text:
Can I clean up invisible junk data of duplicated mesh object?
I just duplicated 100 faces of 100000 polygon mesh and separated it, but it seems this new mesh which only has 100 faces has just same amount of data of 100000 polygon mesh and If I save this file blend data size gets double. I mean 100000 polygon mesh data has 40 MB data and newly created 100 faces mesh has 40 MB too but it only has 100 faces. I don't know where this 100 faces mesh data stores junk data but I need to delete them to reduce blend file data size. Do you know how to delete this invisible junk data?

Just deleted my previous comment but: You must be doing something wrong! - I've just saved a file with just an icosphere subdivided 7 times to give 82,000 faces giving a file size of 7,202,600 bytes. Duplicating 100 faces from it, seperating them into a seperate object and then deleting the original icosphere gives a file size of 1,148,224 bytes!

OK then this happens only to me. I just need to make stickers based on the 100000 polygon mesh. I exported this stickers (100 faces mesh data) as obj and imported it and do "Link Object Data" with original 40MB 100 faces polygon mesh to restore vertex group  and UV data. And I restored modifiers too by "Copy Modifiers" .  After that I deleted  original 40MB 100 faces polygon mesh and saved blend file then that invisible 40 MB junk data is gone. I don't know where those 40 MB junk data was saved.....

The only suggestion I have is that you try deleting the unused data before saving your file as I'll show you in the answer that I'll post in a minute. However that shouldn't be saved when you save the file as long as you haven't flagged it as a Fake user.

There's also this posting: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/269331/deleted-objects-appear-when-appending-model. Although it's pretty old, the answer was actually posted today so it might be worth investigating that too. Also try File > Clean Up > Purge Unused Data.

I saw the post and it happens all the time.  And I always do "Clean UP" because my project file is so huge, I need to be careful about file size of my project file. Problem is my mesh data stores invisible data somewhere for sure and It can't be deleted by Clean UP and also it can't be picked up in Outliner - Blender File.  I just duplicated faces from this 100000 polygon mesh in Edit mode and separated them and file size increases. I thought "Link Object Data" would restores this invisible junk data too but it doesn't.

No idea in that case I'm afraid.

Having duplicated and seperated a 100 face 'patch' from an Icosphere which is now Icosphere.001 and deleted the original Icosphere, you can select Unused Data from the Display Mode dropdown on the Outliner as shown below:

Open the Meshes section and you'll see that the data for the original Icosphere is still there and, if it's not been tagged with a Fake user, the shield icon on the right will be empty:

You can right-click on it and select ⌦ Delete to remove it. However, saving the file should have deleted the data automatically anyway.


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how to emulate weight paint brush stroke using python?
I need to emulate brush stroke in weight paint mode but I don't know how.
I am trying to use the code but error code says

RuntimeError: Operator bpy.ops.paint.weight_paint.poll() failed,
context is incorrect

it says strokes variable isn't defined properly but I don't know how to define it.
Do you know how?
import bpy

strokes =[ {
"name": "Null",
"is_start": True,
"location": (0,0,0),
"size": 1.0,
"time":0.0,
"pressure": 0.0,
"pen_flip":False,
"mouse":(0.0, 0.0)
},]

bpy.ops.object.vertex_group_set_active(group='xx')
bpy.data.brushes['Lighten'].stroke_method = 'LINE'
bpy.ops.paint.weight_paint(stroke=strokes, mode='NORMAL')

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Copy and Paste creates random null objects from existing geometry
i have a really annoying and strange copy & paste bug.
Sometimes when i want to copy & paste an object, blender creates random null objects from my existing geometry, sometimes everything is deleted exept the copied object.
I couldn't reproduce this bug in a new file.
Maybe changed some settings accidentally with a shortcut?
Iam using Blender 2.9 A
Best, Joseph

Your project looks very elaborate and professional. Like the kind of thing you wouldn't want to lose to a system crash. So I'm wondering why you're using an Alpha, instead of, say, anything else.

@R-800 Thank You! I think because of the optiX viewport denoising :)

If you want to duplicate objects in your scene, instead of using Ctrl-C to copy them, consider using Shift-D instead. Admitedly. It's a bit confusing that there are both methods available when they don't seem to completely work the same way. I don't use Ctrl-C for anything except copying poses in Pose Mode. And I have no issues. Interestingly, when I just tried to use Ctrl-C on an object in a scene, as you have done, I got a weird result also: It made an extra copy of my armature object. However, it's an armature that wasn't even part of the object I tried to copy. Very odd.

Ahhhh i see! Never used Ctrl-D to be honest... try to get used to it! Thank You!

That was Shift-D. I don't think there even is a Ctrl-D shortcut... shockingly enough!  :)

After struggling with this very problem for years, I have just figured out the solution.
Whenever you copy an object from one file to another, Blender copies everything that that object relies on or have dependencies on, this means every other object referred to in modifiers, materials, physics, constraint, etc., assigned to the selected object.
For my problem, it was an empty referred to in the material I was using for the copied and pasted objects: Blender was pasting a lot of empties that were assigned to "object" field of Coordinate Texture nodes in the materials, and every time you paste an object, even if it brings the very same material, Blender will create a new instance of that material, and also paste a new empty if there's one assigned to anything inside the material.
The solution was easy: I just removed the materials from the object, and there it is, never again getting those annoying empties.
Most likely, the problem is in modifiers, physics, parenting, or materials assigned to these objects you're copying. Look for references to empties anywhere, and remove/apply them, and the empties will no longer be pasted together with your objects.

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


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How can I remove the multicolored lighting from an environment texture background?
How can I remove the multicolored lighting from an environment texture background?
I want a plain white lighting.
I saw this post: Cycles: How do I exclude the Environment Texture from reflections?
but I am using evee, and evee doesn't provide a glossy shader.

If you just want to remove the color from the World Environment, but keep the lighting strength in B&W, place a RGB to BW Node between your HDRI texture and the Background Node of your world shader:

If you want to keep the HDRI colors, but still have only white lighting, mix a regular background with the black and white background, using the "Is Camera Ray" output of a Light Path node as the mix factor:

If you want to remove all reflections from the HDRI and replace it with pure white, mix the Environment Background with a plain white Background, using either "Is Reflection Ray" or "Is Glossy Ray" (depending on your needs) from the Light Path Node as a mix factor:

Thanks, it worked, kind of. The background color doesn't influence the objects anymore, but for some reason, the background turned into a single color, instead of showing the scene. For example, I have an image of green grass and yellow flowers. What I use it as a background, I only get a chartreuse color background. Do you know what when wrong? Thanks again.

Hmmm... not sure. Just to confirm. you used an Environment Texture for your background and not an Image Texture, correct?

I used an environment texture like this: blender screenchot background image

See how in your screenshot, the image texture node says "linear", and then "flat" below it. Now see in my screenshot it says "linear" and  "equirectangular" instead? That's because the node I am using is an Environment Texture node, and yours is an Image Texture node. When you add the node for the image, pick Environment Texture from the list and use that.

Oh, thanks! Turns out I was using an image texture.


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Is there a way to infinitely make a certain mesh appear in blender?
Is there a way to infinitely make a certain mesh appear in blender?
I am animating a production line. I want a mesh to appear at a certain place every 10 seconds, so the longer we run the animation, the more mesh there is in memory.

Does this help ? https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/141065/86891

You can use Animation Nodes to do that without coding.

Create a source collection to pick the object templates from.

Then:

Test if time is reached using a "repeat time" node. "Repeat time" will loop from 0 to a given value over time.

Get a random object from the source collection.

Create an instance when time is reached and keep this instance putting it in another collection.

(have added a little animation, but this is not the point here)


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Problems with GPU rendering in Ubuntu on a Macbook Pro Intel Iris 6100
So I know that it's impossible to use GPU on a Macbook Pro, running OSX, with Intel Graphic card in Blender 2.8 (I'm using 2.82). So I tried running Ubuntu on my Macbook with a USB booteable stick, blender works, but still says that Cycles will render from the CPU. So, is it possible to work? maybe it's because I'm running Ubuntu from a USB? Should I install something else?..thanks!
Macbook Pro 13 2015
Intel Iris Graphics 6100
OS is Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Blender 2.82

is cuda driver /nvidida driver installed in ubuntu?.. can you try bootcamp windows10?

Unfortunately Intel's integrated GPUs don't fulfill the requirements for GPU rendering in Blender 2.8x. You would either need a:

Nvidia graphics card with CUDA compute capability 3.0 or higher
AMD graphics card from GCN second generation or later

CUDA
CUDA requires graphics cards with compute capability 3.0 and higher. To make sure your GPU is supported, see the list of Nvidia graphics cards with the compute capabilities and supported graphics cards. CUDA GPU rendering is supported on Windows, macOS, and Linux.

AMD
OpenCL is supported for GPU rendering with AMD graphics cards. Blender supports graphics cards with GCN generation 2 and above. To make sure your GPU is supported, see the list of GCN generations with the GCN generation and supported graphics cards.
AMD OpenCL GPU rendering is supported on Windows and Linux, but not on macOS.

oh ok! so it's the same either Linux or OSX, the problem it's the graphic card..I thought it was the SO. well, problem "resolved" hah...thanks!


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Video editing transform strip offset and crop in Preview window
Is there a gizmo that lets me transform a strip position and crop directly in the Preview window?
This would be much easier than using the side pane menus.

If you use the 2.83 alpha, grab this add-on and use the transform tools in the toolbar:
https://github.com/tin2tin/VSE_Transform_Tools


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How do you invert a transformation in geometry nodes?
I need the inverse of a transform matrix, geometry nodes seems to have abstracted away all the matrix math. Is there an intended workflow I'm missing here?
In the following image I'm pulling in the Location, Rotation and Scale from one object and I want to invert that transform to move an another object into this transform space. Would have made a lot of sense to just have a invert checkbox on the Transform Geometry Node.

"Would have made a lot of sense to just have a invert checkbox on the Transform Geometry Node." Doesn't seem to be an oft requested feature. There is also a all maner of vector operations for you to tailor whatever you mean by "invert" here

I think the inverse of a matrix transform is rather unambiguous within a cg context. The Vector Rotate Node uses a 'invert' checkbox to invert the rotation (matrix), so you can use that together with some math nodes to get it working but it's not a clean workflow for dealing with transforms.

