text:
Weird radial pattern on texture in cycles render, but not viewport rendered
I am having an issue with what I believe is the anisotropic shading on my object. It's causing this weird radial pattern on the texture beneath it in an actual render, but it looks good in the rendered view inside the viewport. In the image, the bottom is the viewport rendered view, and the top is an actual render with the same amount of samples.

Looks like the cycles equivalent of Z fighting to me. Make sure there are no hidden objects in the same space as the floor. See http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/5441/599


text:
Why doesn't pasting X flipped pose paste arm poses?
I suspect the cause might be the naming conventions of the arms, but I'm not sure.  Here's a picture of the model and armature with names.

Naming of the bones is important for blender to understand how to mirror the pose, bones should have exactly the same name with L, R, Left, Right suffixes or prefixes to be able to mirror the poses correctly.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Why can't I pose my armature after setting a keyframe?
I'm trying to use the Dope Sheet to animate a model I made, but after setting one keyframe (LocRot using the i key shortcut) any attempt to move any bone afterwards results in the bone being moved back to the position in the that one keyframe.

Make sure you are editing the bone and adding the keyframes in Pose Mode.

Go to the starting frame.
Make the Location/Rotation change you want on the bone
Press the i key and select Loc/Rot

This establishes your starting position and rotation.

Go to the end frame.
Make the Location/Rotation change on the bone.
Press the i key and select Loc/Rot.

This establishes your end position and rotation
Your animation should play as expected.

Spent hours on this, just found solution. It apears you can't change keyframe, you need to OVERRIDE it. Press "I" in Action Editor and new pose will be saved as a new keyframe.

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

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


text:
How to make smoke made in the smoke simulator transparent?
I am using the Physics Smoke Simulator to make a flame, the problem is  that with the flame comes smoke which I don't want. I tried setting the flow type of the emitter to Flame only, but their is still smoke.
How do I remove this smoke or hide it?

As soon I posted this question  I saw where I went wrong.

There is an option in the domain of the simulation called smoke which surprisingly adjusts the amount of smoke produced.

authors: Пётр Вержбицкий


text:
How to export instanced collections to unity and retain the heirarchal format of an object?
I'm trying to export my scene with all its objects hierarchies into unity. However the instanced collections of the Sofa object does not have the same hierarchical format of the original collection when exported to unity.
How do I preserve this hierarchical format during exporting to unity?
Collection and instance in blender

Collection and instance in Unity

Collection is not supported by fbx, its a Blender exclusive thing to orgainze your objects. Add an empty to every collection and parent all the objects to it.

@FFeller what would that do?

preserve the hierarchy

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


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"Error Writing Frame" during movie render
I'm brand new to Blender. I've made three short videos with the most editing done to them being fade ins and fade outs and added audio. Never had a problem rendering those.
My new project, however, is a 30 minute clip with some parts sped up using speed control strips. After I finished those edits, I grouped all the clips into a meta strip and added a "global" speed control to shrink the entire film down to ~8:20, to fit with a song I want to add to the video.
Problem is, at around 8% or 9% rendered, I start getting "Error Writing Frame". Here is a screenshot, which also shows my render settings.
I thought maybe I was running out of memory or something, but I don't know how to check if that's the case. The "Mem:" in the top right corner hovers around 1840M. I tried just rendering the video, without an audio track, but I still run into the same issue.
I'm not sure how to find output logs and stuff like that, and I'm not sure exactly what I need in order to get support. Any help is appreciated, thanks!

I do have enough disk space, but I didn't realize there was a size limit. I'm a little confused though. I know h264 is a codec, but isn't it also a container? In my render settings, it's set for h264 as the container, with h264 encoding.
Should I be using MPEG-4 as the container? Or am I going about this all wrong?

Okay, so... there's the output file format, and the output video format? Should I do MPEG, MPEG-4, and h264?

http://blender.stackexchange.com/help/self-answer ;-)

Needed to change render settings to a different output file as described by @R00t:

a 30min lossless 60fps video will take a lot of disk space, and by
  default it will use an .avi container which won't handle >2GB file
  size, try ticking autosplit output
h264 is a compression standard, x264 is an implementation of h264 and
  is the codec, but it's not a container.  blender will use the avi
  container when you set the output format to h264 since .avi is very
  well supported by most platforms and systems than, for example, MPEG-4
  or matroska. and yes you should use .mp4 container if you render large
  videos.

@R00t was the one who mentioned it, and it sounds like it's more of a Blender limitation.


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How to stop text input affecting movement keys in BGE?
I have set up text input to give orders to npc, but it affects my first person character movement whenever they contain letters a,s,d and w, so how do I "disable" the movement while typing?

character movement whenever they contain letters a,s,d and w, so how
  do I "disable" the movement while typing?

The same way you talk to your friends:
Before typing text tell the character to ignore whatever you type.
(Be aware you need to define a way to let the character know that it should stop ignoring your typing.)


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Howto get BRDF data information in blender
First of all I want to apologize if I may use any vocabulary etc. wrong because I am fairly new to the 3D-modelling world (but I will tried my best to read up as much as possible).
What I want to achieve in the end is to generate ground truth data to learn a regressor to estimate the BRDF of an object (given some 2D images of the object). I am limiting myself here to objects with lambertian matt and Cook-Torrence specularity materials (and combinations of the two).
What I have done so far :
I have made myself somewhat familiar with blender and how 3D modeling, materials,textures, lighting objects etc. work in the extend that I need for this task.
I know about normal mapping and how to get the surface normals of the object-mesh and about render passes in blender.
However here lies my problem: The surface normals of the vertices gives me information about how the 3D geometry of the object reflects the light, not how the surface "property" (by which I mean the material of the object i.e.) influences it.
If I think about the reflectance of a point as a signal, I would think about this as the "base function" (maybe this is wrong) and the specularity/diffusivity would be then some additive values to this base function.
Let's say I create some object, add a camera and lighting (in my case axial lighting/lighting has same position and orientation as the camera object) and then add some material that has some specular and diffuse properties.
Then I render it and select the different passes.
The combined pass gives me the whole rendered image, then I get the color-coded surface normals with the normal pass and the Z-buffer with the Depth pass.
Now to the more interesting passes: When I select the diffuse pass, the image looks just like the combined image with substracted specularity.
The specularity pass is a gray value image (probably white = high specularity, black = low specularity). However, I get no information here how this layers/passes actually influence the reflectance of the light at this point!
What I need is information about the albedo and gloss values at each pixel.
To I have to reverse-calculate them myself then given these passes?
TL;DR:
Is there a possibility to get the information of the light reflectance of an actual implementation with light source/materials/textures applied (preferably in some real value fashion) in blender without writing the Raytracer yourself?


text:
How can I scatter things apart?
How can I select multiple objects and spread their origins apart from each other without scaling the objects themselves? I have several fragments of a shape that I want together at the first keyframe and all of the pieces separated at the last keyframe. I don't want to use the logic engine to do this. Is this possible?

The same as here: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/61007/separate-two-objects-along-an-axis

@lemon Thank you for that, couldn't find that when googling around.


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Strange selection behaviour from 2.8 to 2.79b
I would like to know why this happens.

As you can see in the image, I create an object in Blender 2.8.
Then, I copy and paste into Blender 2.79b, if I enter edit mode in 2.79 and select a face or everithing in vertex selection, the selection should be orange, but its like it was a problem with normals or maybe Blender 2.8 uses another kind of polygons that other type of software does not recognize at all?
Anyone knows why this happens?

2.79b to 2.8 should work fine, the otherway around is a bad idea.

This is happening because of incompatibility between the two versions.
Blender 2.80 differs from 2.79 a lot. The two versions are not 100% compatible. You should not work in 2.79 with data saved or made in 2.80 or you will experience some issues, like for example this what you are seeing in this case.
If you only need to get simple geometry made in 2.80 to work in 2.79, you can export the models in some other format like .obj and import them to 2.79. It will work fine this way. However if you needed to export more complex things like materials, normal data, animation, rigs and other things you may experience a lot more problems and it might not be possible/practical to solve those. It is best to choose a version and stick with it in one project.


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How to copy pose onto different legs of spider?
Following the animators survival kit I animated a single spider leg and I want to avoid having to animate every single leg again. I know can paste an inverted pose with crtl shift v  onto a bones symmetric counter part, but is there a way I can copy the pose onto bone of same side.
From bone 1 to bone 2

in the Dope Sheet, enalbe the Only Show Selected option, select the leg you've already animated, copy the keyframes, select another leg, create one keyframe, paste the keyframes previously copied, it should work.

@moonboots that worked. Thank you. Write your comment as a question so I may submit it as the correct answer.

In Pose mode select all the bones of the leg you've already animated. In the Dope Sheet enable the Only Show Selected option and copy the keyframes. Select all the bones of another leg, create one keyframe (I don't know why it's necessary though) and in the Dope Sheet paste the keyframes previously copied. As the 000 location of a bone depends on its location set in Edit mode and not on its location in the global space, the second bone won't jump to the first bone location, it will just copy the animation but stays at its current location.


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Fluid Simulation is still low quality even with resolution of 250
I am trying to make my fluid look realistic but it isn't smooth even with the quality set to 250.
I have uploaded a video of it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E54ObJrXHiM
Is there any settings I should change?
I changed the viscosity to these settings:
Base: 10 | Exponent: 3 | Domain size is also: 3m
Smoothing: 2 | Subdivisions: 2
Simulation Speed: 0.08
Here is a close up:

http://s24.postimg.org/vvq2ryhtx/fluid.png

Resolution is relative to the size of the domain (see related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/14386/599). With a large domain, you may have to increase the resolution a little more. As for the shading, make sure smooth shading is enabled.

