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Vertex groups get deleted/are missing when I reopen the project?
I tried rigging the character and weight painting the rig on the mesh. After I save the project and reopen it, the vertex groups are missing, but the armature modifier is there and the bones are in the position and named properly. I tried this with other projects that are created with the same Blender version, and the vertex groups get permanently deleted even if they were there before.

Did you change Blender versions from saving vs. opening?  Can you provide a file, along with exact steps to reproduce the problem, along with exact versions of Blender used to follow those steps?  If you get my attention and provide a file and exact steps, I will at the least see if I can reproduce your problem.

Not sure how to share this. After a bit of testing, what happens is that when i open blender, attach armature to an object and add vertex groups, then close the project and reopen it, the project doesn't have the vertex groups. Now if I add them again to the same project and save again and reopen, then they are there. This is happening with each version I tried(2.9,3.0,3.1,3.3,3.4).

Then the file would be the file in the state immediately before "attach armature to an object".  You would want to detail some of those steps for reproducing the problem-- for example, how did you attach armature to object?  Parent with automatic weights, something else?  How did you add vertex groups, and which vertex groups?  And don't forget to mention that you saved the file, because that'd be a clear reason for your problems :)  Then we can follow your exact steps, with your exact file, and see if it goes wrong for us, and possibly see why it goes wrong.


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rigging error: object entirely pivots around joint incorrectly
I have an object frame that I want to make like a robotic arm movement for. when I add armature to it the entire object pivots around the joint instead of just one part of it like an elbow joint.
how do I fix this error?

you need to assign the mesh with automatic weights, or do it manually within the weight paint mode

Parent the object to the armature with the With Empty Groups option, it will add a series of vertex groups to the object, that have the same name as the bones, but it won't assign any vertex to these vertex groups for the moment. Then switch to Edit mode, select the vertices you want, in the Object Data panel select the vertex group they should be part of and click on the Assign button.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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How to swap out a child object with another, preserving the parent inverse matrix?
I have a blend file which links an object from another file (e.g. a pistol). This object is part of a larger model (a person, who is holding this pistol). If I update the linked object , in the linked file, eg add child objects to it, the copy in my main blend file does not update. So, I need to replace the existing linked child object with a new copy of this linked child object. But, there are animations on everything, so I need to preserve the Parent Inverse Matrix. How to do this?

Spent a while searching around for this. In the end, the most straightforward approach appears to be to use the python console. Basically:

with the current linked object selected, paste the following into the python console:

    obj = bpy.context.object
    pim = obj.matrix_parent_inverse
    s = 'pim = Matrix(('
    for j in range(4):
        s += '('
        for i in range(4):
            if i > 0:
                s += ','
            s += str(pim[j][i])
        s += '),'
    s += '))'
    print(s)

add the new linked object, parent it to the existing parent, using any parenting option, since you'll replcae the PIM in step 3 anyway.

The code above printed out a python command. With the new linked object selected, first run:

obj = bpy.context.object

... then run the python script from earlier. It will look something like:
obj.matrix_parent_inverse = Matrix(((0.16599735617637634,-0.0,0.0,-1.2911996841430664),(-0.0,1.0,-0.0,-6.202362537384033),(0.0,-0.0,1.0,0.36063331365585327),(-0.0,0.0,-0.0,1.0),))

Hopefully, your new linked object copy will pop into the right place :)
(If you're using animations, simply moving the timeline will handle the locatino, rotation, and scale, but if you want to copy those, you can use a similar approach:
loc = obj.location
s = f'loc = Vector(({loc.x}, {loc.y}, {loc.z}))'
print(s)

rot =obj.rotation_euler
s = f'rot = Euler(({rot.x}, {rot.y}, {rot.z}), "XYZ")'
print(s)

scale = obj.scale
s = f'scale = Vector(({scale.x}, {scale.y}, {scale.z}))'
print(s)

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


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How to bake rigidbody simulation from commandline?
How to bake rigidbody simulation from commandline?
I want to run simulation from cloud services, which are head-less. So I want to run from command-line. I searched around for a while, and tried various approaches such as:
import bpy

for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
    print(area.type)
    if area.type == 'PROPERTIES':
        print('dir(area.spaces)', dir(area.spaces))
        for name, space in area.spaces.items():
            print(name, space)
        print('area.spaces[0]', area.spaces[0])
        sp = area.spaces[0]
        print('dir(sp)', dir(sp))
        print('sp.context', sp.context)
        print('area.spaces.active', area.spaces.active)
        print('area.spaces[0]', area.spaces[0])
        print('area.spaces.active == area.spaces[0]', area.spaces.active == area.spaces[0])
        active_space = area.spaces.active
        active_space.context = 'SCENE'
        override = bpy.context.copy()
        override["area"] = area
        print('override', override)
        for k, v in override.items():
            print('    ', k, v)
        # bg = space_data.background_images.new()
        # bg.image = img
        with bpy.context.temp_override(**override):
            # bpy.context.space_data.context = 'SCENE'
            print('area', bpy.context.area, bpy.context.area.type, bpy.context.area.ui_type, dir(bpy.context.area))
            print('space_data', bpy.context.space_data, bpy.context.space_data.type, bpy.context.space_data.context, dir(bpy.context.space_data))
            print('scene', bpy.context.scene, bpy.context.scene.name)
            bpy.ops.ptcache.bake(bake=True)
        break

... but could not figure out how to set the context correctly. How to proceed?

Create a script bake_ptcache.py like:
import bpy

bpy.ops.ptcache.bake_all(bake=True)
bpy.ops.wm.save_mainfile()

Then run like:
/Applications/Blender.app/Contents/MacOS/Blender \
     --background \
    ~/BlenderFiles/test_render1.blend \
    --python bake_ptcache.py

Notes:

change the path to blend file to your own blend file
If you're not on Mac, use the Windows or Linux path to Blender executable, as appropriate, e.g. simply blender, on Ubuntu, perhaps)

The above approach appears to work without needing to set the context. No need to select the appropriate object, nor properties space, prior to running. (unlike for baking fluids for example)


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Good amount of Tris for a mobile game?
What would be a good amount of tris for a character that will be used in a mobile game? So you have an idea lets say a mobile game like Clash Royale, I'm of course trying to keep it low but I just wanted to know what is actually a good amount.

The resources and performance of mobile device hardware spans quite a range. It will be very difficult to give a hard number as an answer. You also need to take texture size, animations etc. into consideration. See a similar discussion in the Unity forum: https://forum.unity.com/threads/recommendation-of-count-of-polygons-tris-for-mobile-game.517210/

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/100876/is-there-any-clear-definition-of-game-ready-models

As much as necessary but as few as possible :)
The goal is to have a playable performance. And this depends on too much factors like shaders, draw calls, how much geometry at once, rest of ongoing code, target platform, target OS, and and and. The geometry is usually the smallest problem nowadays. The common graphical resource hogs are draw calls, particle systems, shadows. But code can slow down the game dramatically too.
That's why you normally start with a prototype to figure out what is possible within the given bounds. So make a prototype and simply try it out.


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Getting multiple images when trying to apply a single one
I'm still fairly new to Blender - I have version 2.79. I am trying to apply a single image to part of a model. I have followed many steps and tutorials, but when it appears on the object it is multiplied into a tile pattern, which is not what I want. I'm still working out node usage; I don't know if I'm missing something. Also, I can't find the "options" panel in the M

Can you add a screenshot for reference? Are you using Cycles ore Blender Render material, and are you using only one UV layer or are you using a secondary UV layer for the placement of the decal?

Yes we lack information, perhaps try to select Clip instead of Repeat in the Image Texture node?


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How to model grassy growth in Blender 2.8x?
I want to model grassy growth in Blender like in the picture below where it can be placed on rocks and stuff like that in UE4 so are there any good tutorials on how to model it?

You could use a nature asset pack.

I would like to model it customize to fit my needs.


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Camera view range [Clip start and end not working]
I have the same issue as some of users on Blender with the camera.

So, my camera clip start is set to : 50 meters and my end is set to : 150000 meters. And, with this camera angle, we don't see the end of the square at the bottom of my building. I think the clip end is relatively correct to the the end of the square !

Can you share the dimensions of the building with us? If it's big, the solution is simply to increase the clipping distance in the camera settings

Cameras have their own clipping, independent from the view.

Thanks ! You save my project :D


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why dont I see the objects in my scene, when using python
I'm trying to list all objects in my blender file, using something like:
for obj in bpy.context.scene.objects:
    print(obj.name, obj.type)

For some reason this gives me:
Camera CAMERA
Cube MESH
Light LIGHT
But my own blend file does not have an object called Cube, and has lots of other objects with many other names.
I'm running the script like:
 /Applications/Blender.app/Contents/MacOS/Blender -b -P print_smooth_terminal.py bubbles5.blend

I've tried listing out the scenes:
for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
    print(scene, scene.name)

... but this only shows one scene.
Spent hours trying to figure this out. No joy :/

So, it turns out that the order of the command-line arguments to Blender matters.
Putting bubbles5.blend after -P print_smooth_terminal.py meant that -P print_smooth_terminal.py was executed on the default Blender scene, not the scene I wanted it to operate on.
By simply putting -P print_smooth_terminal.py before bubbles5.blend, everything works ok...


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Why is my playback so slow?
I just upgraded my computer to have 32 GB of RAM, an RTX 4080 and Ryzen 7 5800X3D and whenever I play my animation in blender while in rendered mode, the frames drop to about 5-6 fps.  I'm a relatively new animator so I know it's not because of my animation having too much data.  Are there some settings I have to change?  I typically render in eevee but am willing to switch to cycles if it provides a better animplayer.  All settings currently are set to default and I'm on blender 2.90.1

no way to know because you did not provide a blend file https://blend-exchange.com

well, as first proposal, i wouldn't play the animation in rendered mode, but in viewport shading. This should make it a lot quicker. And then Harry is of course right, without knowing anything you did - how can we tell? You can search here or on google for "blender slow viewport" -> these questions are asked a lot. And you will get "general" answer - but maybe not suitable for you. If you wanna have a suitable answer for you, you should give us all necessary informations - so providing the blend file is (in my opinion) the best way to do that


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How to simulate a dough or silly putty?
I want to simulate a dough like material getting stretched or squashed in different places. My first aim is to animate a rolling pin flattening the dough on a flat surface. Is there any way to simulate this physically on Blender?

