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How to Install Multiple Add-ons with Python Script
I am constantly using new workstations where I have to install a new version of blender. While the blender cloud add-on allows one to sync settings between devices, it does not sync user-installed add-ons themselves. If I have all the add-ons I want to install in a folder I download form a cloud location, how could I create a script that would automatically install and activate them?

you should try my addon. in one operation you can select all addons in a folder. confirm. it's done. this is checking if it's an update if you let the default option in the browser. you can also install an addon directly from the text editor https://github.com/1C0D/Addon_Installer-Script_Runner-BlenderAddon

I use it intensively when I'm doing addons

You can designate the folder with the scripts, create a list of files within this folder (i.e., directory), and use the preferences.addon_install() command on each file. You can create a list of the module names you want to install, and then loop through them with preferences.addon_enable()
import os
import bpy

# Define path to your downloaded script
path_to_script_dir = os.path('/Users/YourUserName/Downloads/scripts')

#Define a list of the files in this folder, i.e. directory. The method listdir() will return this list from our folder of downloaded scripts.
file_list = sorted(os.listdir(path_to_script_dir))

#Further specificy that of this list of files, you only want the ones with the .zip extension.
script_list = [item for item in file_list if item.endswith('.zip')]

#Specify the file path of the individual scripts (their names joined with the location of your downloaded scripts folder) then use wm.addon_install() to install them.
for file in file_list:
    path_to_file = os.path.join(path_to_script_dir, file)
    bpy.ops.preferences.addon_install(overwrite=True, target='DEFAULT', filepath=path_to_file, filter_folder=True, filter_python=False, filter_glob="*.py;*.zip")

#Specify which add-ons you want enabled. For example, Crowd Render, Pie Menu Editor, etc. Use the script's python module.
enableTheseAddons = ['crowdrender', 'pie_menu_editor', 'animation_nodes','blender_cloud']

#Use addon_enable() to enable them.
for string in enableTheseAddons:
    name = enableTheseAddons
    bpy.ops.preferences.addon_enable(module = string)


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Using python to change the settings of all subdivision surface modifiers
I found this python script to add a subdivision surface modifier to all objects
import bpy

#Iterate over all members inside the Object struct
for ob in bpy.data.objects:
     #Check if object is a Mesh
     if ob.type == 'MESH':
         #Add a SUBSURF Modifier with the name "My SubDiv".
         ob.modifiers.new('My SubDiv', 'SUBSURF')

Is it possible to modify this so that it instead changes the view setting of all subdision surface modifiers?

Rough script for blender 2.79
import bpy

objects = bpy.context.scene.objects
viewlvl = 1

for ob in objects:
    if ob.type == 'MESH':
        objects.active = ob
        for mod in ob.modifiers:
            if mod.type == 'SUBSURF':
                mod.levels = viewlvl

Use the old one if it exists, else create new one.

Iterated over scene objects rather than all objects in blend.
If the object already has a modifier named "foo" use it, otherwise
create a new one.

test code
import bpy
context = bpy.context

for ob in context.scene.objects:
     if ob.type == 'MESH':
         # get old one or add one
         m = ob.modifiers.get("My SubDiv") or ob.modifiers.new('My SubDiv', 'SUBSURF')
         m.levels = 1
         m.render_levels = 2
         m.quality = 3

oh and in case in testing you have ended up with a cluster of modifiers, here is an example of removing all modifiers with a name starting with "My SubDiv".
for ob in context.scene.objects:
     if ob.type == 'MESH':
         mods = [m for m in ob.modifiers
                 if m.name.startswith("My SubDiv")]
         while mods:
             ob.modifiers.remove(mods.pop())

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Mesh deforms on final render
The object size changes when rendering. The whole object shrinks vertically. I haven't used  Subsurf Modifier. But I did realize that in Render Preview the object size is normal. As soon as I render the image, it is shrinked.

Blender File: .blend
I hope you can help me with this.

In your Render Settings > 'Dimensions', set your pixels to square: (Aspect ratio, both X and Y to 1). 2. In Render Settings > 'Post Processing', uncheck 'Fields'.

In your render settings you have your aspect ratio set to something other than 1 and 1 for the X and Y values. This will scale the image while rendering and give you the result you are seeing.

Thank you Brenticus. I did the Reset to default settings for the Aspect Ratio and it is how it's supposed to be now.

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


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Why when I try to load add-on from github which have expansion .py , then it is loaded in TXT format and I can't add it to the blender
Why when I try to load add-on from github which have expansion .py , then it is loaded in TXT format and I can't add it to the blender
I tried to put into folder scripts also

Also related: Problems installing MESHmachine Add-on

Oh, and it would be very helpful if you tell us at least the name of the add-on + (of course) what Blender version you are talking about. This might be useful.

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


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How can I achieve a "hand-drawn" look?
So I watched "Suits" Episode of the Netflix Series "Love, Death & Robots".
I really liked the overall style. Sometimes you see it's low fps so I guess it's almost completely hand-drawn. Anyway, I took these screenshots:

I started Blender, created a feather mesh and used the hair-particle system to achieve this:

This is a hand-drawn texture on a default material (blender internal, viewport) with emission 0.5 (left) / shadeless (right).
But I am not yet pleased with the look. Do you have any tips to achieve this fluffy look?

maybe you can use the same technique I use there at 7:50 in this video? "Above and under the ocean-Blender 2.8" on YT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i43GXeo5vmg here a jpg of this moment on my vid

the both colors are distributed by the A.O 1-enable A.O in render settings
2-in shader editor add a principled BSDF
3-in a color Mix RGB you put your first color and a second one for the "shadow parts"
4-then you put a A.O node in the Fac. no setting required in this node. just use AO output

There are 2 approaches to stylize this as the reference:
Route 1: In viewport
Route 2: In compositing.
With that as a -starting point- I´m going to be emphasizing that it's important that the modeling of the feathers look very stylized as well. I recently finished compositing a short NPR 360 video so all of this is sorted already. Your question (now that I've read it again and again) wants to go the "compositing" route. Which is how you want to merge your passes. In that context: Use Albedo (flat colors, no shadow cast) as your main base layer to compose. Then Use the AO in 23% multiply with tinting on it (in your reference the chickens are tinted by the ambient color to purple). You need to render shadows in another pass. Tint them. You don´t need to use SSS, but if you want (takes too much time) also compose it as add. I tend to create a Blender shader with a specific Rimlight angle degree. Create a pass with it, override the scene, and then I have pure white and black colors, like in this example: https://youtu.be/DM-HikLSa6g
That way, in compositing, I can tint the light. Light also needs to be stylized in the reference you sent.
Finally, I´m addressing the importance of modeling as stylized as your reference using a particle HAIR system. And the parameters I initially referred to you in the first post of this thread, you can find them at minute 17 onward which are: Clump, Roughness and interpolation.
In closing: It´s important you do flat shades. Get them out of your renders ready to be worked on the compositor. Also, make sure your bounces are at 1. You don´t need to spread light everywhere. You most likely need flat stuff everywhere. Override your render layers. Jump to minute 17 to see the clump and roughness parameters on hair setup. I know these tips could help you on your setup: https://youtu.be/IZH1NY0TJ6k
Let me know if this works for you.
BFCT_Schiller.

will watch it later, thanks in advance!

If you have additional information, please use the edit link below your original answer and add the information there. Stack Exchange is not a forum, please learn the rules.

Bounty is about to end. I will give it to you, even though I'm not 100% satisfied. But I opened the bounty to get more attention to the question, and you answered quite extensive, so I will honor your effort. I think I can learn at least a few tricks from your video. Thanks

Ok. What wasn't adressed? The compositing part?

You need to create 2 or 3 variation meshes to correctly display what you want. You can use 1 emitter but different particle settings (many particle systems inside 1 emitter). Since you´re using hair, the scruffy look is given by the parameters in Kink, Twist and Roughness (use custom roughness curve). Hope this helps. Yes, it will look fantastic, but please create 2 or 3 variations to be used with the 2 or 3 particle systems for the body emitter (one of the systems irremediably will be long feather looking hairs scruffed).
Hope this helps.
BFCT_Schiller

Thank you for your answer. While this is good advice, I'm still hoping to get some tips about shading. Like if I should use Transparency, Toon shading, Ambient Occlusion or Subsurface Scattering. Also not sure about alpha blending (there are different techniques for bushes with a lot of leafs - which is similar to my self-intersecting feathers.)

Hi. I just noted this has a 50 point bounty. At the moment my machine is rendering, but I´m definietly interested in giving you a walkthrough with pictures. You already have achieved a good start on the toony look. Remember after all there´s a lot of compositing going on with those references you showed. Don´t use SSS, fake it on the paint. Ambient occlussion: yes, use it with MASKS, you need to ID your materials with cryptomatte or Object ID so you can tweak the AO colors once it´s rendered.

I'd be happy to give you the bounty, I'd even increase it if I really like it :)

That sounds good. I´ll get right to it in some more hours. I still have to deliver some deadlines due today.

I´ll be uploading in a few moments the video explaining the appearance of the feathers. I don´t know if the bounty is editable. (I don´t think so).

here is a youtube link that should hopefully answer your question:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOMjQbVvnXU

This is a very broad answer, and I have to admit I don't see the relevance to my question at all. This is all flat geometry and it shows how to render pixelated - I was talking about fluffy feathers in a handdrawn look.


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Oil Pastel Shader
I'm wondering how you could create a procedural oil pastel shader.

Please add a bit more details to your question. What you want to achieve with this shader? Make stylized render? Paint with it? Add some reference images of what you finally want to achieve with it.


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Colorful Hypnotic Swirl in Animation Nodes
How could one create such a hypnotic swirl in animation-nodes?

The Distribute Matrix node have a built-in spiral type:


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Simple Counter Function Not Working in Animation Nodes
I'm using the following script from the blender documentation to try and create a time based counter:
import bpy

counter = 0

def run_10_times():
    global counter
    counter += 1
    print(counter)
    if counter == 10:
        return None
    return 0.1

bpy.app.timers.register(run_10_times)

However when I this I get the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "script: 'My Script'", line 25, in run_10_times
NameError: name 'counter' is not defined

What am I doing wrong here?
Here's a picture of my node setup.

