text:
Blender VSE Renders audio/video out of sync
I've seen a few other posts in various places about this problem. But having tried all the ones I've found I'm not sure what else to do.
My problem is that Blender renders my video out of sync with the audio. But it happens somewhat randomly. It's really annoying to find that every other video I render is very out of sync.
It's very simple footage too. Just footage of a game from my PC. Nothing complicated.
Now I'm sure I'm importing at the correct frame rate, it's at the correct resolution, and my frame range is right.
I've tried using all of the different timecode options, and not using it at all. Nothing seems to help. But I'm still new to using Blender as a video editor so I must be missing something. I also don't really understand what the different time code options are doing.
I didn't realize I couldn't edit my comments. I tried again with OBS and it still just records a black screen no matter what I do.
I should mention that I use Bandicam to record, with the "YouTube Preset". Which uses the Xvid codec.
@gdquest The addons you suggested seem to have solved this problem perfectly. As well as making editing a breeze. Thank you!

Try recording your footage to a file with Open Broadcaster Software and see if this helps.

I'll try to use OBS again. I was having issues with it only recording a black screen a while back. If this works could the codec I'm recording with be the issue?

I edit videos almost daily with Blender, but I never faced your issue.
I highly recommend giving Blender Velvets a try. The Velvet Revolver add-on allows you to transcode all of your footage to an editing-friendly video format, using FFMPEG. It also makes editing in Blender much more efficient, but that's another story! I recommend that you use the MJPEG format with Revolver, prores is way too heavy.

Most video editing software out there only support a limited set of codecs for technical reasons, and you can have issues editing with videos that use the h264 codec. The lovely compression it provides comes at a cost: your video's frames are not available individually in the movie file, making it hard to decode, hard to split frames... so your issue is most likely due to that.
I hope it'll help, and if it doesn't, could you upload a blender file with a sample of the incriminated footage?
Kind regards,
Nathan.

Thanks, I've added it to Blender. It's a bit late to start converting now, my files are pretty long. I'll get the results tomorrow. But I had a quick question. I read that long intervals between keyframes could be one culprit for this kind of issue. Would making a keyframe every frame help in the future?

I don't think so. I use automatic keyframes for recording in both OBS and action!, and it works well.

The VSE can have a hard time to get all the frames out in time for you to see, when that happens, what helps is to set the Sync Mode to Frame dropping or try the other modes according to your preferences. (Not sure if you already tried that when referring to "time code options".) Also under Playback you can activate Audio Scrubbing and/or AV-sync.
If you moved things around you might have to refresh the sequencer by hitting the Refresh Sequencer button to get things in sync again.

What you describe basically describes Playback sync problems, he asked about  rendering sync problems... the Playback sync problems have been asked many times here before and are already addressed with answers.

Right - missed the 'render' bit. :(


text:
Why does cube UV unwrap at an angle? The mesh is square but the UV is skew, at an angle
please see images below. I've marked the cube's seams in edit mode, selected all edges and hit unwrap. The UV unwrapped result is in the second image. Why is it at an angle? It would be VERY useful if it kept its 90 degree relationships when unwrapped. (third image shows result when you apply transform before unwrapping - helps with overall proportion but not with the random angle problem.)
Thanks
JK

Have you applied the transformations to the cube before unwrapping. Hit Ctrl+A--> Rotation&Scale and try to unwrap again.

Seems to help with the overall proportion - but still being unwrapped at this completely random angle. Will edit post to show new image as can't post image here in comment. thanks

It is relative to the viewport iirc, were you in orthographic side/top view when this happened?

What unwrap method did you use?

And how did you build the cube?

You need to unwrap the model after you add the texture to the UV/Image Editor because the image is not 1x1 proportion.

NoviceInDisguise - Always orthographic view - front this time.

pycoder - first option in the list - unwrap (after marking the seams in edit mode). ALL the other options in the unwrap list give much worse results.

josh sanfelici - Add Mesh - Cube - various scaling on x,y,z to shape - Apply Scale.

Denis - Tried both ways (unwrapping before and unwrapping after adding the texture to the image editor) - the skewed result shown above was always the result.

You shouldn't need to mark a seam for a cube in this case, try removing it. Also, when unwrapping  try using Smart UV Project instead of normal unwrap

I've checked out your seams placement and you're right- it doesn't unwrap in the right way (don't know why). To solve it you may snap the cursor (2D Cursor mode) to the very bottom vertex with Shift+S-->Cursor to Selected, select the nearest one and rotate them to create a straight line (you may then scale the vertices by Y axis- S,Y,0 to make sure the edge in a perfect horizontal position). Then pin the vertices with P. Finally unwrap the mesh again (U-->Unwrap) and get rid of pinning (Alt+P).

You may also try to place  the seams in a different way e.g. as pictured below. As you can see it unwraps well now.

Thanks Paul for that solution, I appreciate it. Do you see my frustration though? Surely this shouldn't involve 8 (EIGHT!) separate steps to get it right! Blender provides preset meshes in its Add menu (Cube, Cylinder, Torus, etc.), so wouldn't it be super helpful if it had a few preset unwrap options tailored specifically to those meshes in the UV unwrap menu? Do you perhaps know how to bring these kinds of issues to the developers' attention? Thanks again.

I know that some of the Blender features need to be improved, because now they're extemely annoying. Fortunately you may report a bug any time here: https://developer.blender.org/ Also please see this answer for more details: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1377/best-place-to-put-bug-reports

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
How to set Viewport camera (NOT 3D scene camera) default settings?
How do you set the default settings of the Viewport camera (the 'camera' that allows you to see into a viewport as you open blender.)(NOT 3D scene camera)? Because of our workflow in the office I have to change the default units and that result in the scene camera zoomed way in and when I dolly out the whole scene disappears because the clip limits are now super small! I know to change the properties of this camera in the'View' dropdown on the RHS of the 3D window but that is not a setting that 'sticks'? Where can i set those default values? Is it in preferences somewhere? Thanks
EDIT: Attached test .blend file

So the 'Save as Startup' cameras are fine (see below):

But when I change any other window to a 3D viewport (ie: the Shader Editor, below) the camera in that view reverts to the not very useful 'default' 50mm. It's that 'default' I want to change.

Thanks

After making those changes to the viewport camera, go to File > Defaults > Save Startup File

One would think so, but with every new 3D Viewport you create / drag out (as we need to do in our workflow) it defaults back to the stock factory setting camera. So, no, unfortunately that is not a solution to this issue.

Hello :). I cannot seem to reproduce your issue in Blender 2.81. When i change the viewport camera to 85mm, all newly created viewports use 85mm. Would you mind sharing your empty .blend file?

@ᴊᴀᴄʜʏᴍᴍɪᴄʜᴀʟ I think he means when they create new Workspaces or are splitting areas rather than just starting a new file

@stphnl329 Well, in both of these cases it works just fine. Just tested it. Newly created workspace gets settings from the startup file, so your solution still applies :).

Sorry, how do you add a blend file?

Save the defualt file, upload it to that link and paste the given code into your question

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


text:
Geometry Nodes Face Extrude height based on lightness value not working properly
Please see attached JPG. The extrude heights don't correspond to the lightness values that are generating the extrude value. How do I set this up so that the 75% brightness value generates an extrude height that is 75% of the total extrude height and so on. Thanks.

Here is the test PNG (its small 8x8 pixels (uses closest interpolation):

This is what the test.png image looks like in photoshop:

pls provide blend file because we have no idea how your test.png looks like. thx.

file is attached.

I think it would be a good idea to repost the .blend with the texture-image packed.

Had to google how to package a blend file! - I've attached it now.

The blend file (corrected packed.blend) attached to this question is the corrected version.

When I open your file in Photoshop myself, even PS does not show 100%, 75%, 50%, 25% for the greyscale values. It shows 100%, 72%, 47% and 23%. So on the one hand the issue has something to do with the color management in Photoshop how it saves the images. I guess it uses some sRGB or Adobe RGB conversions and/or gamma correction (sorry I'm no expert in this).
The other thing is, when you open the image file in Blender, you have to set the Color Space to Non-Color or Linear Rec.709 to get a better result. You can do this either in the Image Texture node in the Shader Editor or in the sidepanel of the Image Editor (the texture node in Geometry Node does not have this setting). The Color Space you set in any of these editors will be used throughout for this image.

But the even better solution would be to create the file again in Photoshop with the correct values (since the PNG has changed values after re-opening) and not save it as PNG, but a TIF file and in the save options disable the color profile. If you then open this file in Blender and set the Color Space to one of the previously mentioned options, you will get the closest result.
Sorry, this screenshot is from my German version of PS and apart from the language this might differ in different editions:

With this TIF file I got these values in Blender: 1.000, 0.744, 0.496 and 0.258 which is almost there. Maybe there are even better settings which I haven't found yet. If the extrusion is still not exactly like those values, the problem could be that Geometry Nodes places values on geometry, i.e. vertices etc. so it might be that the height is a bit decreased by the surrounding black areas.
By the way: Even with the TIF file Photoshop itself seems to change the values a bit. Re-opening the TIF file showed brightness values of 100%, 75%, 50% 25% correctly, but while the 50% brightness was RGB (128, 128, 128) or #808080 upon saving, it was now RGB (127, 127, 127) or #7F7F7F.