For one thing, a resolution of 250 isn't that much. Everything will look crappy at that resolution. And as gandalf3 said, make sure your domain isn't unnecessarily large.
Setting subdivisions to 2 won't really improve your simulation in this case. Change it back to 0 (or 1, because of blender logic it is the same) and save some baking time.
For extra smoothing, use the smooth modifier. However, it may reveal holes in the fluid mesh, so make sure you check what's going on before you render.


text:
Rotation of rotated element
im new to Blender and i have a big problem with rotation. I am building something in the same style as the Game of Thrones intro, so a lot of buildings fitting inside a sphere.
I rotate the whole thing so it will fit on the side of the sphere.
And then i want to rotate the gears in an animation, choose local transform orientation and the rotate handles look fine, and i rotate it it looks fine. But when i play the animation the gear rotates all around.
i tried to click Objekt -> Apply -> Rotation, and then i see the rotate handles aren't fine at all:
So, all look fine (alså the rotate handles) until I rotate, the already rotated object. when i play an animation it rotates all around. When i click Objekt -> Apply -> Rotation, I see why. The rotate handles are (secretly) messed up. Why and how do i solve it.
I want to rotate the whole thing, and then be able to rotate every single gear while still fitting in.

could you upload your blendfile? I think you have to take a look at parenting objects. You can connect different objects to one object, so if you rotate the one object all objects rotate and then you can rotate the other objects (children). To reset the location/rotation/scale of the objects, click on the object ALT+G, ALT+R, ALT+S

The object that you want to rotate should first be parented to an 'empty'.

In Object Mode, hit Shift-A, then select 'Empty', then 'Circle'.
Clear all rotations on your gear object (set all to zero)
Move your object to the center of the Circle Empty.
Select your rotating gear object FIRST, then hold shift and select the Empty, then hit 'Ctrl+P', then 'Object'

You can now place your Empty (along with the gear) anywhere you want, at any angle. When you tell the gear object to rotate it will rotate around the X,Y,Z orientation local to the empty.

Ah yes, parenting was the answer to my questions! Thank you Mike and gladys!

Awesome, glad that helped. If you can now accept the answer, others will know your question has been taken care of. Best of luck!


text:
VSE, python API: get time point in video file under marker
There is a scene in Video Sequence Editor with several video strips one after another in time. Each strip corresponds to a video file. Along the timeline I have several markers.
What I'd like to do is to take a marker and return a videofile path under the marker and a time position in this video file at which marker points.
I'm thinking of writing  a python script to do that automatically for a long scene with lots of markers. What would be a preferred way to do that?

This will print the Marker time (in seconds since it's corresponding video strip started) with it's corresponding video strip's path for every marker in the scene's timeline.
import bpy

scene = bpy.context.scene

fps = scene.render.fps / scene.render.fps_base

all_markers = sorted(scene.timeline_markers, key=lambda m: m.frame)

all_strips = list(sorted(scene.sequence_editor.sequences,
            key=lambda x: x.frame_final_start))

for strip in all_strips:
    if strip.type == 'MOVIE':
        start = strip.frame_final_start
        end = strip.frame_final_end

        for marker in all_markers:
            if marker.frame >= start and marker.frame <= end:
                time = (marker.frame - start) / fps
                path = strip.filepath
                print(time, path)

Thank you for the example. One thing I guess is that time should be
"time = (marker.frame - start) / fps"
since I want to get the time in strips' file

Right. I'll adjust the answer to make it more accurate.

you can filter your list to get only the movie strips: strips_movie = (i for i in strips_all_sorted if i.type == 'MOVIE')
this returns a generator so it should be very memory friendly - if you exchange the () to [] you will get a normal list


text:
How can I delete uv layers with python?
I'm using this code the access the uv maps array:
import bpy

selection_ = bpy.context.selected_objects

for selected_ in selection_:
    selected_.data.uv_layers[0]

How can I delete certain channel?
I'v got tons of objects with extra uv map in channel 0.
Isn't there something like
 selected_.data.uv_layers[0].Remove()?...

I think this is what you mean, but data.uv_layers doesn't provide that functionality. uv_textures does. If you hover over the UVMap menu item in UV Maps it's a uv_texture.

import bpy

uv_textures = bpy.data.objects['Suzanne'].data.uv_textures
uv_textures.remove(uv_textures['UVMap'])
# uv_textures.remove(uv_textures['UVMap.001'])
# uv_textures.remove(uv_textures[0])   or by uv index

You might want something like this:
import bpy

selection = bpy.context.selected_objects

for obj in selection:
    uv_textures = obj.data.uv_textures
    uv_textures.remove(uv_textures[0])

for 2.8_1
import bpy

objdata = bpy.data.objects['Suzanne']
uv_layers =objdata.data.uv_layers
uv_layers.remove(uv_layers['UVMap'])

for 2.8_2
import bpy

selection = bpy.context.selected_objects

for obj in selection:
    uv_textures = obj.data.uv_layers
    uv_textures.remove(uv_textures[0])

Deleting a UV texture will also remove the corresponding UV layer (under normal circumstances). Note that the objects must not be in edit mode.


text:
3D view with a touchscreen in Windows 10 (Surface pro 4), how to zoom, rotate, pan
I have a MacBook pro, and I can use the touchpad for:

pinch with 2 fingers -> zoom in and out
move two fingers up, down, left or right -> rotate around the object
Shift + two fingers movements -> pan left right up down.

Now I purchased a surface pro 4, and blender windows version seems to not have the same default way to move the camera. The touch screen acts like a simple mousewheel but only do pan view when pinching screen, it can't zoom or rotate.
Is there a way to configure Blender to do so? but I mean, with the internal code, same as the Mac Blender version, not configuring windows gestures or key bindings on blender preferences.

Why do you have to change the internal code? That doesn't really make any sense...

I don't think touchscreen input is currently well supported, though I've heard the situation may improve for the 2.8 series

@pycoder nono, I have wrongly expressed my self, I don't mean to modify the internal code, I meant using the internal code, without doing any modification to the code using addons or scripts. I say so, because, if it's there in Mac Blender version, It has to be somewhere in the windows version aswell I suppose...

At the moment the surfacepro needs it's key board for functionality:

Alt pen/touch to orbit
ShiftAlt pen/touch to translate
CtrlAlt pen/touch to zoom

Note: I have Emulate 3 Button mouse enabled.
Touch functionality is something that will be worked on in the [Google Summer of Code][1].
Scroll down to Trackpads, smooth scrolling, and multitouch support
"Benefits: Blender should get cross-platform support for modern input devices. Linux and Windows (Surface Pro) are falling behind."
"[1]: https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/GoogleSummerOfCode/2017/Ideas

ok thanks a lot Patdog for all information.


text:
Is there a way to restore the cycles render settings to default?
I need to start afresh. I'm having a problem with alpha transparency and volume scatter.

Ah, that's it. I was looking in user preferences. I've got the main problem here: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/76346/alpha-transparency-lightening-and-volume-scatter But the problem is elusive, sometimes showing up and sometimes not, like a car when you bring it to a mechanic. I'm hoping starting with default settings will help me isolate the problem. Thanks you.

Maybe this can help too https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/47343/how-to-append-cycles-render-settings-to-another-file/47371#47371 you can then link all your objects to a new scene with default values, effectively resetting them to whatever you want, default or otherwise.

Possible duplicate of How to append cycles render settings to another file

Specifically for cycles I don't think there's a reset defaults function but what you can do is this:

Open a new blender project
File -> Defaults -> Load Factory Settings
append collections from already created project

If I understand your question, I don't think there is.
You can load a .blend file without the saved UI, but this doesn't include settings in the render property panel (which is what I think you are getting at). These cannot (as far as I know) be divorced from the other data in the file.
You would probably need to create a new empty file (which should load default settings for everything), and then use File->Append to import the objects from your other .blend file into that new file.


text:
Is there any way to make hair particles follow the z axis?
I'm populating a hillside with grass and would like the grass to grow straight up from their origins and not along the hill's normals.

I don't think that perfectly vertical grow would seem "natural", but if you need that, you can set Z axis velocity, using advanced settings:

Otherwise, you could also use "particle edit" mode to "comb" your grass as you wish:

then you comb "hair"

to get this, for example:

If you manually edit particles, your particle system gets some what locked, after. You can always revert those edit, use the "free edit" button on the particle settings, then.
Finally, and otherwise, you could use "a curve guide": https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/physics/force_fields/types/curve_guide.html
That needs another bezier object with force field "curve guide" set, and then activate a force field effect of the same type on your hair object. Like this:

Remember, you could also use more than one particle systems, so to get some variation, and each can be using different methods and settings...

Wow, three different methods and illustrated too. Thanks so much, m.ardito. That was very generous of you.

FYI, you can also add a bit of brownian effect to break the regularity (you can find it under the newtonian physics part).


text:
Change the point of rotation of a selected portion of a mesh
I'm trying to select the arm of a character and rotate it at the shoulder. I want to shift the point the selected vertices to rotates at the shoulder of the character.

Place the 3D cursor at the desired rotation pivot, then press the .(Period) key to rotate about the 3D cursor.

Wow, thanks for the quick response. That will be so useful to me.


text:
How can I copy an animation onto an other object?
I have an animation in blender, I want this animation copied onto an other object, that it does the exact same thing as the other object. (the same animation)

Assuming it's just a key framed object and not a rigged object, your question was answered sufficiently here I think but I'll copy over Richard Marklew's answer just in case the link dies some time in the future but the hotkeys are still the same by then: "Select the cube with no animation, shift select the cube with the animation then Ctrl+L / Animation data (or Object / Make Links menu) to link the animation. Alternative you can use the Dopesheet set to Action Editor to apply any action to your object any action. You can then press the number to the right of the action to make it a single user so the animations are then no longer linked (or U in object mode)"
I will add also that you can accomplish a dynamically updating version of this with constraint modifiers.


text:
Orientation of instances in Particles Instance Modifier
I'm trying to get dynamic tassels attached to the end of a scarf in the example here.

