text:
FBX Export behaviour with Lights
I have a client who wants their scenes to be plug and play in Maya V-Ray which has been a headache. My main issue is that area lights in Blender have a custom property for it's x and y size while maya just uses scaling of the Light object.
Now you could scale the light in Blender but on export from Blender as an FBX the Lights lose all their scale values and end up as 1m planes. Weirdly enough when reimporting into Blender for whatever reason the Light would end up with a [1,1,1] scaling but 0.25m in the Area Light -> Rectangle Property.
Am i missing something here to force scale on lights? Any input is appreciated!

I am not using Maya or know how FBX treats an Area Light, but you are not really missing something, it is just that in Blender an Area Light and also other objects have properties which give them their initial shape and size and these properties can be transformed, i.e. moved, rotated and scaled - but that does not change the actual property. Like a mesh object which might have a scale of [1, 1, 1] but that does not mean that the mesh is simply a cube of 1 m on each side. Scaling in Object Mode is a non-destructive transformation, even for an Area Light.

Just tried export and re-import of an Area Light as FBX. Actually here the light does not end up as an Area Light with Rectangle property. The exported Area Light was Rectangle, size 4 m × 1.5 m. Re-importing it does not import an Area Light, it is a Point Light. I have to manually switch it to Area and then it's set to Square (not Rectangle) and 0.25 m - now this is simply the default which you get when you add a Point Light in a Blender scene and change it to Area. Which means, FBX obviously cannot handle any of the properties and so you get a default Point lamp.


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Hooks aren’t pulling on cloth
I have been doing a tutorial on cloth reveal on an object, and I’ve made the cloth, physics and stuff but I’m stuck at the part of the hooks pulling on the cloth to reveal the object. In my case the hooks don’t do anything after I’ve set the animation, they act as if they aren’t hooked to the cloth. Anyone can help?

because you didn't showed us any settings you made - we can just guess: so my guess is: your hook modifier is after the cloth modifier, but it should be before. if this doesn't help, pls provide blend file so we don't have to ask what you did and check it out ourselves. thx. also you should provide the tutorial link....

As Chris mentioned, we have no idea what you did... my only guess apart from maybe incorrect order of modifiers could be, well - you did not do it as described in the tutorial (which would include having them in incorrect order for example). Since you say they act as if they aren't hooked to the cloth, then this might simply be the case because something went wrong when you tried to hook the cloth to them.

Maybe you need to put the Hook modifiers before the Cloth modifier, hard to tell with sofew informations

You need to:

Put the Cloth modifier below the Hook modifiers
Create a pin group

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
change color and thickness of wireframe node
I want to make a non flickering wireframe render. Like when we turn the object.
In this video, is my object using the freestyle grease pencil and is flickering a lot in the upper part. I tried erasing some of the overlapping edges, but there are many.
https://youtube.com/shorts/3nNunLokg5k
Then I tried with the wireframe modifier, but the back faces of course are shown and well,is not what i wanted.
Until I read about the wireframe node in the shading section! But now i have 2 questions: how can I increase the contour lines thickness as well as changing the color?
I have no idea on how to search for it. Could it be maybe another node in rendering? Or could it be inside the shading?

thank you

I managed to do it by connecting the emission shader to the other shader input in the mix shader.
Still unsure on how to make the outline thicker, but like this works!

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


text:
My textures are not being applied to the mesh I am editing inside the Shader Editor
Context:
I bought this animal pack that I want to use inside of Twinmotion and maybe Sketchup.
Thus I look for ways to export the .fbx file with textures. I find this tutorial on the matter which requires the use of blender. No worries, I'll follow all the steps.
But whereas he instantly gets a result while adding the textures (the viewport is updated automatically), I get nothing. I add the color file in both TGA and PNG versions and neither changes anything: my cow mesh is still metallic grey.
Here are some usefull screenshots of my blender workspace and also the texture files that I exported from Unreal Engine along with the mesh.

All the textures can be accessed via this Ufile.io link.

I'm thankfull for any tips anyone might have on this issue, I honestly did not imagine the usage of a pre-existing 3D cow would prove so complicated...

You can preview materials by changing the Viewport Shading mode to 'Material Preview'. Either press 'z' and then '2' or use the sphere icons on the top right of the viewport.

Omg, I knew it was going to be such a 2 click fix, it works!
This is why forums like this are so usefull, I would have had to read 50 pages of documentation before trying this and finding the solution...
Thank you!


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Aligning vertices to centre
I am new to Blender.
I am making a character using the mirror technique, however there is a hole in his head.
I understand that there is a single vertex that needs to be aligned in the middle to fix it, however if I do it by hand it will not be perfect.
How do I align this vertex so it creates a solid head?
In this case, I imagine it is quite simple as it is perpendicular to the X axis, however if it was not, how would I fix it?
Many thanks

You can get there quite easily using Vertex Snapping.
Enable Snapping > Vertex, and use the Move tool to align it to other verts.

Thanks, this worked. I am now making spiky hair for my character, and would like the spikes to be the same height in relation to the face that they are being extruded off. I would also like each spike to be perpendicular to the face that it is being extruded off. Is there a tool for this? I would have posted another question but there are time limits :/

isn't the Clipping option what he's looking for?

I might have worded that wrong. What I mean is that the answer above worked, however if i want to scale an extruded face the same amount how do I do that.

@Malted_Wheaties Hello :). Please post it as a new question with images and I'm sure someone will help.


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Can Blender (2.8) export Third Layer Children to FBX?
I have heard that Blender (2.8)'s FBX export has a Mysterious Issue when exporting 'grandchildren' of the Root object.
Is this true?
A particular LOD import system I am working with required grandchildren + naming convention for LODs to be imported.
I have tried, and had a number of issues when using 'grandchildren' in this project, in that: they just don't exist in the project after exporting the FBXs from Blender.
It's all super simple static meshes. No rigs, or animation or anything.
If Blender simply doesn't / can't export deep childing... Then I will have to look elsewhere :(


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Is it possible to export glTF models vertices, UVs and normals with signed short "2 bytes", not float "4 bytes"?
I had exported a glTF model from blender, when I put .bin file to hex editor, it seems his vertices, UVs and normals are in "4 bytes" float, or IEEE 754 floating point, like the example below.
➤ Is it possible to export glTF models with short_signed not float, or "2 bytes" only, not "4 bytes" in the vertices, UVs and normals?
Example:

Vertices are in float:
X = 34 80 45 C2 ----short_signed----> xx xx
Y = C1 F9 65 42 ----short_signed----> xx xx
Z = 94 F6 76 41 ----short_signed----> xx xx

UVs are in float:
X = AD 69 0E 3F ----short_signed----> xx xx
Y = 5D FE 63 3F ----short_signed----> xx xx

Normals are in float:
X = 66 96 66 BF ----short_signed----> xx xx
Y = 56 66 DE 3E ----short_signed----> xx xx
Z = 00 00 80 3F ----short_signed----> xx xx

➤ If it is impossible, please give me any method to convert this "4 bytes" float hexadecimal to "2 bytes" only, and make it short?      (IEEE 754 floating point --------> signed short)
➤ Or is there another model format with signed short, or "2 bytes" in the vertices, UVs and normals?
Thanks in advance.

Answered at https://stackoverflow.com/a/61717881/1314762.


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Is there a way to save a tracker's tracking data and restore it after deletion
I'm currently developing a Python script for Blender that automates the cleanup function to progressively reduce the solve error in tracking. The script successfully decreases the solve error over iterations; however, occasionally, an unexpected spike in solve error occurs.
Here's an illustrative sequence of the solve error progression:
5.0
4.5
4.3
4.0
3.7
2.5
1.4
89.9 (Unexpected spike)
At the eighth step, the solve error suddenly jumps from 1.4 to 89.9. I believe this is due to the deletion of specific trackers during the cleanup process, which adversely affects the solve error.
I'm seeking a way to restore the recently deleted trackers whenever such an error spike occurs, aiming to revert the solve error back to its previous lower value (in this case, 1.4). I am thinking it may be possible to save the trackers before deletation but I am not to sure.
Does anyone have suggestions or insights into how this might be accomplished? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Not a programmer but in such an instance can you not program in a conditional if statement that if such a tracker were to be found, do an undo operation, else move onto the next tracker.

I have tried using the undo function but with no success… I have used the push method for undo but I can’t get it to work.

Usually when working with data sets in programming you can write the data into an array/table which then can be referenced and edited accordingly, I'd assume such a thing is possible for this case.


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How can I get acces to the solve error value in the clip editor, and the projection error from trackers in python?
How can I access the solve error value generated from the "Solve Camera Motion" in Blender using a Python script? Additionally, how do I retrieve the projection error for each tracker through Python?

I don't think there is any api that exposes the camera solve error

Do you know any other way I could get the solve error in python?

No I don't think it's possible.


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Add a external loading/information screen for blender addon
I am in the process of developing a Blender addon that involves certain operations requiring a significant amount of time to complete. When executing demanding processes from the addon Blender's main interface can appear to go white or unresponsive, even though it is actively processing tasks in the background, as evidenced by the console.
I am interested in incorporating an additional pop-up window that provides users with real-time information about the ongoing operations and which percentage it is from being completed. How can I achieve this functionality?


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How to modify keyframe A and B via Python
I'm stuck trying to access the Keyframe A and B options through Blender's Python API. To give you a better idea, here's a screenshot of the options I'm talking about::
I've tried a few things to get to them but haven't had any luck. For example, I tried using Blender tooltips, but the text keeps getting cut off, no matter how wide I make the window. Here's what I'm seeing:
bpy.data.movieclips["0001.png"] ... keyframe_a.

I also tried selecting the value and hitting enter to see if it would show up in the info window. I even tried changing the number, but both actions gave me the same result:
bpy.data.movieclips["0001.png"].(null) = 30
bpy.data.movieclips["0001.png"].(null) = 59

I would greatly appreciate any assistance.Thank you in advance!