Hi, @smuseus.. in the case you present, you don't actually need the strict matrix-inverse of the rotation, just any rotation that will align the object-axes to World. Would that do? Then this would be unnecessary

Blender 4.2
As of Blender version 4.2.0, you can now invert all transformations together using the Matrix attribute and the Invert Matrix Node.

Just wanted to mention this convenient method to give folks options.

As of Blender 4.0, if you are trying to find the inverses of transformations made outside of Geometry Nodes, then you can use the following nodes below.

Inverse Translation. To invert your position, you can multiply each scalar of your position/vector by -1 with the Multiply operation of the Vector Math node. Alternatively, you can use the Scale operation with value -1 to invert your entire vector. The later seems to be what most people prefer to use.

Inverse Rotation. Since Blender 4.0 has added the Quaternion data type and new nodes associated with this data type, you can invert your rotation by using the new Invert Rotation Node. Supposedly, Blender 4.1 has already integrated the conversions between Quaternions and all existing data types. But, as of submitting this answer, you would still need to use the conversion nodes, Euler to Rotation and Rotation to Euler with the Invert Rotation Node.

Note. You can easily zero the rotation by aligning your object's axis' to the world origin as Robin Betts mentioned. However, since you are asking for the Inverse Transformation to apply to another object, I gave you the actual transformation instead. Also, to note, if you're still using previous versions of Blender, then Robin Betts answer would be more suitable for your needs.
Inverse Scale. To invert your scale, simply take 1 and divide by your Scale vector. Since a single value n, is converted to vector (n,n,n), when connected, I used a single value node with the Divide operation of the Vector Math node.

Edit
The above Inverse Transformations work great independently. However, as noticed by Markus von Broady, if you're trying to invert two or more outside transformations then the order of transformations needs to be reversed as well.
Order of Transformations. Blender applies transformations in the following order, Scale, Rotation, and finally Translation. To reverse the transformations, simply separate the transformations and apply them in reverse order.

Note. DO NOT ATTEMPT to invert a negative scale value along with another transformation. The Inverted Transforms fails because the object info node only outputs positive scale values.

I could not find a work around for this as it seems to be an issue with Geometry Nodes itself. You can invert the scale with negative values independently but just not along with the other inverted transformations.
I created a custom node group called "Invert Transform Geometry" with your desired Invert checkbox in the file below for you.
Hope this helps.

Blender 4.0.2

Have you tested it? Shouldn't the order of transformations be reversed too?

@ Markus von Broady, pshhh lol. After you mentioned about the order of transformations, I tested again and found that it doesn't work. I fixed it. However, there is an issue with the Inverse Scale. I am working to resolve it.


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How to make this stylish «cutting mat» theme?

Hello to everyone! I found this image in one of the topics called «How to make a curved Cone?».
Is this a «cutting mat» theme? Where can i find it? Thanks!

looks like a simple grid...

You can ask the post author (Lukasz-40sth), he seems quite active. I don't know the best way to contact an user, maybe tag him here, or ask in a comment under his answer.

@Luciano yes, it's just a grid, and I'm wondering how you can make it the same color

@thibsert I know, for 40 minutes I was looking for ways to contact, but I just do not have enough reputation - it requires as much as 50! I didn't have an account here before, I had to register to ask.

you can change the grid color here:

and background here:

thanks for the instruction, but I asked more about the theme file, not the colors that I can copy with some kind of eyedropper tool


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Export animation FBX, shaking
I made an animation and when exporting to FBX the animation started shaking, but in blender i have no problem.
Problem FBX in Marmoset Toolbag: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1loDWkOefH95C00tcl_WS7Egwn-8rOaMG/view?usp=sharing
Noproblem Blender render: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Xj08Ifq4eT7UK76tmDlC5UUnCGDALV2z/view?usp=sharing
Actually in FBX the rendering of the pose is wrong because i reset the rest pose, but the shaking is still here. I can remove a big body shaking from the entire model if I remove parental controls from this orange selected bone that is "keep offset" to the "root" bone. But legs and arms shaking still here, i think problem in inverse kinematics, but i don`t know how fix that. I need your help, blender community.
Blender file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gsWaPlQfIdOgoyBwKFSZw9ZWHKZXr4pf/view?usp=sharing

A similar problem:
Blender animation not exporting correctly to FBX

The problem is solved, set the value "simplify" from 1 to 0.1 in FBX export settings:

Game engine have a "sample rate". A base fps when it comes to interpreting animation that will impact how animation is read, compressed, interpolated, and so on.
For example, Unreal Engine samples animation at 30fps by default.
In order to reduce the eventual issues when you animate for a game engine, the first and most important thing is to either animate at the same sample rate, or change the endinge's sample. In UE's case (and quite frankly most game engines anyway): that's 30fps. So your animation should be designed with that in mind. Some studio might sometimes work at 60fps since that's considered to be the base target framerate for the average user's screen. But it's more work to animate at 60 than 30 fps.
Next important thing is, when you export your animation, you need to "bake" every single frame of the animation. Meaning replace every curve interpolation by a solid keyframe. That's what's sometimes called "sampling rate" when exporting. In Blender's case, it is "which every X frames are keyed". Blender is set to one by default, meaning it will key every 1 frame of the timeline, which is usually the optimal way.
If your animation ends up somehow messed up after exporting with such baking, the first thing to do is to try to manually bake your animation yourself using the bake animation operator. You will be able to see and correct any issue.
Simplifying the animation will remove keyframes, you effectively destroy your animation. This option is usually used only when you want to reduce your exported file size, and only when you can't do it in another less destructive way.


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How to add single vertices onto the surface of a mesh?
When Ctrl + Right Mouse Button clicking to add a single vertex, how do you make the vertex snap to other existing geometry?
In the depicted example I need to add some edges between the spheres, and to achieve this I'd like to quickly add verts onto the surface of the spheres. The verts does not need to become a part of the sphere mesh, it only needs to land onto that geometry.

I just had the same problem and snap with the option "face project" works by adding a vertex by ctrl + right click. The vertex will be projected onto the face underneath the mouse cursor. I'm using Blender 3.3.1.

I don't think it's possible to use ctrl+RMB and snap at the same time. However, if you would use E to extrude a vertex and have Snap to Faces enabled at the same time, you can do what you trying to achieve, I think.


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Set maximum width for an operator's button in UI?
How can I set a width maximum or fixed value for a button?
I have an UI looking like this:

The text field would be full path of a file and the 'Set' button is openning a dialog box. How can I go about increasing the text field's width and reducing the button's width?
Thanks
Kaveh

FYI: When using a StringProperty set to FILE_PATH, a button (to call the file browser) is going to be added automatically ->  How to create a Folder Dialog?. This also would make it consistent with the rest of the UI so the question is: Do you really want to have an extra extra operator to call that dialog?

Great!This actually makes it so much easier and the code much simpler.
In gerneral though is there a way, other than row and column definition to control the size of button?

There is split and flow: https://docs.blender.org/api/current/info_best_practice.html#user-interface-layout Also have a look into the python templates that comes with blender. Can we close this one as a duplicate or the linked question?

sure. thanks a lot!


text:
Split primitive in two
I am trying to split a cylinder in two parts with a plane being the cutting object but for some reason it doesn't work. Intersect works, and applying Difference on the plane works too but applying Difference on the cylinder to end up with half a cylinder doesn't do anything. I tried flipping normals and Moving the cutting plane in Z just in case it sat on cylinder vertices but it just doesnt work. Any idea why ?

One way is to use the split and vertex
connect operators.

First step would be to use vertex
connect
and create two faces of the ends of the cylinder by selecting two
adjacent vertices and pressing J
Then Simply select either the top or bottom half, and press the
Y key to split.
Translate as desired

Bisect -> Edge Split -> Separate by loose parts
Firstly bisect the mesh Mesh > Bisect use the tool, or pump the plane coords into operator panel.
In example below point (0, 0, 0) is on plane. Plane has normal -Y or (0, -1, 0).

After the bisect the cutting edges are selected, feed them into edge split.

Finally Select all A and separate by loose parts P By Loose Parts  to have an object for each part.
Script version of this method in action https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/133258/15543
Script version of method suggested by @Michael
https://blender.stackexchange.com/a/133136/15543

If I am not mistaken boolean difference requires a volume, a plane does not have volume. try extruding the cutting plane outward towards the side you want going.

i did that, it does Intersect instead of Difference. I also applied Solidify to the plane again got Intersect instead of Difference. Much easier in Catia. 1 click, 2 tops.

You have to choose the setting in the modifier. Also, I would recommend watching some tutorials. Blender is a very powerful program, like all things it takes time to learn, don't get too frustrated.

I am choosing the setting in the modifier. Problem is i think Blender is quite user enemy instead of user friendly and that is a big minus. It's powerful once you get to learn it well i am sure, but to get there it is unnecessarily difficult.

Don't use solidify on a cube. it makes the inside hollow and bools won't work as you expect.

Believe it or not 2.8 is actually way more user friendly than previous versions. The problem isn't that it is unfriendly, the problem is that you have expectations on how things should work, it can be frustrating when things work differently than you expect, tasks that you expect to be easy require more effort, and the user feels less skilled. it's that perceived loss of skill that makes people upset. I went through this while learning fusion 360. A new tool makes even a master a beginner again for a while. Give yourself some time and learn the tools. Its not as bad as you think.

I managed to split it in two by deleting the vertices I didn't want to keep.

Yes! avoid using booleans if you are learning how to model.


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Viewport Shading all grey
Does anybody know why my Viewport Shading has gone all grey. I must have pressed something because it was all fine a minute ago..
thanks

I saw your .blend file and found the solution to your problem:
your scene is stuck at initialising that is because you have paused your viewport render you can start viewport render by clicking on the play button on the top right corner of the 3d view. Also your object is too large it might disappear when you zoom out so dont forget to change the clipping from 1000m to a 10000m

You're in rendered mode. Switch to solid or material preview:

This is the equivalent of, "Doctor, it hurts when I touch my head," and the doctor says, "Stop touching your head."

No idea what it caused...but what fixed it for me was selecting different render device and then switching back to initial one.

