text:
Why is the compositing window white and how do I get nodes?
I'm new to blender, when i press the compositing tab I get this:
I can't find the nodes, where are they?

It looks like you have a large image connected to the Viewer node.
Try pressing V for some time until the image gets smaller and reveals the comp grid.
When this works use your MB3 to search for the Nodes. If nothing is there add them in with Shift + A

Hey that works, Thanks!

Do you mean the background?
If you look at the big X in the middle of the field it normaly indicates, that a Viewer node is used at the moment. Normaly you would A) Remove the Viewer node. B) Scale the viewer node down with pressing V.
Otherwise the Field should be black


text:
The material surface selection field is not available in 2.79b
A tutorial is telling me to assign the material to glossy, but my version of blender 2.79b, is completely different from his version of blender 2.79. How can I select a glossy texture using my version of blender? Which version of Blender can I change to which will be the same as his version?
Thanks for your help!!!

You probably need to switch from Blender Render engine to Cycles Render:

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
how to know what has been imported after alembic import
I am importing an abc file like so:
bpy.ops.wm.alembic_import(filepath="myabc.abc")
But I want to then get what I have imported and do stuff with it.
I dont know whats in the file in advance - how can I find out what nodes I have just imported?

Right after you perform the import alembic operation, all the objects that are imported are selected in the viewport. So you can use the following code to get access to them
bpy.context.selected_objects

Then you can perform operations such as grouping them logically as below
bpy.ops.group.create(name='test1')

Additionally, you also have access to cache files
bpy.data.cache_files.items()

Assuming you have loaded an alembic file (test2.abc) containing a cube and sphere, you can get to their object paths using
cache_file = bpy.data.cache_files['test2.abc']

Now we can get access to all the objects paths loaded
cache_file.object_paths.keys()

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

authors: Акбийке Мансурова


text:
Can I prevent a specific bone from moving during Auto-IK posing?
Can I limit chain length during Auto-IK posing, or otherwise prevent the movement of specific bones?
I'm familiar with the ability to limit chain length when setting IK bone constraints, but I don't see any similar option while posing with Auto-IK enabled. Is there such a feature, or other way to lock a specific bone from moving during Auto-IK?

In Bone settings (Pose mode) find IK controls. Don't mind that they are greyed out, they are still working. Lock these axis (click on "lock icon") to fully exclude desired bones from the IK chain.
How to quickly lock many bones?
Select desired bones and lock axis as described earlier, then click on "lock icon" with right mouse button and select Copy to selected, repeat for every axis (X,Y,Z)

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

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


text:
Strip Blender Down for just modeling
Please keep in mind I am not trying to offend anyone!!! I realize that Blender is a powerful and a wonderfully free tool for people wanting to learn every inch of being a 3d artist and animator. However is there a way strip away stuff I am never going to use? It is just so cluttered I really only need a way to make 3 model's, Maybe a way to texture the models but even so I hear there are better tools for doing that? The Unreal Engine which is the game engine I am working with at current so I don't need the blender one. I have no interest in making short films or using the other tools in the package.

Yes, if you have a strong programming skillset, and a detailed knowledge of the code used for Blender, since Blender is open source,theoretically one could do what you describe. Otherwise, practically speaking for the typical end user, no, it is not likely to be possible to strip out material like you describe. You can, however, hide much of it as 3pointedits answer outlines.

Yeah I didn't really think it would possible with out disecting the code and as you stated needs to be someone that really knows what they are doing. Thanks anyway's for the answer.

Blender allows you to save your preferred setup as a default, just turn off what you don't want to see and go to File > Save Startup File

I will have to try that when I get home. Thanks for the answer

It would be worth looking at adjusting the screen layouts to taste before saving the startup file so that the layouts are always available. There is already a 3dview full  setup that removes everything but the 3d view. This answer may also be of interest.


text:
Rendering multiple scenes and joining them into one
I am starting a new architectural project of an airport, and I am trying to create a scene where an aeroplane is landing on the runway. Now before I even start doing it, I am interested to know if it is possible to split a scene into more scenes, then render them separately and eventually join them back together.
What I want to do is to render whole stationary scenery (terminal building, runway, landscape etc.) without sky and airplanes in only one scene just as one frame (which will then represent a backgound of an animation), then just render airplane landing in one animation with everything else in the background transparent, and at last render the animated sky with dynamic clouds without everything else.
All of these three scenes will be rendered from one camera perspective.
My question is, can I once they are all finished rendering join them back together to make one animation? Is there something I should do in compositor, in video editor or do I have to use completely different program to do this?
Thank you very much in advance. If you have any other questions please ask.

This can be easily done, you don't even need separate scenes, all you need to do is set up separate Render layers.If you want you can also render from separate scenes, and then join everything in the compositor.

Tip: if you try to bring in different files, export your render in the openEXR multi-layer file format. This way, your render passes will be saved when opening this file in the compositor!

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos Thank you for your quick response. I was thinking about doing the first method with render layers, but since I am modeling in a completely different program, and using Blender only as a rendering engine, the scene would still be imported into Blender as one layer only, so I would have to do the layer separation work all over again. So I assume I will have to stick to the compositor method (even though I have no idea of how to do it, but I'll give it a go). Thanks again for your help, have a nice day.

@BertVdB Hello, thank you for the tip, I'll have that in mind too if necessary. Have a nice day.

Just to be clear, both methods will use the compositor as final step to join everything together. The scene separation method before that is the only thing that differs, choose whichever best suits your particular needs. Layers or different scenes will mostly work the same. As Bert mentions be sure to render in openEXR format for best quality

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos Okay, thank you very much again, I'll try to do it and I will see where am I gonna come at the end. Cheers!


text:
Can I permanently add add a method to the driver namespace?
I have a method x which I can add to the driver namespace like this:
bpy.app.driver_namespace["x"] = x

but the namespace is reset everytime I restart Blender, which then messes up my drivers. Is there a way to permanently add it to the namespace or auto-execute this script when starting Blender?

Put this code into a Python file and place it into ~/.config/blender/2.78/scrips/startup/my_driver_stuff.py (replace ~/config/blender with %APPDATA%/Blender Foundation/Blender on Windows, and something along those lines on MacOS).
import bpy

@bpy.app.handlers.persistent
def setup_driver(*args):
    bpy.app.driver_namespace["x"] = x
bpy.app.handlers.load_post.append(setup_driver)
setup_driver()

ok now that's weird... It created a "pycache" folder in the startup folder, presumably containing the compiled script. But the method is still not in the namespace...

I've updated my answer to use a load_post handler. Haven't tried it myself, but it should work like this ;-)


text:
Is there a blender UI addon that highlights the active menu the mouse cursor is hovering over?
From what I understand so far about Blender, wherever the mouse cursor is hovering over, it becomes the active region.
Currently, Blender slightly changes the tint of a menu's header as you hover your cursor on and off from the menu. But that small change is barely noticeable.
Is there a blender UI addon that can let the user create a custom color for both the active and non-active Headers or active/non-active Window Backgrounds?
It helps to know what is active, especially on large high resolution monitors.

You can just customize the theme in User Preferences and choose the colors to your requirement and then save the theme as well as make it the default.
Press Ctrl+Alt+U to open the User Preferences and then goto Theme tab.
Customizing Blender Theme


text:
UV texture not rendered as seen by camera?
I have been working on a finger model and trying to add texture on that. I was successful, but the texture is not getting rendered as seen by the camera. In other way the orientation is different. The images are shown below:
The 3D model of the finger:

Next the texture i am trying to map on it.

The unwrapped layout along with texture:

This is model seen by the camera:

The final rendered image:

The nodes Editor layout:

As you can see, the rendered image and the texture seen by the camera is different.

Can you upload the blend file?

Even though UV is the default texture coordinate mode, I might try adding a texture coordinate node and connect the UV output to the vector input of the Image Texture and see if that makes a difference.

@ToddMcIntosh - The link for the files is : [link] https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B3IeQ-na-m9rfnNrVGNtMXlsbmJRYXdld2JlTHg3Um9ZLVY2RURHd1ZBM0t2YmRNS3VtY2c&usp=sharing

The problem is that you have 2 UV maps defined for the mesh, and the one selected ("UVMap") is applying the image texture the wrong way.

If you select the other map ("UVMap.001"), you'll get the mapping that you want.


text:
Python Scripting : AttributeError : 'SpaceTextEditor ' object has no attribute 'context'
I am trying to write a python script using the info panel.
The first part of the code is unwrapping a mesh which is executing successfully.
The second part is to change the viewport shading to MATERIAL which is used for rendering. But when I try to run the script I get this error .

Thirdly, I am trying to import a .png image. But its not being displayed in the UV Editor.
The code is shown below:
import bpy
   for obj in bpy.data.objects:
     if(obj.type == 'MESH'):
       bpy.context.scene.objects.active = obj
       bpy.ops.mesh.uv_texture_add()
       bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='EDIT')
       bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='TOGGLE')
       bpy.ops.uv.unwrap(method='ANGLE_BASED', margin=0.001)
       bpy.context.space_data.context = 'MATERIAL'
       bpy.ops.material.new()
       bpy.ops.image.open(filepath="//finger1.png", directory="C:\\Users\\KM\\Desktop\\blender\\Test 1\\", files=[{"name":"finger1.png", "name":"finger1.png"}], relative_path=True, show_multiview=False)

Anything regarding this would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

bpy.context.space_data depends on the active window (clicking on the materials button the the property editor). This line can be removed.

@ideasman42 - So if i need to render it using the python script, I will have to keep the 3D view in Materials mode and then render it? Or is there any other way to do it?

To put it differently, the script would not give this exception if you ran it within the properties editor. However changing this button is not even important for the running of the script, so the line can be removed.

