text:
Render in less than 24 fps
I'm trying to render a very heavy scene in Cycles. The scene should have around 10 seconds long. If I render the 240 frames (if it's done in 24 fps) is going to take to much time so I was wondering if I could render it in less than 24 fps and still have a fluid sensation of motion... 12 fps maybe? I don't want to have a stop motion felling.

If you already have a baked simulation that has 240 frames, it will still be 240 frames, no matter which playback speed you enter. The simulation will run for 20 seconds instead of 10, if you change it to 12 fps, but you still have to render 240 frames. I don't know if there is a way for time-scaling a bake. With a keyframed animation it's easy, in the timeline you can scale it with 0.5 on the X axis so that it's no longer 240 but 120 frames. Maybe someone else knows a way to do that.

12 would be your lowest choice but it depends on your animation content. If it has some fast movements they will become jerky at 12fps. For animations; a safe area to start from is 16-20 frames per second. An example is Silent movies which were filmed with a frame rate around this range .

Thank you! It's has a cloth animation with some wind, so I think that I will go for 16...


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Nearest point to a z(x,y) function
Let's see if I can express my problem.
I have created a grid mesh and then assigned  to each (x,y) a z value (this is how I create z(x,y) function in animation nodes, I don't know if it's the best way).

Now, this is a discrete function, I can't have a value of z(x,y) if that point doesn't belong to my grid mesh. What I want to know is if there is a way to obtain an aproximate value of z(x,y) for all the (x,y) inside the boundaries of my mesh (like you would have in an analytic function, in my case z=sin(x)).

I assume that for creating the surface, Blender has to generate planes that join all the nearest vertices of the grid mesh, so getting the intersection with a vertical line that pass trough the point (x,y) that we want to evaluate (the orange one in the pictures) and those planes should be possible.

Does it need to be an AN solution or can it be python? And just to clarify, are you looking for the intersection point on a vertical line only?

A phyton script can work too! Yeah, at the end what I need is the intersection of a line with a mesh

What kind of output do you want? You could get all the XYZ values at once, with linear or smooth interpolation, using  a shader, for output as an image.

You can get an intersection using raycast BVH tree node. I have used your node set up and added an icosphere and an empty and have always execute option ticked in AN as shown. Just grab the empty and move it around.

Make sure the always executing box is ticked so it updates when moving the empty.

And if you want to find the point on the mesh nearest to the intersection just add these three nodes.

If you move the empty below the mesh it will not work as the Ray Cast BVH Tree is just projecting downwards in -z direction from the empty. To solve that, tick the"Start in infinity" box in the Ray Cast BVH Tree node, it will then project in the  opposite direction aswell.

Thank you very much! That was what I was looking for!

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


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Export presets to share
I feel silly asking this.  But is there a way I can export my presets?  For example, I have specific settings for exporting Alembics.  I saved my settings as a preset and now I'd like to share with my teammate?

Presets are saved per Blender version in a folder on disk.
On Windows :
C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Roaming\Blender Foundation\Blender\<version number>\scripts\presets

On MAC :
Library\Application Support\Blender\<version number>\scripts\presets

On Linux :
~/.config/blender/<version number>/scripts/presets/

In there you'll find folders which should be named after specific addons, and maybe subfolders for specific operators. The folders contain .py files. These files are python files, but you can open them with a notepad to see and edit them. They are executed at runtime by Blender to fill in the operator settings. You can share these files, along with the folder structure.
Be careful when sharing python files, they can be used to run arbitrary (and potentially malicious) code on your machine. The files may also contain information about your computer, and your folder structure. It depends on the addon. You can check the contents with a plain text editor.

Thank you so much for this info.  The python sharing bit is something for me to keep in mind as well.  Thank you!

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


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Draw custom extrude shapes
I'm a Maya user trying to transition to Blender.  Pretty awesome so far.  I'm seeing this video here in the link below.
I'm curious on how this artist is creating these custom shapes and quickly extruding them into another object.  Looks as if the person is simply drawing on top of a face and extruding.  Unsure how though.  Any direction would be great.  This would be such a time saver.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C47vSwQqzWw/
Thank you all :)

It's hard to say, it could be the Knife tool, or maybe a custom tool. You would have a better chance by asking them directly. We don't clearly see which tool is used.

That is probably using Box Cutter addon or similar featured addons

Ok, thank you both.  This provides me with some direction as to what to search.  I'll also try asking them and see what they say.  I'll post here if I get a response in case.


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Planar UV on multiple instanced objects
I have a pin table I created, sort of like the one in this video:
https://youtu.be/jVDZKXtYCzs
I've exported it as an alembic to Unreal and it works great.
I want to map an image of a world map to the top.  Create sort of a war table.
Is there a way to planar map one image that goes on top of all these pins vs an image on each individual pin?
Thank you for any tips or direction.

In doing a bit more research, I came across this tutorial, which answers my question around 10:30.  Hopefully this helps someone:
https://youtu.be/_zXbPRYpi5I


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Create a single value for all vector values in property panel
I'd like to know how to create a single value for a vector that I can expose in the property panel as a user input.
For example, I connect a value node to a vector.  I control the three vectors with that one value node.  Now I'd like to expose that in the property panel and have a user adjust a single property there instead of going through the node graph.
I'd love to add an image to help clarify, but gives me an error.  That's another post I guess :)

Drag the vector you want to expose to the empty socket of the Group Input node. This makes a vector input of it. Then go to the properties of the node and change the socket Type to Float.

I had the hardest time getting this to work.  I wasn't changing its type.  Thank you so much Gordon!!


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Move image plane from it's midpoint to grid
I'm very much new to blender transitioning from Maya.  Going through tutorials and docs.  Can't seem to get an answer for this.
I created an image plane by dragging my image into my viewport.  I want to snap the bottom center edge of my plane to the origin.  Is there a way to place my 3D cursor exactly in the middle of that bottom edge of my image plane so that I can move it from that point to the grid?
What I've tried:

enabled snap, edge center.
Shift + rmb to edit 3d cursor
G to move around
but it's not snapping to anything?

I also tried Shift + S while 3d cursor is active, but still not sure how to get it to snap to the location I'd like.
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Does this answer your question? Move cursor to center of some selected geometry/faces

Keep image offset to 0. And then you can press G (default: Move) to snap

Open the snap before move or press ctrl after move

Fix the rotation in N-panel

Snap option

If you want snap to 3d cursor:
Object > Snap > Selection to Cursor

Hi, thank you for the detailed response.  Very helpful.  That sort of answers my issue.  But rather than snap from the corner vert of the image plane to the corner of the box, I'd like to snap from the middle-bottom of the image plane to the corner of that box.  Is that possible?

Yes, it is possible, just set the Offset X to -0.5

Ah, so simple!  That worked.  Thank you so much!


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extrude outer face only of objects in collection with geo nodes
I have a collection of hexes in a sphere shape.  I want to be able to affect only the top when I extrude.  However, since I'm not capturing the top face correctly, it's extruding all faces in the collection.
How can I capture only the outer most face (white polygons) of the objects in my collection with geometry nodes to be able to extrude?
I apologize for the picture.  Couldn’t post from my machine for some reason.

I guess one idea would be to select by material index and then add my extrude node.  Working out how to set that part up.

The most obvious solution is to save the information about the top as an attribute, and then use it:

But what if you don't have that information?

Good job on recovering and figuring out you actually did save that information, as a material slot index. If you didn't, you could still try to recover, for example by comparing the normal of a face with the direction towards/away from the center:

Thank you!  This was very helpful! @Markus von Broady

For those that are noobs like myself, here is a solution I figured out that works pretty well for what I’m trying to do.
I can't upload screenshots from this pc, so I'll do my best to describe the simple node setup.
--Collection Info connected to Extrude mesh
--Use a noise Texture node to offset the Extrude Mesh scale.
--Used a material index connected to an Equal node for selection of face by its material index value.
--Connected Extrude Mesh to Geometry input and Equal node to Selection input on set material node just to see if the effect is working using some random color.
Hope this is helpful for someone :)

Hello, thanks for the answer but the quality is really poor, could you add a screenshot directly from your computer or describe with words how you solved it ?

@Gorgious I apologize, I can't upload screenshots from this pc.  I added a description to what I did for this set up.  I hope that helps.

Thank You for writing it in text. :)


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Combining a solid object Fresnel glow on top of a glass object?
Trying to do an effect where i have a simply glass effect but I want it to have the same Fresnel glow of an object that isn't transparent/translucent. The glow i get from a simple principled BSDF mix is ideal, but when i make it a glass object it redoes how the fresnel effect looks. How would I get these effect to combine in that manner? Going for a shader that gives realist looking objects a cartoony glow which ill texturize and animate later. I'm still fairly new at understanding nodes and Blender in general.

I'm still seeking an answer for this. I just need a way to overlay these glows on top of my glass object.

Here, try this setup. I'm posting as an answer just so I can post the pic. Try it yourself and let me know if it works. If it doesn't, I'll delete it (Note - the "True Normal" is OPTIONAL - it looks good in some scenarios, not as good in others. Try both.)

You can do this by assigning faces materials in edit mode.
Here's how:
1) Enter edit mode in Blender.
2) Select the top face you want to be able to apply the "purple" shader to.
3) Make sure your material colors are already created. You will need at least two separate materials. (One for the top face, and one for the rest of the cube).
4) Go to the materials tab, and select "Assign". This will assign the material to the single face.
5) To prevent the material from being applied to the entire object, press CTRL+I to select inverse.
6) Assign the previous material to those faces the same way you assigned the other material.
Last) View it in render, it should look awesome.
Here's a picture of multiple assigned materials on one object:

The answer in total, to this question is simple. If you know how to assign materials to individual faces of an object, then you have solved the problem.

Please consider that such essentials already have been answered: Add different materials to different parts of a mesh?. It's one of the frequently asked questions on this site, so if you think this question is a dupe better flag it as such. But I think in this case the question is about creating a procedural shader independent of the actual geometry to get a certain effect rather than assigning different shaders to different components of the mesh.

