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Problem with subsurf
I´ve been working on a car from Rocket League. First, I decided to design the "basic shape" of the body and when I added the Subdivision Surface modifier I had the problem you can see in the photos. By the way, the car I´m trying to make is the one in the upper right corner of the screen.
BEFORE SUBSURF:

AFTER SUBSURF:

As you can see, the front grille has some curves in front of it and I can´t fix the problem either with Ctrl+Ctrl or Ctrl+B or Shift+E
Why does the bevel tool create faces of different sizes?

You can find the blender file and the photos here
THANKS!!!!

Please use the insert image button in the toolbar to add images inline on in the body of your question next time.

Your model has awful topology, with lots of NGons (faces with more than 4 sides) which will lead to numerous problems and difficulties, one of which is problems with modifiers like the one you find. Please use good topology on your models to avoid problems

These ngons will kill your model (as Duarte said). Please upload your .blend via https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ and I'll try to help you. Rocket League is such a great game btw. I'm so addicted to it :).

I haven't looked at your blend file yet, but I agree with what others have said about avoiding n-gons. They make any surface deformations hard to predict and control.  BUT there's another thing you seem to be missing with subdivision surface modifiers: Try not to think of them as altering your original mesh. Instead think of your mesh as a "control cage" that lets you describe the SS "limit surface". Your goal is no longer to make a mesh that plays nice with SS, but rather one that defines your SS surface.

I'm sorry but I can't post more than two links because if my reputation . Well, how can I reduce N-Gons? I have to start over?

By the way, here you can find the Blender file

Or https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/81291/mesh-causing-abnormal-results-with-subsurf-modifier

Hi, your problem as already pointed out is N-gons, the highlighted area in the image was one crazy huge ngon, all I did was use the knife tool to slice it into 2 polygons (still ngons but better ones).
It is best to use quads if posible, ngons are not always bad, but in this particular case it had too many sides surrounded by small polygons (small detail), so this particular ngons was overpowering them.
search on google for topology and quad modeling.
cgcookie has some good tutorials.
good luck on your projects.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7Is78yvd9nWMXQyTzRiWi1pVjA/view?usp=sharing

well... click the up arrowwwwwwwwwwww.....


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Imported short clip with obscenely high framecount
So I'm quite new to Blender, and I'm running into many problems importing my video.
When I first try to import it, I get the 2 channels for video and audio, which is expected, but the video channel has a framecount of 38562221 when the audio has 12859 (7:08 video at 30fps).
I have no idea what to do, and when I render the video nothing appears at all except the very first frame for 1/30 of a second. After this it's completely blank with the checkerboard pattern.
I'm so confused. Is there something Blender has against WMV files? I tried again with an MP4 also and it did the ridiculous framecount (note for both of these videos under properties it was specified to be at 30fps). So I'm completely stuck. Help!

Hopefully this is something simple i missed.

Handbrake is free and can quickly clean up stuff like this before you import into Blender. It is great to use to set the frame rate to something better (e.g., 30 or 60) and consistent across the clip.

There is a hard coded frame count in Blender. You could recompile it with a larger frame count and see if things work, as I believe your piece is over the maximum. While I cannot remember the number, you shouldn't have too much trouble locating it.
It might be more optimal to chop the piece into smaller portions using another tool and reassemble them.

afaik the hard coded frame range is limited to 300,000. So this shouldn't be the problem.

Last time I looked 38562221 is larger than 300000. :)

yep, I think so as well... It must be a bug or a decoding problem with ffmpeg. A bit over 7 minutes can't be so much frames with 30fps.

It is likely a misinterpretation of the frame rate numerator and denominator, or one of the codecs that use different methods. Any number of things could be wrong. Bottom line is that the VSE is a poor tool to be using in this instance.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Shortcuts using Ctrl not working in Linux
I'm using blender 2.79 in two different Linux computers (Redhat and Arch, both running Gnome 3), and I'm hitting a super annoying issue.
Whenever I try to use any shortcut with Ctrl, it behaves as if I had hit Ctrl and Alt, instead, and any further key hits behave as if Alt was pressed.
For example, if I try to hit Ctrl+P for parenting objects, it instead shows an error complaining about proxies (it got Ctrl+Alt+P- Make Proxy).
After that, if I hit p, it opens the Clear Parent; if I then hit space, it shows the Orientation menu, instead of the tool search.  I can't even move the view by dragging with the MMB (in the same way I couldn't do it with Alt+MMB.
That behavior continues until I hit Alt, and the shortcuts start to work again (unless, of course, they have Ctrl in them).
I'm new to Blender, so this may be a noob question, but I just can't find any answers to it, and I'm surprise I face it on two different systems.

@cegaton, I don't think that is the problem.  Ctrl+P works perfectly fine, for example, in Firefox, where it prints the page.  It does not behave as if Alt was pressed after that.  This seems to be specific to Blender or to the toolkit it uses

Two updates: first, I found that the issue happens even if I just press Ctrl+Shift (no other actual key).  After that, MMB will not affect the view until I press Alt once

The second update is more interesting, and may help others with this issue: if you first press Shift, keep it pressed while you press Ctrl, then keep Ctrl pressed while you release Shift, and then press the key for the shortcut (P, for example, for parenting), it works just fine.  It's a lot of trouble for a shortcut, but better than nothing.  Steps:
Shift /
Shift+Ctrl /
Ctrl /
Ctrl+A

Note: this does not happen anymore, with 2.80

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


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Get lattice points' positions at specific frame when animated by another object (through hook modifiers)
I am currently developing an exporter for FFDs (Lattice).
I currently have support for FFDs animated through shape keys but now I have encountered a lattice whose points are driven by another object, rather than being animated itself, e.g. the lattice points’ positions are being driven by hooks (through the hook modifier). These hooks are defined as empty-objects, one for every point in the lattice that should be animated. And the empty-objects are animated by an Armature.
With this setup, how can I get the position of a specific lattice point at a specific frame in python?
So far I have found that I’m able to get the target object of a hook modifier through "lattice.modifiers[n].object".
Within the object I have also seen that the local and world matrices update with the animation. However I’m not sure how I would know which empty object affects which lattice point. I suppose the empty object’s position and the lattice point are supposed to be at the exact same position, but is that a guarantee? I have been trying to multiply a hook’s local position with its world matrix, but it doesn’t seem match the position I get when de-parenting it from the armature (which it should right?). I have seen that you are able to use "Assign" to assign the hook modifier to specific vertices in Edit Mode, but I don't know how to get this information.
Any comment that can get me in the right direction is greatly appreciated!
Thanks

I have succeeded in finding a way with the help of Frederik's answer, but it is not very clean. It only works when animating with hooks, the hook strength needs to be 1.0 and the starting position of the hook needs to match that of the lattice point that it should control.
I get all hook modifiers on the lattice (lattice.modifiers[i].type == 'HOOK') and save their position (hookModifier.center) and compare that to each point's position (point.co) in the lattice to know what hookModifier is affecting which point. I'm using math.isclose for each of x, y and z here.
I get the position of the hook for each frame by doing the following:
bpy.context.scene.frame_set(frame)
pos = lattice.matrix_world.inverted() * hook.matrix_world.to_translation()

As I'm exporting the lattice points in local space (and the object's world position, rotation and scale) I have to multiply the hook's world position with the inverse world matrix of the lattice to get it into the lattice local space.
Note that bpy.context.frame_set() is a heavy operation so only use it when necessary.
If any of you have any suggestions on optimizing my solution, please present them.

Depending on how many hooks there are a (probably too tedious solution) would be to create a vertex group containing only that vertex for each hook. Then you can get those from script.
Selecting the vertices for a hook modifier has always been an enigma to me, which I don't like.
If any of the hook modifiers has a strength < 1, the method of using it's hook object's location will fail.
A fairly brute force solution can be found here: How do I get the deformed coordinate of a vertex with Python?
remember the vertices of a lattice are called points.
A Similarly brute force solution would be to copy your lattice, apply the modifiers, read the applied vert info and then delete the object again.
All those solutions are fairly ugly, but it's all I can come up with atm.
For meshes, bmesh offers a solution of copying the modifier's info to a temp mesh: https://blenderartists.org/t/get-vertices-coordinate-after-deformation/617992
Don't know if you can transfer that to a lattice.
Also: you don't have to multiply .matrix_world with anything. It gives you the absolute position (and loc/rot), no matter what parenting/constraints are influencing it.

Thanks for your answer!
When trying to apply modifiers to the lattice I get the error message: "cannot apply modifier for this object type".
Unfortunately bmesh does not seem to work with lattices and I don't know of any other addons that does anything similar.
I would like to make it work as it currently is, but creating vertex groups might be a way. All hook modifiers have a strength of 1. I will look into this further.
I am currently looking further into getting the animated position of an empty.

animated position of empties, including constraints and parenting: my_object.matrix_world.to_location()

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


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Create a gradient dependant of distance to an object
I have the following scenario in cycles:

I would like to know if it is possible to create a gradient on a plane like the one on the image above where the colours depend on the distance to an object (sphere in this case). In this case, the surface right below the ball would be the nearest one and hence would be of one colour. As we move away from the plane's center the colour should change accordingly to the distance to the sphere.
I would like to automatize the process so that blender takes the coordinates of the sphere and automatically draws a colour gradient on the plane's surface.
I have managed to create the gradient but I cannot make it dependant of the distance to an object.
Thanks in advance

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/79851/make-an-objects-visibility-controlled-by-another-object-or-an-empty

With cycles / surface nodes you could make a setup that measures distance to a single point that happens in shader pipeline. You can write image data via python script so you can sample the areas and calculate the distance and "bake" the data but it is relatively slow since python is run on CPU.  Are you looking to use this real-time, in rendering or export some custom data format?

I want this to create a pixel map density and no need to be in real-time, only need the rendered final image.

