically.
import bpy

ctx = bpy.context
scn = ctx.scene
scn['list_a'] = ['']
scn['list_b'] = ['']
curList = []

curList = scn['list_a']       # tempList connects to sceneList
curList.append('Cube')

scn['list_a'] = curList       # current sceneList gets updates from temp
scn['list_a'] = scn['list_a'] # current sceneList disconnects from temp

curList = scn['list_b']       # tempList switches to another sceneList
# etc.

Any suggestions or tips are hugely appreciated! :)

Hello, this looks like an XY problem to me that you're jumping through hoops to solve. The supported way to store lists in Blender is to use bpy.props.CollectionProperty. See there for an example. Also since lists are not value types the variables only store a pointer to the construct in memory so curList = scn['list_a'] and scn['list_a'] = curList  are redundant

This is my current solution that seems to work? But I'm sure there is a much better way out there!? :)
def list_obj_append(Id):
    global curList
    obj_selected = [o for o in bpy.data.objects if o.select]

    curList = scn["set_1"]
    scn["set_1"] = curList

    for ob in obj_selected:
        curList.append(ob.name + suffix[Id])

    scn["set_1"] = curList
    curList = scn["set_1"]

    return curList


text:
Python use to landscape generation
How to do a python script to generate landscape in a script-based way?
I would like to create a script-based generation instead of cliquing and manually adjusting of properties.

Try the standard ANT Landscape addon that comes with Blender.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Module of the blender
I'm new about blender. And I was to run a script  and have a problem when run.
the code are like this:
import os
import numpy as np
import bpy
from imp import reload
import morph_template as morph
from tools import blender_tools as blender
reload(blender)....

when I run it blender  it comes the ERROR:Import error : no module named "tools"
 (I used blender2.79, python3.6, Python IDE: Anaoconda it Installed nearly  all the common Python libs)
Would it be probably and module of blender of different version? If it is what version of blender of python should it be.If not which it might be?
thanks a lot.

Where and what is the tools module?

that's the problem I'd like to know. I wonder if blender has the module named "tools", I used Blender 2.7. cause I'm quite new to this.

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


text:
after reset blender and when added new objects that could not been seen.
Hi can anyone helped to check out what's wrong on the script, thanks
After reset blender and when  added new objects that could not been seen.
used the blender console implement the script it works good.
but use .py got the result the object had been added turn out to be a orange point.
the first generated file test0309.blend is ok. But the second generated file test0309_2.blend the sphere only show as an orange point.
import bpy
import os
import bmesh
import math
import mathutils
def reset_blend():
    bpy.ops.wm.read_factory_settings()
    for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
        for obj in scene.objects:
            scene.objects.unlink(obj)
    # only worry about data in the startup scene
    for bpy_data_iter in (
            bpy.data.objects,
            bpy.data.meshes,
            #bpy.data.lamps,
           # bpy.data.cameras,
    ):
        for id_data in bpy_data_iter:
            bpy_data_iter.remove(id_data)
def main():
    bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_uv_sphere_add(size=10,location = ( 0, 0, 0))
    output_filepath=os.path.join(bpy.path.abspath("//"),"test0309.blend")
    bpy.ops.wm.save_mainfile(filepath=output_filepath)
    reset_blend()
    bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_uv_sphere_add(size=10,location = ( 1, 1, 1))
    output_filepath1=os.path.join(bpy.path.abspath("//"),"test0309_2.blend")
    bpy.ops.wm.save_mainfile(filepath=output_filepath1)
    reset_blend()

You're looping over bpy_data_iter and modifying the collection at the same time. That's a recipe for trouble.


text:
Trying to make a handle
I want to make a handle like the picture;

The highlighted one is made from a path and the one behind it is made with extruding etc. The one made with the path looks the best but I'm very new to blender and I want to make sure that my poly count isn't too high.
I'm making an armoured vehicle and as you can imagine this is a tiny object compared to the vehicle. I can't make all the details with a lot of polys because that will kill the server that has to run the vehicle (or I think that's how it works?)
Is there an actual disadvantage/impact to having a lot of polys when you make something for a videogame? How heavy is the path-handle on polys? All it shows are the verts I used to make the path, not the amount of faces etc it used to fill it up.

I would use the path; it probably won't be too hard on the game engine. The extruded one should also work, although I would make it out of simple rectangles to keep the poly count down, unless you need to see it up close.
That said, you probably don't even need a handle at all--you can just paint it into the texture on the side of the vehicle.

as far as I understand I have to convert everything to tris instead of polys as the game engine needs triangles, how do I do that for a path?

It doesn't even accept quads!? I would use the extruded version, then, although you can always convert the path to a mesh (Alt+C).

AFAIK all games need triangles but I can just convert that after :). Thanks for the help. Do you know by any chance how big the impact is on the amount of verts/faces/etc?

Well, you can see in Blender's top bar (the info panel) how many verts/faces/etc. you have. I'm surprised about the triangle thing, does it throw an error if you try to use quads? (Now, it might still triangulate them later, without telling you, when the game actually runs. But you shouldn't have to worry about that--Blender actually does the same thing.)

I'm far from getting it in the game so I don't know if it throws an error. I've learnt it online and from importing another vehicle from the game into Blender, it all has triangles.https://gyazo.com/ee589aeb23ce661304917538368b023c

So it's from a game in the first place? They may have done that themselves for some reason, but that doesn't mean you have to. What's that gyazo.com link?

It's from a modder who made another vehicle for the game and then made it open-source. The link is a picture of that vehicle.


text:
Is there a way to orient an object to my view?
I am wondering if there is a way to orient an object to my viewing rotation? I have a slope that I want to place things on, this slope was made by hand so I don't know the exact X and Z rotation. I can make my view look at it from the top down with shift + 7, is there a way to make my selected object take this same rotation? the rotation on the sloped object isn't applied yet, does that make a difference?

Is the local coordinate system of this object aligned to its mesh faces?

Euhm... maybe? How do I check?

Do you want only to orient it? Without moving? You could set it as active camera and then use Align Camera to View option but that will move object to wherever viewpoint is

My intent is to make the small highlighted object in the picture be at the same Y-rotation as the slope below it in order for me to easily just move it down instead of trying to make the rotation somewhat the same from the front viewing angle which is never 100%

Somewhat related - https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/14232/align-an-object-to-a-specific-face. It's overkill in some steps but should work. Instead of creating custom transform orientation you can use Snapping during transform with Face as target type and enable Align Rotation to the right from the snapping menu to align empty


text:
How to obtain the parent of a collection using Python
The Blender 2.8 Python API allows me to retrieve all child collections of a collection using its children property. Given the following collection hierarchy
+------------------+
| Scene Collection |
+------------------+
  |
  |  +---+
  +--| a |
     +---+
       |
       |  +---+
       +--| b |
       |  +---+
       |    |
       |    |
       |    |  +---+
       |    +--| c |
       |    |  +---+
       |    |
       |    |  +---+
       |    +--| d |
       |       +---+
       |
       |  +---+
       +--| e |
          +---+

I can access the children of collection b (i.e. collections c and d) using the following code:
collection_b = bpy.data.collections['b']
children = collection_b.children

That way I can navigate down the collection tree. My question is how I can navigate upwards, i.e. how can I get the parent collection of say collection b?
I didn't find a property allowing me to retrieve the parent collection(s).
Essentially I'm interested in recursively making my way up all to the root (Scene Collection), e.g
d -> b -> a -> Scene Collection

The best I could come up with so far is a recursion that searches for the parent collection. Note that this is not a particularly efficient solution but at least it solves my problem. The code looks as follows:
import bpy

def get_parent_collection_names(collection, parent_names):
  for parent_collection in bpy.data.collections:
    if collection.name in parent_collection.children.keys():
      parent_names.append(parent_collection.name)
      get_parent_collection_names(parent_collection, parent_names)
      return

def turn_collection_hierarchy_into_path(obj):
  parent_collection = obj.users_collection[0]
  parent_names      = []
  parent_names.append(parent_collection.name)
  get_parent_collection_names(parent_collection, parent_names)
  parent_names.reverse()
  return '\\'.join(parent_names)

obj = bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active
print(turn_collection_hierarchy_into_path(obj))

This code will print out the collection hierarchy of the selected object as a Windows style path (backslash as separator).
Note that objects can be part of multiple collections which means you can actually create a graph, not just a tree. The above code will simply ignore that fact and just pick the first collection that the object is part of.

fyi, if you're starting with an object, you don't need to recursively iterate to get its direct parent. This will get the parent: bpy.data.objects['Cylinder'].users_collection  Source: https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.Object.html#bpy.types.Object.users_collection

although it's important to note the documentation says "Takes O(len(bpy.data.collections) + len(bpy.data.scenes)) time." for users_collection to get the parent collection, so it's likely doing this iteration logic for you.

As long as there is no parent property, you can iterate through the collections of the scene Scene.collection.children and then cache the relationship into a lookup using a dictionary:
import bpy

def traverse_tree(t):
    yield t
    for child in t.children:
        yield from traverse_tree(child)

def parent_lookup(coll):
    parent_lookup = {}
    for coll in traverse_tree(coll):
        for c in coll.children.keys():
            parent_lookup.setdefault(c, coll.name)
    return parent_lookup

C = bpy.context

# Get all collections of the scene and their parents in a dict
coll_scene = C.scene.collection
coll_parents = parent_lookup(coll_scene)

# Get active collection reference
active_coll = C.view_layer.active_layer_collection.collection
#sub_coll = coll_scene.children.get("Collection")

# Print parent of active collection
print ("Parent of {} is {}".format(
        active_coll.name,
        coll_parents.get(active_coll.name))
    )

traverse_tree(t) function from How to get all collections of the current scene?

