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How could i make a cartoon flower type of shape
Almost like a star shape but with the points rounded off. I used this node setup to make a star like this, but I can't figure out how to round off the edges. I would like to be able to customize the number of bumps.

After some quick experimenting, I actually figured out how to get this outcome. If you put an rgb curves node after the ping-pong node (I also got rid of the add and divide nodes because i realised that they weren't necessary) and give the rgb curve a u shape, you can get this outcome. The less than node controls the size and changing the height of the u shape changes the height of the bumps


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The transforms of appended objects change during rendering
I have these teeth objects in a separate blender file that I plan to append to other files when I need them (I append them as "objects" because when I append the mesh they don't seem to show up), but the two times I've tried, the rotation, location, and scale are strange on import, and on render.

Also, something to note is that the size and rotation of the teeth while working is after resetting the rotation and scale with alt-r and alt-s
another thing to add is that the position of the teeth in this project is the same as how they are in their original file. The numbers involved in their starting/rendered position seem random

After looking through all the details of my project I realized that the teeth objects had one keyframe on a later frame for some reason, and I was editing their transforms on a different frame so the transforms weren't actually applied.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Is there a way to morph between two different shapes made with shader nodes
I've made a couple of simple shapes (Just a circle and a star) and I wanted to be able to have a slider that at 0 would be one shape and at 1 be the other. Right now I'm using a value which is rounded then used as a factor for a mixRGB node with the two values being the shapes, so when I move the slider the shape snaps to the other, but I want it to be able to smoothly transition to the other. Is there a simple way to do this?

I would use the Shrinkwrap Modifier and Shapekeys for that. Searching/googling for "shapekeys" and "morphing" should yield multiple usable results. Here is one for example.

Ehm, I seem to have misunderstood your question. I'm not sure at all you can use shapekeys for that, so never mind. (sorry)

This depends on how you are producing your star - can you update your question to include an image of your material nodes?

Multiply the displacement of shape A by fac and the displacement of shape B by (1 - fac) and add the two. You can also use a map range node or a RGB curves if you want non-linear interpolation. Please share your node tree :) (At least the part right before the displacement output)

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


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How do I animate a hose along a path without deforming the lead it is attached to?
I followed this tutorial:
http://www.rab3d.com/tut_blen_2-63_hooks.php 2
And got a nice hose and fitting with a tangent connection.
For an animation I’d like to move the whole thing along (inside) another, bigger hose.
The bigger hose is open on one side to show how the fitting plus small hose move along inside)
Like a camera mounted at the front of a long lead (camera should not deform...), inside some flexible tubing.
But I can’t seem to animate an empty along a path (‘follow path’ constraint works, but gives weird effects for the rest of the curve)…
Any ideas?
An example file here: https://mediviz.nl/tijdelijk/TubeTest.blend
Erik

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/53523

I added a rig with a bendy bone to the front of the hose and that works.


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Why does cycles render this scene as black, while evee renders it like I expect?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cn17ibk3u8xpaw7/zwart.blend?dl=0
I probably changed some setting, but I've been looking everywhere and I can't find what I've done.
I deleted everything from my .blend file and added just a cube, so it's not in the materials or objects. Some cycles setting I guess.
I realize this is probably some stupid thing and I feel a bit anxious to ask other people to solve it for me, but I am so annoyed that I can't find out what it is...
So If it is not some obvious beginner mistake, please don't waste any time on this, I'll just append all collections into a new .blend file if all else fails...

Properties Panel > View Layer > Filter: These checkboxes are usually enabled and are restricting rendering.

@Leander Thanks!, That was it. I have no clue when I disabled those :-D .

Thanks to Leander's comment:
The checkboxes in
Properties Panel > View Layer > Filter
were somehow disabled.


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Really weird and unwanted bending with automatic weights
I make models, and sometimes for seemingly no reason, when I try to make a rig for the hand, the rig decides to bend the top part when I'm posing the bottom part, anyone know how to help? Thanks in advance
Here's a video example on my google drive because the regular upload service isn't working for me for some reason.

Hello, I've also noticed that but I guess you need to correct it in Weight Paint mode or remove these vertices from the vertex group it should not be part of

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

What you're showing in your video isn't weird.  It's pretty normal.  The top verts have influence from the bottom bone because they're close and because there are no intervening divots to block the bone heat.  I'd recommend focusing on your actual problem rather than trying to oversimplify it.  As an aside, doing your armature manipulations in object mode rather than armature edit mode is dangerous.  You should be weighting meshes with applied transforms, to armatures with applied transforms.


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Most efficient way of creating a mirrored set of limbs/details?
So I'm creating some limbs on a model as seen in the image below. I'm creating the left side and then using a mirror modifier across the body.
When it comes time to animate/export I apply the mirror modifier, then I go into edit mode and separate the right side, rename it, and change the origin.
This works fine, but when I have to do this for a lot of pieces it can take a while.
I know armatures have a symmetrize option that works really well, and I'm just wondering if there's anything more efficient than what I'm doing for meshes without armatures.

Why are you bothering to seperate the two halves and move the origins if they're mirror images of each other? Just apply the modifier, create your armature for one side and mirror that. - Job done.

Because when I export them into Unity, the modifiers are applied and then they pivot point doesn't work as intended.
Additionally, I want to be able to move them independently of each other.

You can select all the objects and go to the Object drop down menu in Object mode. Click Object->Convert->Mesh. This will apply all the mirror modifiers on all the objects at once. You can then go into edit mode with all of them selected, select the vertices on one side and separate them with separate->By selection. Alternatively you can just make the objects on one side and then apply rotation and scale, duplicate them and scale them to -1 with the cursor being on the body. Apply scale again on those and fix the normals

The separate selection method is what I'm currently doing. The scale -1 method seems faster, but is there a fast way to apply the opposite position to multiple objects? Because otherwise I have to apply position one by one which is also slow.


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How to make particles move in torus
I want to make something like a torus with particles in its volume and make those particles follow the curve of torus in one direction. Is there any way to make particles follow an elliptical path?
Here I created a torus with randomized hair particles in volume but I would like particles to follow the curve of torus.

Is it possible to create a cylinder with hair particles, then add a curve modifier and make it follow the same curve (or with emitter instead of hair)? I don't want particles to deform and it would be even better if those particles can kind of vibrate. Any solutions are welcome.

did u ever try curve guide?

I just tried with curve and added force to it and it worked after changing a few parameters :)


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Viewport Overlay Bug
Working with Cloth in Sculpting and Sculpt Mode I was not able to get Faceset selection coloring to display.
I fixed the issue by messing around in Viewport Overlays; ticking a bunch of boxes, exiting, entering and ticking them all off again.
Nothing relevant was or was not ticked initially - it just seems like Viewport Overlay needed to be 'tickled' to respond.
Is this a common issue?

Hello, could you please share your file before you fixed the issue? What option did you ticked exactly to display the facesets?

That file is long gone now. Sorry.

I would suggest ticking all on and all off.

This is similar to another issue in Blender where sometimes you can not advance through or see folders in the file list; you have to toggle stuff until Blender snaps out of it or reset.


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How to make a specific texture that load in the game as Cloth and make it look like leather
I ve extracted some textures of an outfit from a video game to be precise ( Assassin's Creed : Unity ) along with some meshes What i wanna do is edit the Textures that appear as cloth and make them look like leather so i can have this leather coat on the outfit but idk how to do it since i have no experience at all with textures.I ve looked around for quite a while and an outside party told me that it’ll mostly be dictated by the normal/specular maps I believe. The textures I extracted are the following : Diffusemap, Normalmap, Mask1map. I included a picture of the alpha channel of the normal map if that helps give a clear picture.

So I guess you need to do it in an image editor software and change the color of the Diffuse to brown tint, and also light (or darken) the image used for Specular (or si it Roughness). You can also do it directly in the Shader Editor if you are familiar with the Color nodes

it worked i got the results i expected thank you so much for your help

So I guess you need to do it in an image editor software and change the color of the Diffuse image to a brown tint, and also light (or darken) the image used for Specular (or maybe it is for Roughness?). You can also do it directly in the Shader Editor if you are familiar with the Color nodes, example put a Hue Saturation Value node after the Image Texture and tweak the parameters.


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Inverted Bake Normal Map
I am trying to bake a high poly to low poly model but this results in an inverted normal map

Have you checked that your normals on the High poly mesh are facing the right way? Aslo it might help to bake with a cage object to make sure the normals are bake the right way around.

I've checked, it is facing the right way

Your Image Texture needs to be set to Non-Color and not sRGB. If it still doesn't fix your problem please share your file with the images packed

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1V_0EwHMN0VnwjkSYSFyB8XanwI6Ogeyw/view?usp=share_link


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Object moves and rotates in opposite direction with Armature modifier on
I have a rig with a body, arms and legs. I noticed that when I rotate the body, the bones at the base of the limbs rotate appropriately, but the actual meshes parented to those bones fly off the armature [Picture 1]. When I go to Object Mode and try to move the arm by itself, it moves opposite to how it should in the z- and y-axes (the bones extend along the x-axis) [Picture 2]. Rotation is similar. I've found that it stops behaving like this when I turn the Armature modifier off.
Things that might be helpful:

The arms are parented to the shoulders which are parented to the body
The legs are parented directly to the body
The legs don't exhibit this behavior at all, but still seem to rotate wrong
The arms and legs are each a single object with the mirror modifier

Why might this be happening, and how can I fix it? I'm completely new to rigging so thank you for any help you can offer!

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

@moonboots Sure, here it is
I should note that since I posted this I found that unparenting the arm and leg from the body fixes the behavior, but the problem still happens in the mirrored halves. Thank you!