Here is a simple node setup for Cycles. Note that this will use the sphere object origin, not its surfaces. This material will not consider the shape of your object.
Use the Mapping node to tweak the effect of the gradient and the ColorRamp node to change the gradient colors.
Results can be viewed in render mode.

You can do something like this with dynamic paint.  This solution does calculate proximity from the mesh, not just the center point.
The plane should be your dynamic paint canvas, the sphere (or whatever object(s)) the brush.  I suggest painting to vertices as that's easy to use in the material node setup.  On the brush object, set your paint source to "Proximity" and set a Paint Distance that gives you the gradient values you're looking for.

Then set up your material to translate the gradient into a color gradient input to a shader.  Here I've used the wetmap.

What would this look like in the new EVEE viewport in 2.8?

Another way of doing this:

Add a Value node to your shader, then...

Right click on the number field and choose edit driver.
Under Driver Settings, set Type to "Sum Values".
In the Object field, select your sphere.
For Type set "X Location".
For Space, set World Space.

Repeat with Y and Z, then wire the results into a Combine XYZ node. Now you're passing your sphere's position to the shader.
To get the distance from the sphere to your surface:

Add a Geometry Node
Add Vector Math Node, set it to Subtract
Subtract the Combine XYZ node from the Geometry Position node.
Add another Vector Math node. Set it to Dot Product
Wire the output of the Vector Subtract node into both vectors of the Dot Product node.

Now you've got distance going from 0 to a big number. Scale it down, clamp it, and feed it to a color ramp.

So this is just distance to the center of the object, not distance to the surface of the object, right?

Yep, that's correct

You can use "Point Dencity" texture with "Object Vertices"

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


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Create constant length object for manipulation
I am looking for a way to create a very long cylindrical object that maintains a specific length (and volume/radius) at all times.
But I want to be able to deform that object by bending it, and looping it, and so forth.
Basically a piece of string is what I'm trying to model.  I want the string to be X units in length. But I want to be able to pick it up from the middle, or the end, or loop it or even tie it up.  And have it remain the same length.
Is there any way to to do this in blender? To manipulate an objects shape, but keeping some of its basic physical size constant?

If you are looking for a mathematically perfect solution that keeps the exact length and volume of the geometry then I don't know how to achieve that. AS far as I know Blender might not even be the right tool for that job.
For a relatively accurate from a visual point of view you may use the usial Array + Curve modifier duo.
Just model a small cylinder-shaped section of your string (or whatever detaild shape you want to have) and add an Array with a fixed count of items, this will ensure the length is kept approximately constant.
On top of it add a Curve modifier, that will deform it so you can controll bending and knots without affecting length too much.

Bending will however affect lenght and the distortions will inevitable change the volume, but visually it will roughly behave as a tring

That was a great thought, and after playing around for a while it kind of got me there. But when you start making tight corners it actually can change the length a fair amount.

Yes, tight curvatures will make the inaccuracy of the method more apparent. Adding shorter cylinder segments will minimize it at the expense of performance, but as curvature gets closer to the cylinder radius volume loss will get worse.


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Brickifying a structure
I  am working on a Bridge, and I have already made the model. I would like to know if there is a fast way to paint a bumpmap that makes it look like it's made out of bricks.
And if there is no way to do it and I just wasted a lot of my life, how should I do structures like this in the future?
Thanks in advance.

Can you clarify what the problem is? You don't know how to paint a nump map, or you don't know if painting a bumpmap is the right approach? In the last case I would suggest to better explain what you have done so far.

You want them to be clean or old and dirty? There is procedural Texture "Bricks" but it need a bit of love to look slightly realistic.

Well, I don't really want it to be super realistic, and my problem is with painting an exact pattern. I know that a bump or a normal map is the right approach, and I know how to paint them. But the Brick texture isn't really good for this, as I would like to make something that really fits the mesh

Maybe look at the way the uvs are scaled up and down on this model as a hint to how to do it - use a single brick pattern image and convert to normal/bump map in photo editor https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/82285/unwrapping-from-textured-model/82288?noredirect=1#comment145232_82288

The problem is that the structure is very complicated, so I can't easily apply a brick texture onto it. I thought that the easiest method would be to draw a grid, but I don't know if there are any ways to draw lines that are exactly the same distance from each other.


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Textrures missing when I export FBX
I have a model I created with bones from Mixamo. The FBX has embeded textures.
I want to rename the bones in the model to get rid on the Mixamo in the beginning of each bone name. (this is find with Mixamo). I removed the Mixamo from the names, but then I export as FBX, the textures are gone. I am wondering how to reapply the textures to the model, or how to save the FBX with the textures.
Thanks for any help.

Ok, I figured it out. Download Autodesk FBX Converter (free). Run the converter. Add FBX Converter. Select Add. Now first select the FBX to be converted, then control select the Texture Directory. You have to do it in the order. Then on the right side, check Embed media. Then convert. You will have your FBX with embedded textures! Amazing how easy.

What is the end application where converted .FBX files are sent to?

I send it to Unity3D. But it probably would work in other apps.

I have one that I have done. I created it in MakeHuman. Rigged it with Mixamo.com. Then I edited it in Blender to remove the mixamo.com for each bone name. That is where it lost the connection to the textures. If you would like to have it, I can email it to you. Go to my web site and at the bottom you will see a contact message. https://jdscogin.wixsite.com/jdscogin

I didn't mean to download the file, the reason I asked was about how textures were used by end application. In cases of some render engines textures are assigned via materials which are dependant on render engines, so in those cases using this to assign textures at the very least won't really work.

Ok but it does work in Unity. For sure.

Embedded textures in FBX files do work but usually aren't worth the hassle. Mostly you will want to set up materials and control textures separately from mesh importing.


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What is the actual film manufacturer reference for the film response data?
I would like to understand if there is some reference for all this film response data and if/how it was validated.
https://developer.blender.org/diffusion/B/browse/master/release/datafiles/colormanagement/luts/film_response/
Thanks.
P

The original dataset was taken from the Computer Vision Laboratory, and more specifically this portion of the site. The research PDF is available here.
The response data didn't include the primary colours, nor the log encoding as the results are normalized. They are essentially junk Instagram-esque filters sadly.


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How do I remap the tracking of 60p footage to 24p project?
I've tracked some objects in 60p footage I shot (I did this to get subframe movements for motion blur that might just look a little more realistic, and for the extra accuracy) and objects in my scene to these object solvers.
But now, as I'm doing test renders (in 24p) I see that the motion is slowed down as the footage is tracked on a frame by frame basis.  How do I apply the solver, but change the time scale of the object solver.  I'd rather not have to render the whole scene using time remapping,


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Can you assign a background image per camera?
Quick question that I don't see an exact answer to, but is there a way to lock a background image to be displayed when a certain camera is set (Ctrl+0) as the camera?
I have several cameras when looking through, line up my reference with my geometry.  I'd like it to automatically use "reference001.jpg" when "Camera 1" is activated (and looking through it).  Then, if I activate "Camera 2" as the active camera (and look through it) it displays "reference002.jpg" and so on.
Right now I just have 5 different background images assigned to camera view, and have to disable the current one and enable the one I want (the little eye icon).  Just wondering if there's a better way.  Thanks!

There isn't a way. Each 3dviewport saves it's own background image settings, so you could setup five different views with different backgrounds. I think it might be something that could be added to the stored views addon.


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I imported a DXF and now I can't add meshes?
I'm new to blender but I worked through a number of tutorials on how to build and edit meshes.
I imported a DXF that I want to use as a starting point and now the standard Shift-A menu that normally presents me with mesh options has changed to just present options for curves (shown below).

I've probably changed modes somehow, I want to switch back to whatever mode allows me to add meshes.
How can I add a mesh?

Looks like you're in edit mode where SHIFT+A opens the curve menu when you're editing a curve object. Just press TAB to return to object mode or select it from the dropdown.
In Blender 2.7x

In Blender 2.8

D'oh. You are right.


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Why is my (fluid sim) geometry different after rendering (2.78a + cycles)?
I have a fluid sim I am using to create a splash over 10 frames. The desired look is on the 2nd frame, as pictured below. So why if it shows up in both previews, is the geometry (not to mention the camera perspective) rendering so radically different? Note the droplets in the geometry do not appear in the rendering, for example. I saw in another question that keyframing might have something to do with it, but auto keyframes are off, and it was just the fluid simulation that took care of it all. And yes, there is only one camera, and in case it is relevant I am using cycles and nodes.

Fluid domain has 2 different resolutions: "final" and "preview"

@lemon Do I have to rebake after modifying just the preview domain? Also, it seems the maximum resolution for preview is 100, my final is currently set to 150 and my preview was 50 when I did the above.

I think the bake is done for the final rendering, but I'm not sure of that: give it a try as I can not confirm the behavior.

A quick test (without rebaking) just switching the "Render display" (in physics tab for fluid domain) to "Preview" instead of "Final" renders my desired geometry. Very strange behavior, since the "Preview" is a lower resolution than "Final", where it looks like the opposite is going on.

Preview and Final are both being baked in one shot. The number you enter is a number of subdivisions on the domain. Preview exists to work with a lighter mesh in the viewport. Notice that in your images, the final render has finer detail. That means, the final render mesh also contains more polygons. Unfortunately, when simulating, this also leads to changed behavior in the fluid. If you really want to see exactly what you get, make the resolution settings for preview and final identical and bake.


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How can I enable mp4/h264 as an output option in Fedora Linux?
I know it is possible to output a render as a video in mp4/h264 (as well as mkv, etc) however, it does not appear as an option for me.