Although pretty complex, you can also implement a custom parent property for the Collection type by using a PointerProperty to get some kind of native API feel like Collection.parent as pointed out by @batFINGER. Further reading: Create a tree of properties?.

Could make parents a property of the collection, akin to https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/142111/15543

Users of ID
Can get all collections used in scene collection hierarchy via
>>> collections_in_scene = [
        c for c in D.collections
        if C.scene.user_of_id(c)
    ]
>>> collections_in_scene
[bpy.data.collections['Collection 1'], bpy.data.collections['Collection 1 1'], bpy.data.collections['Collection 1 1 1']]

Add the root collection
>>> collections_in_scene.append(C.scene.collection)

Then for any collection (assuming only those in scene are of interest) can get its parent(s)

>>> coll = C.collection
>>> coll
bpy.data.collections['Collection 1 1 1']

>>> parents = [c for c in collections_in_scene
...            if c.user_of_id(coll)
...            ]
>>> parents
[bpy.data.collections['Collection 1 1']]

>>> coll = D.collections['Collection 1']
>>> parents = [c for c in collections_in_scene
...            if c.user_of_id(coll)
...            ]
>>> parents
[bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].collection]

A quick simple way to create the parents (in a seperate dictionary),
with the top level collections parents be None:
# create parent relations
parent = dict()
for c in bpy.data.collections:
    parent[c] = None
for c in bpy.data.collections:
    for ch in c.children:
        parent[ch] = c

With that, a parent can be obtained by:
parentCollection = parent[collection]

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


text:
Racing game side walls
I am currently designing a track in blender for a racing game in Unity.
My question concerns the side walls:
If you look at current formula e games like Real Racing, there are commercials all along the side walls (e.g. DHL, Visa, ...). I also want to randomly distribute different commercials along the racing track.
Are there any common/best practices for doing this?

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it appears to about materials for Unity

You can't export materials. I'd advise using some sort of modules or reusable repeating parts, unwrap your meshes properly in Blender then build your random-textured materials in Unity

I would hardly recommend, that distributing textures randomly on a Mesh, is a task you would perform in Unity.
Theoretically it is possible to distribute textures randomly on a Material. But if you don't bake them to a simple UV-layout, I am afraid, you wont be able to ship this material to Unity.
But I would ask this question on a Unity focused platform.
EDIT:
But if you want to do something like this in Blender, I think this is only possible with the help of Python scripting or an osl shader.
Even if this Question will be closed, I have to share the result of my tests, because if not, I would have wastet to much of my time.
The closest result wich I found was to procect multible textures onto the mesh like decals. Therefore you have to use external objects as texture Coordinates.
The results can only be seen in the render mode.

Thank you. I will do that.
Staying in Blender, how would I do this?

I edited my Answer


text:
Why is this script so slow?
The First scripts adds empties to vertices and is quick.
The second script add bones and constraints to the empties,
why on large mesh does the second script bring blender to its knees?
import bpy
import bmesh

context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene
obj = context.edit_object
mesh = obj.data
bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(mesh)
empties = []
# selected verts
for v in [v for v in bm.verts if v.select]:
    empty = bpy.data.objects.new("Empty", None)
    empty.parent = obj
    empty.parent_type = 'VERTEX'
    empty.parent_vertices = [v.index] * 3
    scene.objects.link(empty)
    empty.matrix_parent_inverse.identity()
    empties.append((v.index, empty))

THE SECOND SCRIPT
import bpy

context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene

Empty = [o for o in scene.objects if o.type == 'EMPTY']

for l in Empty:
    # add bone
    bpy.ops.object.armature_add(location=l.location)
    bpy.ops.object.posemode_toggle()
    bpy.ops.pose.constraint_add(type='COPY_LOCATION')
    bpy.context.object.pose.bones["Bone"].constraints["Copy Location"].target = l
    bpy.ops.object.posemode_toggle()

The second script uses four operators within the loop. Each operator handles scene updating, and some in addition the undo stack. Try to at least work around armature_add and constraint_add

Also, do you really need an extra armature for each vertex? Could it be one armature with a lot of bones instead?

I know nothing of scripting i just joined these together.  So it would be great to use one armature!

Related

I've added a script to my answer, which uses a single armature.

There are a few things to improve in your scripts.
for v in [v for v in bm.verts if v.select]:

Here you create a list of selected vertices, and then loop over that list. That list constructed using the list comprehension is unnecessary. Instead just write this:
for v in bm.verts:
    if not v.select:
        continue
    ...

The same goes for creating Empties in your second script. It's not necessary to first create the entire list in memory. Either use a generator expression or just use an if ...: continue construct.

The empties.append((v.index, empty)) adds items to a list that is never used. Better remove it.

In the second script you use operators where you could use regular functions. For example, use bpy.data.armatures.new(...) and link it to a new object, instead of using bpy.ops.object.armature_add(...). Every operator call creates an undo-step in memory, so it's much slower than using direct data access functions.
Here is the second script, which uses a single armature for all the bones, and as much direct data access (properties, function calls) as possible:
import bpy

C = bpy.context
try:
    arm_ob = bpy.data.objects['Armature']
except KeyError:
    arm = bpy.data.armatures.new('Armature')
    arm_ob = bpy.data.objects.new('Armature', arm)
    C.scene.objects.link(arm_ob)
else:
    arm = arm_ob.data

# Set to EDIT mode so we can add bones.
C.scene.objects.active = arm_ob
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')

# Add the bones
for l in C.scene.objects:
    if l.type != 'EMPTY':
        continue

    bone = arm.edit_bones.new(l.name)
    bone.head = l.location
    bone.tail = bone.head
    bone.tail.z += 0.5

# Go to POSE mode so we can add constraints
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='POSE')
for bone in arm_ob.pose.bones:
    clc = bone.constraints.new('COPY_LOCATION')
    clc.target = C.scene.objects[bone.name]

The armature for the subdivided Suzanne below took around a second to create, and consists of 2012 bones:

im not creating empties in my second script, im just using there location.  I just need a script that gets all empties in a scene location then adds it to a new bone, that bone then copies location the the empty

You are creating unnecessary Python objects and a list to keep them all in memory. I'm referring to Empties, i.e. the name of the list, and not "empties" in general.

I've added my version of the 2nd script, which doesn't use as many operators and creates only a single armature. It's quite fast now.

Don't forget to mark my answer as accepted answer

Shouldn't bpy.data.objects.get('Armature') and an if clause evaluate faster than try except? Nice answer nonetheless!

It's a style and expectation thing. If the expectation is that the exception won't happen often, the more Pythonic approach is to just do it and handle the exception. If the majority of the time the exception would happen it'll give a better performance to use get().

However, there will be an issue if bpy.data.objects['Armature'] is not in context.scene.objects.  Switching to edit mode on an unlinked object can befuddle the UI.

Sure, the script assumes a clean file (armature doesn't exist at all) or a properly created and linked armature. Trying to repair a broken situation is beyond the scope of this question, I'd say. You could of course remove the reuse of the existing armature altogether and always create a new one every time the script runs.

The following video is to show what i was trying to achieve https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkQj4L-833c&feature=youtu.be


text:
Object array doesn't follow spiral path
I'm trying to create an array along this spiral, but I don't know why my object doesn't follow the path I created (I only modified the external line of the Blender curve spiral). It seems that the objects are following an offset path, but I don't understand why...

I use Blender 2.79 (downloaded 2 months ago) with Cycles Render

Have you applied transformations to the objects (Ctrl+A)? Do the both objects have the origin points placed in the same position?

I placed the origin points in the same position and it worked. I didn't think the problem could be that easy. Thank you so much.


text:
Display fading animation for image texture planes in 3D viewport?
This has been questioned before but was answered unsatisfactorily.
Is there a way to animate the opacity of image texture planes in the blender render view port?

I need the image to have a very simple, very common, non-CPU intensive,
Fade-in fade-out Effect.
The problem is that the Alpha Factor of the texture only updates on the panel slider and not in the actual animation key-framing doesn't seem to work on this. Is there a simple tick box somewhere that solves this simple problem?

Do you want to make the texture disappear, or the plane with that material?

i want to give it a fade-in fade-out animation
[ plane image with alpha pixels ]

its definitely working in the slider, but why not when being played?

you haven't answered my question

I'm using vers 2.77a and definitely cannot fade out an alpha layered image plane using keyframes in the 3D window.  If rendering in OpenGL, this problem can be circumvented by mixing two videos in the VSE, the fading one and others.  The VSE uses Blender-render internal, but it is hugely faster in the VSE.  Hope this helps...

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


text:
Automating commands in Blender?

Starting with Adobe line of products, actions gave me life-saving automation functionality, is there any similar thing like this packed inside blender? or are there anyone who's developed an addon?   cheers! :)

Your question is too generic, addons themselves are automations for Blender. You can create your own script if you learn BPy, or you can use other people's scripts. It would be more clear if you can explain what do you need to achieve using automation.

thanks, i'll remember this in the near future. been thinking to learn Py anyways

You can always look at your command history, open a Python Console next to it and copy/paste the commands.
If you want something more GUI-like, you'd have to get into a Python Addon.


text:
How do you Split Action strips?
I have a group of keyframes that dashes then jumps
I want to separate these into two different actions and manage them separately.
So how do you do it?