I am a big advocate of avoiding bpy.ops as much as possible.  I wrote an example at http://web.purplefrog.com/~thoth/blender/python-cookbook/load-image-texture.html which might help you understand how to use python to create a material using an image texture:
Here is the most important bit:
def material_for_texture(fname):
    img = bpy.data.images.load(fname)

    tex = bpy.data.textures.new(fname, 'IMAGE')
    tex.image = img

    mat = bpy.data.materials.new(fname)
    mat.texture_slots.add()
    ts = mat.texture_slots[0]
    ts.texture = tex
    ts.texture_coords = 'ORCO'

    return mat

fname = "/var/tmp/blender/mohawk-seal0001.png"
obj = bpy.context.active_object
mat = material_for_texture(fname)
if len(obj.data.materials)<1:
    obj.data.materials.append(mat)
else:
    obj.data.materials[0] = mat

I had a similar problem as your second point. Solved it like this:
threeD_viewport = None

for area in bpy.context.screen.areas:
    if area.type == 'VIEW_3D':
        for space in area.spaces:
            if space.type == 'VIEW_3D':
                threeD_viewport = space

threeD_viewport.shading.type = 'MATERIAL'

Or a one-liner next(s for a in bpy.context.screen.areas if a.type=='VIEW_3D' for s in a.spaces if s.type=='VIEW_3D').shading.type = 'MATERIAL'


text:
get string from Text Object using Animation Nodes
Is it possible to pull in the actual string of text from a Text Object? It's easy to create a string of text in the nodes and send it out to a Text Object, or even to pull in text from an external file...I just can't figure out how to get it from a Text Object that I created manually. I thought I might be able to using the Object Attribute Input node, but I don't know if that's possible. When I copy the data path to "Body Text", it just gives me "body", which doesn't work...
Thanks!

The .body attribute is not an attribute of the object, but of the text object data. So you need to get the attribute like this:

An object is like a container for multiple things that gives them properties like location, scale, render visibility, etc. These things range from meshes, lights, curves, .. and texts. And what is inside the object is referred to as data.

Thanks! I figured it was something simple like this, I just wasn't sure of the syntax.


text:
Where has the Object Index from Layers has been moved to in 2.80?
I need to use the Object Index for a couple of objects. But as seen in the image below, it is no longer found in the Layers/Passes window.
Thanks guys!

Suggest using Cryptomatte feature.

Here's a link to the Blender manual's explanation of the Cryptomatte Node.

You need to change from EEVEE to Cycles render in order to have that option
Good Luck


text:
How to mask normal maps or How to select and apply portions of normal map?
I have normal map that is fed to "Diffuse and Glossy" shaders. but I don't want to use or mask portion of the normal map.
How to mask portion of the normal map or in other words how to apply portion of the normal map ?
I have tried combining texture painted image and normal map with MixRGB: Multiply to select  desired portions of normal map by painting white. but, it's no use. As shown below

In comparison to bump maps were black and white are 0% and 100% influence, normal maps work from a blueish base tone.
rgb (128,128,256): is 0% normal map influence

you can use your bw-mask as a factorial in the color-mix-node while using your normal map as one input and the rgb color(128,128,256) as a second input.


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How to use array to create circular array without spiralling
I am trying to build a Colosseum. I have one arch and want to use an array for the rest. I've added an empty at the center and added the array. Done the object offset, but no matter what I do I keep getting a spiral effect instead of all of the duplicates sitting on the same level.

Make the circular perimeter of the enclosure. Make the array follow the curve.

You are on the right track using a Object Offset for the array modifier.
First make sure that your arch has a scale of 1, You can make the object's scale 1 by applying the scale with CtrlA > Scale.
Second make sure that the object your are using for the Object Offset in the array (I will call it "Array Empty") is at the same location as the object the array modifier is on, your arch. Meaning your arch's origin and the Array Empty should be at the same spot.
I like the use the Properties panel N to quickly view the location and check the scale. Later on this panel will be useful.
You can move the Array Empty to the same spot as the arch by selecting your arch and pressing ShiftS > Cursor To Selected. Now select the Array Empty and pressing ShiftS > Selected To Cursor. They are now both in the same spot. (Verified by looking at the Location for each in the Properties panel.)
Now rotate the empty to create the circle of arches.
Knowing how much to rotate the empty is easy, here is the formula 360/C where C is the count of the array.
No need to try to figure out what the division is, just type it right in the the rotation field on the Properties panel.
Look at my answer here if you want rotate the Array Empty by pressing R then typing in the equation.
Last thing to do is line up the Array Empty, so that your arches make a nice circle.
What I do is add an edge perpendicular to the arch extending to the center. Then just move the Array Empty until all the lines meet up at the center, like in the image below. Note how the Array Empty is rotated, but no longer in the same place as the arch.

Quickly recap:

Scale set to 1 for both arch and Array Empty.
Z location the same for arch and Array Empty.
Rotate Array Empty along the Z 360 / Number of counts in array.
Position Array Empty to make a perfect circle.

I had this same problem. What worked for me is I applied scale for both an empty object and the object that I wanted to rotate. This can be done selecting an object and then pressing Ctrl+A and then choosing scale in menu that will appear.


text:
List of hot Keys for Mac Mini. OS X10.6.8
Having issues following the tutorial because the hot keys and short cuts are not working for me. If I click my spinwheel it won't allow me to orbit my 3D View instead it toggle windows on my computer.
Toggle full screen Alt F10- doesn't work
Toggle Quad View doesn't work, etc....
I am a novice attempting to learn Blender but it just makes it more difficult not being able to follow the tutorial.

AFAIK most (all?) the hot keys are consistent across platforms. You can view/search/change them in File > User preferences > Input, but it sounds like you might be better off disabling the conflicting shortcuts in your OS (unless you use those features).

@gandalf3 All the keys are consistent. The os shortcuts take precedence as cegaton says. On ubuntu, common ones are Ctrl Alt 0 and Alt RMB. It's preferred to change the os shortcuts so Blender's own stay consistent. You can start here http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/124/how-to-emulate-a-number-pad-and-3-button-mouse, the recommended tool to use is keyremap4macbook.


text:
Can my unwrapped UV be scaled outside of the UV grid?
So I have UV unwrapped an object, and everything fits inside the UV grid as it should. But why should it remain within the UV grid?
Do I need to keep it within bounds or can I scale it outside the grid?

If you go outside of the grid/texture you will have the UV's copying the same texture as other parts, the texture tiles infinitely in all directions.


text:
Blender rendering quality pixelated
I've slowly been getting better at blender but one thing that annoys me a lot is that when i press F12 to render my scene, well, it's all pixelated.
Examles:
So this here is something i was testing out, and this is when i press Shift+Z

So that's fine and all but then i go to F12 and i get this:

Now, i have read other peoples posts, and they call say "duplicate" and they all have answers, now honestly it annoys me that none of them have a good answer that actually would aid this. I've read all the things i could find, and some of the "Similar questions" and some people have the same problem as me, but i doubt there is nothing i can do?
TL;DR Want to make my renders not pixelated so i can make the low-poly scenes i've been making better. So i can actually zoom in without seeing pixels.

true. Do you know all the questions/answers ?

If Bithur's suggestion doesn't do it for ya(it most likely will), then take a screenshot of your rendering-settings (same panel as in Bithur's answer)

@NaioaiStudios What he suggested seems to work. Thanks (edited)

looks like a low res zoomed image. check your render resolution, X, Y and %. a 1000x1000 render at 25% gives a 250x250 image. Aspect ratio has to be 1.

It currently looks like this for me: http://puu.sh/g75Qa/be699fbaa9.png sort of the same as yours. I just have a few less buttons but i think that is a versions thing. Anyway, if i was to export the image (i don't know how though) would it possibly be not pixelated?

Well, i tried making the 50% at 100% it seems to be fine now as long as i don't zoom in, i guess i can live with that. So i suppose you helped. I got a clearer idea of things in this one that i have not seen in other posts. So, thanks. Edit: It does seem it only fixes it if i put the display mode in "new window" Odd, all the other ones seem pixel-ish, i'll keep it in new window then.

if you want a bigger size, zoomable, you can use 200% (or more)

I put it at 150% because 200% seems to lag. Thanks.

the image you linked has a 645×517 resolution. that's not 50% of 1920x1080 so i think you resized it. check you camera distance too

Is the Final Resolution indication on the screenshot a new feature or something?

Well, possibly, but it works now anyway.

@LeonCheung Not sure, i don't have it either, but there may be newer versions of my blender.


text:
Can't see vertex groups
I am following this tutorial http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:2.6/Manual/Your_First_Animation/2.Animating_the_Gingerbread_Man
I am at the Skinning step and trying to look at vertex groups like the tutorial shows. Clicking "Select" on one of my vertex groups does nothing, however. Nothing new shows up on my screen.

I assume you are in edit mode? A vertex group by default has no vertices assigned to it, but requires you to select the desired vertices and press the Assign button under the vertex groups window.


text:
Center View to cursor not working?
I am moving my cursor and going to View -> Align View -> Center View to Cursor. I have already had quite a few problems with blender such as not being able to select objects except in the list selector but this is just ridiculous. Is there any mode I could be in that would be stopping the view from centering itself?
Edit: It's because of that ridiculous second screen that I accidentally made appear by clicking somewhere near the top of the program. If I drag the toolbar down I can see that in my second view my character is centered on my cursor. How do I get rid of this view? I don't want it.

Did you Shift click the split region button? Or did you drag it?

Try this http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/1223/how-to-close-open-a-view-panel

@someonewithpc I dragged it up


text:
Blender always adds a .blend extension to my image, and can't be opened
I saved my project as .png, then as .jpeg but Blender always adds a .blend extension on it. I saved it in its own folder and in my documents.  Regardless Blender opens showing me an empty gray screen. How can I get Blender to show me what I saved?

post the .blend file for inspection and also check the size of that file if it is not empty.

Since you say that Blender has added the .blend extension. You probably rendered the image and saved the .blend (not the rendered image).
When you reopen the .blend file the rendered image wasn't saved but the screen layout which has switched to the image editor displaying "Render Result" which is no longer available.
Press ESC to close the Image Editor or switch to 3D View.
To save rendered images use F3 or the Image Menu:


text:
Rendering stopped updating
I have a particular file in which renders are no longer updating according to changes to the model. The render output is far quicker than normal, and the Render Results show several users. Does anyone have suggestions? Thx for any help!

Have you added any strips on the sequence editor?

Yep! D'oh!! Thanks a lot, that one had me stumped.


text:
scale uv map script
I have a blend file with a mesh and its corresponding UV map. I'm trying to scale the UV map programmatically with python script, but when I use bpy.ops.transform.resize it scales the mesh, not the UV map. I wasn't able to find anything that scales UV map in bpy.ops.uv.
Is this even doable?