Lookup Molecular Addon

That addon looks like it is something to simulate a lot of small rigid objects like sand. I am looking for a way simulate one elastic object.


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FBX import of physics simulation model
I have exported a physics simulation model (wind turbine) as FBX from a simulation program where every rigid body has animated location, rotation, and scaling properties. There is no skeleton defined.
When checking the exported model with FBX Review everything is displayed fine.
Translation, rotation, and scaling are applied in the correct order.
But importing this model into blender I can see that only the first specified
property animation (translation) is applied but all others are ignored. If I
change the order of the animations to first scale, then rotate, then translate,
only the scaling occurs.
Is that expected and I need some further action on the Blender side, or am I
missing something obvious? Thanks for any help on this issue.
Using Blender 3.3.1 on Windows 64bit.

Finally found the issue. When exporting I had placed translation, rotation and scaling on separate animation layers. Blender only imports the first animation layer. Adding them to a single animation layer works like a charm.


text:
Cloth object (flag) starts to dissolve during render
I have a flag like this:

But after rendering the animation, it starts to dissolve and moves weirdly around, and ends up looking like this:
I suspected RAM issues during render, however, I didn't have any other applications open and was only rendering the animation overnight.
What is the reason for this?
It is a cloth object:

Self Collisions enabled
Subdivision Surface under Modifier enabled:

did u bake before rendering? you should always bake before rendering, because Blender itself decides when it wants to recalculate its simulation data

@Chris No, I didn't. I think that was probably the cause. I'll render it again - thank you!


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Pelvis Movement

I want this bone to only manipulate the hip, I have checked the weight paint and it is correct. I know it's a beginner's mistake but I would like that when moving the bone the ENTIRE MODEL DOESN'T MOVE

The whole model moves because every bone of the rig is child of the hip bone (or child of a bone that is child of it).
To get what you need you can set a master bone:
Go to edit mode, select the hip bone and make a duplicate (shift D), then select the two thigh bones, shift select the old hip bone, shift select the spine bone on top of it, shift select the new bone (this must be the last selected, so that it's active), press Ctrl P > Parent with "Keep offset".
If you have an animation, it will work only if you swap the names between the hip bone and the newely created one.


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How do I create a curved, circular, or swerving travel path for an object across a flat plane surface?
Please direct me to the relevant program elements of Blender that I will need to establish a turning and swerving X-Y travel path for a single symmetrical object on a flat plane surface.
Also, I would additionally like to have an attached linear object swinging and/or tugging more vertically away and in the direction of motion of the main symmetrical object, much like a leash movement from a dog on a walk.
Thanks,
Don Burke

For the first part, look for tutorials on Curves and the Follow Path constraint. There are several quick YT tutorials online showing you how to set it up.

Hello Donald, and welcome. The curved motion of the 'dog' could be, as @John Eason says, a Follow Path constraint, or just key-framing locations and rotations.. the imitation or simulation of the leash is really another question, Maybe it would be worth re-framing this question, if appropriate, as something more like: ' How would I simulate the tugging on a dog-leash?' .. or whatever it is you actually want to wind up with.


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How to set specific instance attribute in Geometry node?
I create a point attribute “Size” by store named attribute, for exampe i have 10 points, how to set the fifth point’ “Size” by node?
does blender has geomety nodes system  support script like houdini attribute wrangle?
or actually I need a node like Set Point Radius for custom attribute “Size” which i cannot find that…

Store $24601$ for the fifth (0-based indexing, so index $4$) point, and $0$ otherwise:

Change the value for the fifth point, but keep the old value for other points:

thx~ it's exactly what i want


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Geometry node support store string attribute?
I want to make a scatter func to generate foliage or instance to UE, so i need to save scale, orient and a string reference to unreal mesh, like houdini engine' unreal_instance, but i found blender GN is not supported to store string attributes:

does string attribute is on roadmap? or i can use some other way to achieve my thoughts?

There are no Blender developers on this site so you'll have to look on https://developer.blender.org/ to see what's coming.

In what format are you exporting data from Blender?

did u ever try animation nodes?

@John Eason
i post on that site before on another topic, but their developer told me ask question here...

@Martynas Žiemys
i made a addon to save my customized point format

I don't understand the issue then. What's the problem with storing strings if you are using Python? You can do pretty much whatever you imagine with strings in Python. You can store strings to be exported in so many places, I don't even know where to begin. How do you generate and use the string?

@willFederer Ok, but I was just pointing out that no-one here knows what the developers have on the roadmap. Anyway you've had several suggestions here on how to proceed.

You can store it wherever you like if you are using Python. You can retrieve it from any node. For example, you could make an output for geometry nodes node group:

Thx for your explanation,  what i need is not just a string standalone,  but should be a point attribute, for example, i make total thirty points, ten points as apple, ten as banana, ten as orange, and i need to export them to UE instancing, so i need a way to associate every point with UE apple,banana and orange asset reference string...

Named attribute's name is a string. It is stored.

Marynas, I think what OP is saying is they want an attribute that contains a string for each point.

@NoobieStClair Named attribute can be a boolean so it can be a string that some points have(True) and don't have(False).

Strings are constants - there are no string fields currently. You can't have a string per point. You can have some kind of integer per point, and each integer could mean some string - you then could have some kind of a list of strings in Python and use the stored integers in an attribute as indices of those strings.


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Reset Blender inputs?
I am NOT looking to factory reset my ENTIRE blender, i am just looking to reset the default key map,  i did something, an option popped up to change binds and before i could react i mis-clicked and am stuck with deleting by right click instead of selecting by right clicking, ive looked around but so far, only factory resetting? has popped up which resets my entire blender, which i'm not looking to do. i feel that i have to repeat that because all i have found is to factory reset.
i am running 2.79 sorry i didnt specify

First, the new shortcut should not remain each time you start blender, unless you save user settings.
The only trick is finding it. Open User preferences and go to the Input tab. In 2.80+ this is now under Keymap.
Use the search field to find "delete". Alternatively, you may want to search for the key-binding, in which case you can search for "right mouse".
If you changed an existing shortcut, there will be an arrow to go back to factory settings. If it is a new shortcut you added, there will be an X to remove the shortcut.

After correcting the shortcut, click Save User Settings.


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How to get point cloud produced by GN modifier by python?

I create a empty mesh and create many points in PointCloud and want to write a addon to export them, how to get them by python? i find the point cloud type doc, but don't get the api to get them:
PointCloud(ID)
base classes — bpy_struct, ID
https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy.types.PointCloud.html

I don't think there is yet a way in an official release to get the point cloud data from an object since it's not possible to create a native point cloud object. I suspect your base object is either a Curve or a Mesh object, so obj.data will point to a curve or mesh data (splines or polygons/vertices). You can try this method which is a bit hacky to transform the Points to vertices which can be parsed easily (although it may take a while if you have millions of points) see https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/227129/get-point-coordinates-generated-with-geometry-nodes

of course happy to be proven wrong :)


text:
how to set CommandLine Blender default version?
I type blender in the command line tools, then 3.3 start, but i want to use blender 3.4 actually, so how can i specify the start blender version?

Under Edit > Preferences > System > Operating System Settings click Make Default. The next time you start Blender it will use this version.

I set 3.4 to enviroment path works, may helps who want

Hi, thanks for the post. This site is not a regular forum, answers should be substantial, stand on their own, and thoroughly explain the solution and required steps. One liners and short tips rarely make for a good answer. If you can [edit] your post and provide some more details about the procedure and how it works, perhaps add a few images illustrating some steps and final result. See How to write a good answer?, otherwise it may be converted to a comment.


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Shortcut key to restart render
I have been searching for a way to get the F12 key to restart a rendering (essentially stop the current and then start another).  My workflow gets to a point where I am making small changes and want to see them rendered within 5 or 10 passes before setting up a robust rendering.
In Preferences I can find the setting for the F12 key for starting a render under Screen - Render and it uses the identifier "render.render".  When we hit Esc to stop a render, it appears that the identifier "Stop this job" is triggered, but that identifier is not available to set up a new hot key.
All in all, it would be useful for me if I could set the F12 key to both stop the current job and restart the render.  If this is not possible, I can live with hitting the Esc key and then F12.
Many thanks to anyone who can share some advice.

Why not use viewport rendering? I don't think it's possible to set up a single hotkey for stopping and starting another render.

Thanks for the reply - Viewport rendering won't show items that are set to "render only" for workflow optimization or things like material displacement or some geometry node settings

i would recommend using loom - a free add-on which also renders in background (which is quicker anyway) and won't hurt your computer performance too much. And it has a lot of more features which are really helpful.

Thanks Chris - I'll take a look at Loom

It really doesn't seem to be possible. There is no operator for stopping a render in Blender. When you press Esc render.render() operator stops itself. I think the add-on suggestion is most promising as a possible solution.

Thanks Martynas - I had that same thought about there being no operator for stopping. Confirmed :)  I'll see if I can get Loom integrated into my workflow.


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Principled Volume Shader shows edges of its Domain/Object
When I use a material comprised of a Principled Volume shader on an object used as the volume domain, I see the outline of the object/domain.  Is there a way to "pad" the edges of the domain or something to add to the material or a setting adjustment so that the volume inside has a more natural/cloudy/smokey look?  Attached is an example of the problem.

Probably add a screen of your cloud object in wire mode to better understand what shape is made of.

I'm not answering your Q, but you could be interested to try another approach with Object type Volume.
Model a base shape (from cubes or in Sculpt mode from sphere) here Cubes with Subdivision modifier) ...

Add object (Shift+A) Volume > Empty and add Mesh to Volume modifier and set your base mesh as source object ...

Then add Volume Displace modifier (like Strength 2), add a new texture and under texture properties choose Cloud texture with some bigger Size ...