In the context output section make sure you have the Render Region (under Dimensions) unchecked, should fix your problem.

So as mentioned.
First of all check that the preview is not paused.
If this does not help, check if you have a camera object locked to your view. In you screen you can see that the Camera to View checkbox is disabled.
To fix that:
Create a new camera object - this will be your local camera.
In View enable this local camera and select it to be your new object.
In View > View Lock check Camera to View.


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Move camera after ctrl alt Numpad 0
I've seen tutorials about setting the camera view with ctrl alt Numpad 0 but many times, after setting the camera and while still in Camera Set View mode some are still able to adjust the camera position. If i click MB it gets me out of Camera Set View mode. How do i do that?
thanks

One option is to select the camera (you will see the yellow selection on the border) and use G  to move or R  to rotate the camera.
another option is to lock the camera view by pressing N  on the viewport to open the sidebar> View > Lock Camera to view


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Blender 2.8 Displacement node not working
I am trying to add a displacement node to this mesh to get a brick wall but i can't seem to get it to work on this particular mesh and i don't know why. Can anybody give me some ideas because i looked everywhere for an answer and i still cant get it to work.
thanks

Does your mesh have subdivisions? Dislplacement will not work with just 4 vertices on a plane.

it does it has a tone of subdivisions.

it needs more subdivisions (or a Subsurf modifier) and a bit more Displacement Scale value

The displacement is too weak, you're seeing it in the others because of the scale of the object.
Apply the scale (alt+A) in any mesh that it worked that you will see that the displacement effect is gone.
In the same way, press S+Z in the mesh of the pic and you will see the displacement
And you also need to be in Cycles "rendered" view to see it. The Shading preview will always use Eevee

i did apply scale numerous times, and the displacement Scale is at 0.9 which if anything should be too high.  And the Render engine is Cycles unless i am missing something.. I don;t quite understand what you mean by pressing 'S+Z in the mesh'

The scale of the displacement must be higher, OR you must increase the scale of the plane in the Z axis in object mode (S+Z =Scale + Z).
Can you see the gifs what I've done in your file?

https://youtu.be/EENrG_uoeTw here's exacly what I did since I opened your file

yes but up to 0:45 the bricks don't displace orderly, the entire mesh displaces when in fact only the darker patches (the bricks) should displace. I just can't get it to work with a displacement node.

oh now I understand better your problem. Yet, I got the correct shape of by adding more subdvisions

It got a lot heavier than the other mesh, for some reason, but the displacement node is working normally. https://youtu.be/cMjIYs1SjT8


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Child of constraint two hands problem
Working on this fps animation and im trying to get the left hand to hold and move along with the gun like the right hand, but the gun bone has already been set a constraint for the right hand. The gun bone is also connected to the vertex of the gun mesh, so making another bone wouldn't work. Best way to solve this?

Did you repost this?

No, i just logged in and couldnt comment on the answer on the last question to ask, i tried the solution and all i need now is the left hand, sorry for the confusion

Why not use another Child Of constraint for the left hand? Make the right hand the target?

Didn't work, the left hand would just rotate unaccurately, even if i set it for the sleeve

Why not share your file? https://blend-exchange.com


text:
I could use some help finding the scripting tab
Hello I am just starting out with blender. I am taking the animation class on bloop one of the lessons calls for using the scripting tab to find rigify I think its called. My problem is I can't find the scripting tab. I am using blender 2.8.
Thank you for reading.

If it turns out that you do indeed need to scroll, as ZargulTheWizard suggests, that will be achieved by middle mouse clicking anywhere in the tab area, and then dragging left or right. I'm pointing this out because many don't know about this drag function, and it wouldn't be obvious at first glance that the middle mouse button is the key to getting it done.

Tank you for the advice as well the wizard got it right.

All the “tabs” are at the top of the window in the default layout. The scripting tab is farthest to the right-hand side, so you may need to scroll if your monitor is small.
For more information on Blender’s UI, check out Blender’s Documentation

It was just a little scroll to the right that was helpful.


text:
The Final Output is Different (In terms of world background) than the 3D EEVEE viewport blender 2.92.0
I Setup the following scene in blender in the 3D EEVEE real time viewport

The following output comes when I hit f12 or render the image (BOTH in CYCLES and EEVEE) then a weird grey background comes. What is the reason ?

please provide your blend file

https://github.com/dkdarshan760/BLENDER/blob/main/YETANOTHER%20INTRO.blend

I have used animation nodes by the way.

ok, then make that cube.001 hide in render view too.

Actually, I want the background to be completely black, bcz of which I have set the world to complete black. I just want the render as it is seen in the realtime EEVEE viewport.

i updated the answer

In your scene the object Cube.001 is still being rendered. Since the cube has a white material the light casts shadows which cause the grey gradient.
There is a difference between temporarily hiding/unhiding in viewport (H and Alt+H on keyboard), permanently hiding ("disabling"), and hiding ("disabling") in renders. I assume you desired the last option and accidentally used the first.

In the Outline editor you can click on the funnel icon on the top right to enable more filter controls per object/collection. The third icon is the "Disable in Renders" function. When you enable this option for Cube.001 the rendered image has a black background.


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2.9 render Animation Rendering only some of the animation
I've made an animation, but when I go to render out an image sequence or video file all I get is SOME of my animation. So for example one arm is animating and the other is not animating in the render. My viewport animation works just fine though.

Can you possibly include some screenshots of the undesired behavior?  It's really hard to understand what's going wrong without more details.

Welp. I'm an idiot.... turns out I was loading blender 2.8 and when the file was last saved working in 2.9. My render is working normally now in 2.9


text:
I need to make a roof with a cut and drop and I don't know how to do it
The roof is normal and then it has a cut and falls on the two sides with an angle until it touches the wall.

What have you tried and why it didn't work?

Create a cylinder, then delete part of it so you only have an arch. This will be the basis for the roof. Then, select all of the edges that go up and down the arch, and subdivide them with two cuts. Finally, select all the vertices on the ends, and scale them along one axis to make them flat. You can use “snapping mode: vertex“ to move them along that same axis and align them with the bottom of the arch.


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Can I do sculpting after i baked it
I did bake my sculpture after coloring and texturing and then I found out that there is something on my sculpture and I need to fix it with sculpting tools. Is it somehow possible to do it? Or I have to open not baked last version and start over? Thanks for answers.

I think sculpting will destroy the UV data for the affected faces (perhaps depending on what tool you use).  You'd at least have to unwrap and bake your textures again.

I was afraid of this answer, I noticed that mistake on my sculpture later. But I think I’ll need moving and maybe smoothing tool

You can sculpt, but without Dyntopo that generates extra vertices.

Thank you for answers, I appreciate this


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Is it possible to maintain the last image of the baked fluid simulation as a still?
I made a fluid simulation for fog (frame 1 to 10), and I want the fog to remain as it is at frame 10. I'm animating something else in the file until frame 260, but I want the fog to remain as it as in frame 10 without baking it all the way to 260. The fog still shows in the rest of the frames in the viewport shading, however in the renderings (Cycles) it only shows up until frame 10, then it disappears. How can I "freeze" the fog at frame 10 until the end (260) without baking it all the way?
Thanks!

The answer is here for anyone looking in the future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prcaYsujY-U


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Animation is rendered in Eevee instead of cycles
I did an animation which i rendered to PNG using EEVEE for preview/testing purposes and after deciding i was happy with it, i tried rendering with cycles and it rendered in EEVEE.
I thought maybe i needed to close and restart Blender, and even deleting the original EEVEE renderings from the folder but i ended with the same result, I know it's probably only a schoolboy error but i'm lost. Thanks in advance

Just to be sure, you've selected Cycles as render engine, the output path is set to the directory you are checking and the overwrite option is enabled?

Hi, yes I've made sure that the render engine is set to cycles and overwrite is checked.

Did you use the viewport render animation instead of the regular render animation ? View > Render Animation instead of the regular Render Animation (CTRL+F12) ?

This happened to me, here is how I fixed it.
I rendered an animation in EEVEE to see what it was like and then created a video using the video sequencer.
Next day, I decided to do a Cycles render, but regardless of settings it always seemed to render an EEVEE render for both single image and animation.
Then I realised, I still had the EEVEE png files referenced in the Video Sequencer.
I deleted the strip, and then Hey Presto, I got Cycles rendering back!


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Certain animations not recording
I'm banging my head up against the proverbial brick wall here. I'm doing an animation which is a spoof on a 1960s kids show from UK called Camberwick Green, this starts with a six sided box which rotates for a short time, and then the top slides open to make way for one of the shows characters to slide up through the top. The first pic is of the first frame which is how the box is first shown with the top closed.
The second pic shows, in my own description, how the top opens. the white dots being the pivot points for each individual triangle and the purple arrows which i hope will convey to you the direction/rotation of the triangles so it should open up iris fashion.
The third pic shows the end result of the top sliding open.
Which result I'm pleased with as far as it goes, but the issue arises when i scrub back to the first frame, it shows the box as in the third pic with the lids open rather than closed like it should. when i play the animation, the main box rotates as expected but with the lids totally open all the way through, thereby missing the opening altogether. Here are some details of how i animated: I first inserted a keyframe on frame one, then rotated the whole box -18 degrees at 12 frame intervals for my keyframes. When i hit keyframe 240, i started rotating the triangles -10 degrees on their pivot points as well as the regular rotation of the box as previously stated, so for example at frame 252, i would rotate the box at -18 and this would automatically keyframe at that point, then staying at that frame, i would individually rotate the triangles, with the thinking that I would be keeping the movements on the frame, but the result is a constantly open lid throughout. I've tried manually inserting keyframes with location/rotation/scale etc but the result has always been the same. I would have thought that once a keyframe is recorded, that would be how it should be. Sorry if this is long winded, I've only been learning this for about 4 months. Here is a link to the opening of the show if it's allowed... Many thanks in advance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWNR-08Ff0w

There is a little dot icon on the top of the animation panel. Is it ON ? Because this overwrites your keyframes when you move your object. You may have overwritten the first keyframe of your final when you tweaked the objects to be at the final position

do you mean the one next to the play/skip/rewind buttons? if so then yes, i do put it on because this automatically records the keyframes, if i do it with it off, for some reason i get no animation at all. Thank you however for replying, i will have a look at that when i get back home from work.

