text:
How to make clouds using particles and smoke simulation (Cycles)
I've watched this over 20 times and I'm just not getting it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEJRrRLRHJA
There's not a lot of 'why' to this tute, so I can't adjust for different situations. I think a lot of my probs stem from scale. Settings for one size of model and smoke domain just flat out don't work for another scale of cloud model.
Can anyone recommend a better vid on this method? One that points out what to change and why for different sizes?
Also, bear in mind this is not for a static image: it's for an animated model of a world where the clouds move around a planet, so the general idea is to set up a sphere with a thickness that will sit around the planet sphere, and rotate.

Please don't rely on a video to make clear what you are asking, try to explain locally what you could not understand textually and include images of the desired effects

I'm not relying on the video. It illustrates the title: how to make clouds using particles and smoke simulation. The last para tells people what I'm trying to achieve - clouds around a planet, without having to model individual clouds.

I agree with Ramos -attached image of desired effect always helps. From description is not clear if you want clouds like real earth size or some artistic or what ever that can be achieved easier with another technique. Also your title is asking for something that is answered in video. Your real question is in the text - what to change for different sizes. And if you ask for better video - don't expect that, that's against the politics here. Any link to third-party destroys quickly that post. Links became broken very often, it means totally useless thread.

Your question and description is not clear.
So just a notes:

Doesn't matter how big a smoke domain object is, domain is defined by resolution in physics properties. Imagine that as a grid. Resolution means into many voxel pixels will be divide the longest edge of the domain.
Higher resolution = more details for this voxel texture. I hope you already checked Blender Reference Manual.
Second aspect is already explained in your link - play with size of procedural texture used for particles density to create general shape of clouds. And adjust brightness and contrast to tune the particle cloud shape. (I use rather coloramp for that.)

Don't expect precise numbers - nobody knows your planet size or what style of clouds you want to achieve.


text:
Can you extrude a mesh like a 'stroke'?
In a 2D app like Photoshop or GIMP, you can add a stroke to an object, and an outline is created for it that's of even distance around the shape. I want to do this for an irregular mesh in Blender.
For regular meshes like circles, spheres, squares and cubes, everything works well - E, S, scale out the extrusion. But for irregular shapes, I'm stumped.

This 'E' was selected, then E, S, mouse-dragged out (median point center). It doesn't border the original 'E' at all, and I wouldn't expect it to. Is there an option/add-on that allows for an extrusion at a set distance from the original mesh?

Scale in this won't work as you expected. Try scaling along normals (Alt+S) or try using Mesh Offset Edges addon

Why not use bezier curves?

@Mr Zak: Yep, tried that. Alt-S only works on 3D meshes. I'm after a 2D 'stroke' effect.

@Duarte: Curves are a possibility, but there would need to be a lot of pre-clean-up. I'll look into it.

@cegaton: Provided the mesh is good, this will give me an inward stroke. But that's a big 'provided' - Fonts converted to mesh generally create horrible geometry. I may have misled people in thinking I wanted a solve for text specifically. No - this is for any irregular 2D mesh, like an inkblot.
Primarily, I want an outer-stroke solve. I want to create an even-distance outline. Immediately you can see problems with concave meshes: edges will overlap, causing a bad case of geometry ugly.
Thanks for the search tip. I used it. Didn't find what I was after. And here we are.

Alt+S works on any meshes. Not only 3D. I don't have any idea what is "stroke" effect in this case but curves could be a way to go if going without addons. Other than that as I already said Mesh Offset Edges addon is solution for case mentioned by you below the answer

@Mr Zak. Alt-S works on faces. If your mesh only has one face (like a circle or some other flat mesh), Alt-S does nothing. It might move the mesh around, but the mesh doesn't change. If the mesh has a number of faces in 2D (flat) there's no predicting what Shink/Fatten will do, but it will try and create volume, not area. I will take a look at that add-on a little later :)

@Mr. Zak, cegaton: Well, no amount of searching in the world will help if you don't have the right search terms, and I didn't use the word 'offset' :( Thanks for your help, guys. Offset Edges gets me close to what I'm after with the least amount of post-work. Thanks for your help :)

Edit:
This script can apparently be used to stroke edges outward:
https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Modeling/offset_edges
If, for some reason, you can't use the script, you can use the workaround in my old answer.
Old answer
This is just a workaround. Find an add-on if you have to do this frequently.
1 - Extrude the shape
2 - Select one face on the top and on the bottom

3 - Select linked flat faces

This should select everything on the top and bottom.
4 - Select inverse

This will select the rim edges
5 - (optional) Extrude, don't move them and Enter
6 - Shrink/fatten

You should see this result:

7 - If necessary, delete unneeded geometry
Select one face on the top - Select linked flat faces - Select inverse - Delete!

Yep - You're showing a standard extrude operation, and I'm aware of that operation. What I'm after is a border-extrude. Create a circle. Tab into edit. Select all. Now, press E, and immediately press S. That will extrude the circle outwards (or inwards) into a 2D ring, with an even distance from the original circle. I want to be able to do that... only with an irregular shape.

@OroborosNZ oooh, sorry. I misunderstood. If I find nothing better, I'll delete the answer.

@OroborosNZ, I updated the answer. It's just a workaround, but it should work! And I apologize for thinking you didn't know the extrude operation :P

Yes I think this works.  You can also (sometimes, depending on your mesh), after extruding on the Z axis, enter face select mode, then Alt-click on one of the "rim faces" to get a face loop, which can then be extruded and then shrunk/fattened.  This is just a different and possibly quicker way to select the relevant faces.  But it would be nice to have an "extrude and shrink/fatten" option that worked this way for a selection of edges, rather than a selection of faces.

@R.M. No need to apologise :) Blender is hugely complex, and sometimes even experts (which I'm not) get blindspotted by some feature or other. This is not a simple solution: what I'm after will require some pretty complex math behind it, or a multi-step workaround. If this isn't a built-in feature, it'll be an add-on, or I'll need to work in curves. Fun times...

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Cryptomatte Pick isn't working. What have I forgotten?
Blender 2.81, 2.81a
Windows 10, 2xGTX1080 GPUs, GPU rendering
I've been through the Manual and a few tutorials, but I guess I'm missing something. Why can't I get the Cryptomatte Pick working? Is there another undocumented type of Pass that needs to be activated?
The scene is just the cube. I render the scene, hook up the nodes as below. I've tried both Object and Material options. Tips?

Yes. As stated, I tried both types of Cryptomatte - the screenshot just shows the material try. It's still hooked up correctly, and the Pick pass should show me a coloured silhouette of the cube, whichever type of crypto I used.

for me its working pretty good. using this since blender beta.
few tips to find out..
1- try this sample file
in my case, it looks like this.
steps i did to check

create objects
assign materials
switch to cycles
turn on cryptomatte (as you have already done )
hit render
use cryptomatte nodes in compositor, tested via object and material both.

Yup, your scene file works on my machine. I did everything in your steps (which was everything in the Manual). Now I have to figure out what massive combination of settings you have that are different from mine :/

try resetting blender preferences. i am 100% sure, i hadn't tweaked any other settings.

Nope. Reset doesn't work.

Back atcha. Does this file work on your machine?

i tried, nope, it doesn't. i am glad , you found solution. :)

As a side note, my solution was relating to multiple screens. I had the compositor on Screen A and Image Editor/Render Results on screen B.
When trying to pick the Matte ID (on screen A)

Using the Image Editor/Render Results (on Screen B), cryptomatte does not pick anything up.
However, if I setup the compositor on Screen B (i.e the same screen as the Editor/Render Results), cryptomatte does work.

After going a little crazy hunting down the problem, I reset my Prefs to Factory Settings... which didn't fix the problem.
However, resetting my Startup File seemed to do the trick (File > Defaults > Load Factory Settings). It must have become corrupted somehow during my upgrade from 2.79 to 2.80, because opening older files seemed to use Cryptomatte just fine. I still don't know what caused the problem in the startup file, but... problem gone now.

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


text:
How to move a material depending on animated curve end
I have a simple open curve with depth - a simple tube.
I'm animating the tube to grow along the curve using the curve's Start & End Mapping parameters.
The default material is a diffuse black.
I'd like the active 'tip' of the curve to be a different emission material. Think of this like a reverse-fuse, where the emission end follows a set, short length of the 'lengthening' tube. In other words, the emission material follows the tip of the animated curve-end.
This video is a FAILED attempt. All I can do is possibly animate the Math node to limit the material-change to some cut-off point. But I'm looking for an automated way to define a set length of green that follows the end-point of the curve.
Lil help? Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3G0ZMVPBHM

A "quick and dirty" way would be this:

Double your curve, give one another color
Give the other one on the end value a driver like this:

click to enlarge
Make that "other" curve a bit bigger so it won't overlap (that's the "dirty" part, and I am sure you can calculate this to be mathematically correct)
Result:

Good to know there's a mechanical option :) I am keen on finding a material option, mainly because I'm weak on nodecraft, and could use the experience.

i am sure someone will come with such a solution... ;)

I'm almost there, but each time I figured out how to do it Blender crashes :D

Try 3.1 …

I was trying to render the result, but that's when my PC crashes. Maybe I have to lower some resolutions ;)

you are a perfectionist.... ;)

@OroNZ I'm sorry I couldn't find a material solution. Just one with Geometry Nodes.

Good to know I'm not the only one experiencing crashes with this. Admittedly I have some heavy geometry in this file, but I have 128GB of RAM - you'd think that would be enough...