If you right click on Keyframe A and select Edit Source

You will get this class in the text editor.
class CLIP_PT_tools_solve(CLIP_PT_tracking_panel, Panel):
    bl_space_type = 'CLIP_EDITOR'
    bl_region_type = 'TOOLS'
    bl_label = "Solve"
    bl_category = "Solve"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.use_property_split = True
        layout.use_property_decorate = False

        clip = context.space_data.clip
        tracking = clip.tracking
        settings = tracking.settings
        tracking_object = tracking.objects.active
        camera = clip.tracking.camera

        col = layout.column()
        col.prop(settings, "use_tripod_solver", text="Tripod")
        col = layout.column()
        col.active = not settings.use_tripod_solver
        col.prop(settings, "use_keyframe_selection", text="Keyframe")

        col = layout.column(align=True)
        col.active = (not settings.use_tripod_solver and
                      not settings.use_keyframe_selection)
        col.prop(tracking_object, "keyframe_a")
        col.prop(tracking_object, "keyframe_b")

        col = layout.column(heading="Refine", align=True)
        col.active = tracking_object.is_camera
        col.prop(settings, "refine_intrinsics_focal_length", text="Focal Length")
        col.prop(settings, "refine_intrinsics_principal_point", text="Optical Center")

        col.prop(settings, "refine_intrinsics_radial_distortion", text="Radial Distortion")

        row = col.row()
        row.active = (camera.distortion_model == 'BROWN')
        row.prop(settings, "refine_intrinsics_tangential_distortion", text="Tangential Distortion")

        col = layout.column(align=True)
        col.scale_y = 2.0

        col.operator("clip.solve_camera",
                     text="Solve Camera Motion" if tracking_object.is_camera
                     else "Solve Object Motion")

Now the keyframe_a and keyframe_a props has the data of tracking_object
clip = context.space_data.clip
tracking = clip.tracking
tracking_object = tracking.objects.active

col.prop(tracking_object, "keyframe_a")
col.prop(tracking_object, "keyframe_b")

To modify Keyframe A and Keyframe B, try this in the console.
# replace `footage.mp4` with your movieclip name
D.movieclips['footage.mp4'].tracking.objects.active.keyframe_a = 5
D.movieclips['footage.mp4'].tracking.objects.active.keyframe_b = 10


text:
How to view perpendicular relative to the armature in 3d view?
I have problem viewing armature for example from the side view, because the armature is already rotated.
Is there a way to view it like using the numpad, but relative to the armature and not to the world.

maybey what you want is Shift 1, 3, 7 etc... instead of 1, 3, 7, etc... Shift will align with the selected object orientation, not the global orientation

That seems to be the answer so submit it as an answer so that other people looking for a similar problem are more likely to find this answer


text:
Blender 2.8 How to delete hierarchy?
Blender 2.8 How to delete hierarchy in the outliner?
I've been searching for this.
I can't find a straight foward answer.
Can it be done?
How?

Does this answer your question? How to delete hierarchy along with the object to which it is parented   or https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/162925/i-have-a-large-scene-with-a-hierarchy-of-nested-empties-i-need-to-select-and-de

You click on it with your right mouse button and select "delete". Works for everything except the Scene Collection, of course.

in Blender 2.83 it seems delete hierarchy isn't possible.
But I tested in 2.91 the feature is there just like in ver 2.79.

It's definitely there in 2.83. If not, you might try to reset to factory via "File - Defaults - Load Factory Settings".


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Is there a way to make more space between two keyframe without grabing?
Is there a way to make more space between two keyframe without grabing?
I need to do it many  times, so grabbing when there already a lot of keyframes in won't be efficient.

you can press b for box select, select many things and then s to scale

Well, that will make all my keyframes have more space. That's not what I want to achieve.
To be specific, I need to make space between two keyframes at certain points.


text:
How to place More than one image on top of a material?
I have more than one images that I want to put on top of a material.
Most tutorials shows how to put only 1 image.
And if using node, I have to choose the strength between the image and the texture. While I need both of them to have the factor of strength of 1. Thus node seems not the way. I dunno.
And, is there a way to  add images to a material and them position them on the 3dviewport easily?

Can u please elaborate or demonstrate more clearly what you want to achieve? ITs kind of hard just from your text to understand,

MMm... I have a tshirt object. I already applied a white material on the mesh. But I want also to add more image details of a logo, buttons, and stitches.  And them position them at the correct place respectively.

Lets start with the material ok. First of all import a base color image if it is there then use the brush image aka button, stictches and else,. make sure this brush image have repeat in the node set to clip, so it won't repeat, otherwise you will get repetition and won't get desired location.

make  sure the brush image have transparency of the part you don't want it, look at the image in image viewer above it is transparent and only has those white pattern. connect this alpha to factor of mix node and so on.
Secondly make the node setup as the image 2 shown

You can see in the node editor I use a different UV map for the brush object because it will scale and move and you don't want that to happen to your base texture. here is the UV stack I am showing

Now fourth thing you want your UV to be movable ? add a modifier to the mesh of yours called UV Project and
select the brush UV u want to use. And add a new empty to scene and on the modifier of the original mesh add this empty to the bottom option as in the image

Voila now when u move the empty, your UV will move and so it will affect actual texture. scale it rotate move all works you can also go in UV edit mode while ur active uv is brush-UV
and scale there too .
Repeat the process for the other parts. But Tbh I recommend texture painting for these kind of stuff. But you asked for it so here it is all. Good luck
Here is the blend file I can't share these textures, cuz they are paid but you can add ur image in node editor.
To add more brush just do this in node editor.

Here is the blend file without textures   https://www.mediafire.com/file/ca6iwldztgatbrw/Movable_Texture_Overlay.blend/file


text:
Why metallic surface always becomes dark/black on diffuse baking on cycles engine?
I have a material with node PRINCIPLE BSDF that sets mettalic to 1 and the color yellow but when baked always resulted black surface.
If set to 0, than the color yellow can appear.
So, the higher of the mettalic value it gets, the darker or blacker the baking result becomes. Is this normal?

There is no diffuse component to metallic Principled.  At 1.0, there is only a specular (glossy) component.  Between 0 and 1, it is mixed with the base Principled, which has a diffuse component.  If you want the metallic color, you should be baking glossy color instead of diffuse.  Baking lighting into a glossy shader isn't going to work very well, because it is view dependent (not sure exactly how Blender currently handles baking specular lighting, but not well, last time I looked.)


text:
How to merge / weld a vertex to an edge without moving it first?
If I had an vertex on top of an edge. I know how to merge it by moving it first and the snap it to the edge back, there's a merge option for that. But my question is, can it be merged without moving the vertex first?
Because I have many vertices on top of an edge, it would be tedious if I had to select all the vertices one by one, move them and then snap them back.

Select all vertices to get merged, shift select the vertex of the edge (it has to be the active one - last selected), press M and choose "At last".

I might understand the question wrong, but snapping a vertex to an edge doesn't sound like merging it with one end vertex of an edge... your solution would merge all vertices into one single vertex on one end. If that's what the OP meant I guess this should be clarified in the question.

The question is about merging, not snapping. Probably he used the automerge option, moving and snapping to merge; he is asking how to merge without moving.

I know, but still it is misunderstandable what he means since he's talking about snapping to an edge, not a vertex. And also the expression "on top of an edge" leaves some doubt about where he wants to merge.

Hai everyone Josh Sanfelici's answer is the one I need and he understands my question correctly.
Thank you all for participating.
I've been searching for this answer for days.

@JuanFeju: we are happy Josh could help you. it would be great if you could check the checkmark left to his answer. That's the way here to show this answer fullfilled your needs.


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Color picker and pallete suddenly missing in texture paint
While working suddenly color picker and pallete suddenly missing in texture paint. How to make them reappear?
Blender 2.93

You have the current brush set to Soften, which does not use colour. Switch the brush to Draw or Fill to bring back the colour picker.


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FBX Blender Export to Unity - Textures will not stay with model (using blender render or cycles render)
I've seen this issue come up several times in multiple forums and there doesn't appear to be a clear way to resolve (for my situation).

My Goal: Export the model (above) I created in blender with material to Unity for testing. Once the model is in Unity, I should be able to 'Extract Textures' on the model so Unity automatically maps the textures. Note: I'm very much a beginner, especially when it comes to this exporting exercise.
Summary of General Issues: I've attempted many FBX exports, tweaking properties each time and using both the cycles render and blender render. For some reason the model doesn't appear to be able to bake the textures correctly, so that when I import to unity I can simply 'Extract Textures...'
Other Background detail: Running Blender 2.79b (haven't learned 2.8 well enough yet :)), I have my model with one mesh and one material. I've already UV unwrapped the mesh, and the model looks great in the 3D view.
1st attempt to resolve - I've clicked 'File -> Export -> FBX' from blender, and I've switch the 'Path mode' to 'Copy' and select the 'Embed Textures in FBX binary file...' I've attempted this a few times and this seems to do nothing. I also did attempt this in 2.8, and no effect.
2nd attempt - I then read in a separate article that texture data does not simply stay with your model (despite the above which appeared to work for other users), and you need to be able to 'Bake' your textures. I started with cycles render, and every time I clicked 'Bake', my UV image disappeared and I saw a black silhouette replace the original image. I then had to reload the image and tweak some of the settings. The image appears to bake. However, after attempting to import to unity, no texture appears to have come with the object (as the option is still greyed out to 'Extract Textures' in Unity).

3rd attempt - Reading a separate thread, cycles render may not be the way to go. I read that baking only really succeeds with blender render, however after ensuring I had my UV Image, having only 1 model, maintaining only 1 material, and attempting to tweak the baking settings, the UV image disappears, and the material doesn't appear to bake.

4th attempt - I also read that ticking the 'selected to active' box was important, however when I check that box, the UV image disappears again, and this time I have a 'No Object or images found to bake to' error.