Alternatively you can combine with other Volume Displace using another cloud texture with smaller size for more details ...

In this example I don't even need a shader (material) all is set in modifier or texture properties.

Wow, this is so out-of-the-box from my approach - thank you!  I will certainly give this a go!

Fantastic!  This is a game-changer.  My many thanks for your taking the time to post this approach.  I hope it will help others, too.  Cheers!

Done! Thanks very much again :)


text:
Best version Of blender?
My laptop is core i5, 5th generation, 64gb RAM and SSD 256. I have installed the blender but it just showed me a white screen on startup. Even I try different versions 1 by 1. But there is the same issue. Only the candidate version is running but I can not explore more on it and do my project. Can you guide me on which version should I install and why it is happening?

Your laptop sounds more than capable of running the latest Blender.  Do you have the latest drivers installed for your graphics card?

yes, I check it. It is already updated. I tried different versions as I told you. One thing is the same. I check on the task manager. My system is not assigning a CPU to the blender. Even if only the blender is running. I also change the priority to real-time. But nothing happens.

Please check that your GPU fulfills the minimum requirements: https://www.blender.org/download/requirements/

My laptop does not have a dedicated graphics card. only has built-in AMD Radeon graphics.


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Making colours of a colour ramp noisy
I have a nice gradient texture going on for a project I am working on. The nodes in order with their outputs are as follows:
Texture Coordinate: Generated
Mapping: Vector
Gradient Texture(Linear): Color
Invert(Fac: 0.75): Color
Math(Add)(Value 2: -0.29): Value
ColorRamp(Green at 0.005, Black at 0.007): Color
HSV: Color
Then principled and output.
I want the colours in the colorramp to be noisy, add a bumpy effect. I tried to create this with a bump node but no texture fit what I was looking for. I can't see how I can make the colours a little noisy without affecting the gradient. It's like the noise texture needs to be in the colorramp.

Why don't you just mix in a Noise Texture?  -- or additionally, a Musgrave Texture for some "pebbles"?

i know you are new here, but pls just make a screenshot of your nodetree and paste it in here. Nobody want to read the textual desription of a node tree....thank you.

In this example, I used a Noise texture to affect both the colors and the surface normals. Both can be used to make a "bumpy" effect. Let me know if you have any questions on how to modify it if needed.


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Light is not illuminating
I'm quite new to this but as I move the light around, it's not illuminating anything.
The light is shown as below. As you can see it's all dark.

The file is https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1gUYerWWGkvm6UbAs4rW070Er9fzo4c-Y
Thanks you guys in advance!

Your Light size is too big that's why you are not able to see it if you reduce it to 1 m or closer to it don't increase the size too much as this fades the intensity of light
so if you wan't to cover the more region try increasing the size in spot shape that is above blend that is increasing the area by increasing angle
and another reason is you world environment is too bright so that's why effect of light is not visible.
and then just press "z" to open pie menu and switch to rendered view

Press Z and set shading to Rendered / Look Dev? It should then display your materials and the lighting they receive.

Thanks guys! That works!


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Blender Rendering
Hello I've just started using blender a day ago. When I turn on render mode, the mesh leaves behind this trail. I am not sure fix it and what is causing this problem. Thanks.

This could be an issue with your graphics driver. Try to update it.

Have you tried a different renderer? (You can change at the top, Blender Render, or Blender Cycles, or EEVEE) If none of those work, I suggest updating graphics card drivers!


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my menu material is different from most people's menus on the internet, how to replace it?
This is my material menu look like

meanwhile this is most people material menu look like in most youtube tutorials https://www.wikihow.com/images/thumb/5/5a/Blender-Diffuse-and-Color.png/363px-Blender-Diffuse-and-Color.png.webp

You're using Blender 2.79 (or previous version) with "Blender Render" engine. Try to change the rendering engine to "Cycles". You will usually find that in a combo box in the top bar where you now have "Blender render" chosen.

As @Lemon said,
change your RenderEngine to Cycles and in the MaterialTab tick "use nodes". Now you have the same menu as in the YouTubeTutorials.


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Deaktivate Rigid Body Object after a certaine timeframe
due to the jittering of Mesh Collision Shape - I would like to deactivate Rigid Body objects e.g. after a certain timeframe.
In blender2.79 I found this Python API for making an object with a certain name a passive object:
bpy.data.objects['name'].rigid_body(type='PASSIVE')
However, this results in the following error: 'RigidBodyObject' object is not callable
Any help on how to attribute "PASSIVE" to an rigid_body object of a certain name as Python API for blender2.79 would be fantastic.

bpy.data.objects['Cube'].rigid_body.type = 'ACTIVE'

This is how you do it. If someone can explain further why I'd be happy to read it :)


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Free Style still renders outline on a particle emitter even if Show Emitter is unchecked
So I have this sphere used as an particle emitter, and I made sure Show Emitter is unchecked in Render under Particle.And But when I use F12, it doesn't render the suphere, but I can see a black outline showing up at where the sphere is.
I have Freestyle turn on FYI. Everything is rendering fine just I don't want freestyle line renderer to render my emitter.
I am not sure what to do, I am using cycle render and Blender 2.8
Thanks


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Blender 2.8 not allowing me to change the 3d cursor
I been trying to change the 3D cursor and when i change the world origin and press shift + S and select any of the options that would move the cursor, it just doesn't move it. Do you guys know of any reason why this would happen and a way to resolve that?

What do you mean by 'change the world origin'? Do you mean you moved the 3D cursor there? Did you have something else selected?

Yeah. Whenever i try to do that, it just doesn't work.


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best parctises of placing objects on (uneven surfaces)
what is the easiest way of placing a car or a table on an uneven surface, I have downloaded a random car model from blender kit, it is in collection within a hierarchy of single meshes, I have found a great addon 'physics dropper', but it is a no go with raw import, I would have to join meshes of the model into one and drop that, that would work but that would also make a double polycount
how do you place such objects into a scene?

Is it a one time operation or do you intend to automatically position the car according to the terrain each frame?     If it is one time, you could position the wheels on the terrain and then constrain the vertical distance of the body to the wheels and parent everything else (all the other parts) to the body.

Hi, thank you, Just want to take imported model and drop it on the terrain without any edits to the imported model, I dont want to animate, Its just a simple scene, I have seen a great new plugin for animating cars, but its a paid overkill for me

Ok this should work then:

select the wheels and join them (CTRL+J)
select everything else from the car and parent it to the wheels (CTRL+P, object keep transform)

declare the wheels as a Rigid body in the Physics tab with default values

declare the ground as a Rigid body also, but select the "Passive" option instead of Active
Play the timeline (default SPACEBAR) and watch the car fall in place according to the terrain :)

works, together with physics dropper addon like a charm, thank you much!


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How to delete pose created in new pose asset library blender 3
How to delete pose created in new pose asset library blender 3 ?
Is there any python code snippet to do delete,read,create,update pose asset library operations ?

You have to clear the Asset mark from the action that defines the pose.
This can be done in the Asset Browser by selecting the pose and then choosing "Clear Asset" from the context menu. The pose will be discarded when the blend file is saved.
If you want to keep the pose in the blend file but don't want to mark it as an asset select the menu entry "Cear Asset (Set Fake User)".

Alternatively, you can clear the Asset mark in the Action Editor. Select the action and click the Asset mark/"Shield" icon to toggle it.

For Python have a look at the API functions, e.g.  bpy.ops.asset.clear(set_fake_user=False)
 Delete all asset metadata and turn the selected asset data-blocks back into normal data-blocks


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How can I create an event to control the animation from python code?
I'm working on online object that will appear on the internet. My problem is I don't know how to create a key that will helps me to manipulate the character animation when it's appear on the service. I really need your help ASAP

as you can see this is my animation but I don't know how to continue.

'On the internet 'is a bit vague. In GE you can specify that the animation starts, only when the object is activated.

Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer.


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How to join a shape key with an armature?
I'm trying here to join two animations to make it one animation. One of them is shape key and the other one is Armature. Is there any way to join or "marge" them without using code?
Note: I have other shape keys but I just wanna join the blinking animation

One animation acts on an Armature object, while the other acts on a Mesh object, so it's not possible to merge them.
The usual workflow is to add to the armature some control bones and use drivers to make them influence the shape keys, so that a single animation piece will act on bones which directly move vertices and bones which control shape keys.


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Render each frame multiple times with different texture on a material
I'm quite fluent with programming in general, and scripting in 3D (particularly with Houdini, python+vex), but I'm new to scripting in Blender.
What I'd like to do is render each frame of an animation multiple times with different textures (and eventually, more different parameters, but I'll get to that once this is done).
texture_paths = [...] # list of paths to textures
for frame in range(1, num_frames):
   for texture_path in texture_paths:
    set_texture(texture_path)

    texture_name = os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(texture_path))[0]
    output_path = os.path.join(output_root, texture_name, f'{texture_name}.{frame}.exr'
    set_render_path(output_path)
    render_frame(frame)

Looking around, I think set_render_path and render_frame could be defined as follows (pls correct if wrong or if there are gotchas I'm missing)
def set_render_path(output_path):
    bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = output_path

def render_frame(frame):
    bpy.context.scene.frame_set(frame)
    bpy.ops.render.render(animation=False, write_still=True)

but I can't for the life of me figure out how to programmatically change the texture (i.e. image in an image node in a shader graph). When I look at the log when I manually load an image via the GUI, it just says bpy.ops.image.open. So it seems this is dependent on which node and context is active. When I select the node on which I'd like to change the texture, the log says bpy.ops.node.select(deselect_all=True, select_passthrough=True, location=(248, 328))! Which seems like it's selecting based on where my mouse clicked, which seems insane! I.e. if I organize my node graph, will my script stop working? (in Houdini, I would simply access any node - even parameter - directly via a hierarchy of unique IDs. E.g. "/context/parent/child/node/parameter").
How can I programmatically change the image of a specific image node in a shader graph in Blender?
(I did see this post, but they solved it by duplicating objects and materials, and hiding objects before render. This is not feasible for me as I have dozens of textures. Changing texture on the fly would be much more preferable if possible.)