Thank you, but the effect is not locked to faces. I'm trying to do a fresnel effect on glass where the outer edge facing the camera light up. In my example the square and a few faces just happen to be lit in that manner, but if you look at the rounder objects you see how the effect isn't just the faces.
This is a useful tip for other things though, sadly not for this situation though.


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Shadow Incorrect at Bottom of Edge
In the images below, I have a cube that is sticking up about two thirds through a plane. But, despite the fact that the cube is not hovering over the plane, the shadow seems to indicate otherwise. How can I fix this shadow?

Use 'contact shadows' (Eevee) in the lamp settings:

Wow ...why isn't this the default setting?

I don't know... maybe because Eevee is designed for speed and that adds calculations.

It's not a default setting because contact shadows are view dependent. It can sometimes cause more problems like light bleed from outside of the camera frame :).

thanks for the information, @JachymMichal.


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I'm having trouble applying a bevel to curve
I am fairly new to Blender, and I'm having trouble with applying an object-bevel to a Bezier curve.  I've had success in the past, extruding one object around the contour of another, and I have even tested applying the bevel to a simpler object in my current .blend file, and it works, but when I try to extrude the circle object around the curve of the saddle-shaped object, the saddle-shaped object just disappears in a weird way.
Here is a shot of the three objects in my setup: on the left is the saddle-like curve I'd like to give a thickened, circular cross-section, and I want to use the small circle in the middle to do it.  The square on the right is just there for debugging.

In this next photo, I've successfully performed the bevel operation on the square to the right -- you can see it took the bevel operation, and now has a diameter of 8mm.

However, when I try to apply the same circular bevel to the saddle-shape, the saddle-shape just disappears, though I can see weird, flickery traces of the old shape:

I've made sure the scales of the objects are compatible, and haven't come up with anything in searches.  I'd really appreciate anyone's help with this!
Thanks in advance.

Nevermind, I've figured it out: I just had some vertices which were too close together.  I'd already tried merging by distance at 1.0 mm, but it required a merge radius of 2.1 mm before it would finally take that bevel.
Cheers.

For a round bevel you don't need a circle, just do it in the geometry of the square directly with the bevel settings on the geometry controls of the curve. Then give the object smooth shading.

susu, thank you for your suggestion.  I will try that next time :)


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How to: Setting a constant speed of a motor related to a push down distance of a trigger
I need to animate a powertool and would like to animate the motor.
I know how to set up a driver with constant speed so it's turning forever, but:
I would like to influence the motor speed (rpm) by pressing the trigger. So when I'm creating my animation I would like to touch the trigger only.
For example:
If the trigger is not pressed at all motor speed is 0 rpm
If the trigger is pressed in by 3.9mm the motor speed is 2700 rpm (which is 16200° in 30 fps)
Anyone can help?

Go to Item > Transform > Rotation on the motor.
RMB  on X,Y, or Z rotation and choose Add Driver.
As the expression, do something like frame * (var * 360). With var, set the Object to be the trigger, and choose the Type to be Y
Location.
Press Spacebar to begin animation- speed of rotation is constant, but changes when the trigger moves.

You may need to adjust *360 to get it exactly right, but that's how you do it

here we go! thanks :) I forgot the "frame*" in my expression I had already

Here's what that looks like: https://i.postimg.cc/Y2yJzJqh/ezgif-com-gif-maker.gif


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Geometry Node - Extrude Mesh is not solid
I'm doing a pretty cool geometry node tutorial for blender 3.1 right now and can't find my mistake.
Why are my mesh stones not closed? Anyone see my mistake?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA13LPCZ3dM

You're not doing anything wrong, but as noted in the manual, the Extrude Mesh node works a bit different than the extrude operation in Edit Mode:

The operations are similar to the extrude tools in mesh edit mode, though there are some differences. Most importantly, the node never keeps the back-faces of the extrusion in place, they are always removed.

You can use a Join Geometry node to add the original faces to the extruded ones. You might also want to flip the originals' normals first and then merge the vertices by distance to get a manifold geometry:

In this example, the "Face Orientation" overlay is on, so the red color indicates the backsides of the original faces. Flip Faces node is muted (M); once that's unmuted, faces would turn blue/outward.

Infact,in his video,rock is also not closed, we can calculate the vertices,lines and faces shown in his video and prove that.

I hadn't actually checked the video, but as I skim it now, yes, at 13:30 mark for instance, you can see that the rocks don't have back faces.

@Kuboa that worked out thanks! At 13:30 it seems hollow indeed! but than I might have another problem because my nosie texture (7:30) was not working... I#ll try it with your solution now. Maybe I've to open another question after lunch if I#m stucked again. thank you anyway!

I still feel like something's missing here (I mean from a development standpoint, not your answer which is the correct one imo), because even if you join the geometry with the flipped original faces, the vertices aren't actually connected with each other so operations like boolean will fail in some cases. So either having the weld modifier implemented in GN or a "keep original faces" toggle on the Extrude mesh node would be cool.

@Gorgious I make a demo,extrude a plane to be a cube, Vertex/Edge/Face shows 8/12/5, after join Geometry，it shows 12/16/6, you are right.

@Gorgious Doesn't Weld modifier simply merge vertices by distance, just in a modifier form? I didn't know there was a difference so I'm surprised. Here's a video where I'm looking at the indices before and after the merge node, and indeed the duplicates get eliminated: https://i.imgur.com/6ABPArg.gif Are you saying the GN is somehow still aware of them having actually separate sources and that can have some technical side effects resulting in failed booleans etc? And that's not a bug, but a limitation only a new Weld node could get rid of?

Though I agree, I'm actually surprised the Extrude node was released without a "Keep originals" toggle. Maybe they had a good reason for it.

@Gorgious, but I find out that, if I add the node Merge by Distance,everything is OK.

@Kuboå, the reason is, I think, it's easy to add a face, but it's difficult to delete a face.

Oh man talk about a brainfart I actually didn't know there was a merge by distance node and I completely ommited it from your screenshot (and your answer...). So yeah I think the design here is to CTRL - G these nodes and rename the group "Solidify" and you're almost good to go feature wise

Haha, that's a relief, I thought I wasn't aware of some crucial difference. Phew.


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Alpha in the mist channel
Its possible to render an object with transparency on (to don't see the background) and also to get the mist channel with the  transparency applied to?
I would like the part marked in blue on the picture to be transparent, but the mist channel take it as white (I imagine that it considers that far away)

In order to set pixels of the mist transparent where the original render is transparent, you can multiply the alpha pass with the mist pass.
The full steps to achieve this result are:

Enable film transparency (Render Properties > Film > Transparent)
Enable the mist pass (View Layer Properties > Passes > Data > Mist)
Switch to the Compositing workspace or open the compositor and enable Use Nodes
Add a Math node (Add > Converter > Math), set the mode to Multiply and use the Alpha of the render layer and the Mist as inputs. Alternatively this should also work with the Mix node set to Multiply and the factor set to 1. The effect is that the alpha is used to mask the mist. When the alpha is zero the result of the math node is zero as well, thus the result is transparent in exactly the same places as the alpha channel.
Use the result from the previous step for further compositing.

Below is a visualization of the intermediate steps of the compositing node tree.
Image pass

Alpha pass

Mist pass

Mist pass multiplied with alpha pass (masked mist pass)

Image pass mixed with masked mist pass (final result)

Compositing nodes

Perfect. Thanks!!!

Even though I did have a few issues with a white border around my alpha'ed mist pass object, luckily I found a quick workaround I thought I'd share here.
So if you happen to have issues with a white outline on your alpha'ed mist pass
a quick solution I discovered was adding an extra math node on the alpha set to Greater Than, this will starting eating your border without eating your mist when working close to a value of 1.0 (as in my case 0.999 did the trick)


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Particle hair growing in a weird direction
I created a particle system in my object and the hairs are growing in a weird direction... I tried to change the rotation but nothing happens (they don't rotate at all). I want them to be orientated in the z direction. Thanks for the help!

Your question doesn't make it clear what's 'weird' about the direction.  Your hairs are growing in the direction expected, assuming you have the emitter set to the object face.  That is they're growing out from the front of the face.  If you want both rings hairs growing in the same direction you need to flip normals on one of the faces.

Sorry if I didn't make it clear. I want them to grow in the z direction

The hairs grow from the faces of the two rings in the direction that the normals are facing.  If you view normals in edit mode (by turning on the overlay

and setting the normal length) I suspect you will see something like this:

You want the normals from the top ring to face down.  To do that select all of the faces in the top ring and type SHIFT-N to recalculate normals.  If they're still facing up, open  the action box (in the lower left of the 3d view) and enable inside:

and you should see something like this:

Now your hair should grow down from both rings


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Is it possible to create a node group in animation nodes?
I have a big node tree that I would like to collapse into a single node with custom inputs  (in shading you can do that pressing ctrl-g), is that possible?
Thanks!

You can, but it works differently than in the Shader Node tree. You don't have a "Sublayer" tree where you go and edit the node group's insides.
You first add a Group Input node by going Add > Subprograms > Group
Then you can add operations like in regular subprograms. Make sure you don't have circular dependencies and that all the group logic is contained within it. The nodes will take the color of the group by default.

To get ouput values, click on Output Node on the bottom of the Group Input node and link it as you wish.

You can Invoke the Group by going Add > Subprograms > - My Group (You can change the name in the Input node).

Okey... But I can't hide all the nodes of that group right? I mean, at the end I have that huge group in other part of the node tree. But that's okey... Could be nice to do it at the same way that in the Shader editor. Anyway, thank you!!

@Artichoke You can always create another Animation Nodes tree and put the group there. In my opinion it is more convenient that way than the layer of abstraction in the shader editor. I just wish it was easier to scroll through a high number of node trees.

Okey, I like that one, I didn't know that I could mix node trees . Thanks!