I just don't seem to be able to get the tassels oriented correctly, despite having studied
Samir's excellent explanation here
here is a link to the blend in question
Many thanks in advance,
Matt

Tassle_twist.001 has a particle system applied to it from the Modifiers tab. That does'n seem right. remove it, then select the belt and from the particles tab section Render select Object instead of Path and select Tassle_twist.001 as Dupli Object. Now go to the Physics section of the Particles tab and set the size to 1. It's not entirely clear to me what you want or what you're having trouble with exactly, but I hope this helps.

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer coCoKNIght, I was trying to use the technique described in this post:
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/51259/how-can-i-use-hair-dynamics-with-instanced-geometry-and-have-it-deform-like-hair


text:
GPU render turning out grey when using certain materials
i'm trying to render a scene, but when i am using my GPU te render something, the end result gets a grey layer on top of the image.
the problem appeared after amd's crimson drivers or after blender 2.76

Like when using a bump map.
however when i'm rendering the scene with my cpu, it turns out normal.

Can someone please explain me why this is happening and/or how to solve this?
thanks for the effort, iron

If you use OSL shaders, I don't think they can run on the GPU.  What GPU are you using, maybe that one isn't fully supported yet?

I'm using AMD R9 280 graphics card and I had the same problem.
Reverting to older AMD drivers seems to fix the problem. I reverted from the newest drivers to 16.4.2 version and Blender (2.77) rendering on GPU works again!
You can find older driver versions here: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/previous?os=Windows%207%20-%2064
Maybe you can revert to a bit newer drivers and the Blender will still work, I don't know, haven't tested it. I'm just really glad the GPU rendering works again and hopefully AMD fixes this issue asap.
Cheers!


text:
Instancing Actions?
I'm making character animations for a game project involving sword fighting. I'm wondering if there is a way to instance actions (or 'reference', not sure of the proper term for what I want).
What I mean is that I create a sword attack anim where the sword swing downwards. Then I take this action and copy it to tweak it a bit and create a sword attack where it swings diagonally.
Now if I want to make a few corrections on the animations.. like the feet perhaps, is there a way to make the changes from the first animation automatically apply to all the other animations? (50+ anims)
Or maybe do you have a better workflow to suggest? Because at the moment, if I want to fix something I'll need to manually fix it on every similar actions.
Thank you for reading.


text:
Blender Sapling addon
I had made the tree using add-on in Blender render.
1.But many of the leaves end aren't join to the branch (after using texture and i don't use UV)
2.Selecting all leaves in edit mode and after pressing Unwrap the Blender stops responding(maybe due to too many leaves.)
Is there another way to unwrap.

Leaves generated by the sapling add-on already have a UV map (all leaves have the same overlapping map).

True,they should already be unwrapped. If they don't suit you, you could manually create one leaf yourself, unwrap it and then use a particle system to distribute it all around the tree. It will be a lot lighter solution resource wise, however it will require destructively converting the tree to a mesh first.

The leaves generated by the Sapling addon are already unwrapped. You should be able to texture them without unwrapping.
Incidentally, you can unwrap them the same way that the addon does by choosing "reset" as the unwrap mode. This just maps each face to the whole UV area, so you can use one image for all of them.


text:
Displaying Blender Execution Errors When Running From Subprocess
I'm working on a Python application in which I use the subprocess module to run Blender from the command line. Specifically, the Blender command executes a Python script that modifies an existing Blender file and then renders it. Currently, should an error occur inside the Blender script, utilizing the "--python-exit-code" argument inside my subprocess call ensures that Blender will close without rendering. What I would like to be able to do is isolate the traceback output and display it inside the console.
The reason I'm having issues with this task is because, it would appear, neither the standard output or standard error channels seem to carry the traceback text. When I run the exact same Blender command outside of subprocess and inside a regular console, the traceback text gets displayed. I've also tried using PySide's QProcess module and received the same results.
My main question is then, where does blender send this traceback text? Is is simply printed inside the main Blender script and not send to either channel, which may explain why it doesn't show up inside of subprocess or QProcess, but it does inside a regular console? In either case, what would be the best method to use in order to receive these traceback messages?
I should also mention that I have tried simply using try/except clauses inside the main Blender script, printing the error, and the using sys.exit(1) to manually exit the script. This seems a bit hacky however, and when I do use this method it leaves some memory unallocated upon program exit. So perhaps another side question would be, how does one properly exit blender from within a script? I will make a separate thread for this question should the answer to the main questions require this approach.
Thanks,
Peter


text:
Collision bounds for 2D Sprites in the Blender Game Engine
How can I make Collision bounds for 2D sprites in the BGE? (The 2D sprite I am trying to make collision bounds for is the image I attached below).
I imported the 2D sprites as planes with the "Import images as planes" add on (I checked "use alpha" when importing the image) but I do not how to make collision bounds for it.
I am also gonna be using "Character" physics for the 2D sprite.

I am also new to the Blender Game Engine, so please try to explain it
  as good as possible.

Put your logic and physics settings on a different object, and parent your image plane to that object. Set your image plane as "no collision," and your other object's physics to "character." You can edit the collision bounds and other physics settings until you are happy with the result.
This is a setup I use commonly for making projectiles:

Here, I have a no collision plane parented to the collision object, but I am using rigid body physics instead of character physics on that actual physics object. - This would work in your case as well, just use character physics.


text:
How to make blood splatter effect in the Blender Game Engine
I am trying to make a first person shooter, and what I need now is a blood splatter effect on the screen when the player has been shot by an enemy. Something like in Call of Duty and Uncharted.
How can I achieve something like this?
I prefer to use logic bricks but Python code would be fine too (But please explain the code).

Add a overlay scene with blood textures when the character detects a collision with the bullets?

@X-27 I can do that but what if I want to do this for example: if the player's health is at 60 / 100 show an overlay with a little bit of blood and when the player's health is at 5 / 100 show lots of blood on the overlay. Sorry if this is a stupid question, I am new to the game engine in blender.

Almost every game uses pre-rendered animated (sometimes) transparent textures applied to a quad attached to the camera rendered in front of everything else for such effects (the same way as a HUD is).
Such effects include, but are not limited to, rain drops, blood, damage (eg. red blinking emboss, injury texture, blood splatter).
It is both pointless and very CPU and GPU intensive to do it in 3D and/or in realtime. Pointless as since it is applied to the "camera" it follows the camera, so since it is viewed from one angle, there's no point in it being 3d rather than 2D and it is too CPU/GPU intensive to render it in realtime as fluid dynamics are still not fast enough for the average consumer GPU.
If you want the blood to increase as the health decreases, there are several design choices which can be used:
1) Apply several blood splatter textures on the same quad, on top of each other
2) As some games do it, just add a second red emboss texture quad on top of the blood quad as the damage increases. That texture can also be blinking (animate the transparency, or have the texture an animated video file or sequence of image files).
3) Have a blood animation where just a few blood drops flow to form a big blood pool and navigate to the corresponding frame as the damage increases (eg. if health is 100, set frame to 0, if 01, set frame to 120).


text:
Get hard shading normals in BPY
I'm writing an exporter and have some problems with my normals. Relevant Code:
def mesh_triangulate(me):
    import bmesh
    bm = bmesh.new()
    bm.from_mesh(me)
    bmesh.ops.triangulate(bm, faces=bm.faces)
    bm.to_mesh(me)
    bm.free()

meshes = [m for m in context.scene.objects if m.type=='MESH']
for obj in meshes:
    # create a new mesh with all modifiers applied
    mesh = obj.to_mesh(scene, True, 'RENDER', calc_tessface=False)

    mesh_triangulate(mesh)
    indices = list()
    for poly in mesh.polygons:
        for i in poly.loop_indices:
            indices.append(mesh.loops[i].vertex_index)

    positions = list()
    for v in mesh.vertices:
        positions.extend((v.co.x, v.co.y, v.co.z))

    normals = list()
    for n in mesh.vertices:
        normals.extend((n.normal.x, n.normal.y, n.normal.z))
    bpy.data.meshes.remove(mesh)

With this I always get flat shading. When I export the same object, once with smooth and once with flat shading, the indices, positions and normals are completely the same. I would expect to have each vertex multiple times for flat shading, to that I can have different normals at the same position, but this does not happen in my approach. I also need to have all modifiers applied and a triangulated mesh.
How can this be fixed?

Normals (except for normal maps, and some really strange formats) are always stored one-per-face or one-per-vertex. The renderer will calculate a normal for each pixel at display-time, but that normal is not stored in the mesh.
Smooth shading (interpolation) does not add data to the mesh, which is why it's so desirable. It is like a "post-processing" step. When rendering a given pixel (smooth shaded or not), the renderer has to use the normal to calculate incidence angle, to get a shading value. If smooth shading is off, then it just uses the normal that's stored for that face to calculate the incidence angle. If smooth shading is on, then it calculates an intermediate normal for that pixel that's a "blend" of the face's normal and the normals of the adjacent faces. That temporary "in between" normal is used to calculate shading for that pixel, and then discarded. Those "in between" values aren't stored anywhere. They're always calculated at display-time.
Some file types have a flag that indicates whether the receiving system should do this interpolation or not, but it's up to the receiving system to actually do the interpolation. That interpolation doesn't get stored in the mesh.
Some file formats (like OBJ) do store smoothing groups, but that only describes the borders where hard edges should NOT be smoothed.
More information on Smoothing Groups.

