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How do I remove triangles and avoid pinching?
Hello everyone. So I have this heart shape that I am trying to model. However, I have some triangles (example one) in the geometry that is causing pinching when I add a subdivision surface modifier (example two). Does anyone have an idea on how I can fix this? Thanks in advance

You have what appears to be a planar heart that's been extruded.  My ngon version, made with a curve->curve to mesh->extrude:

If I instead grid fill that ngon, I'll get what you get.  But I'm not going to do that.  Instead, I'll inset the ngon faces ("inset faces" operation, 'i' in edit's face select mode for me,) then add a layer of subdivision and see what I get with a shiny matcap, to emphasize problems:

There are some artifacts at the edges (which is weird, and they change with applying the modifier, so it likely has something to do with my GPU and its drivers.)  Let's poke that ngon ("poke faces" operation, alt p for me,) because there's less room for ambiguity with tris than with ngons:

Okay, I'm happy with that.  And, as we add more levels of subdivision, it never shows any pinching; it improves consistently.
For the theory of it all, for generalizing to other shapes
Generally, for subdivision and smooth shaded normals, we have a few guidelines:

All faces are quads.

Our edge flow follows the lines of the mesh.

There are no places where a single vertex connects only 2 faces, and no places where a single vertex connects 6 or more faces.

All three of these are important.  We usually learn #1 first, not because it's most important, but because it's the one that's easiest to understand.  So we often make mistakes when beginning by sacrificing 2 and/or 3 for 1.  When we have to choose to break one of these rules or the other, it's a balancing act.  #1 has no special priority.  If anything has priority, it's #2.  But maybe, all of these are equal, maybe there is no priority.
To you, it probably seems like #1 is where you're getting hung up.  To me, #2 seems like where you're getting hung up.  If you select an edge loop, you'll find that your triangle terminates it.  The edge flow of your heart is a grid; it does not follow the curvature of the outline of the heart.  Whereas when we look at my mesh, the inset edge loop follows the line of the heart: locally, our edge flow represents the shape of the mesh.  #2 is how experienced modellers frame it, and it makes sense to them (we know it when we see it,) but there's another way to frame it, given our other rules, a little less ambiguously as two sub-guidelines:

All faces should be as planar as possible.

Anywhere that 3 faces or 5 faces meet at a single vertex, all of those faces should be as planar with each other as possible.

Now, if you look at my mesh, you'll see, hey, it's not all quads, and there's a vertex that joins a ton of faces.  Let's add two guidelines that make it easier to model rather than harder:

Whenever a face is perfectly planar with all of its neighbors, it doesn't matter whether that face is a quad.

Whenever all of the faces connected by a vertex are planar with each other, it doesn't matter how many faces that vertex connects.

Now, maybe you now understand that there are situations in which triangles (and ngons, if my drivers weren't broken) are okay, but the person that hired you doesn't understand that.  No problem.  Take this mesh, with triangles, and apply a single level of subdivision:

We now have an all-quad mesh, that will accept further subdivision in the exact same way.  Yes, we have a terrible pole in the middle of our face; it doesn't matter, because that pole joins only planar polys, and because if our boss isn't sophisticated enough to know that triangles are sometimes okay, they're also not sophisticated enough to know that poles are sometimes not okay.


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Particle System Removes Landscape when it is rendered
Simply put, I am trying to create a Mars scene but when I go to render an image, the landscape disappears.
I am using Blender version 2.92.
I am using two particle systems to spread rocks of various sizes over a generated landscape, one of them is flat rocks, and the other is pebbles. From the viewport, it looks alright and wanted to see what it looked like when I rendered, but when I go to render the image, it completely removes the landscape from the render and only shows the rocks (particles).
Here is the Viewport, which shows the entire scene as intended:

Here is the Rendered Image, the one that lacks the landscape.

The rocks were created using the Rock Generator, and the Landscape was created using A.N.T Landscapes, both are from add-ons. Materials on the objects are PBR materials gathered from various sources.
Does anyone have an idea of what is causing this error? Am I doing something wrong?

Duplicate your landscape before applying the particle system and then apply particles to the duplicate.

That's a great idea. I will try that out when I get back to it later. I will also check for that Render icon within the Outliner. Thank you for the suggestions and the quick answer, I will try it out later!

Check that Show Emitter is enabled in the Render settings for your particle systems.

That did the trick. One of them was turned off. Thank you very much!

Go to the Outliner and click on the Filter settings. Make sure the Render icon is highlighted (camera icon) that will let you see if anything is hidden in render. If you see next to your landscape that there is an X on the camera (render) icon, then you know it's been hidden in render.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Is there a way to adjust the color of a texture paint I have painted onto the model?
I have just finished texture painting my model on a base model texture. I now want to do a few alternative colours but I don't want to have to hand texture paint each new coloured model as the textures won't be consistent across each model, is their a way to change the colours of an already painted texture? or a way to bake the paints onto a different coloured model?

You can do a lot inside your shader node tree with the Color Mix nodes and other things - here I added a few procedural textures on top of the image texture I used on all of the parts using Box Mapping with Vertex Color multiplied - you can see I did some color manipulation there too.

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


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How can I accomplish, that the surface of the Ocean modifier isn't shown on the inside of a drifting transparent bottle?
I'm trying to make an animation that shows multiple transparent bottles(which I used the solidify modifier on), that are swimming in the Sea(a normal ocean modifier surface).
On the inside of the bottles are messages that should be visible, but I can't find a way to delete the oceans surface on the inside of the bottle. Therefore it looks like the bottles have water in them.
I tried to use the Boolean modifier which didn't work.
Also I want to make an animation and not a single image.

(the water is supposed to be brown, as I'm doing this as an art-project)
Does anyone have an idea how I can delete/hide the water inside of the bottles, so that the messages are completely visible throughout the animation?
And if there is no possible way to do it this way, how can I make such a scene?

Edit
@Jachim Michal Hi. Yes I've tried that, but there are two problems:

Because the Bottle is hollow, the Boolean Modifier only cuts away the space, that the bottle takes up and nothing from the inside.
2.When I deleted the Solidify Modifier of the bottle, it worked, but the "hole" in the water disappears with the next frame.

Right now I have solved my problem by using the bottle as a brush and setting the canvas type to displacement:
But as you can see these ugly sharp edges appear. Does anyone know how I can make them smoother? Maybe by setting the Resolution of the Ocean Modifier to a higher number?

Hello :). Boolean modifier comes to mind but I've no idea if it will look good :).


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Is it possible to make a cylinder (snake) move along a path using its rig system?
I have created a worm-like mesh from a cylinder and some bendy bones. Is it possible for me to define a path that the cylinder should travel? It's traveling through the path would be possible because of the rig it has (?)

In that case maybe the simplest way to do it would be not to use an armature but to make the mesh follow a curve with the help of a Curve modifier?

To support @moonboots comment, may this help you: Animate object along path and deform accordingly ?


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How to attach object to a rigged object so that it keeps being attached to the same place always? Even when moving the rig
I have a cylinder (tunnel) made in Blender. It has a rig containing 3 bones:

I export it into Unity. With the "Animation Rigging" package and the "Damped Transform" component in it, I add a rig to the cylinder in Unity so that the cylinder can be moved like a worm:

I am also using a custom shader made in shader graph for the cylinder's material.
Question:
What I would like to do, is attach a sphere to the end of the cylinder. So that:

It is attached to the cylinder, and not the bones. If the sphere is attached to the bones, it will move smoothly because of the damped transform. I
When exporting into Unity, I want to keep using the shader graph for the cylinder's material, but the sphere should have a different material.

This is what it should look like:

How can I do this?


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I can't create bevel
I'm using Blender 4.1 on Windows 10, here is my problem :
I want to bevel this part on the 2 sides that are quite long. I tried different options like create a bevel in edit mode but I have either this result or nothing that happen. I tried with a bevel modifier and as limit method vertex group with the group containing only one edge but nothing happen.
If you need more details do not hesitate ask.
Thank you in advance for your answers

Hello, I'm not sure how you could create a bevel here, the topology doesn't allow to create any correct bevel, maybe you need to find another way to do what you want? Maybe tell a bit more?

@moonboots I want to create a surface like a topological map extrude it to have some thikness and bevel 2 of the 4 edges with a specific bevel. I just tried again a manage to get a bevel but there is a lot of vertices that are not linked well to the model

So you want to keep your dense topology and simultaniously bevel the edge?

Well, if you really want to keep every single vert you have in this mesh, the only way to do such a bevel would be by doing it procedurally in the shader editor not physically. But with such a big bevel this could present a not completely pleasing result.
Since you want/need the dense mesh, I found a compromise which you may like.

Look how big you want the bevel to be and remember the amount of edges and
vertices that are overlapping ( The edges within the blue area in the picture)

Select these edges with alt+LMB in a way like mine, but keep the corneres!!

Press ctrl+x to dissolve the selected edges. It should look like this afterwards.

Select the corner edges and bevel them, I get a result like this. Maybe that's what you're looking for.

In general bevel need space, with edges and vertices close by, you always get a result like you got, if you're going over the clamp overlap value. Unless you're willed to use the materials to simulate bevels, you always have to clear up the space for them to work properly.
I Hope it helped

That is what I was looking Thank you

The Bevel modifier is meant to work within a single segment on the adjacent cells (there is an option to remove 'clamp overlap' but it can lead to strange results).

So, unless you want to strongly decimate your geometry, it's easier to use a workaround, such as a boolean modifier.

I had this idea but the problem is that it won't follow the shape of my design, it's quite irregular and i don't want something like this, I want the same cut but it needs to follow the corner


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texture UV mapping on the wrong side?
Not sure how to explain this. I've tried shift N (Recalculating normals inside and out) But it seems my UV map is on the wrong side. I feel like i need to rotate the UV map but that doesn't seem to be a possibility. Im not the best at blender so i apologise for the lack of knowledge. Thanks!

