text:
Is there a way to create an executable of a game not version specific?
It's quite inconvenient that Yo Frankie! makes you start the game from inside Blender (and there appears to be no other way to boot it)
Beyond that, it also requires a specific version of Blender, 2.49, which may confuse people who try to run it with the latest version and see the game crash (why is that anyway?)
1.) Is there perhaps a way to create an executable packed with Blender so you can start the game as you would any other without having to start it through Blender?
2.) Why is Yo Frankie! Not compatible with the latest version of blender?

The standard copies of blender that you download include both blender and blenderplayer which is a game engine only runtime. Blender includes the "Save As Game Engine Runtime" addon that gives you an export to runtime option. There is an explanation of creating a standalone runtime in the manual. There is also a "Game Engine Publishing" addon to help export for multiple platforms.
YoFrankie was released 9th December 2008 with blender 2.48a. When blender 2.50 was released a year later the python API was changed dramatically and has no compatibility with previous versions. YoFrankie contains many python scripts that would need to be re-written to work in anything newer than 2.49. Some of the character rigs and animations would also need some adjustment to work in newer versions. As all of the scripts and data files are available someone could update the game to a newer version but so far no-one has made the effort.


text:
Material - Duplicate then Unlink Material from Original
I have a material that took some time to create. I want to duplicate the material, but then unlink it from the original material.
Note: This is NOT a question about unlinking a material from an object, but rather from its original settings.
Problem:

I have a material that is set up as an emission surface and I want to animate its strength over time.
I assign this material to Object 1.
I duplicate the material with the + icon and get a new material based on the first, and it has .001 appended to the original name.
I assign this second material to Object 2.
I want to change the emission strength of the new material-Object 2 and animate it over time as well, just with different settings on different key frames.

However, when I change the strength of either emission setting for either material, it also sets the same emission strength for other material to be the same.
Obviously there is some linking going on in the background, but I cannot find the keystroke or menu options to unlink the two materials from each other. I do see lots of questions answered about how to unlink duplicate objects, but following those instructions does not get the results I need with the materials.

This can be done via NLA editor: simply Push down an Action on duplicated material and delete created NLA Track. Original will remain untouched.

Hello Serge, did you manage to use the NLA for a material action? It looks like material actions don't work like any other actions, it should be a request

In such situations, you can use the "Object Info" node to control material parameters using the "Viewport Display" -> "Color" -> "Alpha" slider.
Thanks to this, you can use the same material on many different objects, and you can change their "Per Object" parameters at the same time.
An example file is in the Mega link, duplicate the cube several times and change the value of the "Alpha" slider.
https://mega.nz/file/9oxVwKYA#K3avUCkv1QgLEDjbGYfH14yNZj3DHDaYau_aeCH02a4

When a material is duplicated, it gets a copy of everything including the material animation. There is no more linking between the materials.
I modified one of the keyframes of the copy, and it didn't reflect on the original material. I think you may have assigned the copy to both objects by mistake. I followed your steps, and the screenshot below shows that there are indeed two separate animations.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Rotating camera view in Grease Pencil Draw Mode in Blender 2.8
I'm new Blender and I'm really excited about the Grease Pencil feature but I'm finding it difficult to achieve a function I use in other 2D animation programs, namely rotating/rolling the camera view while in a drawing mode.
In Toon Boom's products you have the ability to rotate the camera view of the canvas to make it easier to draw at an angle without transforming the drawn elements. To do this you simply hold Ctrl+Alt (which brings up a overlay of an animation disk) and then Left-Drag to set the rotation angle. To reset the view you press Shift+Z.

To rotate the camera view in Blender I find I must escape out of Draw Mode to Object Mode, select the camera, rotate/roll the view, and re-enter the Draw Mode.
In searching for a better solution I found this which links a video that supports a similar feature  but I feel it's inefficient.
The link goes on to explain that pressing R will achieve what I want but I don't seem to be able to get it to work as described.
I believe I should be able to write a script to add a shortcut. I spent some time on it but not being familiar with Blender scripting I find it difficult to even know how to approach this problem.
I found a simple framework here for adding a shortcut that seems to work but the business logic escapes me. Essentially my approach has been to assign a keyboard shortcut to Ctrl+Alt+Left-Drag while in Draw Mode to go directly into rotating/rolling the camera, and then upon release go back to Draw Mode on the object I was just drawing in.
Does anyone have similar script or helpful direction?

They are incremental, but try $ and ^.

$ and ^ don't seem to work for me

I was watching an old YouTube stream by HeavyPoly last night, and he seemed to be able to free-rotate around the view axis. I don't know how, but he does do some scripting, so it might be custom...

I just found under View > Navigation > Roll Left (shift numpad 4) and similar for right. I searched but there is no binding under Keymap for mouse rolling. Searching for roll I found this: https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/15049/454

Saw that article and tried that too but it doesn't seem to work for me.

Here is different method to do it:
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/157537/63610

So I wrote this script to perform the task of rotating the camera while in the Grease Pencil Draw mode.
Basically Ctrl+Alt+Middle-Click in a region of the 3D viewport to rotate the camera.

Left region will rotate counter-clockwise.
Right region will rotate clock-wise.
Middle region will reset the camera roll to 0.

It works but useful feedback and slicker solutions are welcomed.
import bpy

bl_info = {
    "name": "GPC Rotate",
    "blender": (2, 80, 0),
    "category": "Object",
}
addon_keymaps = []
rota = 0.2
cent = 0.20

class GPCRot(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Grease Pencil camera rotate"""
    bl_idname = "object.gpcr"
    bl_label = "GPC Rotate"
    bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}

    def execute(self, context):
        return {'FINISHED'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        if str(bpy.context.active_object.mode) == "PAINT_GPENCIL":
            cam = bpy.context.scene.camera
            ca,cb,cc = cam.rotation_euler
            for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
                if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
                    cx = event.mouse_region_x - (area.width/2)
                    if abs(cx) < cent*area.width:
                        cam.rotation_euler = (ca, 0, cc)
                    elif cx > 0:
                        cam.rotation_euler = (ca, cb-rota, cc)
                    else:
                        cam.rotation_euler = (ca, cb+rota, cc)
                    print(cx)
        return self.execute(context)

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(GPCRot)
    wm = bpy.context.window_manager
    km = wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.new(name='Grease Pencil', space_type='EMPTY')
    kmi = km.keymap_items.new(GPCRot.bl_idname, 'MIDDLEMOUSE', 'PRESS', ctrl=True, shift=False, alt=True)
    addon_keymaps.append(km)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(GPCRot)
    wm = bpy.context.window_manager
    for km in addon_keymaps:
        wm.keyconfigs.addon.keymaps.remove(km)
    del addon_keymaps[:]

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

I like the code. Perfect work!

As others have already pointed out that Shift + Numpad 4 and Shift + Numpad 6 rotate the view by increments. This is ok and already works on the default set up.
For me, the better solution was to go to Edit > Preferences Keymap under Grease Pencil > Grease Pencil(global) press Add New. From here set your preferred key binding (I chose Middle Mouse Button ) then click the little "expand" arrow, add any modifiers (I chose Shift + Alt) and type `view3d.view_roll" into the command box.
And that's it, this allows arbitrary rotation while holding Shift + Alt + Middle Mouse Button . To reset press Shift + Numpad 1.

This is great, but I wasn't able to get it to work. Two questions: 1) Is it really as you show in your pic, and we needn't specify a value for Roll, or an Angle under Source? I do what you show, but nothing happens when I press modifier keys and move the mouse. So I wonder if more is needed before mouse movement will register. 2) Did you manually set up the condition that resets the view using Shift + Numpad 1? Or is this a built in feature of the view3d roll function? You don't mention needing to do anything to create this functionality, so I assume its expected to work automatically.

If you open a new 2D animation it will start you in "camera perspective" (visible in the upper left). Press numpad 0 to switch to "user orthographic" for these commands to work as expected. You may need to hide the camera in the scene collection. Shift-numpad 1 is indeed a default command.

I hope you don't mind. I studied your code and the code of other users and I believe I was able to implement your initial idea. I can't tell if it's the best solution because it's the first time in blender. I usually program for Maya and Nuke. So just create the shortcut (Ctrl + Alt + Left click) for object.rotate canvas.
import bpy
import math
import mathutils
from bpy_extras.view3d_utils import location_3d_to_region_2d

"""
    Script base. Thanks to bigLarry
    ######################################################################################################################
    https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/136183/rotating-camera-view-in-grease-pencil-draw-mode-in-blender-2-8
    ######################################################################################################################

"""
bl_info = {
    "name": "Rotate Canvas",
    "blender": (2, 80, 0),
    "category": "Object",
}
class RotateCanvas_(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = 'object.rotate_canvas'
    bl_label = 'Rotate Canvas'

    def __init__(self):
        print ('\n\nStart - Rotate Canvas')

    def __del__(self):
        print ('End - Rotate Canvas\n\n')

    def _get_center_view(self, area, cam):
        '''
        https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/6377/coordinates-of-corners-of-camera-view-border
        Thanks to ideasman42
        '''
        region_3d = area.spaces[0].region_3d
        for region in area.regions:
            if region.type == 'WINDOW':
                frame = cam.data.view_frame()
                frame = [cam.matrix_world @ v for v in frame]
                frame_px = [location_3d_to_region_2d(region, region_3d, v) for v in frame]

                center_x = frame_px[2].x + (frame_px[0].x - frame_px[2].x)/2
                center_y = frame_px[1].y + (frame_px[0].y - frame_px[1].y)/2
                return mathutils.Vector((center_x, center_y))
        return None

    def _get_camera_rotation(self):
        """
            Get euler rotation and return quaternion rotation.

        :return:
            quaternion - cam_rotation_quat
        """
        # Get camera rotation.
        cam_rotation_euler = self.cam.rotation_euler

        # Convert euler to quaternion
        cam_rotation_quat = cam_rotation_euler.to_quaternion()

        return cam_rotation_quat

    def _get_camera_aim_vector(self):
        """
            Return camera aim vector.

