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Fading Text In and Out - Video Sequence Editor
I'm having difficulty getting text in my video to fade in and out. Currently, if I add text, it simply pops up without any transition.
I've attempted doing something similar to fading video clips in and out by using color and gamma crossing, but that doesn't seem to be doing the trick.
Could anyone help me understand what I need to do in order to get this to work? I noticed there's an option to mess with text opacity, but it doesn't allow me to make the opacity rise and fall throughout the timeline.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Minor Update: It looks like keyframes are a step in the right direction. There's a little ball to the right of the opacity value that saves that value for the current position of your selection in the timeline.

Ok, it looks like keyframing definitely works! Lower values seamlessly transition to higher ones and vice-versa. In case anyone else has a possible answer, I'll leave this question open. Please feel free to offer any alternative solutions in case mine is a bit unconventional.

Get the latest beta version of Blender https://builder.blender.org/download/ - it will have fades in the Add menu:

Thanks for the reply! I look forward to trying it.


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Python script to snap selected object to cursor
anyone know python script for Object>Snap>Selection to Cursor?
(Assuming I have the object selected)

I figured it out. Just select the object and set it location to (0.0,0.0,0.0)
bpy.data.objects["name"].location = (0.0,0.0,0.0)

(0.0,0.0,0.0) is the center of the scene. The 3d Cursor is a different thing. There is an operator for snapping objects to the location of the 3d Cursor: bpy.ops.view3d.snap_selected_to_cursor() See the documentation

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Spiky mesh when create mesh from displacement map

Hi guys,I have 2 images with same size and color depth used as displacement map texture, one is very smooth, like the one on the left, the other is very rough, like the one on the right. Any ideas what could've caused this? How do I make the right one smoother. I tried smooth tool and subdivision, doesn't help much

The left one is too lowpoly to draw the real pattern of the texture. If you decimate the geometry of the right it will be similar.

If I zoom in closely, I can see that the surface of the left consists of triangles, while the right's consists of spikes. How can I fix that?

Add a decimate modifier to the right one and decrease the polycount with it.

could you please share your file? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

I figured it out. I used AI to generate the input image on the right and it's still contains some error pixel-wise, therefore the surface is not so smooth. Thanks for the help guys, and sorry for late response

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


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Cycles material with bump and image texture - scale only the bump map?
What I'm trying to achieve is a smaller/finer bump pattern in the material while the image should remain at its current size. I tried scaling the UV map but then the image texture is scaled the same way.
Or let me know if you have a good material setup for wallpaper that also allows for an image texture.
Cheers!

You can use a Mapping node to adjust the scale of the texture. It would be placed between the connection of the Texture Coordinate node and the Image Texture node.

that's it! thanks for the quick fix :)

@SashaC. You may want to switch the mode from Point to Texture, forgot to do that in the screenshot. It will work either way, but the scaling factor is reciprocal.

Rjg gave a solution. You can also create 2 different Input > UV Map nodes, one for the image, one for the bump. Scale the second differently in the UV/Image Editor.


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Blender 2.8 - Edge/face snap doesn't seem to work
https://i.sstatic.net/Z8xeH.jpg
My problem is shown in the clip. When I try to snap the vertex onto the edge instead of snapping to it it just goes more or less far depending on where my cursor is along the edge. Same more or less for face snap when I move the lower vertex aswell.
All I am trying to do with this model is extrude the face into the big part in the middle and have them more or less merge. If there is an easy way to do it I would love to hear it, as I've been attempting to solve this problem for multiple days now, and made an account for the sole sake of asking about it.
Thanks in advance.

Are you using the latest version? To me it works nicely.

I am using 2.80


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Blender 2.8 - can't see objects outline on default mode
i recently downloaded Blender 2.80 (have been previously using version 2.79). everything was going great, however, suddenly, i selected objects and they weren't outlined. i realized that i do select the objects (since when i move them it works), but i don't know which object im selecting. this is only happening in the default mode tab. on the other modes (compositing, uv editing) everything is perfect, the outlines of the objects are there. i tried resetting to factory settings, however, when reopening my project, the problem is still there. and, as i mentioned, this is only happening on default mode. what have i done? how can i fix this? thank you!!

You have to set the viewport overlay to outline selected:

hi, thanks for replying! it is already selected /:


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particle doubts: blender 2.8
i'm still learning blender and i'm very new to the particle settings. while creating a city, there were a few things that i couldn't quite figure out why they were happening and/or how to solve them.

object | edit mode > on object mode my buildings are there, but when i try to go to edit mode (i want to edit simply one of them to be unique from the rest), all the buildings disappear?! is there a way to edit just one building (i want to take off the shop part and replace it by something else)

on object mode, there is this white plane that serves as base for all my buildings. if i delete it, the same thing happens to all the buildings. i tried to lower it in order to go under the streets, but my buildings get lower as well, which can't happen. is there a way to fix it?

thank you very much!

In order to edit individual buildings you will have to edit the actual models in the "buildings" collection, "Building1", "Building2", etc. The buildings appearing on the emitter plane are merely linked duplicates from the actual models, and not editable on the go.

To hide the base plane object, you have to go in the particle settings and uncheck "show emitter" from rendering or/and from the viewport, depending on what you want :


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blender 2.8 - objects are scaling weirdly
when i try to scale my objects on blender, they scale weirdly. the reason may have been because i applied rotation & scale to it (shift+a), but i'm not sure. i've tried redoing whatever i did wrong (changing pivot point and origin), but nothing seemed to do the trick.
before, i was able to scale the object on the video below as if it was one object (didn't scale weirdly)
i hope i was able to express myself correctly. thank you!
video of what's happening: https://i.sstatic.net/NIh6D.jpg

You must have enabled the Only Origins option, which allows to move the objects apart from each others.


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The profile's dimensions are not respected in Curve To Mesh node
I am trying to create a simple frame with exact dimensions using geometry nodes.
I created a rectangular curve of 0.3x0.2 m and then wanted to use a square profile curve of 0.1m width to get a final frame of 0.4x0.3 m, but it is smaller than expected.
Why are the dimensions of the profile curve not respected?

Although it's rectangular, this is a curve. In general, for the radius of a swept curve to make sense, profiles must be instanced at the curve's sample-points, facing down the curve's linearly interpolated tangent, and then connected. The interpolated tangent at the corners of a rectangle are at 45°, and that's the angle and location of the profile-instances, before connection:

That means, between the comers, the connected sections measure 1/sqrt(2) in that dimension. Multiply that dimension by sqrt(2) to get an orthogonal width of 1, and stretch the diagonal mitres from 1 to sqrt(2).

Thanks a lot. I absolutely missed that point, that Blender is instancing the profile at each point of the base curve. Now, it makes sense to me and I know how to overcome my problem!


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Blender Accessibility Features
I'm teaching Blender to my high school students this year and it is a main piece of our worldbuilding course. One of my students is visually impaired (and hearing impaired) and I'm wondering if there are any accessibility features or add-ons for the program. Right now, it seems like there's nothing available, which surprises me. I searched Google and all I've found are a couple of posts where other people are inquiring about this. Can anyone point me in a useful direction for this sort of topic. My student is willing to work hard and she has enough vision to navigate on a computer, but she also emphasized that her vision "fluctuates" and Blender's complexity and small text makes it very tough. Any assistance or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
best,
Kas
P.S.: I am new to this site, so please forgive me if I've missed something.

You can increase the UI scale in the preference to help with small text, or personalize the theme to increase for example the contrast between elements. There is also an upcoming project call Blender Apps (https://code.blender.org/2022/11/blender-apps/) to make blender more customizable (for example by removing whole part of UI). Can you expand a bit about what kind of features you are looking for?

I looked around for some resources for disability features in Blender and came up against some similar problems you did. Looking through this forum thread came up with some interesting routes to make your students Blender experience a little bit easier. Notably this Print-Friendly Theme that overhauls Blenders UI and should hopefully make it a bit easier to use.
There's also a lot of settings you can change inside of Blender that can make it a lot easier to use and more focused on hotkeys and typing which might be easier than navigating with the mouse. For one, a big setting I always like to change is making the Spacebar set to open a search menu that lets you have super easy access to a lot of features that are usually pretty hard to find or remember. To activate it, go to the top left of Blender, click Edit, and from the drop down select Preferences at the bottom. From the Blender Preferences menu, you'll want to go to the section named Keymap, and from the preferences, change Spacebar to Search. Now whenever you need something, you can press Spacebar, type a part of the function you need, and then let autocomplete show you a bunch of options. This feature does replace having Spacebar as the play button for the animation timeline though, just keep in mind that Shift+Spacebar will work for that instead.

Another very handy setting to change would be under Interface, it's the setting called Resolution Scale. By increasing it you can make the icons a bit easier to read, and it'll increase the size of the text as well. There's even an option to change the font to something your student prefers.

You can change the colors of pretty much every single UI element in Blender with the Themes section of the preferences menu, and its where you can also install the previously mentioned Print-Friendly Theme. Hopefully changing the color scheme will make it easier.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to find any way to use a screen reader to make navigating the UI easier through audio, I really hope they add options for that in the future, as it's a real shame there isn't a framework for it already.

Thank you so much.... this was so helpful! I will be seeing her again tomorrow so we can try these things out. The Resolution Scale really looks like it should make at least some difference.