The preview looks fine

This side doesn't tho

This is what the UV map looked like originally

separating the two sides seemed to make the connecting edge look great

The front side still doesn't look good tho

Hello, Zaki, welcome. This needs clarification. Perhaps describe to us exactly what  is wrong with the result, compared to what you want. Is your illustrated UV map one you generated yourself? I does look at first sight that that the model needs to be unwrapped in a different way for the texture to work.

I figured it out. In the UV editor, i clicked on UV, Unwrap, cube projection and it fixed it!


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The transmission option in the shading and material tab doesn't appear
Im trying to make a glass mattierl however the transmission option doesnt appear.
how do i get it to show up

It's now the Transmission > Weight that you need to push up to 1:


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Am I able to render an image of my object after rendering an animation of it?
I recently rendered a simple animation of my object and it turned out well.  I am now trying to render detailed images of my object in .png format, but am unable to download them/export them.  I created a new folder and selected it in my render output settings, but once the render is complete, it doesn't appear in my folder.  I'm in cycles, my playback scroller is at the 0 frame, and I just want to render 1 frame at 350 samples.
Here's my render output settings, would anyone mind letting me know if I have something clicked/not clicked that should or should not be?  I tried clicking and un-clicking cache result to no effect.

Rendering images does not automatically save them. You have to save them manually from the render result in the Image Editor. Rendering an animation as image sequence will automatically save the images so that they do not have to be kept all together in memory while rendering.

Oh...duh thanks


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how to make a subtractive emboss on complex mesh
I'm trying to emboss a logo on the toe bumper of my shoe model.  I've tried to input the logo as an image texture and use bump displacement, but I'm still a bit overwhelmed by shader editor and figuring out nodes and such.  Also because the object I'm embossing it into needs to have an additional rubber texture, and I don't know if you can have two at once.  My temporary solution was to trace the logo with the knife tool, extrude it inward, mark the edges as sharp, and then use the smooth tool in sculpt mode to clean up the nastiness, and it looks decent, but still messed up my mesh and it's not where I want it to be.  What would be the best method to achieving this effect? Open to try several solutions.

Here's what I want the result to look like which is on a real shoe:

Yeah, I would absolutely do this with a texture, not actual geo. It's doable but why bother with the hassle? You could model it onto a flat plane, bake that down, then use stencil painting to put it where you want on the final texture. It's 100% possible to blend multiple normal maps together, pretty sure you can just use a MixRGB node set to either Add or Max blend modes. You can also model it into a flat plane, Then use a lattice/shrinkwrap mod and DataTransfer

Yeah, you will need to bake it down if you want it to be totally clean but you can just model it out from a flat plane, then use a single layer lattice modifier and a DataTransfer modifier to transfer the normals on the outside verts only.
Final Result:

Plain Model with No Modifiers:

Use a single-layer Lattice object Shrinkwrapped to the target object.

A bit more info on the process in this post.
Add these verts to a vertex group for the DataTransfer modifier.

And then use these modifiers to shrink it to the surface and transfer the normals to blend it in.

It's technically sitting just off the surface but is basically imperceptible if it's not viewed at an orthogonal angle.

Once you bake down the normal map it's totally clean.

Not just a viewing angle is the problem here,  also shadows

Yeah but the point of this workflow is to bake down the detail to a normal map. After that the shadows issue goes away entirely.

Thank you so much for the in-depth answer..though I think this might still be above my understanding of the program.  I was able to follow all the steps up until baking down to a normal map.  I tried looking up how to do that: increase subdiv -> duplicate logo -> add blank image texture to both -> change to cycles -> bake type:normal -> check cage -> cage dist.: 1m -> bake -> open image editor to see results.  I think I did something wrong because it did nothing to my 3D viewport

You will need to apply the normal map to the material the mesh has. The image editor just allows you to inspect the texture itself. Like this


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Edge Crease for fine detail not working
I'm still a beginner and not sure if the edge crease is the best way to go about what I'm trying to accomplish, but basically, I'm trying to make a thin, 90 deg. cut into the outsole of this shoe.  I started by using the knife tool to make the shape I wanted, beveled the shape to the appropriate thickness, and then extruded downwards into the outsole.  I tried adding edge creases on both the top and bottom edges of the shape, and proceeding to mess with the bevel weight to no avail.
What the edge crease is producing:

What it looks like inside:

Is the edge crease the right tool to use here?  I tried mark sharp and just beveling those blue edges, but I don't really know what I'm doing.

Should I have applied the solidifier modifier before making this cut?

Edge Crease is probably what you want, it prevents the Subdivision Surface to happen on these edges if you are using this modifier, but it may not work fine, maybe share this part of your object?


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HP Envy x360 Laptop- Blender is running slow and crashing and I have no idea how to rectify this
I've been using Blender on my laptop for about a day now and I got this far in creating the donut, however the software keeps crashing, freezing and not responding. Would you be able to help me rectify this problem as I can not seem to move on from this point. I think I have too many vertices on my icing, that's why I think it is slow.
My laptop - HP ENVY x360 Convertible 15-bq1xx
Processor- AMD Ryzen 5 32500U With Radeon Vega  Mobile Gfx 2.00 GHz and 8 GB RAM
Not really good at computers either.

When you say too many vertices, how many do you mean? Blender can handle multiple millions on most machines, so that's likely not the case. Are your graphics drivers up to date? Also, what rendering engine are you using, Cycles or EEVEE?

you have 8.4 million vertices, 4 million faces (look in the bottom right of the screen)  using 7.5 GB of ram... Delete what you have, go back and re-start the tutorial from the beginning. I doubt that Mr Price is using that many vertices.


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Blender video to .mp4
I'm very new to blender and are using it to edit videos. I slapped 2 osu clips and a end card together but for some reason it only wants to save as a .blend file.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/15142/how-to-render-an-animation-as-video-in-blender

You need to set the appropriate setting in the "Output Properties":

Set File Format to FFmpeg Video
Container to MPEG-4
And Video Codec to H.264 (others also work, but use this one if you don't know the difference.

Another tip is to turn of "File Extensions", and manually type in ".mp4" at the end of your file. This way Blender wont auto name it as "MyeVideo0001.mp4
After the settings are correct and you want to save it as a video, you need to render out the video. And video should be rendered out to the location specified in you output settings.

You can read more about the settings over here:

Output Panel
Encoding Panel

deleted my answer because yours was more fleshed out. nice job.


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Blender Animation Rig Goes Crazy with IK
Does anyone know what could cause this?
When I drag the bone controlling upper arm it's like all the bones are glitching.
Blend File
Video

it looks like there are several problems here, like your lower arm controller that is parented to the IK bone, or the upper arm that has a constraint but is also part of the IK chain, maybe tell what you want to achieve?

Hello and welcome. While files, images, and external videos or links may be helpful additions they should not be the only way to obtain information about your issue. Don't make understanding your question rely on downloading a file, watching a video or visiting an external site. Use the builtin tools to upload images or gifs, along with thoroughly explaining the problem in written form so it can be indexed and searched for thus helping future visitors with similar issues.

as "first" help i would delete the parents of hand_ctrl_l + r
then you will get:

JesusChrist thank you so much this is exactly what i wanted to fix!


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How to make a pill with a groove?
How to make a pill with a groove?
I don't know if the groove can be made in the end or it should be made before.

What is "the end" and what is "before"?  Make it before what?

It's difficult to provide a general answer with multiple forms provided as reference without teaching all available modelling techniques, which is obviously not practical because we are talking about 3d modelling in general. Maybe watch some beginner modelling tutorials online to get familiar with modelling tools. There are many tutorials available. You should be familiar with all modelling tools from the Mesh, Vertex, Edge, Face menus as well as selection tools and transform operators at least. You learn what techniques to use by practicing and modelling different forms. That takes time.

There is no right answer to the question about how you should start or end your model - whatever works for you is fine. For this specific model you can do it many ways and most of them will be fine.
You could start with a filled( F ) circle or a cylinder and connect some verts( J ) to make lines matching the groove:

Then bevel( Ctrl  +  B ) the edges going around and move( G   ->   Z ) the middle line down:

(I also inserted an additional edge loop with  Ctrl  +  R  as you can see, but that depends on the exact form you are after)
Connect some more verts to make some new edges:

and after that you can bevel some more edges to make them rounder:

Your sample images are very different though, so you would model them differently. It's helpful to know what you are modelling before you start so make a chioce.
It's also fine to start with whatever shapes you want to have on the tablet and then make a circle around and connect the geometry or you could use booleans and then tidy the topology after. It's helpful to think about how vertices are going to match and what end result topology you want to have from the start in that case. There are many ways.


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I'm stuck in the Select Circle in Blender 3.4.1. Nothing helps
I want to ask how I can switch back to Select Box in Blender.
I tried pressing  W, also pressed Esc, Right Mouse Button. I tried pressing Q, and also tried pressing C. I also reinstalled Blender.
The keyboard settings are standard. Nothing helped. Can anyone tell me how to remove it?

It should be the Esc key and the W key should toggle between the selection options at any time so something's obviously wrong. If you hold the left mouse button down with the cursor over the top left selection icon on the toolbar you should get a dropdown menu with the four selection options that you can click. Please post an image of your Blender window which you can create from the Window > Save Screenshot menu and then follow https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/75491/how-to-upload-an-image-to-a-post..

It would also help us if you could share your Blend file via https://blend-exchange.com/ following the instructions there to add a link to the file.

As @John Eason suggested, you should have an icon in your toolbar for choosing what tools you have. If you can't see the toolbar, try hitting T


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Strange way object is being moved by armature
I parented objects to my armature and applied weight painting. I started off on a different part of the model, where the weight painting wasn't the entire object.
I thought that was the problem, but with the example I have (in the video below) it is with a singular object that is 100% red in weight paint. Upon rotating the bone it is weighted to in pose mode, the object does not rotate all the way with the bone. And when the bone reached 180 degrees, the object flips for some reason.

