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Shrinkwrap modifier not displaying correctly in edit mode when the target object has a subsurface division modifier
When I am in edit mode on the target object of a shrinkwrap modifier, the shrinkwrapped objects do not show their shrinkwrapped positions, and instead revert to their default position, which makes adjustments trial and error.
Toggling "View in edit mode" on any of the modifiers does not keep the shrinkwrap visible in edit mode while editing the target object. Is this possible?
EDIT: The trouble seems to happen when a subsurface modifier is on the target object, and entering edit mode on the target object causes the shrinkwrap modifier to shrinkwrap to the object BEFORE the subsurface modifier has been applied.
EDIT 2: Inexplicably, this bug seems to be dependent on the computer that is running blender. On certain desktops, it displays correctly in edit mode, and on others, it does not. If anyone has insight into this it would be greatly appreciated.
EDIT 3: I have discovered a workaround after coming across this vaguely related sculpt mode bug report (https://developer.blender.org/T95761). If a mirror modifier is placed AFTER the subsurface division modifier on the target object, the shrinkwrap will display correctly in edit mode. A redundant, second mirror modifier can be placed at the bottom of a modifier stack to serve this purpose.
Blendfile:
Object Mode:

Edit Mode:

While the underlying reason for this bug is currently unknown, a workaround has been found:
If a mirror modifier is placed AFTER the subsurface division modifier on the target object, the shrinkwrap will display correctly in edit mode. A redundant, second mirror modifier can be placed at the bottom of a modifier stack to serve this purpose.
This workaround is also referenced in this sculpt mode bug report (https://developer.blender.org/T95761).

Welcome to BSE,
I tried to recreate your issue by applying a Shrinkwrap modifier to a subdivided plane, using a Monkey head as the Target object:

I can edit the Monkey Head (target) object, and the Shrinkwrap modifier on the Plane object updates in real time:

Maybe I've missed understood your issue?
If not, please make sure that when you are editing your target object, only the target object is selected.
It is possible that you have both the target object and the object with the Shrinkwrap modifier selected. If so, when you enter Edit mode, you are entering Edit Mode for both objects.
When you enter Edit mode for the object with the Shrinkwrap modifier applied, the modifier is temporarily disabled.
If nothing else works, I'd suggest deleting the current Shrinkwrap modifier and adding a fresh one.
Edit (as per comment):
In this example I've added a Subdivision Surface Modifier to the target object, but I'm still not seeing any issues with the Shrinkwrap Modifier:

Edit 2 (As per comment):
I've downloaded your .blend file and opened it. Without making any changes whatsoever, I selected the Suzanne head, and started pressing Tab to switch between Object and Edit mode. I couldn't see the same issue from your screenshots:

I tried in both Blender 3.2 and Blender 3.4.

Thank you so much for the quick response and investigation. I am now aware that the interaction I am describing is occurring because a subsurface modifier is also being used on the target object. Is this unavoidable?

You're welcome :) I've added some screenshots to the bottom of my answer including a Subdiv, but I'm afraid I'm still not seeing your issue. Maybe you could edit your question and add some screenshots to demo the issue?

You're certain you are not accidentally editing both objects? While in Object Mode, press ALT+A to DEselect everything, then left-click the Target Object to make sure it is the ONLY object selected when you enter Edit mode. As mentioned in my answer, if you accidentally have the Shrinkwrap Object selected when you enter Edit mode, the Shrinkwrap modifier will be temporarily deactivated.

I've added a couple screenshots showing the difference between edit and object mode on suzanne.

Interesting... I've tried to recreate the problem as per your screenshots but have been unable to. Would you mind sharing your .blend file? https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/658/including-a-blend-file

Mysterious! Blend file added to post.

Even more mysterious - I tried opening your file in both Blender 3.2 and 3.4 and STILL couldn't recreate the problem! (See screenshots added to my answer)

Well. Isn't that splendid. haha. Hm. Not sure... what to make of this. Very bizarre and troublesome. Regardless, thank you again for your persistent efforts to try and solve this with me!

No problem, sorry I couldn't solve it. As a last ditch option, you could try 1) remove the Subsurf and Shrinkwrap modifiers, and save your project. 2) Open a new project. 3) Use File > Append to browse to your saved project and add the Shrinkwrap and Target objects into your new project. 4) Add the Shrinkwrap and Subsurf modifiers. I'd be curious if you still have the problem in this case.

I'm baffled. This behavior persists when creating new blend files and repeating the steps. Updated from blender 3.2.1 to 3.2.2 and the problem still persists. What could we possibly try and rule out that could be causing this to occur in my blender but not yours?

Also I should note, I have tested this on another desktop here, and the behavior is persistent between the two computers I've tested it on. Same behavior on both.

I tested this on a 3rd desktop, and on the 3rd desktop, blender functions as it does on your end SlickRed. Haven't a clue what the difference between the systems is. Perplexed.

That is so strange. I'm glad you were able to at least prove that I haven't lost my mind, and that there IS in fact a difference in behaviour between our 2 machines, but I have no idea what could be causing it.

Wow I found a workaround from a vaguely related sculpt mode bug report (https://developer.blender.org/T95761) that is marked as a "Known Issue". If a mirror modifier is placed AFTER the subsurface division (even if there is another mirror modifier happening before the subsurface division), the shrinkwrap will operate the correct way in edit mode.
Do you think this is useful information to share in some other place other than this stack exchange?

I think what you should do is answer your own question with this work-around information :) It may be useful to someone else who is experiencing the same problem.

If you wanted to upvote my answer as helpful (though it did not resolve your issue), I'd appreciate it :)

Good thinking! I have upvoted your answer (which should hopefully show up when I have reached 15 reputation? I guess?). Thanks again for helping me look into this. Very much appreciated my friend.

Any time :) All the best


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parented cube wont move unless data values entered into location fields?
The cube is parented and will only move when I enter values into the location fields but not when I try to move it with a mouse?
the file

You have locks set. Click on the bright blue buttons beside the transform fields to unlock them.

Yes, as Anthony Forwood said you probably have transform locks active. To unlock just press the key lock icons by the side of the transform location buttons in the toolshelf. Just have in mind that the buttons may not be bright blue depending on the current theme used.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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3D Cursor and Resetting View in Quad View
I've been using quad view, and had an earlier issue (Why does changing the 3D cursor move other quad view windows?) with a change in the 3D cursor in one viewport changing the views in the other 3 viewports. I understand I can get around this problem by disabling Lock to Cursor in the View panel, but this introduces another problem: What if I want Lock to Cursor enabled for my workflow; that is, I like to be able to rotate the camera around the cursor, but I don't want to fling the other three viewports away while I'm doing this in one viewport?
Another related question: In quad view, how do I reset one of the viewports to be centered on the coordinate axis? Sometimes this 3D cursor problem can send another viewport very far away, and it can be impossible to recenter the view by hand, because one does not know which way to drag the view.

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Exporting vertex UV coordinates
For two days I've been puzzled when trying to properly export UVs for vertices. Unfortunately when I load model in game engine, mapping isn't correct.
I found few threads about this process and tried to export few test files, but It's not clear to me. Maybe someone can help me here. Let's have example cube mapped with texture, then triangulated. According to this thread, little bit modified result is as pasted below (vertex index, loop index, u, v):
3 0 0.0 0.0
2 1 1.0 0.0
0 2 1.0 1.0
7 3 0.0 0.0
6 4 1.0 0.0
2 5 1.0 1.0
5 6 0.0 0.0
4 7 1.0 0.0
6 8 1.0 1.0
1 9 0.0 0.0
0 10 1.0 0.0
4 11 1.0 1.0
2 12 0.0 0.0
6 13 1.0 0.0
4 14 1.0 1.0
7 15 0.0 0.0
3 16 1.0 0.0
1 17 1.0 1.0
1 18 0.0 0.0
3 19 1.0 0.0
0 20 1.0 1.0
3 21 0.0 0.0
7 22 1.0 0.0
2 23 1.0 1.0
7 24 0.0 0.0
5 25 1.0 0.0
6 26 1.0 1.0
5 27 0.0 0.0
1 28 1.0 0.0
4 29 1.0 1.0
0 30 0.0 0.0
2 31 1.0 0.0
4 32 1.0 1.0
5 33 0.0 0.0
7 34 1.0 0.0
1 35 1.0 1.0

So here is question I'm trying to find answer for at this point:
 - Vertex with given index is repeated exactly 4 times. For example, vertex with index 3 have is represented by two sets of different UVs. Why? If all considered entries are describing vertex number 3, shouldn't they be identical?
This is the most important for format I want to export mesh to. This is how format look like:
TRANSLATE 0 0 0
ROTATE 0 0 0

SUBMODEL Cube
V -1.0 -1.0 -1.0 0.0 0.0
V -1.0 1.0 -1.0 1.0 0.0
V -1.0 -1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0
V -1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 0.0
V 1.0 -1.0 -1.0 1.0 0.0
V 1.0 1.0 -1.0 1.0 1.0
V 1.0 -1.0 1.0 0.0 0.0
V 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0
TRI 3 2 0
TRI 7 6 2
TRI 5 4 6
TRI 1 0 4
TRI 2 6 4
TRI 7 3 1
TRI 1 3 0
TRI 3 7 2
TRI 7 5 6
TRI 5 1 4
TRI 0 2 4
TRI 5 7 1
TEXTURE tex.dds
ENDSUBMODEL

Vertices are described by X Y Z U V. I already tried to loop all faces and store UVs in dictionary, where key of dictionary is index of vertex. But this not seem to work correctly.
Thank you in advance!

I just solved this problem. My thinking was wrong. I realized, that it is impossible to draw meshes using indices when one vertex is shared among few faces, where each face has different UV mapping on that vertex. The solution was to change format to face list.


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How to model tank treads?
Now, I know the common method of using an array in conjunction with a curve modifier to get the desired result. But, I'm facing some issues.
(1) The tread segments do not go around the curve completely.
(2) The tread segments get distorted at places.
If I'm not being clear, this is my set up:

Edit: This is a screen shot of the problem. The blue highlight is where the  array is getting distorted. The red highlight is where the array is not following the curve.