As an addendum to @NascentSpace's answer, note that you can set the resolution preposterously high (e.g., 3.0 or all the way up to 4.0) and -- while you're at it -- set the line width to "Thick", so grid lines and active object outlines are easier to see:

In the default workspace (the "Layout" workspace), resolutions this high typically make all of the areas except the 3D Viewport nearly unusable, BUT if you hover the mouse cursor over an area (e.g., the Properties editor) and hit CtrlSpace, it'll toggle that area in and out of fullscreen mode, like so:

Your student may find it useful to use the default "Layout" workspace at very high resolution as a kind of spatial main menu, jumping into areas like the Outliner or Properties with CtrlSpace, taking advantage of the full screen display as she moves between them.  There's also the alternative fullscreen toggle CtrlAltSpace which fullscreens an area without any associated menus (technically, it fullscreens the "main region" of an "editor" within an "area").  This can be useful for distraction-free zooming of the 3D Viewport panel in particular.
Alternatively, if she reconfigures her workspace into a single big area, there are hot keys for switching the area between all those different editors:  ShiftF5 for 3D Viewport, ShiftF9 for Outliner, ShiftF7 for Properties, etc.
At high resolutions, any component that gets cut off is scrollable, and that includes menus, whether horizontal or vertical.  You can scroll them by either middle-click dragging, or by using the mouse wheel when the cursor is within the menu.  Again, the mouse wheel works whether the menu is vertical (like the tools on the left of the 3D viewport) or horizontal (like a truncated menu bar at the top).  There are more obscure controls available as well.  In the Properties editor, for example, Ctrl-middle-click dragging will zoom the properties display itself in and out.
Also for the 3D Viewport, she should learn the T and N hotkeys to quickly toggle the toolbar and sidebar on and off, as they take up a lot of room at high resolutions.  She can also disable the "Navigate" gizmo (either by toggling all gizmos off with Ctrl` or by unchecking "Navigate" in the "Show Gizmos" pulldown).  This gizmo takes up a lot of screen real estate, and all its important functionality is easier to access with numpad hotkeys.

If she finds the grid floor distracting in perspective view, that can be disabled in the "Show Overlays" pulldown:

With the 3D Viewport fullscreened and most of the distractions removed (everything above plus disabling "Tool Settings" in the "View" menu), you can get a pretty clean 3D Viewport display:

If she prefers dark text on a white background, she can switch from the "Blender Dark" to the "Blender Light" preset theme in "Preferences -> Themes".  Those are the only two built-in themes, unfortunately.  Finding alternatives can be a little difficult, as themes tend to be pretty version-dependent, and they aren't always kept up to date.

Finally, you might want to take some time to review the User Interface section of the Blender manual, especially the "Window System" section.  No human being can keep track of all the UI controls Blender offers, so I guarantee you'll find some tricks in there that your student will find useful.
Even more finally, note that everything in the "Preferences" menu gets saved automatically.  Changes to the UI layout won't, but you can work with your student to configure a good starting layout with the venerable default cube and then use "File -> Defaults -> Save Startup File" to save that whole layout as her default "new file" layout.  (Saving the desired default as a normal ".blend" file is helpful, too, so you don't accidentally overwrite your desired startup file, and so you can try out a few different alternative defaults.)

Thank you so much! A lot of great insights here... looking forward to trying them out with my student. Much appreciated!


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Transferring Addons Across Blender Upgrades
What is the easiest way to store and transfer (and keep track of) your add-ons whenever upgrading Blender? Is it as easy as transferring a folder over to your newest version of Blender? How do YOU organize and keep track of your arsenal of add-ons? Thanks for your help.
(I am on a Mac, by the way... if that makes a difference. I'll be moving from 3.6 to 4.1 this week and then to 4.2 LTS when it comes out)
P.S.: A senodary question... Is the process affected if I want to keep at least 2 versions of Blender on my computer at all times? Thanks again.

Manual copy
By default, addons are installed in the scripts/addons subdirectory of Blender's user directory.
As per Blender’s Directory Layout - Blender 4.1 Manual

Linux: $HOME/.config/blender/4.1/
macOS: /Users/$USER/Library/Application Support/Blender/4.1/
Windows: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\4.1\

Note the version number in that path.
Transferring addons from one installation to another is as simple as copying the files from the script/addons of a version to another. But with caveats: it duplicates files on your storage, you might overwrite addons you already have or that are not compatible with the Blender version you copy them to. So you have to know your addons a bit, or trust you will have little to no issues and be able to quickly solve them when they occur.
When updating Blender
When you boot up a new version of Blender for the first time, the splash screen shows a button to import your settings from your previous Blender installation: it also copies addons.

Custom Script folder
An alternative way is to use the Script Directories in the Preferences:

Make yourself a directory where to install all your favorite addons. You can make a specific one for a specific Blender version, a general one for any version, ... As you wish.
Then add that directory in your Script Direcrories, and any addon installed there will be visible in that Blender installation where you set that Script Directory.
Advantages is that the folder may be easier to access, you are in total control of what gets there, and you can have as many folders for any purpose as you want.
And when updating Blender as mentioned above, it will copy the Script Directory from the last Blender installation too, so it will carry over, but without the downside of copying / making duplicates / overwriting anything.
Good to note that, when installing a new addon from Blender's Install Addon button, you need to set the target path to your Script Directory. Otherwise it defaults to the usual userdir/scripts/addons:


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is there any way to use coding inside geometry nodes like houdini's vex
I have a few ideas that are impossible with the current geometry nodes or would be better if I could use code directly like Houdini vex like a proper for each loop and so on. you know!

No. It is not possible. GN is designed for 0-coding for maximum computation speed and better UX. If you want coding - you can use Python and BPY for that.

I think Animation Nodes provide that. "I have a few ideas that are impossible with the current geometry nodes " - geonodes are turing-complete, so as long as you know how to input data to the system, and are fine with the ways the data can be output, you will be able to reproduce any algorithm - though some may be much slower than in competing languages. Also of course you can't use external libraries other than the limited ecosystem of geometry nodes custom groups.


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Grease Pencil still showing in complete darkness
I want to make an animation which would be from bright to dark, and combining 3d and 2d(grease pencil) and when the light goes out grease pencil object can still be seen, and i dont want that, i want it to be complete dark, is there a way for this?
i tried using image as a plane to test if it the 2d problem, but the image works fine with the light and it become dark as expected, is it grease pencil problem, or rendering problem?
rendered using eevee

I have figured it out:
World Properties > Viewport Display and just drag the color all the way to black.


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Can Particle System caches be accessed directly by Geometry Nodes?
My goal is to instantiate objects on the points of a particle system.
Right now, my workflow is:

tweak the parameters of the particle system
export it as an Alembic cache (point cloud?)
import it back into the scene
in Geometry Nodes, convert Alembic data to points, to be used for instancing

I'm wondering if there is a way to access the cache/point data of the particle system, directly through Geometry Nodes, rather than exporting+importing.
I have experimented with simulating the particles themselves with simulation nodes, but much prefer the speed of the native particle system when editing large numbers of particles. I also prefer to be able to use the built in force fields etc.
Anything to point me in the right direction would be much appreciated! I have not delved too much into scripting yet, but feel there may be a solution there. Will keep digging in the mean time.

i doubt that geometry nodes in the present state can do that. But for sure animation nodes can do what you want. But i don't know whether you want to use animation nodes. If yes, let me know, then i can present an answer.

@Chris Thanks for the response, I would be interested in an answer using animation nodes - I haven't used it much, so unsure of its capabilities

Animation nodes has particles nodes, with which you can read the particle data like locations.
With the object instancer you duplicate objects and with the object transform output node you can set locations to your duplicated objects.

Thanks for the animation nodes solution! Will try it out, appreciate you pointing me in this direction as the plugin seems very powerful.

you are welcome. It is indeed very very powerful! And just one node makes it much more powerful than geometry nodes and this is the script node: so you can add python code and make your own nodes by this. So you can do anything (!) with animation nodes what an add-on can do or what the Blender API provides.


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how can i transfer normal attribute from a part of the mesh to the whole mesh in geometry nodes?
I have a mesh (the tree branch) which has a base and a vertex group assigned to it. I instanced the mesh on a surface and then i shrink-wrapped the base of the mesh (using the vertex group as a selection) on the surface. Now I want to move the rest of the mesh in the direction of the base normal (before i shrink-wrapped it) in order to have its original form (more or less). I Have multiple instances of the mesh, and so this must work with group id.
I tried separating the base, sampling its normal, averaging in per instance with accumulate field nodes and then using it to set offset the position of the other vertices, but i missed something. because it doesn't work as intended.

I hope someone knows what i did wrong.

You can just set the Shrinkwrap modifiers Wrap Mode to be Target Normal Project, then set the offset to displace it by the amount you want. Pretty sure this is what you're describing, already built-in to the modifier.

It's a bit different, this is a small part of the node tree, the whole nodetree also has parts with distribution and other stuff, that i need all in one place as a geometry nodes modifier

It seems that I stumbled to a solution, even though I'm not sure why it works.(i have a suspicion). Maybe someone might tell me if they know.
This is what i ended up doing.

Before and after


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Blender 2.8 - default tab is empty
i recently started using blender 2.8 (was previously using 2.79), and out of the sudden my default tab goes empty. i can't find my objects anywhere. however, if i go any other tab - animation, uv editing... - it's all there! i've already tried deleting the Blender Foundation folder, but had no luck. anyone knows what i did wrong and how i can fix this? thanks!

Does pressing home with the cursor over the 3D view do anything?

YES, thank you!!!

Sounds like the view has gotten lost in space somehow. You can try pressing Home to zoom the view to the currently visible objects (where "visible" means not hidden or in a hidden collection), or you could use A and Numpad . to select everything and then zoom the view on the selection.


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Extrude Face Along Normals - Uneven & Bended
I started a new file on Blender and when I try to extrude my faces along normal, they come off as "bent". This has never happened to me before.

Does anyone know why this is happening?
Thanks!

did you check Even Offset after extruding?

Agree with MikoCG - in the Operator Panel (that little box that pops up in the bottom left after performing an action), there is an option called "Offfset Even" which must be checked after the extrude operation (but before doing anything else, such as clicking away from the object, or the panel will disappear).

Thanks heaps guys, that was indeed the solution!


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Mesh gets resized after parenting
I followed the steps in the Character Rigging Blender 2.80 Fundamentals but every time I execute parenting the mesh to the armature it results in the mesh (human) flipped onto its back and many times enlarged.