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Geometry Nodes: instance another geometry
I created a stem using Geomtry Nodes and now I would like to instance it in a circle to have kind of a bush, but I can't find the way to instance an object created with geometry nodes. I don't want to apply the geometry nodes modifier because on its geometry nodes set up I created some random variables (for the size and rotation of the leaves) that I would like to keep.

The only solution i know is...add another object with GN like this:
GN1:

GN2:

result:

So it is still procedural and you don't have to apply - but you have two objects with two different geometry nodes modifiers.

Trying to duplicate this.  Seeing the answer without the steps in between isn't helping.
How do you get from GN1 to GN2?

First create a cube and a sphere. Add GN to cube (that’s GN1). Then add a torus. Add GN to torus with GN2.

@unkerjay: you should write: isn‘t helpful for you or beginners - but isn’t helpful isn’t true, else I wouldn’t have got the check and an upvote…but yeah, if you never used geometry nodes it might be unclear.

I stand corrected.  "isn‘t helpful for me or beginners"


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Add object selector in the slide-bar
I'm making an add-on located in the slidebar and I need an object picker for later on referencing that object.
For now this is what I have:

And I would like to add the object picker (like this):

This are the lines of code:
import bpy
class TestPanel (bpy.types.Panel):
bl_label = "Slime"
bl_idname = "PT_TestPanel"
bl_space_type = 'VIEW_3D'
bl_region_type = 'UI'
bl_category = 'Add Slime '

def draw (self,context):

    layout = self.layout

    row = layout.row()
    row.operator ("mesh.primitive_plane_add" ,text = 'Create cube ',icon='CUBE')

def register():

   bpy.utils.register_class(TestPanel)

 def unregister():
      bpy.utils.unregister_class(TestPanel)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    register()

With the eyedropper:
Alas, at the moment, this cannot be done.  See the feature request "Make the eyedropper tool available in add-ons via Python" and the bug report that led up to it.  Also, see this answer for the thread leading up to the bug report.
You may want to go to the feature request and upvote it.  With only two votes it is unlikely to be done anytime soon.
Without the eyedropper:
This turns out to be easy.  See this answer for an example that works with recent versions of Blender.


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Texture wrong in the sides of a plane with solidify modifier

Hi!
This is something that bothers my a lot of times. I always end up creating a volume mesh instead of a plane with the solidify modifier to solve the problem but I was wondering if there is a way to solve this in an easy way. Now I'm working in the wall of a house and  I modeled it using a plane an extruding some of the edges, but now the textures of the sides of the windows are all wrong...
Thank you!

I think you should watch some tutorials about UV Unwraping. This is a UV stretch problem. You will have to add more seams.

My problem is that the object is a plane with Solidify modifier, and I was wondering if there is a way to UV unwrapp the edges of an object with solidify modifier.

I will try to find a solution for that if I can.

Thanks for your help!! :)

I jsust found a new solution to stop UV's from stretching with solidify modifier. I'll update my answer.

Here I have an extruded plane:
The problem you are facing is because your UV's have stretch. To rremove it, you need to add seams. For this simple object, go to edit mode, hit 'A' on your keyboard to select your whole mesh, then hit 'U' and then click mark seam. You will see a red outline on your mesh, which shows a seam. Then again hit 'A' on your keyboard to select your whole mesh, then hit 'U' and then click Unwrap. Your stretching will go away.
Edit: If you want to keep the solidify modifier, then do this:
Open the shader editor and add a texture coordinate node to the material of your plane. Then drag the generated input to your vector input in the image texture. Then just set the settings from flat to box on the image texture node. It works.

Thank for the answer! But my problem is that the object is a plane with Solidify modifier. So I don't have the option to mark the two "squared" seams that you have marked, only the one of the original plane.

@Artichoke So then you can apply the solidify modifier or avoid to show those stretched UV's in your render.

As @Chaudhry Yousuf suggests, you need to unwrap your mesh and apply your texture using its UV map.
You can find more info about UV map on the BlenderGuru's Youtube channel :
here, or here


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Align pivot/cursor along edge
I would like to move a few verts in the normal direction of an edge.  But the 3d cursor doesn't seem to align with the normal direction.  Instead, it snaps to the edge properly, but does not orient in the the correct direction.
What I've tried:

Toggled snap
Enabled Edge and Align Rotation To Target
Shift + RMB drag along edge.

I've attached an image to clarify.
Thank you for any tips or help.

If you want to use the normal orientation of the edge, but on different vertices, select the edge such that your orientation is what you want, then "create orientation".  See https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/3dview/controls/orientation.html#custom-orientations .  For me, the hotkey for this operation is ctrl alt spacebar.

This was exactly it.  Thank you!  I just watched a few videos to make sure I understood it.

@Nathan thank you, that's the answer that helped me. The answer posted below works for some situations, but your answer helped me extend an edge in the direction of the edge and snap it to another edge. I think you should write it up as an answer.

i am not sure whether i understood your right, but if you want to move an edge in direction of its normal, change to "normal" and then press G Z and move your cursor:

This is great to know as well, thank you so much!  I'm very new to Blender, so this is going in my notes.
So in your example, what if I wanted to move other verts or even an object along that same normal you have selected?  From the answer @Nathan shared, I'd have to create a custom orientation.  That seems to do the trick for what I wanted.


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how to fix weird bumps that were added by cloud texture
I've been trying to model this little claypot, I'm kind of a newbie here, and whilst making a clay texture I added this cloud type texture, which happened to add little weird lumps on top ring of the pot, and i also seem unable to make the outer ring a bit thicker too :( Would appreciate if someone told me how to fix it. Also, got problems with the mesh made by using a grease pencil, it gets insside of the pot when applying scale, which also makes lumps weirder.

link for a file
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QDcW5W3o1dQyU9gXVwXATvE7mE25CDik/view?usp=sharing

Hit the wrench icon, you have a displace modifier on the object that is producing the lumpiness based on the cloud texture.

@AllenSimpson questioner already acknowledges this.  Or maybe he edited to include this fact.  What do you think about my answer using V-groups or Weight-Painting?  Perhaps there's even better?

@james_t Ah, missed that.  I live in the shader editor, but it seems like a fine solution to me.

There may be other precise methods, as this one eliminates some of the "artisan imprecision" (displacement, distortion) you would be looking for around the top.   Assign most of the vertices to a vertex group:

And then use this group in the Vertex Group field so that these edges aren't included in the Texture displacement:

I think this is at least better than a half solution.  You can try either of 2 V-groups. Also, you may find that Weight Painting or weighting LT 1.0 as you assign vertices closer to the top, may improve the subtle result you are hoping for.
Here is my solution

oh my god thank you so much!

any ideas on how to make the grease drawing wrap around the pot?..

@bathroomenjoyer I missed this as you asked a 2-part Q and should probably post this as a separate Q as this is a common problem with multi-part Qs.  I'm not a grease user so cannot help you on that one.  If you could use the Check-mark at the top of my answer my reputation increases, thanks.


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How do you rest the origen for my armature
I've started animating and just noticed the my rigs origen is in the wrong place what I'd like to do is move the oregen back to my rig and not the rig to the origen.

If you want to move the origin of your armature to its geometry(?), go into the header menu > Object > Origin > Origin to Geometry

thank you for your suggestion moonboots.So It doesn't seem to work because my object is linked into the scene I'm working on, is there another way to go about doing this.

if you mean that you've imported it as a linked object, I guess you either need to make it local, or you need to edit the original object in its original file?


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Hair particle rendered unlike in the materiel preview, it looks clumpy
i'm not familiar with blender, and having some problems with hair particle. Hair look just fine when it's in material preview, but it looks different in rendered preview. The hair is clumping like one big hair.
This is rendered preview ; https://i.sstatic.net/a1JiB.jpg
This is material preview ; https://i.sstatic.net/DZpEd.jpg

Hello and welcome. Instead of having users go through links and external sites please use the builtin tools to embed images in your post. See How to upload an image to a post? or GIFs

you need to adjust the Diameter value in the Hair Shape section. See linked question


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Having issue when sculpting with hands/feet
I sculpt by making individual parts and then re-meshing. It worked well, but when I get to fingers/toes, then I try to re-mesh I get this:
The fingers and toes get merged together
When re-meshing, my value is already at 0.04 and I dread going lower (Blender freezes when I tried 0.01)
Any advice?

What does it give if you scale up your mesh in Edit mode then remesh?

Tried scaling it up by 3-4 times, applying all transforms and re-meshing. Barely any improvement. Here's the file. https://ufile.io/9zcsl8pb

so maybe you should spread the finger a little bit like that? https://zupimages.net/up/22/17/h0tt.jpg


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Keyframe all bones in armature at once?
How do I keyframe the location, rotation and scale for all bones in an armature at once?

Select all bones in pose mode,
Press I and T to insert keyframes for LocRotScale (i.e. location, rotation, scale)

Select the bones you want to keyframe, then change the mode from Object Mode to Pose Mode.

Then, once you are satisfied with editing your bones, press I and then click on LocRotScale.

This will add a keyframe for the location, rotation and scaling for all selected bones. I suggest you read this.


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Make Video Sequence Editor (VSE) playback in real time?
How do I make the Video Sequence Editor (VSE) playback in real time?
I have some 4K video clips that I want to edit, however, I'm unable to do so because when I hit play I get about 2 FPS playback (even without any effects/Modifiers applied) instead of the video clips/timelines 25 FPS.
I have a pretty powerful computer, and these clips have no problem playing back in, for example, Premiere. I know Blender's VSE isn't the best or most powerful, but there's gotta be a way to playback the video and audio clips you edit in real time?

Does this answer your question? How to import footage in the VSE for optimal playback and organization?

If you have a very powerful computer you might want to try using a different app. Blender vse is a very outdated tool that doesn't really use all of the potential of your hardware. No gpu acceleration, limited multithreading. The only solution for blender is working with proxies at a lower res. If premiere works fine for you, keep using premiere. Blender is a wonderful 3D creation app, but the video editing tools have not advanced to the needs of today's users.