Can you show screenshots?

@pycoder alright, it's done

Try setting the Relative Offset  Z value to zero.

That was simple enough..and this is embarrassing ... thanks though .. lol

@3fingeredfrog Did you mean Relative instead of Rotative?

@Tejas No need to feel embarrassed. I think this is a good question, actually.

@Scott ooooooops , yes i did. Well spotted :) Will change it.

I tried changing array to "fit curve" and Y relative offset of 1 and I got this:

does it "fit"?
anyway also check the .blend (and the text) of this other question
How do I bake an animation along a curve?


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When to use mark edges as sharp and when to use bevel
I am a novice blender user and I am just trying to get my head around when to mark edges as sharp, when use bevel, and when to just shade flat. I'm working on a victorian street lamp, very early stages as you can see. I am just wondering in this case which approach I should use if I want to keep the edges sharp? I am ultimately hoping to texture and render out the object in a scene.

I would say there is no general rule, especially if you take into account game engines.
I think its about being able to choose suitable scenario once aware of differences in different approaches . For me in most cases setting all faces to shade smooth, in geometry properties-"Normals" group ticking Auto Smooth works. Then only if I want to force some edge to be "creased" I will mark it as sharp. beveling an edge will create actual geometry between the surfaces, making smooth transition as the result. Shading is just a visual effect, like good old https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phong_shading

Thank you so much Rafal, this is very helpful! So is there any practical difference between 1. leaving the object shaded flat if corners and flat faces are desired (like in my case), and 2. shading smooth with auto smooth ticked?

Flat shading is exactly the same as marking all edges as sharp (and both are exactly the same as using autosmooth with a 0 degree angle specified.)  Smooth shading with sharp edges allows some sharp edges and some smooth edges.  Autosmooth gives permission to Blender to try to figure out whether an angle should be sharp or not (on the basis of the autosmooth angle you specify.)

Smooth shading works roughly as follows:

Faces are triangulated by the renderer. Each triangle is necessarily planar, and so has a definite normal.
Vertices are given a 'Vertex Normal', which is a (sometimes weighted) average of the normals of the triangles which meet at them.
The normals of shading-points within the triangles are re-calculated as (barycentric) interpolations of the Vertex Normals at their corners.
The light-response of each point on the surface uses the interpolated Vertex Normal, rather than the normal of the underlying geometry.

If you switch on 'Smooth Shading', you are telling the renderer to use the interpolated normals. Sometimes the interpolated normals are a weirdly inaccurate version of the shading you might expect from the geometry.
You have the option of splitting the normals. Either by asking for 'Flat Shading', which splits all the normals, or by switching on 'AutoSmooth' in the object's Data tab > Normals panel, which splits some of them, usually if faces meet at above a threshold angle:

If the normals are split, then each face uses its own true normal, not the interpolation.
On the left, the cubes show the kind of anomaly that can be produced by smooth shading. On the right, the vertex normals have been split.
Sharp
If you mark an edge 'Sharp', you are telling the smoothing algorithm never to interpolate normals over that edge.  Then the adjacent faces are shaded like the cube on the right, above. You have to switch on 'AutoSmooth' to make split normals available, and see the effect. It produces a very sharp edge, with absolutely flat shading on each side - never found in nature. But good for stylised renders, diagrams, or if you have a very low poly-budget.
There is another way of preventing direct interpolation between large faces with very different normals...
Bevelling
... putting little intermediate faces between them. Each little face will get its own normal, easing the transition:

On the left, above: Sharp. On the right, Bevelled. Bevelling will produce a more natural result; it picks up highlights, and retains a subtle gradation across the larger faces. If you want any naturalism in your render, it's preferable. Your (painted?) street-lamp would look very peculiar if its edges had no highlights, and its surfaces were icy-flat.
BTW.. marking an edge 'Sharp' has a secondary function in Blender. It can be a signal to the Split Edges modifier to physically split the faces, not just the normals, doubling up the marked edges. If the modifier is applied, the faces can be moved independently.

Thank you for taking the time to give such a thorough breakdown Robin! This was very helpful.

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


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How can I fade a group of objects grouped to one empty in the same time?
The parts of the group have different materials applied to them.
The parts of the groups are not in the same collection.
I want to fade the whole group of assembly to transparency at the same time in the animation.
Thanks!

Fade to what? Transparency?

Yes, make them gradually transparent in animation. I can fade out one material using Mix Shader, but I don't know how to fade several materials/objects together.

The most flexible way to this would probably be in the compositor. Does that make sense?

You can use one common node group in different materials:

Inside the group, you can see mix node. It blends material with transparent

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


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Editor Headers Merging to One Line
I noticed something very annoying , usually at the top of the viewport there will be 2 lines with options (Image 1). but when I'm using 2.9(the latest version I can use renderman), the lines are merged into one(Image 2)(notice the options dropdown between the IPR button and the render mode). the issue becomes even more apparent when I'm using the texture painting tab (Image 3). can anyone please explain me what's happening because I don't know how to begin fixing this

Hi Please use a title that reflects the content of the question. It should be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the issue so that users can at a glance understand what your post is about. Use the [edit] link below your post and avoid anything not strictly essential to the post. Remember, your title is the first thing potential visitors will see, and makes your question findable for future users. See "What is the problem with posting an image or link and asking “How do I do this?""

I have no RenderMan so I have no idea if it has anything to do with this, but I cannot reproduce your issue. When I open Blender 2.90.0 I have two lines of menu just like in 3.4.1. If I right-click on the menu bar and disable Show Tool Settings, the second line disappears - but then the Options dropdown is gone as well. Disabling Show Tool Settings I can do in the latest version of Blender as well.

Go to Preferences > Interface and check/uncheck Region Overlap:

...but that doesn't remove the "second line" of the header as requested.


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Can you pavé gems based on surface instead of topology?
I've made jewellery for long time now and I never figured out one thing if its even possible to do in Blender, if you can pavé the gems based on a surface and not based purely on its topology.
I know there's a way with topology but that's not what I'm looking for because i don't want the mesh to be deform or on the other hand, too dense.
If there's any way in geometry nodes or an add-on or any tricks that can help me, I would appreciate it a lot.
BTW, I do use the Jewelcraft add-on and there's not an option for this, yet.

I am not sure about what you mean, but if you want no correlation between a surface and a point cloud distribution at all, you can seed a plane almost tangent to your surface with a random distribution then use a "Raycast" node with rays perpendicular to the plane to "project" the point cloud to your surface. This way, your surface topology is not used to seed random points. If this not what you are looking for, could you provide a picture ?

Why not share some image examples of your desired results? It would be clear what you want exactly and instantly. It might also be a good idea to define terms from other fields than CG. I, for example, not being native English or French speaker nor an expert in jewelry had absolutely no idea what "pavé" gems are without googling them...

Here's a GN group that will pack instances on a surface, irrespective of its topology. The packing is based on a hexagonal tiling of its UV space.
It relies on 2 subgroups.
A hexagonal tiling of a given UV space, using a method explained here :

.. and a group which measures the linear relative stretch of the UV map with respect to the mapped surface:

This group is responsible for scaling instances to fill the surface, in proportion to the hex cells in which they are placed. Something close to the output square-root of the scale is required to do this, but I've left that outside the group to allow for no scaling at all (IS Exponent: 0).
They can be used in the following tree to place the instances. Points are redundantly spread on the surface by subdivision, moved to the locations of their hex cells, and merged:

Inputs provided:

The Geometry to be paved, and its UV Map
The Instance to be distributed
A Scale for the instance, and a multiplier for convenience, to aid the entry of small values
An exponent to scale the instances with respect to UV stretch. This would normally be set to 0.5.

This is the kind of result:


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How to use the array modifier multiple times in an optimised way?
I've been doing some visualisation exercises and I had this question. I want to recreate
.
I planned to do this by creating a 1x1 cube and then cloning it using the array modifier, but I am not sure how to correctly use this tool.

After this, if I try to add another array modifier, it overrides the previous parameters.
I did not apply the modifier yet.

The array modifier takes whatever is above it in the modifier stack and creates duplicates based on the offset(s) you choose: constant, relative or object based (or a combo of all three). These arrays are additive with the arrays below in the modifier stack. That means if you have 1 unit cube with a relative offset of 1 on X and a count of 3 followed by a second array with a relative offset of 1 on Y with a count of 3, you will end up with a 3x3x1 rectangle lying flat on the X-Y plane.
One way to do what you want to do is extrude faces instead of arraying the cube. You can then use a textures to get the visualization you want. Like this:

You could do this using arrays, because they can be given Start and End Caps which can, themselves, be arrays. But you would be creating a lot of work for yourself.
when you put a second Array modifier on an object, it doesn't override the previous parameters; it generates an array with the entire previous array as its elements.
You might be better off using a different duplication method - perhaps Vertex Instancing:

.. using a simple framework of vertices. Every time you E(XY or Z) extrude a new vertex, a cube will be instanced on it.

These are really interesting ideas. I wasn't aware of vertex instancing at all!

@Electric_Wizard I think yours is better for contiguous cubes.. :)


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Random scale and rotation within range and in circular shape (tree leaves)
I'm doing some leaves meshes in ver 2.82 and want to know if there is a way to apply a scaling and rotation within a limited range so I won't have to do it on every leaves. I want to create some tuft just like this picture:

I'm trying to create a game with graphics in that style and want to keep it simple with low polygons.
I tried with particle system, but it not ended well lol. I really need more practices with this feature...
Maybe a ball with some leaf particles that use gravity so we can see the upper part of the leaves just like the pictures.

Hi. Please try to use existing tags when asking a question. Thanks.

could you be more specific? What exactly "didn't end well" when using a particle system?

Your question lack precisions, but here is a try:

Create your leaf object, here I've used a PNG picture with a transparent background. The following setup is very basic: it would need a bit of glossiness and translucency, and maybe random colors variations:

Create the emitter. Here, to stick to the way the leaves emit, I've created a series of cylinders and cones:

Give your object a Particle System. Choose Hair, enable Advanced, in Emission choose the Number of leaves you want to emit, enable Rotation, in Render choose Render As > Object, disable the Show Emitter option, and in Instance Object choose the leaf. Tweak with the various Rotation and Scale values.