It's a bit of a mess in my opinion, instead of fiwing it I would apply the Mirror, join all the limbs to the body to make one object, parent With Empty Groups then assign the vertices to the vertex group they should be part of


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How do I fix this issue with viewing my model?
So I am an ultimate beginner at blender and for some reason while editing my model, everything has become dark grey and there is no longer any shading/shadows/lighting. Does anyone know how to fix this so it looks back to normal?

You've chosen the Wireframe shading mode, choose another one:


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how to create momentum using rigid body
I'm trying to animate a perpetual motion machine, using rigid body physics like the one in the link here:https://www.youtube.com/shorts/yFuK68u2-hw
But I can't get the ball to gain enough momentum to launch off the railing.
I've messed around with the friction, weight, and damping, but it doesn't work.
is there a way to fix this with rigid body, or will I have to redo the physics?
thanks to anyone who responds.

And of course in physics there is no perpetual motion machine…so of course Bloop is right and you have to use other tricks like force fields (which you should keyframe) to make it possible

You can use a Force Field to accelerate the ball on the down ramp, adding enough force to continue the loop indefinitely. Setting the friction on everything to 0 also helps.

It's a question I agree with, and I apologize for not having a good answer. The person who replied above said to use a force field or remove all friction, but how do we remove all friction?

Your entry is a comment. I suggest to add it as a comment to the question instead of posting it as an answer. If you have a related question, I think it's best to ask it as a separate question. It will attract more attention like that and will be easier to find.

This does not really answer the question. If you have a different question, you can ask it by clicking Ask Question. To get notified when this question gets new answers, you can follow this question. Once you have enough reputation, you can also add a bounty to draw more attention to this question. - From Review


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Mesh doen’t follow armature in object mode, in pose mode it does
Hello Blender Stack Exchange,
I have made a character, and I want to animate it. My character consists on a few meshes, all of which were parented to the armature. My problem is: when I move the character around, some parts of the mesh (wing feathers) do not follow it.
In pose mode, everything works fine

In object mode wings stay behind

Wings have armature modifier with "Object" filled with correct armature
I have read similar questions, but none of the solutions for them seemed suitable

How can I make wing's feathers follow my armature?

I am planning to make my character walk around. Is it a good idea to move the charater in pose mode, therefore leaving origin point far away from the character, or there is a more correct way to animate charcter's covering long distences?

I pretty new to Blender and I would appreciate any help. I am using Blender 3.6.0
Here is the link to my file https://cloud.mail.ru/public/3Qsm/fivRe41tY

Select wings, select armature, CTRL + P, choose "Armature deform".
thank you joseph


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PBR texture showing fine in Shading Viewport but then as black in the render
I have imported these OBJ and FBX files into a New > General blend file(3.4.1). I gave them their PBR textures and they show black in render but not in Shading Viewport.
Shading Viewport, Material > Surface

Rendered Viewport, Material > Settings

Normals, UVs, Material Settings

Some of the objects show up fine as you can see but I used the same method to set up those materials.

Hello and welcome to BSE! maybe overlapping objects or vertices? or not enough lighting? can you share your blend file https://blend-exchange.com

This looks like a lightning problem.
As you can see, all the object "showing up" are nearby to each other, with their visibility fading at greater distance from a certain point - the point where supposedly your point light will be.
You can see the effect of your light even in the viewport-shaded view: These objects are brighter than the object being "black" in your render viewport.
Viewport shading by default uses its own (additional) lighting setup so that objects are lighted properly from beginning when you start modeling an object.
You have that dropdown-box on the right side of the viewport render selections. In the rendered viewport Scene Lightsand Scene World are enabled, which is the setting that will be used when actually rendering, but you can disable them there too which will lead the scene to be lighted by the vieport lighting settings also used in viewport shading.

So what your scene need is "just" some proper lightning.


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Import SVG - green icon
I've imported an SVG - all looks as expected but I can't make a mesh out of it - the icons look different - I can't reproduce this - can anyone work out what I've done?

You imported it as a Grease Pencil object using File > Import > SVG as Grease Pencil.
Use File > Import > Scalable Vector graphics (.svg) instead, make sure the addon is active in the user preferences.

That's great - thanks - @Duarte - is there a way to convert grease pencil into objs or alembics to pass on to Maya?

Of course - I have no reputation yet and can't upvote - though I did try.  It hasn't completely solved my issue.  I am a flame artist with a fair bit of experience and just dipping my toes into cg.  I don't understand how to convert grease pencil into something other Maya artists can use.  They asked for a Mesh but that is not possible to convert from grease pencil according to the interactive menus.

It is probably easier to just re-import the object as regular bezier curve and export that.

Hi @duarte you migh be right - what I really liked about the grease pencil import was that it imported the SVG groups as separate layers/grease pencil geos.  This was really useful for me.  When I imported the SVG as curves I got 140 curves which is a bit more unmanageable.  This is why I was trying to use the grease pencil option because the import respected the grouping hierarchy I had created in the vector drawing.  Is there a way I can import the groups?  Or would I have to export them separately then collect them in blender?

There isn't as far as I know, you can manually rearrange them into collections after importing. If there is too much stuff you can import in several steps by layers to make it easier


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what are the black dotted lines here?

I am facing a problem here i just want to fix teeths positions a bit but i noticed that with few teeths few more teeths starting to move, also those teeths are connected with each other by black dotted lines. I want them to be separated .

They must be parented to another object, to unparent press Alt P> Clear and Keep Transformations

that helped a lot thanks moonboots i have one more question if possible pls help brother . i will post it soon .

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/33242/what-are-these-black-dotted-lines https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/27143/removing-dotted-assist-lines https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/187133/black-dotted-line/187135#187135

Hello and welcome. This question seems to have been asked before in multiple forms over time, and already has various answers but you never acknowledged any of them. We are not sure if you aware of the existing posts but none of the described techniques address your particular requisites, or you simply didn't do any research at all. Could you [edit] you post and clarify how your question differs from the suggested duplicates? Otherwise could you rephrase it to focus on a particular step you are stuck with?

They are parented to another object, to unparent them, select them all and press AltP > Clear and Keep Transformations (so that they keep their current location, rotation and scale).


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can not find default viewport shading lights in blender installation , program files folders in windows
to add default lights textures in world as environment texture and make the texture visible in final render image , watched some videos to get the texture . According to videos default light textures of viewport shading modes are located in either program files folders or blender installation folders . My both folders are missing lights textures , there is no folder of blender any of the version containing textures . I tried viewport shading render but results were not required , is there an other way to make lights textures visible in final render ? or to find the default lighting textures ?

This is viewport shading light texture view .

This is the render image .

The viewport HDRIs are located in (x.x being the version of Blender you're using)
C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender x.x\x.x\datafiles\studiolights\world
If you intend to use them often, I recommend copying them to a common folder that you place your normal HDRIs in.

it is not there

can anyone suggest anything ?

What did you encounter when inspecting that path? Depending on your Blender version and install directory you might have to navigate somewhere else, but the relative location of the .exr files in the "datafiles" directory should be correct.


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Use a timeline marker in driver expression?
I see a very old question who's answer may have changed.  I would like to use a marker (by name) in a driver function, as shown here:

The 2013 answer is "no".   Has this changed?  I cannot find anything in "rightclickselect" nor in "devtalk" and thought this would have been discussed somewhere.

i would dare to say: yes, it is possible. But unfortunately your "frame start" field is not able to accept drivers...

@MartyFouts -- see Chris's answer below (and my comment on why this was a trick question!)

ok, it is a bit mean of me (sorry James!)...because it won't help you.
The frame start value doesn't access drivers.
But the question was: can the timeline marker be used as driver?
yes!
I used an array modifier for this with this expression in count:
bpy.context.scene.timeline_markers["F_100"].frame

and...it worked!
Proof:

move the marker, then change the timeline by 1 frame, you will see, the number of cubes will change.

Okay actually I did know that, so it was also a trick question !!!   Thanks for the info that I need for other purposes.   I am searching the DevTalk and RightClick sites for discussion on this, as a favorite of mine would be top copy Last Frame as Driver and paste over the default 250 Last Frame in physics sims.  (and give Moonboots hell!)

well...with python and reacting on pre_frame_handler you could even set the frame end value by your marker... ;)

Good point and BTW I'm typing into RightClick now.  I can paste as Driver into a Cloth end frame, but not PS or Fluid!


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Want to use drive vertex weightings
I would like to reduce the proportional weights of vertices on a Vertex Group as a bone grows distant from another bone.   An example would be to somehow use a function that would return a vertex weight in a group based on a bone distance calculation.

Blender-exchange is working today!

If we want to scale down the values of a particular group of vertices, dynamically, we can do that with a vertex weight edit modifier:

Here, all vertices are fully assigned to Group, which is used to modulate a shrinkwrap modifier.  However, I can reduce the weights of that group to 0 by using a custom curve that's just a straight line at y=0.
It's not going all the way to zero-- we have some shrinkwrapping going on-- because I have set the global influence of my vertex weight edit modifier to 0.5ish.  So all my weights are interpolating halfway between 1 and 0.
If we want, we can use a driver to control this influence, same as most properties in Blender.  We can set the driver to be using a "distance" type variable, at which point we can nominate two bones in the armature for that distance calculation:

Here, the distance between the bones is about 0.3, so we're only scaling away 30% of our weights, and we can adjust this dynamically.
This would work just as well for evaluating weights of bones in an armature, that are evaluated in an armature modifier that follows the vertex weight edit.  Note that we are not renormalizing our other weights, but Blender renormalizes implicitly for an armature modifier.

