text:
Is it possible to have multiple physics simulations in blender game engine?
Ok, I need to preface this with the fact that what I'm intending to do may not be possible in blender. I was needing to know if it is possible to create multiple rigid body systems within the blender game engine. I'm currently attempting to partition large portions of space in order to circumvent floating point limitations for a space flight simulator I am working on. Can anyone see any possible work around using Python? The only solution I can come up with is to partion space into octrees and have rigid body simulations in each with active objects to handle encounters/ collisions.

Are you actually seeing issues due to floating point limitations, and if so, are you sure those are the cause? I would imagine that bullet physics would already have a system to handle this. Also, I'm not sure what you intend to do with these octrees? Adding your own collision detection? If your doing that, why not just write your own physics engine? Or maybe modify the source of bullet, and compile a new copy of blender?

The octree is simply being used as a means of partitioning the universe, as opposed to a 3d cell array. Each sim would be situated in active leaf nodes, however, I'm toying with making them more like bubbles of high precision space moving through low precision space, with original situated in the geometric center of the objects being handled. Would hate to mess with the source code since I'm not familiar with it. No intention of writing my own physics engine since that'd be reinventing the wheel at this point.

I see. Well, I'm still skeptical, but best of luck making it work.

Can you just use collision layers?

That sounds entirely reasonable. I'm actually using multiple scenes to handle different layers of physics and scale.

If the areas do not interact at all, can you even see them at the same time? Could you completely forget about the "other" ones while you're over in one small part of the universe?
If not, and you always need to be able to see them, you could try doing things with multiple scenes. Each simulation takes place near the origin, and the camera shifts to provide the correct view of it.
I will echo GiantCowFilms: I doubt floating point is the issue here. If I remember correctly, a 32 bit float has enough precision to work at ±1cm at the radius of earth (6000km)

I know this may be ambitious, but I was hoping to have a total universe size of 13 billion light years,  but I understand now that it may be better to simplify collision calculations for regions outside the immediate area of the player. Still working out a scaled space solution for the immediate area.

Mostly needed it for persistence reasons. Thank you both for the feedback.

Yup, you do not need to calculate the physics for a leaf falling on a planet more than one light year away.....
Many of the large-scale physics (ie planetary) will need to be handled specially anyway, so I think it makes sense to use BGE's physics for the "here and now" and either don't have, or write your own system for handling the physics of very far away.


text:
What is this weird ugly dark join using mirror modifier, smooth shading, and possibly subsurface modifier?
I've made some shape in Blender 2.8 that roughly resembles a handle one might find on a fridge to learn, following along with Gran Abitt's videos.  Where the handle part of the handle meets itself in the mirror, in the "viewport shading" mode, there's an ugly dark band around it.  There is no such join on the backplate.
I think my problem is similar to Mirror Modifier making ugly smoothing on mirrored faces, but the proposed solutions don't work for me - there is no option to "clear custom split normals data", and the problem actually goes away when I tick "Auto Smooth".
The real problem is that I just don't understand what I'm doing.  Why does ticking "Auto Smooth" make the dark band go away?  What is the dark band?  I can't see anything untoward in Cycles whether it's on or off - is it actually a problem?

Aha, you're right, it is a duplicate!  Good find.  What's the etiquette, do I delete?

I should have watched further in the video I was following - there's an errant face in the join left over from extrusions which I needed to remove.

It looks like perhaps "Auto Smooth" selectively applies smooth shading to edges based on the angle between the faces they delineate, and, as the issue wouldn't show up with flat shading, the flat shading applying to the edges at the join was hiding the issue.  (I could be very wrong).

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Why isn't merge by distance allowing me to merge doubled vertices from different meshes?
Starting with a pyramid on top of a cube, selected all, and click merge by distance with an appropriately small distance with the intention of merging the points at the base of the pyramid and top of the cube:

As you can see, 13 verts selected and zero merged.
Now if I increase the merge distance to the point where it may merge multiple points on the same mesh, I get this:

So merge by distance IS working, it just doesn't want to be the tool that combines meshes. Why?

The merge by distance work on single mesh data only. It doesn't need to be connected, but at least same mesh.
Usually you will need to join two meshes first and then merge doubles vertices. As an user dominant program, Blender should not do anything that user was not expecting for. It could be a good feature to make an option in operator. But multiple meshes editing is a new thing in 2.80, this is a new use case that developer need to consider.
So you might want to file your request as described here

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


text:
Blender mist pass final render looks darker than viewport
No other special settings, just create new default file and enable mist pass then I got this result.

Just change color management view Transform to Raw. Seems mist pass wont apply the filmic color filter.


text:
How would I rig this mechanism to have the same movements as shown in the video?
I attempted to rig this mechanism just like the video but didn't really know where to start. Any information/help would be amazing.
Picture of what I'm trying to rig:
The mechanism I'm trying to replicate: https://vimeo.com/359913559
Blender file with the models: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3ycyxw4vhuvvb23/RigAnimation.blend?dl=0

Start from the first half of the mech: a wheel that's driving a two part arm. Put the head of a bone exactly in every center of rotation of all joints (use Shift S, selection to cursor and cursor to selected, for precise placements).
 Starting from the bone that drives the force A, B is simply son of A and acts as target for the IK bone chain C,D. E is simply son of D (keep offset), and it will be the IK target of the 2nd part IK chain.

Part 2 is simply another IK Chain, bone E is target for the IK chain F,G,H,I. The only difference is that every bone of the chain has locked the rotation axis that in real world would be constrained by its rigid nature.
Which axis to constraint it depends by the bone roll (you can set it in edit mode). A good habit is to rotate the roll so that the main rotation is along positive X Axis, and you can turn on axis visualization to help understanding which axis to lock.

I added on the end a third IK chain (L,M) form bone E head to bone H tail, just to drive the rotation of the smaller part of the piston, because it was getting a big rotation out of its natural axis (in your video this longitudinal extra rotation is absorbed by imprecision of the joints).

Is there any way you can send me a download link for the blend file? I am very new and don't know much about Ik's or rigging, would like to see how you managed to put everything together in the file! Also, thank you for your response! @josh sanfelici     ... not sure how to @ someone or get their attention on this.
This is how far I got:  https://gyazo.com/af075a9bfe565cea29d8ee0df240a074

https://wetransfer.com/downloads/6af9e245c8239e8e423512f5d9e8900520190915112255/06e1a4115aef75426a38c33fd557f45820190915112255/075f81


text:
Make Cartoon-like car headlight light
I want to make the light appear on the floor in a defined oval shape, without any scattering but be translucent anyway. kind of like this picture, but appearing only on the ground maybe. This is part of an animation of the car going around a small world.
Here is the file. Thank you in advance!!

Are you making this in 2D or 3D? If 3D, you can use a spot light and position it in the headlight of the car, keyframing it's position. You also wouldn't need to use nodes for that.

If 2D, and you want to have it be casting a yellow tint on the background, then you can make the light a yellow plane and decrease the alpha transparency value.


text:
mesh doesn't follow the amature
I don't have even good english, I upload the .blend file. If someone want, just check it out.
The problem is on title and on image.
I forgot to translate the names of bones, i hope you will understand, sorry.

Thanks.
File

You don't have any vertex groups. Select the mesh first then select the armature while you hold shift, then select: "With automatic weights" in the pop-up menu.

Then press Ctrl P, then choose "With automatic weights"

In object mode, first select the mesh, then with shift pressed select the armature.
Press CTRL+P and check the box "With Automatic Weights".


text:
Realistic Interior Lighting In Blender 2.8
I'm trying to make realistic interiors like this:
or this:
with soft lighting and a lot of bounce/indirect light. Any lighting techniques that would help make renders look like these renders? manual lighting with lamps? or HDR'S?  or both?

HI. Have you tried the techniques you mention and they aren't working? Can you give specific examples of what you've tried and where you feel like you're falling short? At the minute, just asking for general techniques, this question is quite broad and might be closed.

I've used HDRS and I can't get that soft lighting with lots of indirect lighting, and lamps are good but I still don't get enough indirect light... do I need more windows?


text:
How do i extrude multiple vertices without creating faces?
Im trying to sew together a quilt in Blender but filling vertices one at a time is tedious and im trying to find a better way to get something like this
but when i fill more than two at a time i get this
can someone tell me a less tedious solution?

Select both edges alignement and use 'bridge edge loops' from the 'edge' menu in edit mode.

Go with any method that creates faces, quickly, and then select the unwanted  faces by, say, Shift-G > Co-planar, and X > Delete Faces Only.

Thank you so much! this will save so much time!

You can also search for "Extrude Only Vertices and Move"


text:
Does an object emitting smoke also behave as an effector?
I'm making a campfire in Blender 2.93 and I'm wondering if I need to make duplicates of the objects and set them to effectors. If my emitters are set to flow, then I can't set them to effector. So if they are set to flow, is the smoke not colliding with them? Thanks in advance.

That's correct.

So I do indeed need to create duplicates and set those to effectors?

Well, that was what you asked in the question... what do you expect me to answer this time when you ask the same again?  ;)

Because in the title I asked if the flow objects also worked as effectors, but in the body, I asked if I need to make duplicates. I just need a little clarification. Thanks :)

You need a copy of the object to be the effector :)

Thank you so much :D


text:
Blender 3.0 doesn't give me the option to load 2.93 settings
I just downloaded Blender 3.0 and usually when downloading a new version I'd get a button the the splash screen allowing me to load my previous version's settings, but I don't have this button in 3.0. Is this happening with anyone else? Is there a way to fix this? Thanks in advance.

Had you already tried the 3.0 alpha or beta version before? Blender stores the preferences in the user's home directory. It's "C:\Users\  \AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender" for Windows. When there is already a 3.0 folder it will use it. Else Blender checks for older preferences and asks if you want to import them.

Thanks so much!

I was having this same issue. But I am using the portable version, and am wondering if this makes a difference regarding Blunder's solution. I've always used the portable version, and have never had this problem before.

