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Geometry nodes point distribute

I wanted to create a grass field, and when i added point distribute the grass falled down.Please help me.
geometry nodes:

i would first recommend using a newer blender version...

What version of blender are you using? Aside from your current problem, blender's geometry nodes have changed in the most recent version(s). I would recommend learning the "new way" first, to save yourself troubles down the line (Version 3.1+).

You probably made it in 2.93 following some tutorial, updated to 3.0, and had a total failure, which will be even bigger (actually the attribute comes back in business) in 3.2

The problem is you are using an outdated version 2.93 geometry nodes setup.
The updated correct setup is:


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Influence Textures
I am new to Blender 2.8 and how to properly use nodes for materials. I have used the Influence menu for textures in Blender Internal (2.79), but I don't know what these specific nodes would be:

I have no clue what node could be used for Stencil, as well as a few other tabs. Is this any way possible to access these in node form?

For  stencil effect you can use a simple mix node, driving the mix factor with the alpha value of the image (if it has one) or using the black/white values as in my example. Black in the mix factor input means use the upper image (color 1 socket), white drives to the bottom (color 2 socket).
Use a color invert node if necessary.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Light Behind Texture (Transmission)
I have a model that uses a transmission texture. What the texture is suppose to do is when the lighting is behind the it, it will give the other side a somewhat glow effect as if the light traveled through it.
I'm sure it's subsurface, but I'm unsure. I also read a similar case to a recent question I asked, but the results didn't come out correct. Does this only work in Cycles, or can the nodes by accessed in Eevee engine?
Yes, the model is a Nintendo model, and one texture is suppose to have a glow effect when light passes through.

Subsurface Scattering may be what you're looking for, you also have Translucent BSDF, it will be much lighter to calculate but it won't take the thickness of the object into account, so you should try these two

Subsurface and translucent (just tested here) work without any extra steps? What have you  actually tried prior to asking this question? ( Does this only work in Cycles, or can the nodes by accessed in Eevee engine? takes about 2 minutes to figure out.) Perhaps you need to refine your question with what your actual problem is about.

to add to Leander, did you try the Transmission factor in the Principled BSDF and if so what's not working for you? Which "recent question" are you referring to?

I was referring to this question. https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/157664/shine-through-texture?noredirect=1#comment267256_157664

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


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RGB to Intensity in Nodes
This time, I wish to replicate another Blender Internal process involving the RGB tab.

Here is a few examples of what I am trying to achieve in the node editor.

In this image, the UV map is using alpha transparency, but as indicated by the arrow and circle the RGB to Intensity tab is unchecked.

In this image, the tab is checked, and allows the color outline above to appear the selected color, which is pink, while leaving the black portions to disappear.
Is there a way to replicate this process using nodes in EEVEE rendering? I've tried and could not figure out the same results. If this question is already answered or is similar to another one, please direct me to it.

This setup should replicate alpha transparency in eevee.


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Reverting an object back to mirrored state (for symmetrical editing) after "APPLY" in Modifier panel was used

I created an animal body using planes, extruded it, then mirrored the extrusion. 2. I then clicked "APPLY" in the modifier panel so that I could extrude the legs individually in different positions on either side of the mirrored halves. Everything is fine up to here
Now I need to get back to where I can edit with symmetry (like you can do right after a mirror) and I can't find how to do that.

you can symmetrize your object (Mesh > Symmetrize) or cut half of your object and use the Mirror modifier again, but in both case you will loose the unsymmetrical half you've created, is it what you want? It's not clear

Delete half of your mesh, add a mirror modifier. Now you can tweak your mesh and all changes will be replicated across the selected axis.


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my sculpting tool is kind a hard to use, anybody knows how to change?
So, I am new to blender, actually to 3d softwares and started learning on blender, I was watching a "blender guru" video, was working on modeling mode, object mode etc and when reaches sculpting, in the video he does like the easiest thing on earth, but in my pc I need to use the stylus like 30x in the same area to make a bit diferrence.
Didn't found any solution online.
Anyone know how to help?
(Sorry bad english)

try increasing the strength of the brush.

already did, not work

man... i cant believe... it was THE SIZE OF THE BRUSH... man im so dumb

your not dumb, you're just a beginner. :)  even experts make mistakes like that every now and then. :)

I didn't understand your question. Are you looking for better affordable options than stylus? I recommend you the wacom intuos pen & touch art. But unless you just want to sculpt in blender or to digital painting you will rarely need it I guess. I have the small model and I can't complain.
watch these:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW79bRD6aj0&t=57s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fEFbzKz8-g

hey man, sorry, now i saw my question didn't have much coherence
im already know about stylus and art and general, im only new on 3d
but in the video, the guy was sculpting so easy, and in my software wasnt, i saw modifiers not applyed could affect the sculpting mod, but already have applyed, already increased the strenght of brush, but the sculpting keeps hard for some reason
btw: others objects are not this hard, they are normal

hey man, thanks for trying to help ^^
already solved, was just the size of the brush, it seems a bit bugged for me, or its just a blender thing that i need to be used to
anyway, really thanks

Good thing you solved it.


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How can I scale something with actual measurements in meter,cm,etc?
What a want to do is a big cylinder which is going to have a diameter of .285 m and do several cut loops but when I want to do an scale and type the units of that cut loop (for example 0.335 m) in meters it gives me an smaller circle instead of a bigger one and that's incorrect due to the units of the original cylinder.

The scale feature is relative, so when you type a number, that number is a multiplier (e.g. if you type 3, it will make the loop 3 times bigger, not 3 m wide). Blender is not very good for CAD work, so you'll need to eye ball it or download some addons

@Tareyes Do you know any add on that could help me with this?

just search for "CAD addons" on google, there are a bunch of them, I don't feel comfortable recommending any specific addon because I have never used them, so I don't know which is best

As mentioned, Scale is unitless, it's just a multiplier for the actual Dimensions.
The only solution is to divide the Final Dimension by the Current Dimension (FD/CD). You can type that directly into the scale value, Blender calculates it for you. So in your case type .335 / .285 which will result in a Scale of 1,17544 and your loop will have the correct dimension.

When doing a lot of dimensioned work, can be useful to have a collection of home-made measures around to use as snap targets.
So for example, in this case, I've CtrlR cut a loop into the cylinder, and P separated the selection into a new object. Then you can set its dimensions in the 'Dimensions' section of the Transform panel in the 3D View CtrlA > Apply the scale after doing this.. of course, you can give the object a useful name.
With snap set to 'Vertex' and 'Active' and snaps set to influence all transforms, SShiftZ scaling other loops in XY, can be snapped to the measure.

Once a few dimensions have been set this way, nearly all others can be taken from existing parts, temporarily duplicating bits to snap to.

In the properties menu, the fifth option, scene properties gives you the option to work in different units including metric and specify units such as centimeters or meters. You can see the overall scale of your objects in object mode in the "N" "properties panel"

The problem is that I'm already working on meters


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Simplifying overly complicated meshes created by arrays and curves?
I've been using arrays and curves to create vines and strands of hair on models
It gives me a lot of control, but when I convert them to a mesh to edit them for 3D printing, but the meshes are crazy complicated and the make blender unstable.
Is there a way to reduce the amount of geometry in a controlled way so that I still have smooth surfaces. The below image is one of the simpler ones. Some of them get insane. Particularly when I use a subdivision surface modifier.
I'm looking for a better way to do things, but until I find one I'm sticking with this.

If you use mesh arrayed along a curve, make sure that the object is not too high in polygons, so for example don't apply any Subdivision Surface modifier (or keep it low). If you've already applied the Subdivision Surface modifier, you can use tools to simplify your mesh, maybe the safest is X > Limited Dissolve and play with the Angle value in the Operator box (bottom left of your 3D view). You can also try CtrlE > Un-Subdivide.
You can also play with the curve's Resolution value (Properties panel > Object Data > Shape > Resolution Preview), the number will determine the amount of segments between 2 vertices of your curve, and therefore the number of vertices you'll have once converted to mesh.
If you use a curve profile rather than a mesh object, don't forget to set the resolution for the profile as well.


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Why aren't my edge loops scaling from the center?
When I use Edge Loop Select and try scale the edge it doesn't seem to scale evenly. It is off center or large on one side than the other, even if the object is symmetrical.
It looks as if the scale isn't centered on the center of the loop but somewhere else instead.

have you checked the Transform Pivot Point panel settings?

I found out through trial and error that it was "Set Bounding Box to Center". I was scaling based on the first edge that I selected when I created my loop.

The answer is to select "move Bounding Box to Center". I had it on "Active Element".


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Making the "Object mode" pose and the Edit mode" pose the same?
I don't know the correct language to use, but I've got a rigged model and I've positioned it how I want it to be in Pose mode. Everything looks great in Object mode, but when I go to Edit mode my model snaps back to its default resting position. Which makes it very difficult edit it.
I'd like to set the pose to be the same in all modes.
I'm going to 3D print this rather than render or animate it.

In the modifier you can enable the On Cage option and, in Edit mode, the mesh will appear as it is when posed (even though the gizmos will stay at the non-modified position, which is unfortunate imho):

If you want your mesh to definitely take the Pose position and don't need anymore armature, apply the Armature modifier.
If you want to keep the armature and you want it to keep the new Rest position as well, follow the method described here by Jaroslav: Apply the Armature modifier, select the armature, switch to Pose mode and CtrlA > Apply Pose as Rest Pose, and give back an Armature modifier to your object with the armature as Object.

You have to click both icons in the root modifier not the single first one


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How do I model a Sailor Moon style "hair Meatball" using only geometry?
I'm making a model in Blender that I'm going to 3D print. So everything needs to be done in geometry, or in a form that can be converted into geometry. rather than using an effects plugin.
I want my character to have sailor moon style "meatball" buns on the side of their head, but I'm having trouble making something that looks good.

I want something the looks like the meatball in the picture below, but with fewer - more pronounced - strands of hair so that they are easy to paint and highlight. What techniques could I try to make this effect?
I only need the meatball, the rest is not a problem.
At the scale that I plan to print, the meatball would be about 1cm diameter.