Your bush of leaves should show:

You understanded my question just right! this solution is perfect!


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easiest way to do this? (Amplifier Grid)
i finished full donat tutorial. and im wondering can u tell me the easiest way to do it ? I tried modeling myself with path and using array model but it doesnt look right becouse i cant do it to look evenly across.
any tips ?

I think, if it is not tooo close, you sould try to do it with a Texture because that pattern full poly would take a lot of render time...

thx man i will try that !

@M.Matz agreed.. the best way, if not too close-up.. and re-usable, too.

Edit: Robin Betts inspired me a simplification. You could do it with arrayed meshes:

Build your segment, move up the middle with the Proportional Editing option, duplicate and turn it upside down.

Give it 2 Array modifiers to duplicate the segments on the X and Y axis. Duplicate and rotate the whole thing 180°.

Keep a copy somewhere, rotate all 45° on the Z axis, apply the modifiers, join everything, delete the mesh so you only keep a square grid.

To finish, curve the edges with a Curve modifier.

how do i delete all mesh  so i can keep square grid ?

Once you've applied the modifiers, joined the objects to make one unique mesh, use the box selection (B) to select the parts you want to delete, and only keep a square grid. Does it answer?

dooah, THANKS ! really appreaciated!

This isn't a bad place to use the shipped Tissue add-on.
After you install it, (Edit > Preferences > Add-Ons,) it will appear as a tab in the N properties region of the 3D View. It has a 'Tessellate' option which will duplicate and map a Component (selected) object to the Base (active) object's quad faces.

This example starts with the top sliced off a cube, Ctrl B beveled, and then with its main faces subdivided.
To get the diagonals, the object is  (Edge menu > Un-Subdivided) with 1 iteration.
The diagonal mesh is then used as a base for tessellating the Component on the left, which is a mesh converted from a curve, which was thickened by bevelling it in its Data > Geometry panel.

You mean "Tissue" addon?

@lemon Oops! Thanks.

Thanks, that addon helped me also with an project for printing.

So  I think, the best way is the suggestion with a normal map or something if you can find such a texture.
Another method, if these polygons are realy needed is something like that. You could make this with a view curve, a aray modifier and maybe with a shrink wrap modifier or a curve modifier to fit it to the model.
Maybe you also could make with such an mesh your own normal map if you bake that normals to your model but you need to figure out how that works on your own. Somthing like that but in your case it is an different model. But with normal or displaycement maps you will save a lot of time.

Tested, it works....

Thank you everyone for the answers they are great ! unfortunately i tried to use with texture image but i cuoldn't make it becouse of the image quality, or my lack of understanding shading with bumps and such.

@LucidNirvana It just came me in mind that this problem couldn't be solved so well with a normal map because for that grid, at some points you would need 2 pixels to represent that grid stucture,but with that normal map you could only display on normal at one pixel and not two...


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How to party add geoetry while keeping good topology (Cat nose)
I'm working on a cat-like creature for game usage so it should be low poly, good topology and animateable. I blocked out the head (basically just a subsurfed cube) and kept it low poly so far, with edge-loops going around the mouth area and the ears like you see in many tutorials for human heads. But I totally fail at the nose section. I want this part more detailed (not just a bump). Adding edgeloops is a bad option since they run through the whole head (and whole body) and add geometry where its not needed. Then I tried using inset faces around the nose-area but it seems a bad idea as well.
How would you tackle this? Many thanks!
Edit: screenshot
https://gyazo.com/8118d5009e9d276b9b8d6494ed287448
I really need more deatails around the nose, it appears important to me, get a realisic big-cat nose, with nosetrails and the seperated upper lips beeing sortof connected to the nose.

Can you elaborate on why using the inset tool is a bad idea?

hello, it would help to have some screenshots or even the file, if you don't want to share your work you can transform it a bit. Anyway you can always find tricks to increase the topology in some areas to make more details. Another solution would be to use image textures and bump or normal maps to create fake 3D details.

@Carlo: I thought the edge-flow looks totally messy, really not supporting my desired shapes ...

@moonboots: normalmap is no option at this stage as I want real geometry for the nose and upper lips

so please share your file, change the proportions if you don't want anyone to copy your original shape

@moonboots: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8cpe9o4yupy78wb/helpWithNose.blend?dl=1

I don't know what type of nose you are aiming for, but it seems that inset should not be abandoned a priori: https://i.sstatic.net/UpBoq.jpg. You clearly have to adjust some loops around the mouth to achieve good proportions. Can you better describe why are you stuck? Can you sketch the target shapes upon your base model? Please use https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ to share files.

Actually your topology is not really "low-poly", it's rather "medium-poly"  ;)   Here is a try, I think it works pretty well:

Previous version:

thanks, thats looks like a good solution. Did you encounter anything else that may be wrong with that topology of the head? (its my first try at something organic ...)

it seems rather good, it also depends on your final goal, style, etc... also will you use Subdivision Surface etc? Some edge loops don't seem useful, maybe try to dissolve, if it doesn't change your shape it means that they were not useful


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RIGGING in 2.79b ~ IK handles cause hands/feet to detatch from the body, alternatives? (Foot rigging)
I've followed a couple of tutorials to learn how to rig my flying humanoid character.
Both of them tell me to unparent feet/hands bones and parent them to added bones that will work as IK handles.
GOOD: this allows me to rotate feet/hands freely while also driving legs/arms IK chains.
BAD: whenever I move the IK handles beyond legs/arms' maximum extension, the feet/hands' bones and mesh follow the IK handle resulting in a stretched mesh.
(See screenshot from one of the aforementioned tutorials)

This is unacceptable.
Alternatives?

Please see: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/21379/how-to-ik-rig-legs

@JaroslavJerrynoNovotny
It works, thank you! ^.^
I'll vote your answer in that page, pity I cant give it points for being the best one. ^^

Parent the foot to the IK controller (therefore now it's unparented from the lowerleg, as explained in your tutorials).

Give your lowerleg a IK constraint with the controller as Target:

Now to make sure that the foot sticks to the lowerleg, give the foot a Copy Location constraint, with the lowerleg as Target, a Head/Tail value of 1, and a Space setting > World Space / World Space.

file here:

It works!! ^O^
But why "world space/world space"? Not that I have any alternative or reason to reject this setting, I just wanna fully understand what you made me do. ^.^

This makes a dependency cycle..

@JaroslavJerrynoNovotny
Please, elaborate.... -.-'

The lowerleg depends on the target through IK constraint, the target depends on the lowerleg through Copy location constraint. The rig does not update correctly because of this.

@JaroslavJerrynoNovotny
I cant confirm through practice, now, but I trust your word, AND your link did the trick, thank you! ^^

@moonboots
Sorry, Jaroslav's comment/answer better fits my needs and my crave for correctness. ^^'

mmh why did someone downvote my answer? did I give a bad answer? not sure to understand...

@Jaroslav Jerryno Novotny, actually I don't give the Copy Location to the IK controller but to the foot, so I guess you misunderstood my answer  ;)

@moonboots but the foot depends on the IK controller bone through parent, so it's the same. You can see the dependency cycle being print out in the console.

the foot is parented to the controller, the foot is attached to the lowerleg with the constraint, and of course the lowerleg is controlled by the controller, doesn't seem to be any dependency or bug, I've edited my answer, please check the file


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How to snap and align 2 objects

Hi!
I'm a beginner learner and I'd like to know how to snap these three objects. I'd like to snap the two cylinders with the different faces of the cube. The short one on the left and the highest cylinder on the top of the cube. I'd like to have the center of the cylinder aligned with the center of the cube (the base of the cylinder inscribed into the face of the cube)
I'm sorry for bad explanation
I hope someone can help me
Thanks!
I add a screenshoot in which you can see what I have to do
Thanks again if someone can help me with this!

I don't know if there's a faster way:

Put the origin of the object you want to snap on its bottom face (first in Edit mode select the face, put the 3D cursor on the face with a Shift S > Cursor to Selected, then in Object mode set the origin to the 3D cursor (header menu bar > Object > Set Origin).

Enable the Snap with these options: Face mode / Align Rotation to Target / Project Individual Elements.

Snap the cylinder to the face you want.

To align the cylinder with the cube, select the cylinder, then the cube. The cube being the last selected, it is said "active", it has a yellow line all around.

Go in the header menu bar > Object > Transform > Align Objects.

In the Operator box (bottom left) choose Relative To > Active and the axis you want your want your object to be aligned with (press Shift to select 2 objects.

A route to snapping aligned face-center to face-center for arbitrarily skewed objects via an intermediate parent...
Set Transform Orientation to 'Cursor'

ShiftSpacebarSpacebar go into the 'Cursor' tool. In its N > Tool tab settings, check 'Surface Project', and Orientation: 'Geometry'
Drag the cursor over the source face until the orientation catches.
In Edit Mode, select the source face, and ShiftS > 'Cursor to Selected'
ShiftA create an Empty, with its creation orientation set to 'Cursor'
The Empty is the wrong way round, so RX180
CtrlPparent the source object to the Empty.

In the same way as you aligned the cursor to the source face, align it to the destination face.

Empty selected, (Header) > Object menu > Transform > 'Align to Transform Orientation'

ShiftS > 'Selected to Cursor'
Source object selected, AltP Clear Parent and Keep Transform.

This would be a whole lot easier if ShiftS > 'Cursor to Selected' automatically aligned the cursor to the selected geometry, when the cursor tool was set that way. We should appeal to the devs. for that.


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How to affect displacement textures using objects?
So, this is my set up.

I placed a UV sphere with a Subdivision Surface Modifier of 3 render and view subdivisions along with a displacement modifier holding a cloud texture which is controlled by an empty. Now, this is going to be placed in an animation where the shape of the sphere is going to be continuously changed using the empty throughout the animation.
I could keyframe the movement of the empty but that would be too tedious to keep track of and setting a "Follow Path" constraint to the empty -- after creating a Bezier Circle around the sphere -- results in failure.
Is there any way around it?

