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Realistic Colored Fur?
I have been trying to create a realistic colored fur shader, but have not been having any real luck with it.  The colors come out either too dark, too saturated, or both.
The render below is the closest I've managed to get to what I want.  However, it is still too dark to my eyes, and trying to lighten it has the effect of making it more saturated.  As well, In the upper right of the sphere, where it is catching sunlight head-on, it just gets brightened without any highlights, while the "rim" along the left and bottom edges gets highlighted.
Any feedback on what I'm doing wrong or what I should be doing would be appreciated.
And I realize the patterns on the fur are unrealistic, though I'm trying to get realistic light first.  As well, increasing density or strand thickness has the effect of making things even darker.

Below is a download link for the blend file:
http://www.pasteall.org/blend/36073

Reference of what you want please. Looks pretty good to me :/

@NoviceInDisguise: I have no reference, couldn't find one.  What I'm going for is orange fur with brown spots and stripes.  But what I'm getting on the shader is closer to a red-orange color

Looks orange to me. Increase the green value or change your lighting. Or both

I may have overstated the problem with the image being reddish.  Though, the main problem is with the darkening.  Fur should appear softer than this.

Try using more particles and advanced settings (random placement, child particles (interpolated), and kink)

Random placement and kink don't do anything to reduce the darkening.  I'm already using interpolated child particles, and Increasing the particle count causes even more darkening.

so, like a tiger squished into a pill? yow.

Do you have translucency in your material? Also, Cycles or Blender Internal?

I am using Cycles, along with two Hair BSDF nodes, one for reflection, the other for transmission.  And BTW, I did paste a download link for the file, below the image.

I managed to figure it out on my own.  Basically I needed to do less desaturation than I was doing on the fur, and apply more (as opposed to none) desaturation to the underlying skin.  That, and also doubling (and then clamping) the brightness of the transmission color.
This .blend contains the tweaks I did to fix it up: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/36094
And below is a render of the fixed shader.  Probably not 100% realistic, but it's better.


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Baking only one material on multi-material object
I have a character model which has multiple materials.  One of the materials uses a custom node setup to procedurally generate the texture.  The procedural texture changes as the character is posed or deformed, which I do not want.  So, I want to bake the procedural texture to a diffuse map.
However, blender does not allow me to bake a texture on an object if there is more than one material.  Is there any way to get around this limitation?

you may want to create a very simple scene and upload the .blend to explain the hurdle you are trying to overcome. And we can troubleshoot your simple .blend as a proof of concept so you can apply the correct changes to your character.

I am surprised, because I can bake multiple materials in cycles in blender  2.76b. The important thing I have to select an active image for all the materials linked to the object, and they can be different images. Active image is the selected one in the node setup of the material. So select a different image for the procedural textured. Please try it.

The selected image is the active, and not necessarily connected to the node graph. However you must select one for all of the materials of your object
If it fails try this instead
Make a duplicate from your character, delete all the materials except the one with the procedural texture. You will get the texture with baking, however it will be all over your UV map, but you can make a mask for it with a next bake
Use a pure white material instead of the procedural textured, and a pure dark for the others. You can use this mask to recover the wanted result from the previous bake.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Material displacement to mesh around UV sphere, strange normals?
I'm trying to follow this Youtube tutorial about convert a material displacement input into a mesh for 3d printing.
This works by outputting the displacement as a .exr file which is used in a Displace modifier.
I can get this to work on a flat plane, but when I try to add the Displace modifier to a UV sphere, I get some weird artifacts.  I think this is related to normals, since the weirdness happens in the XYZ direction.
Here it is looking alright when using the material displacement output:

And here's the strange behaviour.  You can see that in +X/+Y/+Z the displacement is going the right way, but in -X/-Y/-Z it is inverted, with the cross section having pretty much no displacement.

And here's what the rendered unwrapped texture looks like, if that helps.

I don't know if you need to know any other settings, let me know and I'll add them!
Edit: I've recreated the problem with a very simple texture applying convex lumps to a ball - you can see that the lumps are concave on the reverse side.  The .blend file is at the bottom.

The output of your shader's procedural 'lumps' cluster, before being plugged into the Displacement, is a height...,  a scalar value.
A Displacement shader node, given that height as a parameter, looks up the normal found at the corresponding UV location, and scales it by the given height. That yields a vector, in the direction of the normal, with the length of the height. If set to 'Object' the vector is interpreted in Object-Space coordinates.
The Displacement shader-node returns the length and direction of the desired offset of the surface, measured in Object Space.
Whether you encode scalar-height, or vector-displacement in your image, it may contain negative values, and values greater than 1. So it's important that Color > 'Clamp' is not checked in any texture you might use in a Displacement modifier
If you want to use the vector-displacement image, you can bake it and use it like this:

The RGB to XYZ setting interprets the image as  vectors.
If you wanted to use the scalar height along normals, you would do it like this:

The 'Normal' setting interprets you image as distance-along-existing-normals.
The reason for the existence of 'RGB to XYZ', is that it allows displacement along arbitrary directions, other than the normal.. (here , for example, the baked difference between 2 shape-keys..)

So you can include undercuts, using the Displace Modifier:

.. that's not possible, simply along normals.
Having said all that, these days, you get better and less fiddly control by using Geometry Nodes. Blender's legacy Texture system will be weeded out, eventually.

Thank you for your comprehensive, the RGB to XYZ setting has solved my problem.  I'll have to investigate geometry nodes separately, and probably ask a follow-up!  I am using a Minimum math node within the displace texture, but that doesn't seem to trigger the issue referred to by your emboldened note about Color > 'Clamp'.

Hi, @user977042.. Thanks! I emboldened 'clamp'  because I thought that was the problem with your case, as shared. Also considered doing it via GN, but this answer was getting a bit long. The GN setup is very simple, at its root .. just  'Set Position' driven by a texture. You may have to split edges before deformation and weld afterwards to avoid falsely interpolating position over UV seams.

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


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text texturing problem
i added the texture to the text, but the texture only shows off at the top of the text. How can i fix this problem?
pg

For the moment your object is still a Text object. To be able to project the image texture on all its 3 axis you need to either:

Use the Object output of the Texture Coordinate and switch the Image Texture from Flat to Box, put the Blend at 1 (you can scale, rotate or move the texture in the Mapping node):

Convert it to a mesh object (RMB > Convert To > Mesh), then you can for example do a U > Cube Projection. If you need to adjust the texture differently, open the UV Editor and move the UV faces.

i love you... searched this for a days

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


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How to determine returned geometry component types by a node group using bpy?

Example: This node group returns a mesh, curve, point cloud, volume and an instance.
Is it possible to determine which geometry components are returned by any node group, using python?


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How to get all points of object in order to then link all of with a line
So for a project, I would need to be able to export all the points of an low-poly object with in order. What I mean by order is that I have for exemple point #1 that make a line with point #2, #3 and #4. The goal is to be able to trace the model with a or multiple line(s) made by a sequence of those points.
I have tried to used obj files but it didn't work.
Is this even possible?

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.

Please define 'in order' . Is that index order? Or some order with respect to the geometry?


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blender 2.8: where is the "axes" tool for moving vertices visually?
I started using blender 2.8 and I'm not being able to move a vertex on one direction like in Blender 2.7, since I can't find the little visual widget with axes (see below):

↑ the widget in Blender 2.79
Is there any way I can make this tool show, or at least a way that would let me select additional vertices in "move mode" (G) instead of needing to go in and out from the move mode for every vertex?

@othmanA what exactly is not working? select + press G + press X, or Y or Z should still work in 2.8. Are you trying a different approach? The question is not necessarily off topic (some features are changing for good with the new versions, and it's not clear whether this question is about a bug or a feature change), but it must be written more properly for us to understand: 1. what you're trying to do, 2. how, 3. what's wrong.