Several attempts later - I've attempted tweaking nodes and ensuring the diffuse shader is enabled. I added a bright light into blender to ensure the baking could occur as I've read that could cause the silhouette.
Does anyone know and can clearly explain to me how to proceed accomplishing the goal above? I feel close, just banging my head up against blender and reading the documentation, and I feel like I must be missing something silly.

Hello :). Does this help? .fbx export why there are no materials or textures?

@JachymMichal Thanks for the response - I did check out the first response under 'http://www.gamefromscratch.com/post/2014/07/16/Baking-Blender-materials-to-texture-to-make-them-usable-in-a-game-engine.aspx', and followed the steps. Unfortunately baking still seems to be the issue. I have the 1 material, the UV already unwrapped as it needs to be, but whenever I select my UVs (CTRL + A), and attempt a 'full render' bake, it doesn't show the progress - it merely flips the image black. Is there likely a reason for this?

Hey :). I'm no expert on baking. Consider adding your comment into your question - and try different answers from the linked thread :).

Figured it out - The link from above got me about 75% of the way there. For some reason the texture was never showing after baking. Through a lot of trial and error, I found out I had to adjust the 'Shading' settings under the 'Material' property. For some reason, by clicking the box for 'Shadeless', the texture appeared. I exported using the steps explained in attempt #1 above, and then the 'Extract Textures' button was no longer greyed out in Unity!

Congrats :). Please add the solution as an answer (just copy your comment). It keeps the site organized and may help others with a similar problem :). Cheers.

Figured it out - The link from above got me about 75% of the way there. For some reason the texture was never showing after baking. Through a lot of trial and error, I found out I had to adjust the 'Shading' settings under the 'Material' property. For some reason, by clicking the box for 'Shadeless', the texture appeared. I exported using the steps explained in attempt #1 above, and then the 'Extract Textures' button was no longer greyed out in Unity! –


text:
How to determine if a tracking marker is inside a mask?
How can I determine whether a camera tracking marker is inside or outside a mask that I have created in Blender using Python? For instance, if I create a mask in Blender's masking area for a specific sequence and then want to use the detect feature function in the camera tracking workspace at the start of the sequence. As soon as any of the tracking markers enter the masked area, I want them to be disabled in that frame, so that specific tracking marker do not continue tracking. How can I achieve this functionality? Keep in mind that these masks can be animated and may consist of points connected by a Bezier lines.


text:
How To Capture Mouse Movements During Blender Operations
I'm looking to capture mouse movements while using specific Blender operations, such as bpy.ops.transform.transform("INVOKE_DEFAULT", mode="TIME_TRANSLATE"). This function is typically used for manipulating keyframes in the Dope Sheet editor.
Here's what I aim to achieve:

I press the 'G' key on my keyboard to start moving a keyframe and initiate a function.
Following this, I want to adjust the position of the keyframes using my mouse.

During this process, as I move my mouse and edit the keyframe positions, I need the event.type == "MOUSEMOVE" condition to trigger within a modal operator. This will allow me to run separate functions concurrently as I move the initially selected keyframe.
Currently here is my code:
    def modal(self, context, event):

    # print(f"self.is_grab_mode = {self.is_grab_mode}")
    if event.type == "G" and event.value == "PRESS":
        bpy.ops.transform.transform("INVOKE_DEFAULT", mode="TIME_TRANSLATE")
        if event.type == "G" and event.value == "PRESS":
            # Trigger the default move operation

            # Simultaneous action
            additional_action(context)
            return {"RUNNING_MODAL"}

    elif event.type == "ESC":
        # Exit the modal operation
        return {"CANCELLED"}

    if event.type == "MOUSEMOVE":
        print("Mouse move detected")
        return {"PASS_THROUGH"}

    return {"PASS_THROUGH"}

Everything works except the fact that event.type == "MOUSEMOVE" does not get entered while I am moving the keyframe after I have pressed G.

Without modifying the source code, I don't think you can run another operator when the built-in ops is running and returns {"RUNNING_MODAL"}.  You may consider to make your own version, e.g. bpy.ops.transform.transform_v2


text:
How can I extract warnings/messages from the system console in blender to python script
How can I extract warnings or other messages from the Blenders system console into my Python script? For instance, I would like to be able to check if a specific warning has occurred during the use of an operator.
One example of this is when you solve your camera motion and receive the message, "Warning: Some data failed to reconstruct (see console for details)," in the system console. I want to be able to check in Python if this message has occurred.

Thats now how python works, unless the errors are from your script, but from description  seems like some addon fails. You would have to inject your code to plugin or code your self some wrappers, unless you simply mean exception, then use try and  except <yourtype>

I am trying to detect if the message "Warning: Some data failed to reconstruct (see console for details)" appear in the system console when I use the solve camera motion operator.

This is the way, but It won't work easily and I can't tell you how to do it cause I don't know if it will work with blender https://stackoverflow.com/a/22822313/11650254,
Why do you  even need that warning in first place?

@GrzegorzKrug: it doesn't - at least when i tried it. Maybe i made it wrong.

I have also tried that method but I don't find it woking.


text:
How to select identical meshes from a single imported model, in object mode, that are separated individually in the outliner?
I have this castle model I received from a CG website and it came in the form of an .obj. After importing I noticed that almost every piece was separated from one another. I was hoping to find help in selecting all the pieces that are the same (even though they are separated in the outliner). They also do not have unique materials and have semi-unique names.

If Shift L doesn't work it means that the meshes of the objects are not linked, if you want to link them, select all the object, shift select the one you want to link to, then Ctrl L > Link Object Data

If they all use the same material, you should be able to use Select Linked to select all the objects.
⇧ Shift +  L, or in the top left of the 3d viewport click on Select for a dropdown and go to Select Linked.


text:
Blender keeps using my CPU for rendering even though I have only my GPU enabled for CUDA
So I checked many answers and none of them worked. I have a laptop (gtx 930M and i3-5010U). Things I already did -
Selected GPU Compute in Scene property
Select only my GPU under CUDA in Cycle Render Engine in System settings.
Yet when I render my CPU utilization goes up to 100% and my temps too while my GPU has hardly 20% Utilization. I also see 4 boxes while rendering (I've heard if its CPU the different cores render them and my i3 has 4 cores).

This answer either? It is probably cause by the integrated GPU

Not really. Although when I go to settings and uncheck all and select only my GPU I does render using my GPU but I have to repeat the said process everytime I open blender or else it would still render in CPU

Did you save the preference after choosing GPU? In old 2.80 setting won't be automatic save until user check that option.


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How do i make sure my mesh stays with the armature after leaving pose mode
I've been working on a model for quite awhile now and then I'm asked by the person i'm making to model for to make the legs and arms shorter and the hips/waist thinner. I usually do this in pose mode after making sure everything is weighted correctly and then applying that as the rest pose but i've run into a weird issue i've never had before.
I apply pose as rest pose but when I exit pose mode to go back into texture editing/object mode (I tested them all) the bones will stay where they were in pose mode but the mesh goes back to its original scale. If I was getting paid for this (i'm not) I would usually just delete the parts of the mesh that need reworking and....well..rework them and then redo my weight painting. Is there any way I can get an easy out here and not have to spend another 2 hours remodeling the lower half and arms?

your method is weird, why don't you bring those corrections in Edit mode? It won't need any weight paint correction...

because in pose mode i can just scale the bones and the parts of the mesh weighted to the bones will follow and scale automatically. though i've never tried doing this in edit mode, does it work the same way?

I tried and the mesh doesn't follow when scaling bones in edit mode.

I'm talking about modifying the mesh itself  ;)

but i need everything to scale evenly, doing all that manually would take hours no? At that point it would take less time to just remodel the parts that aren't scaled to the desired spec.

if you scale the bones in Pose mode it won't change the mesh itself, it will just change the pose, I doubt that's what the person you're working with wants. Why would it take hours to change your object in Edit mode? Use options like Proportional editing

I need the bones to scale as well, and in pose mode it does scale the mesh it jsut doesn't save. I figured out I can use CATS blender plugin to apply pose as rest pose and save the mesh scaling as well. Thanks for the input though!

I didn't know this addon, but again, you can easily edit your mesh with the Proportional Editing option enabled


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Light diffusion from coloured surface emitting light (Blender 2.8X)
Similar to these questions (1, 2, 3), I wish to emit light from some of the atoms in my model. I've randomly generated some atoms to be glowing and blue. I've followed a lot of the methods of these questions in generating my own material.
However, I'm not observing (rendered) any light diffusion from the blue atoms onto other atoms and their surfaces. Clearly the light source I've created is working well and creating these shadows.

All spheres share roughly the same material properties, although I'm giving any emission from the magenta atoms and so using a different material node set.
I've ramped up the emission strength for this image just to show it's not diffusing properly of neighboring atoms, although ideally I have this lower so there's still some aspect of the atom curvature relative to the main light source observable.
I was wondering if using Blender 2.8 might have changed some of these properties from previous versions, as I'm fairly inexperienced.
What am I missing, to observe light diffusion from neighboring atoms?

Hello :). You Lightpath Node > Is Camera Ray only allows emission rays going directly to camera. That prevents any reflections of your emmisive atoms.

Right! So I guess one solution is actually just to design a completely different material and instead of randomly applying through nodes, use scripting or something similar to randomly apply? I guess I'll wait and see if someone comes up with a solution to allow diffusion whilst still showing some of the surface color/texture through nodes.

If I remove the light path node, and only use the emission shader for blue atoms, I still find myself with the same issue. https://imgur.com/a/WJOwjzG

Oh, you're using Eevee, I totally missed that! In that case there are limitations on light-emitting objects. Perhaps try Cycles render engine :).