Here's an example of using a script variable from the animation nodes documenation:

So you want to increment your counter every 10th of a second until it hits 10 ? Are you planning to use this counter for Animation using the timeline ?

@Gorgious I'm planning on using it in an animation nodes script

Would a solution using the current frame be sufficient ? (ie if you have 30 frames per second, the counter will be at 10 on frame 30)


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Add scene to asset browser collection
How do you add an entire scene as an asset in the asset browser?
I.e. in my blend file I have Scene 1 and Scene 2, and I'd like to have Scene 2 be an asset available to me in other blend files via the Asset Browser.

In Version 3.0 you can only add Materials, Objects, Actions and Worlds, not Scenes.

@Gorgious poses, not actions?

Hmm you may very well be right, sorry ! :)

After (at least) 3.3 collections can be marked as assets. You should be able to put the whole scene into a collection.

Per the comments, as of blender 3.0 scenes are not supported in the asset browser.

After (at least) 3.3 collections can be marked as assets. You should be able to put the whole scene into a collection.


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Create Collection with Animation Nodes
I'm sure this is possible with a custom script node but is there any out of the box way to create a collection with animation nodes? Currently I'm creating a bunch of objects in my node graph and would like to group them into a collection. I.e every 3 objects gets put into a new collection.

No, you cannot create collections with Animation Nodes. If you need to group objects then you can create a list of objects then iterate in them with loops or use vectorized nodes. Or you can just create collections manually.


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Wiggle Value in Geometry Nodes
Is there an equivalent in geometry nodes to the Wiggle Vector/Wiggle Number/etc. in Animation Nodes? I don't see any "wiggle" values in geometry nodes.

I know one workaround would be using animation modifiers to create some noise and then drive values in geometry nodes with that noise, but I'd prefer something less complicated.

You could use a texture, such as the Noise texture. The Fac value varies for different input vectors, so feeding in the Scene Time in Seconds will result in a wiggle-like animation.

You can adjust the speed and qualities of the wiggle by changing the Noise parameters.


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Procedural Ivy with Geometry Nodes
I know there's the ivy gen addon for blender, but I'm wondering if anyone has an approach to recreating such an effect with geometry nodes?
The curves of the ivy need to stick to the surface of the mesh.

Could you please tell us more about your project and your problem? Screenshots or blend file? The way this question is currently formulated, it can be answered with yes and with no. It depends very much on your requirements, and maybe the answer goes beyond the usual scope here... Thank you!


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Recreate Curve Modifier in Animation Nodes
I'd like to "recreate" the curve modifier in animation nodes so that I can use it more procedurally. I know Omar showed how to do this with a basic plane in this question, but can anyone figure out how to expand his answer so that we could deform any mesh along any spline?
Looking at the source code for the curve modifier, it doesn't seem excessively complex.
I haven't worked out any of the internals, but here's what using such a node group might look like (input a mesh and a curve by which to deform it, then output the deformed mesh).

You can bend mesh along curve like this, Not same as curve modifier but you may get some idea.


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How to move a face on a curved mesh
Is there a way to move the selected face on a curved mesh without getting the mesh distorted?
I need to be able to reposition the face within the area.

use a Shrinkwrap modifier with another sphere as target?

Change your transform orientation to normal g+x or g+y or using the transform widget will give you the transform you want for this mesh.

If it has more geometry, being truly curved, put your 3d cursor in the center and rotate the geometry with the 3D cursor set as your transform.
Using shrink-wrap or snapping to another object can give some distortion.

I was doing the grab then moving along an axis, but it goes off the mesh, I would like if its possible even with low poly mesh, the face I want to move around to be able to stick to the mesh, is there a way?

Hold shift when dragging for a slower, more precise control of transforms. You can turn on snapping with ctrl+Shift and then changing the snapping settings to face(next to the transform orientations I shared. But, this and using the shrinkwrap modifier will distort the geometry. In object mode try snapping an object to a plane and adding align rotation to target. These are all the solutions I can think of. If you are new to modeling, accuracy is not essential, but understanding orientation and snapping will make your work easier.

Thanks for your replies. How ever I'll add some more info. This is not a separate object I'm trying to move around the mesh. What I have done is chose a face, and inset it. Therefor its a face inset on the main spherical mesh which I'm trying to move around within the face quad.

My original answer to use normal transform does exactly as you describe.


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How to seamless animation loop using the Wave modifier
How can I seamlessly animate this text object using the Wave modifier without making a jolt movement when it goes to frame 1 again?

Big fan of McGlasham , myself

At frame 1 keyframe the Offset value in order to get the shape you want:

At the end of the timeline, tweak the Offset until you get the shape as it should be just before it comes back to frame 1, keyframe again:

Very good, thank you!


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How to spin a zig-zag mesh on its axis
I have made a zig zag mesh, and I want to animate the Red & Black section to rotate on its Y axis. I separated the particular mesh section from the rest of the mesh, so it only affects that section which I want to spin. I tried to parent it to an empty object, but its spinning incorrectly. I also tried to reset all transformations but that didn't work.
Here's another example of what Im trying to achieve, the cement truck is spinning the barrel on its axis, so imagine there's 4 of them which spin.

Can you share the blend file?

It looks like your segments are not rotation symmetrical, but have an imbalance. Even if you align the empty to the main axis of rotation, you would see the imbalance rotate around. On the other hand, the cement truck barrel is rotation symmetric. Is that your problem or is the imbalance tolerated?

You can use the Hook Modifier.
If I am right, those are not cylinders,but something more like this:

And if I understand correctly, then yu simply want to rotate this shape  as if it were a cylinder rotated about it's local axis.
You can use two empties as hooks and use a driver to control the X rotation of the one of the hooks.
Each hook will be assigned to the respective side.

This could do wonders indeed. I merely explained it with cylinders to explain rotation on local and global axis.

What you want is rotating a rotated cylinder along its local axis.
To be able to do so, you shouldn't apply rotational transforms.
In this picture, the left one has been rotated 15° and had it applied, the right one was only rotated.

Suppose I now rotate both 180° along their local x-axis, only the right one will rotate correctly, the one which doesn't have the previous rotation applied.


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particles are too far away from my object
I have made a particle system with vine leaves to be attached to a branch. But the leaf particles are too distant from my main object. I cant figure out in the settings how to get them closers to the branch.

Heres the Blend file:

Your "leaf" Particles are far from the emitter object because your leaf Object (the one you're using to instance the particles) is offset from its own origin point (see image below):

Since your object is rather simple, it is easy to fix - just select the object and select "Geometry to Origin" - this will put the leaf at it's own origin (which also happens to be the world origin).

The result after the operation looks like this. You will see that the leafs are partially "inside" the emitter tree - this is because the last operation placed the geometry so the origin is right in the center:

To fix this, just enter edit mode, select the whole mesh and move it "up" so the origin point is at the base of the leaf stem.


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Is it possible to make this topology into a rectangle shape
Is it possible to make this topology into a square without twisting, rotating the vertices to get a perfect square? I know my mesh because of the circle in the middle has gone into a circular topology, but some parts I need them to be rectangle shape. So if there's an easier method I'd like to know, thanks.

You have such topology just a bit outter :)

So you can delete few unnecessary loops and reposition the square.
Straighten with S, x or Y, zero if needed (as already mentioned).

If at all possible, I would work the other way round, without the circular topo.. It's easier to make a square region circular, than to make a quarter-circle square.

Grid
Inset squares (you could make them bigger first, if wanted)
Scale out a region to accommodate a circle
Shipped add-on: Loop Tools > Circle the inner region, and inset the circle.

If you needed supporting loops for extrusion and subdivision, or other hand work, you could work under a Mirror in X and Y

First rotate your whole geometry by 45°:

Then scale the side edges by 0 along y and x accordingly to straighten them up:

Finally rotate the whole geometry back:

You can do this with custom transform orientations.
Select one of the edges pointing towards the circle's center. Above the viewport (a dropdown that says "Global") add a new orientation with a "+" button. The Y axis is now pointed along the selected edge. So now select the edges you want to be perpendicular to it, and flatten them along the new orientation's Y (press S, then Y, then 0, then Enter).
Now that you've flattened the perpendicular sides, you can use them as a second new transform orientation. So again click "+", and now flatten the other two sides along the new Y.
If you want a perfect square, you can do a two-segment vertex bevel, but you'll need right angles between edges at the vertex.

Wow, all great solutions, which one can I really mark as correct. They all worked well to solve my problem.


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How to make this texture more realistic
I have this texture of concrete, but I'd like to make it more realistic. if it could have some dimples or some of the texture to seem its popping out, rough surface.

Plenty of free texture files online with associated displacement, roughness and normal files. There's a quick tutorial on using ones from Polyhaven.com here but most folks will probably use the Node wrangler addon to import the materials directly into the shader in Blender.

On the very simplest level, you could convert your image to Greyscale, and use that as the basis for a Bump map (I softened it a bit with white as well to make it less "intense"):

The Bump Node will see dark areas as low and light areas as high, which works well for the scratches, but the dark areas around the edge of the image will be "lower" than the rest as well - this means that you can try and use the image to get some roughness values as well, but it may look a bit strange near the edges:

I disconnected the image color from the above image to try and lessen the impact - with the BaseColor connected, the effects are very noticeable (may be desired or not). Here it is with the image:

Wow awesome! Thanks.


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PNG logo appears on the rear side of the node set up
I have a node set up, PBR material, and I'm applying a PNG logo to the cube. The PNG logo, appears on the front side of the cube, but it also appears on the rear of the cube. How can I have the logo just appear on one side?

Is the cube rotated? Because when I use the General coordinates the image texture appears on the top and bottom, not front and back.