It took me a while longer to get this ready for you, sorry.
here is my approach to export mesh data as json.
I decided to leave you the whole code in context, so that you can really try to understand how to calculate the split normals.
I also left how to extract uvs, vertices, positions and how to do this for subsets of polygons.
from bpy_extras.io_utils import unpack_list

    def parse_mesh(bl_mesh, faces=None):
    """
        Parses a blender mesh into json arrays
        Example:

        Non-interleaved:
            positions: [vx, vy, vz, ... ] size: multiple of 3
            normals: [nx, ny, nz, ...] size: multiple of 3
            uv: [u1, v1, ...] optional, multiple of 2
            uv2: [u2, v2, ...] optional, multiple of 2

        Interleaved: )
            (... TODO)

        Args:
            bl_mesh ('bpy.types.Mesh') - The mesh data block to parse.
        Kwargs:
            faces ('list(bpy.types.MeshPolygon)') - The subset of polygons to parse.
        Returns:
            al_mesh ('dict') - The json mesh dictionary.
    """

    # UV Textures by name
    texture_uvs = bl_mesh.tessface_uv_textures.get('UVMap')

    if faces is None:
        faces = bl_mesh.polygons

    _vertices = []
    _normals = []
    _uvs = []
    _uvs2 = []

    # Used for split normals export
    face_index_pairs = [(face, index) for index, face in enumerate(faces)]

    # Calculate the split normals from the shading
    bl_mesh.calc_normals_split()
    loops = bl_mesh.loops

    for face, face_index in face_index_pairs:
        # gather the face vertices
        face_vertices = [bl_mesh.vertices[v] for v in face.vertices]
        face_vertices_length = len(face_vertices)

        vertices = [(v.co.x, v.co.y, v.co.z) for v in face_vertices]

        # This is where you extract the split normals from the mesh
        normals = [(loops[l_idx].normal.x, loops[l_idx].normal.y, loops[l_idx].normal.z) for l_idx in face.loop_indices]

        uvs = [None] * face_vertices_length

        if texture_uvs:
            uv_layer = texture_uvs.data[face.index].uv
            uvs = [(uv[0], uv[1]) for uv in uv_layer]

        _vertices += vertices
        _normals += normals
        _uvs += uvs
        _uvs2 += uvs2

    al_mesh = OrderedDict()
    al_mesh['vertices'] = unpack_list(_vertices)
    al_mesh['normals'] = unpack_list(_normals)

    if texture_uvs:
        al_mesh['uvs'] = unpack_list(_uvs)

    return al_mesh

you should perform the following operations on the blender object before calling the parse_mesh function (this function returns an altered copy of the mesh datablock, with triangulated faces and applied modifiers, so if you for example use an edge split modifier on a smooth mesh with angle of 66°, you will get excactly this result in your export.):
def prepare_mesh(obj):
    # This applies all the modifiers (without altering the scene)
    mesh = obj.to_mesh(context.scene, apply_modifiers=True, settings='RENDER')

    # Triangulate for web export
    bm = bmesh.new()
    bm.from_mesh(mesh)
    bmesh.ops.triangulate(bm, faces=bm.faces)
    bm.to_mesh(mesh)
    bm.free()
    del bm

    mesh.calc_normals()
    mesh.calc_tessface()

    return mesh

if you need further information, ask me anytime. Or better, if you find improvements, I'd love to hear them!

I finally had time, to try it out. It works somewhat, I get hard faces now - but now every face is hard! From the GUI I use bpy.ops.mesh.faces_shade_{smooth, flat}() but the rendering looks the same both times, while Blender internal and Cycles produce the expected results. How can i access the normals these renderers use?

if you want to learn a bit more how split normals work you can check out this file I wrote once:
custom split normals utility
Especially how you can toggle between using the blender internal smoothing vs. custom split normals

you probably have to set the polygons to actually use the split normals if you want to apply the split normals to the mesh: obj.data.use_auto_smooth = True i think i forgot to add this in my answer. I'm not sure if this will help you - also if you use split normals, face_shade_{smooth, flat} will not change anything for your rendering, because the smoothing information is overridden by the custom split normals (if use_auto_smooth is True).

So it seems that Blender stores normals per vertex and per face and that I would have to check whether smooth or hard shading is enabled and based on that decide from where I take my normals. For hard shading I would need duplicated vertexes (so they can have different normals, depending what face they are for), and it seems, that I would have to do it on my own (also for flat surfaces vertexes could remain equal, in which case I most likely would want to join them again...).
But, when using the edge-split modifier, I get my doubled vertexes directly, and so my exporter works as expected without any modifications. For now, this simple solution works for me, however it sucks to require this additional modifier (added by the user!).

you can calculate vertex-split-normals upon export. This calculates the per-vertex-normals for the shading you applied. It's a bit more complex then your code but you don't have to add an edge split modifier anymore. (unless you want to use smooth angle based) i can give you a code example later if you like

yes, I would be very interested to see, how this would be done properly.


text:
Visual Sequence Editor Imports Movie Strip as Too Long
I am trying to add a 21 minute, 58 second MP4 file as a movie strip. When Blender imports it, the file shows as being 3 hours, 28 minutes and 20 seconds. What should I do to correct this?
The file runs fine in Windows Live Movie Maker, VLC, and Windows Media Player.
I tried it in both Blender 2.75 and Blender 2.72 on Windows 7 Home Premium (x64), with both versions giving the same results. I'm not sure why this is happening, though it is worth mentioning that the video has an odd floating-point frame rate of 19.195170 FPS. Rounding this to 20 FPS means that the video should be ~79,080 frames long. Instead, it's hit Blender's absolute maximum length of 300,000 frames long since the full length is apparently 331,120 frames (26.4896 FPS). The pop-up box says this is "The final length after handles are applied," what does that mean? Could it be causing the problem?
The video was created using Mobizen screen recorder on Android, and I managed to process it through WLMM and upload it to YouTube with no issues.
I'm just wondering what could make Blender miscount the frames and video length by such a large margin.

Have you set your Frame Rate properly in your Render Properties under Dimensions to a Custom Value of the 19.195170 FPS before importing the movie strip into the VSE? You should consider using Handbrake to convert it to a proper frame rate before using it in Blender.

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/46752/2843

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/43298/2843

Possible duplicate of Importing mp4 into blender


text:
Import script as a module
I have two files in a directory: "render.py" and "functions.py". From blender I use the text editor to run the "render.py" but the question is how to import "functions.py" to the file. This code fails.
import functions

How can I import in blender so that i can use functions from "functions.py" ?

As a textblock
One way to do this is to add functions.py as a Text block. Make sure the Text block has a .py extension and you can import it directly using import functions. Described here: python-is-it-possible-to-import-another-text-block
As a module
Otherwise, add functions.py to scripts/modules/some_name/functions.py, then
from some_name import functions

A slight hack

There's probably an elegant way to do this, but if your stuck...

The render.py could load functions.py from a given path into a text block named the same:
# render.py #

import bpy

fp = '/home/zeffii/Desktop/functions.py'

def make_functions_local(fp):
    texts = bpy.data.texts
    t = texts.get('functions.py')
    if not t:
        t = texts.new('functions.py')

    with open(fp) as module_file:
        t.from_string(module_file.read())

# trigger it
make_functions_local(fp)

import functions

# your stuff

Well the answer is almost there but the only thing is I would like to avoid putting files into /scripts/smodules/ directory. The perfect answer would be how to import the file in the same directory as the main script.

Your render.py file is being loaded from disk? I don't think your question made that clear.


text:
Add GUI Elements to exporter window
I'm currently writing my own exporter and want to add an info text to my export options.
Inspired by the obj-Exporter i use the ExportHelper class as a basis. Sadly I could not found any good information on how this actually works. From what I can see, it uses context.window_manager.fileselect_add(self) to open the file dialog, which will then automatically show all the properties of my class.
However I would like to have a bit more control over the GUI of my exporter. Is it possible to add more kinds of control element, just like in a panel? Like a text that explains some details, or a button that performs an additional action.

Add a draw method to the Operator class, eg in text editor file export operator template operator_file_export.py
class ExportSomeData(Operator, ExportHelper):
    """This appears in the tooltip of the operator and in the generated docs"""
    bl_idname = "export_test.some_data"  # important since its how bpy.ops.import_test.some_data is constructed
    bl_label = "Export Some Data"

    # ExportHelper mixin class uses this
    filename_ext = ".txt"

    filter_glob = StringProperty(
            default="*.txt",
            options={'HIDDEN'},
            maxlen=255,  # Max internal buffer length, longer would be clamped.
            )

    # List of operator properties, the attributes will be assigned
    # to the class instance from the operator settings before calling.
    use_setting = BoolProperty(
            name="Example Boolean",
            description="Example Tooltip",
            default=True,
            )

    type = EnumProperty(
            name="Example Enum",
            description="Choose between two items",
            items=(('OPT_A', "First Option", "Description one"),
                   ('OPT_B', "Second Option", "Description two")),
            default='OPT_A',
            )

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        row = layout.row()
        row.label("Custom Draw Method")
        row = layout.row()
        row.prop(self, "type")

    def execute(self, context):
        return write_some_data(context, self.filepath, self.use_setting)


text:
How to fix world environment texture background view when it is viewed in circle rather than in normal view?
I am using blender version 2.77, and I try to set the world environment in cycle render. At some reason when I use the background with the environment texture, the background is bend in circle view rather than the normal picture view. What did I do wrong. How do I fix this problem?
Thanks.

My node set up is World output  > Background > Environment Texture (Single Image, Color,Linear and Equirectangular).

The world environment image is a spherical view by default, you can't change that.
If you are simply trying to set up a flat background image for your scene, I'd recommend the Import Image as Plane addon that comes with Blender.
Just enable it in your User Preferences, and then you can import an image and it will automatically create a material and map the image to the plane. Then you can position it in the background of your scene.

I did that, but it still has the same result. I follow the tutorial step by step. tutorial render show nice background environment background, but my background completely circle.

Maybe I was unclear. Don't use the World Texture, just use a simple image plane in your scene.


text:
my material or shader Node on the top right bar is gone how do i get it back?
Hi i'm still new to blender and with it's new update things are a little confusing. The little round orange node is gone and I don't know what I did to loose it or how to get it back. I believe it's called the shader or material node. It was there a moment ago but I must've done something to it. Help???

It seems you did not select any object which has a material node available. Select an object (maybe the cylinder ?) and you'll see your material. (in the outliner panel of the capture the scene is selected.. so no object with material available)

The tabs in the properties window depend on the selected object, to see the materials tab you need to select some object that can have materials applied to it.


text:
What is the Fn+U equivalent on windows?
Trying to change the shortcut. It's the call menu for the UV Map in edit mode.