Here, dearest Suzanne is weighted equally to Bone and Group, but because Bone.001 is more than 1 unit away from Bone, all weights to Group are destroyed by the vertex weight edit modifier, leaving only weights to Bone.
Note that there are any number of ways to do this, ranging from equally simple (geometry nodes, or driving our curve's Y position instead) to bizarrely Goldbergesque (data transferring vertex weight proximity from two non-rendering meshes parented to our bones and using that as part of a vertex weight mix.)

The incredible Nathan to the rescue


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Child Of does not obey instancing
I want to have identical instances of an object in three parent objects -- my case is to have the same lamp covers along four circle paths (converted to mesh) that has "Property >> Instancing >> Vertices" enabled.
If I use the Child_Of constraint, instancing is ignored on these path meshes.
I suppose I could instead have four linked-duplicate children, each individually parented to the circle path parent mesh, but was wondering if a cleaner alternative existed.

Hello, could you please show a drawing of your final goal?

Geometry node is the way to go. You can instance an object on the vertices with a simple setup like this one. Then put the geometry node setup on the objects you want


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move active keys to align relative to selected key
My goal is to move all selected keys to "vertically align" with the left-most key.

I can approximate this with "Key >> Move, y" (g,y), and reasonably align these "by eye", I would like to have a bit more accuracy,  like applying diff(value[frame1]-value[frame0]) to all frames[1-N].

Create a custom property for the selected item, use its gear icon to set it as Float, with appropriate values of min, max and precision; we will use this to temporarily store the value of the Y movement.
Select the target keyframe (in my example frame 40), hover over its value and press Ctrl C, then click on the custom property and press Ctrl V; delete the "m" suffix for meters, leaving  a pure float number.
Select the first frame of the moving part (60 in my example), copy its value, click on the custom property and type "-(Ctrl V)"; again delete the "m" suffix before validating with Enter.
Copy the value of the custom property on the clipboard with Ctrl C.

Set the graph editor timeline cursor on frame 60 and Ctrl click on the 70 number to select all keyframes from 60 and above, press G Y and move them a bit.
Open the black window dialog box on the bottom left (Adjust last operation), click on  Y and press Ctrl V to paste the value of the Y movement.

I'd skip the custom property and use a calculator app (or my fingers), but I see where the relative move coordinate box opens and that's my solution to enter a precise distance.  Thanks!  WIll give points for intelligence and handsomeness ;-)   Do you guys (you, moonboots, etc) ever get any work done besides being helpful)!


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return some vertices in Shape Key their Basis coordinates
Let's say I've spent time editing may vertices to a desired position for a Shape Key, and after some test renders, I want to select one or more of these and get them back to their original (Basis, reference) coordinates.  Is there a way to select and say "this vertex back to Basis"?  Even more productive, to select several (a subset) of vertices of those changed by a SK and return those several back to Basis?

Select the vertices, go into the Vertex panel > Blend from Shape:

Then in the Operator box choose the Basis shapekey and disable the Add option:


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driver "self['prop']" not working in 4.2.2?
I want to reference a "current object" custom property in a shader node driver via a scripted self["Custom Property"].
I have tried the solution provided in this answer in my 4.2.2 app (turn on "Auto Run Python Scripts" but I still get an error:

Error in PyDriver: expression failed: self["EmissionValue"] For
target: (type=NodeTree, name="Shader Nodetree",
property=default_value, property_index=-1)

I have created custom properties of the same name (here: "EmissionValue") at the object, data, and Material node levels, just to try any avenue that might work.
Still no luck.   What color salt do I have to throw over my shoulder ;)
My example:

Based on MvB's answer below and my console error message above, "self" point to the material's node_tree, so there is no way to get to the (possible shared) material's object's instance data.

It points to a node socket. From there you can use the node attribute to get to the node. Not sure even if you can get to the node tree... Now normally you could just read the node's rna or repr to see the name of its node tree, but on the evaluated copy, I don't know.

You get the error for node tree evaluation, but self is the node socket. Just use print(type(self)) in the driver and see what system console reports.

self refers to the socket.
Fortunately, rather than being an inelegant workaround, the alternative is an improvement, because it doesn't require security privileges:

Imgur mirror (SE image hosting has problems)

That solves the problem.    But ... I actually also put a custom property on the Material, with the same name.  Shouldn't that also have worked?

@james_t sorry, I got it wrong, apparently self is the socket, not the material. I checked for older versions too (same result) so not sure why I thought otherwise. And I don't know how to obtain the material from a node (self.node), since it's an evaluated copy and there's no original attribute to access the node...


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Rended cloth looks torn
I am using Blender 3.2.1
I have a cloth simulation. It looks even in Layout:

But when i render image, T-shirt looks "torn":

I have made the character big
I have tried baking cloth once again one by one (shorts - T-shirt - jacket), but it did not help
my file https://cloud.mail.ru/public/THzN/ySSDGoZoG
Could you please tell me how to fix it? How to make cloth look even in render?
I am new to Blender and I will be greatful for any help

Are there any modifiers on the tshirt that are only visible in the render? Like a subsurf modifier that has 0 Viewport Subdivisions but 2 for the Render?

There are too many subdivisions before the cloth modifier. The first and the last one make sense but the one in the middle is not necessary. If you would like to have even more details, only increase the numbers of the latest Subsurf modifier.
The reason why it is working in the viewport but not in the final render is because of the different settings in your Subsurfmodifiers, like Jakemoyo mentioned.

Thank you very much! I deleted the Subdivision modifier in the middle and it helped


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How to I make my folding panels work by using local space
I have made and rigged (using constraints) these folding panels for my model based on this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SGBf__4kDY

But since the Target and Origin are World Space, the Panels become wonky when I change the rotation of the model

So I changed the Target and Origin to Local Space on a single panel for testing

But when I try to fold it, the panel I set to local space refuses to fold

Is there a way for the panels to fold like in the world space example without becoming wonky when I turn them

you can try this tutorial here (it is a step by step tutorial, it's rigged and so rotation won't be a problem): https://youtu.be/07e1NUjYY_8

Use an outer source of transform
First of all made a root which will be used to rotate the construction: first item is parented to cube, you can replace it by empty.

Then add empty to control the rotation. Add copy rotation to the first joint and set up like this. Target is empty, in world space, Owner - local space.

Second joint: Note, that second copy rotation is used, with mix "add". Z inverted.

3rd joint the same but without inversion:

Repeat 2 and 3 for other joints
Second variant - use drivers:
Click on z value of rotation from context menu and select "copy as new driver":

Then select second joint and on z value of rotation from context menu select "Paste driver", field will be purple:

Then from context menu select edit driver, type is scripted expression, Expression set as rotation_euler * -2:

Same for the 3rd, but remove minus from expression rotation_euler * 2

Repeat 2 and 3 for other joints


text:
bpy.context object changes within pyside2 button callback
I'm very new to the Blender api and pardon this complex question.
I'm running a pyside2 window from blender which hosts a button. In this button I'm trying to get the currently selected object through the bpy.context.active_object. However, I'm getting the error AttributeError: 'Context' object has no attribute 'active_object'.
I've investigated and found out that this problem is isolated to the call within the button callback function. If I try to get the active object in my __init__ method it works just fine.
I print the values of the bpy.context both in the innit and in the callback, and they look different
Here's the smallest repro of the issue that I could do. Apologies as it is quite large.
NOTE: You need pyside2 installed and accessible in your sys.path to run this
import sys
import bpy

from PySide2 import QtWidgets, QtCore

class QtWindowEventLoop(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Allows PyQt or PySide to run inside Blender"""

    bl_idname = 'screen.qt_event_loop'
    bl_label = 'Qt Event Loop'

    def __init__(self, widget, *args, **kwargs):
        self._widget = widget
        self._args = args
        self._kwargs = kwargs

    def modal(self, context, event):
        wm = context.window_manager

        if not self.widget.isVisible():
            wm.event_timer_remove(self._timer)
            return {'FINISHED'}
        else:
            self.event_loop.processEvents()
            self.app.sendPostedEvents(None, 0)

        return {'PASS_THROUGH'}

    def execute(self, context):
        self.app = QtWidgets.QApplication.instance()

        if not self.app:
            self.app = QtWidgets.QApplication(sys.argv)

        self.event_loop = QtCore.QEventLoop()
        self.widget = self._widget(*self._args, **self._kwargs)

        wm = context.window_manager
        self._timer = wm.event_timer_add(1 / 120, window=context.window)
        context.window_manager.modal_handler_add(self)
        return {'RUNNING_MODAL'}

class TestWindow(QtWidgets.QMainWindow):

    def __init__(self, parent=None):
        super(TestWindow, self).__init__(parent)
        self.tool_name = "My Blender test tool"
        self.add_ui()
        self.show()

    def add_ui(self):
        self.root_widget = QtWidgets.QWidget()
        self.root_layout = QtWidgets.QVBoxLayout()
        self.root_widget.setLayout(self.root_layout)
        self.setCentralWidget(self.root_widget)

        button = QtWidgets.QPushButton("button")
        self.context = bpy.context
        button.clicked.connect(self.button_func)
        print(dir(bpy.context))
        self.root_layout.addWidget(button)
        self.setLayout(self.root_layout)

    def button_func(self):
        print(dir(bpy.context))
        print(bpy.context.active_object)

class CustomWindowOperator(QtWindowEventLoop):
    bl_idname = "screen.custom_window"
    bl_label = "temp2.custom"

    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__(TestWindow)

def main():
    bpy.utils.register_class(QtWindowEventLoop)
    bpy.utils.register_class(CustomWindowOperator)
    bpy.ops.screen.custom_window() # starts the window

Here's the output that the two prints give
Anyone knows a way to circumvent this? Or how to set the context in any way?
Thanks in advance.

have u tried bpy.context.object?