Try to switch Rotation mode ... Or try to rotate on a X axis (R, X) ...does it make a difference?

Your foot is probably assigned to some other vertex groups, when it should not, it makes it controlled by some other bones, so select the foot only and in the Object Data panel > Vertex Groups > Remove from All Groups:

Then keep the foot selected, select the foot vertex group (the vertex group that has the name of the bone that is supposed to control it) and click on Assign:


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leg IK weights not deforming properly
hey sorry for the surplus of images. i am confused on why one model (the issue model) leg wont deform like the leg on the working model does even though the weights are very similar.

here is the blend file

The mesh has about 2000 duplicated vertices. In consequence, the weights are messed up. When you grab one of the vertices at the knee of the issue model you will see there are rogue vertices. They are not connected and at the same spot as other vertices.
The working model has also 300 duplicated vertices.
Clean up the mesh (M > Merge By Distance in Edit mode) and rebind the mesh to the armature with automatic weights. But first you should put the armature into rest position and clear its Location (Alt+G in Object mode) and Rotation (Alt+R). The pelvis area might need manual corrections because there are no thighs.


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is it possible to mirror lattice edits?
I'm using a lattice to make late-game body proportion edits to a character. When using the lattice in edit mode I noticed there is no mirror option nor is there a way to add a mirror modifier to it. Seems kinda odd to me that there wouldent be an option to do this.

As @Rumen Belev mentioned, lattice object comes without native mirror attributes. Here's one addon Lattice Mirror that can do real-time symmetrical edits for lattice, just be aware the axis is only effective locally.

You can't mirror a Lattice object due to the nature of this object.
If you want to edit symmetrically (for example with X symmetry) Duplicate Linked (Alt+D) the Lattice and scale it along X axis using your 3D cursor placed at world origin.
Now add the two lattices as modifiers and continue editing.
Once you are done you can apply the modifiers to keep the object's deformation.


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is there a way to get an outline on my toon-model without duplicating the mesh
question says it all. i want to give an outline to my toon meshes without needing to duplicate the mesh, make a black material, expand the mesh (with alt+s), and then invert normals. is there a way?
what i currently have:

I normally do this using a solidifier modifier instead of duplicating and scaling the mesh, tends to be a bit easier when animating too. Super important that if you do it this way you remember to keep backface culling on on the outline material.

I've gotten some rather decently fast renders when using the outline method like this, it might also affect speed where you place your modifier in the stack whether it would be above or below the Armature modifier! Try out yourself and see what works best for you and your machine ;)

im getting some artifacts. is there a way to get rid of those?
https://imgur.com/a/DtSOqqU

Try messing around with the thickness of the solidifier that can help, it will be a lot of picking your angles however, that's just the nature of outlines as far as I know :)

this is for viewport renders? what if I wanna use cycles?


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use vr headset to create camera tracking data?
I'm wanting to use my VR headset (Oculus Rift S) to make camera data that I can use in blender. since AR apps on iPhone can only get you so far. I was thinking about making a first-person camera walk through a room and read somewhere that you can use VR to do this. if VR has no such ability then are there any addons that can simulate walking as camera data?

I personally use "OpenVR Tracker Streaming" which is an addon that can be found here. It allows you to use VR tracking from steam VR to control meshes or armatures in Blender.


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how can i sharpen part of a mesh with the subdivision modifier
ok I understand the title dosent make sense and mostly understand how the subdivision modifier works. I want to put subdivision on this mesh but keep these sharp parts

preferably I would like to do this while keeping the subdivision in a modifier so its togglable but I can deal with it if its not.
blend file

Use creases.  Select the edges you want to keep sharp and increase the Crease amount (see example), and then select "Use Creases" in the modifier properties.
PROJECT FILE

You could rearrange the topology with support edge loops like that:


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How do I create an even curved top?
I am trying to model this heart shape compact mirror (example one). First, I used a “Bezier Curve” to create the shape. Then I converted the curve to a mesh, and then extruded it. The problem now is I don’t know how to create and even arc on the top like this (example two). I have tried using “Grid Fill” in edit mode and then highlighting a face in the middle and moving it up using the “Proportional Editing Sphere”, but the arc comes out wonky because the edge flow is all over the place (example three.) Does anyone have an idea on how I can achieve an even arc over my heart shape? Thanks in advance!

Maybe instead create this kind of concentric topoloy:

Then pull up the loop edges like that:


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When importing a CAD model into Blender, is there a way to make the surfaces split cleanly?

I usually use IRONCAD (CAD for mechanical design) in my work, and when I import a model created with this CAD into Blender, it is imported with a dirty division of the surface tangent to the curved surface, as shown in the attached image.
I always have to manually fix this to a clean surface division, but it is very time consuming. Is there an add-on or other software conversion that can do this automatically, or is there some easy way to do this?

If you don't mind getting n-gons (and trust me it is not true when people say you should always have quads), then simply go into Edit Mode, select all with A, then Xand choose Limited Dissolve. In the tool box at the bottom left you can then choose the options to be applied for dissolving edges and vertices. The default angle to which a corner is considered flat is 5°, usually I decrease it to 1° to make sure curved surfaced with a higher resolution are not dissolved. And just to make sure there are no duplicate vertices or unconnected adjacent faces, use M > Merge > By Distance.

"I import a model created with this CAD into Blender, it is imported with a dirty division" This seems to imply that it was Blender that created this topology which is almost certainly incorrect. Blender is not a CAD program, and as such this was most likely imported from some undisclosed mesh format, which Blender just read verbatim. If you are unhappy with the meshing result it has to be adjusted at the source CAD model on export, or using a better meshing algorith. There is nothing that can be done after the fact, other than manually adjust.

So the problem is in the CAD output stage (the way the solid model is converted to a mesh model), and there is no way to clean up the mesh division automatically after the fact with mesh-based software like Blender?
I am convinced.


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Scale from Center to margin
new player here.
I have made this model and I want to raise the center to let's say 8 cm and the margin remains like that, 2cm. I want to give it a round semi-sphere shape from the center, along with the designed model.  I tried and kinds of scaling but I can't seem to find the right one. Any help is much appreciated.
Thanks

Have you tried selecting a vertex in the centre of the disk, turning on Proportional editing with the O key then G Z and move it up? - You may have to reduce the circle of influence with the middle mouse button to get the curve that you want.

Effin magic man. thanks alot. it does the job

Good to hear. A useful tool! :^) This is the Manual reference about it.


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We can't import .svg files into Blender
We are new to using Blender and would really appreciate any help
We initially tried to import a .SVG file which appeared to load as details were displayed in the scene collection panel but it doesn't display on the plane
We tried to export a file out of Inkscape but had the same result when we tried to import that file
Are we missing something
Thanks for any help
Cheers
Rich

Make sure the object is in the view, sometimes imported SVGs can be very big or very small and maybe not in the world's center. Hit A to select all and then Numpad . to make sure you focus all selected objects in the viewport.

Hi Gordon
Thanks for the update - we tried it but the svg isn't being displayedeven though it lists it on the right

Well then, without the blend file that should contain the SVG (and maybe the SVG itself) or not even any screenshots it is more or less impossible to answer.

Hi Gordon
We are new here -  how would we upload the blender file and .svg file
Thanks


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How to cut a hole in a curved surface and maintain good topology?
Blend file:
I am trying to add two holes to my shape (these holes will then connect to a truncated torus, forming the handle of a mug).
I was following this technique: https://youtu.be/Ci1jBOm_5NY?si=DxREsY7u4V1NFm87&t=183
The issue: my shape has a bit more curvature than the one in the example video, so either

The "cutter" has enough geometry to conform to the mug, but cleaning up the topology seems difficult because there are significantly more vertices/edges in the cutter than in the mug shape.

The "cutter" has roughly the same "geometry density" (not sure what the appropriate terminology is) as the mug, but it is not enough to conform to all of the folds on the mug, so filling in the geometry would create the wrong shape. The side view shows how the shrinkwrapped mesh does not have enough geometry to fold correctly.

Does this help
https://youtu.be/bfdI_-ymkas?feature=shared

@RickT hmmm it is not working that well for me. When turning a set of faces into a circle, they all become co-planar, losing the curvature.

You may want to first subdivide your object a couple of times to give it more geometry to work with.

There's also this video from Blender Secrets which discusses the techniques in more detail.

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5856/cutting-a-circular-hole-in-a-hollow-cylinder-without-distorting https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/28103/creating-a-truck-exhaust-mesh/ https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/226729/torus-pipe-joint-3d-printing https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/51233/perforated-plate/ https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/65395/repetitive-carving-holes-around-sphere https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/58811/grid-similar-to-a-manhole-cover https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/30996/is-there-an-easy-way-to-


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Importing OBJ and separating by Loose parts
I am trying to import an assembly file from Onshape into Blender. I am exporting out of Onshape as OBJ. Here is a picture of the Onshape assembly:

It is an enclosure with some parts inside. My end goal is to create an exploded view of the enclosure. Here is what an exploded view in Onshape looks like:

As we can see, there are 5 unique parts. After bringing it in to Blender, I get the following:

The enclosure appears, but instead of just a few meshes appearing, there are hundreds. This means that I can do things like this:

I can pull faces off of the objects which should be a part. Instead of being unique solid parts, I can pull surfaces off of parts. That base piece should be one part, but I can pull an edge outer face off of it.
I go into edit mode, and click Separate by Loose Parts. I then exit edit mode and go into viewport shading, and under color, I select "random".
My expectation is that there should just be 5 colors on the assembly, since there are 5 unique parts which I just separated the assembly into. Instead, I get this:

And I can still move surfaces off of parts:

Now I could go into the scene collection and join all the meshes and rebuild each of the parts into one solid piece. This would take a long time.
Is there anyway to get this assembly into blender, and then sperate back into just the 5 parts that I want. Essentially, I just want to interact with the 5 parts and apply materials to them in Blender.
For reference, I am following this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFb4r8UVO0A&ab_channel=DerekElliott

Blender can only work with what's been imported in the Obj file. It sounds as if "Onshape" (whatever that is) is exporting your object in lots of different parts rather than just 5 so there's not much you can do in Blender apart from joining the parts back together manually.