I've created a solution with Geometry Nodes in Blender version 3.0.1. The only thing that bothers me is that the node tree seems to be much too complicated for something rather simple. If someone can make it easier, you're more than welcome.
So I added a Bézier Curve, added a Geometry Nodes node tree and fiddled around until I got something working. What I wanted to achieve was: a different material for the curve's tip which is at the front while the curve is growing. My goal was to set the length of the tip in meters, so that it doesn't shrink or grow proportionally with the curve length (apart from the start, the animation starts at a point where the curve is still shorter than the tip length, sorry).
First of all, this is the result:

And this is the node tree in the Geometry Nodes editor.

I used a Trim Curve node to animate the growth of the curve. To the Group Input I added two more sockets, "Resolution" controls the Length parameter of the Resample Curve (you could use Count as well). The other input "Tip Length" is used to set the length of the tip with the different material in meter.
The Capture Attribute node was necessary because plugging the values directly into the consecutive nodes didn't work (I'm not familiar enough with GN to understand why). What I do then with the Compare Floats node is comparing if the current part of the curve is less than the full length minus the desired tip length. If the result is true (meaning it's not the tip), the next Set Material uses this selection to give this part blue material. The Boolean "Not" node gives the tip the glowing red material.
The "Resolution" and "Tip Length" values can be changed in the GN modifier directly. "Resolution" needs to be high enough so that the tip size doesn't jump between control points.
In the end I animated the End value in the Trim Curve node. And here's the file:

I would have liked to do it just with a material in the Shader Editor. On a Bézier curve you can use the Texture Coordinate node set to UV - the X value moves along the curve - to drive the mix between two materials. This would have been easy, but unfortunately it's always in the 0 to 1 range and I can't get the curve length into the material to multiply with, so I couldn't find out how to set the tip to a fixed size.

While I remain hopeful for a Material solution, this is awesome work @Gordon Brinkman :) While I was trying to come up with my own answer, I tried the UV Tex. Coords, and that's an improvement for sure.

@OroNZ I actually would like to use UV tex coordinates, but it's really annoying I cannot set them to absolute length somehow to keep the tip at the same size all the time. I thought I could simply calculate the length in GN and give it as output value, the problem is: if I bevel the curve outside GN so that it has a thickness, GN takes it as mesh and can't measure the length. If I convert Mesh to Curve in GN, the whole mesh gets measured so instead of e.g. 12 m you then have 400. Creating a mesh with a profile in GN doesn't give you the UV tex coordinates... the interaction could be better.

I hear you. The same problem manifests as inconsistent speed in the Shader Editor. My curve has several points. If the points are relatively close, or very close, the speed of material travel slows down. That's because speed (and material 'length') is measured by point-to-point curve resolution, rather than the absolute length of the curve. See demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcnmtlLZ790

... Basically, I think we're both after a curve attribute called "Absolute Length" or similar :)

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


text:
Can I use blender to create a model and 3D print it for some real device
I want to create a 3D model which can be used in real life. When given some real life dimensions, can we make models in blender with the exact same measurement down to the millimeter? For example I want to make an external cover for a Samsung Galaxy S4. If I measure the S4's dimensions (mm, cm etc), can I use them to create an external cover which actually fits on the phone?
I know many suggests 'SolidWorks' for this type of CAD work but I want to know if this can be done in Blender.

related : http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/35415/why-is-blender-so-popular-for-3d-printing

Refer to http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/274/how-to-model-effectively-using-exact-measurements for tips about modeling with precision in Blender.

Yes, you can do this.
To get realistic measurements, go to the Scene tab in the Properties panel and then find the Units section and select Metric.

Keep in mind, though, that once you export, all the coordinates are still in "Fundamental Blender Units." There's no information stored in the model about what measurement system was used to make the model. The target system (SketchFab or Shapeways or whoever) will just make an assumption about what units the coordinates are in (often centimeters). You'll have to do a little testing to synchronize Blender's unit system with your target's unit system. It should be a very straightforward conversion, though.
I'd recommend making a unit cube in Blender and exporting that to whatever your target system is. See how they interpret its size. You can then use the Scale setting in that same Units section to control what unit a Fundamental Blender Unit maps to. If your 1m^3 cube is interpreted to be 1cm^3 by the target system, then you just have to adjust your scale by 10^3 or 10^-3 (I'm not sure which).
The smallest length Blender can handle is 1μm. It can't go smaller than that but that should be enough for your use. You can simply type in units (cm, m, mm etc.) but for μm you have to use "um".
It would also be worth your time to take a look at  the addon measureit. It will make measuring things in Blender much easier.

That was helpful. But the thing is I'm not sure how I can synchronize real world (e.g mm) measurement with blender (mm) measurement. Only way to 'test' is to print and check if it fits because there is no other 'target system'. Is there a authentic method of calibrating both systems?

Since I didn't ever print something using a 3d printer I can't tell you for sure, but there's a 'Scene Unit' option when exporting to .stl. It's description says that the current scene's unit (as defined by unit scale) is applied to exported data. Maybe that's what you're looking for. Also you could spend some time taking a look at the Mesh Analysis tool found in the properties of the 3d view (press 'N') when in edit mode. Here's a link to Blender's docs. And thanks @Matt for the edit, made things a lot clearer.

@MuhammadAshar Firstly, "Sync" != "Calibrate." I'm not talking about calibrating the printer. I'm only talking about making Blender and the printer use the same units.

@MuhammadAshar Secondly, you cannot print directly from Blender. You will have to use some other software. Either you have a printer and you'll use its software, or you're using a remote service and you'll upload using their software. Either way, you should have an opportunity to tell the software "use this scale." Even if you don't, remote services like Shapeways will tell you exactly how big it will be before you print it. If that size is wrong, it will be wrong by some factor of 10. Multiply or divide "Scale" by factors of 10 until you get the size you expect.

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


text:
Audio plays, but I cannot see any animation
Ok, so I downloaded blender on steam a few days ago and downloaded a template file for a Youtube intro. When I opened the file with the blender exe that I use to launch blender, blender opens up and if I start the animation, I can hear the music but I cannot see any animation. When I click render I get the message: Cannot open or start AVI Movie file
I tried installing blender from the website rather than steam, I've tried different templates. I have no idea what to do. Maybe I'm being really stupid because I've never really used blender but if anyone can help I would be very grateful.
If you need extra information please ask, I'm on a windows 10 HP Netbook with a Radeon graphics card

Please upload the blend file.

Is it possible that the directory Blender is trying to write the file to doesn't exist?

Could be that the youtube intro template expects some video file/url, but it isn't available, atm?

http://jmp.sh/JMUEEgq


text:
"Undo" not working in Video Sequence Editor
I am trying to use Blender for video editing, but for  some reason the "Undo" function isn't working on the video sequence editor. It works fine on any other mode, though.
Is this by design or is there something I'm missing?
Thanks in advance.

What is it your trying to undo?

any operation at all in the VSE. In other modes Undo works normally.
I tried resetting to factory defaults, but nothing worked. I eventually discovered the problem was only on that specific .blend file, so I copied everything over to a new file and "solved" the problem.
I still have no idea what actually caused it, though.

Sounds like a bug

The "Undo" doesn't work unless you have set the "Default mode" to "Object mode" vs. "Edit mode" (vertices) in the 3D view. Of odd reasons this setting also applies to the "Video Sequence Editor".

This actually worked for me. Wasn't expecting it to but it did. Quirky config setup.


text:
Edges "twisted" by the subsurf modifier
I am learning modeling on Blender and I have some difficulties with the subsurf modifier.
Here is my mesh with the modifier display off :

And here it is with the display on :

Some edges are twisted and I don't understand why.
I tried to :

removes doubles
recalc normals
delete the vertices and make a new one (makes it even worst)

Could someone, please, explain me why it is happening and how can I correct it?
Thank you,

It looks to me like there are vertices in your mesh that are not attached.  See the video below.

Double check all of the vertices around your twisted area and merge those that aren't connected by press Alt+M on the keyboard.

Hello @CyberBurst , Thank you for your advice.
It was not my case but it gave me the solution. I deleted the edges and not only the vertex. Simply removing the edges and creating new ones resolved my problem.
Though I still don't know why it happen.


text:
Simple methods to smooth out weight paints?
After skinning a high density (3.6k poly) hair model to it's respective bones, I disliked the results of the automatic weight paints so I removed the Weight from each Vertex Group & used the Edit Mode method of "Select Faces > Select Vertex Group > Assign a Weight of 1" for each Vertex Group to gain precise control over which geometry the bones affect.

The result, however, are blocky deformations due to the sharp edges between Vertex Groups. I can't seem to get desirable results while using the blur tool as I don't understand how to utilize it yet. The Weight Gradient tool also appears to be finicky for me & doesn't normalize after applying it, & the Blend/Smooth tool appears to do nothing to the weights even at full factor.
Are there any tools or settings that might let me add what would otherwise be a Gaussian Blur style effect to my weights?
One work-around I've found was to use the Corrective Smooth modifier to smooth it out after-the-fact, however, I'd like to learn how to manage this within the weight paints instead of using modifiers. Will be more beneficial in future occasions.

Starting from this situation,

You can use the smooth tool :

Go in weight paint mode
Activate vertex selection (the little icon on the bottom of the screen indicated by a cube with one vertex in yellow)
Select your vertices A
Then in the weight paint tools panels click on 'smooth'
One done, go to the operator options and select 'all groups'
Then tune the amount of smooth you want (or click on the smooth button several times)

You need to go to vertices selection mode because the smooth operates only on a selection (unavailable if there is no selection).
By the way, few other things :

3.6k is not so much at all in general for skinning. But yes, that can be a lot for this particular model
Automatic weights generally does a very good job and I am surprised it does not work here ? Maybe because of your bone structure as the root bone is not placed at the root of the hair ?

