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Blender 2.8 - where is "right click" align horizontal/vertical?
I just want to change my panels to display horizontally
where is that functionality in blender 2.8 ?
thanks

You mean the left and right panels in the 3d view? You would like them to be horizontal at the top and at the bottom of the window?

the content of each window could be displayed horizontally or vertically by doing right click, then choosing horizontal or vertical, the functionality is gone in 2.8

I'm sorry but I can't understand:

What do you mean when you say: "displayed horizontally or vertically"? How can the content be displayed horizontally or vertically? 2) Can you give a specific example? in which version does it work and where in which point of the window) do you right click to open that "vertical/horizontal" menu?

(since blender 1.3 maybe) https://i.imgur.com/8D0oXJK.png

right click on the background on any panel

This option has been removed

yeah, I am not the only one to say v 2.8 is really a pain in the butt

The UI has been redesigned for 2.8x and as far as I'm aware there hasn't been a compelling reason to keep the horizontal layout option. You always have the option to use Blender 2.79b, all past versions of Blender can be downloaded here.


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UE4 - FBX -Blender not exporting animations
I just cannot export blender animations to FBX format

they do not play in FBX viewer
they do not appear in Unreal
no import options are displayed in the FBX import dialog

I tried exporting selecting the object, the armature, then both
also tried different options in the FBX export

edit :
I created another test scene that works, and I noticed that the scene that contains the animation that fails has an NLA displayed in green
how do I remove this ?

I never create NLA Track and it works fine for me that way.

Now I see. You try to reimport an asset which aren't the same as the import. Try to remove the old prop from the UE project, then import the new one.

I updated my question, there is a green NLA ...while my other simple cube mesh does not have that...

btw I always remove my previous import before importing in unreal, ..one never knows

apparently a bug in blender 2.9
being investigated

I'm having the same issue, the "All Actions" button is not exporting ALL or any in some cases of the actions

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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The donut is semi transparent. The icing gets inside the donut. offset & inner is +1

The donut is semi transparent and that can't make me focus ... another problem is that the icing part keeps getting inside the donut when I grab it down. i made sure to snap to face and proportional edit is on. Offset & inner is +1 .. any help ?
Ps: I am following the Blender Guru donut tutorial and I can't find what's wrong.

Hello and welcome. You have the x-ray mode on, allowing you to see through the object.

thanks a lot .. sorry but do you have an idea about the second problem ?

The second problem is literally every body faces , literally , even i faced thats why i skipped this part after a lot of troubleshooting , you can try sculpting or a high viscosity Fluid simulation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0mFLJG_Cyo , try this , CG Geek covers a variety of steps that can be taken that were not discussed by Andrew price

You need to switch off x-ray mode

thanks.. it worked

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


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How do I mirror a voronoi texture on a mirrored object?
This might be a silly question, but I wasn't able to find any relevant solution when googling.
I have a mirrored mesh. How do I mirror the texture applied to the mesh? I would like to have both wings have the same texture.
I tried playing around with texture coordinates and math nodes, but didn't even come close to a relevant solution. And I haven't used UV maps yet at all, so feel free to tell me to go learn  if that's the way:)
Edit: The wings will also be animated. They are parented to an empty between them and both the empty and the wings will be rotating around Z.
Thank you!

Is this a single object with a Mirror modifier? If so, unwrap it, turn on mirroring of UV coordinates in the Mirror modifier, then use UV Coordinates for your voronoi texture

Although I already posted an answer, I will refine it a little more.

I've added another example for why the 3D approach gives you more options than a 2D solution.

EDIT: I've changed the answer a few times because I realised you can achieve different results easier than with my first solution. Here are some examples from very simple to a little more complicated to get more control.
2. EDIT: Since you've added in the question that the wings should be animated and rotating around an axis, I've made new version which is a bit more complicated, you'll find it at the end of this answer together with a blend file.
But here is the most simple version for mirrored procedural textures without the need of unwrapping UVs (let's say you want a 3D texture not mapped onto the surface): Use Texture Corrdinate > Object with a Vector Math node set to Absolute, this way the texture is mirrored on all axes across the object's origin.

If you want to mirror only on one axis, you can simply do this by using the Separate XYZ node and only setting that value to Absolute which axis you want to mirror, for example X, then Combine XYZ to get the vector for the texure:

If you want a mirrored texture but somehow make slight variations between the left and the right side, you can do this by using the same Voronoi texture twice and mixing the left and right side together using a Greater Than > 0 node and a Color > Mix RGB node, for example in the next image thetexture is mirrored, but one side is greyscale and the other colored:

A last example for something you simply couldn't do if you would have to use UVs: here you have mirrored 3D volumetric balls inside the object.

So, here comes the version to be moved around (more or less freely):
To achieve that, first of all I need the wings object. It's the right wingside mirrored on an empty's X axis (cross shape in example) and parented to it.
To rotate the left wingside correctly when the right is rotated, I'll take a second empty (cube shape) with a Copy Rotation constraint with the wings object as Target, copying and inverting all axes and setting Target and Owner to "Local Space".
This cube empty is parented to another empty (circle shape) which is used to moving and rotating the wings around in world space. The circle empty has Copy Location and Copy Rotation constraints, both targeted to the circle, all set to "World Space" except for the rotation Owner > "Local Space".
All objects have their origins in the same location. To combine them in the Voronoi material I use the follwoing node setup:

With this setup you can move and rotate the complete wings by the circle empty and flap the wings by rotating the wing object:

Because this is all very complicated, here's the file:

Thank you! I used the Math node instead of Vector Math, after switching the nodes it worked.
However, one thing I forgot to add (and I will edit the topic) - the wings will be animated. When they flap, the original's texture stays, while the mirrored wings' texture changes with movement. Any way to prevent that?
They are mirrored on the Z axis, on an empty between them and will be also rotating on the Z axis.

@David You're welcome, I tried a little here and there as well to come to this result. I guess there might still be room for improvement and of course you can go on and make it far more complex, but just to mirror a texture this should be sufficient. Oh, I just read your addition with rotating the wings... Well, that's a problem actually. They would rotate with the object if the whole object is rotated.... maybe I will find a solution for that, but I'm no expert in normals manipulation.

No worries, for now I just duplicated and rotated the object without the mirror modifier, it will be  a bit more work to animate but luckily it's not a complicated animation anyway.
A very pleasant side effect of your answer was that it made for a much more pleasant pattern on the wings, so I'm very happy about that at least.

@David There it is, a setup to move and rotate wings around and keep the texture mirrored in place. I've tried to explain it but didn't want to write too long, so there is also the file to download which I used for the animation.

thank you so much!


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Wrap mesh around objects

How can i make it so i wrap this object all around the rocks like a tape? I have some ugly results with my own shrinkwraps modifier settings..
File > https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zkUsM3kmfe0-8_uYt7SUQyAT4Yl6w1rG/view?usp=sharing

the initial shape of your tape must go around the rocks if you want it to be projected all around

Maybe it is not what you want...but maybe you like it ;)
You could use a pure shader solution...with these nodes it looks like this:

my shrinkwrap try looks like this...but it is far from being perfect:

my modifiers:

to bend your strap i subdivided it a few times:


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How to reset axis without losing rotation?
For some reason , when I press G and Z to move the selection up, the AXIS aren't all pointing upwards, it looks like they are pointing in the direction I rotated the objects in, which now makes everything super complicated. How can I fix this problem?
This is the GIF image that I can't embed to this post:
https://i.sstatic.net/4TTtB.jpg

If you look at the GIF, when I press G and Z to move the selection up, the AXIS aren't all pointing upwards, it looks like they are pointing in the direction I rotated the objects

I think you accidentally changed your transformation orientation to 'Normal' this will result in aligning the transformation axes to point in the direction of the mesh`s normals which is why you are experiencing weird transformations. This is a very common beginner mistake. The solution to this problem is simple just change the orientation to the default 'Global'

Thank you so much. That worked perfectly! One more question - do you know why when I scale the entire collection, the light moves further away not scaling proportionally with the rest of the scene?


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How to re-link .tga files to .FBX model?
I need to re-link all the textures to a fence. I managed to see the chain links by adding the opacity texture, but instead  of there being transparency, they are black. I had also tried adding the Diffuse texture, but it would make the black turn white and it actually looks like it is a "scratch" texture but it was kind of floating vertically on the plane instead of wrapping around the tubes. The file I have are: .FBX, Opacity, Diffuse, and RGB which in the description on the website I bough it from: :is laid out in this fashion; Red - Roughness Blue - Ambient Occlusion Green - Metallness
I had already made a post with a simpler question but it was marked as an already answered question while it doesn't really explain what nodes to use to hook up the .tga textures that I have to connect.

Hello ! Have you tried plugging the alpha output of the image texture node into the alpha input of the shader ?

Hi, yes I have. This is the result with both color and alpha in, same result even if I only connect alpha. Thank for replying.

Hello and welcome. Please don't post the same question more than once. If you feel your previous question was incorrectly marked as duplicate, or the linked posts don't adequately address your issue, go back to your previous question and edit by pressing the Edit button below, including information of what you have tried, why it failed and how the duplicates don't address your issue. Once edited the question is automatically queued up for review so it can be reopened.

If you're using Eevee (or material preview), go to the Materials property panel and check what "Blend Mode" is set.  You might need to change it to "Alpha Blend."

I had to delete the object, re-import it and apply the texture again for it to work.


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UV unwrap - Material cuts in correspondence to edges
I UV unwrapped the mesh by marking two seams. One for the side of the "cylinder" and one for the base. I applied the quixel material and scaled it down as it was way too big. For some reason the texture shows hard cuts corresponding to some of the edges (which aren't seams because the only seam I marked is on the camera side).  What am I doing wrong?
Addition: I now added more geometry to the cylinder by ctrl + r and scrolling. It has more geometry but those "cuts" are still there.