This is blender 2.64.2, on linux (FC17), ffmpeg version 0.10.7:
$ ffmpeg -codecs|grep 264
D V D  h264            H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
D V D  h264_vdpau      H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10 (VDPAU acceleration)
 EV    libx264         libx264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10
 EV    libx264rgb      libx264 H.264 / AVC / MPEG-4 AVC / MPEG-4 part 10 RGB

$ ffmpeg -formats|grep mp4
 D  mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2 QuickTime/MPEG-4/Motion JPEG 2000 format
  E mp4             MP4 format

The file /usr/share/blender/2.64/scripts/startup/bl_ui/properties_render.py has the following lines (snipped for brevity):
class RENDER_PT_encoding(RenderButtonsPanel, Panel):

    return rd.image_settings.file_format in {'FFMPEG', 'XVID', 'H264', 'THEORA'}

    layout.menu("RENDER_MT_ffmpeg_presets", text="Presets")

    if ffmpeg.format in {'AVI', 'QUICKTIME', 'MKV', 'OGG'}:
    elif rd.ffmpeg.format == 'H264':

which leads me to believe that it should give me at least those options. How do I enable them? I've looked all over the place and cannot find the solution online.

edit:
This is the official fedora build, blender-2.64a-3.fc17.i686.rpm   installed from the fedora updates repo.

I would also like to know, but to get an answer you should probably say whether you're using Blender installed from a repository or just the extracted compressed version.

Done. Thanks for the tip. Hopefully we can get an answer to this.

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/28839/2843

Related (duplicate): http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/28681/2843

@Samoth, thanks for the heads up, I've added an answer there to reflect the new findings in this question.

You can try resetting to factory defaults, but I don't think that will do it. Blender simply didn't have those presets back then.
You will need to update to the latest version of Blender (you could really go back quite a ways and still have it, but I would go for the newest version.)
Try installing this ppa, then sudo apt-get update then sudo apt-get install blender.
You could also get the package from Blender.org, or the newest one from the buildbot.
Considering you have v2.64 and we are now on 2.76, there are bound to be a few changes.
note: with the buildbot, you can download the package and keep it in a folder, running it straight from there, while leaving your old Blender on you devise.

Hi, thanks for the answer, unfortunately, Fedora uses yum (now dnf) not apt, so that part of your answer won't be feasible. I might try running from an untarred release, but I doubt that I will have all the prereqs for that in my FC17 install. I will post any updates.

Okay. Can you run Program (application/x-executable) files? If you can, just download the latest from the buildbot for linux, and go into the folder (unzip it) and just run the "Blender" program.

But I'm using 2.76a (unzipped precompiled version under Ubuntu 14.04) and I too don't have those video container options. I'll try the repository, but I'm not optimistic. I honestly thought it just wasn't implemented; Insaner's evidence that the options should be there was a surprise to me. And I've used Blender for 3+ years!

Hmmm... That's very odd... I have the buildbot package and the options are there. Maybe you need more dependencies. You could try manually building it, and you can change all the options that way as well. I would try getting some of the dependencies. You should be able to find a list of them all. Here is a link to the offical Blender method. http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/Building_Blender/Linux/dependencies Besides dependencies and install settings, I don't know what else to try. Maybe there's something in the user preferences.

Also try this. http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/36107/20428

How would I check if my blender has ffmpeg compiled in? Google isn't yielding results, nor is man blender, or blender --help

ok, confirmed, I downloaded the buildbot package, and that one does give me all the ffmpeg options. Seems like fedora neuters its blender offering for some reason.. wouldn't be the first time fedora pulls something like this.

Yeah, I haven't tried Fedora... I'm using Mint, so basically Ubuntu 14.04

For those of you landing here from google, it seems that the fedora packaged blender does not have ffmpeg support compiled in. As a workaround, you can always do as @UncleSnail suggested and use the buildbot precompile and run it on its own. If you know of an rpm offering of blender that has ffmpeg support, please feel free to edit this answer, or post as a comment and I will edit it.

EDIT:
I went at this a bit and created a simple RPM .spec file for those interested in packaging the 2.76 precompiled blender tarballs from blender builder.
Modify as needed. Standard disclaimers, ie, use at your own risk.
And please let me know if you find this useful.
# INSTRUCTIONS:
# extract your tarball, then:
# ln -s /path/to/blender-2.76-1e58af0-linux-glibc211-i686 ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/
#  (or just extract to ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/)
# rpmbuild -bb /path/to/blender.spec

# RESULTS:
# -the rpm installs your new blender installation in /opt/blender_2.76/
# -and drops a symlink pointing to the blender executable in /usr/bin/blender_2.76
#   so you can just run $ blender_2.76
# -this installs a package called "blender_full", I'm not sure how to get it to install
#   without conflict if there's another blender installed

Name:          blender_full
# make sure there are no spaces in the version, as this will be used to create the path
Version:       2.76
Release:       buildbot
Summary:       A fully functional 3D modeling/rendering/animation package
License:       GPLv2+
Group:         Graphics/3D
Distribution:  Fedora Project
URL:           http://www.blender.org/

%define _blender_tarball    blender-2.76-a529ad9-linux-glibc211-i686.tar.bz2
Source0:       https://builder.blender.org/download/%{_blender_tarball}
# Source0:  http://download.blender.org/source/%{name}-%{version}.tar.gz

Vendor:        Blender
Packager:      Blender builder
BuildArch:     i686

# otherwise, it will decide it is providing libGL.so.1  libGLU.so.1, which it technically isn't:
AutoReqProv: no

#Provides:      blender_%{version}
Requires:      libc.so.6(GLIBC_2.11)

# otherwise, it will try to strip our binaries:
%global __os_install_post %{nil}

%define _blender_install_dir    opt
%define _blender_install_path   /%{_blender_install_dir}/blender_%{version}

%description
Blender is the in-house software of a high quality animation studio.
It has proven to be an extremely fast and versatile design instrument.
The software has a personal touch, offering a unique approach to the
world of three dimensions. Blender can be used to create TV
commercials, to make technical visualizations or business graphics, to
do some morphing, or to design user interfaces. Developers can easily
build and manage complex environments. The renderer is versatile and
extremely fast. All basic animation principles (curves and keys) are
implemented.

This is the self-contained buildbot release. This means it only
(basically) depends on GLIBC 2.11, and that it will install in /opt
by default.

%files

%changelog
* Wed Feb 20 2016 insaner (insaner.com)
- first version of simple spec file

%install

rm -rf  %{_blender_install_dir}
mkdir -p  %{buildroot}%{_blender_install_path}
mkdir -p  %{buildroot}%{_bindir}
ln -s %{_blender_install_path}/blender %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/blender_%{version}
cp -a */* %{buildroot}%{_blender_install_path}

%files
/*

Fedora ships blender with ffmpeg disabled for stupid legal reasons.
You can rebuild blender from the fedora source rpm with -DWITH_CODEC_FFMPEG:BOOL=ON as root as follows:
# cd /var/tmp
# dnf download blender --source
# rpmbuild --rebuild blender-*.src.rpm

The latter will most likely fail which is fine because that would be the one you already have. Install the BuildRequires:
# awk '/BuildRequires:/{print$2}' ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/blender.spec \
    | xargs -r dnf -y install

Enable ffmpeg, rebuild and install:
# perl -pi~ -e 's/WITH_CODEC_FFMPEG:BOOL=OFF/WITH_CODEC_FFMPEG:BOOL=ON/' \
    ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/blender.spec
# rpmbuild -bb ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/blender.spec
# dnf reinstall ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/blender-[0-9]*.x86_64.rpm

Now you have blender with matroska, h264 etc :)
Optionally versionlock your version:
# dnf install python-dnf-plugins-extras-versionlock
# dnf versionlock blender

Pål

Just as a note, the versionlock package is now python3-dnf-plugin-versionlock at least in Fedora 30

By default, Blender is not compiled with support for the FFMPEG video library. You'll need to recreate the Blender RPM from source with, the appropriate build flag, and install it.  The easiest way to do that is:
dnf install ffmpeg-devel
dnf download blender --source --enablerepo=fedora-source
rpmbuild --rebuild blender-*.src.rpm
dnf reinstall ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/blender-*.rpm

The build may fail for lack of a -devel package, just install the listed packages and try again.

For blender 2.79, Instead of -DWITH_CODEC_FFMPEG:BOOL=ON, there is %global _with_ffmpeg 1 on Line 16 of blender.spec which has to be uncommented before building rpm

Due to code changes in upstream ffmpeg, we need one more step in fedora 28:
After "rpmbuild -bb ~/rpmbuild/SPECS/blender.spec" started running,
replace FF_INPUT_BUFFER_PADDING_SIZE, CODEC_FLAG_GLOBAL_HEADER and FF_MIN_BUFFER_SIZE
with AV_INPUT_BUFFER_PADDING_SIZE, AV_CODEC_FLAG_GLOBAL_HEADER and AV_INPUT_BUFFER_MIN_SIZE
in ~/rpmbuild/BUILD/blender-2.79b/intern/audaspace/ffmpeg/AUD_FFMPEGReader.cpp and AUD_FFMPEGWriter.cpp


text:
Difference Between texture and material shading in the viewport?
I am working on following a basic tutorial to practice making game assets. I am new to texturing and nodes, so I had a little trouble. I did notice a difference between when I had it in texture mode and when I had it in material mode.

The image above is in material mode, and it is how I want the texture to look in my test (excluding the metal bands I still need to texture)

The above image is when it is in texture mode, so I am wondering what is the difference between the two, and how do I make sure the final product when in a game engine, stays like the material image.

You should be only worried about result in rendered mode; texture mode shows only currently selected texture mapped to mesh and will be far from final result unless your material consists only from one Image texture node plugged to diffuse shader.