I hope they will keep the XYZ axis manipulator by default, like in 2.7, because it's very convenient

I can't confirm this as well, just tested an out-of-the-box blender 2.8 build, going into edit mode, G + X/Y/Z > works like expected.

@NicolaSap @ Ignatiamus you use to do it in 2.7 without having to press g+z/x/y because you have the axis, i know you can use 'move mode' but then you cant select other vertex nor add to your selection without having to deselect and select again this inconvenient if you are working on complex object .

Oh, you're talking about the 3D manipulator widget! I see now! Good news: it is present in 2.8. I'll post an answer in a second

The 3D manipulator widget can be enabled from the toolshelf (left of the 3D viewport) using this "arrows" button:

In addition to the "move along X,Y,Z" action, this manipulator also enables the "move on the XY, XZ or YZ plane" (see the little squares between the axes).
There are also other kinds of manipulators in the tool shelf that you can choose from: move, rotate, scale and all the three things combined.

In addition to using the Move tool, make sure Transform Pivot Point is set to Bounding Box Center (or whatever makes sense for your situation).
The below image shows it initially set to 3D Cursor in which case it doesn't move to the active selection. Then I changed it to Bounding Box Center which is more visually intuitive. This will position it at any selected vertex, the midpoint of a selected edge or the center of a selected face. It will position at the center of multiple selection as well.
One drawback is that the widget might get in the way if you are trying to select something behind it. But there are other ways around that too.


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Problem in particles cache link

We made a car animation in blender - dust animation using blender’s smoke and baked the simulation in our network folder.
We can open the file from any computer, render it locally. Every thing is perfect.

BUT, when we copy and paste the .blend file, path of the cached simulation goes missing. But when we make copy using “Save As” option it’s good.
Can some one tell me how to solve this issue? I want blender to remember proper path “Relative” or “non relative”. Anywhere.

This doesn't make sense! If you move the blend file from one folder to another, and leave the cached sim where it is, you are changing the relative path, in this case it must be set using an absolute path. However, move both files at the same time, you are changing the absolute path and must use a relative path. The blend file doesn't remember where it was saved previously. There are several options under File > External Data to handle paths of external data. You can change them from absolute to relative and also find missing files.


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High to Low poly normal map appears to have seams all over and looks warped
So I'm at a loss. After baking a normal map to the low poly retopology, the end results are as seen in the posted images. The polygons are visible, and there are a large number of visual oddities. There appear to be seam-like lines all across the mesh, which I think are the polygons of the low-poly. In addition, there appears to be warping of the map around the top of the head of the mesh as seen in the first image under the horns. I don't think it's supposed to look like this is it? I appreciate any help on this problem. Thank you.
The images are as follows:

Mesh with applied/baked normal map
Close up of mesh with applied/baked normal map to emphasize the odd seam-like lines mentioned
High Poly Mesh
Low Poly Mesh Retopology

Update (1): Okay, so I've messed around and clicked "smooth" for Faces, Edges, and Vertices under the Shading/UVs tab. I then checked Auto Smoothing, making the angle maxed with 180 degrees. This actually wonderfully solved the seam-like edges. But a strange effect remains across most of the mesh, it appears like a wet stain, and the .PNG of the low poly's head (with normal map baked) below elaborates the issue. It resembles ink blots.

Update (2): Baking process, ultimately results in weird, warped, stain-like normal map.
[
Update (3):Picture of "blotty-ink" artifacting of normal map bake. This is for clarity's sake.

Update (Final): I've finally come to a close on this horrible problem. I don't know the full details of the solution, and it's still wishy-washy at best. I'm assuming that ray distance projects face normals outward. I've noticed the issues much closer to faces that are close to each other, and this is likely because the ray distance projects the normals so much that it hits the mesh itself. So, I lowered the value from 1.0 to .050. I treated the ray distance value very arbitrarily, just playing around until the UV mapping issues were at its smallest. I eventually got a cleaner uv map than before but it was still messy. But since there were only a handful of artifacts, I decided that fixing that in photoshop would be more efficient.
If anyone had a better solution that's less time-consuming/efficient, go ahead and iterate below but I have a solution that works for me for now.

You probably want to switch your lowpoly model to smooth shading, before baking the normal map. I also can't tell how big your texture is, but the UV map has an awful lot of wasted space.

I went ahead and turned on the smooth shading option under the object data tab for the low poly model. I wasn't sure if the angle was pertinent, so I set that to 30 degrees which was the default option. In addition, I'm not sure what you mean by wasted space, but I'm assuming it's because the islands aren't filling the whole of the UV map. So, I also went ahead and scaled relevant islands. So, "Auto-smooth" shading is on and the UV map's somewhat more full. However, the issue seems to persist. I'll post an image below for clarity.

@Near - it's hard to tell what exactly is going on without checking all the other possibilities. You might want to upload your file to https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ so I could take a more in-depth analysis. Please edit your original question and post the link to blend-exchange at the end of it.

I've uploaded the .blend, the link is under the images of the original post as suggested. The normal map is not baked in this file in case that helps with the investigation. Thank you for your time, metaphor_set.

@Near - I did a quick analysis of your mesh. There are quite a lot of problems there. Besides the auto-shading option (which you really shouldn't use for organic meshes) your lowpoly mesh is composed of tris, quads and ngons. ngons are really bad for shading. On top of that there are also lots of badly deformed polygons, which are even worse for shading, because the light doesn't know in which direction to bounce. So even if we manage to get a normal map without hard edges by using T->Tools->Shading->Smooth and baking it again, there are still lots of hard edges visible later on.

I did go ahead and turn off auto-shading and use the actual smoothing option. In addition, while it wasn't the most elegant solution, I applied a subdivision modifier which made sure all existent polygons were now quads. Despite this, I still get the same "blotty" normal mapping as seen in the update .png. What is causing this problem in particular, metaphor_set? Thank you once again for looking at the mesh for these issues.

@Near - you have 3 meshes in your scene. I'd suggest you move all three to different layers, then select the highpoly layer, shift-select the lopoly layer. In the Outline, select the highpoly mesh and shift-select the lowpoly mesh. Bake your texture again. This ensures that only the models and layers are visible that should be relevant to the bake (I tried it like that and got a smooth normalmap)

I did as you said but the result is the same. Also, I did delete the superfluous layer, which is the low-poly plane one, I believe. My bake type is normal, my space is tangent, margin is 16 pixels, I checked "selected to active", and set ray distance to 1, if that's relevant at all. I posted a gif so you can see where I went wrong, thank you.

@Near - ray distance is quite relevant, although the default value is afaik 1. The value determines, how far the rays travel between the highpoly, the lopoly and the imaginary light source. If the value is too small the baking produces no values for the parts of the highpoly mesh that are above/below the surface of your lopoly mesh.

I see, the ray distance was 1 for all bakes I've made so far I believe. Was there anything else you did other than the steps you mentioned for moving the high and low poly to their own layers, choosing highpoly then low poly in layers then outliner before the bake? Again, I tried doing that but my normal map did not turn out well.


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Model flips around origin point when applying a Mirrored Shape Key
I'm currently trying to create Shape Keys for facial expressions on my character. When I got to the point of trying to mirror them, I was able to successfully mirror them with Shape Mirror (Topology). But when I do, the model seems to sort of turn inside out around the origin point.
This happens consistently with 2 of the objects I was using shape keys for (body and eyelids), but not a third object which was made recently (eyebrows).

I managed to fix it !

In case anyone else had the same problem, some of my object properties were a little off. Despite being upward, it was seen as being rotated -360 degrees.
I went to Object > Apply > All Transformations and that seemed to fix it !


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Where is the screen surface refraction in materials?
I am trying to find the screen space refractions in the Material tab, But for some reason I cannot seem to find it anywhere.

This is Eevee only. Are you using Eevee or Cycles ?

It is only eevee

Please add your blend file with https://blend-exchange.com/.

Screen Space Reflections is located in the Render tab. I'm not sure I understand what you are looking for.