For those downvoting please leave some arguments. If blender is weak in some areas take your issues to the developers. Don't shoot the messenger.


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Can I use the OptiX AI-Accelerated Denoiser for rendering animations?
Can I use the OptiX AI-Accelerated Denoiser for rendering? I can only find it for viewport denoising, not for denoising a render. How do I enable the OptiX AI-Accelerated Denoiser for rendering, and can I use it for rendering character animations?

Yep. Click on the layers tab and its down at the bottom


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Is there a way to use the current value of Accumulate Field as part of the input?
I'm almost positive that the answer is a pretty straightforward "no," but I was wondering if there was a way to use the total evaluated at the previous index as part of the input for the Accumulate Field node. Basically, I want to access the trailing value in the calculation. My actual goal was to try and position a series of points relative to each other/their previous positions without needing to have a series of chained Set Position nodes.

Could you give an example for a formula, that you try to implement? Because, the trailing of the Accumulate Field node is always the last trailing + the Value-Input.

It's definitely possible I'm misunderstanding what the trailing value is, so maybe disregard that. Unless I'm completely wrong about how the node works, the value input is added to a running total that is being evaluated for each index, and I want to be able to use that total as part of the input formula (say I wanted the input at each index to be half of whatever the current total was).

I think, it is not possible to use the previous value as an input for your current calculation. In my understanding, this would lead to a cycle in your node net. At least I did not finde a way, to prevent this cycle.
Instead, taking your example, it would be best, to solve it differently. Let's say, y0 = 100 and you want to be y1=y0/2 and y(n)=y(n-1)/2. Then you could set y with the "Set Position" node by using the index with this formula: y = 100 * (0,5)^index.


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Light emitting object from behind the camera not reflecting from another object EEVEE
As title says, I have a big cube serving as a room, image below:

There is also a cube with a metallic texture that reflects the lights of the cube, image below:

But as you can see in this image, the surfaces that should reflect the light coming from behind and above the camera, don't reflect. I imagine there's some culling happening. Is there any way to circumvent this or to force eevee to render these reflections?
I have tried Irradiance Volume + Indirect Lighting Baking.
Cycles does it fine, just doesn't look half as good, and takes a billion years to render.

Maybe see this answer about Light Probes: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/190642/how-do-i-get-proper-reflections-eevee

@moonboots My savior, I appreciate it! I tried using reflection planes before, but I was using them wrong, this post is exactly what I needed. Thank you so much!


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Bezier segment node not accepting inputs
I'm trying to randomize the start and end handle position for a "Bezier Segment" node, but any time I connect a random value vector to the input socket I just get an error (see example image below). I'm new to blender so maybe I'm misunderstanding what type of input is required, but the purple color indicates that I should be able to input a vector, right?

-Thanks in advance

You need a single value for the ID in the Random Value node so it produces a single output (circular shape of the output).

I think that the default value it uses as ID when nothing is specified is Index, which doesn't makes sense when generating a single value, so we need to specify a single ID.
Edit:
From Blender documentation:

ID
An ID to drive the random number generator seed. By default, this input uses the same value as of the ID Node, which is the id attribute of the context geometry if it exists, and otherwise the index.

Thanks! Problem solved

@JosephCriscione - If this answered your question satisfactorily, please consider clicking the (accepted) checkmark next to the answer. This will help direct future users experiencing similar problems to this correct  answer.


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Can't get simple array to follow curve
For the life of me I can't get this simple array of planes to follow this Bezier curve which runs over a terrain (hidden), this is the closest I could get by adjusting modifier settings. You can see the array kinda follows it but doesn't. Tried replicating in clean blend files and seems to go fine most of the time.

Bezier curve has no modifiers
the plane is at the same location as the origin of the Bezier
tried curve radius points = 1 and with the radius turned off
all scale rotation etc is applied

Still relatively new so I feel it must be something really silly I've missed but it's had me stumped for ages and I can't figure out how to fix it
Thanks
Blend File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19w7lsuF4uSM4W-IZwPS5gF9PXhM04gMt/view?usp=sharing

Apply the rotation of the curve, choose Deform Axis > -x and maybe rotate the object 90° on X so that it's oriented as you want

Thanks that worked. I could've sworn on previous attempts I definitely tried applying all scales and rotations, rotating the items, changing the deform axis etct etc but oh well it works now so can't complain!


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how would i 'bridge' 2 seperate faces in

i cannot for the life of me figure out how to bridge these 2 objects, Ive been looking stuff up for a while and cant find a solution. thanks in advance.

Join the objects.  Select both "internal" faces.  Use "bridge edge loops" operation.

maybe bevel the mesh on the right to have the same number of vertices then Ctrl E > Bridge Edge loops?

bridge edge loop doesnt seem to work, it leaves them visually the same even if i start to fiddle with the settings

If they're seperate objects you can't bridge them! As @nathan says you'll have to join them with CTRL - J first to make them into one object. Then make sure that the edges have the same number of vertices and use Bridge Edge Loops.


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How to make a text box active(Similar to rename by F2) in blender python?
I have a panel that pops up when a user presses some shortcut key and the panel has one text box(row.prop(....)).Now i want to make the text box active so that when the user presses the shortcut key to open the panel they can start typing straight away without having to manually click the text box. Similar to what to you get when you press F2 to rename an object and you dont have to click the text box to write its already active by default.


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How do I extend the amount of frames on a 2d animation?
I need to extend the amount of frames on the timeline, as you can see in the picture it ends around 1020 frames in the png. I havent tried anything yet to fix it myself but I was wondering if there was a way to go about fixing it before I do any unrepairable damage to the file. Thanks in advance

You can change the number of frames for the project if you type it at the bottom right of the timeline window.

Note that you've enabled an alternative preview range, that is different than the project's frame range.

Preview Range(clock icon)
This is a temporary frame range used for previewing a smaller part of the full range. The preview range only affects the viewport, not the rendered output.

Read:
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/editors/timeline.html?highlight=preview%20range


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Unwrapping my simple 'Cubes' is distorting (most of) the faces
I've modeled a 'cube'guy with rounded edges, and I'd like to unwrap him in what feels like the intuitive way-- seams separating head, torso, and legs, and then two seams running the length of the sides... then unwrap along the Z axis while keeping the X and Y 'square'

But no matter what method I try, I'm getting a lot of distortion on the torso and head

Here are some things I've tried or checked already:

Vertically, just one seam in the back (or side) instead of one on each side... but that still gives this weird projected/curved distortion

Conformal Unwrap instead of Angle Based... gives even MORE distortion as it turns the islands into sort of a spiraling shape instead of a symmetrical one

Cube projection... but that gives me overlapping 'adjacent' faces. For instance, the frontside-righthalf and the rightside-fronthalf are unwrapped on top of each other, so that selecting any 'one' vertex/edge/face of them in the UV editor window actually selects two vertices/edges/faces. I haven't figured out a way to pull them apart without badly stretching other things, as all the islands are somehow connected still

Smart UV Project... Gives all my big main faces nice, square, non-distorted islands... but makes way too many seams-- it also gives all the tiny faces of the rounded edges their own big separate islands, spread all over. Seems like a nightmare to try and corral all of those to be neighboring (and small) like they should be

Project From View... Works great! ...for the front, or whichever side I'm viewing when I hit it, but I haven't been able to combine the four (well, five counting top) different angles I need to capture every face

My Object does not have a scale/transform/rotation... it's at the origin, with scale 1, and no rotation

There are no n-gons (I know in these pictures the top of the head is one; I have fixed it since, but the unwrap results are the same)

Please forgive me if the solution is just "UV wrapping needs a lot of manual fixing," I am very new to this and it seems like all the tutorials I've followed have much less distortion from the default Unwrap command!
I'm also encouraged/discouraged by the fact that the legs come out exactly as I'd expect, nice and square! But somehow using the same seam-technique on the head and torso DOESN'T!
Can anyone help point me in the right direction?

The short answer is that you need more seams/better seam placement. Instead of giving you a full tutorial, I would urge you to read up on the subject rather thoroughly, as having a good understanding early on will help much in the future, and will even change the way you model when you know you need to keep unwrapping under consideration. This guide (although extensive - read: long) has always served me well - https://artisticrender.com/the-definitive-tutorial-to-uv-mapping-in-blender/

Thank you Christopher, this does look like it'll teach me some useful techniques, and even better, some help in knowing when and how to use them! It's also extremely useful to hear from an expert that I'm not just missing something basic!


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Is there any way to save local variables in animation nodes?
I'm simulating a physical system and I need to store local variables for solving the differential equations of the movement and I was wondering if there is a way to store variables from one frame to another (for example the velocity). Also, is possible to do this in a Phyton script? A invoke subprogram node in the animation nodes that calls a script execute it every frame, so I don't see the way of storing there variables from frame to frame....
I kind of solved this problem creating a cube and storing in the variables that I need in its location (with a transformation output node), but I feel that there should be a more elegant way of doing this...
Thank you!

Hi. It is easily possible in Animation Nodes + Extra Nodes. I have added Simulation Nodes, these nodes allow you to do exactly what you have mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKhLLys63KA

Wow, thank you very much!


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Different render results if I render with CPU vs GPU
This morning I received a new computer with a NVIDIA graphic card and I wanted to test it with an animation that my previous computer couldn't handle.
But I'm having some problems with the lighting of the scene. Here are some pictures of what's is going on:
Viewport with CPU rendering:
Viewport with GPU rendering:

Thank you very much!!

please add blend file

Sorry I'm new in Stack Exchange and I still have a lot to learn. How can I upload a file? Also, I think that is around 150 MB... maybe I should upload it compressed. Thanks for the help!

That is weird, usually GPU fails, CPU render doesn't use environment light ... to share file use https://blend-exchange.com copy paste given code into your Q via edit. Don't upload 150 MB, simplify your file you can delete all objects and material (also check in Outliner > Orphan Data and delete all that left there) of course if issue still persists.