        :return:
            Vector - aim
        """
        aim = self.cam.matrix_world.to_quaternion() @ mathutils.Vector((0.0, 0.0, -1.0))

        return aim

    def _apply_rotation(self, angle):
        """
            Apply rotation based on aim vector.

        :return:
            Vector - cam_rot_euler
        """
        # Create a new quaternion using self.cam_aim_vector and angle
        new_quaternion = mathutils.Quaternion(self.cam_aim_vector, angle * -1)

        # Duplicate cam quaternion.
        cam_rot_quat_duplicate = self.cam_rot_quat.copy()

        # Use new quaternion to rotate duplicated quaternion.
        cam_rot_quat_duplicate.rotate(new_quaternion)

        # Convert to euler rotation
        cam_rot_euler = cam_rot_quat_duplicate.to_euler()

        return cam_rot_euler

    def execute(self, context):
        # Calculates the angle between initial and current vectors
        angle = self.vector_initial.angle_signed(self.vector_current)

        # Calculate a camera new angle
        new_cam_rot = self._apply_rotation(angle)

        # Apply a new angle
        self.cam.rotation_euler = new_cam_rot

        #print (math.degrees(angle), self.vector_initial, self.vector_current)

        return {'FINISHED'}

    def modal(self, context, event):
        if event.type == 'MOUSEMOVE' or event.type == 'INBETWEEN_MOUSEMOVE':
            # Get current mouse coordination (region)
            self.pos_current = mathutils.Vector((event.mouse_region_x, event.mouse_region_y))

            # Get current vector
            self.vector_current = (self.pos_current - self.center).normalized()
            self.execute(context)

        else:
            return {'FINISHED'}

        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        #print ('Invoke - RotateCanvas')
        # Get camera from scene
        self.cam = bpy.context.scene.camera
        # Get camera initial rotation
        self.cam_rot_quat = self._get_camera_rotation()
        # Recupera o aim vector da camera
        self.cam_aim_vector = self._get_camera_aim_vector()

        # Get the center of the camera on canvas.
        for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
            if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
                self.center = self._get_center_view(area, self.cam)

        # Get current mouse coordination
        self.pos_current = mathutils.Vector((event.mouse_region_x, event.mouse_region_y))

        # Calculate inital vector
        self.vector_initial = self.pos_current - self.center
        self.vector_initial.normalize()

        # Initializes the current vector with the same initial vector.
        self.vector_current = self.vector_initial.copy()

        self.execute(context)

        context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(RotateCanvas_)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(RotateCanvas_)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Your solution is the best to me, but it does not work once the camera is parented to an object that has a rotation, I'm trying to adapt your solution but I'm struggling with matrix, vectors rotation and such (linear algebra is not my cup of tea...)

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


text:
Blender version 3.0.0 grease pencil layer incorrectly renders over 3d objects
Blender version 2.93 will correctly render a grease pencil layer, regardless of stroke depth order, behind a 3d object that is closer than the grease pencil layer.

Blender version 3.0.0 incorrectly renders the grease pencil layer in-front of the 3d object regardless of the stroke depth order.

I've uninstalled a September 2021 installation of 3.0.0 and reinstalled the most current distribution.
Am I missing anything? Does anyone have a solution or work around for this apparent bug?

Have you checked if that bug is already reported, and if not, posted a bug report?

I will do that.

I see the answer at your screenshot:

I'm pretty sure that you have z pass disabled:

Seems that in 3.0.0 by default View Layer Properties>Passes>Data Z is set to false while in 2.93 it is set to true.

I'v got another trouble. Grease pencil, that were posted behind the 2d png picture, overlapped it.
That was solved buy changing Blend Mode from "Alpha Blend" to "Alpha Hashed" into png Material properties -> Settings.


text:
Selection of vertices surrounding a vertex (only the the ones directly touching)
I need to use this without python coding.
Thanks, is there a shortcut or anything? I tried Crtl+L and just L and it just selects my whole model.

Pleas don't pout your question just in the title: use the editor text area to describe what you need, what you tried (add examples or screenshots) and what does not work.

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


text:
How to cut along the edge of an object?
How do I cut a free form object (curve converted to mesh) along the edge?

The goal is to create the smaller (blue outline) object, which looks like it has been sawn off the original one using a defined offset.

You could do this with the inset operator, but this reeks of bad topology see http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/50538/how-to-cut-an-object-along-a-curve or http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/35205/offset-for-mesh

If you convert that outline to mesh edges you can knife project it, then loop select the outer ring of verts and delete them

I used the Inset tool and fixed all the wrong edges etc.
Thank you very much

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


text:
I cannot see my background image
This has really bugged me, I am trying to follow a tutorial on modelling but I cannot see my background image. I have gone through many youtube videos but everything they suggest, I have already done. I am in orthographic mode, I am in front mode (I set it to appear in all views) and I've set the opacity to 0.5.
Here's a screenshot of my screen.

Looks like it is set up correctly. What format is your background image in? Try some other .jpges just as proof of concept that you can display something.

It seems that you have no color space (indicated 'color' in your screen capture followed by an weird empty choice)... try to change (if any value in that list)

As Lemon mentioned in the comments,
You dont seem to have a color space.
Its weird it even let you have a blank one.
Maybe try choosing the drop down, if that doesnt work try restarting Blender.
Just choose sRGB if you dont have Filmic.

Background images work with cameras, push the Numpad 0 button to set the camera in view. 2.76b and you can also use Numpad 5 to switch view mode
Num 0

Can also press the numpad 5 key to set to ortho which is how the views need to be for background images not using the camera.


text:
When rendering textured objects are stacked on top of each other?
In my scene, I'm trying to display textured objects falling next to each other (coins all sharing the same texture)
When I rendered my scene with the textured objects however, they stacked on top of each other and ignored their programmed positioning.
After the scene has ended, and I go back to edit mode, the coins show they are stacked on top of each other even in there, almost as if at render time the entire scene is changed to make them stack on top of each other.
New to Blender, could not find a similar question.
How can I prevent this from happening?

Could you add some images to make your question clearer?

The first thing I'd check is to akesure scale, rotation,  and location transforms were applied.


text:
What hardware consideration to make when setting up a Blender/Cycles render farm?
I thought about writing down all variables that make up our current situation. I feel that they are important to the situation, but they are not directly relevant for this question. Therefor I decided to post those considerations here: https://pastebin.com/h0rLWvsn .
The Lack of Info Online
I've been searching for sane, recent render node setups, but I keep finding threads where people cram the most powerful Xeon they can find in their nodes and include the best graphics card they can afford. That might work for an editing rig, but from a server/horizontal scaling point of view that seems ridiculous.
To my understanding, smaller, cheaper, dispensable nodes will be capable of handling more subframe at the same time. Each subframe will take longer, but all in all that should not matter that much since overall time will be cut by the multitude of cores.
The CPU vs GPU battle
The GPUs in our editing systems are indeed about 4x (at least) faster than the same renders on our editing system CPU. However, some scenes populate 10GB peak memory and graphics cards like those are just to expensive to make sense. Also putting a €1000 GPU in a €1000 machine leaves you with 1x €2000 node, whereas it could also give you 2x €1000 CPU nodes. They can be working on multiple projects, or multiple subframes, and if one breaks only half of your capacity is lost.
However, I don't see people taking this road online, so I'm wondering if my way of thinking is wrong somehow. If so, can someone please point out where my reasoning is wrong. If not, what CPU is a valid choose for this (frame/€)?
What are good resources to find more info about this, specifically for CPU rendering nodes?


text:
NLA Editor: select specific NLA track in python
Is there an easy way to select a specific NLA Track with a python script?

Set the NLATrack.select property to true.
Sample script, selects all tracks, on context object, which have a name beginning with "Nla" The zeroth position track is set to active.
import bpy
from bpy import context

ob = context.object
ad = ob.animation_data
if ad:
    for i, track in enumerate(ad.nla_tracks):
        # select all whose name starts with "Nla"
        track.select = track.name.startswith("Nla")
        # make active track if in pos 0
        if track.select and not i:
            ad.nla_tracks.active = track

It gives me an error in the console "AttributeError: bpy_struct: attribute "active" from "NlaTrack" is read-only" regarding line 11. The whole reason I'm doing this is to separate different NLA tracks into separate objects, if you know an easier way than duplicating, removing animations, then re-adding, please let me know.

Whoops, fixed it.


text:
How to give only a part of an object a ring texture
I managed to give a ring texture to an object, but I only want to restrict that texture to a part of an object, as highlighted in the picture.
How can I do that? I tried to mix in some color ramps as factors, min/max settings in the coordinate mappings but couldn't get it to work.

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/516/add-different-materials-to-different-parts-of-a-mesh/

Since it seems you're designing a material for one specific object, why not just assign the faces of that one part to a different material that uses that texture?

Cheers, glad you got it worked out.

You can add a second material to the material slots of the object and then select all the vertices/faces you want to assign this material too in edit mode and hit the "assign" button in the materials property tab:


text:
Tears and triangles appear when I try to fill faces
I used the bevel after boolean addon, which ended up with the following. There were 1 or 2 faces which went along the entire loop, which didn't look right, so I deleted them and ended up with some holes:

To fill in these holes, I tried to select the edge loop and press Alt + F, then fixing the normals with Ctrl + N. But there are then tears and triangles appearing in the render:

How do I fill them in properly to avoid this from happening?
Here is the blend file if it helps.
Sorry if I'm missing something obvious, I'm quite new to blender.

@cegaton Sure I'm trying to create the base of a light bulb, which has a screw around. I managed this in the end but like you said the topology is awful. Do you know of a way without booleans?