In the image it shows screen space refractions
Under the material tab. It for some reason is not there for me

Your Blend file was saved from Blender 4.1.0. The setting name seems to have been changed from ScreenSpaceRefraction in 4.0.2 to RaytraceRefraction in 4.1.0 as shown below.

Both images are from your Blend file opened in different versions.

I really hate it when devs gratuitously change control names like that. :(

I guess that there have been changes "under the hood" to provoke the change of name. See this description in the Blender 4.1 manual.

That kind of makes my point. The 4.1 manual still calls it by "Screen Space Refractions" while the 4.1 code has renamed it "Raytrace Refractions" making all the documentation and tutorials obsolete.


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Eyebrow Controller Bone Isn’t Parented To the BROW
I have an eyebrow armature bone which is the default bone for the eyebrow.
But I have created an extrude bone, because I need an eyebrow controller bone, but it seems like the eyebrow controller bone isn’t parented to the default eyebrow armature bone (default bone for eyebrow), and I’m helpless, I’ve tried so many methods but it not still parented.
Do you have any solution ?
VIDEO LINK

No need to ask for help, we are already there for that purpose :) Also, be careful with capitals as it is usually read as shouting.

Okay thanks for letting me know the rules

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

Did you try going into edit mode, select the eye brow bone and then the bone you extruded hit ctrl-p and select keep offset?

Yes that’s what I did, but I want to keep it offset, but it’s not parenting and I don’t understand wh

The only thing I can think is that maye it is already parented to something else, in which case you use alt-p to clear parent


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Weird curve shape in curve data
I was modeling a simple ladder by creating a plane and adding some loop cut,and then I deleted only its phase and convet it into curve,but when I tride to give it some depth in 3d shape.
This happended, the size of depth does't match.

So I tried 2D shape,but it eventually deleted the top of my ladder.

I've been googling this problem for a hour and I still haven't a solution.

Curves cannot branch, i.e. a control point can only be connected to a maximum of two segments. So there cannot be T-shaped crossings with a single curve because then points would be connected to three segments, and so you get separated curve elements in the first screenshot. Switching to 2D will reduce the curve two be only 2-dimensional in X and Y direction or, since your object is rotated 90° on X axis, being limited to the X and Z direction, that's why the top is deleted in the second screenshot because it requires a third dimension in Y direction.


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Create concentric scaled rings with individual noise translation to each instance
I am attempting to create the following outcome using a generated Curve Circle in geo nodes.

What I want to do:

Duplicate the Curve Circle a few times.
Then scale them down concentrically
Be able to adjust the Curve Circle instances to be equally spaced to randomly spaced
Then be able to give each generated Curve Circle its own noise deformation.

Hope you can educate and share some knowledge with me.
TX

Duplicates with noise offset
It's actually quite easy to achieve. With the Duplicate Elements node you are using, you get an index output that you can use to offset the noise texture differently for each duplicate. Here is the node setup for the noise :

In the order of the node tree :

Multiply the Duplicate Index by some factor. If you feel the noise isn't spread out enough, increase it.
Use it as Z input of a 3D vector.
Offset the position with it
Compute Noise Texture
Noise textures are going from 0 to 1, let's remap it from -1 to 1 (i.e. center offset).
Decrease amplitude of noise.

If it helps you understand, I've also added another example (the one in the center). The result is the same, but I've decomposed each step more clearly : move rings up > get noise > move rings down.
Finally, the full node tree and the blend file :

Blend file

Thank you so much, your explanation was a great help!


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Scale issue when opening glb export in gltf-viewer
When I import my glb export to gltf-viewer it gets enormous, scale issue, I need to use such animated character from Mixamo for an AR project.
Would really appreciate some help, Link for 3D animated object:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1esyRfcVRGbu2FN9Vq9GXhEKJgV_NrFql?usp=sharing

Hi :) Perhaps it "gets enormous" in the gltf viewer because in Blender Object mode you have the X, Y and Z scales set to 100 ! (Object mode with model selected > Properties panel > Object Properties tab > Transform > Scale X=100, Y=100, Z=100). To fix this you need Apply the Scale so that scale X, Y and Z all = 1.00. To do this Object mode > select model > Ctrl + A (to open the Apply menu) > choose the Scale Option.


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Scene is lit but there isn't any light source

Hello! I taught myself Blender 2 weeks ago, i wanted to make a specific animation of a Piercing spinning around for a website im making. I did everything as good as i could and even rendered the animation in .pngs and made it into a .gif already, butin the every rendered Version it looks totally different than in Blender (not preview). No matter what i did the Lighting ALWAYS looks shit? I dont get it and i dont have the energy anymore to try fixing this. In the screenshot below i had NO LIGHTING at all (not world/scene Lights aswell) and STILL its overexposed in the render preview...
If anybody needs the .blend i can upload it.
thanks for reading

Blender has a built-in feature for screenshots Window > Save Screenshot. Uploading your file with https://blend-exchange.com/ would be great. There is light in your scene, judging by your screenshots. Probably coming from the world, which definitively has a material, otherwise it would be black.

It looks like in the viewport you're seeing Material Preview with a preset world lighting, but the full render is using Cycles with a white background color.  There are several questions on this site about using preview lighting in your render, that'd probably get you really close to what you expect.

It might be that you have Exposure and Gamma value wrong on Color Managment.
If you want to have similar render result to Viewport you should use HDRI. You can quickly google to see how you can use HDRI in World.
Blender uses forest.exr as it's default hdri on material view. You can find the file here,
C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender 4.2\4.2\datafiles\studiolights\world
For more hdri images you can explore HDRI haven website.
https://hdri-haven.com/category/studio


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Compositing Bokeh Blur node with depth map creates sharp edges
I'm trying to blur an image based on a depth map using the Bokeh Blur node, but I'm getting sharp edges in areas that are supposed to be blurred.
How can I fix this?

Here's my node setup:

Is there any reason not to use the Depth of Field of the camera ? I'm not sure why you are getting this edges.

This scene is not being rendered in blender, I just imported them into the compositor, so I can't use the scene camera.

I'm able to reproduce the same issue with a scene in Blender, even while following the official documentation https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/4.1/compositing/types/filter/blur/bokeh_blur.html#id1.

The issue can be seen in this image in the docs: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/4.1/_images/compositing_types_filter_bokeh-blur_example-1-render.jpg

That's crazy ! I think Blender doesn't handle well the solid edges of the depth map. It make sense to me, it splits the bokeh in 2 whereas it should add 2 different bokeh on top of one another.

I think I get it, long story short : you can't/aren't supposed to cheat depth blur in post-production.

Disclaimer : I came up with this answer by myself. It may not be totally true, or even wrong. It would be awesome if someone can contradict me and share more educated knowledge on that.
The summarize my answer : you'll have a lot of work to do if you want to add a depth blur (bokeh blur) in post-production. Your image and depth map don't contain enough information to create that blur.
Depth blur
As far as I know, depth blur is never achieved in post-production, it should happen at rendering (production). The reason is : a perfectly sharp image and depth map lack information to achieve a depth blur. Let me explain visually.
Let's say we have the following scene, a close out-of-focus object and a distant Suzanne in-focus.

The highlighted line will be the lightray we are gonna study, the edge between the front object and the background.
Without blur we have the following render :

Now if we add depth blur at render, we get :

As you can see, there is now a whole lot of geometry that we can see, here highlighted in orange. This information doesn't exist without blur. Seen from the top, the ray I introduced would look something like that :

The geometry only accessible with blur is highlighted in red. Rays are not correctly representing what's happening, but I think the point stays valid. Please only take that as a rough diagram.
What you lack
Your image won't be easy, as you have multiple overlaps between objects. In your zoomed example, here is in orange the area where we lack information for the gray background :

But that's not the only overlap. The stone is also obstructed by the wood. So we also lack information there (in blue) :

And you can add every other place in your render where 2 objects at 2 different camera distance overlap one another.
A very simple solution
The simplest of solution would be to use a gradient texture instead of the depth map. Any grayscale image that is smooth, with no sudden change of color.
A complex solution
That's quite a task but you could also

Separate your render in multiple layers (everywhere the blur is wrong)
Reconstruct manually the missing part (paintout)
Apply different blur to each layer
Merge them together

I'm not going into more details for now, but if you really want to do that and if I find the time, I'll edit my answer with more informations. Let me know.

