text:
FCurve handles to 3D Bézier spline control points
I'm trying to export Bézier curve animations from Blender, but i can't seem to figure out how the control points of FCurves should be interpreted.
A Bézier keyframe for a 3D position typically has one vector for the position at the keyframe, one vector for the position of the first control point, and one vector for the position of the second control point. It is easy enough to get the position keyframe from a Blender FCurve - this is just the keyframe values of the X, Y, and Z curves combined into a vector. However, each FCurve keyframe has two "handles", and each handle has two coordinates - the frame on the X axis and the value on the Y axis. This means that each control point has a total of 6 values (2 per channel) governing it. How is this translated into a control point in 3D space?

You don't need to worry about the handles, use fcurve.evaluate() to get blender to calculate the value at each frame.

But i don't want to export each frame, i want to export the keyframes and their control points in Bézier form.

The points used by an fcurve are a 2D version of the bezier curves you use in the 3D viewport. To convert an fcurve into a 3D bezier curve we just need to add a Z axis value to the locations.
import bpy

anim_fcurves = bpy.context.object.animation_data.action.fcurves

# index 1 is the Y location fcurve
src_fcurve = anim_fcurves.find('location', index=1)

vis_curve = bpy.data.curves.new('YLocCurve', 'CURVE')
vis_spline = vis_curve.splines.new('BEZIER')
vis_spline.bezier_points.add(count=len(src_fcurve.keyframe_points)-1)

for i,fcp in enumerate(src_fcurve.keyframe_points):
    p = vis_spline.bezier_points[i]
    p.co = (fcp.co[0], fcp.co[1], 0.0)
    p.handle_left = (fcp.handle_left[0], fcp.handle_left[1], 0.0)
    p.handle_left_type = 'FREE'
    p.handle_right = (fcp.handle_right[0], fcp.handle_right[1], 0.0)
    p.handle_right_type = 'FREE'

data = bpy.data.objects.new('YLocCurve', vis_curve)
bpy.context.scene.objects.link(data)

That will turn an fcurve into a bezier curve object in the 3D viewport. How you export that to another application depends on the file format you are using, but in general you want the three locations for each point so that the other program uses the three points to define each point and it handles.
While mostly you can copy the handle type, the fcurve can have an AUTO_CLAMPED handle type that is not valid in a 3D bezier curve.

Thanks, but this is not the correct solution to the problem. What i want is to export the handles of a 3D keyframe (such as location, scale). In Blender, these are represented as one curve per channel - your solution is taking a single channel and turning it into a 3D-curve. In a 3-channel animation, if you combine the fcp.co[1] of the x, y, and z channels into a vector, you get the animated coordinate of the object at that frame (where the frame is fcp.co[0]). For Beziér curves, control points are also defined in 3D space (think of the 3D handles of a spline), but the frame is the same.

To clarify - for each Bezier keyframe, there are two control points, also expressed in 3D space. You'd think that this would be as simple as exporting the keyframe_left[1] and keyframe_right[1] values of the keyframe for the x, y, and z curves, but notice that the keyframe_left[0] and keyframe_right[0] values also have an impact on the shape of the actual curve. This of course is just a visual representation used to make sense of the curves - internally, Blender normalizes the control points somehow into coordinates. What i want to know is how this works.

The handles define the direction the curve takes leaving the point on its way to the next point and when it starts curving towards the next point. You can lookup how to draw a bezier curve. My example make s a 3D version of an fcurve, you could get all three location fcurves and combine the locations into one curve. I am thinking you may be after a motion path to represent the motion of the object.

Look, i know perfectly well how to draw a Bezier curve. Each point on the curve should have an X, Y, and Z value with two control points which each also have X, Y, Z values. But the control points in the graph have 2 coordinates per channel, not 1. Combining 3 curves with your method will not create correct results, you are just projecting the curve along the Z axis, and thus the Z coordinate will ALWAYS be 0, which is incorrect. Each curve is a 1-DIMENSIONAL representation of each channel, you can't just interpret the time value as X and amplitude as Y, that's not how it works.

An fcurve relates to a single animated value, for an animated location, there are three fcurves, one for each single value that defines the location. Each keyframe point in the fcurve contains a frame and value pair for that specific property, these two values are used as the x,y positions when representing the fcurve in the graph editor. Each keyframe point also contains the position and type for two handles, the handle positions aren't part of the animated data, they are extra data used to calculate the keyframed property value in between keyframe points.

The handles ARE a part of the animated data (although they are not animated themselves), they control its interpolation. Think of a 3D Bezier curve like the ones your script create. Both the vertices and their handles are points in 3D space. Mathematically, evaluating a point in the curve involves interpolating between 4 different points (two vertices and two control points). So, the F-curves express the 3D curve along which the object moves over time - BUT, since each curve is in 1D, the control points are expressed in 2D so that they make sense visually. They're not actually 2D though.

Fcurves to 3D bezier.
AFAIK blender doesn't make any "3D bezier keyframe points"
from fcurves. For one there is no requirement for there to be an fcurve nor any or matching frame keyframe points from one location component fcurve to another.
Sample script to turn 3 location component FCurves into 1 3D bezier curve

Each fcurve must have matching number of points keyed at same frames.
The default handle type for fcurves is 'AUTO_CLAMPED' there is no
such option for bezier curves, have used 'AUTO' instead. Need to
make an edit such as ht = 'AUTO' if p.handle_left == 'AUTO_CLAMPED' else p.handle_Left_type  My experments lead me to using 'FREE' emulates well the differing handle types of fcurves.
The handles in an fcurve (frame, value) represent the first derivative or tangent at that point. Each fcurve handle y value is used component wise on the 3D handle on 3D curve.  Once again there is a chance that handle types don't match. AFAIK a handle cannot have different type per component.
Basically this makes a motion path with the same amount of points in the bezier as keyframe points in single fcurve.

Code cobbled together using @Samblers answer as a base.
import bpy

anim_fcurves = bpy.context.object.animation_data.action.fcurves

# index 1 is the Y location fcurve
src_fcurve = anim_fcurves.find('location', index=1)

vis_curve = bpy.data.curves.new('YLocCurve', 'CURVE')
vis_curve.dimensions = '3D'
vis_spline = vis_curve.splines.new('BEZIER')
vis_spline.bezier_points.add(count=len(src_fcurve.keyframe_points)-1)
fcurves = zip(*(anim_fcurves.find('location', index=i).keyframe_points[:] for i in range(3)))

i = 0
for xp, yp, zp in fcurves:
    p = vis_spline.bezier_points[i]
    p.co = (xp.co.y, yp.co.y, zp.co.y)
    p.handle_left = (xp.handle_left.y, yp.handle_left.y, zp.handle_left.y)
    #ht = 'AUTO' if xp.handle_left == 'AUTO_CLAMPED' else xp.handle_left_type
    p.handle_left_type = 'FREE'
    p.handle_right = (xp.handle_right.y, yp.handle_right.y, zp.handle_right.y)
    #ht = 'AUTO' if xp.handle_right == 'AUTO_CLAMPED' else xp.handle_right_type
    p.handle_right_type = 'FREE'
    i += 1
data = bpy.data.objects.new('YLocCurve', vis_curve)
bpy.context.collection.objects.link(data)

Simple 4 keyframe animation on cube, all handles VECTOR type.

Mixture of FREE, VECTOR and ALIGNED handle types
EDIT
In response to comment below,

Thank you for making this very detailed answer - it looks very similar
to the solution i use right now, but from what i can tell, it still
doesn't solve the entire problem. You use only the Y values of the
handles as 3D handle coordinates, but as i mentioned earlier, the X
value also affects the shape of the curve in the graph as well as the
animated path (I have some nice images illustrating this but don't
know how to attach them). Does your cube animation exactly follow the
generated spline even if you drag some FCurve handles along the X
axis? Because i'm not sure that it does.

the x value in an fcurve is analogous to time, time is the frame in 3d view.  Could arbitrarily move each fcurve  handle, (particularly for vector type) such that the x component is a constant, and calculate it's new y for each fcurve point for each fcurve.
For example if the tangent is 1, ie 45 degrees,  at the point (0, 0) knot could have a handle (4, 4) which to standardize to a 1 unit time step, is a handle at (1, 1).
This will standardize what is the tangent or first derivative of the curve at the knot for the arbitrary value of time chosen. For time is one this is derivative dv / dt in blender units per frame.
Remember the first derivative is the limit as the time approaches zero, so perhaps choose a smaller value than 1.

Thank you for making this very detailed answer - it looks very similar to the solution i use right now, but from what i can tell, it still doesn't solve the entire problem. You use only the Y values of the handles as 3D handle coordinates, but as i mentioned earlier, the X value also affects the shape of the curve in the graph as well as the animated path (I have some nice images illustrating this but don't know how to attach them). Does your cube animation exactly follow the generated spline even if you drag some FCurve handles along the X axis? Because i'm not sure that it does.


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Adjusting rig after generation (Rigify)
I'm not an English speaker, sorry for mistakes.
I spend several weeks to create my first character, but few days ago i figured out that rig is set up incorrectly. Severals manipulator have wrong rotation. Look at the first screenshot.

It is the cause of wrong and unnatural arm movements and deformations. I can't fix rotation manually, because every time i try to do it, i get wrong deformations of my mesh and other troubles.
Do i have an ability to adjust rig after generation? What is the way to do it?
I tried to delete Armature modifiers, tried to clear parents and set it again - it isn't working.
After this, i decided to start from the very beginning and set up rig again. I did it correctly (as i think). Look at the second screen.

I set up bones exactly like they need to be set up. I mean that they follow my mesh and axis are correct. But after generation i get the same situation (1st screen). Why?
What am i doing wrong?
Yeah, maybe my rig isn't perfect, i can see that one bone have more length, but i think it isn't a case of my problem.

Unfortunately my answer got ignored, but I think i did it.
I've found out that i can adjust the skeleton. But there is the need to do a few steps:
1. Apply Armature modifier.
2. Select rig, go to edit mode and adjust all you need to adjust.
3. In pose mode apply current pose as rest pose.
4. Set Armature back.
It works for me. Yeah, i still didn't get the best result, but i'm trying. Maybe i'll add more information.