Hello and welcome. Please don't post the same question more than once. If your previous question was put on hold, address raised the issues by editing it so it can be reopened rather than post a new one, otherwise see What should I do if no one answers my question?

There was a boilerplate at the top of my question suggesting that I do exactly this. Presumably one of the admins put it there. The question was closed so nobody could answer it. I wasn't really left with many other options.

Here is something that looks a bit like, and as it's only 1 cm...
You could create a UV Sphere with a lot of Rings (the amount depending on the printer capacity I guess), duplicate to have a Shrinkwrap target, hide the second sphere, back to the first one, select some edges, enable the Proportional Editing option, scale or rotate or move to tweak the edges, as the Shrinkwrap is on, it keeps a spherical shape:

Apply the Shrinkwrap, select one ring out of 2 with the Ring Select + Checker Desselect + Select Edge Loops method, scale except on Z axis:

Give it and apply a Subdivision Surface modifier in order to smooth:

Test: Poles closer together:

After a bit of scale and Subdivision Surface:

I like it, is there a way to get the poles closer together?

sure, see my edit, you just need to move them with the Shrinkwrap on, when you're glad, apply the Shrinkwrap and scale and so on (well I guess you need to be careful with overlapping faces)

I was messing around with cast modifier -> sphere and moving it around in edit mode.  Seems to be workable in a pinch.

Yes I also thought about it but haven't tried. I've just edited, actually you don't need bevel, just a Subsurface, which reduces the chance to get overlapping faces I guess


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Deforming a complex object by shrinking or expanding the bottom only?
I want to be able to deform a complex object by shrinking the base but leaving the top as it is.
For example, if I had a square I'd end up with a trapezoid, while a cylined would be an inverted cone, but done on a much more complicated object like a building (So top story is disproportionately large and the bottom is disproportionately small. As if you were standing at the bottom and looking up at it with a wide angle lense?
I intend to 3D print the model.

You can do it with a Lattice modifier (you need to create a lattice cage, scale it in Object so that it contains your object, then deform it in Edit mode):

You can also use the Simple Deform modifier (Taper mode):

Taper Modifier, I'm an idiot for not thinking of that.

Also you can create an empty to decide how you want it to act on the deformation


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2D Line Strokes Turn Thin; Don't Know how to Change Them Back
While trying to make a 2D animation in blender 2.8, I have come across an issue that I'm not sure how to change. I am very new to the program, so I don't know how it can be fixed.
I had been using the default "Draw Ink" tool to make my lines. One time I opened the project and every single stroke I made turned thin- along with the lines on every previous frame.

This is what the lines are supposed to look like.

This is how they actually appear; only the onion layers have what I drew.
I haven't been using any modifiers and all blender settings have been reset to the factory settings. Nothing seems off about the original brush as well. Is there any way to change the lines back to the way they were before?

In the grease pencils properties, you have two properties that affect the stroke thickness.
These are applied to the selected layer, to have each stroke shown a different size at the same time, means each stroke is on a different layer.


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Mirror modifier not working
I'm hoping someone can help here - When I try to mirror the saucer, the window cutouts around the rim, are not applied to the mirror. However, two further window cut outs (Not visible here)  in the top of the saucer do appear correctly in the mirrored image.

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

I'm not sure what you're talking about, the windows that we can see on your first picture on the left are another object, so it won't be affected by the Mirror modifier. Also, apply the rotation of your object so that the Mirror axis are correct, and maybe put the Edge Split below the Mirror

They are another object - Glass, but the hull has already had the cutouts for the windows applied, so I expected that the cutouts should be shown in the mirrored version. I'm sorry but I'm a newbie!

Also it looks like you've build your spaceship with different parts that have thickness, are you sure it is useful to have different parts, and most of all, is the thickness useful? If you keep it at least make sure that there is no face at the mirror joint otherwise it may create artefact. And you have a lot of faces, do you need so many? Why not much less and use a Subdivision Surface modifier?

Hi Moonboots. Thank you for your input, but as I explained I am new to this and it's a steep learning curve! I am just following a tutorial and the way it has been tackled is the path I am following. I obviously have a lot to learn regarding Subdivision Surface Modifiers and the like. I shall press on. At least it's fun!


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How to reset when creating new video editing file?
Whenever I create a new video editing file in Blender 2.8, it already includes a file that I have previously cut and am finished with. How do I get the program to stop including that file and actually give me a brand new clean format?

When you start blender or create a new file, blender opens your startup.blend.
You can setup blender anyway you want and save the startup file and get the same contents each time you create a new file. You have managed to save your startup.blend after you added the ever present video track.
To set things up the way you want -

Start blender
Remove the VSE track (and any other items)
Go back to the screen layout you want to start with.
Use - File->Defaults->Save Startup File


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how can i add backgrounds and animate them in blender 2.80 2d animation?
Im making a 2d animation and added a background but the background doesn't appear in the render and neither in the frames.

If you added it in as a reference image, that might be problem. Try adding a plane in the back and add the background on that. You can do that in the material options.

thanks it works in the beginning but in a new file when i add image as a plane the plane is grey and doesn't show the image

Try adding a lamp to light up the background.

thanks! it worked, it turns out that i need to see it as a material .

How do I add a plane in the back? I'm the most novice a user can be.


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leave light trail on path behind particles
I am trying to create an effect where a particle emitter moves around a path and leaves the path glowing I have the particles working and have tried a couple of solutions to generate the lit path, but neither are ideal.
Solution One
Add a second emitter to my spark emitter that has zero gravity and zero initial speed. This works, but the particles have to be large in size and numbers otherwise gaps appear along the path.
Solution Two
Give the curve a bevel and use the build modifier to match the frames taken by the emitter to complete its journey along the path. This would look much better, but the mesh that gets built up does not match the particle emitter position due to the way that build works.
I have tried searching for a tutorial on this sort of thing, but it's difficult to know exactly what to search for.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

try the build modifier on a curve (with some bevel applied on using the object data properties) if you wanna do something like that:

Sanbaldo, Thanks, but I tied that and because of the way it builds the mesh along the curve it doesn't stay in time with the particles. Also I am working with a poly path. I have now tried using an array modifier, but that looks weird along some of the lines. Looks fine with a bezier curve.


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Re-Arrange UV slots
Is it possible to re-arrange the UV slots, maybe using an addon or...?
I need a specific UV to be on the second slot, but after forgetting to create it & creating four of them I can't move it to the second slot. I don't really want to lose all the work I've done.
Any ideas?

Hello :). You can add a number prefix before each UV map (like 1. Graphics, 2. Imperfections, 3. Dirt) and then sort them by name. That way you can easily change the order anytime.

Thanks for the answer! But what do you mean by 'and then sort them by name'..  how could you sort them? the UV Maps slots has no option for sorting, and nothing changes in the ui..  https://ibb.co/7C1gCzv

@JachymMichal what do say..

Hey :). Can't post images now. Under the UV maps panel, there's a little white arrow (triangle). Click it and then you can rearrange the items.

I see! :) Thanks for your help!

As @Jachym Michal said.. You can add a number prefix before each UV map (like 1. Graphics, 2. Imperfections, 3. Dirt) and then sort them by name. That way you can easily change the order anytime


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How to take an assest I made and group it together to Appended in another project?
all I am very new to blender. I have been googling but cannot seem to find anything. I made a dumpster for scenes to use in the future. I parented it to an empty, but I cannot figure out how to group it all with all my textures and multiple objects and bring it into another project. I understand you need to do in the new project append > objects (or collections?) but I do not know how to set it up for that. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. As I stated I have looked through google but I must just not be using the proper terms for the info I need.
Best,
Jordan

You already organize everything inside collections, save the file and you just need to append the collections that you need in a new scene

Super weird. I have to bring in the wheels and lid separately. I am not sure how I organized it wrong. I guess I can get the whole thing, but just in three passes. Thank you and if you have any info on how I could have goofed this up I would appreciate it!


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Using an mxf file but transparency won't appear
I am fairly new to blender. I have an mxf file that I exported out of davinci resolve with the alpha data enabled. When bringing the mxf file back into resolve. The Transparency works but in blender the black will not go away. I am in cycles and I will attach a screenshot any info on this would help immensely.
Thanks

I cannot tell what I am looking at. Also, what do you mean, “when bringing the Mxf file back into resolve [period]”? That is not a complete sentence.

Davinci Resolve (video editing program) is where I exported the Video file from as an mxf file with Alpha Channel data. I want the black to be transparent on this video file. It does contain the alpha data. However, the black is still there when it should be transparent. The sentence regarding resolve I am referring to Davinci Resolve. When I bring the MXF file back into that program the alpha channel works and it is transparent but does not work in Blender. Does that make more sense?

Yes it does. I do not know what’s going on here, but I suspect since MXF is kind of a rare format that blender may be reading it incorrectly.

Thanks for your help. I actually just exported the file as a TIFF or PNG image sequence and then imported it into resolve stitching it together as sequence and that corrected the issue! I kind of just stumbled on it.

This situation seems easy enough for me to resolve, just set the film transparency in the rendering, under the Rendering tab, Film > Transparency.

Also ! thanks you allowed me to know if it possible to read mxf on blender

If you have a different question please use the Ask Question button at the top right. You are unlikely to get an answer here


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Point Separate Node not working in 2.92 Release Candidate?
I'm trying to separate a point cloud into 2 different outputs using a geometry node and no matter what i try, the point separate mask isn't picking up the attribute, Geometry Output 1 is just showing the output of the Group vertex group but despite having the mask set up correctly, Geometry Output 2 shows nothing.
I'd like to know what i'm doing wrong or if it's a problem with the Release Candidate.
Thank you.

I'm having the very same problem! I was following this video - https://youtu.be/JvBTxd2rRgk?t=1715 and replicated what he was doing precisely, but can't get the mask to show up. It does in the video, however.
Here's my blend file if anyone wants to figure out what the problem is - https://blend-exchange.com/b/OazLgLPg

Apparently this is still present on the official release that was pushed today, which is worrying. I'm sure i'm using this incorrectly but there's so little info about this and it's rather frustrating.