Well if you want that behaviour, you should FIRST go the desired frame, THEN apply your movement to the object. You should also know that if you move your objects while the animation is playing and the "record" button is on, it will create unwanted keyframes on each frame. An alternative is to not use the record button and right click on the transform value on the "N" panel on the right and "add keyframe" or shortcut "I" when hovering over a transform value

Thank You friend, it's all food for thought, I'll take on board what you've said, and try a few things out later, luckily at the moment it's only a short one and these issues have arisen before i did too much, it's all an experience.

Sure thing ! I would say, in my experience, unless you want to record an object over multiple keyframes, you should'nt use the record button but use the "i" shortcut that way you do not risk accidentally overwriting your painfully created object positions. But to each their own !

Nathan, Hi, just like to tell you I've managed to resolve the issue. My problem was that I was going into edit mode to set up the pivot points on the top pieces for movement, when in fact that is all i should have been doing in edit mode, instead of taking it back to object mode to perform the action, i doing so in edit mode which resulted in the disappointment. Many thanks for your help.

Oh, alright that makes sense ! Consider adding this as an answer to your own question so that someone might find it useful if they encounter the same problem. Cheers

It seems i made a rookie error with this, everything else i was animating in object mode, and i was going into edit mode to set up my pivot points to rotate my top pieces and rotating them there, instead of going back to object mode to move them. This resulted in the pieces being in the fully open position from frame 1 to finish instead of opening during the animation. So if anybody stumbles on this question with the same problem, then note...ALWAYS animate in object mode.


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New to Blender. My simple scene has really long render times
I am a Max user and I have been trying to learn blender for the last couple of weeks. I created a simple animation: a rotating sphere with a rock generator applied to it, a few lights and that's it. I got a reasonably powerful computer (threadripper 1950x 16 cores/32 threads). I get a lot of noise in the render and if I tried getting rid of it increasing the samples I get crazy render times. It takes about 8 minutes per frame with 1500 samples (the animation is 1000 frames long) and the render is still really noisy. If I increase the samples the render time goes way way up. A scene like mine would take barely a minute or two in max and vray. I am obviously doing something wrong. Could anybody help me out a bit? Thank you!

Hard to say what the cause is based on your description. Can you upload your project and add a link to your question? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

Hello Robert!Thank you so much for your help. Here is a link to the file:

Hello Robert!Thank you so much for your help. Here is a link to the file: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1itp_qLpCsvMViuY9UjgxTobllwTGY4aa . I hope I am doing it right. I am new to this forum and I am still trying to learn how to move around

Welcome @jose.novas! You should use the link in the first comment to upload your file, then [edit] your question to add the link. Check [ask] and take the [tour] if you want to learn more about the site.

I would recommend the following changes:

Remove the second render layer, because it doesn't contribute anything to the compositing result and doubles the render time.
Use Branched Path Tracing with high samples for the diffuse sub samples and mesh lights and low samples for everything else. This reduces the noise significantly.

If you would be switching to the most recent version of Blender you could also use Open Image Denoise, which can reduce the required samples significantly.

Hi Robert! THANK YOU!!!!your tips worked like a charm. I went from almost 5 minutes render time per frame to barely 2. I tried to render in blender 2.8  but the rockgenerator node that I applied produced crazy artifacts in the geometry.  This is probably caused by the bad modelling. Coming from Max and Vray there is a lot I have to learn and I am still trying to get used to the new intergace and workflow. Once again, thank you for your help, I really appreciate it!!!

Great! If my answer solved your problem, please mark it as accepted by clicking on the checkmark next to it.


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Is there a way to stop Blender from replacing part of a Python Tooltip with an ellipsis?
If you have Python tooltips enabled you will be able to see the property type and datapath by hovering over something like a button or similar:

However, in some cases Blender replaces parts of the datapath with an ellipsis:

(In this case the actual datapath is bpy.data.objects["Subdiv Plane"].vertex_groups.active_index)
My Question: Is there a way to stop Blender from replacing parts of a datapath with an ellipsis?
I know that there are some ways to manually investigate what the ellipsis could stand for in a given example (and I also know how to use them), but disabling ellipses altogether would save the time needed for those investigations.

AFAIK no. Related https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/160824/blender-python-and-pass-settings  https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/95300/how-to-see-data-path-if-it-was-shortened-in-tooltip

Thanks, I seem to have missed that second post of yours.


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Text in speech bubble Blender v.2.81a
I'm doing a school project and I'm drawing a 2D animation in the latest blender version. I drew a speech bubble. Is there a way to create text inside the speech bubble with blender. I don't want to draw it because it's too messy. Is there a way to type text in the 2D animation? I'm new to this program.
Thank you for your help.

Hi, welcome to the Blender Stack Exchange. Should the text have some animation, so that it looks like it gets hand-drawn, or just appear at once? The last one would be waaay easier ^^

If you want to add a text-object, switch to object mode.

Then press Shift+a and select the "Text"-option, to add a new text-object.
Because the new text-object is rotated by default, you may not see it from your perspective, so rotate it on the x-Axis by 90°. (r+x+90)

The text can be altered if you have it selected and press Tab, to enter edit mode, then change your text as in any text editor. Press tab again, to exit edit mode. Other text settings like the font can be found in the right side panel.


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artifacts at polygons
Artifacts appear when I connect the normal map (the presence of the texture itself is optional). the normals at the polygons are looking out.

could you upload a file: https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/

the file is not loaded (I generally have not seen a similar problem with anyone on the forum (((

This problem appeared due to the Mirror modifier

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/28205/when-using-a-baked-normal-map-it-is-inverted-on-half-my-model
that's exactly the same mistake! but I didn’t understand how he solved the problem (English is not my native language


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simple loft following a nurbspath
I searched, and read some similar questions, also watched some videos, but still can't figure it out.
I am trying to create a simple loft between two shapes (circles in this case) and follow a nurbspath, but the lofted object (bridge edge loops) stays straight, and jumps up to the top vertex of the nurbspath when adding the curve modifier, and selecting the nurbspath.
If I add sections during the "bridge edge loops" it makes an "S" type loft, no curve modifier yet.
What am I missing? Is it possible without some add-ons?

Do you just need to model some specific form, or are you asking about this loft functionality in general where the loft would have to follow some path defined by another curve(rail)? I mean, does it need to work with more complex cases than the given example?

One is trivial, the other one is a very hard riddle for geometry nodes experts.

if you want your tube to follow the curve, make it straignt and add some segments

@MartynasŽiemys Well, in this case is a simple one, but in others it might/will get complex. I wonder why there is no such one click tool, and complex geometry nodes are required.
I can easily do it in Solidworks, maybe I'll try do it there, and import it in Blender.

@moonboots Like said I did add segments, but it makes it an S looking shape.
I know I can manually achieve it with many segments, and dragging vertices.

again, your tube is supposed to be straight, otherwise it won't exactly follow your curve

Blender doesn't have loft along rails function. It's not implemented. Blender lacks other NURBS modelling techniques as well. It's not Solidworks. Same way as Solidworks doesn't have Grease Pencil for example or sculpt cloth brushes. They are just different software.
It's still trivial to model what you want, it just requires you to define the curvature another way. You could do it with a single middle segment after bridging edge loops straight and use subdivision surface modifier. Lower resolution circle is OK for that. You can go as low as 4 verts making it a square:

Loftng with geometry nodes is possible - see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTgtrqO1llw

In the meantime I made it in a more time consuming way, I added more segments, and moved the various loops to get the curvature. I like your solution better.
I know Solidworks, and Blender are different, what I meant is that with all the genius at work to make Blender perhaps it could be a nice feature.

Blender is more centered around mesh modelling and this a function for NURBS modelling. There are talks/"executive dreams" about adding NURBS modelling to Blender amongst other things, however it's very uncertain and will not happen any time soon for sure. At the moment if you really wanted that functionality, Geometry Nodes is the best bet, but it's certainly not a trivial task. Mesh modelling has many alternative methods to reach similar results tough, in some cases they are even easier, in some not so much.


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adding long text to video editor
Is there a limit for the text in the editor?
I am trying to add a very long text (to scroll, but that's another topic), but when I paste it in the text field (strip?) it is truncated at 511 characters.
Is there a way to overcome this limit?

This is probably best done in an actual 3d Scene with a regular Text object and superimposed with a scene strip in the video editor

I agree with DFR, and I am sorry to say that the sequencer doesn’t seem to have much options for this. That’s something I might want to put on rightclickselect.com

I added https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/796y/

Thanks, will try the suggested solution. Upvoted the rightclick

what about adding a second text to video editor? ;)

The text strip buffer is limited to 512 bytes. And they do not want to change that.
Yet another failed attempt to improve the text editing of Text Strips: https://developer.blender.org/D10775


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How to reduce polygon count
I want to reduce the polygon count from a model of around 50,000 faces to exactly 1,000 faces. Give me the settings and numbers okay?

https://blender.stackexchange.com/search?q=reduce+polygon

It is impossible to exactly reduce the amount of faces of an object, but there are tricks to doing so:
1) Use the decimate modifier, and adjust the settings while watching the faces-count and the quality of the object.
Here's how this works: Go to the modifiers tab, and select decimate. Then set this modifier to un-subdivide. The modifier will show the amount of faces in the object at the bottom. Set the iterations amount, (a couple should do fine), and watch the quality of the object and the amount of faces.
2) Another thing to do: Limited Dissolve in edit mode. This won't let you specify the face-count, but you can adjust it so that you get a lower-poly result.
Do this by selecting the object, going to edit mode, and selecting mesh > cleanup > limited dissolve. Adjust the angle factor, and watch the faces.
3) Nobody wants to do this, but go to edit mode, select certain faces and press F on the computer keyboard. Manually combine the faces until you have exactly 1000 faces (if you want), or as many as needed.
I hope these tips help you, and/or answer your question!