I have not found a built in function either.
Here is a commented code to do it if that can help:
import bpy
from mathutils import Vector

#Get object and UV map given their names
def GetObjectAndUVMap( objName, uvMapName ):
    try:
        obj = bpy.data.objects[objName]

        if obj.type == 'MESH':
            uvMap = obj.data.uv_layers[uvMapName]
            return obj, uvMap
    except:
        pass

    return None, None

#Scale a 2D vector v, considering a scale s and a pivot point p
def Scale2D( v, s, p ):
    return ( p[0] + s[0]*(v[0] - p[0]), p[1] + s[1]*(v[1] - p[1]) )

#Scale a UV map iterating over its coordinates to a given scale and with a pivot point
def ScaleUV( uvMap, scale, pivot ):
    for uvIndex in range( len(uvMap.data) ):
        uvMap.data[uvIndex].uv = Scale2D( uvMap.data[uvIndex].uv, scale, pivot )

#UV data are not accessible in edit mode
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode='OBJECT')

#The names of the object and map
objName = 'Cube'
uvMapName = 'UVMap'

#Defines the pivot and scale
pivot = Vector( (0.5, 0.5) )
scale = Vector( (2, 2) )

#Get the object from names
obj, uvMap = GetObjectAndUVMap( objName, uvMapName )

#If the object is found, scale its UV map
if obj is not None:
    ScaleUV( uvMap, scale, pivot )

I'm surprised to be honest. So far during my endeavours with Blender, all the "pick" functions always had an equivalent for running them in a non interactive environment. In any case, your solution works perfectly, thanks! :)


text:
Import polygons with predefined coordinates
Let's presume I have a file with polygons vertices coordinates in any format. I need to import the polygons into Blender. Can it be done?
Thanks!

Your best bet is to use the Wavefront .obj format. As it's written in ASCII, it's fairly easy to generate.
A simple introduction to the specification of this format is as follows:
#This is a comment

o Object      #Defines an object named Object
              #All the vertices, edges and faces below this belong to this object
              #Until another object is declared

v 1.0 1.0 1.0 #Defines a vertex at the XYZ coordinates 1, 1, 1
              #and adds it to the list of vertices, like an array (starts at index 1)

f 1 2 3 4     #Creates a face defined by the indexes 1, 2, 3 and for
              #Which refer to the vertices in the list above

.
For the complete specification, please see this page.
To import it, you can just go to the 3D View header, press File, then Import, and then Wavefront (.obj). This will bring you to the file browser, where you can choose your file, and in the bottom left corner, choose some extra settings.


text:
Found the same (BMVert) used multiple times
I'm trying to import the following .obj file into Blender
v -1.3433 0.3333 -0.7191
v -1.4807 0.3333 -0.3596
v -1.2747 0.0000 -0.8989
v -1.5493 0.0000 -0.1798
v -1.3433 -0.3333 -0.7191
v -1.4807 -0.3333 -0.3596
f 1 2 4 3 5 6

And getting the error specified above. When I switch the order of verts, it seems to be working. Any idea what causes this error and how can I avoid it?

seems to me that's a malformed polygon:

So that's the problem? I just need to rearrange the vertices order to draw it properly with triangle strip?

what shape were you trying to draw?

I was trying to draw a hexagon.

yes the order of vertex indices is important. I'm not sure the error has much meaning when the input was describing malformed geometry. You are creating the .obj file yourself by hand/script?

Yes I was creating the .obj with a script. For some reason I thought I need to order vertices for triangle strip. Once I just arranged them in normal order it started working perfectly
Thanks!


text:
Where the Speed Control Effect Strip Modifier was moved to?
I am using the VSE in 2.80. It used to be in the lower right corner in the default Video Editing layout, with the modifiers.

Silly me! I was looking in the wrong place!
Once you select the video strip, then Shift A, and at the bottom find "Effect strip".


text:
Does Weight-Paint work differently in 2.80?
I was able to make it work in 2.79, by the usual way.
But in 2.80 it won't react when I am trying to select the mesh (after putting the armature in Pose mode).
Maybe this is still being worked on.
https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/b/5926/

It seems that was something that had not been worked on yet at that time. It's already been fixed by now.


text:
How to render a video with audio in Blender 2.80?
When choosing AVI JPEG, the resulting video won’t have audio.
And when choosing FFmpeg video it only renders a black image file.
Can someone say how to have audio with AVI JPEG, or how to render an actual video file with FFmpeg video?
Thanks guys

You should probably edit your title as the obvious answer to the question in the title is Render > Render Animation or Ctrl+F12.

That's exactly how I end up with an audio-less video file when choosing AVI JPEG, and a black image file when choosing FFmpeg video (by just Render > Render Animation or Ctrl+F12).
Thanks for trying though.

Yes, I know that isn't the right answer which is why I suggested to change your title to be more specific.

Now I see what you mean. HOWEVER, am I also to infer from your information that it's all in the title, and the content of the post has "no importance whatsoever"? If so, I guess I had not needed a post message after all, just a title. Back to your point: maybe my title should be the same plus "...in detail step by step". Or what would you suggest?

"Either no audio or black video when rendering in Blender 2.8"

I suspected that the audio may not be encoded by default because of the Eevee render engine in 2.8... Trying to follow up on this answer/suspicion, but the encoding section in the properties pane doesn't exist for me. I can't find it in 2.8. Have you guys found a clean solution? Though not a full answer, I hope that my contribution is worth something. DrPepperCan, could you please elaborate on your timing effect strip temporary solution? How did you add an effect strip to an audio strip? My blender says it can't put an effect on a sound clip. (Sorry; I would reply directly but I need 50 "reput

I added a Speed Control effect modifier, and I synched the audio and the video strips, and that seemed to have done the trick. Now the video is rendering.

Could you please be more specific regarding the solution? How did you synch the strips? Is that always necessary? Can changing the audio bitrate to the source video clip's bitrate cause problems?

OK so essentially, to render with audio, you will want the settings to be as follows:
For transparent videos:
File Format: FFmpeg video
Color: RGBA
Container: Quicktime
Video Codec: QT Animation
Audio Codec: AAC

For non-transparent videos:
File Format: FFmpeg video
Color: RGB
Container: MPEG-4
Video Codec: H.264
Audio Codec: MP3 (OR AAC)

If you are a more visual learner, this video may be for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV0hCn04d9M


text:
What are the most common reasons for not being able to edit UVs?
In 2.80
I have unwrapped the UVs. But I can't edit them now.
I tested this with another object in a different file and that was not a problem, so I guess it's something specific to my other file.
Also, the UVs only show while I have them all selected in the 3D view. Is there a way to have them all showing whether they're selected or not?
Thanks

"Is there a way to have them all showing whether they're selected or not" I suppose the same as in 2.79, either select mesh in Edit mode or enable sync. That aside, make sure you have UV editor opened, not Image editor which are not the same in 2.8

Strangely, the solution was to remove the texture I had on that mesh.


text:
Why my Eevee material with Alpha won’t show correctly
I have 2 objects:
1. An imported Image as Plane (2D).
2. And a simple 3d object.
I was following the advice in this video.
The Alpha is working fine for #1, but not for #2. They are using the exact same nodes though. Both have their Blend Mode as Alpha Blend.
The Alpha may be working for #2, but its texture got all screwed up. I thought it was just a mater of fiddling with the Normals, but that didn't help :frowning:
What could be the solution then?
Feel free to play with the .blend file attached herein.
https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/2/1/0/210127fbbbc80c006ad8bd33fe25be210d0d6490.blend
Thanks guys!

2 Solutions were found.
#1 by Benny_G: Instead of using Alpha Blend for the Blend mode, use Alpha Hashed.
#2 by NewVisitor: Use the Principled Shader instead of the Diffuse BSDF Shader, plugging Alpha to Alpha from the Image node to the Principled Shader.
What caused the need for this fix, it's still unknown.


text:
How to deal with disappearing texture due to mesh stretching? (2.80, Eevee & Cycles)
Unfortunately, I need to move the bones. But as you can see in the image, it doesn't take much at all for the texture to start disappearing.

I understand that a stretched texture is expected when the mesh is stretched. However, I do not need the selected bones to bend more than that really. So, what would you say are my options? There has to be a workaround at least.
Feel free to inspect the file:
https://blenderartists.org/uploads/default/original/4X/7/a/7/7a7a878f9f3cf9c02d267f30dac59ff4707db3d5.blend

Behind the text the mesh is duplicated. When you bend the mesh with the armature the rear faces are overlapping the front faces and covering the text that's why it is vanishing.

I'll remove those inner faces... Thank you FFeller


text:
How to bring Grease Pencil drawings to another .blend file? - 2.80
First off, I understand there's this thread, but it's older than 2 years now.
I tried Appending but only an empty Grease Pencil data arrives.
In the original I have 4 keyframes. Only one keyframe arrives, without the drawings.
I tried today’s release.
Should I try exporting it?
If so, under what format?

I was able to do it by copying the GPencil item from the Outliner, and pasting it to the new file.
So now I know this can be done this way.
What sucks is that I was doing this in the hope that the Onion Skinning effect would be restored, but it wasn't. It seems the Onion Skinning effect got affected when I imported an image to draw over.


text:
Why Grease Pencil will only let me draw a circle around a red dot? - 2.8
Out of the blue this red dot appeared on my canvas. And when I try to draw, the only strokes I can do are those around the red dot, making a circle around it. I can draw near or far from the dot making a big or large circle. Nothing else!
If I use a different tool, like the Fill, or the Eraser, the red dot goes away.
What could I have inadvertently activated?

Apparently I switched on guides by accident...


text:
2.8/Grease Pencil. How to flip a stroke horizontally?
I only need to do this for a few strokes. Unfortunately, the Mirror modifier is being applied to the whole drawing.
Thanks guys,
DPC

In Edit mode, select the strokes you want to flip and scale them in -1. Thanks to dan2 from blenderartists.

Ctrl +  M then press  X, Y or  Z to flip in Edit Mode.


text:
How to select each of the segments in my bone for weight-paint?
Even though I’m in Edit Mode, I can only select two bones. Except one of them has 4 segments!