You can parent the empty to an object or to three vertices of an object.

any object in the scene, or what?

Yea, so the empty follows the animated object. Or maybe I didnt understand your original question.

Or maybe what you are looking for is a never ending cycle? Like with animation curves?

Please give some steps as to how the user should do this.

Yes, I'm looking for a cyclic animation


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How to duplicate keyframes?
How do i duplicate keyframes into the same object? I need this for a cyclic animation. I press Shift+D and move the keyframes in the Dopesheet, but the animation doesn't continue after the original keyframes.
Update : It seems that I'm not able to animate any bone after frame 30. Is this a bug? I use Blender 2.78a
Update : This is my set up :

Did you accidentally set your action to an nla. The nla can have a limited length. Uploading your blend file will help others answer your question morte easily.

@Leander I'll upload it now, hold on

@Leander so, yeah, this is the file

To copy/paste keyframes you use the highlighted buttons below:

To fix the other issue You need to unpin the animation in the NLA editor as shown below and the animation will be there after frame 30 normally

To Copy/Paste keyframes in the same object you can easily go to the Dope Sheet right click to choose the action you want (Shift+Right click) to choose more then one action then you can simply (Ctrl+C) to copy the keyframe then go to the frame you want to paste it and (Ctrl+V).
Example:
These 3 frames make the name pop and to copy it i marked all the actions i needed by (A) to pick all or choosing by (Shift+Right click) each action and then simply (Ctrl+C) to copy it.
!!!!!most important while copy/pate keep mouse on the dope sheet!!!!!!!
Later choose the frame you want to paste it on, and then simply (Ctrl+V) and it will be pasted like that:


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Make Flames stick close to the surface instead of rising upwards
I need this for an animation. I tried using a smoke simulator, but the flames rise upwards and that's not what I was aiming for. I want the flames to maintain the vorticity but still stick close to the surface.
Can anyone help me out here?
Update: With the previous answer's help (along with a particle system) I was able to achieve this, however, i want the flames to have a more sharper look to it. Something more akin to the plasma bolt from 'Sorcerer's Apprentice'

Could you post some images or better a video with effect you want to achieve? Let me know here, in comments if you'll do it.

@LukeD http://yewnorktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/2-4.jpg

@LukeD something like that, where the flames are close to the surface but you can still see it's "individual" flames.

I've made this: http://imgur.com/a/q4FTK, check if it's ok for you and I can create answer. It's a little bit exaggerated to show it better in GIF. You can control speed, length, opacity and detail of those flames.

@LukeD it's perfect! Is it possible to add a stutter to the flame? Also could you explain in your answer how you made it (in detail)?

I'll make one today. What do you mean by stutter?

@LukeD like make it dim and bright real quick

did you manage to get it working?

Final result:

Wrapping up:
I'm working with Metric Units (Unit Scale: 1). Result may differ when using other sphere sizes and some tweaking will be needed but I'll explain them later on.
Also, Fire or Plasma is transparent so it will be less visible in bright/white areas, just like fire in real life.
Objects:
We will need only three of them. Sphere as a Flow object, Domain, and Force field which gives us noise to the flame.

Start with empty scene and Shift+A > Mesh > UV Sphere. Keep everything as is.
With Sphere selected hit Space and type Quick Smoke. Select it.
Now we need a Force field. Shift+A > Force Field > Turbulence.

Domain settings:
Select Smoke Domain in the scene or in the Outliner and go to Physics tab.
Smoke tab

Resolution. We will leave it now at default value, but for final bake set it to 64.
Time. Crank this up to have faster moving flames.
Temp Diff. It's important one. Set it to 0 so flames will not go in any direction.
Vorticity. Higher = more noise, lower = smoother flames.

Smoke Flames tab

Speed. I've set it to 1. It will be connected to Force field settings (strength).
Smoke. Set it to 0. We don't need any smoke.
Vorticity. Same as Vorticity in Smoke tab.

Smoke Adaptive Domain and Smoke High Resolution tab

Check Smoke Adaptive Domain.
In Smoke High Resolution set it to 2 Divisions.
Lower Noise Method to 1. You can try and play with it. Low setting will give smooth flames and really high make them raving.

Sphere (Smoke Flow) settings:
Select our Sphere, you should see settings right away in the same place where Domain was.
Smoke tab

Change Flow type to Fire.
Flow rate is really fun to play with setting. Low value gives us really gentle flames, and high values will create total destruction.

Force field settings:
Select Force field (or Field in Outliner) and go to Physics tab (same as other objects).

Strength. Set it to 35 or lower if you want shorter flames.

Note: If you set it to low value, flame will be shorter but also slower. Consider changing in Domain settings Time scale and Flame speed.

Noise. Max it out. You can keyframe Seed to have even more noise.

Materials:
We will need materials for our flame - this will be Domain, and for Sphere, to simply hide it.
Domain or Flame/Plasma material

Select Smoke Domain and go to Node Editor.
Delete everything there besides Material Output.
Add Attribute node. Shift+A > Input > Attribute and type in it flame.
Add Color Ramp. Shift+A > Converter > Color Ramp. Add there couple of colors you want, place as you want but remember to set last one (right one) to Alpha 0 and set color to it as well.
Add Emission Shader. Shift+A > Shader > Emission.
Connect everything as in picture above.

Sphere or Flow material
Just add Transparent BSDF to it. Nothing more.
Final thoughts:
Now you can play or bake (under Domain > Smoke cache settings) scene. Remember to set for final render Resolution to 64, and to have dark background.
Save a lot. I mean it. A lot.
Setup is really flexible, so don't afraid to test other settings.
I didn't achieve good stutter or flicker effect. The only thing I've come up was adding Brightness/Contrast node between Attribute and Emission and keyframing Brightness value, but this is horribly slow process. Maybe F-curves will help but I'm not good in animation.
Blend file:

@Tejas If you can thank me for my hard work for you, consider upvoting and accepting my answer, and if something is wrong, please tell me what it is so I can improve my answer.

It's perfect, mate.. thanks a ton and sorry for the late reply, was busy with another project i'm running... Also i have another question, is it possible to make this look like the "flames" from a welding torch?

@Tejas You mean colors or flame speed?

speed and shape

@Tejas I don't think it's possible. Flame from welding torch is strictly one directional so it can have such a velocity thus shape. In this case flames goes in every direction and are much more dynamic. If we will reproduce welding torch flames on sphere it will look like... Spiked ball.

@Tejas reduce Vorticity (both) to 0 and Wevelenght to 0, try reducing Noise in Force Field. It will give much smoother flames. Also Increase Speed and Time scale.

ok, i see.. wait, where's wavelength?

@Tejas My mistake :) Smoke High Resolution > Noise Method > Strenght


text:
How swap views between multiple cameras?
I have multiple cameras with an animation scene. I want to swap to their respective views while rendering the video.
So, essentially, my questions here are:

How do we get renders from multiple cameras?
How do we edit the renders in such a way that the output appears as though the camera is switching views?

This is a test file:

My scene is setup in a similar manner.

Is your question intentionally tagged with the video-sequence-editor (VSE) tag? The VSE is blender's video editor.

@RayMairlot yes, like consider a chase sequence, I want to swap the camera view at specific points in the video.. i imagine you do that in the VSE after you get the render output

@RayMairlot I'll update the question, hold on

@RayMairlot There, hope that helps you to a solution

Tags are for what your question is about, not what you think the answer might be about.

@RayMairlot OK, as you can see I'm not all that acquainted with blender, what tags would you recommend? I'll do the needful.

I've already edited your question. You can see what I changed here

@RayMairlot oh, alright

There are multiple different ways. These are only a few. They can also be mixed together.
(1).1 Bind the camera to a marker
You can do that by binding the camera to a marker on your timeline.
You can create markers on the timeline with the M key. Then select the camera you want to bind to that marker and hit Ctrl+B. As soon as your timeline reaches that marker the camera will switch. It is important that both the marker and the camera are selected.

(I forgot to turn the screencast keys on, see description above)
(1).2 Use multi-view (for stereoscopy)
You can enable multiple views in the Scene tab of the Properties panel. These are basically for stereoscopy-like effects, not for switching cameras, so I will only post a link to the manual: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/render/workflows/multiview/index.html
(2).1 Use the video sequence editor
The fancier (and maybe better) way is be to render the scene multiple times with the different cameras activated. Save the single frames in a lossless format. Then you can easily import them to the video sequence editor as strips and use the cross blend mode. You can then adjust the opacity value with keyframes (hover and I)
video sequence editor (old gif)
Edit:

In this animation I use the camera override tool of the vse. You simply set up your scene and your cameras (with everything, including animations). Then in the video sequence editor add your scene strip multiple times (Shift+A) and set your camera override in the right panel.
Although I created a new scene (that was supposed to hold the scene strips). I forgot to switch back to that scene after switching to the vse. It is recommended to always use a separate scene for the sequencer! It may work in this example, but maybe not in bigger projects.
(2).2 Use the compositor
You can also add your frames to the compositor and mix them with very fancy effects. Then you can add this whole compositing scene to any video sequence editor. By the way: You can also add layers from other scenes directly to the compositor with the Render Layers node. But then you need to copy your scene and if I got you correct this is not what you want.
It is possible that this is not what you want, so choose your tools wisely.

Interesting, i'll try that... In the mean time, i updated my question, could you look into it?

could you explain (2.1) in a bit more detail? that techniques hitting home more than others

@Tejas is that detailed enough? Or do you need more information?

OK, i think i got it.. can render layers be used in conjunction with this?

Well, you can use render layers for compositing purposes. See my second gif? These strips are the result of the compositor of the specific scene. When you hit render blender renders that scene from the given camera perspective. the rendered image is processed in the compositor and then composited within the vse (and so on).

say, do we have to make a new scene for every camera we have in the scene, I have like 6 to 7 cameras

never mind, i figured it out...any tips you might wanna add here? :)

As you seem to be a beginner: don't render out in video format. First render in a lossless image format. Sometimes it's better to split your workflow, like one file the scenes, another file the cuts. And use blenders "save as" + feature Ctrl+Shift+S -> + -> Enter for versions (Or was it Ctrl+Alt+S? I'm on mobile now)

@sirjofri The large animated gifs on this page causes some major sluggishness in my browser. During one of these laggy moments, I inadvertently clicked the downvote button. This is a great answer and I would like to upvote, but the interface won't allow it. Any ideas?