In your second image, notice that the z-axis of the upper arm is pointing up while the lower arm is pointing forward. The bone roll is used to rotate the bone on its y-axis to determine which way the x and z axes point.

This bone roll also determines the alignment of the custom shapes that are shown in place of the bones, which you refer to as manipulators. If each bone has a roll that aligns the x-axis differently, then each custom shape will be shown in a different orientation.
The custom shapes can be adjusted by editing the mesh object, in edit mode, so that it aligns with your rig. This may mean using more than one custom shape for a rig if you need to adjust matching bones differently.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Placing cubes in a grid is very slow (using python script)
I'm trying to generate a scene comprising of voxels generated from a 3D data matrix.
However the script that I'm using is super slow (~1h per image), and most of the time is consumed while building the scene (pyhton loop) instead of the rendering.
Does anyone see where the problem comes from?
import bpy
import bmesh
import numpy as np
import numpy
import scipy.io
import sys

# Data loading
inputFile = sys.argv[-2]
outputFile = sys.argv[-1]
data = scipy.io.loadmat(inputFile)['data']
voxel_dims = np.array([256, 256, 32])
data = np.reshape(data, (voxel_dims))

# Create blender scene
context = bpy.context
scene = context.scene

def clear_scene(scene):
    #Clears the current scene
    for obj in scene.objects:
        scene.objects.unlink(obj)
        bpy.data.objects.remove(obj)
    return

def base_object():
    #Creates base cube
    bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(radius=0.4, location=(0,0,0))
    return scene.objects.active

colors = {
          '_1':(1.0,0.0,0.0),
          '_2':(0.0,1.0,0.0),,
          '_3':(0.0,0.0,1.0),
         }
color_map = {
             1: '_1',
             2: '_2',
             3: '_3'
            }

def creatematerial(name, color):
    red = color[0]
    green = color[1]
    blue = color[2]
    alpha = 1.0
    mat=(bpy.data.materials.new(name=name))
    mat.use_nodes = True
    Diffuse_BSDF = mat.node_tree.nodes['Diffuse BSDF']
    Diffuse_BSDF.inputs[0].default_value = [red, green, blue, alpha]
    mat.diffuse_color = [red, green, blue]
    return mat

clear_scene(scene)
bpy.context.scene.render.engine = 'CYCLES'
bpy.ops.object.empty_add(type='PLAIN_AXES', location=(0,0,0))
empty = bpy.context.active_object
materials=dict()
for k,v, in colors.items():
    materials[k] = creatematerial(k,v)
bo = base_object()
mesh = bo.data

# Scene creation (This is the loop that takes forever!)
for idx,label in enumerate(color_map):
    col = colors[color_map[label]]
    xx, yy, zz = np.where(data == label)
    bo.data.materials.clear()
    bo.data.materials.append(materials[color_map[label]])
    for i in range(len(xx)):
        (x,y,z) = (xx[i], yy[i], zz[i])
        thiscube = bo.copy()
        thiscube.data = thiscube.data.copy()
        scene.objects.link(thiscube)
        thiscube.location=(x,y,z)
        thiscube.parent=empty

scene.objects.unlink(bo)
bpy.data.objects.remove(bo)

# Place camera and render scene
bpy.ops.object.camera_add(location=(130.409,114.09,46.750),rotation=(1.201,-0.0000464,3.111))
bpy.context.object.data.clip_end = 200
point=bpy.ops.object.lamp_add(type='POINT',location=(15,15,60))
bpy.ops.object.lamp_add(type='SUN',location=(15,15,80))
bpy.context.scene.cycles.film_transparent = True
bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_percentage = 100
bpy.context.scene.cycles.samples = 256
bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_x = 512
bpy.context.scene.render.resolution_y = 480
bpy.context.scene.cycles.device = 'GPU'
bpy.context.scene.camera = bpy.data.objects['Camera']
bpy.context.scene.render.filepath = outputFile
bpy.ops.render.render(write_still=True)

Every entry of the 3D matrix has an id which corresponds to its color. The dimension of the matrix is 256x256x32, however only a subset of the voxels is occupied.

As far as I can see the code creates for each data point a seperate Blender Mesh Object. For large datasets this will make everything super slow.
I would recommend you to create only one mesh per label-class so that with 3 label classes you would have only 3 Mesh Objects.
Since you are actually using my code, I took your question as feedback and updated it accordingly on github.
https://github.com/cagcoach/BlenderPlot

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


text:
Is radeon r4 compatible with Blender 2.8?
Hey everybody I was just wondering would AMD radeon r4 be compatible for openCL? Since it is integrated, openGL is out of the question. Specifically do you know what GCN architecture the r4 is? Any help is appreciated.

Using google for "AMD radeon r4" you get the information about it: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/2496/radeon-r4-graphics. What Blender needs is in the documentation under GPU rendering: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/render/cycles/gpu_rendering.html.

Open->Blender->Preference->System->Cycles Compute Device <- select AMD R4 Graphics, and set OpenSubdiv compute: -> GLSL Transform Feedback <- select, next step - render primitive scene WAIT title render next step select GLSL (recommended## Heading ##) or OpenMP.(recommended) or OpenMP


text:
In what situations would you use a height/bump map?
I don't see height maps having any advantages over normal maps.  It's just an extra layer that may mess up any existing normal map with details that are already present there.  Are there any advantages to height maps?
I normally use height maps for skin pours on my characters but I find normal map still out classes it.

If you're comparing bump vs normal map, I don't think there's a lot of notable differences. Bump map can be used for real displacement though, it is useful when the fake is too obvious, but in that case you need to have enough topology, so it makes your object heavier. Bump and normal maps are useful to fake and keep an object low-poly.

Hello :). The biggest advantage is ease of use. Literally any BW texture (tiny text, 2D graphics) can be used as a Bump map. But for proper Normal maps you need to bake real geometry, which isn't always convenient.

A height map is useful if the camera is going to be close enough to the surface to "see through" the trickery of a normal map. A normal map leaves the surface where it is, and just changes how light reflects off; but if the "eye" is close enough that the difference in height itself would have been visible, that looks super weird.
Here's a heavily subdivided plane equipped with a normal map generated from a noise texture:

And here's the same plane, with the same texture, except that this time it's treated as a height map:

Isn't the second one a thousand times more believable? The first one would be good enough if seen from a great enough distance, or if the bump-map were "weakened" so that it reflected much shallower bumps; but this close up, only the height map can be realistic.

Thanks!  Wow that's amazing they look like 2 completely different meshes.  But why is the top one "close up" though?  It looks like a regular distance from a plane to me.

Also doesn't height map make fake topology too?  Only displacement maps truly modify geo.

While Normal maps do offer higher quality, Bump maps are way easier to create.
Normal maps:

Carry more information (by using all three RGB channels)
Describe direction in 3D space
Need to be baked from real geometry (which isn't always possible)

Bump/height maps

Low quality, only BW input
Very easy to create (basically any BW image will do)
(Just to add: Bump maps are converted into normal maps before being rendered)

Bump maps vs proper Normal maps compared


text:
Using partial normal maps for character wrinkles
I can't seem to find any solid way to do this online.  I'm trying to have wrinkles on skin during animation.  Baking a static normal map on mesh will not do the job because I only want certain areas to have it and I only want it during animation.
Perfect example is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aRPr7ftUgg
Thanks for your help.

maybe do it with Shapekeys? In that case you'll probably need to add a bit of topology to your forehead

I think this is about combining Normal maps

You can animate shader values like any other property in Blender.  Just right click and insert a keyframe.  Or, for better control, add a driver based on an animated control.

This is will let you control the entire normal map as whole which is not exactly want I want.  I have one normal map for the entire character.  That has the same strength.  I want wrinkles to form on the face when deformations happen.  I can't put that on the static normal map that is baked in.  Those need to be different material.

Please can you edit your post to explain exactly what you need then.  If you need to merge multiple normal maps check out https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/38298/how-to-combine-two-normal-maps


text:
How do I get objects to follow another mesh?
I have a "book" mesh that is rigged and sample objects on the surface.  When the book opens, I want the spheres to follow and keep their current location.  The only way this works is if I make the spheres part of the same mesh, which I do not want to do. I also don't want the spheres to be part of the same amature as the book.  They will have their own amatures. I want them to remain in their static location when the book opens.  Is there a way to keep the spheres at the static locations on image 2?
Is there a trick using empties?

You can parent your balls to a vertex or to some vertices of your plane: Select a ball, shift select the plane, go in Edit mode, select a vertex or some vertices and press CtrlP > Make Vertex Parent.

Thanks, I have the option but it's giving me a new error now. "Select at least 1 or 3 vertices to parent".  I tried selecting only 1.. Now 3, I get the same error.

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


text:
Moving a ball through a Cylinder
I'm moving a ball through a hollow cylinder (sub divided) and I want the cylinder to bulge as the ball travels and return to form afterwards.  I did this by making the cylinder a cloth object and the ball a collision object.  I'm getting some weird results, but I don't even think this is required.  Is there a way I can do this without creating the cloth?  A modifier perhaps?  I'm looking into forcefield physics, but it's probably an overkill.
Let me know if screen shots are required...  I didn't post any because it's really simple. Just 2 basic shapes.

A cast modifier on the cylinder does this well.  (Not on my Blender machine, so going on memory
for button/slot names)
Place an empty some distance from one of the cylinder's ends with the cast modifier nominating the empty as the object. Move the empty towards the cylinder.  If the empty is traveling through the cylinder's exact center axis, it will bulge the cylinder evenly at that immediate area only.  Make sure to have plenty of subdivisions along the cylinder's length.  An example Blend file is available if you wish.

Thanks, what are the settings for the cast mod?  I saw some videos of it, it deforms shapes weirdly. I can't seem predict what my input will yield.

the Cast modifier is rather easy to use, you need to create an empty that will be your Control Object, and play with the Factor and Radius

So, did you get this going?  @Jimmy Lin ?


text:
How do I get those to fold on to itself?
I'm trying to fold this mesh from it's z axis so that it can fit into another mesh.  However, I'm not sure how I can do this.  This is my mesh.