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Camera in 3D Viewport Movement issue
1 week into using blender. I'm having a bit of an issue with a "dodgey" 3D viewport camera.
Its kinda going mental, sometimes when i move the mouse around i get a straight forwards pan and tilt (which is great) but then sometimes i'm having this night mare of a control issue where i start orbiting things.
I've done a lot of googling around the subject and have turned on and off the "lock object" option, played around with "Auto Depth" and other ideas in the Preferences > Navigation options.
I just cant quite get it to play nice!
Heres a video to show what its doing (1mins) - https://youtu.be/Yc4FLM5s-ac
If anyone has any ideas, i'd be really appreciated as its putting a bit of a dampner on things
Sam

Have you tried resetting to factory setting? You can make a new file with factory settings, save those preferences, and load your original project: Open... -> Click on your project once -> Click the gear -> Deselect "Load UI"


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Delete all measurements
Is there a way to delete a bunch of measurements? I can't seem select them and Annotations Window is empty.

wait i just deleted them i think i went to Object Mode or from Edit Mode to Object Mode and they dissapeared. Not sure what i did but they are gone.

When you clear measurements through View > Annotations, they don't vanish immediately.
Simply switch tools or modes and they will be gone.
Changing tools or quickly tabbing into edit mode works

Why is blender so finicky? I feel like they should hire a UX designer and give that person a lot of authority

amen. Im no expert in blender but its painful to do some things that are basic imo. For instance set the z value for all selected points to the same height ... booleans that dont destroy the model ... remove all measurements ... organizing materials ... so many things. Many things I do infrequently which I have to search google and by the time I have to do it again I cant remember where it was.

To delete all the measurements select individual measurement and click x to delete each of them .While selecting don't click in the middle of those lines(It will only add an angle and if you click x it will only delete the angle) instead click on any end point.
It is a tedious job if you have many measurements.

Simply pressing the Esc key deletes the measurements.

Esc does nothing, you can delete them with X by selecting them.


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Curves projected on object
i am trying to do a xenomorph egg like in the pic below but i am stuck at creating the 'petals' edges to look realistic, any idea if a curve projected on the egg main is the way to go ?All i currently can do is some straight lines which i then project on the egg but no way it looks realistic.

I'm not sure you need a curve at all. Here's how I would go about a model like this.
First I would make a "sphere" by adding a subdivision surface to a cube with three subdivision levels (CTRL+3). I would then add a cast modifier and cast it as a sphere, to make the mesh a true sphere shape.

Then I would apply the modifiers, and make the egg shape using proportional editing set to smooth.

Then I would inset THESE faces, and scale them inwards slightly.

I would also scale the "seam" edges closer together on their respective axes:

Then I would turn proportional editing back on, but set to random this time, making sure to check "connected only". I would then select some random vertices along the edges of the "petal seams" and scale them towards each other on whatever axis they lie. (I know the "gaps" are wider in the first image - I took this screenshot early, before I scaled the edges).

Do this for all the "seams", then select the centre areas again, and inset by a small amount.

Do the same for the outer areas - this helps define the edges of the "petals"

You should then be able to select the whole surround edge as one loop - you can then extrude this (extrude faces along normals) to form the lip.

Lastly,  add another subdivision surface modifier, and shade smooth to smooth it out.

Hope this helps.

why not create a uv sphere the first time around instead of this step "First I would make a "sphere" by adding a subdivision surface to a cube with three subdivision levels (CTRL+3). I would then add a cast modifier and cast it as a sphere, to make the mesh a true sphere shape."

If you look at the topology of a UV sphere, the top and bottom poles are made of tri's surrounding a point. I did what I did to get a "quad only" sphere. They are often much easier to work with.


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Unsupported Graphics Card or Driver Error
Trying a brand new install of Blender 2.82 on a new desktop computer. Blender will not start, instead I get the "Unsupported Video Card or Driver" error. Video card is Radeon Pro (TM) WX-4100. Default driver from Windows 10 was dated 2016. Have upgraded to one dated 3/30/2020 direct from AMD, included with their AMD Pro Settings software which show card compatible with OpenGL 4.6 which is higher than version 3.3 the error message wants.
Any suggestions? Have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Blender. No other graphics drivers showing. TIA

can you send a screen shot or start open blender with gpu debug and send the log.

I am new to Blender and StackExchange, so patience is appreciated.When I run blender --debug-all from the Command prompt, I get four iterations of "DEG_relations_tag_update: Tagging relations for update" followed by the four iterations of "Win32 Error# (0): The operation completed successfully."Between the two sets is "graph_id_tag_update: id=SCScene flags=LEGACY_0 source=USER_EDIT" Thanks

Ordinarily when I try to open it with an icon, I get the four iterations of "Win32 Error# (0): The operation completed successfully." and the "Unsupported Graphics Card or Driver" popup that I've seen others report. From my searching, it looks like some of the the others were solved by reinstalling, but that hasn't worked for me. Thanks

I uninstalled and re-installed through Steam. It seems to work.


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Can you use a PNG Alpha Channel to extrude?
I'm recreating some historical stone markers with the inscriptions etched in. My question is if I am able to get a png of the front etchings, would it be possible to extrude just the etching marks from the Alpha Channel and be able to boolean it into the face I want them in? I'm not very experienced in Alpha Channels in the first place, so I'm not even sure if theres a way to use them to be able to do this.

you can use the alpha channel as bump map or as displacement.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/173450/tracing-geometry-with-an-alpha-channel/173458#173458


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Giving Multiple Armatures One Parent
I'm starting to dabble in IK rigging and think I bit off more than I can chew. I have a 4 legged tank in which each leg is its own armature.
I want to be able to rig everything up so that when I move the center base of the tank upwards, the legs will move with it, as if if was lifting itself off the ground. My issue is how to take all four legs and parent their meeting point with one single bone, in which I can then parent the mesh of the body of the tank to.
I understand I more than likely have done all of this wrong, but hey, it's a learning experience. All four legs are rigged up correctly in that the have a range of motion that their meshes would allow. The four bones coming out of the middle are not connected to one another and do not themselves contribute to the movement of the legs. The movement begins where the leg mesh does, which hopefully can be understood better in the picture above.
I apologize if I haven't explained this well, I'm not well versed enough in rigging to know all the lingo and explain it better as of yet.

It's possible to do what you want.  But it's not a good idea.  Instead, use a single armature.  It will save you so much trouble, especially as a beginner.

As Nathan said, it's better to have a single armature, which will be the main animation tool (avoid mixing bones animation with object animation).
Check if all bones of the four legs have unique names (rename them if necessary), then select all four armatures and press Ctrl J to join them into one.
Then create in edit mode a new "center" bone, select the first bone of every leg, shift select the center bone and press Ctrl P (keep offset).
In this way in pose mode moving the center bone will  result in moving all four legs.
Then you can parent the center mesh to the center bone selecting the mesh, shift select the armature, go to pose mode, select the center bone, press Ctrl P (bone option).


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How to Connect a Convex Face To a Concave Edge That Fits its Shape Perfectly
I could not think of a different title that would make sense, so I apologize for any confusion. I'm modeling a fishing rod and am currently working on the reel handle. The face the handle will be extruded from is A, but it's staying as a just a single face this entire question. The long oval shaped piece that connects the handle, A, to the rest of the rod is C. This is the piece that allows the full motion of reeling, having a pivot point on both ends of it. My problem is that I need A to fit into B, which is the concave edge on on the inside of one side of C. When done, I can then fully extrude A out into a handle. Currently, I can't seem to find a solid solution of taking A and its convex circular shape and snapping it inside B and its concave shape. The vertices match up on one side of A and the convex edge of B, and I can fill in the gap left in C after A is inserted no problem, but its that inserting of A inside of B I can't figure out. I know I can Alt + M on the points that connect inside B no problem, but only half the points of A will be connected in properly. with the other half not flush and perfectly shaped and on the same plane, and leaving A not a perfect circular flat plane. I apologize that this is a confusing question, I can't figure out another way to explain it. I'll answer any questions I can to help explain it if needed.

You can get it there using Vertex Snapping

Enable vertex snapping
Set it to Active (this will snap the active vertex)
Select the circle and snap it to place

(You end up with some double vertices that need to be merged.)


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Using Wave Modifier instances in Animation node
In animation nodes is it possible to take an object data path output and run it with an instancer?
 I am trying to give a ghost type effect to the wave modifier on text.  Throught the wave of the text, I want to be able to see a slightly invisible version of where its going.
I can do what i want to an object, but the modifiers do not get instanced in animation nodes.
also it looks as if I am instancing it, however that is just the data from the wave modifier, as well as the wave modifier applied to the object. I cant get more than these 2 instances or manipulate the second instance (x,y,z space ect.)

Actions in Animation Nodes are abstractions of F-Curves, or possibly other data. So actions are not effective when it comes to animations that depends solely on data such as the current frame in this case.
If I understand what you want to do correctly, you can use the time offset parameter of the wave modifier. So, instance your objects using the Copy Full Object option to copy the modifiers from the source object to the instance, and modulate the time offset parameter using an attribute output node as follows:

Ghosting Value
What you can do is set the pass index of object to an arithmetic sequence, then in the shader, sample the object's pass index, and divide it by the number of instances as follows:

Omar your the man, How would you get these instances into a list, to add colors for each instance? Im trying to go from the object action output to invoke subprogram, but as far as I can tell it will not modify the colors, once it is brought into the shatder with the attribute node.

Sorry Omar, figured it out, didnt have the viewport on render

@NickSieben Also, make sure to check Deep Copy when editing mesh data such as vertex colors. Moreover, since your colors are merely evenly spaced grey scale values, you can set the Object Index of the objects and use the output from the Object Info node to color your objects. Let me know if you want me to elaborate on that.

yes I would appreciate if you could elaborate on that. Thank you

@NickSieben I elaborated on the coloring method. Feel free to ask a more specific question if you want.

Omar, Thanks for all the help. Adding this to another question. What I have is now text with this ghost effect.  And I want to use a boolean modifier with a sphere, so the text can grow out of nothing, if that makes any sense. but Once I apply the Boolean modifier It doesn't enable me to use the ghost effect with transparency.

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/128688/animation-nodes-and-boolean-modifier


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What is the Difference between Displacement Node Normal Node and displace modifier?
The Displacement node doesn't seem to be much different than a normal map, where as the displacement modifier will actually effect the geometry.  Am I missing something here, is there a difference in the node tree between normal mapping and displacement?