Thanks. I was able to get an acceptable result by blurring the depth map a bit.


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how can i achieve noise texture/material as show in below image
"I tried using a noise texture, but I'm not getting the desired result.
while i apply same texture result if fine but on this object only getting straight lines texture

file link : https://we.tl/t-dP0jig7tM6

Hi. Please use a title that matches the content of the question. It should be descriptive but succinct, unique and identifying, summarizing the issue so that anyone searching for a similar problem is likely to find it. Remove anything superfluous, avoid using words like "this", "help with", "issue" or "question about", instead describe what "it" is. Remember, your title is the first thing potential visitors see, answers you get depend heavily on how insightful it is. See What is the problem of asking “How do I do this?"

It looks a bit like a Voronoi Texture (in Smooth F1 mode), plug it into a Bump map (inverted) that you plug into the Normal input of the Principled BSDF:

Sir, I applied the same thing, but I'm not getting the same result as you are (only getting a straight line texture effect). Please, if you have time, could you open the .blend file and check? When I apply it to a normal object like a cube, the result shows the same as in your image. @moonboots

Thanks, sir! @moonboots, now I got the result. I increased the scale in the y-direction, and the results are fine


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How can i get design(texture) as shown in image
I want to create a micro-circle texture design as shown on reference image on a light diffuser, but I have no idea how to achieve this
enter link description here

I think you want to search for "phyllotaxis"

You could try something like that:
Create a circle, extude inwards, loopcut:

Select all, press CtrlE > Un-Subdivide and choose an Iterations value of 1:

Press ii and activate Offset Relative:

Move up the new faces:

Give it a Subdivision Surface modifier, rework the topology:

hello buddy @moonboots i try but I'm struggling to achieve the desired result of having all circles within a circular shape be of equal size. Is there a method to ensure uniform circle dimensions

Yes not sure how to do it....

We can have this kind of result using a normal map:

A way to make it is to use geometry nodes, starting from the formula indicated here for instance.

The first part of the node tree above, simply implement the indicated algorithm to a set of points.
Then, this second part:

uses a grid with some high resolution and search the proximity of the grid points to the phyllotaxis positions calculated before.
From this proximity distance, it calculates the coordinates for a little sphere around the phyllotaxis point.
Once done, apply the gn modifier, UV unwrap the mesh (project from view, bounds) and bake the normals (with 'object' option gives a better result).
You can after that use the normal map for instance like this:

 (Blender 4.0)

Very nice indeed

@RobinBetts hi and thanks. I've not found any way to model that properly... do you think this is possible respecting wanted proximities?

Tempted to go and have a look at @Erindale Woodford  's  chapters on phyllotaxis .. I can't recall whether there's a route to manifold,  glass-shadable topo, there.


text:
Why hit box doesn't move when using collision source with deform?
Initial state

end state

The box moved, but the hit box doesn't move, so the softbody hit the air.
However, if I change the box's rigidbody>collisions>source from deform to base or change Shape to anything like cone or box other than convex hull and mesh, the hit box moved.
My question is, what's wrong with the deform? why hitbox doesn't move with it? And why when I change shape to cone, box, etc. It's moving again?
Download source file


text:
Change Material Properties of Multiple Materials
I'm importing hundreds of different textures into Blender and I want to change the blend mode on all of them from Alpha Blend to Opaque. I understand I will need to run a python command, however the ones I have tried do not work. Help would be appreciated
Edit: here are 2 of the scripts I have tried running--
for material in bpy.data.materials:
        material.blend_method = 'OPAQUE'

the first one gives me this error:
  File "<blender_console>", line 4
    for material in bpy.data.materials:
IndentationError: expected an indented block after 'for' statement on line 3

Here's the 2nd one that I tried
object = bpy.context.active_object
for slot in object.material_slots:
    if slot.material:
        slot.material.blend_method = 'OPAQUE'

Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer. Please provide the script that didn't work.

@RumenBelev I have posted the scripts, although it seems like the first one should work. I'm not sure why it doesn't.

Indentation is important when interpreting the script.
You have two tabs on the first script and it is supposed to be a single tab indentation. Also Blender developers recommend using 4 spaces as indentation instead of tabs (although both variants work):
Try copying and running the script bellow:
import bpy
for material in bpy.data.materials:
    material.blend_method = 'OPAQUE'

The second script also works. Make sure to include the line
import bpy
at the beginning of each script.
import bpy
object = bpy.context.active_object
for slot in object.material_slots:
    if slot.material:
        slot.material.blend_method = 'OPAQUE'

Link to Best Practice
https://docs.blender.org/api/current/info_best_practice.html

This works! Thank you so much for your help


text:
How to remove a node from a frame?
Frames are great for making node trees more understandable. However one annoying feature about them is that they trap any nodes that get accidentally dropped over them.
So how do I get a node out of a frame?

This is a simple one keyboard shortcut thing to do. With the "trapped" node, or nodes selected press AltP.
As the manual says:

To remove them select the node(s) and use the Alt-P shortcut. This uses the same default keyboard bindings as Parenting and can be thought of as a similar concept.

If you really wanted to, you could always delete the frame node with Delete which would leave any nodes that were in the frame in place (the nodes inside the frame do not get deleted unless they are selected too).
Also you do not have to drop the nodes over the frame to get them in the frame. With the nodes selected and the frame active, press CtrlP (keeping with the parenting concept) to add them to the active frame.

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


text:
What does the compression setting do to a PNG?
I was most surprised to find that the compression setting in the render settings, made a huge difference in the file size of a png. Is there any image quality degradation with the compression on?

What does blender do to the png if the compression is at 100%, as apposed to 0%?

I know that PNG is lossless, so you don't have to worry about compression artifacts. ;D If you compressing JPEG yo, it will have almost like a color bleed and some freakish squariness.

@Ward I know that, but what is going on then?

Heck if I know. I can see how this can be blender related, but it really isn't a blender question. Maybe another network had an answer.

You can also run exported images through a tool like ImageOptim to likely get even more optimization. I use this for assets I'll be putting online or in the applications I work on (I'm a software dev) because a smaller file size means they'll load more quickly into the application.

Is that entirely true or does increased compression mean decompression might also take longer? (Though that might still be faster than disc access time, I don't know...)

@TobiasKienzler The size of the file has a general tendency to dominate load time because of the speed of disc access.  Also, decompression times are not that much worse for heavily optimized files.  The compression/decompression process for PNGs is intentionally asymmetric.  The highly compressed files aren't necessarily harder to decompress because the algorithm is the same, they are simply a more ideal file that took more time to find in the first place during compression.

@CortAmmon I see, so basically write-once-read-many. (Why am I getting a notification of your reply only now?)

No, the compression slider does not affect the image quality.
PNG uses a lossless compression algorithm called DEFLATE (among some other things), which is the same as is used to produce .zip files.
Long story short, the only difference between PNG files with 0% and 100% compression is the CPU time it takes to perform the compression (and of course the resulting file size).
Some tests:
Saving a 1920x1080 render of the default cube:
0% compression:
0.66 seconds, 8116 kilobytes (8 megabytes)
Zipping an uncompressed png produced a 48 kilobyte file.
100% compression:
0.86 seconds, 36 kilobytes
That's a compression ratio of 225 (!) and a time difference of .2 seconds.
Saving a pure high-frequency noise image (also 1920x1080):
0% compression:
.9 seconds, 8116 kilobytes (8 megabytes)
Zipping an uncompressed png produced a 5496 kilobyte file.
100% compression:
2.01 seconds, 5108 kilobytes (5 megabytes)
That's a compression ratio of 1.58 and a time difference of 1.11 seconds.
All tests were conducted with blender and compression times measured from the "saving" time printed to stdout and averaged over five samples.
As you can see, more uniform images (like the grey flatness of an empty blender scene) are much more compressible than highly variable images (such as pure RGB noise). The time it takes to perform the compression isn't very significant even in a worst-case scenario, however that 1 extra second could add up when rendering an animation.

so does that mean it would take a little longer to render out to a png with compression? (probably talking a very small difference.)

