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Boolean does not slice correctly using difference
I have an oval I am trying to slice two sides from. I select the oval, I add boolean, I select the cube, I select difference and it slices the opposite of what I want leaving me 2 skinny strips and NOT the sliced oval. I've used boolean many times with correct results.. except this time!!

Related - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/7298/why-is-it-important-to-apply-transformation. Transforms aren't applied. As I understand you'd like the oval shaped mesh to have 2 slices across it ?

I thought I did that. But to be sure I just did it again -- I added the transforms to all three pieces and tried the boolean difference operation again. SAME thing. I re-uploaded the blend file to reflect that attempt.

The desired outcome is to have that main oval cut into 4 oval sections, minus the 2 rectangles

I'm not sure how to get 4 oval sections with 2 cutters, but in this case Boolean isn't working as expected because after applying transforms you end up with flipped normals on both cutters (thin cubes). Beware also that they aren't one object, hence they won't cut mesh together

Then what's a solution? How do I "flip the normals" to make it cut the dang oval into 4 pieces? I realize the the cutters aren't one object. I was just going to do 2 boolean operations -- Because when I join the cutters  to be one object and try the boolean I still get the same result

To recalculate normals in Edit mode select faces which have them flipped (in case of your thin objects - all), and press Ctrl+N. Note that using this shortcut in Object mode will indeed result in reloading start-up file.


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Point of Origin issue
In this stock Patron bottle, it seems to have different origins for the label as to where the label is placed (and for the bottle) and I can't seem to reset the origin to geometry.  When I move the label (or bottle) this black dashed line stays connected to the the point on the top in my diagram. What am I not getting? Plus when i selected the already joined objects of the bottle, cork and ribbon and try to join them to the label --the label disappears!

can you share the file

If you can post a .blend I'll be able to tell you in more detail how you have arranged your object hierarchy. But first of all, note the "plus" icons to the left of your objects:

Click this to expand it and see the children objects of that parent object.
Also note that the black dotted lines in your 3D Viewport show you the relationship between parent and child objects.
You can redefine the position of an object's Origin Point by using the Set Origin button:

The one you will probably use most frequently is Origin to 3D Cursor. With this operation, the current position of your 3D Cursor will become the position of your selected object(s)' Origin Point(s).
As for the label disappearing when joined to another object - this may be due to a difference in modifiers. If for example, your ribbon is only visible and raised above the surface of your bottle because it uses a Solidify Modifier, and suddenly you Join it to the Patron bottle object which doesn't have that modifier (let's assume), then of course the influence of that modifier is gone, and instead it comes under the influence of whatever modifiers might be on the Patron bottle object.
Update:
So, after taking a glance at your .blend, as expected, the label is one of those objects that has its origin off... somewhere over there.

I made the names visible, so hopefully this will help you figure out what is what. By the way, here's how to do that:

Here's the .blend with names made visible and the hierarchy expanded.

To summarize the problem, It looks like you joined some objects you didn't mean to, and parented some objects in ways you didn't mean to.
You can select parts of your mesh within Edit Mode and press P to seParate them back out into their own objects.
To un-parent an object you can select it and press AltP.
So see if an object has a parent, and check the parent's name, besides looking in the Outliner you can also look here:

Good luck! With the info I explained above it shouldn't be too difficult to reorganize, and I'm sure you will gain some useful knowledge in the process.

Added blend file. (sorry it's 30+ mb) It does not appear to do anything when I try to set the origin.. which was something I already tried. I can't make the origin of the child align with that of the object. (either label or bottle)

Alt + P and "clear and keep transformation" worked!

Glad it worked out for you! Would you mind marking my answer as accepted if it helped you?

source: Stack Exchange

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

authors: Константин Чесноков

sort: votes


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How can I get the bottle glossy W/O the label too?
Having a little trouble with getting the bottle glossy and not the label. As you can see there's a glass node... so the bottle should have some gloss anyways --right? When I use the diffuse node (instead of the glossy node) the label has the nice matte finish (as it's supposed too) but the bottle has no glossyness. But when adding a glossy node instead of the diffuse that makes the label glossy and yet still does nothing to add gloss. What am I doing wrong? Suggestions?

Attached just now.

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


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Rotating actual object to face outward using arrary and empty
How do I rotate within the array or empty so that the patron boxes bottle sides are all facing outward (not cock-eyed pointing leftward as they now appear)?  And then ultimately I'd like to tilt the bottles up, IOW so that the bottom is slightly forward and the top slightly in or back toward the center.

This can be done in 5 easy steps

Move the origin of the object, to the same location as the empty.
Uncheck relative offset from the array modifier.
In edit mode, remove the rotation from the box.
Now move the box to directly out to one side from the origin of the object.
Rotate the box to the desired rotation.

Keep in mind, that it may be easier to simply create a new object, texture it, and use a new empty. Put them in the same place, and in edit mode move the cube away from the origin along an axis (y or x). Then rotate the empty, and you should be good.

You should try and set the origin of the object you have the array modifier on, into where the empty is on. That should fix the problem. The hotkey to change the cursor location is [Shift + S].


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Object>>rigid body>calculate mass: mass estimates are bit out on shape created using Maths Mesh tool
I was hoping to use Blender to calculate the mass of shapes with curved surfaces.  To start I took a 1m cube and performed a boolean difference with a parabolic curve (x=0 to 1m)that was extended horizontally for 1m and removed the upper part of the cube.
The volume remaining is 1/3 m^3 (by basic integration of x^2 -> x^3/3).  However, using the "calculate mass" option for rigid body under Physics properties, using lead as a material for the density. the mass of the cut object was 30.6% of the mass of a 1m cube also of lead - as opposed to the 33% I expected and hoped for.
I am trying to figure out where the error has occurred.  The parabolic cut looks fine and so I think there must be an inaccuracy in the way Blender estimates the volume of shapes with curved surfaces.
Please could you tell me how Blender estimates the volume of an object when using the calculate mass menu item.
I have constructed scales in Blender using rigid body simulation and hoped to show Archimedes Method of Mechanical Leverage where integrated shaped (straight line slope to parabolic to cubic and so on - can be shown to balance).  However, to do this convincingly, I need Blender to have more accurate mass estimation than I get here.

I tried using 3D Print Toolbox to calculate the volume but got 2.8m3 which is clearly wrong for a cut out from a 1m3 cube.

My coclusion is that Blender calculates mass of regular shapes but not complex surfaces. I gotround this by making my object out of microcubes. Numerical integration ...

Did you apply the Boolean? It appears physics ignores the modifier stack.

Thanks for your input. I ended up just stacking cubes in for next loop. With the cubes I got the mass exactly which was neat as my end product are scales. Perhaps the mass calculator cant handle non-linear shapes?  You can see the result here half way down: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Method_of_Mechanical_Theorems  I'm not sure what you mean by physics and modifier stack and will look it up.  Is there a good source?  I find the Blender manual sketchy.

Go to the "Modifiers" tab for the object (a.k.a the stack), choose your Boolean, and hit 'Apply'.

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


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Nurb path not rotating or moving in lower section of double pendulum
I would like advice on best approach to simulate double pendulum as rigid bodies. I tried 3 UV Sphere connected by strings as nurb paths extending a youtube simple pendulum Blender example which I did get to work. I seem to have hit a dead end.
The .blend file is attached using Blend_exchange.

With this double pendulum, I can only get the middle ball to swing and, after adding the lower nurb path, the bottom ball just gets stuck locking the second pendulum although as you can see the ball's origin does get disembodied on a move - just not the ball itself which remains stuck.  As a newbie, I expect I'm missing something obvious and hope someone can help me out.

I managed to build the double pendulum.  The simulation shows the expected chaotic motion of the two pendulum bobs and so it looks like the Blender physics rigid body simulation is accurate.

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


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Reverse explosion with voxels
What I have: an array of vertices obtained through a simple Sverchok node that states the position of each voxel(many thousands of them).

What I would like to do is to create a reverse explosion effect, where the voxels(in the shape of cubes), that at the beginning are scattered in space, start to head towards the center one after another, until they have formed the bunny.
What I've managed to do so far is this, using particles systems, but it's not exactly that effect that I would like, since here the particles are moving all at the same time, whereas what I want is them to move one after another (more or less).

I'm new to animation, could this be done in a not too complicated way?

Related http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/62209/make-particles-go-to-the-target-object-and-stick-to-it/62213#62213. Possible usage here: starting from a sphere surrounding the bunny and target to the bunny

@lemon I've updated my question in response to your comment

Have you tried to change start/end parameters of the PS first key (the sphere)?

From the previous comment, you can have this kind of effect https://i.sstatic.net/Pcy71.gif. Is that it ?

Well, it would be a close enough probably:) I have tried now to do as you said but if I change the start/end parameters of the sphere it looks like nothing changes.. only if I change the ones of the controller I get some funky effects, but not the one that I want or that you've showed.. how did you setup the the different timings?

From this answer, I've changed or set the following:

1- Keyed object
2- Particle
3- Surrounding sphere (viewed as bounds)
4- Bunny (viewed as bounds)
On the right the setting for keyed object (the 2nd PS has 10 for the time parameter).

Above the setting for the surrounding sphere (250 for the 'end' parameter).
And below the setting for the bunny:

Ok, now it's much better, thanks! link One last thing though: now the particles are accumulating along the X axis, could I have them along the Z, or even better from the center? I am using vertex group for the bunny and I have tried to use Sort Mesh Elements, like for the Build Modifier, but it didn't work

@Alberto89, about this axis aspect, how did you get that along the X axis?