I was noticing that some UI colors were not as I had set them in 2.93 when I first opened them in 3.0. I also wasn't prompted to use 2.93's settings. So based on Blunder's advice, I found and deleted the 3.0 folder, and opened Blender 3.0 again. This time, it prompted me to load the 2.93 settings, so I thought I was good. But when I get in, all my UI colors are just as they were when first opening 3.0, meaning not as they were in 2.93. This leads me to wonder if 3.0 loaded any of my other 2.93 settings.


text:
Can you track a smoke simulation's velocity and use it to drive the location of a noise texture?
I'm making a campfire and I'm wondering if it's possible to utilize a smoke simulation's velocity to drive the location of a noise texture. I'm trying to move the noise texture so it matches the speed of the fire. Can you track that sort of thing? Thanks in advance.


text:
Bump Map - 2.80
I realize that Blender 2.80 is still in beta and that bump map painting stems way before this version, but I'm definitely having a difficult time finding any detailed tutorial on how to set it up. I want to do what this person is doing but he's doing it in an earlier version and doesn't explain the set up so that I can bump map paint. Any help with the appropriate steps would greatly be appreciated.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDN4Wwl6EOY&t=33s

Heres a tutorial I found. It's from 2013 but should work about the same now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGRG2nXPmQY


text:
Bone to mesh - convert
I have seen this post Convert bones to meshes but i need just box (or cylinder), not a piramyd at every bone, can someone help me please?

you can change the appearence of your armature in the Properties panel > Object Data > Viewport Display > Display As, and choose for example B-Bone to diplay the bones as rectangles, the in Edit mode ctrl alt S to fatten or shrink the rectangles, also try the other appearences

I need to =convert= bone to mesh.

yes, I thought you found a solution with the link you gave

There the bone is replaced with pyramids, which, however, unfortunately, is not what I need. I suppose it needs to be changed from half a dozen lines of code, but I don't understand that.

This is an update of lemon's code on the question Convert bones to meshes. Run the script and it will pop a menu asking if you want Pyramid, Tapered, or Box shapes. Pyramid is what the code did originally, tapered uses the bone envelope, and Box takes the average.
This image is "Box":

# from https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/75049/33589

import bpy
import mathutils
from mathutils import Vector
from math import *

class ArmatureMenu(bpy.types.Menu):
    bl_label = "Mesh 2 Armature Menu"
    bl_idname = "OBJECT_MT_Mesh_From_Armature"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        layout.operator("wm.mesh_from_armature", text="Pyramid").mesh_type = 'Pyramid' # from here
        layout.operator("wm.mesh_from_armature", text="Tapered").mesh_type = 'Tapered' # from here
        layout.operator("wm.mesh_from_armature", text="Box").mesh_type = 'Box' # from here

def CreateMesh(self, meshType):

    obj = bpy.context.active_object

    if obj == None:
        self.report({"ERROR"}, "No selection" )
    elif obj.type != 'ARMATURE':
        self.report({"ERROR"}, "Armature expected" )
    else:
        processArmature( bpy.context, obj, meshType = meshType )

#Create the base object from the armature
def meshFromArmature( arm ):
    name = arm.name + "_mesh"
    meshData = bpy.data.meshes.new( name + "Data" )
    meshObj = bpy.data.objects.new( name, meshData )
    meshObj.matrix_world = arm.matrix_world.copy()
    return meshObj

#Create the bone geometry (vertices and faces)
def boneGeometry( l1, l2, x, z, baseSize, l1Size, l2Size, base, meshType ):

    if meshType == 'Tapered':
        print(meshType)
        x1 = x * baseSize * l1Size
        z1 = z * baseSize * l1Size

        x2 = x * baseSize * l2Size
        z2 = z * baseSize * l2Size
    elif meshType == 'Box':
        print(meshType)
        lSize = (l1Size + l2Size) / 2
        x1 = x * baseSize * lSize
        z1 = z * baseSize * lSize

        x2 = x * baseSize * lSize
        z2 = z * baseSize * lSize

    else: # default to Pyramid
        print(meshType)
        x1 = x * baseSize * l1Size
        z1 = z * baseSize * l1Size

        x2 = Vector( (0, 0, 0) )
        z2 = Vector( (0, 0, 0) )

    verts = [
        l1 - x1 + z1,
        l1 + x1 + z1,
        l1 - x1 - z1,
        l1 + x1 - z1,
        l2 - x2 + z2,
        l2 + x2 + z2,
        l2 - x2 - z2,
        l2 + x2 - z2
        ]

    faces = [
        (base+3, base+1, base+0, base+2),
        (base+6, base+4, base+5, base+7),
        (base+4, base+0, base+1, base+5),
        (base+7, base+3, base+2, base+6),
        (base+5, base+1, base+3, base+7),
        (base+6, base+2, base+0, base+4)
        ]

    return verts, faces

#Process the armature, goes through its bones and creates the mesh
def processArmature(context, arm, genVertexGroups = True, meshType = 'Pyramid'):
    print("processing armature {0} {1}".format(arm.name, meshType) )

    #Creates the mesh object
    meshObj = meshFromArmature( arm )
    context.collection.objects.link( meshObj )

    verts = []
    edges = []
    faces = []
    vertexGroups = {}

    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')

    try:
        #Goes through each bone
        for editBone in [b for b in arm.data.edit_bones if b.use_deform]:
            boneName = editBone.name
            # print( boneName )
            poseBone = arm.pose.bones[boneName]

            #Gets edit bone informations
            editBoneHead = editBone.head
            editBoneTail = editBone.tail
            editBoneVector = editBoneTail - editBoneHead
            editBoneSize = editBoneVector.dot( editBoneVector )
            editBoneRoll = editBone.roll
            editBoneX = editBone.x_axis
            editBoneZ = editBone.z_axis
            editBoneHeadRadius = editBone.head_radius
            editBoneTailRadius = editBone.tail_radius

            #Creates the mesh data for the bone
            baseIndex = len(verts)
            baseSize = sqrt( editBoneSize )
            newVerts, newFaces = boneGeometry( editBoneHead, editBoneTail, editBoneX, editBoneZ, baseSize, editBoneHeadRadius, editBoneTailRadius, baseIndex, meshType )

            verts.extend( newVerts )
            faces.extend( newFaces )

            #Creates the weights for the vertex groups
            vertexGroups[boneName] = [(x, 1.0) for x in range(baseIndex, len(verts))]

        #Assigns the geometry to the mesh
        meshObj.data.from_pydata(verts, edges, faces)

    except:
        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
    else:
        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')

    #Assigns the vertex groups
    if genVertexGroups:
        for name, vertexGroup in vertexGroups.items():
            groupObject = meshObj.vertex_groups.new(name=name)
            for (index, weight) in vertexGroup:
                groupObject.add([index], weight, 'REPLACE')

    #Creates the armature modifier
    modifier = meshObj.modifiers.new('ArmatureMod', 'ARMATURE')
    modifier.object = arm
    modifier.use_bone_envelopes = False
    modifier.use_vertex_groups = True

    meshObj.data.update()

    return meshObj

class MeshFromArmatureOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "wm.mesh_from_armature"
    bl_label  = "MeshFromArmatureOperator"

    mesh_type : bpy.props.StringProperty(name="mesh_type")

    def execute(self, context):
        print('The mesh type is', self.mesh_type)
        CreateMesh(self, self.mesh_type)
        return {'FINISHED'}

def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class( ArmatureMenu )
    bpy.utils.register_class( MeshFromArmatureOperator )

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class( ArmatureMenu )
    bpy.utils.unregister_class( MeshFromArmatureOperator )

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    # The menu can also be called from scripts
    bpy.ops.wm.call_menu(name='OBJECT_MT_Mesh_From_Armature')

I asked that question on meta a couple of hours ago, but I guess no one reads meta. :)

I updated Lemon's answer (pending review). Only two lines actually changed, but I reflowed the code style from four spaces to triple back-ticks so it looks like all the lines changed.

Thanks! This works great in Blender 4.0.2

This is an update of Ron Jensen's answer (which is itself, as Ron points out, "an update of lemon's code on the question Convert bones to meshes").
This update was to rework some of the GUI code since I was having some issues on my end with using it to properly choose the mesh type (i.e., Pyramid, Tapered, or Box). I've changed the GUI to be a pop-up dialog that uses EnumProperty to pick which mesh type to use, and I've removed the ArmatureMenu class since I've changed the GUI to instead be called from the MeshFromArmatureOperator class when it is invoked (so now only 1 class has to be registered instead of 2).
Please note that I've only tested this in Blender 3.3.1 (which requires enabling "Developer Extras" in "Blender Preferences" -> "Interface" to be able to run "MeshFromArmatureOperator" from the F3 "Menu Search" window), so I can't vouch for compatibility with other versions.
# Built from:
# - https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/190354
# - https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/75049/33589

import bpy
import mathutils
from mathutils import Vector
from math import *

def CreateMesh(self, meshType):

    obj = bpy.context.active_object

    if obj == None:
        self.report({"ERROR"}, "No selection" )
    elif obj.type != 'ARMATURE':
        self.report({"ERROR"}, "Armature expected" )
    else:
        processArmature( bpy.context, obj, meshType = meshType )

#Create the base object from the armature
def meshFromArmature( arm ):
    name = arm.name + "_mesh"
    meshData = bpy.data.meshes.new( name + "Data" )
    meshObj = bpy.data.objects.new( name, meshData )
    meshObj.matrix_world = arm.matrix_world.copy()
    return meshObj