I will include an excerpt from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WrrdFpZ-VC7taxu4iD3hZIowYvyM953iZpBwkZ78PgA/edit :
splitting actions
This is probably the most difficult of the workflows.  When you are starting out with NLAs and haven't made a habit of creating small reusable chunks you will often realize "I wish I had split this up before now."
The essence of splitting is to create a copy and delete part from each.  Let's refer to those two parts as A and B.
Make a backup of your .blend file first, just to be safe.
Imagine your action is currently the primary action.  Use the Dope Sheet/Action Editor to give it a "good" name (maybe "AplusB").  Then use the chevron to move it into an action strip.  Create a new track and create a new action strip in that new track that refers to the same action.   You now have two action strips referring to the same action datablock.  Go ahead and create a third action strip referring to the same action datablock as a sort of information bunker in case you make a mistake later on.
Make one of the strips active and hit the Tab key to start editing it.  Use the Dope Sheet/Action Editor to make a single-user copy of the action (click the [3] button).  Now give it a name that identifies which half of the action it will become (maybe "part B").  After that, you can delete all the keyframes that don't belong in the action (delete the A, leave the B).  Memorize the name of the new action.  Hit Tab to stop editing that action strip.  Now change the Action of the action strip to refer to the new action.
Make the other strip active and hit the Tab key to start editing it.  Use the Dope Sheet/Action Editor to make another single-user copy copy of the datablock (click the [2] button).  You can rename it (maybe "part A").  You can now use the Graph Editor to remove all the B keyframes and leave the A keyframes.  Don't forget to point the strip at the new action.
Before you test the animation you should discard the 3rd (information bunker) action strip but not before you click the [f] button next to the action name in the Dope Sheet/Action Editor to give it a Fake user so blender will not garbage-collect the AplusB action.  That way you can still recover it later if you find problems with the animation.

If the Action strips are NLA-enabled:

Select the action in the NLA.
From the NLA menu, select Edit ->> Split Strips (Y is the default shortcut).

If they aren't NLA-enabled:

In the Action Editor, create a new action by clicking the '+' symbol next to the action to duplicate the action.

Select the newly duplicated action, and edit out the keyframes from the first part of the action, and label it whatever the later action is called (ie) 'Jump').


text:
Problem with Normals - pointed appearance
Im unfamilliar to Blender's more advanced setting/glitches so i do not know how to title this question (i'll fix that later) but the normals (is this how its called or face direction?) suddenly started to look like the picture below (i dont know when it started doing this)
the problem only happens with the "normal" normals, the inverted normals are fine, unfortunately this problem also shows in renders, please help

UPload an example file to https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

It seems that the normals are inverted, try this:
Hit (Tab) to enter edit mode, (T) to show tools, go to "Shading/UVs" tab, hit the buttons Normal: (calculate) then (flip direction).

that is not the problem, i think its another setting i just dont know what, if you will invert the normals, it should show you a concave appearance of the normal normals, not a pointed or edged appearance, or is that just my misconception?

ah ok, its the screw modifier that is causing the thing

if you are in Blender 2.8, you could visualize your normals with the OverlayTab-> Show Split Normals and if you see doubled normals pointing in different directions from one Vertex as in Picture 1 you can hit Alt-N and merge the normals to one direction (Picture 2)… maybe this helps.


text:
Render new stills and not the created video sequence
Im new to the video editing side of blender and here's the thing:
i was stitching image sequences of a rendered animation i created and i want to take a step baCK and change something on the animation but when i try to render a new image sequence again, only blender does is output a blank, empty gray screen,
my guess is that this is the video sequence rendering and not the animation, because i moved the image sequence strips away from the frame range, because i want it out of the way when rendering the edited animation but alas, blank
what am i not getting here? how can i get blender to render the animation again? and not the video sequence?

haha found the devil!
When i entered video sequence mode, the post processing menu put a check on the sequencer and compositing checkbox. this adds the video composition to the render stack on top of the usual animation rendering
or atleast that's how i see it, if anyone wants to add something to clear this i'd really appreciate it.

To render animation of render layers instead of sequencer / compositor disable them temporarily in Render panel. See http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/39673/how-to-switch-render-source-vse-or-camera

@MrZak thanks, i already figured it out :)

Sounds as though you have not set your render output back to still images.

If you already have multiple sequences you want to re-stitch, just be sure to re-adjust your start and end frames.

thanks! what i did  was i adjusted the frame range from 1-30  [opening part of the animation] and reposition every video strip away [outside] from the range. when i hit render animation, bam! not rendering

i already fixed it
although by that time, i did set the setting to PNG

wait @Ratt , (also new here  in stack exchange) how do you post pictures along with your comments?


text:
How to join 2 objects what way?
My question isn't really about a problem I'm having but me trying to avoid problems in the future.
So, I am modelling an armoured vehicle for a computer game and all of the handles and other details on the hull were made as separate objects, I've already joined some by selecting them and doing Crtl+J but this doesn't like the meshes in any way. However it not linking the meshes is a good thing as it prevents the resource count from going up but I'm not sure if this is the correct way to do this?
The main problem I can think of is when in a bit I want to UV-unwrap it that it won't do it as I want as the meshes aren't connected and this I can mark seams etc?
Any input on this would be most welcome.
Thanks!

I think if Ctrl+j u dont need then make boolean as union operation

Yea I know about the boolean, that is the way to join the meshes but I don't want to join the meshes if I don't really HAVE to for whatever reason (uv-unwrap?)

You mean need one object mean time and when need to separate and individual object you can uvwrap it is that so

No, it all has to come together as one object at the end and the UV map has to be connected as there will be a camouflage pattern that can't just be interrupted everywhere.

Maybe this one will help you: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/89979/remove-intersections-between-many-objects

Thanks for the suggestion Paul but that is what I'm trying to avoid, using a boolean will merge the 2 meshes and thus create a ton of extra verts etc if I add something to what normally just is a flat plane, which I am trying to avoid. Simply joining the objects with crtl+j avoids this but my question is how that will affect the UV map?

I'm basically trying to avoid to merge the meshes as that means they have to adjust to eachother. Imagine a small flat plane now simply 'resting' on a bigger flat plane (with the bottom face of it deleted), if I merge them the bigger flat plane will have to adjust and create a bunch of verts and edges to merge.


text:
how to connect two paths
I am trying to connect 2 separate paths somewhere along its centre, see picture:

Is there a way to do this?

Select the points you want to connect and press "F".

I already tried that, it says: "cannot create segment"

Do you need to create your stuff with a curve? Otherwise convert the curve with alt-c to mesh, then press f to connect the two points and use a Skin- and Subdivisionsurface Modifier on it

I need a connecting cylinder, selecting 2 points after converting it to a mesh will simply make an edge, I can't make this edge a cylinder while remaining merged correctly with the meshes of both paths.

If i understood your question you want to join to verts
Go to edit mode ->
Select the 2 verts and Press Alt+C

Alt + C will not connect two spline points. It will close the spline(s) that selected points belong to regardless of which points are selected.

Like Omar said, this doesn't work, it connect both ends, I am trying to connect a point along its centre.

@J.Point attach your file

You cannot fork a curve object, you can only float disconnected verts close to each other then make a large bevel size to hide the gap.


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How to move along 2 axis EQUALLY?
All I seem to be able to find when I search is the ability to lock an axis and move on the other 2 freely but I want to move along those 2 axis equally, so if I lock the Y and I move on the X and Z I want it to move the same distance on both the X and Z axis.
Picture:
So as you can likely guess, I want to duplicate the nut and move it on an axis of 45°.

I don't think Blender can do this directly. You could rotate the nut 45 degrees, switch Blender to local coordinates, and then move along one of those axes.

Is there a way to make the local coordinates also work when pressing G? I don't want to move them all manually (clicking and dragging on the new local axis arrow on my selection) but rather define specific values to the axis I'm moving on.

Yes, press G and then X twice to move along the local X-axis.


text:
Smooth shader and subsurf shadow problem
As you can see in the pictures I made a mesh and added loopcuts to it for the smooth face shading that it's using but there is an undesired shadow, which isn't seen from higher angles. When I apply subsurf it also gives a shadow but only on half of the selection...
without subsurf (just smooth face shading):

without subsurf (just smooth face shading) from different angle:

With subsurf:

file:

Some of the normals are incorrect. Select everything in edit mode and press Ctrl-N and that will recalculate the normals and fix it.

Thanks! I clicked the recalculate button on the left before but that didn't work, this did.


text:
Why can't i resize my image?
I am following a tutorial on youtube and when the instructor wants to resize his photo he can find a box that says "size". But when I am trying to find it just not there. Where is the box???!?!?!

Found it, my bad!

I found the problem, I had to make the Properties panel larger (opened by pressing N 3D viewport).


text:
Automated Focusing in edit mode
Is there a way, a setting for blender to put the focus on the current selection of vertices you edit in edit mode, automaticaly? Pivoting around the selection is dizzying if you don't  continuously press the point key (.) just to focus on it, which i think is so redundant. but i don't want it also zooming in TOO close in your face every time like when blender focuses on things.

Please don't ask the same question twice. If you have something further to add to your original question you can use the 'edit' button below it.

ok, should i delete this one then?
this question is a more specific one thou (one area only), while the first was more in general (different areas)

@RayMairlot is there a countdown timer here(blenderstack) to know when can i ask  a question again?

Personally, I suggest deleting this one and keeping the other one. You're not meant to re-ask a question at all. You can read more about that here: http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/473/can-i-re-ask-a-question-if-it-hasnt-been-answered

ok, but only after i get a clear answer to either


text:
Can You Apply Laplacian deform to a Hooked Path?
I'm doing a kind of object transferring from one box to another and both box will be moving WHILE the objects inside is transferring to another.
How do you do this?

i intend the Laplacian deform to morph the path nicely between the two boxes, and also can this link of boxes by path still work once i apply an array after it? (transfer object from many boxes to one box)?

also is there a better way of doing what i want to do here?
like logically in the BGE for example, the object will move between the boxes on a wavy/spiral line not straight?


text:
How do you organize NLA editor strips
The outliner tab/bar is pretty organized, but when you look at the NLA editor it doesn't reflect what you see in the outliner

How do you fix this? and re-order the tracks?