What I obtain with 'automatic weights' :

Alternative smoothing using blur brush :

Thank you so much for the help & effort. My Blender version (2.75) was the problem. It has "Blend" as what I assumed to be the "Smooth" tool. Even after creating a simple scene and following your steps, "Blend" had no effect on the weights. After checking for an update & installing ver 2.77 of blender, which does have the "Smooth" tool, it finally worked for me as you demonstrated.
There are hidden Antlers & a head-piece bone which gained some of the hair weights. I felt too overwhelmed to clean so preferred starting from scratch and using the method I'm comfortable with from Maya.

You have to be careful when using the smooth weights tool, especially with the Subset option.
Leaving it to "All" (smoothing vertices from all groups) has the side effect of "expanding" the influence of a group where it shouldn't have. A single blue vertex will expand to cover all selected vertices.
Therefore, it's always better to use the "Selected Pose Bones" subset and different Source modes ("only deselected", "only selected" and "all") depending on what you're trying to do: to smooth within a vert selection, to bridge between different areas etc.


text:
Want to import an STP file to blender with colors
I want to transfer a CAD model to blender. It is in STP format. It has colors applied to it and I want the model along with the colors to be imported to blender. I am using "FreeCAD v0.15" currently to view the STP and to convert to other formats(STL,dae,obj),but unable to export to blender with colors. Anyone know of other methods that can do the job? Thanks in advance!

According to FreeCAD's Key Feature's it looks like you could just export to OBJ, DAE or IFC.
OBJ & DAE are natively available import options in Blender.
IFC does have add-on support in Blender, but from what I can tell it's last compatible version is 2.73 (add-on found here). If, howvever, you get the latest from IfcOpenShell's Github repo, they have updated the plugin for Blender 2.80. Blender also now has an IFC exporter which supports recording colour information in IFC format as part of the IfcOpenShell package (v0.6.0 branch).
If these aren't working as expected, then you should be digging further into FreeCAD's export options.

STL files only contain geometry information there is no way to export a STL file with color or texture.
However, if you can find the location the software you are exporting from has the texture file, (if it's a bitmap) you can import the image separately and set it as a blender material texture.

authors: Сергей Кузовенков


text:
Adding reflection to a plane while keeping a perfect white emission
I want to have a perfectly white background with a reflection of an object. For the perfect white, I decided to use a emissive color, the result is as I expected.
Now if I mix a Glossy BSDF, I have my reflection, but the white is not as perfect as it was before mixing the shaders. Playing with the Fac-value is not bringing be further, because I need the white to be perfect, not with a tradeoff.
Is there a way to achieve this?
Please don't go too harsh on me, since I'm a beginner :D

Thank you for your help!

If you don't mind breaking energy conservation laws, try Add (shaders > add shader).

Final:

Nodes and overview:

You will need to create "fake PBR" shader by mixing Diffuse with Glossy by Fresnel.
Glossy should have set 0 Roughness and Color to pure white.
Mix them with Emission shader - again by Fresnel.

Note:
I've used black Environment color to show that Emission and Reflection
  is working, if you set it to white, like in every else node it will
  give you wanted result.

Thank you! I'll look into it after my current project is rendered!


text:
Multiple objects with equal spacing on Follow Path constraint?
I want to place multiple objects with equal space on a circle to animate it later using the Follow Path constraint. Is there a easy way to achieve that?
Thanks!

Please edit your question and provide some more vital information. Are you talking about different objects or identical objects? Have they roughly the same size? Equal space from the objects centers or equal space between the objects?

Instead of a follow path constraint, use a Ctrl + P > Follow Path type of parent on your object.
Adjust framing as necessary, then go to the 3D View Menu > Object > Animation > Bake Action. Tick to activate all the options.
Then with your object selected go to the Properties Window > Object Tab > Duplication > Frames

Also see Is there a way to convert a constraint to a keyframe?

Thanks! How can I let all of those objects placed on the frames move around the circle like the first object did?

You could parent them again to the curve with thr Follow Path option, though you may have to deal manually with some sort of animation offset. Not sure.

Well, what a chore. However, I need that one-time, so it will work fine for now. Thanks!

See if this addon helps https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Animation/ARewO I found it quite useful in a couple situations

Is there still no better way of doing this?


text:
Making a rough topo landscape smooth
Using OpenTopoMap and Blender, I've recreated a landscape in 3D. The height difference is in rough 10m steps. Now I want to smooth the space between these steps:

Using smooth shading and the edge split modifier, the result is okay at first, but it still doesn't look too good:

Using Subdivision Surface, the result is even worse:

Can you think of alternative ways to smoothen out the topo?

Are your faces simply ngons between neighbouring contour lines?

In edit mode select all vertices and press "smooth vertex" in the tool shelf (T). The tool has some adjustable parameters (search in the bottom left of the tool panel, press the little plus icon if not visible.


text:
Need help with creased edges connected to uncreased with subsurf modifier
I am fairly new to blender and have a few questions about creases and subsurf.
On this helmet, I am trying to give the visor area a hard edge, but doing so with the subsurf modifier makes the visor bulge out because the rest of the mesh moves inward as it is subdivided.
Here it is with subsurf on:
Here it is with subsurf off:
Front:
This is for animation and gaming, so I am trying to avoid being too high poly (subsurf is turned up to clarify my problem)
Heres the blend file: http://pasteall.org/blend/42941

I'm confused with the "This is for animation and gaming" part. Are you planing to use this mesh in a game? If so why do you have a subdivision modifier on it (even at level 1)?

With models for gaming I make a high-poly version of the mesh and bake the normal map in Substance to apply it to a low-poly version of the mesh.  The deformation caused by the subsurf modifier is not covered in the two linked questions and if this problem is not fixable I will just apply the modifier when I am done and reshape it but I was trying to save myself some work.
If someone could actually look at the blend I would appreciate it.

why don't you simply move the visor vertices to the inside so that they don't bulge out any more ?

Well... bulging out to not bulging out :

You could just smoothen those 4 vertices with Smooth from W menu.

@MrZak, yes... the point here was more about 'what was the question' (considering its comments)... but you are right

Yes, I've got what could be the problem from your answer provided that screenshots do not emphasize anything.


text:
Bevel to fit circle
A seemingly common way to describe a beveled corner is with the radius of the circle that would fit in the corner. This is e.g. how the CSS "border-radius" property works in web design. The screenshot below explains my dilemma, and the diagram under it is what I'm trying to implement. Is there any way to do this automatically in Blender? I'd rather not merge and delete vertices 49 times to make the edges I want.

Unfortunately this kind of precision modelling is considerably complex to achieve in Blender, simply because it was not what the tool was designed for. It can be done but its an involved process requiring many steps. Regular bevel wont work here for two reasons, one being hat it extends beyond the length of existing edges, second that it is not tangencial to both surfaces.

On a side note it might be a little faster to achieve what you want if you use an Screw modifier to make your revolution surface part, that way you only have to design the shape section

Another method you could perhaps use next time :
Create a cross-section of your object then use the Spin tool to fill it out.
Starting from your original setup:
1: Set 3D cursor to center of object.
2: Select vertices that make up the cross-section. (The ones that are selected at the start of the gif anim.).
3: Inverse selection ( Ctrl I ) and delete those newly selected vertices.
4: Select the remaining vertices.
5: Go into top view then from the tools panel choose the Spin tool.
6: In the Operator panel set the number of Steps and Angle of 360°.
7: After the Spin tool has done its job select All and from the tools panel
   choose Remove Doubles.
8: If necessary Recalculate Normals.

That is indeed a useful way to do this. Thanks!

I don't know what kind of precision you want to achieve (and I hope I have understood the question correctly), but, if you don't want to use curves, I'll do your bevel this way :
Your set-up :

Extruding some faces to get a visual reference :

Loop cut and slide at the right height :

For all the visual marks minus one (because you already have one) :

After the scale on x and y axis of the inner edge :

Grab on z axis each edges individually to match the right height :

Done :

It's quite fast (and could be even more precise with the use of snap ?). Is it what you want to achieve ?

Yes, that looks like what I want. I may want to write a script to do this automatically for me—should be interesting.

There is no direct way to do it.
I just would subdivide or use extruding methods.
Suppose you subdivide the verticals to create a few more ring around that place, then next in edit mode use proportional editing to lift the center up, the proportinal displacement can come close to a circle shape.
And finish with a subdiv on your model
Its also possible to use a technical drawing on the background and make you model fit it, then by selecting those extra rings lift them up/down till its visually ok.


text:
Python Script Cycles Samples setting not respected
I have a script for rendering files, but I am not able to figure out how to set the samples per tile and have that value be used.

My script is:
import bpy

bpy.context.scene.cycles.samples = 50

bpy.context.scene.render.tile_x = 128
bpy.context.scene.render.tile_y = 128

bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device_type = 'CUDA'
bpy.context.user_preferences.system.compute_device = 'CUDA_0'

bpy.context.scene.cycles.device = 'GPU'

bpy.context.scene.render.image_settings.compression = 90
bpy.context.scene.render.image_settings.color_mode ='RGBA'
bpy.context.scene.render.image_settings.file_format='PNG'

bpy.ops.render.render(animation=True)

However, when it's rendering, I get 100 samples per tile, no matter what settings I have in the .blend file or in the script.
Fra:1 Mem:61.04M (0.00M, Peak 84.41M) | Time:00:06.95 | Remaining:00:10.82 | Mem:11.84M, Peak:35.21M | Scene, RenderLayer | Path Tracing Tile 53/135, Sample 0/100
Fra:1 Mem:60.47M (0.00M, Peak 84.41M) | Time:00:07.07 | Remaining:00:10.68 | Mem:11.28M, Peak:35.21M | Scene, RenderLayer | Path Tracing Tile 53/135, Sample 100/100

You could check if this answer solves your problem.