Thanks for the tips, this is what I suspected. Onshape is a CAD software just like Solidworks or Fusion 360. I'll try to export the same thing with Solidworks and see if I get the same issue. Thanks again for the info on this.

You can try the "Merge By Distance" in Edit Mode before the separtion. If it merges too much things together, you should move the parts in the other software before exporting, then undo it. Or export it one by one, still faster. Or if you can set different materials int the CAD software you can separate by them.


text:
Dress / Skirt weight between thighs major clipping
I've searched this exchange and several other sources for a good solution, and to be honest most second life creators also have this issue, but I just know there HAS to be a better solution. Basically I'm wondering is there ANY way to fix the clipping that occurs during a walk cycle (or really an bending of the hips), so that it will move more cohesively? I have adjusted the weights of the upper legs and pelvis ad nauseum.
Here's a gyazo clip of the animation and the clipping which is just about as good as I can get it. https://gyazo.com/0cd721118d7c5cd6a38a8032801a3f9f
Here's a pic of the topology.

This is for second life, so if anyone here creates content, I would greately appreciate any advice you could give. I'm also curious about somehow adding physics to the dress to allow the movement but unsure if SL can handle the import.
Blender version 3.6.6
Have most add-ons if that's any option.
13K faces (with solidify already applied).
Blend File https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hnB9gEwKfaFqu-04VrwaSX46pnSlpO90?usp=drive_link

Hello please share the object with its armature so that can give a try (remove the parts that are not useful): https://blend-exchange.com/

yayyy great, thanks. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hnB9gEwKfaFqu-04VrwaSX46pnSlpO90?usp=sharing

it asks for an authorization   ;)

ugh, hold on sorry i'm  new to this. try now. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hnB9gEwKfaFqu-04VrwaSX46pnSlpO90?usp=drive_link

I'm not sure that there's any magic trick here, you need to weight paint a bit to avoid the overlapping, put the Weight and the Strength values at one:

Sometimes move a bit some vertices:

A bit of painting again:

ok great, i'll try that, thanks so much!

for context, i had already weight painted when I handed it over to u lol....the walk cycle kills it. sigh.

I think it still needs some weight paint corrections

i've really got it as good as I can, given the body in second life and the upload constraints. I was hoping to hear of a trick like....idk maybe add a box and parent it to the bottom or something i don't know...


text:
why is my enum property not showing up
I'm trying to make an enum property that just has 3 options. I compared it with the custom node space example that blender has but it still won't work. aside from this, I would like to be able to call what the value of the enum is at any time on a driver that would control an object's visibility. if that is too much for one question then I just need to get the enum to work. my code is below
import bpy
from bpy.types import Panel

class enumTesting(bpy.types.Panel):
    bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
    bl_region_type = 'UI'
    bl_label = "Enum"
    bl_idname = "en"
    bl_category = 'EnumTest'
    mouth=(
        ('1', '01', 'still 1'),
        ('2', '02', 'still 2'),
        ('3', '03', 'still 3'),

    )
    enum_prop: bpy.props.EnumProperty(
        name='enu',
        description="ok",
        items=mouth,
        default='1',
    )

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        col = layout.column()
        row = col.row()
        row.prop(context.scene, 'enum_prop', text="")

classes = [enumTesting]
def register():
    for c in classes:
        bpy.utils.register_class(c)
def unregister():
    for c in classes:
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(c)
if __name__ == '__main__':
    register()

Your code is looking for the enum at context.scene.enum_prop
row.prop(context.scene, 'enum_prop', text="")

However this doesn't exist because the class bpy.types.Scene does not have a property named enum_prop. You need to create one (see Assigning to Existing Classes)
# This attaches the property to the class, put this in register()
bpy.types.Scene.enum_prop = EnumProperty(...)

# Now the property will exist on instances
bpy.context.scene.enum_prop  # => '1'

# This removes the property again, put it in unregister()
del bpy.types.Scene.enum_prop

You don't need the EnumProperty code in your Panel class.

this took me a second to figure out but instead of bpy.types.Scene.enum_prop = EnumProperty(...) it needs to be bpy.types.Scene.enum_prop = bpy.props.EnumProperty(...)


text:
Mirror Modifier Clipping Object in Blender 3.0
I was trying to create a sci fi hallway, but I had to mirror everything, specifically, my arches and malls. So I added a Mirror modifier to the arch, then the mirrored arch was clipping through my object, more specifically, rotated 180 degrees and moved to the center of the orgin arch. I have tried flipping the axis, I have tried Changing the merge and enabling clipping, but that has no effect. There is also a Array modifier on top of the mirror modifier because I need the arches in a distanced order, I have tried changing the order of the modifiers but that didn't make a difference. Can anyone help?
I have provided the Blend File in a Dropbox File:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lx475l2h05jb64d/Sci%20Fi%20Hallway%202.blend?dl=0
Here are some images too:

Above Picture is before I add the Mirror Modifier

Above Picture is After I add the Mirror Modifier

Above Picture is the Mirror Modifier and the other Array Modifier Settings:

If the Mirror modifier isn't given a mirror object, then it mirrors around the Object Origin. You can either Snap the origin to the center of the ceiling of the mesh with Shift+S, like so :

Or you can create an empty at the location you want the object to be mirrored, then select the empty as the Mirror Object.

Hi Benus! Thanks for your Answer. I didn't know that mirror modifiers used origins, thanks for helping me out!


text:
Motion tracking in Blender: Did motion tracking for a sun object but I can't select multiple tracks to join them
I tried motion tracking in blender for the first time today and I was creating a space scene and wanted to add a lens flare effect to the sun. So I was watching a tutorial and did the motion tracking that the tutorial said to do, but my animation has the sun disappear and then reappear later in the animation. So I had to join the newly created tracks. I'm trying to shift select the tracks but blender is not letting me click on the second track while shift clicking. Was hoping someone could help me with this?
Btw I'm running Blender 4.2
Thanks


text:
I have this black line that can't be pressed on and not connected to anything, and I don't know how to remove it

I have no idea how to remove it , or if it will affect the project.
help, thanks T.T

Press TAB to exit from Edit Mode to Object Mode. click on the line to select the object containing it. Press TAB again to edit the mesh. Make sure the Edge Select mode is enabled:  - now click on the edge, press X (or DEL) for deletion and choose "Edges".

thank you so much!!!!!!!! <3


text:
why does baking in Rigacar not work?
all the widgets of the rigacar addon work perfectly when operated manually but the baking doesn't work at all. When I bake the steering I see no keyframes. but when I bake the rotation I can see keyframes but no rotation.  I hope somebody has some expirience with that. Thanks in advance. I've already tried other Blender versions but nothing helped so far

I've been facing the same issue using the addon version 7.1 on Blender 3.4. No keyframes are added when I bake. If anyone has a solution, please assist. Thanks.

just found out what my mistake was. I added the follow path as object constraint instead of a bone constraint


text:
is it possible to render distant objects in lower quality?
I was wondering if there is the possibility to render distant objects in lower quality than the ones that are closer to the camera.

Set Render Engine to Cycles and Feature Set to Experimental.
There will be a checkbox for Adaptive Subdivision in SubSurf modifier. This is what you want.
Blender Doc: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/cycles/object_settings/adaptive_subdiv.html

thanks a lot. Is there a solution for eevee?


text:
why do I get a glow effect in my render with bloom turned off?
i'm trying to render a scene but I'm getting a glow effect in my render no matter which settings I choose. Especially around the spaceship on the monitor the glow is clearly visible. I turned off everything in the render tab but nothing helps.

Do you have any additional effects added in the compositor?

no ther is no effect in the compositor

Isn't the glow baked into the image you're using ?

the picture was made in after effects, there I chose a glow effect for the sun but not for the rest. When I render in Blender it shows the result i'd like to get in the renderscreen for about 2 secs before applying the effect.


text:
all colors rendering black in blender
can not find what small insignificant thing that I messed up, but I'm working on a 2d animation and I have two layers that are rendering all colors black. I'ved tried every answer on the first forty pages of google and duckduckgo forum answers. all colors were made with the grease pencil. I make animation pretty often and this is not an issue. I only have four layers to the animation. I might've changed something. I make a few animations a week with no issue.

Share your file?

hopefully this is everything. I've went through and checked and unchecked a few things so it'll prolly look wild.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/17msFEnTrAMPbdjqchGoPbkNWkwCW1v_Y/view? usp=sharing

Sorry for not specifying. I meant your blend file. I didn't want an export, as that might not show us everything we need to see. Also, the customary way of sharing is to use Blend-Exchange. https://blend-exchange.com/


text:
İn which situtations is necessary to retopologize?
İn which situtaions should ı retopologize my model?I saw people retopologizing their models just for their character models in the youtube.why?I retopolgize my decorative models too.I'm planning to use these models in a game why others not doing this.İs there a easier way for these models?

The primary purposes of re-topologizing are to reduce poly count, correct edge flow, and make the mesh properties fit the renderer (es: tri or quad based rendering - blender uses quads). A mesh made of 800,000 verts may be fine on its own if it's going to be duplicated hundred of times in a game engine, it will eventually cost performance - thus, getting the lowest poly count possible is one aim of retopology. Some meshes that are to be animated need certain edge flow (especially around joints) to animate properly. Game engines use tris, but often convert meshes to tris upon import.