Not sure, removing the Random tick on the bunny seams to do the trick.. here's the file

Oh yes, the trick is to reorganize the vertex indices. Now the particles can grow from the center or on any axes direction. Thanks for the help. link


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Animation in Blender Game different from Animation Player Preview
I have animated a torch and added the text "torch" in the end which only becomes visible when the torch is in the center of the screen. I've used both the eye and the camera in the restrict viewport visibility to make the text appear. When I play the animation with the Animation Player, it works perfectly. In game mode (P), the animation is triggered by a mouse click on the torch. Everything works fine apart from the text which is not visible. What am I doing wrong?
I have already checked the action brick and the settings are fine.
Here's a video:
http://dropshots.com/miracleshappensgoogl/date/2017-05-04/19:20:07

What you are asking will lead to guessing the answer. please share some screenshots and/or a blend file with the minimum to reproduce the problem.

Ok, I added a video. I wanted to do it yesterday but the connection was really bad: I'm in Cambodia!

For the brick logic, I have used: ALWAYS + AND + ACTION (I selected the animation and set the START and End frame). The action is triggered by left clicking on the torch.

Hey, I've found that text does not appear as clear as in the 3d View when you are in the engine. Usually I have it transformed to mesh or tested it a bit (size,textures,materials etc.). Some times they appear different size than what you intend or in different positions. I didn't give you an answer, just a simple imput. Try making the text a mesh though, and see if it works.

Yes, I've already done that but it didn't work out - sorry I didn't mention it in my question but thanks for the effort.

By the way Lev, I forgot to mention that your suggestion was right too. The text also moved somewhere else while in Game Mode. It helped to change it to Mesh but that was not the cause of the problem. As I explained below. Thanks and good luck with your projects!

The BGE plays animations different then Blender is doing. Not all channels are supported.
The BGE does not support the "Restrict View" animation channel (nor "Restrict Render", nor "Invisible (Material Game Settings)", nor "Transparency" ).
You can change the alpha of the material. But this is not that easy with text objects as they are special object.
A possible way is to toggle the visibility via visibility actuator.
You can also change the content of the text object on the fly by setting the "Text" property.
Remarks: When this is aimed for a game or an interactive presentation it might be worth to isolate the text from animation. E.g. A single text object that shows the description of the currently selected object. (This requires more thoughts on the design and is outside of the scope of this answer).

Thank you! I had no clue. I also tried to convert the text to mesh with Alt+C but it didn't work. I'll try to change the alpha and see what happens if that doesn't work then I'll use the visibility actuator. Thanks again!

SOLVED!
Thanks to Strapicarus and Monster for pointing to the right direction.
The greatest help has come from a tutorial by Arsenal RSL Tutorial,
However, I have discovered something really important.
You can only add 1 single animation at a a time in the action actuator so I added another one and everything is working fine. I suppose that if you have a lot of animated objects in a scene, you just have to add an actuator for each animation.
In my case I only have two: a torch and a text.

The names given for each animation may be confusing, especially the first one (Text_Torch) because in my first attempt the animation of the torch and the text were together. However, if you are animating in cycles or render there is no problem: you can animate as many objects as you want.
The game engine requires you to add one animated object at a time.
I hope this helps others as much as it helped me!


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Hair particles are thinner when rendered in Cycles
So I was making some grass for my low poly scene in blender, but the hair particles don't have the same thickness in the final render as opposed to the thickness in the viewport render. In the final render they look very thin, instead of looking thicker as I made them to be.
The final render of the scene where the grass is very thin:

The viewport render of my scene where the grass is how it is supoosed to look:

it's probably due to the fact that a render tapers the tip.  I can't recall the values, but let's say the base is 1, and the tip is 0.2  so try setting your particles to a uniform thickness, where the tip has the same thickness as the base.

@Doyousketch2 Thanks, you were correct. Making the value of the tip the same as the base does yield the result in the viewport render.

have you got the particle amount set the same for eevee as cycles?


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Why does origin point change its location after joining objects?

As you can see there are no hands in the 1st picture.
I created the hand separately from the body and then joined them with Ctrl+J.
After that the origin(I'm not sure it's called so but I mean a thing poited with arrow) changed it's position and I suppose it's the reason of the mirror modifier fail.
How to change coordinates of origin or to solve the problem if the origin is OK?

It's likely that you selected body object first and the hand - second, then joined them with Ctrl+J. This means that origin point of the joined object was where it was for the last selected (i.e. active) object prior to joining, and in your case that was the hand. Probably the latter had its origin point where it is for the resulting object on your screenshot.
It should be possible either to:

undo joining and join again with body object selected last in order to preserve origin point where it should be for Mirror modifier to work properly,
or reposition origin point which should be easy. In Edit mode select the center edge loop of the body mesh, snap 3D cursor to it and in Object mode put the origin point to cursor.

Also read How can I make the mirror modifier work right?
As a side note, correct the normals in your objects by Ctrl+N as this can give some unexpected results while modeling in particular. See Why are some faces in my mesh darker?


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Graph editor view zooms too far
My problem is that after scaling the axes to show the curve I wish to work on in the Graph Editor, as soon as I try to grab a handle on the curve (or click anywhere in the window), the view zooms right in to show a fraction of a frame. The editor is essentially unusable as a result.
This video shows what I mean: https://vimeo.com/231747708
I've tried opening a new instance of Blender and copying over the meshes in case the original file was corrupted but makes no difference.

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/28635/axis-scales-in-the-f-curve-editor. As an alternative use Normalize in Graph editor if you want to preview all the curves at once no matter on their scale.

Thanks for the replies - Mr Zak I tried scaling as suggested in the previous question and the Normalize switch makes no difference.

Cegaton - I'm running a Dell XPS-15 with Windows 10 and have enabled Node Wrangler, Images as Planes and Archimesh add-ons, everything else is straight out of the box.  I've tried Blender versions 2.78 and 2.78.5 and it happens in both.  I've also opened a second instance of Blender and copied across the objects in case the file was corrupted and also created an entirely new animation file but the problem still exists in both cases.  I appreciate everyone's help with this.


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Use greenscreen as holdout
I'm trying to do an effect where I have 3d objects in a vortex around a person in a shot (like this)
Basically, right now I have the shot pre-keyed in a png sequence and I'm using the alpha from the sequence on an image plane. This makes it so when the objects pass behind the person, they're hidden from view.

The problem is that it leaves a gray image where the key was and I can't figure out how to make this transparent as well (I'm trying to just drop the render result from blender into a comp to complete the effect)
Holdout doesn't work because it's a plane, and it holds out the entire plane instead of just where the alpha is
EDIT: I found a workaround by changing the gray color of the image to green and then keying it out. The edges are a little rough, but it gets the job done.

You can use holdout shader mix with your setup and use alpha as mix factor.

not a complete solution, but i'm curious what happens when you increase the transmission on the principled shader to 1

Can you connect the alpha of the image with the surface of the output node and show us what happens?

@PavanBhadaja you're a mad genius, it freaking worked


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Rigify to ue4-26
I have a Blender model with a Rigify rig and would like to export it to Unreal Engine 4, except when I export it the model is completely distorted.
I would really like to correct this problem so that the model is correct
Here is the model link (Blender 2.93) mega.nz/file/YtkV1J6J
Original :

Exported

Exported but reimported in Blender

Thanks

Something is wrong with the download link. It asks for a password.

The password is : 2Xgqs4uT6QsAVAvcrlXkOmznry3k4Y4aIwIfo4eyeX4


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Not smoothing the rear
I am trying to create a bar, that has a rounded end. I did this by creating a cylinder with 32 vertices, extruding the outward-facing faces, and then deleting the middle and back. This seems to work fine, but when I apply shade smooth I get 2 issues.

The smooth facing does not seem to affect the inside of my half cylinder
Where my cylinder ends and becomes along bar I got some shading artifacts

The form from the top

Issues: Here you can see my backside is not being shaded smooth, and the transition to the long bar is not being shaded correctly as well

hello please share your file: https://pasteall.org/blend/

I would start by making sure your entire mesh is shaded smooth (right-click context menu in object mode). Sometimes your mesh can have a mix of shaded flat/smooth faces when doing operations like object merging, even if you have Auto Smooth turned on.
Next I would check for doubled vertices or interior faces. Judging by how the wireframe is thicker where one of the hard edges is a good indicator for overlapping geo. You can get rid of overlapping verts by running the Merge by Distance operator (found in the M context menu).


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How to add a curve to rectangle

The shape would look like this if you were looking down at it from the top, I don't know how to represent it as a 3D model. Basically, I want this sort of shape, possibly a bit more curved but besides that, it should look like this.

Create a plane, scale it in Edit mode, keep all selected, press CtrlB to bevel, press V in order to bevel the vertices, not the edges, tweak the settings in the Operator box:

or the finger twisting SHIFT-CTRL-B to go directly to vertex mode

sure I always forget it  ;)


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when i export my file to .FBX it is showing some glitches in output , the issue affects in places i used a option in edit mode face intersect(boolean)
When i exported my work in .FBX format is it showing some glitches and in many place when it seems like it is trying to merge or something in the area where i used the option in edit mode face menu intersect boolean , the image supporting will be provided below so by looking that you will be completely able to understand the issue The export settings i used  The back view of exported file looks everything messy main front view of file looks everything messy some other options in 3d view app showing some additional infoblender object mode image loos fine and perfect edit mode image blender for supporting the helper for giving the solutionthis is the option i used to put holes in many places and those areas are showing glitches

hello could you please share the object? pasteall.org/blend

@Gunt.r you mean you need the project file i am working on , that's totally impossible bro sry


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bad camera angle (or trackers?) with aerial footage
Got this drone footage to track of a big truck patio. Huge stuff. The drone is quarter-circling the warehouses, and I could get me 8 solid tracking points and the camera solved.

Set the floor with 3 trackers: ok.
Set the origin tracker: ok.
Set x and y axis: ok.
Link empties to track: ok.
Setup tracking scene: ok.

Alright, seems fine. I can see the trackers on the background image on my 3d viewport, they line up with the footage.

I can align the 3d model of the warehouses as well. but it won't keep aligned as I hit play.

Among other things, I tried, so far:

Rotating the setup;
Changing the height of the camera;
Changing the scale;
Manually correct the rotation on all axis;
Setting the solve method to tripod;
Scavenging an answer to a similar problem here on the forums: no
success.