Texture is nothing more than a 2 dimensional matrix of pixels - an image, nothing more. To apply a texture correctly to a 3d object you must tell it how to map those pixels (that use X and Y) coordinates to a 3d object (that has X, Y, Z coords). Doing so is called UVMapping.
So, Texture is image, that can be applied to a geometry using a sort of 'map' called UVMappig that tells Blender (or any other game engine or 3d software) where should each pixel go.
Texture only describes colour.
Now, a material describes much more than just colour. Material can describe glossines, shiness, transparency and plethora of other more or less strange characteristics of the model. Material can use textures (But does not have to) to create even more convincing graphics.
Look at a wooden chessboard for instance, the black-white checker pattern is a texture, but the way it reflects everything around, the bumpiness, shiness of it together with the texture create a material.
Moving textures between engines/3d software is easy, models when exported remember their UVMaps in most (if not all) 3d file formats. You just move texture file from one software to another, apply to geometry and it should work out of the box.
Moving materials between software almost always requires rebuilding the material structure from scratch using textures and features given software provides. Sometimes it will be relatively easy to move material between software, sometimes it will be impossible. (Imagine moving a reflective glass material to game engine that does not support real-time reflections, you will have to fake the effect somehow, depending on features the engine provides).
In your barrel example, texture would only describe a colour (also called diffuse or albedo depending on software). Material could add a reflectivity to it, some sort of bumpiness or other shiny details you can think of.

the question is not about textures and materials but the corresponding modes in Blender.


text:
New to blender; fire + smoke not rendering
Being new to Blender (version 2.79), I've tried to do the Bezier curve tutorial. Along the way, I wanted to add some smoke and fire effects to the sphere / ball in the middle of the figure.
While things show up fine in the 3D Viewport, rendering does not seem to display the flame effect. Attached is the screenshot of the node setup for the Smoke Domain Material. Any insights on what I did wrong which caused the flame effect to not be displayed in the render preview?
Link to the Blend file I've been practicing with: http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=49714

The node setup is fine apart from using color to fac instead of fac to fac from flame attribute, but that should only loose you some detail but still render the flame.

Try getting rid of Clamp in Math node, it's not needed there.

Your multiply values seem a bit high but you should see something. Try adding some strong lights to your scene. I think the best results I get with fire are when I add big emission planes to the scene.


text:
How to rig a robotic mesh?
I'm extremely new to Blender, and the first thing I've set out to do was to make a mesh and animate it; just so I get an overall feel for the software and what it can do.
That said, I need some help in trying to rig a (supposedly) robotic mesh. What I've tried in layers 0 and 10 is to parent separate objects from just one side of the mesh to the armature for testing purposes, but that ended extremely awkwardly and almost nothing moves well (especially the hand which just seem to break apart for some reason when moved).
On a previous attempt, I have also tried to combine all the separate objects of the mesh (Ctrl + J) and parent the whole thing to the armature, but that ended in a "failed to find solution to bones" error.
I'm not sure where the culprit is in the problems I am experiencing above, whether it's just poor mesh construction, lack of bones, existence of the joints as objects, every individual mesh not being merged together as one object, displacement of the origin points, or something else entirely.
I have placed (in the attached Blend file) a copy of the mesh itself in layer 1 and a copy of the armature in layer 11 if it makes for easier editing. It would be really helpful if I'm be shown how proper rigging works using the items on layer 1 and 11 (feel free to modify them as needed), so I could learn from it as well.
Thanks in advance for the input!
Link to the Blend file: http://pasteall.org/blend/index.php?id=49982

What I would do is:

Join all the different pieces of the robot with ctrl J, no reason for separate pieces.
shift ctrl alt C to make Origin to Geometry so that it's clean (same for armature).
In Edit mode select all and ctrl N to recalculate the Normals.
Back in Object mode, in the modifiers remove the Mirror which seems useless.
Unparent the object with alt P.
Delete all vertex groups in Data > Vertex Groups > menu available with the down arrow on the right of the Vertex Groups list > Delete All Groups
Display the layer with the armature, and even put it on the same layer than the object.
Align the bones to the mesh shape, for example drag the Spine head up to the bottom of the head.
Delete some useless bones, for example I don't think your Pelvis will be useful as I guess you don't want the hip to be flexible as it is a robot.
Perhaps create a bone for the hip that will be independent from the torso, you can use the current Spline to make the Hip, so create a child of this Hip for the torso, etc... it really depends on how you want to animate your object, which part is flexible etc...
Your armature is incomplete, for example you should have some IK controllers an pole targets for your forearms and shins, and also a root for the whole armature that would be the parent of the spine and all those additional controllers/targets
Anyway, let's make a basic parentage: As it is a robot, you won't use With Automatic Weights because it is rather made for flexible objects. Use ctrl P > With Empty Groups, it will create one Vertex Groups by bone, but it won't assign any of those Vertex Groups to the mesh yet.
Now you can manually assign each part of your mesh to the Vertex Group you want. Select your Object, go in Edit mode, select the left hand with L, go to Data > Vertex Group, with the down arrow menu Sort by Name, choose Hand.L and click Assign. Now when you move the Hand.L bone, the mesh follows.
Continue with the whole mesh.


text:
Textures are not sharp when rendering
This is how my Textures look in Default Mode:

and this is how they look in Render mode:

how can i get my textures in Render Mode as sharp as they are in Default Mode?
I've Read that you can change the interpolation of textures somewhere, but i can't find them. I'm using Blender 2.79b.

Possible duplicate: https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/2586/36012

@yann how can i this "Image Texture"-window? I can't find it?!

That depends whether you are using cylces or blender internal. In cycles you find the option you are looking for directly on the node that imports your image (open a node-editor and make sure "use nodes" is checked and your material is selected. Find your image texture node and change the filter mode). In blender internal, you find this option in the "Texture" properties tab, sub menu "Image sampling". I noticed that all links to the documentation are broken in @gandalf3 answer. But the naming didn't change, so you can search for the respective sections in the 2.79 documentation.

I overlooked your tags. Since you are using blender-internal, navigate to the texture panel (https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/render/blender_render/textures/texture_panel.html), select the texture in the list you want to modify and scroll down to "filter". Like in gandalfs answer: uncheck "interpolation" and set your filter to "box". Here is the 2.79 doc page for texture filtering and image sampling: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/render/blender_render/textures/types/image/options.html#image-sampling


text:
Glow material isn't working
I'm following this tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpWWYEF59lo. And the glow doesn't work. Here's a screen shot Any ideas?
Thx, Dave

Try changing the emission colour to a brighter shade, and maybe change the shading from smooth to flat. Otherwise, just continue with the vid!

Also, since the floor is almost exactly a complementary color to the glow, it won't show much.

I've tried all that.

OK, BA found it. https://blenderartists.org/t/glow-material-isnt-working/1115374/7


text:
Imported model have Bones that are straight lines
I imported a Collada file of an Eevee but it's has all of the armature but the bones are just dotted lines unlike the bones that i created can you help me. It's making it hard to animate. i tried changing the preference to sticks and others in the armature setting but it does not do anything.

I have noted that too, and just now know why that is (because I import from Source very often). Each bone is actually disconnected from each other and are only mm big. Because they are disconnected you can actually stretch/move each limb around. If they were connected the stretching/moving would be very difficult. How to turn those "parent lines" into other shapes I have no idea. Just thought I'd share my knowledge.

Nope I tried that nothing happened. The dotted lines are still dotted lines. I want to change the dotted lines back into Default Bone figure.

Like I said, I have no idea how to change the "parent lines"... Actually, those are called "Relationship Lines" into different shapes. If you make a bone chain (armature) and try to move the last one in Pose mode you'll notice you cannot move it, only rotate it. If you take an object and Parent it to another object (CTRL+P) you will see that same dotted line.

@PhonePyae Could you upload your blend file and the collada file here blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com so I can try to help you?


text:
In press Spacebar's Search Menu, can i use ctrl+n and ctrl+p choose ward?
I want use ctrl+n and ctrl+p, for choose candidate in search menu.
yeah I mean like Vim behavior!
anyone know that?
Of course we can use python script.


text:
Auto smooth by default
When I'm creating new object auto smooth in Object data tab is always turned off and angle is 30. i need it to be on and 180 angle by default when i'm creating new object .Is there a way to do that? Thank you.

you can open a new file, enable Autosmooth with 180, then File > Save Startup File (ctrl U) to make this setup enable by default when you open a new file

Mb a don't know something,but you can set autosmooth only in object properties, and it changes for each new object when its created.


text:
Can't fix this color glitch when joining objects
I have this problem with my modelling, I am in the middle of modelling and I am on a time limit. After modelling my hand as a separate object from the body I cannot join the hand and body without running into this color problem. Whenever I join the two objects the object that I select first turns a darker shade.
For example, if I select the hand first and then body second when I press join the hand will lose its modifiers (Which I actually don't mind, I want it to have the body's modifiers) and will turn a darker shade. Same vice versa. I've attached images to give an example.
I'm not sure what may have caused this or how to fix it. Is there way I can possibly fix this?

Modifiers will be preserved on the object which was selected last prior to joining. Grey color is likely due to unapplied negative scale on one of objects, before joining try to select it in Object mode, press Ctrl+A > Scale. See https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/30667/object-is-darker-after-joining-it-with-another-object-just-like-it

Apply the scale at both objects: in Object mode Ctrl+A then Scale
join them Ctrl+J
if the issue persists: go to edit mode Tab, select all A and hit Normals Recalculate in the Shading/UV tab of the toolbox (Shortcut would be Ctrl+N)


text:
Why are all my objects distorted after editting scale?
I adjusted the scale of my models, now all objects look distorted. Clipping is set very low and high respectively. Is there an (easy) way to solve this?
It has to be something with the viewport itself; when i look through a camera (in the same - solid shaded - view) or in orthographic view, everything looks good.

These setting can cause that problem. Set them to the same values your camera uses.

Thanks a lot Josip, that worked! I already experimented with those settings, but setting them to the camera settings did it. Cheers!

Thanks man!......


text:
Camera behavior ..broken?
I've got something weird. I added a third camera to my scene and all of a sudden, when i press '0' to shift the view to the camera, i get a weird view on my scene, and io am not able to change it (f.e. i cannot zoom or rotate the view when i have 'Lock Camera to view' unchecked). When i do check 'Lock camera to view', and i try to change the position, i get very weird clipping and behavior.
I was using the 2.79 RC2 release. But the problem persists when opening the scene with 2.78.