As in the speaker name order?  01blah, 02 blah, ... don't think you can.

I was looking into this because Godot only stores the animations pushed to the NLA Editor.
I want to confirm that I pushed them all down from the action editor that's in alphabetical order, and that's hard to do if I have to search for each one.


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Can you use the matcaps as materials?
this is a quick question, idk if this has been asked already but is there a way to use the matcaps as materials on objects?
also why is the matcap applying on all objects instead of just the active one? (heard somewhere) any help would b nice :)


text:
Change that convoluted font mesh

hi! haha, the example is a bit simple but converted font meshes tend to be so complex as more complex the fonts you use. and i saw a vid tutorial [if not for completely forgetting what tutorial it was again :( ]
that tutorial shows how to neatly 'gridify' the mesh which i think is so useful.
~ something like this
could anyone share how you do this? thanks!~

You may achieve this type of topology (although it is not perfect) using the Remesh Modifier.

First extrude yout text mesh a bit.

Go to Object Mode and enable the Remesh Modifier

In Object header, in the Display panel check the Wire checkbox. It'll allow you to see how the modifier works in a realtime.

Uncheck the Remove Disconected Pieces checkbox (if you don't some of the letters may dissapear) and play with the modifier's settings.

At the end delete the previously extruded vertices.

this is the tutorial i forgot hahaha the block one is cool

Yeah, blocks option is very cool, especially if you're a Minecraft's fan :).

Make a grid-plane. Make some text. Extrude the text in its modifier panel. Then place the text through the plane.
Convert the text to mesh from curve/meta/surf/text. Pick the plane, go to modifiers, add a Boolean modifier. Select the text as your second object.
Hit space again, and convert the boolean to mesh from curve/meta/surf/text. Delete the plane object and the original text object. Now you just have the gridded version.

Note that this does add the grid, but it doesn't make it a great mesh. I've drawn on some messy parts in blue, red and pink, where you don't have neat triangles or quads:

Personally, I think I'd rather manually create bridges, and get a better edgeflow. But maybe you've got a different goal or workflow.

yes, i agree with that but the grid you could make on the fonts is def. way better,  thanks!


text:
Move object and follow it in edit mode
Is there a way to, while moving an object in edit mode, move at same time the 3DView camera? I don't mean a camera as an object, I mean the view in 3DView, I use this a lot in Unreal Engine, while moving an object with gizmo while pressing Shift, you can move the object and camera at same time.


text:
How to export vertex animation to unity
I created this shape keys animation(using vertex groups), and I want to export in into unity. Id does not work as i supposed, when I follow the tutorial about exporting to unity It works different. I haven't found any description about exporting animation like this to unity. Can you help me with doing this?
My animation:
0 frame

20 frame

Have you tried creating actions with those shapekeys inside? This link may be helpful - Related

I think that's too complicated for me. I'm begginer in creating aniamtion with blender :/ There is no simpler way?

I'm not sure, maybe getting some other input would be useful.


text:
Exporting blender shape keys animation to Unity
I created simple object with some vertex groups and shape keys and added keyframes based on the shape keys. I have problem with exporting this animation to unity. It just shows that there is only one frame in the animations section of this prefab. Do you have any idea what may be source of this problem. I'm new to blender and unity so I might have done some stupid mistakes. I watched many tutorials about exporting, but all of them were about exporting animation with bones.

I always just exported the whole object as an fbx file. That has never let me down. If you do this and it doesn't work, It's not something I'm familliar with.

Have you applied all modifiers and applied location, rotation and scale? Second thing that comes into my mind, try to export the fbx file instead of let Unity import the blend file.

Perhaps this video will shed some light on the issue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvjwTnS6vhA


text:
Creating low polygon models
Currently I'm making game in Unity and I want to add some objects to the scene. I think that low polygon models like these look great. I wonder how can I make something like these by myself. I watched few tutorials on youtube but any of them was exactly about what I want to make. How can i make this low polygon models? Should I make normal model and then reduce the amount of polygons(if it is good idea how should I do this?) or are there any helpful tools or methods? Note that I don't want to just reduce the amount of polygons, but I want to make it look like on the linked picture.

Im agree with @rick-rigs and a pro tip: Almost always use the triangulate modifire

By Manipulating primitives.
For instance Tree 1 (Top Left of your ref image)

Add the Tree Trunk.
Do this by adding a cube ans scaling it on Z.
Go into edit mode on the cube, and Select the top face, and scale it inward.
Create a material that looks like the trunk you prefer.
Go back into Object mode.
Create a new Cube.
With this new cube selected go into edit mode, again select the top face and scale it inward until it looks like a pyramid.
Scale up/down according to your preference.
copy the new pyramid upward in Z with Ctrl+D, then Z.
scale the new mesh a little less.
repeat 5-9 one more time.
Create a leaf material and assign it to the three pyramids.

For the next tree copy the trunk of the last tree, then add an Icosphere.
Make sure you have the Tool Panel Open (the panel is on the left of the 3D View, and you can toggle it using the T key.
Then, copy the trunk again, and for the next tree use a lower res icosphere. When you create a new one, look at the lower half of the Tool Panel and set Subdivision to 1.  Then go into Edit Mode, and move, and extrude some thing around scaling them down slightly as you go up the Z axis
For the last tree copy the trunk again, and do some research / experimentation with the Skin Modifier, and when you are done learning how to use it, copy the pyramids from your first tree, and position them accordingly.
I hope this sends you down the right direction, but I must say this kind of question is too broad for this site, and doesn't deserve this kind of attention from the users, and will probably be flagged. Please get a feel for what this site is about by browsing around before asking such a broad question. If you browse you will see more specific questions, and more concise answers.  If you want help on tutorials, and learning try: Blender Artist . org


text:
Why is the node editor showing different kinds of nodes?
I have been following this tutorial until I started adding nodes. The problem is that he has completely different nodes than I have. Even nodes that are created at start are different (I have Material and Output and he has Render Layers and Composite).
Have I missed something or should I use different nodes than he?

This answer is was for older versions (2.79 and previous)
For blender version 2.8x read this

Without any addons, the Node Editor can be used in three different modes:

You are looking at the cycles material (shader) nodes. The tutorial is using the compositor nodes.
Simply click on the Compositing button in the Node Editor header to switch to the compositor nodes.

Also make sure the Use nodes box is checked.

As stated in other answers, if you are seeing different nodes than what you expect, then you are using the wrong editor.
As of 2.8+ versions of Blender, with the new workflow oriented paradigm, the old generic "Node Editor" is no more.
Along with other editors it has been split into several different specific task-oriented editors.

The Shader Editor for editing Cycles and EEVEE materials,
including shaders and textures
The Texture Editor for legacy node based textures for World, Brushes, Modifiers, and Line Styles.
Geomery Nodes for parametric construction and procedural modelling
The Compositor for post-production and composition of your renders.

You're in the material node editor currently. The tutorial is about compositing. Switch to the compositor by checking this button:


text:
How to make objects near the camera look bigger
I'm rendering an image where the camera is in front of the car and I want the front of the car to stand out and look big. Right now it looks quite flat. I tried playing with Focal Length and Sensor Size of the Camera but only thing I achieved was that the car was more stretched near the camera. I don't use blender very often so maybe someone who understands this properties better can suggest the solution.
Here is a quick visualization I made(by just moving the vertices). On the left is what I now have and on the right what I want to achieve.

In my view, this question is better asked on a site like the forums at Blender Artist or Blender Nation.

Focal Length is indeed the parameter you want to edit. You have of course to compensate for the distortion with distance to the object.

Has Focal Length decreases the object will look further and further away, the perspective distortion will get larger and larger, and so the objects closer to the camera will appear bigger, and the ones far away will appear smaller,


text:
How to flip normals of a curve with object bevel?
I'm working on this model:

I did the antennae and legs using curves with an object bevel. As you can see the generated mesh has normals in the wrong direction. I tried fixing this by selecting all segments of the curve and switching their directions, but this doesn't help. Any idea on how can I fix this?

If you use an object to give a bevel to the curve you need to change the direction of the bevel object to flip the normals.
Select the Object > Edit Mode > Segments > Switch Direction

Thanks, that makes total sense. Don't know why but I was switching the direction of the base curve.


text:
How to make flat surfaces look flat with smooth shading?
I've been working on a hard surface model and using smooth shading quite extensively. I also have auto smoothing enabled. The issue is that flat surfaces with complex geometry stop looking flat when I enable smooth shading. Here is an example:
Flat shading:

Smooth shading:

It's not very noticeable, but you can see that some reflections appear on the smooth shaded model that make the surface look curved (e.g. lower left corner). This is how the geometry of the surface looks like:

I've tried changing it multiple times, but no matter what I do the surface doesn't look completely flat. What should I do?

Somewhat related: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/19131/how-to-properly-use-face-smooth-shading

Blender is smoothing between your larger face and the next ones, because they are not co-planar. To add to TheLabCat's answer (who proposes to inset your large face so that the next ones are now co-planar), you can also try the Weighted Normal modifier, it will only smooth below a certain surface size, so you can tweak it so that your large surfaces stay flat:

Ooh, THAT’s what that modifier does. Thx!

Oh, yeah, this problem. What a lot of users have done is just inset faces on the flat part with just a tiny margin, so there is a second flat face around the surface, bordering it from the curved parts. That way, the smooth shading on the surface that is supposed to be flat isn’t trying to average between it and the curved surfaces adjacent to it.


text:
Constrain vertex to its face
Here is a screenshot:

I want to use the scale tool to move the selected vertices closer to each other, but I want to do so without affecting the shape of the face. The normals of the two face may not be the same either (they might point in reflected directions, i.e. one measures 30 degrees and the other -30 degrees).
In 3ds max you can enable face constraints, and then all vertex movements happen only along a face. Is there such a thing in Blender? Or is there another way to achieve this.