You should put Point separate before Point distribute.
After distributing, instances lost geometry data such as Vertex groups.

Thank you.
Admittedly i hadn't tried this as i've had very limited time to play with these new nodes between work. I believe others are running into this because of a video linked in one of the comments in this thread that sort of served as an introductory guide that was made before a few things were changed.


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Control Instance Color with Geometry Nodes
I'm excitedly playing with the new Geometry Nodes system, but I've run into a limitation.
I would like to control the color of object instances created with the Point Instance node, but I can't seem to find a way to do this. Is it at all possible?
I've created the image below using a workaround of deciding the color in the shader graph depending on the object position, but this is very hard to make position-independent and does not give me the same control I would have in the Geometry Nodes graph.

It's a good question. I've tried setting an attribute with AttributeFill - and using an Attribute input node in the shader - but it doesn't work.
The docs for the AttributeColorramp geometry node says " The resulting colors are stored on the geometry in a color attribute." - but it's doesn't work as either Attribute or as the color output of the "Object Info" node in the shader ...

Use vertex colors. See youtube video for guidance and sample. Min. requirement: blender 2.93 beta

Awesome colour scheme!

Hi, were you able to solve your question? i am very interested to find a straight forward answer :)

it works with 3.0 and cycles as Lumpiluk writes

did you see @jcfrog's response below?

The solution has been added to Blender 3.0.0 Alpha recently and is called the Attribute Transfer node. There's a good YouTube tutorial by Entagma on it.

Set the render engine to Cycles.

Add an Attribute Transfer node before your Geometry Nodes Group Output.
Route the output of a node from before your Point Instance or similar node to the Source Geometry socket.
Select the source attribute to transfer to the resulting mesh and give it a target name. Depending on the data type of your attribute, you may have to play around with the 2 dropdown menus as well.

In the shader of the source object you used for instancing, use an Attribute node with Type "Geometry" and the name of your transferred attribute.

How would one do that on blender 4.0.1 ?

I'm not sure to answer your question but I was struggling with setting colors to object instances and I finally managed to apply a texture input by simply using Object>location as Vector input for texture.
I would like to find how to use "emitter" color for instances color input...

this looks like the answer op was looking for

If you want to assign a random colour to each instance, you can use a colour ramp with the "Random" output of the "Object Info" node there.

This is exactly what I'm trying to do, but it's not working, so I'm guessing something is wrong with my geometry node setup. Any idea how to get this working in 3.3?

Jk. Figured it out. My object wasn't at world origin.


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How do you show and hide the grid? Viewport overlays dimmed out
I imagine if I close and reopen blender it fix it.. But I'm curious to what I might have done.

you just disabled the overlay by clicking on the "2 spheres" icon (it's blue when enabled)

You're right thanks man!


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Geometry Nodes: Is it possible to transfer an attribute from point cloud to instance?
One situation that I often encounter while making animations with geometry nodes is the transfer attributes from a point (in a point cloud) into an instance that's created using that point.
A typical scenario:

On a base mesh (sometimes with sometimes without PointDistribute) I perform various calculations, so that now each point in the mesh (or point cloud created via PointDistribute) now contain some new attributes, for example phase (0-1) of the animation that I want each particular point to have.
I use PointInstance to instantiate an object on that point cloud.
I then want to use the "phase" attribute that I created in the point cloud, so that each newly created instance can "inherit" phase attribute from a point that's used to create that instance.

When in 3.00alpha AttributeTransfer node appeared I thought it would perform that function, but it doesn't. Any ideas? Should I explain the question better?
Thanks!

Yeah, that's a missing functionality for now I'm afraid. I'm sure it will be added in a future version. AFAIK custom attributes are lost when using the point instance node

I want that too!!!!

Try this. https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/245007/is-there-a-way-to-transfer-an-attribute-value-from-a-point-to-the-instance-or-t

Since 3.0 you can use the Capture Attribute node for this. Here is an example:


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Objects invisible in any view except Solid
In any blender scene, objects look transparent or invisible in all views except solid mode. Is there a setting i should check? This has happened ever since i had blender and i couldn't fix it

The pics are of just a brand new scene, nothing touched. Is this normal?


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How would I attach a Hat Object to a Head Object so that the former moves when you reposition the latter, without using the Join function?
I have a 3D model consisting of a fully rigged figure (That I downloaded from a sharing library) and a hat with no armature or rigging (That I created from scratch).
How would I go about creating the parent\child relationship so that when I reposition the head in pose mode the hat stays in the same relative location (It moves with the head).
I want them to remain separate objects, and not joined together as one piece of geometry.
I'm moving over from DAZ to poser and I have no understanding of how to do this either in terms of Blender's UI or it's internal logic.

check my answer here, it must be what you're looking for: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/237331/attach-a-static-object-to-an-armature-replace-a-models-head/237344#237344

Parent the hat to the head bone i’d say


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Does Blender have a Solidify effect that offers variable thicknesses?
Is there a mechanism in blender similar to the solidify modifier that would allow me to apply thickness to a series of faces but have this thickness increasing or dropping off in certain places?
For example, the brim of a hat where I apply more thickness\weight in the center and less at the edges, or a cloak where I thin it down where there are creases and a standard solidify modifier can't handle them and starts overlapping itself.
My intention is to 3D print my models so controlling the thickness is important, and a pain to do manually.

You can choose a vertex group in the Solidify modifier, the thickness will depend on the weight of the vertices

Like moonboots said, you can use vertex groups and weight painting to change the thickness:

Add a vertex group (Select your object, go to the green upside down triangle next to the materials tab and click on the plus icon)
Select the modifier properties tab (the wrench near the yellow square) and add the solidify modifier from the add modifier dropdown
Switch to weight painting either by holding down tab or choosing 'weight paint' on the drop down in the top left (it should say object mode by default)
Paint like you would in sculpt or texture mode, bluer means the value of the area is closer to 0 and redder means it's closer to 1

You can optionally turn on the vertex group invert and mess with the factor slider to see what you prefer


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Vertex seem linked, will deform wildly if certain other vertex are moved?
I've downloaded a native blender model that somebody else created and put online and I want to make some changes to it to better suit my needs. The original creator isn't responding to messages so I can't ask them for help. The model is about 5 years old I don't know which version of blender it was created with. The model is free to use.
The original creator seems to have linked\mirrored some features, but I can't seem to find out how they did it.
I want to add more detail to the legs. Such as putting in additional folds into the fabric.
If I do a loop select on vertices on it's right leg, and then move them the corresponding vertexes on the left leg will "sort of" mirror what I'm doing on the left leg. But not exactly (They won't scale evenly, for example).
And if I try to move some of the vertex on the left side of the left foot the vertex immediately opposite it on the right hand side of the left foot will suddenly move wildly and will end up "almost" exactly where the corresponding vertex on the right side of the right food is.
It's like they made one side of the model and used mirroring to create the other side. But also used mirroring to make each leg symetrical
The model is fully rigged with an armature, but I can't see any mirror modifiers.
Any ideas.

It's going to be a lot easier to help you if you share your blend file with this model in it. (Grab the URL of the question.
Go to https://blend-exchange.com/.
Select the blend file.
Add the url of the question.
Grab the url that results.
Go back to the question and edit it.
Add the new url to the bottom of the post.)

I don't know if it's an appropriate model for this forum.

It looks like X-mirroring was causing this. I seriously don't understand why it was having this effect but it looks like it was.
It's really weird as it was only applying it to selected parts of the model.


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Creating diagonal loop cuts in a cylinder?
I'm trying to make the hilt of a sword, and I'd like the grip to have diagonal lines across it rather than horizontal. IS there an easy way of doing this?
See picture

MY reference material shows a spiral, but I this is going to be 3D printed and a spiral will just be too complicated, so I just want to make diagonal pits\grooves by resizing every other loop and applying a subsurface modifier to smooth it out.
I tried making two regular loop cuts and doing a loop select and then rotating them. Then creating other loop cuts in between. Which did make them at an angle, but it also distorted the lines of my sword hilt.

You can start by making regular, perpendicular loopcuts. Then use the shear operator. Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S. Use X Y Z keys to define the axis while the operator is active.

Nothing happened, where would I find that command on the menu?

Here you can find all the info about shearing in Blender. You also need to make sure the loop cuts are selected.

You could create loop cuts on a cylinder but it won't work if you see the object from one side, you'd better create a spiral with the Screw modifier.
Loop cuts:
Create one segment that looks like this one:

Array it on Z:

Apply the Array modifier, in Edit mode merge the vertices, use the Shear tool on Y (AltCtrlShiftSY):

You could also use a Lattice modifier to get the same result:

At the end cut off the top and bottom with the Bisect tool and rework the topology.
Spirals:
Create a circle, cut it off, move it a bit away from its origin, duplicate and rotate 120° on the Z axis twice:

Give it a Screw modifier, tweak the values so that it works, give it a Steps value of 12 or 24 or 36:

Apply the modifier, select all in Edit mode and merge the vertices with a threshold high enough. Cut off the top and bottom and rework the topology.

This is going to be 3D printed, and I'm concerned that the geometry that the spiral tool creates will be problem.

in what way could it be a problem? I've tried with a cylinder, you could do it, the problem being that the side view won't be correct, so it works as long as you stay in front, is it what it is supposed to happen?

I'm going to make this in real life using a 3D printer. It's difficult to explain without getting too involved but where you have grooves that curve around like that the printer may not be able to handle all of the overhangs. If they're simple loops it's easier to print.

ok I'm going to edit my answer


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Make clothes follow only part of the mesh and not the entire mesh's movement
I'm animating a voxel character I made for a game.
I created two different meshes: the character and his clothes which should be applied over. The character is already fully rigged with all bones which move correctly.
The actual problem is: I can't place the clothes over the character in a way that, when animating, they follow the body correctly.
I actually tried parenting the clothes to the armature and then using the data transfer modifier - it works because the clothes follow the armature when moving it but, when rotating or doing any transformation to the bones, they move along the bones without any reason. Also, it seems that they deform even in a normal T-pose, without a reason.
Take a look.
This is how it appears in the voxel editor, with his clothes on (but the clothes are two different meshes in Blender, obviously).