Anyone know what could be the problem? Maybe i pressed some buttom unknowingly?
Thnx anyway, Casper.

What device are you using as render device in Blender? Did you try checking CPU in User prefs? It could be a bug in graphic drivers as it isn't experienced for all users downloading that file.

I was using GPU, i tried setting it to CPU to see if there was any difference, but none whatsoever. Anyway, it's a good tip to always check if a problem persists on CPU, so thnx!

I have a solution, but i still do not know what caused this problem.
When i create an extra Screen Layout (opened the '3D view Full' and pressed the '+' to make it a new one, named it 'Default_2'), and reconstructed my preferred screenview, the problem is gone. The original Default screenview is still broken. Dunno why.
Found this solution in another topic:
Original posted solution to the same problem

Yes, i tried to edit these values (made them equal to each other) but nothing happened, whatever i did with these settings.

When you enter camera view, does it actually fly into the camera like it's supposed to, or does it fly into some other object?
There's a keyboard shortcut (⌃ CtrlNum 0) that will make the viewport treat another object like a camera. To undo that, select the camera and either press ⌃ CtrlNum 0 or go to View > Cameras > Set Active Object as Camera.
Edit: Apparently this isn't your problem, but I'll leave this answer here in case it helps someone else.

That happens often but it's visible on the first screenshot that in the Properties editor > Scene tab > Scene rollout Camera object is set as active camera.


text:
Difference in render preview and actual render
In my preview, the scene renders perfectly. In the actual render, only the shading of the objects is visible on the ground.
I know i've moved some things around between layers to clean up my scene, but i'm in the dark on what causes this. Anyone any idea? I'm using the official 2.79 build.

Man, just minutes after posting i found the problem. My Renderlayer wasn't set up correctly. Just selecting the layers on the bottom of the 3d-viewport isn't enough. The Renderlayer settings ultimately decided what gets rendered and what not.

That's what render layer does. See https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/33897/can-someone-explain-the-layer-system


text:
Segment bone fractures and reduce them virtually (for 3D printing)

After importing an STL model of DICOM images into Blender, is it possible to select the fractured bones individually (segment each bone) as shown in the attached pictures to then virtually reduce (replace) the fractured bones into position ?
I'm new to this. Is it possible to "paint" on the fractured bones in the 3D reconstruction to select it?
Should I do this with another software instead ?
My goal is to 3D print the reduced fractures.
Any instruction that can pointed out to me to perform this task ?
Thanks for your constructive input!

so, you have an STL model, and want to select the individual pieces to assemble the skull? you can select separated meshes by pressing L in edit mode, or you can paint with the C key tough looking at those screenshots that might take a while if your model has a lot of resolution.
If you could clarify in simpler terms what you want I could better help, as I'm not very familiar with DICOM images or what a reduced fracture is.

From the medical radiology system (which deals with DICOMs), I'm able to export an STL or OBJ file with the skull (with triangular polys).

In Blender, I would like to select all the broken bone parts individually (like in the first image), and manually reposition them in there right position like in the second image. An analogy would be fixing digitally a broken flower pot.
From my neophyte point a view, an easy way to select a broken bone fragment would be to select it on the 3D view by painting on its surface and then cutting out that surface/volume.

The problem I have is that I can't find instructions on how to just do this task without taking extensive tutorials on modeling (which I don't do) ;-)

ah I think I understand now, I didn't even notice the difference between the two images! this looks like a modellers nightmare, not sure how your mesh looks like, if each part is a different mesh, as in, no vertices interconnecting the pieces you can go into edit mode, and select a whole piece by pressing L over it, additionally unselect pieces by pressing shift L over them. If they are connected you can paint with a radial brush by pressing C and scale the brush with the mouse wheel. If your mesh is as dense as the one in the example manual paint looks like a death sentence.

Thanks for your input Firewill.
I'm currently having issues with the amount of vertices at this moment. Even Meshmixer crashes when I try to decimate the model. I'll try to resolve that issue and get back to your instructions. Thanks!


text:
Boolean object like texts transfer color to the object it is carved from?
I am wanting to make 3D text and then cut this text with a Boolean difference  from an object but want the engraved letters to have color so they stand out. I really could not find much on this topic. I have seen some nice tutorials on how to make some cool 3D texts but nothing about how to stamp the other object with the text color after the Boolean operation.
Thanks again.

Seems like you didn't really search much at all. https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/34215/making-intersecting-parts-of-objects-turn-the-combined-colour-redblue-purple/ and https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/18337/how-can-i-preserve-both-materials-from-two-meshes-that-undergo-boolean-union or https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/13924/engraving-a-text-string-in-blender-internal-render or https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/14698/inscribing-text-into-an-object/ or https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/44758/emboss-text-onto-curved-surface

Thanks for the reply and the links. It appears that the second link addresses my question. Thanks for taking the time to research this out for me. I will give this a try.


text:
Clone brush not working for me in blender 2.8
I am using the new Blender 2.8 and was doing a tutorial on making a seamless texture using the clone brush. The tutorial I was watching I think was done in Blender 2.79 But the Control and LMB just don't seem to do anything. I am sure I am missing something but not sure what. I read some of the other comments about the clone brush not working but they were for older versions of Blender.

What keymap are you using right now? Are you on LMB select, and could it be possible that you might need to use LMB +control click to assign the cursor location for clone?

Thanks for your comments. I never changed the preferences and left select like it should be or at least what I am used to. But in either case it does not work no matter what I click first. Nothing happens at all. The little cross hair does not appear not has it ever appeared ha. Very frustrating as there are not many videos on the clone painting brush. At least not with the new Blender.

Where are you painting, in the 3d view or in the Image Editor? Controls are different in each. Ctrl-click to place cursor in 3d view, and paint to copy the area under the cursor. In the Image Editor, the Clone brush has to use a second image selected to appear over the original image as in a full-size stencil that you move with the rmb and paint into. This is the original design of the Clone tool that should have been changed to a different tool altogether and allow the Clone tool behavior from the 3d view in the 2d view.

I tried painting in both but what I discovered after doing more research online is that I had my plane upside down. I could paint on the reverse side of the plane and also see the cross hairs but could not move them. Now I did not know this could be an issue. I still could not get the Ctrl-click to work but I could paint in the 3D view. After reading your comment on this I will have to revisit this process. I was able to paint out the seams enough to make my texture repeat without seeing any seams.  I will have to go through that tutorial again for a third time as I must me missing something.

That means you found your answer - you had needed to invert your face normal. It does happen sometimes with image planes.

I do appreciate the help as it makes me go back and scratch my head some more. I read the manual on the clone brush but it was a very short read. But I still can't move the cross hairs with Control LMB. But am glad I can use the clone tool but it would be nice to sample different areas of the texture. I wonder how a person tells one side of the plane from another?

In edit mode you can turn on the face normals in the view overlays and see which direction they are going - this is a very common thing, so if you have any other painting problem on a model, this is the first thing to check. If you want better control of placing copies of pixels, load up a copy of the image as a brush texture set to Stencil, and then you can move it around and scale it up/down, rotate it to align it to your target with much mode control than the clone tool.

Craig thanks for the tips. I will give this a try.


text:
BGE: How can I activate an actuator multiple times during a script?
I am working on a game in the blender game engine. I need to Position an empty, spawn an object at it, re-position  it, and spawn another object. When I run my script it only appears to have activated once. I have recreated the scenario in another.blend file and the situation still persists.
Here is my code:
import bge

cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
own = cont.owner

actu = cont.actuators['SpawnCube']
own.worldPosition = [4,0,0]
cont.activate(actu)
own.worldPosition = [-4,0,0]
cont.activate(actu)

An actuator can be activated as much as you want.
Be aware it will run ONCE per frame when it was activated.
What you want is different. You want to manipulate the scene at the moment of executing the custom controller's code multiple times. Josip's Answer should be sufficient enough.
alternatively you can use the AddObject actuator (for setup the master object via GUI):
addObjectActuator = ...
addObjectActuator.instantAddObject()
addedObject = addObjectActuator.objectLastCreated # call that after instantAddObject() only

See BGE API

yeah that is an issue when using Logic Nodes. I think some of them can only be activated once per frame.
There is however a solution to your problem and its this:
import bge

cont = bge.logic.getCurrentController()
own = cont.owner
scene = bge.logic.getCurrentScene()

own.worldPosition = [4,0,0]
scene.addObject('NameOfTheObjectToAdd', own)
own.worldPosition = [-4,0,0]
scene.addObject('NameOfTheObjectToAdd', own)

Thank you so much! I will have to give this a shot after work.


text:
Once I create wind, all physics in the scene stops working. Why?
I am making a flag animation.
I brought in an image as plane and turned it into a cloth.
I pinned left most vertex as the pole.
Then I ALT + A to see how the animation would look. It worked fine.
But once I create force field - wind. All physics stops let alone wind blowing.

What is the Strength option of the force field? It could be so high that the flag won't be able to stop.

I found out I needed to wait for more than 10 seconds to see it working.


text:
I need to animate a production line simulation (several rotating cylinders pushing a rubbery gasket material forward)
I basically need to animate about 5 or 6 cylinders that push a rubbery sealing material down the production line in a somewhat complex pattern so doing it by hand with keyframes is not an option. The cylinders are not in a straight line
 or only below the substance which complicates things.
My idea is to use physics and cloth with the correct constraints, settings and options to achieve this effect.
I require the cylinders to rotate constantly at the same speed troughout the animation giving off kinetic energy to the cloth, not affected by the cloth weight, pushing it forward. The cloth needs to be stiff and not buckle inward under the strain because that just wouldn't happen. It's a gasket sealing material and that wouldn't happen IRL. It's several mm thick and very
I need some help and helpful tips from people who're experienced in animation.
List of requirements:
Extremely rigid "cloth" that acts like rubber. I am fine working with extensions.
rotating cylinders that are not afected by physics in their rotation but do transmit energy via friction
Can you give me some helpful pointers? The tests i've been making  have been somewhat abysmal and it's a pretty specific thing so there aren't many tutorials around.