If you scale the rig apply its rotation and scale before parenting. Location should be also at scene origin - 0,0,0. All transforms of the rig and object should be 0 or else you might experience something as what mentioned. If you want to add images you can do that, [edit] your post and include them, see https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/75491/how-to-upload-an-image-to-a-post.


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Lazy way to make variations on complex sculpt?
this might be a stupid question but since I have only a few months of experience in 3d art I'd thought it's better to ask.
I'm making a complex sculpt of an african elephant, it's got a lot of detail and came out pretty awesome for a complete noobie. I went back to a previous save of the basic shape and thought I would revise the sculpt since I have a bit experience now and the result will be better.
I am however making this for a video game I'd like to create and I was wondering if there's a lazy or fast way of making variations without all the time consuming work of sculpting.
I'm taking about things like different shape of the eyelids, different ear shapes with different cuts, maybe some anatomical "anomalies" like a slightly misshapen skull for example, and things of that nature.
For simpler things like tusks size and shape, that's easy to do in a short time, but do any of you have a lazy guide or advice for the more subtle and detailed variations?
Thanks so much for reading through this, hit me up with any questions you might have if what I'm asking isn't clear enough!

Thanks!! from a quick look it seems to be what I'm looking for, I'll definitely look more into it and try to apply it!


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How do I rig wings on my character that will work with rigify?
I want to use rigify to pose and animate my character. The problem is the rig won't generate correctly. The tail on my character generates when I press "generate rig", but the wings on my character don't get rigged. I've set the bones up and everything. Does anyone know if it's difficult for rigify to generate a rig for winged characters? Also does anyone know if there's a specific way that I need to set up the rig on the wings for rigify to handle it correctly?

Here's a way to rig wings using rigify.
Start with the default human meta-rig, and line up the existing bones to your character as normal. I'm rigging a humanoid character, but if you aren't this should work with any of the base meta-rigs.

Next place the 3D cursor where the wing meets the back and add a chain of three bones corresponding to the three bones. This chain can be larger than that if it fits your wings, but it must be at least three bones long as we're going to tell rigify that it's an arm. Three bones fits perfectly to the anatomy of a birds wing, or insect wings like on my character, where I can match the curvature.

Rename these bones so that they have names that end in .L (assuming you're on the left); duplicate the chain of bones, mirror the duplicate hain to put it in the right direction, and then move it roughly to where it should go.  Rename these second set of bones, replacing the .Ls with .Rs.  Select both chains, and use Armature > Symmetrize to get matching bone placements.  (Now parent them to their respective shoulder bones -- if you later have problems with FK but IK works, this is probably the problem.)

Go into Pose mode, and select the first bone of one of the wing chains. In the Bone Properties set that bone's Rig Type to "limbs.super_limb", and the limb type to Arm, and the rotation axis to Z manual, assuming Z is up.  Then, select the first bone of the second wing chain and set these values there as well. You only need to do this for the first bone on each wing.
Generate your rig!  I get this:

And it distorts correctly for bird wings -- additional work with the settings and weights will get you more precise results for other wing types.


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New to sculpting. How do you add parts and connect them by sculpting?
I'm  new to sculpting, and I'm trying to figure out how to add objects to the head to sculpt into the other parts of my character such as ears, neck, etc. Do you add the objects as separate parts, and how do you sculpt all the separate parts together?

If what you want to add is supposed to be a part of this object, it makes more sense to add it to this object itself in Sculpt mode, and not add a new object, because:

I don't think you can sculpt several objects at the same time for the moment.
If they are different objects it will be harder to make them look like they are one.

So for example if you want to add a neck to a head, use the Snake Hook brush (it allows you to easily deform the topology and add geometry):

If what you want to add is another object (like for example here a hat), you can choose to create a second object. I guess it also depends on your final purpose, you can sculpt everything within one object.

I was kind of wanting to add the body from the neck. How should I go about doing that?

you can either do it in Object mode with a boolean or do it in Sculpt mode with the Snake Hook brush


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How do I use blender masks to make it look like there is magic in my videos
I'm working on learning how to use masks in blender. I would like to use the masks to make it appear as if there is magic in my videos. Such as when a person in the video lifts they're hand a certain way, magic comes out of it.

Be more specific, because as a fellow avid magical enthusiast, there are a plethora of ways you can make magical items. Adding emission to make it glow, adding volumetric shading (volume) around the mask to make it look spooky, a change in texture, and/or even distorting the mask is an effective way to make it look like it reacts to hand movements.

I was thinking of something that could also be used in fight. One type I want to look like a moving black cloud, the other I want to have a more plasma like look.

it's too vague, please choose one effect and show a video or a picture

Sorry, I can't show a picture or video, but for the black cloud, I want to do something similar in the first Descendants where Malificent turns into the dragon, except a lot more like dust when you throw it into the air and a cloud combined. I hope that helps.


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Traffic simulation with collision detection on multiple curves
This is for a project I already posted here about.
older question about same project
I'm creating a traffic simulation in geometry nodes.
First I turn the original curve object into 6 parallel tracks, then I spawn points on them and move the points along the tracks using the simulation zone.

The next step is to create a collision detection system that stops the moving points when they get too close to target geometry, and then other points following behind them. Each subsequent point is stopped when it gets close to the previous stopped point. I already have a similar working simulation, which I've used as a template.

This node tree works with points moving in a straight line on a single axis. Converting it to work on a curve wasn't too difficult, but the real problem with it that after stopping a point, it selects the next point to stop based on its index, and with points spawned randomly on 6 tracks, the points following each other don't have following indices.
I would need to find a way to stop the points moving along individual tracks when a specific track is blocked, then stop the following points, and preferably also stop spawning new points on a blocked track.
Both the traffic simulation and the template simulation are included in the file.

It seems to me, inevitably your traffic simulation will require intersections, which can't be done with curves. So why spend time on improving the project with this foundation flaw that sets it up for failure further down the line?

@MarkusvonBroady I'm not the only person working on this project. I just need to finish this one thing and then it's out of my hands. As far as I know this is the last part of the project that depends on geometry nodes. I referred to it as my project because it's simpler to explain that way.

I think you can explore the few nodes in Curve > Topology especially Points of Curve that can help you group your points per Spline, then you "just" have to find a way to find the closest point on this spline in a given direction (towards start or towards end), rinse and repeat

Can we assume that the length of the animation is limited (at 250 frames e.g.) and that per frame, only one new point is added to one of the tracks ?

@StefLAncien yes

Here's the basic principle: use "Geometry Proximity" against a collider to decide if a vehicle is supposed to stop. If it is, then move the vehicle to the collider.
For a simpler setup and less memory usage, I'm using ID and Radius to store information (distance traveled and path index). You could actually also use the point position to store information, because its position is completely determined from curve sampling, but then the setup would get a little bit more complex. Similarly with slowing the vehicles smoothly or using a low poly (bounding boxes?) versions of vehicles for the collider (in such case you wouldn't display the collider and also add the instances of real vehicles to 3rd geometric output).

it's not working for me, I'm not getting any points.

@Lynx095 show a screenshot of your setup

how do I add pictures to comments?

@Lynx095 comments are supposed to be short-lived so you can just upload to imgur.

https://imgur.com/a/3dd5Wdx
https://imgur.com/a/htgipTT

@Lynx095 You enabled "Skip" in your simulation :D

changed it, I have the points now but the collision still isn't working.

@Lynx095 you override the Geometry Proximity position with the collider object location, which you shouldn't do

in your screenshot the geometry proximity node has no position input. I assumed that was mistake. I fixed it, now how do I unblock the tracks? In my original simulation I only needed to move the cube out of the way to do that.

@Lynx095 you can't.  Not in this setup.

then it doesn't help me.

@Lynx095 well you never mentioned this in your question, I would address it otherwise.

Well, I talk about it as a traffic simulation. Also in my file, the template animation works that way for points moving on the X axis and my adapted version works that way for a single curve, and I say that I need the same functionality for multiple curves.

@Lynx095 let me quote myself from under the question: "It seems to me, inevitably your traffic simulation will require intersections, which can't be done with curves. So why spend time on improving the project with this foundation flaw that sets it up for failure further down the line?" - you answered however, that it's not a problem because you just need this. And now turns out it actually is a problem. The file is not a part of the question on BSE, it's a complimentary addition to make it easier to answer if someone doesn't want to create a setup from scratch.

That's not what the problem is, I already got it working for a single curve. Also, you can just ignore this question so that someone else can solve it.


text:
Packing True-sky assets for renderfarm
I'm trying to pack my file to send it for rendering on a renderfarm, but I'm having a problem with assets from the True-sky addon by True-VFX. I'm getting an error message about a file from this addon when using the pack resources option in Blender. I've also tried making all relations local and then packing resources again, and that didn't work either.


text:
How do I make water level smoother with Flip Fluids?
I'm using the Flip Fluids addon. In my animation I have a liquid slowly spilling over a flat surface. I want to make the fluid surface as smooth as possible so that I can use it to show the reflection of a bckground object in it. The problem is that I still have these micro ripples on the fluid surface and I don't know how to get rid of them or make them less visible. I think I've tried everything, increasing the resolution, playing with viscosity and surface tension settings, switching between "inflow" and "fluid" for simulation input, changing the height and distance of my flow object, and nothing works.
The images below are probably my best result yet, made at 512 resolution with surface tension at 1 and viscosity at .05.

Hello have you thought about making your water with a simple subdivided plane and a Displace modifier or a noise plugged into a Bump node?

@moonboots No because over the course of the animation I need to gradually cover the surface that is under the liquid.

I don't know well the liquid sim, but I think only the surface tension or viscosity can help you. In real life, the surface would be smooth only at a very small scale where surface tension is stronger. Imagine the area of your render is at the scale of a city, the surface wouldn't be smooth anywhere, too much waves and turbulences.