Unwrap menu in Edit mode is called with just U, no Fn should be needed (as a side note Fn button like many others is OS independant and will work on Windows as well). If you changed the shortcut and would like to recover initial one try resetting it. Also you might want to rollback unwanted changes to user preferences by loading factory settings (note that will rollback not only shortcuts but all user preferences).

in the menu, right click --> change shortcut --> put in shortcut. Try seeing if ALT + U is used.


text:
Can't open my animation file
After animating a specific scene and rending all 100 frames in Cycles via the "Render animation" feature I can play back my animation with the "play rendered animation" button but the file I chose it to be named after can't play. The file exists just the way (I think) it is supposed to exist, with the name showing up and then blender adding the amount of frames the animation ranges from at the end of the file name. When I try to open that .mp4 file I get this message ("Windows Media Player cannot play the file. The Player might not support the file type or might not support the codec that was used to compress the file.").
I really don't want to render that animation again which is why I am asking this: Can I fix the file in some way or access the individually rendered images so that I can manually piece them together?

do you have any other software to try to play your video? (try quicktime) WMP does not play everything.

Try installing a proper media player software like VLC, MPC-HC, MPC-BE or Potplayer
Also for future reference it is always advised to render animations to image sequences, never directly to video file formats

I use VLC also.

Wow, I expected the file to just be broken but it did have to do with the player. I downloaded VLC and the playback works perfectly. Thanks!


text:
Curve Spiral creates unwanted result with mesh
I have been trying to recreate Min-mins left arm from ARMS but to no avail... I created a spiral myself and tried to wrap the mesh along it using the array and curve modifiers. The mesh does not stay consistent along the spiral however, turning inside out and back in throughout a cycle of the spiral creating an inconsistent shape. I tried it with the spiral given from the extra curve add-on which unfortunately yielded the same results. I don't really know how to fix this. Attached should be a reference photo of what it should look like. Note that the scales and spikes are always on the outside. This is what I want to accomplish.

Try the built in Extra Objects addon.  It has an option for creating spirals.

that's what I meant by  I tried it with the spiral given from the extra curve add-on which unfortunately yielded the same results

Try to set "Object > Transform > Geometry to Origin",
it looks like your geometry is offset from center.

Possible duplicate of Object on curve wont stay flat!

Also see https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/49265/how-to-edit-curve-but-not-ruined-tilt-settings/49289#49289

@jim both of the origins are at the center and overlapping. I know that I can alter some of the position/rotation of the mesh on the curve within edit mode but that doesn't fix the complete 180 in and back during the spiral. The mesh in edit mode is a little bit away from the center but that was necessary so the array modifier would work cohesively with the curve modifier. The origin is still at 0,0,0 as is the origin of the curve.

The problem could be solved simply by tilting the curve a bit. The to me previously unknown shortcut ctrl+t allowed me to tilt the curve in such a way that it worked out in the end. For those that don't know: tilting a curve doesn't move any of the points on a curve but changes the direction they are facing.


text:
After Boolean still see the wireframe
I can still see the vertices still there after I use boolean union? What other way I can join different models and have them merge beside Control J? Thanks

Hello and welcome. Please edit your question and provide more info or clearer screenshots of what is happening or what you want to achieve. It's not currently clear what you are asking.

I merged 3 differnet obj using Join and boolean union. Yet the model still showing all the vertices inside, what is the the best way to combine them?

If you want to eliminate the geometry inside Booleans are the way, but your shapes must be clean, closed, manifold, watertight meshes; without any overlapping geometry, duplicated vertex or gaps for it to work well. There is no other way, as far as I know


text:
How to add edges without changing the form ?
Is it possible to add edges like in picture without affecting the smoothed geometry ? If i add in the edge ring with edge ring tool, it will deform the form but i need it to stay perfectly rounded.

Please explain more in depth. What do you mean with smoothed geometry (a subdivision surface modifier)?

I basically need to add  edges vertically(where the line is) without changing the roundness

Use To Sphere tool. After adding the vertical loop cuts select each loop with Alt+RMB, change the pivot type to Individual Origins, press Shift+Alt+S and drag the cursor outwards the mesh. Select the other loop and press Shift+R to repeat the process. Do the same with the other ones. Now you've got additional loops in your mesh and it's also perfectly smooth.

EDIT: If you need to add the horizontal loopcuts also you may subdivide your mesh (W-->Subdivide), then smooth the vertices (Ctrl+V-->Smooth Vertex) and increse the Smoothing value to 1.000. As you can see the objects look the same.

Thank you for very informative answer. That is how to add edge loops horizontally, but what about adding them vertically? I tried with spherizing tool but it deformed top and bottom of my mesh. But i had only selected one loop. would it work with all loops selected.That way is not good for that reason. Is there another way without using smooth modifier?

Thank you a thousand times ! That's what ive been looking for.


text:
Is it possible to hide the origin's display dot of the object(the black dot) from the viewport display ?
i was wondering this question. Here's the picture about that. It is that little black dot in the center. As far as i have learned it is just for displaying the center of mass. It often draws my attention and i need to hide it.

Try check the Only Render checkbox in the Display panel of the properties shelf (N).

EDIT: Now possible in 2.8 and above: view Is there a way to hide all the origins in the 3D view?
In 2.7x and below it is not possible to hide only the center points. But if you need a clear view, you can activate Only Render in the Display Panel of the Properties Bar in the 3D View.

By the way the dot is not the center of mass, it is the center of transforms. (if you eg rotate the object, it will rotate around this point.) You can set the origin point to wherever you want with the weird shortcut ShiftCtrlAltC.


text:
''only render'' to bind as a hotkey
how to put ''bpy.context.space_data.show_only_render = False/True'' as a key binding? I tried digging the python's API for an operator or identifier but could not find it. I just need the operator/identifier line to put in the field.

Related http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/58486/add-toggle-hotkey-to-custom-checkbox?rq=1


text:
Blender how to set a mesh perpendicular to the grid or ather mesh?
I have a rather complex object with several mesches, the problem is that not everything is at right angles (perpendicula) .
The problem is that the parts do not fit neatly on or together.
How can I square (perpendicula) each mes individually (for example on the grid)?

maybe try this answer: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/144100/is-there-a-way-to-realign-a-not-aligned-object-which-tranforms-has-already-been

OK, I'm going to try that, it sounds logical


text:
Edge bridge not equal
How is this possible, I'm doing an edge bridge and one side is concave and the other side is convex.
They should both be hollow like (the green one).
Everything is correct, such as scale, normals, deleted loos, merged by distance, etc.

Hey :). The bridge edge loops tool has some known issues. Since your object looks like a spiked wheel, you may want to use Array modifier - model one part, the others will be generated automatically :).

Thanks, with LoopTools it works.


text:
Strange results after Solidify
I made this mesh and checked it for Scale, Doubles and Merge by distance.
The mesh is 1 whole, but as you can see in photo 3, the top is on it instead of in and on photo 2 you see cracks at the bottom left.
In my opinion it is, first make the mesh and then Solidify, but when I solidify it, this mesh I get the strangest results.
What am I doing wrong" ?

Can u provide blend file?

maybe your normals are inverted, in that case select all and press Shift N. For the cylinder, it may be inavoidable as faces can overlap, but there are some options that you could try in the modifier. Maybe share your file: https://pasteall.org/blend/

The "cracks" might be due to overlapping geometry which can happen in corners where faces are extended towards each other so far that they start intersecting. This is something that you cannot really avoid especially with high resolution geometry, because than the space between edges and vertices gets smaller. You can set Thickness Clamp in the modifier, but that leads to thinner walls in those areas.
The faces extending in the wrong direction might be due to an incorrect face orientation. If you enable Face Orientation in the Show Overlays menu at the bottom right of the 3D Viewport window, you will see blue and red faces. Blue is considered the outside, red the inside. In the Solidify Modifier, the Offset value of -1 extends to the inside, 0 equally inside and outside and 1 in the outwards direction.
Another thing you might want to enable in the modifier is Even Thickness. Without it, the solidification turns to decrease and increase thickness towards corners and borders, what becomes very obvious when using higher Thickness values.
Here's a screenshot where to check the Face Orientation:


text:
Why does boolean cut not work
I'm trying to make a hole in this simple box with the Boolean modifier but it doesn't work.
Delete loos, Merge by distance, Face orientation, Scale, Recalculate normals, I've done all of them but it still doesn't work.
What am I overlooking?

It probably is working, but since the cylinder is still visible, you can't see the hole in the box.  Go to the cylinder in the outliner and click the eye to make it invisible.  Does that show the hole?

I know, but unfortunately not

Try switching from exact to fast solver in that case.  Exact solver seems very buggy.

Unfortunately that doesn't work either

I made the cylinder longer so that it also extends above the top. Then I gave the top of the cover a face and then did the boolean, then it worked. Then I removed the excess face.

That's weird, but I'm glad you've found a solution.


text:
Why does Bridging edges not work as it should
I select all the edges of the cylinder and then all the edges of the outer shape, when I try to bridge the edges of the cylinder with the edges of the outer shape I get this, what am I doing wrong ?
Delete loos, Merge by distance, Face orientation, Scale, Recalculate normals, I've done them all.

It may be because you have different number of vertices on each loop

It sounds like you were trying to bridge two sets of edge loops at the same time. Do the sets one at a time, because otherwise Blender will think it’s supposed to connect them all in sequence as one single-face-thick tube. From the looks of your geometry, that is what happened, and the results are expectedly weird.


text:
Rotation problem
I have a problem with Rotation, is it possible to reset the rotation of a mesh (see photo).
I downloaded the file and am disassembling it and now I see that the rotation values are very strange.
Is it possible to reset the rotation to match what I actually see ?

Could you try Ctrl+A (for apply) and then select Apply Rotation?

