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Displacement with a stopping object

Ok guys. I have a question I hope you can help me with. I will use the image below to illustrate what I want.
I want to use Displacement on the man (I like the blobby effect it makes, and thats the one and only reason, so an alternative to displacement if it exists is also totally ok). I want to drag the weight-slider to preferred size, but I want the blow-up-effect to be affected by the ring around his waist.
In other words, I want to expand him around the ring. Kinda like having a rope around a balloon while you blow it up.
I hope you guys can help and I hope I explained my problem in an understandable fashion(I'm Norwegian).

Use 2 displacement modifiers with the same settings.

1st will displace the object until it touches the collision object
2nd will continue with displacing, but only around the object. To do that, paint and assign a vertex group to the modifier to influence only the right vertices.

Simulating this inside Blender is not possible, because Blender does not simulate pressure inside volumes. With SoftBody sim there is a possibility to alter the edge springs to make the mesh sort of "blow up" (Length% under Soft Body Edges tab), but the result is not nice and does not look like inflating.
Houdini can simulate pressure in volumes very nicely, the apprentice version is free and can import/export .obj(s) if you wanna try it.

Thanks man! Houdini seems virtually impossible to understand, but I will try! :D

Following @Jaroslav's answer .. I guess you could play with the object painting its own vertex weights, using a Vertex Weight Proximity modifier..

THanks, man! Will definitely explore this option.


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How to decrease the "resolution" or amounts of vertices in a 3D scan?
I tried a few days ago to 3D scan an object and also my own face.
The scan includes crazy amounts of vertices and My computer probably isn't the best.
How to decrease the "resolution" or amounts of vertices in a 3D scan? As I said, I'm fairly new to this, so a "for Dummies"-guide would be awesome! Hopefully there are some add-ons or something that will make this process easy
Hope some of you can help!
Sincerely
Andreas

Try decimate modifier. Also face\tris to quads in edit mode, before decimating.
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/modifiers/generate/decimate.html

Other than the decimate modifier, you might also want to try retopologizing your mesh (which means rebuilding it out of quads, greatly reducing the number of polygons and also making it easier to reuse your mesh for other works like rigging, UV unwrapping, etc).
There are multiple different tutorials on YouTube on the subject, but if you're short on time and cash, maybe you should try RetopoFlow, which is a FOSS tool to help you with this tedious task. You can find a quick videotutorial here.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Blender 2.8 Subdivision Surface on planes not sharp with creases
In Blender 2.79, creasing the corner of a subdivided plane generates the expected sharp corner:

When using Blender 2.8, I can't replicate this behavior without triangulating the face and creasing the third edge to the corner.

Adding a solidify modifier and creasing the rim sharpens the corner, but I don't always want to solidify the geometry.  Is there something I'm missing?

I found out that this is currently an open bug in 2.8 according to this link: Blender Bug Tracker - Round corner in edge crease of subdivided surfaces

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


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Using knife project method to make a shape into the mesh
I’m practising some modelling methods, although I know knife project method is not the best because it can make a mess of the topology, I couldn’t figure out another approach to achieve this particular shape modelled in the middle of the main mesh. I’d like some feedback what other way could I had approached to get that shape made within the main mesh.

Try to start with more simplified geometry  connected without n-gons. Use subsurface modifier to round curved parts and Edge Crease Shift+E 1 to keep corners sharp. Similar to this https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/185599/2214

I am giving it an attempt with the subdivision which is very clean topology, but takes more consideration and planning how to layout the vertices. https://ibb.co/rHnxnTQ

Still complicated :-) Planning? Sure, blender is not AI, but Limited Disolve with keeping quads operator could be helpful if exists :-) if none here I will try to answer in hour or two.

I managed to make some progress with the subdivision modifier. But i'd like ot see the limited dissolve and quads which you stated. The more techniques I see the more skills Ill learn, if you'd like to share a screen shot or quick video demo. This is what I got so far, but I wont rest here, I'm always looking for improvement. https://ibb.co/7Rw5KqJ

Really curious why you are getting downvoted. Either way, Moonboots SUBD approach is probably the cleanest way to attack this problem. But you can probably also get away with boolean/bevel and cleanup as well.

You could do the other way around, beginning with the shape then extrude to get your rectangular object, at the end when you'll give it the Subdivision Surface modifier it will just need a bit of work to get the sharp angles:

thanks heaps guys, both ways we 1000 times better approach method then the mess I made. Moonboots methods was a bit more simpler for me to model, and didn't even think about starting from inside shape and then working my way out. the result: https://ibb.co/mFZdxM4

Try to start with more simplified geometry connected without n-gons.

Start with 10 sided Circle and continue extrude, scale, as needed)
Use Subdivision Surface modifier to round curved parts
and Edge Crease Shift+E 1 to keep corners sharp.

Similar to this.

Note: I probably used too low topology, when I would like to bevel edges now, I would have to add another loops (alternatively use bevelling on shader level).


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Jagged Points On Mesh
I’m trying to duplicate the lower part of my mesh to the other side of the model. So I select it, and mirror it to face the correct way, I join the vertices on the model. Seems nothing is odd, but once I add the modifier, I get 2 jagged vertices appearing. I cannot figure where they’re coming from.
Thank you.

Hello :). One, your mesh (at least some parts) isn't perfectly symmetrical so the verts may not get merged. Second, perhaps some inverted faces?

Hi Jachym.
That was it, I had to flip the normals. And the jagged edges disappeared.
Thank you.

You found one of the ways of testing your mesh. Using the subdiv modifier, looking at pic 4 the verts look like they are not connected. Grab one of the verts and move it around see if it's connected. Also like Jachym said check your normals are in the right direction.


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Geometry Corner Mesh
I'm practising with a mesh object typical cube. Added a whole bunch of cuts in the mesh. I believed the mesh is clean with no problems, until I added the subdivision surface, and down the corner of IMG 03, suddenly it's creating a triangle and also some weird unclean artefact on the surface. That I sort of cleaned adding more loop cuts, but it didnt clean 100%. But that corner triangle I cant figure out what it can cause it.

Hello :). This looks like double vertices or non-manifold faces. Are you sure there aren't any? You can also share you .blend file.

Hi, thanks for replying. I checked if there's double faces, but cant seem to locate any.
Ive uploaded my file:

Your mesh has some n-gons and the Subdivision Modifier doesn't like it. :)
Make your mesh only from quads and it will subdivide properly.
Other little issues:

Messed up scale - Solve through Object > Apply > Scale (and check normals afterwards)
Non-manifold faces - some faces are going through another. This has to be repaired manually. Either merge the vertices, or move the faces farther away.

Quads vs. N-gons with Subdivision Modifier

Apply your object's scale to avoid problems in the future.

Here is your .blend back, repaired so you can compare :).

I cant believe that I didnt noticed the n-gons right in front of my mesh.
Thanks for your help Jacym!
https://ibb.co/g6gbSrW


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Curve shape on Mesh
Is there a way of getting a nice smooth curve without using the subsurface modifier on a mesh.
But maintaining clean topology and not using booleans. I tried some methods but with no particular luck. I added many subdivisions with the intentions of getting a nice curve. But once I add the circle tool, it becomes a mesh.

Why without using a subsurf modifier?

The previous models which I had uploaded I had used a modifier, So this is more of a problem solving inquiry. to gain new skills and theory from the forum. (Also the Subsurface modifier was causing some unwanted issues on the model I practising on). So I'd like to know if there's a way of achieving a smooth curve. Even If there's an Ad-On I'd like to know.

This was one of the methods I done it using subsurface. Now I'd like to gain more skills knowing to achieve it without subsurface modifier.
https://ibb.co/WDqJQ3X

Don't waste your time. Proper usage of the subsurf modifier is the main skill you need when it comes to modeling and it's the common way of polygonal modeling for many years now. Read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdivision_surface

If Subdivision Surface is not convenient, you can do it manually.

Start with a circle - it's way easier than to shape vertices into a circle later
Since you're not using subdivision, flat n-gons aren't a problem.

Use Bevel to make edges softer.
note that Bevel is more limited by tight corners

More polygons, add more, more polygons! ;)

Certainly :). When modeling without subsurf, 256 verts for a circle isn't unusual :). Still, using subsurf is just sooo much easier.

Tried to explain that already: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/173378/curve-shape-on-mesh/173401?noredirect=1#comment291355_173378 but I think that's a waste of time too :D

Well, for flat, angular objects, Bevel can be enough. The polycount easily gets down to 1/10 of subdivided geometry. And I too had a (short-lived) interest in modeling entirely without subsurf :).

Thanks for the demo Jachym.
At starters I was a bit confused. But then I realised that it was done using a circle and a square mesh. I also added the steps which I followed.
https://ibb.co/cNmKzWR
Kind regards.

Glad you found it helpful :). And good luck with your project.


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Saving UV mesh Selection
Is there a way saving a selected UV selection so when I click on the selected area it gets the mesh active again? Most times I accidentally click off the area of the UV selection, and then I have to reselect all mesh of the UV area I want to map again.
Thank you.

Hey :). When you deselect an area accidentally, just Undo a step (ctrl + z) and the selection will be back. Blender is awesome :).

This can be done via vertex group. As you choose your selection open "object data properties" create new vertex group and click "assign" now whenever you click on that group and choose select, your verteces will be selected again.

Just to add - you can also use Face Maps (work the same but for faces) :).

Thanks for that Fowl, exactly what I was looking for.
Cheers.


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Matt Cap Shading texture
Is there a way which a matt cap can be rendered? I really like this shinny white texture. I tried to simulate it with the basic nodes, but doesn't quite match. Also when I try to render it's loosing it's glossiness which is more visible in the view port shader.
Thank you

The material will be for an object. This question of course is for educational purposes which I'm asking. And I'm more interested in rendering it from orthographic view. I know from an angle it has more reflections. But I'd like to know how to maintain gloss/reflections if rendered from orthographic view.

Thanks for your replies Christopher, can you please take a screenshot of the node set up?
Thank you.