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How to render displacement of cycles material output into normal map?
I'm using blender to render sprites to 2d game. I'm using render layers to separate output into different layers my game engine requires, including normal map:

However, when using a texture with displacement:

...it just doesn't show up on the normal output:

I suppose normal output has only geometry in it? How would I go about adding this texture to normal map?
Please note that I'm not baking sprites, I'm using full render output separated into layers. This is to enable animated normal map output.
EDIT:
This actually seems to work as expected in Blender 2.78a:

This seems to be a bug in Blender 2.79.

This actually works in as expected 2.78a and fails in 2.79

In my version (2.79.1 from PPA) there is no problem. Maybe you have something in your file, can you share it? (use blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com to upload the file, then paste the provided link in your question's text)

@Crantisz I have this problem in 2.79 (build 2017-09-11, 5bd8ac9) and it works fine with 2.79 (build 2017-11-05, 8a72be7) - using same config files. It does seem that there was bug and is fixed in latest version.

It is a bug in a version 2.79 (build 2017-09-11, 5bd8ac9). Same scene rendered fine in both 2.78a and latest build of 2.79 (build 2017-11-05, 8a72be7).

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


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Vertices that don't belong to vertex group move in pose mode
I've been trying to rig a fox-shaped mesh in Blender for quite some time now and keep on failing to move legs independently. Although i carfully weight-painted the mesh after using with automatic weigthpaint, moving one leg always leads to movement of vertices that are not at all weigthpainted. I would be so grateful for any piece of advice!

A couple of Vertices is moving back and forth in accordance with the pposite leg without beening weight-painted. Espacially those in the red circle.
I have been looking at it in vertex selection masking as well and i'm sure there's no accidental weight on the right legt

This is a link to the .blend file in Dropbox
Thanks for looking into this in Advance!!

Hey Denis I see how these problems look alike, but I can't find any accidental weight on the leg, i've been looking for it for ages. It would be great if you would mind having a second look at it.

You have exactly the same problem as the duplicate question, Unterarm R and Unterarm L have very low value weights all over the mesh.

Ah Ok. Now i see what you mean. Sorry it tok me so long to find the weight-painting.

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


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Rotating curve 90 or 270 degrees suddenly flips object with curve modifier
Rotating the curve along the Y axis results in a linear rotation of the object itself. But that can be counteracted by counterrotating the object.

This is the curve rotated 45° along the Y axis.

This is the curve rotated 90° along the Y axis. The rotation is linear so it can be easily counteracted.

Rotating the curve along the Z axis by 45° doesn't rotate the object.
Rotating past 85° along the Z axis however results in rotation of the object which turns upright at 90° (image) and past that it turns upside down which reverses when hitting 270°. The model itself (tank tracks) has to be able to rotate in all directions for animation purposes. Is this an improper way to animate tank tracks? What causes the issue and how can I fix it?
EDIT:

Here are my curve data settings

Could you show your curve's Object data tab? What you are using as Twisting option?

I use the default settings, twisting is "minimum"

Are you rotating both the curve and the arrayed object at the same time? Try switching Twisting to Z-Up


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Can't change base color of icing

following blender guru in his donut tutorial i found a problem with donut. i simply can't choose an ordinary color it shows me some options to choose from

Change the surface from principled to emission and back to principled

You have plugged the Color output of an Object Info node into the Base Color of the Principled BSDF. I would suggest you switch to the Shading workspace to properly see the nodes in the Shader Editor. Then unplug the incorrect node connection and adjust the Base Color to your liking.
Alternatively, if you want to only use the Material Properties instead of the Shader Editor, click on the Base Color like in your screenshot and select Remove.

thanks! i just found out that i am missing texture paint node as i formatted my pc without saving the texture paint image on internet XD

If my answer solved your problem, please consider marking it as accepted by clicking on the checkmark next to it.


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Can't change the color of the sprinkles

following blinder guru in his tutorial for beginners i colored the sprinkles but then i wanted to change some colors but i couldn't .. when i go to the compositing mode, the nodes aren't the ones of the sprinkles although i made sure i select the sprinkles

The Compositing and Material Editor are two node-based Editor Types that are very different. Beginners can get these mixed up.
The Compositing Workspace is to edit your final renders and do things like color correction, effects, and things like that.
The Material Editor is the actual Editor you want. This will actually let you change how the material is defined through tweaking nodes, and you can simply access it by changing the Editor to "Shader Editor", and selecting a sprinkle. If you want to change the colors, just go to the colorramp (the thing with a colorful bar) and change the colors by selecting flags.

oh thanks a lot .. i just figured this out and it worked :"d


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Blender renders dull animation
I am new to Blender and was using it for creating YT Channel Intro with templates available on Velosofy (This one: https://www.velosofy.com/template/intramazing-2d-text-intro-free-professional-intro-zxbyijehap4).
The problem is after rendering it with FFmpeg (I even tried AVI JPEg) and H.264 it doesn't render it as in preview, it becomes dull and even the object have black spots on their edges.

In the Render Properties>Colour Management the value for Display device is sRGB, view transform is Standard and sequences is sRGB still it's the same...
And yes it's a video and for trying rendered image...

You're probably using the [filmic] color transform, but you want the standard color transform.

Can you please tell where to change that?

And yes what about the black spots...?

Look for colormanagement in the documentation.

In the Render Properties>Colour Management the value for Display device is sRGB, view transform is Standard and sequences is sRGB still it's the same...


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Making complex-shape volumetrics
I'm trying to create a fog in the shape of infinity symbol (ထ).
Another goal is to animate it flowing cyclically.
I managed to achieve this on the surface of a mesh, but failed when trying to apply it to the mesh's volume. The main problem is making volumetrics follow mesh shape.

answer for version 3.3 alpha (and sorry, yes, i nearly always work with the newest alpha version):
Make a curve (like a 8 or whatever), add the GN node tree:

result:

.. maybe we need a version number with this answer? .. 3.3 is still alpha..

ok, added that information.     ;)


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How to distribute points on valleys only?
I want to add vegetation to my rocky semi-desert scene of Himalayan mountains, using geometry nodes. In that scenery, vegetation only grows in valleys, where water would sometimes flow.
Note that by valleys I also mean slopes between hills and flat surfaces in various heights, surrounded by mountains.
The OPPOSITE of the tree distribution in this picture:

How do I do that procedurally, meaning without weight painting the valleys by hand?
I tried to find some vector math trick, but failed to do so. Please help!


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Particle Emittor and Collections - Can't understand why
I'm following a tutorial to make these berries blast in the air around the bottle. Now, I duplicated a couple of berries and added a water droplet and moved them all into the same collection. I kept the original berry, the one with the particle system outside this collection (named Berries). The tutorial then says to create a mesh that will act as an emitter and assign it the same particle system of the first berry but creating a new instance of it. The emitter mesh is emitting something but it is very delayed and doesn't make much sense if you look at the emitter settings. The strawberries in the collection all emit pieces of themselves.
Basically I want the emitter mesh to emit a mix of of strawberries randomly picked from a collection I made.
This is the tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2r6imiurWo&ab_channel=TopChannel1on1
The .blend file: https://easyupload.io/eypxtp - The site uploader doesn't accept mine although it is 29.8mb and I don't know what else to strip out of the project.

Hi everyone,
I still haven't found a solution anywhere. Can someone help me out?

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

A Few Tweaks
I downloaded your blend and got it looking closer to the tutorial by tweaking a few things.
Scale
Your particle system is working, but the particles are almost too small to see. First, always make sure your object's scale is applied. This means that its scale is set to 1.0 for X Y and Z otherwise you'll get unpredictable results. Apply the scale with Command + A or Ctrl + A and then select Scale.

Next, set the scale of the instances in the particle settings of your emitter Properties > Particles > Render > Scale. This one is important because I think the default size is pretty small.

Also make sure Pick Random is checked.
Each Particle is Also Exploding
Your source berries each have the explosion effect on them which means each and every particle is also exploding throughout the animation. I don't think that is desired. I deleted the Explosion particle system from the source berries.
Rotation
After this the particle berries were pointing all the same way so I added some randomness with Properties > Particles > Rotation > Randomize.

Gravity
Make sure Gravity is unchecked in the Scene tab of the Properties editor. It can be confusing that this setting is not within the Particles tab.
I also found that your strawberries shoot away from the emitter quite quickly so I lowered the Velocity with Properties > Particles > Velocity > Normal

Thank you for the detailed answer I really appreciate it! Everything work although even though the particle system has gravity set to 0, why do my strawberries fall shortly after the initial burst?

@TORM3NTO I updated the answer with a note about gravity. There is a separate gravity setting for the whole scene that must be unchecked


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Is it possible selecting only edges with edge selection mode in the UV editor like in edit mode?
Using edge selection in edit mode you can select adjacent edge loops and use individual origins as pivot point to edit them separately, for example.

Meanwhile, edge selection mode in the UV editor behaves like vertex selection mode, so you can't select adjacent loops independently.

Is there a way to work with edges like in edit mode?
Thanks in advance.
Version is 2.93.5

Over the UV EDITOR on the left of the "vertex selection " icon, there is an icon with two arrows turn it on and everything that you select on the 3d viewport will be selected on the UV editor too

The result is the same, I'm aware of that feature, in the UV editor it will look just like on the second image of my post.

Not sure how you got into that state.  I just checked on 2.93.5 and if I have the object in edit mode with all vertices selected (so that the entire UV maps shows up in the UV editor) I can select individual edges in the UV editor. can you share a blend file that shows the problem? (How to add a blend file)

I could send a blend file, but I just checked with a freshly open default scene and it has the same problem. I even checked loading factory preferences.


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Semi Transparent HDPE Bottle
I am looking to create a model of a 1 litre semi-transparent HDPE bottle, containing a blue liquid. I have tried many tutorials to create a material that is semi-transparent and matte in texture, but I cannot get the material to be semi-tranparent.