So do I have to retopologize all the models for my game?

That depends on a lot of things... how detailed is your game? How often are the models used? How large on screen will the models be? How much performance headroom do you have? etc......

its a large map game and this models will be everywhere ı will use this models  probably often so ı am retopologizin them

Character models need good topology to animate properly. If a character doesn't have good retopology then there will be a lot of bad deformations when they're animated. When creating high detail character models it would be very hard to rig and animate them due to the high volume of vertices. So we make it easier by bringing that count down and ensuring proper edge flow for good rigging and animation. Static models aren't animated so it's not as important. I always say it's good practice to retopologize because you become better at it and it helps your game a lot. Depending on what it is.

To answer very directly, it's always necessary to retopologize IF 1) your model must have its poly count reduced (for whatever reason), and 2) your model must be able to deform smoothly during animation. If these two things are both true, you need to retopologize.


text:
Proper way of sculpting for smoothing bumps?

I was sculpting my model and I used dyntopo while sculpting. On skin some bumps appeared while sculpting. With "bumps" I mean the curves on the skin. You can see them especially on the legs. It looks like a skin health problem; for example, cellulite. I couldn't fix them with smooth and flatten tools. These tools only made my body parts smaller and did not effected these small bumps. Do you have any advice for fixing this problem?

Have you tried the smooth tool in the sculpting window?

yes, I already tried that but it's not helping


text:
Blender 2.8: How to use image sequence as a texture?
I wish to use an image sequence as an animated texture on an object (if possible).
For example: I have image01.png, image02.png and image03.png and I wish to apply those as a texture on an object, while they work as an animated image sequence prefereably looped, if possible.I use Blender 2.8.
So what I seek is an image sequence on an object (UV wrapped), which is not a plane.
Do you know if this is possible and how?
There is also alpha in the PNGs, but I guess that is not difficult to set up a transparency after the animated image sequence as texture works.

The standard way is to use the "texture node" configured as "image sequence".
In this example I've got pic01.png, pic02.png, pic03.png and pic04.png in the same folder.

Thank you very much - that is exactly what I was looking for! :)


text:
Python Autocompletion
Is there any option for Python autocomplete to work properly in Blender?
Currently it shows under Tab all the possible options that were entered previously in the code. It doesn't make any sense to use this feature.
Maybe you need to set something up somewhere in the Blender to make it work like in any eclipse VS editor?

That will be very hard to achieve IMO, you need to do it in the User Interface, and a separated python linter, which might make the text editor more complicated

The terminal has autocompletion with the actual properties of objects when you press tab, which works very well to explore the available syntax in the API.

There's no real way to access bpy from IDEs such as VSCode. But you can get pretty close with fake-bpy-module, which emulates many of the properties and will give you an advantage as a developer with a good integration of many other python packages.

can also build bpy as a python module. In which case will autocomplete for most python editors. (can confirm for vim)

The fake-bpy-module worked well for me, Python 3.10 and Blender 4.0. Paired with the Blender Development extension (the CGI fork which works on 4.0) I could get the development experience that I was expecting.


text:
What is the best way to naturally animate hundreds objects?
I'm currently working on an animation consisting of 200 objects (spheres) for a drone show. I was wondering what is the correct way to naturally animate all the objects when transitioning from a formation - or "shape" - to another, as I'm still struggling to understand if I'm following the correct way.

I've achieved a similar result by either manually keyframing and animating each row individually, thus manually simulating the "natural" movement - or by making each horizontal row follow an individual path. Unfortunately, as you can imagine, both methods are quite time consuming as I have to work on 200 or more objects one by one.
I've thought about the possibility of simulating and animating a cloth in 0 gravity and then snapping and constraining each object to the vertices of the cloth to follow its movement, but I'm not sure how to achieve this or if it is actually possible.
For similar "natural" effects, snapping and "pinning" the spheres to animated particles could also do the work, but again I don't have enough experience on Blender to know if this is possible to achieve.
If attached a simple .blender animation with 200 objects if you wanna check how it works or if you wanna try messing with it.

Instead of constraining a drone on each vertice, probably it would be easier to just instance the drones on the vertices. Maybe geo nodes can be used for that, or animation nodes. And dother could also help for animating the base mesh.

You're talking about "when transitioning from a formation - or "shape" - to another" but this is not what you're showing in your image, we see a sort of wave, is it the effect you're looking for?

What I think you're asking is to have the spheres (drones) "morph" from one shape to another. For this you can use Shape Keys.
The basic premise here is to use a mesh as a particle emitter, emitting particles from it's vertices. Then morph the shape of the vertices using shape keys.
A simple example is as follows:
Add a cube, give it a subdivision surface modifier set to simple and apply it, this creates a bunch of vertices to use.
Add a particle system to the cube, set like so:

Having a slightly more number of particles than the objects number of vertices.
Add a sphere and move it out of the way/hide it, this will be what the particles will be shown as. Set the instance object in the particle system to the sphere and scale it to suit.
Next, add a shape key, this will create the base key that all the next keys will be based on.

Now you have a starting point.
Next, in my case I've simply added a cast modifier to the cube to change it to a sphere, but you can move any vertex to any location at any frame to get the same result. After adding the modifier, apply it as a shape key

Now in the shape keys tab, with your timeline set to frame 1 set a keyframe on the value of the new shape key

Then move to a new frame, say frame 50 and set the value to 1.000 and add another keyframe.
Now your cube should morph into a sphere taking the particles with it.
You could even use a shrinkwrap modifier to wrap one model to another and apply that as a shape key, being drones though this might cause all manner of crashes, but that's a problem for a different day
For a bit of a simple crash course on Shape Keys I found this a good starting point all3dp.com/2/blender-shape-keys-simply-explained/
Happy Blendering!

Appreciate your reply. Although it provides useful information, I'm afraid I did not properly explain my question (perhaps I didn't use the correct terms) - my bad - but I've looked around some tutorials and I think I achieved what I wanted.
I created a plane mesh with 200 vertices and added a Wave and Simple Deform modifiers to it, then animated it. Now I'm looking on how to parent each of the 200 spheres to each vertex on the Plane mesh so they copy the wavy motion on the plane, like the example I provided in my post.

Ah, I was looking at your .blend file thinking you wanted a way to do any type of transition. No probs, hope you get the result you are looking for ☺

You can use the same particle setup with an animated wave modifier, if that helps


text:
Why my animation corrupts in Unity?
I created a animation for my game. It perfectly works in blender and windows 3d reader but when I tried to use it in Unity it corrupts. I scaled  armature bone by bone and interplated keyframes.  What is the problem?
Blend File:

It looks like the children bones don't inherit their parents transforms, but the bones are stay connected, that's why they strech in Unity. Probably you have to change the settings in the game engine.

Unity cannot handle zero scale in animation, if you're scaling the armature or bones down to zero, you just need to instead scale them to 0.001 or not lower than unity can handle.
Animations that scale to zero will play in Unity until they reach zero, and then they will no longer be able to scale back up.
If you want an object to grow from or shrink to nothing, you should scale it down to a small size and then keyframe the visibility of the mesh to hide it completely.


text:
Blender and volume object using openvdb
I have openvdb library connected with Blender.
I am using Python API and my code is as follows:
array = np.array(images)
grid.copyFromArray(array)

it creates grid and fill with data.
The problem is that I dont know how to display data as volume object in Blender.
This piece of code creates an empty object, but how can I connect it with my grid?
bpy.ops.object.add(type='VOLUME', align='WORLD', location=(0,0,0), scale=(1,1,1))

Thanks for your advices.

I am thinking you should re-title this question as “how to make a volume using multiple images as slices.” Aside from that, I’m sorry I don’t have an answer for you.

Currently, volumes can not be directly loaded from memory in Blender, see
https://devtalk.blender.org/t/getting-openvdb-grids-in-render-engine-2-83/12270
But you can go over your hard disk.
import pyopenvdb as vdb

array = np.array(images)
grid.copyFromArray(array)
grid.name = 'density'

vdb.write(fname, grids=grid)

import bpy
bpy.ops.object.volume_import(filepath=fname, align='WORLD', location=(0, 0, 0), scale=(1, 1, 1))

The method copyFromArray returns NotImplementedError: this module was built without NumPy support. Any ideas?


text:
More smoke and smoke colour
The standard answer for smoke colour in Blender >2.8 is to write "color" in the "Color Attribute" field in the principled volume node. But this seems to have no effect.
Also there is much too little smoke I don't see the emission amount to have any effect?
And is it possible to have the smoke trace a litte bit more confined?
Attached please find the .blend.

Please edit your question to include more detail and description as to how your scene is set up and the results you are seeing, instead of relying on someone downloading your .blend. This makes the question more accessible and more applicable to other people's situation. Include screenshots of your setup and results and maybe provide links to the 'standard answer' you refer to and how that doesn't apply to your situation.

I've tried to give you an answer on the possibilities of coloring the smoke. The Surface Emission tells Blender how far away from the surface smoke will appear, it's not making more or less. Hovering your mouse over the value will give you the information. You might consider using the Volume Emission as well. And the Density setting in Principled Volume shader of your domain is just 5, maybe try 20 or even 50 to get more visible smoke.

Your file has a fluid object where Smoke Color is set to black, and in your domain material, the Color in the Principled Volume node is also set to black. If you want colored smoke, you have to set colors to the volume at some point or another.
Sorry for a very long answer now but I want to give you examples on how to use color on the smoke. It works like this - I'm using two Flow Objects in a single domain with only one domain material:

In the settings of the Flow Object you can specify a Smoke Color. This is first of all shown in the Solid View so you can distinguish them in the 3D Viewport.

In Rendered View however, if your domain material is set to the default grey color without any Color Attribute set, it shows the default grey.

