text:
How to run blender 2.77 on a virtual network render machine with no Opengl support on windows?
I have a server that runs multiple instances of virtual machines and is running windows 10... there is a cinema 4d farm clients running there...and I need to run blender 2.77 slave mode ...but the problem is that blender 2.77 is not starting due to no video hardware acceleration on the virtual machine... Is there a way to
run blender skipping the video HW check?

I believe (forgive me if I am wrong), that you can launch blender in console mode with -b. See here for the full list of arguments: https://www.blender.org/manual/advanced/command_line.html THis should enable you to render things (apparently with the CPU).

Then again, tweaking the VM would seem the best way to solve it for good. Can that be done? At least in Linuxland it seems possible to run Blender without 3D acceleration (~ 7-10 years old physical box).

Thank you for your quick answer I managed to find a way to start the master and slave in comand line.no GUI. you configure blender with GUI interface to enable network render addon and save the userpref.blend file from  "C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.77\config" and copy to all virtual machines you need...then in blender you save a file with a scene set to network render and master running with the name master.blend...do the same but in slave mode ...you will have a slave.blend file ...then move the 2 files to blender directory and run blender -b master.blend -a

blender -b slave.blend -a...and they will connect automaticaly...you can use blender 2.76b GUI to configure files inside the virtual machine is warning you about no hardware acceleration but blender is running fine...then use the files with blender 2.77 ... sorry about the bad english! :(


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Blender not registering my SHIFT key
I remapped my keyboard (using KeyTweak) and now my "Caps Lock" acts as "Left Shift", "Left Shift" acts as "Left Ctrl" and "Left Ctrl" acts as "Caps Lock". It works on every other program that I tested. In Blender the "Caps Lock" (which acts as "Left Shift") does not work for any shortcut (the hotkey window just ignores my "Caps Lock" key presses), but works for typing text. On the other hand the "Left Shift" (which acts as "Left Ctrl") works.
Is there a way to solve this? I never created a script for blender and I don't know the API, but maybe I can emulate shift key presses via script or something like that?!
P.S I remapped the keys to reduce the wrist strain while programming, playing and modeling.

Blender as a built in keymap editor, although it won't solve your external rebinding, with a little work you could recreate your remapings directly inside Blender that would probably be less prone to conflicts reducing any problems you may encounter.

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos You mean the shortcut window under User Preferences > Input? If I try to rebind some shortcut by pressing "Caps Lock" (which acts as "Left Shift") nothing happens, but works for my "Left Shift" (which acts as "Left Ctrl").

That is probably a conflict between whatever application you are using to rebind keys and the way Blender captures keypresses internally. What I meant was using User Preferences > Input exclusively and rebind keys entirely from there instead of using another third party application which is bound to cause conflicts

The problem is that I can't just turn on/off the KeyTweak software since it changes the windows register keys (it requires a restart). This works fine with every other software, the problem is how Blender handles input (which I want to change).

I found a software called AutoHotkey which send keystrokes to other programs and WORKS WITH BLENDER. Just restored my KeyTweak changes to default and restarted the PC, then I installed AutoHotkey and created the following script:
#NoEnv
SendMode Input
SetWorkingDir %A_ScriptDir%
Capslock::Shift
Shift::Ctrl
Ctrl::Capslock

Saved and ran the script as administrator. Works perfectly.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Animate two objects with different armatures
I need to animate the weapon and the arms in the same project, but both of them are different objects with different armatures. How can I achieve this? Or maybe I can use just one armature for both weapons but export them separately (each armature should have their own mesh)?!
The weapon mesh is a child of the Weapon Rig and the arms mesh is a child of the Arms Rig.

There could be many challenges for this.  Please state what is the actual challenge you have encountered so far?

For this I see two Solutions:

use for each armature an own animation
put all animations into a single animation

What is now the best to choose?
That depends on in which way you use these animations.
If your arm- or gun-animation is alway the same, then it is probably better to make seperate animations. But if the arm-animation is dependend on the gun (or reversed), then I suggest to put all animations into a single one.
For declaration:
Action ~ combination of animations that are working together
Examples: Idling, Aiming, Shooting, Reloading
Animation ~ A set of keyframes
Examples: IdlingArms, IdlingGun, AmingArms, AminingGun
OPTION: Use for each armature an own animation
Foreach Armature and foreach action you create an animation. Make sure you give your animations meaningful names.
Note: This option is simple but animating can get hard, because for each action you have to make sure, each armature has it's own animation. And you will have many animations to handle.
OPTION: Put all animations into a single animation
Foreach action repeat following process:

For each armature go into 'Pose Mode'
Go to the DopeSheet-Editor
Change Mode from 'Dope Sheet' to 'Action Editor'
Add a new Animation by clicking '+ New'
Maybe give your animation a name
Select all other armatures and select the created animation

Any Keyframe you insert will be in the same animation
In that way you will have the same amount of animations as you have of actions.
Note: In the 'Dope Sheet Summary' you will only see the keyframes from the selected armature.
I hope I could help.

I wish there was a easier way to animate multiple objects together. So, I just decided to merge the armatures. Thanks for your time though.

I have the same problem. My animations keep overriding for this reason that one object is selecting the new animation i think. Changing action for each armature it seems messy and still weird outcomes.
I guess 1 armature is the simplest.

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

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Selecting vertices by weight
Is there an add-on or way to limit the selection vertices in a vertex group by a given weight range? Example: with a vertex group A selected, select only verts weighted between 0 and .05 to that group? Thanks!

Thanks. Here is the python script I wrote to select vertices of a specific vertex group, but only within a specific range:
import bpy

minWeight = .6
maxWeight = .7
vertexGroupIndex = 1

bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'EDIT')
bpy.ops.mesh.select_mode(type="VERT")
bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action = 'DESELECT')
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'OBJECT') # Switch to Object to get selection
obj = bpy.context.active_object
verts = [v for v in obj.data.vertices]
for v in verts:
  weight = v.groups[vertexGroupIndex].weight
  if weight <= maxWeight and weight >= minWeight:
    v.select = True
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode = 'EDIT')

One way to go is to copy the vertex group and use the tools Invert (so that low weights become high), Levels (Gain1, Offset to -0.905) and Clean (to remove all with weight 0, which were higher than 0.05 at the beginning) to cut off everything else. Then you can select those remaining vertices as usual.
But this is rather time consuming. If you need to do that a lot, I recommend writing a python script yourself.


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Open Inset Faces menu
I want to adjust the Thickness of the "Inset Faces"-Tool manually, since dragging is very inaccurate, and I want the exact same thickness on every face of the cube. I googled around but didn't find how to open some sort of menu to type in the value. Help would be very appreciated.
Screenshot attached.

You can always just type in the desired value by typing while still being able to drag: You activate insert Faces and just type in 0.25.

You can do like schustudrai says, or for more accuracy and options, make your inset and confirm it: parameters can then be edited on the bottom left in the "Operator" panel, or in a floating menu accessed using the F6 key.

You can also use snapping:

Ctrl while dragging to snap to increments
Ctrl+Shift for finer-grained snapping
set snapping for all your edits using the magnet icon in the 3D view toolbar.


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Does running a python script via Blender command line not actually do anything?
I am trying to create an animation programmatically (never using the interface) with Blender.  I can take my script and run it in Blender via the "scripts" tab just fine. It creates new scenes, adds cameras, object, lights, etc.  I can render the results of the script via the GUI or via command line.  But when I run it from the command line, it doesn't actually do anything!
I am using a "blank" .blend file with one initial scene in it with a title card.
Here is the .bat file script (Windows), it uses a python script to create the animation file:
cd\program files\blender foundation\blender
blender --background  C:\pathtofile\ANIMATION.blend --python CREATE_ANIMATION_FILE.py

It gives me:
found bundled python: C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.78\python
read blend: C:\pathtofile\ANIMATION.blend

Blender quit

It runs the script just fine but doesn't change the ANIMATION.blend file at all. Again, if I run the script from the scripts window via the in Blender GUI, it works fine.  Anyone come across this?
I found some info here:

11) Next step is to build a userpref.blend with Auto Run Python
  Scripts enabled. NOTE: This is essential because of a bug in blender.
  Starting blender with -y does not work. Neither does starting blender
  with a python script setting the autorun flag to ON. It even does not
  work to compile blender yourself with the WITH_PYTHON_SECURITY flag
  disabled (OFF). Blender will still not execute the python script. The
  only way to enable this auto execute is via the GUI. Since we do not
  have a GUI (or want to install one), we have to build a userpref.blend
  on a different machine.

by any chance, does your script not save the animation.blend file after it changes it?

I had no idea you had to do that.  Yikes!  I'll look in the API docs for that (As Larry David would say ... they are pretty, pretty, pretty sparse)

The api doesn't do anything differently than if you were using the UI yourself, you are just replicating steps with code, so if you want changes to save in the file, then, as you would do normally via the UI and as David says, you will have to save.

I respectfully disagree that the API doesn't do anything differently if you did it on the UI.  Direct access to the data blocks, for one.   Also many, many commands that you execute in the UI (by mousing over or looking at the script log) do not work at all in the API.  I've been working with it for around 9 months now and it's a hodgepodge of working perfectly and not working.  Lots of Nonetype errors.  Lots of attributes not found.    :)

That wasn't quite my point. You are still replicating steps the UI takes, regardless of whether it takes more steps in code to do it. Replicating the order in which you do things in the UI is often given as a starting point to people new to the api as it teaches them to think about the order in which operations need to be done in code. That is what solves the problem in your question.

That's absolutely true and the nuance of your point is a good one.  In fact when I joined the IRC Blend forum, one of their admins made the same point.  "Most of us just copy the logs from within the UI."   And when humans are doing the steps this is a very good point.  However the human solution is just a step to me.   I'm developing and AI that automates this whole process.  I'm delving hip deep into the API and the workflow of animation.  If you care to chat about it contact me!  Would love to talk to another freelancer.