You might want to try the "bridge edgeloops" feature. Select two edgeloops in edit mode, press 'w' to bring up the specials menu and 'e' to bridge edge loops. If the two edge loops have the same number of vertices, it will fill with quads. Otherwise it will fake it with triangles.

@cegaton Thanks! Will try that out next time.


text:
Is there a way to merge strokes in grease pencil?
I can't find a way to reliably merge two filled strokes on a grease pencil layer.

When I try to join two overlapping filled in strokes I get some pretty messed up results.

What I'd really like is some method to create a new filled in stroke like what I photoshopped below.

I've tried several different ways including closing the objects, dissolving certain vertices, trying to merge certain vertices, but will little luck. What am I missing? Does anyone know of a reliable means of doing this?

In Draw mode, the Cutter tool does exactly that.  You select at least 1 point using the Cutter tool, and it deletes all points until it reaches an intersecting stroke.  Only issue is sometimes it's hard to find a point because it's Draw mode, so you can't see the points (like you can in Edit mode).

Have you tried this? I've tried what you're saying and it doesn't seem to work.

What Blender version do you have?  Try it in Blender version 2.90, if you haven't.  I don't think the cutter tool worked well in 2.80 versions.

I'm using Blender 2.90.1. Do you think you could post a gif of you successfully doing this?


text:
Remove Taper from object
Somehow in my adventures of creating this thread, I tapered the whole object. Is there a way to straighten it out again? I can't find any solutions to this issue.
I am sure re-designing it would be faster, but I want to learn.

You can use proprtional editing or a lattice modifier. Here's a related (if not duplicate) question: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/92063/how-do-i-taper-a-cylindrical-object-in-blender.

@Carlo looks like the OP is looking for the opposite, to "straighten it out again", still this kind of can be done with Simple Deform > Taper (only tapering in the opposite way).

@MrZak I linked the question because it contained some possible solutions, despite the problem is (apparently) the opposite. BTW using simple deform modifier is probably the best solution for this task: quick to set up and non-distructive

Here's my approach showing how you can achieve it using the Cast Modifier (Cylinder) and shrink/flatten tool.

Add the Cast Modifier and set its mode to Cylinder. Set Factor and Radius values to 1.000. Apply modifier. Next enter the Edit Mode, select all the inner faces with Alt+RMB, then press Alt+S to scale them down. Finally in Object Mode press S,Shift+Z to scale the whole object fitting the original mesh's parameters.

I tried this method. It made a difference for sure (once i figured out where my origin point needed to be) but I still have a slight taper. 11.5mm at the bottom and 10.75mm at the top.

Using both methods, starting with the cast modifier followed by simple deform I was able to achieve my desired results. The cast modifier did 90% of the work, then I achieved the rest with the simple deform taper. I am now within .05mm between the top and bottom now.
Thank you all!!!!


text:
Lots of Junk Animation Sequences in my Blender File

Hi, I’m working on my first video game and I’m having issues organizing and deleting some animation sequences. I designed all the characters and assets in one Blender file and I’m exporting everything into Unity. As a beginner, I’m sure I made some mistakes along the way when doing the animations. In my Dope Sheet/Action Editor, there are a lot of animation sequences that I didn’t intend to create, some of which are for stationary assets. I think this is because I had the “automatic keyframe” button pressed during my regular workflow, even when I was not animating, although I’m not sure this is the sole reason. I tried to delete some of these sequences but I have been unable to figure it out. I read somewhere that the NLA editor allows you to delete animations but have had no luck. Further, it seems that many if not all the sequences are linked to multiple meshes. As a result, my Blender file is a bit of a jumbled mess of animations.
When I export my assets and characters to FBX files and import to Unity, they all bring a bunch of unrelated animations with them. Aside from that, several of the actual animations I need are not exporting with the FBX. For my main character, I designed 19 animations but 5 of them do not import in Unity, yet many of the “junk” sequences, mostly associated with other assets, do import with that character.
Not sure how big of a problem this will be moving forward but I would like to figure out what I did wrong and how to fix it. Also, if there are any good tutorials on proper animation workflow in Blender, I would appreciate it. I’ve seen a few but they deal mostly with small scale projects (one mesh/character). I’ll gladly share my files via email. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
-Brian

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/36129/can-not-delete-actions-in-action-editor-even-with-shift-x   https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/88188/can-not-delete-an-animation-action

Sometimes I find starting from an empty  file and appending to it from original a good way to clean the file.

@batFINGER thanks for your response. If I start from a new file, won't I have to redo all the animations? Because if I copy the armature, won't all the junk animations copy with it?


text:
Some animations not exporting with FBX
I’m having an issue where some of my animations are not exporting with my model/armature. I designed everything in Blender and I’m trying to export as FBX to import into Unity. For my main character I designed 19 animations. But for some reason, when I export as FBX, 6 of those animations disappear. The file is too big to upload here but I would gladly send via email (briankenny718@yahoo.com). Any help would be so greatly appreciated!

You may want to watch the first 8 minutes to know how the action editor and the NLA work.
In general the clips you are not seeing, are in "replace" mode or have not been stored correctly on the Action Editor with it´s corresponding user (but as a fake user), are not present on the graph editor and are not taken in account.

Thanks so much for your response, I'll look into this and let you know how it goes.

Hi all, here you can download the file: http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=51570

Yes, those missing animations had to be added in the NLA editor, by selecting the animation in the Action Editor, then clicking the button with the two down arrows in the NLA editor. Thanks so much for leading me to this discovery, I greatly appreciate it.

Linking to your video that is 30 minutes long and spends 5 minutes begging people to subscribe doesn't answer this question.

I guess you don't know what "first 8 minutes" mean? Whatever...

If anyone is coming across this problem still having issues, this blender ticket provided the answer for me. https://developer.blender.org/T54548
I had a number of different actions from my blender file not exporting. Those that did not export had what Philipp who answered the ticket refers to as "invalid paths". With the problem action selected in the action editor, I could see these invalid paths highlighted in red. Screenshotted is me mid-deletion clearing them out. Once the invalid paths were removed the action showed up in the output fbx file and I did not have to "push down" actions into the NLA editor.


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Character Hands Stuck During Animation
I'm having a problem with some of my animations. My character is an ape and I designed 19 animations. For two of them, sometimes my ape's hands get "stuck" in place, and the rest of the mesh contorts and distorts as it plays the animation. See screenshot - the left image is when it distorts, the right is when it plays correctly. Strangely, I'm able to fix this in Blender by switching back to certain other animations (not just any other animation - it only works with a few). Then when I switch back, the problem animations run correctly and the hands are no longer stuck in place. The big problem is - when I export my model and armature as FBX and import into Unity, those animations always play incorrectly with the hands stuck in place. I think this has to do with the IK bones (inverse kinematics) I applied to the hands at a certain point. But it's strange because this problem only applies to two animations out of 19. Any advice on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated. The file is too large to upload but I'll gladly send it via email (BrianKenny718@yahoo.com). Thanks!

maybe you have not created a pose for the hand at the beginning of the animation? You could share a file with only one animation and even only the armature.

Hi all, here you can download the Blender file:
http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=51569

You need to check 2 things: The keyframes of your IK controller bone, and the Influence value of the IK bone.

First enable the Only Include Channels Relating to Selected Objects button (arrow icon). It will allow you, in the Dopesheet, to only display the keyframes of the selected bones.
Now select the controller bone and switch from an action to another, you'll see that sometimes the controller doesn't have any keyframe at the beginning of the action, which means that, until the next keyframe, the controller will keep the position that it got at the end of the previous action, is it what you want?
Also, you'll see that for some animations you have keyframed the Influence value of the Ik bone, so for some animations it will be at 0 and the IK won't work anymore, and will remain off if you switch to another action that has no keyframe for this value, again if there is no new value keyframed at the beginning only the previous one from the previous animation will be taken into account. Again, is it what you want?

So to fix both these 2 problems you may need to create some keyframes at the beginning of the action: Keyframes for your controller and/or IK Influence value.

Yup, that did it. I was missing a lot of keyframes because I added the IK bones halfway through the animating process. So it was screwing up certain sequences. Thanks so much moonboots, I really appreciate your help on this!

I'm having one other problem with the animations, if you get a chance I'd appreciate some input on this.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/137011/glitch-on-first-frame-of-animation


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3 Circles Around 3D Cursor/Origin Point
What are these three circles around my 3D cursor/point of origin, and how do I disable them? They are definitely linked to my model because when I select the model the circles glow orange, when I deselect the circles go grey. When I hide the mesh the circles disappear. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

You've given your object a Physics > Force Field, just remove it:

No idea how that happened, but thank you. Much appreciated!


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How to keep a bone in place when posing/animating
I'm new to animating in Blender and trying to figure out how to keep a bone in place while posing for animation. My character is a monkey swinging vertically across a ledge of a wall. I want to keep the hand completely still, in place, while rotating the rest of the body from the arm. But every time I try, the hand moves along with the rest of the body. Is there some way to pin the hand in place during animation? Thanks in advance!

This is exactly the task IK was maden for: set an IK chain from the hand to the shoulder (and remember that you can animate the influence of the IK constraint, so you can use normal FK for the others portions of the sequence).

You were absolutely right and it worked like a charm. With a lot of studying, of course. So very grateful you took the time to respond. Thanks!


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How showing vertex paint in object mode blender 2.8
I want to show vertex paint in object mode in blender 2.80.

When in Solid Shading Mode, go to the config panel found in the top right corner of the viewport and for color select Vertex Colors where probably Material is currently selected

hi thank for you answer,when previously i used  in blender 2.79 ther was in blender render under material panel in option section vertex color paint option tick option available, where that option in blener2.80  once again thank you


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how to create cloth for animation?