If you enter the Color Attribute "color", the smoke gets colored by the Flow Object settings, but they are darker than the original colors because they are combined with the grey color set in the Principled Volume node.

You can even give them a different tint by keeping the attribute and changing the node's color setting. I don't understand exactly how the colors are mixed, I guess it has something to do with volume absorption.

A different way to color the smoke is to use the Volume Info node. If you plug it into the Color socket of the Principled Volume shader without using the Color Attribute, it colors the smoke according to the settings of the Flow Objects.

This is just the same as if you were using the Color Attribute and combining it with full white in the node's Color setting.

Using both the Volume Info node and the Color Atrribute will combine each color with itself instead of a single tint for both, meaning it will make the colors more intense (and maybe a little darker, too).

Thats one huge effort of an answer! I award you my personal hero badge. I've never awarded a bounty before. I guess accepting = giving the bounty? If not please contact! The bounty is very well earned! Thank you!

I think you could somehow give the bounty actively to an answer, but when it expires the accepted will get it somehow if you don't do it. But the word bounty at the top is linked to an article, I think there it is explained. I just offered a bounty for the first time myself, but I had to find the answer myself (and I cannot earn my own bounty).

Ah ok, great to know.  I looked it up and you can award the bounty by clicking the icon showing the +50. Did so right now :-)


text:
Merging material slots?
I have this problem where I want to export a wall tyle but the actual wall tyle is made out of several identical parts. My question is, is there as a script that can help me merge for example :
Wood,Wood,Wood → into one Wood ?

If I understand it correctly, you have one object where different parts have different materials. But some parts have the same material split up in different material slots.
To merge them all into one material slot, change to Edit Mode first deselect all faces. Then choose the first "wood panels" material slot and click on Select under the material list. Now select the next "wood panels" slot and hit Select again. This adds the faces assigned to this material to the first selection. Repeat until all wooden parts are selected.
Now choose the wooden material slot you wish to keep and hit Assign. Now all faces are assigned to this one material. Back in Object Mode you can select a slot you don't need anymore and hit the minus button to delete it.

Thank you so much! You saved my mental health :D


text:
Light problem with shade smooth
Hello there fellow blender people!
I am new to blender and I have this problem with light... When I shine light on a "shade smooth" wall trim, it does this weird thing. I don't know how to fix it. Can someone please help?

Ok, So I found a solution, Normals > Autosmooth > ON
the problem is now non-existent...


text:
Skeleton mirror breaks when applied
I downloaded the Unarmed Equip Torch 01 animation (skeleton only) from Mixamo and wanted to mirror it so the torch was in the right hand (and then I noticed you can mirror it right in the web, but let's ignore that).
I imported the FBX in Blender 2.92 (same behavior in 2.91), everything was fine. After applying a -1 X scale (I set the xyz scale to 1 from 0.01 first, no problem there), the animation broke. In this question the accepted answer says I should scale the pose data's f-curves instead and points to this other question for a Python script to do so.
I tried this version:
import bpy

scale = -1
i = 0

try:
    for fcu in bpy.context.object.animation_data.action.fcurves:
        if fcu.data_path.endswith("location") or fcu.data_path.endswith("scale"):
            # 3 means X coordinates.
            if i % 3 == 0:
                for kp in fcu.keyframe_points:
                    kp.co.y *= scale
                    kp.handle_left.y *= scale
                    kp.handle_right.y *= scale
            i += 1
except TypeError:
    pass

But it doesn't work. I'm pretty new to Blender, so I'm not sure what's going on. I tried running the script both before and after applying the scale, what am I missing?
Thanks!


text:
How do I get out of active object mode?
I don't think it's actually called active object mode, illustrator just kind of does the same thing and that's what it's called.  I was working on a single curve in my scene, then accidentally hit something, and now I can only see that curve.  The rest of my mesh objects still appear in the data outliner, they're just not visible.  Changing viewports doesn't help.  I'm assuming it's just some hot key I accidentally hit, but I don't want to try pressing a bunch of buttons to figure it out.

It's probably Local view. Hit the forward-slash key on the keyboard (bottom-right by the right Shift key). It should say 'Local' in the top-left corner of the 3D view.

As said by John Eason, this is called "Local view", and you can find it on the view menu also.

That was it, thank you!


text:
Array and Curve modifier difficulty
I'm trying to make stitching for this shoe.  I'm using the array and curve modifiers to try and do so but I am not able to get it to work.  As you can see in the picture I've gotten the other stitching to work using the same method, by essentially fudging it, but this larger stitch isn't wanting to be fudged.  I've set the origin of the curve at the point where I want the stitching to start, moved the 3D cursor to the origin, set the origin of the starting stitch to its center of mass, moved it to the 3D cursor, applied rotation and scale, then added the modifiers.  After this, I would just move the arrayed stitch mesh around until it fit, but it is moving in all the wrong directions.

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

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/65567/problems-with-curve-modifier/65571#65571

Here is another overview on how the Curve modifier places array objects: Curve Modifier- not starting at beginning

@Nathan I'm not sure if I understand correctly what you say there (or if a beginner understands it correctly): "Start by moving the stitch to the location of the first curve control." What do you mean, the stitch in Object Mode with its origin to the first curve control (point?) or to the origin of the curve? Because it sounds as if you mean moving the stitch origin to the control point.

@Nathan What do you move to eye? In the screenshot, the curve seems to be placed where the stitch should be. So when curve and stitch object have the same origin and the mesh is located correctly relative to its origin, there is no need for moving it to eye and it will be arrayed exactly on the curve.

@Nathan I wasn't talking about the location or rotation - they have to match on both objects. But then there is no need to move the mesh around with try and error: when the stitch mesh is placed centered on the origin in local Y and Z and extends from local X = 0 to +X, then the stitches will exactly follow the curve starting at the first control point. And even when the curve's first control point is not at the origin. That's why it sounded weird to me that you want to move the mesh to the first control point.

@GordonBrinkmann Oh, I see what you're saying now.  Yeah, I didn't word things properly.  I'll delete.


text:
QuickTime with alpha renders choppy
I’m using the latest version of Blender with an Apple MacBook Pro M3 Pro.
When I render an animation with any other setting it’s fine, but if I export as a QuickTime with an alpha channel then the video is choppy. This is true whether I run the file through Final Cut Pro or use the  “view animation” in Blender.
I think it has do with the encoding but I don't know enough to troubleshoot.  Any insights would be helpful. I'm just trying to get a video with an alpha channel. Thanks!

I have the same issue. plz. somebody help.


text:
How do I fix sides being funky when merging verticies?
I'm very new to blender but I'm trying to merge vertices and the sides end up weird. I'm not good at explaining this so I'll just upload a picture. Does anyone know how to fix this?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/56755/flat-quads-or-why-is-my-mesh-so-funky/56764


text:
CG Trader .blend Model shows textures incorrectly
I am fairly new to Blender and tried watching different tutorials, searched this and other forums but can't put my finger on my problem. I am probably missing something fairly basic.
What is my problem
I bought a model from CG Trader (https://www.cgtrader.com/3d-models/vehicle/truck/piaggio-ape-v-curve-food-track-049c5dd5-8178-4a97-ad07-be610af33858) which includes a .blend file. Through "Find missing files" all textures were imported but it looks like this on the left. Qw you can see the texture is mapped wrong.

The front part of the tricycle and the back part are separate but when I go into "Texture Paint" mode it looks like this on the right. Hence my assumption that for the texture the two parts of the model are somehow linked.
What would help me
Of course the dream would be to get an answer which allows me to have the model look like as in the preview on CG Trader. But what would also help if someone could help me understand what I need to learn (and in which other answers I can read up) in order for me to fix the problem on my own. Do I need a deep dive in UV Mapping, Vertex Groups, Normals... I am a bit lost.
Thank you so much!

If you encounter the issue of having the purple texture showing up instead of another one :
When using the solid view's "texture" color setting, the texture shown in the viewport is the latest selected texture in the shader tree.
To fix this, you just need to open the shader editor, select the concerned object in the viewport, and then select the image texture node containing the color texture.
If UVs aren't used properly, perhaps the model have multiple UVs and the shader isn't using them correctly.
In the shader editor, you can add a UV Map node, plug it to the vector socket of the image texture node, and select the uv map that works for that texture.
That being said: your model isn't made for Blender natively. If some specific mapping techniques were used other than UVs, it might be hard to reproduce it, if at all. Though in this case, this should be brought up to the author. It doesn't sound fair for a paid product to be dysfunctional beyond simple fixes out of the box.


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Character is deformed after parenting a rig and playing animation
I imported my character that I made into a file that has a rig, I aligned the rig with my character in pose mode. Then I parented the character to the Rig. Then it parented but my mesh is completely deformed when I play the animation, there seems to be a smaller duplicate version of my arms and legs and they are in different parts of the body and are stretched. I've been trying to fix this the whole day but couldn't find a solution. Can anyone provide a solution?
Link to blend file: (Edit:Blend file is 211mb for some reason, Blend Exchange also said there was an internal error, so if you would like, I can share using drive or mega)
Screenshots:
Topology of character(I used Triangulate modifier because a lot of faces were triangles but not all so I used triangulate modifier):

Deformed character:

Have you checked the mesh for duplicate vertices? (in Edit mode press key A to select all, key M > Merge By Distance). The topology of your character looks like a sculpt. For animation it's better to have a clean topology. Have you already watched a tutorial on this topic?

Hi, I have watched a tutorial, I have been doing research and realized that I had applied a solidify modifier to my mesh so the rig only added weight to the outer part of the mesh and not the inner, so I just deleted the inner part of the mesh and re parented the mesh, the duplication problem is gone, but I think you’re right about there topology. thank you for the suggestion


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Why are my vertex points under the icing?
another noob here asking for help. When i want to apply the drip effect to the icing, the vertex points are under the icing. This is my second donut project, but this didnt happened before.
can someone help me pls?