Bone weighting only works on whole bones. Bone segments are still just part of a single bone, and are not individually selectable or even separate objects.
Blender will automatically blend each bone segment's transform over the vertices weighted to the whole bone, by proximity to the segment.
If you need to fine tune this more you need to use separate bones, and constrain them to move appropriately (mostly likely using a curve to control them in some way).


text:
2.8/Grease P/How to rotate only a few strokes by the Cursor?
I see there's a tool called Cursor, but nothing happens when I click on the canvas with it. I was hoping it would allow me to choose a different location for the cursor so I could rotate by it. As if defining a Pivot point.
DPC

My 3D Cursor was not showing, this is what was confusing me.
Thanks to dan2 from blenderartists to demystify this.


text:
VSE - A strip with a PNG/transp won't show as long as there's another one above it
As the screenshots show, each strip has a PNG image with transparency.
blueoutline.png is above yellowball.png, each is using Alpha Over as a method of blending.
What am I missing?
Is this the reason: "Blender won't handle an alpha channel in a codec. Alpha in a codec is largely a nonstandard practice" Source.

If you render that frame does it show the Blue ring over the Yellow circle? Also try hitting the "Refresh Sequencer" button.

You want to select both strips and add a alpha over effect strip.


text:
How to animate Rotation of a PNG image in VSE?
I selected the Transform effect green rectangle, then I moved to frame #10, and lastly, I changed the Rotation value. Shouldn't a Keyframe have been made at that moment?
I am starting to suspect that of all things animatable, this is not one of them, is it?

One keyframe isn't enough, you need at least two different ones that can be interpolated in between. So add one without rotation at frame one as well and you should be good to go. Oh and a keyframe has to be inserted with the I hotkey or via context menu... Alternatively you can switch auto keyframing on. But that might have side effects you don't want. Search for a simple animation tutorial for blender to grasp the idea of how to animate values. Or watch the excellent YouTube tutorials from Mikeycal Meyers about the VSE. He should be mentioning animating values in there.

It's animatable, but it isn't automatic. Move the mouse cursor above the Rotation slider, and hit i when you want to add a keyframe.


text:
How to render only a section of the screen?
I am rendering a small animation with Alpha that will be incorporated into a video. This animation will only occupy an area of 550 px wide by 650 px tall.
I know changing the Resolution in the Rendering tab is not the right way (as it keeps the same dimensions but with less resolution/pixels).
Maybe there’s a way to crop it? (just thinking out loud)

In addition to the current answer, I can recommend the Animated Render Border addon available on Blender Market, demonstrated here.

The VSE Video Sequence Editor and Compositor can offset and clip images already created. These techniques can be animated.
They can clip one image sequence and write those out to another set of files, another image sequence .
Of course you can change the camera location to create a whole new set of images.

In case you want to see part of a render without changing the camera the User can use this technique. This seems likely for testing purposes only, yet that is your choice.  This technique saves time because part of the image will be solid or transparent and no further calculation. Above has mentioned that image sequences can be offset and clipped.
The image resolution is << not changed >>.

View Menu
Render Border
Control-B
Choose the Camera View first. Then keystroke and draw rectangle like box select. Test Render.
I will leave you to explore and search more.
You may be able to do that faster than my time allows me to write a lot of words


text:
What determines the location of a Grease P. stroke depth wise? (same layer)
Now I know it is not their order in the collection.
Also each stroke is located in the same place (X,Y,Z).
So then, what is it?

You mean the 3D position from mouse position? I guess this is similar to view3d_utils.region_2d_to_location_3d from https://docs.blender.org/api/current/bpy_extras.view3d_utils.html?highlight=view3d_utils#bpy_extras.view3d_utils.region_2d_to_location_3d

I found the reason: The time when the stroke is created determines how it will overlap with respect to the rest. However, they will still maintain the same location in space, somehow.
Hence, if you can plan ahead your workflow, then you can arrange them accordingly. If not, then you can always push/pull them on the depth coordinate as needed. For example, if I am on the Front view, then the Y will be the coordinate for depth.


text:
Scripting metaballs with negative influence
I'm generating metaballs with a python script, and I need to be able to toggle the negative option for some of the metaballs. (Edit: negative changes the object's "influence" to subtract from the other metaballs, instead of adding like normal metaballs; the negative checkbox can be found in a metaball object's Object Data section while in Edit Mode.)
def metbaseobj(N=3,scale=1.0):
    '''adds N metaball objects to provide the base shape'''
    shapes = ['CAPSULE','ELLIPSOID','BALL','CUBE']
    metbaseinfo = []

    for each in range(N):
        shape = shapes[random.randint(0,1)]
        loc=(scale*random.random(),scale*random.random(),scale*random.random())
        rot=(random.random(),random.random(),random.random())
        bpy.ops.object.metaball_add(type=shape,location=loc,rotation=rot)
        #[toggle metaball influence to be negative here]
        metbaseinfo.append((shape,loc,rot))

    return(metbaseinfo)

I found a documentation page that makes me think use_negative=True is what I need, I just can't figure out how to use it exactly. Thanks for any help, I'll keep looking in the meantime.

It seems you already found the wiki docs on metaballs, lots of juicy content there indeed, perhaps after reading/running this script that documentation will make more sense.
You seem to be adding multiple separate metaball objects, instead add one metaball object, and internally to that object create metaball elements, then set their interaction type, something like this.
import bpy

scene = bpy.context.scene

# add metaball object
mball = bpy.data.metaballs.new("MyBall")
obj = bpy.data.objects.new("MyBallObject", mball)
scene.objects.link(obj)

# test with different values, for viewport do you need ultra high res?
mball.resolution = 0.16  # View resolution
# mball.render_resolution = you decide

# first metaball element doesn't exist yet - create it.
ele = mball.elements.new()
ele.co = (0.0, 0.0, 0.0)
ele.use_negative = False
ele.radius = 2.0

# adding extra metaball elements to the object
ele = mball.elements.new()
ele.co = (-0.726, 1.006, 0.559)
ele.use_negative = True
ele.radius = 0.82279

And that's it.

I think this will work for me, thanks @zeffii!

@CodyReisdorf, i will fix up a better example lateron, check back!

I think your question can be easily addressed by defining what a MetaBall is in Blender.

MetaBall is a collection of MetaElements.

So in order to use/update the use_negative property, you need to get access to an element from the collection that is part of metaball.
In the following example, the metaball consists of 3 elements of 2 different types (BALL and CAPSULE) and one of the elements has use_negative property set to True.

    >>> metaballobject = C.active_object
    >>> metaballdata = metaballobject.data
    >>> metaelements = metaballdata.elements
    >>> metaelements[0].type, metaelements[0].use_negative
    ('BALL', False)
    >>> metaelements[1].type, metaelements[1].use_negative
    ('CAPSULE', True)
    >>> metaelements[2].type, metaelements[2].use_negative
    ('CAPSULE', False)

Toggling the use_negative property for some elements
    >>> metaelements[2].use_negative = True
    >>> metaelements[1].use_negative = False

Resulting metaball after modifying elements


text:
Storing preferences without having properties in every scene?
I did applink for 3dCoat app. I set Export directory manually. At present, i should set the directory in every blend scene. But i would like to set the directory path only one time and store it aways in cache. Is it possible to do?
My code:
            exchangedir = StringProperty(
            name="FilePath",
            subtype="DIR_PATH"
        )
.....

row.prop(simple3Dcoat, "exchangedir", text="ExchangeDir")

It would be cool to store "exchangedir" string in cache. So that it will be always the same for all blend files. Thank you!

This sounds like you would want to have a user-preference for the addon,
Blender supports this through bpy.types.AddonPreferences
This way, the addon can have settings that are saved with the user defaults.
API docs include example usage.

If someone wants to check it. I added this code here https://code.google.com/p/blender-addons-by-mifth/source/browse/#hg%2Fio_simple_3dcoat


text:
How can I create a script that runs continuously but does not block the interface?
I would like to create a script that runs constantly throughout the life of a Blender session.  The problem is that Blender's interface "blocks" while the script is running.  As a trivial example, if I run the code below:
while True:
    continue

Then Blender freezes up, and I have to use xkill to stop it.  How may I create a script that may be running constantly but does not stop Blender from functioning normally?

If you start blender from a terminal, you can press Ctrl+C in the terminal to cancel the script, I wouldn't expect users to do this, but its a better alternative to xkill and you wont lose your work.

What you are looking for is to create a modal operator. From the Wiki:

A modal operator defines a Operator.modal function which running,
  handling events until it returns {'FINISHED'} or {'CANCELLED'}. Grab,
  Rotate, Scale and Fly-Mode are examples of modal operators. They are
  especially useful for interactive tools, your operator can have its
  own state where keys toggle options as the operator runs.

There is a template for the Modal Operator accessible from the Blender Text Editor.

Just recently I answered this question on SO: http://stackoverflow.com/a/16744008/2419030 You'll find a link to a modal operator example, along with the use of Python timers.
Essentially you'll be creating a modal operator for what you're doing. If you want to poll stuff like network interface or other things, you can do that easily by checking for those in the modal implementation of your operator. Check the Conways Game Of Life example implementation linked in the SO answer. Short video of it is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdw7CTQsQmI

Instead of running your code continuously all of the time, consider either running it periodically (every x seconds, etc), or only calling it when a specific event comes up.
The standard technique to use to get your code snippet to run periodically is to use the threading module. For example:
import threading

def my_func():
    threading.Timer(number_of_seconds, my_func).start()

This will repeat the my_func function in intervals every number_of_seconds.
The other option is to instead link your code snippet to a specific action in Blender, by simply putting the call for your function in a well-selected location. I personally recommend this option, if it works in your particular case, since it certainly a more efficient way of handling code.

You have to be very careful with threading. If you don't terminate the thread before the main script finishes, you'd have tons of problem. So make sure you run threading.join() before exiting the main script.

As @MikePan notes, threading can be quite dangerous. I'd suggest rather the modal operator (optionally with time events) as a better solution.

@jesterKing I will admit that threading is dangerous, though efficient. I was not aware of the modal operator option, however, I'll have to look into that. Thanks to you and Mike Pan for pointing that out!

@Gwenn. threading in python isn't especially efficient - at least in that it wont make use of multiple cores of a processor. Here is some documentation regarding threading issues in blender.


text:
What is the difference between a rigid body object and a dynamic object?
What is the difference between a rigid body object and a dynamic object, aside from the fact that rigid body objects can rotate and move based on physical stimuli, and dynamic objects can move but always stay clamped to an upright position? Is there any other difference between the two?