The thing is that the markers position is accurate only from the top view (wich is not the camera's position). Footage was not captured top down, so it doesn't make any sense to me that the markers are top down. I don't even know if I'm making myself clear. Hehe.
But here's the weird alignment on the trackers to the camera:

It's flat, almost. And it really doesn't look like the angle the drone was relative to the ground.

What am I doing wrong? What is being missed? The parallax exist, doesn't it? Is there another approach to this? I tried the plane tracking, but in my research I figured that it wasn't the proper scenario for it.

Looking at the trackers spreading like that it makes me think that this is all incorrect, but then how one can track such a camera movement from aerial footage? We do have other takes from the same place, different views, but same alignment problem. The trackers kinda look flat.

Solve mode should not be tripod. Tripod solving is for when the camera is not moving, just rotating from a fixed position. Tripod solve will not result in 3D reconstruction, it will only solve the camera movement, but the trackers will not contain any depth information, they will be projected as in a sphere around the camera.
When the camera moves (as in advances forward of back, or is being displaced sideways or up or down), then use the Default Camera Solve.
As for how to proceed, most of it has been answered here.
Read the following link: get better results for camera tracking
Most problems with solving 3d information come from poor (inaccurate) tracking.  You need at least 8 trackers, but more can help you in this case. Track objects on the field around the buildings as well. Prioritize objects that move fast (in the foreground) and then track a few objects that are very far away.

Thanks a lot, everything is really smooth now! After enabling 3d markers and reading more about it,  I could understand how the wrong focal lenght was messing thins up. The extra trackers solved the parallax like a charm, and depth was added to my scene.
The more we dig, the better we understand things!
You and this thread saved my week:
How to see bundles and back projecting points of different colors

All good, I'm glad I was able to help.


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What's the distance between the camera eye and the canvas and how it's related to focal length
I would like to understand what the distance between the origin of camera and its canvas is in blender.

I thought it was the focal length but it's not (focal length is 100 mm and this distance is bigger); so, I would like to understand the algebraic relation with focal length (if exist).
The camera is set to be "perspective"

It depends on the Sensor Size of the camera
Short answer:
If you didn't scale your gizmo (object's scale = 1,1,1) you can se the formula:
Canvas distance = Focal Length / Sensor Size

Explanation
Like all the objects you add to your scene, cameras have a default size of 1, measured on the X axis. You can clearly see that changing the focal length doesn't affect the X size of the gizmo.

The Y size depend on the proportion bewtween the X and Y resolution, so if the screen is 16:9, the Y size would be 9/16 of X

The projection plane is distanced from the POV in Z exactly by the measure of the focal length, but you have to take into account the Sensor Size. If you match the size of the gizmo on X (1 meter = 1000mm) to the Sensor Size, the distance of the plane will be the same as the focal length:

If you use a custom Sensor Size, the plane distance from POV is the ratio between the Focal length and the Sensor Size:
Zdepth = Scale*Focal Length/Sensor Size

Blender's default camera has a focal length of 50mm and a Sensor Size of 36mm, so the default distance is:
1*50/36=1.3888888888...9

You can scale the gizmo to match the sensor size, this way you'll have the Focal Length = Canvas distance:

Note that changing the size in the viewport will not change the camera's field of view.


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Diffuse map bake problem?
Not only diffuse I have the same problem with other maps as well, im not to good at interface of blender, so I might miss something somewhere, this is the screenshot.

As you can see, some of them looks empty, and dont know why.
I usually only bake normal maps, or light shadow etc, when I need a diffuse(albedo) texture, I use texture paint and its solve cleanly. But this time I use shaders and need the outcome as a png, so I try bake the diffuse map. Where did I go wrong ?

Select those faces in the UV with UVsync selection enabled and look where they are... post a picture of them. Remamber that the floor object is being rendered. The eye means only viewport visibility.

well, thank you. i feel like stupid. black ones are other side of the object. Why didnt check from the beginning , i also dont know :). Thank you anyway.


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Alpha not rendered in movie in the Blender Game Engine
I want to play a movie on a plane object in the Blender Game Engine.
The movie works fine, however even if the background of the movie is transparent,
when the movie is played it is shown as pitch black.
These are my settings:
GLSL (shading)
UV MAP
The UV map used as a screen is set to transparent (0 Alpha).
Material Tab
Set to SHADELESS and Transparency (0 Alpha)
Texture Tab
Use Alpha is checked!
Influence/Diffuse: Color and Alpha are both checked and set to 1 (Default)
I normally use these settings for images and they work perfectly fine. However they don't seem to work with movies. Can anyone help?
The movie has been created with the Video Editor in Blender Cycles (2.79):
FFMpeg Video
Container : Mpeg4
Codec: H264
The Film (Render) is set to Transparent.
The movie seems fine and it does show the alpha correctly.
Any idea of what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks in advance

Video files don't normally support alpha channel so what are you talking about?

He means the mesh's, texture alpha channel. That particular channel is used for masking parts of the mesh visually.

S O L V E D
The movie must have an alpha channel.
This is how to obtain an alpha channel in a movie by using Blender Video Editor:
Properties(Output section):
File Format - FFmpeg video
Container - Quicktime
Codec - QT rle/QT ANIMATION
Once you are done, you will see that next to BW and RGB you now have RGBA.
Your movie will be rendered with an alpha channel and in the game it will work perfectly.


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Edit Images Externally With Linux Mint
My Linux Mint version is 18.3 Cinnamon (64) bit
I'm using Blender 2.79b (Cycles)
This is the path where Gimp.desktop is located:
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gimp.GIMP/current/active/export/share/applications/org.gimp.GIMP.desktop
However, when I use the function Edit Images Externally in Blender I get the following error message:

Image editor could not be launched, please ensure that the path in
  User Preferences > File is valid, and Blender has rights to launch it

Please note:

I've already saved the image to edit externally.
I verified the path where Gimp is located.
I accessed Gimp as root and changed all access values to: READ & WRITE. The execute box is also checked.
I also saved the User Preferences in Blender.

This is not a duplicate because the similar question asked is about Windows whose OS is completely different from Linux.

To discover the real path where Gimp executable is, I was told by the Gimp Team that I must right click Gimp.desktop with a text editor.

It is somewhat important to realize that flatpak is a sandbox, and not just a new fancy package format: https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/wiki/Sandbox

The corresponding issue in the GIMP issue tracker is: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/issues/1946 - we are currently assuming that this might be a limitation on Blender's side, i.e. that it assumes the command to be a binary without any additional parameters besides the image file name. Could some experienced Blender users chime in there?

I filed a bug with Blender as well, you can follow the situation here:https://developer.blender.org/T56158

Typically, you should be able to leave User Preferences > File > Image Editor blank - as Blender will attempt to find 'gimp' on the system path. The 'Image Editor' preference is there as a means of selecting an alternative Image Editor or specifying where to find it if it isn't already on the path.
Note also that the '.desktop' file is a means of your window manager opening an application - Blender should not be using that as it will invoke 'gimp' directly. However, if you open the '.desktop' file then it will tell you what command clicking the 'Gimp' desktop icon will invoke (ie, where Gimp is installed if it isn't on your path).
Firstly, ensure that 'gimp' is on the path. You can do this by opening a 'terminal' window (I'm not too familiar with Mint but it should be something like 'Terminal', 'XTerm', 'Term', 'Command Window' or something similar) to get a command prompt. Then enter 'type gimp'. This should come back with something like :
gimp is hashed (/usr/bin/gimp)

This tells you that Gimp is available in /usr/bin/gimp and is on the system path.
If this is the case then you should simply be able to leave the 'Image Editor' in the File preferences blank - Blender will find it.
If gimp cannot be found (the 'type' command didn't locate it) then you'll need to specify the full path to 'gimp' (not the '.desktop' file). Locate it on your system and set the 'Image Editor' to that full path - so if 'gimp' is located at /usr/local/myversionofgimp/gimp then set the Image Editor to the full path to your 'gimp' executable (ie, '/usr/local/myversionofgimp/gimp').

Unfortunately your suggestions didn't work! If I leave Blender blank, it can't find anything and gives me an error. I checked the path again with a File Finder program and I got the same result. There is nothing in the path you suggested, I read in several forums that it depends on the distro. I'll try to upload a screenshot so you can see for yourself.

Thanks for the additional info. It looks like rather than a traditional gimp installation it’s using ‘flatpak’. I don’t have experience of that but suspect the command that’s shown on your screenshot is the command you need to set inside Blender (‘flatpak run —branch...’ put thr whole command in the Image Editor command. Failing that, can gimp be installed in the traditional form rather than via flatpak (you might need someone who knows the intricacies of flatpak to tell you that).

Looking at the Flatpak documentation (http://docs.flatpak.org/en/latest/using-flatpak.html) you should alternatively be able to use the command “flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP” - try that as the Image Editor command.

Yes, Rich I forgot to mention that I installed Gimp via flatpak to get the latest version without having problems (it is not available in the software manager and installing by terminal can sometimes create conflicting dependencies). I tried adding "flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP" but still it doesn't work. Anyway, I'll read the link you gave me. In the meantime thank you.

No worries. One thing to try is to run that command from the command line (terminal). If it will run from there then the same command should hopefully run from within Blender.

"flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP" does run from terminal though so I guess the problem must be about getting permission to launch. I contacted Gimp as well to ask for help. Now, it's really late and I have to disconnect. Thanks again!

Thanks for your help Rich, it appears that the flatpak system is still relatively new so everything you said is correct but it doesn't work because there may be a problem with Gimp flatpak system. I'm now trying to solve the issue directly with Gimp!

The problem is confirmed to be with Gimp 2.10 flatpack so I uninstalled everything and reinstall Gimp 2.8 PPA. Now everything works perfectly. Problem solved!