#Create the bone geometry (vertices and faces)
def boneGeometry( l1, l2, x, z, baseSize, l1Size, l2Size, base, meshType ):

    if meshType == 'Tapered':
        print(meshType)
        x1 = x * baseSize * l1Size
        z1 = z * baseSize * l1Size

        x2 = x * baseSize * l2Size
        z2 = z * baseSize * l2Size
    elif meshType == 'Box':
        print(meshType)
        lSize = (l1Size + l2Size) / 2
        x1 = x * baseSize * lSize
        z1 = z * baseSize * lSize

        x2 = x * baseSize * lSize
        z2 = z * baseSize * lSize

    else: # default to Pyramid
        print(meshType)
        x1 = x * baseSize * l1Size
        z1 = z * baseSize * l1Size

        x2 = Vector( (0, 0, 0) )
        z2 = Vector( (0, 0, 0) )

    verts = [
        l1 - x1 + z1,
        l1 + x1 + z1,
        l1 - x1 - z1,
        l1 + x1 - z1,
        l2 - x2 + z2,
        l2 + x2 + z2,
        l2 - x2 - z2,
        l2 + x2 - z2
        ]

    faces = [
        (base+3, base+1, base+0, base+2),
        (base+6, base+4, base+5, base+7),
        (base+4, base+0, base+1, base+5),
        (base+7, base+3, base+2, base+6),
        (base+5, base+1, base+3, base+7),
        (base+6, base+2, base+0, base+4)
        ]

    return verts, faces

#Process the armature, goes through its bones and creates the mesh
def processArmature(context, arm, genVertexGroups = True, meshType = 'Pyramid'):
    print("processing armature {0} {1}".format(arm.name, meshType) )

    #Creates the mesh object
    meshObj = meshFromArmature( arm )
    context.collection.objects.link( meshObj )

    verts = []
    edges = []
    faces = []
    vertexGroups = {}

    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')

    try:
        #Goes through each bone
        for editBone in [b for b in arm.data.edit_bones if b.use_deform]:
            boneName = editBone.name
            # print( boneName )
            poseBone = arm.pose.bones[boneName]

            #Gets edit bone informations
            editBoneHead = editBone.head
            editBoneTail = editBone.tail
            editBoneVector = editBoneTail - editBoneHead
            editBoneSize = editBoneVector.dot( editBoneVector )
            editBoneRoll = editBone.roll
            editBoneX = editBone.x_axis
            editBoneZ = editBone.z_axis
            editBoneHeadRadius = editBone.head_radius
            editBoneTailRadius = editBone.tail_radius

            #Creates the mesh data for the bone
            baseIndex = len(verts)
            baseSize = sqrt( editBoneSize )
            newVerts, newFaces = boneGeometry( editBoneHead, editBoneTail, editBoneX, editBoneZ, baseSize, editBoneHeadRadius, editBoneTailRadius, baseIndex, meshType )

            verts.extend( newVerts )
            faces.extend( newFaces )

            #Creates the weights for the vertex groups
            vertexGroups[boneName] = [(x, 1.0) for x in range(baseIndex, len(verts))]

        #Assigns the geometry to the mesh
        meshObj.data.from_pydata(verts, edges, faces)

    except:
        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')
    else:
        bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')

    #Assigns the vertex groups
    if genVertexGroups:
        for name, vertexGroup in vertexGroups.items():
            groupObject = meshObj.vertex_groups.new(name=name)
            for (index, weight) in vertexGroup:
                groupObject.add([index], weight, 'REPLACE')

    #Creates the armature modifier
    modifier = meshObj.modifiers.new('ArmatureMod', 'ARMATURE')
    modifier.object = arm
    modifier.use_bone_envelopes = False
    modifier.use_vertex_groups = True

    meshObj.data.update()

    return meshObj

class MeshFromArmatureOperator(bpy.types.Operator):
    bl_idname = "wm.mesh_from_armature"
    bl_label  = "MeshFromArmatureOperator"

    mesh_type_items = [
        ("Pyramid", "Pyramid", ""),
        ("Tapered", "Tapered", ""),
        ("Box", "Box", ""),
    ]
    mesh_type: bpy.props.EnumProperty(items=mesh_type_items, name="Mesh Type")

    def execute(self, context):
        print('The mesh type is', self.mesh_type)
        CreateMesh(self, self.mesh_type)
        return {'FINISHED'}

    def invoke(self, context, event):
        wm = context.window_manager
        return wm.invoke_props_dialog(self)

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

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

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    # The menu can also be called from scripts
    bpy.ops.wm.mesh_from_armature('INVOKE_DEFAULT')

JPLC thanks! the script work fine BUT is there a way to get the meshed bones to look exactly like the armature, no scaling

@SneekyChick someone would have to re-work the function boneGeometry() to build a more complicated shape.

Runs fine for me from the text editor in Blender 4.0.2 on Windows 10. Thanks!

authors: Олег Анатольевич


text:
How to change armature pose with ragdoll?
I can’t figure out one thing that confuses me. Or I am misunderstanding something. Let’s say I made a rig, at least for a human model, at least for a worm. I can change the pose however I want, and all that jazz. However, as far as I know, in order to create a ragdoll, the bones must be detached from the parental bonds, i.e. be on your own. In this case, how to pose, raise arms, legs, etc., in a model that has a ragdoll?
https://youtu.be/KUmIKWVrHZU?t=108
After all, even in this video, the guy says that you need to remove all child-parent bonds in the bones, otherwise the bones just stick to each other and the ragdoll does not work.
And since every bone is now on its own, how can I change poses, spread my arms and legs, other than tedious dragging and dropping meshes for ragdoll?


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view seems cut off in object mode
So when I'm in render preview I can see everything but everything cut off in object mode

You accidently pressed ALT + B, which is used to set the view clipping border. Just press that again and your view will be normal again.
Further info: Blender Wiki Article about View Clipping Border

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


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Prevent light from lighting inside a closed room?
I've got a problem with lighting. I don't want lights that gets through edges :/ I have closed room with floor, ceiling and walls. Point light object is created upper ceiling. And light gets inside the room but it should not. How to fix this? Room should be dark but is bright because of light object :/

You have to go to the lamps properties > "lamp icon" > "Shadow" > enable "Ray Shadow" to get this fixed:

Cheers

Oh, thanks! Btw, do you know how to do that with glowing objects? Here's the link that shows how it look like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrNks470FRk

Note that this won't work if Ray Tracing is not enabled in the Render tab > Shading rollout. This increases the render time as well.

Thanks for pointing that out, @MrZak, I just edited my post
I don't know wether Blender (internal) Render is capable of handling ray traced shadows for emitting objects, however, Blender Cylces is. Just make the same setup as in your example, set click "Use Nodes" in the Material tab of the emitter and set "Emission" in the under "Surface" > "Surface".
If you really want to get into Cycles watch the beginner tutorial series of BlenderGuru at [link] https://www.blenderguru.com/tutorials/blender-beginner-tutorial-series

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


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How to drive noise textures position with attributes?
I'm working on a fire simulation and I've been using a noise texture to remove parts of the fire.

So far I've just animated the Z value of the mapping to move the noise up. But I saw someone use an attribute node with "velocity" to drive the movement of the noise texture so it flowed exactly with the simulation. When I tried to replicate the technique I couldn't get it to work and the noise wouldn't appear at all.

Am I doing this wrong? Is Mantaflow broken? Any help appreciated.

Did you find a solution?


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Should I be changing temperature min and max or reaction speed if I want my flames to go higher?
Working on a fire simulation and I was confused about which value is more physically correct to adjust because I know adjusting reaction speed slows down or speeds up the fire simulation.

Any help appreciated!

A high Fuel value will bring more fuel and make higher (but also bigger and more agitated) flames. A low Reaction Speed will speed up the reaction and make higher flames as well. To make higher flames you can also try these factors:
Select the inflow object, enable Initial Velocity and choose a high value on Z:

Or select the domain and under Gas, increase the Buoyancy Heat:


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How to flip color ramp HSV Far colors
I'm working on a glass dispersion node group based off of this brilliant tutorial on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEPZ1IUkoB4
I need to flip the colors on the colorramp so that its a gradient from red, violet, blue, green, etc. instead of a gradient from red, yellow, green, blue, etc.

If anyone has any ideas that would be greatly appreciated!

just use "near" instead of "far" and add manual stops as you like:


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Image won't show in renders
I use images as planes(drag and drop), but they won't show up in either Evee or Cycles.
How can I make images show up in render?

Drag and drop, do you mean you drag and drop a picture from your file explorer to Blender's viewport? If I remember correctly it doesn't crate a mesh plane but an image empty, which can't be rendered.
If you want to import images as planes, use the addon conveniently named "import images as planes". It is shiped with Blender, you just need to enable it in the preferences. Then use the penu File → Import → Images as planes. When navigating in Blender's file explorer, you can open the sidebar and play with the import options, like the shader used for import, as you wish.

Press NumPad 7. You might be on an "upside-down position" that is why it is hidden.


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Exporting and re-using Armature
I want to re-use an armature and the animations on it. Can I just export it as FBX, then import on another project so I can have the same animation on a different mesh?

If you export an armature and its animation as an fbx file format, you will have to re-parent the armature to the new mesh, and set up all of the weight painting, but you can keep the animation and the armature structure, if that is what you want to do. Select the armature, and export it as an fbx. Then import it into the new file.

My second mesh is a different mesh so I am thinking I need to re-parent and re-weight it. But that's the only way I know, is there a better one?

Not sure About the Animation but you can simply open a second Blender and copy Paste from one to another for the Armature.

Not on a Mac OS system.


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Only 1 of my text letters turns black
I am creating a stack of 3 block letters on top of each other as a logo in Inkscape.  When I save as .svg and open in Blender to make it 3d, 2 of the letters remain red with black outline.  The 3rd letter turns black.
I am not sure if it is just the letters I am using, but I tried to do separate Red letters, each Object to Path, then saved as .svg. Then open in Blender but they are black.
I tried clicking texture, does not change.  Letters are 3" tall and I scrolled down the text type to find various ones that fit my theme.
My project has background solid color, other small text, boarders and everything keeps it's color, but that one letter.
Also tried saving as Plain .svg, Inkscape .svg, png.  Doesn't fix the problem.  I manipulated the other 2 letters and not the red C, so I went in, manipulated the red C, object to path, saved as .svg, opened in Blender and just that letter is black.
BTW I did make sure to check the original fill, stroke, etc. and they are all the same in Inkscape.
Thanks in advance

This  is all hard to follow without some images

same problem here.
I tried Inkscape and Adobe Illustrator.
In blender the text appears 0.01m below other curves.
Manually bringing them up takes a lot of time when many svgs. Have you guys found the fix?

I was stumped by this issue as well. I was able to fix it by selecting the text, going under the "Object Data" property, and making sure the "Size" (under the Font menu) isn't set too low. In my case, anything less than .01 caused the problem.
If you set it too low, some letters go black. Raise it back up, they go back to normal. She falls down a well, eyes go crossed. She gets kicked by a mule, they go back to normal. I don't know.
If you need to get the text down past the point of the darkness setting in, just scale it instead of changing the size value.