This is when clothes have a "data transfer" modifier in Blender. As you can see, they get a bit distorted (especially the front).

With the data transfer modifier, even when simply moving a leg, everything moves along with it too, without any reason.

I understand that Blender doesn't know that clothes shouldn't move along with the legs.
How should I handle this situation? Is it related to weight painting or to the data transfer modifier I added? I read about pinning clothes but I don't understand if that could be useful in my situation or not.
Thanks and sorry for the silly question.


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Export animation to FBX with paranting and without rigs
I'm currently learning blender. I made a simple animation with several objects. Animated objects are parented, transforms are animated by using relative transforms (some kind of a very simple character).

I tried to export this animation file to FBX and then reimported it in Blender. It seems that the transforms of all objects are broken. As I understand, this is because I didn't apply transforms of my objects before exporting. But if I apply transforms my relative animations won't work.
I understand that the correct way to animate such "characters" is by rigging. But in theory is it possible to correctly export this animation to FBX?


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Find texture pixel on 3D mesh
I have a complicated mesh of a real object that I created with a 3D camera.  The mesh has a corresponding large texture that maps onto the mesh.  I imported the mesh into Blender and then applied the material.  Other than that, I am operating in Blender Python.  My goal is to find certain features on the texture using computer vision and then map those features to the 3D mesh.  Ultimately, I want have a robot work on the real object based on the locations I map from the image to the mesh.

The image is (16384, 16384, 3)--so 268435456 pixels (16384*16384).

The mesh has 258533 vertices and 517786 faces.  Each face has 3 loops.

The mesh has 1553358 UV coordinates.

I'd like to choose a pixel on the image (say the center pixel--8192, 8192) and then see where on the 3d mesh that pixel is mapped.
I would appreciate any tips on this problem.  So far, I am flummoxed!
Alex


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Weird distortions when rigged object collides with itself

I've got this shape that I've rigged that I want to grow up and fold out like a branch.
But whenever it collides with itself I get what looks like faces forming between them.  Why does this happen and is there a way I can remedy this?

Possibly a problem with the collision, especially if the side is just one big face. It'll need vertices in the middle of the side faces as support.

Thank you! The problem seemed to be I had removed the edges to reduce polygon count. I rigged my older model and the problem wasn't there.


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Is there a way to scale up a collection of objects individually in random intervals
A bit of a complicated circumstance Ill try to explain as best as I can.  I've got a collection of 300 objects that are different shapes and sizes each in a particular location.  I want to keyframe to have their scale start at zero and become one over 40 frames.  For each of these objects I want to randomly have this animation occur on the timeline eg: object 134 starts scaling at frame 34 and object 222 at frame 53, etc.  Is there any way to achieve this?

your collection should have the name "Automatic_frames" (or you just change the name in this script to your collection's name).
It does not check, whether you already have keyframes...so if you ran it twice, each object will scale two times and might overlap. Of course you can change the frame_from range to your needs.
you can do it like this:
import bpy
import random

for eachObject in bpy.data.collections['Automatic_frames'].objects:

    frame_from = random.randint(100, 400)
    frame_to = frame_from + 40

    eachObject.scale = (0,0,0)
    eachObject.keyframe_insert(data_path = 'scale', frame = frame_from)

    eachObject.scale = (1,1,1)
    eachObject.keyframe_insert(data_path = 'scale', frame = frame_to)

possible result:


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New Hair Curves: Getting color from emitter object?
In short: I need a method to get the new hair curves system to get the color from the emitter mesh, just like a regular hair particle system works. With a particle system, you can easily just set the material and it will grab the color from the root of the strand.
That's important, otherwise this happens:

Here I have an example emitter mesh to show what I mean.

Here I apply an old hair particle system. This is the desired result, long hairs stay the correct color along the strand.

Here I add a new hair curves system. As you can see, the strands change color along the curve, which is my problem.

Here is the node setup I have so far. First I transform the curves into geometry. I use a "Transfer Attribute" node set to nearest face interpolated to transmit the UV data of the emitter object. But I am not very experienced with geometry nodes and do not know if there's a better or intended way to do it, as I have found 0 information on this. All tutorials I've found so far seem to use a solid color along the entire hair.

Here is another solution attempt that did not work out, but comes very close. I tried simply applying the geometry nodes, turning the UV attribute data into an UV map, and then scaling every hair "UV island" by 0, with the individual origins option, therefore turning every uv map into a singular point so the color would be all the same. This has problems though, particularly with seams.

The problem with this is that if your uv map has separate islands, I cannot just make the UV map center the strand on the root, it will just be a middle point. If I could make it center the UV "point" on the origin root, that would solve this issue, but I cannot find a way to do that for the millions of hairs generated. This problem results in random black hairs.

Here's an example of the resulting issue. In the UV seams of the emitter model, we get these black rings, which is problematic.

The reason I'm turning the hair into real geometry is to use it in baking textures, regular hair systems and curves do not show up in bakes, I believe.
Does anyone know of any possible issue or another method to do this with the new hair curves?

Answer found:
Use this surface_uv_coordinate attribute in the material.

Note: this only works if you are using a newly made hair curves object. If you are using an old converted particle system, you can fix it by adding the surface_uv_coordinate attribute (spline/2d vector), and then in sculpt mode, snap to nearest surface function, that will fix the data.
Thanks to Cage Claypool for helping me figure this out.

You're allowed to accept  (tick) your own answer.. That will help others see it's cleared up.


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Creating hair cards that can follow the curves of a hair system, without particle instance modifier, among other things
I want to make hair cards, but with the following properties:
-The particles bend according to the hair curves
-The particles stretch to match the curve, but only on their "local z"
-The particles should all be rotated consistently to be perpendicular to the z axis
-The ability to select random particles

I've tried several methods for this.
1) Normal hair particle system
Pros:
-Proper rotation
-Can select random particle variation from a collection
-Good combing tools, can use interpolated children
Cons:
-Cannot follow curves
-Cannot scale along only one axis
So we can rule this out because it is impossible to make the particles follow the curves, which is the most important part, I think
2) Particle Instance modifier
Pros:
-Can follow curves
-Proper scaling along only one direction
Cons:
-Bad combing as interpolated children do not work/show up/blender crashes
-Bad, uncontrollable rotation
-Cannot select random particles
So I'll rule this one out because of the bad rotation. The other issues I could work with, but I cannot figure out a reason why the particles rotation seems to random when using this modifier.
3) New Hair Curve Geonodes
Now this one has a lot of potential, and while it has bad combing tools, I can simply convert an old particle system to this new system, which solves the issue.
Pros:
-Can use the full extent of geometry nodes
-I've been able to recreate the normal particle system's object option, though I haven't been able to figure out rotation nor bending along a curve
Cons:
-I'm not sure if I can make the individual instances bend to the specific curve they belong to
-I cannot figure out how to do it

This here is what I managed to do using the new hair curves. The particles can scale exclusively along the length, I can get them to face the general direction of the curve using the curve tangent of the curve's first point. I however cannot figure out anything else.

And here are the nodes for what I have so far. I tried a bunch of things to rotate them properly by using the rotate instance node, but with no luck, since I'm pretty much trying to brute force the math. Does anyone have any idea how I could do this? Or if there's a better approach entirely?

I found a way to bend the instances along hair with this solution from @Kuboå.
You basically export your hair system into a alembic files then use a Mesh to Curve node.

It's a bit of a dirty workaround. Plus, I haven't figure out a way to use multiple instances.

Thanks, I found a way to make it use multiple instances with your setup: https://i.imgur.com/Ehk6jtW.png though I still don't know how to get the tilt relative to the surface right

Thanks ! I've used on another technique but yours is way simpler !
Also, I had trouble some with the motion blur. Apparently the curve abc are buggy on the 3.6.
I found this solution :
Export your curve .abc to a .pc2 (with the native addon, turn the Y-value off). Replace the MeshSequenceCache of the curve abc with a MeshCache modifier. Change the MDD format to PC2. And link it to your .pc2 file.

I didn't need to convert my particle system to a file with my system, it works right away with a curves object. You can convert particle systems to curves from the particle system tab. So it's way simpler and works right away in blender


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how to create node group inside another node group using Python script
I wan't to create a node group "testgroup1" inside "testgroup0" using python script can anybody explain me how to do that?

Here is some Python functions to manipulate groups and group instances.
Principally, there is two aspects:

Groups are stored in Blender's data in bpy.data.node_groups
Inside a material or another group, a group needs to be instantiated so that it is link to this material or other group

The code is commented below:
import bpy

def create_material( name, use_nodes = True, clear = True ):
    """
    Create a material of the given name.

    Parameters:
    name (string): the name of the material to create
    use_nodes (bool, default True): if True the material is ready to have nodes
    clear (bool, default True): if True clear default nodes

    Returns:
    material: The created material
    """
    material = bpy.data.materials.new( name )
    material.use_nodes = use_nodes
    # Materials are created with two default nodes, so we may want to clear them
    if clear:
        clear_material( material )
    return material

def clear_material( material ):
    """
    Remove all node of the given material

    Parameters:
    material (material): the material to clear
    """
    if material.node_tree:
        material.node_tree.links.clear()
        material.node_tree.nodes.clear()

def create_group( name ):
    """
    Create a group in Blender's data

    Parameters:
    name (string): the name of the material

    Returns:
    group (group): the created group
    """
    group = bpy.data.node_groups.new( name, 'ShaderNodeTree' )
    return group

def instanciate_group( nodes, group ):
    """
    Instanciate a group inside a node tree

    Parameters
    nodes: the nodes of the node tree in which the group is to instantiate
    group: the group to instanciate

    Returns:
    instance: the created group instance
    """
    instance = nodes.new( type = 'ShaderNodeGroup' )
    instance.node_tree = group
    return instance

# Example:

# Create a material
material = create_material( "mat" )
# Create group0
group0 = create_group( "group0" )
# Create group1
group1 = create_group( "group1" )

# Instantiate the group0 into the material
group0_instance = instanciate_group( material.node_tree.nodes, group0 )
# Instantiate the group1 into group0
group1_instance = instanciate_group( group0.nodes, group1 )


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How to Apply Transforms to a VDB volume object
I have imported a VDB file and it's orientation is wrong, but when I try to apply the location and rotation after orienting it in right direction, it doesn't work
It gives error - "Objects have no data to transform"
How can I apply transform, and also set the origin point to exactly center(currently it is at one corner of the VDB file.)
I wanted to save it as asset and then use it in asset browser, but If the Transforms are not applied it is imported with the wrong orientation, and it needs to corrected every time I import.
Is there any solution to this?