By "what I see", do you mean the "world" rotation? If so, do what @Jummit suggests, CTRL-A and select Apply Rotation

To set the rotation to 0,0,0 while keeping the mesh orientation, apply the rotation by hitting Ctr+A and selecting Rotation.

If you want to keep the rotation of the mesh but zero the rotation of the object, I suggest you copy the value of an axis (X, Y or Z), apply that amount of rotation in Edit Mode (R, [the letter of the axis], Ctrl+V), then clear the value in Object View. Repeat with all three axes.

That's exactly what I'm talking about.
That's fantastic, I've been working on this for quite some time now.
Thank you very much !


text:
Rotate the contents of a window
I am using a .blend file someone else made, and some contents of their properties window is rotated 90° to the left. This setting might be very convenient for people whose eyes are rotated 90° in their heads, but in my case it's making it difficult to work.

How do I make the contents look like this below image?

Answered whilst offering a comment solution. lol

To do this, Rightclick beside the panel name and choose Align Vertical instead of Horizontal as shown below:

This will be the result:


text:
Add an joint object to a wireframe modifier
I am trying to add a joint on the vertices of a wireframe modifier (where the lines of the wireframe modifier connect).
This is what I have:

This is close enough to what I would like:

(Ideally a joint would appear at EACH connection, unlike on the example above where there are several joint objects on some vertices and some don't have a joint object.)
I tried Dupliverts but it didn't work, and I tried a particle hair system but the results I got were very messy.
I can't apply the Wireframe modifier because it's animated with a displace.

Use a second icosphere and duplivert on it.

Could you make this an answer?

A possibility, to avoid the duplicate object to be influenced by the wireframe modifier is simply to use another object of the same shape and set the dupli on it.
This second object could be hidden at rendering or simply composed of vertices and edges but no faces:


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Cycles render, noisy even when using a high number of samples
I've seen other questions around, but none that answered my current problem.
I've been working on this scene for a few days, and when I wanted to render it, the produced result wasn't quite like I expected, very grainy:

Here's a detail:

This was rendered at 500 cycles.
A previous render when the scene wasn't finished gave much clearer results:

What could be causing this, and what are the basic things to check to troubleshoot this kind of problem?
EDIT:
Here's the .blend file (click on the orange button, sorry about the ad pop-up, the file is over the 30 mb limit of blend-exchange, feel free to suggest alternative hosts in the comments)

Ok, just added it

My file is over 30 mb so I can't

Ok, sorry about that, I changed the host of the file to another one without email, click the orange button you'll just have a ad pop-up as a downside, sorry

sometimes you just need more samples. A lot of finished still renders I've seen have thousands of samples

Attaching a blend file is the way to go...
as its hard to look at the image and guess why.
But still...for interior scenes this might help quite a bit any way..
USe light portals to reduce interior noise in cycles...
It involves using an area light(other lights dont work) in the opening where the light should be coming in from and in the lamp settings turn on "use portal".
This helps reduce noise in interior renders by a huge margin.
A more detailed explanation can be found in the youtube link and a stack exchange post here..
What does Light Portal mean?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LjLyTBbl6s
-cheers

Thanks for pointing that out...very new to stack exchange.
Post edited.
-cheers

@Hyenaman Welcome to Blender Stack Exchange! Thanks for contributing. Any Stack Exchange site can seem unwelcoming and impersonal at first if you immediately receive criticism on something you posted before you even get to "hello". But stick with it. People here care most about amassing a collection of high-quality questions and answers, so if you always think of your audience first you will be well-received. Cheers.

@Hyenaman I just added it


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Importing a SVG file creates too many faces
I am trying to import a simple SVG shape into Blender to extrude and bevel it, but the result looks very complex / has too many faces.

I've found other tutorials for SVG import that had the same problems, but no precise answer or explanation as to how to avoid this.
I am trying to import the outside path to bevel it as seen on this illustration:

Another option is adding a Decimate Modifier on top of your converted geometry and clean it up manually.

The SVG importer likely generates a 2D curve initially, so in future you might be better off to avoid converting to a Mesh first. Some steps below can be skipped if you do that.
Like this:

There's a few ways to do this, the simplest might be to simply ignore the fact that you have a lot of faces, and convert straight into 2D Curve

Convert the Mesh in Object mode to Curve using alt+C.
Set to 2D Curve type.

Use the Geometry panel to adjust offset / extrude and bevel depth. The Curve object has a lot of the same features as the Font Object type.

yep, that means OP can either redo to get back to Curve and skip the first steps or use what he has and follow these steps.

Thanks again for the great answer, @zeffii ! Do you know if there's a way to "apply" extrusion and bevel, to make what we see a real 3D shape?

@fabriced you want a mesh and don't need to make any more edits to the shape? then in Object mode , with the object active, press Alt+C and pick Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text. Feel free to ask a fresh question to get comprehensive answers.


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How can I simply map a procedural gradient from the equator to the poles of a sphere?
I am struggling with something in the shader node editor that I thought should be rather simple, but apparently isn't. I want to map a linear gradient from the equator of a sphere towards the poles (white in the middle, black on the poles). I thought I could just separate the Z from the Object coordinates or the Y from the UV coordinates and plug it into a color ramp, but controlling the result is turning out to be very un-intuitive. When I use Object, I end up with an extremely narrow strip at the poles, and when I use UV, I have to move the stops on the color ramp almost on top of each other to narrow the gradient down. What is the optimal way to do this so that it can be easily modified?

Here is my result:

And here is my node setup:

The absolute value node works well here because instead of going from a large negative to a large positive, with zero in the middle (creating a standard linear gradient), we instead achieve a positive value on both the top and bottom of the sphere, with it linearly going towards 0 in the middle.
You can change the color ramp type to 'ease' to get a larger area of black in the middle if you want, and changing the emission value also affects it.

You have a perfect 1000 point rep, and I just can't do it... ...oh well, +1 for you :).


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Is it possible to store edge data layers?
Something that I do frequently in blender is use a UV map for coordinates to map an otherwise procedural texture, such as when texturing a snake. I don't always know where the best seams would be beforehand, so I like to try putting them in a different places and create multiple UV layers. So I was wondering, in the same way as one can switch between multiple UV maps, is it possible to store edge data sets, for example, save multiple sets of UV seams or edge creases and toggle between them?

You can save "edge data" like that in the form of seams on UV maps.  Use "seams from islands" operation in UV editor to select what your seams would have been for that UV map.
Can also maintain multiple copies of your model, and use a data transfer modifier to copy seam status (or all sorts of other edge statuses.)


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How to make a texture disappear when a mesh passes over it? Like vacuuming dirt from a carpet.
I have a carpet texture and I added a lot of dirt on top of it. How do I make the the parts where the vacuum goes to disappear? This is for cycles.

Have you looked into Dynamic paint? Looks like the right feature for what you want to do https://www.blender.org/manual/physics/dynamic_paint/index.html


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Which GPU toPurchase? Nvidia Quadro k2200 or gtx 980?
Im planning to do renders with millions of polygons. I want the most responsive view-port and fastest render times.
My friend suggested to get the gtx 980, while the employees at the computer store suggested Nvidia Quadro k2200.
Which is best for cycles?
Thnks.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is asking for hardware recommendations.

I wouldn't rely on opinion of "employees at the computer store" because their main interest is to sell. People with real experience which won't gain any money from that can give more valuable advice. For such questions try http://hardwarerecs.stackexchange.com

Never did any actual real world testing, but from my limited experience and from what I've heard NVidia Quadros (or any "professional" grade cards) are never worth the extra money.
Besides that in Blender's specific case they are probably not worth it because they are likely not optimized, simply because most blender developers don't have testing access to Quadro card so even if they work at all, there's a good chance that there's little to no performance benefit at all. Most likely you would not get your price bump's worth in performance gain at least.
I have no benchmarks to back my theory up though,  so I advise you to do some actual investigation in this area by searching for "Cycles Cuda benchmarks"  or something along those lines.
I own a 980ti and it works very well in parallel with my older gtx580.
I'd say you are probably better off buying a regular consumer card like the 980ti or even a TitanX if you need the extra memory for complex scenes.
If you need extra performance buy multiple cards and assemble them in a non SLI configuration. Blender Cycles scales really well with parallel cards.
You may also look into the newer faster and cheaper GTX1080 which is expected to preform very well. But have in mind that because it is still a very new hardware it is not yet fully supported in Blender, this will likely change in future versions, though when that might happen is not known yet.

Thnks alot, much appreciated.


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Universal joint not parenting to bone correctly
I've been having troubles getting this universal joint rigged. It's mostly alright except for when I move the entire arm. The one piece of the joint will not go along with it no matter what I do. Parenting it to either bone messes up it's location (keeping transform doesn't work).
I know there is another way to do this that involves using bones, however, I would rather not have to convert this joint. If there is not alternative, then I guess I will.

Parenting should work fine, but it is important to set the object origins (rotation pivots) correctly. Some constraints would also help.


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"L" select connected selection tool doesn't work
In the below scene, I cannot seem to select the shape on the left by hovering over it and pressing "L" select connected.

In the below screen shot, I pressed L to select other elements of the scene, and all became selected properly:

But no matter how much I try, I cannot seem to select the left side shape...

I pressed "L" ten times and it eventually selected it... ?????

But usually when everything is deselected (A key), I can just hover over an element and press L. Why would it be different now?

Small addition to the answer below and comments above: if you already have any componenets (verts, edges, faces) selected, press Ctrl + L to select the entire island.

There is a cursor proximity thereshold in the "Select Linked".
If you are in vertex mode, the cursor must be near a vertex to catch the vertex. It won't work if none of the object's vertices fall into the cursor's radius (e.g. if it is in the middle of a big face)


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Pivot point changes location between Edit and Object mode
I am trying to animate rotating arcs in different directions, around the center of the sphere they were once part of, but the pivot point, while in the right place while in Object mode, goes to another place in Edit mode.
In the GIF below, you can see the smallest arc rotating outside of the larger one while it should stay inside, and then in Object mode both arcs rotate at the same time / in the same direction, but but this time around the correct pivot point.
I tried snapping the pivot point to the right position, but it didn't work.