Yes, its rotated X=90
https://ibb.co/NSh10Ft

Typically, the logo decal would be in UV space, not in XY or whatever of Generated space. The XY of a 3D space is a projection through it. It doesn't know anything about 'Front' or 'Back'. You could wrangle a mask, but (mapped 2D) UV would be easier.

Is this the method with the 2D-UV projection, you suggested? I had to play around with the Mapping location and scale to adjust the Logo, because when I tried with the UV editor to adjust the logo, the bricks on the logo side would also scale up and down. So Mapping the node with the PNG also got me a correct result, if this was what you had in mind.
https://ibb.co/4SkRZLx

As I said in my comment, it seems your cube is rotated, because using the Generated coordinates like this should result in having the image on the top and bottom, not front and back. But anyway, if it is not rotated you might just change an axis in the following solution.
In my example I have a PNG with some text on transparent background. I mix it over the brick texture by its alpha channel like you. Since I'm using Generated texture coordinates, the text is visible at the top and bottom, here are two cubes with the material, one is turned upside down:

The Generated coordinates (without any changed mapping) always range from 0 to 1 on each axis. This means, on the cube the value on the Z axis goes from 0 at the bottom to 1 at the top. If you use a Separate XYZ node and plug it in a Math node set to Greater Than with a Threshold of 0.5, the bottom half is black (0 or false) and the top half is white (1 or true):

So the easiest thing to separate top and bottom now is to multiply the Alpha output with the result of the Greater Than comparison. The bottom half will be multiplied with 0 and therefore show the brick texture:

As mentioned at the beginning, if you would not have rotated the cube and you had the image on front and back, you might have to use another axis like X. Also the Threshold value might be changing if you used some mapping for the image (I've seen you have moved and scaled it a bit) which moved the coordinates up or down or anything. This method of separating the Generated coordinates and using them as a mask would also work if you placed images with a UV map on an object, since you can always use multiple outputs of the Texture Coordinate node for different operations.
By the way, if you are not using UV mapping for the logo because you do not want to mess up the UVs for the base texture, you can always create more than one UV map for an object. Instead of using the UV output of the Texture Coordinate node you would then use a UV Map node and choose the one you need for the corresponding image.

The Separate Node with the other 2 maths node, did the trick. Thanks.


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How to remove the "deleting object" while i'm on certain distance
When i start a standalone player when i go away there is a "fog" that delimits the level of detail. How i modify that?

looks like the Camera's far clipping plane is too close?

yes i forgot to remove this because i discovered, anyway thanks

Just increase the end clipping the camera option when yuo select the camera


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Shift + wheel and Ctrl + wheel doesn't work anymore in Blender 2.8?
In 2.7.x it's usefull to pan only in horizontal or vertical, which I use a lot. I searched everywhere and didn't figure out, it doesn't work anymore? This page here https://developer.blender.org/T55194 says just "NO REPLACEMENT".

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is about unfinished features in experimental versions of Blender

So, it doesn't exist in the beta? Don't know how could it be off topic, it still Blender and the Beta version, it's almost finished, maybe the shortcut change. Your comment is useless.

I solved the problem manually add key map item in the preferences.
User preferences - Input - 3D View - 3D View Global - Add new - in field "Identifier operator to call on input event" type view3d.view_pan - then choose your key and action Pan left or right \ up or down.
This is not solved by Import key configuration from blender 2.79.

On Blender 2.83.4:

Click Edit > Preferences.
Click the Keymap tab.
Expand 3D View.
Expand 3D View (Global).
Scroll to Pan View Direction.

At this point, you can change the options to suit your preferences.

I can't comment so here is an answer:
Fairly sure this is not possible in 2.8 for the moment. This requires specific RNA (?) in the hotkey bind (you can see this in 2.79 when you search using hotkey and for "shift scrollwheel" where there is this unique RNA and "panning" tab on the hotkey you can't get by creating new hotkey)
Since there is no default hotkey entry for this in 2.8 I don't think you can make this without coding. (I tweeted at Pablo, though, so if he happens to reply with solution I'll update here)

I hope it is not removed, I use this shortcut quite a bit.

It would be rather big loss :/ but I'm sure it will make eventual return.

It is User Preferences - Keymap, not Input.
A viable alternative is to activate Zoom to Mouse Position:

Hi. Please upload images using the built-in uploader: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/75491/how-to-upload-an-image-to-a-post Thanks.


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Is there a way to make this edge look neater without using loop cuts?

I am trying to sharpen these edges without getting the overhang artifact you see in the image. I was using the bevel modifier that works for some of the edges as seen in the picture. A loop cut helps this particular edge, but it also sharpens the outside wall of the model, which I don’t want - and my topology isn’t built well at all for edge loops (I had to do a lot of things to avoid tris and n-gons)
If I need to retopologize, I will. I would use tris if I needed to and doesn’t hinder the result but n-gons are not an option. If it’s helpful to know, I am going to bake this hi-poly res model to a low poly version.

perhaps share a part of your object? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

https://spaces.hightail.com/space/MxIUv7n724

For those who may be having the same question, I figured it out. When I removed the bevel on the outer edges, but kept the bevel on the other edges, the artifacts and problems disappeared. I was able to harden the outer edge by adding loop cuts to the walls of the inside extrusions.


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Emission Material adding Noise to Otherwise Clean Render
I am facing issue with emission material.
As soon I add an emission material to a render it becomes noisy. Even if the emission material is added to a small portion of the object the entire object becomes noisy in rendering.
Please see the images below for your reference

I have added a curve to increase the brightness - this makes the noise more evident

Could anyone suggest why it's happening and if there is any solution to address such emission noise issue?
I posted the blender file if anyone wants it for inspection.

Here is the link of the blend file in case anyone wants to inspect it:
https://mega.nz/#!wJtwnJJQ

Please use http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ for uploading .blend files and add the link you are provided into your question as an edit to your your post. The link you have provided does not have the correct permissions enabled it appears.

Timaroberts: Thanks for the .blend file host.
Here is the link for my file http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/2970/

Have you tried Branched Path Tracing?

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


text:
Microdisplaement in Blender projecting only in one direction!
I am trying out Micro Displacement in Blender... but facing a strange issue - all the projection happening in one direction instead of polygon normal (please see the screenshot below)
I would really appreciate if anyone could point out what I am doing wrong :(
Here is the scene file if anyone needs:

I will upload the blend file also in case anyone wants to have a look at it.

You are presumably using a version of Blender later than the official 2.79b release - at release 2.79b the Displacement socket of the Material Output node was a 'Scalar' value (meaning it represented a displacement along the surface normal at each point on the surface).
Note that the True Displacement feature was an Experimental feature at that release and subject to change at some point in the future.
If you were to download one of the 'nightly build' pre-release versions of Blender (eg, 2.79.5) or build from the latest source you would find additional features. One such feature affects the True Displacement - the Displacement socket of the Material Output node is no longer a Scalar value (it has changed from being grey coloured to being blue - to represent a Vector. This means that the Displacement now represents a Vector displacement (in Object space).
In order to mimic the previous behaviour (where the displacement would act along the surface normal) a new Displacement node has been introduced which will generate the vector from your scalar value to then pass to the Displacement socket.
See https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/112162/29586

Thank you!
Didn't know about the displacement node.

Ok, now there is a new issue... when I use a high res greeble map / or just a noise texture its tearing open the edges! :(
https://i.imgur.com/6xt7jpC.png
Any solution?!

@saicode I can't replicate that result - perhaps there's something else causing the problem. Probably best to ask a new question showing the new setup with Displacement node (you can link it back to this question for some background).

I have posted a new question here:
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/119530/greeble-cube-microdisplacement-how-to-prevent-edges-from-opening-up-and-becomi


text:
Objects can be seen after turning off all lights : How to turn off ambient light in Blender/Cycles?
I am unable to find the lighting option that would turn off the ambient lighting after turing off all lightings in the scene while using Blender Cycles.
What I mean is, if I turn off all the lights in a scene, the scene is still not completely dark - there seem to be still some ambient light.
Is there any way to turn this ambient light off so that it does not affect my lighting setup?
PS: I have noticed that if I use a HDR background for lighting and then disconnent the node from the world output - the scene becomes completely dark.

Play with the settings in the world tab.

In Cycles, the Background is emitting light. This will affect all objects, which receive light.
In order for the ojects to not receive additional light, do one of the following.

Set the background color to black (0, 0, 0).
[or] Set the strength property of the Background BSDF to 0.0.
[and] Disable Ambient Occlusion.

If you don't want your background to appear black, the following node setup restricts the backgrounds visibility to camera rays.

You can also restrict the visibility of the background with the cycles settings. Uncheck everything except Camera under Ray Visibility and the background emit no light except to the camera.

This is exactly I have been looking for.I would have come back for the camera settings ! Thank you for posting it even before asking! :)
One more thing, how do you record screen cast GIF like you posted?

http://meta.blender.stackexchange.com/a/964/30849


text:
How can I scale this section correctly from a Blue print
I'm practising using a blue print of a Boeing airplane. The side of the mesh seems correctly following the lines.
When I try to expand the mesh from the top to follow the lines of the airplane, when I see it from the side view again, the mesh is out of the blue print lines.
How can I fix this?

i would try using S X e.g. to just scale along the x axis and don't destroy the "right" z-axis (as example to your first image) maybe even with proportional editing?

That was it, I had to scale as you implied S X axis, I was making the mistake just scaling S that's why it was going out of the line art. I'm currently learning how to model basic shapes using Blue print line art. Thanks for your help.

You can also press S -> Shift + (XYZ AXIS) to scale on all but the specified axis. So in this example S->Shift+X to scale on all but the X axis.

you can press S X (YZ) to scale just on one axis.
or
S Shift-X (YZ) to scale just on all axis except x (yz)


text:
How to apply grunge texture in this node settings
I'm trying to apply a grunge texture to this node set up, I cant figure out the correct configuration.

Hello, I'm not sure about your current setup, but about your "grunge" texture, could you please show a picture of what you would like to achieve?