How to upload: https://blender.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/658/including-a-blend-file

@Chris ... Thanks for the link ... The script seems to be awesome !

Thanks for the link. I solved the problem, when I moved the file from one computer to the other one there was a problem with the textures. But now I know how to upload files to stack exchange. Thanks


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Is it possible to use an already UV unwrapped in Geometry Nodes without losing the UV map?
I will use an example to explain more clearly my question: so, I have this object (called "Circle"), already unwrapped and with a texture applied:

Now, if in the Geometry Nodes editor I add the object, the UV unwrap is not lost:

But, when I join the geometry of this object with another one, for example a cube, then the UV unwrap is lost.

I would like to know if is possible to join several geometries without losing the UV maps
(using the Geometry Nodes fields in Blender 3.0).
Thanks!!

It seems, after adding geometry, the map of the original part of the mesh becomes a GN attribute, and  is still available to the shader through  an 'Attribute'  node > (Geometry) > (UV Map Name).  What makes no sense to me, is that if I capture the UV Map as a vector  input attribute in the modifier interface, and connect it straight to the output, and try to dump the attribute back into the UV map of the same name without changing it, it comes out distorted. So this isn't an answer, but may do for the time-being

Yeah that works! Thanks! Btw in my opinion it is an answer

Hehe.. I like to fully understand stuff before posting.. but I'll pop one in when I can :)

Having the UVMap only as an Atrribute which only works in Blender thou is not a solution in any way. There is people who do create Assets for GameAssets and so on. Now Plugins like AlterMEsh exist to make GeoNodes work in Unreal Engine so it is absolutely vital to keep UV Information intact after Realizing Instances.

The UV Map becomes an attribute of the mesh when using geometry nodes.
Because you're not altering the unwrapped geometry in any way that would invalidate the map you only need to access UVMap attribute the Geometry Nodes spitted out instead of the original UV.
Because the mesh wasn't significantly modified you won't even need to capture or transfer the attribute -- this data is already present in the vertices.

And a Boolean Union in this case will not only let the original mesh keep its UV and material but cause the procedural one to inherit them.
Bear in mind other mesh data like vertex colors are also attributes, made available and accessed in the same way. Only fully procedural data (attributes that weren't present in the original geometry) require extra work. Usually you'll attribute transfer them to the final geometry so the vertices/edges/faces carry that data then plug the vector/color/something else information into the Group Output to turn it into an "entry" that can be accessed from the outside, like the material or whatever.


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Geomtry Nodes: point instance texturing
I created a cube with a basic texture on it (first picture). Then, using Geomtry Nodes I created a grid and instanced the cube on the the vertices of the grid, so at the end I have the kind of structure of the second picture.
I would like to know if there is a way to texture each of the instanced cubes using geometry nodes so they doesn't seem patched in the grid, instead of just repeating the texture.
Thanks!

This is a seamless texture. If you somehow offset the mesh UVs, seams will appear. What you want is to break the repeating patterns. See this https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/8278/unwanted-patterns-in-texture-from-repeated-seamless-image or https://erindale.gumroad.com/l/untiling either way it's best resolved in the shader editor rather in the GN modifier

checkout this shader material:

Geo nodes setup:

result:

But using that set up I can't use my UV map for the texture

i agree with Gorgious...check this out: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/8278/unwanted-patterns-in-texture-from-repeated-seamless-image


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Is it possible to control the radius of the skin modifier with geometry nodes?
Is it possible to apply to an object (formed by only vertices) a skin modifier, and then control the radius of the modifier using geometry nodes?
This means that the object would have two modifiers, first the skin and then the geometry node that controls the radius.

I think this has already been asked before but can't find the question. The current implementation of the skin modifier is convoluted and uses a very specific attribute that's not exposed to geometry nodes. The plan is to change the skin modifier to accept regular attributes down the line ,according to the developer's message on this RCS proposal https://blender.community/c/rightclickselect/Zqhbbc/?sorting=hot

i think this is quite "dangerous" because you want to change the first modifier of the same object by the second modifier? i think you could easily produce infinite loops with this...and although i don't know but i doubt that Blender can do this. But maybe i am wrong

I'd do it the other way around, changing a specific attribute in Geometry Nodes, which is used by the skin modifier afterwards. This makes more sense, as one can control the thickness of the skin modifier using Ctrl + A in edit mode.

the way it should work in theory is, you store an attribute in a modifier before the skin modifier, but that isn't possible at the current moment. I need to check about a modifier afterwards; I don't know how the skin modifier works with attributes, if it removes then, then it wouldn't work, but if it keeps them then you might be able to

doesn't look promising, and for more issues one being that the junctions topology and placement makes it hard to scale them to 0 and still keep a good shape


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Read atributes from an alembic?
I'm trying to export geometry from Houdini to Blender, as far as I know alembic is the way to go.
But, even tho I have multiple attributes in Houdini, I only receive in Blender the color attribute (Cd), the rest are gone.
I was wondering if there is a way to get those extra attributes inside Blender.

Blender only supports the Cd attribute ( I believe it also converts it to col)
You can transfer other attributes by storing them as point positions in other alembic files, and transferring those via Geometry Nodes (Sample at Index is your best friend here)
Tedious, I know, but it works.


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Store Geometry Node attribute via Python in an evaluated object
I have an alembic in which the point number changes per frame and I want to store in each point an attribute via Python.
Using the  attr.data.foreach_set() gives me good results if the point number is constant during time, but once that changes, the attribute seems to appear only in the geometry node spreadsheet of the original object, not the evaluated one.

Just to be clear, I'm reading an alembic from disk:

If you store attribute in original mesh, but then the mesh is replaced by a modifier, then the attribute is lost.

@MarkusvonBroady and there is no way to store it after the modifier?

Yes there is - using another geonodes modifier that stores them. Geonodes could read data from a separate mesh for example.

If you want to add data on top (logically after; actually below, as seen in the Properties panel) of a modifier, you need to do it with another modifier, "dynamically". You can do so with Geometry Nodes, but question is, where do you read this data from. If it's arbitrary data, you can just store it on another mesh. Here's an example of Suzanne, which loads vertex color from a plane nearby - so you can arbitrary color the plane and see it affect the Suzanne. If you directly painted on the Suzanne, you would be able to control only the original vertices, before subdivision.

Suzanne is the original monkey with a vertex-color attribute named Color, a Subdivision Surface modifier and a Geometry Nodes modifier:

Keep in mind a simple Data Transfer modifier would do:


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Convert polygon geometry to renderable hair with Geometry Nodes
How can I convert this regular mesh (polygonal) to renderable hairs using just geometry nodes?

I think is not possible. The object type should be Curves to make it renderable as hair. Otherwise, it will not visible on render. You can only add depth to this mesh, to make it renderable.

You can turn the mesh into a set of splines (a curve object), then turn it back to a renderable mesh.
Play with the divide and radius values to set the radial appearence of the hair.

Yeah but then I can't use the Hair BSDF. I'm asking this because I'm importing a simulated hair alembic from Houdini and it comes as a polygonal mesh...


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Display Audio Meters in Video Sequence Editor?
Is there any way to display audio meters in the Video Sequence Editor?
I mean something like this:

Pretty much every NLE has one, but I'm unable to find one in Blender's VSE.

This is not a built-in feature, but you can get an audio-meter in the VSE by installing this (essential) VSE add-on: https://github.com/snuq/VSEQF


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How to see all assigned color IDs in object mode
I've been adding Color ID mapping to many objects in my current model. What I can't find in Blender is a way to see all those color IDs at the same time in object mode. Even if I select all objects (in Object Mode) the only color ID mapping I see is the selected object. The reason I want to do this is so I can not only see parts that haven't been color ID'd yet but also to make sure I'm applying my colors coherently. My goal is to export the model into Substance Painter. thanks!

Hello, could you be more precise about what you call Color ID ?

To Gorgious... I call it Color ID mode but vertex paint is a better description, sorry about that. But I found my answer already, here it is. In Viewport Shading dropdown box there's an option called Color which has six options. I chose Vertex and that works perfectly. I found the answer here: https://blenderartists.org/t/seeing-vertex-paint-in-object-mode/1158358

In Viewport Shading(Solid) -- Settings -- Color -- select Attribute parameter


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Blender 2.8: Target UV map is half the size of the source UV map
first time poster, got an issue I don't know how to solve. My goal is to have as big an island selection for my house parts to capture as much of the weathering detail as I can. But to keep the model efficient I combined as many of the house parts as I could that use materials (not textures) onto one texture map. I'm combining these materials with weathering textures to get a final result. So my UV map, my source, looks like this:

So after baking from the source to the target my result is the UV map for the target is using up half of the image size allocated for the target UV map. I'm wanting to use a 2048x2048 image. Here's what I'm getting for my target UV map:

I've baked before, just three times, and didn't have this issue. I'm going to include my properties screen in case it helps to troubleshoot the issue. Here it is.

The resulting model looks fine even with the image using up half of the texture space. But still, I'd like to know why this is happening. I've checked things like the rotation and scale, and they are right. And I've checked the mesh so there are no extra vertices or edges or any goofy ngons. BTW, the House_Source and House_Target occupy the same space. I don't know what else to check. Any ideas? TIA! - Rich

Solved this myself by some experimentation. What worked was to isolate the parts in a previous save before joining parts and check each mesh for Cleanup issues. I first checked for loose geometry and then to merge vertices or as they were called in v2.79 duplicated vertices. I did find issues. Not a lot but a few more than I expected to. I also checked for scaling and rotation issues but didn't find any.The last thing I did was to add 1 pixel's worth for margins. I baked and all went as expected with the target bake matching the source UV map whereas before the target UV map had its own mind and resembled little of the source. I'm including the redo bake of the house_parts uv map just to show it worked.
So in conclusion what I believe was at issue was the mesh irregularities. I'm concluding as a newbie (you can see my site to determine my skill level at All Aboard) that if baking is a goal that the mesh parts be free from any defects. Seems a rather obvious conclusion but in my situation there were a number of parts and I thought they all had been checked. The problem I had was nothing in the problem I listed above suggested there could be mesh issues. So lesson learned.
Here's the bake redo.