The problem is related to Gimp 2.10 Flatpak which can be downloaded directly from  Gimp.org
According to the Gimp user forums, there are known issues with Flatpaks as well as Snaps and AppImage because they are very recent and have a certain number of issues that need to be tackled before they become really easy to use.
Solution: Uninstall Flatpak and reinstall Gimp 2.8 via PPA
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:otto-kesselgulasch/gimp
sudo apt update
sudo apt install gimp
In Linux Mint, the path for Blender Edit External IMages is the following:
/usr/bin/gimp
as Rich Sedman pointed out!


text:
How to close this hole with clean geometry?
I modelled a set of plates and bowls, all based on one design - see renders and the attached blend (one plate). It's a design choice that all the items have geometry slightly bunched up on the outer rim, it is necessary to get a nice subtle wavy decoration on the plates and bowls. But the problem is the center of every plate and bowl. I have a large hole and I can't find a clean way to close it, clean meaning good geometry, quads only and all evenly spaced. I made 3 attempts. One is using an N-gon, least work, but it renders badly, its triangulated and it's a visible flaw in the render. Two other attempts were done using the Grid Fill function, one regular and one with Simple Deform checked. It looks ok with subdivision level 0, but its bad when subdivided, at least I think so. It looks bad, it's uneven, and there are faces bunching up near the edges of the hole.
Please note, that the outer geometry is bunched up on 3 sides, on purpose, there are more edge loops in these areas.
Can someone have a look into this? I'm attaching the blend. How to get good geometry, a nice evenly spaced closing for this gap, quads only?

take a look at this answer: http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/29086/7777

Method 1 works fine.  The only way to get a perfectly spaced grid is to move all the vertices around the edge of the center section to be evenly spaced.  I don't see any egregious artifacts when rendering your blend file so I don't know what problem you are trying to solve.

authors: Катерина Іванова


text:
How do I fill an area with faces lined up in a grid?
I need to change these polygons into a mesh with the same amounts of edges going the opposite way so I can end up with a mesh that I can curve edges upward and indent the heel and ball of foot area downward, sort of making it look ergonomic. Subdivide adds an diagonal edge but also vastly increases the edges where I already have enough. Suggestions?

When you have a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.  My hammer is python.  Maybe I'll be able to bang out a solution.

@MutantBob No need, there's already a tool for it :) OP: select the verticies you want to cut, and press "J". You could also use the knife tool "K". If that works I'll write up an answer.

I'd try handling that by deleting all the top faces and using grid fill. It With some tweaking it should give you the edges you need.

@Marc Did you try the knife tool?

No, no knife tool yet. I don't know how to use it but I'll try now. (blend file added)  UPDATE: Looks like the knife tool will work. I just want the lazy way out and not have to cut each new edge one by one. lol. but it looks like I have too. Thanks

Just so you know, I tried my "J" trick and it worked. I'm wrote up an answer. I also threw in how to do it with the knife tool.

Select the two virticies you want to make an edge between and press J.

You can also use the knife tool. Press K and click on the two vertices you want to bridge,

And press Enter

oops, Yep, you're right. It does work. So does the knife tool. I just wanted a way to do them all at once with a click or two. :) Thanks

Ah... Well maybe @MutantBob can come up with a python solution for you :)


text:
Clear "glass" bottle loses clearness in front of colored background
So my Fiji water bottle is perfect clarity and clearness when it's by itself (as can be seen by the right most bottle). However when placed in front of a colored back ground and having a blue gradient back side label it basically turns almost black. I think it's the refraction / reflections causing it. Is there a way I can turn those down --or perhaps add a light behind the bottles that only affects the bottles and does not affect or blow out the background?

[![enter image description here][2]][2]

Adding an emission light that only emits light in one direction and placed behind the bottles cleared up the issue of black bottles. However that presented the NEW issue of not allowing the backdrop to show through the bottles. As presented here: Emission Light Problem

Could you show your Light Path panel's settings?

That's a weird node setup, and yeah it won't allow the background to be seen, because no transmission is happening. Why don't you just use a standard Glass BSDF and make sure the bottles have some thickness by adding a Solidify Modifier?

The reason the glass was showing black (therefore no light passing through it) was for the reason there was actually a duplicate bottle within the bottle that I did not know about, plus the normals of that bottle were apparently backward. Once THAT bottle was deleted it appears everything works fine. Arrrgh. Very stupid error on my part. APOLOGY.

I have had this issue before. I am guessing the problem is with light paths in render settings.  If you don't have enough bounces, then having multiple transparent materials stacked behind one another will cause the darkening.
I'm pretty sure all I had to do was increase my minimum light bounces and it was fixed.  Good luck!
Edit: Minimum light bounces for transparency is the one you want to increase

I increased the minimum light paths, no change. Increased the maximum too. No change. Added a new screen shot to reflect those changes and show the light paths panel. And other suggestions?

Try increasing the minimum bounces for transparency or glossy

Thanks. Bumped them both to 100 no change. See new image.


text:
Problem Rendering
I feel rater stupid asking this, But I somehow destroyed my project. So I made some complex models, added textures, animations etc. And when I click render, nothing happens. I have rendered many things before and a new project works just fine. Since I don't want to restart and export everything, I'd like to try to fix my project. I deleted anything unnecessary and made a test.blend file to try to troubleshoot. I looked into other rendering problems, but my problem seems to be different.
Maybe you can help me figure out whats wrong here.
Thanks in advance!

Add some screenshots and your project .blend file.

Note that including a file normally doesn't mean you are free from including screenshots. Not everyone is able to download file just to see what the problem is while screenshots themselves can help to define the problem

You have some picture in your Video Sequence Editor and Sequencer enabled in your render settings:

So Blender tries to render that instead of the scene. You can disable the Sequencer in the render settings, or you can delete the image in it and leave it empty if you wish to render the scene.

Thanks a Lot! That did it!

The light in your scene is pointing away from the object

That's a Sun Lamp. The line only shows its direction. That is not a problem at all. The light strength is set to a high value, but it works fine. I would suggest testing the solution before posting it.


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I can't install the A.N.T Landscape from the Addon menu
As you can see, Blender shows the error when I try to check the box next to the A.N.T Landscape in the Addon menu.

ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found.

What is the deal? I am using blender 2.79. Thank you.


text:
How to model two sided objects like handkerchief or piece of paper?
I'm trying to model a handkerchief to use in another program and I've seen few approaches to modeling flat objects with two sides, the problem is I can't decide which one is more efficient. (less vertices and problems when I add Subsurf and Cloth modifiers).

create a plane and extrude a little bit.
create a plane and duplicate it in edit mode the flip the normal.
I've tried the cycle texturing trick with a single plane but it didn't export the textures with it.

Is there any other way I can try? Which one do you suggest? What about a piece of pepper?
Keep in mind that I'm trying to texture both sides.

Where do you want to export it? Blender has double-sided option but I don't know if software you are aiming accept it.

mainly daz3D and it's iray rendering

Have you tried the solidify modifier?

does solidify give me two surfaces to texture before applying? is it more efficient than extruding? specially while simulating the cloth


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How to specify multiple restrict frame ranges for the F-curve Noise modifier?
It's a simple problem but one I can't seem to get my head round. I'm using a noise modifier which seems to perfectly mimic a realistic rotation of some equipment I'm deploying. My problem is I need to restrict this twice.
1 start noise at 3000 and end at 3400
2 start again at 4400 and terminate at 5000
I thought about key framing the strength but I can't add any keyframes to the noise panel
Basically I want the F-curve to look like it would do if the lime green line was added

Thanks for any help
Sean

OBVIOUSLY!!!!!! Ahh thank you so much for the simple solution. :)

I edited the title to make it define what exactly is desired from the modifier. Unfortunately I couldn't find related questions for this one so not to answer here.

One way to let the F-Curve modifier affect the animation in several frame ranges is to setup several F-Curve modifiers. So one modifier will be responsible for the 1-st frame range, another one - for the second and so on.

You can copy / paste modifiers with buttons in the top part of the Modifiers tab in the Properties region of the Graph Editor. Once modifier was copied change its frame range to make it affect another part of animation.


text:
How to select polygons facing camera instead of polygons located in the opposite side
I want to select marked face:

however back face gets selected:

Is there an option in blender to only select facing polygons camera ?

You should turn on Limit Selection to visible in the 3D View header.

This question is similar to link, and the answer to that question applies to this one.

Select 'Limit Selection to Visible' on the bar at the bottom of the window.

Correct - image updated.

While in Edit mode and (by default) along the bottom of the 3D view, between the Vertex/Edge/Face selection and the Magnet will be an icon that looks like two square polygon faces with four vertices on the corners with one face being in front of the other.
Hovering over this button will bring a tooltip that says "Limit selection to visible (clipped depthbuffer)". Toggling this button will change between the model being solid or transparent.  When the model appears solid, you will only select faces that are directly under the arrow, and not faces that might be behind it.
I wish I could post a screenshot but I'm unable to at the moment.


text:
How to model a mesh of curved axe?
I am trying to model this axe and I don't know how to do it properly. I've highlighted the part I'm trying to make here:

I tried two different main approaches so far:

Start off from a plane and extrude its edges so I could cover the entire body, then extrude/solidify the surface to add some thickness to the mesh. What I don't like about this method is the mesh shape. That part of the weapon has clear, smooth curves and it is something I can't seem to achieve by just modeling a plane. This is a quick example of what I'm trying to do here:
 .
Bézier curves. I can recreate a cool shape with this method, but once the curve is converted to a mesh and then extruded or solidified, I don't have vertex but a huge face on the front part. This leads to a very weird mesh, also some curves still have a way too high vertex density which makes bevel and subsurf impossible.

What would be the correct approach here?

You should have a deep meditation focusing on the shapes you want to model, no jokes. There is the part about experimenting the tools and strictly carving your objects but this comes later.