Go to Render Settings and switch the render engine to Workbench. This is the render engine the viewport uses and is responsible for matcap lighting.
Then select the Matcap you want to use just like you would do from the viewport by using the Lighting dropdown below the Sampling menu. Once you press render, each frame will be created using the lighting type that you have specified. It also renders lighting fast because Workbench is designed to provide instantaneous shading for the viewport.
No fancy node editor work required, just switch the render engine, choose a matcap, and that's about it.

What an awesome tip, thanks heaps Eric!
Cheers!


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Offset Edge Loop Cut
I'm trying to get even offset loop cuts on selected edges on my mesh. I tried 2 ways, one with the Offset Edge loop cut, and the other with the bevel. The bevel option keeps the edges aligned perpendicular vertical & horizontal, but moves the rectangles on the mesh. The offset loop cut even I tried with the option even in the settings, makes the lines non perpendicular, and also creates a triangle face when offsetting. What's the correct method to achieve even off cut loops?
Thank you.

Offset Edge Slide seems to behaves quite irregular. A created vertex in a corner that moves inward doesn't do so consistent with the distance of other vertices and edges, and the outward side doesn't create a vertex. (not sure how to easily change that)
But in this specific case a Bevel in combination with Knife Project might do the job:

Copy the cube object and create the edge offset by Bevel.
Select the edges you like, duplicate them, Press P and Separate by Selection to make them a separate object. Then move them over/above the original object.
In Object Mode select the edges object, then Shift select the original cube object, and (with both objects selected) go into Edit mode.
Press numpad 7 so the knife cut will be projected onto the desired surface at the right angle, in this case downward.
Apply Knife Project. In Edit Mode, 3D Viewport > Mesh > Knife Project.

Result:

Thanks for this great tip. it did the job, too bad Blender doesn't handle the offset edge loop in a more simple function. But if this is the best was for the result, then I go with the flow.
https://ibb.co/yFF0Mq2


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Changing between two models seemlessly
Blender Newb here. Just downloaded the software today and I'm falling in love with it. However:
I'm trying to do an Intro / spinny thing (not the dubstep type) and I can't seem to figure out how.
What I have done:
-I have two seperate models (1 and 2 in image below) in Blender of the same object, but with different text on it. Since I'm a Noob I created the models in different Software and just "subtracted" (?) the text in tinkercad.
-I have animated the Object you see in the Bottom (Berufsmesse Zürich) to slowly rise up, spin around a couple times and then stop.
What I want to do:
-Once the spin stops, I want the text to say what the upper model says (Dienstag)
My questions:
-How can I get Object 2 (Dienstag) to replace Object 1 seamlessly?
-Would replacing Object 1 with Object 2 in a moment where the Object 1 is facing away from the camera work?
-Is there an easier way to do this?
-When does Blender stop being so frustrating? :D
Thank you in advance for your response!
Also yes, I have attempted to google this but didn't come up with anything.

"Would replacing Object 1 with Object 2 in a moment where the Object 1 is facing away from the camera work?" Sounds like the most immediate way of achieving this. Just animate the visibility property of both objects at the correct moment, so one goes hidden, and the other becomes visible.

You could also animate the material's transparency, or render the clip once for each object and then crossfade/cut the video.

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


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How can I make "true normals" geometry node output relative to object local space?
That is whole question. Now it is relative to World orientation, but I want it to be relative to object orientation.
Thank you for your attention.

Use a vector transform node:

I need to write 30 characters to post though.

Thanks a lot. I absolutely forgot about the existence of that node.


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Vertices that have a shared face in Python
Is this possible to write the script that can determine if certain vertices have a shared face?
For example, if 3 random vertices of a mesh connected with each other with a face.

You can use bmesh to do that. BMesh offers facilities to navigate through verts/edges/faces.
So for instance:
import bpy
import bmesh

obj = bpy.context.object

bm = bmesh.new()
bm.from_mesh( obj.data )

bm.verts.ensure_lookup_table()

v1 = bm.verts[0]
v2 = bm.verts[1]
v3 = bm.verts[3]

inter = set( v1.link_faces ) & set( v2.link_faces ) & set( v3.link_faces )

print( inter )

ensure_lookup_table tells bmesh to prepare the data (you may want to use it too on bm.edges and bm.faces)
For more information, have a look to this documentation.


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Black Lines on edge of character
I'm making a render of my Minecraft character, but there are black lines appearing on the edges of the arms and legs. What am I doing wrong here?
Here's my blend file: https://www.mediafire.com/file/9fk7mmup0zai326/AiltonicChristmas.blend

When asking questions please do not rely only on file and several words description that there is something wrong; include screenshots of the problem and improve your description according to them. Lastly for files please use https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

I'm not sure exactly what's going on here, but the reason you're seeing that is because you have two nearly-overlapping meshes for that character's arms and legs, and you're seeing one poking through the other.
For the right arm for example, you have both char.Mesh.Arm_R.002 and char.Mesh.Layer.Arm_R.
It seems possible that one of these meshes is meant to be the arm itself while another is meant to be clothing, but they aren't placed correctly for this effect.

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


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Animation: Bones & Vertex
I've animated a dome which opens using bones. The shell of the dome goes down into the ground. My problem is that when this dome is mounted on a tower, the player can see the shell going through the floor and walls. These shots might explain it better:

What I would like is the vertexes of the dome shell to 'pile up' at ground level, so they stay within the boundries of the physical model and not clip through walls or floors.
Since this is animated for Source, I'm bound to using bones. I thought of cutting up the shell into small sections so I can move them individually, but the Source skeleton system is quite rigid, so I can't bind all those individual sections to the same bone. Since it treats it like a skeleton it will always move the previous bone with it (like an actual arm works).
Any idea's how I could do this? I'm still quite new to animation...


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Why all my numpad don't work?
It supposes when I press 1,3,7 the view will change automatically to top, side or bottom, but somehow it doesn't work. And then I find non of my numpad work. I'm using 2.8 by the way.

Check whether you have press Numlock on your keypad. Also, Windows can be configured to use the numeric jeypad for simulated mouse movement - check settings such as that.

Have you checked if your num lock in ON?

There is a caps lock but I didn't turn it on, the numpad 5 doesn't work either.

Capslock does nothing to numbers

Try enabling numlock

Thank for your answer but I think it must be sth else. Cuz I use the mac book. There is no numlock key...

See https://turbomanage.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/mac-tech-notes-phantom-numlock-stuck-keynote/  and http://osxdaily.com/2014/12/01/number-keys-not-working-mac-keyboard-fix/

The number pad hot keys still work in 2.8. Have you remembered to re-apply emulate numpad in system preferences, because it is a new version of blender so the settings will be set to default (I made that mistake myself :) Also you can use the button next to the 1 to switch through lots of different views in 2.8. I think that may have been mentioned in the above answers. Hope I could have been of some help!

nope. New shortcuts on 2.8, so forget about the 2.79 shortcuts. Though, if you want there´s a choice for 2.79 button config RIGHT on the FIRST install FIRST run of Blender to pick your right or left click select and your button configuration.
On a 3D VIEWPORT hold ALT+Drag the MIDDLE mouse UP (it will take you top view), do the same combinations with left, down, right for each viewport.
Thanks for voting my answer.
BFCT_Schiller

Thank you~It is much more convinent to control by mouse than press hotkey.

I use the MacBook Pro and I'm sure it has no NumLock key. So it must be something else... ...

You can go to Edit > Preferences > Input and click Emulate Numpad.


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Will Blender download onto my Chromebook?
Just wondering if I can download Blender to my Chromebook?

What happens when you try? I'm guessing you can download, but you won't be able to run it

Those are not "real" computers. Much less have a "real graphic card" you´re entering the high demanding hardware world of 3D creation. Please reconsider an alienware 2019 station as main source.


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Geometry Nodes: re-using a node group that includes main Group Input values
I've been trying to become better at making procedural models with geometry nodes. (For 3d printing.) I have a set of calculations that I want to re-use many times in my main node tree that come from the main Group Input that I can adjust in the Modifier panel, and I'm trying to wrap my head around using group nodes.
I've attached a simple example to illustrate my question.
I understand I can make a group node and re-use that node group (let's say, "Calculations") throughout my main node tree - but, any values I want to use from the main Group Input seem to have to be physically connected to my 'Calculations' node group at the main Node Tree level. Is there anyway to pass through 'remotely' the values from the main Group Input into the sub node group itself so I don't have to attach the values from a Group Input into the 'Calculations' node group each time I want to use it within the scene?

(Using Blender 3.6.8)
I agree with Chris that the case you describe can be simplified the way he is doing it.

But I also understand that one part of your question is about encapsulating values from the Group Input node of the main node, to propagate these into sub-node groups not one at a time. As Custom Properties can not be accessed directly inside Geometry Nodes, a workaround is to cache input variables as named attributes, in the Instance domain to limit memory cost. This way instead of many input sockets, a single one is enough. The price to pay is first to store the named attributes, then to trigger the reference to those attributes, using a Sample Index node for example in the following graph.
If you do not want to mess up the original geometry, an object made of a single Vertex can be added to the scene, and used as a container inside the GN graph, retrieving it using an Object Info node. However, be aware that added attributes inside the modifier are accessible only inside the GN graph.

nice idea!!! +1

although you don't wanna hear it, but this isn't really the use case for a node group.
Why? because a nodegroup is made to be used in different areas with different input values - else the output is always the same (so it is "constant" - in most cases) and so you would just use the output and link it to another place like so:

Thank you so much for responding and even comping up an illustration, I appreciate it. When the node tree becomes huge and you want to re-use stuff, I find it frustrating to have to scroll around to reconnect nodes. I thought there would have been an easy way to store the constant input information and to call it up in different parts of the node tree, but I guess I just need to be better at node line management.  Again, thank you very much.

i agree with you. It is no really "satisfying" solution. Maybe the developers will develop a more elegant solution for this. StefLAncien answer is another workaround for this.