If you move a vertex, you are changing at least a face shape. Each of those vertices is shared by three faces, so moving it you will change the shape of three faces...

I don't know max, but think blender has no tools capable to do that. There could be a way, imho, to achieve that but it could be quite difficult to explain with words only so, if you will share your model (use http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ then edit your post adding the provided link), we could try use that to achieve a solution specific to your model.

about max face constraint, I found this https://youtu.be/UFL24N8G8ow?t=1369 but imho this can work because that vertex is shared by 4 coplanar faces... in blender you can do this, using (eg) local or normal coordinates... see also https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/93140/face-and-normal-constraint-when-moving-vertex-edge-like-3ds-max

One thing you can try is to scale selected vertices while locking normal Z axis.
To do so, enable Normal transform orientation with Alt+Space or from viewport header. Select vertices, enable Scale tool with S and press Shift+Z to lock movement along global Z axis, then Shift+Z once again to lock normal Z axis. After that move your mouse to change amount of effect.

It's also possible to move vertices as well while constraining normal Z axis making them roughly stay on the same surface.

with the vertex selected, if you hit G key twice, it will slide across the edge that it's connected to
If you want to slide both edges towards each other, you may want to find a midpoint between the two vertices, select it, then place the 3D cursor on that midpoint using the snap cursor to selected (shift + S)

After that, change your pivot point to your 3d cursor, then scale the vertices, it will come closed to the 3D cursor as you scale.

Hope this helps.

If I got what you say, and the op asks, this is not helping at all...


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What causes the gap in shadows underneath an object?
In the following render:

You can see that the shadow of the pink plate on the table isn't complete, as if it is somehow lit. However, if I lift the plate substantially off the table, this problem goes away. I was wondering what causes this? Everything in the scene, except the plate, has no materials assigned, and my lighting setup is the standard one at boot up:

That's a point light. And the mesh of the plate looks like this:

Try enabling contact shadows;

You may also need to adjust the bias settings (also pictured)


text:
Unfinished Render Image Dissapears on Cancellation
To start out, no this isn't a duplicate of Export unfinished image render. This is a question about why the answer to that question stopped working in blender 2.8.
Last night I stopped a render half way through (bottom to top render mode) and saved the partial image just as normal. Then this morning I started the render again in top to bottom render mode. When the render progressed to where is was last night I stopped it, and the render disappeared costing five hours of render time. I tried fiddling with the cache setting and all sorts of stuff. I even tried using render layers but the partial render image still keeps disappearing if the render job is canceled.
Here are my output settings in case this helps.


text:
Material node - increase saturation one color?
How can you increase the saturation of one or two colors using nodes? I would like to increase the saturation of blue(s) and also the orange just a bit. This is in a material using nodes.
Thank you

Can you clarify what is meant by this question? Do you have a desaturated texture image that you want to color Blue & Orange, or do you have a Full color texture image that you wish to isolate the Blue's & Oranges within, but desaturate all the rest?

Can you post your .blend and/or images?

Thanks, I am looking to enhance an image texture (that is actually a movie).  And I want to increase saturation but I am wondering if you can do it only on one or maybe a range of colors?

Probably easier to edit the texture itself, there aren't really any shader tools that can operate on individual color ranges, or isolate a color. Blender compositor can do the editing though, the color balance and keying nodes have some functions that aren't available as shaders that can do this.

Thanks (would have upvoted if I could). Too bad these nodes are not available as material nodes. Out of curiosity, do you know reason they are not?

you can separate by adding a math node, setting it to greater, and and add the solid color you want in the bottom input. Put your image texture in the top input and this will separate your image into black and white anywhere were there was blue (or any color you choose) will be black and the rest will be white. you can take the output of this node and put it into the saturation of a Hue/Saturation node. If you want to control the amount of saturation just put a math node between the Greater Than node and the Hue/Saturation node. I hope this helped you. :)

You could try making a second texture that has only the parts you want highlighted, and have the rest be alpha. It would be easy to increase that second textures saturation in Blender, possibly giving you the needed effect when mixed with the first.

Thanks, that would probably work but seems like alot of work as the texture is a movie. Anyways, I am mostly poking around learning and experimenting with the Blender suite.


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Show metadata from photos (image sequence)?
Is it possible to read metadata from an imagesequence? I am doing a timelapse and thinking about using Blender for putting it all together. Need to read the date from metadata and show it.
Thanks

Do you mean something such as generic file creation time which is available for all files?   Do you mean the date the picture was taken, similar to say the type of camera, as in jpeg information?

Yes, exactly. I want to show the date the photo was taken. Probably just year and month.

Repeat question.  Do you want?  A. Generic File Info or B. jpeg information?. .... Warning this may not be a blender question.

http://superuser.com/questions/57317/editing-jpeg-exif-properties  ..... is this relevant?

Ok, I will write elaborate. Blender has many useful tools. Now I am using it to put together a timelapse, mostly using the Video Sequence Editor, maybe also the compositor. My question is, would it be possible to extract the date from the file currently showing in the image sequence, and show it?
You with me now?

I hope someone steps in to remove the fog.  I suggest you get any tool which produces in text format the information you want ... filename ... date.  Then the question will reduce to .... How can a list of information be the contents of a Blender Text object? Can the names of files be correlated? (Yes)

You can use Python and getctime to get your desired data.
try:
    mtime = os.path.getctime(file_name)
except OSError:
    mtime = 0
last_modified_date = datetime.fromtimestamp(mtime)

Thanks, but I know nothing about python in Blender. How can you display the date in VSE or sequencer?

I don't think Blender as any builtin mechanism for reading and displaying metadata directly, at least not readily available or exposed to end users through it's UI. Blender did become capable of writing (and reading I think) EXIF metadata to some image file formats (like JPEG and PNG) a few versions ago, where it saves render statistics in it's metadata, so maybe through some Python wizardry you can read other EXIF information from it's files but I don't know how to, I am not much into coding myself.

Perhaps the result of the getctime call could fill a text object in another scene, then the rendered output from that scene could be overlayed onto the image seq in the VSE? Not sure if there is a loop issue or a delay however?


text:
Naming for image sequence?
I am working in compositor and VSE and find that Blender does not seem to understand image-sequences named like 120311_115058__001.jpg?
What are the rules for naming img-sequences?
Thanks


text:
Export selected objects to a json text file
I've written the code below to dump location data of selected objects,
Hhowever its not ideal.
I'm not deeply into python's json library
What i would like to generat is a file that looks alike
{
  { "name" : camera
       { "x" : 0.404404,
         "y" : 0.001111,
         "z" : 0.00202  }
   },
  { "name" : target
       { "x":   12.111111,
         "y":    6.00020

etc...

Currently each  object and its positions are inside a signle { }, block.
So the x,y,z data is not subnested, i'm not sure how to do it.
Here is the code i wrote:
# import the necessary modules we need
import bpy, os, json

# get the current selection
selection = bpy.context.selected_objects

# get path of the blend file (file should have been saved at least once)
tempFolder = bpy.path.abspath("//")

# make a filename
filename = os.path.join (tempFolder, ".Locations.json")
# open a file to write to
file = open(filename, "w")   # a is for appending  w writes new

# initialize
result = "{\n"
resultJson = ""

# loop through selected objects
for sel in selection:
     # get the current object's dimensions
     loc = sel.location
     # store it in json
     resultJson = { "name" : sel.name , "x":loc.x, "y":loc.y, "z":loc.z   }
     # turns a single jsonline in a string and adds ',' for next object
     result+= json.dumps(resultJson,indent=4) + ','

result = result[:-1] # remove last comma from joined string objects
result = result +'\n}'
file.write(result)
file.close()

Since you are able to access all the properties, this question is off-topic IMO. It's more like a basic python question so I'd suggest: Ask how to format your json string on stackoverflow....

Well i was in doubt a bit about it, it turned out people regularly popup questions about import export to some format from Blender (in this case json), if it gets solved here, Blender users can find an answer from here. To ask something python related is Ok i think as an artist i'm not in depth with those subjects while some here are.


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Text VFX border color
Hi does anyone know of a way to have an outline surrounding text in VFX edit? (Font border)
The reason for it is that such texts are better readable if placed over animations or movies with huge swings in brightness. And I kinda need that
I'll add scripting tag as well as maybe that's needed to get it

Well I found a way to solve it.
Its not perfect but for now I can live with it.
Add glow effect with blend mode exclusion

Do you mind converting your comment into an actual answer?

Using glow to create an outline with this add-on: https://gist.github.com/tin2tin/b8e7fb9156b5c5d54fdab5d808dc7c1f
Change the blur width to change the outline width and change the multiply value to change opacity.
Offset the position of the outline to make a drop shadow.


text:
Hooked bezier curve differen position in edit & object mode
I have a drawing for a moving machine with some wires.
The wires are made by an bezier curve, and hooks to annimate it.
Hooks as I needed better control over it than cloth-sim based rope tricks.
The strange thing is that in Edit mode the curve is not the same shape as in object mode, despite the hooks.
There is a small but notable difference in position of the wire as a result.
What can cause that ?
I dont use bones, only parent child combinations and hooks in this drawing.
(i cannot show the drawing because of NDA contract)

When you enter edit mode the object will be displayed as it is before the modifiers are calculated. If you use hook modifiers, they will not show up there unless you enable this box:


text:
Removing duplicated objects (from dae imports)
I work with other people who design using CAD program, i convert them using freecad.
I import those drawings as DAE files (sometimes as obj or STL, dae works best).
I do not know the cause of it, but in general their drawings contain a lot of identical objects in identical locations. So a single screw for example is repeated 4 times at exact same location (however the whole dae import uses 1 shared origin by all objects).
I would like to remove all the duplicates perhaps by a script (set origin to selected object volume) then do a vertex count, and check if a similair object exists at the same location with same vertex count (screq and bolt may contain similair location but have different vertex count) so that would retain both.
Any idea on how to script it ?