If, as you show, the packed  image is read as 'Non-Color' I'm getting this accuracy: https://imgur.com/a/4NvgWSq

@RobinBetts Hmmm... not when I checked it today ♂ And Photoshop agreed that the values are further off...

How strange... I wonder why.. let's see how it goes for JK

it does work as it should work, but your image is a bit "complicated".

As you can see, if i plugin the color directly, i can change the height by changing the color.
Your image (black and orange) or course isn't 25% or 100% because 100% would be full white. So you should change your image to get a clear result what you wanna have.

update:
your color values in your image aren't right. Make sure the "value" is 0.75 for 75%. Same  0.25 for 25%. You can check that values with color picker as i did here:
https://github.com/luckychris/blender_gifs/blob/main/value%20not%20right.gif
sorry for using links here, but gif upload doesn't work once again.

Sorry, but I'm not using direct colour input, I'm using a small 8x8px PNG called test.png. It's attached to the original question.

i know, but use an image with "clear" colors like pure white and just change the value so that you can see that it works. You have used orange, which isn't 25% or 50%.

why should an image with some orange points on it give you 25/50/75%?

Sorry, but there is no orange in my image. It the test.png file attached to the question. It's a 8 x 8 pixel grayscale PNG. there is no orange.

then i would recommend downloading the blend file you uploaded in your question and check that out. There IS an orange/black image. Maybe you uploaded the wrong file? that's how your file is looking: [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/j08BiAFd.png

gosh I don't know what's happening then, it all loads fine on my side - no orange in the test.png :-(

ah ok, you didn't pack resources, i assume ;) now it worked

i updated my answer.

Thanks Chris. I took the test.png into photoshop and set the whites to 0%K, the black to 100%K and the three shades to 25%K, 50%K and 75%K. I took that new PNG into the blend file and it was a better result. I say better because it was accurate but on a log scale. I don't know why Geo Nodes interprets the values in this way? Anyhow, I fixed the issue with a math node set to Power (exp = 0.5) positioned between the Image Texture and Extrude Mesh nodes. Thanks for your help.

unfortunately i have no photoshop (knowledge) so i cannot say anything to that. I just can say that the png had the wrong values, as i showed in the gif. And i don't think Blender does this on a log scale. It takes the "value" which you see if you are using the eyedropper tool in blender.

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


text:
Repeating textures in segments around z axis of a sphere
How do I repeat a square texture in increasing amounts of segments around the z axis of a sphere, as below in the video. The video uses a gradient texture but how do I get it to work with a square texture?

Could you at least show some example or sketch or whatever your goal is? How should the square repeat in increasing amounts around the Z axis?

Also do you mean square as in a 2D plane or a cube?

Extra info added to question.

Whatever transformation you applied to color, you can apply to the texture coordinate:

Use the polar or spherical coordinate systems and adopt them to your case.
GLSL:
vec2 cartesian_to_polar(vec2 cartesian) {

    float radius = length(cartesian);
    float angle = atan(cartesian.y, cartesian.x);

    return vec2(angle, radius);
}

vec3 cartesian_to_spherical(vec3 cartesian) {

    float radius = length(cartesian);
    float theta = atan(cartesian.y, cartesian.x);
    float phi = acos(cartesian.z / radius);

    return vec3(radius, theta, phi);
}

Blender:


text:
How to do "filter select" in an existing selection?
just want to discuss the better way to filter certain object(s) (either by types or by names, etc) based on a rough selection. For example, I got a crowded downtown scene, there are meshes, lamps, cameras, speakers along the street, and I want to select all the lamps and cameras for further editing. Is there a better way to filter them after a rough selection?
PS: Some solutions are not ideal for the certain case:
1> Cannot use "Hide". This works with simple one, however, some things have been hidden before, and I don't want to show them back together after this.)
2> Cannot filter by moving to a single/empty scene, This works with simple projects, but all objects within the rough selection came from multiple scenes, it would be not easy to bring them back to their individual scenes after this.
3> Cannot use "Local View", since I'm already in it.

Thanks guys, I think we've already had so many tricks and solutions for various of cases, not just the specific one I took for instance.
Conclusion: It seems that a "sub-level type filter" system for existing selection, or either in Outliner, would be quite straight-forward and useful in cases like this.

You may be in Local View but each 3D View can have it's own. So…

Split 3D View.
View | View Global/Local (Numpad /).
This will limit your view and selections operations the those included in the initial selection.
Select desired objects:

For names, Select | Select Pattern….
For types use Select | Select all of Type… or Select | Grouped | Type (Shift+G,T).
For both cameras and lamps use the Extend option.

Rejoin frames.

Could you please combine your two answers?

See here for why I'm not going to. I had planned on removing the other one though. ;)

Ah, now it's crystal clear. I'll change my mind to choose your answer. But I have to say that both yours and zeffii's way are really nice to meet my needs. But I bet yours work nicely with both names and types (although I believe coding way can certainly wotk this out, too). It's a tough decision to make. lol
Thanks a lot for your image.

Use the Outliner area to filter by type:

Change the Outliner's display type to Same Types, to filter by type similar to last selected object,
Press A to highlight all items, or LMB on empty part of a line to highlight individual item.
Press RMB on the Outliner, then click Select to select all highlighted items. You can also directly select/deselect an item by clicking LMB or Shift-LMB on its icon.

Use the Outliner's live search feature to filter by name. Even though a little trickier because it also matches object data, vertex groups, etc., selection using it can still be made easier if combined with some Outliner display types like Visible Layers, Selected, or Same Types.
Use the Outliner's Selected display type to prune existing selections.
Maybe those solutions aren't quite what you're looking for, but it's easy enough to try and still very useful to manage complex scenes.

Yep, Adhi, they are all useful tricks for selection, but as you said, not quite meet my needs.
Except one thing: I bet the first one is suitable to do exclusive selection, which would possibly useful if one or two types needs to be excluded from the current selection.

If you have more elaborate filter criteria than the Outliner can handle, then perhaps a script is needed. The core of the working code would be, for one scene:
import bpy

# if you have a rough selection
for obj in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    if obj.type not in {'CAMERA', 'LAMP'}:
        obj.select = False

but if you have multiple scenes going on, something like this may be useful.
for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
    for obj in scene.objects:
        if obj.type not in {'CAMERA', 'LAMP'}:
            obj.select = False

Those two snippets will de-select only those objects that are not of type CAMERA or LAMP. It is possible to subscript bpy.data.scenes if you have 6 scenes but want to focus only on two you might write:
import bpy

for scene in bpy.data.scenes:

    # we skip scenes if they are not in this set
    if scene.name not in {'Scene', 'Scene.001'}:
        continue

    for obj in scene.objects:
        if obj.type not in {'CAMERA', 'LAMP'}:
            obj.select = False

Thanks, zeffii, I have to admit that the first one is exactly what I want to accompolish. So, the best way finally leads to coding, huh?  :). I bet your way is the perfect one. Thanks for your comprehensive solutions. (although less fun for those who are not familiar with coding. :P).

If all the other UI methods aren't doing it for you, and you know you understand them -- then yeah, it might be time to write the occasional script. That's how it starts.

My current solution (without coding) is:

Make the rough selection (it doesn't matter whether the last selected one is the type you want to filter);
Ctrl G twice to create two "temp" groups based on the selection, name them as "temp_lamp_filter" and "temp_camera_filter" or whatever you want, of course;
Press A to deselect all, then select any lamp in the scene (needn't be within that group), Shift G > "Type", then Ctrl I, then Ctrl Alt G > "temp_lamp_filter";
Repeat last step for cameras;
In Outliner, change filter to "Groups", hold down Shift and select both groups, which will form the final filtered result. Keep or delete them after editing as you wish.

Advantage: Can be universal to solve my case (or any case); Nice for those who know little about coding.
Disadvantage: Less effective (e.g. than the coding way suggested by zeffii).

You can use the shortcut ShiftG. Despite it's name is Select Grouped, it actually will select similar objects (in object mode) or similar vertices/edges/faces in edit mode based upon the criteria you select.
To do what you are asking:

Do your rough selection (making sure to make a lamp the active object)
Press ShiftG and select Type

Sorry but I'm afraid Shift G work for all objects within the scene, not just for the rough selection, even for the hidden ones. Correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks CharlesL  :)

Ah, you're right. However, there is another option to select by Lamp Type if that is any use.

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


text:
How to batch remove zero-weight vertices from vgroup?
It seems that vertices with zero weight will remain in the vgroup by default, and there appears to be no straightforward way to batch remove all zero-weight vertices from it except having to manually delete one by one from Vertex Paint panel from N sidebar.
So I wonder if there are some possible ways to batch remove them from the group. Since it does lead to unexpected results when using some modifiers.
(Or is there any operators can do something like "Select by Weight"?)

A related addon by CoDEmanX will remove vert groups with no assigned weight

@sambler Thanks for the nice information. However, this is a bit different, CoDEmanX's addon sort of solved another question that I posted here.