Is the goal only to move the origin and orientation or do you need to modify it or use it in geometry node or other (anything that could modify the vdb)?

No, the only goal is to move the origin and orientation

As you do not need to modify the vdb model after it is imported, you can use collection instance and mark it as asset.
Here is an example moved from the origin and rotated:

Now, if you import this asset, the vdb will be like if it was parented to an empty which keeps position, rotation, etc defined in the asset file, but considered with no rotation or offset from the origin of the scene.


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Blender 2.8 GUI lag when rendering (F12 & viewport render preview)
So I have a laptop with 2 GPUs: an Intel HD 520 and a Geforce 940MX.
In the case of 2.79, if I had set Blender to run on the nVidia GPU in the NV control panel, there was a horrible GUI lag when there was rendering in progress using Cycles. All GUI elements took 2-3 seconds to react to mouse hover and mouse clicks. This is completely normal, of course, because the GPU that is used to render the GUI is also being used to render the image in Cycles. And of course with CPU rendering, this GUI lag didn't happen.
If I had set 2.79 to use the Integrated Intel HD GPU, there was no GUI lag because only Cycles render engine used the nVidia GPU and the rest of Blender used the Intel HD GPU.
Now, in 2.80 I am having the same issue, but this time, configuring in the NV control panel to run Blender on the Intel GPU doesn't help. The GUI still lags like hell, and it's almost unusable because I can't make fast changes, tinker with materials etc. while it's rendering.
(In 2.80 CPU rendering still works fine as expected.)

Same thing with GPU and CPU+GPU rendering (GPU Compute).
I have Geforce 436.30 drivers (most recent).
940MX is set to 'Maximum Performance' in NV Control Panel, other settings are default.
Windows 10 v1903.
Blender 2.80 most recent stable version.

Was there a change in how the GUI gets rendered in 2.8 or something? If anyone can help, I would really appreciate.

Integrated graphics card are basically useless... In any case, open up the task manager and see how your resources are distributed. While editing in Blender, is the CPU to be hit the most, except when you have viewports in rendered mode (my GPU is always at 0% load when not rendering)

@Tareyes Integrated GPUs are useless for rendering, but they are good for rendering the interface of Blender so that it stays responsive instead of responding every 2-3 seconds. At least if that's what happened in 2.79. There was no GUI lag during rendering when Blender was set to run on Intel GPU (and the 940MX was at 100% constantly).

Anyway, right now during viewport preview render and GPU+CPU rendering, 940MX is at 100%, Intel HD is at 5%, CPU at 70%. Around the same with only GPU rendering.

I know it might not be what you want, but have you considered rendering in GUI-less mode? It's quite faster than the normal one, and since it's 2 different processes, you could remove any multithread incompatibilities

@Tareyes I've considered it, but it would be kind of useless to me, since I have no problems with rendering the final image, because I don't use Blender during that. Blender needs to be responsive during rendering the viewport rendering process, and that workflow is tied to the GUI.

oh, so you mean the viewport in rendered mode, not an actual render?

Yes, viewport in normal solid or Look Dev modes works fine. When I switch to Rendered viewport mode, it makes the whole interface lag (slow response time, only refreshes once every few seconds).
Rendering the final image also makes Blender's interface lag, but it's not a problem to me since I don't do anything in Blender during that.

As a workaround, I am now using Blender 2.80 on a Kubuntu 18.04.3 system. The interface, while not perfect, works much smoother than on Windows (while rendering viewport view).
Since the nVidia driver doesn't get loaded on Kubuntu if the Intel GPU is selected (sudo prime-select intel), I am forced to use the nVidia GPU as primary, and so Blender uses it for both rendering of interface and rendering in Cycles. But this is still so much smoother than on Windows 10. The GUI elements react quickly to mouse interactions.


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Weird squares on the texture and model
so i was trying to render this model and well this happened on render only

After i applied a subdivision surface the model became weird as well

Does anyone have any idea on what happened :/

did you make the model or did you import it?

@Millard I downloaded from DeviantArt actually                             https://www.deviantart.com/thepwa/art/Silent-Hills-Norman-Reedus-649544122

you've probably already tried this, but try setting the objects shading to smooth again.  (sometimes, only parts of the mesh are set to smooth shading, and it can cause this weird effect.)

it might be because you need to click on the "Clear Custom Split Normals Data" in the Properties editor > Data > Geometry Data


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How is Ray Visibility > Diffuse different from Is Diffuse Ray?
I created a Cube, and then a small Plane above it with an Emission shader. In Cycles, the plane casts light onto the Cube.

If I disable the Visibility > Ray Visibility > Diffuse property for the Plane object, making it invisible to diffuse rays, the cast light is gone.

I expect that I will get the same result if I use a Light Path node to make the Plane invisible to diffuse rays, but there is still light.

Why is this? And how should I get the same effect with a Light Path node?
Note that doing this for eg. Ray Visibility > Camera and Is Camera Ray does work as expected.

I filed an issue about this on the bug tracker and received an amazing response from Alaska

For reference, this issue only occurs in the Next Event Estimation (NEE) part of the light sampling.
Looking at the code, this appears to be a known limitation, presumably from performance enhancing code.
/* No proper path flag, we're evaluating this for all closures. that's weak but we'd have to do multiple evaluations otherwise. */
surface_shader_eval<KERNEL_FEATURE_NODE_MASK_SURFACE_LIGHT>(kg, state, emission_sd, NULL, PATH_RAY_EMISSION);

Source: af4b09a61c/intern/cycles/kernel/light/sample.h (L67)
So what's happening in Cycles is:

A light gets pick for NEE (This is done early in integrate_surface_direct_light()).

Cycles calculates how much light the light is actually emitting (done in the middle of integrate_surface_direct_light() with the function light_sample_shader_eval())

Inside light_sample_shader_eval() we encounter the code from above, that passes NULL rather than path_flags to surface_shader_eval(). surface_shader_eval() being the function that figures out how the node setup of the light influences it's output.

Since NULL is passed rather than path_flags, many features inside the light path node don't work since they rely on this information.

Then the rest of the rendering code runs as expected.

I'll leave the final decision on how to handle this report up to other people.

In the meantime I have a recommendation for @scurest. You can remove mesh lights from NEE to get the desired results. This does come at the cost of increased noise in various situations, but this might be a trade off you're willing to take. To do this, follow these steps:

Go to the Materials Properties tab in the Properties editor.

Locate and expand the section titled Settings

In the subsection titled Surface, set Emission Sampling to None. The light will no longer be sampled by NEE, but can still be sampled by forward path tracing (which does work with your node setup)


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Why do meshes "jitter" when rotating the 3D view?
I searched but couldn't find anything for this.
When I rotate the 3D View it "jitters". This is especially noticeable near the edges in Edit Mode.

Does everyone else see that? What causes it?

I will affirm that is abnormal behavior.... what kind of GPU do you have?

Intel HD 3000 on Linux.

Hmmm. Yeah - As much as I enjoy linux, I've never used it for blender, so I can't diagnose any issues there unfortunately.. Your card should be supported, provided your drivers are up to date, so I'm not certain it's that either. To be honest, I've never seen that behavior before. I'll upvote the Q, so maybe some more linux users will see.


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Water droplets do not reflect the surface
Drops of water are applied to this apple, which are themselves transparent (you can see through). The problem is that the drops do not reflect the surface of the apple and thus behave like a separate sight.

Properties / settings

Transition = 1, roughness = 0
Screen Sapace Refraction (material and rendering properties)
radiation calculation
are activated.

Does anyone have any idea why the drops don't reflect the surface?

Can you post a picture of it in rendered mode instead of material preview?

In the Material panel, under Settings, have you chosen Blend Mode > Alpha Blend?

You are in material preview mode.

Material preview mode uses the EEVEE render engine, but disables shadows for quick, viewport rendering. EEVEE fakes refraction using the world background.
To achieve realistic refraction in your final render, you can either use more expensive faking via screen space refraction (a 2D effect for EEVEE that can be enabled in render properties), or use the Cycles render engine instead. Note that your choice of render engine between these two will not alter the material preview view from using downsized EEVEE rendering. Refraction will always be faked there.

Found the bug! In this mode (shading), Screen Space Refraction of the apple must not be enabled in the material settings. It only has to be enabled in the material properties of the water droplets.


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My Rigging animations looks different in FBX import than in .blend
When I'm animating this FPS game I'm making, the original .blend file looks fine and the way it was supposed. Here is a pic:

But here is what happens when I import the FBX file into blender:

The bones in the import work, but the left arm is not moving along with it. Here is what I import with it:

Is your armature in pose position or rest position when you export it? If your unsure check in the armature tab in the properties window.

It is in pose position when I export it. The weird thing is, when I import it, the right hand animation does what it is supposed to, but the left hand stands completely still

Perhaps you need to set weight-paint quality in Unity?
https://forum.unity.com/threads/blender-fbx-to-unity-weight-painting-problem.733301/

Do you know why the left handed vertex groups disappear on the import? I just noticed this detail.

I have no idea, sorry. Perhaps those vertex groups have weight-paints assigned, but the right ones do not.