The shirt entered human object. How to correct the problem

You can use 3 different ways:
1 - Hide the underlying body and pants vertices with a vertex group assigned to a mask modifier
2 - create a shape key with a driver so that when the bones bend in such an extreme pose the shirt gets bigger and doesn't cross the body anymore
3 - Weight paint the body and the shirt exactly in the same way (if the topology lets you do this)


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Blender 2.8 change font in VSE
there is much new features in the blender 2.8 beta> We've had text overlays in the VSE since 2.6. Does anyone have any new or current work arounds or official ways to get various fonts into the VSE?

2.8 now has font selection for the VSE and the change was backported to 2.7 branch as well.

There's the generic workaround where you make text in the 3d viewport, assign the font and settings, set the camera, and import it as a strip into the vse as a scene strip (then just assign as overdrop). It technically gives you the greatest possible control over your font, but it's cumbersome and we'd all rather just have the simple standard presets like other vse.
My other work arounds to date have been to create png overlays in inkscape and either save multiple formatted texts to a single png image (then transform and crop as necessary in the vse) or do 1 image per overlay and simply import into the vse and assign as an overdrop. Inkscape is quite nice when it comes to creating text since: you can scroll through the fonts dynamically and preview what they look like, you have an infinitely large workspace to see and micromanage things in, the text is made of vectors, you can apply linear and radial gradients as well as textures and specialized gradients, apply fill and stroke and gradients to those as well, and the best part is you can apply a myriad of confusing yet amazing preset filters to these and then change the font/size/style after the fact and have them update...cause these aren't raster images (Vectors are awesome!).
And the remaining work around was to use ffmpeg to render the text style/font from a subtitle file like a .ass file as png overlays. So technically if I created a .ass file or some other subtitle file with the fonts/styles and desired texts recorded, I could just render them all out as a series of transparent png text overlays with ffmpeg. This rendering process takes a long time though, but with blender we're used to planning for long renders anyways (planned renderhood).
ffmpeg -ss 00:17:11.88 -f lavfi -i "color=color=white@0.0:size=1920x1080,format=rgba,subtitles=subfile.ass:alpha=1" -frames:v 1 output.png

So you assign a time in the order of hours/minutes/seconds/milleseconds (17 hours 11 seconds 88 milleseconds) to match one of the times listed in the sub file. You change the size= to the desired resolution. And replace subfile.ass with the subfile you are using to do this. So you can cheat and use an existing subfile and just replace the texts with ur desired texts and go this route. And in this case it's shooting out a single transparent png image called output.png
If you want more information on any of these or pictures, I'll see what I can do.

I am not sure I have understood why we would need workaround in 2.8.
It seems super easy. In the text property strip, under effect strip where you type the text to display, just under it, there is a big "F" for Fonts.
Point to c:\Windows\Fonts\ (or anywhere else where you have fonts) to select the font you want.


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Grease Pencil in 2.8 can you link or reuse mouth shapes
I'm using Blender 2.8 Alpha and I was wondering if in Grease Pencil there's a way that you can use a link instead of coping drawings (shift+d) for mouth shapes in the dope sheet. So if I have 10 mouth shapes that cover the basic phonemes and I do an animation that uses those shapes I have to copy each shape in the GP dope sheet to the place I would like to use it. if I finish my animation and find I want to change one of the phonemes shapes I could change the original but I would have to find each occurrence of that shape in the dope sheet and replace it. It would be great if there was a way to only have to update the original. I didn't know if this is already in GP or not.

I'm trying to do the same thing. Would be great if Alt+D worked in the dope sheet

I found the answer to this problem in this video.
To summarize, create your mouth shapes on a separate layer, one shape per frame.
Then add a Time Offset modifier, set the mode to Fixed Frame and under Layer select your mouths layer.
To lipsync, you now can move around the timeline, select the appropriate mouth shape by changing the frame number in the Time Offset modifier and add a keyframe by pressing I over it.
And when you change a mouthshape it will update for the whole animation!
Also, changing the dope sheet from Grease Pencil to general will let you adjust the timing of the keyframes easily.

maybe you've already found the way, but just in case: If I understood it well, yes. You have to create the phonemes as a grease pencil object whit all shapes as a frames in a separate blend file. Link the mouth object via "file> link>object" in the destination file. place your instance and edit frame phoneme order as you want. Go back to the original file whenever you want to edit one of the phonemes. Save and the edited shapes would update.


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Blender live-action footage and Grease Pencil animation
I have a bit of live-action footage that I would like to incorporate into a scene done with Grease Pencil to. Think of a newscaster talking about something and the live-action video is in a smaller window on the screen. Where the newscaster and set are done in Grease Pencil and the video they're talking about is live-action. I've brought the live-action footage into the video sequencer and I will be editing the live-action footage with pauses. The live-action footage will not fill the screen. it will only take up about 25% of one part of the screen.
Is there a way to see the video from the video sequencer in the Grease Pencil view? It would be helpful to be able to see the video sequencer video while working on the character in Grease Pencil.
If not, is there a workflow that would help with this?
Thanks,
Jim

you can import images as planes and select a video in order to add a video in your scene and not just in the background

Related: How to easily draw a grease pencil image on top of an image

The grease pencil works only in the 3D viewport, you can't use it on the VSE or in the Movie Clip Editor.
Here are a couple of options:
1. Use video as background for the camera. Select the camera object and, in the camera option tab, check Background image -> Add image -> Movie, then select your video file there.
This way you will see the video through the camera view (Numpad 0 ).

Note that the background image will not render unless you use it in the compositor, and mix your render layer using Alpha over.
Make sure that Film is set to transparent and the view transform for color management is set to Standard.

Change the resolution in the Output tab for the project so that it matches the dimensions, and the frame rate of the original video. Also remember to render at 100% of the resolution.

2. Alternatively, use the video as texture on the world.
Set the color to use the image texture, and select the video there. Set the vector coordinates to Window. and the extrapolation to Clip
In this case you need to disable the film transparent settings to make the background renderable. No need to use the compositor in this case.
To view the background enable Scene World and Scene Lights

I can't find any way to add a VSE sequence as a movie clip, though --- while there's a drop-down of existing movie clips, I haven't found out how to get my VSE sequence to show up there. Do I need to name the sequence somehow? If so, how?


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Why is my subsurf modifier is shown differently in render?
I've been working with Blender for one week only, after working with Maya so everything is new for me.
I tried to put a modifier on my object and I saw that it is shown differently in the viewport and render.

can I somehow fix this?

Usually this happens because of difference in Subsurf modifier levels but it appears to not be the case according to the modifier stack. Is the object seen in preview the one actually rendered? (are there any hidden objects in viewport?) If possible upload your file here http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ and [edit] the question with link

it is was a hidden object that I hid in case everything goes wrong and forgot about it. Thanks for reminding me.

@ATopHat you can add an answer yourself, to explain what was causing that, so that the question will result answered (you can also accept it after a short delay, iirc)


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Sketchup to Unreal Engine, overlapping issue
What i wanna do is import my sketchup's projects to unreal engine, but when i do this, the lightmap UV are overlapping. In an another site they told me to import the projects into Blender using the exported .DAE format, edit UV and export as FBX format. But i don't know how to edit the UV.. Is there a tutorial or something similar who can help me?

this site is a Q&A support, a tutorial request is offtopic... If you search the internet, there are so many different tutorials... come back here if you have troubles following some of them, with specific issues (one per post)

First - You can set object to dynamic in UE and forgot about lightmap UV
Second - If you need only static Meshes:
a) check which channel using in UE - usually 1, 0 for material (but it customizable);
b) repair this channel in Blender (because this site is dedicated for it):
b1) delete uv info from this and create smart uv project (in most case it's enough), or you can do it manually: tons of info here
keep in mind that light UV need to UE for applying shading texture after baking


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Image to walls of maze

I want to add an image file to the maze created but i am unable to find the color option to make the edit.

open up the "Diffuse" section over on the right. To change the color, but to add a texture go to the texture tab.

If i understood the question 1st think notice is that your in Blender Game
If you want to color
Go to the Material Tab -> click on Diffuse below

Change the color as per needed
If you want to apply textures
Click the texture tab -> click New

Select below Image / movie option and below that select open and access the image.

Open the node editor and create an image texture node. Open the image file, and then attach the image color to the color socket of your Material.001 Diffuse BSDF shader. You may have to do a UV unwrap to get the desired placement.


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Can we skip some pre-defined Frames while rendering, to prevent blender from re-rednering the same scene?
I am an animator on blender and i want to know that Can we skip some per-defined Frames while rendering, to prevent blender from re-rendering the same scene?
Because while rendering there are scenes in which camera stops for a while and all of the objects are stopped and only audio is playing in the back. So for that period let say camera and objects stops for 4- 5 seconds which means at 24Fps 120 Frames will be re-rendered again and again although they are ditto same. Is there any feature in blender 2.81 version else i will have to manually skip them which is a time taking task.

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/108562/how-to-list-the-frame-numbers-which-contain-keyframes-in-python

If your output is set to be .png images (which is recommended) you can change the duration of any frame of your choice in the video editor. If you want your output to be video you can set the Frame Start and End in the Scene Tab, render the first sequence, then the frame where you want to stop, and for last render the rest of the animation. after that, you would put everything together in the video editor.

I couldnt clearly understand. How can i change the duration of any frame? Its a single frame thats it.
2ndly if i manually start and stop in whole animation then it will waste a lot of my time. Isnt there any automated method?


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How to mix two colours randomly in a texture?
I m modeling this glasses and i want the texture exactly like this. Blue and Black mix glossy type finish.
I have tried mixing two colors using MixRGB nodes but i don't mix randomly it mixes evenly.
So how can i get a finish like this? Blue and Black mixtures of colors?

Are you talking about the front part, or the lighter blue visible on left?

I don't think it's random. This is a dark transparent material and that's why the thicker parts are black.


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Blender 2.91.0 choppy model in viewport when using perspective view?
I have a problem.
In my viewport, model shows as choppy broken model when I m in perspective view. When I change to orthographic view, it shows fine.
Here is the comparison.
But in rendering view, both perspectives are rendered fine.
Is this a bug or anything wrong in my settings?