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Volume Scattering in 2.8 Doesn't work?
Volume scatter not working in 2.8 build for the Mac? I tried plugging in the volume scatter node to the world output and checked the volumetric box. But nothing happens in Eevee! Please help.

did you connect the volume scatter node to the VOLUME input on the world output node?

You might have to check "Volumetric" under the render settings on the right.


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How to deal with an addon upgrade setting migration (as the addon writer)
The problem is very simple. I wrote an addon and the property looks like this:
class MyObjectSettings(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    @classmethod
    def register(cls):
        bpy.types.Object.my_addon = PointerProperty(
            name="my_addon Object Settings",
            description="my_addon object settings",
            type=cls,
        )
        cls.is_instance = BoolProperty(
            name="Is Instance",
            default=False,
        )

That is, objects have an obj.my_addon.is_instance bool property.
And of course this is exposed to the UI so that users can toggle it on/off.
This is all working well so far. A couple of Blender files are already using this addon.
The problem is that I changed my mind. I now want to have 3 states:
enum_blender_obj_type = (
    ('NONE', "None", "Description for None")
    ('INSTANCE', "Instance", "This is an instance")
    ('ALTERNATE', "Alternate", "This object is an Alternate")
)

class MyObjectSettings(bpy.types.PropertyGroup):
    @classmethod
    def register(cls):
        bpy.types.Object.my_addon = PointerProperty(
            name="my_addon Object Settings",
            description="my_addon object settings",
            type=cls,
        )
        cls.object_type = EnumProperty(
            name="Type",
            items=enum_blender_obj_type,
            default='NONE',
        )

So whereas in plugin v1.0 we had obj.my_addon.is_instance bool, now in v2.0 I wish to use obj.my_addon.object_type == "INSTANCE" because it's now an enum.
So the question is: Is there a way to transparently migrate this setting?
In other words, when the user loads a Blender file created with an older version of the addon, my plugin automatically runs the following code:
# Migrate the old variable into the new variable
if obj.my_addon.is_instance:
    obj.my_addon.object_type = 'INSTANCE'

Is there an established workflow for such addon upgrade migration?
Thanks!

OK I don't know if there is a better way or an official API to deal with this.
But the solution I went with is to hook a Post File Open Handler and then unset is_instance so that further opening of the same file won't overwrite already existing settings:
import bpy
from bpy.app.handlers import persistent

@persistent
def load_handler(dummy):
    # When opening Blender files, migrate all objects to new settings.
    for scene in bpy.data.scenes:
        for obj in scene.objects:
            if obj.my.is_instance and obj.my.object_type == 'UNDEFINED':
                obj.my.object_type = 'GAMEOBJECT_INSTANCE'
            obj.my.is_instance = False

def register():
    for cls in classes:
        bpy.utils.register_class(cls)
    bpy.app.handlers.load_post.append(load_handler)

def unregister():
    bpy.app.handlers.load_post.remove(load_handler)
    for cls in reversed(classes):
        bpy.utils.unregister_class(cls)


text:
beginner, appreciate for any advice!
I am hoping that this is the correct forum to post this question. So I recently decided to join Blender but I am overwhelmed with all the information I get. I am an active sketchup and vray user and without any other 3d softwares experience before and my goal for learning Blender is for arch viz and perhaps real time rendering as well now that Blender 2.8 and eevee is out.
I want to get started with the latest Blender 2.8. I tried to watch the blender fundamental tutorials on youtube but the settings,buttons and UI seem different and sometimes its too difficult to follow through.
I know that Blender is completely free and open source so there arent lots of resources from its official organisation to make tutorials regularly. But since 2.8 is out and with lots of changes happened compared to the available tutorials online, is there a specific channel online where I can start learning the right way at the beginner level?
Or if theres any suggestion about what videos can help me get started for using blender 2.8?
I appreciated very much for any advice, I know this type of topics perhaps get posted many time but I am hoping I can get more update responses in relation to the 2.8 release. Thank you so much!

.. also check out this post

It can be hard to learn at first but you need to take long and sometimes frustrating baby steps. If possible, try to understand both 2.79b while it is still available for download and also 2.8. 2.8 is still in beta and brand new, as of about a month or 2 ago.
Most tutorials are for Blender 2.7x so I would advise to start off there and use tutorials such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kes2qmijy7w Blender fundamentals. Blender Guru is also a good source for medium to higher level modelling and has just released a video on the new 2.8 layout which I suggest watching Watch both this one, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPVpg4_POww, which is the Blender Guru new layout video, and the first link which is a Blender 2.79b video of a similar nature to gather how different the versions are, which is why I suggested to learn 2.79b since there are so many videos available for it. Start small and learn all the functions first. Remember that Blender engine has been removed in favour of the new Eevee rendering engine so as much as possible try to learn in cycles, but couldn't hurt to learn both the blender engine and eevee engine layouts.
Since 2.8 is still new there won't be as many answers and the layout has dramatically changed so it would be hard for a beginner to watch tutorials done in a 2.7x version and follow along in 2.8, which is why I suggest learning 2.79b first. Once you have an understanding of 2.79b then you can transfer allot of skills easily over to 2.8 by finding the new locations of the tools and menus. Good luck with it.

thank you so much for your answer!! relating to your reply, do you mean 2.78 or 2.79? because I saw on the blender website that the prior version of 2.8 beta is the 2.79 version.

and if you really do mean 2.78, do you mean 2.78a or b or c? because it seems to be multiple versions, tho i am not sure if they r still downloadable

Yeah sorry I meant 2.79b. I was using 2.78 because of graphics issues my end but yes, 2.79b; the option to download will download the latest version. I have updated the answer to reflect this.

I totally agree with @Mark Matthews.  2.79 is still very much like 2.8, and there are quite a few questions on this forum that help newbies to 2.8 find all the buttons and such.  I would strongly suggest starting with Blender Guru's beginner tutorial.  You should be able to find it on Youtube if you search "Blender Guru Beginner"  There are like 7 parts.  Almost all of it is applicable to 2.8, and it's a great start for people new to 3D.  He is also great at keeping you entertained while watching his videos.


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texture paint not showing up on object
Im sorry if this is a redundant question but Ive searched for a while, and have followed many tutorials. I follow all the steps but when I paint nothing shows up. .
Thanks in advance for the help!

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

In edit mode check the direction of your normals - sometimes things get inverted and then the paint is on the inside.


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How can I get this wax effect?

Im trying to make wax on my surfboard model I figured I would do it with a seperate plane shrink wrapped on and the cloud or noise texture, but I cant figure out how to make the black transparent on the noise texture. Any other ideas would be appreciated!

This is the way how to make a pattern transparent:

Your a life saver thankyou very much!


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Can I render the viewport with CUDA?
I'm using the default blender renderer and am trying to animate a scene with a bunch of different meshes (18 of them), all hooked up to the same armature, using the same bones and vertex groups (the vertex groups being connected to the bones). The meshes are different versions of fundamentally the same object. The problem is when I play the animation (of which there is none currently) I get about 5 fps, with all of the objects enabled.
That would seem totally acceptable, as there are 18 meshes, all of pretty good complexity (with normal maps). However, even when I disable all of the meshes except for the 2 that I want, the FPS value is still the same. I even tried putting them all on different layers, but the viewport still clung to around 5 fps.
I've also tried switching from material render mode to solid render mode, and that improved my FPS from around 5 to fluctuating from 12-14. This is still very sub-optimal, as I animate at 60fps.
I looked around a bit for the answer to the question in my title, and couldn't find anything. It's very possible that this isn't a current feature of Blender, as I know for a fact from previous experience that Cinema 4D (with non-PBR materials) renders the viewport with a single thread, and I would be willing to accept that's the case with blender too, so please let me know. If you have any further optimizations, though, please let me know, because I would be very appreciative.
After that, I took a look at the task manager and found I was using around 85% of my CPU, and only around 5% of my GPU (which probably wasn't being used much for blender). So, I was wondering if it was possible to render the viewport with CUDA, as I have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, which should be pretty effective if what I'm talking about does in fact exist.
If you need me to clarify anything, just let me know. Thanks in advance.

I think you are missing the point of what CUDA is. CUDA is a tooklit for running calculations on a gpu that are not part of a 'normal' graphics display pipeline. In the case of the viewport, rendering is already happening on the gpu using this normal display pipeline (in this case, opengl is the API used to communicate with the gpu).
The fact that playback is slow, and most time is spent on the cpu suggests that the performance bottleneck is somewhere other than rendering. The most likely case for this are modifiers, if they are doing expensive recalculation each frame. Many modifiers in blender are not efficiently multithreaded. Try disabling or tuning as many as possible (e.g hide corrective smoothing, subdivision etc). You may also want to look at limiting the number of armature weights per vertex, as this can cause reduced performance too.

Ah, that makes more sense.
As for the modifiers, I think that could very well be it. I tried doing that about one and a half hours before writing the original post, and it didn't do anything to the objects, even after deleting the modifier altogether, for some strange reason.
I tried it shortly before writing the original post again, however (about 15 minutes before) and it did make a difference, though I didn't do it on all of the meshes to see how the performance benefitted.

Just tried it! I'm now able to hold 60fps. Thanks so much, marking it as the answer.


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Joining objects
I would like to join two objects, one is a cilinder with modifier "Curve", so it's sort of bended. I would like to attach a UV sphere (which shape I changed a bit in sculpting regime) to it but as I do so, it messes up with the modifier. Is there a way to join these two objects and keeping their shape? Thanks

Yous could use the boolean modifier set to union.

When you join the two objects together, their base meshes without modifiers are combined, then the modifiers act on the joined mesh. You need to apply the Curve modifier first. Before doing so, it is recommended that you duplicate the object(s) to keep a backup in case something goes wrong further down the line.


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filling a polygon with holes in it with one single face
Sorry to ask such a stupid question, but is there a way to fill the polygon in the picture with one single face to avoid strange edge behaviour when putting up bevel modifier afterwards.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/48954/merge-around-a-face/48967

First select the verts and make the faces.