To me, the modeling approach is better here even if a bit long to do. You can use bezier or nurbs but this will be complicated to join the several parts. In modeling, you'll probably need to start from the center sphere as the amount of vertices on it will lead the other parts. Don't give too much detail at the beginning (the few vertices as possible, and for the sphere also) and use a subsurf modifier. You can also try to sculpt or to make a displacement map from the picture and eventually retopo it once the result is ok.

I gave it a try... and I confirm modeling and using a subsurface modifier (with two subdiv) can do the job with few vertices to model

Hi, In my opinion this can't be explained in few words. Just google for "Blender 3D modeling ornaments tutorial".

If you're looking for a good starting point, break down the model to its basic shapes and start with the one that would be the easiest to create with Blender's primitives. In this case it would be the half-sphere in the center.
Create a sphere (12 segments, 9 rings), delete the lower part, flatten the upper half a little and scale-extrude (E+S) the edge. Add a loopcut to the new ring and start positioning the vertices to match the rest of the axe model's decor shapes.

Proceed around the half-spere by extruding vertices. Start with the ridge of the leaf-like shapes (yellow arrows), then extrude to the sides (blue arrows first, orange arrows next).

Always try to stay with quads, because you can add loopcuts to them and they produce cleaner topology when you use subsurf or multires modifiers on them for further sculpting.

This answer may be a bit opinion based, as some may prefer another approach to do it, but I think modeling is the easiest way.

The model uses a subsurface modifier (shown with 2 subdivisions above) but needs about 250 vertices (including 50 for the central sphere). So this is relatively quick to do.
The main idea to make it round, is simply to model it as some kind of tunnel as you can see below.

Again, that maybe opinion based proposal... and depend on how you feel easy in this approach.
Note that you can complete it with a 'decimate' modifier if you feel the amount of vertices is two high with the subsurf. For instance here, the result looks still good (going from about 7k tris with the subsurf to 2900 with the decimate... but ok, if this is for a game that may be still too high).

The shape is very organic. Sculpting will let you explore the shape the fastest. You can quickly establish creases and surface curvatures and change them without much effort to your liking.
Once you are happy with the form, retopologize it into your final mesh. You have 3 options:

low poly mesh with baked normal/displacement map
low poly with subsurface modifier with creasing
low poly with subsurface modifier with control loops

If you would be experienced sub-d modeler, I believe you could model the shapes on the fly. But sculpting is easy and fast and it will help you, because the surface will be well defined and you will know better where the edge-loops go and how the topology needs to be.


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Particles emitting from particles. Is it possible?
I am relatively new in the world of Blender, which I have started using as a scientist to make schematics for publications.
I am currently struggling in making a particle emitting from a particle system and use that as a particle.
Essentially what I want to do is make a sphere with spheres emitted from the vertices
 and I want these spheres to have hairs on top as in image below:

In the latter case, I had to manually position the smaller spheres on the big sphere surface and manually delete half on the emitting hairs. I really don't want to do it manually all the time lol. Do you guys know how to do it easily?

Maybe related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5961/how-can-particles-be-emitted-from-particles

Have you considered using Dupliverts to place the smaller spheres, and using a particle system on the spheres being placed by Dupivert?

Thanks for your comments. I am having a look at your link kim. Although, How would I do it on a sphere? In the guide they use a simple circle and I can't follow it.

I managed to do it using Dupliverts! Thank you all!


text:
Themes: How to change the color settings of a temporary field within the Info panel
I am modifying the theme of Blender, and have most of the settings where I want them. However, I am having difficulty with a temporary message field, circled in yellow below.

I have messed around with every possible setting in the Info panel section of the Themes window:

...but none of them seem to affect this particular field.
Does anyone know the name of this field, and where I can change the display colors for it? The white text on light grey background is a bit difficult to see, even on my iMac's 5K Retina display.
Also, is there any good reference available where I can see exactly where each item in the Themes panel is used within the Blender interface?
In case you are curious, I am running macOS 10.14 Mojave beta in dark mode with the red accent color, as shown here:

Have you seen a different bg colour for that widget when using another theme?

Hmmm... That is a good question, and what I found was interesting. I went through every one of the themes, and the background did not change for any of them. However, the text color DID change for a few of them.


text:
Adding bevels to a simple object messes up the mesh
I am modeling a glass top desk, and seem to be stuck at adding a simple bevel to the top of a metal part for the desk.
In the screenshot below, the first two objects are the same, one in edit mode, and the other in object mode. The mesh on this one is very straight and smooth; it reflects the light like I would expect it to.
As soon as I add a simple bevel to the top edges, it screws up the mesh, as you can see in the third object.
I have tried a bunch of things, including trying to apply an edge loop cut, but have thus far been unsuccessful.
Any ideas?

Topology of your object is not clean. You have there mostly triangles and ngons. Try to change Bevel > Limit Method to Angle and fiddle with the value. It can help, but as I said at the beginning, such topology isn't helpful.

Ok, that is very helpful, and it does give me something to research. Just before this step, those bottom corners were just sharp edges; I wanted to turn those edges into smooth curves, so I applied a bevel to them with 7 segments. That is where those neons and triangles came from. If this is not a good method to smooth out the curves, what method should  have used?

It is a good method but sometimes Bevel modifier in Blender is not sufficient. In (I hope) 2.8 Bevel modifier will also have option to harden normals and those surface inconsistencies will be gone. You can check it in soc-2018-bevel branch.

For now you can try to build your mesh with help from Y.A.V.N.E add-on (you will need to apply bevel modifier). Or build model with proper edge loops. Than bevel will probably be enough, and if not you can use subdivision surface along with proper topology.

It has become painfully clear to me that I am in way over my head, and that I have a whole lot to learn! I think that my next step is to take at least side A of that brand new hard surface modeling course on BlenderMarket. Thanks for your help!

Most or all knowledge from there you can find here. The main problem could be ability to search what you really need. Two years ago I've asked my first question, today I'm answering ;)

Do you want this to be a flat-sided beam?

Thanks to the help from @cgslav, pointing me in the right direction, and from this video: Blender Hard Surface Modeling : Are NGons Bad?, I was able to work out the steps to get the bevels I wanted without the messed up final result. Those steps are as follows:

First, add the bevel to the bottom four edges to convert those
angles to smooth curves.
Now you can add the finishing bevels to the straight edges:
Go into Object mode
Click Smooth in Tool shelf -> Tools -> Edit -> Shading
In Properties Editor -> Data -> Normals, select Auto Smooth
Go into Edit mode
Make sure select mode is set to Edge Select
Press A to deselect all edges
Menu Select -> Sharp edges
Properties -> Transform -> Edges Data
Set Mean Bevel Weight to 1.0
Set Mean Crease to 1.0
Press Ctrl-E, select Edge Data -> Mark Sharp
Press Ctrl-E, select Edge Data -> Mark Seam
Go into Object mode
In Properties Editor -> Modifiers, select Add Modifier -> Bevel
Under Limit Method, choose Weight
Increase number of segments to 4
Set Width to 0.1

Here is the final result:

As you see, the side surface is perfectly flat and straight now. I am very pleased with this, and hope it will help others who come across this same issue.


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Error when trying to import Scipy module to Blender
There is an error when I want to import the scipy module into blender through the anaconda directory. How can I fix this error?
Code:
import sys

scipy_path = "C:\Users\ALAFG\AppData\Local\Continuum\anaconda3\lib\site-packages"

if not scipy_path in sys.path:
    sys.path.append(scipy_path)

import scipy

Error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<blender_console>", line 1, in <module>
File "/Users/ALAFG/AppData/Local/Continuum/anaconda3/Lib/site-
packages\scipy\__init__.py", line 118, in <module>
from scipy._lib._ccallback import LowLevelCallable
File "/Users/ALAFG/AppData/Local/Continuum/anaconda3/Lib/site-
packages\scipy\_lib\_ccallback.py", line 1, in <module>
from . import _ccallback_c
ImportError: cannot import name '_ccallback_c'

Just a guess, but perhaps you have a different version of python installed on your system than the one being used by Blender.
To keep things simple, I usually install scipy into Blender's python.
I run the get_pip.py file in Blender's text editor.
Then I install using pip by running this in the text editor:
import pip

pip.main(['install', 'scipy'])

Doing this will allow you to import scipy without needing to append any path.
Depending on how you have Blender installed, you may need to run Blender with administrator priveledges in order to do this.

Thanks for answer, I used this code and there is no Error now!

I can't import pip: ImportError: No module named 'pip'. I also tried pip3 but it didn't work.

You have to download the get-pip.py file and run that in Blender's text editor first. That will install pip inside Blender.


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inequalities using math node
Using math nodes I generated that pyramid like shape, but I want to impose inequalities.
The equation for the following pic is 9-8|x|-y=0 but I want to impose inequalities to the equation where 0.75<|x|<1. How do I integrate the equation  with the given inequality?

this is the current output

and this is the current node setup.
The final output has to look something like this

what is the final equation like?