I just discovered that when I do render inside the Blender editor using the Cycles renderer, with both CPU and GPU devices, I can change the Settings > Samples > Render value to 30 or 200 or whatever. However, once I click "Render" or "Animation", it's changing back to 100.


text:
Swap control+click with shift+click
Ctrl+click is like Window's shift+click in the explorer - selects everything from point to point. Shift selects additively. What are the names of their controls in the preferences menu? I want to swap them (so that ctrl+click adds to selection).

What are you talking about, what context? 3D View, File Manager, Outliner? For each editor there are different Key bindings for different operators. Anyway, change on the top dropdown menu to search for the keybinding (instead of operator name) then switch the keys or change the operator settings to suit your need.

I am talking 3D view Edit mode. I tried searching for the "Shift" key and "Ctrl" key but there are just too many results.

See under 3D View > Global > Activate/Select operator is view3d.select

Nope, tried them - they don't work. Uppon swapping, shift + click stops working completely while ctrl + click works the wery same way as before the change.

Ctrl + Click  used to select shortest path.
Try to change it to Shift + Click, then change Select in Mesh to Ctrl + Click.
I didn`t change every other options in selection, but it is ok for me


text:
Cannot set '1,2,3' keys for selection type in "Keep UV and Edit Mode Mesh Selection in Sync" mode
I have set '1,2,3' hotkeys for vertex edge and face selection type respectively both in 3d View and in UV view. However, when "Keep UV and Edit Mode Mesh Selection in Sync" is de-activated, those buttons don't work, even though I did set them in that mode as well. I tried removing the hotkeys from the non-"Keep UV and Edit Mode Mesh Selection in Sync" mode and then the hotkeys start working in the needed mode. Is there any way to have them in both modes?

You have most probably a hotkey conflict here. Go to the input manager in the User Preferences and search for the Numad 1 keybinding. I see the hotkeys Numpad 1 and 2  used by View Zoom Ratio here in the Image Editor.

Nope, those were deleted beforehand. The truth is, the conflict is between UV Select Mode in the first mode and UV Select mode in the second mode.   Disabling them in one mode allows the others to work. Like I said, I can have either one or the other, but not both. I just wondered if someone managed to get both working.

Ah. This wasn't clear from your first post. In this case this sounds like something that the devs should have a look at. I would say file a bug report :)


text:
Multiple materials per polygon?
I need a way to have multiple materials per polygon. Basically what I want is to have one "layer" of materials to create a colorID mask and another "layer" to export a mesh with the correct Texture Sets for Substance Painter (the latter creates a separate texture for each material the mesh has). In most of my cases the two don't match (I want multiple colorIDs on the same Texture Set-material) so I idealy need a way to have a single mesh, which I can dynamically change, while having two layers of materials on it, where I can disable/enable a single layer to make an export.
I thought of have a feeling that one can do it by splitting the object in blender into several objects and then writing a script that assigns a single material to each object, but It would be preferable for me to have a single object with two material layers.
Another idea I had is to use vertex groups, but they are invisible in viewport and should still be manually selected to apply materials every time before export (and I do export often). Maybe there is a modifier that can allow two cloned meshes on two different layers, both of which change whenever you change any of them, while maintaining unique materials on each layer?

Maybe this can be realised (if I understand your question correctly, that is) by utilizing Blenders ability to link materials to the object instead of the object data, as it does by default. What I'm talking about is this little dropdown here:

What that does is, it tells Blender to keep track of Material assignments by storing the assignment on the object instead of the object data (the mesh itself). The trick now is to use instances of the same object, and assign different sets of materials to those instances. You can instantiate the objects using Alt + D, and verify the presence of an instance if there is a number appearing at the mesh datablock:

Now, if you have a setup like this, which the three heads instanciated:

and you move a vertex in edit mode:

after getting back to object mode, you have this:

So you can now edit the mesh once, but export different objects with different materials at any time from it.

Dude, I actually never thought that would ever be possible... Speachless... I will check in Blender today and mark this as answer.

Nope I think it won't work, for what I need is having 1 suzanne with 1 material all across it and another suzanne with 5 materials on her different polygons.

@cubrman That should work. You can assign to individual faces regardless of the material link option. What I'm not sure is the different number of material slots. When I tried it today, I was able to add slots on one object, but not having them on the other object. That worked. However, trying to remove a slot made Blender crash. To be tested.

None of my tests yielded any required result. If you would be able to assign different number of materials to two cloned meshes - do post the solution here. I actually dug out a theory on clones and all pointed to the fact that my request is impossible, because the clones both point to the same mesh. If you succeed - please do post your solution.

aliasguru's answer above is close, but it doesn't quite do the trick, at least in my setup.  I'm using the Export Colour Layout addon, which is unable to produce a correct ID map when using "Object" as the material attachment as suggested above.
I did make a few modifications to get it working, however: I duplicated the mesh with shift-D instead of option/alt-D and then linked "object data" between the two.  Only in the object to be exported into Substance Painter did I set the material attachment to "Object"; the other I kept at "Data".  I set all the material slots all to be the same material in the Substance Painter-destined object instead of deleting any, as this has an effect on the material assignments to both objects, and Substance Painter only sees one material.


text:
How to extrude vertices along a curve in consistent order?
I'm trying to extrude faces (or vertices) along a curve to form a road-like shape.
However, I noticed that when I use the extrude property of the Curve object through a Python script and subsequently construct my own mesh object from these vertices, the order of vertices is inconsistent most of the time, resulting in a malformed shape:

While sometimes it is not:

In the end, I would like to export the generated mesh into a specific game format which relies on a fixed order of vertices in the mesh.
I have literally searched all over the web, but couldn't find an answer. Would this be possible with the Python API, or are there any libraries that I could use instead?
Thanks!

Turns out the issue was related to memory corruption, because I was re-using the same Curve object over and over. I am not exactly sure why, but deleting the original curve object after copying it solved the problem.


text:
Weight paint not showing on some objects
I can select the head mesh and weight paint without problems. Other objects the rig controls like shirt are not showing in weight paint - they are staying grey. In weight paint face masking they are showing as Green. In vertex select they can be seen and changed. In weight paint vertex mask no vertex is visible and only the Green surface is shown.

I can manipulate and modify the weights of the other objects but only the Head is shown in weight paint mode. I hope this is something silly I am overlooking because it has left me very confused. Any ideas?

Not sure without the blend file, but that can be due to the nature of the selected bones when you go in weight paint mode. Have you tried to select the bone group directly in the mesh data part ?

Under the Subsurf modifier I had "Use OpenSubdiv" ticked & unclicking the box was enough to return the functionality. It sounds simple now but was by no means obvious!
Hope this saves someone else from going crazy...


text:
My Normal Map makes my material black
When I apply an image texture to my material its fine.
But when I Connect a Normal Map The objectis black in rendered view.
Without Normal Map

With Normal Map

Also how do you add a .blend file in your posts?

You can add your blend file using http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ Please pack the textures in it (or at least the normal map).

You might want to try assigning a UV map to the normal map node. It's currently blank. Also make sure your normals are facing the correct way.
In edit mode select all faces and press CTRL + N to recalculate all normals.

Make sure you set your normal map textures color mode to non-color data.
You have to do this in the texture settings AND in the properties panel of the cycles material node graph panel

There is one other cause for Tangent Space normal maps turning black: if u are using microdisplacement (adaptive setting for subsurf modifier) normal map wont be able to calculate correctly, for this moment at least.
If you were to combine normal maps with "true" displacement, you can only choose between world and object space.

This is probably because your normals are not pointing in the right direction.

Tangent space normal maps rely on the surface normal in the
  approximation,so if the normals are not right the material won't work.

To recalculate your normal,select all faces in the mesh and press Ctrl+N,If this didn't work,you can check invert.

What do you mean by invert here? Is is just flipping Normals? If not, could you please explain how one can do it?

@Amir I think I meant use the Flip Direction operation in the shading panel.


text:
Strange shading on curved surface
It is really hard to describe my problem accurately, but I try the best I can. I am using Blender to create meshes for Unreal Engine. However, this problem shows already in Blender. I don´t know the terminology, So I go right ahead and describe shortly what is wrong about the picture attached.
You can see a diagonal shadow cast after I turned on the smooth shading. That does not look very good (I am sorry, that I cannot describe it any better).
You would really help me out if you could explain my mistake to me!

Related - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/23596/smooth-shaded-model-has-odd-shading and this - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/14652/how-do-i-fix-this-triangulation-issue. In short, this is caused by the topology.

This is because you have Smooth shading enabled in your 3D Viewport > Toolshelf > Tools tab > Edit dropdown > Shading:. There is a way to fix this without going back to Flat shading.
Go to the Properties panel > Object Modifiers tab and add an Edge Split modifier. The default settings should be ok, but if they aren't, you can change the Split Angle:, which is defined as the max value at which an angle should be split.
The Edge Split modifier:

Comparison with a cylinder:


text:
How to apply same keyframes properties on mupltiple strips in VSE?
I do video editing in blender for youtube, and I find my self repeating same stuff again and again because I don't know how do I apply same keyframe properties to multiple strips and it became very time consuming. It takes me an entire day to just finish a video.
for example.
I want to provide subtitle using images which I make in inkscape.
now for every single subtitle strip I have to apply keyframes separately, like multiply. stretching etc. same goes for title and transition for the foreground images, because my video consist of mostly images (ken burns effect)
I know I can Apply same properties to multiple strips by selecting multiple strip and setting value and then right mouse click and select "apply to selected". can I do same with keyframes because those strips shares same keyframe value (except for the position of the strip)
is it possible to apply keyframes to multiple strip?