@David Doing some tests now; we'll see exactly how insignificant ;)

Awesome answer, I learned a few things :)

Also while a second does not sound like much it can be a killer in a rendering where you get the data out form a very fast render like a opengl dump. Now your results are allmost entirely dependent on how fast you can dump the data to disk.

@gandalf3 Does Blender use threads for writing the image when rendering an animation?  I.e., assuming you're using the cpu for rendering if you have 8 cores one of them could be writing the file while the others are rendering, and as soon as it's done saving the image then that core would start rendering.

@lumpynose If this does what I think it does, yes. I'm not sure if "file writing" includes compression though.


text:
Shortcut key for smooth shading
In edit mode I can press W to bring up the specials menu, then D to shade smooth. Is there any shortcut key for shade smooth in object mode? I know I can assign a key, but wanted to know if there already is one in blender.

No. There is not.
There are two good places to look for shortcuts. The Space menu, and the user preferences.

If there were shortcuts, they would show up there:

is there a good way to find the shortcuts, like I described in the question? I haven't found them using ether method you suggested.

@David I'm not sure what you mean.. What shortcuts? There aren't any shortcuts for smooth shading by default.

"W" then "D" is what I was referring to. I do not know of any way to find the shortcuts for items that are in a menu.

@David Those shortcuts are based on the letters in the name of the operator. The letter used as the shortcut is underlined.

I know, and I thought that that might be your next comment. What I meant is with the 2 methods you mentioned is there any way to find those shortcuts?

@David No, as they aren't really stored like normal shortcuts. I actually don't think they are stored at all, but I don't know this for sure. Here's an example of why I think this. You might be able to write some python script to get all the operators and their menus, then figure out what letter their shortcut will be, but IMO it's just easier to look at the underlined letters in the menu entry for operators you find yourself using often.

You can set hotkeys like shown in this example:

You can right click on any button and create shortcut


text:
How to fix Non-Manifold elements?

I've made a High to Low poly model, and after using the ctrl+alt+shift+m command to find non-manifold elements, I've found several as shown in the .png which is edges and vertexes across the model as well as the uv wrapping. How do I fix these non-manifold elements? I appreciate anybody's time and effort in helping solve this issue!

As far as fixing nonmanifold issues are concerned, you don't need to worry about the UV unwrapping at all (except for possibly having to unwrap it again when you change your vertices around).
The problem you have in the middle probably happened after you applied your mirror modifier, but it's an easy fix. Make sure just that section is selected, then scale it to 0 on the x axis. LEAVE IT SELECTED. Next you're going to go to your search bar (space in 2.79) and start typing in 'remove'. A few options should pop up, but what you want is remove doubles. You can also access it from the 'W' menu, but sometimes it just doesn't show up for me, so that's an alternative method.
Your other manifold problem looks like you might have internal faces. To check, go to face mode and see if you see any of those floating dots inside your model. If you do, move back into edge select and only select the edges on the inside (so you won't make holes in your model) and delete them.
I hope this helps!

Okay, so upon troubleshooting the mesh, my actual underlying issue was to essentially make the mesh workable with a third party program called Quixel Suite 2. However, UV errors led me to believe the non-manifold elements in the mesh was the issue. It turns out that wasn't the issue, so I no longer need to necessarily worry about them as of now.
But, I do want to clarify how I solved the non-manifold errors anyway for anyone else who may have similar problems. I used the retopo-flow addon and a symmetry/mirror modifier for the x-axis, and then I created one side of the mesh which was completed with said modifier.
I simply applied by clicking "apply" for the mirror modifier and that solved the large central manifold line visible in the image above. That contained most of the non-manifold elements.
There were no doubles as there were 0 vertexes deleted after doing as suggested.
There was only one non-manifold element that remained (I guess two if you count the mirroring modifier), which, with elucidation from your post, turned out to not be a internal face, but a hidden edge. Close enough. That'd be the line visible in the image which is the singular yellow line above the mesh's thighs.
Lastly, I installed the Meshlint addon, supposedly "Like Spell-checking for your Meshes", that searches for errors/things-to-note-carefully in a mesh such as the non-manifold elements that plagued mine, tris, n-gons, etc. That should help catch the problem before it begins next time.
Thanks for your help, I hope that this post may help others who have similar issues.

I appreciate you sharing your solution. Are these addons available directly in Blender, or are they downloaded separately?

I believe both addons need to be downloaded separately. Here's the link to Retopo-flow, which is time-saving for retopology. link. And the link to Meshlint link Both are free full versions. Retopo-flow's retail allows you to get customer support for it, though.


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how to make the Curve shape and join it with the another mesh
I am new to the blender and aiming to make the below model for practice which i picked from google images. But i am having difficulty in making the curve part.

I tried making the curve using another cylinder mesh and solidfy modifier and then used boolean modifier to make the curved hole but how do i make that extruded curve and add it to the mesh.
In the below image i made the curve hole using semi cylinder and boolean modifier. But i dont know how to do the extruded curve and the slant shape.

And in the next image i tried to make the extruded curve but i dont know how to add it to the rest of the mesh. Do I need to make loop cuts in the square below and fill each face or is there any other method.

sorry for the late reply.

Booleans are rarely the recommended answer. Can you show us what you got?

are you trying to do the whole object in one piece?

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos  I have updated my question. Sorry for late reply.

To make the semi-spherical shape alone, you can do it this way. If you want to make the whole object in one piece you will have to apply the Solidify modifier and start with this topology, which is totally possible.


text:
Make multiple smaller weapon animation clips out of big default action for use in Unity game engine
I made weapon animation for mobile game. I have one big animation that includes all states of weapon ( idle, hipFire, reload, wield, remove, aimedFire, run)
I want to make separate animation clips out of this big one, and then delete it, so i would endup with 7 short animation clips when impotred in Unity.
I wached all vids and tuts on youtube but didnt find one that adresses similar task.
Thanks in advance for any help!
Theres other thing too.
I somehow  have two actions in the file. One that has all keyframes in it. And other without any keyframes, it attached to weapon mesh. I dont know how to get rid of it.

Hope there is solution for my trouble)
Thanks for help guys!!!
[Edit]
i found the way to delete actions from action editor! There is no need to choose Orphan Data in Outliner. You choose All Scenes.You type exact name of action you want to delete. All it`s stuff will appear in Outliner than you right click on it and choose "delete".
So deleting stubborn actions is solved!)
I found this way here Delete actions from action editor?

The easiest in my opinion way to do that is to bake the animation fragments to new actions, separate for each desired state. To do that, use Action>Bake Action which you find in left tab (appears and disappears after pressing "T"). You'll achieve desired bake length by restricting animation time on the timeline to each state duration. After baking just move keyframes of created this way new action to the timeline beginning and voila.
You can get rid of unnecessary action by removing it from the mesh (or whatever else it's assigned to) in Action Editor (click on X icon on the right from the action name) and then choose Orphan Data in Outliner Search menu and click on Purge All. (this way you will get rid of all actions, textures, materials etc. that have no user permanently, so be careful to check everything first).

i found the way to delete actions from action editor!

Thanks for hints!  Action i wanted to delete didnt have fake users it had few users and didnt have any keyframes. I foun the way to get rid of it after 4 days of seaching for answers)

Baking new shorter  actions from big one i have is the way i`ll try. Thanks again for this hint. Do you know of any articles or tutors i could use about this topic?