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Why No Statistics Data at the Lower Bar?
There used to be vertex, face etc. numbers at this lower bar.
Why is this not appearing?
Is there a way to get it back?
PS: I'm not asking about statistics in the Overlay menu.

right click on the bar -> check "scene statistics"


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How to spot un-weighted vertices?

As you can I see have three rouge vertices that are not a part of a vertex group and/or doesn't have weights on them.

Is there an easy way to spot them without going through each bone?
More clearly: How to spot unassigned vertices in weight paint mode?

Select all the pose bones and move them.  The three unassigned "rogue" verts will reveal themselves.

Vertex Mode > Header 'Select' menu > 'Select by Trait' > 'Select Ungrouped Verts' might be helpful, but it will select 0-weight verts.

Use the options in the armature modifier: "Display modifier in edit mode" and "Adjust edit cage to the modifier result".

In complement, concerned bones are generally the one used for nearly connected vertices, you can see them in the properties panel:


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Blender 2.8 All menus disappeared
Due to unknown reasons all my menus disappear, how can I bring them back?

You have to press Alt + Space .

The problem you faces was caused by the combination of:
Ctrl+Alt+Space
You can find the function in the Blender Preferences->Keymap:

Using that combination you go from:

to:

it maximizes the area depending on where you hover the mouse when pressing

Yes! This is the right one!

I had to press Ctrl + Alt +  Space
Blender version 3.2.

Solved it somewhat.
Steps I followed.
Open a startup file and do: File->Defaults->Load Factory Settings.
Then, File->Open.
In this browse menu untick Load UI, at the bottom left. Open your file.
Luckily your top menu is back and you can continue.


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Boxcutter doesn't fill hole
Boxcutter does not fill hole in this particular mesh while it did in others. Which settings will allow me to fill the gap when cutting?

is your cutter wider than the box? I don't think boxcutter will handle it if it's not. Other than that, maybe find the HOPS/boxcutter forums and ask there. Not a lot of BC users here.

Booleans can create unpredictable topology, which can have unpredictable results.
Aside from making sure that the caps of the cylinder poke out both sides of your base object (it's hard to see by your screenshot), try changing the Solver setting from Exact to Fast or vice versa:

It may help.
Alternatively, play around with your base geometry to add or remove extra supporting edges. I recommend starting by having edges around the area where the cylinder is, to limit the amount of face area that is disturbed in the process.
Try placing edges here, for example:

You could also place similar supporting edges in your boolean shape. It gives the solver more entry points to work with in terms of creating vertices along the cut edge.
Fixing errors like these can be a balancing act of making sure you do so without breaking other areas of your mesh, and I find that what works for one situation won't necessarily be the same in every instance of that error.
It's hard to tell by your screenshot, but another reason for this could be because you've got a large ngon on that flat panel. Again, I can't tell from your screenshot - it could all be quads and edge loops, but I thought it was worth a mention.


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What are these red dots on the UV vertices?
Red dots appeared on UV vertices, what are these and how do I get rid of them?

These are pin vertices, it allows you to keep these vertices at these positions if you choose to U > Unwrap again. To pin, select the vertices you want and P. To unpin, select and AltP

That both solved the problem and taught me something very useful, thanks.


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Curve modifier squashes the mesh into a tiny cable
I have a basic cylinder, I'm using it with array and curve modifiers.
When I assign the curve modifier the mesh does not retain it's size but is squashed into a thin wire.
Why does this happen?
PS: I have used this method again and again with working results, it's just not working for this particular curve.
Images:

Mesh in edit mode(original size)
Mesh with curve in effect(squashed into a wire)
Curve in object mode
Curve in edit mode

Did u apply scale & rotation?

Related: https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/250716/78972

Applied scaleNrot


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My mouse is displaying even though I made it invisible?
So I am making a game and have been on this one for about a week now. And just now am dealing with this issue. I know how to make a mouse appear and disappear as I wish it to on the game engine. However, just recently, I press P to play the game to test it out and the mouse is on the screen.
Even if I look through cameras or not, it is showing. So here is what I already did to try to fix this issue. I made sure no scenes were overlaying with the mouse visible. I made all cameras that will be used have and invisible mouse. I even googled as much as I could possibly find and only found that on the right panel, under render it can have the mouse active... And it wasn't.
Also, when I am playing the game, not only is the mouse in the middle of the screen but as I rotate the camera around with the mouse. The Screen mouse gets huge. Which can cause a huge issue if you are playing a game.

So I did a little more digging on this. And realized that is was an issue that should have never been an issue in the first place. A few days ago I made a pause scene and had an invisible mouse actuator connected to an always Sensor I had to delete those two connectors for the mouse to not show up. This seems to be a glitch so if anyone comes across an issue similar to this. I would check your mouse actuators you made a while ago....


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How Do I stop the Red and Green Cylinder from moving
I don't know how to stop the cylinders from MOVING here's a video to show.
https://vimeo.com/282056594
How can I stop the green and red cylinder from moving back and forth?

Tell me if that simple solution could answer:

Create one unique armature from bottom to top with bones following your object shape.
Put your armature in Pose mode. Select an arm, then select its bone, and ctrl P > Bone to parent the arm to its bone. For the vertical arms, select the bone it is supposed to be part of and same thing, parent them.
Move your bones, the arms should follow in the right way.

I think you did some transforming wrong: the three cylinders should only rotate themselves, but it seems that some of them (red and green) are also translating. Or, you maybe created parenting in a slightly wrong way.
Here below my setup: I placed all meshes, then parented each mesh above to the one below (simple "Object" parent). Then I key framed Z rotation for each cylinder, starting from the bottom, at different frame intervals. Just that.

And here is how this behave. You could compare to yours or (easiest) start from scratch doing something similar.


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How to make an object only collides with the terrain?
I have a question to the the collision in the Blender Game Engine. I made an character (a simple sphere). This character is on layer 2. A empty object is on layer 1. This empty spawns every 5 seconds a character from layer 2 (Add Object). Is it possible to disable the collision
of all the characters? They should only collide with the terrain but not with each other.
I hope you can help me.

It's simple: use collision masks. Download the example file here.
The concept is pretty easy:

Collision Group are the collision 'layers' that the object belongs to. Multiple can be selected.
Collision Mask are the collision 'layers' that the object can collide with. Multiple can be selected.

For example, if Ball2 belongs to Collision Group 2, but can only collide with objects on Collision Group 1 (through the use of Collision Mask), it will not collide with itself.


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No animation with some sensors in the BGE
I have a problem with the Action Actuator and animations in BGE. I would like to play an animation.
It works only when I use the "Always" and "Delay" sensors but I need the "Radar" and the "Near" sensors.
But if I use the Near sensor no animation is playing. Here is a picture of my Logic Bricks:

maybe you need to change the true level triggering (pulse mode)

if that not works, maybe at the physics tab click on the actor checkbox there


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Forces field Wind does not affect hair
everytime I try to add wind in my scene the hair is still static. Only if I move the wind object the hair is moving.
But if I dont do that the hair goes in the right direction but doesnt move. I have this problem in Blender 2.80, 2.83 and 2.79.
I have a simple plane with a hair particle system. I have this problem with Vortex and the Turbulence too. Same problem with hairs on characters.

I hope someone can help me.

A wind force field makes a steady, laminar stream of wind. This is not desirable because that way all the hair moves in the same direction. In order to fix this, add a turbulence force field in front of the wind.
The turbulence force field will disrupt airflow. However, this disruption is still constant meaning that the hairs will shift a little, but will remain in the position. However, if you press G to move the turbulence, it will change the appearance of the hairs.

In order to make the turbulence dynamic, select the force field and keyframe animate its rotation. Please note that only animating X and Y rotation will work, and not Z.
I hope this helps!


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Publishing an addon to Blenders main branch
I wrote an import/export script for a 3D model format some time ago and would now like to have it added to my portfolio by somehow putting it into Blenders main branch (make it somewhat official and credible).
Is there some group i need to post my addon to for review? How is that process going?

https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/Process/Addons

I believe your goal would be to make your addon a contrib.
This can be achieved at https://developer.blender.org/.
Here, your addon will undergo two types of reviews; function and source code.
For the function review, read : https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/Process/Addons .
For the source code review, read : https://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/Tools/Code_Review .

Yes, contrib is what i want. Thanks alot!


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IK constraint causes crazy global rotation
I was following a rigging tutorial (first minutes of third video) on a simple model I made earlier. But when I add an IK constraint on the bone shin.L to have the bone foot_IK.L become an IK controller, it gives very odd behavior.
When moving the foot around in Pose mode for a small amount, the IK seems to work fine, but when you move it further, the rotations go berserk. And even if i return the mouse back to where it started, the rotations keep being all messed up.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ikrqtk7kh164c22/dusty_05_foot_bones_added.zip?dl=0
What did I do wrong?

Here is what I would say:

Select your armature, go in Properties > Data > Display > B-Bone, so that you can easily see your bones. Select all the bones in Edit mode and ctrl alt S to thin them.
In Edit mode, select the foot_IK.L and drag it back behind the foot so that you can see it. Also, rotate it 180° on the X axis so that its head is in the good position.
Now, the parentage is bad, neither the foot.L nor the foot_IK.L should be parented to the shin, and the foot.L should be parented to the foot_IK.L, so, in Edit mode: Select the foot_IK.L and alt P > Clear Parent and select the foot.L then select the foot_IK.L and ctrl P > Make Parent > Keep Offset.

It should work correctly.


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Mirror modifier makes mirror-plane faces when modifier "Realtime Display" togglebutton is off
In Blender 2.93.1: when extruding and insetting in context of a mirror modifier (with 'clipping' checked), normally, no faces are created in the mirror-plane.
But, I discovered that when the Modifier's "Show in viewport" ((1) in screenshot) toggle button is off ...