This doesn't answer your question about editing multiple strips, but did you know that Leon Cheung created a Subtitle Importer using the Animation Nodes add-on? I haven't had any projects yet requiring subtitling, but if I do, that will be the first thing I'll try.

Hi, thanks for reply, I don't have any idea about addons and It's not all about subtitles only, but I will consider this if I can not find any great solution. :D

If you're doing a lot of ken burns stuff, checkout the VSE_Transform_Tools add-on. There's a function called "Call Menu" that lets you insert a keyframe from a menu that will apply keyframes to multiple selected strips at once. Alternatively, you can enable the automatic keyframe button.
The Subsimport add-on will let you import subtitles into Blender and provides nice shortcuts for setting their in and out times. You can then export to a .srt file. You could then use ffmpeg to burn the subtitles into the video with any font (follow this guide for that)

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/animation/keyframes/keying_sets.html
Keying sets might have what you are looking for, although I do not know how to apply them to vse strips as its not stated how or if you can. Sorry if that's not helpful.

There are addons like the "VSE quick functions", which allow you to easily apply a customized fade-in fade-out to any strips (whether you select them all at once, or one by one and just click apply the preset setting once per strip; use for text!). I think the answer really lies in creating scripts to automate what you need, definitely seems possible given these addons do the same stuff. "VSE transform tool" is very worth having on all the time, it'll speed up some processes you will likely do. There are still gaps though. I share your issue and would like more tools to address these problems.


text:
How to do custom transition in VSE?
I need to apply custom transition from a video to another video as below youtube video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J30lNs0fRz0
can anyone explain me how to achieve that wipe transition using masks?
in this video it is not explained how to create those masks or transition in default mode and export it (ie. in, out) to video editing mode.

You would have to make these in the 3D View or Compositor and then import that clip to the VSE.

Hey, thanks for reply. can you suggest any tutorial on this?

This one uses a mask in the vse while this one uses blender to render the sequence to use as a mask.

Thank you for the links, I have watched both videos today and they were full of knowledge, this is what I was looking for. tomorrow I am going to create a testing project to master this techniques, thank you, you are the best.


text:
How to create a realtime 3D walkthrough with Blender?
I am not a game developer and its not my domain. I am a Biotechnology student. A part of my project requires making a realtime walkthrough of a 3D house. Someone suggested me to use Blender. But here I have more specification : - a walkthrough in 3D such that movement of the user is not through the keypads or mouse but some external running script, where if a particular condition is true, user should move forward, backward, left or right (according to conditions).
What all tutorials I should go through and whatever I am trying to achieve how should I go about approaching it ?

This is a very broad and vague subject, there are lots of ways to go about doing it. The way I see it you may either use the Blender Game Engine https://www.blender.org/manual/game_engine/index.html with some python scripting, or a third party more modern solution like Blend4Web http://www.blend4web.com/en/ that can run on any modern web browser through WebGL and can be customized through JavaScript

Depends on what you mean with "external running script". How do you want to communicate with your game (e.g. tcp, udp, http, file sharing, database access ...)

Very vague question as the others said. Can you update to be more specific?


text:
Displacement using UV map affecting all maps, not just the one selected
I'm relatively new to Blender and so I may just be missing something obvious.  What I'm trying to do is apply different displacement modifiers to each face of an object from image textures.  For example, taking the default cube and displacing each face with a different texture using UV maps.  The problem I'm getting is that adding a second UV map seems to affect the area covered by the first UV map as well as the area covered by itself.
Here is what I'm doing:

Start with the default cube and switch to edit mode and UV editing view.  (image)
Select one face of the cube and then open the image to be used as the UV map.  (image)
Unwrap > Project from View (Bounds).  Adjust points on image as necessary.  Subdivide several times.  (image)
Switch back to object mode and default view.
Add displacement modifier using the same texture image.  Set coordinates to UV and select the UV map.  Adjust the strength as desired, and apply.  (image) (image)
Create a new UV map by going to Data > UV Maps and clicking the +.  (image)
Switch back to edit mode and UV editing layout.
Select the new UV map from the dropdown at the top.
Rotate the cube 180 degrees and select the face opposite of the first one mapped.  (image)
Open the image to be used as the second map/texture.  Unwrap and subdivide.  (image)
Switch back to object mode and default layout.
Apply displacement modifier the same way as before, this time using the second UV map which should cover the opposite face.  (image)

Now what happens is that the second displacement modifier correctly affects the second face of the cube, but it ALSO affects the first face as well.  (image)
My question is, how do I get the second displacement modifier to cover ONLY the second face?

I have the same problem. But a workaround can be to define two vertex groups (one for each face) and set the corresponding groups in the displace modifiers.

Another way to handle it is to unwrap both faces for both uv maps. Then simply reduce to 0 scale the unneeded parts (face) for each uv map.

When you create a second UV map in Blender, the operator (or better said, the + Button in the Mesh Data / UV Maps Panel) will create a COPY of the currently active UV map. If you rethink the steps you made, what happened is that you copied the UV map you created in the steps 1-5, and you cannot get rid of already unwrapped faces. And that's why you get the effect on both faces in step 12, you basically really have a UV map containing both sides of the Cube.
Try this: Start off with creating two UV maps on a new Cube as step number 1.  But make sure you create the UV map while in edit mode and no vertex or face selected! This will create a UV map where all UVs have the coordinates (0, 0). then do the unwrapping part for both of them as you did in your description. That should ensure that both UV maps are "totally empty" when you dig into the details.

Clever answer !


text:
Remove texture from object
I have a little problem, I deleted texture from Texture tab, but it still appear on my object and if I save it and reload it still here.
I think it's a stupid thing but I'm using blender since yesterday and didn't find any help on web.
Thank you

Appear on my object - what shading mode are you in? When you go in edit mode, does the texture show up in the UV image editor? Try clicking the x button by the right of the texture name in UV image editor. It should go gone by than.

Are you really using the blender internal render engine, or is it cycles?

I went to  a lot of trouble answering this, and now stackexchenge won't allow me to post it. God I'm getting tired of this control.....

Blender sometimes doesn't remove textures properly, and it requires several attempts to save and reload the blend file before they are removed permanently. To be sure that they are removed properly, do the following:
1) Go into the Properties editor > Textures context, highlight the texture you want to remove.

2) Click on the X button to the right of the field for the texture's datablock ID name: This will unlink it from the object it was assigned to, but it still remains in the blend file. To unlink the datablock from ALL objects in the file, hold down the Shift key while clicking on it.

3) Check your object. If you still see the texture on it, select the object and go into edit mode. Now select one of the faces that the texture is on.
4) Open the UV Map editor and check to see if the texture image is visible there. If it is, then go to the field in the menu header where the name of the texture's datablock ID is listed, and click on the X button to the right of it. When you do, your object should no longer be showing the texture:

5) In the Outliner window, change the display type in the header menu from All Scenes (or whatever you have it set to) to Orphaned Data

6) If there are any sub-menus listed for materials or images, open them and check to make sure that none of them have green checkmarks beside them. If they do, LMB click on the checkmark to remove it.

7) Now save the file and reload it. Look in the Outliner again to see if all the orphaned data has been removed. If it hasn't, continue to save and reload the file until it's all gone.
You should now have no problems with that texture.
NOTE: Never delete materials that have textures assigned to them unless you have unlinked the textures first.

Thank you very much Anthony for your detailed answer, everythings is ok now. Thank you!!


text:
How to sequence actuators to perform two or more tasks in sequence
I am new to the Blender Game Engine. I am trying to create a simple game.  I have an object (enemy) that I want to move forward then rotate 180 degrees and then repeat, so that it is moving back and forth along a straight path.  I can create the actuators to move it forward or to rotate, but not one after the other.  Does this require a python script?  Or is there a way to do it just in logic bricks?

Possible duplicate of How to start second action after check that first one is done in bge? - this belongs to actions (which have a defined end).

double comment -

You need to sense the end of the previous operation to start the next one.
As motion actuators (mentioned in your screen shoot) have no end you can start the followup operation when you deactivate the current one.
According to your description I suggest to use steering actuators with enabled self-termination together with the method described in How to start second action after check that first one is done in bge?.
This allows you to let the enemies patrol between various checkpoints. Moving to a specific checkpoint is represented/performed by a single steering actuator.
I hope it helps.

Thanks but doesn't changing states also work??

You do not need states as the "state" is the currently running operation. You can change states to separate each sequence a bit more (visual and regarding logic handling). This has some benefits.


text:
How do you add a cool down timer?
I'm working on a blender game with a character who can use certain abilities. With some of these abilities, I'd like to know how to add a cool down timer (e.g. 2 seconds) to them. How do I do this?

I suggest a timeout implementation.
Use a timer property to let the BGE count the time for you (timer properties always count upwards).
I suggest to use states to toggle between "ready" and "blocked" status.

State "ready".
In this state the operation can be activated at any time.
When the operation gets activated, you switch the state to "Blocked" and set the (negative) timeout value.

State "blocked"
In this state the operation should not be available.
All you do is wait until the timeout happens. You do this by measuring if time gets positive. When it does you switch to state "ready".