It turns out that one of the existing weight tools named Clean does all I want, which offers several nice options.
In Edit Mode or Weight Paint Mode, you can find the Weight Tools panel on the Toolshelf in 3D Viewport by pressing T.


text:
bpy: How do you find the corners of a camera frustum?
... by which I mean the vectors from a perspective camera's viewing point to the corners of the rendered rectangle, as displayed by the diagonal sides of a camera's rectangular pyramid in a 3D View. (Normalized if you like, in Camera Space, if you like.)
The angle and view_frame attributes of a Camera don't seem to carry this information, unless I'm mistaken?
There are quite a few answers on how to test whether a point is visible to a camera, that's not quite the same thing.
Better still, and perhaps of more general use to others, too, would be a diagram of how bpy refers to a camera: what a Camera's important attributes actually mean, in 3D / device / screen space.
EDIT: following @batFINGER's examples (I think?)..trying to get the render frame, I run this:
import bpy

scn = bpy.context.scene

rx = scn.render.resolution_x
ry = scn.render.resolution_y
cam_obj = scn.camera

if (cam_obj.name in bpy.data.cameras):

    cam_mw = cam_obj.matrix_world
    cam = cam_obj.data
    vf = cam.view_frame()
    world_frame = [cam_mw @ v for v in vf]

    print (rx,ry)
    for v in world_frame:
        print (v)

And, changing the render resolutions, visibly changing the shape of the frustum in the 3D view, I get these outputs:
1512 1371
<Vector (2.1208, -6.3833, 4.1026)>
<Vector (2.3175, -6.8641, 3.2482)>
<Vector (1.3703, -7.1821, 3.2090)>
<Vector (1.1736, -6.7013, 4.0635)>

427 1432
<Vector (2.1208, -6.3833, 4.1026)>
<Vector (2.3175, -6.8641, 3.2482)>
<Vector (1.3703, -7.1821, 3.2090)>
<Vector (1.1736, -6.7013, 4.0635)>

Which is puzzling me. There's no change in the frame as a consequence of changing the proportions of the render - (the change isn't even hidden in the camera's world transform..)
SOLUTION: the camera's .view_frame() method needs its optional named scene parameter to update.. until I know why, I don't fancy making that an answer..

So you mean that four lines initial from camera origin which display as the camera Gizmos?

@HikariTW  Those are the ones .. the length doesn't matter, just  the vectors..  or  any other way of getting the bounds of the field of view : the rendered rectangle

Related  https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/6377/coordinates-of-corners-of-camera-view-border  also https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/45146/how-to-find-all-objects-in-the-cameras-view-with-python/45324#45324   (used in that recent cow shed q your answer to which is great btw) and https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/160388/15543

@batFINGER Thank you! I got those answers of yours, even UV'd and soaked them up enough to write the script around the stripped-down example above, (couldn't find them again to mention here) but I'm still stumped.. see edit.. I must be misunderstanding something obvious..

@batFINGER OK, got it. The named scene parameter to view_frame() for some reason kicks an update? Unless you know better why it should make a difference? Hesitate to answer my own q until I know what's going on. Maybe you do.

Posted answer... looked like you got there in the end.  Perhaps it uses the defaults for scene resolution et al, if scene not passed.

also sure there is a Q / A that does this and adds small icospheres to the corners.  For life of me couldn't find it.

Pass the scene to view frame
Think you got there in the end, here is @ideasman42's script modified to add empties to 5 points of frustum, for each camera object in scene.
All the info re resolution will come with the passed as keyword scene, else it defaults to None.
>>> C.scene.camera.data.view_frame(
view_frame()
Camera.view_frame(scene=None)
Return 4 points for the cameras frame (before object transformation)

Test script:
import bpy

def camera_as_planes(scene, obj):
    """
    Return planes in world-space which represent the camera view bounds.
    """
    from mathutils.geometry import normal
    print(obj.name)
    camera = obj.data
    # normalize to ignore camera scale
    matrix = obj.matrix_world.normalized()
    frame = [matrix @ v for v in camera.view_frame(scene=scene)]
    origin = matrix.to_translation()
    frame.append(origin)
    for p in frame:
        bpy.ops.object.empty_add(location=p)

# test call
scene = bpy.context.scene
cams = [o for o in scene.objects if o.type == 'CAMERA']
for cam in cams:
    camera_as_planes(scene, cam)

Thanks!... seems odd to have to pass an unchanged scene, to me ... and what would none mean to this method, if not a live ref. to the camera's context.scene? I have to learn more about what context is.. when it's about, when it isn't. Cheers.

I'm assuming None uses the default values for resolution etc. Doesn't need to be context scene, simply the scene containing the camera. The camera data has no idea what scene it is in (could be in none or all)  This data is required to make the calc to match the scene.  Used context in example above to add empties.  To simply print out could for scene in bpy.data.scenes:

Okydoky, beginning to get it... :)


text:
Can't update / remove keyframe values from an imported Collada file
I'm trying to edit keyframes in an existing animation in a .dae file I have imported to Blender 2.68a, however none of the changes I make seem to stick. I select the bone in pose mode, change the rotation and/or location and then insert or update the keyframe, however when I move to another frame my values are lost and the bone resets. Its as if the keyframe was never set, I can see the new keyframe however in the dopesheet.
I've applied an armature to a cube in the same file and animated it in the usual fashion and everything works fine so I'm assuming it is a setting or issue to do with the setup of the imported Collada mesh. None of the keyframes appear to be locked, and no settings jump out at me immediately as being the cause.
Google hasn't been much help, however I did find the post below where the OP seems to be having the exact same issue as me, unfortunately he didn't seem to find an answer.
animation problem - losing pose on an inserted keyframe
I feel like it is potentially something really simple I am missing. Unfortunately I can't post the file itself as I purchased it and can't freely distribute it, I have attached an image showing my file setup however.

Has anyone come across a similar problem?

This seems to be caused by the imported file using Quaternion rotation. (also see the wiki)

The problem seemed to be that the imported collada file had multiple sets of clones of the same keyframes - 5 in my case. I'm not sure if this is a problem with the current collada import script or just with certain files, but I managed to fix the file by deleting all but the last set of cloned keyframes for each bone via the dopesheet. Once this was done I could successfully change the Quaternion channels and keyframe them as per normal. The imported animation is preserved and now editable.

The best way to find out would be to create a very minimal setup to test, one bone with a simple animation on it (ie. just rotation or translation).

@jesterKing Absolutely, I have only have access to blender unfortunately and I have a feeling the model has been exported from max or maya as a collada, and that may be the issue. I'll try a blender export to collada and then re-import it and see if I can replicate the problem.

This can be caused when the imported animation is using Quaternion rotation. This setting is in 3D view > Properties panel (N) > Transform, and Properties > Bone > Transform > Rotation mode (visible in your screenshot):

Unfortunately setting this the more commonly used XYZ Euler will cause the Quaternion rotation channels to be ignored.
One workaround could be animating the rotation type to Euler whenever you want to insert keyframes, then animating it back.
There should be a way to convert between them, but it seems that there is no way to do this in blender currently (at least none that I know of)

Thanks for your answer, so this is a bug or the intended functionality? (I'm assuming the former)

@MarcusGorillius I think it's by design, but I might be wrong. Ideally, there would be a way to convert between rotation types, but I can't seem to find out how. (it is possible)


text:
How do i select only visible objects in OBJECT mode
I have a grid array of hundreds of small objects. there is a large mesh object in the middle of this grid array of smaller objects. i want to select only the small object on the outside of this larger mesh object. In object mode, using solid view, when i drag to select the small objects on the outside of the large mesh object, all small objects both inside and outside of the large mesh object are selected. how can i drag select and only select what is visible to me ie: on the outside of the mesh object? thanks.

provide screenshot?

I guess once you've selected, you need to choose another view and deselect the ones you don't want


text:
In a scene with many discreet objects, how do I select only the object i can see in the viewport, not what is behind the visible objects?
I have a scene with many, many objects in a sort of array - very densely packed - but not overlapping. In object mode, when I drag-select across the items I want to select, Blender also selects everything behind the front visible meshes. The viewport is set to solid mode with x-ray off. Any thoughts? Thanks.

it's not clear... are all the meshes you are talking about part of the same object?

No. Many many discreet meshes. To test: add cube, array 11 in x, then 11 in y, then 6 in z. Apply, apply apply. Go into edit mode, press P,  and separate by loose parts. You've now got 700-odd cubes neatly stacked. Go to top-down orthographic view and press B. Select over some cubes. Go to side view and ALL the cubes under the top selection are selected. This not right. Surely only the cubes you could see should bee selected?

oh ok you mean select with lasso, box or circle will also select the object(s) behind, and how to avoid that. You can use left click but I guess this is not the answer you want.

Left click also selects everything. Just like when you use box or circle select. Am I going nuts or was this always the behaviour? I thought that's what the X-ray button was for: to toggle this behaviour on or off? Could it be a bug?

in my case, lasso, circle and box select everything, but left click only select the front object... not sure why it's not the case for you...

So if neither selection mode works for me then there's a bug. Please describe this left click select. Are you working with right click select Blender?