Yeah I believe so! I actually wasn't aware limitations of various rendering engines in Blender, or that it was common to switch between! https://imgur.com/a/1G1RQM6

Glad you made it work :). Yeah, those two engines are very different. This thread is a good start: CYCLES vs EEVEE


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In camera view (Num 0) I cannot find the viewfinder rectangle
When I enter Camera View by pressing Num 0 I cannot find the viewfinder rectangle with outsides grayed out. When I set the camera to a certain view and then render, the rendering result is a bit zoomed out compared to the camera view. I have attached screenshots of my blender interface and the interface of the view tutorial. Please tell me how to get that viewfinder rectangle in the youtube sample.

Hello :). Are you sure you're not just zoomed in too much? Toggle camera lock on/off and zoom out a bit. https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/159882/


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How to keep an object off center while tracking it?
I have applied the Track To constraint to a camera in Blender (3.2.2). It tracks the target object. Perfect till here.
But it keeps the object at the center of the frame, while I want to keep the object off center. How do I achieve this?

you could track an empty instead and parent this empty to your object?


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Strange Blocks of color in Sculpt Mode
When I enter sculpt mode and hover over an object a strange (mostly red with some pink) block of color will appear in the upper right of the workspace. The color will vary in hue when the curser is moved along the upper portion of any geometry present and disappear altogether when the curser moves to the lower portion of the geometry. The block of color overshadows all other interface graphics within the workspace window, making it impossible to use any tools properly.
Currently running v3.1.2
Utilizing duel Nvidea 1060 cuda for redraw

That sounds like a graphics driver issue or a bug. If you're sure the drivers are up to date, submit a bug report via Blender's Help > Report a Bug including an image if possible. (Use drag and drop into the report editor to include an image.)

Without an image, it's hard to tell, but it sounds like something I've encountered before - Some users experiencing a similar phenomenon have had success by deleting the %appdata%\Blender Foundation\ folder. See here - https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/251952/im-having-trouble-with-gizmo-lines-getting-glicht-rotating-moving-or-scaling


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How to share attributes between two frames using geometry nodes
I am working with the geometry nodes. My node graph contains the position node. So if I am changing the position of one object in the animation, the output geometry will also change. Is there a way to keep the geometry stable with motion? For example, can I capture the attributes in the first frame and then share the attributes in the later frames?

Hello, could you add the Blender version number you're using ? Also a screenshot of your node setup and 3D viewport would be nice

Frames in Blender are calculated independently. All exceptions from that fall into the category named simulation.

For example, can I capture the attributes in the first frame and then
share the attributes in the later frames?

You can "bind" attributes by applying geometry nodes modifiers:

When I apply this modifier, it writes the position of the model to an attribute named posBack.  I can still use this attribute in future geometry nodes modifiers.  Here, I'm casting Suzanne to a full sphere, then mostly restoring her position to that "bound" position posBack:

So, yes, you can capture an attribute on the first frame, by applying a geometry modifier that writes that attribute, doing so on the first frame; and yes, you can still use that attribute on future frames.  Just be careful to name it appropriately, so that you know that it's the "bound" attribute (here, backed up position) and not the working attribute (here, current position.)
One warning: you cannot apply GN modifiers on meshes with shapekeys.

In Geometry Nodes there is no way to process data that was generated in another frame outside of Geometry Nodes.
So you can't query at which position a cube was in another frame if you animated it before.
There would be a way to calculate the position in Geometry Nodes if the animation was 100% linear or traceable.
I don't assume that this is the case.
The only other option you have is to generate frame-based information, do the animation with Geometry Nodes, and calculate that information in the same node tree for another object.


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How to change origin rotation to be at right angles to the face
How to change origin rotation to be at right angles to the face.
I try to apply it to each face. And then how to make every face have uvw in project to view in vertical position.
Is any addon or script to this or do you know how to make this?
Like this one on left side.

Select the face in Edit mode and in the Transform Orientations panel click on the "+" button in order to create a custom orientation (called Face by default), and keep this orientation selected:

In the Options panel, enable the Transform Affect Only Origins option:

Go into the header menu > Object > Transform > Align to Transform Orientation:

Now your origin is aligned with the face, you can disable the Transform Affect Only Origins option:

As for the face you want to view, maybe select the face and press Shift7?


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Get height of Displacement Texture
I import a displacement image as Image Texture node for my Plane. Like it is done here at the bottom of the site: https://help.ambientcg.com/02-Using%20the%20assets/Using_PBR_maps_in_Blender.html
Now i have the problem that the texture of my Plane goes through an other object. So I thought about moving the Plane down, with the value of the height of this plane. But it figured out that its not that easy to get the value of this height of the texture Displacement of this plane. Now my Question is, how can I get this height? like the min and max values of this displacement image?
Thanks in advance.

As you realized, the problem with the Microdisplacement feature is that it doesn't generate a real displaced mesh which has dimensions. But when you are using a greyscale height map and use it on the plane, there is a way to guess or more or less accurate calculate the height.
The greyscale values usually range from black (0) to white (1). In my example, I have a heightmap of a mountain where the darkest part is 0.0 and the brightest (highest) part is around 0.3 (it's not going all the way up to 1).
If you now have a plane with a scale of 1/1/1 and plug the height map into a Displacement node and leave it at the default values (Midlevel 0.500 and Scale 1.000), the lowest part will be at -0.5 meters (below the original plane) and the heighest part will be at -0.2 meters, which makes a height of 0.3 meters.
So, to sum it up: at a scale of 1, the height of the terrain will be the height of the brightest pixel, and the "ground level" will be the original plane minus the midlevel value. If the darkest pixel in your height map is brighter than 0.0, it will be that much above ground level.
This is an example with the Displacement node's default settings, the Midlevel value is at 0.5 and the Scale is at 1:

And for comparison, the Midlevel set to 0.0 and the Scale factor set to 2, doubling the height of the terrain:


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Why is Bridge edge loop not complete?
I am trying to create a bridge edge loop to attach a finger to a hand. But its not fully bridging here are the vertices before bridging:
this is how it looks like when trying to bridge:

Thanks in advance

it looks like you've selected only 3 vertices on the bottom part? Also, make sure you have the good settings in the Operator box

also, check the actual vertex-count on the loops, to make sure there are no hidden double-verts, etc.

@RobinBetts I have followed your comment but still no results. is there a way we can interact live so that I can show you

@moonboots I made that mistake when taking the snapshot. but if while selecting it, it doesnt work

Its fine i found another way thanks!


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armature not getting attached to mesh
Created an armature for a bird using animals meta-rig (I have downloaded a .blend file of a bird and trying to rig it)
I have adjusted all the bones to their places.
Using object mode, I generated a rig (but that rig was way too small, so I have scaled it)
Now I selected the bird Mesh and Shift selected the armature
When I am pressing CTRL+P I am not getting the option of deform (Originally, I thought this is happening due to behavioral changes in different versions, but more the videos i see, the more i am inclined to think this is the tipping point for my issue)
So as a workaround, I went to the Object option -> Parent -> Deform -> selected 'With automatic weights' (nothing noticeable seems to have happening here)
Then selecting the armature going to pose mode(ctrl+Tab)
When I am moving the armature, the bird is not moving.
Options I tried so far,

I tried joining with ctrl+J
Enabled the System Console to check the error (no error displayed)
My blender version : 2.82 (also tried with 2.83 version too)
Also ensured that "Auto run Python scripts" is turned ON in settings
Followed the instructions from this answer

I am fairly new to the world of Blender, and most of my knowledge is either through youtube videos or blender docs.
Attaching the file

This is the procedure to have your file working OK: select the rig and delete it. Select the Metarig and press Ctrl A "Apply all transform".
In the Rigify properties enable "advanced options", delete target rig and target UI and choose new (with a new name) as destination.
Press Generate rig.
Hide the Metarig.
Select the mesh, shift select the new rig (the order of selection is important), choose "with automatic weights" option.
The advanced option is necessary only if you generate a bad rig (wrong unapplied scale) and later you try to generate a new one: some conflict can arise between old rig (even if deleted) and new one.

Thank you for your prompt response, but no luck!!!! I am still not getting the mesh movement. I think I might be missing on something, so I have uploaded my screen capture for your reference. Please help  https://youtu.be/d6j-ue1sFow

The problemt is only your selection method: slected objects are orangy, active ones are yellow. If you use shift click the last clicked object gets active, while if you use box select the first one is active. Rig must be active when parenting. I also don't like this inconsistency, even if in some cases it's useful. When both are selected you can shift click on the rig until it gets yellow.

Thanks a ton! It worked. I didn't realize the color change. So finally I have selected the mesh, then shift selected the rig, then selected the entire thing again to make it yellow, and it worked.


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How to do simple transformation
How do I make a simple tranformation in respect to world coordinates. For instance, I want to change the standard cube (add->Mesh->Cube) to a 50mx40mx1m cuboid and have a another cuboid with the same dimensions with a distance of 0.5m in the z-axis away from it.
What I can do is use transform but I can not change the dimensions in respect to meters.
Does anyone understand my problem and can help me?

"I can not change the dimensions in respect to meters", what do you mean, you can do it in Object mode in the N panel > Dimensions

It looks like all I was looking for was to find and edit the dimension property (press n)

Add more details about this edit as other people may find it useful.


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High mass rigid body objects pass through
I have modeled a 2040 V slot and wanted to test out simulations for a bot that I am building. As a result, I had set the scene units to be scaled by 0.0001 since I need to model in millimeter(for 3D print purposes, used separately). I notice that when setting this as an active rigid body with any mass higher than ~2g it passes through the passive box rigid body below it. The same model with mass < 2g does not pass through. For realistic simulations, I need the mass of my object to be 245g and scale to be in millimeters.
I have tried increasing my rigid body iterations and steps as well. I have also tried changing it from kilograms to grams as well.
Rigid body Settings

Object rigid body settings

Final Simulation

If you need realistic simulations, then you don't want to be using Blender.  Blender's physics are not real physics.

Got it. I thought I might as well try using the same software for modeling 3d print parts and for simulation. However even if the physics are not accurate, I don't think mass should be a factor for active bodies passing through passive bodies


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Duplicated planes colour change
I've created a room in blender (one floor plane+ 3 wall planes) by duplicating the floor plane.  However, when I change the floor plane colour in materials all the other planes change also. How do I stop this and just assign a colour to one plane in view in 2.8.