I want to rotate it on the Z-Axis in the center so it'll fold into a flat half like a piece of paper.
My attempt at folding it using the x mirror in edit mode.  Some vertices are not following the rotation:

I just want to fold this so that I can attach the outter points to this mesh:

What's the best way I can fold this?  If it's with the X mirror how come some points are not following my rotation?

I don't think I understood your goal ... so just speaking to weirdly moving vertices - check Face Orientation (overlay).

Add a Curve Object
Edit the Curve Object to have a sort of Arc shape
Apply Transforms of the Curve Object
Add Curve Modifier to your Mesh
set the object to be your curve:

Now, play around with the deform axis in the modifier,
the location of your mesh and its scale to find the best
Ready!! I was able to curve this mesh with the steps:

You can add subdiv, either smooth modifiers to smooth out your mesh after curving


text:
How do I apply transforms and set the orgin?
Here is my cube.  The locations are what you expect. 0-0-0 and the orgin is at the center.

I move my cube to a new location and I want to apply new transforms so that the location says 0-0-0 and apply transforms:

As you can see it worked, the new location is now 0-0-0 but the orgin is now back to the center of the grid.

Now the problem is if I set the orgin to center of object, it'll revert the old coordinates back to what they were before.  I have a feeling this is acting as it's supposed to because I guess you can't apply new transforms AND set an orgin to the new location?

Uhm, that's how its supposed to work? The location you've circled in green is the location of the object's origin.

I want the origin to be at the center of the cube.  But every time I set the origin to center, the transforms revert back.
Update: Added photo of me setting origin to center of cube.

That is because the cube itself is transformed in world space. I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve?

I want the Cube to have it's origin in the center or wherever I set it and have location as 0.0.0.  Try it yourself, it's very basic, just move the cube elsewhere and apply all transforms.  You'll notice the origin went from center of cube to middle of grid.  If you re-set the origin anywhere else, the location will revert back to world coordinates.

I agree it does what you say it does. It works that way on purpose. The location of the origin is always in world coordinates. My question is: why do you expect it to work as you describe, and what effect are you trying to achieve?

I have a bunch of assets that make a scene I wish to hide from the camera.  It would be more "neat" if I can set them all to their own respective locations and origin off camera.


text:
What do cavity maps really do?
I understand it's used to show more of the micro details in your mesh...  But what I'm confused about is what does it do that Ambient occlusion and a normal can't? The map is just a black and white map, can't you use it as a bump map too?  I don't see why I can't just put everything in the normal map?  What's the point?  But apparently this map is important to show small details...  Wouldn't a high def normal map do the same?

It's just a more precise form of ambient occlusion meant for really small areas like lava rock or pores. It's "tighter" so to speak. You could probably re-create a similar effect by multiplying your ambient occlusion by a second ambient occlusion that has been clamped by a colorramp that has been set to remove most of any grayscale, and only leave the small "true black" (or close to) areas (white slider moved most of the way to the left side).

A cavity map is not important to show small details; it is important to emphasize small details.  There is not a strong distinction between a cavity map and an AO map, as a cavity map is just an AO map at short distance.  You could use any texture as any other texture, and if it shows what you want to show, you're golden.  Normal maps don't come into play here, even though there is some bad info floating around about cavity maps being the blue channel of a normal map (not remotely true.)  Normal maps will not show occlusion, so a normal map cannot be used to replicate cavity stuff.

Would you use cavity maps for skin pours than?  That's as micro as I can think of for my projects.


text:
Is there a polycount limit on normal maps?
I can have a mesh with a trillion faces and as long as I apply it a normal map on a low poly mesh it'll run smoothly?
There has to be a limit how the details that can be shown.

The limit will be of how many samples you choose (affect quality/accuracy) and the resolution of the normal map you bake to. Since smoothed normals are continuous, they don't have a theoretical max resolution.
The limitation will appear during the bake


text:
Do I need 2 normal maps to solve this issue?
I want my character to flex his Bicep, when he does, veins should show up, but only when activated.
The problem I have is the normal map is already used for all the other details of my character.  If I put the veins in, they'll be static.
Is there a way I can clip the veins on ONLY when he flexes?  How would I approach this?
Thanks for your help!

You could use a BW mask the turn normals on/off locally.
Use the Strength input of the Normal Map node.
Then just animate the BW mask.

Hello to the downvoter :). I'd appreciate some feedback on what can be improved on this answer. I'm fine with the downvote, just want to learn :).


text:
What is the difference between action editor and dope sheet?
They look really similar and the timeline is too.  When I insert keyframes, they appear in both editors and the timeline.
I know one probably overlooks the other, plus there is an action editor for shape keys too.  Are there any specific documentation of what each should be used for?

Have you tried the blender manual? (yes, there is such a thing, and is not a video!) https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/index.html

yes sometimes I wonder why they don't merge Timeline and Dope Sheet, and in Dope Sheet why there is the need for Action Editor and Dope Sheet, there must be a reason why sometimes you need them separate, that said Pablo Vazquez was talking about merging Timeline and Dope Sheet, and not anymore, so I guess it's not ridiculous to imagine that they could be all in one...

it's horseshit, and confusing, I am actualy trying to understand the difference between dopesheet, timeline and action editor...and I have been using blender and doing animations for years now

no wonder why this question has no answers, nobody knows

I mean it's not that bad.  A lot of stuff in blender doesn't make sense but doesn't stop you from just using just the action editor and making what you want.  Based on what I know, Dope sheet gives you control over every object on the scene while action editor only gives you control of only 1 object.


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Bone dissapears in edit mode, but seen in pose mode?
There are no constraints on it.

Once I go into edit mode, it's gone! I can't find it and I can't delete it, it just come back when I go back to pose mode.

Thanks for the help.

I have solved my very stupid question.  I hope this serves well for anyone who happens to stumble across this.
It was hiding in edit mode but not in pose mode.  I think there should be a better way for blender to handle trying to delete hidden bones.  Because it just gives you a menu and it does nothing.  When you come back in pose mode the bone still there. Give me an error message at least?


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Is there a way to animate waves without using modifier?
As far as I know, bones can't do this and you need to go vertex by vertex to do it via shape keys.
Basically I'm trying to animate a wave.  Where from left to right a wave of vertices would change Z location depending on time.  It's really simple so me writing about it would be over thinking it.
1)

2)

etc.. wave moves to the end.

I did this by manually moving the vertices from point to point on the Z.  I'm not looking to automate this, I just want to know, how do I make this animation into a trigger so I can animate like a bone or a shapekey?

I suggest using a material displacement node. The plane is UV mapped to the full UV space, so the top Mapping Node location of [0.5. 0.5, 0] moves the Wave Node's center to the middle of the plane. The effect is animated using the Phase Offset input. Like all good phase offsets, its range is $  [ 0:2\pi ) $. The Phase Offset can be controlled directly with key frame animation, it can be set up with a driver, or many other methods. In this case, I decided to make the phase depend on the X location of a control object. I used another Texture Coordinate node pointed at the controller object to get the object's location and then ran that through a Mapping Node set to scale the X location by $-2\pi$ or -6.283 so the controller object only needs to move between $ [0:1] $ to get a full deflection.
For the animation I applied this texture setup to the Displacement Node of the material, and then applied the material to a moderately high poly circular plane.

Interested Ron, thanks for your help. You don't need to make it in 3d.  Just the 2d lines are fine, it's much simpler that way.
how does a displacement help here though?  Isn't it static black and white map?  It wouldn't animate..

I used the Wave Texture and animated the phase input from 0 to -2pi and plugged that into a displacement node (Cycles). The little ball that appears briefly in the shot is the phase controller, I tied its X position into the material.

Can you screen shot your node set up?  So what I'm gathering is there is no built in function that does this in blender..  We need to resort to tricks to do these types of animations?

@JimmyLin I don't know if I would say I had to "resort to tricks" here. Using controller objects like this is a common and well accepted practice in production character animation. As the modeler/shader, providing a control like this means the animator doesn't need to dig deep into a material node to find the control, they merely look in the Controller collection for the appropriately named object. I could have used a Driver but many people consider them to be Majick.


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What is the difference between using emission and bloom effect?
I understand emission gives your objects a glow and if mapped, it can glow any color you want with any intensity you want.
Bloom seems to do the same thing to your base color except it's much easier.  You don't need to create an emission map, just turn the bloom on and you seem to get the same results.

The one with the Bloom is a little brighter.  I don't understand is this a stacked glow effect?  Emission is already suppose to glow, but Bloom gives it even more glow.  So I guess when you're making the Sun, you should have both on max?
Also is there a point in having a base color if you're using Emission?

Emission doesn't glow, only Bloom gives this effect (or Compositor)

Bloom and emission are two completely different things.  Let's talk about Eevee, since that's what you're probably using (since implementing bloom in Cycles requires the use of compositing, with behavior that depends on the precise way that you implement the bloom.)
Emission just says, write this color to the screen.  That's all.  It doesn't get lighted/shadowed.  It doesn't care about the surface normals.
Now, what happens to the color you tell it to write to the screen depends on your color management settings (and a few other things.)  Let's say you're using a raw color transform.  What happens when you write a color like 2.0, 1.0, 1.0?  Your monitor is designed to only handle colors in the 0,1 range.  So it clamps the output, and even though 2,1,1 is a pink hue, you still get white output.  Because once you clamp the output, you just have 1,1,1 white.
Except, you're unlikely to be using a raw color transform.  Standard, filmic, etc are designed to tone map colors outside of the 0,1 range into colors inside the 0,1 range.  (This comes at the cost of some color fidelity.)  So you're going to see a reduced impact of clamping overbright pixels.  Still some loss of hue.
What's the point of having both emission and base color on a Principled BSDF?  You're just adding the effect of the Principled, a combination of diffuse and specular on default settings, using the base color as the diffuse and the base color's value as the specular, to the effect of emission.  Is that something you should ever do?  You risk losing energy conservation, although that's not an issue with Eevee.  Otherwise, sure.  Think about a very dim lightbulb next to a very bright lightbulb.  The dim light bulb may both be emitting light and reflecting light from its brighter neighbor.
Okay, so then what's bloom?  It's clear that using plain emission, especially given the limits of our monitors, isn't enough to give us the perception of very bright light.  Bloom is designed to give us that perception.  It does it by first drawing the screen, subtracting a grayscale value from each pixel (the "threshold"), then blurring the output, and finally adding that darkened, blurred output back into the original screen.  (Finally, of course, it runs the whole thing through the color transform, in order to get it back into the 0,1 range.)
This creates an aura around bright objects.  Notice also how it interacts with the clamping of colors.  2,1,1 gets clamped to white.  But if it's on a black background, some nearby pixel might get half that color from the blur: 1,0.5,0.5.  So although the emitter gets clamped to white, the nearby pixels appear pink nearby.
It's not necessary to run bloom on your basic screen output, although that's how Eevee was designed to do it.  A common alternative is to render an emission render layer and only bloom emission.  This would make more sense to you once you start implementing bloom using compositing nodes instead of Eevee's out-of-the-box bloom.