I found a model that had a material that matched what I wanted. I copied the nodes into my model, but the material is different when rendered.
I am new to blender, so if there is any more infomation that you need please let me know.
This is the model with the default material.

This is the model with the material given above.

An help would be greatly appreciated.
Blender File on Github

are you using cycles or Eevee for render? Because way I understand what you want to say is that it should be white? and render is black? Then it may be because you are using Eevee and forgot to enable some settings for transparency in material settings, Could you share that bottle with us here as a file? that texture as well, or pack it into Blender file, press F3 and type "pack all into .blend" and select option from there

To extend, please check your render settings, if you are using Eevee go to Screen space reflection, enable it and enable refraction as well, go to material settings and there is Screen space refraction option as well with depth, enable this option and if your bottle is only 1 sided (and not solidified) change depth to something like 0.1)... did it help?

I have tried both eevee and cycles. Yes the object should be white, but it would also be semi-transparent. I will pack the model now and post it.

@MikoCG I have added a link to a github repo with the file in.

The material you are using for your bottle is far more complicated than it needs to be.  Use a simple Principled Shader and set Transmission and Transmission Roughness to appropriate values:

If you want to tint the bottle, set the tint in the base color.  Here's what your scene looks like in Render Preview mode with full transmission:

You might want to reconsider your lighting, and possibly use the compositor's noise reduction.


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Blender hangs when I parent with automatic weights (file given)
I am an absolute beginner. I have been following a rigging tutorial after modeling a character called Berk by Grant Abbitt. I have removed subdivision surface and mirror modifiers and applied all transformations to my model. The moment I select "Parent->with automatic weights", Blender hangs up. I have used different versions of blender and different PC's to check but all hang up. This is the tutorial that ive been following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El7xmgNyPPo.
Also, here is a link to my file: https://tinyurl.com/4asan7yp
Any tips to resolve the issue will be helpful.

Wow! I'm a little confused, I can't understand, how you have been able to produce this file:

There are 3 armatures, and none of them containing bones. Looks like the file is broken somehow, so let's fix that.
First, go to the Object data tab and get the name of our armature. It's looks like it is called "Armature":

Next, let's delete our broken object, that's not displayed in the Outliner. Select them and delete

Next, select one of the empty armatures, for example, Armature.001:

And in object data tab select "Armature" from the list. It should be with a 0 icon, because we have deleted its object.

That is it. Now armature works as expected.

I'm new. As you can see doing a VERY basic tutorial. Thus, THANK YOU for such a clear and elaborate explanation and bothering to break it down for someone like me. You are a HERO!


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Vertex Group from part of Material
I have a terrain in Blender (see red inset) and in the material node setup for that terrain I have separated an area with certain geometry features (height, orientation). Its the white area in the picture. (Nodes used : Geometry, Mapping, Colorramp)
My question is if there is a way to select the vertices in the mesh that correspond only to the white area, in order to create a Vertex Group. Now, if I create a vertex group directly from that material it obviously includes de vertices of the black area as well.
Thanks in advance !
Lynxx

UPDATE
Thanks Serge and Ray for your comments. I think I am closer to the solution but I cant seem to find the last step.
I have baked the texture and used it as a mask in the Vertex Weight Mix modifier, but I still not clear on how to select only the vertices with a weight of 1 (red ones on the left in the image bellow).

When I go into edit mode, to assign vertices, all are selected not only the ones corresponding to the red area. I have even applied a Mask Modifier as show below, to mask the blue area, but again when I go into edit mode the whole mesh appears not only the red part. So I cant select only the red vertices.

Just to clarify, I want to select only the vertices (red part of Weight Paint), to assign them to a new Vertex group, so I can then assign a material to only that part of the mesh.
Thanks again.

Use Vertex Weight modifier, it is assigning weight based on input image parameters

Related: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/3355/vertex-group-from-texture

Thanks @SergeL for your help, I have updated the question to see if I can find the last step to the solution.

Thanks @RayMairlot, I have added an update to the question to see if I can finally solve it.

It is not necessary to apply Mask modifier. You can enable all displaying options of Mask and Vertex Weight modifiers (those icons near camera pictogram). Next, you enter edit mode and select everything. It is mandatory to select NOT by clicking A, use selection tools instead (like border (B) or circle (C)). Once you select everything, assign selection to new vertex group.

Hello again @SergeL, thanks for the answer. Sorry to bother you again. I have removed the Mask modifier as you said, but I really can not find where I can enable those options of Mask and Vertex Weight modifiers that you mentioned. Where exactly are those options ? Do you mean the buttons on the right of the modifier panel with these titles ?

Display Modifier in edit Mode
Adjust edit Cage to Modifier result

Yeah, these two options should be turned on.

Assigning weight
Add Vertex Weight modifier, create empty vertex group, enable group add and tweak few sliders to get it work.

Selecting vertices
Add Mask modifier and select same group as in Vertex Weight modifier. Also enable all display options to see modifiers working in edit mode (inside green box on screenshot)

Next, you enter edit mode and select everything. Press A twice to toggle selection. It is mandatory to select all NOT by pressing A, use selection tools instead (like border B or circle C) with wireframe view  enabled Z to speed up things a bit. Once you have select everything, assign it to new vertex group.

To check if you done it right, disable viewport visibility of modifiers.


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Is it possible to have windows which are independent of the workspace?
What I am looking for is the ability of having independent windows that retain their type and shading/viewport settings when I change workspace. What seems to happen is that each workspace changes each of these independent windows to the last used state (or how you defined the startup file if you are just starting Blender). Is it possible to have windows not linked to workspaces? Thanks.

I think that's only possible with floating windows, for example the one that opens as the preference tab.

"View/Area/Duplicate area..." will give an independant window not related to the workspace..

Holy crap, lemon, I have a dual monitor setup, and you just saved me a lifetime of tab-switching! I've been using blender a long time, and never knew you could (or even thought to do) this. This deserves to be an answer in it's own right, in my opinion,

The "view/area" menus have a "duplicate area into new window" which gives an independant window that is not related to the workspace.

I'll add that once this new viewport exists, you can use the "editor type" selection button in the top left to make it any kind of editor window you want - Amazing for multi-monitor setups!


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Texture paint paints some pattern
Heres the model with UV map, i unpacked it again and created a new inage for it, so UV would me clean, but no result. U can see the red markings on UV from my brush.I was trying to paint on my model, and this happened for some reason. I didnt want to paint like this, i was painting with the casual brush. Looks like the pattern is the actual UV map.. *Its dull from inside

Have you tried removing doubles in edit mode? That kind of pattern can often be cause by having lots of duplicate geometry.

Tried it now - removed 0 vertices

Interesting... Can you add a screenshot of the object in edit mode with the UV map?

It looks like you are using the texture you are trying to paint as the brush texture. Have you set up a material with the texture you are trying to paint? Are you trying to use a textured brush or a default brush?

Im trying to use a normal brush I dont know that i set texture as the brush. how can I reverse it?

Check out the answer below.

I see that the pattern looks like an UV unwrap painted image, so look to see if you have also loaded your unwrapped texture as your texture brush - because if you do, you will see this pattern continue to tile across your painted object. Simple method is to look under your brush for the Texture panel and press the X to disconnect any texture from the brush.


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some faces are darker with fine normals
I'm having problems with this face. It is darker than all other faces with fine normals and flat shading. How should I fix this?

here the highlited areas seem to be wrong, especially the whole plate on top

I think you might have to share an indicative sample of this one on https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/. Do try deleting the face and refilling it, though, if you haven't already. It might help expose double vertices/faces, wrongly assigned materials, etc.

here you go

While i could find some wrong normals, mainly all "dvere" and "gumena rucka", i could not see the darker face you mentioned. May be because there were no textures (not complaining, could be that you can't share them), or the camera was aiming at the wrong place. Would be helpfull if you could describe it a bit more which object has the problem or when you share the file, select the problem part and save then.

Here is updated file, the troublesome face that I first posted about is not wrong(I used remesh modifier and it seems to have fixed it), but there are other examples as well. It would be reassuring to know the source of the problem. also I'm adding a picture for the updated file

You use a good few materials on certain objects and i first thought that might be the reason, removing them one by one brought me to the bad one.
Problem :The material, "platne white+color?", is the reason, more specifically the "Normal Map Node" which is set to "Tangent Space".
Solution: Changed to "Object Space", all was fine, see the video below.
Little extra:
Since i always check for wrong normals when there are issues, please bear with me, as i mentioned in the comments already. Your scene has 2 objects with a few of each that i would strongly advice to correct the normals from. May not have been an issue yet, but i's generally a very good idea to keep them blue(correct) to have no issues later with renders. Glass reflection and refraction as well as subdivision as well as maybe materials can all be affected.
I put a little video here to show you the bugger and the way to correct the normals, just in case you didn't know yet.

By fixing the material, all objects that used the same material got corrected as well.
Also the material preview can give an indication that something might be wrong.


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System freezes when trying to start Blender
I recently upgraded to Linux Mint 20. Have not tried using Blender before, so not sure if that has anything to do with it.
Whenever I try to start Blender it freezes the whole system and I need to force the laptop to power off. I don't think it's related to the specs, as the hardware should meet the minimum requirements.
I experience the same issue when starting the game engine Unity. So it's probably not a bug in the software.
Can anybody help me?
Below are the specs. If anything else is needed, I'll add it to the post.
 System:
      Kernel: 5.4.0-42-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0
      Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 Distro: Linux Mint 20 Ulyana base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
    Machine:
      Type: Laptop System: Acer product: TravelMate P2510-M v: V1.00
      serial: <filter>
      Mobo: KBL model: Aquila_KL v: V1.00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Insyde v: 1.00
      date: 08/24/2017
    CPU:
      Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-7200U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
      arch: Amber Lake rev: 9 L2 cache: 3072 KiB
      flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
      bogomips: 21599
      Speed: 901 MHz min/max: 400/3100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 901 2: 900
      3: 900 4: 901
    Graphics:
      Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 620 vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: i915
      v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0
      Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: intel resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
      OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.0.8
      direct render: Yes

Update:
blender-softwaregl seems to work without problems. So there has to be a problem when using the integrated GPU.