Next select the faces and press X and select dissolve faces. Do it part by part

But there is a limit of amount you can merge.

Thanks a lot, and it really worked. But unfortunately, as you already remarked, there is a limit, so i couldnt accomplish it to the end. But thank you anyway, i learned another bit of blender from your comment.

Hello and welcome. Please don't add thank you as an answer, upvote the answer instead. If you feel it completely solved your problem consider marking it accepted


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Are there other ways to skin a mesh without Armature Deform with Automatic Weights?
Because, I choose that option and it says "Failed to find solution for one or more bones". I, of course, put the rig inside the mesh. There is symmetry in my rig and they are appropriately named with bone.l or bone.r.. I tried several things.
I would be happy to provide any more details and thank you for any help you might provide.

Check out attached link.  I think you should find every possible reason for that failure in one or another of the answers there.

You could parent the object to the armature with empty weights and then do the weights yourself. You might have better luck starting with a basic rig that is already linked into a shape and then match it up within your object and then try pairing it with automatic weights you might have better luck. Normally, it works, but there is always autorig pro, it has a smarter automatic weight painting system, you would probably like it.

You will find basic rig in the add drop down menu under armature and then parent with empty groups is in the parent section under the object drop down menu.

Thanks, man. I'm going to try that right now.


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Is Blender 2.81 able to pack Animated Textures?
I want to be able to pack like a .mp4 as an image texture, but last time I did this in 2.8, it wasn't possible. Is it a feature yet in the lastest update?

From the Blender Manual:

Not all external files can be packed
Some typically heavy external files, like video ones from the Sequence Editor or Movie Clips, cannot be packed in a blend-file.

Consider what would happen if you did pack those files in. Every time Blender makes a backup save (which it does by default), it'd have to make a copy of all the data, including the video files. If you're considering uploading your project to a render farm, some allow for video files to be sent in an accompanying zip file.
If you're just transferring the file from computer to computer, consider using Relative Paths and keeping all your files in organized folders.


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How to use existing UV unwrap texture on model
I have character model extracted and it has separate diff, normal map textures etc. Is there any way to apply them as they are? Without manual adjustments?

Hello and welcome :). Are you asking about UV unwrapping your model, or combining diffuse/normal textures into one material?

If the masks on your textures based off of a texture map that was made from a UV map are different it will not look to good. If you are tiling textures and say you want a different normal under a stone albedo(diffuse) megascan texture, it would work fine, it would just bring a different shape out of the albedo map. However, from the sounds of it, with a character as you are saying, when dealing with UV's the uv mask on the texture maps created from the UV's must match character UV's or it will not look very good.

I know, I have only UV texture and a model, but I don't have UV map and that's a problem. For example, I have texture of head and UV unwrap perfectly fits it, but with texture of body it's... Kinda fits, but actually doesn't because of parts of body (like legs and hands) that use same parts of texture and I don't know what to to with this. Manual editing is kinda messy. Maybe it's all because of COLLADA file.

Well, what I would suggest is retexturing parts of it to fit the map that do not match, by lining the part that does fit up to how it should be and then just manipulate the rest.

Oh, nevermind. I just exported rips with NinjaRipper, then converted them into .obj with Noesis and these .obj have matching UV maps. But thank you for your time C:


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Stacking two textures with alpha on top of each other [2.81, Eevee]
So I've been trying to stack two textures with alpha on top of each other and while  I can remove the Alpha on each with enabling alpha blend the problem is the textures bleed into them.
From what I gather it has to do with the FAC value the alpha is plugged in or set manually, which might be expected from a mix note...
While I followed
How to stack/layer two textures with alpha over each other with Material nodes? down to a t (other than the texture mapping), I tried other methods and end up still with a mix of the two textures than them being properly stacked. Maybe someone can help.

For Eevee, you might have to go the extra mile of creating 2 shaders and mix them together instead of doing it just for the textures. See here:

Thanks, this helped a lot, especially, but not limited too, seeing which alpha should be used in the last mix shader FAC value!

I got a same issue and found this question. The answer above works but a bit mess with many nodes, so I came out with a simpler solution.
In the following example, having the mouth texture as the base, the eyes texture is put on top of it.
Such overlay is done by Principled BSDF shader. Subsurface Color comes on top of Base Color, while applying alpha to the subsurface from Subsurface.
On the other hand, we need alpha data which makes it transparent in the area where both textures are transparent. It can be simply mathematically calculated. Create two Math node, which you can find under Converter category. Then, have one of those as Add to add the two Alphas of the textures.
At this point, the alpha data has some alpha value at the overlapping part of the two textures, which causes such area looks lighter color on the view. So, let's remove it by using the other Math node. Having it as Multiply with Clamp option, multiply the previously added alpha data with value 1.0. Now, you can use it for Alpha of the Principled BSDF shader.


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Tool windows gone
Where are the tool option windows that are supposed to popup? I use Inset Faces and there's no window where I can choose Even offsets. The status bar at the bottom of the screen says that right clicking will bring up the Call Menu, but that's been set to escape from the tool. So, how many versions back do I need to go before this was broken?
Version 3.4.1

The options should be in the Operator Panel (the little expandable tab that pops up in the bottom left after an action - insetting for example). There is a checkbox for even offsets:

That window isn't showing up. They've moved it to the header, but it'll only show if you click the tool icon, not if you use a shortcut key while a different tool is active, such as Select. I've reported the bug. Every time they change the interface they break it in major ways. I wish they'd at least test this stuff first.


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denoise node not available under compositing in blender 2.8
I was following blender gurus new donut tutorial. after modelling the donut, i rendered it once, went into compositing to add a denoiser node to the rendered image. but if i search it, its not available. right now i have the render layers and composite nodes.

It's only available in 2.81. You can find it in the video's description.

Denoise node is only available in Blender 2.81. You can download the experimential builds here.

Go to compositor screen, press Shift +  A and type rendering layer in search

How is that related to denoising compositing node? That will only add render layer node. Note that the question is specifically for version 2.80, that node in compositing is available for versions since then which is in the answer

Well it works the same for denoising, you only have to add denoising nod too. Before you render the scene you have to turn on denoising option and that's all


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How do I mute the audio on a video and replace it with another audio file?
I am completely new to blender, and I feel like the procedure should be simple but I'm just not finding instructions for it (so I apologize if it's a silly question). I have a video where the audio had a lot of noise. I was able to create a separate audio file and reduce the noise with Audacity. What I'd like to do now is replace the original audio in the video for the cleaned up version. Is there an option to mute the video while adding an audio file? Do I need to worry about synchronizing the two? (I hope not, since they should both be the exact same length, but I don't know...)
Thanks in advance!

According to my experience, when you add a video in Blender, original audio is automatically muted, and for example if you created a VFX, added that VFX to your video. rendered it and now want to add an external audio, you have to add a audio file to synchronize with your animation/video/VFX. By default their is no sound coming with video!

I've never used the video editing feature of Blender but I gave myself a try at seeing this question.
This is the same process as other non-linear video editing program, you can delete/mute the original sound track and import your denoised one.
Firstly go to video editing layout in Blender.

Import your video/audio file at here.

You can press "G" to move its position. "Shift" for precise slower transformation.

So here's the video track, combined with audio and image frames. Then delete the audio track imported from your video by pressing X or "Delete".
Import your denoised audio, and shift the new audio track to the same starting frame to make both sync.
Preview your work by "Alt+A", remember to change the end frame number larger than your imported one.
Then go to Properties panel:

Go to output tab and change the format to "FFmpeg video" to use the MPEG encoder so that you can output it as an MP4 video in acceptable file size.

Then go to "Video Sequence Editor" panel and start rendering with "flim clapper" button.

In conclusion, the process is easy and clear: remove the original audio track, import your processed one, and render it! All you have to learn is about the Blender flexible UI layout and operation based on shortcuts.
Enjoy!


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animating a collision with an object following a path
I have this idea that looks pretty simple in my head, but turned out to be pretty hard to animate.
I've got this animated bee that is flying along a path, and i want it to collide into an object, bounce off and then continue the path. The problem with the path is that the object following it wants to go in a smooth line, not in a 'colide-and-bounce-off' line.
Is a path animation the right way to do it or is there an other, more convenient way?
Thanks allot in advance!

I think I would animate the path animation and then separately render the bounce animation and then splice them together in the VSE.

I fixed it now with some camera trickery by letting the first path stop at the collision object, then manually animating the bounce with the location parameters, letting the bee bounce out of view, and then letting a clone bee fly back into the camera view following a new path


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How to make more then one character from one rigged mesh
Is it possible to create one mesh character (all rigged with rigify) then change the mesh to look like a new character and adjust the rig? I'm making a comic book and that would save me a lot of time making all the characters in my story. I'm not doing animation just yet. Only pose.

Adjusting a Rigify rig is not impossible but it's quite complicated, due to the presence of lots of machinary and auxiliary bones, that can be revealed turning on all the bone layers of the armature.
The best way to achieve your result is to adjust the metarig to the new copy of the character, and generate a new rig (change the name of the first rig before generating the second).
If you don't want to redo the wheights assignement, you can use all weight already present, just bear in mind that the new rig will have a new name, and you will have to set this new name in the object field of the armature modifier.


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Using append to bring a rigged character from one .blend file into another
What is the best way to bring your rigged character into another .blend file using append? Do you have to select both the object and mesh or rig? I tried selecting the object only (the name of my file) but the mesh does not seem to move right or scale. I can only work with the rig. The hands and feet on the mesh, when I select it, stick in place (IK) and the body stretches at the hands and feet. It's not a big problem for me. I can use it that why, just moving the rig. The mesh does what the rig is doing. I was just asking if there is a better way. Thanks.

Group the rig and mesh objects, then link them into the new file, then extract the rig with Ctrl Alt P > "MyRig".