That appears to be z-fighting. Please read these related posts as well: Why Faces eat each other? and How do I avoid rendering glitches from overlapping faces?

This do not happens while rendering, it only happens in viewport and in prespective view. Orthographic view is fine.
I understand when two faces overlap then this happens but in my case, the area that is not everlapped also shows wierd in viewport. but rendering is fine

If the linked questions do not solve your problem, then please [edit] your question and explain how. "Closed" does not mean cannot be reopened, you may add a copy of the project file or anything else you feel that is needed to help explain. From the image in your question now, it appears to be overlapping faces, likely a duplicate of the shoe object which would cause the z-fighting.


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Horizontal only texture blur?
I have a texture image that I wanted to place on the outside of an object (boolean intersection between spherical shell and angular wedge).  Unfortunately, when I do this, I get blurring only in the horizontal direction and nothing in the vertical direction.  It is possible this could be from a UV mapping issue.  I am very new to this and thought that I had UV kind of figured out but I could be wrong.  Here is an image of the poor result:

I have tried to use the information contained in the following post:
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/10544/48234
The following are my shader setups for the ring:
Full Shader

Just Image Blur Node

As an aside, for some reason, the image blurring fails to work at all when I pack the image.  Any help on that would be great as well.  Below are the blend file and the necessary image.

Edit
After I used the pack all to blend file from the 'File' menu, I think the images got correctly packed so that the blurring still works, but it is still incorrect.  The updated blend file is below:

The problem is mostly a result of aspect ratio of the zodiac image - ie, being much wider than it is tall.
Image Texture coordinates run from 0.0 - 1.0 in both the horizontal and vertical direction, regardless of the actual resolution of the image. Since the 'blur' acts on these image texture coordinates this means that the effect of the blur in one direction is much more pronounced than that in the other direction. To address this, you need to scale the texture coordinates before the 'blur' (in this case by a factor of 12) and 'un-scale' them after. This can be easily achieved by using Mapping nodes with the X-scale set to '12' and '1/12' respectively.

I also simplified the blur node as the original seemed to also introduce an offset.

This produces the following result :

Note that for this I also changed your mesh lights into Area Lamps. These produce better lighting and allow the number of samples to be considerably reduced with the same resultant quality.

Thanks for the pointers.  I knew this had to do with the UV mapping somehow.  As an aside, you stated that you changed the mesh lights to area lamps.  I was under the impression based on some reading that cycles required mesh lighting because they had an extent.  Is this not true?  Should I be using area lamps and standard lighting objects when using cycles?  I could make this its own thread, but just looking for a quick short answer.

@JustaceClutter Cycles doesn’t require mesh light but they are useful in some situations - such as for ease of use or where the lamp needs to be a specific shape (eg, a spiral element in a light bulb). However, for square/rectangular uniform lights the area lamp will almost always be better than a mesh light as the renderer can optimise it and take shortcuts when determining the path to the lamp rather than having to trace all rays directly back to the surface. Generally you’ll get less noise and  need fewer samples when using lamps rather than mesh lights (imo).


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Interior Vertexes and Faces Post Boolean
I am attempting to model a screw so that I can 3d print them if my son looses them.  I thought this would be a good time for me to play with the new blender 2.80. (why do people keep calling this Blender 2.8?)  I have modeled all of the cylinders and the Philips cavity into one part (I used bools to merge all of this but always check for clean results) and then the screw threads in a separate object.  Both of these objects (named "Screw" for the cylindrical post and "Threads" for the threads) are manifold and look good from a geometry point of view.  When I try to do a boolean union between the two, I get a lot of internal faces and manifold problems.  I have two clean meshes here which I thought would play nicely with the boolean operations.

I obviously need to have a clean mesh to support the printing efforts.  I have attached the blend file here for easy checking.  Any pointers?
As an aside, I typically avoid using booleans but it seemed in this case that would be the easier approach.

Answer: Stop trying to use booleans so much...
I moved away from using the boolean operators for the heavy lifting and instead used a curve with a screw modifier as the base and then began to manually build the rest of the object by hand.  I was careful to check for non-manifold elements along the way.  The hex head top was added with a boolean however.
I think it came out quite nice.
That being said, there are a few things that look as though they could be improved.
I have attached the final blend file for those who are curious.


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Moving linked groups to another file
Anybody knows how to move linked groups to another files keeping it linked?
If i am appending the scene to another file all linked groups became a real objects which increased size of the scene dramatically!

weird, I've tried and it kept the linked groups

When appending, uncheck "Localize All" in the lower left hand corner of the screen.

No worries. Please click the check mark next to this answer to mark this question as answered.


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Having Troubles with a Python Script
I've used this script before and had no problem but now when I try and run it I either get unsupported audio format or file not found.
import bpy

#Iterate through however many bars you want
for i in range(0, 64):
    #Add a plane and set it's origin to one of its edges
    bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_plane_add(location = ((i + (i*0.5)), 0, 0))
    bpy.context.scene.cursor_location = bpy.context.active_object.location
    bpy.context.scene.cursor_location.y -= 1
    bpy.ops.object.origin_set(type='ORIGIN_CURSOR')

    #Scale the plane on the x and y axis, then apply the transformation
    bpy.context.active_object.scale.x = 0.5
    bpy.context.active_object.scale.y = 20
    bpy.ops.object.transform_apply(location=False, rotation=False, scale=True)

    #Insert a scaling keyframe and lock the x and z axis
    bpy.ops.anim.keyframe_insert_menu(type='Scaling')
    bpy.context.active_object.animation_data.action.fcurves[0].lock = True
    bpy.context.active_object.animation_data.action.fcurves[2].lock = True

    #Set the window context to the graph editor
    bpy.context.area.type = 'GRAPH_EDITOR'

    #Expression to determine the frequency range of the bars
    l = i**2 + 20
    h = (i+1)**2 + 20

    print(str(i) + ' ' + str(l) + ' ' + str(h))

    #Bake that range of frequencies to the current plane (along the y axis)
    bpy.ops.graph.sound_bake(filepath=r'/home/tyrone/Downloads/BAD BAWI.wav', low = (l), high = (h))

    #Lock the y axis
    bpy.context.active_object.animation_data.action.fcurves[1].lock = True

This is the script I'm trying to run in ubuntu but the only difference is the file path, and also the only problem I seem to be having. Other then possibly not having ffmpeg working with blender properly in Ubuntu.

I've tried your script and works for me!
I'm on ubuntu as well, maybe see if libwavpack1 is installed?


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Blender rendering makes my pc randomly die and restart
Blender has suddenly decided that it is going to randomly kill the power to my pc whenever I render something. I have always been running my renders in Cycles Render and no problem no matter how long or what the quality (Samples) are. I can leave Blender open and model for hours on end... no problem. I can run various programs like the Adobe Master Suite for hours on end... no problem. But when I render in Blender, my power crashes. My motherboard is new, ram is new, graphics card is working perfectly fine, I have 4 hard drives that I reinstalled windows on and installed the latest Blender on... problem never goes away when I am rendering in Blender. I have also done the obvious super clean/vacuuming and done it with anti-static cloths, grounded the case, etc etc etc
Anyone have any idea what could be going on?

Sorry didn't quite understand, did you mention you made a pc upgrade to your motherboard RAM and graphics card? Did the cashes start happening only after the upgrade?
If it's crashing your whole computer it is likely a hardware problem, and not Blender related, though it is hard to say.
Rendering is a pretty demanding task that taxes your computer hardware, it may be overheating, or your power source may be insufficient for all your hardware and that is only revealed on heavy tasks,hard to tell this way.
Have you tried using some sort of hardware or system monitor with logging capabilities while rendering? Maybe it provides some insight into what is happening.

Before I changed the ram. It was working fine before with all the hardware and just suddenly changed to killing the power. I have a 650W power supply that is also relatively new. I am usually only running one hard drive, the mother board and graphics card, the two dvd drives are plugged in but never operating while I render something and I have the obvious mouse and generic keyboard. Sometimes I have a usb external plugged in. I will download a temperature monitoring program and see what it says

Downloaded CoreTemp. Yip. Bugger is overheating (+-80-82degC)

Will a fresh blob of heating paste on the processor chip help?

You mean thermal paste? It might help if overheating CPU is the problem, if that's not the issue then no. Are you rendering with CPU or GPU? Monitor your system and check temperatures, also check if your new RAM has the correct speed set in the BIOS or UEFI BIOS matching the advertised speed.

Maybe something like HWInfo can help http://www.hwinfo.com/ . It has logging capabilities and doesn't require formal installation, so it won't pollute your system

Its rendering on the CPU. Dangit. I always set it to GPU but it's not allowing me to change it now. Is there a checkbox that I missed that will allow me to change it to GPU?

Sorry didn't catch your second message. Thermal paste might help but it's no miracle solution. If it is indeed overheating either try improving your computer case ventilation (make a few extra wholes, check your fans and airflow; or consider buying a better third party cooler for your CPU.

The processor temps were 80-82deg C when it shut off each time

Is your new graphics card compatible with GPU rendering, is it an NVidia or AMD? If it is compatible then you should go to Blender User Preferences>System>Computing Device on the bottom left and turn on CUDA and see if your card is listed below. If not check you have the latest drivers installed

Duarte: It's set on CPU rendering where I always put it to GPU, but it's not allowing me to use GPU. Is there a checkbox I missed that will allow me to set it to GPU rendering?

That's where I go but it wont let me change it

I always had CUDA but it's not there now

What is the brand and model of your new graphics card?

Graphics card is the same one I have always had. No change there. ASUS ENGTS450

Strange. Check your drivers, install latest stable version and restart computer. Then restart Blender and check CUDA can be enabled and if the card is present.