It seems that your assumption is right Rigid Bodies add angular physics (angular velocity) to the behaviour of Dynamic objects.
Which makes a rigid body roll over when it collides with another object, while a dynamic object would just stop to move.
From Python Wiki: Physics Type

NO_COLLISION No Collision, Disable collision for this object.
STATIC Static, Stationary object.
DYNAMIC Dynamic, Linear physics.
RIGID_BODY Rigid Body, Linear and angular physics.
SOFT_BODY Soft Body, Soft body.
OCCLUDE Occlude, Occluder for optimizing scene rendering.
SENSOR Sensor, Collision Sensor, detects static and dynamic objects but not the other collision sensor objects.
NAVMESH Navigation Mesh, Navigation mesh.
CHARACTER Character, Simple kinematic physics appropriate for game characters.

I only found the rigidbody implementation here: http://git.blender.org/gitweb/gitweb.cgi/blender.git/blob/HEAD:/source/blender/blenkernel/intern/rigidbody.c but I haven't found any pointers on how the dynamic type is implemented. I suppose it is the same implementation and the difference is  in a few of the countless properties.

for reference. the dynamic type rigid body is subseptable to modifiers such as deform modifiers, smooth modifiers and things like shapekeys. With a dynamic type these can be animated on the fly and the physics shape is modified on a frame by frame basis...
the "deform" option is slightly different in that it only allows deformation on the initial frame of the calculation... so you can use both deform and dynamic in order to give, say , a complex skinned character mesh rigid body physics, which (unless the animated option is checked) will cause your character to fall to the ground.
for such complex rigid bodies (animated armature driven meshes) it is best to have the animated tickbox checked, as well as the dynamic tickbox, and the "deform" option also selected(and its tickbox checked) keep in mind deform is only available for mesh or convex type rigid bodies.
this setup will allow an animated character to remain animated whilst still influencing the rigid body objects around them... although the way the physics are calculated means the mesh has potentially infinite force on the rigid bodies, so fast movement of an animated passive rigid body is not recommended when in contact with a non animated active rigid body.


text:
Blender Ivy export as DAE
How do I export BlenderIvy as a Collada (DAE) file? (Blender to SketchUp)
3ds worked, but not with leaves instanced & with materials...
DAE now comes in as a blank file...

IvyGen addon makes a curve, which might be the issue. Convert to a mesh first.

The scale with sketchup and blender is really different, it could've imported as a speck. try scaling all selection.

I can't remember if Sketchup has an outliner, but check there if it has one to double check that it actually doesn't exist, instead of actually being very small or at an odd location as Vince Scalia mentioned.

Changing to curve to mesh did the trick. Scale is fine with dea. UV mapping and textures are not comming thru to ShetchUp, but geometry looks fine. Leaves are not instanced...

So is it solved, or what exactly is the issue now?

The original question was solved by converting the curve to a mesh. There are two new issues: 1.Blender exported instanes are not imported as instances to SketchUp. 2. SketchUp looses textures and UV in the imported file.


text:
Import Image as Plane imports only part of the image
I'm very new to blender, am trying to convert a grayscale image (that I drew) to 3D so that I can see what I have, and re-sculpt by adjusting the drawing in Photoshop. When I Import Image as Plane, only about a third of the image gets imported, usually the central portion. I can get around this by doubling the image's canvas size, but is there something I am doing wrong that makes this image come in cropped, instead of completely?

You probably need to UV unwrap the plane , Press U in edit mode > unwrap. now try

@Knuckles209cp That's wrong, the addon unwraps it.

@paul-ny What's the images resolution?

The full image is a square about 5,000 x 5,000 pixels (res @600 ppi). The image imported completely after I made it about 15,000 px on a side. But then I tried importing a jpg that was a detail of the full image, about 2,000 px on a side, and once again what imported into Blender was only about the center third of it .

I'm not using the image as reference, I'm using it to create a 3-D relief based on its grayscale value, with the Displace modifier, and I'm wanting to know why the Import function only imported the central third of the image.

This would be a bug, most likely caused by the large file size. The addon is supposed to unwrap the mesh and apply a material, and the mesh is supposed to reflect the size/aspect ratio of the image file. However changing render engines after importing might possibly mess it up. How does the texture render?

I don't know at least half of the terminology here, but if "how does the texture render" means how does Blender do at creating the 3-D relief from the grayscale image, it seems to do it very well. When the imported image was 1/3 the size of the original one, this bug was still present. I might try a truly small image to see if it's different. What would "changing render engines after importing" be? I haven't clicked "render" at all, have just looked at 3d scene (after subdividing the plane a lot, like 10 times.

Depending how you subdivide that could theoretically do it, and it doesn't sound like you changed render engines. I wanted to see if the texture was just displaying in the viewport incorrectly, but when you hit render the issue is still there, so it must be something else. Try a smaller file, if that works I think your issue is a bug.

I'm using Blender 2.73 on a Mac (OS 10.6.8), 8 GB of RAM; image is JPG. I'll try to go in and make a screen shot to share. (I don't yet know enough to render through the camera).

If this works, here's a screen shot of Blender after I  imported the image appearing below it. <img src=http://www.paulozelinsky.com/temp/screen_shot_cropped_blender_import.jpg" >

It didn't work, and I ran out of time to edit. Here: http://www.paulozelinsky.com/temp/screen_shot_cropped_blender_import.jpg

This may add to the confusion or it may clarify it: when I set the method to display 3D view to "rendered", I get a strange image that I see is applying my entire image as texture to the 3d-from-grayscale (partial) image. http://www.paulozelinsky.com/temp/screen_shot_texture_3d_mismatch.png

Try properties/ image mapping / extend /

Thank you, node, but I haven't been able to figure out what or where properties/image mapping/extend is (BTW I'm using Blender 2.73 on a Mac). How,ever a tutorial I watched led me to try choosing UV in Texture Coordinates in the Displace modifier panel, and that seems to have done the trick.

You're last comment @paul-ny allowed me to fix this same problem. Setting the Texture coordinates to UV instead of Normal fixed the exact issue.

authors: Петър Иванов


text:
How to fully weight a mesh to a bone?
I have a mesh cut up into chunks that is a 1x1 match with bones. e.g. shoulderMesh -> shoulderBone. FootMesh -> FootBone. I want the meshes to be full strength painted to the bones.
Can I do this without manual vertex painting the meshes?

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/52613/assigning-vertex-groups-to-bones-precisely/52615

Yes. You can select Tab into Edit Mode, select one vertex of the shoulderMesh, FootMesh, etc. chunk, and key Ctrl + L. If the chunks really are separate, this should select only one chunk. If they are not truly separate, Box or otherwise select the chunk.
With the chunk selected, go to the Properties panel > Object Data tab > Vertex Groups panel. Find the corresponding Vertex Group (should be named after your bone), make sure the Weight: value is set to 1, and click Assign.
One Vertex Selected:

Ctrl + L keyed to select entire chunk:

Vertex Groups panel. Assign button visible while still in Edit Mode. Weight at 1 guarantees maximum weight assigned:


text:
How to weight all vertices for a selected bone?
I have a mesh that I tried auto painting the weights on. It didn't turn out as expected see this screen shot:

I'd like to set the weight on all vertices for that bone to 0

Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/52613/assigning-vertex-groups-to-bones-precisely/52615

Delete the vertex group, select the bone again, and Paint.
Blender will  create a new Empty vertex group for you.

Vertex group Bone.001 is on the right side of image.  It is deleted on the left side.

By continuing to paint Blender created a new vertex group.


text:
FBX import not rendering textures, though look linked properly
I'm very new to blender. I have a fbx file and some accompanying png texture files. The file has a rigged animated armature. It looks like the textures are linked properly and have a bunch of configuration however they are not being applied to the model.

3 Fixes : The first would be to enable textured solid , By opening the right tab ( use N )

The second is enable the texture mode , above the solid view. [! You have to have lights in the scene so everything is visible )

third would be using the UV / Image editor

Also , in the texture tab ( next to the materials tab ), make sure you have set UV co - ordinant.


text:
How to convert mesh primitive from Quads to Tris?
I have a mesh that was sculpted in Quads but am trying to use it in an engine that expects Tris. How can I convert the mesh within blender (or the engine) into a Tri mesh?

Apart from the link that @brockmann has given where you can find your answer - since you know the engine expects tris, which format would you use to export the mesh from Blender? Because some formats automatically convert quads to tris, you can easily check it within Blender if you simply export it and then re-import it in Blender.

@GordonBrinkmann Good question. We are not using an common fromats like .obj, .fbx etc which you might be alluding to. We are doing raw import of the blender file and binary parsing so we need the blender file in order.

In all respect just from curiosity ... may I ask you - what make it difficult to discover this feature inside blender or found it straightforward on a net? Thank you


text:
Can I copy shape keys from one model to another in separate files?
I'm setting up model bases and don't want to do all the shape keys all over again. I have them all done for the female base and want to copy them over to the male base. They have pretty similar vertex structures, but are in different .blend files. Is there any way to copy them over? Or do I have to make them again?

you will need to import the object then use "transfer shape key"


text:
Bad GTX 970 Performence
i just got my new Zotac GTX 970 and blender 2.73 but i'm worried about my cylcles results. My other card was a GTX 670 OC, so theoreticly i should achieve 50-100% faster rendering times. Sadly the increase turned out to be around 10-20% in direct comparison. My question is: Could anybody tell me if this is normal at the moment; maybe caused by a lag of optimisation? Is someone achieving better results? I'm really worried if the card is worth the extra money :/
I am using:
Win 8.1,
i5 3350p,
8GB

How does it do on the benchmark scene?

This always depends one the scene, my 980 is approximately 2.5x faster than my 660. For more samples see http://mad-creations.nl/blenchmark/

What version of Blender are you using?

Never mind my comment, somehow I missed the first line!  Sorry.

I'm voting to close this question as off-topic "Hardware faults"


text:
How to simulate rolls that transport a metal sheet upwards in Blender Game Engine?
I am trying to get a metal sheet to move upwards using two pairs of rolls
please see Blender File for an example.
However, I cannot succeed to actually grip the sheet with the two rolls.
The sheet is configured as a soft body and the rolls are rigid bodies.
When I leave a little bit of room between the sheet and rolls, the sheet just falls down because of gravity.
When I move the rolls closer together, so they touch the sheet, then things get unstable and the sheet flies out of the viewport.
Is it possible to get the physics parameters right for this or is this not the right way to go at all and should I try something different?