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How can I limit scaling on one axis?
When scaling or extruding a Gear's Edges, the edges  seem to scale down on the Z axis, in a way that is not level with the origin point of the edges:

Any other "default" Blender object will scale or extrude without scaling down on the Z axis:

How do I scale or extrude these edges without them moving to the center on the Z axis? I don't think it has to do with applying scale/location because all three GIFs in this question were produced at default size for each object.

The reason for this is because you have two edges selected, meaning your total selection has some height. Scaling by default will scale along each axis by the same percentage, thus it flattens some. To not scale on the Z axis, simply scale only on the X and Y axes. To do so, press S then Shift+Z to disable scaling on the z axis.

Thanks! How about extruding the top and bottom Edge loops simultaneously without Z axis scaling?

Just use the exact same key combination directly after pressing E.


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Display Zoom information
In several graphics app such as Photoshop (or even other apps like Word), the view zoom is indicated at the bottom of the window:

Photoshop

Word for Mac
However, in Blender's image viewer, I haven't been able to find such a thing.
The only thing I could find is the View menu, which doesn't tell you which setting you are on but lets you click on one of them:

If I select "Zoom 1:1" then go return to the View menu, "Zoom 1:1" will not have a checkmark next to it
Is there a way to display the percentage of the zoom currently applied to the image editor?

Blender doesn't offer a way to show the zoom level but we can use python to display it if we want.
The simplest way is to add a panel -
import bpy
import math

class Image_PT_zoom(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_idname = "Image_PT_zoom"
    bl_label = "Image Zoom"
    bl_space_type = 'IMAGE_EDITOR'
    bl_region_type = 'UI'

    def draw(self, context):
        zoom = context.space_data.zoom[0]*100
        zoom_h = context.space_data.zoom[1]*100
        if math.isclose(zoom,zoom_h,rel_tol=0.001):
            self.layout.label(text="{:.1f}%".format(zoom))
        else:
            self.layout.label(text="Width:  {:.1f}%".format(zoom))
            self.layout.label(text="Height: {:.1f}%".format(zoom_h))

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(Image_PT_zoom)

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(Image_PT_zoom)

register()

You can find this as an addon here.

I tried pasting your code in the Python Console but got error messages, so I installed from file, but I cannot see where the zoom info is displayed? https://imgur.com/a/BNwJ7

In the properties sidebar N - the script above should have had a register() call at the end, add that. example


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'to sphere' giving eliptical shape

What is causing this effect? Same thing is happening when I try looptools -> circle.

Have you tried doing Apply Scale on your mesh?

The problem is due to the mesh having been resized without applyig the new scale and the solution is to Apply Scale. This can be achieved by selecting the object (in Object mode), pressing Ctrl-A and selecting Scale.


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the speed of camera rotations when using the numbers of the numpad?
is there a way to lower the speed of the rotation when pressing 2 4 6 8 in the numpad for a quick camera rotation around an object ?  A way without scripting. Maybe changing the start up file or something like that ?

Yes, go to User Preferences/Interface, and here play with the Smooth View and Rotation Angle settings.

Smooth View
      Length of time the animation takes when changing the view with the numpad. Reduce to zero to remove the animation.
Rotation Angle
      Rotation step size in degrees, when Numpad4, Numpad6, Numpad8, or Numpad2 are used to rotate the 3D View.

Go to Edit > Preferences > Navigation > Orbit & Pan
Rotation Angle is the number of degrees the camera turns on each press on 2 4 6 8.
Smooth View is the inverse speed of the animation. A higher number will extend the time it takes for the rotation to complete, but a smaller rotation angle will reduce the time it takes for the rotation to complete.


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rotating edge loops individually on their own axis
I would like to know how to rotate edge loops individually on their own axis. I tried doing this with pivot point as individual origins and rotating along normals X with normal as the transformation axis. Actually, I tried all combinations with all the axis, but none worked.
I need the selected edges rotated individually 45 degrees forward.

I have found a way by applying rotation opperator with 45 degrees separately but is there a way with rotation tool ?

It's all about the setup.

model your flower and delete all the rest of the petals leaving one.
since there is 5 sides each petals need to rotate 72 degree.
Using array modifier with a rotated empty I reconstructed the flower.
Now I can modify one petal to make sure all the rest of the petals follow.

Here is the blend file I created ...

Select edit mode.
Select edge mode.
Make sure to select the edge you want to rotate from last (The Active Element)
Set pivot point to "Active Element"
Hit N to open navigation panel in 3d view.
Look for Transform Orientation tab.
Hit the "+" button to setup Transform Orientation to the face you want to rotate.
Remember to choose from the list of newly created Transform Orientation called "face" if there are more than one it should look like "face.001 or face.002"
Activate rotation and hit Y to rotate in the Y axis.

Thank you! This is so deep and technical therefore not very artist-friendly. Sadly the rotation tool cannot do that.  I have used different method. I selected my edge loop, did the rotation operation then applied that operation (shift + r) to the edge loops I needed.

To understand your requirement for this behavior. Do you need it for modeling or animation? If it's for animation the above method works. If it's modeling then I would suggest for this scenario you should apply move instead of rotation. I don't know if it's possible, but from my arsenal of methods ... this is the way I do it if it's a multi-angled object like a flower.

It is for learning purposes. Just free modeling and learning blender. Just thought it was possible to free form model(rotate) the tool and the edges would act the same. Thanks again. Your explanation gave me more understanding!


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enhanced 3d cursor. ''..blender redraws itself..''
This addon can show/hide the 3d cursor. When you mouse over on the button it says:

Does that mean that it takes a lot of CPU usage to compute the addon and in general slows down the application ? Asking this because I have a really turtle computer.

Yes. When you want to hide the 3D cursor then i would suggest to use the custom Blender build from fjuhec where this is better implemented. https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?370568-Custom-Build-Blender-pigeon-v2-78a-%28October-27th%29&highlight=custom+blender+build


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How to achieve a plain and clean UV edge export ?
When I export my UV layout, I get the UV layout with faces shaded so to say (fig 2). Is there a way to get a pure edges export without faces being shaded (fig 1)  ?

When you export the UV layout you have options on the left of the file browser. You need to set the Fill Opacity to '0':

Sorry, are you saying this worked for you or not?


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how to display only texture (100%in color) in evee viewport ? 2.8
I need to see the texture in 100% color without any lightning on the model. How can to disable all the lightning so the model is displayed only textured?

I have found another way:
In the upper right of your 3D viewport are settings for the viewport shading method. Select the white sphere (Solid mode) and then choose Flat and Texture.


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How do I create an Alembic geometry Cache or animation from a series of meshes
I have a series of meshes that I would like to export to unreal and have them read as a geometry cache or animation. I have about 60 meshes and I would like each mesh to be a single frame of an animation. Basically I want to create a 3D mesh flipbook asset for vfx.
The way I did this before was using 3ds max and unreals vertex animation tools script. https://docs.unrealengine.com/en-us/Engine/Animation/Tools/VertexAnimationTool
Is there a way I can do this with Alembic or any other way from blender.
I'm really stuck here so any help you guys can provide would be greatly appreciated.


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Why can't I parent two bones together?
I am trying to parent two bones together on the human body I made. For some reason, on 2.77, no matter what parent option I use, the bottom abdomen bone and the upper leg bone wont "connect" (as much as they can when it comes to parenting). I'm using this video to learn how to rig, but what it tells me to do doesn't match up with what is happening on my screen. Any suggestions, tips, or option changes I don't know about?   Blender Rigging 1/2

Please show some screenshots of what you are trying to do. With respect, people aren't going to watch a 19 minute video to try and see where you went wrong.

It's around the time 4:30 to 5:00 in the video. Sorry, I didn't think about that XD

The linked video shows parenting with an Offset. If you'd like the two bones to actually connect in your own rig, select Connected instead. Better yet, select the bone roots and hit F afterwards, so your original thigh bone stays nice and aligned with the rest of the leg.


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Making a HDRI map more subtle creates a drop shadow
I tried following cegaton's answer here to make a HDRI map more subtle, and the result produced generates a darker edge / drop shadow between the 3D objects and the background:

I am not sure what causes it.

It's because you're blurring the Environment pass.  The environment is not inclusive of the area behind the building.  In other words, there's a black hole where the building is and you're trying to blur it... therefore some of the blue is going to be darker around the edge.  If you want to blur the environment, it would be better to use layers.

It's because you're blurring the Environment Pass. The Environment Pass is not inclusive of the area behind the building. In other words, there's a black hole where the building is that's being blurred... therefore some of the blue is going to be darker around the edge.

I've been hoping and waiting for the Blender devs to include the capability of making only specific layers transparent.  As far as I know, this doesn't exist yet.
If you want to blur the environment without having a halo and without having to save a separate render to disk and then composite the image to your scene, you can use the "Glass Sphere" trick.
1.) Set Transparent under Render Properties >> Film:

2.) Add a Sphere object (low poly) with Smooth Shading enabled and set the material to be Glass with a IOR of 1.0 and a Color of 1.0 White.  Make it large enough to encompass your Camera and then Parent it to the Camera:

3.) Create two render layers... one for your setting and one for the sphere.  Exclude the Sphere's layer from everything else (this ensures that the sphere itself doesn't affect the lighting on any objects in your scene).  Set the Number of Samples on the Sphere Layer to 1 (it should only take a couple of seconds to render):

4.) After that, blur it as you were with the Environment pass:

EDIT: I forgot... the reason this works is because you now have a shader (albeit a perfectly clear shader) covering the camera plane.  Blender must render the shader and all the rays that are affecting it, hence the environment on the other side of the glass must be visible.  For obvious reasons, a Transparent shader will not work for this.

@cegaton - You sexy devil.  Why do I even answer when we have you around?

@cegaton - lol, you post and I'll just delete mine.