@HarryMcKenzie Yeah I tried it too but it is also unavailable unfortunately...

i tried your code and it works perfectly. a qt message box pops up and when i click the button, it prints without errors. i'm running on Blender 2.93, 3.0, 3.1 and 3.2 without errors. i see you're using 2.91, maybe consider going to 2.93 or 3.2

Could you show me the output of when you run it please? Are you able to print the name of the active object?

Tried using blender 3.1.2 and getting the same error still

Here is my output. As per the active object i get <bpy_struct, Object("Cube") at 0x0000000015495608> since i just copied your code and ran it on the default cube. How did you install PySide2? I installed pip and PySide2 like THIS

I was following this tutorial here http://www.codeplastic.com/2019/03/12/how-to-install-python-modules-in-blender/
which when printed from blender scripting editor showed "<module 'PySide2' from 'C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 3.1\3.1\python\lib\site-packages\PySide2\init.py'>". The script runs but I still get the same error...

How are you running the script? Just directly this file alone then calling main()? Or is another file importing this class?

Originally I'm importing this file in the script editor then running main. But I get the same result by copy-pasting the entire files content into the script editor and then adding a main call at the bottom to run it there aswell

I've found the issue, and it's quite strange. If I spam the button, I sometimes get the desired result printed in the output, and the name of the selected object is shown.
It was really inconsistent though, almost random. I decided to try and remove the part of the code which keeps blender from freezing QtWindowEventLoop. It now works and gives me the selected object 100% of the time. But Blender is frozen while the QT window is active and the commands are only executed after the window has been closed.
This is the new functional code:
import sys
import bpy

from PySide2 import QtWidgets, QtCore

class TestWindow(QtWidgets.QMainWindow):

    def __init__(self, parent=None):
        super(TestWindow, self).__init__(parent)
        self.tool_name = "My Blender test tool"
        self.add_ui()
        self.show()

    def add_ui(self):
        self.root_widget = QtWidgets.QWidget()
        self.root_layout = QtWidgets.QVBoxLayout()
        self.root_widget.setLayout(self.root_layout)
        self.setCentralWidget(self.root_widget)

        button = QtWidgets.QPushButton("button")
        self.context = bpy.context
        button.clicked.connect(self.button_func)
        print(dir(bpy.context))
        print("==============================================================")
        self.root_layout.addWidget(button)
        self.setLayout(self.root_layout)

    def button_func(self):
        print(dir(bpy.context))
        print(bpy.context.active_object)

def main():
        app = QtWidgets.QApplication.instance() or QtWidgets.QApplication(sys.argv)
        win = TestWindow()
        #win.main()
        app.exec_()
main()

You can decorate your callbacks with this piece of code.
I found this here: https://github.com/techartorg/bqt/commit/3a40d7f120ec7c9b9a4010b2b0ef97b9781c64ac
def context_window(func):
    """
    Support running operators from QT (ex. on button click).
    Decorator to override the context window for a function,
    """

    def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
        with bpy.context.temp_override(window=bpy.context.window_manager.windows[0]):
            return func(*args, **kwargs)

    return wrapper

Obviously, this is empirical solution and i'm not sure if it will work all the time.


text:
Import Blender rig on 3Ds max
I've made 2 rigs on a blender:

an indosaurus with IK/FK
a killer whale without IK/FK

I tried importing the Killer whale to max by converting it to FBX but it didn't work.
Is there any way you can help me ?
here's the orca :
and here's the indonosaurus :

Have you tried exporting it to obj or any other file format instead?

@Deven importing it in obj reduces it to a few polygons. i've tried mendeling with the import settings but it doesn't change anything.


text:
My character go nuts when i apply automatic weight
So i'm trying multiple kind of rigging for my character and rn i'm trying rigify.
i'm following this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAhbO7U1ID8&ab_channel=THELUWIZART
But at the moment where he apply automatic weight, i go from this :

To This :

I've tried working manualy on the weighting but it's way too long and i think there might be a simplier way, i just can't find it.
Here's the file https://pasteall.org/blend/958a1217115849cca18223595bb6dd40
Could you help me please ?

I hope a Stretch To constraint expert will find the smart way to fix your problem but from what I understand:
If you activate this armature layer you'll see some highly stretched bones:

These bones have a Stretch To constraint. You've probably scaled and applied the scale of your armature. This operation has stretched these bones, as the constraints have kept the same Original Length value but now the scale is not the same:

To bring the bones back to their good length you need to multiply the Original Length value by the previous armature scale, but you may not have it. Another way to fix it is to take note of the Target of the constraint, remove the constraint, then create a new one, and type the same Target, it will bring back the good Original Length value. If all your stretch bones have the same length then you could simply type this value in all your constraints instead of removing them.
If you have a previous version of your armature and character, you could avoid to apply the scale, or parent the armature to an empty and scale the empty itself, not the armature.

Thanks to you explaining the bones we're stretched because i scaled them, i restarted the project and when i spawned the armature instead of scaling it up, i scaled my character's model down and now it works perfectly


text:
Creating UV Map from Specific Section Of Model Without Certain Deformities
If I have a hollowed out hemisphere-like object with a bunch of holes in it (think hollowed out bowling ball or something), is there a simple way to get a UV map of only the outer side EXCLUDING the holes?
In my mind, thinking of something along the lines of shrink wrapping something and being left with the plastic I guess?
Specifically, this is for exporting the UV map as a guide for a sewing project, so the goal is to have the surface of the object in a flat format without holes.
I'm relatively new so I'm not sure how I would go about something like this, thanks for any suggestions!

When mapping a curved surface (such as a hemisphere) to a UV Map (always flat) some distortion is inevitable.  For this example I've created a hemisphere similar to what you've described, with the previous UV mapping deleted (Object Data Properties > UV Maps > - Remove UV Map).  Seams (UV > Mark Seam) have been marked around the holes, and all faces except in the holes are selected.  The view in the 3D Viewport is Top Orthographic.

Above a UV map of just the selected faces (the hemisphere, sans holes) has been created, exactly as seen in the 3D Viewport (UV > Project from View).  Because the View is orthographic, distortion is minimized for the faces flatest to the view, and greater for those as their angle from the view increases.

There are several ways to reduce distortion on the outer faces of the hemisphere.  Above, outer edges of the hemisphere's UV map have been selected and scaled (hotkey S) by hand.  The holes have been UV unwrapped by inverting the selection in the 3D Viewport (selecting only the holes), then UV > Unwrap, then scaling down.

Whether or not this would be suitable for a sewing guide (probably not), or how to use Blender to make a sewing guide, is somewhat outside the remit of the Blender Stack Exchange (which covers questions about using Blender, but not sewing).


text:
Can we scale a curve relative to the distance between two objects? I tried doing it in geometry nodes, but curves aren't supported there

This is what I made. It works well in scaling meshes, but I can't seem to do anything about curves.

Try the node Transform.

you can use the simple transform node for that. Just calculate the scale you need from your two objects and use e.g. this node setup:


text:
How can I input the position of multiple points into an OSL shader and store them in an array?
This is my setup.

How can I store all those position vectors in the vecs array?

Can we ask what this is for? I (personally) can't imagine any way to store shared data between calls on the OSL node per-shading-point, other than externally ( say, in a texture ? )  The output of the Attribute node will return a single vector, evalutated on the shading-point, every time the node is called.

@RobinBetts I'm trying to recreate this effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZBfLgfsvSk

Tgis can be done in GN simulation:  https://entagma.com/geometry-node-simulation-advect-by-curl-noise/ .. but you want it in a shader?


text:
Geometry node angled line creation
Hello so i'm attempting to make a LED wall mesh generator for virtual production. Hopefully this will all make sense.
I know my panel width is going to be 0.5m the next adjoining panel will be either 0deg,3deg or 5 degree, etc etc. I've got a node set to be able to do it all with the same angle between them. I'm attempting to work out how I would go about being able to define each individual angle.

so the angle you are talking about is the z-angle?

You can accumulate angle and then displacement based on angle - below I accumulate also the displacement magnitude to produce a spiral (be aware, there is a node to create a spiral easily):

Now, in your case it's not clear how you want to evaluate the angle between segments. If you want arbitrary values, then you need to input those arbitrary values somehow into the geometry nodes, here are some examples on how to do it:
Loading from CSV

How do I assign values from .csv to point position in Geometry Nodes? (Blender 3.4)

Distribute vertex points around a circle using Geometry Nodes

Joining single Points

Join points / vertices with a line or curve following an arbitrary given index sequence

Using a String

Geometry Nodes - Extrude edge by ID - I'm linking to mine, and not simplified technique by Quellenform, because I remember my technique was bloated specifically because I changed another setup supporting multiple digits to just a binary one, so it might be a good starting point to develop an integer input, but definitely wouldn't suggest for trying with floats (non-integers)

Color Ramp

Cycling /looping through a set of index values using geometry nodes to create animation

How can I rotate individual curve points in geometry nodes?

Another geometry / Integer input

How to instantiate objects on individual/selected points in geometry nodes?