... extruding does make mirror plane faces, messing up further symmetric modelling. Later, I found that when toggling "View in Edit mode" ((2) in earlier screenshot) instead, will correctly not create mirror plane faces.
See screenshot below: on top is made with button (2) off, while bottom one is made with button (1) toggled off.

One would expect a merely visual toggle feature should not influence the actual modelling. Is this by design? And if so, what is the reasoning?


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Molecule raster like particle movement?
Is is possible to make particles stay kind of in place but move around like molecules do in a solid state? kinda like vibrate a bit? couldn't find anything about this, found a force that I think does it (something with molecule) but I tried it and couldn't get it to work. Thanks in advance! (and no I don't want brownian motion, particles need to stay near their original position)

Will this setup work for you? http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=50600

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/112746/atmospheric-trail/112753#112753


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Neon lighting effect animation, how to?
I was asked to inherit this project at work and re-do the animation as the background and lighting structure shape changed. I was going to use Motion 5 or After effect, but I was curious if I could it in Blender as well. If possible I want to do it in Blender as I would like to take it as a learning opportunity. I am new to Blender, so I am not sure if this is achievable in Blender.
Please see the below link for the existing animation:
https://vimeo.com/281395110
My main question is:

how to make neon lighting effect that constantly changes color in Blender?
how to combine background image with lighting structure?

I have no idea where to start, tried to find some tutorials but no luck. I would appreciate your help!
Thank you.

It is achievable in Blender, but. First of all, please ask only one question per post. Secondly, be more precise. There are couple different things going on on the clip. Basically each shape has different animation scheme. The best way would be to pick one, post it as a screenshot (or short gif) and be more descriptive.

A colour swatch can be animated the same as any single value in blender.

I will check Edge glow thread! It is good that it is possible to do it in Blender, I started to watch some beginner's tutorials. I will post more questions as I go along, thanks to everyone who replied to the post.


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Fluid domain dimensions are different in Edit mode from Object mode
I am building a beach scene and have a strange thing happening to my domain. Basically the domain dimensions are different when I switch to edit mode. I think I scaled the cube once it was a domain, I'm not sure if that was the cause. Does anyone know why this is happening or how to fix it?

This could be the simulated fluid, have you tried turning off the simulation? Are there any (1) shapekeys (2) modifiers [displace/deform] (3) active scripts? Have you tried to apply the scale to the domain object?

Yes, the photo is the view of the domain with the simulation off (eyeball deselected). There are no shape keys in this project and all objects have applied scales so they are all 1:1:1. There are no scripts used. I was following the CG Geek's YouTube Tutorial on Beach Waves and ran into this so I'm not sure where I went astray. The simulation still bakes correctly I think, but the fluid was going in places I wasn't expecting it to and that's when I noticed this weird thing going on.


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Making an imprint mold for packaging
I have 3D printed this knight

(https://i.sstatic.net/CKBjV.jpg) (source: thingiverse), and I wish to make a box for it. I would like to mold the bottom surfaces of the knight so that it would fit neatly into place, while leaving blank space above so that the figure can be inserted down into the box.
I'm new to Blender (and modeling in general), so my first thought was to slightly enlarge the knight mesh and then apply the Boolean difference modifier on a cube. However this would not allow for the knight to be dropped into place.
How would I make this?

In the future, this could be done with the cloth simulator.

Well there may be a simpler way than what I'm about to propose.  However, while I thought maybe the Shrinkwrap modifier might help, it has some issues.  It might be helpful if you could post your blend file.
I assume you're trying to make some sort of insert that sort of "nests" around the object, like the foam tray in this picture:

My suggestion: In edit mode select one of the downward-facing faces of your knight, like the bottom of a hoof, or whatever surface faces "down" (or "back") in the package.  Now choose Select-->Select Similar-->Normal, and in the bottom part of the tool shelf play with the "threshold" value until you are getting the bottom-and-side surfaces of the mesh.  You may also get some unwanted faces in the upper part of the mesh, that's okay for now.  Once you have the desired regions selected, duplicate them (Shift-D) then split them into a new object (P).
Go into object mode, select the new object you created, then go into edit mode.  with any luck you'll be able to easily select and delete the "wrong" faces.  Select linked (L) may allow you to select entire "islands" of wrong faces based on selecting one unwanted face.
Once you have only the correct faces left: select all (type A), Extrude (E), type Z to constrain to the Z axis, and pull upwards to create "sides" for your hull/nest.   Without changing the selection, type S, Z, 0 (zero), Enter.  That will make the selected vertices coplanar (and, more importantly, make the sides come to a constant height).  Finally, type X and choose "dissolve faces".  You can delete the ngon that results.  You should have a shell that will fit the bottom part of your knight.  You can scale it up slightly to allow for a fit, although I think the right way to do this is with Shrink-Fatten (edit mode, select all, Alt-S).
Modeling the rest of the insert (the flat faces) could be approached in various ways.  You might want to add a plane (in edit mode), center it over your hull surrounding the top edges, delete the plane's face (only, leaving the vertices and edges), select the edge loop around the top of the "nest" and the edge loop of the plane, and choose "Mesh-->Faces-->Fill" to create non-ngon faces.
EDIT: lol your knight figure is way more complicated to work with - I remeshed it to get somthing simpler to manipulate.  After creating the hull as described above, it was still too funky to work directly, so I ended up creating a subdivided plane and using a shrinkwrap modifier (Mode: Project, Axis: Z, Direction: Negative) that wrapped over the hull object.  And then a bunch of tweaking, shrink/fattening, subsurfaces, etc.  Wish it was a simple process to describe.

Okay, there's another technique that I think might be preferable.  But again you'll need to tweak it to get it the way you want.

This one involves baking a heightmap of the figurine and using it to displace a plane using the "displace" modifier.  Pick whichever side of the figurine you want for the heightmap.

Here's how I baked the heightmap.  I created a copy of the figurine, set it to smooth shading, and gave it an emission shader with a color generated from the B vector (the Z-axis vector) of the object's Generated texture coordinates.

I added a black plane, also using an emission shader, to help define the zero level.
To render this correctly, you need to set up your camera as orthographic camera, with a square aspect ratio, positioned at the right place and height to capture the map.  You don't want any lights in the scene, nor any objects that might cast shadows (turn off Use Environment in the Render Layers tab, and Shadows (in the Light Paths section of the Render tab) while you're at it).  The emission shaders shouldn't show any shadows I think, but why take chances?
With your heightmap rendered and saved, you can then use it as the texture for a "Displace" modifier on a subdivided plane.  A displace value of .5 was right for me.
From there, you'll need to tweak things with subsurfaces, maybe some shrink/fatten scaling to ensure there's space for the object, etc.

There is a Separate XYZ node that you can use instead of Separate RBG

Thanks, yes.  Honestly I just used the separate rgb out of habit.  But absolutely, separate XYZ would do the same thing, and it's more intuitive.


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Orthographic view with something like shift/transformation?
Is it possible to make something like in the picture below in Blender? I mean ortographic view with like back planes moved along one axis but without modyfying mesh. Is there a camera option for it? Is it even possible?

You can approximate the effect by moving the camera a long way away from the subject and using the Focal Length/Sensor Size/Shift camera settings to adjust the view.
The long distance for the camera effectively removes the effect of perspective (making it appear orthographic). For example,  I moved the camera back to -65 blender units and pointed it directly at the subject (ie, rotation X 90, Y 0, Z 0).

To project the depth as an offset you need to move the camera off the centre line. For example, move it 20 BU to the right and 20 BU up.

View through the camera and adjust the camera Lens shift settings to bring the subject back to the centre of the frame.

Adjust the Focal Length or Sensor Size to effectively 'zoom in' to the subject. Further adjust the Shift to keep the subject in view with the desired perspective.

NOTE : The Shift values have a "soft" limit of +/- 2.0 when dragging to adjust the value. To get beyond those limits simply type a value beyond the limit (eg, -2.5) and you can then drag to adjust beyond the limit.
Note that this is not "true" orthographic projection since it is still using perspective (for that you'd need to move the camera out to infinity which would not be practical and would introduce severe rounding issues!). However, with a narrow depth of the subject you should be able to get something appears close enough.


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Make some particular objects' colours change according to their distance from camera
There is a way to fade all objects into transparency according to there distance from the active camera (Apply depth transparency to array object).
I'd like to achieve the same affect but only for some objects (in my case, text objects, that I would like to show only as camera approaches, so that the view is not cluttered by the hundreds of text objects in my scene). Is this possible without animating the transparency of each object? If so, how?
Thanks!

Related : https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/76946/29586 - use distance from camera to mix between normal material and transparent.


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Turning a complex surface into a volume
I have a very detailed mesh (terrain surface), looking like this:

That I would like to give some volume to. A little bit like this:

However, I'm super new to Blender (especially in the modeling department), and I'm wondering if there a any modifier that would take care of this. Once again, the mesh is very detailed, so I would like to use a solution that would use few vertices, hopefully.
If no modifier exists for this kind of operation, how would one model this surface into a volume?
Thanks!

Simple way with modifier is Solidify. Note that if mesh itself is highpoly adding thickness to it will mean even more polygons.

It's actually possible with just 4 verts. Select the corner verts.

Extrude them down with EZ.
Scale them to the same height if needed using SZ0RETURN

Turn them into a face using F.

Select everything with AA and hit F again.

The fill tool is smart enough to fill the holes separately and only generates 4 more ngons.
While my mesh was fine, you can play it safe and hit CTRLN to recalculate the normals. Make sure to give kheetor's comment an upvote.

Remember CTRL-N to ensure proper normal alignment.

At least in my mesh, the normals were all fine without recalculating them. But yeah, it's safer.

This is absolutely perfect and idiot-proof, that you so much @Haunt_House!!!

@Rodolphe Blender surely has its moments, hasn't it?

Start by extruding the corner vertices. Locate them at the same height by selecting the extruded vertices and then Scale  Z,  0. This decreases the Z difference between the vertices to 0. Then change the absolute z-value of the corner vertices to 0 if you want to start the model at sea level.