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My FBX import doesn't have any animation and looks very deformed. Help!
I'm new to blender, and I've been working on this game that has a reload animation for the First Person. When I look at the .blend file, the animation is there and the 3D looks fine. However, when I export it as FBX file and then Import it back to blender, the animation is gone and the meshes look all squashed up. I've been looking everywhere to try to fix it, but I've got no such luck.
This is what it looks like on the .blend file:

This is what is looks like when I import it FBX file.

Did you apply all the modifiers? Its usually the root of my problems when I'm exporting things to other formats.

Yes, All the modifiers are there, I notice the transformation on the import is completely different to the .blend file. I've tried doing CTRL+A  and set  the scale but its still wont work...

Could you provide your blender file so I could take a look?

Wait! I fixed the issue! Thank you very much though!

How did you fixed it, Gonzalo Martinez?


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What would be the proper scaling of gravity when scaling up a simulation?
I have a rigid body simulation scaled up 16 times its normal size to get proper collisions and rotations of objects. I am having trouble pinpointing the correct scaling of gravity, however. If gravity is 9.8m/s/s for a scale of 1:1, for a scale of 16:1, would I just multiply 9.8 by 16? Or do I do 9.8^X, where X=4 (the square root of 16), making the scaling exponential?

There are two solutions, one with a caveat: You can scale the simulation speed 4X (under rigid body world - settings - speed). This will, however, increase times taken to bake the simulation (possibly linearly longer) and it is inconsistent (there is a small percentage error).
Alternatively, you can increase the gravity the same amount you increase scale. So if you have a project that you scale 16X for simulation purposes, multiply the gravity (if modeled to real-world scales, 9.81 m/s) by 16 as well to get 156.96 m/s.
It has been said that, when you apply a scale like this, you can then select your rigid bodies, press Ctrl+A and Apply Scale and then scale your objects down (16X in this case) and bake the simulation again. However, this can still cause issues with rotations, as Blender doesn't use the applied scale when computing rotations. You should bake the rigid bodies in the 'large-scale' simulation, bake the action (object - animation - bake action), and scale them down afterwards.

When you scale your simulation you do not scale the gravity vector. Instead you multiply the simulation speed by the square root of the scale. You can set it in the Rigid Body World settings.
For 16x scale you would set "Speed" to 4 to archive the same look.
Make sure to also scale all the masses to get the desired result. Easiest is to use the calculate mass by volume tool after scaling.
16x scale is very high to get good collision. You might want to try setting the collision margin very low and avoid using Mesh collision shapes.

You can't just confidently say that "16x scale is very high to get good collision" without knowing the scale of the objects beforehand.
Anyway, I did some very basic tests with a cube and plane. Plane 9.8 meters below the bottomost part of the cube. 87 frames at 60FPS until it hit the plane.
Scaling up the gravity 16X when the scene was scaled 16X seemed to have the same exact frame hit (87), however, setting the speed to 4X did not seem to achieve the same look. It was about 3% off (frame 90). It could be due to how time scale was coded but it seems more inconsistent. Plz cite next time

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/physics/rigid_body/tips.html#simulation-stability

Scaling the gravity is wrong. Scaling the time is physically accurate and is used for example for miniatures in movies. If you scale the gravity you will get a less accurate result since it does not adjust for inertia and friction. Think of a scaled up simulation with 0 gravity. Can't scale the gravity to adjust the scale.
Obviously there will be some differences between scaled versions since no simulation is 100% accurate. But your "simple" test with a cube is simply wrong and does not prove that scaling the gravity vector works.
Your marked solution will lead others to faulty results.


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Does a computer fatigue during a long render session? Is that expected behavior?
I'm wondering this in a general sense, for a PC and a laptop (rendering a set sample count).
Currently I have an industrial fan blowing against my laptop, and earlier today I noticed 12 minutes a frame render times (after rendering for about 2 hours before, same setup throughout this), but later tonight (where temps in my home have not changed, and the fan has not moved), render times increased to 19 minutes. The scene has not changed perspective at all, and while I don't have the temps of the laptop on hand to compare both times, I wonder if the components inside still got substantially warmer despite the outside environment not changing. (I also did a frame render test at the very beginning of the above render, with and without the fan, and without a fan, render times were 15 minutes)
In a general sense, would there be render time fatigue, despite environmental changes being the same, for a laptop or PC? Like even a 5% difference? That is a lot less than what I'm experiencing but I wonder if this is a sound theory.
I have noticed times increased between frame 1 and frame 8 of a render on my PC, but the amount difference between frame 8 and frame 60 for example was either negligible or nonexistent (but I need to test this more). Maybe it depends on components, or just the fact that a PC is different from a laptop? Insight is appreciated.


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ColorRamp outputing unsollicited color variations despite using constant mode
I'm using ColorRamp to limit the colors of my render to only a couple of colors. In the outputted image, there are still slight variations of the colors set in the ramp and I can't get them to stop appearing.
As an example, I have this basic scene and composition nodes:

The colors in the ramp are #FF0000, #00FF00 and #0000FF. I would expect to get an output containing only those colors, but if I pick colors in it, I find:

#FF0000, #00FF00 and #0000FF which is right
Variations of red #FF0101 and #FE0000
Variations of green #01FF01 and #00FE00
Variations of blue #0101FF and #0000FE

How can I remove those additional colors from the render? I want the final color palette to contain only the exact colors I picked. Of course in my actual files, there are other colors too but this little example alone reproduces the problem.
Also, my Color Management settings are set like this:

Any idea?
My example file if you want to try (you will need a color picker):

I got it. I noticed that this happened even with only a #FF0000 background without any object on it, checked every possible option, and found a culprit: Output properties > Post-processing > Dither. I switched it to 0, and no more color variation. The only problem left is that colors are not always the exact ones, but they are always the same variation at least. #00FF00 becomes #01FF01, but it's always that, which is far better.


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Jagged shadow with custom toon shader
I'm trying to render (using EEVEE) a couple of objects with very simple toon shaders but I can't get the shadows right. I want hard shadows but right now they are all weird-shaped.
Here is what I currently have :

My scene has only those two objects on top of a plane with a sun lamp.

The sun lamp is configured like this :

And My render properties are set like this :

Here is my nodes for the objects material :

And the nodes for the floor material :

Does anyone have any idea of what is doing this?


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Why are my model's eyes deforming so badly?
Hi this is my first time here. Here's a link to my blender file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15_xVOwmepXe2CiXFKlFMJegP9Y9e_Ay0/view?usp=sharing
So my problem. I have been trying to weight paint the eyes of my rigify-ed character for way too long and it feels like nothing works the way I'm expecting it to. I'm not sure how to explain it, but when I move the controls to test "blinking" the mesh deforms way way too much, as if it's being affected by somewhere else that I can't find? I'm also finding it impossible to get the upper eyelid to deform evenly between the three vertex groups. I feel like I've checked a million tutorials and can't figure out where I'm going wrong.

If anyone could help me out I would be eternally grateful because this is really driving me insane. Thank you!!

Yes, the weight paint is messed around the eyes and brows. The top eyelids have too little influence and the bottom brow bones have too much. That's normal, more or less. Furthermore, the mirroring is messed up. But it can be fixed with some manual weight painting.

Topology fix
Before you start weight painting you should have a look at the mesh first. Because there is still some asymmetry going on, a little weird shading, and the horizontal edge loop of the top eyelids goes zigzag. The reason could be the extra edge you have there. (I had only noticed it afterwards when I had finished the weight painting.)
Your mesh has an extra edge "loop" (marked pink). Actually, it's not a loop just a few edges. Because of this, the top eyelids have 6 and the bottom lids have 5 edge loops. And the top lids have an N-gon (yellow).
For a clean topology, the top and bottom eyelids should have the same number of vertical edge loops. You can make that extra "edge loop" a full loop. This should improve the deformation.
Last but not least, check the size of your model. She is tiny, 2 cm tall. I am not sure if this is intended and she is a pixie?

Preparation
I would start over, drop all vertex groups of the mesh. These groups contain the messed-up weight painting. Then re-parent the mesh to the armature with With Automatic Weights. It will be still messed up but it will symmetrically messed-up ;-)
To fix the mess make a little animation and pull down the main eyelid controller (in the middle) to close the eyes (in Pose mode). It might be necessary to pull down the tweak controllers (left and right) as well a little bit. This depends on the model. Pull up the bottom lids a little. Finally, all 6 controllers (on layer 3, 3 tops + 3 bottoms of one eye) should be approximately on top of each other. The mesh of the lids will be messed up.
Weight paint
Switch to Weight Paint mode. In the Object Data Properties tab, expand the Vetex Group section. If you hover the mouse over the list you can scroll through it with the arrow up and arrow down keys. Find the eyes and brows.
Note: There are 3 top brow bones for each eye and 4 bottom brow bones. 4 bones for the top eyelid and 4 for the bottom eyelid around the eye. The top brow bones are ok, but the rest need some corrections.
Settings
Before you fix the weight paint, make sure you have Mirror X turned off, Vertex Group X turned on, Topology Mirror turned off, and Auto Normalize turned on. Note: These settings are for Blender 2.92 and look & behave differently in older versions.
Settings for Blender 2.92.
If the brush doesn't work make sure that Vertex Selection is turned off:

Painting
Start with the top eyelid of one eye. Give the bones more influence and the brows bones less. Mirroring should work for most of the time but the opposite brows might still be messed up. The reason could be the n-gons (see below). Finish one eye then you can correct the weights by painting the opposite eyelids/brows.
With help of the timeline, you can open and close the lids as needed.

Blend file:
https://pasteall.org/blend/ca3bd262bc5c472da7f214bc069fdf66


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How do export Meshes separately?
So basically I'm trying to figure out how to separately export the meshes from a single model. For example, I made a katana using multiple different Shapes by pressing add. Now I tried to export each part of the mesh separately by selecting it on the explorer but that still exports the whole thing. I've been trying to figure this out for multiple days, please help me.

I dont know if its possible to export just one mesh, but you can inport it to a new file using file -> append, this way you can select any object to import from another file.

Hello, please specify in which format you want to export. I know fbx has a batch mode that creates a folder for each model for instance


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How to generate Perlin Noise for materials
I want to generate something like this in the shader editor:
However, I can only find standard noise that I can't work with. How can I generate Perlin Noise?
Thanks!