That would be greatly appreciated!


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How to simulate a sheet of paper in Blender Game Engine?
I am trying to simulate the physics for a sheet of paper in Blender Game Engine.
For this, I am using an ordinary plane (subdivided in several faces). I tried doing this by defining soft body physics for the plane, but I can't seem to get the physics parameters right. Mostly, it's possible to let the plane behave a bit like a more stiff cloth, but not like paper.
Is it possible to get the physics parameters right to simulate paper, or is soft body not the right way to go and I should try something completely different?

@stacker in the game engine there are no presets.

@maddin45 Ouch, I overlooked the BGE tag

The biggest problem I see here is that the softbody algorithms in the game engine are not physically correct, they are only made to look plausible and be fast. Especially the stiffness of softbodies depends on the mesh resolution: higher subdivision results in less stiffness.
A setup that looks fine for paper is a plane with just a few subdivisions

and the following Softbody settings

Make sure you disable Shape Match since this seems not to work with flat objects. Also make sure Bending Constraints are enabled. Otherwise the paper can just fold along the edges with no resistance. Also increase the Margin so that collisions will be detected correctly. Be aware however that this will make your paper float slightly above the ground.
This is what the resulting paper looks like when falling onto the ground:

One thing that is still missing however is air drag. Maybe you can simulate that using a Force field constraint actuator but I have not found out how they work yet.


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Color is not applied when drawing fonts in BGE with blf and bgl
I am trying to get fonts rendered with different colors, but bgl.glColor4f (or any other variant of glColor) doesn't apply the color that I set with it. Please see https://github.com/eugenschindler/blender-examples/tree/master/HUDText for a reproduction of the problem (Blend file, Python script, and font).
According to other resources I found online, this example code should work, but I can't get it to work.
I've used Blender 2.73 and 2.75 and in both it doesn't work.
Does anybody have an idea what's going wrong?

I tried to open your .blend, nothing was there. Can you re-upload it on something else?

You have to switch to blender game engine and then press p to play it, then you'll see the text.

Oh, well now that you fixed it all i can say is you should vote your answer as the working answer.

It says that you can't vote for your own post. I guess I have to wait some time.

Odd, i've seen people vote their own before. Another one of them permission things again i guess.

I was able to click "accept" instead of vote, but only after a few days.

Oh good, good to know as well.

The problem was lying in the Shading settings of Blender. By default, the shading is set to Multitexture, which makes the blf text be only black. If you set the shader to GLSL (see picture below), the colors behave exactly as you would expect them according to the python script that is in my example.


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Can't show collections after migrating from 2.7
I've been working on a large model in Blender 2.7, and I split it into layers to manage it better. Now I've updated to 2.83, and I've learnt about layers being replaced by collections. However, when I open my file in 2.83, I get this in the Outliner:

Even though all collections have the open eye, only the first one is visible, and the View submen only shows the first one:

Is this something related to my file being migrated to 2.83? How do I get all my objects back again?

Maybe when converting hidden layers it set them to disabled in viewport option. Note that by default in 2.8 not all icons are shown which affect displaying in viewport and render (that's kinda gotcha but if you don't like it edit your startup file). To enable open Filter popup in the Outliner header and choose  Disable in Viewports as well as Disable in Renders filters too

@MrZak That was it! Please write an answer and I'll mark it as accepted. Don't leave because I'll have to post another question :)

I was going to let you answer instead but everything is already written somewhere and answered - https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/146983/missing-objects-when-opening-old-file-in-blender-2-8. As well as https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/150917/missing-objects-from-old-blender-in-2-8-hidden-in-2-79b-and-lost-in-2-8

Possible duplicate Missing objects when opening old file in blender 2.8

Yes that's a duplicate. I'm sorry, I thought I had searched well for it, but I was wrong. Thank you!


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Lost material textures in Blender 2.83
I've been working on a file with Blender 2.7. The file included several materials with textures, that had been mapped on objects using UV maps.
After upgrading to 2.83, all my materials are still there but have no texture associated to them. If I go to the Texture properties panel I can see the textures with a "0" (as if nobody was using them).
I know about the Nodes editor, but I wonder whether I can just use textures. I have to export this model to FBX, and I'm not sure how I would use nodes to map textures on models.

You can have Blender attempt to locate the missing files under the external data section of the File menu. See image below:

If, on the other hand, you need to reconnect the textures manually, you can do so by selecting the material and going to the SHADING tab. From there, if there is no image texture, add one, and connect it as in the image below. This example is a very basic setup for a single image. If your material is PBR and there are other texture maps, add them and connect them to their respective inputs on the Principled BSDF. NOTE - make sure to select a non-color space for Normal, Displacement, Metallic and Roughness maps.

But the textures have 0 users! How do I associate a texture to a material, as it did before (2.79)?

Do you still have the files on your computer? If so, I can show you how to restore them. Are they single image textures, or are they full PBR materials?

Single image textures. And, lucky for me, the files was versioned and I still have the 2.79 file.

I edited my answer to include the connection for the files. Alternatively, since you have the 2.79 file, you could always try going to File > External Data > Pack All Into Blend, save it and try opening again with 2.8+

Still nothing. I set the image as Base Color of my material, I have the UV map (so the migration didn't lose it), but I can't let the texture show. I'm seriously thinking of going back to 2.79 for this project only. I need to export to FBX, and I've heard bad things about node materials not being exported.

That's strange. One thing you could try is adding a new material to the material slot - hooking up the texture in the new material, and then swapping which material is active in the slot. This will keep the positioning of the texture where it should be, while switching for a "fresh copy"


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Make vertices of a mesh "match" an adjacent mesh
I have two meshes that should be gracefully joined into each other. To better understand what I mean, the two meshes are two roads, and they should blend into each other without creating any discontinuous surface.
I've already gone the manual way, taking each vertex of mesh B (the selected one in the picture below) and moving it along Z with the edge snap enabled. The way it has been cut, mesh B's vertices should lie along an edge of mesh A - only along the segments to join of course.
Is there a better automated way to do this?
I would like to do this without having to actually join the meshes, as I prefer to keep the objects separate.

An approximation to this could be achieved using the Shrinkwrap modifier.
Select al the vertices on the border you want to move, press Ctrl + G, and choose Assign to New Group.
Then put a Shrinkwrap modifier on the object. For the Vertex Group choose the newly made group, and as a Target choose the object you want the border to move towards. As the mode for this case it is probably best to choose Nearest Surface Point or Nearest Vertex, though both probably do not give an optimal result.

The result varies for different shapes of a border curve. As you can see from this keyshape animation two vertices of the vertex group moved to the same vertex on the target object, leaving a slight gap next to it. (So if it works for you depends on the specific meshes you work with and the amount of manually fixing you're willing to do.)

Thanks a lot, it worked!


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Bump Maps and how to get more details in them
I've been trying to give this particular artwork an embossed look with details, but I'm falling short. This is what I have:

I have been placing the image on a plane as a bump map, but not getting the desired effect.
The image in green is what I'm looking for:

Does anyone have any ideas?

Please add what you want your result to look like. Reference images are necessary for something like this.

The image in green is what I'm looking for.

I would use a software like CrazyBump, Knald, or SmartNormal to create a normal map based on the image you have and add that to your material.
If you are using cycles you can run the normal map through a normal map node and plug that into your shaders.

Here's the result I got with SmartNormal.  You could improve a lot by spending more time tweaking the settings, but it's a start.

Consider the Blender Compositor for your final image.
Image before compositing some contrast.

Image after compositing with more contrast.

Compositing Nodes with Black, Middle, and White Thresholds Color Ramp

eeewww... good answer but i really don't like the arrows.


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How to get Blender to stop recognizing my keyboard in Pop! OS Linux?
I just upgraded Pop! OS to 20.04 a week ago. Everything has been good except for Blender :(
Now just seconds after I open any blender file the keyboard stops. I can continue using the mouse but not the keyboard. I have unplugged and replugged the kbd, restarted the computer, to no avail. I have also changed the keyboard to a different one. There’s nothing wrong with the keyboard, its lights do show, and I can use it if I go to another program.
In Windows this won’t happen.
Any ideas?
Thanks guys

Could it be that you've enabled the BlenderKit add-on? Try to start Blender from the terminal with the --factory-startup flag which will load the factory settings (don't open the preferences or they will be overwritten when auto-save is enabled).

You might be right about BlenderKit! I did have it on! (I will try that later). So far I uninstalled it. It was installed with Snap. Now I installed it with Flatpak, directly from the Pop Store actually. I did not install BK again. I have not used it long enough to know if that did it. But so far so good. I am using it now, I will continue and if I no longer have that problem, I will install BK to troubleshoot. If the problem comes back then I'll start up Blender like you recommended.

This issue was reported in T73507 should've been fixed in rBA4fe390b6bad2807f604656752f122861fd26efc1. The experimental daily builds of 2.83 and 2.90 include the fix.

Update - Ok, so after 2 hours of use, the issue did not come back! It used to need just 10 seconds to act up. Hence so far, I can say that reinstalling it with a different wrapper (Flatpak) did it. I will update later when I troubleshoot BlenderKit

Thank you Robert G. I will get 2.83


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Can we delimit a specific area to apply Subdivision?
As we can do with Procedural Displacement: we can use a B&W map to say: Only elevate this part of the object.
This would be great!

so I guess it's more like a request than a question?

I suppose I should infer that this is not available yet. That's too bad :(


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How to setup a material with a Photo and Emission to mimic a TV screen with Eevee?
I have tried many things but I am not a master at Material nodes :frowning:
I am doing a Non-Realistic animation, kind of cartoonish.
Thanks guys

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/39508/how-to-give-an-image-or-video-a-tv-screen-effect/39509#39509

That did it, thank you susu :)

mark the question as duplicate then.


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How to animate a texture change in Eevee (ideally)?
I am following this tutorial to use multiple textures with a slider to show one at a time. In this case it is being used for a cartoon face. Except the Auto Keying is failing to create a keyframe when the slider is used and a texture is changed. How to animate it then?
Ideally in Eevee, but Cycles would be ok.
Thanks guys

you can use drivers for any slider you have just make an empty and assign a driver for the slider to the empty position.
here is a quick tut: https://youtu.be/5SdKAUsjcsg

Got it working! Thank you so much Mobin! :)


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Why the lenses won't follow the glasses?