Posting the script CREATE_ANIMATION_FILE.py, or a cut down not working example, would "shed some light" on this.  Surely if running from the command line did nothing it would have been noticed.  Or has, as suggested by @David, saving the file from script fixed your issue?

David above solved it.   When manipulating a .blend file with a python script, that script must contain the following line at the end of the run in order to save the file:
bpy.ops.wm.save_as_mainfile(filepath=savepath)

Obviously insert your filepath/filename in the "filepath" variable. Thanks!


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Blender 2.78 video editor crash
I am using Blender 2.78, default startup file.  Repeatable crash on the following steps:

Open Blender
Switch to Video Editor window via dropdown box
Add a movie (with audio and video)
Select the audio track of the movie on the editing track
Blender crashes/quits

Anyone else ever use the video editor successfully?

does blender crash with a different file?

Best to report it as a bug and provide access to the files that cause the crash, even if it is only the one file that causes it.

A few things to consider are:
 Are you using an official release?
 Are you in the latest version or in an old verion? There is both Blender 2.78a and 2.78b now. I have been working in the video editor with 2.78b and have had no trouble. Try download and re-installing the latest verion. If it continues, try with a different video file. If the problem is fixed, then it means that your video file was damaged. It could also be your audio file... Hope this helps! :)
-Tovin


text:
How can I change an objects settings to render correctly when using the blender renderer
I am sorry if this turns out to be a really basic answer. I have tried google searching the problem, as well as search through the first 3 pages of results here, but no dice.
Here is the situation, I downloaded model from blendswap to append to a model of mine. My model was set up to use with blender's rendering system, the blendswap file on the other hand uses the cycles render. When using the blender render, these objects are transparent and prevent objects behind them from being rendered as well.
So, as a restatement of my question, how can I change an objects settings to render correctly when using the blender renderer, instead of exclusively the cycles renderer.
Thanks in advance

Last one held the key, thank you for your help. All of you :)

There is no way to change the settings directly. BR does not use nodes while Cycles does. To change between, you have to develop a knowledge of both and apply your own wisdom. However, while I'm at it, Cycles is a better engine plus it is still being added to while BR hasn't been touched in years. I would try to transition.
Hope this helps and happy Blending!

Thank you for you assistance. I'll keep playing with it and see what I can do

Always glad to help!

Cycles Materials aren't compatible with Blender internal renderer engine, so you'll have to create new materials.

Thank you for you assistance. I'll keep playing with it and see what I can do


text:
My render is turning out black
link: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9MnoB3KD97sbjNJQWg1MWkyNnc&usp=sharing
I have a light source, but it renders black
Can anyone see what the problem is?

Welcome to the Blender StackExchange community! This is a question and answer site, not a forum, so it might be helpful to take our tour: http://blender.stackexchange.com/tour to get a feel for what we're about. In short, please add more information to your question about the problem you're experiencing and what you've tried to fix it. Screenshots are super helpful for people who want to answer, but don't have Blender in front of them to look at your file. BlenderArtists is a great place to get technical help, if your problem is too specific for BSE.

Quick, everybody, down vote him! He's new and we should make sure he can never comment on other people's things ever again! Get him!

Something must be wrong with your scene properties. I appended (Shift F1) all the objects into a new file and it rendered just fine, although it didn't copy your compositing setup.


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2.78c | Changing fluid gravity direction results in really weird behaviour
I have a rather simple fluid simulation.
My gravity is at -9.81, and it works nice, but I have animated the gravity and when it changes from -0.001 to 0 or a value greater than 0 the simulation breaks totally.
Frame 144, gravity at -0.001 — Frame 145, gravity at 0

And it stays that way the rest of the simulation.
I do need the gravity to change for this, and I just don't know what is going on and no one seems to have this problem.
I'm using Blender 2.78c
Here's a link to a Drive folder with the blend file and ZIP with both the blend file and simulation cache.
Thanks!


text:
My 3D Cursor follows my selection cursor everywhere I click. How do I stop this?
This happens to me every now and then in different projects and I never know what causes it. Anywhere I click, my 3D Cursor and Selection Cursor both move to that point and I cannot separate the two. How do I fix this?

Try hitting , (comma) and see if that fixes your problem.

THANK YOU.
What feature is that called anyways? The comma shortcut one. Also could you post this as an answer so I can accept the question being answered and you getting credit?

It's a Pivot setting - see this link for more info on its behavior. I'm not sure if this will be considered a duplicate or not, so for now I'm not going to post as an answer.

The answers are the same, but I think because it's a different question, it might not be a duplicate. If someone is looking for information on how to set the pivot point, that other question would be more likely to come up. But I think it's reasonable to believe that someone searching for THIS problem, might not be able to tell that the other question has the answer they need. What do y'all think?

You discovered the Pivot Point
This is a very useful feature in blender
Your pivot point is for example the rotation axis.
Maybe you want to rotate something around a Point then select a Vertice/Edge/Face/Object  press  Shift s to position the 3D Cursor.
Now press r and you will rotate aroud the 3D Cursor


text:
How can you change the rotation of a mirror modifier?
I am trying to use the mirror modifier on a cylinder I rotated and edited, but when I apply said modifier it mirrors based off its original angle rather than the new one. How can I fix this?

Yeah the rotation was in Object Mode

Actually this is one of those times when you don't want to apply the rotation.  Mirror modifier works off local axes, so if you rotate then apply you will change the mirror axis.  Either leave the rotation unapplied or add a Mirror Object to the modifier so it knows where the mirror plane should be.

This is not a direct solution to your problem (that really sounds like an "Apply rotation" problem), but it is a work-around that might allow you to achieve what you want.

Remove the Mirror modifier and instead add an Array modifier.
Add an Empty at the location of the original object.
Set the Empty as Object Offset in the Array modifier.
Rotate the Empty until you get a desired rotation.

not sure why but all that did for me was make a crazy offset extrusion

If you use an empty as the rotation Mirror Object: in the Mirror Object modifier, you can use the empty's rotation to affect the mirror. Procedure described at 4:30 here.


text:
How do I "smooth" out odd stretches and rotations on my human mesh?
I made a human prototype mesh and get these odd stretches across the facial region. I'm not sure if this is a vertex issue in Edit mode or needs to be worked on in Sculpt mode. I have never sculpted before, but was wondering what the best method is to fix these odd stretches?

I'm not an export, but your topology seems a bit off. Anyway it looks like artifacts from low subdivision. Increase the number of subdivisions in your SubSruf modifier

It looks much better when I use a subsurf modifier but I'm going for a low poly character for a game.

In that case baking normal maps from a high poly mesh to a low poly one may help

also try selecting your mesh and pressing ctrl + n, to recalculate your normals. i think your mesh may simply be too low poly, which can make smooth shading look a little off. this shouldn't show up in renders.

I tried recalculating the normals as well. Unfortunately the oddities still show up when the mesh is exported.


text:
Align vertex to another edge
I have a mesh where the faces should connect at the center in a single vertex, but the top is cut off at the moment (like a pyramid without its top). I want to add this top now, but I don't know how to correctly align it.
Here is an illustration of what I want to achieve:

And a second question:
How would I know resize this pyramid-like shape? I mean, the base should stay the size it is, but the rest should go higher or lower. It is obviously easy if every side of the pyramid is only a single face, but since my sides contain multiple faces, I don't know how to preserve the angles.
Again an image, since I'm really bad at describing.

Thank you.

For this particular case, it's better to do it in reverse, meaning make it a full pyramid shape first, then connect the vertices and make the cuts you need

But still, shouldn't this be possible somehow? Both are not that absurd actions. Basically I just want to align two edges like its a single one.

It's doable, I'm just pointing out to the easiest way. You can use custom transform for each edge and move snap vertex to the center, keeping a straight line, all depends on the level of accuracy you need

I'll post a detailed answer as soon as I get to my computer, if you can upload a .blend file, would be much better

Not directly related, but you might found some good ways there - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2976/how-can-i-add-vertices-to-intersection-of-two-edges

This probably needs more work, but will do the trick in the case presented above.

To use this script:

Open a text editor window, create a new file and paste the code below there.
First select the two vertices that define the edge you want to align the 3rd vertex with.
AFTER these two verts, select the 3rd vert you want to move to align with the edge.
Run the script.

Here's the code:
import bpy, bmesh
from mathutils import Vector, geometry

bm = bmesh.from_edit_mesh( bpy.context.object.data )
mw = bpy.context.object.matrix_world

if len( bm.select_history ) == 3:
    v1, v2, v3 = [ mw * v.co for v in bm.select_history ]
    edgeVec = v2 - v1

    v4 = v3 + Vector((0,0,1000))

    intersections = geometry.intersect_line_line(v1, v2, v3, v4)

    bm.select_history[2].co = intersections[0]

Not necessarily, it depends on the angle of the edge and the distance to the vertex being aligned with it.

this needs to be added into blender, pitch the idea on developer.blender.org

This is a quick and dirty solution, it needs a whole lot of work before it could be universally useful, but it could be a starting point for anyone who wants to implement it :)

what if all it does is make that one vertex without making all the faces. Is that a whole lot of work too?

Not sure I understood @eromod. Move only the vertex without the faces attached to it? (that would be impossible unless you duplicate the vertex, and then, what's the point?)

Use aligning viewport to selected mesh elements (in this case, edge of the pyramid). This is faster than creating custom transform orientation, however you should keep track of viewport angle.