9-8|X|-y =0 where 0.75<|x|<1

I used the Node Expressions add-on (available via https://baldingwizard.wixsite.com/blog/node-expressions) to create the nodes from the mathematical expression, using the following expression :
Val1 = abs(y-(9-8*abs(x))) < Threshold, Val2 = and(abs(x)>0.75, abs(x)<1), Combined =Val1 * Val2

This creates two sub-expressions (Val1 which returns 'true' if y is close to '9-8|x|' and Val2 which is true if 0.75 < |x| < 1.0) and a Combined output which is true if both sub-expressions are true.
This produces the following result :

Blend file included


text:
Capturing position data of instances using fields
I have two separate curve circles with two UV spheres instantiated on the circles at a point.
I want to maintain procedural control of the location of these spheres on the circle through the angle.
Here is my geometry node for this part:

I then want to capture the position data of these points/instantiated spheres to use in some mathematical operations to create a new position vector.
More specifically, I want to extract the x,y,z coordinates of the two points on the circles and then create a new position vector after performing some mathematical operations on those.
Let (x1,y1,z1) be the coordinates for the sphere on the first circle, and (x2,y2,z2) be the coordinates for the sphere on the second circle.
I want to create a new vector (v1,v2,v3)=(x1y2,y1x2,z1) which will then be used to plot a vector/line/instance at that location. (This is not exactly what I want, but a simpler version),
Here is my attempt:

This does not work and I am wondering if someone could tell me why, or if there is a simpler way to do this?

a sketch would have been much more helpful than a long description... ;)

I might not be the easiest setup, but easier than yours ;)
I use the trim curve node and the endpoint selection node to solve this:

***UPDATE: ***
I made a nodegroup for my "orbiting sphere" which also outputs its position:

Then i instanced this nodegroup two times with different speeds and calculated a third coordinate (golden sphere) from that 2 sphere of the nodegroups:

Result: The golden sphere is always in the middle between red and blue:

a bit more fun example:

Thanks, Chris - this is certainly a lot simpler and cleaner than the first half of my description.
However, that wasn't my problem. My problem is in 'capturing' the position data of two instances on two separate circles (say), and then performing mathematical operations on those coordinates to create a third coordinate which will be the position vector for a third instance.
Sorry if I have over-complicated the question - I am still learning geometry nodes (to say the least).

i updated my answer

Thanks, Chris - this looks great.
I will implement this method into my project.
(I would upvote your answer, but I don't have enough reputation)

no problem. glad i could help.


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Adding zipper to animated character with clothes
I'm quiet frustrated. I animated a character and now i'm about to make the clothes or better to add some details. I basically copied the mesh of the animated character, duplicated it, seperated it and let it use the same weights. Thats all working absolutely fantastic. But now i just want to add a zipper to the top clothing and follow the animation properly...like it should stay in the same position of the top. I treid anything thaat came to my mind, using constraints (child of),parenting the zipper to a curve with a shrinkwarp modifier (targeted to the top) with follow curve i even tried to manually weight paint all of the zipper but there war always some small problems like a part of the zipper is under the top clothing.
Someone there with an idea how to fix that?
Greatings

PS: I didn't use cloth sim, because its really skinny clothes and parenting it to the bones works absolutely fine as said.

You really just need to tweak the weights of the zipper but that can be tedious. have you tried to shrinkwrap a curve onto the clothes and link the zipper to it?

First of all, thanks for your tip. But i use a shrinkwarp on a curve, it works actually pretty well on the bottom part, but the upper part is the problem....the shrinkwarp offset could solve the problem for this part but makes it look bad in the part beneath. I thought about splitting the zipper in top and bottom section with individual curves, but thats to much effort for 8secs of visabilaty. Because the zipper is looking okay for most of the animation, i ended up keyframing the bad parts by hooking the shrinkewarped curve to empty with armature constraints. Wasn't too much effort for that :)

I found a solution myself....i'm sharing it, just in case someone else is having aa similar problem.
I made for things to make it work:

Array the zipper chain along a curve
Shrinkwarp the curve to the clothing part
Add an armature constraint to the curve
-Use as many targetbones as in range or might have impact (compare the weights
and bones used for the clothing part)
-adjust the weights to get as close to the targeted result as possible

The last step is not ideal but it works, i just didn't want to use more time for such a little detail:

Hook the parts of the curve wich aren't perfect, add an armature constraint with the nearest bone as target and then keyframe it like every 10 frames..

Thats my solution it works very well but does include some more effort than i wished :p

another update, i found the mistake while keframing it. My fault was to use a converted object as curve. that caused many problems, because the transitions weren't alwas that smooth. Keyframing works, but its too much work compared to the possibility to just use a native bezier curve with shrinkwarp parented to the bones. Or even better, go into edit mode select everything with a, right click and select "set spline type> bezier" as well as "set handle type> aligned", last but not least, go to "Control Points" > "Recalculate Handles".


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A rolling ball with simulation nodes
Does anyone want to help me with some GeoNodes? I have a keyframed ball moving on a plane. I figure it should be possible to make the ball roll correctly using simulation nodes. In my mind, you compare the ball's location with its location on the previous frame, and that's the motion vector. The roll axis would be perpendicular to that and the floor.
I've figured out the first step. I compare the location with the previous one and get a motion vector. How do I translate that into the correct rotation?
Thanks in advance!

need more details. As the problem is stated currently, you don't even need a simulation zone: Rotate Spheres according to height of other points

@Markus Hard disagree. The linked answer relies on clear constraints where each position is unique. However, with a ball rolling around on the floor (think of a soccer ball passed around by three players), the position does not dictate the orientation. The question appears to be clearly structured, doesn't contain superflous details, details the authors attempt and narrows down the problem. Only the title could be a bit more specific.

@Leander my point is: we don't know if the keyframed animation isn't a movement in a straight line. I didn't mark as a duplicate but it could as well be depending on OP's requirements.

@MarkusvonBroady You're right; I could have been more clear. But Leander's (and your) interpretation are right on the money. Thanks for helping!

Here's a simple setup for a 100% friction ball:

This is an awesome node setup. The "Rotate Euler" node, however, has been recently deprecated. To better future-proof your node setup, I am using the "Axis Angle to Rotation" AND the "Rotate Rotation" node instead:


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Geometry nodes: Get the reverse direction of a sun light
I need help from someone smarter than me here.
Using GeoNodes, I want to cast a ray from the camera position towards the sun. This is to check if the sun is occluded from the camera perspective.
This should be easy, but I can't work out how to convert the Euler rotation of my sun light to the right vector to cast a ray in.
Thanks in advance!

Rotate a vector[0,0,1] by the Rotation.
( If you are using a version of blender that the object info node have an vector socket, then use the 'Vector Rotate' node set to Euler.
If you are using a version of blender that the object info node have an rotate socket, then use the 'Rotate Vector' node. )


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How to make two charged objects in Blender interact?
I cannot seem to do it, no matter what settings I change. I'm trying to simulate a negatively charged particle and a positively charged particle being attracted to each other. Or to simulate coulomb's law.
I parented a very low mass rigid body sphere to a "Charge" force field with a strength of +1 and flow of 1. I repeated that with another sphere with a strength of -1 and placed them apart. I disabled gravity. They should both collide but it doesn't, and I cannot figure out why.
I suspect it has something to do with the force field only working for instanced particles, but that's not helpful when I need to determine exactly where I want the particles to be and when working with just two particles. But even then only the particles would move. I need both charged objects to interact and move.
If you happen to know a workaround with some other force field, please let me know. Maybe with geometry nodes.
Here's the .blend file.

It may not be helpful that it only works on particles, but that's how it is. Generally force fields do not work on other force fields - which is what you tried to do there. For example, a Wind force field doesn't blow away another Wind force field (or other force fields). And the other thing is, you parented the force fields to the spheres, not vice versa. In this case even if the charges would have attracted each other, they would have been held back by their parent spheres. Why not use a Force field between the two spheres with a negative strength?


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Problems applying Subsurface Division with Armature
Noob here!
I modeled a penguin for a Unity game and made an armature and already made walk cycles and idle in the actions.
The problem is that in order to use the model on Unity, I have to export the model in FBX, that means applying the surface subdivision and my Mesh is completely deformed at the arms and body.
In my file blender, I don't have weight paint on my penguin, but I tried, it doesn't solve the problem completely.
I also removed the parenting, applied the surface subdivision, removed the vertex bones parenting in the list and reapplied the parenting and I don't know why the armature doesn't want to reparent with the penguin.
I also Merge the Verticles and it seems like there is no double Verticles.
Here is the Blend file:
https://we.tl/t-MMobInlnqG
Hope someone can help me!
Have a good day :) And Thank you!!

Before Applying Sudivision S

After Applying Subdivision S

In my opinion it's a question of weight painting. If you keep the Subdivision Surface modifier you can already see that some bones should not control some vertices, like for example the shoulder bones have influence on the arms or armpits. So maybe correct this as much as possible, apply the Subidivision Surface modifier (do you need a level of subidivision of 3? Also do you need the Auto Normalize option?) and correct again on the high-poly if it's still not good:

Also a function that helps when you'll work on the high-poly is the Weights > Smooth, and select the Subset > All Groups in the Operator box:


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Lighting problem in cyles
I have a problem with lighting that i can't fix, I have a mesh in the form of a light bulb with an emission material set to the strength of 5000 and no matter what i up the strength to the bulb object has practically no effect on my scene, I will also mention that there is some glossy material in the scene aswell, Sorry if this question is noobish but i am still learning the arm of blender any help would be greatly appreciated

Cycles doesn't really like very small light sources with very high lighting intensity.
They are very 'hard to find' computationally speaking. Cycles is a Path Tracer and will cast rays from the camera until the reach a light source, if the light source is too small it is very hard to hit, statistically speaking, creating very noisy renders that take a very long time to render.
Large light sources with an average lighting intensity are much better suited.
Keep you detailed lamp model if you like, but don't make it the light source of your scene.
Add a fake light material to it then use a real lamp object or a simpler geometry like an emission plane to actually light your scene up. Also avoid transparent or blocking geometry over your light sources, like the glass bulb.
You can then make fake light in cycles How to make the light emission invisible? or How to make a cycles light emisson object invisible to the camera?

Thanks so much man!, I've managed to fix my problem thanks to your solution :), Your answer is much appreciated

If the answer was useful please consider marking it as correct if it solved your problem, or at least up-voting if it helped. It will help other people find it in the future

How do I mark the question as solved, Sorry if this question is noobish? Thanks in advance

By the left side of the question there should be two big round buttons, one for upvoting and one for downvoting. Bellow that there should be a check-mark to mark the answer as accepted

I have marked it as solved thanks a lot man :)

Most welcome, happy Blending

You must dispense better the illumination and lower these giant "5000.000 values?. Add any image is much hdri sky environment first. Only that light will have a render burned "totally white if you leave render much time"

Not accurate. White doesn't exist in the scene.

authors: Артем Болтрукевич


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Remove doubles before export
I use blender along with Unity. My .blend file sits in unity project directory and each time I make a change to the .blend file, unity refrshes the scene and loads that file.
I would love to have a option to call remove doubles just before that .blend file is read by unity. I know modifiers are aplied during that unity export/read, but i could not find appropriate modifier for that task.
Is there a way to call remove doubles by a script or something like that, before each time unity exports/reads that .blend file ?