Try this setup with a default cube and a default material "Material" then add an Image Texture and then run the script.

import bpy
import os

output_root = 'C:\\output\\'

texture_paths = [
    'C:\\path\\to\\textures\\tex-1.jpg',
    'C:\\path\\to\\textures\\tex-2.jpg',
    'C:\\path\\to\\textures\\tex-3.jpg'
]

def set_render_path(output_path):
    bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = output_path

def render_frame(frame):
    bpy.context.scene.frame_set(frame)
    bpy.ops.render.render(animation=False, write_still=True)

def set_texture(texture_path):
    filename = os.path.basename(texture_path)
    bpy.ops.image.open(filepath=texture_path)
    image = bpy.data.images[filename]
    bpy.data.materials['Material'].node_tree.nodes["Image Texture"].image = image

for frame in range(1, 3):
   for texture_path in texture_paths:
        set_texture(texture_path)
        texture_name = os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(texture_path))[0]
        output_path = os.path.join(output_root, texture_name, f'{texture_name}.{frame}.exr')
        set_render_path(output_path)
        render_frame(frame)

ah awesome thanks. I figured out a slightly different solution, directly setting the filepath property of the bpy.data.images already associated with the material in use. It's very helpful to see in your solution, how to directly access nodes and their properties.

nice! u can use the python console and its autocomplete function to easily test and find props n funcs by pressing tab. like type bpy.<tab> and it will show u a list or autocompletes.

ok I figured it out, it was super simple in the end :)
Instead of changing the image on the node, I change the image in the image slot that the node is associated with. (This was a concept that I wasn't familiar with, but turns out to be very simple).
def set_texture(tex_path, image_name):
    bpy.data.images[image_name].filepath = tex_path

For others wanting to do something similar, my full code is below
import bpy
import os

def set_texture(tex_path, image_name='sky'):
    bpy.data.images[image_name].filepath = tex_path

def set_render_path(render_path):
    bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = render_path

def render_frame(frame):
    bpy.context.scene.frame_set(frame)
    bpy.ops.render.render(animation=False, write_still=True)

def render(tex_paths, output_root, overwrite=False, frames=(1, 1000)):
    for frame in range(*frames):
        print('-'*80)
        print('Frame', frame)
        for tex_path in tex_paths:
            tex_filename = os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(tex_path))[0]
            print('Texture', tex_filename, end=' ... ')

            render_name = f'tex_{tex_path}'
            render_path = os.path.join(output_root, render_name, f'{render_name}.{frame:04}.exr')

            do_render = True
            if os.path.exists(render_path):
                print('EXISTS', end=' ... ')
                if overwrite:
                    do_render = True
                    print('OVERWRITING')
                else:
                    do_render = False
                    print('SKIPPING')
            else:
                do_render = True
                print('RENDERING')

            if do_render:
                set_texture(tex_path)
                set_render_path(render_path)
                render_frame(frame)


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Output to printable file 3D model
so i created a really detailed model of what I need 3D printed. but when I try to export it to a 3D printing software it does not do what I want.
It creates infill in spots that I specificly designed to be empty,
it makes up empty layers, while in my model in blender its completely filled
it just in general does not do what I want.
I made the model with exact sizes that it needs to be etc. I really could use the help.

Hello :). Please add a detailed description of the problems. And please keep it one problem per question, you can post as many separate questions as you need :).

Hello, the 3D Print Toolbox addon shipped with blender has handy operations to make sure your mesh is suited for 3D printing. You should check it out

I exported the file as an STL into Cura, and I saw your problem. The way I fixed it was by adding a solidify modifier to both of the meshes. You don't need to add a lot of thickness, but you do need some (I added 0.02 m).
Let me know if it works.


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How do I make a puzzle piece mesh solid?
I created a rough puzzle piece in blender so I can export a .fbx and then import into Unity to create a virtual reality puzzle but when I import it into unity there are pieces of the mesh missing but in blender everything is solid.
After I create my mesh what is the best way to make the entire mesh solid so that when I import it there aren't missing pieces. I've tried flipping the normals and smart UV unwrapping but it doesn't help much.

Hello and welcome. Please add some screenshots of the issue to have a visual representation of what the problem is. The more info, the better to help you

I think this might be a culling issue. Try turning off culling in the object's shader in Unity (cull off), and if that still isn't working, try looking into what is the best frontface/backface culling setup in blender for export to Unity.

UV unwrapping does nothing to the geometry. It just influences how textures are mapped onto the geometry. Please do add screenshots PS don’t use Imgur, just embed them directly into the question

I selected one of the parts that were missing and chose Normals > Recalculate Outside and then chose Shade Flat and everything cleared up.
I will look into culling though I'll be making several puzzle pieces and the quickest solution is desired.

The polygons might also need to be converted to triangles, as Unity is a game-engine.
This can be done with the triangulate modifier.


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The trivial problem of weight painting and x symmetry
I used rigging to build a skeleton, and I turned on x mirror and x symmetry to weight the leg symmetrically.
However, if a weight value is assigned to other bones except for the two bones, the operation will not work.
Is there any way to make this completely symmetrical?

There are 2 different kinds of symmetry in weight paint:
n. 1 is for "center" bones, where every stroke on the left part of the mesh will be copied on the right side (in the same vertex group).
n. 2 is for couples of bones .L and .R, where a stroke on the .L vertex group will result in a similar mirrored stroke ond the corresponding .R vertex group.
Theese 2 options are not intended to be used together, you have to enable and disable them according to the selected bone/vertex group.

Thanks for the help.
However, turning off the x mirror for the central born did not solve the problem.
The weight of the central bone can be fetched from a bone that directly assigns it, but it does not seem to be fetched from a symmetrical bone.


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Camera getting automatically zoomed in to object?
When I try to render my object (I am using blender 2.91) it automatically renders closely to the object, but in the viewport, it is just where I want it (see images). This happens in both Cycles and Eevee render.
I can I fix this?
Blend file: https://www.mediafire.com/file/th3ciy0yj5g36se/Problem.blend/file

When I open the .blend file you’ve uploaded, I see a camera pointed at absolutely nothing. Zooming out, you can see the placement of the camera relative to other objects. Do you see something different when you open the same .blend file?

Now it finally worked. it was pointed at it, but all i had to do is change it to material mode


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Motion Blur in EEVEE creating strange artifacts
I'm new to Blender and I've been practicing some simple animation.
When I render out an animation EEVEE random frames through the animation gets this issue.

When I turn of motion blur I get no such issue.

What issue? Show us a good frame for comparison. (Okay, I’ll go ahead and zoom around in the image to see if I can… no, not that kind of zoom around. Chewy is STILL fixing the hyperdrive)

Update: I still see no problem. What are you talking about?

I'll update the image when I get home from work for a comparison.

This is a video of the issue, I removed the BG to see if that was causing it but this was not the case.
Video here: https://youtu.be/hU2PkM24Fmc

After further testing it seems to be connected to the motion blur.

Have not seen the video, but are you talking about the ghost scratches to the left of the Earthoid that match its shape?

That's right, kills the background world space too.

Ok. IDK what’s causing that, but if you add that description to the question you might get better answering results (most stackexchangers do not follow external links out of personal policy against spammers).

We seem to have had similar problems and I wonder if you've already found the solution to your problem. But I found this, Anti Aliasing Issue with Wireframe modifier. I changed the position to "Start on frame", instead of "Center on frame" and set the Shutter to .1. It fixed my issue. I also tried turning it back up to .5 after i turn it down to .1, and it no longer has artifacts.


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How to quickly convert planks to stones in blender?
I have these planks I want to convert them to bricks.

These planks are split into multiple segments, and I want each segment or two segments to be a stone, like the first two.
I did two bricks manually but it went way too slow.
Is there a quick key command to split these planks into bricks?

In the Transform Pivot Point panel choose Individual Origins, select all, press AltE > Extrude Individual Faces, then scale down the extruded faces:

cool. how did u know he wanted it to look like that? he did say though he made 2 bricks manually but i didn't see them in the pic.

I think he's talking about what we see on the top left of his image, no?

oh now i can see it. it was kinda subtle but i see what he means now. yeah your solution should work perfectly


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"Cursor to Selected" Puts 3D Cursor to the World Origin Instead of Center of the Object (STL File)
This is an STL file I imported to Blender for 3D print. I have similar problem when dealing with most STL files (downloaded from Thingiverse and a like).
I have 3D cursor sets in the middle of selected edges like below:

If I ⇧ Shift +  S then select Cursor to Selected while having the main model selected, the 3D cursor will be positioned like:

How can I make so that my 3D cursor positioned in the middle of the model?
Additionally, when I imported the STL file, the default position of the model is always not in the World Origin. So, that's why the model isn't positioned in the World Origin.

You need to recalculate your object origin.
select your object and go to object > set origin and pick one you prefer.

most imported assets, export with 0 for object origin to avoid unwanted problems.

As you can see in your first screenshot, the orange dot at the world's origin - that's the object's origin. Cursor to Selectd in Object Mode set the 3D Cursor to the object's origin (imported STL models usually have the origin at 0/0/0, no matter where the mesh is).
To set the 3D Cursor to the center of the mesh, go into Edit Mode, hit A to select all and then Shift+S to set the cursor.
Or if you want the origin of the object in the center of the mesh, right-click the object in Object Mode, then choose Set Origin > Origin to Geometry. Other options would be Origin to Center of Mass for example.
After doing that, you can move the 3D Cursor to the selected object and it will be placed at the new origin. Or if you selected parts or everything of the mesh in Edit Mode and move the 3D Cursor there, than back in Object Mode you can set the object's origin to the 3D Cursor. This is helpful if you want the origin not directly in the center of an object's geometry but maybe at the bottom face or elsewhere.