I have to say, i'm a bit lost with my own settings, I hope someone will answer but maybe you should reformulate your title + original text because what you were asking was not clear

for example you're talking about collection so people may think your problem may have something to do with Collections, also you're talking about meshes while your problem has to do with objects, actually your question is how to select an object without selecting the other objects behind, and in your explanation, explain that even a simple select does not work properly...


text:
my model is much bigger than the 3d and 0-1 space
I am new to blender and 3d. i have a model i'd like to UV map with a custom design. However the model is huge compared to the 3d space and 0-1 space. what do I do or where do I go to get an answer? I asked Lynda.com and the response was they didn't know and couldn't help me, any assistance would be appreciated.

Although I can't answer your question, I suggest that you add pictures, and maybe even a link to download your .blend file. This way it'll be easier to understand your problem

Not sure what you mean by 0-1 space, if you imported the model you could scale it down. In object mode select the object, press 'S' and enter 0.01 this would scale it to 1% of its previous size.

here's an image. i intend to print this once i have mapped it - i really appreciate the help and apologies for taking so long to reply. i've been really ill

it needs to fit the phone perfectly; artwork needs to be very high quality so i don't think scaling is an option(?)

Remember, size in the computer is a relative, mathematical construct (it's not real) Size becomes an issue when you are stressing the the limits of the math engine. examples: If you build a model of a cup and you have the scale very large, relative to the programs space you'll have a crazy time detailing it, likewise an intricate model of a ship built "very small" will give you fits. You are translating the mathematical construct in the computer to a reasonable size for mapping pixel information to parts.
You should try to work in those "units" that make sense for the object: cup in inches, ship in meters. It's all about your modelling space. Then use reasonable UV mapping for the object. (don't try to use a single UV map for an entire ship model) So it's all about the scaling, bounds, mapping....
Then this link might get you going?
https://www.blender.org/manual/editors/uv_image/texturing/unwrapping.html
Hope this helps.
Kevin

authors: Александр Пятницкий


text:
Mirror modifier deforms mesh

Whenever I apply mirror modifier to my mesh the mirrored part becomes deformed and wrinkled as shown in the image. I exported the mesh as obj and opened it in another window and tried to mirror it again but the same thing still happens. How can I fix this?
Thanks in advance
.blend file:

Your mesh has custom split normals data. Mirror modifier most likely can't mirror it correctly. Remove the data and work with Mirror modifier; you'll add data if needed further on. See - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/47291/mirror-modifier-making-ugly-smoothing-on-mirrored-faces

I believe that you must Apply the modifier. To do this, Click the Apply button. When I downloaded the file, I did not see any disturbances in rendered view. If you are still having them, consider going to File > External Data and check Automatically Pack Into .blend before uploading. This will allow me to view the file with the textures. I will update my answer as needed.


text:
Space Faces Evenly
I am trying to create a sphere of hexagons. Followed the accepted answer from this question and it get's me 90% of the way.

As you can see what I got is a sphere made up of a bunch of randomly shaped hexagons. What I want is for the hexagons to all be evenly spaced, the same size etc. In other words every face of the sphere should be identical to every other face in the sphere? I can't imagine it's really possible to get everything exact manually. Is there another way?

Are you sure it is mathematically possible? Wouldn't it be another Platonic Solid?

Honestly...I have no idea. I guess it if wasn't something that was possible i'd settle for pretty darn close but as you can see in my image some of the faces are just grossly misshapen.

That would not be a big problem, you can always run "smooth vertex" several times to distribute the difference. I think  the main problem is the presence of pentagons here and there.

As stated in this answer and it's links it's not possible to create a sphere out of hexagons without imperfections or pentagons. But if you're okay with imperfections you can fiddle around with the 'Circle' tool (simply hit space and type in circle) and it's influence value to make at least single faces (preferably the worst looking) look better.

Curiously I've seen this question come up recently elsewhere (see here https://plus.google.com/101076135528517730950/posts/FEGX3nGVQLM), and I think the consensus is that is not mathematically possible. It has nothing to do with Blender limitations, the only platonic solid is the icosahedron (lowest subdivision of the icosphere) any subsequent subdivisions are no longer platonic solids unfortunately. You will have to do with an approximation.

Great links everyone. I guess I hadn't thought it through enough.

Quick thought. Is it possible to make a non perfect spherical shape of hexagons in blender easily? Or would I have to separate and manually adjust everything? Ya it wouldn't be an actual sphere but i'm really just going for a round shape. The actual faces are more important.

You can model any mesh and use the Cast modifier to deform it into a sphere, so you can make any shape based on hexagons and bend it into a sphere like shape

As stated by several commenters, it is not possible to construct a regular convex polyhedron from hexagons.
However, you can make your 'sphere' more regular by scaling the pentagons down.
Click Select, Select all by Trait, Select Faces by Sides, 5.  Then, with the Pivot Point set to Individual Origins, scale down until the surrounding hexagons look more regular.
The result is not perfect but is an improvement.

just wondering - is this possible to get that black mesh as a flattened view in SVG somehow?


text:
Problem when importing .obj to Blender
just a heads up im relatively new to Blender and in this case Sculptris. I wanted to make a simple first Model and i exported it from Sculptris and imported the wavefront(.obj) file into Blender and it came out like this:

As you can see, I added two models. These are basically the same but I followed the recommendation of another post about the same issue I found and reduced the Models Poly Count and tried to import that, I also tried to import the .obj File while "Keeping the Vert Order" but none of that worked.
Here is the referenced stackexchange post : .OBJ Import Error
So I wanted to ask you if anyone has a solution to this Problem and could help me out?

I want it to look like this, is there any way to have it displayed correctly in Blender?

What exactly is your problem?

On the semmytrie line the texture is so weird. Is there a adjustment i can make to have just the model on both sides rendered normally?

That looks like a normal issue, have you tried recalculating normals with Ctrl + N after removing doubles with W > Remove doubles?

Hey thanks for your suggestion, I went into edit mode Removed Doubles and recalculated normals but sadly that didnt change anything. Do you have any other idea what i could do?

Could you post your obj file for download somewhere so we can look at it? Hard to tell without any more info

There are Custom Split Normals creating artifacts in your mesh.
Go to Properties Window > Object Data Tab > Geometry Data Panel and press Clear Custom Split Normals Data
If for some reason you wish to keep those, disabling Auto Smooth under the Properties Window > Object Data Tab > Normals Panel > Auto Smooth seems to be a valid workaround.
Also, if you horse is to remain perfectly symmetric consider erasing half of the mesh and adding a Mirror modifier. Might save you some cleanup work and resources in the future.

Alright thanks, that was what I was looking for. Maybe I should reinstall sculptris if there was a problem with the exported object because this is just an example I had this problem previously too. Might I ask if the mirror modifier safes ressources in general and why it would save me work?

Updated my answer above, issue seems to be caused by custom split normals. Mirror modifier saves resources in the sense that only half the mesh data needs to be saved in the file/loaded into memory, since the other half is actually identical. It may also save you some work while cleaning up, unwrapping, texturing, or in general doing any modeling or manual work since you would only need to do half of it, instead of doing it twice for each half of the mesh. That is if it actually is symmetrical, otherwise never mind that.

To your Edit: Ah I see it this type of Problem should be solved in sculptris I guess? Either way thanks that was very helpful, now I know what to look out for when something like this happens. Because when i toggle the clear/add custom split Normals Data it is okay in either case ^^

Never really used Sculptris myself, so not sure if it is actually solvable through the application or not. May be a small incompatibility between the two applications, I don't really know.


text:
Confused about Linked Duplicates
Could someone enlighten me as to the difference between 'Relations>Make Single User' and 'Apply>Make Instances Real'?
I think I'm super confused!

Linked duplicates are two Objects which share the same data.

If you add an empty and then go to the object data properties tab under instancing, you can add collection to instance on the empty object.

Which you would typically add from Add > Collection Instance

Make Instances Real turns those empty instances into the actual objects that make up the collection it is an instance of.


text:
How does cage and cage object with extrusion work?
I'm having a little confusion over how the cage and the cage with extrusion work.
I noticed I can bake with use cage enabled but without a cage object. Is it the same as baking with use cage disabled?

I've also noticed when I set the cage object the cage extrusion grays out. Does this mean it becomes irrelevant?

Could someone confirm or confute these? Thanks in advance!

Hello if you enable the Cage option but don't select any cage object, it probably works as if you disable the option

Hi @moonboots, thank you for the answer! So that should mean it also doesn't have any effect on the bake results, does it? May you have any information on the grayed-out cage extrusion?

The extrusion creates a margin around the low-poly object to make sure that it won't miss some faces of the high-poly that would protrude, if you use a cage it looks like you can't give any additional margin to the cage object, it looks as simple as that

Understood, thank you for confirming!

Baking a normal map is basically taking a "snapshot" of another higher-poly mesh, from the point of view of each vertex normal on the low poly mesh.

You can see those normals with an overlay in edit mode.

The baking process essentially works like this:

Most bakers will use the low poly mesh itself and shoot the rays from those verts, but in the old days you would sometimes need to make a specific mesh that you would substitute as the low poly during the baking process. That was called a "Cage".