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Leaves not showing up on my Tree (particle Systems)in Blender 2.79
I am new to Blender and I tried to make a tree model. I created a basic tree structure and then aimed to distribute leaves on it. I tried to do this by creating a branch which I distributed leaves on (as particles). The goal was to then use these branches as particles for my tree. However, in doing so: while the branches appear on the tree as particles, the leaves are not appearing. I do not understand what the reason for this might be, I thought it might have to do with overlapping particle systems but I am unsure about how to approach that problem; other than that, I have tried disabling subsurf modifier, putting particle system above in priority (in modifiers tab for branch) but this hasn't worked.
Vertex groups have been created to deal with distribution of particles.
The particles are themselves taken as groups. 'Leaves' in case of the branch and 'branches' group in case of the tree. (not to be confused with vertex groups)
Tree Structure

Branches

Branch Property Tab p1

Branch Property Tab p2

Branch Modifier

Tree after using branches as particles

Tree Modifiers

"The trick is, you use the particle instance modifier on one particle system, and the particle system is recognized as one object, so it can then be emitted from itself" :https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/5961/how-can-particles-be-emitted-from-particles

Possible duplicate of How can particles be emitted from particles?


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Transparant weight paint in blender 2.8
I'm having problems with weight paint in blender 2.8.
I want to be able to paint tough a mesh with Xray so I can paint the inside parts om models. I can't get it to work in 2.8 like it was in 2.79.

maybe you're talking about the 2D Falloff option in the N panel?

I tried looking, where do I find it?

go in your 3D view, press N to open the right panel, then Too tab > Brush > Options > 2D Falloff, and disable Front Face Only

^^ did exactly this (disabled Frontface Falloff checkbox), still does not paint through mesh. What is going on with blender?


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Rigify moves twice as far as mesh?
I'm building a modular animatable child for a school project.
I can't figure out why my rig does this, but every pose ball and limb piece moves twice as far as the rig which makes it much harder to animate, every tutorial i look up has the rig follow the model exactly, can anyone please help?
The .blend:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5mmsc5r77fivbs6/ChidlerfileAlpha2.blend?dl=0

Possibly related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/33169/bone-rotation-applied-twice

looks like your helpers are children are of the rig and are therefore also affected, my understanding is they should remain static since their referenced by bones. With only your last layer visible go to your outliner, set to only visible layers, select any mesh withing the rig heirarchy, now change your outliner view to same types, select all (A),right click the mesh and chose 'select', hit alt+P in the 3D view to un-parent. Now go back to your first layer and the rig should behave properly.

I couldn't follow exactly what you meant but i believe you mean that i accidentally parented the WGT rig, which was causing the rigify to scale it as well, thus double scaling the mesh, which once i unparented all the WGT bits it is working correctly so thank you!


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Cycle Backface culling didn't work
I will put some screenshot to demonstrate the problem
The backface culling didn't work I put on the option in the menu I have create the material, everything work when I am in the material viewport but when I hit Shift+Z and when I do the render the backface cull don't work
Have I forgot somehing ?enter image description here

In Blender 2.79:
For your backface cull object, go to Object settings and at least disable shadow:

This material node setup is all you need for pure black:

Both shift-Z and F12 render work:

In Blender 2.80 (as of February 27, 2019):
Use the same material node setup as shown above for 2.79. Then go to Material tab and change Blend Mode to Alpha Clip (or something similar):

Cheers!


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Change object animation become cyclic for many objects, use Python
I use Python for create many objects then give them animation key frame like this (no problem here):
object.location = (x, y , z)
object.keyframe_insert(data_path='location', frame=start, index=-1)
object.location = (x + changeX, y + changeY, z + changeZ)
object.keyframe_insert(data_path='location', frame=end, index=-1)

How change animation become cyclic? I already know graph editor can change it, but how change this use Python for each object when add their key frames? I try:
bpy.ops.graph.extrapolation_type(type='MAKE_CYCLIC')

but Blender tell 'failed, context is incorrect'

Get fcurve array for object
fc = object.animation_data.action.fcurves

From list find fcurve want repeat (example location X)
locationX = fc.find('location', index=0)

Create modifier type CYCLES and set mode_before and mode_after become REPEAT
modifier = locationX.modifiers.new(type='CYCLES')
modifier.mode_before = 'REPEAT'
modifier.mode_after = 'REPEAT'

One problem, this method cause two repeat loops between original two keyframes, object move 1/2 time and 1/2 distance between keyframes. Need double original distance and time between key frames.


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MP4 Publishing does not have Audio in Blender v2.79.6
Video editing for MP4 does not work with audio anymore with v2.79.6. I got only an mp4 without an audio.

It seems it is working after I test it first with MP3 format. I'm using a WAV file for the video. initially it did not work. But after testing with MP3 input to MP3 output, WAV input to MP3 Output work on the mp4. so its fine now.


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2 Objects but keep vertices joined?
How can I split one object into two but keep the vertices joined where the object was split?
If I use two objects the animation creates a gap between the two since they don't influence each other.
I need two objects so I can swap meshes, for example clothes mesh.

You can also parent one to the vertex of the other but whether the transformations of one are going to affect the other is another matter.

As long a the weights are identical shouldn't the vertex positions stay identical as well provided you don't move the objects themselves?


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OSL: Parallax Occlusion Mapping
I just want to know if this osl file, for a 3ds max, works in blender cycle.
 link: http://www.racoon-artworks.de/?p=773
 osl:http://www.racoon-artworks.de/DownloadableScripts/ParallaxOcclusionMapping_v001.osl
tutorial:https://learnopengl.com/Advanced-Lighting/Parallax-Mapping


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Proximity effect using Point distribute
How can I make this effect in blender using geometry nodes?
The two sphere is generated using Point Distribute and Point Instance.
I know it has something to do with Attribute Proximity but I don't know how to deal with it.

do you want explicitly a geometry nodes solution? because it is very easy with metaballs...

yes, it is a solution without proximity...(shame on me), but i think it isn't possible with the current version of the proximity node (i explain it later)
ok, there is a "way" and it's a bit buggy, but you can instance a metaball in GN with a hack:
Add a metaball, parent it to a plane.

On the plane: check instance on vertices.

add GN modifier to plane with this node setup:

and you will see: nothing...
but...now click a few times in "as instance"

and you will see:

NOTE: I am pretty sure this isn't possible in GN with proximity node (except you just want to do it with 2 metaballs) because the proximity node looks like this:

And so it takes only one object/geometry where you get the proximity from. You don't get the proximity between all instances (or every near vertex) and so i think this isn't possible with the proximity node.

Thanks! That was what all I needed!

You are welcome!

This is not the answer to achieve exactly the result you've shown, it's just to show what other possibilities there are with Geometry Nodes.
For example, you can turn points into volumes and volumes back to meshes. In the following gif I just used two spheres, but of course you can use any other shape as well. This is done completely in Geometry Nodes, maybe one could go on by adding a Remesh modifier afterwards or something like that.

And this is my node setup:

Nice! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!


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Redragon gaming mouse not recognizing Button[N] Mouse
I have a Mouse Gamer Redragon Impact M908 that has 12 buttons on the side but Blender is not recognizing those buttons. It should be like Button4 Mouse but it only recognizes as 4. In the driver, the button is set to "Single Key" 4 and I couldn't find an option like Button4 Mouse.
I discover that Backward in the driver is recognized as Button4 Mouse and Forward as Button5 Mouse but I don't know how to configure the other 10 buttons.

There are only 7 universally recognized mouse inputs - LMB, RMB, Scroll Up, Scroll Down, Scroll Button, MB4, MB5.
All of the additional buttons on your mouse are known as Macro Keys. These buttons aren't recognized by software, so the manufacturer creates a program that recognizes these inputs, then maps out the input to other known inputs. For example, you can reassign the 12 button on your mouse so that when you press it, the system thinks that you pressed F12. Macros can also simulate a combination of keys, or include delays between inputs.
For your specific mouse, go download the software from https://www.redragonzone.com/pages/download.

In principle, I have found a solution, I have same mouse I will write suddenly to help someone. The proprietary software has the ability to record macros, and macros have the ability to emulate button presses Xbutton4 and Xbutton5. Thus, first we record a macro for pressing and pressing the XB4 and XB5 buttons, and then we hang these macros wherever we want. The advantage of this method is that now other programs, including games, begin to correctly identify these buttons. This suits me, as for the remaining buttons, they will need to be hung on the keyboard keys. As mentioned above, it will not be possible to add more than two additional buttons yet, even if you have the whole mouse in the add. buttons.


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Animating a Ferris Wheel
I'm new at blender and I'm trying to animate a ferris wheel.
But blender is still very difficult for me and I'm stuck. I made the base and the little cars separately but I have no idea how to let them rotate properly.

Anyone who wants to explain me how to do that?
Many thanks!

Firstly, make sure the 'cars' are separate objects, and make sure the wheel's Object Origin is at the centre of the wheel.
Here, you can see I have a circle, with monkeys (as separate, selectable objects) arranged around the outside:

The Object Origin (the orange dot in the centre) of the wheel means the wheel will rotate around the centre. The Object Origin of the monkeys ('cars') are at their top so they will rotate around this point as if they are 'hanging'.
Now, you want to select all the 'cars' then select the wheel last and press Ctrl+P to parent the cars to the wheel. Rotating the wheel will make all the cars rotate with it, but obviously they will not 'hang' like a real 'car' would.
For this we can add a Constraint to lock the rotation of the 'cars'. Select one of the cars and in the Constraints tab of the Properties editor add a Limit Rotation constraint :

By looking at the axis of the 'car' I can see it is the red x axis that I want to lock the rotation of:

On the constraint you just added tick the Limit X checkbox and also For Transform. By leaving the Min and Max values for the x axis on the constraint at '0' I am making sure the 'cars' can rotate 0 degrees.
Select all the cars and then select the car that you just added a constraint to and go to Object> Constraints> Copy Constraints to Selected Objects in the 3D View header:

This copies the constraint to all the 'cars'. Now if you rotate the wheel the 'cars' will follow but their rotation will be locked:

Now you are free to animate the rotation of the wheel and let the constraints manage the 'cars'.