Select one of pyramid's edges. Set Selection mode to Edge.
Press Shift+Numpad 3 to enter Side Ortho view for selected edge.
Enable Snap during transform, set Type of element to snap to Vertex.
Select vertex to be aligned to the top. Press Alt+Space and select View to set transform orientation to View and to move selection along it.
Grab vertex while choosing for tranform only X or Y axes. Depending on the view press Y or X twice for that. Hover mouse over vertices of pyramid's edges to align selection to them.

(Addition - if the pyramid doesn't have perpendicular side edges)

Set transform orientation to Normal. Set Pivot Point to Active Element. With the top vertex still selected, select one more, which was hovered over while aligning in the step 5.
S to scale based on location of the last selected vertex. Lock normal X axis by pressing Shift+X twice. Hover mouse over top vertex of the side edge of the pyramid which is seen in the middle of the pyramid (in Side Ortho view).

While this method is a bit more complex, it provides exact aligning of the top vertex making all the side edges of the same length; thus no faces will be splitted in the middle of the pyramid and the shading will be better. You can preview the gif for simple case in the version history.
See also How do I align the viewport to a face normal?

For information, I was not able to make it work except if the pyramid edges are at orthogonal. What is wrong for me ?

@MrZak what I meant is in your example the pyramid edges are orthogonal and all is ok. But if they are not, I was not able to apply this method

You could flatten the top with the base (scale to Z - 0) to allign all of the vertices (if they are not already linear, obviously), then use proportional editing (in your header menu) with a linear falloff and drag only the vertex that reprisents the top of the pyramid (make sure all the other vertices you wish to translate are within the UI circle - MMB by default to scale the circle).  EDIT: And after that, adjust the Z values of the vertices that refuse to allign.

But if your model looks anything like in your example above it might be more efficient to simply merge the top vertices into a single vertex and drag that one.

The "real" vertices stay like they should, but the vertices in between those (in the example above; the vertices at the bottom center of each face) still move up.
When I merge the top vertices to a single vertex (Alt+M), the structure of my existing faces will be destroyed.

What about adjusting the Z position values of the incorrect vertices to match the correct ones? I know its a workaround, but at least it should solve the problem.

No problem, just ensure to check the stuff eromod just posted, he might have a better sollution.

As "trick and tips", another solution to find the aligned top pyramid vertex :

1 Select and duplicate an edge
2 Scale it so that it goes over the middle of the pyramid
3 Use W then "Symetrize"
The wanted point is on 4


text:
Double UV images for one item
So I try to unwrap my plane's wing and I get a double unwrap in UV editor!

Why would this happen?

One is the top, the other is the bottom.


text:
Setting "dynamic = off" keyframe for multiple active rigid bodies at once.
I have multiple active rigid bodies which start to animate at frame 1 which is too fast. So to keep them still until the collision I want to keyframe "dynamic = off" at frame 1 and then change it to "dynamic = on" at 1 frame before collision.
However I can't find a way to do it unless I individually click every rigid body and set their keyframes. This is problematic as there are more than 100 rigid bodies and now I am asking if there is a way to set keyframes for all of them at once.

try this:
Push space and just click the option called "Copy game physics properties to selected" And then it will copy the game physics to all selection one frame before they collide in your animation.
Good luck!


text:
armature deforms body
I'm very new to Blender and I made a guy made out of blocks for a Game I'm working on in Unity. I made the armature and made it Parent with automated weights, now my Problem: When I for example move my right arm, it deforms the right side of my torso like it's glued to the arm, I dont know what to do please help.

Almost certainly a weight painting problem. see: Some vertices don't move along with the rig

You need to modify the weights of the side torso.  Select the mesh, hit Ctrl+Tab and get into Weight painting mode.  For more information about weight-painting, please see:https://www.blender.org/manual/painting_sculpting/painting/weight_paint/introduction.html#weight-paint-in-a-nutshell

I just made it all red for test and it is still the exact same result, is that normal? https://www.dropbox.com/s/ytrnmh72r8caf9e/Model_for_everything.blend?dl=0 here is my blender file

Yep, checked the file -- you need to Weight Paint the Torso so that all the vertex group is weighted to your torso bones.

There are only two reasons that a vertex doesn't follow the bone as you expect it to.

It is not weighted to that bone
It is also weighted to another bone.

Not only do you need to make sure that the vertices for your torso are assigned to your torso bone, but you also need to make sure that those vertices are not assigned to any other bones.


text:
Blender always selects the shortest path when selecting vertices how do I turn this off?
 When I select vertices blender selects the vertices connecting the desired vertices as well. I also notices it states: "Pick shortest path" in the bottem left. I'm quite new to blender and haven't found anything online about this. I hope you guys can help me out.

By default, Blender's behavior will pick the shortest path (eg. everything between point "A" THRU "Z") if you hold the Ctrl key on your next selection.
If you use Shift instead, then it will just append the selected item to the set of items selected (eg. Just point "A" & "Z").


text:
Can Blender Internal Render passes be put back together again?
I'm stuck with a simple task. I need to tweak some render passes of the image, and then put them back to the combined composited image. For Cycles I use this scheme from the manual:

It works as intended.
But I cannot figure out a way to do the same trick in the Blender Render. So, I can tick some passes to be rendered separately, and I can exclude those passes from the combined pass. Like this:

What I cannot do, is mixing them back to get the final image.
Does anybody know how this could be achieved in the blender internal render engine?

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


text:
Why does my hair render as a cone?
I'm having issues with my hair emitter to show / render as cones. I'm using cycles and during "solid" mode in the viewport the hair looks like normal hair. but as soon as I switch to rendered view or even render the still, the hair turns into cones. Ive reset all options to default, reloaded the same .blend file and ive created new ones. Still does the same thing.

Have you checked the cycles hair settings? The 'shape' option of the hair settings could play a role. Try typing in -0.75 in that area to change it. Are the roots too big?

Tried changing the value to -.75, very little change. value was set at 0 originally. if I extend the length of the grass out ( in my current scence its 0.5 ) so they show more, they look like a crayon. Long cylinders that come to a cone at the end

How about deleting the particle system and start anew?

this happens even if starting a new .blend file, resetting default settings and all.

in my current scene I'm using 2 other particle nodes, which have group parent items, and both are those are rendering fine, rocks and trees. Just the grass ( hair ) that doesn't show like it should

got it. still not sure why, but blender is changing the root thickness in the settings you were talking about to high. thanks for the info! got it fixed

@Eric   No problem.

Sometimes scaling leads to this problem. Click Ctrl-A and select scale for the particular object in object mode. Now check, the hair will not be cone-shaped


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Whats the best format to turn a render into a poster?
I am interested in turning some of my blender works into posters for my house. Does blender save in a high enough resolution or format ( sorry I'm not very sure on these terms ) that can produce a high enough quality poster? Thanks in advance!

if I read every thing correctly, its showing 300dpi is good for posters and the calculator puts that to 6000 x 9000 pixels. so I change the render resolution to 6000 x 9000, and 1080 samples., and save as bmp. sound like the right neighborhood?

The Render to Print add-on calculates all that for you. it includes many presets of standard print dimensions.

thank you all who have answered. blender would be impossible to learn without people like you!

You might also need to convert to CMYK to be sure the conversion isn't skipped by the printer or badly done


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normals changed after separating object in 2 pieces
When having smooth shading on a sphere and separating the top into a separate object the shading is no longer smooth over the 2 parts, there is a discontinuity:

It turns out the separate action changes the normals:

I understand blender recalculates the normals based on the mesh it knows within the object, but is there any way to override this behavior, so that on separation, the original normals from before the separate are retained?

Although there are more standard ways given in the answers here, if you have to do this a lot, or in awkward situations, the Y.A.V.N.E. add-on , (or others, as its name suggests,) might be worth a look.

Normal at a point P is a vector that is perpendicular to the tangent plane to that surface at P.
That means when you separate the mesh the Normal will be 90 degrees to the surface at the edges.
To fix that issue you can copy the original sphere and use it on both parts in a Normal Edit Modifier.

thanks! but it seems i used a bad example. I took a sphere as example but I actually have an arbitrary smooth mesh. I saw there is a DataTransfer modifier as well, could i use that for copy/pasting normals..?
I found if I check Face Corner data, check Custom Normals AND I place a copy of the object (before separate) right on top and hide it, I achieve the wanted result. However, as soon as I apply the modifier, the normals modification is lost :/ I need to apply the modifier since I export to fbx

since you answered the original question, i will mark this question as solved and ask a new one. thanks

I figured out a trick around this using 2.8.

Separate the vertices that you want to make into separate objects in edit mode.
Add the "weighted normal" modifier to the object and apply it (the normals show to be fixed with the modifier, but if you didn't apply it, the normals still become distorted when separating into different objects)
Now you can separate the objects and maintain the normals.

Hope this helps!

I'm not sure if you can do all in one step, but in Edit Mode, you can go to the 3D Viewport > Toolshelf > Shading/UVs tab > Normals: and click on Recalculate. This should adjust all of your normals back to, well, normal!

unfortunately, this does not help as the normals in fact are correct or 'normal' :) at least, as far as blender is concerned

The Data Transfer Modifier can help you in this kind of situation. Alternatively you could also use a Blender add-on I made for this exact purpose called TiNA. TiNA basically turns the somewhat overwhelming Data Transfer Modifier into a set of more comprehensible operations.
There's a special branch for those using Blender 2.80 beta.

 Hotkey           | Operation
------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------
 Alt+N            | Transfer Normals from selection to active object
 Shift+Alt+N      | Transfer Normals from active object to all other selected objects
 Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N | Clear Custom Normals data for entire selection
 Alt+W            | Wrap Normals

In your case you could transfer the normals from an unsplit duplicate by selecting all three objects, and - with the unsplit duplicate as your active object - hitting Shift+Alt+N.