@MikeMetcalf I can change the last gif to just a link (with a comment, of course), but I don't think that would help much. Is that an issue with stackexchange that you cannot upvote after you accidently downvoted something?

@sirjofri Yes, they indicate I cannot change my vote unless the answer changes...  can you make a non-substantial edit to your answer? Then I could upvote.

@MikeMetcalf I changed a very minimum, thanks for your upvote btw.

@sirjofri That did it. Sorry for the hassle. Thanks for the well-done answer.

@MikeMetcalf I learned so much from the community, now it's time to give something back!


text:
UV Separation not sure where to weld
So the uv layout was going really well until I hit the last parts of the sleeve...I'm not quite sure what to do since half of the circle belongs to one island and the other half belongs to the other island...I don't want to mess up the work I just did on all the others. How do I go about connecting these to one or the other?

I've been stuck on a lot of stuff before but this one is new. Please Help!

What is your desired result ? You can connect islands one to another with using Stitch tool by pressing V (you might want to select less islands so it not stitches everything).

Well, I'm trying to stitch the islands...the half circles off to the left aren't doing it. I need those two and the circle underneath the two rectangles on the left to be a part of the other islands. Like I said, half of the three trouble islands are connected to one main island, while the other half is connected to another. I can't figure out how to separate them so I can sew them to the correct islands...

I'm continuing to mess with it and was able to get the circle attached after ripping a few verts....still can't figure out the half circles yet...

ok I'm just ripping verts until they separate and then welding them back together. It's probably too late for me, but if anyone knows a faster way to help someone else, that'd be great.

Several vertices from other islands become selected while selecting trouble islands because you have Keep UV and Edit mode mesh selection in sync on. Probably this is what you meant by "the other half connected to another".


text:
How to snap to a face with axis constraints?
I'm trying to work out a problem that's best described visually: the problem.
I'm trying to snap a vertex to where its y-axis contraint intersects the face of another object, which apparently doesn't work the way you think it would. Instead of snapping to that one possible point, the vertex just goes as far as the y-coordinate that the mouse points to on the face, while the vertex is still on the axis constraint.
Is there an official way to do this? If not, what is a good workaround or plugin to achieve this? I don't want to eyeball it, I want to do it precisely.
If not, is there a place where I can request this feature to the Blender developers? It seems people have been asking this question on different websites since 2013, yet it seems the developers haven't been informed about this at all. There never really was a helpful answer, and I was hoping that there'd be an update of sorts by now (with the coming of Blender 2.83), hence me asking this again.

it works fine here with Blender 2.79 and 2.80, so there might be some debug to do on the latest version?

@moonboots Just downloaded 2.79, still not working. But if you know for sure that this particular scenario really does work for you in 2.79, maybe the problem is not my Blender version but my settings (since it's still not working for me). Which related settings do you think could be different for you?

I can't get snap-to-face to work the way I would expect in 2.83beta, either..
The shipped TinyCAD add-on is one option, for this one..

Activate TinyCAD
(Assuming source and target are part of the same object) Select 1 face, 1 edge
Use TinyCad's Extend Edge to Face
(Maybe with Automerge switched on) GG slide the source vertex down the extended edge, all the way, onto the projected vertex.

I agree, the snap system could be improved.. important to keep it quick and minimal, though, IMO.. hunting through the snap options in some apps is not fun.

Thanks, this does come close, but this only works: (1) in case the edge the edge that leads up to the vertex is parallel to the world axis(/constraint), and (2) if you're trying to put a vertex on a face. This wouldn't work if I was trying to get an edge/face on the face like so.

Yup... I see...


text:
Simple hair / clothes physics
I'm not very experienced with blender, but I'm learning so I can create models for my video games.
I want to create a SIMPLE (that's the keyword) parts of my model that will react to movement. For example, a ponytail that is not made of particles, but polygons which will bounce while walking.
Or very simple clothes (like the edge of the shorts moving with each step).
How would I do that? Soft body? Some kind of armature?
For performance / simplicity reasons, I don't want to use hair particles nor the dynamic clothes system.
Edit:
Another example could be springy parts of some object, like the antenna on a car.

One of them is probably duplicate: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/74409/bending-a-pole-with-wind/74444#74444 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/86471/how-to-make-grass-respond-to-an-object-hitting-them/86483#86483 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/102176/how-to-make-skin-reacting-to-touch/102182#102182 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/102259/how-to-have-multiple-soft-bodies-in-a-single-object/102291#102291 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/102176/how-to-make-skin-reacting-to-touch/102182#102182

Thank you, I will check them all out when I'm free!


text:
Dark Emission when using MixRGB with Colour and Image
I am trying to overlay an image over an object so that the background colour does not change, but the image is overlayed on top. My Image was created on Inkscape and exported with no transparency so I don't think it is an alpha problem. I am getting a grey tint over the Pink background colour that I cannot seem to remove. Any suggestions?
[edit] Blender version 2.8

You should plug the alpha output of your image texture into the alpha input of the principled BSDF, then use the color output directly in the color input of the BSDF.
Make sure to check the blend mode to something else than "opaque" in the settings of the material. Press N to open the panel when in the shading node editor then go to Options>Settings>Blend Mode. Depending on your blender version you might have to try different ones to achieve your goal.


text:
Not able to use Boolean modifier on concentric cylinder and torus (normals seem ok)
I'm using Boolean Modifier quite well so far, but this time I can't get it work properly. I guess it's sometihng I'm missing but I checked other answers for bolean modifiers and none of them seem to apply to my case. I have a concentric cylinder and a torus (I specify that they are concentric because if they are not concentric the modifier seems to work properly) I need to subtract the torus from the cylinder to create the housing for an O-Ring. The result are just more faces and vertexes added to the cylinder but the housing is not created. I checked normals and non-manifold but all seem to be ok. Anyone able to explain me what am I doing wrong? Sorry if duplicate, not able to find a proper answer.
Here an image that may explain the problem:

* My mistake: not "Binary mod" but "Boolean mod"
I hope it's clear what I wanted... instead of the same outer surface of the cylinder with more vertexes that you can see in the last picture I wanted a torus housing: a negative of the torus.
Here you can get my blend file

Hi. I suggest adding images to your question to illustrate your point. Ideally, we would prefer to be able to answer questions without having to download a blend file to diagnose the issue, unless it is absolutely required. Thanks.

Picture added. I hope it may help undertsanding the problem.

Boolean operators are known to have issues when dealing with complex interactions. Thus, it is advised to prep your meshes to minimize issues from the Boolean operator. This simply means giving the Boolean operator easy places to make cuts.
In your example, all you need to do is to add another torus with the same number of segments as the cylinder. This aligns all the torus edges to that of your cylinder, which eliminates the issue from the Boolean modifier.
Note how the wire-frames don't line up nicely in your torus, so the Boolean modifier will need to make a ton of cuts to try to modify the geometry.

I've added another torus below, this time matching the number of segments to the cylinder, and the boolean modifier works fine.

Another thing to note: having an excessive amount of vertices in close proximity to one another can also cause problems with the Boolean modifier, but that's easily fixed by scaling/moving one of the objects slightly.

This solution as written by you was not solving my problem: with my torus of 17mm diameter and the cylinder of 17mm diameter the Boolean modifier was still not working. I needed to make a torus of 16.8 diameter to make it work. And if you look at your pictures the green torus created by you is in fact smaller than my red torus. A part from this thank you very much for your help! That led me to the solution and then absolutely appreciated!


text:
Mesh doesn't appear in object mode?
When i add mesh in my scene in object mode. It doesn't appear.

perhaps in the Viewport Shading options (small down arrow button on the top right), the X ray might be enabled and at a value of 0?

not the problem X ray  is not enabled . but when i press tab and enable edit mode it appears when i back to object modes it desappeares again (sorry i am bad at English hope understand me )

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

i uploaded it .

I don't see any link

https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/qpMD7SqY/

in Cycles it works fine, in Eevee I can't say because doesn't work fine on my computer, I hope someone will tell

ok thank you for your reply !

I don't have your issue. Solid view looks OK. It can be graphic card issue, but I haven't heard it can happen in Solid view. How old hardware are you using?

my laptop is hp 8470 p .  graphic card is AMD Radeon HD 7570M


text:
How to display my reference image in Wireframe mode
I imported my reference via Images as plane. I can view them in material preview, but when i switched to wireframe mode I can't see my refernce images.
How can i fix that?
Two pics for proper demonstration of my problem.

This is intended behavior. You can use X-ray instead by pressing Alt Z to make objects partially transparent.

If you're using the image as a blueprint, I'd suggest using Add Menu > Image > Background.

Use Add Shift+A Empty > Image

Add image as reference. If you do that,you can see the image in any tab,wireframe/solid view or even rendered view.


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Copy and Paste Poses not working
I'm trying to copy the pose of the right arm to the left arm, but when I try copy and pasting it does this, does anyone know what is going on? I'm new to rigging so if you have any other tips they would be much appreciated.

You should check Mirroring.

If you want to mirror your animation form the left side to the other
  side during pose mode you just need to select the whole left side then
  copy the pose with Ctrl+C.

After that press Ctrl+i to go to your right side
  and finally press Shift+Ctrl+V to
  paste the the X flipped pose, that way you'll have a perfect mirror of
  both side

Or enable X Axis Mirror option.


text:
How to create material that goes along curved mesh?
Excuse me, I have a cube, which has a curve modifier applied to it. I want to create a material that goes along the curved mesh, like this image below:

Here is my setup, which doesn't work:

Edit:
Setup with Curve ...

I hope my question makes sense.
Thank you so much
Stay safe :)

for a circular shape you could us a Gradient node in Radial mode: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/200847/material-for-rainbow-around-torus ...  if the curve is a more complicated shape I guess you need to apply the array and curve modifiers and use the UV otuput socket of the Texture Coordinate?