I haven't looked at that tutorial for a long time. but is the Thickness value in the Solidify modifier a negative or positive value?

@JohnEason There's a 3.0 version of the tutorial.  The drip effect is new to that version, fwiw.  I think it's proportional editing but I've not watched that tutorial either.

My guess is that you're in Edit mode and you've enabled "Edit Mode Visibility" (blue square next to modifier name in modifiers properties panel) for the solidify and subdiv modifiers which ... shows the effect of the modifiers in edit mode...

@Marty Fouts Actually I've just looked at that part of his (3.0) tutorial and at 1:08 in part 4 of the tutorial, Andrew specifically tells you to uncheck the Edit Mode icon in the Solidify modifier which of course makes the vertices visible.


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Mesh Decimate on certain areas only
i want to use decimate only on certain areas of a mesh - or better explained control the level of decimation with another object.
Imagine a plane with quite high polygon-count. Now i create sphere - it's size and position should control how much reduction is applied.
Is this possible?

One of the options can be Decimate modifier with Dynamic Paint ...

In this example:

Plane - enable Dynamic Paint under Physics Properties, set as Canvas, Vertex, Dssolve 1, Slow OFF, Output click on plus icon (this creates vertx group storing weight data)
Sphere - enable Dynamic Paint under Physics Properties, set as Brush
add Decimate modifier to Plane and choose "dp_weight" as vertex group, Ratio here 0.5.

Note: My anim displays Cube and not a Sphere because I set represent Sphere in Viewport as Bounding Box to better see final result.

thank you a lot. Very helpful!

Great. If the answer solved your issue consider mark answer as accepted by clicking on check mark under vote arrows, so others can easily see Q was answered from Q list. You can undo it any time. https://blender.stackexchange.com/tour


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Seamless rectangle-to-circle transition in Blender
Having a hand in creating some product visualization exercises , I run into a bit of an issue or question mark if you'd like.
In more detail, Im trying to figure how one would go creating a half fillet to what appears (to my eyes) two shapes, a long vertical rectangle object with a circular extrusion at the top. Specifically the part Im having some issue optimizing is the fillet area between those two. (half left of the image)
Filleting  the join area(s) would obviously create issues with the fillet edge falling out of bounds of the shown shapes. I can think of many ways to get the desired shape, but interested in the "right way", path of least resistance.
Thanks for looking, if anything comes in mind would greatly appreciate your insight and experience.

Here is how I would do it quite easily, this will not be exactly the same as the reference, but maybe you can tweak the results to match it better to what you need. Of course you can always make it much more complicated and put more attention to detail, this is just for a quick but still good solution.
And for tweaking it is always good too have a not so highly detailed mesh - the less detail, the less vertices you have to handle afterwards. The rest will be done by a Subdivision Surface modifier. Your start is not bad, but I would have made it with less geometry.
I take a cylinder with only 12 vertices per loop, with two edge loops inbetween to separate the circular part from the later rectangular part and have one for the transition between them.

Then I select the bottom half face loop of what will be the rectangular part.

I extrude them down on the Z axis with E and afterwards scale them down to 0 on the Z axis to flatten them with S Z 0.

Then I select the lower inner vertices of the bottom half circle (not the outmost vertices).

I move them down a bit on the Z axis to have a slightly slanted transition between the rectangle and the circle.

Now I just add a Subdivision Surface modifier with a level of 2 to smoothen the surface.

Of course the rectangular part gets smoothed too much because of missing supporting edges. I could add some with the Loop Cut tool Ctrl+R like the ones shown selected below:

And this is the result, as I said not perfect but easy to do and still editable thanks to relatively few geometry:

Thanks for the reply and taking the time to provide screenshots. Yes, certainly that would be a way, even though as you pointed out not perfect - with a bit more geometry in place and edge loops it can get very close if not the same. Thank you once more


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Randomize rotation of each instance (linked) independently using Geo Nodes
Hello,
I'm completely new to blender and Im trying to randomize the rotation of some instances ("on points") that are flying around an object, similar to the fireflies effect tutorials on youtube. However instead of spheres, Im using instances (Star shapes) and would like them to also rotate around themselves independently of one another randomly as they are flying.
I noticed there was an attribute on older versions of Blender called "Randomize" could have worked. For now Im using "Random Value" which does the trick somewhat, but all the stars rotation seems to be linked to one another and I dont want that.
Is there a way to get them to rotate independently from each other;
Thanks!
Short Video: https://streamable.com/43o80o

you can use this node setup:

you setup looks pretty the same. Maybe you should provide your blend file - maybe there is something wrong in your driver or other problems.

alrighty, managed to find a solution. Instead of using the previous nodes setup for rotation I had, I added a "Combine XYZ" node connected to "Random Value" (Vector) node plugged into the instance on points node. Now the everything seems to be a lot smoother and randomized. I think. Thanks

Switch "Random Value" node to "Vector" node, otherwise you will get only a small subset of all possible rotations: https://i.imgur.com/s11Gs9w.png

@MarkusvonBroady: oh yeah, you are right! thanks for that improvement.


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Access spline direction to instance points aligned to simple poly spline
Trying to create a setup that takes:

a curve with x amount of splines

and instances an object on

each 1st point of each spline
pointing into the direction of the spline (simple straight alignment will suffice, no bending needed)
scaled so it is as long as the spline itself

the first points of each spline I can select using the "Endpoint Selection" node
The direction I am conceptually, trying to capture by substracting the position of the point at index 1 + 1 from the position of the point at index 1, feeding it into a Euler to Vector. This I can't get to work.
Scaling, I haven't thought about as much. I think I need to get the spline length and multiply it by the dimensions of the instance to get the scaling in some way.
So, how would I get a vector pointing between the first and second point on EACH spline, and have the instances be aligned to that vector for each individual first point.

This setup generates some random splines then positions a tetrahedron on each 1st point, with nominal height of 1, but scaled to the length of the spline:

zooming in on the actual solution:


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Displacement and subdivisions slowing down my blender a lot
I'm incredibly new to blender and I'm trying to generate some good looking renders of 3D parts designed in Autodesk Inventor. I imported the parts as OBJs and have applied materials to them etc. I have a displacement map for a textured rubber part and following a tutorial (im that new) generated a subdivision surface and used a displacement map for the material. My blender is now running incredibly slow and when i tried to do the same thing for another part staight up crashed. My PC is pretty beefy (cpu - 5950x, gpu 3090 and 64gb of ram) and so I'm surprised that this had such an effect. Is there something obvious i could be doing wrong?

What level did you set your subdiv modifier to? - I rarely go above 2 and wouldn't want to use higher than 3.

that would probably be it then, mine are set up at 5. I'll give that a go, thanks

Every time you increase the level by one you double the number of vertices on your object! How many verts does it show on the bottom Status bar?


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Color selection in palette does not update in different mode
I'm trying to create a relatively simple addon for Blender to make our workflow a little easier.
I got the scripts running... kinda. I'm sure there is something about how Blender works under the hood that I just don't understand. I am also not very experienced in Python and scripting in general, so bear with me here.
All I want to do is have an extra menu in the N-Panel in Object Mode, so that I can set Vertex Colors from there instead of selecting the object, switching to Vertex Paint Mode, pressing the hotkey to paint the object, and going back.
In general, this is working fine and as expected. What doesn't work is having the Palette UI element in this custom menu actually work. It shows up, but it seemingly never "updates". If I select any color in this menu, it seemingly is updating the Palette data (even if I switch back to Vertex Paint, it looks identical there) in all menus (my custom panel, the built in tool settings, ...), but applying the color only works if I click any color in the palette while being in Vertex Paint mode.
Or in other words: choosing the color for the Vertex Paint in my custom menu works fine when I'm in Vertex Paint Mode, but it doesn't work in Object Mode.
I hope I could clearly explain my problem.
Here's the code:
import bpy

##################
# INTERFACE CLASS
##################
class VIEW3D_PT_gp_custom_panel(bpy.types.Panel):

    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D" # used in the 3D View
    bl_region_type = "UI" #
    bl_category = "GP"

    bl_label = "GP Tools"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        row = self.layout.row()

        ts = context.tool_settings

        row.operator("object.gp_apply_vertex_color", text="Vertex Color to Selected")
        layout.template_ID(ts.vertex_paint, "palette", new="palette.new")
        layout.template_palette(ts.vertex_paint, "palette", color=True)

# Register and add to the "object" menu (required to also use F3 search "Simple Object Operator" for quick access).
def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(VIEW3D_PT_gp_custom_panel) # register to n-panel

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(VIEW3D_PT_gp_custom_panel) # unregister from n-panel

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

import bpy

##############################################
# MAIN FUNCTION THAT DOES THE VERTEX COLORING
##############################################
def main(context):
    current_mode = bpy.context.object.mode
    print("Current Object Mode is:" + current_mode)

    # change to Vertex Paint Mode, apply Vertex Paint and return to previous mode
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='VERTEX_PAINT')
    bpy.ops.paint.vertex_color_set()
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode=current_mode)

#################
# OPERATOR CLASS
#################
class ApplyVertexColor(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "object.gp_apply_vertex_color"
    bl_label = "GP Apply Vertex Color"

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return context.active_object is not None

    def execute(self, context):
        main(context)
        return {'FINISHED'}

def menu_func(self, context):
    self.layout.operator(ApplyVertexColor.bl_idname, text=ApplyVertexColor.bl_label)

# Register and add to the "object" menu (required to also use F3 search "Simple Object Operator" for quick access).
def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(ApplyVertexColor) # register operator
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_object.append(menu_func) # register operator to object menu

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(ApplyVertexColor) # unregister operator
    bpy.types.VIEW3D_MT_object.remove(menu_func) # unregister operator from object menu