Not really, I was learning this a long time ago. I think that you'll find plenty by typing "baking animation in Blender" in Google.


text:
Wrap an earth map back to a sphere (Robinson projection)
I have a problem.
I would like to wrap the map around a sphere. My current iteration is a Robinson projection.
I found some similar problems in the forum, but unfortunately, they do not fit my problem exactly. In their cases, they had only one mesh to wrap around. So they used the Simple Deform modifier.
In my case, the meshes cannot be joined. because of the USDZ export later. I need one sphere with multiple meshes on it.
Does somebody has an idea how to wrap all meshes around one sphere ?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/52904/wrap-curve-around-sphere/52905#52905 https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/59219/how-do-i-turn-an-imported-svg-into-a-sphere/59226#59226

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos this is an example as I described it. He can wrap it, because he only has one mesh. So he can use the modifier. But how can I organize it with multiple meshes to wrap it like he did.

The same way, use the same modifier on each object, no?

@DuarteFarrajotaRamos this was the same what I thought. But it does not work for me, because every object bends 360 degree and not all together. Maybe, I am doing something wrong, as I am a beginner.

@Lutzi Cylindrical. But I imported it as an SVG and converted them into Meshes. Now I need to wrap it around as you would to with the modifier "Simple Deform". The only problem is that the map is out of many mashes. So I cannot wrap it like one mesh. I need a function to wrap the meshes as it would be one mesh.

@PascalMeger It is not equirectangular, it doesn't align and shapes aren't the same.

@Lutzi, downloaded the SVG file on this side: https://simplemaps.com/resources/svg-world. Looked like equirectangular for me.

@PascalMeger As stated in your link : Robinson projection.

@PascalMeger Each map projection has its own way of wrapping things. Essential to know if you're expecting a somewhat realistic result.

@Lutzi, okay, didn't know. Maybe, I can make it easier. The type does not matter, because I can change the map. It is more a question, about how I can reach the goal in general. I would like to have a globe and each country should be a separated mesh.
So my idea was to import a SVG map and convert it to a mesh. And afterwards transform it somehow into a sphere. If there is a better way to reach it, I am completely open for it.

From Robinson projection map to globe (Geometry Nodes)
All of your meshes are composed of one big n-gon face. This can't work well with deformations. I won't be treating this problem, which isn't the initial question. Feel free to open another question about it.
I went a bit overboard and tried a mathematical approach. I'm using this Wikipedia article on Robinson projection as a reference. I've simplified the math behind it, so I'm not a 100% sure my solution is exact. Either way, it looks visually right.
1. Mathematical formulation
I won't go into much details, please refer to the wiki article. I've simplified as much as possible the 2 formulas for latitude and longitude.

Latitude is simply equal (or proportionnal) to y-position on the map. In our case, meshes being upwards, it will be the z-position in the geometry nodes.
Longitude needs the XY table to be computed. We'll see in the next section how to get it.

2. XY table
The Robinson projection uses an XY table. We are supposed to interpolate this table to get any value between 0° latitude and 90° latitude. If drawn as a graph, it would look something like that :

Conveniently, Curves in Blender can easily be interpolated by changing the curve type. No math required, which is nice. Keep in mind that this interpolation doesn't match what is usually recommended for this projection type.
So, we can build a Poly curve ("1" in next image) then change the curve type to obtain a smoother curve ("2" in next image). Below is a visualization just for 3 points.

3. Scene setup
First we want to follow this conditions :

Center meshes on origin. We don't need to center along the y-axis, but we need to center the meshes along x and z axis. I've used an image as reference to align. X-axis should be aligned with the equator.
Apply scale for all meshes : A, then Ctrl+A > Apply Scale.
Apply rotation for all meshes : A, then Ctrl+A > Apply Rotation.

The meshes are ready, and we already know the maximum z positions (which correspond to the on-map y coordinate).
4. Geometry Nodes
Let's see first the latitude nodes. Note that we need to add the position of the current object to get a global position (from the origin of the scene). The idea is to map the global z-position to the latitude, which means in our case mapping as follows : $( -1.3 , 1.3 ) \rightarrow (\pi, -\pi)$.

Then for the longitude, it works the same way :

But we need to extract the X value from the XY table. The setup is as follows :

The left block generates the curve with the provided XY table, for 19 points. Then we set the x and y positions to match the XY table, and we change the curve type to Catmull Rom (feel free to experiment here, but I didn't see any difference on the final result).
The right block samples the curve at the exact current point. We again map the z position to the (0,1) interval, interval which is used as factor on the curve.
For the XY table, I've manually filled a Index Switch node from the wiki article.

We can finally create spherical coordinates based on the latitude and longitude (used as rotation). I'm starting with the vector (0,-1,0) and rotating it first along the x-axis (latitude), then along the z-axis (longitude)

I've linked both the scale and position to an empty Globe transform so that you can easily move and scale your globe.
5. Duplicate Geometry Nodes
You can copy the Geometry Nodes to all meshes as follows :

Select all meshes A
Have the mesh with the GN being active
Copy to Selected

6. Final result and blend file
Here is a preview of the result, alongside the blend file. Let me know if something it not clear.

7. Unresolved issue
As said at the beginning, your meshes are bad for deformation. N-gon faces work for flat surfaces, but you need more geometry to have nice deformations. Here is an example where this is quite visible.

Blender can't know what should happen with the surface if there isn't any vertex besides the outer ones.
I encourage you not to try to solve this issue in this question. If you need help about it, open a new one.

First, thank you much, I really appreciate the effort you put into the solution. I will go to each step and I am optimistic I will learn a lot.
I wanted to check the blender file you linked. When I download it, I receive an undefined file, not a .blend file. And if I open this undefined file in blender, I can see all the geometry nodes for example, but I can only see a line that displays a semicircle. Could you please check it

@PascalMeger I don't know why but yes the file doesn't have the .blend extension. If you add .blend it should open correctly. Also, I've done it in Blender 4.1.0, earlier versions may not be compatible.

Because of your help, I was able to create a prototype for an app. Now I want to create a MVP. For this, I need to work with a map with a mercator projection. My first idea was, that I can reuse the Node geometry, but calculate new x and y values. Is it right or am I missing something?

Yes you could with other projections.

I would appreciate it very much, if you could checkout this question:
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/317594/how-to-wrap-meshes-mercator-projection-around-a-sphere
After many hours I invested, I think I do not have further ideas to solve it. Every kind of help would be great. I would be great to know where I need to make further adjustments.

As for p. 7.: https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/324567/60486


text:
Diamond facets get dark after adding metal and also facets get invisible?
.blend file link
Facets of the diamond get dark and invisible after adding metal. Diamond facets are visible if don't add metal.

Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details like material settings, render settings or a sample .blend file for others to test.

above i have Attached the .blend file

The diamonds are refracting the surrounding objects which is why you see them darkened and dull.
To simulate the behavior of real life diamond will probably take a lot of trials and errors and most likely will never look right.
If you want the diamonds to have the same sparkly look like without the metal frame (where it refracts the environment only) you can apply a small trick.
Edit your ring material "WhiteMetal.014". Add the node Mix Shader and connect the "White-Metal" group and a Transparent BSDF to it. As a factor use the Is Glossy Ray output of a Light Path node.
Here is a before and after look:
Before

After

Made the changes has you suggested but Facing same issue: https://i.sstatic.net/YK52U.jpg

please share your blend file which you have made changes.

Your setup is not correct. Change the Translucent Shader to Transparent Shader.

Thank you so much... Problem Solved


text:
Boolean acting funky with ridges
I'm trying to cut some holes in my trailer for the storage and windows. I try to use a boolean modifier and it doesn't really work. When I try to cut holes in the trailer without the ridges it works okay but then the ridges completely break when I try to add holes in them to match.
Collection 2 is where all these components are held.
Edit 1: I see the normals were flipped on the ridges and that's fixed. The real issue is that the objects are not thick enough to get the boolean to work on them.
Edit 2: I have a working solution. I copied each component, extruded the face then hid it.