You have to create a new material for each.

There are two possible ways to duplicate, one is duplicate object in Object Mode and another is duplicate faces on Edit Mode.
When you duplicate objects, material also is duplicated applied automatically same as object from copied one.

To avoid this you have to add different material to each object from material Panel.
Click on X in material panel and delete old material, and then click on New to add new material to object. Do this to each object you want to have different material.

Let's check another possibility:
If you have duplicated faces in edit mode.

In such case add more material slot in same material panel by clicking + button beside material name;

Then click New.

After that select face, select material slot you want to be applied and then click on assign.

Now all faces are having different material.

Thank you so much!


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Can I switch off the Auto Manipulation when using Transform Hotkeys?
I'm new to Blender and one thing I'm really bothered by is when using the Transform Hotkeys (G,R,S) it immediately starts manipulating my selected object with the mouse movement. Coming from Maya and C4D this behavior is rather different and not something I can see myself needing too often. Is there a way to change it so that when I press one of Hotkeys it just changes to that tool without the manipulation?

You can use the native shortcuts for setting the tool to move rotate or scale. If you hit alt and release it and immediately after that hit the key for any operator, you will likely select the matching tool. This works with many things like b for border select, or ctrl+b for bevel in edit mode and so on, and it includes g,r,s as well.
Warning! This may contain some amount of personal opinion from this point. :) But I think there is some logic in it as well.
In general I would recommend to try and see if you can get used to Blender's way with features that are different from the package that you are used to. This is not because they would be better in any way or something like that, but because they may work better together with other parts of Blender because some workflows may differ from other software and you might be pleasantly surprised after you get used to them. Of course there will be things that you will want to customise and there is nothing wrong with making them as they are in other packages, I would just like to recommend not to rush too much so you know for sure that it's going to be more efficient for you to work in one way or another. I was surprised with many things when transitioning from Maya and am glad I gave them a chance for a bit longer than I wanted at first.

You can use the transformation tools in the Toolbar (T). If you want to assign hotkeys to these tools, right click on them and then "Change Shortcut".

I would not recommend changing the shortcut especially for someone coming from another 3d package. this just prevents learning intended workflows and may in the end be slower and less efficient.

Thanks but the problem is not the Hotkey itself as they already have assigned keys (G, R, S). The problem is in the behavior after pressing the Hotkey.

The behavior is very useful in many situations, so It really pays off to stick with it for a while, but you can use other features to work as you are used to with tools instead of operators.


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How to add glare/bloom effect to image sequence?
New to Blender. I recently finished rendering out an image sequence. One of the objects contains an emission shader. I want to make this object glow using the 'glare' node in the compositor. I can import the image sequence and use nodes such as hue/gamma/saturation/contrast etc. but when I try to use glare node: no effect. I opened a new project, and rendered a cube with an emission shader, and used the render layer in the compositor, this worked. But for my animation I only have the completed image sequence, not sure what to do.
Thanks

When you move Glare-Treshold from 1 to 0 you can see Glare works (somehow).

Reason why it is not working for red emission object is because you saved sequence as PNG, that is 8-bit color depth, so you lose emission power information.
New scene with the Cube worked, because you composite direct unsaved render - full color depth (high dynamic range), that is not afected by color bit depth of saving file format.
To use image sequence for that purpose you have to set render output as OpenEX (or Multilayered) file format that is 32-bit.

You can alternatively use your rendered 8-bit PNG sequence, but you have only a chance if you:

matte red pixels and increase strengh or
matte red pixels and use glare only on this pass and mix together

One of the possible ways of second option is ...

But as you can see, it will be always difficult to glare red on purple that is similar color. Or you can make it more visible if you dont care it became white glowing object.

If your in blender 2.8 and above you can switch to eevee render engine and you can enable bloom in the render settings


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How can I write (draw) notes or just drawings, with a 2d stroke but on the 3d viewport
How can I write (draw) notes or just drawings, with a 2d stroke but on the 3d viewport.

Have a look into the grease pencil: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/grease_pencil/index.html

There are two tools to do what you want: the grease pencil and annotations.
The grease pencil can be rendered,
https://www.blender.org/features/grease-pencil/
annotations are just for reference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IJ7THnd2ZM

Thank you! I will go for the second option you gave!


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Quads snapping up or down when displacement is animated
I am trying to make a 80's style grid mountain valley animation with the scene slightly animated by a noise texture displacement.
However when some deformed faces cross a certain point they "snap" either up or down creating a very distracting and bad looking effect.
I have made the initial mountains by applying a noise texture to a plain and modifying it to create a valley path for the camera which resulted in some faces being distorted or "bent" by having two opposing vertices below the other ones, this creates a jumping or snapping effect when the displacement makes the geometry cross the threshold of the "bend" being in the opposite direction.
Is there any way i can fix this? Like, disabling the snapping, or making it always face one direction without manually readjusting 150k+ faces?

What about using triangles instead of quads? Also do you have smooth shading turned on and autosmooth disabled?

I tried using trianbles, it helps but then all of the squares in the grid have an additional line through the middle and tht's not the effect i'm looking for ;p
I just enabled smooth shading, it was previously off as well as autosmooth and doing a test render with smooth shading enabled and autosmooth disabled.
@edit: faces are still snapping with smooth shading on

I have converted my mesh into triangles and used this to wireframe it instead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67Q2Z4vVrMI&t=588s
It seems to have resolved the issue.


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Material does not apply to array
Sorry if this is a silly question but I am terribly new to blender. I have created a material and applied it to a sphere. I then added an array modifier. I expected the material to apply to the entire array, but it only applies in material view and in render view to the original sphere. All of the tutorial videos I have watched state that the material automatically transfers to the entire array, so I am at a loss.

yes it should, maybe share your file? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

Hello :). This is probably a Volumetrics limitation in Eevee. Switch to Cycles or plug your nodes into the Surface input and it should work.

Switching to cycles or surface does make the material appear on all objects of the array, but it no longer has the look that I wanted

You are asking about issues with shaders but failed to post your node tree. If we are to diagnose the issue, you should properly post the full material setup, without it it will be hard to guess anything

In your example Blender has basicly drawn a line. Everything on one side is assigned the number 0, everything on the other the number 1. Your ColorRamp is using black for 0 and red for 1.
You need a different node setup or you can create instances instead of using the array modifier by pressing Alt + D

Thanks! At least now I know where to look for a different solution. Sadly, creating instances isn't a good option for what I require.

Use generated coords, drive the scale.
Nodes aren't particularly my strong point.  Looking at the question setup can make minor alterations to get the effect of gradient across array

change the texture to generated (modified)

and drive the scale with the array count of object.

The driver


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How do I make a textures values translate into shader values
So the title might be a bit confusing bit it's the best I can do.
I'm trying to make a simple way to control the roughness of my material with a texture.
I want this particular material to have 0.75 roughness on most of it, and 1.0 on the rest.
So I make a texture in GIMP with 100 value on the rough parts and 75 value on the less rough parts, But plugging it into the roughness makes the .75 parts way to shiny.
In Blender's image viewer it says the value of that part of the texture is 0.749, but it doesn't translate to the same value in roughness.
Is there a way to fix this?
I've tried RGB to BW, seperate HSV and only using the value, putting it into a colour ramp and using  that, but nothing's worked so far. I've also tried using the alpha instead and that works fine, but the texture is much harder to create and look at.
Thanks to anyone who can help with this

Hello :). To keep the precise values, make sure you set the Color Space to Non-Color in your texture node. Otherwise Blender will apply color transforms to your image texture.

The Alpha Channel works, because it is read linear. No Gamma correction etc. Color spaces HSL, HSV etc. can be very complex, so my suggestion is as @Jachym Michal points out, non-color, or linear color. However keep in mind, the roughness values of the materials are squared now, so they are less sensitive than in 2.79, in case you want to work with precize values. Lastly, you can use a color ramp to map the 2 values (0.75 and 1) to any color you want. That might save you going back and forth between GIMP and Blender.

Hello :). Would you mind expanding a bit on the part 'roughness values are squared now' and how it affects precise values? Just curious, thanks :).

I made it sound more complicated than it is. When the values are linear pre 2.8, 0.1 means 10% roughness, now it's 0.1² = 0.01. The upside: values are less sensitive, so you don't have to use 0.00# if you want a tiny bit of roughness, but can stay in a sane range.  The tiny downside is: if you want to convert it back to linear, you'll have to do a little math. If you're an artist, not an engineer, you're fine. If you're an engineer or physicist, you probably know how to handle that anyways. So really, not downside.

Hi. You should edit your existing answer instead of adding another one. Thanks.

It seemed like a separate question, so I posted a separate answer. I'll edit my answers from now on, thanks for the tip.


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Symmetrize seems to be stuck on the wrong axis
I am very new to blender and cannot formulate the question well enough for google to help me. I am just trying to flip my bones around to the other half of my model but I'm getting this issue where it's not flipping across the right axis. Instead of mirroring across my model it does it in front of it. I cannot find a setting to change this and when I rotate the whole model it still does it in a local sense. I am not sure how else to manipulate blender's settings to get it to do what I want. I was watching a tutorial and it seemingly just worked fine for the guy teaching it.

The symmetrize operation will happen on the Y local axis, your armature is not correctly oriented. You should also align your armature to the Global front view. So in Object mode, rotate your armature 90° on the Z axis, apply its scale and rotation and symmetrize again.

I love you so much. Thank you so much for this solution, moonboots.


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How do I make a curved surface cube?

Thank you for any help you can provide!

there are several ways to do it but if you create a cube and subdivide it you can choose the smoothness in the Operator box and it will round your cube.