Create a bottom face by selecting the extruded edge vertices and using the Fill command (F).
If you have a terrain model with many faces, then using the Select All Vertices > Fill approach takes very long. It is much more feasable if you use Blender's Edge Loop Selection Tool for each side of your model:

In Edge Mode, use ⇧ Alt + ⇧ Shift +  Left Mouse Button to ring select the edges by selecting the formerly created vertical and horizontal edges
At last, select one of the outer edges of the terrain model.
Fill the selection

If your goal is to make the surface have a thickness that results in a uniform (flat) bottom then there is a fairly simple way you could accomplish this. I did it with a really simple plane for an example.
Manual Method

Select All (Edit Mode > A ) so that everything in your mesh is highlighted
Extrude (E). Cancel the extrude but do not cancel select.
Translate (G) along Z axis only (if your mesh is up with respect to Z)

With the new bottom selected, Scale on Z (S, then Z) to 0

I would also reccomend adding a loop cut (CTRL + R) around the sides if you plan to edit the top and bottom independently or modify the topology etc. You can make that loopcut parrallel to the bottom by scaling it to 0 on the Z axis like you did with the bottom

As @Haunt_House Suggests in the comment below, you can also align a loopcut with the following method

You can align the loopcut to the bottom by hitting E for even and F for flipped after deciding on the edges to cut. CTRL-R, LMB, E, F, RETURN

Solidify Modifier
You can do almost the same thing with the solidify modifier, but if you do it this way, you can't garuntee that the edges are perfectly flat.

Start with a plane like you have, choose the solidify modifier (Generate > Solidify)

Choose a thickness that you like, exit edit mode and apply the modifier.

You can then flatten the bottom by selecting it all and scaling it to 0 along the axis representing the height (Z in my case) similiar to the above method.

As you can see, the sides are not perfectly flat but if you dont need or want flat sides, this will work fine too.

You can align the loopcut to the bottom by hitting E for even and F for flipped after deciding on the edges to cut. CTRL-R, LMB, E, F, RETURN

Thanks Haunt, I will add that in courtesy of you.


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Non uniform UV results
So at the moment I am modelling a pipe wrench inspired from Bioshock. When I attempt to unwrap it I get a nonuniform shape
Compared to the unwrap of the actual game model
How do I get my unwrap to match that of the actual game? (Not in size but uniformity) Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

Is the scale applied? (Object mode, Ctrl+A > Scale)

Try using Smart UV Project and/or Mark some Seams and then UV Unwrap. Also, before Unwrapping, in Object Mode, Apply Scale (CTRL + "A" and select "Scale" from the drop down menu).

I have applied the scale and that's the result I got. I have also added seams (you can see were by downloading the .blend file)


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Export mesh with weights and vertex groups
Is there any way to export a mesh that contains weights and vertex groups? I tried exporting a mesh that contains such properties as an .obj but it didn't keep the weights and groups. So is there any file that supports these or is there something that I'm missing?

Obj is a pure mesh file format. It can do some other tricks too. Documented is curve data for example. But animation, including vertex groups and weigth paints is not part of it. Try FBX. But that's also no guarantee that everything will arrive like you have it in Blender. It heavily depends of the target software and what you want to do.

Tried exporting it as an .FBX, still no luck. But thanks for the recommendation :)

So, what is your target platform, and what are you trying to do here? Maybe there's another way :)

Essentially I have downloaded approximately 172 Halo 5 models, 86 helmets 86 body armour. These weren't waited when I downloaded them, so I have been going through the grueling task of weighting them. From here I wanted a way to be able to store these assets so that I could import them into a later blender project when I need them. Creating a library of sorts for myself.

I see. So it's not an export to a game engine. But a library for Blender. Forget about external file formats. When you need it in Blender anyways, then you could simply save the whole thing as a *.blend file. And append the needed things from there then. The append menu item can be found in the File menu :)

Ah perfect! That should work just fine :) Thanks for the advice.


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Sci-fi Energy Shields Effect (Halo)
I have been messing around in Blender today trying to replicate this sort of effect:
So far I have managed to create the correct sort of material and emulated the bulging of the shields:
Node setup:

To do this I applied a solidify modifier, with a thickness of -0.01 (all other settings remained untouched), to a duplicate of the armour and then scaled the duplicated version up by 0.022. This for the most part looks alright, however; if you take a closer look you'll notice strange fragments were the meshes are intersecting.
Is there any way that I can avoid getting the mesh fragments appearing? Or do I need to do something completely different to get the desired outcome?
Cheers.

Solidify is definitely the quickest way, but as with all fast methods it has flaws. It will work well with relatively simple geometry, but will inevitably produce artifacts in more complex shapes. Either apply the modifier and fix it by hand, or do it all manually from scratch.

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos fair enough. I was hoping that I would be able to get away with it just being a simple solution for the project I am working on. But if it requires me putting work into it, I will certainly try. Speaking of which, do you think applying the solidify modifier and then using a boolean modifier to remove the intersecting meshes could potentially work?

Don't bother with Booleans, they will produce more trouble than they solve. For a quick and dirty solution you may want to look into some sort of smoothing maybe, but again probably not as good as some manual work


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Noisy 32bit Normal Bakes
So I am in the process of baking out normal maps for an asset, this is my LP mesh:
And this is my HP mesh:
And here's my bake settings:

In all the normal maps I have ever baked, I have used the process outlined in this CGCookie tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6D5tBEjS-N0
However, a client has just pointed out to me that there is low-quality noise all over the normal map. I think this might be due to the process outlined in PS to convert the 32bit texture to an 8bit file format, and here's why I believe that to be the case.

You can see that when I directly save the baked normal map from Blender to a .TGA it has big artefacts on it, something that PS seems to resolve when converting the file from a 32bit .EXR to an 8bit .TGA, though with the trade-off of having the noise appear on the normal map.
Here's a closer look at the noise that appears on the normal map:

Any means of resolving this would be greatly appreciated, and if more details on my baking process are required, please ask me to provide further information so that I may aid you in helping me resolve this problem.
Cheers.


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Loking for custom split normals tool
community!
I have a mesh of character GG Xrd game and found that they used analogue custom split normals data.
I know, they used Autodesk Softimage soft for editing custom normals.
I know some analogue of this for Blender, like Blend4web and some scripts, but  i can`t see a way to use it for edititng many split faces at once.
I see on this video  enter link description here Softimage has addons for editing normals trough vertex painting. Is there any solution for blenders?
On screenshot  - imported models from .dae  file with split edges . Btw blender cant mark  sharp edges on importing meshes or mark just invisible?
Thanks!

Look at this GSoC project: https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?427746-GSoC-2017-Normal-Editing-Tools (builds available there) and Y.A.V.N.E add-on.

there is a good tutorial on using the B4W normal editor https://www.blend4web.com/en/community/article/131/ (https://www.blend4web.com/ru/community/article/130/ Russian)


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Ripped models shows weird lines like this
So I'm ripping models from a mobile game and when I import them into Blender there are always nodes and often lines like these that appear. What I want to know is what they are, their purpose and if it would be better if I kept them to help me rig this model.

They look like empties, but the could be meshes as well. It's hard to say from the picture, but if you look at the outliner, you shoul have that info from the object's icon. We can't say much more if you don't add further information. Are the object's parented tho them? What about their locations?

The objects with the lines are blender objects that are called empties. They represent a single point and orientation in space, and are generally used as a marker for something else.
In this case, looking at their positions, I would guess that your importer is importing the bones in the mesh as empties, so these actually mark the bone positions. If this is the case you will probably see that many of the empties are parented to each other in a similar hierarchy as bones would be.

That would make sense. Would there be any way to convert the empties to bones automatically or would I have to do it manually?

@Lee It would probably not be hard to script if you are familiar with that. Otherwise you could look to see if you can convert the file type in an external program and then import a different type into blender. Out of interest, what is the file type?

The rippped files are ascii fbx files. I open them in the mixed reality viewer (the one that comes with windows 10) and from there save it as a binary fbx file.

@Lee fbx should be able to work, although there are many versions with minor differences so it can sometimes be tricky. You could try a different program to convert the ascii one to binary, like the autodesk one: https://www.autodesk.com/developer-network/platform-technologies/fbx-converter-archives

I tried it, but I think Blender couldn't read the files.


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Is it possible to convert hair to alpha planes?
In Zbrush you can groom your hair, and then convert that to alpha planes. I'm curious if it's possible to achieve the same result in Blender?
I tag particles because that seems to be what people in other communities recommended. I've checked a few video using particle system for grass but I can't find anything related to grooming or direction controlling.
An example of what I wanted to do is this little guy here. The planes need to follow different directions in different area. Such as spreading out from the eye following the edge loops.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/56wLO
Thanks in advance.

Particle edit & Render as Object
Blender has some nice tools to work with hairs.
To assign planes to hairs, use the Object (or Group) option you can find in the Render panel of the particle system.
Texture the plane and all the particles will follow that.
You can comb hair particles in the particle Edit Mode.

Once satisfied, you can run the "Make duplicates real" operator to convert the particles to individual meshes so you'll be able to export the objects fbx, obj... and use them in other softwares.

Wow thanks for recording! I noticed you're in particle mode whille grooming, does that mean hair is considered particle system?

Yes, it's still a hair particle. The plane is an overlay. Till you keep the particle system, you can interactively groom the hairs. You can "bake" the hairs if you would like to abandon the particles workflow. I've edited the question in this sense.


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Loop cut not cutting correctly
I'm trying to use a loop cut so that I can extrude a specific part of my mesh.
Problem is: When I use loop cut, it doesn't go all the way trough, show in the image.
How can I fix this?
Thanks in advance

There probably are N-gons that are stopping the edgeflow. Did you inspectd the faces nearby the edgecut?

yes or some inner faces

@moonboots inner faces were the issue. Thanks a lot !

You must have inner faces. Delete them, otherwise Blender doesn't know where to extend the loop cut.


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Blender 2.8 Cell Fracture Rigid Body Won't stand up
I am trying to animate a cell fractured rigid body wall being hit by an object and crumbling.  I have created the Cell Fracture wall with a rigid body that is animated.  When I initially press play the entire all fall infinitely as I would expect.    I want the Wall to stay stationary until struct by another object.  In the physics tab, I have checked the deactivation mark and the start deactivation checkbox.  But when I press play the wall still falls.
I can get the expected result if I Start with an empty blend file but when I add this structure to an existing blend file it will not work.  It's making me crazy.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.