Sorry for people having a similar problem. But I just installed Linux Mint 20 from scratch and that solved my problem.


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Error Baking Fluids Simulation in Flip Fluids add-on Blender
I installed the flip-fluid addon from a different website and not the official one (i cant afford the original one). It does seem to work fine but when i try to do the simplest fluid animation in blender and click on the bake button, it gives a message "Error Baking Fluid Simulation". I will provide some images of my problem.
blender version: 2.93.5

There's a message in the info log "See system console for error info."  You need to open the terminal window and post a screenshot of those error messages

As mentioned above, the console window will show the error (Window > Toggle System Console). When using Blender 2.93, make sure that you are using a compatible version of the FLIP Fluids addon. FLIP Fluids v1.0.9b or later is required for Blender 2.93 compatibility. Versions older than this can result in these types of immediate error popups.

Ok I added the screenshot

it does say 1.0.9b so i guess its not the version is it?

From the error screenshot, it looks like the unofficial distributor may have packaged the FLIP Fluids addon in a way that causes it not to function correctly.
The folder that contains the addon's scripts must be named flip_fluids_addon, but from the screenshot it looks like it has been renamed to ~Get Your Graphic Files. The fix is to rename that folder to flip_fluids_addon.
More info on how to verify a correct installation can be found in this documentation: FLIP Fluids Addon - Addon Installation Troubleshooting

omg thank you so so much! you fixed the problem completely!

I advise you to download this version, you shouldn't have any problems. On the site there is the relevant documentation and a lot of important information.
https://github.com/rlguy/Blender-FLIP-Fluids


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Boolean Difference subtracts empty areas
I'm trying to create a jigsaw puzzle from a 3d terrain by subtracting a "die" but instead of leaving the puzzle pieces behind, it erases the whole puzzle as seen in the linked blender file below.  The die was converted to mesh from a curve that was extruded and solidified using a modifier.
Blender File

Please add screenshots

Booleans need solid geometry to work. I think Blender is assuming your cutter is intended to be a single solid. Really interesting idea, but I'm not sure Boolean is the tool to make it work.

@RonJensen it looks like he has solidified the puzzle piece cutter, just barely, so I expected it to work.

@TheLabCat That is correct and the cutter is a single piece

I tried to convert my curve to mesh before extruding and merge by distance to remove double nodes and then convert back to curve (then extrude, solidify and back again to mesh) but Blender now crashes instead when I do the Boolean Difference.

Maybe I could simply use the curve and the knife tool, but I would need to be able to set the width of the cut because I plan on 3D-Printing this and I don't think that the pieces would properly fit together without any gaps.

Using Booleans for this is an unelegant and brute way to solve this. https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/59086/generating-jigsaw-pieces-from-svg-curves

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos I don't see how you can set the knife width? It's the reason why I wasn't using it because I will print the puzzle and it needs a little gap to assemble easily.

Either bevel all edges afterwards, or design each piece as a bezier curve and use the offset property


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How to remove sharp edges when using subdivision surface modifier?
I'm having trouble with a subdivision surface modifier.
I'm making all with a python script
I want to get rid of sharp edges on the sides of the different levels

this is the modifier and it's applied on a plane with subdivion number of cuts at 1000

EDIT 1:
Subdivision and subsurface modifier
#subdivide and add surface subdivision modifier
bpy.data.objects.get("Canvas").select_set(True)
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode="EDIT")
bpy.ops.mesh.subdivide(number_cuts = 1000)
#bpy.ops.mesh.subdivide(number_cuts = 2)
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode="OBJECT")
subsurf_mod = obj.modifiers.new("subsurf","SUBSURF")
subsurf_mod.levels = 3
subsurf_mod.render_levels = 6
subsurf_mod.subdivision_type = "CATMULL_CLARK"

i tried different changes found while searching on google, but nothing worked

Do you have edges marked as sharp? Are all the vertices welded together, that is no two vertices share the same location? Please share your mesh view. Can you share a minimum script that exhibits the behavior?

Hi, I just had to subdivide more.. anyway now the problem is with the render levels that while rendering looks like it's gettingthe viewport level value and I don't know why.. @RonJensen

I personally think the problem is not with the subdiv, but with the Python-generated topology.Maybe share that script, to explore the possibilities in there?

added the subdivion and subsurface modifier code


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How to improve quality of baked textures
I've baked all my characters textures in 4k expecting them to be pristine in quality, but they are all very pixilated and blurry. I've tried upscaling and changing the resolution but none of that worked. What should I do? (All images are PNG's)
Here's an example of my normal map. It should look like fabric but instead the fibers are all pixelated

Try increasing your render samples.

Not only doesn't it look like fabric, the resolution is with 216x256 a factor 16 smaller than what 4k are supposed to be.
Did you specify the right dimensions (4096x4096) when creating the texture? The "Render Resolution" doesn't matter when baking - the size of the selected image (node) does.
I wouldn't try using an AI upscaler here. Aside from a possible mismatch between texture types like color/roughness/ect the normal map still describes a normalized vector, which likely won't be considered.

the reason this image is so small is because i took a snippet from the actual 4k image as it was too big to upload here. Also i couldn't find a good ai upscaler, they just made the image slightly brighter instead of fixing the quality


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Blender 2.79 freezes when I try to open file
Every time I try to do anything that involves action of actually looking at my computer files through blender, Blender stopps responding (right after I click the button) for 2-5 minutes before actually showing the files to me. I tried opening console, but there was nothing new when I for example tried to import a background image

What is saved in the file? How many geometry, modifiers etc.? What is your hardware?

Processor - AMD 3,5GHz 6-core, RAM 8 GB and hard drives of 931, 465, 298 GB and system SD 55 GB  It freezes even on empty file - i opened new project and tried to get there some backgroung images so i can model. Problem insists when i tried to select save folder for 50 vertices object with just mirror modifier

"anything that involves action of actually looking at my computer files through blender" could mean this is related - https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/49201/blender-hangs-for-a-minute

It very likely is, I have tried it yesterday, but with no effect maybe I`m doing something wrong, but i linked the .exe file and all, but it again opened in the slow,freezing "mode" I will try it again tomorrow. Also, I thought if you go to My computer, and on upper bar I can see network drives and there is option disconnect. Are these the same drives the solution is talking about?

Yes, that's should be correct. Note though that if removing those shares they might become inaccessible if not shared from scratch.

SO, I installed Linux next to windows 8,1 and it was working perfectly, but than Linux wasn't usable anymore (some drive related issue tried to fix it but didn't have the patience), so i removed it, and reinstalled whole windows. Now i have Windows 10 and the issue still lives on. Altough, I must admit, my processor has one broken pin, but that doesn't make sense because Linux evaded the freeze. Should I install Linux once again?


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Rendered model is broken
So I was finishing my model and I spotted this deformation.
I have bevel modifier applied, but turning it off doesn't fix it.
It also appears in rendered image

You could try setting the shading on you object to smooth, and then using an edge split modifier or using the Auto-Smooth normals option in the object data tab of the properties panel. This will shade areas that are mostly or completely flat as completely smooth, and should get rid of some of the visible edges.

The issue seems to happen because you have an n-gonal surface (the side of the sword has more than 4 edges). Usually, when renderers encounter faces that have more than three or four edges, they get confused.
To fix this, try to select the face and 'triangulate' (ControlT) it. This will split the faces into triangles, making the shape less ambiguous for the renderer.
If this doesn't work, you'll have to manually cut it up with the knife tool (K) until only quads and triangles remain. If you do this, try to make a uniform pattern (don't just cut randomly).

I tried the triangulate - didn't work, it was horrible. And than i did it with the knife tool, but i could still see the cuts, which i don't get why, because the circles were projected onto the big plane, so they all should be in a row - no edges


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I don't know how to add shadows to hide maps
I have a spider and an hdri map. the spider is catching reflections but not making shadows on the ground. please help.

HDR Environment maps don't generally cast very hard shadows because of their soft uniform lighting

could you please upload your blend-file to http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com and/or provide a screenshot of your render-szene? it's hard to help without further information.

Possible duplicate of Render shadows over a transparent background in cycles

The problem is that the HDRi is "surrounding" your scene (Like it's covering the inside of a sphere). You spider isn't actually standing on anything to cast a shadow on. Here's a tutorial that isn't the same Situation because it is using a photograph. But around beginning around 2.0 minutes there is useful information for you. https://www.blenderguru.com/tutorials/render-onto-photo-background


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Limits of uv unwrapping in blender 2.80
I've been researching how Blender uses the CPU. It seems each algorithm is different where some may use all cpu cores, others may only use 1 or 2 cores.
I am trying to unwrap a very high poly count model from Photogrammetry software. ~9 million faces.
I am using 'Smart Uv Project'. I have also tried normal Unwrap method.
however, the cpu usage starts at around 20% and then crawls to almost no activity and the program becomes immediately unresponsive.
after a few hours the cpu usage sticks to around 4% and doesnt change from then on out.
Is this normal? Is this a limit of Blender?
Thank you!
Model Poly Count:

Resource Monitor after about 5 hours:

My machine:

Ryzen 9 3900X ( 12 cores / 24 threads ), Dual Geforce GTX 1070 GPU 8GB
  , all SSD, 64GB of ram
Blender v2.80

9 Million pieces is extremely high for one model, you should make a retopology before UV Unwrap in order to reduce the amount of polygons and have a better and more manageable object. Think about this: a Transformer robot (from the movies) is around 900 Thousands faces and they look amazing in 4K.