What is the purpose to use a Cube? You can use just a Curve https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/201466/2214

@Ahmed, do you use an Array modifier? If so, apply it, also, use the Generated output socket of the Texture Coordinate

You don't have in your node tree "Separate XYZ" node. If you want to go with Mapping node you have to setup there Rotate 90/135/0 and Scale X -3 or what ever that fits.

What is the question now? Seems to be OK, when you switch to Render mode view it is there as expected. Changing X Scale moves colours (also nice effect with plugged Y. With your "Constant I just noticed - distances between control point matters. If you r looking for even distribution independent on curve's control points you would have to use curve (with even distribution) deformed by curve (your current) I will post it later if needed. Please delete your comments, chatting is not allowed here. If you have something important move it via edit into your question post. Thank you

If you dont mind you can use just a Curve.
Shape

add Curve Circle, in edit mode Rotate 45, Duplicate and move 2.8 on X axis
select all vertices switch handles to Free V and delete from both circles the center segment
select end points and press F to connect

To get even distribution of colors you need to evenly distribut a curve's control points, that is not right now, but you can add another curve object - straight like, subdivide several times and deform this curve by previously shaped curve.

Add some stickness to curve (tube) - go to Properties editor > Object Data > Geometry >  Bevel > Depth
It is better to keep curve in type Shape > 2D and Fill > None
Add Curve modifier (ensure origins both objects are at the same place)
Moving along X axis will move along shape

2.7x Material

Plug UV Texture Coordinate socket into Separate XYZ node
and use X socket to lug into ColorRamp
Enable under Properties editor > Object Data > Texture Space > Use UV for mapping.

To see material switch to Rendered type view mode.

2.9x Material
is like here, you don't have to worry about UV in curve properties, it is set by default.

Notes:
Changing X Location will move gradient along curve.

Changing X Scale in Mapping node will change gradient scale.

Thank you so much for your detailed answer :)

@Ahmed Great it helped, just since you marekd as accepted, you should change the title to something neutral (mesh/curve) because you are asking a way with mesh and I aswered about curve. So dont get others confused. Thank you

amazing work flow but how do i use it with textures rather than colors.

Thanks :) ... Sorry I don't know what are you asking for? If you didnt find answer on this site ask a new Question. Image texture on curve is used in the same way, just without Separate XYZ node ... https://imgur.com/Sm82HRU


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Why do my vertices fade the further I zoom in?
I have tried adjusting clipping value but it doesn't seem to make a difference. I have to constantly go into x-ray mode in order to edit the mesh to see the lines. If I zoom out the lines are there and visible but it's too hard to make changes when that zoomed out to minor details. Any clue?

Does this answer your question? -- https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/178854/mesh-is-on-the-inside-of-the-object-in-certain-areas?rq=1

How do I stop vertices being hidden by the Subsurf modifier in Edit mode?

@Timaroberts I don't see it as duplication. Main question here is pointed to zoom in/out effect. Provided link describes how to disable modifier to see wire. BTW this "dupli" link now direct to another closed link as dupli. Doesn't seems to be a nice let user run this marathon :) Thank you

Re your "marathon" @vklidu See eg. https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/46424/add-a-transparent-image-on-top-of-a-material Consider that duplicates are not a bad thing, it always helps to keep the site organized in case the same information can be found on different places. No matter if this question is about zoomin in and out, the answer is the still same (IMHO).

The reason why the actual wire is partially hidden is because the actual geometry is affected by the Subdivision Surface Modifier and you see a modified version of the mesh, even in Edit Mode.
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/modifiers/generate/subdivision_surface.html

I'd suggest go to the Modifier Panel and enable 'On Cage' option of the Subdivision Surface Modifier by clicking the little triangle icon

or just disable the modifier temporary in order to affect how the mesh is visualized in Edit Mode.

The reason why zoom in/out affects those "fading" vertices is because blender is displaying partially wire inside of a mesh to improve viewport experience for vertices that would be quickly hidden in sharp angle view. This "inside" view is constant for viewport, but actual distances of vertices in viewport are changing.


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How to change hair location?
How can I make the hair particles show on right side instead of the left without going onto Particle Edit?

I want the exact same hair amount and style but on the opposite side.

How did you achive appearence on current side?

I went onto particle properties along the right

Sorry I didnt get it, can you attach your simplified blend file with just a hair object via https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com to let us see?

Yes I've uploaded it. https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/21qp8j3v

Disable or delete Mirror modifier.

Or you can use your head object directly.

Select faces, go to Data Properties > add Vertex Group > Assign
Add Particle system and under Vertex Groups > Density > choose created Group
(now particle will grouw from this red faces)

To let them grow only on one side, move Particle modifier above Mirror modifier in stack

Disable the mirror modifier on the scalp:

But how do I stop it showing on the left side, the side it was showing in the picture above?

Just turn the scalp mirror off. Hair will only grow on the left half of the head.

You're right... Better?


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Neutralising a photos lighting by using a rebuilt scene to imitate the original light and using that as a counterbalance
I have this picture and I've recreated the scene (in its entirety, including off screen objects) in a bid to remove the lighting (sunlight coming through windows). So i created a sun lamp and tried to mimic the sun in the picture, rendered the image and took the diffuse direct because i assumed that would be the light, i inverted it so it would be the shadow instead of the light and tried to introduce it to the picture but it just looks terrible. My idea has failed miserably, i wonder if anyone else has an idea for how i could approach this.
Thanks for your time, it means a lot.

The rebuilt scene

What is the end result you're trying to achieve? It's not clear what you're trying to do. Are you trying to get a scene that is shaded flat without lighting?

@stphnl329 Hi. The result im trying to achieve is neutralising the light on the the original photo by using a render of similar lighting to counterbalance and neutralise the photo, leaving it open for me to pick the lighting. I just want to make the original photo neutral so i can control the lighting without having the original lighting impact.

Block out your windows and use your own lighting. You don't need CGI here.

@Nick I find your answer obtuse, I do need CGI here, if you don't know the answer to the problem its ok not to answer.

You would need indirect pass, reflection of table ... as well, but you will never get satisfied result. Any pixel inaccuracy of rebuild scene will produce ugly artefacts. Try to run your image through some app for PBR material, there is action to eliminate lightning in image. After that use this image as projection texture, adjust details and relight.

Light is an even distribution, so shouldn't any weird artefacts be able to be blurred out or something, as the effect is meant to be quite subtle anyway. Hypothetically, were artefacts not a debilitating problem what would the setup for the compositing nodes look like to bring the indirect and reflection together? roughly. Please and Thanks @vklidu

@stphnl329 Yes, im trying to get it shaded flat without lighting so i can then light myself with the recreated scene. Its all photoscanned so it should be pretty accurate

@Sahns fair enough, wasn't a super helpful comment from me so sorry for that. It is a cool idea, I am just doubtful that it's possible to model a scene accurately enough to get a good result like this. If you look up Technical Papers Preview: SIGGRAPH 2019 on YouTube, one of the things there (at 1:40) shows dynamic relighting of a scene, so it's quite cutting edge stuff.


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Adding texture on a material
So I'm modelling this sardine can with a logo on it... I have created my own logo as a png file and I want to apply it on a red metallic material... I have already tried applying it on the subsurface but it doesn't make much of a change

Could you share a view of your node network ?

@Gorgious I have added it

Are you familiar with UV-Unwrapping ?

Yes I have unwrapped it

Does this answer your question? How to place a .png texture with transparency over a material

Ok so, what you have to do is tell the shader where to draw your logo and where to draw the metallic part. If your lid is uv-unwrapped you can manipulate the uv coordinates to do it. Provided you have a png with an alpha channel this is quite easy. This is my setup :

Basically you take the uv coordinate and pass it through a mapping node to tweak the scale and position of your uvs. Then plug it to the image texture node and remember to set it to clip so that it doesn't repeat. Plug the alpha in the factor input of a mix shader and plug in the top input your metallic shader and in the bottom one your logo shader.
Then tweak the mapping node as you wish.


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My character is broken in pose mode
Hat and other objects are joined to the main body.
After adding armature deform with automatic weights my model gets broken.
Head runs away from hat and some parts of model are left behind when I move him in pose mode.
Character in edit mode:

Character in object/pose mode:

Moving main bone in pose mode:

Bones:

Is there a way to fix it or should I start from stratch?
I have tons of animating to do but I am stuck trying to fix this armature problem.


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2.81 Transparent Background Shadow Catcher
I have a fairly simple setup in Blender 2.81a.

A model, light source, camera, and a simple plane beneath it. I am attempting to render an image which renders the plane as a transparent background, but also has the shadow of the model cast onto it. In prior versions of blender this was do-able simply by allowing shadow casting onto the object and then making the object transparent, but this seems insufficient now that I have updated.
I have tried Eevee, and Cycles, but neither worked the way I'd like.
Currently I am messing around with a Mix shader comprised of a Transparent BSDF and a Diffuse, but while setting the Fac to 0.1 gets a "close" result, it still brightens the background slightly (since my diffuse color is white), which ruins the effect that I'm going for.
Any help would be appreciated. I am still very much a beginner with Blender.

How to upload an image to a post

There is a "shadow catcher" option in the object visibility properties. It works only in cycles. Actually I don't know of a simple easy way to do it in Eevee.

I will try this as soon as I get home, thank you! Is there any changes I should make to my material? Will this work with a pure transparent plane?

As a matter of fact I think you should not use a transparent shader for this. In my picture the plane uses the default material so I guess a simple diffuse shader would work

The plane will render as a transparent background even without a transparent shader? Interesting... OK, very eager to try this.

Worked beautifully! Thank you sir!


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How to make a countersink in Sketcher
I'm new at blender and i'm trying to "replicate" a product from work, that it's a plaque that has 4 holes in the corners. But the holes have a countersink for the screws.
Is there any way to make this in the CAD Sketcher Blender add-on, so that when I apply the modifier solidify, Blender can render that?
Thank you

I was refering to CAD Sketcher. An Add-on to use in blender. But thank you for your reply.