Selecting the entire mesh. hitting "Space" and typing "remove doubles" does not do the trick for you?

I would love to remove the doubles just before export and unity triggers the export by itsleft so i cant control that.

Unity triggers the export? No, it shouldn't be at least.

I mean i have .blend file and unity in my unity project and each time i make a change unity refreshes itselft and exports/reads the blend file.

Running this script will remove doubles on the currently selected mesh and export the file with a filename appended with -unity
You can then set unity to read the -unity blend and run the script instead of save.
import bpy
newfilename = bpy.context.blend_data.filepath.replace(".blend","-unity.blend")
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='TOGGLE')
bpy.ops.mesh.remove_doubles()
bpy.ops.wm.save_as_mainfile(copy=True, filepath=newfilename)

authors: владимир ковалев

authors: ываыва ываыв


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Correct Shadow/Reflection Catcher for external compositing?
Is there a correct way to save out shadow/reflection of an object to composite on transparent background in Photoshop? Kinda like Cinema4D or Vray matte works in 3Ds Max. I tried using Blender's 3.5 Shadow Catcher option with Shadow Catcher pass, but it doesn't produce accurate results when compositing externally with "Multiply" or "Linear Light" layer mode at all. And it doesn't catch reflections either. I saw tutorials of people compositing it within Blender Compositor using "Alpha Over" node, but I need to composite it externally, not in Compositor.
I'm really struggling with it as client wants each object and shadow/reflection for it on separate layers to place them anywhere on the background.

This Q&A site can only help with Blender problems so your question is off-topic here as it's about external software.

My question is about rendering passes in Blender and nothing else.

You seem to be talking about Photoshop to me when you mention "compositing externally with "Multiply" or "Linear Light" layer mode ". I don't know how you're exporting from Blender but it's possible that the file format you're using simply doesn't support the light layers you want to export. Others here with more experience of export formats may be able to help.

I exported combined pass for an object itself and "shadow catcher" pass for shadow. Both as PNGs. Also tried adding "Indi Gloss" pass to the mix, but it still does not produce accurate results. I used "Shadow Catcher" without "Shadow Catcher" pass as well to create shadow alpha for all these layers, but it doesn't help much.

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but in my case, I wanted the object with transparency rendered to one PNG and the shadow for it rendered on a separate PNG.  (ideally it would output to one PNG with layers, but I don't know how to do that).
Is this what you're looking for?  I did it by putting my plane (my shadow catcher) in one collection and my object in another collection.  I made new view layers, one for the shade wand one for the object (and one with both).  I left everything visible, but on the view layer for the object, I clicked on the Indirect only symbol (you have to choose to have this viewable in filter/view options for the outliner) by the plane collection.  On the View layer for the shadow, I clicked the Indirect only by the object collection.  I did have to have my compositor set up to output two different files- one for the object and one for the shadow.  Hope that helps!

Thank you. It's almost there, but I need shadow/reflections to have transparency around them to place them on a different background. That's what "shadow catcher" is usually doing.

(ideally it would output to one PNG with layers, but I don't know how to do that): PNGs do not support layers, so you simply cannot do it.


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Caustics Does Not Work Properly for Refractive Object Inside Another Refractive Object
Operating system: Windows 10 x64
Graphics card: NVidia Quadro RTX 3000 and NVidia RTX 3080
Blender Version: 3.4.1
Issue: it looks like current caustics only supports one object, which makes it impossible to properly render any scene with liquids/bottles of liquid etc.
Exact steps for others to reproduce the error:

Create a refractive object like glass.
Use Glass BSDF or Principled BSDF on it with transmission/roughness maxed out.
Put another object (liquid) inside of it, use similar Glass/Principled BSDF with transmission on it.
Put ground plane with default Principled BSDF
Enable "cast caustics" for both objects.
Enable "receive caustics" on plane.
Add light source and enable "shadow caustics" for it.
Enable "reflective and refractive caustics" in render settings.
Separate "liquid" and "glass" objects to test them separately from each other.
Check results - Caustic shadow shows as a dark opaque shadow for liquid inside glass. Caustic shadow renders properly for separated objects on their own.

Added another image where I removed glossy filtering and clamping, set light bounces to 64, and increased samples to 1000000. Same result.

You probably need to increase light bounces and unclamp some values that were implemented to control noise caused by glass etc. https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/219957/110840

I tried removing clamping and glossy filtering, as well as increasing light bounces to 64 and samples to 1000000 (which is a bit insane). It does add extra caustics to single objects same way it's done in your link. But the liquid inside the glass still produces dark shadow with no caustics. So no, it does not work and it looks like Cycles issue.

Alright, I received an official response on that issue from Blender Projects mod.

The rendering technique used to speed up the rendering of caustics is
based on MNEE. There are a number of limitations with this technique.
See
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/cycles/object_settings/object_data.html#caustics
I believe you are seeing this limitation.
So unfortunately this is a limitation of the technique and it is not
something that can simply be fixed :\

So look like Cycles is unable to properly render caustic liquid/refractive object nested in another refractive object. I suggest using a different render engine like LuxCore to achieve realistic results.

Well, caustics have always been a weakness of Cycles and when I saw the first videos on what's new in Blender after this new method came up, the general conclusion I heard on this topic was, still far away from perfect but better than before... so I didn't expect too great results anyway.


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How can I use vertex paint with another material?
I made a new model and i followed a tutorial. I made a texture and I want to add some color with vertex paint. I tried it, but it doesn't show up on the render. What should I do?
Is this possible at all? Sorry, I'm  really beginner.

with vertex colors:

Did you try the "Vertex Color" node in the shader editor ?

Yes, i have tried it in many ways but it doesn't show up in the render.

Could you post a screen of your setup with this node and a screenshot of your viewport while you vertex paint ?

Yes, I add 2 pictures

You should edit the factor of the multiply rgb node to a value > 0 because right now the node has no effect


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How to Make the Bricks Shake Like an Earthquake Simulation
My next task to do with these bricks is that I need to get them to animate like there is an earthquake making them shake.
Here's what I got so far. I got two sides of bricks on each side and I want to animate them like an earthquake.
I got an image here for an example.

What your result may look like.

Go to the Graph-Editor. Set a (location) keyframe for your cube, then select the "Z Location".
Press N to bring up the side panel, and select modifiers.
Add a noise modifier and controll your Earthquake with Scale, Strength, Start, etc.


text:
Loving texture paint - How can I make a square 'pixel' brush?
UPDATE: It turns out all I needed to do was just use a very low res texture for what I was trying to achieve (32x32...etc).
I'm loving the texture paint mode inside Blender but I want to set myself up to create pixel like textures for my 3D models.
Is it possible to make a square brush? How would I go about this?
Also, any other advice / tips on tailoring Blender for pixel like texturing is also welcome.
Many thanks.

maybe you'll have an answer here: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/21001/how-to-get-a-square-brush-in-texture-paint

Forgot about that post, but it also didn't account for how to get the tight stroke and didn't cover using it as a brush mask texture.

Don't add Solved to the title of the question please; accept the provided answer instead

You can use an image rendered by setting up a plane with a shadeless material, looking through an orthographic camera.

Then you can set that resulting image up as a brush mask, and the key is to set it up to calculate alpha and to clip, not to repeat. Here I set up the spacing of the brush to be 40%, and the mapping of the brush mask texture at 200% to get the right amount of brush radius. Also, I set it to use the full hard brush curve so that it would fill well.

I did also think maybe you could just user the image I have made so here you go.

Thanks. When I try and set that up though I get some fading on the colours which are painted.
https://i.imgur.com/YJBe21z.png
Any clues how I prevent that?

Use the full hard curve setting and scale the texture to 200 for the brush so that there is plenty of brush and no fall off used for the brush.

Ah yes, the hard curve sorted that out.
The problem with this approach I have is nothing is snapped to any sort of grid. Each 'pixel' can be offset, which means it's impossible to make things look consistent....etc
What I'm interested to try and replicate is the behaviour and setup exhibited here: https://youtu.be/PCx-kBndTqQ?t=9m29s
Any thoughts?

That is not a square brush then, it is just painting onto a very low resolution image with a regular brush set to 1 pixel size. That means you won't get a large image until you upscale it, but then when you do you need to be sure to turn off the filtering so that you don't use antialias and ruin your pixelization.

Yup! I just logged in to say that's how I achieved it. Thanks!


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Why does mesh imported into Unity can be seen through?
I made simple funny character in blender without animations. In Blender it looks good, this is the screenshot of it:

When i put my character.blend file into Unity assets folder, it says
"Meshes may not have more than 65534 vertices or triangles at the moment.
Mesh 'Plane' will be split into 2 parts: 'Plane_MeshPart0', 'Plane_MeshPart1'".

Also in Unity my character was cut down at joining of the legs and body as shown in figure.

How to import .blend file into Unity and avoid these artifacts ?
Which format should I use ?

Recalculate normals on the mesh (Ctrl+N with all selected), see http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/3606/why-are-some-faces-in-my-mesh-darker. I'm not sure what does Unity warning mean, if it's not caused by normals then probably you should ask it on Unity forums.


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Backwards normal issues
I have a 3D model of a car and some of the normal are wrong.
I can not seem to fix them easily. It is a high poly model so individualy selecting the faces and fixing them is out of the question. I have recalculated the normals about 5 times but still it's not working.

If recalculating the normals via ctrl-n or shift-ctrl-n, on individual linked pieces, doesn't work correctly, you have bigger problems than discontiguous normals.  You probably have geometry that is non-manifold in other ways-- zero length edges, doubles, edges joining more than 2 faces, etc.  Use ctrl-shift-alt-m in edit/vertex mode, disable non-contiguous on the operator panel, and start cleaning up your mesh.