The reason cage extrusion gets greyed out when you add a cage mesh is because the whole point of the cage mesh is so you can precisely dictate how far you want the LP to "extrude".
Most cases using the LP should work just fine.
I would recommend reading these two posts 1 2 until you really wrap your mind around how baking works.

Thank you for clarifying the grayed-out extrusion! I'm pretty familiar with the baking process; I just had some confusion about the cage and cage extrusion. I really appreciate the detailed answer, though! I'll also check out those readings. Thank you for recommending them!

Cool yeah, it's one of those things that's kinda hard to explain without diving into the way baking itself works, and I don't wanna assume knowledge on any topic. If this answer works can you accept it so the question gets closed?

Yes, of course. Thank you again for your effort!


text:
Zoom out camera using geometry nodes value
I am looking for a way to have a camera in my scene get zoomed out using a (or multiple) value(s) retrieved from geometry nodes. Sadly I can not use the method used here due to the nature of my approach. The object generated in the scene has to stay the same scale while the camera zooms out, either through the usage of adjusting the focal length or moving it backwards in the XY transformation.
I have attempted to expose a value that calculates the distance between the closest edge to the camera and the center of the bounding box in the group output, but can't find a method to connect this to my camera.

Is it possible to achieve this through the usage of drivers or another method I might be missing here?

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos The linked duplicate question answers how to get camera data into Geometry Nodes, but the question here is how to get Geometry Nodes data into the camera...

Isn't it just the reverse? Copy the value as a driver from the node tree into the camera property? I just tested, it sort of works, but it isn't updating real time, for some reason. Also doesn't apply for the attributes case. Reopened

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos you can use geonodes inputs (default values) as driver source, but not dynamically calculated outputs (even if those are single values), so you need to output the values in a way visible to a driver, e.g. by a position of a vertex, to which you hook an empty, and then the driver can read the empty's position: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/294231/60486

@MarkusvonBroady That would make a great answer. ;)

(Using Blender 4.2.1)
(NB: this answer is under writing...)
Objectives
There are two objectives:

To center the camera view inside the frame bounding the targeted object.
To adjust the camera focal length such that the targeted object is filling the camera view.

This animation illustrates how the view axis and focal length of the camera are evolving while its viewpoint and its orientation are modified.
Analysis
Let $O$ be the camera position, $T$ the central point the camera is looking at, $\vec{n}$ the camera view axis, $F$ the frame bounding the targeted object (i.e. the orange rectangle displayed on the right side of the above illustration).

$T$ is defined as the center of $F$ ; so $T$ is a function of $F$, $T=g(F)$.
$F$ is perpendicular to $\vec{n}$ with $\vec{n} = \vec{OT} / \|\vec{OT} \|$; so $F$ is a function of $T$, $F=h(T)$.

From Blender point of view, there is a circular dependency between $T$ and $F$. From a mathematical point of view, $T$ is a fixed point of the function $g \circ h$, i.e. $T=g \circ h(T)$. Assuming $T$ known, $g \circ h(T)$ is computed in two steps:

$F=h(T)$: The points of the targeted object are projected on the plane defined by $T$ and $\vec{n}$. Beware it is not a parallel projection, but a central projection of center $O$.
$T=g(F)$: $T$ is computed as the center of the bounding box of these projected points. The orientation of the bounding box is defined by the camera.

Approach
In numerical analysis, fixed-point iteration is a method of computing fixed points of a function. Let $i$ be the iteration counter. $T^{i+1}$, an intermediate value of $T$, is computed as $T^{i+1} = g \circ h(T^i)$. It is expected that $T^i$ converges towards $T$ for a given accuracy in a finite number of iterations. The recursion is initialized with $T^0$ set at the center of the targeted object bounding box.
In the frame of this question, this basic iteration process can be diverging when the distance between the camera and the targeted object is small compared to the object size (for more details, see Stationary iterative methods). To recover convergence, a relaxation technique is implemented, as a linear combination of the previous value $T^i$ with the new evaluation $T^{*}=g \circ h(T^i)$. Let $\alpha$ be the relaxation coefficient with $\alpha \in [0:1]$. $T^{i+1}$ is defined as:
$$ T^{i+1} = \alpha \times T^i + (1-\alpha) \times T^{*}$$

This figure illustrates how the camera view (bounded by a black dash line) is converging with $\alpha=0.2$ for a configuration that is diverging otherwise without relaxation (i.e. $\alpha=0$). For demonstration purpose, the projected faces are superimposed in wire mode, and the "empty" space around is filled with rectangular faces (NB: the resulting grid is chosen slightly larger than the camera view for aesthetic reasons). After 1 iteration, "Suzanne" right eye is out of frame ; $T$ has to be moved to the left side. After 2 iterations, this eye is in frame, but the tip of its left hear is out of frame ; $T$ has to be moved back to the right side. Next iterations show such damped oscillations until convergence is reached.
Resources

Blender file: (Blender 4.2.1+)
To track only the center of the object bounding box, see: Take position values geometry nodes and apply them on an object outside of geometry nodes
The communication between GeometryNodes and Drivers is derived from the post Passing GeoNodes attribute to Shader frame offset.

Parts and chain of dependencies
To avoid circular dependencies, four "parts" are chained. These are described thereafter from the root, without dependency, to the most dependent.

Ouput (no dependency): The section Format of the Output Properties panel is defining the rendered image Resolution. The ratio between X and Y values fixes the camera view aspect ratio.
Observer (driven by Output): This object carrying the GeometryNodes modifier is computing and encoding the position of $T$, the camera Focal Length, the camera Sensor Width and the camera orientation. The focal length is adjusted to accommodate the width and height of the projected object. Thus the rendered image aspect ratio is required from the Output.
CameraData (driven by Observer): Through its position, this object is exposing the camera Focal Length and Sensor Width parameters. A Copy Location constraint is fixing its position from data coded by the Observer.
Camera (driven by Observer and CameraData): This object is a child of the Observer, which is controlling its position this way. Besides Damped Track and Locked Track constrains are fixing its orientation towards $T$ from data coded by the Observer. Eventually, drivers based on the CameraData object position are setting values in the Lens and Camera sections of the Camera Data Properties panel.

Setup
Observer
The Observer is a Mesh object made of only 3 vertices, from an edited Cube primitive for example. The position of these vertices is irrelevant as it is fixed by the GeometryNodes modifier. Each of these vertices is assigned to one Vertex Group. The first one named "Target" is coding the position of $T$. The second one named "CameraData" is coding the Focal Length (as X) and the Sensor Width (as Y) of the camera. The last one named "Top" is coding the position of the center of the upper edge of the camera view frame.
The input parameters of the GeometryNodes modifier are:

Object: the targeted object.
Sensor Width (mm): the size of the sensor determining the focal length of the camera.
Aspect Ratio: used to compute the height of the camera sensor from its width.
Iterations: number of fixed-point iterations.
Relaxation: relaxation coefficient $\alpha$.

CameraData
The CameraData is an Empty object whose initial position is irrelevant as it is fixed by the Copy Location constraint.
Camera
The Camera is a Camera object whose initial position is collocated with the origin of the Observer. It is parented to the Observer. Contrary to a classical setup, the viewpoint, the view orientation and scale are set by manipulating the Observer, not the Camera directly.
GeometryNodes modifier
Convergence and encoding
The following graph is attached to the Observer.

1. The fixed-point iterations with relaxation are performed by a Repeat Zone. Only the "Target" item is recycled ; as input, it is equal to $T^{i}$ ; as output, it is equal to $T^{i+1}$.
2. The "Frame" Group Node is computing $T^{*}=g \circ h(T^i)$ from the projection of the targeted object. It is also returning the "Top" position of the frame, as well as its dimensions, "Width" and "Height".
3. $T^0$ is computed as the average of the Min and Max positions returned by a Bounding Box node applied to the targeted object. It is to notice that the Transform Space of the Object Info node providing its Geometry is set to Relative. Consequently, subsequent vector geometry is performed with the point $O$ set at the origin of the Observer.
4. To encode ... (to be continued)
Computation

Mathematics


text:
Geometry Nodes: Is there a more efficient solution to testing an input and providing a specific output based on an individual input?
Geometry Nodes and enumerated lists:
I was thinking of developing a complex node system with user selection enabling or disabling node groups much like an enumerated list in a script would allow a single user selection to perform various functions.
As such I thought I'd start small by just having a selection to create the primitives:

This quickly led to 2 issues that I'm wondering if perhaps there's a better way to achieve the overall goal.
1st:
While technically there could be a string input if the user does not know all available options and enter an input case sensitive correctly there would be no feedback of the issue input not in list.
Since I do not see a way to make a selection list the user input can only be an arbitrary number which while the user can scroll through and see feed back does not allow anticipation of the result and requires a user to scroll through the full range to even know what is possible.
2nd: Even a small sample of available inputs begins to create a fairly extensive tree simply testing an input value

Is there a more efficient solution to testing an input within a range (list) and providing a specific output based on an individual input?
Additional info:
After rearranging and grouping the nodes I have an arrangement that can to some extent be easily modified.

An outer node group is providing a macro level access for visibility.

Within the outer node group sub node groups are connected which are largely just duplicated of a template. Each subgroup providing access to an index value (tested against the modifier input value) and string to be used for identification.
Then passing outputs only when the modifier input value is equal to the index of the sub group.