I know its extremely high. thanks for responding. This is the master hi-res mesh used to create all the derivative decimated meshes for web or 3d print. So its important to keep as much of the detail as possible.

I am wondering if anyone knows what the limits are for blender?

As far as i know, Blender can handle 45 million polygons, but everything depends on the hardware specs


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VSE: how to change mask position per frame
I'm used to using the red record button at the bottom, which allows the mask to move with the object in question.
I have an animation that isn't fluid enough to allow this though, and the frames skip alot, so using that method just captures dead space in between.
I want to make a mask and edit it frame by frame. SO say I want to capture a square that is in the top right of my screen in frame 1, and in frame 3 it just jumps all the way to the right bottom of the screen, then its top right....top left..etc. all over the place each frame. SO if i do the red button way, I got it moving and capturing blank space in between the frames.
If I set it frame by frame the mask doesn't move, it just resets to the original position when i change the frame...idk how to make it stay in the new spot on the frame I modify it on.


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Blender VSE: What to do with 20gb SSD (performance enhancement/rendertime)?
so my D drive has about 1 -2 gb of drivers on it. Otherwise there's over like 22gb of free space there. So let's say 20gb to be safe. Blender and everything else is on my C main hard drive.
How can I take advantage of this to improve blender vse performance and render times? I don't care about the 3d stuff so much atm.
Things that I'd like improved:
-render times are horribly long in my vse (if I'm rendering with the cpu it's in the 90% load rate in the task manager generally) I render to preview my work and make sure there's no errors, before creating the final render. Would writing it to the ssd and then viewing test copies there and then deleting afterwards greatly increase my render times?
-I have to use 25% proxies most of the time when doing any major editing. I can finetune with no proxy but its painfully laggy and slow, and things jump around and stutter and freeze.
-in my big project which is 20-30 mins of footage, it constantly reloads the strips when I zoom out. And its really laggy even with 25% proxy, and no proxy things jump around and freeze up. My fps has gone from the native 22.81 down bit by bit and its at a measly ~8fps even when I'm previewing blankspace at 25% proxy (there's alot of stuff in there atm). my ram is usually only up to 60% used tho when dealing with 25% proxy mode even tho it laggs so much, at no proxy tho the ram can hit the 90%'s and thats generally when it does freeze up for a second or two and studder)
Can I improve any of these with my 20gb of ssd that's inside my laptop there? Specifically what, and how would I go about doing it? Just note I do have the 1-2gb of drivers there (came pre-installed that way and some of them are dealing with backups and other important stuff). Otherwise I don't really know if the drive is even running or being used tbh. SO limited knowledge leads to hesitation to do anything too fancy.
Blender and all my video file are on my hard drive atm....and when I move file locations I have to always go in and re-select where the new location is or it won't showup in the vse. And I'm unsure if I'd have to do that for every strip I made a hardcut on, or every separate video clip or if there's an easy way to change the reference folder for LOTs of items rather than doing them all 1 by 1....or if I'm best only touching the ssd for future projects instead.
Would appreciate any insight, thxs. Please elaborate where possible, I'm not overly tech savy. People say it makes blender load up faster, that doesnt really do much as it loads fine alrdy. Its just moving stuff and interacting with the vse as well as rendering that I want help improving. Surely rendering would be better no? or does it not matter since encoding is the slow part and not the writing to disk?
I was looking at using my ssd as extra ram like u can do apparently with usb drives..? But apparently ssd don't work the same way or something, and are simple hard drive functionality? Is buying a large usb drive and using that as extra ram gonna be helpful as well? I think I can only upgrade my ram directly to 12gb or 16gb from my 8gb...or mbe not at all it might be soldered on the cpu

Unfortunately, VSE render is a single threaded process and the only way to drastically speed it up is to run multiple instances of Blender to load each core and then use FFmpeg Concatenate function to merge results

Theres an addon(?) I think that will do exactly what @Serge suggests

It get faster renders from Blender VSE when I make sure to eliminate any scaling. My Canon cameras produce 1920x1088 footage. Set Blender to render at 1920x1088.

well i rendered without scalin  and its 11 hours for 25 min vid....hah

How is that an answer? it has nothing to do with the question and I originally already did eliminate scaling and as I stated the time was 11 hours for 25 mins of video. I made the OP and looked into what to do with my SSD because it WAS 11 hours.

You can follow the recommendations on this page:
How to import footage in the VSE for optimal playback and organization?
But don't expect miracles, until the VSE is developed further, the performance is sub-par compared to any other dedicated video editing app.


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VSE: rendering highest quality audio settings and process?
Okay so basically I had to export a ton of lined up .wav strips from my blender file into audacity. So I mixdowned them with settings .wav F32 signed (1 accuracy). Then I then put in audacity. I then edited with audacity, and stuck back in blender VSE for more fine tuning/lining up with the video. Now I seem to be okay going back and forth between audacity and blender using mixdown and this .wav f32 format (1 accuracy).
But here's the part I get totally lost on though: Render settings:
If I want to render audio and video together in blender my options are limited to ffmpeg h.264, a container like matroska, and then for audio codecs I have:
PCM / flac/ AAC
-Everytime I render flac with video its mute (I can mixdown with .flac but can't render it with video for some reason...idk)
-So that leaves PCM and AAC. Given my filetype you'd think PCM would be the best option. But everytime I render out with PCM I am completely underwhelmed by the result. Its like a mediocrity filter is put onto everything.
-Whereas with AAC I am generally happy with the end result.
But aac is lossy and For this project I need the highest quality audio possible as I have voice overs and music combined, thus I was using .wav f32 prior.
Also I don't trust blender when it comes to rendering audio. It always does weird stuff, especially when its changing containers. If I go aac, I'm telling it to convert a .wav f32S type into aac. Is this dangerous? Is it safer to convert in audacity and then put the aac file in blender and export as aac?
But as well this project needs to be uploaded to youtube, so aac may be better for that? I'm more inclined to believe better sounding clips regardless of container will sound better when uploaded to places like youtube, but my experience with video containers has said yielded different results...but were talking about audio so mbe its different.
Can anyone help with this convoluted mess of issues? Just any answer for any part of it would be great.
i tried looking into other programs for combining audio and video like ffmpeg or whatever, but I get completely lost...and from my  knowledge it seems you can only mix ma4 or whatever files (m4a?) via that method? Then there's all this stuff about how you might need command lines to link output to each speaker....and how u might need this....or that...

If you render out AAC with a bitrate of 384, I doubt very much that you or anyone else will be able to differentiate between the AAC and the WAV. If you absolutely must have lossless audio, then I recommend rendering out raw from Blender and using ffmpeg to join the audio with your video.

Welll I rendered out in aac with 384 bitrate and rendered out in PCM with same. Then I stuck all 3 (original .wav f32s) in audacity. And PCm sounds blurry and muffled  compared to the original. AAC is better but also lacks the depth of the original. I don't know how to use ffmpeg though. I can do it if I use an mp4 video and a .wav file.
"Copying the audio without re-encoding
If your output container can handle (almost) any codec – like MKV – then you can simply copy both audio and video streams:"
ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i audio.wav -c copy output.mkv
wut is it for h.264

Like I said I seem to be able to mixdown from blender okay using the mixdown settings of .wav f32 1 accuracy. SO I can do that again.....and that gets me my audio strip. now how to combine...? like my video file is rendered.mkv ; my audio file is audio.wav; do I just set my output to any name with the extension like combined.mkv?

Well I tried the command: ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i audio.wav -c copy output.mkv  and the audio was completely screwy in the output.

Saying that the output was "completely screwy" isn't all that helpful. I did: ffmpeg -i video.avi -i sound.wav -vcodec libx264 -acodec copy output.mkv and it worked fine.

I can't do avi though, avi gets all these artifacts. I have to do matroska as my input video file

and what is vcodec libx264 -acodec ?

It said in yellow: guessed channel layout for input stream #1.0: stereo when I did ur new code but wiht mkv:
ffmpeg -i video.mkv -i sound.wav -vcodec libx264 -acodec copy output.mkv                             still sounds like what you'd expect from some kind of walkie talkie or plane radio with bad conneciton

ffmpeg -i audio.wav -filter:a "channelmap=0-0|0-1" output.mkv  Remapping the channel  after that new command u gave me seems to have cleaned up the audio. can't tell if its lossless though or if it degraded or not, will have to run some tests. Does this all make sense tho? am I missing anything else? Like the 2nd command....doesn't make sense to me, why do I need to specify the .wav still if I already merged them into the output? Why can't I do output to output for the 2nd command? is the first command even necessary?

ffmpeg -i original.mkv -i audio.wav -c copy output.mkv  This other person told me this should be fine as the 1st command, that ur extra bit wasn't necessary, he went a step further and told me vlc player probably isn't registering it right and to try ffplay (i.e. that it should work after the first command and that the float is not registering in vlc). Regardless I'd still like to know what the extra bit in ur rendition of the command does exactly so I can decide for myself.

turns out the simpler command works fine on its own if you use ffplay as the player instead of vlc. So the 2nd command doesn't seem necessary (unless u have to play it in vlc), nor does ur spruced up version of the first command. So I'm gonna test to see if it uploads fine to youtube and plays like in ffplay or not. If it does, I guess that answers my concerns so long as there are no outstanding issues with the output losing quality from the original .wav file (obv the youtube version will be lossy).


text:
How to merge .wav F32 audio file into rendered video file without loosing quality?
I edited and madup an F32 .wav in audacity. I want to merge it with the blender video file I rendered out without losing audio/video quality. How do I do this? Doesn't necessarily have to be done again via blender. If you suggest via blender please be specific on the settings, cause I've had many many problems with the audio rendering of blender.
Edit: without re-encoding I guess is what I'm asking? Just want the file in audacity to sound the exact same as the file paired with the video.