Thank you so much for the helpful explanation! It works!

You won't have the cars positioned properly.  The object origin for the cars needs to be slightly lower than the object origin of the frame of the ferris wheel.  Each car's center of gravity is below the frame.  You want the cars to look like they are hanging down within the frame (see OP's picture) not centered on the frame.

@Keeta Thank you. I have updated the instructions and imagery to reflect this.

Animation Nodes can be used as an easier parameterized solution. The parametric equation of the circle can be used to define the location of the objects. And since we are not editing the rotation of the object, the objects' orientation is maintained.

Now, we can set the start value to a multiple of time, resulting in a phase shift in the trigonometric functions and subsequently rotation animation. The multiple $30$ controles the speed of rotation.

Well I think the other answer is more correct for this particular problem because a ferris wheel has certain attachment points to consider (and you might eventuall want to use physics for the cars also), I had completely forgotten or missed that animation nodes even existed so the example is appreciated.

Another approach using Dupliverts (memory efficency of instances as bonus).
Duplicating on vertices allows instances to maintain their global orientation in confront to dupliface. So we will use this feature.

Prepare Driving wheel:

Add Plane or Cube, switch to Edit mode
Select all vertices and hit Alt+M -> Collapse. This will merge all geometry into one vertex
In Edit mode, translate this vertex from origin point along one axis only (for example X of Front View). Just make sure distance between vertex and origin point has to be same as actual Wheel's radius
Switch cursor pivot type to 3D. Go back to Object mode and put 3D cursor in origin point, switch to Edit mode once again, select all and hit Ctrl+H -> Hook to new object. It's important to get Hook to be created strictly in place of origin point (or center of rotation), so watch carefully for it
Add Screw modifier. This will create circle shape mesh from our single vertex.

Prepare Car:

Simply parent Car object to our Driving wheel object.

Animation itself:

Enable Duplivert option in Driving wheel settings (Object tab->Duplication->Verts). Now you should get a full circle of Car's instances
Animate Hook rotation on Y if looking from Front View. All Cars now should follow Hook's rotation

NOTE: To edit number of Cars go to Driving wheel's Screw modifier and change number of steps, more steps -> more vertices -> more duplicated Cars. Don't forget to synchronize viewport and final render step number to get correct results.

Impressive, tried this approach animating industrial equipment same as scada systems. Will explore further.


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The amount of samples in cycles render won't change
I have a problem regarding the samples setting with cycles render on blender. Whenever I made changes to the amount of the samples I want in the samples setting it just won't save, it always revert back to 135, the amount of samples I used the first time I tinker with it. I want to use lesser amount of samples for preview purpose, and increase it to more than 135 but it simply won't save the setting. Sorry if it's a bit long, How do I save the samples setting?. I really appreciate all the answers.

Thanks for the answer, I set the number of samples on the render setting interface. I've also tried doing what is suggested on the reference and the render got stuck at 2/Samples set.

The only thing I can think is that you must have a keyframe on your render samples. I would try to right click and remove keyframes.

I right clicked on the samples render box and there's no option to remove keyframes, I saw insert keyframe instead. Thanks for the answer.

if you want to add your blend file I can take a look and figure it out for you. http://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/


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I cannot figure out how to Rig Eyes
So I'm trying to rig eyes on my rig. They have two layers on with the eye whites and one with the pupil. When I try to move it, it can go into the skin of the character and look like it's floating.When I rotate it, it can also sink back into the eye white its self.If anyone could help me fix this problem and get normal looking eyes it would be greatly appreciated. I should also include I'm using Blender version 2.79b

if the white and the pupil are parented to the same bone it should not happen, perhaps share your file: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

Use a UV_Warp modifier to move a pupil texture on a single mesh. You can drive the modifier with bones. UV offsetting is also supported in most game engines, it's the best setup.

First off you're going to want the pupil and white connected on the same surface. having them disconnected can only lead to strange shadows and collisions like this. The best way to set up eyes so that there are no strange collisions like this is to make a sphere for the eyes. once you have the sphere you place the 3D cursor in the center of it (key stroke : shift+S > U aka cursor to selection) then select your eye bone and put the Head in the cursor at the center of the eyes (Shift+S > T) and then put the tail in the center of the pupil. Now the eye will rotate from the center of the sphere and therefore the pupil will stay flush against the surface of the sphere no matter what direction you rotate it.


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How do I simulate fluid in the BGE?
I am trying to make a game where a player can drive a car. I want to have a lake that the car can drive into and splash. I am not very good with the game engine especially at coding. If I can't simulate the fluid how would I make it so that when the car goes underwater it looks realistic.

If you've heard about Blender's fluid simulation system, it could do that, but it's really, really slow. I'd go with a particle system, and possibly metaballs if those can be used as particles.

How would I do it?

That I don't know. There is this question, but they don't have an answer either as of now.


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How would I get cycles materials in the BGE?
I have a city model but when ever I go to the BGE it has materials. I have tried scripts and making the textures internal. Nothing has worked. I can't re-material everything because there are dozens of textures.

Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/98201/63966

Also check https://blender.stackexchange.com/q/90740/63966


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Metal Deform in 2.8
I am trying to simulate a car crash in blender 2.83, but I am having some trouble figuring it out. I want it to be realistic, but also dynamic. I want to the damage to vary depending on the impact. I would also like the doors to be able to come off an deform. I mainly just want to be able to send a high poly car off a cliff and have it break. Any tips or .blend file would be great!

This interests me a lot, I hope a quality answer finds its way here :)

Hello and welcome :). Check some YT videos on this topic, and then you can ask more specific questions here.

This is made with Fracture Modifier and Dynamic Paint (shows in the description): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T-QapG7vAE

@ManuJärvinen how did he do that? I didn't find a tutorial.

Yeah :/ I don't know really, I might make a try. But here's a bit more tutorial-like nice video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGsn6yysqbw

I saw that one. It does not seem to work that well in 2.8 though.


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how to insert a height map to a sphere and create a high poly planet?
https://www.renderhub.com/users/w/i/r/wirecase3d/3d-model-earth-globe-hd/
that is Earth which is what I wanted to create. I want to know how I can possibly create Earth like this, very high detailed. All Im asking for is a tutorial video to learn how to insert a height map to a sphere.


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Duplicating light along path in blender 2.8
I've been following 'Create an Underground Subway Scene in Blender' from BlenderGuru in youtube.
When he started to duplicate the lights along the path using Duplicate menu in object tab he used an option called 'Frames' which, as I understand, duplicates based on frames generated by Follow Path option.
I was following the video using blender 2.80 beta and there is no 'Frames' option, nor 'Duplication' tab. I guess they changed Duplication to Instancing but Frames option is still missing. I tried to look for a solution to instance lights using 2.8 but most answers are made for older versions of blender thus I wasn't able to get past this problem.
What I tried so far:

Instancing with 'Verts' option. This did not work (I am guessing it is because light has no vertices)
Instancing with 'Faces' options. Failed, probably same issue as above.
Using 'Follow Path' constraint instead of Ctrl + P > Follow Path. Did not work either.
Using 'Motion Paths', even though i have no clue what it actually does, failed.

Any help is appreciated!

the use of a path for frame duplication is only optional, it will work without it in 2.7. The 'instancing equivalent' isn't available for 2.8.

I watched the video, he never used object tab for duplicating, I think he just Shift + D and moved it on a particular axis!

@Yash you probably didn't understand the question. I was trying to MASS duplicate along a path. I mean MASS, like 200 of them.

Not sure if this is going to help you but:
1 Create a light and a curve.
2 Convert the curve to Mesh.
3 Select the Light go to >> object >> Relations >> Parent (here, put the curve).
4 GO to the Curve >>Object >> Instancing >>Verts.

Good Luck

I was searching for a similar answer, worked like a charm. Thanks!

Where do you specify the amount of objects you'd like to duplicate?

It depends on the amount of vertices that you have, if you have 10 vertices, you will have 10 objects, if you have 5 vertices, you will have 5, and so on

You can export the objects in .obj format to version 2.79 where you have the option to duplicate them, do the duplication and export it again at 2.80.
If you press Ctrl + Shift + A the duplicates will be real objects (instances) in case exporting as dupliframes did not work in 2.80.


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I see no cube on startup. I can see that the cube is present as well as the camera and the lighting but it is not visible on the screen
I am using Blender 2.80 Beta. I have already tried switching the views from orthographic to perspective projections but to no avail.

It is still not visible.

It's still beta, wait till stable 2.8 is out.


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How can I colour Parts in Blender?
I have some problems with coloring in Blender. When I'm in solid mode and go to the material tool I go to diffuse and select my colour.  After that I go to the material Viewport Shading or rendered and it's just black.  can someone help me with this I really don't understand how this works and I need help.
Here's a Screenshot:
https://gyazo.com/4f0b7a9c61dc3b75446407374c8ec68b

You need light sources, or check in shadeless in the material tab, or increase the emission.


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Boolean problems, object is left as a hollow mess
I'm extremely new to 3D modeling, just started today actually. But there have been some problems with the boolean modifier that I just cannot google my way out of. First, when I'm trying to carve out a chunk instead of making a hole right through an object, the two meshes just combine instead of subtracting. The second is when I finally get it to work it leaves my object a hollowed mess. In the screenshots, you can see the left object is the one I want to keep, and the right one is what I want to subtract from the left one. If I select Difference the objects just combine, but if I select Union I get what I actually want but the resulting object is hollow and with some weird planes all over the inside. How can I fix these problems?

You have the right operation i.e Difference, and it is working too, the problem with it is John Cena(you can't see it). Jokes aside!
You only can't see the changes because the object is lying on it. If you want to see the changes before applying the modifier, select the object which you are using for hollowing and go to Object Tab. Under View Port Display Select Display as Wire! Now you can see the hollow.

And also after applying the modifier you can delete that hollow helping object to see the hollow. But its risky, arrange it first with the above method and then you are ready to apply and delete.
Have fun!