I think it my be good to narrow down the question to a specific problem, as it stands this is far too broad. As as many separate ones as you like.

Hmmm Well really what i need to know is how to make a rubber like substance, either using extensions or base blender with cloth and how to animate an object that rotates consistently at the same speed (not affected by physics IE a massive body) but that does give off translational energy with a high friction koeficient to the track of rubber. I guess i'll have to split it then.

It might also be helpful to add a few reference images of what you are trying to achieve, its a bit hard to follow this all from words alone. CLoth physics in Blender has a rubber preset for rubber like materials, though I don't think it supports very detailed stretching models.

Ah, i dont need any stretching. Its a sealing gasket material. Basically all i need is for it to bend on one axis while maintaining shape so i can string it along the rotating cylinders. I will try with the presets. Leather looks promising and see what i can make of it. If not i will create much more specific questions! Thanks.

I'm sorry, the question was way too broad.
I've gotten a partial solution from Duarte Farrajota Ramos by experimenting with presets and ramping up bending to 1000 and structural to 500 for the rubbery material.
I'll create a new question for how to propel the piece of ruber track in the animation forward.

constant rotation investigate drivers, and if clothes are not working for you (ea you cant make something more stiff then the program allows to, maybe try a softbody instead. (ea jelly pudding)


text:
I need to make the vertices of a mesh follow a path / curve so that the mesh deforms as it follows the path?
Edit: During an animation. I do not mean an extrude but animating the vertices of a mesh along a predefined path curve.
I have a mesh and a complex path curve. I'd like to make each individual row of vertices on the mesh follow the path. I don't know how to do this.
I currently have animall and standard latest version of blender. I can add any other extension i need to complete this task as it is crucial to the project i am making.
1) i have a custom path curve in two dimesional space (the third dimension is locked, static)
2) i have a mesh perpendicular to the path curve (mesh is in x - z and the curve is in y - x)
3) I want to make the mesh follow the path curve to get a nice animation of a piece of endless track rolling down a production line

https://i.sstatic.net/OMCrM.jpg
Ignore the curve atm it's just a test curve. I want the mesh to deform according to the shape of the curve so i can fake the physics and make a fast and neat animation of a rather complex motion by making the path curve by hand.
I want the vertices of a mesh to follow the path (mesh deforms as it follows the path) with all vertices with the same Y coordinate moving in the same way.
edit: some styling.

Press SHIFT + “C” to center the cursor.
In Front View (Press “1”) Press Shift + “A” and add a plane. Tab into Edit Mode and press CTRL + “R” and add a healthy number of Loop Cuts by scrolling your Mouse Wheel.

Tab into Object Mode and add a Bezier Curve by pressing SHIFT + A. Then Rotate the Bezier Curve 90’ on the “X” Axis. Press “R” “X” 90.
Select your Plane and add a Curve Modifier. In the Modifier Pane choose the Bezier Curve as the "Object"either with the “Eye Dropper” or enter in the name of the Bezier Curve.

Move (Animate) the Plane on the “X” Axis.

A Bezier Curve with more segments and a Sub Surf Modifier on the Plane.

Thank you! I think that this will be perfect. I will try this myself.

Interesting. Couldn't make it work, as each time I would try to move the object along the curve it would "break free" of the path into weird directions. I've had more luck with "follow path" constraint but I'm not sure this one can deform the mesh along the path

Is this what u need. I understood from your question

This u need to do
Select the plane then the curve. Add more loop cut so that have smooth shape to the plane. And press ctrl+P and select follow path and play
How it works

@cegaton yeah its just to understand.

I tried this but it didn't work as intended. Adding a curve modifier  as suggested in the Dontwalk's answer did. With smooth shading i'm going to get the result i want.


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RGB lighting on a wireframe in Cycles
I'm trying to make a wire frame around a box have RGB colors emitting from it, well they don't have to emit, just 'glow' with the colors Red Green and Blue, RGB. it's for a small project, I wan't a RGB lighting strip kind of like they show on Strix boxes for graphics cards. I'm doing all this in the Cycles engine

Please add reference images.

If I understand correctly: You are trying to do something like this

Create cube (or leave default cube when starting Blender)
Duplicate it (Shift + D)
Scale it up a little bigger
Subdivide the cube for more wire frame lines
Under modifier tab choose wireframe
For the wireframe materials copy the below set up.

After rendering the image go to your compositor and add a glare node like below. I normally do compositing in Photoshop and After Effects so I am not to good with Blender Compositor but this should be you semi close.

You can also add a streak node to make it look more like Strix

EDIT: IF you want to animate it
There are a few ways to do this, I am not sure exactly what you are trying to do but you can add a mapping node and animate the position by hitting "i" for the keyframes.

this worked great! thanks, but now I'm wondering how to make this animated, so the lights go across it.

Well there are a few ways to do this, I edited the answer to include a very simple way. If you want to get more complex I would watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2WTH016rfk

Thank you so much my dude, ill be sure to post the end result


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Retopology - move vertex + snap to model
I am attempting to retopo a face using bsurface, this is working ok for now but i would like to know if it is possible to ajust the position of the vertecies while it is snaped to the face the shrinkwrap modifier seems to be working only for bsurface and for now i can only move vertecies freely which is not good, i would like them to stick to the head no matter where i move them.
Any ideas ?

I suppose you don't see your vertex sticking to the surface because of the modifier setting: you should activate Display Modifier in Viewport and Display Modifier in Edit Mode so that you can see the original mesh and its modified version, and put a bit of Offset if you want to see it out of its Target surface.

Also, I'm not sure about the Snap option, as you already use the Shrinkwrap modifier. I guess you should either use the Snap or the Shrinkwrap method. If you use the Snap option, select Face as Snap Element and activate the other Snap options.

I suggest you look at this video on YouTube about how to set up Blender for retopology:
https://youtu.be/2hEHtKH55Us


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Physics in blender 2.8 - can't interact with objects while simulation is running
Do this in both blender 2.8 and 2.79:
Create cube, enable rigid body physics, set to active, run animation, drag and release cube.
In blender 2.79 cube will act like a real life object, that is, it'll be "tossed" by a cursor drag. Doesn't work in 2.8, cube just jumps back in place.
Example - I can't do that in 2.8.

Show us your .blend file.

Try dragging the cube while simulation is running, it'll jump back in place after you release it. In blender 2.79 cube will act as if you tossed it.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Cf06yARXoM7g_zwpKvjlu0Ocmzovp_De

Bump please! I'm having this same problem in the official 2.8 release. When you grab (G) an object in an attempt interact with the simulation it freezes the objects that are currently in motion, but the playback (animation) continues to run.

I'm following this Blender 2.79 tutorial on YouTube and the part at 18:03 - 18:14 doesn't seem to work in Blender 2.8. Could somebody else perhaps try this and confirm? Much appreciated. Thanks

I guess you looked deeper into this by now but as I'm also trying to achieve the same thing as Ben Clark might as well post my findings here.
I've done some messing and discovered that providing the object is set to be a passive rigid body you can grab it, move it where you want it and then reset the sim (timeline) and it will react correctly.
https://gyazo.com/987177ca2f87fef851519d8e12be3511
To me this looks like something to do with the physics caching system, maybe someone knows how to turn that off? :)
For a quick and dirty workaround, fascinatingly real-time grab physics still works with rigid body constraints.
Wouldn't be helpful if you want to just wack a cube wall with another cube though...
https://gyazo.com/75cdc85da98a0e7a3f67175c4386c9ee
Cheers!

Hi. Please upload any images using the built-in image uploader as a) this prevents the answer being less clear should external links break and b) this shows the images inline. See: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/75491/how-to-upload-an-image-to-a-post

Maybe it takes time for the computer to calculate the rest of the animation, especially if you have a large rigid body animation. It might crash blender if the load is to big. And I think think blender 2.8 implemented this so your computer doesn't take too much load. This is just what I think so I cant guarantee you that's it true.

For me, it worked when I activated animated in the rigidbody settings. (Sorry for the late answer)


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Decimate Planar Blender Not Responding on Big Mesh
Currently trying to apply the Decimate Planar modifier to a big mesh (400 000 faces) with angle=30 and Blender just stays stuck on it when I try to apply it (I removed the preview). I tried letting it run overnight but even that doesn't do anything.
Is there any alternative I can use? Any solution I might be missing? I'm open to code/script solutions if there's some savvy people willing to help!
Thanks


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Entire blender is greyed out/highlighted.. or something
I haven't been in blender for over a month now and when I started it up fo the first time in a while, the whole thing is like white/grey:

I get the feeling that it might be because my computer needs an update, but I can't update it because other applications don't work with the update.
So far I tried:

Updating my graphics card (didn't work)
Uninstall and Reinstalling blender (didn't work)
Going through the blender settings to see if something was ticked on or off

I feel like it's an NVIDIA problem or maybe something outside the application that needs to be turned on/off (I had this problem before but I can't remember what I did to fix it)
Any ideas? :)

It looks fine to me, its just the theme you have set. Go into user pref and change the theme

I don't think it's the theme, I never changed it before and originally it looked like the basic blender layout (everything was much darker). Now, even the words are faded out. I did take your advice though and tried to reset it but still nothing.

In your NVIDIA settings reset the desktop color settings.

@Sidar How? What does the desktop color have to do with the blender? :o

If it's not the theme, it must be some settings in your desktop configuration. I'm just assuming that if there is anything affecting your application it's either nvidia or some third party tool you might have installed.


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EEVEE how to disable background light
I‘m currently having an issue. I want to disable the background light so that objects won‘t be influenced by it. In Cycles this is easy: inside the „Ray Visibility“ option of the world tab you just disable everything except „Camera“ and the background will immediately stop casting light into the scene. However I don‘t know how this should be done in EEVEE. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

Add a Light path node to World shader, then connect "Is Camera Ray" to the strength input of the Background node.