Blender will re-compress the video and video, adding more artifacts. If you already have the video file then you only want to "mux" the two streams together. There are several programs available to do that one task. You can use ffmpeg by specifying "copy" as the codec, something like  ffmpeg -i video.mp4 -i audio.mp3 -acodec copy -vcodec copy mixed.mp4

Several programs....such as? I mean you can look online but I can't necessarily find information about whether they do the same thing blender does or not....or if they respect the format or if they re-encode and drag the quality down someplace. I gotta mix like 23gb video file with 1gb audio file, what kinda information would I look for when searching to get what I want? I mean VLC player has the ability to combine audio and video, I read online briefly it can hurt quality tho (idk if true or not). Shouldnt blender work if I'm mixing with lossless settings selected like: PCM+losslessH.264avi?

Blender will essentially "play back" the video, so it draws a frame to ram and then encodes it, even if you don't lose any quality with lossless codecs, you get the overhead that makes it a lot slower. I have only used ffmpeg for de/muxing so can't recommend others, I've just noticed muxing specific apps when looking for other info. I would expect an app that describes itself as muxing video/audio will not re-encode the video.

the video isn't mp4. the audio isn't mp3 the audio isn't aac either. its .wav. So how is that ffmpeg command gonna work? I can't find info on ffmpeg and on whether it allows you to combine formats like the ones I have. All I see are commands on how to combine aac with mp4 video.

All I see are commands on how to combine aac with mp4 video. everything I find assumes you are combining an mp4 video with some audio. I have a H.264 format, not mp4.

ffmpeg -i original.mkv -i audio.wav -c copy output.mkv  combined but the audio was completely screwed, like it switched to mono and went through something horrible.


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Highest quality method of mixing and exporting multiple audio channels in blender?
I'll try and keep this to the point:
Let's say you import 32 stereo tracks into the vse. Stack them ontop of eachother, occupying all 32 channels in the vse.  You mess around with the volume levels in blender (anywhere from 0 - 9.0) and get it nice sounding on ur earphones in the vse playback. And now you want to mix and render them out of blender as a single stereo track. HOw on earth would you do this in blender to ensure highest quality possible?
You have to use mixdown, that's a given to get acceptable quality.
So is it a case of setting your accuracy to 1 and choosing a high quality format like .wav f32 for your render settings? The only higher format is f64, with ridiculous file size, no?
The big issue though is how do I export it knowing blender amplifies audio waveforms when it combines more than 1 track together rather than doing the merge you can get in programs like audacity. Coupled with the fact that you have no idea outside of guessing and feeling, whether you are clipping anywhere if not everywhere in ur track, as the vse playback gives 0 indication and there is no setting to confirm in the vse.
So would you lower the master volume (or gain, or amplitude, whatever word you refer to it by) to a very low setting and render out that way? (You can do this under properties->scene the mastervolume is available there) But do I damage quality if I render out at say 0.1 or 0.2 of the original 1.0 master volume? Do I need to choose the highest mastervolume possible without clipping to get the best export quality?
Curious if there are any other methods out there or settings I missed.

I'm afraid you may have answered your own question.  VSE isn't a very good audio mixing application.  I would export each track separately and then do the mix down in Audacity or other audio mix program, export the mix in a lossless format that blender can import and go from there.


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No choice for beveling edges
Say I've got a thin plate, like a cylinder, that's only 1mm thick - i.e. a disc. I want to bevel the edge all the way around.
Whenever I use the bevel tool, it puts the initial slice proportional to the depth of the surfaces. So, the "plate" surface that's get 90% of the bevel while the "edges" that are only .1mm wide get only 10% (making an angle of about 80deg).
I want the same bevel on both surfaces - i.e. the initial cut is at 45deg, not 80 ,so that he bevel is a smooth arc of constant curvature.
It doesn't seem to matter how I play with the popup setting: width or profile, it always stays at that 90/10 ratio.
Alternately, is there a simpler way of just rounding thin "edges"? (My actual shape is more complex than just a cylinder, so any solutions can't be too generic. As long as I can select the edges or faces I want to bevel, and by how much.)

This looks like the result of non-uniform scale. Select the object in object mode, press Ctrl+A and select scale. Then try your bevel again.

Well, that worked although I don't understand it. What is Ctrl-A doing, and how am I setting scale?

The long and the short of it is that when you scale things in object mode, it messes up blender's sense of it's "dimensions", which is known as having a non-uniform scale. Because of this, it's better to perform most operations in edit mode because a non-uniform scale will cause problems with bevels, insets, texture coordinates, etc... However, if you do end up making transforms in object mode, you can "re-acquaint" blender with it's dimensions by applying location, rotation, scale, etc.... The real answer is much more complicated, but this is just what I can fit in a comment.

Oh, I see. it sort of resets the baseline of the scaling and rotation. Thanks.


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Boolean Difference makes my object disappear
I am trying to make notches in my hollow pipe-like object. (It has ridges on each end, so it's actually three hollow cylinders that have been 'join'ed into one.)
When I "boolean difference" a cube from my pipe-oid, it disappears.
I'm well aware that this is a common problem and the culprit is coplanar faces, so I ensure there are none, *including rotating the objects a fraction of a degree.
No joy.
Anything else I can do? I really hope I don't have to recreate the pipe-oid from scratch and leave it un"join"ed for this to work, because pipe-oid actually has eight siblings - all unique sizes.
My sample file to play with:
https://pasteall.org/blend/b506a504ea9b44c18820b3eb6c06e12d

Hello, have you tried the Fast solver? Maybe share your file: https://pasteall.org/blend/

The culprit isn't only coplanar faces, but it may be due to incosistent normals, double vertices, internal faces, overlapping edges / faces which can't be merged by distance since their vertices don't share same place in 3d space etc., in fact, all kinds of non-manifold geo. So check both objects for any similar problems

File link added to opening post, moonboots
I think you're right, Mr.Zak, the object itself probably has flaws.

Fast solver does not make pipe disappear but doesn't close surfaces to make it solid.

The problem is that your three cylinders have been joined in a way that creates overlapping faces and that confuses the exact solver.  I think you need to redo the model with only two cylinders attached only at the ends.  You can do all of the stepping up and down of diameters by extruding to the point where you want the step and then extrude-in-place/scale up/down.

What do you mean "two cylinders only attached at the ends"? Doesn't that make the ends coplanar?

I don't know what 'self' does, but it worked! I don't know how to set a comment as the answer. Hopefully, the mods will set it straight.

glad i could help

@DaveC426913 now that Chris has added an answer, you may accept his answer as the solution.

Check self and exact in the boolean modifier.


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Making a DNA backbone using screw modifier
I don't get the nuances of the Screw modifier required to produce the spiral I need.
I made several failed attempts at describing it - basically - a double helix - one rail inside, one outside. Anyway, here's a pic:

I don't really get how I tell it where the axis is (dotted red line) in relation to the cross-section object (two unconnected-yet-synchronized red rectangles).

You see I've got the orientation all wrong. But worse, it looks like the inner helix is rotating several more times than the outer helix:

In the center of your object, there is a little orange dot - this is it's Origin Point.  You first need to move the origin point back to the World Origin (where the X and Y axis cross) - With the object selected, press Shift+S and select "Selection to Cursor" (because your cursor is at the world origin anyway). This will move the whole object back to the World Origin Then, in Edit Mode select the whole object and move it back to where it was - moving it away in edit mode will leave the object's origin back at the world origin, while the object moves away - we want this because the screw modifier works based off an object's distance from its (and the world's) origin. Lastly, make sure the correct rotation and scale are applied to the object (Select it in Object mode and press Ctrl+A and select "Rotation & Scale").
If you want an easier way to make a double helix, first, go to User preferences > Addons, and make sure you have "Add Curve: Extra objects, and Curve Tools selected:

Add an Archemedian Spiral.

In the operator Panel at the bottom left, change the height to 8 or so.

In the curve options, change the twist to Z-up and extrude it a bit.

Duplicate the object and rotate it on the Z-axis 180 degrees (Shift+D + R + Z + 180) to have the second one in place.

If you want them both to be "one piece", you can join them afterwards by selecting them both in Object Mode and pressing Ctrl+J.

Thank you! You've introduced a monkey-wrench into my idea. Your double helix is not the same as my double-helix (mine has two different radii; yours are the same). I'd better check which one I want.

If you're talking about my first example,  ideally  the 2 "layers" of your helix should be their own separate objects, each with their respective origin points at the world origin.


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Blender crashes after rendering one frame
I'm very new to blender and I'm trying to render a short animation I created form a template. I've set up my rendering options/output properties following a guide I found, but after rendering a single frame (both as an animation and image), instead of saving the PNG to the correct destination, Blender just closes. I was told there could be something wrong with my output settings, so here's what I have:
https://gyazo.com/e30251ec66866b222abd9fb1d20b0188
I've tried changing my output location and selcting Cuda under preferences, neither worked.
Link to blend file:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7y7qgoxncsyd3d0/20th%20Century%20Fox%20Template.blend?dl=0

If you'd like I could use my Sheepit points to render it for you to check if it's a problem with the blend file or your computer.

Are you using Cycles or Eevee? Can you also list your hardware specs? You might also want to post the blend file to see if anyone else can reproduce your crash.

@NascentSpace That would be great, if you wouldn't mind. Here's a link to the .blend file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7y7qgoxncsyd3d0/20th%20Century%20Fox%20Template.blend?dl=0

@Cultmethod I'm using Eevee, though I've tried Cycles as well. I just attached the blend file to the original post. My specs are:
-RTX 2080ti
-32GB RAM
-i9 9900x

I've started rendering the animation, did you want all 600 frames?
https://www.sheepit-renderfarm.com/jobs.php

@NascentSpace You don't need to render the whole thing no, I just wanted to know if it was something my hardware/setup. I guess it is then?