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Smooth transition between glossy and color material
I would like to make the white part of the tooth(bottom) below to be glossy and the other color to be simple with no reflection. I still have to keep the reflection at the same location of the object, while getting rid of the darker sides. I'm using the cycles render and a Hemi light.

Below are the material nodes used for the material, which I followed from another thread.

Related - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/13600/how-to-add-a-specularity-map-in-cycles and http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/13600/how-to-add-a-specularity-map-in-cycles

You want to get rid of the darker parts left and right of the white tooth base?

Right now your nodes do give you the glossy bottom, and top to be a simple diffuse material with no reflections. So can you edit and clarify your question?

Yes, the main concern is getting rid of the dark lateral parts and that small reflection where the color is changing.  I tried moving the light or different light, but still didn't manage to get the desired result. PS, I'm kinda new to Blender, sorry if I asked anything stupid.

Have you tried placing more lights all around it to lit up the dark areas? If you want the white part to be glossy, it will have reflections!


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How to remove lines from UV Map image?
I have made a model and filled it with colour using colour from the material tab. I then unwrapped the model and exported it. The colours were there (perfect). However the edges had really annoying black lines which shows in my game. So how do I export the UV Map without the edge lines. Even better how to export a UV Map with the material colours
Thanks in advance

I am assuming you used the export UV layout operation to get the color information.
Instead,you can bake the diffuse texture to get the color in formation without edges,and make sure you have high margin :

I don't have Textures as a Bake Mode however I used Diffuse Colour and that worked fine. Thank you very much!!


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Program Wide Key replacement
Is there a way to quickly replace the middle mouse button click with something like mouse button 5?
I looked around and found this middle mouse key alternative.
It would be nice if I could change the emulated: 3 Button Mouse from Alt + LMB to mouse button 5.
Is it possible to change a button or shortcut program wide?

I can recommend an application like X-Mouse Button Control, it allows you to assign any virtual key / shortcut to any mouse button (per program or globally), I use it to trigger some special Blender features (like Render Only) by mouse side buttons.

Works better than expected. Thank you so much. I thought I had to sit there and go through each instance of middle mouse button click and change it,


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How can I 'lock' the position of an object when applying curve displacement?
I'm trying to simulate quickly the waving of a flag by deforming it with a curve modifier and moving that modifier along it's local x-axis, giving the impression that it's waving and allowing it to be easily looped. However, moving the curve also shifts the position of the 'fabric' around. Images below:
Before moving the curve:

After moving the curve:

So in the second image I would like the flag to remain aligned to the pole, but with a different displacement. How can I resolve this?
Thanks.

I recommend using the [Wave Modifier] for various reasons including

The Wave Modifier is often used for this purpose.  Its purpose is very clear.
Your curve above may not be long enough for longer repetitive motion and the endpoints tangents could affect the final result.
The difficulty you are already experiencing
The Wave Modifier has a [falloff] to keep the flag attached to the pole.  No Pun Intended. The selected empty serves this purpose in the image above.
As an alternative that you can create a vertex group to limit the vertex movement on the flag mesh near the pole, to zero.
As a [Not Recommended] alternative you could animate the curve rather than moving it.


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Snapping one orientation to another?
I want to be able to move a face, edge or vertex along an orientation and snap it to the intersecting point of another orientation. Is this possible in blender currently?

The easiest way could be to move edge along normals of the top plane so that they intersect (e.g. with it selected press G twice and then Alt), confirm that and intersect geometry with Ctrl+F> Knife. This won't snap rather than create new vertices at intersection

Set the snapping mode to Faces.
In edit Mode, select a Face which has the desired orientation, go to Transform Orientations Menu and click Plus sign to create a custom orientation.

Then press G, then press the Key of one appropriate custom axis (Z in my example), then press B (choose which elements to snap), then click on vertex A, then click on face B.

Works only on 4.0 version and above.

I have two ideas.
first one summarized in this image, using local transformations and face snap. moving using 3d cursor transformation or moving first the center point to edge.

the second is use some script like this:
import bpy

from mathutils import Vector, geometry
from math import sqrt

print("#"*20)

#"object names"
n1 ="Plane"
n2 = "a" #this is the object to move

#data object 1
object = bpy.data.objects[n1]
object.select = True

bpy.context.scene.objects.active = object

v11,v12,v13, v14 = [(object.matrix_world*v.co) for v in object.data.vertices]

ob1_normal = geometry.normal(v11,v12,v13)

print(v11,v12,v13,ob1_normal)

bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')

#data object 2

object = bpy.data.objects[n2]
object.select = True

bpy.context.scene.objects.active = object

v21,v22,v23, v24 = [(object.matrix_world*v.co) for v in object.data.vertices]

ob2_normal = geometry.normal(v21,v22,v23)

#print(v21,v22,v23,ob2_normal)

##############################intersection point

int = geometry.intersect_plane_plane(v11, ob1_normal, v22, ob2_normal)
#bpy.context.scene.cursor_location = int[0]

#print("new",int)
distance = (v22 - int[0]).length  #distance vertice and intersection point
#print("distance ", distance)

### translate the object

bpy.ops.transform.translate(value=(distance, 0, 0), constraint_axis=(True, False, False), constraint_orientation='LOCAL', mirror=False, proportional='DISABLED', proportional_edit_falloff='SMOOTH', proportional_size=1, release_confirm=True, use_accurate=False)


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material ambient effect
the blender manual shows a slider in an objects material settings to adjust how much ambient light falls on it. But it seems to refer to an earlier version of blender. Has this option disappeared? I can't find a way to adjust ambient light on objects individually.


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Sun Glow Particles
How do I achieve this cool sun particle glow effect?
These little circles below:

I need the answer in blender cycles.

Hello @AlexSafayan... where is this beautifull image from ?

@lemon Hey there, I found it from this really cool guy's dribbble - https://dribbble.com/shots/2760287-Low-poly-deer

and Depth of Field.

@cegaton I tried the link you have indicated but the effect is not the same ?

@lemon Yes, I agree, I think the effect that I want is different.

A depth of field as @Dontwalk said here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBZHNs9_Cns

You could try the "Real Camera" addon. With it you can also add these little circles (Bokeh). http://3dwolf.weebly.com/camera.html

The particle glow is caused by specks of dust in the air catching the sun causing bright spots and the depth of field of the camera causing them to be blurred based on the distance from the camera. There are (at least) 3 ways of achieving such an effect with varying advantages and disadvantages :
1) Depth of Field
Position bright particles between the camera and the subject and set the Camera Depth of Field to a suitable value to produce the blurring. The advantage of this method is that it will be physically accurate, but it will require a very large number of Render Samples to get an effective result. This would be fine if you are producing a single still image but not so good if you are planning on animating.

2) Compositing
Render a separate layer to contain the bright particles of light. Apply a 'Blur' filter and overlay the result over your image. This is much faster than using the Depth of Field but is less physically accurate and does require the additional stage of the compositor. It's also tricky to get the blurring due to distance from the camera working effectively.
3) Fake the blurred particles within Cycles using materials to simulate blurring
This is less physically accurate than the Camera Depth of Field method but much faster as it does not require additional Render Samples - and does not require any additional compositing step. This makes it fast to render and easy to configure for the desired effect since the results of any changes can be viewed immediately.
However, there are some obstacles in the way of achieving this which need to be overcome :

We need to be able to determine the distance between the camera and
each particle.
Cycles doesn't support the 'Billboard' method of particle rendering - this means that we can't simply render planes or circles in the scene as they won't be guaranteed to be parallel to the camera or
reflective surface.
We need to be able to control the size of each 'blur' dependent on
the distance from the camera. There is not currently a method of
controlling the Particle Size dynamically without resorting to
Python scripts (as far as I'm aware, anyway).

The first problem is actually quite easy to solve with the Particle Info node and some relatively simple Vector Maths. The other two problems can be solved by using large smoothed Spheres for the particles (since they're the same regardless of orientation) and some Vector Maths to affect which parts of the mesh emit light.
Add a new mesh to the scene to generate the particles from within its volume. This should be sized and positioned where you want to generate the particles - ie, between the camera and the subject. Set the Object Maximum Draw Type to 'Wire' so that the object doesn't obscure the rest of the scene in the 3D view.

Add a UV Sphere to the scene and set it to Smooth shading. To reduce the number of Faces in the scene you could reduce the Segments and/or Rings - but not too far as the shading needs to be uniform to avoid artifacts in the blurs. I found 16 Segments and 16 Rings works quite well. Move the UV Sphere out of view of the camera (or on to a different layer).
Add a particle system and configure it to mimic floating particles (eg, set the End to '1', set Lifetime to the length of your Scene, set Field Weight of Gravity to 0, add Brownian Motion, Turbulance, Wind, etc.). Set the 'Emit From' to 'Volume' so that the particles are emitted throughout the mesh. Set 'Render' mode to 'Object' and select the UV Sphere. Adjust the Size of the particles until they are shown in the camera view at the maximum size of the desired blurs.

As the rays could pass through many transparent surfaces due to multiple overlapping particles, you should significantly increase the Max Transparent Bounce Light Path settings.