Conclusion
There are other ways to implement timeout. This one is a pretty efficient one as there is not really much to do rather than waiting on the events to happen. By using states you clearly separate the logic of both states.
I hope it helps

There are a number of approaches that you might use. Here are a couple of big-picture ideas.
1) You might record the time (milliseconds) that the ability was last used, and then if the player attempts to use the ability again you test to see if the difference between the recorded time and the current time is large enough. This has the benefit of only needing to be calculated when needed. This method would make it slightly more difficult to show a live count-down to the player, though. you could record the time in a custom property that's associated with the character, or with the ability.
2) You might set the value of a variable or property to a large number when the ability is used, and then periodically update that value to decrease based on how much time has passed. Then when the counter reaches zero, your ability is available again. This has the benefit of being flexible. You can update more frequently if you need to, or less frequently if granularity isn't very important. You have a rough estimate of how much time is remaining and can easily drive other features with that value. This method is also easy to make based on something other than time. Anytime a particular event occurs (each button press, enemy hit, etc.), you subtract one from the value until it reaches zero. This is useful for other kinds of timers in addition to cooldown.
3) Lastly, you might set a property to "always" update a given value, using either of the first two methods. This will force Blender to calculate it every "tic." This gives the most real-time information, but it's one more calculation that has to be done before a tic can be finished, meaning that each tic will take longer.


text:
How can I add background to rendered image
I have just made my render but I cannot see the background in my Rendered Image. I have already added it to the "camera perspective" but still cannot see it in the rendered image. Please help me because I really want my render to be perfect...

You can  create plane and use this recipe with texture you like it works perfectly every time

If you use Cycles for rendering you can add a background after having finished rendering using the compositor. You'll need to render with a transparent background. To do so you have to check 'Transparent' in the Film settings of the render tab.

For compositing you can follow the steps explained in this question.

There are multiple ways to achieve this.
But the simplest way is to use the "import_images_as_planes"  addon.
Just enable it from the preferences.
Then go to the import >Import images as planes.. And choose your BG image.
This week bring in a plane into your scene with the image perfectly mapped onto it.
Now you can change the material and position etc to get the  best effect you need.
Hope this helps.


text:
How to make the position property of an object wiggle only when it is moving?
I have an object with two simple position keyframes. I would like to add some randomness to the animation but only while it is moving. As soon as it stops, the wiggle should stop, too.
In After Effects I would use a wiggle(freq,amp) expression on the position property and drive the amp parameter with the object's speed divided by some amount. This works quite well with e.g. mockup cursors, that then move on a slightly squiggly path. But they will always end up on the exact position that the keyframes have been set on, because as soon as they stop, the wiggle will stop.
How would I go about this in Blender? I can't find a way to read an object's speed with a driver. Is it possible with simulation nodes? I suspect this would be the way to go, because to get the speed of an object one would have to compare the last frame's position value to the current frame's position value. Any ideas?


text:
Texture Painting does not show up in Game view
I am new here.
I just got started working with Blender and have been having a great time with it. I sculpted a character, just a static one for now,to see how it all works. I have texture painted it (quickly) but now I cannot figure out how to get it to show up in the game view. Can anyone point me toward a good tutorial that might help me figure out what I am doing wrong? I can see my paint changing in both my 'texture painting' and 'UV mapping' screens, but it just doesn't show in the game view. Thanks in advanced.

Have you assigned the painted texture to an actual material?

I am not even sure of how to go about doing that.

Well I am not much into painting myself, but you should save your painted texture as an image file, add a new material to your character object, and assign said image to the material as a diffuse texture, I suppose.


text:
Problem with boolean operator, operation "Difference" bettwen two simple objects
Good day, dear advanced users of Blender!
I am starting to work with Blender and have such occasion.
There two objects:
-the lighthouse and
-the cube.
I am trying to create the window in the lighthouse by using
Boolean Modifier-> Operation Difference -> Object Cube
and immediately I have a message:
"Can't execute boolean operation"
The *.blend file is accessible by the link
http://wikisend.com/download/612580/lighthouse.bool-error.blend
Please clarify me, how can I create the window due to this operator and
why this error appeared?

The blend you uploaded works fine though. I just applied the modifier and it did it's job without errors.

Welcome to the site. For uploading files please use blend-exchange (sharing on this site only). Your file had some doubles but they were in the bottom part of the mesh and didn't affect Boolean modifier for me. In general, the error you pointed out means there are some geometry problems with the mesh, see http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/34781/boolean-modifier-not-working. Also it's recommended to update the Blender version which is 2.78 now from official site.

Thank you Mr Zak! I read the link, that you inserted and found many answers from geometry.

The problem with the model is it has created double vertices

Go in the edit mode
Press A twice to select all
Press W to bring special key and click remove double
come out of the edit mode and make boolean operation

Atek, thank you very much for help! How did you find these double vertices? I want to avoid such situations in the future.

@atek Put  tags around keyboard keys please e.g. A

@RayMairlot can you please explain me how to put that?

@atek What do you mean? Edit your answer and put  tags around the letters keyboard keys you are telling them to press, in this case, 'A' and 'W'.

@atek Look at my edit.

@RayMairlot thanks for editing and where can i get this code any link plz

http://stackoverflow.com/editing-help#html


text:
How to merge two vertex in one?

I selected the 4 vertex and i pressed f but now i have the problem that i want just 2 of that 4 vertex but even if i press "limited dissolve" or "Remove doubles" it doesnt do what i want, in the worst of the cases it ends all broke xD help pls!

Select the vertices you want then use "Alt + M" (to merge) and in the panel that appears, select the way you want them to be merged.

Sometimes I prefer scaling them all the way down to 0 S->0 and hit W->remove doubles. It's easier to reach on the keyboard and works perfectly well.


text:
How can I move the axis of symmetry on a mirror modifier?
Sorry for this noob question but i really need help :( xD i want mirror this

and it mirrors like this

its supossed to be a bow so in the middle there are a heart and the other piece has to complete it but it mirrors in reverse?D:

Move the geometry in edit mode in relation to the object origin. When you do that, do you get the result you want?

Or dup of this one - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/353/how-can-i-make-the-mirror-modifier-work-right. Make also sure to press Ctrl+A > Rotation with object selected.


text:
Mix texture and transparent image
I've been asked to do a small animation for a multi story ice cream store. I want to have a steel background texture with a transparent image of an ice cream on just the front face of the elevator door. Most solutions I've read through mention unwrapping the face, but that gives me the following message:
"Object has non-uniform scale, unwrap will operate on a non-scaled version of the mesh". The transparent image also applies itself to all faces of the door.
 This is what I have. And this is what I want. How do I go about doing this?
Thanks in advance,
Joe

Apply scale before doing UV unwrap. Select in object mode and press ctrl+A, choose Scale. Or click Object->Apply->Scale

I've applied scale before unwrapping and I did not get the message this time round. I also got the image where I want, however it's still on all faces and stretched out.

You are using a bit old Blender version. Nowaday it is 2.78a. This node for example has additional rollout for image mapping type. http://imgur.com/mqDNwTH

From what I understand, your unwrapping is the reason. You have unwrapped the faces so that they are overlapping. In the Image Editor, while unwrapping, try moving the faces so that they are not overlapping. Then when you add the transparent image make sure to tweak the Mapping node so that you offset it where it needs to be.
I hope this helps.


text:
how to make a bump texture in blender?
i dont know what's it called in the CG world so here's a screenshot from payday 2 AK-47. it's really just a texture, not an actual holes and bolts.

how do you make those in blender ?

They are called Rivets. Take a circle and extrude and scale it . . .

To create such effects with texture only you may want to use normal maps (2 equal meshes + UV mapping etc should be done). For that you still should model all those details first and only then bake a normal map

I suggest to look some tutorial about normal maps baking, like this one: http://blenderdiplom.com/en/tutorials/all-tutorials/585-normal-baking-using-the-blender-internal-renderer.html or this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7PQGgz1RII

i actually know how to model those, but i just want to keep my model's poly to be as low as possible because i'm using subsurf modifier level 2. thanks for your suggestions btw.


text:
I want an animation such that this window move from right to left

I want an animation video of it can anyone help me...

If you are a new user to Blender you may want to see video tutorials at a video site. I would search - Blender Tutorials texture mapping - at a site such as you tube.  This site is not a tutorial site.  I am not sure I understand your question.  Please know this site wants you to have clarity in you question.  I may what you meant guess in a subsequent answer.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is nothing more than a "Do this for me" request. - No please!

Assume Blender Render. Create two planes.  UV unwrap and select your textures in the question above to be mapped to the planes via the material panel then texture panel.
Go to a beginning frame and insert position keyframes for both planes
Go to a ending frame and insert position keyframes for both planes
Your materials can be Shadowless.
Test animation. Render your animation to a video format.


text:
Objects won't render when camera is parented to an object
So I'm trying to make my camera follow a spaceship around, so I've tried parenting it to the rear of the ship. However, doing this causes the game to just display a grey rectangle when playing through the camera view. Unparenting the camera resolves the issue. Has anyone seen anything like this?

I use that all the time, there must be something else going on

Hmm. Parenting the camera to other objects in the scene works fine. There's something about the ship in particular. Parenting an empty to the ship and then the camera to the empty doesn't work either.

Your .blend would help.

parent something visible to the camera ( same position ) , start playing not in camera view  and see where it goes ( probably the camera is moving away and has nothing to show )

my guess is something is getting mussed up with the collision/parent relationship. view from outside the cameras port to see.


text:
Why dont i get curves on the graph editor?
Whenever I do an animation the graph editor gives me curves.

But im not getting any curves.

When i clicked on the normalize it gave me the curves thanks.

You have to click the normalize button and scale it out with CTRL + Middle mouse button.

Some curves may not be visible due to their high value, or too low value.
First of, check if you see all curves by adjusting vertical zoom, with CTRL +  MMB, then drag up / down.
Also, you can check the Normalize button at the bottom toolbar of the graph editor, and all curves will be clamped between -1 and 1 so you can see them all in a more condensed area of the graph.