Displacement modifier: affect geometry directly
Normal map: affects polygons perceived orientation in regard to how they reacts to light
Displacement node: affect geometry when rendered (need to be rendering with cycles and turn on displacement in material settings)

Ok so displacement in the node tree you wont see in the viewport, just in cycles.  Does displacement in the node tree work with Eevee?

Correct (Cycles preview in viewport works though). Eevee doesn't support displacement yet.


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3d Grease pencil fill
When drawing in a 3d space with grease pencil, is there a way to fill a curved / endless plane. for example, If I draw a rectangle, with 2 square corners on one end and a radius on the other. And then Duplicate and drag over.  is it possible to fill The gap between the 2 grease pencil objects? I have not yet found if this is possible.

With the help of Animation Nodes, you can convert any 3D-mesh object to 3D-grease pencil object i.e., faces to fill and edges to stroke lines.

Oh cool! I am familiar with animation nodes, have even done a tutorial or 2 of yours, thank you btw. How would I achieve this through animation nodes?

To convert any Mesh object to 3D Grease Pencil object we need Animation Nodes with Extra Nodes(Builds available for Linux, Windows),
(1) First we have to get all the individual polygon (face) vertices using Mesh Object Node and Separate Polygons Node. Separate Polygons Node is needed because all
polygons are joined i.e., they are sharing some vertices,

(2) then convert a polygon vertices to a close (cyclic) grease pencil stroke with fill using GPencil Stroke Output Node.
(3) Because a mesh has many polygons (faces) so we are going to use the Loop Group Node (Loop Input) to convert all polygons to fill grease pencil strokes (cyclic).

(4) Now we have all strokes as output from the Loop Node, with GPencil Object Output Node we can convert them to a grease pencil object.

Happy Noding :)

I have tested it yesterday on Linux with the latest Blender 2.8 build and it is working. AN+Extra nodes build is available for Linux and Windows on the Graphicall (Links in the answer are updated). You have to install AN+Extra nodes build according to your OS. Can tell which OS you are using?

@NickSieben I think AN is not installed properly or not the latest one. Both links are different, there is a "Download" option just below the title. Anyway, download the AN + Extra Nodes build (a zip file) from https://blender.community/5cfab37c5996560ea6ced2e7/download/5cfab3e25996560ed2b774d4 and then rename it as "AnimationNodes". Remove the existing AN and install this new AN. Let me know if it works.

No, this is the correct version of python which is needed for latest Blender 2.8x. Are you still getting the error message in AN?

That download button is so small I never even noticed it! this works perfectly thank you!


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Texture won't appear except for when I press shift + z
I'm extremely new to Blender and I'm starting out simple, just making a box and texturing it. I'm following along with the video "TEXTURE MAPPING For Absolute Beginners - Blender Tutorial" by Surfaced Studio on YouTube, and did everything exact (or at least thought I did?) but I can't seem to get my texture to appear normally on my box.
When I press Shift + Z I can see it. After some googling I found that someone had the same issue, which was remedied by setting "Minimum Draw Type" to Texture instead of Solid. I don't seem have this option and can only find "Maximum Draw Type" (other people have had this problem too)
I know the answer here might be to download the latest version, but I'd first like to know if there's something I've done wrong, or if there's something I can do to fix this.
I'm using v2.78 and Cycles Render.

Well, this is embarrassing... But I am relieved at what a simple fix this was.
I found a different tutorial on textures and I repeated my process, except that this time I changed the Viewport Shading to Texture instead of Solid.


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Homography between two planes with rotation and translation
I generated two camera views using Blender with rotation and translation.
Now I want to know how to compute homography between camera view A to B?
I found how to compute homography for rotation only from opencv tutorials and blender stackexchange but as I mentioned only rotation is considered.


text:
White pixels around objects rendered with 2D Background
I'm new to Blender and have been trying to render objects against a 2D background using a shadow catching method posted by Andrew Price. Here's a link to the screenshot of the node structure (Node Setup).

It's a low quality demo but clearly shows white pixels where the object edges meet the background. Here is a link to the result (Test Result).

Does anyone have a fix? Thanks in advance!

I know it may seem counter-intuitive to uncheck anti-aliasing, but that might be introducing the edge.

You should do this like this: http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/19767/7777. Having passes with transparency eliminates the edges introduced with ID masks. ID masks are limited, see: http://blender.stackexchange.com/a/36089/7777

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


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Rotation stabilization resulting in weird effect
I'm using version 2.92 of Blender and recently started learning it with the help of tutorials. This is what led to my problem:

I set up two track markers on an imported image sequence in the "Tracking" workspace.
I successfully perform the tracking of the markers all the way through the image sequence.
I successfully perform a "location stabilization" using the two track markers. This results in the video left/right and up/down on screen in order for the point between the two track markers to stay in one place on screen.

This to give some context.
Now, when I try to preform a "rotation stabilization" with the same two track markers, instead of the expected result (which, I assume, would be the image tilting to and fro to keep the rotation angle between track markers constant) I just get an empty image. Interestingly enough this image changes color when I scrub back and forth on the timeline.
What am I doing wrong? I haven't found any info so far about this anywhere.


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Loopcut into many objects at once
Hey guys i am building a city and i want to make a loopcut into every single building from the bottom in the exact same point! Lets say i want every building to have a loopcut at 3 m from ground ...do ihave to do it in every building manually or there is a quicker way?

maybe use the knife? K to activate, Z to cut through, C to cut horizontally...

the only problem with that is that the city is not on a flat surface!  so everything is in different heights! i  was looking something less tedious than having to go building by building separately!

my bad I thought that it was possible to cut several objects at once with th knife

its ok mate  thanks anyway!

It may still be possible with the knife. If no building's bottom is above another buildings top. - Then: Do what moonboots suggested in the first comment and cut all buildings, but at an arbitrary height. Then press g twice and slide all loops to the bottom. (Make sure auto merge is turned off) And finally press g, z, 3 to move all loops up by 3m.

i will try that one thanks

Try to add a plane crossing all objects at the desired height for the loopcut, then pick that plane as a cutter in boolean modifiers properties (booleans should be added to all objects, there're ways to spread modifiers). This is hacky way (since cutting with non-manifold geometry and stuff boolean doesn't like) but it should work

@michaelh  Thanks man it  worked great!

Good to hear! Cheers!

Bmesh script.

Script to bisect each selected mesh globally 3  units above its bounding box lower corner.
Edit height = 3 to adjust.
Test script, select any or all of the objects to bisect, in OBJECT mode and press run script.
import bpy
from bpy import context
from mathutils import Vector
import bmesh

# global coordinates
height = 3
plane_no = (0, 0, 1)

meshes = set()
bm = bmesh.new()
for ob in context.selected_objects:
    if ob.type != 'MESH':
        continue
    me = ob.data
    if me in meshes:
        continue
    meshes.add(me)
    bm.from_mesh(me)
    mw = ob.matrix_world
    bbox = [mw @ Vector(b) for b in ob.bound_box]
    h = (bbox[1] - bbox[0])
    if h.length > height:
        print(f"Cutting {ob.name}")
        print(h, h.normalized(), bbox[0])
        mwi = mw.inverted()
        bbox[0].z += height
        bmesh.ops.bisect_plane(
                bm,
                geom=sum((bm.faces[:], bm.edges[:]), []),
                plane_no=plane_no,
                plane_co=mwi @ bbox[0],
                )
        bm.to_mesh(me)
        me.update()
        bm.clear()
bm.free()

bF to the rescue :D

Def not the master of the quick illustration. Find peek can be slippery took 3 goes to get that bad one, wanted to switch into edit mode .. must have swiped a lamp..

my problem is
A)Many buildings are combined as one object
B)i have a terrain that has different heights! so i want each edge in the z axis to be subdivided so that te distance from the ground will be x

Please edit any extra detail (like this) into question. Maybe a pic or two too.

Sounds like a good place for the Bisect tool, here, from the T toolbar, all objects selected, and all faces selected in Edit mode:

Settings adjusted in its  F9 panel. (I'm cutting at 1m)
EDIT: To achieve this via the UI, if all the buildings start at different heights:

Open a Timeline, and stash all the objects' locations as a keyframe. (With all selected, I, key Locations)
On another frame,  Header menu > Object > Align Objects > Negative Sides, in Z. Other alignments, too, if that makes the tool easier to use. (Key again, if you like.)
Proceed to Bisect, as above,  in Edit mode.
Delete the 'aligned' key, if you've made one. The buildings will jump back to their original positions.

i dont have a plane as a terrain! my terrain is uniformed with hills so i cant bisect from a plane! (if i try to bisect i get wired angle results)

In that case, you should probably consider finalizing your modeling process on the buildings before scattering them on your terrain.

if i add a loop cut i each building can i somehow manage each selected point  afterwards to be a specific distance from the bottom?

@alexkar See edit, if all your buildings start at different heights.

Issue looks like multiple buildings at diff levels in one object  https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/215610/loopcut-into-many-objects-at-once#comment364104_215619  could be for the THB (too hard basket)

@batFINGER Separate by loose parts. But if they aren't loose parts.. it could be.. the 'That'll Learn Ya', basket, as they say, over the river, in Cornwall.

"Whale oil beef hooked"

"Toyed moy 'orse to a gaap in the 'edge, aan, when oi kem baak, there it was, gone!". etc. :D


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Change Of 2D Shape
I am animating a piston/cylinder arrangement sectioned along its length. Part of this requires depicting pressurised gas flowing along an external pipe running the length of the cylinder from one end where the gas is normally contained under the piston to the other end where it is applied to the other side of the piston. I want to represent the gas as a 2D shape flush with the sectioned faces of the cylinder but it is required to turn through a 90 degree bend and I can't think of a way to effect this in Blender.
I thought I might be able to use a moving mask of some sort, the effect of which would only be visible on the gas in the pipe, but which itself would be invisible in the final render, giving the effect of the gas flowing up the pipe as the mask is moved along the pipe.
I also considered and tried using shape keys, but this required managing multiple co-located vertices for the bend and was just too difficult and confusing.
Can anyone recommend or suggest a more efficient and effective way of achieving this effect in Blender? I'm using v2.91 at the moment.
Thanks.

Hmm I think maybe  I've completely misunderstood your question. You want to depict the gas? If so, a shader might be a better approach.