Thanks for the answer, but sadly it doesn't solve my problem. In the third screenshot, I have actually removed the hollow helping object out of frame. I don't need to see the changes before applying because this is precise to the mm, but even so, if I display either object as wire or both, it doesn't change the results which are that Difference combines the two meshes, and Union leaves a hollowed mess behind.

Can you attach your blend file?

@BaltasarLevíElíasson Difference doesn't combine objects, its just what your are looking for that is hollowing and Union is attaching objects.

See also https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/131315/need-help-to-recreate-this-shape-in-blender/131319#131319


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Are there shortcuts for the manipulators (move/scale/rotate) for Blender 2.79
It seems to me that by now this question would have been asked... many times.
I have searched and found many questions/answers that are close, however, they don't seem to answer this specific question... at least not that I can find.
Are there shortcuts that bring up the move/scale/rotate manipulators? Instead of having to go to the bottom of the screen. I know about G, S, R, but that's not what I'm talking about.
I apologies if I am beating a dead horse, but I can't find an answer.
Thank you,
Jim

I followed the link, but that isn't quite it. If you go to the bottom of the screen and select the translate, scale, rotate icons they bring up the appropriate manipulators. I'd rather do this with hotkeys. Is this possible?

Any chance you know of a good tutorial on how to do this? I'm not a noob to modeling software, but I am to Blender :) and Blender seems to be a little more entailed then other software.


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Does Blender 2.8 have the abililty to make a cylinder with round ends
As the title says, does Blender 2.8 have ability to create a cylinder with round ends; as part of the cylinder creation.
I have seen the options discussed for previous versions, and will likely use the bevel option if this cannot be done.

Thank you,
Jim

As of now, the primitives you can add with "Shift+A - Mesh" are all there is. On the other hand, creating this capsule-like mesh takes less than a minute.

On second thought, scratch that. "Extra Meshes" is already in Blender 2.80. See this answer on how to install it. You can then change the "Operator Presets" to capsule and add some loop cuts. It's not really faster than creating it by hand, though...

There isn't a builtin Capsule, which is activated by default.
But since it is a sphere with extra steps, I'll just demonstrate the steps in case they'll help someone.

Add a UV Sphere. ⇧ ShiftA
Go into edit mode. ↹ Tab
Edge Loop Select the equator. ⎇ Alt RMB
Do the Rip Fill. ⎇ AltV
Border Select the rip filled half. B
Move the half along Z. G Z
Add loops. ⎈ CtrlR,  MMB scroll


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Blender Texturing Problem, cant figure it out
im trying to get this work now since almost 1 week and i cant, im watching serveral Videos etc.. nothing can help me (beside this, there is no video for something like this , at least i couldnt find any),
so now i try to get help,
i got this Wall on the Right, i try to Copy it to learn, i got all the Textures the Person used for it but i still cant get it work, nothing fits together, im cluesless tbh.
(Im a hobby Coder and now since a certain time im trying to get 3D Art done and no its not easy but im putting so much time in it and it doest work out :S)

You need a texture coordinate node and a mapping node.
It might be wise to use a Principled BDSF also.
I couldn't check if it was correct because the images were not packed into the blend file but this was the first thing I saw.
Also in your Diffuse Shader, there is a normal input where your normal map goes if you still prefer to use a Diffuse Colour node.
Purple coloured slots use vector information.
Gray coloured slots are for black and white images/info. So the displacement slot on the material output is only really good for grayscale Displacement maps.

Let me know if that works for you now :)


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texture-displaced mesh with another texture for color
I am using BlenderGIS for GeoTIFF mesh import (DEM as displacement texture / subsurf) and would like to further add aerial photo to the mesh as another (RGB) texture. GeoTIFF data and the photo are alread aligned. Is it possible to define a second texture on the object which would be used for coloring the surface and retaining the elevation texture used for displacement? I am fairly new to Blender and even searching around here did not give me an asnwer. Thanks!


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I can't add or subtract weight paint from some parts of the mesh
I have this problem where weight paint is applied to the wrong vertices on my character mesh, for example, the left thigh bone has weight mainly on the right thigh area and the left arm but hardly has any on the left thigh area where it should. When I try to add or subtract from the right thigh nothing happens (but I can add to and subtract from the left arm)

As you can see the left thigh (which is selected) is completely blue ---I figure it should have been mostly red and everything else should have been blue
This is the blend file save, hope it works
https://www.mediafire.com/file/355jizou7ib54c9/male_character_1.blend/file

Just commenting to say MarkS' solution was correct, I can now add and subtract weight paint from the mesh after clicking 'apply' next to the mirror modifier in the modifier properties tab. Thanks!

Just tried your scene: apply the mirror modifier on the mesh so the right leg becomes 'actual' geometry...
Cheers!


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I can't switch between animations
I have 2 animations inside the same blend file, they appear as different animations in the action editor and the timelines change when I choose between the two in the drop down menu, but the actual animation does not change; I'm stuck on my run animation and I would like to be able to switch to my idle animation
My blend file:
https://www58.zippyshare.com/v/jkvFtxvV/file.html

Are you using the NLA (Non-linear-Animation) Editor? Like here: https://youtu.be/vpyG0_AizD0?t=183

zippyshare has geoblocking in some countrys unfortunately. Uploading it here is mor accesible: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

A M it doesn't quite look like that, I'm in the plain animation window where I have the action editor selected from the drop down

then you should check it out. Its its own editor type, you find it in the second collum "Nonlinear Animation". Using the video link you should be able to manage your actions, if they are setup correctly. cant look at the file, dont have a vpn at hand and have geoblocking with zippy unfortunately. For cleaning your actions up Simon Broggi's answer seems promissing.

You need to select the armature and then change the action in the action editor. You created the animation for the armature, then applied it to the mesh object in the action editor by mistake. This doesn't do anything because the animation expects the transform hierarchy of the armature. You can check in the outliner where your animations are. They should only exist under the armature, not under the mesh objects.

Select Cube and remove the action in the action editor.
Select Cube.001 and remove the
action in the action editor.
Select Armature and choose the action you want to play and it
should work.

Your idle animation is called ArmatureAction, and your run animation is called ArmatureAction.001.  The animations Idle, Run and ArmatureAction.002 don't seem to hold any data.

Oh, and while you're tidying up, also remove the animation called ArmatureAction from the Camera! :-)


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Texture painting on an object also adds paint on the back of another
As you can see from the gif below, while trying to paint the shoulders object some paint also reaches the back of the character model, which is a separate object. Both objects have separate materials and textures.
https://i.sstatic.net/UqzRK.jpg
Blend file:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/la5qv22pnbmb28h/male_character_2.blend/file
(sorry, I couldn't get blend-exchange to work)

Hi. Please use the built-in uploader when adding images to your post. See: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/75491/how-to-upload-an-image-to-a-post

You have your texture paint slots set to Single Image mode, so the only image that corresponds to paint is the base body image. The palderons image texture is solid brown, and if you change to Material mode then you can paint to the separate texture images.

Sorry, I'm still a novice to Blender ... where can I change the slots/modes?

I added an image to the post


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Explosion doesn't show up in rendered frames
I'm trying to follow this tutorial on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3t4g5WsUbY
...Rendering in eevee. The explosion looks good enough when I play it in blender, but when I render it the frames are empty.
I don't know what info is relevant here so I'll just post the blend file (although one thing I suspect is that I can't check the 'Volumetrics' checkbox like in the video, it doesn't have on on my version)


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How do I get all those tabs to be the same in upgrades
I have Blender 2.78 in the Tools shelf area it has all these tabs: Tools Create Relations Animation Physics Grease Pencil 3D Printing Navigation Layers Bool Tools Archimesh Sketchfab Measureit Sculpt
These tabs aren't in Version 2.79 How do I easily make them transfer from 2.78 to 2.79?
Thank You.

Hi, those tabs are available in any blender version, some of them depend on the installed addons and/or on the current scene mode/view... and, of course, to see them you must have the toolbox visible. Try adding a screenshot of that part of you blender 2.79 window (use the question image button to ad the screenshot file)

Those are addons. Whether they're enabled or not is stored in the startup file which is stored in your settings for Blender (e.g. for Windows: %APPDATA%/Roaming/Blender Foundation/Blender/[version]/).
When you install a new version on the splash screen there will be a "Copy Previous Settings" button. That should copy everything from the previous version and the folder for the previous version will remain just in case.
If the option isn't available (because you might have saved some settings and created a 2.79 folder), you can just delete the 2.79 folder, start Blender, and the option should be there now.
You could alternatively go into the User Preferences > Add-ons and re-enable the ones you want, one by one, but any options you might have changed then saved to the startup file will not be there.
I have also just copied the files manually. Probably not the best idea, but it has worked.


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How do I get specular and bump maps or normal maps to work with a texture that has a transparent background?
I am trying to build a polygon wig for a character. I want it to be realistic not low poly this is not for a game.
I made a hair image and made the background transparent because I wanted to have an edge on the hair bunches that was not completely straight for more realism.
Finally got the transparency to work but now I cannot figure out how to get any specular or bump or anything to work with it.
I admit I am not good with nodes or texturing and am learning bits and pieces from youtube.
If you need to see the simple node set up I am using let me know and I will post a picture if there is a way to do so on this site.
Thank You.