Because the subgroups pass all incoming requirements to the parent group the only required change internally is the actual geometry to build.

note confirmed geometry is not saved.
--The concern I have with using a collection of premade geometry is going to be file size given the choice selections will not just be primitives.

Ideally I would still prefer a drop down text selection as the modifier value input but may have to postpone or scratch that idea unless I just want to have a script that creates only the desired node group. The problem with having a script only create the desired node group becomes lack of visual feedback to the user.
Edit 2:
Hybrid of @quellenform solution
Main object node tree:

Individual obj node tree:

I have included a driver from the main object geo node index selection for each object in the collection to disable geometry if the index is not selected. While having the collection hidden does prevent the underlying nodes (and geometry they create) from being passed to the gpu and evaluated for shading etc, it does not prevent them from being evaluated by the cpu and loaded into ram.

Ultimately it will include a trade off between when computation time occurs, adding the driver will add some minor overhead for its evaluation and available processing and memory on the end device as to which method works best but I believe saving some ram (~ 20 % of what blender was using in this example) for other process may end up being useful. Thanks to all for their inputs.

You could put the objects in a collection, and instantiate them directly by index.

@quellenform perhaps I over simplified the process but the output of the joined geometry in the node setup shown above would then feed to another selection group sequentially 4 more times and getting the position of points of the geometry based on the previous selection might be more difficult that way i'll take a look.

I did not really understand, which problems the solution of @quellenform could cause. Can you explain it differently? - An alternative could be, to use the "Geometry to Instances" node in combination with the "Separate Geometry" node instead of instantiation.

Let me explain, as I think I understand Ratt pretty well. He'd like a Switch node with multiple inputs, and an integer with index, rather than boolean switch value. Ratther than using a binary tree with switches, he came up with an easier to maintain method of switching between a string/geometry that matches the index, and nothing, and then joining all results together.

@AndréZmuda the end goal is to have much more complex geometry available for each selection. While the point selection output is only an instance creating all the geometry into collections will force a large file size of objects that are never used.

If you want to flexibly create various objects per index, it is best to use the following structure:

Put your objects into a collection (These objects don't even have to contain any geometry, but can also use Geometry Nodes there to create the geometry).
Get it with the node Collection Info.
Use the desired value as input for Instance Index in the node Instance on Points

And if you want to select multiple objects with one index, nest them again in a separate collection inside the chosen collection.

Remember: If there are no objects stored in a collection that contain any geometry, but instead only empty objects are placed there that create the geometry using Geometry Nodes, the whole thing also works.

The way I understand it: what if you generate stairs, but there are 10 different generators, so you pick one. You don't want to evaluate the geometry unused geometry like in my answer. I think only switch works this way.

@MarkusvonBroady OK, I see, switch works this way, but which geometry should be evaluated here? In this case, one instance is simply selected by index, and all others are not treated further, right?  ...or maybe I still didn't get the question ;-)

@quellenform added a bit to the question but the concern I have with instancing from a collection is that the collection objects must exist and that will end up in the multi million poly count for the file before a user combination is created. The switch allows only geometry for the user selection to be created. I understand that you are only instancing as your out put but all geometry must be available in the collection.

@Ratt No, it doesn't, because you can also store empty objects in your collection, which create the geometry using geometry nodes. So you don't store unnecessary geometry in your file!

@quellenform how do you prevent the nodes from evaluating in the collection prior to selection?

@Ratt If they are invisible and not included in an instantiation, nothing is evaluated, as far as i know.

@quellenform after testing with a small sample set just overloaded with subdiv surf the geometry is not saved to file which is good but it does appear to be evaluated and load up ram just not gpu. I used the input selection as a driver value to each object in the collection comparing that to a provided index and then if true providing the geometry node output. Your solution certainly helps clean things up and I will mark as accepted but will likely update my question for details of how i implemented if you choose not to further update this. Thanks for your patience.

For strings you could use a hack like this:

For meshes:

But I think it actually makes it slower, especially for meshes (and the node count for meshes is similar to yours anyway).
I thought maybe a driver can be used, but there are problems, one being that a driver evaluates for the entire tree once (per frame), but the tree can be used for multiple objects (which may have different settings in the modifier stack)...

Interesting approach on the meshes as for the text it's really only to try to offer a temporary explanation given there appears to be no means of a user selection by text. I'll try some additional testing but atm the node setup I have in the OP runs ~ 1/2 the timing of your approach. While 20 msec isn't much now once compounded through a few iterations of choices it may add up especially with more complex shape generation. Oddly the ico sphere primitive seems to be the slowest from what I've seen.

@Ratt I'd expect my approach is so much more slower than double the time of yours if you connect some real computation there - because my approach has to evaluate everything, while yours evaluates only 1/n. For 10 elements my approach is 10 times slower on average. I just had some fun.


text:
Camera not panning closer to the object

I am following a blender guru tutorial of making a doughnut but for some reason, I can`t zoom closer to see the doughnut and this picture given below shows how close I can come to the doughnut.

Select the object that you want to zoom into and then press the 'period or full stop' key on your keyboard.
The key is located under the '3 Pgdn' key and left to the enter button.


text:
How do I add a surface fill to this on both sides?
I have explored all the fill options I could find and I've not been successful yet. I just want this to be a solid 3D shape

Hello and welcome. Please don't post the same question more than once. If you feel your previous question was incorrectly marked as duplicate, or the linked posts don't adequately address your issue, go back to your previous question and edit by pressing the Edit button below, including information of what you have tried, why it failed and how the duplicates don't address your issue. Once edited the question is automatically queued up for review so it can be reopened.

In Edit Mode go to the Edge Select Mode or Vertex Select Mode, Alt + Left Click one of the edges, then hit  F.
Rotate the view to go to the unfilled side of the mesh and do the same.


text:
Exporting in .fbx only exports one animation and a single texture
So, I'm working on the design of a 3D character. I already animated it and added the colours to it, it is a very simple character but when I export it to .fbx it only shows the colour of the head and does not show the animation.Sometimes it only shows a single animation. What is the problem?
Here are some photos.

I deleted the full animation, but they were one animation for each object in the character without bones.

Does anyone know what I can do to solve this issue? I'm new at blender 2.9.

@Ribbit12 thanks for the edit! you know what is the problem?

If you are exporting as an fbx you should animate it with an armature.

@Chris how can I make the armature to be only one but 3 of them move different?

One armature with bones to control each part of the mesh. One root bone(non-deformable) for the armature and three child bones to animate each of the spheres.


text:
alt+s not working as shown
I´m quite new to Blender and I wanted to follow the new abandoned house tutorial posted by Blender Guru on Youtube.
At 2:34 he scales up the house using alt+s. But when I do it, the edges are creating some weird bulges instead of being straight like it's shown in the video.
Only scaling (s) the mesh is not working because I need to scale it along the normals.
Youtube tutorial link

Hello and welcome, as far as I know, Alt + S is not to scale but to clear the scale. He probably made a mistake and did not edit that part or probably using a different shortcut or there is a step you did not see. But I'm not sure sure about it

Scale is simply S (no Alt).

if you are referring to a video, you should add the link to the video....

Alt+S in object mode is used to clear the scale of an object whereas in edit mode it is a shortcut/hotkey used for the shrink/fatten tool. As Christopher Bennett mentioned in one of the comments just try scaling the edges. It should do the trick. Honestly, if I was a beginner I would not be following such a complicated tutorial in which he does not explain the whole workflow of creating a photorealistic scene in detail for beginners like you. This video is for intermediate or advanced blender users. It would be really helpful if shared your file.

It would be really helpful if shared your file.

Does this answer your question? BlenderGuru abandoned house: Why does my shrink/fatten not work the way the tutorial does?


text:
ifcopenshell scripting on IFC file loaded in BlenderBIM
I just started exploring BlenderBIM and I was looking if I could directly access the IFC project loaded in Blender through BlenderBIM, to be able to combine the UI from BlenderBIM and scripting whenever needed.
In particular, I want to assign ifc class to 3d objects already loaded in blender through scripting instead of UI. The UI looks like this:

Hello, while there is some overlap between ifcopenshell and BlenderBIM users on this website, you'll have better luck over on the OSArch forum https://community.osarch.org/ or the chat https://app.element.io/#/room/#OSArch:matrix.org cheers


text:
Paste driver via Script doesn't work
The problem is that my custom property doesn't seem to control the new copy location influence at all. What is the reason?
Blender says in the debug layer:

Can't edit driven number value, see driver editor for the driver setup.

def execute(self, context):
    ARMATURE = bpy.data.objects[ARMATURE_NAME]
    root_bone = ARMATURE.pose.bones["root"]

    # Create new Copy Location Constraint
    copy_loc_constraint = ik_bone.constraints.new(type='COPY_LOCATION')
    copy_loc_constraint.target = ARMATURE
    copy_loc_constraint.subtarget = fk_bone_name
    copy_loc_constraint.head_tail = 0

    # Copy driver from the custom property of the root bone in the new constraint

    if root_bone.id_data.animation_data:
        for driver in root_bone.id_data.animation_data.drivers:
            if driver.data_path == 'pose.bones["root"]["Copy Location Influence"]':
                new_driver = copy_loc_constraint.driver_add("influence")
                new_driver.driver = driver.driver.copy()


text:
Blender doesn't render my animation
I'm a beginner in Blender. I created a simple animation with this tutorial, but i cannot render it.
I see this gray rectangle instead of the viewport every time in the render viewport. I'm using Cycles engine. Can someone help me?
Link to my blend file:
Blender version: 3.0
My setup:
Lenovo Legion
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
GPU RTX 3070, OS Windows 11 21H2

I wanted to do a test render, but initializing was taking too long, so I reduced the render resolution to 25%, and then it worked. Though the memory usage is huge:

6GB of memory seems overkill for that scene, and it probably wouldn't have worked at full resolution.
I see you have several meshes with ocean modifiers with the render resolution set to 32. That would generate meshes of over 8,3 million triangles, and this for each object with ocean modifiers. So with your three oceans, that's almost 25 million triangles to display and move around each frame.
It's a lot to handle for Blender, so probably reduce that way down. Each additional resolution level adds exponentially more than the previous level, so you don't need to go high in the first place.