Will do that now

If I were in you I would first test the ram.
To do it easily you can download Ubuntu and put it on USB memory stick, and reboot. You'll see a menu where you can select memtest, let it run for several time, sometimes the problem it's not in the first chunks of memory.
Secondly try with a different OS (like ubuntu) to exclude it's a driver problem with the graphic card.
I bet it's one of these two things.
Also you did not mention if it happens right after you press render or after a while you are rendering. Does it happens with CPU rendering as well?
If you have a very complex scene and you exhaust the memory on the graphic card it may reboot the whole pc or just freeze. Does it happens also rendering just the default cube? Does it happens also if you play games?

I flagged this question as out of scope as it is about hardware and not Blender.

If your computer restarts in the middle of a render (Cycles or Evee). It is most probably because your hardware(RAM/VRAM) is insufficient for the scene.
SOLUTION: Go to (render settings > simplify) and lower the subdivisions, child particles, and texture resolution. The texture resolution is the most probable culprit and should be lowered to less than 2K if your VRAM is/ below 8GB.
Another solution is rendering your scene on the CPU altogether only if your RAM is alot(above 32GB).


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Script to remove submesh in all objects by material name?
I wonder if it would be possible to write a python script that could remove all vertices across all objects that are part of the same material. There are 250+ objects and I need to remove all mesh data from the body, leaving just the armour. I would then need to unlink this material from the object.

The script will loop through the selected objects and through their  verts/edges/faces to remove the ones assigned to a specific material and delete them :

select all the objects
select the material (in material slots )
run the script

import bpy
import bmesh

mat_name = bpy.context.object.active_material.name

for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects :
    bpy.context.scene.objects.active = obj
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
    obj = bpy.context.edit_object
    me = obj.data
    bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(me)

    mat_id = bpy.context.object.material_slots.find(mat_name)

    for v in bm.verts:
        delete = True
        for f in v.link_faces :
            if f.material_index != mat_id :
                delete = False
        if delete :
            bm.verts.remove(v)

    for e in bm.edges:
        delete = True
        for f in e.link_faces :
            if f.material_index != mat_id :
                delete = False
        if delete :
            bm.edges.remove(e)

    for f in bm.faces:
        if f.material_index == mat_id :
            bm.faces.remove(f)

    bmesh.update_edit_mesh(me, True)
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')

Worked like a charm, thanks! I just created a whole new race for the game I'm working on!


text:
How to perform Mesh/Sort Elements for objects through Python?
I've many objects that i need to Sort its faces with the same criteria(As example according to VIEW Z Axis.
I do iterate through selected objects through:
import bpy
for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
bpy.context.scene.objects.active = obj

but haven't succeeded performing the view dependant part.

Are you trying to do this without using bpy.ops?

No i don't, my question is all about the _bpy.ops.._part.

It will have to be written as an operator, so it can be run in the 3D viewport, else it will error(won't have a view to work with).

The answer is in your picture. I modified the Simple Operator template:
import bpy

def main(context):
    for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
        if obj.type == 'MESH': #make sure its a mesh
            context.scene.objects.active = obj
            bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
            bpy.ops.mesh.sort_elements(type='VIEW_ZAXIS') #this is what you're looking for
            bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')

class SimpleOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "object.simple_operator"
    bl_label = "Simple Object Operator"

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return context.active_object is not None

    def execute(self, context):
        main(context)
        return {'FINISHED'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(SimpleOperator)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(SimpleOperator)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

Press spacebar in 3D viewport and type Simple Operator in the text field.

Just added (bpy.) at the beginning of the first line under (if obj.type...) Worked perfectly, seems my problem that i was trying to run the script from the text editor, while it must run through the view itself.Thanks a lot


text:
Applying Location Moves Object Origin to World Origin
I'm having an issue with blender 2.76 where every time that I apply location, it moves the origin of the object to the world origin. I looked around for some answers and the only one I found suggested that I accidentally applied a key-frame, however I checked and no key-frames were to be found. Any ideas on what could be causing this?

What are you expecting to see when you apply the location?

Maybe you made a confusion with the 'Clear Location' ?

This behavior is exactly what "apply location" is supposed to do.  Maybe you need a new question that explains the behavior you want and asks what workflow will accomplish it.

There is an option in 2.83 solving your issue, but no idea if it's in 2.76. The option is in the same menu that contains Apply Location. I throw empathy your way as it doesn't make sense that 'applying' a new location 'resets' it to the world origin.
The option you are looking for is Location to Deltas. This actually applies the location back to null values to wherever it resides, so no "offset" transfers over to whatever you want to do with it.


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Applying compositor elements to environment mapping
I am making an environment map to use for making a skybox in Unity 5. I know how to but what I am trying to do is apply a gaussian blur to it in the compositor to apply to the environment map image. My compositor setting will apply to the rendered camera image but not the environment map image. My question is how do I apply compositor elements to the rendered environment map image.
And before anyone suggests it, I have already tried applying this after the fact in GIMP and it doesn't work well and shows seams. Trying to do this in Blender to get rid of them.
Thanks for reading :) .

Could you make a sphere with the projected image inside, then blur the material properties of that sphere? See here http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/9394/how-to-blur-a-texture-node-in-cycles-material

authors: Филипп Бондарев


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Creating a smooth surface from huge number of vertices
I have a .ply file which contains coordinates of vertices. I've been trying to create a smooth surface which should look something like this.

How can I create such a surface? Is there a efficient way to make it fast and automatized? I have lot of .ply which I need model and I wasn't able to create a single one on my own.

Can you post an example file to experiment with?

Just click on the .PLY and you will be directed to a file.

A solution is to use meshlab to generate a surface then import the stl into blender. This is how the image below was generated from the .ply file.

Detailed Steps

Open Meshlab (get from http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/ )
Import the .ply file (File>Import Mesh ...)
Select all points ( Filers>Selection>Select all )
Compute normal ( Filters>Normals, Curvature, and Orientation> Compute normal for point set)
Create a surfaces ( Filters>Remeshing, Simplification, and Reconstruction>Surface Reconstruction: Poisson )
Export Mesh as an .stl file ( File>Export Mesh... )
Import the .stl into Blender.

You should be able to automate the meshlab step using scripts. See http://www.andrewhazelden.com/blog/2012/04/automate-your-meshlab-workflow-with-mlx-filter-scripts/ .
 You can automate the process from within Blender using Python to call the meshlab scripts.

A tutorial on this is at http://fabacademy.org/archives/2014/tutorials/pointcloudToSTL.html

Before I tried Blender I used Meshlab. When I created a surface in Meshlab it connected places which shoul not be. See the pic bellow
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B92Nk-QHod5xSjRlUG1LZGtfbm8/view?usp=sharing
The sides of this model should be empty and the wholy body is hollow.

Is there structure to the point clouds that would simplify working with them? For example are all of the clouds tubes with hollow interiors? Are all of the clouds the same length? 2) Can you preprocess the point clouds to add points, then use an operation like a cut to remove he end caps?

All the models which I need to make have hollow interiors They are not the same length and have different shapes and the rest of those .ply files contain much more vertices. This one which I supplied has about 15k vertices. Other files have about 50k. I cant add points but it is OK to just cut off the end caps.


text:
Text animation (shape ramp)
Can blender using a text shape ramp effect as in the after effects ? how if using a blender ?

You can use a curve modifier applied to your text object though it will distort the text shape along the curve slightly. Not sure if that is the effect you are going for or not


text:
Adding a toggle option to save dialog
I'm trying to solve the slow saving to network drives in Blender.
The reason it's so slow is the way Blender handles saving internally.
I found a solution that works by saving the file to a proxy location (temp dir) and then moving it to the network directory.
I'd like to add a checkbox to the save file dialog and the save & load preferences panels, just like the compression option.
I can't seem to find how to implement these toggle buttons on that location in 2.80
I thought I could find the buttons at bpy.context.preferences. but they don't seem to be there.
Can someone add an example of the code to add a toggle to these panels?
The gist of the code is this:
def execute(self, context):
    outname = bpy.path.basename(bpy.data.filepath)
    outpath = os.path.dirname( bpy.path.abspath( bpy.context.preferences.filepaths.temporary_directory ) )
    outpath_final = os.path.dirname(bpy.path.abspath(bpy.data.filepath))
    print(os.path.join(outpath, outname))
    report = bpy.ops.wm.save_as_mainfile(filepath=os.path.join(outpath, outname),
                check_existing=True, copy=True)

    # os.rename(os.path.join(outpath, outname), os.path.join(outpath_final, outname)) # Does not work accross devices
    shutil.move(os.path.join(outpath, outname), os.path.join(outpath_final, outname))
    return report

Go to the location you want to add them in the UI, right-click and choose Edit Source


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Blender 2.82 does not appear to be using GPU
We're running a headless renderserver (Threadripper 1950x + 2x RADEON VII + 128GB RAM). It's running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and has blender 2.82, 2.80 and 2.79 installed.
In 2.82 we're seeing the CPU being utilized 100% for the complete duration of the render. I'm struggling to find out why.
OUR SETUP
In our setup, our designers can press an 'upload' button in a Blender addon, this copies the file to the render server. They can than specify in browser whether or not they want to use GPU or CPU. In case of CPU, Cycles is running in CPU mode on the threadripper. In case of GPU, both RADEON VII's are selected and Cycles runs in GPU/OPENCL mode.
this used to work great. As we could also schedule 2 renders at the same time (one on the CPU, and one on the GPU). If the scene was to big to fit in GPU memory, there is an automatic failover that makes it use CPU (non OPENCL) instead.
CURRENT PROBLEM
When uploading a file made with blender 2.82 we still select 'GPU' in our browser. It detects that we're using 2.82 and starts executing the following script:
echo "2.82 running"
echo "renderType: $renderType"
/app/blender2_82/blender --background "$INPUT_DIR$filename" --python "/app/renderer/$renderType.py" --python "$borderScript"