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Texture not being shown in rendered animation
I decided to do a project using blender to do some rendering and I've followed this tutorial: Blender Tutorial: Wood Chipping Text Animation
So, everything was going fine, but somehow when I rendered the animation I've made, the textures in the cube and in the text objects wasn't there. Here are prints and my blender file. By the way I am using VLC player to play an OGG file.
Here you have some of the texture details of the one I've used and how I'm using.

Here I have a frame of my animation beign played in VLC Player, as you see it doesn't show the texture I've used in my project.

As you guys can see in the images, when I put "rendered" the textures are attached to the objectsm but somehow there are not in the animation.
Does anyone have a clue of why my textures are not being attached to the files in the rendered animation?

Here you have the blender files https://www.dropbox.com/sh/q7jtpli9akracwb/AABkDeJCpv7v8hiYYSc3mgi0a?dl=0

Blend file is missing the image texture. Please pack your texture and repost the blend file.

Never mind about posting the new blend file. The reason your texture is not showing up in the render is because you have an override material set in the RenderLayer screen called "Material". It's an empty material which is why the object is rendering as white.

No problem! Good luck!


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Need emission to NOT cast shadows
I want light but no shadows using emission lights. Even though I uncheck the Ray Visibility "Shadow" I'm still getting shadows.

There's two lights in your scene, un-ticked on both?

Yes, both are unticked. I quadruple checked.

Yes.. shadows are UN-ticked on every object. Very bizarre.

No matter what I do I am STILL getting nasty hard-edged shadows. I attached the blend file above except I forgot to bake the graphic in.. still you can see what I mean.

Doh! You're right. That's what it must be.


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More than four color mixes results in mesh turning pink (Eevee)
I have a group of texture colors and color mixes that mix them together into one shader. There is a value counter that changes which texture shows on the mesh (If value=0, then switches to texture#0. If value=1, then switches to texture#1, etc.(This is done with greater than math variables)) It works fine, except when I try to add a fifth color texture and mix it in with the others. When I do that, the mesh turns pink even though there are no missing textures. Is there a fix for this?

I know there's a hard limit somewhere (although your graph looks too small to hit it), it's possible that you have indeed reached it (might have something to do with what's contained in your node groups). If everything you connected worked right up until the last connection, and that final one turned the whole thing pink, either there's something wrong with that last group (Angry), or you have hit the limit. If that's the case, only thing you can do is try to simplify, I'm afraid.


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My Subsurface Scattering Material doesn't look as expected
I wanted to make a certain soap with this kind of look
So here's my reference:

After seeing that, I immediately thought of bumping subsurface scattering,
so I made this simple material with a pretty high SSS:

I tweaked a lot with the SSS and the color but couldn't achieve what I wanted. Maybe the problem is because of the lighting too? I don't really know, I'm really new with SSS.
Here's what I have achieved so far:

SSS lighting is heavily light-dependent (like how you can see the "red" through your hand only if you hold a flashlight up to it). For something like soap, I still think 0.4 is a high enough value - anything over that and you start getting banded "internal shadows" that look unrealistic from any angle.

If you use a mix shader and a Layer Weight as the factor, you can probably get that look.

i tried layer weight with fresnel before, but its still pretty hard to get it,
i also didn't change the subsurface radius, do i need to tweak it or anything ?

How big is your soap block? The smaller it is the more light can enter and scatter around. If you have used the default cube ...you know it's 2m large. Try *"Random Walk" (2nd drop-down list of the P. BSDF. This uses the mesh's volume.

Sorry, forgot to ask - are you planning on using Cycles or EEVEE?

im planning on using cycles because the other shots im using cycles. just to make it look similar. but if its achieveable in eevee and doesnt look to different, no problem.

@Blunder it's pretty thick like a normal soap bar. then i also thought like u did, so i make the saop block super thin, since it will be previewed super frontal, like in how i showed on the screen shots. okay I'll try random walk

See my setup below.
It's a common misconception of how you use SSS. SSS color should determine the base color, while subsurface radius actually determines the color.


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CTRL+J Changes my imported svg file
I imported an SVG file and when I do ⌃ Ctrl + J it changes my images, it crops it. The image that says "Just Play" is before ⌃ Ctrl + J and the cropped one is after.
Why is this happening? How can I fix this?

Avoid intersecting and overlapping shapes. Read: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/208965/complex-svg-file-fails-to-import-correctly-into-blender/209043#209043

A crucial difference between 3d graphics and 2D illustration is that in 3D you can't have surfaces occupying the same plane. You have two choices: separate the objects slightly so that they are in different planes, or re-work your original paths in whatever program you used to create the svg files and create paths that don't overlap or intersect.


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How to merge two bones into one with preserved weights in Blender 2.9
I've seen old threads with Alt + M solution, in documentation armature -> merge,  but in 2.9 both ways doesn't work. I need to - obviously - delete second shin and 2nd thigh bone. Yup, rigify.

Did you try pushing X then select "Dissolve Bones"?

It remove one bone with its weight paint data. It would be good but I need some way to merge them in a way that will not mess up my existing animations too much.

Was "Merge Bones" (alt-m) removed from Blender 2.9 onward?

I managed to fix my skeleton by using Vertex Weight Mix modifier.
Simply:
A=bone which should stay |
B=the other one |
Vertex set=All |
Mix mode=Add
+2nd modif for other leg and apply both
Now disconnect bones to prevent its shifting during dissolving (simply uncheck connected checkbox in edit mode)
And finally dissolve additional bone with Ctrl + X


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Is it possible to clean up overlapping faces?
I've been using the Boolean Modifier to union multiple meshes, but it often makes overlapping faces, that are criss-crossing each other, as shown in the image below:

Is there any way that I can remove the unnecessary faces?

See if you can dissolve those faces by hitting X on your keyboard and then Dissolve Faces:

Seems to work, but since the mesh has gotten probably over 100 of these overlaps, is there a way to do em all at once?

Enter in edit mode, select All with A Use Mesh>CleanUp>MergebyDistance

I've tried that, but since the four overlapping faces are sharing the same 4 corner vertices, it doesn't do anything.

Also there's an addon called  3D print Toolbox, that might help you with overlapping vertices and Edges and faces. Add it, then select your model and click on make manifold, and see if that cleans up your topology.  https://ibb.co/KhFMRbv

Can you share the file to check?

The 3D Print Tool doesn't seem to do it either, it reduced the mesh to just only a few random faces; https://i.gyazo.com/fdb85d201677f7d2f5b73ba4d28831b7.gif
And is there a way to easily share the blender file on via this forum?

https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/


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How do I model a diamond shaped extrusion on a cylinder but the whole thing has to be sub dividable

I'm trying to make a spiked ring with quad topology and it should be subdividable, been at it for 5 hours no luck. attached is the base of the shape.
thank you.

Here is a proposition of topology:

Thank you <3...


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cant export gltf properly
iam trying to export my model in gltf format.
this is what i get when i try to view the exported file:

and this is what i want to have:

red circle is indicating yellow wire, it messes up completely for some reason.
here is link to my project. i included blend and gltf. if you can figure it out let me know
website i am testing on is https://gltf-viewer.donmccurdy.com (specially picked it because it uses threejs)

This is similar to: https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/220433/18161.  Essentially, all the glowing stuff requires "bloom" to be turned on.  You can turn on bloom in a ThreeJS app, but it is not stored in a glTF file nor enabled by default in Don's viewer.

doesn't really help tho

I would try converting non-mesh objects to meshes and applying transforms and modifiers before export. If that doesn't work you may need to file a bug on the exporter: https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glTF-Blender-IO


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Manually Position Vertex Normals?
I have bunch of objects that I want to position next to each other in a scene. When they are next to each other, there is an apparent seam between them due to different normal directions. The normal directions are this way, of course, because the two objects are of a different mesh.
Is there a way to manually change the direction of normals for specific vertices like in 3DS Max, Maya, etc.?

The Blend4Web add-on allows you to manually edit normals.

This is more a Blender than a Blender Game Engine question.

@AnthonyForwood yeah the plugin works for me, post you comment as answer so i can accept it.

It really doesn't matter if Blend4Web is usually for the BGE (if that's the case). It still allows you to edit normals.

it seems Blend4Web is only for Blender Mode and not Cycles....

I think it is answered by Anthony Forwood:

The Blend4Web add-on allows you to manually edit normals.

The add-on itself can be downloaded from here. Documentation on how to use it can be seen here.

The only method that I know of is to influence the normals by using the Normal Edit Modifier and it works only if you have two or more objects and not one object with several submeshes.

In Object Mode, select Object1, go to "Properties Window -> Data"
and enable "Auto Smooth".
With Object1 still selected, go to "Properties Window -> Modifiers
-> Add Modifier -> Modifiy -> Normal Edit".
Keep "Radial"and under "Target Object" select Object2.
Repeat steps 1-3 for Object2, only with Object1 as target.

Since gif isn't suitable to display the "before" and "after" images, here's a jpeg to illustrate the difference.

I only tested this once with Leadwerks Game Engine and there it seemed to work.

Go into edit mode select the vertex or vertices you want to edit and press ALT+n this will bring up a list of options allowing you to edit the normal or normals

I created a Blender add-on for this exact purpose called TiNA which allows you to easily transfer normals between objects. TiNA basically turns the somewhat overwhelming Data Transfer Modifier into a set of more specialized and comprehensible operations.
There's a special branch for those using Blender 2.80 beta.

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

In your case you could transfer the normals from a cylinder (created by extruding a duplicate of the connecting edges along the Y-axis) to the bends by selecting all three objects, and - with the cylinder as your active object - hitting Shift+Alt+N. You can limit the distance of the effect or pick a vertex group to contain the modification.

authors: Александр Шпилевой