"I thought I might be able to use a moving mask of some sort" - if you're talking about a texture alpha, I think that could work - just straighten up the 90 deg bend in the UV map, then animate the mask in a straight line

For the stem of the arrow, you can use a subdivided plane, given a Curve modifier, aimed at the path you would like it to follow. As you move the stem along its deforming axis, it will follow the curve, deforming as it goes. So far, so good.
There are 2 possible challenges:
How to give the arrow a head which follows the curve, but does not deform.

Give the stem a length-ways subdivision, along with the many transverse ones.
Make a triangular arrow-head, and vertex-parent it to a triangle of vertices near the end of the stem. It will follow the stem, and rotate with its tip, without deforming. Place the head just far enough above the stem, to avoid Z-fighting.

How to give the arrow a continuous outline

In this case, I've used Freestyle, the Line Set selecting the 'Arrow' collection, and set to pick up External Contour edges, with some strategically Freestyle-Marked edges, too, to cover the overlaps with the background curve.

It would probably be better to render the arrow as a completely separate pass, relying on External Contours alone, against transparent film. Then you wouldn't have to worry about edges being suppressed by background objects. You could render the outline as a pass on its own, with no fill.. whatever suits your purpose, and composite it over the background model.

Thank you for these suggestions; I'll explore them a bit more.

Thank you for these suggestions; I'll explore them a bit more. My original explanation isn't as clear as I had thought - the 'arrowhead' is just the shape formed by the cavity the gas fills at the top of the cylinder, and changes as soon as the piston starts to move down, but the subdivided rectangle sounds promising.


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Pivot point changing from median point to individual origins when rotating
I select multiple objects, I start rotating them with Median pivot point selected, I write a numerical value to rotate them precisely (e.g. 90 degrees), BUT what happens is that Blender rotate the selected objects with Individual origins pivot pont instead of Median pivot point.
Essentially, if I simply rotate multiple objects manually, with median pivot point selected, everything works fine, BUT if I instead write a numerical value while rotating, for whatever reason, the pivot point "method" changes from median pivot point to individual origins.
Hope it's clear.

Hello, it is either a bug or you have a conflicting keymap (I don't think it is even possible to change origin setting when the rotation already started). What version are you using ?

I'm using 2.91. How can I check if there's a conflicting keymap?


text:
How can I create and keep these faces together nicely?
My two questions are here, the rest of the text is a lot more context. Photo related to the context posted below.

How to create a square face in a larger face of which does not consist of perpendicular lines?
How to extrude out while keeping the sides flush with surrounding diagonal faces?

I'm in the process of making a small boat. The inside faces of it slope slightly inwards to the boat from top to bottom to create a "bowl," as well as the sides slightly splay outwards from back to front. I'm trying to create a bench in it that extrudes out from the back towards the middle of the boat that reaches from one side of the boat to the other, where someone would work the rudder. I'm also trying to create one in the middle of the boat for the oarman, so the only connections from that bench to the boat are from the sides, with space below. I'm very very new to Blender so I apologize if this is a very easy solution, but I can't for the life of me figure out a way to do that that isn't super janky.
CONTEXT FOR QUESTION 1. This issue is in the faces of the inside of the boat, being able to neatly create a face inside it to extrude. The faces are of irregular shape sow ith the default "inset faces" option, I can't find a way to make the face I will extrude be perfectly rectangular. I can do it by eye but I would definitely rather not if there's another, smoother way. My workaround solution has been subdividing the faces to get my desired height of the bench, but then it leads to my second problem.
CONTEXT FOR QUESTION 2. My second issue is when I can extrude, keeping everything flush with the splaying sides. This really only pertains with the bench in the back of the boat. When I can get a face I like that I can extrude, when I pull out towards the middle of the boat, the sides of it continue straight while the sides of the boat splay outwards. I cannot find a way to keep the sides of the boat and the sides of the bench together besides stretching it to fit by eye after I extrude. Is there a way to "snap" them together before extruding so when I pull it, it stays connected with the sides of the boat?
I apologize if these are very easy fixes, I just for the life of me can not find a clear fix anywhere else online.
Here's the boat in question, just for basic reference. That middle bench would be about where the x axis line is in the image, and the back bench coming out along the y axis towards you.

My previous answer won't give a correct method.
Actually the Snap option would work correctly if it was compatible with GG (slide vertex along an edge) but it's not the case yet.
What you should do to get edges perpendicular to the X, Y and Z axis is use the knife tool: K to activate, C to cut orthogonally to an axis, Z to cut through.

Once you've created an edge, you can cut again to create a parallel one, or simply select it and bevel with CtrlB.

Then again use the knife tool for vertical edges:

And when you begin to extrude, constraint on the axis you want: E to extrude then X to move the extrusion on the X axis.

Is that the vertex option for the Snap? My sides stretch across the x axis from back to front, like a coffin. When I extrude out like your 4th picture, it still doesn't seem to stick on the sides when pulled back. One other quick question pertaining to it as well- my boat sides are quadrilaterals, so the loop cut option when making the cuts on the sides to extrude out like you, how can I make the cut vertical and not conform to the edges of the face like yours seems to do?

I'm not sure about all you say but I realize my recommendations won't be correct, what you can do is use the knife tool, press K to activate, press C to cut orthogonally, Z to cut through, I've edited my answer.


text:
Blender 2.80 GLTF Import and Export Issues
I am having an issue with Blender 2.80 on Ubuntu 19.10 Linux. If I attempt to import any GLTF files, Blender crashes immediately and I can't find any logs in my /tmp/ directory.
The second part of the issue is a specific .blend scene I'm working with. When I try to export the file using the native GLTF/GLB exporter on Blender 2.80 I am unable to see textures in online GLTF viewers (like https://gltf-viewer.donmccurdy.com/). If I export as seperate GLTF + textures + bin I see no textures folder.
Here are the files I am working with: https://send.firefox.com/download/3ca124498928be3c/#xYGd--ZDuHM0fq_x_lrCnw.
Appreciate any thoughts on this and whether I should report this as a bug.

For importing glTF, have you tried a newer copy of Blender than 2.80?  For exporting textures, glTF supports a PBR-based material system, but not arbitrary texture hookups.  See the Blender Manual for more detailed information on how to export materials to glTF.

I tried updating to the 2.82a version and it the import works perfectly now. Thanks! I am still a bit new to blender and the PBR-based material system. When I import my .blend scene there is no Principled BSDF node in the node diagram. Is there a way I can add it in?


text:
Frameserve to external ffmpeg?
I want to frameserve rendered images to an external ffmpeg binary for x264rgb/lossless encoding (its much faster/smaller/efficient than PNG/FFV1). In Blender 2.7x there was OUTPUT->FRAMESERVER that could be used for that (via PPM format - like this) but that function seems to be removed in 2.8x.
I also tried cmdline rendering but its not honoring the pipe (it uses the '-' char literally creating local files):
blender -b ~/Blender/test.blend -o - -x 1 -F BMP -a | ffmpeg -hide_banner -y -framerate 30 -i - -c:v libx264rgb -preset veryfast -tune animation -qp 0 -pix_fmt rgb24 blender.mkv

External renderfarm software (flamenco, crowdrender, etc) are not acceptable as they are either too bloated or not freely available (registration). Rendering all to BMP first and encoding afterwards with ffmpeg is not a goal either. Its wasting too much HDD space.
So the question is: How to frameserve to an external ffmpeg binary?
Blender 2.82
Arch Linux 5.6.15

Most of your render time isnt spend on creating a mpg, personally i prefer to work with 2 passes, one render pass, saving frames to png, next pass a vfx-file.blend to render it, (keeping me safe from blender crashes) then for quick render previews (on windows) i use virtualdub, Most often after rendering i have to do video editing so for the final product i prefer the builtin encoder as it does compress better with loosless settings.

https://lists.ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-user/2015-July/027532.html
First Solution
My first solution involves taking the rendered image, saving it to a single tmp.png, then appending that to an ffmpeg mp4 at the end of every frame.
First we need to bootstrap
ffmpeg -r 24 -f concat -safe 0 -i video-input-list.txt -safe 0  -pix_fmt yuv420p -crf 23 -r 24 -shortest -y video-from-frames.mp4

video-input-list.txt looks something like this:
file 'tmp.png'

next we need to copy the frame's boostrapped video into a temp video with do_ffmpeg_with_tmp.sh :
ffmpeg -i input1.mp4 -filter_complex "concat=n=2:v=1:a=0" -r 24 -f concat -safe 0 -i video-input-list.txt -safe 0  -pix_fmt yuv420p -crf 23 -r 24 -shortest -y video-from-frames.mp4```
This ends up copying the video to a temp as well since the input cannot be the same as the output in ffmpeg.