In this:

the $renderType comes from the information provided by our webclient (it equals GPU)
$INPUT_DIR$filename refers to the correct path
$renderType.py specifies a scripts that fixes the right rendertype and devices (so it actually loads  the GPU.py script (see below)
$borderScript is able to change whether or not the entire frame is rendered and is created automatically by our system (see below)

The GPU.py script:
import bpy
from bpy import data as D
from bpy import context as C
from mathutils import *
from math import *

print("GPU SCRIPT EXECUTED")

for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
    scene.render.tile_x = 256
    scene.render.tile_y = 256
    scene.render.engine = 'CYCLES'
    scene.cycles.tile_order = 'CENTER'
    scene.cycles.device = 'GPU'
    print("engine: " + scene.render.engine)
    print("device: " + scene.cycles.device)

print("Compute device type: " + bpy.context.preferences.addons['cycles'].preferences.compute_device_type)
print("Compute device type: " + bpy.context.preferences.addons['cycles'].preferences.compute_device_type)
print("DEVICE USAGE: ")
for device in bpy.context.preferences.addons['cycles'].preferences.devices:
   print("  - " + device.name + " : " + str(device.use))

the borderscript:
import bpy
#bpy.context.scene.render.border_min_x = 0
#bpy.context.scene.render.border_max_x = 1
#bpy.context.scene.render.border_min_y = 0
#bpy.context.scene.render.border_max_y = 1
#bpy.context.scene.render.use_border = True

#print("BORDER SCRIPT EXECUTED")

def add_subframe_to_fo_path(scene):
  scene.node_tree.nodes['File Output'].base_path = str('/app/output/') + 'Job' + str('01305') + '-' + str('D1022_Londerzeel_EXT2.blend.2020.07.27-10.48.59') + '/parts'
  #for file_slot in scene.node_tree.nodes['File Output']:
  #  file_slot.path=file_slot.path + '_Job' + str('01305') + '_Task' + str('1374')

for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
  bpy.app.handlers.render_pre.append(add_subframe_to_fo_path(scene))

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

I know both scripts are executed by the logs and the fact that it actually starts rendering:
2.82 running
renderType: GPU
Blender 2.82 (sub 7) (hash 375c7dc4caf4 built 2020-03-12 05:30:40)
Read prefs: /home/charmeleon/.config/blender/2.82/config/userpref.blend
found bundled python: /app/blender2_82/2.82/python
Read blend: /app/ingested/D1022_Londerzeel_EXT2.blend.2020.07.27-10.48.59
GPU SCRIPT EXECUTED
engine: CYCLES
device: GPU
Compute device type: OPENCL
Compute device type: OPENCL
DEVICE USAGE:
  - AMD Radeon VII : True
  - AMD Radeon VII : True
  - AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X 16-Core Processor : False

It even loaded the kernel changes for OpenCL rendering:
Fra:8 Mem:10586.62M (0.00M, Peak 13052.30M) | Time:00:50.82 | Mem:4862.77M, Peak:4909.48M | Scene, View Layer | Updating Device | Writing constant memory
Fra:8 Mem:10586.62M (0.00M, Peak 13052.30M) | Time:00:50.82 | Mem:4862.77M, Peak:4909.48M | Scene, View Layer | Updating Device | Writing constant memory | Compiling render kernels
Fra:8 Mem:10586.62M (0.00M, Peak 13052.30M) | Time:00:50.82 | Mem:4862.77M, Peak:4909.48M | Scene, View Layer | Updating Device | Writing constant memory
Fra:8 Mem:10621.82M (0.00M, Peak 13052.30M) | Time:00:50.82 | Mem:4862.77M, Peak:4909.48M | Scene, View Layer | Rendered 0/150 Tiles, Denoised 0 tiles

Yet my processor is completely pegged and my GPU fans aren't even spinning.

Some addendums:

Due to the fact that GPU uses 256 tiles, that the CPU is pegged and that we can start a parrallel job on the CPU we've got a performance that less than 25% of what we had when using 2.80 or 2.79.

Our Radeon VII's have 16GB of graphical memory, so below any of the memory readouts in the logs. I used to think our scenes were just to big and it started 'swapping' to system memory, but that does not appear to be the case.

I can only tell you how I have it running on our slurm cluster with CUDA, but the script also seems to support OpenCL.The GPU.py script seems fundamentally different from yours.
./blender \
        -b "[blendfile]" \
        -o "./video/frame#######" \
        -P ../../../gpu.py \
        -s [startframe] \
        -j [frame jumps, to render with multiple thread] \
        -a

gpu.py
import bpy

def enable_gpus(device_type):
    preferences = bpy.context.preferences
    cycles_preferences = preferences.addons["cycles"].preferences
    cuda_devices, opencl_devices = cycles_preferences.get_devices()

    if device_type == "CUDA":
        devices = cuda_devices
    elif device_type == "OPENCL":
        devices = opencl_devices
    else:
        raise RuntimeError("Unsupported device type")

    activated_gpus = []

    for device in devices:
        if device.type == "CPU":
            device.use = False
        else:
            device.use = True
            activated_gpus.append(device.name)

    cycles_preferences.compute_device_type = device_type
    bpy.context.scene.cycles.device = "GPU"

    return activated_gpus

enable_gpus("CUDA")


text:
Microdisplacement "on" in the middle of a large project
What would be the effects of enabling microdisplacement in a large project that is already exists - and using it for new mesh items that are added/adjusted/replaced?

Please describe in more detail how the existing scene is setup, and how you intend to use the microdisplacement. In general it should allow you to reduce usage of subdiv modifiers in favour of letting the renderer sort it out. This may lead to memory reductions when rendering and easier viewport navigation, but without knowing how subdivision is used in the scene it is hard to say.

the above scene is pushing 32mil verts - and makes it hard to work with.  Some of the mesh was made with using a displacement modifier - but then i applied it - so the mesh is "final" (guess will not help with those.

What I would like to do is add in/replace some of the structures and using (better efficient I believe) mesh with subdivision modifier and the microdisplacement - but my question is will the scene still work?  or do you need to start a microdisplacement mesh from the very start?   (in the above example the yellow/gold are oligodendrocytes - a brain cell - but in my scene they are way to dense with vertex count, I was going to remesh them and then use subdivision modifier and the microdisplacement. (I am sorta new to blender and sometimes I am not even positive what I am trying to ask - thanks!

I haven't played around too much myself with microdisplacement, but it sound like what you want to do should work. You will want to make sure you also have adaptive subdivision set to get the best performance. You may still want some of the displacement to come from the displace modifier though, this will require a bit of testing to see what works best.
With remeshing, you may instead want to look at the unsubivide setting on the decimate modifier if the scene was created with applied subdivision modifiers, you will end up with better topology for subdivision.
If viewport performance is the main consideration, you may also want to take a look at the simplify settings under scene properties. It give you the option to control the maximum viewport subdivision for all subdivision modifiers.

Thanks - all great ideas.   The viewport is sluggish at the 32mil verts for sure (but wireframe and bounding box help).   I did the remesh by hand with a shrinkwrap mod as the decimate modifier was giving me weird results.   Thanks much for the help.  I started working on the adjustments and all seems ok so far!


text:
Combining different meshes, and UV's of a character?
i am new to the site, so please bear with me.
I have created a character for a game (game built in UE4). The character is already rigged and works in the engine, however the character i made is composed of different meshes (arms, legs), each with its own UV map and texture. This is a problem because the game engine treats the entire character as a single mesh, and i can only apply a single texture to the mesh. Is there any way of baking the textures already applied? or is there some other solution to dealing with this problem?

You can tile the individual textures inside one file by using GIMP or similar and scale the UVs in Blender, because they are relative to the image size. If you have only a few meshes, this is done rather quickly.
Baking all textures together will be a problem if the UVs overlap.


text:
Help with achieving the "Opposition Effect" in cycles
I'm trying to simulate this effect in cycles with materials

This phenomena is called "Opposition Surge/effect", and is a result of the phase angle between a light source (sun) and the observer approaches zero. The effect is mostly seen on rough surfaces, as the shadows of said surface disappear when the observer is directly between the surface and the light source
This is something I've been trying to simulate in cycles with materials. Now this effect should in theory be achieved simply by creating rough physical geometry, however, it is not very practical for large scale scenes as the physical geometry takes up a lot of memory. Can anyone think of a way to simulate this effect within a material?

The opposition effect and image uniformity are a direct outcome of a single sunlight scattering by the object surface, and there is no need of further assumptions or models to justify it. http://urila.tripod.com/Poster-17-02-20.pdf References therin.

You can create dense geometry only where needed with Adaptive Subdivision and displacement in Blender. It's still an experimental feature, but seems to work quite well.

I've experimented with this as well, the only issue with this method is that it wouldn't  work when the camera far away from said surface, for instance - asteroids and planetary bodies still exhibit this effect when seen from large distances away because their surfaces don't change depending on distance, hence why i was looking for a material solution

Or you can create gravel with a particle system or use linked duplicates.


text:
Where is the Render animation default save?
I just ended a render and I can't find the file.
I don't choose any folder/location for saving it, I just rendered with the default presets.
Now there is a thing. I opened ANOTHER blender file and start to render too. Do you think the file overwrite?
Please help :(

The default directory (if you dindn't touch your starting file) should be your temporary directory, but its exact location depends on your OS. Just open a new file and look at the output panel. Regarding the name, if the frame count it's the same for both animations, there is a chance it has been overwrited, or well... "they" have been overwrited..because by default the output file format is PNG, so you should look for frames (0001.png, 0002.png, 0003.png...).

They should try to save to the same folder by default, and Overwrite is enabled by default. You will need to re-render some frames at least, potentially all of one of them.