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

    # test call
    # bpy.ops.object.apply_vertex_color()

For more clarity what the problem is, here's a short video:
https://youtu.be/wxnRfbmK1Jw?si=5Ggk4O1V5PpFU-sq

Update the brush color when you selecting a different color on the N panel in any mode
import bpy

active_color = [0.0, 0.0, 0.0]

def draw_callback():
    try: color = list(bpy.context.tool_settings.vertex_paint.palette.colors.active.color)
    except: return

    if active_color != color:
        print("you selected different color")
        active_color[:] = color

        # Update brush color
        bpy.context.tool_settings.vertex_paint.brush.color = color

# Run this on bpy.app.handlers.version_update if you use it on addon
bpy.types.SpaceView3D.draw_handler_add(draw_callback, (), 'WINDOW', 'POST_VIEW')

class VIEW3D_PT_gp_custom_panel(bpy.types.Panel):

    bl_space_type = "VIEW_3D" # used in the 3D View
    bl_region_type = "UI" #
    bl_category = "GP"

    bl_label = "GP Tools"

    def draw(self, context):
        layout = self.layout
        row = self.layout.row()

        ts = context.tool_settings

        row.operator("object.gp_apply_vertex_color", text="Vertex Color to Selected")
        layout.template_ID(ts.vertex_paint, "palette", new="palette.new")
        layout.template_palette(ts.vertex_paint, "palette", color=True)

def main(context):
    current_mode = bpy.context.object.mode
    print("Current Object Mode is:" + current_mode)

    # change to Vertex Paint Mode, apply Vertex Paint and return to previous mode
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='VERTEX_PAINT')
    bpy.ops.paint.vertex_color_set()
    bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode=current_mode)

class ApplyVertexColor(bpy.types.Operator):
    """Tooltip"""
    bl_idname = "object.gp_apply_vertex_color"
    bl_label = "GP Apply Vertex Color"

    @classmethod
    def poll(cls, context):
        return context.active_object is not None

    def execute(self, context):
        main(context)
        return {'FINISHED'}

# Register and add to the "object" menu (required to also use F3 search "Simple Object Operator" for quick access).
def register():
    bpy.utils.register_class(VIEW3D_PT_gp_custom_panel) # register to n-panel
    bpy.utils.register_class(ApplyVertexColor) # register operator

def unregister():
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(VIEW3D_PT_gp_custom_panel) # unregister from n-panel
    bpy.utils.unregister_class(ApplyVertexColor) # unregister operator

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

That did the trick, thank you very much!


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All Light Paths combined in Shader not resulting in correct image
I've been trying to develop a Node Group for the Shader Editor that gives me more control over Light Paths on my various light sources and emissive materials.
Now I've hit a roadblock that I just can't figure out, and I'm relatively certain that it's just something about Cycles that I do not understand completely.
This is my Shader Setup:

All it's supposed to do is give me control over how strong each Ray Type should be, and it works (kinda). The problem is that the result is not the same to a pure emissive material and I don't understand why. Even if I give ALL ray types 100% and then use a Mix Shader with a full black, it looks different. It does look as if not all bounces are taken into account:

If I use an Emission Node set up as Red the result looks like this:

What am I missing here? Aren't all rays combined supposed to look like a normal Emission Node?

No, they are not supposed to look like a normal Emission node...  why should they? Who said that?

The output of your mask group varies between 0 and 8, while the mix shader typically expects a factor between 0 and 1. Where did you get the idea to create this setup ?

I think the thing you want to do must be done in the compositing editor, not in the shader editor.

@Gorgious Correct, and be done with the different passes. dasfrodo: here is the setup how the separate passes have to be combined in the Compositor to give the same output as the composite: Blender Manual: Passes

@GordonBrinkmann I am not feeding the Mask into the Emission Node, I am simply masking the Emission Node with the Light Path, as shown in the Screenshots. In my Head this works out like this: all light paths added together are as if there is no light path filtering at all. This is then used with a Mix Shader and a Emission Node. The other Mix Shader Input would in that case be everything that has NOT been masked with the node group.

@Gorgious In that case I have a fundemantel misunderstanding how the Light Path Node works. But I don't really know where the problem is.

No, they are not adding up and I guess you have a misunderstading on how the Light Path node works. I'll explain it in my answer.

You are confusing here something with the combination of Light Passes in the Compositor (see: Blender Manual: Passes). This setup in the compositor works, because there you have all light and color which the image contains in separate passes and add them together to get the final composite.
But the outputs of the Light Path node are nothing like that. They do not give the amount of light and/or color coming from diffuse and glossy parts etc. in all areas of the image. They are just taking the material itself and its reflections into account. The first outputs with the word "Is" in front are primarily Boolean outputs. They are giving information if a certain ray hits the camera coming from the kind of surface/shading in question. So on the object with the material itself the value is always 0 or 1. And when the "Is Camera Ray" output is 1 because the camera has unobstructed view on the object, the other "Is" outputs are 0 for this object.
So the other ray outputs can only be > 0 on the surrounding elements. They give information on the indirect paths where the light from the material hits the camera. Here is an overview on all ray outputs (as mix factor for a blue emission material) and what they result in when added together, "Shadow", "Singular" and "Transmission" having absolutely no part in the example image:

As mentioned earlier, the "Is Camera Ray" only shows where the camera has a direct view on the material itself. "Is Diffuse Ray" is showing where light from the material bounces off of a diffuse surface into the camera, "Is Glossy Ray" is where the emissive material is directly mirrored, "Is Reflection Ray" is the specular diffused reflection on the surface.
Now if you compare the bottom right image where everything is added together with an image where I used the Emission shader directly, not using the combination of light rays, there is a difference, something's missing in the added rays on the left:

Most striking it is on the corners of the cube. Between the light from the cube's faces bouncing off the floor there is not much light. The reason for this can be found in the Light Passes in the Compositor: the DiffDir output (Diffuse Direct) shows light bouncing off all around the cube. This is where the material of the floor gets lit up by the blue emission and the brightened diffuse surface light directly shines into the camera. But this is not covered by any of the rays above:

Thank you very much for taking the time to explain this so thoroughly. I think I understand where my though process went wrong now.
The Node Group isn't as useful as I thought, but I think it'll still come handy in the future.

@dasfrodo The problem is, it is used in a material on an object - it does not provide all light paths of all objects and all materials - which are what it takes to generate a "proper" image. The node is quite useful for a lot of things which it is made for, but those are simply just other things ;)


text:
Trying to create shapekeys by moving verts
Hello I am trying to create shapekeys by moving verts instead of sculpting. When I go to do this I noticed the gizmo is set to the verts resting position instead of the new posed position. How can I fix this?

The gizmo appears at the origin of the object.
Always apply Transforms CTRL A before shape keys because its good to have Ref. points at 0 when starting.
For now, just SET ORIGIN to C.O.M at the object mode.

I applied all transforms and the vertices origin is still defaulting to the rest position even when setting the origin to center of mass. I can see when toggling off On Cage in the armature modifier that the verticies origin is sitting at the rest pose, it just won't move to the posed position when toggling On Cage on.

The vertices don't have an origin. Neail is right. I forgot about how the gizmo behaves because I don't even use the gizmo. But when I turned it back on, it did indeed stay at the object's origin, regardless of the vertex selections in Edit mode. But this doesn't matter. You don't need the gizmo to behave differently than it does to create shape keys based on vertex tweaks instead of using the sculpt brush. The gizmo position is immaterial. Do you have experience setting up shape keys? What happens when you ignore the gizmo and just go ahead and create them?

I can create them, it's just you lose the ability to move the verts exactly where you want correctly, easily. Also you lose the ability to snap the verts correctly to other verts. I was trying to match up the vert placement to a seperate mesh and with the gizmo being offset, the gizmo snaps but the vert continues being offset.


text:
How to join the ends of the bones in the character model?
I wanted to know how to join the bones for the spinal region. It is causing me a problem in moving further. Answers will be very valuable to me
Thanks

in Edit mode you can select the top spine then shift the bottom spine, then Ctrl P (parent) > Keep Offset. But your setup is a bit unorthodox, you should switch the direction of the bottom spine, unless you have good reason not to

The base of one bone cannot connect to the base of another. In short, you should probably end up with the bottom of the spine being indirectly connected to the legs, so they float.


text:
Camera Clipping
I've adjusted my camera clipping to be a wide as it can be, but the thing seems to cause the problem is the "clip start" and not "clip end". I've adjusted to be 0.000001 but it still clip my scene in camera view mode. Any way to help this?

Unless I'm mistaken, the camera clip setting only affects the render. Does it help if you change the 'Clip Start' value under the 'view' menu there? Currently it's set to 1m

You're using an Orthographic Camera. Try to place it further away from your objects. Shortcuts G > Z > Z (for local axis) then move your mouse towards your body

Zoom out, or set camera properties for a wider angle "lens". Looks like you're at 36mm and wider angle means lower value.


text:
Imported Image looks weird
My problem is that when I import an image in blender the colors are weird. They don't look the same compared to the original image. If anyone has a solution please tell me.
Original Image

Blender Image

The problem is probably in color management. Go to the render tab, and look for color management. It is probably on filmic at the moment. Change it to standard, and the colors will be right.

As @Relevred said, change the Color Management from Filmic to Standard (I see in the screenshot it's set to Filmic). The image also looks a bit semi-transparent in your Screenshot. Maybe this is another reason for the different look.

I went into the render tab but I couldn't find the color management. I just saw render image, render animation and other things. Could you maybe be a little more specific

Nvm, I found it and I changed it to standard, but it still didn't work.

Try going into rendered mode rather than material preview.

I don't get wat you mean. Could you explain in a simpler way.

press ''Z' and go select rendered mode.

It works now. Thank You So Much