If you need the fluid to move, it will make waves (you can't avoid that). If you have more viscosity, waves will be less, but fluid will stick more and flow less. If you can find any sort of "dampening", that's probably the way to make waves dissipate faster.


text:
How to get not active object?
What I'm trying to do is select two objects, add Data Transfer modifier to active object in selection and then use not active as source.
So, active object is bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active
How can I get not active one? The one was selected first.

You can exclude active object from bpy.context.selected_objects

Selected objects are queried with bpy.context.selected_objects.
The active object is queried with bpy.context.active_object.
Thus you can query all selected, non active objects with something like selected_and_not_active_objects = [o for o in bpy.context.selected_objects if o != bpy.context.active_object]
If you have only 2 selected objects and one active object you can do something like selected_and_not_active_object = next(o for o in bpy.context.selected_objects if o != bpy.context.active_object)


text:
Line art don't go though an alpha material
I've made a small scene on Blender, trying to get an image of a ping pong table "cartoon style".

The problem is this: When I try to render, the net block the line art

I guess this happens because I've create a material whit alpha = 0, but the camera still see the plane.
(to create the net I've subdivide a plane, mark freestyle edge foreach line of the net and set the alpha of the material to 0)
There is an option to get the lineart "overlap" behind a plane?

Model the net with actual geometry, rather than a plane with alpha


text:
editing an svg in blender then exporting to an stl
I'm trying to build a drawer using my CNC, no nails just glue and I need to convert to stl. The middle 2 panels have 4 horizontal cuts that span the gap between them and I would like the cuts to finish with the first of the 2 panels and then start up again with the next one.

Can it be done in Blender or is it easier on another software?


text:
Noise texture baking not working
I have created one noise texture. I am trying to bake my texture, it is not working as expected. Only the color is coming in the image texture. I have attached one screenshot for reference. If I am doing it wrong, kindly guide me.

As Bake Type is set to Diffuse, the resulting image is "just" the color. Nothing wrong here for me.

@StefLAncien Kindly suggest me which type I should use. I have tried combined, emit, and roughness.

Looking at your Principal BSDF node, I guess you are looking for the Normal bake type to input the result as an Image Texture into the Bump node, instead of the Noise Texture node.

Thank you so much. It is working fine. But the default blue color is coming for the cube. When I use that image texture in Unity. Kindly guide me.

Sorry, I do not understand you last comment. And I do not know Unity...

Okay. I have baked the texture, the image is in blue color. But I want it in black color. Can we do that?

In Image Paint mode, you can paint in black to replace the blue, then save the modified image.

If I paint the image, the noise texture is not visible.

(Using Blender 4.2.0)
Setup to bake the normal map:

Setup to bake the diffuse map (all black...):

Setup to use both maps:

Resources:
(Blender 4.2.0+)

Thank you so much. It worked :).
One more query, How can I use this in Unity, The texture not coming in Unity but it is visible in Blender.

I do not use Unity, but you can have a look here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/98481/object-exported-as-obj-looses-textures-in-unity

Thank you, I will check :)


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How to make an rod to rotate with another rod both have pivoting point at the origin
Being new to Blender I can not figure out a simple animation using the Animation node. The video link is attached with this post for better expalnnation of the problem (https://drive.google.com/file/d/10aujAJhRNYWZe_4z3lPQtQsWOpRGgCPC/view?usp=sharing).
Here my objective is to rotate the red arrow (YZ_Vec) on the YZ plane while the green arrow (Main_Vec) is free to rotate in all directions. The red arrow will follow the rotation of the green arrow while being confined on the YZ plane.To make the red arrow confine on the YZ plane I have applied the limit rotation constraint.
With the help of animation node I have successfully achieved my objective partially, because the red arrow perfectly follows the green arrow during the X rotation but not during the Y rotation.
During the Y rotation the red arrow rotates in opposite of the green arrow. I am expecting the red arrow should moves on the YZ plane during the Y rotation of the green arrow, that would look like the red arrow goes up and down on the YZ plane with the Y rotation of the green arrow.

There's no need for Animation Nodes, here, unless you have reasons. You can used a Locked Track constraint on the red arrow.
Here, an Empty has been parented to the tip of the green arrow, for the red arrow to follow. The red arrow has been given a Locked Track constraint as follows:

.. so it points its own X axis at the Empty, while constrained to the plane whose normal is its own Z. (Apologies for the axes not being the same as yours, you'll just have to swizzle them). The green arrow is free to rotate...

...the red arrow points in the direction of the green arrow's projection onto  the red arrow's XY plane.

Thank you very much. I got it. Its so simple.


text:
How to make weight painting faster
I've set up my bones, but my weight panting is slow. Every stroke takes almost forever to show up. I don't know if it's my computer itself or something else. What could be going on?

is your mesh very high-poly?


text:
I'm having a problem with my rig. How do I fix the weird scaling of my mesh?
The bones of the armature I created for the arms, legs, body, (ect.) work fine, but the bones I have for the fingers keep scaling the vertex groups when rotating.
This is what happens. It doesn't happen to the other bones, and I don't know how to fix it. I've tried giving the bones different rigify bone types, and I've tried putting more bones in the finger. I've also tried to adjust the position of the bones, but I can't get anything to work.

Your problem is that you have included the vertices of your fingers in another vertex group other than the individual fingers. To fix this, go into edit mode and select your fingers. Then remove those vertices from all other vertex groups. That should fix your problem.

To fix the scaling, change the names of the vertex groups (so that the rig doesn't affect those groups) like index.L to Index.L. then add a hook modifier to the mesh. Select the rig as the object, the bone you want to control the vertex group as the bone, and the vertex group you want to control as the vertex group.
Do this for every bone and vertex group pair you need to fix, and that will fix the problem.

I tried this, and it worked. However, when I moved the wrist bone of my character, it moved the fingers more than they should move.


text:
How should I model the wing membrane of my character's wings?
I'm not sure if I should model the wing membrane as a flat plane or if I should solidify it. I want a very thin membrane for the wings, but I don't know if I'll be able to use a flat plane. Does somebody know if modeling them in this way will mess up the texturing, rigging, ect.?

Do not use a single face unless you absolutely have to. This could cause a lot of trouble later on.

I didn't think it would work, but I didn't know. Thank you.


text:
Why won't IvyGen work?
I'm trying to add ivy to a building I'm working on. I tried using the IvyGen add-on, but it doesn't come up when I pressed SHIFT A. I tried using another similar add-on to see if it was just IvyGen. The other add-on showed up in the menu that comes up when I press SHIFT A. What do I do? The IvyGen add-on isn't working.

Not all add-ons are exactly the same and they are not necessarily to be found in the Add menu. For IvyGen make sure you have the sidepanel visible in the 3D Viewport, if not press N to bring it up. There under the Create tab you will find the Ivy Generator.

Just as a quick addition to Gordon's answer, it's always worth clicking the addon's dropdown in Preferences when you add a new addon. In this case it spectifcally says where you can access the ivy generator under 'Location' and of course you can access the documentation in the blender manual from there too.

@JohnEason Yes, good addition. Not all add-ons (especially third-party add-ons) are documented well, but it can definitely help sometimes.

Why is it that I always see spelling mistakes in my postings after the 5 minute limit for correcting them? :^))

@JohnEason Same here ;)


text:
Changing the order of operations in geometry nodes
I'm working on a reusable orbit animation controlled through geometry nodes, the point is to animate a planet orbiting around a sun, then possibly to add other planets or moons orbiting those planets. The problem is that to get the result I want I have to use 3 Transform geometry nodes in a row.

The first one with Z rotation input controls the planet rotating around its axis. The second one with the Y rotation input controls the axial tilt, and the third one with the translation input controls the orbit animation.
When I have all of these inputs plugged into only one Transform geometry node, I'm getting bad results, like the planet rotating around a vertical axis instead of a tilted one and the orbit tilt angle getting added to the axial tilt angle.
I have found this solution in using 3 Transform geometry nodes in this order, but I would like to ask if there is a simpler or more elegant solution.

Yeah, this is just the nature of rotating using Euler rotation. All 3D apps have to pick an order to resolve Euler rotations, XYZ, ZYX, etc. Trying to do all 3 at once can lead to unexpected results. If you're in 4.2 you could try using the matrix transform node. But otherwise you have to specify the order like you're doing here. More info in this post.

@Jakemoyo I already knew that, that's how I figured out this ugly solution. I just wanted to know if there is a better way to do it. But thanks anyway :)

Perhaps you can save CPU time using Combine Transform nodes with just a single Transform Point node at the end ? An other approach based on the transformation sequence (Scale, Rotation X, Rotation Y, Rotation Z, Translation) could be to start with a Rotate Rotation node to combine Rotation Z with Rotation Y, then to insert a Rotation to Euler node and to plug the output in a single Transform Geometry node.

@StefLAncien I'm still on 4.0 so I don't have those nodes. Also I want this to be compatible with as many versions of Blender as possible.

The proposed approach is based on nodes available since Blender 3.5. It takes advantage that a Transform Geometry node is applying first Scale, then Rotation and eventually Translation. Because in GeometryNodes modifier, Euler rotation is around X, then Y and eventually Z, it has to be modified to rotate first around Z then around Y. To do so, a Rotate Euler node is used.

1. The dark pink frame is a copy of the graph shown in the question, with 3 Transform Geometry nodes.
2. The dark green frame is the optimized graph with a single Transform Geometry node.
3. Toggling the switch Optimized demonstrates that the output geometry is the same.
4. For timing purpose, a Point Cloud can be used to stress the modifier, instead of the default cube. Results show that the green frame is consistently more than two times faster than the pink one.

works really well, thank you.


text:
Disabling HDRI only for a specific render layer
I am working on an alien planet landscape still image with planets/moons in the background. For this, my scene is divided into 2 render layers and I need very different lighting for each of them.
Foreground layer - the majority of my scene. For this layer I need soft light coming from all sides, like sunlight diffused in the atmosphere. I intend to use a sun lamp and an HDRI.
Background layer - the other planets/moons. This layer need strong, hard light coming only from one direction, like sunlight in space. I intend to use a copy of the sun lamp with the copy rotation constraint.
This is what I want the planets/moons in the background to look like:

I think the best way to achieve that look would be to disable the HDRI for the background layer and only add the lighter values to the foreground in the compositor. But I don't know how to disable it only for the background without affecting the foreground layer, or whether it is possible at all. If it isn't possible, could you please suggest another way to achieve that effect? Thank you.