Select the Sphere and add a material with a Transparant Shader in place of the default Diffuse. Adding in an Emission shader will produce a solid circle of light for each particle. By adding a Geometry node and combining the Normal with the Incoming ray we can control how far from the centre the circle extends and so vary the size of each circle. By varying this based on the distance from the camera and similarly varying the Strength of the Emission we can generate quite an effective blurred particle effect.
For the distance we can use the following node tree :

This calculates the vector between the Camera and the Particle by subtracting one Position from the other, and feeds the result into a Dot Product node along with its own Normal and this produces the scalar distance between the two.
NOTE : The Camera position is stored in a Combine XYZ node - this can either be set 'by hand' (by copying and pasting the X,Y,Z coordinates from the Camera's properties into the node) or by adding a Driver to do this automaticallty. If the Camera position will move in your scene then you'll need to use the driver method - otherwise simply paste the values into the node.
Using some additional Maths nodes we can combine the Distance with Input values for the Focal Length and Depth of Field of the camera to produce an output that varies between 0 and 1 based on the distance - with 0  representing a particle at the Focal Length and increasing towards 1 at the bounds of the Depth of Focus.
Further Maths nodes can similarly be used to vary the 'brightness' of the emission so it gets dimmer when more spread out to mimic blurred points of light.
To control the size of the emission, use the Dot Product to combine the Normal of the Incoming ray with the Normal at the surface of the Sphere. The result will vary between 1 in the centre and decrease to 0 at the edges and this can be used to control the size of the circle. To simplify the Maths nodes and so that the circle would be uniform in colour, I used a Colour Ramp with one point set to Black at 0.000 and another at White at 0.01 - so any value from -infinity to 0.01 will be dark and anything above will be light. This is then used to vary the size of the circle based on the result from the distance calculation. Multiplying the Strength by the 'brightness' gives us the final blurring effect.

Including all particles and a background image produces the following :

Note : The effect in the above image is purposefully very subtle. The brightness of the spots can be adjusted by changing the Colour of the Emission shader as desired as well as the Particle Size, and material Focal Length and Depth of Field values.
Blend file can be downloaded here

Nice tips for fake bokeh dust.


text:
How does "distance" effect ambient occlusion?
In Blender Cycles, there is a distance option for Ambient Occlusion in the World tab.

How does the distance option affect AO?  What does moving the distance closer to zero do?  What does increasing this value do?


text:
Objects places opposite partly in particle system
I am making grass field and part of my grass group for particle have object placed up side down.
I tried to rotate the up side down object too but still it doesn't rotate when used in particle. How can I fix the rotation?

I found out!
If I apply rotation and scale, then it works.

authors: Ратмир Хализев


text:
a weird face in bevel
I tried to use a bevel modifier and then there one point in the object has weird face. I tried to erase each face and combine differently but no matter how, this shows up again. All faces are directing outside correctly.
How can I remove this black/gray face? Why this happens?

That is probably caused by that triangle fan. Try converting it two quads, and it may solve your problem. May also be caused by overlapping geometry

@Duarte Farrajota Ramos I tried that too, it changes slightly but the face is still there. but I could solve by limiting angle in the modifier. Thanks for your help!

Isn't there a partially connected / deconnected face inside ? You could check that quickly by deselecting all in Edit mode and in Vertex / Edge selection mode running Ctrl+Alt+Shift+M.

I could solve it! If I limit bevel by angle in the modifier, the weird face disappears.


text:
Can I make a bevel curve transition to another one during the same bevel process?
My situation is as follows:
I want to create a curved plane that has a crease or ditch at one end and is flat at the other.
To achieve this, I created a curve (curve 0) that defines my plane, then used another U-shaped curve (curve 1) to bevel the first one, creating the actual plane with the ditch or crease (the U shape of the crease or ditch being defined by curve 1).
Now my question is: can I create a third curve (curve 2) that is just a straight line and have the bevel transition from curve 1 to curve 2 over the distance of curve 0?

I don't know of a way to to morph a bevel from one curve to another.  If you want a blend a curved plane from one profile to another you need a NURBS surface.

Add (Shift + A) a Surface, NURBS Curve.
Edit the curve to the profile you want for one end of the surface.
Duplicate (Shift + D) the curve and move it along the Y-axis.
Flatten out the curve control point by scaling them in the Z-axis.
Select both curves and press F to loft them into a surface.

Thanks! This looks exactly like what I want. How did you do this?

Added some instructions for you.


text:
How can I use taper on a mesh?
I have a wing shape extruded in Blender, so what I have now is some sort of an airfoil along the z axis (0 to positive z) wiht the blunt edge to the right (positive x) and the sharp edge at the origin (0 x) (the rear side).
I want the rear side (z in origin) to be shorter than the front (z at positive x), that is, that the 3d mesh is tapered from the front to the rear.
However, when I apply the simple deform modifier and pick "taper" it deforms the model both in x and y (and not z) at only one side (positive z).
So the tapering is going in the wrong direction at the wrong place.
I added an empty to use as origin for the modifier, but it changed nothing. Can someone help?
note: I found a way that said I can use "o" and simply move the vertices at the end of the airfoil inwards and then the next ones would also move a litte bit, but this doesn't work either.

Can you include a screen shot? I was also thinking along the line of Proportional Edit with the O key, but if that doesn't work then maybe the geometry might provide a clue. With proportional edit, you coudl try different fallof types and use the mmb to adjust the range of influence.

As @CraigDJones said, some picture of it may help. But what about using a lattice?

Right, here is the image: I did this now by pulling each vertex manually in the (hopefully correct) position and then linking the opposing vertices with F, then the neighbouring edges with F again.
Lots of work. Hope this can be done easier next time, maybe with tapering.
http://i67.tinypic.com/288zcpt.png


text:
How do I snap two similar geometric shapes to each other with rotation and scaling?
I have two objects that feature similar shapes on various sides.
I want to snap those similar sides to each other in a way that they are matching each other - that is, that they are both oriented so that they face each other, rotated that they align and possibly scale so that they match.
Can anyone give me a hint how to do this?
In read a lot about snapping and watched some tutorials and I also tried this add-on: https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/3D_interaction/Precise_Align
However, I can't get this to work. There must be a way, I know I have done this before in Autodesk Inventor, but I can't remember how and I can't use Inventor anymore anyways.
In the end, I want to snap several of them together and use array modifiers to tile them in space.
Here is an image of the objects I want to stick together:

And here the file:
http://www.pasteall.org/blend/41722
Thanks!

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/39784/snapping-two-objects-by-edge-in-object-mode

Blender is currently very lacking and unsuited for precision modeling and CAD like transformations, there is no built in easy way to do it. The addon you mentioned seems to be the closest you can get. You could also try this addon, although I think it is not exactly what you are looking for http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?256114-Add-on-Advanced-align-tools

Possible duplicate of How can put a mesh into a different position?

Precise align did a good job in my test (https://i.sstatic.net/ks2bO.gif), could you specify what exactly you didnpt manage to get?

@Carlo that's exactly what happened to me, too - I can't get them to be facing each other. I can align them, but they are both pointing in the same direction. When I change the z vector the other coordinates change too, because only right-handed systems are allowed.

Ah, ok, now I got it what the problem really is.

Flip Normal Vector
For the sake of clarity, after recaluculating normals, I colored the faces to match in blue and the triangle that we'll be use as pivot in red.

Letìs get into edit mode, pick the tris and run the Create Empty operator. Note that we can change the vertex of application with the Swap Empty Origin button.
By examining the empty arrows, we can say that our Z axis is normal to the tris surface and pointing toward the inside of the object, the X is running along the smallest edge and the Y is going where it must be.

Chamge object and repeat the process being sure to choose the right vertex. You can switch the normal vector of the empty by checking the box in the command's options or even remap the whole axis system if needed.
In this particular case we'll need te X axis to be running along the short edge and the Z axis to be pointing outside the object, in order to make the faces ...ehm..."facing" each other.

Finish by matching th empties location&rotation and then eventually adjust the relative scale.

Ok, I'm still stuck. I can't get the vector of the empty to align with any of the other sides. The z vector is pointing in the correct direction (inside or outside), but the x and y axis are pointing in directions not aligned to any of the sides.
So your write-up is really helpful - yet I'm still stuck at this part:
"In this particular case we'll need the X axis to be running along the short edge".
My z axis points correctly inwards along the edge going "inside" but neither the x nor the y axis are aligned to any of the other sides, I can't "rotate" them around the z axis to align to a side.

And thanks for your great help so far! This is exactly what I want to achieve (in your last gif), I just don't know what I am missing.

It never happened to me that none of the other axis wasn't running along one of the edges. It's even explicitally named "Edge" the axis in the mapping opton. That's strange, could you post a picture of the tris and the empty or upload a file with your empty in the wrong position?


text:
Is it possible to constraint an object on a vertice?
Is it possible to contraint an object on a vertice instead of the entire object? Like an arrow on a body. Or to a face, so that the constraint object would move according to the face's normal?

There are a few options.  You can vertex parent, or you can designate the vertex with a vertex group and use a copy location constraint.  Vertex parenting or copy transforms can be used with a triangle instead of a single vert to acquire positiion + rotation.  If you need to acquire scale, you need additional markers set up so that you can use stretch-to constraints to generate basis vector scale.  Bones are the easiest way to set these markers up.

I'm going on memory here but basically you do the parent procedure, select the child, and with shift held select the parent.  Press Tab and you'll be in edit mode for the parent model.  Select a vertice and choose that option in the pop-up.  Press Tab again to return to object mode.  If the vertice is at the model's origin point, when the object rotates, the child shouldn't because the vertice won't be moving in any axis.  It's an ideal way to attach a camera to models.


text:
Cannot Rotate camera in 3D view
I'm currently having a problem with the 3D view -while working on a model, I suddenly wasn't able to rotate my camera anymore. I can manipulate the model just fine, the camera is the problem. I checked the Manipulate Center Points, Lock camera and pretty much everything I could find -I even reinstalled Blender! Still stuck, regretably. My mouse works fine, it zooms in and out perfectly. I just can't seem to rotate around the mesh. Any ideas what could be the issue?

Does this happen in only one file, or in any file? Maybe related post - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/52412/i-cannot-rotate-of-move-camera-anymore-for-some-reason?rq=1

Please add more info to your question like scene screenshots, settings, or possibly upload your blendfile

I don't have enough reputation to comment, but have you tried pressing Numpad . (period) it sometimes can reset the view (best way I can explain it) or Shift+C if that doesn't work.
More info

In the 3D view header, find the icon that lets you change your pivot point.  Just to the right of that icon you will see an icon with three dots along the top and a left and right pointing double arrow below.  Clicking on that icon toggles rotation.  It's easy to click on it by accident.