I have joint both the lenses and the glasses frames.
Before that I Parented the lenses to the glasses.
I also used the same Armature modifier.
All the above without avail.
badglasses.blend

It turns out that I had forgotten to assign the vertices to the "head" Vertex Group in the Armature mod (rolling eyes)! Thanks to MadeWithFeet from BlenderArtists that called it up.


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Why is this happening when I bake physics to keyframes?
So, I'm trying to do some stuff with physics and cell-fracture, and I need motion blur. When I bake the physics and render w/ motion blur, the objets aren't in the scene. So I tried baking the physics to keyframes, and this happened.

Does anybody know how to fix this? I really need motion blur in this scene.
Also, the objects were keyframed a little bit. The animation was keyframed, and it seems that that's the problem. But I don't know any other way to make the wall not move for a certain amount of time.
Blender 2.72

It may take more information to solve this issue, uploading your .blend to pasteall.org/blend and posting the link here would help tremendously.

@Brennan, how exactly did you keyframe it, like just keyframing the checkbox from 'animated' at the rigid body settings?

@RayMairlot Wow, that's an oldie :) 2015!! Hard to believe it's been 3 years. And yes, we now prefer to have files uploaded there instead.

@VRM Sorry. The question was in the review queue. I didn't realise it was an old question.


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Input for size of Cube node
I want to generate a cube of random size using Geometry nodes. What can I use to provide the random size as input to Cube node? Using "Random value" node with "Vector" data type shows me an invalid connection.
I'm using Blender 3.2.1

Just plug an input node of type Integer with any value into the input ID.

For more details and screenshots have a look here here and here


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The Subdivision Modifier Keeps Causing My Models To Warp Inside Of Itself
So I am having a problem where the subdivision modifier will constantly distort my models in a very odd way. The subdivision modifier causes the model to warp inside itself at the middle of my model. I will include a before and after picture of the application of the subdivision modifier. I am getting fairly annoyed with this problem so I would very much appreciate if some one could clarify why this is happening.
Thanks, Nova

The inward pinching around the edge of your gun indicates you have internal faces that you should remove.

The topology of your model is not suitable for subdivision surface. Subsurf works best with quads, and the entire side of your gun model is made up of ngons.
If you are looking for a quick way to chamfer the edge of the model, consider using a bevel modifier, which works nicely with ngons.

(Excuse the ridiculous model, hacked it together on a laptop in 30 seconds.)


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What is hitNormal for the ray sensor
I've never really used ray.hitNormal
What does it do. I've looked it up but couldn't understand what it does.


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Smooth Player Movement?
So im trying to make a movement script and i want it to have a max speed and min speed iv'e tried using the object.applyForce((0, 10, 0)) but that just keeps adding up the speed of the object.

If you want it to have acceleration and inertia, make sure to use this method:

Add a property to your player called speed(or something that will be easy to understand for what it is used.
Set it to Integer, leave it's value 0.
Add property sensor and keyboard sensor to your object. Add that key in keyboard sensor, which will make your character move. Make it true level triggering and set frequency to your own wish- the bigger frequency, the slower character will accelerate. Connect to and controller.
Select interval in property sensor. Select your 'speed' property in it. Make it's interval from 0 up to 10 or bigger number. Enable true level triggering and set frequency identical to the one used in keyboard sensor.
Connect also property sensor to and controller.
Add property actuator. Select your 'speed' property it. Make it Add. In bottom input type 1 or +1.
Now repeat this again, but make sure tu use different interval(if previous was from 1 up to 10, thn now it is from 11 up to 20 etc.) You can play around with the add property and frequency.
Now do the same, but invert. Repeat the same proccess, but make sure you use invert in keyboard sensor and the last interval's biggest number is bigger than in positive keyboard use(if previously your biggest numbers were 21 - 30 and add property always was +1, than use 31 in last property, but anyway, if you add more in that property, make sure to make also that number much bigger than previous(positive keyboard press).
Add property sensors with intervals(as ymuch as you wish). Use different intervals in each. Connect them to and controllers and to motion actuators. Make each motion actuator move a bit faster than previous.

Now you should have working acceleration and inertia. Sorry for long text:D If you need, ask me for .blend example here!;)
EDIT
Here is .blend:
DOWNLOAD

Yeah i'd like to see the .blend cause i got kinda lost xD

OK! I will edit a bit later!

P.S. It is non-python

the download does not work.

Works for me- just click on it or go here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bybkedsj7a8cwzy/AccInertiaExample.blend?dl=0


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Need advice for creating a simple scene with very large dimensions
As an experiment I was trying to create a scene with a few simple objects but with extremely large dimensions.  Think planet and moon sized objects and a couple of human scale objects in the foreground.

I have units set to metric.
I have set my camera's clipping end value 10000km
I moved the camera to 0, -9000km, 0 looking toward the origin (I can see the 3D cursor there)
I create a UV sphere at the origin with size 4000km.

The sphere is not visible.
I've tried a number of variants to no avail.
What am I missing?  Or is this just out of scope for Blender for some reason.

Works fine for me.. But I doubt physically accurate scales will really change the visual result a lot, so you might want to scale your scene down (either uniformly or just make the plant/moon things as smaller, closer objects with roughly the same apparent size).

Wow, that works for you?  I want to keep the original size because I want to leverage some simulation software that I wrote (fortunately in Python w/ NumPy) a while back where changing the scales would require an enormous amount of debugging.  I'm on Blender 2.73.  I guess I'll try to debug my scene better.

this answer is related

@Chuck Perhaps you could upload a file where it isn't working? Perhaps something else is going on..

Z-fighting isn't the only problem you'll face with this type of setup.  Floating point numbers only use roughly 6 decimal places(give or take a bit!) As soon as you start applying math to these numbers you will have some serious round-off errors creeping in every-time you do any math,(shadows, z-fighting, position info, etc...) Using double floating point precision can help to avoid this but now you are doubling the memory requirements of your software and the GPU might not even support anything beyond 32bits so visual artifacts are almost guaranteed for every aspect of what you are doing


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Can you paint multiple texture layers simultaneously?
There are tons of textures on the web that provide different images for color/albedo, reflectivity, bump, normal maps, displacement maps, etc... Suitable for PBR shaders, for example.
I'd like to be able to paint on a mesh in 3D using stencil or clone such that all of the source layers get transferred to the appropriate destination layers subject to the UV map.  I.e. A single brush stroke transfers correctly transformed texture layers to my object.
Can Blender do this?  If not, are there any plugins for this?
I believe other programs (substance painter?) do this. But I'm hoping to stick with Blender for now?

I believe you are looking for a mix of Sculpt Mode and Texture Paint mode. They work similarly as ZBrush, allowing you to sculpt in high poly mode, export a normal map, and also paint the UV maps directly over the model. There is no need for extra plugins, Blender does that natively. Just click on "Object Mode" and try the other modes.
You might also try Sculptris, by Pixologic. It's freeware (gratis, but not libre), like a very bare-bones version of ZBrush.

Thanks. But It actually isn't what I'm looking for. I want to paint multiple textures at once without changing any geometry. One brush stroke to paint color, reflectivity, opacity, etc...


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Project multiple textures during a DynoTopo sculpt?
I've been messing with the UV Project modifier. This appears to require a UV map to be present for a mesh.  Unfortunately, sculpting with dynamic topology activated removes vertex data such as UV maps.
Is there some way to project (perhaps in world or generated space) one or more images onto a mesh during DynoTopo sculpting?  Optimally, I'd like to be able to project multiple images a la UV Project but I'll take what I can get.


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3d Textures from Flat texture
I would like to use the flat textures on TextureMate in Blender but am not sure how to convert to 3D textures or even if this is possible. Are there any detailed guides on how to do this? I also have CrazyBump but am not familiar with it yet though this should help hopefully with converting those flat images to normal/bump maps.

More information on exactly what you want to do might result in a better answer. For example, do you want to use nodes in your material? What are you trying to texture, and how is it going to be used? And probably related questions I've not thought of just yet.

I think my mistake was assuming that TextureMate would be able to consistently provide textures for my needs. Not all of their images even seem to be seamless. I don't think I can handle the art and time commitment to creating custom textures so anyone know a good repository site?

@user1894167 See http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/15355/599


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How can I independently pose Group Instances?
I would like to add two instances of a model created by makehuman to a scene.
After linking one model (File/Link) and adding a proxy Ctrl-Alt-P. I used Add / Group Instance to add another instance but after that both models change pose when I make changes in pose mode.
How can both models be animated independent from each other?
This a follow-up of an earlier question how-can-a-rigged-model-be-used-multiple-times-in-a-scene

On Linux (have not tested on Mac) I recently used the following method to create layout for a shot that required 3 instances of a procedural rock creation rig. Then i created a proxy of the armature from each of the group instances and posed them accordingly.

Starting with two folders: one containing an asset file and the other where my shot file exists. In the asset file the Rig/Geometry is grouped.
blend:~/demoProceduralRocks>> ls
asset/ shot1/

Since I want to create create a scene that should have 3 identical instances of the asset, I create hard links to the file in the shot's import folder
blend:~/demoProceduralRocks>> cd shot1/import/

blend:~/demoProceduralRocks/shot1/import>> ln -v ../../asset/Rock.blend Rock.instance.1.blend

blend:~/demoProceduralRocks/shot1/import>> ln -v ../../asset/Rock.blend Rock.instance.2.blend

blend:~/demoProceduralRocks/shot1/import>> ln -v ../../asset/Rock.blend Rock.instance.3.blend

This is how it looks after creating hard links
blend:~/demoProceduralRocks> ls -lirt asset/ shot1/import/
asset/:
total 172
22217836 -rw-rw-r-- 4 blend home 169297 2013-05-27 15:22 Rock.blend

shot1/import/:
total 516
22217836 -rw-rw-r-- 4 blend home 169297 2013-05-27 15:22 Rock.instance.3.blend
22217836 -rw-rw-r-- 4 blend home 169297 2013-05-27 15:22 Rock.instance.2.blend
22217836 -rw-rw-r-- 4 blend home 169297 2013-05-27 15:22 Rock.instance.1.blend

Then I layout the shot file by linking the groups from the hard linked files created above. Then I make a proxy of the Armature and Pose each proxy separately. (A demo of this in action)
blend:~/demoProceduralRocks> tree ./
./
|-- asset
|   `-- Rock.blend
`-- shot1
    |-- Layout.shot1.blend
    `-- import
        |-- Rock.instance.1.blend
        |-- Rock.instance.2.blend
        `-- Rock.instance.3.blend

thanks, this works also on windows mklink /H link.blend original.blend (+1)

Thank you for confirming about the fact that it works on Windows also. :)

Separate the same model into different blend files. Also give different group names.
For example, you have one character, let's say the name was char.blend. Then save as the char.blend into files with different names such as char_a.blend, char_b.blend. Make sure the group also has a different name. So now, you can link both files, and both will be independent.