In Cycles Glare -> Fog Glow treats your scene as though there is an atmospheric volume, but acts differently than if you'd set it up manually.  I'm not sure but it looks like Bloom attempts to do something similar.
Here's a cube where I duplicated it, scaled it up slightly, and gave it a volume of .2 density.
Cycles:

And here's the Glare node by itself.
Cycles:

You'll notice the effect terminates differently, and it's also decoupled from the cycles sample count, so it doesn't come out looking like a cloud of fireflies.
In both render engines you have to be a little careful with this effect.  Any time any part of your scene exceeds the brightness threshold Bloom or the Glare effect will be invoked on those pixels, and it can drown out other parts of your image.
Eevee:

To your last question, there is a slight effect on color that becomes more pronounced if the emission value is less than 1.

Emission is the physical emitting of light. An object with an emitting material will light objects around it.
Bloom is an effect that tries to emulate what happens within a camera lense. Light is not just travelling through a lense, but actually also reflecting to a small degree off the bounderies between lenses and air aswell as lenses and other lenses. While this effect is not noteable with average lighted scenes, it becomes noticeable with high intensity lighting, as these bleed over the actual size of a lighted object.
While the final image might look similar using each of those, they are very different concepts and will look very different in different contexts.


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Some examples of shape key sculpting vs lattice?
I understand the lattice modifier is for deforming complex objects and it's actually pretty amazing.  But the more I think about it, all the fine details can be done through sculpting shape keys.  Lattice seems to have static squares which you can scale infinitely to refine your detail, but I can't think of any reason to use it over just sculpting what I want in using shape keys.
My brain is probably not seeing the big picture here...  I'm mainly just focused on characters organic stuff.  Even if I wanted a bicep to expand, I can do it better with shape keys.

First thought; you can use lattice modifier on multiple objects at the same time

Shape keys and lattice are 2 completely different things in my opinion, generally you should think about shape keys (or bones) when you want to animate small details of your mesh, and Lattice (or Mesh Deform or Surface Deform modifiers) when you want to deform the whole mesh or a large part of your mesh.
Also, lattice is particular as it deforms only the part of the mesh that it contains, here is the kind of thing that you can do with Lattice that you couldn't do with shapekeys or Mesh Deform or Surface Deform:

Here is what it would give to have a boolean object that is latticed:

Can you shape key the lattice vertices thus giving you complete control of an animated deformation for the entire mesh?

sure, as you can see the lattice has shapekeys, so the best is to keep the basic lattice cube shape as first shapekey, then create one or several others

Thank Moon that looks like a very practical use.  One question though, on your gif example - can that be inverted?  So instead of using the lattice to create the funnel shape, can you use the lattice to displace geometry?  For example, a drill going into the ground.  The area inside the drill is being displaced with lattice.  Pretty much the inverse of what you are showing me.

maybe a combination of boolean and lattice? you should show what you want exactly, it would help. Keep in mind that it's hard to change small details with lattice

you create an object that will be your boolean object and that will dig the hole, and you use a lattice on it if you want this boolean object to be deformed, that will deform the shape of the hole

Thanks moon the first part is clear.. now I have a new issue since you showed me something useful with Lattice.  If I can get it right it'd solve all my problems deforming my higher poly mesh. :)  I made a new question topic for it.  Do you have any insights?
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/207050/how-to-use-2-lattice-to-deform-2-spheres-on-impact?noredirect=1#comment349121_207050

As I understand it, the lattice modifier is also good in combination with simulations, like soft body or cloth simulation. A cloth simulation on high detail mesh would take ages to bake. With lattice, you can calculate simulation with low detail mesh and apply it to the high resolution mesh.
The shape keys can give you small scale animation of the mesh. (for example facial expressions) The advantage here, is that you can blend shapekeys (one shapekey for the open/close value of the eyes, one shapekey for open/close value for the mouth) and generate all possible combinations from it.
Lattice Modifier -> Apply low detail lattice deformation to high detail mesh to save processing time or to exclude small details from calculation.
Shake Keys -> Different Poses or facial expressions.
So, yeah, the expansion of a biceps would be done in shape keys.
But I could be wrong completely.

Can you please explain more on Soft Body Cloth simulations?  I thought they were 2 completely different simulations.
So you're saying if I have a high poly mesh that has cloth properties, I can put a low poly lattice around it and bake that instead.  The results will be good enough and the baking time is significantly reduced.

Soft Body and Cloth simulations are two different things, you are right. Sorry to ruin the moment, but I made a typo, sorry. (i wrote 'of' instead of 'or')
I also just found out, that only soft body simulations are supported with lattices. Since bothe are physics simulations, I thought it would apply to both, but it doesn't.
If you change the example you made to soft body, then yeah, you can absolutely do that.
Highpoly mesh -> low poly lattice -> bake softbody sim on lattice -> use lattice transforms on highpoly mesh


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Can the diffuse map be one color with ambient occlusion?
This is more of an art question but it's technical too.  If the ambient occlusion is used to shade the most darker areas of the texture, can the diffuse be just one layer of texture than?
If ambient occlusion is going to add all the other colors by default, what exactly am I painting besides the primary color?  Is there any reason I would ever need to paint a darker area?
I get confused when I paint textures because I'm reminded not to paint shadows or any darker areas.

In animation and/or games environments, as the character or prop is going to be used under different and maybe unpredictable lighting setups, you can add or bake some ambient occlusion shadows to empower the depth of the textures even when the mesh isn't lit in optimal conditions. How much to use this "trick" is a matter of style and production choices.

It's just very confusing when I paint textures.  In programs like Substance Painter, the AO is actually merged with the diffuse texture which makes it even more confusing since it's auto generated.  I've never had to paint something thinking I don't need shadows before.. It's already difficult to paint areas that are high in roughness.  The only thing I can think of is just color the entire character 1 color and let the machines do the rest...  But that can't be the case.


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What is ambient occlusion for?
I can't seem to be able to wrap my head around the definitions I find on the web.  From what I can gather, these are shadows that YOU paint onto your mesh?  Why is it a good idea to have static shadows?  Don't shadows change all the time?
For example if I paint ambient occlusion on my model, it's only going to get darker, even if I put lights where they are, isn't that unrealistic?

it's a trick to create fake shadows, it improves the object appearance, it can also be used to create dirt, etc

So you they are permanent shadows you would paint on to your mesh to save rendering time?  That's confusing, isn't the enter scene "realistic"?  Why would a realistic scene have permanent shadows?

Ambient occlusion is a form of fake shading, that does not depend on the actual lighting of a scene, it is thought of as a non-directional shading. The main use is to save time on shading instead of calculating ray shading. Practical applications are up to you. Some folks use it to create dirt maps, as the points where one surface touches other surfaces will always be darker (and dirt might collect there as well). Others use it to exaggerate the shading effects on a scene, and others use it instead of shading or just to evaluate modeling.

If you are rendering in cycles there is no need to use ambient occlusion, as cycles strives to be a physically accurate ray tracer.

AO is rarely painted.  It is likely baked from a high poly mesh to a low poly mesh.  Although there's nothing wrong with doing some hand-painting on top of the bake.  It is used as part of a workflow that tries to represent mesh details using texture details instead, because vertices are expensive and texture lookups aren't.
For an example use case of AO, consider a game engine with a baked normal map.  Because the normal map is not real geometry, but only tricks that manipulate the way that light bounces off the surface, a recessed area may get lighted in an inappropriate way-- after all, there is no genuine recess there, it's just flat geometry.  If you wanted, you could just darken the diffuse texture in those recesses, but there is some lighting that should reach the recess.  So you can use ambient occlusion to limit only the ambient lighting, without affecting other lighting.
This is all a trick.  There is nothing remotely physical accurate about ambient occlusion, because there is nothing remotely physically accurate about the concept of ambient lighting to begin with.  It is not a good idea from the standpoint of realistic lighting.  It is a good idea from the standpoint of balancing a good looking picture with reasonable performance-- usually, the real-time performance demanded by games.  Achieving this reasonable performance means that you can't use enough vertices to acquire the shadows realistically.
Some people recommend multiplying AO into diffuse for use in Cycles.  This is not a good idea.  If any texture artist thought that their diffuse should be multiplied by their AO, they'd just do that themselves in PS and skip the AO.  Frankly, there's no real way to use AO in Cycles, because Cycles isn't designed for the same goals that game models and textures are designed.  If you wanted to use ambient occlusion in Cycles, the closest you could get would be to composite (add) two renders, each using some subset of your lighting/world, and to multiply AO into diffuse in only one of those renders.  That would leave AO occluding only some of your lighting, rather than all of it, which is the goal of the use of AO in game engines.  So, no, in Cycles, if you use AO as properly as you can, it will not just get darker-- it will get darker in a specific way.
However, AO is appropriate to use in Eevee.  Unfortunately, the only shader with an AO input is the Specular shader.  Getting game-like renders out of Eevee, using AO, with other shaders, is again possible-- but only with compositing.  In this case, a render without your world should use straight diffuse, while a render with your world but without your lights should use diffuse*AO.  Your world is the ambient lighting in Eevee that should be occluded by AO.  Again, if you use AO properly in Eevee, it will not just make your model darker, it will make your model darker in a specific way.