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solidify modifier adding non uniform thickness to the mesh
I have a simple table without any thickness, I started with a cube and deleted 3 of the faces, applied a subdivision surface modifier and did a few loop cuts to achieve this shape shown here:

however when I try to add a solidify modifier to it, the thickness is not evenly distributed so the sides are thicker than the middle and the mesh also gets distorted shown here:

I want the table to have a uniform thickness just like in real life, and get rid of the weird distortion, I am relatively new to blender and this might seem obvious but any help will be appreciated, thanks.

maybe try to apply the scale of your object: in Edit mode, ctrl A > Scale, because you may have made scale in Object mode instead of Edit mode. There also might be a topology problem as your object looks weird (artifacts). Also, click on the Even Thickness option of the modifier.

You must have scaled your object in Object mode rather than Edit mode. If you do it in Object mode, Blender still considers the original size of the object when you'll assign it a Solidify modifier.
So you need to select your object and ctrl A > Apply Scale, so that now the scale you've made is applied to the mesh itself and not only to the object.
Also, enable the Even Thickness of the modifier, it could prevent some other distorsions.
And at last, your object mesh must be a little bit messy because you have strange artifacts, try to make a clean topology.


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Blender Installation 2.79b problems
Using Windows 8.1 64 bit, blender version 2.79b
When I go to the download page it makes me download an msi file. After I extract it, it just takes various CM_Unspecified files out. I've tried clicking on CM_FP_Blender.blender.exe in order to run the program, but it gives the error: The program can't start because python35.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem.
And so I followed that, but did nothing, still the same error. I've tried downloading blender several times now and it never has worked. I really want to start using blender, so this is quite frustrating! I could use any help I could get, thanks

If you go to https://www.blender.org/download/ and click on "macOS, Linux, and other versions" you get a choice to download the zip version as well that only needs to be extracted to run:

If you download .msi Windows installer file, you should never attempt to extract it. You should simply run it to install software from it.
You can also download any previous versions from http://download.blender.org/release/


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Armature slightly off when baking
When I export my actions (animations) to gltf and reuse them in three.js I noticed that some bones were incorrect. Most notably, bones that should be fixed (hands or feet on the floor) are constantly shifting slightly.
I then figured that it had to do with the baking process, and sure enough, these are the animations before, and after baking:

Original
After baking

If I disable “clear constraints”, the resulting baked animation is correct, but I can’t export it like this as gltf.
How can I get this export working properly?

The problem is the contraints cannot be exported to gltf, so the first question would be, what kind of constraints are those? Can they be applied in some way or another so that they are not necessary for the animation? Like (this is just a dumb example) if someone uses Copy Location and Copy Rotation to just make an object follow another, it could also be parented. And even if parenting would not work on export, you could simply transfer movements of one object to another. Now this might not work in your case, but since we do not know what kind of constraints you are using...

@GordonBrinkmann thanks for your input. I’m just using the default rigify armature of the human meta rig, so all the constraints have been setup for me... I’m not sure how I can figure this out?

I'm glad you got this sorted out with an acceptable solution.  For any further people finding this question, the problem is going to depend on the actual constraints (and potentially transforms) involved.  Places that are likely problems are going to involve non-uniform scale, particularly when used with IK, but potentially with almost any constraint involving rotation or scale; stretch-to constraints; disabled "inherit scale".  Blender does things in these situations that cannot necessarily be baked to unconstrained, local transforms.

Thank you @Nathan

I was able to solve this problem, by using Game Rig Tools which allows you to bake a separate game rig without any constraints.


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Is there an easier way to keyframe a curve than shape keys?
I have a character that I render in multiple poses. The character has a chain, and I need to make sure the chain looks correct in each pose.

At the moment, what I do, is this:

Create the new pose
Select the curve that the chain uses in the curve modifier
Create a new shape key
Edit the curve so it fits properly
Keyframe the curve, so that the curve uses the correct shape key on the given frame

This is really tedious (and I'm apparently also running out of shape keys, because I have more than 799).
I'd love to simply keyframe the individual points of the curve without shape keys, so I can quickly change the shape of the chain in the same way I pose my model.

For manual keying, have a look at the Hook modifier.. and tutorials on controlling a curve with hooks?

@RobinBetts The issue with the hook modifier is (correct me if I’m wrong), that it doesn’t allow me to scale down or up a bezier point, so the ability to control my curve is very limited.

why don't you use physics to move the chain?

Ahhh.. OK, (again for manual keying, trying to keep it as simple as possible) check out the shipped Animall add-on. Still working for me in 3.41, not yet checked in later versions.

@Chris because I have lots of different poses (over 100) and I would need to use physics on each pose separately to get the result, and then somehow transfer that to the individual frames. Seems overkill, but maybe I’m missing an easy way to do this?

@GordonBrinkmann sorry if I was unclear, I’m talking about scaling and rotating bezier curve points, not the chain.

@RobinBetts Animall looks exactly what I’m after. The only downside is that it doesn’t support auto keying but I can live with that. Thanks!

@enyo Using hooks, you are able to scale the bezier handles, in proportion to the vertex. You can create individual hooks for the handles as well, for more options while animating.

@lajawi do you mind explaining a bit how I would be able to scale the handles with a single hook? I tried it and couldn’t get it to work.

@enyo You have to select the bezier vertex once, that way both handles should be selected as well. If you now create a hook, and you scale that hook, the handles will scale as well.
If you want, you can hook the vertex and two handles to separate hooks each, and then parent the handle's hooks to the vertex' hook, that way you have more freedom with animating it.

@lajawi oh nice! That’s very convenient indeed. The only thing that it doesn’t allow me to do, is to change the tilt of a curve point. Do you know if that is somehow possible without animall?

@enyo I've just tried it with drivers, and that works beatifully!

Answer derived from the comments:
Hooks
One solution for animating a curve using keyframes, instead of shape keys, is using the Hook Modifier.

Short list of steps

Select the curve points you want to create a hook for;
Add a hook (CtrlH Hook to New Object);
To have a control for the tilt, add an empty;
RightClick one of the Rotation Transform and Copy as New Driver;

Tip: lock all transforms except for the value you copied as driver!

Go to your curve, and select the vertex;
RightClick the Tilt Transform and choose Paste Driver.

You're all set! Repeat for all curve vertices.
Steps in full detail
To do so, go into Edit Mode on your curve. Then you can either select the vertex with handles and hook them:

Or you hook the vertex and handles to separate objects for more freedom (to be able to select the vertex only, you'll need to use Select Box (image))

After you've selected all the points you want to hook to one object, go to Control Points > Hooks > Hook to New Object or use the the shortcut CtrlH.

Now you've got your curve handles and/or vertices hooked to some empties. If you have an empty per point (handles separate) then it's useful to parent those to the vertex they belong to (CtrlP).

To be able to Tilt your curve points from outside, you can use Drivers. You can use the existing empty to do so, but I suggest adding a new one, e.g. an Empty Circle. Align it to the curve point for easier use, and parent it, like the empties for the handle, to the hook of your curve point.
Then go to its Rotation Transform, right click the value you want to use as control for the Tilt, and select Copy as New Driver (small tip, lock all other transforms, as you won't be needing them on this empty).

Final step is to paste the driver. Select your curve, go into Edit Mode, select the vertex you want to add this driver to, RightClick on the Tilt Transform, and select Paste Driver.

Repeat these steps for all your curve vertices for full freedom!


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Audio not included in rendered file
I'm using the "Video Editing" feature and have created a rough cut of my project in a new Sequence.
I have included other Sequences there, and put an audio track on top of it. When I play it back in blender it works fine and the audio is playing. When I render it, there is no audio.

I've enabled audio in my Output section, for both, the scene with my 3d objects (although that scene doesn't contain any audio, but I wasn't sure if that was necessary) and the scene in which I'm doing the video editing:

I figured it out. I opened the MPEG-4 in VLC to see whether it might just be a compatibility problem and VLC played the file with audio! So it appeared to be a container or audio codec compatibility problem with Quicktime and Apple preview.
Switching the audio codec from MP3 to AAC worked.


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Fluid Simulation particles appear and disappear randomly
I'm using the Mantaflow fluid simulation in Blender 2.8 and randomly some particles appear or disappear. Is there a way to tell Mantaflow that the particle count should always remain the same?
I'm simply talking about the FLIP particles, but I've had the same issue with the other particles.

Do you mean the particle bake? Particles appearing and disappearing is intentional. For example, if you have a high energy liquid sloshing around then it would have a lot of spray and foam, meaning more particles. When it settles down, it will have less energy and be more calm, resulting in fewer particles needed to simulate realism.  There is simply no way to tell mantaflow to make sure particle counts remain the same without taking the cost of making a simulation extremely unrealistic.

Yes I was talking about the baked FLIP particles. Ok I see... that's unfortunate, but so be it!


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Mesh's Smooth Shade Problem
i used smooth shade in a mesh and it responde me with a
strange behavior. Some parts of my mesh has smooth shade but for other parts it doesn't have. I tried recalculate inside/outside normals. And a few other things i have read but none of them has worked so far. And one more importing thing is that when i try scultping mode it starts working but as i went back to object mode and render it doesn't work.

This is object mode. As you can see above some parts of it has smooth shade other parts doesn't.

And in this sculpt mode. Which works fine.

And last this one above is different mesh. The look i want in the first mesh should be like this. But can't find a way to fix it.

Yeah, i found out a solution. If someone has a problem like this, what it i did is; I joined smooth shade problem mesh to non smooth shade mesh(This mesh has smooth shade working). And as i joined it fixed ! Then i separate the mesh i joined. That's all i hope this might help someone.


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Object displacement - ocean of hexagon tiles
I want to make an ocean of cubes / hexagon tiles with varying  z locations. There was this guy with extrusion images and I wonder how he made it.
Like this...
however, in the process, mine looks more like this:

I used a cloud map and joined all hexagon cylinders into one object. Then i wanted to displace only each element from the object along the z axis.....
That was the plan at least. Could you point towards a solution? Maybe you got a better idea how to do that?
Thanks a lot.