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What is the maximum size of an object in the viewport until it can't be seen?
I'm trying to figure out what the maximum size of an object in the viewport is until it can't be seen. The reason trying to do this is because I'm trying to make life-size mountains inside of Blender but have realized that 7150 meters are too big for the viewport.
The maximum size an object can be in the viewport before it can't be seen is less than 1000 meters.

It sounds like you just answered your own question. Why don’t you add it as an answer? Also, you seem to be referring to the clipping distance of the camera, which can be changed.

Fun fact: There actually is a hardcoded Coordinate XYZ limitation of 10,000meters on object size. If you wanna make some big ass mountains :))

Your conclusion in the last sentence is incorrect. See answer below.

If my answer was helpful, mark it as the solution, please.

This is because of the view clipping distance. The default values of the clipping distance are set for a reasonable distance for most purposes, but for things that are too big, like mountains, you can set to whatever distance you wish:

Make sure you also change the clipping distance settings in your camera or else you might have trouble seeing the objects in the render:

Be aware that depending on the size of the range you set, it can get less precise and  some z-fighting may happen (that's when the software gets confused as to what face is in front of the other face, causing visual glitches).*
Another option is to just not make the mountains real-life scale. Make the whole scene smaller and no one will notice.
*Just as a curiosity: This can happen because the bigger the numbers the computer is dealing with, the less precise it gets because the computer can only store a limited amount of digits for each value. More digits before the point means less digits after the point, that's why huge numbers can lead to precision errors. This is something all computers have to deal with, not something specific to blender.


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combining 2 separate objects as different multires levels
I have 2 different objects. they used to be 1 object, a sculpt with a multires modifier. that file was lost, but i have the 2 exported meshes (low and high poly). since they used to be 1 object with a multires modifier, I would like to know if there is any method I can use to redefine them as multires levels of 1 object?
(so that the low res is the base, and the sculpt the high res, both are the same object)
I tried the reshape (subdivided the low res to the correct vert count, and retargeted the shape to the sculpt) but that just broke the whole thing. any ideas? thanks in advance :)

update: this tutorial proved to be useful. if anyone else has a similar issue:
https://youtu.be/MU7EQjauKNo

Welcome :) Would you be able to support this answer with a brief explanation? Link-only answers are generally considered low effort on this forum, with more comprehensive answers being preferred. Thanks!


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Render Coloured Point Clouds as Collection of Spheres
I have a coloured point cloud in a .pcd file, that I can easily convert to a .ply file using Open3D. I would like to visualise the point cloud in Blender (version 3.x) as a collection of spheres, each coloured according to the colour of the corresponding point in the point cloud, in order to render a high-quality image.
The final result should look something like the following, where the colours are the ones specified in the .pcd file:

Is there a simple way to achieve this with Blender?

Image source:

F. Sverrisson, J. Feydy, B. E. Correia and M. M. Bronstein, "Fast
end-to-end learning on protein surfaces," 2021 IEEE/CVF Conference on
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 2021, pp. 15267-15276,
doi: 10.1109/CVPR46437.2021.01502.

It's a bit involved but you might find interesting things in this thread over on BA https://blenderartists.org/t/render-large-point-cloud-with-color-information/1375273

Thank, I'll have a look but I never used Blender before, therefore I was looking for a simple solution. Looks like the Point Cloud Visualizer plugin would do what I need, but the price is a bit steep since I need it for just a few renders.

There is a builtin .ply importer that you can use. I don't know if it will import the color data though


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Sculpting Not Working Correctly, Only 1 Vertex able to Sculpt
I am at a complete loss and trying to get the most basic of sculpting working. For now I'm just trying to take the basic Cylinder mesh and go to sculpting and draw squiggles onto the side of it so it looks indented, but whenever I left click nothing happens, the only thing I can do is slightly sculpt the top face of the cylinder making it wonky but I cant for the life of me get clay to draw on the top or the sides of the model. Screenshot provided.

sculpting needs topology, if your object has only a series of long vertical faces you will only be able to move the top or bottom vertices, unless you enable Dyntopo, which adds vertices

thank you really helped got it working


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Microdisplacement Ocean Modifier Dicing Artefact on Adaptive Subdivision
hay , i recently learn to make large ocean using displacement from baking ocean modifier, but i have problem issue with the dicing artefact. i already try to play with dicing rate 1px-4px. but the result is same just it good in far camera angle. i already using 2 sub modifier.
here the result
the close from camera

and the far from camera is look fine

here the subdiv setting

Hello :). There simply isn't enough geometry. You can increase the Max Subdivisions field to maximum of 16. Other than that, you'll need to add more subdivisions before the adaptive subdivision modifier is applied.

hay, i already have 4 sub level before sub n my poly reach 3 million. the max sub i try in 15 but it still same issue,..but if i make dicing rate to 4px same the preview it's look fine but less detail.

Hey :). Well, even 3 million vertices might not be enough for an ocean. Just in case - is your mesh smooth shaded? That might help a bit in the flatter areas.

i think i already have a answer, i juts try to change the interpolation method to smart, but the detail is gone


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Animation Nodes: How to keep the Radial perfect loop when adding iterated rotations to each instance
I have this simple AN radial setup:

And this simple loop to give incrementing rotations to each instance:

And this setup allows me to keep the perfect loop intact regardless of how many instances I put, that's one problem solved:

What I need to do now is make an algorithm so that I can add a stronger rotation to each instance, but I can't figure it out. So far I only managed to work by multiplying by 2 the whole function, but I need it to be smooth, i.e. with a Float value so that I can animate it.
TL;DR: I need this to still be a perfect loop when I make the rotations to each instance stronger:

Any help would be appreciated! Thank you a lot, I am not very good at math but I am trying :/.

Sorry I can't help, but there's a reason for that. I can't get the addon installed to save my life! Really bummed, too. :(

I don't use AN, so I won't answer, but in order to align the square with a square, you need its rotation (along its axis) throughout one full revolution (rotation around the world center) to be divisible by 90. The first node in Get Rotation Values section calculates how many degrees of the revolution is done between each instance: 360 / number_of_instances. Similarly you can divide 90 by the number of instances to get a minimum (positive) angle of rotation. Then you can multiply it by an arbitrary (manual input) whole number (integer) to get multiples of this value.

thanks for this tip, although this works to get a smoother result, that's what I am trying to avoid, I wanted to use a float value so I can multiply it extra smooth, without the use of a whole number.

But the sum of the rotations has to be divisible by 90° in order for the first and last squares to align. This integer I mentioned is there to make sure that's the case. Imagine, that throughout whole revolution, the square rotates along its axis by 90°. For 100 steps this would mean 90°/100 = 0.9° rotation for each step. Decrease this step, and the squares just won't align, because they will sum up to less than 90° which is the smallest radial symmetry of a square. The mentioned integer is there only to multiply this 0.9° while maintaining divisibility of the sum of steps by 90°.

I guess that's how it must be. Again idk math so I was thinking there's a different way. Anyway thanks mate! Got some clarity now

@MattChowski it all comes down to the very simple logic: two squares are aligned only if one has the same rotation as the other, or +90 degree rotation, or +180, or +270. Notice on the GIF as the rotation divided by 90 is further and further away from nearest integer, the squares align less and less, up until the .5 is reached, then the squares start getting "closer" again. https://i.imgur.com/ONQyWWh.gif


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Show Convex Hull Collision in the viewport
Like in the title, is there any way I can see the Convex Hull mesh when I enable the rigid body on an object? I can see sphere, box, cone and all the primitives, but convex hull nada. Seems like quite a needed feature to be able to see it, Maya has it for example.
I read somewhere a guy said "turn on view physics" but I searched everywhere and can't find it.
Thanks in advance!

At the time of writing, displaying the Convex Hull collision boundary using the Rigid Body > Collisions > Shape setting does not seem to be possible (directly) - you have not overlooked an option.  However, recent activity on the developer.blender.org tracker indicates that this is being addressed.
Commits to the tracker have been put forward by Soumya Pochiraju, most recently less than a month ago so I would not be surprised to see this feature working sooner rather than later.  Whether this would come to Blender 2.93.x, 3.x or both, I don't know.
You can follow the current development commits using the following links:

Physics: enabled drawing for convex hull collision shape and corrected scale of compound child shapes
Physics: Implemented drawing convex hull collisions shapes using mesh_batch_cache functions
Fix memory error in function for storing convex hull collision shape mesh data.

In the meantime, you can also visualize your convex hull by using the Add > Geometry > Convex Hull node in the Geometry Nodes panel of Blender 3.0 Alpha.

Wow. That's what I call a comprehensive answer! :)


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How to make a .obj Animation
I got several .obj files from a face and i want too animate them like keyframing.
However keyframing does not work since the .obj files might differ in small details.
My simplest approach is: make a animation based on showing each .obj just a few miliseconds.
I need to do this with python since this should be automated.
(In the end someone will give me a video, i split the video in frames and get for every frame a .obj file from the face (some Machine-Learning stuff behind there) and then i rebuild the "video" but in 3d.
Is this possible with the python-api from blender ? And when yes, where would i start?
Thanks.


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Rendering a plane plane of grass, proper particle settings, and scaling
I have built out this plane of grass from this tutorial:
Create Realistic Grass in Blender 2.8 in 15 minutes
CG Geek - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GAm-7_3N6g
Here is a screen shot of my grass plane:

I suspect that my grass plane has some settings that are off...
Here is a screen shot of my particle settings:

My goal is to create a grass plane that I can then put warehouse type buildings on in order to create a layout of a production facility.
Did I set up this plane correctly?
Is the Emission>Number:Value to high?
Can I set this up so that I can just tile these planes as necessary to accommodate the size I need as I build?
This is my first posting here so please forgive any ignorance on my part.
Please let me know if there is any information I left out that is needed to analyze this.
Thanks.
As always,
Bice

I'm flagging this question as "opinion-based", because this question has an opinion of the model, not something to actually fix.