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Material Shader not showing Materials
I was working on a project in blender 2.92, I have put many hours into this and really hope there is a solution.
After working I saved file. When I returned to file I found that when in solid view all was good but when I wanted to check in the Material Shader view (LookDev) is shows just a dark model. This also happens in Renders mode.
I get this issue with a new blend file too.
All setting seem ok. As far as I am aware I didn't change anything.

unfortunately, that screen shot doesn't really show us anything about your materials.  Please add your blend file to your question (Grab the URL of the question.
Go to https://blend-exchange.com/.
Select the blend file.
Add the url of the question.
Grab the url that results.
Go back to the question and edit it.
Add the new url to the bottom of the post.)

Possibly a fog/mist issue if you have any of them turned on.


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Asset Browser not adding to default location
I am trying to add my character collection to the asset browser. However when I mark the collection as an asset, it shows up in the local file within the asset browser, but not my default folder. Since its only marked in my local file, I can't bring it to any other files, which is what I'm trying to do. How can I get my asset to show up in the default folder in the asset browser?

Hello ! The asset browser is not yet officially released and supported, so it is unfortunately out of scope for this site. You can however instead file a bug report explaining your problem if you feel like it's warranted.

Try this answer which basically helps you to copy your .blend file inside your global path Asset Library: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/235002/asset-browser-how-to-make-a-current-file-append-asset-mesh-become-part-of/235015#235015


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Blender Rigid Body Physics issue
I want some balls to fall into holes with gravity but the balls pass without falling into the holes.

Please add more deatils. You have to add your phisics ettings, details about the problem, and what do you want clearly.

the default collision detection shape is set to convex hull.
Changing it to mesh should solve your problem!


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Bad results Rendering hair with cycles
when I render hair in eevee it looks great.
When I render it with cycles it looks terrible
What am I doing wrong? I tried to play with the number of subdivisions and with the total max bounces but it didn't change anything.

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

I want to know why I get bad results with cycles when I try to render hair.
What are the parameters that I should change in order to get good render of the hair?

I fixed it!
I changed all the max bounces parameters to a higher number and it worked!

You should mention in the question that this is no particle hair but hair cards with transparency.


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Bones won't attach to certain model/mesh
I wanted to practice rigging so I grabbed a model I had downloaded and decided to go about trying to rig it.
I went through all the steps in this tutorial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dZjcFW3BRY I also tried the advice here. The bones don't attach to the mesh
Nothing I can seem to do can attach the bones to the mesh. I've done everything I've seen listed to make sure the mesh is usable. Everything I try either the automatic weights option won't show up (It did in this file) or won't attach and move the model. I've been able to make it work on cubes, but any human shaped model won't seem to work.
This is the file. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gZO5E2CQPEEIk1qQgiXtOrCqF3Vfm--p/view?usp=sharing

I cannot look at the file tonight, but… Refresher. The mesh object is parented to the armature object, so the mesh object as a whole will follow the armature object around. The deformation of the mesh is done by an Armature modifier on it, which can operate via mesh vertex groups with the same names as their corresponding bones, or via bone envelopes. All three of these steps can be done at once with the handy “Parent -> to armature deformation -> [multiple choice]” operators.

Same problem as here. The mesh is completely flipped (inside out) for some reason. You need to flip all normals. The character looks like a game model. Game models often have a mesh split into parts for in-game customization. In Blender, the mesh parts result in duplicated vertices and in the infamous Heat Weighting: Failed to find solution for one or more bones error. To merge the parts, switch to the Edit mode, select everything (key A) and do a Merge by Distance with key M.

Done this (^), you can parent the mesh to the armature with automatic weights.

@Blunder So this did work at first, I was busy but yesterday I got to test it and I did manage to do that and make it work. However the file didn't get saved I guess, and so I've both started over with a new file and used the one I uploaded, and even with the fix and looking at the link you gave, it's not working again, and sometimes it doesn't give me the option to do automatic weights, unless I try to parent it incorrectly, but even when I do that, (to test if I'm backwards) it still doesn't work now and I'm really confused.

The order of selection is important. The orange highlighted object is the active object. The red-colored objects are the selected objects. The active one is usually the last selected object in the viewport. (If you select objects in the outliner with the Shift key it's the first selected object). The active object becomes the parent, all selected objects will be children.

Consider that there should be a shoulder and an upper arm bone, and the hand bone should be aligned properly. But there is a very weird problem with the bones. If the arm is bent there are 2 verts sticking out for some reason. The weights look fine but the vertices show no reaction if you change the weights (https://i.sstatic.net/0aY2R.jpg) The problem persists even if the mesh is completely remeshed. If I recreate the bones it works (https://i.sstatic.net/fGNSx.jpg) I have no idea what causes this weird problem.


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Why is the root diameter of hair not changing?
I opened a new project with a simple cube, added a particle, changed the particle setting to hair, went down to hair shapes and adjusted the root diameter. I cranked the value up as high as it would go, to 10m and it does nothing to the hair.  What am I missing? It's 3:30am here and I've searched everywhere. everything I watch seems to show me that what I'm doing should work but it doesn't.

You need to be in Rendered viewport shading mode to see the thickness:

Also, if you are in Eevee, until Blender 3.1 you need to go into the Render panel > Hair and press on Strip:

From 3.2.1 it's under Render > Curves:

In 3.2.1 it's under Curves in the Render Properties.

@Gordon Brinkmann oh great thank you

Ok, Sorry I still can't figure it out. I just updated to the latest version and I'm still having the same problem.  Can someone please send a screen shot of were this is located? Thank you. Just pretend you are talking to a dumb a$$.

@Ryan Kenneth Jones, I've edited, I hope it helps

Perfect!  Holy crap, I can't believe that worked.  You are so awesome.... thank you so much for your time!!!!!!!!!!

This is the video I was watching trying to learn how to make curly hair.
The setting you showed me allowed me to do what this girl was showing in her video. so thank you very much and maybe this video will help someone else who is wanting to make curly hair. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOkGwcObYBA&t=129s


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Convex Hulls in Blender
I want to create a cylinder with the purpose of importing it into a physics engine (MuJoCo to be more precise) which uses convex hulls. I created my simplified geometry with 16 faces. Now I want to separate them into individual convex hulls (image of the cylinder below).

The problem starts when I try to separate them (using the separate selection tool). When I do so, it only separates the edge, not the full face. Any ideas on how I can achieve this?
Also, I have to give the faces some depth otherwise the inertia cannot be computed. I aimed at doing this either before the separation or after, using the solidify modifier.

What do you mean by "separate them"? What is "them"? Do you mean separate each face?

in Edit Mode select all faces with a then press Alt+M > Faces By Edges. this will split your cylinder into 16 faces (or 18 if you have the 2 caps at top & bottom). then press p > Separate By Loose Parts which will give you 16 objects. Then you can add a solidify modifier to 1 object and then select all objects and select the solidified object last then go to menu Object > Link/Transfer Data > Copy Modifiers so you don't have to individually add solidify modifier to each face

+1 or better yet, add the solidify, then do Separate by Loose Parts, each one should have the modifier already.

+1 oh yes good point. no more need to copy modifiers that way :)


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How to mix glass and emission shader
I want to mix a glass and an emission shader. The goal is to create a window, which is seethrough but at the same time the light source. Normally I'd just use an HDRI and the glass shader to illuminate the room, but sadly this is not an option, as the program used to render the scene has an issue with light coming through other objects. I tried using a mixer and just plugging in the emission and glass shader but the outcome is a milky window and not enough light. The lower I set the emission strength, the better the sheerness of the window.  As you can see, the scene is very dark. I'd love to find a way, where I won't have to compensate for the missing window light by using the lamps.

Try using an Add Shader and add just a little bit of emission strength

Thanks for the quick help!

"as the program used to render the scene has an issue with light coming through other objects"  The right way to do this is going to depend on what you're using to render.  Materials, and techniques for them, are rarely compatible between different rendering engines.

I know alot of archviz artists specifically avoid using actual glass materials if they can avoid it. It's already hard enough getting interiors to look good and the extra noise, caustics, extra render time for something that is essentially invisible in the end render. Consider if it's even absolutely necessary to have glass in every one of these renders. You might be able to get away with just leaving that area empty.

The program used to render the scene is Mitsuba. Sadly the surface texture is of importance, so simply not having glass in the windows is not an option. But thank you for your advice!


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Change the angle of an area light?
Is there a possibility to change the angle between the direction of an area light and the area in Blender? To angle the entire area light won't work for what I am trying to achieve.

You mean Bending the light? Does this answer your question? Creating a Black Hole in Blender

What do your mean by "angle the entire area", by that do you mean angle of 90 degrees?  Why won't that work -- express your goal so that you'll get more focused help, faster.

I think what you may want is a Spot light, not an Area light, if you want to control the spread-out angle.

You can scale the area light

I am trying to build a window that simulates daylight coming through a window, without actual light coming through a window. The program used to render the scene (Mitsuba) has an issue with light coming through objects, so I am trying to find a way arount that. Deleting the glass of the window is sadly also not an option, as the goal is to create an as close as possible to realistic room. So the idea was to use an area light and scale it to the size of the window and put it directly in front of the window, on the inside of the room. But the light travelling parallel to the floor looks

very unrealistic why I'd like to change the angle.


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The Screen/Mix Compositing nodes cant fully mix two image sequences/videos together

There is the real time video and an image sequence of an animated lightsaber. They are connected through a Screen node to the composite and viewer nodes. The original image sequence of the animated light saber doesnt have the light saber transparent. It is fully blue and glowing. But here upon being mixed in, it becomes transparent so that you can see the stick my cousin was wielding in the real time video. Changing the factor lower makes the saber more visible than the video, but that darkens the background video. I want the video and the saber in their original opacities. Any ideas?

If the light saber is rendered with alpha (Output style PNG with RGBA), then try connecting the Alpha output from your composit node to the Factor input of the following node or perhaps check "Use Alpha" on the output node.  Some combination of that should work for you.