As of 2.8x you can enter Edit Mode for all objects in selection so I you don't necessarily need a script. Try to: select all meshes, switch to Edit Mode > Alt+M > Merge by Distance. If you want a script have a look into this answer. Does that work for you?

Merge by distance doesnt solve it, it doesnt check if objects are disconnected

Hard to guess how the geometry looks like. Can you share a blend containing any example geometry to test?

Sadly no i cannot share those are all copyrighted product files dont belong to me, (NDA) with all technical internals, remove by distances though works by edge length between verticles, it doesnt compare if verticles are near but unconnected. Those files come in many parts (scerws plates electronics mechanics etc) and most parts are repeated multiple times, in exact same position. Think of chair containing 12 legs, but in the normal 4 locations of a chair leg, amount is per leg can be random too.

Suggest create any exemplary geometry by yourself showing all the details you're talking about and ideally a list of possible issues so we can go through and don't miss anything. TBH: I don't get what's so special about your chair example: It's not about how many legs there are. If the geometry is equal per leg, merge by distance is your friend... so I guess the geometry is not the same for whatever reason but again that's hard to imagine.

I'm experiencing this issue as well. Every mesh is duplicated 4 times. Every material has 4 different layers inside. Don't know how to fix.


text:
Rigify fails automtic weight, ..ok but on which bone?
Well i used rigify quite often over the years, and so its not something I get into problems with usually.
Sometimes though rigify fails, is there is a log option to see which bone had problem ?
Or ideas on how to add such functionality to the rigify script?

It's not part of the rigify script.  It's part of the autoweight functionality built into Blender (which is probably C, not Python.)

As a general rule of thumb, if something in Blender gives an error message and you want more information, you can try checking the console (Window > Toggle System Console). I don't know what information it gives for this kind of error, but it might be helpful.

just checked the error its the same in the console, it has to be fixed in C then


text:
Rendering isn't stressing GPU
I just went through a tutorial video to make an animation of 2 planets colliding. This is only my 3rd rendering, and the first one since I realized Blender wasn't using my GPU. I set to my CUDA based GPU (eVGA GTX 960 SSC 4GB AC2.0 blah blah blah), set the resolution preset to 1080p HDTV, 100% scale, and made sure I  set GPU Compute in the render settings as well.
Obviously I'm pretty new to this, but I was very surprised to see that the rendering process was only pushing my GPU clock to 539mHz (idle is about 125mHz, and rated base/boost clocks are 1279/1342mHz. Running Heaven benchmark earlier it was clearing 1400mHz on it's own (also, I have not overclocked it on my own, it's factory overclocked only). My CPU is also only getting 15% load on average.
The render was taking forever, so I did some research, cranked up my tiles sizes, and cut the render time by a full minute per frame. However, should the Cycles engine not be utilizing more of my GPU's power? I feel like if it were pushing the GPU, I should be able to reduce render time by at least half.
Below is a screenshot of RealTemp CPU monitoring and eVGA's PrecisionX 16 monitoring. Interestingly, my PC is running like ass while it renders the actual 3D objects, despite showing rather low loads on my CPU/GPU.
Thanks in advance for any information, and sorry if this has been answered and I couldn't find it!


text:
Boolean Modifiers not working normally
When using a Boolean modifier on an object, the "Operation" choices (Difference, Union, Intersect) are all not working normally. Choosing "Union" makes it do the effect of "Intersect" and "Difference" makes it do what "Intersect" is supposed to do. What's the deal here?
This is happening with following a simple tutorial. It's a simple primitive cube and primitive cylinder. No normals or doubles problems.
My specs are:
Macbook Pro 13" Retina early 2015 512GB i7 with 16gb RAM upgrade OS-X version 10.11.4

You should at least provide a link to the tutorial or better your blend file with the problem or tell us about the steps you took where you run into the problem. I bet, you have manifold geometry.

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/46809/2843

Please show screenshots of mesh or upload your .blend file. The most common reason for Booloean operations behave vice versa are flipped normals.

This is most likely a problem with normals, open non-watertight or non-manifold meshes. Can you post a Blend file? Try recalculating the normals on both your meshes with Crtl+N in edit mode, and try cleaning them up with remove doubles. ALso check for wholes, gaps or open parts on your meshes.


text:
ShrinkWrap mesh with hole around another mesh with hole
I want to morph a mesh into another, using shrinkwrap modifier. See below in the scripture; my goal is to morph the half cricle into the triangle:

So I added a shrink wrap modifier to the half circle mesh and choosed the triangle as the target.
It's not quite perfect with basic settings of the modifier. So I tried to tweak it by scaling the half circle in edit mode:

But it's even worst...
I've tried to move vertex one by one, but I gave up as it's very difficult; I've also tried to play with all the settings of the modifier, but I can't get the result I want.
So I'm asking for help to discover how I can perform that morphing. Thanks a lot for your answers!

Shrinkwrap works well to project smaller shapes into a larger surface, it is never going to work well for morphing two characters. As cegaton suggested might be better to look into shapekeys

Yes I've tried shape keys with "join as shapes" option. But the result is a total mess...
Maybe I use it not the right way. Do you have any advice to do it with shapekeys?

For shape key joining, you need at least three things: same amount of vertices, same order (in internal data), same corresponding faces.

I have the same number of vertices on each mesh, but it's the first time I hear about the same order. I'm going to google that.
While I'm doing some search, can you check my blend file and tell me if it meets the conditions that you said?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0e6n1XhjXoGT1pRXzRReU1zUnM/view?usp=sharing

@stephane, they are not. The code in the blend file linked in this question can help to see all indices (vertices, edges, polygons) https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/76131/modal-operator-and-opengl-drawing-update-issue. For your question, I'd say the answer may depend: do you want a solution for this particular meshes or a more general one?

lemmon, thanks! I'm going to visit that link. To answer your question: both! :)
I want to solve my problem with these particular meshes but I also want to be able to do it for any other case.


text:
why my render animation only render my sequencer and not the compositer
i have a clip editor using some trackers and then a video sequencer to crop and ...
in the end i have this compositer to control the transformation and color of the video
but the problem is that my render only renders the result at the sequencer lever

as you see the compositer should be black and white but still my render will be a colorful video

The Compositor cannot be used on the output of the Sequencer. If you want to perform any transformations or color adjustments you have to do it in the Sequencer.

ok seems blender considers compositor and sequencer as 2 separate postprocess tools and wont use their output in the other tool
so the workaround is something like creating a new scene
having compositor only in scene1 and sequencer in scene2
add a scene strip to sequencer and set the source to scene1


text:
I don't know why My Final Render is all black

I make an emission shader and a principled shader make all with extrude and model it.
I pressed render to watch the final result but is all black.

This looks like a duplicate. They should be removed.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/67490/why-does-my-object-not-show-up


text:
How to make multiple float property in python
What is the python code to make multiple float property like in the mapping node?

Use a FloatVectorProperty and set its subtype to 'XYZ' or 'TRANSLATION'.
Currently other available subtypes of that property are: 'COLOR', 'DIRECTION', 'VELOCITY', 'ACCELERATION', 'MATRIX', 'EULER', 'QUATERNION', 'AXISANGLE', 'COLOR_GAMMA', 'LAYER'.

Ripped from: How to create a custom UI?
import bpy

from bpy.props import (FloatVectorProperty,
                       PointerProperty
                       )

from bpy.types import (Panel,
                       PropertyGroup
                       )

# ------------------------------------------------------------------------
#    Scene Properties
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------

class MyProperties(PropertyGroup):

    my_float_vector: FloatVectorProperty(
        name = "Float Vector Value",
        description="Something",
        default=(0.0, 0.0, 0.0),
        min= 0.0,
        max = 0.1,
        subtype = 'XYZ'
        # 'COLOR', 'TRANSLATION', 'DIRECTION', 'VELOCITY',
        # 'ACCELERATION', 'MATRIX', 'EULER', 'QUATERNION',
        # 'AXISANGLE', 'XYZ', 'COLOR_GAMMA', 'LAYER'
        )

# ------------------------------------------------------------------------
#    Panel in Object Mode
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------

class OBJECT_PT_CustomPanel(Panel):
    bl_idname = "object.custom_panel"
    bl_label = "My Panel"
    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D"
    bl_region_type = "UI"
    bl_category = "Tools"
    bl_context = "objectmode"

    @classmethod
    def poll(self,context):
        return context.object is not None

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        scene = context.scene
        mytool = scene.my_tool

        layout.prop(mytool, "my_float_vector", text="")

# ------------------------------------------------------------------------
#    Registration
# ------------------------------------------------------------------------

classes = (
    MyProperties,
    OBJECT_PT_CustomPanel
)

def register():
    from bpy.utils import register_class
    for cls in classes:
        register_class(cls)

    bpy.types.Scene.my_tool = PointerProperty(type=MyProperties)

def unregister():
    from bpy.utils import unregister_class
    for cls in reversed(classes):
        unregister_class(cls)
    del bpy.types.Scene.my_tool

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Could argue the node prop highlighted in question is subtype 'TRANSLATION'  given the length unit displayed.

True, Added. Thanks @batFINGER

Blender built-in mathutils-Vector

class mathutils.Vector(seq)
This object gives access to Vectors in Blender.