I Have those nods set up (after seeing a tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrcHOMUWJbI) because they make a swirl pattern like a frisbee has. But I want to add some dirt grunge to it.
https://ibb.co/yNG7B1T
https://ibb.co/G7TYCkW

Duplicate your current node setup, make it darker (and less glossy etc), mix it with the previous node setup through a Mix Shader, use the grunge image texture as a factor in this Mix Shader, it should give something like that:

Thank you, once again!


text:
Screen space reflection makes my object darker
I'm applying a texture which was set up by @ChristopherBennett. The texture works well (Using EEVEE Render) until I turn on space screen reflections, which makes it darker, and the objects loses it's anisotropic rays. I have provided the Blend file for further insight.

I'm no expert for EEVEE and usually do not use it so I do not know why this happens - but the problem is the Refraction setting. When you enable Screen Space Reflections in the Scene Properties, you also have to enable Refraction there and Screen Space Refraction in the Settings of the material. Which I actually do not understand because I do not see any refractive part in the material, but maybe I did not examine the shader nodetree deeply enough. It seems that the Tangent node set to Radial has no real (or at least a different) effect when reflections are enabled but refraction is disabled.

Thank you for your information Gordon.


text:
Collections in Alphabetical order
Is there a way in the outliner, the collections I make to be in alphabetical order? for example, I have over 30 collections, the folder with the letter A, is after the letter F, and the letter S is on the top of the collections, all is mixed up.

Updated full code for menu access and a few sorting options(7-Feb). Original answer at bottom.
Sorting functions added to context menus for 'OUTLINER'.

OUTLINER_MT_collection
OUTLINER_MT_collection_new (required when sorting from master scene collection)

Sorting ascending or descending.
Sorting direct children or recursive from active layer collection.
Limitation Outliner display mode must be set to 'VIEW_LAYER'.

General Operation
Right click on a collection in the outliner (this will be considered the parent collection for operations).

At the bottom of the context popup menu you will see an option for "Sort Collections" which expands to available options.
Script
bl_info = {
    "name": "VL_Sort",
    "author": "Nezumi",
    "version": (0, 0, 2),
    "blender": (4, 0, 2),
    "location": "Outliner > rightclick menu > Sort Collections",
    "description": "Sort layer collections in outliner",
    "warning": "",
    "wiki_url": "",
    "category": "Interface",
}

import bpy

class USER_OT_sort_colls(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = 'user.sort_colls'
    bl_label = "Sort Collections"

    reverse: bpy.props.BoolProperty(default=False)
    recursive_children: bpy.props.BoolProperty(default=False)

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        area = [a for a in context.screen.areas if a.type == 'OUTLINER'][0]
        cond = area.spaces[0].display_mode == 'VIEW_LAYER'
        return cond

    def execute(self, context):
        m_vcoll = context.view_layer.layer_collection.collection
        start_coll = context.view_layer.active_layer_collection.collection

        def sort_child_colls(p_vcoll, rev = False):
            c_vcolls = p_vcoll.children
            s_vcolls = sorted(c_vcolls.keys(), reverse = rev)
            for vcoll in c_vcolls:
                c_vcolls.unlink(vcoll)
            for k in s_vcolls:
                c_vcolls.link(bpy.data.collections.get(k))

        def sort_child_rec(p_vcoll = m_vcoll, rev = False):
            c_vcolls = p_vcoll.children_recursive
            for coll in list(c_vcolls):
                if len(coll.children) == 0:
                    c_vcolls.remove(coll)
            for coll in c_vcolls:
                sort_child_colls(coll, rev)
            sort_child_colls(p_vcoll, rev)

        if not self.recursive_children:
            sort_child_colls(start_coll, self.reverse)
        else:
            sort_child_rec(start_coll, self.reverse)
        return {'FINISHED'}

class USER_MT_vlsort_sub1(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_label = 'Children Only'
    bl_idname = 'USER_MT_vlsort_sub1'

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        sort_c_asc = layout.operator("user.sort_colls", text="Sort Ascending", icon='SORT_ASC')
        sort_c_asc.reverse = False
        sort_c_asc.recursive_children = False
        sort_c_desc = layout.operator("user.sort_colls", text="Sort Descending", icon='SORT_DESC')
        sort_c_desc.reverse = True
        sort_c_desc.recursive_children = False

class USER_MT_vlsort_sub2(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_label = 'Children Recursive'
    bl_idname = 'USER_MT_vlsort_sub2'

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        sort_r_asc = layout.operator("user.sort_colls", text="Sort Ascending", icon='SORT_ASC')
        sort_r_asc.reverse = False
        sort_r_asc.recursive_children = True
        sort_r_desc = layout.operator("user.sort_colls", text="Sort Descending", icon='SORT_DESC')
        sort_r_desc.reverse = True
        sort_r_desc.recursive_children = True

class USER_MT_vlsort_main(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_label = 'Sort Collections'
    bl_idname = 'USER_MT_vlsort_main'

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.menu(USER_MT_vlsort_sub1.bl_idname)
        layout.menu(USER_MT_vlsort_sub2.bl_idname)

def menu_item_draw_func_sort(self, context):
    layout = self.layout
    layout.menu("USER_MT_vlsort_main")

classes = [
    USER_OT_sort_colls,
    USER_MT_vlsort_sub1,
    USER_MT_vlsort_sub2,
    USER_MT_vlsort_main,
    ]

def register():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.register_class(cls)
    bpy.types.OUTLINER_MT_collection.append(menu_item_draw_func_sort)
    bpy.types.OUTLINER_MT_collection_new.append(menu_item_draw_func_sort)

def unregister():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(cls)

if __name__ ==  '__main__':
    register()

Original Answer
Below is an ugly script but should be functional in blender 3.x and 4.x.
Note this only affects the 1st hierarchy level not recursive levels.
import bpy
C = bpy.context

vcols = C.view_layer.layer_collection.collection.children
s_vcols = sorted(vcols.keys())

for vcol in vcols:
    vcols.unlink(vcol)

for k in s_vcols:
    vcols.link(bpy.data.collections.get(k))

Thank you for this. Hopefully one day the developer can include an option for this in the outliner.


text:
How to distribute text evenly
I have some text I need to type out, and distribute evenly. I used the Array modifier, thinking I can make as many duplicates I need, add the space between the text, and then add the modifier and change the text to the actual wording I need. But this modifier cannot be applied to text. And converting the text to mesh o curves loses it's editability,
Im aware with Shift + D, and then Shift + R will make duplicates, but if I need to change position of the text, I need to repeat the process again.
Any other methods to do this?

You can Alt D and Shift R, and if you need to increase the space between the text, choose Options > Transform Affect Only Locations? You could also use Instancing

Menu "Object/Convert/To Mesh", if the point of your question is to apply the modifier.

I guess you could do that with GeoNodes. If you don't want GN, you could use Instancing, first create an edge that you subdivide, parent the text object to it:

Activate the Instancing > Vertices option of the edge, the text will be instanced on each vertex of the mesh:

If, for example, you want to increase the gap between the instances, scale the mesh in Edit mode:

If you want to edit the text, select it in the Outliner (you'll find it under the edge object as it is its child) and press Tab:

You can change spacing between objects in Blender in various ways. They certainly apply to text objects same way as to any other, so after using  Shift  +  D  and  Shift  +  R   to duplicate, move and repeat, you can definitely change the spacing of your objects without any trouble.
You can simply scale all your selected objects with Affect Only: Locations checked for example:

All functionality of transform operators is available to you. You can choose transform pivot, snapping, use numerical input and so on.
Don't forget you can use  Shift  +  R  for anything as well, so you can repeat only moving.


text:
Image not shrinkwrapping around my sphere object
Im trying to shrinkwrap an image onto a golf ball object, the front of the image shrinkwraps fine, but the corners are projecting out making a mess. I have subdivided my image 100 loops cuts, so it would be plenty to shrinkwrap onto the object.

Move the image even closer and curve it first. Use "nearest face" instead of "project".

When Shrinkwrap modifier is set to Project method, every point on the plane will try to collide with something along its normal direction, those points which collide with nothing will stay still.To solve it, we can try to change the method to Target Normal Project. But as the image plane is too long, the effect is still weird, so we need to bend the image plane into a more cylindrical shape before shrinkwrap.
Here are the overall settings:

Ctrl+A > Rotation, to make sure image plane has no rotating transform.
Give the plane a SimplyDeform modifier like in my screenshot. You can tweak the bend Angle to make the plane go around the ball more evenly.
Add a Shrinkwrap modifier and set the method to Target Normal Project.
Finally, you can tweak the plane's position along the facing axis to change the final shape.


text:
How can I force mesh to remesh along a polyline?
Sorry if this is a basic question, I am coming from a scientific field and have begun to use blender more and more, and it is just amazingly powerful. But, sometimes I find that to do precision type work and have precise control over meshing is a bit hard because the workflow is not really set up for that (I think?).
Basically, I have a mesh. I want to draw a polyline on this mesh, but not where any edges/vertices are currently occupying. Then I want to remesh the mesh and have edges/vertices snap to this polyline.
Is this possible in Blender?
See below schematic of what I'm attempting to do.
I have my target mesh that I'm trying to remesh, and I created a Curve>Path object t use as my snapping line.
Any advice would be appreciated.

I was able to find an approach by converting the curve to a mesh, shrink wrapping it to the target mesh, then deleting the faces of the target mesh in and around the curve, then joining both meshes to a single mesh and filling in the faces again...but there has to be a better way

It seems to me Kinfe Project might be useful to you in this situation. (It cuts along the angle of the camera; so what you see is what you get,) You can convert your curve object (I assume the poly line is one) to a mesh by selecting it and using ALT + C and choose Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text.

By the way, the cutting object can be a mesh or curve. No need to covert it. My mistake.

this was definitely helpful and did achieve more or less what I was after .. I still need to explore how I could have more control over the spacing and remeshing around this perimeter. If you want to add as an answer I will accept @Fjoersteller

In response to you comments:
Apart from the Knife Project and using a Shrinkwrap Modifier, the only thing i can think of, is using a Shrinkwrap Modifier with a specific Vertex Group. You would have to manually select the vertices around the edge of the polyline mesh object.