Thank you very much!


text:
Unable to move the model after generating a rig
I am new to Blender, still trying the terms and how everything works.
I have finally placed the bones in a human model, and i am able to move the limbs freely.

The issue is that whenever I generate a rig (from what i've heard it gives you more control over the movement), I am not able to move the model anymore at all. All I can do is change the placement of all the arrows and circles that appear around my model, but it's completely stuck...frozen you could say.

This is me trying to move everything around in pose mode once I generated the rig.
I am not sure if it's just an issue of me not using the generated rig properly, or if I did something else wrong. Could someone please help me regarding this?

Can you share your .blend file?

Quite a few errors there I'm afraid. The scale hasn't been applied to either the armature or the model and the origins aren't in the same place. Also the bones from the spine to the top of the head should be perfectly aligned in front view. I suggest you follow Dikko 3D's video on setting up rigify from start to finish.

@Mister Hyuna: A rig is mesh parented to bones so that repositioning bones you affect the mesh, which is the top image. And rigify addon, the bottom image, is used for amination and video making and may require the use of "all those arrows and circles" instead of bone repositioning. This could explain why your mesh stands still. I never used rigify so it's my guess and I suggest some reading on the subject.

You have set up a mesh for so-called "metarig" which consists of this set of bones:

This set of bones are temporary, and should not be used in armature deform
In same time, proper bones are (They have DEF at the beginning, to indicate that this bones used to deform mesh):

I think that you expect that Rig will move Metarig and Metarig will move mesh. I don't understand where you may found this idea. Metarig is used only for generating Rig, just to show Blender there all joins are located. After generating rig, metarig may be removed. So that your work to attach mesh to metarig completely useless, you have to set up armature deform directly to generated rig.


text:
Replicate the fabric part of the headphone
Do you know how can I replicate this part?

I think the displacement texture will be ok, but where can I find it?


text:
How to change the axis of the Move Tool within Edit Mode? (2.8)
When I enter the editing mode and move a vertex or edge, the tool's axes (gizmo) is always diagonal / sloped. When I manipulate a polygon, the Z axis follows its normal.
I can't change the Transform Orientations:

How to make the move handler follow the global axes? I've already tried changing the Transform Orientations to global, local, view but nothing happens.
How to force orientation to be like this?

This problem only occurs with the Move Tool. When I switch Transform Orientations with Rotate and Scale Tools, it works perfectly.
Thank you.

Nevermind. I discovered the solution. All manipulation tools have their own definition of Trasform Orientations that will only respect the TO of the viewport if it is as 'default'.

As my Move Tool was with Transform Orientations = Normal, it was no use changing the TO of the viewport. Just set to 'default' to resolve.
Thank you. I'll leave the topic to anyone who has this same problem in the future.


text:
How can I prevent invisible faces when exporting to FBX file?
I started recently learning how to use Blender to create 3D models, to use them later in Unity3D.
Translating the vertices of a hollow cylinder, I created the following model. Please pay special attention to the selected face.

After finishing translating all the vertices, I noticed these "faces" were accidentally deformed or even deleted. So, I deleted them and remade them selecting the corresponding vertices and hitting the Make Edge/Face button. The result is the screenshot posted here, and they look good from Blender.
However, when I export it to FBX file and insert it in Unity3D, this selected face and the one equivalent at the other side are completely invisible from any angle. I tried flipping normals but they still remain invisible.
I also tried to press CtrlShiftAltM just in case there was some undetected non-manifold geometry, as suggested in this answer from another question.
I barely can guess that this is probably because of the twisted geometry of the face itself, but I can't figure out in detail the true causes.
What kind of techniques may help to correct this issue?

My guess is that Unity/FBX doesn't like N-gons. Triangulate/Convert to quads those faces. (Press Space and type)

It sounds interesting... I will have to search what N-gons are, and learn about quads. It is worth to try.

A quad is a four sided polygon, while an N-gon is an N sided polygon; this term is used for polygons with more than four sides, since they tend to cause problems.

BTW, Unity can open .blend files, so you don't need to export, which may fix your problem

@someonewithpc At first I tried importing .blend directly, but Unity shows an error message saying Blender could not convert the .blend file to FBX file.. This pushed me to export to FBX from Blender itself.

@someonewithpc I finally understand your approach from your first comment. So, if I did understand well, basically I have to subdivide these faces into triangles or quads. I know how to do it using the knife tool. I will try it and see what happens.

You should be able to convert that Ngon to tris with Ctrl+T command (triangulate), and then Alt+J to convert to quads.

Yes, but there are tools to do that for you. Just select the face, press Space and type 'Triangulate'

It worked like a charm. I fragmented it into quads using the hotkeys suggested by Mr Zak. This way the faces are rendered properly to FBX format and became visible in Unity. I take note: from now on it will be better to avoid using N-gons. @someonewithpc should post his approach as an answer, I think.

This issue is due to the fact that there are N-gons in your model (an N-gon being an N sided polygon). Either FBX doesn't support these or Unity can't import them, but, either way, the solution is to get rid of them. There are many ways to do this, but the fastest is probably to select those faces and Triangulate them (Ctrl + T) and, possibly, convert those to Quads (four sided polygons) (Alt + J).
Another approach, which might get you cleaner results is to use the Bridge Edge Loops tool; this tool doesn't appear to have a shortcut, but you can invoke it either from Edges menu with Ctrl+E > Bridge Edge Loops or by pressing Space (search for operators) and typing it's name. For this tool, you should have two edge loops selected, so delete the N-gon face and select the edges that were there before (Alt + RMB (selection button)) and then execute Bridge Edge Loops.


text:
Texture/UV edit complex shapes and tile/repeat
I'm trying to build a level in blender. The shape of the mesh is going okay but the texture behaves strangely.

As you can see the door texture is distorted. I'm missing something but I don't know what. I also have another question in mind, how do I make the texture repeat? I want more than the 2 pannels I have now.

It looks like you have not unwrapped the face of the mesh, just tab into edit mode, press 'A', press 'U' and select the unwrap option. If your mesh`s texture is still messy in that case, follow any one of the three methods given below. In the end, I have given the steps of repeating your texture.
1. Cube projection

Tab into edit mode, select your face [do not select your body`s face, select the face of the object ;)], press 'U' and select 'cube projection'
2. Smart UV project

Tab into edit mode, select your face, press 'U' and select the 'Smart UV Project' then a pop-up menu will show up, press the ok button
3. Lightmap pack>follow active quads

Repeating the texture
You wanted to repeat the texture so just scale up the UV map of your face/mesh by pressing 'S' as @RyanCallowayArt said. Here`s a GIF to help you understand the process a little better.

Thank you, it works perfectly now :)

your welcome! :)

Not sure what's going on with your door. It's possible those UVs are not laid out properly. You can try selecting the door faces and unwrapping just those.
If you're not concerned with keeping the UVs within a single UDIM tile, you could scale up your UVs to see the pattern repeated like you want.


text:
Attempting to model a roof
I'm trying to model a roof of a cabin. I added a loop cut to the model and tried to extrude the edge but it creates a flat plane instead of moving the whole roof up like the tutorial showed.

What it looks like with the loop cut

What it looks like after I extrude the loop cut

I don't know the tutorial, but I suggest you watch it again and pay close attention. I'm sure that it doesn't show that you should have selected the complete loop cut edge around the house. And I don't know if it really has to be extruded or if they use a different method.

what tutorial? How did he do it in that tutorial? This is not how it works, extruding of the loopcut this way will give you face from each one of those edges

I am not sure why you had extruded an intersecting loop cut in the z-axis when you clearly wanted to make a simple roof. All you have to do is select the top edge in your edge loop and press G and then press Z. Now you have a basic roof attached to a cabin-like model. Here`s a GIF to support this answer.


text:
Snapshot of object mesh as shaped by armature
I've got an object that I have animated with bones and when it gets to a certain pose I want to smash it using rigid body dynamics.  Is it possible to make a static copy of a mesh while it is deformed by bones?