I'm picking a Color Ramp here. It has a limit of 31 swatches (though you could combine multiple Color Ramps… Ask another question if you need that), in this example I'll use a pattern of 10 repeating bends. So first I create a Color Ramp with 10 swatches, no interpolation, and give each swatch the same ($10\%$) cut of the (1-dimensional) pie:

As you can see, the swatches are distributed evenly at $0.0$, $0.1$, $0.2$ etc. I couldn't just set it to integers, because another limitation of the Color Ramp is that its input is limited to $[0, 1]$ range (or is it $[0, 1)$?) Now in order to translate each index to the related Color Ramp's color, I divide the index by 10, and take the fraction part (after the dot), and add a tiny little $0.001$ just so it doesn't sit exactly on the swatch, because then it's not clear on which side it would end up (I think on the left, but may be subject to floating point errors):

Yet another limitation of the Color Ramp node: it outputs colors, which are always positive values. So I read the color and subtract $0.5$ from it, making values below $50\%$ grey negative and allowing to bend both ways.
The rest is at the beginning, except I'm using a 1-dimensional grid instead of a curve, as the next step is extruding it:

Above I'm first 'removing' the first bend by setting it to $0$ angle (you math think of it as $180°$, but the Color Ramp says it's $0$ in direction change), and then just playing around with two next bends (as well as 11th and 12th bends, because the pattern repeats).

the problem with GN right now is, that it doesn't support lists. So tbh i think animation nodes (free add-on) would be much better to perform these kind of tasks then GN in its current state.
But you asked for GN, here is a solution for GN which isn't handy at all...but if you are not using scripting, this is how it could work:

result:

Since you didn't tell us which Blender version you are using, i used Blender 4.0.

Thank you for your Answers. I ended up doing it in a bit of a weird way.
So I made an excel to work out the coordinates exported as a CSV.
Used the CSV to blender add-on and then making this geometry node tree.

Which gives me the result I was looking for.


text:
Arranging Seperate Strokes
I have just started using 2d grease pencil and have been able to keep up with layers but now I want to animate and am running into a wall. I have a car driving through a landscape and when I keep it all in the same stroke its too difficult to select and move through the landscape, so I separated it into two strokes but now the car is behind the landscape. I know you can arrange sending stuff to the front and back but that's in the same stroke. I have two separate strokes, I want one to be in front of the other can I not do this? it seems like it should be easy

If I understand your question, you created two different Grease Pencil Objects, one for the car and one for the background.
To solve your depth problem simply move the car GP object in object mode slightly toward the camera (along Y axis in my example).
Another method is to give to all Layers an unique name, select both GP Objects in object mode, press Ctrl J to join them and lock all background layers, using the padlock icon in the layer stack, so to make them unselectable and unchangeable.
Then use the Layer stack order to determine the desired depth order, and the Arrange function to manage the strokes within each individual layer.


text:
Reading viewlayers from Blender blendfile
I need to get scenes and its viewlayers in a blendfile using blendfile.py.
Currently I can get scenes names and Viewlayers names, but i can not get what scene has what viewlayers...
Getting scenes:
# Read blendfile
bf = blendfile.open_blend(path)
scenes = bf.find_blocks_from_code(b'SC')
scene_names = [scene[b'id', b'name'].decode()[2:] for scene in scenes]

Getting viewlayers:
# Read blendfile
bf = blendfile.open_blend(path)
layers_in_blendfile = [struct for struct in bf.blocks if struct.dna_type_name == 'ViewLayer']
layers_names = [layer[b'name'].decode() for layer in layers_in_blendfile]

Any way to get the viewlayers from these scenes or the scene from these viewlayers?
Also, when I try to do scene[b'view_layers'] i got the following error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:\Users\user\Documents\dev\software\script\utils\blendfile.py", line 552, in __getitem__
    return self.get(item, use_str=False)
  File "C:\Users\user\Documents\dev\software\script\utils\blendfile.py", line 450, in get
    return dna_struct.field_get(
  File "C:\Users\user\Documents\dev\software\script\utils\blendfile.py", line 834, in field_get
    raise NotImplementedError("%r exists but isn't pointer, can't resolve field %r" %
NotImplementedError: ("b'view_layers' exists but isn't pointer, can't resolve field b'view_layers'", DNAName(b'view_layers'), DNAStruct(b'ListBase'))

And if i try to get something random like scene[b'aa'], i get a list of possible options:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:\Users\user\Documents\dev\software\script\utils\blendfile.py", line 552, in __getitem__
    return self.get(item, use_str=False)
  File "C:\Users\user\Documents\dev\software\script\utils\blendfile.py", line 450, in get
    return dna_struct.field_get(
  File "C:\Users\user\Documents\dev\software\script\utils\blendfile.py", line 794, in field_get
    raise KeyError("%r not found in %r (%r)" %
KeyError: "b'aa' not found in [b'id', b'adt', b'drawdata', b'camera', b'world', b'set', b'base', b'basact', b'_pad1', b'cursor', b'lay', b'layact', b'_pad2', b'flag', b'use_nodes', b'_pad3', b'nodetree', b'ed', b'toolsettings', b'_pad4', b'safe_areas', b'r', b'audio', b'markers', b'transform_spaces', b'orientation_slots', b'sound_scene', b'playback_handle', b'sound_scrub_handle', b'speaker_handles', b'fps_info', b'depsgraph_hash', b'_pad7', b'active_keyingset', b'keyingsets', b'unit', b'gpd', b'clip', b'physics_settings', b'_pad8', b'customdata_mask', b'customdata_mask_modal', b'view_settings', b'display_settings', b'sequencer_colorspace_settings', b'rigidbody_world', b'preview', b'view_layers', b'master_collection', b'collection', b'layer_properties', b'_pad9', b'display', b'eevee', b'grease_pencil_settings'] (b'Scene')"


text:
Is blender capable of adding closed captions to videos?
I want to include closed captions in a blender made video.  Closed captions that the end viewer can toggle on or off; NOT subtitles that are permanently on screen in the video.
There are lots of youtube tutorials on creating permanent subtitles.
The process of creating actual closed captions should be functionally similar.
If blender can't do it, are there any recommendations on how to embed CCs for uploading to more than just youtube?

I vaguely remember that Blender can export text strips as an SRT file, but I’d still recommend an external program. I currently use SubtitleEdit (via Mono on Linux), and TYLJ it works great. You can use FFMpeg to embed the subtitles (still toggleable) in the video file when you’re done.

Setup text strips like this:

Then click View -> Export Subtitles.
After saving the file you will get srt file:

That can be used by regular video players.

Not that I use the video editor often, but I had no idea Blender supported doing this. Always discovering new things, pretty cool!


text:
Blenders video sequence editor VS. Audacity for arranging audio
To people who have used both Audacity and Blenders video sequence editor:
Which do you think is better for splicing, rearanging, etc. for your projects audio track?

Use this add-on for combining both software programs: https://github.com/tin2tin/audacity_tools_for_blender

I prefer a commercial Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) from PreSonus called StudioOne  However I do use both the VSE and Audacity for arranging simple audio, and I would recommend a workflow that uses both:

Do most of your audio editing and arranging in Audacity.  It has a more complete tool kit for audio editing; especially for handling multiple channels.

Use audacity to downmix the audio to stereo and export the stereo in a lossless format that you like to work with.

Use the VSE to splice the stereo together with the video.

Dubbing (as well as sound mixing and editing) of video should, in my opinion, be done at the step where editing and color correction is involved: in post-production.
Blender is not a professional video editing program and its capabilities are extremely limited.
I recommend Davinci Resolve (free of charge in the basic version!). There you have all the necessary editing options for audio and the ability to play it all in sync with your video.


text:
model is extremely small when importing into Unreal 5
I'm pretty new to modeling and am having some trouble getting my model to be the correct size after import to Unreal 5. everything I have read/watched tells me to make my scene unit scale .01. This does give m the proper anatomical height of a human. However, when I import the meta rigged model into Unreal 5, the model is way smaller than the starter SK_manny model. I have to make my scene unit scale 1 with an item scale of .13. I'm really not sure what I'm doing wrong. I have been at this for hours now...
Here is a link to my blender file Goldy.blend
thanks for the help!

I've never adjusted the unit scale when I exported fbx from Blender to Unreal and it worked fine.

maybe ill just go that route then everyone makes scaling seem extremely important. but i guess if it works scale wise reguardless of the scale units it really does not matter


text:
How to run Blender on a Surface Pro 2
I have acquired an old Surface Pro 2 (Windows 8), and would like to run Blender on it if I ever want to use the touchscreen for drawing, sculpting, etc. The Surface Pro 2 should, in theory, run Blender, and it has run (post 2.8) Blender before, but since I have got it as my own (in the process I did a full reset), various versions after 2.8 have not run for a few different reasons.
Initially I tried installing Blender 3.2.1 (from an msi file), but on attempting to open it, it said that the program couldn't start because api-ms-win-crt-heap-l1-0-0.dll was missing, and recommended that I re-install the program. I did this a few times, with no luck. I then followed both methods in this video, Method 1: adding the files manually, Method 2: installing Visual C++ Redistributable. Once the files were added manually, Blender gave a different message [reminder to self to add what it was later]. Visual C++ Red. failed to install.
I then tried installing other Blender versions:

Blender 2.79b worked fine.
Blender 2.8 crashed upon startup.
Blender 2.81 warned about the graphics card driver perhaps not being up to date, but when I pressed "continue anyway", it crashed like 2.8 did.
Blender 2.91 was identical to 2.81

I would really appreciate any help anyone could offer.
Thanks

what graphics card does your tablet have?