Your next step is to make something called an transmission map. This is a black-and-white image that tells Blender which parts you want to let light through, and how much of it. In your case, your hair will be black and the transparent part will be white.
While I don't know your node setup (it would be helpful to see it to simplify your task), the next few steps should still be applicable. Add a Mix Shader and plug your current setup to the top input. Add a Transparent Shader and add it to the bottom input of the Mix Shader.
Running under the assumption you already have a bump map available, you'll need to add a total of three more nodes before you can use it. While you probably already have a fair idea of many, if not all of the following instructions (given you're already using a texture map), I'll go through them all, anyway, in case something got left out. The first node you want is a Texture Coordinate node. You should find this under the Input of your Add menu. You'll need this so Blender knows where you want the image to go on your hair. The next one is an Image Texture. You can find it under Texture on the Add menu. This is for actually bringing your map into Blender. Change the first dropdown setting from 'Color' to 'Non-Color Data' and connect a line from the UV output from the Texture Coordinate node into the Vector input on the Image Texture node. Now upload your texture by clicking 'open' and browsing for wherever you saved your map. The final node you'll need is a Bump Map. You'll see this under the Vector section of your Add menu. If your map is black-and-white, hook it into the Height input of the Bump Map. If it's colorful, it's actually a normal map, and you need to hook it into normal input. Finally, hook your Bump Map output to the Vector input of whatever node you have your hair hooked up to.
I can't really help much further until I can see your setup, but I hope this helps so far.


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Fluid, type liquid ignores domain when inflow
Just to start off and explain things, I have two objects one is a ico-sphere which is the fluid emitter and the domain is a skull which I baked both setting and mesh. when I hit play it works fine, the skull disappears and the fluid emitter emits fine with the exception that it ignores the domain. Because domains disappear, I had duplicated the skull (see image). The skull normals are looking outward, and I notice that the small cube that appears when ever an object becomes a domain appears outside, instead of inside, is that the issue?. Thank you

Fixed the problem with an addon that has an obstacle Inverse feature. The addon is called FLIP Fluids.

I learned that the fluid simulator domain is always square. I am treating the skull as an effector now but the liquid is falling through ignoring the obstacle completely. I've checked the normals of the skull and they are all outward. My scale is set in all objects.


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Rigging a pendant to a breathing nose
I am trying to rig a pendant to a nose. I want to apply wiggle to the nose while nostrils expand and contract, making pendant move at the same time being also affected by physics.
I have given two parented bones, one called hook the other drop to the pendant which is comprised of two moving parts. the hook(tours object) is right in the center of where the nose cow piercing should go, the drop is the hanging pendant. I parented the objects to their corresponding bones selecting empty groups. Having the armature in edit mode i've duplicated a bone and extruded it several times around the nostrils.
Problems are: bones  only rotate in pose mode. When they rotate they don't morph the surface but rather move the entire object and finally the hook and drop bones are parented to a single bone that when other bones move the hook gets left behind because it parent is fare away.
Thank you

Is it possible to give the pendant its own rig parented to a vertex group on the nostril?

Thank you for that idea. I will look into vertex group and write about it once I figure it out

To fix the issue I had with bones not morphing objects surface I simply deleted the armature and added it again and parenting the object to the armature with automatic weights. Regarding the so called hook (which is a torus) I un-parented it but I still have issues leaving it in place


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How to use "self" to access a custom property of a specific bone and/or object?
I'm looking for guidance on referencing custom properties in driver's using self.
The biggest thing I'm struggling with is syntax.
The following don't work.
Where prop is the name of a custom property, the following do not work in the expression field:
self.prop
self[prop]
self.[prop]
self["prop"]
self.["prop"]

Any ideas how to use self in this context?

For custom property, self["prop"] is correct.
Make sure that use self is active:

and property is located in Object data / Bone data

this no longer appears to be working in v 4.2.2


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What do the tools in options panel( like Tag Bevel )in edit mode do?

I was trying to get to know everything in Blender and I came across the options tab in Edit Mode and there's whole bunch of options like Tag Seam, Tag Bevel etc.
I know how to use all the suffix functions (i.e every tool without "tag" ).But I am wondering if this has any specific function/usability.
So, if anyone has any idea can you please explain all those options(Tag Seam, Tag Sharp, Tag Crease, Tag Bevel)? Thanks.

As far as I know those sound like the options in the W menu for use with the corresponding modifiers like Bevel, or Subsurf)

Thanks for the response man.But could you please clarify,what purpose the tools/options in W menu serve when used with corresponding modifier? Lets take SubSurf modifier as example,the suitable options I see for them is Shade smooth and flat.But these only save the time and/or trouble of going back to object mode.Or is there some other use that I seem to not know about?

I've been testing here I could not figure out what those options are really for. I know tagging edges from the W menu is used in parallel with modifiers to specify different transformation values for different parts of the model. Say the Bevel Weight can make different edges beveled a different distance without requiring multiple Bevel modifiers. Different Crease values will change how smoothed an edge is with a  Subsurf modifier

The options in the Options Panel for tagging edges are the same as the edges menu with only a slight difference that I can see. Most notably in Bevel and Crease, in that the weight added is always at 1.

Crease marks edges for use with subsurf, with a weight of 1
Bevel marks edges for use with Bevel modifier, with a weight of 1
Sharp will mark edges sharp for edge split modifier
Seam will mark seams for UV unwrap
Freestyle Edge Mark will mark edges for use with Freestyle

To use the Tag Bevel, Tag Crease , Tag Sharp, Tag Seam tool, it is as simple as selecting each edge with Ctrl + RMB


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Why aren't objects generating along this curve?
I was trying to generate some objects along a curve, so I did all the standard process: add object, add curve, set origin of the object and the curve to same, and origin to geometry of the object and origin of 3d cursor to one point of curve and set the selected object's origin to 3d cursor, then add an array modifier.
Then I used Object Offset and selected the BezierCurve, but the objects aren't following along the curve and are instead in a straight line.
I don't know what's happening, can anyone help me? Thanks

"I did all the standard process" This is not at all the standard process. Object Offset is used to specify spacing between arrayed items, what you need is the Fit Curve option to array items to fit the length of a curve. Also an Array modifier is not responsible for deforming along a curve, that is the purpose of the Curve modifier. See http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/68923/torus-object-stretched-in-array-curve-modifier/68925#68925 or http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/49639/how-to-smooth-an-arrayed-object-so-the-breaks-between-objects-are-less-obvious/49651#49651

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos. Alright cool,thanks man,that worked.Learned something new :)


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Bsurfaces making surfaces inside the objects in blender
Im learing a way to retopologize in blender using BSurfaces, what i do is:

Creating a plane and going into edit mode and delete the plane.
I select object insted of scene from the toolbar the tool bar in grease pencil.
Then selecting surfaces so that the grease pencil is drawn on the surfaces of another mesh(sphere} .
Then pressing D and LMB i draw lines on the mesh, it goes well.
But when clicking on the "Add Surfaces" it doesn't draw the new surfaces on the object, it's inside it, some vertices and edges and a little bit of faces can be seen.

See the picture below what i get after clicking "Add surfaces" :

Screenshot
Thanks in advance

I think that Bsurface alone keeps track of the position of the Grease Pencil strokes, but not of the faces between them: that's why it's often used in conjunction with Shrinkwrap modifier. Where did you see the "middle vetrices" automatically adjusted above the surface?

@carlo okay i used the shrink wrap modifier on the plane, and selecting target to sphere, it still doesn't make any diffrence, i cannot find any good tutorials on internet, im just combining multiple tuts, can you tell me what am i doing wrong, or just tell me a good tutorial on retopology using bsurfaces and grease pencil (short) thanks


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Align rotation with the snapping target users interface?
Hi this is my first question in this wonderful community.
How to change the color of button when clicked in active ? It's very tough to tell when it's active or not!
THANKS

...is it me or the question title has nothing to do with the real question?

Its pretty straight forward in blender
Option 1:
Please Go to;
User preference -> Themes -> 3D view -> Object selected
You may change the color to your own choice
Don't forget to save user settings at the bottom
Option 2
Alternatively you may fully change the theme
User preference -> Themes - Under presets there are lots of good ones

THANK YOU FOR YOUR QUICK RESPONSE , BUT IT'S STILL THE SAME ! https://www.dropbox.com/s/jyiblizu44v3blc/CapUJKUKture.PNG?dl=0

Thank you!
Can you please share your image here? instead of dropbox

hi how can  I do that?

Sorry, I notice it now, you have limited permissions to upload a file here;

Can you please upload it to public domain, so that, I can view it without any account?

ok Hope this work https://ibb.co/fTuTqQ

Try to change the theme, I guess

yeah and maybe I should go to this choice ! and by away thank you for your patience and attention bro

You are welcome ! Have a nice time! Please mark the answer as a correct answer and mark it as useful

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"shelling" a sphere
I am trying to animate a growing shell on a sphere in an animation. It basically needs to go from this:

To this:

with a linear change over time. But I dont know how to add a keyframe for a property such as this. I just rescaled the mesh to make the black slice bigger, but when I do this it changes for the whole animation. I'm quite new to blender so probably I'm missing something really easy.
Thanks in advance!

Could you add more details on how you want the effect to look?

I want the black faces to become thicker over time, starting from the first photo, ending with the second one.

Which "property" are you talking about? You need to keyframe whatever you are changing to make that happen (before and after). It could also be done with shape keys (then animated with keyframes), probably, but too little detail on how you did that above.

There should be a ring of vertices that begint toward the edge of the sphere that gradually goes more to the core. So I am working in edit mode and i cannot seem to ondertussen keyframes there

So you should use shape keys..

@Ivo feel free to add an answer yourself, explaining a bit what you did, to future readers' benefit.


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Is this standard OBJ/MTL spec?
I have an OBJ mesh with UV coordinates ranging from 0 to 2 along both U, V dimensions.  I have four textures associated with this mesh.
The expected behavior is that the offset of the UV coordinates determines the specific texture to use.  For example, the UV coordinate (0.5, 0.5) refers to a coordinate in the first texture, (0.5, 1.5) is a UV coordinate in the second texture, (1.5, 0.5) is a coordinate in the third texture, and (1.5, 1.5) is a coordinate in the last texture.
However, I don't know if this is standard behavior, as many of the programs that I have tried using only texture UVs in the range (0, 0) < (u, v) < (1, 1), i.e. only the first texture is applied.

You could use a photo editing application and stitch all four textures together according to this UV map

Actually, I structured it to be multiple textures so that it would be easier to fit piecewise into memory.  Each individual texture is already huge (8192^2)