As far as I know, Noise Texture is Perlin

You have set the Type to "Hard", if you set it back to the default "Soft" you will see it's the regular Noise Texture, compare it to this article Wikipedia: Perlin noise.
If you want to achieve a look like "Hard" you have to tweak the distribution with a Color Ramp, here's a simple try on it:

The separation texture/material in blender is just bizarre and unintuitive though, but I imagine "textures" only exist for historical reasons? or is it possible to plug a texture into a material?

I'm no expert for this, but since these textures are called "Legacy Textures" in the Blender manual I would agree they are there for historical. However, if you want to use textures with the Displacement modifier or for distribution of particles or smoke emission, you still have to use them. What me bothers sometimes is that I can't make such a texture I use for displacement also visible on the mesh directly... I can only see how it displaces the mesh which is of course limited by the amount of mesh detail.


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Drivers Editor : Adding more than 2 keyframes
I'm trying to adapt some Maya rig for Blender, and I'm translating Maya's Set Driven Key to Drivers. But for the life of me, I can't seem to figure out how to add more than two keyframes to my driver's curve

I want to add a third keyframe to my cursor emplacement (2.0) to map it to a custom value (different than the values of 1.0 and 0.0)
The project is essentially mapping the value of my driver (custom value) to specific X values (coordinate), non-linearly. For example 1.0 = 1.21, 2.0 = 2.35, 3.0 = 4.88 etc.
In Maya the setup was quite easy, just setting up keyframes to specific values in the graph Editor but Blender doesn't seems to allow it for some reasons.
Any clues as to why/How to work around it is necessary?
Thanks!

In the driver curve editor, use Ctrl Right click to add a keyframe, or shift D to duplicate an existing one.
Then on the N side panel you can enter exact values for the selected keyframe, choosing curve type and handles behaviour.


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Weightpainting workflow for clothes
I'm working on the production for a historical video and some debate came up in the team.
Mostly regarding the skinning/weight painting of the clothing items.
Debate might be a big word, so far no blood no lions and no arenas (yes it is about Romans) but still.
Having my opinions on the subject I'm bringing it to the ultimate judge, the Internet.

If you were to weight-paint this toga, how would you go about it? More especially the skirt part of it. If it can help, it will be rigged to an Unreal MetaHuman skeleton/template (some keen-eyed viewers might have recognised it)

Debating around which way is the best is IMHO pointless as it mostly depends on the context and you are the best person for that. Plus opinion-based topics are out of topic on this Q&A website. But we can give you a sample of different ways to approach things so that you have a wider idea of the options available to you!
I'd say there are two axes to think about it: How deep in realism you want to go and how much you can do with the rig.
If you need to go deep in realism, i'd question the need to even bother rigging the clothes at all, cloth simulations sound more appropriate (though I am no expert in that subject in Blender). Or alternatively, if you are going to use this in Unreal Engine (or another game engine), cloth simulation in the Game Engine might just be faster / more cost/time effective no matter the aimed realism).
Otherwise, if you are able to customize the rig to take the clothing into account, I would have bones specifically made for the clothes: at least some parts of the belt, and the hanging parts (skirts, but also why not some of the slack from the arm openings). Little bones here and there, similar to the tweak bones you have in Rigify's head module. Each bone controls a small area of mesh nearby. And on top of that, have controllers parent of multiple tweak bones, and for the case of the skirt: have these upper-level controllers be an FK chain from waist to knees, perhaps even an intermediate controller for each leg part too.

This would give you a detailed-enough solution that can be both hand animated and somewhat automated: you can for example have the cloth-leg controllers driven by the actual legs, have the shoulder bones drive the cloth controllers around them, have some form of physical simulations do all the heavy lifting for you.
For more info about how these kinds of setups are done in Blender, Pierrick Picault did a few videos about them:

Skirt and dress Rigging in Blender - YouTube
Hand keyed cloth animation in Blender - YouTube
Dynamic cloth rigging and animation in Blender - YouTube
Create and transfer cloth simulation to an animated character rig in Blender - YouTube

If you can't modify the biped rig, then basically you don't have many options: the weights of the clothes basically need to "align" to the body's weights underneath. For the skirt, you will not escape bad deformation between the legs (good thing it stays above the knee, that would be another level of troubles). The best fix for that would be a corrective shapekey driven by the legs bones angles.


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Blender baking so I can export object with material to unity showing up black

I am trying to bake a texture from blender into unity so that it works well. However, no matter what I try, the bake always shows up looking complete black with no color whatsoever. I have used Smart UV project for this, I have looked at every online tutorial and followed correctly but for some reason, the texture just keeps baking to complete black. My bake settings and the screen are shown above. Here are the exact steps I took based on various tutorials. I first created a single texture for my object. I did a UV smart project so it was unwrapped. I then created an empty image texture not connected to anything in that same material. I then went to cycles rendering tab, and went down to the bake settings, I set it to diffuse and unchecked the light options. Then I selected the mesh, the texture node, and hit bake and it was black

Hi. What happens if you set the Metallic value to anything less than 1?


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How do I make this render look more realistic, need most help with texturing

I really need help with this, thank you so much.

What is it supposed to look like?

it is supposed to be an apartment building

I was wondering what material it is supposed to have.

For the texture of the apartment, try a PBR material that you can download from sites like https://www.sharetextures.com/category/concrete. There you find various materials.
With an RGB Curves node you can adjust the diffuse color as you like. Use the normal map and the roughness map. The Ambient Occlusion (AO) map is usually mixed with the diffuse color. -- To get rid of the repetitive pattern have a look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VgtSL5ZpYc (Uber mapping node)

I'm no help with the texturing/shading, but I have some basic architectural advice - however you handle the windows, they should be lots darker. If you don't want to show reflections off the window glass, not a biggie, but unless it's night time, and the lights inside are on, the rooms behind the windows will be pretty dark compared to outside. Hope that helps.


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New key binding not implemented for the influence of proportional editing
As I'm working on a laptop with a trackpad, and without a mouse, and I've re-assigned the key bindings to increase/decrease the influence for proportional editing to

alt+page up (to increase)
alt+page down (to decrease)

When I search key-bindings with "alt up arrow" in [Preferences > Keymap], I see that there is only one setting (the one I had just set).

Maybe the arrow keys are off-limits in some way, as I see that no matter what combination I set, the up/down keys continue to be used to incrementally move the curser up or down (when grabbing, for instance).
I'd love to know if there is a key-combination that I could use for this that doesn't conflict. Or maybe I'm not setting the new key-bindings correctly?
Thanks.


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How to move object on curve along X/Z axes without object's X-scale compressing
(as my first Stack Exchange question) I'm hoping to determine how to keep my object's proportions intact while it move forward and up along a X/Z curve. I realize the curve shortens the object's path in relation to the world path, as I can see the object's origin still moving along the X-axis in the distance, but how can I keep the proportions relative to the object intact?
I've created the shape of the cube in Edit Mode, sectioning the object with loop cuts.
Then applied the curve modifier, moving the object along the curve on the x-axis in object mode...
The end results would be similar to a piece of paper going through a home printer (before/after images below).

hello, maybe switch your curve to Edit mode, select all and right click > Set Curve Radius > type 1 and Enter? You may have changed the vertices radius when you've applied the scale of your curve...

hi, the curve radius for the path seems to be set to 1

please share your file: https://pasteall.org/blend/

you need to share the URL  ;)

https://pasteall.org/blend/e97bd97d5a0b430d99808bc723d3737d

Apply the scale of your curve (CtrlA in Object mode)


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Shading issues with bevels on a cylinder
I'm having some issues with shading on a simple cylinder. When I add a bevel to the edge, it shows some unwanted lines in object mode. I just don"t know if this is something I shouldn't worry about, or if, most likely, I'm doing this the wrong way (as I'm new to blender). Shade smooth and auto smooth are on. I've tried the weight modifier as well but it gets worse actually.
Any help would be really appreciated, and I do hope this is not an issue that has already been resolved hundred times in this forum …
Thanks a lot for your help

It might be helpful to people trying to help you if you uploaded an example blend file to the site https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/ and add that link in the question.

Once you've extruded up the faces, bevel this edge:

Then you need to work with the knife to build this topology:

Thanks for your help. I'm really new to blender and honestly I don't see clearly for the moment how I can edit topology to get this result. But I'd like very much to learn and know! Could you please explain briefly how to get there? Thank you.

hard to explain in detail, I've edited my answer to show the beginning, once you've bevelled, the edge, use the knife to create the topology I show

Ok thanks, I will try that.

You're changing the geometry of the part facing outwards (away from the center), and so it's no longer consistent and shading issues appear. One way to produce a nice topology in such case is to just have a cylinder and after subdiv modifier shrinkwrap its top/bottom onto a profile:

Add a cylinder without caps, add a Solidify modifier and apply it. Duplicate the cylinder, name it profile and move up:

On the bottom cylinder add creases with ShiftE like on the picture, add a Subdivision Surface modifier with Ctrl2, enable Auto Smooth:

Assign the top to a shrinkwrap vertex group:

Add a Shrinkwrap modifier projecting vertices from the shrinkwrap vertex group on the Z axis on the duplicated profile object:

The offset is there just to make it easier to see the effects of modifying the profile.