Thanks, that is the workaround I currently use, I looking for a method to use one single model multiple times in a scene since I edit it and add more poses.


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Grab shader color to mix in another shader?
Is it possible to grab the color of a shader, maybe by copying it's material ID or data path, and link that to a color node in another shader?
I'm working on a Cycles toon shader and I want to be able to pull in a lamp/mesh lamp color to mix with the predefined colors.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts... this is a good community.

Have you looked at the RGB Mix Node to see if that will help?

One way is to group your colors as a node tree which can be reused in any other material:

Brilliant. Simple solution... I should've thought of that!


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Change sculpting brush alpha visibility?
When using brush alphas/texture as stencils in sculpting mode, it's often really hard to actually see the stencil image and know where it is or how it is rotated.
Is there any way to bump up the contrast or something so it shows up better?

Problem solved.
After trying all Craig D Jones suggestions (thanks!) it turns out Photoshop/PSD files are no good for stencils. Could be the alpha channel, but when I crank the opacity of a stencil using a PSD it's 100% black. I converted the stencil to a tiff and now it shows up fine. Weird.
Thanks,
all.

There is a fantastic addon by Kgeogeo called Stencil Widget that allows a lot of control over the Stencil images in both Texture paint and Sculpt.
You will see an icon looking like a square with a triangle missing - that is the alpha control.
You can get it here and watch a short video here

That is a very cool add on, thanks! Unfortunately, it won't go over 50% opacity, so it doesn't quite solve the problem... but still thanks for taking the time to respond. This will be useful for other stuff for sure.

You can set the texture Opacity to 100% in the Options tab in the tool bar, and turn on the Brush icon to hide the stencil when painting your stroke/dab.

This may not be the actual answer, but it might be enough of an answer to get you moving forward a little more comfortably by adding a bit more contrast for this purpose.
You can change your world background to black and set the Display of the viewport to use the world settings.

I went to the Viewport Shading dropdown at the top right, changed the MatCap to flat white, and then set the color in the MatCap section to the brightest color in the palette. I found that bright green or cyan made the stencil most legible. It's not a perfect solution, but it's workable in my situation, and I can see the stencil much better. Note that this will only work in Solid shading mode.


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Auto add keyframe at regular intervals?
Is there a way to automate adding keyframes at a regular intervals? I'm mimicking stop-motion movement by

keyframing the animation
manually adding inbetween keyframes every 4-5 frames
setting Interpolation to Constant

Works pretty well, but I'd like to automate step 2 if possible.

Rather than keyframe with Constant interpolation, you can simply keyframe normally (using smooth interpolation) and add a modifier to your f-curves to mimic the 'jumpiness' of stop-motion.
The modifier you need to use is the Stepped Interpolation modifier. This modifier takes your f-curve and splits it into time slices based on the Step Size, retaining the value at the start of that 'slice' for the duration of that 'slice' exactly as how you are currently doing with 'constant' interpolation.
You will need to add the modifier to each f-curve in the Graph Editor and set the Step Size to the same value for each.

Note : For added versatility you could potentially use a Driver to set the Step Size based on a single custom property in your scene. This way you can easily adjust the stop-motion frame rate for your whole animation rather than having to change each modifier individually.

Perfect! I had no idea... this opens up a lot of possibilities. Thanks!


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Alpha Channel in Eevee?
Apologies in advance for the Eevee question... but!...now that the releases are getting more stable, I'm messing around with it and wondering if anyone has gotten an alpha channel/transparency mix shader to work with it.
Usual setup doesn't seem to work. It looks liek there was a transparency socket at some point, but not now, and plugging the alpha into the transmission does nothing.

Okay, if anyone else is wondering about this, I found an answer on Twitter of all places...there's an Options section of the Materials tab that contains a Blend Mode drop down with an Alpha Blend option (among others.)
Weird that this isn't accessible through the Node Editor somehow (but maybe I'm missing it.)

You can also get to those Options in the Node Editor's sidebar (by pressing N).


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Can you set a default "New Image" size for texture painting & baking?
Is there a way, either in User Prefs or by saving a startup file, to change the default New Image size to something other than 1024? I prefer higher res maps for texture painting & baking.

I still have the same problem (now 2.81). Every image that I start has to be adjusted in height and width. Can't I teach Blender somehow e.g. to work with 2048x2048 as default?


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Possible to control text color in the text editor?
I'm using the Typewriter Addon to fake an RPG-like UI for some animation. The text is pulled from a text file... what I'm wondering is if there's some way to markup the text in the file to control the color so I can use a few different colors.

My answer here may be of some help.

brilliant... this looks like what i need. thanks!

So @David's comment I think points you in the right direction, but maybe it can be made a little simpler.
Basically you can give individual characters (or words, or sentences, etc.) different materials (i.e. material indexes).  Each material can, obviously, vary not only in color but any attribute you can put into a material.
So, with the text object below, in edit mode I highlight the characters I wish to give a new material.

You can add a new material slot if you need one, create a new material if you need one, etc., but at the end of the day all you need to do to assign the selected text to the chosen material slot is to click the "Assign" button.
You've then got text with different materials!

thank for the reply, but this doesn't work with the typewriter addon, i guess because it's dynamically editing the text. i suppose I could try keyframing the materials as the letters are added, but I may try @David's solution first.


text:
Normal Map Weirdness...turns edges into crevices
I have weirdness happening baking normal maps from sculpted meshes in Cycles. It's treating some outward facing edges as crevices for some reason.
Attached pic shows a banged up spike. I duplicated the model and Remeshed it to get a good sculpting base. From there I baked the normals in the usual way. You can see all the hard corners of the spike are depressions or crevices now.
Any idea why? I recalculated the normals, and this seems to happen where hard edges were on the low-poly model. I don't understand where the problem could be happening.

Do you have displacement modifier or using Cycles true displacement?

I used the Displacement Modifier, fussed with the Ray Distance, even tried a cage, to no avail. Weird as it seems, I think it was because the target low-polly had (applied) beveled edges. I rebuilt the low poly and shrink-wraped it to the sculpt and that fixed the problem. Would still like to understand why this is happening.

I have this problem with displacement and when the edges are sharp. Not sure what the solution is other than turning all adjacent faces to smooth shading or somehow change your displacement to flatten near the edge (UV?)


text:
Append Lighting Setups?
Is there a way to append lighting setups that keep's the light positions? Marking lights as assets or appending them drops all position data so you loose the orientation and arrangement. Looking for a quick, non-HDRI way to try out different lighting setups.

The safer way to append assets or groups of assets is to put them into a collection and append the collection.
If, after appending, something is out of location, probably there was some parenting or constraint that wasn't appended.

Awesome! That works. Thanks!!


text:
Geo Nodes - Align A Curve With Outside Of Bounding Box
I'm trying to make a comic book speech bubble in Geo Nodes. I have the text and bubble working, but I can't figure out how to align a triangle to the outside of the bubble for the tail. I have it aligned to the center of the bubble and it seems like I need to feed the Y transform with the bounding box somehow. Any advice is appreciated! File is here: word_bubble.blend

I recommend instead of compositing a triangle on top of a circle, you just displace a vertex of a circle:

Alternatively:
It does affect the width of the tail, and if you want to control that independently of the circle resolution, you would need to rearrange vertices of the circle.
This will allow to control the tail independently from the resolution of the circle:

Inputs can be converted to degrees $°$:

If you really want to just spawn a triangle:

This is amazing! There's too much I don't understand about your group input node/s for me to get it to work but ... wow! Super impressive. I appreciate your taking the time.

@kopi_bon see the last screenshot, it's easier.

That is the same way I approached it with curve circles in my original example. The circle scales to match text positioned inside it based on the bounding box. More text = bigger circle. The problem is that the tail detaches or is absorbed when the circle is scaled up or down. Thanks again for your time... I'll keep working on it.


text:
Set Bevel Depth on NURBS Path With Python
I made a small addon for how I block out for sculpting & I want a button to add a NURBS path aligned to the z axis with filled caps and a bevel of O.25. This gets the path, but no bevel:
class MakeTube(bpy.types.Operator):

    bl_idname = "object.make_tube"
    bl_label = "Make Tube"

    def execute(self, context):

        bpy.ops.curve.primitive_nurbs_path_add(radius=1, enter_editmode=False, align='WORLD', location=(0, 0, 1), rotation=(0, 1.5708, 0), scale=(1, 1, 1))
        bpy.ops.object.transform_apply(location=False, rotation=True, scale=True)
        bpy.data.curves["NurbsPath"].bevel_depth = 0.25
        bpy.data.curves["NurbsPath"].bevel_resolution = 4
        bpy.data.curves["NurbsPath"].use_fill_caps = True

        return {'FINISHED'}

What am I missing? Thanks!

I know it's a name/context thing & I'm not sure why it works but changing
 bpy.data.curves["NurbsPath"]

to:
 bpy.context.object.data

Maybe a python smartie can explain this but it solved the problem. I'm assuming the "NurbsPath" was pointing to a specific object that wasn't updating.


text:
GPU Render Greyed Out Since nVidia Driver Update
Longshot, but thought I'd ask incase anyone else has seen this. I updated the drivers for my RTX 3090 and "GPU Render" is greyed out. If I go into preferences > system and uncheck & recheck it, it works again, but I have to do that every time I launch Blender. Weird. Anyone else seen this?

Are you sure the preferences have been saved?

I am sure. The driver update messed with my 3D printer software too. Seems like an Nvidia thing.