Hmmm that's quite strange, when I tried to render it with eevee it immediately crashed. When rendered with cycles it renders the image and then crashes after completion. So it's possibly something wrong with the scene itself.

@NascentSpace Hmm ok. Anything in particular I should look out for?

Not entirely sure what the problem could be, try and hide some of the things in the scene and see if anything changes perhaps? Does this happen with other similar scenes? If you partially recreated it and tried rendering in a new project does the problem persist?

When you want to render you first bake your animation, then render it in silent mode with command line : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9IW96FisnU


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Render animation zooms in rendered video?
Haven't had this issue before, but for some reason now, after rendering my video, the bottom potion of my video goes missing.
For example, the view of the video when rendering seems to have zoomed in and so the chest up to the chin is cut off.
How do I fix this issue?
(I'm using Blender 2.83.5) Thank you.

First make sure that you are seeing the whole render screen by pressing the home key

The image you posted is very low resolution and hard to read.  Make screengrabs within blender https://i.sstatic.net/jHzGA.png.

I've completed an entire rendering of this video edit with this negative result.

I've unchecked the Render Region box, but nothing has changed.

It is hard to help if you don't respond to the comments. Did you press home in the rendered image to see the whole picture? Is theoriginal source video the same size as the render size (1920*1080)?

Just checked the size of the video and discovered that it is not 1920x1080, but much larger. Going to try changing it now. Thanks.

Just changed the resolution, with Frame All Fit and I think the issue has been resolved. I'm just waiting till the rendering has finished to confirm satisfaction. In the meantime, thanks so much for your help. I really wasn't expecting feedback so quickly and efficiently. You've been a great help!

please write an answer to your own question so that others can learn from your experience.

Checking the rendering was the same resolution size as the original footage and adding 'Frame All Fit' (on the Render page under 'view') dealt with this issue. Hope this helps :D


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Video of same length playing faster than the other
Compositor Workspace:
I have two of the same movie clips playing together at the same time but with one displayed under the other due to chroma key issues. For some reason, one is playing faster than the other. What can I do do fix this?
Thanks.

That is because blender is using frames, convert both of them to an image sequence and choose the same frame rate for both. One of them will be off https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVJ0bw1xNkA&t=86s

Blender can have problems if the video is encoded using Long GOP (or interframe compression) , where the information for each frame is dependent on other keyframes.. Try to avoid such compression schemes and use intraframe encoding in blender. You might need to transcode your video (using external apps) or convert the video to image sequence.

Does this answer your question? Render is duplicating random frames when loaded into 3D tracker

The youtube link you sent me helped and it worked to some degree, but the is still some lag. So I'm trying out a different method, or adjusting/experimenting and I'll see if I can improve anything. Thanks.


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Seam Issues when Posing Model
Good to be here. Am just getting used to this lovely app. Guess I have ver. 2.83. I have learned how to rig bones and fix bones, add textures, not to mention a handful of other things related to import/export plugins. I have hit a snag though which my powers of play have yet to fiddle out a nice tune.

Also made a screencapture MP4 so you can see in real-time how when I pose my model, the neck area begins to tear. I am sure there is an easy fix for this. But until now, it has evaded me. Hope it ok to post mega links. Was not sure how to upload/show a video here.
https://mega.nz/file/dRMzFCQb#0qZZ-XO2w9uS92gZZrFFIy7h6FiUTieYP2XqMgGFP6k
EDIT: Thanks to Ben, I was able to merge the head and neck meshes using a careful selection of all verts in at the seams, then punch m, then By Distance. Unfortunately, while there is no more tearing, the model now gets garbled at the seams when I try to pose it.

I am not sure this will help, but make sure in weight paint mode, the side of the neck that is not moving is not blue. If it is blue it will not be affected by the bone so you can then weight paint onto it and make it affected by the bone. I hope this help!

OK, so its not that the vertices need to be welded or joined, it is simply I need to select each bone around that area, and weight paint it to NOT move when the bone does?

I think what is wrong, is that the bone is not affecting that area. You want the other side of the split to move, but I think that the problem is that the bone doesn't move that area. In order to make it so the bone does the effect that area, you have to go into weight paint mode and make sure that when you click on the bone in the vertex group area, you need to make sure that the other side of the neck isn't blue. if it is, it will not be affected and you will need to paint over it with the bone selected in the vertex group tab. I hope that this is helpful!

Yes, it would probably be golf to merge them together. In edit mode, you can merge vertices together by selecting the vertices you want to merge and pressing m.

Not golf to merge them, good to merge them. I can't find an edit button on the comments.

Yeah, I think it(the edit button) times out after a few minutes. Thank you very much for your suggestions Ben! How I fixed the tearing was to do as you said. Select the area where the tear was happening and punch m on my keyboard, then By Distance. That merged just the vertices I needed to get my mesh solid. The new issue I have now in posing is the area around the merges seems to garble out. I tried weight painting those areas based on different adjacent bones and had some luck with cleanup. But not all.


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UV unwrapping to rectangular image
I'm using rectangular image, as that makes it easier for the game to read texture overlap. But whenever i unwrap a mesh, it gets stretched along longer side. So even a cube with square faces gets its faces as rectangular on UV.
Scaling back to 1 doesn't do anything as i can create even an absolutely new cube mesh and it does the same silly thing.
Apart from manual adjuststing (scaling) on y-axis (usually it's y-axis), is there any other way to prevent this from hapenning at all? It's still easy if i have that image say 500pixels on 1000 pixels - i've got to type in 0.5 each time when scaling down a bunch of UV faces. But that's not the point here.
Edit: Thought that would have been self explanatory, sorry - here is a  screenshot.

One the operator panel, after the unwrap, uncheck "correct aspect".  Does that do what you want?

could you please share your blend file or add screenshots with shader nodes + all relevant settings so we can check it out?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/66727/whats-the-meaning-of-0-to-1-space-in-uv

@Nathan - that "correct aspect" option does absolutely nothing haha... It's possibly useful in other cases but not in this one. I thought about it before, tried it again in case i missed something but it doesn't work here at all.

@Chris - here is a screenshot added. Not sure where I should get settings from. Unless all you need is in that screenshot.

@macluk I guess you understand the "correct aspect" wrong. If you read the answer that Duarte has linked to, in UV space (0, 0) is the lower left corner and (1, 1) is the upper right corner. So (0, 0) is 0% of the UV space in X and Y direction while (1, 1) is 100% in X and Y direction. Every image that you are using is mapped like this. In your case, if you are using a rectangle picture e.g. 2000 pixels wide and 1000 pixels high, and the face you unwrap is 10 m x 10 m, than it's "correct aspect" is 1:1, so to fill the UV map this would mean 100% wide, 100% high = 2000 x 1000 pixels.

@macluk You unwrap with the rectangular image in the background of the UV Editor, right? Or do you have a material on the object you're unwrapping, with an Image Texture Node? Because to "ignore" the rectangular shape of the image, the unwrapped object needs to have a material containg that image texture assigned to the corresponding faces.


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how to make local orientation after transforms were applied?
I've got Blender 2.92.
So i have that mesh that I have transformed a bit (a rectangle tilted on X axis, scaled up and down in few places so it looks like a stool leg), the I have applied all transforms and I've lost normal transform orientation.
I've watched few videoes on creating a custom one but that doesn't do anything - as soon as switch back to that mesh, it's a standard original orientation (global one). I already tried creating that custom orientation in object and edit mode - it's called "test" in the screenshot attached - and it always switches back to global settings, no matter which orientation i choose.
Reading Blender manual never helps - they give the basics, and it's covered in the youtube videos anyway - so thank you in advance for telling me to read it, I've already done that.
What am I missing that people in videos have no problems doing that, and I have? I'd like to extrude or even move the top or bottom face of this mesh at the same angle as the sides are.

EDIT: I have found out that going to the Viewport Gizmo menu, and changing the orientation in that menu works.
How to unblock it or make the other menu work? Not a big issue now that it's solved, but it would save me hours on searching for that.

Why did you apply all transforms?  What problem was that intended to solve?  Because the short answer is, if you don't want to lose your local axes, then don't apply all transforms (importantly, don't apply rotation.)

I have applied transforms because it solves other issues when scaling, extruding and so on - so I have automatically done that. But I have found something... I'll add that comment to the main post in a minute.

the problems you're describing are solved by applying scale.  So only apply scale, not all transforms.

ok thanks. i'll try not to mess it up next time...

In addition to mentioned in the comments, if you use gizmo, choose transform orientation in gizmo dropdown (left corner). Dropdown in the center changes for the operators run with shortcuts (yes, not the best design choice out there).

Well... it's for free. I can't complain on design. Is it actually right top corner? Or is there a 3rd Gizmo menu? I can only wish it was easier to find all information about that :)

I'm referring to transform orientation dropdown, not menu to enable gizmos to be displayed. See related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/167900/what-is-the-shortcut-for-orientation


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How to darken crevices/grooves/engravings
I'm making 3D models of weathered gravestones with photogrammetry and using the textureless model with simulated shadows to read the engravings:

It works pretty well, but it's much more legible if I make the engravings black and the surface white and don't depend on shadows.  For some stones, I figured out I can do this in Blender by importing the .obj file, and making a shader that divides the world into white and black by coordinates, then very carefully rotating and shifting the model until the surface is in the white zone and the engravings are in the black zone:

This is tedious, and doesn't work at all if the stone isn't perfectly flat, like if it bulges out in the middle, etc.  You can see how the area around "July" is darker because it's not quite flat there:

How can I make only the engravings dark and the flat parts white, in a way that ignores broad curvature and doesn't require me to rotate it to a specific angle?  Is there some kind of "color by local depth while ignoring global depth" shader?  Or "take the median position of the connected vertices within a certain radius and then shade based on Y depth relative to that median"?  Or "anything that can be touched by a 30 mm rolling ball is colored white and anything touched by a 5 mm rolling ball is colored gray and the rest is colored black" except with continuous color variation vs ball size.