Pressing Home will zoom the view to make all keyframes visible. For smaller/laptop keyboards without a home key this can also be found in View->View All
You can use the scroll wheel to zoom the graph editor in/out or use ⎈ Ctrl  MMB and drag up/down to zoom the values or left/right to zoom frames.
It is most often the rotation values that are large, one way to keep them in range with other keyframes is to work with radians instead of degrees or to use Quaternion rotations.
Radians can be enabled in the scene properties under units. This option allows you to change between degrees and radians as you want.


text:
Adding another roughness to hair
I have been using yeti and xgen for hair and fur and they allow users to add multiple scraggle or roughness to the hair.For example a less frequency scraggle to generate some randomness in the hair and a high frequency scraggle to make the hair slightly frizzy.
I know this is not possible with the current hair system in blender but is there any hack to do it??
I know this might sound silly but how difficult it is code to this? I mean can you not copy the code that is there for the roughness and kinda add one more on top of it?

Have you checked out the new Principled Hair BSDF (shader?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNlGsmZ6osk

Heyy that is the shader... I was talking about adding roughness on the mesh. As in ups and downs on the hair strands.


text:
(Blender Cycles 2.74) can´t see smoke on the render image
i had created a simple scene and tryed a litle bit with smoke...
i can see the smoke in the solid mode, but not in the render mode...

i can´t also see the option GPU...

You could try this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-zK7Bu8cAI
For GPU rendering you need a specific video card. Which video card do you have? For example NVIDIA is supported


text:
How to change camera movement speed on Path during animation
Im making a animation in blender that requires the camera to change speeds while moving along a path. I'm using the Curve/Path for the path. I need the camera to move at a certain speed going between 2 places, and then slow down while moving around something its focusing on.

Also make sure to set up the interpolation in the F-curve panel

Rather than using a Follow path constraint for the camera, and animate the Evaluation time value (which I found quite difficult), I fell back to animating the camera LocRot keys directly, this was easier for trying camera viewpoints and movements. I know that's a bypass which can cause problems if the animation is changed, but not more than animating the evaluation time I think.

You can use F-curve to define, how transformation values will change in time.

Make Sure you create Keyframes for the Offset value in the Follow Path Constraint.

Insert Keyframes on the [Follow Path Constraint].  Use [Fixed Position] TRUE.  The image belows shows two keyframes in the timeline and the dopesheet.

By using keyframes to directly and easily change position, you will change the speed, usefully and indirectly.  The object can also stop moving by using the same value of keyframe at two different frames. You can also reverse direction. You will be specifying the positions (0 = start, .5 = mid, 1.0 end) along the curve.  There is no direct settings for distance per frame and this is not a large problem under many scenarios.
There are also many tutorials at video sites that will visually explain this.  Consider searching Blender Tutorial Follow Path Constraint.

What you can do is selecting the path and in the curve option insert your key frames on frames value


text:
Sketchup 3d model import with wrong topology?

Imported this 3d Model from google sketchup ,and when i open it with blender or 3Dmax i get those extra lines all over , is there a way to get them deleted ,or remove them with ease ?!?!

This seems to be triangles (instead of quads). You can Alt+J to make quads from triangles (select the corresponding surfaces before). But consider too that this not a real problem: triangles can stay triangles... very dependent of what you want to do after that.

What you are seeing are the results of Sketchup being a bad modelling tool topology wise. It creates NGons, bad topology and non-manifold geometry without discretion, and when imported to other proper modelling tools those problems light up. Also as mentioned most exchange formats only support triangles, so anything with more than 3 sides will be decomposed into simpler geometry

Those are the result of triangulating faces, possibly because of the file format used for the exporting (e.g. .3ds will do that regardless whether you asked it to or not).
To get quads-based topology back:

It should be possible to convert them back to quads with Alt+J, but this might not work in all cases (depends on topology complexity). You will need to convert faces which were converted not in desired way manually;
use another file format for import / export, e.g. .fbx or .dae.

Note: the need in converting depends on the final result you're aiming to.


text:
Floating objects from model after applying 'with automatic weights' I need help.

I'm having a rigify error after applying 'with automatic weights'. My character's hair is floating after I move around the rig and it's frustrating that I have no idea how to fix it. I don't know how to manually weight paint either. (I'm a big noob)

Answer provided, there are couple of things that may solve it. You can upload your .blend file on blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com

Select your mesh and Switch to Weight Painting mode using ctrl+Tab
Select your armature and switch to Pose mode using ctrl+Tab
Rotate your head bone as shown in the figure you posted, which will leave the other parts of the head not moved.
Now select your head bone and start weight painting using Mouse left click as shown below until all these parts are red, where these parts of the head will be assigned to the bone head and will move with it. You may need to turn off the limit selection as highlighted below

I just got this showing up. Thank you so much. So it didn't apply anything to it at all. Not only that. You taught me how to clean up weight painting. Thank You!!  http://imgur.com/50UjcoT

@CodyMavar You are welcome, glad I helped. you can accept the answer  if it solved your problem :)


text:
Blender 2.78 Manual for offline use - how - where?
Blender Help says I can download the Blender 2.78 Manual for offline use - how - where?

blender (which I use, love and support since two decades...) has a terrible history of downloadable manuals... worst blender aspect ever, imho. when it was on mediawiki I started a project to regularly create a pdf version from it... then they switched to a version based on "reStructuredText " and although every project I've seen using this kind of system (see https://readthedocs.org/) has html, pdf, epub export at least... blender never had one. You could try to download manual sources and build it locally: see https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/about/contribute/index.html

There is a link for the online documents here: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev . I'm not sure why it doesn't work, but there is a link to download a zip file, but the actually link tag isn't working in the wiki. For now, you can download directly, I guess: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/blender_manual.zip

The make.bat file in the blender documentation subversion repository includes a "make epub" option that will use their tooling to build a local epub file locally. It's reasonably easy to do this same thing on Mac or Linux box if that's your platform.
A step-by-step of what I did was:

svn checkout https://svn.blender.org/svnroot/bf-manual/trunk/blender_docs
cd blender_docs
virtualenv .venv_blender
source .venv_blender/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

and I added this to the local Makefile:
epub: .FORCE .SPHINXBUILD_EXISTS
    # './' (input), './epub/' (output)
    QUICKY_CHAPTERS=$(QUICKY_CHAPTERS) \
    $(SPHINXBUILD) -b epub $(SPHINXOPTS) ./manual "$(BUILDDIR)/epub"

Then make epub generates an epub file into build/epub directory.


text:
Game Crashes When Changing Scenes
I've recently created a game were a small robot chases you, it uses a lot of Vertices (Approximately: 300000). When I open the .exe for the game the menu pops up, no problem, but when I click 'Play' the game crashes! If I remove the Menu Scene everything works fine, every now and then it won't crash. But I want to bring down the crash rate to a solid 10%. I can't give anyone the file since a lot of textures and objects may be missing. Is there anyway I can stop these crashes?

Does it work when running inside blender?

have you tried to reduce poly count and verified that behaves better? low poly modeling is typical in real-time games... there are tricks and tools to fake higher details for gaming usage...


text:
Get bone rotation from IK
Is it possible to get the xyz euler rotation of the bones in an armature that is controlled by the iTaSC IK solver with python?
With the rotation I mean the difference e.g. between the start and end of the IK movement i.e. boneA - y rotation 80 °.

Select a bone in pose mode and see if [degrees(a) for a in C.active_pose_bone.matrix_channel.to_euler()] , typed into the python console (where C = bpy.context), gives you the result you are after.


text:
Inverse Kinematics Documentation
I am currently writing a thesis and for the practical part I use blender to simulate something with the Blender IK Solver ( and iTaSC).
Are there books etc about the implementation or the usage of the Blender IK Solver/iTAsC available?
I could only find the Blender documentation.

Since Blender is OpenSource, why not look into the source?

I do not know of any books on this specific to blender.
Developers rarely write books on the details of particular implementations, and for blender, any implementation documentation outside the code base will most likely be found on the wiki. Details of techniques and algorithms are generally best studied from the original paper(s).
As mentioned, blender is open source, so you can read the source code in git yourself.
Skimming it, it looks like the wiki is actually fairly detailed here. It also mentions the original paper which may be helpful, if you have access.
Since iTAsC was originally designed for robot control systems, you may want to look at literature in that area.


text:
Python script delete objects
I have a python script that (amongst other things) is supposed to delete objects.
Currently I am unlinking the object but when I want to create objects later in the script with the same name as the deleted it is automatically named name.001 and so on.
Is there a way to completely delete objects using a script?

Can remove object from the collection (bpy.objects.remove(ob)) after unlinking.  However a simple, and perhaps safer,  workaround is to rename object (eg ob.name = "delete_me")  before unlinking from scene, and let blender take care of removal if ob has zero users on save / reload.

bpy.data.objects.remove(bpy.context.scene.objects[id], do_unlink = True)

This should remove unlink the object from every scene you have. After that, the creation of a new object should go without the namechange.


text:
video editor problems, how can i save an edited video as mp4?
Could someone help me here please?
I've edited a video in Blender's video editing program but i can't download the file as an mp4. I've looked trough all the answers I could find on the web and on this website, most of them say I should render the video in default mode, but then there's no sound and only the main video without the music and pictures I've added. I'm in this screen now:
Can someone explain me how to download it as an mp4 file or give me an example how I could do it? Any help is appreciated!
Greetings,
Lander

also see http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/72547/how-to-make-a-simple-one-image-music-mp4-video/

I've had problems when rendering to mp4 and now render all videos as H264, AVI and set the sound to mp3, which is the default on my Blender anyway.  I then convert the AVI (which is quite large) to mp4 in an external program (Videopad) with excellent results.


text:
No inflow from one of two sources
I'm currently working on a small creek for learning purposes. I've built the main terrain and am now stuck on the fluid animation.
This is my project so far:

As you can see, there are two inflow sources (the two white blobs) and one outflow (the white cube at the left side). The domain is already baked with a low resolution, the screenshot above shows the scene at frame 1, everything seems to be working.
However, from frame 2 onwards, the inflow cube at the right side doesn't seem to produce an inflow, it just looks like this:

Both inflow sources are in the domain, both have a starting velocity pointing towards the correct direction. It has worked before with only one inflow source (the one that isn't working right now), however I'm not sure what I could have done to break it. I've tried deleting the other inflow source, but that didn't help. Any ideas what's causing this / how I can fix it?
Thanks!