The lightsaber was rendered as a PNG image sequence with RGB. Rendering it with RGBA made it further transparent and harder to work with. Messing with the use alpha buttons and their values didnt help either


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Why does the Shader to RGB node remove Screen Space Reflections?
Starting with 3.2, any material that includes a Shader to RGB node cannot have Screen Space Reflections, no matter if said node is connected to the shader that actually gives the reflections. This wasn't a problem before, and I don't understand why it got patched. Why was this changed? Are there any workarounds?
3.1.2:

3.2.0:

It was probably a bug, try the latest version 3.2.2

@Emir it's not a bug. here it is in 3.2.2 https://gyazo.com/45a3e9e0c0ec29dd1c6cd614c621925e  its in the patch notes too https://gyazo.com/93b8223ea4c438214885d57b78ce37a1


text:
How to separately render a transparent shadow casted by an object?
My goal is to render two images: one for an object that I created in Blender which I understand how to do and the other image is for the shadow that the object casts.
The background on which the shadow is projected should be invisible, in fact these two images must be transparent and I understand how to do that with an object, but doing this for object's shadow is what I don't have a slightest idea about. The image of an object and its shadow will be then drawn in a separate program - think of a tile in a game with the shadow that object on that tile is casting on other tiles above, so at first a shadow will be drawn then an object itself.
A shadow must be transparent, i.e. it should have a transparent background and ideally it should have an alpha channel reflecting the strength of the light source.
I found one similar question that refers to shadow catcher, but I'm still not sure how to separate shadow rendering from the object rendering so that I could get a separate render of a shadow: 2.81 Transparent Background Shadow Catcher

I've been waiting for some magical Node to be suggested, but as you've mentioned this is for an external application, the end result would be unclear.  You might like to take a look at a rather basic but effective form of shadowing.  It bypasses the inbuilt shadowing system altogether and does produce separately rendered shadows planes -
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/518/how-to-make-a-model-cast-shadows-onto-the-world-texture-background/72354#72354

Thank you, I'll experiment with this.

I think the best bet would be to use shadow catcher plane with Cycles, this could render an object and a shadow on a transparent background. When I need to render a shadow I probably can use a pink texture + unshaded material on the whole object then cut it via Gimp or the like from the resultant image. That seems like a lot of pain, but I can see it could work out. If I'm successful I'll post an update with what I end up having.


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(Radial Topology) How to join object instances on the edges of the circular shape?
I want to create something resembling a gear, to do that I start with a plane that represents a shape of a single gear tooth, add array modifier then either Simple Deform or Curve modifier to create a circular gear-alike shape, then I add Solidify + Subdivision Surface to add volume and create a smooth look.
The problem though is that Catmull-Clark subdivision creates a small gap where array modifier ends meet on the circular shape.
I think an easy solution would be applying a hypothetical "Merge by Distance" modifier before subdivision that would collapse vertices on said gap. I can't think of any that can serve this role. For what it is worth, I am already using "merge" setting on the Array modifier but it is predictably won't work in a situation I'm describing.
How can I fix this?
The only approaches I can think of: (1) use geometry nodes and (2) hacks with boolean modifier where a gap would be covered by an object that would do merge operation.
Sample illustration to my question:

Maybe what you're looking for is the Weld modifier? Not sure about your modifiers order though, do you really need the first Subdivision Surface?

Oh, that's exactly what I need! Thank you very much! Please, add this as an answer so I could accept it.

What you're looking for is the Weld modifier. It acts exactly like a (non-destructive) Merge by Distance operation.


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Particles start flying away in random directions when adding particle system with duplicate setting
I try to make looping animation of falling particles.
I created particle system on a plane with the following settings:
Physics:

Type: Newtonia
Brownian: 9.03
Drag: 0.318
Damp: 0.103

Force fields:

Type: Turbulence
Strength: 15.0

First particle system starts at frame -50 and ends at frame 50, second - at frame 50 and ends at 150.
When I have a single particle system particles fall down as expected.
If I add a duplicate of the first particle system - and even if I add a completely new particle system and type its settings by hand - particles start misbehaving at frame 51 onwards - they start flying in random directions instead of falling down - i.e. animation changes to a some sort of explosion instead of falling down.
Perhaps force field settings need to be tweaked somehow to prevent this effect and make particle systems to "blend" seamlessly?

Possible duplicated https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/198835/is-there-a-way-to-exclude-other-particle-systems-from-the-effects-of-a-wind-effe/198839#198839

It doesn't seem so - the effect still exists when the first particle system gets disabled.

In the Force Field settings you are Turbulence with each particle as effector and strength of 15.
That is too much to keep the system stable if each particle acts as an effector.
Instead chose a few particles among the whole set to act as effectors. You can set the Effector Amount to 10. Also you can enable Self Effect to affect the particles of their own particle system. Do the same for both particle systems.
Also sometimes the Cache is buggy and you have to reset it by changing a value for example the Seed. To run the simulation correctly I've found that moving the playhead to the initial frame in this case -50 helps. To do this Allow Negative Frames in your Preferences so you can move the playhead on a negative frame (note your animation still starts at 0)

Here is a blend file that will work with the described settings above

Thank you very much! I found another possible solution which is to empty effector collection. Yours indeed is cleaner.

You're welcome.


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Is it possible to have an equivalent of Array modifier with decreasing count?
I want to create a simple radial topology starting with a primitive (brick) for a tower, I started with the following:

In this example taper effect is achieved by editing angle of bezier curve vertices via Ctrl+T.
It looks OK, but the only effect I'd add is decreasing number of elements as tower goes up: as tower goes up it'd look better if size of bricks stay almost the same as the first row.
Is there a simple way of achieving this somehow via modifiers?
I found a similar question Array with Size Increment / Decrement which attempts to achieve something similar for a pyramid-alike construct - and suggested answer is referring to a custom python script. I think nowadays a similar effect could be achieved with geometry nodes although I wonder if a simpler solution via modifier stack is possible.

I don't think you can avoid Geometry Nodes as something like a modulo operator is required as the building goes up. You keep the number of bricks per row constant, reducing the horizontal size of a brick linearly with the height to keep a conical shape to the tower. When the perimeter is once again an integer multiple of the original brick size, you reduce the brick count by one, and you repeat the process. Would you like some piece of GN graph to start with ?

I think I got the idea but if you have something you can share it'd be great to see. Thank you!

You can't do that with an array modifier but you can use something like this simple geometry nodes setup. Instance a circle on a vertical line, scale the circles along the Z axis, convert the circles to curves, then to points using length parameter, and instance your bricks with the correct rotation.

Here's the blend file for reference. V4.0 +

It looks gorgeous! Thanks a lot, Gorgious!

(Using Blender 3.6.5)
Here is another proposal, very similar to Gorgious's for the sequence of Instance on Points nodes to first create a stack of circles in vertical direction then to instance bricks of almost constant length along these circles.
The bottom part of the GN graph is shifting even rows in azimuthal direction by half a brick length to have a nice alternate pattern looking from the +X location.

Resources:

Gorgious deserves the validation of the quickest answer.

To reduce the gap between adjacent bricks, insert a "Transform Geometry" node between the "Cube" and the last "Instance on Points" nodes, with "Translation" set to (-0.4, 0, 0). It is moving the bricks inwards. The "-0.4" value is to adjust around half the brick thickness (i.e. X Size of the cube).

Hehe that is fair play but I like that you shifted the bricks, it's more realistic. Ultimately the OP can choose whichever they want, or none :) Cheers

Thank you very much!

Here's another way to do it, just use a cone:

It gives you the behavior of Stef's answer, with the bricks touching with centers of their local $x$ axis (the one going towards the center of a circle):

Adjusting the height of the brick/cone is not implemented here, but I think that's trivial (simply set Cone's Depth to Cube's $y$ multiplied by Cone's Segments, or otherwise transform the formula using the multiplication/division triangle)
And if you don't want the overlap (which won't be an overlap if you put enough space between bricks, but perhaps you want the bricks to be trapezoidal as opposed to rectangular), you can simply convert the curves back to mesh:

Yes, yes, they are connected… You could use a line profile, split edges, extrude up:

Yes, they lack bottom, you don't always need it, but here's how you extrude in order to keep the bottom, make it connected with the rest, and make normals point in the right way:

(those 4 nodes replace the single "Extrude" node, you don't need to put them in a separate custom group)

It looks awesome, thanks Markus!


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Bug in Cycles when handling overlapping objects with transparency?
I tried to model a floret-alike tissue by using multiple instances of the same object (roughly a plane made into a half-sphere) distributed on top of the other object.
I used a material which is essentially a mix shader that joins transparency BSDF and emission node plus noise mask that creates a hair-alike structure on the edges of the floret object.
Everything looks ok when I have a small number of non-overlapping objects but it quickly gets messy sometimes when I increase the density. I think it depends on topology plus perhaps some other factors. Observed this effect in Blender 4.1, not sure if other versions behave differently. Also, to my surprise it doesn't always work this way and things change depending on scale of the object and its topology.
I wonder if it is a known issue? It is clearly a some sort of limitations related to the use of overlapping object that probably overwhelms the renderer.
Here is the sample render, note black spots on the edge of the center object:

Source file:

Trying to use the search here helps finding a lot of answers to this recurring question...

Sorry for posting the duplicate, I honestly did try to find it but the issues I found didn't seem to directly relate to the issue I had. After seeing an answer I did find similar questions related to hair rendering issue.

Also, to be honest, I was quite sure that I stumbled upon a bug in Blender when I saw this rendering artifact. I didn't hope that it would be so easy fix :)

You need to increase the maximum number of transparency bounces in your render settings.

Yes, that's exactly what was missing. Thank you very much!


text:
Ship is not floating in Blender
I tried to make scene with floating container ship with this tutorial
But whenever I use copy rotation the ship is behaving very weird. Can You help me?
My Blend File is here

If you select your ship and look at its rotation:

I suppose you imported your ship from elsewhere, and whoever made that ship model used a software with a Yup coordinates system. So when Blender imported it, it rotated your model of 90° to make sure that the model's "original"  upside was preserved. But because the Copy Rotation constraint uses the object's original rotation, it causes you issues.
To fix it:

Remove your constraint temporarily by clicking its cross icon
Select your ship in Object mode and hit ⎈ CtrlA > Apply Rotation
Add your constraint again


text:
Represent temperature by colors over time
I want to represent the temperatures of zones in my building by colors over time.
I have a file that has the following form :

Time
T_zone1
T_zone2
T_zoneN

1.
20.
21.
20.