Add a plane.
Go to Edit mode.
Subdivide 3 times (press W> subdivide).
Select the center vertex.
Enable Proportional Editing (press O).
Press G, Z (to constrain to Z axis) and lift the vertex up.
   the mouse wheel controls how much influence Proportional Editing has

Thank you for your help! I was overly complicating it! I would have been stuck for hours before I even came across this possibility!

Select a cube in Edit Mode (create some extra faces by using subdivide). Mesh > Transform > To Sphere
If you want fo use one of the "inner sides" as a basis for a japanese style roof, make sure to fix the normals by pressing Shift + N before you finish your project.


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Lighting move with object movement
I'd like to attach a light to a specific object. I used "ctrl j" but it's not permanent. For example a car or street light that I can move around the scene etc. I change my mind a lot.

Welcome to Blender Stack Exchange!
You'll want to use something known as Parenting to do this. Joining only works if the objects are the same type, and only on certain types of objects, for example meshes.
To use parenting, select the object that you want to be the follower, and then the object that you want it to follow. Press Ctrl+P and choose "Object". Now the follower (child) will be joined to the parent object and follow wherever it moves. You can still move the child object independently as well.

Worked. Many thanks!


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Applying color to a large number of duplicates (Bricks)
I modeled a brick. I made an array. I duplicated the array,added the courses to each other, then duplicated that,etc. I'm having trouble figuring how to color them all in one "click".

Select all the objects you want to be the same color then press Ctrl + L  > Make Links > Materials.

It should be pointed out that the object with the desired material must be selected last, as it will be the active object. It is always the active object which will be referenced when linking to all the others.


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Boolean makes pixelated edges

Problem: I'm making a brake-caliper, and I wanted to cut out these engraved shapes from the brake surface using boolean modifier. It first crossed my topology, which I thought creating the mistake, so I changed that the rotation angle and number of arrayed object are matching and they never cross each other. The problem still occurs. I've watched a Blender tutorial of a brake caliper where the guy makes it with exactly this method and it works for him. I'm stuck because I don't know what am I doing wrong.
I've had a similar question in the past where my topology was messy and I thought at the end that was the cause. I've also tried to apply the subdivision on the caliper itself - result was the same. The cutting objects go through the brake and come out on the other side.
Question: How could I use the boolean difference in this case to just simply cut out these objects? How's it possible that the same method works in the tutorial and not for me?

please show your wireframe, show the tuto video, maybe share your file... your topology must be bad

https://youtu.be/WAAZzcsM-_Q?t=154 this is the tutorial I was referring to, and I've been organizing the boolean objects the same way. In the meatime though, I figured if I switch off 'shade smooth', it doesn't do it. Can it be that 'shade smooth' in certain cases cannot do boolean operations nicely?

you need to take a look at your wireframe once you've booleaned, the boolean object and your topology before and after boolean are not the same as the one in the video


text:
Lights show in Cycles but not in Eevee for Windows laptop
I recently got a Windows HP laptop and am testing Blender on it. I've found that lights for my files don't appear in Eevee but they do appear in Cycles. Even after increasing the brightness for the lights, they still don't show up in Eevee. Does anyone have this same problem?

You should give more information what kind of lights you are talking about... a sun, point light, spot light or area light? Or do you mean mesh lights with emissive materials? Because the latter only work in Cycles but not in Eevee, so this wouldn't be a problem with your laptop, Windows or Blender, just the normal way as it is.

As Gordon says we lack informations, please share your file or at least show some screenshots


text:
Trying to perfect my render by adding imperfections
My render is coming up amazingly well, but I want to take it to the next level by adding welding marks whenever the objects meet. I found a couple of videos on YouTube, but I was wondering if there's any way of accomplishing the same automatically with geometry nodes.

if you're using Cycles there's the Bevel node that you can use in the Shader Editor, this is node geometry node though

Have a look at Blender Welder Addon.


text:
How can I make an array of lines grow or shrink depending on a curve

So I'm trying to model a gate, and although I found a way to make the pickets (iron tubes) be spaced from each other at the same length, I can't find a way to make them scale/ resize along the curve.

Try using a lattice modifier. You can additionally use a Vertex Group and only assign the top vertices on each post so you don't affect anything except the height of the row. Push O (the letter, not zero) to turn on proportional editing mode and you can edit the lattice super smoothly.

The default "Smooth" editing mode should work but it comes with a buttload of settings to experiment with.

To add a Lattice Mod, add a Lattice object and scale it in Object Mode to fit your object.

Then in the details panel edit the UVW settings to give it more segments.
Think of U, V, W as X, Y, Z. They're the same thing.

Don't put too many, if you do alot then it kind of defeats the purpose of the lattice mod and will make it messy. I may have even put to much here but whatever.

Then just select your object, then the lattice, then push Ctrl+P and select "Lattice Deform" to quick-add a lattice modifier.

Then you can add a Vertex group to only affect certain parts of your mesh like by selecting them and clicking assign in the object data panel.

Then in the modifier panel add that Group to the modifier.

Then you can go to town.


text:
Is it possible to render out animated textures using Eevee?
I have an animated environment texture and affects the lighting and reflection of my model. Changes are visible when rendered out using Cycles, but it doesn't work when I try to do the same with Eevee. I'm using Blender 3.1.2 btw. I really need it to be Eevee cause I have tens of thousands of frames to render and it is the only viable option.

maybe you'll find your answer here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/190642/how-do-i-get-proper-reflections-eevee

Should work with eevee. Can you share material setup?

@Crantisz it is actually applied to the World Background. Funny thing, it works when you manually slide through the timeline. It's almost as if Eevee reads the Light Cache referencing previous frames or the first frame and that affects the rendering. Cause when it reads the frame in the viewport it actually updates as it is supposed to.


text:
Is it possible to restriction-based modeling (like in FreeCAD) in Blender?
I am familiar to FreeCAD style modeling, which is mostly based on restrictions. But Blender uses another modeling logic.
So, is there some plugins or settings to make modeling style more like CAD? Have tried tinyCAD but it does not seems to be what I have been looking for. Thanks.

Have you tried CAD sketcher ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92QmjS-xDaI

Seems like this open source add-on CAD Sketcher is what I've been looking for. And thanks to Gorgious for mentioning that

Years ago I used Draftsight (when there was a free version), but Has few tools.
I also tried to make parts for my 3D printer with 3D software, but there is no precision in tenths of millimeters, sheet thickness, etc. We cannot pretend that a 3D modeling software to work like a software based on 2D sketches and schematics.
Having said that, I suggest you look at DesignSpark Mechanical, which is the free version of SpaceClaim.

Thanks, although I am actually looking for a different modeling method for blender, rather than trying to do CAD with blender. But still thanks


text:
I think I hit ctrl z in my blender render?
I was rendering a 90 frame animation and  I hit ctrl z by accident but it paused my render and it’s not going anymore. I have no idea how to continue it. Ive hit Ctrl z before and I’ve had to just restart the render because I don’t know how to resume it. It’s just stuck on frame 59 and not moving. I have no idea what ctrl z does in a render. I’m on iMac.

The only way to resume a Render is if you render image sequences, you just need to select the last frame rendered and continue from there

How do I select the last frame? I’m a newbie so I don’t know

Was the output format .mp4 or .png?
If it's .mp4 then you can't do anything, you have to re-render the whole animation.
If the output format was .png, then start rendering form where the animation got stuck.

How do I start the render to where it got stuck?


text:
Distorted render?
I'm trying to render an image, but as you can see it comes all distorted, when the actual object is not! Please, how can I solve this? Thank you in advance!

hello, maybe you've given a Subdivision Surface modifier to your object (and it is enabled in render but not in preview)

Or maybe the opposite of this ^. Like you have an SS mod, but it's not enabled in the render, but visible in the preview. Usually distorted UVs come from too little geometry. But it's possible that either/or could be causing the issue.


text:
How to select non-manifold edges in geometry nodes?
I have a piece of clothing geometry that has arm and leg holes, I would like to create a selection of these parts programmatically in geometry nodes, is their an elegant way to accomplish this or am I stuck using vertex groups?

Define "non-manifold edges". You can easily select edges with edge neighbors not equal to 2.

Edges with *Face neighbors != 2 I think is what you mean sir? @MarkusvonBroady

Edge Neighbors Node -> Face Count -> Not Equal 2, specifically. I feel like I always struggle remembering how to access certain geo too. :D I wish it was a little easier in GN foreal.

If you need to select the hole edges, I found workaround here  and here is the blender artist thread.


text:
How can I rotate these instances along a curve in geometry nodes
I am trying to make a procedural bridge, is their a way that I can rotate these planks along the curve.

Just use the Curve to Points node, because it will give you the rotation you want right away.

you can use the Curve tangent node and the align euler to vector

you need an align eula to vector node and plug in tangent or normals.
for that you need curve to points instead of resample

You don't need the Euler to vector in this setup, you can just plug the "Rotation" output of "Curve to Points" into the "Rotation" input of "Instance on Points."

This method worked well.
Objects are randomly extracted from the collection.


text:
Loops in geometry nodes
In houdini it is posslible to create a for loop to repeat functions easily, is this possible in geometry nodes? the setup below is my current solution,its extremely messy and not very scalable has anyone found a better solution to this problem?

can you describe what you want to do inside the loop (pseudocode). in some cases it is possible to construct a node group such that combining them linearly in a chain, will also give the same result

@ShantanuAryan since Blender 4.0 there are loops in Blender - it's called a "Repeat Zone". It doesn't allow you to break early, and you can't loop indefinitely - so you need to know in advance how many iterations you want the loop to have. You can work around it by nesting the repeat zones to support a lot of iterations without significant overhead once you reach the final state - so you don't break still, but the outer repeat zone uses a switch to not use any inner repeat zones anymore.