Have you tried including the Environment Lighting in your Render Passes and then using a Cryptomatte mask to selectively blend it into the scene with the other passes of the render? You can get every type of lighting completely separate in the render pass settings.

Hmm nvm, it seems like Environment lighting doesn't actually include the light information from the scene background. Despite that literally being what it says in the tooltip of the setting. lmao

Looks like light layers might be a good option.


text:
How to measure a curve length from start to a specific point
I'm working on a complicated node tree that involves instances on curve points. I would need to create a node group that takes in position vector of a specific point or its index, either one is fine, and outputs curve length or factor in that specific point. Is this even possible? And if so how would I do it? Also, the points change position on the curve over time.

Use "Spline Parameter" node, "Length" output:

To read a specific index (not index of currently evaluated point) of current geometry, use "Evaluate at Index" node:

To read a specific index from another geometry, "Sample Index":


text:
How to Animate Material Nodes in Python
I am trying to animate, in Python, the colour of a node material using the Colour Ramp node, and I want to know the data path to give in keyframe statements.
I have made a material using the Colour Ramp node driven by a Math node.  The Math node is animated to give the required colour changes. This works if I set up the system manually as shown below.

However in Python, although I can set up the material, I cannot find how to make  keyframes – apparently the data path is incorrect.  I enclose my Python code to set up the node material and set the first keyframe.
    import bpy
    #                        green      red
    colors =  [(0,0,0,0), (0,1,0,1), (1,0,0,1)]

    #create single cube and colour it green
    obj = bpy.data.objects['Cube']

    mat1 = bpy.data.materials.new(name = 'Material1')
    mat1.use_nodes = True
    obj.active_material = mat1

    # Build shader nodes
    pNode = mat1.node_tree.nodes.get('Principled BSDF')
    pNode.inputs[0].default_value = (0,0,1,1)
    crNode  = mat1.node_tree.nodes.new('ShaderNodeValToRGB')
    crNode.location = (-300, 200)
    mNode = mat1.node_tree.nodes.new('ShaderNodeMath')
    mNode.location = (-600, 200)

     # Build shader links
    link = mat1.node_tree.links.new
    link(mNode.outputs[0],crNode.inputs[0])
    link(crNode.outputs[0],pNode.inputs[0])

    # set up color ramp points 0 and 1
    crNode.color_ramp.elements[0].color = (colors[1])
    crNode.color_ramp.elements[1].color = (colors[2])

    #Variable which sets the colour within the specified colour range (0 to 1)
    mNode.inputs[0].default_value = 0
    mNode.inputs[1].default_value = 0

    colNode = mat1.node_tree.nodes['Math']

    colNode.inputs[0].default_value = 1
    mat1.keyframe_insert(data_path = "colNode.inputs[0]", frame = 20)

It gives an error on the last line, with error message:
File "C:\Users\Jim\aSk\GExercises\Test5a.blend\Test7CreateCubes.py", line 36, in
TypeError: bpy_struct.keyframe_insert() property "colNode.inputs[0]" not found
I have tried different content for the data path, but all references I have looked at  seem to suggest using the “node_tree.nodes” property  which I am trying to do in the above code.  So is there a simple solution, or is there something wrong in my fundamental thinking?   What is the correct data path in the keyframe statement:
    mat1.keyframe_insert(data_path = "…..............", frame = 20)

and how it is derived?    I would be most thankful for any help.

colNode.inputs[0].keyframe_insert(data_path = "default_value", frame = 20)

There are possibly two problems in your code: You're trying to use a Math node you don't need and you're not referencing the color node correctly when you call keyframe_insert.

The math node, unless you need it for some other purpose:

Remove all of the references to mnode; fix the linking and change
    colNode.inputs[0].default_value = 1

to
    crNode.inputs[0].default_value = 1

The call to keyframe_insert:

When you want to insert a keyframe on a property, you have to insert it on the thing that contains that property, in this case the actual node input, which contains the default_value field.
You can discover what that is by hovering over the field that you would use to insert a keyframe, right clicking, and selecting "Copy Data Path".  If you do this with the Fac field of a color ramp you'll get something like node_tree.nodes["ColorRamp"].inputs[0].default_value  Everything but the last field goes to the left of the keyframe_insert and the last field is the name to give to the data_path= argument of the function.  So in this case,
node_tree.nodes["ColorRamp"].inputs[0].keyframe_insert(data_path="default_value", frame = FRAMENO)

is the generic form for inserting a keyframe into a Color Ramp's Fac setting; but one more step is necessary.  You need to replace the generic node_tree.nodes["ColorRamp"] with the correct value from your code. Since you have the color node as crNode in your code, what you want is
crNode.inputs[0].keyframe_insert(data_path="default_value", frame=20)

The resulting code

import bpy
#                        green      red
colors =  [(0,0,0,0), (0,1,0,1), (1,0,0,1)]

#create single cube and colour it green
obj = bpy.data.objects['Cube']

mat1 = bpy.data.materials.new(name = 'Material1')
mat1.use_nodes = True
obj.active_material = mat1

# Build shader nodes
pNode = mat1.node_tree.nodes.get('Principled BSDF')
pNode.inputs[0].default_value = (0,0,1,1)
crNode  = mat1.node_tree.nodes.new('ShaderNodeValToRGB')
crNode.location = (-300, 200)

# Build shader links
link = mat1.node_tree.links.new
link(crNode.outputs[0],pNode.inputs[0])

# set up color ramp points 0 and 1
crNode.color_ramp.elements[0].color = (colors[1])
crNode.color_ramp.elements[1].color = (colors[2])

crNode.inputs[0].default_value = 1
crNode.inputs[0].keyframe_insert(data_path="default_value", frame=20)

You can, of course, keep the math nodes, in which case, since you already had mNode pointing at the math node, simply change the last two lines to use mNode rather than crNode.

To Marty Fouts: Thanks hugely for your clear and succinct explanation, and for correcting my code.  To me, the key in your explanation is in the fact that the data path can be derived from the dev-tip on the "insert key" for the appropriate value (in the case of crNode, the "Fac" value;  I  did not know this, and it is a very useful tip.

@JimTucker you are very welcome. I am glad I could help. Since you're apparently a new user to Blender StackExchange, you might want to read What should I do when someone answers my question? and perhaps upvote or accept my answer


text:
Eevee is not using full CPU power when compiling shader in Blender 3
I'm currently following a texturing tutorial in which I end up making a big and complex node tree.
I just got a new GPU and Cycles is running like a charm with GPU acceleration. In Eevee there is a slight lag when I move in the viewport and change parameters in the nodes, but overall it's ok (I am a bit surprised however as I thought having a better GPU would make Eevee super smooth).
The issue takes place when I add a whole new node in the tree or remove one while in Eevee. The node editor then starts lagging a LOT to the point that I risk adding the node in the wrong place if I click too early. And the shader takes a full twenty seconds to compile (with the "shaders compilation" bar at the bottom staying at 0% for most of the time before it finally compiles).
It's my understanding that Eevee uses the GPU to render, but the CPU to compile the nodes. What's weird is that when I look at my CPU usage during that compilation time, Blender only uses around 30% CPU power, and never more than 50%. I don't understand why this is. If I limit Cycles to render with CPU only it does max it out, but Eevee seemingly never does.
I also don't understand why it makes the node editor laggy, as it's never laggy when I'm in Cycles and I would have thought the interface being laggy during compilation time would come from a GPU limitation, not a CPU one.
Any insight would be very appreciated.

What Blender vrsion are you using? - I believe that a lot of work is being done on speeding up Blender in the latest versions.

@JohnEason Oh yeah sorry I forgot to mention in the body of the question. I'm using Blender 3.1.0, which I just downloaded a few days ago.

I believe speed-up improvements are still in progress for 3.2 but whether that includes Eevee node compilation is anybody's guess. Nodes are still being updated though. It might be worth trying to submit a bug report via Help > report a bug.

Your system is waiting on I/O, probably from main memory due to cache misses.

Probably your system is stalling for I/O.  The CPU can't work if it can't get data so it waits until data is loaded from memory. In this case it is probably not also waiting for data from secondary storage (hard drives and SSDs are secondary) because everything it needs is probably already in main memory.  It might also be stalling because it is trying to use multiple processors but they have to spend time waiting for each other to finish bits of work.
If you want to know the nature of the stalls, you can use tools like opcm/pcm on Intel systems to read the hardware performance counters and see why the stalls are happening.  Or you can use system tools, like perfmon on Windows, to get a coarser picture.  But you have to know a bit about how hardware interlocks work to slow down computing to be able to interpret that data.
Developers will also use profiling tools to find out where in their code the performance bottlenecks are; but the Blender foundation only has 12 developers and they're all very busy and performance analysis is very hard.


text:
How to link object rotation to an image sequence?
https://www.instagram.com/p/C6O9QKzyvCX/
^^ I am trying to emulate this. The artist rotates a block and as it rotates the image changes alongside it to match the rotation of the block.
My thinking is that I can copy the z rotation as a driver from the cube object, but i dont know where to paste that in order to link it with my image sequence. Comments under the post suggest using shape keys, the issue is changing textures doesn't make a new shape key.
Please point me in the right direction!

Can you please upload the reference image/video somehow?

Hello and welcome Ben Newtown,
there is many solutions to achieve this effect. I propose one solution with the version 4,2a of blender and the new Ray Portal BSDF node and a bit of Geometry Nodes.