Parameters: seq (sequence of numbers) – Components of the vector, must be a sequence of at least two

mathutils.Vector
Most of the Blender code contain this Vector component for value modification.


text:
light not passing through window
I modeled my room using an Add-on called Archimesh to make more easily windows doors and so on when I finally modeled the room and rendered it I faced 2 problems which are:

I added a sunlight that passes through the window of the room there is light in the room however it is really dim and the glass material of the WINDOW is not transparent I watched how BlenderGuru made the material for the glass and mine still is solid despite the fact that light is coming through the room.
The next problem is rendering I used the Cycles render engine to render the room and got a really grainy image in the sampler I tried increasing the render value to 1000 still looks like crap.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/33017/what-does-light-portal-mean and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/502/increase-cycles-speed-for-interior-render?rq=1 might help.

Please use a descriptive title.

@Keavon Dude I told you I have no 3D experience.

Hello and welcome, please keep only one question per post so we can answer them, make as many as needed. Also please search before posting, all of these are very frequently asked and have already been answered before many times. See https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2558/how-to-illuminate-the-darkness-inside-glass-objects-in-cycles and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/47851/how-can-i-make-a-more-realistic-glass-shader

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/4980/how-to-avoid-noisy-renders-in-cycles https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1703/how-to-reduce-fireflies-in-cycles


text:
.obj model size reduce
I downloaded ready-made models from the Internet and some of them are 4 MB. But these dimensions are too big for me. I need to reduce their size. What I don't understand is how the hat can be 4mb. A human model is about 482 kb. I know that corners increase the size of the model. but the difference is too much. there must be something else.
summary: I want to reduce the size of an object
hat
https://ibb.co/6PyC54Q
human
https://ibb.co/PgXnvKw

The size most likely comes from the number of vertices in the model. If you reduce the number of vertices in the model (e.g. through a decimate modifier), does it reduce the size adequately?

it really works. I reduced the size of the object by 3 mb. thank you


text:
Why does blender use angle based UV mapping as default instead of conformal?
Why does blender like to default to angle based UV mapping instead of conformal? when conformal makes neat good looking UV islands with low effort that look stellar, and angle based turns it into a complete mess filled with overlap? Is there a reason to or even actual way to use angle based at all? Or am i just being an idiot?


text:
video editing (smooth) fast forward
I'm using mainly blender for video editing usually, (and virtualdub).
(yes i know it takes a bit more time, but i prefer the finer blender control)
Recently I started to use 2.8 for video editing.
I kinda wonder how one might create a fast forward effect.
ea start at 30fps, then smoothly go to 90fps and smoothly back to 30 fps.
I have some footage that contains a bit boring period, (drone flight), but i cannot realy cut it out either (that brakes the flight route, i dont want that).

seams to be for a fixed speed ratio, i'd like to have a smooth curve based increase in fps

Sounds like you didn't read the related question, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. When you hover over a property in Blender, you can press I (i) to set a keyframe. You can set multiple keyframes on the speed factor property. E.g. (100, 1) and (120, 4). The speed will ramp up over the 20 frames. You can edit the resulting speed graph in the graph editor.


text:
Thin faces warning 3Dprint tools
I am using an industrial grade 3d printer, it has a voxel acuracy of 23 micron.
Although i cannot show my model here, its about 1000 times larger then the default suzan, as i export it later to STL, and as blender isnt aware that the default stl scale for 3d printers is mm.  (the STL format itself has no size, but scaling it 1000 times works well)
Anyway with those large objects in reality just a few centimeters tall, i kinda get random warning of thin faces.
Is this normal, or should it reported as a bug ?.

It's normal from what I have experienced.

There are two ways for you to handle this.
The first is through the length unit settings in the scene tab of the properties panel (bottom right in the image below). You can simply set the scene units to millimeters instead of meters (which is the default), and the 3D printing toolbox tests will update accordingly.
The other one is by changing the thickness threshold in the 3D printing toolbox thickness tests to whichever is the limit you're aiming for (which corresponds to your 3D printing tools and materials).

The actual thickness of the model should be created in the 3d modeling program itself. If you want to know how thick the model is after you export it, you may have to use a secondary program like Meshmixer. That program can tell you how thick certain objects are by millimeters. I learned that lesson when I was making my 3d printed helmet for the first time and when I was still learning the ropes, I learned that in order to get a more sturdier build, I had to increase the thickness of the mesh in Blender and examine it in Meshmixer before I send it out for print.

I understand what you mean though even with that knowledge it apears quite random those thickness warnings, ea some face got it, while the opposite side of a mirrored shape doesnt get a warning, i see it on the thickest parts and some of the thinnest parts dont have it.
There are no double vertexes that might explain it, ithe results of the addon just seam wrong to me

If the model was created using a Mirror modifier, you may have to cut in half and create it again. Just in case.


text:
Bind location of empty to vertex (after shapekeys)
For a rather complex technical animation.
I need an empty to be locked to a vertex.
I cannot simply make create parent-root scenario, or use bones for this.
As the vertex is modified by complex animated shapekeys.
So how to achieve this ?

You can make a Vertex Parent:
Place an empty. In Edit mode select your vertex, Shift+S > "cursor to selected". Back to object mode, add an Empty.
Select the empty and the mesh in that order. With the empty selected, Shift+RMB on the mesh.
Make vertex parent. Back in edit mode, select the vertex, Ctrl+P > "make vertex parent".

the gif shows the last two steps

Sadly cannt do, because the object parent is also used for linking other objects who should not be affected by it. though i got to say this is a nice trick to know so I +1.

That's fine! Also I haven't thought of your solution; glad you solved it

Well I found a solution, took me a while.
Since other people might get into this as well, here is the solution:
On the object with shapekey select a vertex, create a vertex group for it.
On the Empty use a Child-Of constraint, select the object and the new vertex group.
Note its even possible this way to copy rotation of that vertex as well.

In blender 2.83, you can go into edit mode, select the vertex you want, and search for (with f3) "hook to new object". This adds a empty in object mode, and when you move that empty it moves the vertex.
This method works with single or multiple vertices.Here I have hooked the top 4 vertices individually, and hooked the bottom face. This image was taken in object mode.
I hope this answers your question.

The question is to move empty with vertex. Not to move vertex with empty.


text:
Wheels wont rotate in animation but do in edit mode?
Situation, i made a wheel, and a empty-cube.
The weel's parent is the empty-cube.
Next for the wheel i created a simple driver.
Based upon the empty cube y-axis movement :

When i am in edit mode and drag the empty horizontally the wheel rotates.
But when i animate the cube y locations they dont seem to rotate
also when render the wheel wont rotate.

I really wonder, how could you drag the empty in mesh edit mode?

Well it worked I think the cause was a huge file and blender was active for 2 days. After restart it worked


text:
How to know if blender freezes, in larger render jobs command line
I am rendering animations, and randomly i note that Blender freezes.
It happen not that often, but when i render at around 18:00 to note the next day it crashed on 18:15 instead of working whole night, then i lost quite some time.
I run Blender by command line with startup switches. The problem with freezes is that its not a hard crash (so i could detect that blender was gone from windows taskmanager, by coding). So the only indication i can think of is that the GPU fans all turn of for a longer while, but i don't know of ways to query in my GPU fans to check if their fans are on (i code in c#).

Update i found out how to know it has halted. I'll publish a script for it later


text:
How to remove unused packed images
Usually I save blend file so that I pack images.
Sometimes tough I find I got blend files with missing referred files.
Obviously I didn't pack them while saving, so the textures are lost.
But how do I remove those lost references from the save file (the .png /.jpg) files are no longer on my system, and I don't like to see the errors of missing files each time I save my file.


text:
how to adjust rigidbody settings for lots of objects
I got a scene width lots of small objects (around 2000 icospheres).
I need to be able adjust rigid body settings for all those 2000 icospheres
Any idea on how to do that (perhaps by the use of python, but how ?)

Well it was easier then i thought it would be.
I created one example object and named it LikeMe, there i set all rigid body options. Then since all target objects have similair names (alls starting width Icosphere added a * at the end and did a select pattern, finalized width a copy of rigid body settings
import bpy
scene = bpy.context.scene
scene.objects.active = bpy.data.objects["LikeMe"]
bpy.ops.object.select_pattern(pattern="Icosphere*", case_sensitive=True)
bpy.ops.rigidbody.object_settings_copy()

The object_settings_copy that does the work is already easily available in the toolshelf. You can find it in the Physics tab "Copy From Active" button.

Glad you found a solution on your own, there's one more way to do it that does not require coding.
Just select all the rigidbodies you have, making sure source object is selected last (so it is set as active).
Now press Space and start typing in "Copy Rigid Body Settings".


text:
Complex gloove animation
I got to create a glove simulation, which is kinda hard to explain, but i give it a try, when you look at the below picture imagine your standing on the front of it, and those hands point to you, and you put your hand in (to get to the box with overpressure), the glove has to use cloth collision and some shrink wrap (the hand). how would one do this, i tried it with cloth sim and shrink wrap; but shrink wrap is way to strong (disables cloth self collision).
One might wonder about shapekeys but (invert model over length axis) but it doesnt look realistic and wont reflect movement of the working hands in lab.


text:
how can i select 2 markers using python?
i made a small python script, it creates 2 markers see below.
All i want is to be able to select 2 markers as we can do on screen
Also this script flips the coding text pannel into graph editor
i wonder if it is possible to use the allready opened graph editor?
ob = bpy.context.active_object
frame_num = 30

bpy.context.scene.frame_set(frame_num)
selected = bpy.context.selected_objects
scene = bpy.context.scene

bpy.context.area.type = 'GRAPH_EDITOR'
#add marker
bpy.ops.marker.add()
bpy.ops.marker.rename(name= "start" )

frame_end = frame_num + 20

bpy.context.scene.frame_set(frame_end)

bpy.ops.marker.add()
bpy.ops.marker.rename(name= "end" )
bpy.ops.marker.select()
bpy.context.scene.frame_set(frame_num)
bpy.ops.marker.select(extend=True )    #it doesnt work to add to marker selection

Can do this without the operators
import bpy
from bpy import context

scene = context.scene

start_marker = scene.timeline_markers.new("start") # make a new marker
start_marker.frame = scene.frame_start # set a frame
start_marker.select = True # set selected
end_marker = scene.timeline_markers.new("end")
end_marker.frame = scene.frame_end
end_marker.select = True

# get a marker
marker = scene.timeline_markers.get("start")
if marker:
    print(marker.name, marker.frame, marker.select)

Looks like new markers are always selected by default and Blender is not renaming those markers to .001, which can make it confusing to use timeline_markers.get, it will only find the first one. Thanks a lot for all your useful Blender answers!


text:
Can a lens shader be made in cycles
I'm curious if a shader can be made for a flat square that can act as an optical lens.
In the shader  be able to set a f factor, to set focus strength distance.