It is not possible to create loops in Geometry Nodes. There is a better solution for many problems that uses an Instance on Points node to create the duplication.  Here is a rough example:

The mesh line is used to generate a number of points, its Count value.  It can also be modified by a Set Position node to control the locations.  Many other nodes or node groups can substitute depending on your need.
The key is the Instance input to the Instance on Points node. Not shown in this picture, whatever feeds it is the geometry you want to repeat. That's usually replaced by whatever geometry you want to repeat.
There are similar approaches for other looping-like constructs. They rely on the fact that 3.x Geometry Nodes uses Fields and you can set up the contents of a field as if it were your loop variable and then modify it with nodes like Instance on Points

I saw that their was a proposal for loops here, it looks promising https://devtalk.blender.org/t/loops-in-geometry-nodes-proposal/21357. If I cant get your suggestion to work I think I am just going to put this project off until they add it.


text:
Is it possible to scatter points inside of an object?
Inside of Houdini it is possible to distribute points inside of an object by first converting it to a volume object then scattering points inside of it, is it possible to achieve this within geometry nodes?

We don't have a native dedicated node for it yet, but there are other options. A native solution was in the works, which was abandoned first, then picked up again later. It's possible we'll see it soon enough, but there's no apparent timeline for it.
In the meantime, there are many tutorials and presets/ready to use node groups produced by different users for the job. Here's a tutorial by Bradley Animation which does randomized distribution, and here's another tutorial by Entagma which does a more regular grid packing. There's also the possibility that instead of creating native nodes for too many operations, some will be distributed with Blender as node groups in an asset bundle. There's a development thread for it, which includes a ready to use preset by Erindale (if you wanna just download and use immediately without bothering with tutorials, I'd recommend this one).


text:
How to get single colours on voxel faces bpy to blender python api
I created a script within blender to voxelize an .obj model, uv map it, and reduce the colour of each voxel face to a singular tone. The script runs fine inside blender itself.
When I switch over to the uv_editor within blender to scale down the uv mesh so that the voxel face has a singular colour, this isn't recognized outside of blender because it runs headlessly (no gui) so it has no concept of what uv_editor is.
I have been at this for weeks and I cannot find any workaround for this one portion of the code. Please help me out with any alternative you might have.
import bpy
import os

removeThese = bpy.context.copy()
removeThese['selected_objects'] = list(bpy.context.scene.objects)
bpy.ops.object.delete(removeThese)

sourceDirectory = "model_folder"
model_name = "model.obj"

path = os.path.join(sourceDirectory, model_name)

bpy.ops.import_scene.obj(filepath=path, axis_forward='-Z', axis_up='Y', filter_glob="*.obj;*.mtl")

model_obj = bpy.context.scene.objects[model_name.split(".")[0]]
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')
bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = model_obj
model_obj.select_set(True)

sourceName = bpy.context.object.name
source = bpy.data.objects[sourceName]

#duplicating source model
bpy.ops.object.duplicate_move(OBJECT_OT_duplicate={"linked":False, "mode":'TRANSLATION'})
duplicate_obj = bpy.context.scene.objects[model_name.split(".")[0]+".001"]
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')
bpy.context.view_layer.objects.active = duplicate_obj
duplicate_obj.select_set(True)
bpy.context.object.name = sourceName + "_Voxelized"

bpy.ops.object.transform_apply(location=False, rotation=True, scale=False)
bpy.ops.object.convert(target='MESH')

#source.hide_render = True
#source.hide_viewport = True

targetName = bpy.context.object.name
target = bpy.data.objects[targetName]

#converting to blocks
bpy.ops.object.modifier_add(type='REMESH')
bpy.context.object.modifiers["Remesh"].mode = 'BLOCKS'
bpy.context.object.modifiers["Remesh"].octree_depth = 7
bpy.context.object.modifiers["Remesh"].scale = 0.5
bpy.context.object.modifiers["Remesh"].use_remove_disconnected = True
bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(modifier="Remesh")

#transferring UVs from source to target
bpy.ops.object.modifier_add(type='DATA_TRANSFER')
bpy.context.object.modifiers["DataTransfer"].use_loop_data = True
bpy.context.object.modifiers["DataTransfer"].data_types_loops = {'UV'}
bpy.context.object.modifiers["DataTransfer"].loop_mapping = 'POLYINTERP_NEAREST'
bpy.context.object.modifiers["DataTransfer"].object = source
bpy.ops.object.datalayout_transfer(modifier="DataTransfer")
bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(modifier="DataTransfer")

#this is the chunk that reduces each voxel face to one colour
bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()
bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode(type='FACE')

bpy.context.area.ui_type = 'UV'
bpy.context.scene.tool_settings.use_uv_select_sync = False
bpy.context.space_data.uv_editor.sticky_select_mode = 'DISABLED'
bpy.context.scene.tool_settings.uv_select_mode = 'FACE'
bpy.context.space_data.pivot_point = 'INDIVIDUAL_ORIGINS'
bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='DESELECT')

#singularizing colours on each voxel face
count = 0
while count < 100:
    bpy.ops.mesh.select_random(ratio=(count/100) + 0.01, seed=count)
    bpy.ops.uv.select_all(action='SELECT')
    bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(0.01, 0.01, 0.01))
    bpy.ops.mesh.hide(unselected=False)
    count+=1

#returning to previous context
bpy.context.area.ui_type = 'VIEW_3D'
bpy.ops.mesh.reveal()
bpy.ops.object.editmode_toggle()
bpy.context.area.ui_type = 'TEXT_EDITOR'

#deleting source and keeping target
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')
source.select_set(True)
bpy.ops.object.delete()

#selecting target
target.select_set(True)