@HarryMcKenzie It has an Intel HD Graphics 4400, which I don't think is an actual graphics card, so is possibly the case of the problems, however I have used Blender on the computer before at some point around 2019.


text:
Mesh acting wierd compared to bones movement
I'm working on a robot for a video game, and some of the bones act different than the rest. Some move different parts of the mesh with unequal force even though the weight is 1.0 on all affected parts. Another problem is were assigned vertices don't move at all even though they are part of the same mesh and weighted at 1.0.

they can be weighted 1 but doesn't mean that another bone has no influence on these vertices. To rig a robot you should use With Empty Groups, then assign the vertices to the groups they are supposed to be part of, this way you're sure no vertex will be part of a group it is not supposed to be part of

That's what I've done, no the vertices in question are only weighted to one bone/vertex group.

so maybe share your file: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

Here you go, I'm working on the one on the right, Armature.003 and it's child

so for example for the robot on the right, you need to give some correction to the elbow in Weight Paint mode, for the second robot from the right, the arm objects have not been parented to the arm bones, etc...

Only the right one matters, the others are throwaways. What corrections? No matter what I do I can't make the left elbow stop deforming, and the fingers are a nightmare

For the shoulder, first select the armature, then shift select the mesh, and switch to Weight Paint mode. Display the right panel with N and choose Blend > Mix, disable Front Faces Only and enable 2D Falloff.

Now select a bone and paint:

For the finger, as it needs a bit more precision, come back to Edit mode, select the vertices, in the Properties panel > Object Data > Vertex Groups, choose the vertex group they are supposed to be part of and click Assign. You can also use this list to remove some vertices from some groups. In the right menu, under + and -, you can sort the vertex groups by name.

Shoulder and that finger bone are not supposed to move, so I haven't spent any time on them. The problems i'm facing are with the right elbow and the mid/tip finger bones.

use the exact same process

I have, over and over again. With deform it deforms the mesh, which is bad since it's a robot. But without deform it doesn't move at all. Try rotating the FingerMidL1 bone, nothing except the tip moves with it. How do I share images?

Yes I've just tested, so you need to enable Deform and use the process I explain in the second part, select the vertices that are supposed to move, find the vertex group called FingerMidL1 and click Assign

I fixed it by creating new empty groups and starting over. Thanks for all the help.

Ok I hope you've understood the principles, a bit confusing at the beginning for sure  ;)


text:
Detecting mesh self intersection
How can I detect self intersections in a mesh given a pose deformation?
I've managed to visualize them, but how can I access them?
Is there another way to detect these self intersections?

Related (possible dupe) https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/73869/how-to-stop-self-intersection-of-model

Thanks, but I'm only interested in detecting the self-intersections.
I'm not looking for a way to fix or prevent them.

Interesting? Looks to me like  Cegaton's Accepted answer is all about detecting the intersections between finger and palm and finger and finger using the bones.  Can you prevent something you can't detect?

haha you are right.
I'm looking for a more general solution right now, not just for hands.
The information seems to exist within Blender


text:
How can I render a model with both alpha textures and backface culling?
I just started learning Blender a couple weeks ago, I'm using it to make renders of Pokémon models.
I would appreciate it if someone could help me get a render of this model (Malamar): https://www.models-resource.com/3ds/pokemonxy/model/13117/?source=genre
I was unable to make it look like the sample image, specifically, the stomach part (the one with the yellow dots and the tentacles surrounding it) and the pink part of the tentacles.
I made some progress in Blender 2.79 Blender Render and Blender 2.82
In Blender 2.79 Blender Render I couldn't get the alpha texture to work, it makes the body transparent in the viewport but it shows the background behind instead of the yellow dots... When rendered, it is not transparent.

I managed to make the pink part, which looks all weird without the backface culling option activated, look good by activating the shader nodes. But I couldn't make the alpha texture show trasparency.

In Blender 2.82 I made more progress, I managed to get both the trasparency and the bakface culling but the backface culling makes the pink part of the tentacles look totally different.

If possible, I would also like to know from someone more experienced whether I got the alpha texture correctly or not. Is it normal that when I change the color in the Transparent BSDF node the color of the yellow dots changes as well?
Thank you very much.

Try this arrangement for your model. The way you have it setup in your image, you're mixing white with your image using alpha as a factor. If you want transparency, you will have better luck with this arrangement. Pay attention to the right side where I highlighted the blend modes - these are necessary for transparency. Pick Alpha-Clip, Alpha-Hashed, or Alpha-Blend (whatever looks best), just not Opaque. This should be applied to the Shadow Mode as well - depending on what type of shadows you want for your transparency.

Hope this helps

Thank you very much for the help!
I applied it to Blender 2.82 and it worked perfectly, however, I couldn't figure out the backface culling, so I still had problems with the pink part.
Afterwards, I tried the arrangement you suggested in Blender 2.79 Blender Render and it also worked well. Afterwards, the only problem I had left were the yellow dots; the blue texture should be more transparent and the dots should be more yellow, but I fixed that by directly changing the texture in Photoshop.
https://i.imgur.com/16u1IQQ.png


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Blender 2.83 not saving User Preferences and not loading recent files list
At each startup, Blender 2.83 seems to not load the list of recent files.
It is not saving User Preferences as well.
I edited a keymap (removed M for measure everywhere) and have to redo it every time I use blender...
I had a previous 2.81 version installed before from where I copied the user prefs.
Any idea what can cause this ?

Turning the administrator launch option seems to fix it, but this can't be a solution. It was working fine in all my previous install.

If you haven't fixed it by now hope this may help Ctrl u then choose save preferences.

Sounds like the permissions nproblem in the OS. If things work as administrator, maybe the issue is that as user you don't have permission to write in the folder where the settings should be saved

Make you changes in the preferences and go to File > Preferences and at the bottom left hamburger icon choose Save Preferences

Ya, this is a consistent bug in every version of blender but there is a way out!
First open a blend file (which is saved from before or open a general project and save it)
Then, go to preferences and make your changes
Then, close the preference window and go to the render tab in the properties
There, change the render engine to Cycles (if it's already in Eevee) or to Eevee (if it's already in Cycles)
Press Ctrl+S to save
Now close blender and again reopen it to see if your preferences are saved or not :)
Hope it helps! :))

Just download the recent version of Blender only from Microsoft Store. Then open any pre-existing file, make your changes in preferences then save the file. It should work.

Why the Microsoft store, how does that help solve the issue?


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How to map an extra mouse button to ctrl z?
Around 50% of my key presses consist ctrl+z.
How can I map ctrl+z to my mx mouse's thumb extra button in Linux?
Pressing the button in preferences > Undo has no effect, while it works out of the box in Firefox (history back).
Env: ArchLinux

What you need is your mouse's software installed. For example, Logitech has its own software for its peripherals like keyboard, mouse.
Once installed, open up the program, and set your extra key as CTRL+Z


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Is there a fast way to convert ALL tris to quads?
is there a fast way to convert ALL tris of a mesh into quads without leaving some behind? With fast I mean without manually editing them, because I have around 150 meshes to convert. In my case, it doesn't have to be 100% accurate.

What does Alt J give? (or Ctrl F > Tris to Quads)

You can set max shape angle and max face angle to 180 degrees on alt j tris-to-quads, but it's not guaranteed to give all quads.  For the most general version of this question, you're never going to be able to turn an odd number of triangles into all quads, there aren't the right number of vertices.

Nope sry, as Nathan said, it leaves single triangles in the mesh. Is it maybe possible by using a remesh modifier? I rarely use it, so I don't know which settings would be best, without destroying the geometry.

Remesh will change your topology, which doesn't seem to be what you want

It wouldn't matter that much, but with remesh it becomes very messy and chaotic.

In that case maybe try the Remesh > Quad in the Object Data panel?


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Unable to change b-bone size in Edit mode and use Ctrl-Alt-S hotkey (Blender 4.1)
I'm using Blender 4.1 to change the B-bone size. But I am only able to change the bone size up and down the Z-axis.
If my original filename is "unableToChangeBoneSize1.blend", using the Ctrl-Alt-S hotkey got me to save my file as "unableToChangeBoneSize2.blend" instead.
Is there anything I missed?

As Xana says, the shortcut has changed ;)

Resolved the problem.
From edit mode, select the b-bone you wish to change the size of, go to "Armature > Transform > Scale B-Bone" and move your mouse accordingly to change the size.
Thanks.


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Is it possible to rename Geometry Nodes input attribute names?
When creating new inputs for a Geometry Nodes node tree you can change the name of each value. However I'd like to also change the attribute name(?) that shows up in the tooltip. In the example below the attribute name of the "Float" input is "Input_2". I'd like to change that.

When animated, these attribute names are also used. As you can imagine this isn't very handy at all:

AFAIK this isn't possible and is really a pity. Maybe file a "bug/feature" request to Blender, because i think that makes sense.

Maybe fill the Description field of your attribute ? It doesn't solve your question, but when hovering the attribute in Modifiers tab, it will display the description. Could help you find what you want more quickly.

@Chris That's unfortunate but good to know, thanks for your reply!

@Lutzi In Blender 3.6 it was called "Tooltip" and it seems to be my best option still. For the example I entered "Float input." as the tooltip. Still, thanks for your suggestion.


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How to access viewport display color from within Geometry Nodes?
I'd like to use the viewport display color of an object to influence the Geometry Nodes of that object. This is possible within Shader Nodes through the use of the "Object Info" node, which is very helpful when instancing, as shown here.
It seems like a simple enough thing but my searches haven't gotten me anywhere. Any suggestions?


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How is the position of a mesh island calculated in geometry nodes?
I'm using the distance between cube and cube.001 as the factor for shading.

When I do it without using the positions of the mesh islands, it works as expected.

Then I connected the position values of the mesh islands to the source position socket and the result was a bit weird.