I've tried with that icon, unfortunately that's no the cause. This is happening to all of my files, even new, unsaved ones when I reinstalled Blender. Using the Emulate 3 Button Mouse works, which is strange because zooming with the wheel works fine. It's just rotating that doesn't work anymore -resetting the user preferences hasn't fixed it.

Just changed mouse, reinstalled blender again, still no fix. This is getting bothersome :/

Thank you. It solved my trouble with the camera. I've duplicated it from another camera with transform locks enabled, and after disabling the locks, it stopped to rotate. I thought it's somehow about locks, but it turned as it's about my curly hands! :-)


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Hot Keys in Sculpt mode
So I am trying to access the Add and Subtract option for when sculpting in Blender. But my Ctrl hotkey for switching between the two isn't working, how do I change the hotkey for that option?

Im not sure, because I'm not at my computer, but look around in the user perfs tabs there might be something there

File > User Preferences > Input > 3D View > Sculpt


text:
Could I have a camera complete an animation then follow a path?
Currently I have a camera following a car moving across the scene. The car's animation is repetitive and the camera only follows the car for one repetition. Once it's done with the first repetition i would like the camera to pan away from the car and circle around my scene at a constant speed. Is there a away to animate the camera so once it is done following the car it falls on to a path that circles the scene?

With your camera selected, go to Properties -> Constraints. Add 2 'Child-Of' constraints to the camera. In the first Child-Of constraint, make the target your car. In the second Child-Of constraint, make the target a static object in the scene, such as the ground model.
Go to the last frame in which the camera needs to follow the car. Set the first Child-Of influence to 1.0 and keyframe it (hit I over the influence bar). Then set the second Child-Of influence to 0.0 and keyframe it.
Go to the very next frame. Set the first Child-Of influence to 0.0 and keyframe it. Set the second Child-Of influence to 1.0 and keyframe it.
Now you are free to animate the camera with respect to the moving car. Then, you can animate the camera with respect to the scene in general.


text:
Image texture is visible in Texture mode but not in Render mode?
Here, it is visible

But,
in Render mode,

Possible duplicate: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/58265/why-are-there-dfferences-between-textured-and-rendered-modes

There could be multiple reasons why blender can't find it, here are a couple things you could try:

Try re-opening the image. As seen in @CyberBurst's answer, make sure the file is in the correct location. If the image is not in the same location that blender is looking for it in, Blender will not find it. Also if the spelling is off that would prevent blender from finding it too...
If you are sure the image is in the right location, and that the spelling is correct, try packing textures into the blend file To pack do: Blender-> File -> External Data -> Automatically pack into .blend

If it is still not working, try to restart blender and repeat the steps again. If it is STILL not working then either something is wrong with blender, or the image. Try opening a different image instead of that one in blender. If the new image appears correctly then something is wrong with your image, otherwise something is wrong with blender, and in this case I would recommend starting from the beginning with a blender session.

Check to make sure the image is still in the location you pointed Blender to.  Sometimes, if the file has been moved, Blender will still have it in memory, so it still displays it in textured mode.  But when you click the render button, Blender will search for the image in the original file, and in your case, it apparently can't find it.  Double check your image texture node to make sure it is pointing to the right file.  Then, go to the file and make sure the image is still there.


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Transparency turns black after Math:Multiply node. Need help
I'm working on Blender VFX and I'm using a blur node. This weakens the colors and I am trying to use a Math:Multiply node to strengthen the colors. However, when I use this node, it turns the transparent background to black. Is there a node that strengthens colors but does not change the background, or a node that changes transparency based on how dark the image is.
EDIT::
Unfortunately, palkomino's answer doesn't really help. The RGB Curves node does nothing!

I need a result like the Math:Multiply node, but with a transparent background.

Much thanks cegaton. I don't know what the problem was.

The problem is that the math node uses a value (=> grey dot) and not a color (=> yellow dot). You'd rather use a RGB Curves node (ShiftA => Color => RGB Curves) and change it's C value. This will give you what you want.

Look at how the backdrop changes. The first time it's the normal render without any compositing. It still has an alpha channel. The second time it's with the math note. The alpha channel disappears. The third time it's with the RGB Curves node. The colors get strengthen but the alpha channel stays.

You can also raise the rgb values of the rgb curves node. This lightens up your image as well. Just make sure they are all raised the same amount otherwise some colors will change. If this still doesn't work you can try raising the brightness value of the brightness node or lowering the gamma value of the gamma node (all to be found in the color menu). You can also use the mix node and set it to overlay. Plug your blur node into the first input and choose white as the second color. Note that the factor can go higher than 1.000 when you type your desired value in.

I also tried that. Messing with the RGB Curves doesn't change anything.

Did you also try the other suggestions I made? Like mix node, gamma node or brightness node?


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Excluding part of mesh from rigid body simulation?
For instance, if I was simulating a cartoony bomb, the type with the long fuse, how could I exclude the fuse from the rest of the mesh in the rigid body simulator? The only workaround I can think of would be to separate it and then parent it to the rest of the bomb. Is what I've described possible?

If the bomb is going to move, I would make the fuse a soft body simulation and parent it to the bomb.

Thanks. I tested the workaround and it should work fine. I'll just leave this up in case it gets answered.


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Tracking arm where some points disappear
I am trying my hand at some VFX with Blender, and I'm trying to make a digital arm move with my own. I drew lots of dots on my arm and hand with a dry erase marker and now I'm tracking them. Some of these tracks disappear when I rotate my arm, but there are always at least 8 active tracks. What can I do to get a successful solve from this?

i've had this same problem before, the track works until the points disappear and new ones are added, at which it goes berserk.  I hope someone can give a good answer.  +1, btw


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How to define a Loopcut into a specific area?
I want to make a Loopcut only in the Torso area, not in the chin, How do I do it?

Move your cursor to an edge perpendicular to your desired cut.  Keep moving your mouse to the middle of a vertical edge near the torso for this particular example, the cutting line indicator will change direction.

Can you explain in more details? I'm a begginer.

you 'll have to change the topology to make the loop cut follow another direction

Can you explain in more details? I'm a begginer, and English is not my lenguage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OszPcbecX50  Tutorial Video on another site.

But the video doesnt answer my question.

I want a loopcut only in the torso

If you have the model with mirror modifier, select all the faces that you want the loopcut to go through, then hit I shortcut to inset the faces and B shortcut after that to disable boundary of the inset.

If you have the mirror modifier already applied, use the same method while selecting the faces from both sides from the center.


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How can I erase part of an image to show another image under it?
I do stop motion with Lego and when I want to make something fly, I make a video with the character supported by bricks and/or clay, then I remove all the pieces from the set and take a picture; then, using GIMP, I import the blank image of the set and paste a frame with the character supported by bricks on top of that image and erase the bricks which shows through to the blank set image creating the impression of flying. I have been trying, for a few weeks, to do this in Blender to speed up the process and have not been able to find a way. How could I this in Blender?

A picture of you current Blender work and GIMP work would clarify your situation and probably draw more attention.  You can use GIMP to compose many pics into one as you know.  You may be limited as to how many pics you can insert into your question.  Are your trying to speed of your current image work with Blender or replace your physical work with Blender?

The use of the Blender Compositor is previewed here ........    http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/50771/rotoscoping-to-a-transparent-background/50776#50776

Here is a link to a video which explains the process in Photoshop but it is the exact same as in GIMP              https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pYK-VDbOpuc

I am trying to speed up the process of masking out the support bricks not the physical process.

There are many ways of using this in VSE is very simple try intro to masking in VSE

There are two and a half options.
1) If your support bricks are in the EXACT same location in every single frame, you can create a mask in the compositor, and use the VSE to render out the result. The mask could be used to composite in something else, or just make the masked area transparent. It depends on what you need.
2) If your bricks are NOT in the same place, but are a different color from every other thing in you scene, you can use a chroma key to create a mask of everything that's a particular color.
3) This is the half-option. If your bricks are NOT in the same location, and they're NOT the right color for a chroma key... you might be out of luck. However, if you're SUPER lucky and the tracking is good, and you're SUPER good at video editing in Blender, you could make a mask that tracks the edges of the brick, and use that mask to make the bricks transparent, or white, or whatever you need.
Any one of these would make a HUGE answer. Detailing all three of them is far beyond the scope of this answer. BUT there are good resources out there.
Some good searches are

blender alpha mask video
blender chroma key
blender camera tracking mask

Searches are often difficult when you don't know what TERMS to use. Other times, Google is just overly specific. These searches seem to give good results.
I hope that helps!


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is it possible to change a material depending on whether it is intersecting with another object?
Let's say I have a sphere, halfway intersecting with a cube(which is invisible to the camera). I want to change the material of the part of the sphere that is intersecting with the box, similar to this image:

With a cube, it wouldn't be necessary, but in some situations, OSL might help

You could create 2 spheres on the exact same position, each with its own texture, then 1 cube. Give each sphere a Boolean modifier, one with the Difference mode, the other with the Intersect mode, and both with the cube as Object. This way, when you'll move the cube, it will both hide a sphere and reveal the other one.

Thanks, I ended up using this method, (which also happened to be the way I made the reference image, so I'm just dumb)

Could work with only one cube, I think. using intersection and difference.

oh yes of course, I'm going to correct

An update, thanks to moonboots comments:
It is possible using Cycles:

The shader simply tests if the transparent depth is at least 1 as the cube is transparent but also we don't want more than one (as if not the cube shape may appear in non ortho views):

I thought you had the solution but actually what you propose is to display another texture through the cube transparency, which is not exactly what he's looking for, at least it's what I understand

@moonboots, don't get what you mean

Could you please share your file?