Smart, never occured to me to do just that :)

Did you mean disable the global light in EEVEE?
Change the surface color to totally black might help.

Hi. Yes, I mean the global light. But if I turn it entirely black (as in your picture), then I‘ll also just have a black background. What I want is to have a colored background that doesn‘t emit light.


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Modeling typology for sharp/diamond like objects
I've been trying to modeling this simple diamond shape for a couple hours and I can't seem to figure out a way to model it with good edgeflow and for it to be sub-dividable. Its such a frustratingly simple model as well!!
I always tend to always have trouble keeping everything as quads when it comes to objects that end in sharp corners like these. My most intuitive attempt was starting from a basic pyramid primitive but, that wont subdivide properly.
Any tips about topology and edgeflow guys?

Final:

You can do this in couple different ways. I'll present you two of them, and both non destructive.
Base mesh:
As a base mesh you'll need to create diamond shape with triangle-like quads (yes, they are ok, and they are still quads).

Mean Crease method:
Select outer/sharp edges and add to them Mean Crease - I've used 0.96 for base of the mesh (square) and 0.8 for the side ones.
After that add Subdivision Surface modifier.

Bevel modifier method:
This one is simpler and recommended.
Add Bevel modifier, choose Limit Method > Angle. Set number of Segments and Width.
Add Subdivision Surface modifier.

Thanks a lot man! Great screenshots its been really helpful

In recreating your topo, I'm having trouble seeing the purpose of the central vertex in each face.  Degenerate quads like this can cause problems (I've perosnally seen them lead to bone heat failures from autoweights, although that might not happen in this case) and, to my knowledge, provide none of the benefits of quad modelling.  Can you maybe provide some information about why it's better to use those extra vertices?


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How to round the top edge of an elongated tapering object?
I need to round the edges of this object.
The bottom edges are going to be rounded in conjunction with another object, so, I guess, this should be left out right now.
I tried using the bevel tool (and a bevel modifier) on an edge (series of Blender edges), but I got the problems you see on the images. When selecting all edges, the bevel doesn't know any limit and isn't applied symmetrically.
When selecting only the edges shown (or only the other ones), I can't proceed with the rest of the bevel, and strange little artifacts appear.
FYI: The top surface is derived from an icosphere.

Without the subdivision shown above, a stair comes into existence (bad):

Whole object:

reading your two question, I think this is hard to help you concretely if we don't know exactly the final shape in its totality.

I'm modeling a MIDI keyboard key. I already created many objects with the correct measurements and aligned them properly. A non-angular top surface and rounded edges were my remaining main problems to my understanding. Any better idea for an agenda?

Unfortunately I believe you have started on the wrong foot.
You object has a very bad topology, it's not quad based, it is full of triangles. very unevenly subdivided with extremely high density on top contrasting with huge ngons on the sides, and unnecessarily subdivided in width direction.
All these things make harder to work with, Blender operators will misbehave, that is why you encounter these problems and are likely to expect further down the road.
Modelling applications generally like four sided faces, my advice is to start over with a better mesh base and work from there.

Watch some beginner tutorials on hard-edge modeling and follow these guides for topology

I used a modifier to get the object in its current form with its sphere-based top (see my previous question). Since modifiers are non-destructive, may this be a part of the problem? I know, the vertices of the sides don't build an even surface right now. Will I be able to clean up and rescue the object by adding a rough rounding as already seen on two edges?

Yes I saw your previous question, modifiers are generally good practice, but they tend to work on the whole model at once, so it may not work for your specific situation. In your case try eliminating the triangles on top, and removing doubles. Also make sure you applied the scale on your object, and see if it helps.

How can I eliminate the triangles on the top when I want to have a smooth surface derived from a sphere that still 3D-prints well with a detail level of 0.1 mm? What do you mean by applying the scale on my object?

Try under edit mode selecting all faces and using the operator Tris to Quads, by default Alt+ J

Under the Properties Shelf Nkey over the 3D view check the Scale parameter of your object and make sure it is 1,1,1 in all axis. If it is not, under object mode select your object and press Ctrl+A Apply > Scale

"Apply > Scale" resolved the symmetry problem, so that the missing limits of the bevel tool don't matter! Something to work with! "Tris to Quads" also did work. However, I don't see the point of reducing information, especially not because another user guessed the big n-gons on the sides in their current state will probably be triangulated in preparation to 3D-printing.

I think you'd better use hard surface modeling technics here, keeping the amount of vertices you model the lower as possible and use a 'lot' of subdivision using the subdivision surface modifier.
I don't know if you have precise measurements or only the pictures shown in the comment of your question and global dimensions. Specially, what is the diameter of the large sphere you used before for the top face... so nothing will be accurate in what I can propose here.
I started from an open cube giving it a mirror and a subdivision modifier so that it has the overall shape you need (on the left here). Then added some cuts in the geometry to obtain the one on the right :

The principle is to cut where need move the cut to the angle so that it progressively gives the good shape and harden the edges (but keeping them beveled) :

Adding some more cuts allows you to obtain this kind of shape, with few vertices that you can use to influence the overall geometry.
Here mainly 6 vertices are needed to adjust the curve on the top. That can be easily tuned if you can make a precise blueprint of your shape, put it as background image and follow it as guidelines while adjusting the vertices positions :

Thank you very much for your proposal! I have exact measurement I made with a digital caliper. Since this is my first productive 3D model, I think, I got quite far, and the bevel symmetry problem is resolved, I'm trying to stick with the bevel method.


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Combine multiple videos on panels that move around?
I'm making a music video with multiple panels, where each panel displays the video of a different instrument (bass, guitar, voice, etc.) playing the song. I need to animate the panels so they move about, and will also include stills for the background.
The videos have an alpha channel (they were taken in front of a green screen, which I'm keying out). The background should show through where the videos are transparent.
All the videos need to be perfectly synchronized with each other and the sound track.
What's the best approach to achieve this? From what I've read so far, I imagine it'd be to animate the panels and the background (as a 2d animation) and add the videos as textures on the panels. Is that right?
Also, is Blender the best FOSS tool for the job? (I'm using only FOSS.)
Many thanks in advance!!

You could build a simple 3D scene, set up a bunch of simple plane objects with the required videos as textures, overlayed on top of each other, animate it and add an orthographic camera on top.  Render using the quick viewport OpenGL only.

Thanks!!! Yes, @DuarteFarrajotaRamos, that's about what I was imagining, but I'm pretty new to Blender...

Thanks, @cegaton... My hesitation about video editors is that they'll be lacking on the animation side of things. Maybe I'm wrong about that?

I think that Blender would be ideal for this project. The sound is already mixed and consists of only 1 track. You just need to place it on the VSE timeline and set markers at different sue points. These markers will be available in the timeline toolbar as well. Apply textures to planes with transparent shader applied to alpha. Consider your camera placement first then animate each instrument or plane, in a complete pass.


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Normal map - UV Island creates diffrent brightness
I've been just starting blender these days .
I got my normal map from texture map through baking process and when I use that normal map , there are some kinds of borders between uv islands (seems like it has different brightness ..)
I searched for this problem but still I'm not sure what is the main reason causing this problem

So this is the result which I've got
And this is a normal map

I just assume that process which I get normal map from texture map made some problems ..
If this is a duplicated quistion , sorry then .
and thanks in advance
Just let me know if .blend file is needed

For Cycles: Make sure you're using the Normal Map Node correctly, and that the normal map image is set to Non-Color Data.

I already set that but it still can't fix my problem ;(

Was the normal map baked in tangent space? And is it now being mapped in tangent space? Those settings need to match up, otherwise you will get shading problems at the seams.

I baked in tanget space and it 's also mapped in tangent space .. I may guess something wrong in my uv map . Anyway I changed tangent space to object space when baking, and it seems like the problem is solved . However still don't know exactly what the problem is.   My baking process is this - 1) import texture map to a plane and subdivide it , 2) add decimation modifier and subdivision surface modifier 3) add new plane and bake normal map  from previous plane to new plane .   Any problems during this process??

Some more info that might help: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/59107/bake-normal-space-camera-vs-world-vs-object-vs-tangent

Thank you for your help . I found the reason at the end. The normal map was a problem . I made an image with setting (32 bit Float) before, and when I unchecked it and made an image, normal was baked well . Don't know exactly well why it happens..(Just one thing .. Previous normal map was bit brighter than latter normal map ) I will try to figure it out ASAP . Anyway thanks Mentalist


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Negative cylander
I am trying to make a key chain and using blender to model it but I made they object but I can't figure out how to make a cylindrical hole at the top of the object.

You should look at this; https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/15687/making-holes-in-a-mesh

Possible duplicate of How would you cut a shape out of an object using another object?

And please for the love of god don't go down the boolean road

Use a Boolean modifier with "difference" selected and the object as the cylindrical shape you want to cut out.
Here is some documentation on Boolean modifiers.
The problem with booleans is the ugly geometry left behind. If you want a bit more control when creating a hole in something, you can use the knife (k) tool to draw an outline for the hole. If you are creating a hole in a closed volume, you can connect the two holes made with the knife using the bridge edge loops tool.
Documentation for knife tool and Documentation for bridge edge loop


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What are the strange arrow things in the shader node tree?
I'm relatively new to blender, I can't figure out what they are called or even what it is that they do. Please help. Thank you

They don't do anything other than visual layout, they are Reroute nodes. As there are now several of them in line Blender shows in which side result is going to.

Since Reroute nodes don't have any input or output sockets, they are essentially just one floating isolated socket it is impossible to clearly determine at first sight if one connection is coming in or out of said node.
For this reason, to make it clearer to the user, output connections show an arrow pointing in the information flow direction.


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Exporting a range of keyframes to COLLADA
I've imported mocap data to Blender to clean, and am now trying to break the animation into multiple COLLADA files. I have two strategies, but I don't know if they are possible.