Can that help ? https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/147610/how-to-change-x-location-axis-for-particular-system/147618#147618

@Nate_Sycro27, if I see well, the grass is flat on the above images and that's the point of the question.

The plane looks fine.
You can reduce the number of grass particles by going to Children and switching from None to Interpolated and then lowering the number of particles as much as you like.
You can also duplicate it several times and render the grass only on the last render.


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Rigify-armature won't attach to mesh
I am a new Blender user.  I have a Genesis 3 character I created in DAZ.  I exported him as an fbx into Blender.  I followed a few tutorials and using rigify, I fit my bones onto my G3 character.  I created a rig using my armature, and it's not attaching to my G3 mesh.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I am attaching a link to download to see what I've done here.  Thank you in advance!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iENa2NnRVvCUUQF3kzyXhcy90L7unsdp/view?usp=sharing

You attached the mesh to the "rig" armature but you should attach it to the "metarig".

will try that.  thank you.

Okay, I think i figured out the parenting, but I still don't have any movement with the mesh and the armature.  I saved my progress to the link above.  Thanks again.

If you select your body mesh and go to the vertex groups, you will see that you have two "series" of vertex groups: one has been created by Rigify parenting (all thoose starting with the suffix "DEF"), the other created by another rig. The DEF vertex groups have no weights assignements (so they don't act), while the others do have weights, but they don't "talk" with rigify bones because they have non corresponding names.
There are three different ways of repair:
1) delete all "DEF" vertex groups, then rename all others vertex groups, i.e. "lindex3" shall be renamed "DEF-f_index.03.L" (I know, it's a pain".
2) rename the deforming bones of Rigify (the opposite, but another pain).
3) Delete all existing vertex groups and redo the weighting. If you want to use Automatic weighting you will have to temporarily detach the head from the body, because in the head region you will get the "Bone heat failing" error, and probably this is the reason why you did the parenting but only empty vertex groups were created.
BTW, it's correct to parent the mesh to "Rig", not "Metarig".

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!  I'm on it!

If useful, please mark the answer as accepted (V sign).

I am choosing option #1.  I started changing the text in my vertex groups and am worried I'm naming them incorrectly.  Where could I find a list of the bones to make sure I'm naming them correctly in my vertex groups?

You'll have to copy them from a Rigify assignement, or from the names of Rigify's deforming bones, which are thoose on the last layer selected (in blue)  in my image, properties panel, Layers tab.


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Mirror and Merge are not working together
so I was trying to merge eyes with my mesh and for some reason, it doesn't work. The mirrored object disappears. I saw on a site that you merge 2 objects with ctrl+J command and it sometimes crashes my blender.

You may need to apply the mirror modifier before joining the two. If you're merging the eyes with a mesh that does not have a matching mirror modifier, the mirror will not be automatically applied, and the mirror part of the mesh will be lost.

I am having a different problem now, every time I try to merge them, blender just crashes. I started looking at RAM and it seems like blender takes around 100mb/s more neverending even after more than 10gbs of RAM. Then it just crashes my pc.

After a few tries, my program didn't crash and now everything is working as it should. Thanks for your quick response!


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How do I properly set up Subsurface Scattering for a human skeleton for Cycles?
I have a 3D-model of a human skeleton with 8K textures and would like to properly set up Subsurface Scattering and the materials. I've looked around but I'm a little confused about which sockets to connect to which map etc.
Here's a download link for the mesh and all textures: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tlawz8o55cngdaq/HumanMaleSkeleton1.zip?dl=0
If anyone could give me an example of how to set up the materials as good and physically accurate as possible with the maps I have I would really appreciate it.

Under the green label on the right with Principled BSDF turn up Subsurface for subsurface scattering; also adjust the Subsurface color. You can also increase the Subsurface Radius very slightly.
According to the following answers: Principled BSDF subsurface scattering values for skin material the bones should probably have a subsurface value of less than 0.1. How accurate that looks mostly will depend on the lighting and your own ability to reference an image.
Because subsurface scattering varies depending on the distance from the edge of perceived light, along with the distance traveled through the mesh, I don't believe you need to map its value.


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Blender won't import FBX animations?
What do I do if Blender won't import FBX animations?
I have a FBX file with a character that's animated. The mesh and rig imports correctly to Blender, however, the animation of the rig won't import. I can see that the file is, in fact, animated thanks to Autodesk's FBX Review-software. Keyframes are imported, however, the rig won't animate.
Any ideas?
Feel free to download and experiment yourself: https://we.tl/t-gIrSEGp0Jq

There is two actions in the file. Switch to the other one in the Action Editor (Located in the DopeSheet panel).


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Should I use Reflection Cubemaps in Eevee (to achieve realistic lighting)?
Should I use Reflection Cubemaps in Eevee? I've seen a lot of tutorials about achieving realistic lighting in Eevee using Reflection Cubemaps and Irradiance Volumes. However, in the Blender manual it says: "Screen Space Reflections are much more precise than reflection cubemaps. If enabled, they have priority and cubemaps are used as a fall back if a ray misses." So, from my understanding, enabling Screen Space Reflections in the render settings gives more realistic reflections, and therefore Reflection Cubemaps are not necessary? Correct? Or is it best to use both?

To answer my own question: use both! Eevee will mainly use Screen Space Reflections, but will also use Reflection Cubemaps as a secondary source (backup) for reflections where Screen Space Reflections fails. Using both gives the most accurate results.

If you were using cycles, don't you need all this?


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Add material to text's bevel?
How do I add one material to the whole text (excluding the bevel) and a separate material that only applies to the bevel of the text?
For example, if I wanted to have this tile material on the whole text but gold on the text's bevels, how would I achieve that?

If you are using the Bevel Modifier, just set the material index to 1, in the modifier and add an additional material in to slot 1 with your Gold material after slot 0 which is your base material.

I figured it out: Go into Edit Mode, select some of the bevel's Faces, Click Select → Select Similar → Face Regions (this will select the text's bevel), create a new Vertex Group and assign these selected Faces to it, create a new Material Slot and assign these selected Faces (from the Vertex Group) to it, add a new Material to this new Material Slot and then you're done!


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Where do I find the polygon and vertices count for an object in Blender 2.8?
Where do I find the polygon and vertices count for a specific object that I've selected in Blender 2.8? I'm looking for something like this:

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/interface/window_system/status_bar.html

Go into edit mode, select all the vertices of the object.
You should see the counts on the bottom of the window:

In some cases, the counts might not be visible by default. So if the counts aren't displaying for you, try right-clicking on the status bar and checking the box that says "Scene statistics." This should make them appear.

I don't think this is quite true anymore. It seems to always show the stats for the entire scene now, not the selected object(s). Too bad!

no there isn't.


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Rigging model with fur
I'm trying to rig the model with hair particles on Blender 3.0, but the hair won't stick to the rigged model while animating, is there any solution for me to fix the problem?
([]

Check if Armature modifier is before particles in modifier list.

And also check if use modifier stack is enabled:


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Rendering camera problems
I'm in a middle of rendering shot 2 of the veld for the animated short I'm creating and it keeps turning out like this. Feel free to comment if you have any suggestions.

There can be several reasons why only the background is rendered. Upload your blend file through this site so respondents can review your file.

Maybe you've loaded a strip in the Viedo Sequencer, in that case it will play instead of your 3D scene, you need to go into the Output panel > Post-Processing > disable Sequencer


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How do I add a solid material inside edges?

I want to add a solid kind of mesh inside the chosen edges. I dont know much about modeling so if someone could help me it would be great. Outer lines will be used for different kind of material that I have a tutorial for. So outer edges should not be touched. Im new to this.

If you mean that you want to fill the mesh, select one of them and press F

ok ill try to do that

I  filled it. but can i give it a texture

to give it a material, select this face you've created, go in the Properties panel (right panel) > Material, create a new material and click on Assign

thanks alot dude


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Can I transform an object rotation while the animation is playing?
I got a simple car. The front wheels are independent objects, linked to the body with a generic spring.
I want to change the frontwheels Z-rotation to change the driving direction.
The wheels are linked to an empty with an object constraint, to transform the rotation in relation to the empty.
This only works, if the animation is not playing.
Can I change the rotation while the animation is playing and the car drives (the back wheels got a motor constraint)?

of course you can. Best would be, if you provide your blend file so we can see what you tried and help you out.

could i recomend this video which i have used and find to be effective https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoSRMxMDYsk&t=1s


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How to "link" different objects that have wind physics
I'm trying to make a stand for a poster i designed, the concept is that the poster is held in place by two paper pins which themselves are attached via a string to a metal bar above, now i got how to make the poster flop with the wind with vertex groups, but how do i connect all of them so that they are attached one to another, and and make them react together to the wind?

a very "easy" solution is to model it as one object like this:

use the two selected vertices as pin group and give it a cloth modifier.
add some wind with noise, maybe increase the stiffness values like this:

and you get:

less wind, but some different preset cloth values:


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Appending collections from a blend file to the current scene with Python
I am very new to Python and the Blender API. I am doing some scripting tests and I am trying to append a collection (named Cube_Collection) from a blend file (Cube.blend) into a new, current, blend file Scene Collection using a Python script.
So far I have seen two methods:

Using the append operator

bpy.ops.wm.append()

Using the BlendDataLibraries

with bpy.data.libraries.load(filepath, link=link) as (data_from, data_to):

However I haven't managed to make any of them work and getting too deep into the second method gets me very confused. So far the only one that worked, and I don't really know how, using the second method, is:
with bpy.data.libraries.load(filepath) as (data_from, data_to):
    for attr in dir(data_to):
        setattr(data_to, attr, getattr(data_from, attr))

However: I don't want to append everything from the source blend file. Moreover, I am not sure what the "attr" expression refers to and in the BlendDataLibraries examples it is not explicitly clarified what is what (at least it's not obvious to a newcomer like me).
Do you have any suggestion on the issue?