Next we need to call all this in Blender :
```import bpy
def render_image():
    print("after render", bpy.data.filepath)
    scene = bpy.context.scene
    scene.render.image_settings.file_format = 'PNG'
    scene.render.filepath = "tmp.png"
    bpy.ops.render.render(write_still = 1)
    os.system("do_ffmpeg_with_tmp.sh")
    # increment to next frame

while bpy.context.scene.frame_current <= bpy.context.scene.frame_end:
    render_image()
    bpy.context.scene.frame_set(bpy.context.scene.frame_current +1 )

This is all to say that doing it with a video and image buffer that ffmpeg concats at the end of every frame is doable, but image sequences are better. if you're worried about space, you could write a script similar to this one that changes the location of the storage after every 1000 frames or so, then compile the files together later through image sequences and video concatenations.
Second Solution - piping output
I looked into getting a pipe out from blender:
The main issue is that blender is noisy and piping out
If you want blender to pipe you need to have it return a png image and flush stdout.
ffmpeg cannot read a piped in image without image2pipe https://superuser.com/questions/426193/multiple-png-images-over-a-single-pipe-to-ffmpeg-no-file-writes-to-disk.
We convert image to png data and send it accross the noisy wire.
import base64
import zlib
import struct
import sys
import os
def render_image():
    print("after render", bpy.data.filepath)
    scene = bpy.context.scene
    scene.render.image_settings.file_format = 'PNG'
    scene.render.filepath = "./tmp.png"
    bpy.ops.render.render(write_still = 0)

def png_to_base64(png_bytes):
    return 'data:image/png;base64,' + base64.b64encode(png_bytes).decode()

def img_to_png(blender_image):
    width = blender_image.size[0]
    height = blender_image.size[1]
    buf = bytearray([int(p * 255) for p in blender_image.pixels])

    # reverse the vertical line order and add null bytes at the start
    width_byte_4 = width * 4
    raw_data = b''.join(b'\x00' + buf[span:span + width_byte_4]
                        for span in range((height - 1) * width_byte_4, -1, - width_byte_4))

    def png_pack(png_tag, data):
        chunk_head = png_tag + data
        return (struct.pack("!I", len(data)) +
                chunk_head +
                struct.pack("!I", 0xFFFFFFFF & zlib.crc32(chunk_head)))

    png_bytes = b''.join([
        b'\x89PNG\r\n\x1a\n',
        png_pack(b'IHDR', struct.pack("!2I5B", width, height, 8, 6, 0, 0, 0)),
        png_pack(b'IDAT', zlib.compress(raw_data, 9)),
        png_pack(b'IEND', b'')])

    return png_bytes

render_image()
bpy.data.images['Render Result'].save_render("/tmp/tmp.png")
r2 = bpy.data.images.load("/tmp/tmp.png")
print("*#*#*#")
print(img_to_png(r2))
#file = open('/tmp/stufff.png','wb')
#file.write(img_to_png(r2))
#file.close()
sys.stdout.flush()
print("*#*#*#")

To compensate for the noise we use a runner:
import sys
from subprocess import check_output
render_progress = check_output(['blender','--background','--python','pipe_image.py','scripting_ffmpeg.blend'])
msg = render_progress.split('*#*#*#')[1]

print(msg)
sys.stdout.flush()

This is what we use to pipe png files out. However the only remaining problem to be solved is to pass the frame in through the runner and find the amount left in the render, and to put the runner in a while loop to output piped data.
This should provide piped image output to the ffmpeg. Its a very complex process.Maybe even needlessly so. I explored it though.

I made a script which allows direct rendering to external ffmpeg (via temp file) from Blender. Might be useful to someone. Here you go.


text:
Problems with set up Wacom pen middle click button...it is impossible to rotate view
My Blender version is 2.83.1
my Operating System is MacOS 10.15.5
Wacom Drivers 6.3.39-1
so...if I try to set up the first button as a middle click for having a rotating navigation control on my pen when I am in Blender, It doesn't work.
But if I do this in preference in Wacom panel for all other applications, then It works. But if I add Specific preference in the Wacom Panel for Blender, it doesn't work.
Is there anybody out there who can help me with this problem?
Thank you very much

Have you tried setting it up the way you want it for Blender as default and then just changing Wacom settings for other applications?

I never use macs, but on other OS if you just set the driver to use a button as middle mouse button, it works fine in blender.

Martynas Žiemys - No, I haven't. But I don't know how to set Blender as default.

Susu - Before it worked very well. Suddenly it stopped recognizing the Settings. I tried to reinstall Blender, Wacom drivers but nothing worked.


text:
Why are my textures not showing but just the texture color?
I have been trying to make a knife weapon of a game I'm making. However I have a problem where I import the images knife parts, and it does not show the real image, but just the color of the image.
Is there anyway to fix that?
Thanks]1

Hello and welcome :). You need to UV unwrap your model if you want to use textures.

THANKS Jachym Michal, I fix it!


text:
Why does my mesh disappear when I enter Weight Paint or Vertex paint mode?
I have a problem where every time I enter Weight paint mode or Vertex paint mode, my mesh disappears; leaving the bones behind. Is there anyway to fix that?

only a guess, have you pushed [ / ] in this mode to isolate the view?

I did pressed it, it won't work, but thanks for your help!

if you pressed it try alt+h in the isolated mode to reveal if you  hid something.


text:
What ever I export my modeled weapon to UE4 or Unity I look around and loses edges to another
I have problem where I export my gun models into Unreal engine or Unity, as I look around my gun model it loses edges to another (what ever I look to the other side it loses an edge, but when I look to the other side, the other side I just looked at before gets back, and the other side gets lost). This does not happen in blender but in Unreal engine and Unity it does that glitch.
Any ways to try to fix that? I left down images so you know what I mean.

I am not sure I understand the problem but it looks like the normals of your faces are pointing in the wrong direction. Blender doesn't cull back faces by default but unity does. To fix it select your model, go into edit mode, select all faces, and press SHIFT N

Thanks man it did help me fix my problem, although that it's a bit complicated but I will get the hang of it. :)

You should look into backface culling and face normal orientation

Yeah sure thanks man


text:
Material preview not working, just shows glitch moveable look texture
What ever I go to the material viewer my texture doesn't show but instead shows grey out texture.
Also what ever I move the view the grey texture just moves outside the model.
Are there some ways I could fix that?

Looks like this:
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/204297/amd-gpu-material-in-material-preview-mode-and-rendered-mode-is-entirely-gra?noredirect=1&lq=1


text:
Blender 2.8: How to select edges behind other edges when in numpad 1 mode
In a tutorial I am seeing the guy go into 'Mesh Mode' where he is able to select edges behind other edges.
However I am unable to do this in 2.8.
When I select it just selects the closest edge.

The closest edge to the mouse, or the closest edge to the camera?

the best solution to this problem is the border occlusion addon -- download it here video how its works

To be able to select occluded geometry you must enable the viewport option X-Ray.
Either use the button on the 3D View Header or press access the with Z key Shading Pie Menu > Toggle X-Ray.

As of 20190518 the x-ray option can be found under the viewport options (little arrow to the right of the shader options) but only in solid or wireframe mode (not lookdev or rendered). The x-ray symbol as shown in the answer above is not there anymore.

Is there no way to do this without changing the viewport drawing mode??
I'd love just a 'allow backface selection' toggle, I know where the verts are on the top of a box, seems silly to toggle the mode, select, then toggle it back for every selection.

You can toggle XRray from any viewport shading mode.

get the border occlusion addon and save your time


text:
armature disappeared in animation panel only, shows up in other panels

Not sure why this is occuring. I checked every toggle I could find! And none appeared to be wrong.
Tried option + h in pose mode.
I can't figure it out.

You are in Local view, it means you have selected an object and pressed / to isolate, press / again to exit:


text:
Make freestyle draw on curved edges
I have a lego figure I ham trying to draw freestyle lines on (eevee)  and where the top of his body meets the front there is no line because it is curved but I want to put a freestyle line there

I would just edit the crease angle property so it detects the higher angles.

thanx daddi jimbo


text:
Cycles black artifacts on transparent materials
so I am experimenting with Minecraft Grass models and I notice on the grass models that there are black artifacts when in rendered view. There are no overlapping faces or double vertices, but there is still artifacts. I would think that it was z fighting, but there are no overlaps. Anyone know how to fix this? Thank You!  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qvhlAMONyJKRXgJZq1TZjSi_ydmUSrv4/view?usp=sharing

Well, here's going to be the really tricky (or tedious) part - it seems that each of the "grass plane bundles" have 2 duplicate faces which is what are causing your shading atifacts - deleting the extra faces fixes it - problem is, there are thousands:

Given this, you will probably have to look at how all the "bundles" are instanced, to see if you can remove the "doubling" effect that way.

Thank you! This worked. Also you can only really see the two that will be in front of the camera so it wont be that big of a deal.


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Is it possible to flip the mirrored object?
This is a general 3D question, if this is possible in an application like Maya, 3Ds Max, etc, that would be nice to know. But I am using Blender right now.
I am wondering whether it's possible to flip the mirrored object; normally when you mirror something, obviously, it flips. That's the definition of mirroring.
What I get:

What I want:

Is this possible using some sort of mirror modifier?

Isn't that what the array modifier does?

That's NOT the definition of mirroring. @Ron Jensen is right, you're looking for the Array modifier

I realize this is what the array modifier does, but I am just wondering whether you can do this with the mirror mod somehow.
I can try to figure out a workaround myself I guess. But theres a really neat thing with the mirror mod, called "Bisect"; if the array mod had this, that would be nice; all it has is "Weld". Looking up "Bisect" on google leads to a different result unfortunately.

You could try with collection instance like in here, BUT only steps 1 and 2: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/184426/ctrlm-interactive-mirror-is-not-taking-the-objects-rotation-into-account/184429#184429

@LukasKawalec Could you elaborate more about bisect in mirror modifier? It's hard to think what is the "bisect" in mirror modifier when people are not familiar with other 3D tools. And for me, a coder, bisect seems to be a common sorting, searching algorithm method. And also some usage scenario would be appreciated.

@Emir Unfortunately I don't think you can have the instanced object bisect the real one, which would be nice in my case... but that is really cool, I will probably be going back to that if I need something like that

@HikariTW https://youtu.be/SWG5AyACIVM hope that explains it

I highly recommend you to explain more about your final goal, so someone can describe different methods  for you to try. Because, just with the images, collection instance is an option,. But i don't know if you need an specific movement or an animation or an specific manipulation

@Emir The reason I haven't explained my final goal is because it's a very personal, creative, and stupid idea, but I do have reasons for it. Nonetheless I made a short video for you to help explain.
https://youtu.be/9fKimDvAUvc

Have you seen rotational arrays using object offsets? Or using the object offset to build a single object

I know about all of that, actually; this is part of a goal of mine to radial array with my own twist around it, which currently requires bisecting the mesh in degrees like 180 (2 copies), 120 (3 copies), 90 (4 copies (can just use the mirror modifier twice though), 72 (5 copies), 60 (6 copies), etc etc etc. But yes, I know lots of ways to radial array.
One of my ideas was to use the mirror mod here, but it's kind of superseded by the bisect thing I am figuring out right now.


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How do you get your objects local transformations back after applying them?
Say I have a cube, and I rotate it randomly. I set the transform orientation from Gloabl to Local, and I move on the Z axis. The cube won't move up, it will move in whatever Z axis it has instead.
Now, say I go to Object, and Apply All Transforms; now when I move on the Z axis, it will move up and down.
Is there anyway to get the local transformation back after applying them?

As far as I know there's no way to recover those applied transform without undoing. One solution could be copying the transforms to an empty and then copy them back again from the empty when you finish.