If the vertices need to stay on the same height you could also extrude the polyline mesh object and have the Shrinkwrap Mode: set to surface.
For the "more control over the spacing and remeshing" (if you were to delete any unwanted faces) the commands Grid Fill and Triangulate Faces might come in handy. And possibly Randomize to make it look more organic afterwards.
That's all i got. Hope it helps. In any case, good luck. : )

Appreciate it. Thanks


text:
Keep getting duplicate circle
Hi I am new to Blender and I am trying to select a vertex that i can then drag down on a uv mesh sphere. However I keep getting a duplicate circle. I am so frustrated bc I do not understand why this is the case when I right click and click the vertex.

Try using left click to select. In the newest version, Blender switched to left click select instead of right click.

I thought it may be easier if you saw a video so go to this link ... if this is not what you wanted let me know.
https://youtu.be/C31vVLQxWME

Link only answers are discouraged on this site.


text:
"Installing" bpy for Plugin Development in VSCode
I'm trying to develop some blender plugins in VSCode. I'm familiar with writing python in VSCode, and thought that I could install bpy like any other python module so I could have intellisense features (i.e, Jump to definition, autocomplete) for bpy like I would any other python module installed in my virtual environment.
But from `pip install bpy` Not Working (LookupError: unknown encoding: future_fstrings) I gather that there is no "official" bpy module to install.
What options does this leave me if I would still like intellisense features for bpy while writing my plugin?
import bpy #can't install bpy and get intellisense
import geomdl #can install other python modules and get intellisense

from bpy.types import Panel

class SF_PT_PANEL(Panel):
   #my plugin panel script...

must read if you're using vscode https://b3d.interplanety.org/en/using-microsoft-visual-studio-code-as-external-ide-for-writing-blender-scripts-add-ons/

After trying to get blenderpy working, I kept running into install issues. Doesn't look like the project recieves much active support.
After more research I found fake-bpy-module, which got intellisense working.

Just to unpack @ANimator120's answer and the fake-bpy gitpage itself:
To get the fake-bpy-module working on VScode in Windows:

Install the package: from VS code terminal: py -m pip install fake-bpy-module-latest
go to file->preferences->settings
search for autocomplete python
open settings.json it aill add the extra paths section at the bottom.
you need to add the path to the site packages of your python dir (not the bpy folder like they say in the instructions) py -m site will help you here.

      "python.analysis.extraPaths": [
        "C:\\Users\\YourUserNameHere\\AppData\\Local\\Programs\\Python\\Python310\\Lib\\site-packages",
      ],

Finally, I had to throw down a # pylint: disable=fixme, import-error before the import bpy to make the linter stop complaining that it still cant actually import this.

You should now have autocomplete


text:
How to scale at the centre bottom
I am having a difficulty in blender with scaling. I have this shape that I want to scale at the bottom, however, upon scaling, it always scale towards the active vertice. What I want is to scale the bottom shape towards the bottom centre. Any suggestions on how to do this?

Provide some images or attach your here https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/


text:
Hiding objects with scripting - unpredictable behaviour
I have a really weird issue with my script. It is extremely unpredictable and I have no idea why. Sometimes it works, sometimes it kinda works, and sometimes it doesn't work at all.
Here is what I want to do:

I have an empty parent object that controls the all of its children
I select that parent object, and then only select his children using the SHITFT+G shortcut, then select children
Then I hide all of the children using the H shortcut

This is the script that I wrote:
def makeInvisible(ob):
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')
ob.select = True
bpy.ops.object.select_grouped(type = 'CHILDREN_RECURSIVE')
for sel in bpy.context.selected_objects:
    sel.hide = True

As you can see, I will pass the the parent object as an argument to the function. The problem is that it doesn't really work, especially when I call it multiple times.
What am I doing wrong? Is there a better approach to my problem?

I think the problem here is that you do not set the active object for the context on which operators almost always rely. Here is a low-level approach without operators, tested and working. All children (recursive) of the active object are hidden.
import bpy

ob = bpy.context.active_object

def makeInvisible(ob):
    for child in ob.children:
        child.hide = True
        #call the function on the child to catch all its children
        #as there is no ob.children_recursive attribute
        makeInvisible(child)

makeInvisible(ob)

Note that this does not hide the active object itself, only its children. If you want to hide the active object too, just add ob.hide = True right below the function header.


text:
Delete all inner doubles
i just started with 3d modeling and i ran in to a problem. While modeling i didn't notice something triplified all my inner vertices. Is there a way to select all inner duplicated vertices of my original model and delete them, without scraping whole project.
Thank you in advance for any help :)

Well i did, it did nothing.

It'll be time consuming and there might be a better way, but you could go around the outside, selecting all the good faces, then Select > Inverse to select all the bad faces. If you can post the .blend file, maybe we can play with it and figure out a better way to select the bad faces.


text:
Join two parts of object faces to match shadow
What do i have to do to join highlighted group of faces with others, so shadow will be the same when joined. All faces are already part of same object (Joined them via Ctrl + J). I tried merging them and bridging them but without correct effect. Also i selected both edges and filled missing spaces (F), but shadow didn't correct. Both groups are completly together.

Looks like you have some backwards normals. First, select all geometry (A) and open the search bar (Spacebar or F3) and search Remove Doubles. Use this command, and any vertices that were not merged together and are very close together should be merged. This may not be the source of the problem, but it's good to make sure there are no double vertices. Next, press Ctrl+N (or Shift+N if you use 2.8). This should make your normals consistent. One other problem you mesh has, is a few faces have geometry which is very poor. This is a good tutorial to start with to fix the issue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqqYmanIpZ8

Try set shading flat and set it back to smooth.


text:
Transparency is broken how do I fix it?
Well, half of my blender is broken the other half is fine, because when I load in something one half will be  slightly lighter grey and the other half will be the normal blender colour the lighter grey part doesn't go transparent no matter what so I can't make thumbnails for my Yt channel at the moment. Anyone know how to fix this problem/bug?

It isn't clear what you are asking. Could you include a screenshot and better describe the issue you are having?

Don't take me wrong but questions framed like yours can't get answers quickly, sometimes they don't even get the answers for long time.
I am assuming that you have problem in transperancy shader.
Firstly you check that you are in Cycles Render.

If you are in Blender 2.8
check here

Now add some materials...
Select the object you wish to give transperancy and go to materials tab and add new..

and add transperancy shader..

I know I have gave pictures for only 2.79, but learning yourself helps you in future.

Next time frame your question in detail.

All The Best..


text:
Sliding object along a curve
I have an icosphere and I want to move it following a curve. I want the centre of the icosphere to follow the curve.
I tried snapping, but seemingly this does not work with a curve. My intention is not animation but simply the design of the scene, so movement along a path is not what I want.

you can use a Follow Path constraint but just don't animate it?

Quickest hacky way of doing this is to convert the curve into a mesh by selecting curve and go to Object > Convert > Mesh.

Then turn on snapping with Snap To edge enabled and Snap With to Center.
Make sure Transform Pivot Point is set to Median Point.

I can't reproduce this :( Have converted my curve to Mesh, create a sphere, then G the cursor snaps to the Mesh but the sphere locates just beside

Sorry. Also set Snap With to Center. I'll update my answer.

again, snap with option to center move the sphere even farther !

Is the Origin of the sphere in the center of the mesh?

It works first time with a new sphere, then anytime I want to move it along the "curve" it move away (yes Origin of Sphere at center of the geometry)

Can you upload a gif/video of what's happening? Or upload the blend to https://pasteall.org/blend/

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

As Moonboots wrote, just use Follow path constraint and don't tap on "animate path". You can define your position by sliding the offset:

I can only upvote this fantastic idea!!!!

Well actually it was just my own idea. Nobody else could ever ever EEEEVER have this gorgious idea which for sure  beats Einsteins E = mc2 (sorry cannot make little 2) and all these other stupids men ideas!!!! ♂

please, Einstein was so wrong with his ridiculous E=MC2

plus I know only one MC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otCpCn0l4Wo

you don't know MCDonalds!? ♂ i can't tou...believe this!!!

Here store this artifact in your equipment, so you can use it later: ²

i put it in my safe - this is the most valuable i ever got here....sniff....


text:
Emissive material not visible through glass on Eevee?
Hi there i’ve been playing around in eevee with frosted glass and diffusers for lights. I seem to be running into an issue whereby the emissive material is being occluded by the glass shader at a certain point.
I’m not sure if this is a limitation of rasterization over ray tracing but it just seems to cutoff when the camera gets to a particular point (see cycles render fot the result I am after).
i’ve tried adjusting the refraction settings and adding in reflection cubemap but doesn’t seem to help, has anyone run into similar issues?

any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you

I've found glass shaders to be not so useful in EEVEE, so I save them for Cycles if I need them. Instead, try using a node arrangement such as this. I tinted the glass green to show that it's actually tinted, and I put a light bulb (on the front side) to show it's actually glass (reflective AND transparent). Pay attention to the blend modes on the right.

Hope this helps.

For the record, now that I look at your photos a bit closer, it looks like the cutoff may be caused by the IOR of the glass shader, combined with the angle of the "top" of your glasses, but I can't be sure. Either way, this should rectify it.

With EEVEE set as render engine under the Material Properties tab create new material and select Alpha Blend for Blend Mode and set value of alpha less than 1, this would be your glass material. If you want it look more like glass use some noise texture for roughness.


text:
Fill object with Random Box packing in Geometry Nodes
I'm trying to create a node setup in Geometry nodes that will allow me to fill/pack a base object like 'Suzanne' with boxes like the examples below:

I've managed to somewhat get the effect via distributing points within a mesh volume but it ends up looking more like a minecraft model than the more randomised, hand-stacked look I'm hoping to achieve...
I've seen some examples in other software where this effect is achieved using packing algorithms and physics simulations so I'm wondering if there's something similar I could do in Blender or maybe workaround methods for shuffling up the grid?