I'm following this tutorial on Youtube in case that matters. I'm a beginner in Blender, so I'm not sure if all relevant information is visible on the screenshots. If you need me to provide additional information, please let me know!

First of all, you should bake the sim with a higher resolution. The resolution is not just about quality, it determines how the fluid acts. Using a resolution as low as 44 just doesn't make sense.
That being said, one possible reason why the inflow does not work is that it may be too close to the edge of the domain. Inflow objects need some space around them.
While the general wisdom is that the domain should be as small as possible, this can cause problems. Increasing the domain size should always be part of the trouble-shooting process when a fluid simulation won't work properly.


text:
How to mirror an animation
I have an animation of my character holding a lamp with the right hand. I want to mirror this animation to get my character holding a lamp with the left hand. For each frame I can copy pose and paste it x-flipped. However, I've got many frames and it will take a long time to perform such operation for each frame. Is there any way to do it faster?

Does this stil work http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/18190/can-i-mirror-animations-on-bones/18191#18191 ?

Yes but I have to copy-paste pose for each keyframe which is long

So after some googling and reading API I came up with a little script to automate the process:
import bpy

scn = bpy.context.scene

bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='POSE')
bpy.ops.pose.select_all(action='SELECT')

initial_keyframe = scn.frame_current

scn.frame_set(0)

while True:
    bpy.ops.anim.keyframe_insert()

    if 'FINISHED' not in bpy.ops.screen.keyframe_jump(next=True):
        break
    else:
        # A hook to update bone positions after jump.
        # See http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/8534/14703
        scn.frame_set(scn.frame_current)

scn.frame_set(0)

while True:
    bpy.ops.pose.copy()
    bpy.ops.pose.paste(flipped=True)
    bpy.ops.anim.keyframe_insert()

    if 'FINISHED' not in bpy.ops.screen.keyframe_jump(next=True):
        break
    else:
        scn.frame_set(scn.frame_current)

scn.frame_set(initial_keyframe)

Running this will x-flip all frames in the animation.
Unfortunately copying and pasting pose creates unwanted keyframes so you may want to clean up the result manually.

Mirroring a pose (animation):

Open the Dope Sheet:
Select your keyframes (e. g. via Border select or circle select etc.) or just press A to select them all.
Press Ctrl + C to copy them.
Navigate to the place where you want to paste them and press Ctrl + Shift + V. This will paste the selected keyframes but it will flip the pose (in order to flip the pose correctly you'll need to name the bones like this: PartOfTheBody_L and PartOfTheBody_R (Left and Right)

Since the original keyframes have to be intact for them to be pasted - and you probably want the original gone - you'd paste the flipped frames at the end of the original animation, after which you can delete the original and move the flipped frames to the start.
Playing an animation in reverse:

Open the Dope Sheet:
Press A to select all keyframes.
Press Shift + D to duplicate them and drag them to the place where you want.
Navigate to the last duplicated keyframe.
Press Shift + M to open up the Mirror Keys menu and klick on 'By Times over Current frame'.

Easy, select the armature in the outliner and then over the viewport Right-Click Mirror > X Global or Y or Z depending on your specific case, then hit Space Bar .


text:
texel density real life like textools 3ds max
I'm trying to make unwrap, the density of the texel is like in real life. If the mesh that I am unwrapping is 1x2 meters, I want the density of the texels to meet the meter by 1024x1024. How should I do it?
It is a functionality that has the textools plugin of 3ds max, does that exist in blender?
I do not use the addon uv magic since it only applies the scale of the same object.

Only thing I know is this https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?236631-Addon-Simple-Box-UVW-Map-Modifier

TexTools has been released for Blender and already features Texel Density tools. You can download and read more on my website.

Unlike the 3dsMax version there are now some advanced options on how to apply the UV scale

This should be voted as the answer as renderhjs is author of this blender version as well as the 3ds max version of textools.


text:
In Sverchok, how can I create a different parametric object at each vector in a list?
I'd like to create a matrix, but each object in the matrix uses its index and/or location as parameters. As a simple example, let's say I want to create a matrix of spheres, but the diameter of each sphere depends on its distance from the origin.

You can use a Generators > "Hilbert 3d" node to make the matrix. I'll use this for brevity. Either that or stack a few subdivided planes and join them with Mesh Join.
Each point on the matrix is a Vector, you wanted to check the distance between each vector and the origin vector (0,0,0) and use that distance to scale a sphere placed on that vector point.

here's how to make a more dynamic matrix

import the Gist from the SV import/export panel
https://gist.github.com/c0f658e5dab427711f58c1908d470c64

Mesh instances

As zeffii already suggested you can use the scaling of the matrix to change the size of objects depending on their location.
But Sverchok relies heavily on (nested) lists for generating geometry and its generators are vectorized. If you use a single value in one of Sverchok's generators, e.g. for a sphere's radius, and pipe this sphere's vertices into the Viewer Draw node with a some matrix, you will get duplicates of that sphere with the given radius.
If you instead use an array as an input to the Radius node – whether you create that array by hand, e.g. with Float Range, or by using some of the matrix' values – you can generate spheres with variable radii.

This process should also work if you want to change some parameter which can't be changed by a transformation matrix, e.g. the number of vertices in a mesh.


text:
What is the quickest way to animate lights flashing on and off in a pattern?
I have a wall of cubes which i want to light up so they look like an equalizer. So each cubes switches between a diffuse and emission shader in a pattern. Is there an easier way to do this than manually going through and keyframing it all?

Have a look at this guy's blend file: https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/86929/38953  He is using an amplitude curve from a digital recording to make icospheres dance.  You may be able to make a script (or drivers) to use the amplitude values to "light up" certain cubes.

You could also have a look at animation nodes.


text:
How can i see if my flickering light is working right without rendering the animation?
I have a flickering light using f-curves. Is there any way to judge the strength of the flickering without rendering the animation over and over?

Have you tried going into to texture display? It shows a crude representation of light intensity and placement. Eevee is another option that would allow you to visualise your lights easier.

i have tried texture display but it doesnt seem to show any light on my floor plane?

That sounds like you have a technical issue somewhere. Without any pictures or your file scene, it's a bit hard to diagnose. Also if your light is too big, it might be impossible to differentiate between lit and shadow.

ok i will do some tests and try and get some screen shots if needed.


text:
How would you go about achieving this type of folding animation?
https://www.instagram.com/p/BqFwidflF6j/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=96chkl8ig9f0
I’m guessing it would be possible with animation nodes but wouldn’t know where to start.


text:
Alingning object to motion tracked scene
I have a scene which I have motion tracked. I'm having trouble adding objects to the scene though. I cant seem to get a cube to line up with the base of the sign. I have the correct size of sensor and focal length of phone camera according to google but it doesn't seem to match up at all. The phone has a wide angle lens which i think distorts everything. Is there any way to deal with this so that I can get blender's camera to match the footage?

trying to add cube.


text:
Why is this texture repeating when its set to clip?

I have positioned the black lines where i want them using object coordinates but for some reason it shows on the top of the hat as well even though the texture is set to clip which i thought prevented any repeating?

This is the way "object" coordinates work: it takes into account the bounding box of the object, puts the texture in a plane that goes through the origin and projects the same color value onto every face wich has the same XY (UV) coordinates, so the image can get repeated if two zones share the same XY coordinates (and maybe have different "height") in the bounding box world.
If you want  a single position you have to use UV coordinates instead.


text:
Cycles Preview Render 3D View not using CUDA
I just installed a new GTX960 graphics card into my old 2008 Mac Pro. Cycles Rendering using CUDA works fine and fast. But when in editing mode (3D Render View), Blender clearly uses CPU instead of GPU computing.
CPU usage is at 100% (1 core used) and preview rendering is slow. It makes no difference whether I select "GPU" or "CPU" in the render settings pane. Same speed for the samples. So clearly CPU only.
I cannot find any error messages either.
What could be wrong?


text:
Completing Mirroring Halves
Once I have finished the portion of my object that makes use of the mirroring modifier what is the best way to remove the modifier so that the faces, edges and vertices can be selected independently of each other for UV mapping, texturing, etc?

Apply the modifier and remove doubles?

I made a human model using mirror and what I am trying to do is get the arms to move independently now that it is done but can't seem to figure out how to separate the arms.

Go to the modifiers tab, make sure you are in Object mode.  Currently you can change one side of the object, and it will automatically update the other side.  Click the "Apply" button, and the mirror modifier will be applied to your object.

Now that the modifier is applied, I went back into Edit mode, and dragged a vertex around, and you can see that it does not change the other side of the object.

Now you can continue modeling!


text:
how to match the scale and position of background images
I am having issues with two background images not being scaled to each other. One is set to front view with the dimensions of 310x506 pixels. The other is set to the right view with dimensions of 124x506 pixels.
Both Images have offset x of 0.00 and offset y of 5.00 in Background Settings.
I create a plane centered at location 0,0,0 and in both views the object is lined up but if I change the z to line up with the top of the image in the front view it doesn't line up with the top of the image in the right view.
What is causing this and how to I fix it?

I deal with background images by setting them to the same size before starting Blender in an external image processing package like Gimp. In your case, Ixd adjust the right view by enlarging the front view by padding the right view by adding 93 pixels on both sides of the image, so that the right view has the same dimensions as the front view, that is 310 x 506 pixels. This will make it easier to line up the images with the views.