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Can you replicate Optics Compensation in VSE?
The Effect "Optics Compensation" in After Effects is great to compensate the distortion of certain lenses such as Fisheye lenses or wide angle, etc.

I have only so far been able to replicate this in Blender by assigning my photo/video to a plane in the 3D space, aiming the Camera down and using Compositor nodes as such:

But for efficiency purposes - because assigning videos of photo textures to a plane adds an extra step, I would like to be able to use this Lens Distortion to the VSE directly.
I have seen some questions here saying you can link the Compositor to a scene, but I am unable to reproduce and to fully use the Compositor's nodes in video edits, ideally I would like to see the change in effects settings live.

How can the Compositor Node effects be used in VSE in a streamlined way?

Are you talking manually entering the distortion or using calculated distortion data from the camera tracker? As in- I know the camera tracker can un-distort / re-distort footage, and I'm pretty sure this is done in the compositor.

I want to use the lens distortion (and other) node in the video editor as simply as possible

Sorry then, I shall have to duck-out of this: I know little or nothing about the video editor,  compositor & tracker in Blender- as I use Davinci, Fusion & Syntheyes for these workflows myself... Sorry!

You can directly undistort footage in the Sequencer, once you have it set up correctly in 2.8.
Open up the movie clip editor and open your footage.

To properly choose some distorsion value, we will have to be able to preview the result. Go to the top right of the movie clip editor, click on Clip Display and check Render Undistorted. This will give us the undistorted view of the footage live in the movie clip editor.

Open the Track rider N > Track and go to the Lens Panel. Here are the Lens Distorsion parameters K1, K2 and K3. Change their values and see how the footage (un)distorts itself. It can help to draw a Line Annotation to evaluate the straightness of lines.

Once you are satisfied with the undistorsion go to the sequencer. (You will have to load up all the footages in the movie clip editor which you want to use in the sequencer if you want to undistort them there.)
Add the created movie clip to the sequencer by pressing ⇧ ShiftA > Clip > YourClipName.mov.
Open up the properties panel N and go to the Strip rider. Go to the Adjust > Video panel and check Undistort Clip. The added clip will be rendered undistorted directly from the sequencer.

There's currently no effect strip (that I know of) that directly allows optic compensation on a clip as simply as it does in After Effects (that would be a good vse coding project to work on). But you can use compositing nodes in a separate scene for a clip and then add that scene to the VSE in your original scene.
(Note that you don't need to use a plane to achieve this, you can add the movie clip directly into the compositor)


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How can I animate an edge loop?
I have a simple gauge that I want to animate to make the green part fill the gauge progressively.

The whole gauge is also slowly rotating on its Y axis while this is happening.
I tried looking online for help, but couldn't find any.
I also looked for a long time in several places such as the Object panel to try and find the coordinates of this edge loop, but didn't find them.
I'm probably doing something wrong.

You may do it using shapekeys.

You may do this using Shape Keys.

Being in Object Mode go to the Data header and in a Shape Keys panel add a key (press the '+' button) and name it location. Enable the apply shapekeys in edit mode option. Now enter the Edit Mode, change the location key value to 1 and slide your edge loop along the object. Next set the location key value back to 0.

Go to frame 1 on your timeline, hover your cursor over the Value slider in a Shape Keys panel and press I to insert a keyframe.

Go to the next desired frame on your timeline, change the shapekey Value to 1 and press I again.

Now insert the keyframe for rotation. Being in Object Mode, in 3D window go to frame 1 and press I-->LocRotScale (or just Rotation).

Go to the next desired frame on your timeline, rotate your object (R) and press I-->LocRotScale again.

If you want a constant movement of your animation go to the Graph Editor, press T and change the keyframe interpolation type to Linear.

Remember, that you can change the duration of inserted keyframes animation. Go to the Dope Sheet Editor, select the desired action and place it (using G) wherever you like on a timeline. In my case I've increased the green gauge speed.

Thank you very much! My "+" button in the Shape Keys data panel is greyed out, both when the object is selected and isn't, you know why that could be?

That's because you are in the Edit Mode. You can add new shapekeys (usng '+' button) being in Object Mode only.

Wait, so I have to apply them in Object mode but then I have to go back to Edit mode to modify the object right? When I rotate the shape then play the animation, it shrinks towards the middle and then becomes the normal site again, is this normal? http://ge.tt/5Rh6gSQ2/v/0 oh and also when I press i (it's a i, right? looks like a L) I get "active shape key index" property cannot be animated

You add new shapekeys in Object Mode and edit them in Edit Mode. Probably your mesh shrinks, because the origin point isn't inside it. Place the origin point in the center of your object and apply the loc, rot and scale (Ctrl+A in Object Mode) and then edit the shapekeys. About the "active shape key index property cannot be animated'' problem- to keyframe the shapekey value (by pressing 'I'- like Independence) you need to place your cursor over the value, not the keyframe name (the name cannot be keyframed but the value can). Btw, the link you posted is broken.

Sorry about the link being broken. I followed this: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5519/setting-the-pivot-point-of-an-object
But the shape still shrinks when I apply the rotation. Here's the screen grab I was trying to share earlier; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f86ZHLwqmnM&feature=youtu.be

@fabrice d I now know why this rotating issue appears. I forgot that shape keys are not good for animating rotation like this (cause the keyed vertices change their position moving linear). You should use a 'standard' keyframe insertion for rotation. I've rebuilded my answer. Now it should work fine for you :)

Sorry for the delay, I'm just getting back to this, and I can't find the way to change the value of the location shape key: http://i.imgur.com/Vo8PNZy.png hope you can help, sorry I wasn't working on this for a while

Oh that was the Basis one. Thanks a lot! Solved it. Great!


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Cannot animate rotation of object along global Z
I would like to animate a rotation of the key on a vertical Z axis without changing its current position, like this:

When I press R then Z, the key rotates the way I want it to in the animation. I tried changing the Rotation Order, and applying Scale/Location/Rotation, and it didn't work.
However, when I keyframe the start and end point (R Z 360º), the resulting animation makes the key spin in a different direction.
Here are my Transform settings:

Blend file:

@cegaton see my edit


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Exporting the cube with 6 faces (obj)
I am a beginner with blender 3d and have a probably easy question.
I try to export the cube with 6 sides as a (obj) so I can import it into sweet home 3d, in SH3D I want to give each face a different color or texture ?
How can I do that ?

You can assign different materials to different faces this way, but don't expect OBJ to export full fidelity material definitions.

The ability to export obj is active, the problem is that if I import the cube into SH3D that it is 1 obect, I need 6 faces - front-behind-left-right-top and bottom.
I know how to assign a color to an object in sh3d.
Kind regards

I found the solution,
Go to Edit mode -> Create 6 new colors -> Go to Edge - Split edge -> Deselect all (a) -> Select 1 face and give him 1 of the new Colors, repeat this for
each face.
Then -> File - Export - OBJ
Go to SH3D and import Furniture -> Import the cubes -> Customize furniture, now you can individually color each of the 6 faces.


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How to manipulate a individual edge
How can I lower the edge indicated with red arrow to the edge indicated with the green arrow.

If you want to merge the 2 edges, you should first enable the Auto-Merge option:

Then select both the 2 edges and CtrlE > Bridge Edge Loops to bridge. Now select the top edge and slide it down with GG. You may not even need the bridge if the 2 edges are correctly aligned, in that case enable the Snap (Vertex mode) and the Auto-Merge options and move down the top edge.

I work with Blender 2.79
When I do that, the whole mesh moves and not just the edge.

maybe you've enabled the Proportional Editing option? (small sphere icon, blue when activated)

That's it, thank you very much!


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How to rotate texture
I am making a rim that should look like it is made of aluminum (CNC turned).
How can I rotate the texture in such a way that it looks like it was actually turned CNC?
In the direction of the red circle with the arrows.

Hello :). In this case it's a good idea to use a UV map. Then you'll have the best cotrol.

You can try to change the scaling or rotation on different axis within your mapping node. But your rim has a bit more complex geometry, so I recommend uv unwrapping it and using UV texture coordinate instead of the generated coordinate. EDIT: tutorial here

thanks all for the answers, I solved it like "aphatetic_artist" they, (see photo).

I don't know how your object is rotated, but instead of setting Scale X to 200 in the Mapping Node, try Scale Z with 200 and X and Y at 1 (or maybe only 0.5) and change the Texture Coordinate from Generated to Object. If Z isn't correct axis, try setting Y to 200.
And if you're going to color your object, you don't need that Mix RGB node, because you're just flipping black to white and vice versa. But since the Noise Texture generates an even distribution of the 0 to 1 range, flipping the colors doesn't make much of a difference.
On the other hand, the Height input of the Bump node converts greyscale values to height information - so it's best to use the Fac output of the Noise Texture instead of Color.


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How can I make a curved wall thicker?
How can I make the wall evenly thicker in the direction of the arrows ?

if you use Extrude Faces Along Normals it should have equal thickness. If 'you've already extruded and the thickness is not equal you need to correct visually I guess

@moonboots Extrude Faces Along Normals left at the default tool settings will not offset even and in this case leave you with internal faces afterwards.

I meant he should have done it this way at the beginning   ;)

@moonboots Depends on how the wall was created... looks more like there was an edge loop on the top and the thin faces were extruded upwards. Extruding along face normals would have made no thicker wall then.

I didn't know the Dissolve Orthogal Edges, nice trick

Select the inner faces, then Alt+E > Extrude Faces Along Normals.

While extruding, press S once to toggle even thickness ON (Alt needs to be held constantly so I prefer S).

After confirming the extrusion with left-clicking, go to the tool options in the bottom left of the viewport and enable Dissolve Orthogonal Edges. If you don't, you will end up with inner faces. By the way, here you can enable Offset Even afterwards as well if you forgot to do it while extruding.

If you want to get rid of the edge between the "old" and "new" wall, select it and press X > Dissolve Edges.

That works, thank you !

@MIck Please read: What should I do if someone answers my question?