Because classing correctly the images is a bit tedious, I propose just a 6 images solution but you can easily use the same method with more images, you just have to change the angle values accordingly to the sphere definition in Geometry Nodes.
First you have to import your images as plans and listed them in a new Collection, the order of the list is important and you will have to reorder them.
Add a plan (here called images) and add a Geometry Nodes to it. Delete the Input Group and add a UV Sphere Mesh. The definition of this sphere will determine the numbers of images you will use and the angles of rotation, here I keep it simple  with a definition of 4 by 2 in order to set my 6 Images on each points of the sphere.
I add my Ctrl Cube to the G.N. and Separate XYZ the rotation of it. I snap the X and Y angles on what I need (here pi/2) but before I add the half of this angle in order to have the snapping at the correct angle here pi/4. Then I Combine XYZ and I put it on the Angles input of a Transform Geometry nodes.
Its time to introduce Collection info of your collection of plans. You Instance on Points your sphere then instance your collection with pick instances (with Separate Children and Reset Children).

You will have now to reorder your collection in order to set the positions correctly on the sphere. A Viewer node on an index is very useful to do that.
We are practically good to go we just have to add a plan with a Ray Portal BSDF shader With an Object of the Texture Coordinate on the Position and a Combine XYZ with the Z to -1 in order to have an orthographic projection.

That’s it. Be aware that this shader only works in Cycle.
The 4.2a Blend.

Edit :
Another solution that works with the actual version of blender and not only in Cycles, use a bit more of G.N.
To the previous solution I just add an empty in order to place the image/plan where I want. Use a Compare node in order to select the lower plan.

And the 4.1 blend.

thanks sm you rule


text:
particle system rotation is not working

I just added a new object and added hair. And after turning on the advanced, I checked the rotation. And changed orientation axis to global z. That's all I did. But the direction of the hair isn't looking up. Why does it work like this?

I'm not sure you can orientate the curve hair with the Rotation settings (rather for the Object type of hair), but you can either:

Play with the Velocity parameters:

Create a Force  Field (strong enought):

Comb the hair in Particle Edit mode:


text:
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'modifiers'
So I've been trying to add Geo Nodes modifier to a created cube through custom UI panel, even though it works as intended, Blender shows me AttributeError. How can I fix this? (I'm new to coding so this might be very simple question)
import bpy

class AddGrid(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "mesh.grid_add"
    bl_label = "Add grid"

    def execute(self, context):
        bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(enter_editmode=False, align='WORLD', location=(0, 0, 0), scale=(1, 1, 1))

        obj = bpy.context.active_object
        mod = obj.modifiers.new("GeometryNodes", 'NODES')
        nodeTree = bpy.data.node_groups["City"]
        mod.node_group = nodeTree

        return {"FINISHED"}

class CityGenPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "CityGen Generator"
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'UI'
    bl_category = 'CityGen'

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.label(text=" Generate city base panel:")

        row = layout.row()
        row.operator("mesh.grid_add", text="Create city base")

        gm = context.active_object.modifiers.get("GeometryNodes")
        if gm:
            row = layout.row()
            row.prop(gm, '["Socket_2"]',  text="Size X")
            row = layout.row()
            row.prop(gm, '["Socket_3"]',  text="Size Y")
            row = layout.row()
            row.prop(gm, '["Socket_4"]',  text="LB Density")
            row = layout.row()
            row.prop(gm, '["Socket_5"]',  text="HB Density")

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(CityGenPanel)
    bpy.utils.register_class(AddGrid)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(CityGenPanel)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(AddGrid)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

This is the error I get
  File "D:\BlenderWorks\Diploma\city.blend\addon.py", line 31, in draw
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'modifiers'

Because context.active_object might be a camera or light, which doesn't have modifiers.
you need to check if context.object is of type MESH.
import bpy

class AddGrid(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "mesh.grid_add"
    bl_label = "Add grid"

    def execute(self, context):
        bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(enter_editmode=False, align='WORLD', location=(0, 0, 0), scale=(1, 1, 1))

        obj = context.object
        mod = obj.modifiers.new("GeometryNodes", 'NODES')
        nodeTree = bpy.data.node_groups["City"]
        mod.node_group = nodeTree

        return {"FINISHED"}

class CityGenPanel(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_label = "CityGen Generator"
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'UI'
    bl_category = 'CityGen'

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.label(text=" Generate city base panel:")

        row = layout.row()
        row.operator("mesh.grid_add", text="Create city base")

        if context.object and context.object.type == "MESH":
            if gm := context.object.modifiers.get("GeometryNodes"):
                row = layout.row()
                row.prop(gm, '["Socket_2"]',  text="Size X")
                row = layout.row()
                row.prop(gm, '["Socket_3"]',  text="Size Y")
                row = layout.row()
                row.prop(gm, '["Socket_4"]',  text="LB Density")
                row = layout.row()
                row.prop(gm, '["Socket_5"]',  text="HB Density")

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(CityGenPanel)
    bpy.utils.register_class(AddGrid)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(CityGenPanel)
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(AddGrid)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()


text:
Extruding edges into cards?
I'm modeling cacti at the moment and wondered if it was possible to use the base shape's edges to create needle cards somehow. I've tried to duplicate the wanted edges into a separate object from there but it seems that I can't extrude the edges following their own normals, only fixed global directions. Any ideas to do this better?

what do you call needles cards? To create the needles you could use particles, as explained here by CG Cookie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZLmHnaj_A8&

This is going to be for a realtime diorama on Sketchfab, can't use particles for that.

but if you convert to real mesh?

That would be an option but I'm trying to go for a low-poly approach. I don't want to spend thousands of triangles on a single cactus' needles.

sorry but I don't see the difference between creating needles from scratch and converting particles to needles, as long as you have the same amount of polygons it will weight the same...

That's why I want to use cards. Like haircards. I don't want a triangle per needle, I want to make planes with needle textures and a transparency map on them.


text:
How To make fluid human model and slowly dissapear?
i've been wondering how to make the scene like image shown

At the first image, the character is fill with fluid, then the character melt down. Can this scene be done in fluid / flip fluid blender ? Thanks before

have a look at this section in the manual which shows a video of humanoid figure made and unmade from water https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/physics/fluid/types/control.html not a full tutorial unfortunately


text:
Convert PNG Sequence as Moving Object
Can you convert PNG Sequence around 200 Frame as plane on Blender ? The cases is, i wanna cast the shadow of of my png sequence using one light to curtain 3d model , the image i attach is the closest reference i can get. Thanks before

You could use a lamp as a projector of your images as an image-sequence, e.g. as illustrated by @rjg here

Thankyou for your responses, glad i found the solution now, i found it hard before how to cast a "black light" to a surface, i just need to project the images but, before that i have to change the color of the png image sequence to white, then in blender, i set the strength of the emission to negative value, @RobinBetts Thanks Alot


text:
Python add sound sequence result only one frame

import bpy
from bpy import context
import os
print(os.getcwd())
scene = context.scene
print(scene)
if not scene.sequence_editor:
    scene.sequence_editor_create()
scene.sequence_editor.sequences.new_sound("digital", "~/sound/digtal.mp3", 1, 19)

Problem in invalid file path.
Короче надо так '//digital.mp3', а не '~/sound/digtal.mp3'
scene.sequence_editor.sequences.new_sound("digital", "//digtal.mp3", 1, 19)


text:
How to include created Geometry Nodes in addon?
I created Geometry Nodes group that I want to include with my addon so I can use it with other projects and/or share it with someone. How can I link Geometry Nodes to my addon?

You can convert it to python and dynamically generate it in your addon https://github.com/BrendanParmer/NodeToPython

You can bundle blend files in your addon zip files and append elements from it


text:
Sculpt Mode Not Working
Whenever I try to use the cloth sculpt tool, it shows up as red. The other sculpt tools don do this, but they just have no effect on anything. How do I fix this?

The red line is to remind you the radius of the Simulation Limit, which is not the same as the brush Size. The Size will determine the size of the brush, the Simulation Limit will determine the area where you can sculpt, the brush won't be able to sculpt beyond this limit. Before you sculpt this area will be a grey line, as soon as you left click, meaning you begin to sculpt, it will be this red line, and you can't change its position until you left click again.
As for the fact that you don't see any effect, its because this brush is a bit painful in default Deformation > Drag mode, first make sure that you have topology, then increase the Strength (up to 1 for example), left click on the part where you want to sculpt and shake the brush to get some folds (you can also decrease the Cloth Mass value to get more effects):

Thank you so much! This fixed it


text:
All my objects are rotating together when I try to rotate them individually
I don't know what I pressed or set on accident but now every time I try to rotate any object separately, multiple objects are moving together. I first noticed it with my camera, trying to rotate it. I tried deleting the camera, restarting Blender, and researching anything I could for "locked/paired/pinned objects while rotating" with no luck. I'm sure this is a quick and easy thing, I just have no clue what the issue is to find/fix. Thanks! Video demo below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F70-PfBPZAI

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

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

Is proportional editing turned on? The shortcut for it is "O" on the keyboard.

Yes! Thank you so much.


text:
Dense Cloud col attribute not showing
I'm using metashape agisoft to generate dense cloud from images and I exported the points in PLY and imported to blender.
then used attribute named it col to get the original color what calculated by metashape but still not showing up.
in the spread sheet the colors data is showing.

As far as I know, when exporting the Point Cloud from MetaShape, the vertex color is saved (somehow), but there are the following problems:

In the OBJ format, a vertex color is stored, but this format does not actually support vertex color, so Blender does not read it (OBJ files and vertex colours).
In PLY format, a vertex color is stored and Blender could theoretically read it as well (but it does NOT), but that wouldn't make much sense anyway, since MetaShape doesn't seem to store correct colors here either.

The alternative is the FBX format. Here you also have a lot of ballast in the package, but it works. With Geometry Nodes you can read the attribute for the vertex color and you can also convert the mesh back into a point cloud.


text:
Point Cloud Stanford Issue
I'm using blender 3.1 and have some issue with geometry nodes, I have a point cloud mesh in PLY and would like to know if there is anyway to apply noise to the vertices location to make it move or to turbulence it

Please add some images of what you have now (including your node tree) and if possible an example of what you wish to achieve.