Hello, boolean objects need to be non-manifold to work correctly. Please share your .blend file following the instructions here: https://blend-exchange.com/ so we can take a look at what you're trying to do

okay I uploaded it. I'm also having an issue with the shrinkwrap with the vent up top but this is way more pressing. Thanks for helping.

It should show up on your question above if uploaded correctly... Be sure to use the full URL (https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/304576/boolean-acting-funky-with-ridges)

@Dikianify Uploading alone is not enough, you have to edit the code you get after uploading into your question, otherwise we don't know where to get the file.

I see, thanks for letting me know. It's there now.

First, I went to viewport overlays and selected Face Orientation. In doing so I saw that the ridges had flipped normals. I went to edit mode and hit alt + n, recalculate outside and that fixed that.
Next, I had to block the ridges with a component to actually have boolean remove them. To do that I made a copy of each component and stretched it on its respective axis to block the ridges. I also moved these copies to a new component and had the boolean modifier look at that instead.

Upon examining these copies with the face orientation, I noticed that some of them had this glitchy double normal on them. Like it had both inside and outside overlapping.

When I hid all of the components, I saw that the inside normal stuck around.

I don't know what caused this, but in order to fixed it I had to apply the modifier and delete the extra edges by hand. This means that this process is destructive and I'll have to do it after I finish texturing.
There's gotta be a better way but this worked for me.

Hi, thanks for the post. This site is not a regular forum, answers should be substantial, stand on their own, and thoroughly explain the solution and required steps. One liners and short tips rarely make for a good answer. If you can, [edit] your post and provide some more details about the procedure and how it works, perhaps add a few images illustrating some steps and final result. See How to write a good answer?, otherwise it may be converted to a comment.

@Dikianify That should be ALT-M in your answer, not ALT-N to bring up the normals menu!

For me it is alt-n, alt-m brings up the split menu.


text:
3D model print is fading out towards the sides
I'm still new to Blender 3D and 3D printing in general, so don't judge me too hard if my issues is easily fixed :)
I've made curved model as you see below (left object), where I have a depth of 2.2 millmeters on the tree and sun image, but as you might see in the actual print, it looks like it is fading out towards the edges and still nowhere near 2 millimeters in the middle. The text should be 1.5 millimeters
The right object is similar, but flat and with not surrounding text, and that is printed without any details as you also can see below.
The tree and sun object is a copy of each other, same modifiers, except the Curve modifier on the left object.
Is there a logic explanation to why one is printed without the details and one is printing some of it, but fading out?
Not sure if it is needed, but we are using Chitubox to slice and print in resin.
Thank you in advance
Blender-file: https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApWO17TJv3pvhKN7rFcAgFxPUKgfvg?e=hF3RTU
Stl-file: https://1drv.ms/u/s!ApWO17TJv3pvhKN8VlG8jM-BlsZ-fA?e=QbQhvm

How did you cut out the text for the model on the left? There's no Boolean modifier on it. I don't do 3D printing but the mesh topology of both models doesn't seem right to me. They are non-manifold (=there are holes in it), the right one has duplicated vertices and there are intersecting faces. You also use the Edge Split modifier to keep the edges sharp. It would be better to add two so-called "support loops"/"holding loops". Blender comes with the add-on "Mesh: 3D-Print Toolbox". Enabled it in the Preferences then you can check the mesh with it. Have you considered to remesh the models?

@Blunder, the text is "cut out" by recalculating Normals and turn it "inside out", kind of a negative object and thereby not printing that space.
Let me check the duplicated vertices (if I can figure it out) and same goes for remeshing the models :)
Do you know what Zero faces and Zero edges means?

Ah okay. I didn't knew that it can be printed this way without a boolean operation. To remove duplicated vertices, go in Edit mode, select everything (key A), and do a Merge By Distance (key M). I guess this will remove the Zero Faces and Zero Edges, too. These are faces that have no area and edges that have 0 length. For the remesh try the Remesh modifier. The minimal voxel size is 0.1 mm which still results in a "blocky" appearance since your model is so tiny. You can scale it up by 10, apply the scale (Object mode, Ctrl+A), remesh it, and scale it down again + apply scale.


text:
Can a single vertex be rotated?
In the duplication options for the dupli verts there is a option for Rotation. Witch brings me to my question, is there anyway to rotate a vertex? Vertex's have normals, is there any way to control which way the normal of a single unconnected vertex points?

From the Blender wiki.

If the vertex pertains to one or more faces, its normal is the
interpolated value of all the normals of these faces.
If the vertex does not pertain to any face, its normal is aligned
with the line from the object’s Origin passing through this vertex.

On a unconnected vertex the normal will always point away from the object's origin. On a vertex connected with one or more faces (like stacker said) Vertex normals are interpolated from face normals.

Vertex normals are the interpolated face normals, you can easily check this by activating normal display.

and delete all vertices but one. It keeps the old interpolated value of the normal but no matter how you change the orientation the normal wouldn't change.
See also:

Wiki on Mesh Structures


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How move object between scenes
I have two scenes in a blend file. How do I move a object from one scene to the other? Not between blend files, but within one blend file but two scenes.

You can use Ctrl-C,Ctrl-V to copy and paste objects from one scene to the next. They will be placed into the new scene at there original global coordinates. If you want the objects modified in one scene to update in the other,Spacebar>Link Objects to Scene(Ctrl-L - Thanks gandalf3).

Small note, link objects to scene is also accessible with Ctrl L

I'm not allowed to comment on the accepted answer (insufficient rep) so I was forced to duplicate it in order to add my two cents.

Select one or more objects in your donor scene. How?
While holding ⎈ Ctrl press C to copy these objects to a buffer.
Switch to recipient scene. How?
While holding ⎈ Ctrl press V to paste items from the buffer.
Delete the original objects or donor scene as desired.

Notes:
1: From what I can tell —regardless of settings— the objects will be placed into the new scene using their previous global coordinates.
2: Upon completing step 4, if all your scenes get duplicated, it is because one or more of your objects has an active scene actuator in the "set scene" mode. Disabling the actuator before doing step 2 is sufficient to prevent this issue.
3: For step 2, pressing L instead of C allows object linking.
4: This answer should be valid for almost all versions of Blender. I've only tested on Blender 2.74 however.


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Theming the Text Editor selection color
Can the color in the scroll bar for where the active selection is be changed? I have changed the default red selection color, but the indicator in the scroll bar is still red. That indicator in the scroll bar is what I want to change. The image below shows my question.

It's controlled by the cursor color:

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to control the opacity.


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Using cycles generated textures in the displace modifier
When using cycles, it is possible to use any of the generated textures in the displace modifier. However if I chose the Noise texture or Ocean texture, there seams to be no way to edit that texture type. How do I edit the Noise texture or Ocean texture type when used as the texture in the displace modifier?

@cegaton I just read that question, but no it is not.

Note that noise doesn't have any options in BI either. You can switch over to BI for a second to edit the ocean texture, then switch back. You shouldn't need to do that though, seems like a bug to me.

This has been fixed now. https://developer.blender.org/T42262

@gandalf3 thanks, that was fast by the devs. Bug reports really do help.

The only workaround seems to me is that you have bake the textures out to the uvs and then plug them into the displacement.


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What is the backwards compatibility of blender?
At what point does the backwards compatibility of blender break, and for what features? I know if I open a 2.49 blend file in 2.7x it will not have the animation data. I heard that 2.7x would break some features of old blender files, so is there a list anywhere of feature compatibility?