Is this static, or to be animated?

static as still landscape

Just scale all of the individual parts down to a size of 0 in the UVmap (using individual origins as scaling center). That way, each part will stay intact, but will be displaced as a whole according to the value of your noise where that UV island resides.
UV Map:

Result:

Edit: if you use a displacement modifier instead of shader displacement, it's easier to control the axis of displacement:

This is such a smart solution. Thanks for sharing :).

Hey hey, thanks for the info! Cool idea! Though maybe i did smth. wrong in the creation? They still move as one or rather all in the at the same value and are fairly broken. Did you use an array to place the cylinders? Maybe it is because they are differently split? (i just created arrays of them and joined them afterwards together. Thanks a lot for the help ;D greatly appreciated.

@Avion32 - I also placed them via array modifiers that were applied afterwards. Then enter edit mode - UV project from top view, select all faces in the UV editor, scale them to 0 on individual origins and all is set

lol,dear @tobkum, your help is greatly appreciated. I come from 3dSMax and your way seems the closest i would also do it. Somehow i mess it up though. May i ask with this short vid how its done? Let me show you what i did and what i want to do ;)    https://youtu.be/PcBvyDy-BxI

added .blend example file to my answer :)

for what ever reason: just did it with fresh mind and cubes.. .. works flawless. I think the issue is that i selected the top faces instead of all faces.

Ahh, I missed that part in your video, sorry!

The usual approach is to use Instancing. Make a well-subdivided plane as parent, single hex object as child. Enable Instancing on the plane. Put a Wave or Displace modifier on the plane.


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How do I add a texture to a cube that already has one
So I am making a kar98k model but the entire texture is metal everytime I switch to Texture Paint the whole model gets turned into the wooden texture but for the bolt and barrel I intend to be a metal texture so far I have everything finished I just need to know how to add a specific texture to my bolt and barrel.

I voted down because in my opinion this question does not show any research effort. I do not mean disrespect, however it is very basic functionality of Blender that you are asking about. It might be more logical as well as faster for yourself to watch some tutorials first and read about the basic functions in the documentation. You will get more detailed information a lot faster this way as it is already very well documented. You can read about assigning different materials here: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/render/blender_render/materials/assigning_a_material.html

Do you mean like this? If so, you need 2 materials for 1 object.

I think you've already known how to insert the texture. Select the face that you want to give texture, use the unwrap method in edit mode, select second material and you need to press assign. Hope this help!

@Trenches_Modeler Don't post thank you as a comment. Instead mark the answer as accepted, or at least upvote it.


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Keyframes are not automatically saved in pose mode with auto-keying on (2.79b)
I'm running into an issue on Blender 2.79b where the correct keyframes are not automatically inserted into the timeline when auto-keying is on. When transforming a bone, a keyframe is inserted with the value as it was set prior to the transformation. I also noticed some strange behavior:

If I toggle "Confirm on Release" or "Edit Grease Pencil" the keyframe is updated with the correct value.
Deleting all keyframes and starting with a clean timeline fixes the issue.

Is this a bug or maybe one of my keyframes is in a weird state? I checked the dope sheet and nothing appears to be locked.
Here's a video of the behavior: https://streamable.com/na4ze and the .blend file: http://www.filedropper.com/armadillo
Thanks

ok so I told you: "Go to the Outliner panel, you can see that there is an animation inside the mesh, I guess it is not supposed to be there, right click over it and Clear Animation Data, now it should work." But it didn't solve the problem... I'm going to dig further... strange because sometimes I can make it work...

I don't find where does the problem come from  :p   I hope someone will


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How to remove remnant edges/vertices from a multi-cube mesh?
How would you remove the edges/vertices inside each cube of this object and make it truly a single mesh?

Have you tried the boolean modifier?

I tried that but I need to use another mesh to apply the boolean to and my meshes are different cubes/rectangles joined together into a mesh.
Does the boolean works while in edit mode? Tried using the drop pick onto a vertice in edit mode but didn't seem to select anything.
Thanks!

See if this helps https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/50351/how-can-i-delete-internal-vertices-faces-and-edges

That totally did it. Thank you very much Sir!
Made it a shortcut as is real fast to work with.


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Exporting Images/Movies to Final Cut Pro X to apply LUTs
i want to export my blender renders (doesn't matter if videos or image sequences) to Final Cut Pro X to apply LUTs on it. Now I'm not quite sure which rendering and output settings give the best results to me respectively are meant to be used for this. I'd like to get media like produced by log modes of HDR cameras. Should I use "linear raw" in the color management or is "Filmic Log Encoding Base" the better choice? For the look I should choose "none" because the others give me results with already applied LUTs, right?
I hope you understand my problem and I apologize for the awkward explanation but I'm new to this color grading stuff and still on the very beginning of my journey.
Thanks for your help!
Best Regards,
Janek

If you are trying to master for HDR displays, you'll need to start ideally from a scene referred encoding such as an EXR. This likely is a bit of a mess in FCPX if I had to wager, as most applications are mostly designed for display referred work.
LUTs are tricky things. That is, any LUT is designed for a very specific input and a very specific output. Trying to modify imagery with LUTs designed for other contexts is a bit of a messy ball of nightmare.
It is hard to offer any further help as the question lacks important details and context.

I notice that FCPX will work in REC 2020 for HDR if required https://support.apple.com/kb/PH26148?locale=en_US&viewlocale=en_US but many of the in built LUTs are designed for various camera LOG schemes. https://support.apple.com/kb/PH12685?locale=en_AU

Thank you so much for your answers! You really helped me a lot understanding LUTs and I think now I'm able to implement what I indented to do :)

@3pointedit REC.2020 isn't HDR. HDR standards use REC.2020 as the primaries, but not the transfer function which is dictated by ST.2084. As I said, I would wager that FCPX, much like all of the other display referred rubbish out there, will have to jump through hoops to make it deal with scene referred content appropriately.

I guess I should have said that Apple recommend their REC.2020 for HDR work.


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viewport only shows a small area of my scene
I have some issues with my viewport. It only shows a small area of my scene with solid shading. Also only vertices within this area can be selected. In object mode a pyramid shows up. It limits the viewable area. I added two screenshots, one with viewport shading, to show you, that only a view vertices are selectable, and one with solid shading in object mode to show you the pyramid.
Has anyone an idea how this could be fixes?
Thank you! Janek

you've must have made a View Regions (alt B), try alt B again

Thank you, this worked :)


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Visualizing 3D voxel data in Blender 2.8
right now I'm trying to visualize my scientific 3D data in Blender 2.8. So blenders built in textures or smoke simulations do not lead to the goal.
I've read that older releases of Blender do support voxel data with the internal blender render engine. But I didn't find this for cycles or eevee.
Is there a way to plot external 3D data for volumetric rendering or is it planned to be implemented in soon releases?
Greetings
Janek

I've been craving this too: https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/14995/822

As of Blender 2.83 OpenVDB is now supported as a volume object.


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Use Node Setup for various Materials
for a current project I used regular planes and applied a solidify and a bevel modifier on each.
Each of the planes should have another logo on it. So the materials all have the same BSDF - in my case a principled shader - but are all different Materials because of the logos. Also there is a material for the back/side channel of the solidify modifier.
Since I used quite many logos I was wondering if there is a way to change e.g. the roughness for all shaders at the same time.
In other words: Is the a way for objects to share the same Shader but all have their own color input?
Best regards
Janek

You can select the node or the group of nodes you want to share with all objects, then press Ctrl G to group them and rename it (I called it "My Own Node").
So everytime you will edit (pressing Tab) the group, every material will be updated.
In the group you can choose which inputs to show (in my example only color input).

In case all materials are set already, you can use this tiny addon to replace the shader nodes with your custom group...


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Material isn't showing in viewport or render
I want a mirror sphere for a cool animation or something. I made a new texture using Glossy BSDF with 0.00 Roughness and the Preview for the material is perfect. The sphere however in the view port and rendered image is only reflecting the point light and not the environment. Any fix?

I think you are doing this in eevee and for eevee you need to add Light probes for the reflections of the surrounding things so just press shift + a > Light probes > reflection cubemap
add this on sphere and then go to indirect lighting menu in properties panel and bake the cubemap
and for more info on light probes just go to youtube and search for lightprobes and you will get tons of tutorials on it

I haven't even tried it yet but thanks for answering! <3


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Problem Alphas Help
Problems with alpha blending. displayed on the other side. Why is that?enter image description here

https://scontent.fiev25-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-0/p480x480/72841168_416617042389658_1131021470659510272_n.png?_nc_cat=103&_nc_oc=AQnAg1jHr6-4P734eT8-NvIQjHDbwPbuhF4gIQA-NqN5YBw9Kd4ghwjsw_I326RkI1s&_nc_ht=scontent.fiev25-1.fna&oh=56c02a84c7881bd05fd438b3695dcd8c&oe=5E1D3C17

Under the brush tool there is an options menu.Open it and check in "Front Faces Only".


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Bone won't bend in quadruped leg
So I am rigging a fox mesh, and the method I used of inverse kinematics isn't working like it has on numerous quadrupeds I have rigged. So the leg has four bones in it. Now I put the IK on the second bone to the bottom, and set the chain length to three. Problem is the top two bones won't bend when manipulated but stay in the bend then started in even when I move target. But I did the same thing with the front leg and it works fine I can't find any differences. I have seen many complaints about this happening after setting a pole target but I haven't yet and its still happening, any ideas?

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

Here you go  It's the back leg, the joint on the top two bones won't bend, with the IK

I'm not exactly sure about what you're expecting from your rear leg, perhaps bend a bit the two top bones in Edit mode to get what you want? Could you please make a drawing that explains what your leg is supposed to do?

Okay so I figured it out, moonboots you were right I did need to bend the top bones more in edit mode. At first I couldn't figure out how to position them so it worked but still fit the mesh. Then I found a drawing of a fox with an internal skeleton shown along with the body. This showed me I had the two top bones in the back leg positioned wrong, so I changed it to mimic the drawing and it worked. The bones finally bend when using IK. I guess this is just further evidence that nature knows exactly what it is doing with designing of living creatures. lol