Thanks All.  And yes I'm using a program (substance painter) to bake in my AO.  So my last question is, if I have AO painted on the mesh, those areas will even be darker in dark scenes right?  Almost black even?
Also what's the difference between me painting it on and using AO the Evee Engine provides?

@JimmyLin If you render in a game engine, using AO, the areas with AO will get less ambient lighting.  That will not be brighter, but how much darker it is will depend on your ratio of ambient lighting to non-ambient lighting.  As you darken the main lighting, the AO areas will darken along with the rest of your mesh.  As your darken the ambient lighting, the AO areas will not darken as quickly as the non-AO areas, because they're already dark.

When you say it will not darken as quickly, does that mean the AO has a separate node we can hook up to the base color?  Are AO maps supposed to be black and white?  I've been just darkening them with a darker version of my base color.

@JimmyLin AO are black and white, yes.  I don't know what you're asking with regards to AO having a node.  There is no AO node, there are only image texture nodes that can reference AO texture images.  The only shader with an explicit AO input is the Specular shader for Eevee; for other shaders, to use AO in Blender, you would have to composite as I described above.


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Is there a way I can add hair manually?
Is there a way I can add hair to my mesh manually plotting it one by one?  By using the particle system, it adds hair to the entire mesh and lets you adjust but that's not really what I'm looking for.
I just want one piece of hair I can have control over like I would a mesh.  Here's my failed attempts at making hair a mesh.

When you add a particle system to an object and change its type to "Hair" one more mode appears in the VIEW 3D modes (like Object mode, Sculpt mode, Edit mode, etc) - it is called Particle Edit mode. Select it and you will find many options allowing you to manually edit hair, including deleting, adding and editing them one by one.

Thanks! I see the option!  Now I'm just playing with it.  Does hair have the same control as meshes?  You can add physics, and materials to it ?  Is it common for artist to make hair using regular meshes or is it just a bad decision?

You can add physics if you turn on Hair Dynamics in Particles settings. 2. You can add material in Particles Render tab. 3. It depends on what you are going to do with it. If you want to render them from the Blender you may not replace particles with meshes, just switch Strand to Strip in main Render Preferences Hair tab (for Eevee). You can control the visual shape of each hair-particle in particles settings. If you need to export it, you will have to replace hair with meshes and after editing convert particles to objects from modifiers tab, but dynamics may work not like you may expect.

I see.  So if I want this in unreal engine, it would be a problem.


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Where is the Sculpt mirror in 2.8?
2.8 is supposed to be easier?  I can't find anything and the hotkeys don't work.
I'm trying to sculpt with symmetry but I can't find the X mirror.  In the old versions of blender, this is suppose to be on by default...
Wouldn't it make sense to have it as on of the many buttons on the left?  Geez.

Also, the side "N" panel has a symmetry section.

2.8 is definitely more cryptic than the previous versions.  I can't find anything but thanks for your help!


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How to use 2 lattice to deform 2 spheres on impact
I put a lattice around my sphere per basic deform set up:

Instead of modifying the sphere from the inside, I want the inverse effect.  I want the sphere to squash like a ball when it interactions with it.

This works.  Now here is the advance set up where I'm stuck.  I want 2 balls that are part of the same object to interact with each other, using the lattice modifier, they would squash equally from both sides.

I had to modify this in edit mode because if I can get a photo, than I wouldn't need to ask this question :)
I got stuck as soon as I tried to bind the 2 balls into a lattice.  They deform immediately which is not what I want.

I'm assuming this can probably be done easily if I make the balls 2 separate objects.  But that's the challenge here - I don't want to.  Is what I'm asking for possible with a single object?
Edit: They will be animated to squash with bones.

More lattice divisions maybe?

I'm not sure why you need to keep your 2 balls within one object, but you could try it with Lattice or with Mesh Deform or even with shapekeys.
If you want to do it with Lattice, scale the lattice it in Object mode (not Edit mode) so that it contains your 2 ball object, in the Properties panel > Object Data > Lattice, give it enough Resolution (i.e. subdivisions):

Now create a basic shapekey, then another one:

In Edit mode, squish your lattice the way you want:

Back to Object mode, keyframe the shapekey value to animate:

Here is what it could give:

Let's say I want to make breast. :)

have you looked into shapekeys? Maybe it will make it easier

Yes, I'm good with shape keys. It just want  better way to uniformly deform a mesh before applying it a a shape key.  Say i have 2 breast obviously, it's going to be in the same mesh.  But even in a static position, they'll be squashed together. I try to use lattice deformer to do this.  Now I'm having issues because Lattice deforms whole mesh.  I just want the area that is inside the lattice to deform.

You can assign the breasts to an vertex group and select this group in the Lattice modifier so that only these vertices will be affected, you can do the same with a Mesh Deform modifier

Do you know if there is a better modifier for this?  I think there is a mesh deformer that does something similar?  Am I looking at this problem with the wrong modifier?

Yes you can try with the Mesh Deform modifier, again select the vertex group in the modifier. But as I said, in my opinion shapekeys only would be even simpler

I'm not sure what the other deformers do.  I plan to use shape keys to do this but I need uniform deformity first I can control.  I think the cast modifier might be more helpful here.  maybe..  How would you approach this problem?

yes Lattice seems ok actually, look at my edit (last animated gif)

What is that block doing there in the back? o_O

it's the woman's body   ^^


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How to create this lid with ridged grip
How do I create this bottle lid with grooves on a ridged grip.
A kind of jar cap with a ribbed texture.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/43883/extruding-outward-from-center-point-to-create-the-bottle-cap-grip

You could model one (mirrored) segment of your object:

Array it with the Array modifier:

Bend it with the Simple Deform modifier (Bend mode, 360° on Z):

Modify the topology to make it look the way you want:

Result:

Rounder topology:


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Installing addon in 3.0 gives error
I can't install the Simply Cloth addon in blender 3.0 beta. It works fine in blender 2.9.3 but it gives me this error code and i don't reallly know how to fix it. The first time i try it gives me one error and the second time it gives me this other error. I'll write both.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\Lored\Downloads\blender-3.0.0-beta+v30.b43077ba3a29-windows.amd64-release\blender-3.0.0-beta+v30.b43077ba3a29-windows.amd64-release\3.0\scripts\modules\addon_utils.py", line 387, in enable
    mod.register()
  File "C:\Users\Lored\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\3.0\scripts\addons\SimplyClothPro\__init__.py", line 37, in register
    properties.register()
  File "C:\Users\Lored\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\3.0\scripts\addons\SimplyClothPro\properties.py", line 345, in register
    ui_panel.registerIcon()
  File "C:\Users\Lored\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\3.0\scripts\addons\SimplyClothPro\ui_panel.py", line 935, in registerIcon
    addons_path = bpy.utils.user_resource('SCRIPTS', "addons")
TypeError: user_resource() takes 1 positional argument but 2 were given

  File "C:\Users\Lored\Downloads\blender-3.0.0-beta+v30.b43077ba3a29-windows.amd64-release\blender-3.0.0-beta+v30.b43077ba3a29-windows.amd64-release\3.0\scripts\modules\addon_utils.py", line 387, in enable
    mod.register()
  File "C:\Users\Lored\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\3.0\scripts\addons\SimplyClothPro\__init__.py", line 37, in register
    properties.register()
  File "C:\Users\Lored\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\3.0\scripts\addons\SimplyClothPro\properties.py", line 141, in register
    bpy.utils.register_class(SelectVertexGroup)
ValueError: register_class(...): already registered as a subclass 'SelectVertexGroup'

I’m voting to close this question as off topic because it is about troubleshooting temporary issues with unfinished under development experimental versions of software, which are expected to be working properly upon stable release. This produces a question unlikely to be useful for future users, rendering its long term value low, making it unsuited for this site.

The Python API changed in 3.0 and the addon needs to be updated. You should report the problem to the addon author so they can fix it.

Specifically the second arg to user_resource is now keyword-only so this line
addons_path = bpy.utils.user_resource('SCRIPTS', "addons")

needs to become
addons_path = bpy.utils.user_resource('SCRIPTS', path="addons")

You can change it yourself if you want but there may be further errors you'll need to fix.


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foot bones move separately from the rest of the mesh
My problem https://ctrlv.cz/8XI1

My foot bones moves separately from the rest of the mesh.
How can i fix this?

The foot bone should be parented to the lower leg bone (dotted line indicates it is parented to the head).

Foot bone is parented to the root bone, not the head.

https://ctrlv.cz/pX4x It's just that my foot mesh doesn't follow with the rest. I was following this tutorial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF6ryktrht0 and i checked if i have everything the same and i have. So i don't get it, where's the problem?

it shouldn't move like this. https://ctrlv.cz/DSFO
It should follow the bottom leg join, but still remained in flat position without rotation.

@NikolasMarkovič could you provide your .blend file on blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com to be able to help you

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


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How to remove black box from my cloud, cycles

First I create my cloud via metaball -> converting it with Alt+C-> pressing generate cloud.
Rendering is ok (it doesn't have this black bounding box), but after some time or some manipulations this black bounding box shows up.
However if I copy everything to new file it's ok again. Can it be something to do with way of creating sky?
Any suggestions?
You can check blend file:
https://yadi.sk/d/BZkRwk6T3DqUda

Your max transparent bounces setting is set to 0 in Properties > Render settings > Light Paths:

This setting limits the number of transparent surfaces a ray is allowed to pass through. Setting this to 0 means rays are not allowed to pass through any transparent surfaces, rendering black instead.
Set this to something greater than 0 (e.g. 8) and all should work as expected.

wow. that was so simple, thank you very much!

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


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General question about navigation
I have scene inside a room. When blender tries to navigate around this room so I can influence my character in it, blender slows the zoom down and even dislocates my last position to accommodate for this room which I don't care for.  Is there a way I can tell blender to ignore this room and navigate normally?

See the part about Auto Depth here


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Subsurface scattering field
I have color A and color B and you want sub surface scattering.  My question is, on the "thickness" map, does pure white represent complete translucency or does grey?
White would mean I'm taking 100% of color B right?  Which means color A will not be present at all which isn't translucent.  So my guess is .50 (grey) is the true value if you want both colors?  Or am I wrong?
I already tried this with principle shader with red and blue creating purple with .5 (grey) sub surface scattering:

If I have white, I would be taking 100% of color B, thus there is no translucency with the red.
[
So my basic question is, when I make a sub surface scattering map, should I be using grey for max translucency?  Or is there something I'm missing here?  Because I have seen White areas in thickness maps before which makes no sense to me, you're just taking 100% of color B?