#exporting voxelized model
output_directory = sourceDirectory
vox_model_name = targetName + '.obj'
output_file = os.path.join(output_directory, vox_model_name)
print(output_file)
bpy.ops.export_scene.obj(filepath=output_file)
```

explain what's the idea behind the part of the code that doesn't work, maybe it can be done on a lower level? didn't run it but I see you have mesh and uv operators together, I'm just guessing but don't you need to change context between them? low level seems a better option to me

So I the work flow is this:

import .obj mesh
add remesh modifier for voxels
add uv data transfer
switch to uv editor context and scale down the uv mapping that corresponds to each face on the voxel so that each face has only one color (this is the part that isnt working headlessly)
export and save the model

@alambre I do agree that I need to go on a lower level and not switch contexts between the 3d view and the uv editor but I cannot figure out how to do this.

if you need to collapse uvs for your faces something like this may work,
but I saw there's an operator also: bmesh.ops.collapse_uvs()
import bpy, bmesh
ob = bpy.context.active_object

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh(ob.data)
uv_lay = bm.loops.layers.uv.active

for face in bm.faces:
    coords = [l[uv_lay].uv for l in face.loops]
    x = (sum([uv[0] for uv in coords]) / len(coords))
    y = (sum([uv[1] for uv in coords]) / len(coords))
    for l in face.loops: l[uv_lay].uv = [x,y]

bmesh.update_edit_mesh(ob.data)

hope it helps

This did the trick! Thank you so much :)


text:
In Geometry Nodes how can I transform an object proportionally with another object that's being controlled by an integer value?
I'm attempting to build a modular airplane hangar. In my current setup I have the hangar model split into the following 3 parts using vertex groups.

The front end
The hangar walls
The back end

The hangar walls depth is controlled by a mesh line which the model is then instanced on.
When I change the "Count" value, I want the back end of the model that I have separated to translate to where it should be: the very end of the instanced hangar walls model.

The model is 10 units long on the Y axis. I thought connecting the integer value and multiplying by 10 would work but I quickly realized I'm bad at math.

Is there any vector math wizardry I can do to achieve what I'm looking for?

You are plugging an Integer output into a Vector input. Use a Math Multiply node instead.

@AndréZmuda had one piece of the puzzle. I needed to use a math multiply instead of a Vector math multiply. In addition, I needed to 0 out the y position of the back wall. That way, it would be in the correct place when the integer is set to 1. Here's what my fix looks like:


text:
Cant make glare work while compositing
I have a simple monkey model, that is completely black but has white, emissive eyes, like that:

Then, in compositor, I have this setup:

Clearly, you can see the preview is not showing any glare effect. I think, that I'm missing something there, but for the sake of me I can't figure out what.

Try lowering the Threshold value.
The Glare node works based on the luminance (or brighness) of the pixels in the image, the Threshold value means that pixels that are brighter than that number will be affected by the glow, while values lower than the set number will not.

By lowering it, you are changing the node's level of tolerance. If it's set to a low value, it means that even a small amount of light will make the glare show up.
You also may be rendering in EEVEE. Switch to Cycles.

Yup, did the work. Thanks!

No problem, glad it helped!


text:
Making a smooth transition from full alpha opacity to full transparency
My question is - how to create a shading setup that will smoothly interpolate between full opacity to full transparency. I'm trying to do this on a simple plane with somewhat partial results.

In the image above you can see that the rendered image is partly invisible only on the background of a different plane, and not where the scene background is. Is there a way to solve it so that I have alpha everywhere?
What I simply want to achieve is a linear gradient from one color, to a transparency, something like that:

Please define your goal in more detail. What do you mean by "smoothly interpolate"? In what context? Is it in a period of time, or specific axis in space or should there be a slider, or something else? What are you trying to achieve? Please provide some context so that good people trying to help you do need to waste their time on misunderstandings.

In this case the transparency is controlled by the mix shader node at the end of the chain. The fac value will determine the mix between transparent and the bsdf. But note that you don't need the transparent node at all (or the mix shader node conected to it) just plug in the transparency values you want to the alpha input of the principled BSDF

@MartynasŽiemys I made an edit to clarify what I mean.

As said by @susu, as your node setup is, the surface will be half transparent all the way. Just plug the multiply output to the alpha of the principled and remove mix and transparency shaders.

Your issue is that you are applying the gradient to the color of the transparent shader, instead of using it to control how the two shaders are mixed. Since your factor slot is empty, they are just being mixed with a factor of 0.5 across the whole surface.
My result:

The nodes:

Explanation
To transition from a color to transparent, you essentially want to mix the two shaders, here a transparent BSDF and an emission shader, with the mix factor increasing along the gradient. For a simple gradient along the X axis, I used a color ramp, but you could apply the same process with any other gradient texture. Here, I want a value from 0 to 1 along the color ramp based on the X position on the object, so I plug in the X component of the Object coordinates as the factor to the color ramp, and use that to control the mixing.


text:
Can't change material color, diffuse doesn't do anything
I'm trying to give a part of a blender model a wooden texture, however, the diffuse option stays white in the preview/renderer even though in the color bar under the "Diffuse" section of the properties displays the brown color I want.
I followed a tutorial on making just a cube have the texture, and that seems to work fine. I do the same thing to the part, even meticulously going through and making sure all the options are the same, but the color still doesn't change.
Further, another part doesn't seem to render the same color as in the preview, even though, with that part, the preview is exactly what I want.
I imported the model from a Solidworks assembly as a .wrl and re-saved as .blend. Not sure if that screws with it. Any help appreciated!

um... I think when you took your screenshot, you took it of all three monitors

the view you are showing us is solid view, it displays the object color, not the material. Use MAJ + Z and see if your diffuse color appears.

That was intentional, to show the model I'm trying to fix in the middle and my test cube on the right. What is MAJ?

I think he meant Alt+Z

Ah, thanks Duarte. I'll try and get back when I can (it was on a school pc that I got kicked off of)

Did you UV unwrap it?

I don't think so. I'm basically a super-noob at this... lol. As for the Alt+z thing, it turned the whole thing in the editor window very shiny white but didn't appear to change the render at all.

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


text:
Python and C/C++ relationship
Sorry for my bad English, I'm new to Blender and I looked at the code many times.
As I suspect (if I'm not wrong) Blender UI is python and the core is C/C++.
For example when I want to change some features in the UI, I should do some work with python files in "bl_ui", but when I want to change Blender foundations, I should change C/C++ code
I almost know somethings about how this works but, I can't understand the connection and relationship between Python and C/C++.
When we click a button, a python file and function will be used, but what's going on after that?
I don't if know you can understand my question, I can't speak English very well, sorry.
Thank you

I'm not much into programming myself, so I can't help much, but from what I know Blender has a C core and exposes such functionality to the UI and Addons through a Application Programming Interface or API written in Python language.

Using python you can import a module to use functionality inside that module. Many modules are written using python but a python module can also be a binary file similar to a shared library that was compiled from C/C++ source code. The python/C API reference at docs.python.org details how to write C code to do this.
Blender uses this C-API to provide modules that we can import from python scripts. The binary modules are merged into blender's binary file and the python interpreter built into blender takes care of giving us access to those binary modules. Most of the relevant source code can be found in source/blender/python.
So yes python is used to define blender's interface, the various functions and classes that we use may be implemented in python or C/C++, from the python scripts we run in blender we don't see any difference.

OpenGL uses PyOpenGL for binding, and everything in the API is python but still this is all wrapped to C++ inside the binary.
That's what makes it difficult for developers to interact with the source code and implement things such as tesselation for the game for instance.
You can find the source here

thank you. i have code and i compiled it ... i want to know where is the calling functions for this relationship between python and c .... python call c language from the blender core ???? an interface do this ????? i can't understand

I don't know exactly but the point is that everything you call in python is read by the core. Look for known python call inside the source and try to figure out how they get mapped to C objets. My knowledge ends hère good luck.

I think you are already going to the right direction. As far as I know, Blender is using both C++ and Python for developer. For scripting especially add-on, it used Python. For developer, you can see https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Developer_Intro/Advice. For scripting, you can see https://en.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/Process/Addons.
To understand better the relationship between Python and C++, you can see the Blender Python API https://docs.blender.org/api/current/info_quickstart.html.

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


text:
How to curve text upward?
I'm attempting to create curved text at the bottom part of a circle. I am able to successfully create curved text around the circle and position it at the top of the circle and center it. But what I also need is to duplicate this same text at the bottom part of the circle while keeping the text readable without being upside down.
As the text is created it takes the two outside ends of the text string and bends then around the circle creating an arc with the CENTER of the text string being extended up and the ENDS extended down if viewed in top view mode.
I also need to create an additional arc of text where the ends of the string are extended up so I can then position it at the bottom of the circle and still read from the same perspective.
I can rotate the text around the circle but when it's rotated the bottom of the circle the writing is upside down. I've searched but can not find a solution for the problem.

Can you add some images to your question, like a picture of what you want to achieve or screenshots of what you have so far. I assume you are using the curve modifier in your text object. The resulting position of the deformation depends on a number of factors like relative position and rotation between objects, curve origin point and modifier settings. Try playing with the direction buttons in your curve modifier. If noone answers in the meantime I'll try to post a more complete answer later later when I'm at the computer.

It's unclear what you're asking. Sticking to a specific question will help, and adding images will help.

It's pretty simple to set up text at the bottom of the circle. Just duplicate the top text and circle curve.

Then move the text down until it fits the inside of the bottom of the circle. At this point the text will be in the right place but will be reversed. You just need to scale with -1 on the axis the text is on (x axis in my screenshot).

No problem Darryl, please mark my solution as accepted if it answers your question fully. Cheers.

Please consider marking the answer as correct if it solved your problem, or at least up-vote it if it helped your.


text:
Blender says model is UV Unwrapped but cycles does not render?
I can't get my model to render with the UV Unwraps. Though, there are many clues saying the model is in fact unwrapped, Blender can't render them out.
Here is the model in textured view:

Here it is in rendered mode (I linked the texture to the glossy color for visualization sake):

Here is the node setup:

And here is the unwrap:

Any suggestions on what could be the problem? Appreciate it.

Not sure, but somehow your texture coordinates in the 3D view don't seem to be matching the UV layout in the image editor. Could you edit your question post a link to your blendfile?

Well, it is part of a 60MB file and all its textures are already appended. Going to try to make it apart but not sure if I am going to get it. EDIT: It's been uploaded here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8c37r29zlv9stau/UVs.blend?dl=0

Your problem is having two UV maps in the same object, and the one you want is not the active one.
Normally this is not a problem but you have to choose which one to use for rendering, or change from a Texture Corrdinate node to a UV node.

Thank you for the support, mate. I apologize for creating this question, after nearly two hours of research it was just something stupid like that which I completely forgot. Once again, I appreciate it!


text:
How to mirror this section of hair horizontally, so that it does not flip upside down and can be applied to the other side of the head?

How to mirror this section of hair horizontally, so that it does not flip upside down and can be applied to the other side of the head?

The easiest way would be to select girl mesh. SHIFT+S>Cursor to selected.Switch Pivot point to 3D Cursor and then S, X, -1 to mirror hair on the X axis.


text:
Gradient Texture Map to Ring Inset
I am hoping this is a simple question....

I have a Gradient Texture,
I have a hollow circle mesh extruded to a ring,
I have an outside/outset and an inside/inset to the ring.

I am trying to map the gradient texture in a clockwise or counter-clockwise rotation to just the inset face, so that if you cut the ring and laid it flat the gradient would just be a simple left to right flat gradient.
Does anyone know the easiest way to do this?

If you are using Cycles render engine you could easily use a gradient texture as illustrated in the node setup bellow, though I am not sure it can be animated, as color ramp handles can't be keyframed as far as I know.
Has suggested by timaroberts, you can then animate this as desired by keyframing the position of the Color ramp handles in the Pos value.

Otherwise your best bet is probably unwrapping your mesh and animating the UV coordinates. You could then use a regular linear gradient with it.

To animate a color ramp, add a keyfame to the pos value of the color stop.

Hey nice one didn't know that. Always learning something new, I love BSE. Thanks for the tip, I'll update the answer.


text:
How do I access a theme property in the Preferences in 2.93 with Python?
I am trying to write a script to make the Dope Sheet bigger.
In Preferences it would be ThemeDopeSheet.keyframe_scale_factor
Have tried several ideas but nothing works.

Have I stumped The Stack Exchange?

You can get preference in python by bpy.context.preferences
import bpy

new_value = 2.0
bpy.context.preferences.themes[0].dopesheet_editor.keyframe_scale_factor = new_value

YES !!!
Exactly what I needed.
Thank Yo SO Much !!!

if this works for you consider to mark it as accepted answer ; )


text:
Energy Sword Smoke Effect
I am trying to recreate Ekkos sword from League of Legends. I've got most of the modeling done but I am completely stumped on making a blade that looks good. I've tried smoke sims and volumetric emissions. Open to any ideas.
I've attached my work(first) and the blades I am trying to recreate after.
Open to any help.

That is a pretty good looking sword. So I have seen the reference image you have given and the only problem I see is with the texturing, also, a little bit of modeling. I would say to use a different texture. The texture from the image is emerald-cyan or something like that, but your rendered sword is having more of a sky blue texture. I will recommend this texture I found : For a much better effect. Use the emission section in principled bsdf and set it to something like 0.345 and the co

This is my take on it. Of course you could tweak the colors a little so that they look better. I've used a 4D Voronoi Texture for the main structure, this way you can animate the W value to have some floating energy effect.

thanks so much for the help. I never would have thought of that

You could try giving it a material like this:

The first thing I did was warp the object vector using a Noise Texture to help give the rest a bit more of a "swirly/smoky" look. Next, I used this as the input vector for another Noise Texture (to make it extra distorted) and ran the result through a colored ColorRamp.

For the "energy bolts", I used the same warped vector as the input for a Voronoi Texture set to Distance To Edge. I inverted the result and clamped it with a ColorRamp to make the "Lightning" stand out I then mixed this with the colors using a MixRGB node set to lighten to have good control over how much lightning is added (too bright looks fake):

If you want to soften the effect overall (looks even less fake), you can mix the final result with fitting, solid color. Finally, I suggest running the result through an Emission Shader with the strength turned up a bit. Don't forget to enable Bloom to make it glow:

thanks so much for the detailed explanation. Really made me rethink what I know about the node system