@moonboots, sure: updated above

so yes, that's what I thought, actually the new texture is not displayed at the objects intersection but where the transparency happens, which is not the same... On the left what is supposed to happen, on the right what happens with your method: https://www.zupimages.net/up/19/36/tl1c.jpg

@moonboots, you are right.

@moonboots, corrected


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How do I prevent planes from partially disappearing when zooming out?
I'm trying to create a Minecraft animation in blender and I figured how to create models, UV map, and texture them, but whenever I zoom out you can see through planes partially. How would I fix this?
in 3D view(material view):
in 3D view(rendered view):

I already tried that and it's not my problem

Then you should describe your problem better. And use screenshots that really tells something. Nobody understands what your problem is at the moment.


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How can I make the texture to appear once the game is played?
I had to add letter on the cube so i did it using UV mapping

 but once I play the game only materials are displayed and not the image.

How can I make the letter on the top face of the cube to appear once the game is played?

Have you added the texture to your material? Unwrapping alone is not enough

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos     How can I do that?...Is there any youtube tutorial?

Yeah tons of them! Wonder how you missed them

Select the cube and go to material and make 2 new material.
Select the 1st material and
Go to texture tab
Go below in the type and change --- Image or movie
and below 3 tabs -- Texture, material, both
Click on Material
In the below image select or open your image
Mapping -- coordinates -- UV
In the N panel go to Shading and change to -- GLSL
Select the cube go to edit mode and click the face u want to texture and press u and unwrap
Go to UV/Image editor and select the image
Now change the view from solid to texture.
Go to the material and select the 2nd color and change ur color.
Change Blender render to game engine


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Detecting objects using blender
I have to implement a problem statement in blender.

I have different objects scattered on a plane.(e.g. Object1,Object2,Object3)
I have to model a car which moves using 4 set of keys on the keyboard and it should detect these scattered objects on the
    place.

How can I detect these objects using blender?

Collision Detection

Are you talking about Blender or the BGE? You tags are ambiguous.


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Why is this python script not working?
import bmesh
bmesh.from_edit_mesh(bpy.context.edit_object.data).faces[1].select=True

It says python script fail
What should I do ?

What would you like to obtain?

The mesh object needs to be (a mesh, and) in edit mode (meshobject == context.edit_object) to use bmesh.from_edit_mesh(...)  Use this if you are going to make an edit mode tool.  A call to bmesh.update_edit_mesh(...)will show your changes "live".   Otherwise usebm = bmesh.new()and load the mesh withbm.from_mesh(...).  Oh and import bpy`  too, what exactly is the error message?

Background
This is how to create a new object and add the vertices in the verts list:
import bpy
import bmesh

verts = [(1, 1, 1), (0, 0, 0)]  # 2 verts made with XYZ coords
mesh = bpy.data.meshes.new("mesh")  # add a new mesh
obj = bpy.data.objects.new("MyObject", mesh)  # add a new object using the mesh

scene = bpy.context.scene
scene.objects.link(obj)  # put the object into the scene (link)
scene.objects.active = obj  # set as the active object in the scene
obj.select = True  # select object

mesh = bpy.context.object.data
bm = bmesh.new()

for v in verts:
    bm.verts.new(v)  # add a new vert

# make the bmesh the object's mesh
bm.to_mesh(mesh)
bm.free()  # always do this when finished

This is how to alter an existing mesh:
import bpy
import bmesh

verts = [(1, 1, 1), (0, 0, 0)]  # 2 verts made with XYZ coords
mesh = bpy.context.object.data
bm = bmesh.new()

# convert the current mesh to a bmesh
bm.from_mesh(mesh)

for v in verts:
    bm.verts.new(v)  # add a new vert

# make the bmesh the object's mesh
bm.to_mesh(mesh)
bm.free()  # always do this when finished

Answer
As for selection:
import bpy
import bmesh

mesh = bpy.context.object.data
bm = bmesh.new()

# convert the current mesh to a bmesh
bm.from_mesh(mesh)

# must run this so we can use indexing on the faces
bm.faces.ensure_lookup_table()

# "select" the 0th face by setting its select property to True
bm.faces[0].select = True

# make the bmesh the object's mesh
bm.to_mesh(mesh)
bm.free()  # always do this when finished

# go back to edit mode to see the selection
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')

To test this:

Add a cube (go into edit mode and deselect all faces)
Paste the script into Blender's text editor
Hit run script in the text editor with the cube object still selected

still it is not working?

Do ineed to download something else for bmesh?

Why are you toggling edit / object mode?  The mesh doesn't need to be in edit mode at all to use bm.from_mesh().  To make it "live" in edit mode use bmesh.from_edit_mesh(mesh) and bmesh.update_edit_mesh(...) to update changes to mesh without the need to toggle modes.

See my updated answer, and see if you are doing things the same as I am. @batFINGER Thanks, I updated my answer.

Don't you also need to specify which vertices are connected with edges?  Verts alone don't make a mesh!

@ChrisDunaway I assume you are talking about the first example? Verts alone actually do make a mesh (a non-manifold mesh, but still a mesh) because a mesh is just a data type in Blender (and many 3D software packages) to store vertices, edges, and faces. Although simply adding vertices will not make a renderable mesh, it is still a mesh nonetheless. The point was to give a few simple bmesh examples, but if you want an example of connecting the verts, let me know, and I would be happy to add it.

authors: สมภพ มงคลไทย


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Adding special expressions in blender
I have to add special effects once the game is completed.
Like medal popping out or confetti when the winner is declared.
The game is simple wrestling game in which two players are controlled using keys on keyboard.
Do I need to use python script for medal popping effect or confetti once the winner is declared ?

If yes,How can I achieve this?

No, you do not need to use Python. You can use Python.

I do not see where your problem is. Is it that you do not know how to create this effects? Is it you do not know how to configure the effects that they show at the right moment?
I suggest you rephrase the question into: "How to create a confetti effect?". You might ask a separate question "How to let a medal pop up?".

@Monster  I want a medal to pop up just after the game is completed

How do you know the game is completed?

Popping medal:
activate an edit actuator in Add Object mode

How can I set the time?

What time do you mean?


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Oil drops running down over nylon threads
Modelling a 1970's Rain Lamp, but stuck on realistic oil drops running down the threads. Any ideas appreciated.
Here is what I have so far using Blender's Particle system:

Note: Venus statue from Scan the World, Ferns from Blendswap.

What is your question? Please edit to make it clear what you want.

How might I realistically depict drops of oil running down a nylon thread?

What exactly is wrong with it?

I could only guess the problem is with drops of some liquid (probably oil) seen on the yellowish grille surroinding the statue. The drops there (if that's what is there) are too big and are too long; their material is a bit off probably too but that depends on kind of realism you're aiming.to. Anyway it's best to provide examples of your desired result and images of current setup as already stated.

Here is what I am trying to achieve


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How to organize multiple NLA track compositions?
I'm working on a character for a game and I want to organize his individual animations (still, walking, attacking) with NLAs.
First, I wanted to use one NLA track per animation and render them out individually. But now I would like to use the advantages of NLA and also overlay several actions/tracks (e.g. walking and breathing together).
Now I'm looking for a possibility of a higher organizational abstraction. With NLA I can combine several actions, but I would now like to "bundle" these NLA-Track-Setups into the actual animations so that I can easily render them out.
My first idea was to chain them all together, e.g. "resting" goes from frame 0 to 100; "hart_attack" goes from frame 101 to 150"; and so on. But this always creates a lot of work if the animation lengths will change.
Maybe someone has a better idea or knows how to group/organize NLAs?

I’m having the same issue. I have about 40 animations with many needing to be compatible and work together. Using the action editor, all is good because it’s easy to switch from one action to another. Using the NLA editor it’s a nightmare because there doesn’t seem to be a way to group tracks. You can turn a strip into a meta strip, but that doesn’t help.
You’re essentially left with using naming conventions for the tracks to ‘group’ them and then manually toggling on and off individual tracks to work on the groups.

Welcome to BSE Mike N. If you find a question that matches a problem you are also experiencing, please use the arrows to the left of the question to cast an Up-vote. You should also be able to leave a comment under the original post to add information. You should only add an answer if you actually have an answer to provide.


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Is there a way to use the old smoke simulator in blender 2.82?
In blender 2.82 they introduced Mantaflow simulations and it's been working extremely well for me, however, I can't seem to make multicoloured smoke. Changing the smoke colour in the emitter settings changes the colour for the whole simulation. So I just want to know if it's possible to use the old smoke simulator, as I don't want to load up an old version of blender every time I want to do something like this

No, Unless you want to develp a new add-on. You might be able to simulate in 2.81 and import to 2.82+


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How to apply noise to a diffuse/principled shader volume?
Basically, what I want to make is this

but with a diffuse shader, rather than volume, the best I can do is this

Any idea how to help?

Not possible for now, sadly :(

Hello :). Just out of curiosity, why not use volumetrics here? It works pretty well.

@JachymMichal It looks okay at a high density, but it renders really slowly, and I can customise the material a lot better if it's solid. Is there another way to do this, maybe with something other than materials? One that actually changes the mesh?


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Control a ColorRamp node from outside a node group
I have a ColorRamp node inside of a node group and I would like to have a group input which controls the "Pos" value of the white colour, but there doesn't seem to be a good way to do it. Since I'm only using two colours, is there a different way to do it?

Due to the nature of node attributes that are not in or out sockets, I don't think this is possible without a python driver.