My apologies. I've edited your question to make that clear. The answer is yes (probably not with Solidify). Get as far as you can, and then edit your question if you get stuck.

thank you :) well i've tryed a lot of things but none work...like I sayd...im a noob :) all the help is welcome.

Please explain how far you have got so far,, what you have. You can share your effort as far as it's gone (or a toy version of it) on https://blend-exchange.com/ , if you like.


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Rigging multiple meshes
My problem is that I have created a bipedal model that has multiple meshes (gloves, shirt, socks, etc) and I have heard that I should select all the meshes and join them together with CRTL+J. I have done that and then I rigged with automatic weights, but not everything is affected by the bones. Some parts don't move with the rig. What should I do to fix this issue?

Information
If you create clothing for a rigged character it is not necessary to join the objects into one mesh. Proper parenting and data transfer is the key to get your clothes moving with the rig.
If you do not intend to change the clothes, you might be better off with a single mesh but then joining objects (and therefore meshes) produces unnecessary polygons.
I'm going to show the procedure for parenting and data transfer on the left boot, only.
Splitting the Clothes from the Body
Splitting the clothes from the Body is easy as long as there are no joined vertices.
Select your MainBody mesh and Tab into Edit Mode. Select one vertex of your boot (clicking somewhere near the surface helps) , then press Ctrl+Numpad + and keep pressing until all vertices of the mesh are selected. Then hit P and choose "Selection" then Tab into Object Mode.

Renaming and Clear Parenting
In the next step you want to rename the clothing piece into something appropriate (in this case boot_left), then hit Alt+P and choose "Clear and keep Transformation".

Clearing Vertex Groups
Next, we need to clean out all non-working vertex groups. In the Properties Area, select the Data Panel, go to "Vertex Groups" and hit the Minus Button until everything is gone.

Regenerating Vertex Data
Now we need to regenerate the vertex data in order to get the clothing mesh moving with the armature. Go to Properties Area, select the Modifiers Panel, click "Add Modifier" and select "Data Transfer".

In the modifier's settings, choose your MainBody as "Source Object", select "Vertex Data", "Vertex Groups", then hit "Generate Data Layers" and you also should apply the modifier. Go back to the Data Panel and check if your Vertex Data is now reassigned correctly.

Parenting Clothing Piece to Armature
The last step is a little fiddly, because it has to be taken in Object Mode. Click on your clothing mesh, then Shift-select the armature.

Sometimes, when you click on the armature, Blender automatically
  switches to Pose Mode for some reason. If this is the case, just
  switch back to Object Mode and Shift-select the armature
  again until Blender stays in Object Mode.

If your clothing piece is selected (orange outline) and your armature is active (yellow outline), press Ctrl+P and select "Armature Deform - With empty groups".

That's it.
Here's the revised blend file:

Enjoy.


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Bone won't move in rigify
I have a rigify armature where the hip bones are locked in place. I'm trying to select all the bones and move them, and all of them do move, except for the very top hip bones. I made another rig from scratch and works perfectly but using rigify causes this problem.

Oh dear, I think there might have been a misunderstanding. When you add a Rigify Armature, what you get at first is only the Meta-Rig. Its purpose is to give you the possibility to fit the bones to your character in Edit Mode. You're not supposed to add constraints to it yet, and some edits to the armature are also unsupported. Once you're done editing the bones (and not deleting them), you'd generate the 'real' rig using an operator.
I've added a second Rigify Meta-Rig to illustrate that somewhere down the road, you might have accidentally edited the Meta-Rig in Edit Mode:

The armature on the left is yours, the one on the right a fresh rigify one. As you can see, there's relationship lines missing on your hip bones pointing to the spine. That's why the bones do not follow any longer the spine.
Retry creating a Rigify Armature, reposition the bones in Edit Mode to fit your character, and then locate the 'Generate' button in the Armature Tab of the Meta-Rig:

After you click it, you should get this:

This doesn't work on your Blend file any more, because some vital bones have been deleted unfortunately.
More details can be found for instance in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYiAd_08-0k and many many other resources on the web on how to use it.


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how do i achieve this simple text animation?
here's this simple text animation in this video that i'd like to replicate but what a surprise i haven't got a clue how to do it and i was hoping someone out there could help a noob out.
Here's the video and the animation is at 0:20: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-6Xz4tWigM
I've tried importing a flat black colour image into the VSE and keyframing the Y axis scale but the black box then appears to be growing form the centre rather than the bottom of itslef (if that makes sense).
And even then i don't know how to add my own font in the VSE, i think i could type my text in the default section of blender but have yet to try.
But my next problem has been how to make the text rise from the bottom of the black box from it's centre.
Apologies if this is a daft question and for the poor explanation its a lot easier if you see the animation at 0:20 of the video.
Cheers for any help!
Here's my Blend file that i'm working from, hopefully that'll help. Thanks!

A problem I can see with trying to do this in the VSE is coping with the text itself.  It will be seen rising between the bottom edge of the video and the black box.
Doing this in Blender's 3D window/workspace would be a straight forward job with no problems.  To use it again and again, simply edit the text and re-render.
If you're inclined to do it in Blender, leave a comment and I'll upload the file and some instructions.  It's already done and working but with our internet uploads averaging around 30KB/s, uploading is only carried out when it's going to be of some help.

I was intending to do it all in blender as i don't know what other options there are for achieving this effect. So uploading that file would be a massive help, cheers.

Consider it done - I've also tried out Blender's compression saves in the meantime and that works well - reduces filesize down to just 20% of the original.

As commented above and assuming you're talking about "Chapter 26" at around the 20+ second mark -
A problem I can see with trying to do this in the VSE is coping with the text itself. It will be seen rising between the bottom edge of the video and the black box.
Doing this in Blender's 3D window/workspace would be a straight forward job with no problems. To use it again and again, simply edit the text and re-render.
Pretty much all of the elements and where they're needed have been placed into the 3D set/stage and placarded.

All settings needed to produce your overlay video have been preset prior to uploading.  All you need to do is assign your own output folder and path for the output video/image sequence.  DON'T RENDER BEFORE YOU DO THIS!  You could end up with umpteen dozen files sitting somewhere!
To view the animation properly, get yourself into the camera view first, (numpad's Zero key) and then press CTL-A to set it going.  (Don't blink)

As you're already overlaying a background video with text, we'll stick to that plan here and output the result using the "OpenGL" animation render, (top left of 3D window, under "Render")
All settings as setup in the Blend file should work straight off, except for the output folder and your own background video.
The main settings -
In the rendering properties panel at extreme right, set the "Shading" tab to "Transparent".  The Post processing tab's boxes should be unticked for safety until actually using the VSE.
The output folder should be set to one created for this job because there's going to be a host of single-frame files.  You don't want extras in there, causing mayhem!
Set the ouput format to "PNG" and make sure to press the RGBA button at hard right.  You won't have a transparent overlay video otherwise.
What should end up being produced is a sequence of alpha layered video frames in the form of PNG files, ready to import as an "Image Sequence" in a seperate instance of Blender, and it's VSE.  This time the "Sequencer" box should be ticked in the "Post Processing" tab.  This is normally the default anyway on a newly fired up instance of Blender.

Explanatory -  Have a look at the Blender file to see that I've simply laid text, mask, and solid black plane flat near the 'ground', the camera directly overhead and looking down.
An "Inviso" mask moves in unison with the black box/plane and used to conceal the text ascending in the Y axis.  Only those parts that are higher in the Y axis than the mask will be visible.  The text is also placed higher in the Z axis than the solid black rectangle and will be seen to slide up 'inside' the black area.
If desired it can slide down to be concealed again, or using the same
video sequence but within an additional strip in the VSE, the video can be reversed with that button in the strip's properties. (Press N)
As far as dispensing with the text and black box, you're only limited by your imagination.  A simple fade in the VSE would do!
-=============-
'Inviso mask' - This is a term I've adopted for the effect we get in Blender when rendering using OpenGL and giving a 2D plane a material slot with Transparency set to 0.008, Specular set to zero.
When the effect is active, objects and parts thereof that end up behind the mask can be -->selectively<-- rendered invisible.  This is most useful for a variety of applications.
One example -
https://i.sstatic.net/mP991.jpg
The smaller cube whilst physically in front of the image can be placed behind some item within the photo by using an Inviso mask fashioned to match the exact shape of that item, such as the tree trunk above.
Another -

This uses inviso masks to hide the outer portions of the 'open parchment'.
A detailed explanation is here -
Reduce Curve Deformation
(scroll down to the post describing a simple 'Parchment Scroll' opening and closing)...
-================-
If you find the mask not working on your hardware, go to the black box/plane's (not the mask) material panel, open it's shading tab, and tick the "Shadeless" box, just for a second or so, untick it again.  For some reason Blender needs a slight kick, get it talking to the graphics card(?).
Run it again and it should be ok

The Blend file -

hi, thanks for the detailed response. I'm trying what you said but im having a couple of problems. 1. the inviso mask as you described isn't hiding the text as it raises in the VSE 2. the the text colour in default is red but when i render it is black. I'm confused now cozsz

I fixed one of the problems. I hadn't use daily the OpenGL render option and now the colour of the text I see red but the inviso mask/plane is showing as grey in the VSE's preview window.

also the empty are rendered out in the final result when i use openGL.

Will get back to you quick as I can.  In the meantime try pressing A in the 3D window to deslect everything.  You could also try the inviso's properties (cube)icon, -->Dipslay--> Transparency box..  This can affect the mask's behavior.  The animation tells us it does work so it'll most likely be a setting or something,  or the rendering method.  (missing it's alpha layer?)  As uploaded it was supposed to work 'out of the box'.  It does for me when I d/load it back but something's obviously different.  FYI this was done using Blender  2.77a .

i can't even find the transparency box in the inviso properties section. I don't know if this'll help but i'll link my blend file up above, cheers for all the help again- much appreciated!

Unfortunately your Blend file wouldn't d/load, nor could I see any url for it as is usually the case. You could try downloading it yourself, see if that works.  If not, remove the upload and  try it again.  Also, it would help if I knew what experience you've had with Blender and whether you're trying to learn it, or just in need of this animation for some project or other.  That can save a lot of time and tell me how to go about things from here.  An alternative would be for me to make a tutorial video but that would need to be emailed to an anonymous email address.