Hello :). The slider doesn't simply mix the two colors. It works as a multiplier for the Subsurface Radius values. So having it at 1 often makes sense. Blender Manual - Principled BSDF

Thanks the math makes sense but I don't understand why color A would vanish completely when set to max...   If they colors simply don't "mix", wouldn't I see some traces of the red?

Hello :). This is a special case where you're using pure RGB Blue so only blue channel is available. See my answer.

When Subsurface is 1, the Base color has no influence.
Still you can use  radius to extract different colors from the Subsurface color.
Why it doesn't work for you
You're using RGB Blue (0,0,1), so Red and Green cannot be extracted (as they're zero).
Example
I'm using some random Blue containing all three channels (RGB: 0.14, 0.19, 0.8):

Subsurface = 1 (so the base color has zero influence)
I can bring up plenty of Red from my Blue, using the Subsurface Radius.

Thanks Jachym, what value would be recommended for skin?  Probably not 1..

Hello :). This thread could help: Principled BSDF subsurface scattering values for skin material. Also the Subsurface Radius will be rather important.


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Is there anyway to include subtitles or just plain text in composite mode?
Just a general question, all the stuff I've found include making text objects and including them in the scene which is an overkill I think.
I find it so hard to believe blender can do all this stuff in composite stage but can not just add simple text to an already rendered image?
Am I wrong on this?  I found this before and it seems like an overkill.
Overlay Text to an image in the Compositor

The video sequence editor has a text layer you can add. I don't know if it's pre or post composite step but that's probably easier than using actual text objects.


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Is there anyway I can use the same action for differnet bones?
Suppose Bone-1 moves up 90 units and that is called Bone_Action.
I want to use Bone_action for Bone-2.  Is there an easy way to do this?  If so what are the limits of naming my bones?  Obviously the name should be similar?

you can copy-paste the keyframes from an action to another, you need a first keyframe though, otherwise the copy-paste won't work

I know how to do that, but that is a terrible way to do it.  If I have a million copies of a mesh, I'll need a million actions to match each.  Maybe Blender has some "wildcard" naming system.


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Is it possible for me to change hair in animation?
My question is very simple.  Suppose I have a curly hair in frame 0.  In frame 5 I want it straight.  I can't find any tutorials on this using the new geo node system.  There isn't any shape keys I can save after combing so I'm at a loss.

Blender 3.6 Curve objects do have shape keys now, I'll edit the answer to add the info at the bottom.

Shape Keys for Hair Curves
If you need shape keys for the new hair system of Blender 3, the "Hair Curves", then you can simply save the different hairstyles/shapes in several curve objects. These will be your "curve shape keys". Then set up a small Geometry Nodes tree to create the mixing functionality that Blender provides for (mesh) shape keys.

Here is Suzanne with a shape key named "shocked", and two hairstyles "flat" and "raised".
Note: To keep things simple, make sure that both hairstyles have the same number of curves and that the indices are in the same order. That is, duplicate the first hairstyle and create the second hairstyle from it by combing the hair. Do not add/remove hair curves and do not slide the roots.

The GN moves the control points of the source/original curves to the control point positions of the given target/alternative curves. It uses the Index value to match them. The Mix node does the transition. For animation, you can create a keyframe for the Mix Factor (yellow) or use a driver.
In Blender 3.6, Curve objects do have Shape keys

If you mean straightening the hair, use physics gravity, set the hair to overweight and you're done.
If you want to do it in Geonodes you need to create them as curves, then give them the shape you want.


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How do I delete empty NLA tracks and why are they so randomly created?`
I can't seem to delete unwanted tracks when I have the "Include Missing NLA" button selected. What bothers me more is it seems to create tracks by random.  In the screen shot below, 1/4 lights have an NLA track, my camera has an NLA track, the Mesh Body that is attached to my Armature has an NLA track and the armature itself has an NLA track.  Also the eyeballs have one. This seems very random, where do these tracks come from? Why are they so random?  Is it possible to clean them up?

You must have given an action to these objects at one point. But to remove all the useless tracks, right click and Remove Empty Animation Data:

You can also activate the Only Show Selected option, which will allow you to only see the track of the selected object(s):

This method doesn't work.  It literally empties the animation data, but the "eyeball" and the "Body" objects with empty tracks are still there.

Please share your file (remove all the useless objects): https://blend-exchange.com/


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Why viewport render (image and animation) are so different from the viewport in EEVEE
Do you have an idea regarding all the differences between viewport, viewport render image and viewport render animation?
When I hit render with the render panel I have the exactly same image than in viewport, but render time increases compared to the viewport render animation.

I've baked indirect lightning and all my settings are in attached files.

That's probably because you have set higher sample count in render than viewport.

Tks Dambacha, i don’t think so as i put same samples in both preview and render.
But it seems that the preview render doesn’t compute the filmic view transform, neither Exposure and gamma;(
I’m still looking for resolving this;)


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Render not showing emission in Cycles?
The render is missing all the glow even though in the render preview it looks right, the render looks this way after saving it.
This is with no compositing done.

pls provide blend file

Sure, here is the file.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/oighgb4kqzf1q12/SpaceSuitRings.blend/file

there is no file....

Just edited, should be there now

i cannot reproduce your error. I see glow in rendered preview and render

Wow how weird, can you send me the render by any chance?

here you are: [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/bkvIE.jpg

@Chris &DanyRamirez The problem is not the render, it's saving the emission on a transparent background in a format (presumably PNG?) which cannot handle premultiplied alpha. There are many questions here and elsewhere on the internet regarding this topic, for example this one: Emission is not visible when imported into Photoshop

As Josh Sanfelici says in the link provided by Gordon Brinkmann, Emission on alpha 0 doesn't seem to work for PNG, choose OpenEXR instead

I guess you open your picture file with Window's default picture viewer or something like that.
These default Microsoft softwares are very unreliable, I highly suggest you to use another one. There are plenty of free options that have a decent support for CGI standards, like XnView MP.
But basically, the issue is how your viewer treats alpha. Most simplistic software will make a choice among all the possible ways and give no tools for the user to choose. Leaving you with dirty viewings when the setting is wrong. But nothing is wrong with the picture, only the way the viewer displays it is wrong. And a more serious tool should at least give you options to correct it.

I don't think his Mac will use a Windows picture viewer ;) But the reason will be quite similar. If he rendered a PNG with emission over transparency, this will not look correct, not even imported back in Blender.


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Why I can't see my textures on Game Engine?
I've put many textures to my objects with UV editing, but on the Game Engine I can't see them.
I watched video about how to do it and I added a material for every object, I also added the same textures with the materials, but nothing happens.
This is my project on Game Engine.How to make the textures to be seen?

Can you help me, please?

Please edit your question and provide more details about your project, like what materials you are using, with what settings, how you unwrapped your objects and what viewport settings you are using.

I used texture as viewpoint shading,I downloaded the textures from textures.com,then in UV editing I marked every object and selected unwrap on Edit Mode.

Unwrapping is not the same as applying a texture. Unwrapping generated UV coordinates which can then be used in a material where said texture is used. See my answer about UV and textures for more details

It is UV map on my project for UV coordinates at every object,not generated.Is this the problem or not?


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How do you open this tab/Menu
Does anyone know what the hotkeys for this menu this?

F3 is the key that brings up the search menu

Im trying to find Recalculate Normals. Search Bar wont show it.

You have to be in edit mode or it won't show up.

Yeah. Just found out that. Im trying to find Recalculate Normals. But its showing Recalculate Inside or Out.

which release of blender? In 2.93.6 Recalculate Normals is just above Recalculate Outside

Just use SHiFT-N and then check or uncheck the 'Inside' checkbox on the setting panel on the bottom-left of the window.


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Middle Mouse Transforms in Blender 3.0
I am using Blender 3.0 and when I select an object, press  G and then the Middle Mouse Button, the object immediately is constrained to an X, Y, or Z axis.
When I release the middle mouse button, the object bounces back to wherever it is - it does not stay on the selected axis. I have seen tutorials where the user presses  G (or another transform), then the Middle Mouse Button, and a white line guides them to the axis they want to use. Once they release the middle mouse button they can move their object along this axis at will. I would like to have this behavior with my setup. It currently is not working, and I don't know what preferences to check or uncheck to make it work.

The above picture is what I get when I press  G then middle mouse with any Blender version after 2.9x.

The above picture is what I get when I press  G then middle mouse with Blender 2.83. I would like to get this behavior now, but I can't figure out what has changed in the preferences.

Wow! I just downloaded Blender 2.83, and the middle mouse behavior works like a charm! The little white line appears and I can easily move my object on any axis. I'm sure there's probably a preference option to make the newer Blender versions behave like this - especially since I see Andrew Price describe it in his new Blender 3.0 Donut tutorial!!

FWIW, in a standard install, it works fine in 3.0.0, so perhaps you've accidentally changed the keymap entry

What keymap entry should I be looking for to make it work right? I just downloaded 3.0, and haven't changed anything that I am aware of - and it is not working. It does not work for me in any Blender build after 2.9x. However, it works correctly in a 2.83 version that I installed earlier today.

I have noticed that there is a new Transform Modal Map in my 2.9x versions and up called "Automatic Constraint". This is activated by the middle mouse button. It is not an option in the 2.83 version (which works for me). When "Automatic Constraint" is checked, Blender assigns a constraint. Once I take my finger off the middle mouse button, the object bounces back somewhere. When I uncheck it nothing happens when I press the middle mouse. ALSO, I tried unchecking ALL Middle Mouse assignments in Blender 2.83, and it still worked "correctly". I can't pinpoint what is making it work in 2.83.