I want to know how mesh islands work and how I can make a setup where the entire island is affected by the shader (properly) and not just the faces.

Hello ! I'm not surprised the results are weird here. You're evaluating the Points location on the Points domain using the Mesh Island index. These are two unrelated information sources. There is no Mesh Island domain so you can't use fields that way. AFAIK the information of a Mesh Island position is not available trivially in GN, since it's not a geometry domain per se. I think what you want to do here is regroup your points per mesh island using an accumulate field and the island index as a group selection, and an attribute statistic to get the mean value. Cheers

Also, I think an easier solution in this case would be to use instances which do have a unique location that's easy to fetch, instead of realized geometry islands.

@Gorgious Thanks for the reply! I tried what you said, but it doesn't seem to work(Or, maybe I'm doing something wrong). However, I did find a workaround. I scaled the islands with a value of 0 so that all the vertices of an island are positioned at the centre of that island (I think that's what you meant by getting the mean) and then used a 'sample index' node to get the position of those vertices. I can't use instances because I'm creating the islands using 'mesh boolean' node.

As @Gorgious has commented, you have scrambled indices. In Field at Index, each point is returning the location of the point with the index of the island it is in.
Here's a way of obtaining the mean point-location per mesh-island:

.. and the result of testing proximity to that:

Edit
(response to comments)

The top Accumulate Field returns the sums of point-position
vectors, grouped by mesh-island
The bottom Accumulate Field returns the sums of 1 per point,
grouped by mesh-island.. (i.e. the number of points, per island).
The Vector Divide is a (naughty?) cast from Integer I to Vector (I,I,I), scaling the summed position-vectors (by island) by [1 / the integer number of points (by island)].

The result is the mean point-position, by island.

Thanks! Can you please explain how this works? I don't understand how accumulate field works and the use of the integer value of the second node that you used. Understanding these concepts would be very helpful for me in the future.

Awesome ! I'm just wondering, wouldn't using the "Island Count" output give the same number as the result of the bottom accumulate field ?

Hi, @NikhilNair .. I hope the edit helps. The sum of '1' per-point just returns the number of points, per island.

Hi, @Gorgious. I don't think so.. the Island Count returns the number of islands. I'm looking for the number of points in each island, contributing to the island-vector-sum. (With no guarantee that islands will all have the same number of points)

Oh, right, brainfart on my part, thanks for the explanations :)


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Blender Pose shape keys!
Im having trouble posing my character using shape keys. Most of the videos ive seen use edit mode to modify the mesh. However, I rigged my model, so im using pose mode. But the shape keys are not modifying the mesh when the model is rigged in pose mode.
Any Suggestions? I tried downloading the pose shape keys addon from Blender studio but it seems that there may be a bug in the addon.

The Pose Shape Keys addon isn't meant for posing but for creating and managing corrective shapekeys, which are used to "correct" bad deformations from a specific pose by an armature. I.E. when you rotate an elbow and the mesh bends inwards like a candy or penetrates itself, you make a "corrective shapekey" triggered by the bone's rotation to "correct" the mesh in that pose.

Edit mode is used on the mesh object to create the shapekeys. Animating shapekeys is then done from the shapekeys panel on the object data tab, or ideally you make controllers for these shapekeys in your rig so that you can access them from your armature in pose mode and animate everything from one place.

Welcome. Please use a title that matches the content of the question. It should be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the issue in such way that anyone searching for a similar problem may easily find it. Use the [edit] link above, remove anything superfluous, avoid words like "this","issue with" or "question about". Remember, your title is the first thing potential visitors will see, answers you get depend heavily on how inviting it is. See "What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?""


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mesh lines on object that I cant hide
As you can see, the front bumper has mesh lines on it, even in solid mode, but the fenders on the right have no lines. how do i get rid of the mesh lines?

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.

Maybe you have the Wireframe option enabled in the Object panel > Viewport Display:

my wireframe is turned off and the lines still appear

could you please share your file? upload and copy paste the URL: https://pasteall.org/blend/

i fixed it dont worry, appreciate the help however.
It was an imported .dae file, so there was an extra wireframe ontop of the mesh which i just selected and deleted

oh ok, fine then  ;)


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Viewport Render and Image Render look different - Cycles
When trying to render an image in blender, the rendered output looks different to the render mode in my viewport. I am using Cycles

In the viewport, the glass is dark and not entirely transparent, and the decal on the window is projected using 'shrinkwrap' onto the glass.

However, in the render view, the glass is mostly transparent, and the decal is no longer projected onto the glass, and instead is floating above.
any help would be appreciated

So i dont really have a an answer but for some reason when i hid the rear glass, then un-hid it, it showed up in a different location. i proceeded to move it back to where it was supposed to go and the issue was solved... not sure why, or how, but it seems i have accidently fixed my issue


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How to add 3d objects to video? (beginner)
So what do I need to do in order to get 3d model rendered in video? In my case I shoot drone footage and I want to add some objects in it e.g building that hasn't been constructed yet. So what it takes to do edit like that?

Hello, your question is probably too broad for Blender Stack Exchange, but you'll find a lot of tutorials on this topic, type "camera tracking blender" in youtube for example

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/69832/realistic-rendering-of-mesh-together-with-image https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/42329/how-can-i-get-better-results-when-doing-camera-motion-tracking


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Why do I have random ridge lines appearing on my otherwise flat geometry? Please help!
I'm having an issue with strange and subtle ridges appearing in my flat geometry. At least, I think it's flat. It's apparent in final renders and when I look around at it MatCap view. When I switch to wireframe I don't see an edge which could be the cause of a ridge. This is a total mystery to me. I'm new to Blender so I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. I hope someone is available to help me with this issue. Thank you so much

Did you Boolean or knife tool in the shapes for those dials? If so, Blender is connecting some of the vertices  of the dial's edge to the edge of the panel. The smooth shading on the panel is trying to work with an ngon and semi-random edges. Try selecting all the faces on the panel, right clicking, and press Shade Flat. If that isn't the result you were looking for, try Mesh,Clean Up, Split Non-Planer Faces, Split Concave Faces, make Planer Faces (general clean up junk). Then select all the edges of the effected part and press ctrl b and drag out slowly. This will add a bevel which can help shading problems.

Zach! Oh wow, thank you SO MUCH! Selecting the faces then Shade Flat solved the problem. What an easy and straight-forward fix too! I'm so happy right now! Thank you – I appreciate you! Yeah, I boolean'ed those shapes for the dials.

No problem! Glad I could help ya out. That's really nice looking for early work btw. Keep it up!


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Remesh modifier hits cpu instead gpu and crashes
Adding the remesh modifier and increasing the voxel amount first triggers the cpu going up to 100% and then crashes blender. I've set CUDA in preferences and GPU for cycles, which otherwise work.
How can I set the GPU for just everything in blender and rule out the cpu?

How can I set the GPU for just everything in blender and rule out the cpu?

Actually, most of the algorithm, operation, modifier, complex computing, data handling is done by CPU, not GPU.
Although Rendering can be accelerated by GPU, but those code is rewrite/design for GPU by developer. Migrating any algorithm to GPU instruction can take a lot of effort due to the lack of some ability and the difference of hard structure. Also, only some algorithm will benefit from GPU.
Remeshing is a complex topic in CG, the new method adopted by Blender is not transferred to GPU code for now. There is nothing Blender can do for you, unless you could develop a GPU accelerated Remeshing algorithm for it.
Algorithm and GPU coding is not that easy as you described.


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How to restore node combinations?
I have this spiral with 5 slots.
Now I'm going to try color combinations for each slot e.g. black as color for slot ground and any other for topLeft. I then render, save the png image and make other changes.
After doing a dozen or more, how can I save these settings?

Hello, if all you're changing is the color you should look into cryptomatte or object index pass, that way you can change the color in the compositor any way you want and you don't have to render it again


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How to set the Alt+S default filename other than untitled.png?
I need to set the rendered filename (Alt+S) to something else than untitled.png. However I can't find the setting as displayed here Is it possible to set the Output name based on the current Timeline marker?

With Alt+S you will save the active image in the UV Editor or Image Editor, not the rendered image. Go to the UV/Image Editor and rename the picture there.

Setting as displayed in linked  image is in the output panel of the output tab, the icon  that looks like a printer (3 down from top)  @FFeller lol didn't notice the alt-s.


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Changing the image in world texture is not logged in python info console?
I want to loop render different hdri's, though can't figure out how to reproduce the step of changing the image. I'd expect another entry in the info log, alas to no avail

The default world image  can be found as bpy.data.worlds['World'].node_tree.nodes['Environment Texture'].image this can be set to another image type data ie bpy.data.images['your_image_name"]

Thank you @Ratt any idea where I can see that actions happening in order to reproduce?


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Create and render a cube in python from the commandline?
So after googling and testing(updating from <2.8) several scripts to no avail[0], how can I create and render a cube in python from the commandline?
blender -b -P blender_basic_example.py
#blender_basic_example.py
import bpy

def strVector3(v3):
    return str(v3.x) + "," + str(v3.y) + "," + str(v3.z)

# create a new cube
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add()

# newly created cube will be automatically selected
cube = bpy.context.selected_objects[0]
# change name
cube.name = "MyLittleCube"

# change its location
cube.location = (0.0, 5.0, 0.0)

# done
print("Done creating MyCube at position " + strVector3(cube.location) +
      " with name " + cube.name)

But where's the rendered picture?
[0] Rendering a cube as png file using Blender's Python API

your render command is missing ;)

add
bpy.ops.render.render(animation=True)

at your end of your python code
Basically you've done all right - the cube will be created. You just forgot to tell Blender to render it out.

import bpy

bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(location=(-3, 0, 0))
output = 'render.png'
bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = output
bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True)

https://tabreturn.github.io/code/blender/python/2020/11/01/a_quick_intro_to_blender_creative_coding-part_3_of_3.html


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How to solidify (cylindify) a screw a with cylinder instead of a rectangle?
I need twisted cylinders instead beveled rectangles. Can I modify my current model or must I restart from scratch?