You have of to check the output tab to select the path where you want your animation to be saved.

for OPENGL renders:
first off C:\tmp for win7 with 2.78 That's where mine was.
second you can press
control+F11
to play the animation and it(the directory) should display at the top.
For non OPENGL:
select the camera
goto properties > Render(should be the first tab > Output
The pythonic way:
 import bpy
 x=bpy.data.scenes["Scene"].render.filepath
 print(x)


text:
How to fix a odd shift key glitch
This may be a little odd, but everytime I'm on blender, and try to model, I move around the scene, like doing shift f to move, blender does something that it thinks I'm pressing the shift key, or something similar or related like. Quick thing that blender does is everytime I select a individual object, but a select a different object, it selects both of them and I didn't press the shift key. Hopefully I could get some sort of help

This seems like it might be an issue with your keyboard. Have you had this with any other programs on your computer?

I might check my keyboard, but no, this bug only happens on blender and not any other progams

Just to add to that comment, the glitch only happens when I do Shift + (Random Key)

just go into user preferences and change shift key to something else or get a new keyboard.

Could you elaborate somewhat on part one of your answer?

Showing works better than telling usually :)


text:
Blender Game cell shading
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss04Dx93Qn0&index=1&list=LLq1KLPD4FszVI0eoW6XFUKw&t=0s
I was following the tutorial above as I am trying to make a Anime style character, After completing the cell shaded cube I tried it on my character and when duplicating the character when I try to scale it up it scales it upwards as appose to every direction.
s
Is there a way to do this? p.s I am new to blender.

In the screenshot you are scaling the object in every direction uniformly already. Notice the fingertips are getting further apart as well. If this is not what you want, can you elaborate on what you were expecting to see?

The Scale operation works in relation to the object origin - so for a cube with the origin placed at the centre you get the desired effect - ie, you end up with a larger cube with faces parallel to the original and at a consistent distance.
For more complicated models this same technique does not work as you have found. One solution (depending on your mesh) is to use a Solidify modifier with a negative Thickness.

Another option (if the Solidify doesn't produce useful results) is to duplicate the original mesh and use a Shrinkwrap modifier on the duplicate, set with the original mesh as the Target. Set mode to Project and adjust the Offset for the thickness.


text:
Selected Faces show up lighter orange to normal
When In edit mode and I press 'A' to select everything some of the faces on my mesh show up a lighter colored orange. This has caused a problem to when I import my mesh as an FBX into UE4 the faces are deleted.

Maybe you have some normals flipped, with everything selected in edit mode hit CTRL+N and see if that helps.

All the faces effected are facing the same direction as the other faces (Thanks for fast reply's)

Im not sure, make sure you dont accidentally have duplicated geometry maybe you have extra faces under the the darker orange selection. I am just guessing, can you upload your blend file? http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

I think I found your problem
You just need to go into edit mode and select all then on the left tool panel ("T") you need to remove doubles. Looks like you had extra vertices that are not needed. I think this is causing problems with your FBX export.
After you remove doubles you will see at the top a few hundred got removed and the shading got fixed.

Thank you for the fast response, That has fixed my issue thanks

Im glad please mark the answer as accepted so it may help others and get me my points lol


text:
Struggling with normal map
So I am working on a character to be taken into unity and frankly my normal map and Ambient occlusion are horrific...I'm wondering if it comes down to a bad original structure or something...I've attached some images to reference what issues I am running into..Thank you for any and all advice.

What issues specifically are you experiencing? Could you clarify what your question is?

I mean I'm unsure how to really explain. the texture given by the maps doesn't even come close to resembling my high poly texture when it is applied. It has a bunch of weird melted looking blobs in the texture. its all just very sloppy and just not even close.

"I mean I'm unsure how to really explain" Well you should really figure it out if you want any answers, because our guessing powers are really weak. Please edit your question and provide all the relevant details

figure it out myself so thanks for nothing. People who are new and looking for help don't need attitude by the way. I came here as a last resort but obviously that was a mistake. Don't be a troll, its just rude.

We all volunteer our time to try and help people out. We can't help people quickly  and efficiently if the problem isn't clear and well described, so you will get no answers. There are other questions that need answering as well. Don't blame @DuarteFarrajotaRamos for your bad question please. Take some responsibility.
Anyways, glad you have figured it out.

Make sure your models are not intersecting.  Your low poly model should be slightly larger than your high poly model and no part of the high poly model can protrude through any part of your low poly model.  Your model is kind of complex to do all at once.  You may trying breaking it down into smaller pieces (selecting parts in Edit mode and hitting P: By Selection) and baking them all to the same map individually(Uncheck CLEAR in the Bake Panel), then when all parts are baked, rejoin them by selecting all and hitting Ctrl J.

It also appears your margin may be too high and its overlapping your normals on top of themselves.  Change your margin in the bake panel to 1 or 2 px.


text:
Animation Nodes Delay of Cell Fractured Collection Matrix
I'm trying to make a simple animation in 2.8 by (mostly) following This video by BLUE FOX
However, I would like to make the cell fractured objects slowly return to their starting points, instead of an instant warp. I have played around with nodes and google for the last several hours, to no avail.
I have an image of the nodes I am using, as well as a gif of the current effect I wish to change - Any and all help is appreciated.

I think change the scale to 0.2 in 'offset matrix'


text:
Blender Script to Recalculate then set from face per object
Hi I'm trying to find a script to use in Blender that would select each mesh one by one (I have 350 to do), go into edit mode, select all the faces, recalculate the normal's and then set from faces all the normal's.
I'm new to Blender scripts so any help would be greatly helpful!

You will need a script to recalculate the normals. What do you mean "set from faces all the normal's"?

I figured out how to do this using the following script.
import bpy

if bpy.context.selected_objects != []:
for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects: #loop through all the selected objects
    if obj.type == 'MESH':
        bpy.context.scene.objects.active = obj
        bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle() #enter edit mode
        bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='SELECT') #select all objects elements
        bpy.ops.mesh.normals_make_consistent(inside=False) #recalc normals
        bpy.ops.mesh.set_normals_from_faces() #set from faces
        bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle() #exit edit mode

I have replaced the code with more common tools (bmesh), which will perform better.

As batFINGER suggested, I have added this as a separate answer.
This alternate script includes more common python practices.
import bpy
import bmesh

if bpy.context.selected_objects != None:
    for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects: #loop through all the selected objects
        if obj.type == 'MESH':
            bm = bmesh.new()        # create a new bmesh
            bm.from_mesh(obj.data)  # assign the data of the obj (mesh-datablock)
            bmesh.ops.recalc_face_normals(bm, faces = bm.faces)
            bm.to_mesh(obj.data)    # write the bmesh data back to the object data
            obj.data.update()       # this line isn't necessary,
                                    # but otherwise, the change is only shown
                                    # at the next scene update and not
                                    # immediately

Compare the selected_objects list with None instead of creating a new list. (Unmeasurably faster, but reads like english.)
Use the bmesh module to manipulate meshes. Avoid the ops commands.


text:
I want hair particle system to change the color of each hair depending on the direction of sway.
Summary:
I want hair particle system to change the color of each hair depending on the direction of sway. I have not programmed anything with blender before but am ok with python if some can guide me if that is required.
More Detail:
I am trying to create a visualisation of a biological system that uses "hair cells". And the particular feature of this system is that when the hairs are bent in a particular direction they send more neurological signals. And when they bend opposite that direction they decrease their neurological signals.
What I hope to do is produce a red (for high activity) to blue (for low activity) map of hairs as they move around attached to the moving surface.
So far I have surfaces with the hair particle system working using "hair dynamics". So the scene is set I just need to dynamically recolor the strands when they bend towards particular directions.
I hope that python is not needed but don't mind if it is.
Thank you for any help you can give.


text:
blue box of death when rendering multiple flame colors
So Im trying to make an animated logo of an A thats on fire... but Im trying to match the original logo somewhat which has a main flame orange on the A and then blue flames coming up from further down the sides of the A. I learned through other parts of this forum that (I believe) the only way to do two different quick smokes so I can get the two different flame colors is to put them on separate layers... then select both when rendering. My problem is that a mysterious blue box starts showing up (not when I look at the rendered view, but only once it actually renders) completely ruining the output video.

At first I thought it was because on the blue layer I hadnt added anything but the flames so perhaps it just needed its own walls on that layer to reflect off of something within the layer. No luck. I cant find a way to get the phantom box to disappear... and it takes so long to render that you dont find out until an hour or so into the render (it did 30 frames in 7 hrs before I caught it this time).
For what its worth, when I open the video outside of the blender live view of it rendering, it just looks like a box without the blue tint...
Any hints or ideas or suggestions?

my only guess right now is that since I have the blue flames only coming from a smaller section of the sides of the A, this is likely the adapted top of where the smoke/flames can go so its perhaps showing up? Maybe theres a way to give it somewhat of a higher ceiling or make the area for the smoke bigger? I do have smoke adaptive domain on...


text:
How to adjust SubSurf Modifier For Render
When I add a SubSurf modifier, I am able to specify how many for the viewport and how many for the render.  After I apply the modifier, it goes away and conceivably applies the algorithm.  I am confused as to how blender stores the object result for the viewport and the render separately.  Is there a way I can alter the number of subsurfs to apply to the render or the viewport after I "Apply" the modifier?
I guess I am mostly confused about the fact that I have a single object in my object tree but there is this mysterious splitting of the object behind the scenes depending on if I am rendering or not.

Blender doesn't store object with SubSurf modifier for render and for viewport. It stores you model without any modifiers and recreate model with SubSurf any time that you change something in model or render it.

Ahh! I think I see.  So when I "Apply" a subsurf to a mesh, there is no separate pipeline for render or viewport.  That is only true when the modifier has not been "Applied".  This now makes sense.

What you want to do is impossible, because the mesh was already established when you applied it,  if you want to control how much detail you are using to model or sculpt a mesh, you must use the multires modifier, whit the simple division method, so you can have multiple versions of the same mesh, in orden to accomplish whatever you are looking for.
good luck and happy blending.