Export a specific keyframe range - I don't see any option to do this
Cut a keyframe range and replace the entire animation with the range I want to export, and do this for each range - I'm not sure how to cut the entire animation

Are either of these possible?


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Is there a blender add-on or feature that allows for imports and exports of .cmo files?
I need to import a model, which is in a .cmo file type, and for the past day I have looked everywhere on the internet and could not find a method. So I went back to my trusty blender to try, but there were no importers that allowed for a .cmo file.

What is a cmo file, what does it contain and where does it come from?

It's very technical, and I myself don't know, but I am trying to export the files from a game, not to steal them but edit them. They turned out to be, in a .cmo file type which had me thinking it might be developed by the same person who made the game. It may be a file type they created to prevent people like me editing their models.

CMO is the (defunct) Virtools game engine format (Dassault Systems sinked the company and the product).


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Textures show up in 3D View but not in Cycles Render
Here you can see two very different viewports, but they are the same scene. The bottom right is the un-rendered view on Material View. On the first picture you see the rendered view, but it does not show the texture applied to the cubes and to the lines... why?

.
.

These are the node elements for the textured material.

Your node tree is an incorrect mess. You have shaders outputting into color cockets, color ramps driving color ramps, shaders mixing with colors. Cleanup your setup. Not sure what you are trying to achieve here, but make sure you match your socket colors.

@Duarte Farrajota Ramos How would you go about fixing them? What would you change exactly?

For starters: move your Diffuse Node so that it's between your last Color Ramp node and the Mix Shader node.

The main problem is not your node-setup but the use of the textured viewport mode. this mode is not very reliable for previewing as it only displays the last selected texture of our node setup and doesn't take texture coordinates and transforms into account. if you want a texture preview without using the rendered view, switch to material view instead.
Your node setup

Delete unused nodes
Don't use color ramps as an input for color ramps (take the node socket's color into account!): The color ramp's input only takes the value of a pixel but no actual color information and translates them to the color gradient. basically your first color ramp is almost useless.
The mix shader expects two shaders as an input (green socket), don't mix a color and a shader with it
same here, connect the mix shader directly into the material output and put the diffuse shader between the color ramp and the mix shader


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Flat geometry popping out through smooth shading via displacement.
As the title suggests, here below I have a render of a ceramics object which
used a Musgrave texture as the displacement input. However, it created some flat
shading.
Why does this phenomenon occur, and how do I revert it to keep the effects of the Musgrave displacement without the flat shading? (If possible)

Yes, it's smooth shading with sub surf.


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Why are my paint strokes messed up in Texture Paint mode? They switch from pixelated to high-res
My paint strokes get messed up, as I paint different parts of the gun. I only did three strokes, all three continuous. This only happens when I paint the model, not the UV map. The UV map has no problems, I can go to the parts with my brush and it will look high-res (Paint brush) although if I switch back to the model some parts of the model get painted with much lower quality compared to the other polygons.

Do you have overlaing faces? That looks an awful lot like Z fighting, where two overlapping faces 'fight ' for the ability to display pixels in view.

By overlaying, do you mean overlapping? The mesh might be duplicated because when I re-opened the mesh today it was duplicated. Although I did get the very original one, a non triangulated version of it unlike the one above. I then fixed the duplication from that one and triangulated it, with a modifier but I still had the issue happenning.

Can you try painting on a copy of the original non-triangulated one and see if the paint still breaks up?

MMmm.. I deleted the duplicated file, which was the original one, the before triangulated one. But I do remember having the same problem, even before applying a modifier.

And does the problem persist in a generic file with a default cube, same settings? If not, then it is the geometry or the uv unwrap at fault.


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Possible way to have a different background than the HDRI background?
If the title was confusing to you, let me explain in further detail. I have Suzanne here, and I want her to show the surface reflection of an HDRI environment background picture I have set up, but in the actual render, I want to have a different color, or picture show in the background. But I still want her to reflect the first environment background. Is it possible?
Now yes, it is a posiblity to export a render with a transparent background, and edit said render in Photoshop or Afterfx if it's a video, but is it possible to do in blender?

related too https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/131215/how-i-add-a-world-background-with-color-and-with-a-hdri-sky

You can achieve this with the compositer, render it with a transparent background.
Then mix the render output with the background image you want, with the factor being the alpha output of the render.


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Objects not in Viewport appearing in Render (Armatures/Rigging)
As you can see in the image below, I have a scene with three characters, which are all animated, either
doing a dance or just sitting idle. I downloaded a minecraft rig and uploaded it to Mixamo to get
them animated. Everything looks good until you hit render and see geometry that you do not see in the viewport. I'm trying to figure out what it is, and what I can do to get rid of it to have a normal render. Currently using EEVEE. Issue also persists in Cycles. I am pretty new to rigging so I assume the issue comes from somewhere in the armature that should not be rendered, but I just cannot figure this one out.

Below are source files on Google Drive.
This is the .blend for the scene >>> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jr0czbMXa2m8NSEZZBQlSQq14pE1q_9E/view?usp=sharing
This is the .blend for the rig I uploaded to Mixamo.com >>>
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XWKYnwbYEhUykrwM2hDitCmJzSD921mb/view?usp=sharing
Thank you for your time.

These 3 objects were hidden in Viewport but not in Render as you can see in the Outliner:


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Trying to change modifier properties through script
There are plenty of questions on here asking how to add a new modifier to an object or objects. I am looking to change the properties of an existing modifier on an object. The following text is what I have came up with as an attempt that has failed.
import bpy

obj =  bpy.context.object

modifier = obj.modifier(name="Array", type='ARRAY')

modifier.constant_offset_displace[0] = 1.6

You can get the list of existing modifiers from obj.modifiers.
You can access them by index or by name. For example, if the array modifier you want is the first in the stack and called "Array", you can get with either of these:

modifier = obj.modifiers[0]
modifier = obj.modifiers["Array"]

From there on you can set the properties as you see them in the Python tooltips or in the auto completion of the Python console (or the API reference).
One correct solution for the code of your example would be:
import bpy

obj =  bpy.context.object
modifier = obj.modifiers["Array"] # Get existing modifier with name "Array"
modifier.constant_offset_displace[0] = 1.6

Note that the user can change a modifier's name at any time, so you might want to use a more stable way of finding the modifier, but what's the best way to do that depends on your specific case.

Recommend avoiding keyerrors with m = ob.modifiers.get("Array") which if there is no modifier of that name will be None. Or by type array_mods = [m for m in ob.modifers if m.type == 'ARRAY'] for  a list of all array modifiers on the object.

Thank you, just need to find a way of making it so that if the value is "1.6" then change it to "-1.6" and if it's "-1.6" change it back to "1.6"

@JackKerry That's a bit out of the scope of the question. But why don't you just multiply it with -1? modifier.constant_offset_displace[0] *= -1


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Error during Texture Atlas Manual UV Unwrap
I am using the Texture Atlas to combine UVs from multiple objects, all of which have UVs already unwrapped and laid out. To do this I am adding the objects to the atlas and then using the 'StartManualUnwrap' button. This is all following the CGCookie course on 'shading a scifi helmet'.
When I do this I get the following error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender
Foundation\Blender\2.78\scripts\addons\uv_texture_atlas.py", line 214, in
execute
    group_name=group.name, unwrap=False)
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender
Foundation\Blender\2.78\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py", line 189, in __call__
ret = op_call(self.idname_py(), None, kw)
RuntimeError: Error: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender
Foundation\Blender\2.78\scripts\addons\uv_texture_atlas.py", line 673, in
execute
    bpy.ops.object.join()
  File "C:\Program Files\Blender
Foundation\Blender\2.78\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py", line 189, in __call__
    ret = op_call(self.idname_py(), None, kw)
RuntimeError: Operator bpy.ops.object.join.poll() failed, context is
incorrect

location: C:\Program Files\Blender
Foundation\Blender\2.78\scripts\modules\bpy\ops.py:189

location: <unknown location>:-1

Does anybody have an idea why this is happening?
I tested by just adding two of my objects to the atlas, rather than all of them, with the same outcome. I also tried starting a new blend file and unwrapping two cubes, combining them with the atlas and then performing the manual unwrap. This worked fine.
Thanks in advance.

I worked around this by starting a brand new blend file and appending all my objects from the old file.


text:
Can you render a PNG animation with smoke and a transparent background?
I'm trying to make a title animation with smoke simulations and I want to overlay it on video in after effects. Can I render it with transparency or is there an alternative?
Blender 2.78
Computer specs: good enough

Yes, you can render to .png as an image sequence - the first part is already set as default for you in the output panel. The next step is to change form 'sky' to 'transparent' if you are in blender render, and if in Cycles you need to set 'transparent' under the Film tab.

I don't seem to have the shading drop-down menu.

Shading dropdown is in the Render tab of the Properties Editor in Blender Render - if in Cycles, you should look for the Film tab and check the box to enable transparent.

The earlier provided answer is correct, however there is another (faster, less resource intensive) way.
If your smoke is non-emissive (i.e. there is no fire that is to illuminate other geometry) and shading is not an issue, I would suggest OpenGL rendering the smoke from the viewport as its much much faster. The setting stay as specified in the other answer and you put out a PNG sequence.
Just turn on high resolution smoke to be visible in viewport and change the viewport display to "render only". The quality will be decent, however you sacrifice the shading.
For simple mist, smoke or fog this is a great timesaver and generates better results than AE plugins like particular.


text:
Accidentally set shortcut for vertex select to left mouse. How do I undo this?
I was trying to set it to one of my programmable keys on my keyboard but I messed up and made this happen...
Can I undo?

If you didn't after saved user preferences, it's not permanent, just close and reopen blender.
If you did it, open user preferences, then switch to "input" panel.
Then open "3d view" > "mesh" and at the bottom of the expanded list find "select mode" with "mouse" listbox value and "left mouse" setting shown.
Click on the "x" button. Done (save now the user preferences).