It doesn't really matter if it's coming from ply or any other format, it should be converted on import to either regular blender mesh object with vertices, or native blender point cloud objects, both of which you can tweak the positions using the same methods as with any other meshes

Generally, this node group is one useful way of applying noise to position vectors:

I don't have a PLY file handy, but here's the result of using it on the Z coordinate of a grid:

You can, of course, apply different noise to the X and Y coordinates.
You can animate the group by setting keyframes on the parameters of the noise texture, or even by making the group more complex and animating the additional nodes.


text:
Compositor Blur unexpected result
I try to blur a circle. I make ellipse and plop it in the corner.
After applying blur, I get this result of seemingly X and Y directions getting more blurred than any other.
result:

Expected result:

What am I doing wrong?

You are not doing anything wrong here, but in connection with your exposure and the positioning of the Ellipse Mask only the unattractive aspect of Fast Gaussian comes to the fore.
In this case, the white areas are more prominent horizontally and vertically, because they are more prominent starting from the upper left corner.
You can avoid this by using a different algorithm for your Blur, for example Gaussian, or by correcting the exposure.

Thanks for solution! Yes, my exposure was over 5, setting it to 1 made the result as expected


text:
How to only render reflections on surface and keep the background transparent?
I want to render a scene with a glossy object and a glossy floor plane and I want it to have a transparent background. I can do it without the reflections on the floor but when I try to add the reflections as well I either make the background black or I just can't get the reflection. How can I do this? I'm using Blender 3.1 and cycles.

are you sure you are in Cycles?

Yes, I'm certain

please show some screenshots

This video uses the Light Path Node from the shader editor to achieve reflections only. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpi_GSx4X9M&ab_channel=ASAArt3d

I'm not sure what you're looking for, but here is a scene with 1 cube and 1 plane, both sharing the same metallic material. There is a HDRI background reflected in both the objects, as well as the cube's reflection on the plane. The background is transparent (due to the underlined checkbox) and the render looks the same as the viewport. Is this what you're looking for?

In general, glossy objects must have an environment to reflect or they won't look glossy.  Since you want a transparent background, the simplest way is to use an HDRI in the World Shader (Blender comes with eight of them, all CC0):

The render must be saved in a format that can handle transparency, such as PNG with RGBA color.  And you said you're using Cycles, this also requires that you have Render Properties > Film > Transparent checked:


text:
How to create a background in Blender?
I have spent ages creating a model, but along the way I must have accidentally clicked something because when I try to add lighting it doesn't work, or when I try to add a cloud background to my model, this doesn't show up either. I have attached pictures. Does anyone know why this might be? Thanks

You need to connect your image texture through the background node before going into the output - the trick though, is that it shouldn't be an Image Texture node, it should be an Environment Texture node (you are using image texture in the provided image).

please pack your image and share your file: https://pasteall.org/blend/

@ChristopherBennett thank you so much for your help!


text:
How to edit cloth simulation frame by frame?
Problem : Cloth intersect with avatar body when it's with cloth simulation.
So I try to change the cloth with sculpting mode frame by frame but I cannot edit it..
I baked cloth simulation and applied, but no change.
Any Ideas?

I'm not sure it's possible except with some convoluted methods, like you convert your cloth to a mesh at the frame where you want to edit it whereas you hide the simulation itself... Maybe the easiest way is to hide some parts of the body, or edit it?

I advise you not to use sculpting for this task, even if it is possible it is time-consuming and should make jittering effect.
Try to use Shrinkwrap modifier on cloth, Snap mode - Outside, target - the mesh body, increase Offset a little to start seeing the effect.

Another useful technique, that's highly recommended by professionals, is to hide everything that's not rendered.
In the body mesh, add all points that's normally hidden by dress into a new vertex group. Then set up the mask modifier like this:

Note that mask modifier is disabled in viewport for baking cloth and enabled in render to hide parts of the mesh that's may intersect with cloth.


text:
Armature Not moving with object correctly

So, when I move my armature in pose mode, its leg and parts aren't moving in unison with bone. I set deform and automatic weights, I also tried weight paint for separate vertex groups on the bones. Not sure what's wrong here

hello please share your file (remove the useless parts), upload and copy paste the URL: https://pasteall.org/blend/

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

It looks like that area is affected by other unwanted bone(s). Try to select that area of the mesh in Edit mode than use Remove from all groups in the vertex group menu. Then go to Pose mode, select the leg bones, then go to Weight Paint mode and use Assign Automatic From Bones. In this way the other bones won't affect the result. https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/sculpt_paint/weight_paint/editing.html#assign-automatic-from-bone

Thank you FFeller, I had 2 layers of vertex groups stacked on that area, I removed them and now it moves fine


text:
call a group of compositing nodes and automatically connect them to the render layers
because I have the need to constantly call the render node into my scenes. I would like to automate the process of joining variants with the same name. or somehow celebrate them
Ideally, of course, there would be an option to create up to 8 similar nodes with the necessary names. But my skills are not even enough to automatically connect one

I will walk you through the process of joining one output to one input. You should be able to generalize from that.  For my example, I'm going to use a Render Layers node for the input side but instead of your group node I'm going to use a Denoise node for the output side.  I'm also going to assume that the nodes are already in the compositor node tree.

The first thing you need to know is that the Compositor Node Tree is attached to the scene, so to access it use
tree = bpy.context.scene.node_tree

You need to find the links for that tree
links = tree.links

You need to find the Render Layer Node's Image output
render_node = tree.nodes['Render Layers']
output_socket = render_node.outputs['Image']

You need to find the Denoise Node's Image input
denoise_node = tree.nodes['Denoise']
input_socket = denoise_node.inputs['Image']

and you need to link them
links.new(output_socket, input_socket)

You'll need to repeat the last three steps for each pair of sockets you want to connect.
Putting the example altogether:
import bpy

bpy.context.scene.use_nodes = True
tree = bpy.context.scene.node_tree
links = tree.links
render_node = tree.nodes['Render Layers']
output_socket = render_node.outputs['Image']

denoise_node = tree.nodes['Denoise']
input_socket = denoise_node.inputs['Image']

links.new(output_socket, input_socket)

If the nodes aren't already created, you create them using tree.nodes.new():
render_node = tree.nodes.new('CompositorNodeRLayers')
denoise_node = tree.nodes.new('CompositorNodeDenoise')

To access your group node, you refer to it by its name, ie tree.nodes['Group'].
To add a group takes two steps, creating the Node Group node, and linking it to an existing node tree:
group_node = tree.nodes.new('CompositorNodeGroup')
group_node.node_tree = bpy.data.node_groups['NodeGroup']

where you replace 'NodeGroup' with the name of your node group.
Creating the Node Tree node group is outside of the scope of the question.
Finally, since the names of the Render Layers node's outputs don't seem to directly match the names of your group's inputs; I suggest you use some sort of data structure, such as a list of tuples to store the names for you to iterate over to create all of the connections.  Here's one approach:
def attach_sockets(tree, from_node, to_node, socket_list):
    ''' socket_list is alist of tuples of socket names.
        The first is the output socket of from_node to use.
        The second is the input socket of to_node.
        Each pair is linked.
        No error handling is done.
    '''
    for sockets in socket_list:
        src = from_node.outputs[sockets[0]]
        dst = to_node.inputs[sockets[1]]
        tree.links.new(src, dst)

# A list of tuples containing the names of the output socket
# and input socket for a set of attachments.
socket_list = [
    ('Image', 'Image'),
    ('Denoising Normal', 'Normal'),
    ('Denoising Albedo', 'Albedo'),
]

attach_sockets(tree, render_node, group_node, socket_list)

KeyError: 'bpy_prop_collection[key]: key "Render Layers" not found. He writes this when trying to refer to the line render_node = tree.nodes['Render Layers']


text:
Geometry Nodes - Create Object Between Two Separate Curves
I would like to create columns/rods between two curves generated in geometry nodes similar to this:

I tried the raycast node based on this post but I can't get it to work since some of the nodes have been updated and they are slighly different from what is in the post.
This is what I have so far (I am not concerned about the shape of the top and bottom curves at the moment. Just the connecting vertical members).

What would be the best means of modeling the connecting elements in geometry nodes?

I tried the raycast node based on this post but I can't get it to work since some of the nodes....

I think using Raycast method in cases where your objects don't have faces can be quite tricky, especially when working with curves. I'd suggest using Transfer Attribute node instead where you can take the positions of the points on both of your curves and transfer them to a new curve line object (which will be used to create the connecting columns/rods between your curves)
It'll look something like this:

Explanation of why this is working:

The general idea is to transfer the position of every point on both of your curves twice (or to have them repeated twice).

Once you've done so, the next thing you need to do is pick out the coordinate, in an alternating pattern. Since the connecting lines are Curve Lines objects that are instanced on both of the curves, you can use the Spline Parameter node with the Factor output (which will be outputting 0-1-0-0-1-0-1... value) to pick out the coordinate.

The final coordinate (or positions) will look like this. And you can use this to set the position of your Curve Lines objects so that they'll connecting your curves objects.

Here's a small demo of this method:

Here's the node setup:

UPDATE (to Khristos's comment):

I can however not get the vertical rods to be truly vertical or parallel when the two curves have different shapes...

If that's the case (the rods have to be vertical and parallel) then you'd want to use Raycast instead. The idea is simple: In order for the lines to be vertical and parallel to each other, from every point on your 1st curves, you'll want to find the position of all the points on the other opposite side of your 2nd curves. Because of that, you'll need to shoot rays in a straight direction from 1st curve -> 2nd curves. To be able to cast ray towards any object, the targeted object need to have faces so you'll need to add extra geometry (faces) to the curves for this method to fully work. This can be achieved by turning the 2nd curves to mesh and then using the Extrude Mesh node to create some additional geometry for raycast.
A comparison between 1st method (Position transferring) & 2nd method (Raycast)

The node setup:

A reminder: since the direction vectors used to cast the rays were derived from the center points of the splines, there'd be cases where the lines got a little skewed or tilted, so you'd want to adjust the Ray Angles to achieve better results.