Can it be a thin cube instead of a square?

I guess the answer is yes, if you don't mind having a solidify modifier on the square to create a thin square plate.  The idea is to use a Glass BSDF with a network of nodes to calculate normals mimicking the curved surfaces of a real lens.
Specifically, if you have a solidified x-y plane and the camera is looking from the positive z-axis, the normal of the close face is pointing at (0,0,1), and the normal of the far face is pointing at (0,0,-1).  If you adjust the normal at each (x,y) point so that it points outward from the lens center on the close face, in the direction (c*x,c*y,1) and also outward from the lens center on the far face, in the direction (c*x,c*y,-1) for some value c (possibly depending on x and y), that should mimic a convex lens.
While it's far from obvious, it turns out that using a fixed value for c for all (x,y) gives a good approximation for a thin spherical lens that isn't too big relative to its focal length.  In fact, I think this "approximation" has less spherical aberration than a real spherical lens.  For glass with IOR=1.5, we will have approximately c=1/f for f the focal length.
The node network is a little more complex than this would suggest, because the "Normal" output of the "Geometry" node and the "Normal" input of the "Glass BSDF" node are in world coordinates, and we need to do our calculations in object coordinates.  Also, for the far face, the normal that the shader sees is not the usual normal pointing away from the viewer, but rather the flipped normal on the back surface of the face, so we have to consult Geometry->Backfacing to make sure we are adding the correction in the right direction to make both faces convex.
The full node network looks like this:

Some important notes on using it:

It should be applied to a solid object with two flat parallel faces placed close together, like a plane with the Solidify modifier.
The plates must be in the x-y plane.  If the object is rotated, the rotation should not be applied.  The lens won't work unless the normals of the lens faces lie along the object z-axis.
The input focal length (where 0.15 = 150mm)  will be scale-correct only if the scale of the object is 1, so you should apply the object scale.  As an alternative to creating a new material for every focal length, you can use object scale to adjust the actual focal length relative to the focal length in the material.
To adjust the actual size of the lens without changing its focal length --i.e., to set the f-stop-- just scale the lens in edit mode.

I have a 2.81-compatible .blend file attached at the bottom; sorry, but it just crashes on 2.80 or earlier.  The "FakeLens" material is a cleaned up version of the node network above.  Switch on the rendered view, and you should see three lenses like this:

The circular lens on the right is a true curved lens made from two slices of a sphere and using a pure Glass BSDF material.  The lens in the middle is a square with a Solidify modifier using FakeLens, and the lens on the left is a thin cube using FakeLens.
Here's the 2.81-only file:

Great answer well explained


text:
How to create this in modern Blender (3.0)
6 years ago i created a short blender effect movie
see youtube video here
Now many years later i wonder how one would create it with current latest versions of Blender. I'm not sure how i made it in the past, the blend file has been lost.
It might have been torus shape or with verticles as particle alike emissions.
If i'm correctly the older versions of blender had some shader like that.
In the past it was just for fun, but in the current i like to recreate it for the full song, the song was some internet free music, i just like it. But i'm not sure how one would recreate the effect these days.

Blender three isn’t released yet, So things that are supposed to work may not. Go with the current stable version. Also, please do not use YouTube links. Use the built-in image embedding system to post screenshots of what you were trying to achieve. Using an external reference and little description leaves the user to wonder which part of the video you were trying to duplicate, and also in danger zone of accidentally going to something they did not want to see.

too much worries
i've always used latest versions even for payed productions.
I simply dont delete old beldenr version (which one could still download anyway).

The latest released version is 2.93 not version 3 which isn't yet complete.

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

Also use a title that reflects the content of the question. It should be succinct, unique and identifying, and summarize what the issue is so that users can at a glance broadly understand what your post is about before opening it. Use the [edit] link below your post and avoid any emojis salutations or extraneous text not essential to the question.

It looks like a mix of 2 Array modifiers with Object Offset, first give your sphere object an Array modifier with an empty as Object Offset, move away the empty and make it rotate a bit:

Give it a second Array modifier with a second empty as Object Offset, move away the empty and make it rotate a bit:

Rotate the empties, move them up and down, etc...

Indeed that was it, now these days with eevee and bloom it renders super fast less then a seccond.


text:
Grain on transparent edges after applying external edit in paint mode
When I use external edit feature to hide seams on my textures I get some really weird noise on the edges of the fragment, which covers the seam part (the way I do it in Photoshop is to create a new layer on top of the screenshot, draw fragment covering seam, delete the screenshot layer so I only have this fragment with transparent background, save it and then apply it back in Blender). For better explanation I attached 2 images where the first one is before external edit and the second is after. I used this feature in the past and as far as I remember it worked fine. Hope any of this makes sense. Version of Blender is 2.78a with Blender Render engine.

Are you sure that these artifacts are not present on your actual texture map and that you aren't accidentally painting them in in Photoshop? Would you be willing to provide a .Blend file?

The artifacts might be from how the image is handled as alpha in the texture settings, but I cannot see enough in the screen shot to tell. On a side note, the option was made by Ideasman during the Sintel movie and since then, the texture paint tools have been upgraded, maybe try to use the clone tool there to fix it.


text:
(Animation nodes) Is there a way to instance objects inside a subprogram?
I'm working on a recursive fractal where a hand splits into 5 new hands, much like this:

but my node setup looks like this:

each of the 2 huge groups on the bottom is for just 1 level of recursion. Since the addon seemingly doesn't allow objects to be instanced inside subprograms, you can see at the top I have to output each new hand, instance it outside the group and pass it to the next level. That means, if I wanted to add another level, I would have to output all 25 individual hands, and exponentially more each level. Please, someone tell me there's an easier way to do this.
Here's the .blend file if you want to take a closer look:
www.mediafire.com/?vso1h3wk68jjmpt (just copy-paste it, my rep isn't high enough for >2 links in 1 post)

Please use http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ for blend files as it is more permanent.

You can use a script as workaround, so that AN cannot see that you create object instances in a subprogram:

Using scripts is the same way as all subprograms in AN. For script:

Add a text
Write the script, identifying the variables that will be inputs and output
Set these parameters adequately in the script node

But, a big warning: be careful about the frame changes as it could generate a lot of objects.
If this is happening, you can use some script to apply in Python console, like:
for m in [m for m in bpy.data.meshes if m.users == 0]: bpy.data.meshes.remove(m)

Short Answer: No (or not yet). Currently, this is a known limit.
However, you can try slicing a long list into lists by using tricks in the example setup below:

Actually I tried to make a similar setup for making fractals:

 (compatible with AN v1.6)
Advantage here is that the iteration is unlimited (depending on your PC performance), while no extra nodes needed.
To use, simply tweak those nodes at the top, which are out of any frames.

Where do the vectors that determine the transformation of the branches come from?

There is an object called "Branch Tips (should better be called Branch Landing Points maybe?)"  in the 2nd scene layer. I just separated the five faces at each finger tip apart, then used the face center location as branch loc, and convert face normal vector to branch rotation. Kind of a quick and dirty way though.


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(Animation Nodes) How can I make objects rotate to face the direction of the normals of a mesh?
I'm trying to recreate Mystique's transformations from the new X-men movies, and I cant figure out how to get the directions of individual polygons or vertices. I can get the location and "normal," but the normal vector doesn't seem to correspond to any sort of rotation. Help?

Please illustrate "Mystique's transformations from the new X-men movies" not everyone is familiar with what you want to achieve. Please edit your question and provide some reference images and what you have done so far and why it failed.

Use an Object Mesh Data node to get the face data of the target object. Connect the Polygons output to an Object Instancer and create a loop subprogram that has a polygon and an object iterator. With the Mesh data node selected you can press W and choose polygons to create the loop and add another object list iterator to it.
For the subprogram, connect the object to an Object Transform Output and use a Polygon Info node to get the location and normal of each face. Connecting the polygon normal to the object rotation input will create a Direction to Rotation node that gives the direction you want. The center output will give you the location to place each instance.

I realize my problem is that I forgot to check all the boxes in the transform output node. I feel stupid now.

@sambler Can you help me with this question please? https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/163003/animation-nodes-how-to-make-an-object-face-camera-yet-let-the-object-rotate-ar


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Environment looks fine in rendered preview mode, but completely black in final render?
My environment and render settings all seem normal, and when I go into rendered mode(Shift+Z or preview mode dropdown menu) it looks fine and lights the scene normally, but when I do a test render of the final frame, the environment disappears and doesn't light the scene or show up in reflections. I thought it might be my compositing setup somehow, but it looks like that while it's still doing the initial render, and I tried just plugging the rendered image into the final image slot to test it and it still looks the same.
Screenshots:

You probably excluded environment from the current render layer.

In what setting?