Would also be great to be able to control things like random rotation for the boxes and the gap size/density between them if possible

any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

collision detection of rotated boxes is tricky, so a very significant piece of information is how correct you want the arrangement to be, how much do you want to avoid overlap, and how densely do you want to pack. Clearly, the most dense packing is just a 3D grid of touching cubes. If you provide cuboids and want to pack them, then it becomes a mathematical challenge. If you want dense packing of non-cube cuboids, you could start with a 3D grid and merge cubes together - but that still doesn't have rotation.

Thanks Markus the idea would be to avoid as much overlap as possible - would it be easier if say the packing had to select from a predefined series of box sizes?
I.e. a box that is wider, a box that is a perfect cube, a box that is skinny etc. and then fit these together as best as possible...
Or what about if I setup some kind of modular grid that the cuboids would be able to fit within i.e. 0.1m base grid that could then have varying cuboid sizes of that increment somehow?
I'm really stumped and would love to know some kind of method for achieving this.

As you mentioned in your question it's all about algorithms and they are computationally intensive. Similarly to the Shortest Edge Paths Node which is an implementation of the Dijkstra’s algorithm it will be quite challenging to recreate them with the available nodes. Hopefully in the future we'll get more art oriented algorithms implemented.  Using Simulation could be an interesting approach (like some sort of Tetris), but may leave some of the boxes unnaturally hanging , or spawning a box on available surface, shooting 5 rays to find the closest face and then scaling up the box apropriately.

I did some tests yesterday and it seems just using Raycast node won't help. It is more like a Geo Proximity Node type of problem. I posted a small description about the steps here: https://curiousblends.blogspot.com/2023/12/a-box-packing-algorithm-with-geometry.html?view=sidebar , but it needs some polishing.

perhaps try adding some random rotation


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How do I fix unwanted sharp edges baked onto a normal map?

In modeling this knife and handle, I am attempting to bake the high poly mesh onto a low poly version so this can used in game engines, etc. But as I try to bake it, the normal maps aren't looking like I want them to be, I see some smoothing with the jagged edges of the low poly mesh, and the render result is horrendous. I suspect that it could be a uv-unwrapping problem, or that the two meshes versions are more suited for a displacement map, but I am a bit new to this workflow.
Here is a link to the .blend file, knife.blend

I suspect this is an issue arising from the differences between the high and low mesh, but the files you provide are only the high-poly meshes.  What are you trying to bake onto?

The low-poly meshes are on layer 2 of knife.blend


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Scale changes when applying curve modifier
very annoying as sometimes it happen and sometime it doesn't (first curve is fine) i just want the cube to stay the same exact scale it has originally... i also apply both scale + rotation on both ... what can be done to fix it ?

If you've scaled your curve and applied its scale, the radius of its vertices is no longer 1. So select your curve, go in Edit mode, select all the vertices, and W > Set Curve Radius (value 1 by default, that's what you want, but you can change it on the bottom of the T panel), or in the Tools panel of your 3D view (displayed with T on the left of the 3D view) go in Tools > Curve Tools > Set Curve Radius and choose a value of 1.

Just a slight correction: If the curve has varying radii (it doesn't, here, so it doesn't matter) then setting the mean radius will do just that.. it won't set all the radii to 1. If you want to set all the radii to one value, you can do that in the Tool region, with Curve Tools > Set Curve Radius.

oh yes you're right I'm going to edit

.. and showed me another way, too .. :)


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Rose gold material color for jewelry?
I’m trying to render jewelry in rose gold. Just wondering if anyone knows a way or a color hex to achieve a look similar to the below image. Thank you for your time!

You may find this interesting: Physically correct material with mirror reflection

Basing creative decisions on scientific measurements
It is only possible to base your creative process and guesses on some scientific measurements while the results are never 'physically accurate' or 'correct' in CG. They should not be. Nobody actually needs this accuracy. It is OK to aim for a nice image that would be aesthetically pleasing and not to pursue physical accuracy that is most often impossible to achieve. Think of it this way - do you know the wavelengths of the primary colors of the monitor you are going to view the images on? I didn't think so. So let's not pretend anything about the images we create is even close to physically accurate.
If you wanted to use the data at https://refractiveindex.info to approximate the reflectance for the shader, you would need to know what the primary RGB color wavelengths you need are. I don't know what they should be, so let's just think that this random calculator that I just Googled gives us somewhat correct goals of what the ideal primary wavelengths for sRGB should be. It says red is around 610nm, green is around 550nm and blue is somewhere around 460nm. We can get the graphs for similar wavelengths at refractiveindex.info if we input the lengths here(in micrometers instead of nanometers though):

Only then you can take three different graphs like this one for all the primary wavelengths and replicate them using RGB Curves.

You should also ignore green and red lines representing different polarization, because in CG, we do not care about polarization at all. So only green lines for wavelengths representing red, green and blue colors.
But wait, what now? What should control our RGB Curves node? - you may ask.
And that would be a wonderful question. Whatever it is - it is clear that it certainly is not some UV coordinates! We have the graphs from refractiveindex.info for Reflectance and Angle of Incidence in degrees that go from 0° to 90° linearly. Nothing in Blender actually gives us that.
Layer Weight and Fresnel nodes do not give us brightness depending on the angle of incidence from 0° to 90° linearly.
We have to actually make it by taking the arc-sine of the dot product of incoming and normal vectors and divide it by half of pi and then inverting it by subtracting it from 1:

(Sorry for added confusion - I use Bump Map node to get the normal vector because I want a way to plug normal or bump maps to this whole thing later.) Obviously it is better to have this as a node group.
So now let's just assume there is some micro-roughness effect visible because of the way the gold is polished(no reason other than that it looks nice on metals) and add roughness variation depending on the facing angle of the surface and we have something similar to what gold might look. Obviously it needs to be lit nicely as well and have some environment to reflect:

To make rose gold you would mix that with something like 25% of copper.
Is this process worth it?
I am not so sure it is for every situation. It is time consuming and it is also questionable if the extra effort is better noticeable than just working with some good reference photos. If you googled 'Gold' and compared it to my render you would find all kinds of different colors. That is normal and to be expected. They are all lit differently in different environments therefore reflecting different things, taken with different cameras and also all post processed differently. I think it makes a lot of sense to better invest more time into presentation, the models and especially the lighting and composition of the renders to make an impact on the viewer. These things can ruin all the effort of inputting loads of measured numerical values if not done correctly. It is not about physics, it is about visual communication. And this is just roughly based on some measurements. The rendering process is not physically accurate by any measure. I do however think it can be a strong base on which one could build an image if one has the time to play with this.

Looks like you are trying to replicate with curves what the conductive fresnel does using correct math: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/71651/custom-fresnel-curve. An argument for this might be some extra artistic control using the curves, but I find the ordinary pbr metal setup with edge tint much better for user comfort when going the artistic way. Using Filmic color management has huge impact on the look of metal, without it there is no much sense in doing it, imho should be part of answer.

I would say that the curves remove one inaccurate bit - they can be based on measurements instead of mathematical approximations of the curves. That would make sense if I could honestly recommend this method. I cannot. Filmic transform is one of the artistic choices(I personally really like it), but the end result could be color graded in many different ways - this is the reason I would recommend placing more value on good reference photographs and the idea of what visual style is wanted than on the physical accuracy.

I agree with using the references and grading. But that math is the math that generates those curves exactly, not an approximation. I'd say fiddling with the curves is approximation. The good thing about Filmic is that it does not clip scene referred values and does desaturate highlights correctly, it's more than grading. Imho it is quite essential for metals, if you don't use Filmic you can grade how ever you want and you won't get what you probably see in the reference.

Thought that the curves are calculated using some variation of Schlick's approximation. There are actual measured data sets on refractiveindex.info, isn't that what you can download in CSV tables?.. I might be misunderstanding what values are calculated, and what are measured - I assumed they calculate n and k values from actual intensity measurements with lasers. I don't know. It seems too deep. Color management and reproduction techniques mess everything up way earlier for this to matter. Yes, Filmic CM only allows to get the needed output for grading, but you can use whatever grading then.

The curve's are not calculated using Schlick's formula (that's for dielectrics only), but the Fresnel formulas. On refractiveindex they measure the reflectance values for all angles to get the curves and from them they obtain the N and K values. The N and K when put into the Fresnel formulas generate exactly those curves, it's like if you would measure the positions of a train for every time interval and then determine the acceleration and other numbers for the equations that describe that motion precisely.

That's interesting. Thanks for pointing this out.


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The software doesn't work
Windows 10
This is what happens when the software first.
What should I do

Follow the suggested instructions in the error message. Try updating your video card drivers.


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.fbx and .blend have flipped normals in unity
Cannot export from blender to unity. On first image you can see imported .fbx and .obj(.obj works good).
Scale in blender is positive and normals facing outside.
I tried export .fbx with flipped normals from blender, but with flipped normals lightning in unity works wrong.

Possible duplicate of : https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/63642/after-import-to-unity-all-my-normals-are-flipped

I finally found it!