Sorry, I'm not sure.  Perhaps you could add a blend file to your question that just has a cube in it that you can't manipulate and I can look to see if I can figure out what's going on?  (How to add a blend file)

Thank you. I will try that. Here's my latest observations. I downloaded and installed many Blender builds. MMB transforms worked correctly for me until 2.92. They added the "Automatic Constraint" in 2.91, yet it still worked right for me. I deleted my user preferences and opened 2.92 again - but I loaded the 2.91 preferences (since they worked), but it still behaved incorrectly in 2.92. I will save a default cube from my 2.92 file and you can try opening it. I'm thinking that since it works correctly for you, however, that it will still work correctly. . .

I agree that it will probably work for me as well, but I don't know what else to try and this should be an easy thing to test.

All my files work correctly in Blender 2.91 and start acting weird in 2.92 (as far as the MMB is concerned). It doesn't matter which file I try, so, I won't upload a file. I have also been warned not to comment too much, so, I will stop commenting, and hope someone can help. Thanks!

This is only a partial answer, however, it is giving me some functionality.
I assigned the Automatic Constraint to a different button on my Logitech mouse, and with that new button, everything works as it should. If I move it back to the default Middle Mouse Button, the incorrect behavior returns. So, for now, I am sticking with a new assignment.


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How do you generate Blender's built-in random textures using the Python API?
The Python API docs list (referencing 2.83, since that's the version of Blender I'm currently using most) a number of specific random generators:
https://docs.blender.org/api/2.83/mathutils.noise.html?highlight=noise#module-mathutils.noise
A few of these -- e.g., Voronoi -- overlap with the Type options for textures, but mostly there appears to be little correspondence (the docs indicate hetero_terrain, multi_fractal, etc functions that do not correspond to a texture type, while the texture types indicate Magic, Clouds, and so forth that do not seem to correspond to any of the random generators). [The noise_basis types, on the other hand, obviously correspond to the list given in the docs, 1-for-1, not withstanding BLENDER in the docs versus BLENDER ORIGINAL in the Blender drop-down menu.]
How are Blender's specific built-in random texture types each generated? Is it from composing/transforming these built-in random generators, and, if so, how?

Some of the underlying noise algorithms are probably similar if not identical, but mathutils has a different role and if I had to guess it's not directly used to generate colors for procedural textures. You can look into the source C++ code of Blender and find out how it is generated though.

Somewhat related re noise.hetero_terrain usage. https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/126299/how-to-use-mathutils-noise-hetero-terrain   IIRC there is another question / answer detailing the hard-coding in source of noise values  (maybe to do with fcurve modifier) So the default is always the same.


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Mirror Armature problem
So, I'm trying to make a model for a Minecraft mod. When I try to move the legs, they both move at the same time. It has something to do with the mirror. How do I fix this? I tried looking it up, but all the times I've tried none seem to work.

Possible Duplicate: https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/140155/49553

I try fixing the weight, but it only mirrors it on the other side. I want to keep the mirror (cause that's how I sculpted it) but make it so that the armature won't duplicate it on the other side. Is there another way I can get the other side the same, without the armature mirroring the same thing on the other side?

May I ask why you don't want the armature to be symmetrical? Your character is and I would assume you want to move both sides independantly.


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I don’t know why blender 2.8 keeps crashing when I do simple task
So I started doing this project, creating a tornado with particles and force fields and when I go to press play, or move the playhead it repeatedly crashes, and can’t get past this point.
I don’t know if it’s because I don’t have the right settings to optimize my PC or what. I need someone who knows about computers to lend a helping hand.

Probably the task's too demanding for your hardware. E.g. too many particles.


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Vertex sliding along line until intersection
Is there a way to slide a vertex along a line until an intersection of another line, which has no vertex at said intersection like it is shown in the picture?
I am a total beginner in blender and couldn't figure this out by searching for tutorials,

Edit:
Nowadays, by far the most convenient route to point-at-intersection is often to switch on 'Split Edges and Faces' in Automerge:

3 options to create a vertex at the intersection between two edges:

Activate and use The tinyCAD shipped add on > V2X: 'Vertex at Intersection'

EExtrude the edges to make faces, select them, and search for 'Intersect' (Spacebar in 2.79, F3 in 2.80). Check the 'Self Intersect' option. Delete excess vertices.

Create a plane below the edges, and Knife Project the edges down onto the plane, which will create a vertex at the intersection between the projected edges, (and possibly some surplus geometry) That vertex can become a snap target, or you can duplicate the edges out of the plane.

This last method can sometimes be quite useful ..  the lines only have to intersect in your chosen projection, which you define by the orientation of your plane, before  Shift Numpad 7 aligning your view to it, to execute the Knife Project.

Use the snapping tool in edge mode and be sure it's activated. The magnet icon must be highlighted.

Select the vertex and type twice on G (or shift+v as Ahmad said) to slide along the mesh until the second edge.

Be carreful in this case the second edge is not divided in 2 parts.

Slide using Shift+V
Make sure snapping is on.. and set to vertex - closest .. and you will snap to the vertex on intersection.

You can't snap to geometry while vertex or edge sliding


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Displacement node not working as expected
I'm learning displacement node setups and I can't seem to get it to work properly. The height map seems not to be in sync with the rest of the maps, although I've checked with node wrangler that all maps are in the right place and overlaying without shifting.
I've plugged the Height map into a displacement node  with the color output in the displacement height input.
The material settings are set to displace only. All maps are connected to a mapping node and have the same coordinates. The model is UV unwrapped properly. The edges of the model are mean creased to full 1.0. I'm using cycles with GPU compute.
Q: Anyone know where this shift in displacement comes from?
Q: And as a bonus, how to make the displacement look better? I've subdivided the plane 30*30 and added a Subsurf modifier in setting 4 and it still looks jagged.

Texture settings:

In order to get displacement working, your model needs to have much, much more subdivisions.

subsurf modifier too might help

On the Height Node:
- Change the space color on the height map from sRGB to non-color


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Is there a way to make my viewpoint run faster?
I have a character with about 1,000 bones.  It's not super complex, characters have a lot of bones right? lol  The bones have constraints.
I've been using bone layer add-on to hide the bones, but it doesn't seem to be working. When I pose, there's is a lag.  Interestingly, I have another character who is lightly rigged and if I hide the complex character, I can pose a lot faster.  So I'm pretty sure it's the 1k bone armaature giving blender a hard time.
Is there anyway I can optimize my workflow to make this faster or there is no way?  I'm already in Solid/Wireframe mode.  I'm not even using Evee viewpoint.  Is there anything I can turn off?

Have less bones?..

i am sorry to say, but i cannot really imagine why a character needs 1000 bones!? Can you elaborate a bit more why it needs 1000 bones? or show us the character?

Also if the mesh is high poly it probably slows down the viewport

Well, as said before - less bones would be a good start... what needs a thousand bones, a model of a myriapod where you move each leg individually? Even the myriapod itself doesn't really do that :D Less polys as well if you have a high poly mesh. Disabling the overlays also speeds up the viewport.

They're helper bones.  Most of them don't even deform, they're there to trigger shape keys or the movement of other bones.  I'm exaggerating when I say 1,000.. .Probably ~500ish.
So if there are now way it.  I thought there might be a way to turn off bone calculations when they are hidden.  Because I do use a bone layer add-on which hides bones.  But I guess they're still animating hidden.  Strangely I found that it's only the armature, I have another character on a lighter armature and it animates smoothly.


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Smooth shading faceted when using bump/normal
I noticed smooth round surfaces get faceted when I apply normal/bump map onto them, without normal/bump they are smooth. Does any one have a solution for this besides increasing subdivision?
 1. Smooth shading no normal/bump map
 2. Flat shading
 3. Smooth shading with normal/bump map with flat look
 4. material setup

I had this exact problem in version 2.92.0 and was able to solve it by reducing the Strength parameter in the Bump node.
There are also answers in: Normal map causes flat shading


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When I do an inward extrusion the walls of the cube remain, whats going on?
I am trying to reduce the thickness of this cube.  When I select the face, extrude along the Z axis, the face of the rectangle goes up, but leaves the walls remaining.  Why is this happening and how can I fix it?  My normals seem to be pointing in the right direction.

This is what extrude does, it  creates new geometry (the extrusion) which is then translated. It sounds like you simply need to translate without extruding.

I would not use extrude there, instead I would make a loop cut like I shown with blue line, delete the plane I marked with red lines, including the edges, and then fill up the hole using F hotkey.
Let me know if that helped, otherways I'll make a more detailed answer later, when back from work.


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Material is being squished according to the dimensions of object, how can I fix this?
The issue I am having is that my brick photo texture is getting squished if the opject it's being applied to is not perfectly square.  As you can see in the image below, the object on the left, which is a longer rectangle has long thin bricks.  The object on the right, which is more or less a cube, has bricks of the correct dimensions.
How can I make it so even if I am applying the brick texture to a tall thin rectangle, the bricks are normal dimensions?

Let me just make your life a bit easier by introducing you to the Sure UVW Map add-on. ^_^ Have fun.

You will automatically have this deformation with the Texture Coordinate Generated outlet, because it will try to fit the faces of your object. So you have several solutions:

Put a Vector > Mapping node between the Texture Coordinate and the Image Texture and play with the Z scale to find the correct value.
Use the Object outlet instead of the Generated one, it won't deform your texture. Anyway, you'll probably need a Vector > Mapping node between the Texture Coordinate and the Image Texture to scale up or down the texture.
Unwrap your object and open the UV/Image Editor to place the texture on your wall, but I guess it's a solution you try to avoid? It will be necessary if you want to be precise though.

if this model was imported from a CAD software (Sketchup, Rhino… ), in most cases the UVs generated from those software are not good enough for texturing process.
However, a final solution for your problem is to correctly UV unwrap your model. To do this, just follow these steps:

apply the scale of the object (this is necessary to avoid distortions while projection)
create a Color Grid texture map (1024 is enough)

switch to Blender Render engine, and active Textured Solid shading (just because it's easier to have a nice preview of how your texture is projected onto the surface)

start unwrap your model, and set the color grid as active texture in the UV/Image Editor, so you can see how the texture is projected onto the surface

The main reason of following this procedure is that you can immediately see the distortions of the texture of your model. The color grid checker is used to check errors/distortions during unwrap. When you don’t see correct squared numbers, it means that you have some distortions along an axis (first image below). It’s also useful to see if several objects have the same UV scale by checking the dimension of the squares (second image below). The first image is the same of your case: the UVs of the left object are stretched along one direction (U or V), so you will see that long thiny bricks instead of regular bricks. The following images visually explain these concepts:

My advice is to create a correct UVMap once for all objects, so you won’t care about the position/scale/orientation when you apply the textures.
Remember this: any other texture will be projected onto the surface in the same way as the color grid is projected. So, if the color grid is correctly projected, that means that every other texture will be correctly projected, with the same size, the same orientation and the same distortions (you can be as good as you can during unwrap, but a little bit of distortion is difficult to avoid, mostly for organic models). If the color grid checker has some distortions, any other texture will be projected with the same distortions.