The twisted cylinder tunnel I'm looking for:

The version you share is entirely procedural... all done with modifiers. Do you want that? The version you illustrate is not. It starts with a ready made circle.

@RobinBetts Yes entirely procedural, the second picture should clarify what I mean for cylindrical form. I'm now trying https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/114566/99884

Rather than duplicate, (This question may get wiped for that reason, no offence) I've posted a further answer to the link you're trying.

@RobinBetts That's the answer I needed. Thank you

I figured out a pretty easy way to do this
First, create a circle mesh (not a sphere) and ↹ Tab into edit mode. Press A and F in that order to create a face.
While in edit mode, grab the face, hit G, X and press 2 in that order to move it to the right.
Stay in edit mode, press period key, and change it to 3d cursor.
Then, grab your circle, hit ⇧ Shift+D, R, Z, 60 in that order. Repeat this 5 times to get this:

After you get this add the screw modifier, and it should work


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How to stuff and coat a shark with licorice for biting?
I need my shark stuffed and coated with licorice in order to almost bite off it's head:

How do I stuff it pink and coat it with an irregular black coat, like this?

For the final bitemarks I intend to subtract these teeth:

I've coloured the model and subtracted a thin cylinder to get a feeling where I'm directing to:

Model your shark
Duplicate your model with Ctrl+D to make the inner portion
Go to sculpting tab, use the tools to deflate and change the inner portion (turn off symmetry)
Go to Addons -> Search for Bool tool -> Activate Bool Tool
Make your "teeth" object
5.5 Duplicate your teeth object
Select the teeth object, intersect it with your shark
Select the Teeth object first then the shark, and choose Booltool -> Slice
Select the cut out portion and delete it
Repeat the same with the inner portion
Scale the inner portion a tiny bit to prevent z-fighting
Apply different materials to the inner portion and the shark
Done

@412p9wej, does this answer your question?

Full of grate for your thoughtful instructions, I'm currently stuck deleting the slice https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/213438/how-can-i-slice-with-the-bool-tool-without-leaving-any-remnants


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How can I seamlessly join 2 sides of my model?
I only created half a model then used mirror modifier to make it symmetrical. Now I want to change only one side of the mesh. I tried duplicating but my model is large and would take ages to merge all the vertices to make it a proper model. Any good way to do this?

Can't you simply apply the modifier? You'll then be able to modify each side independently.

No. Moving vertices on one side still moves the opposite on the mirrored side.

It certainly shouldn't do that if the modifier has definitely been applied! Can you upload it so that someone can have a look to see what's going on. - https://pasteall.org/blend/

Firstly, apply your Mirror modifier using this menu or pressing ⎈ CtrlA while hovering the modifier:

Then, in edit mode, make sure you have neither of these symmetry options enabled:


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when I join my clothing mesh to my armature, the mesh deforms
I'm new to blender and I'm making a simple rigged character but whenever I try to join my clothing mesh to the armature, the mesh becomes deformed.
The armature still moves the mesh in pose mode, but I don't know how to fix this mesh deformity. Help is much appreciated.

first apply the scale and rotation of the cloth and armature, also make sure that the normals are correctly flipped, then parent again. If it still doesn't work please share your file: https://pasteall.org/blend/

@moonboots sry, could you explain what you mean? I didn't get what you meant.

Please provide the file it will be easier, upload the file then copy paste the URL it will generate: https://pasteall.org/blend/

The file exceeds the 24mb capacity of pasteall. Is there any other way I can send it to you?

send it to yourself with wetransfer and share the link here

Here you go, https://we.tl/t-fgIwOuiBYk

also, you are not supposed to rig nor animate with the metarig, You are supposed to use the metarig to generate Rigify's full rig.

You were trying to parent your costume while your armature was not in rest pose.
Apply the scale of your objects and armature, also apply the rotation of your costume. Bring back your armature to its reset pose in Pose mode with AltG, AltR, AltS. Once done, put the costume at the same position as the armature. As you'll see there's still a problem, your armature default pose it a T pose, not your costume, so you need to align the costume shape:

You could do it this way: Duplicate the armature, in Edit mode align the bones with the costume shape, parent the costume to this second armature, move the armature to a T pose, apply the armature, now your costume has a T pose as well, you can parent it to the first armature.


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Selected to active baking produces stretched faces - Blender
I have an issue when baking

Texture faces are stretched after baking "selected to active". It only bakes the textures if the normals are flipped on my active object(scanned mesh).
Things I tried:

resetting normal vectors,
set from faces,
recalculate outside,
tried relaxing the UVs with TexTools,
UV packing is done with UVPackmaster3 (no rotation enabled/no fixed scale / NormalizeIslands is enabled)
tried regular UV unwrap with Blender
tried smart UV project
all transforms are applied on both objects
no modifiers are added.

Thank you.

Solved.
I fixed the issue by using a cage. Duplicating my scanned mesh, scale it down on Z axis, and used it as a cage in the baking process(Max ray distance was set to 250m in my case).
Set the Normals to point in the correct way, that meant the cage was supposed to be placed above my scan mesh.
Objects places in Blender on Z axis:

Top > High poly mesh (texture from which you want to bake)
Middle > Cage
Bottom > Scanned mesh (or low poly if you want to call it that or texture to be baked to)

Hope the explanation is clear enough.
IoanF


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Grey distortion when rendering with cycles
So I’m following the donut tutorial and when I go to render it in cycles the icing mesh renders with some strange grey distortion on it. Anyone know what could be causing this, and why its not rendering as just plain white? Thanks

Hi :). Looks like a duplicate donut right underneath :))

I checked and it looks like there is one donut. even when I move the icing mesh away from the donut it still renders with that weird texture on it.


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Create a surface between two curves

Hi, I want to create a surface between two curves. Please any one guide me
Thankyou

I want to convert a mesh @InTheAbsenceOfFear

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1503/how-to-make-uv-loft-like-3ds-max-in-blender-using-curves https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/138901/loft-tool-in-blender-2-8/ https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/746/lofting-between-splines https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/63658/lofting-between-two-different-shapes-along-a-path


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Blender create hall of mirrors
I was trying to create a hall of mirrors. A long hall with all the walls, floor and ceiling as mirrors. Some unexpected results in the render.
Create hall 2000m long, 5m wide and 5m high. Wall, floor, ceiling texture is Glossy Bsdf with roughness=0. Try also Principled Bsdf, no difference.
Place point lights inside every 25m, mid-width and mid-depth. 3000W and .25m radius. Camera setup at 1600m looking down the long hall.
In Viewport Shading see the hall as nice mirror look. Expect the Cycles render of the interior to be the same. Unexpected black/white result rendered given.

What do you expect the perfectly smooth mirrors to reflect? The only thing visible to them is the lights.  The result is exactly what it should be. If by "viewport shading" you mean "Material Preview": It's only an abstract preview, not what you render in your scene.

Please show us a screen-grab of the acceptable render in the  viewport ? That would help us clue in to what you want. Is your render-version missing a World HDRI environment? , (That's provided for you automatically for preview in the viewport, if 'Scene World' is unchecked)

You have practically modeled a huge "nanotube" here, in which the light is reflected for all eternity, but never comes out again. This is exactly what Vantablack does on the microscopic level. The result is the blackest material on earth.

What you actually "see" in the real world is the remains of light absorption. A light source emits light, the light hits a surface, gets absorbed, and is partially reflected. What then finally meets your eyes is what you see. If you look straight into a light source, it will blind you, all you see is a bright glare. If no light at all is reflected, all you see is pitch-black darkness.

Here are a few videos about similar experiments in real:  I Painted My Entire Room With Musou Black—The World's Blackest Paint -- Painting My Entire Room With The World's Brightest Paint...Then Turning on a 100,000 Lumen Light! --
I Built An Entire Room Made Completely Out of Mirrors! -- In a box with only one light and mirrors that reflect 100% of the light, I would really only expect a bright glare like shown here: Blender: What it looks like inside a Mirror Box

If you turn a light off in a room why does it suddenly go dark?


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Manipulator not visible on selected rig controls
I am using the following rig:
https://agora.community/content/spider-gwen-blender
I have linked the rig into a new scene, and made a library override. When I select any control other than the world controller, the gizmo/manipulator is not visible, for translate or rotate. Any ideas?

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

Found my own solution, I had to select the RIG - SpiderGwen in the collection under Rig, enable Pose mode and then hide the bones/joints.


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Calculation of applied Material area
I am an interior designer, new to blender. I would like to choose blender as my interior modelling tool but before the decision I like to know the possibility of finding applied material area in blender
Thanks,

Geometry Nodes

You can also use a setup like this to pick the actual material rather than its index:

Python
>>> # before evaluating modifiers
>>> sum(p.area for p in C.object.data.polygons if p.material_index == 2)
8.328109342372045

>>> # after evaluating all modifiers
>>> dg = C.evaluated_depsgraph_get()
>>> ev = C.object.evaluated_get(dg)
>>> sum(p.area for p in ev.data.polygons if p.material_index == 2)
7.27077725172785

Thank you for your reply. Even though I don't understand everything it will help me in my future career.