It looks like .obj and meshes is totally ok, but while importing with my armature it goes wrong. So i checked my armature and scale by X axis was -1, and right after importing good looking .obj was affected by negative scaled armature and normals gone wild. In blender, i applied scale to armature by selecting armature and pressing Ctrl+A a then Scale, same as people said in other threads about messing .obj
Shame on me, i need to be more careful

It looks like .obj and meshes is totally ok, but while importing with my armature it goes wrong. So i checked my armature and scale by X axis was -1, and right after importing good looking .obj was affected by negative scaled armature and normals gone wild. In blender, i applied scale to armature by selecting armature and pressing Ctrl+A a then Scale, same as people said in other threads about messing .obj Shame on me, i need to be more careful


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Importing file issues with new Blender version 4.2 texture missing
I downloaded a file from Blender Swap. I noticed the file was created in Blender 2.7, When I append the file in Blender 4.2, this is what's showing up, the Green leaves are missing.
Also no texture is included with the object. But I can see it in the materials property, the folder which I downloaded is corrupted?
https://blendswap.com/blend/17143

Blender's materials have changed a lot over the different versions. As you can see in the Material Properties to the right in your first screenshot, there is a button saying Use Nodes. It is there because the material does not use any shader nodes. When you switch to the Shader Editor you can also see that there is nothing and the Use Nodes option is not checked:

This is because the old material is probably from the old internal render engine and not compatible with current Blender versions. What you have to do is create the material (to be more precise, create the shader nodetree, the current material can be used) yourself. Either click the button Use Nodes in the material properties or check the option in the Shader Editor.
Then you'll get a new nodetree with a basic material containing a Principled BSDF and a Material Output. Now you can add an Image Texture node, select one of the two fern image textures, plug the Image output into the Base Color and the Alpha output into the Alpha input of the Principled BSDF.
By default the Image Texture node uses UV mapping so this should work immediately, but of course you can use a Texture Coordinate node if you want to change something and also adjust everything else to your liking (the original material was only diffuse, no glossiness or anything).


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Why does my object get bad shading as I keep subdividing it
I have a sphere Object A which I initially subdivided 10 times, then the same sphere I subdivided again, and then 3rd time same sphere subdivided again. And I then it has this shading which doesn't look smooth, although auto smooth is turned on.
I then make another separate sphere, and subdivide it with the same amount of loop cuts 3 times   but the sphere doesn't have the bad smooth shading like object A.
Why does Blender function like this, although both objects have the same amount of loop cuts, and are the same shape?

same problem as here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/321489/how-can-i-get-rid-of-of-smooth-out-weird-sharp-edges-like-this/321493#321493 don't right click > Subdivide, it won't round your object, instead use a Subdivision Surface and apply

First time I used Smooth Modifier, fixed the shading issue, thanks for that!

Another tip when using the Subdivision Surface modifier for rounding a cube: use a Cast modifier after the Subdivision Surface, leave the Shape at the default Sphere setting and set the Factor to 1.

I do not know exactly how you subdivided the cube in your example because it already looks quite spherical, not just like a round cube. But here are two of my preferred methods to get a smooth sphere from a cube. First take a simple default cube and select it, right-click in the 3D Viewport and choose Shade Smooth. Now you can choose if you want to go procedural with modifiers to be able to change settings afterwards or destructive by doing it in Edit Mode.
Procedural
Add a Subdivision Surface modifier to the cube and set a reoslution that fits your needs like Levels Viewport 4 or 6 maybe (note that there is a separate value for rendering). Now it is a round cube, but not yet a sphere. Notice also that the Dimensions are still given as 2 m in XYZ although the sphere is much smaller (1.68 m in diameter which will only show after applying the modifier):

Then add a Cast modifier which is by default set to Shape > Sphere and set the Factor to 1. Now it is no longer a rounded cube but a sphere. Notice that the Dimensions now show the (correct) values of 1.71 m on XYZ.

If you want to make sure the resulting sphere has a specific Radius, you can enter a value greater than 0 m for it, which will be used as long as the Size from Radius option is enabled. Notice that this not only makes the sphere the desired size, but it also keeps the Scale at 1/1/1, other than if you would scale it in Object Mode and would have to apply the scale manually afterwards.

Destructive
Select the cube and switch into Edit Mode. Select everything with A, then right-click and choose Subdivide.

Now one thing you can do is repeat the Subdivide action by pressing Shift+R until you are satisfied with the resolution. To compare with the above modifier's subdivision level 6 this would be a first subdivision followed by 5 times repeating it. This leaves you with a subdivided but not rounded cube:

To make it a sphere, you can press Shift+Alt+S to activate the To Sphere tool. Drag your mouse to round the cube until it does not change anymore, in the top left it should then say To Sphere: 1.0000 or you could just press 1 to set the value.

Another way to do this instead of repeating the subdivisions and then rounding the cube manually afterwards would be take the default cube, right-click and choose Subdivide and then opening the tool options at the bottom left. There you can enter a number of Cuts (to get the same amount as before they have to be  63, note that you can only slide the value up to 10, higher values you have to enter manually). Below the Cuts is a Smoothness setting which basically gets you a sphere as well if you set it to 1. But notice that this will not produce nice smooth shading and you would have to correct it manually with Shift+Alt+S like before, so I do not recommend using the Smoothness option.

In both cases, either repeating subdivisions and rounding the result or using the number of cuts and smoothness options, the resulting spheres do not have the dimensions of the original cube of 2 m × 2 m × 2 m, but instead are 2.56 m or 3.46 m in diameter. If you want to set them to a specific size like a diameter of 2 m i.e. a radius of 1 m, you have to enter the Dimensions in the XYZ values manually and then apply the scale with Ctrl+A afterwards.


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How to make the curve extrude on the X and Y axis
How can I make the curve extrude on the X and Y axis, instead of the mesh extruding on the Z axis.  using the Geometry extrude in the object data properties.

Press CtrlT90 to tilt the vertices 90° or open the N panel and change the Mean Tilt to 90°:

Always learning in this forum, Thanks moonboots!


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Texture is not even on UV mapped material
I have applied a texture on my object. In some parts of the object, the material is not equally applied. I have UV unwrapped it, also applied all transformations on my object.

As seen where the Red selection is, the noise seems stretched at that spot, whereas the other noise is the same on other parts of the object.

In the shadings tab, I have applied same scale for the object, and in the Blue selection it looks different.

What output are you using in the Texture Coordinate node? If you use Generated, switch to Object. If it still doesn't work, please share your file

By default it was Normal, switching to Object fixed the issue! Thank you!!!

By switching to object you basically no longer have the UV unwrap working. If you want to use your UVs, you should check stretching with a UV checker before the actual texture

Switch the Texture Coordinate output to Object. It will project an unstretched noise onto the surface, while Normal (or Generated) will deform it.


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How can I make a low poly shape like this with triangular faces
How can I make on a rounded shape like random triangles appearing on its surface like the reference image, or if its not possible on a rounded shape, then to make these triangular looking shapes.

Add a sphere.
Shape it in sculpt mode.
Add a displacement modifier with noise.
Add a decimate modifier and reduce the ratio.

Wow, thanks for that, I didnt even know where to begin from!


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Can't get SSS to work with Principled BSDF shader
I can't seem to get the SSS to work with the new principled BSDF shader of Blender 2.79. The SSS effect is almost invisible.
Please see the image below:
Does anyone know how to use this shader for SSS?
Here is the Blender scene in case someone wants to examine it: http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=47835

Not an expert, but I think increasing Subsurface Radius to 10 does the job?

Thanks you so much!! I was thinking increasing the subsurf value would help (got confused because of the traditional subsurf material) but it was giving some weird result. But increasing the value of subsurf radius gives the correct result!
https://imgur.com/a/cW7cA

The only difference that you have, is that  on traditional SSS you are setting radius to 10, and you are missing that step in Principled BSDF. You may try to add a "value" node (can be color ramp, or whatever you want, but for this simple purpose the "value" node is enough) and set it to 10, and connect it to "subsurface radius" option on principled node.

This should also work by clicking on the 'Subsurface Radius' box in the Principled Shader. The radius inputs for rgb will expand. Click and drag from first to last input and enter '10' in all of them at once.

Thanks guys!! I was thinking increasing the subsurf value would help (got confused because of the traditional subsurf material) but it was giving some weird result. But increasing the value of subsurf radius works perfectly!


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Object moving on it's own when rendered!
Sometime when I move an object in the viewport it renders ok in the real-time rendered viewport (Cycles) but as soon as I press F12 and render the image - it goes back to the original location in the rendering as well as the viewport. It doesn't happen all the time but I have faced this issue few times in the past couple of months.
I have a feeling that it's something to do with the parenting. But I have tried everything I could think of - un-parenting, re-parenting with or without keeping transform but nothing seem to help!
Here is a screen capture of the issue:

Here is the .blend file in case anyone wants to examine it:
http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=47962
Could anyone suggest what's the issue and how to avoid it?

watch your timeline remove all the keyframe from the timeline and render

This is a shallow problem, encountered by countless Users. You will conquer this. Please know this ... Keyframes dominate temporary movements which are [not] keyframes.    Move your timeline to previous and next frames to verify the render positions. You will see temporary positions disappear. Do not depend on temporary positions.  When the Blender User inserts a keyframe the permanent change is made.  At least in this example.  For simple positions two keyframes determine every frame position between them.  Learn how to insert keyframes.  See a tutorial on youtube or search here at BSE.

atomicbezierslinger: Thank you for the reply. Only the empty (parent) has keyframe but not the torus - still it's jumping back to its original location - that's why I am getting confused.
Thanks for moving timeline tip. I will try it next time.

please next time use http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ to share .blend files, then edit your question and paste the provided link...

the "trs" object has an action (_breeze packaging_main deviceAction.001) and is parented to the "animated_empty" which has an action too (EmptyAction.003)

Post it as an answer, @atomicbezierslinger

@m.ardito Thanks for your reply and examining the scene. Thanks for pointing it out the action. I will post this as the answer. Really appreciate your help.
How is blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com better than http://pasteall.org?

I should have looked at the Graph Editor and the Dope Sheet - after deleting the unwanted keyframes the problem is resolved.

Thanks atomicbezierslinge and m.ardito for pointing the issue with keyframes.


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How to control specular/glossyness of glass shader in cycles
I am trying to control the amount glossyness/specular (not roughness) of glass but not able to find any option in cycles. I have tried both the traditional glass shader and the new Principled BSDF shader - none of these seems to let you control the amount of reflection on glass.
I understand that it might not be physically accurate but is there a way to do it?
Here is the blender scene in case anyone wants to examine the setup. http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=47771

If I understand you correctly, you can simply mix a Glass Shader with a Refraction Shader.  The factor will determine how reflective the glass material is:

As for realism, there might be an anti-reflective coating on the surface. You probably can't get zero reflection IRL, though

True, I thought it may not be physically accurate. That's why it's not possible in Principled BSDF.
But in real life situation, the glossyness of the glass may be too much to look real!!