Aha! I found it. Just like every other modifier :).  To to it, first pose your armature, then go to the WRENCH icon (modifier tab) and select Apply. Presto! Awesome.


text:
Why are there gaps in between my model?
I just started to learn Blender and was following a tutorial on YouTube on making ice-cream. I was almost done with the cream but when I added subdivision modifier my model started having gaps. Please give me some suggestions how to solve it. I am pretty sure I followed the tutorial. Here is the link to the tutorial on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvTrZ0soo_Q&list=PLrjIgEdKLivgpCMmFC0_sV60Y_Ftp-WLD&index=2

Please tell me if you want more screen shots.

maybe try to enable the Merge option of the Array modifier?

You missed at least two things while following the tutorial.

At 11:15 Steve explains that you have to set the Array Modifier to Fit Curve. Your screenshot shows you've set it to Fit Length.
The second thing is, after adding the Subdivision Surface Modifier he explains why it doesn't look smooth enough yet and at 12:25 he enables the option Merge in the Array Modifier.

Maybe these two things might help to make it look right.

i m grateful for your suggestion but still it dont work do i have some blender setting messed up?

but i just scraped the whole cream part and started it again and it worked. thx

Glad it worked now. Actually there might have been something messed up, but that wasn't clear from the screenshot. Maybe a file upload would have helped investigating it further. I just know from following tutorials myself, most of the times when something's not working it's just something I missed.


text:
Struggling to get a nice Shade smooth on Low poly
despite the fact that I'm using Blender for a couple of years (non-professionally), I'm still struggling to create a good smooth shading of a low-poly model.
For example, in the screenshot below I'm trying to bevel one corner of a cube, then bevel one of its sides. When I apply smooth shading (setting auto smooth to 65 degrees) I get a messy looking surface. Can you please give me a hint what I'm doing wrong? Is it possible to get nice shading in this case at all?
PS: I'm creating models for exporting to a game engine, so first I make a low-poly, then I make a high-poly with Subdiv, and then bake one to another. As far as I understand it, the low-poly shading should not have any errors for a model to look nice in a game.

UPDATE: Here's what I got after following @moonboots advice (my actual model is a bit more complicated). I think this is the best I can get.

With low-poly objects like this one you’ll have this kind of artefacts because Blender tries to smooth between these faces and Auto-Smooth won’t be able to fix it completely, it only takes the face angles into account.
A good way to improve your shading is to use the WeightedNormal modifier in addition to the Auto-Smooth option. This modifier, like Shade Smooth or Auto-Smooth, will act on the split normals. The split normals are the normals at each corner of the face that determine the shading between the faces. If they converge they will tend to round the shading, if they diverge they will tend to flatten the shading. Here, the same cube, the left one with Shade Flat, the right one with Shade Smooth:

The WeightedNormal modifier will make the split normals converge but their direction will take the face size into account: The higher the Weight value is, the more the large faces will weigh on the split normals. Therefore to preserve the large faces and to smooth the smaller faces, keep the value very low. Here, without and with the modifier:

Note that you can choose a vertex group.

Thank you, @moonboots . I've applied what you've suggested and now it looks better. I think this is the best I can get. I've updated my original post with new screenshots.

Yes I guess it can't be perfect, maybe try different WeightedNormal for different vertex groups?

I played a bit with it, but haven't seen any improvements. I think I'll just leave it as it is for now. Thanks again for highlighting the benefits of the WeightedNormal modifier for me, never used it before)

I may not have thought this through.. but wouldn't it be good to have a profile setting in Bevel that made the last generated face on each side exactly co-planar with adjacent large faces? I often do this by hand, with loop-cuts.

I'm not sure what you mean, maybe give your own answer to show it?

Oh yes you give a bevel shape of 0.65 for example, it will look better but you won't have the same profile though


text:
Where does light come from in a Cycles scene without lamps?
Using the Blender Render, if you have no lamps, the objects are black.  With Cycles Render, even without any lamps, there is a small amount of light.
Here is a render of the same yellow monkey without any lamps present using the two render engines:

Where does this light come from?  Can you turn it off?

Your profile mentions what is probably [videos]

In cycles the World emits light. You can turn this off by setting the world color to black, or setting the Strength to 0 in Properties > World:

If you still want the background to appear as a color besides black, you can make the world emit light only for the camera by mixing two Background shaders based on the Is Camera Ray output of the Light Path node:

Result:

Or you can also set "film" to transparent in the render panel, and add a color in the compositor with "RGB" and "Alpha Over" nodes ;)

@Polosson You can, but I think this way is faster if you are not doing any compositing already.


text:
How would I make a hair particle travel across a surface?
I am trying to create a scene where several vehicles travel across an uneven surface. To get the effect I'm looking for I put the vehicles into a hair particle system, however I dont know how I would get them to travel across the surface in a decent manner without having to animate each one individually.

Pretty much all I want is for the vehicles to travel in a straight line forwards over the course of a few seconds.
Is there any way to make the particles travel across the surface in a decent manner?
EDIT: After following the advice of Lemon I have something similar to what I was hoping for, however there are still a few small issues I need to resolve before its finished.

Sometimes the Vehicles will stop then disappear or disappear into the terrain.

Or float above it when the landscape dips downwards, as well many of the different particles spawn inside of eachother.
In addition i'm wondering if there is a way to have one of the vehicles to be less common while being in the same particle system or whether it would need to be in its own.
I'm unsure as to how to solve these issues, and am hoping there is a way to without having to have each vehicle be its own mesh.

could you describe a bit more the "effect you are looking for", adding some pictures for instance ?

so you mean you want grass on the terrain and want this grass to bend when the vehicles pass over it ?

or no... the vehicles are particles and you want them to move, that's it ?

The vehicles themselves are the particles, I was wondering if there was a way to have them travel without having to have them all meshes with separate animations, The way I was hoping to do so was by putting them into a particle system. Yes that's it

In this approach :

The field in green does not emit particles but has a collision setting :

The emitter is a band along the field side :

The particles are driven straight forward by a curve set as curve guide field :

As we want the vehicles to stay above the terrain, their center is set at the bottom part of them :

This helped out a lot and was exactly what I was looking for, however I still have a few issues i'm trying to resolve. For one, the vehicles sometimes float over low spots in the terrain or disappear beneath it even though other particles follow it perfectly. As well the different particles sometimes intersect, meaning they travel in the same place as another particle, I'll leave pictures and the .blend file above.

@user27370. I understand. A better answer is not in my knowledge (for now I hope).


text:
Weird cloth physics on bends
I'm trying to make a cloth fall on an object (imagine a hook but on its side), and whenever the cloth tries to bend around it there are weird blocks that come up. The object has a decimate modifier (collapse) on it and the cloth has been subdivided multiple times and has smooth shading and has a subsurf mod on it. This weird blockyness of the cloth is causing it to tear as well so idk what to do.

How to prevent this??

First:
 I would apply modifiers before you run simulations, so you could try applying the decimate modifier and re-running the simulation.
Second:
You could subdivide the cloth some more, in edit mode. I'm not sure if you did this, but subdividing the cloth using the SubSurf modifier doesn't increase the resolution of the cloth in the calculations of the simulation.
Third:
Increase the "padding" of the object. By "padding", I mean the distance from the object that the cloth will colide with. I don't know what yours currently are, but hopefully tweaking this will help. The values 'Inner' and 'Outer' are what controlls this.


text:
No vertexes where edges connect
Never seen this one before. I tried to move selectes faces in edit mode as usual, and saw this:

it looked like some vertices moved and some stayed, so I went to the vertex mode and saw this:

Looks like there are almost no vertices to select? there are none at the most points where edges meet, though edges are selectable as usual. Is this some kind of bug? Or did I do something wrong?
I just moved from 4.1 to 4.2.

nothing weird here as well.
UPD: oh, I made a boolean union operation before this happened, and looks like it caused this somehow, because the mesh before union is ok. same question though: what happened and how to save my model

Try Mesh > Merge > By Distance. To remove doubled verts. That's what it looks like to me.

only those selectable vertices merged, when the merge distanse got big enough. On the other hand, the second mesh with the same problem magically healed after restarting blender


text:
embed a texture to mesh
sorry if the title is wrong but basically i got a cube mesh, on one of the faces is a texture with a black x on it, is there a way to extrude the x on the face so i can see it without the texture. (the x doesnt have to be black on the face, i just has to "pop out" )
i am a newb so some easy tutorials could help , or some key words i can search.

Yes, you need to subdivide the mesh and use your texture as a displacement map. Normally in a displacement texture; White = fully displaced, black = no displacement. But you should be able to flip the displacement direction in the modifier without changing the texture.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/44758/emboss-text-onto-curved-surface https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/55184/remove-inset-area-fill-embossed-text https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/41050/boolean-and-texts/


text:
How can i create a detailed sandstone?
How can I create a detailed sandstone material?

(also I'm using blender for 4 months)


text:
transmission bake only works on original model
The transmission bake works on my original models eyes so the texture itself is fine and I've tested settings in the materials tab and they match for both materials. I've also tried swapping between both UV sets and it doesn't fix it either.
Original Model

Baked Model

It's the same texture into the same socket with the same UVs with the same material settings so I'm a bit lost.