Okay I'll sort the blend file problem this evening :) I've had little to no experience with blender, just trying to get to grips with its mechanics through tutorials and videos. I'm okay with the VSE, mostly get the mechanics of the compositor and no experience with the 3D default window.

I was hoping to make this animation whilst trying to blender.

ok, as I understand things, you're into using this exercise to help you come to grips with Blender's 3D window & animation etc.  Back to your project - we'll concentrate on the rendered png files firstly.  i.e. do they contain an alpha layer or not?  To find out, lay the output sequence into a VSE strip in a new instance of Blender and see if there's a black and grey checkerboard pattern everywhere there's no text or black box.  If there's no checkerboard, the essential alpha layer will be missing.

One more query - did the file as uploaded actually work?  You mentioned red text but the uploaded text was solid white.

i've sorted it out now the text has appeared and the inviso mask is working all of a sudden, not sure why or how but the problem has worked itself out so before i select your answer could you tell me how added that repeating clip of the chapter 26 thing you did in response to my question? Is it just rendering the scene as a movie clip then uploading it? Cheers for all your help, its much appreciated!

What's displayed is the output of the rendered clip.  (Bkd image would normally be removed so you have just the black box and text sliding up on a transparent (glass) bkd.  It's an animated gif file.  Blender's png files are loaded into "GIMP" and converted to the gif file which can be embedded into an answer as an ordinary 'image'.  With the alpha layer rendering being so cumbersome with so many individual frames, you might like to explore rendering text and bkd video out in the one go, into single video files as I've done above.

Hi, sorry for not responding for so long. As i said before the problem of the grey inviso mask being visible sorting itself out but now that ive tried to replicate the animation once again it's not working.

ive set the inviso mask' transparency alpha to 0.008 like you said on z transparency and turned specular intensity to 0 but the grey box isnt invisible. Im rendering with openGl also.

if you would still do the tutorial video then i can set up an anonymous email

Rather than a tutorial (first up) because no one on this site will see it, I'll place up an Inviso  question, and answer it myself that deals specifically with this effect, because it can save so many steps in more complex Video effect projects.  It's well worth consideration when OpenGL rendering is acceptable.  Watch this space...

Have added an "Inviso" question/ans.  See if this helps you solve your problem.  Also check the "Transparency" box under the Inviso's properties icon at right. (little cube icon)  Tick of untick as required to get the mask invisible.  Don't forget to press A to deselect everything when viewing or rendering.  Also make sure you've set the 3D stage's properties (press N) to "Only Render" during the render.  That's found under the "Display" tab.  Happy hunting!

The link to the question - http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/74353/is-there-a-blender-alternative-to-chroma-key-rendering-in-opengl/74355#74355

Using any image app you like, create an image with the text using any font and add the image to the VSE. Save it using a format like PNG that supports alpha if you want any transparency around the text.
In the strip properties (press N) set the blend type to Alpha Over so that it doesn't obscure the entire video. Under Strip input you can use the image offset to position the text, this can also be animated by adding keyframes. Go to frame 1 and set Y to -20 then right click and select Insert Keyframe, go to frame 50 and change Y to 50 and right click and select Insert Keyframe.

You can also create and animate a text object in blender and render the text image if you wanted. For fancier text animation you may find Animation Nodes  interesting.

Sorry Sambler, hit the wrong comment button!


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image not rendering with rest of scene, why?
I've been messing with textures and materials not actually knowing the difference and the effect it will have on my image as an object. Before it was shwoing in the render and now it's not.
I've linked my blend file here and i was hoping someone could point out my (most likely) noob mistake.
Cheers for any help!

Trying to download your Blender file but no luck - nothing happens.

I added a password to the blend file thing, thinking it was the right thing to do, I'll remove it and replace it without a password and hopefully that'll fix it.

@user33287 You mean the object not appearing in the rendering or the whole render view is not appearing?

The object only. It's an image I imported as a plane

Need to pack image into the file - right now the blend file doesn't contain the image so no way I can give you input on why it isn't rendering for you.

im sorry i don't understand what you mean by the image isn't packed into the file, does it not show when you download the blend file? Sorry i'm new to all this

It seems like that you have transperncy checked in the material tab. Unchecking will make the material appear but for somereason the texture won't appear just the diffuse color (tried this with my own textures too) .


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Increasing bump value turns the specular shine into a halo shape?
I've been running into a problem where whenever I increase the bump the shiny specular goes into a halo shape, here's a gif to show it in action
(https://gfycat.com/thirstylimpinghackee.gif)

While files, images, and external links may be helpful additions to
questions they should not remain the only way to obtain information
about your issue. Don't make understanding your question rely on
downloading a file or visiting an external site. Use the builtin tools
to upload images or
gifs, besides
thoroughly explaining the problem in written form so it can be
searched for and indexed thus helping future users find it.

Alright! Will make sure to do so next time

Cool, you can always edit your question btw.

At default settings, this:

is 1 meter.  To illustrate, here are a couple of cubes, one with Bump applied, and one with some Subdivision and Displacement.

In essence, Bump is perturbing the normal data to give the left cube the appearance of the right cube without adding any geometry.  That's probably not even anywhere close to the appearance you had in your head for this wall/window, and so you see something you don't like and can't quite explain in the viewport.
By lowering the Strength you are mitigating the issue, but not solving the root cause.  Instead, the Distance for this (imo) should be somewhere around .001 to .01, and that may be enough to solve it.

For reference, .0254 (2.54cm) is an inch, so when you're doing stuff like wood grain and stucco you're going to have really small values.  The image above got just a little destroyed by compression, but you can see that with the values scaled down the cubes retain similar appearances.

It worked! Thank you so much! ^^


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Curve Modifier: Align object to the center of the Path?
I have a curved path, which is animated from curved to flat. My idea is to have a rectangle in the middle of this path, so it bends flat when animated.
The Simple Deform modifier doesn't give the effect I want, because it bends on the sides only.
If my rectangle is the same size as the Path, it kinda works, but since is right aligned it shows more gap on the left.
I would like to use the Curve modifier and set my object to stay in the middle. Is this possible? Can I somehow select one point from the Path and set it as origin?
I'm using Blender 2.83.

As you can see, here's the animation. It should align from the center.

so once you've given it the Curve modifier, if you move it towards the center of the curve, it should work as expected, non?

It should, but for some reason it doesn't. I added a gif showing how it looks. I manually added to the center, but it bends towards a side.

maybe you should choose another way to do it, for example give your object a Surface Deform modifier, with a subdivided plane as Target, and give 2 shapekeys to your plane: flat and bent, use Proportional Editing for the bent version. Or even do it directly with your object?

Thank you, that's helpful. Surface Deform might work! I will give it a try.
Directly modifying the object with shape-keys didn't look natural.
I will give a try with Surface Deform. Thank you so far!


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Solidify Modifier going in all directions
I was trying to create a different version of a stylized archway.  I used a couple of bezier curves to get the basic shape then borrowed some of the shapes from the original archway.  I got everything lined up, then joined the mesh created from the curves to the shapes from the archway.  Then I painstakingly went thru and connected the shapes to the curve and then used F to fill them in. Then I removed the original shapes by separating as I wanted holes there and tried to solidify the results.  Oh lordy, I did something very wrong somewhere because this is not what I was expecting.  In the video, I show my mesh and what it does and then the original exhibiting the desired behavior.

Please add a picture displaying the problem and modifier settings or a blend file.

I attached the link to the gif which shows it.https://gyazo.com/6f2985ad6ee776905e078c01bd5ae84b

The problem with this mesh is it's mb its topology in order to fix that,  first go into edit mode and select all faces and then press shift+N to calculate normals, then try pressing alt+M and selecting merge by distance for removing double, if that still doesn't solve the problem then apply a remedy modifier above solidify (you even remedy manually or by some other add-on).  Try these one by one or all at the same time.


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Mask 'unmasking' for some frames
I have a mask that applies to an entire video clip - with a few key frames.
For some reason some rendered frames omit the mask completely.  After investigating, the output of the mask node in compositing is to mask absolutely nothing.
There are no key frames around the problem frames.
Below is the mask output of frames 9 and 10 in the composite.  As you can see 10 masks nothing, where 9 has the 'key hole' mask.
Frame 9:

Frame 10:

Hi. Please add images using the built-in uploader: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/75491/how-to-upload-an-image-to-a-post

Hi also, if possible try to take screen shots with a better resolution. These images are very hard to read.

Updated with the built in uploader.  As for the resolution, the nodes aren't really part of the issue so far as I can tell.  It'l the matte output that seems to be broken.  I was having issues with frame 19, then I removed some keyframes for the matte, and the problem went away... and then came back on frame 10.


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Adjusting rig setup over a shape key
This seems to be a tough one. Say I have a human rigged 3D model that, with a shape key, transforms into a werewolf. And so bigger, with different proportions (longer arms and legs etc.).
There is a way to have the rig adjust to the shape key transformation automatically? Drivers to the opposite thing, and I really don't know how to do it... Thanks for any help.

Simpler solution is to have two different rigs triggering two different characters, turning on and off one of them when necessary.
Another way is to have two rigs on the same character, driving two different armature modifiers, turning on and off their influence sliders when necessary.
Any solution involving a coded variation of the rest pose I think it would become a nightmare during the animation process.

Hi Josh thanks for the suggestions. I think suggestion nr.2 would be the most effective because I need the character to morph and animate at the same time. Although, managing two different control rigs at the same time might be problematic.
Anyway, odd that Blender doesn't actually support a dynamic rig system so that bones can actually change shape and location (not pose) using a driver, just as it happens with shape keys.


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Using Add-on packages in Blender scripts
I was wondering how I could import (if possible) modules from installed add-on packages.
The enabled add-on I am currently using includes these classes, which I want to import into my script:
https://github.com/rdb/blender-egg-importer/blob/master/importer.py
importer.py is part of this add-on package called blender-egg-importer, which is already loaded in.

How can I call these classes from this add-on package using a script in the text editor?

Have you tried from blender_egg_importer import importer ?