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Blender Grid axis colors
Does anyone know how to change the X and Y axis color in Blender 2.80?

You can set the axis colors in the following settings tab:
Preferences -> Themes -> User Interface -> Axis and Gizmo colors

Happy Blending! :)


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How to add gradient map to Blender area light?
I would like to have area lights with linear or circular gradient, so that the light is more realistic without sharp edges and constant brightness. But as soon as add a mapping node it becomes completely dark (as the bottom image). Is there any way I can add a gradient map on area light?
(I know it can be done with geometry light with emission shader, or a HDR map can be added to an area light - but I am looking for a solution where I can control area light with procedural shader/without an image)

Did you try Generated or Object coordinates? Lamp object doesn't have UV data

I tried generated - it stayed the same - ie. black.
Just now tried object co-ordinate and it does seem work!
I will explore more and post the results here.
Thank you!!

@saicode does the lamp have to be area light? It really is easier to do what you are trying to do another way (a different light).

If I can get a reflection on the geometry I can use other lights also. Could you explain a bit what you are thinking?

Bonus setup for caustics using normal:

Use the normal if you use spherical gradient change the Z scale to 0 on the mapping

To get a texture on your reflections, you must use Object Coordinates.

For whatever reason, you also have to select the light ("Light2" in my case) for the Texture Coordinate node so that the light's transforms are transferred to the coordinates in the node tree (usually it's automatic).

If you want to keep the coordinate values in $[0,1]$, make sure that your lamp is set to either Square or Disk with a Size of 1m, and in the node tree, add 0.5 to the $x$ and $y$.

(You can still make the light with any aspect ratio by changing the object scale.)

Examples

For the last example, you can reduce the noise and render time by setting the shape to Disk so that the black corners aren't being sampled.


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Smoothing edges on an Ico Sphere and avoid artifacts when smooth shading
I want to model a smoothed Icosphere (a D20 Dice) but I have artifacts/ unwanted hard edges.

You can see the Star shape (*) all around the dice. The triangles appear completely flat, which makes sense, but doesn't blend into the beveled edges like I would expect it. I tried subdividing or insetting the Triangle areas, which didn't help. I tried a few things but don't really know how the topology has to be. Maybe it's solvable using weighted normals or a different profile, but my knowledge is really thin on that topic.
Can you give me tips on how to get this model clean and smooth?

did you try harden normals and check autosmooth? [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/kFipN.png

@Chris, Thank you. The edge looks good, but the corner doesn't blend in correctly.


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Rigify Fingers shrunk inside themselves
The fingers went inside themselves for no reason, i can drag the finger detail bones and get them to how they were before, but i cant scale to close them anymore

i've also noticed that whenever i reset the pose with alt+g after i fix them they shrink back, how can i fix this?? I've been animating the project for a while so i think ive only transfered animation data and reset the pose a couple of times

Please add your blend file to your question. (Grab the URL of the question.
Go to https://blend-exchange.com/.
Select the blend file.
Add the url of the question.
Grab the url that results.
Go back to the question and edit it.
Add the new url to the bottom of the post.)

This happened because you created the bones, and scale the root of each finger, but later placed the second falange manually.
Save an alternative file with a different name, we're going to do deep changes:

Enter edit mode on your METARIG, delete your hands and fingers.
go back to OBJECT mode.
Create another meta rig (shift+A>Armature>human metarig). Delete everything except the left hand. Exit back to OBJECT MODE
Select your original metarig, enter EDIT MODE. Delete both hands and fingers.
Exit back to OBJECT MODE.
Select your single left metarig hand, then shift click select the original metarig. Press CTRL+J
Make sure your bone layers have everything placed on square 1.
Enter edit mode, Parent the hand to the forearm.L
Select the left hand metarig, Right click>Symmetrize (this will create the right hand parented already to the right arm)
while in EDIT mode, switch your axis orientation from GLOBAL (or LOCAL) to NORMAL, and in the selection method use "ACTIVE element". This is crucial for you to click, select a bone and rotate it/move it regarding its own axis.
HEre's the crucial point
USE THE LASSO TOOL (ctrl+RMB) to encircle both the root of the finger and the joint connection. Help your self orientating the camera view with 1,3 on the numpad (front and side view), then go to perspective and final align the finger. As long as you DON'T separate your joints, your finger will generate in the correct proportion to the hand.
Finish and save this file. Enter OBJECT MODE, click on the running man icon, and press GENERATE.
Now you can scale (to flex fingers), move and rotate (to orient fingers individually) from the long pole controls.


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Intersection of beveled curve object
I am just trying to create a simple outlined heart for a 3d print job. So I modeled a curve for the heart and added a circle as bevel object. The result looks like I want it to have..
But switching to wireframe mode shows that the resulting object has intersected vertices / faces which will cause my 3d print to fail...
Is there a simple thing I am missing on my task to just get the outlined object without intersections?
Here is what it looks like and where my problem is:

I tried to convert the result into a mesh and apply a skin modifier which took ages to calculate and did not work as desired. Also the solidify modifier did not work...
Thanks a lot for your comments!

I would either generate only half of the object, duplicate and mirror to create a second half and then use bool to join them together (and keep my fingers crossed that it wont mess things up), or convert it into mesh, remove intersecting verts and fill holes manually.

Yeah... I already did that and it kind of worked on such a simple structure... but I got more complex objects I want to outline like the heart where a manual correction is not a really funny option...

I would try boolean operations then, generate a half, duplicate and mirror it. And then join them together using Boolean modifier.

This may still involve too much hand-editing for you..
Create your profiled curve to produce a deliberate overlap with its reflection - (you're looking for a good  clean cut down the Y axis) .. here the mirror modifier is only there to vizualise the result

Having converted to mesh, in an orthographic view, Use the knife tool, constrained, to cut through the mesh (K),(C),(Z) Rip the selected edges(V, select the excess faces, (mouse over, L), and delete them.

Add a mirror modifier with merge and clip, and in edit mode, bring the halves together until they just snap, and draw them apart again slightly.

There may still be a few editing decisions on the seam, after applying the mirror modifier, removing tris, bringing some vertices together, but not many, if your mesh is not too dense...

and the result is quite clean.

If I understand you correctly, it seems to me that the only problem with your initial approach was you switched to a mesh at the wrong point and used modifiers that weren't ideal.
You could make your curve as you wish, and convert it to a mesh before adding the volume, so it is just a set of vertices forming lines. Then, by creating a minimum geometry that can be converted to the shape you want, you only have to adjust a few vertices, and it's quick if you know how to go about it.

After you have created your shape, convert it to a mesh by pressing
Alt + C. The mirror modifier will be applied in this process.
In edit mode, select all the edges and extrude them perpendicular to the plane of the object. So, if you built the curve in front view (numpad 1), extrude along the Y axis.

Join any detached sections present - select the edges on either side of gaps and press F, subdivide edges on the sides of the face closest to an adjacent group of faces by pressing W and selecting 'subdivide' from the pop-up menu, then slide the new edge to the right spot by pressing G G.
Do this on one side and delete the mirrored side. Press A to select all edges and press Ctrl + N to recalculate normals. Add a mirror modifier again (now that it will build what you want). Don't merge or clip the things on the mirror axis. Instead, move one of the edges adjacent to the mirror axis to a distance equal to half the thickness of the final wireframe shape you are creating. Select any other edges along the axis and move them an equal distance away (pressing S, then X, then Numpad 0 will do this if they are all selected, the one that is already placed is selected last, and the Pivot Point menu in the bottom menu bar - 3rd from left - is set to Active Element).
Add a Solidify modifier and adjust the thickness to what you want. Set the Offset to 0 so the shape being modified is in the center of the volume created by the modifier, that's probably the look you want. The corner edge of the pieces at an angle to the center axis will just barely touch together, that makes editing them easy. Apply the modifier.

Delete most of what you just built. The parts that are folded in tight curves are the parts that get messed up, but it isn't very much to deal with if you are just adjusting one flat plane of quads. Go into top view by pressing Numpad 7 and if you aren't in orthographic view, press Numpad 5 to enter it. Press Z to get into wireframe view, then press B and draw a box around everything but the front plane of faces defining your shape. Delete them. Also delete one of the mirrored halves, it's easier to add it again later.
Fix what remains. I use the knife tool (K) to cut across the problem faces, the circle select tool (C) to select the ones that were wonky, deleted them, added loop cuts (Ctrl + R) so the parts to be joined had equal segments to weld. Then I selected edges on either side of each gap, pressed Ctrl + E and Bridge Edge Loops from the pop-up menu. After pressing A to deselect everything, I pressed Ctrl + Alt + RMB while hovering over one of the edges between the now joined sides to select the whole row of extraneous edges there. I pressed X, and chose 'Collapse Edges' to join the pairs of vertices on either side into one row of vertices. Then I added the mirror modifier again, applied it, and joined the middle edges along the axis.

 8. Select all and extrude along the Y axis again until you have a square cross-section. Crease the edge loops that need sharp corners.

Where you want an indent along a join, scale the line of edges on either side of that along the Y axis a little, and add a crease.

Add a 'Subdivision Surface' modifier. 2 subdivisions seems to be enough for your purpose. You now have a mesh that is all quads, with no internal faces and smooth joins. It's a lot faster to do than to write down. (It's practice for me though, and payback.)

Thanks for the work you put in your answer... That will work - of course - but as you said it is still a bit too much hand work...

The next item I want to outline is a tree... and for that the solution is really a bit too hard...
I got help from another forum: exporting to stl, importing in Microsoft 3D Builder, fixing in 3D Builder and Reimporting in Blender solved the issue... Not a great answer as it involves another tool but it works fast and easy...
Here is the result of the five objects I wanted to create:

And a close up of the (fixed by 3D builder) tree wireframe:

I just hoped to get a clean and nice solution from within blender...