2.
19.
22.
21.

3.
18.
17.
10.

...
...
...
...

How can i do this ? Supposed that i presented the zones by cubes in Blender ?
Thank you.

Use addon import csv as fcurves https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/28796/2214 and use them to animate shader ... I didn't test it now, I'm not sure if there is an update.

This is more like general idea "How to ..." than best solution.
There is an add-on csv_fcurve_importer (works for me at Blender 3.x versions). With that you can import data as f-curves ... and use these f-curves as keyframes for Value node of material node-tree.
Example of your CSV, assigned to Location ...

Since I  need f-curve for Value node in shader I wanted to assign data to Value node via addon, but even Data path field comment says "... right click when hovering above text and choose Copy Data Path, pasting it to Data Path field the generated f-curve is still Action data block.
So ... I had to manually copy/paste f-curve to Value node ...

In this material example I used Map Range node to set the Coolest color (Blue in Coloramp) at value 10 and the Warmest color (Red in Coloramp) at value 30 ...

I don't have scripting knowledge, but for someone who knows sounds to me easy to assign CSV values to shader.
Or you can use location info (or other keyframe accessible from UI) as driver for color change (that is also copy/paste, but since done once on some proxy object you don't have to repeat this process when CSV data change).

you can try using lights and in shader editor, use a blackbody node to control the heat emission for particular cubes.

I think his problem is how to get the values from the file into the model without doing it manually, but I may be wrong.


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Programmatically collapse selected collection
Related to How to hide/show Collections levels with python?
I'm writing an addon that generates nested collections. I would like to collapse its root collection.

Shift + Left arrow shortcut corresponds to  bpy.ops.outliner.select_walk(direction='LEFT', toggle_all=True). I've tried changing area type to Outliner and executing this operator, overriding context, but it all results in error:
ERROR (wm.operator): C:\Users\blender\git\blender-v330\blender.git\source\blender\windowmanager\intern\wm_event_system.cc:1419 wm_operator_invoke: invalid operator call 'OUTLINER_OT_select_walk'
class MY_OT_collapse_root_collection(bpy.types.Operator):
bl_idname = "my_addon.collapse_root_collection"
bl_label = "Collapse root collection"
bl_options = {'REGISTER', 'UNDO'}
bl_description = ""

def execute(self, context):
    # area = context.area
    # area_type = area.type
    # area.type = 'OUTLINER'
    # bpy.ops.outliner.select_walk(direction='LEFT', toggle_all=True)
    # area.type = area_type
    # return {'FINISHED'}

    area_type = 'OUTLINER'
    areas  = [area for area in bpy.context.window.screen.areas if area.type == area_type]
    with bpy.context.temp_override(
        window=bpy.context.window,
        area=areas[0],
        regions=[region for region in areas[0].regions if region.type == 'WINDOW'][0],
        screen=bpy.context.window.screen
    ):
        bpy.ops.outliner.select_walk(direction='LEFT', toggle_all=True)
    return {'FINISHED'}


text:
Creating a procedural material from an image reference
I am new to blender so I don't have that much of an experience working with procedural materials yet.
I need to create a material similar to that covering the walls on the reference images
below:

I went with this setup of a plastic looking material:

Although the color is some-what right the overall feeling to it is not there.
What you guys can recommend in order to improve the look of the material?
Ps: I had to copress my render image becouse it was too big, so there might be some qulity loss.

I would say that it doesn't seem as reflective as what you've done

@moonboots the material looks kind of fake for me, but I have no clue why. I'll try to reduce reflectiveness through

maybe you need a bit of texture, either Image Texture or Noise Texture, to get some color and/or roughness variations? Or some very small bumps?

authors: Евсей Новиков


text:
Diffeomorphic stops on "Invalid mesh" error
I'm using Blender 4.0.2 and Diffeomorphic 1.7.3.1949 to import a purchased Daz3d asset, the "FG One Bed Apartment" from Fugazi1968.   It's a complete scene with many props and details, and the problem is that as I try to import it I get errors like this:
ERROR (1.7.3.1949):
Invalid mesh "FG FHinge Dr 1-1.002". Correcting.
For details see
'C:\Users\x\Documents\DAZ Importer\daz_importer_errors.txt'

Unfortunately, not only does the importer not "correct" the invalid mesh, it completely stops the import.   So of a scene with 200 items in it, if it stops on the 10th item, I wind up with only the previous 9 items.
I have searched in vain for a setting to override this behavior and tell Diffeomorphic to continue after an error, either ignoring the bad mesh or replacing it with a cube (or whatever).   But no luck.
Does anyone have a workaround for this behavior?   I have a huge number of Daz items I want to import into Blender but a lot of Daz meshes don't seem to pass validation in Diffeomorphic.

We can't help with Diffeomorphic which is a third-party addon and not part of Blender. You should ask the addon developer about problems using it.

@JohnEason If you want to add your comment as an answer I'll happily mark it "correct."  Thanks.

That wasn't an answer. It was just a comment saying that we couldn't help. If I put it in the answer field and you marked it as correct anyone else searching the same problem would expect to see a solution there!


text:
Find object data size in a .blend file
I am looking for an extension, or an addon, or some way to examine a .blend file and show the actual disk/memory size of each data block.
Is there a Python API that can inspect a data block and return the size of the data block?   I am quite willing to write some Python but I can't find the correct approach based on the Blender 4.2 API docs.

Hello. This is a great question, unfortunately I don't think it's accurately available with the python API, since the python objects are just proxies for underlying C/C++ objects. You would have to access the binary data in the blend file I think ?


text:
Any way to change the incremental save behavior?
I'm using Blender 4.0.2 on Windows 10.    I'm working on a project where I have multiple blend files representing different parts of the project, like
proj_shot1a
proj_shot2b
proj_shot3a
proj_shot3b

etc.   I love Blender's "incremental save" feature but it doesn't just append a number to the existing project name.    It seems to look through the whole project name and if it finds a number anywhere it increments that number and calls it good.   This breaks my "shot numbering" system because proj_shot1a then becomes proj_shot2a and then proj_shot3a, and so on.
Is the incremental save feature configurable anywhere?  I have looked and I don't see anything like this, but I'm hoping it's buried somewhere in a submenu.
Ideally "incremental save" would add a number to the end of the file name, so "proj_shot1a" would become "proj_shot1a_001" and so forth.
Any Blender wizards out there have an answer for this?

I have no real solution for you - but first I thought you want something like automatically incrementing the letters at the end. If it is okay for you that Blender adds "_001", why don't you just start by adding "_000" after your first file's name? When you name it "proj_shot1a_000.blend", then Blender does not increment any number it finds and for example make the next one "proj_shot2a_000.blend", but it will continue with "proj_shot1a_001.blend", "proj_shot1a_002.blend" and so on... which it should "ideally" do as you said - it only needs you to start different.

That simple change did exactly what I needed.   Thank you!   Proof that sometimes a second pair of eyes on a problem is critical to solving it.


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Any way to iterate through animation data and identify fcurves for pose bones?
I am looking for a way to iterate through the animation data for an armature and add a modifier to the pose bones.    I cannot figure out how to go from an individual bone back to the fcurves that animate the bone.
I know there is "Animation Data" which contains "Actions" which contain "Fcurves" which point to the bones using "data_path" properties, but I cannot identify how to go backward from the armature to the bone to the fcurve.   The bone does not contain anything that looks like it would point to animation data of any kind, and the fcurve does not contain anything which explicitly says "this animates bone X on armature Y."
It seems awkward and probably not correct to walk through all the fcurves and try to "interpret" which fcurve goes to a bone in a particular armature.    Is there a better way?
For bone constraints, there is a constraint collection in each pose bone:
constraints- Constraints that act on this pose channel
TYPE: PoseBoneConstraints bpy_prop_collection of Constraint, (readonly)

But there does not appear to be anything similar for fcurve modifiers.


text:
how can I find what objects reference a custom property?
I am animating a figure.  The rig has over 200 "drivers" which point to custom properties on the armature.   I cannot figure out how to trace the custom properties into the armature itself.   For example, a (example) custom property "XyzAbc" is located in the "Custom Properties" section of the Armature object, but how do I find out which one of the 548 bones in the rig is using the custom property "XyzAbc"?   There is a section in Armature outline called "Drivers" but it contains, as far as I can tell, nothing useful - it cannot be clicked into, has no properties, and shows names or other information.

After some investigation and a lot of typing, it looks like this:
bpy.data contains a collection "actions"  (bpy.data.actions)
    Actions collection contains Action objects
        Each Action object contains collection "Fcurves"  action.fcurves
            Fcurves collection contains Fcurve objects
                Each Fcurve may (or may not) contain a Driver property

And that's where the drivers live.


text:
Remove bone rotation limit?
What generates this rotation limit display (picture attached) for bones?  I have removed the "Limit Rotation" constraint from the bone but the display remains.  I can manually rotate the bone past the limit now, but I would like to remove the display.

Select the bone in Pose mode and in the Bone panel > Inverse Kinematics > check the Limit X, Y and Z:

Thank you, that was exactly what I needed.   Very clear illustration, also.


text:
How to determine the "Type" of an fcurve?
The official blender documentation for the type "FCurve" includes this:
driver
    Channel Driver (only set for Driver F-Curves)

However, it does not explain how to determine if an F-Curve is a "Driver F-Curve" or a different type.   Does anyone know that bit of information?