Modify the profile and bevel it like so:

(consider making the profile slightly thicker to be on the safe side)
Beginner Friendly Version

⬆ ShiftA, Mesh, Cylinder, F9 to open operator settings, decrease depth, disable filling. ⬆ ShiftDZ to duplicate and limit movement to Z axis, to make sure it's exactly above. ⭾ Tab enter Edit Mode and S scale the cylinder down slightly (actually I scale it down quite a lot to make it more clear on the GIF). Then ⭾ Tab go back to Object Mode, add a Solidify modifier to the bottom cylinder, with negative thickness to grow outside. Select the top cylinder, Numpad 7 go to  Top Orthographic View and add the Solidify modifier, make sure to set the thickness so that the outer side is definitely further away from the center than the outer side of the bottom cylinder (in this view it's easy):

With the top cylinder selected and your mouse over the modifier, ✲ CtrlA to apply it, then with the mouse back in the 3D Viewport, ⭾ Tab to go to Edit Mode, select two neighboring faces (you may need to press 3 to go to Face Selection Mode), G, then Z to move those faces on Z axis (and move them down). Now, 2 for Edge Selection Mode, ⎇ Alt$\color{green}{█}\color{#888}{0█}$ left mouse button on an edge to select an entire loop, and then ⎇ Alt⬆ Shift$\color{green}{█}\color{#888}{0█}$ left mouse button on another edge to add another loop to the selection. Repeat the last step to select remaining loops you want to bevel, then press ✲ CtrlB to bevel those edges. Drag your mouse to control the amount of bevel - you may want to press C to limit the bevel, as well as you may want to scroll your $\color{#888}{█}\color{green}⬆\color{#888}{█}$ mouse wheel up, to increase the number of added segments for a smoother transition.

Once you're done with the profile (you can still edit it later), ⭾ Tab to return to Object Mode, select the bottom cylinder, apply the Solidify modifier like in p. 2., ⭾ Tab Edit Mode, 3 Face Selection Mode, click somewhere outside the mesh to deselect, ⎇ Alt$\color{green}{█}\color{#888}{0█}$ left mouse button on an edge going from inside faces to outside faces of the top of the cylinder, then go to  Object Data Properties, and add a vertex group, name it shrinkwrap, and be sure to press Assign button to assign selected vertices to that group.

 In Object Data Properties scroll down and look for Normals > Auto-smooth - enable it. Deselect everything, 2 for Edge Selection Mode, select one of the edges being a part of a circle, ⬆ ShiftG to Select Similar, and choose F Face angles. Now ⬆ ShiftE to Crease, and 1↩ Enter to set full crease on those edges. ⭾ Tab to go to Object Mode, and ✲ Ctrl3 to add a Subdivision Surface modifier lvl 3.

Add a Shrinkwrap modifier. As a target choose the top cylinder, as a method Project, as axis Z, and remember to use the shrinkwrap vertex group.

Thanks a lot for your answer, this looks very very interesting. I'm going to try that and I'll get back to you when I'm done. Thanks again for taking the time to answer this with detailed info.

I've been working on your solution and arrived at your last advice : (consider making the profile slightly thicker to be on the safe side). But as I've applied the Solidify modifier on both cylinder,(step 1) I'm wondering if I still can increase the thickness of the top cylinder (profile) or if it's too late and should start again from the beginning … Thanks for your help!

Hi, I've been trying your solution several times but can't reach your result… There must be something wrong in the way I do this but can't figure that out. Unfortunately. Although shrinkwrap works, the bottom cylinder keeps its outer faces. Must be something to do with the thickness of the top cylinder I guess, but not sure. I don't want to take too much of your time, but I'll share the file if you're ok to have a look at it. Thanks for helping.

@hhuchon the best way to make one cylinder slightly thicker would be to spawn a slightly smaller cylinder so the inner faces are closer to the center, and add enough thickness in the solidify modifier to make the outer faces further from the center.

Having issues doing this …
Are the creases from step 2 necessary?
What kind of settings should I use for the subdiv mod?
Step 3: the shrinkwrap vertex group belongs to the bottom cylinder? Not the top one?
Step 4: I have to apply the shrinkwrap modifier on the bottom cylinder, not the top one?
Step 5: your modifying (grab z I guess) the top cylinder, not the bottom one?
Honestly I've been trying your solution for hours, still can't make this works, it's driving me mad! Looks straight forward from your explanations, there must be something I'm missing.
Thanks a lot for your help.

@hhuchon see edit.

One word: Alleluia! Now that I understand the principle and the technique to get there, I'll try to create the exact object I need, that's another step. I''m working on this since several days, watched hours of tutos online, searched for a solution using boolean cuts, topology editing (which I think is a region definitely worth exploring and mastering), data transfer, all this to try to get the perfect shading. I'm not sure that small issues with shading will show after render, but seems clear that perfecting and understanding things has benefits. Thank you very much for your work and help.


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Dynamically animating inverting tube
I am a beginner in Blender. For a research project, I am creating an animation to unravel a tube from the inside out. Using this post as a guide, I have created a line of vertices, curled it up, added a subdivision modifier, and then a screw modifier to revolve the created profile around itself (The suggested cast modifier seemed to have no effect, so I removed it.).
To animate the unraveling/ growing from the inside out, I have manually moved each vertex through a series of keyframes using AnimAll. The image below shows the direction of travel of the vertices between keyframes (indicated by the arrows). See the gif below for the resulting animation.
Since I have to individually move each vertex for each keyframe, it is difficult to dynamically change the animation.
Is there a better way to animate the growth of the tube to any desired length? To show the mechanism of movement, the material needs to originate from inside the blue object and move through the inside of itself before being deposited at the tip.
Additionally, I want the tube to follow a specified path rather than just growing in a straight line. How could that be done?

What to you expect in termes of animation concerning the left part?

@lemon The tube is supposed to be bunched up inside the blue object. The blue object itself does not require animation. However, if I cannot animate that, I am fine with just making any part of the tube extending too far to the left invisible.

ok, I had this so far https://i.sstatic.net/S43jv.gif . But if you can hide the left part, that can be simplified a lot (just solidifying a bevelled curve).

@lemon It seems like you used a different approach to Duarte Farrajota Ramos' answer. Can you tell me how you did this so I can learn a bit more and see which approach gives me the best results?

Here a slightly simpler technique. It has its own set of limitations, but uses a Curve modifier and requires less manual labour.

Create a bezier curve roughly following the desired shape for the unwinding hose section.
Make sure the curve object origin sits at the end of the outer edge of the hose path.

Create a mesh object with a single short edge and no faces. Adjust its origin so it sits at the axis of revolution of the tube shape. Adjust the position of the vertex so they land at the the beginning of the curve, where it's origin sits at.

Add an array modifier to the mesh, set it to Fit Curve and pick the curve created at the first step. Make sure to turn on Merge to get a continuous string.

Now add a Curve modifier to the mesh, and set it again to the same bezier curve object.

Add a Screw modifier to the mesh, adjust the axis accordingly.

Make sure both the mesh and the bezier curve have to same rotation in world space, otherwise you may get unexpected behaviour.

Move the bezier curve horizontally and you can animate the inflation of the hose tube.

Optionally you can now additionally animate the bezier curve points with shape keys, to get additional deformations and or stretching effects.

Using geometry nodes,

Define a curve and give it the shape you want. It is the node setting input geometry.

Trim the curve to animate it.
Resample at some length.
Capture the end point (begining of the curve in this setting).
Duplicate it and give at each a profile of the desired size.
Join them.
Next we want to fill the extremity:

It uses a grid whom size depends on the profile resolution (2 columns of vertices and resolution + 1 as height, so that we can close it).
Then we take the curves profiles positions at it captured endpoint and give these positions to the grid.
Merge the extremities of this disk.
Join all.
 (Blender 4.0)
Note: if the left part of the tube does not matter, you can also simply bevel a curve and solidify it. Then animate its start/end mapping. Which is much more simple.


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Mantaflow Alembic export for compositing
I m new in bender and use it for flow simulation, I m trying to export a composition did with mantaflow to get the animation fusion 17.
i only have the domain's cube and not the simulation. Do you know if there is a possibility to save Alembic file of the simulation itself?
Thanks.

You will first need to bake the simulation, but once you've done that all you need to do is select the Domain and go File>Export>Alembic. Easy as that


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Why can I not grab the extrusion from the front view to the right view? (On the nose.)

I am unable to grab from the right side. I think it has something to do with the mirror modifier but am unsure how to fix it. 3 things fixed this, but then other problems happened. First, I turned off merge but lost merges. Second, I turned off the edit mode button. Third, I turned off the x-axis. Both the second and third made me lose the mirror side. Seems to have something to do with the mirror modifier, but I am unsure what is wrong.

When using the mirror modifier, only one "side" is editable, the other is just a copy (mirror) of it.

Ok, so then how should I edit the right view?

If you want to edit the right side separately from the left side, you have to apply the mirror modifier first (though this means your future actions will no longer be mirrored)

I also think that the mirror might be getting in the way when you try to select the thing. To solve the problem of losing symmetry, you can go into tool options and turn on symmetry. It works fairly well as long as you don’t create new vertices.

Okay, just to be clear, what does it mean to add the mirror modifier first? Like before what exactly? Two, should you add a mirror object to help with symmetry instead of just putting the x or y-axis; which only seems to work on the front view on not the right view?


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MTree addon showing blank nodes
Anybody knows why the nodes on the MTree add-on are showing blank?
A few days ago I started working on a tree, all going good, I was chuffed with it, I saved and closed the file.
Today I open the file and the nodes are 'empty'. I've tried removing and reinstalling the add-on but outcome is the same. Same thing if I want to start a new tree from scratch in a new empty file.

That's a third-party addon, not an internal Blender one. It looks as if it's being actively discussed here so it's probably best to ask there.

Thanks John! I have posted the question there as well.

For anyone with this problem, it appears to be an issue with Blender Python API side, and there's a fix. Link found in this discussion


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Bmesh: How to select newly created vertices?
I'm running bpy.ops.mesh.knife_project(cut_through=True) using an Edge to Slice a mesh.
Next I want to select newly created Edge loop and remove all other vertices. I'm thinking of capturing two states: bmesh before cut & after cut. Compare index of verts and leave only verts that are in 'new index'.
Am I thinking of this process correctly?


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How to save Depth layer with sky?
When I try to save it normally I get white image. Somebody advised to use normalize node and it works. But if sky is present (infinite depth) it doesn't normalize properly. I tried playing with map range and I get decent results but sky will always be pure black instead of pure white.
I want to save a depth layer to use as masks in photoshop. I wish it was easier to do in Blender. Blender can normalize them with no problem if I look at depth layer in rendered view, but I can't save it.