Blend files are structured in containers for the different data types that are inherent to a Blender file. Here's the contents of a random blend file on my disk.

Here's a link to the docs showcasing all the possible libraries in a blend file.
The for attr in dir(data_to): loop traverses the entire libraries collections and copies (appends) them to the current file. You can see what all these attributes are with
with bpy.data.libraries.load(filepath) as (data_from, data_to):
    print(dir(data_from))

['actions', 'armatures', 'brushes', 'cache_files', 'cameras', 'collections', 'curves', 'fonts', 'grease_pencils', 'hair_curves', 'images', 'lattices', 'lightprobes', 'lights', 'linestyles', 'masks', 'materials', 'meshes', 'metaballs', 'movieclips', 'node_groups', 'objects', 'paint_curves', 'palettes', 'particles', 'pointclouds', 'scenes', 'screens', 'simulations', 'sounds', 'speakers', 'texts', 'textures', 'volumes', 'workspaces', 'worlds']

In your case you only want the collections container. data_from.collections is a list with the collection names. eg in my Cube.blend file I have only one collection, so I have this result
with bpy.data.libraries.load(filepath) as (data_from, data_to):
    print(data_from.collections)

['Cube_Collection']

You specifically want the collection named Cube_Collection. So you only need to add (append) this name to the data_to.collections container.
with bpy.data.libraries.load(filepath) as (data_from, data_to):
    data_to.collections.append("Cube_Collection")

It may be weird, but remember, data_to.collections is a list of collection names, it isn't a list of collection objects. The collection will then be "automagically" added thanks to the special syntax of the code you used. with in python lets the object that is operated upon know when some code has been executed, that way it will parse data_to and see if new objects have been added to its container.
Do note that if there is no collection named "Cube_Collection" in the source file, the code will execute without throwing an error.
However once you run this code, you will notice that no collection has been added to your file. In fact it has, it has just not been linked to your current scene.
If you switch the outliner to "Blend file" you will see your collection under there.

If you drag and drop it into your scene, it will be instantiated. You can execute this step by code by adding these two lines at the end of your script :
collection = bpy.data.collections.get("Cube_Collection")
bpy.context.scene.collection.children.link(collection)

Oh wow, this is a very in-depth explanation, thank you! It clarifies my doubts. To my understanding, the various elements inside the blend file library (eg. collections, materials, objects etc) are considered as attributes of the library?
Also, I think the main issues I had once I've read your answer is the fact that my appended elements weren't being linked to my current scene, since I noticed things were in fact changing in my current blend file every time I executed the code.
I'll revise my code today and will come back if anything arises, thank you!


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Moving keyframes layers greasepencil
Can you move multiple keyframes from one layer to another, like Animate etc?


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Why is the applied image texture not stretched to the seam?
I am yet to wrap my head around uv maps and unwrapping but what exactly should I do to make sure that the texture shows up all the way to the seam. I want the bottom part of the label image to align with the seam I've marked. As you can see the faces in the uv editor have texture showing all the way down to the bottom of the face, but on the can, the picture does stretch up to the seam and is filled with some black band at the bottom instead of the orange texture all the way to the seam. How do I go about doing that?
Thank you for you time people.

Rotate the UV map 90 and then shape it to match the image.

Thank you for the reply Maulik. I tried the suggestion but did not work for me. I am still unable to get the texture to line up. Here is the link to the file if you are interested and have some time to tinker. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1prYVm7YtQIjT5UXrMyeS3uh6veRXmIMH/view?usp=sharing


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How to add bricks to curved surface
I'm making a low poly with bridge with bricks on it and I'm not sure how to put the bricks on the curved surface easily. If I do it manually I would have to rotate each brick manually which seems redundant.
Here is a picture of the Bridge I am working on

Here is a picture of what I'm trying to make

Do you really need that as real geometry? Paint those bricks with textures. Look at Grant Abbitt videos on his painting lowpoly game models, it's similar style, like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOSKGO5QZls

Yeah maybe I don't, thanks!

You can model bricks create a curve along the bridge and create a array of blocks following that curve yt link: https://youtu.be/aZN0AAIlrHI


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Export ply. with Noise texture
Disclaimer: this is my first question on stackExch. so quite new in Blender also.
I wanted to add a noise on my torus, which I could do on the Shading/Add-> NoiseTexture. It was visible in object mode and edit mode. As soon as I export it, I only see the torus without the noise. Have also called several websites, but could not find a solution. Need it for my thesis work.
Thanks to all in advance

https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/57531/fbx-export-why-there-are-no-materials-or-textures

Make sure you always take a moment to search the web or Blender StackExchange to see if a question similar to yours has already been asked. If you still find it impossible to solve the problem then ask a new question.


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How do show different angles of an object on multiple monitor screens?
I am trying to create a project where the object is showing on 4 different monitor screens. The 4 angles being the front, the sides, and the back. While its giving the effect that it looks like the background/atmosphere is spinning around the object on each monitor screen, but the cameras focus is on either the front, sides or back only, per each monitor screen. Can someone help explain step by step what to do? Thank you

Under the menu called View at the top of the viewport, you can select Area > Duplicate Into New Window to make a new viewport window for each of your monitors. You can then use the ortho perspective keys (Numpad 1, 3, 7, 9) on each of the windows to get your different front/back/top/side views. Is this what you're looking for?

Is it possible you are looking for Quad View?

I'm a Beginner. When I hear that question, I get four split identical objects that only move the background from an animated angle, and maybe that's an animation rendering from different angles and then editing it to look like it's split into four sides into programs like Premiere Pro and After Effect? I haven't done animation rendering, but I think it's probably rendering the screen that's shown through the camera. Thank you


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How to create an animated shining star with halo and rays in Cycles, Blender 3.0
Good morning!
I want to create a shining star with glow and light rays. I've tried using emission and glare in cycles but without much luck. And no sun rays yet. It looks like previous Blender versions had Halo which was perfect. Now, not. I've included an image of what I am shooting for.
Thank you for sharing your time, energy and expertise! It is much appreciated.

You can combine several Glare nodes. One with mode Streaks and one with mode Fog Glow for example to get the inner glow effect plus the streaks. But the number of streaks is limited to 16 and the streaks have all the same length. Of course, you can mix two Glare (Streak) nodes to get 32 streaks but it will have not this variation in the length of the streaks. Example: https://i.sstatic.net/hBMZn.jpg (emission sphere + glare nodes in compositor)

Good morning and thank you. Not only is it a brilliant idea, it is beautiful. I will play with it. I've used Glare and the compositor a bit but not much. I'm new :-)
I'm not sure if I can animate in the compositor or not. That I will have to look into.
Thank you again for your time and expertise.

Research Update: Someone mentioned a product on Blender Market that they thought might work. I bought/tried it: Flared-Lens-Flare.
Presale, dev kindly tried to educate me (I'm new to Blender) but I misunderstood what a lens flare is. It applies to camera lens! Not an emission/bloom/glare aspect of my object. Which apparently is what I need. Still, Flared looks lovely. Dev helpful. I will use it later.
So back to the drawing board. Create animated emission like the image attached. Will continue to research and post updates. (PS. I'm not dev nor get commission. I just loved the add-on)


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How to merge overlapping instances in geometry nodes?
I'm still new to geometry nodes for some years using blender, I'm trying to make a cool transition effect, but I have this problem of overlapping instances
Keep in mind that it's animated!
Also be sure to explain as clear as you can and make it short and simple! I have autism, and I have trouble understanding long walls of text! Provide image steps too!

What I have :

My Nodes :

What I want to achieve (Edited with Adobe Photoshop) :

Depending on the type of mesh (unfortunately this is not clearly visible here), the only node available to you for this is the Mesh Boolean node (choose the option Union). This essentially works like the Boolean modifier.
This is the only node in Geometry Nodes that has the ability to merge meshes.
Alternatively, you could simply use the Join Geometry node and achieve the desired visual impression with a shader.

Tip: In your specific case, however, you might need to apply the Realize Instances node first, so that the instances are translated into a mesh.

I have never seen that node, since I am new to geometry nodes do you know where to connect it? I tried connecting it to something but it froze blender

Depending on the result you want you could also use a remesh modifier, directly after the geo-node modifier.

@BeeAPotato You can find the node in the category "Mesh", but only starting with Blender v3+ https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/modeling/geometry_nodes/mesh/mesh_boolean.html

@jst-kiko I tried the remesh modifier and fiddled around but I get no result, maybe because I forgot to say these meshes are Planes

@quellenform I have found the node but I'm wondering where to put it, either I replace the "Join Geometry" or something else

Try this order: Realize Instances > Mesh Boolean (for each plane, because you cannot merge vertices of a plane which are on different Z-positions!)

@quellenform it worked for the black squares but not for the outline, It also froze blender again :').

Update, removed the outline which was just another pane edited with a bevel cut in it, and tried Add > Grease Pencil > Object Line Art however it seems that the lines overlap still

Update : I found  get around! (almost) |
I created a second pane (named Pane.002 because I've been lazy to rename my objects :D), used inset faces to cut a hole, then assign a the newly created face to the transparent material! : https://imgur.com/HNmNaEs |
I also edited my Geo nodes! : https://imgur.com/sjLDjRY
| Result : https://imgur.com/CnTQmOI
| One small problem, I seem to get these undesirable overlaps and black parts : https://imgur.com/x42pIVG
| This question will still be open if it's possible to fix it!

@BeeAPotato I think that the question "How to merge overlapping instances in geometry nodes?" (with geometry nodes) has actually already been answered. In your specific case, it might be good if you share your blend file so someone can go into more detail about your specific problem, or you post a new question.

It's alright I'll search for questions later, for now I'm happy with what I got
Thanks guys for the help~!

The closest thing I could possibly find is using the
Mesh to Volume node with Volume to Mesh.
It doesn't bring perfect results, but it is the closest I can get.