If the fcurve.driver is None, the fcurve type is Action F-Curve, otherwise Driver F-Curve
import bpy

ob = bpy.context.object
ob.keyframe_insert("location")
ob.driver_add("scale")

def is_driver_fcurve(fc): return fc.driver is not None

kf_fcurve = ob.animation_data.action.fcurves[0]
dr_fcurve = ob.animation_data.drivers[0]

print(is_driver_fcurve(kf_fcurve)) # >>>> False
print(is_driver_fcurve(dr_fcurve)) # >>>> True

Thank you, that looks like exactly the solution!


text:
Blender 4.x How to add vertices to a new Hook Modifier using Python?
I've checked the existing StackExchange questions but they seem to refer to Blender 2.79 or earlier.   I'm using Blender 4.2 the API seems to have changed.  I'm trying to use Python to hook curve points to the bones in an armature.   I've gotten as far as adding the modifier and calculating which bone to attach to which point, but I am stumped by this line in the documentation:
vertex_indices_set(indices)

"Validates and assigns the array of vertex indices bound to the modifier.  Parameters:
indices (int array of 64 items in [-inf, inf]) – Vertex Indices"
Do I need to assign all the vertices on the curve to each hook modifier, or one vertex?   How do I determine the "index" of the vertex that I need to assign?  For that matter, what kind of array is this call expecting?   I've managed to crash Blender several times by trying different values.

Do I need to assign all the vertices on the curve to each hook modifier, or one vertex?

It depends on what you want to do and the type of curve you are working with. For a Bézier Curve, assigning the handles doesn't seem necessary. I doubt you would want to assign all vertices. This would cause the whole curve to follow the hook object.

How do I determine the "index" of the vertex that I need to assign?

For a Bézier Curve, the control point and both handles are considered vertices. This means that indices 0, 1, and 2 correspond to the left handle, the point, and the right handle of the first control point, respectively. Note that the curve has a direction. If the second point only should be assigned, the desired index is 4.

For that matter, what kind of array is this call expecting?

It is expecting an int array. Something like the following:
# To assign the index of the second control point
curve_object.modifiers['Hook'].vertex_indices_set((4,))

# To assign the indices of the second control point and its handles
curve_object.modifiers['Hook'].vertex_indices_set((3, 4, 5))

Thank you, this was exactly what I needed!


text:
Cut straight line with knife tool
Im trying to create a face in order to extrude upwards to create a wall for my church building. In order to do that I figured I make a cut with the knife tool like so:

Ideally that line would be straight and I know that I can press A to have some angle. However since the object is not aligned it gives me angles that arent useful:

Is there a way to manipulate the angle so that it gives me a straight line? If not, is there another way to reach my desired goal?

If you select any piece of geometry and then press Shift+<Numpad Direction Number e.g. 1, 3, 7> it will align the camera to that geometries normal.
So if you select the edge you want, then press Shift+Numpad7 to align to the top view of that edge, you can then use the knife tool and press A to constrain your cut to a 45 degree increment.


text:
Hdri background does not show up when I export my blender model
I am very new to Blender. Only been using it for a couple of days.
I have a 3d model(s) in an hdri environment and would like to export the model with the hdri background so that I can view the model while moving the hdri environment in 360 degrees.
When I export it in glb/gltf format, I'm only able to view one of the models with no hdri background.
When I export it in fbx format, I am able to view all my models but not with the hdri background.
Basically, what I've noticed is that when I view my exported blender file on Windows 3D Viewer,  it appears like the material preview mode on the blender viewport shading. I want it to export it the way it appears on the Rendered Preview mode on the Viewport Shading.
I'd appreciate any help.

For what it's worth, there have been at least 2 different draft/vendor extensions to glTF proposed for embedding HDRIs. None have been accepted by Khronos or implemented in Blender, because they add a lot to the size of the file, and most assets are generally interchangeable among multiple HDRIs.  So for now I think you have to handle the HDRIs separately from glTF files.

I don't think it will work this way. The HDRI is part of the environment setting and I don't think you can export it with the model. You need to set the HDRI in the importing program. Does the Windows 3D Viewer support HDRIs?
Blender uses build-in HDRIs for the material preview. For rendering, you need to set up the HDRI in the world settings.
Furthermore, most file export formats don't support exporting textures. However, you can re-create the material in the importing program and import the textures and the HDR image (if supported) manually. The glTF file format is an exception because it supports textures and basic material settings - but no HDRI either.
In ThreeJS for example, the HDRI can be uploaded into the Environment slot. (It must be a *.hdr file, *.exr files are not supported.) Texture images can be specified in the material settings below. If you use the glTF format the images will be imported from the *.glb file and assigned automatically.


text:
Animation with fbx file
I am new to Blender. I have a sequence of 3D hand poses in fbx file. All are in 5 files. They are sequences of open-close hand.
Question:
How can I make a video animation from these 5 fbx files?

import them all on the same spot then you could animate the hide_render property. its the camera icon in the outliner. you can press i while hovering over the icon. then click it to disable and press i again to animate hide it from render. do it with each object. such that they show and hide in sequence one after another

Thank you @HarryMcKenzie. When I pressed i, there were several options to select, which one should  I select?

no there are no options when u press i while hovering over the icon. here's an example how to animate the render property https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/272144/142292 take note though that u may still see the objects with hide_render set to True in viewport but they're not visible when actually rendering them.

@HarryMcKenzie, I followed your instructions but could not get the rendered animation.


text:
Tracking the vertices
I have a 3D hand model. Using the model, I created some hand pose animations and extracted hundreds of sequences of obj files. From these obj files, I labeled some key joints located on the fingers and I did it manually by selecting their corresponding vertices. I repeated the same labeling procedure for a few other frames. Since I have many obj frames, I want to automate the labeling process, so I wrote a python script to track the vertex indices I am interested in. However, it does not work as the vertex indices change from one frame to another (change with time).
Do you know what is the best way to keep tracking the vertices?

one way would be to parent the vertices to another object e.g. empties and then you can deal with the empties positions instead of indices of vertices

@Chris, Thank you very much.

Glad I could help


text:
nothing showing up at UV Editing
So basically, i made a sword in roblox studio, but when you convert a model into a mesh it doesn't carry on the texure. So what I'm trying to do is get the texture as a png by using blender.
I already saw someone ask how to do this on here, and it was answered that you have to go to UV Editing and then Image and save it. But the problem is nothing shows up in UV Editing.
I'm really bad at blender but I have no idea why it isn't showing up.
Also it looks nothing like its supposed to in blender, for some reason the hilt is red

You are in Object mode. press tab to go into Edit mode. Press A to select everything. If you still don't see anything in the UV editor then that means you have no UV map. Press u > unwrap to create a new UV map.

Additional to what @HarryMcKenzie says: you cannot tab into Edit Mode like that, the sword is red because you have selected all objects in your scene and the sword is not the active one (it would have a brighter orange outline). The other objects selected are the camera and the light, and you can't switch to editing on any of those. So simply left-click on the sword, this makes it the only object selected and automatically the active one. Or to make sure nothing else is selected, press Alt+A first to deselect all, then click on the sword. Now you can do the steps Harry described.

By the way - you can see in the Outliner window that none of the selected objects has a brighter orange. This means, none of them is an active object, this is usually caused by having deleted an object (which was the active one) and then - without selecting a new one by clicking on it and making it the active one - pressing A to select all. Now there is no active object and even if all of them were editabel mesh objects, Tab to switch into Edit Mode would not work and even the mode selection in the menu doesn't show any options to change the mode.

Hey, It kind of worked, but for some reason it comes out as this weird purple texture, anyone know why?
Here's the image: https://imgur.com/a/sUXUAga

You just need to delete the Texture, the texture name is above the UV Editor, just cllick the "X" icon


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Python command to get the bone an object is parented to
Assuming an object is parented to an armature and one of its bones. (Type 'bone')
How to get the name of this bone using Python script?
Thanks in advance!
(Blender 3.3 User)

bpy.context.object.parent_bone - if obj is active. You may want to activate the tooltips (Preferences >Interface > User Tooltips) to see python details with mouseover an element.

Thanks a lot! That's correct, found it now also in the blender python docs under 'Object(ID)'.


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Using Blender to convert a .ply file
I have a .ply file of Abraham Lincoln.
This is how it first looks when I import it to Blender:

I can see it includes color because I am able to switch to Vertex Paint mode and see this:

What I am trying to do is to convert this .ply file to a .fbx file so that when I import the .fbx file to another software (like Unity for example), I will be able to see a colorful object.
Can anyone here tell me whether this can be done?

Yes, FBX does support vertex color. Unity supports this but needs to be setup in whatever shader. The setup in other softwares is off-topic for this forum.
glTF supports vertex color as well.
You can also view vertex color in object mode with the  ̌  icon next to the shading modes with this menu:

And edit and select Vertex colors in the Properties Editor > Object Data Tab > Color Attributes Panel.


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i have this model how do i make the outline above the solid texture?
I want to have the outline be above the torso but behind the visor, tips? (pic left is wanted, pic right is what i get.(among us hahahahaahaahah))

You could use a curve that goes around the glass part, and give it some thickness with a profile ?
Create a curve (I used a boolean modifier, then isolated the intesecting edge)

Give it somee thickness with a profile

And voilà, Parmi Nous.

would be great, but not so great for animating as far as i know


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unchecking Optimal Display for subdivision surface modifier not working in edit mode
Hello im a newbie and i am stuck trying to figure out why unchecking Optimal Display for subdivision surface modifier not working in edit mode but will work in object mode. Seems crucial for modeling.

Hi :). Works just fine in my Blender 3.2. I wouldn't say it's 'crucial', it just shows simplified wireframe, which is sometimes more convenient.

Having the same problem in 3.4.0. In edit mode it doesnt show the wireframe of the subdivision modifier :(

This commentary and answer suggest a real (possibly simply fixed) anomaly in the application. Perhaps worth a bug report. ?

If Auto Smooth is turned on, GPU Subdivision won't work, that's why it doesn't show correctly.

I'm using 3.5 & have that problem. I find it happens when I have another modifier beneath the subdivision surface modifier (eg. the mirror or solidify modifier).
With either of those modifiers beneath the SubD, you see the more complex wireframe whether "optimal display" is checked or not. Once you apply them or delete them, "optimal display" goes back to operating as normal.

What fixed it for me was turning on GPU Subdivision under viewport settings in preferences.