You can use drivers on the Pos value.
All you need is a driving value.
Let's make the drivers from the group input. First enter the group node, select the Group Input node. In the sidebar (open with N). In the Node tab, you can add Inputs, name them and set their default/minimum/maximum values. I added two new inputs:

Get out of the node, right click one of the value inputs and hit Copy Data Path (here the White Posisiton):

Think of the Data Path is like the url of a website or the file path of a file on your computer, but here it's for any data on Blender.
Enter the group node, right click the Pos value corresponding to the data path you previously copied (here the white Pos) and hit Add Driver:

A pop-up will show to let you set your driver. Set it as I do:

Type: Sum Values
Icon next to "var": Single Property
Prop : Material → select your material
Path : paste the Data Path copied earlier
Hit the Update Dependencies button

Note that once your driver is done, you can edit it via right click → edit.
And you can also copy-paste it from one value to another.
So if you want to create one for the black handle:
- right click the white Pos value → copy driver
- select the black handle, right click the black Pos → paste driver
- exit the node group and copy the Data path from Black Position
- enter the node group, right click the black Pos → edit driver
- paste the new data path
- hit Update Dependencies
And here's the result:

looks great! I'll try it

works perfectly, thank you so much

Note that you can right click in the node group field > "Copy as new driver" then right click in the color ramp field > "Paste driver" to save a few steps

Thank you SO much!

I figured it out, I used two add nodes to do it, like this.

the first one sets subtracts 0.5 so it changes everything to be under 0, and the second one adds a number from 0-1, which is connected to the Group Input node


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Access Material's own Custom Properties from Shader Nodes
I'm making an add-on which imports a lot of custom properties for each Material. I want to be able to use those custom properties inside of the materials itself, and while I could use drivers, I'd want to be able to use the same node group in all of the materials, and it doesn't seem like drivers can be relative to the current material (though tell me if that's possible!)
Some properties are also arrays and it would be much more work to link those individually instead of just being able to use the Attribute node "Color" output.
It seems odd that I wouldn't be able to use the custom material properties from inside the material, I hope I'm just missing something.

I've found i can put "materials[0]" in the "Name:" section of the Attribute node and then get the attribute from that. This however only works if it's the first material on the object. This is fine in my current use case as there's only ever one material per object, but I'm still not entirely satisfied for future use cases where there may be more


text:
Set bpy.data.images.pixels from top left instead of bottom left
I have image data in the form of a byte array, and after converting it to floats and plugging it into bpy.data.images.pixels it imports nicely into blender. Unfortunately it uses the DirectX format, where the first pixel in the array is at the top left, when Blender uses OpenGL where the first pixel in the array is at the bottom left, meaning it imports flipped on the y axis.
I would just put in the work to manually convert it but I noticed blender automatically flipped some textures, but not others, however now after attempting to tinker with it a bit, now no textures import the right way up.
Is there some code in blender to detect the right way up and is there a way I can force it to import the data as that?

Hello, I feel like the title and the body of your question ask for different things, do you want to know how you can detect if an image must be flipped, or do you want to know how to flip an image ? btw there is a builtin command to flip vertically bpy.ops.image.flip(use_flip_y=True)


text:
Camera dimmensions different than render dimmensions
I have a camera in my scene which is placed at the ideal position. With the button  I look through it and with the settings for camera I calibrated the dimmensions of the camera viewport (the orange-border looks great). But If I'm going to render it, the aspect radio seems to change (see the pictures).
How can I solve this?

You appear to have the Aspect Ratio set to 4/3 as shown in the below image :

This changes the ratio of the camera. You should generally leave the Aspect Ratio to its default of 1.000/1.000 for 'square' pixels and use the Resolution to set the dimensions of rendered image.


text:
I cannot rotate of move camera anymore for some reason
I was working on making a mesh, i left the window open and someone got on the computer after me, im not sure what they clicked but i can no longer rotate camera, everytime i try it moves the object instead, if i try to deselect the object, it does nothing. Here's a picture

Im probably just an idiot who hasnt realized anything, if you need more information i'll try my best but im still new and can't figure out why i can't anymore. I have tried ctrl+c but all it did was zoom out. I know the mesh looks bad but, well i had just stared. I even tied installing and uninstalling blender

I'm sure with the blend file somebody could find your problem in about a minute.


text:
All cameras looking the same way despite being directed another way
I have a simple scene with two starships organized into two collections, and two cameras, each camera looking at one of the ships.
In the course of creating this scene, I must have done something that results in this: all the cameras are now looking at this single ship, even though they are really directed another way, as you can see on the GIF below. In the GIF, I am hitting the 0 key to switch to the view of the selected camera.
There is no constraint (like Track To, for example) applied to the camera. The camera that should be looking at this ship is animated and has a noise modifier applied to it to make it shake. This is also affecting the second camera that should be looking at the other ship, which is also shaking.
What could be causing this?

The camera isn't the active one, press Ctrl+0 and check whether that works or make it the scene camera under Properties > Scene > Camera (basically the same)...?

Jesus Christ... Such a dumb mistake. If I could, I would have replied with Picard making the infinite facepalm. Many thanks, brockmann!

This isn't so obvious and could be improved IMO. Glad you got it...

The camera you refer to, isn't the active one. Press Ctrl+0 to set the selected camera in the viewport as 'active' or make it the actual scene camera under Properties > Scene > Camera, which is basically the same.
Tip: The triangle on top of the 'active camera' is filled up with a solid color.
Manual: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/3dview/navigate/camera_view.html


text:
Unlinking objects from duplicated scene
I have created a scene by duplicating another scene (using the Link Object Data option). I would now like to unlink some light sources. I have tried right-clicking them in the Outliner and clicking on Unlink, but it did not help - changing the strength of the light in the duplicated scene also changes the strength of the original light in the original scene. What am I missing?

I think your problem is the following one:
Unlink in the Outliner will unlink the object from its Collection, not from its duplications.
A linked duplication is a complete other thing than an object linked to a collection. To link-duplicate an object (make a copy that will follow all the modifications on the original), you need to press altD instead of shiftD.
To unlink a duplication, i.e. make it single user that won't depend on its linked duplications, select your object, go to the header menu > Object > Relations > Make Single User > Object & Data, then select Selected Object.
The problem is that it will also unlink from the objects of the same scene (maybe there's a way not to but I don't know it).

I think this is just what I was looking for :) Many thanks, man!


text:
Is this possible to achieve with a particle system?
I've seen this used as a tablet background and really like it. I would like to model a few meshes and have them filled with small objects like you see below to achieve the same result.  I'm wondering what would be the best approach - could a particle system be used for this or should I maybe focus or something else?

Particle or geometry nodes I would say

Sculpt the shapes and fill by Particles seems to be a way (with GN Distribute Point in Volume is not currently available ... its on the way :) ... Points on Face with Randomize would not work so well I guess.

You can do this with particles. Just create meshes to the shapes you'd like and spawn sufficient particles all over.
Alternatively, using the same meshes, go into Geometry Nodes and use the Distribute Points on Faces node with the Instance on Points node.
See the screenshot below where I show a simple example with the default cube where I instance (in this case, itself) over points which were generated by the first node.

To instance another object besides the source object, add that object to your scene, then you need to add it into your node setup with an Object Info node, then use the Geometry output after selecting your new object.
Whether you go the GN or particle route, I'd advise using very simple Icospheres or Cubes for your case, as they're tiny points and don't require much geometry.
Play with the Density on the Distribute Points on Faces node until you get the desired result.
Edit: You can randomise the size of your instanced points using a Random Value node. By default, it gives you a single value with a grey output BUT if you change it from Float to Vector, it'll change into three values with a purple output. You can then plug this into your scale input on your Instance on Points node.
The rest is self-explanatory! :)

This is an excellent answer, thank you! Solving this through geometry nodes is very elegany and gives me just what I was hoping to get. Thumbs up!

Is there any way to randomize the size? I'm afraid I'm not so familiar with geometry nodes as I am with shading nodes...

@Ondrej yes! Let me edit my answer to include a screenshot of the node you need.

@Ondrej Done :)

Thank you very much :)


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Armature rigging seems fine in Edit mode, but messed up in Pose and Object mode
I'm not sure what is causing this but have a feeling it is simple. My armature rig is fine in Edit mode, but changing to Object or Pose mode flicks and sticks the right leg to the left. Anyone know what may cause this?

it might simply be a pose, but did you aplied automatic weighting for combining mesh and bone system ?.

not yet. I'm trying to make sure the rig is in order before I apply weight.

Go into pose mode. Press "A" a couple times until your entire armature is selected. Press Alt+G, Alt+S, and Alt+R until the bones are back where they belong.

I've tried that. It isn't a bone positioning issue but seems to be a constraint issue. Just not sure why it is doing it.

Fixed it. I forgot to duplicate and copy the IK bone I had set hidden.


text:
Bridging edge loops causes unwanted criss cross result
I am trying to bridge two edge loops shown here:
In order to make a looped face between them. When I use the bridge tool, the result ends up as this:
Does anyone know why this is happening? And is there an easier way to achieve a face between the two edge loops shown?

I recreated what you showed in the screenshots. Bridging loops worked fine. Your mesh likely has overlapping geometry or are not complete loops. Do a "remove doubles" to make the loops clean before bridging them.

Have you checked the normals?

Could you post your .blend file?

(I answered the question... though I was not 100% sure without seeing the mesh.  I could not leave a comment asking for it because my reputation was below 50.  But I was still very sure that was the answer.  It was marked as answered.  A moderator converted my answer to that comment above.)


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Set parenting with automatic weight causes my mesh to deform in the abdominal and pelvic area
I am trying to set a mesh parenting with automatic weight to a skeleton I created. When I do so, I go from this:
to this:

How can I fix this?

After a quick search I solved it. I had to CTRL+A in Pose Mode and Apply Pose as Rest Pose before I set the automatic weight.