Did you have a look at the release logs? E.g. http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Release_Notes/2.70/More_Features

Wikipedia has a short list, but there are some 2.7 things which are not on it (so don't assume that it's exhaustive)

The mesh format has changed. 2.6+ uses BMesh and allows for N-gons (i.e. polygons with more than 4 vertices). 2.49 has only quads.
If you don't save with Save Legacy option, you will get only edges, no polygons!
N-gons will be deleted in 2.49.
The whole API, interface and the major version of Python have changed. No scripts are compatible between 2.5+ and 2.49. (Still, I'm suprised how many 2.x concepts in the API were considered good and made its way further to 2.5+ )
Linked libraries between 2.6+ files actually work in 2.49! You can append and link things from 2.6+ files :)
Many new modifiers were introduced in 2.6+.
If used, you won't get any 'Unknown' warning in 2.49. No, they will be anihillated instead. The same is (sadly) true about new types of nodes...
Names (of objects, materials) in 2.49 have length limits: 16 characters plus the .001 suffix. Also, no international characters are allowed. If you leave a long name in a 2.6+ file, it will end with [] symbol in 2.49. Editing such name in UI and pressing Enter will 'normalize' it.
2.6+ has no options per polygon (mostly game-related, but not only: like Collision, Invisible, alpha blending mode). In 2.6+ you need to set them per material and use "Blender Game" as the rendering engine.
2.49 will not recognize these settings. Also, 2.6+ will break the per-face mode (a bit field). You have to reset the bit field first:
polygon.mode = 5

to be able to use bitwise operations again, like:
polygon.mode &= ~(Mesh.FaceModes.INVISIBLE)

You will need these operations to recover per-polygon flags with Python.
2.6+ names new UV channels "UVMap" by default, while 2.49 uses "UVTex".
It's not an actual compatibility issue, but remember to name the two objects' channels identically before you join them (Ctrl+J). Otherwise, you will lose UV mapping on one of the objects!
The compatibility is quite good IMO :) taking into consideration how much has changed since 2.49.

What you're talking about is forward compatibility. Backward compatibility is the ability to open files in older versions of the product.
The release notes should give you a hint as to both, but it's always safest to assume neither exists.
AFAIK the Blender team doesn't guarantee either between even minor releases, let along the large step from the 2.4 branch to the 2.7 branch.

I've opened a simple file from blender 1.0 in 2.7, so there is certainly some effort to support this..

@gandalf3 effort or plain old luck? Just because some things haven't changed doesn't mean there's an active program to limit change...

It's a philosophical answer ("better not to have to deal with compatibility!") rather than a proper research ;) Surely Blender developers had the compatibility on their priority list for 2.5+. Just look how many things work  between the two major versions, despite a total codebase rewrite.

Just to clarify, quoting from wikipedia "backward or downward compatible if it can work with input generated by an older product or technology."

I wasn't able to find any solid sources, but I'm convinced it isn't "luck". Some things I did find: wikipedia, blendernation. And from the  dev blog: "For 2.7x projects we will allow forward and (minor) backward compatibility breakage". That implies that it normally isn't allowed.


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What is it that makes some cycles materials not display in the "Textured" view?
What is it that makes some cycles materials not display in the Textured view? By displaying, I mean showing with the textures, not like in the solid view.
I have tried un-connecting the glossy nodes, but that makes no difference. I have checked that the Maximum draw type is set to Textured.
The bottom image is one of my problem materials, that is not displaying in the textured view. The top image is just to show that some of the materials in the same scene are displaying in textured view.
nodes that are displaying in textured view

nodes that are not displaying in textured view

Textured view displays the active texture node. Are you sure you don't mean material view?

Textured view will only display the texture if the texture is an image node.
Noise is a procedural texture and will not be displayed. You need to change to 'Rendered' view to see procedural textures in the viewport.

that is kind of what I was thinking, but then having the gradient texture work is what through me off. So there are some procedural textures that do work, and some that do not. How can I know which display and which do not, aside from trying them all?

@David AFAIK none of the procedural textures work in textured or material view, and they still don't even after a quick test.. Could you upload a .blend with the setup in question?


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Why can I see the seperate shapes in the shadows? Is there a way to fix this?
I am modeling a character and I used the shrinkwrap modifier to combine two parts of his head. It all looks fine until you render it and you can clearly see the difference between the two separate parts. (they are both in the same color. Is there a way to get a smoother transition or get rid of this shadow?
 When I render it you can see this nasty shadow.

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

So why don't you apply the Shrinkwrap then remove the target object (called Head)?

What causes this problem:
Here are two curved surfaces:

I have tried my best to make sure that they transition very smoothly into each other. I have even applied a few subdivision. But then too, I can see the border between them. The last row of faces in one mesh don't point in the same direction as the other one. So there will be a visible difference.
So there are two ways you can solve this:

Do it manually:
If you are planning to animate this thing then having a proper topology will help.
Just take a UV sphere, extrude the bottom faces and adjust a little. This shape is not too complicated.

Transfer Custom Normals:
You can use a Vertex Weight Proimity modifier with a Data Transfer Modifier on one of the meshes, perferably the one above, and make use of custom normals to smoothen the transition of direction of the normals from one mesh to the next.

Create a new vertex group for this and use it for the transfer. This setup creates a gradient based on  how close the faces of the two meshes are, outputs it as a vertex group, and uses this vertex group for transfer the normals of the nearest face(corner).

This is tutorial form Pierrick Picaut where he goes into more details about this technique.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99zHzN-Rqro
This is the result after using this:


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How do I round out this curve
Sorry this is a really basic question, but I had this curve which I have a shape following. I would like to round out the corners so it isn't so sharp. Is there a way to do that?

in edit mode, press A, Curve -> set spline type -> bezier

Then press V > Automatic or Aligned (if it isn't rounded already)

Then press V > Automatic or Aligned?

good idea ;) in my test it worked without it ;)

oh ok in my test it kept orthogonal points (V > Vector)


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When moving Camera a keyframe is set on every object
I made my second animation and wanted to animate the camera. I added an empty object that the camera can track.
When I move the camera to point a (set a keyframe) and move it to point B (set a keyframe) every object in the scene has those two keyframes now. Every light, the empty object, the plane, my 3 characters, everything. And when I decide to move the second camera keyframe, every object get another keyframe.
After 3 minutes of work every object has 2000 keyframes but i just want the keyframes only on the camera.
Same goes for the camera. I change a light, camera has new keyframes.
i am able to deactivate the objects as example the light in the dope sheet so they do not get new keyframes from the camera. but this is an annoying fix of the problem.
i tried to make a new action but it does not work.
how can i fix this problem without locking every object every time to make sure that only one of my selected objects get the keyframes?

Maybe you have assigned the same action to all these objects by accident, not sure how to remove an action from several objects at once though... maybe in the Dope Sheet in Action Editor mode, select the camera, duplicate the action for the camera and delete the original action?

Hi ToTheGodds...unfortunately you didn't give us any useful technical information what you have done. Assuming your are a beginner and to get a quick answer i recommend providing your blend file so we can check it out. thx.


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Blender 4.0 Graphics card error

Blender 4.0 crashes on open and throw this error.
I updated my drivers and the error continues.

Since you haven't told us what graphics card you are using,... Check that your graphics card is supported here and if it is you should report bugs here. See also this from the Blender manual.

Sorry. I'm using rtx3060. Works fine on Blender 3.6.5

Which driver version have you installed and from which source?

NVIDIA Studio Driver Version 546.01 . From GeForce Experience. I try with GameReady Drivers as well.

Don't know whether the graphics cards section in the Release Notes for 4.0 apply here?

Updated with my drivers versions.

Blender is working. I installed it without copying the settings and it worked. It must be something with the Add-ons.

Hello, @YuriCoppe  .. Glad you've made some progress. If you do figure out which setting/add-on it was,that created your problem, a brief self-answer might be helpful to others. If you would rather just close out the question, delete it, or ask here, and we can do that, too.

I solved the problem by deleting user preference in the %localappdata% directory.
This happened probably because you imported an earlier version's preference, which has a different color profile preference than 4.0's. Building the preference from the ground up will solve this.