Here's something you may want to consider doing: Using smart UV project. This will unwrap the mesh on the UV image in a fashion that realistically portrays the texture on the object in rendered mode. You should consider using this for future projects too. To do this, go to edit mode, press 'U' and select smart UV project. You can then adjust the projection settings for a good result.

I am also new to blender. try these sometimes this may help you..
try to apply scale, press ctr+A and select apply scale.
try to change the texture coordinate,try object or uv texture coordinate.
make sure you are uv unwrapped the object after apply the scaling.
in the image texture change the box to flat(box is also fine but try the flat setting also).

I've come across this same issue a while ago,
My standard procedure now is: Edit mode > 3 (face select) > A (SelectAll) > Smart UV project > Object mode > Apply scale (Very important!). Then use the following node setup:

The texture coordinate set to object is all it takes to fix it, (After the UV)
(I know it's posted 2 years ago, but the answers above are really complicated for a simple fix, And it's the top search on this issue, I hope this helps for anyone stumbling on this issue!)


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Blender interface grayed out?
i have both blender 2.78 and 2.70
the 2.78 version looks fine but for some reason 2.70 is grayed out
Does Anyone know why?
Thank you

Possibly some graphics driver issue

I don't know why but if you want a normal interface again you can try this:
Open the user preferences and select themes
After that, you can click Reset to Default Theme or choose one of the presets
I hope that I could have helped you and if it is not going to work, please enter the blend file so that I can try a few things out.


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Automatic welding in blender
I'm a newbie here trying to rig a character that was made with a3d scanner-
the rigging went relatively well but it seems that once I test my character using the rig it breaks in certain places, looks like there are cracks in the model, I saw that different 3d editing apps have automatic tools to find and fix these by welding edges, is there a way to do this the automatically in blender?
thanks !

If it's a case of duplicated, overlapping vertices, you could try Remove Doubles?

There's a separate procedure that needs to be done after rigging the model known as 'Weight Painting'.
More info here:
https://youtu.be/vMGTQFOgV_0
https://youtu.be/mhQY2_gVoVg

Thanks for the answer but It's not that, when I fixed the model in another 3d program it wasn't getting cracked even with average weights that distorted it in a bad looking way, it was called something like edge welding or something like that.

Can you please post an image or a gif of your problem? Also, the question title seems a bit inappropriate. You can change it to 'distorted mesh' or something like that and you can change the tags to modelling, rigging, weight painting etc.. In this way, you would get more and better answers.


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Object Shows up in the rendered tab but not in the actual render
I am new to blender and have been following Blender Guru's beginner tutorial series. I just finished my coffee cup and went to render it and it does not show up, but it will show up in the rendered tab.

Your cup influencing plane, but is not visible.

Check your render layer settings:
On the left - all active layers
On the right - active layers for "RenderLayer" named render layer. You have one of them (with cup) switched OFF. That's why cup influence scene, but is not visible.


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Multiple instances of blender (bpy) in single python script
I am trying to parallelize rendering using blender's python API, built as a python module. I'd like to use multiple instances of blender contained within their own classes. Currently, I can generate multiple instances by running a script multiple times, but cannot have two functioning instances of the class in the same script, due to how bpy uses import to initialize the blender instance. Is there a way to get around this? A cut down version of the class is below.
class BpyRenderer(object):
    import bpy
    def __init__(self):
        self.bpy.ops.wm.open_mainfile(filepath='blank.blend')
    def render(self, filename):
        self.bpy.data.scenes['Scene'].render.filepath = filename
        self.bpy.ops.render.render( write_still=True )

Have you already tried with threads?

One thread works, two conflict and the second one works but the first fails. I tested it with each thread object importing the BpyRenderer and loading a model.

Blender only allows one render to run in each instance. As a single render instance will normally use all available cpu's there isn't usually any benefit to running multiple renders at the same time.
If you do want to run multiple renders at the same time, you will either need to run multiple instances of your script or of blender.

I want multiple instances of blender because the choke point is in loading the models for my problem, and I want some instances loading while others are rendering. I can have each one run independently and communicate over sockets, but was wondering if there was a cleaner.

Running multiple renders at once would all work from the same scene and model data, so you don't want them all running from the same scene, you actually want to start a new process for each model.

Yes, is there a way of doing that without running multiple instances of a python interpreter i.e. making bpy generate another instance of blender?


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New objects "attached" to each other
just started using bleder two weeks ago, I did a few tutorials and it went OK.
today I started a new one, but when I tried to add a primitive it kind of related to my first object. it doesn't have an independent name (all of them named 'plan' in the panel) and I can't select\edit only one of them. How can I fix this?

You didn't properly create different objects, you created different meshes into the same objects. You need to get out of Edit mode and get into Object mode if you want to create new objects.

Add them in Object Mode not in Edit Mode. You can also select the vertices of one of the objects in Edit Mode and press P, to make a new object from the selection.


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Smoke constrained by objects
I have a smoke emitter that is under a rocket (but not touching anything). It emits smoke, but the smoke just sits there in a bubble. It doesn't flow. If I move the emitter away from the collision objects, it works fine. It's like the smoke won't get within a meter of any collision object, and this is a threshold that I can't seem to edit. Any ideas?

One problem could be the Resolution of the smoke domain as smoke will not enter a 'cell' that overlaps the obstacle. This is illustrated by the following image :

This is using a Smoke Domain Resolution of 64 - meaning that the 'cell' size is 1/64th of the longest X,Y,Z dimension of the smoke domain.
As you can see, the influence of the obstacle is 'stepped', clearly showing the individual grid cells. For 'flat' non-rotated surfaces this can be seen as a considerable gap between smoke and obstacle.
Choosing a much larger Resolution will reduce the size of the cells and the resulting in smoke that can get much closer to the obstacle.

Have you checked the boundaries of the Smoke Domain?
The Smoke Domain is a cube that determines the limits of the simulation of the smoke. It cannot escape it. The cube can be resized and it's shape changed, of course.
Here's the relevant page from the Blender Manual for 2.79.


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Chunky Fluid in Fluid simulation?
Is it possible to have "chunky" fluid in a simulation? I have been playing with adding particles, with a fluid simulation as the emitter, and not getting results I am looking for. The fluid simulation and the particle simulation appear to remain independent. The applications could be anything from pouring spoiled milk, to a mudslide grabbing debris along it's path. I have done searches on google and haven't turned up anything. Any thoughts?

https://www.google.com/search?q=blender%20molecular%20addon

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos -- Thanks, I'm looking forward to playing with this.


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Is there a software to reverse normal maps?
Said software would combine normal map with low poly mesh and re-create the high poly that was used to create it.
Does this software exist?

Does this answer your question? How do I make a high poly model from a low poly model and a normal map?


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Sculpting for animation caveats?
I know to sculpt my characters with an A-Pose or T-Pose to save myself a lot of headaches later.  As well as toes that point forward and straight fingers and a little bend on knees and elbows.
What I'm concerned about are the eyelids and lips.  Since eyelids open and close, would I need more geometry around the eyes? How would I even do that? During retopology phase?  Should I sculpt with the eyes closed?  Same with lips, would it deform strange of the mouth is too small?  How would I even know before hand?
Is there a general rule book for sculpting for animation?  Pitfalls that people don't discover until they start animating?

Sculpt the face in a neutral expression. Might be good to make the mouth only slightly open and the eyelids only slightly closed. It's after sculpting, when you're doing retopology, that you should make sure to add enough edge loops around the mouth and eyes so that the rigger has enough geometry to create the deformations needed.

I see.  That's a good idea, I didn't think of doing it "half way".  I guess open eyes is impossible for eye lids?  Since its all folded up, you'll have geometry on top of each other.  Do you think sculpting with eyes closed is a better option? I'll only need to worry about deformations in that case.


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Is it possible to create retro type shaders?
I'm trying to re-make the old street fighter 2 box art. I'm still in the sculpting phase right now, but I'm just wondering if the water color style is even possible as a shader?  I know there are some advanced toon shading techniques, but old retro water paint art, I haven't seen any.  So anyone know if it's even possible?  If not, I'll just got for the generic cell shading everyone is famous for.

There are at least half a dozen tutorials on youtube on how to create a water color toon shader in Blender.  Scan through them and pick one that suits your style.

I don't think the images attached are necessarily water shader style...  They're "drawn".  I don't know what technique was used I assume it's water color.  I've never seen a shader that looks like these.  That's why I ask if this style is even possible?


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Graph editor always works in channels?
Does hit always need to work as individual channels?
I'm animating an object that has a "snap" animation that involves Loc and Rot.  The graph editor forces you to tell it which channel you want to edit.
I just want to edit the entire keyframe.  That's not possible?  I need to edit each channel?

what do you mean when you say that it forces you to tell which channel you want to edit? You can edit several keyframes at once, the problem being that it rarely makes sense to edit both location and rotation at the same time for example

Think of me animating a hand.  It's not going to be a perfect X,Y or Z straight where I can edit on the editor.  The hand movement will be a combination of the 3.  Am I suppose to go into each channel and edit the curves manually?  Isn't there a way I can edit the whole hand movement?  For example if I want a bounce at the end, I'll need to edit X, Y and Z to have a bounce interpolation.  I just want to look at it as one motion and put the bounce in.

let's say that the object move on bothe X and Y, you can edit X and Y at the same time in the Graph Editor, it may not be always easy though

I don't see how they can't include it as a feature... I mean not every animation is linear where you can do 1 axis at a time.  I wonder of Maya has a "whole" graph editor.