There are many ways you could accomplish this, but I think trying to do it all in the material is probably the wrong approach. The parts of the model that you want to be darker in color are fundamentally a property of the mesh, not of the material the object is made from. Therefore, you’ll almost certainly achieve better success by annotating the mesh with additional information that you can use for shading, not carefully trying to make the two parts coincidentally line up. Is there a reason you can’t simply use a different, darker material for the engraved faces?

@AlexisKing I don't care if they're shaded with different materiails or whatever.  My question is how to isolate them from the rest of the mesh in order to do that.  It's just one big mesh; there's nothing special about them except their curvature and/or depth.  Right now I'm isolating them by effectively slicing them off with a plane, but that doesn't work if the surface isn't planar enough.  I have very little experience with Blender so I don't know what other tools are available.

I don't really understand what you're trying to do.  Are you trying to just make the engraved parts darker?  Or are you trying to separate out the engraved part of the mesh?   If you posted a blend file of one of the stones it might help to understand.

If you're just trying to make the crevices darker as the title says, you might find something useful here: http://www.blenderinsight.com/1494-2/ <- it's all about 'wear and tear' using various techniques.  I'd look at the Pointiness and AO sections, for starters perhaps.

@DaleCieslak  I'm trying to just make the engraved parts darker (by separating out the engraved part of the mesh).  :)  In the above example, all I've done to "separate" it is to color parts of the object differently depending on which side of a plane they are.

@DaleCieslak I tried "pointiness" already but it didn't do anything.  Maybe I don't know how to use it.  It just turned the entire model to the same color.

I mentioned Pointiness in the comments and you said you tried it; the thing with Pointiness is that it's a bit hard to handle so you really need to "crush" the value down in something like a Color Ramp.  In this image, both of the stones are exactly the same model, but on the right hand side is the node graph you see below.  Note how the words are visible on the right and invisible on the left?  I squeezed the pointiness values in on both sides of that Color Ramp:

This might not be the exact solution you want, as the bumpiness of the surface and the edges of the stone also show up in my example due to the pointiness, but if you tweak that color ramp you might get the result you're after.  You can also tweak the Mix node to make it more or less subtle.
You can also try the "Advanced Pointiness" from that link I shared in the comments above.  It gets rid of the spottedness and might be more what you're looking for:

Where I have that "Noise" texture that would be where you put your actual texture; I just did that to give the cube some kind of texture.  To adjust the darkness, you can change that -10 to anywhere in the range -10 to 10 based on how sharp you want the color.  0 would be gray and likely invisible.

It doesn't matter what I do with the color ramp, I just see a solid color: https://i.imgur.com/eKPjAU6.png

Oh I had to turn on "Cycles".  Now it kind of works, but yeah the graininess of the surface makes it all speckled https://i.imgur.com/ZJNIL4D.png

I added another method above that you can try.


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Integrator is missing in render Sampling tab?
I've seen Integrator in sampling in many tutorials and in sampling articles and blender manuals but I can't find it in my properties. I am new to blender so is there some preference setting to enable for this?
I am using blender 2.93.6

Are you sure this is Blender 2.9 and not Blender 3.0? I can see the Sampling > Integrator dropdown selection box right above* Sampling > Render* in Blender 2.93.6. But according to this release notes (https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Reference/Release_Notes/3.0/Cycles) => "Branched path tracing was removed. We recommend using adaptive sampling to automatically allocate more samples where needed." - see section Removed Features and Compatibility at the bottom of the page.

@Blunder yes I am using 2.93.6 , I edited the question with version image.

Hmm, I have the same version, same hash. The only difference I can see is that you use the GPU while I have to use the CPU for render.

This option is not available if you set your render device to Optix.
Use None, CUDA or OpenCL (not sure about OpenCL but I can't test it) to enable the option. go to Edit > Preferences > System and expand Cycles Render Devices.

this is old info for old versions.

@JKCapeTown Hello ! Thanks for the feedback. AFAIK integrator is available by default ? Not sure it warrants a downvote since the answer still stands for version 2.93. Make sure you are using Cycles render engine.


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Transfer/Bake existing Normal texture to the new UV map - incorrect shading
I want to repack multiple objects to single UV and transfer textures to that new UV. All maps works correctly, only the normal map doesnt work, and I think Blender doesnt recalculates tangents correctly. I watched almost all tutorials on youtube and most of them only transfer color map, only person who transfer Normals doesnt notice that shading problem ))) So is there any way to do that?
I created new UV channel, just rotated UVs, created new blank texture and set color space to none. I activate first UV channel and selected new one. Selected mesh and blank image texture node. Under render tab, selected Cycle, and under bake tab selected normal map, influence space set to tangent and hit bake.
When I look at new normal texture it looks like Blender did something about tangent recalculation. The angle to bottom side of the texture is red and top is green as in original, but it still has that shading problem.
I tried to invert green channel, red channel nothing works. Rebaked with -y option, it made only one side of the mesh correct but top and bottom was still problematic.
It works if I dont rotate UV shells, and if only change positions. I can of course export model to Xnormal and bake there, but I really really really hate to import export things, just want make everyting in single place )))

Looks like Blender only use tangent space from first UV channel, same as UE for example. So if I change rotation of UV shells in second UV channel normal map in that channel will be wrong. May be after converting it to object space normal I can make it work somehow.
About transferring normal map to different UV correctly, the only way I found is:
Duplicate mesh and assign material, create blank image texture and select it. Unwrap duplicated model as needed. Choose Normal under bake type and activate Selected to active in the bake menu.
Give small extrusion number or use cage and be sure original normal texture is connected to original mesh material. Select original and then duplicated mesh which we want to bake to and blank texture still selected hit bake button.
It will create almost exact normal map with new UV map. I noticed new normal intensity is a little softer, we can always increase intensity of normal anyway.

Not 100% sure if this applies to your scenario, however, in all my testing with UV maps recently, I have found that a lot of problems can be avoided by directly specifying the UV Map for BOTH the material AND the baking image within your material (if a Normal Map node is used, don't forget to also specify the correct UV Map in the node!).
In the shader editor, go to Add > Input > UV Map to add a UV Map node. Use this instead of the standard "Texture Coordinate" node, because now you can specify EXACTLY which UV map to use for your Source UV map (the map you will be baking FROM).

Now, add a second UV Map node in the material, specify the UV Map you will be baking TO and plug it into the new Image Texture you will use for the bake. In the image below, I have put the Image Texture used for baking inside a node group, that way when I add the group (and its UV Map node) to all the other materials assigned to my object, I can simply open the group and change the image I will be baking to, which will then automatically change that image in ALL the other materials that node group is found in. Don't forget to select the Group Node (or the baking image itself if you are not using a Group Node) before you are ready to bake:

Lastly, make sure you have selected the UV Map you will be baking TO in the Object Data Properties tab:

I hope some of this info helps!


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How to make this sharp circle edge rounded?
How to make this sharp circle edge in the middle (highlighted on pic2) - rounded like all the other edges of the cube? I tried "Bevel" but probably I don't master it well enough, or maybe it is the wrong tool to use...

Hello :). Do you mean the highlighted edge? Or the top rim, created by the solidify modifier?

Hello, please share your file, there are several reasons why the bevel might not work, like for example inner faces or ngons

Possibly there are doubled vertices along this edge.

Applying Bevel before modifiers (solidify, etc.) did the trick. Probably you were right regarding problematic inner geometry.

The bevel tool is what you need but won't work properly on your model because the top of the tube lacks edges to join the vertical edges on the outside and inside of the tube. See the picture below.
To get them there, delete the polygon at the top of the tube, then select the inside circle (click on an edge with alt held down) then hold shift down while selecting the outside circle. Then bridge the edge loops. (You can press W and choose Bridge Edge Loops from the menu.)
Edit - have tried to help with the wrong edge - didn't read your question properly.
Using the Bevel tool - press Control B, then, without pressing a mouse button, move the mouse around until it starts to do something to the edge - you might need to move back and forth a bit - when you get something that looks like what you want, Left Click. If you want to use numbers or fine tune - left click then go into a Bevel menu - see bottom of workspace and click on down arrow to open menu.

I mean the highlighted edge...


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Geometry nodes: create array like object with rotations
a. I'm new to Geometry Nodes and would like to ask how can one achieve the following using them:

take an object (could be the monkey head) as reference
place one more such object just above (on z-axis) the first one and rotate it 90 degrees
add third one above the second and rotate 90 degrees more. And so on...

b. Does it create a real mesh, or only the first reference object is "real"? (i.e. can I, e.g., connect some vertices from the first bottom object with the vertices of the last into a single mesh?)

For Blender 4.0 experimental build try Repeat Zone ... here is some explanation

You can use simplified quellenform's answer ... this node tree is assigned to Monkey.
Mesh Line > Count use for number of instances. Empty object is used for Loc, Rot offset step ...

Blender 4.+ ... you can test Repeat Zone for even more simpler way ...

what about question (b)?

It depends :) You can add Realise Instances node, than you can access any vertex in generated mesh. The problematic part would be to create a selection of these specific vertices. It really depends what do you want to connect. Or if you don't mind you can Apply modifier and connect then manually in edit mode.


text:
Artifacts after applying subdivison surface modifier
I get strange artifacts after applying subdivison surface modifier. There are no double vertices. The problem is only in this place. The rest is nice. How can I fix it?
Without subdivision:

With subdivision:

Wire view with crease values:

And with subdivision:

Check out the crease value (1) in the n-panel for all the edges around the vertex.

you need to change the topology, please share your file: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

Please, see the additional screenshots. Thank you!

@AM: the "mean crease" is 0 as can be seen on the picture... does it gives you any ideas?