I also attached the blend.file in case you want to take a closer look later on.

Thanks for the detailed explanation @CubicSpaceMonkN. This is 'almost' what I was looking for. I can however not get the vertical rods to be truely vertical or parallel when the two curves have different shapes. Here is an example https://i.sstatic.net/KgTog.png

Ah,  if that's the case (you want the rods to not only be connected but also vertical and parallel) then you have no other choice but to use the Raycast node. The idea is the same as in my original answer but you want to find the center point of each spline, subtract them to get the directional vector, and use it for ray cast. I'll make an update to my answer and attach the blend.file so you can take a look at it later on.

This is great, thanks!


text:
Making the texture on this fighter jet jet

my current progress I want only the nodes for the material of the body and not the texture on it.

Note its a composite material , hope this helps you to answer my question.

Hello :). What have you tried so far and where exactly are you stuck? Please also add more details (like a closeup shot and your current progress) otherwise the question is impossible to answer :).

Jachym Michal , i have now edited my answer and posted my progress

Just to be clear, you don't want the camo pattern?

Robin Betts NO SIR I WANT ONLY A PLAIN MATERIAL

@DEFENCE Hey :). What exactly are you not happy with regarding your current progress? Please be as specific as possible. Also how does your node-setup look right now? Perhaps a simple Principled BSDF shader with grey color and high roughness would be enough.

Jachym Michal , My texture looks mettalic while the 2nd one isnt , fighter jets are made up of composite , so it needs to be a bit less reflective and but at the same time it needs to be really smooth. i want something like a matte or plastic finish , node pics would be appreciated

Hey :). Then what's the problem? Use Principled BSDF with Base Color = grey,  Metallic = 0 (so it's NOT metallic) and Roughnes ~ 0,7 (so it's rough)

Jachym Michal Thats working . thanks


text:
I need to export a tree in Blender 2.91.2
The tree leaves are made of an transparent icosphere, and in the icosphere is a particle system with leaves (no animation, just still leaves). The icosphere is made transparent by adjusting the surface settings to Surface > Transparent BSDF and in settings making the Blend Mode > Alpha Blend.
How my model looks in Blender,

When exported (you can see the icospheres basically)

I guess you will have to adjust the materials again after exporting.

What do you mean with that?

Probably this: Why are there no materials or textures on my exported model?


text:
Issue with exporting .STL after shade smoothing
I've just finished modeling some object in Fusion 360, exported it as an .STL file and opened it up in Blender in order to make it smoother. So I applied Shade Smooth with Auto smooth enabled on 45 degrees. Surfaces got smooth enough as I need them to be.
After that I tried exporting my model again as an .STL, but after exporting, it didn't export smoothness I applied. I tried exporting many times, also with .OBJ and .STL and nothing. I've searched similar problem on many other forums and communities but nothing helpful was found. I've tried Meshmixer but it distorts my surfaces instead of smoothing them out.
I got to the point where I'm not able to perform even that simple step in Blender. There should be a simple answer on what I'm doing wrong or why Blender won't do what I want.

Shade smooth is only shading done in software and doesn't change the geometry of your model.  If you want it smoother you need to add a subdivision surface modifier which will add the "smoothness" to your geometry.
As you have imported this as an STL, the topology will be pretty bad and the subdivision surface modifier may not work well (which may be why meshmixer is giving you trouble too). Ideally, you want to remesh it first.  Decimate might work depending on the model and then add subdivision surface modifier afterwards to smooth it.
Remember when modelling for 3d printing, model with shade flat, not shade smooth.


text:
Twists Meshes in Geometry Nodes
How can I twist meshes around another mesh as shown in the image below with geometry nodes? I know Set Curve Tilt and Curve to Mesh nodes could be used to achieve a similar result, but the meshes in my node tree are already generated and modified by other nodes so Curve to Mesh will not work.

I have created two variants for you here:

One creates the mesh shown with Geometry Nodes, and the other twists an existing mesh.
So the answer to your question is:

Capture the height of your mesh with the node Bounding Box.
Map the Z-position of each vertex with the maximum height into a range of $0$ - $2\pi$. This is the angle that also increases as a function of height until it reaches a full $360°$ rotation.
Rotate the vector on the Z-axis with this angle and use that as the position for the node Set Position.


text:
How do I disable gizmo and get hotkeys back?
Recently installed blender v 3.1.2. I've always used hotkeys G+X/Y/Z to move objects, or r to rotate and s to scale. After downloading the new version, I couldn't use the hotkeys and pressing g/r/s will show the Gizmo thing, even when I didn't check the Object Gizmo boxes. If I turn off the 'show Gizmo' tab, I can't move the objects at all. Help T.T

You can export the Keymap Preferences from old verison if uninstall not yet.

Other solution:

Right click the Gizmo and Remove Shortcut.

Right click to change stortcut

Or set shortcut in Preferences

It's also possible that OP selected the modern keymap of blender when first opening the splash screen on new install. IIRC opening a new install post 2.8 would ask if you wanted to use the older style keymap or the new one with the emphasis on tool widgets, standard keymap etc. Maybe just reinstalling and opening a new install again and checking that box would take care of all these kinds of issues that might crop up in one fell swoop.


text:
I can't see my rig!
My character has a rig but I can't see it in Object mode, Pose mode, I checked if the rig is hidden and it is visible when I look on the right.

if my answer doesn't help, pls provide blend file. thx.

Click on "selectability & visibility" and check whether armature is unchecked.

Thank you, I'll check if it works. :3


text:
The head moves without the hair, eyes and hat
I parented the bones to the head but it gives me a weird error, the hair, hat and eyes don't follow the head when I move the model. Any suggestions?

Parent the hair, hat and eyes to the head with Ctrl-P >Object:  Keep Transform..

I did but still moves weird, That's what I did in the first place.

Select the hair, shift select the rig, go to pose mode, select the head bone, Ctrl P > Bone.
Repeat for all others objects, choosing an appropriate bone (depending on how the rig is built).
BTW the head is parented to the bone, not vice-versa.

thank you, the head looks okay now

@Zoe Maya Animations if the answer is correct, mark it as such


text:
How to disable continuous grab in edit mode?
I've disabled continuous grab in the input section of the preferences, but in edit mode, when using loop cut the cursor behaves like the option is still on.
It's even more weird that the loop cut tool behaves like that only when using shortcut. When I chose tool from left side list, it works normal.
What can I do to stop loop cut from trying to overlap over edges of the current window?

The feature to turn off continuous grab for the Loop Cut tool is not available.
Continuous grab will turn off in edit mode with the setting turned off in preferences, but for every tool except the Loop Cut tool.

So only rebuilding modified version of blender can solve the issue :( I've started digging in the source code, for now found editmesh_loopcut.c but I'm not sure if its correct place to start investigation

Is this really that important? I wouldn't suggest trying to modify blender if it's not that important (waste too much time).

Unfortunately continuous grab is bugged (or x11 mouse grab), either way it launching my mouse pointer into space when I accidentally move it off screen

Maybe try and find a way to fix it rather then trying to turn it off

For now I just need some easy solution so disabling it is the way, but when I find some spare time I'll try to find why it's behaving like that and maybe I'll manage to fix it, cos continuous grab is nice feature to have.

I found two solutions to this problem:
Easy one is to run Blender in debug mode:
blender --debug--all

It disables continuous grab
Little bit more work is to edit ./source/blender/windowmanager/intern/wm_cursors.c function WM_cursor_grab_enable and slap return statement at the beginning,
It will suppress continuous grab entirely.


text:
Blender Geometry Nodes 'Point Scale' node missing. Looking for an alternative
I'm following this teleportation effect in blender tutorial by Max Zhang 3D but it's a 3-year-old video, so his Blender version is also old.
I'm new to geometry nodes so I don't know if I'll be able to go into the technicalities of my doubt but from what I see is that around 2:40 in the tutorial he uses a node called 'Point Scale' which is missing in Blender 4.1.
I tried messing around with the nodes but nothing worked out.
I would really appreciate it if someone out there could spare their time to help me with this as I have a deadline to be met.

this is the screenshot from the tutorial.

this is my blender setup.

The point scale value has been integrated into the Instance on points node, so you can control the cubes size with a Geomtery > Read > Named Attribute, targeting at the attribute with the name of the vertex group ("a" in my example).


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How can I export an animation containing a single pose and keep the keyframes intact?
I have an animation with a single pose in it that I want to export as an FBX and bring into Unity. I've determined that the issue is on the Blender export, not the Unity import.
The animation I'm working with has 3 keyframes (one at the beginning, middle, and end) all with the same values on them to hold the pose for 20 frames. What I want is for Blender to only export my authored keyframes, but that's proven difficult so far. I've tried a combination of different export settings, and none of them give the results I'm looking for. Here's what I've tried:

These export settings do export the animated pose properly, however Blender forces start/end keys on every animated bone and blend shape even if they did not originally contain any keyframes. This is an issue especially for blend shapes because it prevents me from controlling those values via code, as the code-driven values are overwritten when playing the animation in Unity.

I tried disabling Force Start/End Keying (like in the image below), but that results in the animation not exporting at all! I think Blender is removing keyframes that are too similar to one another, which ends up erasing all animation data in this case.

To fix the issue of all the keyframes getting removed, I played around with the Simplify value to see if that might help anything. The lowest non-zero value I could use was 0.01 and that still had no effect. If I export the animation with a Simplify value of 0.00, Blender exports the animation with keyframes on every single frame for every bone and blend shape on the model even if there was no animation there to begin with. Again, this is an issue because I want to control the blend shape via code, and the animation overrides the blend shape value to 0.0.

If anyone has any tips or thoughts on how to get this working I'd really appreciate it!